I wil blog more about this in another month or so when I get to Chicago and have internet connection, but here it is in a nutshell:

I was called into HR at 2 p.m. today to be told that it is my last day, not April 23. Their reason: I'm leaving eventually, and the company is going through major financial distress (they froze positions and pay raises about 2 weeks ago), and they have no plans to rehire for my position.

So, this is my last post until my access to the internet.

Since I won't have internet access, I still have my phone and would love to hear from y'all. 806-252-4654

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Jeremy:

Damn, I'm sorry. So you got screwed over by Morris, too, when you left? I got f**ked over when I left too, because initially I thought I had 17 days of vacation/PTO to burn, then come back one day and do the exit interviews. WRONG! Those days "are there based on a promise that you'll work the entire year, so you accrue only a few days." I got shafted out of pay I needed, considering I only got paid for a 1/2 month at the end of January at KSU. (You get paid an annualized salary with the university system, payable once a month on the last working day of the month--so you have to be VERY good with budgeting and not spending a bunch of money all in one fell swoop.)

They're not rehiring my position either at The Chronicle--it was posted internally, very briefly, then it disappeared, according to those still enslaved at Billy's farm.

No I ain't gonna work on Billy's farm no more....

Me: I stick to the general rule of never speaking ill of the employer, but damn, Morris is ________(fill in the blanks). I tell you what, I'm glad those of us who got to get out did. Can you imagine toiling for the corporation till you're ready for retirement?

Christina: Jeez, Ling, I am so sorry this happened. As you told me the other day on the phone before we got rudely cut off (I was driving into a rural part of the County that is lucky to have electricity, much less cell phone access!) Proof positive that newspaper companies truly SUCK! In the long run you are better off rid of them!

As we sprang forward an hour last Sunday, I got to wondering about falling back in time.

I'm reading the book What Should I Do with My Life? by Po Bronson who recently wrote a fascinating story in New York magazine on the ill aftermath of praise for children and I got to wondering the age-old question: if you could do it all over again, what direction would you have taken?

I know many of you are probably thinking and saying you wouldn't do it any differently? True, there are some aspects of my life that would not unfold had I not chosen the path I did. But if you really have the option to make different decisions (like academia decision which springs to mind, cuz a lot of where and what we are were defined by our educational choices), what would you do instead. I foresee already my (ex)reporter-friends not changing their decision, but let's not stop at academia. Would you have moved to where you are? Would you have invested in what you did? Would you have forgiven? Would you have been more religious?

As for me, I definitely would have sought out professionals in other fields and really take time to understand what they do, and what I needed in my coursework to work towards that. I blame my lack of foresight at age 20, I regret the lack of direction from friends, family, professors, guidance counselors, school. Growing up in Singapore, all we were introduced to in terms of profession were law or medicine. You may find it strange that engineering, pharmacy, IT were nonexistent subjects to me. Meaning, I honestly had no idea such courses were available! Can you believe my ignorance?!

To date, I have a vague idea of what I want to do. Probably interior design, structural architecture (or civil engineering), cooking/restaurant management, fashion design ....

I probably still would not forgive my dad, but I would speak to him and provided him a means of contact.

I would not have pursued my career goals (I've achieved them, so what?), and instead focused on establishing a family.

I probably should have chosen Australia for my overseas studies so that I could be closer to my family more often.

I should have concentrated on moving to the West Coast so my family and I could visit more frequently.

It probably is not too late to pursue some of these realizations. Now, all I can do is to make wiser decisions in life.

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Jeremy: I probably would have never gotten into debt with someone with whom I knew would never help me out financially.

I probably would have branched out and taken more public relations and design/pagination courses, not to mention IT/comp sci/Web design courses.

I probably would have studied abroad in Germany during my lower-level undergraduate years with UGA's foreign languages department, then in Toronto or Guadalajara with the Grady College of Journalism in the upper division years.

But, in all, I have to say that I have learned a lot from my life experiences, and I think those experiences have made me a more mature, independent, better person.

I still would have avoided coming home to Macon while I was in college. I still probably would have dated the same said emotionally abusive person with whom I got into debt (I just wouldn't have gotten financially entangled). And I still would have come to Augusta, where I met some of the greatest friends a person could have and learned that when push comes to shove, I can do many things under fire.

Patrick: That book sounds like something I should probably get my hands on, because I can't even begin to count the number of nights I've laid awake at night, unable to sleep because all I can think about is all the things that haven't gone according to plan. Jobs, friends, relationships, money, you name it, I can cite something wrong with my life. In fact, right now the only things that I'm optimistic about are my immediate family and my health.

That said, I wouldn't change a thing. If I applied myself more in high school, paid closer attention to how my relationship with my girlfriend was crumbling in 2001, or thought harder and longer about whether moving to the South was a wise idea, things may have very well turned out better. But then again, if I did that, I'd be someone else, not me.

I think it's admirable to look back at past choices with clear-headed realism, because that maxim about those who do not learn from their mistakes is a wise one. But don't beat yourself up too much though. We learn more from mistakes than from successes.

Me: Thanks to all who responded publicly and privately. I'm pleasantly surprised this topic has touched the core of many of you. And you have all given me much optimism and hope for the choices I had made and will be making. Pat, I'm only on the 3rd chapter of the book but the stories have resonated deeply. It's worth picking up at the local library (considering the financial rut most of us are in).

The Ron

Last night, a bunch of us from work attended a debate between a pastor, from the xxxchurch.com and drumroll, Ron Jeremy.

Yes, the Hedgehog.

It was interesting. I wouldn't go so far to say enlightening.

We certainly felt old surrounded by the full house of Tech students. Blech!

Sadly, I didn't get a personal picture or autograph from the man himself. It was getting late and I was worried about my darn dog. (That dog sure was not worth returning to. That darn animal refused to come to me when I called him yesterday and today.) Yeah, Bentley blew my chances of cozying up to the man.

Getting rid of the PMI monkey

I received a letter from Chase Home Finance yesterday. I knew what it was.

I had recently put in a request for my PMI removal (the interest one pays the bank when it's not 20% downpayment so as to protect the lender. It's a crock of @^%&). They had followed up with a payment of $150 to send a rep out to my house (in Augusta). The rep showed up a few weeks ago and took pictures of my house.

Those pictures are then sent back to Chase for them to appraise the value of the house. If their appraisal thinks that present equity satisfies the 20% limit, then we are off the hook to pay PMI.

We felt that by now, we have made enough payments to offset the 20% value, and were hoping that the extra $25 PMI we make each month in addition to our mortgage will be off our back. That gives us multiple savings over the years.

When this letter from Chase showed up in my mailbox, I was expecting for huge corporation to screw us. But lo and behold, the first few words could not sound sweeter.

We finally got rid of the dastardly monkey.

How to get rid of PMI

Another Day at the Newspaper

I find it unfortunate that the day has to come when journalists have to go through such a checklist. Can't say I blame the editors completely. It is true there are journalists who equate length to importance. And I applaud the call to quotes. How often have we been tortured by ineffectual quotes that repeat a statement.

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Feb. 28, 2007, Memo from Washington Post Executive Editor Leonard Downie Jr. and Managing Editor Philip Bennett to the Paper's Staff

To: The Staff
From: Len and Phil


Our outstanding journalism comes in all sizes, including long pieces that deserve every inch. But for too long we've confused length with importance. Often the result has been stories that readers don't want to finish and displays in the newspaper that don't do our journalism justice.

We have decided to take a more disciplined approach to story lengths, with guidelines that are consistent with giving our readers quality journalism in a variety of appropriate lengths.

Here are guidelines for writers and editors. Please study and follow them. We are asking AMEs to enforce them.

Story Lengths—A Newsroom Strategy

Goals

• The newspaper should be filled with stories of different sizes.
• We need to show discipline in writing and story-telling. We especially need to pay attention to mid-range stories that are too long, given the underlying material.
• We want to give reporters and editors the tools to edit better for length, and we want to give page designers a wider selection of story lengths to help them showcase all our journalism better.
• A philosophy to live by: Every story must earn every inch.

Methods

1. A Rough Guide

The physical size of the newspaper imposes real constraints on story lengths. With headlines and photos, a page takes 65 inches of text. The only stories that run that long are projects. Otherwise, we must get several stories on most pages. To keep the paper lively and interesting, we must strive for variety—including some stories that are short. Through long experience with layout and design, and taking into consideration the news holes typically available on inside pages, we've come up with some guidelines for story lengths:

• A small event, or an incremental development worth noting can be a digest item. The digests are important for readers.
• A day story, significant enough to write for our readers but based on one event or development—6 to 15 inches. We frequently end up with 12-inch holes in the paper. Let's use them to the best advantage.
• A single event with multiple layers or levels of information, 18 to 24 inches.
• A more complex news feature of ambition and altitude—25-35 inches.
• Major enterprise, involving in-depth reporting or narrative story telling—40 to 50 inches.
• Extraordinary long-form narrative or investigation, magazine-type stories—60 to 80 inches or, rarely, more.

2. For Writers

Writers need to take responsibility for earning every inch of their stories. Every writer should consider:

In structure, does the story move cleanly from one sub-theme or topic to the next? If it wanders and circles back, look for ways to deal with sub-themes one at a time. Good chronology makes for good storytelling.

Watch out for artificial transitions. They burn up space needlessly. In many newspaper stories you don't need a transition from one idea to the next.

To build effective, memorable mental images, pay attention to characters. Can you describe who we are hearing from, what they look and sound like, and where they are coming from?

Is there a high, clear and powerful nut graf? Even the most extraordinary narrative needs to get to the point. For stories on the front page and section fronts, we must get to the nut graf before the jump.

We must avoid repetition. Don't use two or three quotes when one will do. The same goes for anecdotes. Resist the urge to quote someone just because you interviewed them.

We are often saddling readers with too much recapitulation and background. In writing both news and features, reporters should strive to eliminate stale material. If you must revisit events to make the current material work, be sparing. Cast a cold eye on B-matter. Every story about a complex running issue does not need to recap everything that's happened. Write for readers, not your sources.

Show, don't tell. Can you animate your characters and recount events in a way that will let the scenes and voices speak for themselves, rather than using the reporters' voice to tell it all? Watch out for excessive adjectives that tell us what to think, rather than summoning real experiences and events that show us what happened.

3. For Editors

An editor on each desk will be deputized to ensure that we stay true to the principles we're enunciating here: compliance with guidelines, accurate budgeting, coordination with page designers and layout.

This editor will scrutinize lengths based on our common editing criteria and will have power to hold a story and ask that it be redone based on length.

He or she will make sure that stories on the budget have passed through this process. All stories will be put on the budget with their actual lengths as approved and edited by that desk.

The editor in charge of story lengths—and the person running the day on each desk—must actively engage page designers. They should visit the News Desk and look at the pages and available news holes before determining the day's cutback. The goal is to establish story lengths that will work both for the words and for the design.

If a longer story is offered for A1 and does not make it, and it is to be published inside the A section or another section, it should be scrutinized for length, consistent with the design needs of the section.
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Jeremy: This is basic stuff that many mid-size papers have been enforcing for a long time. I don't want to have to read through 70 inches of bullshit when it's not needed; nor do most readers. It's just sad that it's taken the WaPo this long to realize it.

I have been at press confabs in DC with WaPo people--they make their questions WAAAAY longer than they need to in order to impress other people. There is an incredible arrogance among certain members of the Fourth Estate that their brilliant pieces of journalism need to be extremely verbose, and get anal when you cut (*cough* T.C. *cough*)

Mind you, some stories need to be long. But there are many that don't.