Making Pancake Batter from Pancakes

I think it is safe to say most individuals are familiar with the saying making lemonade out of lemons.  Basically, it means find the good in a bad situation and that is what I did, but in this story there wasn’t a lemon in sight.

Five close friends and I gathered around a Denny’s table about four years ago. I came to eat breakfast and they came to see the show.  We all ordered our own Grand Slam, which came equipped with three eggs, two bacon, two sausage, hash browns, toast and three pancakes. The guys new two important thing about me that day: one, I rarely backed down and two, I hate pancakes especially with syrup. 

Just about the time I had finished my meal I was feeling comfortably full. Then out of nowhere I was challenged to a $50 bet. The stipulations of the bet were for me to consume my pancakes along with everybody else’s. There were a total of 15 pancakes, submerged in a pool of disgustingly slimy syrup, and I was only offered 20 minutes to finish. I’m not sure if I agreed because of the money or the challenge itself. 

Minutes into eating the Baby-Jessica-sized-mountain of pancakes I knew I would have to complete the task at any cost. Half way through, I felt my stomach pleading for me to stop. I thought to myself, “Shut up, stomach, we are going to finish it”!  Near the last two pancakes I noticed I had lost my ability to produce saliva. Facing great adversity and pain I gathered myself, sat up with perfect posture and swallowed every last bite of pancake down with a sip of water. 

Although, all my normal bodily functions began to fail me, I never gave up.  Upon feeling the final bite enter my stomach I knew something had to give. My friends were astonished that I had accomplished the unthinkable and with one minute to spare. I gave a quick bow (bad idea) and ran to the bathroom to pay tribute to the porcelain gods.  This story is the reason why I now use the motto: make pancake batter out of pancakes. Everyone out there gets an opportunity to make his or her own pancake batter once in awhile; I suggest you go for it.  

If I Could Go Back to the Future I'd do It All the Same

What’s black, white and covered in red ink? The answer to this great riddle will have to come at the end of this passage. As for now, I have to get something off my chest. Throughout my educational history I’ve come to the realization that I can not complete and assignment unless the deadline is uncomfortably near. 

When the pressure is on, I am on fire like those hand-rolled “cigarettes” hippies used to smoke atop the César Chavez Student Center.  Seriously, there is nothing better then experiencing the crunch of a deadline, putting pen to paper and just hammering it (an assignment) out. You know what? Perhaps, it is my lust for deadlines that’s lead me to aspire for a career in the extremely fast paced media industry. If and when I start my career in the media industry, my procrastination will have better prepared to handle the day to day pressure of “getting the story.”

Once more I pose the question, what’s black, white and covered in red ink? The answer: my papers. Nobody likes to procrastinate, although we all do it. Nearing the end of my stay here at SFSU I have come to grips with my obsession to race against the clock. I now know what it takes as well as how long it takes to turn a story. And guess what? Oops, I did it again.

 

 

The Other Four-Letter Word

I’m sure I’m not alone when I say life can be overly scrutinized. Work, school, internships, and no fun make Jack a dull boy; you know? Fortunately, there are those of us who will have fun at any cost, or at no cost. What follows is a story of one of those unique few who really just do not give a F@$&.

It happened last summer. Since then, my co-worker, the Guy, has been “let go” making my job less interesting. (visit: http://wherethereisawrongthatiswhereiwrite.blogspot.com/2008/09/student-at-work.html, for my take on jobs vs. careers) He was built like a fridge, but instead of being covered with magnets he was covered by self-inflicted tattoos. I remember he would show up at work with a fresh tat and say, “Check it out, you like?” Then I looked down at his leg and there it was a huge pirate ship covering his entire calf.

Moving along, again it was last summer. We were at work and it had been mind numbingly slow. The Guy’s attitude wouldn’t allow another boring day to pass. He needed to shake things up and that is exactly what he did.

Later that day I was standing near the walk-in-fridge and Stacey reached for the door. On the other side of Stacey the Guy stood with an anticipatory look on his face. As Stacey grasped the handle of the walk-in his gaze turned to excitement. Confused, I glanced upward to a bucket resting atop the fridge door. At this point it was too late for me to do anything but stair with the same excitement as the Guy. Stacey opens the door and the bucket dumps what looked to be a pound of oregano on her head.

There it is; we all had a hearty laugh. The Guy did it again. He had turned the mundane day into a moment of pure joy, and with what? A bucket and the spirit to enjoy life. It should be no surprise we all have people in our lives who truly do not give a F@$&! That F might stand for one specific four-letter word this time, but it also stands for another: FREE. I think there is a moral to this story. I guess the moral is people shouldn't always take themselves so seriously and enjoy life’s simple FREE-doms.

24/7 Surveillance

The topics of internet surveillance and privacy are dear to my heart. Within the last few
months my parental unit left me an article about internet surveillance and the possible affect it
might have on future employment opportunities. I know not why this article was sitting idly on
the center of my desk, but I read it anyway.

The article, a few pages long, was ripped from a random periodical and left where it could not be avoided, as if to secretly tell me she’s seen pictures of me drinking various alcoholic concoctions in precarious situations on someone’s FaceSpace. More specifically, the article focused on social networking sites such as MySpace.com and Facebook.com. These social networking sites themselves are not the problem. The problem is the content many users choose to upload on their personal page, even then so-called friends can add photos of you on their page without your consent. With this in mind, should it be important to employers what we do in our own free time? Why must we constantly be looking over our shoulder on and off line?

Background checks consisting of criminal records, previous employment and drug screening have become standard for most employers. It seems employers aren’t satisfied to leave it at that. Now many employers are expanding their research on prospective employees by going
to the internet.

I guess it makes some sense that our personal lives are of interest to employers, considering the current state of the economy. Cost effective hiring will be of utmost importance for companies in our failing economy. No money can be spared for those who aren’t prepared to work 24/7. And if becoming straight edge is what is required by employers then call me Minor Threat’s Ian MacKaye.

Keep it Neutral

If you are anything like the majority of Californians today, then you must be a fan of the first
amendment to the constitution: Freedom of Speech. This amendment allows Americans to say
what we want within reason. Net neutrality is very similar to our basic right of Freedom of
Speech. Net neutrality endows internet users the right to use what web sites they prefer when
they deem it necessary and without regulating processing time. Although many avid internet users may not have heard of Net neutrality before, it has been in use equally as long as the World Wide Web itself.

Recently, the issue of net neutrality has come to the attention of Congress and the FCC by lobbyist working for Fund-using-corporate-kings. Since these “f-u-c-k’s” are never satisfied with their bank roll they continue to squeeze every last dollars from our empty pockets.

If “f-u-c-k’s” such as AT&T, Comcast, Verison and Time Warner have their way with the internet we will be paying butt-loads of money in order to access the internet. Internet bills will begin to look more like your cable bills. Instead of paying one flat rate for overall access to the internet, you will have to pay by specific packages. Having access to the entire internet will no longer be a standard it would be the premium package.

When on the web, we will experience: corporate favoritism of their own search engine, automatic redirects and unregulated processing control. The latter of the three is most upsetting. Say you want to access a site you frequent on a regular basis. Upon entering the URL it takes two times as long for the site to open then it usually would. The slowing or blocking of web sites could become a reality if the site you want to access happens to be a competitor of “f-u-c-k’s”.

What does this mean for the job market? For smaller sites, like the companies we (College Students) might find entry level video production gigs could be subject to harsh internet tactics.

Steal the Booty

While I began to wrap my head around the free culture movement / digital rights
management topic, it became clear we have another David vs. Goliath story on our hands. Profit margins reign supreme in our commercially driven society. Those of us who can’t and wont produce a profit will be denied certain privileges. One such privilege “allows” (not really)
internet users to “acquire” (torrent) specific software which has become some what of an
industry standard. Unfortunately, most software for example the Final Cut Studio 2 costs
somewhere in the ball park of $1,300, and that is before shipping and handling! I don’t know
about you, but this software alone almost costs as much as my computer.

Yes, these applications are astronomically expensive, but there is an even bigger issue
here, media proficiency. Many if not all media employers searching for new recruits request that you have proficiencies in: Final Cut Pro, Motion, After Effects, Avivd, Soundtrack, etc. This
adds a catch 22 to the mix of finding your next great gig. You know the ever elusive dream job
we all hope to find after graduating with our B.A.’s.

The choice, for myself is simple. I will no longer be your average student. I will take on
a new identity or a new title with harsh connotation. I will be a pirate! We should all climb
aboard the free culture movement vessel. As students we can not let anything stand in our way to complete our voyage into the future, our voyage towards our careers. And maybe one day down the road the title pirate might be changed to reverse consumer and we can make a whole new career option. Exactly the way hackers got their careers as reverse engineer. Maybe this is just wishful thinking.

Democrazy

Since the advent of the red camera, high quality video has yet to be so affordable. Of course I use the term affordable loosely. Affordable, meaning if you have a few thousand dollars to flush down the drain and can still, you know, pay rent or buy food. Everybody knows what I’m taking about, those frivolous things we can’t help but splurge on a couple days out of every month. For those of us unable to afford such equipment, we have had to download, patch and torrent our way to quality footage worthy of our re-edits.

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/larry_lessig_says_the_law_is_strangling_creativity.html


Re-edits bring another obstacle to the challenge of recreating new content. Larry Lessig, raised a valid point during his presentation at the 2007 TED gathering in Monterey, California. The idea consisted of copyrighted video and democracy. More specifically the use of commercially made video content re-edited to birth entirely new non-commercial content with new messages. Lessig, closed his presentation with a look into the future where he described a proposed law which would automatically remove any YouTube content made from copyrighted material.

This might not seem to be a big deal, but the reality of the situation is we are media students. As students, we look at the bigger picture. We stare into the future wondering what it has in store for us. And the grim picture Lessig foreshadows could very well thwart our ability to post our reels online. These days many employers request a resume, cover letter and a link to your reel. It is in these reels where we showcase our post production expertise to prospective employers. Without the ability to post our reels somewhere online for prospective employers to see, how will we be able to prove what we ‘ve got to offer?

We must stand up for ourselves and more importantly for the content we create or better yet re-create. Cameras, lighting equipment and locations are equally expensive as they are difficult to acquire. Why not use what footage others have created and re-edit it, it is not plagiarism. It is not stealing. We have to work with what we’ve got when we’ve got it. Let’s exercise our democratic right and continue to pursue those careers.