The Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco. Taken in November 2010 during a Patch.com conference.

Many of you know that I just had a birthday, and I loved all the wishes I got on Facebook and elsewhere. Since my previous birthday, my life has changed quite a bit, due largely to professional reasons. So I could not help but air out some thoughts that have piled up since then.

(One disclaimer: I work for a digital media company.)

• Attending high school sports events is fun. The atmosphere is friendly, filled with the excitement of youth and the friendliness of neighborhood camaraderie.
• Covering high school sports is a lot of work. Games are at night, which creates a deadline crunch. NFL writers have the best jobs — one game a week, almost always a daytime start.
• Digital media is more powerful than many people think, including some who work in digital media. Newspapers and TV can make gratuitous mentions and do superficial stories to appear in touch. But the interactivity and information potential always amaze me.
• Municipal festivals are fun. My first 10K run came in Cochran, GA, a small town in mid-Georgia. Memories from that are as special as those from my participation in the 1991 LA Marathon.
• I’m glad bands from the pre-MTV era keep touring; warm fuzzies are hard to beat. However, hope they all know that the time comes for everyone to hang it up. (Memo to the alleged Beach Boys …)
• People have a right to be skeptical of government at all levels. They set policies and have to take responsibility for the results. However, their work is just as hard as what you do for a living.
• Special interests are a big factor in political parties at all levels. Money talks.
• It takes a special person to bear up under Southern summer heat.
• I like SEC football, but that league’s dominance is not good for college football. It comes from getting more TV money than the other conferences do, and that goes into facilities, recruiting, etc.
• I need to take a few pounds off  the middle, and I’m looking forward to it.

Harry Graham, back in the day. (Photo courtesy of www.ocregister.com)

Everybody can write this about somebody. So I guess I’ll write this about Harry Graham.

He sat across from me in the publisher’s conference room at The Orange County Register in 2000, just as the Internet was gathering steam and before much of the world had learned of Osama bin Laden.

Last time I checked, they haven’t taken down Lindbergh’s plane at the Smithsonian, and the Mona Lisa is still on display at the Louvre in Paris. So maybe there’s hope for memorabilia and history that goes with the Allman Brothers Band and other musicians who contributed to Georgia’s rich history.

Crossing the Los Angeles Marathon finish line, 1991

Quoting Sgt. Pepper: “It was 20 years ago today …”

It has been called the ultimate athletic achievement, and it certainly was mine.

I’ve never forgotten running the Los Angeles Marathon, but it was another wake up call this week when the runners traversed Los Angeles streets. Yes, it was 20 years ago when I started and finished my only effort at the 26.2-mile distance.

A couple of colorful Packers and Broncos fans patrol downtown San Diego during Super Bowl weekend, 1998.

John Elway was seeking his first Super Bowl win, near the end of his career at age 37. Brett Favre had yet to retire, or un-retire. Terrell Davis was the league’s top running back.

Such was the scene for Super Bowl 32 in San Diego in early 1998. This weekend brings back those memories, and again shows how fast life moves.

"Lou" Christenbury of the Boston Braves in the 1920s.

The digital world is taking over everything these days, it seems. Kindles are at office-supply stores, and you can buy an iPad at Walmart, along with your toilet paper and hunting gear.

It’s evolution. A recent New York Times story showed how the tradition-infatuated world of Major League Baseball is adapting. That sport is particularly fond of statistics and nostalgia, so it was fascinating to see how the record-keepers are digitizing the game’s history. (Does this mean we’ll be able to recall Roseanne Barr’s forgettable rendition of the national anthem in San Diego in 1990, during which she rubbed her crotch and spat afterwards in a backfiring attempt at baseball humor?)

A portion of San Francisco skyline from my hotel, November 2010

Not being a parent, I’m not sure whether people still put locks of hair into baby books. But there are ways to commemorate special moments.

Thursday (12/23/2010), Suwanee Patch became a living, breathing Web site. Like other Patch sites, it’s all about community. (Can we bury the word “hyperlocal,” by the way, alongside “cyberspace” and “information superhighway”?) But this is different.

At Fisherman's Wharf, San Francisco, with Alcatraz in the background

Before long, the social media grid will be overrun with holiday stories and year-enders. So I’m getting ahead of all that.

And gotta say that 2010 was one special year. There was a lot of fun and personal recognition. Thankfully, I recorded some of it digitally. And I want to note five highlights.

You could almost have grown a forest since Vince Dooley coached the Georgia Bulldogs. And Dooley practically has.

“From field goals to marigolds” is one title Dooley suggested for the speech he gave recently (10/15/2010) at an Atlanta-area college. In recent years, the school’s winningest football coach (201 victories, six SEC titles, one national championship) and longtime athletics director (1979-2004) has become well-known for gardening. There are Vince Dooley hydrangeas (my mother has one) and Vince Dooley camellias out there, and the coach has written a book and travelled internationally because of his latest passion.

Bad news about newspaper downsizing is easy to find, and now a cliche. However, I thought it would be interesting to put the carnage in human terms. In some cases, the downsizing has been a blessing. Reaction and attitude are important.

So. here are the tales of four colleagues of how life has gone since the newspaper business has been among those affected by the Internet.