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Web Story (Japan)

Before the disaster in Japan, Zack Branham was just another person. An American living in Japan to teach English in schools. Many people would be in a state of shock and disbelief at the devastation left behind by the earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan recently. You could even say that an experience like that could be enough to cause a person to just give up. In this case, the same experience showed the world how strong a person could be, and how far they could go for a person they care about.

Zack was living in in Kuji, a small coastal town in Japan, when the earthquake hit. Fortunately, the area was not hit very hard and the damages were minimal. Once it became known that it was safe outside, Branham's attention steered to his girlfriend. She was living 4 miles away in a town off the ocean and he was concerned that she wasn't as lucky. It was then that he decided to start his search for her.

He walked for 24 hours until he finally made it to the city, past the guards, and through the debis. Branham ended up running into members of the Board of Education who knew his girlfriend. They happened to know where she was and pointed him in the right direction to finding her. After his journey, Zack was finally reunited with his girlfriend. She was found in a building cutting up rags to cover the bodies of those around her who did not survive.

Procrastination

Last week, there was an in-class assignment given out. As a follow up, we were assigned to write an editorial on procrastination for homework.

We were given an article about a teenager winning an award (and $35,000) from her study on procrastination. She presented her findings at the National Young Epidemiology Scholars in Washington D.C. She found that psychological stress was an additional reason behind procrastination rather than just laziness. She also found that if the habit of not procrastinating is instilled at an early age, than a child will be less likely to put things off later in life. The article also mentions comments from Caroline's mother, Cathy. She believes that the amount of responsibilities young people take on could be a factor in things not getting accomplished on time. She feels that procrastination may be a nonfactor. It could just be that there is not enough time to get everything done.

I tend to agree with both Caroline's findings as well as her mother's idea. I do find sometimes that there is just not enough time to get everything done when it is supposed to be completed. It is also very easy to get into the habit of putting tasks off when you have been able to in the past. I think that Caroline's idea of starting the practice of not procrastinating early on could be a help in preventing it from occuring as much as it does.

News Story

Anchor: Another chapter of the Gilgo Beach murders was added to the story tonight. Suffolk County police found yet another body in the same area 4 were found last year.

Anchor: Tests will be done on the remains in order to determine if they are in fact Shannon Gilbert. It was announced that the police will continue to search into Nassau County next week. There are still no suspects at this time. We can only hope that answers will eventually be found.

Islander's lately

The past two weeks have been absolutely insane, so I apologize for not posting. I've been trying to get done everything I need to,(like figuring out why I've been having such a hard time posting pictures to this blog, then last week my car got hit by someone not paying attention in the school parking lot which has been an absolute disaster, and then my boyfriend has something wrong with him. I've spent half of this week in the doctor's offices and trying to find out what it is. But all that aside, I'm back. And it's time to catch you up. 3/26 and 3/31 were crazy games. The Islanders played against the Flyers and Rangers respectively. Anyone who knows hockey knows that those are two very difficult teams with very...interesting fans. This is entirely my own opinion, but I think that Philadelphia fans are the most obnoxious ones in the league in addition to being rude. The rivalry between the Islanders and both of these teams is a pretty big one. The stands were filled (admittingly more with fans from the other team) and security was out and very noticeable. The night of the Flyer game, although there was a large number of people there, I had a hard time getting enough pictures because there we SO many Flyer fans. Drunk Flyer fans. Intimidating, drunk Flyer fans.

No. Seriously. They're crazy.

I've been to Islander/Flyer games as a fan before getting this internship. The guys I hang around with have the same competitive rivalry with the other teams as most men, but they're generally very nice and not looking to start trouble. When the Flyers come to town...it's a totally different story. And it gets scary sometimes. Knowing the kinds of people that tend to make the trip from Philly, I was extremely hesitant to ask many Flyer fans for pictures (which definitely limited the number of people that I was able to ask). You could say that by doing that I was being biased and hurting myself in the long run, but it only became more and more reaffirmed when one of my coworkers said that the Flyer fans he had been asking were being rude to him for even suggesting to be on the Islander website. I rest my case.

Needless to say- that game I didn't finish the number of packs I was supposed to. But the upside was that nobody else did either. I think I was able to finish 3, which was an accomplishment in my eyes.

The story from the Ranger game last week is definitely one for another day.

TV Commercial

Another posting of an assignment from my Mass Communications class. It's a commercial for a fictional product, D-Matter.

Radio/TV

Radio
Zach Brandham set out on a journey to find his girlfriend after the disasters in Japan. He walked 4 miles to the village and had to sneak in by pretending to be with emergency responders. After 20 hours of walking and with some help from luck, Brandham and his girlfriend were both safe and reunited.

TV
As always after tragedies, there are stories of luck and survival. Zach Brandham not only survived the earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan, but set out on a 20 hour walk to make sure his girlfriend was safe. Once he walked the 4 miles to her village, he had to pull his hat over his face to try and blend in with a group of emergency responders in order to be allowed in. Once he was able to get in the village, he still needed to find exactly where she would be. After walking for 20 hours, he ran into people who knew where she was. He found her cutting up cloth to cover the bodies around her. Both stayed behind to help the people they taught English to.

CNN had a great interview with Zach Brandham in which he got to tell his story for himself