New Respect for Peter Mansbridge

Last night, our Cre-Comm class had to find a story at the Blue Bombers' game. It required interviewing several fans until we found an interesting human interest story to write about. But what I never realized was how hard it is to conduct a good interview.

For this kind of assignment, it was difficult to plan any questions ahead of time, other than some basic starter questions. I found I had to go with the flow of the interview and come up with relevant questions that would inspire brilliant answers from my interview subject... much easier said than done. Here's why:

1. I was extremely nervous. Much more nervous than I thought I would be. When I approached the fans, I felt as if I was imposing on their time, and I didn't want to waste anymore of it than I had to.

2. Some people just aren't very interesting. No, that's too harsh, but not a lot of people have original, interesting stories related to the Winnipeg Blue Bombers!

3. Some interesting people just aren't very talkative. It was painful to get any answer worth quoting from them. I still need to figure out what makes a good interview question and inspires good answers.

When I woke up this morning, and looked at my quotes, I was frustrated with myself. I thought of a million things I would have done differently. What questions I would ask, how I would re-word things, what I would ask them to elaborate on, etc.

Most importantly, I learned that interviewing is a learning process. And I have much more respect for those who can do it well under pressure.

My Life Without Cable

Since I moved to Winnipeg at the end of August for school, my roommate and I have been without cable. For awhile there, we weren't sure we'd make it through.

Every Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday, we would lament the fact that we were missing Big Brother, just as the number of house guests were dwindling and the drama was increasing. I would complain about how I had to miss The Hour, a staple in my nightly TV routine, my roommate about how she missed her favourite TLC shows (Not going to lie, I wasn't too upset about that!)

However, after about a week, instead of coming home from school and plopping myself down on the couch and staring at our blank TV screen in disgust, I slowly found other things I liked to do. I would go outside and enjoy our late summer. I would go for walks and explore my new neighbourhood (Corydon is pretty neat!). I would phone my Grandma, or email my friends. I learned to appreciate life without TV, and I think my personal relationships and my overall health improved!

But last week, I got an email from a friend. "The season premiere of The Office - September 17!"
That was not something I was willing to live without.

We get cable today. Forget exercise and sunshine. And sorry Grandma. At 8 pm tonight, I will be tuned in.

Only a few more hours until "The Lost Symbol"

So I have been waiting for this day for months! I mean, I was looking forward to it after I read his first four books (the first time), but particularly after the release of the Angels and Demons movie (side note: Ewan McGregor as the Camerlengo = amazing!), when I heard the new book finally had a release date! September 15th, 2009 - a great day for the novel!

If you haven't 'cracked the code' yet, Dan Brown's new book The Lost Symbol is being released today. And I am beyond excited. His books keep me reading from cover to cover. The chapters are all super short (rarely longer than five or six pages), but always contain a cliff-hanger, and since I know the next chapter is also going to be super short too, I always tell myself I'll just read one more!

Five hours later, it's four o'clock in the morning and I have to get up for school in three hours. That is the brilliance of Dan Brown. He manages to maintain suspense throughout a lengthy novel PACKED with historical and geographic references, complex codes, scientific facts, and random pieces of knowledge. I feel like I learn so much, but never get bored!

So you can imagine my excitement today when I pulled my copy of Maclean's out of the mailbox, and the cover reads "The Next Da Vinci Code". Brian Bethune previews the book and points out some impressive facts. Doubleday, Brown's publisher, claims that approximately 10% of all adults WHO CAN READ have read The Da Vinci Code.

The book is also under some Harry Potter-esque security. Bethune claims that a maximum 10 people in Brown's various offices have been allowed to read the book - however, in the interest of promotion, Matt Lauer was granted permission as well! (SO jealous).

But other than those 11 people, all the rest of us know about the book is that it involves the familiar protagonist Robert Langdon, it takes place in Washington over a 12-hour period, it involves the Freemasons, and its release date has some significance.

Hmm. Well, only another few hours, and I will be as enlightened as Matt Lauer!

Introductions

Hello!

Lesson learned... never say never! I never thought I would be writing a blog, but here I am! I am a Creative Communications student at Red River College in Winnipeg, and one of our public relations assignments is to create and maintain a professional blog, which I just learned is a necessity in the communications field!

Though I'm not sure what the purpose or focus of my blog is, I hope to share my thoughts on current and relevant news stories and happenings in the world, as I am planning to major in journalism within my program. I am most interested, however, in the dialogue I can create with you. Please feel free to agree, disagree, or just share your own thoughts!

Thanks for visiting, and have an excellent day!