Cowboys reporter out here spiking footballs of her own.

Now? About 40-45, with paid overtime. There have been some changes at this paper the last few years that have gotten the work/life balance to a pretty nice spot, and they don't say anything about the overtime as long as I keep it reasonable.

The two times I was referring to in the other post, when I was living the job, the first time was in my mid-20s. I needed to do it to really learn the job and prove to bosses and myself that I could do it. If I hadn't done it, I might have washed out of the business by age 25. You can argue whether that would have been a good or bad thing, but in terms of staying in this career that was a one- or two-year period that was absolutely essential. I also had my first serious relationship disintegrate, and it helped me a lot personally to put that to the side for a while and focus on something else.

The other time was eight or nine years ago. We had staff cuts that took us from about a six-man sports operation (including photographers and page designers) to one or two (me and one staff photographer) within a year. To compensate, I was working 50-60 hours per week on average, and sometimes as much as 60-65 with a real asshole of a boss. I had one stretch where I went 42 days without a full day off. It sucked. My wife hated it. I hated it. I almost had a mental breakdown a couple of times.
What kept me going was the money. I was basically doubling my paychecks because of the overtime. It was an opportunity to pay off some debts and put us in a much better position financially, and that wasn't likely to come around often. There would have come a point where it was untenable, of course, and it went on longer than I might have liked. But it was a sacrifice I was willing to make for long-term stability. Now that we've finally come out the other side of it, I think it was totally worthwhile.

 

Typing tidbit No. 2...my freshman journalism class at Mizzou had IBM selectrics, which I thought were so badass, even though you had to type on those weird, paper-towel-type rolls of paper. Then when we returned from Thanksgiving break, all of them had been replaced by IBM desktop computers with full-newsprint-sized monitors. We thought we'd died and gone to heaven, all because MU J-school had cut a sweet deal with IBM to be their beta testers on new equipment.
Of course, that equipment sucked and ultimately was more trouble than worth.

 

Quite a while back, my first sports editor told me I needed to take typing in summer school between eighth and ninth grade. I was introduced to the Selectric after fighting with a manual typewriter at home, and I compare it to driving with or without power steering. I'd never encountered such a light touch to get that little ball moving. I loved learning on that.

In fact, learning to type was an experience unlike any other, at least to me. You enter knowing how fast others type and having no confidence whatsoever that you could get your fingers to move so expertly. And then in 2-3 weeks, you're spitting out words in what feels like one single motion.

I suppose learning to play a musical instrument is a bit like that, but I never got good enough on an instrument to experience it.

 

I'd typed and used computers - but my first newspaper job included typing the travel section stories into the system. It was great training. Now I wonder how youngsters deal with typing beyond their thumbs.

Kind of circling back to the thread topic - an honest question - should a class on self-promotion via social media be required for a journalism degree these days?

 

Meh the tweet probably led to a few offers to move up to bigger outlets because she's young and bold and brash and knows Photoshop.

 

I took typing in high school (well, keyboarding. technology!). Was hugely beneficial, as a requirement to get into my J School was a typing test. Had to be 35 WPM. No idea what I can do now per minute, but it's pretty good. Still improving with about 200 Slacks a day.

As for the young lady who's the subject of the thread -- Her tweet is not my cup of tea, and I don't think I ever would've done something like that when it came to my job. But it's a different time, too. But I still sort of go by, "act like you've been there before, even if you haven't."

 

No. It was a smooth process. I applied in August, the minute I turned 62. Got my first check in February.

 

I've done the same, and a couple of times, too. I guess it was worth it at the time, and probably overall, but eventually I ended up on the chopping block, too. No going back now, and I wouldn't do that anyway. Plenty of good tales, though.

I once went five months without a day off because one dumbass boss didn't feel the need to make replacing my assistant a priority. Plenty of 70-hour weeks in all the years – always with overtime pay, but still – and a few 90-hour weeks, too.

Like they say, the business will never love you back, but I have no complaints now, and it's great to be out.

To paraphrase Jimmy Buffett in "He Went to Paris":

Some of it's magic, and some of it's tragic,
But I had a good time all the way.

 

We must have been there at the same time. We all had Selectrics in 305, then when I actually got in the J-school, they put in the IBMs. The pagination still had that toggle switch.

 

Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their party.
Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their party.
Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their party.
Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their party.
Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their party.
Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their party.
Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their party.

 

The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog. Sir!

 

In regards to learning to type, anybody use that program in which letters fell from the top of the screen and you had to hit the key before the letter reached the bottom of the screen