Thoughts on today's live blogging

Wow. I am pretty tired. 106 blog posts in one day. I spent a good six hours straight today live blogging the hearings, with only about 15 minutes in between the two sessions to rest my arms. My neck is sore and I think my carpal tunnel may now be advancing exponentially. Plus, those chairs could really have used some cushioning — am I right? I know I wasn't the only one who was sitting in them all day and night.

I originally thought it might be a waste of time to live blog this hearing. I've been to several similar events before where many supporters of the ACR announced their support of it — the most recent being last fall's planning board hearing, also held in the L.P. Quinn Cafeteria — and the testimony often starts to feel excessively redundant. But it was actually a pretty interesting way to cover it. It may me pay attention more closely to specific trends and the specific things people were saying. It also will help me quantify the story a little better.

I also didn't think many people would follow the blog. But I had several people approach me at the hearing telling me they had family members or friends who couldn't be there who were reading the blog and happy to be able to participate in that way, and I came back to some Facebook comments and e-mails saying the same. So I'm glad that the blog was serving a purpose rather than just being a crazy journalistic experiment in endurance. Thanks to everyone who expressed gratitude for it!

It's a little exhausting to think about organizing all this into a story for the paper after basically writing it all day, but I think I'm going to go home and go to bed, then come back early in the a.m. to get my thoughts in order.

A few last notes: I mentioned this in a few posts, but if I got your or someone you know's name wrong, feel free to let me know! Just shoot me an e-mail at jcollier@adirondackdailyenterprise.com. You can comment on the blog post, but I don't get notifications when the blog gets comments, so I'm not sure I'd ever get around to seeing it.

Also, don't forget that Judge O'Connell will continue to accept written comments after today. He's taking e-mails at hearings@gw.dec.state.ny.us with "ARC" in the subject line until noon next Monday, and he's also taking snail mail. The mailing address will be in my story for tomorrow's paper — I still need to go back and listen to my audio recordings to get it.

The adjudicatory hearing sessions start next Tuesday at 10 a.m. at the TL train station. The public is welcome to come watch, but they're not allowed to participate. I will be there, but there won't be wifi available, so my blog posts will probably have to be kept to breaks in the action when I can go find a signal somewhere. The same will be the case with the hearing sessions held in Ray Brook at APA headquarters. After today, I will definitely do my absolute best to post on Twitter any time there's an update to this blog, since it won't be quite so frequent.

Thanks again for reading, everyone!

~A very tired Jess

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