Friday, January 28, 2011

Profile - Jeff Anderson

My profile plan is to do my profile on LBCC Assistant basketball coach Jeff Anderson.

For my three sources I plan to use Jeff himself because you have to go to the source to get to the best information.  The second source I hope to use is one of the players on the team to get a better understanding on what the players like about him.  My last source I plan to use is LBCC head basketball coach Randy Falk because he can give me even more inside information on what he saw when he hired Jeff.

Here are some questions I plan to ask Jeff:

What exactly is your job or jobs here at LBCC?
Where did you go to school and what is your degree in?
How did you end up at LBCC?
What made you want to be a basketball coach?
Did you play a lot of sports growing up?
What is the best and worst parts of your job?
What are you passionate about outside of work?


Jeff's "Claim to Fame" is being a LBCC men's basketball assistant coach.  I have seen him very active in practice and really helping teach the players different skills, now it is time for me to learn about the man behind the coach that I see in practice.

Monday, January 24, 2011

Three Things from Stephen King

In King's book it is filled with many good tips of the trade for any good writer. I think every writer needs to have a sort of "Toolbox" as King talks about. I also think that for different writers your toolbox might be different. As for me, my toolbox would include these three things:




First tip from King that I could use in this class is vocab/grammar. King talks about knowing the basics of grammar. I think this one is important because I think depending on the topic that your writing about you need to use the write vocab. When I write about sports there is different words I put in that mean different things. Each section of writing has it's own vocab.



Second is form. King talks about adding 's to the end of a word even if it ends with s. I could use this because the form would help me look at punctuation which sometimes I am not so good on.  Practice makes perfect.



The last one is just writing and reading a lot. King talks about writing 1,000 words a day for six days. By writing more and more each day I can get better and get good ideas for this class. Reading a lot of the work in the class can help me get better at looking at my own work for mistakes.


King is a great writer and has many tips other than the ones in this book.

Sunday, January 23, 2011

"The Dilemma" of The Guy Code

What would you do if you saw your best friend's wife cheating with another man? How and when would you tell him about it? Those are some of the questions that face Ronny in the movie "The Dilemma."

"The Dilemma" stars Vince Vaughn and Kevin James as business partners in the auto industry.  They have the biggest presentation of their life taking place in a few days.  While Kevin who plays Nick is focused on the project, Vince who plays Ronny, sees Kevin's wife Winona Ryder cheating on him and Vince must figure out how to tell his best friend that his wife is cheating on him right before the big presentation. "The Dilemma" really has a good mix of the drama of the topic but it also adds comedy in just the right places.

"The premise is actually something I think any twenty- or thirty-something can relate to:  what do you do when you find out your best friend’s spouse is cheating?" Said Elena Nola who wrote her review on the BSC website.

“The Dilemma” has a few good parts to the movie. The way that Vaughn and James play off each other really fit this film very well, both actors are seasoned veterans that know how to get laughs. One of the best parts of the movie was the many different sports analogies throughout the whole movie. Many Vaughn films contain a heavy sports mention in them and this is another one that does.

In the movie they have many sports terms when speaking about their job about being in the “Redzone” and being close to a “Touchdown” which means the big presentation. They also are at a Blackhawks game during the movie and ends at a game as well. The last one is the use of the speech from the movie “Miracle” to get James pumped up before the presentation.

“Vaughn films rarely fail to access their male audience, but the ongoing use of sports analogies in this particular flick should strike an exceptionally masculine chord!” said Justine Ciarrocchi who writes movie reviews online.

Where this movie is a miss is in the length. The run time is 111 minutes which by the end seems like it did not need to be that long for the story to play out. IMDB lists this movie as a “comedy and drama.” While there were some funny moments in the movie, there could have been more comedy with the situations that were presented in the film.

My take on “The Dilemma” is it does have funny moments and many sports references that any guy can relate to. The movie can relate to really anyone because it is a real life situation. The movie might have been a tad too long but overall it was a fun little comedy/drama to watch in January which normally has mediocre movies at best. If you have time to go see it, if not it is worth a DVD rental when it comes out.

Title: "The Dilemma"
Who: Ronny and Nick, best buds, Ronny has a secret to tell Nick.
What:  The Dilemma of how to tell his bud his wife is cheating
When: In theaters now
Where: United States
My Take:  I say see the movie, good laughs just a little too long.

Friday, January 21, 2011

The Guy Code

What would you do if you saw your best friend's wife cheating with another man?  How would you tell him about it?  Those are some of the questions that face Ronny in the movie "The Dilemma."

I will be writing in my full review over the weekend. I will be using some information from the movie site as one source.  I will also use part of a review I found online. I will also try to find one person who saw the movie and talk to them too.

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Three Things Learned in Feature Writing...So Far

So far this term in feature writing I have learned quite a bit.  Overall there has been three main things I have learned from this class.  These are probably the three most important things so far this term that I have taken from the class.

The first and most important thing is learning about AP style and how hard it is to remember everything about it.  AP style is different from normal everyday writing, there are many different ways to do things like when to type numbers out and when to type the real number.

The second thing I have learned is how to really write a great feature story.  I already knew how much worked went into a normal story but not I see how much time and effort must go into a feature story and how much work it really is.

The last thing is how to write different types of writing.  I learned what goes into writing a good review or feature story.  You also must keep in mind that you need sources in every story which is a big thing to keep in mind.

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

This Could Be The Year

There is there is something about opening the doors to the gym for the first time at the start of a new basketball season. After the doors are open there are normally three things that come to mind of any coach. The first is reviewing last season trying to find out what went wrong. The next thing is looking at the players that came back and new ones and what roles they will play. The last thing is looking ahead and planning goals for the season. This could be the year we win it all!


There are many different challenges and things that come to mind with the start of a new basketball season here at LBCC. Head Coach Randy Falk’s first thing to do was to look back at last season and try to pick out what happened and how to improve on that. Last season LB was one of the top four in the South to qualify for the NWAACC’s.

“Last season we made the NWAACC tournament which we were very excited about,” said Head Coach Falk.

This year’s team is a very young one. With only four returning sophomores the door is open for freshmen to step up and contribute to this team. The team is really going to stress game plan and have to use different ways to win games and not rely so much on experience.

“The team is smaller this year but more athletic, we also have a lot of speed,” said returning sophomore Michael Kirkwood.

While looking at goals for this season, Coach Falk talked about the how much different LBCC is because it is only a two year college and the need to have good chemistry on the team. Most colleges have players for three or four years and they have enough depth to find the right combination of players that works.  At LB you only get players for one or two years and it is so important to have players they have great chemistry and fit well together to produce a great team.

“We really want the players to be good students because there is no greater sign of being a better person. We also would love to make it back to the NWAACC’s and advance deeper into the tournament,” said Coach Falk.

LBCC run's a motion style of offense to play into the strengths of the players on the roster.  Falk talked about the defense that the team plays and they most of the time play a zone defense, but do like to apply some pressure when the game calls for it to create turnovers.  Falk has a formula for success and it really shows how much work goes into the team.

"Our formula for success is found in surrounding our selves with players who are good in character and committed to putting team over individual.," said Falk.

LB finished up the non-conference part of the season with a record of 3-7 and won the first Southern league game at Lane CC last week. With the win LB starts league play off with a 1-0 record and pull the overall record to 4-7. The team has played tough teams so far this season and everyone is pleased with progress so far.

“It was a slow start to the season because we played so many great teams, but our chemistry is really coming around and we are playing better,” said returning sophomore Taylor Roos.

LBCC played two games this past weekend.  On Friday they beat Portland Community College in Portland  74-69.  On Saturday they beat Mt. Hood Community College here at LB by a score of 75-64.  With the two wins LB's record is 6-7 overall and 3-0 in the South division. LBCC will host Southwestern Oregon Community College this Wednesday with the men's game starting at 7:30pm.

At A Glance:

Who: LBCC Men's basketball team.
What: Starting a new season.
When: Last month and conference play starts this month.
Next Home Game: Sat. 1/15/11  Vs.  Mt. Hood CC. 6pm.
Where: LBCC Gym.

Friday, January 7, 2011

First Story

For my first story this term I will be writing about the LBCC men's basketball team starting a new season.  I am going to be talking about what impacts the new season brings as well as some goals for the season.  I plan to review last season and see what players came back too. 

I will be interviewing Head Coach Randy Falk as well as two other players.  I think this story is important because it is sort of a review of what happened last season as well as a preview for this season, but also talks about some challenges that the new season brings.

Nut Graf: Want to stress what really goes into the start of new season. Also a review how they are doing this season and see if they are working towards their goals.

Here are some questions I will ask:

  • How did the team finish last season?
  • How many men return from last seasons team?
  • What are some impacts on the start of the new season?
  • What are some challenges that you face as the season starts?
  • What are some team goals for the season?
  • Some personal goals for the season?