Reznet

This is my third week back in school at New Mexico Highlands University. It's just school and required classes that I would other wise not bother to take.

I have a Newspaper Practice class taught by The Las Vegas Optic editor and publisher, Tom McDonald. It's fun and it is the only class that I can walk into that I'm confedent about. Our required text is the AP Style book and I already have it, thanks to AIJI I saved $37.

Monday July 2nd was my first time working in a news room. I thought I was just going to get a general tour and feel of the place but I was immediatly sent next door to the Farmington Civic Center to do a story on the Gem and Mineral Show going on for the Freedom Days Celebration.

I was glad that it felt like doing a story for AIJI because it was easy for me and I enjoyed it. If it weren't for AIJI, I wouldn't be here and I would probably be at home working a boring, 8-5 job that doesn't help me what-so-ever with my career.

Last night I was looking at the Argus Leader papers that they leave outside our doors every morning. They were just piled up on the inside of my door.

I'm not very partial to newspapers and i just flipped threw them real fast and threw them away.

But one front page had my attention, because two words in it caught my eye.

Papa Roach.

Last night I learned words that no one should learn.

They were dirty words from another Native American tribe. I'm Navajo and I don't even know any Navajo words -dirty or otherwise. But last night I learned more words from that tribe than my own.

It was a blast, I have to admit.

This gives you an insite as to what we AIJI students are up to when all our work is done and we have some free time on our hands. (Not that we talk about dirt things all the time...)

Our day at the water park was fun. “Mandatory fun,” everyone kept saying. I didn’t think I would have fun either. But I did. I can still feel it in my arms.

It was hot and muggy that day, but rain was promised for later.

I sat around until lunch was served. Hamburgers, hot dogs, chips, fruit salad and pork beans were on the menu.

After, when my food was settled, I went to the go-cart arena and raced Victoria, Amanda, Nancy, Princella and Neda. I came in third because Victoria wouldn’t let me pass and I broke my nail.

There is a place in America that most people don't know even exists. It looks like this place but take away the trees, the nice houses and the paved roads. It's like this place but take away the smiling faces and the politeness of the people.

The other day I received an assignment for our visit to the Argus Leader. I was to interview Robert Morast, the entertainment editor at the Argus Leader newspaper and write a profile on him. That will be another piece, but something he said was very interesting.

Morast interviewed Otep Shamaya, vocalist from the rock band Otep a while ago.

“She’s really cool, very artistic,” Morast said.

VERMILLION, S.D. – Saturday was movie night for the American Indian Journalism Institution. I chose one particular movie for its comedy.

“It was a good movie,” I said after I watched it.

This comedy is about two strangers who hook up at a club and then have a baby together.

At first it seemed like a mistake and it was sad when actress Katherine Heigl, playing Alison Scott, cried in the gynecologist's office when she first learned that she was pregnant.

VERMILLION, S.D. --Thursday I was in the Al Neuharth Media Center until 10:30 pm working on a speech article. Boring except for the awesome new music that kept me entertained.

During my writing blocks, I took the time to browse the music libraries on Myspace. I found that new music had been added or music was there that I never experienced.

The album from rock band Otep, The Ascension, released in late March, was available for browsers like me to listen to. A new sound and lyrics about the wrongs of the world blared in my ears and I liked it.

By Andi Murphy

For Jasa Santos, her 17-hour drive from her hometown Arlee, Mont. to Vermillion, S.D. was quite peaceful except for a few spots of rain, risky driving and shopping binges.

A 17 hour drive in her 2004 Pontiac GrandAm would seem financially impossible for other drivers this day and age what with the gas prices being so high. But this did not faze her.

Santos graduated from the University of Montana on May 12 with a major in Print Journalism. The commute from her home in Arlee to Missoula was 30 miles and buying gas nearly everyday was not such a problem for her.