1200+ email did me in

Believe it or not, the barrage of email this week has done me in.

I've been in writhing pain all week long--the symptoms of carpal tunnel in my right arm, right shoulder, and right upper back. It has been constant.

Of course, the diagnosis will not be confirmed until I am able to see a doctor, but all arrows point to the problematic ailment caused by typing on the computer (ironically, what I am doing right now).

This week more than most I've been on the computer non-stop answering between 1200-1600 email accumulated from vacation.

Our webmaster is on vacation for a few weeks and it's my duty to attach a higher volume of video to our website all week long.

That totals over 45 hours on the computer Monday thru Friday.

I will be more sparing, careful, and sensitive to this issue in the coming weeks. I have a feeling these entries (which I find enlightening and oftentimes entertaining) may be curtailed or shortened until further notice. Or at least until I can clear up this war wound.

Be careful out there!

Fur-cation over...

OK, Folks.

It's been a crazy month and my erratic and sporadic postings tell the story.

There have been furlough days, vacation days, people changing departments so added duties, and the normal insanity surrounding the inner-workings of not only a news assignment desk but a news room!

Well, for now at least, for this quarter, I believe all of my furlough time is over.

Today I arrived back at work.

Let me tell you, for not being in the office for 7 days, it was really strange driving into work. I can not pinpoint it because obviously I've been off before. But, I had to re-program my car where to go.

I'd already heard a few 'nuggets' of happenings going on before I even entered the door. It's nice to have good and true friends at work!

Our annual Cedar Point ticket memo came out. Believe it or not, this will become one of my first priorities so I don't get shut out!

And, I'm hearing rumblings that we lost one of our desk people. I'm sure this will have an impact on all of us. But in the words of REO Speedwagon, 'just roll with the changes.'

I'd like to say I'm back refreshed and better than ever. But as I stated in a recent Facebook profile comment, "no matter how much free time you have, it's never enough and it's never free!"

Here here. There's always a catch and responsibilities. At least for me.

Free time from the work place constitutes work load pileup from everyone else in your life.

But, I'm back in the saddle, and in a heart beat, it's like a never left.

Let's see.

I found my normal parking spot.

Before I even took off my TJ Maxx sunglasses (which still broke after a month), and have put my 4 bags down, I have people coming up to me alerting me of schedule changes, stories already set up for our reporter, and 'what do you think about this?'

It's nice to be needed.

Let me say it again. I only had a few vacation days, a weekend, and then 2 furlough days but I have people coming up to me left and right welcoming me back, telling me they are glad to see me, spouting how much I was missed.

I don't mean to drone on...but like I've stated before, I don't feel like I was off for an extended period of time yet maybe because the days were abutted with a weekend, it appears that I was off the entire month of June?!?!

One fellow co-worker, who happens to be a very good friend and a jokester, came up to me, shook my hand and welcomed me asking if I was the new person on the desk! Ha ha, very funny! I do work with some amazing people and that's what keeps me sane! Thank you friends!

Anyway, here comes the 'feel like I never left.'

You know me and computers. I can not log onto our Microsoft system. Now, I don't feel so bad. There were a handful of folks off last week as well and all of them said they had to have an administrator re-start their computers. Whew! A simple fix.

You all know my next favorite item in the newsroom: the printers!

Whew hoo. I attempt to print out our assignment sheets and sure enough, the orange light is on and nothing. I don't hear the sweet sounds of paper piling up, information being disseminated, smoke coming out, nothing.

I guess I would not have known what to do had the printer actually worked on the first try.

After being off, I did have some pretty kick butt story ideas.

Yet they all went by the wayside with our first big thunderstorm of the season!

And that is Mother Nature's way of saying, 'Welcome back, Danielle!'

Information overload

For being in the 'information' business, I can honestly say I am currently in the midst of an 'information overload!'

How do some people do it? Keep it all straight?

Back in the day (this next factoid will truly show my age), there were two daily newspapers and 5 stations if you include WUAB and UHF Channel 61 in the mix.

Families would eat dinner together, talk about their day and watch the local news, national news and then the nightly television line-up on their favorite station ending the day watching Johnny Carson's Tonight Show.

Fast forward through time using the DeLorean time machine, flux capacitor into a land with HDTV, news via the blackberry, cellphones which take motion pictures, televisions in automobiles, vehicles spewing directions to their driver and calling for help if their owner is in distress, newspapers falling by the wayside in lieu of the world wide web, soldiers in Iraq speaking via satellite with their loved ones at the holidays AND being able to watch their favorite sports team. I've touched the tip of the proverbial iceberg.

Who has the time to be in command of all the information being cranked out?

Who has the luxury to be tied to their computer, cell phone, or blackberry 24/7?

When we try absorbing all of this information, are we neglecting something else? Our family? Our health?

I work in the news business with information at my fingertips around the clock and I can not even keep it all straight. We effort stories on our air different from the competition, which I try to log to make sure we are not missing out on anything big.

We generate loads of original news on our website, much of it different from what airs on tv, and frankly, I can not even keep up with my own website! I suggest stories, which I might add, are very good suggestions only to hear that a reporter or web reporter has just posted that on the web! At least I am offering viable ideas!!!!

We offer information on peoples' cell phones and distribute school closing details.

Our weather people give continuous forecasts on the local radio stations.

Facebook and Myspace have become tools used to reach the younger crowd, disseminate information on the top story, and tease what is coming up on all of our shows!

We even fire up the lights on the top of our building to alert travelers of pending weather conditions.

When I log on each day, it's time to wade through hundreds of email sent in from viewers, various agencies, public relations firms, and businesses trying to sell their product, their brand, push their story and get some publicity.

While I am logged on, the wires continue to refresh, yellow or orange alerts popping up in the lower right hand corner for breaking news.

Day after day, I sit listening to hundreds of police scanner channels trying to filter out the important calls from the insignificant mundane broadcasts.

It's an exciting time offering multiple platforms to our customers on how they get their news. Being able to give our viewers up-to-the-minute information when they want it. I look forward to the months and years ahead as my station, hopefully, will be on the cutting edge and in the forefront of this new age of information.

I know how I am feeling right now --like a cartoon character with stars spinning around my head! I just hope we don't saturate the audience or send out so much information that we bury the lead!!!!!!

Gremlins

I can not believe how gremlins have overtaken my computer!

Is this a Halloween prank?

One of my daily rituals is going through all of my email that has accumulated since I last logged in to the system. That usually takes at least 2 hours even though I have only been gone 15 hours.

Today, after being off the weekend, I log in to see that I have over 500 NEW email.

What is frustrating and quite disheartening is that email is popping up from October 11th, 12th, and the entire week of the 13th. However, I worked last week. I waded through all of my email last week on a regular basis.

How in the world can I be getting releases from October 11th?

This will come back to bite me in the butt one day when I am expecting a very important, very pressing release or 911 tape or something time sensitive....and it comes 2 weeks later! Chock up getting scooped to the gremlins in my computer!!!!!!!!!!

Not everyone has a computer

As the person who answers a majority of the viewer phone calls, I have to be cognizant and sensitive to our viewers' concerns and complaints.

We do not get many of these calls, but every week we DO get them.

Today a viewer called in and asked, "why do you tell us to go to wkyc.com for more information? I don't have a computer. And I would hope that any pertinent information we need to know will be given in your newscast!"

Our viewers are very savvy.

I can commiserate with these callers because I know that many people do not have computers. True, anyone can walk into a library or even a coffee shop and possibly log on, but that may not be convenient to many including the elderly.

I log these viewers' concerns and do pass them on...however, also expressing that the pertinent information IS given on our air. Anything the customer needs to know about a situation, especially regarding health, or let's say, a boil alert (as an example) is given out during our numerous news shows throughout the day.

Let's face it, though. It is 2008 and we are in a new dimension. A world of computers, the Internet, the ability to get the news and live broadcasts on your cell phone. Technology, if used for good, can be an amazing adventure.

I also share with our viewers that in this age of the Internet, we have details on our website to augment the story that aired on our news broadcast for those who may want to delve into this topic matter a bit more. We may have links for those really hot on what aired. And, anyone can comment on any story that is on our website. I encourage our viewers who are passionate about a certain story or who want to voice their opinions they can interact. They just have to log on and leave their comments, opinions or views on a certain subject!

There is only so much time allotted for a live broadcast. Only a certain amount of minutes for news /weather /sports. We'd love to air as many stories as we can, and of course, as much on a certain story, but that's not possible. Our website is an exciting mechanism to give our viewers, our customers even more information that they can peruse at their leisure!

We do know that everyone out there does not have a computer. We will give as much information as possible during our live broadcasts!

Thank you all very much for watching Channel 3 News and logging onto wkyc.com!!

Keep watching!