RSL vs New England Revolution 6/21/2008

My first Real Salt Lake game. I think it turned out well. RSL won, 2:1.

Online fiction (final)

Here is a final version of the online fiction project for this class--a MySpace page for my cat. Her sad story is in "About Me" section of the page. Her funny story is in the blog. View photos, read comments, get to know her interests and personality.

Santa's two-week slave camp

As many of you know, I work for The Daily Utah Chronicle. Because the paper doesn't come out during breaks, and it's my only job, I had to look for something else before a month-long Winter Break started. In the U-BYU pre-game rivalry guide that came out as an insert in our paper, there was an ad from the United States Postal Service looking for seasonal employees. I figured, I'd work for two weeks, make some money, then sleep for two other weeks before school starts. I applied and...got the job.

I was handling Christmas gifts and other mail for almost two weeks, which seemed as two months. Although it was an exhausting job (I was on my feet all day, lifting, carrying and throwing boxes and envelopes), I was making really good money, and I received a fat check shortly after Christmas. I met lots of new people, mostly other college students (most of whom are from UVSC), and learned a lot of things. So, here's a list of what you might have not known about the post office during Christmas season.

1. The first and most important thing: SANTA DOESN'T DO JACK!!!

2. There's a lot of mail sent during a month of December. A lot! A LOT!!!

3. Do not send fragile things via USPS.

4. Even though you write "FRAGILE" all over your package, it won't make a difference in how postal workers will handle it. In fact, they will throw your package with even more force.

5. If you don't write a ZIP code on whatever you're sending, it'll be at least a day delayed.

6. Mail that goes from Austin to Dallas (both in Texas) somehow always ends up in Utah.

7. Twelve-hour work shifts with 15-minute breaks every two hours and no days off are a normal thing.

8. If you stay up making out 'til 4 a.m. the night before you work, presents for some little boy might take longer time to arrive. Sorry, little boy...whoever you were. :)

9. UVSC students are loud, have no manners but know how to make various animal sounds in different tonalities.

10. Returning missionaries (who are UVSC students) try to get you into church as soon as they find out you're not (OMG!!!) LDS, even while they're working for the post office.

11. Post office does not mail checks to its employees. We have to go to pick them up ourselves. Go figure...

When I was finally done with Santa's slave camp, I did whatever I wanted before Spring Semester...such as sleep (I slept for 15 hours after my last day there), have social life back and make out 'til 4 a.m. without falling asleep at work the following day. I've made sure your gifts from out of state were here on time.

P.S. I knew there was a reason why I didn't like Christmas...

A day in a newsroom (edited)

As a copy editor/photographer for The Daily Utah Chronicle, I spend a lot of afternoon time in the newsroom, either copyediting or uploading photos from recent shoots. There are a lot of interesting/hilarious/hectic/crazy/unexpected things going on in that office every day. Here is a recent observation from one of the days.

As a copy editor, I read through all the stories that would run the next day, or the day after, and make sure everything is correct: spelling, grammar, style, punctuation, facts are checked, story makes sense, etc. There are three copy editors working every day, and we all read the same articles/columns.

One day, a copy editor reads a column that's supposed to run the following day. The opinion writer talks about the '70s in her column, how great of an era it was, and how great of leaders we had during those times: Gandhi, J.F. Kennedy, Nikita Kruschev, Al Capone. One of the tree copy editors working that day fact checks all the names online and finds out that none of them were alive during the '70s! She shares her findings with two other copy editors (including me) who all sit in same area of the newsroom (on the photo, the closer set of desks on the right), and we all laugh for a bit, then try to justify the writer by saying she probably used the wrong transition, which is why it makes no sense to any of us. The copy editor then calls the writer and asks her what she meant by listing all those figures as great leaders from the '70s. The writer says, "What? They were all dead by then?" They talk for a little bit and decide to reword the beginning of the column so that it's not confusing to a reader. When the phone conversation between the copy editor and the writer ends, we all crack up, and the mistake gets spead all over the newsroom. Everyone laughs. Needless to say, the column doesn't run.

How I talked to Jonny Santos and got Ill Niño's sweat on me (edited)

I went to a metal show featuring bands Silent Civilian, God Forbid, and Ill Niño in May of 2006.

I wasn't even planning on it. Josh (my boyfriend at that time) called me two hours before the show and told me his brother's friend flaked and they have an extra ticket. So, I drove all the way to Ogden by myself (it was raining, too) in a hurry, trying to make it to the show on time.

When I got my butt there, Silent Civilian was already on stage. The funny thing is the lead singer of Silent Civilian is Jonny Santos, former frontman of Spineshank , the band I absolutely love! We got all the way to the front, and there's no space between the stage and the audience, so not only did I see the band close, I felt its members' sweat all over me as well. EWWW!

At the end of the set, Santos threw the only guitar pick he had in his hands into the crowd, and someone caught it. Then, they were taking their instruments away, and I asked Jonny, "Hey, you got another guitar pick?" He bent over and picked one up for me and gave it to me!

Josh's brother Wade asked him why he left Spineshank and he said, "I don't play with thieves!" Whatever that means...

God Forbid played next. Their drummer, Corey Pierce, was amazing! He was one of the best drummers I've ever seen, and I've been to lots of shows. They played just eight songs, and he went through three (!) sets of drum sticks. His high energy was just transmitting to everyone in the audience! Someone close to me caught one drum stick after the set, and I was like "Damn!" Turned out it was Josh who caught it, so he gave it to me! It was split in half, and the other half was still on stage. We asked one of the guys in the crew to give it to us, and he did. So, I have two pieces of the same drum stick from God Forbid.

Ill Niño was last and it kicked so much ass! It was amazing, but sweaty, too. It was hot and the band members gave water to the audience. The bassist, Laz Pina, came up to me and poured some in my mouth...and then up my nose!

After the show, my whole body was so wet, it was crazy. Not only was it my sweat, but I got some from all the bands' members and people next to me. So gross! But it was cool at the same time, because no other venue has a stage so close to the audience. It was at the club "Boom" by the way.