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Archive for December 15th, 2006

A different perspective on reading online

Friday, December 15th, 2006

My younger cousin was at my graduation party tonight. We usually discuss technology, cell phones, cameras, computers, etc. I think I’m the only other person he knows who is really interested and passionate about new technology. Usually it involves us gushing about the latest items on CNET or talking about the pros and cons of Mac vs. PC.

Tonight, perhaps because my family kept asking me about what job I am looking for, we ended up talking about the future of journalism.

My cousin said he had wanted to join his H.S. newspaper staff but that now “it’s stupid!” I asked why, and he said, “It’s only on the Web.” So, I asked him what was wrong with that, printing a newspaper is expensive and is the biggest expense for a paper. And he said something that is a disconnect for anyone in our generation but especially for someone so interested in the Internet and technology, “I don’t know, I just prefer to read something on paper. Reading on the computer is annoying.”

This from a 16-year-old, self-proclaimed computer geek. Definitely an interesting/different perspective than we’re used to hearing.

Way ahead of his time

Friday, December 15th, 2006

So, my sister, my mom, her friend and my nephews are having a serious discussion about God. My 7-year-old nephew, who had been sitting there silently just blurted out: “What if God is the devil, and the devil is God, and he’s just tricking all the angels?”

He’s only 7, and he’s already thinking all philosophical and deeply considering his religion. That kid is way ahead of his time.

How cabbies get a bad rap

Friday, December 15th, 2006

My father is a cab driver in Akron. He’s been driving cab for most of his life and all of mine. (In fact, he met my mother when she was a dispatcher at the cab company.)

So, today when I read “Cab slams into downtown restaurant” in the Beacon, I didn’t even finish reading the story. I just called him up to find out what happened.

That photo is crazy. The cab was apparently hit by someone who ran a red light and thrown through the window of the restaurant. And the witness said it sounded like “a bomb going off.”

When I asked my dad about it, he just laughed. The driver, a friend of his, is OK. Apparently though, he was joking with her earlier about the accident. After checking to see if she was OK, he asked if she wanted to go to lunch, he heard there was a new drive-in restaurant downtown. Hehe. That’s my father for you. I definitely inherited his sense of sarcasm.

If nothing else, the driver has another great story for her kids/friends. One of the best parts about having a cab driver for a father is the awesome stories he hears and the things he sees. Seriously. If you wanted to do participatory journalism and write a book about a city, becoming a cab driver would be a great way to do it. You get to mingle with everyone from coked out professionals to drunk college students to the normal working class people. Hmm. If I had the guts to be a cab driver (and I didn’t think my parents would kill me for considering it), that would actually make a great book.