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Data: 10/09/2026 I have a weird habit of starting fantasy books and not finishing them, not because they’re bad, but because I get distracted by a new one before closing out the last. My “currently reading” shelf is honestly a graveyard of half-finished series I fully intend to go back to. I used to feel guilty about it, like I was doing reading wrong somehow. Lately I’ve just accepted it as part of how I enjoy books, I read for the world-building and the vibe more than needi

Data: 10/08/2026 I mentioned before that my taste in music changes in phases, and at some point I started actually keeping a playlist for each one instead of just letting old favorites get buried. It’s become this weird little time capsule, I can look back and immediately remember what I was doing or feeling during a specific music phase. Right now my current playlist is full of Mon Laferte, but I know eventually I’ll start a new one and barely touch this one again. It’s a sm

Data: 10/07/2026 Doing interviews for this class, even informal ones with people I already know, has changed how I listen to people. I used to think of conversations as more one-directional, I ask something, they answer, done. But preparing real interview questions made me realize how much better answers get when you actually leave room for follow-up instead of rushing to the next question on your list. It also made me more aware of how differently people respond to the same

Data: 10/06/2026 In my opinion, something is newsworthy when it actually affects people's lives, decisions, or understanding of the world, even if it's not dramatic. Sensational content, on the other hand, is designed mainly to shock or grab attention, with the actual substance being secondary. A story about a new policy affecting students might not be flashy, but it's newsworthy because it has real consequences. A story with a dramatic headline that barely delivers any real

Data: 10/05/2026 This quote talks about the power of kindness and compassion, how feeling closer to God makes us want to show mercy to others instead of judgment. At first, that might not seem connected to news writing at all, since journalism is supposed to be objective and fact-based. But I think there's actually a real connection. The way you treat a source, especially in a hard or sensitive interview, shapes whether they trust you enough to be honest. If a journalist appr

Data: 10/02/2026 Lately my favorite kind of weekend has been the boring kind, no plans, no deadlines, just painting something random or getting lost in whatever fantasy book I'm reading at the time. Between work, school, and everything else going on, I've started protecting that unstructured time more than I used to. It's not really about being productive with my hobbies either, some days I paint something and immediately don't like it, and that's fine. It's less about the re

Data: 10/01/2026 Working on my Rare Beauty project this semester made me realize how much I actually love talking about makeup, not just wearing it. Writing the script for that one blush product taught me that even something small, like a single product, can carry a much bigger story if you frame it right. It made me want to keep creating this kind of content even outside of school, since it's genuinely one of the parts of my job I enjoy the most. There's something satisfying

Data: 09/30/2026 Honestly, when this assignment started, writing five blog entries a week felt like a lot, on top of everything else in this course. But a few weeks in, I've noticed it's gotten easier to just start writing without overthinking the first sentence. I used to sit and stare at a blank page for a while before beginning anything, but now I just write, even if the first attempt isn't great, because I know I can fix it after. I think that's the real benefit of freque

Data: 09/29/2026 In my opinion, feature writing has one major strength over news writing: it has room to breathe. News writing has to be fast, objective, and stripped down to the most essential facts, which is valuable, but it doesn't leave much space for personality, description, or emotion. Feature writing lets a writer slow down and actually tell a story, using scene-setting, quotes, and structure that feels almost narrative. The weakness, though, is that this same freedom

Date: 09/28/2026 This quote from Gordon B. Hinckley talks about small, steady improvement, being a little more kind, a little more merciful, a little more forgiving, rather than expecting some dramatic overnight change. I think editing principles actually map onto that idea really well. Good editing isn't about tearing a whole piece apart and starting over, it's about small, deliberate improvements: cutting an unnecessary word here, clarifying a vague sentence there. Living t

I've never been someone who can confidently say "this is my favorite book" or "this is my favorite artist," and for a while I thought that made me indecisive. Lately I've realized it's actually just how I experience things, in phases. Right now I'm deep into a Mon Laferte phase, a few months ago it was something completely different, and I'm sure it'll shift again soon. The same happens with what I read, what I paint, even the content I enjoy watching. I've stopped trying to

Date: 09/24/2026 Something I don't talk about much is how strange it still feels sometimes to think in three languages. I grew up speaking Spanish, built my whole professional life in Portuguese, and now I'm pushing myself to write academically in English every week for this program. There are moments where a word just won't come in the language I need it in, and I have to pause and translate in my head before I can keep going. It used to embarrass me, but now I actually see

Data: 09/23/2026 Writing the social media posts for my Rare Beauty project taught me that I tend to front-load information instead of leading with the hook. If I could go back, I'd spend more time on the first line of each caption before writing the rest, since that's really the only part guaranteed to get read before someone decides to keep scrolling or stop. I also learned that I wrote my Instagram caption almost the same way I wrote my TikTok one, when really the platforms

Data: 09/22/2026 If I had to choose the most powerful platform right now, I'd say TikTok, mainly because of how its algorithm works. Unlike Instagram or Facebook, TikTok doesn't rely as heavily on who you already follow, it can push a brand-new account in front of thousands of people overnight if the content performs well. That changes the whole game for small creators and small brands, since you don't need an existing audience to get discovered. I also think TikTok has shape

Data: 09/21/2026 Doctrine and Covenants 4 talks about entering into the service of God with real intent, and it made me think about how much of my actual "service" happens through a screen these days. I've seen social media used as a marvelous work more than once, whether it's someone sharing a testimony that reaches a person having a hard week, or a small creator using their platform to normalize asking for help. It's easy to think of missionary work or service as something

Date: 09/18/2026 Lately I've been trying to paint more, not because I'm particularly good at it, but because it's one of the only creative things I do with zero pressure attached. Everything else I create, scripts, captions, content, has an audience and a purpose behind it. Painting is just for me, no deadline, no brand guidelines, no analytics to check afterward. I usually don't even plan what I'm going to paint, I just start and see where it goes. It's turned into a nice wa

Data: 09/17/2026 I've loved fantasy books for as long as I can remember, but at some point that turned into something more, I started building my own world. It started as just a few notes about characters, but eventually turned into an entire universe with its own history, rules, and conflicts. There's something really satisfying about creating a place from scratch and then figuring out how real people would actually live in it. It's probably one of the reasons I enjoy script

Data: 09/16/2026 If an employer asked me why they should care about a script or storyboard, I'd tell them it's the cheapest part of the process and the one that prevents the most expensive mistakes. Filming without a script means you figure out your message while the camera is already rolling, which usually leads to reshoots, wasted hours, and a final product that doesn't say anything clearly. A script forces you to decide what you're actually trying to communicate before you

Data: 09/15/2026 Before writing this script, I thought scriptwriting was mostly about writing good lines and then filming them. What I didn't realize is how much of it is about timing and visuals working together. Every single second has to justify itself, which is completely different from writing an article where you can take your time explaining something. I also learned that a script isn't finished when the words sound good; it's finished when you can picture exactly what

Data: 09/14/2026 The thirteenth Article of Faith says that if there is anything virtuous, lovely, of good report, or praiseworthy, we seek after these things. I've been thinking about how that applies to my work, because I spend most of my day either creating content or scrolling through it. It's easy to treat what we consume online as harmless background noise, but the truth is that what we watch shapes how we think about ourselves and other people. As someone who creates co