More trials and tribs. . .

Ok, so it looks like most of us are in the same boat on the education story. What were the powers-that-be thinking scheduling education stories when the schools look like cemetaries??!?!!? Honestly!

Well, I traipsed off to my beat in Jamaica, Queens, in search of the perfect education story, at the High School for Law Enforcement and Public Safety. This, after I wasted my precious phone minutes all day yesterday, trying to get a hold of one living being- any living being- in the building, only to find that there was none!

So I marched into the security office, exulting that at least the building was open. Went up to a security guard who peered at me suspiciously, while asking me a little too politely: "Can I help you ma'am?"

"Yes, um, I'm a journalism student at Columbia University, and I'm covering Jamaica for this semester and I'm looking to do an education story and was wondering if anyone was around?" I blurted out.

"The building is closed. Please come back Sept. 1."

"Yes, I know," I stammered. "But is there ANYONE around I can talk to?"

"The building is closed. Please come back Sept. 1," the robot replied.

"But I just need to talk to someone. . ."

"MA'AM, I SAID, the building is closed. Please come back Sept. 1."

Sigh. I wasn't getting anywhere with this one. Thank God, the Police Athletic League was next door. I wandered in, and wonder of wonders, saw some kids there! This is my chance, I thought, marching in. They were much nicer than the folks next door, and spent about an hour talking to me about their programmes.

So, managed to talk to the director, community affairs person, and two kids. Makes for a decent story, but the writing is still to be done (it's due on Tuesday for us).

Let the procrasination begin. . .

Panic attack in Astoria

Had the worst. Day. Ever.

OK, probably not. But it was not good.

Had a scheduled appointment with Precinct 114 Community Affairs Officer at 10 am. Actually spoke to him at noon. Got very little new info - a few contacts, maybe, but nothing groundbreaking.

Hit the beat immediately after, hoping to make up for lost time.

At 2 pm, still no sources. Slightly worried.

Same at 3 pm. After many "I'm sorry, I can't help you"s, a few rude rejections, and one free slice of pizza from a compassionate vendor, start to think I might not get any sources at all. Panic attack.

Breakthrough came a 4 pm. By 6:30, had enough to write a decent, though not fabulous, story. Got home (to messy room and kitchen piled with dirty dishes) by 7:30.

Realized how much depends on sources, and luck.

Also realized will get very fat if continue to be fed by sources. Today's tally: 1 slice cheese pizza, 4 taralli (Italian fennel breadsticks), 1 lemonade.

One education story: priceless.

Dear God, take these last 100 words from me!

2103 words. Maybe I can just cut out every adjective in the piece? Nauer would like that, I think. ;-)

links to other blogs

Hiya!
Dr. Slope, I'm in the same boat as you. Am pretty brain dead when it comes to the education story, and looks like everyone's abandoned ship in a final effort to rescue what's left of the summer in my district, so the schools are deserted! Good luck though!

On another note, maybe those of us who have blogs can put up links to ours on this one? Mine (also on blogspot) has a "template" tab next to "posting" and "view blog", but I don't see it here. Ed, do you know where it is? If we can revive the "template" tab, it would be great for us to read each other's individual blogs!

The last 250 pounds are always the hardest to lose...

For us part-time students, the final assignment of RW-1 is looming. Been struggling all semester with writing less and saying more. stayed up all night and took my piece from 2960 to 2250 words. Now if I can only find a way to cut those last 250 without hitting any vital organs...

Beat

From Wikipedia...

The term beat generation was introduced by Jack Kerouac in approximately 1948 to describe his social circle to the novelist John Clellon Holmes (who published an early novel about the beat generation, titled Go, in 1952, along with a manifesto of sorts in the New York Times Magazine: "This is the beat generation"). The adjective "beat" (introduced by Herbert Huncke) had the connotations of "tired" or "down and out", but Kerouac added the paradoxical connotations of "upbeat", "beatific", and the musical association of being "on the beat".

The First Photo

a little bit of everything

informal announcements and invites, and that sort of thing, it's all good. that's what I'm thinking anyway. thanks to ed.

btw, i'm a continuting part-time student planning to finish up in '06. that means i was sad to see lots of cool folks in the '05 full time class move on, but i'm looking forward to meeting all the '06 folks.

here's an informal invite. i work for the business school here at columbia (my little corner is here: www.gsb.columbia.edu/execed/inm/ ) and know that every year the mba students do a whole week of community service activities. they are scarily organized, actually. One thing they did last year that I'm guessing they'll do again is a poker tourney to raise money for a designated nonprofit. I think it would be fabulous to get the j-school in on this and I believe it happens in the fall. I'm thinking J-school Students vs. B-school students to see who can win the biggest pot for the nonprofit of their choice. There are several nonprofits that work with kids and have a journalism angle (Youth Communication, HarlemLIVE, Radio Rookies, etc.) that might be good beneficiaries of our trouncing the b-school (and don't you think we will?). Anyone willing to tag team this one with me?

29 Invites thus far

I've sent out 29 invites so far, with 1 already accepted. Hopefully more e-mails'll come in as people get a chance to respond to the group mailing Kathy sent.

In their e-mails, some people asked me what belongs on this blog. The answer to that is; I don't really know, so we'll play it by ear, and see what happens?

"Happy Bloggings" or some such.

Here goes...

Okay, so here goes. I'm not quite sure how this is going to work, but... I want everyone at the Journalism School to have access to post whatever they want here. I'm not sure of the most effective way to give everyone access, so for now send me an e-mail (emk2124@columbia.edu) and I will give you access when I'm back online to do this! Sound fun? I hope so.