Your Blogging Type Is Thoughtful and Considerate

You're a well liked, though underrated, blogger.You have a heart of gold, and are likely to blog for a cause.You're a peaceful blogger - no drama for you!A good listener and friend, you tend to leave thoughtful comments for others.

What's" Your Blogging Personality?

So, you know how you get one of those messages from some random person, telling you about some project/webpage/song/book/whatever they're working on and they want you to take a look at/buy/spread the word about it? Well I got one of those recently, and I had nothing better to do so I went to the website. And his work is really really good, so, I promised him I would spread the word about his photography.

• www.cliftonhenri.com

, his artwork is very beautiful, I just don't have the extra money to buy a calendar right now. He's based out of Chicago (or at least he's from there), but apparently is doing a lot of stuff all over the place.

I hate to be posting about this again, and so soon, but I was just informed about 30 minutes ago my paternal grandfather passed away. I wasn't very close to him, I only remember meeting him a couple of years ago, and saw him again in September 2004, and he didn't really comprehend who I was. Sometimes it would even take a while for him to realize who my dad actually was. But my dad is taking it hard, so if you're the praying kind, please pray for my family. If you've been reading, I lost my great aunt in December, another great aunt (my grandfather's sister in law) in February of 2005, and before that, I lost my great uncle on the day I filled out the paperwork for my current job in September 2004. It seems, even with celebrities, we're losing people so fast; Shelley Winters passed this past weekend. We've lost Richard Pryor, Lou Rawls, Rosa Parks, Neil Strawser, and John Spencer within the last 2 months or so. I don't know what this means....but I'm thinking it's time for us to step up and be somebody, like these people did, and do something with our lives.

So if you haven't figured it out by now, my life is pretty boring. I've done the "too much information over the internet" thing and sometimes it can backfire, so it's pretty much gonna stay that way. But I will update you on my job search.

I saw a post on Monday for another job I've already applied for, and sent another tape yesterday. Now unfortunately, well kinda fortunately, one of my former classmates got the job in September. So I've been talking to her off and on, seeing how she's doing and whatnot, and asked her about the position. Now this is the second time someone has semi-discouraged me from applying for a job...not that I think either one of them did it to keep me from being more competition. But, this time, she told me it's a one-man-band and it's not in the main bureau, and so there won't be anyone there to really mentor me and guide me through my first on-air job. But, I'm getting to the point where any job will do, and plus it's in a city that's close to more of my family that I don't get to see often, so, we'll see. Until then, I still have about 52 tapes to send out, and I'm sure they're not all going to get sent out this month. Thank God closing dates are usually a month or more after the posting date.

Okay, so I did something I wasn't expecting to do today. I joined a gym. I had to face facts and realize that just b/c some non-skinny minnies were able to get on-air jobs, not all are. But the reason I joined this gym, is even though it may be a little bit higher than other gyms, the personal trainers are free. And so now I'm paying 1/6 of what I was paying a for a personal trainer, and I'm getting the exact same thing, plus more. They have this neat Infrared sauna, that penetrates beneath the skin and detoxifies and 30 minutes can burn 600-800 calories!
So we'll see how I'm doing in a month or so.

For some reason, posts aren't showing up correctly, if at all, so I'm having to repost this

Oh, and I need some opinions.

I applied for a job in September. I actually set up an interview through an anchor at the station, and drove 6 hours down there to talk to the ND for a ll of 20, maybe 30 minutes, and drove back home. Now before I got there, he wanted me to call and let him know when he was coming and all that good stuff. There's another position open now, and I've been informed that the staff can't look at tapes/set up interviews, etc. But the ad says again, "no phone calls please." Should I call, and set up another interview, since I've talked to him before? Or just wait and see if he likes my tape enough to call?

Oh by the way

HOOK 'EM HORNS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YAYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!
I may not be an actualy UT alum (way too many people applying there), but I will forever root for UT, in both football and basketball.

My First

For the virgin eyes, it's not what you think. Today was a not so good day, but something that happened in the middle of the day made me feel good. I did my first story of the year, about how to keep your 2006 resolutions to get healthy. And one of the healthy things that was mentioned was getting a massage. So I tell the producer/photog we should go to a massage school. I was at the most expecting to do my stand up outside, maaaaybe ask a couple of questions of an instructor. Well, I got to do that, plus the students took time out to demonstrate a swedish massage for us on-camera. And during that time, the director of the school asked about the channel we're on, and said that she watches it, and she recognized me from it. Awwwwwww!!!!!! I felt soooo special. Hence, my first time being recognized. This is only the beginning I guess.

But. First thing this morning, said producer/photog told me of a person I interned with Summer 2004, and saw ocassionally up at City Cable. This person graduated in December, and ALREADY HAS A JOB! Granted, she'll only be making $7.20/hr, she still has a job! This is so frustrating!

Plus, I had to redo my resume tape today, and decided to put the story I did today on there. And to make it easier for myself (or so I thought), I wanted to transfer the resume tape I already had, and just insert today's story. Well, this little change took over an hour. And after spending at least 30 minutes just trying to get the right version transferred, I then had to think about how I wanted to edit my story again. But it turned out okay I suppose. I'm satisfied with it for now, and whenever I get some money (another thing already wrong with 2006), at least 50 tapes will be going out ASAP; about 5 definitely need to go out muy ASAP. Anyone know of any on-air job openings?

For some reason I kept getting an error the last time I tried to post this, so I'm trying again. Enjoy!

Yet another fun "all about you" exercise borrowed from a friend. I might change some questions though, if they're a little too personal.

1) Was 2005 a good year for you?
I think it was okay. Could've been better, could've been worse.

2) What was your favorite moment of the year?
Graduating from college

3) What was your least favorite moment of the year?
The first day at the regional NABJ conference.

4) Where were you when 2005 began?
I was at a party

5) Who were you with?
My best friend and other friends

6) Where were when 2005 ended?
I was in Louisiana

7) Who were you with when 2005 ended?
My sweetheart

8) Did you keep your new years resolution of 2005?
I don't even remember them.

9) Do you have a new year’s resolution for 2006?
Yeah, to stop procrastinating and watch my health.

10) Did you fall in love in 2005?
Yes!!!!

11) Did you breakup with anyone in 2005?
No

12) Did you make any new friends in 2005?
Uhhhhhh I don't think so.

13) Who are your favorite new friends?
Don't have any new friends

14) What was your favorite month of 2005?
January

15) Did you travel outside of the US in 2005?
Yep, to the Bahamas!!!

16) How many different states have you traveled in 2005?
Ummmm, Louisiana, Georgia, California, Florida.

17) Did you lose anybody close to you in 2005?
Yes, my great aunt, on December 12. She was like a second mother to me, and I spent at least half of my childhood with her. Rest in peace Mrs. Lucyle Thompson Lee, I love you dearly, we'll miss you. Till we meet again.

18) Did you miss anybody in the past year?
My sweetheart, my dad, my paternal grandmother

19) What was your favorite movie that you saw in 2005?
The only movie I had the chance to see, I think, was Batman Begins.

20) How many people did you sleep with in 2005?
This one's defnintely not getting answered.

21) Did you do anything you are ashamed of this year?
Procrastinating when I should've been getting a good tape together before I graduate.

22) What was the biggest lie you told in 2005?
Not answering this one either.

23) What was the worst lie someone told you in 2005?
I'm not even sure. I'm around pretty honest people.

24) Did you treat somebody badly in 2005?
No.

25) Did somebody treat you badly in 2005?
It wasn't exactly bad, it just wasn't what I wanted from them, but it was how they treated me during our entire friendship anyway.

This is another call for donations to the "Journiemajor needs an editing deck and software at home because she's tired of driving at least 40 minutes to edit her resume tape several times a month, only to change it the next month and something always ends up being messed up anyway so I'd have to change it once again" fund. Once again, right before I'm going out of town and wanting to pass out tapes, there's about 15 seconds in a 7 minutes of my tapes that have an audio issue. And I wouldn't be so bummed to redo it if I didn't have to keep transferring it from different tapes. I really want to edit it at work, which I could do, no one would have a problem with it. The problem is though, I'd have to transfer everything from Beta or VHS to DVC, edit it, and then transfer it back to VHS. And the transferring is only done in Master Control. Sooooooo, finding a good time to get in there when they're not doing something is hard. Plus, I'm really not looking forward to spending at least $2.90 to send out each tape, and right now I know I have at least 45 to send out. So any donation to the very worth-while cause would be greatly appreciated!

Ok so I'm trying to learn some new things to do on this blog. As you can see, my picture is up now. I've added a couple of links to some of my frequently visited websites and some funny blogs. But I just realized that the 2 posts I thought I posted on the 13th were actually just saved. So enjoy reading those 9 days later. And also, for those who may have seen the "all about me" post on the 2nd, I just also realized that it said "hoe size" instead of shoe size, so it has been corrected. I don't know if there's any such phrase, but trust I wouldn't even want to know.

Now, on to something else.

This business is all about working your way up and doing any and everything to get to the top. That also means that, depending on what you wanna do, but specifically in news, you have to move wherever you're offered a job. And right now, I'm stilllll waiting on the news director from one station, and no other offers are coming right now. There's a producer job in the city where my boyfriend is, but that is not what I wanna do. But I wanna be with him and start a family. It's easier for a man to make the decision to decide between a career and family, b/c he doesn't have to sit out for maternity leave. Although there is paternity leave now, but I doubt a lot of men in media are taking it, b/c this is a cutthroat business, and the more you're out, the sooner you're gone. But recently, 2 women that worked at my station left to be with their family. So what are we women pursuing a career in broadcasting to do? It would be nice to pull a $15 million a year contract like Katie Couric, but what sacrifices do we have to make along the way? And granted, my boyfriend is an aspiring music producer (anyone looking to start a label, looking for talent, looking for a company to sign with, let me know so he can get the ball rollin) and hopefully, soon I won't have to work. Which brings up another subject.

Over Thanksgiving, I was talking to my dad about my future, and told him that while I looooooove journalism(which I do), I never expected to marry rich. So I figured if I have to work, then I should do something I love, which is broadcasting. But since, the plan is for my bf, soon to be husband, supposedly, to be a successful producer and singer/rapper, I think it'd be safe to say, since he would be successful, that I wouldn't have to work. And that I could stay home and take care of the house, kids, etc. But, he's also asked me to be his publicist. Now I don't really mind this, but I'm not comfortable with it, I don't like the idea of working with a spouse.

But the issue is, no matter what industry you're in, if you don't have to work, if you have enough money to live on and buy necessities, and occasionally little luxuries, w/o going bankrupt, why work? I know the past couple of big lottery winners (over $300 million) have said they're going to continue working. Now I don't know if they said they'd work until they can't, or just whenever they wanna quit. And I understand, me myself, I'd probably work until I paid off all my debts, and the debts of family members, and whoever else, and then quit, or cut back on hours (not that I have that many right now anyway). So is it wrong for me to not want to work if I don't have to?

Also, if someone would like to donate to the "Journiemajor needs an editing deck and software at home because she's tired of driving at least 40 minutes to edit her resume tape several times a month, only to change it the next month and something always ends up being messed up anyway" fund, it would be greatly appreciated.

It took me 45 minutes to try and fix my reporter and anchor/reporter tapes today, and I still haven't dubbed them to VHS yet. I'm planning to do it on my break, although I should be leaving and going home to pack. But then again, I need the hours since I won't be here on Friday. So hopefully tonight won't be so draining.

Just another fun little ditty about me, that I borrowed from a friend who borrowed it from someone who probably also borrowed it from somoene.

I am not: yet rich

I hurt: when someone lies to me and refuses to understand how they've hurt me.

I love: being in the presence of the man I love.

I hate: people who drive slow in the fast lane, won't move over when someone's behind them and those who move over to another lane for no reason at all.

I hope: that I won't have to worry about much soon.

I hear: we might be getting snow

I regret: the summer of 95.

I cry: a alot more now than I used to.

I care: about all of my family and friends.

I always: try to be there for my family and friends and do my best at whatever I do.

I long to: be blessed enough to bless others

I feel alone: sometimes

I listen: gospel, r&b, hip hop, some rap.

I hide: my emotions sometimes.

I drive: a 2000 Mitsubishi Galant.

I sing: alllllll the time.

I dance: alll the time.

I write: a lot.

I breathe: to survive.

I play:Dynomite, What Word and Text Twist on Yahoo Games; or used to play clarinet, do play piano/organ.

I miss: the days when I didn't worry about anything.

I search: for the best me I can be.

I say: whatever comes to mind. I have a bad habit of doing the whole stream of consciousness thing.

I feel: like going on.

I succeed: when I put my heart and soul into something.

I fail: when I don't put my all into it.

I dream: really big.

I sleep: late.

I wonder: when I'm gonna get an on-air job.

I want: to help everyone I meet.

I worry: about being broke forever.

I have: bills due.

I give: a whoooooole lot of myself.

I fight: to get people to understand my point of view.

I wait: for the right job.

I am: a conqueror.

I think: therefore I am.

I can't: walk straight with my eyes closed.

I stay: up late too

I found this on a friend's blog and thought it would be fun!

*First*
First job: Telemarketer for MBNA.
First screen name: gapbaby (well aol was messing up so actually, gapbaby104)
First funeral: One of my great grandmother's, when I was about 4.
First pet: 2 dogs and a cat (don't remember their names, just remember I hated the cat)
First piercing: I had my ears pierced when I was a baby
First tattoo: Don't have one, don't particularly want one.
First credit card: MBNA Mizzou card
First kiss: On the lips? uhhh i think I was 8. First boy I kissed was in Kindergarten.
First enemy: Sarah Thornton, 1st grade. She didn't like me b/c I was prissy. I was prissy b/c I wore skirts and dresses all the time. But then the next year we were friends, 3rd grade enemies, 4th grade friends, and so on and so forth.

*Last*
Last car ride: Sunday night, from the airport.
Last kiss: If we're talking any kiss, I kissed my grandmommy goodbye when she was leaving my house. My bookie, was September 15th (gotta love long-distance love).
Last Movie Watched: ummmmmmerrruhhh oh The Perfect Man on the plane coming home from L.A.
Last beverage drank: Lipton's Citrus green tea
.Last food consumed: A tuna salad half-sandwich, still eating some chips, from Panera Bread (I looooove the company I work for)
Last time showered: This morning
Last CD played: Kirk Franklin and the Family (the very 1st one)

*Now*
Single or taken: Taken!!!!!!!!!!!!
Gender: Female
Birthday: Jan 8
Sign: Capricorn
Siblings: 1 younger half brother
Hair color: Dark brown
Eye color: dark brown
Shoe size: 8 1/2
Height: 5'5
Wearing: hot pink swear type shirt w/3/4" sleeves, blue jeans, blue and white tennis shoes
Drinking: not really drinking, but I have a cup of water on my desk
Thinking about: why I'm having to work on Sunday and when am I going to get a real job? And why people continue to print to a certain printer knowing it never works.

*Edited 12/22/05 b/c I just noticed that it said "hoe size" instead of "shoe size"

Originally I wanted this blog to be about my job search ONLY. But there's so much going on, it has to become a little more personal. In the past, I've been too willing to give up the informacion. A lot of people know me by this name, so I'm gonna try to keep it as g-rated as possible, but still let you know about my life. B/c after all, it is called, "This young journalist's life." And that's not my only role at this point in my life.

So, first of all, I read something kinda interesting on some journalism forum, or job website (I can't remember) that suggested (oh wait, it was in a daily newsletter from a journalism site) that professors should give their students the assignment of starting a blog. And in doing this, the author thinks that it will hone the wanna-be journalist's writing skills. Now I don't know how that could help, b/c I'm sure not everyone, in their own personal life when talking to their friends or whomever, speaks in proper english at all times. And especially in the age of the Internet, with the LOL's, LMAO's and ROTFLMBO's, constantly writing in broken english is not, in my opinion, gonna help someone become a better writer. What do you think?

Two. I went to L.A. with my grandmommy to visit my dad, her son. It was interesting. Not the great time that I expected, but they were several surprises (OMG, I'm just now seeing the news today and they said this police officer that everyone was pulling for has passed away. And oh lawd it's 39 degrees outside). Anywho, I went to work w/my dad (he works at a tv news station (and yes that's how I got into this crazy business, but that's another post for another day). It's funny how I've always heard, when introduced to my dad's coworkers, how he's so good at what he does, and the news wouldn't be what it is without him and all that jazz. And I used to go to work with him all the time, but I didn't understand much of what was going on at the time. But seeing it now, knowing what is being done, and what needs to be done, he's pretty good.

Moving on, the reporter we were with was a good friend of his, and I met her at the NABJ convention in ATL this summer. She is the coolest person, and is very much about business. I was disappointed though, that I was supposed to visit her at the station and go out on another story with her, and when that didn't happen, she told me I missed my chance and wouldn't have another one. But I think I've learned a lot from her. It helps when people are real with you, especially in this business.

But among other surprises, my dad had been talking about buying a house for years, and surprise, surprise, surprise. Going to his new "place" from the airport, I'm looking around, and thinking, "I don't see any apartments." And then we pull up to a house. I love it, it's nice, I want it. Although Ebony isn't there yet, b/c there's no grass in the backyard. But I'm proud of him.

Third, this job search business is expensive as all get out. Buying the cheapest tapes at $0.94 a pop, I know I've bought at least 50 now, and the bubbly envelopes, and the professional folders to put my resume and cover letter in, annnnnd the resume paper is expensive. Plus, mailing the tapes, at the very least is $2.90/tape. I just spent $37 sending 2 tapes in the past 2 days, and hopefully I'll get a call or somethin. But I still haven't heard much, and don't know when or if I'll hear anything. It's frustrating. I have to keep telling myself that just b/c I work where I work, doesn't mean I'm automatically good enough for a job in a muuuuuuch smaller market.

Fourth, I cannot WAIT for my bf's business to take off. I'm not a morning person. These 9:o0 stories at my freelance job are killing me. And I know what you're thinking. You may get a morning shift. That would be totally different. First of all, it would be my only job. Second, I would be getting waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay more money than what I'm getting now. Third, it would be an on-air job at a real tv station, not cable. But it's helping me a lot. Today I did a story on the National Transportation Tribute to Rosa Parks, and even though we didn't have a lot of video, I ended up pulling together a very good story. Nevermind it was somewhere in the 40's, possibly even 30's, and I did my stand up outside, and didn't have any gloves. I don't even know where my gloves are, we don't use them too often down here.

So, in conclusion, I think I'll be calling the AR news director tomorrow, since today is the last day of sweeps, I think. If not, I'll be calling Monday. Since, unfortunately, I'll be filling in for someone on Sunday afternoon/evening. I'm gonna have to check tomorrow to see if a certain someone is off tomorrow. Most of my coworkers (at least the people with my same job title) do NOT like working with this person. This person is just plain mean. Mean for no reason. We don't even think this person knows that they're mean. And it's not even an arrogant, "I'm better than you" mean. Just downright mean.

But oh well, wish me luck on this job search!

Okay, update. After all of this calling, and with today being the first day of sweeps, I did not expect a reply at all. Being that the last time I sent this news director an email, he didn't reply. But yayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!! I sent a short little follow up email and not even 5 minutes later he replied back, said I'm still in the running for the job, and he hopes to restart/start the process again next week!!!!

Okkkkaaaayyy. So I've called this news director everyday, at different times (but not times that he would be in a meeting) and no answer. And I shot up out of bed this morning thinking I was gonna call first thing, but then it clearly hit me that today is the 1st day of sweeps, therefore, I'm lucky if I hear anything at all this month, but most likely won't hear anything from anyone until the 2nd week of december. But, I'm still sending tapes to other places. One of the stations I interviewed at, he didn't hire me (of course), but he seemed really interested in me from the interview and the time I spent there. But now they have 2 openings coming up, one of which is an anchor/reporter so I sent a tape for that job, since he has my reporter tape, and he seemed to really like it. The only thing that I would like about this job is that since it doesn't pay much, I could live at home, if I really need to.

On to another subject, there's been some discussion about the recent approval of allowing high school students to be members of NABJ. I for one, was against it, only because there's not enough being done on the collegiate level, but I do agree that the professional chapters need to get more involved with the high school students. Now in the metroplex, the local professional chapter has a journalism workshop, and had I known about it back in high school, I would've definitely applied for it. But, for whatever reason, they didn't seem to reach out to the suburbian black students. Granted I was in a communications class at my high school, I know a lot of the students that did get to participate had the same opportunity. However, I didn't have any black mentors. My plea to anyone who might be reading this who is in a professional chapter of NABJ, reach out to all of the high schools in your area, b/c there might be a lot of bright students you're leaving out. And to any black high school students interested in journalism that are reading this, reach out. Go to www.nabj.org and see if there's a local chapter near you. Many people are anxious to have a mentee, to keep our faces in the newsroom.

Welp, I was starting to get down, until I made the bold move in calling the news director that I referenced in the Sept 20th post on Wednesday. And so since I've been looking at the website often, I notice there are stories by 2 reporters that don't have bios, so I figure the positions were filled. But, there was another reporter position posted maybe 2 weeks ago.

So when I call, I ask if he's still looking for a reporter, and he says something along the lines of "yeah, in fact I was going to call you tomorrow (Thursday), because I'm calling all of the final candidates for the job, to have a longer conversation, and you are one of the finalists." And so at this point, I'm thrilled. And he goes on to tell me that he's planning to call mid-morning or mid-afternoon, and if he misses me, he'll leave me a message and I can call him back. And then by Friday afternoon, he plans to make a decision as to who to bring to the station for an interview.

So, Thursday comes and goes, no phone call. Friday comes, and is going, no phone call. So needless to say, after my 2 person poll, I will be calling on Monday to figure out why I didn't get a call and if I'm still in the running. I'm not to keen about the state, but it's a good size market. A very, very good market, and not the typical market to have your first on-air job in, but I'd be okay with it. I've already had the chance to get to know one of the reporters there, and so at least I'll know one person if, God willing, I get the job.

Things are starting to look up. I received a call this morning from a news director. He asked if I was still looking for a job and told me about the positions he has open at his station. I was surprised and happy he asked for a couple of writing samples, which I wrote and sent right after the call. But I haven't heard anything yet, so I'm hoping he just didn't open his email again after the call.

Also, an anchor/reporter at another station I sent a tape to emailed me today and told me she would give me some information about the opening there, but I haven't heard anything after I replied. But I'm keeping my fingers crossed.