The full photo dump is on Facebook, so you can see it there. I don’t want to do that again.

Anyway, that is the headquarters of The Guardian. They wouldn’t let me walk around the newsroom, obviously. But the inside is designed well, like the paper. Very nice.

I’ve always been a huge fan of post-rock and have listened to pretty much every band I could find. But for some reason, I never got into Sigur Ros. I briefly had an album but never listened to them that much.

I flew Icelandair on the way over, and the digital display/video think was full of stuff about Iceland. It also had two Sigur Ros albums and a documentary about them.

It was sort of fitting that I watched it/listened to them on my way into Iceland (even if it was just for a connecting flight, I’ll be back in a couple weeks). It got me excited to see the country.

Almost thirty hours awake, including a few hours constantly walking around, can really wear you out.

After an extremely long flight, a rush through the Keflavik airport and another long flight, I finally made it.

Anton and Olya thankfully were able to pick me up from Heathrow and we made our way back to Maiden head and promptly went to a pub for banger’s and mash. Delicious.

We took the first day to walk around Eton and Windsor, were I saw the outside of the Windsor castle. ANd I had my first beer from an English pub — a little too warm for my taste.

After everything, and a meal of fish and chips, it was almost 10 p.m. I could barely keep my eyes open or think straight and promptly passed out. Not a very exciting first night, but I am well rested and today we are heading into London.

No pictures yet. I took a couple of the castle, but nothing very exciting.

Come Oct. 29, it will have been one year since I was hired on at the TNT as an official staff reporter. I came as an intern in June of 2008, and worked on a temporary basis for a bit after that, and was then brought onto the staff. I started to think about how things have changed since then and what I have learned. Also, I’m trying to remember the expectations I had as a student journalist about what it would be like to be a professional journalist.

So I’ve been putting together a list off and on for a bit.

It is long. Click if you care.

- Being a journalist is still a ridiculously awesome job. I never want to do anything else.

- I don’t have much of a desire to be around politics anymore. I went into college focused on politics, and dreaming about being a political reporter. Not so much anymore.

- I still wish I had more time. For me, I want more time to focus on CAR.

- I blog. A lot. And I like it. I really enjoy writing for the crime blog, and it has become extremely popular. I don’t think along the lines of Web first/print first. They are two different entities, and there is definitely some overlap, but the style and focus is different. 

- Too much emphasis is placed on public records. It’s something I have been thinking for a while. Hear me out. This is not to say that they are not absolutely integral to good journalism. 

Every journalist needs to look at story with a records-based approach. I use some sort of record for basically everything I write, but I fear the use of records has become a crutch. 

They are a starting line. They can be the basis for a story, a way to fact-check. But absolutely nothing can ever replace a face-to-face interview. A good story needs a narrative. It needs characters. It needs emotions and challenges. That’s impossible to get from stacks of papers from records officers.

- In my opinion, there is nothing better than covering crime. There is so much focus on the negative sides, and for obvious reasons. Early in the summer, it felt like I was going to a murder scene or two a week. It can really, really, really wear you down. The negatives in society can be crushing. But, there is a flip side to that that can be inspiring. The way people come together. The way communities and individuals show they really do care about each other. And the way they unite to make things better.

- TV reporters have their scanner skills honed.

- In my mind, I keep a very detailed map of the closest tolerable fast food places within a short drive of the newsroom. But lately I have been making salads at home to bring to work, and they are boring.

- I barely use my AP Stylebook. Weird.

- I also barely touch my voice recorder. No tools will ever be as useful as a pencil and a notebook.

- Stories stick with you. Things you see will stay in your mind. Families grieving for a loved one who died. A murder victim in the street. A young child talking about his mother who was killed. Soldiers solemnly carrying a fallen comrade back from the war. 

- Wearing jeans every day is awesome.

- Always keep notebooks in your car. Taking notes on the envelope that holds your car’s registration sucks.

- Newsrooms are still ridiculous. It may not be crazy like late nights in the Murrow Basement, but the spot on South State Street can still be fun.

- Readers can and will yell at you. But also, they will write thank you cards, thoughtful e-mails and leave moving voicemails that more than make up for the angry people.

- Always make sure you get the name of the neighborhood right. I’ve never been called an idiot more than the time I mixed up South Tacoma and the South End.

- Always, always get the name of the dog. 

I did a trial run with everything I could remember to pack. Lots of clothes, crap to bring to my sister, etc.

The cat is staying. But she is looking for a permanent home. (Please, please, please someone take her).

If anyone has backpacked before, any recommendations? Something I should be sure to bring? Something I could go without?

I don’t want a massive bag that will give me scoliosis, but I also don’t want to be stuck in the desert or in an Icelandic hostel without something I need.

That is the calendar that my team at the TNT uses to show who will be off when. I haven’t taken a day off since I first came as an intern, so I am using my two weeks vacation and one week furlough all at once. Everyone already knows what I will be doing, but I’ll write it out again because I’m excited.

On Thursday, I take off from SeaTac to spend four days staying with my cousin and his wife in London. No specific plans, just experiencing the city for a bit. On the 27th, I take off to Marrakesh, Morocco, to visit my sister. I haven’t seen her since a tearful goodbye with my family at the Spokane airport when she took off for the Peace Corps in March. I’ll have a busy 9 days  in Morocco. I’ll be visiting her village, going to a wedding, going to Ouarzazate (a city with a film studio, which filmed a bunch of movies such as Gladiator, Lawrence of Arabia and was Tattooine for Star Wars. The nerd in me is giddy), going with a Berber guide on a camel trek into the Sahara near Merzouga and staying at a Berber camp. Finally, I’ll be staying at a hotel (actually in a little camp set up on top of a hotel) near the Djemaa el Fna in Marrakesh.

After, I’ll be spending a few days with my aunt and uncle in Harrogate, outside of Leeds, and probably taking a trip to Edinburgh. Hopefully there I will go to the Scotch Whisky Heritage Centre. Mmm, Scotch.

Finally, I’ll make a 3-day stop in Reykjavik, staying in a hostel. I don’t really have any plans there, so I figure I’ll meet randoms and find stuff to do.

For obvious reasons, I am excited. It’s weird that I’m leaving so soon. I’ve only left the country a couple times, all to Canada, so I haven’t been much of a traveler. Hopefully this will be a good first experience. Also, I’ll be taking on the role of travel journalist, and probably writing a couple pieces for the TNT.

But also, it will give me reasons to update this blog, which has been neglected, well, since I started it. So whenever I get Internet access, I’ll post some updates and photos here.

Every now and then when I’m bored, I do an ego search on the Google to see if there’s anything new. Tonight, I came across my  Zoominfo profile.

Here’s my employment history. Does anything look a bit off?

http://www.zoominfo.com/Search/PersonDetail.aspx?PersonID=726186001

Nice work, me.

So I’ll just do updates.

• I got a new place. It’s small, but that up there is my view. I enjoy it.
• Work has been … interesting lately. My first terrible crime scene. A couple bomb detonations. 
• Covered my second-biggest story – a horrific murder at Wal-Mart. In this line of work, you are constantly disgusted at the sheer lack of humanity in some people, and amazed by the support and acts of kindness that follows. If only the good always came without the bad.
• A really interesting ridealong. And a pretty slow one.
• The Jonas Brothers. …
• My first time ring side at a boxing match. Eh, boxing isn’t for me.
• This weekend, I get to see one of my all-time favorite bands live. And The Pogues are coming this fall.

Yeah, I don’t really have much. But this blog has been neglected.

They’re from the Andromeda galaxy.

The TNT is launching a three-part special report today. A short version is running in the paper, with the full series online. It is massive. I don’t remember the inch count. It was in the hundreds. The reporter has been working on the story on and off for about a year and a half.

Check it out.

http://www.thenewstribune.com/misty/