Some readers have noticed our Ranging Reporters, our new effort to take the fullest advantage of what technology allows us to do.

In many ways, Ranging Reporters are a throwback. The idea is as old as reporting: Go where the people are and talk to them. Our laptops, cell phones and video cameras just allow us to report all the faster.

We've borrowed the model for our Ranging Reporters from Gannett's pioneering work with mobile journalism. However, we're using a name that better fits South Texas and still experimenting with how this reporting strategy will work for us.

Our four Ranging Reporters -- Tara Bozick, Sonny Long, Pamela Bond and Sruthi Kunnel -- start their days at 7 a.m. in various locations around Victoria. They go to where our readers are likely to gather and listen. To get the conversation started, our reporters ask a question of the day, but we most want to hear whatever is on the minds of our readers.

They also are ready to help any interested readers on posting items to victoriaadvocate.com. If Ranging Reporters are successful, they eventually will train dozens, if not hundreds, of our readers how to share their photos, videos and blogs. Ranging Reporters go hand in hand with the concept of citizen journalism.

After their first stop, the Ranging Reporters move on to a second location in the Crossroads region outside of Victoria. Again, they go to listen. While there, they typically schedule a question-and-answer session with a newsmaker. Meanwhile, they all have other beats and work on stories related to those topics while they're out in the field.

Armed with police scanners, audio recorders and video/still cameras, the reporters are ready to respond and post news as it happens. We hope these regular updates throughout the day will encourage you to visit our site more often.

We've spent most of December working out the inevitable technical glitches and plan to soon start promoting the locations of our Ranging Reporters so you can stop by and say hello. In the end, all of the technology is really about helping us better cover our community. To do that, we've always needed to go to where you live.

We were pleased this week to learn the Advocate's Web site is a finalist for a Newspaper Association of America's Digital Edge Award. As I mentioned in a previous post, we have all of you to thank for the national attention our new site has received.

VictoriaAdvocate.com is recognized in the category of Most Innovative Visitor Participation. We're finalists with two online leaders in our industry, the Savannah Morning News and the Gainesville Sun. We consider that great company for our independent, family-owned company.

Dan Pacheco, who worked with us on the software that drives a lot of the site, explains the thinking behind our Local Information Network:

"What I love about the Advocate is how it harnesses interest in news to engage people in other ways. Thanks to the user profiles that show up next to each comment, conversations around news inevitably bleed into other types of community interaction around user profiles and blogs. For example, you may see a comment from someone about a school story, click on his profile picture and find out that he has the same hobbies as you do. This is a perfect example of how newspapers can position themselves as not just providers of local news and information, but also as the glue of their community. You may go to a newspaper site to read a story someone e-mails you, then find yourself engaged in conversation and social networking quite by accident."

You may read what else Dan has to say on his blog. We appreciate his generous words.

And we truly appreciate all of your participation. That's what sets the site apart.

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The big turnout for the Howell Middle School Christmas pageant impressed me Tuesday night at the Welder Center. Family members packed every one of the 482 seats in the hall.

Such events remind me a lot of good things happen every day in our public schools. My favorite piece was when the combined bands and the choirs performed "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing."

The song took me right to the closing scene in "It's A Wonderful Life" when friends and family surround George Bailey. I tear up every time I watch that movie. "Teacher says every time a bell rings an angel gets his wings." Isn't that Zuzu the cutest thing?

I forgot my good camera for the show, but I snapped a shot using my Palm Treo 650. The stage lighting doesn't work at all for the camera, but I like how the image made all of the schoolchildren glow like the angels they are. 

You can't exactly get stage-fright when you don't have to walk, talk or think.

Nonetheless, I was a bit tense before I took my star turn as Mother Ginger in the Victoria Ballet Theatre's performance of  "The Nutcracker." Somehow, I was roped into -- er, invited -- to provide comic relief for the annual Christmas show.

Producer Jim Busby and many others who introduced themselves to me backstage took great care of me. After having my exaggerated makeup applied, a scratchy wig placed on my head and fake boobs slung over my shoulders, I was all set to get loaded into a platform on wheels. (In case you haven't seen "The Nutcracker," I attached a You Tube video of another Mother Ginger. Fortunately, I know of no video of my performance.)

I literally had to do no preparation for the role. Receiving instructions through an earpiece, I just did as i was told: Wave to the audience. Count your children. Conduct the music. Sway to the music. Eat your cookie. Powder your face. Look at yourself in the mirror. Call the children back to your dress. Scold the child who dawdles.

Before I knew it, my four minutes of fame were up. I was wheeled off the stage, so there was no danger even of tripping and falling.

Along with giving my 10-year-old son a whole new view of his father, the experience gave me added appreciation for how hard those on the stage and behind the scenes work to put on a show. The dozens and dozens of children back stage somehow all came out on cue. The teenage and professional dancers worked as hard as any athlete.

Meanwhile, Mother Ginger tried to stand out of the way and not flub a role that was idiot-proof.

You never know how music will move you.

When Conspirare closed Wednesday night's "Christmas at the Carillon" with "I Could Have Danced All Night," I thought of my father.

"My Fair Lady" is his favorite musical. As a kid, I must have seen the movie a half dozen times with him. In the days before cable television, families actually watched TV together.

The closing song set me in the Christmas mood. Later this month, my wife, kids and I travel to Tucson for a Cobler family reunion. Perhaps we'll all watch "My Fair Lady" together one more time.

The rest of the concert was lovely, too, although I have to confess I'm a rock 'n' roll child. I wanted to hear more of Foreigner's "I Want to Know What Love is" and Eric Carmen's "Never Gonna Fall in Love Again." Craig Hella Johnson crafted gorgeous renditions of both songs.

I'm sure the 400 other people at First United Methodist Church connected with other songs in their own personal ways. Such is the power of music.

What song puts you in the Christmas spirit? 

We have so many active bloggers on the site that it's difficult to find all of the content. Some of you suggested an A to Z directory of bloggers.

Many thanks to Shawn in IT for making this happen. I need to take some time myself searching the alphabetical listing to learn who all is out there.  Shawn also has added a search function to make it easier to find all of the extra content.

I also appreciate how much our community has embraced and energized the site. In short order, you've made VictoriaAdvocate.com so active that it even has attracted national attention. The director of digital publishing for Gatehouse Media writes this on his media blog:

"Rookie of the Year: New this year, this award goes to a newspaper site that probably none of us ever paid much attention, but sometime within the past year got its act together. The first-ever winner of this award: VictoriaAdvocate.com. This small-paper’s site is one of the most active I’ve seen in the use of participation and blogs, to the point of loading up the home page with these web-centric features. Here is a small paper site that isn’t afraid to break away from being merely a newspaper.com."

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I had no idea the Holiday Parade was so big and so well-attended.  My family and I enjoyed tremendously our first taste of December in Victoria.

I expected the size of the parade and the crowd to be similar to the Veterans Day parade, which we also attended to watch our daughter march with her middle school band. The Holiday Parade, however, outshone its November counterpart.

We'll have a story and photos in Sunday's Advocate, but there's no way we can capture all of the sights and sounds. I hope you'll help by posting your photos to Seen on the Scene.

If we get enough photos submitted, we'll publish the best in a later print edition. Please be sure to include all of the caption information you can.

Merry Christmas