Keeping Up With New Media

It's been much too long since I posted anything, but for the past two months I have been soaking up information from Social Media Week, SXSW and the Spring DEMO Conference. Communication is advancing at an incredible rate and it has sparked a burst of creativity in me. My mind has been generating many ideas and I have been busy trying to document them all.
In the midst of all this, I have updated a proposal to Gateway Hemophilia Association that would establish a social media strategy and plan for their organization. I am anxious to contribute to the advocacy and fundraising efforts of the hemophilia community, as well as to the support of its members. Next month, I will be attending the Hemophilia Federation of America Symposium in Louisville and I'm looking forward to meeting everyone I've been interacting with on Facebook and Twitter.

I Graduated. Now What?

It seems as if I have been going non-stop since 2008. Rather than taking a break the last two summers of my college career, I opted to take classes, including a 12-hour course load this past summer. I have no idea how I survived... especially with as little sleep as I had. I recall dreaming of the day when I wouldn't have a paper or project due. In mid-December that day came. It did not usher in the era of anti-stress that I had envisioned though. Rather, my papers and projects have merely been replaced with other to-do items.

Immediately after graduating I had a lot of packing to do. I moved back to St. Louis, Mo., at the end of December. I was excited to make it back for the holidays, but the lack of sleep and high levels of stress contributed to a poor immune system and I was sick over the holidays. I'm not sure I ever fully recovered, because the skies kept dumping more snow and I kept going outside to shovel it.

Anyway, I have been looking for a position in the hemophilia community, because I am passionate about helping the community. I am anxious to get to work and am beginning to get restless. I managed to keep busy with projects around the house, but as that list is diminishing, I am wondering: Now what?
I am planning to become ACE certified as a Video Specialist, studying more social media strategy and learning to develop iPhone and iPad apps.

Busy, Busy, Busy

School, work, family... what else can I possibly have time for? Volunteering to shoot the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame Golf Tournament at Sand Creek Station in Newton, Kansas... that's what. Yes, I am very busy, but last friday I drove up to Newton to spend a day on the golf course. I had a great time and a great conversation with Ralph Terry, a pitcher from Larned that played for the NY Yankees and won two games, including a complete game, four-hitter, in Game 7 of the 1962 World Series to win the championship. Did I mention he was named MVP of the series? He has a great sense of humor and is extraordinarily nice. By the way, he became a professional golfer after baseball and last friday his team won the golf tournament I shot. Anyway, I have a lot of footage to watch and edit into a short piece for the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame Web site.

Today I met Craig Barton, the son of W. Frank Barton (as in the W. Frank Barton School of Business at WSU). I went to shoot a Signal Society spot for KPTS. Craig is a great guy and extremely down-to-earth. He had several autographed photos and magazine covers with famous golfers and U.S. presidents in his office, along with oil paintings of late-18th/early-19th century period scenes. He loves history and values the historical programming that KPTS offers. It was a great experience. I'm pretty sure that he is the wealthiest man I have ever shaken hands with.

Tomorrow I continue training. I am learning to direct the Sedgwick County Commission meetings for KPTS. I hope to direct this show and many others someday in the near future, so I am trying to learn as much as possible.

I also love spending time with my family. On Tuesday and Thursday evenings, my daughters have gymnastics classes on the opposite end of town. This will be the first saturday that my boys do not have soccer games, however I have a final exam at 8am, then I will be operating one of the cameras at the WSU baseball game that afternoon. On the weekends we all (Amber and I, two boys, two girls and one dog) spend time together, so I keep pretty busy trying to juggle all of these responsibilities.