Digitaljournal.com

So far I've written five articles on the Alouetttes. The latest one can be read here. It's been a lot of fun and recently I managed to get media accreditation to the games through digitaljournal.com. That means a number of things. For one I get to go to the games and stand on the sidelines with my camera. That's right now I'm one of those guys that has to dodge players that are being tackled out of bounds, it's happened once so far and on the replay I saw myself on the Montréal jumbotron. Such fun. It also means that after the game I get to wander around the field and take part in the player interviews.

So far I've been to two games. After the first one I didn't really know what to expect so being that I was pretty ecstatic that I was there in the first place, I just left. Last night I was a bit more adventurous and asked around where the players do interviews, it was on the other side of the field. The photographers generally stay on one side of the field, the other side houses the players. So I wandered out, took a few snaps of things, Chip Cox got the player of the game award so I took his picture and listened in on his interview. The Saskatchewan head coach came out of the dressing room and said some things. Then Calvillo (Montréal's all star quarterback) came out and I saw people leave the Sask head coach so I followed suit. I actually decided to film Calvillo myself with my camera, mainly so I could hear what he said later for my article, but it was loud. You can still hear him, but the background noise is louder. Now I need to buy a mic.

It's pretty funny on the sidelines. Everyone has these huge lenses, CBC, RDS, TSN, the Alouettes photographer, National Post etc..., and here I am with my semi-pro, stock telephoto lens. The other photographers have poles, (unipods?) to help them because their camera and lens weighs so much, I just use my arms, granted my left arm was quite sore by the 4th last night. I may be the only writer among the photographers so I don't mind, I use what I have to the best of my ability. You can see some of my better pics on my website www.joedeclara.com.

Hopefully after covering the Als this season I'll have some fodder to use to maybe get an actual paying job as a sports writer. In the meantime I'm plotting a way to get media accreditation for the Canadiens, I think it will be much harder than getting it for the Als but how can I not try?

In other life adventures we are slowly getting settled at home. The bedroom furniture has been organized, clothes are next. Then I've got some summer work to do on the back shed and maybe some drywalling, I'll have to question my brother-in-law about that before I begin anything.

We have a new foster cat named Tom (renamed to Huckleberry). He's the most affectionate cat I've ever seen, he's still a bit scared of us but he's always coming out of hiding to get pet and once you start petting him he won't let you stop. Brewski seems fine with him, Jedi hisses Huck just lays down when she does and she wanders off. She'll probably end up getting along with him better than she does with Brew.

I'm almost done my creative writing class. I have a final assignment due Thursday which is about half done. I've only gotten one mark back so far but it was an A-.

So that's about it. I made business cards so once I hand some out I'll be updating www.joedeclara.com more often. I'll also be putting up pics from all the Als games after every home game, and maybe a Toronto game.