Bako Bits: slinking back to Cal after a week in Georgia and staying abreast via Twitter

Bits and pieces from around town and some random thoughts heading into the weekend ....

* ALL ABOUT TWITTER ... Am constantly amazed at how technology can change our lives by influencing our habits. My wife can't work out or run without her iPod, my girls select their music and build their play lists never setting foot in a "music store," and I now keep up with news from home via Twitter and a handful of blogs. Spent the last week or so south of Savannah on the sweltering Georgia coast where - by the way - the economy is no better than home. Realtors are struggling, consumers have sharply curtailed their spending and everyone is wondering where the bottom is. Keeping up with Bako is now as simple as "following" a few key folks on Twitter, including a feed called "NewsBakersfield" which does an admirable job aggregating news from The Californian, all the local TV stations and just about everywhere else. Another prolific and interesting person to follow on Twitter is KGET's Kiyoshi Tomono, who does a good job interspersing local news with national events. I can do without Kiyoshi's personal barbs or exchanges with colleagues, but he's worth checking out. Another up and coming "tweeter" is Rachel Legan over at KGFM radio. She's on top of the news and laces it with a dose of wit to keep things interesting.

* DREAM SCHOOL ESSAYS ... Shameless plug for an interesting new website (run by my wife) devoted to helping kids with their college essays. It's called Dream School Essays (check it out here) and the business is aimed at high achieving high schoolers looking for help with those important college essays. Some schools require two to three separate essays as part of the admission requirements, all of different subjects. Given the dismally low percentage of Kern County kids who qualify to attend the UC system, this is a real niche market, but an important one to serve.



* RECOMMENDED SUMMER READING ... Highly recommend the new Malcolm Gladwell book "Outliers," a fascinating examination of why some people succeed and others don't. It explores cultural influences, of course parents, but more interesting things like birthdates that can heavily influence the lives of our children. This is the same guy who wrote "Blink" and "The Tipping Point," two other quality reads.

* PICKING AND GRINNING ... Also recommend a fun website to occasionally visit if you are in the least interested in guitars, called "Playalittleguitar." The author has a quick wit and the site was recently cited by Blogger as one of its most promising and interesting websites. (check it out here)

Cal State art students unleash their creativity on Californian newspaper racks

Not sure who had the idea, but I love what The Californian has done to spruce up some of its newspaper racks around town. The project was a partnership between the paper's marketing department and CSUB art students, who took on about a dozen newspaper racks to express themselves. To see the entire gallery, go to The Californian's Facebook site here. The Californian will have a story on it this Saturday, and here's a short excerpt:

"We just wanted to create a buzz for the newspaper and get a little recognition for the art students at Cal State," said Rob Meszaros, marketing manager at The Californian. "Obviously there are some talented students around town so it was a perfect marriage of the two organizations to do it." Joyce Kohl, professor of fine art at CSUB, jumped at the opportunity to have her students display their artistic talents."

Let us know what you think.

Guns and kids and a horrible tragedy in Bakersfield

Was saddened to read Steve Swenson's story in today's Californian about the 2-year-old boy who was shot to death by his 3-year-old sister in Southwest Bakersfield. The girl found the gun, a 45-caliber Glock, stuffed between the mattress and the boxspring of her parent's bed and, in fooling around with it, accidentally shot her brother. There's never a good way to tell this story without being accused of sensationalism. I received one call from a man who was disgusted that we ran a picture of the mother with the girl, and he also accused us of insensitivity with the headline, which read "Girl Shoots Baby Brother," followed by a readout that started with the word "Tragedy." I don't have a problem with either the headline or picture and thought both the reporter (Swenson) and the folks who laid out the page did a fine job. The story took pains to talk about how guns should be safety stored away from children and noted the tragic consequences that follow when that doesn't happen. I also wondered what prompted the family to feel the need to keep a gun at bedside. How bad is crime in their neighborhood? Had they been victims before? It is certainly true that there is a sense of real fear out there amid this lingering recession. Cars are being stolen and homes broken into in the nicest of neighborhoods. Would welcome any comments on this story.