Public Relations Assignment

This past week, we were assigned a public relations project where we had to talk to a student about a project they were doing, whether it be a senior project or a different independent project.  I was put in a partnership with Brendan to talk about a fourth year's project on an electric car.

And so began the long process...

I missed the class where we were told about our assignments and the process, but I was feeling confident enough to offer to send the email asking for an interview.  I had been under the impression that these assignments were on only senior projects, so I contacted the student about the car, thinking it was his senior project.  Long story short, we ended up interviewing him on tofu, his true senior project. It was interesting, however it wasn't what either Brendan or I were expecting.  That was our first lesson.  Always know exactly what you need to interview someone about.

This assignment was actually really interesting.  In high school I used to write the press releases for my plays, but I never realized exactly how much more goes into these public relations kits.  Each section took far more time than I had expected.  I also had to do quite a bit of research on tofu as I didn't get all the information I needed from our interviewee.

Vacationing Where You Live?

This weekend, I went on vacation in Bar Harbor.
Yep, you read that right, I took a mini vacation in the town that I go to school in.  And boy, was it lovely.
Here's why:
My beautiful mama came to visit me on Friday and I was able to spend the weekend with her at this fabulous bed and breakfast just three minutes from campus.  I got to sleep in a fluffy bed and was provided three delicious meals each day.  Quite the change from my normal COA weekend of scrounging for food (that is an enormous exaggeration).
It was really nice to get away from campus, though.  I love COA, but sometimes it gets to be too much (I'm an only child, you see).
My mom drove the seven hours on Friday to arrive in Bar Harbor at about nine.  I went over to inn not totally expecting to end up sleeping over, but before I knew it, I was crashed on the bed watching Portlandia at nine and there was no way I was moving. And so began my vacation in Bar Harbor, Maine.
On Saturday, we snowshoed into the park and got a little lost like the tourists we were and eventually ended up back in the car driving over to Eagle Lake.

It was gorgeous to say the least.
Our evening ended with a lovely drive to Somes Sound and the snow began to fall.

Once again, we found ourselves lost and confused in the flurries, but this time we were in the car.  Clearly, iPhones aren't good for everything. 

When we finally got to our inn, we parked our car in the already snowy parking lot and walked to Side Street Cafe to eat the burgers we'd been craving all day.  They were absolutely delicious and come highly recommended from two burger lovers from Vermont.  

It kept blizzarding all night and the next morning, the outside world looked like this:

I'm a powder loving downhill skier...I love how in Bar Harbor, I have to distinguish downhill and cross-country, whereas where I'm from in southern Vermont, most people downhill ski…anyway, I was absolutely in my element.  The snow was fluffy and all I wanted to do was put my skis on and find a hill.  But somehow, it's not totally worth it to me to climb a mountain for just one run. (this is a super cool article for those of you who also love downhill skiing)

Tangents are fun, right? Anywho, we played on and off during my study breaks and watched my dad's friend's daughter in the olympic boarder cross which was sufficiently awesome.  (check her out! she's super cool.) 

So, you're probably wondering if there is a point to this super long post. And YES! There is!

I wrote this in retrospect of my absolutely lovely weekend with my mother thinking about how many things I don't think of doing when I'm sitting in my dorm procrastinating (because, yes, I am, in fact, a very awful procrastinator).  Sometimes, you need to get away from the place you are in order to see something like this.  It's almost as important to get outside and play as studying for that biology test on Monday is (and yes, you may be wondering, I do have a biology quiz on Monday. Hooray! Or not.). Moral of this long story: 

Don't waste your time this weekend watching cat videos, waste it right here, in our beautiful backyard.

Stock up on the Nyquil and tissues, COA has come down with a cold!

So, many students at COA are sick.
"Oh, no! What do we do now?!" you may ask in a frantic voice.

(courtesy)

Don't you fret, because I have a list for you!
Things to do when you think you're going to get sick:

1. Stop
2. Drop
3. Roll!
4. .........

...oops, that's what to do when there's a fire...

Here's the real one:

1. Make sure your Netflix queue is up to date.
2. Stock up on ice cream and chocolate (Actually, don't. Sugar depresses your immune system when you're sick. I know, I know. It tastes so good! But do you really want to get sick during week seven? Didn't think so.)
3. SLEEP (This one is really serious, guys. Sleep is the most important thing to do when you're in fear of becoming sick. TRUE FACT.)
4. Drink water! (Or gatorade or even tea!)
5. WASH THOSE PHALANGES! (Okay, so wrong anatomical term, but PLEASE, wash your hands. If not for yourself, than for those around you.)

When you get sick, everyone around you gets sick, so don't be that guy.



(or gal. YAY EQUALITY!)

Social Media

This week, our class is focusing in on the social media aspect of journalism.

I like to pretend that I don't use social media, when in fact I have a Facebook, Tumblr, and Instagram.  I admittedly use all three far too often.  I remember the first time I had heard of Facebook, in 2008 when it was starting to become more popular among my middle school friends. It took a lot of convincing before my parents finally let me get an account and even then, I wasn't able to use it much. Before that, we all had AIM accounts that we would use to communicate with our friends after school was out.

My first eightish years of social media were spent on dial-up internet (recognize this lovely sound?). Until my junior year of high school, I connected to the internet through our phone line, so I was generally really good at spending only about a half an hour a day on social media.  Now I have wifi, a laptop, and a smartphone and the world is literally at my fingertips. This is a blessing and a curse.

This is fantastic for journalists. This way, they are able to get information to the public much easier and much quicker than it has been in past years. With Twitter, journalists are able to get their "stories" out in 140 characters or less. They are able to pass information on easily to the people of a fast-paced world filled with people with shorter and shorter attention spans. It has been proven that people don't even read to the end of an article anymore. So, it's Facebook and Twitter to the rescue, I suppose! Hurray! I am so glad we have a way to make this lack of attention a good and commonplace thing.

(courtesy)

Now, all kidding aside, I do believe that it is quite incredible that journalists do have this easy way of reaching their readers with all of these sites.

Taking Photos

Last week, we had a guest speaker (the editor of the Mount Desert Islander, in fact) come to class to speak on taking photos. My friend Grace and I were so inspired that we decided to walk along the deserted streets of Bar Harbor to take photos a couple of days ago. This was a really great way for  us to get outside and use some of our new skills from the class.

(click here^)

Journalism is magical... Or not.

So, I am admittedly still new to writing journalistic writing and somehow I used to view it as something like this:

For the longest time, I thought of journalism as something magical and super easy, but guess what? It's not. I can't have a pad of paper that writes notes for me or moving pictures on the cover of my paper.  I guess blogging is a little bit like the Daily Prophet (gifs are super cool, right?).  However, this is sadly not Hogwarts and I'm not Rita Skeeter (I guess that's a good thing...).

In reality, it's a little more like this:

I've noticed that deadlines are far more strict and call for quite a bit more effort than what I'm used to writing (fiction, poetry, and research papers), but I am thoroughly enjoying it.  I love the challenge.  I think that once I write a story and see my hard work on paper, I'll feel much better.  I am really excited about the topic I'm writing about right now (Allied Whale at COA and their winter efforts) and have come up with two awesome possible topics for other stories in the coming weeks.  And, as I write, I just received an email confirming an interview for my article that I'd been a little nervous not getting... So, yay! (I almost put another gif in, but perhaps that would be too much? I'm thinking yes.)

So, basically, I'm loving this class and this new writing style, despite the workload.  It's a stretch as a writer and it's super fun.

Interviewing a Friend: Bad Idea?

This weekend I was given the opportunity to see an old friend who I haven't seen in quite some time.  I got to interview her about a performing arts trip to China that we were both on in 2010.  I was a little skeptical about interviewing a friend (and especially about something that I had been involved in, as well).  However, with all that aside, I discovered a different side of the trip.  She saw different things and had a completely different experience than me.

It is challenging interviewing a friend, though.  It's difficult to put that friendship aside and learn about her experiences on the trip to China.  It's difficult to not to start a longer conversations about things that aren't relevant to the interview.  We got past this and were able to have a normal interview as if I didn't know anything about the trip or the program we went with.  I'm glad I was able to interview her; it was fascinating and good practice for when I interview someone I don't know.  I think that will be somewhat easier to interview someone I don't know.  There won't be any interruptions and I think I would be more confident in what I'm doing that way.

Of course, by interviewing someone about something you've experience as well could seem pretty biased, right?  Or maybe the interview never happened?  Well, my friends, I am here to assure you that the interview really did happen and most of the information in the article came directly from her.  I certainly learned the lesson to not interview someone about something you've done, as it's difficult to separate your own views and thoughts from hers.

Here, have a picture of two awkward high school freshmen after a performance in China:

(Anna and me, circa 2010)