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Sunday, April 2nd, 2006
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6:51 pm - Bye Bye Blurty...
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My personal blog has moved to http://michaelsterling.blogspot.com/. I invite you to follow my random thoughts over to there.
In addition, I have added a new blog called The Media Situation Report 360, which is where I'll post all my thoughts, views, and opinions on today's media and entertainment. I've got a lot to say and now have a place to say it!
To keep up with posts at both of those blogs, be sure to subscribe to their respective RSS feeds.
I have also redesigned and moved my old Web site. You can now find it at http://web.mac.com/michaelsterling. I hope to keep adding and updating content more often than the last site.
Thanks for reading here, and be sure to visit all the new locations in the "Michael Sterling Network."
Smiles.
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| Friday, March 31st, 2006
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4:10 pm - Thinking Different After 30 Years...
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| Thursday, March 30th, 2006
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8:51 am - Shameless Promotion
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| Monday, March 27th, 2006
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11:15 am - Brothers, Power Macs, Friends, and Laundry.
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Since last I updated, a bunch has happened:
Thursday morning my brother Chris flew out and went back to Massachusetts. He never did get his animation project done while here, but got all of his clips rendered and foley work done so that he can put it all together there. As a result of him moving out, I was able to move into my bedroom. He'd been living in the room that was set to be mine, so between moving in and him leaving, I'd been sleeping in an area in the front of the house that was set up as a makeshift bedroom. He left just in time, because I was about to go crazy in such a small space. I spent a good portion of this weekend arranging things in my room and setting up the other space as an office for me. There's still more work to do, but the big stuff is out of the way.
Somewhat related to arranging things in the house, I realized this weekend that I never told you about the computer I bought. Just before I moved I bought a Power Mac G5 from CompUSA. It had been the demo model in the store, and they were trying to get rid of it. I had been looking at buying a separate machine to be my dedicated editing system, and the timing worked out well to get this. Elsewhere, I bought two CRT monitors to run dual displays, extra RAM, and some nice little speakers. The system ends up being a little more than twice as fast as my 1.25Ghz G4 Powerbook. All in all, the setup is really nice. The specs are:
Dual processor 2Ghz G5 PowerMac with PCI (<--oh well)
1.5 GB RAM, 160GB HD, Radeon 9600 graphics with 128MB RAM
Dual Samsung 19" CRT displays at 1280x1024 resolution each
M-Audio StudioPro 4 multimedia speakers
LaCie d2 200GB external Firewire 800 drive
Avid XPress Pro 4.8.2
But enough with the geek stuff...
I also got to see a few old friends again after being sick so much. I had lunch with Cara at Panera on Friday -- Chipotle was closed that day for some reason, WTF? -- and then got together with Seth and Melanie at Smokehouse BBQ and Central Perk on Saturday evening. All very good times. I think I'll have Chipotle for lunch today...if they're open...
Finally, I began to overcome the mountain of laundry that had piled up in the last, oh, month! I had dirty laundry from BEFORE THE MOVE waiting for me, and since then had only done a load here or there for stuff I absolutely needed for work. This weekend I managed to get a lot done, which is good. You see, I have way too many clothes for a guy. I don't know how this happened, because I don't feel like I vary my outfits very much. I guess I do. Hmm. There's still more laundry to be done, but the core stuff is complete. Now I just have to take care of the warmer stuff (like sweaters) that are still dirty -- I know, I know -- but need to be washed and stored for next fall.
I really need to do my taxes...
current mood:  content
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| Wednesday, March 22nd, 2006
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7:47 am - The Upswing.
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Tuesday was one interesting day...in a good way. I got to work at about 9 a.m. and hit the ground running. At the first, we had a birthday celebration for my boss and another guy in our office. The apple pie was so good! After that I was going non-stop all day until I left at 4:45 p.m. No lunch break, no other breaks. Fortunately the pie held me over. What was so weird was that the day went so fast! It seemed like, when I left shortly before 5, I'd only been there a few hours. Staying busy will do that for you.
But the real story is that everything went well yesterday. Part of the reason I was so busy was because we held a pre-bid meeting with vendors for our new routing switcher. I had to finish pulling together the equipment list, make copies for everybody, and hold the meeting. That all went well. After that I had a good meeting with a vendor and our Web guy about streaming media -- costs are going to be a lot less than we thought. Always a good thing! Then, I got good news after I got home. Turns out the deputy city manager has found a way to get us more space in City Hall for our equipment (including the new router). Much needed indeed. Finally, when I went to get some cash from the ATM last night, I found that my card was gone from my wallet. I just found out about it since I hadn't used it since Monday night when I bought Taco Bell after the Council meeting. So I went to Taco Bell, walked up to the guy at the counter, and told him of my plight. He asked, "What's your name?" I told him and he quickly replied, "I have your card." So I got that back and got my money. No harm done. Finally, I was able to play a bunch on XBox Live with the regulars -- all the while using my new wireless controller and wireless headset. Underscoring the whole day was the fact that I'm getting back to normal healthwise.
Now it's time to get ready for work. :-)
current mood:  good
current music: Good Morning America on ABC
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| Thursday, March 16th, 2006
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4:48 pm - For those of you keeping score at home...
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I'm feeling better today...again...finally. The fever seems to have gone away, the antibiotic the doctor gave me has kicked in, and I finally figured out how much DayQuil/NyQuil I'm ACTUALLY supposed to take. See, the instructions say 2TBSP every 6 hours, no more than 4 doses a day. I was wondering why, then, it wasn't seeming to work for me. I was filling it up to the 2, sometimes even 3. Yet I was seeing no change. As you've probably already guessed, I was filling it up to 2 TSP instead of 2 TBSP. Big difference, yeah. So now I'm on the right dosage and things seem to be firing on all cylindars.
NyQuil, NyQuil, NyQuil, we love you, you giant f*cking Q!
That was for you, Seth and Adam.
So I think I'll drag myself into work tomorrow. There's stuff I HAVE to get done before the weekend that I haven't been able to do the last three days I've been gone from work. So, if we look back at the Michael sickness calendar....
Tuesday, Feb. 28 through Saturday, March 4: Allergies, head cold, sinusy stuff.
Sunday, March 5: Reprieve, Moving Day.
Monday, March 6 and Tuesday, March 7: Stomach Flu, including fever.
Wednesday, March 8 through Sunday, March 12: Reprieve.
Monday, March 13: Sinus drainage returns.
Tuesday, March 14 to Present: The flu, with all typical symptoms.
Let's see what Friday, March 17th brings. Happy St. Patty's Day!
current mood:  drained
current music: Tenacious D: Wonderboy
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| Tuesday, March 14th, 2006
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7:17 pm - And the Hits Just Keep on Coming.
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I'm sick again. Shit. This time it's your typical flu-like symptoms: sinus drainage, achy feeling, fever, and general crappy feeling. It started yesterday and I developed a fever today at work. So now, in the course of the last three weeks, I've had sinus issues (sans fever), the stomach flu (with fever) and now the regular flu (with fever). Remind me this fall to get my flu shot.
*cough*
current mood:  sick
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| Wednesday, March 8th, 2006
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11:41 am - Back again.
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So I'm not sick anymore...just really hungry. I'm back at work today and STARVING! Apparently recovery from the stomach flu goes nearly as fast as getting it in the first place. Except on this end of the illness, your stomach realizes that you've eaten very little in the last 48 hours and it wants to make up for that. Chill out there, little buddy. We've got to bring you back slowly.
Here at work, there's a lot to do and not enough time or people to do it. I was behind when I left Friday, and being sick for two days obviously didn't help with that. Now it's just an exercise in trying to keep our heads above water for the next week or two until things level out a bit. It will still always be busy, but at least we won't be ridiculously behind on almost everything.
So living in my parents house...again...has been interesting. Little reminders pop up here and there of why I'd much rather NOT live with them, but for now -- for a number of very good reasons -- it's the best thing for me and them. I think I've said that before. Current occupants of the house are now my mom, dad, brother, and me. Chris will be leaving in the next couple of weeks, and then it will just be three of us. The dynamics will change then, though I can't predict yet whether that will be for the good or bad.
Enh, more work to do. Later.
current mood: hungry
current music: The white noise of our vent.
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| Tuesday, March 7th, 2006
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10:17 am - Sick of This.
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I finally got moved this last weekend. After struggling with a head cold for a week my sinuses cooperated enough to allow me to get everything packed and relocated to my parents' house. Then, the unexpected happened...
Early Monday morning, just a few hours after finishing moving, I woke up in the middle of the night with an upset stomach and diarrhea. I threw up once, too. So I called in to work and have been home sick since. At first, I thought I just had food poisoning from a "bad" burger from Wendy's, but since this has been going for two days now, it's most certainly the stomach flu. I even had a fever of 101 yesterday evening, though my temperature seems to be normal today. I still have some diarrhea and a slightly upset stomach, but mostly I'm just worn out and weak. So I'm just relaxing today, laying around the house and taking it easy.
This is the first time in a LONG time that I've had a fever and been sick like this. I've had lots of head colds, like the one I dealt with last week, but as far as being all-out sick with a fever, this the first time in years. It sucks, and I'm reminded of why it's good to stay healthy and why I won't miss being sick once I'm back to normal.
I might go back to work tomorrow. We'll see how I'm doing tonight and in the morning.
current mood: sick
current music: Barney and Friends on PBS (my nephew Joshua is over here today)
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| Saturday, March 4th, 2006
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1:44 pm - How's YOUR New Scoring System?
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I saw this at the Olympics, and now the American Cup for gymnastics is on TV: The "new scoring system." Apparently EVERY competitive sport no longer judges people the same way as before. So now, under the new scoring system, this is harder, that is easier, and blah blah blah.
So let's see how we can apply a new scoring system to other things:
- McDonald's has a new scoring system, so a quarter pounder costs more than it used to.
- Apple has a new scoring system in their machines, giving up PowerPC chips for Intel.
- This weekend I'm implementing a new scoring system for my living quarters, moving back in with my parents.
- After developing a new scoring system for their relationship, Dick and Jane decided they should break up.
- Under Iraq's new scoring system, troops may be able to begin pulling out by this summer.
- While driving through the new scoring system of the construction zone, Allen forgot to slow down and got a speeding ticket.
- Due to this blog's new scoring system, this entry is no longer funny enough to win.
current mood:  annoyed
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| Friday, March 3rd, 2006
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12:04 pm - In a Suda-Fog
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What a week. Not only have I had all the busyness of work -- which I'll never mention again because it's never going to end again -- but this week I've had another run of my sinuses playing games with me.
It happens twice a year at the crossover from humid to dry and vice versa. This is the spring 2006 version. I attacked it early with my oh-so-favorite medication: Sudafed Non-Drying Sinus. That seemed to work well, but left me in a bit of a "fog," to quote a co-worker. Then I remembered I have prescription stuff left over from the fall 2005 event and started taking that instead. It doesn't work so well. So now I've switched back to the Sudafed. Once again, my sinuses are behaving themselves, but I find myself in a state of...fog. My energy is down, I'm not as clear-headed, but I don't have to blow my nose every 5 minutes, damnit!
But here's the fun part: I move this weekend. So not only am I dealing with sinus stuff -- which I forgot to mention included a nosebleed yesterday -- but I have to exert a lot of physical energy in the process. Ugh.
current mood:  exanimate
current music: Everything and nothing at the same time.
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| Sunday, February 26th, 2006
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10:16 pm - And now we return to regular programming...
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The Olympics are over! No more need to find something else to watch because all of my favorite NBC shows are pre-empted. The West Wing. Scrubs. The Office. Will and Grace. All pre-empted. And now they'll be back! Even the non-NBC shows will be back on new this week. How I Met Your Mother will finally be new again Monday.
Don't get me wrong. I'm cool with the Olympics. They're a shining example of athleticism, international unity, blah blah blah. It's all good, I'd just rather see MY shows instead of the Olympics. I can only take so much of Bob Costas and all the other commentators talking about stories of perseverance, underdoggedness, dreams coming true, blah blah blah. I guess I'm a fan of the summer Olympics more than the winter games. It just seems to be that it's more valid to compete at running, weightlifting, and so on than stuff where you have to go out in the cold, strap on some sort of device(s) to your feet, and then go head to head with someone else. But anyway, enough of that.
Things are cooling down -- just a little bit -- at work. Our big projects are mainly behind us and we're going to be moving into a more...regular...busyness. Not a peak amount of busyness, not a huge amount of boredom, but somewhere in the middle.
Personally, however, I'm going to be staying busy for a while. This weekend I'll be moving back into my parents' house.....yeah. My brother and his wife are kicking me out 'cause their having a baby or something. Whatever. :-) Could I get an apartment of my own, probably. But for a number of reasons I think it's best to move back in with them for now. I'm also going to be helping Chris finish up his project. The only problem with that is that we're not going to make deadline to submit it to Siggraph. He just ran out of time. He says the number one thing that messed the whole process up was him going to California. I guess you live and you learn.
I do need a vacation, though. Hopefully within the next couple months I'll be able to take a few days off and take a couple of long weekend trips to visit Noelle and Daniel in Springfield and Erica in Michigan. I need to get away for a while. I haven't been able to do that since I visited Noelle and Daniel last fall. It's about time to do it again. Leave the KC area and just chill for a while. It can't come too soon.
current music: Dave Chappelle
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| Monday, February 20th, 2006
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10:04 pm - What is it about the Russians?
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I'm watching the ice dancing competition from the Olympics, and the Russian couple -- couldn't tell you their names -- are kicking ass on the ice. But they're always expected to because they always do. What gets me is that they train in New Jersey! So how is it that American skaters, who ALSO train in the U.S. never excel like the Russians?
Eh, we could still nuke them off the planet. :-)
current mood:  curious
current music: Commentators commentating.
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| Thursday, February 16th, 2006
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10:55 pm - Crosspoints, 144x144, SDI, 12 RU....
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I was at work until 9:30 this evening working on stuff for us to get a routing switcher at work. I don't recall if I've ever explained what one does, but I may have mentioned back in June or so that we were supposed to get one.
Well, put it simply, a routing switcher is the nervous system of a video production and/or broadcasting facility. It is what all the equipment sends their signals to, and then the router sends those signals wherever else you want. We've never had one and it's made many things difficult, if not impossible to accomplish.
Long story short: After the router being put on hold for a while, it's back on the table. We have a fairly limited amount of time to get it implemented, so I've been putting in extra hours to get it done. When all is said and done, it will allow us to work much more efficiently and provide a lot of expandability to our operations. Essentially, it helps us act more like a full-blown typical TV station.
The subject line? That's just a sampling of router lingo. By the time I'm done with this I'll know more about routers than I ever wanted to.
Smiles,
current mood: tired
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| Monday, February 13th, 2006
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11:02 pm - My Thoughts on "Singles Awareness Day"
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I've got nothing against Valentine's Day. I know there's a lot of people out there that think Valentine's Day is just an overly commercialized holiday with the sole intent to make money. Like Christmas, Easter, and other holidays, V Day was started with the best of intentions. It just BECAME an overly commercialized holiday. Everything special eventually becomes a money maker, but it's still possible to celebrate the true holiday.
But there are those who also think that Valentine's Day is pointless: "You should show affection to your mate every day of the year. If you do that, there should be no need for Valentine's Day!" Yeah, okay. Go back to Bittersville, U.S.A. If that argument was extended to every other holiday, then we shouldn't take special time to celebrate our freedom, be thankful for everything we have, celebrate the birth or resurrection of Christ, or even acknowledge our mothers or fathers.
So to those with significant others, celebrate them. Kiss them. Romance them. Enjoy that which many others -- including myself -- don't have. I'll admit that I'm a little disappointed I don't have anyone with which to celebrate the day. Am I bitter? Naw. I know my time will come. But for those of you whose time is here, enjoy it. Make it a truly special holiday.
current mood:  indescribable
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8:10 am - I need to brush up on my tea party etiquette.
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It's a girl! I forgot to tell you that my brother and his wife finally found out last week what their baby's sex is. We're all excited. The boy trend is broken. After four nephews straight I'm finally getting a niece! Sadie Rose is on the way and we're all looking forward to her arrival in May. Ooh, that rhymed!
Smiles.
current mood: excited
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| Thursday, February 9th, 2006
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7:53 am - Much ado about something.
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Wednesday was quite a day. It was one of those that you think to yourself, "THIS day will go down in my memories as a significant day," for any number of reasons.
We finally had the mayor's State of the City Speech. Along with what he said, we showed a video that we produced on his behalf. We've been working on this for a year, and started shooting footage for it in October. In the video, the mayor takes the viewer on a little road trip/tour of Independence...on his Harley. We look at all the progress that's happened around the city during his tenure as mayor. It's a pretty good video, and everyone that's seen it has really liked it.
The city manager said to me yesterday that he loves the creative stuff like that and that he wants to make sure that I stay with the city because I'm such a valuable asset to them. I don't think he actually said the word "asset," but that's the jist. Here's the interesting part: he told me that if I ever feel the inclination to cut out and find another job to talk with them first. I'm important enough to them that they want to do what they can to keep me there. Hmm...
Erica's been in town for a church training session, and she called yesterday to see if I was available for dinner. I MADE myself available and she and I went out for chinese food. We had a wonderful time together. I think it's neat that our friendship is taking a bit of a turn. It seems that, as time goes on, we have been talking about more and more serious stuff. We've really been getting into the deeper issues, finding out what each of our opinions, thoughts, and beliefs are. I think that's a good thing. It's a symbol that we've grown up. Looking back, much about our friendship before now has been quite superficial because we haven't known those deeper things about each other. There's a new honesty of sorts, and it's refreshing.
After my time with Erica, I went straight over to my parents' house to help Chris with his animation stuff. He's feeling the stress of a looming deadline. Tonight, I'm going to continue helping him with setting up camera angles for the project. I was set to attend my first session with Seth's choir, Jacomo Chorale, but I just can't yet. This project with Chris is too busy and too important to break away from it, so I'm going to see this through to completion before I start any more projects. Chris has been very gracious about all this and has said numerous times how much he admires my work and how he wouldn't be able to do all this without Mark's and my help.
So my self esteem is pretty good lately. I think God is getting me ready for some new doors to open, whatever they may be. Indimidating but exciting this is, yeeessss.....
current mood: loved
current music: A Ford ad on TV.
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| Monday, February 6th, 2006
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7:41 am - Wow, it's been a week!
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I haven't written much here because I haven't had much to say. Last week, I worked on reinstalling all kinds of stuff on my Powerbook. Most of that is done, but I have a few things left to install. I'll tell you one thing, though: Doing a fresh install -- where you backup everything, wipe your computer, and put everything back -- is a lot more involved than just an across the board upgrade of your existing software. It's not for the faint of computing, that's for sure.
I've been using my new iLife '06 software to create a new personal Web site. This one will look better, be more informative, and just be fresh and new. I'm working on something else, too, but I'll tell you more about that later...
Yesterday was the help-out-my-siblings day. In the morning I went to my sister's church to do sound for their contemporary service. Their regular guy was gone and they didn't have anybody else that was available to do it. My brother-in-law remarked that yesterday's sound was the best he'd ever heard there. What can I say?
I also gave a lot of help to my brother Chris. He's the one that's in town to work on this animation that he'll be submitting to the Siggraph show. Not only does he need help with editing the final shots together to make the final product, but he was struggling with camera angles. "Camera angles in an animation?" you ask? Yeah. In the 3-D world of animation, camera angles are just as prevalent as they are in the real world. The story can be made or broken with good or bad camera angles, and he wanted my advice on a bunch of that stuff.
So that's the update! This week we'll be presenting the Mayor's State of the City video -- the one we've been working on since about October. After that it's on to one of the many other projects we have on our plate. Oh, speaking of jobs, I found a few listings on CareerBuilder that I'm interested in. We'll see what happens.
Smiles!
current mood:  working
current music: Nick Vasos, Fox 4 Traffic
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| Monday, January 30th, 2006
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7:50 am - Goings On.
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Rally went very well. After all the busyness and hard work on everyone's part, we were able to put on a great event. A lot of the kids seemed to appreciate it. Hopefully it will help them along their spiritual walk.
Sunday was a day of relaxation. I slept in, hung out around the house for a while, and then travelled down to the Plaza to buy some new software for my Mac. More on that in a bit. I also got to talk to Melanie again, so that was nice.
So anyway, the software: After my computer doing all kinds of quirky things during the last few weeks, I've decided to simultaneously do a complete clean install of my system AND upgrade my OS, iLife software, and install Quicken 2006. It's a daunting task, even for a Mac user. There's a lot of stuff to make sure is backed up, including preferences, passwords, music, photos, e-mail, etc. In the end, it should all be worth it. It'll be like using a brand new machine, all fresh and clean. I'm a poet, don't ya know it? ;-) So, the backups were done last night and tonight the rebirth begins.
Today at work, we'll be patting ourselves on the backs for all of our award nominations and wins. See previous entry. We'll send out a press release, post the news to the City 7 Web site, and plaster the news all over our award-winning bulletin board. Should be fun, though I can't help but feeling like the chicken hawk in the old Looney Tunes cartoons. Small, talks a big talk, but is still scrawny in the whole scheme of things.
I guess I should get ready for work. At least there's no Council meeting tonight, fifth Monday and all.
Smiles.
current mood: accomplished
current music: Some overly dramatic '24' promo on TV.
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| Saturday, January 28th, 2006
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12:54 pm - Award Winner!
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We found out Friday at work that City 7 TV was a finalist in all five categories in which we entered for the Cable Access Beacon Award and won two of those categories!
We took home the trophy for Best Bulletin Board, the only category in which we were finalists two years ago, and also won Best Meeting Coverage for our City Council Meetings. We were finalists in Best PSA (public service announcement), Best Videography, and Best Editing.
The Cable Access Beacon Award is a national award presented by the Cable Access Guild, recognizing outstanding work in government, educational, and public access cable television. This is really a BIG deal for City 7 and the City of Independence, distinguishing us as one of the best government access TV operations in the United States.
How cool is that?!
current mood: ecstatic
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