Erin

Midterms, Interns, and elections

Happy Halloween folks!

Midterms are over for me at least, though since Christmas is coming there is no time for down time. I know have two more jobs...which brings me to a grand total (counting the modeling gig and my internship) to five. Yes. I have five jobs. I now work the jewelery counter at a Kohl's store and I work part time at the NPR station during the week learning the board and running some technical stuff. Anything to bring my friends and family a merry holiday season during this tough time. (sigh)

I am so excited for the election! We all have to be here at WDET all night on November 4. I have literally cleared my schedule for that day. This is such an amazing time to be a journalist, especially a journalist just starting out. The world is changing so fast, and the profession is too.  I really love the new major that U of M Dearborn is creating for New Media. I wish it had come around while I still had time to declare it as my major. Oh well.

My job at the Library is the closest thing to a weekend I get, cause there is a lot of down time. Very nice. Fall will be over soon, which makes me sad cause I love this season more than anything. The campus is wonderful in the fall, but awful in the winter. It's a big sprawling place, and if you have to say...walk across it in a snow storm, it can be pretty tough. I'm investing in some heavy boots, since this winter is suppose to be hard.

Well I hope everyone out there is having an enjoyable Halloween. I'm going as a bleeding heart journalist. It's a hilarious costume, trust me. Stay warm folks!

Midterms, jobs, and sculpture.

The frizzy hair, the less than immaculate make-up, the coffee chugging, chain smoking, young men and women running frantically from class to library to computers to class. It is that time of year again.

We're nearing midterms people. Look out!

I have one today, but I would rather update this than study. Why? Because I like so many other misguided students, believe that under pressure, miracles can occur.

Or really I'm just putting it off. I have lots of papers due, I haven't even sent out my internship packages (Like I vowed to do two weeks ago) and things are heating up at NPR. Oh yeah, and I also got a second job to make those ends meet. So I am actually a little stressed. But I deal with stress with two equal doses of yoga and self denial.

I did (finally) make it into the paper! I'm pretty proud of my latest story, though I wish I could have done more research/longer piece. You can find it here. I'm also trying to get a gig with The Mining Journal in Marquette so I can work up there in the summer and file stories for them here in Detroit at other times of year. Kind of like the Mining Journal's Detroit bureau is me. The other option for working in Marquette? Spotting forest fires, like Jack Kerouac. Apparently I'm a member of the Beat Generation.

I also got a job posing for a sculpture class in Ann Arbor for 12 bucks an hour. Please do not ask me how much clothing I am wearing while his student's sculpt me. It is surprisingly little, but it's the kind of off beat job I've always been drawn too. It's actually a really interesting gig, seeing students (most of which can't sculpt for crap) take a formless mass and turn it into a rough approximation of me. It's also a little weird to see a bunch of bland colored me sitting around a room. Then they 'deconstruct' the ones that aren't good enough to go on to the next stage of sculpting. This means they take all the little me's that are funky looking and pound them back into piles of clay so the students can restart sculpting a little me.

It's a little disturbing.

Internships

Hey all. I’m loving the fall season, even if it isn’t feeling very Fall lately. This weekend is full of apple picking and bon fires. Just the sort of thing that makes me love Fall!

This weekend is also full of applying for internships. I’m looking at applying to The Detroit Free Press, Hour Magazine and a few others. Another intern here at WDET told me about the joys of freelance writing, so I’m gonna try and do something like that too. I’m just dumbstruck when I talk to other journalism majors and they aren’t trying to get any practical experience in journalism! Experience experience experience boys and girls, it’s what will get you a real job once out of school.

I’m writing an article about parties people throw centered around the presidential debates. I hope you all can take a look at it. I’m constantly surprised by how many people I see reading the Michigan Journal. Those articles are definitely not wasted. 

Fall!

So, I love fall. I love it. I don't really have much going on right now, except for the fact that I totally love the way the campus looks covered in yellow leaves. I'm only doing one post this week, since I'm spending the next few days up in Marquette. (yuck, 8 hour drive) for hiking and running around (yay!)

Also, I was on PBS yesterday ranting about my political views! I was interviewed in front of the library for a MiVote video contest. They cut it down a lot, and kinda made me look like a raving pro-choice crazy lady. That is definitely NOT the one issue I vote on. I wish they had used a more positive cut of what I said. I said a lot of good things about why I'm going for Obama, but they really focused on all the negative I had to say about Palin. Also, my voice sounds weird. My voice always sounds weird on recording equipment. Maybe it's just my voice.

Oh well. Just goes to show you never know what's gonna happen around U of M-Dearborn. It is full of craziness.

Also, unfortunately I've been too busy to publish anything in the MJ this year, which saddens me. Hopefully next week I'll have a story to link here. Until then, I am just a staff writer who can barely stay on staff. Life is only gonna get nuttier as the weeks go on.

My NPR internship continues to be the most amazing experience of my life. I can't believe how much fun I'm having and how much I'm learning. I love it. Turns out my dream job was BETTER than I could have ever hoped for. I'm thinking about swithchng my major and minor, to major in Electronic Media and minor in journalism instead of the other way around. You aren't going to get anywhere in life without a soild knowledge of computers.

I have packing to do, see ya'll laters.

I also have an interview at the Free Press. Wish me luck!

U of M Dearborn votes

I'm back from the big lake they call Kitchi-gummi. Back on campus with a heinous cold I got while traversing the great state of . It was my first trip to the

Upper Peninsula. It was quiet an experience. Intensely beautiful sights everywhere we went

Real waterfalls just hanging out on the side of the road! It was great.

Crazy day at the Mardigian library (if you remember I work at the library here) with lots of problems and moody people. Hint: Be nice to the people in circulation, it may pay off down the road.

Still struggling to nail down this piece with the Columbia Journalism Review. I must be all blocked up mentally as well as the normal congestion one experiences this time of year. I am a cranky sicky today.

Other than that not much to report. With the election less than a month away things are heating up at NPR. I'm pretty sure I'm just gonna be taking Nov. 5 off to recuperate. Like I could possibly complain about working overtime at my dream gig. The only place I would rather be than at the newsroom on election night is here