Not quite London, but fab nonetheless!

I figure I had better post something about my first week, before I forget it all.

I did software training all week. Being a badass company that is connected to Microsoft, MSNBC has it's own publishing tool. It's kind of like the Wohlebertron of the future. It isn't on the web and you can pretty much do anything. I learned a hundred things over the week, and I'm pretty sure I remember most of it. I can edit the cover, section fronts, and subsections fronts, as well as any other parts of the website. Online polls, check. Top story modules, check. Breaking news posted in 12 seconds or less, CHECK!

So I think I'm ready for this week. I will actually be running the desk for the Entertainment section. That means whatever you see online is me. Any changes made between 9am and 1pm ET (7am-11am CST) are all mine!

I think Thursday I will be working on my column and whatever stories I feel like pursuing. Let me know if you have any good story ideas. My column will be about guilty pleasures, so if you have any big ones this summer (i.e. addiction to a lame reality show) let me know.

P.S. Jenn, I don't think I caught what your internship is yet!

Stuck in Florida

I know there are worse places to be stuck in than sunny FL. At least I've been working on my tan. I am getting ready to leave for NYC next Saturday to start at ABC on Monday. In the midst of my brothers graduation shindigs I have found time to start up my blog so check it out MizzouNYC.wordpress.com. My goal is to post at least daily during the week...and don't be afraid to comment :-D Hope everyone is having a fantastic summer.

Welcome to D.C. Jerk!

Fast Food Article

Sometimes an idea just strikes you like a bolt of lightning but in my case epiphany's come when a woman who looks like she could be on the "Golden Years" throws my grocery cart halfway across the aisle in a fit of rage. Since weird things always seem to happen to me -most of you can attest to this- I have decided that for the summer I will write a column every three or four days and post it on this blog and my home blog midwestsky.blogspot.com. I will also be posting pics at my home site, just click the flickr badge if you would like to view them. You assuredly will laugh, cry and maybe want to punch me in the face by the dog days of summer but frankly my dears I don't give a damn.

I arrived in our nation's capitol yesterday after a 15-hour trek that included an evening’s stop in Springfield, OH which is located just outside Columbus (by the way Columbus is just like Columbia except with more drug problems... from what I hear.) As some of you know I am staying in the basement of the home of a Turkish family in Georgetown, which is great! The area is awesome, the family is great but to be honest I feel a little awkward when I drive around. Apparently there are more rich kids here than from an episode of the "O.C." and EVERYONE drives a BMW, Audi or a Benz and my Honda Civic with red paint all over it courtesy of those renting bastards REMI just doesn't cut it. People look at me when I drive around like I should be headed to the Ghetto instead of G-Town. So, I decided to play the part and am now sporting a gold chain necklace that says "Thug Life" on it and wear a Washington Nationals hat with the sticker still on it while bumping Nelly's "Ride Wit Me". Represent Straight up Gangsta Style.

After getting a good night's sleep, I decided to play tourist for the day. My first stop was Wisconsin Ave. to do a little shopping. You know how they say small town kids can never make it in the big city. Well, let me tell you they are correctamundo. Or, maybe I'm just an idiot because I got played harder than the new senior at bingo night dealing with parking officials in GTown. It cost me $13 for 2 hrs. of parking when down the street near the harbor it was $5. To say the least, I was pissed off. So, in my fit of rage I bought a Yoga tape at Barnes and Noble and plan on meditating tonight about the entire situation.

Following shopping, I headed to see the President and Tony Blair at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.. Blair was in town for the day to talk to Bush about how they fucked up so bad with the Iraq War and how they can avoid ending up like their Enron buddies.(P.S. Ken Lay nice one... way to make your University proud). I drove around for a while and then started to notice something, as I got further down this one street called G. buildings became uglier and I started to see Jamaican flags everywhere. But, instead of friendly Rastafarian people everywhere there were just angry guys looking to sell/score drugs. I knew I had to get out of this hood, so I took a turn where it said Howard University, bad idea. Apparently, Howard University is in the ghetto of D.C. because I was the only white person in a 10 block radius, and since I was dressed all "gangsta" I didn't want to be mistaken for that turd Jamie Kennedy from "Malibu's Most Wanted" so I got the hell out of there.

That leads me to the crazy old woman at the grocery store. While shopping for the essentials at this place called Safeway I decided to pick up some grapes -a delicious snack that is also filled with nutritious vitamins that will help you grow into a strapping young lad. This woman, who was around 65 and sporting one of those old gray-haired afros, turned to me and told me I cut her off. Well, obviously I was confused since I didn't realize our carts were "vehicles". I turned to the woman and said in a smug tone "Sorry I'm new here." It was the only thing I could think of to say. And then in a fit of grocery rage, granny grabbed my cart -which was filled with delicious yet healthy food items- and flung it out of her way down the aisle. Luckily, the cart didn't hit anyone, heaven forbid a small innocent child who just got finished with Lacrosse practice or a chess club meeting and just wanted to stop at the store for an AbbaZabba or a Rice Krispie Snack. Frazzled, I got my cart and didn't say a word to the woman and just decided to pay for my stuff and leave this place.

Well, now it's time for Yoga with my boy Rodney Yee. It has been a long day and this kid needs some herbal tea and a clear mind. Have a Righteous Day.

it's all too fabulous

words cannot describe how wonderful the last week has been.
i think if they offered me a job here i would drop out of school and stay.
not that i don't love all of you, but seriously, i'm in love with this city.
i had a londoner tell me that those who tire of london, tire of life. i agree.
my flat is in a great part of town, but small. still it's nicer than everyone else's.
i've been to most of the touristy places already, a million pubs and some amazing night spots like the absolut ice bar.
but i've just finished writing a small novel about my trip thus far, so just check out my blog about it.

http://jennjarvis.blogspot.com

i love and miss you all.
ps, london is the place for convergence. it's everywhere here. i love it, i love it, i love it!

Patiently Waiting

Good day my fellow convergence lovers. I hope all is well and everyone is enjoying the start to summer.
I am getting ready to leave for Washington D.C. tomorrow after spending a week in sunny Cali. I have some good stories about my mini-vacation including one that involves losing my cell phone, which is sad. So, if everyone could please send me their cell phone numbers via e-mail that would be awesome!
Currently, I am downloading a ton of music since I have seven hours of driving tomorrow to Dayton, OH were I hope to find some sleazy Motel to sleep in. Then it is off to D.C. to party with crazy interns working for the President and convince them to leak secret info. (Ah, a boy can dream.)
Well, I will keep everyone informed on what I am doing at USATODAY.com when I start next week. Good luck to everyone and enjoy life!

Day 1.5

I made it to Seattle. I love it here already. My house is fantastic, even though it isn't cheap like Amanda's.

This morning I made my way on the bus to the Microsoft Campus. I came in and did a couple paperwork things, and then I was sent to the newsroom to hang out the rest of the day. I love it here. My coworkers are cool, and it seemed like half the time I was introduced to someone here, I was informed that they used to be an intern here. There are a few Mizzou alums here too. Yay for mafia!

So for the first time in my life, I am working in a newsroom that is just dying to be more converged. Like Stefanie, I feel like the people here have a lot of confidence in my abilities. My editor is so excited to have me help come up with new exciting CONVERGENCE ideas. I get my own column, which I won't write completely by myself, but it is up to me to come up with multimedia content.

The budget meeting was interesting today. They aregue about what goes on the site front page. That's about it.

Tomorrow I start the publishing tool training for the rest of the week - but I will be around for American Idol Finale frenzy.

P.S. - Rumor has it that Brangelina is giving birth right now, but it has not been confirmed. We're on pins and needles waiting to pounce on the delivery.

Gidget's threatening me...

Okay, not really. But she did ask why I hadn't posted in here yet. The answer is quite simple: I'm doing at KOMU what we all did at KOMU during our shifts. So instead of blogging about anything to do with convergence, I'll blog about the NBA Playoffs and the stupid team that won't die.

So, most people that know me know that I hate the Pistons. It's actually quite kind of me to refer to them as the Pistons, because typically I call them "The Devil's Team." I have a special hatred for Ben Wallace, but all of them in general are arrogant jerks. They're in the middle of the Eastern Conference Semi-Finals, playing the Cavaliers, and I'm hoping upon hope that the David beats Goliath today. It would make me a very happy Nikki.

Hope things are well in the convergence family.

Happy Gidget? ;-)

Ok... I'm here...

I'm still in CoMO right now... My car broke down a few days ago, causing me to push my departure to Virginia back. I've got the car back, but I have to take it back to the shop today (in just a few hours actually) because there is still a problem. Oh well. Anyway, for my convergence news, I got an internship at the PBS affiliate in Charlottesville (my home town). While I am there, I will be helping them improve their website, hopefully through conducting a survey of online viewers of the website. I will also be helping them create a web newsletter format they can use. So this is a TV station embracing the web. As far as I know at this point, they do not have the technology or software to put video or audio online so I may be fiddling about with a few ideas about that. Haven't decided yet. I'll keep you guys up on what is going on! I'm really excited about this! And I hope everyone has a great summer! Take care all!

Its freakin COLD in Canada!!

Not lying, either. Its been in the low 50's since I got here.

But I have learned a lot-- i.e. how to measure temperature in Celsius, not Fahernheit, that 4 liters go in a gallon, and that Canada sees themselves as the know-all-end-all experts on the US, especially the politics there.

Convergence does NOT exist here. So I have decided that the Toronto Star will at least become aware of the concept come mid-August when I leave.

But I have to say- its a blast being in a huge newsroom! And, for the first time in my life, I feel SMART here. Now, that may seem strange, but despite my lowly intern status, they are impress/surprised that I am competent in the news process-- its weird to them that I already understand what to do. Its weird to me having the reigns cut loose and being able to just do my work. AND-- I don't get graded on anything I do here. My GPA is no longer in jeopardy! WOOT.

I miss the US though-- they don't have target here-- instead of dunkin donuts, they have a place called Tim Horton's, and I swear they put crack in that coffee-- these canadians are freakin addicted. And, Canadians really do say "aboot" and "oot" and "eh" goes after EVERYTHING.

So, please, convergence family-- if I come home saying anything sorta canadian, harass me until i sound like I'm from missourah again. :)

Why I'm FINALLY excited about convergence.

Tucker Max.

Has anyone ever heard of him? He's hilarious, and has this wonderful little website chronicling all the drunken-debaucheries of his life- just the type of asshole I could see myself falling for.

But why I really love him is for this site. Not only does it contain his funny stories, but also his personal blog, videos of his antics, pictures of his ex-girlfriends and links to their blogs, a discussion board, and so much more. I could browse through this site for hours and never get bored-- pathetic I know.

This guy is so smart. He went to law school and then made a career out of getting drunk and converging media. I think I finally figured out what I want to do with my life!

So while most of you are off in exotic places doing important convergence things, I'll be holding it down in COMO doing my own convergence things!

Convergence at the Missourian

I heard recently that the Missourian is going to go paper-less soon. That means that digmo will be a lot bigger than it was. Next semester, if this is implemented, then the convergence editors will have a lot more work to do, and will probably be viewed as more valuable (than we were) since they have the skills that the rest of the Missourian staff members are expected to have soon. (Not that we didn't, they just didn't really need our skills much when we had our shifts. Oh well.)

Why am I in Roanoke?

Well, I start my first day of work at the Roanoke Times tomorrow. Roanoke is pretty hickish. I can't understand what a lot of these people are saying. They're really nice, but most of them look like they crawled out of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Tonight, two other interns and I went out to dinner at a Mexican restaurant -- not TexMex like I'm used to. Anyway, they were a business writer from Lynchburg, Va. and a features writer from Philadelphia who goes to UNC. They were talking about how excited they were to get in the newsroom and find some stories. I felt sort of bad because I wasn't really excited about reporting -- just editing and doing techie stuff. They didn't quite understand convergence. Like what could I get out of a journalism job if it didn't involve reporting? Anyway, I guess I'm the oddball. But I do have an awesome apartment that is only $250 a month. Sweet!

Your Personal Blogs

By the way, if you have personal blogs (like Stefanie), just post the URL here and I'll add a link to your blog from this Convirgins blog. Thanks!

Haha

Hey Stefanie, of course not, post as you please. Actually, because it's not a requirement, I will probably be more inclined to say something :) Have a safe trip!

OMG

So wait, are we required to post weekly on this? Because lets be honest, I can't even do that when its required for school...

by the way... started a canada blog. Yet to be updated, but its there when I choose to do it, since I leave SUNDAY. oh god.

www.hooraycanada.blogspot.com

Convirginity

Gidget!

Nice idea! I'm sure we'll all have plenty of stories over the summer to tell each other about...I'm also hoping we get the blog equivalent of Lance's drunk dialing....one can only hope...

Testing, testing, 1, 2, 3...

Just testing to see if our blog is up and running...