the navel times and observer

Hi there, still here, and still going to work every day.

While my prayer is always "please, please, don't screw up" I'm still there. I rolled three stories together today, at least one of them without the real sourcing I would have wanted for it (one supportive council member and a sheriff detailing the program does not a really even story make), but I've got calls out to other people there and against the odds one of them might just call me back.

Alone? yes, yes, I feel like I'm the slow horse on the team. I'm not mad about it, the only way I know to defeat this is to keep plugging constructively at the job. There are stories somewhere to piece together, I just have to find them. None of this is easy and it doesn't really help when the reporter who was last passed onto this beat tells me that he just muddled through it when he started. Thanks, Derek.

Not a lot of encouragement there. Much like advice I've given. This is miserable, and it apparently promises to be consistently miserable. At some point, some time, I hope to have established my sources. I hope that people will call me with stories, will tell me things that happen in their community. Will help me in my efforts to become part of their community. I would like to get out to my areas more often and I don't resent that I've been put in this position because honestly I don't know how I'd handle the bigger institutions right now.

In other words of introspection I've got a highly trippable ego. While I don't take compliments very well on the face (or at least try to give that impression) I'm highly susceptible to them. Part of it the amazement that accompanies a somewhat weak sense of self-esteem -- that people would have such a better opinion of myself than I do -- but it could also just be in my nature.

I'm particularly susceptible to compliments from attractive people and I encourage anyone meeting that standard to experiment frequently.