The View from T's Eyes (6/24)

Today was a day that tested not only my writing, reporting, and editing skills, but also my pride and my courage. Today I finally went out into the field to interview some random people to give my story just that little bit of spice. After all, what is oatmeal without the brown sugar?

Anyway, the first part of the day was filled with surprises. First, I was able to find my notebook and my binder (thank lord I'm not TOTALLY disorganized) and proceded to do a whole bunch of research online. Some of the stats behind my story are pretty alarming; for example, did you know that 21.6 percent of teens are unemployed-the highest percentage since the Gulf War? I'm guessing you didn't, and you know what I don't blame you because I didn't either ha.

Well later I made a few phone calls and-surprise!-no one put me on hold for 20 minutes like yesterday! I guess I just have phone skills ha..

..Anyway I digress. My most interesting moment during my phone calls was when I called this agency named MatchBridge; when I did, this guy named Ed picked up and we had a lengthy and informative conversation (I know it sounds boring, but it wasn't; trust me on this.) Tomorrow hopefully I'll be able to call him and record it so I'll be able to actually remember what he said!

..oh wait, that was a lie; I had a more interesting moment on the phone today! I read this one story about the teen unemployment rate skyrocketing and I was actually able to call direct to the source of the article. Sounds mundane, but here's one little detail I forgot: This person lives in Washington. D.C. Yes, you heard me right. It was real strange calling three hours ahead of my time, but at the same time it was great because she was definitely a unique source I would find nowhere else. So dig this: now I have a phone interview set up with them at 11:30 in the morning....oh wait, that's D.C. time. I meant 8:30. I really wish I brought my alarm clock...

Also, I got my first taste of field reporting today. I got lucky since I didn't have to go all over the place, but it was still really, really scary. Since San Francisco State was having freshman orientations today, I decided to interview them about their job experiences. The first girl ran away from me. (Yeah, I think it was a sign.) The second girl I was actually able to interview, but I made a fatal mistake: I forgot to turn the recorder on! (Score: Insecurities 2, Job Loss Story 0.) Luckily the next 5 interviews went like clockwork and I got a whole bunch of good quotes out of it..

In other news, my two side projects are coming along pretty well. My first is a soundtrack I created myself for the BAMMA video...naturally I haven't told the administration about it yet ha. That's mainly because Zoneil frowns upon my musical creativity...even though he runs a music magazine! (I hope he's not trying to be hypocritical just because I ran off that one time..) I've let my two best friends listen to my song, and both have different reactions. One got me to slow it down a lil bit, and thanks to him it sounds a lil better. The other only listened to a second of it then got scared about if I was gonna get in trouble for it ha. Well at least that person cares about me getting in trouble; most of my people at SL would just let me take the blame for everything.

My second pet project is a video blog of sorts that I'm updating every day. It's starting to turn out to be kind of my own personal documentary. (I guess that means Tiff is gonna like it ha.) At least Eric and Delicia gave me some helpful tips for improving it, but I hope it doesn't turn out to bore everybody..

Well I've already gone on for too long, so I guess I gotta wrap it up before Zoneil catches me on GarageBand again.

Peace, love, and white doves.

-T.