Two Weeks Notice

So, it's been awhile since I've posted and it's getting to be near the end of the summer. I've had a fantastic time so far and I hope to gain more experience in the next two weeks before coming home!

I've been keeping busy at work, doing research on a few concepts that are being tossed around in our brainstorming sessions. Adam's concept is animal abuse, specifically dog fighting, so I've been doing a lot of research on that, which makes me a bit emotional. But the idea is that there are people out there who want to stop it all from happening, which is comforting.

A concept that I've come up with and researched is cyber bullying. It's only in the past few years that this type of bullying has been significant, resulting in many teens being forced to move to a different school or go into therapy, and in some extreme cases, has led to suicide and suicide attempts.

Besides work, I've been playing around with my fancy new camera and have made some progress on my independent study! This past weekend I conducted four interviews; three with blind individuals training with a new guide dog, and one interview with the dog trainer. Very interesting stuff and it has me even more excited about the work I'm doing! More information to come.

So I have to leave soon, which will be sad, but I'm excited to see all my friends again. I'm also super excited to see my dogs! OMG it has been far too long without a corgi in my lap!! I can talk to my friends and family on the phone or via video-chat and they can even visit, but I have no interaction with my dogs unless it's in person! I miss my babies, but I get to see them soon!

Congratulations to everyone at the Western Reserve Specialty! I miss everyone!!

Q

"Hi everyone, you can call me the manatee!" - Jim Gaffigan, comedian

It's been awhile. Sorry about that! I've been busy with work, church, and family. In fact, my parents were just here. That was nice- not having to pay for anything! Mom and I spent some time on Lido Beach and I got to pet a wild manatee! Check it out!

Okay, so I don't have pictures of it. But it was a bit of a short notice, and I wasn't about to run out of the water to grab my camera! You'll just have to trust me. But he looked something like this one, who we saw at the Mote aquarium.
The best part was that he acted just like one of my dogs. He swam straight up to us, bumped into me, and rolled over so I could rub his belly. Such a sweet creature.

The next few pictures are from the Ringling Circus Museum.

And last week, Courtney Crutcher and her family were vacationing on Anna Maria Island, so I got to hang out with them too! It was fun to see some familiar faces!

I suppose I could do a brief update on what I'm doing at work; for the past week and likely most of this week, I've been responsible for collecting and sorting sound effects and music pieces for the Florida Highway Patrol piece. Salt & Light has a few libraries that they already own to sort through, and they add up to about 38-40,000 individual sounds. It's a lot of listening, but it's been an interesting experience to learn and think about how many sounds do go into professional video media. Many sounds are subtle and hardly noticed unless listened for.

That's all I have time for now but hopefully I'll have some more time to share more soon!

Q

Sick and busy!

Sorry it's been sometime between entries. I've been sick for the past week and when I am working, I bounce between 3 or 4 projects on any given day! I've been doing a lot of research about the homeless in Florida, since that is one of our upcoming projects. So I've been locating shelters and other organizations that specialize in assisting the homeless. I've also been discovering what the real definition of homeless is. It doesn't just apply to a person who lives on the streets with a mental illness. It also applies to people who had a home but recently lost it because of financial or other reasons. Our peers could be classified as homeless if they have not had a stable place to sleep each night for a period of 3 or more months. This includes people who "double-up" and live with family or friends because they don't have a place of their own. Homeless also refers to people who ran away from their home to escape an abusive relationship and have nowhere else to go but to a shelter.

A second project that I have been working on is regarding the issue of hunger in America. I haven't dug too far into the topic yet, but I've been hunting down food banks and soup kitchens and other organizations of the like that may be helpful in our project.

The Payton's Song project is at a standstill right now as we are attempting to schedule interviews with family and friends.

Two different groups have come to us with piles of their own footage and the request that we turn their footage into promotional videos. The first group is called ShelterBox, which is actually a pretty interesting program. It's a natural disaster relief group that provides a large green container that has supplies enough to take care of a family of 10. Recent example of their use is the Haiti earth quake. The day after the quake, ShelterBox had already loaded hundreds of these boxes into their cargo planes and flew them down there and helped set up camp sites. Very cool stuff. The second group is called Faith and Action, and to the best of my understanding, it is a group of people in D.C. that bring Christianity to the Federal offices in the area. I'm still learning more about exactly what they do.

Finally, the Florida Highway Patrol project is entering its editing stage and I've been blessed with the lovely challenge of finding royalty free music that can be used. It's been quite a task! More details soon!

On a completely unrelated note, I've finally had the chance to see some of the area and have visited Lido beach a few times. Tomorrow I plan on taking an easy day just lounging on the beach, weather depending. Pictures to come!

Q

Sarasota!

So, I've been in Sarasota for about a week now. I'm just about settled into my condo, which is awesome. My internship is going very well so far. My only issues at the moment are the facts that I'm not used to the heat yet and that I don't know many people yet. Oh well, that will come in time I imagine!

Here are some pics of my condo!

For some reason I couldn't upload them... Oh well. More soon!

Q

Looking Forward to the Summer!

This summer I'll be working for Salt & Light Productions.

They are located in Sarasota, Florida and I will be staying in a nice condo in what looks like a wonderful neighborhood.

I will be working with the group there making documentaries. I imagine I'll be doing a lot of research and hopefully a lot of learning! I plan on updating this blog with my experiences.

And when I'm not working, I'll probably be swimming in the pool or at the beach. I can't wait to get tan!

Q