Column Assignment

It's 6:30 on a Friday, twilight is just closing in on the city, and Stacy Pool is closed for the night. However, the water is still bustling with activity. A group of teenagers stand soaking wet and gasping for breath at the side of the pool. They have just completed what many of them will consider the hardest thing they have ever done.

When they first arrived, the tasks seemed simple enough. Nine laps in the pool, diving to retrieve a brick from the deep end, and then treading water for two minutes. It would be an easy test, they thought, and the reward would be great,  becoming a lifeguard for the city of Austin.

Boy, were they wrong.

They pushed off the wall to begin their first lap. The first three laps would be the front crawl, the next the breast stroke, and then the front crawl again to finish up. It was almost too simple, they thought. They were runners, dancers, football players, athletes not easily defeated by a little water.

By the end, they were struggling to keep their strokes looking like a somewhat passable freestyle.

And then there was the brick. Ten pounds and covered with a layer of black rubber, thrown into the deep end of the pool. The students gasped for breath, bent over with exhaustion as their teachers, current lifeguards explained the rules. The challenge was to swim out to it, surface dive to retrieve it, and bring it back. All within a minute and 40 seconds and without wearing goggles.  

At the beginning of the class, their were 30 kids. After the brick, there were 20.

The final labor was treading water. Not herculean necessarily but difficult none the less, especially following the other two tasks. They kicked furiously for two minutes, keeping their arms trapped beneath their armpits.

"Time!" The lifeguard, a tiny blonde girl who can't be much older than them, shouts.

The kids, gulping for air, hoist themselves out of the pool. They've done. They passed.

"Damn," one boy in saggy blue trunks says. "That was damn hard. That might be the hardest thing I've ever done in my life."

Current Events Quiz 5.2

1. It has been revealed that Haruka Weiser was sexually assaulted and strangled. The sources are police officials but they decided to go unnamed due to the fact that they were not authorized to speak about the case. They probably shared the information because the police thought that it was important to share this valuable information with the public. This story is significant because of it's proximity, timing, and novelty.

2. According to hired.com, 69% of the time, men get paid more than women for doing the same job at a tech company and that tech employers are offering women salaries that are 3% less than that of their male counterparts. Hired.com is a website that connects tech employers to those seeking jobs in the tech industry so they have an insider view the industry and were able to gather this information because of that. Hired.com suspects that this is because women have lower wage expectations set on the website than men do. This theory doesn't really change the way I see the technology companies. Despite the fact that the women told them that this is how much they would like to be paid, they thought it was the appropriate amount because of the universal wage throughout all industries and the tech companies are playing into that. I don't really know about promoting hired.com but they did mention it's name quite a bit and I feel like they could have used more sources to support the article.

3. McCrory's executive order changed South Carolina's equal employment policy so that it would cover discrimination claims based on sexual orientation and gender identity. The American Civil Liberties Union responded by calling McCrory's action a weak attempt to save face after being criticized by the LGBTQ community. PayPal, Deutsche Bank, the NBA, and Bruce Springsteen have all either canceled, put on hold, or threatened to retract events or plans happening in the state in protest of the law. I think they would probably explain the executive order the same way.

4. According to UNICEF, terrorist group Boko Haram has increasingly used child bombers this past year. As a result, people are starting to see children, especially girls, as threats. Terrorism experts refuse to call these bombings suicide attacks because the children carrying them out either did not do it on their own volition or were too young to understand the consequences of their actions. Boko Haram has aligned itself with al-Qaida because, like them, their goal is to create an Islamic caliphate. The difference is that they are located in Nigeria, whereas al-Qaida's area of operations is predominately in the Middle East. According to a new Mercy Corps report, most people join Boko Haram for financial reasons.

5. Clifford Antone Foundation aims to bolster music scene: A new foundation has been created in honor of the legendary blues club operator and Austinite, Clifford Antone. The foundation aims to support the Austin music scene while also caring for it's more elderly members. It also plans to preserve music artifacts for future generations, improving music education, and mentoring at-risk kids interested in music. I really like this article because 1) I am very interested in music, 2) I've shopped and been to shows at Antone's Records and he was someone that I very deeply respect, and 3) I completely agree with the new foundation's mission and look forward to hearing about their work in the music community.

6. I think that this column definitely has more personality than the other news pieces. It's unique format and individual voice make it seem like Bohls is addressing us directly and sharing his thoughts and opinions with us, as if we were having a conversation. I liked #8 the best because it was funny. If I would cut any one, it would be #4 just because I didn't like how long it was. 

Best Day In Sports Rough Draft

You would be hard pressed to find a day where I even moderately enjoyed playing a sport. The problem was not that I was unathletic. Quite the contrary, as ballet had assured that my body from ages seven to about fourteen was finely muscled and taut and that my endurance was nothing to scoff at. I simply lacked, among other things, the competitive streak necessary to enjoy and succeed in sports. I was a quiet, creative child. I lived for art class, visits to the library, and choir performances. I dreaded track and field day, the capture the flag games everyone loved to play during recess, and any P.E. unit other than gymnastics and line dancing. While the other kids whined and complained about having recess indoors, I relished it because it meant that I could sit quietly at my desk and read a book. My point is, the ratio of bad sports days to good sports days is about 203:1. This is the story of that one, singular good sports day.

When I was twelve, I had a ridiculous notion to join a softball team. My mom had played it when she was growing up in the suburbs of Houston and my dad,being from Chicago, was a long-suffering Cubs fan and played baseball all throughout his youth. It just made sense to carry on the family tradition. I, however, did not take into consideration that I hated sports, hated being outside for extended periods of time, and had the hand-eye coordination of a 100-year-old blind dog.

The first week of being on a softball team was the best. Granted, the only time I ever touched a ball or a glove that week was in the sporting goods store, practice hadn’t started yet. That day in the sporting goods store was the best day I ever had in sports. I hadn’t realized I hated softball yet. Everything was still ripe with excitement, every piece of equipment I piled into the shopping cart, from cleats that had the distinctive plastic-y smell of a new car to an aluminum bat that glowed with a steely sheen, seemed to radiate promise and opportunity. I got black knee length pants and purple stirrup socks to match my brand new jersey and visor, both of which had “Lady Pumas #9” proudly emblazoned in white on both the front and the back. My new glove was Wilson brand and left handed. My cleats had a flashy, girlish, baby pink swoop splashed across each side. I was prepared.

Prepared for hell, that is. The next week I found softball to be hot, sticky, grueling work that I absolutely had no patience for. I never played any position other than outfield, never hit a ball, and quit as soon as the season was over.

Finding the Flaw Response

Here's the T, I don't really care about football so I'm gonna side with The Times on this one. The article they wrote was completely valid and if the NFL has a problem with that then maybe they should work on being a better organization because I really have no issue in believing what The Times wrote about them. I am gonna say though, they could've cited more of their sources because I can see where the NFL is coming from with all this "insinuating" business. I don't think they should retract the article. If they did then what's even the point of journalism?

Gisondi Article Outline

• Sports stories contribute greatly to the world of sports
• But sometimes writers don’t give sports stories the attention and credit they deserve
• A good example of excellent sports news reporting is that of the NBA Finals Game 6
• Elements of a sports story:
• Storyline
• Context
• Quotes
• Key players
• Key Statistics

• Storyline:
• Follows what happened in the game
• Must keep readers engaged, especially if they already watched the game
• Game 6 of the NBA Finals
• Dirk Nowitzki-did well
• LeBron James-did poorly
• Journalists compared the two in their stories
• Ledes: Nowitzki and James compared, James did bad, Nowitzki victorious
• Context:
• Nut graph has who, what, when, where, why, and how
• Who the important players were
• What game it was, what was the outcome
• When it happened
• Where it happened
• Why/how that outcome came to be
• Quotes
• Don’t just interview the local team, interview anyone you might think would contribute to the story
• Reaction quotes
• Quotes also offer analysis of the game
• Key Plays
• Keep notes during the game of plays used, runs, or anything special like that
• Example: The Dallas Mavericks vs. the Miami Heat by Eddie Sefko, Dallas Morning News, Joseph Goodman, The Miami Herald, Howard Beck, NY Times, Tim Reynolds, Associated Press

• Key Statistics
• Don’t put in every  statistic in, it will bore the readers if you do
• Look for stats that might not appear in the box score
• Compare stats from each quarter or half

• Covering games can be hard, here’s how to make it easier:
• Do research before the game
• Plan to take notes
• Come up with good questions beforehand