Saturday, March 06, 2010

First High School Baseball Games

The much anticipated first high school baseball game came and went and without disappointment, I might add.

Game 1 of the Loara Tournament, El Dorado versus Anaheim, lead-off Christopher Rivera hit a triple and would score to give the Hawks their first run of the season. Later he hit a bloop single to right field and took second on a errant throw. To cap off the day, Christopher launched a 2RBI homerun, 360 feet dead center. El Dorado's Hawks won 22-4.

In Game 2 of the Loara Tournament, Christopher roped a solo homerun, 350 feet, over the left field wall; his second in two days, in two games.

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Last Semester

Wow...I cannot believe this is my last semester here at CSUF as an undergrad. It seems like yesterday...OK, maybe five years ago, but who's counting...when I returned to school. What started out as my taking only a few classes to get me by while in-between jobs, ended up a journey to obtaining (finally) my Bachelor's degree. Pinch me, someone. I'm not sure if I'm awake from my dream yet.

It's not exactly over yet as I still have this semester to get through. While I'm still taking on four classes (12 units = full time student) and working full time, I am home more often now. I have two classes on campus and two online. Thank goodness!

Here are the classes I'm taking:

AMST 301 American Character (online)
COMM 407 COMM Law (online)
COMM 425 Hist & Phil of Mass Media (Wed)
COMM 465 Entertainment PR (Tues)

Great news! My graduation announcements I ordered at the start of this semester, are on their way. Woo hoo! Is it a little too premature to send them out to friends and family?!?!

With graduation around the corner, I am supposedly graduating Cum Laude, based on my GPA = 3.67. Which means, I'll have a special cord or sash to wear for graduation. I CANNOT WAIT!

More to come - stay tuned.

Friday, December 25, 2009

Disney On Ice at the Honda Center

There's still time to catch Disney On Ice presents Worlds of Fantasy at the Honda Center.

Timeless classics come to life at the newest Disney On Ice presents Worlds of Fantasy at the Honda Center.

The enchanted evening begins with a special appearance by a Disney Princess during the
Disney Princess Pre-Show. Be mesmerized by the exclusive collection of beautiful ball
gowns and mementos from the Disney Princess stories – a bonus experience not to be
missed!

The remaining show times are:

- Friday, December 25 – 4:30pm
- Saturday, December 26 – 12:00pm, 3:30 pm, 7:30pm
- Sunday, December 27 – 12:00 pm, 3:30pm, 7:30pm

For more information visit www.disneyonice.com.


One Down, One More to Go

What a year!

Spring '09 and fall '09 classes were great semesters. Four classes and working full time. Wait...four classes? What was I thinking? Despite how horrible it sounds...FOUR CLASSES AND WORKING FULL TIME, I got through it.

SPRING '09

COMM 362 Public Relations Writing with Debra Conkey was actually one of my favorite classes. It was a lot of work and sitting back while cruising was out of the question, not that I ever sit back and cruise, I'd rather shoot myself in the foot than to do that. If you never knew how to write a press release, or if you thought you knew how to write a press release before taking this course, you definitely finished the class knowing EXACTLY how to write a press release. We wrote so many of them, I never wanted to write another press release as long as I live. Or for a few days or weeks anyway. This course actually taught the proper structure on how to write a profile, promotional, or feature press release. It helps when the professor is passionate about what she teaches, too. If you love to hear about travel stories, then take this class. Professor Conkey is entertaining and informative.

RTVF 385 Radio Operations with Robert Van Riel is, as he says, "Vantastic." Professor Van Riel is a kick. He has a "Mr. Radio" voice, and this is his normal speaking voice, too. He's a little corny on the jokes and always has some sort of punch line (pa-rum-pum-crash!) for everyone in the class. He reads straight from his slideshows and his tests aren't hard -- it helps that he gives study guides with material that appear on the exams. There are two projects: a radio campaign and a 30 second commercial spot you get to write. The radio campaign is where you select a radio station you will represent where you will campaign to a prospective client. You will create a campaign slideshow on why this client should advertise with your radio program. You will break up into groups, select a campaign leader (and yours truly was our campaign leader). It was great to see what each group was pitching during their presentations. The last project was creating a radio spot and recording it. Here is the sample of my radio spot.

COMM 468 Corporate and Nonprofit PR with Dr. Andi Stein was a GREAT class. I recommend it to anyone who is serious about going into PR. In this class you will analyze the pros and cons of corporate and nonprofit PR. There are three different writing assignments which you will be required to cite sources properly, especially when referring to scholarly articles found online. The final project is your final paper on how truly different or similar corporations and nonprofit organizations handle their public relations needs.

RTVF 370 World Cinema with Riccardo de los Rios was an interesting class. I recommend you upgrade your Netflix account to three or four movies. Take advantage of the movie queue to reserve your movies ahead of time. In this class you are required to watch three foreign films a week -- and let me warn you -- they are all subtitled too. I actually enjoyed watching them. Every week is a quiz which tests your knowledge on the lecture and is a tactic the professor uses to ensure you watch the films. If you learn anything at all in the course, it's how each filmmaker uses angles and techniques to tell their story.


SUMMER '09

Summer was split up in halves: the first half was COMM 334 Feature Article Writing with Dr. Brent Foster, and MGMT 340 Organizational Management with Brian Kleiner.

COMM 334 with Dr. Foster was one of my favorite classes. We took a field trip to the Fullerton Farmer's Market where we had an assignment to observe the scenery, take in the action, and write about our experience. We were to be as descriptive as possible -- detailing sounds, smells, fragrances, and sights. In the class we also wrote a "How To" article. My "How To" article was how to shoot sports photography. It was an easy article to write since sports photography is a hobby of mine (it helped to be a sports photog intern under the direction of Teresa Wang at Cypress College). There was a quiz every week based on the lecture and the readings from the book (no, not the Bible -- the textbook, silly!). Dr. Foster kept the class engaged with film clips (especially of a film he had worked on) and with his funny jokes.

MGMT 340 was a little difficult, for some reason. There were three tests and each of them, despite the professor's "helpful" hints on his version of a study guide, proved to be more difficult than it probably should have been. We learned how organizations handled media, public relations, and the structure of hierarchy (from the worker-bee-employee on up to the CEO). We watched how companies used social media for their benefit. Professor Kleiner showed clips in class from 60-Minutes related to corporate and nonprofit companies. It was very interesting, but this was the least of my favorite classes -- probably because it was toward the tail-end of the summer and I wanted to be done with it. I was having "pre-senioritis" syndrome bad!


FALL '09

This semester was the hardest semester so far...not so much the course work but the busy-ness about it.

COMM 410 Principles of Communications Research with Dr. Robert (Bob) Wheeler. Dr. Bob, as we so inclined called him, lectured mostly from his PowerPoint presentations weekly, and gave what he calls "shout-out" quizzes. Then he tests your knowledge on key terms from the textbook. They were easy but you had to be in class to take them, that's how he took roll every week. You would be required to break into groups and select a topic to research. Our group was called the "Joykill Research Group" and we researched the Go Green initiative on the CSUF campus. Our survey, conducted through SurveyMonkey asks a random 100 students about their knowledge of the green initiative on campus and if given the opportunity to recycle or participate in the green initiative, would they?

HCOM 320 Intercultural Communications with Dr. Stella Ting-Toomey was my favorite class of the fall semester. In this class you'll learn about ethnocentricism (the belief that one's culture is superior to others) and ethnorelativism (having empathy and understanding for other cultures). You'll learn about small and large power distances (the level of oppeness and direct and explicit communications). Dr. Ting-Toomey also shows film clips in class like My Big Fat Greek Wedding, The Namesake and In America. These films relate to how different cultures, expectancies, and norms relate or don't relate to one another. I learned so much about myself and other cultures, especially when relating to traditions, ethnicities and religious views. I highly recommend taking this course. The information learned in this course is useful in any setting: work, home, personal and business settings.

COMM 464 Public Relations Management with Dr. Cynthia King was the toughest class, mostly because there was too much information and too much to do all at one time. It didn't help that the class started off with throwing us to the wolves with our clients. The class selected groups and each group was to select a nonprofit organization, and just like we did in COMM 362, we attended to their public relations needs and worked on promoting their upcoming campaign. Our nonprofit was Giving Children Hope and we help promote their Voyage of Hope event. This was their annual fundraiser. The campaign was an effort to raise awareness on the issues of human trafficking (specifically in our own backyard, Orange County), and to raise funds to help combat this in our nation, as well as in third world countries. We wrote a press release which was published in the Independent News in Buena Park/Anaheim. We created 100 full color 11x14 flyers which were posted throughout the Orange County and Inland Empire areas. We also helped with their social media sites: Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. We sent out some 30-40 e-mail letters to local colleges and universities' religious or ethics departments to promote the event; and we tried to hit local businesses and retail stores for corporate sponsorships. With only three to four weeks time in which to work with, we had little responses for sponsorships. Understandably so, since most of these businesses required more than a month to two month's time to obtain the appropriate hierarchy or level of approval. Oh, and I forgot to mention we worked with Make a Wish Foundation Orange County/Inland Empire. The entire class (in groups) competed against each other to come up with the best campaign to promote their "2Wish" campaign. Our group came up with a catchy campaign called: It Takes Five 2Wish. This meant - it takes five minutes to text "2Wish" to 90999 to donate $5.00 to raise $5,000 to help make a child's wish come true.

RTVF 350 Story Structure with Diane Ambruso was a fun class. This class teaches you how to structure a story line for a movie or short film. You'll learn how identify and create an "Inciting Incident" (the single most incident that occurs which propels the protagonist into his/her journey) and the "Climax" - the big ending or final conclusion. You'll learn how to create a logline, the most important part of a story synopsis. This includes the main character(s) and his/her/their journey and what he/she/they set(s) out to accomplish -- all in ONE sentence.


So, with one, two, and three semesters (or sessions) down, just one more to go -- then it's GRADUATION in May 2010. I'm so looking forward to it!

Here's a preview of the spring '10 semester:

COMM 407 Communications Law with Genelle Belmas
COMM 425 History and Philosophy of American Mass Communications with Gail Love
COMM 465 Entertainment PR with Carol Aames
AMST 301 American Character with Wayne Hobson

This will likely be my toughest semester so I'll likely become a hermit and unsocial until May. For this I apologize in advance.

For now, it's time off to relax and spend time with my family. I am planning a trip to Las Vegas with my mom, dad and Ariana to see Donny & Marie Osmond at the Flamingo (BTW...Donny was this season's winner of the coveted mirror-ball trophy on Dancing With the Stars) I can't wait!

HAPPY WINTER BREAK!

Sunday, May 17, 2009

One Year at CSUF Completed

My spring '09 semester began and I admit, I was a bit nervous.

I was uncertain what the semester would hold; whether I would find myself scrambling or struggling with my school load plus my work load.

I've heard horror stories about those working full-time and going to school full-time = don't mix. I was very determined to prove, not only those nay-sayers wrong, but myself wrong. I wanted to show I was capable of doing it.

My classes were:
  • COMM 362 PR Writing - Monday 7 to 10 p.m.
  • RTVF 385 Radio Operations - Tuesday 7 to 10 p.m.
  • COMM 468 Corp and Nonprofit PR - Wednesday 7 to 10 p.m.
  • RTVF 370 World Cinema - Thursday 7 to 10 p.m.
At first, I felt a bit overwhelmed and somewhat intimidated by my COMM 362 course because my professor was brutal - she made you work, and work hard. Writing was key to the class, and as long as you enjoyed writing, even a little bit, you did well in the class. I challenged myself and I think it did a world of good to get a head start on my assignments. I literally kept one week ahead of schedule throughout the semester, and kept our group on task with their individual contribution to our final project. We finished one week ahead of schedule and were the first to present to the class last week. We set the tone for the rest of the night with our presentation. I was pleased. In fact, I receive preliminary feedback from my professor and she said we did extremely well! Kudos!

RTVF 385 Radio Operations was easy. We had a reading assignment every week with a midterm and an upcoming final. I got an 97/100 on my midterm. For our group project, we presented first (naturally) and got an A+. We submitted our individual projects last week. Hopefully we'll received our results this Tuesday. I enjoyed the class and recommend it to anyone.

COMM 468 was an upper division course which counted toward post-bacc credits. We learned the differences between how corporations and nonprofits handle public relations. We studies cases and role-played during in-class assignments as start-up business owners on how to promote our business or how we handled crisis management. We had three writing assignments with no midterm and no final. Our last class was a potluck party and after the festivities, we shared what we enjoyed about the class and what we will take with us as we embark on our journeys into the real world (most people in the class were seniors who will be graduating this week).

RTVF 370 World Cinema wasn't hard but very time consuming because you were required to watch three foreign films a week, and each week followed with a quiz to test your knowledge on the previously viewed films. It was a tactic to ensure you watched the films. There were 14 weekly quizzes which my professor said he'd drop the two lowest quiz scores. There is no midterm or final, but a final analysis paper on one of the films you watched or a compare/contrast report of two films you watched. There was a handout the professor passed out stating the criteria for each assignment from which we were to select. I have a greater appreciation for foreign films, but was quite disturbed with many of the films' content because it dealt quite a bit with nudity, psychological issues, infidelity, adultery, and religious conflict. If nothing else, it solidified my faith as a Christian.

I have one final this week - RTVF 385, and after that I'm officially done for the semester, with an exception of submitting my final paper either hand-delivering a paper copy Thursday, May 21, or as late as May 26 via e-mail. My plan is to have it completed this week to submit Thursday. Amibitious, aren't I?

I was an active member of the Multi-Cultural Mentor/Mentee Leadership Program where I met a terrific mentor, Ruth and my fellow-mentee, Helen. They were fabulous. We attended a CSUF Titan Baseball game one Friday night and had a blast, despite the fact they were non-baseball fans! Unfortunately, we never did meet our faculty adviser. Perhaps next year?

I attended COMM WEEK for the first time and found it to be very imformative and fun. I listened to two speakers and attended my first Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA) mixer. Nichole and I had fun because it was Casino Royale Night -- it's always fun to gamble money especially when it isn't yours!!! I didn't win a single door prize! Boo!

My semester wasn't all blissful and a bed of roses, either. It had its share of ups and downs, sleepless nights or long hours working on homework. It was quite tough to juggle my schedule but if it weren't for my planner, I don't know how I could've done it all. I lived and breathed my planner, my Blackberry and my mac laptop! We were inseperable.

I couldn't have done it without the help of my husband either. I know he will never know this but I really really really appreciate his support. He took care of the kids and Panther! Thank goodness.

So, to end this journal entry, I must bid you goodnight. I will start on my final paper tonight.

5.0 Quake Shook Southland

A 5.0 quake shook the southland at 8:39 p.m. according to U.S. Geological Survey it centered one mile south east of Lennox, Hawthorne area in Los Angeles.

What felt like a graduated shake, it began low-grade, lasting for approximately 15 seconds. The quake was felt as far north as Hollywood and as far east to Palmdale and farther south into the San Diego County.

No reports of structural damage or injuries as of 9:54 p.m.

Saturday, December 20, 2008

Finally Finals are Over

My first official semester is over at CSUF. I think overall it's been fun. I didn't meet as many friends as I anticipated, but the very few I did, turned out to be passionate students -- like ME! I crack myself up sometimes.

I always try to have a "buddy" in each of my classes just in case if I had to miss a class (which is super RARE), I can refer to this go-to person for any notes. But, what I learned early on in the semester, which surprised me greatly, was that even at the university level, students (or shall I say "younger" students) aren't any different than say the junior college-level students, in that they still skip classes, only show up to turn in papers/projects or to take mid-terms, tests and finals. So...I couldn't rely on them even if I wanted.

I found that out to be true for my COMM 361 and COMM 346 classes. Oddly enough, my RTVF 375 Documentary Film class is where I found the two fellow-classmates, Elayne and Tony to be serious students. Thankfully, we were able to hold two study-groups before the final and bounced information off one another during our intense study sessions. I found this to be very helpful for the final. I'm bummed we didn't do this for the mid-term.

Overall, I felt okay with each of the finals. I know I have at least strong Bs (hopefully As) in all classes. My kids have all said, "that's great Mommy!" :-( I wanted all As. Overachiever, I know.

Now...I have at the very least 5 weeks ahead of nothingness. What will I do with my time? I could take up walking again -- unlikely though in this Alaskan-weather we've been having. While I welcome the downtime, I don't welcome the idleness. I'll take a few weeks off mentally then it's time to prepare for the spring semester. I'm looking forward to it. I'm a nerd that way, I suppose.

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Final #1 Done

I should be asleep by now but instead I had the urge to blog.

Well, one final done and two more to go.

Tonight's final was a little more difficult than I expected. I circled those questions I wasn't sure about or that I hadn't answered at all and made one pass through the entire exam. Fifty questions. That's all. Fifty.

I panicked when everybody in the class started to file up one by one returning tests and placing their fresh new scantrons on the table in front of me. Cheaters!

"Hurry up, Annie," I thought.

Okay...so a few deep breaths and I was so over the stress! I didn't care that I was the second or third to the last person in the room.

I went back through the questions I didn't answer initially. After a quick once-over, I was finally done.

All the fear subsided and my color was slowly returning to my face. My equilibrium was straightening out and my levitated body was returning to its upright position!

Final over!

Like you've never felt like this before?

Comments?

Sunday, December 14, 2008

Two Down, One More to Go


Yes, I'm making great progress!

The only drawback is I deprive sleep...but that is par for the course during finals week. I went to bed about 3:45 a.m. and woke up at 7 a.m. in order to make breakfast for Christopher before his game. He's playing in a pick up game for one of the Mustangs team. Good thing he already plays on a Mustangs team, huh?

It wasn't all that bad having to wake up that early and what would have been my natural reaction to go back to bed to get more sleep, I decided against it and am glad I did. It's close to 9:50 a.m. and I'm already done with two of three study guides. I'm tackling the last of them now: COMM 346 Entertainment and Tourism. The questions seem reasonable. I did however, call my professor to get clarification on one of the questions. You know, you can never be too sure about these things.

By the way...last week our media person for Team USA sent me an email about a writer from Rivals.com, David Biderman, wanted to interview Christopher about Team USA and their trip to Guatemala and asked questions about trying out in 2009, as he is one of two players eligible to return. Christopher had that interview yesterday. Exciting! I was shooed out of the room because Christopher didn't want to get nervous while answering questions. I was told by David the interview will be posted online in a few weeks and I will be contacted with the link - which I'll post here and on my other blog as well. Should be interesting!

Enough of this for now. Off to studying.