Here in Katie’s Head

I am in Miami. First off, I would like to apologize to the citizens of Miami for bringing the cold weather with me. It’s been cold (relatively) and windy since I got here yesterday. Second, I would like to apologize to my readers because the coherency of the following post will likely reflect how exhausted I am.

Last summer, I told my boss that when I was hired, the managing editor promised to send me to a conference somewhere interesting and that I hoped that promise would be fulfilled. And after I found out that Future of Web Apps 2008 was going to be in Miami, I told him that’s where I wanted to go. And given the choice between giving me what I want or listening to me whine until the end of time, he bought the plane tickets and booked the hotel.

And then this morning, when I walked over to the conference center, I discovered the Miami Herald was right across the street from FOWA. And then I emailed the web editor and begged for a tour.

Tomorrow, I get to tour the Wichita Eagle’s parent company’s largest newspaper. Maybe I’ll get to meet Dave Barry.

I’ll spare you all the uber-nerdy scoop from the conference. (Twitter, Digg and Flickr developers discussing how they partition their databases? That’s hot.) But let’s just say I’m enjoying being one of relatively few chicks at a tech convention.

Me: So where do you work?
Him: I work for the Census Bureau, actually.
Me: AWESOME.
Him: Uh, not really.
Me: I’m a data nerd. The Census is like Mecca.
Him: …

Okay, maybe I’m still a social wreck even among a sea of nerds.

Posted: 7:54 pm · Category: Geek, Work · Tags: fowa miami · Comments: None

Because after three glasses of wine at the snooty wine bar (and I saw the owner skulking around wondering why there weren’t more people there — duh, IT’S BECAUSE YOU’RE TOO ELITE FOR THE WICHITARDS), I desperately needed to google “wombat” so I could show my new drinking buddies what a wombat looks like.

Thank you, Steve Jobs.

Also, I should have used the iPhone tip calculator because after three glasses of wine, 20% of anything is always five dollars.

Posted: 10:02 pm · Category: Drunk, Misc Friends · Comments: 2

Number one reason Twitter rocks: Totally blowing chain-of-command out of the water. A corporate overlord A McClatchy VP and I are Twitter buddies.

I haven’t officially met him. He visited the newspaper once last year, but there are so many rungs on the corporate ladder between us that I wasn’t introduced to him.

When adding a couple of McClatchyites to my twitter “following” list, I added him because as my boss’s boss’s boss’s boss, he’s relevant to me. And he seemed like the kind of executive who speaks in, um, actual words rather than execuspeak, so that’s worth watching.

He added me back. And he replies to things I tweet about.

And that makes me feel like in this big, giant, corporate, so-big-that-it-must-be-at-least-a-little-evil media company…I matter. (Sweet!) And that makes me a better employee.

(And after I tweeted “I’d kill for noise-canceling headphones” and received a Tiger Direct package from him a few days later, the rest of the newsroom is thinking about tweeting some death threats, too.)

Posted: 10:23 pm · Category: Geek, Work · Comments: 1

My boyfriend is at the Democratic caucus right now and I’m jealous.

My newsroom’s ethics policy forbids me from making any sort of public political statement, and in the Democratic caucus in Kansas this year, people actually stand up and are counted, rather than use a secret ballot. I’ve touched on how I feel about the charade of the unbiased journalist but I’d rather not get fired, so I’m staying home tonight.

I could be at the polling site tonight saying, “Yes, America is ready for a president who isn’t white.” Or, “Yes, America is ready for a president who isn’t male.” And those are both important statements and I’m not allowed to make either of them, because someone might think that means The Wichita Eagle isn’t an unbiased publication.

I am, however, allowed to go to the Republican caucus this Saturday where voting is done by private ballot, where I could say, “hey, old white guys do a good enough job for me.”

And of course this election is about much more than race or gender. It’s not helpful to reduce the candidates down to those attributes, I know.

But in an election where I’m frustrated to see that the issues I care about most are not the issues that are being discussed or written about, I don’t have the opportunity to voice my concerns. I don’t have the opportunity to attempt to shape the conversation until the conversation ends on general election day (when I will certainly get my I Voted sticker). Democracy is about process, and I’m not allowed to be part of it.

If change is possible, if we really can, I am not part of that movement tonight.

Sometimes I really question my career choice. I’m no good at concealing how I feel, and I find it nauseating to even try.

I want change.

Posted: 8:13 pm · Category: Politics · Comments: 1