Not a good Monday for paper sales

Cutter's Log - Stardate 9002.22.40
Current Song - TPIR Theme

It was not a good day for Gazette sales at work on Monday.

Out of the 25 we got that day, we only sold 6.

Here's the shocking part ...

We sold 11/11 Chicago Tribunes, 7/7 Chicago Sun-Times', 4/5 Quad City Times', and 5/7 USA Todays. In the three years I've been counting newspapers at work, this has never happened. No wonder why the Journal-Standard cut Mondays.

Highland Writing Complete

Cutter's Log - Stardate 9002.71.40
Current Song - Peg (Steely Dan)

I sent in my last Highland Chronicle piece and pics just now. All I have left to do is put together my portfolio.

I added another ICCJA Award to my brief list of accomplishments. I got Honorable Mention for best sports story. It was the one on the Volleyball team. You can see that HERE, and click on "October" and scroll down until you find it. I drove to Clinton to do that story, so it paid off. That is paired with my 2nd place in 2007. I felt that if I went to more Highland events than what I did, I may have done a better job writing.

That was my plans for today. I'm bored until 4:00 p.m. now.

One Last Piece

Cutter's Log - Stardate 9002.41.40
Current Song - More Than Words (Extreme)

There is only one more piece for the Chronicle left to be written. I've got almost all of the copy editing done for everyone else. It is due on Thursday. After that, no more articles! Just sitting back and doing nothing the duration of the semester. One chapter will end, and another will begin. Well, actually, I'm not writing any more JUCO sports after this article. It will be off to Sauk, where I registered for two Internet courses.

I can't wait to get this burden off of my back. No, I'm not hating the industry, but JUCO sports and monthly features are not my thing. Give me the gamer, sports news piece and historical recap any day. No more un-needed trips 45 miles away for a sports picture, or an interview. It will save me on gas money. Maybe the savings account will grow.

I'm tired right now. I've been up 27 hours. The body can't take it anymore these days.

Happy Easter!

Cutter's Log - 9002.21.40
Current Song - Tired of Being Alone (Al Green)

I've got my mind wrapped around the NISB Honor Roll at the moment. Check it out on the Message Boards.

I got a rare opportunity to work at another Shell station on Wednesday night. I closed at the Shell on Rt. 30 in Rock Falls. The chores were no different, but the paperwork was 180 degrees. I would fill in there again if given the chance.

It turned out to be a much-needed payroll boost. I only worked two days last week. I'm only doing three nights this week, and three nights the next week: 15, 17, 18 & 20, 22, 24.

There's not much else to write in the blog as of late. Nothing drastic has happened. But I did win $50 on a scratch-off ticket Saturday morning at the Rt. 30 station. That $50 will be going into the savings account. I want to try to see how long I can go without withdrawing from it.

I've had this in my head

Cutter's Log - Stardate 9002.08.04
Current Song - Silly Love Songs (Paul McCartney)

I know NISB isn't doing so well. I'm not able to get around to everywhere I want to. For the first time I'm realizing that I really can't focus on such a large area. But I love northern Illinois too much to abandon it.

Work (my real work at Shell) and college classes have made it difficult for me to travel all over. The traffic on the site has also decreased since I can't cover a whole lot. Now, I really want to remain a prep sportswriter, and not be know as a gas station clerk. I don't want to do that for the rest of my life. The job economy looks bleak around here, unless I can punch something out.

Since I'm most familiar with online journalism, I want to start looking at online sites. There are a lot out there; some I've helped out with too. But I want to start local, and work my way out. Before I started NISB, I wrote a lot about Sterling, Rock Falls, Newman and Dixon sports. The sites I worked for have since evolved into their own entities.

I want to see if either the Sterling or Rock Falls sites are interested in hiring me to write for them (as an indy contractor). It doesn't matter which school, really, but I can't do both. It's something I like to do as long as I got paid for it. $20 an article for six days would almost equal my week's pay at Shell.

Blog Under Construction

Cutter's Log - Special Entry

Sometimes I fail to realize that "open book" people like me get some flack for saying EVERYTHING.

I've had this #35's Waste of Space for almost four years (4/28/2005). In this blog-journal I mention a lot of things that happened during the particular day. After I found out I had Asperger's Syndrome, I like to think my life is an open book. I used to be very closed up, and a lot of people didn't know a whole lot about what I was thinking.

The WoS journal (this) is one of the ways I communicate with people, since I have such a hard time speaking to them. Still, there are a lot of people that don't understand why I use this as a means of communication.

I met up with a former co-worker of mine the other day. He noticed his name was mentioned in this blog. He didn't like that fact that I mentioned him. That's completely alright. I told him I fail to realize that there are certain things people like to keep private, while I type it in here. He did a Google search of his name, and found this blog.

There are a lot of names in this blog. The first full name you'll find after this entry is "Woody Paige." However, a Google search for Woody Paige will turn up thousands and thousands of results. He is a sports columnist for the Denver Post, as well as a panelist on Around the Horn. But the people I know personally are eventually going to find their name on this blog.

So I'm going to go back and take out the last names of all the people I know - and I want the web crawlers to go through this real fast.

I even had to destroy complete entries.


So, if I mentioned your full name on my blogs in the past, I sincerely apologize. I just didn't realize the perspective from the other point of view. I will just put first names of the people I know on here for now on.

Is that alright, let me know. Thanks.

He said What?

Cutter's Log - Stardate 9002.13.30.
Current Song - Right Place Wrong Time (Dr. John)


I wanted to cover a high school sports news event today.


I couldn't make it to the meeting in time, so I sent the president of the oragnization an e-mail asking for the results of the meeting. There was some pretty important stuff going down. I prefered to send an e-mail because the meeting was closed. It was closed because they wanted to shut out the media (they CAN do this; they're exempt from the Open Meeting's Act). They shut out the media because of fear of misquoting.


The best way to prevent that "fear of misquoting" is to ask questions via e-mail.


So I get an e-mail back.


The person asks me to call him.


Nothing angers me more than this when it comes to interviewing. I have an e-mail signature requesting that the best way to prevent miscommunication is to reply to e-mails.

I don't understand the verbal preference. There's too much fooling with grammar and speed talk. Heck, I can't bode well in conversation. Communicating via e-mail doesn't have me going, "uhhh, uhhh ...." It doesn't look good for me if I come along sounding like an idiot.

Now I would have no problem calling people back if I had a speakerphone, but I don't have one. I have found it extremely difficult to wrap my recorder around my phone and record what comes out of the earpiece. I also have difficulty writing down things from ear to paper. I write very slow, and if I try to write fast, I can't read my own writing. And I NEVER want to write down the WRONG thing(s).

So I have to stick to using e-mail to communicate. But they rather have me call.

Plus, I wouldn't have this problem if I were at a newspaper. But since I run a website on my own, they all want to know who the hell I am!!!

The new things I try

Cutter's Log - Stardate 9002.92.30
Current Song - Always Something There to Remind Me (Naked Eyes)

I spent some time looking through my old blog entries tonight. I was amazed about the things I said. A lot of "I'm not going to survive"s and such. Well, I'm still at Shell and still liking Highland for now.

So I brought back the Track and Field Honor Roll. It's something I helped do on NCIpreps a long while back. It's probably the 20th new concept I created for NISB, and about 18 of them blew up at the start.

I've rethought the Bits and Pieces series over and over again.

Talkin' Times

Cutter's Log - Stardate 9002.82.30
Current Song - You Know What to Do (The Beatles)

As a free agent sportswriter, I like to keep up to date on job openings at newspapers. The openings are very hard to come by as of late. However, I found this one ...


Title: Preps Sports Reporter
Location: IA - Davenport
Job Type: News
Division: Quad-City Times
Status: Regular

Description: Quad-City Times Preps Sports Reporter

The Quad-City Times (51,000 daily, 68,000 Sunday), part of the Lee Enterprises chain, is seeking a multipurpose sports journalist who has solid reporting skills and can report for the print paper and the Web.

We are seeking a sports reporter who will devote most of his or her time to covering local high school sports. This is an area in which we place heavy emphasis and consider some of our most important beats. High school teams in the area routinely compete, and win, in state championships in Illinois and Iowa, so our readers expect superior coverage.

The ideal candidate for this job needs to be able to report for our print newspaper and our ever-growing qcvarsity.com site. Online and multimedia knowledge is required. This reporter also must have a hunger for enterprise journalism and exploring new ways of telling stories, whether it is online or in print.

We are in a diverse, two-state, sports-oriented metro area of about 400,000 people that is three hours from the nearest major league sports city but within five hours of six of them. We are just 50 miles from the University of Iowa, have minor-league franchises in several sports and are home to a PGA tournament and the largest non-marathon road race in the Midwest.

Qualified candidates should have a bachelor's degree and possibly some daily newspaper experience.

It's been a couple of years since they last had an opening for a writer.

This is a newspaper that is heavy on the new media. They do a lot of video (hey, I did that), photographs (hey, I did that), articles (hey, I do that), blogs (hey, I also do that), and some radio appearances (currently a one-hit wonder). The QC Times is one of those papers that I always expressed freelancing for if the opportunity came. But, folks, this isn't a freelance position.

This is full-time.

I would have to leave Shell. I'd also have to drive to and from Davenport on a daily basis. That is, unless I somehow, miracously, found a place to stay in the Quads. With the scant $400 I have saved up, dream on! Plus, this isn't like working for SVN. I hear the work hours are mostly during the day, with the usual gamer done quick.

Another source tells me they may be eying for nearby applicants.

Do I send in my resume yet?

To let you know how scarse prep reporting positions are, it's one of few in the nation. So many prep sportswriters are out of work, so they are probably swamped with applications. It would be interesting just to send one in, only to see how far up the ladder I would get. That is, before I would have to back down.

Yes, you're going to have to count me out for the QC Times gig.

Commuting to Davenport and back forces me to suspend my college studies. I'm 16 hours away from getting my Associate's. Plus, the job suggests a bachelor's. I'm already long-delayed. I can't even transfer to another institution because of residency requirements for the A.A. That's the biggest factor. So it seems I'm real stuck until I get out of Sauk. The only gig I'll consider at this moment is one from SVN - but they haven't offered one in five years.

It's too bad, I think I would have liked it there. Hopefully they'll call back in 2010.

Having the Internet Back is Awesome!

Cutter's Log - Stardate 9002.72.30
Current Song - FM (Steely Dan)

The trip to Tucson felt better because I knew I would get the Internet at home finally. I mean, I'm gone for a week. Isn't this how surprises are supposed to brew?

I was able to get caught back up a few things, such as:

*Uploading my photographs on MySpace, as well as updating my MySpace
*Writing about Tucson
*Downloading my NISB articles onto CDs
*Organizing my computer

and that's it so far.

I've still got to update the Goers-Pingatore win tracker (and not bloody again till November!), and find the college-bound athletes. I've also undertaken a class-system project. My Facebook needs updating, too.

TUSCON ... The Vacation

Cutter's Log - Stardate 9002.26.30
Current Song - Jack and Jill (Raydio)

I returned from a 6-day trip to Tucson on Saturday afternoon.

I'm going to put here an account of what I did down there. But first I'm going to tell about the journey there.

I woke up at 2:45 AM on March 16 and left for Quad City Airport at 3:30. The flight was set to take off at 6:20. I wasn't worried about flying as much as I was about my baggage. The screening process wasn't all that bad. I was worrying about it being lost.

As a larger person, I had a difficult time buckling up. It took me up until just before take off to get myself in. I looked out the window the entire flight, and tried to identify the cities below me (I only got Des Moines right - I thought Omaha was Kansas City, and Ottumwa was actually Riverside.) The thought of throwing up didn't come up.

The layover in Denver was interesting. My Uncle Randy was departing to D.C. a couple of hours after I was. We had breakfast at a place called Pour la France. I picked up a Denver Post, read the Woody Paige piece, and completed by NCAA bracket somewhere above New Mexico.

Grandpa and Grandma were so excited to see me, and vice versa. It is so dry there! We got to their place, in a neighborhood called San Carlos Place. They live in a gues house, in the back of a full-sized house. We talked about things back home, gave them our newspaper (and my QC). Our first trip was to downtown Tucson to see the historical sites. Some of the things we saw were the Presidio, the La Placita, the older part of Tucson, the Hotel Congress, the Cup Cafe, and a couple of others. We also walked down Fourth Street, which is a University hangout (I think). We had dinner at a place called Magpies. The place has been voted the best pizza for 20 years running.

We went to a White Sox spring training game on Tuesday. Well, they were the visiting team. The Diamondbacks were the hosts. I packed with me some baseball cards to get signed. I notched two signatures: Ozzie Guillen (on my 1997 Collector's Choice) and Wilson Betemit (on my 2000 Fleer Tradition). I almost got AJ Peryzinski to sign. It was a very good game, going into extras before a wild pitch by Lance Broadway sent in the winning D-Back run.

We also walked around the University of Arizona part of Tuesday. There is also a huge used bookstore called Bookmans. Every book there is used, and priced half-off the cover. I bought 8 books, and 1 of them was a fiction book. I never, never read fiction. I can picture my mother living in this store. There is also a pass through the mountains called Gate's Pass. The sunset is really beautiful there. Dinner was at a place called Tiny's. It used to be a saloon at one time.

Wednesday was spent at Mount Lemmon. Tucson is 3/4 surrounded my mountains. This is the most accessible one going up. We had a picnic up there with Daggwood sandwiches (just like the comic strip). I called back home from the top. Before we went to Lemmon, we went to the transportation museum in downtown.

Thursday was a very good day. We went to the Tucson-Sonora Desert Museum. It is an environmental museum filled with animals, plants, birds, and many walking trails. My skin was about to turn bad as we walked around. Not too far from the desert is Old Tucson. That's where many old westerns were filmed, such as McClintock. The Three Amigos was also filmed there, as well as The High Chaparall. We also went to one of the Indian Casinos, Desert Diamond. I didn't do as good as the past weekend's run in East Peoria. Dinner was at a place called the Depot, which I didn't know had karakoke night - as it pained my ears.

We spent most of Friday at the Pima Air and Space Museum. The place is HUGE! It has Ike's post-WWII to pre-presidency airplane, Kennedy and Johnson's Air Force One, and many military fighting planes. There are over 100 planes outside, and another 100 I think in a few hangars. The hangars also included some Air Force history. There was also the Space part of the museum, which documents the history of space travel. I wrote a paper in seventh grade science class about space travel history, so it interested me a lot. There was better music for our final dinner of the trip. We went to Las Cazulitas, where a live Marachi band was playing.

Saturday I bid goodbye to my grandparents and headed back home though Denver again.

Tucson is a very big city, much bigger that I thought. There were a lot of things I wanted to do, but was unable to. I want to go back one day. But my grandparents, who btw live there for three months, are looking at another place to spend the winter at.

Nevertheless, this will go down as one of the best weeks of my life.

Pictures will come soon, I promise. I got the Internet back at home (WOO-HOO!!!!!!) and need to get caught up on everything.

If you want to know more about my vacation, go ahead and ask.

TUCSON PICTURES - http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewPicture&friendID=22721799&albumId=2692130

TUSCON

Cutter's Log - Stardate 9002.21.30
Current Song - Jet Airliner (Steve Miller Band)

I'm going to concentrate on preparing tor Tuscon after I post this.
You won't hear from me for a while.

See ya!

I'll Just Stay Silent For Now

Cutter's Log - Stardate 9002.91.20
Current Song - Beautiful Stranger (Madonna)

I'm going to take some time away from my blog. That way no one will know what I'm thinking about.

When I Know The Economy is Bad

Cutter's Log - Stardate 9002.61.20
Current Song - I Was Made to Love Her (Stevie Wonder)

I live a fairly spend-happy life. I find it hard to refrain from spending too much.

The trips to Freeport and eating fast-food made me gain weight. I flew through the Sunday papers at work. The usual manufacturer coupons were not there. Only Walgreen's had coupons, and there was hardly anything worth buying. A can of Campbells Soup costs 69 cents.

At Sauk, I can heat up the can of soup in a microwave and walk 20 feet to a computer. At Highland, I have to walk to another building and back to use a microwave. I wonder if I should try this.

At least I'm worked a lot of hours last week. I'm expecting at least a $250 check on Wednesday. More than half of that will be toward car insurance, plus a QC Times renewal. I'm also expecting $50 from Johnson Oil for passing a sting op. That's three weeks of fillups (including a $25 Mystery Shop pass). The remainder will be divyed between savings and carry money.

Next week I'm down to three days: Friday, Saturday and Sunday. I'm now starting work one hour later due to a payroll cut. Less than 20 hours next week. That's after I asked for Saturday off! I don't like this double whammy. When springtime comes, I'm going to have to sell some of my things. Taxes are coming up, as well as the summer semester in May.

Work seems to be going okay. I left tonight at 12:17 - one of my quickest times thus far. No tensions have popped up lately. Although I want to get as many hours as possible before I leave for Tucson. I don't expect more than four days next week. I don't expect to work Saturday, because I want to go to Penguin's with Mema and Jess. BTW - I'm not getting paid for this vacation. I have to work a full year before I get vacation pay.


Update to previous Entry

I accidentally deleted everything I edited. Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck!!!!!!

Copy Editing is a BITCH!

Cutter's Log - Stardate 9002.51.20
Current Song - You Haven't Done Nothing (Stevie Wonder)

Converting English papers to journalism style is difficult. Quote structure is horrible. Run-on sentences run wild.

I'm going to format my edits onto Word 2007 today. I'm either doing this at Sauk or Highland, depending on the observance of Presidents Day (AP book says no apostrophe). If Sauk is closed because of the holiday, I'm calling Highland and asking if they have it. If not, I'm going up there do to edits. While I'm there, I may as well talk to Sam about this plan.

I stayed up last night, oh, about five hours overnight just trying to find errors. They were THAT BAD! I even had to go back to Shell and get a pop to stay awake.

I only hope everyone will understand where I'm coming from. I plan on actually lecturing the class on Tuesday. I just hope I can make it through the night. There's a Highland basketball double-header Tuesday night I have to go to.

They're NOT ENGLISH PAPERS!!!!!

Don't Try it On Me

Cutter's Log - Stardate 9002.31.20
Current Song - Love Is (Herb Alpert)

Sometime this week I was stung by a compliance check. I stung back by not giving smokes to the bastard. There is a prize for this depending on what it was for: if it was a Johnson Oil compliance check, it is a $25 bonus, and if it is a state or city check it is a $50 bonus. That's on top of passing the store's monthly customer compliance last month. It will sure pay for gasoline the next two-three weeks!

I'm being given four days off after Sunday. I'm working three straight from Friday to Sunday. I think I'll go to the River Ridge 1A girls Sectional on Thursday.

I'm also trying to get the 28th of February off - friends want me to go to the comedy club with them.

Horoscopes

Cutter's Log - Stardate 9002.21.20
Current Song - Pray (M.C. Hammer)

Once in a while I'll try the lottery out. That's what happens when you work at a gas station I guess. The elderly couple that plays every night use something called a Lottery Bible, and once in a while they'll use a certain horoscope they get at Kmart. [AP Stylebook says no hyphen on the store.] It comes in a thin, five-inch tall tube and costs $2.50.

This particular horoscope (I'm a Taurus) has the month's lucky numbers, a "super number", Pick 3 and 4 numbers for the month, lucky playing cards and lucky color. For each day, there are three symbols that describe the major accents for the day.

Today is February 12th (in case you don't understand how the log date works).

"New colleagues or tasks make a job wish come true. You solve a difficult puzzle by asking for a friend's advice. Reaching out actually draws you closer to a compatible person or group. Banish self-doubts now!"

Major accents: "Friends, goals, hopes and wishes, socializing, groups" - "Work, co-workers, service to others, health, fitness" - "behind-the-scenes, secrets, solitude, ESP" (this one's icon is reversed, which means less favorable).

I was actually planning on doing sentence two today! The past couple days have nearly been accurate too! I can't say the same about the 3 and 4 numbers.

Today is Abraham Lincoln's 200th Birthday. I celebrated today by buying five of his scratch-off tickets.

The Maturity Gap

Cutter's Log - Stardate 9002.11.20
Current Song - Don't Walk Away (Jade)

I act like I'm in my 50s, but I'm only 22. Everyone I know that's in the 20's acts like they are in their 20s.

When Ging asked about why the boards were slow, I couldn't help but think of my actions as moderator. The board attracts people over 30, and those under 30 are heistant to post. Maybe it's because the practices I preach are not liked by the 20s, but are okay with the 30+'s.

It's simple - the board will collapse if the 20somethings run amok on it. The NISB boards have a certain amount of respect and class - which is something the younger generation just doesn't seem to understand. There actually are quite a bit of young people who get it.

I do not think respect and class are hard things to abide by or understand. If people have a problem with it, chances are they want to say something that's untrue and possibly demeaning. Some people don't want to abide by these standards because they want their belief to be the truth, but they don't know reality. Some people want to make degrading comments for their own personal satisfaction and fun. They don't know that high school sports is a serious business.

Haven't Quit Yet, But I'm Looking

Cutter's Log - Stardate 9002.90.20
Current Song - Hey Nineteen (Steely Dan)

Things get worse and worse for me at work. My day was going extremely well until I lifted up the rug in front of the register area.

It's a fact that the rugs are a piece of crap, but this is one step further. Our rugs are red with a type of black rough rubber to keep from sliding. The rubber had turned into black dust. So there was a rectangle of black dust that I had to sweep up.

I get the mop. There's nothing where the black rectangle used to be. Sure enough, the mop head turns pitch black. I tried to sweep all of it, and of course there's always some left on the floor that can't be seen.

The rest of the store has to be mopped yet. I'm out of mop heads. The black one can't be bleached out. If I don't mop the store Mary's going to kill me.

I place a call to the North End store, and they too are out. First Avenue is also out. I had to drive all the way to Route 30 to get one. That means I had to lock the store up, drive 3 miles to get a mop head and drive back to mop the store. The security tape is running, and it may seem like "what the hell is Cody locking up and unlocking for?"

My days are numbered.

Pretty soon I'll be one of those statistics on the unemployment lists.

I'm trying to figure out if this is a specific horrible experience. I never had these down moments when I worked for Janyce and Manjit. I never had a problem with Jayantial. I did have some issues with Ghanshyam, but they were mostly with consenquence. Mary, for some reason, I can't work out with. Maybe it's because people like Kathy and Mr. Johnson keep a huge watch on their stores. So, yeah, I guess I said it - I liked Jay more than Mary.

But I'm not going back to BP because the way I left still resonates.

Maybe I can settle for a transfer to North End, First Avenue (I'd be the only man I think) or Route 30. Heck, I may even consider working the overnight shift at the Oregon station; and I once worked at a job with a long commute (Crest). I still think Johnson Oil is a good place to work for, but this East End thing gets nuts after a while.


Cutter's Log - Stardate 9002.11.20

A couple days ago one of my regular customers stayed to visit for two-and-a-half hours. Sometimes I think Joe is crazy. He said Blago owned the steel mill and was born in Rock Falls. Ailens came down and told the Mayans about the world ending in 2012.

I should ask him if he's heard of Art Bell or George Noory of Coast 2 Coast radio.

He stayed until 11:45 and nearly all my chores were not done.

I didn't feel as bad that night as I did on Monday.

Good Morning

Cutter's Log - Stardate 9002.50.20
Current Song - Stoned Soul Picnic (The 5th Dimension)

Tuesday's guest in class was the Freeport Journal-Standard managing editor.

Petermann came to class to talk about journalism and all that. We asked him questions about the newspaper biz and such. I asked him a question about the future of local newspaper column writing, because it seems to be a lost art. He told me that there were likely to be no more "Mike Royko's" out there anymore because they are getting too boring to read.

But I was going to do this in sports, which is a different animal from news division. Petermann asked if I could send him a few of my columns to look over. I spent the entire time after class preparing my columns and e-mailing them to him. I was supposed to go to Forreston for a game, but did this instead.

While I was doing this I realized I was behind in my Chronicle work. Thus I had to also axe my plans to see the Rockford Christian-Indian Creek girls game tonight. But I'm still planning on going to the Little Ten finals on Friday in Somonauk.

I'm writing my "Bits and Pieces" article today. It's one of four you'll see in the Chronicle. The other three are a men's basketball bio, and men's and women's Region IV previews. The really stinky thing about this issue is that it comes out on the day before the R-IV championship. So there's a possibility that a team's season may be over with before the issue gets released. And it's all because we decided not to do a February issue.

My deadline is February 11 and I haven't written anything yet.

I can't remember, but I think I mentioned in an earlier entry that I was going to be Copy Editor instead of Associate Editor. I am planning on using the Associated Press (AP) Stylebook for copy edits. Sam thought this was a good idea, but Marques frowned upon it. He says since we are a student newspaper, we should write our own way. The fact is, we are not supposed to be writing blog entries, research papers or persuasive essays. We are writing news stories. That is why there is a seperate class for news writing.


Days Off

I have a habit of putting days off well in advance. I put off the next three Saturdays a couple months ago. I had to change my plans for next Saturday since we'll be short - so there goes the girls bowling tournament. The next two Saturdays are Individual Wrestling @ Champaign and Team Wrestling @ Bloomington.

I put off class on Tuesday to go to the Boylan girls basketball regional.

At least my vacation is still intact from March 13-22.

The other days I put off were April 28 (duh), Sterling-Rock Falls night, Columbus Day and Veterans Day. There is a new rule where we can't ask for holiday's off. So I asked for the holidays not marked with "nobody ask off."

However, I think I'll be working on my birthday.

Throughout high school I always took time out of my schedule to watch the Rock Falls softball team play - in particular Emily, Korby, Jen, Joi, April, Marilyn, and a few others (none of them read this blog so I won't worry about not mentioning more names). I came to some of their summer league games before they were in high school, and covered them when they went to state in 2004. Emily and Korby went to Quincy University, Marilyn went to Illinois State and Jen went to Sauk.

I saw Jen a couple times. I wasn't able to see Marilyn however. I haven't seen Emily and Korby, yet. They have a two-game Chicagoland stretch on April 25-26 (Wisconsin-Parkside @ Kenosha and Lewis U. @ Romeoville - both 12:00 starts). I decided to take that weekend off in place of my birthday. I feel like I owe them.

Some Site Work

Cutter's Log - Stardate 9002.30.20
Current Song - Do It Again (Steely Dan)

I'm listening to a new Steely Dan CD I bought - "The Definitive Collection" - which is the only career-spanning Dan CD from 1972s Do It Again to 2003s Things I Miss The Most.

I was bored at work one day and I came up with possible story ideas ranging from columns to in-depth stuff. I'm even getting back on the Q&A wagon once again. Possible one tonight with a South Beloit kid. One story suggestion I've had on the shelf since July, and I just don't know how to write it.

There are a couple things on the whole prayer issue as well as conference chatter (seems to be a biggie of mine) and other historical and IHSA-related things. There's also some internet things on this list. One of them in particular I've had on the table since mid-December.

Call it the momentum from the Scott Williams piece I did last month. I changed the way I released my columns: instead of the new column going up on the homepage, I am putting new columns on the Cody's Corner page where they all are. I did it this way in order to seem as if the site's focus isn't on columns I write. I had to direct people to the new columns - and the Williams piece was the first one I did that with. Turns out it was good - not as good as Kevin's Do What's Wrong piece - but I'm hoping I can keep this up.

I want to write things one does not normally see in a newspaper. They are businesses, and I am me.

Speaking of economics, it's kind of hitting me a bit. I used to say three nights a week was okay, but not now. However, since Julie is gone I'm probably going back to four-to-five nights a week, which looks good on the paycheck. But that doesn't look good with the site plans. I've already had to de-commit to some state tournament series events such as girls bowling and maybe both wrestling events (unfortunately).

Today I'm going to Forreston vs. South Beloit (boys)
Thursday it's Rockford Christian vs. Indian Creek (girls)
Saturday it's the Newman wrestling Regional until time for work.

Only four months until NISB's fifth birthday - whoa!

The three nights thing isn't giving me a whole lot of money, and my paycheck is spent on gas fillups and the occasional expensive thing: monthly insurance payments take a huge chunk of my weekly check. Oil changes and cell phone cards and QC Times bills. I have an oil change and haircut put on hold until next week - and my hair is kind of long at the moment. I've got the Grizzly Adams look underway.


Stupid Debit Tricks

Plus I have been having dificulty keeping track of my debits. It's not because I don't keep a ledger, but rather different places taking money out at different times! I'd like to go back to writing checks because the ledger is right in front of me. But I misplaced my checkbook somewhere in my bedroom. Don't worry - no one has been using it. So it just means I hid it and now I can't find it.

Even with checks, you never know when they are going to actually clear.

Because of the un-immediate charges, I found myself with another negative balance. Another good thing about checks is that fast food places don't accept them. Wink, wink.

Turk's Withdrawl Syndrome

Cutter's Log - Stardate 9002.30.10
Current Song - Turn Your Love Around (George Benson)

Kind of an odd realization when it comes to a message board I post on.

I haven't posted on Turk's Place in over four months. Whoa! Then again, I haven't had a whole lot of free time on the Internet in quite some time.

They call it Turk's Withdrawl Syndrome when someone doesn't post in a long time. However, people do get over it and post again. It happened to me once before. But it kind of puts me in a rut when I plan on making that comeback post. After all, what am I going to say? Ususally I would give an update on me. I'm starting to realize now that I talk about myself way too much. It used to be I always talked TO myself a lot. If I start talking about myself alot, no one is going to want to care. Really.

Plus, it's not like anyone's worried that I'm not there like it is some sort of tragedy or anything.

But seriously I have met a lot of people from Turk's Place.

Another Work Shortfall

Cutter's Log - Stardate 9002.92.10
Current Song - Yesterday (Paul McCartney)

Julie quit.

I guess I can kiss my weekends good-bye for now. I was notified of a schedule change and I'm now working Saturday night instead of the afternoon. That kind of hurts my column plan a bit.

I mentioned before that I was hoping to be associate editor for the Chronicle. Marques is going to be the editor, and I was slated to be AE but I had no idea someone else wanted to be it too. Instead of telling him "Sucks to be you, I was here first," we worked out a plan that we're going to bring to Sam today. I'm going to give Keith the AE duties, but I'm going to keep the copy and proofreading part. Keith runs a website of his own, which is an Internet newspaper, that's free. With him as AE he can assign stories, and he has brought a lot of story ideas to us. Even though I wanted the AE spot, I wanted to do what is best for the paper.

After all, copy and proofreading was what I was going to bring to the AE spot anyway: turn blog entries into stories, break out the old AP Stylebook, etc.

I can now start saving money. Once I reach a certain amount, I'm going to try to get my lights fixed on my car, which will be in the hundreds. Other than $150 monthly insurance payments, I really don't have anything special to save up for. I got my stickers renewed yesterday, so that's out of the way.

Soujourn into Chicago

Cutter's Log - Stardate 9002.82.10
Current Song - A song that has a chorus sounding like "chestnut on the hill" - some 80's song?

I made a trip to Chicago yesterday.

Actually, I was going to the library in River Forest to find an old high school located in the community. It was one of those cases where the librarian in the reference department told me there was no such thing, and I indeed found it. This has happened twice, and both times it happened in the suburbs.

I left early so that I could get there by the time the library opened at 9AM. It didn't take me too long to find the school. I'll tell you, this solved a two-year mystery for me, back to when I was looking at OPRF's history (that's Oak Park and River Forest High School, the 'and' is necessary) one day and making notes.

So it's 10:00 in the morning and I need to be on the road to Freeport by 2:00. I had four hours to kill and I was in Chicago pretty much. In my Glory Days notepad, which I bring to every research adventure, I had a list called: "Chicago Schools That Have No Photo On Their Pages - Addresses and Directions."

You guessed it.

I found fates of the following schools:

Angel Guardian - Church is still there, school may have been behind it, or on empty lot behind it.
Creiger - now Best Practice
Flower - now Al Raby
Jefferson - now a community center
Unity - now a CPS bilingual school
St. Stanislaus Kostka - still a K-8 school
St. Michaels Central - private residences?

Two schools I'm going to look deeper into:

St. Mel - Comment on that page said school was on One North Kildare (Kildare and Madison), but that is a church. There are two buildings on each side of it. The one on Madison is now ACT Charter, and the one on Kildare looks like a school building. But then again, there is a building that looks like a school building every two blocks I traveled!

Sacred Heart (on Huron and Oakley) - There are two buildings I snapped for this one on each side on Oakley. One looks like a rectangular apartment building, while the other looks like a church with what looks like Ukrainian scripture on it. I think this school is only mentioned on Kev's Archdioscese page.

I'm going to wait on posting the private school pics.

I only made it through the north side before leaving.

Airport Trip

Cutter's Log - Stardate 9002.72.10
Current Song - Cantaloupe Island (Herbie Hancock)

A couple of weeks ago my grandparents and I went to the Quad City Airport to show me around. When I go to Tucson it will be my first time flying. I got to know how to check in, where to get my bags checked, as well as all of those new rules in the wake of 9-11. Fluid ounces? It doesn't seem like a hard task, but only half of the Airport is open to the public. The other half one needs a boarding pass to get inside, so I didn't get to see that part, and I won't until I leave.

I got to know a whole lot about the airport process. I'm taking Quad City to Denver, which is a whole other animal to tame. I think I can do it.