Wrapping up

As the clock strikes noon tomorrow, I will have completed a major goal on my life’s list.

My post-secondary education will be complete.

Never again will I walk into a classroom as a student after many years of doing so (at least that’s the plan). My mom still reminds me of the time she dragged me to my first kindergarten class when I was six. 16 years later, I’m being paroled into the real world.

My two years at Red River College have been the best of my learning years. Uprooting here from Brandon, away from friends and family, to a place where I knew next-to-no one was a challenge. 

But I have learned so much and have gotten the opportunity to do things I didn’t think I would ever get a chance to. I’ve worked for a professional baseball team. I’ve written in the sports section of a major daily newspaper.

For one of the first times in my life, I’ve seen goals that seem unreachable become reality through hard work. 

And after starting in a city where I knew nobody, I’m happy to say I have made many friends in the city. 

Good luck to everyone in my graduating class in their careers. Hopefully we'll run into each other sometime in the field.

Let's Play Two

Yesterday was Opening Day* in Major League Baseball and I couldn't be happier.

(*-Opening Day of course meaning a full slate of games; not lone games played in Australia or under the lights.)

Opening Day brings back many memories for me, including my childhood goal of faking sick to stay home from school to watch the afternoon start. When my younger brother began going to school as well, we would stagger our illnesses so we could both stay home and watch.

Also, our parents totally knew we were faking sick but it was nice of them to play along.

This year's opener was short on enjoyment for Blue Jays fans like myself. In fact, the cursing began early when Jose Reyes got injured in his first at-bat of the season and is now headed to the disabled list.

As I wrap up my final week and change in the Creative Communications program, I've been doing some reflecting on all of the work I have accomplished. No doubt one of the best things to happen while in the program was getting an opportunity to be a summer intern in the Winnipeg Goldeyes media relations department.

Not only did I get great experience for my future career, but I got to do it at a baseball stadium. It really taught me that doing something you love makes work so much easier. There would be long stretches of 12-13 hour days without a day off for a while but being able to do it watching baseball for a living made it an enjoyable experience.

As I begin my quest to look for full-time work, I hope that I will be able to find another job doing something I love. Sports is a passion and would be a nice field, sure; but I have plenty of others that I would enjoy working in.

Growing up in religion

Religion was never a big deal in my house growing up.

We went to church on Easter and Christmas Eve and said grace before every big family meal. I prayed, and still do, before bed that the next day be as good or better then the last.

I used to pray before each inning of baseball I pitched. I would cross with my right foot behind the mound and ask for guidance in getting through the inning (like that would be high on the to-do list).

One morning, during an 8 a.m. game, I got lit up like a Christmas tree. When the coach came to pull me in the first inning, the only explanation I could offer up was that God must have slept in.

But I never had religion forced upon me. I was never told to read the bible or was dragged to church every Sunday.

That's why I find stories about people who were raised by a strict religion fascinating.

Some people have great experiences while others don't.

I've known families where religion is a deep bond they hold between everyone. I've also seen a family go through a rough stretch because one member began rejecting his religion.

At the end of the day, it seems like a silly reason to break your family up over. That's why I'm glad my family raised me somewhere in the middle.

Church, I'll see you on Easter.

That's a wrap

Before last night, I had 24 live interviews go off without a hitch for my Independent Professional Project.

Then No. 25 didn't pick up his phone. So much for the final show going smoothly.

Back when I first started the Manitoba Sport Report in October, there would be little chance I could ad-lib through 20 minutes of live radio if I couldn't reach an interview over the phone.

But as this project grew in time, so did my radio skills and last night, with the help of my iPad, I found enough ground to cover during those 20 minutes.

This is a project I forced myself to pitch to my instructors back in last April. Some kids sing in the shower; I would pretend to talk calls for a fictional sports radio show on some hot topic I just seen on Sportscentre. I had a passion to do this and wanted to use the opportunity I had through the school to do a radio show.

At points, the days leading up to the show would be stressful. Guests would back out on me in the hours leading up to show, forcing me to scramble to find somebody else. Finding material could also sometimes be a challenge. But I always made it to air and by a few minutes to eight, be able to sign off for the night.

When I presented this project to a panel of instructors last week, I found myself being really excited to show off my work and what I had done. Although it was big item on the weekly to-do list, I created a product that I'm happy to show off, talk about and am really proud of.

There are a lot of people I need to thank for helping me out throughout the way. My classmate Meg Crane helped board-op my show for the first few handfuls of show and I'm grateful she volunteered her time to help me out. Riley Aisman, a first-year student, did the same for the last stretch. My advisor, Dan Vadeboncoeur, also helped me out with ideas and shaping my show. His advice was so valuable to me as I went through this project.

I got to say though, next Monday is going to be a lot more restful without having a show to do.

I'll miss it.

Time to commit some retirement

While in the midst of hitting the snooze button on my phone a few Mondays ago, I briefly scanned Twitter before getting another 10 minutes of shut eye.

It was there that I saw Duncan McMonagle was retiring from teaching.

I wasn't going to get that extra 10 minutes anymore.

Duncan has been my journalism instructor for the past year and a half at Red River College and I'm thankful that he didn't retire a year earlier.

I didn't have Duncan as my journalism instructor in my first semester at the program but you could feel his presence in CreComm. I remember being a little nervous in my first few classes of second semester with Duncan as my instructor. Knowing I wanted to major in journalism, I felt the need to make a good impression.

Our first assignment that semester was a streeter. A few days later, I emailed my other journalism instructor, Joanne Kelly, for a job reference. Absolutely, she said, and ask Duncan for one too. He really liked your streeter.

Exhale.

There has been plenty he's taught me as a journalism major since I first walked into his classroom last January, and I know in speaking with my classmates, they feel the same way. It's amazing how much I have learned from him in what feels like a very short amount of time.

When I peer over my own stories by myself, I will often ask myself, "What would Duncan tell me right now?"

In addition to all the things he has taught me about journalism, I'll remember many other things. The Monday morning greeting of "It's nine o'clock in the big city..." and the phrase "it's time to commit some journalism". The bullshit detector. Oh, and the in-class standoffs when he asks a question and doesn't get a response. He'll stand at the front of the room silently, waiting for someone to speak up. We've never won one of those standoffs. 

And of course, the two words I'll have stapled to every desk or cubicle I find myself working: "Says who?"

He always had time for you as a student. There were a few times when I was unsure of what step to take next with school assignments or in my career. After having conversations with Duncan, I always felt much better about the direction I was heading.

In his blog post where he announced his retirement, Duncan told a story about a former colleague who wasn't fond of having to deal with students.

"I resolved never to be that person," he said.

In the time you were my teacher, you were never that person. Judging by the well wishes you've received on social media from past students you taught, you never were.

Enjoy retirement, Duncan. I'm sure the view inside Rogers Centre will be nice.

Every major Law and Order character, ranked

Yep, this is a thing I did.

JACK MCCOY – In the summer when I was a kid, I would stay up late to watch the San Francisco Giants play if they were on TV. I wasn't a Giants fan but getting an opportunity to watch Barry Bonds swing a bat, even on TV, was great and worth staying up for.

The same thing goes for Jack McCoy, the G.O.A.T. television lawyer. Even in Law and Order's crummiest days, Sam Waterston was awesome to watch as McCoy. He was '01 Bonds. The man could preach in a courtroom and did whatever it took to win the case he believed in, for good and bad. If the show was called Law or Order and I could only pick one part to watch, I'd go with Order because of Jack.

The slow, slow evolution of McCoy from reckless prosecutor, to less reckless prosecutor, to District Attorney was acted and written greatly looking back upon the series.

And now the baseball analogies are out of the way.

LENNIE BRISCOE – Lennie was the Law's answer to Order's Jack. Even when the writing squandered after Rene Balcer left the writer's room around Season 13, Briscoe brought it every episode with his humour around his detective partners, suspects, and lawyers. The most memorable lines spoke in series came from Lennie and he even feels under valued at number two.

ADAM SCHIFF – I don't think a Jack/Lennie combo as the top two would surprise anyone who watched the show but I would lump District Attorney Adam Schiff in with that upper echelon. I've heard this before but the beautiful thing about Schiff was he knew the law and he knew politics, but you never knew what angle was motivating him.

He supported Jack when he needed support and kicked his ass when it needed to be kicked. Terrific fictional boss. Bonus points for his facial reactions when that week's case was going the wrong way.

ABBIE CARMICHAEL – I liked Abbie but I'm not sure she deserves to be so high. Still, out of all of Jack's assistants, she was my favourite. Her line in her first episode (“No deals for anyone, let's hang 'em all”) really set the tone for the character, a strong conservative viewpoint which hadn't been on the show much before. And she could go toe-to-toe with Jack. And win.

MIKE LOGAN – One day he used his fists, the next day he used his head to solve cases. He really carried the early seasons. A shame we didn't see more of him with Lennie.

ED GREEN – A workhorse; he'd be the Mark Buehrle of the L&O universe (nope, not done with the baseball analogies).

REY CURTIS – Rey was a bit of a pain in the ass sitting up on his high horse but he might have been my favourite partner of Lennie's for the same reason Jack and Abbie were my favourite lawyer combo: real contrast. Plus, he was there for one of my favourite stretches of the show (season 7: Double Down, the Hollywood murder trilogy, and Mad Dog).

JAMIE ROSS – I liked Jamie. Like her successor, Abbie, she kept Jack in check while in the assistant's chair. She was the ADA when Jack was bending every rule in the criminal code and Adam was running for re-election. She was the voice of reason for many episodes in the DA's office.

CYRUS LUPO – It's too bad the writing went to crap for a chunk because when the last cast of actors came in, people had stopped watching. But the last cast was really good and Lupo was the best of them: a sometimes gruff, smart detective who was so likeable in the ilk of a Mike Logan.

ANITA VAN BUREN – The solid, tells-her-detectives-what-they-already-know-so-the-viewer-now-knows lieutenant. Plus, she nailed her cancer storyline in the last season. That cast rocked.

BEN STONE – Some people like Stone the way I like McCoy. I'm not one of them but Stone was good. He really knocked it out of the park in a few early season episodes before he was replaced by McCoy.

PHIL CERRETA – Paulie from Goodfellas as a cop? Paulie from Goodfellas as a cop.

CLAIRE KINCAID – Like Ben, Claire is probably another character other people would have higher on their lists. She was a good assistant to Ben and Jack; I just liked Abbie and Jamie more, OK?

MICHAEL CUTTER – It was fun to see Jack ascend to the top of the DA's office, only to have to manage Michael Cutter, a younger version of himself. You loved him in some episodes and you didn't in others. His habit of carrying a baseball bat like Tom Cruise did in A Few Good Men was a minor annoyance because Tom Cruise did it in A Few Good Men.

But Cutter was really good as a part of that cast that grabbed me back into the show. Plus I totally 'shipped him and Connie.

MAX GREEVEY – People will tell me Max is listed too low and I need to re-watch the first season. They're probably right.

PAUL ROBINETTE - “You're the biggest bad ass on the block Jack.” I loved that line when he returned as a defence attorney. He was good as Ben's assistant too.

DONALD CRAGEN – You might remember Donald Cragen from such roles as Donald Cragen on SVU. But he was once on the Mothership. That's what IMDB says.

CONNIE RUBIROSA – Who is Connie you asked a few paragraphs ago? Oh, well, she was the assistant district attorney when Mike was around. When it was her turn for a Connie episode, she was really good.

NORA LEWIN – Oh right, she was the district attorney once. Rudy Guliani liked her!

JOE FONTANA – The impossible task of replacing Lennie Briscoe.

ARTHUR BRANCH – Foghorn Leghorn somehow ascended to the top of New York's district attorney's office. No one needs to hear a five minute monologue why a story about your grandmother's daffodils tells you that Jack should proceed with a murder two indictment instead of manslaughter. However, he did fire Serena.

KEVIN BERNARD – Saint Bernard.

ALEXANDRIA BORGIA – She had a short visit; not too memorable.

NICK FALCO – Remember when Green was shot and Tony Soprano's nephew replaced him for four episodes? Not much more then a guest star but he was in the credits once so we rank him.

ALFRED WENTWORTH – Had CBS picked up the show, we would have had him instead of Adam Schiff. Alfred Wentworth would have been a lousy DA in comparison.

NINA CASSIDY – It's not a good sign when you piss off your lieutenant five minutes into your screen debut and your whole storyline revolves around why you aren't a good detective. It was like the writers hated the Cassidy character as soon as they green-lit her for air.

SERENA SOUTHERLYN – Jamie Ross served as a voice of reason to Jack's wild, rebellious approach to the law. Abbie and Jack clashed because her conservative politics clashed with Jack's more liberal views. Then came Serena, who just argued against Jack for the hell of it. And she wasn't very good at it.

7 Generations

Up until this year, I had never read a graphic novel in my life.

It only took a few pages for me to realize that 7 Generations: A Plains Cree Saga was quite different from Calvin and Hobbes.

The book, written by David Alexander Robertson, was a fantastic and educational read that touched on many Aboriginal issues in flashback and present day form.

Would I call this book journalism? Yes, I would. The story might be presented in a different form but it tells a story, one full of emotion that is drawn from Robertson's own experiences with the subject matter. When he spoke to us about his book yesterday, he recalled many events in his past that helped shaped who he is; to hiding from being Aboriginal in grade school to encountering racism as a young adult. Some of those issues would be included in the book.

In the third part of the stories, Robertson tells a story about the residential schools. While I had noticed the imagery throughout the book (done tremendously by Scott Henderson), it wasn't until this part that I was completely grabbed by the illustrations.

They were powerful and showed something that words simply couldn't do on their own. You could see the violence, the abuse, the sadness on the characters faces. I've read and seen stuff about residential schools but the imagery in 7 Generations, complimented with Robertson's concise wording, told the story like I have never seen before.

The pace of the stories was also great. Everything flowed, the images and text, from one frame to the next. It was a different pace then I'm used to reading but I found the format very enjoyable.

We've been assigned two other books in our journalism program, Nahlah Ayed's A Thousand Farewalls and Jim Blanchard's Winnipeg's Great War. While each book is different (Ayed's a first-hand account, Blanchard's research heavy), they all tell us stories about events in our past and each, including Robertson's book, does a good job of conveying that story to the audience.

Seeing Sochi

The Sochi Olympics are a few days away still but members of the media are slowly making their way over to Russia and are making...interesting discoveries about the living situations at the Games.

Here are some of my favorites.

BBC correspondent Steve Rosenberg tweeted a few pictures of the interesting bathroom arrangement in Sochi. Closed quarters, that's for sure.

Also, if you find yourself inside one of the washrooms, make sure you abide by the rules in this picture tweeted out by Canadian snowboarder Sebastien Toutant:

 

No toilet fishing. Or stabbing yourself with a weapon.

If you plan on using water, it's a bit of a lose-lose situation at some places. On one hand, there could be no water. On the other side, the water could be very dangerous as Chicago Tribune reporter Stacy St. Clair found out:

My hotel has no water. If restored, the front desk says, "do not use on your face because it contains something very dangerous." #Sochi2014
— Stacy St. Clair (@StacyStClair) February 4, 2014

Water restored, sorta. On the bright side, I now know what very dangerous face water looks like. #Sochi #unfiltered pic.twitter.com/sQWM0vYtyz
— Stacy St. Clair (@StacyStClair) February 4, 2014

It's certainly a few interesting looks inside this year's Olympics.

Martin wins in Morris

Victory music didn't blast from overhanging speakers nor did balloons and confetti fall from the sky.

An hour after the polls closed in a byelection for the provincial legislative seat in the Morris constituency, Shannon Martin sauntered up to the podium and said, "I think we are ready to call it."

In his victory speech at the Kingswood Golf & Country Club, Martin said that he was as "stressed out today as he was on his wedding day" but he didn't show it or needed to be.

It came as little surprise to anyone following the election that Martin, a Conservative candidate, won in Morris. The constituency has been represented by a PC member since 1954.

As soon as the first polls began reporting shortly after 7 p.m., it was evident that Martin would capture the seat.

The final vote tally for Martin was 2,642. That dwarfed the number posted by the second place finisher, NDP candidate Dean Harder, who captured 488. In fact, it more than doubled the 1,133 votes that the other four candidates collected on election day.

Martin's win, along with fellow PC member Doyle Piwniuk victory the same night in an Arthur-Virden byelection, gives the provincial Conservatives 19 seats. While they still trail the NDP, which holds control with 37 seats (Liberals have one), the wins have given some party members hope for the next election.

"We are getting tired of finishing in second place," said Morden-Winkler MLA Cameron Friesen afterwards. "It's about us as a party introducing ourselves to Manitobans and letting them know we have a different vision for the future of Manitoba."

A general election is expected to be held in Manitoba in October 2015. It will be then we will find out if voters across the province share that same vision.

Twitter Storm

Twitter can be a powerful tool in today's world.

It can also be an ugly weapon.

The latter was the case when Richard Sherman turned pro wrestling heel after last night's Seahawks-49ers NFC title game.

Deadspin  did a good job of accumulating the racist, offensive, and downright disgusting things tweeted at Sherman following his fired up interview on FOX. (Here's a sampling).

It's unbelievable that anyone would take to a public forum and say things such as those in the link.

I know for myself, I have became extra careful with what I tweet, although on a much lesser scale (I would never tweet something in THAT light). A tweet that is meant to be an inside joke amongst my friends could be construed as something totally different to everyone else.

Twitter has connected every user to a larger platform, for better and worse. For people who chose to use it properly, it can be a great device to connect yourself with the world outside of your circles.

For people who use it to tweet hate, it will not protect you.

And, it's sports people.

Right Ilya?

Selling Change

When Dan Le Batard announced he was the Hall of Fame voting baseball writer that sold his vote to the readership at Deadspin, you knew it would hit the fan.

People had wondered for a while how ridiculous the BBWAA, the group of sportswriters given the task of voting players into the Hall of Fame, would react once they found out which of their members had sold their vote.

To quote the Joker from The Dark Knight, “They did not disappoint.”

Le Batard was stripped of his Hall of Fame vote and barred from attending any baseball game as a media member for a year.

In a statement released by the BBWAA, the organization said that it “...regards Hall of Fame voting as the ultimate privilege, and any abuse of that privilege is unacceptable.”

Of course, as reporter Richard Justice points out, Le Batard isn't the first person to crowd source his ballot (just not on this size of scale).

And apparently, the BBWAA doesn't consider voting for Jack Morris and Jack Morris only while deciding to leave Greg Maddux off his ballot an “abuse of that privilege.”

The problem with the voting process is it has become an exercise for vote-carrying reporters to feel extremely important about themselves.

In part, Le Batard explained the reason for selling his vote:

“I feel like my vote has gotten pretty worthless in the avalanche of sanctimony that has swallowed it...

Baseball is always reticent to change, but our flawed voting process needs remodeling in a new media world. Besides, every year the power is abused the way I'm going to be alleged to abuse it here. There's never been a unanimous first-ballot guy? Seriously? If Ruth and Mays and Schmidt aren't that, then what is? This year, someone is going to leave one of the five best pitchers ever off the ballot. Suck it, Greg Maddux.

...in a climate without reform, my next 20 years of votes will be counted but not actually heard. At least this gets it heard, for better or for worse.”

He is not the only one who feels the system is broke and with each passing year, more and more ridiculous. The only ones who don't feel way are the voters who feel important while holding the keys to baseball's Pearly Gates.

So while Le Batard will no longer vote and have to eat hot dogs in the section adjacent to the press box this year, hopefully his doing will result in change to the way Hall of Fame voting is done.

Last First Day

Let me be the last person in my class to say excitedly that today was the last first day of school in my life.

This is the final stretch for me as a student. I'm this close to completing my educational career and step into the real world with jobs, bills, and other fun/crap adult stuff.

And I'm ready for it. I feel that way because of the education I have gotten in the last 18 months. 2 years ago, would I have been ready? Not a chance. 4 years ago? I would have told you yes but I'd have been way, way wrong.

I feel prepared and confident in what I'm doing. Although I still act like an idiot child at points in the day, I've done a lot of growing up in the last year and a half, both at and away from school.

When I reflected on my past year while battling symptoms of the previous night on the first of January, I was proud of all I had done. I accomplished things that before I didn't think were possible for me to do.

I would like to say it's been all due to hard work but that would probably be an outright lie. I've walked the proverbial tightrope at points; sometimes getting to bed at the end of the day wondering how in the hell I managed to get through that day.

But at no point have I ever told myself I didn't want to get up the next day and do it all over again because while I might say that exact thing out of frustration, deep down I enjoy what I do and look forward to new challenges.

And now I'm ready to move on from school and face new ones.

It doesn't mean the learning will stop. Of course it doesn't.

But I'm ready to continue to do it beyond the walls of a classroom.