Sammie Collison joins Jim this week (Mike has the week off hunting) and we recap the Collison Thanksgiving day meal as well as discuss what it is like to be in a college newsroom during a major election. We also talk about her future plans once school is over in the summer of 2021.  All that and more!

Full show notes, transcriptions, audio and video at http://theAverageGuy.tv/hgg470

Join Jim Collison / @jcollison and Mike Wieger / @WiegerTech for show #470 of Home Gadget Geeks brought to you by the Average Guy Network.

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[3:03] Sammie is Back!

[9:04] What is Sammie doing right now?

[17:12] How has technology changed in the four years she has been in college?

[21:23] How did Northwest Missouri state respond to COVID?

[32:04] Celebrating 10 years of Home Gadget Geek and I would love your voicemail – http://HomeGadgetGeeks.com

[33:24] The future of Sammie

Jim Collison  [0:00] 
This is The Average Guy Network and you have found Home Gadget Geeks show number 470 recorded on November 27 2020.

Here on Home Gadget Geeks, we cover all your favorite tech gadgets that find their way into your home news reviews, product updates and conversation all for the average tech guy. I’m your host, Jim Collison broadcasting live from theAverageGuy.TV Studios. Here in a beautiful Bellevue, Nebraska, we had great weather for Thanksgiving. And in of course, we’ll post the show with a few show notes, a lot of conversation tonight. And so I don’t think I have too many links. But of course, you can get access to the full transcript in a little summary of some of the things we talked about at https://theAverageGuy.TV for this show. Just put in a you know, put slash and then hgg 470.

Big thanks to hover for supporting us on tonight’s episode. Of course, you can go out to https://theAverageGuy.TV/hover purchased a domain. Sammy, do you do you have a domain yet? Have we gotten you one?

Sammie Collison  [1:12] 
We have some I think I had

Jim Collison  [1:14] 
one for you at one point in time. Let it go.

Sammie Collison  [1:17] 
Yeah, a while back, but we have some in in the bank for a potential future

Jim Collison  [1:23] 
some ideas of domains. And so and I think we had like the average girl or something like that,

Sammie Collison  [1:30] 
by the way is that average? girl.me I believe was the domain that I had

Jim Collison  [1:34] 
in before we do the hover thing. It’s 2020 is the average guy is that that’s not it? That’s not a gender problem driver. Oh, am I okay?

Sammie Collison  [1:45] 
We’re okay with having a gender dad. Okay, but I’ve been I know, but

Jim Collison  [1:49] 
like, Is that is that? Okay? All right. I just want to make sure cuz, you know,

Sammie Collison  [1:54] 
identify with your own gender.

Jim Collison  [1:56] 
I know. But is that uh, is that for the for the ladies is that for is it you know, this we have this idea of identification with it is a problem.

Sammie Collison  [2:05] 
Like all your audience, the average guys? No, it’s not.

Jim Collison  [2:10] 
Alright, alright, course. That good enough, you’ve hit if you want a domain and we’re gonna be buying Sammy a new domain to the summer we’re going to talk a little about that here in just a second. You can head out to https://theAverageGuy.TV/hover, save $2 on your first domain that’s out there. If you’re new customer, you support the show when you do that. So I appreciate it. Again, check it out https://theAverageGuy.TV/hover if you need to, we’ll just we’ll just put this up and let it sit.

If you if you then you can partner it with Maple Grove Partners so you get secure reliable high speed hosting for that site. Of course that’s Maple Grove Partners. You can go to https://MapleGrovePartners.com, Christian has plans out there for as little as $10 head out Maple Grove partners.com parent with https://theAverageGuy.TV/hover support us in what we do. We appreciate that as well. Thanks for thanks for doing that.

Sammie is back. It’s her fourth show. So the hattrick is over. You’re on number four. Sammy, welcome back to Home Gadget Geeks.

Sammie Collison  [3:11] 
Thanks for having me again.

Jim Collison  [3:12] 
Good to have you. We just got through a pretty awesome Thanksgiving we I checked last you’ve been on three shows now I think 403, 425 and 454. 425 was last year the 29th 2019 November 29. And I went back and looked at the transcripts we didn’t talk about Thanksgiving at all and that is like for me that’s the pinnacle of my my dad duties right of like cooking the bird and making sure everything’s perfect. We we had we had most everybody over and tried to practice as much you know, everybody kind of tried to do their best the week before to make sure we weren’t to spread and COVID around that’s kind of one of those things you need to do now I think as we think about that, um, okay, so like I posted in the discord group a picture of the turkey you saw it you actually make the bacon weave.

Sammie Collison  [4:10] 
I do the legendary bacon weave every year in this one. Dare I say it was the best one yet. That thing was robust. We had the best technique so far for getting it onto the turkey in one piece. And it stayed and it got nice and crispy because you did the different thing this year.

Jim Collison  [4:27] 
Yeah, yeah. So we traditionally we would wrap it in tin foil, I’d leave a little hole around the top and then it would just kind of bubble in. It’s, you know, bubbling the juices on there and it was fine. It was always good. This year, we instituted a new brine so 24 hours Mark Robson, who’s kind of our barbecue expert on Home Gadget Geeks, has been talking to me about brining a turkey forever. And so I finally put all the things together. We had a 20 pound turkey I looked up the brand methods in a kind of made it kind of made up my own a lot of salt, a lot of water and then I think we mixed in some time and some other things in the water to make it work I boiled it so I got that water going. So it would dissolve the salt pour that in and some cold water kept at a certain temperature brined it for the very first time. So try to keep it below 40 degrees just so that we wouldn’t be encouraging things to grow in that water. Which it’s only gonna be out there for 24 hours and it was outside to we it’s been pretty chilly so I wasn’t too worried about it. But then of course you did the weave and we put the bacon weave over the top one of my family members said it looked gigantic a sweater for the turkey which is pretty great. It did look it did look great. We roasted it because I’ve been roasting and smoking chicken on the grill in kind of open not in a closed but in an open kind of cooking position. The chickens been really good. And so I thought well, let’s just let’s just do that with the turkey. Samantha I it was the I mean I want to brag.

Sammie Collison  [6:07] 
It was good. crushed it. Yeah, it is the bacon holds all the moisture in.

Jim Collison  [6:13] 
Yeah, I think it helps get ridiculously

Sammie Collison  [6:15] 
dry white meat.

Jim Collison  [6:17] 
I think it helps. I did pour some Oktoberfest in with that as well just to kind of get those flavors going and but no basting, no I think with the brining no mic, we’ll hear from him next week. He was going to do the he was going to inject the butter you know that you can inject into it. Do it that way

Sammie Collison  [6:36] 
now and also like putting butter into the skin. That’s the trending thing as well. Maybe at some point we’ll try that keeps things now

Jim Collison  [6:43] 
actually i don’t know i don’t think i’m going to do that. I think no, I’m gonna work. I’m gonna work the magic that we learned this year. Which is just just Yeah, like that. I think I’m pretty sure it was the Brian the low temperature I never got above 300 so it was always between 225 and 250 a couple times I had a hard time regulating I did run out of gas in the middle of it so I had to switch tanks and it got it got cool for a few minutes but boy, you could really taste the smoke and you could really taste the brine and man I was just freaking amazing. So Mark Mark Robson, thank you for your your tips on those many others who talked about this. We do have a barbecue section in the discord group if you haven’t joined us over there https://theAverageGuy.TV/Discord. If you want to jump in there we’ve got a barbecue beer. We’ve got a fitness which has it lately probably needs more but hasn’t been getting much traffic Ham Radio, some content suggestions or there we got a bunch of topics if you want to jump in discord, https://theAverageGuy.TV so thumbs up on on Thanksgivings. Sammy,

Sammie Collison  [7:53] 
delightful.

Jim Collison  [7:55] 
What’s your favorite part? What did what do you like besides the turkey, which let’s just say is far and above everything else. But what comes in second for you on

Sammie Collison  [8:03] 
Deadwood wise, we’re like the day was just the day maybe whatever. I liked everybody sitting around in the backyard on the deck. just chillin.

Jim Collison  [8:15] 
Yeah, we lit a few candles. That’s our code. That’s our code candles or a code word here because we don’t want to get thrown off YouTube. They’ve been a little aggressive about those kinds of things. So so we lit some candles and enjoyed the time with each other. That was that was your favorite time? Yeah. Yeah, it’s always good to call it house. So we had a good time. Today was kind of a down day. And I was telling Sammy, we probably could have gone a little earlier tonight to get this thing rolling. But we’re here and I’m glad we’re here. I’m glad you’re here if you came out to join us live. Thanks for coming out. Sammy, you spent. If you’ve for folks that don’t know, let’s just do a little bit of a recap because you’ve been on a bunch but not everybody has listened to those. Give me two minutes on your background. What are you doing? Where? Yeah, what are you hoping for those kinds of things.

Sammie Collison  [9:04] 
So I’m a senior at Northwest Missouri State University. I’m a journalism major. And I write for the new section at the Northwest Missouri in newspapers, newspaper is the thing that I’m trained in, but I also love New Media. I love podcasting. So I’m hoping to get into that sphere. Come graduation time, which is the end of this upcoming summer and I am not terrified at all.

Jim Collison  [9:27] 
Such good confidence. You know, it’s a little terrifying even under the best of circumstances.

Sammie Collison  [9:33] 
Yeah. Weird here for sure.

Jim Collison  [9:36] 
Yeah. And and well, you know, and there’s, there’s you got a couple things going against you if I can say it that way. And one, not just that, not just the economy, which is pretty obvious, but journalism is under assault, right? I mean, it has been, it has been the last few years. It has been a weird, it’s just been weird for journalists and that the industry is radically changed. We’re gonna talk about this here towards the end of the show, because I have some ideas. So I’m gonna float some things by it tonight on some things for your future. So hang tight for that as well. But it has really I mean, I think journalism has really taken it on the chin in if there’s ever an area that’s had to pivot, Jeff could turbo right our friend Jeff. He is a cartoonist or was a cartoonist for the Omaha world Herald, which is a our newspaper here in town been around for a million years. And he’s been a cartoonist there for I don’t know, what do you think? 20 years, I can remember 2025 30 years, something like that. He’s been a longtime friend of the family, and just a great guy, but they let them go. And so Jeff pivoted, and is now on Patreon. And I think, I think it’s gonna do okay, like, I think he’s, he pivoted pretty fast. He must have got some good advice.

Sammie Collison  [10:56] 
Yeah. And he and his son are doing a collaborative cartoon on there. Oh,

Jim Collison  [11:00] 
really? Yeah. I didn’t know that. Oh, good. Yeah. Well, I think, Sammy, I think Jeff’s a good example, as we think about where we’re gonna go with you and and how we kind of launch your career. I think that’s a little bit of a model. So we’ll save that here towards the end of the show. Um, I want to talk to you a little bit about the election, and not necessarily the politics of it. But but the kind of mechanics that went into it, you as a journalist on campus, going through that, give me a little bit, a little bit of a run up? What was it like running up to the election for you guys as a paper?

Sammie Collison  [11:38] 
So yeah, we’re we’re in a pretty small college town. In in northwestern Missouri, and we, there’s only one other newspaper in town, and we’re both weeklies, so we’re even in competition with each other. And so this year, we really wanted to make sure our election coverage was stellar knock it out of the park, especially since we weren’t able to print physical papers this semester, because ad revenue was down due to COVID. And so we’ve been shifting so much into our online sphere. And so we ran a bunch of prep stories ahead of time, and really delved into the down ballot candidates and issues and covered those thoroughly. That way, people knew what they were voting for once they got their ballots, especially since a lot of people were voting early, we had to start so much sooner than we normally would like. We started covering stuff in early October, because I turned my ballot in mid mid late October. And so we were covering ballot issues and local elections. And then when it came to election night, it’s really a huge team effort, especially between me and the news editor Kendrick with him at City Hall, or was it the county it was the county admin building, and me in the newsroom. And so he’s sending me live updates of city counts, and I’m putting them on social and on the website. And so like that, that truly newsrooms are a communal joint effort. And that’s the thing that we don’t want to lose in the midst of this kind of I hate saying war on news, and we’re in truth, but it is. And newsrooms are getting smaller and smaller and smaller, and COVID is causing a bunch of people to have to work separately. But it was nice to have that classic newspaper atmosphere of us sitting around writing stories as we’re getting results in. Especially with the big the big issues in our county where the sheriff’s race and then some some Missouri constitutional amendments.

Jim Collison  [13:39] 
Back in May of 2019. You were on we talked a little bit about his podcasting journalism. Yeah. You said yes. As a journalist, we talked a little bit about, you know, being fair being trained to be, you know, not biased towards things. How, I mean, this was a pretty, this was a pretty interesting election, to say the least, for sure, especially the national level, how do you, how do you continue to stay? Whatever the word is that you want to use neutral news or the impartial is probably the right word. How do you stay impartial in there? Well, all that stuff’s going on.

Sammie Collison  [14:19] 
Well, I think the fortunate thing is that when you work in a local, smaller paper, you are not the authority on national issues. And so it’s less of your job to write about the national issues. You can kind of just like, keep that off your professional mindset, like we had it going on on the TVs in the background. But that’s not what we’re writing about. That’s not what you’re tweeting about. And so it’s so much easier to delve into the local elections and local valid issues. Because we can interview those people like we for the first time as a paper endorsed a candidate. The editorial board endorsed a candidate candidate in the sheriff’s race, because we had the opportunity to do thorough interviews with those candidates. And make an educated informed decision based on facts and truth.

Jim Collison  [15:05] 
Do you think newspapers should be endorsing candidates?

Sammie Collison  [15:08] 
I think it’s a case by case basis. I don’t think it’s always the most use. Because the thing is you want to do what’s best for your audience, right? And so if you are just introducing bias into your coverage, then it’s not going to do much. And it’s going to make your audience question your credibility. But in our case, we had a major issue of a candidate, not telling the truth and not being transparent about their past. And so we felt it was our obligation to our readers. Well, I’m not on the editorial board. But I agreed with the Board’s decision, that we had to bring those issues to light. And in order to do that, in a transparent way, it had to go on our editorial page, like it just made the most sense to just come out and endorse a candidate. But that is in any other election year. It’s not that we do. We don’t endorse candidates on the national level. And we usually don’t endorse local candidates. But when it comes to something, that that’s that there’s a major, kind of almost objective moral issue, then, is somebody just straight up lying throughout their campaign, then, sometimes it is useful to your readership to be like, this person is not telling the truth. Maybe you shouldn’t vote for them. Hmm.

Jim Collison  [16:16] 
Yeah. Yeah. Well, Jim, you know, Jim, this is, I think, the trap that you get into and Jim says it doesn’t see how it’s possible to be unbiased if you’re officially endorsing one candidate over the other. I think it I think it isn’t interesting. It puts newspapers, it puts media in an interesting conundrum conundrum. In the endorsing area. A year ago, four years ago, you were senior in high school, and the last major election, when you think about technology, and the way you follow the election this year, how do you think is different this year versus it was four years ago for you in the your use of technology? And just, you know, keeping up? And maybe in some ways? You don’t think about it that way? Because it’s just a part of what you do. But what did you how do you think your your use of technology to track things changed?

Sammie Collison  [17:12] 
I don’t think the technology itself was that different than four years ago. But me knowing how to use it is a lot different. And thinking about what people want and what they want to see and how they want their information portrayed to them. We have learned a lot about how best to use our Twitter and Facebook accounts for those separate audiences. There’s obviously when it comes to a small town that has a college in it. There’s huge demographic differences between our Twitter audience and our Facebook audience. As you can probably guess, and using the assets that are built into our website, we use a what are the words, we use town news, CMS, that’s what it’s called. We as Newtown news is August CMS. And we have learned a lot about how to boost our engagement through search engine optimization and through social using that platform so that we get further reach. All of the things we’ve learned through our editor in chief did a great internship at the Kansas City Star where she learned a lot we’ve had a lot of reporters be able to go to conventions recently and learn from experts. And so we just felt a lot more prepared going into this election that with a lot of us on the editorial board and and senior staff positions, having so much more experiences, undergrad or as underclassmen going into this year, we just felt more confident in our abilities, what we’re doing, rather than just putting things in a print paper and hoping that people read it.

Jim Collison  [18:49] 
Well, that’s another interesting area that a paper story about your you are trying to reach the most amount of viewers readers as you can, right because, you know, you guys it’s been a struggle, like every paper for circulation and and you give out the paper, you give it away for free. And so you have to have advertisers, which means you got to prove to the advertisers it’s going to get read, right? I mean, it puts us as podcasters are in the same spot, you know, we want to we want to attract advertisers, when they give us things to review, you know, you kind of want to give him he kind of you’re tempted to be favorable towards it just because you’re like, oh, he did kind of give me you know, type deal. So if you feel like do you feel like there’s a good separation between the the advertisers and in and what you can say in the paper?

Sammie Collison  [19:46] 
Yes, that is the one thing that I love about traditional journalism and why I’ve stuck so hard to it is there is a definitive line between what is advertised content and what is editorial content like it there’s literally a dividing line. across the middle of the page, and that we don’t do sponsored posts, we don’t take gifts or sponsorships from businesses. And so it’s like this is what we’re saying, regardless of what the people that are paying us say. There’s always issues where sometimes you write something and an advertiser drops you, we had that happen with an on campus organization who was advertising with us, and they stopped advertising with us, because we were critical of them. But, you know, sometimes it’s for the greater good of your audience. And that’s just the line that you walk. I mean, we’re still afloat. And we are printing this upcoming semester, we did get enough advertising revenue back. And so things turned out for us. But that’s always a risk that you take, obviously,

Jim Collison  [20:45] 
we talked, we had you on in August, and we talked a little bit about kind of a summer of COVID. And how that affected you know, at that point, you had been out of school since March, you had been home the whole time. We spent a lot of time together. And we talked about that on the in the August show. You went back, though. And so how did things change? You know, between August you went back mid, we had you on right before you went back? How are things? And how’s the school responded from with technology? I mean, how is it gotten? Certainly there are some classes that are remote and you know, that you’re you’re doing online? Talk a little bit about that.

Sammie Collison  [21:23] 
Yeah, I think our university was was fairly well equipped for a situation like this, because we already had fairly small class sizes. And so most classes switch to a hybrid schedule, where every other class, you go in person, and on the off ones, you you attend on zoom. And that I feel like was the ideal situation for keeping class sizes down keeping people spread apart, because we don’t have huge lecture halls on campus, because we don’t have huge classes. Everything’s a small class size. And so I think that’s why we were able to stay on campus with pretty much at full capacity. compared to a normal year, we had record of enrollment again, wow,

Jim Collison  [22:07] 
we kind of thought class was gonna end like, I mean, you and I kind of had bets on how quick he got home. And there

Sammie Collison  [22:14] 
was a spike of cases in the county. But those people isolated and the cases went down, they spiked a little bit towards the end of the semester. But it never got too detrimental. We’re able to have good contact tracing, people wearing masks. People on campus, we’re really good about wearing masks on my campus. For people not against that. That’s college students.

Jim Collison  [22:38] 
You can always tell college students what to do and of course they’ll do it don’t drink in the dorms, they definitely don’t drink in the dorms, right?

Sammie Collison  [22:44] 
For sure. Not doing it.

Jim Collison  [22:47] 
I don’t see that happening. Any did the university deploy any kind of new technology did anything? Did anything kind of come out of this technology wise that that made the campus better?

Sammie Collison  [23:01] 
I don’t think so. Not that I can think of off the top of my head. We kind of already had things in place, because we have been such a tech forward campus for

Jim Collison  [23:13] 
Do you feel like you learned as much this semester? So the fall? Let’s just throw out the spring because it was a mess, as you did last fall. So let’s compare it to last fall pretty normal semester, we didn’t have this going on here. Do you feel like experience was any better, less different talk a little bit about the if you compare fall to fall,

Sammie Collison  [23:35] 
if you’re just looking at my classes, same same diff, same content, um, for the most part, same class structures. But I feel like as immediate student, you the classroom is not where you learn most of your stuff, it’s in the newsroom and on the job. And that kind of did take a hit like a lot of people. A lot of my peers were hoping to slam into our senior year in bulk of our portfolios. And instead, we kind of stagnated because we couldn’t be in the newsroom together most of the time. We weren’t doing as much on the ground reporting it was a lot of bone and zoom and email interviews. And it just it just didn’t feel the same as all being in the newsroom together putting a physical paper together. And that kind of sucks. And that is what it is. And hopefully employers will be able to see that and consider that that like we kept going during a hard time. And that that was a detriment to the normal learning experience that we have as media students of working together and making product together. Yeah, you know, we persevere and we move on. Such as life

Jim Collison  [24:40] 
well the portfolio it I think at the end of the day your portfolio of what you did is actually what matters in Yeah, yeah, you’ve got an uphill battle the fight but a lot do going, you know, getting. I mean, it’s going to be a pretty tough economy for the next year or two or three. I don’t know how long it will last but we got some tough days out But you’ve got good support around you. So you’ll do fine. Jim, Jim, shoemakers got a couple of comments that I want to get in here as well. He kind of feels like go back to our previous comment about maybe endorsing a candidate, every article that, you know, should start with the disclosure about the papers position. When you’re when you’re endorsing a candidate, or you are in the paper, you pretty clear. As far as you know, you said you you you knew there were some things that had gone on with this candidate that just weren’t right. I’m assuming when you’re writing those things, you got to be really careful about that, right?

Sammie Collison  [25:37] 
Yes. And endorsements are the exception, not the rule. It doesn’t say in our handbook that you can’t endorse a candidate in our paper. But we we don’t do it 99% of the time. And percent of the time, we run news stories, we interview both candidates for positions. We run we run unbiased coverage for the sheriff’s race, we did full in depth profiles on both candidates. But this was this was really an exceptional circumstance, which it wasn’t to, to say that both candidates were equally qualified. And equally ethical would have been what we call a false equivalency, where you’re elevating something to a level that it shouldn’t be just because they’re on two sides of an issue when one candidate was had exceptional issues. Could you do that same

Jim Collison  [26:32] 
reporting without an official endorsement?

Sammie Collison  [26:35] 
Yes, I think that if people had, we would have had a similar effect, just running our profiles. But I think it did have the false equivalency problem, we run into the false equivalency problem. A good example is climate change. Because if you give equal weight to the science that shows that climate change is the thing that is happening, versus the detractors with their conspiracy theories. If you give equal weight to those things, you’re doing a disservice to the public by giving weight to something that doesn’t have as much factual basis behind it. And that’s a problem. So that sometimes that happens most of the time, that doesn’t happen in politics, but in this case, it did

Jim Collison  [27:17] 
especially at the local level, right?

Sammie Collison  [27:18] 
Yeah. at a local level when you know these people and you know, keep like the families of these people. It gets a lot more personal.

Jim Collison  [27:24] 
Yeah. I think it’s not just a matter of the issues. It’s at the at the national level, it’s a little more Yeah. Oh, what’s the word it’s a little more just isn’t doesn’t. It’s not like it’s real, but when

Sammie Collison  [27:39] 
separated. But at the local level, those things really matter to the people day to day, so we get a lot more invested in recovering from those things.

Jim Collison  [27:47] 
Jim mentions he says some places are ending in the fall semester of thanksgiving go home and stay homes Northwest Missouri State and I missed out I could have I could have were the North I should have worn my my gear tonight. What was the

Sammie Collison  [27:59] 
caller’s? I

Jim Collison  [28:00] 
know you did? He did? Well, um, your schedule. Talk a little bit about that. What did what did the school decide to do this year with you cash?

Sammie Collison  [28:07] 
Yeah, that’s what our that’s what our school did. We started at our usual time in August, but we ended the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. And then this upcoming week, what is normally dead week, which is a lot of projects being due is a time to save for finals. And then we’re all having online finals, the week after this upcoming week.

Jim Collison  [28:26] 
So I believe that we have one more week. This this week coming up starting Monday is dead week. Yeah. And then you have finals coming.

Sammie Collison  [28:35] 
It’s all online. So you can’t people could come back to the campus of literally have nowhere else to go. But most students went home to their families and are staying there until January.

Jim Collison  [28:46] 
It What do you think of that as a student?

Sammie Collison  [28:49] 
At first, it didn’t make sense. But now it makes sense that you don’t want to go home for Thanksgiving, catch COVID and then take it back to campus. I think it is a challenge to sometimes stay focused and keep your head in the game when it comes to finals. Especially with those, like my roommate is the oldest of many siblings. And so like her house is a little more chaotic around the holidays because she has younger siblings runner running around. Um, but I think it really was the best decision for most students to just stay in one place and keep the rest of the people healthy.

Jim Collison  [29:21] 
Yeah, I mean, I kind of like it. I get you for two months. Instead of this. We had it saved me a couple trips going back

Sammie Collison  [29:27] 
and I get to be with the family and the cats. Unfortunately, it’s pretty quiet for me here for studying times.

Jim Collison  [29:34] 
Yeah, no, it’s good. It saved me a couple trips didn’t have to go back and forth to school and

Sammie Collison  [29:39] 
once it starts snowing and getting icy.

Jim Collison  [29:42] 
Yeah, keep gonna keep you in the bubble as well. I mean, for me, it’s also nice knowing that I’m not sending you back with it or I’m not or you’re not going to you don’t have one more opportunity to get it and bring it back home. Yep, right so so good stuff. Yeah. Cool. How do you feel? So semesters almost over? How do you how do you feel about any other kind of thoughts around a new kind of a new world, order for the fall just in in how it how the school had to do it to kind of pull it all off.

Sammie Collison  [30:18] 
I think that I’m what are my thoughts, it’s tricky to think about, because it’s so hard to combat the idea that this time was a waste. Like, it just feels like I’ve been held back. But we got to see it as one where we’re doing the right thing by taking the right measures and keeping the spread of covid down until we get vaccines it’s bred. And you just got to acknowledge that this is in an exceptional time. Like there’s nothing like this, that has happened in a very, very long time. And so sometimes things suck. And like, that’s the reality of life, and hopefully everybody else that’s going to be potentially hiring me, and looking at my portfolio or what I’m going to have to work with in the future, they’ll live through it too. And they, they probably are sympathetic to the cause of the college student who had to work through all this, and try and get a degree during this madness, but you know, we’re all trying to stay as soon as we can.

Jim Collison  [31:20] 
Well, you’re putting a lot of pressure on yourself. For that

Sammie Collison  [31:23] 
one done.

Jim Collison  [31:24] 
Yeah, no, no, I get it, it’s you, it’s you to hang with and you have to live with all this, I take a little more of a kind of a, it’s all gonna work out kind of methodology right? through this. And it will, it’ll be tough as we go through it. I mean, I think the good news is, is I get to, we’ll get to go through with you and a lot of ways. And so you know, I think the the good stuff still come in. So we’re pretty excited about that.

I want to transition a little bit into that, that idea of what’s ahead. So I want to talk a little bit about the future for you. I think a lot of it has to do with a lot of the stuff we do here. So I think it’s gonna tie in.

I do want to remind the listeners, just one more time because this coming Thursday, we are going to be doing a special podcast celebrating 10 years of Home Gadget Geeks. And so Christian will be joining us, I get Andrew Morris back, of course, Mike Wieger will be here in myself and great opportunity to kind of celebrate what we’ve done. Over the last 10 years, I’d like you to do something for me. So when you get a second go to http://HomeGadgetGeeks.com. bottom right hand corner, there’s a little microphone button, just click it and leave me a 30 second voicemail, about your whatever whatever you want to leave for the show how long you can say first time caller longtime listener, I don’t really care what you put it what No, I do kind of care. We’re not necessarily looking for praise and recognition as much as I just kind of want to hear from you. So leave us a 30 second message head out to http://HomeGadgetGeeks.com Leave us a message that’s coming up this Thursday. Sammy, I’m gonna need to start blasting that a little bit farther and a little bit wider on social media to get folks to do that, but we’d love to have you do that for next week’s show next Thursday, December 3. And, and we actually 10 years ago recorded the show on December 2 and then I posted on December 4. So this lands smack dab in the middle. love to have you do that http://HomeGadgetGeeks.com

When we think about your future, and you know you’ve got one more semester First of all, you got a semester and then a class a summer classes that you have to take. How are you feeling about now that you’ve made it through fall? How you feeling about spring does it you go into spring with some confidence of like, Oh, yeah, we got this, this is all doable? How do you how do you feel like that?

Sammie Collison  [33:44] 
I’m less anxious about the class aspect. For sure. Like once we’ve made it through this fall, it feels like we’re through the worst of it. We kind of got a system down. We’re probably gonna keep going with hybrid classes because the nature of the beast is that we don’t have a vaccine yet. So we got all stayed distance keep our masks on, but we kind of got a groove down. It’s the it’s the after the graduation part, the prepping for job hunting, figuring out real life and real world. I’m taking the taking the work on my own shoulders instead of just learning through the school newspaper.

Jim Collison  [34:20] 
Yeah. You’ve talked about that a lot lately, like I’ve I’ve heard you’re thinking about that a lot more. Does that is the weight of that bearing down on you a little bit harder now than maybe it was even last summer?

Sammie Collison  [34:36] 
Yeah, it just feels real now. Like the I can see the metaphoric light at the end of the tunnel. I don’t know if that’s the right metaphor, but like the end is in sight. And it’s like, I’m looking at my degree audit and I’m like checking off the classes. And it’s like, it’s almost all the checkboxes are full and we have a seminar and get my resume together and do all that stuff. stuff in it feels, feels like it’s time. It’s like, all of a sudden it snuck up on me and oh my god senior year now, it’s almost over.

Jim Collison  [35:10] 
I, I tell people all the time, you know, I didn’t really my career didn’t even really start till 30. You know, and, you know, I tell Tech students this all the time, you know, when I meet with them, because they’re, everybody feels like that first job, like, just getting that first job is a big deal. And of course, I, you know, I did six years of military or five and a half, let’s say, and then, you know, spent some time going to college and worked at the bank, you know, and thought I’d maybe go into retail banking, and then we thought maybe we would do some church ministry stuff for four years or so. And it really wasn’t until till 2000 until the year 2000, that I got this tech job. And I thought, Man, I’m actually good at this, like, I should be doing more of this. And I took the tech job, not out of thinking I wanted to have a tech career. But it out of desperation, kind of I, I had taken a job selling computers in 98. That that was the, that’s when computer prices went from $5,000 a computer to $500 a computer and those two years, I was working for computer Renaissance, we saw the AOL, you know, free, sign up for two years and get a free computer, which drove computer prices to the bottom. Like they went literally from 2000 and $3,000. To almost free or free in some cases yet. You know, it’s like buying a cell phone, you had to take an obligation on. Yeah, I’m in that job, I, you know, I man, I thought I could make some money I couldn’t in, I took a job back with the bank. And there, it saved my life in a lot of ways. But it’s 34 that 32 When that happened, um, you know, there’s, there’s however, I don’t want to minimize to you like, it feels like everything is hinged on the first job. And there’s, I think, this audience, this audience has been around a while, I think they would collectively tell you, it’s going to be okay. However, that’s easy to say, not easy to live through that. So I spend the rest of the time and I’m looking for the chat room, because we got some wise individuals out there thinking about this. So we’re going to talk about this collectively. One of the things you and I have been talking about right out of the gate, like I honestly believe that your future is going to be almost exclusively as a freelancer. Like if you’re gonna stay in journalism, I just think freelancing is going to be the way this for the future. And I think freelancing today, at least, the models I’ve seen as well is a lot of writing and some podcasting. And so you and I have been kicking around different ideas for podcasts. How do you feel about I mean, you do great on these podcasts. But how do you feel about having your own podcast?

Sammie Collison  [38:05] 
I think there’s a lot of pressure to find the right thing. And I think once I let go of that pressure, and just start making stuff, it’ll come a lot easier that I, I gotta let go of the idea that I have to have the right idea, the right podcast concept immediately, and just start talking into the ether. And I think things will fall into place. And I’ll figure out what I want to say, or the types of people that I want to talk to. But right now it’s it’s nailing down those ideas of what is what is the idea that I want to portray? Because there’s so much that I care about, and I’m like, how do I pick a thing? Picking making decisions has never been my strong suit. Yeah.

Jim Collison  [38:47] 
Well, that’s what you have before. So I’m going to help you. I’m going to help you make some decisions on this as we move forward. Um, well, it’s, you know, 10 years later, it’s easy to say, well, Home Gadget Geeks was the thing, right? But it made sense. Well, when 10 years ago when we started it, I didn’t know it’d be a thing. I didn’t know it, make it 10 years. We had home tech. At the time. That was the name of the show the time and then I started fitness tech. I did a financial tech podcast. I’ve done Silicon Prairie News minute in there. I did Rich’s random podcast generator it was more rich than it was me doing that but but we tried we tried all these different things just to see what would stick certainly before Home Gadget Geeks was even home server show which survived for a while and strat Deeks Dave did Surface gigs for a while. Um I think you’re right i think the the wisdom is just trying a bunch of things and see what successful let’s talk about what the work I’ve done a gala like yeah, we started with called the coach. But it was really Theme Thursday that eclipsed him all right, and that was the second one. Right? Yeah. Yeah. Well, we just crossed a million on that show, you know, we just did our millionth download a couple weeks ago on that one. And you know, you start going, man, a million of anything’s pretty great, but we tried some other ones in there and some of them have been successful. And some of them haven’t. I think it’s a good I, I think you’re thinking along the right lines, I don’t think I think we should come up with a good idea. And then just do it, and just see what just kind of see what happens, right, just do some things. I remember in you know, Kelly Lewis, you met Hirsch, Lauria, she, you know, she started Geek Beat geek briefly, I can’t remember even what the name of it was, it’s evolved four or five times. Yeah. And the very early versions are awful. They’re just terrible, you know, from from eight or nine or 10 years ago. But she’s, you know, and she went through some progressions did some things differently, if you think about so let’s think about like, if you were to kind of pick a topic today that you think you’d be most comfortable. What do you think that’d be?

Sammie Collison  [41:10] 
I don’t know. I also feel like saying it out loud as jinxing it. That’s another thing that hangs on the back of my mind is I feel like saying it out loud. Curses it to being awful.

We’re gonna have

Jim Collison  [41:23] 
okay, but that’s a failure to get out of the way. Yeah, that’s then you kind of know, okay, well, that one’s that one’s that one’s not going to work. That’s kind of I think that’s kind of the magic in this is, is? Listen, I’m not gonna force you to answer that question. But I think the magic in this is, knowing that you got to progress through a bunch of kind of things to see, Listen, I’ve wanted to, I wanted to quit this show. dozens of times in the 10 years that I’ve done it, I’ve Wieger I probably quit on Wieger, four or five times. And just in the times he’s been on at least once a year I go, you know, I think we’re at the end of this thing. You know, and yeah, and he and he doesn’t try to talk me out of it. That’s the funny thing. He’s like, Well, okay, I said, I’ll tell you let me think about it for a week or two, and then I’ll tell you, and then I always something changes. And I always I always go, you know, I always go back to it. I’m like, No, let’s continue to do this. You have a 10 year anniversary, and you’re like, this is pretty great. And I’m lining up guests for after the anniversary. So those along along those lines, sometimes you just gotta kind of keep going. Jim says two key concepts to getting in first job, your your network of connections, to get great references and tips and your willingness to move to get a job. You’re you’re not unwilling you’d go anywhere. Right for for a job. What was that? Sorry? You go. That’s okay. You go anywhere for job, right. Yeah, you’re willing.

Sammie Collison  [42:50] 
I got nothing tying me down right now.

Jim Collison  [42:53] 
Yeah, yeah, the other Jim says freelancing will imply tracking payments and filing taxes. You do kind of have to win. If you’re a freelancer, you got to kind of you got to figure those, you know, you’re self employed. That standpoint. It’s, it’s Jim says, podcasting for a living seems like it would be very tough, better as part of a whole online presence about something podcasting, websites advertising, blah, blah, blah. Yeah. Jim, I agree with you. I think it’s a I think in the freelancing gig. podcasting is just the very first step. That’s kind of why I started with it. I think that’s today, journalists need to have some kind of presence whether it’s podcasts or something along those lines to to be out there with I think it’s a part of the component. Some can make it work full time others others can’t. I don’t think that’s the point. I think part of it is building your resume with your own podcast. I think was my point to get started that’s where I come in,

Sammie Collison  [43:55] 
like a home base for your personal brand. Is what a podcast

Jim Collison  [44:01] 
Yeah, yeah. No

Sammie Collison  [44:02] 
to have this is who you are. This is the kind This is what your voice is beyond just what you sound like coming. The words coming. Yeah. But like what, what you care about what you think about what you have to say,

Jim Collison  [44:16] 
the example that I use or that I think about when I think about what you’re doing, of course is Mary Jo Foley from Windows weekly. Yes. Show I listen to a lot of she’s not the only example. Molly Webster there’s been. There’s a bunch of a Veronica who we had on the show. Here. You there’s a bunch out there. I think of Mary Jo in the sense that she still writes a ton. Paul throt does this as well. You’ve listened to Windows weekly, with a fair amount of Windows weekly. You You know those voices. I do. Mary Jo does both print and then joins Paul for that podcast. She kind of fell into that podcast 10 years ago. I don’t think she ever intended to be a podcaster but it’s become part of her career. of portfolio I kind of since we can, and you’ll have time, I kind of want to start you going on that. So you to help build your portfolio and also to have some things to write about it while you’re looking and doing. Because I think that’s going to be just a part of your role in the future regardless, and maybe you don’t stick with that podcast very long. Maybe it lasts a season or two or three, and then you move on to something else. But I think having that skill, having that online presence, having that ability to be on the mic and answer questions and have that persona, I think for journalists are super important. Yeah.

Sammie Collison  [45:36] 
These days, it is the it is the multimedia that people want and ability to being able to write well. They want you to be able to vocalize well and speak and be confident with digital media and new media.

Jim Collison  [45:49] 
Yeah, yeah, no, and and I think you’ll find, I think that gives you some opportunities to find your voice in that find what kind of fall in I think for me, you know, I get a lot of folks now who give me feedback and say, Oh, I love listening to what you do. And some of those kinds of things in in, I realized, well, I’ve been doing it for 12 years, I get a lot of practice doing, I have a lot of you know, a lot of water under the bridge. So when you think about writing, then so because I think it’s kind of a one two punch, I think you have to do both podcasting, and, and let’s call it media for that standpoint, whatever that means, whether it’s being a YouTuber, or being on, you know, any of the other platforms, Instagram, or Tiktok, or any of those other ones. What do you think about writing, though? What, what kind of energizes you? What kind of things do you like to write about? Where do you think your sweet spot in writing is?

Sammie Collison  [46:48] 
That was a good question. I think, I don’t know, I just like the talking to people aspect of it. Um, and learning new things through people. And writing is an outlet for that. And so I think that’s why I’m so drawn to podcasting is it’s like, whatever medium grants me the ability to talk to people and learn new things. I’m down for it. Because I’m so curious about people in the world. And I’m the person who falls down YouTube and Wikipedia rabbit holes in the middle of the night. Because there’s just so much to know. And that sounds like a generic answer. But

Jim Collison  [47:25] 
you any topics, anything that you lean towards more one more than others, as far as, What do you feel like you’re being drawn to when you’re writing? I this is a foreign world for me? I hate, like, I hate writing. So right. I mean, this is you and I are the same person in a lot of ways, except in this area. Like you love it. And I hate it. Any area kind of drawn towards?

Sammie Collison  [47:54] 
I can’t think of anything off the top of my head under pressure. But what

Jim Collison  [47:58] 
do you some of your What are some of your favorite stores? Like? What are you most proud of? What have you written that you’re most proud of?

Sammie Collison  [48:05] 
I think I did. There was sort of a capstone project that I did last year, where I talked to two students at Northwest who are transgender, and who got disowned by their families. And both had to start build fund me’s in order to live in transition to adulthood and living on their own. And following them through that process and kind of walking in their shoes was a really good experience for me. And I feel like people learned a lot through through reading that. It was just kind of like guiding people through their shoes of what that experience was like.

Jim Collison  [48:41] 
Okay, so I think, and I think as you say that I mean, you’re you have some you have Relator, high, right, and your top five, your CliftonStrengths. Top Five, well,

Sammie Collison  [48:52] 
Relator I think is in my top 10 Yeah, Empathy is for sure. In my top 10

Jim Collison  [48:56] 
Mm hm. And you have Individualization as well. Yeah. Number five. So I think the people aspect of things are what’s important to you. Like, I think you really like the personal the personal stories, the the areas of injustice, when it’s affecting a person.

Sammie Collison  [49:18] 
That’s the thing.

Jim Collison  [49:21] 
Yeah, yeah.

Sammie Collison  [49:22] 
People, people who are down on their luck, the underdog story, that kind of stuff appeals a lot to me.

Jim Collison  [49:30] 
Yeah, so it’s kind of it’s kind of about finding some of those, finding some of those spaces to write about, you know, finding finding stores. We, you and I have been kicking around an idea of, of the idea of this may not really be true, you know, so in other words, yeah, that might not be true. Of these, of these ideas that you know, where people these broad assumptions that are made, culturally or old wives. tales that have been, you know, old myths that have been out there, and then digging in to those and and saying, well, they’re not really true and may or it’s possible they’re not true. And here’s why. You know, maybe the element is we think about that. Maybe the element to that is finding examples in real people for you. In other words, making a comment away, not just not just the facts, but then finding people who will talk about this, because I think you’re probably a better writer, when it’s a real people, as opposed to just the facts, so to speak. That’s no, what do you what do you think about that? What do you think about that?

Sammie Collison  [50:43] 
I like that things are pinging in my brain right now.

Jim Collison  [50:46] 
Yeah. So my ideas in that we, we, we, you know, you, we you and I talk about this all the time. And, and so I, you know, I’ve kind of been thinking about I don’t worry about we get to, you know, we get you home this summer, you still got to finish the class. You know, we’ll probably go hard and heavy after getting you some assignments, like, like, okay, here’s some things we’re going to do. Are you okay, with this, let’s move forward, I’ll help you move forward with those kinds of things. So one of those, I mean, I’m kind of, I’m kind of, you know, now that I think about this. I love some stories for https://theAverageGuy.TV, that are personal in nature. So you know, just kind of thinking through the technology bit, but from a personal standpoint, like we don’t get, you know, I hate reviews, I just hate him, I hate like, you know, here’s, as an example, I was I just purchased, I bought something technology wise, and they sent me in the box, this, this USB, enabled light, and I need, I need the battery to make this thing work. But you plug it into a battery, and this lights up. And it’s bendable, you know, you can use it like a reading light or whatever, you know, it’s kind of cool thing. Well, you know, I could review this thing, but I hate doing those kinds of things. Like I really I’m not a great reviewer. But you interviewing you know, instead of you doing the review you interviewing people around these kind of technology products or whatever, maybe a maybe a portfolio builder, write some things to write about to build, you got to build an audience. You don’t have to start from scratch. You know, you get some of those. So I By the way, I didn’t think of that till just as we were talking about this right now.

Sammie Collison  [52:38] 
fresh idea just now hot off the presses.

Jim Collison  [52:41] 
Maybe that’s the I mean, maybe for you because it’s your show people oriented. Maybe that’s the way to, to move, you know, to move forward with it. So, how, um, how do you feel about graduating at this point, like, you know, you’re really just a semester in some change away from graduating besides the job thing for so yeah, just, let’s just like, okay, the job thing always be there, it’s always gonna be at, how do you feel about graduating?

Sammie Collison  [53:13] 
I think I think I’m ready for a new chapter. I think I’ve taken a lot out of my university experience, and I’m really grateful for it. But I think that it does, it does. Looking back, it does feel like I am reaching the end of the university road, in terms of experiences, like there’s only so much that you can get out of the university before you just gotta be pushed into the real world. But I am grateful. And I, I remember having conversations with you as a freshman. And I’m like, when you look at high school, when you look at yourself as a freshman in high school, to a senior in high school, those are two completely different people. And I knew going into college, moving away from home for the first time being an adult for the first time, having a real job for the first time. As much as a real job, whatever that is. But I knew being a freshman in college, I was like, I’m going to come out of the other side of this thing, and I’m gonna be different. And like, I just got to be ready for that. And I do feel that way. I do feel like that person that I was is not who I am now. And I’m grateful for the things that are making that difference.

Jim Collison  [54:25] 
Yeah, well, we’ve watched it grow over the last four years. I think I’ve had the most fun watching, you know, don’t don’t tell the boys this, but you’ve been a lot more fun during college than they were. Well, they didn’t

Sammie Collison  [54:38] 
more traditional college experience from humming dorming

Jim Collison  [54:43] 
Yeah. I’m glad I only had one to do, just to be honest. Like I’m not sure you know, Tim did the Marines and that was fantastic and great experience for him and you know, he’s making that transition as well. Just wasn’t as I just it was just different with you. And then it would have been, would have would have been for the boys. But I would agree with you. I mean, I, I feel, I feel it’s like I’ve been in a privileged position to be able to kind of go through that with you. I’ve learned things about myself through this, I think it’s made me a better podcaster spending time talking to you about these topics. And these these things. I mean, I feel like I’m better at my craft, because we’ve like we spent time together. So Jim asked in the chat room, I really don’t want to ask this question. But any any thoughts about going to grad school?

Sammie Collison  [55:36] 
No, research is not my thing. I have never been good at it. I’ve never liked it. And like, that’s what the that’s what the extended higher education more degrees. leads to. And that’s just not my thing. That’s my best friend’s thing. They can do that, that for me. I would like to get out of academia and talk to people.

Jim Collison  [55:57] 
Yeah, well, I

Sammie Collison  [55:58] 
mean, Demeter can be a comfort zone, it’s, I need to get out of it.

Jim Collison  [56:02] 
Yeah, yeah, well, you get I think, you know, you can have a good you got a good shot, I will have you will have you back on the show in the summer, when when you get back from it. And, you know, you got a summer class to wrap up, and you and I are going to launch some projects, I’m gonna, I got I’ve been thinking through, I have this crazy ability to create all these different options. And some of them will work and some of them won’t work. But But I feel like I’ve been holding off. There’s been things I’ve wanted to do with you. But just I would have would have not worked with you. Being in school, we just couldn’t have done them at the same time. And it took me a couple years to figure that out. I kept kind of prompting you and then never really went anywhere. And I was like, I remember it was like I think last summer and I was like, Okay, I’m just gonna wait. Like, I don’t have to do these things right now. I don’t I don’t have to do these things. But I think once we get school out of the way, we got some excuses, of course, you’ll be looking for a job. So many of those. Some of those hopefully get preempted by that. But if, you know, as you’re looking and such, I think there’s I got some ideas on some things we can try and do that are low, like low risk that you just got to do just got to try. Yeah, I think there’s some you know, there’s some things we can do here at the average k.tv. That’ll give you a chance to experiment. Experiment. It’s a three already. It just sounded funny when I said it, experiment on some things that are low risk for you to say, if this work that didn’t work. I can try it this way. I can try it that way. You know, so Jim asked a question, what does it take to be a manager in journalism, an MBA 20 years experience? You want to run your own paper? I mean, like, if you were to think CME, a dream job for you right now, like, if you were to think about what would be the best possible Getting Started job for you, what would it be, in today’s journalism world?

Sammie Collison  [58:03] 
is starting job or the angle? No,

Jim Collison  [58:05] 
that’s not let’s start, like, let’s be reasonable, because, yeah, too many? There’s too much stuff. 20 years from now. Yeah, right. Now, if you were to kind of picture your best possible first job, what do you think it’d be?

Sammie Collison  [58:22] 
Probably just writing in a newspaper, honestly, like, that’s what I’m set up to do. That’s what my skill set is. So if there’s a newspaper that will take me that lets me write news. That would be cool.

Jim Collison  [58:33] 
Yeah. Do you think that’s does that exist? Today? In today’s world?

Sammie Collison  [58:39] 
Still newspapers? Yeah, there’s less of them. But they still exist.

Jim Collison  [58:43] 
Yeah. Well, the good news is, is you’re completely movable. So you know, you’re

Sammie Collison  [58:51] 
writing for a magazine is also an option. Because those get a lot more niche and allow you to become more of an expert in something as you bring. It’s just a little bit blurrier between the editorial content and the advertising. Yeah. But you know, whatever.

Jim Collison  [59:07] 
Well, and you’ve The good news is, it’s not like you’ve been, I think sometimes you portray yourself as just going to school, and you’ve had an internship with the local paper. Which is it? Is it a real deal. Like it’s not this isn’t just kind of some kind of fake journalism. This is a real newspaper that gets

Sammie Collison  [59:27] 
Yeah, we never campus and the city. Yeah. I mean, that’s really what what journalists a journalism degree is about is about the job that you do less about the classes that you take. There’s a there’s an investigative reporter. Not that grades aren’t important. But she says she’s an investigative reporter in Kansas, I believe, and she said I had a 2.7 and I’m proud of it.

Jim Collison  [59:55] 
Listen, grades are only important to me when they had scholarships online. We wipe those out pretty quick. So, like, I’ve just been all I really wanted us to make through like, just Yeah, get through safe stuff. Yeah, I agree with you, there are some jobs, there’s some prestigious things that were GPA matters, it just it is that those things exist. Most of the other ones don’t, they don’t exist. Jim had said it earlier, Jim Shoemaker had said it earlier. It’s really about who you know, it’s your network of friends, it’s the people that can help you get into those roles, I really think you’re probably gonna have to take a writing jobs somewhere first, to kind of fill the gap until you find that journalism role that you want. And that’s okay, you just need to keep writing, I’m going to give you things to write about. When you get here just to keep you know, whether you choose to do that or not, it’s going to be up to you, I’m not going to make you do anything. But I’m going to give you some some things to start bolstering your resume with, if that’s what you want to do, we’re gonna figure some things out, we’ll probably get your podcast started. So we’ll get that media out there. We’ll probably work on something for YouTube. So that that we can do some things I’ll get involved in some of it where you want me to I will stay out of things where you don’t want me too. You know, but it’ll just be you know, just be one of those things. Dave is asking, in the chat room, where do you blog if if right now, really, you’re spending all your time on the paper? Right, Northwest Missouri in? How do people find that that work at the paper?

Sammie Collison  [1:01:30] 
If you go to http://NWMissourinews.com I believe that is our website. Um, and if you just type in my last name at a search bar, it’ll pull up things that I’ve written. But you can also we have an issue https://issuu.com/. I believe, that’s where we’ve been hosting our digital content, we produce basically, a physical paper, we, we just don’t print it, we put the PDF online. So you can also see our physical things there with all the pretty graphics. In the end, you can click through and read the stories. Yeah, look nice and present three.

Jim Collison  [1:02:10] 
And they’re they’re there. I read them all the time. They’re great. They’re great

Sammie Collison  [1:02:13] 
to read. And also follow me on Twitter, I retweet the stuff that I read on Twitter as

Jim Collison  [1:02:18] 
well, you have an advantage with this audience. Because they’re on many of them are on Twitter as well. I’m going to have you try and you know, write some some tech stuff, just to give you just to see where it sticks. I had kind of thought about having you do reviews. We’ve talked about this before. But I think I think tonight I’ve kind of thought like, Well, okay, maybe reviews aren’t the place but but some tech subtext stories from other people’s opinions write the story. Yeah, reaching out to other ways, the personal aspect,

Sammie Collison  [1:02:53] 
I think the thing that we need to do is because I have so many interests, I think we just need to put them all on a board and find a through line that we can produce, like a season of content with. I think that’s the thing is like finding a through line of things that the things that I’m interested in have in common, because there’s like the crafting world, the book world, I know a ton about online fandom, like that’s a thing that I don’t really talk about that much. But I have a ton of expertise in just being in fandom sphere since like, 2012. There’s just a lot that I know that I’m like not utilizing and I think we just need to find a through line of things that I can talk about and types of people that I can interview. Well, here’s the good right now. My energies are really spread. Yeah,

Jim Collison  [1:03:40] 
they are and that’s okay. Like that’s okay. I think there’s some there’s some great opportunities. You know, here’s the good news. rent is cheap, food is free. The neighborhood is safe. So like, for now all those things, those all those basic needs are being met a safety

Sammie Collison  [1:03:55] 
net, thank goodness,

Jim Collison  [1:03:56] 
it’s kind of I don’t worry about it too much. And yet I am. I’m actually I get kind of excited about kind of helping you until you tell me to stop. I kind of get excited about helping you like get this thing kind of rolling. I’m gonna, you know, kind of held back a little bit. I pushed for a while as a freshman and sophomore I wanted to push. And then I get a sense like Now’s not the time. So I pulled way back. And in and I’ll look forward to giving you some opportunities. I think as we you know, as we look at summer 2021. You know, I think I’ll still be home. Working by that by I don’t know, I don’t know, I’ve

Sammie Collison  [1:04:40] 
learned that a lot of jobs can be done from home and a lot of meetings could have been an email.

Jim Collison  [1:04:45] 
Yeah. Although I do differ with you on that. Well, it could be male. I don’t think it’s that’s the best. I still think

Sammie Collison  [1:04:52] 
he’s an extrovert. I’m an introvert. That’s where he and I differ.

Jim Collison  [1:04:56] 
Yeah, I just think lots lost in the translation on email. And I think sometimes you need that much more

Sammie Collison  [1:05:02] 
eloquent email. I can just put it I can just condense it a little. Yeah.

Jim Collison  [1:05:08] 
Well, maybe you’ll bring some writing to the average guy TV like it has never seen.

Sammie Collison  [1:05:14] 
Yeah, I’ll be your written word.

Jim Collison  [1:05:17] 
I’ll take a few. I’ll take a few guest posts from you. And we’ll kind of walk through the kind of see where it goes. So

Sammie Collison  [1:05:26] 
I tell Sammy highpass

Jim Collison  [1:05:29] 
Yeah, look, well, you know, we got to look out for each other in this right, but in a good way. Yeah. Yeah. All right on it.

Sammie Collison  [1:05:36] 
I mean, it’s not like you get a small loan of a million dollars from anybody, you build this from the ground up?

Jim Collison  [1:05:40] 
Well, and it’s not like I’m making any money off this thing. Let’s just be I mean, let’s just be very, very transparent. Like, we’re doing average. The average guy TV exists only because I mean, listen, get some great folks on Patreon. If you want to support the network, https://theAverageGuy.TV/Patreon. I haven’t said that over the last couple podcasts. But if you know that helps, that always helps. And it’s great to have Patreon subscribers and supporters. But that necessarily doesn’t. That’s not why I do this. It’s a different. You know, I exist to help other people and help other people tell their stories, right to have guests on and tell other people’s stories and have interesting people. I’m, I have figured out I’m a better amplifier of people that have other people than I am of myself. And so in that, that pulls me along, but it’s just, it’s just really, really important to kind of, kind of do this for other people. So we’ll have them I think by summer, by the time we kick around, we’ll have some new things to start I think for listeners here of Home Gadget Geeks, you might want to watch out, there could be some fun things Oh, or she finds a job and goes does something more interesting. And I get notes. I get nothing. That’s that’s just fine. Well, Sam, anything anything else? Anything I missed anything else you want to say on this? I think we can. We can wrap this thing now. Any other thoughts?

Sammie Collison  [1:07:09] 
Pretty much all the all the followers know about my Twitter, but I’ll post it again at say me call us on Twitter. That’s where my professional stuff is a

Jim Collison  [1:07:18] 
SAMMIE COLLISON.

Sammie Collison  [1:07:23] 
That’s me.

Jim Collison  [1:07:24] 
That’s That’s her on Twitter if you want to follow her there. And I’m always surprised that the the traction that’s still on Twitter. You know, interesting. If you want to follow me at J. Carlson, we’ve been I’ve been retweeting some stuff. And of course, lots of things going on tonight around this. And I always appreciate you know, Joe and Tony doing some retweets john did as well.

Appreciate you guys retweeting that stuff. as well. I mentioned the Patreon group if you want to join us, I’m setting up a January Patreon meetup again, so if you want to join us in December for that, you can jump in https://theAverageGuy.TV/Patreon I mentioned discord earlier. And man, we’ve had some fun over the last couple weeks. I’ve kind of committed to every candle that I like, you guys know what that means? I I’m gonna post a picture of that in the in the candle. It’s not what it’s called. But it’s called scar in, in the discord group. And so if you want to join us over there for that, for that conversation, https://theAverageGuy.TV/discord or any of the tech conversation, there’s some great stuff going on Kevin schooners post an online deals and you know, I’m thinking about bust out who’s posted out there all the time.

Justin Simmons is posting out there appreciate you guys doing that https://theAverageGuy.TV/discord leave that message for me for the show next week. You have to do it pretty quick here the average let’s see no Home Gadget geeks.com is the way to get that done. You can contact the show send me an email Jim@theAverageGuy.TV, you got an idea or you want to share a story by the way, just send me an email. And in I’ll consider you I can’t take everybody but I’ll consider you to be on the show. Send me an email Jim@theAverageGuy.TV. If you do want to join our Facebook group, you can do that as well. facebook.com slash groups slash the average guy or you can just go to https://theAverageGuy.TV/Facebook. Will that get you there big thanks to Christian. Over at Maple Grove Partners get secure reliable high speed hosting from people that you know and you trust. And of course, that’s Christian over Maple Grove Partners visit Maple Grove Partners, all one word.com. And while you’re there, sign up for a free I shouldn’t say free sign up for a hover account because it’s not free to sign up for a hover account, https://theAverageGuy.TV/hover get $2 for new customers $2 off your first domain and it gets some great hosting while you’re out there as well. And join us next Thursday. Next Thursday. 10 years. Sammy

Sammie Collison  [1:09:48] 
12 years old.

Jim Collison  [1:09:49] 
You know what were you doing when you were 12? What what’s going on with old school? eighth graders at eighth grade for you.

Sammie Collison  [1:09:56] 
Oh that would have been seventh grade. Sixth grade seventh grade.

Jim Collison  [1:10:00] 
Where the popular bands in seventh grade for you?

Sammie Collison  [1:10:03] 
Lady Gaga was just becoming a thing like Lady Gaga, Katy Perry. Like those they like Born This Way was just happening.

Jim Collison  [1:10:14] 
Now here we are, here we are 10 years later. 10 years later Well, what’s not 10 years later is the end of the show. So we are live every Thursday 8pm Central nine Eastern, including next week. We are live. Join us live. If you come out here, https://theAverageGuy.TV/live. We’ll get you there as well. Fun show coming up next week. Sammy, thanks for coming on. It’s always fun to catch up with you. We will see you all next week. A little short post show if you’re listening live. Thanks for joining us with that. We’ll say goodbye, everybody.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

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