Chef Jonathan Zaragoza

One of my favorite stories I've covered! I meant to listen for an hour and get on with my day, but he was so interesting that I stayed all morning. Thanks for visiting Fallon, Chef Zaragoza!

 

F: Five-Year Journal

Today I would like to share this wonderful series of posts by Tami Taylor about keeping a Five-Year Journal. 

First you download Taylor's PDFs, 12 in all, one for each month of the year. She asks you a question every day that you answer with one sentence or so in the same place. So, for example, every year on April 7th you answer the question "What did you have for breakfast today?" on the same index card or same page in your journal. After 5 years, you have a collection of answers at a glance that show you the ways your life has changed, or perhaps ways that it hasn't.

I love this idea very much, but I haven't actually started because I can't decide what format I want it to be. Tami is a scrapbooker, so she made a set of 366 (for leap year) beautiful cards on which to write her answers that she then collects in a small box. I could also see doing this on a blog and just cycling back through the same posts for the 5 years, or you could go on indefinitely, really. I would make sure you had a backup for that, though! 

You could do a private version in your email or an e-journaling desktop program. I also love the idea of a Moleskine dedicated just to this project, and you wouldn't lose any of the pages that way. Or maybe a 3-ring binder with looseleaf pages that you can add (or subtract, in case of a journal emergency) is better for you? I also like that you can change up the questions during the first year to be more specific or more suitable for your journaling style.

I originally found this because I was searching for a writing version of the Project 365 and the monthly photo a day challenges. Although you could certainly use the photo word prompts for a written piece instead of taking a photo. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Music of the Day: The music video for "I'll Be There For You" aka the iconic "Friends" theme song

This song always time-travels me back to my freshman year of college in the fall of 1994. VH1 must have played this video at least 10 times a day and I would always stop for a dance break! I also think more people should know about the second verse and the bridge.

Bonus video: BTS of making the video

B: Alton Brown

Outstanding show that was a bucket list item for me. I love listening to his stories. Thanks for coming to Reno, Mr. Brown! #lastbite #altonbrownlive 

(The audience had permission to take photos without a flash, and no video.)

A: About Me

Sara Dowling has covered education, government, business and community events news in rural Fallon and Churchill County, Nevada for the Lahontan Valley News since 2023.

Hello! I often feel like I want to share some behind the scenes glimpses of what it takes to write the news. This blog is also a way for me to prove that I am writing my own articles and I am not a robot! 

My blog is purposely called "Sara Dowling, Writer" and not "Sara Dowling, Journalist" because I enjoy different types of writing. Back in 2003, I had several blogs for my personal writing and a few different projects. Since I started writing news articles in 2023, the weekly deadlines have done so much to help me learn to push through my anxiety/ies. 

That's probably my top piece of advice to a new writer who feels stuck, blank or anxious; learn how to cover a city council meeting by a weekly deadline. Then cover a school board meeting or a ribbon-cutting ceremony for a business. Then do all three in the same week! You will have more than enough to say and no time to freak out about how to say it. 

But writing in AP Style is a certain kind of structured voice, and I miss writing in my own personal voice. I worked really hard to develop it over my lifetime! On my blogs I loved sharing new things I'd found, and the feeling when I just sat down to see what came out on the page. I don't have a ton of extra time these days, but I want to give myself a space to play again. 

I'm a member of the Churchill County High School Class of 1994 and I hold an associate degree in graphic communications from Western Nevada College. While I don’t have any formal Journalism education, I treat my current opportunity to learn from Lahontan Valley News Editor Emeritus Steve Ranson as a Master Class.

To compensate for hearing loss caused by a childhood injury, I utilize technology such as audio recordings, closed captioned videos, voice-to-text transcription and digitally enhanced hearing aids in my reporting.

I love God, my family and serving my hometown community through writing. I have always enjoyed learning, reading, writing, art and music. I walk several times a day with my Shih Tzu personal trainer, Princess.

My email is fallonnewspaper AT yahoo DOT com.