My grown up trip: Day one

I’ve had such a stressful week.

Tuesday, as I returned to Saginaw to pick up my suits (a process which will be its own post later), and after I got my suits the brakes went out in my car. Long story short, brake lines were replaced as well as the brake cylinders in the rear wheels totaling $400 I didn’t expect to spend.

Due to my vehicle problems, my spring break actually began on Monday, but I had been stuck in Saginaw for three days, but with a drivable vehicle (knock on wood) I write this from a hotel in Akron, Ohio.

I’m in Akron to interview for summer internships with the Akron Aeros, a Double-A affiliate of the Cleveland Indians. The interview session is Saturday from 10 a.m to 2 p.m. and it’s structured to where I can meet with as few or as many of the departments as I wish. The Aeros aren’t hiring people for any actual writing, but frankly right now any internship is still an internship; it’s a foot in the door. I’ll do anything and work my way from there.

The Aeros are holding two interview sessions, tomorrow as well as March 12, and there are 26 available internships. I am not sure how many people are attending the March 12 session, but besides me there are 11 people who will be at the session tomorrow. So, I’m going into this interview tomorrow with some high hopes… I have more of a chance than I thought I did when I initially applied.

I made the trip down to Akron by myself, which by was very peaceful. It was nice to get out of Mount Pleasant/Saginaw and experience a different city. My first stop on the way down was to visit the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland.

I’m not saying the R&RHoF was not interesting, but I think I expected more out of it. The lower level, though, is where it’s at! There are so many cool artifacts, such as one of Elvis Presley’s cars, outfits worn by Aerosmith, U2, Michael Jackson and The Who. There was original artwork by Jimi Hendrix, handwritten lyrics by AC/DC, Neil Young, Jimi, and an original contract between Sub-Pop Records and Soundgarden. I expected there to be more to the museum, more artifacts and visual history, so in that regard I felt let down, but it was definitely a cool experience nonetheless.

After I left the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, I went back west from Cleveland to stop at a park and marina on Lake Erie. I took my camera with me on my way out by a pier and took some photos of the Cleveland skyline from a few miles away and a few of a pier. The walkway to the pier itself was closed, so I maneuvered the rocks along the shore (slipping once, almost falling and hitting my shin pretty good!) and took some pictures of the graffiti under the pier. I’ve noticed I have become almost attached to finding graffiti under bridges and walkways and photographing them. Maybe I’ve found my niche to explore and expand my photography?

Continuing to battle the cold, wind and rainy weather conditions, I climbed my way down the breakwall to frozen Lake Erie, and then dipped my hand in the ice cold water. Given the fact the weather was by far sub-par at best, it was again peaceful, relaxing and soothing to stand and gaze out onto Lake Erie.

I can now say I have graced the waters of four of the five Great Lakes. Huron, Michigan, Superior and Erie, in that order. Next order of business, Lake Ontario. Someday…

Saturday, however, is the big day; the real reason I made the trip in the first place. Tomorrow is my first professional internship interview. I am not at all nervous, scared or intimidated. I’m actually excited more than anything. Even though I lack the experience for some of the positions the Aeros are hiring interns, I feel — and those friends I have talked with agree — I have quite a bit going for me in other departments: I drove over five hours to interview, I’m willing to relocate to the area if offered an (unpaid) internship and I’m essentially taking a shot in the dark based on my (lack of) experience with an “I’ll do anything right now to get my foot in the door” mentality.

The positions available are not necessarily what I want to do with my life, but I see them as an opportunity to learn other aspects of a professional sport organization, and if it turns out to be something I enjoy doing, then great. Otherwise, I will have gained experience and networks to further my employability in the future. And, if I’m offered an internship, I can stress my writing and journalism background in hopes of getting a recommendation if a writing gig does open up somewhere.

Oh, and to cap off this weekend, I’m going to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio after my interview with the Aeros.

All in all, I’m hopeful, excited, and most of all optimistic about this opportunity I have.

My own personal motto: “EXPECT BIG THINGS“

or

To be cliche for a minute: carpe diem!

This I Believe: Music

I have borrowed audio recorders and microphone from the CMU Department of Journalism on a few occasions in order to work on projects for classes. Each time I receive a recorder, I check to see if there are any recordings left on it from whomever borrowed it before me. And, if I’m lucky to receive a recorder with some gifts left for me, I listen to them just for the hell of it.

Today, there were a few interviews of members of the CMU Marching Band, and then there was a recording of a guy speaking about music. I listened to it a couple times, then it kind of hit me, that to an extent, I can relate to what the male voice had to say.

And, since I know people who value the significance of music in their lives as much as I do mine and because I have friends who have played music and make music themselves, I felt this piece was something they could relate to as well.

This is for anyone who has been criticized for an instrument they play, for anyone who appreciates the art and power of music, for anyone who understands music can change lives, and for anyone who doesn’t give a shit what other people think of them for what they do.

Have a read, tell me what you think.

This I Believe: Music

I believe music is beautiful, elegant, soft, peacful. The small sounds are often missed and the true beauty behind the music is lost. The violin for example: able to create a variety of tones – those which create bass and those which can light up a room.

I began to play in earlier years, playing what I considered to be masterpieces. The sounds filled me as if I was taking a deep breath of fresh air. It was exhilirating. Then, over the years I would constantly be called “gay” and made fun of for playing such music. The violin was thought to be feminine, so i put it away for many years to sit and gather dust.

As I grew, so did my understanding. I did not need to be liked by everyone, I only needed to do what makes me happy. So I picked my violin back up and played away, filling the room with my sounds. Soon after, others began to understand and enjoyed my music. They no longer associated the violin with feminism, only a means to create music. Music which can bellow deep within a man and bring out his hidden emotions.

My hopes soared. I played whenever I could, trying to give the same joy to the rest of the world. Soon I began playing covers for more popular music, taking Rock and turning it into something beautiful.

Music is often abused by artists to fill the world with immoral standards. They will corrupt an innocent mind and make it beleive that there is only one way to live.

Music has the power that no man could ever dream of. I like to think of music of having the power to change the world for the better. It can take a man with only hours left to live and make him feel as if he is nineteen again. It can motivate a man to achieve greatness when it seems as though all hope is lost. It can take the most stubborn man and bring tears to his eyes. Music has the power to do extraordinary things.

If people would just stop for a minute — and listen — they would hear. They would hear the beauty still left in the world. They would hear all the small things; lives would be altered with just one song. I believe music puts faith back in the hearts of the faithless.

The man speaking does not give any indication of who he is or where the piece came from; whether the “This I Believe” piece is his original words or the work of someone else.

Regardless of its source, I’m glad I stumbled upon it and was able to share it with you all.

Just like the first day of school…

In doing a little research for this post I realized I am midway through my 22nd year of school.

At least eight months of the last twenty-two years have been in school. That is approximately 88 percent of my life.

Holy shit.

But, as I am less than 12 hours away from beginning my final semester — much like I was each previous semester of college — I still find myself anxious to begin classes.

I’m anxious for a “new” beginning. New academic challenges, new classmates, new professors, new projects, new sleep schedule (AMEN!), new everything. I have so much planned aside from academics this semester there are a lot of things to be anticipated about.

I graduate in five months and I have never been more anxious to begin this semester than I have any other.

Anxious, just like the first day of school.

Except this time I won’t lay my clothes on the floor in preparation for the morning, from the t-shirt to the underwear down to the socks.

Class at 10 a.m. Let’s roll.

May 7, 2011 …

May 7, 2011 … is a day my brother turns 31.

5/7/2011 … is the day I have patiently anticipated for approximately seven years.

7 May 2011 … is a day where its events were not set in stone until September 2010.

5.7.11 … is the day in which I will have lived with 17 different roommates spanning three Michigan cities while attending three different institutions of higher learning.

May 7, 2011 … is a day where I will reach a milestone no other member of my family has reached.

Saturday, the seventh of May, two thousand eleven … is the day I graduate college.

My meaning of Christmas

First off, let me start by wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and happy holidays from The Write Schanz. May all your travels this season be safe and filled with joy.

[side note: my absence of posting has been due to good reason; the end of this past semester was a doozie and I didn't have much time to even think about writing.]

Both of my parents grew up in devout Catholic families, but my family in particular never practiced religion. We never went to church on Sundays so the Christian meaning behind December 25 was never the reason for the celebration.

As a child, when Christmas rolled around, it meant I got lots of gifts and I didn’t have to go to school. What’s better than that?

We had our family gatherings, but as a child they always seemed like a burden to me. They were always just one more thing to get in the way of me and opening presents.

As we got older, those family gatherings became much smaller. Members of my family have branched out across the country — my brother in Florida, my cousin in D.C., — and we’ve lost three additional family members to the afterlife.

In their passing, however, their memory lives on, and there have been new additions to our annual celebration. Both of my brothers are married, and their wives and families have become part of the holiday mix. While still celebrating the lives and memories of those lost and moved away, new memories are made with those who have become, in essence, new members of the family.

As the annual gathering has become thinner, my own personal reason for the season has drastically changed. It is no longer about the gifts —  no longer about getting new clothes, video games, toys, and the like, or even comparing my gifts with my brothers’ gifts. Over the last few years, my Christmas meaning has become full-circle.

It’s about family.

To me, the material gifts I receive are no longer what’s important. The true gifts, those in which no material or monetary value can be placed, is the company of my family members.

We each bring our own flair to the gathering, with new stories from the past year and our own quirky sense of humor, and these moments cannot be trumped by any gift I may give or unwrap. It’s the hug or the handshake that is the best gift anyone can ask for. It’s the love from those who we love; family.

My brother Ben was the first to emigrate from the “great” state of Michigan and I’m hoping in six months I will be the next to do the same, so the time I get to spend with family may be few and far between.

This holiday season, especially today, enjoy the time you get to spend with your family, as I will cherish every moment I get with mine.

Remember, times change, people change and our geographical location may change, but  family will always stay the same.

I love my family.

An update of sorts…

Well, it’s official: I’ve finally written my first sports recap story for the CMU athletic department — and it has been published too.

Last weekend, Nov. 4-6, CMU hosted the Mid-American Conference field hockey tournament, and because there was a plethora of other athletic events going on that weekend (volleyball had two home matches and it was also Central/Western weekend) I was asked to cover all five games of the tournament. I was all for it, any time I have a chances to cover sports, I’ll do it!

Since all post-season collegiate events are not free, even for the students of the host school, I got this sweet gem pictured below to allow me to get in free to all five matches and even go wherever I wanted on the complex.

A step into the present

Oh, how amazing technology is.

A month or so ago, I purchased my first smartphone. At one point I had a Motorola Q for a brief time which was given to me by my brother, but I didn’t have a data plan so it was just a device for calling and texting.

My recent venture into the smartphone universe came by way of the HTC Droid Incredible through Verizon. Simply put in just four words: best electronic purchase ever.

I love this thing. Everything I need out of technology to stay connected is now at my fingertips. I don’t need to worry about finding a computer to read and write email (both personal and my CMU email), post to Twitter and Facebook, browse the Internet to get an answer to a question of the moment I may have, or even update this here blog (yes, I’m writing this from my phone as I lay in bed at 2:30 a.m.).

With this WordPress application I just recently discovered — which is free for those fellow WP loggers with a Droid — I just might utilize to blog more regularly. I will no longer have to sit at a computer to blog because I can write as I lay in bed before I go to sleep. Such an easy way for me to update more frequently, even if it may be short and sweet.

All that said, tomorrow I will explain the writing opportunities I have had recently for CMU athletics, and what I will be doing for them later this fall and during the winter. I hope you’ll check back for that piece, or you’ll just get the shameless plug from my Facebook and Twitter.

Again, please comment with your thoughts, as I welcome anything you may have to say and would like to hear what you think. And also, tell your friends to read my words too, I greatly appreciate it!!

“Technology does not drive change — it enables it.” -Unknown

Until next time…

Home sweet … home?

I can still remember it now, the light blue tufted carpet in a vacant bedroom. I was sitting on the floor but I do not remember what I was doing. I recall the emptiness of our small house on Hermansau as we prepared to move from the City of Saginaw into Saginaw Township to a house my parents rented on Wellesley.

At our new Wellesley house, I remember walking into the door and seeing a cheaply constructed brick-and-mortar façade in the brown carpet-covered living room, along with random blue and black tiles underneath my shoes.

The first thing I did — instead of being a rambunctious 3-year-old and running throughout the new wide open place I would call home for the next 21 years — was run to the front closet, opened it up and stood in it. I’m pretty sure I sat there for almost five minutes before I decided to explore my new abode.

Reloaded, cocked and ready to go

I need to take a new approach with this blog. What that approach is, as of right now, I do not know. I just feel that I need to write more; I want to write more.

What I do know is the “dog-days of fall” (I just coined that phrase) are approaching — which also means winter is right around the corner — and those who know about my writing habits know I write in the colder months when drinking coffee becomes more of a commonplace.

The main purpose of my blog, even from the days of the “Evidence of a Chemical Reaction” moniker, was to give myself a place to write about topics on my mind. Mainly sports, but it has since ventured from there.

Then, my blog progressed to the few news articles I had written for CM Life and the eventual opinion column I had last fall. Just over a year ago — Oct. 16, 2009 to be exact — was the last time I had anything published.

Since my last column, I’ve updated my readers with a few big opportunities that were coming my way in the immediate future and basic updates as to how general things were going in my life: work, school, family, relationships, friends, etc.

My most recent post was due in part to a blog of a former colleague of mine and my reaction to some things he had said regarding page design within the overall future of journalism, both print and online.

Clearly, my posts have been few and far between. This is because, just as what put a halt to my opinion column (which I hope to start up again later this fall or next semester, depending on if the editors will let me), I failed to come up with ideas. Inspiration, or lack thereof, severely diminished the frequency of my posts.

I have come to realize within the last few weeks that inspiration for blogs have not been scarce. In fact, I’ve had chats, arguments or general comments with my (male) roommates regarding sports the last few months. What I have not done, however, is written down these ideas to transform into a blog.

This is where I’m hoping to change.

Just the last 24 hours, I’ve told a few friends I want to start writing again and both have told me they look forward to reading my words, mainly because they like what I write. Be it the topic, my opinion or the way I write, I do not know yet, but it is great to hear people enjoy my writing. I know, once my brother catches wind I will be writing more frequently, we’ll start up the never-ending argument of who is the better writer. [He is far more superior than I.]

The one topic that has given me the most inspiration over the last few days, which I am excited to write about and see where my feelings take me, is in regards to the transition of my family moving out of the house I grew up in. Keep on the lookout for it within the next coming days.

On a side note, Halloween is this weekend, and I partook in the annual pumpkin carving event I have with my friend Lindsay. Last year I carved this:

and this year I carved this!

Hard to tell what it is, but it's a wolf.

I consider this post to let everyone know I am going to try my hardest to update more often. Even if my posts are general comments on world news, sports, or simply just a rant for the day (how about this wind lately?), I hope to get people to read my words and to (one day) expect posts from me, ask me my opinion on something, or hopefully, get excited and anxious to read my words.

One favor I ask of you readers, though, is please comment to let me know what you think about what I have to say. I do not wish to write for the sake of seeing my words on this blog, I want your input, your comments, your opinions as well. Help me make this more conversational, so please comment, even if it’s just something simple!

Check back in the next few days for my post about home… I have a feeling it is going to be epic, and I’ll expect to hear some feedback.

Until next time…

Page design: How important is it?

I greatly apologize for the infrequency of my posts, and (as I always say) I’m going to try and be more consistent with my blogs. I’m going to shoot for one post a week, so stay with me!

The inspiration behind this post was a conversation on Facebook unintentionally started the other day by Brian Manzullo, recent Central Michigan University graduate and former editor-in-chief of Central Michigan Life. He stated,

“I know newsrooms are shifting toward the web (at least some), but it’s sad how badly newspaper design has fallen by the wayside. It really can make or break whether someone picks up your product.”

This much is true, newspaper design sure has become a lost art, however I feel when it comes down to it, the design of a paper alone will not be the deciding factor as to whether or not someone picks up an issue. Therefore, I replied to his comment with,

“Thing is though, I’ve always took pride in making a page (or pages) look good with their design, but when it all comes down to the quality and substance of news, I feel it trumps design any day.”

Over the short period of time I have known Manzullo — and by reading his blog – I have noticed him as a journalism student seriously concerned about the future of the field. But in all reality, every aspiring journalist needs to be worried about the future of their career. I know I sure have.

Although I have no recent page design experience except for a final project I had to do in my editing class a few years ago, the only design experience I had was my senior year in high school as sports editor for my school newspaper in Saginaw, Mich.

While at Heritage High School’s Heritage Voice, I had to design the layout for my section and I took great pride in how those pages looked. I quickly understood the time and effort I spent to make those pages look great in my eyes, may not have looked the same to the reader. At the same time I realized no matter how the pages I designed looked, they were still going to get read. The stories are the meat and potatoes of the newspaper; not the way it looks. To me, content is more important than design any day.

On that note, from my junior year as a staff writer to my senior year as an editor, the newspaper did incorporate a new nameplate and transitioned to larger issue. The new product was far superior to the old. The nameplate before and after the change are below.

The "old" nameplate

The "new" nameplate

As you can see, the revamped nameplate sure is more visually appealing to the eye than the last, but albeit a high school newspaper where we were more concerned with content rather than the way it looked, there is a good chance the design was not a reason people picked up the paper.

A friend of Brian’s was inspired by comments he and I made, so he wrote this Although I agree with the beginning of his piece, it was the latter end of it with which I had a few qualms because I think he may have misinterpreted what I was trying to convey. It is completely understandable Mr. Marcetti may have misinterpreted my comment, given it was brief without further explanation, but let me expand on my thought.

I personally do not feel newspaper design alone can bring in new readers, but it is an important part of the equation. As I stated before, content rules all. If a flawless looking newspaper is littered with questionable journalism and poor editing, readers will be turned off. On the other hand, if a newspaper looks bland but the editing is done well and includes exceptional journalism practices, readers will stick around. To most, I would say, design plays a minor role in a reader’s decision to pick up reading material. Magazines are a prime example of this, however since they are clearly more niche than newspapers they are able to get away with inferior design.

Page designers, much like offensive linemen on a football team, are grossly under appreciated. They do what they are paid to do with little or no recognition from anyone else but their peers. Page designers go unnoticed and most don’t even know who they are. Linemen protect a team’s multi-million dollar investment at quarterback, are not compensated accordingly and are typically not recognized off the field. Frankly, at the end of the day, no one outside of the newsroom (or outside of a football organization) is concerned with the page design or who the left tackle is for (insert team name here).

As Manzullo and Marcetti have both said, it is a shame the quality of newspaper page design has declined recent years and it is rapidly becoming a thing of the past. But, it’s not as important as some say.

Web design, however, is an entirely different beast…