I accepted a position as a sports producer for Boston.com, the Web site of the Boston Globe. So it’s been a whirlwind this last month, leaving Grass Valley, Calif., and making arrangements to be in Massachusetts.

But before this now month-long adventure started, I was working another, more personal project: My five-year plan.

I gathered that I need to make arrangements — eventually — for my future, listing in detail all of the goals I want to achieve. Some of my goals I’ve communicated already (I aspire to be an author — very soon) and I’m somewhat interested in continuing my education … Figures; I’m a life-long learner. Others, I’ve yet to formulate. It really is a rigorous evaluation of the heart and soul, deciding and planning for the future. All the while taking into consideration that things never go as planned. How does the saying go, “When you make plans, God is known to laugh”?

So consider this: My career development and my goals/achievements have all been planned up until this point. Even the random possibility that I would switch papers after 2 years for something bigger. I’ve had this figured out since 2003.

That’s six years for you mathematicians.

Now, I’m looking at a very real reality in which I’m just gonna wing it. As I used to tell my friends, we’ll just play it by year — that’s how I’m gonna be living.

I still have the same goals and the same aspirations, I just believe at this moment I might need to stretch this five-year plan for, say, the rest of my life.

Do you have a plan? How’s it going?

Random reads:

• March 12, 2009 -- A day of hard work feels good
• July 30, 2009 -- Videos: ‘Best Involuntary Spasms’
• July 28, 2009 -- Much ado at new Sustainability Center

Here on my personal site, I’ve also made quite a few adjustments to the blog rolls (wiped out the inactive and deactivated links) and altered the Nevada County page to be the “Friends” page, where the work of folks I’ve been in contact with over the years, some in Nevada County, are highlighted. You’ll also notice, I’ve edited the Pictures page. Sorely needed updates on the site, all around.

I’m in the middle of transitioning right now, so there’s plenty more to do. But I wanted to make sure I got an entry out there that at least broached the topic of change.

More info to come, soon enough.

Random reads:

• September 30, 2009 -- You can also call it an idea center
• February 19, 2009 -- All around the world, sports give us a break
• July 15, 2009 -- Vibe + Diddy = Success

So in order to help things go more smoothly (and they went infinitely more smoothly this time compared to the last), I shot this video so that way people have an idea of what all we were trying to do. See below:

A new members hub — This is what all the hoopla is about. We wanted to make sure that the content of our readers and users was more prominently highlighted on the site and more easily searchable. That includes blogs, pictures, videos and comments. But where they all fuse together is in the actual hub, which shows which stories are getting the most comments, recommends and and which users of the site are active at the moment. It’s another way we hope builds community between our already vibrant users.

Comments for 5 days — Any story from the last five days with a comment on it, will be shown in this new (old) section. I’m sure this will make are top 5 percent users happy, as they often are looking for the “hot” threads.

Inbox notification — In addition to the cool entreaties of the hub, we’ve revamped the login/my profile spot on every page of the Web site.

As obvious a change as it is, sitting in the right hand portion of the site, it’s usefulness knows no bounds. There are links to everything you need in that little box, including the hub, your profile, your blog and your private inbox on our site. The inbox now features a numerical notifier of how many read messages you have from other members you have befriended. Again, very cool.

Other stuff — The navigation is now utilizing drop down menus, allowing space for more topics and cross-relevant portions of the site to be linked under main profiles (i.e. News, Sports, Entertainment). For example, we’re looking at including a link to each particular blog under its respective category. So our Sports Zone blog would be linked under Sports, as it should. Sounds simple, right? Unfortunately, it takes time to implement.

Also, we’ve tightened, or should I say loosened, up our headlines. They now won’t cut off but just drop down to another line on the site. So you can read all of it, and I don’t yell at people over character counts so you can. Win-win.

I’m pretty excited about these alterations, as I feel like all of these fixes/upgrades/additions could have been ushered in one at a time, but the totality makes the site soooo much better. This is stuff we’ve been fighting for, for a long time.

If you’re a user on TheUnion.com, and you want to give feedback, go here.

Related:

• October 17, 2009 -- Stories, stories, stories: Three weeks of October
• October 1, 2009 -- Powell House remodeling ‘exciting’ for Nevada City
• October 1, 2009 -- ‘Capitalism: A Love Story’ premiering at Del Oro tonight

Been hard at work this whole month.

Here’s some select stories I’ve written this month, snippets included:

Green ‘party with a purpose’ set for Nov. 5 — For one of the first major events at the APPLE Center for Sustainable Living, See Jane Do will bring together women who are green leaders. See Jane Do is a radio show duo composed of KVMR’s Elisa Parker and freelance writer and The Union contributor Jesse Locks. The show focuses on women’s issues. Their “Soiree into Action,” set for Nov. 5, is expected to be, as Parker described it, “a party with a purpose.” Read the full story.

Nevada City to revisit smoking issue — The Nevada City Council pushed off a discussion aimed at drafting a law banning smoking in the city’s parks. The council will discuss it at its next meeting after health department officials, who were instrumental in a 2007 resolution that called for voluntary compliance against smoking in the city’s parks, were not present because they weren’t notified. Read the full story.

Governor signs bill to keep records on ammo sales — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed a bill requiring vendors of handgun ammunition to keep more details on their customers. The controversial bill, Assembly Bill 962, was spearheaded by the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence and written by Assemblyman Ken De Leon of Los Angeles. It will require sellers of ammunition to keep a log of sales, store ammunition safely and securely, and require face-to-face transfers of ammunition sales. Read the full story.

New Nevada City shop hopes to bank on residents’ dollars for support — Nevada City’s latest store in downtown is all about high-end sweets, adding to the flavor of the tourist-rich town. But while Treats may be seen as another delectable shop in the midst of the Gold Rush town experience, owners Bob and Peggy Wright are banking on the support of locals to keep it viable. Read the full story.

Scott Mills named Nevada County Teacher of the Year — Scott Mills walks with confidence. You can see it in his instant smile that radiates his positive nature. That smile might have gotten a bit wider this week with news that Mills has been named Nevada County’s Teacher of the Year. Read the full story.

Related:

• October 17, 2009 -- Overview of changes at TheUnion.com
• October 1, 2009 -- Powell House remodeling ‘exciting’ for Nevada City
• October 1, 2009 -- ‘Capitalism: A Love Story’ premiering at Del Oro tonight

At the meeting, slated to begin at 6:30 p.m. at City Hall downtown, owner Brad Croul and architect Jeff Gold are scheduled to present their application for “interior and exterior remodeling and renovation of the Powell House,” according to the agenda.

“That house is a contributing building to the national register and within the historical district,” said City Planner Cindy Siegfried. “They kind of have an exciting project, proposing five apartments and some commercial retail on the first floor.

“That corner has kind of been looked at by the city, and they’ve been wondering what’s going to happen with it,” Siegfried added. “The City Council is excited.”

In 2006, the Powell House, which sits at Nevada City’s southern entryway on South Pine and Spring streets, was bought with the intent to convert it into a 10-room boutique hotel.

Ventura County developer Andrea Kitay paid $730,000, and expected to put much more than that into restoring and remodeling what she called “a fabulous wreck.”

City officials have hoped restoration of the Powell House would help anchor continued redevelopment along Spring Street.

The building was first constructed in 1855 as the home of First Baptist Church.

In 1886, E.T.R. Powell bought the building, converted the large congregation room into 16 rooms and divided the house into two separate living quarters. He manufactured soda in his bottle works in the ground-floor basement factory.

Charles Woods and David Osborn, founders of the American Victorian Museum, owned the building at one time as well, using it as a residence and boarding house before turning it into a “teddy bear castle” where 3,000 toy bears were on display.

The commission will be looking at architectural details and possible parking issues involved, Siegfried said.

“We’re viewing (tonight) as a sort of presentation or as a workshop,” Siegfried said.

While the commission’s normally scheduled Oct. 15 meeting is canceled, it will host a special meeting Oct. 22 to resolve any possible outstanding issues with the Powell House application, Siegfried said.

Related:

• September 30, 2009 -- Judithy Lowry in the Smithsonian full-time now
• September 30, 2009 -- You can also call it an idea center
• September 24, 2009 -- Accessibility an issue in Nevada City

The benefit premiere, at 7:30 p.m. at the historic theater for $20, is one of only eight nationwide that the film’s distributors have authorized, according to a press release by KVMR.

“Moore has long been a supporter of the independent, eclectic public radio outlet, which he first discovered when visiting his sister Anne, a Nevada County resident,” the release stated. “She has served as a film producer on Moore’s recent projects.”

The radio station is happy to have Moore help drive funds for the mostly volunteer outlet.

“We’re absolutely delighted that Michael is once again supporting grassroots, independent media,” said KVMR program Director Steve Baker in the release. “He’s made a bold, courageous film that’s important for responsible citizens to see, even if they might disagree.”

Editor’s note: This story originally appeared in The Union.

Related:

• September 16, 2009 -- Family history key for the Nugents
• October 17, 2009 -- Overview of changes at TheUnion.com
• October 17, 2009 -- Stories, stories, stories: Three weeks of October

A patient displays a jar of medical marijuana outside the Roscoe Compassionate Collective in Canoga Park. | The Los Angeles Times

One caught my eye in particular because of all of the medical marijuana issues occurring in Nevada County, and particularly Nevada City which I cover. The Westword, a Denver based blog, is looking for a medical marijuana reviewer for its site. The person would go around and, you know, check out the facility.

Here’s what the Westword wrote about it (headlined: Calling all potential pot reviewers: Westword wants you!):

Do you have a medical condition that necessitates marijuana? Do you have a way with words? If so, Westword wants you to join the ranks as our freelance marijuana-dispensary reviewer.

To provide an objective resource on the state’s burgeoning medical marijuana scene, Westword has launched “Mile Highs and Lows,” a weekly review of Colorado marijuana dispensaries. Now we’re looking for just the right person to take the reins.

The job is simple: Visit a different dispensary each week (without revealing you’re working for Westword) and pen concise, impartial and snappy accounts of your experiences. Keep in mind this isn’t about assessing the quality of the medicine on site; it’s about evaluating the quality of the establishment. After all, we can’t have our reviewer be stoned all the time.

While the concept is in accordance with “Starving Student” like columns at newspapers, it pushes the envelope on what is expected and arguably respectable of the news org-, er, blog.

However, I think this is a grand opportunity for a learning moment, one which Westword will learn more quickly than the newspaper industry: Change is coming. The medical marijuana community is a sizable community and it remains deep and dark in the shadows to most newspapers for good and bad reasons. Is this the next step for journalists? Get on board rather than fall behind — again? I’m not so sure it’s black and white, but there is definitely an opportunity here to seize coverage of another under reported area of our culture. In my mind, there is nothing but positives there. The execution — meaning smoking to “evaluate” — is what I’m worried about.

Related:

• July 27, 2009 -- Happy to peek at the competition
• August 25, 2009 -- Tweetup at Mateo’s Public
• June 18, 2009 -- Update: Nevada County Tweetup a success

Judith Lowry sits in front of her painting The Race for Fire which will be on display at the Roseville Maidu Interpretive Center in Roseville, Calif.

The Nevada City resident’s acrylic paintings were shown by the prestigious educational center during “Continuum 12,” an exhibit in New York sponsored from 2003 to 2005 by the institution’s National Museum of the American Indian.

Now, Lowry will have a permanent spot in the hallways of the institution. The Smithsonian has purchased her six-panel work, “Weh-Pom and the Star Sisters,” one of the pieces featured in “Continuum 12.”

“To have your work installed in any museum is always an honor,” said Lowry.

“Weh-Pom and the Star Sisters” — or “the girls,” as she calls the series — is one of Lowry’s favorite works, she said.

Its six panels depict five women and a wolf man in the stars, dancing and pouring star dust downward. The vivid colors and symbolism in the paintings are hallmarks of Lowry’s work.

She’s best known for portraying the contemporary perspective of Native American life and her execution in acrylic on life-sized canvasses. “The girls” are 48 by 60 inches each, according to the National Museum of the American Indian.

Lowry’s work also is featured at Lilly Vigil Gallery, 214 Broad St., in Nevada City.

Smithsonian workers were at Vigil Gallery on Monday to crate up “the girls” for shipment.

Born in Washington, D.C., Lowry’s heritage includes Mountain Maidu, Hamawi Band Pit River and Washo tribes and Scots-Irish on her father’s side and Euro-Australian roots on her mother’s side.

Her father, retired Lt. Col. Leonard Lowry, was a decorated World War II veteran.

Stories passed on by her grandmother, of the Hamawi people of northeastern California, inspire her work.

Lowry looks back at her history, her mother and father, and wonders what they would think of her accomplishments after achieving such an honor.

“They’re both gone, and I was just thinking how they would both be so proud,” Lowry said.

She also sold another of her paintings, “The Race for Fire,” to the Roseville Maidu Interpretive Center.

It depicts a tiger, a deer and a bear in the foreground racing in the direction of a fire in the background.

“It fits perfectly for the mezzanine,” Lowry said.

To view examples of Lowry’s work, visit LillyVigilGallery.com or www.nmai.si.edu/exhibitions/continuum.

Related:

• October 1, 2009 -- Powell House remodeling ‘exciting’ for Nevada City
• September 30, 2009 -- You can also call it an idea center
• September 24, 2009 -- Accessibility an issue in Nevada City

The APPLE Sustainability Center in Nevada City will be the gathering place for people and groups in the community to share ideas on how to live green, said center Executive Director Mali Dyck and Nevada City Mayor Reinette Senum. Among its many uses, education will be at the top, as workshops are being forecasted for the newly renovated building at 412 Commercial St.

After hosting a preliminary opening for the center last week, both Dyck and Senum were asked one question: What will the APPLE Center do when it’s fully functional? Here’s what they said:

Dyck: Already we’re getting approached by people … It’s amazing the people who walk in with ideas, or questions. A young group of business people who meet once a month, called the Exchange, who I’ve never heard of, are going to have their October meeting here. Basically, they get together and talk about their businesses and learn about something that’s happening in the community. And that’s totally sustainability. It’s not green building, or tanning, or seed picking, but it’s connections and getting people to talk to each other and help each other with their businesses.

People bring us ideas and we facilitate the meeting of the people who are interested in that. Whether it’s local economy or in water issues or food issues or anything. But the economy is a good part of it. I’m glad people are walking in, seeing us as a resource for business.

Senum: One of the things that I realize is that, because our future is so unpredictable, all we need to do … all we need, is a space for us to come together, and as we go, figure it out and re-invent ourselves and retool and re-educate ourselves. Because in all honesty, there is nobody who can really, really predict exactly where we’re going to go and the rate that we’re going to go.

But what we can do, and the community should have, is a space for us to come together and not be divided and collectively figure it out. And that’s literally what this is. It’s just a place to come together and be the resource that the community needs and wants. And it’s up to the community ultimately. We don’t really drive it, it’s really the community driving it. We’re just providing the space, the energy and the infrastructure to do it.

Dyck: And the facilitation of connecting the dots. You know, one person here has this idea, another person comes in with the (same) idea … let’s look at who else is interested in that idea, so we’re not duplicating efforts.

Senum: Which is happening a lot in this community.

Editor’s note: This story originally appeared in The Union.

Related:

• October 1, 2009 -- Powell House remodeling ‘exciting’ for Nevada City
• September 30, 2009 -- Judithy Lowry in the Smithsonian full-time now
• September 24, 2009 -- Accessibility an issue in Nevada City

Almost every day at around noon, an auctioneer stands in front of the Nevada County Courthouse and tries to sell someone’s foreclosed home.

It’s a reflection of the nation’s continued housing crisis, which has hit California particularly hard, evidenced by the more than 358,000 homes that have gone into foreclosure auction this year, with 57,000 of them finding buyers.

In Nevada County, 434 properties are in pre-foreclosure and 280 are being auctioned for sale, according to the county clerk-recorder’s office. A key indicator has been the 1,120 notices of default that have been filed in Nevada County in 2009, according to the county clerk-recorder’s Web site.

Most days, the auctioneer has to postpone the sale of foreclosed homes because there are no bids. It’s not for a lack of interested parties. The steps at the courthouse are often filled with interested citizens, either worried about their own foreclosed home or bargain hunters. The crowd size differs from day to day.

Read the full story in The Union.

Medical marijuana co-op now in the works

A new medical marijuana co-op in Nevada County is now openly seeking members as the discussion for safe access continues to sting area residents amid pot busts and possible dispensaries.

Nevada County resident Charles Day has worked for months to formulate the co-op, Harmony Holistic Health, and is now prepared to accept members for the “grassroots, membership-based collective,” according to an advertisement placed in The Union and on the co-op’s Web site, (www.harmonyholistichealth.org/).

“We’re good people, trying to do a good thing,” Day said. “I don’t want this to be about me.”

From an organizational standpoint, the co-op would only benefit members as outlined by state law and the California attorney general, Day said. It would not have a “storefront presence.”

Read the full story in The Union.

Antique collectors saved Miners Foundry from major disaster

The legacy of the Miners Foundry is arguably built on its preservation.

After 150 years, the eclectic Nevada City building known for the birth of the Pelton Wheel, remains one of the most prolific buildings in western Nevada County. And thanks to Charles Woods and David Osborn, its legacy is still being blazed.

“It was such an historic building. It was the largest space in Nevada City, under one roof,” recalled Woods, who, along with Osborn, purchased the building in 1972 to house the American Victorian Museum.

At the time, the foundry was in danger of being bulldozed for another freeway ramp for truckers moving in and through the tiny city, Woods said.

“We’d been collecting antiques for years,” Woods said. “So we needed somewhere to put them.”

Read the full story in The Union.

Related:

• October 1, 2009 -- Powell House remodeling ‘exciting’ for Nevada City
• September 30, 2009 -- Pot will be the new frontier of Gonzo journalism?
• September 30, 2009 -- Judithy Lowry in the Smithsonian full-time now