Just a quick update for now...

Hey all! Whoa have I been busy!

I just got done working the Miss Oklahoma pageant. For those of you who didn't know, I technical directed and ran a little camera. Well, not literally a physically little/small camera, but just camera for like one night. I TD'd the rest. It was a lot of fun! I really got into pageants! It's cool to see all the stuff that the contestants have to do backstage. Because in front of the camera, you see just normal stuff, but backstage is way cooler. Everyone running around, getting ready, practicing talents... Interesting stuff. I worked 68 hours that week. Generally, 8am to 10pm, give or take lunch time and stuff. I literally only had time for sleep and work. Nothing else got done! I also met Miss Oklahoma 2005 and the current Miss America. I have pictures with both of them, but I'm at work typing this so I won't be able to put them on here because the pictures are in my room.

This week, I am documenting/running camera for an ORU Summer Camp, the Math & Science Academy. I just follow these middle school kids around and shoot a lot of video, then bring the video back and have the editor edit it. I also have been doing a lot for them. I mean, they are kind of short handed in the way of guy counselors, so I have taken that role. I spent all day yesterday with them on field trips, driving the ORU van and videotaping them. Not at the same time though! There were 5 vans in our little caravan of middle school kids. We went to the Oxely Nature Center, Tulsa Air & Space Museum, the new Planetarium, and an observatory in Mounds, OK to launch some rockets and look at planets. I saw Jupitor, great color bands! I saw Saturn, great rings! And I saw Mercury, looked like a whitish dot. I also saw another galaxy and some globular clusters. It was a really clear night and these were really awesome telescopes. The eyepiece on one cost around $500. There is a group that goes up there and has star parties. Sounds like fun! The Nature Center and Air & Space Museum were really cool! I had a blast! They have also been paying my way for lunch and dinner when I go with them to shoot because I help so much! Yesterday, we had lunch at Casa Viva. It used to be called Casa Bonita, but that shut down due to health codes. So they sold it, fixed it up (looks the same, just better) and renamed it! It's great!

I just found out that I'm working the ICBM conference next week. Luckily its only 3 days, because I need a good break with just regular work. After this week and next, things will slow down completely. I also wanted to take some time off but there are going to be 3 people gone next week.

Oh, I'm working the Freedom Live concert too, camera or TD, I don't know. It will be fun though. http://www.kxoj.com/freedomlive/ Bands like Newsboys, Third Day, Zoegirl, and a bunch of other bands are going to be there. I should try and get my picture with them too! That would be so cool!

Since they can't really pay me overtime (ORU just hates to do that, and my boss gets in trouble if she does that), I get paid time off. Since I worked 68 hours last week and I'm only allowed to work 40, I get those remaining 28 hours for paid time off. I'll have to figure something out!

I've been getting up around 6:30 everday because the day just starts up so fast. Luckily I finished some morning stuff fast today, so I have time to type this letter. I better get some comments for this! I didn't know when I would be able to type! Luckily, my roommate, Josh, has to be at work by 7 so he gets me up anyway.

Since I'm pretty much typing an overview, let me go back and give some more details...

So, I follow these kids around all day. They have classes, like Rocket Science, Chemical Reactions, DNA Fingerprinting, Cryptanalysis, Rocket Engineering, Chromatography... stuff like that. There are two groups, blue and gold. I follow the blue group, the other guy follows the gold. We shoot them all day, then come back around 5ish, and log our tapes. That means, for every shot that we took, we have to write it down. We have to write down the beginning (timecode) of the shot and the end of the shot, a short description and a rating of 1 - 4 with 4 being the best. My 33 minutes of footage yesterday took 2 hours to log, and is 6 pages long. This helps the editor, because he doesn't have time to scan the tapes. Monday, I worked from 8a-8p. Tuesday, I worked from 7a-11p. Today? Well, I'll work from 7a-probably 5ish because I have church at 6:30. I help out with Royal Rangers.

After walking around with a video camera in my hands for a whole day, I really found out that I really, really, really want a camcorder. The one that I really want is a Canon XL2. You can google it for info on it, but it is just the best one for me and what I do.

I also think that I want to do more reality style or documentary shooting and projects. I would love to do some documentaries and stuff. I started thinking that when I got an offer to be a camera guy on a new christian reality tv show. I met this guy at the Miss Oklahoma pageant. His daughter is one of the contestants and he has a production company in Pennsylvania. They are going to circumnavigate South America by his 42 foot sailboat. It is a reality show about their missions teams going into various countries. I'm still getting details, mostly, when. I'll keep you posted. That would be cool though!

This has been a great, but extremely busy two weeks! I hope when it slows down, I can post more regularly. We'll see! See you all later!