My whole weekend. Reader Beware - it's long.

As I sit here watching a "Family Guy" sploof of the original "Star Wars", now labeled "A New Hope", I can't help but think about how well the weekend has been.

It is now Monday. 12:15 a.m. A very good reason to look over the past weekend, with it being said and done.

I tested myself this weekend. And I succeeded. I found out what it takes to be a journalist in other fields besides just writing.

When we arrived Thursday afternoon, I found myself looking through our packages, planning out the weekend. Making sure I knew where I wanted to be at what time.

Night One was Page Design with Jorge Medina, enlightening me on how he designes a page.

The funny thing is that I thought our ideas were alike.

Little did I know that I can run stories down a page and run photos smaller. I looked at how other people design there pages, not make it so blank. Spice it up, don't run the same column format. Find a way to spread two stories with a photo.

Give the reader a chance to compare two stories at the top of your page. Run tall photos. Shrink the photo and find a way to fit it between two stories you feel are top of the page status.

The design competition was awkward. Putting myself in a competition like that gave me a good idea of what I need to do.

Some of the comments on my pages read: very clean dummy. bad photo placement. should use Tim Harrower Designers Hand Book. a lot of good cover design ideas. need a dominant photo.

From those comments is where I need to take criticism and run with it. Let it help me. Tell me just what I need to do.

Of course, we had El Torito earlier in the day for dinner.

Day two. The page design competition only took four designers. I was not chosen, but I was able to focus on other things at the time being.

A workshop with Marcus Thompson, beat writer for the Golden State Warriors at the Contra Costa Times. He informed us of where he came from and how risky his stories are.

The way he led into his story was amazing.

The sad part was it involved guns the same day four Oakland police officers were shot in a standoff. He had to change his lead, but it was a damn good one.

I was still trying to figure out the sporting event that we would be covering, but everyone stayed quiet about it, only telling me it would involved feet and a head. Soccer.

While still in the lecture, I learned that you cannot be boring. You need to do your research, learn your sports. And that is just what I did. When I found out just what we were covering, I got on my Iphone, but that was not until later.

Not knowing a sport is not a reason to not cover it! You can study stats. Find out who to look at before you begin. Take the time to look at what you need to know. Watch the game closely. Select your qotes wisely.

NEVER give the reader a reason to stop. I feel like I have already been taught this, but this lecture was an extreme reinforcement of what I learned.

You cant give up. Just what my family use to tell me.

You cant be afraid to criticize accurately, and do not be limited by ear of upsetting someone. TAKE A RISK! Critical analysis gives your story depth and your readers depend on that.

You can save a crappy story with a good ending, but end your story how you started it. Tie it all back in, and wrap it up.

But think before you write.

The ride to the sporting event was quiet. A 20 minute bus ride to Sacramento State. When we exited the bus, we were informed that the subject of the competition would be an intersquad scrimmage. The rules left me a lot to play with. Word for word, Paul McLeod said "You can take any angle you want."

GREAT! With soccer being in the offseason, and this even being a spring scrimmage, I had an idea of just what I wanted to talk about in my story, and I knew my questions before the event started, thanks to doing research.

While I care not to bore you with the soccer game (you can read my story if/when I get it back), I asked the questions I wanted and used information others gained to make my story that much better.

The bus ride back I stressed just a bit. Running out of batteries and a half hour of quotes to listen to. Trying to get down the good ones while I had time on the bus was key. I got just what I needed to, and when we got back to the hotel, I got batteries and calmed myself - bathroom break.

The competition was just like a test. Lets see what you can do. The typing maching I was using had a broken button that is key for this type of machine, a right arrow.

Editing with these things can be a pain. No excuses made I got to writing. It went just like an open note test. Use everything you learned and the information obtained to write a great story. And that is just what I did. I can write sports. I have complete faith in my sports writing, and I knew I would do great. I found out later in the weekend my passion for sports writing would pay off.

Sports took up most of my day Friday, but I ate enough to keep fed and drank a Red Bull during my day to keep myself awake. The night consisted of SportsCenter and sleep.

Day three was probably the most interesting day of the weekend.

Breakfast in the morning with PJ. With limited time, I ate as much as I could of what I knew would be good, with the opportunity to leave as quick as I could with a small buffet consisting of cereal, yogurt, hash browns, and pancakes (just the first day, not the second).

I found my way to a Broadcast News Writing Tutorial by a producer from Fox 40 News in Sacramento, Kate Eby.

I found out this weekend that broadcast is something I am very interested in. I wanted to find out what writing for broadcasting is all about, and now I want to practice more, but first I need to find a college that is good in broadcast.

I learned a lot of things that in the competition, but was unaware of how much shorter I needed to be. I am very glad my adviser Kate McLaughlin looked it over. I just need more practice, that's all. Find a way to get a class to write a broadcast story about a sporting event. Or turn it in and see how much better I can get.

Tell me what you think Kate!

The competition was interesting, seeing how we could cut down such a long story and turn it into a brief tidbit. The downer was no sports were involved and no notes.

That was the problem.

After the competition I mediated a student election. That was the most interesting part. Seeing how many people think from all parts of California, reassuring me that Northern and Southern California are two different states, but also reassuring me that the two sides can agree on many things. Met a very nice female at the meeting, she capped the weekend off greatly. That is a whole nother story. =)

From there, we got ready for the awards. Took a nap, freshened my self up, but not before what I felt was a mandatory editorial board meeting where we found out how our newspaper was thought of by Medina, who designes 160 pages per week for the Orange County Register.

The awards ceremony was slow to start. I knew sports was going to be the last award presented. With Kate's comments, I knew my chances were slim in the event, so I focused more on watching the others around win while I waited patiently and applauded after an untasteful chicken marsala.

The dinner, and conversation at the table was fun, but when the award for sports arrived, I sunk my head, closing my eyes, almost in a completely disengaged state, trying not to focus on the words out of the speakers mouth as he went down the list of four Honorable Mentions and up from fourth place to first. While I could hear every other winner being named, when my name was called, I could not hear a word.

First Place: Nick Ingram

That brings tears to my eyes.

Knowing that all the hard work is beginning to pay off. Working so hard and not knowing what I wanted to do, to being very good at something you always wanted to do.

How can I not feel happy for myself?

During the awards I was texting with the afore mentioned female. She kept me optimistic about the award, reminding me that I knew I did well, which was all that mattered.

If I didn't do well, I knew I tried my best, but to achieve first place is an extremely rewarding feeling.

I can hold my head high, and remind myself that I kick ass at sports writing.

I can write any sport, with research done.

AND SO CAN YOU!

After the awards ceremony I congratulated friends and talked, just reminding people that you can't give up.

Things happen and it takes you a while to figure out what you want to do, but you really need to give it your all.

The same can be applied to life.

Don't let the things you can't control alter drag you down.

Just go with it and take it as it comes. I did that in covering soccer. How would I feel if I didn't write a story about it, just because I have a small knowledge of soccer?

That award will give me reassurance that I can cover any sport and write a damn fine story.

It's not that I feel overconfident, but when you go up against more than 50 other writers, some of whom I have seen win before, I know that I have what it takes to compete for the top.

I loved how I got such huge amounts of positive reassurance before we left and while we were there. I loved how it felt to be rewarded for everything that I put on a two and a quarter pieces of paper.

The night was spent with acquaintances and the aforementioned female, spending the rest of the weekend with her before a 6 a.m. pickup on a 7:20 a.m. flight.

The cab we originally were waiting on was running 20 minutes late.

Great! Deathly tired and your ride is late, I just wanted to go to the airport and try and get aboard as quick as possible to go to sleep.

The funny thing to end the trip was catching the end of a "Smurfs" episode on the Boomerang channel, which mainly plays older cartoons, such as "The Flintstones", "The Jetsons", and "Tom & Jerry".

My experience on the plane was fast, as I slept the entire time. WHen I got home, I began my laundry, but was unable to finish it as I quickly went to sleep.

What I forgot to do was set my alarm!

I was scheduled to work at 3 p.m., but I slept too late.

Waking up at 4:41 p.m. was not what I planned on doing. Two hours late! Never have I done that. But all is well. I arrived at work shortly after 5 and began a 5:40 minute shift.

After getting home at just after 11, I found myself on the couch, unable to move as I fell asleep.

After waking up a little bit after 12 a.m. I knew I had to go into my room and begin my homework.

Lori -I know you asked for just one page, but I had an amazing time at JACC and I would love to do it again if i could be involved with the magazine and somehow compete in broadcast with some help-