NYC Travel

New York, New York
I love the city and what it has to offer, but the best part is that I
leave each night and can return the next day if I wish. I have family
who live about 45 minutes away from the city by train. I really enjoy
riding the train to and from the city because it gives me a chance to
relax, read, sleep, or do pretty much anything else I wish to do. Today,
I am using the time on the train to type this entry. I am on my way into
the city to attend a Broadway musical. I think that the show should be
fun and relaxing. This will be my first Broadway show. I know I will
enjoy the technical aspect of the show as much as, if not more, than the
show itself because I will be able to relate to that part of the show.
While I am not going to a show that I have heard about before this trip,
I know that I will still enjoy the atmosphere. I am almost to the city,
which means I will be underground, therefore I most post now to avoid
losing the above information that does not have very much substance or
flow. The big apple awaits.

BELIEVE IN TIGER

Over the past few days I have witnessed some unbelievable moments that may never happen again in my lifetime. One word really sums up this weekend-- TIGER. There is no question that Tiger Woods is the number one golf player in the world after this past weekend. When the crowd was becoming restless, the advertisers thinking they wasted their money, and the TV Audience thinking Tiger was finished, TIGER came through with two huge putts and one lucky shot. On Saturday, his putt on the 13th hole brought back the fond memories of Tiger Woods when he hit the professional scene back in the 1990's. Then, he was able to get a lucky break on the 17th green as he worked through what appeared to be a throbbing knee pain and to chip in the hole from an awkward position. As I continued to watch with my family wondering what Tiger could do on the 18th hole, we began saying he is coming back, but his knee will not hold up. Sure enough he nailed a putt on the 18th to take the lead going into the final round. Tiger now had statistics on his side, as his percentage of winning when leading following the third round is almost a perfect 100%. I thought that Tiger would now coast in for the finish with a decent round, but that did not happen either.

Woods was able to pull off more impossible tasks, and create a roar from the crowd on what could have been his 54th and final hole of the tournament, that may have registered as a small level earthquake. Being from Louisiana and an LSU fan, the roar and the response from the crowd sounded like something that could take place in Death Valley. After Rocco essentially said that you can never count on Tiger messing up, I knew that Rocco Mediate was in for a long 18 hole playoff.

The playoff round was as much fun to watch as the rest of the tournament combined. The golf was far from perfect, but both players managed to play scratch golf. Not only was 54 holes not enough, but 72 holes was not enough either. It took a 73rd hole, hole number 7, to end the tournament. Overall, it was fun to see how much respect the two professional athletes had for each other, and to see how worn out they were as well. I can say that I can't wait for the next US Open or at least the excitement factor that I experienced this weekend.

The Governor

Everyday is a new day filled with at least one first, and today wasn't an exception to the rule. I found out this morning that Governor Bobby Jindal would be in town this afternoon and that he was going to be speaking at LSUA. My grandfather asked me if I wanted to go with him and I decided that I would. The event was in a small conference room and there were less than 100 people in attendance, but it was a unique situation for me. I went with my grandfather on my dad's side of the family, but I managed to sit between both of my grandfathers. I can't say that I have ever had that happen before, and especially not in that setting. One grandfather was there as an elected city official and the other one was there as an appointed state official. It was really neat to hear Mr. Charlie Weems recognize each of the special members in the audience including my grandfather who is on the Board of Regents, but not my other grandfather who is on the local city council. The grandfather who was not recognized by Mr. Weems was absolutely fine with not being recognized, but the first words out of the governor's mouth were that we would also like to welcome Councilman Silver. It was really fun for me to be able to experience such an occasion, and I would have to say that is probably something that is very unique to my family. Both of my grandfathers have served and chaired many of the same boards, and, in fact, have worked on several projects and boards together over the years. I feel very lucky to have both of them as grandfathers. Each has a very interesting personality and other character traits that make them very unique individuals, and I appreciate that about each of them. I also can't even begin to say what the two of them have done for me over the years. I will say the event with the two of them there made it very special. Now back to what made the event special for most people--the governor. He came to announce two capital outlay projects in the works after the first two special sessions and the first regular session. The first is almost a 10 million dollar project for a building at LSUA, and the second is a close to 30 million dollar project for a center to be used for natural disasters or man made disasters. I was very impressed with his ability to speak. He only looked down at his notes when discussing figures and actual names of the buildings. In other words, only when the information was very easy to confuse because he mentioned over ten locations of projects and the amount of each for the Central Louisiana area. Overall, the experience was very unique and entertaining. By the way, I also met the new chancellor of LSUA.

The Current Sauce

The Current Sauce is the organization that I have been the most involved with since entering Northwestern in the Fall of 2007. At first, I was trying to find a job somewhere on campus that would allow me to take pictures. I did find that job. I still work with my journalism job quite often, but now I have something else to do as well. The Current Sauce has become something that provides hours of work, fun and, at the end, a sense of achievement. I started out in the Fall taking photos as a photographer for both the yearbook and the newspaper, but as the semester went on began covering events mainly for the paper. I have nothing against the yearbook and suggest that any new students coming in taking pictures take for both organizations, but I just liked the setup of the paper better than that of the yearbook. I liked the sense of achievement at the end of each week. In the Spring of this year, I became the Photo Editor of the paper. It changed my job by adding the responsibility of finding people to take pictures, cover events and reminding them to turn in the pictures. I am glad that in Fall 2008 I will assume a new role that I will talk about during a later post, but I do like the experience I was able to gain this semester. I feel as if I am rambling, but it doesn't matter because it is a blog. It is also important to point out that the other editors of the paper also made my job much easier by tracking down photographers themselves or in some cases even covering the event by themselves. I thought I would enter college and have trouble finding a way to become involved in publications or student media since I was not a journalism major, but I did not. I encourage people from all majors to consider joining a student media organization for at least one semester in some capacity. The people that you meet will help you in more ways than you can imagine, and the staff that you will be a part of will provide friendship, knowledge and memories that will last a lifetime.

The Red Stick

Today I am in the capital of Louisiana, Baton Rouge. I am going to an event at my aunt's school called Superhero Day. She has been putting on the program in her classes for many years, but I have never seen the program before today. Baton Rouge is much different than Alexandria and Natchitoches. Last night, we went to eat and needed reservations to get in because the place was so busy. Pretty much every restaurant we passed was packed. I would say the restaurants in Baton Rouge have all benefited from Hurricane Katrina. Also, the roads most definitely have more traffic. Traffic is the main reason that I like where I live. (Also, I will use contractions in today's post to appease certain readers) The traffic here is awful to me even when it's supposedly not bad at all. I can't imagine being in such traffic everyday because I would go crazy waiting all of the time; however, I would like the many restaurants and multiple great stores that this city has to offer. So I guess with every larger city there is a price to pay for the extra conveniences and options. Overall, I like the city, but wouldn't like to live here on a daily basis. Later today I will return to the normal life of bad traffic being a line of ten cars, the options of restaurants going from 300 to 50 and about a five to ten cent difference in gas prices, but I will realize that there are many things I love about the small towns I live in within this much larger place we call Earth.

Open Enrollment

Rapides Parish has decided to change all of the high schools to open enrollment. What does open enrollment mean? It means that students can decide which school he/she wishes to attend without regard to any type of zone. But wait, if there is no zone what will happen to the size of different schools? Will athletes be heavily recruited? Will some schools become academic and others sports schools? Will some schools lose all students? I will address each of these to the best of my ability. Please note that I have read the information published and talked/listened to different school personnel discuss the events, but do not guarantee that all of the following information is 100% accurate. If a student applies to attend Bolton High School, he or she will be able to attend Bolton as long as the school has not reached some magic full capacity number set by the schools and school board. If the school is filled, the superintendent has the right to decide which school the student will attend. I think that could cause a nightmare. Athletes may be heavily recruited, but the LHSAA said that parish should develop a system-wide policy that is strict on recruiting. Athletes will be immediately eligible at whatever high school he/she chooses, but if he/she decides to switch schools he/she will lose one year of eligibility. Also for the first year, any and all students will be able to switch high schools and be immediately eligible. One last note, transportation will only be provided to the home school, or the old zoned school. The problem that could arise from this is that if a student moves from one house in Tioga to Alexandria and plays sports for Tioga and rides the bus to school, the student would need to apply to stay at Tioga, which would most likely happen, but most importantly provide his/her own transportation. If he/she decides to switch schools as is normally done when such a move occurs, then he/she would be ineligible to play sports for one year because the bona fide move clause no longer exist since no attendance zone exists. Obviously, just as the case is today, some schools will be better at sports and others have a strong academic side, but I do not think the schools will become divided on the basis of sports and academics alone. Also, no school will lose all enrollment because the rules are setup to prevent this from being possible. I believe that Rapides Parish is in for an interesting year in the high school atmosphere, but I also think it could turn out to be a complete success if the parish stays on top of all rules and regulations. I will say that Bolton is still the best school to send a student to in the parish for academics, extracurricular activities and some sports. Other schools may be the best all round or the best in sports, but no other school can provide the diversity of Bolton. Bolton activities are as diverse as the students that attend the great school. DISCOVER BOLTON- DO MORE- LEARN MORE- BE MORE at Bolton High School. Open House TONIGHT 6:30 pm!

Final Speech

Today is the day that I give my final speech for Communication 1010. It is an entry level class, but one that I think should be the first of a series of required courses to graduate from college. I can not tell you how many events I have been to or seen over my lifetime that have made me want to know how did this person make it so far without being able to speak publically. I will not say that I am great at it, but rather I am above average. I like speaking and it is much better than writing most of the time. One place in particular that I have noticed the lack of public speaking skills is at athletic banquets at schools. I hate to pick on coaches, but that is what I think of when I talk about poor speaking skills. I have only seen one athletic banquet where pretty much every speaker/coach was prepared and spoke well. The other several involved coaches forgetting players names, not writing down anything and sounding less than well-educated. I do not understand how the coaches coach, but can not speak. I realize that coaching is something different and is much less formal, but I would think that speaking and effective communication would be a requirement. Anyway, I will go off of my soapbox and back to why it my communications class should be the first of a series. I believe that the ability to speak in public is crucial to becoming successful in life because it something that will be required of every person at some point on another some place in the world. If every college student took three speech classes, the college graduate would and should be able to comfortably speak in front of a small crowd. Now that I have shared my position, I must go and give my final speech on a topic that may or may not work--yearbooks. I hope that all goes well, but I personally do not like this speech as much as the other four from the class this semester.