Blah.
But hey, at least my test was in the Joseph F. Smith Building, and not in the testing center; otherwise I would have had to stand in this line:
Yikes.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
It could always be worse....
My last exam of the semester was scheduled for today, the last day of finals, at 5:45 p.m.
Blah.
But hey, at least my test was in the Joseph F. Smith Building, and not in the testing center; otherwise I would have had to stand in this line:
Yikes.
Blah.
But hey, at least my test was in the Joseph F. Smith Building, and not in the testing center; otherwise I would have had to stand in this line:
Yikes.
Monday, April 20, 2009
I'm still alive!
It's true. After another eight months of almost nonstop school, I'm still hanging on, and with my last final of the semester on Wednesday, I'm pretty sure I'm going to make it.
The past few weeks have been pretty crazy. I don't think I've gone to bed earlier than midnight for almost a month now, between writing papers, typing up a fake legal memorandum, churning out newspaper articles, and studying until I literally fall asleep. But for all of that, I've had some awesome things happen lately.
It started a couple weeks ago, when my boss asked me to be the new editor at the magazine (our current editor graduates this week). I'm really excited. I'll have some big shoes to fill, and a lot on my plate (in addition to being editor, I'll still be writing and doing layout and design), but I'm stoked for this new opportunity I'll have at the magazine.
Not long after that, I accepted a job offer from the Daily Universe to be the campus editor for spring and summer semesters. Yep, that's right. This summer from 8-12 every day, I will be the editor at Eagle's Eye, and from 12-4 I will be the campus editor at the DU. Crazy.
Later that week I was inducted into Kappa Tau Alpha, an honor society for journalism students. Mom and Caitlin came to the induction ceremony, and since they were on campus, I took them on a tour of my work and the Daily Universe. It was pretty fun. Thanks for coming, guys!
A few weeks before, I had found out the communications department had awarded me the Scripps League/N. LaVerl Christensen scholarship. The day after my induction I went to a luncheon with the donors and some other important people to receive my scholarship. I ended up sitting next to Jim Wall, the publisher of the Deseret News, we ended up having a really interesting conversation about the future of the newspaper industry. I know that sounds nerdy, but it was really cool. Someone in the department also got the idea to put up plaques in the hallway with the names of past and present scholarship recipients. It's a little weird to walk down the hall on my way to class and see my name up on the wall.
Wow, that's a lot about me. But at least you know what I'm up to... and that I'm still alive.
The past few weeks have been pretty crazy. I don't think I've gone to bed earlier than midnight for almost a month now, between writing papers, typing up a fake legal memorandum, churning out newspaper articles, and studying until I literally fall asleep. But for all of that, I've had some awesome things happen lately.
It started a couple weeks ago, when my boss asked me to be the new editor at the magazine (our current editor graduates this week). I'm really excited. I'll have some big shoes to fill, and a lot on my plate (in addition to being editor, I'll still be writing and doing layout and design), but I'm stoked for this new opportunity I'll have at the magazine.
Not long after that, I accepted a job offer from the Daily Universe to be the campus editor for spring and summer semesters. Yep, that's right. This summer from 8-12 every day, I will be the editor at Eagle's Eye, and from 12-4 I will be the campus editor at the DU. Crazy.
Later that week I was inducted into Kappa Tau Alpha, an honor society for journalism students. Mom and Caitlin came to the induction ceremony, and since they were on campus, I took them on a tour of my work and the Daily Universe. It was pretty fun. Thanks for coming, guys!
A few weeks before, I had found out the communications department had awarded me the Scripps League/N. LaVerl Christensen scholarship. The day after my induction I went to a luncheon with the donors and some other important people to receive my scholarship. I ended up sitting next to Jim Wall, the publisher of the Deseret News, we ended up having a really interesting conversation about the future of the newspaper industry. I know that sounds nerdy, but it was really cool. Someone in the department also got the idea to put up plaques in the hallway with the names of past and present scholarship recipients. It's a little weird to walk down the hall on my way to class and see my name up on the wall.
Wow, that's a lot about me. But at least you know what I'm up to... and that I'm still alive.
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Glass and Irony
Weird experience of the day: My roommate CJ and I go home teaching after church. The girls we home teach are sitting on the couch, and we pull up a couple chair and sit across from them. Before we start the lesson, one of the girls jokes about how it feels like a teacher-student setup, so I move my chair off to the side a little while CJ offers to sit cross-legged on the floor. We have a good laugh and go on with the lesson.
When we're done, CJ asks the usual question, "Is there anything at all we can do for you?" They say, "No." Just at that moment, their light fixture falls out of their ceiling and shatters to pieces in the exact spot where I'd been sitting at the beginning of the lesson. This light fixture is not the paper-thin kind we have at my apartment; it's shaped like a punchbowl and is at least a quarter of an inch thick--and unlike my light fixture, this one seems like it had my name on it.
When the shock has worn off (as you can imagine, none of us really saw that coming) we clean up the shattered glass and try to figure out what went wrong. The glass is hot enough to burn skin and there's an faintly acrid smell in the air, like something has melted. We don't figure out what made the light fixture fall, but we decide it's pretty ironic that we ended up with something we could do to help our home teachees.
When we're done, CJ asks the usual question, "Is there anything at all we can do for you?" They say, "No." Just at that moment, their light fixture falls out of their ceiling and shatters to pieces in the exact spot where I'd been sitting at the beginning of the lesson. This light fixture is not the paper-thin kind we have at my apartment; it's shaped like a punchbowl and is at least a quarter of an inch thick--and unlike my light fixture, this one seems like it had my name on it.
When the shock has worn off (as you can imagine, none of us really saw that coming) we clean up the shattered glass and try to figure out what went wrong. The glass is hot enough to burn skin and there's an faintly acrid smell in the air, like something has melted. We don't figure out what made the light fixture fall, but we decide it's pretty ironic that we ended up with something we could do to help our home teachees.
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Pomegranate ponderings
For years, pomegranate salad has been a Thanksgiving dinner staple in my mom's family. I don't know exactly how it got started, though I know my grandmother made it, and I suspect her mother might have made it as well. But for the longest time, I was under the impression we were some of the only people who even knew what pomegranates were. Which brings me to my question: Have I just been out of touch all along, or have pomegranates become a new fad?
Earlier this week, my roommate brought home a pomegranate cocktail mix (we regularly mix virgin drinks in our apartment). It was amazingly good. A few days later my coworker was telling me about a pomegranate chewing gum she'd tasted a few days before. Just a few minutes later we walked down to the candy jar at the receptionist's desk–where we found a pomegranate Tootsie Roll Pop. Then on Friday, my editor at the Daily Universe offered me some gum. You guessed it. Pomegranate.
Maybe pomegranate flavor has become the new rage. Maybe it's just a coincidence. But either way, I'm really enjoying the taste!
Earlier this week, my roommate brought home a pomegranate cocktail mix (we regularly mix virgin drinks in our apartment). It was amazingly good. A few days later my coworker was telling me about a pomegranate chewing gum she'd tasted a few days before. Just a few minutes later we walked down to the candy jar at the receptionist's desk–where we found a pomegranate Tootsie Roll Pop. Then on Friday, my editor at the Daily Universe offered me some gum. You guessed it. Pomegranate.
Maybe pomegranate flavor has become the new rage. Maybe it's just a coincidence. But either way, I'm really enjoying the taste!
Sunday, January 11, 2009
One crazy week
Has it really only been six days since school started? It feels more like six weeks. This is a good thing, in the sense that I now feel more or less like I'm back in the swing of things, but this is a bad thing, in the sense that it's still the second week of January, and school's not out until April.
In addition to going to class and working part-time, I spent almost 20 hours at the Daily Universe this past week. This would have been awful a) if I had never spent extensive time in a newsroom before and b) if I didn't love what I was doing. And what was I doing? Well, on Tuesday I had an interview with a microbiology professor, but really I spent most of the day playing phone tag with BYU's head spokesperson, trying to get some information about a hiring freeze at BYU. When I finally did get to talk with her, I found out she was also getting me a statement from church headquarters because the hiring freeze is church-wide. Surprise!
I got the church's statement on Wednesday, and my story ran on the front page on Thursday. Another story I wrote ran in the campus section. Thursday was also the day Print Services delivered our new magazine. I guess when it rains, it pours, right? Anyway, between my story running on the front page and Eagle's Eye being delivered, I was pretty dang excited.
Thursday's Daily Universe and Eagle's Eye magazine
Friday I covered "Sing for Your Books," a competition sponsored by BYUSA that was a lot like American Idol, minus the cruel remarks. And minus the bad singers. And minus the big contract at the end. Instead, the first-place prize was $350 for textbooks; second place was $150. The winners were announced a little after 1:00 and I had a 2:00 deadline, which gave me just enough time to run up to the winner, thrust my microphone in his face, and get a quote before running across campus to the newsroom where I finished the article and submitted it to my editor. All in a day's work.
In any case, it was a crazy first week, and now I'm looking at another week that promises to be just as insane. So far, though, I'm loving it.
Bring it on!
In addition to going to class and working part-time, I spent almost 20 hours at the Daily Universe this past week. This would have been awful a) if I had never spent extensive time in a newsroom before and b) if I didn't love what I was doing. And what was I doing? Well, on Tuesday I had an interview with a microbiology professor, but really I spent most of the day playing phone tag with BYU's head spokesperson, trying to get some information about a hiring freeze at BYU. When I finally did get to talk with her, I found out she was also getting me a statement from church headquarters because the hiring freeze is church-wide. Surprise!
I got the church's statement on Wednesday, and my story ran on the front page on Thursday. Another story I wrote ran in the campus section. Thursday was also the day Print Services delivered our new magazine. I guess when it rains, it pours, right? Anyway, between my story running on the front page and Eagle's Eye being delivered, I was pretty dang excited.
Thursday's Daily Universe and Eagle's Eye magazineFriday I covered "Sing for Your Books," a competition sponsored by BYUSA that was a lot like American Idol, minus the cruel remarks. And minus the bad singers. And minus the big contract at the end. Instead, the first-place prize was $350 for textbooks; second place was $150. The winners were announced a little after 1:00 and I had a 2:00 deadline, which gave me just enough time to run up to the winner, thrust my microphone in his face, and get a quote before running across campus to the newsroom where I finished the article and submitted it to my editor. All in a day's work.
In any case, it was a crazy first week, and now I'm looking at another week that promises to be just as insane. So far, though, I'm loving it.
Bring it on!
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Stop . . . er, start the presses!
Today my boss and I got a phone call from the people at Print Services inviting us to come up and give the magazine covers a final thumbs-up while they were on the press. Turns out they were just how we wanted them. After we gave the okay, the printers offered to show us around and let us watch the covers as they came off the press.
A four-color printer like the one at the University Press Building
A four-color printer like the one at the University Press BuildingOne of the guys took me up onto the printer and showed me how it works. At the top of each tower is a trough of dye (either cyan, magenta, yellow, or black). The ink runs down into the press and is printed on the paper in tiny dots--take a really strong magnifying glass to a colored page and you'll see them. All the colors on our cover come from dots from those four different colors. Pretty sweet.
We watched a batch of our magazine covers go through the press, saw several pallets of "True to the Faith" covers, and watched the workers spiral-bind the missionary planners (apparently Print Services produces at least some copies of "True to the Faith" but only does the binding on the planners).
It was a cool, unexpected field trip. The people at Print Services told us they'd call us when the magazine was being stitched together, so I might even get another one if I'm around for that. In any case, Eagle's Eye should be completely finished by the end of the week, and I'm pretty happy about that!
We watched a batch of our magazine covers go through the press, saw several pallets of "True to the Faith" covers, and watched the workers spiral-bind the missionary planners (apparently Print Services produces at least some copies of "True to the Faith" but only does the binding on the planners).
It was a cool, unexpected field trip. The people at Print Services told us they'd call us when the magazine was being stitched together, so I might even get another one if I'm around for that. In any case, Eagle's Eye should be completely finished by the end of the week, and I'm pretty happy about that!
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