When I first received my Google Wave invitation, I immediately searched the blogosphere for opinions, tutorials, etc. It only took a few minutes until I came across Bruce's Blog.

Under his post "Using Google Wave for Work flow tasks," Bruce outlines when Google Wave can be used most efficiently. He comments on a blog post by Daniel Tenner who says, primarily, Google Wave will be used when employees collaborate in the work place.

He said, on average, when two employees are collaborating with a document, every time that document is updated each collaborator receives an email that the document has been modified. However, in Google Wave, Bruce said, notifications are already sent via pings to both collaborators each time a document is modified.

Updated: 9:30 a.m.

Just used this URL (http://www.twittergadget.com/gadget_gmail.xml )to add Twitter to my Google Wave.

Labels: andy stettler, gmail, google, google wave, Twitter

Just a quick video preview to the MUFON convention. Tomorrow's convention beings at 11 a.m and runs through to the evening.

Labels: alien, andy stettler, montgomery newspapers, mufon, ufo, uso

I think it was George Bruno of Perkasie who told me, maybe even while walking through the Perkasie train tunnel, that once a person hears a house is haunted, they are much more likely to feel as though they have experienced some sort of supernatural occurrence within that home.

That's what keeps me from wanting to believe that whatever happened to my camera this afternoon at the Grey Towers Castle on Arcadia University's campus was the result of some supernatural experience.

I was walking through Grey Towers Castle, at around 1 p.m. today, with Media Communications Manager at Arcadia University, Donna Whitlock, who was showing me several areas in the 19th century Castle which had been mentioned in Arcadia's ghost story folklore. She had shown me the steps where a little girl, as the story goes, accidentally hung herself when her scarf got caught on the banister. Donna also showed me the "Red Room" where Mrs. Harrison, the former owner's wife, had conceivably murdered one of her husband's mistresses.

But there was one room we entered, which Donna said was once the admissions office of the University, where upon entering the room, my camera's battery suddenly died. At first I thought nothing of it. Then I replaced the batteries in the camera with four I had recharged the night before.

Those were dead too? "That's strange," I thought.

Let me tell you something about myself. I always keep fresh batteries in my camera bag and I am absolutely obsessed with keeping rechargeable batteries charged. It's like my dad and his obsession with keeping the family cars clean, it's just this little tick I have.

So when I pulled out the third set of batteries and the camera remained, well, dead, I began to wonder whether or not something in that room had wanted to let me know that they were there.
While researching for the "Haunted?" feature, I read "Do Dead People Watch You Shower," by Concetta Bertoldi, a medium who consults regularly with the English Royal Family. This woman claims to have spoken with the dead her entire life and I must admit, it is one heck of a page-turner. But what she says is that some spirits just want you to know that they are there and both Concetta and Carol S., of last week's "Resident's Report Podcast" say that when you speak to spirits they do respond.

With this in mind, before entering the castle I did say "whoever lives here, do not harm me but show yourself through this camera." This was merely a thought, like when you're at your child's sports game and you say to yourself, let my child play well today. It was so subtle and yet I don't want to push away the idea that my dead camera was a message from, as I said, someone who lives in the Grey Towers Castle.

I'll be heading back to Arcadia tomorrow with another set of freshly charged batteries and hopefully, this time, I'll be able to get the footage I need for Wednesday's edition to the Haunted? multimedia section. In the meantime, I'll be tweeting more of my experiences and blogging here.

Labels: andy stettler, Arcadia University, George Bruno, ghosts of perkasie, Grey Towers Castle, Haunted?

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Labels: #MontyOct, andy stettler, ghosts of perkasie, montgomery newspapers

My response to the Times Herald article "Obama school speech snubbed."
It seems that every four years we have to push our kids more and more to care about politics, to get out and vote. It is our schools' job to teach our children the importance of public decisions and how our nations works.

For our county's schools to say that they will not show Obama's back to school address, to me, is just one more reason why our children can so easily care so little about politics.

I'm very dissappointed to hear that my former high school, PWHS, will not show the adddress when eight years ago, a political science teacher stressed so strongly during the Bush vs. Kerry election that when students are engaged in current events today, they and their country have a leg up on tomorrow.

I hope to see the Colonial School District and the other districts on Montgomery County change their minds. In the meantime, I remain disappointed.

-Andy S. "

Labels: andy stettler, colonial school district, montgomery county, obama

If you have been following me on Twitter recently (@AndyStettler) then you know that I've been completely obsessed with working on our Oct. Halloween Feature. This feature will basically be a multimedia feature of Montgomery County residents telling their stories about their experiences with the supernatural.

I've become so obsessed with the idea of this feature that I've even started a Twitter tag searchable under #MontyOct. If you search on twitter using that tag you'll find a number of updates I've tweeted about the upcoming feature and its progress.

But more importantly, I'd like to give everyone what they have been asking for, a chance to hear a snippet of what this feature will entail. So here it is a rough cut podcast of what we will have ready in Oct. Enjoy!

Labels: andy stettler, halloween, montgomery newspapers, october

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This past week, NPR.org posted its new website. The new NPR.org puts more focus on the written articles than the past website which focused first on audio reporting and written second. Now it seems that the multimedia and print pieces are level in terms of importance. Very visitor friendly, whatever your media may be.

Their page view numbers must be incredible with the way that the site has interconnected itself. First of all, as before, each story also has an audio story meaning, that a reader like myself who likes to see how different publications use multimedia, will provide at the very least two page views per article.

Also, and this is probably the best idea they had in terms of reader input, notice how the "comments" icon catches the eye in the news section. It's almost as though the comments are "secretly" just as important as the articles themselves.

Monty is keeping the new NPR.org model in mind as we continue to enhance our Web publication.

Labels: andy stettler, montgomery news, multimedia journalism, npr.org

Today I visited the TD Bank that was robbed Sunday in Plymouth Meeting. I believe I may have seen the ink-blot which supposedly exploded all over this brain-dead bank robber, in the parking lot.

Labels: andrew stettler, andy stettler, plymouth meeting, TD Bank, township line road, walton road

Last night, I was having dinner with my family when someone shouted "Look outside!" I looked out the sliding door window of my kitchen to see a tar colored sky swallowing the landscape. This was at 8 p.m. but by the looks of the sky, no one could tell if it was 8 p.m. or midnight.

Labels: andy stettler, beacon hill circle, jolly road, montgomery media, montgomery newspapers, plymouth meeting

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