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

‘My 15 Minutes of Fame’ SEE magazine article.

May 14 2009.

Okay, one last Best Job-related blog post.

This is my first person article about being involved in The Best Job In The World for SEE Magazine’s Thursday, May 14 edition, appropriately titled ‘My 15 Minutes of Fame.’

(NOTE: There is a line that makes no sense because they edited out the end of the sentence, which would have said ‘it would have been legen – wait for it – dary.’)

My 15 Minutes Of Fame

Linda Hoang lost the race for the best Job in the world, but it was a good ride while it lasted. Published May 14, 2009 by Linda Hoang in First Person

So I didn’t get The Best Job in the World.

No, I’m not trying to extend my short-lived 15 minutes of fame. It’s just, even a month later, people are still coming up to me, tilting their heads to the side, slightly pouting their lips, and nodding as they say, “So you didn’t get it, eh?”

To which I respond, in a fairly cheerful tone but with a clear hint of sadness, “No I didn’t get it.”

But I did make it far.

This 19-year-old underdog from Edmonton beat out nearly 35,000 candidates worldwide to make it into the Top 50 list of Tourism Queensland’s finalists to be their official Islands Caretaker.

That’s something to talk about.

I was that close to being flown Down Under, to be given the keys to a beautiful house, a house that actually has its own name — “The Blue Pearl” — and being paid $100,000 CAD to live on the beautiful islands of the Great Barrier Reef and blog about it.

But so what if I didn’t make it to the next round, and ultimately get the dream job? The past four months have been life-changing. I went from being the girl studying to be a journalist to the girl all the journalists wanted to talk to. I appeared in practically every newspaper in the city, on every news show in the city, and even in papers and TV broadcasts across Canada and even in Vietnam.

A family friend who was down in Melbourne, Australia, for a few weeks even saw posters of me (and the other Top 50 candidates) around the city. I’ve never set foot in Australia, but because of this competition and how far I got in it, people Down Under knew who I was.

And that’s not just exclusive to people Down Under. I had support from all over the world — and it blew my mind. Emails, comments, and tweets of support were sent to me daily during my campaign. Customers at my parents’ restaurant, the majority of whom I’ve only ever spoken to in order to get their food order, were congratulating me left and right, pledging to vote for me every day. A Grade 11 class from Brampton, Ont., even chose me as the Canadian candidate they’d put all of their votes and support behind. Strangers. Absolute strangers who were just out-of-this-world kind and thought I should be the Island Caretaker.

Speaking of the Canadian candidates, there were seven of us in the Top 50, the most candidates from any one country involved in the competition. Media called us “The Lucky Seven” and while we all wanted the same job, we also shared another sentiment — that Canadians are awesome.

Yes, I’m disappointed that I didn’t make it further in the competition. I’m disappointed that my efforts to promote Australia, spread the word about the competition, garner votes and more, weren’t enough for the judging panel. And I’m disappointed that I was rejected via e-mail. Ouch.

I personally think I’m an excellent blogger and had I gone onto the next round and be chosen for the job. (* this is where the ‘legendary’ portion of the sentence should have been).

But a lot of good came from my involvement in all of this. I learned how kind complete strangers could be. I saw how supportive my family and friends and the world was and I met so many great people.

But I think the biggest “good” that came out of this was that it made me realize just how much I want to travel. It made me realize I’d love to go to a country I’ve never been to before and blog about it, freelance write and photograph there. It made me really want to get out and live life.

And it made my normally super-strict parents OK with the idea of their youngest child leaving to travel the world.

Oh, by the way, they picked the winner. He’s from England and seems really nice and qualified. Congratulations and good luck to him — but I won’t lie. I still wish it could have been me.

• Click here to read the article on SEE’s website.

The End!

Linda

And The Best Job in the World goes to…

May 6 2009.

… not me!

Ha ha. But we knew that already.

No but seriously, last night at 11:00PM Edmonton time, the winner of The Best Job in the World was finally announced. It’s Ben Southall from the UK!

First off, I want to congratulate Ben. He seems like a really nice, funny person, who is obviously super qualified and I wish him the best of luck for his new job as the Island Caretaker of the islands of The Great Barrier Reef!

Now after the congratulations, I have to say I’m kind of surprised. I mean I guess he kind of slipped under my radar because I wouldn’t have guessed he’d be the one to get it out of the Top 16 (no offense, Ben). There were several other candidates that I think stood out over Ben. I had kind of stopped following the competition after I didn’t make it beyond Top 50, but I started being really interested again when all the Top 16 were flown to Australia for their week of fun events, final tasks and interviews and from that alone, I felt there were a few candidates that stood out a lot more.

Oh, also another thing that happened after I didn’t make it beyond Top 50 was that I decided to throw my support behind Top 16 candidate Juweon! He’s a fantastic person. A great blogger and his efforts during the campaign really need to be noted. When all the candidates were down in Oz, they were obviously under really tough time pressures, lots of scheduled things to do during the day so a lot of the candidate’s blogs went inactive for the period they were down there except a few, including Juweon’s. Juweon blew my mind with how he was able to keep the world updated on what was going on Down Under. He updated his blog everyday with detailed, interesting, and insightful posts, included photos and the thing that especially blew my mind – he had fully-edited, well polished videos to put up as well! I don’t think he really slept the entire time he was down there because he spent most of the night working on updating and I was completely and utterly impressed. If I hadn’t been supporting him before, I would have definitely started supporting him based solely on his ridiculously awesome blog.

Aside from Juweon’s blog, I was also regularly checking up on Canada’s lone candidate Erik’s blog, Australian James’s blog (I’ve mentioned him on this blog before, I absolutely love his photographs!), and the other Ben from France’s blog. I figured all of them had a really great shot at taking the title of Island Caretaker and I’m actually shocked none of them were chosen.

But oh well, what’s done is done. I think all of the Top 16 have been fantastic and they’ve had an incredible journey that, not going to lie, I was completely jealous of. They all also got cyan-colored shirts that said ‘THE BEST JOB IN THE WORLD’, which only further fueled my jealousy, lol. But I think I share the same sentiment as all of the Top 50, and everyone who has been following this contest the last few months… it’s finally over.

Will I be following Ben’s blog come July 1st when he officially starts his best job in the world as Island Caretaker? Not sure. I’m not really sure how interested the world will be after this anyway. I know all/most of my supporters stopped following the contest after I was out, as I’m sure was the case for the other candidates in the Top 50 who didn’t move onto the next round. But I don’t really think people actually religiously following the Island Caretaker’s blog was really the point of the whole contest anyway. The point was to generate worldwide interest in Australia and The Great Barrier Reef and that has most certainly been done. No one can deny that. And the fact that the Top 16 represented someone from all corners of the globe also ensured that reports about the winner of TBJITW would be popping up from all corners of the globe. Oh Tourism Queensland, you’re so clever.

But seriously I think the other 15 candidates are going to have so many great opportunities open to them now and it’ll be cool to see what directions they end up going.

Also, since this is a Best Job-related post. I ask that everyone check out fellow Canadian Top 50 candidate Mitch’s latest Best Job-related video! He’s seriously SO talented. I can see him having a very successful career on broadway one day. He’s also headed down to Oz for school for a semester come end of July. Another fellow Canadian Top 50 candidate, Anny is also headed down to Australia for a few months of traveling and working. So goodluck and congrats to those two for ending up down in Australia anyway!

One day I’ll get down there as well.

Oh also, I was asked to write a first-person article about my experience with TBJITW for Edmonton’s SEE Magazine. It’ll run for next week’s issue and I’ll wait till then before I post it up.

Anyway, as I’ve said before, this entire experience has been fantastic and life-changing for me. Even though I didn’t move onto the FINAL final, I’m glad I made it as far as I did and I think it’ll be really interesting to look back on the newspaper articles, TV interview videos, and blog posts about TBJITW, years from now. I also think it’s cool that I now share this Best Job bond with 49 other people worldwide. A lot of them are really cool people and I hope I get to meet them someday in the future too.

On that note, I’d like to congratulate Ben one more time… congratulations Ben!

Linda

Time to take my life and go.

April 18 2009.

Hey everyone!

Okay so I’ve finally got around to writing this… ‘what’s next?’ blog.

WARNING: It’s definitely long. lol

If you prefer skim-reading, you can just skip to the end of this post and I’ll have a to-the-point bulleted list of my plans in bold. If you want to know what I cover in this blog, this is what I cover:

• Los Angeles
• Internships? Working?
• Teaching English overseas & world travel
• What The Best Job in the World has done for me
• To sum up in a nutshell

If you want to read everything from top to bottom, read on!~

1. Los Angeles!

So immediately after finding out I wouldn’t be moving onto the next round of The Best Job in the World, I thought – Okay, must travel this summer!! The first place that came into my mind and I just knew that I had to go visit now that Australia was out of the picture? Los Angeles, California.

It kind of all came together rather nicely. My friend that I really wanted to go there with, didn’t want to go for as long as I did, but she said she could meet me down there for the last half of my trip and we could go to Las Vegas together too. Then my friend from Toronto told me that she had really wanted to go somewhere for the summer as well, and thought L.A. with me would be perfect! Along with that, for the first 4 days of my trip, I’ll be meeting up with some really great people that I’ve met online via the fansite I created for Mark Kanemura (a So You Think You Can Dance Season 4 finalist). So yeah, I’ll be with my friend from Toronto for the first portion of my L.A. trip in July, along with meeting and hanging out with “Markers“, then my Toronto friend will head back to Toronto on the same day that my friend from Edmonton comes down and we’ll head over to Las Vegas together! Perfecto!

I’ve got so much planned, so many SoCal areas to hit up and see, beaches, boulevards, boardwalks. I recently read the book “The Soloist” which is also coming out as a movie starring Robert Downey Jr. and Jamie Foxx next week, based on the real life experiences of an LA Times columnist Steve Lopez and a schizophrenic homeless musician, Nathaniel Anthony Ayers, and I absolutely want to see if I can find Nathaniel in downtown LA and hear his music!!!

Anyway, so to summarize that. I’ll be fulfilling my dream of visiting Los Angeles, my dream city, this July!!!! YAY!

2. Interships? Working? I need money to pay for my vacation!

Okay so also immediately after failing to make the next round of The Best Job in the World, I thought – okay, what am I doing in terms of my “career” this summer then? I have always been interested in television broadcasting and had intended on trying to get some kind of television station internship this summer or next, so I thought, well I could do that this summer before I go on my vacation then?

I already have a two-week internship lined up at the Edmonton Journal as part of my requirements to graduate my journalism program, which I’m stoked about. But everywhere you look there’s a hiring freeze, freelance budgets are being cut, and from what I had heard at least a month back, The Journal along with other media outlets weren’t trying too eagerly search for students to hire for paid summer internships in this gloomy recession and economy. Which is totally fair. Okay, but anyway I was interested in getting an internship (which also would have been unpaid, I’m sure, didn’t ask though) at CTV Edmonton. One reason why I’m particularly interested in CTV is because CTVglobemedia is basically, well a force across broadcasting in Canada. CTV owns Much Music, Star and E! Entertainment, MTV Canada, all of the major Canadian entertainment shows that I’m interested in working at. And I think it would have been (it still would be) valuable to be able to say I’ve worked at a CTV branch.

Needless to say, after what I thought was a really good interview (seriously, I thought it went very well!), I was told I’d be given a call after the Easter long weekend and alas, it is now Friday, Easter was several days ago, and there’s been no phone call or email. I did send a follow-up email about the internship yesterday… and yeah no response to that either, which I think means it’s safe to say I will not be working at CTV this summer. Which bums me out most definitely… and while I could try and get an internship at another TV station (Global? CityTV?), I think (again because I believe everything happens for a reason) that this was quite possibly a sign telling me “Linda!! You need to save up MONEY this summer!” which I would not have been able to do really, had I worked unpaid (though it’s always the question of what’s more important, gaining valuable career-related experience, or getting money. Hm).

Basically that leads me to this conclusion ~

I will be working evenings and weekends at my parent’s restaurant from May until I leave for my vacation in July, as a way to save up money for both my vacation and what I’m about to write about next…

3. Teaching English overseas / longterm travel!

Okay so this is a big one. I had been thinking a lot about life post-The Best Job in the World… like what I would be doing with my life, where I wanted to go, how I wanted to get there, etc., and I had come to this conclusion.

I’m basically done my journalism education. Once I complete my two-week internship by about the second week of May, I’ll be finished. Graduated. Ready to go out into the media and journalism industry and get a job and start my journalism career full-time. Back in high school when I was planning out my post-secondary route, I had planned it like this – 2 years of journalism at Grant Mac, 2 years of television broadcasting at NAIT. That way the two programs would kind of compliment eachother, and I’d have something of a 4 year education as if it were a journalism degree (even though for both it would have been journalism diploma + broadcasting diploma).

Like I’ve said numerous times in Best Job interviews, I’ve wanted to travel for a very long time. I want to go out and really see the world and experience what life has to offer, and see all I can see. About a year ago I had decided that once I finished up my schooling, a perfect way to explore the world, travel, while still gaining an income, would be to teach English overseas.

That idea came back to me this month, and I decided that I will not be going to NAIT for their broadcasting program after all. Instead, I’ll be taking some courses in the coming months to become certified in teaching English overseas. Come September (hopefully I’ll find a placement), I’ll spend 6 months to a year in first Korea, and then travel around the Asian countries once I’m there and hopefully really utilize the teaching English certification and go all over the place to stay, make a living, while exploring and seeing the world. I’ll start taking photography more seriously once I’m over there (traveling photos! foreign photos! always great subjects) and I’ll also freelance write to English publications, as well as blog and video blog about my experiences wherever I end up going.

So there it is.

4. What The Best Job In The World has done for me.

TBJITW experience has made me want to really get up and explore. Adventure. Take my life and go. I’ve been bitten by the traveling bug and now, more than ever, I don’t see myself staying in Edmonton for very long. Yes, it will always be my home, but right now I need to leave. The experience has made me really realize that, and it has made the notion of my traveling and leaving on my own, something my parents are accepting easier than they would have if I hadn’t taken part in TBJITW.

To sum up, once I get certified to teach English and get hired somewhere around the world (again, hoping it will start in Korea because I’ve been hearing great things about teaching in Korea), I plan on traveling, exploring, blogging, photographing everything I encounter, doing freelance writing, growing up really, and seeing where life takes me… before returning to the print and broadcast journalism industry here in North America. (I say North America because I have had aspirations to live and work in both Los Angeles and Toronto… and maybe after a year or two of being in a foreign country, I’ll head to one of those places to look for work instead?)

5. So, in a nutshell, this is what I need to do from now until September…

This is where I’ll be from now until September:

• May & June: Edmonton.
• July: Los Angeles and Las Vegas. (for sure).
• August: Toronto (maybe).
• September and onwards: Korea + The World (pending being hired, lol).

And here’s what I need (in a more-detailed bulleted list) to get done from now until September:

• Complete a two-week internship with the Edmonton Journal. (Thus graduating the journalism program at MacEwan and receiving my journalism diploma).
• Work evenings and weekends at my parent’s restaurant to save money to pay for my two-week vacation in Los Angeles and Las Vegas in July; pay for a Flip Mino HD camcorder; pay for an external flash for my Canon EOS Rebel XTI; and pay for my Global TESOL Teaching English overseas certification.
• Take and complete my Global TESOL Teaching English overseas certification courses.
• Research/look into teaching abroad for September. (I’m interested in Korea right now).
• Take more photos to expand my photography portfolio/increase my experience.
• Freelance write (and blog more extensively) to keep my writing experience fresh and current (and to help expand my portfolio).
• Figure out how to integrate WordPress into websites and create my own WordPress themes so that I can..
• Freelance web design / build websites and actually make some money off of it!

And there it is.

I mean, so many things can happen and different opportunities may pop up so that my route from now until September, or when I’m actually in a foreign country, you know? Who can really say where I’ll go from there? A year ago I certainly didn’t think I’d ever be participating in a global competition to try and get “the best job in the world” in Australia. And two years ago I thought that 2 years of extra education at NAIT was definitely in the cards for me. But things change. Plans change. And as I say, things happen for a reason.

I’ve got this outline of where I want my life to go now. Just like I had an outline for where I wanted my life to go two years ago. For that tentative path I came up with in my mind two years ago, I’ve for the most part stayed on it pretty closely.

If (when) I end up on the other side of the world, I don’t know what’s going to happen there. I don’t know who I’m going to meet or what opportunities will arise. I just know that I’m so excited just thinking about encountering everything that I will potentially encounter.

Basically now, at this time, my actions are revolving around these lyrics from the inspirational song I blogged about earlier this month: Brendan James – All I Can See!

Those who journey can easily understand,
the more they see the more they’ll learn,
the more that they will be.
So this I swear to you, and this I swear to me,
I’ll never rest till I’ve seen all I can see.
No, I’ll never rest till I’ve seen all i can see.

For now though, I’ve got some serious budgeting to do!!!!!

And I still need to study for my final exams for next week, lol.

Linda

“I’ll never rest till I’ve seen all I can see!”

April 3 2009.

Hey everyone, I was really inspired to post this song/lyrics up today!

I first heard the song by Brendan James, back in August on So You Think You Can Dance (Lol!) It was played in Mark Kanemura’s goodbye video and it’s called “All I Can See.” It just randomly started playing on my iTunes today via the shuffle function, and I paused and thought, “HEY, this is perfect!!!”

Here’s the song:

Here are the lyrics:

I want to walk through this doorway
I want to open my mind
I want to pledge my allegiance to all I can find.
I want a car that will crash through the barriers
to a road no one knows.
I want to feel less control,
want to bend and I want to land far from home.

The revolution of the earth around the sun
is the perfect lesson of how it should be.
So if i cannot learn
to journey and return,
to never rest till I’ve seen all I can see…

I want to learn a completely new language,
one I don’t understand.
I want to help someone lost, someone helpless,
with the strength of my hand.
I want to come to the base of a statue built
before they counted the years,
and there i’ll fall with my face in my hands and cry
and feel their hope in my tears.

The revolution of the earth around the sun
is the perfect lesson of how it should be.
So if I cannot learn,
to journey and return,
to never rest till I’ve seen all I can see…

Train rides and pastures colliding…
colors and customs i’ve never seen…
I know I, yes I know I,
I know I will stumble
but time is precious my friend.

Those who journey can easily understand,
the more they see the more they’ll learn,
the more that they will be.
So this I swear to you, and this I swear to me,
I’ll never rest till I’ve seen all I can see.
No, I’ll never rest till I’ve seen all i can see.

I want to know where the stength of a person lies,
in their past or their future.
Is it in the way that they hurt or they love themselves
or is it all an illusion?
I want to crawl from this skin that i’m painted in…
Body, please let it give.
I want to find the creator of all good things
and ask what it means to live.

Here’s Mark’s elimination ( ) and goodbye video that the song was used in :

And to view the official video for it (embedding is turned off), CLICK HERE!

Opportunities, opportunities! I’ve tentatively planned out how I want my summer to go now that Oz is out of the picture and I must say it’s looking good! Half industry/career-related, half traveling and adding to that list of things, places, and experiences that I won’t “rest till I’ve seen all I can see” of!

Once I get things finalized I’ll post my summer plans.

Linda

I know, sad, right… lol

April 2 2009.

Waiting for the phone to ring..

Hello everyone!! So by now you probably know that I definitely did not make it to the next round for the Best Job in the World. I know, sad, right. LOL. Before I go into details, I just wanted to put up top here…

I want to thank everyone so, so, so, so, sooooo much for all of your support since I started this campaign!!!! Your tweets, your facebook messages, your emails — everything! I appreciate it so much. You just don’t know how much all of your supportive words has meant to me. I really want to thank everyone individually but there’s been so many supportive messages over the last 2 months that I would feel absolutely dreadful if I missed anyone by accident. I’ve thanked you all before and I’m thanking you again (and I’m going to thank everyone who messaged me again today), but honestly I could say thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, over and over and over and it wouldn’t be thanks enough. You’ve all moved me and inspired me and I say this so much but seriously, I am just SOOOOOOOO APPREICIATIVE!!!!!! Thank you!!!!! Thank you for believing in me. I’ll never forget all of you & this experience!

OKAY! So, moving onto what went down today… lol.

My friends, Denise, Jasmine, Margaret, and Alyssa, came over to be with me while we waited for the moment of truth. We were also joined by a cameraman for Global Edmonton. I was in an MSN Group Chat with about 10-12 of the Top 50 candidates during the wait as well.

Basically this is how it went down. The Top 15 moving onto the next round were going to be called with the happy news between 4PM-5PM Edmonton time. The rest of the Top 50 would also get emails and phone calls of rejection. By about 4:30PM no one in the MSN chat had gotten any phone calls and I was getting super anxious. I was clutching onto my phone like it was nobody’s business. Shortly after 4:30PM Hailey wrote that she had gotten the call. I think after that James got the call, Juweon got the call, and there were a few people writing that they were out. I then decided to check my email and there it was. The subject line read “News from Tourism Queensland” and the gmail preview showed the first line of the email to me before I even opened it:

“Dear Linda, Unfortunately I am writing to you with bad news. I am very sorry to advise you that…”

So there it was. The journey ends.

I won’t sugarcoat it, I was REALLY sad and REALLY disappointed. I had been SO sure that I would be moving onto next round and when they announced that they would be extending the Top 11 to a Top 16, I thought for sure that meant good news for Canadian applicants!!! They’d be able to pick more people from Canada! Is what I, and many others, thought. Sadly not.

After some group hugs, talking to Global, CTV (who came shortly after Global), some phone interviews with The Edmonton Sun, Metro, and CBC Radio, some phone calls to break the news to my parents and my brother, I had come to terms with it all. It’s okay!

Like I’ve said more than once, I believe everything happens for a reason and if I was meant to move onto the next round, if I was meant to head down to Australia, if I was meant to get the Best Job in the World, then it would have happened. But I wasn’t meant for it, not right now, maybe (probably) because something else (something better?) is out there for me, this summer, later this year, or maybe next.

Either way, being involved in this entire process has seriously been one of the best experiences of my life. I’ve met so many wonderful people both in real life and online, friendships that I hope last for a very long time, tips and tricks of the media trade, made contacts with maybe my potential future employers, and the list goes on. I started taking this blogging thing more seriously and doing it more frequently. I started video blogging and that was really fun! (I still intend to continue video blogging! ) I’ve made my face and name recognizable throughout the country (though people are likely to forget it pretty soon, LOL but still) and I’ve grown as a person. I’ve learned so much, I’ve expanded my horizons, and I could not be more excited for whatever comes next.

I’ve always been goal-oriented. I’ve always been determined. I’ve always had big plans for my life and this entire Best Job experience has only fueled that deterministic flame. I’ve always had big plans for myself and now more than ever that rings true.

Plus at least this means I’ll be around for my brother’s wedding in July. And also, I was waiting to see if I would be heading to Australia before looking into getting a new phone because my current one has a ridiculous amount of issues. Now that it looks like I won’t be heading down there (anytime soon, but certainly sometime in the future), I’m looking into getting a Blackberry Storm! And to tack onto that, I am definitely making some plans to travel this summer. I.Love.Traveling! Oh and I am also going to legit learn how to snorkel and scubadive now anyway! And I was looking into indoor bungee jumping at the West Edmonton Mall Waterpark before, as part of my Best Job campaign to show that I’m adventurous and what not (it didn’t happen though), but well, I still fully intend to do it now!

Now I leave you with these two pictures my friend Denise & I took today:

Us being pouty and (fake) angry.

Also here’s the Global Edmonton segment that ran today… I apologize for how much of a mess I look.

Also, BEST OF LUCK TO THE TOP 16 and especially those who are from the Ning forums! (Lookin atchu Juweon!)

Thanks again everyone.

Linda

“When I was 5 years old, I would walk around putting teacups on tables because that’s all I could carry back then.”

April 2 2009.

So back when the Top 50 was first announced, we were all required to send in a new picture of ourselves as well as a short essay/short story about ourselves. Now that I’m out of the running, I figure it’s okay to share what I sent in.

Here’s the picture I sent in (along with another one I also liked )

I basically changed all of the desktops of all the computers in a Mac lab at school so they would say “CHOOSE LINDA FOR THE BEST JOB IN THE WORLD” and then my friend Pamelina took the photos!

(Side note: I’ve made it my mission to start a collection of shirts that say “LOVE” on it. So far the count is at 2, lol).

Now for the short story/essay, we had to cover the following in under 500 words:

1. A little about your background, previous employment, family, where you live.
2. What is most important to you in life.
3. If successful in gaining The Best Job in the World with Tourism Queensland, who will be joining you on your journey to the Islands of the Great Barrier Reef (partner and / or children and tell us a little about them).
4. Anything else you would like to share about yourself.

This is what I sent in:

I’m a 19-year-old journalism student from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. I was born here and I’ve lived here my entire life. I’ve traveled around Canada and the United States, but I’ve never left the continent, even though I often dream of doing so.

Every weekend for as far back as I can remember, I help my parents by working at our Vietnamese family restaurant. My dad often tells people that when I was 5 years old, I would walk around putting teacups on tables because that’s all I could carry back then. Now I can do pretty much everything at the restaurant except cook. It’s a small but busy place, and my parents don’t like hiring outside of the family so I am a hostess, waitress, busgirl, and dishwasher, all in one.

Last summer after my first year of journalism, I got my first real career-related job at a small weekly newspaper. This was a full four-month gig. Normally a first year journalism student wouldn’t usually get work like that, but I was really keen on getting as much experience as I could, as early as I could, plus the paper liked my sample articles and the fact that I was at the top of my class, so they took me.

After I successfully finished that internship and went back to school for my second (and current) year, I started dabbling into freelance writing for smaller papers and magazines in Edmonton. I was chosen to do a three-week winter break internship at a major daily newspaper in the city and completed that successfully as well.

Over the years, no matter how busy I am with school, work, or just hanging out with friends and family, I’ve always made time to stay connected online through social networking, creating my own websites, fansites, and teaching myself new skills like how to video edit, use Photoshop and make graphics.

The most important thing in life to me, honestly, is happiness. I want to be happy. I want to surround myself with people who make me happy. I want to make those people around me happy. I want to do whatever it is and whatever it takes, so that the outcome leaves me feeling good about life.

If I am successful in gaining The Best Job in the World with Tourism Queensland, there is no one I’ll be bringing to live with me for the entire 6-month duration. I certainly intend on having my parents, brothers, cousins, and friends come throughout the 6 months to stay with me for extended periods of time. But I really want this to be a truly new and independent experience, especially at this stage in my life. I’m also looking forward to meeting new people on the islands and having them become a part of those 6 months, along with my friends and family who visit.

Thank you so much for considering me. The experience so far has been incredible and I really hope it doesn’t end anytime soon.

I had debated whether or not they wanted me to write a “story” about a girl named Linda, etc., or whether they just wanted to see how well I could write while making sure to answer their questions. I went with the latter approach. Maybe it was a little less creative and maybe that hurt me in the overall decision for who moved onto the next round but, oh well! That’s what I sent in.

Linda

“Dreams are like stars…you may never touch them, but if you follow them, they will lead you to your destiny.”

April 1 2009.

Well everyone, the moment of truth is almost here.

Tourism Queensland will announce which 10 candidates will join Clare from Taiwan in moving onto the next round tomorrow night. (11:00pm UTC = 5:00pm Thursday, Edmonton time). I spent last night staring at the ceiling as a million different thoughts and scenarios shot in and out of my mind and I’m sure tonight is going to be like that xA lot more. Crossing my toes, my fingers, have whispered a thousand prayers, will continue to pray tonight, and will probably continue to pray in my 3 hour class tomorrow, LOL eep! Oh, I’ve also been listening to some inspirational-type songs on repeat and that should also carry through to tomorrow as well. Haha.

Tomorrow at the time of announcement, I’ll be in my house, standing or sitting very close to my phone and my laptop, with a few friends, and also Global Edmonton and possibly CTV Edmonton, lol. I might also be on MSN talking to some of the other Top 50 candidates but my MSN has been wonky in terms of group chats and invites so we’ll see how that goes.

Dreaming of the Great Barrier Reef... Dreaming of the Best Job in the World..

Anyway at this point I’m putting everything on destiny here. I have always been a firm believer in the notion that things happen for a reason so if I’m meant to move onto the next round then I will. <3

On that note of belief in the supernatural forces and what not, here’s my horoscope for the week/the big day tomorrow:

LEO – Weekly Horoscope

Your friends and partner are offering you a great deal of support, which you can continue to draw upon for long time. You can count on others to help you overcome challenges that could prove disconcerting. With a focus on your adventure zone, you’re looking to get ahead. Your ability to take a leap into the unknown will work in your favor. New love affairs look very promising and will bring you much happiness. This is one area of life that’s going to bring many opportunities to find the right match over the coming months.

April 2nd 2009

Your naturally warm personality is going to melt any icy personalities you encounter today, so it’s going to be a very social day whether you had planned on it or not. From small talk with the stranger standing in line behind you to a surprisingly in-depth conversation with a coworker you never get a chance to talk to, this day offers enriching exchanges that will make you pause and see people in a new light. You may have been judging someone incorrectly.

(Horoscope taken from reef-job.net).

LOOKING GOOD RIGHT?

Okay… so again, this is it everyone!

Photo Credit: Google

Also, if I am announced to be in the next round, I am totally throwing an Australian-y island-themed party for anyone and everyone who can and wants to attend before I head to Australia!!!!!

Now, with a final yearning look at the giant map on the wall of my room (LOL, dramatic much?), I’m off~

(Be sure to check everything I have tomorrow night for reactions and results and what not. I’d start with Facebook and Twitter, followed by probably youtube and/or this blog, lol. Hoping that it’s an excited and happy reaction and not a sad, depressing kind of heart-wrenching one. lol)

Thank you so much everyone for all of your support these last 2 months… This has seriously been such an incredible experience and I hope it doesn’t come to an end tomorrow night.

Talk you all soon…

Linda

What the heck does IMO mean, like SRSLY?

March 30 2009.

Lately I’ve been frequenting the ONTD Celebrity Blog on an overly-regular basis. Now one of the great things about ONTD is the users and their hilarious comments. I’ve become rather addicted to reading comments on the blog’s posts, I think in large part to the fact that they are usually witty, snarky, and are accompanied by one or several Internet slang acronyms.

I understood the basic ones, you know – LOL, WTF, ROFL, OMG, etc. But then I started seeing ones I’ve never ever seen before, ones like NGL, IDGAF, IDGI, etc. I’ve always considered myself Internet savvy and having a pretty good handle on Internet trends and what not, but here was a pile of acronyms that I had no clue the meaning of!! Was I getting too old? I’m only 19 for godsake..

Needless to say, I needed to learn what these “new” acronyms meant. What did that mean I had to do? No, not go out and buy one of those tween acronym Internet books.

What I did was enlist the help of a 15-year-old, Generation Y, really Internet savvy girl who could tell me what these strange words meant and help me compile a list of currently commonly used acronyms!

And that’s what the following is, my compilation of some current commonly used Internet slang. Compiled thanks to the assistance of the very helpful Kelly D. (with some input by a frequent ONTD-goer, Tanvi G.)

                                          Wondering WTF these letters mean?
                                                      Here’s your new guide!

The Basics:

LOL – laughing out loud
LMAO – laughing my ass off
ROFL – rolling on floor laughing
OMG – oh my god
WTF – what the eff
BRB – be right back
BTW – by the way
FYI – for your information
IMU – i miss you
ILU/ILY– i love you

What the “Basics” sounds like:

2 Letter Acronyms:

JK – just kidding
JC – just checking
H/O – hold on
DL – down low
OT – off topic
QT – cutie
BB – baby
TY – thank you
YW – you’re welcome
NP – no problem
WB – welcome back
W/E – whatever
W/O – without

What these 2 Letter Acronyms sound like:

3 Letter Acronyms:

IRL – in real life
NGL – not gonna lie
IDK – i don’t know
IDC – i don’t care
IKR – i know right
FML – eff my life
BBL – be back later
MTE – my thoughts exactly
IMO – in my opinion
AFK – away from keyboard
ASL – age sex location
BFF – best friends forever
TMI – too much information
TBH – to be honest
TBA – to be announced
TIA – thanks in advance
ETA – edited to add
FTW – for the win
FTL – for the lose
ATM – at the moment
BFD – big effing deal
SOL – shit outta luck
O I C – oh I see
SRS – serious
FWB – friends with benefits
AWK – awkward
ESP – especially
DEF – definitely
OBV – obviously
HDU – how dare you
ILH – i love him or i love her

What these 3 Letter acronyms sound like:

4 or More Letter Acronyms:

IDGI – I don’t get it
IJAF – it’s just a fact
STFU – shut the eff up
JSYK – just so you know
TTFN – ta ta for now
TTYL – talk to you later
TTYS – talk to you soon
AWOL – absent without leave / missing
SRSLY – seriously
BFFL – best friends for life (BIFFLE)
IDGAF – I don’t give a eff
AFAIK – as far as I know
BBSOL – be back sooner or later
IAWTC – I agree with this completely
ILYSM– I love you so much

What these 4 or More Letter acronyms sound like:

Some random Internet Slang:

LAWLS & LULS – variations of “lol”
LMAOSAURUS & ROFLCOPTER – variations of “lmao” and “rofl”
WEAKSAUCE & LAMESAUCE – that is weak, that is lame
OM NOM NOM – the sound one makes when they are eating something very fast or chomping

You can also add “f” (eff) to many acronyms such as LMFAO & OMFG.

What some of these random slang words sound like:

Basically these days an entire sentence that is understandable to the Internet public can be written with mostly acronyms!

Examples:

“LOL OMG THAT WAS SRSLY FTW LAWLS ILYSM and IAWTC NGL.“
Translation: (Haha) oh my god that was seriously for the win (haha) I love you so much and I agree with this completely, not gonna lie.

“JSYK IDGAF TBH that was TMI so just STFU IDC.“
Translation: Just so you know I don’t give a f*ck, to be honest that was too much information so just shut the f*ck up, I don’t care.

“ILU IMU LIKE SRSLY YOU’RE MY BFFL BB.“
Translation:I love you, i miss you, seriously you’re my best friend for life baby.

Of course no one would actually write an entire sentence with strictly acronyms (well I hope not anyway).

When I asked my dear 15-year-old friend (who is actually quite an intelligent individual, as are many of the individuals who post comments on ONTD using tons of acronyms) why she types in acronyms and purposely spells words incorrectly, she responded with this:

“I JUST LIKE TO LEAVE VOWELS OUT GOD IDK WHY COZ ITS QT!“

Hahaha! Of course, I’m really not judging because I like to use acronyms and spell things wrong on purpose in chats and messages as well. This post was just something I thought would be a helpful reference for myself and whoever else happens to google “What the heck does IMO mean?!!?” and more.

Let me know if there are any popular acronyms that you’ve seen being used around the interwebz that you think I should add to this list!

Also, only a few more days until the Top 10 of the Best Job in the World is announced! I’m becoming so very, very nervous. If TQ (Tourism Queensland) is going for geographical diversity with their Top 10 selections, than my chances are seriously shot because there’s so many candidates from Canada and all of us are could make it but they can’t choose a large number of us if they’re trying to maintain worldwide interest. Sigh! I’m trying to stay positive and crossing my fingers, praying, and all that good stuff though. Hopefully Thursday is a happy, happy day!

“I think I’ll wear my hair in a ponytail, the world hasn’t seen me in a ponytail yet!” ;)

March 25 2009.

Hi everyone! Yesterday I was on Alberta Primetime, a fairly new news show that airs across the province from 7-8pm! (If you’re in Alberta and reading this, you should start watching it! I think it’s so awesome and uplifting that in this time of crazy job cuts in the media industry, a new news show could start up like this! So support it, please! )

March 24 2009 - On Set of Alberta Primetime!

I was interviewed by Brandy Yanchyk, who was so great! She gave me some great journalism advice and I gave her the address to my parent’s restaurant so she could come by and have some noodle soup sometime!

March 24 2009 - On Alberta Primetime set just before 7PM!

March 24 2009 - Getting powdered for the show!

Out of all the interviews and TV appearances I’ve done since making the Top 50, this was the first one where there was actually makeup involved!! Haha! They said I didn’t need much (woo hoo!) but they powdered my face so it wouldn’t shine on TV. LOL!

So the shininess that dominated my Canada AM appearance didn’t repeat. Phew

And as noted in the title of this blog, I put my hair up for the interview because thus far in everything I’ve done this month (except for a video blog), my hair has been down! So I thought the world (ha! I’m flattering myself, I mean the province ) should see me with my hair up!

My segment only lasted a few minutes but I stuck around till the end of the show because, well, they let me!

Watching how the cameras work and seeing the behind the scenes aspect of a newscast is so interesting!

Seriously, being in the Top 50 has been the greatest experience ever!!!! Interviews, backstage in television studios, emails, tweets, and phone calls with reporters and news producers! Not only has all of this been so exciting, but it’s been such a great learning experience especially considering I’m in journalism!! A-W-E-S-O-M-E!! I have had the time of my life and I’m praying it doesn’t end on April 2. Pray with me!!

Anyway, watch my interview from last night here:

I’m going to be making another video blog tomorrow, hopefully getting it up by Friday!! It all depends on my homework schedule! I’ve been spending the last two days being super productive in terms of schoolwork, trying to get these final assignments done and out of the way. So far so good.

I need to find some time to do some serious updating though, my websites have been lacking hardcore in the updates department this month! (But the frequency of updates for this blog have definitely shot up! Haha!)

Anyway, more soon! Keep your fingers crossed for me for April 2nd please!!

Thanks again everyone whose voted for me!!!!

Linda