I've crossed over...
That's right. I've crossed over.
I'm not dead...yet. I've just crossed over the line of sanity.
I have zero sources I've spoken to for the beat story.
I received my last story back this morning and guess what? I have to rewrite it.
I have to take pictures for my stories. None taken.
I have to lay out 4 of them. None layed out.
I'm hopefully going to finish my online story that was due on Monday. Big fucking deal.
I hate school at the moment.
I'm back to my old completely negative self.
Yeah I've crossed over and it's not good.
...
A whole nutha level...
With school ending on the 15th, everything is coming to an end.
And the end isn't coming easily.
I've got my final magazine story to finish writing this week. I haven't started because I'm an idiot who can't prepare properly.
After finishing that, I have to take
all of my 4 published stories' pictures within the next week.
During this next week or so, our magazine group has to finish laying out all of our stories, our cover, table of contents, etc. so we can send it to the printers to make into our magazine. THAT'S going to cost probably over $115 at the worst possible time of the year.
I've got my photo editor responsibilities to handle for the paper. I've got to finish a story that should've been finished on Monday for the online version.
I'm fucked.
But I'll pass.
I think I'm completely fucked however when thinking about my internship next semester.
I haven't got one yet. It's the end of November. Fuck!
I don't know what I'm going to do. For school I'll settle for whatever mark I get in anything, but for my internship, if I'm going to take it anywhere, I want it to be the right place. So I'm suffering from a bit of indecision on that front.
Everyting is hell around me and I'm not even caring anymore. As you can tell from what I've written I'm stressed, but I'm completely not at the same time.
I was just talking to my friend Margot last night when we went for coffee. I told her about how last semester (winter 06) I began to not care about anything as much. Since then it's become more balanced, but I'm still on the teetering edge of complete lack of care. I should be on the right side of apathy, worrying about things as any healthy person should do, but with a sense of calmness I suppose.
Stress. I hate it. Things like this and Myspace so don't help me, but they're also therapeutic in a way too.
Peace.
Busy...
Everything's been a little hectic of late. I've been having to deal with school, work and not being a social outcast, so my blog's been neglected.
On Sunday I went out with my friends Dharm and Shannon. We went down to the Air Canada Centre to watch the Leafs practice. It was only like $7 each, it was my treat. It's not too often you can get to the ACC and have seats in the lower bowl without giving up your first born child, so I didn't mind. I try to make it out to the practice ever year. It was pretty entertaining for the most part. The greatest part however was the mascot game. It had a whole bunch of famous and not-so-famous mascots from all across Ontario. The best 5 of course were the Leafs Carlton, the Raptor, Jason the Argonaut, Ace from the Blue Jays and Duff the Marlies mascot. They being of course all of Toronto's main sports mascots.
After it was all over, when we were leaving they were giving out free 6-packs of Danon (the sponsor) yogurt drinks. Of course I took one, banana flavoured, and Dharm took....i think 3 packs, because he's cool. They were great, tasting like the banana medicine I got when I was younger.
On Monday for TV class we had to dress up to do our newscast. That meant I wore a suit to school. Most people dressed up but I think I was the only guy in our class that actually wore a full-on suit. Everyone else had pieces of one thing matched with another. Aside from my uncomfortable shoes I liked wearing it and in the end it wasn't as much of a deal as I was making it out to be beforehand.
On Wednesday I went to watch the Raptors vs. Cleveland. My friend Margot had an extra ticket because someone else bailed so I got the nod. We were also with our other friend Vanessa and her boyfriend. Our seats weren't nearly as good as the Leafs practice. They were 2nd bowl in more squished up seats, but for free I wasn't complaining.
On our way in we got these Morris Peterson figure type things to commemorate his Iron Man streak, for consecutive games played in a Raptor uniform. He had played in 371 games in a row prior to his elbow injury. That's pretty awesome. So awesome in fact I managed to get 2 of them. One for myself and the other for my nephew who coincidentally just broke his ankle that night too. Oh the Raps won 95-87, which was great, but it would've been better if they'd gotten 101 points so we could get a free pizza slice :(
And tonight. I finally worked another weekday. I'd been putting it off all week, but I forced myself to go in tonight against all my will. I'm slowly going poor and with Christmas coming up it isn't getting any easier.
To spend more money I'm heading out bowling tomorrow night for Vanessa's quasi-birthday party. I'm not into half the people going but I'll tough it out because she's an alright gal =P. I don't know if I'll stay too long, but I figure showing my face is better than not going at all.
Oh, and saturday we're finally getting out to celebrate my friend Kashaf's birthday which was last week. He couldn't do anything so we're going to eat downtown then probably to see the new Bond movie. AFTER THAT I plan to head out to the MOD Club where my classmates are getting together to drink up the night. It should be a freaking tiring and drunken night. I Liiike!
So that's my life. Leave me alone
Peace.
And I continue...
For two and a half years in my program I've been taught, when covering an event, to find a story that isn't the event itself, but something with a bigger meaning.
As I wrote about in my previous post, I went and covered the municipal election in my riding. I found a story that wasn't necessarily about the guy winning, but about blind voting occuring in the elections and other politicians being upset by it. It turned out when I handed it in, they wanted something basic, a simple stating of the facts with some quotes thrown in.
Cut to today.
In our online meetings we sit at a makeshift board table essentially. We each go around in whatever order and talk about our stories and how they're progressing along. Today before we did all that my editor/teacher (**not the one who edited my work. there are two teachers for online**) asked if anyone had any opinions on how the election night was handled.
Umm yeah I think I had an opinion.
He acknowledged me and I went on about what I mentioned to you earlier. I'm never usually that great at expressing my opinions out loud like that, but today I had no trouble. I went through my problem point by point without any problem. It felt good to be able to argue something passionately for once, as there are so few times I think I can.
Later on in the afternoon I went and spoke with him about my two articles. I got him to read both and he fairly criticized the unpublished one and I respected what he had to say. I never said it was a great article. I did say I was only doing what was engrained in my head for my entire college career. So I left feeling the same, but knowing how I could've reworked the article so it was better as well.
That's that. I've moved on...
Peace.
Angered. Just a little...
Last night were the municipal elections throughout the province of Ontario. We all (well an amazing 41 per cent of Torontonians) went to the polls to vote for the councillor who'd be representing our Ward.
For school we were covering the election throughout the Greater Toronto Area. Since I'm in the online cycle at the moment, I could cover anywhere in the city I wanted. I chose my own Ward 42,
The fightin' 42nd! *ahem*.
So yes. I spoke over the phone with 3 of the candidates and their representitives and then I went to the winner Dr. Raymond Cho's victory speech when he was clearly going to win. I got there at about 8:15pm and he showed up right on time at 8:30pm. I must say I was somewhat amused and annoyed at the reception he received. It seemed more fit to that of a boxer winning the championship belt than to a politician retaining his seat on city council.
Anyway, I ended up doing a couple quick interviews with him. I say quick because he was quite willing to brush myself and another guy, who works for a different part of my college's community paper, off. He was very eager to speak with the Korean media there to cover the victory.
In his speech and to me he noted that the 2nd place finisher in the race didn't even bother to show up to the all-candidates debates held in the ward during the campaign. Clearly this was the story so I tried to push him a little bit into giving me more... like saying the guy's name as opposed to referring to him as the guy who won 2nd place, or the Tamil.
On that race note, he mentioned the reason why the guy received as many votes because he was getting them based on his culture/race.
So I left after getting his quotes and proceded to call the 2nd place guy as it was getting somewhat late and I thought they'd be gone from their headquarters since they'd lost. The guy didn't answer his phone at all. Not to worry, it'd work perfectly with my angle of him never being there.
So I called the third place guy. I'd spoken with him earlier in the night and I really thought he'd do better than that, just because he spoke with me mostly (haha). Anyway, he even mentioned the fact that the other opponent never showed without my coaxing. There's my story, done and done.
I write it and send it in to my editor/teacher. He sends it back to me and tells me to make it straight facts of who won, how many votes, etc. Now all my college career we've been taught to find the story and not just write what's given us. I did that. I had to rewrite it. It had no life, no nothing, but that's what they wanted.
I have no problem with doing that, the real online people do that. In fact, it took me a while to learn not to do that, but after I put the effort into making a story work and have it shit on when I did nothing wrong, is fucked up.
Peace.
Interesting...
The first bulletin on myspace that got me to publicly repost is this:
Set up your media player or mp3 player to random and fill them in the order they play.
I hate some of the songs that I have on my player, but whatever. Pretty fun if you can resist the urge to cheat.
opening credits- Ageless Beauty – STARS
waking up- Nazi Punks Fuck Off – Dead Kennedys
first day of school- Like My Style - Black Eyed Peas ft. Justin Timberlake
falling in love- The Chokin Kind – Joss Stone
fight song- Just a Moment - Nas
breakup song- Mosh - Eminem
prom- New York Minute - Mobile
life’s ok- Now I Know - Rihanna
mental breakdown- Country Grammar - Nelly
driving – From Creation – Thievary Corporation
flashback- Chariot – Gavin DeGraw
get back together- One Mic - Nas
wedding- We Are All On Drugs - Weezer
final battle- The End of an Act – Team America World Police OST
death scene- Calculation Theme - Metric
funeral song- Shut Your Eyes – Snow Patrol
end credits- At the Bottom of Everything – Bright Eyes
Cautious glances...
I stand at the bus stop waiting. I stand waiting for the bus that comes every 15 minutes to take me to my destination. I look at my watch. It should be here now, I think to myself. It’s late. I mutter a curse under my breath. As I’m uttering these words however the bus appears on the horizon. It moves noisily down the street approaching me at a snails pace. I wait impatiently.
Finally the bus comes. I board it and pay my fare; one token. I walk on the bus, cautious of the faces looking up at me, a stranger who shouldn’t be there, or that’s what it appears they’re thinking to my own messed up mind. I find a seat near the rear doors and sit facing them.
No one is beside me. I like the space I am afforded; the personal breathing space I can enjoy. I cautiously look around me at the people aboard the bus. There is a man at the back, sun glaring upon his face. He’s wearing all black. He has a black baseball cap on backwards; the logo unidentifiable to me. He glances at over; I move to the next person.
She is an elderly woman. Her hair is white as snow; it is darkened somewhat as the sun is not beating down on her side of the bus. She sits along the side of the bus as I am, but opposite me. We do not quite face each other. She wears a turquoise dress with darker blue turquoise leaves on them. In her lap she holds a white purse. It is in stark contrast with the ebony coloured complexion of her hands that are clasping it so it will not fall off. She wears glasses and though I cannot see her eyes for reflection I can tell she is looking out at the cars that pass by. She has an almost serene look on her face. She is happy.
I look to my left at the passengers towards the front of the bus. There are no visible faces I can see. Only backs of heads. These same people who judged me as I boarded the bus are now being judged without their knowledge. I smile to myself at the irony.I wrote this a month or so ago. It's the beginning and I was originally wary of showing it until it was finished. I'd still like to know your HONEST opinions. Peace.
Am I actually growing up?
Today my Mom wanted me to go with her to help with her *shudder* Christmas shopping. She wanted to look at buying a couple gifts before it gets too busy and when she won't have time to do anything because she'll be making us amazing treats.
Anyway we went into Scarborough Town to find something for my Brother's fiancee. However, the store she wanted to look in unfortunately closed down. We then went to look for something for my sister. That took us up near my school by an art store. While there I was looking around and got the urge to start drawing again. So I picked up a sketch book and some pencils.
After finishing up there we went to the Best Buy and found my brother's gift. Next door to the Best Buy was a Home Sense. We checked it out because it was all new and stuff. In there I found two cook books. Let me get one thing straight: I don't cook anything that involves much effort. However, after looking at this Japanese cookbook and one about pastas and whatnot, I wanted them for the future. So weird.
Well that basically sums up my day in a nut shell.
Peace.
Ended the week nicely...
Yesterday everything seemed to work out somewhat well (for now). I managed to finish my story in the morning before I left.
While I was at school I spent the time editing it and making sure it was okay to hand in and such. I couldn't make it down to Chinatown like I wanted, but I plan to go eventually for pictures and whatnot.
So yesterday I was scheduled to do page design for our community paper we put out. After a few tedious, but overall enjoyable hours, three of the five of us that were there went out to eat. We usually go out to this pub down the road form our campus after finishing up our beat stories as a sort of celebration.
On our way, we were walking around the corner at Pape Avenue and Danforth Road and we saw three cop cars on the otherside of the road. Since we were crossing anyway we decided to get a better look. We noticed yellow tape in front of the building which ended up being a bank. It turns out it was robbed. And since I had my camera and I'm a journalist and all, I took a few pics for the paper.
It was pretty sweet, even though nothing really happened, and they took the damned tape down just after we arrived at the scene. The cops seemed very accomodating to us and did
n't seem to jerk us around or anything. The main thing is one of these pics can help me get my requirement in the paper if I haven't yet reached it!
Oh and Go Leafs! We ended Buffalo's amazing point streak by beating them 4-1. Buffalo's record is now 12-1-1 thanks to us :)
Peace.
Can you take me down to Chinatown...
Hey all. Sorry I haven't posted nearly as much as I normally do, but I've just either not had much to talk about or been too busy with school and such.
Truthfully I shouldn't even be posting right now because I have too much shit to deal with at the moment...
We have this class called Beat Reporting and every two weeks we have to hand in a story. At the end, after we've handed in 5, we will present with our group, a magazine based on our beat, or topic.
So yeah, being the procrastinator that I am, I always end up putting things off, which in journalism is a big no-no. This cycle - which is our 3rd story - I felt good about, and was ready to actually work the entire two weeks to get it done properly. Unfortunately doing copy-editing for the paper got in the way during the first week and took the wind out of my sails.
So that brings me to today. I spent yet another one of my thursdays (which are pretty much our only days off) working on my beat assignment at school. I had planned to do a couple interviews over the phone and then head down to Chinatown to talk to someone in the neighbourhood.
oh yes: my current story is about finding out why an area of town such as this one particular chinatown tends to resemble that of an actual chinese city (but on a smaller scale of course)
Anyway, the sources I wanted to speak with had to make it hard on me by either not being there or not answering their phone or going on vacation!
So I spent the day waiting for phone calls. After a bit I finally got in contact with sources and did indeed end up talking to 3, which is our requirement for the story. So to that, I'm atleast relieved.
Tomorrow though I'm heading down to chinatown to take some pictures and also still try to speak with someone from the neighbourhood, whether it be a shopkeeper or just anyone on the street.
Oh, and today I found out I have to do rewrites (or atleast re-organization) of my first two stories. I didn't catch that on the marking sheet originally. That really made me go insane in the middle of the day when nothing was going right.
Ah well, back to work. It never freaking stops...
Peace.
