Wow

Is it really that hard?

My Name!

14 years later, and it's finally for real. After starting to call myself Sky at age 10 in fifth grade (where there were 7 girls in my class and 3 of us were named Sarah), I have at last legally changed my name to Sky. I had been planning to do it all through college, but I never wanted to part with the $300 or so it cost to do it in court. But now that I have been graduated for over a year now, and have a full time job (yay!), I figured I was able to do it now. It took 3 months from the time I filed the paperwork to the day I had my court appearance.

So, in December, I got the packet of papers to fill out and the directions on what else I had to do. It cost one hundred bucks to file the papers.

Then, I got my court date and judge assigned to my case.

After that, I had to go to our newspaper and a legal bar journal to take out articles stating when my hearing was in case anyone wanted to contest it. That was the other $200.

Next, I went to the state police to get my fingerprints taken. The don't use ink anymore! It was all futuristic-y and stuff.

Then I went back to the courthouse with proofs of the articles and my fingerprint card and filed those. They sent my prints off to the FBI to see if I was an evil person or not.

That whole process took about a month, so then I waited around for 2 months until my court date.

I was scheduled for 9 am, but the sentencings that my judge was handling at 8:45 ran over, so I got to watch people get sentenced for drug possession and related crimes. A little bit surreal.

Then the judge called me up and I had to take this oath that was a bit more wordy than the usual "so help you God" one. It was pretty cool though, because God was in it a lot.

So I got to say "I do" and then "yes, your honor" while he asked me questions. He basically looked through my folder and said, it seems like you haven't done anything wrong and you know what you're doing with yourself in life. That's good, so I'm going to grant your petition.

That was very happy news indeed, and I said 'Thank you very much, your honor,' and then I had to go file the court order with the Prothonotary. The judge wrote it in green ink, so the copies came out very light, but that's okay because next...

I went to the driver's license center and they accepted it and I now have my new driver's license and it says Sky on it! I have been showing it to everyone. Very awesome.

I also applied for a new social security card, which should arrive soon, and I have a new bank account at a new bank with my new name, and it's all very exciting.

I like when events happen in life. :-)

Cienfuegos Province

This is not a usual blog post, but it has to do with blending the internet and art, so I guess it kind of relates to convergence.

So, here are the rules:
1 - Go to “wikipedia.” Hit “random” or click http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
The first random wikipedia article you get is the name of your band.

2 - Go to “Random quotations” or click http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3
The last four or five words of the very last quote of the page is the title of your first album.

3 - Go to flickr and click on “explore the last seven days” or click http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days
Third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.

4 - Use Photoshop (or similar) to put it all together.

5 - Post it to Facebook or your blog.

This is what I came up with.


Picture credit here.

I was happy it contained Spanish, but I'm not sure how well the album title goes with the picture. But that's ok, it's all about randomosity.

Good luck with yours!

Half Full of Deliciousness

Maybe I'm just an eternally positive person, but I find the world to be a wonderful place to live in. I know there are a lot of bad things that happen; however, in my life there are so many good things that stick out more to me than the bad ones.

I feel fortunate to have had experiences throughout my whole life that emphasize this.

- I went to a grade school where people would help you in your most embarrassing hour and not make fun of you.
-I went to a middle school where God's love was the most important part of education.
-I went to a high school where you didn't have to have a lock on your locker to know your stuff was safe.
-I went to a college where you could leave your wallet on a table in the cafeteria to save your seat, and you had no fear of the table OR your wallet being taken in your absence.
-I work in a place where fund-raising candy bars can be left out in the open along with the money envelope... and no one will steal the money or take some chocolate without paying.
-I live in a city where people will stay stopped at a red light at 3 in the morning until it turns green even if there are no other cars around.

All in all, it's a pretty wonderful life.

I Can't Believe It's Christmas!

Well, not Christmas yet per se, but it's the general vicinity. The best holidays are ones where family comes to visit from far away places, and that makes this one happy because my sister and her family are coming in from Mexico! Hurrah! This means we cram 9 people into my little house, but it's still wonderful. Now I need to do Christmas shopping for my niece and nephews... they're getting so old! Rebekah's going to be 10 in January! 10! That's just plain craziness.



These are my sister's beautiful babies, whom I like to refer to as mine (at least until I get my own!)


So I'm excited for Christmas. Plus, I get 9 days off of work! How sweet is that?!
It would be nice if for Christmas I also got my loans paid off and was able to move out of my house. Oh, and a car would be nice, haha. And a camera, and an mp3 player. Oo, and Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog soundtrack.



But no, really, I don't need anything but what I already have. I love my life, my family, my boyfriend, my friends, and my job. Thanks God, for giving me what I need. <3

November

I think it's pretty unbelievable that this is my first real job, I've only been at the company for 10 months, not even 6 months full time, and I've been nominated Employee of the Month. It even has perks above and beyond my own parking space all month. God has blessed me so much after college with employment. Health, dental and eye insurance, business trips, I only had to send out one resume, I love what I do, my coworkers are great, and I get to press buttons. Quite awesome. And I have a feeling after I've been there a year full time that things are going to get even better in my life. I can't wait to see what the Lord has in store.


(look at me happily working with my friend Mortimer, the woolly bear caterpillar)

Here at 23 I'm the same old me

October is just whizzing by! It must be our switch to the digital newsroom, because of course technology is good at that. :-P

But, amazingly enough, we seem to be doing well with the transition. Most of the editors have caught on to Newscutter, and thankfully I also know my way around it.

So we're tapeless now! It makes things way easier for the most part, right up until the computer gives us an error we can't comprehend. Those moments are full of anger towards all thing digital and shouts of "Phil!" so our computer guy will come fix it.

I'm still camera-less, but it's probably going to be a Christmas present to me, and so sometime in December I'll have pictures of our happy fun newsroom up on here.

In other news, I went to my first apartment party outside of college, and it was way fun to hang out with my co-workers outside of work. Much love to all of them. :-)

Super Action News!

I'm glad I get to be weird at my workplace...

I've been working overtime for awhile due to people quitting, and soon we're going to be transitioning over to a digital newsroom, so everything is going to be hectic for awhile, but I'm glad I like where I work and I love my coworkers. So that part of my life is continuing in a nice happy direction.

The rest of my life is taking awhile to catch up, and I would really like to be able to move out of my parents' house and get a car, but that probably won't happen for awhile, so I'll have to make the best of things until that can happen.

That's about all the news for now... hopefully there will be fun stuff happening in the coming months!

Everything You Ever

It's September! This is good news for several reasons, one being that I am past the probation part of my full time job... so now I have health insurance AND life insurance. Bonus points. It also means I got a raise, which is always a good thing.

Also, my boyfriend is moving into an apartment close by my house this month, which is pretty cool.

The sad thing about this month is that my friend Nate at work quit, which means I have to do his job until we find a replacement... and I really don't like his job. So that is not so fun, but hopefully we'll find a replacement soon, and I'll have a couple of weekend days off - there's the silver lining!

And I didn't have to go back to school this fall... and it didn't seem strange to me like it did to some of my other graduated friends, so I'm going to take that as a good sign.

I'll be posting pictures as soon as I can get my hands on a camera.

Business Trip!

Madison, WI (photo taken by Craig Rouse)

Yeah, I went on one! And I haven't even been full time for three months. But I'm a tech savvy person, apparently, and that's what they needed. So that was quite fantastic. I learned administration duties for the Avid iNEWS Unity system we're getting soon. That's going to be fun, going from completely linear editing to completely non-linear. So, that's my update on life after college for now.

Also, check out www.cuil.com (pronounced "cool"). Some Google employees left to start this site, so it seems, and they boast more websites searched than Google. Their format is really interesting, but you have to be very general in your searches, which I don't like.

And now it's almost July

I guess since I'm done with college now I can make this about whatever I want. But since my job takes up a good amount of my life, it will probably contain much of that still. Hopefully I will get a working camera soon so I can post pictures.

My job is going very well, although the hours wreak havoc on my attempts to have a social life, but I'm making it work. If gas wasn't so expensive, I'd be taking road trips to see my friends that live so far away from me.

Let's see, fun things:

going to the beach
strawberry picking
seeing the Ultrasonic Rock Orchestra
dinner with friends
going to Dan's house(s)
decorating my desk at work
weddings!
Iron Man
picking out upper body ensembles
playing with dogs
Sharpie markers
and much more :-)

Wow, it's almost June already.

So, I have failed to keep up this blog after graduating, but you'll have that with the whirlwind of life after college.

Just for an update though, I did not get the camera operator job I applied for... so I applied at the same station for the weekend assignment editor position. And I got it.

So until the middle of April, I worked there on the weekends and at Wendy's during the week so I would have money enough for life. Then on April 15th I started covering the web producer position because someone moved on to ESPN.

And now, gloriously, I am full time at WJET, as of May 25th. I produce the FOX66 News at 10 show on the weekends, and I'm a web producer Monday through Wednesday.

Pretty good, going from part time to full time in 5 months, and with only sending out one resume. So that's my life at the moment.

Teamwork

DSCN74570044november20072007-12-12_19-07-47, originally uploaded by B. Weaver.

The last thing I had to do for capstone was participate with the rest of my classmates in another Titan Traverse to finish up the semester in the same way we started it. It was indoors this time and involved some new games, like "Muse." That one involved getting the whole lot of us from one platform to another using only planks and cinder blocks, plus we had to carry a bunch of "obstacles" that hindered us. The best thing about this exercise was seeing the camaraderie my class had formed. We were helpful and encouraging and when we thought we weren't going to make it in time we pulled together and we did it. Gives me hope for real life (which I have to face right soon) in that I know I will have people rooting for me and that will give me the strength to make it.





Not only that, but I now know I am able to scale a rock wall, and that's a confidence booster in and of itself.

The Holiday Spirit with OfficeMax

And now a form of convergence for the holidays...

OfficeMax is giving you a form of Christmas cheer to give you and your loved ones a chuckle. At www.elfyourself.com, you can turn up to four people into, you guessed it, elves. Not only do you get to see what your family members look like as Santa's little helpers, you also get to see them make fools out of themselves, because these elves are dancing elves. Thaaaaat's right. And for an added bonus, if you call a number to leave a message that will accompany the elves when you e-mail them to friends. Pretty slick. And, to the benefit of OfficeMax, they are able to advertise their products without being an annoying pop-up ad on another website. So good job everyone!


Just a random example, because I am not about to subject myself to green clothes and pointy shoes:




Some Elves

Finally!

So, I was able to get two of my videos on YouTube this weekend, which makes me very happy. The ones I put on were the PSAs I made for the New Castle Public Library - I wasn't able to get the commercial I made for titanradio.net up yet, but hopefully I can do that soon. I have a three part series of PSAs for the library, and then one more which is a compilation of the other three. I was unable to get the compilation one up, or else I'd show you that one, but is here one of the parts:






I hope you enjoy!

Reality is coming.

I have less than a month left of school, which means I'll be heading out into the real world soon. This is both scary and exciting, and I think I'm ready to face reality. Hopefully at first I'll be able to find a job in my hometown so I can save up money for the possibility of having to move across the country.

I applied for a camera operator job, and I could have had it if I had been able to start training next week. They said they would keep my resume on file, so that was encouraging.

I finished my PSAs for my capstone, and now I have to present my capstone next Thursday. I am still having YouTube uploading troubles - I might have to go home this weekend so I can upload them on a faster server.

Google and Movies

Google is one of the most well-known sites on the web, and so movie makers teamed up with them so they could help to promote one another. Some of the movies this happened with were The Break-Up


and The Da Vinci Code, in which the movies used some product of Google, such as Google video. The latest movie that they did this with was The Bourne Ultimatum, where Google had the ultimate search for Jason Bourne, at www.searchforbourne.com. The promotion is over now, so now the website just links you to a place to watch the movie near you, but the point of the promotion was to find the website that gave you the location of Jason Bourne. A pretty neat kind of interaction, because it makes you want to see the movie, and you have to use Google to find the website, so it worked very nicely as a collaboration. I was not aware of this promotion until after it was over, but I did go see the movie and it was incredible. The movie Crank also advertises Google Earth in it because they use a shot from Google Earth that still has the logo on it in the movie, but I am not sure if they were doing it to be promotional or simply because that was the only way to get the shot they wanted.



Information from: http://blogoscoped.com/archive/2007-04-21-n50.html

Simpsonize Me

An interesting use of convergence happened when the Simpson Movie came out. They decided to pair up with Burger King to help promote each other. A website was made where one could get turned into a Simpson character, and the machine used to do this was heavily advertising Burger King by having the burger king be the model for the transformation. It has signs on it that advertise the movie and Burger King, and Homer Simpson is commanding you to "Be Yellow." It's a wonderful marketing ploy, because I have never seen the Simpsons, but I wanted to become one when I found the site. And I did, as you can see. You know you're doing a good job when you can drive people to a website like this campaign has done. Admittedly, I haven't been to Burger King in years and I have not seen the Simpsons movie, but I did visit their site and now have both of these things on the brain. The use of the web for convergence is a pretty good idea because of this generation's obsession with the internet.

movies to video games and back again

It's amazing, the types of media that turn into other types of media. Video games become movies, movies become MMO games, television shows become movies and vice versa, and commercials turn into sitcoms! I was watching Lara Croft: Tomb Raider last night, and I found out that the game came out, and then turned into a movie with Angelina Jolie, and after that all the rest of the Tomb Raider games featured her voice as Lara Croft instead of the original movie.

My favorite movie ever is the Princess Bride, which came out 20 years ago, and just this year I found out it is being turned into an MMO, where you can play it online with many other people and experience life in that world.



And one of my favorite television shows, Firefly, got canceled after the first season, but there was such a following for it afterwards that a movie called Serenity was made as a kind of ending for the series. I enjoy how different types of media are meshed together until you aren't sure which one came first.

Anime and video games?

I met with my clients, the public relations director and the young adult librarian at the new Castle Public Library, on Tuesday this week to talk with them about the PSAs I'm making for them. They were very pleased with my ideas, and loved the radio spot I played for them. They promised to help me in any way they could, and were very excited that I wanted to do PSAs that promoted reading to the people in my generation. Apparently they get the least readership in that area, which is why we decided on that age group. What they're using right now to get young people into the library is anime clubs and video game parties, which is actually what some churches have been doing as well. So I hope that my PSAs have at least some impact on young adults, because I believe reading is very important.