Me outside of Radio City Music Hall.

Whose life is this?  I don’t mean in a stuck-up way, but I find it pretty cool that I get to do things like report from the White House and gallivant off to New York City for the day.  Even smaller things, like a delicious yam, mango and pineapple casserole in the dining hall, have me asking that question.  I think I lead a pretty exciting life and I’m grateful for that – especially today on my 21st birthday!

And on this day, it’s all about New York City.

The thing about NYC is that everyone has preexisting impressions of it before ever ducking through the Lincoln Tunnel and mingling between the buildings.  I certainly had impressions that NYC would be completely put together – like a well run movie set.

When I got there, I did feel like I was in some movie-set-like-dream-world, but nothing about it was put together.  I have never seen so much chaos and hubbub in my entire life, and it’s not necessarily gleaming and beautiful, but it is completely captivating and fascinating and inspiring to the point I couldn’t speak and could barely blink.

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Tyrone Wells performs at Jammin Java in Vienna, Virginia, as part of his Songs and Stories tour, Oct. 8, 2010. (Jordan Frasier)

Last night Tyrone Wells and crew came to town and for me it was like going to see an old friend.

Tyrone has been a staple on my iPod for so many years and I have been to so many of his shows, that now it really feels like I’m hanging out with a friend when I go to his concerts.

Last night’s show did not disappoint.  We heard some new tunes and were treated to a couple of duets with Tyrone and his wife.  The venue made the concert all the better because of its up close and intimate setting.

The Fairfax Fall Festival, Oct. 8, 2010. (Jordan Frasier)

Tyrone has a new single on iTunes about a little girl who was born pre-mature and was not expected to survive.  The song is called “Grace Dances” and is really great.  As part of the concert, Tyrone told stories like the background of this song when Grace’s father shared the story of his daughter’s struggle at a show in Portland, OR and Tyrone decided to write a song about it.

Today the Fairfax, VA area welcomed fall by hosting a town-wide Fall Festival.  It was very festive and I was able to buy some kettle corn and fresh apples!

The apples and kettle corn will make great snacks as I spend the weekend studying for midterms.  It’s hard for me to believe that the semester is half over already.  Next week I’ve got some more exciting adventures planned, not White House exciting, but pretty fun nonetheless, so check back.  If you didn’t read about my White House adventure, scroll down to read all about it.

I’m not sure where the past week went.  All I know is that I got off a plane from San Diego on Sunday night and now it’s all of a sudden Saturday night again.

Clark County Fair Logo (Clark County Fair)

This week has been crazy busy, but so much fun!  I’ve been working on a series of stories for The Columbian in connection with the Clark County Fair.  The idea behind the stories is to visit people in their everyday environment, and then meet-up with them at the fair to see how they are involved there.

I’ve been completely immersed in bees, cheesecake, and goats, just to name a few!

The idea of this is easier thought of than actually produced, but despite hitting a couple of roadblocks, I think I should have a few nice story packages in the end.  For each of the stories I produce, I am writing a story, creating a video, and doing some photography.  It has been really fun!

I actually had another story in print today.  It was a piece I wrote about a week ago about the Northwest Service Academy and the financial woes the program is facing.

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Having lots of fun in Oceanisde, California.  Today the sun finally came out and we spent the day on the beach and in the ocean!  Here is the view from out condo.

I’m now obsessed with having an Internet connection on a plane while the plane is in the air — so I took the opportunity to file a little report of what is happening up here in the friendly skies.  On to San Diego we go!

This week I completed my first video report for The Columbian.  I went to the Humane Society for Southwest Washington and reported on their “mentor cat” program.  I think the video turned out pretty well and it will be available on Columbian.com later this week.

In the days to come I have some more assignments that will be really great too.

As I go out on these assignments, I’m reminded of what I was doing last summer.  I had purchased my own camera and was going out into the community and filming my own video reports.  What I’m doing for The Columbian isn’t much different than what I was doing for myself, but now I have access to better video and editing equipment and a legitimate news organization backing me up.

I can’t tell you what a difference it makes to have a real press pass in my pocket.  Last summer, I felt pretty silly doing my own reports, but I went out there anyway and tried to stifle my nerves.  But now that I can say that I’m Jordan Frasier and I’m with The Columbian, I have so much more confidence in what I’m doing and I feel so much better about my product.

But I have to say, I am so glad I spent last summer making my own reports and producing the One Year Later documentary because that experience is serving me really well now.  Going out there on my own taught me how to shoot video and made me familiar with editing.  I just couldn’t even imagine going out to shoot a video report without having that experience under my belt.

I’m also trying to squeeze in time to work as senior news editor for Connect2Mason.  It’s really tricky to do that job from a different coast, but I’m trying to think out how I want to manage my content area when school starts in August.  I’m getting really excited about it.

The last couple of weeks since school ended have been pretty crazy.  The major highlight is that The Columbian has been good enough to let me intern in their Web department.  I am really excited to be doing this and to learn as much as I can before the end of summer.

Today was the first day of the internship and I was able to sit in on some news meetings and get acquainted with the online content management system.  It was pretty fun and I am excited to see what the next few weeks will bring.

On top of the Columbian internship I am still working for the Prosecutor’s Office every afternoon, so my days a pretty full, but I’ve come to enjoy a busy schedule.

Also in the last week, I’ve been lucky enough to join the student media team at George Mason University.  I’ll be working for Connect2Mason.com as the senior news editor in charge of off-campus news.  I could not be more thrilled about this!

My job will be to head up content generation for city, county and state news, in addition to news from the District and national higher-education headlines.  I’m also excited to be working with the Mason Votes project to provide election coverage.  I’m still learning about my position and everything I’ll be doing, but I have already started working on a couple of stories.

The last big headline from the start of summer is my grade point average.  Now it’s a little tacky to brag about good grades, but I am pretty proud of myself for pulling off a perfect 4.o during the busiest academic period I have every experienced. #