A new site is born

Check it out at www.michaelgrillo.com. I doubt I'll post on this blog anymore, but I will regularly maintain my new web home.

Bet You Already Knew This

With that out of the way, a brief update:

• I finished my graduate project. 7,500 words on sustainable energy and the economic recovery. I'll post it with the new site that will replace this blog.
• I'm scheduled to move all of my possessions to downtown Hartford at the end of the month. Now that I'm no longer a student after May 10, I'll spend a lot more time doing things like traveling, pimping, you know, the basics.
• I'm getting the music bug again (not to be confused with Swine Flu). I'm still rusty as sin at the trumpet, but I got it cleaned and fixed at Joe Riffs in Middletown (nice work for a great price, btw). Now that I'm free, I'm down for just about any musical endeavor that may come my way.

Happy Early Birthday Mom and Aunt Michele (May 4-they're twins). And away I go.

It's Been Such A Long Time...

...I think I should be posting.

More often, that is. Actually, my plan is to find any free hosting that I can and redirect my URLs to that. I'm going to brand myself with a one-stop Michael Grillo hub, complete with credentials, clips and the works. Don't hold your breath: the next few months will be busy for sure.

This month, I'm wrapping up my formal education with my Master's project for Quinnipiac. I'm offering a glimpse at the sustainable energy industry's successes and pitfalls in the midst of the global recession. I've toured the Connecticut Global Fuel Cell Center at UConn and witnessed the installation of a geothermal well system in Fairfield, and there's a bunch of other journalistic juicy bits on the way as well.

Next month, I will graduate, then I will pack up my meager belongings in my hot car and move 30 minutes north to Hartford. Don't know where in Hartford yet, but I'm trying to snag a one-bedroom on the 7th floor overlooking Main Street.

And the shameless plug for my professional work...

Are you depressed over the UConn Men's loss to MSU last night in the Final Four? Too bad! Drown your sorrows at courant.com/huskies with last night's recap, game photos, box score and the world's most comprehensive UConn sports coverage. courant.com/huskies: it's a Web site. Online.

The Best UConn Coverage In The World

A lot of people, including yours truly, worked extra-hard to create this wonderful hub for UConn sports news and information. Reward our efforts and proliferate this masterpiece throughout the Internet, if you don't mind.

That's www.courant.com/huskies.

There's No "I" In PONT AC

Some bad news in the automobile world...I'm missing a vowel on my awesome fuel-efficient, affordable, peppy American-assembled vehicle. If anyone has seen my missing "I" or knows where I can find a similar one, please reply to this post.

Headline Mirth (Oh, The Double Entendre)

As an online producer, I often have to write headlines for stories or rewrite them to fit within a certain space. For better or worse, I write headlines pretty fast, often gleaning the key details from the first line of the story and posting in a matter of seconds.

Since most headlines I write are for breaking news stories, I try to stay to the point. I don't try to get cute and create a masterpiece. But I do screen my work for the oft-hilarious double entendre. ESPN.com posted a story about an NFL player asking his team to release him from his contract, and the headline came out like this (click to enlarge the image if you can't read it):

Since EPSN is the Worldwide Leader and one of my biggest time-consumers, I don't mean to make them look bad. I'm just the kind of person who laughs at these kinds of innuendo.

For more suggestive headlines, follow this hyperlink to Deadspin's post on suggestive sports headlines.

CL&P Follies

I received my electric bill from Connecticut Light & Power, and they notified me of their rate increase. That's fine, but they waste a lot of paper doing so:



Imagine if they sent multiple fliers to all of their customers across the state. It's the little things the company can do that will save money for its customers.