Field of Steve

I’ve been preoccupied. I’ve got a story to tell you about Apollo. Well, I think I’ll tell it. Until then, or something else, let this tide you over.

Lookee up top and you’ll see once you click on the “About” button that I’ve actually made it useful. Now I just have to finish that page and do the other ones, too.

The whole point of this blog was to have something with a history once I released another book.

About a decade ago I had a novel published, though that sounds haughtier than it really is. I had to pay a little bit, though not the typical vanity press fees. I had worked for a small publisher before and the fees seemed reasonable, because I was going to have the book edited and designed, or so I believed. In the end I was the editor and I wish I had been the cover designer. I lost all enthusiasm for the book once I got my copies and didn’t do a thing to market it. Friends and family who read it liked it, but what friend or family would say otherwise? Overall it was a nice learning experience and the book is a good reflection of where I was in my life before I got married. I thought there was valuable stuff for anyone in the story. The book sold a few dozen copies and you can still see it, or buy it, on Amazon. If the link doesn’t work, search for “Going Too Far” under “Steven Gardner.”

The desire to write books has never gone away. After 10 years of reporting I believed I’ve learned a lot about telling stories and plan to use whatever skills I have to tell my own growing up story. The story ends as I leave my family to begin serving my LDS mission. I hesitated for a long time to write the story, because I didn’t know what kind of hook I could have that would make the autobiography. Eventually I just started writing some of the stories I remembered in hopes that one day I’d stumble upon a theme that would work. Early on I considered the main theme being one of walking in two worlds, caused by my family’s conversion to Mormonism when I was 11. That may still be the overall theme that generates whatever may be interesting. But also in telling stories verbally I’ve found it not as difficult as I once thought to make the tales fun. I’m still writing the first draft. The next piece of work will be compiling a mountain of stories and weaving a tale that remains engaging throughout. It means I’ll have to throw out a lot of what I’ve written, or save it for some future project.

A few weeks back I came upon the idea of doing some research that can only be done in California, since that is where I grew up. I won’t give too many details, because it is, from what I can tell, still a unique way of weaving the story together. It does involve newspaper archives. So sometime before summer’s out I’ll make a drive down to Southern Cal. I hope to crash on someone’s floor for about a week as I make daily visits to the Los Angeles County Library in West Covina. I had thought about going as early as May, but that doesn’t look like it will work, because that butts up against our wedding anniversary and because the library will be open one fewer day than in a regular week.

I’m going to make several pitches to go get an agent or a publisher, but I’m also open to self-publishing. The process is much less expensive these days. I can find someone to edit for me so that I’m sure it’s a quality project. Designing a cover shouldn’t be difficult, especially for Diana. And I believe I can make the book sell well enough that writing books will be a worthwhile second career until it becomes a first one. After this book I want to do the same for my father, which would mean making another trip to Los Angeles and to Denver. Besides flattering my own ego and that of my father, doing these books will teach me skills in gathering historical evidence. With that experience it could make me even better suited for taking on more expansive projects, the kind of work done in The Devil in the White City, or American Lightning.

You may notice above that the photo changed from the baseball diamond to this beauty from Washington’s state capitol in Olympia. I liked the baseball field, and there may be something like it that returns. It may amaze you to know, however, that the photo from Dodger Stadium (aka “Heaven”) was not my photo. So I wanted something up there I took, or at least had permission to use. Since this blog will probably get closer to politics than baseball, I figure a political picture with a baseballish name would be a good mix. Until it isn’t.

The banner atop this blog, you have probably noticed, was changed. Not knowing CSS code myself, I called upon a friend to see if he could help. Help he did. I don’t know if he’s willing to be named, because he didn’t charge me anything. At least I don’t think he did.

So, anyway, thanks be to my as of yet unnamed friend. I’ll post his name if he consents.

The friend is Jeff J. Snider, who lives in the sprawling ‘burb Eagle Mountain, Utah. I know Jeff through the Eric D. Snider Web site. His mother, in some places known as SnideMom or Momma Snider, allowed me and photographer Larry Steagall to sleep at her house while we attended a NASCAR race in California. Come to think of it, I’m guessing Momma’s husband Rocky had some say in that, too, but he didn’t make us brownies before we left like she did.

Thank you again, Jeff.

8 Favorite TV shows:

1. Lost
2. Saturday Night Live
3. The Office
4. Mad Men
5. The Simpsons
6. Get Smart
7. Major League Baseball
8. NCAA Football

8 Things I did yesterday:

1. Made Sascha get out of the van and dial me up a Dr. Pepper.
2. Ate three potatoes.
3. Wore a hoodie.
4. Went to church.
5. Made cupcakes.
6. Continued working on my plan for world domination.
7. Made Apollo giggle.
8. Took a nap.

8 things to look forward to:

1. World domination.
2. Well, uh, you know.
3. Sleeping in.
4. The next Bruce Springsteen tour.
5. 10 p.m. Nov. 4
6. A haircut
7. The next trip to Hawaii
8. Getting my book published.

8 Favorite restaurants:

1. In-N-Out
2. Pudge Brothers Pizza
3. Sunny Teriyaki
4. Anthony’s
5. Aroy Dy
6. Red Robin
7. Noah’s Ark
8. Spaghetti Factory

8 Things on my wish list:

1. Out of debt.
2. Book published.
3. Getting rid of a bunch of weight.
4. Two newer cars.
5. Whirled peas.
6. Fun at the Legislature this winter.
7. A vacation, a good vacation, not just time off.
8. Kids’ college paid for

8 people I tag:

1. You
2. Him
3. Her
4. That one
5. You in the corner.
6. You, out there on your own, sitting naked by the phone.
7. Your mother.
8. Nunya

You’ve likely noticed the theme change, which wonderfully provides you dead links.

I’m working on it.

I’m also trying to figure out how to change the header picture to something more appropriate, like a picture of someone never sleeping.

Maybe not that.

I’ve got stuff to say, but I’ll save it for another day.

Obviously I’m not keeping this thing so active that I expect people to come back regularly. If this was part of your regular tour on the Web, sorry for the absence. The computer crashed. Life was busy, etc.

At work I will have a bit of a job shift to better match the politics I want to cover. I’ll be handing Bremerton over to the guy next to me and I’ll cover the county, which is largely a political body. It’s a good thing.

For the past several years we’ve watched around the country as newspapers one-by-one have offered early retirements and laid off countless numbers of employees. It’s a reality certain members in the blog community love and celebrate. Some of the exultation is because many bloggers and their clickers believe we’re the PR arm of the Democratic Party. Others like it because they don’t like how self-congratulatory we can be. I don’t think we’re the most self-important body out there, but we do believe ourselves pretty important to democracy, and rightly so.

Despite all that, I believe we traditional journalists will see the trends turn around. For one, most bloggers give it up before long. We had a fairly decent online site in our neighborhood that broke a story or two, but eventually couldn’t sustain itself. I run another blog for my job and am the chief writer for another one there.

I get paid to do it.

Besides the bloggers who drop off because they realize that writing regularly actually does take work, there are others who are rejecting the notion that they should write for free. Take, for example, this entry from a guy who spent years as a reporter and now has a blog dealing with mental health issues. He got an offer to blog on a site that would offer him more exposure, but pay him nothing. He began his response:

Thank you for your email and interest in my work. It’s been a long-standing dream of mine to write for free. I have 13 years as a paid professional print journalist who specializes in investigative reporting and has won two dozen or so awards for my work. I have graduate degrees from UC-Berkeley and the University of Utah and studied for a semester at Cambridge University as well. My work has been published in national, regional and local newspapers and magazines.

It gets even more snarky, and potty-mouthed, but his basic point is something I’m 100 percent on board with.

Part of my argument then was that no one will do for free the kind of journalism the Web 2.0 crowd thinks it’s creating. Journalism costs money. If you’re talking investigative reporting, it’ll cost more especially if there are loads of public records and lawyers at the party. If you just want to slap content around that sort of sounds like it’s floating around the truth in the half-informed commentary that the blogosphere is heir to–instead of being able to legitimately offer said truth–then I guess you can get it for free. But I’m not blogging for free for someone else. I can do that for myself quite nicely.

Right on.

I blog here for free for a couple reasons. One, I like it. Two, I hope that one day it will pay, or at least be a marketing arm for other projects I do that do pay. I write now because I want something already established in place when lots of visitors do start coming. For now I’m content with Chad and Brant as the regular commenters and the lurkers from Stockton, Pocatello, Hillsboro and sometimes the Middle East.

WordPress, assuming my short search for answers is correct, makes it incredibly difficult to put up a simple E-mail link on this board. I’m sure all two or three of you who read this blog have, at times, wanted to write to me personally without everyone else seeing it. Whether it’s to gush over the stirring content that I so unselfishly provide, or to wrongfully criticize me for your shortcomings, sometimes it’s just between you and me.

I understand.

So I waltzed around the limitations of this blog program and found a way for you to address me personally. I may rue the day I get more spam, but for now I’m willing to let you address me privately.

On the right of the screen you can see a new category that reads “E-mail” me. As the message orders, don’t click on it. That will be an exercise in frustration. Instead, just copy the steven@fieldofsteve.com address and send me your ramblings. I might read it. Heck, I might even care.

My video for the Kitsap Sun on what some people suspect is a doctored photo has gotten some attention from elsewhere. Another small daily called and asked for permission to link to the YouTube video. Meanwhile David Postman of the Seattle Times posted it on his political blog.

Here’s the video:

There still is no power in our neighborhood and the latest is it might still be days longer before we see relief. Puget Sound Energy said the number of customers without power is down below 200,000 (from 700,000) and many new agencies are acting as if the worst is over. I’ve never been on this end of the swing, the exception portion of the story in which nearly everyone else is back up to standard. Everyone’s asking, “How’d we do?” and we’re over here answering “What, you think you’re finished?”

Last night I went to the doctor to make sure I hadn’t been poisoned by carbon monoxide. Seven hours later I found out I hadn’t.

Some day, maybe Christmas, this will all be a memory.

All joking aside, be clear I know this is a mere inconvenience in comparison to a lot of stuff. I know, and I am grateful.

Side note

Sometimes I go back and read posts and I’m mortified. I should either save myself the grief and stop going back and reading them and just prepare you to accept question marks in unusual places in this product, which is largely first drafts and hit “publish,” or I should be more careful in editing and organizing my thoughts on this here writing thingy before hitting the aforementioned “publish” button. I’ll see if I can’t take more care.

Have you been doing too many 12-ounce curls? If not, then why is the ad on the right most likely asking you if you have a problem with drugs or alcohol? Is there an assumption out there that anyone who would visit this site must have substance abuse issues?

Well, no.

I signed up with Google Ads and the ads are supposed to be tailored to the content on this site. You may notice in an earlier post that I’ve written about meth, which probably explains the marketing message that appears. Earlier, I assume it’s because of my old NFL posts, there was an ad for Oakland Raider gear, which is potentially even more offensive.

You calling me a drug or alcohol abuser? Thanks for caring.

Raider fan? You better be positive before you make that accusation. 

I bought this web domain a couple months ago, but only today decided to start it off with a blog. This blog may eventually get sent to a subdomain, but perhaps no. Perhaps this is the way to go and let the other stuff be subdomains. Aw, what do you care, eh?

Now that I’ve got an address, I guess I better post regularly. You’ll get links to other news stories, including ones I write that I think are interesting. I may have one next week about election shenanigans you may enjoy. I got my blogger stuff exported over here to have an even longer list of entries to choose from. After all, there’s just no end to the self-importance of a narcisist.

All one of you who read this blog may be moved to crow to find out that this blog, or something, will see some changes soon. There is this Web site with a familiar address that I just recently purchased. On it there will be some things, some content, some information, some stuff and some photos. There will be words, lots and lots of them. I hope to have something up by the end of October. Check back here for updates about my progress. Now back to your regular surfing.

Field of Steve

I’ve been thinking for the past month or so that I would put this blog aside for a while. So tonight I make it official. Of course, that will matter to about one other person other than myself, based on the tracking figures. I get an average of one visitor a day. Have a good Christmas Brant?

This wasn’t regular enough to keep visitors anyway, nor do I think you can generate a big audience if you’re not focused somehow. This site is pretty random. Anyway I’ve got a couple of writing projects in mind that I haven’t paid attention to. One way to spend more time on those is by spending less time wondering about this.

Perhaps I’ll post the occasional family update or some such thing. If you’d like to know when I do post something, you can use the RSS feeds on the right, or you can go to my complete profile and send me an e-mail.

We did have a great Christmas. We saw Polar Express again on Christmas Eve, went to the 3-D showing at the Imax at the Seattle Center. I liked it better this year than last, because I wasn’t sick. We had a great time at Aunt Pauline’s and a good Sunday Christmas at home. I’m still exhausted, but recovering.

God’s Army 2: States of Grace is supposed to be here in March. Assuming I see it I’ll write about it then. I hope by then there’s a groundswell of buzz. It bombed in Utah, but maybe it will take getting away from a Mormon audience to make it work.

Pitchers and catchers in February, a streak of sunny days. Who knows what will get me to write here again? All I can say is it won’t be regular and it won’t be often, except for when it is.

Field of Steve

Go on. Envy me.
I’m getting paid to blog.
Not here, mind you.
It’s for my daytime (and quite frankly I work a lot of nights, too) job.
The reality is it’s another duty added to the ones I had already. More work for the same pay, but I welcome this as something that will not only help me careerwise, it will be a boost to our publication. At The Kitsap Sun we’re in the process of adding blogs as part of our overall coverage.
The first one, Tracking the Speedway centers on International Speedway Corp.’s efforts to land a track here in Kitsap County. I’m one of four regular contributors.
ISC’s proposal brings the prospect, not the guarantee, that we could have NASCAR Nextel Cup Series races here. It’s no given, by any means, that the speedway will ever get approved. The idea doesn’t appear to have a lot of support from residents, except those who have businesses. Legislators aren’t sure about it, either. It could happen, but when I wet my finger and stick it in the air I can’t begin to tell you what I would predict. So I’ll just blog about it — on the other site. It might get another mention here from time to time.
So will another blog I’ll be running by myself called “The Bremerton Beat.” (I’ll link to it once it’s officially ready.)
My main point was to brag about getting paid to blog,

Field of Steve

. . . anyone really cared to get regular updates from me. Nonetheless, as part of my learning process, you can get my blog in an RSS feed. That way, you don’t have to check my site to find out if I’ve added new content. Just put it on your RSS page, which in this case would be My Yahoo. Perhaps some of you more technically advanced could get it another way. If you have some other system you use and would like it formatted for that, let me know. I’m not expecting to hear from too many of you though. I just think it’s cool that I can get updates of my own posts. I’m legendary. Just ask me.

Field of Steve

I’ve noticed a pattern on the blogs that has been played out here on this one. A bloggers gets all excited about starting a blog and for a few days goes really gung-ho. It doesn’t take long, however, before the thought of writing another entry just isn’t all that exciting.

On Bainbridge Island there is a blog with a name I can’t recall. There is one entry posted months ago titled Peles vs. Galileos. It’s a discussion of the competing interests at Battle Point Park. There may have been one introductory post before that, but the park post was the first and last of its kind. A friend started one called, “Venting my Spleen,” in which he has posted two editorial-like posts. I just wonder, and actually kind of believe, that a lot of people who start blogs find out it isn’t as satisfying as they thought it would be.

For me, like my “Venting my Spleen” friend, I write for a living. I want to save my best stuff for the newspaper. If it’s opinion, I have to be careful about how far I jump into that. So I resort to writing stuff about my family, which frankly I don’t know how many people really care about that. Besides, they have a right to their privacy. They didn’t ask to be born into a journalist’s family. With the advent of blogs, everyone now is a public figure, which means anyone can say just about anything about them on a blog.

So I wonder how many people start blogs and really keep up with them. I’m sure there’s a study out there somewhere, but I don’t care to look for it now.

www.bainbridgeislander.com

So someone named Glo was nice enough to post comments, and through the magic of reformatting I managed to delete the comments. Nice. I will probably be back here more often, so write to you soon. We’re moving, so there’s some news there, now isn’t there!

www.geocities.com/theedboard