Month: July 2007

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I’m hoping that when I get to Rocky Hill tomorrow morning, I will be presented with the sight of the full news staff there.  Ever since I started working there on Wednesday, I knew I couldn’t wait for newscasts to start from there.  I’m not entirely sure what prevented them from starting there Wednesday, but I am guessing it’s something to do with everything not having been there.  So, hopefully this weekend was a time for them to move things and set it all up, so that they’ll be ready on Monday.  We shall see, however.  I’d hate for it to be another day like Wednesday, with news still up in Hartford, so that there’s not much to do (though I heard tell Wednesday that one of the assignments editors might have started there last week, so there might be things to do).  But, we’ll see.

Now, off to put my clothes in the dryer, so I can get up at my ridiculous waking time.

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Ok, not really.

A while back, I played a game where you could make your own country, and decide on its fate by answering issue questions. An unofficial accompaniment to this game is a wiki where you can create your nation’s history, and expand on information about the country, its leaders, etc. Well, after time, my interest waned in the game, although not writing about the country itself. So, it was to my great interest when I finally found a different wiki un-related to the game that’d allow me to do this. I changed the name of the country and some aspects of its history (as to when it was created, which before was an in-joke to a website I help run). Check out the new article. I plan to expand upon it soon.

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As if I wasn’t already a little miffed by the longer trip I need to take to my internship (though now I take some of it back now that I’ve actually seen the place – it was worth the trip), I’m now angry at the idiots over at CT Transit, the company who runs public transport here in Connecticut. I asked twice, once on Monday, and once on Tuesday, whether I’d be able to transfer buses in Hartford to get to Rocky Hill without paying any more money. Both people said yes. I thought this was great, not having to pay any more money to get to my destination. Turns out either I was told wrong, or the bus driver hasn’t been updated on the policies lately.

I get to Hartford, and onto the bus going to Rocky Hill, and put my transfer ticket into the ticket taker. The bus driver is like, “$1.00 please.” And I’m like, “What? I was told I didn’t have to pay any more.” And he’s like, “This is a commuter bus.” So, what the hell can I do? I had to pay it, or I wasn’t going to Rocky Hill. But what if I didn’t have it or the exact change of it? What then? I’m stuck in Hartford?

CT Transit is getting my call tomorrow to yell at them for the incorrect answer to my question.

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No, I’m not going to grandma’s house, but it sure feels like I’ll be jumping through hoops and traveling on all roads to get to my internship the next few weeks, starting tomorrow.

Right now, Channel 3 is in Hartford, which is easy enough to get to. I don’t have a car or license yet, so I take the commuter bus, which is easy since there is a commuter lot at Buckland which goes to Hartford. Great. But, now Channel 3 is going to Rocky Hill. Instead of catching one bus, I’ll have to catch two. One to Hartford from Buckland, and then from Hartford to Rocky Hill. Thank god you can transfer to the second bus for free.

However, it doesn’t end there. Not only will I have to get an extra bus now, I’ll have to wake up an hour earlier to do it, since the route to Rocky Hill has only two (2) times that it leaves from Hartford in the morning, and in the afternoon as well, and neither is anywhere close to when I was getting into Hartford before. So, I take two buses, starting an hour earlier, and as a result, end up getting to Rocky Hill about an hour earlier than I used to get to Hartford. I then have to walk half a mile up some street (which I kind of hope has a sidewalk) to get to the building, which is kind of in the middle of nowhere.

I love Channel 3, working there on my internship and all, but why they chose Rocky Hill, I’ll probably never know (probably something to do with taxes). I hope doing all this shows them my dedication to getting there, haha. Let the games begin…

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I end the second annual Independence Week with a story that I won’t be able to talk about for another one thousand years (assuming I’m alive then).

Certain days are always ones that couple seem to target for normal activities in the world, including weddings and…ummm…baby making. As it turned out, Saturday was 7/7/07, possibly the luckiest day of the all. But, wouldn’t it be luckier if your baby was born at 7:07:07? Or, there were born at 7lbs, 7 ounces? Well, that happened in at least one case around the world. Newborn Jack Falkner was born Saturday, weighing in at exactly that weight. Obviously, the mythology of the number seven’s luckiness goes back far. Not sure how accurate this is, but according to Wikipedia, the number seven is lucky, at least in biblical terms, because it represents the union between a man (the number 3) and women (the number 4). Not that I exactly ever look closely into the bible, but there’s one reasoning. Take it or leave it, I guess. All I can say is that I hope Jack Falkner finds luck in life!

So ends the second annual Independence Week. I definitely did better this year than last, since I completed an entry for every day! I’d like to continue this trend (one entry every day, that is) even when it’s not IW, but we’ll see what happens! Until next year, this has been Independence Week, signing off!

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I always find it amazing to hear about people or animals who’ve survived for long periods of time without food or water. Not because I’m weird and want to see them starve, but because it really shows the durability and determination some people or animals have to survive.

Today’s story is about a cat who survived three weeks on a cross ocean trip in a shipping container. The owners must have simply thought the cat ran away or got lost or something, but I guess they didn’t check things closely enough when they were done packing. So, the cat spends three weeks in this container and comes out surviving. Seems like the prognosis is very good, too. So, it’s just amazing to me how well animals can survive. I’m not sure that I could do it, I’ll tell you that.

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Perhaps the fact that so much electricity was used is a little hypocritical, but I still think it was done for a good cause. Like Live 8 and Aid before it, Live Earth hopefully brought some attention to a problem that may not have quite a significant effect on us yet (though those who’ve been audience to the weird weather patterns might not think so), but will have one if we don’t do something about it. Also, I’d hope the organizers are using a significant amount of renewable energy to produce the electricity.

No, we can’t stop global warming (since it does occur naturally), but we can slow it down by lessening our contributing factor which speeds it up. We must stop our use of fossil fuels (cars and otherwise) or we’re just asking for trouble. Now, I know we can’t just pull the plug and switch to something else overnight. It will take several years to do it, but I think that an alliance of the corporations, the government, and regular people just you and me can make it happen. Each side has to pull their weight, or nothing will get done.

While perhaps not the most effective way of doing it – since music doesn’t exactly tell you what’s going to happen with global warming – I think Live Earth may prompt people to do further research into why our contributions to global warming are a bad thing, and what they can do to help.

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Today’s IW story comes from my own backyard. Miriam Epstein, a former teacher in my town school system, has been running an organization for the past 10 years called Books to Dream. The organization gives away at least 3,000 books a month and serves 130 organizations around the world. Epstein also runs programs at the Willimantic Holy Family and Home Shelter. Epstein runs the organization in hopes to give kids who live in poverty a chance to escape that life through reading, even if for only a short time.

I think this organization and what Ms. Epstein is doing is an absolutely fantastic idea. Poverty is all too prevalent thing in the U.S., and the fact that so many kids have to live through it is appalling. Now, perhaps B2D doesn’t actually solve the problem of poverty, but I think giving impoverished kids a way to cope with it is a great thing. I know in my own experience that reading allows me to enter worlds that can only be discovered through a book. I also think that providing books to children may perhaps give them the attitude to try and do all they can to get out of their situation (not getting into the societal politics of it here), by seeing worlds that are different than their own, and striving to make their own lives more like those. Obviously, if they’re reading Harry Potter, they’re not going to start doing magic, but I hardly think a kid needs to see the world they live in all the time. If they have the attitude to succeed that many books feature, they may be able to as well.

I think Ms. Epstein has a wonderful program, and out of all the stories I’ve read this week while trying to find something to write here, it has been the one I’ve liked the best.

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In a world where it seems like everyone is out for themselves, and only themselves, I may have something that disproves that. After a couple kids got their bikes stolen, one good Samaritan decided to help them out. The family put up some posters expressing their dissatisfaction with the thieves. Seeing these signs, somebody decided to show them that not everyone was bad, and left $200 on their doorstep.

I think this story illustrates nicely that while people in America seem like they’re just out for number one, there are so many more who are willing to help out their fellow man. It may not seem that way in my part of the country, where everyone always seems apt at minding their own business. But, I know that there are good people hidden within the woodwork, and I think this story proves that. I’m not saying everyone should go around trying to buy a new bike for every kid who gets one stolen, but if we just do a good deed for somebody every now and then, I think this country, and indeed this world, would just be a better place. Think about it.