Sigur Ros’ ‘Track 3′ Unexpectedly Makes Me Think of Mom

While listening to my Jose Gonzalez Pandora radio station earlier this week, I stumbled across a song I hadn’t heard before: Sigur Ros’ “Track Three.” It’s an instrumental song, but one that I liked enough to want to look up on YouTube.
It seemed fitting that the first video that popped up [...]

Bought a New Bike, Ready to Ride in St. Petersburg

For years I’ve said I wanted to get a bike. I always had one growing up, but when I moved to Florida, I had to leave my good ol’ Schwinn mountain bike behind. Now I have a new one, which I bought this week for $50.
Growing up, I rode my pink and purple Huffy everywhere. [...]

Remembering What We’ve Lost, Holding on to What We Still Have

Loss has always played a significant role in my life — especially the fear of it. As a child, my mom used to scream at me whenever I lost something.
“Maaaaaallllarrrry!” she would say, her brow furrowed, her head titled.
Uh. Oh.
I grew to fear what would happen if I told her I had lost a mitten [...]

Looking for Ways to Recognize the 75th Anniversary of Providence College’s Student Newspaper, The Cowl

Wednesday nights used to be “put the paper to bed and forget about sleep” nights.  As editor-in-chief of Providence College’s student newspaper, The Cowl, I’d often stay up until 4 a.m. or 5  a.m. editing final versions of stories, re-reading headlines and making sure the paper didn’t contain any glaring errors. Perfectionism often kept me [...]

Learning How Editing Can Make You a Better Writer

I’ve been getting to write more stories for work, which has been great in terms of developing my reporting and writing skills. I’ve found that line and copy editing stories for Poynter Online throughout the past year has made me a better writer.
It’s taught me to write tighter sentences, triple-check my facts and cut out [...]

How Do You Motivate Yourself to Write Personal Essays?

I have a lot of ideas for personal essays that I’ve been wanting to write about lately, but a busy work and social life have led to weeks of procrastination. When I do have free time, distractions get in the way, and I’m left thinking, “Tomorrow. I’ll write tomorrow.”
I have no problem churning out stories [...]

Meeting Three Journalism Pioneers: Koppel, Schieffer and Brokaw

This week, I met Ted Koppel when he came to The Poynter Institute Monday night to talk about the state of the media. I live blogged Koppel’s talk for Poynter Online and then wrote a recap of what he had to say. One of the topics he talked about at length was social media and [...]

Recent Poynter Online Stories about Orange County Register, Kansas City Star Columnists

My last two stories for Poynter Online have been about two columnists who made headlines after making decisions that readers and journalists found fault with.
The most recent story, published Thursday on Poynter Online, talks about the backstory behind a sports column that the Orange County Register’s Mark Whicker wrote earlier this week. In the column, [...]

New Amazon Wish List a Reminder to Find More Time for Books

I’ve spent the past two hours listening to the rain and creating my Amazon wish list. I usually e-mail myself titles of books that I want to read, so instead of having them build up in my e-mail box, I created a wish list to keep them organized and to remind myself that I need [...]

Grandma, 86, Is Dating the Next-Door Neighbor and Loving It

You can read a story I wrote about Gramz and her boyfriend, Gordon, in today’s St. Petersburg Times.
My grandma, “Gramz,” is the most special woman I know. She’s my surrogate mom, the person I’ve always turned to when I’ve needed advice or help finding my way through the labyrinth of love. At 86, Gramz has [...]