Where Was I?

Well…um…hi!

Time for an update, I suppose.

If you found me here via Current, The Stephanie Miller Show, TYT, Full Court Press, or some other related outlet, you’re probably slightly curious as to what this is and why it lives.

When I left CNN in 2007, I was looking for a way to stay engaged in the online world as I figured out my next steps. I’d bought my name domain years before simply to protect it from being snagged by someone else for whatever ridiculous reason that might have happened. So I set up a blogger account and started writing about whatever felt relevant in the moment. I documented the surprisingly decrepit condition of my new rental apartment and the absurd process of getting it cobbled back together. I covered politics and pop culture developments from the comfort of my living room couch – when I finally found one that fit through the doorway. I declared my desire to work on health care reform, and six months later, I found a way to do it.

Once I joined HCAN, I used the site to help publicize the day-to-day work we did to try to get quality, affordable health care for everyone. Now that I look back through posts from those couple of years, I’m thrilled to have a record of every step of the fight and how we felt about it as it was unfolding.

The site slowed when I left for Spain in April 2010, and once I got back to DC, I continued to take time off to unwind and regroup. I tried to pick up the pace again after moving to Miami in 2011, but something felt different. I didn’t have the same passion for keeping the blog up-to-speed. I moved it over to WordPress with the intention of folding it into something larger, but then I changed my mind.

About 3 months ago, I made a big decision and came out to Los Angeles for the opportunity to work for Current. It’s a role that continues to evolve, but I’ve found a real kindred sprit in Stephanie Miller, and her team has been incredibly generous in making me feel like a true part of the family. As of this week, I have three new jingles. Crazy, right?

Update: I’ve handed off the Bill Press baton and now get to sleep in until about 3:30am. I also do early morning news cut-ins for Full Court Press hosted by Bill Press out of DC. You can catch them at the top of each hour – 3, 4, and 5am PT.

Later in the morning, I’m tasked with bringing you little news nuggets after Stephanie’s show at 9 and 10am PT.

Recently, I’ve been participating in health care reform coverage for TYT on Current, TYT’s live online show, and Michael Shure’s TwenTYTwelve. Getting to continue to champion a cause I feel so strongly about has been a real gift.

And I’ve started a column on Current.com called You’re Not Helping which calls out women – and sometimes men – whose actions are working against our gender’s greater good.

So that’s the scoop in a nutshell. I do have a Facebook page, but it’s always been on the private side, and I’d like to keep it that way for now. I’m less possessive of Twitter, and you are more than welcome to follow and/or communicate with me there through @JackiSchechner. I’m totally open to suggestions, story ideas, general comments, etc.

With all that said, feel free to poke around. The site dates back almost 5 years now. I’ve noticed there are some broken links and missing images which I may get around to fixing someday, but until then, there’s plenty to explore. If you’re so inclined, of course.

xo

- Jax

 I’m on Current doing live political news updates every hour at the top of the hour from 6am to noon ET. That would be 3am to 9am in Los Angeles.

I’m in Los Angeles.

Not sure you get Current? Here’s where it is on some major cable and satellite providers:

• AT&T Uverse: Channel 189
• Comcast: Channel 107
• DirecTV: Channel 358
• Dish Network: Channel 294
• Time Warner Cable: Channel 103 (NY), Channel 142 (LA)
• Verizon FiOS: Channel 192

You can also check by zip code on the Current site. I pop up during Full Court Press with Bill Press and Talking Liberally with Stephanie Miller – both smart, interesting, engaging shows. Come hang out.

To say there have been some changes would be an understatement.

I’ve moved to the beach. I bought a car. I’m working as a social media consultant. I haven’t owned a TV in months, and I’ve decided it wouldn’t be such a bad idea to start writing again.

Happy New Year. I think it’s going to be a good one.

I know. I know. It’s not like me to be so quiet. Truth is I’ve been enjoying some time away from the usual chatter and indulging in a bit of political and media detox.

I’ll be back in the mix shortly. In the meantime, you officially are free to see other blogs.

If anyone asks, we were on a break.

This is getting fun. Today’s paper defines jobs as unpaid internships:

We used to do unpaid internships for credit during college. If that’s now the best someone can hope for after graduation, how exactly is the job market picking up?

From today’s Miami Herald:

Even though I’m a registered Independent and it’s no secret how my personal politics lean, my social media contacts – friends and acquaintances collected over the years – span a wide political spectrum. And during the health care fight, I never hesitated to engage some of my more conservative connections in respectful debate. But there are times when partisanship is just in poor taste, and some of the remarks that popped up on my screen last night as news broke of Osama bin Laden’s demise made me cringe. It’s like a girlfriend of mine replied when I emailed her a screengrab of the first FB post below:

Jesus, for f*ck’s sake dude! Get some f*cking perspective!!!

Here’s some of the anti-Obama rhetoric streaming during what should have been a respectful and grateful moment – one of appreciation and national pride:

Where does it stop? To whomever said they’ll never give Obama a break – let alone credit – no matter what he does as President, you weren’t kidding. If not now, when? At the same time, I also cannot indulge the suggestion emerging from some of these same folks that we thank President Bush in any way, shape, or form. We got attacked on his watch. We diverted military attention and resources away from the hunt for bin Laden to invade a country that had nothing to do with 9/11. And we failed to capture or kill bin Laden during Bush’s 8 years in office. What exactly does that President deserve credit for?

You may not like Obama, but there is something truly disturbed about choosing last night to nitpick the President, and in my eyes, those who did will never look the same.

There’s nothing I can add to the news that Osama bin Laden is dead.

I’m just absorbing.

And both tracking Twitter and watching cable news anchors stumble through pre-speech coverage, some more eloquently than others.

I don’t use Twitter as often as I probably should (meaning as often as one might expect for a sufficiently wired modern woman). It could be my undeniable post-Spain devotion to Facebook. It could be my inherent distaste for the word “tweet.” Regardless, I giggle a bit whenever Twitter informs me I have a new follower. 140 characters doesn’t suit me. You’re better off coming here and reading the blog.

Anyway, this evening, I was so moved by Baratunde Thurston‘s video that I tapped into Twitter to compose the following

with the hope that he’d see it. The full-on h/t goes to Chez for the find. Here it is:

I went to the dentist this morning b/c I thought I had a tooth on the move. Turns out it’s totally fine, but we did have the following exchange:

Dentist: Are u stressed?

Me: Does anyone answer ‘no’ to that question?

Dentist: Do you floss every day?

Me: Does anyone answer ‘yes’ to that question?

Dentist: Fair enough.