The Guardians of My Workstation

This will be an interesting blog. I promise.

But first, a rant.

Ahem.

I hate mornings.

Before I launch into my bitter and cynical rant, I will have you know that I am writing this blog during class.

My class has no computers.

That's right...I am actually physically writing this out by hand and am going to transcribe it later when I'm in front of a computer.

Anyway, last night I didn't crawl into bed until about 1:00, and I didn't turn off the lights until about 1:30 (I read 1984 for a bit....good book - I would recommend it.) Anyway, just before I went to bed I set my alarm for 7:00. My class doesn't start until 9:55. My rationale behind setting it early is the fact that I can either get up at 7:00 and do work (unlikely) or when it goes off I can promptly reset it for a couple hours later so it feels like I'm sleeping in (likely.)

So at 1:30 I set my alarm for 7:00, double check it and turn off the lights. I being dozing off, but I somehow manage to triple check my alarm clock to make sure it is set (and turned on) for 7:00 AM.

Fast forward to about 4:00 in the morning when I wake up hacking my lungs out, and get up to get a glass of water.

Fast forward a bit more to 9:45 when my body realizes that it has been sleeping too long and decides to wake up.

Somehow between me setting my alarm, destroying my lungs, and waking up, one tiny little button on my alarm got flicked off and let me sleep. I do not know how this happened. My theory is that I was dreaming about something (perhaps lucidly) and turned it off without realizing it. In any case, this was a huge inconvenience (see two paragraphs down.)

Now, I am not a morning person, and my first thoughts in the morning are usually very violent and aimed towards my alarm clock. Today these thoughts were multiplied by like, a thousand!

Now picture this: a high-maintenance, uptown girl such as myself has approximately 10 minutes to:
a) do her hair
b) make sure she doesn't smell
c) find an outfit
d) do her makeup
e) grab books, coat, and key
f) get down the elevator
g) run across the flooded parking lot and through three different sections of the college
h) run up two flights of stairs
i) find a seat and return heart rate to normal

I made it (though it was the most lenient teacher, who doesn't take attendence) and sorta half listened to him lecture on the history of sound and technicolor.

Oh...to make my day better, there is a snag in the plans for one of the crew projects I am currently working on. Basically we had to shoot a 1-minute scene and hand it off to another crew and get them to edit it for us (so we would learn how to shoot for the editor (making the editors life easier, while making the story work.))

The plan was for me to do pre-production (storyboards, scripting, etc.), two other people do the camera work, and another two people do the editing.

So even though I am sick and dying in bed I get my stuff done (and do an AMAZING job if I do say so myself) and take it to the shoot, which was yesterday. Now, one girl can't make it to the shoot because she is at the hospital (nothing bad, just something she needed checked out) but the three other people and myself are there. I had planned to act, and let someone deal with the camera, but the two people who were supposed to do the camera stuff took the acting jobs so I got stuck doing two major jobs now. To make matters worse the third person (coincidentally the one I complained about yesterday for doing nothing) does nothing but hold the freakin' slate (holds it wrong and I have to keep reminding her to change it between shots.) To make a long story short, everything gets done and it gets handed off to the other group, and we get the one we are supposed to edit.

Today the girl is in class (back from the hospital) and I give her the stuff to edit (with the girl who held the slate and kept telling us she was all about the editing, and that it was what she really wanted to do.) The girl who I gave the tape to looks at me incredulously and asks me if I expect her to do it herself. I inform her that this other girl will help her. She tells me that this other girl has informed her that "she isn't going to edit because she was at the shoot."

(insert violent words here)

HOLDING THE SLATE DOES NOT COUNT AS A JOB! I COULD TRAIN A MONKEY TO HOLD A SLATE BETTER!

I don't think I can deal with it anymore. The funny thing is, we're not even getting marked on this project...it's all participation marks...and this girl is going to get as good a mark for something I put a whole heck of a lot of work into.

When I am the big bad boss I am going to fire people like this...the ones who don't get it and who are wasting space in a high-intensity and time consuming profession.

Anyway, I think it's time to get to the point of this blog. I would like to introduce you to:

"The Guardians of My Workstation"

These are the guys that watch me while I work and provide company (and something to talk to) when there is no one on MSN, and no one hanging aimlessly around the hallway. They are the reason I am still (mostly) sane from day to day.

This is Buddy Christ (yes, from the Dogma movie.) Just look at that huge grin and reassuring wink and thumbs up. He inspires me to trudge along in time of great pain and trouble. Amen to you, Buddy Christ. AMEN!



This is obviously Yoda. Jay bought him for me when we were on our first date. We were in this comic book shop and they have this counter full of action figures you can buy, but the thing is you can't tell what is in the box...it's a surprise until you buy it and open it. I told Jay that he didn't need to buy me one, and I was worried that I would get Yoda (Yoda frightens me because he is a weird puppet with a creepy voice.) But there were 6 characters in total, so the odds were on my side that I wouldn't get Yoda (and might get Hans Solo...so hot!) Well, he bought it for me and I got...well...you know the end of the story. I guess this Yoda isn't too bad. He's got the sick lightsaber and will save me if anyone tries to attack me.



This is Bubbles. Bubbles is pink and happy. Bubbles sings and dances and plays games when you press the buttons on the base of the tube of water that she sits in. Her songs make me smile and giggle.



This is Jamie. I don't know if Jamie is a boy or a girl, so I gave it a non-gender specific name. Jamie is an art doll that I can look at and use as a reference for my storyboard drawings (my drawings aren't any better, but the Jamie is still cool.) Right now it is opening it's arms as a symbol reminding me that there are endless opportunities at my fingers tips, and if I open my eyes I will see the light. (Actually, I just made that up now...I sorta just arranged the joints in a way so it looked pretty.)

Anyway, this has turned out to be a very long blog entry. I hope most of you are still reading.

And this is the long blog end.