Life

It's been several months since I have updated this. I am not someone to blog when there isn't a lot going on in my life. It's been about 9 to 10 months of little to no work going on for me and it's been stressful, but I've still been trying to have some fun.

I turned 24 in April, I don't quite remember what I did? I don't think that it was anything too exciting. May was eventful, which was a good thing because I was really just starting to get bored and maybe a little down, who knows? So, at the beginning of May, I went with the majority of my family to Orlando. I blogged about this trip on my travel blog, so you can read about it there if you'd like. My friend from high school, 'Chris' came out to visit after the excursion to florida. He was suppose to be living for Afghanistan in August, so this was our last hurrah! In the grace of God, my friend ended up dropping his motorcycle on his leg and breaking it, thus saving him from being on security patrol in the mountains of a terrorist stricken country. The remainder of May kind of flew by. The majority of June has been a good month, just not weather wise for Colorful Colorado. It was our second wettest June on record.

At the beginning of June, I was called about potentially becoming a studio technician for the mountain west sports network. I was siked! I have been trying to get in with this company for some time now and they finally had openings!!! I had the interview. I had waiting and finally, I had an offer! I'll just be working some summer, part time hours starting off, but this is just great! There is potential for full-time in the future I am told, which no place has told me that yet. All this freelance work may finally be paying off.

Also in June, we had a nice visit out from my parents and they got to meet my new nephew that was born in the beginning of April. My parents happen to be with me when I got the job offer, so I had someone to hug. I go in tomorrow to this place to start my Orientation/Training with this company and I'm really excited to meet some great people! My boss (though he doesn't like that term) has told me that everyone there is so nice, which is normal for Denver, just not as normal for the denver tv market being as competitive as it is.

I'm really excited about this new opportunity and really do hope that I fit in well and come off as being a new great advantage and perform to my best ability.

In case you're more curious, the network's website can be found here - http://www.themtn.tv/ It is also aired nationally on directv.

Well, I should be heading to bed out of any nights, tonight esepcially....it's daylight savings (spring forward..BLAH!) I think that I can handle running on minimal sleep tomorrow though, because it's not like I have anything to do; then again, currently it's my busiest day out of the week and tomorrow one of my Colorado friends is getting married and I'm hoping to make it to her wedding. I had to take my mac in recently to get some work done and I ended up getting a new case, so my keys are new again on here.

My last post I think was last November. I just haven't made any updates on my life, because nothing overly exciting has happened and so it's just easier to post once every couple of months with the main highlights.

I think that I explained a little bit about work back in November and well it just hasn't gotten any better. I didn't work during November at all and I was kind of OK with that because I was in need of a little break and enjoying the holidays. October I went out of town and did some other things, so it didn't matter then that I wasn't working either. When December rolled around however, I started getting a little worried. Like I said, I've been working in the freelance market, which has been great, but when things just slow down and so many companies make changes the axe falls the hardest on the guy at the bottom - IE: me. December I figured it was time to file for some type of assistance, so I did that for a month, which turned out to be not enough to fully pay the bills, but at least it did help. I was out and about one night when I met this guy from Michigan who we started talking and I told him about my troubles with work and such and so he told me that he just started up this photography gallery and such and that if I wanted I could bring some pictures in to post in there to have for sale. I went in there the next day and he liked my work and then started explaining to me how he was looking for someone to help design a logo and get a website up and running. I went ahead and started helping him out and got some work out of that for about a month and so the money that I made from that was good. I was working over there helping with this stuff when the Winter X Games came up again and I got booked to work them a second year in a row, which now turns out to be my largest event of the year and so far my only event of this year. I went up there and stayed with one of the guys that I worked with, who's actually a really awesome and friendly guy and I'm glad that we got to bond and I got to know a little more about him. It's the quick gigs like that which makes it hard sometimes to know people. Anyways, I was up there for a week again and was able to get on the slopes. After last year's experience with driving up, I decided to take the train and it's really such a beautiful ride up and I got some pictures that I still need to kind of tweak, but I just haven't spent much time playing. That first week back from Winter X was when my new semester of graduate school started up and so I've been staying somewhat busy with that. At the end of this semester I will be half way done. If the school would've accepted more transfer credits from SCAD, then I would've been a lot further and should be almost done, but oh well.

A week after I was back I started getting phone calls. Deja Vu all over again. Last year I got the call and flew out to Bristol to interview with ESPN. Well, while I was doing nothing in November and December, all I was doing was applying for jobs and it's soooooo much work to do so and you can't be lazy with it. So, I got a call from one job that I applied to here in Colorado with the comcast sportsnet equivalent called the mtn. I set up an interview with them. Two hours before I went in for that interview I got a call from Comcast Sports Net: Bay Area and they did a phone interview in relation to a Graphics Operator Position that I applied to. A couple of the people that got the Axe from FSN Rocky Mountain were going out there as well. The phone interview went well and I immediately had to get my head in the game for this next interview that was in person. The face to face interview went amazing. Probably one of the best ones that I have had, however, I still haven't heard anything from them and I guess that I can still hang on to some type of hope until I get the automated e-mail saying that I didn't get the job. I've done follow-ups and been told that no decision has been made, but it's probably been 2 or almost 3 weeks since I have done that even. So Friday of that week, I get a phone call from an 860 area code. Any time that I see that on my phone, I know exactly who's calling and it's not my roommate's parents; it's ESPN. ESPN is opening a facility in LA in April to do the west coast sportscenter and so I applied to a bunch out there. It''s so much more appealing to live there than Bristol, CT. So, it turns out that this girl wants to do a phone interview with me for a stage manager position, which is above entry level, which is good. I'd be the person in the studio standing there when they sometimes go to commercial and do a wide shot. So, the phone interview went well and the girl told me that I sound like a good candidate and that she would forward my information onto her hiring manager. So, my first round of follow-ups I weeded out one job, which was the one in San Francisco. I wasn't too keen on going there, but the pay would've been nice and I would've known a few of the people that I was working with. So, the responses from the other two were that no decision had been made and I haven't heard from the hiring manager yet. Second follow-ups....same answer. A few days after that I get an e-mail from ESPN telling me that the job had been cancelled, so all that I can figure is that they too are probably getting hit by this economy crisis. I know just but the amount of jobs that got deleted from the online system just over night. I'm guessing that there may be some hiring freeze right now, which is what happened to my NBC News job that I interviewed for two years ago, where I was the best candidate, but things went to HD. So, like I said, now I can still just sit back and hold on to hope that I could still get a call with an offer from the 1 remaining job. It really is shitty when you have three job interviews in one week and then you don't get any of them. It's not that you''re not capable or that you're competing against the other people, but right now it comes down to that so many people are out of work that someone with much more experience would probably take a step down to just get into something permanent again. I'd be very curious to actually know what happens and how long many of the people stay and get along with others when employers pass me over. So, February, as my brother puts it whenever things don't pull through with ESPN, I have to go buy something, which I don't think is entirely true. Last year I bought a motorcycle because I knew then that I'd be staying here. This time my reasoning is, if I buy enough stuff that I'm going to be home and enjoy, then murphy will kick in and I'll get a full-time job or work will increase greatly. So, my first thing that I got from my mix of tax refund and winter x check was a Wii and I really love this new gaming system. I quit playing game consoles in college and now I just love this. The second thing that I got about two weeks ago was a puppy. His name is Cam and he's awesome. He's sleeping next to me as I'm laying in my bed typing all of this and here's a picture -
So, I'm at the point now where I really don't know where I am going to be in another 6 months. I paid for a month subscription of TVjobs.com and I decided that I would look in some smaller markets, just so I could take the experience that I have and try and move into what I want to do long term. I want to eventually be a director, which took me a while to figure out, but if I could get a full-time gig somewhere as a technical director and running the board, then that would certainly put me in the right direction and be the next step up the ladder. So, I'm sent my resume to a bunch of places all over the U.S. including a position that was open in Hawaii. I don't know how I would survive there. I know nothing about the place, but know some people there. Anyways, the title of my last post really does sum up what is going on in this country right now. Occasionally I consider trying to get out of TV, but it's really what I do want to do and love; but I try and it's what all my experience is in so that makes it extremely hard for me to get into any other industry. I'm doing this masters in web design, but that doesn't mean that I have experience in it or have an outstanding portfolio from it yet either. I started this program as something to fall back on later or possibly teach, but to try and pursue something in the field when nothing else is working. There are other random jobs that I apply to as well. Sometimes I find a new company that I haven't looked at jobs with before and I go into their "search for jobs" feature and type in the keyword "photoshop" and hope that something comes up and just try and tweak my stuff to fit into whatever other crap is listed in there. Isn't that horrible? I mean that's how bad it is for someone like me who I seriously spend hours some days searching and searching and sending and typing and in the end, wasting my time because the percentage of the ACTUAL people that call or e-mail is like 1, maybe 3 at most. Most e-mails are that they've either received it or that they want you to fill out this EOE file, which I always do because I like to be a good sport for that. I just hope that something can pick up. I already know that I am not going to get any work with baseball in denver this season. I saw on the Rockies website that they aren't even doing interns this season. FSN RM doesn't have a studio anymore and are doing all their pre and post game shows from the stadium, which limits the people, but also makes their productions that much more horrible. So, I've told myself that it's been great, but I need to get out of the market. Too many layoffs in the media market here. The Rocky Mountain News even shut down its print addition a week ago, so there's those journalists competing with me as well and I just can't compete with that. I try my best to keep my head up. It's great that I do have the personality that I do, because some other people would have a lot harder time. I just try and find other stuff to keep my busy, but there are so many times when my brain just isn't getting challenged because I'm not working. I started helping out this couple from my church just this past week at his hands colorado and I hope that I can continue to do so as I sit back and wait and if I do get to stay here, am able to help them around whatever other schedule I have coming up.

It's just so tough out there right now not just for me, but many others. I am fortunate to still be single and besides the puppy, only have to worry about myself and not supporting someone else right now. I just have to continue to sit back and wait for my next adventure in life and my biggest prayer right now is that I can get a job in the place that God needs me most and I am just trying to figure out where that is at this point and surely he will tell me when the time is right. I feel like writing some poem on that note, but I need to go to sleep since I am losing an hour. Til next time. Hopefully the next post will bring positive news and as I said, a new venture.

Long update coming soon....

working winter x games all week

Well, so I haven't really posted any blogs to this since I switched over from my Xanga. I stayed fairly busy working throughout baseball season and I even got approached by the main director at some point and got promoted up to running the graphics system on the weekends. I do feel really fortunate to be blessed to gain all of this production experience so far. Working the DNC and being a part of history was amazing! I did upload a picture during that week to my events blog. It was truly an amazing time and I should really make a post to there and maybe I will.

I continued working with FSN Rocky Mountain until the end of the Rockies season this year. After I worked what I was going to consider my last day, I sent an e-mail to the crewer informing her that since baseball was over, my work was done for this year. Last year, I stayed on longer because I worked High School football and I just didn't care too much to work on those productions this year. So, four days after I told the station that I was done, they went and laid-off a whole bunch of people. The station was recently bought by liberty media and I'm sure that from making visits to the studio before and seeing how people sit around, this was a necessary procedure. So, the last day that I worked with FSN Rocky Mountain was September 24th. I've been doing freelance work since I graduated almost two years ago now and was doing freelance work while I was still in school even. So, I've been able to stay afloat and I thought that I was doing really well and getting enough work to keep me afloat.

There are a total of three sports networks in the Denver area, probably the most out of any city in the US. The other network that I work with is Altitude. Altitude mainly airs Hockey and Basketball, so before these two seasons started up I went to a meeting with all of the "on-call employees" and I was anxious to get booked and started up with these people. My thoughts of getting booked were certainly wrong though. I worked a lot with this station last season and didn't have trouble getting work, but now they have since brought on some less experienced people and I think are refusing to book me? I have kept from contacting them and asking why I am not getting booked for anything because in this industry it's something that you just don't do, but it's been really discouraging. The crewers out there are the ones with all the power and if they don't want to book you, then you're just SOL. With the way that the economy has been unfolding and collapsing, it has had a negative effect on the Denver market; though we are one of the most stable ones to be in. Altitude sent out an excuse a few days ago explaining why there apparently isn't as much work as there has been in the past (I'm assuming other people are voicing their complaints) but the e-mail shouldn't really explain why I am not getting crewed. Anyways, I haven't worked now in two months and the $$$$ is going quickly away. I am now frantically trying to just find any type of work, but out of the 50 billion ads that I may respond to on craigslist or the different places that I walk into in the area, people just won't hire me. My close minded roomie did remind be though that it could be due to the fact that I'm not a Black Jewish Woman...because all online applications have their screening process/EOE Curriculum.

So I have had a lot of time to think. I didn't mind too much the first month having some time off, but now that it has gone into two months, I am starting to worry. I have found some cool opportunities in other locations outside of Denver that I have applied to that could keep me in Production, just not in my beloved state. If I could get something for the moment to hold me over 'til out sucky United States of what used to be America picks up and starts getting people jobs again. Since I've had time off, I've really gotten angry at the high profile people that run this joint. Why were our gas prices so high the whole last year and the second the country starts going to the shitter, the big oil companies then start cutting us a break? What's up with that? The biggest blatantly obvious one of where our money went was giving billions and billions to Iraq and whatever other countries and now if you try and walk into an armed forces recruiting office they won't even sign you up because of cut backs and such, in addition they claim that they don't really have officer programs(the funniest thing I've heard yet); because they only like to promote from within, so now all the kiddies coming out of school within the past year and resorting to a way of staying financially stable isn't even an option? Like I said, the country is just not good anymore. It's time to leave. Seriously though, I've certainly looked for jobs outside of the U.S. I did catch that traveling bug when I studied abroad now FOUR years ago (damn, sometimes I feel I'm growing up too fast). I could always still go and teach english in china I'm sure and then I can fight for them when the war starts in two years.

The reports came out today that we've had the highest unemployment rate now in the past 16 years and yep, I'm right there in that statistic. I had to file for unemployment myself two days ago, which now is nice because I can sit at my computer and do it all online. Hopefully I can get approved and get some type of assistance. I really don't know how it works, like if I haven't had like a REAL full-time job in umm...well? Idk how long? I would Like a full-time job, but I can only work in this field the longest people keep me around. I interviewed for a job with Comcast back in August to do some Master Control with them, which they could easily see from my resume that I have no experience what so ever doing that, but as I'm sitting there with four people across the table interviewing me (which I HATE these interviews and always suck at them) the one guy looks at me and seriously has the nerve to say that "You don't really stay at one job too long" Seriously dude? Are you THAT stupid? Ha! I think what I said is that it's because I've been doing all freelance, but since I didn't get the job anyways, I should've leaped across the table and smacked him. Then say, well, if you high and train me to do this job then I will have stayed somewhere long. Oh well, that's just another interview that I had to go through that I didn't get and just have to continue to keep my head up and persevere through these very, very tough times.

I wish that I had a closer knit group that I regularly hung out with from church, but I don't. The group at the church which I go to has a group which everyone titles "the singles group" but I don't really think that it can be called that when there's a lack of the opposite sex in the group. It should just be called the guys group. Whatever. My church started up this thing on Sunday nights now and it's called, "Journey." I do really enjoy it. It's basically like a service with singing and then someone gets up and gives a testimony of a big time in their life that they've had to overcome some struggle and explain where they are at now in their lives. It's really something and it gives me to learn a little more about the people. Then Mike gets up and does a short devo and then we get to eat, clearly the icing on the cake! I would like to take it upon myself to do more with the group, but I am in the mode that if I got a last minute call for work somewhere, I would have to drop and cancel plans to go work. Money makes the world go round and it sucks. I think that by having my weird schedule, that has made it difficult so far. If I could just get something to where I was steady working and could work around my schedule, then life would be glorious again.

I'm someone who I usually like to stay busy with stuff and I don't always like having too much time to myself. Sometimes I fear that by not doing stuff during the day, my interaction with people slips and I certainly can't say that my interaction with just my roommate makes up for it. Ha. Don't get my wrong, I do like the kid, but if you know him you can relate. With the time off I should be taking it upon myself to study more and learn more things to do, but I don't. Why don't I get the eagerness to quit typing on the computer and pick up my bible or some religious book in my bookshelf and go discover something that I didn't know? Why don't I have that motivation? Have I gotten into a bad habit of not doing that? It's weird, I just don't get it. If I don't do that though when I have this time off, then when my life picks up again am I going to say to the person that asks me a question that I should've been learning about in free time. What am I going to say? I don't know? What if this person is genuinely curious and really wants to know truth? I think that it's something that could come back to bite me. There's one line in a poem I posted because and it says It's the uses time wisely grade that I fear the most. This is true. I think that those could come back at us, but who knows.

I wrote this the other night, but I wrote it on paper and didn't actually get to posting it. If you're curious to reading it, I'm going to post it on my religious views blog.

Starting this past Friday, I went into a two-week stint of working. Friday I worked my first NFL Game, even though it was just preseason. This weekend I've been doing graphics with FSN. The next four days I will be working at Invesco Field for the Democratic National Convention. Friday I'll be working an MLS Rapids game and then Saturday, for the next five days, I'll be at FSN again.

Well, for the past couple of years I have been using Xanga, but I no longer want to pay for my premium feature just to have the same layout as the reset of my blog; which happens to be hosted on blogger. My old posts can be found here - http://www.xanga.com/tdbaws and this blog will not be deleted. If I can find a way to put all those old posts in the life blog, then I will.