What have I been up to?

This past month has been extraordinarily busy. I have been bouncing between school work, social life and my new Lab Tech job and haven’t had much quality time to sit down and blog out my life. After a month of some cool things happening, here is an update and my plans for the coming month.

To start off, I want to say how excited I am to be the new lab tech for the com department. Our current lab techs have helped me get to know the place, and I am coming on to help with the radio side of the lab. I have spent a lot of time learning the new equipment we got just before I was hired on, and have been working on getting kits together for anyone who may want to check out equipment. I have decided we should have some podcasting kits and have tested out different equipments together to see if I can find out which ones are the best for different scenarios. This takes some time, and I want to make sure that when anyone who doesn’t know all the bells and whistles comes in, they can get exactly what they need.

Additionally, we have been working on a new set! It is about halfway done, and they have wheels on our riser. I am so excited to see how it turns out. Ill upload a vlog to youtube that I recorded last week to show off what we have and what we are expecting. That should come later today or soon. It will be a brand new TV set for our Good Day UNA program we produce, and I think everyone in the broadcasting field is excited about it.

NBS in general has been getting a lot of my time. I really want the club to work. I have been putting a lot of effort into getting people to step up to be involved, but sometimes it can be hard as everyone in the club excluding myself will be graduating soon. It is hard enough to see my friends leave, but for the club I really care about to just dissolve is not an option. I have been brainstorming for the past two weeks on what to do to bring new life into our club. I have settled on starting a podcast series called the Pop-Up Podcast and I will go around campus with our portable podcasting kit and just sit with some random people and record a podcast right then and there. My goal is to get the word out about the club, get anyone interested in podcasting to try it out, and through my process of interviewing random people, have them share the content on facebook to get an even further reach. My second plan is to have an audio workshop in partnership with the Film Club. In the past, film club and NBS have been at odds. I don’t know why, and maybe it has something to do with the older members who are now gone. Either way, I want to bring the two into a mutually beneficial relationship where we team up and produce even better content. Audio students can help with film, film can help with television, and both clubs can flourish. It stresses me out a great deal trying to do this and not step on any toes. I want to build something that will last beyond when I leave. Call me selfish, but I want to be able to say I did it. In a way, I want to prove to myself that I can one day open my own station. This is a good a time as any to give it a go. Nothing to lose, and all the self confidence to gain.

Back on the weekend of the 17th I made a surprise trip back home to visit family and see my Mom as she returned from Guatemala on her annual trip. It was a total surprise to everyone except Dad and John. I shocked my grandma when we picked her up for some Jerry’s catfish, blew my aunt’s mind when I jumped out of the car to come visit, and practically ran to see my Mom when she was waiting for us at the airport. It was so great to see everyone again. We ended the weekend with lunch at my Aunt’s house that was absolutely delicious. I ate about 3 helpings of everything before I had to get back on the road.

That Saturday while we were waiting for Mom to come home, Dad, John and I went to a lady’s home from our church and cleaned out her attic. At the end of the day she asked me if I wanted any of her old records. I couldn’t believe it when she let me have her whole collection! She had some great vinyl and all of them were in almost perfect condition. I found a few that I have been wanting for a while, and traded in a few at a local shop to get Van Halen’s 1984 and a few other experimental electronic albums from the 1970s. Overall it has been a great experience digging through these old records and finding the golden nuggets.

To top off my great fortune for that weekend, I found a refund check in the mail that had a substantial dollar sign behind it, and I no longer have to worry about securing funds for my trip to Spain. I am so excited and I can not wait to see what this trip has in store.

Finally, I want to say how great my experience was helping out with Kaitlin’s film project this past weekend. I included some photos I took on our last day shooting. I have plenty of others here if you want to take a look. I had such a good time on set, and everyone was a blast to work with. I did my best not to get in the way, and I may or may not have accidentally squeaked the floor during an important take. (I legitimately don’t know because someone else took the fall for it. Thanks Larry) Overall, I think my photos came out great, and I can’t wait to see the final product.

As I go on into March, I am hopeful that things can begin to turn to the bright side. I have begun to lay groundwork for my future, and from here on out i’m going to push myself ot do bigger and better things. Podcasting has finally hit me with interest, I am motivated to build an entire club after most members graduate, and with my new job I hope to motivate others to come along and do the same as I am now.

I hope I can come back to a weekly blog. I really enjoy talking about what is going on in my life. To those of you in NBS reading this, please dont think I am going in for some type of takeover. I just can’t stand to see it crash to the ground. I love this college, and I love broadcasting. I just want to see it do well, and if we don’t try to get new blood I am scared it will be gone forever.