Sick And Tired

Literally.

I've got whatever nasty cold is going around. And Leah has forgotten how to sleep at night, which means I've slept less than 6 cumulative hours over the past three days.

So, I'm working from home. No, really. I actually am working. Okay, it's true that I can't count to ten right now, and I've just spent five minutes trying to remember how to spell "cumulative" (did I get it right?). Nonetheless, it has been a relatively productive day. I've worked on some user-generated video/broadcast tie-ins, video ad inventory stuff, ABC News archives, and a bit of Politics/Elections.

It also helps to have access to all of my music. iTunes is on shuffle. So far I've heard Autumn Defense, Miles Davis, Belle & Sebastian, Ultramagnetic MCs, Elf Power, Mendelssohn, and more.

Life Update: The Al Gore Edition

Believe it or not, it's hard to find time for meaningful posts these days.

But despair not - there are vague indications of a return to normalcy. Leah is sleeping better. I'm two books ahead for class. And work... well, the bloom is off the rose, but we're about to come out with some tweaks to the site that will (finally) make me proud to give out the URL.

On another work note, ABCNews.com was the only site to have its own byline for the Al Gore Nobel Prize story this morning. The competition all leaned on AP, but we had a four-pager in the can - complete with the greater context of the 2008 Presidential election. Smart. Does it make a difference? Probably not, but it makes me feel better that we're on top of things.

Other random notes:

Sarah's now jazzed about Mamaroneck. Aside from a hipper cache than New Jersey (which is debatable, btw) and proximity to water, what's it got that Maplewood ain't got?

If the weather holds, we're off to pick apples this weekend in an orchard north of town. Classic Autumn Fun.

Why My Career Won't Move Forward

You know how the real nutjobs end up in Psychology, the sociopaths end up in politics, and the closet homosexuals end up in the Republican Party?

Along those lines, I find it ironic that my chosen profession is communication, when I suck so bad at it.

I'm not talking about constructing an article, telling a story, or articulating a business need. Those - no problem.

It's with the soft stuff - fly-by chatter, back-slapping small talk, and most of all, office politics - that I'm left feeling like I'm still in fourth grade, stuck at the table next to the cool kids, but inexplicably unable to break through unless one of them needs help with their homework.

That shortcoming, combined with my unswerving practice of walking out the door at 6:30 p.m. no matter what's going down (gotta see Asher before he goes to sleep), does not a good New York media career make.

News?

As I might have mentioned earlier, I'm on this ABC News internal breaking information distribution list. Last night, the emails were flying fast and furious. With equal volume and fervor were the notes on A.G. nominee Mukasey and O.J. Simpson's arrest.

I'll give you one guess which story the site led with this morning.

Overheard on a Conference Call

"I will have to get to that later. Right now, I'm getting slammed by Cox."

Overheard on a Conference Call

"I will have to get to that later. Right now, I'm getting slammed by Cox."

How the Sausage Is Made

Morbidity aside, it's pretty cool to see how events turn into news coverage here at ABC.

I'm on an internal "Breaking News" distribution list, which means I get dozens of emails from ABC News people whenever something has happened, will happen, or is in the process of happening.

In the case of today's London car bomb plot, I've gotten more than 100 emails since 5 a.m - London bureau people dashing off notes, New York people asking questions, White House correspondents in the process of tracking down officials for comment, and so on. Around 2:45pm, there was discussion on the list about breaking into regularly scheduled programming for a special report. At 2:57, they announced internally that the special report was going to happen. At 2:58:26, Charlie Gibson broke in with a 5 minute report that brought together correspondents from Washington, New York, and London for a cohesive, informative story. Damn impressive. These folks can really kick stuff out when they need to.

Isaac: Do you know who George Stephanopolous is?

20-Year-Old Intern (proudly): He's one of our correspondents!

Isaac: Do you know he was before he was one of our correspondents?

20-Year-Old Intern (proudly): Not one of our correspondents!

After a decade in the music industry, I don't get star-struck easily. But, I just bumped into George Stephanopolous in the halls of ABC, and I'm swooning. At age 32, this man was a senior advisor to President Clinton. They modeled the West Wing character Sam Seaborn after him.

Wow, what a much-needed vacation.

I spent loads of quality time with Sarah, Leah, and Asher when he wasn't running around with three-year-old Ella and her one-year-old sister Jessica. All kids went to sleep at a reasonable hour and stayed there, leaving the adults to enjoy extended, wine-tinged dinners. We went to an animal sanctuary, hiked by a stream, and sampled homemade ice cream.

On other fronts:

Joe Biden was on This Week again. And again, the more I hear, the more respect I have for the guy. His foreign policy credentials are unassailable. Don't worry - my vote will still go to a more liberal candidate, but damn...

I've gotten two recruiter calls in the past week - both for VP positions around the city. At this time with NPD (after 8 months), I was already shopping for a new job. Now, I simply tell the recruiters that I'm happy where I am, and pass off a few names to them. Feels pretty damn good to love your job.

Misc.

Stay tuned for some user-generated video fun from ABC News.

We're going up to Woodstock with some friends this weekend. I'm even taking Monday off, though I'll have to call in to a few meetings.

My early morning exercise attempts are still underway. Today, I ran three miles before 6 a.m.

We share office space with the production team of "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire." They spend a lot of time reviewing show tapes, which means I have to hear the theme music about 500 times a day. It's slowly driving me insane.

On the plus side, they have a constantly refreshed candy plate in the center of the room.

4pm is when I went to the bathroom

I Love 24-Year-Olds

So, we're launching this new site to support this new show. It's all very high profile and high priority, and the like. Earlier this week, we had a meeting with the senior executives at ABC News about it. In the meeting were these two 24-year-old web-savvy guys who caught the ear of the CEO on another project, and were thus foisted upon us for this one.

In the course of the meeting, these guys did what young, intelligent guys who are unfettered by corporate culture often do: They said brash things in brash ways, and rubbed every executive the wrong way.

I thought it was awesome.

And then, I did what a smart boss (thanks, Bob Carr!) once did for me: I sat these guys down, helped them to understand where we were coming from on some of the things they thought were stupid, and acknowledged that they were right on other things. Now, they get it. I get it. And hopefully, we will all get a kick-ass site to support this new TV show. With their help, it might just be better and more quickly assembled than anything we could have done without them.

New ABCNews.com

We launched a redesigned ABCNews.com today. Check it out.

I just finished two solid days of meetings, and have bailed on the related evening social events to hang out with the family and work on the paper.

The meetings were with everyone director level and above in Disney digital media (ABC is owned by Disney). They happen twice a year, and this time they were in New York – good for me. I’d say the meetings had limited utility, which is high praise for gatherings of this ilk. In truth, it was extremely useful to hear what everyone was doing, and personally satisfying to give a smart presentation that resulted in me being tapped to head a project that involves all the different business units. At the same time, it’s rather difficult to go straight from two weeks’ vacation into two days of meetings. I haven’t really made a dent in my inbox.

Sarah’s gotten plenty of help from her mother and sisters this week. Asher’s been a prince, and Leah fusses a little from 8-10pm, but it’s totally manageable.

It's the nicest day of the year, and I'm back at work.

I have mixed feelings about the end of my two-week paternity leave. On one hand, it was truly fantastic to be able to spend so much time with Sarah, Asher and Leah in a no pressure environment - no schedules to maintain, no vacation plans to execute. On the other hand, I start to freak out when I'm away from work for that long - especially when I dig the job as much as I do here at ABC News.

At any rate, here I am. And after several hours of sifting through connectivity issues (both computer and blackberry), initial catch-up sessions, and a few responses to time sensitive emails, I'm finally ready to assess and move forward. Just in time for a two-day offsite meeting that starts tomorrow. Ugh.