Padd Solutions

Today was the Annual Mass Communication Christmas party at Mike’s house. I get lost pretty easily when I’m driving in a part of town I’m not used to, so yesterday Andrea, Miguel and I decided we would all go together to Mike’s house. I thought we should leave for the party around 11 because it was supposed to start at noon, but I had a feeling we’d get lost, because neither of them had ever been there before and I had just been there twice. So, I figured we would all take one car to the party.

We decided to meet in the parking lot by Parcells Hall a little after 11:00. Around 10:40 Miguel called me and said he had to go get a haircut and that he will be at AC at noon. I didn’t want to sit in the parking lot for an hour so I said that was fine and told Andrew about our new plans.

I left my house at noon to go to AC and right as I was stopped at a red light on 27th Street, I got another call from Miguel asking where I was because I was late and Andrea was looking for me. I was trying to get there as quickly as I could and I asked him where he was because I was visualizing both of them waiting for me in their cars in the parking lot…no, not the case. He wasn’t there either! I get there and neither was Andrea, so I didn’t feel so guilty for being late.
Miguel got there not long after I did and then Andrea pulled up. I got in the car with Miguel and Andrea followed behind us to Mike’s house. We got there and pretty much everyone else was already there.

Yesterday before we went to Announcing for Radio and TV, Jill was making a blooper video to show at the party. They were bloopers from the videos Miguel, Bill and I have made throughout the semester. There was a lot of footage of me fixing my hair during my stand-ups and just a lot a lot of funny stuff! So, hopefully we can put it the Ranger website soon, for everyone to see!
Miguel and I had to leave the party early because he had to go to work, so we missed out on the gift exchange and the rest of the festivities. I took cream puffs to the party and Mike told me to take them with me. So, when I went to get them off of the table, I dropped the lid in Nancy’s banana cream pie, so I got whipped cream all over it.

I didn’t realize until I got in Miguel’s car, how much of the whipped cream I had taken with me…I had it all over my purse, my new jacket, Miguel’s jacket, then he put some in my hair and I even managed to get some on a little car ornament hanging from the rearview mirror! It was like Gelato on 6th Street all over again!

A few weeks ago in my Fundamentals of Photography class we were given the assignment to take self-portraits of ourselves using black and white film. I borrowed my mom’s camera from 1982 and Mr. Cavanaugh provided the film. Miguel and I partnered up for this assignment as well and we decided to go to the Lynn Library to take some photos. We went up to the fourth floor and took his photos. We ran out of time before our next class started so I decided I would just take mine later on that day.

The next time we met for photography we were going into the darkroom. So, Mr. Cavanaugh brought in some reels and some rolls of film that we could practice with before we actually went into the darkroom. He told us to practice rolling up the film on the reels with our eyes closed because that’s how dark it was going to be in the darkroom. I knew it was going to be dark, but I didn’t expect it to be THAT dark!

So, Miguel and I practiced unrolling the film without touching it to our fingers and attaching it to a reel and twisting the sides until the roll of film was all the way rolled up. Miguel was having a hard time getting the film onto the reel so we decided my job would be taking the film out of the cartridge and getting it attached to the reel and he will twist the film onto the reel.
So, after waiting 45 minutes on the first group that went, it was finally our turn to head into the darkroom. We had a small group there was only four of us but only two people can fit in one room, so you have to be pretty comfortable with your partner! It would be really awkward if you didn’t know them.

After making our way through a dark hallway with about 15 little closets, Miguel and I settled into a room. We sat everything down on the counter, both rolls of film, two reels, a light tight container and a pair of scissors. Mr. Cavanaugh told us to make sure we knew where everything was because he was going to be turn out the lights and we won’t be able to see anything.

He finally turned out the lights and it was pitch black! Like I said before, I wasn’t prepared for it to be THAT dark! So, since I couldn’t see anything I started to feel around on the counter in front of me so I could get a roll of film and get the process started. I found the first roll of film just fine and I didn’t have any trouble at all getting it to pop out of the cartridge, but as soon as I got it out and started to cut the end off, I dropped the whole roll of film on the floor! So, Miguel got down on the floor trying to find this roll of film in the dProxy-Connection: keep-alive
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kness. While the two people in the next room were laughing at us.

After Miguel picked up the roll of film I cut the end off, attached it to the reel and handed it back over to Miguel so he could do his job of twisting the film onto the reel. I started working on the second roll of film and this time I didn’t drop it so that was good, but I did rip part of the end off, which ended up being okay because there was nothing on that part. Before we knew it we had both rolls of film on the reels and we were ready to get started the development process.

That was the part that took the longest because there are so may steps you have to take and everything is timed, it’s just really time consuming. It also smells really gross…kind of like rotten eggs mixed with chemicals and it takes a long time to get the smell off of your hands. But getting to develop my own negatives was one of the coolest things I’ve ever done. I just hope next time I remember to fix the flash my camera because most of the film had a stripe down the side because the flash went off too quickly!

This past month has been so busy! So, I haven’t been able to actually blog for quite some time now. But I have been writing stuff down as it happens so I can blog about it later, so in the next couple of days you guys will be bombarded with blogs! You’ll get to hear about me getting to meet Nando Parrado, getting to meet Elmo and Cookie Monster, my first plane ride, the Journalism convention, my first time in the dark room and some other stuff too!

Last Thursday in my Fundamentals of Photography class, we were given the assignment to go on Sixth Street and find certain items listed on a sheet of paper our teacher gave us before we left.

Miguel had an interview for The Ranger he needed to get done before we left and since I’m not too familiar with Sixth Street, I stayed with him to help out so we could go there together. After the interview we got in my car and headed for our destination.

When we got there we immediately started taking photos. After we walked about a block or so, we found some of our classmates and asked them how many items they had found. While we were talking to them, I turned around and there was a man in a Gorilla suit standing at the other end of the street wanting us to go over there.

So, Miguel and I go over to him and take a couple of photos of him sitting on a bench, waiting for a bus, then we both posed for pictures with him and as we were trying to leave, he kept motioning for us to follow him.

I kept thinking to myself “I’m not following this crazy Gorilla guy! Where is he going to take us?!” But we followed him anyway and he opened the door to one of the shops on Sixth Street and motioned for us to go inside. At this point, of course I knew it was a stunt to get us to buy something, so we went inside and realized it was a little restaurant and when we walked toward the front. I saw Gelato and remembered seeing a feature story about Cowboy Gelato on the news a while back.

There was a guy standing in front of us wearing a red jacket tasting all the different flavors of Gelato so Miguel and I joined in the tasting. I had never had Gelato before but my friend who always used to go to Italy told me how phenomenal it was, so of course we had to get some!

The lady who was serving us was having a hard time getting the cones out for our order and she apologized for taking so long because she said they weren’t open yet. So of course, without even thinking, the first thing out of my mouth was “we followed the Gorilla and he told us to come in here…I’m sorry we didn’t know you weren’t open yet…the Gorilla made us do it!”

While we were waiting for my order of white chocolate Gelato and some concoction of two flavors mixed together that Miguel ordered, I realized more and more people were coming in this little restaurant and they were all wearing red blazers, I guess they were official taste testers or something.

After we got our Gelato, I made the suggestion that we should stay there and eat it so we wouldn’t get it all over ourselves. But we didn’t and we started off on our scavenger hunt again…Gelato in hand.

At the time, it didn’t seem like such a bad idea, until the Gelato started melting like crazy! Miguel had most of his eaten while I was still working on the top part of the cone. We kept finding more and more of the items we needed but it was harder to take photos now that we had our hands full.

Then Miguel was finished with his Gelato and mine was completely melted inside my cone. The paper with all the items on it was all sticky because I kept spilling Gelato everywhere. I looked down at one point and realized I poured Gelato all over my pant leg and shoe and when we got in my car to head back to AC I looked at my right shoulder and noticed I had it there too! I have no idea how I got Gelato all over me! So, as it turns out we should have just stayed and ate our Gelato at the restaurant like I suggested because I knew it would be messy…I just didn’t know it was going to be THAT messy!

 

At the end of October, the Journalism Department is planning to go to a convention in Austin. This is a huge deal! There are going to be thousands of colleges and Universities from all over the United States. I’ve only gone to one other Journalism convention because we took a van to Dallas and every other time; they fly to wherever they’re going. Out of fear I’ve always opted out of the plane ride and I’ve gotten teased for it every time. They know if we’re taking a plan, I’m staying in Amarillo.

So yesterday, I read an e-mail saying we MIGHT take a plan to Austin or we MIGHT drive! At the bottom of the e-mail it said something like “Maddisun, if we go by plane, we’re talking you into it.” Road trips don’t bother me; I just sleep the whole way there anyways. But, I’ve never ever stepped foot on a plan and that’s what I’m having trouble with. I’m just scared I’m going to get thousands of feel up in the air and want off the plane and I can’t just get off because I’m scared.

When I was in the 5th grade, my friend Mandy and I thought we wanted to ride the Pirate ship at Wonderland. So, we got on and at first everything was fine. About 45 seconds into the ride both of us were down in the seat screaming and my mom actually had to get the boy controlling the ride to stop it and let us off.

I’m pretty sure I’ll be fine, but there’s this little part of me that says I’ll freak out as soon as we take off and I’ll want to get off. I couldn’t get to sleep last night because all I could think about was the ride to Austin. My friend Miguel might also be going on this trip and he said the flight won’t take long, so I’m hoping it won’t. He’s making me feel more comfortable with going on the trip…I have to say whether or not I’m going for sure by Thursday, so I have a couple more days to come up with a definite answer…wish me luck convincing myself!!

About three weeks ago, my Public Relations and Publicity professor gave the class an assignment to get a Twitter account, follow five people and post five PR related tweets by the following Wednesday. We were also supposed to write a paragraph about our Twitter experiences and turn it in.

I wasn’t all too excited about the assignment mainly because I didn’t really find Twitter to be as amazing as people carry on about. My desk buddy Zack on the other hand was ecstatic. He immediately gave me his user name and told me to follow him. I wasn’t familiar with Twitter at all. I first heard about it last Spring when I had to make a wrap about Social Networking for the AC Report.

I’ve had Myspace and Facebook accounts for three years now, but I hadn’t had the urge to get a Twitter, even though my friend Joey harassed me all summer to get one. I’ve heard from several people that Twitter is basically status updates like on Myspace and Facebook. But my status updates usually consist of random song lyrics I have stuck in my head. So, I didn’t know how to incorporate PR in there for the assignment.

So, I basically promoted the AC Blog in my first tweet. That same day I kept thinking about what my next tweet was going to be and when I was going to be able to post it. I couldn’t wait to get to a computer so I could tweet. Then I found out that I could send tweets from my phone by texting them to my profile. So, of course I was Über excited about that, because this meant I could tweet at Wal*Mart if I wanted to!

I started to feel that song Andy Milonakis sings “Let me Twitter Dat” was about me. However, I don’t get document EVERYTHING that I do throughout the day like he does…“I just woke up…Ayy, let me Twitter dat. Just took a hot shower…Ayy, let me Twitter dat. I’m feeling real crazy, I might get a haircut…Ayy let me Twitter dat.” The song is pretty hilarious!

One day, I was trying to get a hold of Joey so I could interview him for a package I was working on for The Ranger and I couldn’t get in touch with him, it was like we were playing phone tag! So, I posted a Tweet that said something to the effect of “Joey!!! Answer your phone, I need to talk to you now!!!” Within five minutes, he called me. So, I guess that proves Twitter isn’t just my new best friend.