Journalism Perspective

Now I have a greater appreciation for every story that I read in newspapers or magazines, especially those published in the national media like The New York Times. This course definitely helped me realize that the job of a journalist is tough and a lot goes into reporting and doing it right. While I have really wanted to work for a magazine or a newspaper for a long time, I’m wondering if I’m really cut out for it after being in Media Writing. Because I’m such a frustrated perfectionist and take forever to write a story, I know it’d be a challenge to make those deadlines. And, although I feel a little more confident in writing for the media now, I also see lots of opportunities for improvement.

Postpartum Depression Strikes Fathers, Too

(The New York Times photo)
After childbirth, men can have postpartum depression as troublesome as women can. Although the condition is uncommon, fathers are two and a half times more likely to be depressed when the mothers are depressed. Postpartum depression in a parent can also affect the infant’s cognitive and emotional development. -- The New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/08/health/08mind.html?hpw

NCC student, Nissa Passmore, finds her way

Nissa Passmore may be one of the happiest students at Normandale. So much so that when she talks openly about her life, she does so with laughter and without regrets. What’s more, Passmore has found her niche in worlds still considered male-dominated.
“I haven’t felt that growing up,” the NCC student said.
Shortly after Passmore was born in Corning, N.Y., her family moved to Minnesota. At the age of four, she started playing hockey when her brothers started playing the game.
Passmore remembers that ice hockey was a man’s game back then.
“Before they had women’s hockey, there was a sport called Ringette; it was a pretty big Canadian and European sport, but on hockey skates,” Passmore said. “You just had a straight stick with no blade and a rubber ring with a hole in the middle instead of a puck; and, you pretty much had the same room.”
“Then, we all got together and voted in the early 90s. However, it was more like, ‘Do you guys (girls) want to start playing hockey?’
When the female players were doing the changeover to hockey, Passmore remembers the transition was difficult.
“The men were so against it that they got mad at us,” Passmore said. “There was constant trouble because they thought that we were taking away from their ice time.”
“They, the Peewee male players who were about 12, used to have the rink all the time. We had to go at the odd hours at early mornings, because they didn’t want their schedules to change. There were negative reactions coming from both the guys and the parents, the Eagan Boosters later ... I think it was pretty much everywhere.
“So we (female players) got the bad hours and heard stuff like, ‘women shouldn’t be playing hockey,’ ‘women shouldn’t be doing this’ or ‘it might hurt the women’s back.’ It just took forever.”
In 1994, Minnesota actually became the first state to approve women's ice hockey as a high school varsity sport, according to Women’s College Hockey in the U.S.A. at http://www.whockey.com/univ/usa/. This happened before women’s hockey became part of the Winter Olympics in 1998 at Nagano, Japan.
“I still think that women should be allowed to ‘check’ but they can’t,” Passmore said. “We still have a ways to go.”
For two years, Passmore, a Minnesota Wild fan, played on the Eagan High School girls’ hockey team until she dropped out of school in the 10th grade and just started working.
Afterward, Passmore got her graduate equivalency diploma and found her way to college.
At first, she thought she wanted to be a nurse. But, when Passmore transferred to and applied at Dakota County Technical College, St. Cloud State University and Inver Hills Community College with a 4.0 grade point average, she just couldn’t get her foot in the door fast enough.
“They kept talking about waiting and that it’d take years to get in,” Passmore said. “And, I think that I was going to be 23-24 and I was kind of in a rush.”
That’s when Passmore moved back to New York to a small town with a school where she knew she could get into nursing.
“But, I went one semester, started working on the farms, stopped going to school and met a boyfriend and fell in love,” Passmore said. “That’s when I lived out there two years and moved back here.”
So, Passmore left the boyfriend in New York?
“I left him in New York. It probably ended up being the best thing that I ever did,” Passmore said. “But, it was a good experience and changed my life.”
While working on the farms, Passmore got an appreciation for being outside and seeing how hard the farmers have to work to maintain their farmland and equipment as well as help their neighbors’ farms.
“It was a lot of hard work up there and especially because it was a poor community,” Passmore said. “And, they had the kind of equipment that you had to fix all the time.”
When Passmore came back to Minnesota, “I had to move back home and it’s been kind of difficult to live at home again. But, I’m glad to be home,” Passmore said. “And, I’ve paid off a lot of my bills and financial aid. I’ll have a big loan when I’m all done. “
When she returned to college, this time it was at Normandale. But, when Passmore started a student worker job on campus with Building Services, that’s when her academic life started to fall in place.
“Before, I transferred schools all the time. But, I think working here really helped me,” Passmore said, “and, getting to know everybody, just feeling comfortable with it.”
“And you really get to know the individual departments (at NCC) and learn how to do pretty much everything; you get what needs to be done. I never know what we have going on usually, because we do so many different things.”
Gaining experience in the department also led Passmore to a big change in her career path to construction management.
“So, like Mike Koreen (physical plant director) and Chris Broin (foreman), they took me to the business meetings, a few of them, when the construction (Activities Building) was going on,” Passmore said. “So, they try to help, kind of show me what my major would be about.”
“And, they’ve been really flexible, so that if you can’t make it, if you have to study, they always say, ‘school is first.’ Right now, I can’t do too much because I can’t miss my classes. They are just a really good group to work with.”
Because she played hockey for 14 years, Passmore doesn’t mind working outdoors on campus either during the cold winters.
“I really like it when I’m working. I do love it, I don’t know why,” she said.
Another thing Passmore really likes about NCC is the teachers here. “I think they’re some of the best I’ve seen ever,” Passmore said.
Does she have a favorite teacher?
“So far, Jim Frankenfeld, have you had him?” Nissa said. “He’s just so ... he deserves recognition. “
“I’ve never had a teacher that cares as much as he does. And, he just brings a class together. And, he answers e-mails right away.
The first day of class, he said it’s his job, ‘E-mail me, I want to be bothered.’ I really respect him. I took his speech class; it just ended yesterday.”
“I had Gordon Graham for interpersonal and he’s another really good (Communication) teacher,” Passmore said.
“I had Rick Dunning in geology. When he talks about his subjects, you can tell he’s enthusiastic and he makes you want to pay attention, ” Passmore said. “It’s an interesting class. You wouldn’t think rocks would be interesting, but it has been.”
Which instructor at NCC has had the biggest impact on Passmore?
“I would say Jim Frankenfeld just because he does cares so much,” Passmore said. “And, that was half my problem growing up when I was young. Teachers just didn’t really seem to care. So, that’s special.”
Regarding Frankenfeld’s “Public Speaking” class on Tuesdays from 6-10 p.m., “I was really scared to take the class but it was fun,” Passmore said. “I hated to see it end in certain ways.”
Did Public speaking help her become a better speaker?
“Actually, I wouldn’t say ‘become,’ but it helped me be aware of the problems that I have giving speeches,” Passmore said, “because you are forced to watch yourself on video.”
“So, that really helped me because I kind of slur my words a lot when I’m nervous, or mumble. And, so, I didn’t realize it until I watched the tape.
“Then, I called my mom up and said, ‘Mom, why didn’t you tell me I have a lisp?’ She said, ‘You don’t have a lisp, you just mumble sometimes.’”
When Passmore graduates with an associate in arts degree in May, the 27-year-old plans to head off to Minnesota State University, Moorhead, to get her bachelor’s degree in construction management.
“A lot of friends in the construction field got me into it,” Passmore said. “When they went on contracting jobs, I used to travel with them and I just found it really interesting.”
Passmore said her mother thinks construction management is a perfect fit because of her type of personality.
“My mom knew someone who was a female who went into the field and she’s doing great,” Passmore said. It’s a good job for women. They need women in the field and I find the craft interesting.”
Has Passmore been happy with her decisions?
“Yeah, I’m really excited,” Passmore said. “So, next (fall) semester, I have to take construction graphics and all the core classes. I’m really excited.”
Looking back, Passmore does not have any regrets that she didn’t pursue nursing.
“I don’t think I would have made a good nurse. I like getting dirty, I like being physical,” Passmore said.

Obama orders 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan

This large U.S Army convoy was near Maidan Shar, Afghanistan, Monday (Associated Press photo).
WASHINGTON — In a rare Sunday meeting with military leaders in the Oval Office, President Obama ordered some 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan. Obama plans to share this strategy Tuesday in a televised speech. Last week, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton asked the president of France to send an extra 1,500. Australia already has 1,550 troops there. -- The New York Times, Nov. 30, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/01/world/asia/01orders.html?_r=1&hp

Could police have saved the 14-year-old victim?

With the discovery of the 11 dismembered bodies last week, Milwaukee police released the tapes Monday of the 911 emergency calls from three women who tried to get help for one of the victims before his death.
According to the transcript of the 911 calls, police might have saved the 14-year-old Laotian, Konerak Sinthasomphone, had they completely followed through on concerns voiced by Glenda Cleveland and her daughter and niece on May 27 at 2 a.m.
“He’s butt-naked and he has been beaten up. He is very bruised up. He can’t stand,” the niece said to the dispatcher. “He has no clothes on. He is really hurt ... He needs some help.”
When the dispatcher transferred the call to the fire department, the niece repeated her apprehension about the young victim. Then, after the sheriff's office got the call, the police checked out the apartment.
For the reason of insanity, Jeffrey L. Dahmer, 31, confessed to killing 17 people that included the 11 found dead in his rented apartment.
When Dahmer was arrested, he told police about the two officers who had stopped by his apartment two months earlier to investigate the emergency call. However, after the officers left the apartment, Dahmer then killed Sinthasomphone.
As a result, the boy’s remains were part of those found at Dahmer’s residence.
Although unidentified, two officers have been suspended with pay. Although Cleveland was concerned and followed up again with police, their lawyer said the officers did not see anything that would suggest the 14-year-old was in distress.

Can a simple drink make you intelligent?

Since it was the best deal in town, I bought a large bottle of drinking water for $1. Little did I know at the time that I would get a lot more for my money than the 33.8-ounce of water inside the container.
Because I had never tried Glacéau smartwater before, I was pleased when the cashier at Target praised the item. She also let me know that it does a lot more than “hydrate responsibly.”
(Photo courtesy of Glaceau).
The cashier’s story began when her boyfriend recommended that she drink smartwater before she took some big tests. She did just that and surprisingly passed the exams.
“And, another friend who normally doesn’t even pass his tests also drank the water and did well. This was really a big deal for him,” the cashier said.
Unbelievably, I was able to keep a straight face when I admitted that I had never heard of this before. Since I had nothing to offer, I smiled and thanked the Target worker for her good words.
Actually, I appreciated the friendly cashier’s “thumbs up,” I really did. Because the truth is, I can use all the help that I can get when it comes to taking college tests.
Long after I left Target, I could not get the so-called elixir and its possibilities off my mind. Sure, I was skeptical. But, who am I to judge something badly before I even try it? After all, colleges teach students to keep an open mind and think critically.
Therefore, I conducted an online survey to learn if other students had had similar positive experiences with using Glaceau smartwater before tests. Among the 170 students invited by e-mail, 18 participated in the survey.
When students were ask if they had ever tried Glacéau smartwater before, 38.9 percent had tried it and the same percentage had not. Additionally, 16.7 percent drink the water regularly and 5.6 percent did not know if they had ever had it before.
When students were asked if they or their friends had personally consumed smartwater before taking school tests, 5.6 percent said yes. However, 66.7 percent said no and 27.8 percent did not know.
While 11.1 percent said Glaceau smartwater makes you more intelligent, 55.6 percent said no and 5.6 percent did not care. Also, of the 27.8 percent who were unsure, Krista Manuelson said, “Is it smart to drink smartwater? Are you smart for drinking it or smarter for drinking it?”
Thus, overall, results of this survey showed that it might be wiser if learners relied on more than well-regarded water for their academic success. And, although vapor distillation and electrolyte-enhancement might be as good as hydration, scholars interested in improving their test scores and grade point averages might want to take a look at more tried and true methods to become smarter when taking tests.
And, after trying those more reliable academic approaches, if students still want to imbibe on a little wonder water to stay hydrated during a test, then that’s OK. Like one student, Tammy Robertson, said, “People need to stay hydrated while learning. So drink up everybody ... it sure cannot make you dumber.”

Taking time out to relieve stress not easy for students

(Graphic by MCT Campus)
The best way to relieve stress is by exercise like brisk walking or working out at the health center. Still, I've found it hard to keep up regular routines, although exercise really helps my brain.
Another good stress reliever is to just get away from all the homework and tasks to spend time with friends/family. Although I frequently turn down invitations because of school work, my attitude and outlook always improves when I finally say “yes.”
After attending a state college in Texas in the 70s, I returned to school two years ago. Although I should be old enough and smart enough to know better, I’ve taken on unhealthy habits common to college students -- not getting enough sleep, spending too many hours at a computer and desk, eating less healthy food on the run and rarely taking time out for myself -- because there's always so much to do and so little time.
Interestingly, Debbie Tillman, director of Normandale's Office of Student Disabilities, said studies prove that community college students are under more stress than other students. This is because they try to do too much and constantly juggle school, family, work and other commitments.