A little something I read somewhere online today: 
Time magazine says that “It’s no secret that eating something tasty and having sex are pleasurable, anxiety-reducing activities. But researchers studying stress responses in rats found that sex and food could reduce anxiety even over the long term, for up to 7 days.”
Good news for people with significant others.


I have interviews to do today. I hate doing interviews because I suck at them. Wish me luck. 

Networking

For one of my classes I have to write a column for a newspaper. I thought boo! I don't have anything to write a column about. But I'm finding that it's more fun to write than it sounds. Out of sports, life, entertainment, politics, international, and business, I chose life. My column is about off-campus life, and in it I discuss the things that make life different for a student who has never lived on a college campus and never will.

In the first column I wrote about parking, roommate problems and having my cat, Puppy. It's kind of rough, though, so I want to write another column today to see if I can get it smoother.

I haven't been sticking to my schedule. That may be because I've been fighting off a cold for most of this week, but next week should be better.

While I was interviewing a source yesterday, it occurred to me to see if I could get a client, too. The subject I was interviewing works at one of my former jobs and I asked him to pass my card along to a man in the office I thought might have some work for me. I'll be following up on that next week.

Thirty

That's all I kept thinking about yesterday. I'm thirty years-old. Now, I'm not complaining. I'm very happy that I've had thirty years and I hope I get to stick around for a whole lot more, but I would just like to have a few more accomplishments to my name. That's all.

I had a good birthday, even if it was boring. Joey (my 14-year-old cousin) and I watched a movie, I drank wine. I gave him some. Is this starting to sound a little creepy? He didn't drink much of the little bit I gave him, but the idea was to let him have a little alcohol so it would seem less romantic, off-limits and appealing, and then maybe he wouldn't think getting trashed was as awesome as a lot of other teens do.

Yesterday I got a ridiculous deal on a digital audio recorder. Originally $109.00, I got it for $54.00 at Best Buy. What's wrong with this thing? I wondered about it. I'm skeptical. I'm also pretty broke and I need to do some interviews. The recorder I had was being unreliable and wouldn't record when I needed it to. This one feels like a lightweight piece of garbage, though.

I wrote about five pages of a short story that I based off of a story in the newspaper Friday. It's about two girls in Somalia who were accused by militants of being spies and were executed by a firing squad in front of the members of their town. Unwilling witnesses to the executions, the people who watched were outraged and horrified. I don't know how much of the story can be real. I want to use the real names of the victims. I also don't want to have to make up a village. I can use the true info, can't I?

Interviewing Issues

I'm working on a story about the recent legalization of guns in establishments that serve alcohol, and my angle was on local bar owners and patrons who disagree with the relaxed gun laws.

Earlier today I interviewed Basil Marceaux. For those who don't know that name, he's a former gubernatorial candidate for Tennessee. He's also insane. My question for him was: "Will you please clarify this statement that you made: 'I want everyone to have a gun. . . . I think that if someone doesn’t have one, maybe I’ll fine them $10.'?"
He proceeded to tell me about how this country is made up of two governments and that the people should be armed to protect themselves from their governments. He wanted to leave me with a question, but I could hardly make it out. It was something like, "If you go to Afghanistan and they point a gun at you, what will your government do for you?" 

I politely told him that his question would be better asked of someone with the qualifications to answer it, then thanked him for his time.

It was a relief to get off the phone with him!

I had lately been feeling discouraged by the direction my interviews were taking. Aside from Basil, I had spoken with a young woman who owned a gun, and had worked at the nearby Hooter's Restaurant where their gun policy is prominently displayed. She was all for people keeping a gun for safety. I next spoke with an owner of a popular bar. He is himself a card carrying member of the NRA. The predominance of pro-gun sources made me unhappy, and I though my article was doomed. Then I realized that my sources actually agreed with the popular opinion all around: guns should NOT be in bars. I found that I had a story after all. Now I just have to stop blogging and write it.

Prepping For Q & A

I'm getting prepared for my interviews tomorrow. I'll be meeting with 2 UTC alums to talk about finding employment in the current economic atmosphere. So far I haven't come up with anything fantastic in the way of questions. I guess I'm not real sure what my focus is in this story. I need to work a little harder on getting a good direction for my inquiries.

I'm not as nervous right now about the actual interviewing as I am about making it to both interviews on time and then to work right after. I'll be beat tomorrow afternoon for sure, but I hope I'll have everything I need.