The next time you feel like giving up on something you’re passionate about, think about a young filmmaker named George.
If I’ve been scarce lately, there’s a good reason. Not to count my chickens before they hatch, but I just sent to press the final 14 page section for 2022 “Progress edition.”
My former managing editor left the job at the end of January, leaving it up to me as the publisher to lay out 98 extra broadsheet pages from 11 sections, 120 magazine pages and nine regular newspaper editions. I don’t know what the math totals up to — and frankly, I am too exhausted to do math right now, or ever, really — but suffice to say that I have been working about 90 hours a week just to do the editor’s job and mine as publisher. Lots of going in at 8 a.m. and heading home at about 9 p.m.-ish nearly every single day since early February. All while dealing with some silly drama manufactured by someone in my personal life and fighting a nasty hacking cough that left me feeling like my obituary might get typed up before it all ended.
But dammit, I have survived!
It’s been a pretty spectacular autumn here in North Alabama. I was worried at first because it started rather rapidly, suggesting I was starting my annual photography near the peak. I believe the peak at higher elevations occurred just shy of Halloween. In the valley, the leaves remain very bright and colorful in isolated spots. This gallery is a collection of some of my better images from this fall.
HATE is a four-letter word I reserve for things I truly despise. In recent years, Facebook has sadly joined that club.
Facebook has experienced so much negative press attention that they recently rebranded as “Meta” in the sort of old PR move that disguises something to confuse users by giving it a new name. Most recently, they’ve started running ad spots meant to create the perception that they actually welcome government regulation and value user privacy. Give me a break.
I’ve been around social media since the early days and helped launch a competitive platform on a similar timeline to Facebook. When I watch the movie “The Social Network,” it brings back fond memories of a time when young tech-savvy guys fueled by beer and testosterone didn’t even know where our efforts would lead or whether we’d ever be able to monetize it, we just knew it was cool and fun.
In hindsight, Facebook Founder Mark Zuckerberg found ways to make an obscene amount of money exploiting the human need for connection and the information we share to do that. Our society is worse off for it because of the ethical shortcuts taken along the way.
Oct
23
Oct
23
Do we dare believe that we are on the downward slope of this pandemic? We are cautiously optimistic that we may have turned the corner, but lesser so than the glee we felt after the mass vaccination rollout began at the start of the year. One by one, the precautions that returned when COVID-19’s Delta variant surged appear to be loosening their grip on our lives as the number of new cases drops.
This may be a good time to reflect on the lessons we learned as a society. Failure to do so dooms us to more disruption the next time we face a public health crisis. Here are some of the conclusions I’ve reached…
Oct
06
This odd structure found in Collinsville, Alabama seems to be a tangible metaphor for the sad stained state of the world today.
Oct
06
Another in my “story behind the photo” series…
I call this portrait “Resolve” because it shows my friend, Brittney, walking on Pensacola Beach on January 29, 2017, moments after she told me she had decided against riding back to Chattanooga and was going to stay down there with just the clothes on her back, find a job, and make it her new home…
That’s terrifying. And part of what makes growing older so frightening is the realization that our freedom to make such choices fades as we put down roots and people begin to rely on us.
Everyone who views this always wants to know if she regretted making the audacious choice.
I’ve been restless lately and a bit depressed. I have a lot on my mind.
I imagined things would be so different after the vaccinations began. I pictured a summer of fun and connection to my fellow human beings. Not what the summer of 2021 has turned out to be: A time of great division with large numbers of my neighbors eager to dismiss experts and believe nonsense and obnoxiously mock those of us who are trying to do the right thing.
This week I interviewed a local doctor and actually had to ask the question, “Should human beings go down to the local feed store and ingest a deworming product meant for horses to treat COVID-19?”
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Aug
28