ACCORDING TO ZAC

One time, I got an award for my good grades from the J-school. And another time, I came in second place in a writing competition sponsored by the J-school. I got an email a few weeks ago about attending this thing called Just Desserts (turns out they only serve desserts at this thing). Well, I didn't think much about it until later when I got a second email about it, and my friend Brenna talked to me about. Turns out, it's a special event for journalism students that have been nominated and/or won things all throughout the year. Well, I assumed that I would be recognized for the previously mentioned writing competition. And I was. And that was nice. But, I also received a Certificate of Merit , and I don't even know what I did! I think my favorite professor must have nominated me. They handed out about 15 of these certificates, but I was still very shocked and flattered to have received an award unexpectedly. My buddy Kristina also got that award. Yay! Brenna won a ...

For my Editing class I had to find an article that was poorly reported. The difficult part was that you had to find an article that means something to you. A poorly reported article that rips at your heart because of the way it portrays you or something you care about? That's no fun. Naturally, religion was first to come to mind, and finding something that really misconstrued the LDS church was easier than it should have been. The article was terrible, and the stupid thing is that it wouldn't have been hard to fix and make right. It made me sad that the article had been read by an editor and deemed fit for print in one of the most read newspapers on the planet. It made me sad that in this age of technology, a quick run over Mormon.org would have shed light on a lot of these misconceptions. But, what would have happened had all of these facts been checked and corrected, is that the article wouldn't have really been about much. Her whole focus would have had to shift, in...

As evidenced by my post about the death penalty, I've been contemplating politics a little bit lately. But only the ones that don't make me really angry. Today I thought about how awesome the US is. My good buddy Tanner wrote and article for UA's newspaper (see it here ). He wrote about the young generation that helped overturn the government in Egypt. People my age. At the end, he said that he stood by them. He asked the readers if they stood by them also. It made me think about how great this country is. We aren't perfect, but we got it right the first time (if you don't count the Articles of Confederation that came before the present Constitution). I basically just contradicted myself, but, by and large we've been fully functioning since the Declaration of Independence was signed. I have never once thought my rights as an individual were violated. Never. I have never once been censored, persecuted, forced to act a certain way, do a certain thing, or belie...

Today was a good day in higher education. Nancy will always be my favorite professor. She cares about students and believes in each of them regardless of how good they are at any one particular skill. Anyway, I asked her when I could meet with her so we could talk about the class I'm taking from her, what I can do with a journalism degree, et cetera. She said she'd love to treat me to lunch and we could chat. I politely refused her lunch offer. She insisted. We're going to lunch next week. Ha ha. But, her interest in my life, my thoughts, and spending time enough with me to get to really know me was so astounding. I want to be a professor or a teacher so badly, because I think I could be that professor that cared about the students, that was an effective instructor, and that helped inspire people to do new and exciting things with their lives, just like she has. College would be a lot different if every professor was like Nancy. Sadly, that's not the case, but ...

There are a few things that are really fun about being the only child at home. For instance, my input is always taken into consideration when discussing what to make for dinner. It's not always the definitive plan, but it's at least considered. All that aside, some of my favorite time spent with my parents is when we sit in the family room watching television. Most often we are watching HGTV, talking about what we like/don't like about the designer's plans, and one of us is almost always asleep at any given time. Tonight was no different. The three of us sat and watched President Obama's State of the Union address. Someone was sleeping during parts of the speech, either Mom or Dad. Surprisingly there was no dialogue until after his speech, but it was just like any other night. And I wouldn't have it any other way. :) Side note: the funny little addition to our normal television watching formula is that I was reading my New York Times instead of listening to...

I just set up a subscription to the New York Times ... I feel like such an adult, which is both awesome, and awful. Adult status aside, the Times is sort of a giant deal, so it'll be cool to get it delivered to my house every weekday. On a different note, visiting the Times' s newsroom is on my bucket list.

Another glimpse at my future career from this website . Reporter 1: “Lightning is going to come through that window any second now.” Reporter 2: “That’s why we have thick, double paned windows. To protect us from God’s wrath.”

I found this here , and it was kind of cracking me up. Editor 1: “I’ll have a jacuzzi suite in hell, you can join me.” Editor 2: “I think most of the staff will be there. It can be a reunion!” Editor 1: “Um, I think most journalists are going to be there.”

Get this -- I got an email last week saying that I had been nominated for the Finley Newswriting Competition. The email told me that I was nominated by my Reporting the News (JOUR 205) professor, and that the nominees were chosen as the most promising of the early newswriting students. The email also told me that, if I were to participate, all of the competitors were going to listen to Peter Smith, of UA's Planetary Science department give a press conference. There would be a question and answer session to follow for our clarification. After the questions, we had an hour to write a news story about the press conference and whatever Smith had talked about. At first, I didn't really plan on participating. In fact, my professor, Nancy (who we all love), called all of her nominees (there were 4 or 5 from my class and 4 or 5 from the other 3 JOUR 205 sections). Nancy informed us that she chose us because we had the highest grades, and thus the best shot at this of the bunch. I...