the summer of cake

Last Friday was my final day as a News & Observer intern. Every time someone leaves, they (not sure who) get a cake to say goodbye and everyone collects around it in the newsroom. This time, we were surrounded by the images and smirks about John Edwards' affair and possible "love child" while consuming way too much sugar and being encouraged by seasoned staffers to keep our heads up in nosediving industry.

Newspapers aren't doing so great. As a result, there's been a lot of cake this summer, probably at every daily print newsroom in the country. They'll come around... the industry is changing, and changing rapidly. I like to think of the Internet as a child star, like Mylie Cyrus or Lindsay Lohan... someone who grew up too fast and then wasn't mature enough to handle the newly aquired attention and power. Someone needs to put a leash on the Internet. I know in a country that promotes freedom of speech and freedom of the press like none other that may seem a bit conservative, but its the perfect example of unrestrained freedom and the damaging power it has. The Internet has brought a lot of good, but an equal amount of bad because of the freakish growth over the last decade.

Tirade over. Here are some of the last pictures from my summer as a newspaper photographer.

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I spent a lot of time on tax-free weekend. Lots of colors, superstores, tired moms, whiny kids.





Duke Power's president during a break in a public hearing regarding a new bill that people seem to be unhappy about.


Old man shoes!


Campbell University starts their football team back up after a 50+ year hiatus... almost the entire team is made up of redshirt freshmen.

hot zone

As a (mostly) native North Carolinian, I felt validated by an LA native today when she said that Raleigh is "pretty sweet, actually." We were talking about things to do, nightlife, etc, and I said I liked Chapel Hill better. And she stood in Raleigh's defense. Awww.

I'm currently reading Kevin Sites' book In the Hot Zone. Though I've maybe felt like this once or twice, it reminds me of a few journalists I know who live life like this. I find myself wondering if this is the life I'm headed for. Am I okay with this? Instinct tells me "yes," rationality tells me, "you need to think it over." Good thing school is tying me down for another year. But it's a thread stretched thin.

**

"There is a duality at work here that is hard for me to comprehend. I am enticed by the geographic disjuncture of my journey, the shock of sensory overload, the new smells, structures and lives that wash over me on these drives. Simultaneously, I am lulled by the comfort of it all; the fact that there is too much to understand. Instead of a reporter, for this moment, I am a dog with my head out the window, the rush of air creating a comforting buzz that silences the need to know more--at least for now.

"In every new p lace, this drive is where the journey begins. During this drive, my inability to speak the local language doesn't matter; it is about smiles and pleasantries done in charades. On this drive, there is no negotiation over prices, no cold sweat over the time I have to shoot, write, edit and transmit a half-dozen new stories. There are no technical concerns, no hunger or sleep deprivation--for a moment, even the alternating sense of alienation and loneliness disappear."

-Kevin Sites, In the Hot Zone, pp 200