Sunday, November 29, 2009

LBCC Livestock Judging Team Winning Nationals



Who: Linn-Benton Community College Judging Team
What: Judging Team winning National Championship
Where: Louisville, KY
When: November 18th, 2009
Why: Accomplishment of LBCC on a national level.
How to get involved: Contact Judges Clay Weber's (weberc@linnbenton.edu) and Rick Klampe's (klamper@linnbenton.edu)

The LBCC Livestock Judging Team became National Champions at the North American International Livestock Exposition, November 18th in Louisville, KY. For the second time in 34 years a west coast team has won the competition, which is like "the Super Bowl of livestock events" said coach Rick Klampe. The team of six won by a two-point margin, and a total team score of 4,215 points. Followed closely by Black Hawk East CC from Illinois, and Butler CC from Kansas in second and third place. "We were surprised when we placed higher than schools from the Mid-West because they have such an advantage; they are literally surrounded by livestock." said Jordan Baumgartner, a sophomore and local of Albany, OR.

The team flew in to Louisville on Saturday and the competition began on Wednesday morning. Twelve officials were judging 26 teams from all over the United States, with more than 120 individuals being tested on their knowledge of cattle, sheep and swine. They were happy with their win, but thought that their team weakness in the consistency of their reasons would bring their total down. "We all have an ability to speak really well and score high, but sometimes our nerves get the best of us and we make simple mistakes," said Madi McGuire of Dallas, and nerves were high at such a big competition.

The Roadrunner's won the overall reasons, and placed 2nd in overall Sheep, 3rd in overall Swine, and 4th in overall Beef. To be proficient at what you do, knowing and recognizing different breeds of animals is very important. Each member of the team has grown up around livestock and animals, and Hannah DelCurto of Cove, OR said, "to be successful you need 5 solid competitors, it's not a one person activity at all. Each of us were especially consistent with our individual scores" ranging only 15 points from eachother.

The team hopes that the freshman team members will be prepared to participate in many of the upcoming events next season. They travel all over the US to compete in competitions of the same degree as the one held in Louisville this month.

Blog post- Review on New Moon


Who:New Moon actors
What:Second Twilight Movie
Where: Corvallis Oregon
When: Monday night November 23rd, 2009
Why: For the love of the books.

On Monday night, November 23rd, I saw the newly released movie named New Moon. New Moon is the second book in the Twilight series of books. There is four books total in the series.

Twilight is about the lives of a teenage girl ,named Bella, and her vampire boyfriend, Edward. The first book was about how the two met and fell in love. The new movie is about the second book, New Moon. This book is about when Edward leaves Bella because he doesn't want her to get hurt living a life full of vampires, even though him and his family, the Cullen's, don't feed on humans.

These books and movies have become hugely popular in the teenage fan base. This series has also sparked numerous vampire shows, like Tru Blood and Vampire Diaries. The newest movie had good action and the special effects were done well. The actors had improved their acting skills since the first movie. The books are more entertaining and better done than the movies, but I recommend watching them.

Sunday, November 22, 2009

Press release blog

Ancient penguin DNA raises doubts about accuracy of genetic dating
New DNA evidence, found by Oregon State University Researchers, from 44,000 year old penguins challenged the accuracy of the way genetic aging was determined. The new information suggests that scientist have been "routinely underestimating the age of many specimens by 200 to 600 percent." This means that "100,000 years old may actually be 200,000 to 600,000 years old." Professional journal, Trends in Genetics stated. “We believe that traditional DNA dating techniques are fundamentally flawed, and that the rates of evolution are in fact much faster than conventional technologies have led us to believe.”

In order to find this new information scientist used a range of mitochondrial DNA found in the bones, "ranging from 250 years to about 44,000 years old." They used this information to compare it to other bones. This new evidence was made possible by the fact that, "In a temperate zone when an animal dies and falls to the ground, their DNA might degrade within a year,” scientist, Dee Denver said. “In Antarctica the same remains are well-preserved for tens of thousands of years. In the study the DNA was compared to the known ages of bones and their results were found to be a lot different than original knowledge. Another huge discovery for this study was that, "researchers also determined that different types of DNA sequences changed at different rates.

To follow up with more information regarding this story, you can contact the Dean of the College of Science department for Oregon State University, Allan Wilson Center for Molecular Ecology and Evolution, School of Biological Sciences, University of Auckland, or Allan Wilson Centre for Molecular Ecology and Evolution, Institute of Molecular BioSciences, Massey University, Auckland, New Zealand.

Monday, November 16, 2009

Fady Joudah Speech



Who: Poet Fady Joudah
What: Literature reading
Where: Oregon State University Valley Library
When: Friday, November 13th at 730 pm
Why: As part of the Visiting Writers Series for OSU

On Friday November 13th Oregon State University welcomed poet, Fady Joudah, as part of their “Visiting Writers Series.” Joudah talked about all the interesting places and things he saw while he participated in Doctors Without Borders. He has translated the work of Mahmoud Darwish in The Butterfly’s Burden and If I Were Another, and he is the winner of 2007 Yale’s Younger Poets Prize for his first book The Earth in the Attic.
The audience was lucky enough to hear readings from all of his work and get exposed to a type of writings that most of had never been exposed to.

During Fady Joudah’s speech, he spoke about his recent missions to Darfur-Sudan and Zambia, read poems from his book, and read literature from his favorite authors. His writings were very unique and written in abstract ways. Joudah read writings about his Palestine family heritage, the practices and sufferings of other countries, his favorite poem, A Conversation with Death, from the books he had translated into English, and a poem he had written for his wife. In one of Joudah’s writings about his missions, he spoke of a time where a man asked him “May I please bring along a bag of peanuts for the ride to sell for money to feed my sister bleeding in the hospital?” This got his message across of how hard the times over in Darfur are and just how much our way of life differs. The faces of the audience dropped after hearing of such hardship that was seen.

As he reads the whole audience listens intently because they don’t know what words will be following. Joudah spoke of how his focus is more centered around his family now. He told us a particular story about his daughter, “’my daughter wouldn’t hurt a spider that had nested between her bicycles handles. For two weeks, she waited until it left. If you tear down its web it will simply know that this isn’t a place to call home’ I told her. She replied ‘Isn’t that how people become refugees?’” I thought this story showed how his life had made an impact on a lot of people.

After his readings were over, Joudah took time to answer some questions. Most questions were geared towards his writing methods and style. While others were asked about the personal details behind his readings, for these he declined to comment further due to his depth of personal attachment to them. "More people should give themselves experiences like the one we got tonight." Student Jeremy Bullis of LBCC reflected.

Photo source:http://www.catranslation.org/blog/images/fady-joudah.jpg

The Commuter- Scantron

In the November 12th issue of The Commuter there was an article about the issue of charging student for the cost of scan trons, while in the past they have always been provided. It has been an new issue of teachers charging students for extra materials needed for class that are usually included in our tuition fees. " Where will this end?" That is a great question; who will regulate what schools can charge us for and what can't they? The cost of furthering your education is already sky high and most people are struggling to just make it day by day. If our money isn't going towards class materials that are needed through out the year, than what is the money going for? How can anyone plan a head for charges like these? In the article it said, " If you are going to make us buy our own scan tron sheets then I would like my financial aid to reflect the fact that I have to make additional purchases..." If the school is going to be charging for unexpected fees like this, it should be for seen in the amount of money you are given for the term. This article was a great subject to bring to the students attention; if we are aware of this maybe students will take a stand against schools over charging students for unnecessary fees.

Sunday, November 8, 2009

Jamie McEldowney



Who: Jamie McEldowney
What: Rockstar promoter
When: Through out the year
Why: Promote the sales for Rockstar
Where: Willamette Valley

Every college campus is alive with extracurricular activities, and Oregon State University is no different. Amongst all the sponsored parties and bar events you can be sure to catch a glimpse of ,22 year old, Jamie McEldowney's smiling face.

Born and raised in Corvallis, being a local has aided McEldowney with his work as a Rockstar energy drink promoter. Many of the events he sponsors consist of parties and bar events, but he also enjoys promoting at extreme sporting events, businesses, and block parties. “We give free products to people hoping that they will buy it later.”

McEldowney didn't always work on promotions, he began his career with a sponsorship from Rockstar for Motocross racing. When a couple of his racing buddies who worked for the Northwest Division for Rockstar offered him a job as the Rockstar Promoter for the Oregon State campus, McEldowney jumped at the opportunity.

“Working for Rockstar has effected my life in a positive way. I've met a lot of really cool people and now have my foot in the door to a great business.” He hopes to advance within this company, and maybe one day call himself manager of the entire Northwest Division, who is in charge of promoting at all colleges in the Northwest and parts of Canada.

Not only does he promote for Rockstar at college events, McEldowney has also worked for Mod Quad, a four wheeling company located in Albany, as an associate at Tony's Smoke Shop, and even has co-ownership of a clothing line named Live to Ride. Clearly, “sit still” is not a term that McEldowney knows too well. McEldowney started Live to Ride with a few close friends, who wanted to create clothes that are custom made for people.

Currently they have a location off of 9th street, but hope to someday have a place big enough for design, production, and retail all under the same roof. "We hope to succeed where other clothing shops in town have failed by having fresh, new ideas with more choices and more flexibility to incorporate work done by local artists that will appeal to students at OSU." Jamie's business partner, Mike Barat stated.

Jamie McEldowney has built his career from the bottom up. Using his skills in networking and becoming closer to his clients, on a personal level, has helped him succeed in promoting Rockstar all over Corvallis and eventually the rest of the Northwest in the upcoming future.

Jamie's room mate, Alex Hendrixson, describes him as having "tremendous passion for all aspects of his life and of having a big heart." “I just want to be able to support my family and be happy by doing what I love to do.” says McEldowney of his future life.

Friday, November 6, 2009

What I learned in News Reporting

lead
nutgraph
3-5 most important
ur take on class
2 links

Being a big shot news reporter doesn't just get handed to you; its a long process that has to be earned. I wasn't trying to become a news reporter when I first took the class News Reporting, taught by professor Rob Priewe. I needed this class for the requirements for my public relations degree. I had previously been taking writing classes and was in the state of mind of writing like that, but when I started this class I had to change the way I had been taught to write. You are learning how to appeal to a different audiences, write about things people want to know more about, bring people information they wouldn't be able to reach with out news reporting, and writing a compelling fresh story. News Reporting has been my favorite class of this term, from starting out in a place where I didn't have much interest in news reporting, but as the term has progressed I have really enjoyed putting my self out of my normal comfort level and meeting new people and going to different events. I really like the interaction with the people. I think this class is worth while to take for anyone not just people who are in the journalism majors because it is a fun class where you learn new things.

Monday, October 26, 2009

Possibilities for article #3

PROFILE ON SOMEONE:
Chef Adam or Iain with his new restaurant.

Running a company- Coffee shop, the competition,CANT DO ON BOSS.

Pit bulls becoming illegal in our state. some who is trying to make them illegal or fighting for them not to be.

Interview people at the humane society. for the problems they face.?

Actually surviving as a student. What it takes, what issues we face, tips on things to help yourself, things you absolutely have to do.

Friday, October 23, 2009

Seth Godin On standing out

Living in a world that flies by at the speed of lightning, it's easy to get lost in the crowd. In order to make a difference, you have to stand out. Seth Godin gives a speech on how to stand out and to make a difference. In his speech, Seth Godin talked about how sliced bread was a failure till Wonder bread picked up the idea and spread it across the world by advertising. The success of any product or company depends on its advertising. Godin describes, "Buy adds,get more distribution, sell more products, buy more adds." In order to compete with your product competitors you have to be different then all the other companies. Companies spend "hundreds of millions of dollars a year on advertising." No one will know about their products if they don't hear about them in some way.As a society we are susceptible to seeing a wide variety of ads. Things are going to fast in our world to focus on all things that we see. So this is why we ignore things.The advertising field has to keep things "new and fresh." They have to be interesting and new to keep our attention. The whole idea is to "figure out what people really want and give it to them."

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Heart and Soul of Corvallis Football

Who: Corvallis High school Football Team
What: Varsity Football team
Why: Support Local Football teams
When: Friday, October 16th at 7 pm
Where: Corvallis High school
How to get involved: Contact Corvallis High School football coach at Chris.McGowan@corvallis.k12.or.us
541-757-3826

On Friday, October 16th, Corvallis High School football team played the Silverton Foxes football team. The game got off to a quick start and CHS put up 21 straight points in the first half, before giving up a late score to Silverton right before halftime. The Foxes used that momentum to score 14 more points in the third quarter to tie up the game at 21. The Spartans scored again in the 4th to take the lead, however Silverton battled back to score one more time but could not convert the extra point giving the Spartans a much need league victory. Final score, 28-27.

In 2007, Corvallis High School Football team won the 5A State Championship against West Albany. They earned that title by going into triple overtime and winning with a successful field goal.

"After that season we lost a lot of key players and have we haven't been able to get to that same level of performance. We are working hard at being the team we all want to be." Head Coach, Chris McGowan.

This season started off slow with three straight loses for the team before winning their first game against Dallas. This seasons record is four wins and seven loses. Unfortunately they didn't make it past the first round of playoff.

The Spartans have a plan for changing all that for this for next season, right outside linebacker, Alberto Nunez, explains “We are spending a lot time doing individual drills in our positions. We are working with second string to make them the quality of first string players, so that we are stronger as a whole team. You are only as strong as your weakest player.”

Varsity player, Austin Waid, wants everyone to know that, “Everything that people say about the team doesn’t affect us because they aren’t the ones putting all the hard work into being better players. We are a young team with the right expectations for ourselves.” The entire Spartan varsity players are coming back to play next year, giving them a huge upper hand against rival teams in the upcoming season.

Friday, October 16, 2009

How to survive zombies

They are coming for your brain.
Identifying Zombies-
dark eyes
pale skin
legs limply
bloody
don't eat candy just brains
don't dance
shoulder slouch
bloody
stumble

To survive:
Need proper equipment
high altitudes
cant swim so stay on water
counter attack
go to larger location with supplies -Costco

how to kill:
kill brain
large bullets
chain saw
decapitation
granade


if someone is wounded then they need to be killed because it is too late.
dont underestimate their speed.

Lee Lefever
Common craft show

Monday, October 12, 2009

next story

To be fully honest I have no idea what I am going to do. I spent the weekend doing other homework. My plan is to ask friends/ family if they know of anything that is going on in town that would be interesting. I am also planning on looking in the newspaper and the commuter to see if they have anything in there that would be fun and interesting to go to. I am hoping to find something that I can write a really great story about.


ADD ON*
I found out that there is a high school game on Friday for CHS, which is where I went to high school. I am not sure if the Lebanon races are still going on, but I am going to check about that. I am sure LBCC has some kind of sport going on before the end of this upcoming weekend. I wanted to try and go to a special event that usually isn't here. So I am going to check the local and surrounding areas newspapers to see if they have anything. I am also going to look in surrounding places like Salem, Portland so that I could maybe take a day trip this weekend.
5 questions:
1. How was your experience at the event?
2. what would you of liked to see that was different/ or ways it could be improve?
3. Would you come to this same event again?
4. What was your favorite/most important part about the event?
5. How would you get the word out about this event so that more people heard about it?

Sunday, October 11, 2009

Rob Priewe Interview

Rob Priewe started out his Journalism education while he was still in college, where he served as his schools newspaper editor. After high school Rob attended University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and got his degree in Mass Communication-Journalism and English. After that, he spent some time in Arizona before making Oregon his permanent home. Rob has a long list of impressive accomplishments in the field of journalism. He spent over 20 years with the Gazette Times as Managing Editor, works for Oregon State University on their Professional Advisory Board for Media Communications, as well as being the head of the Journalism department for Linn-Benton Community College. Even though Journalism is one of Rob’s life passions’, teaching is where his heart lies. While serving on his high schools’ paper, he realized that the power of leadership was a “humbling experience and that [he] could make a difference.” In my brief interview with him, I could tell that he truly cares about his students and about making a difference in their lives. Rob is still continuing his education by getting his MBA in Business of Administration. Once he finishes his degree he plans to apply his knowledge to making himself a better teacher and spending more time with his wife and three kids.

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Corvallis Local Economy




At a glance:
Who: Corvallis Business'
What: Corvallis local economy
Where: Corvallis, Oregon
When: As of October 6Th, 2009
Why: Interesting to the people that live here.
How to get involved: Shop locally, go to local events, and go out every once in a while to keep business flow going.

In the past several years, the nation’s economy has plummeted and everyone has taken a hit. The struggles that Corvallis has faced in this economic slump may not be seen by some people that live here. We have all seen many local businesses, like Fox and Firkin, Michael's Landing, The Gables, and Urban Minx Boutique have all been forced to close because business flow wasn’t enough to meet demands. There are many reasons that play into why businesses either succeed here or they don't. They have to have enough customer pull to get the local people when a majority of the students go away during school breaks and the summer. The audience that companies are trying to attract have to be focused on the locals and the realistic needs of the town.

Hewlett-Packard is one of the major players in the town's economy and has suffered job reductions numerous times in the past year. What's left of the once vibrant HP FAB has felt a crumbling blow. “Everyday HP gets closer to discovering a more efficient method to produce the special microchips that are produced in our FAB, bringing the life of our FAB to a complete halt,” Eddie Hanson an engineer from Hewlett Packard informed me. This means hundreds of people will be out of work due to their jobs being shipped overseas for cost reduction. When this happens, Corvallis will experience unemployment like never before.

Another huge contributor to the local economy is Oregon State University. Having a university in Corvallis adds value to our town because it gives people a reason to come here. According to OSU website, enrollment has jumped 8 percent since last school year. This means that since more students are in town their parents will come to visit them, take them out to dinner, buy them things they need, and just gets people out on the town. This means more business for the local businesses.

"There are two different reasons people come to Corvallis to live: The first reason is because they see it as a place to get an education, grow as a person, and to party. The second reason people come here is to settle down and start raising a family." OSU student Jaci Bullis said. The two far end of the spectrum cause ample opportunity to have businesses. In this economic time people cant be opening businesses that don't apply to the people who live in the town. According to economy.com, the cost of living in Corvallis is much higher than that of the United States. Luckily not all of Corvallis has taken a hit, head chefs of Aqua and Terzo Restaurants,Adam Kekahuna and chef Iain Duncan, are opening a new restaurants this fall in Corvallis. It is named Flat Tail and it is going to be an upscale pub. This is good news for Corvallis this means that we have been able to survive and not fall to bad into the recession.

Photo source: http://img.groundspeak.com/waymarking/cb80fea2-798c-4b3f-a7a1-7de17a35d7f8.jpg

Monday, October 5, 2009

News story #1Raugh Draft

Local Economy in Corvallis

In the past several years, the Nation’s economy has plummeted and everyone has taken a hit. The struggles that Corvallis has faced in this economic slump may not be seen by some people that live here. We have all seen many local businesses forced to close because business flow wasn’t enough to meet requirements.There are many reasons that play into why places either succeed here or they don't. They have to have enough pull to get the local people in through out the summer when the students all go away for the summer. The audience companies are trying to attract has to be actually in Corvallis and be realistic about what we really need in town.

Hewitt Packard is a huge player in Corvallis’s economy and they have been cutting more jobs monthly it seems. Once Hewitt Packard figures out how to use another material besides gold in the microchips then the Corvallis FAB will be shut down and all the work will be shipped over seas. With such a huge place shutting down this will cause Corvallis’s unemployment rate will shoot even higher. Another huge contributor to the local economy is Oregon State University.

There are two different reasons people come to Corvallis to live: The first reason is because they see it as a place to get an education, grow as a person, and to party. The second reason people come here is to settle down and start raising a family. The two far end of the spectrum cause ample opportunity to have businesses. In this economic time people cant be opening businesses that don't apply to the people who live in the town. There are lots of areas to look at when it comes to opening any kind of new business. For instance it probably isn't the best idea to open a pizza parlor in a town that already has three other ones, there just is to much competition to survive. Overall Corvallis has been able to survive and not fall to bad into the recession.