How do you become……
best blog in the state
something Great
a valuable public service
must-read source
in other words,
How do you become theonetruebix?
I ponder this question as I study his photo, which appeared on the front page of The Oregonian kitty-corner from Condoleeza Rice’s.
According to my personal and precise recollections, among other imaginative things, you have to
— come into this world vocalizing before you’re even all the way out of your mother
— get accepted into a Montessori pre-school when you’re 2.5 years old because you’re already reading
— become addicted to comic books and sci fi before you even start Kindergarten
— want to be a space moving van driver when you grow up
— from age 6 on, never be without a book of some sort in your back pocket
— dislike school but love to investigate and create
— grow up in a room that a set designer painted to look like the Star Trek bridge
— manage to get an excuse from gym class
— use one of the first Macs to write, publish, and distribute an underground newspaper while in high school
— never get a driver’s license or learn to drive
— get arrested on high school graduation night for shooting off firecrackers
— apply to only one college and get accepted based on your application essay
— get written up in the NY Times while in college for helping to stage a kind of “art is for the people” protest on campus
— churn out an underground newspaper in college
— quit college and spend some time in Texas, Minnesota, New York City, and San Francisco and do all the traveling by bus
— get written up by Rolling Stone as one of the dozen twenty-somethings trying to change the world
— wear black and shave your head
— convince a couple of girls you meet over the Internet to rent a truck and move you from San Francisco to Portland, Oregon
— use money that your grandfather left when he passed away to buy an internet cafe in Portland and then realize that you’re not cut out for the business world
— try many times and without success to get a job at Powell’s books
— keep shaving your head and wear hats
— spend a couple of years earning some money being a “nanny” and father-figure to a little boy/child of a working single-mom friend
— discover the joys of weblogging early in the game and convert your mother to the cause
— find your bliss — although not your fortune — as a citizen journalist and get profiled by The Oregonian.
Oh. And also
— give your mother heartburn, gray hairs, bad dreams, and lots of reasons to be plenty proud, amazed, and teary-eyed.
Check out
The One True b!X’s PORTLAND COMMUNIQUE: Open Thread For ‘Oregonian’ Story

Citizen e-journalist b!X is profiled today in a lengthy piece in The Oregonian.
[snip]His real name is Christopher Frankonis, but everyone who’s anyone in Portland political circles knows him simply as b!X. And during the past year and a half, this college dropout with no journalism experience has become the must-read source for those who follow city government.[snip]
But unlike most bloggers, who typically link to previously reported material and then offer their own analysis, b!X is unusual because he’s going out and doing his own legwork. Armed with a black spiral notebook, a laptop and a homemade press pass, the admittedly shy and soft-spoken Frankonis has become a familiar face at City Council hearings, county task force meetings and news conference crushes, quietly forging something that is one step beyond the Fourth Estate. [snip]
In fact, what some fans love about b!X (who, when he could afford cable, watched C-Span and the NASA channel incessantly) is his painstakingly thorough coverage of meetings and hearings that would hardly warrant two paragraphs in most newspapers — what City Commissioner Erik Sten, a faithful “Portland Communique” reader (“Everybody at City Hall reads b!X”), calls the “tidbits of news you don’t get other places.” [snip]
By the time the debate finished at 8:40 p.m., he had logged an 11-hour day. He had ridden six buses, downed five cups of coffee, smoked about 71/2 cigarettes and written one story. He had made no money. [snip]
Ya’ gotta love him!
Now help us find someone who loves what he does enough to pay him to do it!!