Posts Tagged ‘Freelance’

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Back in the swing of things

Wednesday, October 14th, 2009

I went from a boring two week spell to a really friggin exciting two week spell!  That means I have interesting stuff to talk about.  How exciting is that?!  (suddenly erupts a smattering of golf claps)  Yes, yes, I’m sure you were all depressed after my last post and were hoping for a bounce back.  And you got it!

So, where to begin… On October 3rd, I went to a party.  I really wasn’t sure how it was going to go.  I had a feeling I wouldn’t know many of the people there. The party was for a friend of mine, Brian Hogan (@bphogan / @ecruby).  He apparently has a party every year like this for his birthday.  Sure enough, when I got there, he was really the only person I knew.  I felt really awkward and uncomfortable.  After about an hour, suddenly that all changed.  I was playing with my phone (like I usually do ’cause I’m an addict), and I hear this “Hey stranger, fancy seeing you here.”  I turn and it’s an old friend of mine, Jon, that I worked with at the help desk back at UWEC when I was a student.  I hadn’t seen him in almost four years.  At that point, the party became awesometastic.  Jon and I caught up for a while.  He even told me that I was his favorite person at the help desk (likewise, Jon).  We always had good times.

After that I came out of my shell and had a lot of fun.  I played Rock Band, chatted it up with people I didn’t know, and ended up staying until 3:00 in the morning.  I didn’t get to bed until about 4:00 am.  Not bad at all considering I wasn’t sure what to expect.  As it turns out (and I shouldn’t be surprised), I mix in well with Brian’s friends.  In fact, there was an interesting dichotomy going on.  There were the geeky programmers, and there were the people the geeky programmers brought with.  I mix well with both.  I spent about half the time chatting with the geeks and the other half chatting with the non-geeks.  I think it was a perfect blend.  I’ve been added to the official invite list for the coming holiday party too.  I look forward to it.

I did some shopping that weekend and finally found a copy of Dragonball season 1.  It was recently released on DVD as a digital remaster and uncut version.  I was a big fan of Dragonball Z maybe 9 years ago.  I never saw Dragonball, and after seeing the live action movie, even though it wasn’t great, I just had a sense of nostalgia.  Combine that with Josh, my sort of second roommate, also being into the show, I decided to get DB on DVD when it was released.  Josh and I have been watching it together ever since.  Wow…I never knew Dragonball was such a sexual / potty humor show.  Goku has never met or seen a girl when the series begins.  There’s a whole bunch of scenes where Goku is patting people on the crotch going “You’re a girl too!” or “Yup, you’re a boy!”.  I thought that was incredibly interesting.  The show is progressing very slowly, but that’s no surprise considering the series runs some 150 episodes long, and that’s just Dragonball…then comes Dragonball Z which is 250 some more episodes.  It’s been fun to bond with Josh with the show.  I’ll post more thoughts as the show progresses.

As I mentioned in the last post, Chris’s 30th was coming up, and I made sure to buy awesome gifts.  I went online to wbshop.com and looked through the Harry Potter selection.  I got him the Monster book of Monsters plush, “I solemnly swear I’m up to no good / Mischief Managed” transforming coffee mug, and the Dumbledore’s Army messenger bag.  Admittedly I spent too much because after that, I went out and bought party favors.  I probably dropped 125 dollars on his birthday, but I wanted it to be a good one.  It was, but I did put myself at a bit of a financial risk in doing so. Whatever, it was worth it.  For Chris’ birthday, we went to Manny’s Mexican seafood restaurant, which is Chris’ favorite.  It’s pricey at about $18 a plate average.  Still, it’s very good food.

I actually didn’t get to enjoy the food because for some reason service was a little slow that night.  Also that night were the board elections at the LGBT community center of the Chippewa Valley.  Since I was running, I had to be there in order to get elected.  I didn’t want to lose out on an opportunity to make a difference in the community, and Chris knew how important it was to me.  So he was ok with me disappearing for an hour or so to go to elections.  Unfortunately, despite our 6:00 pm reservations at the restaurant, the food wasn’t placed in front of us until 7:25.  I needed to leave around 7:30.  I ended up scarfing down a few bites, having it boxed up, paying and leaving.  I got to enjoy the company of Chris and friends, but not the food.  Oh well.

I got to elections, and started chatting with some people before the annual meeting started.  The program started, and the three of us that were running were given two minutes to give a presentation about who we were and what we wanted to do.  We all gave our 2 minutes and then came voting time.  It went pretty quickly.  At the end, announcements were made that I was one of the two elected to the board!  Hooray!  We then had a quick meeting of the board members to discuss some logistics, like when we’d have board meetings and who wants to be what on the board.  I ended up getting nominated and elected the Vice President.  That was unexpected to be sure!  I’m pretty thrilled though.  It feels good to be involved again.  Plus, it’s good experience for when I get my non-profit up and running too.

Back to the party, we had a great time.  We played a bunch of games, like Pit, the game of Pride, and an inflatable Penis battle game called “Cock Fight”.  Chris loved the gifts, and in fact, he’s said several times since the party that it was the best Birthday he’s ever had.  The group of us were up playing games and chatting until past 2:00 am, which is quite late for Chris.  What was shocking is that it felt like it was maybe 10:30 pm when we saw what time it actually was.  Once we noticed that, it was like we were all collectively hit by bricks.  Everyone was just exhausted.  What a great night though!

Sunday, we followed up our great party with a great Pumpkin carving night.  We had four pumpkins to carve, and they turned out fantastic.  I’ll post a bunch of pictures of the events along with this post so you can see them.  We ended up with six cups of pumpkin seeds to roast.  I took care of that and made some wonderful seeds that all of us are trying to moderate our intake of lest we gorge ourselves with them.  I used sea salts, butter, olive oil, and a spice called “Butt Rub”, which I got at a place called “Elegant Farmer” in Mukwonago, Wisconsin.  It was a great mix.  I highly suggest it.

Monday was another rush of a day.  Monday evening was my first trip back to Womens studies 301 with Professor Audrey Fessler, who is a very good friend of mine.  When I was in college, I used to lecture her Monday night class every semester.  Since I moved home, that opportunity all but disappeared.  Now that I’m back in town, she asked me to return, and I was excited to do so.  It was a 2 hour lecture to about 30 students.  It was a great group! They were a little timid with questions, and sometimes that happens.  I did a few things I don’t normally do with my presentations, like group activities.  I could definitely tell I was a little rusty, but overall it was a success.  I still have students’ questions to respond to via email.  I really want to make sure I address them all.

To add to all of those goings on, I also got hit with freelance work last week.  So the stress has been on me.  I still have one video to complete, which should happen tomorrow night.  I’m looking forward to next Tuesday evening, when all the stress is gone.  Speaking of Tuesday, I have another UWEC appearance coming up next week.  As mentioned a few posts back, I’ll be giving a forum on Tuesday, October 20th at 7:00 in the Arrowhead room of the Davies Center.  If you’re going to be in the area, stop on in and have a listen.  It should be fun.

This weekend will be a nice oasis in the middle of the sea of stress I’ve had lately.  A bunch of my lady friends from Milwaukee were a little disappointed that I couldn’t make it to Barcamp Milwaukee back on the first weekend in October.  So I suggested that I come down and visit sometime soon.  We could throw a little shindig.  So we are.  This weekend is geeky lady shindig.  I’ll be heading out Friday for some exciting geek fun with the girls.  So I guess you can look forward to my next post talking about that excitement.

So, question of the blog:  Are you a fall person?  What’s your favorite thing about fall?

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Posted in Freelance, LGBT, Money, photography | 1 Comment »

Falling into place

Wednesday, July 8th, 2009

Things are starting to fall into place for me.  This move has certainly proven to be a very good decision despite seeming kind of risky at the time.  I’m happier.  I’m more comfortable.  I don’t worry as much, and life just feels a bit easier.  With the prospect of this job, things are looking to be nice indeed.

The new job is going well.  I should say job prospect.  I’m going through a week of trial work before I get offered anything.  So I’m not officially hired yet.  I’m enjoying the work that I’m doing.  I’m finding it simultaneously fun and challenging.  So far, each day has forced me to really use my logical reasoning.  I’m starting to get used to the people there, but I think that’ll take a bit yet.  So far, everyone seems nice though.  I’m keeping my hopes high.

On the same topic, I finally finished all the freebie freelance I had on my plate.  Only I can be unemployed and overwork myself.  I’ve decided that really with the prospect of working full time again, I’m not really going to seek out any more work on the side.  I want my free time to be just that…free.  If I get bored, I will consider doing some fun projects here and there.  Lord knows I have ideas.  I’d much rather have fun doing videos for my own fulfillment than someone else’s anyway.

Let’s see…the 4th of July was this past weekend.  Chris and I drove down to Milwaukee to see the fireworks.  Those actually take place on the 3rd instead of the 4th so that local communities can have their celebrations on the 4th.  The July 3rd fireworks are a family tradition.  I think my family has gone to see them every year since I was alive.  The only time we missed them was a couple of years ago when it was raining out.

Anyway, I have to say, I’m starting to get a little burnt out on the fireworks show.  It was an hour long, which as Chris put it, was a half hour of overkill.  There came a point several times in the show where I found myself totally daydreaming.  I came out of the daydream and was thinking…shit…are these still going off?!!  We did get distracted by an inner city guy that decided to just stand right in front of the group of us watching the show.  He started scratching his butt, dumped out a beer, was spitting on the ground right by me…it was pretty gross.  Then he and his friends decided to start talking about their sex lives and how they “upgraded”.  They were using a lot of graphic terminology all while not more than six feet away is a 4 year old boy with his family.  Eventually, Sylvia got sick of staring through the guy that she got up and said something to the group of them.  They started being a little more courteous after that.  Sylvia has no fear.  That’s for sure.

I suppose none of you know who Sylvia is.  Sylvia is a good friend of Chris’ from college before he went to UWEC with me.  She got married about 5 years ago and moved to Australia with her husband.  She recently moved back to the U.S. and her husband is coming too in the next couple months.  This was the first time I had seen her in about….6 years.  What’s more…she may end up in the Twin Cities, which is near enough to hang out frequently.  So we’ll see.  Regardless, it was great to see her.

This coming weekend should be interesting.  The Northern Wisconsin State Fair is happening here in Chippewa Falls.  Both my parents and Chris’ parents are coming up to go to it.  Chris’ parents will be staying with us.  My parents are staying in a hotel since my mother is allergic to the cats.  Our parents have only met once, I believe…maybe twice.  So, it’ll be a strange weekend.

Chris bought a bike this week.  I helped him pick it out over the past week.  He got a nice one, a Trek 4300.  Now I find myself wanting a new bike too.  I have a pretty decent one myself.  It’s a Trek 820 Aluminum.  It’s also close to 10 years old.  It’s been all over the state and served me very well when I was in college.  I may trade it in to get a nice new 4400 or something.  We’ll see.

So Chris and I have been going on bike rides now.  Yesterday we were biking around the area of our house and found a park.  We stopped and made use of the teeter totter.  I went down the old school metal slide, and we also swung on the swings too.  It was just like we were 8 years old again.  We had a lot of fun!  I now remember why those parks were so much fun as a kid.

A day later…I was coming home from an electrolysis appointment, and Chris gives me a call.  He was apparently out on a bike ride with a friend and wiped out really badly.  The bike was slightly damaged and he was pretty scraped up.  Figures…brand new 450 dollar bike gets damaged not two days since purchase.  Chris is going to be just fine.  No broken bones or anything.  His leg will have a nasty bruise though.

This morning was a painful experience.  The unemployment hearing took place and let me tell you, I am so glad I don’t participate in legal proceedings very often.  I was nervous.  I am not a lawyer, and of course, my former employer had a lawyer.  These things are so skewed because it’s obvious the unemployed party is not going to have the money to hire legal counsel.  Regardless, I made my case, and I will get the results in a week.

It has come to my attention recently that I have quite a few regular readers.  I don’t keep track with any sort of software of how many people visit this blog or view the rss feed.  On top of that the entries are syndicated into facebook on both my personal page and my fan page.  So it has the potential to be seen by quite a few people.

I talked to a couple friends of mine recently, Dan and @jennaddenda (Jenn Turner of Bucketworks), and both of them made mention of reading my blog.  It just took me by surprise.  I asked Dan why he reads, and he told me that he finds my life fascinating since it’s so different from his.  I took a look at my statistics from my web host, media temple, and found that I’ve been getting roughly 1200 pageviews  a week, and that’s just the main blog landing page.  That makes me feel like writing this blog has been worth it.   I’d just like to say thanks to all of you that read my musings on life.  If you’d be willing to share, I’d love to hear what brings you to my blog and why you keep revisiting it.  Is it my writing?  is my life just that fascinating?  is it just a nice time waster?  do you like to laugh at my nerdiness?  is it because I write regularly?  I’m just curious and would love to hear what y’all have to say.

I’m off for now.  Have a lovely night!

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Posted in Employment, Freelance, family, friends, unemployment | 1 Comment »

Hobbies and musings

Friday, June 26th, 2009

I’ve had a crazy busy week.  As I mentioned in the last post, my sister had her baby.  So, the end of last week culminated in me heading back to Milwaukee to visit my nephew.  Saturday I headed down, and Sunday I headed back up.  Upon returning, I had a major freelance project to do.

The project was a tough one.  It wasn’t really the nature of the project that was tough, but more the time frame it had to be done in.  I had all the materials I needed, but I had to digitize, edit, and render everything within an evening.  The following day, I was woken up by a phone call with fixes that had to be done right away.  So, for two days, I was working pretty solidly on one project.  The time crunch made it feel like I was writing a paper for a class the day it was due.  Plus, never fails…when you’re under pressure, that’s when weird errors start happening that have never happened before.  I got Final Cut Pro’s “general error”, “out of memory” error, and had to enter the product serial number something like 3 times.  At one point, the firewire port just stopped working too.  I got it all done on time though.  Nothing like an adventure to keep life interesting!

On a completely unrelated note, we’re having a kitty problem in the house.  Specifically, we’re having a kitty pee problem.  Chris wouldn’t want me to blame Serenity, but let’s face it, it’s Serenity.  She’s had a history of peeing in places other than the cat box, and she’s the only one with that history in the house.  Anyway, she has been peeing on the concrete floor underneath the basement stairs.  Originally there were some small piles of sawdust down there, and she peed on one of them.  It took us a while before we realized that the smell was coming from there.  We just thought that the cat boxes were rank.  Nope!  Cat boxes changed…still a nasty smell. Chris discovered it and did a very good job of cleaning it up.  He has an enzyme spray that neutralizes the scent.

Unfortunately though, Serenity seems to want to pee in that area.  It’s happened twice more since then.  We’re trying some new techniques.  For example, today I sprayed the cat and kitten repellent around the area.  We’ll see if that works.  If you have other suggestions, fire away in the comments.

I had a job interview this week.  It went well, and I’m very excited about it.  I have a second interview this coming week.  I don’t want to jinx anything.  So I’ll leave it at that.  Wish me luck.

I’ve been looking in to starting a new hobby.  Most of my hobbies surround technology, and I’ve decided that I want to learn something that doesn’t deal with tech at all.  I figure it’d be nice to do something by hand.  Working with metal is intriguing to me.  So I’ve started doing research into metal working and blacksmithing.  I know…hard to picture a girl like me doing something like that, but I think it’d be fun.  Plus, it’s a great way to create interesting items, like jewelry, artwork, and so on.  Maybe eventually I could make complex items, like armor or a replica of some historical object.  Today Chris and I went to a local hardware store and looked at prices on tools for it.  It’ll be a little expensive at the beginning, but not terrible.  Hammers, torches, safety equipment, and of course, metal.  I’m going to do a lot of reading on it first, so I don’t make an ass of myself.  Well, I suppose that could still happen even with the reading…;)

There’s no segway into this, but I’ve been having a problem for a week and a half now.  My left ear is slightly plugged.  My car has no air conditioning anymore.  So I have had to drive with the windows down any time I drive.  I woke up the morning after I drove back to Chippewa from Milwaukee, and my left ear was totally plugged up.  I’m really thinking the pressure difference from the window and the four hour freeway drive did something to it.

Since then, I’ve tried a number of remedies.  I’ve swabbed (a lot), tried an ear wax removal kit, candled my ear, tried sudafed at the recommendation of the pharmacist, tried a prescription nasal spray for wax removal, and now I’m trying Mucinex at the recommendation of another pharmacist.  I’ve definitely cleared out the wax build up that was there now, but the blockage remains.  I’m pretty sure it’s behind the ear drum.  So, I’m still stuck with a left ear that sounds like I’m hearing in a tunnel.  It’s really getting annoying.  I’m hoping all this effort starts to have an effect soon.  The one thing I’m going to try yet is flushing with hot water and peroxide.  Here’s hoping!

Early on Thursday morning I had to meet up with the client I was doing the stressful video for just to give them the final.  That meant getting up before 7 am and driving into town.  I sat through a heavy rainstorm with lightning striking all around where I was.  When I got back home, I went back to sleep since I hadn’t gotten much good sleep the few days prior.  It was a good move.

During that extra few hours of sleep, I had some of the best dreams I have had in a long time.  That’s right, I was Wonder Woman.  It was a very long and involved dream with me starting in jail…why, I don’t know.  Still, I managed to escape somehow.  I saved the life of the President, and suddenly I was forgiven for whatever I had been in jail for.  People were applauding me like crazy.  I remember I looked damn good in the costume too.  I know why I took notice of that.  On Wednesday, I tried on my speedo swim suit.  I hadn’t worn it in ages, and I just wanted to see how well it fit me.  Turns out it fits me very well.  I looked damn good in it.  So that translated to me looking damn good in the Wonder Woman costume.

Anyway, I could fly of course, and I remember getting a lot of press attention in the dream.  There was also a point in which Superman appeared.  We fought a battle against some evil robot together.  It was a very fulfilling dream.  I hope I have more like it, and soon.

Lastly, I just want to leave with a mention of Michael Jackson.  I was a huge fan of Michael Jackson back in my early grade school days.  I had the “Bad” album, as well as “Thriller”.  I was all about the music videos and I even had the Moonwalker movie on VHS.  Looking back on it, it was a ridiculous film, but I loved it then.  I know MJ ran into problems and was obviously not your average individual.  Still, I will always remember the music I grew up with that I loved so much.  Thanks Michael for the memories.  Rest in Peace.

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Posted in Employment, Freelance, cats, dreams | 1 Comment »

Bittersweetness

Wednesday, June 17th, 2009

The news of the day is that my family is one member larger today.  At 2:00 am on Wednesday morning, Elden Vincent was born into the world.  Everything went very smoothly.  Both my sister and the baby are doing well.  Congratulations Melissa!!

Figures! I drive all the way back up to Chippewa yesterday.  If I had just stayed one more day…I would have been able to be there to share the joy with the rest of the family.  My sister is so inconsiderate in her labor planning! Haha!  In all seriousness though, I’ll be heading back down this weekend to congratulate her in person and share in the joy.

That joy is unfortunately partnered with some other news I got this week.  Monday, while I was logging footage at my parents house, I overheard her phone conversation with my sister.  I am going to be intentionally vague because I don’t know if my mother wants this getting out.  Let’s just say, I heard some bad news about my mom and her doctor visit.  It has me very concerned.  I’ll leave it at that.

Now…on to the interesting news of late.  I was the official videographer for Milwaukee’s Pridefest.  It’s the largest gay music festival in the world.  It’s also one of the largest Pride celebrations in the world.  It’s the largest in the United States for certain.  There were over 30,000 people there over the course of 3 days.

This opportunity literally dropped in my lap.  I knew two people that happen to be on the Pridefest board.  Both of them dropped my name when someone suggested videography.  So I was the only person ever considered for the job.  Unfortunately it wasn’t a paying gig.  It was all volunteer.  That being said, they covered everything else.  The camera rental, the food, parking, tickets, and really anything else I’d need were all paid for.

I have to say, it was a blast.  I made a ton of new friends.  I shot 8 hours of footage while I was there.  I got some of the best footage I’ve ever shot in my life too.  Not only did I get awesome footage, I got it of big stars, like Cyndi Lauper, Brandy, and Etta James.  This volunteer opportunity really raised my video profile.  Because of the type of footage I shot and access I had, I can now charge people more for the work I do for them.

One of the things that was kind of disappointing about the weekend…I was only asked for my number once.  I also have not been called by the girl that I gave it to.  I must just look too straight.  Curse the queer expectations.  If that was the only disappointment though, I’m ok with that.  On the other side of things, I was told that everyone was blown away by my skill and talent with a camera.  I guess they are very excited to utilize my talents.  It will be a big boon to Pridefest.

Some people refer to Pridefest as “Ex-Fest” since everyone sees former lovers or partners there.  I only ran into one…my ex Tracy.  I said hi, stopped, and had a nice, though brief, conversation.  I got to meet her current girlfriend, who is very pretty, and a few of her other friends.  It was nice to see her.  At the time I was setting up for the Cyndi Lauper performance.  So I didn’t have a lot of time.  I didn’t see Jenn there, which I’m actually a bit grateful for.   I’m not sure how that would have made me feel.  Might have taken away from the weekend.

I had a fantastic experience running into someone I hadn’t seen in a long time.  Brendan, the manager of the Wal-Mart that I used to work at, was a volunteer for the children’s area.  He was just as surprised to see me as I was to see him.  He gave me a big hug, and we caught up on what’s going on.  I told him thank you and shared with him that I tell my story a lot and talk about that one manager that was great to me.  It was so good to see him again.

One of the other things that happened this weekend that was unexpected…my parents came to Pridefest!  They’d never been to a pride event before, and this was the perfect opportunity for them.  I was able to get them in free, give them free food, and walk around with them for a couple hours.  My mom said to me that she and my dad had a great time.  In fact, my parents both commented on how it was better than Summerfest.  Summerfest is so jam packed with people, and you can barely breathe.  I think they may come back in the future.

Pridefest was exhausting.  I rarely got enough sleep.  I was constantly working, and I was on my feet almost the entire time.  I wouldn’t have passed it up for anything though.  It was amazing.  So many great people brought together.  I finally had that feeling that I was needed, was making a difference, and was appreciated.  That shouldn’t be, but is, so rare.

This weekend was just what I needed.  My drive to be my own boss and do this freelance / business thing is totally restored.  I have my meeting with the small business resource center Thursday, and I think I’ll come out of it feeling much more confident about my direction.  I love shooting video.  I want to continue it as a primary focus.

So, tomorrow before this meeting, I will be revising my business plan significantly.  I know what I need now, which is good.  I can easily reduce my equipment list to just a few things.  I think I can easily tailor this plan to be very targeted, and very plausible.

I’ve almost kicked the exhaustion.  Last night was the first good night sleep I got since last week.  I don’t feel like I’m dragging my feet anymore.  I feel like I have a spring in my step.  In fact, I’d say I’m in much better spirits than I was a week ago.  So that’s great.

Even with all that, I did finally find out when my unemployment hearing is (July 8th) and also found out that one of the jobs I applied for is not hiring.  So to sum up…some great things…some not great things…it’s been a bittersweet week.  I’m feeling the energy of the world swinging my way though.  I think things are on the up side for now.  :)   Here’s hoping it stays that way.

Oh…and Chris bought the Ghostbuster’s video game today.  It’s way fun.  I recommend it.

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Posted in Employment, Freelance, family | 3 Comments »

The update you’ve all been waiting for…part 1

Friday, April 24th, 2009

The time has come!! And by that I mean I finally got my blog working again.  Apparently a plugin for twitter broke things somehow.  Now you won’t see the “Tweet this” button.  Oh well.  Maybe it’ll come back later when it’s fixed fully.

The latest news in my life…I’m unemployed!  I know I know…you’re thinking “What?!! When did this happen?!! Why?!!” Well let me tell you the story.  Three weeks ago today I was walked into the office yet again.  I was surprised because it was a total blindsiding.  I had to speak directly to HR via the phone.  Apparently someone had reported my freelance work anonymously, and since I was doing work with a home builder, there was concern it was a conflict of interest.

They asked me to describe my relationship to the client and why I never reported the work to management.  The work I took was video editing for a local client.  I made my decision to take the work based on several reasons.  The client had recently dropped a big production house contract.  So they weren’t interested in working with another big house.  Specifically, they wanted freelancers.  They didn’t have the budget to pay that much.  So I knew they couldn’t pay the rates the company I worked for charges.  Most importantly though, they wanted Full HD utilizing a very modern camera.  The company I worked for did not have the capacity to work with the footage at all.  So it was in no way competing with my employer.  I felt very assured that it wasn’t a conflict at all.  So I never reported it.

I explained that to HR and they took the information and perused over it for several days.  They came back to me the following Wednesday, April 8th.  They said that they did believe it was a conflict.  I was presented with a memo that stated that I would have to drop my relationship with my client and sign to continue my job.  I took a couple hours to figure out if this was what I wanted to do.

I truly felt that I had made the right decision.  I did not feel this was a conflict of interest at all.  I even had my logic confirmed to me by management locally.  So I was at a loss as to why corporate felt differently.  In my heart, I knew I had done nothing wrong.  To add to that, I really enjoyed my freelance work.  It was about the only thing in my life revolving work that actually fulfilled me creatively and personally.  Plus, I needed the extra income.  This work was basically digging me out of a hole that I needed to dig out of.  My budget was monthly in the red without the work.  So I had to choose between financial difficulty or more financial difficulty.  For me it was a catch 22 all along.

What it came down to for me is a moral decision.  I felt that by signing the memo, I would be admitting wrong doing.  I couldn’t do that when I know I didn’t.  I realized that no matter what, I had to be happy with myself.  Anyone that had been talking to me a lot lately knew how unhappy I was working there.  So with both my morals and my happiness in question, I chose to not sign knowing full well I’d get fired.

I came back and told them I wouldn’t sign and why.  I thought I’d be pretty much fired that day.  Instead, I was told that it had to go back to corporate for them to think about again.  Here I’m going…ok…what’s there to think about.  Turns out their was, and I will respect the wishes of the company and say nothing other than the next day I was told information that changed things.  I was given a few more days to figure things out.  I had until Monday 13th to decide.

In that time, I was contacted about a possible job in Eau Claire, my college town and also where my best friend lives.  So Thursday the 9th, I drove all the way up to EC to go to a job open house.  Turns out it wasn’t my cup of tea, but I decided to take a vacation day and really think about the situation over the extended weekend.  I sought the advice of close friends in the EC area, like a former professor and some close advisors.  They seemed to reaffirm my feelings.

So I came back home and on Sunday night, I wrote out my official statement, which was two pages long.  Basically it just fleshed out my reasons for not signing.  So..I went to work on Monday and low and behold…my boss was out for the day.  So…I used the day to get my software into shape knowing that I wasn’t going to be doing much more work on it now.  Tuesday rolled around and I finally got the chance to sit down with the management and give them my statement.  I could tell they weren’t thrilled by my response.  Again, I was expecting to be fired right there, and nope…it had to go back to corporate again.

For the rest of the day I found myself twiddling my thumbs.  There wasn’t any reason for me to start working on anything knowing it was my last day of work.  Turns out it wasn’t. We didn’t hear back that day.  So I prepared to go to work on Wednesday the 15th.  On my way in, I got a call from my boss saying I didn’t need to come in.  They hadn’t heard back yet, and really there was no sense in my coming in with nothing to do.  I was told I’d still get paid.  Ok…no problem.  Later that afternoon I got another call.  Turns out legal was out until Friday.  So, I didn’t have to come in Thursday with pay either, and I’d be called when to come in Friday.  It surely seemed this was dragging on at this point.  We all knew where it was going.

Friday I was called, and I was told the decision everyone knew was coming.  My employment was terminated.  I was able to come in and pick up the last of my stuff….I had already packed it up anyway.  I said my goodbyes.  I actually choked up a bit when saying goodbye to the two editors.  I’m going to miss them.  I may have had my issues with the job and so forth, but for the most part, the people were great.  It’s unfortunate the company treats their employees the way it does though.  That’s another topic for another day.

So…I left.  I have to say, too, that despite what most people would feel upon getting fired…I have no remorse.  I’m thrilled its over.  I’ve wanted to get away from the job for at least a year and a half.  It’s finally done.  It didn’t happen in the way I had wanted it to, but all things happen for a reason.  I’ve gotten a few more freelance gigs, and quite honestly, I love the freelance lifestyle.  I feel so much more freedom and control.  I’m still making money, and I’m feeling fullfilled creatively.  I’m not feeling tied to a cubicle.  I can take a break if I want to.  I can sleep when I want to and get up when I want to.  This is what I’ve wanted for so long.  It just took me getting fired to get here.  I’m actually really happy now.

Before I move on, I do want to say something important.  I don’t know if Scott or Julie are reading this, but I just want to say thank you.  I know you both pulled for me with corporate.  I especially want to say thanks to Scott because I heard some of your back and forth with HR, and it told me how much you cared.  I really and truly appreciate that.  I wanted to express my thanks to you in person, but unfortunately you weren’t around when I came in to say my good byes. I’m sure we’ll talk again, but now it’s officially in writing.

So…where do I go from here?  My plan for moving in with Chris is moving forward a bit earlier than expected.  I’ll be moving in mid May instead of late June.  I’ve got a part time job lined up that starts in July.  I’ve also got plans to talk to some people about using the city business incentive programs in the Chippewa Valley to get myself a camera.  I also plan on moving forward with my non-profit.  So, I think it’s time to let my dreams happen.  I’m very excited.

In the meantime, I’m working on getting my new web hosting lined up.  After that, I start work on my professional websites.  Then I get genderverse underway.  At that point, I start the book.  During that time, I want to podcast again.  I’m looking forward to it all.

So that’s part 1 of this 2 part series.  Stay tuned for part 2…

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Posted in Employment, Goals, Uncategorized, friends, work | 4 Comments »

Time to breathe?

Thursday, April 2nd, 2009

I guess not.  My freelance barrage continues.  Today I pick up more footage for yet another video.  I thankfully should be done with the  majority of my work by early next week.  Perhaps that means I will be able to take a few moments to myself and enjoy myself.  Tonight I took two hours to go to a spiritual seminar that I had signed up for.  I’ve been going once a month to the LGBT community center in Milwaukee for a spiritual seminar.  Unfortunately for the last two months I haven’t been able to go due to first being sick and second being busy with freelance.  It was good to go again.

So…apparently March 31st is the Transgender Day of Visibility.  I wonder if other activists find out about these days through the interweb the day of and wonder why they didn’t know about this day before.  That’s happened to me a couple times before.  So…I didn’t get a chance to do anything for it other than wonder why the Transgender Day of Visibility didn’t have  more visibility within the community beforehand to plan events.

Also…I wanted to write about it on March 31st / April 1st, but as it turns out, my web host was having troubles.  This seems a more frequent ocurrence of late, and the more research I’ve done, the less impressed I’ve been.  This particular host used to be known as an awesome host.  Now their reputation is falling fast.  I didn’t realize why Adam had been complaining about them so much until I started to see the problems appear.  So…since I have to pay my hosting bill within the next couple weeks, I’ve decided to move hosts.  You may see a day or two where my site is down.  It won’t be for another week or so yet though.  So no worries.

That’s it for today…time for sleepy.  G’night.

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Posted in Freelance, Transgender, Web Design | 2 Comments »

Onward to success

Monday, March 30th, 2009

The freelance seems to never end.  OK…well it sort of does.  As of today, I got final approval on two 30 second spots I had been editing last week.  The producer and I had gone back and forth on fixes and I think we’re both really pleased with how it turned out.  With all this editing work, I feel like I’m starting to feel that creative groove come back slowly.  It’s that groove I had when I left college.  Now that I’m shooting and editing all the time, I am just in the moment more.  It feels good.

In other freelance news, I’ve decided to dump the flash web project.  It’s a bit too much for me, and I’ve been really stressed out about it for a long time now.  I have yet to hear back from the guy I asked to take it over, but I’m sure regardless, it’ll all get worked out.   The web is good for me when it’s a personal thing that I have passion about, but I have trouble finding my creative drive for a web client.  I think I’m just going to remove it from my freelance offerings unless it’s simple.  I’d rather be editing or shooting.

Once I get the final ok on that switch, I’m going to start working on Genderverse.net.  I’ve got the database structure set, but I haven’t felt comfortable donating any time to the project while I’ve got other responsibilities.  So, hopefully with much of my video work done and the web project off my plate, I can get moving.

I feel bad that I haven’t had time to work on my podcast.  I’ve done nothing but work for the past several weeks, which is a good thing.  It just means I’ve had to put other things aside, and that included the podcast.  The good news is that I wrote up the rundowns for the next podcast this weekend.  I’ll be shooting it this week.  I’m aiming for a two podcast a month release schedule.  I have the next two already blocked out.  Let’s hope that schedule works.

I’m doing a photo shoot this weekend.  For once, it’s not me taking the photos.  My friend Ken asked me about a year ago if I’d want to do a shoot with him.  It’ll be a little different being in front of the camera.  I fully expect to be uncomfortable at first, but I think I’ll loosen up and have fun as time passes.  I’m bringing a bunch of fun clothes to wear.  I’ll have a whole bunch of fun as well as professional pictures after this.  I think I’ll use some of them for this site’s design.

This past weekend I got something I really really needed: Down time.  I spent most of my weekend catching up on movie watching and some TV.  I’ve caught up on all of the Legend of the Seeker episodes out there.  The show has gotten better.  It was good to begin with, but I really like it now.  I also watched “Super Size Me”, which has helped me commit to never going to McDonalds again.  I didn’t like the place to begin with and rarely went already.  So it won’t be hard.  I also watched Chocolat, which was a charming and beautiful film.  The next two on my list are “The Invisible” starring Justin Chatwin, and Chicago with Rene Zellweger.

I feel a little bit of a need to respond to a lot of the comments I got on my last blog post about my voice.  I don’t have a bad voice by any means.  I realized recently that if I wanted to, I could sing.  I might subject my podcast viewers to that too at some point.  I feel like I should explain.  I have a strong history with music.  In college, I actually got into the University of Wisconsin: Eau Claire school of music, which is actually a very good music school.   The Jazz band has won many a Grammy.  While majoring in music wasn’t for me, I did enjoy the subject enough to complete the music theory classes.  In that time we had to do some singing in class, and I was surrounded by women with these beautiful Soprano and Alto voices.  I’ve always wanted to sound like that…to sing like that.  Instead I would sing along with the class and feel embarassed that my voice didn’t really fit in either the male or female categories.  I felt kind of awkward.

So that’s where my vocal discomfort came from.  It’s taken me a number of years, but now, while that jealousy is still there in some form, I am comfortable with the way I sound.  I have a unique voice that people have often complimented me on.  It’s just another aspect of myself that I’m proud of.

The joys of cooking have continued for me.  This Saturday I made myself a lovely dish.  It was chicken coated in Italian breadcrumbs, baked in olive oil to a nice crisp, browned exterior.  The inside was moist and delicious.  I had sugar snap peas and broccoli as the vegetables.  I also had some long grain rice to complete the meal.  My dessert was a package of fresh strawberries.  What a fantastic meal.

Tonight was not as fantastic.  I was going to make spaghetti, which I don’t make often.  I bought some sauce on Friday when I went grocery shopping.  One of the jars was on clearance. It was Barilla Roasted Garlic pasta sauce.  I love garlic.  So naturally I thought it would be great.  It wasn’t.  In fact it was terrible.  I was shoving the sauce out of the way to try to just eat the noodles.  Now I know why it was on clearance.  Let’s hope the recipe I have for homemade mac and cheese turns out better.

I don’t know why I didn’t mention this earlier, but I had a meeting with Chris and another one of my good friends, Erika, about starting a non-profit and what it would take.  I have amazing friends.  They want to help and were guiding me in the right direction.  I think the most amazing thing was that throughout the whole meeting, the term in use was “we”.  It’s as if there was no question that they would be directly involved in the cause.  I can’t believe sometimes how awesome my friends are.  I’ve been asking around to some friends who are close to both me and this cause about being on the board when we get going, and they’ve been all for it.  I’m excited to see where this door leads.

On that note, it’s time to head to dreamy land.  It’s an early night for me…just past 11:00, but I need the rest.  With all the sleeping in over the weekend, I didn’t sleep much last night.  Thanks for sticking with my blog post until the bitter end.  Haha…g’night all.

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Posted in Freelance, Goals, Podcast stuff, friends, history | 1 Comment »

Helping those in need

Tuesday, March 10th, 2009

Well it certainly seems like Tuesdays are my blog update days.  Maybe it has a lot to do with it just being the only day of the week I don’t find myself swamped….wait…no that’s not true.

I’m almost completely over being sick.  I’m at about 93% right now.  All I have left is a little bit of a runny nose and a slight cough.  I think I’ll be back up to 100 % soon.  All things considered…I’m not surprised at all about getting sick.  I’ve been super stressed and I’ve not been getting enough sleep.  I get sick once or twice a year at most.  I guess it was just my time.  At least this time I didn’t get a sinus infection like last year’s nasty cold.  Yuck.

Today wasn’t bad after a string of days that just sucked.  I wish I could tell you why too.  There’s a lot of reasons, and I’m not allowed to talk about them.  Yeah, I’m being serious.  Let’s just say…there are a lot of things I’m not happy with right now and there are a lot of possible things that may change that in the near future.

Anyway, back to today.  I stopped to help out two people today, and it made me feel great.  I was at the grocery store, and a woman was calling for some help.  I looked over as I was walking, and it was a woman in an electric wheelchair.  She needed help getting something.  No one else was paying her any mind, and that really bothered me.  I walked over and helped her.  She was a very nice woman and was very gracious.  Why don’t people stop to help others more often?

Also, I went to check out and swiped my two items at the self check station.  I looked at the price and was like “Gah!!”.  It was several dollars more than it should have been.  I had two items: a pepsi and a donut.  The bill was six dollars for some reason.  Turned out someone had scanned dishsoap and forgot to void it.  So I did.  I went to swipe my card afterwards, and the receipt was already on its way out.  Turns out someone had gone through but didn’t finish their transaction. So instead my two items were on that person’s card.  Most people would walk away claiming a freebie.  I have a conscience.  I told the clerk, and she took care of voiding that transaction.  I rang my stuff up and paid.  I was thanked for my honesty.

That transaction was the last one I’ll get this week.  Payday is Friday, and I am literally flat broke until then.  When I got home from work today, I opened my mail box to find a collections letter in there in regards to my medical bills.  I called the number and had a long conversation with the man on the other end.  They expect me to pay back $700 in five months.  I have literally no room in my budget, and they want me to pay 150 a month or so.  I have no idea how I’ll manage that.  I don’t get it.  So many people hold off on paying medical bills.  I was specifically told to put that last on my list.  Why am I dealing with collections?  How do other people manage when they have bills outstanding for much longer and at much higher rates?  I hate money.

At least there’s some light at the end of the tunnel.  I have some new freelance lined up.  Another editor backed out, and I got the gig instead.  That’s always good for me.  The videos are 3 minute clips for a set of restaurants in the area.  There will be five of them, and they pay $350 each.  Starting this month.  Maybe I will make it through ok. In fact, I may come out with even my furniture paid off!  Who knows.  Maybe in a couple months…I’ll even have some money in savings?!!

I have to do my taxes yet, and I’m not looking forward to it.  I may have to pay.  Due to my sickly financial situation, I never was able to put any of the money I earned through freelance away.  I overpay on my full time job taxes and I can write off a lot of things for my business.  So we’ll see.  There’s also a possibility of a return.  Here’s hoping.  I’m putting money away for taxes this coming year.  That’ll make me less stressed next March.

There’s some potential change coming in my future.  I’ve been thinking about what I want to do in the coming year, and one of the things that has come up recently is grad school.  If things continue, I may have a lot of my debt paid off by the time I could start grad school.  I’ve missed the deadline for applying for this coming fall.  That’s actually ok.  I still have to take the GRE.  I am thinking about two options.  The first is the more likely of the two.  I’m considering the Mass Comm graduate program at the University of Minnesota.  My major would be Mass Comm with an emphasis on communication processes, structures, and effects.  The minor would be in feminist / gender studies.  The second option would be at the Annenberg School for Communication, which is part of USC.  That’s like…the premier of schools for communication, and it’d be difficult to get in…and pay for.  But I might as well try, right?

There’s a position opening up in Chippewa Falls at a dentist office.  It’s not glamorous. It’s a receptionist position.  I know the owner / dentist, and she’s a really awesome person.  She’s a friend of mine and Chris’.  She actually mentioned it to me.  It’ll be opening up in July.  If I apply and get that, I’d move in with Chris.  He’s moving into a house that costs $700 a month to rent.  It’s much bigger than my current place and is cheaper.  We’d be splitting costs.  So bills would be cut down by a significant amount.  I’d go from $760 a month in rent to $350.  Plus, I’d be living with my best friend.  We’ve done that before and we know it works.  So neither of us is worried.

It’s a big move, but at the same time, I think it’s the right one.  I’ll be happier.  The job is much lower stress.  Paying bills will be easier.  And with the lower stress job…I might be able to get more done on goals of mine.  Right now, I work my job and when I come home, I don’t want to go back to work.  So nothing gets done.  If I had a low stress job, things might be different.  So I’m strongly considering it.

My big concern has been freelance and whether I’d keep it.  Honestly, I can’t see why I’d lose work.  I have an ftp site, and most of the work I do has web delivered content.  I’ll probably be down in Milwaukee once a month to meet with people and work on some longer term projects.  It could prove even more lucrative than staying here.  That’s my hope at least.  I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments.

Podcast news…I’m working on an ambitious approach to my next few.  This upcoming one will be about the difference between gender identity and sexual orientation.  I’m going to start shooting this weekend.  I’ll probably shoot some of the middle of it during the week, and hopefully it’ll be online sometime late next week.  I’ll post about it.  The ones after that one will be a three part series.  :D   Aren’t you excited?!! I am.

OK…I have to get up early tomorrow.  I’m leaving work for an early lunch tomorrow to help a friend go to a doctor’s appointment.  I want to get to work earlier to make up for the time.  Hopefully I’ll find some time to post another update before next Tuesday.  Have a good week otherwise. :D

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Posted in Employment, Freelance, Goals, Uncategorized, friends | 1 Comment »

Twitterpated

Sunday, February 22nd, 2009

Yes, it’s been a while.  Fair warning…this is a long post.  I took a break after the last podcast.  First things first, I joined twitter. You can follow me using the username janiukjf. I hope you enjoy all my pointless musings during my average day.

In the time since my last post…I got older.  I’m now 28! I feel pretty much the same as I did at 27.  I have to say, it was a nice birthday.  I took an extra day off from work and had a four day weekend for it.  It was very relaxing.  My family also took me out to dinner.  The food was family style Italian, and it was fantastic. I also got a few meaningful gifts.  My sisters gave me a shadowbox picture frame that is really nice.  My parents gave me to gorillapods (bendy and flexy camera tripods).  It was a lot of fun.

I have to be very vague here, but I spent a year and a half working on a project at work, and it’s finally…finally…launched.  It feels really awesome to know I saw the project through to completion.  Though, its easy to say no project is ever complete in my mind.  I also am going to start using something I call the JSI, or Job Satisfaction Index to which I will create an arbitrary color scale to represent my feelings.  Today’s JSI is orange with yellow polkadots.

While I talk about work, let me mention freelance.  The flash project I took on seems to be a bit troublesome.  I think I bit off more than I can chew.  I learn from examples, and I haven’t had anything to launch off of here.  I just don’t know where to start, and since I’m learning actionscript 3 from the beginning, it’s tough.  I decided to work with someone on the project, and from there, I’ll use that code as an example.  I think getting past this project will help me move forward with stuff I’ve been sitting on.  I’ve felt guilty working on other projects while having this on my plate.

Speaking of other freelance, I’ve had several meetings regarding the puppet video, and it’s been almost all non-stop frustration.  It’s hard to get through to the other video person that we can’t work with the footage we have.  So, I’ve written a script and a rundown for a short video showing the differences between analog and digital video and the progression of technology in video.  I’ll post it on here when I’m done with it.  We’re having a meeting in a week to discuss the project.  If we can’t move forward the right way, I’m not sure I want to be involved with it.

Things I do want to be involved in is the arts organization that I’ve been connected with lately.  I’ve been asked to produce a 30 minute film with them. They’re applying for a grant and production would start in June.  It’s not a lot of money, but it would be a lot of fun for me and everyone involved.  I think it’d be a great portfolio piece too.  More on that as it develops.

Jumping back in time a week, Valentine’s day, or as I like to call it, Singles Awareness Day, was a week ago.  I had a party for all my single friends.  It was a huge blast.  I made hand tossed homemade pizza for my guests.  We played Rock Band and Boom Blox until 3:00 am.  In fact, we managed to turn Boom Blox into a dirty game.  I haven’t had fun like that in a long time.  I plan on throwing another event in a couple months probably to a made up holiday.  Maybe it’ll be the blorthog party Chris and I have been thinking about for a long time.

My friend Tracy, who came to the party, had so much fun that she and I decided to plan a weekly gathering.  We’re going to do something like bowling or Rock Band.  Not sure exactly what yet, but no matter what, it’ll be a lot of fun.

Random stuff going on, my friend Adam came over a week ago.  Instead of doing geeky things like Rock Band, we did geeky things like build a TV antenna from plans we found online.  Amazingly…it works! Better than my powered antenna from Radio Shack.  We also started to build a PVC frame for a portable green screen.  I finished it to the plans, and it looks like it’ll work great.  I have a few modications I’d like to make.  I also need the green fabric yet.  Way to be a nerd, me!

Speaking of nerdish things, I’ve gotten back into the video game “Okami” of late.  It’s very much like the Legend of Zelda.  I’ve spent a bit too much time with it lately, but I had some somewhat negative things happen recently.  So as usual for me, it was escapism.

I’ve been kinda sad lately that Conan O’Brien has ended his run on Late Night.  I’m a big fan.  I know he’s going to be on the Tonight Show, but its still sad to see him leave the venue we know and love.  I just watched the final episode today.  It’ll be a couple months until we see him again.  I’ll be interested to see how Jimmy Fallon handles the reins of the show from now on.

Another show that I’ve been watching a lot lately is Exosquad.  If you don’t know the show, it was one of the best American animated series ever made and not seen.  It aired back in the early  90s, and it was more like an anime.  It was episodic and followed a briliant story arc.  They now have it on Hulu and recently added season 2.  I’ve been re-watching it, and it’s actually still as good as I remember.  There was even a moment that brought tears to my eyes.  I recommend it.

Of course, tonight I’m engrossed in a once a year TV production known as the Oscars.  I really like Hugh Jackman as host.  I love seeing the sing and dance routines.  Otherwise, the Oscars are pretty dull this year.  I know they’ve tried to make major changes to bring new audiences and change things up.  I think they need to do something else though.  It seems too much like every other Oscars.  The only thing that is different to me is the switched up order of awards.  We’ll see how viewership is.

Unrelated, but very interesting…my 10 year high school reunion is supposed to be this year.  Since there’s been no official communication about it, someone started a facebook event surrounding it.  So, it should happen at some point this year.  I think it’ll be very interesting.

In that same vein, I got an e-mail today from a friend I haven’t talked to since High School.  He decided to look into old friends and looked me up.  He saw everything out there on the web about what I’ve done in regards to gender and found this blog too.  His message was very complimentary towards all my work and what I’ve done.  It was wonderful to hear that, and I found myself inspired.  I really need to move forward with personal projects to get myself out there more as a gender activist.

This sparked a conversation with my mother about making a career out of this.  She actually thinks its what I should be doing! I have always thought my mom wanted me to do what makes money.  She’s always said things that suggest that.  I think after seeing me speak once back when I was in college, she saw what I can truly do.  It makes me happy to know I have the support of my mother.

That means its time.  TransLife is going to be my non-profit.  Let’s get this thing started!

OK…that’s it for this novel.  Wordpress tells me this is 1336 words long.  I don’t think writing books is going to be a problem.  Until next time…

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Posted in Freelance, Goals, Transgender, family, friends | 2 Comments »

Drama

Thursday, February 5th, 2009

I have had a busy week…but I’d say a productive one.  Just about every night was filled.  Monday night was freelance.  Tuesday was touring the local cable access channel.  Wednesday was electrolysis and Thursday…today…was a drama filled night.  Let me ’splain….no….there is too much.  Let me sum up.

We’ll start with Tuesday.  Tuesday was a 12 hour work day.  I got to work at 9:30 and I got home at 9:30.  Work was work, but after work was interesting.  The artists co-op non-profit that I’m now working with is interested in producing a children’s television program.  They also want to do a bit more video which involves finding equipment.  We have nothing right now.  So we went looking for places to get gear from.  The cable access station was a good option because they charge one flat fee for a year.  With that fee, we can take out the gear as much as we’d like.  Unfortunately they have restrictions too.  So we’re working on that.

The tour reminded me of working at TV10.  For those of you reading that don’t know what TV10 is, it’s the campus cable station at UW Eau Claire…my alma mater.  I ran that station for a year and was involved with it for over three.  Anyway, the capacity of this cable access station was similar.  The biggest difference was that TV10 had slightly newer broadcast gear.  The cameras were XL series and GL series from Canon.  Good cameras.  We’ll have no trouble with those.

Unfortunately they require people to go to training sessions, and that includes three nights of equipment training.  They will not waive the training session for me despite me knowing more about video than the person running Channel 14.  That was recognized by David and Mark, the two artists.  Mark even pointed out that Mary, the person running Channel 14, seemed to be aware of it too.  I could teach the training course, and I have to go to it.  Very patronizing… I’ll do what I have to though.

I think there’s a lot of potential with the children’s program, especially if we find funding.  I think I can help with that too.  I know of educational organizations that might fund a program like that. Here’s hoping.

My electro appointment went well, and I brought my camera.  So I’m all set for my next podcast.  I just need some supplemental shots to wrap around my “remote shoot” footage.  I’ll probably shoot that Saturday.  So watch for the new podcast soon.

The only other thing that happened Wednesday was related to another Children’s project I’m working on.  It’s an educational set of videos to help supplement education.  It’s a great idea and has potential to go a long way.  The problem, as I mentioned in a previous post, was that the shoot was conducted with cameras that were…sub par at best.  The image quality was terrible.  Wednesday I took a look at the footage and my worst fears were realized.  The footage is completely useless.

One of the cameras has backfocusing issues.  So that means the characters are in and out of focus.  The colors are badly muted, which removes all the vibrance and character of the puppets.  There’s no lighting control.  The nat lighting was a wall of windows and direct afternoon sunlight.  So, areas of the shot were totally blown out, while others were in shadow.  The optics of the cameras were so bad that the image looked totally flat.  Not to mention the cameras themselves are old Hi-8 cameras with an effective resolution of smaller than standard def.  The guy had the cameras set up at three angles, all of which were two shots.  So there’s no way to creatively cut them.  They were shot too high, so you can see behind the stage. To top it all off…he had them all set to full auto.  So any time the colors changed on screen, the iris auto adjusted.  To put it simply…the footage is total crap.  I cannot use it at all.

So…I had to do something.  I couldn’t just leave it at that.  I didn’t know how to tell John, the creator of the project, how things looked.  I decided on sending him an e-mail and just being straight forward about it.  I told him flat out that I didn’t want to offend or step on toes.  I just wanted to make the project the best it could be.  It was hard, but I spelled it all out, and I hoped for the best.

Today I got a response, and thankfully, he took it well.  It gave me a huge sigh of relief.  Then later, I got home and saw that my office phone had a voice mail.  I checked, and it was the camera guy saying he wanted to move forward anyway.  He wanted to take what we had and put it on youtube.  I didn’t know what to do because…I didn’t mention earlier…this guy has no concept of how to communicate visually.  None of the footage that was handed to me was coherent or communicated any sort of message.  Even John told me he was confused by it.

I got really tense and at first attempted to e-mail the guy back.  I stopped mid composition and called Chris for advice.  He told me to call John and talk it over.  I did, and John and I had a good long talk.  Turns out John and I are on the same page.  So we’re going to work it out.  I’m glad, because I would like to see this project happen and really make a difference for kids.  I didn’t want to have to back out due to quality issues.  I truly am starting to feel like a video tech advisor and a producer.

I’m definitely feeling high strung and stressed of late.  So much so that I’m getting a canker sore.  That happens any time my stress levels get high.  Must be my body’s natural pH level changing.  Anyway, I’m pushing forward with the flash site.  I decided to get a book on Actionscript, which is the programming language behind Adobe flash.  It’s a powerful language, and it’ll help me get this project done.  Turns out…I already know most of the syntax.  For the project I am doing at work, I mastered Javascript.  Actionscript is based on the same structure.  So it’ll be a breeze for me.  I’m excited about that.  Plus, this will really help my marketability for getting a new job.  To have not only javascript, asp, ajax, xml, html, css, and sql, but also the standard programming  language for adobe flash, flex, and air….that’s fantastic.  I think I’ll delve into ruby next.

Funny thing is…I’m enjoying the reading.  Who’da thunk I’d be reading text books for fun after college? I must really be a nerd! Either that or I just miss learning…or I suppose the writing is good too. Crazy though.

So yeah…it’s been a dramatic week.  I’m glad tomorrow is Friday.  Tonight…I’m going to bed early.  I’m Tired!!! I went to sleep at 2:15 last night.  I don’t know if that’s when I fell asleep, but I didn’t sleep well.  So, hopefully tonight will be a better rest. Sweet dreams all!

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