"Eugene blogger." Never thought I would be referred to like that! Well, it seems I've earned my mossy wings.

And I sure didn't know the photographer was going to feature my windowflag so strongly! Just goes to show...I was thinking he would probably minimize it, or crop it out. When I saw the paper (I hadn't even known what day it would publish), I was like Whoa! There goes the neighborhood. ;)

Here's a closeup of me looking rather goofy as I look into one of my screens and talk about the latest vlog I've done for MTV, one still waiting approval. You can see Ahmed on my right screen, an Iraq veteran who had a few interesting things to say about being Tased. Bro.

The new vlog is called Tazing Eugene, and to get some local color and reaction, I talked to a bunch of kids who hang on the street in one area of Eugene, some of them homeless, though I didn't say that in the video.

So hey! Since the article gave some URLs, you may be here now having followed it. If you are a Eugene or Oregon resident, keep in mind that you may be able to tip me off to news or give an angle not covered in the regular media. If so, please feel free to get in touch at nezua @ xolagrafik dot com or even through the "contact nezua" link on the front page of this blog, or (preferably) here.

Two small corrections: The blog gets more than "1000" visitors a day, generally getting about 1200 to 1800. That is not the writer's fault. That was a quick number I gave as I was talking on my cell phone and looking for where I had dropped my keys outside. And it may have gone up, as my feed subscriptions sure have since then.

Also, while it's true that my original application to MTV was tongue-in-cheek (as I blogged on here and followed up on here), the ensuing competition and process was somewhat grueling and I took it increasingly more serious as it went on. So the overall process was not one you could take lightly, if for no other reason than it went on FOREVER.

update: I'd like to amend/address this:

Herrera defines the term citizen journalist as someone who is living where they live and taking an interest in the things going on around them. While he feels entitled to be outspoken on his blog, he feels an obligation to be a bit more neutral in the role he is playing for MTV.

If that's what I said, then what I meant to say was "Someone who reports on/from where they live..."

And the reason I feel "an obligation" to be "a bit more neutral" in my MTV role is because they stated it as a prerequisite. "Unbiased reporting" they wanted, which I sort of shrugged off (or rather, I reinterpreted what I understood them to mean), as I don't believe such a thing exists in the world. Only masterful editing and sloppy editing. (And too much junk in the middle.) It's usually sloppy editing/writing that leads us to say "oh, that is biased." It's all biased. And I don't think news can or should necessarily be "neutral." What I like about New Media vs Old Media is that New Media wears its bias on its sleeve, and leaves the unbiasing up to you. As opposed to say, the FOX Propaganda Channel, an outfit that obliterates transparency and pretends neutrality while destroying your ability to "unbias." (That of course is an extreme example.)

But anyone viewing my videos can see what my stance is in relation to certain issues like race, class, etc—and that's fine. What I DO avoid in my MTV role is polemicizing, which I don't mind doing in my blog. Or in personally-produced video.

(Thanks to Lewis Taylor of the Eugene/Springfield Register Guard for a fine article.)