The Huntsville Times, Weeks 5 & 6

Greetings! So far, it's been great at The Times this summer. I didn't know how my internship was going to pan out, but I'm so glad and blessed that it's shaping up to be an awesome experience. These past few weeks have been exciting, with something new to cover each day.

But I'll start off with the most important story I did in the past two weeks: Harry. Potter. To be honest, I forgot that the last movie was coming out, but I sure was inspired to read all the books and see every HP movie after interviewing some super fans for the past Friday's article. I interviewed these

teenage sisters Holly (16) and Heidi (14) Morgan and The Byrge Family; Kayla (23)(I know you're thinking, 'cause I was thinking the same thing too), Lindsey (16), and their mom, Kim (45). Now, the Byrges were HP fanatics. I've never seen such devoted fans. I thought they were a little off their rockers, but they were cool people. They came into the studio with Hogwarts regalia on and everything! They even gave me a homemade acceptance letter to Hogwarts. I was dying laughing on the inside.*DEAD* You know I wanted to laugh right in their face about how absurd they were being about a fictional book/film series, but after speaking with them and getting a sense of how the series is a family bonding tool and how the book stood as a symbol of an entire childhood, I began to understand their obsession or, as Lindsey said, their "love thing" for the books. The book series started in 1998 and ended in 2007. 7 books and 8 movies. "Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows: Part 2" is the final chapter of a decade-long film series that will be synonymous with the epic "Star Wars" series and sequels like "Twilight" and "Pirates of the Caribbean" will have a long way to go to have the presence that HP had in box office history. A. long. way. HP practically "did it 'on em" before they even hit the movie screen. Harry Potter's swag is on 1 trillion right now. Props to hi

m and his wizarding ways. One of the page designers at The Times made Harry Potter wands and I filmed the tutorial she did. Check it

out here.

Covering the Harry Potter series was the end to a crazy week. My editor, Shelly took time off for a vacation, and he really didn't leave me anything to do, which wasn't such a bad thing. I got to meet an astronaut, got to report on these sleazy landlords, and got to meet an awesome deejay. So I'll start with the astronaut. When I met Dr. Don Thomas, he was dressed like he was ready to fly. He was too shaaarp. I gave him two snaps. He was so clean. I could see my reflection in his shoes. Love a well-dressed man. Anyway, I got to speak to him about his visit to Huntsville, Atlantis' last launch that was the next day, and what he thinks the future of NASA is going to be. Naturally, he would like to see NASA prosper even though Atlantis marks the end of the nation's space program. He wants to see it prosper for the kids. What a sweet guy. The front for that Saturday's paper was great too. That's the thing a

bout Huntsville; you can run into astronauts.

I talked earlier about getting this assignment about these lousy landlords. So, Challen, my editor when Shelly's out, gave me this story that had already been covered to some degree by the local TV stations (WAFF 48 and WHNT 19). So the story was about these tenants getting booted out of their apartments immediately because the apartment building, Rocket City Suites, was ordered condemned. The metal holding the concrete together on the 2nd floor was rusting and gas leaks were found. It was all bad. People were basically left homeless. So, I went over to the apartments and found no one. Fortunately, I was able to find this man packing up the last of his belongings and he was happy to talk with me about how much a shit hole the place was. When he explained everything to me about the place, I was so disgusted that he and everyone else living in that building had to endure that kind of careless management. It was really a slumlord situation. The photographer and my editor told me they reported on the same management company a few years back because they were housing the Jamaican/Haitian/Latino work slaves in the building right next to the apartments, which used to be a church *side-eye*. Some really low-down dirty shit going on there...I'm interested in how that pans out.

Now to the fun stuff. I got to meet this awesome turntablist named DJ Sam Smite. He lived in South Huntsville, which was adventure for me.

Airport Rd. in so long. But I encourage everybody to check this guy out. He's a Christian DJ, and his mixes are just as tight as any mainstream DJs. Check out the video. I really enjoyed editing this one.

Also this week, The Times changed up their look. The pages are narrower. Tough times are to blame, I guess. What cha'll think? I liked the last design much better. Let's see if time will make me like the new design better. We'll see. Peace.

The Huntsville Times, Weeks 3 & 4

Weeks three and four have been filled with great memoriesthat I will never for get! So far, I've been at The Times for one month and it's been awesome. I don't know where to start. Maybe I'll start with the white water rafting trip I took with the staff! (That doesn't even go together. lol How many newsrooms have their interns facing the rapids of the Ocoee River? I know of none as cool.) Wewent rafting after a whole week of working on this monster of a piece about Butler High School students and faculty about the impending closing of the school.(I'll tell you allabout that later..) So the trip was right on time for me.We headed down to Chattanooga,TN on a Sunday and best believe I was prayin' that I would not fall out of my raft and have to be rescued downstream. I was in the raft with Victoria Cumbow (crime reporter) , a friend of hers, and the Mark (sports columnist) and Patricia McCarter (former Times staff writer). I got over my fear really quick when the raft instructor guided us over the most difficult rapid first. (Props to Jerry, our raft guide) I even had a chance to go to the front of the raft and experience the waves up front. At one point, you can only see my hands outside the raft. I was scared shit less when I went up there, but I knew Jerry had my back and knew I wasn't trying to die that day. I had a Titanic moment when I spread my arms out of the raft. It was a great experience and I would encourage going on the Ocoee. I've never bonded with a staff like this before and can't wait to see what July and August have to bring.

The work I did during weeks three and four was some of the most reporting I've done since the summer of my freshman year. Let me start with the doozy: The Butler piece. I had been working on this since the second week of June and it seemed like I had been working on it for a lifetime. This story, like all others, came from an idea I pitched to Challen Stephens, The Times' investigative reporter and a damn good one at that. This guy knows all the dirt going on in Huntsville ( I found out there's a lot of low down dirty deals going on in Huntsville too; of all places right?)

Anyway, I got to work with him on this 35' inch story (1000+ words) that featured 1 teacher spruced throughout with 4 students giving their opinion in parts of the story. I talked with at least ten people for the story and went to the school three times for pictures and interviews. The school seemed so empty. Not just an absence of people, but an absence of excitement. They've been talking about closing this school for about ten years on and off, and next year is going to be the last year for the school. It's one of nine elementary, middle and high schools that Huntsville City Schools is trying to shut down. Crazy, I know. Nine schools?

To give a little background, this school was one of the most diverse top-tier schools in the Huntsville area back in the day. It's in the backyard of Redstone Arsenal so there was a good mix of Army kids and neighborhood kids at the school. Now, BHS is a Title 1 school with high failure rates, low test scores, low graduation rates, and an even more shameful reputation getting the label of the "ghetto school". Pretty much the whole plot of "Lean On Me".

It was piece that I felt attached to. I felt for these kids and teachers that were going to be out of a job and who did everything to defend their school when

everyone else is saying 'Away with it.' and 'Good Riddance." This was my first A1 feature as well, so I was excited to see it on the front page, and a little less excited about the comments I was going to get. Most of the commenters on al.com don't have anything of importance to say, so to engage people who make offensive comments (and then don't have the sense to hit spell

check...) is a dead end road.

I covered an array of other things. I covered the Soldier Show for Armed Forces Week, where, for the first time, 50 new soldiers were sworn before the show. I covered a new VFW (Veterans of Foreign Wars) Commander (He was a handful...told me everyting he wanted included in the article..he must have forgot he was talking to a journalist and not a PR specialist.. o_O) I covered a couple who had a combined 50 years of volunteer service with the American Red Cross, and Madison Jazz's trip through China. So far, it's been a pleasant surprise. I never know what they're going to hand me next, which is part of the business that I some getting used to.

Since this is the end of my first month at The Times, I have took it upon myself to meet with my editor, Shelly Haskins to go over the work I've done this month; what he liked, and some advice on what I can improve on. The meeting prompted me to make some new goals for the next two months. I plan to make more videos and a few more long features. Hopefully I can get to work with Sports and when I say work, I mean get a press pass to go to SEC Media Days. :) We'll see.

'Til next time...

The Huntsville Times, Weeks 1 & 2

After two weeks at The Times, I'm feeling really good about the experience I'm going to leave away with after my 12 weeks are up. So far I've gotten to cover an assortment of events, got to shoot some video, got a lot more comfortable Moveable Type (MT) aka al.com posting system. This internship is the first I've had in a while. I've worked or interned every summer I've been at Bama, but this is my first REAL one. I'm not taking away from the experience I got at The CW or WVUA-TV, but for me, this is the experience that will stick with me the most because this newsroom is more similar to the one I'll hopefully be working in by the time I graduate.

I'm not gonna front, it had been a while since I wrote a traditional news story before I got in the office, so I made some simple mistakes like misspelling words or forgetting an AP style rule. I make those types of mistakes when I'm nervous. But I felt embarrassed that I made some mistakes that I shouldn't have had a problem with. I almost cried because I thought about what an opportunity this internship is and what I'm expecting of myself as well as the expectations of my editor. My editor, Shelly, is a great guy and he's encouraged me to just keep writing and that I'm getting better, which was such a relief coming from him.

But on to what I covered these past two weeks....

So last Saturday, I went to Build-A-Bear in Parkway Place Mall to shoot an 8-year-old's birthday party. ( I volunteered to shoot some video of the party on my flip camera so I could get some video experience Lydia Haynes and her friends from Decatur were making bears for tornado victims. She was so sweet! Her mom was a trip to. She's a young-career-type mom, so she was a lot of fun to talk to because she's at that age where she has an established life and role in her household, but she's not too old to connect with the women she was in her 20's. She was funny and a great person to talk with.

I also got to shoot the Lowe Mill ARTS & Entertainment water balloon fight the same day! Niki Doyle, the social media editor asked if I wanted to go shoot it since she thought I did such a good job on the birthday party video. You know I couldn't say no. That's Lowe Mill place was awesome. I have to go back there. Check out the video here.

I got to cover The Soldier Show for Armed Forces Week. It was super cool because 50 new soldiers got sworn in at the beginning of the show. But was happened at the end of my first week wasn't so cool.

I found out the publisher of the paper was retiring effective Aug. 1. It was expected, but to me it was a shocker. Everyone said that it was his time to step down and let someone else take over the multimedia company that The Huntsville Times is evolving into. I just hope they find someone who can take his place.

I'll keep you posted on the adventures I'm bound to have. Until next time...

The Huntsville Times, Day 1

Hello! It's been a while since I've posted, so I'm definitely excited about getting into the swing of things again. This summer, I'm back home interning with The Huntsville Times! Reporting for The Times has been on my goal sheet since I was in high school. It's hard to believe I graduated 3 years ago.

Yesterday was my first day on the job. My editor wasted no time and gave me a story to work on right away about the heat. He told me he was going to hit the ground running, but I still was surprised to get an assignment. It the day went well, although I was nervous about how well I reported since I haven't been doing general assignment stories since - well, in a long time. I've been doing long feature pieces here and there since my sophomore year. I

haven't worked in a newsroom since the summer of my freshman year, so yeah, I have some adjusting to do.

Even though yesterday's story made me feel like an inexperienced cub reporter,

I know that this is a new experience that I have to embrace and have faith and believe that I will succeed in. My expectations are high and I'm determined not to let myself, or my editor down. By the way, I saw Antoine Dodson when I went to lunch! What an awesome way to kick off an internship. Run and tell that!

Oldie but Goodie: My Black is Beautiful Poem

Alright, so this is the poem I wrote and recited at the 2008 AKA Debutante Hobby Talent Tea. (SHOUT OUT TO ALL MY LOVELY LADIES- DEBS '08!!!)I got inspiration from the My Black is Beautiful campaign BET was having. Check it.

My black is beautiful

Like the way the sun shines in the morning

Like the way the evening sounds when the sun goes down

Like the way love feels when it's a one of a kind

Like meeting my grandmother for the first time

My eyes see the smile in her eyes and our eyes both realize that we're connected.

Much more than the eye can see.

Time passes through me as I grab hold of her hands.

Slowly massaging her memories of ancestry

Those hands tell a story of love , patience, diligence, and bonds of sisterhood

Those hands tell of the lives I never could.

My black was my past.

My black is my present

As I look into the mirror, the reflection of my ocular attention leaves me breathless.

Switchin' my hips from side to side

Who said I wasn't cute?! They lied! Please.

I could hurt somebody with these!

And give a warm embrace at the same time. That's how well I shine.

My soul is more beautiful than any make-up can make-up, and that's proof.

I'm trying to say this nicely without hurting anyone's feelings, but I can't cover the truth.

My black is beautiful.

It can not be concealed, contained, hidden or retained. I am not ashamed to say that..my black is beautiful

From the tips of my toes to the curve of my hair follicles

To that funny little dance I do, to my golden hue.

From my audacious personality to the skin you see.

My black is bold enough to stand up in the face of adversity.

Carrying my head up high and having limits that go beyond sky.

My black is beautiful

My black is phenomenal like

Marian Anderson

Maya Angelou

Mary McLeod –Bethune

Madam C.J. Walker

Cleopatra

Nefertiti

Shirley Chisholm

Dorothy Dandridge

Hattie McDaniel

Ella Fitzgerald

My Black is sensational like

Lorraine Hansberry

Bille Holiday

Lena Horne

Zora Neale Hurston

Fannie Lou Hamer

Mahailia Jackson

My black is exceptional like

Coretta Scott King

Rosa Parks

4 little girls

Bettsie Smith

So journer Truth

Harriet Tubman

Cicely Tyson

Alice Walker

Ida B. Wells

Phillis Wheatly

Oprah Winfrey

Sarah Vaughn

My black is strong.

Redefining strength in a myriad of ways

From artistry, technology, cosmetology, photography, medicine, media

My black's got more definitions than an encyclopedia

Question is, is the world ready to learn?

Cuz My black is where its at as far as I'm concerned.

So lets take our pens and make our mark on the minds of the naïve so that they'll believe that their black is beautiful too.

Matrimony for my homie.

I wrote this in October as a gift to my friend who got married the following December and performed in at Jojo's spoken secrets. Found out I can't memorize like I used to, but it was all good.lol

I don’t want to understand the words.

I’d rather understand your love in more ways than one.

No empty phrases laced with false promises and no clarity

No text messages full of false hope and insincerity.

No lustful infatuations filled with short cummings

But spiritual connections worthy of making angels gleam and illuminate their wings.

Real talk, no flings.

Show me sweet nothings by laughing at the lame jokes that I miss the punch lines for.

And that look on your face when you’re thinking that I can’t help but to adore.

Show me that chivalry isn’t dead but existing in you by leaving that space on your chest and knee just for me.

And by putting the toilet seat down without piss all around.

Never let me go when I’m irritated with you knowin’ that all I wanna do is smack you upside the head

And I’ll keep in mind all the thoughtful things you’ve said.

Love notes compare nothing to the voice your read them with

Because pens haven’t inked my conscious with words memorable enough to convey the whole essence of your message.

I want to love you like I’ve never loved another.

Smooth like butter. Exposed, no cover.

Take down my cognitive walls as I undo yours

And peel back your layers

So we can re-create our cores

Both having equal shares

Let our hands do the talking. And trust me. I’ll be gentle.

Love birds playing in the Spring, we’ll resemble.

Undress me with your thoughts.

Touch me here, here, and here. (My mind, eyes, and heart for those whose minds are in the gutter.)

Show me your soul and I’ll show you mine.

Revealing that we’re both beautifully human, divinely favored and ever thine

Your mine, and I’m yours

And we both belong to The One who’s Son bore thorns.

Sleep with your eyes open so that you can see the rest of me while I breathe you in continuously.

Waiting to exhale has never felt so good because I get to breathe you in again and again.

So much so that it should be considered a sin.

Your spirit is the one they talk about in bible verses and love songs.

One so delicious and worthy of righting all my wrongs.

Kiss me when the sun sleeps and when crickets sing their midnight hymns and when grass sheds its early morning tears

So that our unconditional love can fight away our fears

I want to know you better than you know yourself. I wanna taste your tears. Hold my hand forever so that our love with outlast your years and I want my ears to always remember what you sound like.

I wanna grow wise with you on the front porch as the rocking of our chairs complement the melody made by our hearts and fireflies in softer skies.

Let our love grow so deep that we get lost and have to find each other again.

Speak love as freely as the wind so that our children will know that

God=Love=Life and that 1+1=One

Smile at me when I’m wrong

And I’ll agree with you when you’re right

Let me be the one hold your heart

You be my ‘Brother to the Night’.

So shhh..

And when it’s all said and done

I don’t want to understand the words

I’d rather love your love in more ways than one.

Week 2: Nebraska a.k.a.The Corn-Husker State

Here's a photo reel of week 2 of the UA Women's Track & Field 2011 indoor season.

Here's a video of Toni & Audra's take on how things went in Nebraska.