Category: Personal Life

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It’s been raining all day, and I’m not very happy about that. So, it’d be better if it just went away. On the other hand, it’s melted most of the snow, which I was sick of seeing, even though we haven’t had much this season.

So, I successfully directed my second live newcast of the semester last night, and it went fairly well, except that one of the anchors kept cracking up. I guess he wasn’t helped by another who was dancing around. They just really have to grow up when they’re out there. The second, live-to-tape show started off rocky since it wasn’t being recorded, but once that was fixed, it was damn near perfect.

Today dragged on, pretty much. I finally had a Friday is recent memory in which I attended my classes, or at least, my morning classes. Had to sludge through the slush to get to gym at 8am, and then the rain for the rest. Long pants and running water do not mix! I also finished the Expedition episode I was working on, aside from a little fine tuning.

That’s about it for now. Maybe an entry with some substance later today.

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I’m lucky I didn’t do a New Year’s resolution to write one blog post a day, or else I’d be failing…badly.

I’ve been trying to do one a day, and it’s just been happening. A lot of it comes down to simple laziness. I don’t really want to talk about my day; I’d rather talk about some kind of topic. So, a lot of my entries turn into political rants of some sort. I’d like to diversify, however, since I know that everybody is not into politics, so I’m going to try.

On that note, I really need to get Dymersion Creative going, since I haven’t done much yet. Luckily, I may have a solution for the short term. Last semester, I did a lot of scripts for my scriptwriting class. I think if I post one of those a day, I can last a little about about two weeks, but then I’ll have to actually get writing again.

But, the other reasons are mostly academic. I do a lot with video production, so I’m always out shooting stuff, editing, or setting up for/directing a newscast. Then one Saturday a month, I help out at and directing (and now producing) a game show. Besides the club, I’m taking 17 credits, five actual classes, and then one independent study (which hasn’t even really started yet) and a practicum (see my club activities starting the second sentence). I also have to do a fair amount of homework for my classes. Then, I also help run a website, which just takes up even more of my time. Still, I tend to just surf around, rather than do anything productive. I could probably do ten entries a day, but I’ll just try to do one for now.

One main blog entry a day, and one Dymersion Creative writing a week shall be my goal. I had other ideas for this site, but I think I’ll hold off for now on those. Sorry to the few who may have been interested.

That’s it for now. Quota filled.

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I don’t think I could have a better birthday present. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the final Harry Potter book, will be released on my birthday, Saturday, July 21st, 2007. That is so awesome, I don’t have words. No better way to celebrate my 21st than with reading, right?

That’s all for now.

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I’ve read the books in my room so many times, it was starting to get boring. Recently, I found Dan Brown’s Digital Fortress in the table outside the editing lab, so I picked it up and read it. So, now I’m done with that and need something else to read. So, I’m changing my perspective a bit. For a long time now, I have tended to limit myself to science fiction and fantasy books, and while I’m definitely not done with them, I’ve decided to take a break from them. Thus, last night I ordered two non-fiction books by a couple prominent authors.

The first book is Culture Warrior by Bill O’Reilly. Yea, yea, I know what you’re probably thinking, but I’ve been watching his show for some time now, and would like to see what all the (mostly self created) hype is about. I know I’m not going to agree with a lot of it, but I’d like to see what’s going on in his mind. But, you can’t make up your own mind without reading and learning other views. So, to do that, and partially to repent for my sins, I also ordered The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama. So, I’m going to have fun reading those books for a while.

The second topic of the day is one concerning yet another book series, Harry Potter. For those of you who don’t follow news regarding these books, Laura Mallory, a mother from Loganville, Georgia, has been protesting the addition of these books to her children’s school library, claiming they promote and teach kids witchcraft. She hasn’t read the books, but that’s not stopping her from going on a crusade. She’s lost her case with the county board of education, and state BOE, but she’s still going to appeal. I guess I admire her perseverance and her ability to stick to her convictions, but I still think Laura Mallory is an idiot. The Harry Potter books teach witchcraft about as much as your friendly card-flipping magician (I wonder if she keeps her kids away from them, too). She’s clearly using religion as a reason for censorship. Harry Potter teaching witchcraft? Come on. Really, now. GET A HOBBY. Stop your mission to bar kids from reading arguably one of the greatest book series of this generation. You want to stop kids from reading good books? Insanity.
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Hmm, somehow I don’t think the title is going to show up in some people’s browsers, but it says, “Bon Voyage!”

That’s right. I’m off to Greece tomorrow, and I am all sorts of excited. My trip starts off here in the states, where I go from Manchester to Logan International in Boston. Then it’s from there on Alitalia to Milan, Italy, where I’ll have about a three hour layover. Then it’ll be from there to Athens.

I don’t really know what to say except that I know I’ll have fun. The fact that this is my first time overseas should be adventure enough. Then I’ll be in the birthplace of Western democracy, seeing all the sites. It should be fun enough to see all the stuff, and I’ll be sure to get pictures where I can.

So, that said, I wish everyone a good week. See you when I get back.

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Woo! Happy New Year to all. No entries for the last couple days because I became sick on Friday. Pounding headache, vomiting, asthma and Crohn’s-related stuff. Basically, the works. I was more or less bed-ridden from Friday to Sunday at 11:30, but was finally well enough to get up and watch some New Year festivities with the family. I’m now more-or-less better, except for the hacking episode from this morning, though that’s cleared up now. So, should be good to go for Greece.

Got the official grades today. I knew since yesterday, when a classmate showed me how to access them from the “Degree Evaluation” section of Eastern’s site. But, now I also know my GPA, too. Three A’s, an A-, and a B+. I was a little surprised I did so well in Western Civ, but I must have gotten a good final exam grade. In any case, I have a 3.8 GPA for this semester, which is a record, and brings up the cumulative to 3.64 from 3.60 the semester before. Dean’s List again! Yes!

Otherwise, not much is going on. I’d like to make some headway on the TV 22 site before I leave, so I can have something to show when I get back. I don’t intend for it to be huge, but if someone wants information on our shows, or to know what kind of stories to expect on the news, or when an episode of our shows air, they can go there.

That’s it for now.

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God, it’s been a long time. I’m not going to even try summarizing the past month, I’ll just write about the past couple weeks. Well, I was going to just talk, but now I need to rant. Next post, though.

Everything has been good, but busy, of course. During the last couple weeks, the TV club has had special editions of our shows. For Eastern Expedition, it was an administration episode, with the Vice President, head of facilities, and head of admissions playing the game. The President of the University came to watch, so that was cool. Then, last Thursday, we had a parents/friends day, where they could come to watch. My mom and aunt came, and we ate at Friendly’s afterward. So, that was cool.

Then, on Saturday, I had to work on a weekend for the first time. I volunteered to keep an eye on a special presentation playing on channel 22. I got there at 3:15 (Adam and Jess were editing an episode, so I was able to get in the building) and called the police at 3:30 to get the master control door open. They said they were switching shifts, but would send someone when that was done. Fifteen minutes passes, and noone. So, I call again. After initially not being able to find me, it took like 10 minutes for them to get there. So, the show went on a little late. Oh well; the higher ups were just happy it went on.

So, it’s now exam week. I’ve had three so far, with one more to go. I know I did pretty well on the first question for my first one in The Presidency last night, but I’m not sure I did so well on the second question. We’ll see, though. Then I had State and Local this morning…pretty sure I’ve aced that. Then I had my Western Civ exam. I think I didn’t do too bad there, either. I certainly did better than I thought I was going to. I was able to fill the whole blue book, and I don’t think I BSed my work, so that should contribute. Now I only have Culture and National Security on Friday. That one will be a toughy, since the class has a lot of theory involved. But, as long I use the three schools of international relations to explain my answers, I think I should do ok.

Less than three weeks until Greece! YES! I’ve got my itinerary for flight and hotel, so tickets should be following soon. Whether or not they’ll be electronic, or paper (meaning I have to come back here) remains to be seen.

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Multiple categories, for multiple topics.

Election 2006 is over, at least for Connecticut. I’ll admit I didn’t foresee Courtney pulling through like he did. What I did see is the candidate not having much of a mandate, though I foresaw it for Simmons instead. Every other predication was pretty much spot on, though. Everyone else won who I thought was going to win. So, with that, this election is put to rest.

TV time. There’s been some awesome stuff going on. Battlestar Galactica continues to impress. I like how, even though Adama and Tigh’s relationship has been strained, he still came to Adama’s rescue when Bulldog was trying to kill him. By the end of the episode, even though Tigh has still said he doesn’t want to retake the XO position, they seem to at least be patching things up. They both now have issues that are more or less out in the open, and they now have to deal with them, though Adama is able to put his past him more than Tigh can.

Heroes meanwhile, is quickly becoming my favorite above Lost. It is getting the big picture answers out faster, which Lost really needs to do. Anyway, I’ll admit I didn’t get the connection with the erroneous fire savior report and Sylar’s incompetence. At least the other cheerleader didn’t get her brain taken out. You all catch that telekinetic knife of his? It slices, it dices, it cuts skulls open!

Also, I was a little angry at Nathan for his actions in this episode, though I do understand the reasoning. He views his power as an impediment to his election. He’s not going to get many cookie points if he claims to fly. I think eventually, he’s going to come around, and, like Claire’s friend says, “embrace his inner freak.” Until then, though, he’s going to do everything he can to stay out of this whole mess. Mohinder seems to finally be a true believer. I don’t know if he has powers, but perhaps it won’t matter. Maybe he’ll be the guy to explain to everyone why things are the way they are. The go to guy for the information. Who knows.

Jessica’s getting dangerous, and Niki, though while worried, seems to view it as a necessary evil. This isn’t going to turn out good, I think. Her son (the technopath) and D.L. are on the run, but not for long I fear. I can’t quite seem to get D.L.’s intentions. We now know he was set up (by Jessica), so he might be good. I think they’ll get back together in some form or another.

Mr. Bennett. I thought he was going to be an evil dude at first, but now I think he’s more comparable to the rogue NID agents from Stargate. He’s not bad, per se, but he’ll do what it takes to get the job done. Though, not as arrogant. Still, I foresee him becoming an ally. He seems to have connections, which can only be useful to the heroes. Eden is a bit of an enigma. If you haven’t guessed yet, her power is that of command (like Saruman). Read the online comic for more. I don’t know where she’s going yet. She seems to be good, and also seems to be less “do whatever it takes” than her boss, Mr. Bennett. As for Haitian dude, he needs to talk some more.

Now on to personal life. I’m doing well. I MET Bill Nye last Thursday. What can be much better than that. He’s a very nice guy, and was extremely easy to work with for the interview. His lecture was great, too. Had a test on Friday, and I think I did fairly well on it. Was extremely tired, though, since I was up until 2am the previous night editing this video for Friday morning. Basically, what happened, is that it was Guidance Counselor Day. So, my friend Adam got his own segment to himself. We showed the video about Eastern Expedition, and then they played a mini-version of the game itself with three guidance counselors.

I came home on Friday afternoon, intending to skip the one class that was being held on Monday. Then I read my school email on Tuesday, where I discovered he canceled class anyway, since he was sick. Go figure. Not much to talk about for the first couple days, but I did go to Manchester vs. East Hartford tonight. Manchester…didn’t do well. Led by 18 for the first quarter or so, but then lost by 25 in the end.

A little bit of bad news family wise. My grandmother has to get her aortic valve replaced, and also needs bypass surgery because of clogged arteries. She’s already had a hip replaced and is diabetic and very much overweight (she’s tried to take it off, to no avail, apparently), which undoubtedly has contributed to this reality. She’s recently been having trouble breathing, and after a number of tests, this was found to be the problem. On Sunday, she’s going in for surgery at St. Francis Hospital. Please keep her in your thoughts.

Have a good Thanksgiving, and weekend.

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Haven’t done this in a few days, so here goes.

The week got considerably better after last Monday. After all, what could be better than a massive change in the national legislature? Not much, in my opinion. But, besides that, the rest of the week went well. We did well in Thursday’s News 22, and got both shows under 30 minutes for once, so they both were able to go on the television channel, instead of only one of them. On Friday, I helped tape the play that went on here at school. Well, in reality, I help set up the camera. I was going to tape the second half of the play, but Adam said he had it. So, I got in for free and did a bare minimum amount of work. Not complaining, there. Especially since I had to see the play for class, anyway.

I also made some money on Saturday! On Wednesday, the guy who directed a play Adam was in earlier this semester called him looking to see if I could tape a play at Suffield Academy. So, we both did that, and will split the money. $200 in total for five hours of work! What I’ll end up getting is worth a week’s pay! Not shabby.

On Sunday, I didn’t do too much since it was raining. I kind of sat around on my ass all day. Oh well. On Monday, I didn’t do too much besides the normal go to class and work. I made the most of my time at work, though, by finishing editing the episode of Expedition I’ve been working on for a while. I have a couple more elements to either add or fix, but it doesn’t get much done than that. Today, I taped a thing with Adam that’ll be editing into this package for the Guidance Counselor Day on Friday. It was a little more fun to do than a normal package since I could be creative.

Tomorrow, pretty much a normal day again, except for re-shooting a couple of the last scenes with Adam, since I stupidly forgot to reconnect the microphone for them. Then I can start editing this thing, and perhaps try to make the DVD of the News show Utterback wants, though he hasn’t exactly elaborated on why he wants it.

On Thursday, everything is pretty much the same (more editing of course) up until when News 22 usually comes into play. It’s not going to be on this week, since Bill Nye the Science Guy is coming to speak here that day. Not only is he coming, we’ll be getting an INTERVIEW with him. An interview with the legend himself. I’m definitely excitedly anticipating it. I use to watch his show all the time.

Time for sleep.

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Man, was it an unlucky weekend. I went home to visit the family and wash clothes. First, the washer broke before I could put in my clothes. So, my family and I went to my grandparent’s house to do the laundry. Halfway through the second load of clothes, the power went out! Wasn’t only us, though. Part of Manchester, and much of South Windsor and the surrounding area went out as well. Luckily, the power came back on soon after.

Then today, I find out that I’ve been working too many hours. Since I’m on Work Study, I get paid a certain amount of money per semester: $1300 in my case. Well, if I work 12 hours for a week for the rest of the semester, I’ll get paid about $250 over that. Well, the university has really been cracking down on expenditures this year (three new buildings in as many years, go figure), so I need to find some way to cut down 29 hours so that I’m not overpaid. While I understand the reasoning, it’s a bit bull, since I’ve been on work study for three years and have never had a problem with this. Add that to the fighting my supervisor had to do with student employment to let me take the position, this has not been my year for a friendly student employment office.

Then, on my way to the dining hall, I fell down near the Sports Center. So, now I had a foot in pain and a cut to add on to everything else. The faint light in the distance was the copy of Old School I won during the showing of Talladega Nights tonight! So, that was good.

So, Election Day tomorrow! Final predictions in the extended entry…
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