25 weeks.
I have been writing in this LiveJournal thingamagig for ... six years now, I think. And sometime around 25 weeks ago, my life suddenly went into warp speed, and I forgot about my LiveJournal. I cannot imagine it is possible to catch up on 25 weeks without writing a word, but I will do my best to touch on the key points.
Part 1 - School.
The chaos began the second week of school. I was in a class that was building the web-site for the Special Olympics 2007 Summer Games. We were also producing 12 documentaries about athletes from around the world. I was given the job of programming director for the project. I was then told I would be spending 11 days in South Africa doing the documentary. On top of this, I was taking a multimedia design a theory class, intermediate photojournalism, 3D design and advanced programming. Life got hectic.
Part 2 - Globe-trotting.
Amongst the ridiculous work load from the semester, I also spent 10 days in southern Chile working on a multimedia project and 11 days in South Africa making a documentary about a Special Olympics athlete. There are literally hundreds of pictures. Months later, I have still not edited or posted any of them except for a few I put in my portfolio.
Part 3 - Love.
I have been dating Tyler for 8 months now. He is an amazing human being, and I am so very much in love with him. He is the light of my life and keeps me sane like nobody else can. I have never been so consistently happy in a relationship before. Eight months and we have never fought or argued. I think the only tiffs we have ever had is when one of us is trying to out-spoil the other. Disgusting but true.
Part 4 - Michigan. Or Now.
Sometime during the semester, my teacher told me I should apply for an internship he was notified of. The internship was in northern Michigan ... but it was a multimedia internship that provided housing and paid $500 a week. How could I turn that down? I applied for the internship, and it came down to me and another guy who is in most of the same classes as me. I got the internship, and I moved to Traverse City, Michigan, shortly after the end of the semester. I thought it would be cold and miserable here, but it has been an amazing experience. I am working for the Michigan Land Use Institute, www.mlui.org, and the people are all grown-up hippies with journalism backgrounds. Some of them are very well established journalists and want so badly to teach me everything they know. I am currently working on four different videos that must be finished before I leave July 27th. The next few weeks are going to be rough. My computer is currently locked up rendering, so I thought I would find my way back into the LJ world thanks to Daniel's recomendation.
Part 5 - China. Or the Future.
I leave Michigan on July 28th to return to Chapel Hill for a few days. I will be working my ass off to finish the S.O. site, so that is going to suck, but I will get to see Tyler for a few days. I am then spending a week at the beach with the family, two weeks of class, and then I leave for Shanghai, China. Having been so deeply involved with the project, it seemed necessary I finish it out in Shanghai. I will be part of a team of 200 individuals covering the summer games. Every heat of every event at the games will be uploaded daily to the site, and they can be searched and viewed on the site. It's kind of a big deal. I will be there until late October, then will spend 3 weeks touring China and 2 to 3 weeks hopping around Southeast Asia going wherever the fuck I decide I need to go.
Of course, plenty of things have happened in 25 weeks, but there is the Readers' Digest version. I am sure there will be plenty of rendering in the future, so I will try to update with slightly more frequency from now on.
Part 1 - School.
The chaos began the second week of school. I was in a class that was building the web-site for the Special Olympics 2007 Summer Games. We were also producing 12 documentaries about athletes from around the world. I was given the job of programming director for the project. I was then told I would be spending 11 days in South Africa doing the documentary. On top of this, I was taking a multimedia design a theory class, intermediate photojournalism, 3D design and advanced programming. Life got hectic.
Part 2 - Globe-trotting.
Amongst the ridiculous work load from the semester, I also spent 10 days in southern Chile working on a multimedia project and 11 days in South Africa making a documentary about a Special Olympics athlete. There are literally hundreds of pictures. Months later, I have still not edited or posted any of them except for a few I put in my portfolio.
Part 3 - Love.
I have been dating Tyler for 8 months now. He is an amazing human being, and I am so very much in love with him. He is the light of my life and keeps me sane like nobody else can. I have never been so consistently happy in a relationship before. Eight months and we have never fought or argued. I think the only tiffs we have ever had is when one of us is trying to out-spoil the other. Disgusting but true.
Part 4 - Michigan. Or Now.
Sometime during the semester, my teacher told me I should apply for an internship he was notified of. The internship was in northern Michigan ... but it was a multimedia internship that provided housing and paid $500 a week. How could I turn that down? I applied for the internship, and it came down to me and another guy who is in most of the same classes as me. I got the internship, and I moved to Traverse City, Michigan, shortly after the end of the semester. I thought it would be cold and miserable here, but it has been an amazing experience. I am working for the Michigan Land Use Institute, www.mlui.org, and the people are all grown-up hippies with journalism backgrounds. Some of them are very well established journalists and want so badly to teach me everything they know. I am currently working on four different videos that must be finished before I leave July 27th. The next few weeks are going to be rough. My computer is currently locked up rendering, so I thought I would find my way back into the LJ world thanks to Daniel's recomendation.
Part 5 - China. Or the Future.
I leave Michigan on July 28th to return to Chapel Hill for a few days. I will be working my ass off to finish the S.O. site, so that is going to suck, but I will get to see Tyler for a few days. I am then spending a week at the beach with the family, two weeks of class, and then I leave for Shanghai, China. Having been so deeply involved with the project, it seemed necessary I finish it out in Shanghai. I will be part of a team of 200 individuals covering the summer games. Every heat of every event at the games will be uploaded daily to the site, and they can be searched and viewed on the site. It's kind of a big deal. I will be there until late October, then will spend 3 weeks touring China and 2 to 3 weeks hopping around Southeast Asia going wherever the fuck I decide I need to go.
Of course, plenty of things have happened in 25 weeks, but there is the Readers' Digest version. I am sure there will be plenty of rendering in the future, so I will try to update with slightly more frequency from now on.