2nd Week of Junior Year

So we are now onto the second week of school and I can't help but feel my senioritis kick in. Yes I am a junior but hey its possible right...junioritis?

I have done almost 4 hours worth of reading and researching online and I'm already burnt out. I know my journalism classes are going to be super tough and I need to keep up with everything. It's going to be super easy to fall behind when if I miss a day. UGH I can already see me having a fun weekend and being stuck with like 10 hours of homework...FUH.

Another dilemma is finding a job. I'm already stressing about my budget and all that. I desperately need a job so I can pay for gas, food and all my other bills. UGH why is money not grown on trees...oh wait...it is. Why is counter fitting illegal in this country?? There are too many struggling students who are going through the woes of high tuition fees and what's worse is that it's still growing. Thank goodness I'm halfway done with college because I cannot afford any of this nonsense for too long.

Other than that this year has been starting off great. I have a lot of friends in my journalism classes and I'm meeting some new ones. Having people in my classes takes off some stress because I know I have people to turn to if I ever need help or forget to write my homework down. YAY!

I am extremely excited to start a blog for my Intro to Online class. I am either going to write a blog about SF Style , the style found in this amazing city, or how the different districts go green. I would love to write about either of those but we'll see what I end up doing. I cannot wait to start writing and interviewing.

A Kindergartener Living with NPC

Johnathan Spencer has been battling the ups and downs of living with a rare disease referred to as childhood Alzheimer’s. At 5, he will begin a new chapter in his life when he starts kindergarten on August 22 at Rucker Elementary School.

Born with bruises and a yellow-ish tint to him, doctors required Johnathan stay in the hospital for a few extra days. After four years of tests with no end in sight, doctors thought they’d take a precaution and rule out Niemann Pick Type C (NPC). Doctors were 99 percent sure Johnathan did not have the rare disease. Weeks before his fourth birthday, on March 9, 2010 the test came back positive. Devastated by the news, parents Keith and Rebecca Spencer have done everything they can to help Johnathan. The family has flown to Virginia, Maryland and Canada to attend conferences and to speak with others who are affected by the disease.

NPC is a rare disease has been diagnosed to 500 people worldwide, 5 or 6 of which are in the United States. It attacks the body's ability to metabolize cholesterol and other lipids within the cell, causing large amounts of cholesterol to accumulate within the liver and spleen and excessive amounts of other lipids, or fatty tissue, to accumulate in the brain.

NPC is often referred to as "childhood Alzheimer's" because it causes neurological impairment and often causes children to be bedridden.

“Most children don’t get diagnosed until neurological hits because they don’t know anything is wrong with them, they’re so normal except for their liver and spleen,” said Merrill Spencer. “Most children don’t get diagnosed until they start hitting walls and they’ll forget who you are.”

Needle pricks and experimental medications are a constant reminder that there is still no cure for NPC, a genetic neurodegenerative disease. NPC is always fatal, according to the National Niemann-Pick Disease Foundation. It typically claims its victims' lives at a very young age.

“The average age of onset on neurological (damage) is 6 and the average age of death is between 2 and 16,” said Johnathan’s mother, Rebecca Merrill Spencer.

Johnathan is taking an experimental medication called Zavesca (miglustat), which shows the NPC symptoms have slowed down. The medication is supposed to stunt his grown but at almost 45 inches, Johnathan is above average in height and weight. Both Keith and Rebecca are hopeful that the medication will give them time that they need for another treatment to come out.

“He’s on an experimental drug, lets say he was supposed to start neurological at age 6, start loosing his abilities, maybe this will give him until 8,” said Merrill Spencer.

Working tirelessly to raise money for Jonathan and receiving community support, the family has been hopeful and never lost sight of what’s important.

“We had the two benefits that were amazing, we raised over $25,000 for Niemann Pick. The community has been the most amazing this past year,” said Rebecca.

On Monday, Keith and Rebecca will take Johnathan to his first day at Rucker Elementary School located at 325 Santa Clara Avenue.

The reason behind picking Rucker Elementary School was because Johnathan will be surrounded by family. His grandmother, Patty Spencer is the librarian and aunt, Kristen Lopez both work at Rucker Elementary. Rebecca also grew up with Johnathan’s kindergarten teacher.

“He’s going to have eyes everywhere. That’s where they’re going to see it first (neurological symptoms),” said Rebecca.

Attending seven days a week from 10 a.m. to 1:15 p.m. with a short day on Wednesday. Like any other parents, Keith and Rebecca are nervous about their child starting at Rucker.

Even Johnathan confessed to his mother that he was nervous to start school.

Johnathan is entering kindergarten knowing his ABCs, how to count and how to spell the first four letters of his name.

Like any other kid starting school, the family went school shopping. They went to Kohl’s and bought pants, shorts, t-shirts and a new pair of black Vans shoes. They are buying a new backpack and lunchbox this weekend.

Looking past kindergarten, Johnathan has big dreams of maybe becoming a doctor one day. He said he wanted to make a better tasting medicine because his doesn’t taste good.

Rebecca asked, “What do you want to put in it?”

“Banana, grape, and one drop of orange juice, two drops, three drops,” said Johnathan.

Kiss My Sass

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Common courtesy

There is a rule in life that I wish everyone would understand and maybe even accept it as their own. Ready for it..."Treat people how you want to be treated".

Those who know me know that I may not be the nicest, smartest or relaxed person but I do do my part in making sure that others aren't waiting for me or picking up after me. I take pride in the fact that I am not a neat freak/OCD but I will clean up after myself. I wipe tables if I leave crumbs on them, I wash my dishes and I refill the ice tray when its out. Is it to much to ask that others do the same?

I'm not trying to say that I am perfect and that I have never done anything wrong but when it comes to common courtesy I do my best. To those who have roommates:

Your mommy and daddy aren't here to pick up after you anymore
You're on your own now and you need to think about others
Do the extra things to ensure that you aren't stepping on anyone's toes
Clean up after yourself and don't wait for others to do it for you

Just a little thing to live by. So the theme of this blog: COMMON COURTESY is an amazing thing to live by. Until next time bloggers.

I'm back

OH BLOG HOW I'VE MISSED YOU.

I remember hearing a quote along the lines of "Some girls write in their diaries while the others are too busy living to write". It was something like that but you get the picture. I feel like that's why I haven't been blogging this summer. I've been too busy having fun, hanging out with my friends and of course getting my fix of pop culture whenever I have time.

Let's see what's new. Hmm...well I finally got a new laptop. Its not just any laptop but a MacBook Pro!! YAY! After years of begging that I need it, which I do, I finally got it. I've been working hard on making movies for my internship, messing around with GarageBand and of course just exploring this thing that is sooo different from my PC. I'm in love people.

Speaking of my internship, today is my final day. I am leaving my desk at the Gilroy Dispatch and heading back into the city on Saturday. I have learned so much from this whole experience here. Everyone told me this internship will throw me into a new experience different from the classes I've taken at SF State of course. I have done my fair share of briefs, movies and actually wrote some interesting stories. Thank goodness I had this opportunity to show what I've been learning and prove that although I am still learning, I know a lot too. Oh and for the record I didn't run arrands or get coffee for anyone! YAY for not being a slave.

As this summer is dwindling down I can't help but think...where did the time go. I love being home for 3 months. Hanging out with my friends, family and boyfriend was amazing. Now I head back to the city as a junior and continue my studies. This is definitely bittersweet. I'm glad to see my friends at school but I'm also sad to leave some behind at home. Luckily for me, home is about an hour and a half away so I can come home whenever Jude (my car) has gas.

Anyways enough ranting. School starts soon and I'm ready to roll with my new notebooks. See you on Tuesday SF State, I hope you haven't changed too much.

Christopher High Student Spends a Summer at Stanford

A trip to the hospital usually doesn’t sound like a good summer vacation experience. Alejandra Gonzalez will get five weeks worth.

The Christopher High School student will get an introductory, crash course on what it takes to be a nurse or doctor this summer at the Stanford Medical Youth Science Program.

Starting Sunday, the 16-year-old will join 24 other sophomores and juniors from Northern and Central California at Stanford University.

Gonzalez will participate in lectures, labs, group projects, field trips and evening discussions. She will spend time with an assigned mentor, Suzanne Garfer, who is currently enrolled in Stanford’s medical program.
"She's one of those students who just works as hard as she needs to get the work done and then some,” said CHS teacher Cheryl Osborne, who along with colleague Julie Mangono wrote a letter of recommendation.

Gonzalez’s application included sending her Christopher High School transcript, writing eight essays and providing two letters of recommendation. Along with a mid-April phone interview, Gonzalez also had a series of face-to-face interviews with Stanford councilors and staff. She was selected from 800 other applicants from 410 schools.

“When you’re around all these people, you kind of get an idea of what kind of people they are and what you’re up against,” Gonzalez said.

According to its website, the Stanford Medical Youth Science Program works to increase knowledge about the sciences and health professions, while guiding minority and low-income students through the college admissions process.

The program started in 1998, and will cover Gonzalez’s fees which include tuition, books, class fees, room and board.

The mentors will be medical students, graduate students and health professionals.

The program also includes a hospital volunteer internship with visits to the morgue and operating rooms.

Two days out of the week, Gonzalez is required to spend time in either the Stanford Hospital and Clinics or the Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System hospital. Once assigned, Gonzalez will be placed in a department.

“My top choice was anything in surgery. I could be a nurse for the surgery. I put that I want to experience it myself, maybe they’ll let me have a chance to cut something,” Gonzalez said. “My second choice would be to work in the pharmacy because medicine is really interesting too.”

Students attending the program will also receive preparation work for the SATs, essay and résumé guidance, presentation skills and PowerPoint training.

In order to pass and participate in the program’s graduation ceremony, Gonzalez and her peers have to complete and present a research project as part of the evaluation process.

Gonzalez can get 10 high school units, which Osborne said would probably fall under elective science credits.

"We haven't had to deal with anything like that before. We do take college credits and give the kids credit that is reflected on their transcript,” Osborne said.

Gonzalez has hopes of going to a University of California, San Diego or Davis and said this is the perfect opportunity for her to get into medicine.

“I am most excited to be part of the program, getting to know everybody and actually getting some hands-on experience,” she said.

Dinosaurs at Gilroy Gardens

Not only does Gilroy Gardens have moving dinosaurs but it has some of the less glamorous aspects of the extinct creates.

“The poop was gross, I didn’t want all those germs on me,” Jamie Klein, 5, said. “My brother held it and wanted to keep it.”

Tour guide Rylee Card, decked in a safari outfit, led the first tour and let the kids see how things can stay preserved over millions of years.

Dinosaur Bones Fossils, Skeletons and Stories began its first set of tours Sunday at Gilroy Gardens Theme Park at 3050 Hecker Pass Hwy. The 3,000 square-foot exhibit has animated and automatic dinosaur models, large models of bones and energetic tour guides. There are also two dig sites where the kids can dig through the sand to uncover bones and footprints.
The exhibit will be open through July 10 with tours beginning every 30 minutes.

During the tour, kids asked questions and showed they knew what they were talking about.

“I learned a lot about fossils. I liked seeing the dinosaurs that moved. I am actually a paleontologist,” Malcolm Vinson, 4, said.
Planning for the Dinosaur Bones exhibit started in February.

Dinosaurs Unearthed owns and installed the models. They are the only company that has a feathered juvenile Tyrannosaurus Rex dinosaur for the exhibit said Dana Everitt, executive assistant at RWS and Associates Entertainment. RWS and Associates Entertainment handles entertainment for theme parks and were the third party that organized the exhibit.

Everitt provided the scripts for the tour guides that would make the experience interesting to kids and parents alike.

“We are actually performers, we are hired on with the company that set this all up. We did had to study a little bit to prepare for the opening,” Card, 26, said.

Everitt wanted to gather all the fun facts about dinosaurs and leave out the boring stuff.

“We compiled the research and took out the facts that were age appropriate and to select the right facts. We also included some dinosaur jokes so it would be more interactive,” Everitt said.

Gilroy Gardens Theme Park is open daily, Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Monday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Ticket prices for ages 11 to 61 are $44.99. Children from ages three to ten and seniors ages 62 and above are $34.99.

Gilroy Middle School Graduation 2011

The graduating class of eighth-graders this year meant a little something extra to its three Gilroy middle school principals.

For Salvatore Tomasello, Ascencion Solorsano Middle School principal, it was his final goodbye as he heads toward retirement.
For Greg Kapaku, soon to be former South Valley Middle School principal, it was a chance to reflect on seven years of mentoring students while looking forward to the new opportunity of serving as vice principal at Christopher High School.

Finally, for Brownell Middle School’s Greg Camacho-Light, it was a learning experience as he said farewell to a 2011 graduating class that marked his first full three years at the school as principal.

There were some common elements for the Wednesday – South Valley – and Thursday – Brownell and Solorsano – promotion ceremonies. Elated students got a preview of high school life when six Gilroy High School Chamber Choir members started the ceremony by singing the national anthem. They were also welcomed by GHS Principal Marco Sanchez and CHS Principal John Perales at the close of the celebrations.

On Wednesday, about 500 people gathered at the CHS gym as Kapaku handed out awards to outstanding students, speaking personally of each one during his last graduation ceremony as principal of the school.
"It's been such a great place, such a great experience, but I'm excited for the new change and the new challenges of high school," Kapaku said.

The Gilroy Gardens Pavilion hosted Brownell’s ceremony at 5 p.m. Thursday and was bittersweet for Camacho-Light.
“This is the class that I came in with three years ago,” Camacho-Light said. “In a sense, this is my graduation too. It’s always bittersweet to see this. One, we lived with these kids, and two, it’s good to see them move on.”

More than 300 friends and family supported the class. Large shiny balloons and candy leis awaited the students after the ceremony ended at about 7 p.m.

“This class was able to grow with us in terms of us developing a school that continues to grow in terms of academics,” Camacho-Light said.

Following Brownell's graduation, Ascencion Solorsano Middle School graduated at 7 p.m. at Gilroy High School’s Garcia-Elder Sports Complex.

Students who achieved a 4.0 throughout their six semesters were recognized before the graduating certificates were presented.
Friends and family used noisemakers – one even used a megaphone mimicking the sound of a police siren – to congratulate graduates.

Veteran principal Tomasello, who has been serving GUSD as a teacher and coach since 1978 and also as an athletic director beginning in 1984 for 16 years, offered advice to his departing students.

“I would encourage them to continue the same hard work, commitment, effort and dedication as they enter high school,” he said. “Promotion from middle school is just another step towards graduation from high school.”

Earlier, Tomasello stood at the podium to address the crowd with a final goodbye.

“As you move on to your next phase in your life, as you know, I am also moving onto mine in retirement,” Tomasello said. “I will forever share that experience of us leaving Solorsano together.”

Interview with Prof. Loretta Stec

Working with a Mac, for me, has not been the easiest thing in the world. In fact I have needed a lot of help trying to navigate through something that is not a PC.

Using Garage Band and recording with my iPhone, I had an amazing interview with Professor Loretta Stec from San Francisco State University. The English professor enlightened me in her stories.

I was roaming the halls looking for a professor to interview after my scheduled interview fell through. I waited after she saw a few students during her office hours. I literally walked into her office and asked if she would be willing to talk to me about an interesting experience, research project or her life story. Luckily for me she was more than willing to chat with me about her past and how she got to where she is.

Although she is not my teacher I thought it would be interesting and journalistic in a way to have an on the spot interview. And I definitely enjoyed and had a fun time talking with Prof. Stec.

Although the interview is not 4 minutes, but 7, I think that is what makes this interview interesting. Everything she discussed is important and it was hard figuring out how to cut it down to 4 minutes.

Interview with Prof. Loretta Stec by ElissaTTT

How I Commute to School

I did an assignment for my Digital News Gathering class about my "commute" to school. I am fortunate enough to live very close to San Francisco State University. My commute is hardly a commute at all but none the less I video recored my friend Emily Dolph walking to school from where I live.

The Trial Continues

OAKLAND- -After a plan to cross examine three suspects at the San Leandro Prison failed, the Oakland police created a plan to “conveniently” have a flat tire on their way back to Alameda Prison. The three men they detained were then placed in a room where they were secretly videotaped discussing their involvement in the Chauncey Bailey murder.

In a courtroom just a few blocks from where Chauncey Bailey was murdered, a set of 16 jurors, who have been meeting since the first trial on November 15, 2010, met once again on Monday April 18 at the Alameda County Court House.

Bailey, editor-in-chief of the Oakland Tribune, was in the process of writing stories about Your Black Muslim Bakery, which was once a prominent Oakland African American Organization and is no longer in business. The stories included the bankruptcy with some $900,000 in debts and allegations of criminal activities that employees were pursuing involving the Bakery.

After his killers found Bailey’s residence, on August 2, 2007, they attempted to stalk him on his usual walk to work to the Tribune. The killers looked for Bailey and did not find him. Shortly after ordering his usual breakfast at McDonald’s, Bailey was shot in broad daylight, allegedly by an employee of Your Black Muslim Bakery.

Witnesses say Bailey was shot by a masked gunman with a shotgun three times. Then his murderer fled to a van that drove away from the scene.

The day following Bailey’s assassination, members of the Oakland Police and SWAT ambushed the homes and business properties of Your Black Muslim Bakery's owners and associates. The son of the founder and current CEO, Yusuf Bey IV along with 19 others were detained under the suspicion that they had involvement in the death of Bailey.

Devaughndre (Dre) Broussard was one of those detained. Police reported that he was found with the shotgun at his home that was used to kill Bailey. His home was literally connected with the Bakery through the back door.

Broussard confessed to killing Bailey then later retracted the statement. Broussard said Bey IV influenced him to take the responsibility for the shooting because it would benefit the Bakery. He then pleaded pled guilty to manslaughter in exchange for a 25 year sentence and a full testimony at the trial of Bey IV and the others accused.
Court began at 10:14 a.m. with defendants Yusuf Bey IV and Antoine Makey on trial. Prosecutor Melissa Krum called upon Oakland Officers and asked questions regarding their involvement with the case.

Officer Steve Mork discussed findings testified he found of gun shells on the roof of Your Black Muslium Bakery. Officer Ryan Goodfellow chronicled his search of a black Dodge Charger that was parked behind the Bakery. The car was registered to Ameena Bey and contained various receipts some from Wells Fargo. Sergeant Daniel Donovan took the stand to speak about his search through Bey IV’s room where he found and watched a videotape on the funeral of Yusuf Bey Sr.

Jesse Grant, a Berkeley officer, took the stand. In May 2007 Grant worked for the Oakland Police Department and participated in the investigation of the case.

Yusuf Bey IV, Devon Halfon and Joshua Bay were arrested for being suspects in Bailey’s murder. On August 6, 2007, the three suspects were brought to the San Leandro Prison. Grant discussed wanting to sit and talk to all three suspects but when he attempted to interview Joshua Bey he asked for a lawyer. The plan failed. Then Grant along with his partner, Oakland Officer Ryan Goodfellow created a rouse to have a flat tire when they were about to transport the suspects back to the Alameda County jail. This led to the three men being held in a questioning room, where they appeared to be alone. Unbeknownst to the men, they were being videotaped and audio recorded through a two way mirror.
The jury of the Bailey trial watched the video tape on Monday. The video tape showed three men, the Bey brothers in orange jumpsuits and Tamin Halfin in the yellow.

After Joshua Bey asks where Bailey was shot at, Yusuf Bey IV replied the head and the three men began laughing. Yusuf Bey IV then goes on to converse on how he drove by the scene after Bailey was killed.

Yusuf Bey IV also knew he was being followed by police, saying “They was following my car though. Ever since it happened.” He then continued with “…first we went by the lake and talk about it- they know about that-and they know about us going to IHOP.”

Yusuf Bey IV then goes on to say, “The night before [the raid], the gun that was used was in my closet.”

The murder was pinned on Broussard. According to Yusuf Bey IV, Oakland Police investigator Derwin Longmire said Broussard should take the fall for the murder or Yusuf Bey IV would be pinned as the murder and it would “make the bakery look terrible”.

“The reason why they didn’t pin the murder on me was because of Longmire even though they wanted to pin it on me. They wanted to make it seem like since I was in charge , and he [Dre] worked for me, that I gotta point it to him. Even though he said he didn’t’ do it,” said Yusuf Bey IV.

Joshua Bey exchanged a life term for kidnapping and torture for three years in prison and to truthfully testify about the people involved in the Bailey trial. He was called to testify against his half brother Yusuf Bey IV.

Joshua Bey discussed moving back and forth between his parents in Oakland, CA and Florida. He finally moved to Oakland for his senior year of high school. After his half brother, Antar Bey died, Joshua Bey spelling and Yusuf Bey IV quit school to run the Bakery. Joshua Bey decided to work at of security while Yusuf Bey IV ran the bakery. Joshua Bey talked of various jobs where he stalked people and would call Yusuf Bey IV when certain people were leaving from their destination. The Bakery that was in debt at this time would get money for these types of jobs.

Court then dismissed for a lunch break at 12:45 p.m.

Those who attended the trial on Monday included Thomas Peele and Bob Butler of The Chauncey Bailey Project. The Project is a group of journalists around the Bay Area who have banned together to devote their time to continue Bailey’s work and to prove that “You can’t kill a story by killing a journalist”. ."

They have been reporting on the process of the trial and any news that has come out of the case.

The court dates are on Monday through Thursday from 9:30a.m.-noon and from 1p.m.-4:30p.m.

The Crime Scene in Noe Valley

I had to do a crime map for my Spring 2011 reporting class. Noe Valley is one of the safest neighborhoods in San Francisco. My professor, Yvonne Daley said that's why she moved into this neighborhood in the first place.

Anyways here's my crime map, thanks to Google.com. The various pin points are assult/battery, arrests and vandalism. Enjoy(:


View Noe Valley Crime Map in a larger map

The Chauncey Bailey Trial on Mon. 4/19

OAKLAND- -After a plan to cross examine three suspects at the San Leandro Prison failed, the Oakland police created a plan to “conveniently” have a flat tire on their way back to Alameda Prison. The three men they detained were then placed in a room where they were secretly videotaped discussing their involvement in the Chauncey Bailey murder.

This was the juiciest thing that I got out of the Monday trial. I hate that it started 45minutes late but hey I can't complain, I signed up for this.

Anyways like I said in class I kind of freaked out when Joshua Bey looked at me. I know I shouldn't have been scared but seeing him on the video tape, then in person in his stripped jumpsuit and him looking toward me was weird. I just kept thinking, "I know you're a bad person and you're in jail for kidnapping and torture." SKETCH.

I had fun learning about the case and writing my story. I can't wait to turn it in and see what I got! Fingers crossed I didn't just jinx myself...whoops.

What are you afraid of?

On April 12th I talked to students at San Francisco State University about what they are afraid of.

I found it interesting that those I interviewed had the same fears that I have. Hearing each person discuss their fears in detail made me think about my own. I loved hearing everyone’s response and hopefully this will make you wonder what are you afraid of?

This is also posted on my class Wordpress account.
http://digitalnewsgathering.wordpress.com/2011/04/15/what-are-you-afraid-of/

What are you afraid of? ET by ElissaTTT

#Wjchat

Wjchat...is that a type-o?

No its not. It's the latest new tool for journalists. It's a discussion board on Twitter that lets journalists and social media enthusiasts discuss what they love.

I did some extra credit for my Digital News Gathering class yesterday (Wednesday, April 13) where I had to participate in the discussion.

I participated and loved what I saw! It was amazing seeing journalists from all over the country talk about journalism and where it's going today. It made me really excited to see what @verbalcupcake was saying about social media and many others.

Although I was new to this new discussion I decided to comment on what I thought engagement was or how one measures success. Although no one retweeted my response I had a lot of fun watching and participating.

Go out and join, every Wednesday from 5pm-7pm.

I also wrote about #wjchat on Storify.com. http://storify.com/listentolissy/wjchat

Ten Things I Love

Ten things you like, GO!

The things that I love surround pop culture. I am a pop culture junky and I don't know if my massive TV watching will benefit my journalism career. Fingers crossed I can write about pop culture in some way, if not then blogging about it will have to do. (:

Check out my assignment on my Digital News Gathering blog. http://digitalnewsgathering.wordpress.com/2011/03/25/10-things-i-like/

Boredom at its Finest

My weekly assignment for my Digital News Gathering class was to take pictures of some sort of emotion. I picked boredom. According to Wikipedia.com, boredom is an emotional state experienced during periods lacking activity or when individuals are uninterested in their surroundings. I have captured a few pictures of boredom at its finest.

Check out my pictures http://digitalnewsgathering.wordpress.com/2011/04/08/the-boredm-chronicles/?preview=true&preview_id=12727&preview_nonce=073f6efee4

The Sun is out and School Isn't

Hey Summer, can you get here a little bit faster? There's about 43 days left of school and with the sun constantly out, the beach is calling my name!! Let's fast forward to the homestretch of this semester.

My profile piece is on a shop called Green 11 in Noe Valley. I wanted to do something that was interesting and that I think people would take notice to. I've been to Noe Valley more times than I can count, both by MUNI and my car. I've gotten a lot of interviews and luckily the co-owner and I have had a good relationship.

I feel like Green 11 is a great store. I am all for environmental awareness and for everyone to do their part by recycling, not driving their car so much and so on and so forth. My problem is that I hope the article doesn't come off as P.R. I hope that the fine line between informing the public and promoting the store isn't being crossed.

Retail Therapy Solves Everything

Note to self: NEVER attempt to drive in San Francisco again.

I set up a meeting with one of the owners of Green11 in Noe Valley. Bettina and I have talked a few times and she is one of the people in Noe Valley that I feel comfortable talking to. I thought that her store Green11 would be a great subject for my profile piece.

Saturday afternoon I got into my 2002 purple Honda Civic with my roommate Megan, we were ready for an adventure and that's exactly what we got. She typed in the address and we made our way to the 280 North towards Civic Center/Bay Bridge. We then exited Cesar Chavez St./Potero Ave. We realized by all the murals that we were in the Mission. Finally! I have never been to the Mission before and even though I didn't get out, I loved passing through the district. The colors and the happy people dancing to Mexican music made me smile. THEN ALL OF A SUDDEN I get cut off by a huge MUNI bus. A-W-E-S-O-M-E only not, this preceded to happen for the next few streets, getting cut off by cars, people not turning on their blinkers and not stopping at stop signs.

Megan and I were screaming and cursing every few minutes. Then we realized we were going the wrong way, the little red pin on my iPhone map showed Green 11 was in the opposite direction of where we were headed...cool! We then turned around on another street and went back towards the Mission, and then she said we're going the wrong way again. We stop at a stop sign, no one was behind us and we look at the phone. It seems someone put in the wrong address; we were headed to 3098 24th Street instead of 3980 24th Street. Ugh okay so we just headed toward the part of the map that showed where Noe Valley was, easy enough right?

We were driving and all of a sudden we see this huge hill that my little purple car was expected to go up. I screamed, "Meg, I can’t do this. I have this fear that my car will roll down the hill like in The Princess Diaries!” She told me to floor it and I screamed all the way until we got to the top. Then to my surprise another HUGE hill! Seriously what the hell. I floored it again and we made it.

I finally see MUNI tracks and recognized the place where we were, thank goodness. We pulled in front of Bernie's coffee shop and realize we have a 30 minute maximum for the spot. This is ridiculous, it was 4:45 and my interview was at 5. We decided to wait in the car for 15 minutes and when we get out fill the meter so we can start at 30 minutes.

We waited and put more money in at 5. It turned to 5 and I check in at Green 11 on my Facebook and walk in. A man with an accent was helping some customers so I waited quietly at the entrance of the tiny shop. He asks if I need help and I tell him I am waiting for Bettina, he then informs me she isn't there. UGH!!! He gives me her number and I call her. She said she didn't come into work that day and said she didn't have access to a computer so she couldn't email me.

This was the icing on my amazing day cake. Megan and I headed back home and stopped at Forever 21 for a little retail therapy.

What have I learned: never drive into the city and when you're sad just go to Forever 21 and buy a $15 high wasted blue skirt.

I Stumbled Upon Stumbleupon.com

How it happened: my roommate Megan was telling me about all these cool things she found on a website called Stumbleupon.com. She had been making these different types of dinners and snacks for the past few days. There was the...interesting cream cheese chicken (well I found it interesting, she liked it) and there was the chocolate cake made out of a hot chocolate package.

It was weird all these things she was finding. As some may know, I am intrigued by anything weird. I watched her look things up on Stumbleupon.com and found some intersting pictures, exercised, recipes and quotes. I WAS HOOKED!

I downloaded the free Stumbleupon app on my iPhone and created an account. The first thing I did was pick the topics I wanted to stumble upon. My list: celebrities, clothing, environment, fashion, fitness, food/cooking, health, humor, movies, music, nature, photography, quotes and relationships. What can I say, I like a wide range of things.


< This is a screen shot from my iPhone of a hourglass, the lower level has writing in it that says "act now before its too late".

As I "Stumbled" I could either like or dislike with the thumbs up and thumbs down symbols at the top of my app. After I'm done with each page I Stumbleupon I click the green and blue sphere on the upper right hand corner of the screen with Stumbleupon's signature SU symbol.

I found myself "stumbling" for hours and hours, I even posted the ones I found most interesting on my Facebook wall.

I have found my newest obsession...I hope I can focus on other stuff from time to time or I'll be stumbling into being anti-social. Everyone should checkout Stumbleupon.com and see what kinds of intriguing things fall into your lap.


< This one is my favorite so far! It says "LOVE take as much as you need"

Learning How to Make Maps

During my second semester at San Francisco State University I have taken my next class in order for me to complete my core for my journalism classes. I am enrolled in Digital News Gathering, JOUR 226.

In this class I am learning about social media sites and how to use them to my advantage. We have posted articles on Facebook and Twitter. Its been amazing learning how to use these sites and recieving feedback from other journalists.

We learned how to create maps for stories using Google Maps. This help the reader see a visual of what's going on in the story; I was actually surprised that not all stories have these maps because they help so much.


View Dig. News Gath. Snow Map in a larger map

Understanding Government Jargon

The assignment to write a story about on a meeting sounded simple enough. Although I found it hard to find a meeting in my neighborhood. Bummer. Then I found a meeting that I could do for the assignment.

The Board of Supervisor's Budget and Finance meeting was last Wednesday and I would be covering it with a few of my class mates. Doesn't this meeting sound like fun? Yeah right, maybe if you lived for political jargon and feeling completely lost when the item numbers come up. Yep that was my situation but as a journalist there are things that you will have to report on and you'll have to do your best to get the interviews and understand what reserve funds and add-backs are.

Overall the meeting was only an hour, thank goodness. Luckily I had a partner in crime when it came to writing this story; his name is Nick Moone. Nick knew ever item number, all the jargon and what add-ons meant. This blew my mind. He tried to walk me through everything and although still confused we managed to do everything we could to get this story out.

With a few corrections from Professor Daley we realized the legal jargon was confusing the reader. We set up a game plan in class and will begin to rewrite the paper on Thursday. Yay for rewrites and Nick's background in student government. Lets see how round two will go when we write this paper.

Curmudgens are the Worst

Let’s talk about it. Those people you see on the Muni. Yes there are strange characters, yes some of them stare and yes some of them smell but do you go up to these people and make rude comments to them? Umm I don’t think so; at least I don't.

I am not someone who regularly rides the Muni. Luckily for me, I have everything I need close by to my house. On occasion I do ride the Muni to go into the city for shopping or just to go exploring. This semester especially, in my reporting class we are assigned to different districts to write about. This leads me to the point of this particular blog.

My roomies and I walked to the M line in front of San Francisco State. They wanted to go see Noe Valley, the district I was assigned to for my reporting class, and we spent a few hours down there walking in and out of shops and people watching. I squeezed in an interview with a local and we ate lunch at the cutest cafe called Joe's. The food was amazing; I ate everything on my plate...literally. I didn't leave a single crumb on that thing. DELICIOUS!

After we ate we decided it was time to go back home so we waited for the J line and it finally came. I had $2 worth of quarters with me and when I got on the Muni I was fumbling with my money. Luckily my roommates were behind me and didn't mind waiting while I searched for my quarters in my coin purse. I eventually found the 8 quarters, grabbed my ticket and sat down.

As we rode the Muni, my roommates and I were chatting about Noe Valley and the cafe we ate at. We were coming up to a stop somewhere by 30th street. All of a sudden a man comes to the side of me and says, "You know you should really have your money ready before you get on the train."

I respond with an awkward/ caught off guard, "Oh yeah haha?"
Then the man continues on with, "I know 6th graders that are more prepared then you are."
After that statement I sarcastically said, "Umm...okay."

The Muni then stopped and he got off. My roommates asked what he said and I told them. I was thinking about how mean this man was. I mean yes, I should have been prepared with my money, my fault but the fact that he said a rude comment like he did. We all have things we would like to tell people that may not be the kindest but the fact that this man went out of his way to say something snide to me isn't right in my book. I'm sorry he couldn’t wait an extra minute while I got my change and I held up his afternoon.

I would never say a rude comment to someone I had never met before. I would not deliberately be rude to anyone. I hope that that man I saw gets realizes he's not nice. I’m sure I’m not the first person he’s said an impolite comment to. P.S. I hope that man magically stumbles upon this blog, reads it and realizes he’s a curmudgeon. Yes a curmudgeon!

Sorry for the venting session. Thank you for listening and reading, until next time guys!

Drivers that Drive me Crazy

You're beginning to be a habit with me and I'm not too thrilled, shall I explain more?

The drivers in San Francisco are really getting to me. People come on, its kind of getting overboard in my case. Let me set the scene...I was driving home from a mall in San Francisco when a car stopped in the middle of the turning lane because they were waiting for a parking spot. Its definitely a pet peeve of mine when the light is green and I'm ready to go but there's an incident like that in front of me stopping me to go. Due to the traffic in the other northbound lane I was not able to pass this person. They finally gave up and drove on and I followed all the way through the green light, then we separated.

About five minutes later another driving incident happened to me and my precious car Jude. I was driving down a residential area when a car was doing the same exact thing as the car in the previous story. Except this car was waiting for another to move so it could take its spot. After waiting for the cars the one that was trying to take the other's spot gave up and drove away. As I began to drive away the other car that was leaving decided to cut me off. Luckily I slammed on my breaks. Luckily Jude didn't get hit. In this single lane I was almost hit on the right side, where my roommates were sitting. After getting scared I slammed on my horn.

Words could not explain how mad I was. I understand that when driving you have to be agressive and make quick decisions but sometimes thinking about the people who are also out on the road with you can help avoid an accident. I am by all means not saying I'm the best driver out there but I have tried my best to avoid illegal menuvers and have tried to be polite, expecially in San Francisco.

Lets make a deal, the next time we get into our cars pay attention to what you are doing specifically. Avoid getting honked at and flipped off. For one whole week lets see if we can all be responsible. Goodluck fellow drivers and I'll see you out on the streets.

Keen on Noe Valley

Sunday morning rain was falling...as I traveled on the M outbound toward a place I have never heard of before. The rain finally stopped as the M passed Balboa Park. I got off off the Muni at Church and 24th, I had reached my destination. Noe Valley.

The quaint district surrounded by three hills was full of pedestrians walking along the sidewalks and chatting at cafes.

As I walked into the stores along 24th Street, I was greeted with the friendliest smiles and hellos. Everyone I came into contact with in Noe Valley was nothing but nice to me. I had never been to that area before and I was surprised to find everyone's personalities were warm and they were willing to tell me a little about this place.

I learned that this place was really into going green. I am very passionate about being green myself; its refreshing to know that most, if not all of Noe Valley feels the same way that I do.

Later that night I talked to my roommates about my time in Noe Valley and how I had fallen in love. I bought each of us mini cupcakes from Noe Valley Bakery. To no surprise we all loved them! We're planning on going back to the stop at Church and 24th street.

The sense of home that resides in Noe Valley is a breath of fresh air so-to-speak. When one thinks of San Francisco they usually think of Union Square or Pier 39. A family oriented town where going green is in and where smiles are a constant. Noe Valley you're an amazing place, don't ever change.