Just a little update

Since I've been gone for so long, I thought it would be appropriate to fill you in on what I've been up to over the last year instead of contributing to this digital diary.

My time has been consumed mostly by school work at Diablo Valley College and CSU East Bay, formerly known as Hayward. In the spring of '10 I became a journalist for the DVC newspaper and it was the most pleasurable and rewarding experience I've had since High School. I was able to write about many wonderful things, such as the ethnic storytelling festival, budget proposals for the English department, Finnish contemporary metal, and I even wrote about a local zombie walk for the paper's website (if you don't know what a zombie walk is then look it up. It's great fun if you're into hanging out with the living dead). Every time I picked up the latest copy of the Viking Herald and saw my name and words in print was like feeling electricity spiking up and down my spine. It was something else.

Looking back on my experience with the school newspaper, though, I find it strange that I had no problem writing for print, but was disgusted with my blog. Perhaps it is that "anything goes" nature of blogging that made me uneasy. With the paper I had editors who forced me to correct any mistakes I made and forced me to double and triple check all my sources before they sent the piece off to be printed. That kind of oversight made me feel more comfortable with my work because it was reviewed by others to make sure it wasn't total crap. Now that I'm back to the blog, though, I feel more relaxed without having words limits, deadlines, or needing permission to write about what I want. To be honest, I do miss the excitement that came with the job, the drafts, the revisions, and talking to people for my stories.

Although I enjoyed the work, the staff at the paper were...special. They were mostly kids right out of high school, so they walked and talked with this kind of youthful, know-it-all arrogance that got on my nerves sometimes. They were also best of friends with each other, but didn't seem to want to include me in their reindeer games. On the very last day of school, for instance, we had to clean the newsroom. One of the editors handed me some paper towels and windex and asked me to wipe down the computer desks. I did as he asked, but after a while I noticed that I was the only one cleaning. Everyone else was talking or playing flash games on the computers like it was social hour. I got so angry that I stopped cleaning and walked out, got in my car, and drove home. Did they aim to have me, the weird kid, do all the cleaning for them while they had a good time? Who knows. But despite their teenage shenanigans, they were still a talented group and I sincerely hope they do well in their future endeavors.

In the fall of the same year I transferred to East Bay and now I am about to start my third quarter. It's a nice campus that's not too different from DVC; it just comes with a bigger price tag. The school is particularly proud of their view and, I must admit, the view is pretty damn impressive. You can see San Francisco and most of the Bay Area from the campus. I'm looking forward to my next quarter. I only have to go two days a week, but most of my classes require a lot of reading and writing. For example, I'm taking "American Fiction to 1914," and I got seven books to read. Go ahead and call me weird, but I'm excited to read more Poe, Melville, Crane, and Chopin. The classics are awesome and better than most stuff on TV.

So that's all I have for now. Suckerpunch is coming out soon and I may watch it this weekend and I may write a review/critique. See you then.