Bounding into the unknown

I don't know what life has planned for me, and I don't think I would want to know if I had the opportunity to peek ahead. I am finding that, despite the awfully big pile of terd matter - that has ocassionally parked itself right outside of my front door (or under my bed, or just to the right of the refrigerator) - has sometimes lead me to side-step one smelly beast only to leave me staring eye-to-eye with another foul and odiferous mess to contend with. But sometimes it has lead me to beautiful fields of flowers to marvel at - and no piles of dung to muck it up!

This is how the last four months have gone for me. So I have acquired quite a brilliant skill - bounding headlong! It has been a wild ride. Not always great, but certainly not completely horrible. Yea! right?

In just about 18 hours (or, to please Mr. Stockwell's exacting standards - "IN LITTLE MORE THAN 18-HOURS ... "), my very own little piece of personal history will be made, and pressed between the pages of a new album of memories.

After tomorrow ends, Q1 of RTV-09-07 will be over, and my fellow classmates and I will be seasoned Specs students. No longer viewed as 'newbies' to those snotty, twerpy dudes who grunge-it-up and hang out in the Media Lab, making sick attempts at tasteless humor - at the expense of those lovely people in Greece (whose homes and possessions were going up in flames for the better part of the summer). Shame on you! Nyah! :^P

Yes, when we return to class October 8th (after a perfectly lovely week off), we will be fresh and ready for the next set of classes. Holy crap, can you believe it!? Eight more weeks of new and challenging knowledge to cram into an already occupied cranium! My brain is loving this.... but it's having a hard time convincing the lump in my throat to take a seat and relax. It's exciting, and as long as I continue to tell myself it's fun - and all completely do-able - I am able to function. Yes, and by the beginning of December, the 09-07 class will be half over, and we will be expected to declare a course of study for the last 16 weeks as SH students.

I already have a spartan internship-sort-of-gig lined up for the winter... and it will afford me an actual title and on-air name credit for my resume! TYL And lately I have been in touch with a neat woman who is trying to get her own screenplay on film. So I will assist her in any way I can, and will become quite entrenched in as many of the aspects of pre-, post- and actual production work as I can be, without becoming a pain in the butt. Oh, who do I think I'm kidding? But, I do intend to be as hands-on as I can be... fly on the wall or in the thick of it, just so long as I learn from it all.

Tomorrow is on the way, and while there is no test to study for, per se, and no cramming that can help at this time, I am going to get some sleep now. It turns out my sniffing and what have you is actually a cold, and not just horribly rotten allergies! Which explains why the allergy pills haven't helped as much all week. Geez! There is, however, the last of the half hour shows to record for Bob for credit/grade (and it's a doozy!), so I want to be at the top of my game for that.

Letting yourself be carried along by the ebb and flow of life can be far more exhilarating than excrutiating. Even if that means sometimes we get a little messy and stuck in the poo, remember there is always a hose and a bar of soap waiting for you. Have a great weekend, one and all, and think happy thoughts at really odd moments. They are so worth it!

21! My baby is 21!

I did not give him permission to do this. He did not ask me for my opinion. Who does he think he is, this little boy turned teen-ager, become man? Not only did he get twenty-one years older, but so did I. The funniest thing about that whole deal-i-oh is that... I don't look it! HA!

I suppose parents have been coming up against this whole children growing up/growing older thing for quite a while, now, and I am nowhere near the front of the line with this non-phenomenon... but I feel so odd about it all just the same. After having been present for each big event and ordinary day in his life, every fall and scrape and broken heart, each exciting first time at something new... how is it that I still marvel at the young man of 21 before me? I have watched him all this time - every day of his beautiful, aggravating, excrutiating, elating, death-defying, non-plus-ing life, and it still seems as if I blinked somewhere between toddler and now - missing the lightening fast transformation.

I know I didn't. I am keenly aware of being here for every minute. After all, I have been the one constant in his life all this time. Every waking/sleeping/working/lazing/yelling/crying/laughing/traveling/explorative/horrific/proud moment. I wouldn't have had it any other way.

Maybe I am more surprised I haven't accidentally killed or lost him before now. Like a pet turtle, or a puppy in the yard who see's an open gate and simply runs, forgetting to come back.

Thank you for letting me be your parent, Brian. Thank you for allowing me to be a part of your life all of this time (even if you really didn't have much of a choice in the whole matter). I just want you to know I will always be here, too. But I have a sneaky feeling you sort of knew that, huh?

Happy Birthday, my little boy. I am so very proud of you, and love you very much.

Now please, pick up your room and open the window to air it out, will ya? :^)

Weight loss watch 8^)

FINALLY!

Yea! I broke the barrier (the 190lb barrier) and finally dropped from 191.6 to 187.4. Wahoo!

Just keep watching... let's see if I can keep it on a downward trend. I would love to reach the 170 - 175 range by Christmas. Fingers crossed, list to Santa written and mailed, lucky horse shoe hanging at the ready.

Now, in the words of Emily Patella...

"...Never mind." I figured out the need to practice HTML.

Look at me, Ma. I'm an IT geek!!

If you're looking for quilting photos or blog entries, they've moved to: www.truenorthquilter.blogspot.com

Anomalies of this web site....

Is it just me, or is there no way to create separate paragraphs?! How can you write intelligently (or be read effectively) without the use of paragraphs!?! In the words of Charlie Brown: "Aaaarrggghhhhh!"

Well, if one is to begin... then one must start somewhere

Howdy, family and assorted loved ones -

I finally decided to begin this whole blog thing... after sort of researching other possible blog sites to host it on. This seemed easy and quickly done, so here it is. I may change it (the site) down the road, but at least for now I have something written and 'out there'.

In August I began my new [life] adventure in the wacky world of broadcasting (A.K.A. "RTV", to us students) at Specs Howard, located in Southfield. I had all good intentions of publishing a weekly update to let anyone interested know what was up, how things were progressing, how I was feeling, and what the home happenings were, too. Of course, that lasted all of two or three emails-worth. Then, one of the kids in my class said I should either pod-cast or blog, and I would be able to add my weekly sound work from the TV and radio sessions to the site as links. So, now all I have to down is convert my class work to DVD or CD so that I can upload them for your amusement. Trust me, they will be amusing. The grades have been pretty good overall, and it has been a whirlwind of note taking, practicals, and mid-terms. Lowest grade has been a B. Rats!

Each quarter is 8 weeks long... but it turns out we get 1 whole week off between the end of one quarter and the beginning of the next! Wahooooo!! Almost becomes 100% fun with that knowledge. Graduation from this will be on April 11, 2008.

To date, we have managed to get through 6 weeks of Q1 with a small handfull of drop-outs from the original roster of students. Lots of students randomly miss days - and it does make a difference. While I've missed half of one day due to Brian and his kidney stones, I have managed to keep up (and enjoy 90% of it all), and even enjoyed working as a WCSX workforce intern member at the Pontiac Arts, Beats and Eats one hot afternoon. In November, I will have another coveted (early) intern opportunity at a station in Dearborn, helping with the production of a parochial HS quiz bowl show. It will allow me hands-on experience and screen credit for my resume. Pretty cool, eh!?! All very necessary for future employment and better pay in my early employment in this field.

I have also taken part in a screenwriting course given by one of the instructors at SHS - Ross Marroso is also a chopper pilot/reporter for WDIV, channel 4 in Detroit. Moreover, he is an accomplished screenwriter in his own right, having written and produced several of his own Indie films. Had a great time in the class, even though it was a long day for those dates - the nights ended at 10:30 in the evening, after sitting at class for 4.5 hours. The additional 3 hours was a bit much. But, the instruction was invaluable, and much cheaper than the course I could have taken at the community college. We were also given student copies of a screenwriting tool to be able to try our hand at starting a story. One of the kids in my SHS class heard me discussing it, and gave me... um... access to an upgraded version of the same tool. So, I am happily writing my full-length story, and have a lot of help from the tool to make it work. THANK YOU, RICK!! The first scene of my script was read in class, and received a lot of thumbs up, and many questions about "what's next?", etc., so I am quite happy. Guess what I will be doing during much of my week off between quarters? :^)

In mid-October I will be going to a 4 hour seminar for in-depth PA (Production Assistant) training, so as to be able to join a forming production soon to film an Indie here in the Detroit area! There will be actual PA instruction in a couple of the coming SHS quarters, but to be able to join this cast and crew, I need to be a little more advanced. Soooo.... again, the experience will be a boon.

All in all, very exciting, and very cool. I am beginning!

To fill you in on Brian and his stones: He had an earlier episode of passing [a] stone[s] approx. late June to mid-July, but with the advent of this latest set, we sought help from the medical profession. He was admitted to Crittenton for 24 hour observation, but that turned into 4 days after he got a taste of their jello. Silly boy. He did pass a small stone the first night he was upstairs in a room, but after pointing it out to the nurse on duty, she washed it down the drain saying she thought it was no more than "something on the screen" (yeah. ya think!?!?!). Something that wasn't there before he used the screen... something that actually came out of him. Some people! He feels much better, but still needs to get in to a regular doc, and visit the urologist recommended for follow-up. Anybody else want to nag at him for a while, please?

Karl's second year at OTC (Oakland Tech Campus), in the Mixed Media program, began early in September, and he is closed-mouth about what is going on. Will be speaking with the instructor again to emphasize the importance of adding other software for him to learn, or at least making certain he has completely masterd all of the Adobe Suite offered. He seems more interested in the Maya tool, which is GREAT! But, as more places have Adobe and not Maya, he should be as versed in all such SW to be as marketable as possible for the employers who will be taking a chance on him.

Anyway, it it time to get dinner going, and I have been stalling on getting started with a Monday assignment - a four minute ad-lib speech. I think I have the topic, but need to flesh in the rest of the 00:03:45.... LOL! So, I will leave you for now, but hope you will stay tuned, or at least drop in from time to time to check up on the haps. Let me know what's going on in your world, too, and send some questions if you have any.

My love to all.