RENO, Nev., November 18, 2008

“It’s done, baby,” said Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., at the signing of the Truckee River Operation Agreement (TROA) Saturday afternoon.

Big names in government mingled in Wingfield Park while Truckee River revelers swam, kayaked and picnicked along the banks. It was the perfect backdrop to an agreement that will bring an end to nearly a century of bitter conflict.

Eighteen members of city, state and federal government huddled together to sign this historical document. Chief among them were Reid, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne, Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe Chairman Mervin Wright, Jr. and Mayors Robert Cashell, Geno Martini and Todd Cutler of Reno, Sparks and Fernley respectively. Governors Arnold Schwarzenegger, R-Calif., and Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., could not make it.

For those enjoying the river’s recreation, they’ll be able to keep coming back under TROA. No water rights are lost to the Truckee Meadows Water Authority (TMWA) which services the Reno-Sparks area, but better drought allocations will help the community thrive.

“It’s not only drought supplies for new developments, but also drought supplies for existing people living here. It keeps providing us with that safety net we need here in Truckee Meadows,” said Sue Oldham, a negotiator on behalf of TMWA.

In technical terms, nearly 16,000 acre feet of water will be stored during droughts. That’s a 15 percent conservation rate versus 10 percent during non-droughts.

TROA also takes into consideration the increasing population of Reno and Sparks. Oldham noted that 119,000 acre feet of water will be allocated to TMWA for the next 25 years. It hopes to accommodate the residential and municipal and industrial uses for upwards of 400,000 people.

After that, Oldham says, “We’ll have to look at other ways to back up our water support.”

Since his election to the senate in 1986, Reid has strived to pull communities together and solve the issue of water in Northern Nevada and California. He spoke passionately at Saturday afternoon’s event about the hundreds of thousands of wetlands that have been ravaged and the endangered species that TROA aims to save.

Reid described it as a “freeway” that would more easily support wildlife and plant life that couldn’t thrive under the current conditions of diversions.

This river has had many diversions both physically and legislatively over the past 90 years.

When Lake Tahoe experienced a drought in the 1920s, the official fight over the river’s resources began. At one point, around 17,000 people were being sued. These past decades, the battle went back and forth between California and Nevada.

Some of the harsher effects of diverted tributaries and dams were the emptying of Winnemucca Lake, the disappearance of Pyramid Lake Cutthroat Trout, and now the danger of depleting cui-ui and Lahontan Cutthroat Trout. Both fish are integral to the Paiute Tribe’s culture.

Reid’s efforts to pull all those communities and interests together to find a solution in 1990 under the Truckee-Carson-Pyramid Lake Water Rights Settlement Act culminated in TROA.

Although it has taken 18 years since then, every effort has been made to assure that all parties were heard.

The Paiutes will not lose any water rights and any water unused will be given to them. Better timing and flow rates between California and Nevada were established. Several lawsuits will be settled. And, of course, people from across the country and world can still come to enjoy the beauties that the lakes and rivers provide.

But the battle hasn’t been won yet. After Saturday’s signing, federal and state courts will have a chance to review and comment on the agreement. Until December 2009, we’ll have to wait to breathe that heavy sigh of relief.

I’ve been reading a lot about how to “break in” to certain industries, namely the writing and journalism business. Many of these “How to land a job in…” keep emphasizing that job seekers should be willing to work long ours for modest pay.

While I’m not advocating slacking off or negotiating for unreasonably high salaries, I am advocating that job seekers know their limits.

I’ve worked in a job where I was living paycheck to paycheck, with an overdraft every quarter. I worked 14 hours a day as a federal tax exempt employee – which means no over-time, folks. Was I passionate about what I was doing? Absolutely. Was I treated fairly? Not at all.

All organizations and business have a responsibility to their employees – that they can put food on the table and not become shells of their former selves.

Here’s the thing about the brain: your talents and skills have diminishing returns after you reach a certain point. You get lazier. You’re not as quick to notice mistakes. Your work suffers.

So how does a reporter working long hours help a news organization? It doesn’t. In fact, the more overworked your staff the shoddier the reporting gets. Why would a news organization, the OCDs of facts and truth, want their staff to become exhausted and sloppy?

The breaks I take really only benefit my employers. How? Ask Don Draper.

Get down into the details. Learn as much as you possible can handle. Follow every lead. Then forget all about it. The story will unravel itself.

Anyway. So James, in an effort to be different, purports that there is a great conspiracy afoot that advises bloggers to stick to a schedule. Even though those dispensing the advice, James being one of them, are all like, “This sucks. I want to be on a yacht right now.”

First of all, everyone’s creative process is its own unique snowflake. Heck, even in “On Writing Well,” Zinsser proclaims in one of his chapters that he and another respected writer had opposing views on how to write. Zinsser has to write everyday or else he’ll lose it. The other writer is all whimsy and inspiration. He can’t write unless the fancy strikes him. And other people have weirdo traditions.

Secondly, James uses some loopy logic about readers getting bored. I admit, I get bored with MWP’s blog posts because it seems to be regurgitating the same dribble every month or so. Anyone in the news business will tell you that won’t fly because people want to know what’s new. No one ever asks, “Hey how did that thing 10 years ago turn out? I was around at the time, but I want you to repeat it me right now. I’ll ask you again in the future to remind me of what happened 15 or 20 years ago.”

This point is correct:

Let’s forget the cheap Chinese buffet rule of having consistent blogging schedule and ditch it in favour of an occasional steak dinner. The kind you save up for and enjoy. The kind you really savour. The kind you look forward to because it’s rare. And because it’s that good.

I’m of the opinion that if you’re gonna write something, add new insight. Any editor will tell you that, otherwise you won’t get published. Unless you work for a Men’s or Women’s magazine (ba-dum-ching!). If you’re not adding to the conversation, shut up. That should free up your schedule some, no?

Third, James says that writing despite your feelings is bad for you. Actually, it’s better for your writing and for you in general.

If you succumb to your own paranoid thinking, you’ll never get shit done. This is why the Buddhist (here I go again!) precept of “doing what needs to be done right now” is so important.

Yes, if your kids are crying and you’ve got mold in your bathtub, those things take priority over writing. If nothing but your feelings are getting in the way of your writing, just sit your ass down and write, damnit. You’ll be better for it. Unless you have a rich spouse who can support your whimsical schedule, you’re gonna need to get over yourself to finish that post lambasting that other blogger.

Overall, I think James here is being disingenuous to get hits.

I’m here to tell you that if you follow the basic rules of writing, as outlined in the inexpensive and everlasting book “On Writing Well” or even “The Elements of Journalism,” you’ll do fine.

The most important thing is to find out what works for you, get over yourself, do the work that needs to be done, and be comfortable being uncomfortable.

Except that homelessness is very much apparent and people often just ignore them. Also, I think this system vastly underestimates the underground network of the homeless. Wonder how there can be overweight homeless people? First, their diet consists of dollar menu items from fast food chains. Second, because this food is cheap, they buy a lot with their busker wages and share with others in the network. 

I commend these designers for thinking of the homeless, but a little more research needs to be done. 

“…so long as we have a monetization model of information that prioritizes the wrong stakeholders — advertisers over readers — we will always cater to the business interests of the former, not the intellectual interests of the latter.”

I’ve been feeling the sort of cognitive dissonance lately when I think back on some of the class discussions I had in grad school. There was a minor debate on where advertising goes and how it should correspond with the article being read in an effort to be more useful to the user. At the time I thought that this made practical sense. Maybe I’m becoming a romantic in my old age, but this has become a jarring echo.

When I met up with a local publisher, I asked her about the tenor of the journalism industrial complex of D.C. and some of her thoughts on the whole “journalism is dead” thing. She explained to me about how advertising and reporting are becoming more and more muddled in newsrooms so the onus is on journalists to churn out articles that get those precious hits and unique views.

Indeed, the current experiment over at Gawker is an example of this – half the staff is tasked with putting up salacious stories while the other half do something…else. I don’t know what because Gawker isn’t exactly a bastion of journalism. They break stories all right but rarely are they earth-shattering and more often scandalous.

Popova laments the state of journalism repeating stories and beating a fresh story into a dead carcass while will continue to be beaten,

“The homogenization of curiosity is something that keeps me up at night, as does the thickening of the filter bubble, from mainstream churnalism to smaller and niche publications’ propensity for regurgitating MetaFilter or Reddit headlines — our modern-day newswires.”

This piques my interest because as my conversation with my friend revealed (and some experiments with hyper-local news adventures), people don’t care that much about local news. And this is really where a lot of original content will come from. They become grander when other news outlets pick up on it and notice a pattern. [This may someday become easier with the implementation of the semantic web and the Open Government movement, explained here by another friend, Kristen Milholin.]

So if people aren’t actually curious about things that are closest to them and are driven by the scandals of tabloids and visual candy of slideshows – then what are we, as serious journalists, supposed to do about that?

Popova has one idea:

“Until we, as an information culture in general and as media producers in particular, figure out a way to reinstate the editor as the visionary and the reader as the stakeholder, the Internet will remain a dismal landscape for intelligent, compelling media.”

I take issue with the whole “dismal landscape” gibe. I find all kinds of wonderful things on the outer reaches of the Internet. So I don’t think editors have any power over what readers do; readers are stakeholders no matter model you come up with. It’s just that they don’t behave in ways we want them to.

There are two ways to look at this problem:

1. The problem is us. We as a culture need to value the importance of our role in local and national society. Instead of putting our interests first, we need to think outside of ourselves and pay attention to what’s happening to our neighbors.

I know, that sounds all kinds of preachy. But what will anyone care about an environmental spill in the Gulf of Mexico if we don’t feel we can do anything about it and if we don’t see how something matters even if it doesn’t affect us directly and immediately? Harder still, if we don’t think we can do anything about anything, who cares about the next bill to come through city council – good or bad?

There are no business models that will change journalism and the market. The market needs to get over itself and its endless search for entertainment.

2. The problem is the Internet. On the internet, information is free and some bloggers, out of the goodness of their heart, report on events that some local journalists won’t or can’t. They are flooding the market with free information. And there isn’t anything to be done about that. There is great stuff out there…there is also horrible stuff.

As media outlets lose control and information becomes decentralized, there’s no way any editor – even at CNN – can change the digital landscape. Otherwise, no one is going to pay for something they can get for free and agrees with their sentimentalities.

We’re left with the quandary of: is commodifying information ethical? Is not paying a writer, researcher, or journalist to find that information and present it ethical? What’s the third alternative?

Beats me, dude. But I will continue to write about stories that I find important, entertaining, fun and serious. I hope Popova does the same.

I know, it’s the writer’s fault for creating such an unlikable star. Katherine McPhee plays Karen Cartwright, a struggling actress trying to make it on Broadway. The show follows the beginning production of a new musical about Marilyn Monroe, who is dead, has been dead for awhile now, and will never be resurrected. But that does not deter our composers, Julia Houston (Messing) or Tom Levitt (Borle) from writing up a demo and going viral on YouTube (ha, like a Marilyn video would go viral on YouTube).

What else? Davenport plays a really skeezy director, Derek Wills. And Anjelica Houston plays a producer going through a terrible divorce,  Eileen Rand. Megan Hilty, who played Glinda in Wicked, is the actual Broadway actress trying to get a damn leg up, Ivy Lynn. Those are the basics…here are my running thoughts as document on Facebook with more exposition.

“Watching new SMASH TV show – and of course, the lead actress is complaining of being TOO SKINNY to her HOT INDIAN BRITISH BOYFRIEND. Fuck you, McPhee.”

Remember what I said about being unlikable? Boo-hoo, really. The rest of America mourns for your bourgeois problems. Except, she’s not even supposed to be bourgeois. She’s supposed to be a struggling actress who’s day job includes pouring coffee and forgetting customers. A single woman who moves to NYC from Middle America manages to capture the heart of a really good-looking British professional who works at the Mayor’s office?

Where’s my piece of this pie?

Oh and the directors didn’t think she was too skinny, as she previously thought in fact…

“Oh Dear God. She confuses “resume light” (i.e. not enough experience) with being too skinny. How self-obsessed can you be???”

With all the Sturm & Drang going on behind her little subplot, these little forays into her idiocy could be completely cut from the show and it will have improved at least 100%. At least.

Why? Because I just don’t buy this girl as the next Marilyn, or Christina or Britney or even Rebecca Black. Sorry, McPhee, but you have no chops. You can sing, but you can’t act your way out of a plastic bag. And the writer’s have written a character so wholly unbelievable. It’s not your fault, so sorry for the haterade.

But some points:

1. Breathe from your goddamn diaphragm not your chest.

2. When you audition, address the directors and composers by introducing yourself and the piece you’ll be singing. Don’t just look at the poor accompanist like…ha, this song needs no introduction! It does. Especially if it’s an Xtina song…at a Broadway audition.

3. Don’t ever sing “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” ever again. Thank you.

It’s a shame because Ivy is the clear dead-ringer for Marilyn – she’s voluptuous, she oozes sex, and she has a voice that could flatten you. This “innocence” thing Derek keeps yammering on about is just inaccurate. Marilyn was calculating, don’t get it twisted.

Anyhow, all the McPhee idiocy aside, it would be a fun show to watch not least because of the NEW SONGS!!! Take that, Glee!

Will I watch? Probably not. Unless there’s nothing else on Hulu.

My Take: Watch a real Broadway musical instead. 

Watch the 30 minute presentation.

His words resonated with me mostly because of his observation that humans are meant to pulse. When you think about it, it’s true. We’re not digital machines that run fast and hard over long periods of time. No, we pulse.

Our heart beats. Our eyes blink. Our lungs expand and contract. Our brain waves light up and go dark.

His practical applications involve working 90 minutes at a time on one focused task then rest. He doesn’t go into how much rest you need – I guess we have to figure that out on our own.

But it’s no wonder why we’re treated like machines since we’re constantly competing with them. We can never be as efficient or productive. But technology needs us to be creative and inspirational.

So put aside your keyboard and mouse. Stare outside the window for awhile.

Coincidentally, I did have an existential crisis of more epic proportions. It had a little to do with the Buddhist idea of “no self.” But rather than being debilitatingly scary, it really released me from my own preconceived notions about myself as well as those of others.

In three months I’ll have another “awakening” with new goals and a new hair do, but I’m more prepared now to smack myself if that new attitude is really just my ego trying to build itself up.

However, my recent crisis did produce some other, more practical, insights. My goals everyday are:

- Do what needs to be done right now. Don’t focus on your feelings but on the actions that need to be done.

- Don’t get wrapped up in what I think I should be but on what I want to do.

- Eat a megaton of leafy greens.

- Write every morning. Research the rest of the day.

By the way, I’m not announcing this because I think you’ll keep my accountable. What a burden that is on you! Unless you like being a pushy jerk who laughs at everyone’s flaws…

I’m writing this down in case any of you have the same ideas or needed to be reminded of what your own goals are. But look forward to a “fall off the wagon” post in the near future. It’s inevitable.

I hope all your existential crises are as fruitful…Happy New Year!

It’s not as rosy as Fast Company’s recent infographic, This Bike Could Save Your Life. In fact, this bike will likely either kill or maim you.

Your success at turning to cycling as your primary mode of transportation is dependent on a lot of factors.

1. Urban planning and rent. Yeah, bike all you want if you are blessed enough to have income that let’s you bike around with a block of gruyere and bottle of Malbec in your woven little basket on your one speeder. Even better if you live in an area that doesn’t have a lot of hills, large bike lanes, and roads that give priority to pedestrians and bikers. Otherwise, if you are in the financial situation that forces you to take public transit, you probably live in the suburbs and it would be easier to just take the bus instead of showing up to work smelling like a wad of sweaty socks.

2. Your anxiety levels. You’re a tiny little speck in the big wide world of SUVs. Want to make a left turn? I think I just had a panic attack. Not mention if you have to bike across freeway entrances. Those are fun. Biking requires you to pay MORE attention than driving does and to be even MORE defensive. Any little thing could cause you die. Which brings us to…

3. You don’t crash. Sure, you lose 13 lbs in a year. Sure you get more muscley. If you don’t crash and break every bone in your body. This goes back to urban planning. I don’t think I’ve met a single cyclist that hasn’t crashed into an open car door or some other thing that can just come rolling out of the sidewalks. I’ve done a forward flip my bike twice just from trying to jump a curb and not seeing a medium sized rock while biking at night. Biking is dangerous. You have to be trained to do it. Unlike walking or riding the bus, it takes expertise to be able to make left turns, avoid crashing into pedestrians and cars alike, ride up hills, ride down hills, etc.

If I were you, I’d just take the bus and walk to work or school. It’s safer, more efficient, and you won’t reek of corn chips and wet dog.

Also – get off the fracking sidewalk cyclists! I’m walking here!

In one chapter, Mindy talks about a potential TV show she pitched to TDI based on her and her roommate’s life pre-The Office fame. It got totally watered down and ruined by the typical Hollywood machine that can only conceive of skinny modelesque women as potentially interesting in a TV show.

And I found the pilot. Yep. It sucks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wI24LHQlJFo