Hey,

Check out my new blog, A Beautiful Life, to see what I have been up to after the Newspapers2 conference. Go to http://beautifulmyia.wordpress.com or click the link on the right side fo the page, labeled “A Beautiful Life” to find out

sincerely,

Myia Dickens

Even though it’s the last day, I’m not going to write about the last day, because it’s not really the last day but the first day. Now that everybody has learned how to make a website go from boring to fabulous, everybody can be experts at their school and make their own website for their newspaper. So it’s not really a last day, since we are going to be doing the things we did this week in the upcoming school year. It’s right before the awards ceremony, so everyone is adding their final touches to the page, which has come out pretty nice. It has been a really quiet and slow day, no one is walking outside in the hallway, there isn’t any music playing, it is just silence. I have a feeling a lot of people are going to miss this class, including me. I learned a lot about making a website, that I know will my school’s website awesome. Right now there is this really annoying light flicking on and somewhat off in the corner of my eye, which is becoming a real distraction.

Because I said I won’t talk about today, I guess I’ll talk about yesterday. Yesterday, blogger extraordinaire, Tony  Pierce stopped by yesterday, and to be honest, he was one of the best speakers this whole week (especially better than Mel Melcon, no offense). We learned about the world of blogging and about how you can actually get paid to just sit at home and blog everyday, and I was type paid, I mean PAID. WE also learned about the words dooce and blook, and we got our class picture put on Tony’s blog!

Today is the day before the last day, so right now everyone is perfecting the website to make it perfect for tomorrow. It’s not as bad as Wednesday, but its pretty close. I have all my stories up, and just need to do minor things, and then I’m completely done. I wrote two stories (I think), but I took notes or did audio on every guess speaker, except Mel Melcon, I took pictures this morning as people were coming in, and I took pictures for day 2. So, I think I did a lot this week, I did more than I did in one week last year. so I think I did good this week…I gotta go now, I have work to do !!!

Because yesterday was so hectic, I couldn’t write in the blog at the end of the day. First of all, during lunch I was taking day 2 photos, so I was walking all over campus taking pictures of the people in newspapers2 and right after lunch I had to go and take notes on Jim Villanueva who is a music director, writer, and producer to his own website, called Current Classic Productions. When I got back to the room, I had to organize the notes I got from Villanueva and write the story, so I didn’t get the chance to write in my blog. For the past two days, I have had to go listen and take notes on a guest speaker right after lunch, so when I get back to the room I only have an hour or so left before it is time to go, so it is really hard to fit in time for the blog. However, every guess speaker that I have  went was really interesting, so it was totally worth it. Since I didn’t have enough time in the classroom, I was planning to do my blog at home, but I was so tired from walking around the campus taking pictures, I just went straight home and went to sleep. I only woke up to finish the Villanueva story and post a draft on the Internet and when straight back to bed. The good thing about today though, is that it will be an easy day, since I don’t think I have any stories today, so I will be doing little things to make the website perfect, and fixing the Villanueva story today. I still have find a delegate though, so I will probably be doing that during lunch to day, and hopefully I will be able to type in a blog entry at the end of the day.

Day 2 of the Newspaper2 training, and since the day just started, nothing really has happened yet, but Mel Melcon of the Los Angeles Times is supposed to be coming in, in a couple of minutes, so I’m really excited about that. Melcon is supposed to be teaching us about multimedia and the fourth effect of multimedia. Today, I get to interview and take notes on the Villanuevas after lunch, so that will be fun. So far, I got the chance to listen to Stefanie Frith give pointers about how to become a better journalist, and that a journalists should have strong muscles, because as technology advances a journalists will have to carry more and more equipment to get the full effect the the story. I have also learned many things from the conference so far, and even though I’m a little bit tired, because it is so early in the morning, I am ready for today’s challenges and assignments.

To start off, my name is Myia Dickens, I’m a Junior at Gahr High School, and I was the staff writer at my school newspaper the previous year. I have an older brother, who did Journalism for two years and a younger brother, who is my twin, but isn’t in Journalism. My experience in Journalism has had its ups and downs, but over all it has been a life changing experience. I’m excited for the new year, Journalism wise, and hope the best for anyone, who decides to do Journalism in high school.

This week, I am participating in the Newspapers2 Journalism Training Workshop at Cal State Long Beach, and I was originally supposed to be in the Editors II class, but my Journalism Adviser, Mrs. Alfi, wanted me to try out the Multimedia Journalism class, since the school’s paper, The Gahr Forum, recently started its own news website. JUST MY LUCK….Good Luck that is. Before today, I was so worried that I wasn’t ready for this week, and that I was going to  completely embarrass myself, but now that the first day is pretty much over, I was pretty much worried over nothing. I’m so happy I was switched into this class, it has been so much fun, and way easier than I thought it was going to be. My experience so far has been good, and I hope that it just gets better as the day goes on.