Oklahoman interns NewsOK.com Blogging Community

I’m heading out soon and for those of you who I didn’t get a chance to see before I left I just wanted to say goodbye. It was nice knowing you all.

Gosh it went by fast huh? Too fast.

-Sarah D.– Features (for the next hour)

Since this was our last weekend as Oklahoman interns, it was a chance for many of us to make some lasting memories with the friends we’ve made this summer.

Friday night was a night out at the Oklahoma Redhawks game - courtesy of OPUBCO/The Oklahoman, which provided us with free suite tickets and an all-you-can-eat promotion pass (Thank you, OPUBCO!).

Some interns brought family members or friends to share the night with, while the rest of us made use of each other’s company to share in America’s past-time. But either way, good times were had by all!

Ironically, rather than watching the ballgame, many of us spent the night chatting together with the other Oklahoman employees who joined us: Joe Hight (director of information and development), Patti Shubert (executive assistant) and Jim Beckel (photographer).

I’m sure we provided them with some added entertainment with our intern cameraderie and antics — and maybe a little terror too, in Jason’s case…

The evening passed much too quickly, and before we knew it, the ballgame ended. Even though the Redhawks lost at the bitter end, the night still closed with a bang…

 Then on Saturday, a few of us met up again for an ol’ fashioned board-game night.

Jason and I faced off in a game of Scrabble - since I wasn’t fully convinced of his mastery over the game. He soon put my doubts to shame as he won with more than twice the score of mine. That put me in my place.

When Amy, Jenn and Dontay joined us, we switched to Scattergories, which led to much laughter as we began to question the worth of each other’s answers during the numerous rounds we played.

Some of the best moments?

– Dontay fast becoming the underdog and likely winning more rounds than all of us.

– Amy calling me out on “flakes” actually being “snowflakes,” so I couldn’t use it as an answer for “F” under “Things that are cold.

– Jason and I having some kind of telekinetic link and coming up with the exact same obscure answers as one another.

– Jenn being constantly distracted by my playful kitten and coming up with random answers.

So, as you might tell, it was an exciting and fun-filled weekend with some great friends. It’s amazing how fast you can get used to being around the same friends all the time, and before you know it - that time is up.

One more week of memories, my friends… Let’s make ‘em worth it.

~ Kristen M. Daum, City Desk intern at The Oklahoman.

The crowd at last night’s Redhawks game in Bricktown got a little more entertainment than they might have expected.

Among the ballplay, hotdogs and other traditions of America’s past-time were some performers of overnight pop-culture fame: The ZOOperstars.

The ZOOperstars were featured on NBC’s “America’s Got Talent,” showing off their acrobatic hilarities to a national television audience.

But on Friday, the ZOOperstar performers entertained the few thousand baseball fans gathering in downtown Oklahoma City!!

Here’s a glimpse of what the crowd was able to see in Bricktown Ballpark:

~ Kristen M. Daum, City Desk intern at The Oklahoman.

Stay tuned for more blog updates this weekend
about The Oklahoman interns’ night out at Friday’s Redhawks game!

Hello, Readers:

Check out NewsOK’s podcast page to hear the interns reflect on their past six weeks at The Oklahoman!

— Kristen, Adrielle and Nathan, on interning for the City and Business desks and the Data team.

— Monica and Hailey, on interning for Metro and State.

— Mike and Dontay, on interning for Sports.

And now, we’ve got less than two weeks left — Who would believe two months could go by so fast?

~ Kristen M. Daum, City Desk intern at The Oklahoman.

In the next two weeks (which surprise to me are the last two weeks of the internship, but that’s another story) I am writing stories about the best local place to find guacamole and gelato.

 Best part? The paper’s paying me to eat food they are paying for and then write about it. Yeah! (As a college student nothing quite gets me as excited as free food!)

 I have a week of guacamole lunches and gelato snacks ahead of me and if anyone has suggestions as to the best place to find these tasty treats, let me know so I can be sure to visit it.

mmmmmmmmmmm, food.

–Sarah D. - Features

Each month in The Oklahoman’s News and Information Center, ”Best of the Month” honors are awarded to the top achievements in news-gathering, reporting or presentation. In June’s “Best of the Month,” members of the 2008 Intern Class were selected for several accomplishments!! 

Here’s what Joe Hight, The Oklahoman’s director of information and development, said about this month’s intern winners:

BEST INTERN ACHIEVEMENT: (an annual category for June/July)

— Jennifer Adams (Graphics) and Nathan Curby (Data), for their work to create an interactive map of all public golf courses in the metro area for the “know it: Golf.”

— Hailey Branson (State), for her 16 stories - including five for Page 1A.

Finalists: Amy Rymer (Photo), Kristen M. Daum (City),

Jason Singer (Sports/Metro) and Mike Jeffries (Sports).

SPECIAL RECOGNITION:

— Hailey Branson, Johnny Johnson, Sheila Stogsdill, Ron Jackson, Julie Bisbee, John Sutter and Henry Dolive, for their online and print coverage of the tragic deaths of two girls in Weleetka.

— The City desk (including Kristen M. Daum and Brian Kimball), Metro, Photo, State and Video departments, online editors, Paul Monies, Steve Maupin and the Data Team deserve special recognition for their work on the election filing period. This year, the work included providing candidate information for the new ElectOK.com.

— The Intern Class of 2008 deserves special recognition for its efforts to write the “Intern Blog” and then promote it. The blog rose to No. 1 or 2 during certain days in June and was No. 6 overall on NewsOK for the month.

Congratulations on your achievements, fellow interns!!

Let’s keep the quality journalism flowing!

~ Kristen M. Daum, City Desk Intern at The Oklahoman.

So this oil billionaire is saying he could reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil by 20% through wind power and the idea actually sounds like it could work. 

 I’m working on an eco-friendly families story right now, and thinking about Wall-E, so I wonder if this could work and what a big deal it would be if it actually happens.

Read the CNN article here.

-Sarah D.– Features

So, I love to find really good, solid newspaper writing. I found this piece by Jan Uebelherr from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel about a baby oragantaun finding a surrogate mother. The great thing about the story is that it’s more than just a cutesie story, it delves into species management issues and conservation while also being touching. If you have a chance, check out the three part series here.

–Sarah D. –Features

Check out my first Oklahoman sports story tomorrow (I’ll give you a hint, it’s the story that has basically no sports reference)

I hope everyone eats a lot of hotdogs tomorrow; after talking about them all day I REALLY REALLY want one.

-Sarah D. –Features

I don’t even have the energy to type words.

-Sarah D. –Features