Today was a really fun day. It started off with us getting up kind of early. For breakfast we had French Toast. After we finished our breakfast we traveled to PetCo Stadium by foot, home of the San Diego Padres. We had a very funny tour guide who gave us a very informative tour. We got to see many places inside of the stadium including the visitor clubhouse and the press center. The stadium was ginormous and the television was bigger than a hotel level. Inside of the press center was pretty bare but I can imagine that it just comes to life when there is a game going on. After we finished our tour of the stadium, we went down to the gift store where they were filming a commercial. That was really cool. We then went to lunch at a place called smash burgers. I had a BBQ, Bacon, and Cheddar sandwich. It was delicious. After lunch we started our adventure quest. You are given a website with login information where you login and it gives you questions whose answers gives you the location of the next question, much like the amazing race. We finished first with the most answers answered correctly. We saw another Hawaii school when we were finishing up. After we finished with that we went back to the hotel room and we ate diner. We had spaghetti. We then met up with our pen pals and exchanged gifts. My pen pal gave me a really nice hoodie and a CMSTV shirt. We then went to bed after.

   Today we departed from LA to go to San Diego. We woke up and we ate breakfast at Bob's Burgers. I had country fried steak and it was delicious. We then went to San Diego. The trip was kinda long and I got kind of sick. When we arrived we put all of our luggage in one room. The other rooms were not ready. After that we went to the USS Midway. It is the oldest air craft carrier in the United States Fleet. It was a very interesting tour. The ship was steam propelled, so the propeller is turned through steam pressure. We also learned that the slingshot that is used is operated by two pistons. After the tour, we walked through the ship and we learned a lot. It was like a city at sea. They had food, laundry, and medical services on board. It was very interesting. They also had simulations where you could pretend like you were actually flying a plane. I did not get to go on because the ride closed. We then went to the Cheese Cake Factory for dinner. I had shrimp and chicken gumbo. It was delicious. I was so full though that I could hardly walk. We got back to the hotel room and we went to bed. 

   This morning we got up early and went to breakfast. We ate at this little shop where they sold drinks and pastries. I had a bagel and the last strawberry smoothie. After that we headed on over to Universal. The entrance to the park is right next to the entrance to City Walk. When we got through the checkpoints at the entrance, we saw a man that posed as a statue. I thought that he was made of bronze until he moved while this girl was taking a picture of him. We then went into the park and we went down four flights of escalators. When we got to the lower lot we started of by riding a Transformers simulation ride. I had ridden that ride before but it was still exciting. After we finished we then went and rode the Revenge of the Mummy. It was a thrilling ride that I have ridden many times before and it is still scary. We then went on the Jurassic Park ride and the Simpson's ride. The Simpson's was also a simulation ride like the Revenge of the Mummy. We then went up to the upper lot and rode a tram. It took us through a lot of sound stages and props that they used for filming. We went through various sound stages that they used to film TV shows. We also went by a giant blue screen that they chroma key out so that it can be any background. We also walked past this tank where they filmed underwater shots. We also learned how they changed the weather with special machines. We then rode a few more rides and by the time that  we were finished, it was late at night. We ate at City walk and we then went to bed.

   Today was really fun. It was a lot of fun to go and tour a real college. The day started kinda early at 6:00 in the morning. I got up then so that we could get ready. Three people wanted to shower. We left the hotel at eight and went to McDonalds for breakfast. When we got to USC, it was really hot. When we started our tour, we met with Gregory Share. He seemed like a really nice guy. He started off the tour talking about majors and minors and then giving a little bit of background information about the college. The school mascot was a dog before it was the Trojan. We then went through the different buildings that were on the campus. They had six different schools for arts and engineering. We finished our tour with the Annenburg Building which was their media and communication building. They had two buildings. That was where we ended our tour with him. We also had lunch during the tour. I had an Aztec Sandwich. After that we toured the athletic department. It was ginormous and reserved only for the student athletes. If I could be a student athlete I definitely would go there. They even memorialized the football coach because he was so persuasive. We then went to city walk for dinner where I had Panda Express. We then did our blogs and went to bed.

   Last week we had our first Crazy Eights practice, and it was a ton of fun. This year I am on the Film team, where we create a short film that has to be under five minutes. I think that this competition is a lot more fun then the broadcast competition. During the practice, we learned a lot of things like our team works well together, we should not use a boom mic to film, and that we need to work on our audio editing a lot.

   I think that we worked together great as a team. There were no fights and everybody seemed to want to work together to get the job done faster. We also had three really good actors. Napua Canales had no problem doing any of the shots, even when she had to pretend to like another classmate. Another actor by the name of Serena put her own spin on some of the shots so that it would not be so boring. The final actor was good because he did not complain a lot.

   We also learned a few things that we need to work on. We learned that filming our audio with a boom mic definitely does not work. It got way to much background audio that we had to use music to drown out. The boom also did not really catch what they were saying, so that was another bad thing.

   We also need to work on balancing our audio levels. Our audio levels were all over the place. Sometimes you could hear nothing but the music. Other times you could only hear one person talking. With a little bit more precise editing, I think that we could make our video much better.

   All in all, I think that it was a pretty good practice. We did a fairly good. There is a lot we could do to improve, especially with the audio. Other than that, it was a pretty good practice.
   

Today we had our first Krazy Eights STN Practice. It was a lot of fun and a lot of hard work. We did our story on the topic now or never, and we showed this by having a girl complete a bucket list of the things she wanted to do because she could do it now or never. It was a lot of fun and I think that our team got along together pretty well. I can't wait for STN and I think that we will do great there! Her are some pictures we took and I'll try to post the video!

   Excitement is a highlight in my life, because if there was no excitement, then life would be, well, boring. Today I'm going to share with you the most exciting moment of my life. It happened last STN Trip when we won second place in the sweet sixteen broadcast competition. It was super exciting because of the atmosphere, the suspense that the competition creates, and because it was the first time I had won an award at the STN Convention.

   The atmosphere at the convention really hyped me up. There were flashing lights and booming music. It was like an awesome party. There were people running all around with cameras filming. It would have been my most exciting moment of my life even without winning. My friends were also there which made it even more exciting.

   The second reason that winning at the STN convention was the suspense. the convention does a really good job of building up suspense so that when the time comes, you are so excited your pants fall off. Not literally. You do the sweet sixteen challenge on the first day that you get there and the. You wait a week to hear the results. By then you've pumped yourself up so much you can't stand it.

   The third reason why this was the most exciting moment of my life was because this was the first time that I won at STN. I went one year before but I lost in both competitions so this was really exciting. I almost laid on the ground and cried. You may think that second place is the first loser, but at STN, even honorable mention is something to brag about.

   The day that my team won  second place at STN was by far the most exciting day of my life. It was exciting because of the atmosphere, the anticipation, and the fact that we won second place.