Breaking news: It's windy

This is co-worker Beth's car after a tree had its way with it. Some tough luck there. Sorry, Beth.

The wind also is blowing flames around Florida. Interstate 95 in Brevard County is closed because of smoke.

It's going to be a long night at FLORIDA TODAY.

Vandal has insight into the future of journalism

This one is from the archives. These words were stuck to a Washington Post newspaper box last summer at the Tenleytown Metro stop in Northwest D.C. I laughed, then snapped a shot with my phone.

Graffiti on dilapidated buildings supposedly illustrates the frustrations of nostalgic street wanderers.

But the words stuck to this old-fashion distribution method show the frustrations of a new news-consuming public.

Assignment NOLA Video: A recap of New Orleans 2 years after Katrina

In December, more than two years after Hurricane Katrina, I took a trip to New Orleans to explore the area. I wrote about it in a series called Assignment NOLA. I would recommend this post.

I took some poor-quality videos, but I never had the ability to edit them. With the new Mac, I finally got to compile them into a somewhat coherent video recap of my time in the city.

I'm eagerly awaiting a real video camera so I can get serious with Final Cut.

Blogger's note: Again, forgive me for the stupid look on the first frame. I need to fix that.

The Offlede gets sweet mention on New York Times blog

I was briefly dumbfounded as to why the unique visitors on The Offlede suddenly jumped. Then I saw that City Room, a blog of The New York Times, had linked to my posts about -30-.

Go here for the City Room post.

It was Bob Basler of Reuters who gave me the idea to investigate the big screen version of -30-, "-30-."

Who would have known that a number could be such a popular topic?

Unfortunately, the entry about The Offlede was the last item of City Room's post. But honestly, what can I expect for a post about -30-?

-30-

Academic blogging should be an epidemic

More journalism educators should blog. Professionals, professors and students could learn a lot from blogs by j-school insiders.

Two of the foremost blogging professors are Doug Fisher of the University of South Carolina and Andy Bechtel, left, of the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill.

I'm especially eager to see what Bechtel writes about his upcoming summer as an intern at the Los Angeles Times. That's right: a 40-year-old intern. (It's nice to have connections.) Go here for more.

Yesterday, Bechtel became the second of the aforementioned j-profs to mention The Offlede's work at the American Copy Editors Society conference in Denver. For the sake of gratitude and cross-promotion, here's a link to that post, which links to my Smokin' ACES home page. He gave me "The Last Word from Denver."

Thanks, professor.