Pet Personalities

Ok. So I have 4 cats. And today I've realised that they all have different personalities.
Cat 1: Name= Thunder
When placed on top of a white lidded box, He jumped off immediately.

Cat 2: Name= Popsicle
When placed on same box, she gives you a scared glance and jumps off quickly.

Cat 3: Name= Poptart
When placed on the box, she sniffs around until she finds the edge then jumps off.

Cat 4: Name= Lightning
When placed on the box, he's initially scared to be some place new but then makes himself comfortable and falls asleep.

Very interesting... And funny when the partially blind one smacks into a table on the way down.
Sad. But very funny.

Long Vacation

Wow. It's been a while since I've been on here. Let's see, what's happened since I left.

... wow. A lot of stuff.

I moved in with my girlfriend. We got two cats. She decided that wasn't enough so we got 2 more. We both got jobs. She got fired from hers because they said she wasn't working fast enough, then when she worked faster they said she wasn't working well enough.
She got another job at pizza delight which she actually likes.
I'm stuck at KFC doing a job I hate.
I worked on my projects for Paul. The first one I thought I would fail horribly but he passed me and the second one looks really good. He even told me that it was a lot better than my last one.
My next story seems like it's going to be about a kids Halloween party at the First Nations Reserve in Woodstock NB, and I'm pretty excited about that.
... In my own special way that only Nick LaPointe could be.

They cut my hours at work to the point where I might as well find a new job.

Internet

Is good Yes?

Likes I does.

Wishes I hads it. Ya.

Death is Just the Begining

When I was looking at the paper I couldn't afford, I saw a lot of different things among the ads. There were job openings for strange things, like one at a lumber mill that requires you to speak german.

I remember thinking, "If only I could speak german. And lived anywhere near that place."

Then I went around town handing out my resumes again and walked down to the unemployment office and asked if there were any jobs they could help me get. There was one out at Jellystone Park. I was like "great, but how am I getting there?" The deadline to apply was that very day though. They also wanted a cover letter as well.

Then I hear about a program called "The SEED" program. aka: Student Employment Experience Development Program. Apparently there are some places around here that only take students that are submitted to them through this program.

Isn't that great. For some places I don't have enough experience and for others I have too much.

It seems the only way I'll ever get a job is if I die first. That should be enough experience for them.

HI EMILY!!!!!!!!!!!!

Jobless

What's the world comming to? A 20 year old man who's just starting out on his own, flying the nest for the first time in his life, can't find a job anywhere.

I've got work experience in factories and mills, and they don't even bother to call me? I've been studied in the journalism feild and been in college for two years. And I haven't even gotten an interview. Instead they hire the 16-year-old dumbshit kid who doesn't even care that much about the job. That person who would spend all their time hanging out with their friends in the woods behind the school, smoking pot and getting coked up.

Or the girl who spends all her time talking to her friends on her cellphone talking about clothes, what stars are hot and using their daddy's credit card to buy stuff for her horse which her parents pay someone to take care of.

Those are the people that get hired? Fuck my Life.

Once Again

Here we are sitting in the same old chair doing the same old thing. Not really accomplishing anything. I look around the room and there's not a trace or sign of anything from the old days when we would sit around and chat and make sexual comments about people who may or may not be there. The computer has someone else's name on it. The desk has been cleaned off. The files that I had so carefully stuffed in the drawer are gone. All the notes and files are gone. It's no longer about to burst open, spilling the knowledge from my past out onto the floor.
I don't belong here.
The halls seem different. There is a new life to them. Different from the one I'm used to. Like stepping into someone else's newly cleaned house. I don't want to touch anything because I fear I'll dirty it.
I don't belong here. These aren't my halls. I am not welcomed. I am not a part of this life anymore. I am lonely.

A New Poem

I feel like a dog trying to please its master.
I do everything she asks and do my best to please her with a smile on my face.
Sometimes it's fun.
I watch her as she lies there naked, sleeping. Longing, but not lusting. It's past that. Just wanting her affection.
Asking her to take my hand, wanting her to accept my love, begging her to need me and want me.
Asking her to love me.
But she doesn't.
I only entertain until a new dog comes to take my place. To lay by her side.
I love her...
I love her...
I love her...

Understanding

Truth Justice and pizza! It's the American way.

Da Da Da Da

It's considered a sin by many. In the heat of passionate romance you can find yourself swept away like a little leaf in the wind. But these days no one really cares if you do it or not. Only your parents. Just a little. Not even enough. Only a bit. Almost there. Wait for it. And... Done.
Then you wonder why it mattered. Why did nobody want you to play Resident Evil in the first place. You won't have nightmares. At least not too many.

Something about Everything

Now here's a question that many people would want answered.

Is it better to know a little bit about everything or is it better to know something in-depth?
There is no right answer to this question. Why? Because even the answers it gives you are wrong.

I would much rather know everything about everything, or at the very least, pretend to know everything about everything. It applies to Journalism too. You have to pretend to be an expert even when you know you're not.

Hockey Stick

I have a hockey stick I never use any more.
It sits in my room near the corner, tucked in so it aligns perfectly with the wall.
It's blade points out like it's reaching for something that's not there. Like it's searching for some invisible puck.
I remember the day when I used to play hockey with my dad. We never played on ice because I couldn't skate. Always on the ground in either the spring, summer or fall. We always played on the grass because it hurt less if I fell.
We only had one net that he would let me shoot on every time. I never got a goal that he didn't let in.
As the seasons passed and we both got older, we played less and less.
Now I'm living on my own, meeting my dad for supper that he pays for, talking about how my job search is going. Moving into an apartment on a whim. Making my own mistakes and falling down without the grass under me. The hockey stick stays there waiting for me to play with my own kids.

Apartment Ads

1 bdrm apt gd nghbrd with w/d hook close to d and c. call 555-3425

This is an ad in the paper. It looks like this because many people can't afford to write whole words.
What does it say? well in most cases you have to fill in the blanks on your own.

1 bedroom apartment in a good neighborhood with a washer and dryer hook-up close to downtown and college. call 555-DICK.

Despite the strange words there are some important things that this person left out. Like the price.

Because they left out the price, you can assume that they're going to try to take you for all they can. You can bet the price of the place is going to be padded up and stuff. $400 a month plus damage deposit and you have to pay your own electric bill as well as an activation fee.

That can become anywhere between $700-$1100 for the very first month. scary isn't it?

Lickables

If you have ever seen this ad then you know very well what I'm talking about.

There once was a company that created the worst ad in the world. It portrayed a child doing aerobics and such.
It would have been perfectly fine if under normal circumstances, but when you look at it you see something off.

That's right. The ad tells you nothing of the company. It's like "Hey, let's just slap a picture of a smiling child who isn't more than 6 or 7 up there and put our company name right above her. Who the hell does that?




Oh, and the company was called Lickables so the ad implied that the company thought that 6 year olds were lickable.

Why does Journalism suck?

A good question with no real definite answer.
But journalism doesn't really suck. Many time you'll find some useful information in journalistic stories.
There was a time when I was starting to love journalism. But recently I can't stand being in the lab for some reason.
It feels like the lights are always digging into my skull.
Just being in our room makes me feel tired and worn out. I could go somewhere completely energized and get back into the computer lab and, within moments, I feel half dead.
On top of that I've been making more and more mistakes recently. Mistakes that I would never have made in my own room on my own computer. It seems like there is some force in there that can't make me concentrate. Or possibly I'm concentrating too hard now. I've been sitting here typing at forty words a minute without even thinking.
But this isn't the way I should be writing. This isn't what I felt when I wrote my greatest story.
I don't get that chill that I usually do when I write something truly great.
Why does my strength fade?
Why is it so hard to do what I love to do?
Why don't I bring a pencil and notepad into the bathroom when I get practically write an entire story by the time I take a leak? Why?

What the hell was I talking about?

Video Game Vendetta

Recently I saw something on tv that angered me. Which is strange because tv is usually my friend.

I saw a news documentary piece about video games influencing teenagers to go out and kill people.

As a video game expert, I can say with all honesty that video games don't influence people to go around blowing peoples heads off.

The doc made reference to video games becoming more and more realistic. I'm not denying that the realism in video games has increased, I'm just saying that most games have things that are too far-fetched in them to be real.

I'll use Fallout 3 for my example. It's one of my favorite games but it's not exactly going to convince kids to go out and kill their neighbor.

Why? Despite the realism and the various options the game gives you (such as blowing up a town) the fact that it takes place in a parallel universe where the USSR didn't collapse, certain technology was more or less advanced, took place after a nuclear holocaust a few hundred years in the future and there are mutated orcs and animals running around. Kinda unbelievable huh?

If we look at Call of Duty 3, which is based in World War 2, it's pretty realistic for sure. But the thing is that it was based on a war that took place back in the 1940's. Sure it's violent but so was the actual war.

These type of video games are a source of education. It's surprising how much you can learn from them.

Now the people who play these games are mostly teenagers. Sure they're young and can be pretty stupid, but they're old enough to distinguish between real and fake. Right and wrong. They understand that there is a difference between video games and real life. The people who use video games as an excuse for their bad behavior are just doing it to try to get some leniency.

Now there are some children who play these games and occasionally they confuse reality and fantasy. In this case, it's the parents' fault for not monitoring their children.

Also, the fact that it was on a news channel pissed me off because the story was based entirely on opinion and not on facts. It's this type of "fake" journalism that makes me not want to be a journalist.


For those parents that are uneducated in the ways of video games, I'm going to introduce you to the video game rating system.
On every video game in North America the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) puts a rating on the game somewhere. Video game producers are required to have these placed on the box and other packaging by law.
E = everyone (Basically everyone who can read)
E10 = 10-year-old or up
T = Teen
M = Mature (17 and up)
A = Adult (basically either porn or a gorefest)
RP = Rating Pending (not yet rated)
EC = Early Childhood (extreme youth 3-6 or so)
On the back of every game the ESRB places a list of things the game contains.
Using the game Assassin's Creed (because it's right next to me) I can see that the ESRB gave it an "M" for a rating. If I turn to the back I can see that the game contains Blood, Violence and Strong Language. So yeah that's a fair rating.

How to Write a Paper in Less Than 2 Hours

There are times in everybody's life when they'll wake up from a good night's sleep and suddenly realize that they have a paper due today. Usually most people won't even bother to try and write it by then. However, if they follow these simple steps, then they can easily save themselves from getting a zero.
Firstly, they must not panic. Panicking is the worst thing that anyone could do in this situation.
Second, there must be some kind of topic that they were supposed to write about. They should find out what it is and do some quick research on the topic. This should be done in the span of ten minutes or less.
If they have been able to get this far then they should be well on their way.
The next thing to do is skim the research that has been collected and pick out key points. Things like dates people were born should be included in the paper.
After that is completed, the next thing to do is arrange them in chronological order. If it seems like the paper is jumping all over the place, the teachers will assume it was plagiarized.
Reword the points that were picked out. This will help give direction to where the paper is going.
Next is the most important step there is.
Actually write the paper, but doing it so the points that were picked out work into the story. This is the most time consuming process of all steps. It should take between 45 minutes to one hour.
The key to writing this paper is all in how it sounds when read. The writer should be putting in certain little identifying things that tell teachers that they are writing it.
After the difficult process of writing a paper, read it. Make sure that the words make sense and nothing can confuse the readers. Especially make sure there aren't any repeating sentences in there.
Next, the words themselves must be examined. Spelling mistakes, grammatical errors and various repeating words must be corrected or deleted. This is just to help keep the paper from losing marks from grammar related mistakes.
After the paper is finally written and corrected, the next step is to list the sources. These sources are listed inside either a bibliography or works cited page. There is a difference between the two things so find out what it is and which the teacher wants (if any).
The next step is to write a title page.
Find out if the teacher gave any specific title to be used and if there wasn't then make one up. The title should usually have something to do with the main topic in the paper.
Assuming the steps that are listed above have been followed, the next and final step is to format the document.
There are many different kinds of styles or “formats” that papers can follow. The style the teacher prefers should be discovered some way and used.
Formating a paper is actually easy. Just highlight everything, go up to the top of the word document and click on “format.” There should be an option that's called “paragraph.”
Click on the paragraph option and a window will pop up. To put things like “indents” in documents, go to the “special” category and choose first line. To double space a document, simply go down to “line spacing” and choose double space.
After formating the paper it should be completed. Print it or save it to a disk and hand it in.
If all these steps are followed and nothing terribly wrong happens then people should have no problem writing a paper in less than two hours.
Like me ^_^

Jimi Taylor (The First Scene)

My new character creation. Jimi Taylor. This is the start of a short story that I'm writing. It's meant to give the reader a taste of what Jimi is like. If you think he's a murderous jackass that deserves to die but can't help to see a faint bit of humanity in him, then congratulations you have the ability to spot the obvious.

“You spin me right round baby, right round like a record baby, right round, round, round, round.” Marilyn Manson kept singing in his ears.

It was a beautiful summer day. July 17^th. A good day like so many others.

“You spin me right round baby, right round like a record baby, right round, round, round, round,” Jimi sang to himself.

He looked out the window into the back yard. The noon sun shown brightly on the swings and various toys left on the lawn. He couldn't see past the fence but he knew that there were people and cars moving about just past it.

He turned, while wiping his knife. He stared at the bodies on the floor. The man with his stomach cut open and bleeding on the ground. His wife with her throat slit and broken limbs besides him. And of course there were the children that stumbled in unexpectedly and he had to deal with them quickly and messily while the dying woman laid on the ground watching.

Jimi wasn't happy because the children had ruined the mood he had set. And then she died before the real fun could start.

“Oh well,” he said.

He turned to the window and looked out once more. Then he heard the scrape of fingernails on the floor.

One's still alive, he thought.

He turned to the puppy under the chair. It's dark terrified eyes looked up at him pleading for its life.

Jimi looked at the dog. Then at the blade. Then at the dog again.

He approached it and grabbed its neck, then stuck the blade in stealing the life from it.

Well he thought about it anyway, right before he let the dog out the back door releasing it to freedom without a scratch.

"Damn puppy-dog eyes," he whispered.

BRAAAAAAAINS

I must say, in this fucked up world filled with racism, violence, death and crappy pop music, I thought there would always be a place where i could go to escape it all.
The depths of my own mind.
Turns out, that's not as safe as I'd like it to be.
These days I end up worrying about things like getting a job, what I'm going to do about school next year and if I should move in with my girlfriend in April.
Then when I retreat into the sanctity of my own mind, I just find out that my subconscious is thinking about all that too. Surprisingly hard o write with all that shit in your brain.
I know what you're thinking. "You have suggestions to solve this Cap'n?"
No. I don't. Just deal with the shit, take it as it comes and pray to God you don't screw up.
ps: It's always nice to have a back-up plan.

On Another Note

Today I will talk about stories.

I've recently seen some things on a certain website. I won't say what cite *coffdeviantartcoff* but it had stories on it that were... interesting... kinda...

Anyway, a lot of them made very little sense in a geographical and timeline sense. Some stories would talk about being in Maine (America) and then being somewhere in Russia the next day. 

If you've ever flown on a plane before, you know that it'll take one hell of a lot of parking lot blow jobs to make that happen, and I'm not sure if anyone would be willing to do that.

This is where professional novelists do a little something that I like to call "research."

They just look at a map or call a travel agency and ask "How long would it take to get from (insert place name here) to (insert place name here)?"

So if you want to actually make a story somewhat believable then you should actually do some research. It's not that hard.

Or you could just do it the cheap way and make some sort of instantaneous transmission thingy or intergalactical time warp. Yeah, that works too.

The Soap Show

Clean as a whistle Captain!!!!!

And then they all died.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!

With Nothing to Write About

When you have nothing to write about, try pulling stuff out of your ass.

It works ;)

Chasing Jackalopes

There are times in a person's life when you should just drop everything and quit.
I'm too stubborn to do that though.
Facing multiple deadlines (which the smart journalist avoids) is basically life and death. In the working world, you'll have to decide weather or not to abandon projects and work on something else.
Well I don't have that option, so I hope those of you who still have hope won't dig your own grave like I did.
Seriously, some stories are more difficult than hunting Jackalopes.





That's right. Jackalopes.

...........................

It's strange.
Whenever I thought about my relatives and people I know dieing, I never felt like crying. Not even shedding a tear.
But now that it's actually happening, it's hard to hold them back.
I've got to stay strong for mom. I can't let her see me cry because then she'll start crying. I rarely ever see her cry but she's not even bothering to try and hold it back as she wanders through the house looking for something to do.
My dad is getting ready to leave for Saint John. He wants to be there when my cousin passes away. He wants to be there when his brother's son dies. I don't even want to imagine what he's going through. I don't know how he's stopping the tears.
And my sister walks around smiling. I just want to smack her but stop myself because she doesn't understand. She can't understand.
My cousin Joe is dying... and he's only twenty-three.

Weird stuff

Well here I am, trying to save my ass from being kicked and such. Just keeping up with my projects and slowly killing myself with stress.
Why? Because the guy I was supposed to interview at 11:30 had to go to Nova Scotia because his daughter had a baby last night. Of course he had no way to contact me. That's my bad. Whatever.
Anyway, besides not being able to find anyone, I decided to spend my time looking up information about the History of the Community College. It started out as an Agricultural and Vocational School. The first in Canada.
And when I go to the Historical Society's website, what do I see?
Restricted: This page is categorized as Pornography.
...
WTF!!!!???

Anyway, after dieing for a good 20 minutes and comming back to life, I went back and tried again. Then it worked.
"Strange," I thought. "It didn't work the first 18 times."

The point I'm trying to make is that administration is messed up.
They always make decisions without consulting the public first. Take for instance the Student Rep Council (which I am a part of) decided to put up a bunch of posters saying "This building is a public building. Swearing will not be tolerated. Thank you. SRC"

I didn't approve of that! I didn't even vote on that!
We're fuckin' adults and they're telling us to watch our language!
I don't even hear swearing anywhere in the school 95% of the time. There's more swearing on a middle school bus ride than in the entire building.

The next time Administration decides to do something, they should first consult the people it concerns before making a decision.

Major Issues

Well I had just woken up and was walking to school, and what did I see?

Cop cars parked out in the middle of the road. Apparently a guy was shot by an unknown assaliant for unknown reasons.
Now covering a major issue like this is difficult to do. Why? Because the police won't tell you jack shit about what's going on.
You have to know who to talk to and what questions to ask when covering an incident like this.
Always go for the person in charge of the investigation. Never ask that person questions like "Who do you think it is?" Ask him/her questions like "How is the ivestigation going?" or "When did this take place?"
"What happened?" is always a good one.

Open-ended questions can always get you good interviews and quotes.

Multiple deadlines are fun!!!!

When facing multiple deadlines like myself, you must prioritize and do work in a prompt manner.
Unless you are lazy like me.
If you can't find it in yourself to get stuff done, decide which thing/assignment is the most important and work on that. Finish the other stuff whenever.

Occasionally you won't have time to work on multiple things at once. Same as above.

Press Conferences

Today I went to a press conference. I saw several different people from the government including the MLA and MP for our area.
But the story was about the new pizza manufacturing plant comming to Woodstock.
Well I got so caught up in shooting that I forgot to watch the battery.
This can go under the "Shit Happens" category.
Luckily for me the owner is a nice guy. He gave me his adress and number and said that anytime they can call and get an interview.
Not everyone is as nice as him though. Make sure to have extra batteries, don't leave the camera on and choose what you shoot carefully.

Photo Ops

Cameras are nice to have. They're even nicer to have when a car slides off road. Because you'd be surprised how often violence and misfortune make the front page.
Unfortunately, not everyone always has a camera with them. So you can't always be prepared for some horrific accident.
Well don't be too disappointed if you miss a front page shot. Editors would rather have people who can take good shots of news events constantly on their pay role, rather than the one who can get a good shot "occasionally."

Sincerely,
Cameo Man >_>

Shit Happens

In the words of the Almighty teacher Paul... Shit Happens. Deal with it.

When cameras freeze up or you forget to press record or something, fix it right away. don't just pray it'll fix itself or wait for a miracle to happen.  

Now... TO WORK!!!!!!!

Well if you've had a week like me, which I kinda hope you did so I don't feel so bad, you might have killed yourself by now.
Firstly, you can't just send out emails expecting people to answer you. Call, call, call.
Why? Because believe it or not, some people don't check their emails.
Secondly, check your sources. If someone tips you off about a certain event, such as a store closing, find out if it is before you pitch it to an editor. Because that store might just turn out to be having a sale.
Thank you Theresa.

Well the week is finally underway, and what do I have to do first thing?
I have a video assignment to do. And it's due in a week. (yay, kill me now)

The first thing I have to do is find a story to do. Unfortunately I got nothin' 'cause I've been out of town for christmas break.
First I read the paper but beacuase I can't picture paper stories as video stories, I just asked my radio teacher for help.

Great. Now that she told me a story, I might as well call the people it's about. It's about a certain store closing. This might be a bit difficult.

Welcome to the Blog.

I be Bloggin'.
YAY!!!!!

Now what is this blog about and why am I bothering doing this? Well I'm under orders by my Internet Journalism teacher. So I'll be posting about Journalism stuff and the difficulties and thoughts I have about it.

Before I start going into details and stuff, I'd like to say I HATE VIDEO!!!!!!!

It's difficult to do because most people don't want to appear in front of a camera. You'd have better luck with a gun. At least you could threaten to shoot them if they try to run.
..................
<_<
>_>