First Day of Work

02-25-08

I was so excited I woke up before my alarm. I got to work twenty minutes early and no one was there to let me in.

It did not take long to be deflated. I had agreed to start today with the understanding I would just layout what they had. I was devastated to learn that they had only three advice columns from the Internet. None of their writers, the full-time guy, a intern who wrote one story a week for $10 and a writer who worked for free had turned in anything. I know how to use Quark and they had three programs on the computer. Quark but it was broke. Pagemaker which may be older than me. And Indesign which I had never used. I went with the Indesign but they had no book to go with it. And they had no recent saved pages that I could use as a template.

The paper was really four papers. Pages three through 10 were the same for all four. Page one was different for all four. Page two was basically the same but they had a different nameplate box on each.

I worked from nine until 6 pm without a single break. I did not eat. I did not leave the office. I tried to find content. I tried to create pages from scratch. The woman who runs the paper knows nothing about how it is made. I wonder how often lately she even read most of it. The man is no real help. If I ask a question he stands between me and the computer and farts on me. He doesn't know the answer but he searches. I explain please if you don't know say you don't know. I can search myself.

This may be the worst paper in America. Twice in 2008 they did have an issue because they had no content and no ads. The paper is almost all press releases with no bylines. They used to have a real newsman who died last summer and a layout guy who fled out of state during the fall.

The office is dirty and overflowing with papers. The more I typed on the keyboard an ooze would come from beneath it. It was really gross.

The computer is dial-up and it takes about an hour to get email.

I left at six after working straight through with no break. Nine long hours and I had a page and half of content. I don't have my own phone line because the computer is on it. And honestly the other office phone looked so dirty I didn't want to use it. There is no camera. And even though I asked several times I didn't get a key. The woman did send the man to the store to buy her a new phone because she couldn't hear on the other one. It was so sad it was funny.

I had ideas and press releases for three of the four covers but nothing for one. So instead of writing his stories- the man started to retype a story from another paper that ran last week from that city. I was so mad. I bit my lip and went home. With no stories there wasn't much I could do. I did work nine hours without a break.

The next day I told them both we would not be using the story he stole from another paper. But why I rewrote it, he said. He did rewrite it she said. BECAUSE IT IS PLAGIARISM AND IT IS NO LONGER NEWS.