REPORTER BLOG: The Gears Never Stop Turning...

by Josh Mei
jm145305@ohio.edu

So this is the last blog of the quarter. What more is there to say? There’s been so much going on lately that I haven’t even thought about what to write in here. So I think I’m going to let my fingers do the talking, and cut out the non-important stuff later.

The Last Week
This past week, I was assigned to be a sports reporter for Wednesday. So I decided to do a story on the Swimming & Diving team, with the focus on OU junior Chelsey Bower. This girl is making history for the swim team, as the first Bobcat to compete for an NCAA title in almost a decade. The last time we sent someone there it was Kim van Selm in 2001.

I would guess this is a big deal, so it seemed like a pretty newsworthy story. I went down to the Aquatic Center after class on Tuesday afternoon to shoot my package. I talked to Chelsey and her sprint coach (sprint coaches work with the swimmers who do shorter distances; i.e. 50 or 100 freestyles) and got some really good soundbites (quotes on video) from them. Honestly, I actually had a pretty good time down there. I had plenty of room to move my camera and tripod around, the lighting was excellent to shoot in, and the natural sound was great. Everything in that scenario was basically perfect, and made for a really good package. Needless to say, I was pretty happy with it in the end.

The Rest of It
OK, so I’ve talked about what I did in class this week. But I wouldn’t be fair to myself if I didn’t put my own ramblings into this blog as well. To put it bluntly, I’ve been too busy. Too busy to pay my parking tickets, too busy to eat lunch, too busy to write my internship essay, and so forth. I’m not even talking about being physically busy with a packed schedule, but mentally, with gears turning nonstop in the back of my head like a perpetual wristwatch.

There have been a lot of things going on that I’m not going to write about, but there are a lot of other things that I would like to address. Since this is the last blog of the quarter, I feel the need to fully express myself.

To start off, I thought this MidDay cluster was actually kind of fun, after the whole process of learning how to do things and getting adjusted to the working environment. However, I do feel like the ambiance of the class changes each day. There has never really been a constant vibe in the newsroom, since situations change every day. I guess that’s the thing about journalism; the workplace is always unpredictable and spontaneous. Like Forrest Gump said (here we go with the cliché remarks…): “Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re gonna get.” That quote is a perfect fit for what we do. You never know what you’re going to get in the news, which some people may find very exhilarating.

That’s one thing I’ve noticed about myself these past 10 weeks.
I’m the kind of person who likes things set in stone, just for the reassurance. But don’t confuse that with insecurity. That’s one thing I don’t mess with. It’s because with my ADHD, my mind is always just acting up. Have you ever watched the evening lottery drawings on TV? The ones with the air-mix lottery machines that suck the numbered ping pong balls out randomly? That’s exactly what my head feels like when I’m writing. The ping pong balls symbolize words or ideas that are swirling around in the back of my mind, and when the time comes, random ideas just pop out (not really at my discretion, either). I don’t expect everyone to understand that, but I’m sure some will.


All This Other Stuff
As a college student, a striving journalist, and a starving musician, it's hard to put my priorities in order sometimes. I am in a Hip Hop group called the Iron MCs, along with my friend and fellow classmate Tony Rawlings, and two other students here at OU (that's our picture at the top of this blog). We've been thouroughly involved with the underground Hip Hop scene here in Athens, and have finally started doing shows outside of the Hip Hop Shop. The Hip Hop Shop is a venue for all elements of Hip Hop to come together. Every other Monday, HHS meets for either an open stage or an emcee freestyle battle. These battles have drawn quite the crowd, and by particpating in these battles, we've all been able to get our names out there for people to know. Just last night as I was Uptown I had people stopping me on the sidewalk just to say they thought what we (the Iron MCs) were doing is great. That's really a lot of encouragement, because in a town like Athens, Hip Hop culture isn't as embraced as it is in bigger cities.

This is the only video I could find of Hip Hop Shop, so it'll have to do. For those who have never been there, this clip is from one of the shows held at The Union (Iron MCs performed earlier this night as well).
FYI this is NOT us, but a few of the other people who participate in Hip Hop Shop.



Anyways, I think what I'm trying to say is that while our group is getting together to do shows, record in the studio, and et cetera, we sometimes forget that we're still students. Our number one priority (according to society's generalized perception of life) is to go to school, get educated, and get a job using what we've learned in school to support the rest of our lives. But sometimes the scenario just isn't like that in my head. The truth is, I don't even know what the scenario should be like. I've come this far in my life only to realize that I still don't know what God has planned out for me. While many of my classmates know (or at least have an idea) what they're going to do after graduating college, I'm still wandering around like a freshman in high school, lost in the hallways. And at some point a senior will come up to me and either, A) shove me into a locker and lock it, or B) find out I'm lost and direct me to my homeroom. I hope for the latter. It's obviously not that easy, but call me Pinnochio because I've been wishing on stars since I was a young'n.

Anyways, I need to wrap this up because I've taken far too long to write this, and it's cutting into my dinner time. So I'll leave you with one more rhyme, a few bars of random thoughts and statements that I just needed to unload.

These are my thoughts turned into my words
typed out onto the keyboard with no concern
cursing at myself cuz instead of the first,
the last has always seemed to turn for the worst/
Alas, in this industry they put you on blast
we need a white balance, rather than fading to black
we need PAD, not to refer, to excessive video either,
I mean like stepping on bean curd when your feet hurt/
No need to research, I will still see third
cuz first and second are just places for the features
and I just like to kick it, so chill like a kicker
float like a late package when it's not finished quicker/
No nat sound could envelop my feelings,
the rundown somehow symbolizes sundown
cuz at the bottom of the list, here comes the showdown
cuz the show is done and we can go home now//

I hope I've been able to entertain whoever actually reads these blogs, and hopefully they've been enjoyable to read. I know I tend to ramble, but that's just how I am...Don't hold it against me, just hold it above me, so when I raise my head to the sky it'll look lovely.

Peace.


PS. WVU beat Pitt last night!!! The Big East is so packed with raw talent, every game is always crazy to watch. My boys play #20 Syracuse in the Big East tournament tonight, here's the preview. Let's go Mountaineers.



Oh yeah, remember last year when we beat Duke to go to the Sweet 16? I just thought I'd throw this in here, just to reminisce.