The University of Blog

Living off campus has a wonderful plethora of advantages. Not sharing a small rectangle living quarter with another person is a cause for celebration. Luckily, I did get along with my roommate last year; enough that we are living together again. However, there is nothing like having a space that is all your own. The aspects that make living off campus wonderful include more space, personality through adding decorations and the freedom to dance in the middle of the night to what others deem as “euro-trash” music.

Our apartment is an old east campus house divided into two apartments. The selling factor was the Van Gogh mural in the livingroom. However, we have to deal with everything on our own including utilities, laundry and cleaning. In the dorms, a friendly knock at the door meant a clean mirror and sink, but here a knock at the door could mean anything. Today it meant a man equipped with a net would have to get out the bird that was flapping around in our chimney. A chimney is not the most delightful place for a creature intended to fly. We’ve had a squirrel (we’ve named Franklin) in our attic before. This only became a problem when he wanted to get out and couldn’t figure out how. Otherwise, it was nice to think that we had a pet for a few days.

Laundry is an issue, but only a small issue. There is a coin washer outside and downstairs (only annoying with weather). Recently, the Columbia Appliance delivery truck was a cause for celebration. This would mean no more walks downstairs only to find clothes seeped in half a load of blue water. The only disadvantage is that our new washer does not like to stay in one place. Instead, it wants to be free and proceeds to dance all around making it impossible to open the door to the laundry room. Once we harnessed the strong powers of the machine with a cinderblock to keep it in place, we were set.

These are small issues that of course we can deal with because, after all, we have a space of our own. Which, besides the occasional animal that visits, it is quite a happy house.

Last night, I completed my first shift at KOMU. For the convergence sequence, we have to complete shifts at each of the news stations and KOMU was the first one. It was a complete learning experience. Mondays are generally slow news days (compared to today when both Edwards and Huckabee are coming to Jefferson City to campaign). Thus, I searched and asked producers and news directors what I should work on for KOMU.com.
Once I had an idea of what they needed (a map tracing Edwards’ and Huckabee’s campaign, I was set. Or so I thought. When I got there at 1 p.m., there was a news meeting at 1:30 and it was not until 2:30 that I got my assignment. I worked on a map in Flash from 2:30 until 11 p.m. It was quite daunting and I am not even sure if they will use it, but it was a good exercise in Flash. And just being in the newsroom gave me a good feeling for what it is like at a broadcast station.

The beginning of the semester started with a bang. It is always overwhelming to look at a semester’s work from the beginning. Receiving syllabuses in each class and discussing tests, papers and work can be challenging to keep into perspective. However, I am trying to keep my schedule in perspective.

First of all, my Tuesdays and Thursdays will be manageable. I have one class (History of American Journalism and the starting time is 12:30. History of American Journalism is a required class for Journalism majors and will cover the history and trends of modern Journalism.

However, my MWF will be harder. I start at 8 a.m. I have never before had a class this early. On my walk to class, the street was empty. And cold. Today I had my Convergence Reporting class. This will probably take the most time. We rotate among the three news stations (KBIA, KOMU and The Missourian). My first shift will be at KOMU next week. Every other week we will work on group projects. I am looking forward to seeing the inner workings of all the newsrooms.