Blog: From This Side of the Viewfinder (http://newimpatienceofjobe.blogspot.com/)
Blogger: Kim Jobe ('85), Corinth, MS
Kim began blogging in the summer of 2008 as way to satisfy the "writing bug" in the wake of a career shift. "In November 2007, my job at our local newspaper was eliminated and my employment there was terminated--8 days short of 19 years," she says. "I had been in the newspaper business since July 1985. It was basically all I knew. And, at the time, I pretty much thought it defined my life--and/or was my life. When I started my new career in education, I felt I was lacking in an outlet to utilize my writing abilities. Someone suggested I start a blog which I found rather funny since, at the time, I had never even read one. So I read a couple and decided I could start one."
Initially, Kim explains, her blog began as a way to continue her long-running newspaper column. "As a journalist, I started writing a weekly column that I would run on the opinion page at the Baldwyn News in Baldwyn, MS--my first job where I was editor (right after graduation from The W). Some friends and I came up with the name--The Impatience of Jobe--as a play off my last name and the biblical Job. When I became news editor of the Daily Corinthian, one of my bosses encouraged me to continue writing a personal column, so I brought the name with me to Corinth. My column ran almost every Friday for the duration of my career there. Often people would mention how much they missed my column, so I thought the blog might become a replacement for it."
Kim admits, however, that sometimes blogging is easier said than done: "Maintaining it has been the real challenge for me. I'm lazy. I write a lot of blog posts in my head that I never sit down and type into my laptop, which is sad because some of them are pretty good. Or at least they seem so in my head at the time!"
Kim originally titled her blog "No Longer Buying Ink by the Bucket." However, she recently changed its name in recognition of her change in career paths. "I think the name should reflect where you are not only physically but emotionally," she explains. "I have recently gone through some emotional changes in my life over the past few years so I opted to change the name of my blog. The original name was a take on the fact that I no longer worked in the newspaper business. There's an old quote - I wanna say it's credited to P.T. Barnum but I'm not certain - but anyway, paraphrased it goes something like 'You shouldn't argue with a man who buys ink by the bucket.' That was pretty much the superior attitude I took as a journalist on some days. Now that I am pretty much settled into a new career and over the loss of my previous one, I decided to change the name of my blog a few weeks ago."
Kim's new blog name is inspired by her growing love for photography. "I spend a lot of time looking through the viewfinder of either a Canon Rebel or a Nikon D90, so I decided to name my blog to reflect that fact," she says. "I hope that my blog posts reflect what I'm seeing when I look through the lens of my mental camera at the world."
Some of Kim's favorite blog reads include:
Strange Maps: http://bigthink.com/blogs/strange-maps
PostSecret: http://www.postsecret.com/
Hootenannie: http://hootenannie.com/
Suburban Turmoil: http://suburbanturmoil.blogspot.com/
Big Mama: http://thebigmamablog.com/
Thanks, Kim, for sharing your thoughts--and your blog--with us! Make sure to follow "From This Side of the Viewfinder" to see more of Kim's "mental camera" viewpoint of the world.
