Quad Blogs

Hello all! I’m greatly behind in posting, so this will wrap up my entire third week of the Express. Things were actually pretty crazy this week, so I didn’t have a chance to made a mid-week post.

So now, sit back, relax, and learn of more informative tomfoolery that is your personal behind-the-scenes view of the newsroom.

wrapping oneself in a blanket is merely one way to enjoy the Quad Blog

Monday 5/18:
- a new intern started today with the Photo and web department – a to-be senior at NYU. Again – why am I so young? haha
-the e-mail server is being really temperamental today. it’s actually taking over the entire system. our database, browsers, and wire services are reacting particularly slow, which is ticking off just about everyone in the office.

Tuesday 5/19:
-the server/email/database problem is still in effects – it’s gotten to the point that most of us are working from personal e-mails and such (when the internet works)
-Chris Martin = renewed hero of mine, as far as personal caliber goes.
-Today I sat in on a meeting with some of the people from NJ.com, going over ways to make our website more popular and appealing. Colin – sometime in the future I may be sending you an e-mail or such with some ideas.
-So the SANDS Casino in Bethlehem is opening Friday, and Bruce (photog) met Emeril Lagasse! he has a restaurant in the building, and today was a tour around the kitchen and such.

"are you just going to stand there or are you going to start dressing the salads?! BAM! photo courtesy Express-Times files

4:34 p.m: I just read on the wire that “My Name Is Earl” got the NBC axe! yesssss. Long overdue. That show was trash – and revolved around it, actually.
-sometimes I insert alliteration and assonance where it’s not appropriate out of unconscious habit: “just a few of the jews”

Wednesday 5/20:
-Musikfest released their last headliner band: Panic! At the Disco. Now, while not on my list of top favorite bands, I have listened to them from time to time, and my editor told me that in a few days I should call up the reps at Musikfest and see if I can schedule a preview interview with them or Third Eye Blind (the Musikfest show I actually intend to go see) – so…how awesome?! I’ll answer myself: very.
- got a lot of stuff done today. 3 articles, two briefs, and quite a bit of [Exposed] work.
-Found out that i’m working the 3-11 shift tomorrow so that I can attend the Freddy awards (high school theater Tony’s, for a four-word summary). This should be pretty sweet.

Thursday, 5/21:
-so I’m prepping to leave for the Freddy’s, and my boss walked by in a tux and sunglasses. Every year he presents the Express-Times Student Achievement Award, which rewards a senior with a summer, paid, internship at the Express. He said, “Tara, you’re young, you know what’s hip. Sunglasses or no?” Talk about pressure.

Perhaps he doesn’t know this, but clearly if someone is coming to me for fashion advice, they have lost all other resources. I’m the girl with the bandannas and bare feet, who doesn’t wear makeup or shirts that cost over $10. I am not a good source for fashion advice.

just a few of many, many people (and animals) with better fashion sense than I.

—–
After the Freddy’s – that was insane. I didn’t actually get to watch any of the ceremony, because I was too busy backstage trying to get a hold of the winners and other people of import for quotes, while calling back to the newsroom during the commercial breaks so that they could update the website and stories ASAP. what a rush. and shout out to Andy Truscott, WCU Theatre member, who was backstage as well as the presenter prompter. Thanks man.

Friday, 5/22
-relatively one-track day. Dustin handed over the [EXPOSED] Myspace (linked above) to me, so I’ve been on that all day.

Yes. I’m on Myspace at work. and getting paid for it.

On a final note, if anyone has any more road trip location idaes, please let me know! (I’ll need to do some “research” and get some images for my story)

Till next time,

peace&love,
TjT

hello all! Happy Saturday!

So, to go back to the topics I mentioned in my last post:
the LOST finale? *stares. blinks rapidly* just check out Chris’ blog, while I continue to attempt to wrap my brain around what could be. I did a minute bit of theorizing with my friend who introduced me to the show, Dave (whose got some interesting points), but I’m perfectly fine saying I’ve no idea what’s going on.

now. the Office finale. [non-spoilerish] Slightly disappointing, but still pretty good. I don’t know if it was because it was only a half-hour, or because I felt that the writers made unnecessary “big changes” – either way, I still love the show, and this episode was a prime example of how they pull off the documentary-style camera work to a tee, (for example, capturing Andy’s face after Erin whoops during the volleyball game). I also do love how there were “matches” for different characters in this episode, as seen with Dwight and Toby. I’ll say no further though, for those of you who haven’t seen the episode yet.

and now, for a fusing: LOST + the Office

However, I’ve decided that this blog will serve a second purpose in the coming semester: the Office epsiode reviews/recap. Sorry Chris and Colin, I’m kind of butting into your territory of TV Shows and Entertainment, but hey! You gave me the blog space – and quite frankly, my sirs, I’m going to use it.

Lastly  – I just got 21st Century Breakdown. I’m only about halfway through it – I like it a lot so far. Greatly like, not love. Once I get through the whole thing I’ll be able to make a better observation. (Though I do quite adore “Before the Lobotomy” and “Peacemaker”)
———————————————————-

So. 1/5th is not a substantial fraction. 1/5th is similar to the number of dentists who don’t approve of Orbit or various Crest products.

*avid user of Colgate and Juicy Fruit

That being said, I am done with 1/5th of my internship at the Express-Times. Here’s the daily updates:

Wednesday, 3/13
-today I learned how do schedule blogs to release at a certain date/time. Also, I fiddled around on Merlin, our photo-database program. we’re also to gear all of our blogs to as many popular terms as possible so search engines can pick them up. Nifty site: google.com/trends/hottrends. the list updates every 15 minutes with the top 100 searched terms

12:46 p.m: it WAS a slow morning. Luckily, I just got handed three more stories, one of which is due by 4 p.m. And someone brought in birthday pretzels! Which means I have to remember to make something for the office for my own in June…

3:15 p.m: we just had our phone system go down for 5 minutes for maintenence. I never realized how much we rely on phones here before. Exact opposite of the Quad office. We didn’t even have a working phone there til about March, and even then when it rang, it was reacted to with a blank stare or quick game of rock-paper-scissors to see who would pick it up.
Thursday, 3/14
so our “rival” paper, mcall.com, is changing their timestamps on their blogposts. One of the early morning online editors reported a story at 7:29 a.m., and she’s been checking both ours and their sites for hits and stories – they just posted the same story now, at 10:30a.m. funny thing is, “apparently” they posted the same story at 7:17 a.m.

11:15 a.m: I’m typing up letters to the editor – apparently there’s someone up for elections named Candy Barr. Now, not to sound disrespectful, but that sounds like a very generic name for a hooker.    [...] and it is. Parents, do not let your kids Google-search “candy barr”

- Alright: here’s a reach out to all (4) of you who read this: I’m doing a story for the main entry in a June issue of [Exposed] on road trips. I haven’t yet set a certain mileage, but what are some day trip-ish places/things you’ve gone to/done in the past? I’m trying to stay away from obvious ones, like Philadelphia/NYC/Ocean City, etc… thanks all!

2:28 p.m: notable quote – “dude, we just got this story about some guy who *does* really old people and really young people”/”no one in between? that’s sounds like a case for benjamin button”

warning: Easton parents with elderly children please lock your doors at night

Friday, 3/15
published today: [Exposed]; impromptu piece on a student-written/choreographed/directed dance show in NJ, and fig-farmer (Thursday). Sunday the FREDDY section comes out, with my story on the new director.

-today I took a walk with Amy around the building, and learned how to get in through the back entrances. Amy felt bad, because apparently that was something I should have been shown on Day 1 – but I feel it’s more my fault for not asking. At least it won’t take 5 minutes to get from my parking spot to the newsroom now *facepalm*

2:08 p.m: you can’t say “crick” in journalism. (for people from New Jersey reading this: “creek”)

3:08 p.m: some kid in New Jersey was just arrested for shoplifting. He was wearing a dark-blue Snuggie (aka WTF Blanket). I don’t know which was the worse crime.

snuggies in public? that breaks every single rule in "Maintaining Self-Dignity 101"

well – that wraps it up for me today!  check out the other blogs on the Quad site, don’t run with scissors, and remember to check back in a few days for another post!

peace&love,
Tara

Well, hello all! I’ve decided I’m going to do bi-weekly updates, at minimum, so as to keep my posts from becoming obscenely long.
Before I go onto the main portion of my post, I’ve got to say this -  perhaps its just my own little world peeking out from a vast web of tangled orbits, but there are so many awesome things happening in entertainment between today and Friday.

Let’s see. It’s Finale Week for many of my favorite shows. The LOST finale tomorrow is sure to be just absolutely teeming with plot turns and character insights fit to mentally scramble viewer’s minds, for sure.

this is your brain. this is your brain on LOST. still tasty, though!”

Second, “the Office” finale on Thursday – need more be said? My favorite TV show, on my favorite night, featuring some of my favorite kinds of humor… it doesn’t even need to be the finale – the fact that it’s on is a highlight enough! However, since it IS the finale, it’s that much more to look forward to. I am interested to see what will happen – Season 5 is started to wear on me a little – the quality is still good, just nowhere near the brilliance that is Season 2. And though I do greatly love the show, I wish the characters would have stuck to, well, their characters! Angela now subliminally portrays an eager Christian “schoolgirl,” and show has lost it’s “kiss-ass” in both Dwight (who is now just a snarky asshole) and Andy (who really just seems to be….there, as of late).

Finally – Green Day’s 8th album, “21st Century Breakdown” is being released Friday. Set in the similar rock-opera style as their last album (American Idiot), 21CB is divided into three “acts” which narrate the story of a young adult couple living in a post-Bush (aka, destroyed) America. Naturally, I enjoy just about anything from Green Day, and though their style has morphed over their last few albums, I’m really pumped to see what’s in store now.

"I am a nation, a worker, a pawn/My debt to the status quo..."

Okay, now that my little obsessive rants are over, here’s what’s been going on at the Express [please do not continue reading if you are terrified of Morse Code, Hannah Montana, or Ritz Crackers]

Friday 5/8
-we got a press release from the Ritz Crackers company. In it were various products, such as different crackers, a light up ball with a cracker etched into it, and a Ritz slinky, again, marked by a cracker. Amy gave me the slinky. I’m wearing it on my wrist.  [And people say 80's fashions are dead]
-Today Exposed came out, and my Freddy nominations story ran in the Local Alive section

-The police radio here is freaky. every so often I’ll hear a siren, that will jar me from my chair. Also – sometimes Morse Code comes on, and combined with some of the noises the phones make, it makes for a pretty sweet techno beat.
2:46 p.m. shoutout to anyone who watches Parks and Recreation: I keep going to send an e-mail to a coworker and I always search Leslie Knope.

Monday 5/11
Do you know how sometimes during the middle of the week it feels like a Monday? Then when you realize “Oh! It’s actually a much later day in the week, hooray!” – it does NOT work the opposite way.
Today I got set up for the Trax login. That’s how we manage photo assignments. It’s a really nifty system – each writer can submit a photo assignment with specified fields that are required – time, location, place, specified shots, etc…etc…and it goes to the photo editor, who assigns it.
- 1:20 p.m. Apparently Avenue Q is coming to the State Theatre – how awesome?!

Tuesday 3/12
Something I really appreciate about working here, is that all of the editors have me sit with them while they go over my articles. It’s a bit difficult for us to do that at the Quad, since our writers can be absolutely anyone on campus. Everyone who writes for the Express, is in the newsroom. Perhaps we should offer our hours for our writers to come in and go over their articles…Colin – idea? Far-fetched, but idea!

I spent a lot of time working on Exposed today – in the “by the numbers” research I found a HomeStarRunner game for Wii? Strong Bad’s “Cool Game for Attractive People”
—-Also – something disappointing: the Hannah Montana Movie Soundtrack is in the top 10 most bought CDs on iTunes this week. The apocalypse is coming.

Relatively short amount of information as far as the Express goes – hopefully I’ll have another post over the weekend, after all the awesomeness that is the rest of this week goes down!
Until then, enjoy yourselves, everyone!

peace&love,
Tara

Go figure, the day after I blog about how dismal the weather’s been, the sun decides to peek out and make me wince and squint at it’s brightness. I realize this is probably because my light intake has been on the same level as someone living underground for the past week.

Anyway!
My first week at the Express-Times is nearly over, and from what I’ve heard, Fridays are easy days (everything required for the weekend issues is already due at that point).  It’s certainly been…interesting. Not entirely sure as to how comfortable or settled in I am at this point, but things seem pretty good.

As mentioned in my first post, I’ve been jotting down some things (their relevance and/or significance can be determined upon individual readings) while at work during my spare time, and tonight I’ll start revealing some of those happenings. Enjoy!

Monday, 5/4 (Day One)

8:40 a.m: I’m nervous. I’m excited. I’m – 20 minutes early. I should’ve figured my mom would give me way too much leeway on the time it takes to get from Nazareth to Easton. So I’m stalling time, listening to a new mixed CD. Mmm, Iron and Wine.  How did I get such a good parking spot? I’m probably not supposed to be parked here. Being towed on my first day would NOT be good. 9:52 a.m: 3 more minutes and I’m going in. Ow. I just shook myself out, like you’re supposed to do when you’re nervous? Hit my hand on the steering wheel. It’s my left hand – my writing hand. Fail.

3:46 p.m: This entire day has been a massive combination of signatures, blurry faces, and newspaper databases. There’s a horrid orange-painted stairwell that has really creaky doors, and it kind of creeps me out a bit. The newsroom reminds me exactly of the set of “the Office,” just with more clusters of desks, and older computers. There’s even a separate conference room where we have twice-daily meetings about what’s going into the paper the following issue.

Also, I’ve heard a fair few “that’s what she said”s in typical conversation. It’s official. I am working in “THE” office.

I am “the Troxell Intern,”, though several people do call me by name. Slightly unfortunate, since I cannot remember hardly any names at all, save for Amy, the Assistant Features Editor, and Dustin, Entertainment staff writer. Probably because I’ve worked with them the most today. I’m technically working for the Features section, but I’ll be working a lot with our Entertainment section, called “Exposed.” It’s rad.
Oh! I also know Brenda, from HR, and Chris, the other intern. We had a lovely little meeting about harassment and parking.

The Express office is much quieter than the Quad office – probably because I’m not quite outgoing enough yet to cause trouble. That’s what I first thought of the Quad office when I started – too quiet. Here though, we also use e-mail constantly. Everyone keeps it open, almost as an instant-messaging system. It works really well.

Also, everything is filed into different “queries” on the database system, so everyone has the potential access to everything. It’s really helpful, since there’s so many different sections and further mini-sections to the paper.

Tuesday, 5/5 [Happy Cinco de Mayo! Or typical day, if you're like me!]

9:20 a.m: Someone just got me coffee. Isn’t that supposed to be my job?
Today I almost cleared out the entire local-alive section database. Oops.

Wednesday, 5/6

Today I had my first interview as a professional reporter (or so it says on my ID tag). I’m covering certain aspects of the Freddy Awards as one of my main focuses, and met with the new coordinator this morning at the Allentown State Theatre. Definitely interesting.
Also – another difference between the Times and the Quad – article length is in inches, not hundreds-of-words. I found this out after being told someone wanted my Freddy article to be “anywhere from 12-15.” I started panicking a bit – I tend to write long articles for the Entertainment section during the year, but I’ve only had two articles that have passed 1,200 words that I remembered. I settled down a lot more when I realized I needed 15 inches – which is equivalent to about 500 words. Either way, the interview went well, except for the fact that I couldn’t get into the building.

3:40 p.m: Alright. This is ridiculous. There’s a guy sitting somewhere behind me who sounds exactly like Ken, the Quad’s copy editor. Every time he talks I look up, and I’ve almost called him “Ken” twice.
I started using phones more today. Typically I really dislike talking on the phone to strangers, but there’s a boost of confidence that immediately comes with adding “from the Express-Times” behind one’s name. No one on the other end of the phone has to know it’s only my third day in this positions. Or that I’m terrified of answering phones. And that I have no idea what I’m doing.

Thursday, 5/7

Today I’m working on more stuff for Exposed. Tuesday, I did a “By the Numbers” column, where I got to mention “David After Dentist,” the NBC fall line-up, and LOST, and a Top-Ten things to do section. Today, I did an Entertainment Chat Recap quote section, which is basically a version of the On the Record section in the Quad.

10:15: a.m: Two phones just rang about two seconds after one another. They are melodically a minor second apart. I distinctly heard the “Jaws” theme until the first phone was picked up.

12:25 p.m: Today is a strange day as animals go. A bull escaped from a high school in Phillipsburg, NJ and swam across the Delaware River to Easton. We got an awesome picture of the bull being cornered by a cop – both NBC and WFMZ have called in asking permission to use the photo. A second bull escaped from a slaughterhouse later on in the morning (and from what I overheard, a butcher was chasing it for a while). There’s a spider on my shoe.

2:42 p.m: Alright – here’s another one for Ken. For those of you who don’t know, Ken has repeated himself at least 12 times an issue on how to properly format quotes in the Quad office. “wordswordswords,” SAID person’s name and title.
Here at the Express, I just was corrected. Here, we use “words words words,” personperson, SAID. Talk about confusion.
[This paragraph should service as Exhibit A if Ken becomes too impatient with my inability to remember proper formatting next fall and takes matters into his own hands.]

I also hate wearing socks everyday. It needs to get nicer out again.

-~-~-~-~-~

That’s it for the day-by-day play-by-play, but another extra tidbit: my first piece with the Times was published in today’s paper! I also have a couple Freddy releases being printed soon: either one tomorrow and one Sunday, or two Sunday.

Have a lovely weekend, all! Weather is looking to be stormy here the next two days, but afterwards the forcast looks absolutely delightful. Stay safe, enjoy yourselves, and keep reading!

peace&love,
Tara T

It’s official – the semester is over. Grades are up on myWCU, books have been sold back (or refused), and everyone is now procrastinating doing absolutely nothing. Sitting back, sipping iced tea at the edge of the pool, soaking in the sun. At least, that’s the ideal summer plan, right?

Well, besides the fact that there hasn’t been one day of sunshine for eastern PA since school let out, a lot of us have to work our way through the summer (quite literally). Summer jobs are often a pain for college students; employers tend to want workers for more than a quarter of the year, and sometimes the only jobs left are, well, less-than-desirable.

However, quite a popular summer alternative for college students are professional internships, or some other sort of work relating to the field being at university. This is the kind of work I’ve taken up for Summer 2009. After working at the bakery last summer, I decided it was time to do something a little more closely related to what I’m attending West Chester for. This summer, I’m working as an Editorial Intern at the Express-Times, a print and online newspaper that serves the Lehigh Valley (mostly in a radius around the Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton area).

But wait, there’s more! In my dedication (and bound-to-happen withdrawal) from WCU’s the Quad, I’m forming this blog as a sort of insight to the newsroom and the antics that happen along the way. Though this sounds very technical and focused mostly on those interested in Journalism, I assure you, there will be enough ridiculousness for everyone. During the summer months, I’ll update you all with what’s going on with the Express-Times, and how it compares and contrasts working at a college paper to working at a largely circulated city paper.

Once back at school, this blog will revert to one recorded the mayhem that goes on at the Quad office each Sunday during our issue layoutting sessions. After starting as News Editor last fall, I’ve noticed that not many students know how we go on about our work, or even realize the kind of effort put into putting the paper together. Though we work hard, we also have a fair amount of mayhem in the office each Sunday. I would like to provide a link between the Quad office and the student body, showing that we do have our fun and truly enjoy bringing the paper to the student population.

I hope to have another blog posted in the next couple days, with a few stories from my first week as “the Troxell intern.” I’ve taken to jotting down certain thoughts or stories that happen throughout the workday while at my desk, while looking like I’m doing work.

In the meantime, I hope the rest of you have excellen water-logged days. My county, along with another six or seven, is currently in a Flood Watch, which beeped around 10:12, interrupting LOST and causing me to believe Ben had cursed and been bleeped out while he was speaking to Locke. Plug – go check out Chris’ (Entertainment Editor) LOST blog, which includes weekly episode analysis’ and character rankings!

And enough! at 12:08 a.m., I bit you all farewell, wishing you many happy dreams and lazy days.

peace&love,
Tara T.