epic procrastination

dirtay bingo at cans bar

the closer the deadlines loom, the more i must comb facebook like i'm searching for nits on a scalp, desperately putting off another three hours wasted editing tracks in garageband. deep down, i'm thrilled that i was actually forced to blunder my way through the audio process (because a useless 40-minute training on that piece of garbage audacity program the school wants us to use for audio didn't do shit) but now that i semi-understand what i'm doing, i'm ready to do something else.

once i figure out how to drop an audio player into this little window, i'll post my 90-second audio package for NPR on dirty bingo. just kidding. about the NPR part, that is. you know i wrote and produced a story about dirty (filthy, actually) bingo instead of doing something with any weight. i got a 94 on it, too. don't judge! my friend amy did hers on the taco bell diet. the future of journalism, right here.

for my audio slideshow i covered a yoga-for-haiti fundraiser at the school. yes, i know. i can hear you judging. i'm just not going to be a hard news person, ok? that was never in the cards.

so now i have to write a fictional obit on some poor soul from my hometown (tom hanks, here i come) and instead i'm watching new A.F.I. videos and making tea and mucking around with my camcorder. oh yes, and blog-blathering. i am really asking for it.

one note - if you want to be taken seriously as a journalist, don't arrange beforehand with the organizer of a fundraiser to take photos, then show up with a rinky-dink point 'n shoot. i don't even think he noticed, but i felt like a total ass. i need a big fancy SLR to look legit. shouldn't the school have loaners so their masters students aren't laughed at? um, and bring a tripod so half your pictures from your weak little camera don't come out blurry.

damn, so

photo credits, by the way, are documented by way of photo links

grad school went and got all hard this week. wtf?! i thought i was just going to be partying the whole way through. oh wait, that's b-school. my bad.

i have something like 7 deadlines by next tuesday. didn't i used to get paid to have a to-do list like that? all of us in my main class, newswriting, kind of freaked out this morning and pressured our teacher into pushing our audio story deadline out a few days. having to crunch numbers is one thing, but when you have to interview folks you can't actually work late at night. inconvenient.

i am still working on a project where we go and hit the members of 4 suburbs with interviews. it's not fun. my classmate amy and i are devising a rather clever plan to go to local dives and conduct our interviews. it must be easier to talk to fools after a drink or two. and amy reasons that people don't wander far for their local watering hole, so we're definitely going to be getting actual residents of that town, unlike at malls, where everyone from the 3 closest states come to shop. people travel for commerce.

was feeling mighty discouraged (friggin sources won't cooperate when you want them to, i'm discovering) and then heard from my professor to call him. damn it. it turned out well, i'm getting some decent grades up front, and he said some nice things. this is still the beginning, mind you. i'm anticipating an epic fail somewhere along these lines. helped brighten my outlook a bit.

write a lede summarizing your first week at medill

don't forget who what where why when...




A purveying sense of camaraderie and expectation defined the first week of the Winter 2010 Medill MSJ program, said Carolyn at its close.

The professors, she found, were generally of impressive pedigree and proved to be as enthusiastic about their guidance as their storytelling of past days.

******************************

Driving wind and water-heavy snow did little to diminish the mixture of thrill, fear, and expectation of Carolyn’s first week at Medill.

The longest week of her life began Jan. 4, 2010, as the 31-year-old masters student found herself, after nearly a decade of analyzing profitability and streamlining processes for Fortune 500 companies, constantly re-calibrating in her social negotiations with fellow students still damp with undergraduate exertions while she strived to maintain focus on academics.

*****************************

Efficiency, observed a newly minted journalism masters student Carolyn, was not a priority for the seasoned journalist.

The decade she spent counting minutes, streamlining processes, and driving profitability was abruptly turned on its head with her first week at the Medill School of Journalism, which commenced Jan. 4, 2010. In its place was a shocking disregard for organization and the concept of informed preparation. She knew immediately that she had made the right decision.

*****************************

It was possible, graduate student Carolyn concluded on Friday, to experience simultaneous and competing currents of excitement, fear, extreme discomfort, awe, and joy for five consecutive days and emerge relatively unscathed.

A newly minted student at the Medill School for Journalism, Carolyn said she realized that she had finally found her tribe after decades of uncertainty during a lecture by a highly-regarded professor which effectively melded sage wisdom and copious expletive usage.

week two

[insert photo of some snow-covered street as i am beginning to understand i will be completely obsessed with the weather until summer]

so starting week two of classes. it has been a whirlwind, i suspect mainly because of how many people have told me that this year will be the craziest of my life (versus it actually being that crazy quite yet). last monday was our orientation, all eight hours of it. by the time the reception rolled around at 5 pm, i went immediately to the bar, procured booze, then bee-lined to a chair and sat in it for a few minutes without speaking or making eye contact. i was completely drained.

day two was our editing class, four hours of grammar and punctuation. it will be a useful and painful weekly occurrence.

the rest of the week was/is spent in newswriting. this class is all-day and intensive. i can't manage to put together strings of words to describe it other than my assigned projects will force me to learn how to present news in formats including written features, audio, video, written investigative reporting, written hard news reporting, and such. so far it has proved interesting, if a bit unwieldy, time-wise.

i am learning that journalists like very much to talk (about themselves, about their experiences, about people they know, about you, about people you know, about your experiences, about dude next to you, his experiences, his opinion on the kindle and how digital readers will impact the industry) and don't seem to give much of a fig about efficiency. it doesn't seem to bother most of the class, but it does bother me some. i think that at nearly 32 years old (about 10 years older than everyone else, sort of joking but not entirely) and having had a career where business processes are constantly being evaluated for efficiency... it's difficult to sit in a classroom for six hours when we could have covered the material, the assignment, and a fair amount of bullshit in three. but... that's not a big complaint. i rate the faculty as excellent so far. i've met a few people and they seem cool and interesting and funny. i like the administration. the cafeteria options are pretty shitty, but that's to be expected. i like my apartment. i ordered a new backpack because i didn't own one with a laptop sleeve (that's how long i've been out of school) and i like my new backpack. i am close to school and i like that.

so we shall proceed and see what comes next.

indoors daisy

early observation: it's strange that most activities (and admittedly, i have few these days) are spent in avoidance of being outside. i've never avoided going outside unless it's pouring rain. today, you couldn't get me to leave the building without a crow bar, and it's "warmed up" to 15 degrees. fahrenheit.

sunday bloody sunday

well, it's really only saturday but to say the building above is the only thing i'm thinking about wouldn't be entirely inaccurate. what i'll be doing in that building come monday, to be more precise. not sure what exactly i'm nervous about but i suppose it's just the pre-masters program jitters. what to expect? not sure. haven't been in school in a decade, which is a bit strange to consider. historically i've been a good student but i'll postulate that the rules have changed in the past 10 years.

it is a whopping 10 degrees outside and it's the kind of cold that you can't not think about. forget to pull on your left glove before leaving the building and your hand immediately screams a reminder. i'm kind of dully going through the motions of living without actually having to execute on anything of consequence. the apartment is pretty tiny but trevor and i are delighted to be inside. clear, cold, and sunny.