Blog_Entry: June 2008 Archives

As one day passes by, another day comes along. They say it’s only for two weeks, but these days seem so long. From the first day when we arrived, the weather was so cold, but as time began to move, there were stories to be told. There were things we needed to acknowledge, and we all had no clue. At first it seem so hard, and very difficult to do.

In a room with filled with people, with people I didn’t know, but as time pass by, they were people I got to know. The few people that got selected, were chose for different reasons, but they all had one thing in common, and that was to write stories without singing.

Stories that would grab the reader’s attention, and make the whole community listen. We all went out searching from one place to another. Gathering information, so we could share with one another. We learned how to get along and how to help each person out.

We had cameras to take pictures, every time we left out. The laughter the smiles and all the joy will remain, but for some of these students, they life will forever be changed. I was able to take a cruise, under the Golden Gate Bridge, then back around Alcatraz, experiencing life from within.
This was the first time in my life that I ever did that, but none of this would be possible, if BAMMA didn’t allow me to do that. The staff here loves all of us, and they love the work we produce. The time we took to do it, and the commitment to follow through.

A lot of times people give up easy, when they’re adapting to something new, but I adapted real easy and got to know people who are all cool! The food may have been nasty (LOL), but they always made sure we ate. There was never a day when I starved, because I always had food on my plate.

We always woke up early, instead of waking up real late. I have enjoyed my time here, and I’m thankful they let me stay. It started out with twelve of us, but in the end there was eleven. Imagine the turnout of the paper, if there only remained seven.

Lucky that was not the case, because the ones that stayed survived. We all worked as team, to help the newspaper come alive. Our words were cut down because some words were not needed, but at the same time every student still succeeded.

We all managed our time, and finished what needed to finish, but life goes on, because time is still ticking. Tomorrow we will graduate, but the end has not yet arrived. I can’t wait until that day comes, because it will be the day that opens our eyes.

This will be the day, that expands on our lives. We all have been blessed, to develop skills most people don’t have. Being able to use those tools, instead of being stuck in the past. We can now move to the future, and write stories until our hearts stop, but no matter what we do the pens will never drop.

We all have different minds and believe in different things, but no matter what we do we will always have a dream. A dream that Martin Luther King didn’t dream, because deep down inside, we can accomplish anything. As I come to a close, to end my thoughts, I thank everybody here for helping me, making it through it all, it’s all about BAMMA 08 “ The Best Class of them All”.

I learned a lot about journalism. A lot of the things we went over I already knew but even still it was a great experience.

I learned how to trim my words instead of using words that didn't really need to be there.

I learned that you need to wear another hat when your editing because you also have to be a critic of your own writing. Some time when you write things you use a lot of words that you don't really need and it makes your story sound not so interesting as it would be if you used words that get straight to the point.

I like working with the different editors because your able gain a sense of how they interpret your story. I had wrote a story about the McCullum Youth Court. Before I wrote that story I had no idea what that was all about. When I started calling to talk to people it seem like my story was not going to have no life at all. As I kept at it I set up an interview with some of the staff that work there. They all gave me good quotes and I was able to format my story the way I wanted it to be. I learned how to blog because this is something I don't normally do.

I learned how to take pictures and learned a new word called aperture. I learned how to use a audio recorder something I never used before, but when I used it I did a good job.

The last time I posted, I ranted about the improvements needed at BAMMA. In retrospect, I also forgot the main things that BAMMA has to offer. BAMMA is an opportunity for teenagers to immerse themselves in the world of real-life journalism and the growing importance of multimedia today.

The main thing that made things awesome at BAMMA were the staff and people. I’d like to give my thanks to each and everyone with a small commentary~ In no order:

Aaron (Dad)- You are awesome to the greatest extent! I love your funny faces that you give to awkward situations as well as your understanding of what goes on in teenagers’ minds. Thank you for helping me to polish my multimedia piece, without you, it wouldn’t look as awesome as it does now.

Dolissa (Mom)- You are quite knowledgeable in all you do. The conversations we have help give me another dimension in the thoughts of adults. Your perseverance to get things done is a role model to all of us.

Mary Anne (Journalism Teacher)- You helped make the beginning of our days memorable and fun with class. Your genuine concern and ideas for solution helped us created our final newspaper. You may have won us over with your generosity in donuts/coffee on a cold day and soda on a hot one, I loved your bubbly personality

Christine (BAMMA’s Rihanna)- You are one awesome person to talk to! You communicate with us easily and can relate to us more easily than older people. Your cheerful smile and inclusive hug always makes my day better, especially when the day hasn’t been too good. And you are fashionable and pretty!

Craig (Photographer Extraordinaire)- Thank you most of all for teaching me how to use a camera that was not point and shoot. You opened my eyes to the beauty in shooting in manual as well as automatic. You also taught me about Hail Mary photos. I am definitely going to incorporate some of the ideas I learned in my school’s newspaper.

Kory ( My Editor)- Thank you for having the patience on hot sweltering days to help me edit my article. You are always cheerful and have plenty of ideas on multiple subjects. I also want to thank you for introducing me to the BIBLE of Journalism, the AP Stylebook!

Michelle (Professor Counselor)- I love how you are always there to listen to others or me when we have problems that we are uncomfortable talking with other staff. You are the epitome of cool (along with Christine). I also learned from you especially how to see things from another angle.

Eric (Joel’s Twin)-I love your spontaneity and the random faces you do. You really remind me of Joel. You bring flairs of fun to usually drab situations. Although I didn’t get to talk to you very often, you definitely have a personality that make people want to talk to you.

Molly (FinalCut Ruler)- Thank you for taking the time to teach me some things with Final Cut when I forgot them. The professor you introduced to us at the Chronicle was fun and interesting (meaning you got good taste in people).

Ronnie (Assistant Prison Warden)- Thank you for having the best sense of humor that I’ve ever seen. Instead of getting mad at us for exaggerating the risk factor and safety, you played along and make he time fun! I hope that we made your first BAMMA memorable.

Dr. Azocar (Prison Warden)- Although we didn’t get much time with you personally, you strike fear into our hearts!! (Just kidding) When we asked for water and air spray, you compassionately supplied us with what we wanted. You did an awesome job for shaping BAMMA this year.

Jesse (Newspaper Editor)- We also didn’t get to work with you much, but you helped us produce a stunning newspaper, worthy of college level work. Thank you! You helped us create something we can be proud of.

Ryan (News Editor)- Although I never actually talked to you, I still appreciate you helping my fellow classmates. You helped make the learning environment even better.

LaToya (BAMMA Buddy)- Thank you for taking time out of your summer to help in the first week of BAMMA. It would have been nice to get to know you longer, but thank you for the time you did spend with us.

Zoneil (Indescribable)- It would be amiss if I did not wrap up with the most dynamic character at BAMMA. You may be sarcastic and mean at times, I know that you are always genuinely concerned and caring for us. I also want to thank you for helping me edit my article down to under 500 words

Yesterday, Dr. Azocar alluded to “burning bridges” and how you have to careful as to what you say. I sincerely apologize to anyone that took affront to the inflammatory rant posted earlier. I, however, take a different turn on “burning bridges”. I truly believe, not matter how hard we may try, we can never burn the bridges we made during BAMMA. We are now interconnected as a family, people that has shared two weeks together with a common goal. For the rest of my life, I can never forget the awesome memories that I have gotten at BAMMA.

Well, today is my final day to blog. Tomorrow is graduation…

May good fortune rule over you
Peace live in your hearts
And the stars watch over you

Justin Chin, signing out~

OMG!!! The finally day iz almost here! It was tight will it lasted! There waz a lot of up and downs will being here. But it was all-enjoyable doing many of the things that we did.
Lets c……… some advise for next year would be to give us more free time that way we bond better and it wouldn’t feel like it is strictly business!

It felt to me that it was mostly strictly business because we didn’t have a lot of time everyday to be able to kick it together as a group and do something at top of the line fun. I don’t know maybe…maybe if we had an activity where we had to find something all across campus… or if we could just explore SF STATE maybe… for some of us that are going to be applying to colleges or universities next year! You know stuff like that… or what makes SF STATE, SF STATE……….

Or I know if we could try things that are new more often…. Like sushi…. you know something like that. Even though you know we did try something new. Or how bout if we could sit-in one journalism class to see if interests us a little more!

I enjoyed a lot of the things that we did.

It felt like I was kind of slow though because I couldn’t really move by myself with my story because I didn’t really understand how to write my story.

I mean I really don’t have a lot of experience…. I dint have any experience with writing a newspaper…thing.

Today is our last day and I am sad. I am going to miss everyone. I’m going to miss being able to randomly start singing with Justin. Not seeing everyone is going to be sad to me. I have nothing really time consuming this summer so this was my vacation. I am going to miss hearing SEX…and the city! The first day of school if I see Edgar I’m going to say “Pull up them pants boy and get off the BED!” It’s going to be our inside BAMMA joke. Just like SEX…and the city! Here in BAMMA I talked to people I would have never talked to alone. I am going to miss the staff. I won’t get to see them all. I know for sure that we all are going to try and stay in contact. Even if we call in the night. I am really going to miss my roomy. Getting to talk to her at night and laughing at each other every once in a while. Most of all these computers. They are SEXY! Trust me I’ll be back next year to reunion. Unless something comes up. I’ll miss all of BAMMA!

Wow, our last morning blogging!!!

First I shall rant then I shall write what i love/miss about BAMMA:

Rant:

We got out papers the other day, and I was REALLY PISSED OFF. When we were writing our headlines together, I was forgotten, so someone else wrote my headline....which was COMPLETELY WRONG. The title they put was "Immersing students in their native language" something like that, which is NOT TRUE! they are IMMERSING students in ANOTHER LANGUAGE!!!!

Then someone added words like in one sentence it used to be something like "she learns blah blah blah – completely in spanish" theres the PUNCH! but NOOOO, they put " – but completely in spanish" that COMPLETELY RUINED THE PUNCH! Then there's this person in my article called Gentle Blythe, I am not sure if that person is a woman or a man, I didn't want to be rude and ask. But the person who changed my paper put the person as a "spokeswoman" when I put "spokesperson" cause you NEVER KNOW, that person coulda had Hippie parents, and that COULD be a guy or a woman, but I don't like to jump to conclusions!!! What if Gentle calls me and blames me/jumps me?!?!!??!?! GRRRR!!!!

Another thing, my article is all the way on page 6, a small little column, next to Joel's amazing LONG story and his BEAUTIFUL BIG PICTURE...my story is a measly minute squished fly on a wall, then continued a freaking mile away in page 11! Who will actually notice it, and then bother turning SOOO many pages?! There's nothing visually appealing in my article! there's no picture!

And to top it all off, we went to the Chronicle, and the lady was critiquing our articles, and my article was SO MEASLY PATHETIC AND SMALL IN THAT LITTLE COLUMN that she SKIPPED IT AND FORGOT ME!!!! AHHHHH!!! I was SOOOO pissed off!!! Then Joel asked her what she thought about it. But she didn't really say anything, I couldn't hear cause of all the anger in my head....

I hope I did not piss off anyone in this blog, I just really needed to spill my thoughts... sigh...

Good things about Bamma:

I will REALLY REALLY MISS my BAMMA family! I dunno if I'll cry tomorrow, cause I really will miss everyone. Everyone has helped me grow and we all made it through this intense boot camp together.

I'll remember all the funny moments we all shared. Justin's weird mushroom thing, to Joel and Me singing Beatles songs, my Sister Goldie Chang.

The time we ran in the elevator and I yelled "Hey girls, wait for CONNIE AVOCADO CHANG!" in front of these people who looked at me weird and laughed then the elevator door closed and I we all bursted in laughter.

The time after we left pizza orgasmica, and YaYa yelled out, "I like SEX...." we all turned around, surprised, then she said "...in the CITY!" and we all laughed. We kept on overusing that phrase. "I like to see SEX...in the city!" Or the times we take the M and we pass by the west portal theater, and the title of a movie was "Sex and the City" and I would yell, "HEY LOOK GUYS ITS SEX!!!! in the City!"

I also like my journalism experience, its COMPLETELY different than what I had confronted in high school. When you interview someone, you KNOW how to find them and they're gonna most likely want to be interviewed cause they're gonna be on the PAPER. I really liked my editors they are really awesome people, I liked the photography people who taught us many things like "hail mary's" and stuff like that.

But this experience, you have to call up people, in some instances even pester them for only a quote, or information, or anything! I really feel journalism is my calling, I love it a lot! =) We went to the Chronicle yesterday and this one dude told me the best advice for getting my foot in the door, "write an article today, write another one tomorrow, and the next day as well, get as much as you can in print, then put them all together in a scrapbook" so I have articles to show how good I am when I get an interview. They also told us to call and bug reporters as MUCH as we can, like call everyday, mail everyday, because it shows how persistent one is, and shows that I am passionate about journalism, which will convince them to help me.

My BAMMA experience was great. I had fun meeting everyone and getting to know them. I broke down in the shadows a couple of times. But one time wasn't in the shadows and Aaron and Ramon were the to comfort me. It was nice of them. And I bet you want to know why I broke down, but truth is: I don't even know why. But it happens, I'm a girl and most of us are sensitive.

It was rooming with Goldie. I'm glad that she took all of my noise and me bothering her. I'm sorry GoldieLocks. But it was fun. And this week was fun too. Seeing our faces in newspapers and stuff, it gives a rush. And visiting the Chronicle was cool. The computer lab thing was alright. But I had fun overall visiting places. I enjoyed the Pier. I loved the Murals. I liked going to City Hall. I sorta kinda liked Juneteeth. I didn't like the Tenderloin. And I like San Francisco State. It's pretty sexy.

It was nice meeting all of you: Goldie, Edgar, CharlestinaCiCi, Justin, Oscar, Ramon, Monica, Joel, Jamari, and Brenda. As well as Jesse, Michelle, Craig, Aaron, Dolissa, Mary Ann Hogan, Dr. Azocar, Eric, Molly, Christine, Ryan, Kory, La Toya, and that one guy with the mustache, Scott Fong. You all were very helpful and gave me useful information. Sorry, if I forgot anyone.

I had a great time, all of you are beasty and have a nice summer.

Yes indeed, BAMMA was BEASTY.

I have to do all this real quick:

First, we're going to have to finish our MM pieces today, which blows. I'm gonna try and see if I can NOT get a headache today, you know, just so I can actually GET SOMETHING DONE!!! But yeah, I've got 1'44" on it, so I guess I'm not doing that bad. Gonna turn into a Jack Goodall monkey-man.

I want to be the frontman for Muse. Geez, that guy can sing. AND he's a killer git-tar player. I'm on my way, though. Not too bad, and I can earn money doing it, so... I just want to make as much money as him making the same kind of music. I mean, it seems like the stuff that I dream about. you know when you have a dream, and you hear music, and it's always the same kind, but you just can't discern what it is? This is the kind of thing I hear in my dreams. Every instrument blends in to the other, just because they all fit. It's like this great, indescribable puzzle, and you'll never figure it out until you know what's comin' out of that mental jam-box of yours.

Today was also tiring day. On our way to downtown we practice our songs for BAMMA idol. We were also singing other random songs and putting twist to them. I was showing off my Chipmunk skills. It was funny because I would break out singing. I was so happy to see downtown. It’s my favorite part of the city life. I love to be there because it reminds me of better times. Especially when I have a lot on my mind. I really wanted to just walk around and look at everything.

In the Chronicle it was fun. I found it confusing and hard to be an editor there. It was funny to me how all of them were called Frank or Bob. Names along this class were funny to hear because it goes with name stereotypes. I was happy to see the inside of the building because I always pass by and wonder how it looks inside. It was fun to see all the stuff they have on their desk. The subways were actually good!

The workshop was so interesting. I would totally join them. I already got ideas for them. I had heard of youth radio but have never really checked it out because I wasn’t as interested as I am now.

So after that we were told to go by ourselves to our dorms. It was a shocker. We were laughing and making jokes on our way to the dorms. Then I told Justin I was cold and he pushed me and said Edgar she’s cold. Like a gentleman he put out his elbow and we walked together with CC on the other side. We both were cold. It was funny and we practice again all together our singing. After a while we went from our dorm to the lobby. We were joking around with our performances. There were the 5th graders from the 3rd floor who were bothering us. There was one who came and said, “Put on some pants!” So after that we couldn’t stand it and we put glasses and hoods and went to the 3rd floor. The lady there didn’t say anything even after one of them said, “They’re the ones who scared us!” We were just tired of seeing them come and bother us on the elevator and their jumping.

It was fun until Aaron told us to go to bed.

Coming into the Bamma program I was questioning whether I was doing the right thing. My journey here in Bamma has helped me find it.

From the very first day I stepped into the orientation I was freaked out, I was scared. I had every feeling that you can possible have on the very first day of meeting different people to make friends. My social life has definitely been altered now that I came into this program. I met some of the most awesome-est, people here in Bamma that I will always remember. There was so much work to do for the paper to be issued, and I can finally say that the hard work and stress paid off because when I saw that paper in my hands, my heart started jumping joyously, I was impressed with myself.

As the first week moved along slowly, I started to feel the stress. We had two projects to accomplish one was the paper and the second was the multimedia piece. The first week was packed with smiles and fun, it was wonderful. I love when there’s a moment when everyone is happy and smiling because that makes me glad. The first week finished with a million thoughts to gather and compress into one ball of energy. With that being done the first week came to an end.

The second week came and we were closer like a family that helps each other out to finish the various jobs we had to do. I learned by now so many things about each and every one of the people here in Bamma. The second week almost reaches an end and I’m going to miss them. Through doing Bamma I’m a whole new me with valuable knowledge that I gathered here at Bamma. Today June 27, 2008 I figured out that I do not regret coming here, because at the end life is about the choices you make. Bamma 2008 will always be and will always stay in a very special place... my heart.

Today is our last full day today. I will miss my Bamma family. Tonight has to be 'the night' as we all call it which is the last night. Preparing for Bamma Idol is the high light of the day. Everyone is preparing songs to sing and stuff, its so cool. I will be speaking for our graduation tomorrow morning. I will make it memorable for all of us. Words can not explain how I feel about my family here. Its just an indescribable feeling. When I am with them nothing is the same, the view of the world is no longer the same. My life back at home with my other friends are not really a thought, because I have met awesome new friends that I can connect with on different levels than my other friends. Not taking anything away from the friendship I have with them, but Bamma is the greatest bunch of friends ever!

I will be sure to share my awesome memories that I had with my Bam Fam with my friends back home. I have learned so much from My Bam Fam. I learned to work with , help out and love the people around me. Tomorrow will be kind of sad I really do want to be back home, but I want Bamma to come back with me. Well, like I said before we are only a city, phone call, and email away. I will keep in contact with them, I cant pass up this friendship we have created with each other over the last 2 weeks, a lifelong friendship. I love them so much!

heyyy EVERYBODY!
TODAY IS GOING TO BE MY LAST DAY BLOGGING!
MISS YOU BABYY! :P
SOO.. yesterday was a VERY cool and tiring day!
We started the day off by receiving our newspapers! YAYY! I was so excited to see them! The front page has my article on it which I felt really proud. The front page also has a huge picture of Judo taken by Edgar. Edgar did a really good job! The picture looked really cool because it was taken in action.

Later, we went to downtown San Francisco, and went to the SF Chronicle. After visiting the SF Chronicle, it made me really want to work there. First, when we got there, we went to the morning meeting room and it was really interesting hearing the editors from each department talking and discussing on stories that are going to be in the next morning's papers.

After, we visited each department such as the dating, business, food, sport, bay area, and travel department. I really want to work at the SF Chronicle because they seem to pay really well and it also looks like a lot of fun to get involved in a big news paper in the bay area. However, the people from the Chronicle told us that they usually hire people with 10-15 years of experience so therefore I need to start writing a lot .

THANK YOU BAMMA FOR THIS AMAZING EXPERIENCE!
BYE BYE :]
LOVE, GOLDIE

Oh my goodness, Connie and I were so drained the other day!

In the morning we ate breakfast, and the food was actually good! When there's nothing good to eat, I resort to cereal and like 2 doughnuts =/ and sometimes a cup of OJ.

After, we went to the computer lab and blogged. It was kinda sad cause it was our last "class" with Mary Ann Hogan. She gave us her email and said we could email her for any future advice we would ever need. Which is good, cause I'll probably need a LOT of it.

Then after we all pitched in in creating our headlines. It was very interesting how much time is put into creating a really good headline. After, we went out to lunch and I ate PIZZA!

We all came back, and then we were off again to another SF state campus place. We took the M down to Powell. We went into the mall! then we took this weird route, an elevator, and then we magically appeared at an SF State campus! It was VERY surprising! But we worked on our multimedia.

I truly feel that everyone is being overwhelmed by work. It's REALLY REALLY draining to do this, I think its not enough for 2 people to do, I wish they would've put us with more people, but oh well.

My 5 friends.

I miss my friends. I like the ones I made here at BAMMA, but I miss the ones back at home. One moved in March and now she's moving again. Karenlove. Well, her name is Karen, but I call her "Karenlove" and so does some of my other friends. I actually started calling her "Karenlove" because of them. And this Saturday, June 28th, she moving again, to Guatemala. She not even gone yet, and I'm already sick. Literally my stomach trns at the fact she's leaving. I love her too much to let her leave. I think I'm going to work up a kidnapping plan. Karenlove, if you ever read this: I love you always and forever.

And then there's 4.

Next up, Roselove. Guess what... she has dimples. Well, one. I stare at it all day and she always covers it because she knows what I'm staring at, and she gets mad. What can I say? I love them. Dimples are the best features people could have. Something else about her is Roselove is a little(short) and so is Karenlove. Oh yeah, and Roselove's real name is Rose. Rose is a little lady who was born way past her time, but I'm glad she was because she a great friend and I get to stare at her dimple all day. Roselove is great but her dimple is greater. The only other thing about Roselove that I think of to say is that she loves the color purple. Not the move, just the color. ;)

The three amigos.

There's Kevin, Lawrence, and Jonathan. My brothers for life. Though they get on my nerves A LOT, they're still the best. But what they don't know is that I objectify them. This past school year, Kevin and Jonathan were in two of my classes and Lawrence was in one. Kevin is the "Smart Guy", so I used him for homework help and he was a walking thesaurus. Jonathan is the "Tagger Guy", so I make him draw me stuff, which he barely does, but I make him or at least I try to. Last but not least there's Lawrence, he is the "Physical Comedian Guy", so I use him for comic relief. All three of the guy are hilarious. I talk to Kevin the most, so he might be the funniest. Plus he plays off of what I say most of the time, which means he thinks of jokes fast and it's hilarious.

So yesterday we went downtown to work on our multimedia. The place we went to was inside the Westfield Mall which was pretty cool. I got most of my work done, I am working with Jamari. When we work together its a lot of funny things that come up . We always find ourselves laughing at something, mostly the pictures..hahaha. We took some good pictures the expressions on the people's faces are entertaining to look at. BAMMA Idol is tomorrow night. We have all been preparing for it. Me and Brenda's room seem to be 'the spot'. Its pretty cool though, cause we all get together in there and just have a ball.

Even though I cant wait until Saturday when its over, I will miss my BAMMA family. Over the past 2 weeks that like what we have grown to be, a family of journalist. We have so many high lights of the times we shared. Everything wasn't always cookies and cream, we had our little conflicts, (not with each other). We had times where we felt like the staff were going to far, but all in all we know that they were just doing their jobs. After the first week we all felt bummed out. Waking up at 6 in the morning doesn't seem too phasing, but somehow we managed as being full time journalist. every time you turn around you need to have your camera ready, its so many things to see and learn.

When we went on outings, we thought we were getting a break, but we had things to do. Back at the dorms is the heart of fun, whose room is 'the spot' tonight? would be the question. I feel a connection with each and every person here that makes me feel like I have always known them, but I guess thats what working together Dust to dawn will do to you. Even though we all had different stories, we all worked together with each other in order to get everything we need to make it come to life. From sleeping in classes, to our ' BAMMA Quotes', and everything else that comes along with it. I just love everyone that is part of the BAMMA Program and will always remember the times we spent together, because they were truly divine.

My roommate is the Best! I could have never asked for one better than her. not that if I had any of the other girls it wouldn't have been great, but my Brenda Splenda is awesome. We had so much fun together. When we had our first conversation as room mates we were talking about how we don't like how some people just go off at the mouth and talk and talk and talk,and really just wear people out. But lets see, what do you think we found ourselves doing? talking, and talking and talking, but I am sure we didn't wear each other out, at least I don't think I wore her out she sure didn't say anything. But as a whole i think BAMMA is awesome, always room for improvement, but my experience here was foremost the best ever being around a lot of different minds.

Even though its not over yet, it can only get better as we approach the day we have to depart. I wouldn't say goodbye because its not like we all live in different states. We're just a city away.

Yesterday was confusing, we started to really create our multimedia piece this time by using an advanced program called Final Cut pro. The program of Final cut Pro is stellar but its so much of stuff that we have to take in. Seriously I feel that the Multimedia is not going to be done in time because its so much stuff that i feel I don't contain. Of course the job will be done but probably some other day. I will exceed my expectations to a higher level and will try to have it done by the amount of time we have left.

The multimedia piece in my opinion is the most fun but also the most time consuming and difficult. I think you really need to know how to use Final Cut Pro in order to have fun with making your multimedia piece. Me and Goldie stress ourselves to not let the staff down. When we left and arrived here at S.F. STATE we had dinner and then left to one of the rooms in the journalism department because we had a guest speaker from WIRETAP magazine. She was awesome I learned so much about her like she is an alumni of the high school I attend now, International Studies Academy high school.

I was really feeling her vibe and the magazine, through her words she persuaded me to get started to blog a whole lot more than I am doing. She said that blogging is real good with writing and just expressing your feelings. Jamilah, the society editor at the magazine, is an inspirational person. She started with not knowing what to do, to someone in an online print magazine. I will be contacting her for further help and just to speak with her about my pursuance of the life of a journalist and further on. =]

Today I felt like Yaya and I were ready to start everything soon. When we got to the mall we wanted to go shopping but couldn’t. So we all just went into the SF State offices of the mall. We were all pretty excited. I must say that as soon as we started working all the excitement was gone! I was very sleepy because I haven’t been getting good sleep. I was confused with the whole program and was ready to go home. The hours in an office are harsh. I was happy with just getting up to throw a piece of rapper to the garbage.

Later we had to leave back to campus to eat “delicious” dorm food. On our way we all thought that it be funny if we met them all downstairs. Especially since they are stopping every five seconds. So we all got to the elevator and someone pushed the first floor. We got off and realize it was the wrong one. We got back on and made it down. Then they were all screaming at us for doing that. I thought it was no big deal because we weren’t going to run into the mall and never come back. We knew better than to have to pay a lot of money.

From there it was boring. I felt like we were little kids and people thought we were stupid enough to cross in front of a train saying “oooh pretty light! Me like the light!” Not even my teachers at school do that. They have a format in which one teacher goes in front, one goes in the middle, and one at the very end. If they have more people they are split up. There may be stops but usually they stop by group. So when we go to the chronicle we’re going to stay close. It’s obvious that the staff’s job is on the line if we walk away slowly.

GOOD GOOD GOOD MORNING BAMMA!!!
YESTERDAY WAS EXTREMELY FUN CAUSE I got to go to the SF department of business and guess what?! It was inside the mall! Crazy right? I know.

It was cool cause right after we got off the muni, it lead us directly inside the Westfield Mall. It was so exciting! The business department was built like recently and it was so beautiful. The department was on the top floor and we had to pass the food court to go there. The food court smelled delicious. It was right next to Papa Beard. YUMMMM.

Then, we went to the elevator and arrived at the sexy place. The department looked so fresh, clean and modern. It was sexy as ever. I mean, even the bathroom was sexy. The counter of the bathroom was so shinny and clean. It was wonderful. The bathroom was also decorated with modern accessories; I really liked the wall in the ladies room. The wall had a crimson red to it.

Later we arrived at the room where we were suppose to work on our multi media. I was extremely scared cause I'm pretty much technology challenged. PSSSHH. However, Edgar and I got our edit folder done so today we're heading to the mall again to get our time line video done. Hopefully, it'll be a piece of cake. YEA RIGHT.

HAHHAHA

BYE BYE ILY!

I like working with video.

If you didn't know: I want to be a film director.

So editing any type of video can be good practice and I think that this will be great practice. Today I'm going to edit video for my BAMMA Multimedia project.

Brenda and I will be creating a multimedia project together, and I look forward to working with her. I want to see what kind of ideas she has. We both took photographs that will be included in the multimedia piece, as well as some other BAMMA-Teers. You know, like "Mousketeers". Does that work? Probably not. Anyway, some of their pictures we'll include in our project too.

The video/still/audio piece will be on Same Sex Marriage. I'm sort of nervous about what I'm going to do, I know that sounds weird, but I have weird feelings. I want to use everything, like stills audio and video. The variety catches attention, plus everything is good. What I mean by that is, we have god audio, video, and pictures, so it'll be all good. Hopefully we wont use too much though. I think what we'll use the most is audio though.

The length. It has to be shorter than three minutes. Hopefully we can crunch all we need into that time frame, it seems reasonable. Aaron, said that it would be great if we can get it in two minutes. When he said that my stomach turned. But I'll even try for that. But three minutes sounds better, there's more stills to be seen also more video and audio to be heard. But it's all good. We'll come up with something good.

So today it was super stressful. It was easier than yesterday. Today I got to see how a newspaper is set up. It was awesome to see how the articles are put in. I have never been part of any newspaper so this was pretty new to me. We were all wandering around the hallways until we went outside to take group pictures. It was fun outside trying to take pictures.

So once we came back we were put in groups for the multimedia. I was paired up with Yaya. We are going to be working on same sex marriage. It’s great because I can tell Yaya already has an idea of what she wants to be in it. I am also horrible at multimedia so hopefully she can help me out.

Justin and I had been talking about singing in Spanish for BAMMA idol. Then we were talking about it on our way to our dorm rooms. After when we went to the bending machines CC and Edgar overheard and came to our dorm room. It was funny because i told Edgar to pull up his pants and CC said it didn't sound right. From there we made jokes about it. After a little while we realize that we had most guys in the dorm at one time. We were all joking and trying to sing. Ramon came in and we told him how we are supposed to do something. Later after all trying to sing I discover Edgar has an amazing voice even if he thinks he doesn’t. I showed off my chipmunk voice. I told them I had a “special” talent and I started to sing. It was funny to see their faces. After they left CC and me couldn’t fall asleep because it was so fun. Especially since we were excited for the next day.

Good morning! Waz happining!?!? we did lots of stuff like always! But yesterday was my crunch time! I basically wrote most of my story in one day! I got a whole lot done in one day!

I didn't think I was going to finish my story since I have never really written something so BIG and small at the same time. I usually just write hella BS in my essays at school. It was a good day kuz my shizet is done! When my story was complete I felt complete too! It was like I had taken a lot of weight off my chest. Monica and I are doing this one project that is bout creating some multimedia that is about the gay marriages and it has to be able to capture the audiences attention and teach them something that they didn’t already knew about it.

There’s a whole lot that Monica and I have to view and hear to crate a masterpiece where everything flows right and will appear like we want it to be. Plus we have to get Aaron to like it or else he is going to just close the window and no one is going to see our hard worked video-clip.

Rehearsing for BAMMA idol is like being in a boat by my self with no paddles and slowly getting farther away from the shore. It feels that way because I don't have a partner to sing with and I don’t know if I’m going to go solo and I don’t know what song, plus time is ticking and we are getting closer and closer to BAMMA Idiol.

Ugh... My stomach is convulsing. I feel a little bit sick this morning. Probably caffeine withdrawals or something. I'm really having trouble staying awake all day, and to top it off, it's hammer-time for all the Multimedia pieces. Lets see- I foresee a great heap of nothing in the way of media madness for my story. I mean, I looked through the meager, bare material that I have, but essentially found nothing really worth showing anyone. The pictures were great, don't get me wrong, but it's just that they didn't pertain very well to the story itself. Audio's absolutely spectacular, though, but I have only 1/3 of it. The rest is useless chatter.

This room needs a red door. It would just complete the ummmph-ness of this whole setup. Yes, random, but relevant to those who feel my awkward adolescence. Click click clack,... srcabble scrabble, double click, clack clack clack, click... It eats on a graphite-minded individual such as myself after being in the same darned computer room for almost an entire week now...

Establishing shots are difficult in cluttered basements. Thank you, Aaron. You're welcome, Johnboy. Good night, Marylou, goodbye heart. Moo. There goes the siren that signals the air raid.

Yesterday we finally finished our stories and they're on the paper!

In the morning, pretty much everyone except for one or two people had finished and had their final edit done.
I didn't have really much to do, so I was on CNN reading the latest Obama gossip and other random videos CNN had.

After lunch, we had to copy edit all our stories =( it was super duper boring! I could barely concentrate. I was also pretty upset that my article didn't make front page. And the fact that there aren't too many pictures I can use...We took pictures at CCSF and the French Lycee, but neither of them are in my article. So all I have is pictures of the main girl I'm talking about in my article. But I probably won't have a picture with my article, cause everyone else's article is better than mine....

That night, after dinner, I really got stressed out! Ramon and I were signed up to do a multimedia for the same sex marriage where there were like 4 groups who took HELLA audio,video, and 5 billion pictures. I really really really got stressed because Ramon and I were in the same group, so we only know one groups worth of stuff to edit together. We have to ask people from different groups to tell us what matches with what. Which I feel is kinda unfair, because everyone else isn't being bombarded with video/audio/pictures they have never seen...

I'm also worried we're going to be doing our multimedia, but since theres like ALL this stuff we have and have to match, we're gonna end like 2 hours after everyone. And then everyones gonna be mad at us for holding up the group...

I'm trying to think of a quick method to match things up. But the worry is overcoming all my thinking.... =(

Yesterday was a real bore-fest! We had to get our articles down to under 500 words,which really hurt. After chopping done by Kory, Mary Anne, and Zoniel, the article was hacked down to 469 words. After that we had to copy edit everyone else's articles, which took forever... Luckily, Mary Anne and Ronnie bought us donuts and coffee/hot chocolate, to keep us awake. Afterwards, we went to the picture editors to claim which pictures were ours.

One problem I had with the pictures was that the one that Yaya wanted to use for her article was a staged picture that I just randomly took. Instead, Craig and I chose a couple from Los Angeles who had a ring of media around them. They gave an awesome quote about how they didn't know why media were surrounding them and that maybe it was the dress. The only problem now was to find their names. I had written it down when I took the picture but could not find the paper. Luckily I ran a specific search on Google which led me to the SF Chronicle's profiles about the ones who registered.

After dinner, we went back to CIIJ to figure out what we could incorporate into our multimedia parts of our story. Recycling, Oaktown Jazz, Subway, Judo, and Same-Sex Marriage were the ones chosen to have multimedia pieces. I got paired up with Joel and we started sifting through what I had. At first we couldn't find anything we liked because we were to critical about the shaking in video, but Aaron said it was alright. Aaron also suggested that I put in a map of the subway.

In the dorms, CiCi, Brenda, Edgar, Ramon, and I all discussed what we were going to do for BAMMA Idol. The thing was, that CiCi, Edgar, and Brenda could sing REALLY good. I was thinking OH C***!! Brenda and I settled for What I've Been Looking for from High School Musical

Dude!! Me and Goldie are working on our Multimedia piece for this year and its unbelievable, the work that we've put in for this program and the newspaper. There's more to journalism then I thought there was. You really have to love writing or just the work of a journalist. It's been a roller coaster up 'till now, some drops, some loops, never steady, its always rocky. I'm actually very glad to be paired with Goldie because she's real fun and is hilarious, we're working our butts off for this piece.

Everyone has heard that frowning gives you wrinkles so I'm trying to stay away from that. Yesterday was the day I actually understood what crunch time meant. It was so much ideas crunched into a final one. Then it was production time, that was interesting I got to see how the paper was going to look and how the editors were putting it all together. It felt good to be finished but there's never really a final until the actual paper is put out, that's the only time when you can relax and give yourself kudos.

After that we went straight to working on the multimedia piece there are lots of components that add up to make this piece. You have to analyze your choices of pictures, audio, and video, to make the multimedia piece alluring. It has to capture the person's attention pretty darn well. In my opinion, the multimedia is the best part of bamma but it's also the hardest. Here in Bamma stuff may be easy but at the same time hard.

It's life.

You learn how to deal with it.

GOOD MORNING GUYS!!!!!!!!
HOW ARE YOU ALL?! IM GREAT AND HOW ABOUT YOU??

Today is going to be a GOOD DAY (I hope), because the BAMMA family is going to go downtown to work on our multi media. Unfortunately, someone, *cough cough*, won't let us shop while we're at downtown. :P
But it's all good.

Yesterday was an intense day because our final draft was due. Everyone seemed to be very stressed. Not only were the BAMMA kids stressed, but the photographers and editors were also stressed as well.
I would have to say that my least favorite part of journalism would be copy editing. Yesterday was my first time experiencing copy editing on other BAMMA students' stories. NO offense, but copy editing is pretty boring.. It was hard for me to stay focused, and yea that's basically much it.

I finally got my words cut down to five hundred and something, YAYY! MaryAnne and my editor, Ryan, and the other staff members helped me SOO MUCH on my story! THANKS! It was hard for me cause I'm so used to writing formal essays and I've never done journalism writing before. But now it's cool. I love it.

Yesterday afternoon was pretty much a very chill afternoon because most people had their stories done before lunch time. And so by the afternoon, everyone was free. Later at night, we got our multi media assignments and I'm partner with Edgar. Edgar is amazing; he's a good helper!

ALRIGHTY! BYE BYE FOR NOW!

one by one they fall
fall to earth as they failed to shine bright enough
they fall in oceans, forests and caves
turning everything dark and gloomy
the scent of death and hatred
the world is consumed in fear and confusion
not knowing right from wrong
like shadows they stick to the floor
slimy dark souls eat the heart
then spit out the soul
like a parasite
people let themselves die
unafraid to be blind
they see asleep
unafraid to be mute
they speak silence
unafraid to be death
they listen to a blank tape
that plays over and over again
with every line
they become more and more numb
as they lose themselves
to brainwashing lyrics
making them just like the next
just copies of the same shell
no one is unique
no one is alive
like a phobia of standing out
afraid of isolation
a chain around the mind
enables them to think
giving only the opportunity to march
like a soldier without a conscience
those who run are called cowards
and not survivors
to the falling black summer stars

Yesterday was a great day for science. The sun was out, the sky was blue, it was beautiful.

We ate breakfast, then I think we went to the computer lab and got right to our stories. I was putting in some of the quotes I got from the Spokesperson about Immersion in SFUSD. I weaved it all together, unfortunately now it was about 737 words. Though about 3 edits we got to cut down many sentences, to an astounding 515 words! Woot Woot!

Earlier that morning I went with Ramon to photograph his interviewer. We went all the way to Oakland. Our editor Ryan, drove us and we had really interesting conversations about Oil Prices and politics, and OBAMA!

Obama is SO freakin' awesome, but if I had a choice I would want Dennis Kucinich. That dude is like SEX.......in the city! I feel he really captures ALL of my beliefs. Pro Choice, Anti Patriotic Act, Anti No Child left behind... (source: www.glassbooth.org) but yeah. I mean I didn't really think he would last, his thoughts match with the typical San Francisco liberal. San Francisco Liberal is like SUPER DUPER liberal compared to like any other place in the U.S, well thats the way I feel.

Ryan said theres this convention or something, and OBAMA is going to be there, after I heard "Obama will be there" I set my mind, I MUST see him! He said to talk to Cristina and see if she could get me in. I ran back trying to find her, but Dolissa told me to work on my article =( So later Cristina came into the room and I asked her how I could get in, and she said that all the spots were probably filled by now, but that she would look into it =( My heart dropped, now I will NEVER see OBAMA!

Then I kept on working on my article, and then ate dinner, and then went to the dorms, read, showered, and then went to bed.

HEYYYY!

YESTERDAY I stayed at the journalism room for the whole day. It was cool though cause I got to work on my story. Basically, in the morning, we received the news from MaryAnne that the maximum about of words that we are able to have in our story is 500 words!

HOLYY CRAP! I had almost 900 words and I was worried!

However, later the staff helped me cut down the words and it was all good.
What I learned was that you have to do the "surgical way" of cutting down words that aren't necessary.
MaryAnne told me to cut down words without feeling guilty. It was hard for me cause I couldn't let go on my words. I was quite quite emotional about it.. It was very difficult. It felt like letting go on something or someone that you love.. well, no, not really.

Towards the end of the day, I got my story to be cut down to about 595 words and I felt pretty good. My story looked leaner, and not like fat and chubby before. YAYYY my story went on a diet AND NOW IT LOOKS AS SEXYYYY AS EVER!

:]

so basically im writing here again cause i have to kill time.. so yea.

The journalism lab has this really cool computers.

I'm glad I'm came because I got to try out the new version of Photoshop. I'm used to CS2, but now I know CS3, and it's great. I love everything about it. I also like the way the icons look. They all have strong solid colors and then to the two letters for you to quickly identify the software. It's nice. The macs here are nice.

City Eats' food is not so good.

Sometimes it's good, but not really, more acceptable than good.

Breakfast, "the most important meal of the deal", is usually the nastiest meal of the day. Usually, pancakes, waffles, and French toasts, are really hard on the outside for some reason. If there is potatoes I eat them regardless of what form of potatoes they are. Lunch at Rosso's is good, I get pizza everyday, which isn't good for me. But it's not like I care, I'm going to die one day anyway. Then there's dinner at City Eats. Geez, I'd rather starve. But I'M STARVING. The meat is either tough or salty. Not Good. And the pasta is usually nasty. The only good is the drinks and the cookies. But I can't eat those all night because those are bad for me too. Why are all the good things bad for me?

Then we go to dorms.

Some of us shower, some of us talk, and some of us sleep.

I talk and then go to sleep. I don't skip showers! Don't get the wrong idea. : (
I shower in the morning. So fresh and so clean clean.

I got nothing else to blog about so here's the part where I say goodbye.

Good Morning and Good Luck.

I'm totally boss. JK! LOL! But I still can't believe I forgot Ed Sullivan. Shudder. Speaking of which, it's now time for my multimedia thingummy. Time to go through my wealth of artistic vomit!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I swear, I'm going to have so many images stuck up in my brain after this, I'll start making up my own, just for variation. And Edgar's music's pretty loud. i mean, I hear every note and word clearly, which is probably not healthy. Whatevs. I hope I don't throw up again. That would be rather below average. Unlike everything else, which is going quite smoothly. I mean, I'm done with my mozart masterpiece of a perfecto trifecto story. It's actually rather brilliant, if you don't ask me. So ask yer mum, if and when she reads it.

Jamari also keeps as random to me as he is to all the people he doesn't talk to as much as Ramon. It's kind of cool. ITSSA ME! MARIO!!! Cool. And yes, spell check, THAT IS how you spell thingummy. Never correct me on that word. Now I'm just getting desperate for something to write.

GABBA GABBA HEY! GOO GOO G'JOOB!!! Thass really cool.

Today I was working hard on my article. I thought I was doing pretty well but it turned out I wasn't doing it completely right. It’s my first time writing an article and I wasn’t all sure I was doing it right. I was happy though to find that they liked Frank’s quote. He was my favorite person to interview because he had a lot to say. Even CC thought he was funny. I am happy that Christine helped me get more interviews. I am still not finish but I think I’ll finish on time hopefully.

Now I am worried about the multimedia piece. I really don’t have pictures or video of anyone’s face. So I wonder what I am going to do. I am still confused about the multimedia but hopefully I’ll understand when I get to try it out.

Besides this being stressful I had fun. I had an interesting conversation with my friend while CC added to what my friend was telling me. We all laughed. It was pretty funny. I have nothing to say right now because nothing has happen exciting.

Yesterday I aint really do too much except work on my story all day. I finished both of my stories but then i had to go through a whole bunch of different edits. I found out that my story could only be 500 words max but mine was more like 800 words or more. SO then I had to figure out a way to shrink it down. This was really giving me a headache because I had to sit here hour after hour thinking of different ways to shorten my sentences. I had to cut words out and it seemed like the more words cut the more words I had to add. So then I asked like 3 or 4 different to help with my story. Then Kory help me trim it down to 622. I felt that was as much as i can do because if I took any more words out or deleted any quotes then it would take away the feeling I had for my story. I guess sometime in the journalism that's what happens. I don't mind that but when I write a lot it's always better then a little bit because you can never have to much information, you just can't afford not to have enough. Hopefully today will be better then yesterday.

I really don't have anything to write about this early in the morning. I am not functional in the morning and my best work during the afternoon or late at night. I don't think having to write a blog this early in the morning is effective because people just do it to get it done.

I also think it is unnecessary to block all the sites such as facebook, myspace, youtube, etc., during lunch because that time is our relaxing time and we should be free to do whatever we want. I missed many important message on facebook in regards to cheap textbooks sold by upperclassmen. I have lost a difference of $300, because I now have to buy the books online.

I HOPE YOU ARE HAPPY BAMMA (crude stab at sarcasm)

Have a nice day!

Alright so yesterday was another one of those stressful days. Yesterday I had to put the finishing touches on my final draft, and I did but then it was edited and I still have to change some things. Then the most lifting moment happened, my editor gave me my paper and told me some minor mistakes and he actually said "you do those changes and your done." I was uplifted and happy to know that I just had to do some changes and I was done, but I bet it's going to be difficult. The smallest things can take up the biggest time.

Also, yesterday in Bamma was a day where I typed a lot, I felt that I was typing away to get my job done. It was so much typing, my wrists were cramping up and I felt like giving up, but for some reason just finishing the paper makes me feel good and accomplished. After this it was the usual, go to lunch come back up and by-pass myspace, google people up it was fun.

After my fun, the Bamma class went to get an insight on what we will do for our multimedia piece. I'm very excited about that because I'm going to make it my own, first person. It's another stressful project to worry about but I'm pretty sure that this one, will flow by seamlessly.

This morning was your same Bamma morning as always. Get the wake up knock, and get back in the bed and sleep for 20 to 30 mins. Everyday i get more and more sleepy, but its not like I am a grumpy person. I am a happy person most of the time so you will rarely see me complaining too much about my lack of rest. So today is the deadline for our final story. Guess what? I am done. Yes, I am all finished. It pays off to just get things done ahead of time and just get the work done, rather than just waiting until your told to begin it. I have learned a lot of things being in this program, and will continue to use them in my everyday life after it is over. I hope today is a cool day. Well, since I am complete I believe I have it easy, Until we start working on our multimedia pieces later on today.

Yesterday was a really funny day.

I realized how "special" our group is. Sometimes we just stand somewhere, and then after five minutes, people are like, "why are we standing here?" and then we're all like "oh!" and then we start walking again.

In the morning we got up LATE which was nice, and then we all ate breakfast. Breakfast was funny cause we were sharing "stories" and we all huddled together. After, we got went to the computer lab picked up our sandwiches and then took the M downtown to the Juneteenth celebration!

We were told it was celebrating African American culture. Which was NOT true. We get there, and there's only like half a block worth of stands. EVERYTHING was just a huge rip off! This one dude wanted to sell me some Obama pin....for $5! I had about $6, but using my bargaining skills I lied and said I only had $2, but the dude would not change the price. So I just walked away. Joel ended up buying the pin and giving it to me, I felt really bad, cause I didn't want them to scam him $5 =(

But we ended up leaving after maybe 45 minutes. We went to the beach. The library or a park would've been nicer, but oh well. I really hate sand. We took the N to the beach. We got there and there was a LOT of sand, which really sucked. Everyone got in and played, but I just sat in the really hot sand with Dolissa.

Finally we left and then we were in the dorms. Joel left his key in his room while Oscar was in the bathroom, so he asked Oscar for his key, but then he ended up locking it inside too. Oscar was FURIOUS he said he was going to kill Joel.

But that night we STRAIGHTENED Oscar and Joel's hair! Oscar looked SOOO different! =P He really liked it. He took a picture and sent it to his girlfriend and his family. Joel's hair wasn't too different, since his is already straight. We gelled it back, making him look like a bad boy. HAHAHAHA!

After we watched the movie Born Into Brothels which really began to make me cry! They were trying to get these kids who were born in brothels an education and get them out of those bad neighborhoods. Even though all of them went to school, like 8 out of 10 if them went back, it was sad.

The movie was so coincidental to what we were doing here at BAMMA. They were taking pictures, we were, they went to the beach, we just came from the beach, some dude was walking like Jamari, some girl was dancing like me....

It was a great day =)

Yesterday we went to the beach and and i messed up my shoes. I had just bought them before i came and now i have to go buy me some more because i don't like the way they look now. The sand was very hot and the wind was blowing at a steady paste. After we left from over there we went back to the dorms to wash our clothes.

Shortly after washing clothes we went to the lounge to watch a movie called Born into Brothels. It was really a good movie because it described how people in the red light district in India live their lives. It was really sad because all the parents were either prostitutes or criminals. A lady from America had come to India and got attached to the kids living there. she taught a small group of kids how to take pictures and what a real good picture looks like. The way that these kids live their lives was very upsetting to me. They live filthy and appreciated living in the type of environment that was unhealthy and unclean.

No way in the world would i ever want to live that way but these people enjoyed every minute. It was very surprising to see how the mothers treated their young daughters. They cussed at them and called every name in the book. They did that so much that the young girls didn't even trip when their mothers told them they want them to join the line. All these young kids want is an education and to live better lives but because they're in the predicament that their in "hope" is not even a factor. Most of them believe that the only chance they have of making something out of themselves is by stealing and prostituting. That's very sad because they have an urge for something that they desperately need but can not have and that's an education. They have no way out and have no chances of getting into a descent boarding school because all of the schools would not except them because of where they come from and the background of their parents.

I'm glad i was able to watch a movie like this because this was an inspiration to my spirit and it allowed to appreciate what i have now and to strive even harder for the things i want out of life. I shouldn't take life for granted because it's always someone in worse living situations then I, no matter what. It seem like some people in America are spoiled rotten, and still want more but they don't see that it's people in other countries suffering tremendously and need help real badly.

This is why I take my education so seriously because without that it's hard to become the person you truly desire to be in life. I want to get an education so that way when I have my son or daughter they won't have to suffer and I'll be able to teach them right from wrong and give them the tools they need to survive and live a happy life.

Waz up wit it maien!?!?! so letz c wat I did yesterday? We did lots of things! Yesterday we went to the Juneteenth festival by city hall. its was tight kuz i got to eat sum bbq!!! Ppl say that it was hella expensive! but it was worth it! being a wannabe chef you know if it is kinda high then, it might be a little expensive! Dat was kinda cheap! Kuz i member i dat i 1nce spent like 5o bucks 4 2 ppl! That was really not worth it kuz it didnt really turn out to sumthing good ! Ya feel me!!! It was like not kool! but ya I dont really know y but I guess I spend money fast like dat! Its like is it worth more to have sum new experience or to buy sum clothes!??! which 1 do I go with?

We went to beach! It was tight! I wanted to go hella deep and ride a wave sort of like thiz 1 girl was doing kuz it seemed hella fun! U know wat im going to come back to SF, it was hella fun! It is hella different from I expected to be! Pluz the freaking beach iz like not dat far from here! and it iz like a tight hang out spot though it would be nice to go to Miami!!!! it kinda seems like it would be better out there too!

Lets see where shall I begin? Lets start with the Juneteenth celebration. It was not what we expected it to be but still it was alright for the hype and the stands people who were selling shades, pins, Obama shirts. To come to think of it, it was quite an adventure, free ice cream and I took pictures with DR. Pepper yessS, and I got to drink it at the end.(It was nasty)

But then I see that Safeway was doing there thing and celebrating the Juneteenth celebration by giving away free drinks and food, it was inspirational. That all went down yesterday. The day before I went out to my neighborhood to take pictures and audio for the multimedia piece I have to do. That was exhilarating I went back to my house to take pictures, T went through the "bad" of the neighborhood, but it was all good we had LAWSON, and Christine.

I talked to some people but it was just shady stuff about the community. Suddenly we get struck with dehydration from the roaring heat, it was bad. It was super hot. But then it went away with some ice cold chilly water. YaYa got scared at one point form these men who were literally screaming to get them out of their building, it was freaky but it turned out to be cool.

Memorable experience: Taking pictures that I saw through my eyes everyday walking down the Tenderloin.

-It was a fun filled Friday and Saturday!

So today was another normal waking up day. I woke up tired and hungry. I was excited to find out what Juneteenth is. We all left and got to the celebration in City Hall. All that we can see and think about was BBQ. Yum! Delicious REAL food. We were excited to see good food being sold even though we had our subway sandwiches. I believe everyone was willing to spend a lot of money for a good non-cafeteria food plate. CC and I were excited as soon as we saw all the *bling*bling* jewelry. We were hoping also to get interviews.

So as soon as they said we could leave we ran to a booth with jewelry. While we were seeing jewelry we found someone to interview. We also found a very interesting activist who had a lot to say. He was from the Green party. After that we came back for lunch to discover that Subway was not good. We also found out we had to leave. CC, Justin and I were surprised. I hadn’t been able to interview a lot of people or buy anything. I was enjoying being there. They gave us ten minutes to get what we wanted. When we came back they all were not ready to leave. I guess they rushed us for nothing.

Then we went on the longest MUNI ride to Ocean Beach. I was tired by the time I got there. I did wish though that they had told us about going to the beach because we were unprepared. But at the end I had fun just standing in the water staying away from Ramon. He wanted to throw someone in the water. Looking at the ocean made me think a lot about everything.

The movie we saw was amazing. We all loved it because we were in suspense of what would happen next. It was a fun day.

HEYYY EVERYBODY!

Yesterday was a very relaxing weekend. The cool thing was, we got to wake up an hour late. After breakfast, we went to go blog and all of us was looking forward to go to Juneteenth for the African American celebration. Personally, I thought City Hall would be full of people and that they would educate us on the African American history. However, when we got there, there was no one there! HAHAHAH I brought a bracelet so IT WAS ALL GOOD.

Later during the day we went to the beach.

Other than the scary guy with two nipple rings tanning near us, the beach was chill. The beach was nice since THE DAY WAS HELLA HOT! The sad part was when I got gum stuck on my flats and I used beach water to wash it off.. It was pretty pathetic I must say..... Oh well! After the amazing beach, we went back home and did our laundry. Dinner was good too....It was actually edible :]

OMG GUESS WHAT ? The girls then did makeovers for Joel and Oscar. It was pretty sexy btw. Oscar got straight hair which made him look extremely sexyyy and Joel got his hair pushed back with gel and he looked hella older and sophisticated.

YAYY!

Degrassi: The Next Generation.

Is probably the best show ever invented. Why? Because I said it is.

Just Kidding.

It really is a good show though. If you never heard pf the show, it's probably because it's Canadian. But if you have digital cable, you probably can find it. If not, you can watch it online. You got love new age technology you can connect with people all over the world, even CANADA!

I love Jonathan Taylor Thomas. He's beautiful in the face. il est beau et tres tres tres jolie!

He has nothing to do with the show.

;)

But back to the show, D:TNG (Degrassi: The Next Generation) is the perfect show for teenagers. The characters deal with issues that teens/adults deal with in real life. If you watch the show you'd see that they go through a lot of crazy things. It's anticipating and very interesting. I love it. And now as the cast is getting older in real life, on the show they do more risky things. They are promiscuous people. But I still love it, but not the whole promiscuity thing.

D:TNG is awesome and I love everything about it, except the promiscuity, and if there are any teenagers out there who have no lives, I have advice: Watch DEGRASSI!

Seriously, watch it. It's the best thing ever invented.

I was not always emo, i used to wear some bright colors. But everything was still really gloomy, the colors i wore were never really expressing how i felt. Almost like layers and layers of masks that did not help my problems go away. There was no escaping my life not even for a second. My parents would argue, a lot, my brothers picked on me because i was dark skinned and because i got all the attention for being the youngest. With time i became a shell, hiding behind walls of lies and isolation. no one understood me, so i did not try to understand anyone. like a routine i would wake up go to school, listen and learn, talk with the most gloomy kids, come home and do m homework, then play video games for the rest of the night until it was time to go to sleep, over and over again, life never moved.

My parents split up when i was about 7 years old, the only memory i have is when my dad was hugging me and my brothers after my mom went to court and was able to keep us. I thought i would never see my dad, i wanted him to make my stepdad go away. Miguel was his name, i hated him and still do. Any simple mistake and my brothers and i would get punished. Like a parasite this life was eating my soul, my mind and my spirit. Very weird like my eyes stopped bleeding, when everyone was dead asleep. I couldn't cry anymore, i felt dead inside. Now just waiting until it was my time to go away, hating the world i fell asleep, ignoring my pain i awoke. It was not until my freshmen year in high school did i realize that the only time i felt safe was when listening to music, knowing people knew where i was, i wasn't totally lost in hatred for all those that were wrong and unaware.

I started off by listening to bands like, Yellowcard, Blink 182, and Sum 41. Then i realized i liked more metal music like, Marilyn Manson, Slipknot, Bullet For My Valentine, Korn, From First To Last, Escape The Fate, and The Birthday Massacre. I spend so much time on my computer at home searching for rock music that makes ant to bang my head. Loving the sound of screaming guitars as the drums sound like their going to break apart from the beating, while the powerfully truthfull lyrics that have a meaning, and aren't about love, breaking up, holering at a girl who has thick thighs, a big chest, or making love. These lyrics are about understanding people like me.

Little by my mom started to notice a change in me. I am not the boy she gave birth to anymore, i am different i stopped wearing bright clothes, and spent all my time in my room just sitting in the dark. No one could hurt or make me smile. I didn't care anymore i had a life i never wanted, so many times did i hold a blade t to my wrist. i could never go through with it. I knew there was something here waiting for me to find, someone that could love me unconditionally. I saw her for the first time on the bus, i found Jennifer. The most important person in my life, being able to understand me so well, because she had gone through almost everything i had. I love her, she makes all the sadness go away...

Yesterday was a really horrible day which turned out better by the end. Topped by really good news this morning.

I have a lot of information for my article, a student and her parents, teachers opinions, stuff I know from volunteering in an Immersed class. The only thing I didn't have was an official from SFUSD backing up the stuff I was talking about. I researched and researched, emailed, and called. Nothing =(

A found a lady from SFUSD who was supposed to answer my questions, but she called back saying my questions were too specific, and said there might not be that many people to talk to because everyone is out because of the summer. She referred me to some other person. I called them up, but the lady who spoke with me seemed to kinda give me the cold shoulder, I left my number, hung up, and began to cry.

I was really worried I had stuck dead end began to freak out. Mary Ann Hogan came over and helped me. She helped me structure my story, made me realize I had a lot of stuff to write about, and to be persistent and call that lady who gave me the cold shoulder. I wrote most of my article which was about a WHOLE page! =)

After regaining my confidence by piecing everything together, I called up the lady again and she gave me her email to send the questions to. She still sounded like she was giving me the cold shoulder, but I emailed the questions. Half an hour later she calls back saying that most of the questions are on an online document. Which was NOT true, because there was only like 2 questions that document could answer, and I straight up told her that and she was like, okay, we'll send you back your questions later.

This morning they DID send back the questions, I read through some of them, and I got some really good info =)

After working on our articles till around 5:45, we got on the bus to go to Orgasmica pizza. I didn't think their pizza was that good, it still tasted like dorm food pizza. Oh well, I got to see Maahum, a Bamma Alum who went to my middle school. I also met this dude who came from Brown University, my favorite east coast university! Joel fell asleep and then threw up when we got to the dorms =/

Yuck.

Almost everyone knows who Ellen Page is, she played Juno. As a matter of fact she played it so well that she almost won an Academy Award... which is one of my dreams.

But Ellen Page is the like... the best. If we went to school together, I'd be her best friend. And if she didn't like me, I'd stalk her. No, I wouldn't. Yes, I would. But seriously, I like her. I like her movies, her humor and her style. She seems fun in real life.

Now the "shoes" part. I was looking for pictures for her to make a photoshop banner for a friend of mine.
Then I came across some pictures of her from the MTV Movie Awards 2008, and she had on these shoes that were the nicest shoes I've ever seen. They were beautiful. And when school starts this year, those are what I'll be wearing. I guess she advertised them well. Though I don't know if she intended to, but if she did, she did a good job.

It was a shoe with a white base, plaid stripes and a mint green swoosh. The had a black bottom and black shoe strings. Tres jolie! C'est vrai mon copain et ma copine. Oui! Ellen Page is a boss. Now, to Ellen Page's movies. She's a great actress, like really great. I wonder how she does it so well, my observation are clicking. I don't see how, but she does it well. Comprehend?

I've never seen the whole thing, but she's in this movie called "Hard Candy" ... that's some crazy stuff.
I won't spoil the movie for you, but basically an her and this guy meet, they know each other from a chat room, and things don't turn out they way you though it might. In shorter words: It's a great film that you need to see. I want her to be in one of my movies too.

Good Morning And Good Luck.

Today is another humid day here in the City. Before I expound on the fascinating things that happened this morning, I would like to talk about yesterday afternoon. As a BAMMA reunion, the leaders decided that we would have dinner at Pizza Orgasmica, a pizza place on Clement Street. Getting to there from SF State, however, was a heated affair (literally). All of BAMMA was wearing back that day in honor of Oscar Day, a day created by Aaron to make Oscar, a person in our class, feel special. That day was really hot so we were all sweating in lack shirts, waiting for the bus. On the bus, there was no air conditioning, making it almost unbearable. The worst part was when a guy with a tank top came in. I swear that he has never heard of deodorant.

Pizza Orgasmica wasn’t that great. I mean the name of the place was interesting, but I don’t think the pizza was a standout. I had a lot of fun that day, especially singing songs with Brenda. One thing that sucked was the Joel overheated or got sick or something. Monica and I were really concerned for him, but by today, he seems better.

Okay, time for today’s thrilling story! Since I wake up pretty early, I am the first one in the shower room. I usually don’t bring my key because I leave a doorstop holding the door open. Today, however, Ramon, my roommate, kicked the doorstop out as he was going to the shower. He always has a key on him, but today he didn’t bring it. We had to wait for a really long time before a front desk person could come and open it.

Today was a super hot day in the computer lab. Basically it was Oscar day, which meant we all wore black. It was a dumb day to wear black because it was hot. So yesterday we were rushing to finish on time. I was worried because I didn’t have many opinions on my story. So I was basically focused on putting all the information I had. It was bad to have to do writing an assignment in the computer lab because it was hot. Even the fans didn’t cool us down. Luckily we have staff that care about us. Mary Anne was kind enough to bring us refreshments that were cold. I would have preferred icy cold but it was a hot day and anything cold was good. Also Jesse brought us ice cream. It started melting fast. We all really appreciated the gesture.

The rest of that time I spent on the computer just hanging out talking to my friend while she send me some pictures of Friday the 13 the last day of school. It was fun because we had the funniest flashbacks on what happened that day. I was also just looking around for more election information.

At the end of the day we went to Pizza Orgasmica. We were all excited to not eat cafeteria food again. The bad part was we had to stand in a bus stop facing the sun while we all were wearing black. Finally once we got off the bus we walked. I was excited because one of my friends, Rosana, who came to BAMMA last year, said she was coming. So once we got there it was amazing to see their Morocco style. The music of course did not go with the theme of the place. It turned out Rosana didn’t come which was sad for me because on the last day of school I did not get to say good bye to her. So we all talked and I saw Aaron who had been in my peer resources class in ISA. Edgar and I told him on how the school has changed. The pizza wasn’t like the greatest in the world. After a while Justin and I got bored and we started singing of key. It was so much fun. After we finish our pizza and left we all sang in the bus stop on top of our lungs. I had too much soda so I was bothering my friend over the phone. She was laughing because I started singing.

HELLLOOO BLOG!!

So basically, yesterday was a rough day because I spent my whole day working on my story. However, later that day we went to PIZZA ORGASMICA!

THE BAMMA family took the sweaty bus to go the dinner. OHHH MY GOD LOL the bus was full of people and everyone on the bus was suffocated by body oder and was absorbed with sweat. It seemed like everyone was trying to get on the bus instead of getting off at stops. The bus ride took about 20 minutes so it was all good.

After we got off the stop, we walked to the pizza place. The pizza place was very different from regular pizza places. I felt like I was like in India or something because we had to sit on pillows to eat. The decoration of the pizza place felt like the Renaissance era. The pizza was cool but the cheese and top kept on slipping off......

Yesterday was good over all cause we got to stay an hour late and, we GOT TO WAKE UP AN HOUR EARLIER!! YAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY! :]

Oh, lord. I am weak as hell right now. I stayed up all night throwing up, and I had a headache all day before that. Even now, at the computer, I'm trying to put down a whole bottle of alka seltzer. I'm just in a terrible state right now. Terrible. It feels like I'm coming off of something, just cold turkey. Strung out on bad pizza. It doesn't help that the weather is unbearably hot. I can't even stand being alive right now. I really want to go to sleep, just forget anything ever happened. last night was one of the worst nights I've ever had, and my stomach's still sore from vomiting my victuals. I hope the captain gives me a break today. I really can't stand anything right now. I don't think I'll be able to eat lunch. Can't think straight. I so, so need to finish that story, what with the entire thing changing overnight. It's cool that I got those interviews yesterday, but anything related to that day makes me wanna hurl. I am so over this. I want it to stop, just give me a break. I need it so bad.

Yesterday we went to a pizza place called Pizza Orgasmica . I had never been to this particular place before nor have i been i the area. Well, any way we went there to meet up with some of the old school BAMMA people. They all seem to be pretty nice. We talked about what school we went to and that was about it. I took a few pictures but i didn't take that many. After we ate pizza we left and caught the 28 back to San Francisco State. We got back to our dorms at like nine something. When I got in my dorm I just laid down and talked on the phone. After I got off the phone I went straight to sleep because I was tired from sitting inside the classroom all day. It was extremely hot so I left the window open. We didn't have to wake up until 7:00 so I got every little second of sleep I possibly could. Overall, it was a really good day. I had some fun and got me a lot of rest!

Yesterday as so freakin h0t! It felt like I was marinating in the oven all day. I mean all day l0ng 4realz. Besides the heat the day was cool. Pizza Orgasmica as pretty cool, but I don't think I will be having pizza any time soon. It was great that we g0t to sleep in an extra hour today, I totally needed it. We have been working hard for long hours everyday trying to get these stories done and gather information and stuff. But all in all everything is falling in place. I am so excited about the newspaper and all of the other activities and stuff we're suppose to be involved in. Today is Junteeth day. We are going to a celebration at the civic center plaza, so I think it will be fun.. at least I hope it will be. But I will see. It s like so hot in this room right now. This San Francisco weather is something else. Well, I completed my news story. Its pretty cool. We have one more week then we are done! yay! Not that I don't enjoy it , I just wish the days go by quicker so everything can be complete, all our work will pay off. And plus I cant wait because my bday is 4 days after we get back. So I will definitely be looking forward to that.

So like 2 or 3 days ago I was too busy to blog so here's what happened...

In the morning we all came into the computer lab and worked on our articles. It was a crazy day because I had scheduled two interviews, that were almost back to back!

I went to the French private school, and recorded their version of "Beauty and the Beast" on stage on audio and CC took pictures for me. After we went backstage and interviewed people. we interviewed two girls, but we didn't really get anywhere. Then we interviewed like 3 guys and they were a better source of information.

We ran back, and then 30 minutes later left with La Toya and Jamari to interview Sophia, the main character in my story. We go there, but only her mother was there, after a little while her other mother came, and we sat them down to interview them. After a while there was NO space on the recorder, so I used paper and pencil, and my personal recorder. We got to interview Sophia later as well, she talked to us in Spanish.

We ate Popeye's for dinner. Then we went back to the computer lab to work on our stories till like 9.

Sitting and writing…. One of the most important things about BAMMA! But when you really don’t have any subjects to write about then it is one of the most boringest things to do! Just writing about blank is like walking in the woods at night with no light. How is it possible to walk somewhere…go some where with out any light.

But I have accomplished somethings… I think! I keep on saying to my self that if and when I get an undocumented student to write about then everything will just flow back to my head. If only I could get someone to interview fast with audio and video. I found some people but either I need more information from them or they don’t fit the story that I’m trying to write about. Some way or another I’m going find to find my way of writhing what I want to write about.

The main things that I’m trying to focus my paper in is on immigration and youth…. There is this one saying that immigrants try harder in school to succeed in school.

Aaron wanted someone to blog about the incompetent people that cannot protect our newspapers from being poached. T

oday is already the fifth day since the newspapers started disappearing. Aaron believes that the people who live in the Science building (where the newspapers are dropped off at) are taking them to read. What freeloaders! Come on! How low can you stoop, stealing from students? They are college aged or some even older. That is disgraceful.

The best way would be if the front desk attendant would courteously DO THEIR JOB and stop people from taking them. If they did not want to be confrontational, they can take it and hide it behind their desk, in accordance to Aaron’s REQUEST! When the complaint was brought up on the first day, they said they would try to do better and are working on it. Aaron believed them and wanted for the situation to improve. The same thing happened on the second day. By the fifth day, Aaron lost confidence about their ability to protect newspapers, therefore calling the people in charge.

Some more creative ideas for protecting the newspapers are such:

1- Draw intricate pentagrams with Latin/Egyptian side runes saying that if anyone is stealing the newspapers, they will be cursed with impotence for the rest of their life.

2- Place watchdogs around the newspapers and train them to bite those who are not supposed to touch them. The teeth of the dogs will be coated with rattlesnake poison while the dogs are immune.

3.Wrap the newspapers with a plastic wrap and coat with hydrochloric acid or cyanide.

Yesterday was a really good day for me. I manage to get a lot done on my story and now I only have a few things left to do. Around like 3:30 I left with Monica to help her out. I took pictures for her and she did a really good job interviewing the young girl and her parents.

After we left from there we went to get some chicken. It was really good! I had been waiting all these days to taste good old chicken because I was missing out on that. The cafeteria food was not cutting it for me it was just making my stomach hurt real bad.

After that we caught the bus back to the school. When we got back to the classroom I instantly started to work on my story because I knew that I needed to rearrange some things in order to make my story flow the way that I wanted to. We all agreed to stay working until 9:00 and used our time wisely to get work done. The advisers help us out a lot all day and I appreciated the help that I got. Soon after it was time to go to the dorms. When I got up to my room I just stayed in my room and begin to write some poetry to keep my mind flowing and going. The day was complete by the time I laid down because I was sleepy and tired from working hard all day. It felt real good doing the work that I did.

HEYYYY! So basically, yesterday was the day when I got to go out to Cahill's Judo Academy to interview future athletes training for the 2012 Olympics. When our multimedia crew went to the Academy, I felt very cool and professional because we looked like real journalists working on a story. Once we got there, the judo facility smelled liked sweat and feet; obviously, it did not smell pretty at all. The room was stuffy and hot, and I felt like I was in the oven.

After stepping into the judo place, the coach welcomed us warmly, and I began my interview with Jimmy Kim, a 19 year old Judo athlete who was originally going to participate in the 2008 Olympics, but couldn't because he twisted his knee in 2005. Also, to my surprise, Jimmy Kim attended the high school that is really close to my high school. Jimmy Kim also knows few people that I know from his high school. What a small world!

I also interviewed Corwin Learned, a 17 year old boy who isn't able to make the 2008 Olympics because he's underweight. Corwin has been doing judo for 11 years and has won senior nationals, six championships. Corwin plans on training for San Jose State University and plans on moving to Japan six months after high school.

The two judo athletes that I interviewed are working really hard to accomplish their dreams on winning the Olympics in 2012!!!

Wow it’s so early in the morning! I bet when I get home I am going to sleep like there is no tomorrow. I am pretty stressed out at this point. This project isn’t going as good as I thought it would. Every morning I wake up as usual but now I just wake up more and more tired. My appetite is different now. I am just wasting food because I am hungry and somehow my hunger goes away.

Yesterday’s food special was not tasty in the morning. Powder eggs are getting annoying because they serve it everyday! They had weird looking sausages. The waffles were really hard. Well in total breakfast wasn’t my favorite meal of the day. We’ve been on weird schedule and yesterday’s blog didn’t exactly take me five minutes.

My story up to now isn’t doing all that great. Stephanie Young an editor at Rock the Vote told me to call at 3:00 EST, which was at 12pm here. I did call her and she told me she would call me at four or five western time. So from there I went to lunch and for the first time I found something I like to eat at Café Rosso. So I did another interview with someone else at four forty-five. Stephanie never called and I tried calling her but there was no answer.

Later on I got to help Goldie with her story. I personally was very excited because I wanted to see what Judo was. I was more than happy to go out and take pictures and video. So we all left in a team of five people, two adults and three BAMMA students. We came back at nine. It was a hot day and that Judo studio was pretty musty with sweat. At the end we all had fun!

Yesterday 06/19/08 i accompanied Goldie to her first desperately awaited interview. She had interviews set up with Judo training Olympians : Greg, Jimmy, Corwin, and Jordan. It is a fascinating sport, its very tough and hard-hitting. It's very competitive and you have to balance it out with your school/life,.. responsibility. The place where they train is called Cahills Judo Academy, located in San Bruno. It is very well known and has got many people to the trials of the Olympics.

The great experience that I had was when I was hustling from one corner to the next to capture those Kodak moments. I felt like a professional photographer but I wasn't...I can dream. I took action shots and close up shots and hail mary shots it was quite an adventure. I also admired the hard work that those Judo people put into becoming Olympians.

Now that I pretty much gathered up my information I now feel a lot better I feel that I can reach the deadline by today 06/20/08. Oh!! to add on to my trip with Goldie yesterday was actually the day where I felt journalism and photography were for me, I loved it. Judo is a hard work do you think you got what it takes try it and find out because it'll be full with enthralling, heart pumping fighting, and work!

Here comes the rush. Today's the ever-loving deadline, 2 o'clock. It's pissing me the heck off that I can't finish my story until I finish that interview, which is at two. I hope the editors and whatnot don't give me thirty lashes for being a couple hours late. I mean, it's only due to the designer NEXT TUESDAY. I mean, I just heard somebody say something about my story not having those interviews included until the second draft. That's really stupid, in my humble opinion. I can get those interviews at 2, then come right back and write the stuff up, and have a complete, finished product. It's really not that complicated. Yes, I understand the whole DEADLINE concept. I GET that I need to have it in by or before 2. But this is crucial to my story. It's my lede, my third paragraph, and the additional information I need to wrap up the article, and these interviews are scheduled for the EXACT deadline.

So yeah, I'm pretty much stressed out of my mind, because at the same time, there's nothing I have that I can add to my story, and I need to fake it for 6-odd hours.

Savor the flavor.

I don't drink much soda, but when I do drink soda, I only drink Jones' Berry Lemonade.
I used to love Sprite Remix, regular Sprite, and Pepsi, but I gave the amateur competition up. Berry Lemonade is the best tasting thing you can ever taste with your face and with the taste buds within your face, in your mouth on your tongue which is commonly used organ. I love it a lot and I think I'm going to base a short film off the flavor's name.

I shall call it: Berry Lemonade. It won't be about soda though. It'll probably be about teenagers in high school. You know it seems what I title my movies, it's usually insignificant to what my movie is about. Like my movies isn't going to be about berry lemonade, but a character might make berry lemonade, but it's not necessarily soda. It's probably literally lemonade... with berries mixed in it.

The soda itself is in a beer bottle with a wrapper that's black with "JONES" written in white at the top. Each time I buy the soda, the wrapper always has a different picture, but the soda flavor and color is always the same. And I don't know why the picture was is always different, but it is. It's fun to look at too, they are always different. And every time I look forward to buying a soda, I always look forward to what the picture will be. And the last thing I look forward, besides the picture and flavor, is to what the cap will say.

All the memories of what my caps said are vague. But all of them were funny or inspirational. Jones is the best soda I ever bought.

What I do yesterday? Hmmm! Well mainly the things that stick out to me the most is when I went on to interview people about the story that I am supposed to write about! I really don’t know how I even pulled out to interview people! I don’t recall the steps that I took to interview I just did!

Oh yah! Yesterday I had a first experience! LOL!

I tried out Sushi, which was really cool! Well technically it is not Sushi… the seafood was not raped around with anything at all it was just the meat by its self. The whole thought of eating raw food was just in my mind and in my stomach! It was a tight experience because it was my fist time eating something raw that was not marinated or cooked in anyway. I also kinda learned how to eat with chopsticks. Eating with chopstick was an over whelming experience because I felt like a jackass for not knowing ho to eat with chopsticks. At first I kinda did get how to work the chopsticks but then later on I kinda lost everything when I set the chopsticks down and then pick them up again.

Seeing this raw slices of fish at the begging was kind of a moment of thought, What did I get myself into!?!?!”

I tend to just jump on things, get overwhelmed and do an okay job…or quite entirely! Being a rookie at eating Sushi… I thought that the wasabi was lik the Asian version of guacamole. Luckily I did not jump at it! Thank got I didn’t! Because just a little taste of that green stuff had me trippin'! That green stuff was in like in between something spicy and something real nasty! I mean even Vitter salad taste better! I seriously felt like slapping the s--t out of the person that invented wasabi. You know... like what were you thinking!

Hello reader, how was your day?

I haven't had my day yet, it's only 8:53 AM. I don't expect much, I just hope it's good.

You want to know what I think about all day? Movies. Motion Pictures. Film. I mainly think about independent films. And actors. The actors that I like and love, the ones that I want to have in my movies one day. Here are some: Michelle Rodriguez, Jonathan Taylor Thomas, Scarlett Johansson, James Franco, Chris Evans, Evan Rachel Wood, and Chase Crawford; those are just some. The people in the previous sentence are inspirations, that are help molding what I want to be in life. One day, or days, if I ever get to meet them I'll let them know that. The very first person I want to meet is Michelle Rodriguez. Why? Because she's the best! She started it all, really. It all started during Christmas break of 2005, I was watching the Lifetime network and I cam across a movie called "Girlfight". The title was vaguely familiar, so I I started watching the movie. I loved it. And the end, I pressed the information button on my remote and found out her name, it read "Michelle Rodriguez", I said to myself "Michelle Rodriguez? I've heard her name somewhere before." And then it all came to me, I was naming all of her movies out loud to myself, and I never realized how much I watched movies until I start thinking of all the movies I seen.

Slowly but surely I ended buying all of her movies, an being a member on her fan forum. I am a fan indeed.
My family and friends always ask me, "Why do you like her so much?", and I never know what to say. I like her because she's a good actress and she inspired my filming aspirations. I just told you that. I think it's hard to tell people that because even though they ask, I can see in their face that they truly don't care. But that's what I have her fan forum for. I know they care.

The directors I look up to are: Michael Bay, Lee Daniels, Catherine Hardwicke and Karyn
Kusama. Michael Bay directed "Transformers" and "The Island". Michael Bay is just greatness. As for the rest: Lee Daniels, Catherine Hardwicke, and Karyn Kusama are independent directors. I want to work in the independent field. Usually, independent directors get creative differences. Creative differences means that they can write their own stories and add or take away from it, and they can still be supported big budget companies. Like "Juno" or "Lords of Dogtown" But directors that work with big budgets, like Michael Bay, have to stick to the script and he usually directs what someone else writes. Their movies come in al different shapes and sizes and I admire all of them truly.

Currently I'm working on projects. I'm working on something called "Seventeen", which is a story that takes place in one week and these 5 seventeen-year-olds as well as some of their parents, are all affected by this "six degrees of separation" type thing. I'd give you spoilers but my story/screenplay is rough. And what I mean by rough is: it's barely written. I love movies and everything about them, from the music score, which is the music that occasionally plays during the film. And I love choosing the actors. I also love the whole process, "Lights! Camera! Action!... Cut!" The whole thing. I love it. Look forward to seeing "Seventeen".

Today or should I say yesterday was my birthday but it all started like usual. I woke up tired from sleeping in a harsh bed to receive an early phone call from my best friend Nicole. She had told me the night before that she would call me at the time she wakes up for school. So at six o’clock in the morning she called. I had forgotten that it was my birthday for a moment. Then my roomy CC said “Happy Birthday!” When I went on to the bathroom Goldie saw me and also said “Happy Birthday!”
The routine of everyday BAMMA still went on. From rehearsals for BAMMA idol to disgusting powder eggs.

Morning came as usual to me. There was nothing special I was still frustrated that all sources for elections had not many organizations for the youth. I was searching hard. My editor helped me find an organizations and I call and got an e-mail address of someone who could help me out. I was about to start the e-mail when in the distance I could hear a familiar song. “Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday…” I turn around to see most of the BAMMA staff with a cake walking in slowly. I was so surprise because no one has ever surprise me on my birthday. I have to say they did a great job on the surprising me. I blew out the candles and gave cake.

Later many people left on assignment. I joked around with Justin saying I felt so lonely on my birthday. Later on I was busy searching about McCain and Obama and heard my name. It turned out I was chosen to help Edgar out taking pictures, audio, and video. I was surprise at the moment. We went to the Tenderloin area and looked around. I was taking pictures of the people. One picture I took was of a line of homeless people waiting for help. I heard them screaming if I had a permit for that. I just ignored and in one of them came a short homeless lady asking for a permit. Ryan our leader for the day explain about the how in public there is no permit required unless we are taking private pictures. We also ate Vietnamese food. I was so happy to be eating perfectly salted food! Finally something delicious!

Finally when we got home we were walking to the girls side. I was behind all the girls and just hear a bunch of “Oh My Gosh!!” It turns out my mom and little sister had left me flowers on my dorm room door. I called to thank them and started crying when I heard my grandma had come today just to wish me a happy birthday! She sang “Las Mañanitas” for me, which is like a happy birthday song in Spanish. I also heard my sister singing ”Happy birthday to you, you live in a zoo you look like monkey and you smell like one too!””

Yesterday was a very LONG day. Basically, I spent like literally six hours trying to get some contact information on sources that are able to give me connection with athletes in training for the 2012 Olympics. After reading the newspaper in the morning, I began my mission/adventure on finding useful resources to get in contact with. YAYY..

At first, I had high hopes in which I thought that it would be extremely easy to get contact info on future athletes, however, the reality was totally opposite from what I thought. During the morning, I called the contact person that my editor gave me. And from there on, I tried researching other athletes online. Gosh, I felt like I was stalking people because I not only e-mailed organizations, but I also asked them to give me personal information of athletes, such as the athlete's numbers and e-mails. Oh well, I guess that's what being a journalist is... LOL!

While waiting for Kristin from the BASCO program to return my call, I did tons and tons of research by trying to hunt down athletes and coaches. I called many random training facilities from different areas and none of them returned my calls. I got telephone numbers from universities such as Berkeley and Stanford and the coach from Berkeley returned my e-mail but unfortunately said that he was out till next week... that was no help; and, the coach from Stanford didn't e-mail me back. In addition, I also did various other e-mails which I sent out e-mails to those people, but they didn't really respond or the sources were no use. Later doing the day, Kristin finally called me back. But, OHHH $@&%! The program that Kristin is involved in did not do any help to my story!

After feeling like none of the people from the contact list wanted to talk to me, I finally got a Judo facility in San Bruno and made an interview appointment for today to talk to Judo athletes training to be in the 2012 Olympics.!!! YAYY IM SOO EXCITED!!

YAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY :]

Yesterday was our interview/work on story day.

We woke up hella early like always, and then we ate a long breakfast like always, then we read the paper like always, then Mary Ann Hogan talked to us, then I got to work and sent like five billion emails trying to get an interview from any of these people.

I'm still having problems researching for my topic, there's an article on Wikipedia, but thats not really reliable...I found an article on the SFUSD site that talked about the first Chinese Immersion program in San Francisco, but not a lot of background on how the Spanish, and other language immersion classes began.

After a while of researching, calling and emailing, our editor Ryan took Ramon and myself to go out and interview people. I got to interview a lady from CCSF, and Ramon found a lady who was a full time student and mother on the CCSF campus and we ran to catch her and interview her.

After we went to this place on Mission St. for Ramon's interview, but that person wasn't there and we had to call for an appointment. We were a block away from this restaurant my family has gone to since I was like 2, and I asked Ryan if we could grab a quick snack. We ended up staying for about 15 minutes.

Ryan bought a small variety of raw fish, and I bought some cucumber, avocado and california roll. It was really fun because we were teaching Ramon how to use chopsticks and try the food Ryan and I bought. He seemed to like the rolls, and some of the fish.

We ran back and I called the Elementary school I volunteered at for contact info of a student. The parents called me back and said they would like to be interviewed. Which was the highlight of my day.

During dinner Goldie, Justin, Joel and I bonded and talked

If you readers haven't noticed, my titles reflect the song "The Twelve Days of Christmas". As another side note. yesterday was BRENDA'S BIRTHDAY!!!

Yesterday I didn't really get to do much..it was pretty boring. We got some more lessons from Mary Anne and began our articles. My articles is on the Chinatown Central Subway. I called people to set up interview and will be going to Chinatown today.... Not much to say. Getting information and making a B-COPY is hard..

OK..thats all for now... cant' think of anything to talk about

Yesterday I was stressing out to find sources for my article, I'm pretty sure I got a white hair and I broke out. Yes it sucks but the feeling of "I'm done" feels so good. I still have to write the article but I'm done finding my sources, one thing down various to go. So I headed down to the Tenderloin community to get started with interviews, audio, video and flicks. I went around and around and I ended up going to the weirdest places but the source hunting got done.

Then it's the job of getting all the resources down, and analyzing them if they are useful for me to use for my article. And everything else that exists into the article. For example, attribution, lede, quote, nut graf, flexibility, focus, source list, slug, By line, Budget line, statistics. It's difficult and I feel that I'm doing this for a grade and it just doesn't feel comfortable doing this,

I'm getting pressured to do a lot of things I really don't want to do, I'm stuck, where is the HELP!!ME!! button? Its different on a bigger level that I never expected. WOAH!

OK, so my next steps are to calm down and call one more source The Boys and Girls club and that's that! I feel mad for a reason because I feel like Im not going anywhere with this. It's "call this source and this one" I already have 5 sources I feel that it's good enough!! For now just having the rhythm of music and lyrics and art is what is, keeping me in the GAME!!!

In my mind i saw a building; a long line of couples waiting, supporters and protesters. Today, I was hoping to see a lot of couples waiting patiently in line to enter city hall and get married. There would be a long red carpet leading inside, while red velvet ropes and police officers would hold protesters back.

There were supporters waiting, ready to throw rice, flower pets and cheer with joy to show how happy they were for the newlyweds. The police officers were there, but there were no protesters. There was a lot of support from the community; there was even a couple giving free rides to newlyweds in their taxicab, seeing as they too were from the LGBT community. although there were many good things, there were not any bad thing to get away, thats good right? wrong. my group was suppose to cover the protesters opinions.

I was also able to record a lot of couples getting married and kiss their spouses. There was a lot of cool observations being made by the BAMMA groups, for example, many of the gay couples had one guy who was at least 15 years older than their partner. The couples liked to dress a like, some came without a suit or dress, and some people even got married outside of city hall.

Today we received our story topics and got straight to business. I was assigned to write a story on the McCullum Youth Court in Oakland. There was no room for games because we had people to call and people to interview. I made some calls to a few people who worked there and one lady told me that it was ok to come in and interview her about what the program is all about.

After that we went to city hall to do interviews, take pictures and record the things that people said. At first I wasn't to comfortable with interviewing gay people but I knew I had to have an open mind and in order to do what I had to do.

It was really crazy seeing all those people up there standing in line waiting to get married. I had no idea that it was going to be this many people desparately trying to get married. I was shock by the amount of people that showed up. When i was interviewing this one gay couple a lady came from behind me and threw bird seeds all over me. I got real upset but I just held my composure instead of going off and cussing her out. I had a really good time taking pictures because I felt like a real photographer for a moment.

After we left city hall we took group pictures then got on the Muni train back to San Francisco State. When we got back we had dinner then came back to the classroom to go to the workshop with Zoneil who talked about pop culture and how it relates to journalism. After the workshop we finally had a chance to go back to our dorms and sleep.

Waz up wit it!?!

Today was a weird day for me!!! It’s been between a fun and a sick day! At first my body and brain was like, “Should I throw up, or do my thing!?!”

So basically the most important thing that we did today was to document the things that were happening at the San Francisco City Hall, same-sex couples were getting married legally... finally!

To me, it seems really pointless for people get married, because later on they have to spend a ton on lawyers just to get single-dom back again. So my point of view is: why get married in the first place!?! But hey, if they want to mess up their lives by getting married when they can just be together and be happier, more power to them. I’m not saying that I wont get married “some-day” but its just that now-a-days people who get married just get un-married so fast. They may not even last into their honeymoon! It’s as if people are getting married only to protect their future investments.

But I had fun! I enjoyed taking pictures for the most part, like I said before it was kind of hard for me to take pictures at the beginning but then later on I said to my self, Screw it!” I’m going to do what I’m here to do and I’m going to try to have some fun with this. As soon as I got the camera I got the whole deal of how to take pictures and I tried to my hardest to take some effing great photos! Basically all I really wanted to do was take photos and do some audio so I could later on make a good presentation on what happened.

Adrenaline pumping and butterflies fluttering in my stomach, what else could I expect? Today I went to City Hall to multimedia on the controversial topic of same sex marriage. It was a journey packed with everything I didn’t expect, but it was also a learning experience. I felt very shy and reserved. I didn’t want to expose who I was but I knew I had to do my job. I was freaking out when it was my time to ask the questions, but luckily the people were surprisingly approachable and kind. I met different organizations that were there to wed people but it seems that the way they wanted things to go didn't go that way.

Then our group which was composed of me: Goldie, Monica, Ramon, Ryan, Eric split up into sections and were gathering information from the workers to Mayor Gavin Newsom!!! Which was quite a memorable experience for me, WOW!! Gavin Newsom, the first time I was ever that close to him. I learned that there are various strategies in the field of journalism like one of them is that you can sneak up behind another reporter and take information from them. It was like we were thrown out there into the journalism world with little knowledge of it, well for me in particular. It was a happy moment for the couples that got married there, plus the people who were outside that cheered them on. It was a moment in time where I saw peace and many smiles.

The story that I was assigned, now that I think of it is difficult but what isn’t in life? I was assigned the story of where I have to cover the positive aspects of my community, the Tenderloin community. My community has a bad reputation of being a place to avoid when tourists stop by, because of its negative stereotyping. It was placed into a category of “AVOID, DON’T GO HERE”!! And the task that is to grab, is to grasp the attention of the people in San Francisco and alter the views of the Tenderloin community to a good one, in every community exists a heart I just have to find it.
For now I’ll leave you to think what my next step will be, Edgar!

Today we were given our stories, and we did a little bit of contacting sources for our news stories. Mine is interesting. I look forward to visiting the students that are a part of the Oaktown Jazz Workshop in Oakland. I am curious about what brought them together there, and a little knowledge on the music and instruments.

It was a rather interesting day. It wasn’t how I imagined it to be to start off with, but is anything ever? To begin with, the ride on the MUNI for the first time was cool. City Hall was pretty live with all the same-sex marriage ceremonies. I wouldn’t actually say that I am for it, but it is their lives and people will do whatever brings them joy. In a sense I can say whatever makes people happy makes the world a better place to live in. It was something about the expressions on their faces when they exchanged their vows that made me think of my opinion and how I have always been against same-sex relationships, which I still am but I learned to.

I always thought it was so wrong, and I really didn’t believe that people could truly be in love with a person of their same gender. Being in the midst of marriage ceremonies changed my whole perspective in a couple of hours, I even found myself applauding and smiling while they were going on. Yet, I can never say that I am encouraging or standing with people who date and/or marry someone of the same sex. However, I have learned that not all people have my mind set, and everyone is different, totally different. I live in a world where all kinds of things are going on, and I cannot be the judge of anyone, because I don’t want to stand in the midst of the judgment of others.

Today was SUCH AN AMAZING AND EXCITING DAY!!!

I had so much fun! It was such a great experience since I got to do most of the multimedia jobs that professional journalists do as a regular job assignment. I’ve always dreamed on becoming a reporter and today my dream has finally came true. After lunch, we divided our BAMMA family into groups to begin our multimedia assignment on same-sex marriage in City Hall, San Francisco. My group included Monica, Edgar, Ramon, Eric, and Ryan, and our group assignment was to talk to the workers working on this special day.

When BAMMA arrived at City Hall, we saw about forty people standing in front of the entrance. Luckily, there were no protestors causing aggressive drama on this beautiful day. As we went inside the building, my first interview was from a SI student that donated her time to help organize this event. During my first interview, I realized that as a journalist, I have to come prepared with questions in order to get good information from people. After learning my first lesson, I interviewed a musician and the interview went more smoothly and less awkward because I took some thought on the questions that I needed to get from her.

The interview that stands out in my memory the most is when Monica and I interviewed SF mayor, Gavin Newsom! At first, Monica and I were very nervous but thank god because Ms. D wrote down the question for Monica to ask the mayor. While Monica was doing her job, I stood there nervously while trying to record the mayor’s answers.

Another memory from today that stands in my mind was when I got to witness same-sex couples getting married around a circle of people. Seeing them get married made me really happy because their faces expressed such joy because they've waited so long to get married. All in all, today I experienced three things for the first time. From my first day on being a student journalist, I first experienced taking a muni, witnessing same-sex couples celebrating their love and marriage, and, interviewing and taking videos of this historical day. YAYYY!

I was somewhat excited when I woke up this morning. I knew there was going to be a lot of walking involved, which isn’t too much fun. Everyone grabbed their press badges and fast passes and marched to our Journalism 101 class.

We got there, and learned more about leads (or ledes) and other important things our articles are supposed to have, did some final touches on the biographies we made for each other.

Then finally our editors gave us our assignment and everyone quickly got to work trying to get their sources. I’m still trying to think what the “focus” of my story is going to be. I’m deciding on centering on the Immersion program and what it is about, because many people have heard a little bit about it or not at all.

After tediously writing and pulling together a source list, I got a hold of about two people to interview tomorrow.

After lunch we jumped on the M and rode it till Civic Center. Ramon, Edgar, Goldie, and I were put into a group and rotated the multimedia around. We had the audio microphones and our cameras, and I think Edgar just took some quotes on his notebook. What I really liked about our group was that our chaperones were very attentive. They would tell us, “Hey look its Mayor Gavin Newsom!” and then my group would assemble and quickly remind ourselves of our roles, where to stand and so forth.

I got to interview the Mayor for like 2 minutes. There was another reporter there, and I kept on trying to ask questions, but she kept on asking hers and being a total.....ugh.... but anyway, she finally let me ask my questions. Dolissa saved me when I blanked out and gave me a question but what he said reminded me of an old saying "Hablar sin decir nada" (talking without saying anything) I asked a follow up question an once again he talked without saying anything.

We also got to interview a district supervisor and he wed his friends when we found him. The couple were two men, and they were very adorable. When they were saying their vows, I could see the sparkle of happiness in their eyes. It almost made me cry.

Do you think love is acceptable, no matter what form in comes in? I can tell you people who accept it, like the city of San Francisco. Mayor Gavin Newsom and supporters came out and encouraged the same-sex unions. The BAMMA crew and I went to City Hall in the Civic Center. We witnessed historic events, the official marriages of some same-sex couples.

I was proud to be apart of this event, which was a historic event. I was also proud to be a Californian and represent San Francisco and the great things they're doing for same-sex couples who came out. I’m proud of San Francisco because they respect the true meaning of love and the feelings of human beings. Personally, I respect all of this. "Congratulations" I said so many times, I even lost count.

And truthfully, I’m so for this that this is what my BAMMA article is going to be about. Same sex relationships are intriguing in so many ways. For one, in my article I want to profile a couple who are high school sweethearts, if not, college sweethearts. Why? Because it’s hard to find people who came out in high school, according to some statistics and films. People are timid towards their peers because they are afraid of rejection. I had made it my mission to find high school sweethearts. I even called my cousin, who is gay, to see if he had any friends, and he told me that high school sweethearts would be hard to find. So I decided to look for a young couple to profile that probably has been together since college. And during the ceremonies, I found a young couple that were married earlier this evening, Tyler and Spencer. I’m profiling them in my article, along with other interesting same sex marriage facts and quotes.

Today starts my second day at BAMMA. When I woke up I was really excited because we were going to document the historic second day for the LGBT community to legally marry in California. Before that, however, we had to work on our articles with our editors. I went with CC and Oscar to work with Kory, to find some sources for our assigned articles. My article was to be on the Central Subway stations that are to be built through Chinatown to Union Square. My main beef with the decision by the SFMTA is that in all the articles and media that were published, there was no coverage on the people that would be directly affected by the constructions of the subway. Would the construction hurt business? Would local residents have any benefits or be able to even use it? Who would shoulder the enormous costs (which are estimated to be in the billions, when it would be only less than two miles? I sent emails to various people such as the District 3 Supervisor as well as MUNI/SFMTA.

After lunch, we got ready to head out to San Francisco City Hall to witness and record the momentous event. We also got to showcase our multimedia skills with audio, video, and photography. I got to work with the camera and then with the video camera. Our group had the theme of protesters. One problem, was, that there were NO protesters. It seemed like everyone supported gay marriage. There were people playing instruments, throwing rice, and shouting congratulations to recently married couples. One of my favorites was when our group entered and saw a mob of reporters and media do a circle around a lesbian couple near the Grand Staircase. When we got there, we had to fight our way in to take some pictures. A subsequent interview later, the coupe was bewildered as to why they garnered so much attention. One of the ladies cleverly joked, “Maybe it was my dress?”

As with my first entry, I want to continue with friends, as they are the most important assets that one can attain. I had fun with Brenda, coining the phrase “Brenda rhymes with Splenda”. I got to talk with CC, especially with our fun conversations and teamwork for the fieldwork. We had even more fun during dinner, when we were laughing so much it felt like we were high on something. I hope I get to know these people even better.

Today I was more tired then ever. It seems like I’ve been here for days. All the work we have to do has taken a big toll on my energy. Today when I woke up I was more tired than rested. I even tried bouncing on the bed to try and make it soft. It was so hard. Then there was commotion but me and my roomy ignored it. Besides that in the morning the thing I looked forward to the most was the City Hall trip.

So in journalism 101 we learned more about journalism. We got our stories! Yeah?!?! I got the story on elections which isn’t hard to get opinions its just hard because certain people are wanted. Like I could interview people walking but somehow they want organizations. They are really hard to find because there are many supporters but are not teenagers. All the campaigns are run or supported by older people. My plan is to go to maybe Stonestown and look around and ask people.

Finally, the moment I was waiting for arrived. We went to city hall but it wasn’t as I expected. I expected to see people protesting and people loving the -marriage.
I was filled with joy when we interview a couple called Spencer and Tyler. They held a poster saying newlyweds. They were just adorable I was happy for them.

I was happy to see a live wedding and be out there trying out the equipment. I was happy to be able to use a professional camera. I totally want one like those. I have to check out photography in the future because its fun. I felt like taking random yet beautiful pictures.

BAM! I'm in San Francisco. And what am I doing in San Francisco? A journalism program called BAMMA. Was I anxious? Extremely. I've been to San Francisco before but never to stay, especially for two weeks. I'm from Hayward and anywhere but there is a strange place to be, particularly overnight. This teen was expecting so much and this is what I got. The Bay Area Multi Media Academy, also known as BAMMA, takes place at San Francisco State University.

I arrived here yesterday and was introduced to 10 other people. At first I was nervous about meeting these new people, but as of right now I'm very comfortable with everyone and we all barely met yesterday. I feel that I was nervous because we all were going to have completely different personalities, which we do, but I thought we weren't going to connect. And though all of us do have very different personalities, we tend to laugh at the same things. Like random moments or phrases that sound funny.

The people here are interesting and funny, and I think we could get along very well over the next two weeks. And the person I was most nervous about meeting was my roommate. I didn't know what she looked like or her ethnic background, which are insignificant features, but we're all curious, right? It turns out she a little shorter than me and she's of Chinese descent. I like her already and she's funny in her own way.

After one day, you want to know how I feel? I feel great.

I'm looking forward to spending 12 more days here. And I think I know everyone's names. There's Brenda, Goldie, who's my roommate, Jamari, Oscar, Joel, Monica, Edgar, Ramon, Justin, and Cici. There's also our dorm advisers and chaperones, Aaron and Dolisa. These people seem reasonable and I feel that I can tolerate them, and hopefully they can tolerate me. And I got what I expected and actually a little more. It's good, everything, from the people to the dorms to the food to the classes, is good.

I'm excited.

Today I was blown away by the first full day of BAMMA. This morning was the earliest I have woken up this whole summer. I usually wake up 4:30 AM during the school year, but my body has already disengaged into summer mode. One funny thing that happened in the morning was my roommate, Ramon, had set up alarms to wake him up. Unfortunately, he set his alarms on the wrong times, setting off an alarm at ONE THIRTY IN THE MORNING!!!! I was ready to swing my body off of bed when I looked at my own cell phone and saw the correct time. I almost flipped out, but kept my cool and tried to go back to sleep. At 2:30, however, I was rudely awakened again by banging noises coming from the left of my room. I tossed and turned in bed, fitfully waiting to go back to sleep. After another 30 minutes, I finally drifted back to sleep for another 3 hours until wake up time. As I woke up, I wanted to take a shower to truly wake me up. The shower was a cold affair, as large windows blowing cold San Francisco air into the room ventilated the room. Nevertheless, I got my warmish shower done and changed, getting ready for the day.

In the academic parts of class, our class got to use the computers in relation to a lesson. We got our first lessons from Mary Ann and Jesse. Their teaching styles were both different, each contributing different things to the learning environment. Truthfully, I could not stay awake through the parts taught by Jesse because his voice was really soft. Nevertheless, I learned plenty of things from him such as the “gold, silver, bronze” tiers for getting great news sources, with gold being the most reliable source. After lunch, our class was split into group of four to attend various small seminars to prepare for tomorrow’s trip to City Hall. Our group was CC, Oscar, and myself. Our first class was about photos. We learned the parts of the camera and how we were going to use them tomorrow. It was really fun because we got to run around and jump up and down.

Our second class was the video one, which wasn’t really interesting. It was basically the same stuff as the photo one and the instructors were not really sure of themselves. The last one was the audio one which was really fun. We were assigned to record the three types of audio. I had fun recording the sound of shoes and my elevator excursion to the fifth floor. After I was done, I was ready for some fresh air!

The most important part of the day, however, was getting to know more people. I talked with Ramon on how early we had to wake up and generally figuring out our routines in the morning. I got to know Joel and his Tabasco and “garbage disposal” eating antics. I got to know CC and Oscar with the group activities and class learning. I had fun with Yaya, Goldie, Joel, Monica, and Oscar with our contagious dinner laughing. I usually do not talk with people when I first get to know people. But, our BAMMA was really easy to talk to.

I look forward to see how the rest of the weeks play out.

Yesterday was my first day at BAMMA, and I was really nervous. I knew I was going to have a roommate, the only question was who? When meeting at orientation I did not expect to be so intrigued. It all sounded fun, but why? I was that interested in a program. Was I just dreaming? Sure it sounded like fun, but is it?... Yes, it is really fun.

After orientation yesterday, we walked towards Mary Ward Hall. Went up on the elevator and finally reached the second floor. As I nervously searched my pockets for the room key, I opened the door, and BAM! I saw the smallest room, with two beds, two desks and two closets that did not even have coat hangers. I was dissapointed, but if it was the only way I would be away from my family... it was good enough.

"How-dee" said my roommate as he walked in, Joel, was standing behind me with his hand extended ready to shake my hand. We introduced ourselves, I felt like a record as I noticed I kept repeating, " Hi, I'm Oscar, this is my mom,and my brother". I chose my bed and instantly threw my bags on the bed and started unpacking. My mom said her goodbye my brother said his, and they were gone.

Soon after we were off to dinner. We got out our meal cards and got inside. I was dissapointed to see the food was not as good as the teacher said it would be. I kept hearing, "Dorm food is gooooood". IT WAS ALL A LIE. The food was horrible, like Aaron said, "It has good days and bad days... today was a BAD day." After dinner, we all went back to the dorms... right across from the place, and we met Tara. With Tara we sat down and talked about so many things that made time pass REALLY quickly. We talked about journalism, our favorite TV shows, and we were rewarded with candy. Overall, I had a lot of fun on my first day at BAMMA, and hope to have as much the rest of the time here in the program.

Yesterday, I arrived at San Francisco State University for the first time of my life. As I hop off the Muni Bus I walked directly to the Mary Ward building to meet up with the other students and staff to check my bags in. After that we had an orientation that was really brief then shortly after that i was directed to my room. I unpacked all my things and felt like a college student at last. What could be better then getting a tour of a real exciting college that some people don't get the opportunity to visit?

We recieved a camera that records along with other materials that we were going to be using while here on campus. The first night we all sat in a circle and basically got to know each other names and etc. We did different activities with one another and laughed.

That night: I never felt so uncomfortable in my life, laying on a hard bed, trying to relax and sleep peacefully.

The next day we gathered in the hallway then went down to "city eats" to eat break fast. The food was terrible and i really didn't enjoy it but I couldn't really complain because I was hungry and I had to eat something. Right after breakfast we had to go to class and learn different techniques to apply to our journalism skills. I lightweight-dozed off in one class but I still managed to pull through. Later in the day we ate and had another class to attend. For the most part I really enjoyed the past two days.

I just hope that the rest of the days be more fun and energetic so I can really get engaged and end with a bang!

Today, June 16, 2008 the first day of BAMMA, they put us to work. We learned audio editing, photography and everything in between like video recording. It was a ton of information squeezed together for tomorrows trip to city hall, to capture the controversial topic of same-sex marriage. But before that it was an early wake up time I woke up at 5:52 in the morning which was totally not cool, but I had to because it was part of my stay here at BAMMA and being "responsible".

We had our first taste of the food that is offered here at San Francisco State University and it wasn't the best food, but it was edible, which was fine with me. After that we went outside and got pounded by the cold weather with all the mist and such. Then we headed to the Humanities department and I got to meet Mary Ann Hogan and Jesse Garnier, which was an honor to hear them make their speeches. To hear the words of real journalists was memorable.

After this we got into exercises to get to know each other even more than we already do. And I was paired with a wonderful person called Goldie. The class was called Journalism 101 and we got the basic building blocks for journalism. In my opinion I thought that was great, I was attracted to the facts and different strategies, it was very interesting. The class with Mary Ann ended and that's when Work, Work, WORK!! came in.

Till next time fellow friends

******So fa diz bein an a-aight 3xp3ri3nc3 4 m3... i b33n mostly os3rving in da back! Like i b33n h3lla quiet...But latta on ama come out av ma sh3ll n do ma thang! ya aint ganna get m3 2 b quit! yaf33l m3!?!?! i b33n talk'n 2 sum folks d3y sum cool kats n dangs... so ma plan 4 mana iz 2 mingl3 wit ppl. ama b in h3lla pplz n3rv3s kuz i got sumthin 2 say 2!!!*******

So far, in this magnificent set of events that these sophisticated young people have put together, has been awesome experience! I am basically a scientist right now!!! I'm just observing people in there very own habitat! Its been a great... like being in a show with The Discovery Channel. Some things that I have observed so far is how people interact with one another. My plan from now on is to get out of my shell and leave that shell behind because I'm not the quiet type! I'm taking over every thing! (except that talent show!!) I still don't know what I got myself into because I suck at spelling!

So far the people that I have come across with have been cool. So far I have really gotten along with Monica because she is the type of person that just makes you laugh because of the things that she does as a person that just can't stop moving. I have also gotten to know Jamari because we have lots of things in common, we think some of the same thoughts. I kind of gotten to know Justin because he is my roommate but other then that,we don't really relate with anything right now.

BAMMA is an excellent program. I am so grateful I got accepted to be a part of the program this year. I just love all the students, and their different opinions and things that they share. Everyone is open, friendly, and determined, and my roommate is awesome.

My first couple of days have been cool. All the BAMMA students all are cool and have something different to bring to the table. No one is really afraid of voicing their opinions. I definately think that we started off on the right foot and everyone will grow upon each other and we will all become very close, developing strong friendships. It is fun and exciting working with the other kids, I think they are all great.

Every student has their own mind and uses it in their own unique way. We will all learn from each other and teach each other things that will be of use to us even after we leave this program. The friendly bond that we are creating with each other is so cool. Everyone is willing to lend a helping hand to the next person and be of help to them at all times. My roommate, Brenda, is also there to talk to me

Brenda is the best. She is so sweet and nice. We just talk all the time, I am very comfortable with her.

On June 15th, I first arrived at SFSU to experience my first BAMMA adventure. At first, I was scared because I knew there was a lot work to be done and to be learned during my BAMMA experience. During my first experience in BAMMA during the first 24 hours, the two events that stand out to me the most was learning to adapt to living at a dorm far away from home, and learning the starting basics on becoming a successful journalist.

When I first arrived into my dorm, I met my roommate named Yaya. Once we met, she had a smile on her face and we shook hands. Immediately, she made me feel really comfortable. Yaya’s friendliness erased my stress from being nervous on living with a stranger and surprisingly, we had a lot of things in common and talked until 11:30. The memory that I have of her the most is when she laughed non-stop for 5 minutes over nothing. LOL!!! I find Yaya extremely funny!

The second day of my BAMMA experience, our BAMMA group went into the Humanities building to learn the basic skills on being a good journalist. In the morning, we learned that whomever we interview we have to ask them to spell out their own name in order for us to not make a mistake. Towards the middle of the day, I learned audio sounds, and later I messed with the camera….HAHAHHA!! I remember trying to capture Monica and one of the stuff jumping in air and dancing…. Now that was pretty cool! :] Towards the end of the day, I learned about videotaping and then we had dinner. And now, I’m doing this!

So far, I find BAMMA to be very fun and educational! I can’t wait for tomorrow at City Hall for the same-sex Marriage! :]

Today it all was different. I totally forgot that I was in a dorm room at SF State. It was pretty dark and silent except for the sound of doors and people talking. I got up and went to the bathroom that even with close windows was like Winter Wonderland. It made me think how cold taking a shower in there must be. Back in my dorm room it was still dark even with the lights turned. When we met in the little sitting room we didn't imagine how cold and how long the line to City Eats was.

After eating we all waited o find out about our reading the newspaper before class. Turns out we ran into "technical difficulties." So we had a change of plans instead we went into Mary Park Hall and used there computers to read articles. The fist part of the day felt a little slow and tiring. It made me regret not drinking caffeine. Lunch was okay except the Teriyaki was too flavorful that it couldn't stay by itself.

The classes of Audio, Video, and Photos were totally fun. Comparing to being in one room we had movement and experimenting. It really got me interested in using the equipment. I really enjoyed photographing with a professional camera. I totally want one!!!

Then after we had dinner and to our surprise there was a big line and it was freezing cold. The pizza was really good comparing to the unsalted vegetable. Now I am in a room surrounded by very cool computers and people that I have met and gotten a chance to talk to :) What I have realized is that this school has some sort of attraction that brings in mosquitoes. Its pretty annoying to be writing with a fly going around your head. It was also annoying trying to eat with a fly going around. My roommate, CiCi, is pretty awesome. We get along, we haven't fight yet!! I hopeI make good friends

That's all folks!

I was surprised the day I arrived at the rooms. The description the supervisors wrote made it seem like it was a five by five cubicle. It was a bearably cold, the room wasn't too dark, and the blankets were only a little bit itchy. The shower-heads were very weird looking and very rusty when I tried to take a shower.

The biggest chunk of our day was text, audio, video, photography "training" the teachers tried to squeeze everything we needed to know in about 45 minutes. =/ I didn't really like that, but I understood because tomorrow we're going to city hall and record the stuff going on about gay marriage, and they want us to be prepared.

The four training sessions really felt like a LONG LONG DRAG, we had to be listening and taking notes from 1- 5, thats FOUR hours. I really wish we coulda gotten a 10 minute break or something.

At least we all had fun during dinner.

The BAMMA 2008 Blog is live and on the Web! This year's BAMMA students will be sharing their experiences in this space. Watch for it!