No gripes with newspaper

There hasn't been much activity on my site for the past few months and for good/poor reasons. I've been going through what is called slow fuse but total burn-out. Working 10-14hrs a day with few off will apparently do that and yet I had few complaints.

Despite the bizarre work schedule and writing time-lines, I enjoyed it and come out with no regrets. I put so much time and effort into my articles that it was occasionally depriving me of sleep and sanity. It didn't drive me crazy, just made me wonder why I tried so hard if next week it was going to be in the recycling bin or buried online. Completely worth it though to find and break my limitations and find out what I didn't care for or really enjoyed about the business of writing.

Short list of non-good times:

Fire & collision scenes = Not excitement or drama, only cold, icy & scary to hope it wasn't someone I knew.
County meetings and local politics = more interesting than I'd think and straight out of Leacock's writing.
Local swim meets = splash zone and worse on a cold camera lens and CMOS sensor, but 200 kids -- track a dozen?
School/community fundraisers = nice philanthropic attempts, but came up disappointingly short sometimes.
Economic development committees and a conference or two = exceeded my expectations entirely, but still dry.

Worst part, interviews going hostile or confused, or not even happening for lack of call-back leaving me with half/no article to write on a subject that needed sources to fly.

Most unfun was sleepless nights, away from my lovely lady and close friends, finishing up articles for a few days before deadline. There was always one with notes from a source didn't make sense, or wouldn't be good to quote as questionable facts, even less fun to salvage.

The good parts? When I was told I made a difference in someone's life or non-profit cause, it made up for the rest of a long haul. I wrote about exciting local sports and fun hobbies, tournaments and charities drives. It was an intrinsic reward to hear that I got it right about little known subjects like fur trapping, medical sonar technician, or martial arts training.


Free local sports games and fun concerts, more than I could race between the arenas, pools and community halls on a weekend before Monday deadline. Meeting and interviewing intriguing people was amazing -- more than a few of them shy/humble, but really interesting once they uncorked their hidden passions.

It was half frustration in getting let go because I finally admitted I wasn't cut out for the long hours, short deadlines of a small weekly newspaper, and hard to get to that point. It felt like I had no life even though I was doing an amazing amount of work out in the community and adrenalin high. Yet if I went out for a beer, someone would frown on it.

If I said something controversial, ignored a lobbying interest, or wrote unpopular truth, I would hear about it loudly.

What I did learn the most and enjoy was when an interview turned into something more than the 15 minute special news spot and a feature worth profiling something out of the ordinary. Those were the best parts when I could pitch something to my editor that was more than basics. For the record, editors have a wry sense of humour, wealth of experience and seem to love still learning new subjects.

When what I was writing clicked and I got a rare great response. When what people were doing was out of the ordinary and they didn't realize it until they read the article and went wow, that was too kind of you to paint us in that light, but thank you.

After writing nearly 250 articles and three car oil changes over the last six months, I saw my share of action -- moments of disbelief that I was having so much fun, or there lack of. Going through articles for scrapbook and portfolio, I had grown as a writer. So I can only hope writing independently and freelance will be just as amazing a journey.

If I get another shot at a newspaper? Great.

But the best part? My own desk and a press badge. Mission complete.

Sub-zero Alberta?

Take off to the Great White North eh. Those famous wanna-be Canucks Bob & Doug Mackenzie had the Americans convinced it was frozen up here 365.

To brave typical Alberta winter can require layering of thermal shirt and long johns, woolly socks, wind-proof or snow pants, toque, scarf or neck warmer, ski mitts, even ski mask and goggles against the wind.

It's not the Great White North for nothing and before I found Baffin -40C rated boots I remember resorting to donning multiple pairs of wool socks.

That was a couple winters ago. Currently, the dress code is still ready for shorts weather.

Penguin hosers took all the cold this year so Bob & Doug need to do a reunion tour to update on the climate.

(Exhibit A walking on ice was taken in November 2009 -- I got cabin fever that year real bad.)

Christmas Day a friend in Calgary was complaining it was green and I had no sympathy coming from Victoria BC where it's a rainy Christmas regularly. Another friend wondered if we got skipped this year for winter.

I hadn't thought twice and figured it was a Chinook wind melting the fun of the tobogganing hill.

It was perfect weather for ice fishing, nice and sunny. I even did one of my last assignments of the year out on the lake. It only snowed hard in mid-November.

Yet in the past few years, I remember not wanting to leave the house voluntarily for weeks of December or January because the windchill was so frigid. I haven't even hit cabin fever yet so far, knock on wood... cabin.

The barometer is staying balmy so I'll reminisce on the signs of winter not appearing yet.

Had to kick my car doors to unstick them after frozen twice over-night instead of nightly.
Only been scared to be driving on overly icy roads a few times.
Have only driven in one blizzard, not weekly.
My heating bill is unseasonally low and that's okay.
Haven't gotten frost-bite practically for exposing any bare skin for two minutes.
My camera lenses have only fogged up once from a long assignment outside.
I haven't made any hot cocoa or taken any with me on photo shoots.
I haven't unpacked my parka and am still only wearing a polar fleece hoodie.
Have only used my snow shovel once to clear the driveway and three times for porch.
I've gotten colder in the hockey arena than when exiting it.

It's great for now. Yet I'm scared February is going to hit with a vengeance of blizzarding in the frozen wastelands. That or we'll have late snow in May -- not entirely unheard of around here.

Supposedly it's supposed to dip down to -15C by the end of the week. For now, it's a bit confusing and I had to double-check my direction of travel as I saw two flocks of Canadian geese flying north last week.

Suits me fine when I can't go home and decide whether I should declare it pre-maturely sandal weather.

P.S. I had to go through some of my archives even just to find some frosty photos. This last one was taken in late April 2007 when it started to finally defrost. I'm hoping it won't be a repeat deep-freeze.

P.S.S. I take full responsibility for jinxing this warm-front with my observation ^_^


~~ PLR ~~

return to blogger?

The eagle has landed and it's one small step to a small town newspaper but a giant leap for Phil's kind of adventure.


After a few months of madness busy beyond belief -- both from combination of finishing my internship up in Whitecourt to moving my life yet again and into another job as a full-fledged journalist in Ponoka.


I'll explain in a follow-up soon why I'm standing on a cat-walk over a bunch of cows, but for now, here's the article.


Six weeks in I'm loving even the high pressure nearly daily deadlines just to try to keep up with the flow of the new assignments hitting my desk. There's so much happening in town and as my role as roving reporter dictates, I've been everywhere between Red Deer and Edmonton and a lot of the time in little towns I'd scarcely heard in passing. All I know is I handed in 1,000 on my out-of-town mileage in one month.


It was like lifting weights and then realizing I picked a heavy one, requiring so much more concentration and effort, but totally worth it when I can finish the set of reps. I'm happy to report I'm starting to raise my writing stamina and even though I wrote four articles today and did half a dozen interviews, I'm still going strong.... almost.

Broke down and finally started texting twitter thingies and started to log some of the fun and insight I was having. As much fun as blogging was, I was doing over a dozen articles every week and my editor here in Ponoka is helping me to top that. I was excited to have my own desk when I was an intern, now I feel a tiny bit of cabin fever I spend so much time in my office. Not complaining because I get to write a ton of fun articles and photo assignments for whatever I can dream up and keep newsworthy.

So far, I've been nearly making par. Check-it if you want an time-line of how exciting my days got over the last few months. Don't worry, I rarely wrote more than one a day. It sounds odd that I finally tried out twitter, I just had heard such terrible repercussions with slander and job-dismissal over comments, that I went slow. Plus it takes a moment to come up with something that isn't lame.

Word of advice, avoid over-doing the caffeine. Withdrawal sucks without some ibuprofen and yoga does wonders too ^_^ Then again, yoga seems to work for everything.

It's just the Christmas special which has kept me busy since I managed to get through Remembrance Day special with a dozen articles extra to write in a week over my usual ten assignments. After this, it quietens down -- not until after I get through another dozen fun articles with way too much cuteness and Christmas joy.

Anyhows, here's a search result link to my three dozen articles that were posted on the website, I'll try to link a bunch later of my favourites over the past few weeks. Enjoy.

It's been quite an adventure and I wish I thought to twitter some of the more cool moments I've had. Such as culture shock of hanging out for assignments on the Hobbema reserves near Ponoka. Who knew it's possible to put up a stop-sign with a Cree translation on it. Learn something every day ^_^

As part of my return, I'll start rocking the cooking experiments. Admittedly, I've collected up a few over the last month and haven't had sufficient time to post them. Fun times for all. So time to sleep and I'll write the next time I slow down after production day, which I have a bunch of them coming up pretty quickly. Meh... fun times.

Glad to be writing too much to be able to write my blog. Working the writing lifestyle and still loving it.

Goodnight and stay classy or whatever.... Brain stops with a zonk.

-- plr --

Skeeters from all over Hwy 16 and other surprises

By Philip Rushton
Hinton Parklander

Being in a new office every week as a temp during summers and after graduating is nothing new for this intern.

On the other-hand, being in a new town every week is very different.

Shooting photos on a river jet-boat one weekend, then a rodeo, then munchkins in theatre camp Wizard of Oz presentation, and who knows what next. It's a great part about community newspaper.

Not so great is being lost in a new town every week with directions like 'across from Tim Hortons'. If only I knew where the Timmy's is located. Or 'where the old fire station was before they moved'. I don't know where the new fire station is, let alone the old one.

Community help recovering from addictions

Partying in the dog days of summer can have drugs and alcohol as uninvited party crashers.

When the party is over and rock bottom hits, community services and RCMP are there to support people as they recover.

“If you over-indulge and get out of hand, your weekend will be cut short and you'll end up in custody,” said Const. Peter Lavalee of Edson RCMP detachment.

If the holding cell is a familiar place, RCMP and other agencies will be referring people to Alberta Alcohol and Drug Abuse Commission which deals with alcohol, drugs and gambling addictions.

“Nobody ever expects it will happen to them,” said Heather McFadzen, Edson Wellness Centre addictions counselor.

“People never plan on having an addiction and it often happens before they are aware of where they are headed,” said McFadzen.

“If things have gone badly, people need assistance,” said Lavalee, “and we're there to help them.”

“When there's no safety plan, there will be unplanned, unfortunate circumstances to deal with,” said McFadzen.

“We all learn from our mistakes,” McFadzen said, “but some will have severe results that we don't see until 30 years later in the results of over-indulging.”

Experimenting is socially acceptable but short-sighted. Lavalee pointed out the consquences of dropping out of high-school and not being able to earn a living.

“It's totally unacceptable to take meth and think it's not going to have any affects,” said Lavalee. “It's like skydiving without a parachute.”

When alcohol is easier to find than hard drugs, young people can be swayed by the dark side quickly.

“If someone starts binge drinking at 16 years old,” said Lavalee. “They [donors] won't give you a new liver if you drink for too long.”

It's unfair to paint all the community's youth with the same brush though.

“Folks are struggling with choices, but I think we miss the amazing youth in our community who have assets and strengths,” said McFadzen.

“Edson and District Drug Coalition is developing a youth outreach program,” said McFadzen. “Some of our youth are very involved in community projects and events.”

During the spring, McFadzen and Lavalee spoke to grade eights about the dangers of addictions.

“I talk to youth every day when school is on and they're a pleasure to deal with,” said Lavalee, “full of interesting questions and wanting to dispel urban legends.”

“Everyone's doing it – No in reality not everyone,” said Lavalee. “Kids have a really good grasp on what is an addiction.”

Hard-core drugs aren't the most commonly over-used substances compared to tobacco.

“It's those Monster and Red Bull drinks,” said Lavalee. “You're actually overdosing on caffeine and you know all the unintended problems of coming off that stuff.”

“Our youth are really smart and we need to give them good information, talk about the realities,” said McFadzen.

The saying goes about taking a whole village to raise a child as anyone can be a positive influence from neighbours to community groups.

“Teachers, parents, and police need to be there when kids ask questions that will alter the rest of their lives and learn how much a bad decision will affect them,” said Lavalee.

“Sometimes we have adults who still don't understand,” said Lavalee.

For those still learning to live after kicking the habit, there are many positive outlets in the community.

“It's amazing proactive and supportive,” said McFadzen. “There are strong 12 step AA and NA groups in the community when people are ready to make changes.”

From live theatre and music to clubs and sports year around, there's no point in whining about nothing to do.

“You need to find something in your life that you can get passionate about,” said Lavalee, an avid backpacker and mountaineer.

“If it's training dogs or climbing mountains, you're only limited by your imagination or by the drugs you take,” said Lavalee.

“Figuring out healthy leisure activities and lifestyles can be hard,” said McFadzen. “Substance abuse happens to deal with mental health issues sometimes, so make sure you're taking care if you're struggling with depression and other challenges.”

There are professionals like McFadzen who can make referrals when people can find help. However, the individual needs to make the first step and own up.

“We need to not pretend these problems aren't here,” said McFadzen. “but don't let them detract from all the strengths we do have in the community.

“The best way to raise yourself up is to give someone else a hand-up.”

P.S. got the village to raise a child quote graphic from associatedcontent.com and the epic mountain climbing photo from MEC's blog naturally because they have amazing photos. Thanks! BTW that's not $40 of vodka, I filled an empty with water from the bottle recycling depot and threw some vitamin C pills in the toilet. Too much fun being creative with photos sometimes -- even on serious subjects as these were hard to find images -- unfortunately there wasn't room in the newspaper so here they are! Hope a few people are able to gain courage to go get help from reading these articles.

P.S.S. Anyone having to deal with the RCMP isn't usually a good time. I tell a secret that they do have a soft spot for children it seems. The 20 word or less to the point RCMP officer I talked to gave 15 minutes conversation and it was really cool. They are busy guys so I was so glad Lavalee could give me more than his initial statement, drugs are bad, moderation is good. I'm like okies.... a little bit of elaboration?

Asking him if people might behave during the long weekend, Lavalee chuckled and asked what colour I thought the sky was. Right back at him came the reply, rose coloured glasses because I'd just been photographing the dress rehearsal of Wizard of Oz, but unfortunately I've seen way too much of the man behind the curtain.... he agreed we've seen too much reality that people aren't invincible. So Lavalee got talking and gave some cool advice to pass on in great quotes. So that's the rest of the story....

roomates - 1st year - sound & silence - pt 4of4

 

There were things that went on that were beyond what I can remember about the little moments when my roomates didn't notice that I was there and they dropped their shields while talking to friends. There was a lot of empathy despite my threats and grumpiness from lack of sleep and school induced stress. Not that I'd want to betray that trust though nor take photos like this spiteful person did of their room-mate's mess - I can only say some of mine were messier. I was lucky as I could have had nightmare room-mates like my friends bemoaned.


Room-mates who stole stuff, made way worse messes then my nose would have been able to deal with. Other friends in dorm had murderous thoughts about stereo systems fueling dance parties late into the night. They liked and used my pre-tested solution of playing opera and polka early the next morning in retaliation to their neighbours.


They were lucky compared to the people who thought dorm was a place to test out their wrestling skills. Someone got put through a wall head-first, was okay other than concussion and stitches, but refused to pay the damage deposit fine imposed by dorm. Other people on dorm had angry pizza delivery guys to deal with after prank calls, angry neighbours when they couldn't control their room-mates.

Worse, others had to steer clear of recently ex-boyfriends and ex-girl-friends after bad break-ups or loud make-up sex that didn't heal the wounds. That and creepy people who tried to follow their room-mates home from the bar. Compared to the guys who had bike races and foot-ball games down my hallway, I couldn't complain. Or the huge dorm party which resulted in all the furniture being piled into a fortress in common areas.


Or the fire-drills because someone was 'cooking' hot-dogs stoned and forgot about smoke if they passed out at 3 a.m. or lit candles for a relaxing bath which became less relaxed when candles started to burn through the counter. Not that fire extinguishers were left alone, one was shot off and into the vents and again we were evacuated while maintenance and fire fighters ventilated the dorm.


Other people forgot to ventilate the bathroom hot-box properly and in lighting up the bong and light the smoke alarm as well. This was at least once a month in the -30C. I got very efficient at loading my camera bag and laptop and leaving the building from pajamas to clothes in 30 seconds flat in case it was the real thing finally.

However, the night Halo-boy, a few friends and I re-organized the common-room was my fondest memory of the first year of dorm. For all the assignments, I was allowed to relax once in a while and partake a drink or three. Never again with Royal Reserve and I apologize to my liver for that night.

Appleton, RR and Lucky's beer aplenty, we had a great time. Emo-boy whined so much but we had a great time. Nobody took credit for the first move, but by the time Emo-boy arose in the morning, I thought he was playing more screa-mo for the amount he yelled. We were pretty happy with the new decorating style.

Sitting on a side-ways easy chair, I was calmly watching cartoons and eating kraft dinner mac & cheese, head cocked to the side. Non-flat-screen TV, chairs, table, small appliances, lamps, even posters were all side-ways.


For extreme make-over, Martha Stewart would have been proud. I was a lot less proud thinking about it now, but there's something metaphoric about said about the whole dorm lifestyle -- sometimes it just goes sideways for a curve-ball so keep on trucking.

If this says anything about why I decided rum shouldn't be on my diet in such plentiful amounts, I learned my lesson. Come to think of it, by second year I was a lot more calm about assignments, no less busy, but less in the drinking.


Second year was much more orderly in comparison as I was blessed with a much more sane bunch of dorm room-mates who got along much better. However, that's a different story for a different day. Hope you enjoyed ^_^