Author: Holly A. Fisher

$700,000,000,000

That’s a lot of zeros, federal government. Wish someone would bail me out when I make a stupid decision.

Often we look at what’s going on in Washington or on Wall Street and it all seems so distant, so removed from our day-to-day lives. But I have to say this current financial crisis is really hitting home. Last week was tense at my office. Like pretty much all publications that exist on advertising, sales are down a bit and we’re tightening our belts.

It’s tough times all around. I feel fortunate to have a job when so many people are finding themselves in the unemployment lines.

OK, I know we all complain about this every year …. But, seriously, today Target had Christmas cards out in the aisle across from Halloween candy. What!?!?!?

Sadly, Micah Crimmins passed away this morning. We can take comfort in knowing he is with Jesus.

Here’s a piece of the e-mail his family sent out this morning: Micah would always say as I was heading out the door, ”Daddy, wait for me.” Well now, Micah, your earthly father is saying “Micah, please wait for me” because I too want so much to hold hands together again in our heavenly kingdom.

Many months ago, I posted an entry about friends whose little boy has cancer. After much treatment his cancer was in remission. In fact, last fall the entire family visited us in Charleston and it was wonderful to see Micah running around and playing.

Sadly his cancer returned earlier this year. His parents opted to try experimental drug treatments this summer, but they didn’t work. This week Micah has taken a turn for the worse and his parents are opting to discontinue treatments and simply make his final days comfortable.

When I read the e-mail with this news, I couldn’t help but cry. It’s devastating and my heart breaks for this family. Please keep them in your prayers. We can never begin to understand why something like this would happen. We can simply take solice in the fact that Micah will have a glorious time running and playing in heaven.

Last week I attended the Society of Professional Journalists national convention in Atlanta. It was a great conference and is always wonderful to catch up with all my SPJ pals.

I have to give a BIG thanks to my hubby for doing full-time baby care while I was gone. Having done that a few times when he’s gone on business trips, I know it can get a little tiring.

I feel incredibly fortunate to live in a time when men do housework and take care of the children. Fifty years ago I would not have been jetting off to a conference leaving my baby with my husband. Heck, I wouldn’t have had a career so there wouldn’t have even been a conference to attend!

So, thanks, Clint!

And, more on the SPJ convention soon …

Today is Women’s Equality Day, established in 1971 to commemorate the passing of the 19th Amendment in 1920, which gave women the right to vote.

The founder of Women’s Equality Day was Bella Abzug, a lawyer, TV news commentator and member of the U.S. House of Representatives (first Jewish Congresswoman).

I found these great quotes from Bella:
* Women have been trained to speak softly and carry a lipstick. Those days are over.

* The test for whether or not you can hold a job should not be the arrangement of your chromosomes.

* We are coming down from our pedestal and up from the laundry room. We want an equal share in government and we mean to get it.

You go, Bella!

I wanted to share these terrific photos of Katherine I had taken last week. Chris Smith is the photographer. I use him quite a bit for work projects and knew he would do a great job with Katherine’s 6-month portraits – and he did. Truly, she is precious – and that is my completely objective Mommy opinion! 😉

Last year Clint went to Las Vegas for the annual DEFCON convention — basically a hacker conference. Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to attend this year but a co-worker brought him a T-shirt and Kate a onesie. So, here are some pictures of “Daddy’s Little Hacker.” 🙂

Ten years ago this month I embarked on a major life change. Armed with a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Ohio University, a summer of experience at The Indianapolis Star and a serious sense of adventure, I packed up and moved to San Angelo, Texas. I worked as a reporter for the local newspaper and still count it as one of the best experiences of my life.

I find myself faced with a similar opportunity and can’t help but think, “That was then. This is now.”

I went to a job interview a couple of weeks ago in Fort Worth. I have the opportunity to be the editor of a new business publication in Denton County. It would be a sister publication of the Fort Worth Business Press. Long story short, the interview went well but I still felt conflicted and had a lingering question for the publisher about the kind of business publication they want to create. A follow-up e-mail seemed to confirm his commitment to a true business-to-business publication.

At this point, I’m about 90 percent ready to take it. I think that lingering 10 percent is fear. Fear outweighing any youthful sense of adventure. Oh, how the times have changed. Sure, 10 years ago I was afraid to move from Ohio to Texas. My grandparents helped me move and I’ll never forget that early Sunday morning when they pulled away from my apartment. I was struck by the thought that there went the only people in the city I knew and what if I had made a huge mistake moving here.

It wasn’t a mistake at all. And my sense of adventure took me on a wonderful ride. But I’m well past 22 years old when I could move across the country and had nothing to lose. I didn’t have a house to sell, a child, a husband. At that point, I didn’t even have a career. Life was fresh, new and full of potential.

I have lived in Charleston for eight years and have a comfortable life here. We have a nice home in a great location. We have good friends, a nice church and I have a good job. Why rock the boat?

Maybe for something even better.

This job sort of fell into my lap. And last week we found out that Clint’s company would like for him to stay on and just work from home in Fort Worth. How easy is that?

My friend Ronda and I always talk about how we wish God communicated in skywriting. Ronda says the way all this has fallen into place is skywriting. It could be I’ve been so wrapped up in the “what ifs” and “what might go wrong” that I haven’t looked up to see God’s skywriting.

I can’t help but think this is an awesome opportunity for me. I have the chance to build an entire business newspaper from scratch. Scary? Of course. An adventure? No doubt.

Could it be I’ve spent the last decade preparing for just this opportunity and now I’m going full circle back to the Lone Star state? The skywriting seems to say, “Yes.”

This fall, I’ll be published in a book. I’m so excited! OK, before you start asking if I’ll be at your local Barnes & Noble signing copies, I should clarify that this is a textbook and I just contributed one chapter.

But still, I’m totally excited to see it in print. The book, “Understanding Media Convergence,” is scheduled to be out in November. You can read more about it here. I love the review quote from another academic who says, “The text presents an impressive list of topics that are written by an impressive list of authors.” I am totally going to consider myself among the “impressive list of authors.”

One of my professors from graduate school at the University of South Carolina is one of the book’s editors. I did an independent study with this professor and wrote a research paper titled “Developing Media Managers for Convergence: A Study of Management Theory and Practice for Managers of Converged Newsrooms” (it really doesn’t get more academic sounding than that, does it?). The paper was picked up by the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, and I presented my work at the AEJMC conference in summer 2005.

So, Dr. Grant asked it he could use my work in his latest textbook. Of course, I agreed. It’s nice to see your hard work do more than just collect dust on a shelf or take up space on your hard drive.

It’s not like I haven’t been published a zillion times in newspapers and magazines, but never in a textbook so this is very cool. I’ll be sure to let you know when it comes out. And, if you decide to order a copy, do know I’d be happy to sign it. 🙂

Today Clint and I marked our eighth anniversary. I can hardly believe it. So much has happened since we stood in the Nazarene church in San Angelo, Texas, and exchanged our wedding vows. As those vows predicted, we’ve had better, we’ve had worse and we’ve had true love and happiness.

I’m blessed to have a great husband who puts up with my occasional bouts of crazy and grumpy. We can laugh together over such silly things – jokes that only he and I would find funny. We share a history and a passion. Thanks, Clint, for being the love of my life.

I’ve joined my company’s team for the American Heart Association Heart Walk. If you’d like to support this important cause, check out my donation Web page. Thanks for your support! Your donation will help fight our nation’s No. 1 and No. 3 killers—heart disease and stroke.

Look out, world! Katherine has learned to roll over. She tried for several days before actually getting her little body to turn over on July 7. Next, she’ll be crawling, then pulling herself up and then walking – life as we know it will be over! I love this photo of her … it’s like she’s thinking, “Well, I made it over – now what?”

Work and life in general have been somewhat crushing lately, leaving me little time for blogging. And, when I do have a free minute on the computer, I somehow get sucked into my Facebook world. (See earlier post on Facebook addiction.)

I really appreciated all the great e-mails and comments I received with advice on making tough decisions. The decision has narrowed somewhat to take an opportunity I am interested in vs. do nothing.

At the beginning of August, I’m going to Fort Worth to check out a job as editor of a brand new business publication in Denton, which is north of Fort Worth for those of you who have never been in Texas (and how sad for you!). Denton was just listed as one of Money magazine’s “Best Places to Live.”

I really want to make sure this is the right job for me and would be a perfect fit. I have a good job and live in a nice city so if I’m going to make a move, it needs to be a tremendous opportunity for me professionally, personally and spiritually.

I’ll let you know how the trip goes.

A few weeks ago, I created a Facebook page. It’s cool because I found some old college friends I hadn’t talked to in years. I now have 43 “friends” in my network.

The problem is Facebook can be kind of addictive. You can add all sorts of plugins and applications to your page. Plus, you can spend all kinds of time reading your friends’ pages, writing on their walls, sending them messages and pieces of flair. Geez, I have a hard enough time keeping up with this blog, now I have another space on the World Wide Web to update.

If you can keep your Facebook time under control, though, it’s a very cool social networking tool.

Next on my list of tech trends to explore: Twitter.