Final Blog

It's the final blog of the semester! Even though I fell behind at times, I still managed to write about the required topics, and I  like being able to just write my opinion to news that is going on around me. The best part about the blogs is that it didn't always have to be strictly news related, keeping it open kept it interesting. By having the option to write about the random topics that come into my head made it fun. I think I have expanded my capabilities as a writer, transitioning from writing mostly sports to more real news. I also feel that I have gained the ability to keep my opinion out and back the facts up with quote, and getting my point across quicker as the semester progressed.

The Dream Job

The first channel I learned when I moved in last year, and probably the only channel I have confidently memorized: ESPN.  Watching ESPN and ESPN2 all day gives me the same message and highlights all day, but it is the different presentations of that news and the different opinions that come with this news that cause me to keep watching. It is people like Skip Bayless, Bill Simmons or Mike Greenberg that make sports journalism so intriguing to me.
It is easy to see Skip Bayless or Mike Greenberg on TV in the morning on First Take or Mike & Mike in the Morning, and their outspoken opinionated ways makes me wish that I could have their job. I used to look at guys like Stuart Scott or John Anderson when I was younger doing SportsCenter, thinking they were sports geniuses knowing all the players stats and history off the top of their head. Now I watch these shows and I debate with the analyst in my head, because like every great sports fan we all have our own opinion.

Witt Vs. Woo

When touring the campus as a prospective student one of the key selling points of Wittenberg is how friendly everyone is. I would agree with this (for the most part), being on such a small campus it is hard to know a majority of the people you see while walking around or at least recognize them well enough to give them a courteous "hello".
When the Wooster Fighting Scots bus pulls into Springfield there is something that changes in the air. It is like the students have a sixth sense about the hatred for their rivals and will do anything to talk trash, disrespect or just annoy the piss out of everyone associated with that school up the road.
Admittedly I will participate in the student section chants and rallies to support the Tigers in any way possible. Watching the blowout of a basketball game I watched as the Witt student section slowly diminished throughout the second half.  With the home team on the verge of defeat I stood by and watched the students continue to give no respect to that school up the road, walking through their cheerleaders in the middle of a routine just to be neusence.

Reflection

In the semester change from beginning journalism to advanced journalism I have noticed that the news is more detailed. The type of writing is more in depth and and we are doing more writing the facts and backing them up with the quotes, making the stories a lot longer. Blogging gave me good writing experience even though I fell behind at time. I look at it as if you keep doing something over and over again you will get better. The few days of twitter news that we attempted I did enjoy, because I think it helped me to keep an eye out for what news was going on around me.

Family, Football & Food!

Thanksgiving may be a very underrated holiday throughout the year and amongst many people, but for me it is one of my favorites. I have seemed to find out that I enjoy it more as I have gone off to school, but this is because I realize how much I like going home and I need a break.
The most important part of Thanksgiving to me is the tradition of the holiday. Every year that I can remember we have had the same meal. The stuffing always has apples and raisens, the sweet potato's have marshmallows on them. My brother and I have been known to question the meal if something is changed. 
After a day of hanging out with the family all day, everyone adjourns to the basement and watches football as they had previously done before dinner. The contemplation of  desert doesn't even set into anyone's mind until at least an hour later and by then we are usually waking people up from their "turkey comas".

Just tell them what they want to hear

With all the recent attacks on campus all Wittenberg can do is tell the media as little as possible until they themselves figure out what is going on, but they tell the students a vague story of what happened and reassure us of our safety.
What has happened on campus is very unfortunate for everyone involved, but I feel for everyone sake the university should just come clean and tell us what is going on. They are actually hurting themselves by withholding information.

Story Ideas

For my story ideas the first one I thought of was Why Witt? Asking students why they come to school here, is it because they could play a sport, they like the campus, it is small enough so they wouldn't get lost in the mix, or simply for the good education.
The second story idea I had was more sports related, but is it time for Edwards-Maurer Field to get new turf? I am not one to be on the field on a regular basis, but as a fan, and being able to see the field from my window it looks worn down and faded.
Should club sports get P.E. credit like varsity athletics? There are teams like rugby, hockey and crew that practice everyday and have seasons in the fall and in the spring, but they don't get recognized for their efforts.

I am going to do my story on club sports getting the P.E. credits.

It's Not All The Same Thing!

I was a little bit behind on these blogs, so I am using my fall break to catch up on them. This past weekend I went to the capitol of country music Nashville, Tennessee. It is no question that country music is my favorite hands down. My issue is with all the people that hate  on country music, is they really have no reason to, saying all the songs are about the same thing.
 Country music is not all about your girl leaving you, your dog dying and jacked-up trucks, as much as people want to use that as their argument for their disapproval of it. I had the chance to see three of my favorite country artists in concert, and each guy had something about the way he played country music that made him different and special. The concert that I got to see was Eric Church's Blood Sweat and Beers show with Kip Moore and Justin Moore.
 Opening the show was Kip Moore a bluesy country artist with a raspy voice that allows him take part in this storytelling roll both during his songs and his shows. I think that in country music, storytelling is really what it is all about. Each artist meshed really well with one another, as each performer brought their own style to the stage. Justin Moore is more of your backwoods country artist, but listening to his songs I think his twang and deep country roots could lead him to be like George Straight type artist. Songs like "Small Town USA" and "Backwoods" shows Justin Moore's appreciation of where he comes from, and how he is able to stay humble through fame.
The main event did not disappoint, as Eric Church took the stage his persona of country music outlaw was seen by the skulls and American flags on his backdrops. Eric Church like the other two his a completely different way to him, and I will try to write this part without bias, because I would say he is my favorite artist. Eric Church is just your typical country outlaw; not wanting to follow the crowd of people like Jason Aldean or Luke Bryan. Church has been known to call out acts like Jason Aldean in his song "Lotta Boot Left to Fill".
Church isn't all rough around the edges like he and most would like to think. With his most recent, and most popular single "Springsteen" I think Eric Church has also release the modern day "Jack and Diane" that most of our parents loved by John Cougar Mellencamp. There is something about that song, no matter where you are, or what type of music you listen to, something comes over you and you can't help but sing along.
Kip Moore- Crazy One More Time
Justin Moore- Small Town USA
Eric Church- Springsteen

Dude... What are you doing?

I know it is a little late to be talking about the vice presidential debate, but with the big guns in action again it is only fitting to recap what happened most recently. Before I get into my review of the "Busch League" debate put on between Vice President Biden and Senator Paul Ryan. It should have been obvious for any liberal that even though I don't see why having the vice president candidates debate is so important, they should realize they needed a big performance from their corner.
After a less than satisfactory performance in the first debate by President Obama. Vice President Biden only seemed to add to the damage done from the first debate. I am not writing this in a bashing manner of the liberals at all. I am just simply pointing out the fact that the behavior that VP Biden displayed in the latest debate was just simply, MARLARKEY  as he would say. With his ignorant smirks, and his arrogant laughter, during Senator Ryan's responses.
As a conservative I wouldn't say that the way Paul Ryan went through the debate sipping his water, and tip-toeing his way around answers at points was best it could be. He was just being smart and playing it safe after his partner had gained the campaign a solid lead after the first debate. The Republican party had to breathe a sigh of relief, because even though some of Biden's responses may have come across better, his attitude and demeanor killed him.
Tonight's debate should be interesting to watch, to see if President Obama can do some quality control on behalf of his vice president.

SEC Football. NFL on Saturdays?

This past weekend I had the opportunity to experience Southeastern Conference football for just the second time live; when I got to see the #5 Florida Gators take on the Commodores of Vanderbilt University.I have experienced other college games, but none stack up, because with the SEC it will be the closest thing you will get to seeing NFL type play on Saturday.


Everyone seems to have their favorite conference with their style of play. Whether it be the Big 10 with its hard-nosed type play, running it up the gut with the "ground and pound" type offenses.  The Big 12 where it seems like defense is optional most weeks, and they allow mediocre quarterbacks like Geno Smith to consistently pass for 500+ yards with 5 touchdowns (sorry for the opinion on Geno, but I don't think he deserves on the Heisman talk he gets) in a shootout where the final score is sixty something to fifty something game.
With the SEC you are most likely to get a pro-style offense, but also in the south is where you get the best the recruits. The past three out of five Heisman trophy winners have come out of the Southeastern Conference all of them leading their respected team to the national title game that same year. The SEC has also put out six straight BCS National Champions. The latest national championship game was a first as the two teams playing were Alabama and LSU both from the SEC, and both from the western division of the SEC.

With all the conference shifts, trying to form a mega-conference for both football and basketball. I don't see anything changing in the SEC they have the territory locked up for both sports. With every kid in the south wanting to play fooball at prestigious programs like LSU, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, or South Carolina.

Drinking... The Wittenberg Way.

Everyone on the Wittenberg campus is familiar with both its drinking and partying habits. For the students who choose to participate it is usually a three night a week activity, every Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. Drinking isn't for everyone, but for the people who do I think they should be smart in how they go about their business while drinking. The Wittenberg drinking tradition was shown this weekend during Homecoming when the alumni came back to celebrate, and relive their college years for one weekend. Hearing of the stories from the old days on campus from the alumni goes to show that campus traditions have not changed much throughout the years.

Blogging Going Big Time

Blogging has taken off in recent years, as it has given normal people and journalist alike the chance to share their opinions on issues. Blogs also give people a chance to share their stories of their workplaces and ideas to make it better. My mom actually started blogging before I did, because she is an elementary school teacher back in Cincinnati. She just gets on a few times a week and writes stories and ideas about what has happened in her classroom, and she actually has a decent amount of followers that she communicates with and follows that are other teachers around the country. This makes blogging interesting, because it gets news, ideas and opinion's out onto the web right away.

Wittenberg: Liberal or Conservative?

Everyone know that Wittenberg is Liberal Arts school coming in, but this doesn't mean that everyone on campus is a liberal. There are a few conservatives within the crowd, but they are few and far between it seems. With so many students and faculty preaching the liberal way, I feel that it makes any conservative student feel hesitant to speak their mind on issues at hand. Walking through halls and parking lot the campaign signs favor Obama. It is in the classroom when professors are supposed to play devils advocate and let students see both sides of the campaign, but instead they don't they praise their preferred candidate, and bash on the qualities of the opponent. This leads to an unfair judgement by students of the presidency candidates, because as we have talked about before few students pay enough attention to the news to know what is going on, so they just listen to their biased parents, professors, and friends. I am not saying all the professors are bad at showing who they are voting for, but I think they should remember that freshman and sophomore students are still making up their minds and are very easy influence, so they should take into consideration how much they portray their political views.

Piracy amongst the students

This is my next story idea. I was sitting in my Media Literacy class today, and the professor started talking about piracy. When she brought this topic up she was talking about movies mostly, but we have talked about music too. This got me thinking about how much Wittenberg students are stealing from the internet compared to just buy from Itunes or Amazon. I have heard from different people saying if they like the artist then they will buy their music, but other than that they will just steal it. Personally I have been an active participant on both sides. I used to buy all my music from Itunes or CD's, because then I would be able to share my music with other people, or have the CD in my car. Then I found out how to download music from the internet last year, and that worked out well until my hard drive cracked, and my computer has never been the same. The biggest issue with music piracy on campus is using the Wittenberg wireless to do the downloading. I know of students that have received the warning letters for illegal downloading, and if they were to get caught again they would be kicked off the wireless.

Lee Brice Concert Preview

I saw in the last Torch issue that country artist Lee Brice was going to be performing at Clark State this Thursday. I knew last time I wanted to cover the Darius Rucker concert all it took was an email, so I Googled his publicist, and started emailing people explaining who I was and what I do for the Torch. The next day I received a response, saying I would have tickets and press passes, but unlike last time they would be unable to accommodate an interview.    
Lee Brice has come on the country music scene in a big way over the past two years. After leaving the Clemson Tigers football team due to injury. In his time spent in the industry Brice has released two CD's "Love Like Crazy" and most recently "Hard to Love". Each of his three singles has made it onto the Billboard music chart, and climbing to number one was his second release "A Woman Like You". The concert starts at 7:30pm, and ticket prices range from $16 to $25.

Safety on Campus

For my semester story I am going to see how safe campus really is to how safe we students think it is. There have been different incidents on campus that students hear about as rumors, but they never get reported either in the Witt Alerts, or just in The Torch. I plan on talking to people that have had an issue with "townies", and any other crime on campus or times that they haven't felt safe. I also planned on talking to professors, because they live in Springfield with their families, so it could be interesting to get their perspective on the people around them.

The one thing I would want to do on here after I start writing the article is start writing how it compares to be on other campuses. I know that being in downtown Cincinnati is obviously not a safe place to be, but what is it really like compared to like Wittenberg, since Cincinnati is so big. They just have a larger group of criminals to pull from to mess with the students. Then there are campuses like Miami (Oxford) where you can do basically anything, because the only people surrounding that campus are farmers.

Talking Trash in College Football

The fact that Missouri is coming into the SEC this season is a great change for both parties. The only problem is defensive end Sheldon Richardson of Mizzou  is coming into his first SEC game talking about Georgia. I have a problem with this, because the SEC has won 6 straight national titles and yet this kid makes the comment saying they were playing like old men out there. I don't mind talking trash in sports, but realize the right time to do it and the right team to do it. Richardson also made these comments at the worst possible timing, which was before the game; just giving the Bulldogs more time to get hyped, and giving them more reason to go into Mizzou and run all over the Tigers. To cap of the stupid comments that Richardson made; he added on "if we produce no one can stop us". As just an everyday listener this automatically makes me think, as an offense if we can produce no one can stop us, but these comments came from a defensive player. If I were on the offensive side of the ball for the Tigers I would be pretty ad at Sheldon Richardson right now, because he just pissed off one of the best teams in the country, and he put some extra pressure on them by saying they can't be stopped if they produce.So, save the trash talking for on the field, where you can actually produce Sheldon Richardson

Free Fantasy Football?

Fantasy football has become one of the few reasons I even watch the NFL anymore. The fact that my friends from back home take our league so serious might be an issue. We have had our league for five years now, and even as high school students it was still a $20 buy in, and as of 3 years ago the league champion got "The Trophy". It doesn't seem like a lot of money, only $20, but for a bunch of high school and now college kids, the league champ can walk away with a decent chunk of change. This also gives the team managers to stay active with their teams, and in the league. I say this, because I had to go to draft my dad's team for him this past weekend, and he is in a FREE league.


Free leagues are fun if you have never played before, or if you just want extra teams outside of your regular league. It is all "just for fun", is what my dad tried to tell me. I understand that it is fun, but you need to have a reason to keep you coming back. There needs to be a reason to check your team each week.

Politics on a College Campus

Everyone has their opinion on politics on a college campus, yet when students are asked how much they follow; most of them answered with not very much. This confuses me, because if your going to make such a big deal promoting one political party or trash another, shouldn't you at least be informed  on the issues at hand. Instead what I notice most students doing is taking things they have heard other people say, and just repeat that, and usually misquoting the original phrase.
The coming of age to vote should be very important for most college students. The only thing is from what I have seen is that, these people aren't making the decisions for themselves on what party to join. They are simply just voting on whoever their parents have talked about all the years they have been are. This can't be the biggest complaint that I have, because at least these people are voting. If you vote then you have the right to complain about political issues.

When do the Patriots start?

The Boston Red Sox and Los Angles Dodgers completed a nine player trade freeing up about a quarter of a billion dollars in salary over the next five years. Departing from Boston will be four starters in first baseman Adrian Gonzales,  pitcher Josh Beckett, outfielder Carl Crawford and third baseman Nick Punto. The Dodgers will send over first baseman James Loney, relief pitcher Rubby De La Rosa, pitcher Allen Webster, second baseman Ivan De Jesus, and outfielder Jerry Sands.

For the time being this trade may have saved first year Red Sox coach Bobby Valentine's job. Only seven games under .500 the Sox are still sitting 13.5 games out of first in fourth place in the American League East with little hope of making the postseason. With both teams giving up so much, and Boston giving up the big names. People are to wonder if this was a good trade. 

For the Dodgers it seems like it will be the better deal, because they still have a chance to win the division in the National League West. Being only two games out of first place behind the San Francisco Giants. The Dodgers have made some smart baseball moves this season, trading for outfielder Shane Victorino and shortstop Hanley Ramirez. Adding the big four from Boston, should give the Dodgers the power and depth to make a considerable run through the postseason. They are already a favorite for the Wild Card if they can't take the division from San Francisco. 

Unloading the big contracts to L.A. in some ways could have been good for Boston. Carl Crawford was always dealing with injuries, and Josh Beckett seemed to struggle for a lot of the time he was in the American League. With those big guys gone it will wipe the slate clean in a sense, and take all the distractions surrounding the clubhouse away.

Advanced News Writing. I have high hopes for this class this semester. With everything that I learned last semester in my intro class, and working on The Torch; this should be a good step forward in getting me to becoming a sports journalist someday. The blogging this semester is what seems the most interesting, as long as we get to pick the topics we write about. I know that I need to widen my variety of writing to more than just sports, but it is what interests me. There are a lot of new changes going on around the campus, and it will be interesting to write about those, and getting the students opinions. This is what makes journalism so interesting to me, and part of the reason I am pursuing it as a career, because there is always new things to write about and changing, and it is always interesting.