"The Paperless Society" (Pass the Ritalin)

My Sunday News & Record didn't get delivered today. I'm not attaching any particular conspiracy theories; my neighbor is a known newspaper thief, and I know for a fact that a large portion of the N&R news staff was in a meeting this morning.

I was forced to the adaptive strategy of trying to get my Sunday news online. This is a first. Instead of stretching out on the couch with a big stack of paper, newsprint on my fingers (and eventually, my face), I have spent hours in my desk chair, online.

In the interest of science, I'm filing this report.

I could start at news-record.com, but first I want to see what the bloggers are talking about. I head over to GSO Live and plan to work my way down alphabetically.

Let's see. I've already seen Friday's Malinois photo at A Little Urbanity. Backwards City has a link to a story about ecological footprints which I want to read. I'm going to come back to that later, since it's not local news. Same for Diary of a Soldier, though geez: "We've received fewer mortars since the elections." Must come back and read that. I've already read Lowana's description of the Triangle Bloggers Conference at Barbershop Blog.

Billy the Blogging Poet's feed to GSO Live has been broken for some time, so I'll get to him directly later on. I don't see anything new from Binker or Lex.

At Ed Cone I see my first hint of News & Record content. It seems that Editor John Robinson has posted an update on the Public Square project. Cool.

But wait. Ed's also linked to something Hoggard wrote about Margaret Banks' front-page article on St. James II. Gotta find out what that's about.

I learn much about much, including stuff about the practice of "redlining" and sub-prime lending, thanks to Hoggard. I'm moved to leave a comment. I'm such a comment hothead.

OK, now where was I. Oh yes, at Ed Cone, working my way to the John Robinson link. But wait; Ed links to Sue's review of this morning's meeting with Dan Gillmor. Got to see what I missed.

In comments at Southern Rants, N&R Editor John Robinson has posted a comment. I'm supposed to be reading his blog, but instead, the mountain comes to Mohammed. John links to a post at Dan Gillmor's site that explains one of his major points in today's meeting, about the death of objectivity. Do I go? Of course I do.

I read it, then a sidebar on Dan's blog catches my eye: Podcasting Demythologized. I'm trying to learn all I can about podcasting so that I can start doing it. I learn a bit, then Dan links me to a 4 minute video by Lisa Williams, where I finally get to see screenshots of how iPodder works. My iPod envy is at a fever pitch. Must... have... one...

Then I try to get back to where I started. Where did I start? Oh yeah, at GSOLive. No, wait, I wasn't finished at Ed's. Was going to use his link to John Robinson's column.

But what in the world did Giles Lambertson say today? It sounds awful. I must find out. First, a detour to acquire some background on Lambertson. I know he likes to have his picture taken with bifocals on, but... oh yeah, I remember that one about the Iraqi kids. Okay, onward.

Ed links to wiki for Southern Strategy. Fascinating American political history that I need to know, and clarification on some key figures like Goldwater and Rockefeller. How was I getting by without that knowledge? I've probably made grievous errors in political arguments up 'til now.

Ah, Ed had a column today. It's getting rave reviews in his comments. Must read.

OK yes. That was good.

At this point, I am only to the E's in Bloglines, and that does not include the Editor's Log, my main destination, nor any other News & Record sites.

It goes on like this. I detour to Gate City to read thoughts on High Point vs. Las Vegas in the Furniture Market wars. Hee hee. I like. I see Gate's also given a Broken Gate Award to the Greensboro Housing Authority and the City Council for the St. James II debacle. He reprints the quote: "Even a Crackhead wouldn't want to live here if they could live somewhere else." We're coming full circle.

No we're not. Ben has posted something interesting about a photographer in San Francisco, arrested on trumped-up 9/11 charges. Mr. Sun has written about the worst song ever. I'm behind on Lenslinger by at least two posts, and since I've lollygagged, Lex has posted on the Dan Gillmor meeting too. He's also posted on John Robinson's post about opening the News & Record up to citizen reporters -- exactly the angle I'm interested in.

I'm in a Hall of Mirrors, with only gravity to guide me.

Typically I would jump over to Greensboro101 and browse the local blogs section to see who has posted recently; then I would jump to the forums to check on new messages or topics, and browse the newswire.

But now it's dinnertime. My stomach is pulling a Glenn Close: "I won't be IGNORED, Chewie."

I had a point to make about the News & Record's Public Square project. It had to do with citizen reporters, the idea of people submitting articles, photos, and story ideas, at no charge to the News & Record. There was a tangential point involving the online Letters to the Editor with comments enabled; something about how the discussion there is more worthwhile than at other public forums, such as the Rhino's Sound of the Beep.

I also wanted to point out the Alice in Wonderland nature of the newspaper's Editor and Editorial Page Editor taking one of their own columnists to task in blogs and blog comments, while still allocating him weekly print space.

Maybe it will come back to me.