Journalism 1 Blog #2

I know so much about current events because I like knowing what goes on in this world.

What I do to keep up with the current events that happen about the world around me is since I am on the computer most of the time I use, Yahoo as my main source of news. Yahoo provides everything that is happening within that day from news to entertainment and from sports to feature stories.

I also use CNN as another source of getting news. I can always rely on CNN because it is always up to date and it is reliable, especially CNN reporter Anderson Cooper. He is one of the most credible and well-known journalist and with his blog, AC360, every breaking news or big events that happen is on there right away.

Although it might not be a source of news, I get a lot of information through Facebook. Everyone that is “wired” on Facebook are always posting things from news to entertainment and from sports to feature stories. Of course, I would look it up by using Yahoo or CNN to see if it is true.

For example, the earthquake that happened in Sendai, Japan. I didn’t know anything about it at first, then as I logged onto Facebook, I saw that people posting their “status” and they were talking about a earthquake that happened in Japan. So I looked it up on CNN and what people were posting was true.

Sometimes a non-major source can be informative, like Facebook. News spreads like cancer, good or bad. People are going to be talking about it but if you want the details, you should always use the big name news sources.

http://ac360.blogs.cnn.com

Journalism 1 Blog #1

Interviewing Christopher Vopinek was probably the hardest thing did as a student in a journalism class. It took time to figure out what I was going to talk about, when I was going to do the interview, where I was going to interview Christopher, and how I was going to interview him.

Since Vopinek is a baseball player at El Camino College, I knew that I could do the interview at the baseball field and talk about what it's like being an athlete at the college level and also ask if he went through any adversities while playing baseball.

Vopinek said he was busy most of the time with school work and baseball, it was hard for me to get time from him to do the interview, but I was lucky enough to catch him after a practice and got to ask him some questions.

Now how I was going to interview him was the hardest part. I didn't whether to start off friendly or go in there with a serious attitude and ask the question right away.

Then I remembered learning in Journalism 1 that we should loosen up the environment a little bit by talk him to person we are interviewing. So I took that advice and just started talking to him like I would in a normal conversation, first by asking him how practice was, how his day went, etc.

When I was interviewing Vopinek, I asked him if he went through any adversity in his time playing baseball. He said that when he attended California State University, Sacramento to play baseball, he had a shoulder injury on his throwing arm that cost him a whole season.

Vopinek showed me a scar on his right shoulder, as there was still stitch marks from after the surgery. He also had a scar on his right elbow, which that doctors removed some muscle from there to replace it in the shoulder.

"This injury was probably the rough part of my life since I was injury-free in high school but never took care of my arm," Vopinek said. "But that also made me want to work hard to get better so I can get back on the diamond."

After the interview, Vopinek ran off the field through the center field gate with pride. He said that he wasn't going to take anything for granted because not being able to play of an injury was already hard enough on him.

Vopinek said, "I want to be an example to everyone on the team. I want to be remembered as the person that worked hard and never gave up, even when I hit a rough patch in life."

So struggled getting up from bed this morning, not being able to feel my legs at all from CrossFit.

I get to my Geology 1 class to find out that a have a 77 percent in the class, which was better than I thought I was doing. Pretty stoked about that. Now if I can keep that up in all my classes, that would be awesome

I get to my second class, waiting on the red bench before class starts, and this time, I was going to ask the girl in my class on a movie date. I told myself the night before, "Don't be a pussy about it. Just do it. You'll never know until you try." So as I waited, the professor came walking down the hall to open the room. Still, no sign of the girl.

As I sat down in the class and the professor called roll, I noticed she didn't call her name because her name would be the first one called and some other girl was like, "Oh, I guess my name is first from now huh?" I assumed that she dropped the class because the few times I talked to her, she was saying she didn't need the journalism class. Kind of sucks cause I was looking froward to going to class to talk to her. I hope for the best for her.

It's finally Friday. That means work. I need something new in my life.

On the bench

Hey all,

So basically, my body is taking a beating right now from the CrossFit workout I did yesterday morning. Waiting for class to start. Nice weather out today. Hopefully today turns out to be a good day.

First CrossFit work out

Hey all,

Woke up this morning not motivated to work out at all. I had to drive out to somewhere nrarPalisades Charter High School for my first CrossFit training gig. Took me about a good hour to get there to find out that Google Maps gave me some wrong directions (Way to google). Lucky, I had my GPS navigation in my car so I found my way there.

Got there, met some new people and had a pretty good work out

Workout Of the Day:
3 rounds of:
100m of Farmer's carry
20 Kettle Ball Cleans
200m Run
20 KB Swings
100m Farmer's Carry
20 KB Snatches

My total time: 18.55

Not too bad I guess for the first time.

Just another day...

Hey all,

Woke up feeling like I didn't want to go to school. I didn't want it to remind me of transferring because I already got rejected by my top choice of college. I got my test for Geology I took last Monday, found out I got a D-. I felt very unsocial today. Just didn't feel like talking a whole lot today. I think I would have talked to that girl in one of my classes before class actually started but I just wasn't in the mood too. After class I had a baseball team meeting to go to. We chose our MVP, Pitcher of the Year, and The Taylor Gelbrich Award (kind of like most inspirational). After that, went home and one of my best friends called me to go get lunch with her. Went to L & L, talked, and went home. Pretty boring so far.

Then after that, I went to Home Depot with my mom to buy some light bulbs for the kitchen (which I think got burnt out or the wire got messed up), and went to a Japanese Market to buy some stuff. That's where I saw some U of H merchandise. I hope that was a sign for something.

Later, my buddy, Dalton called me to go hit some softballs at the park. If you didn't know, I'm going to Yuma, Arizona to play in a softball tournament. So I did that, went home, then headed for Bellflower to drink with some friends.

Pretty boring day overall.

My coach told the sophomores on the team to list some schools we would want to play at and to make calls for. I would really want to play in somewhere in Hawaii. Can't beat the weather and lifestyle out there.

Well, I guess today was just another day and tomorrow is always a new day....and it starts off with CrossFit training in the morning...

My University of Oregon Essay

Hey all,

Like I mentioned in my other post, I applied to University of Oregon. During the application process, I had to write a essay no more than 500 words. I thought I share it with you

Prompt: Tell us something that you did in the past two years that made you feel good about yourself

Essay:

People have always encouraged me to go for what I want. Some think otherwise but this one time, I proved someone wrong.

 Two years ago, I transferred back to El Camino College from Barstow College. I played my freshmen year of baseball at Barstow and it wasn’t quite the experience I was expecting. After I transferred, I tried out for the baseball team. He told me anyone has a chance to make the team but you have to stand out. That summer of 2009, I worked harder than I can imagine. I would go get extra work in off the field and ended up making the team.

As the fall of 2009 came along, I was again working harder than ever to remain with the team. I know I didn't have the talent that other guys have on the team so I would go to the field early and be the first one there to go hit and take ground balls after class and be the last one off the field doing field jobs after practice.

After the long 4 weeks of practicing with the team, judgment day came for me whether I would make the team or not. I went into the coach’s office and as he talked to me, he gave me two options: 1. Stay with the team and not get playing time or 2. Quit. In my mind, I never thought of quitting but not getting playing time was a big issue to me but I know I would regret giving up baseball so I decided to stay with the team.

As a long fall semester of practicing, spring came along, which meant baseball season was under its ways. At this time, I have decided to redshirt but by watching this team, I learned so much about everything.

One day, one of our captains came up to me and talked about his leadership and how he can improve on it. Then one of our assistant coaches walked up to us and started talking about leadership. One of the things he mentioned was even though I was a redshirt sitting on the bench, I was a leader because of how hard I worked. When the coach gave me two choices, he was originally going to cut me but our assistant coach told him I was something special.

            At the end of the year meeting with the coach, he just talked about me. He told me that, “Look, I know you didn't get to play this year, but you made a big impact on the team and I think you were one of the reasons why we were the team we were.”

            After that day, I never took anything for granted and worked hard for everything. Even until this day, the people that I thought that inspired me would call me to thank me for the hard work I put in and they learn a life lesson from me that they would never forget, working hard.

Killing Time

Hey all,

I thought about what would happen in the next two years or so. Most likely, I would be transferred to another college (hopefully) and my both of my sisters would be graduated from high school. So that leaves with my mom selling the house after my youngest sister graduates. My mom's thinking about moving into a small apartment but big enough to where if any one of us were to come visit, there's room for us to sleep. 

I been living at the house ever since I moved to Torrance in 1999. I seen a lot happen to this house; my dad tore apart the backyard, broke the patio to make a small back room for himself, my dad took apart little bit of the drive way, etc. I told me that he was going to beautify the house by himself, and to save money. After he did all that, he caused a mess, and left my mom. The house hasn't been at its best ever since. Everything got old, the grass died, and with my mom being a single parent and all, she couldn't support us and the house at the same time. Of course, I tried helping out to make the house clean but since we have three dogs, nothing ever stays clean. As years flew by, we kept unnecessary things in the garage, the back room that my dad built, in our closets, and just stacked random things around the house. 

That came to a conclusion that I cant take all the things I own when/if I move. So I went through my room yesterday, four full trash bags of just junk I never used in like the past 5-7 years. I think I kept those things from the past because when I was younger, I thought it would be cool to look back at it and say "Oh yeah, this was when..." But in the end, what am I going to do with it? Store it in my closet and let it sit there for another decade and just take up space? So like I mentioned earlier, 4 full trash bags of junk. It consisted of pencil boxes from elementary school, pencils and pens I used, stuff animals I won at carnivals, 100 Sports Illistrated magazines, old Japanese comic books, Japanese work books from the 3rd/4th grade, shirts I never wear anymore, 4 pairs of jeans I dont wear anymore, notebooks, papers, receipts, newspapers, and the list going on forever. 

Time will come when I eventually after to let go of certain things I have. Even if it is something that is really worthy to me. I guess its part of everyday life for a human being. No one said it was going to be easy...