Brea Jones

Today is the final section of a series called, “And a song shall carry them home: The Journey of the Brothers Fermin,” which has been running in The Record and on Recordnet.com for the past four Sundays. This is what the series is about:

Two years ago a group of brothers left Acojtapachtlan, a village of about a dozen cement houses in the hills of southern Mexico. They came to San Joaquin County without education, without money, certainly without permission. Really, they brought little more than their ambition and their audacity. One of them carried along his dream to save money, buy instruments and lead a band.

The brothers Fermin were like millions of other Mexicans who have crossed the border already and like thousands who, even today, will attempt it. But the ties of home and family are strong. On Oct. 17, the village of Acojtapachtlan was to honor its patron San Lucas with a festival. Two years of work in San Joaquin County had earned the brothers enough money for televisions, clothing, tools, accordions, guitars, speakers — and a truck to haul it back. One of them would stay behind. Three were headed home. Record reporter Jennifer Torres and photographer Victor Blue followed. This series is running in The Record’s Perspectives section and online every Sunday in December.

Kirk designed the landing page: http://recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?Category=A_SPECIAL92 He made an interactive map tracing their journey and brought all of the elements together nicely.

I was moved by the video, done by the reporter and photographer with help from our multimedia reporter, who also designed the Flash presentation: http://online.recordnet.com/projects/fermin

I haven’t laughed this hard from a YouTube clip in a while. And I laugh at a lot of YouTube clips, so that definitely says something.

I think while we may not go to the extreme of dating our Macbooks with someone’s profile a constant fixture, Facebook and other social-networking sites allow us to find out sometimes an unreasonable amount of information about people we may just meet in passing.

Shouldn’t people tell you their hobbies, where they work, where they went to school, who they take photos with and all the rest rather than reading what amount to a biography on their social-networking profiles? I can’t judge cyberstalkers, as I am definitely guilty, but I am curious how all of this impacts relationships with new people and people who only communicate via fingertips.

The News Feed feature on Facebook is more invasive than MySpace, where you actually have to click on someone’s profile to learn their details. I recently had a friend change his status from “single” to “in a relationship,” and sent out a bulletin to announce the change, which reminded me of Facebook’s controversial News Feed. For a moment, I thought I might need to explain the News Feed, but with Facebook being so ubiquitous, I don’t think it’s necessary, I’ll just send you to Facebook’s 2006 blog post from when the feature began.

Another friend was joking with his wife and changed his status to “it’s complicated,” while she threw a sheep at him using the now popular SuperPoke application. I brought up the change the next time I talked to him, and he assured me they were not fighting, they were simply bored and wanted to play on Facebook.

When did all of this become normal?

I am writing to share my joy with Wordie.org and hope that like-minded people will try it. The slogan, “Like Flickr, but without the photos,” is appropriate, but while most people like to store and share pictures with their friends, it takes a certain kind of person to get the same thrill from words. In fact, I actually enjoy Wordie much more than Flickr so far because it makes me think about what words I like and what words I use. It’s like word of the day but with 4,623 users adding words to the growing list. I haven’t added any Wordie people to my favorites list yet, but you can add me or comment on my list.

Aside from new words, the true glory of this discovery comes from the many dictionary definitions linked to each word. I’m sure I’m the last person on the Internet to find Ninjawords.com, so if there is already a fan club, I’d like to join. Just in case I’m not last and you’ve never experienced the power of the ninja, I recommend bookmarking this as the only dictionary you need while surfing or studying. So ninjas are smart, accurate and really fast, and this ad-free site boasts its dictionary follows suit. What I like best is that it stacks your searches, and you can search for multiple words just by typing them in the URL separated by commas (no spaces).

Example: http://www.ninjawords.com/ninja,dictionary,rocks

Click it. You know you want to. Then tag it. Bookmark it. Love it.

Ahh.. Nerd nation.

Here’s some food for thought:

“Sometimes it’s best to forget what you feel and remember what you deserve.” A friend posted this somewhere in the Web universe, and I liked it immediately.

It’s always good to keep things in perspective.

It has been a busy week, and I apologize to all of the people I promised I’d blog about last week.

I had a nice time at the California Newspaper Publishers Association convention Thursday in San Francisco. If you missed it, but are curious about my thoughts on the internship grant program, here is my speech:

“I would first like to extend my thanks to the Foundation for supporting me with an internship grant two years ago and for inviting me to share my experience with you today.

Student interns thrive in the digital age — they grew up in it, and many graduate to work in newsrooms that struggle to master the very technologies my generation is addicted to.

I fell in love with the news as a reporting intern for the Chico Enterprise-Record, an internship that was supported my Junior year at Chico State by the CNPA Foundation grant. That daily newsroom experience helped pave the way for my job at The Record.

As a Web content producer, I use my experience as a media junkie to help The Record develop its Web presence.

If you question the value of this program in shaping the future of media and information, just text me. MySpace message me. IM me. Poke me on Facebook. E-mail me. Google my name and find my Web site.

I know many of you are seeing these technologies invade your newsrooms, and they start with media consumers like me.

I consider myself lucky to be employed by a California newspaper, but I am far from a token success story of this program.

I count grant recipients among my friends and colleagues, most of whom now work for California newspapers, and many of whom wouldn’t have been able to afford to spend their summers on intern wages without the Foundation’s internship grant; without the generosity of people such as you.

But internship grants do more than support individuals. The newsrooms that house interns for a summer get reporters, copy editors and photographers supported financially by the Foundation. And when those students graduate, they bring more than professional clips to the newsrooms they work in.

They bring the future. “

After meeting many publishers and CNPA staff, I headed to the Mission district to meet with some alternative media people and to hear Josh Wolf speak about his time in prison. An interesting juxtaposition of events for sure. Wolf is running for mayor, so if you’re looking to support a progressive candidate, you can donate $$ and view a video about his candidacy on JoshWolf.net.

I spent the following days training Kirk, the new Web producer at The Record. Then I made the trek up to Chico to attend a surprise shindig for a good friend who is leaving journalism and moving to the Bay Area to work for a publishing house.

Another one bites the dust …

So it’s been a whirlwind. And an extra special thanks to the CNPA ladies who said I remind them of Cameron Diaz.

Personally, I don’t see it. But I know how to take a compliment, so thanks!

UPDATE: I removed the photo of Cameron Diaz on July 30 because so many hits came from Google image searches for the actor.