new [sie] life.
Today was my second day of work at The Fort Wayne News-Sentinel. It is a smaller paper, only about 40,000 circulation and it has an oddly small staff. I think the staff for the BG News is bigger than the staff for the NS, which says something (that is frequent writers to the BG News, not just those who are on the list-proc and therefore consider themselves staffers). I start work at 7AM and then copy-edit and write headlines, etc... for hours until the 10AM deadline. Then, I proceed to further copyedit until my eyes practically bleed from looking at the computer screen for the next days features section. Today I had lunch at the Coney Island, a FW landmark. I got two chily cheese dogs with mustard (for Terry's enjoyment), a can of 7-Up and a bag of chips for five dollars. Can't beat that. I met the other intern today, his name is Michael and he is from a very small school. He found out I was 21 and proceeded to tell me about everyone of his drunk experiences, although I just wanted to know what his journalistic background entailed (hardly any). I have my own press pass, it has my picture on it. I like carrying it around my neck, I think I look cool. I am pretty excited for the first five weeks to be over though, because then I will be doing Metro GA (General Assignment) reporting. I think that will be a lot more fun than reading and correcting all morning long.
I am living on the University of St. Francis (USF) campus; it's a very small school, with only about 2,000 students attending, and the buildings are all new. Apparently this school only offers summer classes for specialized programs, so it's dead here. I am living in a six-room suite with one other person. Her name is Nikki and she is a grad student in the physicians assistant program here at SFU. So there are four empty bedrooms. The bathroom is nice and big though, two showers, two closeted private toilets, three sinks. Nikki starts class at 8AM which is nice because I get the bathroom to myself in the very early morning.
I was supposed to go to BG this weekend, but I don't get paid weekly at the paper, and I came in at the start of a pay-period, therefore, I won't get paid til June 6th. AKA, no travelling or buying ANYTHING until after June 6th. SOOOO, my friends, come see me. :) And I can show you Fort Wayne things.
This basically, has been my life in a nutshell. Or, my life over the past week. I think I will post daily again, since I have nothing to do from 3PM-whenever I pass out from exhaustion.
Funny Newsie Story of the Day
I was sitting at my copy desk today, and the copy chief, Faith Van-Gilder, hands me the final editorial page to proof. She informs me the editor of the page does not use spell check so pay attention to little spelling or grammatical errors. She also adds one of the columnists is a 90-year-old woman who sometimes does not get movie names or AP style correctly. SO, I start into this page. I find a few grammatical errors on the editorial, and then I start on the older woman's column. The column is a quiz on "love and marriage" because "tis the marriage season." She gives 15 questions/quotes/sonnets, and asks for the reader to identify who said the quote, where it came from and so on. All of the quotes, etc... are about love and marriage. After answering who the Greek and Roman Gods of love are and recognizing Shakespeare, I am thinking to myself, yeah, this is okay... and then...
"What famous movie did this quote from from... 'I love the smell of Napalm in the morning, it smells like victory"
SAY WHAT?!
This woman ACTUALLY quoted that, from Apocalypse Now! in her column about love and marriage!!!!
I couldn't believe. I burst out laughing and realized she only put it in there because of the word "love"... it has nothing to do with marriage, and instead everything to do with the killing of the Vietnamese. OH GEEZ.