Feature Story Brainstorm

1).  My dad.

2).  My mom, older sister, family friend.

3).  My dad's deployment to Iraq.

4).  Historical Feature.

5)
     1-  Where did you serve?
Cob...Contingiency Operating Base, Spcicaer, outside of a town called Tikrit, central-northern Iraq.
     2-  Has anyone else in your family been deployed?
No.
     3-  How did you feel when you were deployed? --
     4-  Did you know anyone you served with before you left?
Yes.  A lot of people, actually.
     5-  How was the atmosphere during your stay?
It was all routine, business.  We're all there to do a job; it's not like you're on vacation.  We work six days a week.
     6-  How was the weather? --
     7-  What did you do in your spare time?
Well, sometimes we'd work out, sometimes I'd go to a movie, sometime's I'd go to the MWR and hang out.  A lot of times I'd just watch TV in my room.  Sudoku.  I did a lot of Sudoku.  I had a whole book.
     8-  Was there something you did to keep you going? --
     9-  How was the food?
It was all contractor meals.  So, it was--it wasn't bad; it just wasn't home-cooked food.
     10-  How often did you get to talk to the people back home?
Every day.
     11-  What was the worst part about the war? --
     12-  Why did you join the military?
To pay for school.
     13-  Was it your first time out of the country?
No.
     14-  Was it any different from your first deployment?
Oh, yeah.  Much different.
     16-  How long were you there?
One year.  Twelve months.  Plus six months train-up.  So I was gone for a year and a half.
     17-  Was there anything good about your stay?
Well, I mean, you make--you make friends.
     18-  What did you miss most about home?
Home-cooked food, meals.  Pot roast.
     (Pot roast?)
Well, yeah.
     19-  How did it feel, coming back home?
Well, it was kind of--there was an adjustment period.  So in some cases, it was kind of scary.
     20-  Is there anything that sticks out to you?
We used to do...every other Wednesday night, we'd have a barbecue.  You'd go to the PX and buy a steak, and you'd go to the barbecue and everybody'd cook their steaks.

6)          Treva
     1-  How did you feel when he had to leave?
Mmm...Well, this is his second one, so, I mean...I was better prepared, maybe, than I was for the first time?  Cause, you know, it's still hard,  It's a big deal, you know, emotionally.
     2-  What was it like without him at home?
Mmm...Um, I guess, at that point, it was really just Mom and I at the house.  It was, uh...she and I just got into a routine of things, of just the two of us at home.  We always sent emails and letters and stuff...kept in contact.
     3-  Do you remember how his arrival back home played out?/How did his arrival back home play out?
     4-  What did you talk about over the phone?
Um, just kind of caught up, I guess.  He would tell me about what was going on, and I would do the same.
     5-  How did you feel when he returned?
It was always emotional, you know?  I always cried everytime he came home...but it was always exciting.  Happy-joy-joy.

             Mom
1-  Um, well, a little proud of the service he was doing.  A little worried for how he would get things done here while he was gone.  A little worried about the challenges that would come up.  This one was a little easier than the one before, though, because Treva was old enough to drive, and could help with the transportation piece--for getting everybody where they needed to be.

2-  Well, it's not easy, but...you do what you have to do to get by.  And you have friends that help--and you hate to call on folks, but you do when you have to call them.  Treva could help get you (Jaye) to and from school, since my job takes me out of down somewhat regularly.  I just take care of whatever  needs to be done here--cause it's hard enough for him there without having to worry about stuff here.  He has plenty to worry about there--so, this is not a worry he needs to worry about.

3-  We went to the airport and we made the signs..."Welcome home."  He flew in to the Austin Bergstram Airport.  We weren't allowed to go past security, so we had to wait for him downstairs at baggage claim.  He'd had a layover, and because of terrorist things that were going on, they didn't travel in uniform, so he was in civilian clothes.  We had to wait until we saw him at the top of the stairs on the landing.  Then, it was...we stopped Denny's on the way home for a grilled-cheese sandwich and chocolate milk, and it was kind of late.

4- Really, just kind of...what we were doing.  How the kids were changing, and what they were doing.  It's also when you confirm those little questions that you need to know, such as..."Where did we put this?" or "What did we use as the password for this file on the computer?"  Just kind of catch up on the day.
His first deployment, we could call--use the cell phone, and call, but texting was the big communication.  Second deployment, we did a little more of the email, and cell phones...and the third, we Skyped--all the time.  Which was great.  We could actually see each other's faces, versus just talking.
with the computer, he could get online and order stuff that he needed, or wanted

5- Happy he was home safe, and then one of the biggest challenges was...having him fit back into our new routine.  It was nice to have the extra set of hands there.

           Jackie
1-  Concerned, worried that he had to go in harm's way, and sad that he was gonna miss his family while he was gone.

2-  (What were your observations of the Richards without him?)  The three of them worked really well together, making sure they were all where they need to be at the right time, and they were all taking care of each other.

3-  (How did you feel when he returned?)  Relieved.  Anxious to get together with him, to get find out how it went for him, to get his impression.  Ready for him to join us for our weekly dinners again.

4-  (What were your observation of the Richards family after he got home?)  It seemed like he...like they all fell right back into their regular routines fairly easily.  It was nice--I could tell they were all generally less agitated, worried.  Life went back to normal really quickly.  They went back to doing those little things they always did--Treva and Bill playfully arguing about something or other, things like that.

7).  The military will pay up to 100% of college tuition.

8).  Probably around the weekend after Thanksgiving for my mom and dad, and in the week after for my sister and friend.

9).  At home, and in Waco.

10).  Take notes.

Current Events 3.2

1).  He requested to prevent attorneys and witnesses from speaking publicly about the case.

2).  They're protesting, demanding that the president of the university (and whomever else might be involved) improve the social and academic experiences of black people on campus.

3).   Clemson, Alabama, Ohio State, and Oklahoma State are the four current teams that are predicted to play in the college football play-offs.

4).  The five platinum "biker-friendly" cities in the United States are Madison, Wisconsin, Fort Collins and Boulder, Colorado, Portland, Oregon, and Davis, California.

5).  The Hunger Games was compared to four other movies:  "Star Wars Episode VI:  Return of the Jedi," "The Lord of the Rings:  The Return of the King," "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part 2," and "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2" (which I strongly protest to - although a part of me agrees).

6).  I think adding a layer of scrutiny to the textbooks before they make it to the classroom is a very good idea.  Textbooks affect the way students learn, and they keep these things with them for the rest of their lives (and/or it's really hard to get rid of something they've kept in their minds forever).  Also, incorrect facts in textbooks are an excuse for people to make a big deal out of things, and we don't need that kind of chaos over something so small.

I don't find the slaves being described as "workers" acceptable - at all.  It dulls down what they went through way too much, and makes it sound as though they were paid, or treated cruelly.  This kind of mistake in a textbook isn't something small like a factual error, either.  It was a very bad decision by the person who wrote it in the first place, and very offensive.

Honestly?  It should be a mixture of all of them.  Experts are needed to check facts, and regular people are needed to check for offensive comments, or things that could hurt anyone emotionally.

I have no idea if my textbooks are accurate, but I trust them to be - which is why it's a big deal that they really are accurate.  We depend on our textbooks for information, information that we keep with us.

Feature Writing Preview

1).  A hard news lede tells who, what, when, where, why, and how (or as many as it can), while this one had more of a story-telling aspect to it.

2).  Who- Paragraph 2.
      What- Paragraph 2.
      When- Paragraph 2.
      Where- Paragraph 2.
      Why- Paragraph 5.
      How- Paragraph 7.

3).  Yes.

4).  No.

5).  Kevin McLoughlin, Doral Chenoweth III, Ken Andrews, Tony Florentino, Shane Cormier, Frank Willson, Patrick Harris.

6).  Florentino saying that Ted Williams has no idea how big this is going to be.

7).  33 paragraphs

8).  762.

9).  The first and last paragraphs connect (and they're also vague-ish and very story-like).

10).  People always say that a lead and a conclusion should connect to each other, so...

11).  Yes.

12).  Yes.

13).  Hearing the voice after reading the story kind of enhanced how good he really was.

14).  Maybe a little, but not too much.

15).  Yes.

16).  He described the voice as a "smooth baritone," along with a bunch of other people describing how good the voice is.

Peer Reflection #2

1).  Claire

2).  Allowances

3).  "I do not think that parents should give their kids allowances."

4).  Yes.

5).  No.

6).  No.

7).  First.

8).  It was a straight commentary piece.

Comment:  Comment.

1).  Emily

2).  Sounds Good Feels Good by 5 Seconds of Summer

3).  "The response from their fans that blindly follow them was overwhelming, but unfortunately, the album wasn't."  She didn't think the album was very good.

4).  No.

5).  No.

6).  No.

7).  First.

8).  It was a straight commentary piece.

Comment:  Comment.

Current Events 3.1

1).  They want to ban the Confederate flag from the parade this month because it's a "political symbol for hatred and racism."

2).  He discovered his real identity because of a discrepancy while dealing with his social security number when applying to college.

3).  If they didn't climb the ladder over the wall, they would have to walk about 1.5 miles every day to school.

4).  1- Whole Foods sells specifically organic foods to people.  2- Amplify Snack Brands is the marker of popcorn and tortilla chips for health-conscious consumers.  3-  HomeAway charges property owners to list on sites right now.

5).  Donio is trying to make tech more appealing to women.  She carries them out by mentoring MBA students at the University of Washington.

6).  This is an opinions piece (judging by the way there's background information on the subject, and then an argument/opinion for the subject).
     David Brooks was trying to show that throwing things out can help you learn more about yourself than buying more things.  He says "many people these days are apparently learning who they are by choosing what they can do without."  I agree that a lot can be learned by choosing what you can let go of, or what can be thrown out without a huge amount of remorse.  It's a sort of cleansing.
     I'd say the article is termed "from the right" at the top because David Brooks writes for the New York Times, while E.J. Dlonne Jr., who wrote "Tuesday's election shows we still have two Americas," writes for the Washington Post.  These two places are on the opposites sides of the country, New York being on the right and Washington being on the left.
     He didn't really convince me of his point, because I already knew this...I felt like his opinion was really vague, and hidden somewhere among his amazing format of writing.

Social Media: How it Affects the Life of a Teenager

Social media has started to become an extremely significant part of the average teenager's life.  95% of teens are online in some way - whether on Tumblr, Facebook, Instagram, etc.  While these things are definitely fun, and can keep people our age updated on what's going on with the region, not many people seem to think of the negative effects social media can have on teens.  Social media lessens a teen's ability to communicate with people in their society face-to-face.

     Many teens admit to feeling uncomfortable when they don't have their phones on - or close to - them; I see this as a result of fearing a lack of communication between a teen and their friends online.  Talking to people online can be easier than speaking to someone in real life - it means they don't have to be self-conscious about the way they look, and they have time to think everything through before they say it.

     In a face-to-face confrontation, a person is under pressure to give an answer or response to something in a limited amount of time before it becomes "awkward" or "weird."  Constantly communicating with people online lessens a teen's ability to think fast, or to put together the ideas they want to convey without word-vomiting.  Being online is comforting because they can go back and correct their mistakes, or erase and we-write the words they say before they send it.  The reality is, this luxury isn't granted in real life.

     As well as communication issues, social media leaves us with a severe lack of emotional connections to the people around us.  Even at restaurants, when families are sitting together at a table, you're likely to catch them all on their phones if they're not eating their food.  Social media distracts us from what's right in our faces - the people that matter most.  We allow our own personal worlds to steal our attention away from the people we care about, which can lead to lacking or destroyed relationships between teens and their families or friends.

     Social media also distracts us from what's going on globally, and not just in their country or in the life of a famous person.  On a weekly basis, teachers will mention something in class about a problem happening somewhere in Africa or India, and we will never have heard of it before.  Despite these problems being all over the news, teens' social medias lean toward news that ultimately don't affect the world, such as Justin Bieber getting arrested or rumors of a break-up between Kim Kardashian and Kanye West.  Social media doesn't let us focus on problems that need to be fixed in order to save lives or reputations.

     On a different level, social media can also be the cause of anxiety in teens.  If a teenager has one bad experience with the internet, getting notifications or messages from any social media websites can tend to make a person nervous about looking at it (Will it be something terrible again?).  The resulting anxiety leads to a teen developing distrust in the physical world around them - causes them to think that people could possible be so cruel in person, too.

     The truth of that one is:  Most people don't have enough guts to say something cruel to someone else's face, which is why they use social media to hide behind.

     Sometimes I wish that Instagram, Twitter, Flickr, and everything else had never existed - we'd be better off without them.  I no longer see this as a fixable problem - the damage has been done, and there's no way to convince any company to shut down their websites when they're making so much money off of them.  Social media has affected the life of teens in a terrible way, and definitely in more ways than I've tried to explain.  And while it's understood that social media is a fun way to waste time we have nothing else to do with, I'd rather we sacrifice that than our communication skills, or our emotional connections.

Editorials and Personal Columns

1-  Teachers requiring students to turn their phones in before class
2-  Dress code
3-  Internet efficiency/the school's transition to the internet

I don't read a specific personal column (or any personal columns) very often.  There are a few in general that post their views of an episode of a TV show I share an interest with every week.  The only thing that keeps me coming back is:  I like being able to read about what other people saw that I missed, or what other people think about what happened that week.

Peer Reflections

"Dress Codes:  Why They Should Be Banished"

1).  Alyssa

2).  Dress codes

3).  She thinks they should be banished.  "Everyone should be allowed to express themselves through what they wear without being called out."

4).  Yes.

5).  Not wishy-washy.  Her opinions stays firm throughout the whole story, even while addressing the other side's arguments.

6).  No.

7).  First.

Here's the comment:  Comment.

"Same Sex Marriage"

1).  Autumn Steinle

2).  Same-sex marriage

3).  How same-sex marriage isn't treated as good as it should be, and how being judged for being gay shouldn't be a problem in anyone's lives.  "Same sex marriage is okay and should be treated like it is okay."

4).  Yes.

5).  Not wishy-washy.  The opinion stays strong throughout the whole story.

6).  No.

7).  First.

Here's the comment:  Comment.