McCain/Palin Rally, Amazing New Camera

So I went to the McCain/Palin Rally in Fairfax today early- had an awesome time- got amazing pictures with new camera (more on that in a bit)- played a little acrobatic reporter to get out of the crazy crowd (differing reports estimate the crowd at between 23,000-27,000)- meaning I jumped over three fences and got down from the press stand by climbing down through the bleachers....in a skirt and heels (lesson number 1- never wear a skirt to an outdoor rally), it was insane- and wrote a 1,300 word story for UWire Youth Vote '08 and turned it in.

BAM.

It was a crazy insane morning but probably one of the funnest times I've had at a political event. And I'm really happy with my story- it's not a 'typical' news story, but I think it came out really well.

I am so elated over my new camera! After I turned in my camera to WPNI, I was left with nothing- since my other camera imploded like, back in May sometime (It's cool though, it was getting old and becoming less useful). So yesterday I tooled out to Circuit City and tested cameras- meaning I was the weird girl in the store zooming in as close as I could on distant things and seeing how the photo came out when I took the pic. This camera cost $200 and is AMAZING. It's not an slr, it's not huge- it's very little actually- but I took really really good close-up photos from 100 yards away at the rally.

I can't post any up yet because of a first publication agreement with the blog- but once it's up, I'll put a few up to demonstrate the AWESOMENESS of this camera. Really. It's amazing.


What a cool week! Covering Biden, then McCain/Palin, and Friday Bob Barr (I know, less important, but still kinda cool).

Weeeeeee

Rach

-EDIT-

My story is up online! Go see!

Now- Photos from the Rally!!!!

(I only had two posted up in the story and they're both tiny- these are more fun)

And keep in mind- I took these from probably 100 yards away, with a small non-SLR camera I bought yesterday. This camera is BRILLIANT.

When McCain first stepped up to the podium- the thumbs up signs! It was really bright outside so I thought it was pretty perfect that Cindy McCain insisted on wearing sunglasses.

The only person who didn't speak out of these four was Todd Palin- and Sarah Palin and John McCain talked about him enough to make up for it. : )

One of my favorites. They look like they're in a sea of signs.

I love Palin's expression in this one. I'm not certain what McCain's doing.

Former Senator Fred Thompson! AKA District Attorney Arthur Branch off of Law and Order. Love.


I took TONS of other pictures but I'm really really tired and sore all over so I'm just going to put one more up before I go to sleep- maybe more crowd pictures tomorrow.


This is my absolute favorite amazing picture of the day- I call it the hero shot. The guy in front just started yelling- "Wave your signs for the helicopter" and everyone started throwing them around- the symmetry of this just came out so wonderfully. He looks like he's leading a revolution- a Republican revolution. Ahhhh I love it so much.

So yeah. In short- the new camera is a complete success. Brilliant.

Time to massage my poor aching feet (don't wear heels to an outdoor rally- lesson number 2) and go to sleep.


Rach

Ten Happy Thoughts that Make Me Fly

If you didn't get the Peter Pan reference, go and rent a Disney movie- you clearly missed out on some important facts of childhood.

1. Aram loves me! He loves me like crazy!

2. ABBA songs of all shapes and sizes. And musicals of all shapes and sizes.

3. Fun hats! I bought a really cool fedora the other day that I got many compliments on. And now I want a moose hat to represent my love for Sarah Palin's awesome moose hunting-ness.

4. Internet cartoons weeee I <3 questionable content, xkcd, dr. mcninja, penny arcade, control alt delete, and least i could do. : ) (And the fact that I have signed personalized drawings from qc and xkcd creators is ten times cooler)

5. Joan Hess's Claire Malloy and Maggody mystery books. Mmmm they're yummy.

6. My gorgeous beautiful amazing Mac.

7. Sugary candies which kill my teeth but hug my soul. Including but not limited to- gummy bears, fun dip, ring pops, m&ms and the really fake gummy hamburgers that I should probably not any more because gelatin isn't vegetarian.

8. The thought of traveling abroad next semester to England and interning somewhere awesome in the journalism field. EEE I want to see the world. : )

9. My life as a journalist - the joy and thrill I get when crafting an article or seeing my name in print/online is incomparable to anything else in the world!

10. My amazing family and my awesome friends and the wonders of technology (cell phones and Internet) that keep us together!


: )

<3-Rach

Palin makes my life more exciting

Now I'm not saying here which way I lean politically or who I'm voting for (I used to put that kind of stuff up online but I went around and deleted it all when I started politically blogging)- I mean, if you know me in person you can probably figure it out, but god, I certainly hope no one can tell from my writing. I do everything I can to avoid that.

However, I do happen to think that Sarah Palin makes this campaign season so much more exciting to be in- she's new, fun, brings in a whole bunch of controversy that hasn't been gone over a million times already, and adds some teeth to a GOP race that had until this time, been pretty normal. I think she's brought some color to the race- her pairing with McCain is going to give Obama/Biden a run for its money.

I'll probably have more analysis later, but that's the short version for now.

: )

-R

So Biden's talking at Mason today

On the Prince William Campus. I'm chilling in Verizon Auditorium waiting for him to come out. It's supposed to be set up as a discussion where a bunch of citizens can talk to him. I'm writing up a piece for UWire Youth Vote '08 on it- which is awesome, since I've barely been able to break through the CONVENTION MADNESS coverage of the last two weeks.

This area's small- it seats only 300- and it doesn't even look half full. I think the reporters crammed back here in the tiny press space make up a quarter of the audience at least.

Can't tell if the crowd's friendly or not. Many seem to have Obama shirts, but many more seem to be dressed in nondescript clothing that doesn't seem to cry democrat or republican. I know some of the republican blogs posted something about this event to try to get some people to come out to question Biden on issues the GOP and the Dems disagree on.

I sincerely hope Biden's not the only person to come speak at Mason- omg I would kill a moose to be able to see Sarah Palin speak. McCain too, but Palin- holy crap.

And Obama would be nice, but hey, I've already seen him speak live twice, how much more can a girl take?
This should be fun. More people are coming in. Looks like this party's getting ready to roll (I say in jest, as most of the people in the audience look over 40).

-Rach



-EDIT-

I sent out an e-mail to all my teachers today explaining why I'd be missing their classes (Biden's talking- have to sit around and wait for him to talk for multiple hours)- and this was really funny. Both of my journalism teachers were like "Wow that'll make a great news story! You should turn it in for class!"

And I'm like.......no shit Sherlock! This is for my job though, so I won't be able to turn it in for stories for class- lame.. The rule apparently says you're 'plagiarizing'....from yourself. when you do that. huh.

Biden's still talking now (he's been going for a long while)- something about electric cars and green jobs.

So Wow

My video for Youth Vote 08 is linked off of the front page of CBSnews.com's politics page!! OMG!

It's been up there since about midnight- and it's still up! Even with all the Palin-mania!! It's moved around a little bit, but it's up there! AWESOME.


So apparently they did like my pseudo-pretentious voiceover (it was necessary for the piece, I swear).


What an awesome day!

(Plus this weekend's a great one-two punch for the political world with Obama's freaking crazy awesome speech last night and McCain's ten times more amazing announcement of Palin as his VP today. OMG greatness)

And I get to meet my cousin Galena's baby Gabriella today! I'm so excited!! : )


Yay!

<3-Rachael

Many many thoughts

1. Not getting as much exposure on Youth Vote as I thought I would. I've turned in a story and a video that haven't gotten put up yet. I know it's editorial discretion and they have to make everything work- but it's really frustrating to work on something a long time and then not have it put up. Plus the kids covering youth vote in Denver keep getting put on like CBS and the Early Show and getting huge amounts of exposure- while I'm back here. Not even seeing my name show up for two weeks + at a time. Lame. I have a couple other stories in mind that'll be awesome though. Plus if nothing else, the video I made really made me push my way through iMovie- and now I know it well enough that I don't think the other videos I make will take nearly as long. So it's still a learning experience, even if I'm not necessarily getting my stuff up like I'd like it to be right now.

2. I'm helping live-blog the convention tonight from the JC Convention Watch Party! I'm way excited- planning on sending in pictures and stuff from the fun for the blog.

3. I've been wondering about something- every story I've been writing for this, I've been trying to seek out a variety of opinion for. A mix of liberal, conservative, and undecided. But the truth is- even just going around randomly asking people- I usually find 5 liberals to 1 conservative. (at least so far anyways)
Is it more ethical for me to portray the quote/political leanings percentages exactly as they are when I talk to people, or is it more ethical for me to even it out so there're the same amounts of opinions in there? What is the best way of showing opinions and expressing the political climate at Mason?
I haven't come to a decision yet. It's something I worry about- I know all us young'un reporters are seen as leaning liberal anyways- so I don't want to give people that idea when I'm just trying to show what I'm seeing and hearing out there from students.

4. A horrible textbook I have to read through for my Writing Across the Media class gave awesome tips on grammar and spelling today. But it gave me a really fun new fact to tell people.
It's from a little section on past efforts to reform spelling in the English language.

"One of the leaders of spelling reform was Robert McCormick, who in the 1930s ordered his newspaper, the Chicago Tribune to use shortened forms of words such as tho, iland, frate, thru, and jaz...In 1975, twenty years after McCormick died, the Tribune reverted to using generally accepted spellings. McCormick was not the only person to try. President Theodore Roosevelt and writer Mark Twain were also advocates of simplified spelling rules."

AWESOME.

5. I've gone vegetarian. At least for now. I read Skinny Bitch- an incredibly cool diet book about what foods are actually made of and the processes that make them- and now every time I think about eating meat, I think about how it was killed and formed and all the nasty things that might be in it. So I haven't eaten any meat since Sunday. (I actually really love fish, turkey, and beef, so this is a pretty big deal to me) I'm not certain if it's going to be permanent -I think so- but at the very least, I'm not going to make myself feel guilty if I eat meat occasionally. I'm Texan- the thought of giving up my daddy's brisket or my madre's homemade chili makes me very sad.

We'll see what happens.

<3-

Rachael


They put up my VIDEO!!!! : D

btw voiceovers are way harder than they sound. i kept rerecording it to try to sound more interesting and less pretentious. my goal was- npr sounding without the snobbiness and anti-semitism.

YAY I GET ATTENTION. : )



-EDIT-

Am I a horrible person if my favorite character on South Park is the devil? I just think he's so funny- his cute little need to have a loving relationship- his very 90's examination of his life and values- his cutely decorated house and his awesome 'my super-sweet sixteen' halloween party. Ever episode he's in just makes me really happy.



Yay Satan (in South park, not in real life).

Anxiety and Reporting

I love reporting. It's my life. I love talking to people and getting to hear their stories and their viewpoints- I love compiling it all together in an article at the end. I love seeing my work in print- I love getting feedback.

However, even now, going into my 6th year of full-time reporting, I get really bad anxiety sometimes when I try to interview people. It used to be from calling interview subjects on the phone- working at LoudounExtra.com pretty much kicked that out of me, but I still get nervous sometimes.

Currently, I'm having huge "interview block" with a video I'm trying to make for the Youth Vote '08 Blog. I just need to walk up to people and ask them questions about their political views while filming it- it's not like I haven't done it before. But for some reason, today- I can't. I've just been inwardly freaking out- I can't even talk to my friends about it for some reason.

I think maybe it's because I'm a bit unsure on the question I'm supposed to be asking people. So I don't know if it's that or past problems, but I'm just freezing up right now.

It's not fun- this feeling. It's better than it used to be. Like, sophomore year, for some reason, I didn't have any trouble with this- my first news story ever involved me knocking on people's doors and talking to them about their concerns about the noise the marching band was making in the morning. But it grew and grew- Senior year, there were times that I went into hysterical crying fits at the thought of calling someone and interviewing them over the phone.

I don't know where it comes from- I guess I worry that I won't do well, or that I'll mess up- I'll get the wrong answers for my story or they'll think I'm an idiot. It doesn't make sense.

I know I'm not the only one though who deals with this- reporters have to go up and talk to random strangers all the time- much more than the average person. I wonder how many professional journalists now have anxiety over interviewing.

Since this is what I'm planning to do the rest of my life, I'm going to have to figure it out. -sigh-

Mrewh. Going to hang out with Aram before my next class in an effort to make me feel better.


-Rachael