Reach Out & Touch Somebody.

So begins my quest to contact a representative for the VA Hospital.

It started off very positive because Tamani Moore, the secretary of Public Affairs over at the VA Hospital got back to me extremely quick with contact information for Richard Beam, the head of Public Affairs over at the hospital.

Unfortunately, he's currently on vacation and won't be back for the next few days.

Thank goodness for efficiency of answering machines. God, what a dated method of information delivery.

Well hopefully once he gets my message, he'll contact me back because he's the only and most important lead I've got on this story right now.

According to Tamani, I can't talk to ANYONE until I talk to Richard Beam.

So Mr. Beam, I hope you had a relaxing vacation because we've got some work to do!

In Memoriam... POW Memorial.

So remember the POW Memorial I was planning to attend on campus last Friday?

That didn't happen.

I showed up around noon, thinking the ceremony would still be in full effect, but when I got there, it was a graveyard. As I stood there, with all my reporting equipment, mouth agape, the only thing that was flying through my mind was "what the hell am I going to write about now?"

I drove home, racking my brain about what emergency precautions I could take into coming up with a new story. Driving past the Veteran's Hospital on 7th Street, it finally came to me.

So my new story is going to be about the Veterans at the hospital and their feelings on the current war in Iraq. Woo!

http://www.long-beach.med.va.gov/

Drawing Up Blanks.

The division of labor was set up this week.

This is the part of the group process that I hate the most. Sitting there in a circle, everyones eyes on you, waiting for something amazing to spew out of your mouth. Again, I have to be honest. I have NO IDEA what to write about, and the thought of coming up with content for two full stories frightens me to death.

Duke had an idea of covering a POW memorial on campus this week, so that appears to be my only lead thus far. I'm hoping for a big turnout so I can collect as much information as possible, but I'm not holding my breath. It is a Friday, after all.

I'm worried about how I'm going to digest all the information that'll be eventually coming my way. How am I going to take pictures, take down notes/quotes, etc. all by myself? A flash voice recorder sounds might enticing right now... Perhaps I'll stop by the Sony Style store on my way home later...

I love mixing retail therapy with school work. Makes it seem all the much more justified.

Group Deliberation: Topic, Anyone?

Professor Aguilar assigned us our groups and I got teamed up with Samantha Kercheval, Bita Hodaei, Duke Rescola and Stephen Sabetti.

We sat around for what seemed like hours and in a circle, we each revealed to one another what our ideas were concerning our group project. We all knew that we had to pick a topic that we would feel strong about up until the end of the semester. After much deliberation, the two topics we were leaning toward were: fashion and the current war in Iraq.

Samantha seems to have a strong connection to this topic, hailing from Twenty-Nine Palms, a military community. Her fiancee, Tim, is also a Marine.

I have to admit, I'm having reservations about covering such a serious and sensitive subject. After hearing some of the other groups ideas, I especially felt kinda hesitant to tackle this topic. I guess we'll see how it goes.