J Squared

Numero Cinco

2012-01-31T11:20:00.000-08:00

On my way to work today, I got a phone call from the admissions office at the University of Minnesota. I got in!

That makes me 5 for 5, with zero denials so far. Nobody jinx it!

Buckeye Power

2012-01-27T18:54:00.000-08:00

More law school news!

I got a congratulatory email today from Ohio State!

This one wasn't a surprise, sort of like the news from Baylor. But, maybe like Baylor, I'll get a full-tuition scholarship!

So now that makes the score Acceptances 4, Rejections 0. Whoo hoo!

Speaking of Ohio State, I love this photo in Ohio State's viewbook:

Ruth Bader Ginsburg, represent.

In other law school news, I was approved for a fee waiver from Stanford! So I'll be sending in that application straightaway. Stanford is expensive to the point of being prohibitive, so I don't think I would go even if I got in. But if I do get in, I'll have bragging rights forever.

Woodstock Rock and Resurrection

2012-01-27T18:46:00.000-08:00

My stuff in today's Daily Herald:

Bloom goes back on the rose at UVU production of 'Secret Garden'

For all of you who loved "The Secret Garden" as a kid, you can see it on stage at UVU starting this week. Everyone I talked to was really into it, and the publicity photos look amazing.

Fare play: Gypsy Cab offers ticket to rock Saturday at Velour

This one was a lot of fun. I had heard of Gypsy Cab, and I liked what I heard on YouTube.

It's good ol' fashioned Hendrix and Zeppelin style rock. Love it.

The interview was great too, especially for being through email.

And the briefs:

Sound Hot Ticket: Paint the town Paisley

Perfect Date: 'Thank you, I've been here all week' (Brian Regan at Abravanel Hall)

Arts Briefs: Wash it down with some arsenic

I also did another Sounds Brief, but it doesn't seem to be online.

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This Daily Herald update is a little late because I'm blogging from Colorado. My family and I are here for a funeral, my aunt Pam passed away early Monday morning.

It's been great to see so much family. I haven't seen my uncle David and his kids in 10 years, and I haven't seen Kay in almost that long. But of course, it's a sad occasion that brings us together. It's especially sad after a funeral on the other side of my family less than four months ago.

Pam was always a joy to be around and always had a quick sense of humor. One of my favorite memories with her was our trip to the Grand Canyon. My dad, my three oldest siblings and I each took a friend to hike to the bottom of Havasupai Canyon, and Pam was my dad's "friend." She didn't always have great health (she came home early from her mission in Guatemala because of medical problems), but she was always adventurous.

She was diagnosed with colon cancer a couple of years ago. She swung back and forth between feeling healthy and feeling miserable, until last week she took a turn for the worse. Even though we knew this day was coming, the day came sooner than we anticipated.

I'll sure miss Aunt Pam. I am so grateful for the restored gospel that has restored answers to the universal question: where do we go after we die?

Alma 40: 11-12

I know that although I miss Pam, this won't be goodbye forever. In the grand scheme of things, it's really just a moment that I won't be able to see her. Thanks to the Atonement of Jesus Christ, we will all be resurrected and we will see each other again.

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Coming up for The Daily Herald: an interview with Richard Sterban of The Oak Ridge Boys! They're coming to town, and I was assigned to do the story. He might be the biggest celebrity I've ever interviewed, definitely the biggest musical celebrity. And the interview went great. We talked for 25 minutes, and he opened up and told all kinds of great stories. Look for the story next Thursday!

Sittin' Pretty

2012-01-24T12:28:00.000-08:00

My latest cartoon for The Daily Universe:

By no means am I aboard the Mitt Romney bandwagon, but for some reason the Gingrich victory in South Carolina bothered me. Romney is an opportunistic flip-flopper on pretty much any item of domestic policy, and his foreign policy is a little too Bush-like. But Gingrich is just sleazy. And I felt that way before the tell-all interview with his second wife. Just gross.

The thought of Gingrich going up against Barack Obama is ridiculous to me. Of course, smug womanizers have been elected before. But I can't help but think any victory for Gingrich is a victory for Obama.

It's a threepeat!

2012-01-23T23:51:00.000-08:00

Tonight I was going over more law school data, and actually made a new chart (more on that later). I thought I'd wrap up the evening's law school perusal by checking my application status at my list of schools. Most law schools let you check the status of your application through some handy web service done by LSAC, and now that my applications are in I get more and more anxious about checking that status.

Anyway, I was making the rounds, and when I checked my Iowa application I happened to come upon this:

"Congratulations! You have been admitted to the 2012 entering class."

Whoo-hoo! That means I'm 3-for-3!

Nobody jinx it.

So once again I have a specific reason to look forward to mail time.

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This is what I was working on before I discovered the news:

I started thinking about it after BYU's "Law School Boot Camp" on Saturday. I looked up the average starting salary of each school's graduates, and compared it to the average debt.

Some of the law schools' websites couldn't give me a straight answer on average salaries:

* Median, instead of mean/average
** 50th percentile, instead of mean/average
*** 50% of graduates made this much or more
**** Only for private sector jobs

Also, the statistics can be a little misleading because not every single graduate reports back to their alma mater to give that information.

But, I think this can still be somewhat useful. One thing I realized was that it shows there might be some truth to the theory that "you get what you pay for." In other words, a higher ranked school might be more expensive but it's worth the investment.

Baylorama!

2012-01-21T12:30:00.001-08:00

So in the same day I found out I was accepted to Texas, the notification letter came from Baylor. And I got in!

It's pretty much what I was expecting for Baylor, so I wasn't surprised. But what did surprise me was that I was offered a full-tuition scholarship for three years!

So with only two offers so far, my decision is already complicated. It's only going to get worse...

Now I'm 2 for 2! Keeping the streak alive!

I feel accepted

2012-01-20T12:33:00.000-08:00

I got my first acceptance today!

Earlier I posted that Baylor had made a decision, and that their letter was in the mail. But another school beat them.

I got a voice mail message from the University of Texas, saying "Congratulations" and that more details will be mailed to me.

http://cdn0.sbnation.com/imported_assets/639245/texas-longhorns-vs.-texas-am-aggies-football2.jpg

It's pretty exciting news! Texas was a school I was reaching for, and even after my second LSAT score Texas still wasn't a sure thing. So to be accepted there is a good omen.

Even if I got rejected by every other school, at least I have Texas! Which ain't a bad school. So I'm set. Things can only go up from here.

I'm 1 for 1! Only 16 more to go.

Gotta Keep Your Head Up

2012-01-19T10:39:00.000-08:00

Publicity photo by Josh Newton

My latest for The Daily Herald: an interview with Andy Grammer!

Singer-songwriter punctuates music with positive, upbeat vibes

I think the story turned out well. But I realized I'm not very good with interviewing musicians. I thought I had a good list of questions, but somehow we got through them really fast. I was only on the phone with Andy Grammer for like seven minutes. But, I used to not be very good at interviewing athletes, so I think I'll get better with this as my internship progresses.

At least it was fun! Andy is just as nice a guy as he seems in his concerts and videos.

(For the interactive version, go here.)

Here's my other story for The Daily Herald:

Woodbury exhibit provides platform for 'Hidden Voices'

This one was interesting. UVU started an art project with women in Utah Valley who were interested in expressing themselves through printmaking. These women talked about how they were finally able to talk in a way they couldn't before. And I also thought it was interesting how the printmaking process is analogous to their lives. I'm glad I got to do this story.

And, this week's "Perfect Date": another version of my "CSI: Provo" story from last week.

Perfect Date - CSI: Date night

This week's Sound Hot Ticket: a concert and a barbecue with the Zac Brown Band.

Sound Hot Ticket - Finger-licking good?

I actually only typed up the first of these Sound Briefs, the one about the local band Ferocious Oaks. The second one must have been added after I left on Tuesday.

Sound Briefs: These trees know how to party

And, this week's arts briefs:

Arts Briefs: Fairbanks comes to Orem

Oh, and did you know I put together the Billboard charts for The Daily Herald?:

Billboard charts for Jan. 19

Not like I'm showing any writing skill, just copying and pasting. But still, it's there because of me!

The End of an Era

2012-01-16T23:46:00.000-08:00

Katie Harmer, the current issues and ideas editor at The Daily Universe, was kind enough to ask if I wanted to draw a cartoon about the recent news about the news.

For those of you who don't know, by the end of this semester The Daily Universe will transition from a daily print newspaper available around campus to a weekly print paper, with the daily news appearing on the website and on mobile apps.

It's been very hard for me to reconcile my thoughts and feelings about this. What I say here is the best I can do, but really it's still a rough draft.

While I've been stewing over this, some colleagues have beaten me to the punch and said things better than I could. Most of my sentiments I can express by concurring with what Alex Hairston said in his two blog posts:

The End of The Daily Universe: An emotional response

The End of The Daily Universe: A less emotional response

And by concurring with what Erin Kulesus said on her blog (although with a caveat that I'll get to later):

Censoring censorship, Part I

Censoring Censorship, part II

Alex and Erin bring up two different issues, so I'll try to address each one.

I. A. ) When I first saw that The Daily Universe was going digital, it was a shocker.

I was sad to think of the paper edition no longer being there for BYU every day. Human beings in general have a lack of interest in the world around them, and not all BYU students are immune to the ignorance. A free newspaper ready to grab on the way to class could remedy that somewhat.

Are students going to think of the BYU student newspaper when they are curious about the news? Maybe for Police Beat or letters to the editor. You know, the parts people remember when they erroneously claim The Daily Universe is silly or irrelevant. (But that's a topic for another day.)

When news is only online though, here's a possible scenario: half of the student population will rarely even read the news online.

Half of the remaining population will get their news through late night monologues (not that there's anything wrong with that).

Half of what's left will get their news through a channel that already agrees with them, like Fox News or MSNBC.

Half of who is leftover will get local news from the Deseret News or the Salt Lake Tribune. (And by "news" I mean the comments section on BYU sports stories. In fact, maybe instead of Deseret News or Salt Lake Tribune I should just say Cougarboard.)

Half of who's left after that will get news from KSL or KUTV while they are waiting for the late night monologues to come on.

That leaves 937.5 people on campus who will think of The Daily Universe when they've got a hankerin' for news.

(Oh, except they won't think of it until their friend or family member who writes for The Daily Universe posts a link to his or her latest article on their Facebook news feed. And even then only half will click on it.)

I'm exaggerating, and maybe being a little facetious. And I'm sure efforts will be made to advertise the new website and apps, and of course, I hope students and readers do adapt their routines to check The Daily Universe online, even when there isn't a paper waiting for them in the newsstand. The Daily Universe won't be destroyed.

But I do think the overall readership will go down until the next outrageous Police Beat or the next ridiculous letter to the editor.

And haven't The Daily Universe's previous attempts at online only ideas fizzled out? "Beyond the Universe," anyone?

And will a weekly publication turn into something like the BYU Political Review or The Student Review? There's nothing wrong with either The Student Review or the BYU Political Review, they're both great. But their aim is different from The Daily Universe's original aim. They are both more similar to the average campus newspaper, and The Daily Universe model was something else.

I. B. ) I'm all for technology and innovation. And it's the only stuff saving the journalism industry so far. So part of me knew the change was necessary, whether I liked it or not. And, I admit, a smaller part of me was excited for the upgrade to the 21st century. But that was quickly quelled after some secondary news came out. (More on that later.)

I actually like the Wordpress system, and even defended it when the copy desk objected to the change. In theory, it was great to give reporters a way to write and publish an article right at the scene. But what The Daily Universe needed to do was put it into practice.

Even with the ability to update our website 24/7, we weren't taking advantage of that ability. Our basic schedule was still waiting until around 4 p.m. every day when the articles started rolling in, just like when we only had a print deadline.

Our sports reporters had some experience with getting articles in ASAP after a game was over, or the Arts and Entertainment reporter watching "The Sing-Off" on Monday night.

But mostly, the schedule revolved around late afternoon, because that's when the reporters set aside time from the rest of the credits they were taking, their jobs, their wedding planning and their family obligations.

It will be difficult to run a 24/7 news cycle as long as The Daily Universe reporters can't be reporters 24/7.

I. C. ) So The Daily Universe had some work to do to keep up with the times. But that means a change in philosophy and behavior, not necessarily a change in organization, and certainly not a change in personnel.

While I initially wasn't sure if the digital transition was ultimately good news or bad news, I could unhesitatingly rule a verdict after I knew the eight members of The Daily Universe's full-time staff would be laid off.

I think the fact that it never occurred to me that these digital changes would mean jobs would be lost shows how senseless these layoffs are. After the announcement of going digital, learning the full-time staffers would be laid off was still just as much of a surprise. In my mind the two things can be completely unconnected.

I never thought Rich, Kaye, Brandon, R.J., Ellen, Daryl, Warren or Shayne stood in the way of The Daily Universe becoming a 21st century newspaper. Never.

If this Daily Universe experiment is going to work, all the digital expertise in the world is nothing without journalistic expertise. I'm not saying all journalistic expertise will vanish after The Magnificent Eight do. But what made The Daily Universe a home away from home will vanish.

The DU newsroom will mean more to me than any classroom, CougarEat table, Marriott Center or LaVell Edwards Stadium seat ever will. For me it was the most comfortable place in the whole state of Utah except for home, the church and the temple. The Magnificent Eight and my many fellow editors and reporters made me feel like I belonged there. The full-time staff had a way of connecting with students and becoming their friends that can never be duplicated. And that sense of home even extended to my wife and baby. The DU Family made my family their family. I will forever be grateful to know them and to have spent time with them. And future generations of Daily Universes reporters will miss out.

It makes me miss them even more to see their gracious and positive attitudes after the bad news. Kaye is keeping an eternal perspective, and Rich is joking about a lifelong dream to be a mime. That they can be so happy, and cheer up other people who are dealing with their bad news, is another testament to how special these people are.

This is more than just saying goodbye to wonderful people though. This isn't high school graduation. The Daily Universe will be losing these people prematurely and I don't think it will be worth it.

II. ) One of the reasons for the change that BYU professor Dale Cressman (more on him later) cited was that The Daily Universe has been losing money. I'm not saying he's wrong, but I do want to say that in the two years I worked there I was never under the impression we were losing money. (In fact, the reason I got to go to Colorado twice for The Daily Universe was a direct result of an influx in advertising revenue.)

Last week's announcement was a sign that the decline of print journalism had reached even the university level. At school, you're supposed to be protected from any recession or economic trends. School should prepare you for the real world. School is meant to be the on deck circle. You aren't supposed to face 101 m.p.h. curveballs when you're on the on deck circle.

I believe even with the journalism world going digital, a reporter should have a background in old-fashioned print journalism. Above all, a reporter needs to know how to write. And the university should protect their investment in teaching reporters to write.

I'm not saying the art of writing is destroyed, or that the new system won't teach reporters how to write. But I think instead of contorting The Daily Universe to fit within financial restraints, the newspaper should be treated like the flagship that it is. I never understood why The Daily Universe was treated like a stepchild compared with the broadcast program (which, by the way, no one watches or even knows exists except for the five minutes before devotional, or Whitney Wonnacott) and the PR program. (Well, actually, I have some theories.)

Right now, everything going on in the field of journalism to try and make it a viable business is in the experimental stage. Nothing is tried and true yet. Let the real world conduct those experiments, and let the real world risk people's livelihoods in the process. Keep those risks out of the institutions of learning. They are institutions of learning, not of profit margins.

The Daily Universe shouldn't be given an infinite budget. But it shouldn't have to kowtow to something uninspiring like financial restraints. (Like Alex said, if the university was about making money there wouldn't be a religion department. Maybe journalism is more dispensable than religion. But then again we need journalism to have democracy, and we need democracy to have our religion.)

III. A. 1. ) The other major issue that has come to the surface has been brought up by "the old guard," namely Erin, McKay Coppins, Mike Curtis, Elizabeth Gosney and others. I'm not as qualified as they are to discuss the issue, but I'll put in my two cents.

About two years ago, The Daily Universe got in trouble for a few articles that, basically, made BYU look bad. The biggest one was probably our article that exposed the BYUSA budget. It's ironic that the article might be the closest BYU could get to a Bernstein/Woodward style, and yet that inspiring version of journalism is what got the newspaper in trouble.

Another one was a front page story about a fashion line started by a couple of BYU alumni. Although the article itself had nothing wrong with it, the website for the alumni's business included photos of models wearing see-through dresses.

The wake of the administration's wrath left a lot of rubble. BYU President Cecil O. Samuelson said The Daily Universe was a "disloyal" organization. Ranking faculty members were called in to supervise the copy editing process, and interrupted it on a nightly basis in order to pull stories, for incredibly silly reasons. A classic example was an article about Redbox and Netflix, which included a photo of a Redbox machine. Some of the movies advertised on the machine happened to be rated R, so the faculty member wanted the photo gone. Oh, so we're supposed to pretend like R-rated movies don't exist? (For more examples, see Erin's Tumblr.) Two of our editors were haphazardly and senselessly accused of being pornography users and were investigated by BYU.

After the immediate, horribly messy aftermath and some organizational changes, things calmed down to a normal BYU level. Of course, there is a bubble at BYU and there always will be. "A normal BYU level" will always have a more discriminating filter than the average newspaper.

But I didn't let that be an obstacle. I just made sure to make up for whatever lack exists with a commitment to lifelong learning. (It's part of the reason I wanted to go to New York City for my required internship, and part of the reason I consider BYU a "backup" law school on my list and would rather start an adventure in a new place.) In the meantime, I can laugh at the nuances of working at The Daily Universe.

So even though the trouble from two years ago was at worst censorship and at best annoying, bringing it up two years later, I feel, is an overreaction. It was bad, but it's been long enough now that I don't think it is a primary motivation behind these recent changes and layoffs. I don't let the frustrations from months ago (or the fact that the administration still doesn't seem to understand the mission of The Daily Universe, and would rather perceive it as an outlet for public relations packages than for hard-hitting journalism) affect my opinion of the BYU Department of Communications, BYU itself, and certainly not the Church.

Erin has decided to lead a charge against censorship and to demand answers. I don't feel it's the right fight to have. Maybe I would if my circumstances were different. I was never a copy editor like Erin was, so I was never in the newsroom at the deadline when a faculty member suddenly pulled an article arbitrarily and I had to change my whole layout. And I was never investigated for pornography use like other editors were. I didn't suffer through as much as "the old guard" did. If I had gone through all that, I might be just as vehemently up in arms. If President Samuelson himself fired me for no legitimate reason, I would lose probably all admiration for him. But I would like to think I could still sustain him as a General Authority.

Maybe I'm too eager to please and make peace. Maybe I'm a wuss. Maybe I just want everyone to get along. Maybe they got me and I'm brainwashed, haha.

III. A. 2. ) Although I am not as riled up as Erin and others, I don't mean to diminish what they experienced. What they experienced was real. And though I don't share Erin's sentiments whole-heartedly, I do share her understanding. And I still want to take some time to come to her defense.

Erin got into a Twitter debate with Dale Cressman, a member of the BYU faculty. (It reminds me of a Twitter debate McKay had with Professor Cressman almost two years ago.) He read her side of the Daily Universe censorship story, and in order to explain his side he called her account "stunningly naive."

Though Professor Cressman was right about some things, calling Erin "naive" was not one of them. Even if he thinks the decision behind every Daily Universe change was clearly the right decision and he can't comprehend how anyone can think differently, he doesn't need to belittle her opinion because she disagrees with him. He doesn't need to dismiss her contributions to the conversation.

(In reflecting on Professor Cressman's two Twitter fights I've observed, I can't help but wonder why he's made himself a spokesman for The Daily Universe. In the two years I worked there I never would have guessed he was involved enough in the newsroom goings-on to take that responsibility. I, for one, never felt his influence when I was there.)

III. B. ) All that said, I am sure the decisionmakers behind cutting The Magnificent Eight loose haven't forgotten those days when The Daily Universe was "disloyal." Giving the faculty tighter control over The Daily Universe's content is likely seen by them as an advantage. I won't go so far as to say the conversation behind closed doors went something like, "Now, we can get rid of Rich, Kaye, and everyone else, once and for all! Bwahahahahahaha [thunderclaps]." But I will say I wouldn't be surprised if the thought, "Hey, come to think of it, maybe a secondary effect of this is that we can keep a closer eye on this whole operation. Bonus!" crossed multiple minds.

Professor Carter, Professor Campbell and even Professor Cressman won't be stooges for some Thought Police. They still know what good journalism is and will promote it. I think they will be more "careful" than Rich and Kaye and everyone else would be (as the "powers that be" might put it), but that doesn't necessarily ensure doom and gloom for freedom of speech at BYU.

I just wish Rich, Kaye, Brandon, R.J., Ellen, Daryl, Warren and Shayne weren't seen as a liability. Even if no one says they are now, without a doubt they used to be a liability to some people.

They were only assets to The Daily Universe, and have been and always be assets in my life and the life of my family.

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At least I got my hard copy clips while I still could. Now I'll be able to show them to my grandkids, along with my cassette tapes and my 35mm camera.

In Like Flynn

2012-01-16T10:34:00.000-08:00

All my law school applications are in!

I spent Saturday morning finalizing them. I still had BYU and Utah applications left over, plus I added Duke, Northwestern and Stanford after my surprisingly high LSAT score.

The BYU and Utah applications took longer because I wanted to write a personal statement from scratch, instead of basically reviving my original Texas and North Carolina statements and adapting them to each school.

The Stanford and BYU processes still aren't completely done. I need to do an ecclesiastical endorsement interview with my bishop for BYU. And for Stanford, I'm still waiting to see if I can get a fee waiver. I'm hesitant to pay the $100 fee for a school I might not get into and might not go to even if I did get in.

Other than those two things, I just sit back and wait.

Most of the schools I've applied to have a handy way to check my application status online. And I just so happened to discover that Baylor has already made a decision and the letter is in the mail! The time has come for decisions to start rolling in!

Remember way back when...

2012-01-15T00:09:00.000-08:00

... I used to do podcasts?

I only just now realized I haven't blogged about the last few. Sorry, BYU football fans!

Here they are:

CougarCast: BYU vs. Idaho

CougarCast: BYU 42, Idaho 7

CougarCast: BYU vs. New Mexico State

CougarCast: BYU 42, New Mexico State 7

CougarCast: BYU vs. Hawaii

CougarCast: BYU 41, Hawaii 20 and the 2011 Season

My Daily Herald debut!

2012-01-12T10:09:00.000-08:00

My first articles for The Daily Herald!

'CSI: Provo' places Desert Star in Happy Valley

Photo by Chad Whitlock, Desert Star Playhouse

Have any of you ever heard of the Desert Star Playhouse in Murray? I hadn't until this assignment. But it sounds hilarious. It sounds like Divine Comedy, but instead of sketches it's a whole play. They like to make lots of Utah/Mormon jokes, but their latest is more specifically making fun of Utah. (And, I almost got to interview a "celebrity" for it ... if only Nick Whitaker had called me back!)

Perfect date: This is not your Toto's 'Africa!'

The Herald does a "perfect date" every week. For this week I basically summed up an article published last week about the "Africa!" show going on at the SCERA.

(I don't quite get the headline ... and I don't remember writing "Get in touch with your African roots -- whether or not youactually have any or not." Don't know how that got there.)

I also did a couple of briefs, which is really just abridging press releases:

Arts Briefs - Jan. 12, 2012

Sound Briefs - Jan. 12, 2012

I also did a short article (like the "Perfect date" above) about the next BYU Young Ambassadors show. For some reason it's not online, but if you have a copy of Thursday's Daily Herald, you can find it in "The Ticket."

Party on, Wayne.

2012-01-07T21:34:00.000-08:00

So the "J.J.'s Looking For a 2nd Part-Time Job World Tour" has come to an end!

Over the course of two days, I stopped at literally 33 locations to ask for a job application. Of course, 17 of them told me to apply online. Then five of them had kiosks in the store for job applications. The other 11 applications I filled out by hand.

Now I just sit back and wait to see who calls me back.

I did say I was going to make T-shirts. Well, no shirts yet, but here's the logo:

Rock on.

And the chorus sang 'Hallelujah'

2012-01-04T17:16:00.001-08:00

So the LSAT scores finally came today. And I couldn't be more surprised and ecstatic!

I got a 167!

To put that in context: that's the 94th percentile. A perfect score is 180, Ivy League range is anywhere in the 170s. (Elle Woods got a 179.)

Definitely way more than I expected. If you remember, in my practices leading up to the December LSAT I was getting 166 consistently. But, you might also remember that the morning of the test was stressful, to put it mildly. So I was hopeful that I would get better than my October score of 161, but not up to 166. And a part of me was a little worried that my crazy morning would have more of an effect than I thought, and that I would still be close to or right at 161. And a smaller part of me worried it would be worse than 161.

I would have never seriously predicted a 167!

This is pretty exciting news. This means I'm much more likely to get in to every school on my list, and many of them I'll be in "automatically." Now that Texas, Notre Dame, Virginia and Minnesota are no longer "reaching" schools, I think I'll add a couple more to my list, like Duke and Stanford.

Here's where that Law School Predictor calculator (that I blogged about last time) stacked me with a bunch of schools, with my GPA and a 161 score:

And, here's that chart next to the 167 version:

Look at all those reds turns to yellows and all those yellows turn to green! It's a Christmas miracle!

And there was much rejoicing in the Despain home.

On a roll

2011-12-28T20:30:00.000-08:00

I said completing law school applications would be one of my main activities this holiday break, and boy has it been. Today I finished application #10!

I finished:

Texas (Nov. 6)
North Carolina (Nov. 7)
Notre Dame (Nov. 27)
Virginia (Dec. 21)
Ohio State (Dec. 21)
Minnesota (Dec. 22)
Iowa (Dec. 27)
Washington (Dec. 28)
Arizona State (Dec. 28)
Baylor (Dec. 28)

All I have left now is UC Davis, Oregon, Utah and BYU. I hope to finish them before going back to Provo, except I might have left my Oregon fee waiver code at home so I'll wait until I'm back before turning that one in.

Whew!

It sure is nice to get those applications and personal statements out of the way. If I could do this process over again I would have done some things differently, but I feel like I'm doing a fairly good job on these.

After finishing those last four applications, the hard part comes: the waiting.

Speaking of waiting, I've been really antsy about LSAT scores this week. If the December results followed the same schedule as the October results, then my score would have come on Monday. Then I remembered that Monday was a federal holiday, so I didn't expect them to come then. But it could be any day now ... but nothing so far. According to some experts, it should be this week.

I've been watching for #LSAT on the ol' Twitter, and there hasn't been much. I guess most of the ripples that are on Twitter have been caused by me:

That anxious dude would be me, haha.

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I found this cool Law School Predictor website that takes your LSAT score and GPA and tells you if you'll be denied, accepted or somewhere in between at the top 100 law schools.

Here are the calculations based on my GPA and October LSAT score:

So the only sure thing according to this formula is Oregon, but the only sure rejections are from Virginia and Texas.

Here's what the chart looks like based on other LSAT score possibilities:

(click to see closer view)

So let's hope for good news tomorrow, or whenever my LSAT score comes!

The Erin Scale

2011-12-21T20:55:00.000-08:00

Although I still have a few more things to do before actually choosing a law school (for example, being accepted into a law school), I came up with a nifty mathematical formula to take into account the side elements in choosing a school. I call it "The Erin Scale."

I'm thinking about the education, prestige and opportunities that each school offers. But Erin, as the worrier of the family, is more focused on tuition costs, debt, cost of living in a new town, etc. Plus, Erin thinks about how far away a school is from our families, whereas for me it's almost a non-factor.

With the list of 14 schools I'm applying to, I found the cost of tuition, percentage of students who receive half- to full-tuition scholarships, percentage of students who receive grants, average debt after graduation, distance to Mosier, OR (my hometown), distance to Tomball, TX (Erin's hometown), cost of living, and annual premiums for school health insurance.* Then, I ranked each school in each category. Finally, I added each school's ranking in each category to come up with the "Erin score."

Ready to see the results?

44 on The Erin Scale - BYU
45 - Baylor
48 - Texas
51 - Ohio State
51 - Utah
53 - Minnesota
54 - North Carolina
62 - Notre Dame
62 - Iowa
63 - Arizona State
69 - UC Davis
69 - Washington
75 - Oregon
91 - Virginia

BYU was #1 in lowest tuition and lowest debt, #3 in health insurance cost and #5 in cost of living, percentage of students who get scholarships and in distance from Mosier.

I'm pretty sure we would still pick some schools before picking BYU, because even though distance from home was one component of The Erin Scale we still want some sort of adventurous unfamiliarity.

But, it's interesting nonetheless.

Here's how all the schools ranked in each category:

Annual tuition:
1 - BYU - $10,280**
2 - Utah - $18,231**
3 - Oregon - $29,953
4 - North Carolina - $31,218
5 - Arizona State - $35,147
6 - Washington - $37,299
7 - Ohio State - $39,418
8 - Minnesota - $40,388
9 - Notre Dame - $40,805
10 - Baylor - $40,904
11 - Iowa - $42,922
12 - Texas - $44,638
13 - Virginia - $47,500
14 - UC Davis - $50,595

Percentage of students who are given half- to full-tuition scholarships:
1 - Baylor - 29.9%
2 - UC Davis - 24.4%
3 - Iowa - 22.4%
4 - Minnesota - 19.2%
5 - BYU - 18.3%
6 - Ohio State - 14.7%
7 - Utah - 13.4%
7 - Arizona State - 13.4%
9 - Notre Dame - 13.0%
10 - Texas - 12.8%
11 - North Carolina - 10.7%
12 - Virginia - 9.0%
13 - Washington - 5.3%
14 - Oregon - 4.2%

Percentage of students who are given grants:
1 - Texas - 91.2%
2 - North Carolina - 85.4%
3 - Baylor - 85.2%
4 - UC Davis - 81.7%
5 - Ohio State - 78.8%
6 - Notre Dame - 77.2%
7 - Minnesota - 62.7%
8 - Oregon - 56.1%
9 - Utah - 54.3%
10 - Virginia - 51.3%
11 - Washington - 48.7%
12 - Arizona State - 48.6%
13 - Iowa - 30.5%
14 - BYU - 30.4%

Average debt:
1 - BYU - $52,315
2 - North Carolina - $60,212
3 - Utah - $61,665
4 - Washington - $63,393
5 - Texas - $78,408
6 - Ohio State - $81,408
7 - Iowa - $87,891
8 - Arizona State - $89,038
9 - Minnesota - $91,314
10 - Oregon - $91,353
11 - Notre Dame - $92,310
12 - UC Davis - $98,179
13 - Baylor - $100,795
14 - Virginia - $107,384

Distance to Mosier, OR:
1 - Oregon - 177 miles
2 - Washington - 234
3 - UC Davis - 576
4 - Utah - 698
5 - BYU - 750
6 - Arizona State - 1,277
7 - Minnesota - 1,661
8 - Iowa - 1,835
9 - Texas - 1,999
10 - Baylor - 2,047
11 - Notre Dame - 2,131
12 - Ohio State - 2,347
13 - Virginia - 2,730
14 - North Carolina - 2,770

Distance to Tomball, TX:
1 - Texas - 139 miles
2 - Baylor - 158
3 - Iowa - 1,057
4 - Notre Dame - 1,157
5 - Ohio State - 1,169
6 - Arizona State - 1,184
7 - Minnesota - 1,185
8 - North Carolina - 1,199
9 - Virginia - 1,321
10 - BYU - 1,413
11 - Utah - 1,457
12 - UC Davis - 1,957
13 - Washington - 2,360
14 - Oregon - 2,419

Cost of living (compared to Provo, UT):
1 - Baylor - -24%
2 - Notre Dame - -19%
3 - Ohio State - -10%
4 - Iowa - -1%
5 - BYU - 0%
6 - Texas - 3%
7 - Arizona State - 4%
7 - Utah - 4%
9 - Minnesota - 8%
9 - Virginia - 8%
11 - Oregon - 13%
12 - North Carolina - 30%
13 - UC Davis - 44%
14 - Washington - 50%

Annual premiums for school health insurance plan:
1 - North Carolina - $2,364 plus summer term***
2 - Minnesota - $4,368
3 - BYU - $4,680
4 - Texas - $4,710
5 - Baylor - $4,864
6 - Washington - $4,908
7 - Ohio State - $5,054
8 - Utah - $5,212
9 - UC Davis - $5,254
10 - Notre Dame - $5,828
11 - Virginia - $5,834
12 - Arizona State - $6,328
13 - Iowa - $6,720
14 - Oregon - $7,164

And, the scores in each category:
Arizona State - 5 + 7 + 12 + 8 + 6 + 6 + 7 + 12
Baylor - 10 + 1 + 3 + 13 + 10 + 2 + 1 + 5
BYU - 1 + 5 + 14 + 1 + 5 + 10 + 5 + 3
Iowa - 11 + 3 + 13 + 7 + 8 + 3 + 4 + 13
Minnesota - 8 + 4 + 7 + 9 + 7 + 7 + 9 + 2
North Carolina - 4 + 11 + 2 + 2 + 14 + 8 +12 + 1
Notre Dame - 9 + 9 + 6 + 11 + 11 + 4 + 2 + 10
Ohio State - 7 + 6 + 5 + 6 + 12 + 5 + 3 + 7
Oregon - 3 + 14 + 8 + 10 + 1 + 14 + 11 + 14
Texas - 12 + 10 + 1 + 5 + 9 + 1 + 6 + 4
UC Davis - 14 + 2 + 4 + 12 + 3 + 12 + 13 + 9
Utah - 2 + 7 + 9 + 3 + 4 + 11 + 7 + 8
Virginia - 13 + 12 + 10 + 14 + 13 + 9 + 9 + 11
Washington - 6 + 13 + 11 + 4 + 2 + 13 + 14 + 6

For all you law school experts out there: what do you think of The Erin Scale? Should I give more weight to certain categories, like more weight to tuition and debt and less to who gets scholarships? Should there be some adjustments for schools that are only a few percentage points or dollars apart?

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Also, last night I finished two more personal statements, for Virginia and Ohio State. Five out of 14 applications done! And here's something awesome: for those five, I've only had to pay for two of them and had fee waivers for the rest!

I've learned something that I maybe wish I had known before. My initial strategy was to apply roughly in order from toughest schools to easiest schools, because the head start could be an advantage for those tougher schools. So that also means the most important personal statements are being written and submitted first.

But as I'm borrowing parts from previous personal statements, I'm finding mistakes that I let slip through as the statements were sent to Texas, North Carolina and Notre Dame! Silly mistakes, like saying "As an employee at BYU Multicultural Student Services, I was in charge of the BYU's Celebration of Culture events ..." Oh well. We'll see what happens.

* The number I chose for my calculations was the cost for a student and a spouse, but realistically we would be paying to add child(ren) to the plan or a family plan.
** In-state tuition sure is nice!
*** I couldn't find a figure for an annual cost or for a summer term, just a price for fall and spring terms without summer term.

Warning: Adults only

2011-12-20T19:57:00.000-08:00

I forgot to blog about my very last cartoon for The Daily Universe:

I don't want to be even partly responsible for any kid who happens to come across a copy of the paper and starts to question the existence of Santa Claus, so I made sure there were plenty of warnings and waivers that went along with this story!

Here's the story, if you can handle it:

The jig is up

And it also showed up on the BYU main page for a few days, which was pretty cool.

BYU Level: Completed!

2011-12-18T20:27:00.000-08:00

I'm a college grad!

On Friday at 1:22 p.m. MST, I emailed a newspaper article I wrote about our COMMS 406 class project, which meant I had completed all my work for my last semester before earning my bachelor's degree.

By the way, here's the BYU ElevenNEWS article and video about the project:

So now, I just wait for final grades to be calculated and for my diploma to come in the mail. And then in April I'll walk in the commencement ceremony.

It's hard to believe I'm done! Except for my two years in Argentina, since kindergarten I've never had a break from school longer than summer vacation.

This break won't last forever, since I'm planning on law school in a few months. But for now, I'm done with essays, reading assignments, quizzes, exams, textbooks, Blackboard, group projects, PowerPoint presentations and 8 a.m. classes. I like school in general, but there are parts of it I won't miss.

What I will miss is working at The Daily Universe. My time has sadly come to an end. The newsroom was a home away for home, as much for Erin and Allisyn as it was for me, and I loved being a part of the Universe.

What's really more impressive is that Erin graduated. It's something we usually took for granted, we always expected that each of us would graduate from college. Even before I met Erin, I always knew I would be married to a college graduate. And it was always important to Erin and her family too, enough that one of the conditions for Erin's dad to give her hand in marriage was that I had to support her and allow her to graduate from college.

But from the outside looking in, Erin's accomplishment is really remarkable. She became a wife and a mother and still earned a bachelor's degree. It seems like most people I know either put off motherhood until after college or put off college until after motherhood (or, more often than not, never get back to school). I'm not saying those women are taking an easy way out or are falling short in any way. It's certainly not a requirement to be a mother or to be a college graduate in order to be a successful human being. But I know it was important to Erin to do both, and for us it worked out that she did both at the same time. It wasn't always easy, which makes me all the more impressed with her.

In our little family, right now we plan to be more traditional, with me bringing home the bacon and with Erin as a full-time mother. So some of you might wonder why Erin worked so hard for a degree. The way we see it, a college degree is far more valuable than a gateway to a career. Even if Erin is never employed again, we know being a college graduate will make her a better wife and mother. I have no doubt that she will use her college education every day (and not just so she can help our children with their homework). Education is for more than just getting a job, it should make a person who he or she is. (And, besides, circumstances could change and make it necessary for Erin to get a job someday.)

(Click here and read the comments.)

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So, now what?

I have a four-month internship at The (Provo) Daily Herald starting in January! I'm pretty excited. I'll be writing for The Ticket, the weekly arts & entertainment section. I've been a reporter or an editor for two years, but I haven't done much writing about movies and music. So this internship will be a good mixture of familiarity and new challenges.

The internship is only minimum wage and part-time, so I'm still looking for another job. I filled out an application for J Dawgs, everybody's favorite hot dog stand in Provo. They're opening a new location in Orem which means they're hiring. It seems like a fun place to work, and there's someone in my ward who works there and likes it a lot. We'll see if I hear back from them.

In the near future, I plan on finishing the rest of my law school applications. I've finished three (Texas, North Carolina, Notre Dame) out of 14 on my list. So I have a lot of work to do. I also am waiting for my second LSAT score to come in. If it takes the same amount of time as it did in October, then it should come on Dec. 26.

Other than law school applications, I'm looking forward to a couple of weeks of reading Moneyball (I got it as a birthday gift, and only now have time to read it), watching How I Met Your Mother, meeting up with childhood friends and celebrating Christmas during a relaxing vacation at home in Oregon.

Engaging Shakespeare

2011-12-08T10:56:00.001-08:00

The Shakespeare class that I've been thoroughly enjoying has been building up to our big event this Friday night.

It's going to be pretty awesome. Basically, it's each group showing off their final project. But eventually, through our website, it will take on a life of its own and share our projects digitally and globally.

Photo by Luke Hansen

This Friday we'll present art, an audio book, a mini-play, a documentary about the mini-play and a music video, all made by our class.

You should come!

Friday, December 9
7 p.m.
JFSB B192
RSVP here.

My connections with The Daily Universe helped our class get a story. Although it wasn't me who decided to actually assign the story or put it on the front page. So, don't worry, I'm not abusing my power! :)

Shakespeare: Not just for the 17th century

And check out the website!

Engaging Shakespeare

Glory road

2011-12-06T08:28:00.001-08:00

The opinion editor for The Daily Universe asked me to write a viewpoint about Jake Heaps' transfer:

Detour in Heaps' glory road

I held back some of my harshness when I was writing this. I do see Heaps as being kind of selfish here. It looked to him like BYU wasn't going to give him a green light to the NFL like he thought, so he took his talents to South Beach, so to speak.

Some people think it's the coaches' fault for not giving that green light. But I don't think any coach should be expected to cater to one athlete and center their game plans around him. As a former athlete of team sports and a team member in every class or job I've ever been in, I know that you fulfill your role and don't try to take matters into your own hands. You can still have a voice and be involved, but an attitude of "I know best" is usually not the best, and even if it is it just annoys people.

That said, at this stage in our lives we all are supposed to be a little selfish. We're here to plan our success for ourselves and our family, and get all the education we can so we will have more advantages compared with our competition. That's what I'm doing by going to law school. So maybe Heaps transferring and me going on to law school are similar.

And even though I wish Heaps would stick it out, I certainly don't wish for him to fail. Like I said in my viewpoint, it would be great if he transferred to a Pac-12 school and beat the Utes a couple of times for us, haha.

Unrelated point: If Heaps wasn't able to handle two years of BYU football, I wonder how he would handle two years on a mission. Am I being too harsh? What do you think? Talk amongst yourselves.

Epic Charts

2011-12-03T23:58:00.001-08:00

As I mentioned in my last post, I didn't have quite the practice week that I had for October LSAT. I intended to do a practice exam every day of the week, like last time. But Monday I spent the evening decorating our home for Christmas with Erin and Allisyn (well worth it, of course). And Tuesday I felt a little sick in the evening (I think because I went too long without eating dinner), and just did a few practice problems instead.

But I did do practice tests on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, and got a 164, a 166 and another 166. I was pretty excited about the 166s! The only time I've scored higher was when I accidentally took a practice test that I had already taken. So this was a real PR. And, on Friday night I got 100% on the logic games section! I've never had 100% before. That was awesome.

I expressed my feelings on Twitter that night:

For my second real LSAT this morning, I had quite a crazy story that you have to read. As far as the actual test goes, I'm pretty sure I did better than my October test, and I definitely didn't do worse. My prediction is a 164. If the schedule follows the same schedule as last time, I should find out my score on December 26.

It's crazy to think I'm all done with the LSAT - all those books, all the practice exams with my scribbles all over them. What do I do with them now? Haha, I'll think of something.

Now I can focus on applications. I did send in another one, to Notre Dame, over the Thanksgiving break. Which means I only have 11 more to do. :S And if I get a really great LSAT score, I might add a school or two. (Thank goodness for fee waivers!) Of course, after the semester ends and I'm an official graduate (!), I'll have more time to finish those applications. I plan on getting them all in by the end of the year.

Here's some breakdown of my LSAT practice:

Average score: 160.8
Average analytical reasoning score: 67.3% (or approx. 17 out of 25 questions)
Average logical reasoning score: 77% (or approx. 19 out of 25 questions)
Average reading comprehension score: 79.8% (or approx. 20 out of 25 right)

Those numbers go way up if I only count my practice since my first real LSAT test:

Average score: 164.1
Average analytical reasoning score since October 1: 76.4% (or approx. 19 out of 25 questions)
Average logical reasoning score since October 1: 79.2% (or approx. 20 out of 25 questions)
Average reading comprehension score since October 1: 82.8% (or approx. 21 out of 25 questions)

Nice.

And the charts! (The next time I make any charts, it will be with my second and final real LSAT scores.)

(For any of these charts, click on them to get a close-up.)

Total scores:

Total scores with average over time:

Total scores by section:

Total scores by section over time:

Total scores by section with averages over time:

Comparing score averages before and after October 1:

Comparing score averages by section before and after October 1:

Well, the sequel was certainly more dramatic than the original

2011-12-03T13:09:00.001-08:00

I never thought I was the kind of guy who would throw up on the morning of the LSAT.

I was feeling nice and prepared for my second time. I didn't do as much practice this week as I did during the last practice week, but both practices were awesome (more on that later). I got to bed at a good time, woke up early, even did a few practice logic games to get my brain pumping (something I didn't do last time but wish I had). I grabbed my Ziplock bag and hopped on my bike (to get my blood pumping) and trekked to the BYU Law School building. I got there a little before 8:15, fifteen minutes before the deadline. Life was good.

I saw a friend from my mission, Chris Hill, and we chatted in line. Then I realized - I was supposed to have a photo of me attached to my registration form, and I had totally forgotten it and left it at home. I told Chris I'd be right back, and stepped out of line to call Erin.

Only, the LSAT doesn't allow cell phones on the premises, and I had purposefully left it at home!

I had no way of asking Erin to drive up to the law school with the photo, so I had no choice but bike back home, attach the photo to my form, and come back. I figured we lived close enough that I could do it all in 15 minutes, if I took the car instead of the bike for the return trip.

I opened the door to our apartment, and I expected Erin to be surprised and a little panicked to see me at home when I was supposed to report to the test center in a few minutes. But there was no reaction - because she wasn't there. "Oh no!" I thought. "She took Allisyn and the car to the law school! She must have noticed the same thing I did, that the photo was still here, and tried to bring it to me." Then I was worried that since I could only get back to the law school by bike, maybe I'd be too late and I wouldn't be allowed to take the test.

As I was taping the photo to my form (we had printed two copies of the photos), Erin called. My cell phone was lying on the dining room table. Erin was at the law school, with Allisyn and the other copy of the photo, where she found out I had left. She must have just missed me. (To read her side of the story, scroll down.) But it was too late, I had already attached the photo at home and it was time for me to turn around. And book it.

I pedaled as fast as I could, uphill and in the slick snow. I locked up my bike and ran to the building, with a dry throat because of the winter air and completely out of breath. I ran up the stairs, and there were Erin and Allisyn. (Erin told me later my face was really red and I looked really sweaty.) I was really happy to see them. Even though it turned out I didn't need a photo from her, she did help me by telling me what line to get into and what room I was assigned to.

Now that I had a chance to stand still, an overwhelming nausea came over me. I guess I'm not in shape enough to make two uphill bike trips in fifteen minutes. I started getting clammy and thought I was going to throw up. But I thought, "If I can just get through this line and sit down in my seat, I'll start feeling better." Either the line was too long or I was too sick, because before I got to the front of the line I had to get out. I thought I was going to throw up then and there.

Fortunately the bathroom was right there, and I escaped. And, I did throw up a little bit. :P

I didn't have time to wait until I was ready to stand up again, I had to get in line and take that test. The line was shorter, and I got to the front of the line quickly. But I was dizzy again. I just needed to get through that line. As part of the check-in process I was supposed to rip off the bottom of the form, but I was having real trouble doing that. It was like the world was in slow motion. I couldn't stand up straight anymore, and without thinking consciously, I bent over. I guess it was to lower my center of gravity and help me not feel like I was going to faint. The woman checking us in asked me, "Are you okay?" I don't remember what I said, but it was something like "I'm okay, I'm feeling better." I wondered if she thought I was having an anxiety attack because of stressing out over the LSAT.

Then I got to the table where they inspect our Ziplock bag, and I had to lean on the table. The inspector was none other than Jared Whipple, I guy from my ward at the University Villa more than three years ago. I was surprised he recognized me. And embarrassed that he saw me like this. Jared didn't seem to notice, at least he didn't say anything.

I was directed to my seat, and promptly collapsed on the table and commenced pouring sweat all over it. I didn't want to make a scene, but then the guy next to me moved to a different seat. (I found out later that it wasn't because of me, thank goodness.)

As the proctor started giving the instructions, I started to feel better. When the first section of questions I started, I was almost back to normal. And by the end of the first section, I was alert and in total LSAT dominance mode. Which was a miracle.

I'll turn the time over to Erin to tell her side of the story.

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I was up all night with our sick daughter, and actually, I slept on the couch so that Allisyn and I wouldn't bother J.J. while he tried to get a good night's sleep before his LSAT. Allisyn woke up a few minutes before J.J. had to leave. He helped me give her an antibiotic, kissed us both goodbye, and then was on his way to campus. He left at about 8:05, so he definitely had plenty of time to get there before 8:30.

I went into the kitchen with Allisyn to get her some breakfast when I glanced at the counter, and to my horror, saw J.J.'s LSAT picture. I knew I couldn't call him because he left his phone at home, but the thought did cross my mind that maybe he would realize he didn't have the picture and ask to borrow someone's phone. (He didn't though.) I immediately searched for the scissors, ruler, and paper that says what the dimensions of the picture need to be. I cut out the picture, changed out of my pajamas, threw on a jacket, grabbed the baby, and ran out the door.

As luck would have it, it snowed last night so I had to scrape the windows. It didn't take too long and then I sped off. It didn't even occur to me that roads would be slick, so it was a miracle that nothing bad happened while I drove fairly quickly.

I parked in the law school parking lot, grabbed the baby and the picture, found someone else who was taking the test, and got directions to the room. I ran up the stairs and found the line where I had hoped J.J. was waiting. But of course, he wasn't there. The woman who was directing people to their assigned rooms told me that he couldn't have gotten into his room without that picture, so that meant he wasn't in there. I didn't know what to do except to wait around for him. A couple of minutes later, the woman suggested that I call home and see if he's there. We don't have a home phone, but I remembered that his cell phone was there. I got a hold of him and told him that I was there waiting for him with the picture and that he just needed to hurry back.

I waited around, really anxious, because at this point it was 8:20. He eventually showed up at 8:27. He was running up the stairs, out of breath and red-faced. I handed him the picture I had, which he didn't need because he had grabbed the other copy of the picture. I guess I didn't really save the day after all. It was actually kind of frustrating because I thought I was being so helpful, but it didn't even matter that I left. In a way, it would have been better for me to have stayed at home because then J.J. could have just driven back to campus. But oh well. J.J. successfully made it through the day and it's a huge relief that it's all over.

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J.J. here again. I just want to say that it was great to see Erin and Allisyn waiting for me at the law school, even though it turned out I didn't need the photo she was trying to deliver. It meant a lot to me that she noticed the predicament I was in and tried to help. Erin feels bad for not saving the day, but in some way she was still a hero to me.

Not my best work

2011-11-30T10:32:00.000-08:00

Lately I feel like my school assignments across the board have been very subpar.

I had a Spanish phonetics presentation this morning that could have used a little more preparation. I did some research earlier this week, but my two partners did most of theirs the night before. I'm not complaining about them, they still got it done on time and I've certainly been guilty in the past. But our presentation did feel like it was thrown together, and unfortunately it was obvious enough that our professor told us after class that he noticed that. I also knew that our research was inconsistent, and that we were missing things ... unfortunately, the examples the professor pointed out happened to be on my end.

Also in Spanish, I got a graded exam back that was way lower than usual. Usually I don't have to work so hard in studying for a Spanish exam. I catch on quickly and memorize phonetic and grammatical rules easily. But I guess an effortless memorization couldn't contain all of the data I was supposed to know for this exam.

The class that has been the most frustrating is my political science class. It's a media and politics class, which I've had more than once in the communications department. So, it should be a cinch, right? And I usually feel like it is, until a graded assignment or exam comes back to me. Every assignment but one has come back with a lower grade than I expected. Everything I've turned it just isn't good enough.

I guess I shouldn't complain about high expectations. But I feel like I'm giving a false impression of myself as a student, like the professor thinks I'm a certain kind of student that I'm truly not.

I wrote a 20-page paper that meant I got probably six hours of sleep in a 72-hour time period, and I know it wasn't my best essay ever but I still got a lower grade than I would have predicted. The professor is offering a chance to edit and rewrite, and I'll certainly add some of those improvements, but a lot of what he's asking I just don't feel like doing. Not out of rebellion or animosity, just out of surrender and burnout.

In my world religions class, I had an exam a little while ago that I didn't do too great on. No real explanation other than that I should have studied more. But there's an easy opportunity for extra credit, which will help me out a lot.

Where I've really fallen behind is my Shakespeare class. I'm supposed to blog twice a week, but in four weeks I've blogged twice. I thought of a plan to live tweet reading King Lear that I still need to get around to. And our class has an ambitious final project that I did nothing about for a long time. But I did make some progress yesterday, so I'm feeling better about it.

Not everything is doom-and-gloom. A great burden was taken from my shoulders right before Thanksgiving when I completed an independent study course finally. Finishing that class means I have completed my political science minor!

And my media law class has been going really well. We did a fun project right before Thanksgiving were we reenacted a Supreme Court case and videotaped it. Then we are all doing a project with that video based on our majors (print journalism, broadcast journalism, public relations, advertising and communications studies) to answer the question "What would happen if TV cameras were allowed in the Supreme Court?" I got to play Chief Justice John Roberts. And I'm writing an article about our class project that could go in The Daily Universe next semester. So I guess that's pretty cool.

I don't really know why I'm not bringing my A game like usual. I know I'm married with a baby, and preparing for law school and another LSAT. Life is always stressful in one way or another. But I don't really feel overwhelmed or distracted.

Maybe what this means is that it's time to graduate.

From someecards (It's a hilarious site, but also pretty vulgar, watch out)

Thanksgivin' LSATin'

2011-11-26T17:03:00.001-08:00

During the very needed and welcomed break from school, I still made time to do another LSAT practice.

I did awesome on the practice ... except that I had to skip like half the logic games section. It was frustrating, because I'm a lot better at those than I used to be. But, also, I did the exam in the middle of my family's dining room, while Allisyn was watching "Care Bears" and "Tangled" and running around, and my siblings were going about their day. (If I can take an LSAT while stuff is going on around me, then taking it in a controlled environment should be a cinch.) So maybe that was a factor.

Anyway, I got a 163.

More charts!

Letter Aftermath

2011-11-21T10:23:00.001-08:00

A former sports reporter and co-editor of mine wrote a good article for the Deseret News that follows up on last week's controversy:

BYU paper pulls letter to editor on gay adoption, but student defends it

Way to go, Sarah, in talking to Taylor Petty himself. It's hard to believe that he's so unapologetic, but I suppose he's entitled to his opinion.

And, Taylor, both sides are represented:

For gay parents adopting

Against gay parents adopting

Your letter was taken down not because of sides or bias, but because of your overdrawn and hurtful rant.

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What got me the most mad last Friday was how much hate was expressed for The Daily Universe.

It's understandable to some extent. And we all regret publishing Taylor's letter. But according to the fliers that were passed around and some people on the "Shame On You DU" Facebook group, it was as if the DU was advancing an anti-gay rights agenda. I saw way too many people who confused a letter to the editor with an article, which maybe doesn't seem like a big difference, but it is for those who understand journalism.

It was also frustrating to see so many people praise The Student Review to the detriment of the DU. Don't get me wrong, The Student Review is great and Hunter Schwarz's viewpoint was a good reassurance that not every BYU student or every Mormon believes the same way Taylor does. But, to people like Hanna Hiatt, journalism on BYU campus is not in as dire of straits as you think it is. The DU isn't worthless, even after this mistake.

(Of course, I'm biased since I've worked here almost two years and am proud of it. So take my opinion for what it's worth.)

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One thing I am grateful for is that "Shame On You DU" is making a big effort to change its name. The people who created the group seemed to realize that their purpose wasn't to tear down the DU, but to promote more tolerance and understanding at BYU. Ironically, in order to change the name they have to drop their Facebook fans to below 100, so they're actually asking people to leave the group and then come back after the name change. It's a lot of hassle, but they want to do it anyway. And I really appreciate that.

What's funny though is that their fans have actually gone up. So, if anyone from the Facebook group is reading this blog: please listen to the suggestion from the leaders of the group and let the name be changed. It will help the group's name reflect the group's mission more accurately.

Last of the LSAT prep class

2011-11-20T10:17:00.001-08:00

I took my last practice exam in my LSAT prep class last week, and got 165.

The exam was a little weird, because the way these practice exams work is that they assign you an old LSAT plus a section from another old LSAT. When I sat down to take the test last Saturday, I had already done one of the sections. I guess maybe I did the wrong section in a previous exam. So I sort of had to create the exam as I went.

For anyone curious, I thought the BYU LSAT prep class was pretty good. I recommend it, but with some reservations. It's the cheapest out of the other options. The teachers are great and very helpful. The textbooks are perfect. It's great if you know that you won't devote that much time to LSAT studying on your own. For me, by paying for a class I felt obligated to go, and therefore spent at least six hours a week on LSAT studying. Without the class, I probably would have spent that time doing other homework ... or watching TV. :P

The cons of the class were that there would be lack of communication every once in a while. Sometimes our assigned room was assigned to someone else, so we had to find an empty classroom. One time, our teacher never showed up (but it did mean we got free pizza and donuts the next time as an apology). The last class was this Saturday morning, but it wasn't a practice exam like the usual Saturday, it was a review session. I wasn't sure what that meant and so it turned out I didn't bring any textbooks or practice books.

Probably the biggest problem was that midway through we had a new logic games teacher. The teacher taught us as if we were just starting out, even though we had already been in the class a month. He wasn't a bad teacher at all, but because we were used to the first teacher, it felt like we weren't making progress. Also, with two teachers and the textbooks, sometimes we had three different ways of doing things, which was confusing sometimes.

Overall though, it was worth it. I would say, if you're worried about the teachers or the late nights in the middle of the week, you could probably get almost as much out of your studying if you invest in those books.

The latest charts:

Now that my class is done, and the next LSAT is less than two weeks away, I'm going to do a lot of practice exams on my own. I'm kinda busy with school (I have half an independent study class that's due by Tuesday). But I'll do two or three practices over Thanksgiving break, and I'll have another Practice Week leading up to the LSAT (except I might not do one the Friday before, I've heard a lot of advice telling me to just relax on Friday).

I also need to turn in some more applications! I still only have applications in for Texas and North Carolina. Maybe during the break I can wrap up some more personal statements and get more sent in.

Good, better, best

2011-11-18T12:35:00.001-08:00

Here are some thoughts on the latest Daily Universe opinion page controversy:

It all started with a letter to the editor written by Alex Hairston, one of my old sports reporters and fellow sports editors. He wrote about a conversation he had with a friend about the TV show "Modern Family." One of the families on the show is a same-sex couple with an adopted little girl.

http://modern-family.maxupdates.tv/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/modern-family.jpg

Alex and his friend were sharing their opinions on whether we should support same-sex couples who want to adopt and raise children. His friend said he would rather his taxes go to build orphanages and prevent children from going to same-sex couples. Alex said he wasn't so sure.

But I thought Alex's letter was great, because it was totally benign and simply curious. He honestly was just wondering what people thought of the issue.

"I’m not sure the LDS Church has ever commented on this particular situation, although the proclamation to the world calls clearly for a mother and father in the home, if possible."

"Personally, I can’t say I’m opposed to a situation where a gay couple raises a child, but that could change if the Prophet marked it as a practice that should be avoided."

Certainly no rebellion or false doctrine. Alex was just being inquisitive.

Here's his letter:

Ways to raise

Of course, Alex's letter sparked a lot of responses. Of two that were published in the paper, one was supportive of same-sex couples adopting, one wasn't. But both of them were mostly thoughtful, and added to the conversation without resorting to insults or pettiness.

"Modern" immorality

Home-ophobia?

But then, a letter was published by someone named Taylor Petty (ironic enough). He sounded like someone who has never met a gay person in his life. He was very adamant, harsh, very zero-tolerance and downright heartless.

(I'll just interject myself here to remind all of you that just because a letter is published in the paper doesn't mean any of us in the newsroom or the university or the Church agree with it. And a letter is different from an article. An article would be the voice of the newspaper, a letter is the voice of some random guy.)

His letter is no longer available online, so I have to paraphrase, but the most striking point he made was something like "Would we let a baby be raised by a mother who was a prostitute or a father who was a serial killer?" (If you happen to have a Daily Universe paper from yesterday, you can find it there on page three.)

The letter was published in the paper and online, but was taken down last night. Here's the explanation by our managing editor Joel Campbell:

Letter removed

I thought Professor Campbell's statement was perfect and I totally agree with what he said. The letter did not reflect the opinion of The Daily Universe, BYU or The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. All three institutions (and myself) oppose same-sex marriage and oppose complete acceptance of homosexuality as merely an alternative lifestyle. At the same time, homosexual couples are not evil monsters. The Church has supported pretty much every right that homosexuals fight for except for marriage. (Here's an example.)

To anyone who cries censorship and says this is a violation of the First Amendment to take it down, I'll refer you to the U.S. Supreme Court case Miami Herald v. Tornillo. Basically, someone who writes a letter to the editor does have a right to speech, but a newspaper editor also has a right not to speak. If we don't want to publish something that's hateful and against the doctrine of our sponsoring organization (the Church), then we don't have to. (If you want to go somewhere that does publish things that might be newsworthy but against the doctrine of the Church, go here instead.)

The Daily Universe had a similar case last year, with a letter that I think was the opposite view of Taylor Petty's letter. I say "I think," because the letter was not clear whether it was rebelling against the Church and the prophet or wasn't. It was ambiguous to me, which is why I supported its removal last September.

Taylor Petty has every right to say what he wants to say. He even has the right to say that homosexuality is as bad as prostitution or murder. But he doesn't have the right to say so in The Daily Universe. If he demands his letter be republished or reposted online, or demands that other letters are taken down, then he is infringing on our First Amendment rights.

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For the record, I haven't totally decided my stance on this issue. But I lean toward what Alex and Katie Peacock said.

I remember one time having a conversation with a mission companion of mine while I was a missionary in Argentina. I don't remember how the subject came up, but we were talking about same-sex parents. I said this partly to annoy him, haha, but I also believed it, "I would rather live in a home with two dads or two moms who loved each other than a home with a mom and a dad who hated each other." I think same-sex parents are definitely better than abusive parents. And I think same-sex parents are better than no parents at all.

Any home without both a mother and a father is not what God would hope for His children. But, of course, many of us have been raised in other types of families, whether it was by a single parent, a grandparent, another relative, or two moms or two dads. I think someone raised in another type of family has just as much of an opportunity to be an upright citizen and a righteous child of God.

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And, by the way, I happen to love "Modern Family."

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UPDATE: This KTVX article gets some things wrong.

1) I don't know why this "Josh" kid thinks he would be expelled. I wonder where he got that idea.

2) The letter to the editor didn't actually criticize "Modern Family." Hey, ABC 4, if you want to actually do some research, read the original letter by clicking here. (Maybe you were thinking of this letter, but this isn't the one that started it all.)

Sad News from Happy Valley

2011-11-15T11:01:00.001-08:00

I wrote some thoughts about the Penn State sexual abuse scandal for today's Daily Universe:

Individuality vs. unity

Other than expressing some outright disgust over the events that have gone on, I talked about the student protests. What these Penn State students don't seem to get is that you can't just punish those who are directly responsible. They think firing Joe Paterno is an outrage. But we are meant to live in a society of mutual dependence, which means sometimes we suffer for the actions of others. We can't just think of ourselves, or blame others for everything. Becoming connected with people can be risky, but it's rewarding and, I think, one of the purposes of life.

I thought Saturday Night Live handled this scandal perfectly:

Podcast Catch-up

2011-11-14T15:50:00.001-08:00

I've done a ton of podcast that haven't found their way onto the blog! And I just realized that my last blog post about the CougarCast told you to "stay tuned" to find out who the special guest was for the next podcast. That was on October 11! I've been leaving you hanging for more than a month!

Anyway, here's what you missed:

CougarCast: BYU vs. Oregon State - The special guest was Kandis, my sister who goes to Oregon State!

CougarCast: BYU 38, Oregon State 28

CougarCast: BYU vs. Idaho State - With my pal from New York City and expert on all things Idaho, Briana Carr.

CougarCast: BYU 56, Idaho State 3

CougarCast: BYU vs. TCU

CougarCast: TCU 38, BYU 28 - Whoa, I just realized this is the exact same score as the Oregon State game. I don't know if I noticed that before.

CougarCast: BYU vs. Idaho - once again with Briana.

And as for the "CougarCast: BYU 42, Idaho 7" podcast, I'm in the middle of editing that now. I would have had it done last night, but The Daily Universe's website crashed. Fortunately, everything has been restored and nothing was lost. But it does slow me down.

Stay tuned! And this time I mean it!

Slow and steady

2011-11-08T11:54:00.000-08:00

Another cartoon in The Daily Universe:

Herman Cain, the latest flavor of the month, isn't looking too good right now. When the sexual harassment allegations first started coming out, I did actually believe that Cain wasn't guilty of anything serious. But as he has fumbled his response, and as more women have come forward, he's looking more like the Tiger Woods of two years ago.

Meanwhile, boring ol' Mitt Romney is still there, and still reliable as a presidential candidate.

I liked a joke on NPR's "Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me!" about how if Mitt Romney came out to the public and confessed some indiscretions, no one would believe him. You can listen to the funny conversation here.

Preparing for Round 2

2011-11-07T14:54:00.000-08:00

I haven't posted any LSAT updates in a couple weeks, so this is my attempt at catching up.

For the past two weeks in our LSAT prep class, the tests have been extended to five sections, just like the real test. And, just like the real test, one of the sections isn't graded. That means that my practice test on October 29 and on November 5 each have three possible scores, depending on which one doesn't count.

And, on October 29, it just so happened that the practice test on the schedule was one I did on my own in September. I had been trying to avoid practicing with tests that were going to come up later in my class, but I guess I let one slip past. So, of course, I did pretty amazing on that test since I had done it before and remembered most of the questions I got wrong and why.

Anyway, here's what I got:

October 29: 167 or 165 or 164
November 5: 165 or 163 or 162

I'm feeling pretty good about it. And, my average score since the October LSAT is 163.4. If I can get a 164 or 165 for the December LSAT, that will work out pretty well for me.

Charts:

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In other news, I have officially completed a couple of applications! My applications to Texas and North Carolina are submitted. (Thanks to all of you who helped me with my personal statements.) I think all my other applications just need a personal statement and they're done, so I'll probably send in the rest of mine soon.

Oh, and there have been some changes to the "official" list. Erin and I decided to add Ohio State. And we also figured, hey, might as well replace Willamette and Gonzaga with one Pacific Northwest school that I have a fee waiver for and is ranked higher: Oregon.

So, here's my list as of now:

The results are in

2011-10-25T12:17:00.000-07:00

The moment you (mostly me) have all been waiting for finally arrived yesterday.

LSAC officially said I would receive my score on Oct. 26, but I heard from a lot of people that said it would come early. A former sports reporter of mine who took the LSAT, Chuck Krebs, was on top of it. He was retweeting every bit of information that gave a clue to when the scores would come. And every tweet of his added one more butterfly to my stomach, haha.

By Monday afternoon, it was getting to be now or nothing (or the next day). Erin got really anxious, and started following the news on Twitter and got even more antsy than me. After I was done with The Daily Universe's front page meeting, an email from LSAC was waiting for me. I snuck away outside the newsroom with my laptop and called Erin.

I got a 161 (83rd percentile).

Now, all along my prediction was 162. Which I think is why I wasn't very excited at first to read "161." I spent the last three weeks wondering "What if it turns out I did really awesome?" and hoping to be pleasantly surprised. I wasn't devastatingly disappointed, thank goodness. But it was hard at first to get excited.

But the more people I told, the better I felt each time. My friend Bert had some good advice: "... feel good. Check out the long list of good schools you should be able to get into and you'll feel better." Which was true. Earlier on this blog I shared a list of schools that had 160 as a median LSAT in their freshmen class last year. And some of those schools aren't half bad! Haha. And I called my mom and dad, and they were pretty impressed. Of course, they're my mom and dad. But my dad especially was excited for me.

So what happens now? The list of schools I want to apply to, as well as the schools I've recently added to it, isn't going to change. A 162 was already questionable for Notre Dame, Texas and Virginia, so a 161 is even more so. But, maybe if I write a really good personal statement, I'll be accepted there anyway, haha. (Speaking of which ... my advice to any aspiring law students: start your personal statements way earlier in the process than I am!)

One thing that's great is that LSAC also sends you your answers and the correct answers and the test booklet, so you can go over the whole test and see where you went right and wrong. And I found out something interesting.

In calculating all the practice LSATs I've ever taken, I average

62% correct in the logic games
75% in the logical reasoning
78% in the reading comprehension and
158.5 total.

Of course, I've improved a lot since my first test in July. If I count only practices since the week before the real test (Sept. 26), then it's

67.7% in logic games
73.5% in logical reasoning (weird, I actually got worse in that)
79.6% in reading comprehension
160.4 total.

For the real LSAT, here's how I did:

87% in logic games
76% in logical reasoning and
59% in reading comprehension.

Isn't that weird? I did way better than usual in logic games, a bit better in logical reasoning, and way worse in reading comprehension.

I calculated that if I had done my usual average on the reading comprehension section, I would have had a 164 or 165.

So I'm definitely going to try the LSAT again. It will help that we've now covered reading comprehension in my LSAT prep class (I guess that's the risk that comes with taking an LSAT prep class that doesn't finish before I take the test).

Of course, all these numbers mean only one thing: charts!

PR'd!

2011-10-22T16:33:00.000-07:00

(All you cross country runners and track stars know what that means.)

For today's LSAT practice, I wasn't feeling too good. I stayed up really late, first to write on my Shakespeare blog and then to write on this blog. (I know I didn't have to blog here last night, so I brought it on myself.) And after last week's practice LSAT, I wasn't expecting much.

But I actually didn't do that bad. In fact, depending on how you score it, I got either a 164, my best ever, or 162.

The reason I say "depending on how you score it" is because for the first time today, our practice test was five sections. It was our normal four-section test, plus a section from another test. So I'm not really sure how to measure it all together. But, what happens in the real test is that you have only four sections that are actually part of the score, two logical reasoning, one analytical reasoning (logic games) and one reading comprehension. Then you have an extra "experimental section."

In today's practice, I had three logical reasoning sections, meaning one of them is the "experimental section." Depending on which of the three sections you throw out, I either got 164 or 162.

For purposes of the charts, let's just say I got 164 :)

If you noticed, these charts are a little different. I started tracking how my average has changed (now that I've taken 13 tests). One thing I thought was interesting was that my average for reading comprehension and logical reasoning, despite all the practice and my LSAT prep classes, hasn't changed very much. In fact, my logical reasoning has gone down. So it's my logical games score that really seems to be the biggest factor. Hmm.

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Speaking of which ... word on the street is I'll get my LSAT score on Monday! At the latest, LSAC says I'll get it on Wednesday. But I can't wait 'til Monday.

The law school fairest of them all

2011-10-22T01:27:00.000-07:00

Hey, law school fans,

On Wednesday, there was a law school fair in the ballroom of the Wilkinson Center. The BYU Pre-Law office doesn't do a great job of getting the word out...the way I found out about it was a junk email from Michigan State. Then, all my law school junk emails started telling me about this law school fair, some of them from schools I was actually interested in and a few that said I could get an application fee waiver if I stopped by their table at the fair. Awesome.

So I was pretty excited to go. I had all kinds of things I wanted to find out, but at the same time I didn't really know what to ask. But I got some advice from my law school pals Bert van Uitert, Erin Kulesus and Aimee Brown (thanks, guys!). Erin and Allisyn were really excited to go with me too.

Even though I didn't really do that much, for some reason it was really fun. I guess it really is like a fair, or like a carnival. But instead of cotton candy and huge teddy bears, you get to dream about the next phase of your life. Erin and I both became even more thrilled by the idea of a new adventure. And there were so many options!

The ballroom at the Wilkinson Center was full of schools, and there was a pretty good representation. Harvard, Yale and Princeton weren't there. But Cornell and Columbia were. And, it ranged all the way down to the bottom tier schools that send me junk email all the time. It was just cool to see all these great schools from all over the country all at one place.

All of the schools in my narrowed-down list were there, which was a nice bonus. In addition, there were a few more schools that for one reason or another convinced us enough that we'll maybe apply to them too (the fee waivers helped):

Iowa - Because we're pretty much open to moving anywhere in the country, I didn't really know how to choose among all the state schools in the country. I know some state schools stand out, like Michigan and Texas. But I didn't really know the differences among Iowa and Wisconsin and Georgia and New Mexico or most anywhere else. But the guys at the Iowa booth made us feel pretty good about it, especially Erin. Erin, of course, was really big on finding out what family life would be like at each school, and what life would be like for the "law school widows." And she felt really good about Iowa, which means I do too.

Virginia - This school is one of the best state schools, and ranked ninth overall. I've always known it was a great school, and I think it would be cool to live in Virginia. But I wasn't planning on applying because I didn't think I could get in. But, this was one of the schools that had a fee waiver. So, hey, I might not get in, but it's worth $16 for the CAS and $0 for the application. (Plus, Allisyn got some swag from them - a little teddy bear.)

Minnesota - The lady at the Minnesota table was really nice. Kind of a grandmotherly type, and talked about the great family environment there.

We picked up a whole backpackfull of brochures, pamphlets, business cards - plus a pen from Washington and a pen from Notre Dame. And in addition to that Virginia bear, Oregon was handing out rubber duckies holding a gavel and a law book. Pretty clever.

Allisyn at home with her Oregon Law rubber duckie.

(Skip to 9:11) (If the video isn't loading for you, click here)

SPIKE

THE CONVENTION - 3x02

We got stuff from all these schools:

Already on my list
Texas
Notre Dame
UC Davis
North Carolina
Washington
Arizona State
BYU
Utah
Baylor
Gonzaga
Willamette

Will probably go on my list
Virginia
Minnesota
Iowa

Ones I would maybe apply to only if my LSAT is surprisingly higher than I expected
Stanford
Michigan
Columbia
UC Berkeley
Vanderbilt

Ones I got fee waivers for
Utah
BYU
Virginia
Oklahoma
Vermont
Texas Tech
Oregon
Akron (this one I didn't pick up, it was given to me by a desperate University of Akron representative)
(and Baylor and Willamette are already free)

Ones I would maybe apply to only if my LSAT is surprisingly lower than I expected
Florida
Ohio State
Temple

Others I just picked up for fun (either because they make me think of good college sports, or "The Office")
Nebraska
Alabama
Cornell
Syracuse

The guy representing Stanford was none other than Tony Montague, one of my MTC teachers! It was really cool to see him. I've run into him on campus a couple times since being home from my mission, but that's all. I had no idea he was even at Stanford. So that was cool. (Too bad that he can't pull some strings, haha. Even if I could get into Stanford, though, it is super expensive to live there. Tony said the apartment he and his family live in is $1,700 a month. And that's student housing. Yikes.)

Probably the best sales pitch came from Baylor. The girl was super nice, told us her apartment that has three bedrooms and two bathrooms was only $600 a month (that's less than we're paying in Provo for two bedrooms and one bathroom), and that Baylor has a spring term and a summer term, which might be better than finding a job for the nine months between graduating from BYU and moving to law school. Baylor also got me thinking about the benefits of being "a big fish in a little pond." Even if I could get into Virginia or Notre Dame, it might be worth going to a school like Baylor. It would be easier to be in the top of my class (which, one person told me, is noticed by employers no matter what school you went to) or on the law review. So, something to think about.

Anyway, I've got a big stack of brochures to read!

I can't wait for law school.

P.S.: If you want to read Erin's blog post about the law school fair, click here.

Birthday LSAT

2011-10-20T08:08:00.000-07:00

I turned 25 on Saturday. It was a great day, thanks to Erin. She was even able to slip in a few surprises. (You can read more about it here.)

Unfortunately, I also had a bummer on the morning of my birthday. I went to take another practice LSAT for my prep class, and I scored lower than I had been the past three weeks. I got a 159, which I know isn't terrible but still disappointing to me.

What really made it disappointing was not so much that I got a 159, but that as I went over my wrong answers, I found so many dumb mistakes. There were so many questions I missed simply because I wasn't paying attention. In fact, I tried to count the questions I would have answered correctly if only I had focused more, and I estimated that I would have had a 166.

I blame the lack of focus on lack of sleep. And I blame the lack of sleep on school. Even in my long 25 years of life, I've rarely felt mad because of school. I've felt stressed or overwhelmed, but not mad. But I was mad on Saturday morning.

I guess I should be reassured, though, that a good night's sleep was the only thing I needed, and not that the test was incomprehensible or over my head.

Here's the latest charts!

A coupla podcasts

2011-10-11T10:33:00.000-07:00

Hey sports fans,

I've neglected to post links to the lastest CougarCasts. I guess with all the LSAT stuff I've been pretty busy. Hard to imagine, I know.

Anyway, here's what you've missed:

CougarCast: BYU vs. Utah State

This one was fun, because I did it with a sports editor from USU's student newspaper, The Utah Statesman. Tavin Stucki was really nice...especially when there were some technical difficulties and I had to redo the whole podcast.

CougarCast: BYU vs. San Jose State

I was out of town for my grandma's funeral, so I didn't do a podcast to recap the Utah State game. But we combined that with the San Jose State preview. For this podcast, I got Briana Carr, broadcast journalism student extraordinaire and fellow New York City intern, to join me. We talked about a lot of stuff - including Jimmer's wedding.

CougarCast: BYU 29, San Jose State 16

For this one, I finally got together with Aaron Sorenson, one of the DU's football beat writers.

Later this week, when we preview the Oregon State game, we're going to have a surprise special guest. Stay tuned.

That Sly Smirk of His

2011-10-11T10:19:00.000-07:00

It's been a long, long time since I had a cartoon in the newspaper. But I did one for today.

In case you haven't heard the story, an evangelical pastor who is a big Rick Perry supporter told evangelicals not to vote for a Mormon, because it would be bad to have a Mormon as president and that Mormonism is a cult. And Rick Perry initially did nothing to restrain this supporter, and eventually did start distancing himself.

I had a problem with this pastor before I even heard him talk. He just had this dumb looking smirk on his face, like a cat who swallowed the canary. I was just thinking how smug he looked as he said things that were just plain wrong. It's fine for him to not want to vote for Mitt Romney, and it's fine for him to not vote for him because he's a Mormon. But to say Mormons are not Christians is nothing more than a gross misunderstanding.

Way to go Anderson Cooper for confronting this guy:

October 8 LSAT Practice

2011-10-08T11:41:00.000-07:00

Another practice LSAT this morning. It's sort of strange to take a practice one after I've already taken a real one. But, until my score comes back and it's something amazing, I'm planning on continuing to practice and prepare for the LSAT in December.

Today, I got 162. So I tied my all-time best for the third time. Here's what's interesting though: I was a little late to the practice session this morning, which meant I had less time to do the first section, which was logic games. I had to leave blank six questions. Even then, I still got almost 70% on that section, which is higher than my average. Just for fun, later I did those six questions, and got five out of six right. So, if I had only had a little more time on that section, I probably would have got 91% on that section, and would have had a 164 overall. So close!

Also after the test, I tried to remember some specifics about the real test last Saturday. I have a feeling that I probably got five or six wrong on each section. If that's the case, then I got somewhere between 74 and 80 correct, which would be right at 162 or higher. In other words, I'm predicting that my score is 162 or higher. I've got my fingers crossed!

Once again, here are my charts:

LSAT Attack

2011-10-05T12:19:00.000-07:00

So, for any of you who have been on J.J. LSAT Watch, you've been disappointed this week. Not to worry, I'm here a few days late to catch you up on all the news.

Last week was crunch time before taking the real LSAT on Saturday. So I decided to take a break from blogging about the LSAT and just practice it. And, Practice Week was a bit of a roller coaster, but overall I got better and better as the week progressed.

It didn't help that I had a nasty sore throat and runny nose at the beginning of the week. One test, I was forced to leave blank 16 out of 23 logic games questions. Not good.

But I still managed to score a 156 that day. And, twice I got 162, my personal best. And one of those times, I got 24 out of 26 right on the reading comprehension section! So that was awesome.

Here's charting the practice week's results:

So, Saturday was the big day. I didn't get quite as much sleep as I wanted the day before, but I still felt pretty well. I rode my bike to campus instead of driving or being driven, to get my blood pumping. There I was at the Wilkinson Center, surrounded by other twentysomethings, mostly men, all carrying Ziplock bags with lunch. We filed in and checked in at about 8:20. The test didn't get started until about 8:50.

I've heard some people talk about how intimidating the BYU Testing Center is. They feel pressure from the huge, silent room full of test-takers arranged in rows and columns. Well, I've never felt that at the testing center, but I did feel that at the beginning of the LSAT. And for some reason, the proctor reading the instructions - even though I already knew the instructions and didn't need to be scared by them - added to the atmosphere.

I usually have plenty of leftover time in the logical reasoning and reading comprehension sections, and therefore have the luxury of checking my answers. But I didn't get as much time to do that on the first section. Then, on the analytical reasoning/logic games question, there were a couple I had to guess before running out of time and a few more that I was rushed through.

But, every section after that I felt pretty good about. I think my Practice Week really paid off. I felt about the same as I did while I was taking the practice tests that got me a 162. So, I'm feeling like I got a 162 or above. Of course, people feel great about the LSAT and end up bombing it, and others feel horrible and end up doing amazing. I'll find out my score on October 26 (but I hope earlier).

In the meantime, I can focus on other aspects of applying to law school. The letters of recommendation and evaluations are coming in, and I need to start writing my personal statements and putting the finishing touches on the forms.

Oh, and, here's maybe the part you're the most curious about: with this rough idea of what my LSAT score will be, I've narrowed down my list of schools I'm interested in applying to.

So, if I get around a 162, here's where I'll apply:

Texas
Notre Dame
These two are the schools I'm "reaching" for. If I get a 162, I could maybe get into these schools, maybe not.
(For any of you who are thinking, "Why would a Mormon want to go to Notre Dame?" read this: "Two faiths - LDS Church News")

UC Davis
I hadn't thought a lot about this school, but after looking at both law school rankings and the probability of getting into a law school with my GPA and my LSAT score guess, this one seems be where those two lines intersect. (And, it's close to Sacramento, so I can stay close to Jimmer, haha.)

North Carolina
A really good state school, and we've heard a lot of great things about the state of North Carolina. And, except for BYU and Utah, it's the cheapest.

Washington
I hadn't really thought of Washington either, until I made this list and realized that Gonzaga and Willamette were the only Pacific Northwest schools on the list, and that I could definitely get into those two schools with even a lower LSAT score. So I thought I should balance that out by finding the highest ranked Pacific Northwest school and including it. (I wanted to include the Pacific Northwest since I'm from Oregon.)

Arizona State
This is mostly Erin's idea, but I could probably enjoy Arizona if we lived there. See, it's all about compromise! Haha. Erin got the idea from her cousin Cara, whose husband is trying to get into Arizona State. It would be great to live nearby them and go through the law school adventure together. And, I wouldn't mind going to a school named after Sandra Day O'Connor.

BYU
To be honest, I feel like I'd rather move out of the state of Utah. Not because I can't stand it here, just because I think I'd be more excited to move somewhere new and have an adventure. (That was part of what made our two months in New York City so amazing. Not just that it was New York, but because it was new for us.) But, you can't argue against the cheap tuition.

Utah
Similar to the reasoning behind choosing BYU, although at least moving out of Provo would be something new. It would be more exciting to live outside of Utah, but the in-state tuition is tempting. And, my friend Bert is going to law school there, and it would be fun to hang out with him and his family.

Baylor
Basically, this is a back-up Texas school in case University of Texas doesn't work out. (Erin's family lives in Houston, in case you didn't know.)

Gonzaga
Willamette
Good schools, but not ranked nearly as high as the rest. Even if I don't get the LSAT score I'm expecting, I have a good chance of getting into either one of these. These are sort of my back-up schools.

I also have other schools to try in case my score is higher or lower than I'm expecting.

Harvard: If I get 170 or higher (And, 'cause, hey, why not?)
Stanford: If I get 168 or higher
Michigan: If I get 168 or higher
Georgetown: If I get 168 or higher
Duke: If I get 166 or higher

What do you guys think?

CougarCast!

2011-09-27T12:06:00.000-07:00

CougarCast: BYU 24, UCF 17

Another podcast, this one with Dallin Turner.

To preview Utah State, it looks like I'm going to be talking with a sports editor from USU's student newspaper, The Utah Statesman. Should be interesting.

Reviewing "The Student Review," Part Deux

2011-09-27T11:17:00.000-07:00

My earlier post about the Student Review was used today as The Daily Universe's response to the alternative paper's debut.

Viewpoint: Student reviews Student Review

It's basically what I blogged earlier, just shorter.

LSAT > UCF

2011-09-23T19:20:00.000-07:00

So, right now BYU is playing UCF, but instead I'm in the library to blog my continuing LSAT practice tests. I had to take the practice test tonight instead of tomorrow, because I'm going on a field trip tomorrow to Cedar City. I wish I didn't have to miss the game, but tonight was the best time to practice. If only I could do everything...

Well, today went a lot better than last week. I got 158. It's still not close to my goal, and the real LSAT is only a week away. I'm going to try and study and practice all week next week. I'm coming to realize that I would probably do better if I weren't preparing for the LSAT while at the same time taking 14 credits at BYU. But I don't want to wait a year before trying to get into law school, I'd rather go as soon as I can. Which I guess means accepting an LSAT score lower than what my pure, absolute, no-other-influencing-factors best would be.

Here are some new charts. I did these a little differently: they show my average score, and instead of doing an individual chart for each section of the test I merged them into one test.

UCF?

2011-09-23T12:07:00.001-07:00

It's another CougarCast. This one is a class in "UCF 101."

CougarCast: BYU vs. UCF

LSAT practice - Sept. 17

2011-09-20T13:59:00.000-07:00

I haven't blogged yet about how my practice LSAT went last Saturday. Part of the reason is because it didn't go very well. I can't think of any other explanation other than that the test was hard. But, I dropped to 153 from 159 the week before. It was especially frustrating after spending a week practicing the analytical reasoning (logic games).

I know it's just practice, so I shouldn't take it too seriously. Thanks to those of you who have given me your encouragement!

I won't be taking the LSAT practice this Saturday morning, because I'll be leaving for a field trip for my Shakespeare class. So I'll probably take one Friday night instead. Wish me luck!

My progress, in nerdy chart form:

CougarCast: Utah 54, BYU 10

2011-09-19T19:36:00.000-07:00

It was a sad, sad game...but we did a podcast anyway.

CougarCast: Utah 54, BYU 10

Reviewing 'The Student Review'

2011-09-19T16:11:00.000-07:00

Today was the debut for the first edition of The Student Review, an alternative student newspaper for BYU. Of course, as a longtime employee of The Daily Universe, I had some personal interest in what type of publication the Student Review would turn out to be.

Because it is an official part of the campus curriculum, The Daily Universe does have some limitations, and sometimes those limitations do get annoying. There is still some confusion between the Brimhall Building and the Smoot Building as to the primary purpose of The Daily Universe. And there have been moments when I've felt riled up. But I've calmed down and learned that I don't need to be an activist all the time.

For the most part, we write stories that would be published with or without administrative approval. After all, we do like BYU. We wouldn't go out of our way to try and make BYU look bad. And the Universe has published plenty of deep, serious, investigative articles, even some that could spark some controversial discussion (two examples from me: Some missions causing RMs to change political beliefs, Cougar sports by the numbers). It's not just the Police Beat. Of course, the journalistic environment is unique here. But part of that uniqueness is what makes the Universe an award-winning newspaper. Having a foundation built on competent professionals, instead of a group of students who have a bone to pick with their university or any other authority figure, means the Universe has something to offer that other campus newspapers across the country do not have.

True, I've never personally been the target of a BYU inquisition, and if I were maybe I would still hold a grudge. And maybe now that I'm preparing for law school and not preparing to be the next Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward, I've lost the journalistic fire in the belly. Maybe I just want to please people. But I still believe strongly in freedom of speech and the First Amendment. And even at BYU, I don't have to be a martyr to stand up for those rights.

So, when I heard that an alternative newspaper was trying its luck, I was worried that it would have an agenda and rally others to its cause. I was concerned that it would be simply an extension of our opinion page and just be filled with complaints. Basically, I wondered if it would become the newspaper that sometimes the administration perceives The Daily Universe to be. I thought it might try so hard to stand on a soapbox and stick it to the man that it might compromise good journalism standards. A newspaper article can stir up conversation without stirring up trouble.

This morning, I picked up the inaugural issue and read it from cover to cover. And I was very impressed.

The Student Review is ambitious yet simple, professional yet informal. It included stories that would be difficult to compile into one edition of The Daily Universe. From campus clubs to Arizona politics to sex therapy to the Freemasons, there's a lot of great information for anyone interested in the world around them (which I hope would be anyone at BYU). And in general, the stories are written as well as any BYU communications major would write them.

In fact, what struck me was that there isn't much that would keep these stories from being included in The Daily Universe. Some of them would not be published, but not because they are inappropriate or seditious, but simply because they are more suited to a magazine than to a newspaper. There's no false doctrine in the Q&A with the Provo sex therapist, there was nothing I didn't hear in my premarital class at the Student Health Center or my marriage enhancement class in the JKB. And I don't think the subject is completely untouchable by The Daily Universe. It would just be handled with more of a newspaper style than a magazine style. And there is certainly need for both styles to be in circulation.

I'll point out some other differences that I found between The Student Review and The Daily Universe:

- "Student's bladder explodes while waiting for parking spot" is undoubtedly funny and well-done. But, since The Daily Universe is not BYU's "The Onion," it's not likely a fictitious, humorous story would find its way into the newspaper.

- The story about the USGA club might be, in the Student Review writers' minds, the epitome of a story that wouldn't see the light of day at The Daily Universe. But actually, I think all it would need is a little more doctrinal context, even if it's just a general authority quote from a recent conference.

- The conversation about Men's Services with the BYU operator was funny and poignant. But again, The Daily Universe doesn't give space for dialogues. The "Overheard at BYU" Facebook group would be a better fit.

- I couldn't tell what side of the issue "GQ magazine slams Provo for lack of fashion know-how" was on. Was Rebecca Ricks making fun of Provo too? Or defending it? I'm not saying that it's completely missing the mark, just that it would need a tweak or two before showing up as a viewpoint on the opinion page. As one of our lab editors says, when it comes to editorials, "Take a side."

- Even though "Fresh off the boat with Eden Wen" was written by an Asian, I'm sure it will be easily misunderstood. Could you imagine the response that would come if that letter were on The Daily Universe's opinion page? I don't think Eden Wen meant anything racist, but I'm sure others would. I'm not saying her article was out of line, just potentially problematic.

- Besides being more Seventeen than New York Times, the other obstacle for publishing "Romney & Huntsman: Who's hotter?" or an article like it in The Daily Universe is the reference to family jewels. Not only is it an innuendo that most newspapers would edit out, it's also just not that funny to me.

- Nowhere in "Two different pictures of BYU" did the article happen to mention that the Church is actually, to a certain extent, pro-evolution. It didn't say the Church was anti-evolution either, but it leads the reader to believe that it is. Even around 1911, the year referenced in Alex Christman's article, the First Presidency issued a statement on the relationship between religion and the theory of evolution. The three BYU professors dismissed must have believed in evolution to the point of not believing in the restored gospel. But a reader who only has a superficial knowledge of any of these topics would not understand that topic, and think only that a research institution like BYU is against science.

- The thing that probably bothered me most of all was the introduction's implying that The Daily Universe excludes articles written by anyone other than communications students. Even though the Universe is a lab newspaper and is part of the curriculum, we don't turn away articles just because they didn't originate in "our little club." Anyone can write a letter to the editor, and anyone can submit an article as a "cub reporter." True, there might be better channels for those letters and articles than The Daily Universe. But if the word on the street is that we're keeping students on the outside, I hope that misunderstanding is cleared up soon.

I don't want this list to be interpreted as railing against The Student Review. This isn't a collection of flaws, just differences. There is certainly a place for almost all of The Student Review's material, and just because that place isn't The Daily Universe doesn't mean that material is worthless. There's a place in the world of journalism for both magazines and newspapers.

There is a lot to be praised in The Student Review. I liked "Mormons & Masons," I thought it was great that Jeffrey Stott interviewed Valerie Hudson for his article, the calendar is very useful to anyone in Provo looking for something to do (by the way, I liked that The Student Review's attitude is that Provo is a great town with lots to do), the "This I believe" story was very interesting and thought-provoking, "Entering a brave new world" was a great way to catch up for a casual fan who hasn't been following the changes in BYU sports, and there needs to be more points of view like Shereen Emara Salah spread around the world. And, generally speaking, it's always good to have more content available.

I wish the founders of The Student Review only the best of luck.

CougarCast: BYU vs. Utah

2011-09-16T11:44:00.001-07:00

The latest and greatest podcast, with my good friend David "Sparky" Mortimer!

CougarCast: BYU vs. Utah

The sound wasn't too great on this one, because I was using different equipment to record Sparky on the phone, which meant using a different sound booth and different microphone. But, I think I'm still comprehendible.

We've got ourselves a Bill Shakespeare over here!

2011-09-13T15:00:00.001-07:00

This semester I'm taking ENGL 232, which is all about Shakespeare. One of our assignments is to start a personal Shakespeare blog. It's been a lot of fun so far, more than I thought it would be.

If you want to check it out, and follow it, go here:

Refudiatin'

(If you don't know where the 'Refudiatin'' title comes from, click here.)

CougarCast: Texas 17, BYU 16

2011-09-13T14:51:00.001-07:00

Here's another podcast, all about the sad, sad weekend:

CougarCast: Texas 17, BYU 16

Prep Rally

2011-09-10T20:40:00.000-07:00

Today was my first day of my BYU LSAT prep class. I already think it's going to be super helpful. They gave me a ton of practice material: three binders of old LSAT tests, two notebooks of practice problems, and not just one LSAT prep manual but three. It's a whole library full.

All we did in today's class was take a practice test. I got a 159! And that's not after taking out the questions I skipped, like I've done with my other practice tests. So, I guess I'm making progress.

I think having the obligation of a class that I signed up for and paid for will really help me get the practice I need. I really want to practice, and I even enjoy it (hence all the dorky charts and blog posts about it). But, when I'm also taking 14 credits, working 20+ hours at The Daily Universe, raising a one-year-old and helping my wife so that she can get her homework done...it's hard to find the free time to escape to the library.

Speaking of dorky charts:

CougarCast: BYU vs. Texas

2011-09-09T12:44:00.000-07:00

Three podcasts in two weeks!

CougarCast: BYU vs. Texas

Preview podcasts are tough, because everything we talk about is intangible and imaginary. It's a lot easier to have an actual game to talk about! But, here it is anyway.

Podcast Numero Dos

2011-09-06T16:46:00.000-07:00

I did another BYU football podcast, this time with copy editor Dallin Turner. This one was a lot faster to put together! For one thing, we didn't talk for more than 30 minutes like we did last time. I didn't have to fit in quotes from coach Mendenhall and the players like I did for last week's.

So, here it is!

CougarCast: BYU 14, Ole Miss 13

More LSAT practice, plus charts!

2011-09-03T20:37:00.000-07:00

This morning, while Utah State was playing Auburn, I went to the library to take another practice LSAT test. It had been a while since my last one, and right now I'm less than a month away from the real LSAT (October 1).

In general, I did better. I didn't leave quite so many questions blank when time ran out on the analytical reasoning section, like I did last time. Last time, I only answered 56.3% of the questions, this time it was 73.9% of the questions. But, as far as the questions I actually answered correctly, out of all the questions, it was only a little improvement: 43.4% correct as opposed to 41.7%. And when you take out the questions I left blank, then I did much worse: 58.8% correct as opposed to 74.1% correct before. So, overall, leaving fewer questions blank is helping me. But maybe picking up the speed means more errors.

The reading comprehension and logical reasoning questions seemed a lot harder this time! Even with that, I did better in some places and worse in others. Last time I averaged 78.5% correct on the logical reasoning sections, today I averaged 82%. I got 77.8% correct in the reading comprehension section, and last time I had 82.8%.

Even though I did worse in many ways, the bottom line is my score today was approximately 156, and when I practiced in July it was approximately 151. So that's an improvement. But, if you take away the questions I left blank for both tests, I got 160 in July and 159 today. Interesting. The fewer questions I skip, the better I will do. But my accuracy is going down.

Anyway, here are some charts that might explain these numbers better:

So, in other words ... I have a long way to go.

The podcast is up!

2011-09-01T16:27:00.000-07:00

Here it is, my very first podcast ever:

CougarCast: Ole Miss and the 2011 Season

Hope you enjoy it!

A Happy Ending

2011-09-01T12:59:00.000-07:00

I'll give you an update of my first week at work, but first:

A happy ending - Honor and forgiveness go together

I wrote an editorial about my thoughts on Brandon Davies returning to BYU after his famous Honor Code suspension in March. My immediate reaction to the news was that I hope people notice that even though BYU and the LDS Church might hold people accountable for breaking rules that aren't recognized by the rest of the world, we can still give second chances.

Courtesy of The Daily Universe

One thing that was unique about the writing process on this was that the current opinion editor, Allie McCoy, actually wanted me to make it longer! That doesn't happen to me very often.

The rest of my week has been filled with running the website. Since Sunday night, a lot of the stories you see and the photos that go with them were put on the website by me! It's been busy, but pretty easy and fun.

One of the coolest things I got to do was a Cougar football podcast. I'm finishing up with editing that, and we'll post it on The Daily Universe website soon.

Gainfully Employed!

2011-08-11T13:47:00.000-07:00

Besides preparing for law school, the other urgent need to attend to this summer was finding a job. When I left for New York, I also left behind my job at The Daily Universe, with no guarantee of getting it back. A place like The Daily Universe has a lot of turnover every semester, because most of the BYU journalism students like to work there if they can. And I had been there for a year, so it made sense to give someone else a turn. But I also would have loved to come back, even if I wasn't a sports editor again.

Just in case, I submitted applications and resumes to a bunch of other on-campus jobs. But only half-heartedly, until I heard back from the Universe. And I did!

I got a call on Monday from R.J., the multimedia editor, who sounded really excited to recruit me for the web desk. I'm coming back as a web editor! It will be great, because I get to come back to the Universe but it will still be something new. The web editor works on the website's multimedia, like photos, slide shows and videos. The curriculum for the journalism program is changing this semester so that the lines between print and broadcast are blurred, and the reporters will be doing more multimedia projects and I get to help them with that. I have some experience (the sports desk was the guinea pig for trying out the new Wordpress system last spring, plus I've done some video editing), but I'll also be learning a lot. R.J. also mentioned that I'll be able to do the Daily Universe football podcast! I'm really excited for college football to start, and this podcast will be a good way to stay connected to sports journalism. It will be like having a sports radio show, it will be awesome. And having more skills with computers, web design and multimedia never hurts nowadays.

So I'm excited to be back!

...and...is it football season yet?

http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=498&sid=16764546

Square One

2011-07-23T17:11:00.000-07:00

Today was my first time really doing something about law school: I gave myself a practice LSAT.

I set aside a few hours today to retreat to the library and take a diagnostic exam from my LSAT prep book. I used the timer on my cell phone to time each section of the test, and gave myself a break in the middle, just like the real thing will be.

And after it was all done...

First, I feel the need to explain something. I now know that one of the biggest boosts I can have for next time is to just pay attention to the clock. On one of the "Analytical Reasoning" sections (that's the one reminiscent of mathematical story problems), I was stuck on the first question, for like half the 35 minutes that is supposed to be meant for 24 questions. Before I knew it, time was up and I had only answered seven questions. There's no penalty for guessing, so if nothing else I should have spent the last minute filling in circles. But, alas, I didn't, and just like the real thing I had to move on to the next question, leaving 17 questions completely blank.

But, even with leaving so many questions unanswered, I still got approximately a 151. Which is exactly average. And if I throw out the blank questions, then my score calculates to 160 - which is the median LSAT score of first-year law students at Baylor* (#56 on the U.S. News & World Report ranking), Florida State (#50), Seton Hall (#61), Florida (#47), Kentucky (#71), Maryland (#42), Miami (#77), Richmond (#67), Tennessee (#56) and Utah (#42). Not that I'm content with 160, but it's nice to know that I'm in that company. That's not half-bad.

http://cdn0.sbnation.com/imported_assets/554636/baylor-bears_medium.gif

http://www.sportssystems.com/clients/maryland/Maryland_logo.jpg

http://lavonardo.net/wp/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/utah_utes_logo.png

So, with some more practice and more clock consciousness, I think I'm on the right track.

*I know my wife and her family would sure be happy about that one!

Family Blog Update

2011-07-21T21:32:00.000-07:00

Good ol' Erin has been doing a fantastic job updating our family blog. There's everything since leaving New York City, including the road trip home, Trent's and Nadia's wedding, a Wake family reunion and a Despain family reunion, a trip to the Hogle Zoo, and the opening night of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II.

Oh, and tons of super cute photos of Allisyn.

Be sure to check it out!

What's Next?

2011-07-21T21:22:00.000-07:00

Back during the beginning weeks of my internship, Erin and I realized that it was time to make some decisions about our future. This internship was the culmination of my undergrad experience, so it was time to start thinking about what's next.

I loved studying and practicing journalism, but all along I didn't really bank on having a future as a newspaper reporter. If it had greater stability, higher pay and normal hours, it would be great. But with the current state of the newspaper industry, I would only really be happy if I got to write sports or write editorials (essentially, the two jobs I had at The Daily Universe). And even then, it would have to be at a major establishment like the New York Post, Sports Illustrated or ESPN.

So, the question was, should I start the process of climbing up the career ladder until landing a big job like that? Should I endure the years of grunt work and low pay? Should I do like John Grogan, and earn my stripes by writing about methane leaks at the county dump?

Or, should I do something entirely different? Maybe journalism school? Or law school? I've always loved my political science classes, and my interest in journalism overlaps with an interest in politics.

Erin and I thought, prayed, and went to the temple. I won't get into too much personal details about the different bits of revelation we received. But what led me to the answer was this talk by Elder Robert D. Hales:

Preparing for the Decade of Decision

Which led me to this talk by President Gordon B. Hinckley:

A Prophet's Counsel and Prayer for Youth ("The Six B's")

When President Hinckley said, "You need all the education you can get," and Elder Hales paraphrased him by saying "Get all the education you can," it hit me. I needed more school. Of course, getting an education could mean on-the-job training, etc. But, for some reason, I knew that what President Hinckley and Elder Hales were telling me to do was to go to law school.

And as I looked more into it, I got more and more excited. I enjoyed coming up with a list of schools with Erin, and thinking about studying either immigration law, some sort of international law, or something to do with First Amendment/freedom of speech law.

The first question I always get asked when I say I'm going to law school is: "Are you going to BYU?" Well, yes, I'll probably apply there. And it's a prestigious place to go. But one of the great things about going to New York City was Erin, Allisyn and me being on our own, in a city we've never lived in before. We're excited to try a completely new place.

The short list I have in mind includes Duke, North Carolina, Notre Dame (we spent a night in South Bend, IN, on our way to New York, and the campus and the town is just the sort of small town Erin would love to move to), Texas (close, but not too close, to Erin's family in Houston), Georgetown (I loved Washington, D.C. when we visited) ... and I'll apply to Utah and BYU too. Oh, and I would also like to try Stanford and/or Harvard, 'cause you never know.* I also need to think of some lower tier, smaller but locally renowned schools, something like Willamette.

Before I get too far into deciding on schools, I need to take the LSAT. I'll take it in both October and December, and I'll take an LSAT prep course through BYU. After I get some scores back, I'll have a better idea of what kind of schools I should be applying to.

This Saturday, my plan is to go to the library and give myself a practice LSAT test. I'll recreate the time limits and other rules as exactly as I can, and see what I come up with. That way, I'll know what my baseline is.

Wish me luck!

*My GPA is actually only two-hundredths away from the median GPA of first-year Harvard Law students. Either my GPA is more impressive than I thought, or Harvard is more attainable than I thought, haha.) So maybe with a good LSAT score I'll have a chance.

More than a month later

2011-07-21T20:00:00.000-07:00

Well, now that it's been 36 days since we left New York City, it's about time I do some blogging. (And about time I get 'Rodent Derrieres' off the front page of my blog.)

So, my last few days at The Brooklyn Paper, I was super busy. I think at one time, I had six assignments at once. I didn't mind being the diligent intern who took every assignment, and some of them were pretty fun.

Here's my last few assignments at The Brooklyn Paper that I have yet to include on the blog:

Lawyer-rocker leads 10-day BoCoCa Arts Festival

I realize now that my favorite stories for The Brooklyn Paper are the ones that let me talk to really interesting people, like the Bumbys or the Austrian pillow fighters. This time, I was writing a preview for the upcoming BoCoCa Arts Festival, and found that one of the many performers, Andrew Mancilla, is a guitarist, pianist...and an attorney.

Here's a video of Andrew performing, from the BoCoCa Arts Festival website:

He was really nice to talk to. We only converse over email, but he was one of my great sources in New York who answered every question and was really helpful. And he even emailed me after the story was published to thank me, and asked me to do lunch with him sometime. (I had to let him know that I wasn't going to be in New York for much longer.)

Man, it's hot out there!

My editor asked me to do a weather update to go on the website, in the middle of a bad heat wave around June 9. But I didn't really understand what he was asking me to do, I guess, because he changed basically everything I wrote. Even though I wasn't much help, he was nice enough to put my name on it anyway.

Pay the ferryman! New East River service begins

This one was really fun. I was sent to the dock under the Brooklyn Bridge at 8 am on my second-to-last day, and I just rode the ferry all morning. There were some beautiful views, and I got some amazing photos. (I got the interviews, and Aaron Short wrote the story.)

(Photo by me: http://www.brooklynpaper.com/stories/34/24/dtg_newferrystarts_2011_6_17_bk.html)

The makings of a man

Some information I compiled for the Father's Day edition. It was a little weird for me to write about how great Brooklyn's cigar shops are, haha.

Un bagel? Qu'est ce que c'est un bagel?

For some reason, the people behind the B&B Empire Bagel Company were really hard to communicate with, like they didn't want any publicity for their brand new bagel shop. And I also had a tough time researching to find out how many bagel shops were in that neighborhood, and find information about an old bagel shop in the area that closed down. (It would have been much easier if I had lived in Brooklyn for decades, like my editor has.) In the end, it got published, but with a few mistakes that my editor emailed me about while I was en route to home in Utah. :S So, not my proudest moment at the paper. But here it is anyway.

77th Precinct Blotter - June 15, 2011

For my last time doing the Police Blotter, I went to the NYPD 77th Precinct, which is Prospect Heights.

The police reports I wrote up led me to this story:

Cops target Prospect Heights potheads

I literally was asked to write this story with only three hours left of my internship. So I didn't get a whole lot done, but Thomas Tracy finished it up.

Pole position: City says Verizon skirted the law with major totems

Even though I didn't write this story, I sure spent a lot of time on it. I spent almost all day Friday interviewing neighbors about some new Verizon telephone poles put up on Milton Street, a historic part of Greenpoint. They only used one quote I got, and they didn't put my name on the story. But they did use a photo I took.

(Photo by me: http://www.brooklynpaper.com/stories/34/24/wb_verizonpole_2011_6_17_bk.html)

Oh, the glamorous life I led in New York City, taking pictures of telephone poles. :P

-----------------------------------------

So, there you have it. My two months at The Brooklyn Paper. The experience was invaluable. I was incredibly lucky to get to be a newspaper reporter in Brooklyn. I learned so much, and I gained so many memories that I will never forget.

BYU and the ESPYs

2011-07-14T09:14:00.000-07:00

I didn't watch all of the ESPY awards last night, just the important parts.

First, Jimmer won the award for Best Male College Athlete. I thought he gave a great speech and handled himself very well. Of course, compared to other LDS kids or BYU kids, it might not be that special. But in the real world, Jimmer still proves to be an impressive young man. (And his girlfriend Whitney looked good and modest, way to represent.)

I can't find a video of his acceptance speech yet, except for this home recording of a news report on Fox 13:

Another big reason for watching the ESPYs is Seth Meyers, I'm a big fan. He's usually hilarious on SNL Weekend Update* and even funnier as the show's head writer, and he killed at the White House Correspondent's Dinner.

Back when the Brandon Davies news broke out in March, I was disappointed by the response from both The Daily Show (skip to 1:47) and, as a matter of fact, Weekend Update with Seth Meyers (skip to 2:53). I wasn't too offended by the jokes, I just thought they weren't that funny. Jon Stewart and Seth Meyers let me down.

But, Seth redeemed himself at the ESPYs with the first funny Brandon Davies joke I've heard. (It only took four months.)

(Skip to the 11:00 mark for the Brandon Davies joke.)

*This is Seth Meyers' rant about the Arnold Schwarzenegger sex scandal, so naturally there is some PG or PG-13 rated humor. Just to warn you.

Rodent Derrieres

2011-06-08T06:57:00.000-07:00

The latest for The Brooklyn Paper:

Ridgites show they give a 'rat's a--' about gay marriage*

*Warning: Some instances of PG-rated language.

This is a little different from the way I handled this issue for The Daily Universe, wouldn't you say? But I think this shows one of my strengths. Even though my editorials in The Daily Universe were closer to my personal opinion (they are editorials, after all), I can still see where both sides are coming from. In Utah I had one audience, in Brooklyn I have another audience. I can switch between the two and understand both points of view, and write accordingly and still be fair.

-------------------------------------

Also, this week's police reports from the 78th Precinct:

Strongman muscles Gorilla!

It's not every day you have an email conversation with a white supremacist.

2011-06-01T12:50:00.001-07:00

This is by far the most intense story I've done in terms of its subject. I mean, I guess BYU sports vs. Utah sports can be a touchy subject. But I think it pales in comparison to racism.

I was assigned to gather quotes from some Greenpoint residents about a flier being distributed around their neighborhood. This wasn't a flier for the upcoming block party or PTA potluck. It was to recruit members for The Creativity Movement, a group inviting white people to "awake!" and advance their race. As you would expect, everybody I talked to in the neighborhood was shocked and disgusted.

Instead of just giving the quotes to one of the regular reporters, I ended up being assigned the story. I combined what the regular reporter did with what I got from the neighborhood, and came up with a story on Friday.

When it was being edited over the weekend, my editor gave me a few more things to add, including at least an effort to reach out to this group for a comment. So, I found an email address (I hope nobody looks too much into my recent Googling history) and sent one along, without really expecting a response.

But I got one. And not just a quick one either - a long paragraph to answer each of my questions. So I gave some excerpts from it to my editor and he put together an updated version of the story yesterday with a few more updates today.

Racist white supremacist speaks! And he speaks to us! (Updated article)

White time, wrong place as bigot leaves racist fliers on Greenpoint cars (Original article)

*Warning - The paper found out about the fliers from a Greenpoint blog that has a PG-13-rated name, just so you know.

**Another warning - The home page to The Brooklyn Paper right now has a story about the recent Rep. Anthony Weiner scandal, with a photo that you might not want someone else to notice on your screen unless you want to answer some questions. (You can avoid the front page if you just click on the links above that go straight to my two articles.)

--------------------------------

I also did the Police Blotter again yesterday, this time for the 78th Precinct.

Thief was in a real Crunch!

Ovine Makeover

2011-05-27T07:42:00.000-07:00

A quick little story about an event at the Prospect Park Zoo last weekend:

Last weekend's sheer-shearing thing was a hairy good time

And from what I hear, my brother could use some shearing of his own...

Photo courtesy of Kandis Despain

My New York film debut!

2011-05-26T13:53:00.000-07:00

The bigwigs at The Brooklyn Paper decided to have some fun with this story:

GUILTY! Perfetto convicted in 'trial of the century'

First, I'll explain the 'trial of the century.' Ralph Perfetto is a good guy politician from Bay Ridge, but being such a good guy actually got him in trouble. He was helping out a relative with some legal problems, and in court Perfetto accidentally slipped and said he was the relative's lawyer, which technically wasn't true. So, then he had a court case of his own, with charges of impersonating a lawyer. Today, the court ruled him guilty, with sentencing in July.

It reminds me of news stories about crazy, frivolous lawsuits that can entertain for hours. And my editor decided to add to the entertainment, by setting up a behind-the-scenes video, the "story behind the story." He recruited me to play the role of a kid reporter - I know, a real stretch for me, right?

But it was a lot of fun. And now I can add "running through the streets of Brooklyn" to the list of random opportunities I've had from being a journalist.

Again, here's the video (at the top of the page).

Police Beat - New York Style

2011-05-25T07:24:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I was sent to the 88th Precinct to do what The Brooklyn Paper calls the Police Blotter. It's basically the same as The Daily Universe's Police Beat, but the crimes here are a little different from what gets reported in Happy Valley.

88th Precinct - May 17-24

The first one is probably some of the most heartbreaking news you'll ever hear, especially if you're the parent of a newborn. My editor didn't want to do a full story on it, and I completely agree. But if you're curious to know more, click here.

UPDATE: Hey, my Police Blotter showed up on the New York Post website.

-------------------------------------

The Police Blotter from another precinct led to a story that I got to help out with. One apartment building has had three break-ins in the past week, all of them pretty similar. The people living in this building are all young hipsters, here to perform their art and play video games. They like to keep their doors open and invite their neighbors to join in the fun...and some thugs are taking advantage of it.

McKibbin Lofts are party - and crime - central

I was sent to the building to find some tenants to talk to as they entered and exited the building. Almost everyone I talked to was really helpful - one guy even let me into the building, and introduced me to one of the neighbors who was actually robbed. Success!

Throw down!

2011-05-23T06:50:00.000-07:00

My latest for The Brooklyn Paper:

Throw down! Austrian takes world pillow-fighting championship in Williamsburg

That's right. The first ever Pillow Fight World Cup took place here in Brooklyn last week. You might think it's a joke, but don't tell that to the Austrians.

We just got back from a weekend trip to Church historic sites in and around Palmyra and to Niagara Falls. And it was another wildly successful Despain road trip. We're getting really good at those.

It was quite an experience to be driving through quiet, open spaces after literally not leaving New York City for almost a month. The New York countryside was beautiful. And, of course, the sights were a once-in-a-lifetime experience. My favorite was the Sacred Grove, but I also loved Niagara Falls. Keep watching our family blog for photos and stories from the weekend!

*Just because I'm tracking these things, I'll mention that I have another byline on the Brooklyn Paper's website. It's just one sentence, a notification that the Twilight Tattoo that I wrote about earlier had been cancelled because of rain. But whoever wrote it was nice enough to credit me! Thanks. (I guess that shows I'm an intern, I'm appreciative of getting one sentence published, haha.)

Immigration Nation in The Daily Universe

2011-05-19T07:43:00.000-07:00

Remember those immigration stories I wrote for COMMS 420 last semester? They are both in The Daily Universe today, as well as both videos:

Immigration lawyers dedicated to their cause

(video by Elora Murray)

Legislation raises profiling questions

(reporting and video by Elora Murray)

And, here's how it looks in the paper:

Thursday, May 19, 2011 (my stories are on pages 1, 4 and 7)

(I'm surprised they kept my whole front page story. Look at how much space it uses on page 4! Haha, anyone who's already sick of me is only going to get more so.)

A Fair and Honest Appraisal of Your Appearance

2011-05-18T07:57:00.000-07:00

This is the story I hinted at earlier this week:

Finally, a hospital gala that was fun

I got photos of a New York Methodist Hospital awards gala, and of course most of the photos were people in fancy clothes wining and dining. But in a few of the photos, there was a man wearing a hat, mask and a bandana accompanied by a woman in a bandana, sunglasses and a bright red wig. I asked the photographer who they were, and he started me on an investigation.

It turns out this couple, who call themselves the Bumbys, do this shtick that's sort of like "Guess Your Weight"...except it's about your general appearance. They grade you on a scale of 1 to 10, tell you what fashion choices are working for you and which ones aren't, and they type it up on their electric typewriters and hand it to you. And people are fascinated enough to join in and ask for a Bumby appraisal, at parties and events all over New York City.

Here's a New York Times article that explains their act:

Don't Judge Us, We'll Judge You

So instead of just writing about the gala and the awards, I centered the story around the Bumbys. Which was more interesting and fun to write.

Utah makes it into The Brooklyn Paper

2011-05-17T09:01:00.000-07:00

So, through no effort of Dan or myself, our fair state Utah found its way into The Brooklyn Paper.

Everyone loves Brooklyn - the name

Gary Buiso found out that the name "Brooklyn" was the 34th most popular girl's name in the United States last year, and found out it was number six in Utah, of all places.

It's an interesting story, make sure you check it out.

Aha!

2011-05-17T08:53:00.000-07:00

I figured out something.

The reason that responses were rolling in to my almost three-week-old blog post is because of my New Jersey Nets story. My editor told me about a blogger, Norman Oder, who does a lot of work reporting on the Atlantic Yards project and the Barclays Center. He linked to my Brooklyn Paper story and commented on it, and I guess he was really interested in my blog because he read 11 posts back from that Nets one. And even though that old post didn't have anything to do with Atlantic Yards, I guess it fit in with what he wanted to say about The Brooklyn Paper anyway.

I knew beforehand that I should be careful with what I say online, because anyone can read it and it can be permanent. But I guess I relearned this lesson the hard way. Most of the reason I wrote something up on my third day in Brooklyn was because I didn't think anyone would really read it, just a few Facebook friends maybe. I'm just an intern, I didn't think anyone would find me online. But now I know I should have waited until the culture shock died down before saying anything online.

Clarification

2011-05-16T08:05:00.000-07:00

Some things I wrote on my blog more than two weeks ago are still generating responses from people, including a couple of anonymous commenters. So it looks like I need to provide a little clarification.

In my first 2 1/2 days at The Brooklyn Paper, I wanted to tell anyone interested how my internship was going so far. At the time, it was still a culture shock for me. And I suppose I should have waited until that shock died down before interpreting it and commenting on it, at least publicly online. Some of the responses were trying to encourage me that things will get better, which is nice, but others seemed to be annoyed by my negative mood and others told me complaining on my blog was a bad idea (which they're right about). I didn't mean it to sound like complaining, just to sound like I had a lot to get used to.

I can assure you that my internship has gotten better in the past two weeks, things are going well, I'm learning a lot, I'm gaining a lot of experience ... I'm glad I'm here. I mean, my byline is being published on the front page of a New York City newspaper. I can't ask for much more than that. Whatever happens in the future, I know my few weeks here will be good preparation and a positive contribution to what I end up doing.

NBA and Repoussé

2011-05-16T07:53:00.000-07:00

Two more stories - one's even a sports story:

Nets Lopez was the 'center' of attention on Bergen Street

Starting the 2012-2013 season, the New Jersey Nets will be playing in Brooklyn. Every once in a while, one of the Nets' stars visits the construction site of the new arena for a photo op. But Brook Lopez, their leading scorer and blocker last year, also visited the neighborhood around the arena.

When my editor let me know that the emphasis should be on the neighborhood visit, not so much the arena, it helped me write what he was going for the first time. He just added some more information about Bark Hot Dogs (since I had never been there, I didn't know their hot dogs were "special, organic, free-range, grass-fed, hand-massaged," haha. But other than that, it was like I got it right the first time.

Also, there's a new art exhibit at Prospect Park. What makes this different is that it's outside, even out on Prospect Park Lake.

Artist Robert Lobe can see the trees for the forest

Both my editor and Erin liked the lead to this story.

I was proud of both of these stories, not necessarily because it's hard-hitting news or because I wrote them beautifully, but because they didn't need a complete editing overhaul. Writing here is becoming a little easier, I think.

Immigration: Discuss.

2011-05-13T14:18:00.000-07:00

Back in the good ol' days at the Brimhall Building, I took the COMMS 420 class. That was the class where I came up with these classics:

Rise and shout! But will you tweet it out?
Cougar sports by the numbers (and its various versions)
Huntsman to toss hat into ring?

Also in that class, we were the guinea pigs for a joint project with broadcast and multimedia communications students. The Daily Universe would start a special website solely for stories on the topic of immigration, with videos and graphics and articles.

The project was a success in some ways and not quite in other ways. For the most part, I enjoyed it. I teamed up with broadcast student Elora Murray for both of my stories. I learned a lot and I think I came up with some pretty good stories. I didn't learn a whole lot about broadcast or multimedia, haha, but it was great to work with Elora and other broadcast and multimedia students, if nothing else to make new friends.

My stories:

Law enforcement simply enforces the law
(video by Elora)

This one I am particularly proud of:
Immigration lawyers dedicated to their cause
(Elora did a video for this one too, but I'm not sure if it's on the website yet or not.)

And here's the website where you can see all the other work done by my friends in the Comms department:

Immigration Nation

He's No Jim Henson

2011-05-12T13:38:00.000-07:00

A big story in The Brooklyn Paper today:

New puppet theater opens on Columbia Street

In one sense, it's big because it's 442 words, by far the longest story I've had in the paper so far. Also, my editor said more than once that it was a big story. He trusted me with it and helped me turn it into something well done. (He even emailed me after I had already left the newsroom to point out something he liked about it.)

The topic is interesting, for sure. When you think of puppets, you probably think of Lamb Chop or Big Bird. But this new puppeteer in town, Jonathan Edward Cross a.k.a. Johnny Clockworks, has a different philosophy. For the kids, instead of only doing shows he also does workshops and teaches kids to do their own puppetry. And he also does shows for adults, and uses puppet plays that deal with some pretty deep topics. And from what I've seen, the word that keeps popping into my head to describe the puppets themselves is "mesmerizing."

Anyway, not that I'm an expert on puppetry now or that I want to take it on as my new hobby. Just wanted to explain that this story is more serious than you might think at first glance.

Oh, and the first comment on the story made me laugh. (Context: Brooklyn makes up Kings County in New York state.)

------------------------------------------

And I helped out a little bit with this story:

West Street becomes home to genuine trailer trash

I was the one who took the photos. Basically, this street in Greenpoint is taken over by a construction crew, leaving their equipment all over and blocking fences and streets.

The neighbor I met with for the photo shoot, Jon Kosar, was a real nice guy. We even talked about Utah a little bit - turns out he lived in Ogden for a short time. For some reason it seemed funny to find a former Utahan in the middle of Brooklyn.

------------------------------------------

Things are going pretty well here. I'm not close to mastering anything, but I am learning a lot and gaining a lot of experience, that's for sure. I loved working at The Daily Universe, but it's great to work at a nitty gritty city newspaper. Even if I don't end up with a career in journalism, I'll always be able to brag that I was a Brooklyn reporter.

------------------------------------------

Speaking of where I end up, that's the big question weighing on me and Erin. Before coming to New York, whenever anyone asked me what we would do after graduating from BYU, I told them that I would know after my internship. Well, now I'm here, and it's time to start deciding what to do.

We long ago narrowed it down to me either going to grad school/law school or starting my way to a career. As you can see, that's not very narrow, haha. We're trying to think and study it out, we're praying about it and going to the temple.

Any advice or suggestions?

Hut hut!

2011-05-09T09:28:00.000-07:00

Another event preview written for the paper:

Hut, hut! Fort Ham's annual military drill show is May 20

Like the Norwegian parade story, this is one of the first stories I wrote after I got here, but it was held until now since the event isn't until later in the month.

Based on these early stories I did, I realize that there is a ton of stuff in Brooklyn! They've got a Norwegian parade, a military base, the Brooklyn Museum, a royal wedding, Coney Island...it's a happenin' place.

Order in the Court, please!

2011-05-06T07:50:00.000-07:00

Another story for The Brooklyn Paper:

Court Street station is a filthy mess!*

I kind of enjoyed this one, but I'm not really sure why. Maybe because this story, plus the one about rowdy kids in Brooklyn Heights, is sort of trying to correct a wrong committed against the community, which I didn't do much of at The Daily Universe. I mean, these stories won't change the world, but it's still different from just writing about a BYU game.

And, in today's print version of the paper, you can find my stories on the royal wedding viewing party under the Manhattan Bridge and the Brooklyn Museum's mummy CAT scan.

*Here's another story that goes with mine. This one is about the R trains specifically.
Bay Ridge's lone subway train is a reeky rail

Rowdy kids and lutefisk!*

2011-05-05T10:58:00.000-07:00

*(As my brother would say, that would be a great name for band.)

Two more Brooklyn Paper stories of mine are online!

Celebrate Boklepp! Norwegian parade comes to Bay Ridge on May 15

This one was actually the first story I wrote for the paper, but since the event isn't until May 15 it was held until today. I certainly learned a lot more about the history of Norwegian immigrants in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn than I had ever known before.

Town vs. gown! Locals battle Clark Street 'animal house'
Or, the New York Post version: Town vs. gown! Locals battle Clark Street 'animal house'

I didn't do this one by myself, I just helped. It was a lot of fun though. My assignment was to go down to 55 Clark Street, home to a college residence used by multiple colleges, and talk to students and neighbors about noise complaints. Apparently, the college kids there have been partying and playing music and throwing cans out into the street. And this is a pretty nice area of Brooklyn, so the rowdiness is both surprising and extra annoying.

Anyway, so I found people to interview, and gave all my quotes to Gary Buiso, one of The Brooklyn Paper's professionals, to write the story. And I like what he did with it, and it was cool that I came up with some usable stuff! (Kendra Stanchfield, Julia Sommer, Peter Myers, Cesar Moneda, Elliot Palatnik and Anton Landauer were the ones in the story who I talked to.)

I got to the address at about 9 am, and for a while I was having a lot of trouble getting people to talk to me. Everyone was in a hurry and didn't want to talk to me (I felt like a missionary in Argentina again). But then, I narrowed my search down to people who were 1) walking their dog, because they probably aren't going to work and probably live nearby, or 2) people who were standing and not walking. I also stood outside the residence door and grabbed a few students on their way in or out - I guess they weren't as busy as the subway-bound employed people. And my plan worked! I made a goal to not call the newsroom until I had talked to four neighbors and four students, and I ended up talking to five of each. And I ended up coming up with enough good stuff for Gary to use.

Things are going better here. I know last week I probably just sounded like I was complaining. But really, I think I just had a lot to get used to (and of course still do). I should have known, of course, but no matter how obvious it was that things would be a lot different here it still hit me hard. But I'm getting more comfortable, and I'm learning a lot.

And whether or not I ever really get used to things, it's great to see my name in print at a New York City newspaper.

9 1/2 Years

2011-05-03T08:40:00.000-07:00

Just like I'll always remember where I was when I heard the news on 9/11, I'll always remember where I was when I heard the news on 5/1.

I actually didn't hear the news until the next morning. We don't get TV in our little studio apartment at the I-House, and we mostly spent a lazy, relaxing Sunday at home. (Other BYU communications students got the news Sunday night and headed down to Ground Zero to join in the jubilation.) Erin was checking email/Facebook and found out. She read an entire article out loud while I was getting dressed and getting ready to start another week at The Brooklyn Paper.

It was amazing to me that it had actually happened. It seemed like the hunt for Osama bin Laden would never be over, and that eventually he would just weaken and die on his own. So the fact that he was killed by Navy SEALs actually surprised me.

I didn't become ecstatic that he was dead. But when Erin got to the part in the article about the 9/11 victims' families, and this end (there's probably more than one) to their grieving, that's when the tears welled up. That's when I felt that, finally, the United States had something more to offer them than a short-lived heightening of mutual respect among neighbors (already back to normal), no more liquid containers larger than three ounces on carry-on, and a steeper decline of the airline industry (which has affected my family directly). The United States finally accomplished the pinnacle of its goals in the War on Terror and showed it can get the job done.

As far as my reaction to the basic fact that a man was killed, I think I feel some satisfaction in that too. It's a strange emotion, definitely, to be glad that any human being is wiped off the face of the earth. I certainly can't judge who should live and who should die; that's God's job. But I am reminded of a point of LDS doctrine (a doctrine that I fully believe in):

"Behold the Lord slayeth the wicked to bring forth his righteous purposes. It is better that one man should perish than that a nation should dwindle and perish in unbelief."

When the Spirit instructs Nephi to kill Laban, Nephi has a real problem. He has not even an ounce of bloodthirstiness, and no desire to kill Laban even for the essential records he was on a mission to obtain. But, with the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, Nephi reasoned that according to the Lord's will, Laban needed to die and Nephi needed to kill him.

Now, I don't know if bin Laden's remaining on the earth would have resulted in the United States' "dwindling in unbelief." I know the doctrine that bin Laden professed was absolutely false in so many ways, and was leading some people astray. But as for me and other Americans, I think what we can take solace in is that there is that much less evil in our world now. bin Laden doesn't have to condemn himself any further, and the terror network he left behind is now much less of a threat to our society.

Of course, evil, terror and even al Qaeda will still exist. As long as there is agency, evil will never go away.

But the absence of bin Laden's backwards mentality that is undoubtedly contrary to God's eternal plan is a triumph. Geopolitically, a triumph for the United States. But eternally, a triumph for us too.

----------

A few other thoughts:

I thought it would be really cool to come to work yesterday and be assigned to find and interview a few families of 9/11 victims who live here in Brooklyn. I wasn't sure if it would happen, or if an intern would get that assignment, but I had my fingers crossed.

Alas, I didn't get anything of the kind. And as far as I know, the only Osama-related story done by The Brooklyn Paper was this one:

Osama is dead - and so is her silent protest

It's definitely interesting, but not like I had in mind.

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Another criticism I saw and heard yesterday was against Fox News, and I'm actually going to come to their defense for once. A few tweeters thought they found a chance to ridicule Fox News because in their coverage yesterday, the spelled his name "Usama bin Laden." What I guess they forgot or never knew is that when it comes to Arabic names, there are actually multiple spellings.

A quick Wikipedia search brings this up:

"There is no universally accepted standard for transliterating Arabic words and Arabic names into English;^[10] bin Laden's name was most frequently rendered "Osama bin Laden." The FBI and CIA, as well as other US Governmental agencies, have used either "Usama bin Laden" or "Usama bin Ladin", both of which may be abbreviated as "UBL". Less common renderings include "Ussamah Bin Ladin" and "Oussama Ben Laden" in the French-language media. Other spellings include "Binladen" or, as used by his family in the West, "Binladin". The spellings with "o" and "e" come from a Persian-influenced pronunciation also used in Afghanistan, where bin Laden spent many years."

I saw somewhere else on Twitter that Fox News has been using the "Usama" spelling long before yesterday. So they were just being consistent.

That said, Fox News did make at least one egregious (but brief) mistake.

----------

In addition, I've seen some complaints that President Obama is taking too much credit for bin Laden's death. Some people think Obama is using too many words like "I" and "me."

I didn't see his Sunday night speech, but I did read the transcript. And I didn't get that impression at all. I think he does deserve some credit for making the right decisions that led to taking out bin Laden. He maybe didn't do anything more amazing than another president - even President Bush - would have done. But even though another person might have done the same, I don't think any person would have done the same. The president made some good and wise decisions. He does deserve some credit for this, and I don't think he's trying to give himself too much.

----------

Jordan Carroll, a fellow BYU communications student in New York, wrote a story for The Daily Universe based on her trip to Ground Zero and being here in New York when the news came.

Just in time for Mummy's Day

2011-05-03T07:51:00.000-07:00

Another one of my Brooklyn Paper stories is now online:

Mummy, you look wonderful!

What's funny is that for this story, I tried some snarkiness, and I was actually pretty proud of what I came up with. My editor liked it too. But ultimately none of it ended up in the final version, haha.

I think things are going better here. I'm closer to meeting expectations and there's less that has to be changed. Just some general things I need to keep improving. And the editor has been saying that overall, it's good stuff. So, that's nice to know.

Rise and shout! But will you tweet it out?

2011-04-29T10:39:00.000-07:00

Oh! Hey! I have a story in The Daily Universe today!

Rise and shout, but will you tweet it out?

This was the last story I did for COMMS 420. Should be pretty interesting to all o' yas (I'm working on my New York accent).

That said, I actually love New York.

2011-04-29T10:20:00.000-07:00

That said, I actually love New York.

The greatest city in the world can be a little intimidating. I've had some big city experience, most recently a brief Daily Universe excursion to New Orleans. But there's something about New York that makes it different. It's unique, even among other giant cities. So much has happened and does happen here, and the rest of the world knows so much about it. Anyone who doesn't live under a rock feels like they've been here, but that's definitely just a feeling. Being here is something else. And it's great.

I still can't believe sometimes that I'm here. The Empire State Building is out my window, I spied the Statue of Liberty from the Brooklyn shore the other day, my family and I perused Times Square, I even walked by Rockefeller Center after I got a little lost this morning on my way to a story assignment (an assignment that, by the way, was under the Manhattan Bridge). And there's tons more that's just waiting to be seen. And, despite the fact that I did get lost this morning, I'm actually very comfortable with the subway system here. With a monthly unlimited pass, I can go anywhere I want in the city. It's amazing.

Another amazing aspect of the city has been the people. New Yorkers might have been the part of New York I was the most worried about. There's a reputation for rudeness from this town. I expected that as a country hick from Utah, and with a wife and baby even though I'm not even 25, I would just get in the way of these people. But mostly I've seen the exact opposite. The whole city loves Allisyn, and everyone has been super nice and helpful. I think the people here know their city is special, and they're happy to show it off and welcome others to it. They take pride in being hosts to newcomers like us.

Also, I really like Brooklyn. My first assignment was to go down to a new commercial building by a new park to take some photos, and on the way back our editor told us to pick up lunch at a small neighborhood place called Iris Cafe. Iris Cafe was so flowery and idealistic. People coming in with their kids and strollers, Rachel the owner knowing everybody's names...it was like the Sesame Street kind of New York. I loved it.

It was also really cool to be at the royal wedding viewing party in Brooklyn this morning. It seemed like the sort of thing that could only happen in Brooklyn. And, even though the royal wedding wasn't a huge deal to me, now I have a unique story about how I watched it.

Before I came here, I thought I'd love working in New York but wouldn't necessarily want to live here. What's funny is now, I love living here too.

Two and a Half Days in Brooklyn

2011-04-29T09:14:00.000-07:00

It's definitely a different style here that I'm not very used to. There are many words to describe it: sarcastic, snarky (that's my favorite) and maybe a little irreverent. I know every newspaper should have a little bit of that, but I haven't actually had much personal experience with it. (I guess some of my op-ed pieces last summer were snarky. But that's why they are op-ed pieces.)

For instance, take a look at this short paragraph on the paper's website, introducing us as the new interns:

They say that youth is wasted on the young, but that’s not the case here at The Brooklyn Paper, where we’ve just welcomed our Class of ‘11 interns, Daniel Ng and J.J. Despain — all the way from Salt Lake City (no, they’re not moonlighting in “The Book of Mormon” on Broadway). These kids have got gumption, they’ve got drive and, best of all, they’ve got moxie. You’re going to fall in love with them, Brooklyn. And if not, don’t worry — they’ll be gone in two months, and we’ll just be a smile on their face that their professors back home can’t understand.

It's actually pretty funny sometimes (I liked their way of introducing me.) But I'm more used to that in a magazine, not really in a newspaper. But I guess every newspaper has to find their voice, their identity.

Another example: I wrote a story about a royal wedding viewing party under the Manhattan Bridge, which was a pretty cool event to be a part of. I tried to add a little bit of that snarkiness, using a theme of royal wedding "fever," to make it more Brooklyn Paper friendly. But my editor added a lot more, including a reference to "crown jewels" that isn't really my type of humor.

And, I'm not used to so many edits and changes in what I write. Maybe I took for granted the freedom I was given at The Daily Universe. Sure, editors gave me suggestions or asked me to change things, but I think in general the writing style I already had was a perfect match for BYU. It sounds too dramatic to say that I didn't know I was such a bad writer until I got here, but I am back at the bottom of the totem pole. I mean, of course I am, I'm an intern in New York. But maybe no matter how well I knew that beforehand, it's just different to actually face it.

Working here isn't the end of the world. And working in an uncomfortable and unfamiliar place is the way a human being grows. (Working here actually reminds me of my first few days in Argentina as an LDS Church missionary, in terms of being a fish out of water.) I'm sure things will only get better.

If you are curious to see what I've written, here's what's up so far:

Maybe they should call it 'Men in THE Black'

Brooklyn catches royal wedding fever - and DUMBO is the center of the plague!

And then, I took the photo that's attached to this story:

New retail - dogs, wine! - comes to Brooklyn Bridge Park

I'll admit, it is nice to see my work published, even if it is work after the effects of snarkization.

And, I do get this view from my desk:

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UPDATE:

More than two weeks later there are still people who are finding this blog post, and I'm realizing that what I wrote might be causing some problems. I just wrote a new post that I hope will clarify what I meant to say.