final week.

What did I learn in the first journalism classes that I took? Well, I learned that I could be a journalist. I learned to be efficient in writing a story. The fact that mostly shook me up is when Brad told us, the class, that any of our article should take no longer than 2 hours (from searching informations to editing the final copy). I am pretty sure I am still way above the 2 hours, but I know the time I take to write an article have significantly decreased since september. I was particularly happy when I managed to write a good enough obituary of Holt Murray in a few hours during layout day.
I think I made some progress in my writing: in the way I structure my texts and paragraphs in particular. I still have some problem with grammars and sentence structures but if I pay more attention, I know it is going to be easier.
About layout itself, I very much enjoy organizing the pages in a sound and esthetic way. InDesign is an intuitive program that I liked to play with.
I still have a lot to learn and I am looking forward to step into the newsroom next year to share another semester with a, hopefully, as crazy team as this semester.

Last article part 2

I eventually got in touch on the phone with instructor at the Adult Education, and could get more interesting informations about the course. Now I know more about the course itself than its long boring history.

With this experience I know I should not let someone go on on something that I am not interested in. And I think my mistake here was that I kept writing to be polite when I should have stop. I also should have interrupted him. But again, it was hard for me to do so because I didn't want to be rude.

During the interview, I would say to myself... "Ok, this is torture to listen to all of this... but wait until he is done with one idea, and then interrupt him to go on the next question."
The thing is that the idea never stopped... and I only got a chance to change the subject a few minutes before he had to go to teach. And even then it wasn't I who interrupted him, but a colleague, who came in the common room we were sitting in.

Anyway, I think this is a lesson I shouldn't feel bad about redirecting the interview, because I am the interviewer. I know what I am looking for to put in my articles.

Dealing with interviews

Interviews can be as easy as posting a letter. But it can also be frustrating and puzzling. You never know which it would be.

One of my articles on the last issue of the Voice didn't work out as I planned. So I had to fill out with a different article that I had to write the day of the layout on thursday. The article was an obituary of a former Cabrillo instructors. Although I couldn't get in touch with the intructors via phones, I managed to track one on campus, and finally got a quick interview that saved the article.
The interview itself was pleasant and efficient. I got all the information I needed and the article turned out to be ok.

For this next issue of Dec. 8, I am afraid the content of my article is not going to be great. I interviewed an instructor at a Watsonville adult education school about his course on computer assembly and repair. Although the subject is great, when I actually interviewed the teacher, the information I retrieved wasn't really relevant.
We had limited time, so I had questions prepared in advance. But unfortunately, because I was unable to organize the time of the answers, we lost of time, and I could not ask the questions that really matters. So now my article is basically just the history of the class. Which I think is going to put everyone to sleep.

10/13 edition

Today, the class critiqued the paper. Even though the form has seen a lot of improvement, the substance still need a lot of work.
I have the bad habit to make my sentences too long and complicated. Instead, I should try to have simple and well structured sentences.
And this is a bad habit I have since childhood. The bad ones are hard to get rid of. I can distinctly hear my mother telling me "You need to have smaller and simpler sentences" after proof-reading one of my work in 6th or 7th grade. I still have the same kind of mistake now, which is unfortunate. Only practice good change that. So my goal for this week is to write more. Write on the blog, write for my classes, write for the newspaper, of course.
This week is going to be busy. I have to work on an essay for English 2, have a presentation and report for my photography class. I also have to get all of the information for my wildlife article before friday. I also will be reporting on an art exposition on Thursday.
So yes, I am kept busy.

Last article

For last issue of the Voice, I was in charge of reporting on the Student Senate. It was the first time I had to takes notes at a meeting. The Senate takes place in a room with a big oval table which fit about 20 persons. All the senators sit around the table, and the public sit on chairs following the walls, which are actually big window glass.
So I brought my brand new voice recorder, but it turned out to be useless as I was on the side so I couldn't get a good sound. Moreover, the senators weren't very loud which made it even hard for me to actually know what they were saying. I took a few notes that weren't quite helpful either. The meeting was very long, and I left before the end after 3 hours.
I found out the hardest part was actually write about the meager pieces of informations that I got. I didn't know how to turn my article, and what to focus on. My first draft was too much like a feature story not enough like a news story. So I was a little frustrated when I had to rethink my article because I didn'thave much material for it anyway.
Eventually, I had the idea to contact the president of the Senate and ask her a few questions that would fill my article.
My article turned out fine for how it started, so that I am even happy about it.

Everything is complicated

Everything is Complicated is the title of Sempe's book. Sempe is a French cartoonist. This book is a collection of cartoons where little characters find themselves in everyday life situations with always a twist of humor on a certain subject.
Anyway, I just thought this title resonated with my state of mind right now. I am just having a bit of trouble writing and finding inspiration. It would seem to be quite simple, writing every other day on a blog, but no, it is complicated.

A lot of people are used to writing blogs everyday about anything in their life or on what they saw on TV. In this loud crowd, I am just the silent person somewhere in the middle, or maybe over on the side. I listen instead and observe most of the time.
And then you are going to tell me I am actually writing on a blog. Yeah, I am writing on a blog, about how bloggers are a loud crowd, so I must be loud too. Everything is complicated.

Sitters surrendered

Finally they came down. After nearly two years the sitting outside the Memorial Stadium at UC Berkeley finally got to an end.
I got mixed feeling about this whole story and the outcome. On the one hand, the cause for which the tree people were fighting for is one I adhere too. The campus of Berkeley is so urban, that a little vegetation feels like a break in between the concrete. On the other hand, this sitting went on for too long, and I think a lot of people would agree with me that it went against the tree sitters.

I was living in the International House at Berkeley, right next to the Memorial Stadium, when the sitting started. I would walk by the Stadium and the tree sitters everyday to go to class. If you would have told me at the time that the sitting would last for two years, I wouldn't have believe you. At the beginning, there were only a few homeless people hanging out in there.
Then, the sitting crowd started to grow in early 2007 until they were around 15 to 20 people. At that point I began to question their protest. There was a lot of chalk writing on the sidewalk adjacent to the new community of tree sitters. A lot of it was about global warming and it seemed like those trees were the last trees on earth. I know it wasn't the only reason of the sitting, but please do not talk about global warming when only a few trees are at stake. When talking about global warming, talk about the Brazilian rain forest...

By the end of the school year, I just thought the whole protest was going too far for not much, and in other word was getting ridiculous. When I heard in september 2007 (I had moved from I-house) the people were still there and moreover were put behind fences, it just made me laugh.
The way the sitters persisted until the very last second was, to my opinion, annoying and laughable. Last monday, when all of the trees were being cut down, except for three, there were still 4 persons on one of the tree. And at that point, any reasonable person would accept the defeat and come down. But no, they still hung on those few top banches, with no provisions. It is only when the scaffolding was at reach of their feet that they finally came down to some sense.

Now I am just glad this all came to an end. One good thing that came up from the sitting, is that from now on, people of Berkeley could have their words on future urban plans of the campus.

Sunday Kayaking

When I got the invitation to go kayaking from a friend, I didn't hesitate and said yeah to the opportunity to have some outdoor activity. That said, I was also concern the paddling around the coast would turn out to be a torture for my weak little arms, as I experienced last time I kayaked with my brother who was unstoppable even with the wind, and the horrible currents.
Fortunately the weather was great, and there was no horrible current. I had a great time paddling from the Santa Cruz harbor to the wharf and then back until some point before Capitola, and back to the harbor. And what made it even greater and special was the wildlife.

Kayak is such a great way to get close to the marine wildlife, and you don't understand that until you get onto that kayak. When you are on the kayak, you are nothing. You are just this tiniest boat that no other boats see because you are so low on the water, and you are at mercy of dangerous currents or waves that pushes you to those rocks, and then you get yelled at by the life guard on the beach because you are too close to shore (even though people on there were little specks).
But then everything calms down, motors' noises are further away, and you finally see it showing it's head. Shyly and far, at first, and then you think it was just something floating by until it comes back closer to you and realize it was a seal. One was a paddle away from me, and we were both surprised to fond ourselves face to face, if I may say. We stared at each other for 10 seconds and then he took off by sinking down.

At some point we were paddling through thick huge brown algae, and in the middle of this algae field, was this sea otter with its baby sitting on her. It was the most adorable sight. We were so close, and they totally ignored us, continuing their grooming.

That day we were lucky to see a couple of dolphins hunting in the area too. I got as close as 10 yards at some point (and that was unexpected), and I couldn't believe it. Seeing them so close, splashing around, you were reminded that they were still strong and wild animals, and that kept from trying to get even closer. They were hunting, telling from the abundance of birds hunting too, and from their disinterest to any boats. Everytime there would a disturbance, they would quickly go away, I guess follwing the fishes. They weren't jumping much, but I could say for sure the 2 were bottlenosed dolphins (Tursiop truncatus), like Flipper and most of the dolphins you find in marine parks. I wonder why only 2 individuals. Have they been expelled from their group? Have they decided to be on duo for some reason?
Questions that no one are able to answer.

My point is that not a lot of busy and modern area have this kind widlife still around and so close to human activities. I think it is a privilege that everyone should be aware of.

End of first week

Yesterday was the last day of my first week at Cabrillo.
The week passed by so fast. Between classes, assignments, I have been kept busy. One of the assignment, and not the least, is to find topics to write on for Cabrillo's newspaper The Voice. And for me, it is not an easy task. I tend to get picky about what I am writing and often find not interesting enough to be worth writing about. This is something I'll have to work on.

Anyway, as a first topic on this blog, I choosed an easy one: parking at Cabrillo.
So far, I have experienced only once, on the 1st day Tuesday, the hell of finding a spot in the garage lots. I hope that would be the only time.
On the second day, I had an earlier class, and surprise, only half of the garage parking was full. And that was around 8.50am. On thursday, I also arrived around that time, and once again no problem to park. But when I got out of class at 2pm, it wasn't hell too.
Where am going from here? Let's not waste more more on ugly parking, please. Plus, there is, even at the busiest time, student parking still available at the parking lots by the new buildings.
Well, I thought if the busiest time for parking is between, let's say, 10am until 3pm, that means a lot of the classes happen in this range. Why not, then, have classes moved to another time easier for parking?

More classes at 8am? What? Yes, and I guess that would be the next problem to solve. How to convince students and instructors to come earlier? I don't know, and I don't know if my idea is proven right, but I guess there could a little more studies on this topic to know what would the more efficient way to solve this concerns for all of the students driving to class.

Back to school

Here I am, at school for another year. Probably not the last though.
But this is no ordinary back to school. In fact I am hoping to get a lot from this year as I am just changing my career path from research in geomorphology to science journalism.
It is scary because it is not the first time I change career path, and also because I don't entirely know for sure that I will like journalism.
What i know for sure is that:
I love science, love sharing and discussing it, love explaining it to others, love reading and watching about it. I am curious about it too and that's one of the quality a journalist must have.I don't feel shy about asking questions whether to clarify something or to get pieces of information about an unknown subject and that's another quality.
I am social person too but I sometimes need alone time which might not be a bad thing.

Overall I am happy with my first 2 days of school at Cabrillo. Teachers are inspiring and students motivated so it could only be a promising.