Back from Phoenix

Hey all, I'm back from Phoenix. It was a fun trip. The Sentinel won Best of Show at the ACP Convention, which is awesome. Pretty happy about that. Anyways, jumping right back into my life and work. Really excited for the coming production week, I think it's going to be a good one!
Again great time in Phoenix. I can't express my gratitude enough to Nils Rosdahl, my adviser, for helping me get there and teaching me everything I know.

Here are some photos from the hike we took on the very last day we were there. Really a great hike.

Phoenix

So, it's been pretty busy here. I've been attending a bunch of seminars and classes, learning really great stuff. On Friday morning I was on a panel regarding the managing of two-year newspapers. It was pretty interesting. There weren't all that many people there, but more than I expected (like 10). It was fun, very laid back and conversational. I really enjoyed it.

And then just the normal convention stuff. Today I went to a two-hour class on using Excel to help you find and report on stories. The teacher was a woman named Holly A. Heyser, she is the adviser to the California State University in Sacramento. She was just awesome, really into her work. I learned so much.

One term that she used a lot, which I had never heard before, was Computer Assisted Reporting (CAR). I guess for the modern journalist everything is CAR, but in this context she was specifically referring to Excel and Access. Anyways, I learned so much. It was really good. I learned about the basics of Excel (which I desperately needed) as well as the endless ways you can use statistics to uncover and report on interesting and important stories.

Another perk to going to this class was that it was held in the Arizona State’s The Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication…

Oh my god, it was awesome. It had 14 computer labs, dedicated to design, photography, videography and radio. They have their own T.V. station (a PBS affiliate) that reaches a million people.

It was incredible. It’s a fairly new facility and it’s beautiful, really beautiful. It made me want to go to ASU.

So, that is it. Today we are going to go for a hike or two and then we leave tomorrow morning. Because of scheduling conflicts we will miss the awards ceremony. If The Sentinel were to win anything they will mail it to us. We will see.


There it is... even the sign is nice...


... that is there T.V. production room... that is live video...


... I'm not sure why he was being interviewed, but he was. The interviewer is a senior at ASU...


... here are a bunch of people I met at a Subway, they were going to a Japanese festival.

Grand Canyon

I was at the Grand Canyon recently. I'd never been there before and let me say it was spectacular. At it's deepest it's 5,000 feet deep (1524 m) and 10 miles wide (16 km). Oh my god... yeah... it's huge.

It's so big that the eye can't really take it all in. It's like you are looking at a painting or a backdrop. Not something real... but it's very real.

Anyways, here are some photos from that, it was a great trip (I went with my Dad).











It was beautiful weather, however the snow made it impossible for us to hike into the canyon as the trails were too steep and we didn't have the appropriate gear.

Approaching Arizona

Well, I've been very busy with The Sentinel and other commitments. I don't really have much to say in this post, except a new issue of The Sentinel is out (more on that later) and I'm going to Arizona for a week.

I'm going to visit some friends that live there and just generally have a nice time. It won't be significantly warmer there, however, I'm sure it will be milder than it has been around here lately (try 30 degrees, in the day).

So, I'm excited for that. I love traveling and seeing new places and people. I'm looking forward to it.

I will bring my camera, so hopefully I have some photos to share when I return. We will see.