Everyday Edinburgh

My Love Affair

2010-11-29T07:08:00.000-08:00

Ok I started writing this blog entry the day that I got back from Dublin but then never got around to finishing it so here is what I had written....

Whilst being across the pond, I must admit I stumbled upon a new love last week right before I left to go to Dublin. It was a totally innocent, accidental encounter that has turned in to something else entirely. I am ashamed to even admit it really. Anna came over to my flat with the proposition of wine and snacks (so how could I say no?) Thursday evening along with Mimi and her friend David. David brought mince pies and after some debate about what they actually were (“Is there meat in them?” “Are you SURE there isn’t meat in them?”) – I agreed to try one. It was probably one of the best and worst culinary decisions I have ever made. I am utterly obsessed with them now. I had two that night, one in Dublin over the weekend and am currently stuffing one in my face as I write this in Starbucks. I’m not really sure why I like them so much, but I do. They’re little individual pies that have a bit of sugar on the top and are filled with this fruity jam consistency. It doesn’t sound like anything too special and neither Anna nor Mimi really fancied them – but I love them. I’m already thinking about finding a recipe to make for Christmas when I get back to the States so that everyone at home can try them. For some reason I doubt everyone will like them as much as I do.

Anyway, this past weekend the musketeers went on what I believe will be our last adventure, which is certainly bittersweet. I am SO excited to get home for Christmas in less than five weeks at this point, but I am really going to miss Edinburgh and all my friends here. I have definitely grown accustomed to the Edinburgh lifestyle and will certainly think back fondly on my time here. Although I had a hard time adjusting at first, I think it is safe to say I do really love this city – it just wasn’t love at first sight, which I think is better. My mom gets here on Thursday and I hope she likes Edinburgh as much as I do. Hopefully the rain isn’t too brutal while she’s here.

Right. Back to my main point. Dublin. We took an extremely early flight on Friday morning (8:00 a.m. departure time which put us on the Airlink bus around 6:00 a.m. Oi.) to Dublin and landed around 9:00 a.m. We quickly got the “Freedom Pass” which included access to the Hop On and Off Bus tour, access to the Airlink bus and any other public transportation bus in Dublin. We took the Airlink bus to the center of Dublin and went to go find our hostel. Well, after walking through some shady parts, we turned up at the Youth Hostel, which was not really what the musketeers were expecting. We decided to try to find other accommodations and quickly booked the Lymans Inn on O’Connell Street (the main street in Dublin) which appeared to much safer and in a very convenient location.

We went to go check in to our hotel but it wouldn’t be ready for a few hours so we decided to get some lunch before heading to the Guinness Storehouse (duh!). We took the Hop On and Off bus to the Guinness Mecca. I have never witnessed anything quite like the Guinness Storehouse – let me just say for all of my Bostonians, it puts the Samuel Adams Brewery to shame. Just sayin’. This was 7 floors of Guinness history, facts, education on how to pour a perfect pint of Guinness and obviously a two story Guinness merchandise shop. The best part was having a pint of Guinness in the Gravity Bar at the top of the Storehouse where you can see all of Dublin. It was definitely cool and I am glad to say that I had my first pint of Guinness in Dublin at the Gravity Bar. Liz and Cristina were amazed that I could actually drink the entire pint of Guinness and Liz told me several times that I am a “beast”. As a person who is not a fan of beer, it was definitely a feat and I think it really is a different experience for everyone based on the three different reactions by Cristina, Liz and I. I don’t think I would’ve ever tried a pint of Guinness in the States. It really is a heavy heavy beer. I didn’t think it would be as heavy as it was. I was kind of surprised as to how many Irish people were in the Gravity Bar because I would’ve expected it to be strictly tourists.....

At some point I might get around to finishing this post. Otherwise I guess you will never know what happened in Dublin. More importantly, my mom came for a visit the weekend before Thanksgiving which was so great. However, it did start to make me a tad bit more homesick because I just wanted to go home with her then but as of today I have 19 days left until I leave Edinburgh which is crazy! Sometimes it does feel as though time is flying by and other times it feels painfully slow...less than 3 weeks though...should go quickly. Until next time.

The Scottish Differences

2010-11-07T04:03:00.000-08:00

This morning I witnessed one of the oddest events in my entire collegiate career, academically speaking anyway. I arrived at the library at 11:15 a.m. assuming that they would be open by this time since their hours during the week are 7:30 a.m. - 2:30 a.m. Yes you read correctly, they're open til 2:30 a.m. I figured by 11:15 a.m. on a Sunday they would be open. Well they weren't. Apparently they don't open until noon but that's fine, I just started reading some of my book that I was going to read at the library anyway and drank my gingerbread soy latte while waiting for it to be open. A couple people tried and failed to open the door to enter the library as it was locked. More people came. People started explaining the library didn't open until noon. A crowd started to form as noon drew nearer and then the library man came forward to unlock the doors. People started rushing them to get in to the library before everyone else. I'm not really sure if they thought all the books and computers would be taken before they got in there but it was really interesting to see considering there were probably only 30 of us waiting there. This brings me to my main point that people in Scotland really enjoy the library. I always head straight to the 5th floor when I get here which is supposed to be the Post Graduate studying area but theres no way to know if people are actually Post Grad or not so it's just a studying area. There's just tons of work stations in the Silent Study area. Each station has a place for you to plug in your laptop and theres a wonderful view of Arthur's Seat or the rest of the city depending on where you sit. It's quite lovely actually. But people fight for these seats. I've only been here for 10 minutes and already the room is half full. By 2 p.m. there won't be room for any new people. I have had to do laps around the different floors of the library to find a place to sit. It's prime essay writing time and everyone is in the library. It's kind of interesting actually. I have never had a problem trying to find a seat at Northeastern University's Library. I'm not sure what the difference really is here but people enjoy coming to the library to get work done apparently. Anyway, I'm going to provide you with a list of differences I have found between Scotland (and the UK/Europe in general) because that's what I feel like doing this morning instead of reading about Scottish Heritage and Tourism.

This is an odd observation but public bathrooms in Europe are way cleaner than they are in the U.S. Some of my friends have speculated that since you have to pay to use some public restrooms here, they have to be clean.
They say 'toilets' instead of 'restrooms'. I haven't been able to bring myself to use the word 'toilet' just because of my general American snottiness and the fact that we think that word is generally rude or not proper.
Before traffic lights turn green here, they turn yellow again first. At first I thought it was interesting but now I'm used to it. I guess it's better then people inching forward because they EXPECT the light to turn green but aren't entirely sure that it's going to turn green yet.
When we were in Oslo at the movie theater, their popcorn was refrigerated.
When you walk in to a building, you're not on the 1st floor you're on the 'ground floor'. When you go to the 2nd floor, you're on the 'first floor'. So if someone lives on the fourth floor, you actually have to walk up five flights of stairs. Gets to be a bit confusing at first.
You don't really tip at restaurants here. If you leave 10% that's considered good tipping. It's kind of awkward because you don't really know when you do and don't tip so you kind of just use your own discretion.
When you go to a pub, you don't have table service. You have to go to the bar, tell them the table number that is provided on your table and order from them.
At the end of statements people say yeah? For example: 'You're going to that party tonight, yeah?' I guess it's kind of like using the word 'right' at the end of sentences. I've started doing it and kind of hope I stop.
Fortnightly = 2 weeks. I didn't know this at first.
Potato chips = crisps. French fries = chips.
There are interesting crisp (potato chip) flavors here. They don't really have your general sour cream and onion although they do have salt & balsamic vinegar which I quite enjoy. They have flavors like prawn cocktail (shrimp cocktail) and roast chicken. I tried Aberdeen Angus flavored crisps and they were actually really good.
They have this chain called Baguette Express which is basically a UK Subway which is awesome. You can get a sandwich, crisps and soda for £3.50 which is quite a deal.
Food here takes awhile. At Subway it's not uncommon to wait 10-15 minutes for them to make your sandwich. Sometimes it can be a pain but sometimes its nice to not have to be in a rush to get food. However, when your sushi takes literally 45 minutes, you start to question if they forgot to order your food.
You can get nachos ANYWHERE. I think I already made a big deal of this in my last post, but I just want to reiterate that point.
Bars close way later here - like NYC timing I would guess, but it's different than Boston.

Alrighty, I guess I should get on with my essay research but just wanted to take some time to let you all know about my European experiences. There's less than 6 weeks til I go home at this point now - 41 days to be exact. Kind of crazy but I also can't wait to go home for Christmas, it's going to be awesome. Have a great day all!

Oslo...It's In Norway

2010-10-26T13:35:00.000-07:00

I know I have been a blog slacker and plan to put in some serious blog time this week so that I can inform all of you (ok more like the five of you that actually read this thing) about life in Edinburgh since I have not given many details lately. But first, I have to do an obligatory post about my adventures in Oslo from this past weekend. I went to Norway with Liz and Cristina and was EXTREMELY excited about going to continental Europe for the first time ever! We took a plane from Edinburgh to Oslo Torp on Friday evening and arrived "in" Oslo around 10 p.m. We then had to take an hour and a half bus ride to actual Oslo. From there, we treked through the drunken streets to our hotel, which I must admit I was nervous about. I wasn't sure what to expect from the hotel although my (former) flatmate Anna (who is from Oslo) had reassured me that the hotel was in a lovely area. Luckily, she was right. Our hotel was AMAZING. The beds were so comfy and warm and our bathroom floors were heated! Anna told me that this is common in Oslo but I was extremely impressed. Before crashing that evening we had to make a very American trip to McDonalds because we were all starving. Liz had her first Big Mac (yayyyy!) and we were interrogated by some extremely drunk girls trying to speak Norwegian to us.

The next day we woke up bright and early and on very little sleep to have a free breakfast in our hotel. The breakfast was great - they had many different eggs, breads, fruit, waffles, etc. Definitely delicious. We then decided we were going to do the touristy outdoorsy things for the day. The weather was supposed to be not so nice on Sunday so we thought if we had to we would walk around museums and be inside on Sunday. Luckily, both days were beautiful so it wasn't an issue. Anywho, we walked around Oslo to Karl Johans Gate which is basically the main street in Oslo and saw some of the sights there. Next, we went down by the water where the Nobel Peace Center is. Our plan was to go see the fjords and that is precisely what we did. We found a boat tour that took us around Oslo to see the Opera House and then would drop us so we could walk to the Viking Ship Museum along with a few other museums. The boat was VERY cold and windy but definitely worth it. The Opera House was absolutely gorgeous and you could actually walk on top of it. Next we stopped and got off the boat so we could go see the Viking Museum. Cristina was really excited to go see it and it ended up being really cool. Vikings are not so much my thing, but the boats were fascinating and I learned a lot about the Vikings. Also, Liz found a Dutch man that she was in love with named Dennis but unfortunately we lost him somewhere in the museum. Somehow she was able to get through it and remained upbeat for the rest of the trip :p

We hopped back on the boat in the afternoon in order to get to Oktoberfest on time which was clearly a mistake because it was quite...uneventful. But first, we partook in perhaps the most eventful part of our Oslo trip. We ate Moose/Elk jerky. From the boat 'cafe' thing. It was absolutely horrid but also absolutely hilarious. I don't think I've laughed that hard since I've been in Scotland but we were ridiculous trying to eat this jerky on the boat and causing pretty much the biggest scene ever. Luckily we were inside and the majority of people were outside on the boat but it was totally a "you had to be there" thing. Thought I should inform you all of it anyway. There is definitely a video of me trying it and being grossed out which I should try to post on here at some point.

Anyway, instead of going to Oktoberfest, we shopped around the outdoor markets which was really cool and I found a flower ring that I was absolutely in love with but thought it was too much money. Since I have the best friends in the world, Liz and Cristina bought me the ring as an early birthday present! I was SO excited about it! And I'm currently wearing it because it is super awesome and I'm obsessed with it. Anyway, we tried to get in to the Cathedral that evening but it was locked so we decided to come back on Sunday. We wandered around the city some more before returning to our hotel for our free "light evening meal" which turned out to be nachos. I must say that the UK and Europe have an odd thing for nachos. It is pretty much on EVERY single menu, everywhere. It's in restaurants, it's at hotels, it's in SUBWAY. You can literally order nachos at SUBWAY. I find it quite interesting, and slightly disturbing actually.

So since we were all exhausted we decided to have a low key Oslo evening and went to see a movie. Before going to the movies, we went to Deli de Luca where they had awesome desserts and I got an Oreo Dream Bar. SOOOO GOOD. After stuffing ourselves with chocolate, we went to go see The Kids Are All Right which was really good and I of course hysterically cried throughout the film. Luckily, it was in English and had Norwegian subtitles. Many Norwegians know English already so it was pretty easy to talk to people even though we didn't know the language. If you started speaking English to someone although they were Norwegian, they knew English and would respond to you in English. It was kind of interesting being the minority language there because 90% of the time I would walk by people, I would have no idea what they were saying. It was definitely a different experience for me.

After the movie, we went back to our hotel to go to bed. However, I was still bothered by The Kids Are All Right and decided I needed a drink so I dragged Cristina and Liz to the hotel bar with me. I had a Bellini which was awesome and we chatted for a bit before passing out. We slept in a little bit on Sunday, had a nice breakfast at the hotel and then headed to Vigeland which is essentially a sculpture garden. It was really cool to see all the different sculptures that this one man created. They were incredible and of course there were ones you could kind of pose with so obviously I did that. After the garden we took the Tram back to the National Gallery to see the famous "Scream" painting which I thought was underwhelming in real life honestly. The colors are night as vibrant as I would've expected them to be, but it was cool to see it nonetheless. We then tried to find a late lunch in Oslo which consisted of pizza at Mona Lisa which I would say is "our place" now. Then we went back to the hotel to grab our bags, picked up some delicious dessert at Deli de Luca one last time and headed to the bus station. We luckily got on an earlier bus than we thought and had plenty of time at the airport. Liz and I even got some reading done like the lame people that we are and Cristina documented it because she never has reading. We made it back to Edinburgh around 10 p.m. and were home by 11 p.m. which was nice.

This week is my birthday which I'm super excited about. We're planning to go to Candy for appetizers/drinking on Thursday night (my actual birthday) and on Friday we're going to make sangria and probably end up doing something Halloweenesque. I'm prepared for a very Edinburgh birthday. I have also been a very lucky lady and have received cards, packages and presents from tons of people from home this week which is way more than what I expected. I truly feel lucky to have so many wonderful friends who took the time and energy to send me things all the way over here! Also, this weekend marks the halfway point of my Edinburgh journey. I'm not too sure how I feel about it yet. It's odd to think that I only have 7 weeks left here. I am looking forward to spending time with Chris and my family and friends for Christmas but it's going to be hard to leave some of the really amazing friends I've made here. Well, until next time!

Americans Invented Cliches

2010-10-17T11:07:00.000-07:00

According to my flatmate Anna, Americans invented cliches which is probably a very true statement. I have been severely neglecting my blog for the past two weeks mainly because I am too tired or too lazy to update the world about my life. Not much has really changed here in good old Scotland, I have been going to the gym and class as per usual and have been enjoying my weekends here. Last weekend I didn't go anywhere outside of Edinburgh which was kind of nice to just spend time here. Cristina and I did make a trek to Hollyrood Palace which is where the Royal Family stays when they are in Scotland. As you can imagine it was really lovely and had a lot of history to it. We took the audio tour of the palace and took some pictures (although you are unfortunately not allowed to take any pictures inside the palace) and had a nice lazy afternoon. It was grey and kind of rainy last weekend which was really the first time I had experienced a not so nice weekend in Edinburgh. I definitely am aware of the fact that I have been quite lucky with the weather so far.

Yesterday we (Cristina, Liz, Tricia and I) went to Glasgow for the day to see some of the city as well as meet up with Cristina's friend Abbey who is attending the University of Glasgow. It was a nice city but, as Cristina said, I am glad that I am in Edinburgh and not Glasgow. Glasgow is definitely way bigger than Edinburgh and feels less "Scottish" to me. We went on a city tour which was very informative but we also were the brilliant Americans who sat on the open top part for more than a 30 minute drive which ended up being quite cold. Glasgow has a lot of commercialized areas and a lot of shopping in the city. It only took us about 45 minutes to get there so it's nice to know that it is so easily accessible by train.

I'm really excited because my mom booked her trip to come visit me in November! I already have planned on us doing some Edinburghesque things as well as taking a day trip up to the Highlands to visit the Dewar's Distillery. I think she's going to really enjoy visiting me here so I am definitely looking forward to that.

I am feeling far less homesick now which is definitely nice. Time is starting to go by rather quickly here which is not surprising really but is making me realize how little time I really have here. Cristina, Liz and I booked a weekend trip for next weekend and in the spirits of keeping it a secret for the time being, I will leave you all in suspense! But we are quite excited about it! The following week is my 22nd (AHHHH) Birthday, followed by Halloween, another weekend trip hopefully, then my essays are due and then my mom comes to visit! And by the time she leaves, I'll have less than a month left! It's crazy. I am definitely excited and looking forward to spending time with everyone I love at Christmas but before I know it, it will be here! I am certainly missing out on some of the fall activities that I love to be a part of but after spending the day in Glasgow yesterday I feel a little bit like I got a dose of a UK fall. There was a lot of foliage in Glasgow and it was a very autumnal day which was nice.

Well I know this is somewhat of a short post but I've highlighted the major things for whoever is reading this so I will hopefully update you next week on the trip!

Robertsons Close = Frat House?

2010-10-03T08:06:00.000-07:00

This weekend I had a lovely holiday to the fabulous location of Nicolson Street with my dear friend Liz. Well as none of you probably know that are reading my blog, that is literally a 2 minute walk from my flat but I had to stay there because as usual the flat above mine was having a rave. I wasn't aware that I signed up to live in a frat house but apparently I did. Anyway, Liz was kind enough to let me crash there and I REALLY enjoyed getting a good weekend of sleep. Her flat is so quiet it's hard to believe that we live in the same city, let alone a few minutes from one another.

The rest of this week was pretty standard - gym every day again (yayyy!) and classes. I went out with Liz, Anna, Cristina, Zak, Alex, Caroline and Ally on Thursday night and had a little too much wine. However, I did get my butt to the gym on Friday morning even though I was really not in the mood to go work out so I was proud of myself for that.

Yesterday we went to Culzean Castle which is on the west coast of Scotland. It was a pretty interesting day as far as weather was concerned. People in Scotland constantly tell you that you should prepare for four seasons of weather in one day and you always kind of wave it off but really...that's what yesterday was like. There were blue skies, it downpoured, it was freezing and then we were taking our coats off. If nothing else it makes for some entertainment. The castle was really stunning as usual but this time it was nice because we were able to go in and take a guided tour. Usually you wander aimlessly through the castle which is also nice but it was cool to hear about the people that lived there and the way the castle had been restored and whatnot. It had a GORGEOUS staircase in the center that was amazing. Unfortunately we couldn't take pictures inside the castle so no photographical evidence of it shall exist. They were really pushing the whole aspect of being able to actually get married at that castle which I thought was kind of funny. It would definitely make for some gorgeous photographs and memories but I don't think my family would trek to Scotland to see me get married at some castle, no matter how "affordable" it is.

Last night after we (Liz, Aimee, Anna, Tricia and I) got back we all went our separate ways. However, I turned up at Liz's flat about an hour and a half later with chocolate and ready to drink the two bottles of wine we purchased from the ever classy Tesco. Cristina joined us later on and we had a leisurely girls night where we discussed the important topics in life: weddings (specifically wedding colors, guest lists, etc.) baby names, divorce, surgery, death and obviously world peace. Just kidding, we didn't talk about world peace. It really was a lot of fun and they are definitely my closest lady friends here. It's just really easy to be around them and talk to them about everything. It's especially wonderful that they let me cry/rant about how much I miss people at home. I feel like I should be getting over that by now but I still have my moments, usually on weekends, when things slow down a bit that I get a little lonely. I also think it didn't help yesterday that I purchased a second hand copy of P.S. I Love You and started reading it on the bus ride home. Reading about a woman who's husband has just died doesn't really lift one's spirits.

This morning the musketeers went out to breakfast at a newly renovated place called The City where we enjoyed lots of random food. Afterwards we went on an expedition to find Liz a replacement ring because her Claddagh Ring started to crack and she was feeling weird without a ring. We went up and down the Royal Mile trying to find a place that sold celtic rings and oddly enough we had a difficult time finding one. Eventually we just went up to the castle gift shop (where Cristina conveniently gets a 20% discount for being part of the National Trust) and found a suitable replacement. After our adventure, I finally had to admit defeat and go to the library to read 5 chapters on Medieval Scottish History. Surprisingly it didn't put me to sleep and I felt accomplished. After reading I went to the ever lovely Black Medicine where I enjoyed hot chocolate and more P.S. I Love You. But again, it made me slightly sad and the overcast weather was not helping my mood so I decided to come home and have a low key evening. Tomorrow starts the madness of gym and classes once again but it's good to have something to keep me occupied.

Hopefully I'll try to update more often this week.

Greyfriars is Overrated

2010-09-28T10:51:00.000-07:00

Alright so already I've been slacking at keeping up with this blog. In my defense, it has been a busy week in Scotland for me. I've started classes and had to change classes twice already because Northeastern tends to never inform us of what we actually need to do. However, everything is sorted out now and I'm happy with the classes I have so I hope it will go well. I also can't believe it's going to be October this week. AHHH! I'm rather excited because honestly I hate to be a Debbie Downer but I dislike the month of September generally speaking. October is usually a fabulous month and I was born in it so here's to October being great. Yay!

This past weekend we went to Lindisfarne and Berwick Upon Tweed which was interesting. I am also slacking at uploading my pictures from said events but I'm planning on doing that later this evening but there were many great pictures. Cristina, Liz, Aimee and I went and spent the day together along with Tricia (a fellow Northeastern student) and we had a grand old time. It started out being EXTREMELY cold and windy but by the time we were leaving Lindisfarne the sun started to come out. We had a decent lunch at the UK version of IHOP or something along those lines and then for dinner we went to our favorite place Koi. It's a Japanese restaurant with this really good soup dish but the servers there basically hate us for undetermined reasons (we think because we're American) and for some reason we continue to go back. After dinner we all kind of went our separate ways and I was feeling relatively bummed and homesick and proceeded to cry for about two hours straight. Luckily, Vicky was around to feed me a bottle of wine and jelly shots (aka jello shots to those of us from the US) and that seemed to cheer me up quite a bit. Then we met up with Liz, Zak, Ally and a bunch of other people for an interesting evening out in Edinburgh that ended with us at a Kebab place even though I refuse to eat Kebabs.

Sunday morning was relatively rough but Vicky, Liz and I trekked around Edinburgh for the Open Door day which was basically where you could go in to a lot of buildings in Edinburgh that are otherwise closed. We got to see some awesome views of the city and just kind of explored for the day. In the afternoon Liz and I sat and chatted for a few hours which was very nice :) It is always good to have someone to talk to about your life issues. It seems silly and cliche but I am definitely learning a lot about myself being here and it was good to have someone to talk to about that. Especially after my disastrous emotional breakdown on Saturday night.

Thus far this week has been gym and classes. I went 5 days last week (yay for me!) and I'm going to try to keep up with that. It is certainly giving me something to do and something to keep me focused on which is helpful for now. Last night I spent some time with Anna and her friend from Norway which was nice and tonight I'm just planning on uploading pictures and going to bed early since I've been getting not as much sleep as I should have been for the past few nights. Hope all is well with everyone in the States! Until next time...

...so how many miles is that?

2010-09-21T09:12:00.001-07:00

So St. Andrew's was amazing and it was really fun to spend the day with Cristina and Liz as usual. We were squished like sardines in the bus, I passed out on the way there and then we looked around at what was left of the St. Andrew's Castle. We also saw St. Andrew's Uni and St. Andrew's Cathedral. We also climbed St. Rule's tower which was interesting but well worth the climb and Cristina and Liz plunged in to an old mine. I was not in to going in to the actual mine but they enjoyed it! All in all lots of laughs and pictures as usual. This weekend we're going to Lindisfarne which should be interesting as well. I'm definitely looking forward to it.

Sunday was pretty low key and all of us had errands to run so we spent most of the day doing that. We also went to the Museum in Edinburgh to see the Lewis Chessmen because Cristina really wanted to see them. They were pretty sweet. We did go to this place for lunch that gives 30% off to students and all ordered burgers that tasted like sausage. Not really what I was hoping for but the chips were stellar as usual.

Yesterday was the first day of classes and quite frankly I was really intimidated. It's quite different then the states mainly because they don't really assign you reading. You don't have to have a certain amount of reading completed by a certain date and they don't really provide you with a syllabus - they just give you dates when things are due. I was originally signed up for International Law, Medieval Scottish History and Celtic Civilisation but after sitting through Celtic Civilisation again today I decided I needed to switch out of it. There is no real direction in the class at all and they don't really give you any sort of idea what to read so I decided it was better to switch out then be miserable for the entire semester. Instead I'm taking American History 2. I know I know what a cop out, right? Not so much. I just really wanted to see how they teach American History over here and the Gender and Sexuality class I wanted to take wasn't offered this semester. Plus they actually tell you what to read for that class, as they do for my other classes, which I need. Otherwise I just think I wouldn't be able to actually enjoy my time here because I would be stressing so much.

I also joined the gym here and so far have actually used my membership! I took a spinning class yesterday morning from 7:30 a.m.-8:15 a.m. and took a Body Blitz class today around noon. I also ran and did the elliptical. Hopefully it'll pay off by the time I come home for Christmas - that's the goal. I am planning on getting up for a 7:30 class again tomorrow which kind of stinks because I have nothing else to do for the day but it's also good because it'll get me going for the day kind of early. I also joined the Wine Society and went to the first meeting last night with my flatmates Ana and Leah. It was really fun and we tried 7 different kinds of wine. We were also informed that there is a Wine Tasting Team at the University of Edinburgh and they compete against other universities in the area - how cool is that? After the "meeting" they had free sandwiches and pizza so we stuck around for a little bit before coming home for the evening.

Tonight is a BLOGS meeting - Cristina and I are going to see what they're all about. Then afterwards of course they're going to a club but I may skip out on that since I have to be up at 7:00 tomorrow morning. The more time I'm spending here the more I'm actually getting used to the idea of being here for the semester. I still am finding it hard to believe that I'm taking classes here and it's even stranger for me to think that I won't be going back to Northeastern again...

Freshers' Week Adventures

2010-09-17T15:10:00.000-07:00

Wednesday evening was quite eventful. During the day on Wednesday we went to the Societies Fair where I joined the Wine Society (surprise, surprise) and BLOGS which is basically the University's LGBT society. Both societies seem to have really cool events - every week the Wine Society has a wine tasting and for being a member of the society I get discounts at a bunch of wine stores all over Edinburgh (yayyy!).

Wednesday evening before going out we went to the Baked Potato Shoppe which is quickly becoming one of our favorite places to go. It's vegan/vegetarian and you can get pretty much anything you want in a baked potato - veggie chili, avocado, cous cous, butter, cheese, etc. You name it - you can get it. It's quite interesting actually. After devouring those, Liz and I met up with Vicky (Liz's flatmate) to hit up a pub before going to a PostGrad 5 Decades of Music Event. We originally were going to do a pub crawl but way too many people showed up to stay with the group so we did our own thing. We quickly got relatively smashed before meeting up with some of the other PostGrads for this event. To get in to this event, you needed to have an ID that was 21+ and your Student ID that says you are a PostGrad. I was kind of worried about getting in but since I didn't have a PostGrad ID, Liz of course said I just hadn't received my card yet and the doorman waved me on. It made me feel like a girl of 20 again to sneak in to a club I wasn't supposed to be in :) After some more liquid courage and a few mis-made drinks later, I was dancing with Vicky to Madonna and the Venga Boys. It was absolutely hilarious and a lot of fun. Let's just say I am definitely my mother's daughter. I raced home around 1 a.m. to video chat with the boyfriend (I'm still having a hard time coordinating this time difference thing) before collapsing in to bed.

Of course we would pick Wednesday to go out when we all had to get up early yesterday morning to be present for the visit of the Pope. We planned to meet with the Catholic group at 9 a.m. but when we got there, the Catholic group said they wouldn't be going down to Princes St. until about 10 a.m. Needless to say, Liz, Cristina and I were far too impatient for that so we just decided to head down early. Liz and Cristina were very excited to see the Pope. I was more interested to see the Pope than I would say excited. I was raised Catholic and thus had an interest in seeing him since he was going to be in Edinburgh but had he not been here, I would probably not venture to Italy just to see him. The parade was excellent with tons of bagpipes and kilts as well as children from St. Ninian schools. I took a lot of pictures per usual.

After the parade, I was debating going to climb Arthur's Seat. I wasn't sure if I wanted to go yesterday but finally I decided that I did and it was the most incredible experience I've had here so far. When we got to the bottom of it I was impressed by how steep it was. Originally we weren't going to go to the very top but once our group showed enough interest in it, our guides led us up there. Climbing up the 823 feet was definitely tiring but it was beyond worth it. It was so beautiful to see the different elevations as you climbed to the top of it. It was absolutely breathtaking. The pictures that I took did not do the view justice. It was extremely windy and cold when we got to the top of the first part of it. The peak was even windier but it was amazing how far you could see. I definitely am looking forward to taking Chris to the top so that he can experience it as well. It is something that you need to do if you are in Edinburgh for sure.

Last night Liz, Cristina and I went to the Grassmarket area for dinner and had a really good, extremely affordable meal. It got pretty chilly so we met up with Vicky at the pub we went to the night before (Brass Monkey) to split a bottle of wine and so Cristina could get something warm to drink. It's really affordable to split bottles of wine here as opposed to drinking your own individual drinks (and it's far more effective if you know what I mean). After having two glasses of wine though we were all pretty exhausted from not getting much sleep the night before and went our own separate ways.

Today we all slept in a little and then met up around noon to run errands. Liz and I needed to make sure we were registered for classes and pick up a few things for our flats and Cristina needed to do some errands too. We decided to go to the Meadows behind the University library this afternoon and it was really nice. It's basically a HUGE park where people play football (soccer), walk their dogs, bike or go running. Liz, Cristina and I decided to spend 45 minutes trying to take pictures of ourselves with the timer on a camera. It was pretty hilarious and it's easy to see why we all get along so well. I am definitely lucky to have them as friends here. We went to a Thai place for dinner with Aimee and Vicky and then just decided to call it an early night. Tomorrow we're getting up early to spend the day at St. Andrew's kind of as our last hurrah before classes start on Monday. Should be exciting!

Although I am not nearly as homesick as I was when I got here, I am definitely missing aspects of being back home. I did realize today that this semester is pretty much going to fly by though with all of the weekend trips I'm trying to plan as well as the visitors I'm going to have. I am certainly looking forward to an action packed semester - I'm hoping my workload won't be too out of control! To everyone in America - enjoy your weekends :) And for my friends in Scotland - the fun is just beginning!

The Edinburgh Diet

2010-09-15T08:08:00.000-07:00

So I'm thinking about including a new section in my blog to keep track of my Edinburgh Diet. So far it has mainly consisted of small portions of random vegetables and baked potatoes. This coupled with walking everywhere will hopefully make me inadvertently lose weight. I am not alone in my eating habits as Cristina and Liz are also on the diet. I'm thinking of turning it in to a book when I return to the states. Here is a sample so far:

Day 1: Don't eat. Consume three alcoholic drinks consisting of clear liquids (i.e. vodka, gin, etc.) and a juice of some sort. Walk uphill to at least three different pubs.

Day 2: For lunch have a sandwich consisting of cheese, tomato and lettuce. For dinner have half an order of fish and chips.

Day 3: Have a sandwich late in the afternoon consisting of pesto, mozzarella and olives. Meet friends and have a glass of Pear flavored Cider. For dinner have a baked potato stuffed with veggie chili and cheese. Due to all that you have consumed, you should take a 2 hour tour of Edinburgh Castle on top of your normal excessive walking. Do NOT use the lifts.

Day 4: For lunch have a baked potato stuffed with cheese savory along with a small salad dressed with vinegar. In the afternoon meet your friends for a glass of cranberry juice that you mistake as a blush wine before actually having a glass of white wine. For dinner, split a plate of nachos with a friend. Attend a Ceilidh to work off all you've eaten today before you attend a Jazz & Cocktail party at the Catholic Center where you may consume as many cocktails as you wish.

I think this Edinburgh Diet book would be a hit! Now I just need to prove that it works...

Wait...is this my door?

2010-09-14T16:37:00.000-07:00

I FINALLY SLEPT LAST NIGHT! YAYYYYYY!

I was like an entirely different person today after sleeping a solid 7 hours in a row. Hopefully the same thing will happen tonight. I can honestly say now that I REALLY am enjoying the fact that I am in Edinburgh. The more time I spend with the people I've met here, the happier I am. It is absolutely beautiful here and the pictures that I've taken do not do the city justice in the slightest. It's just amazing to walk around the city and see the gorgeous old buildings and all of the beautiful green landscape.

Anywho...today was an action packed day as usual. Liz and I went to try to complete our matriculation process and basically were told that we should just wait til the end of the week to see if our paper work went through instead of actually talking to someone while we were there. We got coffee, walked to Princes Street which is where all the main shops are in Edinburgh as well as the financial stuff and then sat through a few meetings. We tried but epically failed to get free lunch with Cristina and I ended up getting a very delicious baked potato and salad. It appears that I may actually get to try Scottish food now since I'm starting to want to eat again. A few of my friends and I decided that we would definitely start making dinner together once the semester starts and that us Americans are going to have a Thanksgiving feast together since we are the only ones who celebrate it here (yayyy for cooking!).

After lunch I planned to attend the Meet the Paper event they were holding for the newspaper on campus but nobody from the paper showed up. There was about 15-20 of us there waiting for an hour and nobody came which was slightly disappointing. I did get to meet some really nice people and a girl in particular that was a second year who told me a lot about what to expect from my classes which was definitely good. I did a little shopping for the essentials like tissues since my nose has been ridiculously stuffy and then met up with all the PostGrads around 4:30 to have free wine. Then we attended the PostGrad Ceilidh for a little bit before heading to a Jazz & Cocktail event at the Catholic Center. Now this is one thing that I don't think anyone in the states could fully understand unless they were here but literally almost EVERY event here is centered around drinking. I know it's Scotland and I know that's the reputation they have but I really did not fully understand it until being here. Today when we were sitting in the student union at 11:30 a.m. there were people drinking at the Library Bar which I personally think is awesome but just not really how it is back home.

The Jazz & Cocktails event ended up being hilarious and Cristina, Liz and I were dying of laughter. Liz laughed so hard she was crying. We basically just hung out together and were being silly which was really nice. I had a really good time hanging out with them and I feel really comfortable with them already. They had pitchers of mixed drinks as the cocktails and even though I hate to say this, even the priests were drinking them! It was ridiculous! I was kind of shocked by it actually and it made me feel weird. Like I said...there's a lot of drinking here.

So the fun fact for the day was that our new friend Alastair told me that an authentic Scottish kilt and the rest of the outfit costs up to £400!!! Isn't that interesting? (and slightly ridiculous)

The people outside my building remain to be noisy and obnoxious but I think I'm starting to get used to it. It feels like I've been here for longer than I actually have been and I'm glad that I am excited about being here and am more upbeat. I think it definitely has something to do with the people I am surrounding myself with. It's good to have people I can feel comfortable around here since most of the people I do feel comfortable with are back home. Can't wait for more adventures before classes start next week! Goodnight all! :)

The First Few Days...

2010-09-13T15:31:00.000-07:00

So far I've been in Edinburgh for 2 days and it has really been an emotional roller coaster for me. I really like the friends that I've made so far although none of them are Undergrads and all of them are PostGrads. Basically my closest friend that I've made in oh the last 48 hours or so is Liz. She's been really awesome and sweet about me being homesick and I can tell that we're going to be good friends. Clearly I'm drawn to that name when I make friends so it only makes sense that she's going to be my best friend in Edinburgh. The ongoing joke is that I'm an honorary PostGrad and they bring me to all of their events and it's fantastic. However, I have been extremely homesick at random times, mainly when I'm alone and it's been a struggle for me to be entirely happy. I am aware and have been told several times that I need to give it more time (since it has only been two days) and I am but I would just like to be happy again already. It's just the fact that I am in a new country with people I don't really know that well and I have a week full of events before classes actually start. Oh and I haven't slept more than 6 hours in a night. That could have something to do with it. The flats that I live is mainly fresher housing (aka freshman housing) and all of them are 18 and can legally drink. Tonight when I arrived home after a Ghost Tour at 10 p.m. they were all sitting in the Close (it's basically like an alleyway) on the ground with bottles of vodka and beer talking and yelling and blasting music. Now, I am aware classes haven't started yet but I am severely overtired and just wanted to get some sleep and the fact that the walls are entirely too thin is not a good combination for this. They have since quieted down a little but I just hope I am able to sleep through the night tonight.

Anyway, back to more positive things. Yesterday was International Day and I attended a few informational sessions about Scotland and living in Scotland as well as how to understand what they're actually talking about when they're talking. For example, if a Scot was to say "She was pissed last night" he means "She was drunk last night." It was actually quite funny to learn some of the differences between North American English and British English. Last night I attended a Ceilidh (pronounced KAY-LEE) which is a traditional Scottish dance and it was absolutely ridiculous. We didn't stay for long because it was really way too crowded but to sum it up in the way that one of my friend's did:

Never before in my life have I been to a school dance at which, "the music isn't going to stop until somebody gets naked," had been uttered by the band...and then someone in fact did get naked...

It was hilarious and something I have never witnessed before. The UK is definitely more liberal in many respects and that is a perfect example. After the Ceilidh we went to a pub where I drank Pear flavored cider and then came home and again could not sleep. Luckily with the time difference I have my extremely understanding and sweet boyfriend to iChat with when I can't sleep.

This morning I slept til 10 because I didn't actually go to bed until almost 4:30 a.m. and got a lot of things accomplished. I got sleeping pills (yayyyy!), registered with a Doctor, met with my Director of Studies and then went on a tour of Edinburgh Castle. My Director of Studies (DoS) was originally from America but had moved to the UK about 20 years ago and gave me a lot of helpful tips as far as being a student here goes. He told me to ask lots of questions and that Profs here like having 'yanks' in the class because we work hard. Anywho, Edinburgh Castle was amazing even though it was raining and was extremely windy. There are so many different parts to it and cool areas to explore. I definitely will be going up there again at some point. Afterwards, I went to the Elephant House which is where J.K. Rowling wrote Harry Potter. It was cool to be there.

This evening as an honorary PostGrad I was taking part in the PostGrad Wine & Cheese event but it ended up being way too crowded (as a lot of events have been) and we just ended up hanging out in the Library Bar which was wicked fun. (Yes, they have bars in student buildings here. It's very different from the states but also kind of awesome that they have bars everywhere) I finally met two people that are actually FROM Edinburgh which I thought was cool and two people from Canada as well as another American (Amy). It's funny that the Americans gravitate to each other even when neither has opened their mouth to know the other isn't from another country. After hanging out in the Library Bar for awhile, Liz, Amy and I went to go eat at this Baked Potato shop which is actually kind of really cool. They have tons of vegetarian and vegan options for you to put on your baked potatoes and they're really delicious. Afterwards, we met up with Morgan and Vicky (Liz's flatmates) and Morgan's friend who is visiting from D.C. to go on a Ghost Tour. The tour was interesting to say the least and not really scary as much as it was gory.

Well hopefully tonight I will sleep with the help of my trusty pills and I'm sure the rest of the week will go by fast with all of the events that Liz has planned for us to do and then before you know it I'll be taking classes. AHHH! Goodnight all!

The Journey to Edinburgh

2010-09-11T13:17:00.000-07:00

Traveling to Edinburgh was a longer process than I would have originally thought. After being on a plane for six hours with a screaming child overnight, several of my fellow travelers and I almost missed our connecting flight at London Heathrow. The more I discuss this with people the more I find out that this is not an uncommon occurrence. After we landed in Edinburgh, we waited legitimately 3 hours for our transportation to take us to where we each belonged. However, none of us got in the same van and by this point we were all so beat and discontent with the situation, I thought that we would all just go to bed early. At this point I was exhausted and honestly kind of not enjoying being in Edinburgh. My first impression of the city was that it was confusing, old and not somewhere that I would enjoy living for the next three months. As soon as I got in to my room, I cried uncontrollably for a few minutes. Then I realized that my converters that I had purchased in America were incorrect and began to cry even more because my cell phone was dying. Luckily, one of the girls in charge of handing out room keys explained to me where I could go to get the converters as well as pretty much anything else I could possibly need for an affordable price. Pound Saver. I'm not quite sure what to compare it to in the US but I'll figure it out and get back to you.

After meeting one of my flatmates, Anna (who is from Oslo, Norway and is a fresher) and after some encouragement from my boyfriend, I decided that I would go on the pub crawl that was being advertised in my accommodations for this evening. Anna seemed to be excited about meeting people and after talking with Chris I agreed that keeping myself busy and meeting people would be the best thing for me. And of course he was completely right. I met two girls, Cristina and Liz that are from the US and are both graduate students. They are very nice and friendly and although Cristina didn't stick around for the whole time because she was tired, Liz hung around with me. Liz has been in Edinburgh for a week already so she is knowledgable about the area which is proving to be helpful to me.

Not only did I witness some interesting games at the pub crawl, but I saw a man in a kilt hanging out at the last bar we were at. Unfortunately he was severely intoxicated and was showing everyone what was UNDER his kilt while his equally intoxicated buddies took pictures of the event. All in all, not something I wanted or needed to see but it was quite humorous.

My first impression of Edinburgh was not a good one but I think that I will learn to like it and probably after I have some proper sleep tonight I will feel a lot better tomorrow. I miss everyone in the US already!

Life in the Infamous Dirty Jerz

2010-05-26T08:49:00.001-07:00

It has been many moons since I have felt the need/had the spare time in my life to blog. Considering it's been more than a year, I think I may need to refocus the purpose of my blog. However, at this time I have not decided what the focus of my blog will be. Maybe tales from the world of PR or something along those lines. I am leaving to go to Scotland in September so maybe this will turn in to a travel blog. For the time being, I can discuss my life in Snookieland.

Since moving to New Jersey almost a month ago, it has been quite the learning experience. I have not only started a new internship and job, but I have tried to place myself somewhere in the culture (if you can call it culture?) that is the armpit of America. I do not mean to be offensive to New Jersey, I mean I did choose to live here after all but I have never lived anywhere besides Massachusetts, so I don't have much to compare anything to. I did legitimately see a sandwich down the shore that was called the Snookie - kind of ridiculous to me but I guess everyone has to capitalize on the stupidity of MTV and that show if they can.

On a more positive note, my internship is going extremely well and my boss is pretty much the funniest person ever. He gets the fact that I am not getting paid and is trying to give me as much experience as possible to bulk up my resume so that when I have to go out in to the real world in January and try to get a job, I might actually have a shot.

In somewhat relevant news, my boss e-mailed me a link to this blog this morning and I must say, it is definitely going to be added to my daily blog reading. I like that Kevin calls people out on how their pitching is incorrect and gives tips on how to do it correctly. It is humorous but definitely gives some actual information and tips to people on how they should go about trying to get their information out there. I will leave you with one of his tips for the day:

Timing is Essential; Timing and Gravity. Align the timing of your pitches
and stories with significant trends, events or industry announcements. If you're
pitching a new winter resort, in the middle of the summer, it's not going to
work (unless you're pitching a media outlet with a six month lead time). If the
media is heavily reporting stories about a specific person, product, company, or
trend, find a way to align your company’s current pitch with it. The gravity of
“hot topics” is powerful, and if you think creatively, you can often make it
work for you.

It's been awhile...

2009-03-26T06:36:00.001-07:00

Since the end of last semester I've disappeared from the whole blogging scene, making excuses between being too busy with classes and work and whatnot but I've finally found something worth blogging about in the news. This article in USA Today this morning caught my attention.

A study was done involving gender roles in the 21st century and, as I'm taking another gender studies class this semester, I found this article very intriguing. In times of crisis, women tend to step up to the plate and alter their roles in society. Whether it be during WWI and WWII when women worked to help produce armaments and worked in factories while their men were oversees or when the economy is going through a difficult time. And I'm pretty sure it's no secret that our economy is flailing. However, maybe over time gender roles have finally evolved and changed in a way that has made the changes stick. Generally, after WWI and WWII as soon as men returned home from war women were expected to step aside so that their husbands and fathers could take over their "rightful" work roles in society. Women were supposed to be in the home, cooking and cleaning as well as having children. This was their position in society. According to USA Today apparently that belief has finally changed.

Sharon Jayson writes:

"Traditional gender roles have lost favor among both sexes. About 60% of men and women say they disagree with the idea that men should earn the money and women should take care of the children."

Well that statement has helped to start my day out in a positive light. Now 60% isn't exactly where I'd like that belief to be, but it certainly is a start.

Reinventing the News: BUST

2008-12-16T14:17:00.000-08:00

BUST magazine is a pretty interesting magazine and is among one of my favorite's but their website is another story. It certainly leaves something to be desired.

BUST is a bi-monthly publication. They have an attitude that is fierce, funny and proud to be female. BUST gives an uncensored view on the female experience. It tells the truth about women’s lives and presents a female perspective on pop culture. They claim to be BUSTing stereotypes about women since 1993. It’s essentially a feminist magazine and my blog was mainly focused on articles pertaining to what I believed were unfair stereotypes about women so I chose to do my presentation in Reinventing the News on this publication.

The online version of BUST does not actually have any of their articles accessible through the website. The website offers a variety of social networking tools such as their Hot Date section which is a calendar that lists events going on in a specific month in cities throughout the U.S. If you're a member of their website you can add events to the calendar so that other people can come to events that you are attending or events that you are holding.

Another social networking feature of their website is their Girl Wide Web section which allows users to add links to the favorite websites or their blogs, etc. In addition to that they have a Personals section on their website that allows users to date online. This feature kind of baffles me most of all because I don't understand why you would go to a feminist magazine website to find someone to date but if it works for some people then good for them.

The downfall of this website is that I think they should allow for some content to be included on their website. Right now you have no access to any articles unless you actually buy the magazine or order a subscription. The benefit to this is that you are guaranteed to have subscribers that will subscribe to your publication but the downside is that if people don’t know whether or not they will like the magazine then they won’t know unless they buy it. I feel like a lot of people wouldn’t want to waste their money paying for something they aren’t sure if they will like.

On the other end of the spectrum, Cosmopolitan magazine is quite different from BUST in many ways. Although Cosmo is fundamentally different from BUST ( they are a magazine directed towards women on how to find and keep men) they offer content online so that you don't need to be a subscriber or pick up a copy of their magazine to read some of the articles.

They have a Bedroom Blog which is in every month of the magazine but only offers a few of the blog entries throughout the month. Online you can read the blog on a daily basis so that you get the full idea of what is going on in this bloggers life. The posts generate a lot of comments and is frequented by readers of Cosmo.

Cosmo also has articles online such as The 7 Scary Truths About Getting Engaged which is also featured in their magazine. These types of articles are kind of a teaser so that more people will want to buy the magazine. BUST could take a lesson from Cosmo in this respect. The only real problem I can see with BUST doing this type of thing is that they don't have as large of a circulation as bigger magazines such as Cosmopolitan so it may not be to their advantage to do this.

All in all I was a little disappointed in BUST's online publication and think that they could use an improvement.

Emily Sweeney

2008-12-10T00:09:00.000-08:00

To see pictures of Emily Sweeney click here.

Emily Sweene y, a reporter from The Boston Globe, came to talk to our class about a month ago about online journalism and how publications such as The Globe are moving towards becoming a more web based publication.

Sweeney has had the opportunity to work on a lot of interesting projects outside of the Globe. She was in a documentary that accompanied the movie "The Departed."

“A group of filmmakers from California, I think they were from Warner Brothers, came out here to shoot the dvd for The Departed and I showed the guys around Boston and Dorchester. Places like the liquor store where Whitey Bulger and the mafia would hang out,” Sweeney says.

Sweeney knew a bit about organized crime in Boston from doing her series in the Boston Globe about the topic. She also worked on a series regarding organized crime for the Brookline Tab. Sweeney is also from Dorchester, so she was fully capable of giving a guided tour of her old neighborhood.

“It was a really cool experience and a great opportunity,” says Sweeney.

Sweeney is from Dorchester, Massachusetts and graduated from Northeastern University in 1998. She started out her journalism career at The Bedford Minuteman, a smaller 3,100-circulation paper, as a staff writer in August 1998. In November 1999, Sweeney worked for The Brookline Tab, an 18,000-circulation newspaper before working for the Waltham Daily News Tribune for two months in July 2001. In September of 2001 Sweeney went to work for The Boston Globe and has been there ever since. Right now Sweeney works for the City Weekly section of the Globe. She also works for Globe South, a section of the Globe devoted to 48 communities south of Boston that is published twice a week; Thursday and Sunday. In addition to working for the Globe, Sweeney is also the president of the New England Society of Professional Journalists chapter.

“On a day-to-day basis I’m covering local news stories south of Boston,” Sweeney says. “Recently there was a plane crash in a parking lot in Easton, a town that’s south of Boston, and I covered that.”

Sweeney also was able to collaborate with colleague and longtime friend Billy Baker, a columnist for the Science Section of the Boston Globe, on Boston Slang words. Baker had written the article and planned on doing an audio commentary with Sweeney to go along with it.

“Multimedia is a big thing right now so they asked if there was something I could run on boston.com. Emily Sweeney still has a crazy Boston accent so I was like ‘let’s see if I can talk to her about the words.’ She set the whole thing to photos and I had no idea until the day the story ran,” Baker says.

Baker went to Boston Latin high school with Sweeney and played on the hockey team with her. “She was famous as a girl on the hockey team,” Baker says. “Because she was the only one.”

They also had one of their first jobs in journalism together; not for the same publication but they worked for two newspapers that were owned by one company. Sweeney worked at the Brookline Tab and Baker worked at the Needham Times.

“When we were in High School Emily was the most plain Jane; she wasn’t fashion conscious. She put her hair in to an elastic and didn’t care. Then I’m not really sure what happened,” says Baker. “In the last five or six years she’s flourished in her personal fashion. I wonder what it must be like for her to show up as a Boston Globe reporter; she doesn’t like your typical Globe reporter.”

When asked what exactly a typical Globe reporter looks like Baker says, “Just the opposite of Emily Sweeney.”

Sweeney, also known as “Spikey ‘Em” has been described “one of the hippier writers for the Boston Globe…” by Bostonist.com. When she showed up to talk for our journalism class many students in our class were surprised to learn that she worked for the Globe. Since most Boston journalism students see the Globe as the Mecca of co-op jobs, they were intrigued to learn that the girl with bleach blonde hair and tattoos worked where they dreamed. Sweeney has six tattoos in total, including a "DOT RAT" tattoo on her back as a tribute to being from Dorchester. She finds that her attire (sometimes collared shirts and ties or pants with many zippers and straps) has never been a problem for her although some people find it quite different.

“When we did the story on the Boston Slang we were on some local TV show talking about it and my parents were shocked because they hadn’t seen her in years,” says Baker. “My dad was like ‘you need to be Emily Sweeney for Halloween.’”

According to her former editor, Christine Chinlund, Sweeney has a special ability to see stories that other reporters would normally not take a second look at.

"Em has many strengths, but one of the most important is her ability to see stories that others might overlook and develop them in her own signature way," says Chinlund. "Much of what she brings to the section is the value of her fresh eye for news. She is also tuned in to the interests of real people, rather than just government or bureaucracy. She successfully anchors her stories in the personalities of the people she reports on."

“She’s really sort of soft-spoken,” Baker says. “When she worked for the Brookline Tab she caught a superintendent embezzling money or something really bad. She did it in such a soft-spoken way, just checking her facts. She’s a real tiger reporter. I hate any story that makes me file a freedom of information request but she’s a quiet assassin for those sorts of stories.”

Although Sweeney may be soft-spoken, she enjoys going out in to the Boston area and reporting on stories.

“She doesn’t like being chained to the desk,” says Lauralee Summers, Sweeney’s spouse of two years. “She likes going out and learning new things every day; that’s why she likes reporting. She likes to meet new people and she’s the type of person that makes people feel comfortable. People generally can open up to her.”

Summers and Sweeney have known each other for about fifteen years and they got married in 2006. Summers teaches at Charlestown High School and has also written a book of memoirs entitled “Learning from Dogs Without Collars,” about growing up homeless, wrestling competitively and graduating from Harvard. The book was published by Simon and Schuster and took Summers several years to write during graduate school. The two are a very accomplished pair.

“Emily is positioning herself well for what journalism will become in the multimedia age. She does the audio, visual, the whole package,” Baker added.

For journalists such as Sweeney and Baker, the multimedia aspect of journalism is new to them but they are willing to learn and in Sweeney’s case, she has definitely been a fast learner.

“I do videos and maps to go along with my articles. If you would’ve asked me 10 years ago if I would be doing things like that today I never wouldn’t have thought I would,” says Sweeney.

“I don’t feel old but I graduated college before I had an e-mail address,” Baker said. “It wasn’t a part of our life then. There used to be a separation of ‘church and state’ where reporters took notes and photographers took pictures but now people use things like flip cameras.”

With multimedia being available to bloggers and citizen journalists, it is becoming more prominent in online media. Citizen journalists such as Steve Garfield like to use visual aspects in their writing but it really depends on each writer’s own preference.

“I really think that it’s an individual thing; whatever the story teller feels most comfortable using,” says Steve Garfield. “I am familiar with Em’s work and she was one of the first people at the Globe that I noticed using video to accompany her articles.”

“The Globe hasn’t done a lot of video yet,” Garfield says. “I’ve noticed newspapers like the New York Times have a lot of video and it’s good video.”

"Em has led the way, contributing video well before it was the newsroom norm," says Chinlund. "Her creations are original and compelling, and as the Globe's on-line presence has evolved, her video talents have become increasingly apparent."

With the state of journalism as it is today it is important to be able to have these sorts of skills to survive in the media industry. Without the ability to use video and other multimedia features on top of reporting it is impossible to get a job in the journalism industry.

Reinventing the News: Universal Hub

2008-12-05T13:02:00.000-08:00

This semester we have had the opportunity to meet many journalists and people that work in the journalism field; Wednesday was no different. Adam Gaffin, creator of Universal Hub, came to speak to our class about how Universal Hub first started and how it got to be the place for Boston residents to turn to in order to know what's going on in their local neighborhoods.

Gaffin started Universal Hub after he realized that his local neighborhood wasn't getting the press coverage he thought it deserved. Often times, smaller incidents that occur in our neighborhoods within Boston go unreported. I personally know that after a tradgedy occured across the street from my apartment, the first place I learned about it was from Universal Hub. Universal Hub has become a must read for a lot of Boston area residents as well as people that are just interested in the happenings of Boston on a daily basis.

Gaffin sometimes reports his own comical stories such as one about becoming a victim of exhaust inside a Starbucks the other day as well as links stories from news sources that write about Boston. He often adds a comical spin on them such as this article about a dysfunctional couple in the Allston/Brighton area. He jokes that maybe some people aren't ready for a relationship and people in Boston respond in jest with comments such as these:

Why, that can't possibly be true! I thought only men are violent and abuse their
partners! Well, in any case, it must be his fault; men are sloppy and lazy.

PS:Anyone else notice that despite the bleach and knife, she wasn't
charged with assault with a dangerous or deadly weapon?

It's these sorts of comments that make Universal Hub what it is. People that are interested in this news go to the site, read and respond about it. However, Gaffin never knew that it would be as big of a deal as it was when he first started Universal Hub in 2005. Universal Hub is definitely a source that everyone interested in Boston area knews should check out.

Reinventing the News: Twitter

2008-12-02T20:33:00.000-08:00

I'm not really sure that I understand the entire concept behind Twitter. After looking around on their website for some time, they claim to have started to allow people to keep in touch with one another by updating your status and posting links on their pages. Some people use it as a tool for people to know what they are doing throughout the day while other news organizations use it to interact with the public or update the news.

Steve Garfield uses his twitter feed to update people on his whereabouts as well as link to news articles, including ones that he has written in his blog. Today alone he updated his twitter feed about 18 times, letting people know witty anecdotes about how his day was going because he had been summoned for jury duty. He has over 5,000 followers and people respond to his twitter feed, leaving links and comments to things that Steve has said or written about. I think this kind of twitter feed works well because it creates conversation as opposed to just posting links on your twitter feed to additional articles.

Twitter feeds such as the one put up by Election Watch simply post links to articles about President-Elect Obama from other news sources such as the New York Times and Bloomberg. There are no commentaries about the articles and people do not respond to their posts. They have a small amount of followers, around 300, but nobody responds to their posts and they do not respond to anyone else's posts, which seems a bit ridiculous to me. I think that this type of feed serves no real purpose because it generates no conversation.

One news organization that does a nice job of fully using twitter is WBUR. They post items pertaining to news as well as respond to people that follow their twitter feeds. WBUR responds to people while they are working and make reference to the fact that they are in the newsroom and that it is loud. They have a pretty decent following around 1,500 people.

I feel that as a journalism tool Twitter is a good site for networking purposes but aside from that I really see no need for it. To me it seems as though the updates of status are similar to Facebook and I'm sure that most of the people using Twitter have a Facebook as well and don't need to update their status in two places. I don't see it as something I will be using in the future although I never say never about anything.

Reinventing the News: NewsTrust

2008-11-24T07:22:00.000-08:00

Last Wednesday, Mike Labonte of NewsTrust to talk to us about how their website works and how we can become a part of it. NewsTrust is a site dedicated to helping people "find and share good journalism online." As a member you can upload articles that you find in news sources and review them. Other people on the site can see your reviews and also review the article or comment on how they think you reviewed the article. It is essentially a site to help people that are interested in the news and/or journalists determine what news is worth reading and what is not.

After setting up my account I reviewed three stories online relating to the Global Economy as part of our assignment for this week; Economy boost may mean pain later, France and Germany pledge auto aid, UK downturn is mirrored globally. I think that I am more lenient than other people when it comes to rating a story which I think is a major flaw in NewsTrust. Although some people can be harsh critics when it comes to how they rate the articles, others such as myself and other classmates can be more forgiving. It really has a lot to do with your perspective on journalism and how you relate to journalists. As journalism students we are aware of how hard it can be to gather news sources and write a well balanced and informative article so we may tend to be more lenient on rating these stories. On the other hand, journalists can sometimes be the greatest critics.

NewsTrust is definitely a valuable tool when it comes to rating stories online. People are able to not only rate the articles on a number scale between 1-5, they are also able to include notes about their ratings in order to defend what they have rated. People are allowed to voice their own personal opinions in addition to commenting on the newsworthy element of the article. It is definitely a site I will continue to use and recommend to others.

Reinventing the News: Finagle a Bagel

2008-11-12T12:59:00.000-08:00

For my Reinventing the News class we were asked to review a coffee shop on or around our campus to add to our Caffeinated Campus Map and I was the lucky winner of Finagle a Bagel.

I went to Finagle a Bagel around 3:30 p.m. which I realize is not the ideal time to get a cup of coffee but I didn't actually drink the coffee myself. I subjected my friend and roommate to test the coffee at Finagle as she worked the overnight shift at her co-op job and was more desperate for the caffeine than I was.

All of the employees could have seemed to care less if I was in there snapping pictures or not. I did ask permission beforehand and the cashier asked who I'm assuming was her supervisor if it was okay and it was fine.

From what I've been told, the coffee was pretty standard and a medium coffee cost a semi-reasonable $1.88. The service was your standard service from any coffee/sandwich chain. The cashier rang up our items, told us how much we owed her and on command told us to unconvincingly "Have a great day." In my opinion the food is overpriced for the quality you are receiving. The only somewhat fun element of Finagle a Bagel seems to be the fun bagel conveyor belt that your bagel is put on when you order a bagel. It is sent down the belt to the person preparing your toppings for the bagel.

Google Maping

2008-11-10T13:08:00.000-08:00

This week in Reinventing the News we are working on a presentation using Google Maps. In order to prepare for the map that we are going to create as a class, we were asked to take a closer look at several different maps that we were shown in class. The map I chose to analyze is a map of Parkersburg, Iowa after the tornado that took place earlier this year. The Des Moines Register created the map which is on their website.

The map of the town can be found here and gives a lot of information about the tornado. It is very interactive and you are able to see pictures of houses before and after the tornado and residents submitted stories of what happened to them during and after the tornado. There are even some pictures of the newly constructed homes to replace the ones that had been destroyed. You are able to turn off different "layers" of the map to see certain things such as where new construction is planned, the estimate of the damage in specific areas, aerial markers, video markers, etc.

I think that overall this map is executed extremely well and is extremely sophisticated compared to maps such as the AP map that we were also shown in class. It is impossible to keep anyone's attention with a map that is so plain and boring. The map that the Des Moines Register created definitely kept me searching through for about twenty minutes or so because I was interested in looking at the pictures and reading the stories that went along with them.

Reinventing the News: Emily Sweeney

2008-11-07T08:55:00.000-08:00

On Wednesday in our Reinventing the News class, Emily Sweeney, a Northeastern Graduate who currently works at the Boston Globe, came to speak to our class. Emily showed us a few of her videos that she has done for the Globe, including my personal favorite on Boston Slang Words. She talked about different things that you have to be able to do as a reporter today such as being able to make videos and edit them, write articles, take pictures and pretty much do it all as a journalist. Emily has written for the Globe since 2001 and is the president of the New England chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists.

As a journalist, Emily is part of a lot of networking sites including Wired Journalists, a site that I wrote about earlier that I am also a part of. It doesn't have too many members yet but people seem to be joining a lot more every day. She is also has two blogs, Media Mayhem and a video blog. On her Media Mayhem blog, which is a personal blog, she writes about media issues such as whether or not to friend your sources on Facebook, New England Media Events and links to things such as The Gawker Guide to a Journalism Career.

When she came to speak to our class she was very informative and knowledgeable about newspapers since it is the field she has worked in for the past seven years. Our other presenters have either not currently been in a journalism field or are not working in a medium that I am interested in working in so I thought that having someone come in that has print experience was very helpful.

Election Day 2008

2008-11-05T07:06:00.000-08:00

As part of Election Day yesterday, our Reinventing the News class was asked to participate in the Polling Place Photo Project.

The Polling Place Photo Project was started in 2006 to document how Americans actually vote in different elections. The New York Times has taken over the project after it was originally started by a number of people, among them was Jay Rosen, a New York University journalism professor.

Aside from just submitting photos, people that participate in the project provide some information about the polling place they went to including how many people were working, what type of ballots were cast, etc.

Yesterday I went to Sturbridge to get a different perspective on voting. I assumed that many people from my class would be in the greater Boston area to take photos and seeing a rural voting atmosphere would be a nice change. Enjoy!

What I've been working on

2008-11-03T16:35:00.001-08:00

For the past week and a half I have been editing my video project for Reinventing the News and I finally uploaded it to YouTube today so enjoy :)

You're pretty; I'll vote for you!

2008-11-02T20:24:00.000-08:00

As the election quickly (and finally!) approaches, it is inevitable that I would have to say something about it. However, the way that I'm writing about it has nothing to do with my personal political views in particular but what I think its quite an interesting study with ridiculous and disgusting results. I guess disgusting may be a little dramatic, but it is in the very least absurd.

According to Joan Y. Chiao, from the psychology department at Northwestern University who worked on the study:

Female candidates for a hypothetical election for the United States presidency, both male and female voters were more likely to vote for candidates that were both competent and attractive

Well that's unfortunate. I guess a smart, plain looking woman would have a really hard time getting elected as president even if she had great policies and a great vision for the United States. Clearly picking just a "competent" man for president has worked out so well for the past eight years that it would make sense to base picking a president off of looks. It may work out better for us.

I am well aware that the study does not suggest that it's the only factor in picking a presidential candidate but I can't believe that some people even consider that a factor. Have you seen some of our Senators or Representatives? They're not all exactly lookers. Good thing looks didn't determine if they won or not.

Yes, Sarah Palin is attractive compared to some other people in politics but does that mean we should vote for her? So what if she wants to make gay marriage and abortion illegal? She wants to take our first born too? That's fine! As long as she's competent and attractive we can vote for her.

But why don't we vote for men based off of looks if we vote for women based on their whether they are attractive or not?

It just goes to show that while men can get by on simply being competent, women need to have it all to even be considered equal to men.

Reinventing the News:Steve Garfield

2008-10-27T22:37:00.000-07:00

Last Wednesday, Steve Garfield came to speak to our Reinventing the News class on video blogging since our class is currently working on videos that we will ultimately upload to our blogs and on to youtube. He showed us various videos he has been able to upload from his cell phone and apple computer to broadcast online. In addition to being a citizen journalist he also teaches classes at Boston University on new media. Steve uses his main domain, stevegarfield.com, to link to all of his different blogs and other websites that his work is featured on.

Being someone that is new to the world of blogging and video blogging I thought that Steve Garfield's presentation was very informative to me. I was unaware of the websites that you could upload videos to and that you could upload videos directly from your phone to a website. During class Steve uploaded a video of our class directly from his Nokia cell phone to Qik.com and we were able to immediately watch it on the website. Qik.com shows live streams of video as different people upload them. You can sort the videos by the most recent videos that were uploaded or by the users that are viewed most often.

Steve Garfield also uploads his video to his blog which is something that our class will be learning to do sometime within the next week or so. He uploads videos that he has used in his reports for Rocketboom and any other obscure videos that he has taken. I think that the fact that he freely uploads all of his videos on to various websites is admirable and something I'm not sure I would be comfortable with. He is able to create a video on the spot and without editing it, be able to post it to a website and have it be viewable. From the short amount of video that I have shot for our projects in class, there is no way that at this point in my video blogging career I could be able to execute a video without any edits.

Steve has even uploaded videos that have been broadcast on BBC during the presidential debates and CNN iReport during Hurricane Kyle when Steve was conveniently where the hurricane was taking place. He is very heavily involved in citizen journalism and it was very interesting and helpful to learn about some new ways that I can become more involved with online journalism.

She Flies Through the Air with the Greatest of Ease...

2008-10-20T05:36:00.000-07:00

The circus is a place that is supposed to have something for everyone. There are bright lights, explosions, elephants, tigers, tight-rope walkers and anything you could possibly imagine to entertain people of all ages.

The Ringling Bros. Barnum and Bailey boast that they have The Greatest Show on Earth and many children and adults that attended the circus this past weekend in Newark, NJ would certainly have to agree.

"It was the coolest thing ever," said 7-year-old Jennifer Lebourdais. "My favorite part was Bello the clown."

The show that Ringling Bros. performs is about two hours long including a brief intermission. There is one clown in particular, Bello, who is in love with one of the contortionist performers and throughout their performance Bello tries to tell the girl he is in love with her. It is supposed to be comical and Bello does things such as trip over himself and send heart shaped balloons at her to get her to notice him. Bello has been performing as a clown since he was three years old, according to the Ringling Bros website, and loves to entertain people.

There are different elements of the circus that bring people from all ages to enjoy the 137th edition of the show that Ringling Bros is currently performing.

"My favorite part was the tight-rope walkers or the finale," says 22-year-old Katelin Morgan. "I haven't been to the circus since I was like five and I was so excited to come again."

The circus ended with an unbelievable finale, as most circuses do. Brian and Tina Miser

, the human cannonballs, were shot out of a cannon at 65 miles per hour to end the show. It was a heart-pounding end to an excitement packed show. If you're interested in seeing a performance, their tour dates are listed on their website and you can see if they are performing in a city near you.

Ever Changing Media

2008-10-13T18:54:00.000-07:00

Robin Lubbock of WBUR,"Boston's News Station," came to speak to our class last Thursday about the way new media is effecting and will continue to effect journalists. As a journalist today you are expected to be able to do more than interview people and write an article; you need to be able to take pictures and edit them, incorporate videos online with your articles and take advantage of other basic internet tools. At a time where every newspaper or other media outlet is trying to stand out from one another and hold on to their audience, it's important to use these tools.

Most, if not all, newspapers have a website that includes all of the stories they are running in their newspaper on a daily basis in addition to other specifically online features such as an online community of some sort. For some of these online forms of the originally print publications you have to pay for a subscription. Newspapers aren't the only media medium that are participating in having an online addition to their print publication; Radio stations, and magazines do this as well.

WAAF, a local "rock" radio station out of Boston, has expanded their audience by adding a website that fans can go on to and join communities such as the WAAF Army which allows fans to be entered in to the contests that the radio station has for tickets to sporting events such as Red Sox games, concert tickets, etc. The website also allows you to sign up for text message reminders for concerts that you would want to get tickets to, WAAF's Fantasy Football League and other things that are specific to the radio station. As someone who would listen to the radio station, they reference the website quite often in their show's so that listeners will go on the website. Quite a few listeners also listen to the radio station online at work which is an option when you go on to their website. They tell you who is hosting the radio show that is on then and you can choose to listen to it or not.

As I said earlier, magazines are doing this as well with their websites. For example, the famous magazine Cosmopolitan has an online addition to their monthly print publication. Cosmo offers daily horoscopes and other things that are interesting to their mainly female population of readers. If you have a subscription with the publication though you can use their specifically online features and read things such as Joe Hottie's online blog. If you want to know what a 25 year-old guy who's willing to dish the dirt on his dating life, then this is the blog for you to read.

It's important for radio and magazines and other forms of media to keep up with their online outlets because in an age where internet is taking over, it's important for readers and listeners to want to be on their websites. If a reader or listener can get all of the information they want from their favorite publication then they will continue to frequent that website. It's important for radio stations to keep an online source in addition to their radio station because I know personally if I hear a story on the radio I'll want to go back and read it later to make sure I got all of the information correctly.

As the internet consumes more and more of our lives and people consistently want instant gratification, media outlets will have to continue to be internet savvy.

Wired Journalist

2008-10-08T06:49:00.000-07:00

For Reinventing the News, our assignment was similar to one I had for the majority of my Summer II Photojournalism class; go out and take pictures of something that could be potentially newsworthy or feature-y. I like feature-y. I kind of wish I had been able to take that class in the fall because I think fall feature-y photos are nice, something about autumn colors and the leaves changing...but I digress.

I had a hard time deciding what to take pictures of because I couldn't really find anything newsworthy or feature-y. I took some pictures of students from Berklee on Mass Ave. yesterday on my way to work. They didn't seem newsworthy and they weren't that exciting to me. They all stand out there, smoking cigarettes, with guitars and various other instruments strapped to their backs. Then I thought about taking pictures of people outside of where I work in Chestnut Hill...they weren't exciting either. This morning I got up early to go to the gym and brought my camera with me. On my way back home, I saw the construction on the new freshman dorms behind the Ruggles MBTA stop.

Somewhat newsworthy and feature-y. So that's what I decided to take pictures of.

Uploading the photos on to Wired Journalist was pretty easy and self explanatory which is something I definitely enjoy. All I had to do was click and drag my photos and then they uploaded themselves. I think that in the future I'll definitely upload more photos there because it is so easy to do.

I joined another group on Wired Journalist in addition to the Northeastern University group; the Photography group. After taking my Photojournalism class this summer, I've been more aware of photography and it's something I partake in as a hobby. I have tons of photography books at home and have taken some amateur photographs this summer and have continued in to the fall. I hope to learn some more photography skills and look at other people's pictures in this group. The members of this group also review different cameras for one another and their own experiences with photography.

I've linked my blog from my Wired Journalist page and I hope to become more a part of the Wired Journalist network. We shall see how that goes...

"I can't breathe, give me mouth to mouth!"

2008-10-07T09:47:00.000-07:00

...was what firefighters that participated in a parade in San Diego had to listen to. The participants felt sexually harassed according to this article from CNN.

The decision in the trial was a mistrial which according to the City Attorney Michael Aguirre, was a total victory. Aguirre maintained that the entire trial was about greed. San Diego has now made participation in any parade voluntary instead of mandatory because of this incident.

Personally I find the entire situation hilarious. If attractive women were shouting the same thing to these firefighters I can bet they wouldn't feel sexually harassed. They would probably respond with the same "uncomfortable" comments and nothing would be said about it. Maybe they'd even get a few phone numbers. Their wives may not be too happy about it but there definitely wouldn't have been jurors trying to decide for four days if these "men" should be awarded any money.

But because the people making comments were "a group of radical homosexual men" (the firefighters' comment, definitely not mine) it was necessary for them to go to court over it. These radical homosexual men were probably just trying to have a good time. I didn't know that made you radical in this country. If you got a group of my friends together you can bet they would say more inappropriate things than "you're making me hot" to a group of firefighters. Listen everyone, if you want to make obviously funny comments, do it in the privacy of your own homes because apparently nobody can take a joke anymore.

To me it's just another example of how homophobia and sexuality plays a big role in everything in this country. I bet the firefighters' weren't even that cute.

Bailout Plan

2008-10-05T13:35:00.000-07:00

The Bailout Plan that was proposed last week has generated a lot of debate among people all over the United States, including Boston area-bloggers. It seems unfavorable amongst the bloggers because they think it's a quick fix for a bigger problem, which I would have to agree with.

Chris Faraone of the Boston Phoenix blogged about it on October 1st in a blog entitled "Boston Protests Bailout Plan-Among Other Things-On Government Center." (Technorati authority: unable to find) Faraone makes fun of the Boston protesters comparing them to the protesters after 9/11 saying, "But until that verdict drops it’s unbearable to watch them picket what they barely know about." He seems to take a more humorous approach to the protest and doesn't focus just on the people that are against the bailout plan.

Marty Nemko, contributor of the Misandry Review (Technorati authority: 16) agreed with an article in the Boston Globe discussing the bailout plan. Although he doesn't seem supportive of the bailout plan, his blog got my attention with this witty comment:

In my view, the bailout plan is putting lipstick on a pig. It's designed to build confidence in a system not worthy of confidence.

I would definitely have to agree with Nemko's statement mainly because it's true but also because that what grabbed my attention in his story. Nemko thinks that the government is just trying to trick people in to thinking that the bailout plan has a purpose even though it's really just putting a band-aid on a bigger problem.

Jeff Sinatra proposed his own bailout plan in his blog The Sinatra Company, saying "I’m a concerned US citizen who thinks the “bailout” needs far more protections so I propose the following “Sinatra Bailout Plan.” He goes on to explain how he thinks the economy should be fixed and thinks that his plan may actually work. The responses from readers of his blog seemed to agree with his plan.

"The stunned look on traders' faces on Wall Street -- that what? They're not going to bail us out? look -- almost made it worth it," said the Hub Blog.

The Hub bloggers clearly enjoyed the fact that the bailout plan was not passed originally because they think that the traders don't always deserve to get everything that they want.

These local bloggers are definitely against the bailout plan and have even suggested their own ways to fix the financial crisis that the country is in. Perhaps Jeff Sinatra should propose his idea to Congress...

Databases

2008-09-30T10:01:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Matt Carroll, a reporter from the Boston Globe came to talk to our class about databases and how they are beneficial to reporters. He also walked our class through how to sort information in a database and what kind of conclusions you can draw to create a story off of the information.

It's really interesting that there's so much information you can find out about people in Massachusetts from the Mass.Facts site on the Boston Globe website. One database I think is interesting is the Gay Marriage database. The information in the database is based on how many marriage certificates are granted to gay couples per every 100 heterosexual couples. I thought the results were interesting based on how many gay marriages were granted in certain towns. Being from Massachusetts I know which towns are more liberal and the results were surprising from some of what I thought were more conservative towns.

An interesting story that I would want to write based on the databases I found would be one involving gay marriages in certain towns that wouldn't be assumed to have a lot of applications for gay marriage certificates. Also it would be interesting to look at towns that don't have a lot of gay marriage certificates and find out why that is. Was it just because there aren't a lot of openly gay couples in the town? Or did that town just not allow as many certificates to be granted?

Another database I found off of the Mass Facts website was the Public Records database where you can search based off of specific people or last name's. I always think that Public Record information is interesting because you are able to look up a lot of information about people. It's always surprising to me how much information is available publicly.

The Boston Homicide map caught my attention because obviously I live in Boston and I want to know where homicides occur and because I like the way the information is presented. There is a map of Boston and the homicides are broken down by color categories.

Political Databases

2008-09-24T18:24:00.000-07:00

After browsing through the four political databases my Reinventing the News class briefly went over in class yesterday, I have been able to draw some conclusions and opinions about each site.

The site FactCheck.org tells people that are wondering whether or not statements that politicians have made are true or not in their campaign ads. According to their mission statement, they are a nonpartisan group that essentially helps to make things clearer to Americans about U.S. politics. They either confirm or dispel the statements that have been made surrounding politicians. If you click on any of the links to the stories such as this one concerning how the presidential candidates feel about abortion, you are given a brief synopsis of what occurred and then you are given an analysis followed by the sources used. I think this website is useful to people that have gotten their facts jumbled up or haven't heard the entire story concerning political issues. However, I don't think it's a website I would spend much time looking at personally.

A similar website, PolitiFact.com analyzes campaign ads and I think the set up is a little easier to navigate and is a little bit more humorous. I like that you can sort the statements that have been made by the validity of them on the truth-o-meter and that one of the scales is "Pants on Fire." Although the summary and the analysis isn't clearly labeled like it is on FactCheck, I like using this website better.

My two personal favorite political databases are the Congress Votes Database and Project Vote Smart because I'm personally more interested in how the senators and congressmen vote on political issues. I like Project Vote Smart better because I like the detail it gives about every person from local officials to presidential candidates. You can find out how they voted on issues, their recent speeches, and overall I think it is a nicer looking website than the Congress Votes Database. On Project Vote Smart you can decide how much information you want to know about your candidate too. For example, I never knew that Massachusetts Senator John Kerry was a Sagittarius.

Interesting.

Traditional Thinking Pays Off

2008-09-23T18:06:00.000-07:00

Choosing a focus for this blog has been extremely difficult for me. As a person that has a lot of different interests, and a lot to talk about, it's hard for me to pick something specific to concentrate on. However, I have come up with something that I think will work well for me and hopefully everyone reading my blog; this blog is going to be about gender issues.

This idea stemmed from another class I'm taking this semester called Women in America, which is a class that is about the role of women in America throughout history. (I guess the title of the class is somewhat self-explanatory) This class has enlightened me on how women were treated and how men viewed women from the early settlers to today and I think it's important to take a look at how men are treating and viewing women in today's society.

I came across this article in the Washington Post, which analyzes a study of how much money men make as opposed to women based on their outlook of gender roles, when I was scanning through my news feed earlier today. Shankar Vedantam writes:

Men with traditional attitudes about gender roles earned $11, 930 more a year than men with egalitarian views and $14,404 more than women with traditional attitudes. The comparisons were based on men and women working in the same kinds of jobs with the same levels of education and putting in the same number of hours per week.

This study proved to have very interesting results, not to just me but the people that were conducting the study as well. Men who think "traditionally" aka men who think that women belong at home, barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen, earn more money than men who think that women should have equal jobs in society. Why? They work the same hours, perform the same tasks and have the same level of education but are some how making less money annually. This makes no sense to me.

I can understand the "traditional" woman making less money than the "traditional" thinking man because the woman should assume that she should be paid less money. However, if a "traditional" thinking woman is in the workforce, how traditional thinking can she be? She's supposed to be at home, folding laundry and making dinner for her husband so that it's on the table when he gets home from his hard day of work.

Before I get too far off track here, I think the results as far as the traditional thinking woman versus the traditional thinking man goes, makes sense. Egalitarian thinking men are earning less money than traditional thinking men because the "top dogs" are probably traditional thinking men. These men think that men need to be in powerful positions and that other men that think the same as they do deserve to be paid more than men who believe that women should be paid the same as they should for the same amount of work. This kind of thinking from men is seen as less masculine and the horror or horrors for men is to be emasculated.

According to Beth Livingston and Timothy Judge, the co-authors of this study, traditional-minded men might negotiate much harder for better salaries, especially when compared to traditional-minded women. Alternatively, it could also be that employers discriminate against women and men who do not subscribe to traditional gender roles.

What it all comes down to is that women still have a long way to go if men are getting paid more for thinking that women deserve to get paid less for the same amount of work and the same amount of hours. What makes them so special? Gender should not define anything, especially not in the work force. This study leaves a (clearly) bitter taste in my mouth. I guess women should be lucky that they still have the right to vote, eh?

A few of my favorite things...

2008-09-17T12:29:00.000-07:00

The blogging world is something new to me and unfortunately something I have yet to fully engage in. However, I have stumbled across three blogs that intrigue me somewhat and they couldn't be any more random than they are.

I'm not sure if this qualifies as an actual blog or more of a place for people to confess their secrets, but PostSecret is a blog that has caught my attention. It's a forum of sorts for people to confess their deepest and darkest secrets that are sometimes on the more humorous side while other times the posts are more serious. The reason that this type of "blog" appeals to me is because I think it's interesting that people have a hard time confessing their feelings to whoever it is they need to confess them to, yet they will do it on the internet where anyone can potentially read them. It may also be the fact that I find comfort knowing that someone else out there has problems that are just as bad, if not worse, than my own.

Along the same track of nosiness, another blog that I can't help but to be interested in would be Damn I'm Cute which is a celebrity gossip blog that seems to have a lot of interest in Miley Cyrus. I don't pride myself in the fact that I enjoy celebrity gossip (and unfortunately know quite a bit about it) but I know I'm not alone in my guilty pleasure. It's hard to avoid reading the hilarious things that people will post about celebrities especially because my friends and I would say similar things. It's hard for me to not find this amusing:

Anyone lost a drunk chipmunk? Oh wait, that's Miley Cyrus

Who knew? Anyways-what the hell is on her head? Some needs to lend that gurl a brush and some de-frizz oil. She looks like a hot-mess, minus the hot.

I notice on her wrist she has a couple of black jelly bracelets. I recall that when someone wears those black ones it's considered an invitation to have sex with whoever breaks them. Isn't that the antonym for a chastity ring?

Although the comments that are made about Miley Cyrus are less than kind, I can't help but laugh out loud at what they have to say about her.

Lastly, from time to time I read a blog called Engaging Your World, which is a blog written by Pastor Tom Crouse. Pastor Tom is the pastor for Holland Congregational Church in Holland, Massachusetts and I find what he has to say interesting. Although I do not always agree with his conservative views I find that it's insightful to read something from someone who thinks oppositely from you. He touches on issues such as abortion and other moral dilemmas that are controversial to write about. It's definitely worth a read.

Although my blog interests are all across the board, I find all of them thought provoking and worth the time to read.