Farewell to First-Year

First semester, section #3 class. Section #3 for life!

Yesterday was my last day of classes for this school year, so naturally today I'm sick.

Isn't that always the case? You work and work until all your work is done, and as soon as the adrenaline stops pumping, the sickness you've been suppressing all these months finally takes over your entire system and knocks you out. Well, since I'm at home and tied to my living room couch, I thought I would share a few words of goodbye to all the amazing people I met this year.

I'm so happy to have made it into the Creative Communications program. The instructors are so knowledgeable and honest, and I feel as though they really care about their students and want to see them become the best in the business.

And I'm even happier to have met my classmates. We've gone through so much together during these past eight months and we've gotten so close, I consider you all part of my family. I know we'll all be going our separate ways this summer for our jobs and internships, but I can't help wishing we could stay together. Just know that I'll be very sad to say goodbye to you guys when I leave for Walt Disney World in a few weeks. Very, very sad. : )

I can't wait to see you all again at the end of August, and I especially can't wait to see all the new first-year students. Wow, there's a part of me that still can't believe that I'm done my first-year. Oh gosh, it's going to be even harder next year, I can just feel it.

Best of luck in your summer adventures CreComm family!

Second semester, section #2. You guys were great too! : D

What's the Buzz on BzzAgent?

Today in PR class we had an interesting discussion about the idea of 'word of mouth'. Is is possible to measure such a thing? How could an advertiser encourage it? Could it be controlled?

My instructor introduced the class to an interesting website called BzzAgent.com. This relatively new website wants to reward people for spreading the word of various products, and I think it's cool.

So how does BzzAgent work? Well I just signed up, so I can't say I'm an expert, but the basics of the program seem fairly simple. After filling out a few surveys about my hobbies and products I already like, future 'campaigns' featuring products I may be interested in may ask me to become a BzzAgent for them.

After that, the company will send me some samples of their products and a brief instruction manual on how to use the products, some of the product's benefits, and even a few ways to bring the product up in a conversation. That last little bit of the process might seem a little fishy to some, but I don't think it sounds all that wrong.

People regularly talk about products, TV shows, and restaurants they like or don't like, this program just  puts these products into our hands and gives us the opportunity to talk about them (bad opinions are welcome too) whenever they come up in a conversation.

I know some people will disagree with this program and say that it might corrupt the way we interact with people or that we will become walking, talking human advertisements, but I don't think people would go to those extremes. Receiving some free product samples just isn't a big enough incentive to change the way we interact with other humans.

So here I am now, looking forward to the first campaign I'm asked to become an agent for. Will I receive a food product? Or maybe a bottle of make-up? Or maybe I will get two giant canisters of Nabob coffee in the mail like my instructor received for his first campaign.

The PR Proposal is DONE!

My Proposal for PR by Natasha Woloschuk

A Trade Fair to Remember

The long weekend is coming, but before you leave Winnipeg this Thursday to re-open the family cottage, stop by The Roblin Centre and check out the magazine trade fair in the atrium. 

The trade fair is going to be awesome. Why? Because Neat magazine will have their very own booth with contests, prizes, and even a lemon-tasting challenge. You know you don't want to miss something as sweet as that. Or perhaps I should say 'something as sour as that'?

Along with Neat's table will be a slew of other magazine booths including another beverage magazine, Brew. Not interested in beverages? Then maybe you'd like to learn more about Sprout, The Hack, or Audrey magazine?

Even if you aren't interested in magazines at all, just come to see the many beautiful faces at the trade fair. We here at Neat are a very good-looking bunch. Don't believe me? Just look down.

The Magazine Trade Fair
Where: The Roblin Centre (map provided below)
Date: Thursday, March 28
When: Noon-4 p.m.
Why: Because it will be a blast!


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Why ebooks are awesome

Each student in the Creative Communications program is required to complete an Individual Professional Project (IPP) during their second year in the program. Projects come in many forms. Short documentaries, screenplays, promotional videos, ad campaigns, a series of articles, novellas, cook books, fundraisers, events, and even music videos.

Today I submitted my proposal to write an ebook for my IPP.

Ebooks are new and foreign to a lot of folks. Some people I've talk to still believe ebooks are only read on devices specifically made for electronic books. But the truth is ebooks can be read on almost any device today. From Kobo readers to iPhones, as long as it has a screen, it can display the pages of an ebook.

Along with easy accessibility, there are a lot of benefits to ebooks.

They're often cheaper than their print versions. I first discovered how different the costs can be when I was required to buy A Thousand Farewells for my journalism class. To buy the print version was $35, but to buy the ebook version was only $16. That's a huge difference in price.

They can be updated, expanded, or even redesigned. If the author of an ebook discovers a spelling mistake or any other error in their book, they can go back and make a correction. People who have already purchased the ebook before the correction was made will have their ebook updated to the correct version (at no extra cost).

Ebooks make it easier for authors to self publish their work, and give authors complete control of the ebook's content. No more rejection letters and no more altering the story to make the publisher happy. On top of that, authors can set the price they want to sell their book at. If they want to sell their ebook for $1.99 or $9.99, they can, and if after a while they want to change their mind and alter the price, they can.

There are so many more pros to ebooks, like being able to give small samples of the ebook to potential buyers, and never having to worry about the ebook store taking the ebook off the shelf because of 'limited space', but there are a few cons to self-publishing an ebook.

Having a book traditionally published from a publishing company means the book will get edited and looked over for mistakes by professional editors. The book will also have the name of the company backing it and providing support. There are some other benefits, but I don't know a lot about traditional publishing.

What I do know is I want to write an ebook.

Ice Cutting at Selkirk, Manitoba

Head on over to Selkirk, Manitoba for your next vacation. They've got Ice Cutting, the Keenora boat, and the Happy Thought School. Come on, who wouldn't want to go to a place filled with happy thoughts?

So last Tuesday I traveled with four other classmates to Selkirk, Manitoba for a journalism assignment, and boy was I excited. I LOVE road trips! Listening to music, playing eye-spy games in the car, eating snacks you've picked up at the gas station during your bathroom break. Road trips are almost as fun as airplane trips.

But Selkirk is only 30 minutes away from Winnipeg. What!?

Why? Why did this happen? We barely got through four songs on my playlist and we were already rolling into the city. Why didn't anyone tell me Selkirk was so close? Why didn't we go somewhere farther, like Brandon?

Needless to say, I was disappointed in the travel part of the "travel assignment." But once we got to the city, my amazing tour guides (Kieran and Alicia) showed me all there was to see in Selkirk. I want to thank them for their 15 minutes of hard work.

After romping around town for a while, taking pretty pictures and hassling some folks from the neighbourhood with our hard-hitting journalism questions, we drove over to Kieran's old home and ate a delicious lunch made by his mom.

Hi Kieran's mom! Your vegetarian chilli was great!

After lunch we each went our separate ways to work on our assignment for an hour. We got together and decided that before we left the city we would eat at one of Selkirk's restaurants. Then we headed home.

During the trip back we all took turns talking about the stories we had discovered, the difficulties we had faced when asking people questions, and just how much we love Selkirk now.

Go journalism assignments!

Standing, not Sitting.

Friday night I was working on the mountain of home work I had to do, when suddenly I had an epiphany. I had already spent so much time that day sitting at school, sitting on the bus, and then sitting on the couch. If I didn't get up and do something right then, I will have been sitting all day.

So I decided to stand.

I brought over my bedside table, a container from my closet, and my make-up box, and I elevated my entire working space. The whole thing was perfect for my height.

I decided this weekend I would try working on the computer while standing. I'm so glad I did because the experience was an eye-opener.

It didn't take me long to realize I was far more productive while standing at the computer. I spent less time on sites like Facebook and Pinterest and focused more on the article I was writing. Perhaps it was because I wanted to stop standing as soon as possible, or because there was better blood circulation in my body, but before I knew it my work for that evening was done.

As I went to bed that night I discovered my back was a little sore after standing for over an hour at my desk, but I think it was because I'd used some muscles I hadn't in a while. When I woke up I felt great, refreshed, almost like waking up after a good hike the day before.

On Saturday I started to notice more differences as I continued to work at my desk. My breathing was less shallow than before, the muscles in my back didn't ache anymore, and some of the muscles in my chest were opening up. My shoulders were back rather than slouched forward, and again I was flying through my work faster than I normally do.

On Sunday I had to put my computer back down on its regular level. I was working on a particularly long assignment (17 pages!) for my Public Relations class, and after 6 hours of standing at my desk, I felt I needed to take a break.

Since this weekend's experiment, I've decided to elevate my work space at home permanently. I predict I will become more used to the experience after another week or two.

I've also decided to make an effort to stand while taking the bus, but I haven't thought of a way I could stand more while in school. If you have any suggestions, please leave me a comment below.