GO TO LINDA-HOANG.COM FOR FUTURE BLOG POSTS!

I’ve decided to post all of my future blog posts on my website http://linda-hoang.com. Please go there to read about my life! My latest blog post is a summary of my first semester of TV broadcasting school!

Click to read!

See you at the official website!

I’m in the first-ever group of Grant MacEwan University Graduates!

I am a University graduate!!!

November 9, 2009, was my convocation from Grant MacEwan University. It was the first-ever Grant MacEwan convocation with the new “University” name and not the “College” name. (The college officially got University status in September).

Pretty historic, if I do say so myself.

If anyone is wondering why it took me this long to graduate after officially finishing Journalism program classes back in April, it’s because the program included the summertime internship, which we needed to complete before being eligible for graduation. Thus, they stuck us in with the Fall graduates which turned out great for us because our diplomas include the University name!

(Note to self: Update resume with University name).

Anyway, the graduation felt kind of silly because I’m still in school. In fact, I had school the next day. Ha ha. But still, it was nice to sit with the class I’d spent two years with and it was nice to be recognized for my good grades (I got a special string to indicate that I had graduated “with distinction“/honours! It even said ‘with distinction’ on the actual diploma paper. Yay!)

I had a great time in the Journalism program at Grant MacEwan. I learned a lot and I received a lot of great experience and writing opportunities.

Blog post to update all on NAIT TV Broadcasting life, coming up next.

Linda

Lindork’s So You Think You Can Dance Blog Posts – Here are the Season 6 Top 20 Official Photos!

October 22 2009.

Top 20:

Top 10 Guys:

Nathan Trasoras. 18. Contemporary

Jakob Karr. 19. Contemporary

Legacy Perez. 28. Hip Hop / Breaker

Billy Bell. 19. Contemporary

Kevin Hunte. 23. Hip Hop

Victor Smalley. 20. Contemporary

Peter Sabasino. 22. Tap

Phillip Attmore. 25. Tap

Ryan Di Lello. 28. Ballroom

Russell Ferguson. 20. Hip Hop/Krump

Top 10 Girls:

Mollee Gray. 18. Jazz

Ellenore Scott. 19. Contemporary/Jazz

Kathryn McCormick. 19. Contemporary

Karen Hauer. 27. Latin Ballroom

Ariana Debose. 18. Contemporary

Noelle Marsh. 18. Contemporary

Pauline Mata. 19. Jazz

Channing Cooke. 18. Contemporary

Bianca Revels. 20. Tap

Ashleigh Di Lello. 26. Latin Ballroom

There’s your So You Think You Can Dance Season 6 Top 20!

What do you think?

Pre-performance show I know I’m loving Nathan Trasoras, Jakob Karr and Legacy.

Sidenote: I like the new show opener!

Linda

My articles for the NAIT Nugget student newspaper (Sept. 24-Oct.8)

So since starting TV Broadcasting at NAIT I’ve been volunteer writing for the student paper (The Nugget). I’ve got a regular technology column (I forget if I mentioned that in the last post) and I try to do at least one entertainment-related piece for the paper per week too!

Here are scans of the articles I’ve written in the last three weeks:

• October 8 2009. A Google Wave. News & Features ( Tech Talk), Page 4.

• October 8 2009. Mraz strikes a chord. Entertainment, Page 11.
• October 1 2009. Mirror, Mirror…. News & Features (Tech Talk), Page 4.
• October 1 2009. 24 Hours, Edmonton style. Entertainment, Page 13.
• September 24 2009. Mobadass is Back. Entertainment, Page 14.

Here’s a picture preview for funsies:

I’ve had a lot of fun writing all the articles actually and I’m glad I’m still keeping up with print journalism whilst studying the broadcast side! Plus it’s awesome because The Nugget actually PAYS you for articles! Being paid for my work? What a concept.

My first month at NAIT.

So my first month of school is wrapping up and I haven’t blogged about anything all month, my bad. I’ve definitely been busy!

This isn’t really the best blog post but I just wanted to post up a quick summary of my first month in school.

Here are the classes I’m taking this semester:

• Promotions and Marketing
• Mass Communications
• Computer Applications
• Basic Broadcast Writing
• Effective Communications
• Law and Ethics
• Introduction to Audio
• Basic Video Production
• Introduction to Studio Production
• Team Skills (2-Day Workshop)

When I first saw the program details and the semester course list, I was confused as to how 10 courses were going to be able to fit into a semester schedule (well, 11 courses actually– I was able to get credit for one course (English/Grammar) that I completed already at MacEwan so I am exempt from it at NAIT, woo hoo!) Anyway, it does work. It just means my Tuesdays are absolutely brutal. I had gotten used to three-hour classes at MacEwan but on Tuesday I’ve got a four-hour Intro to Studio Production class. Which, actually the hands-on in-class exercise stuff so far has been a lot of fun, but the theory part makes me want to just die of boredom. Four hours with just a 15 minute break is just wrong…

Anyway like I said above, I was able to get credit for the English/Grammar course because I had taken English 101, Proofreading & Copyediting, and Grammar for Writers, back at MacEwan. I’m totally stoked about this because it frees up my Wednesday afternoons! At the same time, I wouldn’t mind taking the class because there are vocabulary/definition tests and other grammar testing that I am actually really interested in. HA how nerdy am I?

There was a big Radio & Television party this past month too. It was called “Meet the Firsts” and it was basically a chance for all of the first semester students (that’s my batch) to get acquainted with each other and also meet the second and third semester students. The interesting thing is that my entire class is already SO close with one another. It’s great actually, it’s really cool but it’s also totally weird like I’ve never seen a group of students mesh so well together so quickly. I think it’s going to be a great next two years with these guys!

I’ve also started writing for NAIT’s newspaper, The Nugget! Since I’ve done so much news stories at MacEwan and for my newspaper internships, I’m really trying to get more entertainment/not-so-hard-newsy type stories to write for The Nugget. And so far so good! I’ve written a piece about a band, an Edmonton Film Festival competition, and I’ve also somehow gotten myself my own column?! It’s a weekly technology column and it’s pretty sweet I’m pretty excited about it. I wrote about a dual LCD screen Samsung camera for this week. And this weekend I’ll be writing another tech piece along with a review of a Jason Mraz concert!! Once this week’s issue comes out I’ll scan the articles I’ve written so far and post them up. Writing for this paper has been pretty great so far because everyone (like my class) is super nice, they PAY you for articles ($$$!), and they provide free sandwiches at the weekly lunch meetings! Hehe. I’ve also gotten really good feedback about my writing from the editors and I totally appreciate the comments. I mean, I would hope that my writing is good given that I just finished two years of journalism and have written things for legit newspaper publications, but it’s always nice to get the compliments!

Anyway, now to fill space I am going to post a few pictures!
(Click to view a larger size).

(Top L-R): (1) Me & Julie on TV!! haha. Our class did an exercise where everyone got to be an anchor-person, a camera-person, and a floor director. I actually loved doing all three roles but there’s definitely something about all the control that the floor director has that I am mighty attracted to! (2) Me & Julie as professional cord coilers! We learned how to properly wrap up cables so that they wouldn’t get tangled when you unwrap them. Under around, over inside! Ha. (Bottom L-R): (3) Some of the ladies of the TV program, Class of 2009-2011. (4) Me posing with a very old NAIT News banner.

More soon!

My Articles with Metro Edmonton (Sept. 1-5/2009)!

Here are articles written by me for Metro Edmonton this week:

• Sept 1, 2009. Family centre gets facelift. Local. Page 3
• Sept 2, 2009. $2.1M for Métis attending NAIT. Local. Page 2
• Sept 3, 2009. Keeping roads safe for students. Local. Page
• Sept 3, 2009. Vans remind drivers to mind speed. Local. Page
• Sept 4, 2009. Arts Days are coming, Alberta. Local. Page 2
• Sept 4, 2009. Surface routes planned for LRT. Local. Page 1

Yay! I really love the feeling of seeing my byline in the paper and then clipping out the article and adding it to my collection. Heh.

Linda (:

My week with Metro Edmonton.

I did a short, one-week internship with Metro Edmonton this week! It was a great way to get back into the journalism feel of things since my last internship was back in June and I’ve mostly just been vacationing since then (though I consider my SYTYCD blogging/interviews to have that journalism-y feel to them as well).

Anyway, I had a lot of fun, met and spoke with some nice people, got out and about in the city and the community, and got some clippings that I’m happy to showcase in my online writing portfolio! I also got nice reviews from my editor. Yay!

I did at one-two stories a day, along with multiple little briefs, as well as streeters. And I also took my own photos for one of the events, which reminded me how I want to get back into more photography too!

This week, more than ever, I was reminded of how the media industry is a small world. It seems like you see the same people – newspaper or television reporters, camera people and photographers, at all the same events that you go to cover. And once you actually figure out the names of those people you constantly see, you find that they’re not even strangers really because you recognize their name, you recognize their byline, or you’ve seen them on TV. Everyone’s pretty interconnected. One good example is that I met a freelance photographer who had also graduated from the same program as me, and had did his internship at the Journal as well, just like I did. He also told me he does freelance work for a photographer who was my photography teacher last year. And one of my Metro co-workers also graduated the same year as he did, and also from the same journalism program. Small world right? But definitely neat and interesting, and it has it’s advantages.

But at the same time that made me think how that small world and interconnection could really hurt someone who maybe has the wrong attitude at an event, or made a mistake of some kind. Because if you rub shoulders the wrong way with someone, chances are they could very well have graduated from the same program as a guy who could eventually be the editor of some tv station or newspaper that you end up applying for a job at. And maybe you don’t get that job because said editor remembers his friend who mentioned that so and so was unprofessional or what have you.

Anyway I’m not saying any of the above stuff happened to me (because it hasn’t, I’m pretty friendly and nice with everyone I encounter at media events, and in general), but that’s just an alternative scenario that popped into my mind this week as I kept seeing the same people covering the same events as me.

The media industry being as small as it seems, with everyone somehow knowing everyone else, means that as a reporter, or as a journalism student in general, you just shouldn’t be douchey to anyone because word of your douchbaggery could travel fast and to someone important.

Then again, who, no matter what field you are in, wants a bad reputation anyway right?

So be nice. Thank people for their time. Make sure you let people who have helped you in some way, know that you appreciate it. And so on and so forth!

Linda

So You Think You Can Watch As Much TV As Lindork?

August 29 2009.

I want to eventually end up in the entertainment media/journalism industry.

You know this by now.

As such, one could safely guess that I like(love) entertainment.

Thus today’s post is my listing of all the television shows I’ll be tuning into this Fall, both returning favourites as well as new shows that have caught my attention, along with their premiere dates and my thoughts on each show!

September 8: 90210 (The CW)
September 9: GLEE (Fox)
September 9: So You Think You Can Dance (Fox)
September 10: The Vampire Diaries (The CW)
September 10: Supernatural (The CW)
September 14: Gossip Girl (The CW)
September 14: One Tree Hill (The CW)
September 21: How I Met Your Mother (CBS)
September 21: Heroes (NBC)
September 21: Castle (ABC)
September 25: Dollhouse (Fox)
September 25: Smallville (The CW)
September 29: The Hills (MTV)

2010: LOST !!!!

Notes about these shows:

• 90210 – guilty pleasure really, it’s not that incredible a television series, but pretty cast (good guy eye candy), cute clothes and hairstyles, set in Southern California, where I’d eventually like to live and work, and the drama that we all love in our TV shows brings me back. I could do without Shenae Grimes though, I personally way preferred her on Degrassi than on 90210. She can’t act..





• GLEE – i am beyond words excited for this show! The pilot was so much fun! It was smart, funny, totally entertaining and produced such a great cover of Journey’s Don’t Stop Believin’ ! Plus rumors are circulating that SYTYCD Season 5 winner Jeanine Mason (who has publicly said multiple times that she’s interested in acting), may join the Glee cast!! Excitement.





• So You Think You Can Dance (Season 6) – Ha ha! Do I really need to say anything about my love for this show? If you don’t know how I feel about this show and the dancers and dance, this must be your first time to my blog. Admittedly I am kind of SYTYCD-drained out at this point and I worry that Season 6 being back-to-back with Season 5 will turn people off from it (myself included), there’s no way I’m not watching the show this season. Just no way. I hope to blog my thoughts and recap this season like I did last season, but whether or not it’s anymore of a regularly scheduled blogging than the last was, I can’t say given the amount of television shows I’m taking on to watch this Fall, as well as my school and other-life schedule!





• The Vampire Diaries – I know nothing about this show except that there are vampires in it and it’s based on a popular book series that I really want to read but haven’t gotten to yet. Well, I also know that the lead girl was a character in Degrassi (woo hoo for The CW taking in Canadians!) and that the two main vampires who appear in all the ads with her are gorgeous and have had roles in shows I’ve watched before. Anyway, this looks promising.





• Supernatural – I know that Supernatural is a great show and I love Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles but I have never actually sat down and watched the show for whatever reason. I’ve seen two episodes in total, I think. If it is humanly possible, however, I may try and catch up on all the seasons of it before the premiere date, and then finally tune in regularly to watch this season!





• Gossip Girl – Totally stoked for this to come back. Chuck and Blair are one of my favourite currently-on-TV couples right now and I am just bouncing in my seat anticipating their adorable scenes together (that will eventually lead to heartbreaking scenes because alas, there’s no way they’re going to be able to stay together… otherwise there’d be less drama and as written way above, we all love the drama). But I’m just as excited for those heartbreaking scenes that are to come! I’m iffy about Hilary Duff being on the show this season but we’ll see how it goes.





• One Tree Hill – Ah. This show used to be sooo good. Key word in that sentence: Used to. Sigh. I was ready for the show to wrap up last season (because I am a firm believer in ending something before everyone begins to hate it!) but here it is, back again. Regulars Chad Michael Murray and Hilarie Burton aren’t involved in this season and while some are distraught over that, I’m quite pleased. They were the least interesting characters with the least interesting plot last season, in my opinion, and Chad’s character had steadily been dropping on my favourite characters of the show meter since he continually professed his love for multiple women throughout the course of the series. He’s an I-Love-You Slut, basically, quoting Robin from HIMYM. Ha. I love Nathan and Haley but their grown-up stories are just not as interesting as their high school ones and honestly at this point I’m excited for the returning OTH season for this reason and this reason alone: Brooke & Julian are together. I was always Team Brooke, by the way.





• How I Met Your Mother – SQUEE!! Words cannot describe how excited I am for the return of HIMYM. Only exclamation marks and jumping up and down can truly show it. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (picture me jumping up and down excitedly) !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This show brings me all kinds of joy and happiness. I love the entire cast and each character they play. I also read in this recent Neil Patrick Harris interview, that him, Jason Segel, and Josh Radnor were doing a Playboy photoshoot with a goat for the launch of the new HIMYM season and I just died laughing. I love them! Bwahaha. I am so excited for this show to return!!!





• Heroes – Okay, I know a lot of people have complaints about Heroes. Like, that it sucks. The writing is terrible. Etc. (I’m looking at you Ramin) But I don’t care! Superpowers and shows that feature people with superpowers have always been one of my weaknesses and no matter how terrible the writing may be (which it really isn’t all that bad anyway, I actually thought the dialogue and actor delivery for last season’s finale was fantastic!!!), I will still watch because it is entertaining and fun and it fascinates me seeing people fly and heal themselves and time travel and hurl Dragonball Z-like balls of power at one another. So yes. I am excited for the return of Heroes and if you’ve got something bad to say about it, just don’t!





• Castle - Nathan Fillion is fantastic (and Canadian! and not only is he Canadian, he is Edmontonian! Damn that’s awesome). Castle was a really pleasant surprise this past year. Though it seemed to randomly stop in the middle of its season (or maybe it had only gotten the OK for a few episodes? either way it didn’t feel like it was a full seasom…) I’m super happy that it’s back and that it wasn’t axed. This is a really well-written, well-acted show that I think is my outlet for crime-like television, since I’ve never really gotten hooked to CSI or Law & Order or whatever popular other crime-detective-like shows there are out there.





• Dollhouse – The fact that this show is even returning when everyone thought it was going to get the axe (not because it wasn’t good or anything, but because good shows being prematurely axed by Fox is something that happens, sadly *cough* Firefly *cough* Terminator *cough* Veronica Mars… Okay well Veronica Mars wasn’t with Fox anyway but I am still bitter that it got cancelled because MAN, THAT SHOW WAS GREAT), is a cause for celebration. I loved this show when it premiered last year. I totally love Eliza Dushku as an ass-kicking babe and get this, another favourite, ass-kicking babe, Summer Glau, is joining the show this season!!! Happiness!!! This slightly lessens the blow I still feel when I think about Fox canceling Terminator. UGH TERMINATOR WAS SUCH A GOOD SHOW! Anyway. If everyone from Terminator happened to guest star on Dollhouse this season, I wouldn’t mind that either.





• Smallville – I used to watch Smallville religiously before Lana got so irritating that I couldn’t stand to watch it anymore, thus missing the last two seasons. I hear however, that she is out of the picture now (at last! finally), so this new season premiering Sept. 25 may be the one that makes me resume my love for the show. Yay! I hope they start kicking up the Lois & Clark relationship up a notch. Also, I really think Justin Hartley (Oliver Queen a.k.a The Green Arrow) is delicious eye candy.





• The Hills – Haha okay maybe this is my guilty pleasure, not 90210. Yes I understand that this show is totally scripted and fake and not “reality” in the slightest. Yes I understand that the show is just mindless dramatics that make really unimportant issues in fairly unimportant people’s lives, important. Yes I know this is the show that unleashed Speidi on the world, God help us all. But… I love watching it. I love the drama (no matter how fake it is, lol). I love the pretty people! I love the music. And here’s something that I really do legitimately love about watching the show… I love that 50% of it is cuts of Los Angeles / Southern California scenery, outsides of restaurants, buildings and highways. This show really just adds to my yearning to live in La La land.





• LOST – Okay, LOST isn’t actually coming back until 2010 but I couldn’t have a television shows that I’m excited about blog post without mentioning LOST! That would be wrong. I am so excited for the final season of LOST. Each episode of this show blows my mind. Seriously. I think that my mind cannot be blown any further but then the next episode arrives and there goes my mind, blown yet again. And while I’m saddened that there won’t be anymore LOST after this season, this is the perfect example of what I was talking about in the One Tree Hill blurb – LOST is going to end before there’s any chance for people to get annoyed with it or think that it’s dragging on far too long, or before it gets to the point where it’s just not good anymore. Nope. LOST is going to end with such a brilliant bang and I am so excited!!!

The end!

Honestly when I was thinking about making this blog post while I was at work today, I was just thinking I’d list the shows and their premiere dates but as you can see, it turned into this. Ha ha.

So, which of these shows do you also watch? Do you agree with what any of the negative things I’ve written about any of the shows? Are you just as excited as I am?? What show that’s not on this list are you eagerly awaiting the return/premiere of?!

Honestly I don’t know how I’ll be able to watch all of these shows + school + run websites and blogs and etcetera but, I always seem to make it work.

Linda (:

Try Something New!

My friend Lisa and I have started a joint-blog called Try Something New!

http://community.livejournal.com/trysomething/

This is basically what the blog is about (and how the idea for it came about):

Life is short and then you die. But before you get to that, you should really live life to the fullest! (Okay, yes, that’s a cliche.. but you know, cliche’s are cliches for a reason!) Try Something New, is here so that two people (Linda and Lisa) can do and document things they’ve never done before, and hopefully through this doing and public documentation, inspire others to do as well! It started off in a conversation where the two of us had said we’d always wanted to try (something/anything/you fill in the blank), but we had never done it before. Why? Because we were too scared? Because we never had the opportunity to do it? Because we just didn’t have that extra little push of encouragement that we needed? Maybe one of those reasons or maybe all of them. That’s where the cliche comes in! Life is too short to hold back and not experience everything that can be experienced. It doesn’t have to be huge. We’re not going to hop on a plane and climb a mountain anytime soon, no. Let’s be realistic about this, haha. Even the littlest, ‘new’ thing, will make it onto this blog because the small gestures are just as important as the big ones. Maybe we’ll take a new route to that same place we go to every Tuesday. Or maybe we’ll go out with our hair done in a way we’ve always wanted to have it done, but never did before. Either way, we’ll be trying something new. Taking a little risk in life, and having fun while doing so. We hope that our posts about the new things we try will encourage others to do the same.

Let’s start a risk-taking, trying-something, revolution! ♥

So there you go! Another addition to my website/blog empire, LOL as if I don’t have enough. But I am really excited for this one because I don’t usually do joint things with anyone and I think what this particular blog represents and how it will encourage and inspire myself and my friend (and maybe you!) makes it pretty special! Plus it’s on Livejournal and the layout is absolutely ADORABLE in my opinion. Hehe. Please visit!

I just made the first trying-something-new post: HERE!

You don’t have to have a Livejournal account to comment on that blog!

(Also, if you’re wondering, the Try Something New blog isn’t going to be replacing this one!)

More post soon.

Linda

Television Broadcasting & entertainment journalism!

Back in April, pretty much immediately post-failing at the getting The Best Job In The World (ha ha), I had been truly bitten by the traveling bug and had decided to take courses to get me certified to teach English overseas so I could take a year off from my journalism/media career path and just long-term travel. It made a lot of sense at the time. My two-year Journalism diploma program had just been completed and the whole TBJITW experience had lightened my parents up at the thought of me traveling far away from them.

Since my senior year of high school, my intentions had always been to complete a two-year Journalism diploma program at Grant MacEwan, followed by a two-year Television Broadcasting diploma program at Nait (The Northern Alberta Institute of Technology). Before getting involved with TBJITW this past year, I had still intended to carry through with this plan (I had even already applied for Nait just before applying for TBJITW).

Around June I was informed of my acceptance into the Television Broadcasting program but at that time I had also already completed a five-day foundation TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) course and now had specialization courses to complete online to get my complete teaching English certification. So at this point I was seriously wondering what I should do.

And as ridiculous as it sounds, So You Think You Can Dance made me make the decision I’m proceeding with now. Seriously. If you follow my blog posts, then you’ll know that I blogged my thoughts about Season 5 this summer and even though I wasn’t hardcore about it, I thoroughly enjoyed writing about the show and the dancers and my take on things. And that, along with doing some of the legitimate journalist/blogger interviews with actual legitimate So You Think You Can Dance dancers and choreographers this summer, reminded me how much I want to do entertainment reporting, broadcasting and writing and television blogging and all that stuff in that genre, for a living.

That’s what I’ve always been most interested in. That’s what I’ve always wanted to end up doing and just the little taste of it the last few months just by doing some personal blogs and getting the opportunity to do a few my-favourite-television-show-related interviews, kind of rekindled that flame inside of me. That’s what I’m passionate about..

At the same time, I found that there were issues with my top three country choices that I had wanted to teach at: South Korea, Vietnam, and Japan, that made me feel like maybe it wasn’t the best time to go and do this. So I decided, since the rest of my Teaching English certification is all dependent on completing courses online, and there really isn’t any deadline coming up fast for that (because I had selected the Advanced TESOL Diploma Program, and therefore got the option for five specialization courses, which doesn’t have to actually be completed until two years from now), I would just really take my time in completing the courses online in the next two years, while getting my Television Broadcasting credentials done as well!

And I’ll just try and feed the traveling bug by doing small trips here and there for now…

Also, with this additional two years, I have more opportunities to try and get some internships that will help steer me in the right entertainment direction. Try for an entertainment internship with CTV… try for MuchMusic or MTV Canada or ETalk or maybe even hopefully get some internships in the entertainment industry in America. Who knows.

Anyway, school starts on September 8th and I’ll also be doing a short internship with Metro Edmonton Aug. 31, Sept. 1, 2, and 3 to help get me back into the journalism swing of things! I’ll be sure to blog about that week, as well as about my television broadcasting experiences and whatever else I end up doing on the side this year.

But yes, I feel this update post is long overdue. So I hope that answers your ‘What’s Linda doing now… she hasn’t mentioned anything in a long time!’ question, if you were wondering, ha!

Linda