Jim Ott's Blog

This blog is a collection of columns I've written for Bay Area News Group newspapers serving the East San Francisco Bay region.

Monday, April 03, 2006

Newspaper columnist steps into blogosphere

Okay so I write a column in a newspaper called the Tri-Valley Herald and I have finally succumbed to the enchanting lure of all things possible via the blog. Why today? I was simply going to post a reply to a blog I was reading (by Sandra Kay, at http://www.shesayswithasmile.blogspot.com) and I had to create a user name and sign up before I could post the reply. Next thing I know I'm selecting a name for my blog and a URL.

So I chose "In A Word" as the blog title because that's the name of a literary TV show I host with Kathy Cordova. The show broadcasts to several cities in our region (visit www.tv30.org) and has been on the air about six years. While I was the original host and the show's creator, Kathy joined me after a few years and we have a wonderful time interviewing authors and conducting a book club and generally promoting all things literary. Since I came up with the title "In A Word" for the show, I figured why not call my blog by the same name. It seems to have staying power.

Blogosphere, here I come.

. . .

Jim Ott is the CEO of UNCLE Credit Union, a mid-sized credit union with 90 employees and five offices primarily serving the Tri-Valley region of San Francisco's East Bay Area. He also has taught English since 1996 at Las Positas College in Livermore, and has written for the Tri-Valley Herald since 1999. He served as Pleasanton's Poet Laureate from 2001-2003. He is a trustee with the Pleasanton Unified School District, the Chairman and a founding board member of the Las Positas College Foundation, a past Chairman of the Livermore Chamber of Commerce, a charter member of the Rotary Club of Pleasanton-North, and he has volunteered with many non-profit organizations. He has appeared on KQED FM radio and in the Wall Street Journal. His poetry has been published in the San Francisco Chronicle and small literary presses. He is married to Pamela Ott, Economic Development Director for the City of Pleasanton.

2 comments:

SHE said...

well, well, well, roll out the red carpet!! welcome!

oh, you are going to love it here! let me share some of the more wonderful things about blogs

no editor! (yahoo!)

you are your only editor... i have found great pleasure in writing straight from my heart, my gut. not writing to please an editor, not trying to avoid offending someone... just writing whatever i want, whenever i want.

- you are free! -

now, i do also marvel at my own hypocrisy, and the irony, that while i talk a good game... i still reserve some things for blogs, and other things for my private journal... hmmm.

so more free.. but a "keeping in mind this is a public forum" kind of free.

so welcome.. and i hope you enjoy writing all the things you want in the way you want, whenever you want (no deadlines! no format requirements!) and i hope you don't feel stuck writing only things that are suited to please or impress your current and future customers, your peers, your friends/family, your colleagues,

unless... unless that is exactly what you want to write.

and therein lies the joy!

and thank you for giving me a perfectly valid reason to go refill my wine glass, so i can say a little toast for you and celebrate your first blog entry.

and once i figure out how to add pictures, i can add the picture of me and billy collins that you took on my blog, and, you might figure it out sooner than me.. in which case i hope to see the picture of you and billy collins on yours.

- wonderful to meet you at the 5th annual poetry, prose & arts festival!

- delighted to now add -in a word- to the list of programs i will go out of my way to watch.

-happy day! ~sandra

Anonymous said...

We met last night after the Pleasanton City Council meeting--I told you I had done editing. I hope you understand that to clear my mind I must point out that you succumbed to phonetics when you misspelled "succumbed" as "succombed."

I am so sorry to be such a nitpicker (lovely image). I HAVE to do that; I am evidently (after 60 years, it's obvious) an editor.

Your writing IS graceful, and spare--the highest compliment I can give. The people you chose to highlight in your first blog entry are socially far removed from each other, yet very close in spirituality. I thank you for featuring them.

Now--to do some serious writing. Serious, to me, indicates that it will be shared. Sharing one's writing is an act of courage in my book (unintended pun) and a quality to be admired. When added to graceful prose and an excellent choice of subjects--a writer.

Thank you.

And thank you, Sandra--for a good reason to refill my own wine glass!

Cynthia Morse