mizzou

I’m singing the hump day blues

Posted on by Mollie Barnes

Today is going to be a struggle I can already tell it. It doesn’t help much that Nick is going to the Lake of the Ozarks and I’m stuck here in class! Although it’s probably best he’s gone because Isabel is moving in with me for the remainder of the Missourian class because she’s homeless.

I have two stories in the works, and although this is the final countdown for the class, I’m feeling slower and less productive/creative than ever. Either people are being trickier about giving me interviews, or I’m running out of energy to chase them. Probably a mix of the both.

Although it was pretty neat to see analytics of the Missourian yesterday and see that my story about the two little libraries was the second most read last story in the past couple of weeks with about 1,200 original views!

I also have a job interview tomorrow that I should prepare for! Eek. I must start thinking of goals I have accomplished and my weaknesses so I can answer those questions I can never seem to answer at interviews. Wish me luck!

Becoming a little hypercautious

Posted on by Mollie Barnes

The second time I tried to use the microfilm at the Journalism school library was definitely not a success. The librarian girl couldn’t even get it to work so she asked me to go to Ellis (the main library). Once I got there though it was infinitely better because the equipment there is so much nicer and works a billion thousand times better.

So I actually got the flood stuff finished in about 40 minutes, and it was actually okay because I learned some stuff about the time when I was only a mere five months old! There were people! And news! And not everyone was a baby. It was nice to feel young and even better to finish working at 5 so I could go on a bike ride on the glorious day. 🙂

Later on at night it was strange because I was riding my bike and I saw a house on Ash Street with a lot of people and caution tape all around it and I thought about getting on my reporter face and going in, but I was wearing my workout clothes and with my boyfriend, Nick. I guess sometimes you just have to be a regular citizen. But it turned out that it was a search related to an ongoing homicide investigation.

It was strange because I feel like working at the Missourian has made me so much more hyperaware of all the crime that happens locally that later that night when I was putting my bike up in my apartment complex in a hallway under the staircase, and Nick was around the corner taking the bike rack off the car I heard a series of shots.

My heart seriously stopped and I slowly walked around the corner and then I saw Nick moving around still fussing with the bike rack and realized my mistake that it was just a bunch of firecrackers going off. Phew. I suppose my dad would be happy though that I’m a little more aware of my surroundings and cautious than I used to be.

Or at least that’s what he told me last time I got scared of an event in the news. After all that stuff in Miami about the guy eating someone’s face because of bath salts, I really flipped out and asked my dad to start leaving the light on for me when I was coming home late at night, because he usually just turned it off when he went to bed. He was glad and said, “good I’m glad you’re finally afraid of something, maybe it will teach you to be a little more cautious.”

Parents have the most twisted logic sometimes.

It’s us against the man

Posted on by Mollie Barnes

Yesterday I covered a meeting about a new CVS that wants to open up downtown, which would demolish three old buildings. One of these building currently houses McAdams’ Ltd. Fine Jewelry. It felt to me like a classic part of history, where big corporations shut down smaller local businesses. To further play into the stereotype the man representing CVS was a lawyer wearing a business suit who introduced himself with a firm handshake and a business card. He even answered a question with, “I know, but I’m not allowed to say.”

Like hello big bad stereotype coming to demolish the building that houses the local store owned by an older woman, which has been in business for 40 years. I felt like I was helping to play a role in the pre-Wall-E era, or if not playing a role, just sitting by and watching it happen.

After the meeting, the lawyer was fine with talking to me, but the owner of the shop said she didn’t want to be quoted in the paper and just wanted to go about this quietly.

I went back to the newsroom and used what I had to write up a story. Since she was at a public meeting, I could use her quotes from there.

As I walked out of the newsroom afterwards though, I wondered if I had just lost her chance at winning this fight she was silently preparing. I felt bad about it. I guess there’s nothing I can really do about it though, except hope that more awareness about the situation actually helps her cause rather than hurt it.

I personally am only concerned because I’m a horrible driver and I hate hate hate traffic restrictions that don’t let you turn left because they really only should be in use during peak traffic times, but half the time I run to a store like that it’s at weird times in the day, when making a left would be completely fine.

Overall, I’m satisfied with the story, and I think it was one of my best at the Missourian yet. Next up: Boone County Fair stories!