REPORTER BLOG: What Happened Was...

by Josh Mei
jm145305@ohio.edu

I wasn’t quite sure what exactly to write about for this week’s blog. I should have written one last week, but I guess I slacked off a bit and it slipped my mind. I blame it on the weather.

We’ve had the craziest weather this winter, and I’m really just kind of figuring out how to deal with it. I got sick the other day and I feel the reason for that was because of the weather combined with the fact that all my roommates were sick last week, the previous week, the week before that, and so on. I can probably describe things better with a little poetry:

Like a cycle of events, one apartment resident
gets sick and starts a chain reaction once again,
this continues for periods of say, four weeks,
mass headaches and fevers of hay…for weeks!
Prevented me from finishing a package, what happened?
my health and brain went fishing and backpacking,
Even though annoyances of sickness still lingers,
whatever, I’m actually sicker of pointing the finger…

What Should Have Happened
If I hadn’t gotten sick, I’d actually have something to write about. I was assigned to do a sports package, however, there were no sporting events happening on Tuesday. When there are no events, we usually try to find a story on a University athletic team, generally talking about the level of their performance so far in the season.

However, this time there wasn’t much to cover. Winter sports are usually limited to basketball, hockey, swimming & diving, wrestling, golf, and sometimes baseball (starts late winter). That’s not a bad list, so it shouldn’t be that hard, right?? Unfortunately on Tuesday the only thing going on was the golf team’s competition down in South Carolina, and while I wouldn’t mind jetting down to the warmer states, it’s probably not likely that WOUB would be willing to sponsor my trip. It’s cool though, I don’t even watch golf.

That was a horrible attempt, at a joke in contempt,
from what? Don’t know, don’t care for a cent
but I’m trying to "change" like a dollar and ten dimes,
don’t laugh ‘cause I’m sick and gave myself a bed time.

Actually might as well scratch that last line out, ‘cause I’m laughing at myself as I write-right now.



And Now for a Detour
Speaking of sports, Stephon Marbury is going to the Boston Celtics. I think this will work out fine, I don't know why people are freaking out about it. Starbury is a good player, and given the right team, I can see him flourishing instead of wasting his career away. The Celtics are built with team players, along with the Big 3 and the fact that they're all veterans in the game. They'll keep Steph in line, no doubt. ESPN says he should feel priviledged to play with the Celts, but hey, I would be too. Anyways, I'm glad the New York Knicks are finally making moves. Ever since the '98-99 season, things have been disappointing for Knicks fans. I would know, I am one. But yeah, check out what Jalen Rose and the folks at ESPN think about the Marbury-Celtics situation.



End of Detour... So What Did Happen
On Thursday I was supposed to be a news reporter for Monday, so technically I’m covering something over the weekend. I don’t normally have a problem with that. Only dilemma was, I forgot to mention Senior Saturday when we were figuring out a story (For those who don’t know, Senior Saturday is an all-day event for the seniors in the Scripps School of Journalism, and from what I’ve seen on the agenda it seems like a pretty big deal). So now I’m scrambling to update my resume, get my work samples together, and so on (yes, I know I should’ve done this earlier). All the while I’m trying to figure out the best time to cover the story which was also on Saturday. I was presented with a quandary (I guess…?) Anyways, I think we got it figured out, so it’s cool now.

But back to the subheading, what DID happen was that I went to a meeting at the County Commissioner’s Office to get video of Jack Frech talking about the closing of the Athens County Job & Family Services teen pregnancy prevention program (wow, that’s a mouth full isn’t it? Try saying that 3x fast). But anyways, Mr. Frech is the Director of Job & Family Services, and he told me that the reason they’re cutting this program, along with their dental program, was because of budget cuts. They had to shut down whatever programs that weren’t required by state, whether they were important or not. Obviously, teen pregnancy is a big issue, so the closing of this program is pretty significant. But I guess they did what they had to do.

I was going to post a video of Mr. Frech talking about why they cut their programs, but I had trouble uploading it to the web. However, I’ve already explained the basics of what he told me, and that pretty much sums everything up. But it is sad that such important programs have to be taken away from people who would really benefit from them.

Well I think I’ve written enough. I’m to the point where anything else I type will be pointless rambling useless to anyone’s existence. I’m also guessing that you probably don’t care. So until next time (which might be the last time…oh so sad), be easy and be safe as you strap up to coast through the road called life. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do, and always wear your seatbelt.

…see what I mean??

(If you actually sat down and read this entire blog, much props. Let me know and I’ll buy you a drink sometime)

(Just kidding…would you settle for a high-five?)