Guess what....

We won! 

Do you remember that competition I was telling you about?  The Radio/Audio Production competition!?  Well, Shae and I are now State Champs!!  AND we get to travel to the National Competition in June!!!  I AM SO EXCITED!!!! 

We'd been practicing almost non-stop for the competition for about a week, staying up really late to finish our projects, and I was getting basically no sleep by the time I compounded practicing with attempting to study and stay on top of things for all of my other classes.  To be honest, I was so happy to just have the whole thing over so that I could remove a level of stress from my life.

Our Professor (who has totally gone out of his way to help and to be there for us, and is truly an awesome guy) had been told by the Director of the State Competition that the competition would consist of a written test taken entirely from The Sound Effects Bible by Ric Viers (the apparent pioneer of Digital Sound Effects in Hollywood), and then the production of a 5 to 10 minute mini-documentary on a subject matter that we would find out at the competition. 

In an effort to be well prepared (which any idiot would do I think) we began the process of reading this book cover to cover as well as continually practicing the production of mini-docs (which was no small feat by the way).  All would have been fine except that THE DAY BEFORE the competition the State Director contacts our Professor and informs him that the format of the competition has changed a little and that we will now be producing a 60 second PSA (public service announcement) about the Skills USA organization itself..  That is a significant change of gears!  My initial reaction?  Ugh.  What a waste of time.  (I'm slowly admitting to myself that I'm somewhat of a pessimist.)

Anyway, in order to be in Salt Lake in time for the competition, we had to leave home/collegetown by 7 am.  (By the way, have I mentioned that I am so totally NOT a morning person?  At all?)  Ugh again.  The competition started almost as soon as we arrived, and started out fairly well.  I pretty much sped through the exam portion which was a relief, and then wasted no time developing an outline that I wanted our production to follow.  We were the first team to finish the test, and the first team to go out to other competition areas to begin gathering audio.  That also put me in better spirits.  :)  The theme that I wanted our PSA to portray was one in which there would be a general statement like "Skills USA is"... and then a whole bunch of different people giving one to two word "clips".  (I had an even better idea in the middle of editing in which we would get many people saying "My name is (insert name here) and I am Skills USA", but by that point it was way too late to go out and gather new audio.)  We were running out of time, and I absolutely refused to turn it in late and receive a penalty, so I was starting to get a little irritated, but I got it all edited and compiled and we were like 10 seconds over, which would have been a 10 point penalty, and I just don't do penalties.  So, in the midst of frantically trying to cut 10 seconds and re-transition everything so that it would be smooth flowing, and then mix-down the project, and then burn it to CD all in about 2 minutes by the time we turned the disk in I wasn't entirely sure what the final project sounded like.  And that my friends was SCARY. 

Luckily we were the only collegiate team to turn our project in on time which would mean that we were already 20 points ahead of them.  The worst part of the competition was that we all got to sit and listen to everyones projects while the judges did their critique.  When they played ours, I was a little horrified to note that some of our transitions had been muffled and weren't as great as I knew we could produce, but overall our audio quality and levels were better than the other teams, but it was largely up in the air.

Then came the wait.  The competition finished up at about 3 p.m. and we had to wait until 6 for the awards ceremony to start up.  I was starving by this point because I hadn't eaten anything all day (I can't eat when I'm nervous...) so our Professor treated us to lunch.  :)  He asked us if we liked greek food and I had  a minor freak out because I don't like it,  I LOVE the stuff.  So he took us to this awesome place called the Greek Souvlaki that was truly divine.  If you remotely like greek food, I would definitely reccomend it!  I had the Gyro Plate, and was completely stuffed! 

To be completely honest, no matter how many times our professor told us that he thought we had done really well and had probably taken gold, I just knew in my mind that we had lost.  Epic.  Fail.  (Another evidence of my pessimism...yikes!)  We arrived in plenty of time for the awards ceremony, were in our seats by 5:45 and then waited.  And waited.  And waited.  AND WAITED!  The stupid thing didn't even get going until after 6:30.  Ugh, yet again.  Then we looked at the program, and Audio Production didn't even get announced until the very end out of almost 70 competitions!  Ugh, again again.  For me, the longer I had to wait the more my nerves got completely out of control, to the point that I really had to focus on breathing by the time they announced our competition.  When they said "Team 502, [Junior College]" I was soooooo dumbfounded, but SOOOOOOO excited!!!!  All our hard work had TOTALLY paid off!!!!  It was one of those euphoric feelings comprised of relief, gratitude, and so much more.  Definite happiness.  :)

(Oh yeah, and btw, the written exam didn't have anything from The Sound Effects Bible on it.  WTF!? Oh well.)

 

Behind on Life, Will catch up shortly.

I haven't posted since I got home from Cali yet because I keep waiting until I think I will have time to regurgitate the whole trip in one massive blog, but I have been so busy with life that I haven't had a chance.  SO, I promise I will get them posted...soon... My plan is to post them in a retrograde fashion starting on the first day of our trip...sometime.  Lol.  Anyway, just wanted to let everyone know, keep checking back...

Just as soon as Measure for Measure was cancelled--just like I often do--I found another project to keep me busy.  My Audio Production (Radio) Professor talked my co-host of the Midweek Musical Madness and I to participate in the State Skills USA Competition in the Audio Production category...for the life of me I don't know why I keep piling more and more to do on myself, but I do...oh well.  Anyway, the competition is tomorrow, and other than Spring Break (because I was not about to skip Disneyland for anything) we have been practicing almost nonstop!  It has definitely been a little crazy...  It will be a fun experience though, and hopefully we win!  :)






Oh, and btw, I hesitate to mention this in blog form, but I will anyway...I'm single again.

The New Love of My Life

So I have found a new pass-time that I'm afraid is not going to be beneficial to my studying and getting other things done (although I have found all kinds of extra time lately, because the play I was in, Measure for Measure, with the junior college theatre department has been cancelled... Okay, I feel the need to explain just a little, but only a little because I'm honestly not at liberty to share any more details than that.  Because of some problems within the department [mostly inter-personal issues] the show has been canceled, and the 2009-2010 season is over.  Sad day for me since I wasn't involved in any of the problems.  :(  ).  Anyway, the new love of my life has been editing my photos on PicNik.  I've always been really in to photo editing, but I've always had to use the Photoshop installed on the computers in the lab at the junior college, and being a poor college student I've never actually purchased by own copy of Photoshop, but then a friend suggested this amazing website and in short, I am hooked.

It doesn't have all of the functionality of photoshop, but I must say that for a free service (although I will admit, I purchased the rights to use the Premium Version, but even that equates to only be like $2.08 a month, an awesome bargain if you ask me) it has some AMAZING functionality.  

So, here's the latest thing I've edited, but definitely plan on seeing much more in days to come (particularly Disneyland stuff!)  Enjoy!  

P.S. I am seriously so excited about leaving for Cali on Monday that I can hardly contain myself!!!  :D

One Week...7 Days...168 Hours

So, we have been keeping this pretty underwraps for approximately two months now (meaning that it has not been mentioned through blog or facebook except for one post made by myself that mentioned a possible trip to Vermont) simply because there is a certain mutual friend amongst the group that I am going with that had they known we were going would have most likely either A) invited themselves along, or B) made arrangements to go on their own at the precise time we would be there and insist on doing everything with us ( I am 99% sure this person doesn't read my blog, so I think I'm fairly safe I won't offend anyone, even though they probably wouldn't know that I'm talking about them...) Honestly, both of those scenarios sometimes put me into spasms of some sort as this person almost constantly invokes the "retard tingles" in everyone associated with them, and I might have been forced commited some heinous crime against the person which may or may not have resulted in death.  In short, for the betterment of everyone (and in particular to keep me from being locked away) the trip was kept in pseudo-secret status.

Until Now!  

Anyway, along with my good friends Fa'ah and V2, I will emigrate from the confines of collegetown in exactly one week to begin the wonderous journey across the Western United States to blissful Anaheim, CA.  Among other things I am greatly looking forward to:

Disneyland in general.

The Beach.

Temperatures ABOVE 40 degrees.

Putting the worries of school behind me momentarily.

Wearing shorts

Wearing flip-flops.
The possibility of eating at Panda Express.
Green landscape!

(The list was originally MUCH longer, but I opted to provide you the condensed version since most of the entries dealt with specifics of Disneyland.)  ;) 

Needless to say, I am something of a D-Land fanatic and get EXTREMELY excited whenever I think about this trip!  It is going to be such a blast!!!!!

The Beginning of the 20th Year

Well, no matter how much I hoped it wouldn't come (why would I waste energy on something as futile as that anyway?) it came...I am now officially 20 years old.

My day started out wonderfully with my good friend Meg (as stated in my previous post), and we watched re-watched (again) the season finale of gLee for the actual "ringing in" of my birthday, and it was truly amazing (including this drink that Meg made up that had Sprite, Mango Nectar, and Orange/Pineapple juice which was truly delicious!)  I went home shortly thereafter, but had to be up and to class by 8 this morning.

Now, going in to the birthday, I had known it was going to be a rough day, but I should not have set myself up for failure like I did by staying up until almost 1...snap!  Needless to say I did not get up to be ready for Anatomy by 8, but I did get to school by 9 for a booth hour (one of my Ambassador responsibilities).  I had a break at ten which I spent on the computer, until my wonderful girlfriend came to find me and presented me with a wonderful coupon for "One Birthday Lunch", and I was very happy.  I then had Ambassador Auditions (the process of selecting the Ambassadors for the following school year, of which I have to attend every day... :/ ) starting at noon, and they did not finish until after 6, at which point I busted butt home to change my clothes for play rehearsal at 7.  Luckily my director let me leave after running the first scene, so I was able to go with my family to the traditional birthday dinner at 8.  We ate at the Cowboy Club (one of my favorite restaurants ever!) and luckily alot of my family was able to be there (all of my moms siblings and their families, and both sets of grandparents), and can I tell you, I LOVE FAMILY!  I had a realization during dinner that if the world were to end right at that instant at least  I was there with the people that truly matter the most.  I seriously love my fam so much, and can't imagine life without any one of them; they are always there for me, and are just so totally amazing.  All in all, my birthday was a fabulous day, and although I didn't get to spend too much of it with family and friends, they were all great to get me through the day.

Now, in spirit of beginning a new decade of my life, and in somewhat response to a previous post about trying to be a better person, I have made a few goals for my twentieth year.  Some are indeed very cliche, but please don't mock and laugh, because I am sincere in every one of them and have given each one a great deal of thought.

1) One year from today, I will be 100 pounds lighter.  I am truly done with living with myself the way I am.  I want to finally be able to do what I want to do with no reservations.  I will be free!

2) I will be in the mission field by the end of summer 2010.  I've spent plenty of time feeling sorry for myself and trying to blame God for my misfortunes.  I need to realize that the Lord in all of His infinite wisdom is just trying to prepare me to be the best missionary possible, and humility through trial will be the best thing to ever happen to me.

3) I will not take my family for granted.  They mean the world to me, and I intend to let them know that every single day.  Nothing is worth alienating those you love.

4) I will read at least a portion of the Book of Mormon every single day.

5) I will strive to become a more spiritual person through fasting and prayer. I will strengthen my relationship with my Heavenly Father because I love him and do what he has asked me to do because I WANT to in reverence of the countless blessings which he affords me every day.

6) I will be a 100% Home Teacher.

7) I will strive to be happy.

8) I will love others unconditionally like Christ loves me.

9) I will not gossip for the sake of backbiting.

10) I will be a fiercely loyal friend.

Well, that's the list in short...pretty lame yes, but nonetheless there it is.  I truly want to do everything on the list.  It won't be easy, but oh so worth it.  :)

T-Minus 55 Minutes

In exactly 55 minutes from when I began writing this post my birthday will be here and I will no longer be a teenager.  Am I still kind of freaked out by it and actually having major issues with it?  Yes I am.  That is why I just indulged myself in the deep-fried goodness that is Apple Fritters which Meg and I randomly decided to practically invent and then make...yes they were delicious, yes I now feel like I could puke, and no I kind of have no regrets about the fresh whipped cream either...

Oh well...here goes nothin 20's!

FYI

So, not that you are wondering or care in any manner, but my DSL connection is out AGAIN (it has seriously gone out at least 5 times in the past month, and my internet provider doesn't seem to care.  Needless to say, they are VERY close to losing a client...) and in my stupidity I decided to try and check out everyone's blogs using the old ghetto dial-up connection that for some reason my father still pays the $10 a month for...(go figure that we were some of the last people on the planet to upgrade to DSL because it would be "too expensive" but here we are after the fact STILL paying for the original internet connection...I've never understood him.  Oh well, love him anyway!)  In short, it was truly an awful idea that has been nothing short of completely frustrating.  Something that I anticipated would take me about two seconds has literally occupied almost a half-hour...in one word, RIDICULOUS.

On a happier note, (I really am trying to be more positive!) lunch today with Em was good, even though I didn't need the extra calories or the extra expense.  ;)  I also enjoyed helping Fa'ah jazz up her blog this afternoon, and then getting a MUCH needed haircut.  It has been a pretty good day.  :)