A new era begins

Today marked my first day on the job at Ontier, maker of the Pixetell communications solution. My morning turned into afternoon so quickly that I forgot to get lunch. I love the pace! Look for some upcoming posts about a Portland start-up taking off like a rocket and leaving the competition in its wake.

Gainfully employed again!

Quite a Thanksgiving all the way around. While dining at a "Thanksgiving drift" party at Linda's on Wednesday, I got a call from Ontier Inc. asking me to come work for them. The party suddenly went up a couple of levels in hilarity and celebration.
Ontier makes a product known as Pixetell that is essentially an enriched email solutions for users that want ultimate flexibility and clarity in their web conferences. Click on the headline for this blog to learn more about Pixetell and the company.
The same day, our daughter got an acceptance letter from Tulane University with a huge wad of academic merit scholarship money included. And in New York, where our son is attending college, word came to him that the 7" LP his band (Empty Vessel) released earlier this year had received a rave review from a top punk rock fanzine.
Teresa had to bask in the reflected glow this time, altho I think the rest of us can probably thank her for making our achievements possible. Thanks baby!

It's all working out for the best!

Suddenly, opportunities abound! What a difference a few weeks can make, especially when you have the right people in your corner.
I’d had a fairly productive run as a contract writer and editor. The highlight was writing web articles in the wiki format this summer for a local start-up, AboutUs.org. But I was longing to get back into a fulltime job where I could throw everything I had into one organization’s mission.
Then within a few weeks, the way was paved for that to happen. An editor at The Columbian in Vancouver, WA, asked me to write a feature on a local Special Olympics coach. The story grew into a terrific feel-good section front for the paper’s Living section. A week later, I pitched a story to Reuters News Service, another of my clients. That story turned into the “most read” article among Reuters clients for three days running.
Suddenly, I had momentum—and I was getting emails and phone calls from friends and strangers in the journalism community. In the middle of all this excitement, the editor at AboutUs.org contacted me to say that a local tech start-up, Ontier, was looking for someone who could research, write and manage content. She recommended me highly, and the next thing I knew, I had a job offer with “dream job” written all over it.

The prospect of landing a job like this in Portland was a huge relief to my family. We were considering relocating as my job hunt intensified. I've included a view of Mt. Hood from the Ramona Falls-Timberline Lodge section of the Timberline Trail to underscore the fact that the Ontier Pixetell job means we can continue to enjoy this splendid view for years to come. Here, the Timberline Trail follows the Pacific Crest Trail, and I don't think you can find a more scenic section of the PCT.

Echoes of Past Treks

When my friend Paul and I recently hiked a 6-mile section of the Timberline Trail (it was 12 miles roundtrip), I was reminded of the four-day trip Tom and Paul Balmer, and my son and I, took around the 47-mile loop a few years back. Below is a little essay on that experience.

That Seductive Little Loop Trail

As my son and I fought our way out of the White River Basin on a twisting, bone-dry trail, it occurred to me that maybe next time we should do the Timberline Trail in counterclockwise fashion. Going in that direction, we'd be doing this torturous stretch of the 47-mile trail on the first day--not the last.

On the other hand, I consoled myself, the beer I knew awaited me at Timberline Lodge would probably be the best tasting beer I would ever have in my life--if we ever made it to the lodge.

The Timberline Trail beckons serious hikers and backpackers from around the world. Describing, as it does, a loop around stunning Mount Hood in the Cascade Range in Oregon, it offers a tempting combination of gorgeous views, varied flora and fauna, challenging stream crossings and just enough ice and snow to test your skill traversing the white stuff.

It's not the toughest trek on the globe, nor even in Oregon. But the western hiker who doesn't have a notch on the belt for the Timberline Trail will always be a second class citizen on the trail.

That was the argument that led my son and me to that last stretch of trail on a blistering hot day in late August. Our friend, Tom Balmer, decided I needed to get the Timberline Trail loop onto my hiking resume. His son and mine, both 14, were pals. Why not make it a father-son? expedition?

Why not indeed? Plans we made, and on the appointed launch morning, the judge nosed his Chevy into a parking space at the Timberline Lodge lot. We hoisted our gear, and, with a jaunt to our steps, we set out to add that notch to our belts.
For those who pay close attention to elevation gains and losses, the Timberline Trail will prove especially rewarding. On a map, the dotted line of the trail looks more or less like a lazy loop around the summit. But when you're hefting a 45-pound pack over the trail, you come to appreciate all the ups and downs that await the hiker.

The first day (when taking the clockwise course) begins with a pleasurable "flat" (there being no such thing as a flat trail in the mountains) couple of miles. Then, without warning, the path plunges downward. A series of switchbacks leads to the roaring (and dangerous to cross) Sandy River. One follows the uphill sloping trail to beautiful Ramona Falls. But why camp here when there's another campground just a couple of miles on?

Oops! That couple of miles is straight uphill! As dusk approaches and packs sag heavily, we finally find the primitive campground. Oh, to drop our loads and never move again! As we learn, elevation gain and loss is a signature characteristic of the Timberline Trail.

But in the end, we did battle our way up and out of the White River Canyon. Tom and I savored our beers, the boys their root beers, and we toasted our feat.
Today, the trek offers a new degree of difficulty: A key section of the trail was obliterated by a landslide shortly after our triumph. A Herculean effort is now required of hikers to cross the washed-out section.
Yet the belt-notchers are still out there every summer, intent on conquering this seductive beast of a hike. I'll do it again, soon, I'm sure. And probably drag along someone who has yet to claim this particular notch on their hiking belt.

My resume, references, and work samples of various kinds

If you visit  this site, you will find my resume, references, and a variety of work samples, including:

• Press releases that I wrote
• Newspaper and magazine articles that I wrote
• A media plan
• An annual report for which I wrote all content
• A book proposal I wrote
• Excerpts from MOBA Media's tracking of television coverage I facilitated for Special Olympics Oregon
• An article ("Unforgiven") that resulted from a story pitch I made to Willamette Week
• And some other content I created.

However, I will have to give you sharing privileges to see this additional portfolio material. Just email me at superflak.dan@gmail.com and I will share the site with you.

You can also contact me at 503/442-1839 or dancooksoor@hotmail.com if you'd like more information about my dual career in journalism and public relations/marketing.

Journalism pieces, by me and about me

STORIES I WROTE

Single Wide Pride
Cover story, Willamette Week, Portland’s alternative weekly
Briefly: A look at one aging trailer park in Portland and a man’s crusade to save it.
http://wweek.com/editorial/2004/08/11/single-wide-pride/

Home Sweet Home
Cover story, Willamette Week
Briefly: You’d never believe who lives in America’s no-tell motel system.
http://wweek.com/editorial/3024/5003/

Writing in the wiki for AboutUs.org
Two wiki pages from among the 40 I wrote for AboutUs.org in 2009
http://www.aboutus.org/WorkingWebSolutions.com
http://www.aboutus.org/ThePartsDrawer.com


STORIES ABOUT ME

The Man who Caught Carmen
New Times Miami
Briefly: A rival reporter tells the tale of how I brought down the director of the Port of Miami.
http://www.miaminewtimes.com/1997-06-12/news/the-man-who-caught-carmen/

The Unforgiven
Willamette Week cover story written by Angela Valdez
Briefly: I pitched this story about an adolescent sex offender who had successfully been treated by one of our programs.
http://wweek.com/editorial/3229/7594/

Work Sample: Program description written for Metro Parent Magazine for client Classroom Law Project

Angels Among Us: The Classroom Law Project
from Metro Parent Magazine, July 2009

The Classroom Law Project: Educating Tomorrow’s Leaders Today
Tall and raw-boned, Peter Vaughn runs his blended fourth/fifth grade classroom with the discipline and passion of a football coach exhorting his players to victory. But his goal isn’t making the Super Bowl. It’s making super citizens.
Vaughn teaches at Ockley Green School, a kindergarten-through-eighth grade school in North Portland. The 30-plus students in his blended class are studying the foundations of the United States government. They are attentive and love to participate. “Who had the right to vote in the colonies?” he asks his students. Hands shoot into the air. He points to a student who says, “White men!” “That’s right!” Vaughn says. He smiles broadly. They’re getting it!

Vaughn counts himself among the ranks of an educational elite in Oregon: teachers who have adopted one or more of the programs offered by the Classroom Law Project. Founded 25 years ago in Portland, Classroom Law Project is dedicated to creating better U.S. citizens by engaging students from kindergarten through 12th grade in civic education. As the Project’s website states, “The best way to preserve democracy is to teach democracy. And the best way to teach democracy is to incorporate the lessons and principles of democracy into the school curriculum.” (Visit the site at www.classroomlaw.org.)
“Civics,” as most adults may know it, was once a required course in nearly every high school in America. But sometime in the late 1960s, the study of the U.S. Constitution, citizens’ rights, democracy and the basic concepts of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness fell out of favor.
“Students were learning about the history of other cultures and nations, but very little about how our form of government came about and how it works,” says Marilyn Cover, the executive director and founder of Classroom Law Project. Cover relocated to Portland from Ohio in the early 1970s. As a lawyer, she was concerned that so many high school graduates had almost no understanding of the Constitution, of what it meant to be a U.S. citizen. She decided to do something about it.
In 1984, she and several other Portland attorneys launched the Classroom Law Project. Their goal: to revive civics as a vital part of a student’s education. The nonprofit’s first program was Court Tours and Mock Trial. Over time, Classroom Law Project gathered momentum. With the support of educators and attorneys, Classroom Law Project was able to offer more programs. Today, it serves 15,000 students at schools throughout Oregon.
Its centerpiece programs are the We The People and Mock Trials competitions. These signature national programs attract a combined 5,000 Oregon middle and high school students annually. Winners of regional and state competitions get to test their knowledge of our government in national competition.
But the organization offers a much broader menu of programs designed to engage students—and their teachers—in our political and legal systems work. Among them: Law Day: an annual conference where students from Oregon and Southwest Washington meet to debate and discuss current legal and political issues. Youth Summit: students attend workshops to prepare for a day-long dialogue on a legal or election issue.
Street Law: Law students from Lewis & Clark Law School visit classrooms to teach practical law in local high schools. Project Citizen: students (mostly middle schoolers) study a specific topic during the year and make a presentation to a panel of outside experts.
A group of Ockley Green students participates in another Classroom Law offering, Law Camp. While other kids are at soccer camp, 20 O-G middle schoolers spend a week at Lewis & Clark Law School, studying real legal cases with law students. “I love Classroom Law Project, especially because of the way it engages the students,” says Vaughn. “Students are challenged, and then you see them rise to the occasion.”
Cover and her staff of three say they are anxious to get more teachers and students involved in Classroom Law Project’s civic-minded work. The organization just received a grant from the Oregon Community Foundation to support a more aggressive marketing effort, and Cover is determined to expand Classroom Law’s influence.
“We need to be in every school in Oregon, if we are going to fulfill our mission of creating active, thoughtful citizens by teaching democracy to students,” she says. And with a new era unfolding in the nation’s capital, the timing seems perfect for Classroom Law Project’s message of turning students into model citizens.

Work Samples 1: The Two Dans writing team

When I relocated to Portland, OR, in 1997 from Miami, I came to take on the redesign and general overhaul of the editorial content of the Portland Business Journal. One of the people who assisted me in that (very successful) endeavor for almost the full 6.5 years I was there was Dan McMillan.

McMillan covered the high tech industry for us back when there was a high tech industry in Portland. Later, he became the managing editor for news. Now that he and I have both moved on from the Business Journal, we've struck up a freelance writing partnership. Just like old times--we work very well together and the clients couldn't be happier. (That's me on the right, the real handsome one.)
Our primary client has been The Classroom Law Project. This nonprofit celebrates and supports civics education in schools K-12. The best known activities of Classroom Law Project are Mock Trials and We The People Constitution Team competition. You'll notice a photo (by Andie Petkus) of very excited students. They've just won the state We The People competition. Go Grant High School!

Classroom Law Project has been an extremely satisfying project for The Two Dans, as they call us. The folks at Classroom Law Project (CLP) know what they want--greater awareness of their programs--and they are in a hurry to get it. Dan and I have developed and implemented a very aggressive media campaign, beginning in Feb. 2009, that has earned CLP a ton of media coverage and new connections in the Oregon schools,
It's fantastic to work with an organization like that when you're on the contractor side. Marilyn Cover, the executive director, can tell you about the work we've done. She's at 503-224-4424, or marilyn@classroomlaw.org. Watch out: She'll also bend your ear on the importance of civics education. But that's her job, and she's right about it too.

We like Trains

"We Like Trains" is a classic Jim & Jesse album from the late 1960s or early 1970s. The songs are drawn from many songwriters, but each and every one resonates with me. I just love trains.

Here I am in the Great Hall of the train terminal in Chicago. I had just rolled in from Cleveland after dropping the boy off at college. I was met by the lovely and talented Therese at the station, who snapped a couple of shots.
If you have not visited the train station in Chicago, you are missing out. Anyway, that's the connection when you're traveling between Cleveland, my hometown, and Portland, OR, my current home. It's always a treat to ride the Empire Builder across this beautiful land--you go through Glacier National Park, many tribal reservations, the Wisconsin Dells, Milwaukee--it's a stunning trip of about 45 hours duration.

And the trip is bracketed by two of the most well-designed and maintained train stations in the nation: Portland and Chicago. There I am at the right, leaving the station as the lovely and talented Therese captures another of my many moods.
The Cleveland train terminal is a beauty, too, but Amtrak doesn't pass through it. Too bad. Another mistake that Cleveland probably will never correct.
Anyway, I like trains and I love the people who like trains. So if you like trains, too, look for me in the view car on the Empire Builder. I'll be the guy with the big smile on his face.

Mountain Man

I love the mountains. Got hooked on them in 1960. The old man drove mom and the 3 kids to Rocky Mountain National Park from Cleveland. From that day on, I wanted to live near the big ones. Living in Portland, OR is the perfect spot for a mountain junkie.

I've spent a lot of time on and around Mt. Hood. Tom and Paul Balmer did the Timberline loop with Rob and me back before the Cloud Cap section washed out for good. That was fun.
But my true love is the Sister Wilderness in Central Oregon between Bend and Sisters. Here's a photo of Dr. Paul, Dr. Wayne and myself near the summit of Middle Sister in 2009 (we did not summit that day). For sheer beauty, for isolation and for a challenging trek, there's nothing better in my book that a good backpack in the Sisters.

Music: These are the people I know

I've played and sung and written music my whole life. You can see more of the early band stuff from Cleveland here. It's mostly about the legendary Backdoor Men.

Most recently (i.e., the last decade), I've played and recorded in Portland. My primary sidekick for years was Tom Chartrand, an excellent drummer. He and I have worked out many original songs over the years, many of which have been recorded, usually not by the two of us. We have one really killer take on a song called "Back From the Dead" with Suzi Z on bass. Tom and me at our very best.


More recently, since June of 2008, I've played and recorded a considerable amount of music with Since June. That's Dave G on drums, Ann T on accordion, Suzi Z on bass and me on everything else. The songs are either by myself or written with Terry Hartman, currently with Dead Beat Poets
You can go to the MySpace link at Since June to hear us and learn more about the band.

What Dan does: Music, mountains and movin' on the train

Ah, the many moods of our Mr. Cook.
Backpacking with Dr. Wayne and Dr. Paul;
Music with Since June;
and captured by Therese in Chicago as he detrains in September.

Farewell to baseball--for now

I tried mightily to maintain my interest in (forget passion for) baseball in the last two years. But between steroids, liars all around, gobs of money and flat-out greed, I just couldn't do it. My own recent awakening put it in perspective. I'll always love Vic Power, Willie Kirkland, The Rock and Daddy Wags. I'll never stop consulting the Baseball Encyclopedia (1993 edition). But my days of following professional athletes are over.

The site will be converted to something more utilitarian (kinda like Hector Lopez): my personal portfolio site. As I enter my 10th month of job-hunting, I realize I need to be able to direct people somewhere that they can see what I have done. And maybe some of those eyes will get a kick out of the old baseball material on the site. Maybe I'll get hired by an Indians' fan. Stranger things have happened. Take, for instance, that bad hop that hit Kubek in the throat in ... wait, I'm not going there.

Bye bye now.
Dan