Kiefer Cropper

tru confessions: part II

Kiefer Cropper — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 22:34:26 +0000

I’ve found the reincarnation of Eddie Walker,

the mentally challenged preteen played by Shia Labeouf

in the Disney Channel Original Movie entitled ‘Tru Conffessions’.

The movie is not only captivating and honest, but it shows

LaBeouf’s true talent as an actor. When I came to CSPA, I met a student

named Tyler Pager. Pager’s from the Big Apple and reminds me of LaBeouf’s

controversial portrayal. Thank you Tyler for keeping me entertained

with your jokes and behavior throughout the workshop. I couldn’t have gone

a single day without the sight of seeing you with at least one hand down your pants

everyday or having to cover my head for fear of being infected with a virus after

your continual denial of not covering your mouth after a hefty weeze.

Much love and admiration,

Queef.

Kiefer Cropper — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 04:22:45 +0000

During my long hours sitting in front of the computer, I’ve come across a ton of new and interesting websites. Here’s a few I’ll share with you:

prezi.com- An impressive new spin on Microsoft Power Point, like one big giant piece of paper that you can zoom in on, with better graphics.

pictorymag.com- An user-generated blog of high quality photos and captions in story form.

patch.com- community journalists talk about what’s going on in whatever town they’re in

google+.com- new facebook.

creativecommons.com- free, uncopyrighted images you can use on blogs/newspapers

journalismjobs.com- like craigslist for job-seeking reporters

Spreading the signed word

Kiefer Cropper — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 04:07:06 +0000

I’ve taken three years of American Sign Language to fulfill my high school language requirement. I never thought I’d have the chance to teach or show anyone what I learned during those three years until today, when my CSPA friend Mia Colvin kept badgering me (I love you) about “WHAT’S THE SIGN FOR THIS?! WHAT’S THE SIGN FOR THAT?!”

Besides all the expletives I taught her in today’s lesson, here’s the CSPA appropriate vocab list:

journalist,boy, girl, man, woman, who, what, when, where, why, how, school, weird, paper, happy, sad, food, night, grandma, grandpa, eat, but, like, don’t/not, hate, excited, late, few, several, beautiful, etc…

You may be surrounded by a hoard of deaf people one day and need to know where the bathroom is…

California colleges with a journalism major

Kiefer Cropper — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 04:54:45 +0000

Here’s a few colleges that have journalism departments and their links:

Cal State Chico- http://www.csuchico.edu/jour/

Cal State East Bay- http://class.csueastbay.edu/english/Home_Page.php

Cal State Fresno- http://mcj.csufresno.edu/

Cal State Fullerton- http://communications.fullerton.edu/undergraduate/journalism.html

San Diego State University- http://jms.sdsu.edu/

The journalistic jock

Kiefer Cropper — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 01:00:16 +0000

James Huber, 17, from Palo Alto, California is definitely what you would call a sports buff.

Aside from writing for his high school’s paper the Coat of Arms at Menlow School, Huber has played every sport in the book. “Sports have been super important to me not only for making friends but for becoming a better person.”

Currently he plays basketball as point guard and golf. In younger years he played first place pitcher in baseball and defensive position in soccer. Huber admits his craziest team name was “Killer Bees”, on an AYSO soccer team.

Although his Facebook page may show his love for sports, Huber’s true passion is journalism. “I love writing about sports for the paper, but now it’s become just a hobby.” Huber said he gave up his dream to become a pro-athlete a while ago and focuses more on writing now.

quirkz.

Kiefer Cropper — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 04:52:52 +0000

Here’s a few of the quirks I’ve picked up on this week at CSPA:

Mia has no problem lip-syncing Adele in her computer chair while writing a story on deadline, flailing her arms and saying, “CAN YOU GUESS WHAT SONG I’M LISTENING TO?!!??!?!?!?!”

Shelby & Aneesa confessed today in front of all the students and staff this morning that they speak to each other in none other than Parseltongue.

Tyler allows himself to be photographed licking foreign money.

Mitchell gets EXTREMELY excited at times. Which is completely okay.

James H. eats around 5 bananas a day. (This may be old news but it had to be mentioned.)

Layne is unable to photograph without having at least one eye blinking. Then she mistakes this for un-photogenicness. (Not a word, I’m aware. Thanks spell check.)

Counselor Saba’s car is—not surprisingly—a Horcrux.

That’s just a fraction of the insane amount of oddities now emerging from each and every CSPA member. I’m sure there’ll be more to come….freaks.

~CalPoly swag~

Kiefer Cropper — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 23:47:30 +0000

Since I was assigned to take “fashion” photos this week, I decided to post some of my findings.

: CalPoly student Travis dons neon. I bet he’s glad he got photographed.

Cal Poly construction worker smiles on the job. (More neon.)

KCPR's dj Michael Valverde shows off his tiedye.

Epiphany #42,764,245

Kiefer Cropper — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 03:07:01 +0000

Before I came to CSPA I thought I had a pretty good idea of what to bring. I had the right amount of clothes for days on end, my toothbrush and all the other essential items. Looking back now I realize I forgot to bring an obviously essential item: a camera.

This mistake, however, turned about to be a blessing when I became aware of the fact that I was in an AP photographer’s presence. When I asked Mr. Chris Carlson if I could use one of his cameras, (he had about four around his neck at the time) he said sure, it was fine. Now…I’m extremely happy that I forgot to bring a camera to the workshop. I’ve taken around 430 pictures since yesterday, with the continuous shot feature mostly to blame for that. I have thoroughly enjoyed using this amazing camera, the EOS-1. I don’t even want to know how exepensive it is. The lens is about half a foot long and takes up the bulk of the beast. Every second I get I’ve just been fiddling with the features and “chimping”.

And I haven’t even gotten to my epiphany part yet.

Although this coming year I’ll become e-i-c of my paper, now I know I’d really rather just be taking pictures of everything. School events, people, classrooms, memories of my senior year. For print and non-publishable reasons. And now I wish I had started earlier. And earlier than all these kids with nice cameras started calling themselves photographers just because they took a close up of a coffee mug. (Not calling myself a photographer. Don’t want to be one anyway. I prefer the term photojournalist.)

Even if salary.com is telling me that photojournalists only make an average of around $30,000 a year, the fact really hasn’t phased me.

Maybe tomorrow when I get some feedback I can make a better decision on my career endeavors. It’s not like college is coming up or anything…

ARGH this is sounding too much like a diary.

NEWSFLASH! I encountered two butterflies on a date today (and took a picture of them).

(Layne’s spazzing)

(I like parantheses, can you tell?)

Tomorrow if/when we blog I promise to sound more bloggish and less God are you there, it’s me, Kiefer sounding.

Oh, to be a suck up. 5 best things about CSPA.

Kiefer Cropper — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 03:20:17 +0000

Of the two days I’ve spent at CalPoly, I’ve compiled a list of the top 5 best things about CSPA.

1. People- (this is an obvious one). With give or take 25 people here at the program, there’s more than enough conversation to go around for all the hours we’re spending together.

2. Knowledge- Six classes a day is definitely paying off. I’m feeling more journalism savvy already.

3.Computer Access- What teen these days can go 12 hours without checking their Facebook? Sad but true..

4.(Somewhat) free food- At some point yes, the precious $150 on our meal cards will run out. Until then it’s pretty much a gift card to Starbucks (an insight from Nicole, one of our counselors).

5. Time away from parents- What better way to get a feel for college next year and get a break from tradition?

Journalists (and everyone else) die hard for Deathly Hallows

Kiefer Cropper — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 03:04:40 +0000

Of all the people in the world (and CSPA workshopees) that most likely watched the second installment of Deathly Hallows last week, I unfortunately did not get to see the film due to busy/disinterested family members and lack of time. One advantage, however, is that I am now able to finish the enormous book (comparable to the King James Bible) before I see it. But this is NOT a diary….so less about me.

Obviously, talk about the movie has come up at the workshop so far and although I do not wish to hear the details about each and every scene from my fellow journalists, (I could pretty much tell you the whole movie by now) I’ve become quite interested in the fanaticism and zeal flowing out from the hearts of all the students here. I’ve done some research throughout the day (the honest kind, not like the infamous HP journalist Rita Skeeter) and have figured that more than not, the best way a Harry Potter fan can show their loyalty to the series is to do the ultimate: see the movie at the earliest showing they can get their little muggle selves to- the most common time at midnight.

So far I’ve talked to five CSPA attendees who claim they saw the midnight showing of Deathly Hallows Part II: James (Bay Area), Aneesa (Claremont), Alyssa(Walnut?), Allie(not quite sure), Kylie (Laguna Hills), and one at 12:30 – Mia (Irvine). (Sorry, Mia, you’re just not that big of a fan I guess…)

That’s all I’ve come up with in the world of Harry Potter fandom at CSPA so far. Also that Ritika is seriously infatuated with the series. I’m guessing she must have seen the midnight showing as well.
Just in… my co editor-in-chief Jake has never seen a Harry Potter film…do I smell a fib?