"Another Blog on the Fire"
Michael Dashiell
Contact Mike at miked@sequimgazette.com
Michael Dashiell (that's me) is editor of the Sequim Gazette. He has a Bachelor's Degree from Western Washington University, has worked at the Sequim Gazette for about 10 years and enjoys writing — occasionally. He and his wife Patsene live in Sequim; their two daughters are in college. He will write about anything, but particularly enjoys sports, arts, breaking news and news-of-the-weird. He also enjoys writing about himself in the third person.
No passing on The Buc
Published on Wed, Feb 8, 2012 by Michael DashiellRead More Dashiell
Hangin’ out with the staff at The Buccaneer last week… from left, professor Rich Riski Sarah Linquist, Liz Watson, Evan Kershner, Jesse Major, Katie Grice, Krystle Arnold and Jeff Crumb. Sorry Jeff, need a wider lens for the room.
Ah, the long nights, the messy inked hands, the bad food … sometimes I really miss working on a college newspaper.
Last week, the kind staff at Peninsula College’s The Buccaneer let me gab on and on about my glory days, er, working for student newspapers, then graciously accepted a brief critique of their recent edition.
As I told the young scribes, I’m continually impressed by the hard work and effort that comes through in the Buc’s pages. It’s fun to see aspiring writers cut their teeth, so to speak, at the collegiate level.
(What a lame cliché, cutting one’s teeth… anyway, I digress.)
I think it was staffer Liz Watson who asked me why I became a writer. Um, because I wasn’t good at anything else… In high school, the only thing I liked to do was read and write (and skip class). I barely graduated, and by the time I got the Olympic College in Bremerton, I had not a clue as to how I would make a dollar in this world.
Then I found journalism. I was hooked.
The Buc critique brought me back a few years… to the 1990s. Good times, good times. I was still playing Nirvana, Pearl Jam and other Grunge-era tunes when I stared taking classes at what we called “The OC.” By my second quarter at The Olympian, our school’s bi-monthly paper, I was doing the A&E editor gig. That involved fun stuff: late deadline nights, awful junk food, wrestling with layout and grammar usage and sources that wouldn’t call back.
The best part of my job was all the free swag, i.e. free CDs. First heard of Big Head Todd and the Monsters, Ditch Croaker, Built To Spill, Fountains of Wayne and the like, as record companies tried to promo their stuff by offering poor college kids free albums. You know, back when Napster and Limewire didn’t exist (do they still?) and we still bought whole albums, not just songs…
I wasn’t sure I’d make it a career, but these years later, I’m still tapping the keys for a living. So it was fun to see that it’s still pretty much the same process, even with the advent of the Internet and social media.
Kudos to Journalism Program Director Rich Riski and the staff. Keep up the good work.
Last week, the kind staff at Peninsula College’s The Buccaneer let me gab on and on about my glory days, er, working for student newspapers, then graciously accepted a brief critique of their recent edition.
As I told the young scribes, I’m continually impressed by the hard work and effort that comes through in the Buc’s pages. It’s fun to see aspiring writers cut their teeth, so to speak, at the collegiate level.
(What a lame cliché, cutting one’s teeth… anyway, I digress.)
I think it was staffer Liz Watson who asked me why I became a writer. Um, because I wasn’t good at anything else… In high school, the only thing I liked to do was read and write (and skip class). I barely graduated, and by the time I got the Olympic College in Bremerton, I had not a clue as to how I would make a dollar in this world.
Then I found journalism. I was hooked.
The Buc critique brought me back a few years… to the 1990s. Good times, good times. I was still playing Nirvana, Pearl Jam and other Grunge-era tunes when I stared taking classes at what we called “The OC.” By my second quarter at The Olympian, our school’s bi-monthly paper, I was doing the A&E editor gig. That involved fun stuff: late deadline nights, awful junk food, wrestling with layout and grammar usage and sources that wouldn’t call back.
The best part of my job was all the free swag, i.e. free CDs. First heard of Big Head Todd and the Monsters, Ditch Croaker, Built To Spill, Fountains of Wayne and the like, as record companies tried to promo their stuff by offering poor college kids free albums. You know, back when Napster and Limewire didn’t exist (do they still?) and we still bought whole albums, not just songs…
I wasn’t sure I’d make it a career, but these years later, I’m still tapping the keys for a living. So it was fun to see that it’s still pretty much the same process, even with the advent of the Internet and social media.
Kudos to Journalism Program Director Rich Riski and the staff. Keep up the good work.
© 2009 Sequim Gazette. All rights reserved. 147 West Washington, Sequim, WA 98382 • 360.683.3311 • Email the Webmaster