My first few days at Global News

Even though today's only the forth day of my internship here, I feel like a lot of this experience has been nothing but surprises.

I'm doing a tech internship here with Global News.
For six weeks I have a different responsibilites and experiences each week.

They got me starting out indoors working with tapes and feeds. Day one I've been uploading footage from tapes as they come in and once in a while patching daily footage from Queens Park to the station.
Nothing exciting, it's pretty relaxing and the studio is really an awesome site to see.
It's a huge open space with red pillars that look like T's.
HDTV's everywhere. In the actual newsroom where I'm at, I've counted like...10 of them, but there's still the Global News and ET control rooms too.

Anyways, TANGENT!
Here's how I feel.
HUMBLED!! I used to think I was pretty hot stuff, being all fancy with my NewsEdit expertise at Ryerson, but man these guys are using a crazy arsenal of different software and technologies just to get their news shows up and running.

Last night, about 30 minutes before Global Toronto went to air, I sat in with an editor and a reporter while they put together their package.
Wow! Reporter had a script ready, and recorded in about 2 minutes for a 1:30 minute piece.
Sub-clipped footage, knew exactly which shots to use, matching pictures to script, boom boom boom. They were done in like 20 minutes tops.

At school, putting together something like that would take me an hour at the least.
I shouldn't have expected anything less from them I guess cuz these are pros, they've been doing it for years now. It's like a machine, just going with the motions.

But yeah, for those who are reading this, I'll fill you guys in on more when I'm out and about. Next week I'm going out - on the field. I'll be with a camera guy and just helping them out I guess.

Brian out.

Tough Love

I love my parents for being so observant and critical.
But I hate it too because I realize how much of my life I need to change.

My dad visited this reading week and, generally, he had a good impression of me until this weekend when I crashed at a friends place downtown and didn't wake up to see him out.

I had a million missed calls from him because I was playing dodgeball at church and as soon as I got home I called my dad. Good one, Brian.

That's usually how a big intervention-like discussion starts. I mess up and then he tells me about all of the ways I'm not going to succeed in life...unless I change my lifestyle, of course.

Everything from school, church, my social life, EVERYTHING! Both of my parents usually try to give me space to live out my life until they see me mess up waaay too many times to not say anything.

I know I sound like I'm complaining but it's good for me when they come down on me like that. I don't have too many people who rebuke me or call me out on the stupid stuff I do. But all this time, I thought I was doing pretty well for myself in the growing-up part of my life. I'm making better money, I have good friends, and I'm getting by with school.

But I should be doing more with my time. As my dad was saying, I should be doing more full time things and less part time things. Full time meaning, getting my priorities straight, getting my school stuff together and just focusing on that. Everything else coming second.
I'm still not sure how to feel about that but I know for sure, I could be doing more. And I should be.

Why do I always feel like I'm 16 years old? Why can't I just be 21 and feel like I'm 21?

Back to my essay.
Gnite.

In need of a shoe rack...

It doesn't look like a lot, but my place isn't big enough for all of these shoes.
I can't open my door properly unless I put em away in to that little rack.
The top shelf is for my essentials - running shoes, dress shoes and timbs for those snowy days in canadia. The rest is all just for looks. It needs to stop.
It would be really ideal if there was just one more shelf that I could stack there on top. But I think i'll have to settle on getting a new shoe rack all together - a really tall shoe rack.

Anyone have any suggestions? Post your links, I'd really appreciate seeing some cool shoe racks.
(I said racks a lot didn't I....)

Everthing's bigger in Texas

So what's big in Texas? (Read the following in a charming sutherin' acksent)

Churches:
It's friggin' weird to see a church get supersized.

Driving through the outskirts of Houston and San Antonio, I saw maybe three or four big ones. I wish I had my camera to show you guys some photos cuz it was ridonkulous sizes.

Do you guys know how big Earl Haig high is? There are churches here in Texas that are like four times bigger than that school. Like, one of these texas-sized buildings could easily be the new mega wal-mart coming to your small town. I don't think Ryerson University is as big as one of these mega churches (exaggerating, but that's how I feel).

Coffees:
I love the oversized coffee drinks here.
McDonalds doesn't offer any coffees in a small size.
There's only one way to drink that iced coffee and that's in a large plastic cup, half ice, half creme, five pumps of vanilla sirrup and some coffee! That's a dollar seventy somethin'!

Clouds:
For some reason or whatnot, the clouds are really really big.
They make everything on thr ground seem pretty miniscule.
When there's a nice white puffy cloud in the sky, it'd be a normal thing to see God standing on one of 'em with a big smile on his face. Waving at ya with a big pitcher of sweet tea!
But come across a big monstrous grey cloud, it look it'll shoot a bolt of lightning out itself into your face! It's a scary thing.

More big things to come as I see em folks...

My Mom > most Moms

Disclaimer:
i refer to ">" as a symbol for "cooler than"
Why didn't I just write my mom is cooler than most moms?
because she's that cool.

Here's why:
My mom now has official training from the FBI on what to do in an event of a bioterrorist incident in America.

And the other day, she had to go investigate an escaped monkey spreading some weird jungle sickness in her jurisdiction of Houston.

Wow mom!

More updates on my Houston trip to come.

Another all-nighter...

It isn't surprising that this is my third night staying up past 5 AM. 

It really isn't. I have a good feeling that I'll be doing a lot of this staying up...early-ness?

I watched the sunrise. 

It wasn't much of anything except for seeing the buildings go from dark to bright in what felt like an instant. 

I'm feeling so tired. 

I forgot to mention that I'm downtown right now. Stayed up all night trying to finish one of my novels for my final exam on wednesday. It's called Lost Horizon - have you heard of it? 

It's about Shangri La if that rings a bell. 

Anyway, I should've finished this book a while ago...but I didn't. So, I spent my Thursday night at Robarts Library at UofT. Then me and my group of cool Toronto people moved the study party to a friend's apartment at Yonge and Wells. 

I'm sticking around for now so I can pick up some student discount movie tix from Ryerson. 

Also looking for a new NLT bible. Yeah, really loving that version more. NLT > NIV from what I've read so far. 

So...

..Tired...

zzzz.

I can't believe I found these...

Watch. Laugh. Enjoy. Repeat.