Mary Poppins: A Fantastic Musical

Friday night, Elise and her friend Phoxay and I were trying to find a fun show to go to. We wanted to find rush tickets, but Elise and Phoxay did not have student I.D.'s with them, so we had some trouble and many shows would not let us without it. We went to the Mary Poppins Box Office and they had $30 balcony seat tickets. It was an amazing deal. Of course, the seats weren't that great. We were high up and there was very little leg room. People in front of us got in the way sometimes too. But I could still see the show and it was impressive. There were a lot of colors and the sets were beautiful and well done. In the song, supercalifragilisticexpialidous (I think I spelled it right, if not, oh well..) the cast did this amazing synchronization with the letters were a few groups did different letters of the word at the same time and then it blended and came together. At the end of the musical, Mary also flew out into the audience and to the top of the ceiling, where it blackened out and you could not see her anymore. At that point, everyone in attendance was standing and clapping in awe. This seriously was one of the best musicals I have ever seen!

Today Show Alanis Morisiette Concert

On Friday, Kaitlyn Thatcher, a broadcasting student on the Today Show invited our internship program group to the taping of the Alanis Morisiette concert. The show was doing a Toyota Concert Series. Alanis was really good live. She sounded almost just like the CD. She added parts and sang a new song to on her recent album, so she definitely was not lip singing. It was fun even though I had to wake up at 5:30 am to make it there on time. I also saw Matt Lauer, Ann Curry and Al Roker. I got to shake Ann Curry's hand. She was really nice.

Lions, Tigers, and Dinosaurs, Oh My!

Over the weekend, I went to the Natural History Museum. We went to this planetarium with a space show called Cosmic Collisions. It was pretty cool. The seat even shook with the meteors crashing into each other. But my neck hurt for a little bit afterward. I would say my favorite part of the museum was seeing all of the dinosaur bones. My roommates over the last year know that I can do a raptor impression, and I was so tempted to do it, but I had to restrain myself. Too many people around, and I didn't want to scare poor innocent little children. I took a lot of pictures, many of which are on Facebook. You can see them on my profile. This picture is of me and the stegosaurus. It was pretty cool. Here are some more pics of the dinosaurs there:

Can't remember the name of this one. I will call it a moosasaur.







Prehistoric turtle. Pretty sweet.


Look for more pics on my Facebook profile.

Today was a hectic day at the internship. I did three blog posts, edited about 5 articles and got halfway finished with another post. Carol said at the end of the day that I am learning a lot and growing on the internship. She said she is pleased with how fast I have learned and that my writing has greatly improved in just three weeks.

After work, I met up with my friend Elise, who is an intern in interior design from BYU-Idaho. We got tickets for Wicked on August 6. Yeah the tickets were expensive--$76.50. But hey, the show is mostly sold out and I just wanted to see it. And it will be worth it.

Yankees Game and My First Time in the Bronx

Tonight I took my first trip ever to The Bronx and went to a Yankees game. It was fun despite the rain in the beginning. Sitting on a wet bleacher is never fun. But it stopped after a few minutes and we got to see the game. The Yankees won too, which was good considering they lost terribly to the Orioles last night. The Yankees played the Orioles again tonight and slaughtered them. I can't tell you the score though, I didn't stay for the whole thing, otherwise the trains would have been a nightmare.

This picture is of me, Kaitlyn Thatcher, Allison Barker, and Sarah Tomoser at Yankee Stadium. They are all interning in NYC like me for Communications internships. Allison invited me to the game via G chat this afternoon. She told me she had a free ticket because some girl in the Manhattan 8th Ward who got the tickets from some work thing could not go. I was excited to be there. The stadium was pretty ghetto though. It was old and just plain dirty, which is why I guess they are building a new stadium right next to it in the Bronx and will tear it down soon. People also really got into the game there. It seems to be that way in New York generally--at Narnia, people made all sorts of noises in the theater that typically don't happen in the theaters--it made it more fun.

PC Mag Just Keeps Getting Better

Here is a picture of me at Little Italy with my friends Kaitlyn, Rebecca, Sharlene, Alison, and Sarah. We ate dinner there on Saturday night. We went to this one place--I can't remember the name of it--and had chicken parmigiana and it was incredible. The restaurant looked more ghetto compared to the others, so I didn't expect a whole lot in the beginning, but the food there changed that perception quickly.

Today was one of the best days at my internship yet. Carol assigned me with a new intern, Chris Gamput, to write a blog post on the top 10 Memorial Day gadgets. I browsed online and found lots of crazy and interesting gadgets for people to buy. One was a pocket sized grill, another a wireless baseball sport updater, and even a waterproof MP3 player. Chris also found some good ones and we compiled them all into one huge blog post. We are expecting this story to have some good traffic, considering Memorial Day weekend is coming up. It should also do well on Yahoo! Buzz. I really hope it gets on the Yahoo! home page. That would be sweet.

Does the day sound good yet? Trust me; it only gets better. Kyle Monson, an editor at the magazine and also a member of my church, invited me into his office this afternoon. He showed me a copy of our magazine last year focusing on the Top 100 New Websites and the Top 100 Classic Websites. He explained to me that this is the top story every year at PC Magazine. It gets the most hits on PCMag.com and it is highest selling print issue of the year. Literally millions of people read this article. He asked me if I would be interested in being one of the three writers that would write the story. I was shocked and excited all at the same time. I immediately accepted and will now be attending weekly meetings twice a week with a panel of about 5 to 7 people at the office to determine the Top 100 Websites out of several hundred. Once we determine this, the Top 100 will then be chosen. This, without question, will be my best clip ever, especially considering how many people will read it. The article, however, will not be published until November, but it will be worth it and will definitely pay off in the long run.

I feel blessed to have this internship. Some BYU students here in the NY program seem to have a rough time with their internships having to do all the errands for their employers like getting coffee, answering phone calls, and one of the worst I have heard--pick up their co-workers children. Not once have any of my editors at PC Magazine asked me to do favors like that for them. They immediately put me to work and treated me as a professional from day one.

Chinatown, Impossible Wicked, and PC Mag

Here is a photo of me at PC Magazine. Chris Cutri, my internship mentor here while I am in New York City, came to my work today to see my work and the people I work with. He seemed to like the place and was interested in learning more about my internship and the people there. Dr. Randle said hi via iPhone. If it wasn't for him, I would not have had this internship. I am thankful for his effort in that.

About a week ago, I was in Chinatown with my friends Brooke, Alicia, and Scotty. Brooke and Alicia really wanted to get a purse and this Chinese woman there said that she had a store to take them to. Scotty and I followed them and we entered this store inside a building. Things got awkward from the moment they locked the door. Alicia bought a purse and so did Scotty for his girl, when all the sudden the Chinese woman said, "Get out, policia!" She opened this back door and motioned for all of us to go down these steps and hide. Finding an exit, the four of us just decided to leave. It was pretty freaky. Lesson to be learned: never go into any stores inside a building in Chinatown led by a Chinese person. The stores in there are most likely illegal and not licensed to sell products. That is why the woman wanted us to get out of the store. They tried to hide it.

Last night, I tried to get tickets to the Wicked broadway musical by entering a lottery system at 6pm. You basically fill out a card and if they draw your name, you can get tickets to the show for only $26.25. It's a good deal, but there were about 100 or so people outside. My name never got called, but I will still keep trying. $26 is way better than the $110 they charge for normal price tickets.

List of Things to Do in NYC or Die

Well I am now in one of the biggest and most famous cities in the world and I thought it would be a good idea to make a list of all the things I ever wanted to do in New York City. I will be here until August 12, and my mission is to attend all of these places and get a picture of myself with them. Can it be done? It's possible. In fact, I will make it happen. In my future posts, I will check off the ones that I have completed.

1. Empire State Building (go to the top)
2. Broadway Musicals
The ones I prefer to attend:
Wicked
The Lion King
Spamalot
Cry Baby
Stomp
3. St. Patrick's Cathedral
4. Brooklyn Bridge
5. Madison Square Garden
6. New York pizza
7. Ride a Taxi
8. Ground Zero
9. Apollo Theatre
10. Metropolitan Museum of Art
11. Museum of Modern Art
12. Museum of Natural History
13. Wall St.
14. Coney Island
15. United Nations
16. Chinatown
17. Little Italy
18. New York cheesecake
19. Central Park
20. Rockefeller Center
21. Saturday Night Live
22. Conan
23. Letterman
24. Julliard
25. New York University (NYU)
26. Columbia University
27. The Plaza Hotel (ever since I saw Home Alone 2, I told myself I was going there someday to take a picture or something)
28. Tom's Restaurant (The restaurant from Seinfeld)
29. Today Show (outside with the people and signs)
30. The Soup Nazi place on Seinfeld

A Meeting With Hasbro

Today was a great day at my internship. I got invited to a meeting with my editor, Carol, with the toy company, Hasbro, in one of the PC Magazine office conference rooms. Hasbro is releasing a new toy at the end of this summer. I can't say what that toy is yet because it is not set to launch yet until the middle or end of June, so my lips are sealed. But as soon as I can say anything, it will be posted here on my blog.

Corrine, a girl that works at PC Magazine, taught me how to pitch stories to other blogs today. It was a story that was on gearlog.com about one of our computer analysts thought the new Blackberry Bold handheld device sounded more like the name of a drink, so he tried to order one at a Grand Central Station bar. It felt a little weird to pitch a story about alcohol, because as a Mormon I do not drink, but all I had to do was write a headline and a summary of the article. I will be sending it via email to several blogs tomorrow.

I also wrote two blog posts today; one about a new online business called Uptake, where you can plan an entire vacation all in one site (includes plane tickets, hotels, attractions, and all, even campgrounds, mountains, lakes, natural wonders and you name it for those of you like my roommates last year that like the outdoors), and the other blog post was about MySpace and how it just won a $230 million dollar deal against some spam artists. Most of the information I used to write the posts was provided by press releases, but it was still fun to write.

A Typical Day at PC Magazine

I must admit I am really loving this blogging thing. It starts becoming addictive after awhile and there are also so many different ways to change your blog. I also love my internship. From day one, I have been treated as a professional and was put immediately to work. All of the people there are fun and friendly.

My editor is Carol Mangis and she is a senior editor in charge of the blogs for PC Magazine. There are four blogs that she is in charge of. She has been a great mentor and friend and has actually been the best trainer I have ever had for a job. Sometimes she'll even sit down with me to make sure I understand the editing process. I now write about two blog posts a day and edit any posts that she sends my way on the Movable Type program. I love the articles I write. So far they have consisted of topics such as Nintendo Wii, tech products, the iPhone, and innovative web sites.

I am also starting graphic design using Adobe Photoshop to make illustrations for the web sites of my internship. The graphic designer there, Renee Lightner, has been showing me the ropes of how to design professionally for a tech publication. So far, I have been overwhelmed by the things she has taught me. There is still so much about Photoshop that I do not know, but I am excited to learn more.

Mother's Day was on Sunday and my sister, Shannon, who is now serving a mission in Alaska for the church, called me in the morning. She is loving her mission and is teaching many great people the gospel. She told me about one discussion where she was teaching about Joseph Smith and all the sudden a bird was going psycho outside making loud noises. The man in the home that she was teaching suddenly grabbed the shotgun and stormed out the door. Two seconds later, gunshots were heard and the bird yelped. When he returned to the house, my sister's companion, Sister Campbell, was hiding under the table scared and Shannon then taught him about the commandments and thou shalt not kill. It was hilarious and I'm glad she shared that story with me.

First Two Weeks in the Big Apple

My name is Jared Preusz and I am an intern from Brigham Young University at PC Magazine here in New York City. I decided to finally write a blog on my experiences here and what is going on in my life. My internship with PC Mag is to write posts and edit articles for blogs, so I figured that I might as well start my own.

My first two weeks in Manhattan has been great. The first few days were a little bit of a struggle, however. It is an interesting experience riding the subway by yourself. New York though is not new to me. I served a mission for my church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, here in Brooklyn, Queens and Long Island three years ago. But it still is a little scary learning the largest part of the city on your own, especially when I was used to always having a companion with me.

But now I am starting to feel more comfortable with this place. I enjoy the diversity and there is so much to do here. And my internship is an amazing experience. I am an editorial intern for the online content section of PC Mag. I write and edit for four blogs on technology products and web applications, www.appscout.com, www.gearlog.com, www.technoride.com, and www.goodcleantech.com.

So far, I have been to some amazing broadway shows. Last Saturday, I went to a musical called Cry Baby. It was a musical with a similar story line to Grease, where the good girl falls in love with the bad guy. The singing and dancing was incredible, something I have never seen before. It was put well together and was hilarious.

Another show I went to was Chicago. I went to this show not really knowing what it was and discovered it had a story that just dragged on and the plot was confusing. It also was really dirty with women basically wearing almost nothing and all the men had to be gay, which made the show revolting and disgusting. I highly recommend for no one to see such indecent exposure.

On Thursday last week I went to Stomp. It was a show with skilled percussionists who basically could make music out of anything. There was one part of the show where they did this bamboo act. It turned into a spectacular martial arts like routine, which was stunning. The show also had one point where all the lights were off, and the actors banged on tin cans, metal, and an assortment of trash items. It looked and heard like a train going through a mine or something. I highly recommend Stomp. It was an exhilirating show.