You are currently browsing the monthly archive for August, 2008.
I could get involved in an intelligent discussion about this year’s election or politics in general, but it would probably not be as unbiased as my job requires. I’m sure it’s all been said by people with higher heartbeats and blood pressure than I have anyway.
But I can’t help but comment on new Republican VP candidate Sarah Palin’s kids’ names. She has five kids: Track, 19; Bristol, 17; Willow, 14; Piper, 7; Trig, four months.
I was so confused when I first read that. Track? Really? Many of you know I’m a stubborn supporter of unusual names, but this is a bit too much. Maybe it’s just the quantity. The first two or three wouldn’t be so bad, but this is too much. It’s not that I hate any of the names individually too much, but I’m also not trying to be vice president.
On the other side of the aisle, I think Obama’s kids are going to be real trendsetters regardless of whether he gets elected. The name Sasha is just waiting for a huge explosion in popularity.
Some photo person should tell me if I’m wrong in thinking the new Nikon D90 sounds totally awesome. If this is the way the future is going I’m not too scared.
And don’t worry, Mom, I’m kidding about the Christmas thing. It’s not awesome enough to forfeit the next half-decade of Christmas presents.
Just a follow-up from the other day. I’m working the late shift today, from 2 to 10:30 p.m. I’ll be doing that until Meghann, our usual night cops reporter, returns from the Joseph Duncan trial in Boise. Since all the witnesses finished up today, it may not end up being very long.
I am basically doing the same thing I was doing a lot earlier in the day yesterday and Friday, only now it’s called covering Night Cops instead of Morning Mojo. Neither label is very accurate. It should just be called A.M. Breaking News and P.M. Breaking News, unless I have very little understanding of what I’m supposed to be doing. Which is a very plausible possibility.
There’s also going to be another switch for me coming up soon, which I’ll explain later. It’s all part of my scheme to beat Nick’s seemingly iron-solid record for number of different jobs held at the Spokesman within one year.
Some things never change about the first day of classes at WSU. There will be lost freshman, hungover sophomores, not enough seats in the class you want to get into, and a welcome column from the Evergreen editor-in-chief. So even though I’m not a part of it anymore, I thought I’d compile some of those semesterly sentiments from past years in a fun little puzzle. Guess which editor used the sentence(s) in their column:
Editor options: Christina, Brian, Lisa, Nick, Jacob
A. “The Daily Evergreen listens to your stories. We seek them out. We need them.”
B. “To all the incoming freshmen and transfer students reading the paper for the first time, welcome to WSU and I hope you enjoy reading our newspaper each day.”
C. “Even though I am saying goodbye to a semi-healthy diet and a house without a squirrel infestation, there is a certain sense of home within these wheat fields.”
D. “But there’s no time to sit around sentimentally watching wheat grow, because this fall is all about newness.”
E. “Pick up your free Evergreen on your way to class or when you’re around town. You never know when you’ll want to kill some time with our newest weekly feature: sudoku.”
Answers below.
Ben made this avatar-thing for me.
For the sake of self-esteem I made my own.
I don’t necessarily think either one is more accurate than the other on any given day. I tried making them for other people but it’s really hard to make guys look accurate. Try it yourself.
That’s what happens when you start at 6 a.m. I’m filling in as morning “mojo,” but basically it’s just the early shift and getting new things or updates onto the web as early as possible. It’s pretty fun. I reserve coffee for these kinds of days because that makes it something to look forward to. I get to do it again Monday.
Also, walking to work this morning seemed remarkably like trudging to campus for 7:45 class junior year. Except 7:45 doesn’t even seem that early anymore, so I guess that’s what happens when you no longer edit until midnight and stay out until 2 a.m.
Sometimes being a reporter means being so bored you “run out of internet,” as Brian put it the other day. But most of the time you’re doing something interesting. Yesterday I got to ride a Harley for a first time (thanks to staff photographer Dan Pelle for the photo evidence). I am riding with “Ratbike Milo” on the Harley he’s been riding around for 33 years and adorning with all sort of bizarre things: dried-up lizards, wires, a fire alarm, flags. He keeps a more conventional record of his travels here.
I was writing a story about bikers riding through Spokane on their pilgrimage to Milwaukee for the 105th anniversary of the birth of Harley-Davidson. Last week I got to ride around in an apple-green 1924 Ford Touring at the local hot rod show. Today I visited some pilots with awesome old biplanes as they prepare for a trip to recreate the early-century mail route from New York to San Francisco, though I didn’t get to fly.
It doesn’t matter how GA you are as a reporter, eventually you’ll start acquiring a sort of beat. Mine is shaping up to be the weather and bizarre transportation beat so far. I haven’t been linking any of my stories because they’re mostly behind the paywall and I’ve been having the anxiety again about having stories in the paper.
Newspapers worry about trying to keep up with modern technology and, this year’s favorite, “social networking” while laying off the young people who subsequently make Facebook groups about it.
For all the vindictive people who write letters to the editor like, “With coverage this BIASED is it any SURPRISE newspapers are DYING?”: No, that’s not it.
I haven’t watched any of it. I don’t have TV, which is a major factor but a weak excuse for watching absolutely zero coverage of the Beijing Olympic Games. I may have even lied to some of you about this, saying I’d watched snippets online. I’ve clicked on a few links but abandoned the quest when videos didn’t load right away, and I haven’t done much to really seek out coverage. But it’s embarrassing to admit this because it makes me feel like a bad American. And it makes me feel like a traitor to athletics, especially the obscure, grueling, and perpetually amateur sports that have always been most dear to me and rarely get any sort of audience, let alone the world stage.
But while I haven’t actually watched any of it, I’ve been following quite closely. I’ve read all the commentary and I know what’s going on.
I read everything I could find about the controversy over the Chinese gymnasts’ ages. They really do look exceptionally young, but doing rigorous athletic practices since you were 4 can stunt your growth like that. I still think it’s very suspicious and that makes it intriguing, but I have to wonder why it matters. If the Olympics is overall about pushing the human body and mind to peak performances, why are there rules about the competitors’ ages anyway?
The newly refurbished Compton Union Building opened its doors to the public Monday, so yesterday I stopped in to take a look. I should first say that it is quite nice, and I was instantly reminded how central the CUB is to student life. And I was also impressed by The Bookie, which is extraordinarily well-done even if I’m not totally over my initial skepticism of the move.
Beyond that, though, it was clear the “on time” part of the mantra is best interpreted broadly (I imagine the “on budget” part is the same way). Maybe it was the evidence of ongoing construction, or the fact that only one food vendor is even marginally operational, or the worker people who gave me weird looks every time I walked anywhere other than the sleek main corridor.
I half-wanted someone to question my picture-taking so I could say, “This place was rebuilt with my money and I’ve been waiting two long, fragmented years of my college experience to see it reopen, so I think at the very least I have a right to take pictures.” Which isn’t an exactly true statement in any aspect, but it still would have been a good point.
No one questioned me, though, so here are a bunch of pictures. I should also mention that none of it really surprised me, but that’s because I’ve been inside the CUB a few times in the past year on various tours.
Recent Comments