Back in the swing of things

It is hard to believe that I have already been back in Athens for nearly two weeks now.

I think that keeping insanely busy really helps make the time fly by. Between classes, The Post, and squeezing little time for a social life, it is hard to just relax.

Honestly, today was the first day I actually was able slow things down a little. Trust me though, I’m not complaining. The life of a journalist is one where you get scramble around like a chicken with its head cut off in order to desperately get that last source that will tie your story together perfectly. I love the feeling of putting so much effort into a story that I can be proud of.

I’m really excited because tomorrow I have my first big story of the quarter. I guess you could say it’s my first big story of the year too. It’s funny, just when I get used to writing 2011 on my papers it’s already 2012. Heck, I even remember when we went from 1999 to 2000. I must be getting old.

Anyway, about my story… I wrote about the Stop Online Piracy Act and how two OU grads that started their own website, Imgur, recently decided to stand up against SOPA and switch over their domains from GoDaddy, an ex-supporter of SOPA legislation. It’s really interesting and if the bill passes the Internet we’ve all grown to love really could drastically change. Stories like my Imgur story are really the type of journalism that I could see myself doing in the future after college.

This quarter I also decided to mix things up and volunteer to work for AVW Productions’ Tech Heads blog. I did my first review of my handy Nook Color that I take with me everywhere. My Nook actually has all my textbooks on it, which still blows my mind. You can check out my review [here]. Oh yeah, and I also took my picture for my story. I’m so terrible at this whole photography thing, but I’m learning. I need to read my instruction manual but I have been reading textbooks instead.

I am sick and tired of reading, and I love to read! My first quarter I rarely was assigned to read but this quarter it’s obviously the trend. While reading my textbooks, I frequently find myself zoning out and having to re-read pages I’ve already read. I drift off in thought and instead think about the other 250,000 things I have to do, rather than comprehend the material I’m reading. So far though, all my classes are going well and I enjoy each and every one of them.

I lucked out again and have a couple hands-on courses in addition to my two lectures. I’m most excited for my Future of Media Course which is laid out much like my JFreshman Newsroom class that I took last quarter. Although I’m pumped about the long weekend, I’m kind of bummed that I won’t have my Future of Media class because it is only once a week and the holiday just happens to fall on Monday.

I keep finding myself writing these blog posts at crazy hours of the night. I love blogging and am really trying to do it as much as possible, but at this rate I may turn into a caffeine addicted journalism zombie! Just kidding, I’m one of the few journalism students at OU who doesn’t tote around a Starbucks cup. No thanks, I’ll stick to my FIJI Water instead.