little look

I feel like I have this little obsession of looking into other people's lives. I love going to other people's house's to see how they live. Where do they keep their fruit bowl, their Kleenex box or their tooth brush -- do they sit at home and read all night or do they watch tv until midnight. I think that's why I love being out at night so I can walk by all the houses just to imagine what people are doing.

M used to send me pictures of what he was doing during the day -- he'd send me a picture of his lunch or a pair of new boots he bought that week -- I used to love it just because it was something different. I love when people who post pictures of their messy desks - it intrigues me and motivate me at the same time.

today

• it's snowing when it should be sunny and 5 degrees


• booked our trip to NFLD!


• fell asleep again on the bus


• drank a coffee when I shouldn't have


• someone fell on the stairs out front -- someone called 911 so the firemen and EMS came


• got lint all over my black shirt from the sheddy sweater I wore yesterday


• ate a bagel


• procrastinating... again...


• forgot half of my lunch -- I'll have to eat it tomorrow


• meeting my accountant to do my taxes

j.jobs

A girl that worked for me last summer is just finishing her first year in journalism at Carleton and is looking for a job for the summer to get experience. I gave her a few options and thought I share them:

Although it's tough to get jobs in this field, there are a few things you can do to get experience:

Jeff Gaulin Journalism Job Board
This is a great site for jobs. Most of the jobs require more experience but there are some entry level positions and it'll give you an idea of what jobs are available. www.jeffgaulin.com

Community Newspapers/bulletins/newsletters
One of the best thing you can do is volunteer for a newspaper to get some writing experience. Put a package together with your resume, any clips you may have garnered from your school newspaper and other article type news pieces and send it around to some community newspapers in the area. Tell them you're looking at getting experience in the field and that you would love to do some research or look after the community calender, writing up article briefs etc. I did my internship at the Mirror newspapers in Toronto and it was a really great place to get experience and lots of clippings! They might not pay anything but the experience you'll get will be well worth it. Check out this url to search for community newspapers: http://www.ccna.ca/

Volunteer at Rogers
This is a really great way to get amazing experience. Rogers television always has something for volunteers to do -- again not paying positions but you can put this info on your resume and no one needs to know you didn't get paid for it. Check out any opportunities here: http://www.rogerstelevision.com/option.asp?lid=25&rid=16

Charities
One thing I'm doing this year is volunteering for the communications committee for Habitat for Humanity. This is another opportunity to get some good experience, while helping others at the same time. Just search for charities in Google and look at the various press releases etc. to get contact information to see if they need any help.

Freelance Opportunities
Of course freelancing is always a good thing to get started in. It's tough to get into but if you have a good idea you should pitch it to a newspaper to see if you get get your article published.

Here are some other resourses to consider:
http://www.campusaccess.com/campus_weB/educ/e4grad_jopro.htm
http://www.pwac.ca/resources/infores-jobs.htm

The most important thing is to stay positive -- having a career in journalism is tough but rewarding if you stick with it and love what you're doing. I think the best bet out of all these is to volunteer at a community newspaper covering the small community type issues and listings -- it'll get your foot in the door and give you great experience. Also, make sure you write for your school newspaper because the more clippings you get, the better it is for your resume.

Happy Hunting!

yummy

more people seem to be using the subway and bus as a spittoon and they all seem to be sitting near me.

bag lady

pic care of www.sfist.com

For awhile now I've tried to be as environmentally conscious as I can, but it's a tough battle when we live in such a throw-away society. I've never really been one to buy the disposable cleaning mops/cloths and have tried to avoid buying those items caked in layers and layers of needless packaging (I distinctly remember my grade 12 geography teacher telling the class that any time he purchased something with excess, unnecessary packaging, he'd open the product at the cash and leave the garbage behind). But this stuff is so convenient it's hard to get around it.

Many things irk me about all the crap we throw away, but the biggest beef for me right now is the problem with plastic bags. Most times when we buy groceries, we bring with us several canvas bags and back packs so we don't have to shove yet another plastic bag in our Ikea caddy under the sink. It's already bursting as it is. It annoys me all to hell when I go to a store and they want to put one item in a bag -- I buy a pack of gum and cashiers reach like zombies for a bag (on top of that the receipt for this pack of gum is a mile long which can't help the earth either...). What makes it tough to stick with the canvas bag regime is when you decide to buy something while you're out for something else and you don't have a bag handy. I have to get one of those bags that folds up into the size of a playing card so you can put it in your purse. That way I always have something with me.

Another beef is the coffee cup - it seems to have become almost a status symbol -- millions of people buy coffee everyday only to toss their cup in the nearest bin (...or on the ground, or as what I witnessed two weeks ago, on the floor of the bus...). I have to admit I've been very guilty of the coffee cup conundrum. I have a travel mug but it's so big -- how is it possible to keep it with you all the time? My purse (bag) is already stuffed with books and a cellphone and a pda and pens and notepads and tampons and change and a wallet... it takes me half an hour to find my gym pass. What I need to get is a collapsible coffee mug that doesn't take up as much room.

I don't really know where I'm going with this - I guess only to say that we need to be more conscious about what we're buying and how we're bringing it home -- and we all need to get bigger purses so we fit all this reusable stuff.

naked conversations

--eS on her Grand Manan trip

well my sister has made the big trek -- first to LA and then to South America where she'll spend a bit less than two months. I'm really proud of her -- I know it's cheesy to say but she's so brave to head to a land that she knows only what she has read in books -- and by herself. You can read about her travels here.

I went to a lunch seminar on executive blogging today and although the lunch wasn't that great the presentations were interesting. I honestly didn't know what I was going to get out of it because I thought executive blogging was common sense but I learned a few things. Shel Israel was one of the speakers -- and although he says he's more of a writer than a speaker he was excellent. Attendees got a copy of his book Naked Conversationswhich I'm looking very forward to reading. Jim Estill was another speaker -- his presentation was a bit dry at first but he is a funny guy so he was able to put in a few comments that really struck a cord with the audience. I would like to implement a corporate blog at work but it will likely be tough because of the legal and marketing departments. I'm thinking of just bringing the book up to the CEO directly so he can give it a read when I'm done. We'll see -- after I read a bit more about it and do some research on other corp. blogs I'll put something together to see if I get a bite.