Last day as a Tar Heel 7/24/13

Today marks my last day of school and work at the University of North Carolina. I felt like I should drink from the Old Well before my last class. Then there was Krispy Kreme. What better way to end it then with donuts? Class was a critique and donuts followed by the showing of our blogs. The first critique was an interesting satire. To make fun of how much control Michael Jordan has, the author wrote a fictional report about how MJ was working to make a comeback and play for the Bobcats. For a second, I thought I was really out of touch with the NBA, then I read a few lines/quotes that let me know it's fictional.
I now have over 100 pages views because my blog is clearly awesome and since I'm the only one who posted mine on the web that's 100 more page views than everybody else. Woo!

We shared our blogs, and Professor Crothers shared parts of our last stories. He had a lot of positive things to say about how our final stories showed how we improved in our writing abilities. I liked the part of my story that he decided to read to the class, which was an article about how teams ask for taxpayer money to help build their stadiums or threaten to move.

One line I like in particular, about how the New York Yankees had claimed they might move without a new Yankee Stadium:

       "Are they actually going to leave and head to another city? Where exactly would they expect to make    the same amount of money? I hear Schenectady, NY is just down the road."

The rest of my classmates shared their blogs as well before it came to a close. As I prepare for the University of Iowa, my time as a Tar Heel in the classroom came to an end. I walked out, and it was a weird feeling. I had been here for 2 years and 7 months, and now it had come to a close. I had made many friends, had a few relationships, and had some other great experiences as a student and employee of this fine university. and while I would certainly be back to visit Chapel Hill, it would be different. At least it ended with donuts.

It's LeBron, not Lebron 7/23/13

The day began with critiques of our reviews of Around the Horn. I thought my paper was pretty good. It was also first up on the critique. I had a bit of a problem connecting to the internet while we were given time to read the papers, so it was a bit of a relief that I could save some time by only reading the other two. However, when the critique started, several people said that it needed more opinion and less explaining of the show. Maybe it wasn't a good thing my paper was chosen. I also learned that the "b" in LeBron is capital. I felt better when I saw a decent grade on it, anyway. Hopefully, I can focus more on my opinion on my paper due tomorrow.

After the review of the next two, Professor Crothers talked to us about the book selling process. He told us about what he went through to get "The Man Watching," his first ever book, published. One publisher wouldn't sell it. Or they might if he cut it to make it about 25% shorter.  A smaller one would publish it as is, but had a $5,000 advance before he would get any money. He still receives royalty statements every 6 months.

Professor Crothers also let us in on some secrets, such as the editorial reviews on the back cover of the book. They were more of statements that were approved by those individuals, rather than being written from scratch by them. Also, while he did not ask anybody to write a review for him on Amazon.com, most of the reviews were done by people he knows personally.

Tomorrow is my last day of class at Carolina. Donuts and we talk about our blogs. By the way, sounds like everyone else made a private blog, meaning I may be the only one to post mine on the internet. And you are reading it, along with about 87 other people as of the moment. I have photo blogs of my work and they don't pick up that fast. Thanks. While I'm at it...shameless plug...

josephglennphoto.blogspot.com
and
josephglenncities.blogspot.com

DICKIE V BABY! 7/22/13

Dick Vitale. The same person who makes my father hit the mute button on the TV and watch the game in silence was the topic of today's class. Baby. A word that is very frequently said at the end of every sentence said by Dick Vitale. For example, "He’s a PTPer tonight, baby!" Also see "Diaper Dandy." I feel embarrassed to have listened to enough Dick Vitale to know that PTP means "Prime Time Player."

Our teacher, Tim Crothers, had us read two opinion pieces he wrote for Sports Illustrated about Vitale. I was impressed with the stats in the second column, especially the fact that the word "great" was used 85 times. He also played phone messages left on his machine by Mr. Vitale, and it was pretty funny. They nicely displayed the two different types of opinion pieces, "rants" and "reason."

We then practiced writing a lead for an opinion piece, before being assigned to write one on Around the Horn, a show on ESPN at 5 PM. Since I am temporarily living with a co-worker who does not get ESPN, one of my classmates offered to have me watch the show with her. I went to He's Not Here, where she works, and watched the show and got another Blue Cup before I left Chapel Hill. Certainly more enjoyable than watching it at home by myself.

I was glad I watched the show. I originally wrote my piece based on what I thought about the show from the few times I had just happened to have watched some of it. However, there were parts to the format that I didn't know, and I was glad to see that so I could make my writing accurate.

The morning after 7/19/13

Newswriting is different than feature writing. After I was told that I gave away too much information in my lead of my Hanna Gardner story, I made sure I did not give too much away in bowling story. I kept that score to the end. In the first hour of class today, we were told that the score needed to be in the first three or four paragraphs. Awesome. At least I wasn't the only one, and now I know. I was wondering about that, because I had read a lot of newspaper articles that had given the score and big events early, instead of saving them for last. I guess that's different when it is a game story. Something to learn every day.

I was able to read a lot about my "disappointing" bowling performance, to copy the word used in the second story we critiqued. I had started to move on, but read that word first thing this morning, so it almost put me right back in that place haha. At least I played some basketball last night so I could see I still have some athletic ability.

We read a piece that Professor Crothers had written for Sports Illustrated in 2001. It was about a Carolina-Duke game, and it was informative to hear the process that Crothers went through to get the information for his story, especially since his plan of getting on the team bus fell through at the last minute. I hope to use the knowledge of what he had to do to get the details for his story to help me when researching my own stories.

Bowling Tournament!! 7/18/13

 
Mardi Gras Lanes doesn't open until 10, so we critiqued one article in class before leaving for the bowling alley. It was a Hanna Gardner article written by my classmate Meghan Cunningham, and I was really impressed. The only errors were minor, and overall it was a solid piece of work. I didn't know my classmates going into the class so obviously I didn't know how they could write, but wow this was really good. I hope she got an A for it.

After that, we went to Mardi Gras. I hoped I would do well, but I felt some pressure. What would they think of my Fred Flintstone-like shuffle? (There are girls in this class, lol). The last game I had ever bowled was a 217, which was my second highest, only lower than a 237 years ago. The class knew about this 217, but I am also someone who one game out of 20 won't break 100. I was hoping to have an average showing, which for me is about 135 or 140. Guess what happened? I had my one game out of 20. I bowled a 97, and was not happy about it well after heading home for the day. I wanted to perform better, even if I didn't win, but I guess I felt nervous in front of my classmates.

The rest of the tournament was very interesting. Kate, who also has previously bowled over 200, and Claudia were neck and neck going into the tenth frame. They were separated by one pin, and both had a spare in the ninth. Claudia went first and got a strike, and then 8 more. Kate answered with a turkey to win with a 157. An impressive finish. Bryan also had a turkey, despite claiming to have only bowled three strikes before in his life. It was a fun day, especially for it to be a day of class. We got quotes along the way so it was definitely a fun way to learn, even if I didn't do as well as I would have liked.

Day 5 - Last Day of Camp 7/17/13

Today was the last day for the high school journalism camp, and as a result, we had a shortened class. We met from 9-10, while the camp had a guest speaker. It was enough time to quickly critique three Hanna Gardner articles, and one of them was mine. I listened to the other critiques, and awaited for my own. Critiques had seemed to dwell on the negative so far, so I was worried what people would have to say about my writing. Luckily, most of it was good feedback that wasn't too harsh and that I agreed with, so it went well. Also, somebody said that my ending was the best ending they had read in class so far, which made me feel pretty good. Class ended, but we found out what we would be doing tomorrow: A bowling tournament! I was hoping to do well, and looking forward to showing up with my own ball and shoes.

Day 4 - Hanna Gardner Interview 7/16/13

After another critique, we interviewed Hanna Gardner of the women's soccer team. I heard she had an interesting story, but my google search did not come up with much. That was until I overheard my teacher telling someone that she had walked on to the team. I was able to come up with more in my search, and read about how she didn't even get to travel with the team for their season opener. Oh, and by the way she scored what would turn out to be the game winning goal in the NCAA National Championship about 3 and a half months later. You know, no big deal. Talk about opposite ends of the spectrum.

The interview took about a half hour. I heard she was an artist, and considering that was my major in undergrad I was interested in that. However, she dismissed it, saying she used to draw, but not anymore and did not make a big deal out of it. Our story can be anywhere from 600-1000 words, so we have a little more leeway this time in how much space to take up. Tomorrow we find out where we will be going for Thursday's assignment, which apparently is somewhere our teacher will need to drive us to. Sounds interesting.

Day 3 - Marcus Paige Interview 7/15/13

In today's class, we had about 40 high school students join us from UNC's Journalism Camp. Professor Crothers sent out the articles we were to critique via email, and of course I was unaware of this and was the only one in my class who did not bring his laptop. We critiqued three of the high school students' articles as a group, and wow those high schoolers were brutal to the first one! I've often been in critiques where little more is said than "I liked this" or "This was good," but this critique actually provided good feedback to the writer, if they could take all the criticism. One student in particular, I think his name was Sam, seemed to have something negative to say about each article.

After the critiques, we had a little break before meeting down towards the Dean Smith Center for the interview for our next story. That interview was with Marcus Paige of the men's basketball team. I had read an article recently about how he was trying to put on weight over the summer, and that's what most of the conversation was about. He spent a little over a half hour talking to us and joking around. I tried to take pictures during the interview to use for the blog, but I didn't want the flash to go off in his face, so I was a bit limited since I didn't have my SLR with me. I have way more quotes than I can use so I'll have to figure out how to approach the story.

Day 2 - Introducing ourselves again 7/12/13

Today was the first day with our professor, Mr. Timothy Crothers. He had us introduce ourselves with a bowling story. I was able to share that my last game was a 217. Maybe I'll never bowl again so I can always say that my last game was a 217. He had us gather material for our first story. We would ask a classmate about their greatest athletic achievement. That's a good way to get a story. That way we get practice interviewing, don't have to worry about the tight time schedule for when to set up the interview, and write about something new that probably has never been covered before. My partner was Brian Griffin. It did not take me long to decide what story I was going to tell him. Making 19 out of 20 foul shots at basketball camp made me feel pretty cool for a middle-schooler. I learned about Brian's game-winning soccer goal for High Point. Our next story seemed pretty cool, too. It was to be based on a press conference on Monday with Marcus Paige. Whoo! He's from Iowa, maybe I should ask him why he left the state when I'm about to move into it. Ok, maybe not.

The Last First Day of Classes 7/11/13

As I took my final class at Carolina before moving to University of Iowa, I wondered what it would be like. I've never taken a summer class before, so I didn't know what to expect. How large is the class going to be? What is the pace of the class, given it needs to fit into 2 weeks? Will I need to get a textbook? For my class, Creative Sportswriting, I may not receive all the answers to my questions on Day 1, as we were having a guest speaker on the first day. I was able to see the class size was 9 students.

Our guest speaker was Robbi Pickeral, and she covered UNC for espn.com for 10 years after she covered the Minnesota Timberwolves for a while. She had us read some leads she had written before we interviewed a classmate for 5 minutes to write a lead of our own. That was certainly an interesting ice breaker, as we found out a little more about our classmates without them directly telling us as we went around the room and read our leads about another student. I interviewed Claudia Stacks. It helped me learn what questions to ask, and I discovered she went to Greece and enjoyed it so much she would go there again if she could travel anywhere. Despite a cruise she didn't like and would never go on again, it must have been a good trip. Also, what happened on that cruise?

Our next activity was to read one of Ms. Pickeral's stories that we had read the lead to, and critique it. I really wanted to read the Wanda Williams story, on Roy Williams' wife, but I was out-voted. We read a story on Rashad McCants, which despite the fact that it was probably my last choice of the three, I ended up enjoying it. It said something about Ms. Pickeral's writing style and made me want to read the Wanda Williams story even more. I planned to google it when I got home. After some questions and answers with Ms. Pickeral, class was dismissed and after another classmate asked for a copy of the Wanda Williams story, I asked for one, too. Reading material for tonight. Not a bad first day.