tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-65436028328088374042024-12-18T22:31:05.285-05:00A website containing various rants bent on saving (or at least improving) the world... OR the musings of a perpetually confused journalism major. I graduated in 2015, thus the name. Posts every once in a while!Alexander Popichakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12690219850459342790noreply@blogger.comBlogger278125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543602832808837404.post-28139675831327810582018-10-27T23:30:00.000-04:002018-10-28T00:23:46.650-04:00

I don't know if this will ever see the light of day. It's October 27, 2018 and I woke up to the news of a mass shooting at a synagogue 6 miles from my apartment. Truth be told I had never heard of the "Tree of Life" synagogue until this morning, despite having done several walks through Squirrel Hill and Shadyside both with friends and for the annual ten commandments walk. I say all this because

Alexander Popichakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12690219850459342790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543602832808837404.post-84968393789764565882017-12-30T17:08:00.000-05:002017-12-30T17:22:31.644-05:00

I just wrote all the birthdays, anniversaries and school schedule on my mother's large kitchen calendar, which must mean we're approaching the end of yet another year. With the change of  calendars comes my my annual year in review post. Believe it or not, this is my fifth year-in-review post. I lamented last year that I didn't write much here in 2016. While I resolved to rectify that,

Alexander Popichakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12690219850459342790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543602832808837404.post-14819220168582626902017-12-09T15:21:00.000-05:002017-12-09T15:21:40.578-05:00

It's been a while since I last posted here. Quite a while actually. I've been so hesitant to openly express myself since the whole Carlynton clarification debacle, and it takes quite a bit of time for me to sit down and actually write outside the conventions of journalism and broadcasting and essays and the six other types of  writing we're expected to do in college. So why now? I'm in a

Alexander Popichakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12690219850459342790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543602832808837404.post-3075869443705852782017-12-06T12:00:00.000-05:002017-12-30T15:10:25.098-05:00

Author's Note: this originally appeared in the December 6, 2017 edition of the Globe, which marked my last letter as that paper's editor.  I’ve always been far more interested in the bookends of life than I have been with the in between bits. It makes sense for my chosen field, I guess. After all, journalism professors encourage you to seek out anecdotes about turning points in your

Alexander Popichakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12690219850459342790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543602832808837404.post-54780253510156220112017-08-30T12:00:00.000-04:002017-12-30T15:10:25.110-05:00

Author's Note: this appeared in the August 30, 2017 edition of the Globe.  “We shouldn’t have to chase the ghosts of the future.” That’s what I told my roommate a few days back with regards to his anxiety over running into someone again with the start of the new school year. The story isn’t relevant, but the advice is. Let me be probably the 50th person to tell you: Welcome (back)

Alexander Popichakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12690219850459342790noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543602832808837404.post-44138242628767885052017-06-14T23:17:00.000-04:002017-06-14T23:17:50.796-04:00

I feel like the Simon and Garfunkel song they're currently using in Volkswagen commercials fits my bizarre mood at the moment - it reminds me of a wanderlust and paranoia that I don't actually possess but kind of want. Well, more the wanderlust than the paranoia but I digress. It's been a while since I last wrote here. I've tried a few times to take a crack at writing again, and while

Alexander Popichakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12690219850459342790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543602832808837404.post-89969303899751289832017-04-19T12:00:00.000-04:002017-12-30T15:10:25.135-05:00

Author's Note: this originally appeared in the April 19, 2017 edition of the Globe. I read an editorial in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette over the weekend about how a high school newspaper uncovered the past of their newly-hired principal. The story goes that a group of high schoolers wanted to introduce their readership to their new principal. When students&

Alexander Popichakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12690219850459342790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543602832808837404.post-63751480101959881112017-02-08T12:00:00.000-05:002017-12-30T15:10:25.122-05:00

Author's Note: this originally appeared in the February 8, 2017 edition of the Globe. The letter appeared as part of the 50th anniversary edition of the paper.  This week’s edition marks exactly 50 years to the day the Globe was first distributed on campus. Since then, the Globe has been a part of the start of countless journalists’ careers and students have sounded off on international

Alexander Popichakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12690219850459342790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543602832808837404.post-21440763301651888012017-01-11T12:00:00.000-05:002017-12-30T15:10:25.077-05:00

Author's Note: this post originally appeared in the January 11, 2017 edition of the Globe as "A letter from the editor" I’ve always been a fan of maps. I can’t put my finger on what fascinates me about them, but I’ve always enjoyed the way maps look and the patterns woven within them. Maps are physical representations of the world. The world is tangible but only as far as the horizon line

Alexander Popichakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12690219850459342790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543602832808837404.post-38265036648266431342016-12-31T18:01:00.000-05:002016-12-31T18:01:18.653-05:00

Here we've come to my annual tradition here, the year in review as marked by old Matchbox 20 lyrics. I did something similar, but with a lot more links, last year. This marks my fourth year in review post. The trouble with this year was that I didn't write all that much. On record, this is my weakest year since I began blogging in 2009: This is post number 8. Among my resolutions for the new year

Alexander Popichakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12690219850459342790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543602832808837404.post-11097763653467588432016-12-30T21:23:00.000-05:002016-12-30T21:25:22.201-05:00

[I realized shortly after posting this that I had a prime opportunity to call this To Everything: Turn, Turn... but apparently my memory for using songs as blog titles is not as spry as I thought] It's been a while since I last posted. To be completely frank, I'm not sure who I'm writing to here. Not that I was writing to anyone in the first place, but for a while there I had a fairly

Alexander Popichakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12690219850459342790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543602832808837404.post-45771941323267268072016-12-08T16:59:00.000-05:002016-12-08T16:59:31.731-05:00

So last time I posted here it got, well, heavy. I can't say I was told to post what I had posted, but I can say that I felt severely judged in the wake of the original post so I was motivated to write something to counter it. The original narrative was that I was trying to save a job but to be frank, other than some individuals the district didn't bat an eye. But I still wrote a piece I

Alexander Popichakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12690219850459342790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543602832808837404.post-57000642587317195672016-08-24T19:41:00.001-04:002016-08-24T19:42:59.665-04:00

Hang on, this is going to be a long one. A warning: the following is an opinion. As a journalist, I don’t like having those. Understand that opinions change and evolve as time does, and please respect the place I was coming from whilst writing this. Also I use Oxford commas, don’t judge me. I do not advocate for any candidate or particular legislation or anything beyond dialogue. Want that to

Alexander Popichakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12690219850459342790noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543602832808837404.post-16080006334630848112016-05-23T00:00:00.000-04:002016-05-26T13:48:50.299-04:00

...because of the brave. Thank you to all who serve or have served, and to those who gave their all from a grateful American. Have a safe Memorial Day Image Copyright 2015 Alexander Popichak Photography. All rights reserved.

Alexander Popichakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12690219850459342790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543602832808837404.post-81186216196502951482016-04-07T14:22:00.000-04:002016-04-07T14:22:27.189-04:00

As I write this I'm somewhere in east-central Pennsylvania travelling to New York City for some sort of college newspaper conference. We somehow convinced the university (who is handling the bill for this venture) to let us [being my editor and I] travel to NYC by train, My guess is that it was comparable pricing, plus a professor recommended it.  So, I'm writing this from the relative

Alexander Popichakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12690219850459342790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543602832808837404.post-32913741889108789422016-03-29T20:34:00.000-04:002016-12-30T22:24:56.656-05:00

The title comes from a song by Radical Face called, quite appropriately, "Welcome Home." I say appropriately for the point in my life right now, not necessarily the song, though I'm fairly sure that's probably appropriate too. I'm just looking for how that is. Last year around this time I was talking about that dreaded in between place - where stuff was ending like crazy and I was, in a word,

Alexander Popichakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12690219850459342790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543602832808837404.post-87160693413703521492016-02-24T21:22:00.000-05:002016-02-24T21:22:22.714-05:00

It's February 24th, 2016. I last posted here quite a bit ago - it was the massive "Let's See How Far We've Come" update on my life and the year that was. Since I started school in August, I've met amazing people and have done some absolutely amazing things. That all being said, my life has been moving at high speed and things I should be doing (like keeping track of what is going on here) has

Alexander Popichakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12690219850459342790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543602832808837404.post-13552525490206413202015-12-30T15:51:00.000-05:002015-12-30T15:51:13.999-05:00

I did this two years ago, and missed last year because my computer was consistently on the fritz, but that makes no difference.  For a year where so much happened, I posted the least amount of things (this makes 19) that I have ever posted in a year. It's a paradox really: when you do so much, you have less time to document what you've done, and so on your blog it looks like you did

Alexander Popichakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12690219850459342790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543602832808837404.post-42753224281306039052015-12-30T14:11:00.000-05:002015-12-30T14:11:48.005-05:00

I last posted here 20 days ago, which at one time would be unacceptable, but nowadays life moves too fast for me to guarantee anything. I've been thinking a lot about the past recently. Let me make one thing entirely clear: I don't want to relive, I just want to acknowledge. Anyways, I've been looking over the past year's worth of blog posts because this is the time of year where I write the

Alexander Popichakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12690219850459342790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543602832808837404.post-86447202947975324862015-12-10T16:00:00.000-05:002015-12-10T16:00:41.773-05:00

I have officially completed everything for my first semester of college, which is pretty insane. Unlike high school, the break surrounding Christmas in college separates semesters, which by hours is roughly equivalent to a year of high school, and in several ways it's just as exhausting. But at the same time, perspective must be maintained. The reason people say college goes by so blindingly

Alexander Popichakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12690219850459342790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543602832808837404.post-74191520506476296132015-11-10T20:11:00.000-05:002015-11-10T20:11:22.803-05:00

Exactly one year ago today, I finished my eagle project. It was an insane effort, 35 volunteers contributing over 120 hours of service and believe it or not the project is still there. At least last I checked. Because I'm sentimentalist trash, I'm going to put here what I put with the original entry: On November 10th, I finished a project I had been working on for over a year: The Carlynton

Alexander Popichakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12690219850459342790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543602832808837404.post-4782064043610993702015-10-28T01:39:00.000-04:002015-10-28T01:39:32.765-04:00

The title is a little bit of a throwback to Coldplay's 2000 album Parachutes, but it bests describes my life right now. I don't know exactly what to write about this time around because life seems to move too fast for me to keep up a blog with anything that I'm doing. This week we are scheduling classes. Already this week I helped with the Globe, WPPJ, USG (dear me BUDGET MEETINGS), and I still

Alexander Popichakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12690219850459342790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543602832808837404.post-6674876403035823212015-10-16T17:45:00.000-04:002016-02-24T22:07:31.634-05:00

The post title comes from a song we played on our radio show, Don't Let Me Die At Coco's, an obscure song that I have no idea where it came from. We're almost halfway through the semester. So that means it's almost midterm season. And time flies by like crazy. So last time I posted on here, it was part of an English paper. I try to avoid discussing things that I'm assigned to in class, but I

Alexander Popichakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12690219850459342790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543602832808837404.post-21279152321276785002015-09-28T01:14:00.000-04:002015-09-28T01:14:38.087-04:00

If this seems a bit different than my average post, it's because it's for a class... Sorry for breaking the fourth wall (then again, I usually do that. I just never talk about why I blog. Semi-related: I don't think I've ever blogged specifically for a class.). Anyway, I recently read an article by John Marsh in my English book about access to higher education and its relation to poverty.

Alexander Popichakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12690219850459342790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543602832808837404.post-90560843050904518372015-09-26T02:55:00.000-04:002015-09-26T02:55:29.192-04:00

I'm beginning to understand a phrase I use sometimes: "nothing to write home about." It turns out I've been misusing it all these years. I used to use the phrase to mean nothing notable had happened. While this is still true, it's not entirely true. Since moving on campus, I've noticed that my reports back home have to be short. As a journalism major, I've learned how to identify key figures in

Alexander Popichakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12690219850459342790noreply@blogger.com0