Rant Series - News Flashes and News

I have a few rants to get out of my system, but they should be separated, so this is the first one - NEWS FLASHES AND NEWS.

Dear local news (and even cable news, but mostly local news):

There are VERY few things that require a news flash in our little city of Milwaukee. The Falk explosion? Yes. The killing/dying/assassination of a Personage of Note? Sure. Declarations of war or peace? Yes. Tornado coming? OK. 27-car pile up on I-94? Yes. Helicopter crash in the lake? Yes.

"There's a possible fire, maybe in a warehouse, somewhere in the Valley, and you can see the smoke from the freeway!" is NOT breaking news. It's pre-breaking news. It's not even news. It's just pre-breaking chit-chat, perhaps.

When you have details: when you know if people are dead or OK or hurt; when you know the location of the incident; when you know, even basically, WTF is going on...THEN you have breaking news.
As a follow-up, once the news has broken, and you have details, and you have had your "Breaking News" flash that interrupted regular programming, do NOT have a news flash every 5 minutes with every little tiny detail (or even no new details) that comes to light. Save it, and do another flash in, say, a half hour, when you'll probably have even MORE details. I hate seeing reporters and talking heads standing around re-iterating everything that's already been said, and said many times already.

Speaking of reporters standing around - here's another peeve. Weather "news". I like to know the weather as much as the next person. I want to know if there's a tornado in the area, or if flooding rains are expected, or a huge snowstorm is on the way. That's all well and good.
HOWEVER, when you send reporters to different locations to pick up bits of snow and show the camera and say "Oooo...snow!" for EIGHT SOLID HOURS....well, it's a bit much. We live in Wisconsin. Most of us have seen snow - way too much of it, in fact. We know what snow is, what it looks like, that it needs to be shoveled, and that we should be careful driving in it. We have windows that show us how deep it is "out there". There is never a reason for "breaking news" for a snowstorm.
We all know what a crawl is on the bottom of the screen. You use it for tornado/storm watches and warnings. This is sufficient. You can even have the radar on the side of the screen. We don't need more. We don't need reporters and talking heads for EIGHT HOURS talking about nothing but snow. There *is* actual news happening, too, and we'd like to know about that.
Here's an idea. Be the station that only shows the crawl at the bottom and the radar on the side, and get on with normal programming! I bet your ratings will soar, not plummet. "That's a level-headed station, right there", people will say. "They're good because they don't panic, and don't show us snow for eight hours".

This rant is over.

Update!

I really need to keep up with my blog. I have the time - just not the motivation.

I closed on my house in New Orleans yesterday. So, that's it. My final anchor to NOLA is gone. I'm happy the house sold, don't get me wrong, but I'm sad, too. It was a beautiful, great house.

When I move back to NOLA, though, I won't own property. Too much heartache. Renting will do.

Signed up for Brightkite today. Seems interesting. We'll see how it goes.

I'm supposed to go to a Twappyhour tomorrow evening at the Iron Horse Hotel in the Valley. Cori is supposed to be there, too, and I think I got Chuck to go, so at least I'll know 2 people. I'm kind of abashed when it comes to meeting new people. Wish I had business cards of my own. I should have thought of it sooner. Oh, well - I'll give out the Via 1 ones, and that'll have to do.

What else? Hmmm.....

Still looking for a "real" job, or at least more Copywriting opportunities. Got just one assignment in the past month, and that's not good.

I sent out the invitation e-mail for my 40th birthday in New Orleans. It's also a combination Tweetup and Fark party. I've rec'd 2 "maybe", 2 "no", and 5 "yes" so far. And that's not including all my friends that are coming that live in New Orleans.
I'm really excited about the hotel group rate I got at Avenue Garden Hotel on St.Charles. First, it's one of my favorite hotels in New Orleans, second, it's only a couple blocks from Lucky's, where the party will be. $69/night is an awesome deal anywhere, but especially in New Orleans.
Hey - anyone reading my blog - you're invited, too. Just ask for "Christin's Party rate" when you book. The party is on Saturday, Dec. 6th. The rate is good from Dec 1 - Dec 8. Avenue Garden Hotel phone number is 504.521.8000.

I like explaining to people outside of New Orleans that yes...when I say the party is all day/all night, I mean it. Lucky's never closes. They are open 24/7/365. I've had a few people express shock at this situation. It makes me laugh.

Oh - I got an early Christmas present. Tickets to see Trans-Siberian Orchestra on Dec. 11 (I think) in Milwaukee. Awesome! I've always wanted to see them. Mary & Ron bought them for me. :)

A New Blog - Introductions

Hello. I'm X1 (or some form of that name).
I'm going to try this place out.
JournalCommunity changed my password and didn't bother to let me know. Then, after I asked for it a second time, stating that I was "really irritated", they told someone else that I "flamed" them with a second email.
Whatever.
Time to find a new home!

I'll be transferring everything over here, as soon as I can get to my entries.

***

Today is the first day of Autumn, a situation I'm not exactly happy about, as I hate Winter. However, October is my favorite month. I'm just full of dichotomies, and that's just one!

A little about me:

I'm a single (never been married), female with no children. I do have 3 nieces and 2 nephews, and 1 niece that died of SIDS at age 3 months.

I was born in Milwaukee, WI. I moved to New Orleans, and lived there for years - until Hurricane Katrina came and kicked me out - all the way back to WI. I now live in a Milwaukee suburb, and am just passing time until I can move back to NOLA, which is more home to me than any place on Earth. I love and miss my adopted hometown, her people, her culture, her food and everything else. Well...except the cockroaches and politicians (one and the same thing, really).

I'm on gchat, and also, my name is Im_X1 on Twitter. Follow me!

So. Hi. Nice to meet you.

X1