Picture-esque Post

Well, I figured out what was wrong with my posting pictures on this site. Apparently, you can only post pictures up to 1 megabyte and all of my pictures were above that limit due to the high resolution setting I put on my camera.

But I figured away around it.

If I took a screenshot on my computer while I had the pictures open and then saved it as a jpeg file, I could upload it because it would be about 900 kilobytes instead of over 1 megabyte. So, that's why you'll see the time in the top left corner of the picture and my Mac dock to the left. Now, you can steal my identity or something. Then I'll get emails from my older readers warning me EXACTLY OF THAT.

I love this. Don't you love it when your middle-aged relatives or friends advise you over a medium they can't figure out? Who is asking whom to program the VCR? Them or us? Who is asking whom to make the Microsoft logo quit bouncing on the screen so they can get back to Freecell? Them or us? Yet you hear who gets onto whom for being irresponsible on the innerwebs.

All right, enough editorials. Let's have some pictures that I've teased you with for two weeks now:

All right, so there you go. I just turned my blog into the cyberspace equivalent of when your Uncle Ralph would show the slides from his trip to Florida that he went on that summer as you, a kid of eight years old, wished to get out of the room and play football on that Christmas Eve night with your cousins, despite the admonition of your mother that you would stain your khaki pants, but you couldn't get out because you were pinned between the table and the wall and your uncle's white sheet and projector were in the only doorway out of the dining room.

Oh, what was I going to say before I got interrupted by my own train of thought? I'm looking at this here from my course syllabus on page 7. I have an assignment that's due Monday entitled "Professional Reflection #2." I'll do it tomorrow. No, listen to the questions they ask you:

"Describe your relationship with your supervisor. Are you comfortable approaching your supervisor with questions? Why or why not?"

Answer: She thinks I work too hard. I'm comfortable approaching anyone because I turn all business-like beforehand. Why? Because I'm the Dez Bryant of Voice of America: I may be a rookie, but I'll still give such awesome output.

Next question:

"Describe your relationship with your coworkers. Are there particular individuals you work well with? Why do you think this is?"

Answer: Everyone likes me. I get along best with the woman in charge of my division and also the Indian video editor because he's all business like me. We both come from the Max Weber school of thought where work is about work. I think we work well for that reason. He's also very high energy and I like to respond to that behavior.

There you go. I have to make 1-2 pages out of this. That's easy to do for me because I'm a verbose fellow, as evidenced by this here blog.

So I'm walking in the door of my apartment the other day and I take a look at a calendar with a list of events put on by The Washington Center. It had a list of events for the rest of the semester; I almost got melancholy. I was thinking, "Oh, my gosh. Pretty soon, it's all going to be over. I worked so hard for this opportunity and now it's going to be in the past. Something that was once in my future and is now my present will soon be my past."

See, that's the thing I don't like about the college experience: everything is only for a semester. Think of all the classes you enjoyed. Do you realize they were only for a semester? Even if you took the "Part Two" to the course, the professor might not have been the same, and certainly there was a change in your fellow pupils. I wish some classes COULD continue to the next semester or beyond. You know, sometimes I wish I could walk back into that dirty classroom in Prep Hall on the first floor, back into News Reporting and hear Mr. Real World give another lecture or watch my fellow classmates give their packages for the week. See, that was fun, and that doesn't last forever, kind of like your patience with this blog so I better throw something flashy at you to keep you on track:

That's what I did on Wednesday last week. I think it's the best one I've done yet, and that CERTAINLY is going into my portfolio.

All right, now, before we close up shop, we have to have one of my dad's colloquialisms so your lexicon will expand. Here's this week's phrase:

"bark like a fox"

Definition: to master the secondary functions of a machine or process

Example: "By being able to post pictures and videos, I can make this blog bark like a fox."

Like all of us, I often compare myself to characters in the media or have been compared to such characters by my friends. My comparison filmography would include characters from Luke Skywalker (mine: the hair, stature) to Michael Corleone (mine: the suits, stature, third son) to Adam from "Blast From the Past" (family: the naivety) to Elliot from "Bedazzled" (Bran Flakes: the moral perplexities, or maybe just my current hairstyle at the time we met) to a sort of anti-Holden Caulfield (mine) where instead of finding out the bad about everyone, I seek out the good.

Well, after spending my first complete week here at Voice of America, I think I would like to add another one to the comparison filmography. I know it will definitely seal my fate as a geek or a dork, but I don't care. Following Polonius' advice out of "Hamlet," I have to be true to myself; I don't care what the poll numbers say.

Anyway, so, I think I'm a lot like Data from "Star Trek: The Next Generation." He was that yellow-skinned android. And I'm not throwing that comparison out there because I'm jaundiced, but because I have completed tasks so far with the same diligence and speed he often demonstrated.

We all know by now that I edit a daily web video called "VOA 60." Well, the rest of my day from about 2PM to 5PM has to be spent doing something, so I always maintain that I'm engaged in some task so as to not cheat them out of their time. You know, I don't want to spend the last three hours on Facebook with another tab open lambasting some coelenterate on a Dallas Cowboys message board that wants to trade Tony Romo while having another tab open hitting F6 to keep giving my Youtube videos a boost in the viewing counter. You know, I want to be an honest worker.

So my supervisor will find tasks for me to do. For instance, on Wednesday, she gave me a Macbook Pro with some video files on it and wanted me to redo a video package on theSchool of Rock in one of the Chinese services. Well, I had the English script right there; I didn't need to write the thing. You know, they weren't counting on me to write a script AND edit the thing. They wanted me to edit it. So, I open up Final Cut Pro, import the clips, trim them according to scripts, add the necessary SOTs and NAT sound, and it was all ready to go, save for the voiceovers.

They couldn't believe it. A project that they figured would take weeks or even a month was done in an afternoon, save for the voiceovers.

Now, why do I keep mentioning these voiceovers? Well, because they're important. They want someone from Special English services to do the voiceover. I wish I didn't have laryngitis right now or else I would make a strong case for having me voice the thing so it can be done. I don't like things to sit around in suspended animation. I never liked to get up in the middle of a chapter. I squirm when folks put movies on pause more than two times during the movie. I don't eat or go to the bathroom until AFTER a task is completed because I don't like to be bothered. So, yes, you can also deduce I'm one of those weirdos that eats each separate group on his plate before moving on to the next; it's how I am.

It's this dedication to completing work, supplemented by most of the work falling into my area of acumen, that make my supervisor say that she would need a full time job just to give me assignments. Now you see why I consider myself like Data.

 He could do it all, Data. I don't know what he would have to say about the proliferation of deep dish, soft pizza dough though.

Oh, did I tell you about how I went to a local pizza joint here in Alexandria and nearly had a Wendy's moment? I think I will right now in my own blog. I'll even mention this on "Free Association" this Wednesday because it's a good story.

So the apartment complex I'm staying in here in Alexandria has some sort of "VIP" card or whatever. You can take it to various places and get discounts. You know, if you take it to Moe's Minerals and More, you can get more for 10% off when you buy one or more minerals before sundown on odd numbered workdays only. Also on the card is the Metro symbol, and the concierge said that we got discounts on Metro passes. Well, after I explored that buy A) calling the Metro service who didn't know anything about it and B) asking the owner of the apartments here about it, it turns out the Metro symbol on the card meant only that the apartment complex was within walking distance of the Metro station.

That's borderline deceptive and unhelpful. That would be like putting a Napoli's logo on the back of every RSU Student ID and then it turning out it only meant the place was within walking distance (NOTE: You do get a 10% discount at Napoli's when you show them your RSU Student ID).

Anyway, so, another one of the places on there is a pizza joint that's about five blocks from the apartment complex. I give the place a call, and of course, I get some guy with an accent. Thankfully, he knew about the discount I was referring to, which was if I bought a large at $20, I could get two more larges ABSOLUTELY FREE. Now I could order my pizzas. I wanted a cheese, a pepperoni, and a beef.

Then, the guy says something about his cheese pizzas don't have a lot of cheese and "it would have to be extra."

Well, I didn't want "extra," especially if it was going to cost "extra." And in the five minutes I went back and forth with this guy telling him I'd rather have two pepperonis instead of a cheese, he says, "You misunderstand me. I'll see you in 15 minutes." And then he hangs up the phone.

He didn't take my name or my number. He makes that remark and hangs up the phone.

During the fifteen minutes it takes me to walk down there, I'm getting my war paint on. I'm ready to go off on this guy if he tries to come up with some baloney instead of two pepperonis and a beef pizza. So, when I get down there and show him the purple "VIP" card from my apartment complex, he says, "Oh, this old. This is six months old. We no longer do this."

I took the card, stepped outside, and threw it into the Alexandria streets. I HATED THAT THING! I HAVE EX-GIRLFRIENDS WHO WERE MORE HONEST AND BENEVOLENT THAN THIS PIECE OF PLASTIC DECEPTION.

As it turned out, the owner A) remember my order and B) decided to give me the discount anyway. I also examined the crust of the pizza right in front of him. I opened up the pizza box on the adjacent table to the counter and looked at the crust. It was thinner than most pizza crusts and we talked about it. The guy makes his own dough. I told him that was refreshing, and in light of this and his business honesty, I was going to transact all of my pizza business there.

I still don't think there's any better pizza in the world than at Geno's and Pizza Parlour back in my hometown of Fort Smith, Arkansas. And I'm not saying that to be parochial. It's an indubitable fact.

What else did I do this week that you should know about? Well, I interviewed Dr. John Grayzel from the University of Maryland about the uprisings in Egypt, only because he worked there for a number of years and because he's part of the school's department on Middle Eastern studies. That's another story in and of itself, how I landed that interview. I'll summarize it and then you can get to the videos: I approached him with the same bravado as though I were a reporter for CBS News. I acted like "Free Association" was as big as "Hannity" or the Spitzer show there -- no, the one on CNN, not Cinemax. And it worked. I thought Dr. Grayzel was informative and I hope to continue to do interviews with him and to also snag other informative, significant interviews.

Sorry I wasn't able to upload pictures again. I'm guessing it's my browser. I'll figure it out, and then I can turn my blog into the 21st century equivalent of when your relatives would force you watch their slideshows from vacations they took where they didn't get the famous sites in the shots with them. Instead of seeing St. Paul's Cathedral in London, you'd see a close up of your Aunt Margery and your Uncle Morty. You know, so, that was the precursor to blogs that show you photos of where folks have been. You want to see that? Really?

See, I would figure if I had a segment in the blog where I introduced some of my father's colloquialisms, that would be more fun and helpful too. We'll start out with this one:

"gusto of a hound dog"

Definition: to approach a task with tenacity from the onset

Usage: "We'll attack that leaky faucet with the gusto of a hound dog."

Yeah, kind of like how I approach my assignments with Voice of America.

Mr. Lane Goes To Washington

That's what my friends have been saying. Personally, I like the title "The Emperor Goes To Washington," but maybe that's a bit esoteric.

So here I am staying at the Meridian at Braddock Station in Alexandria, Virginia. While I can't see the National Mall from my ninth floor enclosed veranda, I can see it when I go over to the other building's sixteenth floor penthouse to talk on the phone.

I try to be seen and not heard when I'm with my three roommates. You know, if I dial someone on the phone for a conversation, I walk around the building and go to that penthouse in the other building where no one usually hangs out and chat away. Although last night, there was a woman in there on her laptop. Since I'm the courteous type, I asked her if I would bother her with my phone call. I almost had to shake her to get her attention, so that right there should have been a sign that I wouldn't.

The phone call and the writing of this blog are a sign that I'm bored. It's the weekend; my internship starts Monday at 9 AM sharp. I think I'll arrive at 8:30 AM, because I have a habitual fear of being late. I think it comes from my childhood where my mother would always arrive late places. But, see, she had a theory that if you left five minutes late, you could make up that time by speeding down the highway and then arrive at your destination five minutes early.

Speaking of time warp, when I left my sister and her husband's house in Toledo to fly out of Detroit to Washington DC, the flight went west to Chicago. Because of the time zone change, it only took three minutes. Ha! Yeah, but I didn't get that. Why did the plane have to fly to Chicago to go to DC? That's cartographically inconsistent. Why couldn't it fly out to DC from Detroit? They don't call it an "international" airport for no reason.

Yeah, speaking of international, my immediate roommate is from South Korea. He's a nice guy; he's obviously in the international affairs program. He's an ambitious fellow because he's here in Washington, not to get credits to graduate, not to "see the world" or whatever. He's here to improve his English so that he can get ahead and get a better job when he goes back to South Korea. Talk about enterprising and gutsy.

The other roommate I have is a postgraduate studying to be a lawyer. He's from Philadelphia and spent time in Boston. The other roommate is from Boston and grew up in New York. So, you hear the accents pretty thick, and they talk about microbreweries and how parochial the people in Maine are. It's like a different America when I'm around these guys. There really are different cultures when you divide the nation by mountains, rivers, and the Mason-Dickson Line.

I mean, I like the guys. Don't get me wrong. I like the other roommate a lot because he uses the word "schmuck" inordinately. That one is in the law enforcement program interning with the US Marshals.

Yes, I did bring a camera with me. I'll take pictures later because I'm a little unsure of carrying out a bunch of stuff with me when I'm in the city. I don't want to look like a tourist; I don't want to look like an easy target. I'm still feeling out the city. The multitudinous, heterogenous population still consternates an ol' country boy like myself. When I feel like I know what I can expect from the masses out here, I'll start to tote around more of my hundreds-of-dollars belongings. You know, this isn't Will Rogers Boulevard with a single mom with a stroller waving at you as you walk by anymore.

So there it is. I'm a little nervous about getting mugged. But the thing is you're not going to get robbed of your time if you spend it reading here. Stay in touch for more in the serial called "Mr. Lane Goes To Washington."

Prelude to the Journey

The stream of humanity flowed past me as I enjoyed my succulent slice of sausage pizza from Geno's, one of the Central Mall's restaurants in its modest food court. Since this is Fort Smith, Arkansas, the stream of humanity trickles rather than flows. Now, a real flowing stream of humanity will be seen when I go to board my first Metro here in a mere two weeks. Thanks to the Washington Center, I will be working on video editing as an intern for Voice of America.

Right now, I'm still a face in the crowd, like the stream of humanity that walks by. Admittedly, my face has become a little more conspicuous because the hometown newspaper printed a story straight from my college's public relations department about my internship through the Washington Center.

Landing this Washington Center internship accelerated my life. Within the past two months, I've taken my last finals ever at Rogers State University. I moved out of my one bedroom house that was my "Fortress of Solitude" for three years. I worked my last shift for my college TV station's master control. I hosted my final radio show in studio (I'll still be broadcasting from Washington DC). I bid adieu to my friends at Rogers State University. These were experiences I was to have in six months since I graduate in May 2011. Instead, all of the finality of May swooped in early on Santa Claus' sleigh.

I also feel this internship with Voice of America is going to accelerate my development by more than just six months. I feel like I've shaved five to ten years off of my ultimate goal of becoming a radio talk show host. I know what you're thinking: how does a video editing internship parlay into experience in radio. And I'll tell you exactly what I told one of my college's deans in the interview process that swung their votes to me as their representative to Washington: today's media is all about convergence. With the advent of the internet, newspaper websites have video content; TV websites have written text. Radio websites have pictures. Magazine websites have podcasts. In this age of convergence, being versatile in any media will help land you a job in any medium that you choose because A) you're harder to downsize and B) you're harder to refuse. That's how toggling over hue settings on dubbed over video packages for Voice of America is going to ultimately help me sit behind a microphone five days a week.

The opportunity before me is exciting, but I must confess it has knocked my goal off of its axis. Before this internship, I thought the region of Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Texas was open to me and I would have to work my way up. Now, because of this internship, I feel like the whole world is open to me. In American football, on a kickoff return, all it takes is one key block to spring the returner for a touchdown run. The Washington Center has thrown me a key block and it's up to me to spring this opportunity for a big return -- running to my ultimate goal for all to conspicuously see.

I Looooove New York!

April has been an excited month! The weather warming up made my weeks more enjoyable. The first weekend, I enjoyed the Cherry Blossom festivities. Cherry Blossom is the name for the flower of cherry trees. I never know about cherry blossoms till I came here. The cherry blossoms are so pretty. The arrival of spring begins with the National Cherry Blossom Festival, a tradition that showcases over 3,000 cherry trees that derived from the city of Tokyo. The Festival is an annual two-week city-wide event featuring many cultural performances, special events, and bringing in an abundance amount of tourist.

The second weekend, I took my first trip to NEW YORK! A couple friends and I took a 4 hour bus ride up. $36 round trip ticket. I was so amazed, the city is big, the buildings are huge and there are so many people! We did a lot of walking around through Times Square. We also visited the Rockefeller Center area and went by the NBC studios. I had my first New York strawberry cheesecake, which was so delicious and also a big slice of New York pizza. Unfortunately the weather wasn’t to kind. It rained for the most part of the day on Saturday, so we went to the Museum of Modern Arts. We went to New York just for a couple of days, because we wanted to be back in DC for Easter Sunday. We went to church that Sunday and went out to eat for dinner. I must say New York is a place that I most definitely have to visit again.



















The third weekend started off great. My advisor bought tickets for our program to attend the Washington DC Nationals baseball game. My first professional baseball game and I had such a great time and the weather was even better. I had so much fun watching the game, eating sunflower seeds and cracker jacks and being apart of the crowd participation, trying to get on the big screenJ. Too bad the Nationals lost, but after the game there was a nice display of fireworks.

Erica

Overwhelming Experience

The past couple of weeks have flown by. With little less than a month left, it feels like there are so many important things to get done and accomplish for my internship, class, TWC and for school. Including trying to make my last month in DC an enjoyable and memorable experience with all the friends I’ve made.


Class is still going well. I made an A on my mid-term, so that was great! We have a final project that is due May 7th; those that are graduating are due on an earlier date. For the project we have to research an incident that created ethical issues for the media. Our teacher gave us a list to choose from. I’m doing my project on the Richard Jewell and the Olympic Bombing incident. I plan on getting started on that ASAP.

Things have been going okay at my internship. My supervisor gave me a project to do during down time at work. The project I'm working on helps the Show book and put in interview request. My supervisor said my project is a big help to the show, so I’m glad I can contribute.

What’s pretty cool is that I’m around and working with the news correspondents that are seen on NBC and MSNBC everyday, such as Tom Costello, Savannah Guthrie, Norah O’Donnell and Chuck Todd just to name a few. I recently, helped Costello with a story he covered about bed bugs for the Today Show. The bedbugs have been a growing problem in hotels, college dorms apartments and houses. So be careful.... Take a look!

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

I recently had my mid-term assessment with my supervisor. She explained the areas that I have been doing good in, and areas where improvements can be made. I think with this new internship, it’s more of a personal challenge to see how much or how far I am willing to go or give to accomplish my goals. I’m glad I had that assessment with my supervisor. It made me really understand the things I need to improve on and only made me want to work harder to reach my goals.

I think last week, was the first time I probably became overwhelmed with everything. As I was preparing summer courses for school with my advisor, I found out that I needed even more time before I could graduate, which really threw me for a loop. I felt so much emotion I didn’t know what to do. On top of the assignments and things I had to do for my internship, class, TWC and personally, made it the toughest week here in DC. I had so much on my mind that I would be physically at work, but mentally not there, worried and focused on other things. I felt I got off track and as a result I turned in assignments late and had to reschedule appointments made. I think I was trying to keep a mental note of everything which is very hard to do, because there’s so much to do.

Fortunately, I’ve bounced back from that stressful week. Each day, I am literally making a “things to do” list. Sticking to that list has made it a lot less frustrating and I am able to use my time more wisely in getting things done. I figure that this last month in the program is crunch time and I need to make sure that I stay on top of everything in getting things done in a timely manner for my internship, class, TWC and school. I see it as an experience I can only learn and grow from

Signing off,

Erica