Let me begin with a big congratulations to the nation of Japan. Their country has had an extremely rough last couple of months (I should know since I spent most of my time on Newswaves reporting on their earthquake/tsunami/radioactive spinach) and their women's national team showed a tremendous amount of heart, grit, and determination throughout the entire World Cup. In fact, if the USA could have played any opponent in the final, I'm glad that it was the Japanese. Japan should be proud all around.
Now to the USA: You disappoint me. It wasn't enough that we had this game in the bag TWICE, but that we squandered numerous chances in front of the goal (most in the first 30 minutes of the game) and then figuratively (and quite possibly literally) sh*t ourselves during the Kicks From the Mark. That's just not good enough...at all.
It's bad enough that the US managed to snatch a defeat from the jaws of victory (see what I did there?), especially with all the last minute heroics that we demonstrated against Brazil and France. But this could have been a watershed moment (at the very least a small one) for women's soccer in the United States. Hell, for soccer in general! Americans would have remember that we can actually be good at soccer and could have started to give more of a damn. But it wasn't meant to be, I guess. Now we'll just go back to stressing out about whether the NFL will resolve its stupid lockout (which you know it will, duh) or why Tiger Woods isn't playing golf anymore (I mean, who cares?) while our nations women's professional soccer league, the WPS, slowly crumbles to the ground.
I'm sad for players like Hope Solo, Abby Wambach, and Christie Rampone...team leaders who couldn't lift the trophy after playing well and coming in clutch throughout the entire tournament. I'm not sad for players like Shannon Boxx and Carli Lloyd, who just didn't play well enough in central midfield and had horrible efforts during the penalty kick phase. (Note to Boxx: You were just out-matched throughout the entire World Cup. You're 34-years-old. I think it's time for you to hang up your boots and do something else for a living.) I am happy for Lauren Cheney, who really showed some great skill out on the pitch and most likely gained many fans because of that.
And finally, while I'm a little sad and a lot pissed off that my team could pull out the victory, I am feeling hopeful, thanks to the poised play of Alex Morgan, that team USA can find it's way back to the World Cup final. And maybe, we can bring the Cup back to where it belongs...in A-MUR-CA!
Sunday, July 17, 2011
Thursday, July 14, 2011
It's Official!
After I got home from a strenuous and laborious work out at the gym, I noticed that there was an envelope on the porch. I knew that it was my college diploma, since every Pepperdine kid and their mom were posting pictures of their diplomas on Facebook. (Quick note to those kids: there is really no reason for you to post a picture of your diploma on Facebook. It's a piece of paper that looks the same as every other diploma ever made ever except for the name on it. You just look like a fool.) I picked up the envelope and noticed the big Pepperdine lettering on it. I tore open the envelope on the perforated line and pulled out the $200,000 piece of card stock.
When I saw it I was a little underwhelmed. You would think for a diploma that commemorated the labors of my high quality education, it would include a ribbon or even a fancy border. Something. This thing just has a bunch of fancy cursive letters and a gold who-yeah. Meh...it is what it is. At least it says that I got magna cum laude honors because dammit I worked hard to get that so it better say on my diploma for all to see. Now I can put this in my fancy diploma holder thingy that President Benton gave me on graduation day and display it proudly on my bookshelf.
My time at Pepperdine has officially come to an end. However, I do find it hilarious that I managed to get a job (in my area of study BY THE WAY!) before I got my diploma in the mail.
When I saw it I was a little underwhelmed. You would think for a diploma that commemorated the labors of my high quality education, it would include a ribbon or even a fancy border. Something. This thing just has a bunch of fancy cursive letters and a gold who-yeah. Meh...it is what it is. At least it says that I got magna cum laude honors because dammit I worked hard to get that so it better say on my diploma for all to see. Now I can put this in my fancy diploma holder thingy that President Benton gave me on graduation day and display it proudly on my bookshelf.
My time at Pepperdine has officially come to an end. However, I do find it hilarious that I managed to get a job (in my area of study BY THE WAY!) before I got my diploma in the mail.
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
I'm Back to Blogging and I'm Totally Employed!
Wow...I may be the most neglectful blogger in the history of the wor-led. I apologize for that. I guess I have just been a bit too lazy to write... But that laziness ends now. There are too many exciting things happening in my life to just keep quiet. But before we get to those exciting things, let me just fill you in on what has been happening in my life since my last blog post over five months go:
Classes, studying, Newswaves, reporting, homework, tests, celebrating my 22nd birthday, studying, Coachella Music Festival, studying, Easter, Finals, graduating from Pepperdine, packing my apartment, driving home, moving back in to my house, being unemployed, becoming employed.
Okay, now that everyone is completely caught up, let's get right into how AWESOME my new job is! A couple months back, I applied for a part-time writing and production assistant job at NorthWest Cable News (the Northwest region's own 24-hour cable news network based out of Seattle). It was perfect because the job was in the company that I dream of working for (King Broadcasting) and it was in Seattle, which meant that I got to stay home and not move to some small market butt-crack of a town. No offense to any of the small market butt-crack towns out there.
You can check out their website: www.nwcn.com
About three weeks ago I heard back from the News Director at NWCN saying that he wanted me to come in and perform a writing test (which is pretty normal for broadcasting). I went in, did the writing test about as best as I could do, and answered a couple of his questions. I felt pretty confident that my interview/test had gone well, but he had other well qualified candidates for this part-time job. After talking with an HR lady on the phone and anxiously twiddling my thumbs in anticipation for a couple days, I finally heard back that I got the job. It felt so refreshing to finally be employed and to not have to stress out about tweaking resumes and memorizing interview questions. I can relax and just make sure not to screw up enough to lose my new job. Of course, as the new blood in the organization, I am the one that starts out with the most undesirable of shifts...the weekend mornings. Aside from working Thursday and Friday mornings, I would be working 4am to 11am on Saturdays and Sundays. So long having fun on Friday and Saturday nights (not like I ever went out on those days, but you know what I mean). Still, I was extremely excited about the opportunity and the chance to get my foot in the door of a well-respected news organization in the market that I wanted to work in most.
After clearing my drug test (I was reallyyyyyyy worried about that one...nawt) and filling out some papers for Human Resources, it was time to start my job. I got up at 6:30 in the morning so I could leave my house at 7:30 so I could get to the station in Downtown Seattle by 9 (you never really know how bad traffic on 405 and 520 can be in the morning). Upon arriving at the station, I had quite the bout with those new city parking meters that take the credit cards. Note: not all of them take credit cards and can be a real pain in the arse at 8:30 in the morning. After that I walked in, met up with a NWCN producer and got taken up to the newsroom to begin my training. My trainer was Blaine, a nice young lady that as it turned out was also my weekend morning producer. She taught me the ins and outs of their news writing program (iNEWS), the lay out of the newsroom, where the cafeteria is...you know, all the important things.
Then I had a chat with the HR Director lady about my ID badge (!!!) and parking pass and all that. I was really excited to get my badge so I could prominently show to everyone that I was an employee of NWCN, but when they finished printing it out, all there was was my picture and my name. No station ID or anything. I was disappointed but how cares, I HAVE A JOB! After doing some practice writing on iNEWS for a bit, it was time for me to go home from my first day. Naturally I had to call my mom and tell her all about it. I couldn't wait for what was in store for tomorrow.
The commute the next day wasn't as bad, and I got to work with some to relax and listen to Katy Perry on the radio (they are really starting to play her waaaaay too much). I walked into the newsroom with my sophisticated black business bag and my lunch box with my head held high, feeling all confident and shit. My producer told me that I had some stories to write for the 10am show. I looked on iNEWS and sure enough, there were some stories marked with an "AB" next to them. Ecstatic, I got to work. Now, these stories weren't anything hard-hitting or anything, just something about a Seattle Hotel tax increase and an intro to a package about a Rainier Beach social media grant. Regardless, it all seemed exciting to me.
The thing that makes NWCN different from your run-of-the-mill news city news station is that they are getting their news footage from across the region - Seattle, Spokane, Portland and Boise - and a lot (if not all) the stories that we put in our newscast have already been written. All we need to do is tweek them so that they are fitting for a regional audience, not just the audience of a specific city. For example, KING5 might have a story where they mention the town of Issaquah. If we use that story in a NWCN newscast, the town of Issaquah now becomes a town in Western Washington. Because people in Bend, Oregon aren't going to have any idea or give a rip about a town in Washington called Issaquah (although they should give a rip because Issaquah is way cooler than Bend, OR).
I digress. After finishing my stories and having my producer look over them with me to see what could be improved (which remarkably was not much!) I had to print off the scripts for the anchors and run the teleprompter for the show. Running the teleprompter for an NWCN broadcast is much more nerve-racking than running the teleprompter for a Newswaves newscast because people across five states are watching NWCN while the only people watching Newswaves are my parents. But I managed to run the teleprompter without screwing up too royally and went back to help write some more. I wrote another story about how a northern Oregon reservoir was contaminated with blue-green algae (oh nose!) and the low flying helicopter that will be measuring radiation levels in Puget Sound. Again, not ground-breaking stuff, but it was really awesome to see my stories get read LIVE on television, and then be seen repeated over and over for the next four hours.
The one story that I was totally stoked about was the 20 second VO about a bear in Issaquah. I copied the copy (haha) from the KING's noon news into the NWCN 2pm news rundown and thought of ways to make this story 1) relatable to the regional audience and 2) to make it more interesting. I solved problem number 1 but changing "an Issaquah man" to "a Western Washington man." In my attempt to make the story more interesting, I wanted to add some cheeky phrase that only I would think was funny. So naturally, I decided to call the bear a "furry stranger." I thought I was being really clever, but I didn't know if the producer and anchor would think that it was clever enough to keep in the show. I waited for the 2pm show on pins and needles, periodically checking back to the story to see if my "furry stranger" phrase was still in there. Sure enough, it was time for my story to air, and the anchor actually said my furry stranger line. I did a silent cheer for myself and made a vow that I would try to fit something weird into my stories everyday. It's the little things.
It was time for me to leave, but it wasn't too late to hear some encouraging words from my producers. They told me that I was a really quick learner, which is crucial in this business (duh, you don't want dolts working for you), and that I was doing a really good job with my writing. I was thrilled to hear the praise, and walked out of the newsroom to start my two-day break. I go back to work on Friday and I can't wait to see what will be in store for me then.
Classes, studying, Newswaves, reporting, homework, tests, celebrating my 22nd birthday, studying, Coachella Music Festival, studying, Easter, Finals, graduating from Pepperdine, packing my apartment, driving home, moving back in to my house, being unemployed, becoming employed.
Okay, now that everyone is completely caught up, let's get right into how AWESOME my new job is! A couple months back, I applied for a part-time writing and production assistant job at NorthWest Cable News (the Northwest region's own 24-hour cable news network based out of Seattle). It was perfect because the job was in the company that I dream of working for (King Broadcasting) and it was in Seattle, which meant that I got to stay home and not move to some small market butt-crack of a town. No offense to any of the small market butt-crack towns out there.
You can check out their website: www.nwcn.comAbout three weeks ago I heard back from the News Director at NWCN saying that he wanted me to come in and perform a writing test (which is pretty normal for broadcasting). I went in, did the writing test about as best as I could do, and answered a couple of his questions. I felt pretty confident that my interview/test had gone well, but he had other well qualified candidates for this part-time job. After talking with an HR lady on the phone and anxiously twiddling my thumbs in anticipation for a couple days, I finally heard back that I got the job. It felt so refreshing to finally be employed and to not have to stress out about tweaking resumes and memorizing interview questions. I can relax and just make sure not to screw up enough to lose my new job. Of course, as the new blood in the organization, I am the one that starts out with the most undesirable of shifts...the weekend mornings. Aside from working Thursday and Friday mornings, I would be working 4am to 11am on Saturdays and Sundays. So long having fun on Friday and Saturday nights (not like I ever went out on those days, but you know what I mean). Still, I was extremely excited about the opportunity and the chance to get my foot in the door of a well-respected news organization in the market that I wanted to work in most.
After clearing my drug test (I was reallyyyyyyy worried about that one...nawt) and filling out some papers for Human Resources, it was time to start my job. I got up at 6:30 in the morning so I could leave my house at 7:30 so I could get to the station in Downtown Seattle by 9 (you never really know how bad traffic on 405 and 520 can be in the morning). Upon arriving at the station, I had quite the bout with those new city parking meters that take the credit cards. Note: not all of them take credit cards and can be a real pain in the arse at 8:30 in the morning. After that I walked in, met up with a NWCN producer and got taken up to the newsroom to begin my training. My trainer was Blaine, a nice young lady that as it turned out was also my weekend morning producer. She taught me the ins and outs of their news writing program (iNEWS), the lay out of the newsroom, where the cafeteria is...you know, all the important things.
Then I had a chat with the HR Director lady about my ID badge (!!!) and parking pass and all that. I was really excited to get my badge so I could prominently show to everyone that I was an employee of NWCN, but when they finished printing it out, all there was was my picture and my name. No station ID or anything. I was disappointed but how cares, I HAVE A JOB! After doing some practice writing on iNEWS for a bit, it was time for me to go home from my first day. Naturally I had to call my mom and tell her all about it. I couldn't wait for what was in store for tomorrow.
The commute the next day wasn't as bad, and I got to work with some to relax and listen to Katy Perry on the radio (they are really starting to play her waaaaay too much). I walked into the newsroom with my sophisticated black business bag and my lunch box with my head held high, feeling all confident and shit. My producer told me that I had some stories to write for the 10am show. I looked on iNEWS and sure enough, there were some stories marked with an "AB" next to them. Ecstatic, I got to work. Now, these stories weren't anything hard-hitting or anything, just something about a Seattle Hotel tax increase and an intro to a package about a Rainier Beach social media grant. Regardless, it all seemed exciting to me.
The thing that makes NWCN different from your run-of-the-mill news city news station is that they are getting their news footage from across the region - Seattle, Spokane, Portland and Boise - and a lot (if not all) the stories that we put in our newscast have already been written. All we need to do is tweek them so that they are fitting for a regional audience, not just the audience of a specific city. For example, KING5 might have a story where they mention the town of Issaquah. If we use that story in a NWCN newscast, the town of Issaquah now becomes a town in Western Washington. Because people in Bend, Oregon aren't going to have any idea or give a rip about a town in Washington called Issaquah (although they should give a rip because Issaquah is way cooler than Bend, OR).
I digress. After finishing my stories and having my producer look over them with me to see what could be improved (which remarkably was not much!) I had to print off the scripts for the anchors and run the teleprompter for the show. Running the teleprompter for an NWCN broadcast is much more nerve-racking than running the teleprompter for a Newswaves newscast because people across five states are watching NWCN while the only people watching Newswaves are my parents. But I managed to run the teleprompter without screwing up too royally and went back to help write some more. I wrote another story about how a northern Oregon reservoir was contaminated with blue-green algae (oh nose!) and the low flying helicopter that will be measuring radiation levels in Puget Sound. Again, not ground-breaking stuff, but it was really awesome to see my stories get read LIVE on television, and then be seen repeated over and over for the next four hours.
The one story that I was totally stoked about was the 20 second VO about a bear in Issaquah. I copied the copy (haha) from the KING's noon news into the NWCN 2pm news rundown and thought of ways to make this story 1) relatable to the regional audience and 2) to make it more interesting. I solved problem number 1 but changing "an Issaquah man" to "a Western Washington man." In my attempt to make the story more interesting, I wanted to add some cheeky phrase that only I would think was funny. So naturally, I decided to call the bear a "furry stranger." I thought I was being really clever, but I didn't know if the producer and anchor would think that it was clever enough to keep in the show. I waited for the 2pm show on pins and needles, periodically checking back to the story to see if my "furry stranger" phrase was still in there. Sure enough, it was time for my story to air, and the anchor actually said my furry stranger line. I did a silent cheer for myself and made a vow that I would try to fit something weird into my stories everyday. It's the little things.
It was time for me to leave, but it wasn't too late to hear some encouraging words from my producers. They told me that I was a really quick learner, which is crucial in this business (duh, you don't want dolts working for you), and that I was doing a really good job with my writing. I was thrilled to hear the praise, and walked out of the newsroom to start my two-day break. I go back to work on Friday and I can't wait to see what will be in store for me then.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
