The end of an era

It's still hard to believe that after 20 long years, the Barenaked Ladies are losing their main frontman...their main voice. It's obvious that it ties into Page's cocaine arrest, but to know that their next album won't feature his unforgettable voice is hard to imagine.

I wish I knew more of the facts so I could understand the entire situation. But, unfortunately, this kind of thing happens a lot in the music industry. Bands change singers, drummers, etc. all the time. People leave or get tired of the lifestyle. It happens, I know. It's just the change that's always hard to accept...at first.

Will this stop me from wanting to hear a new BL song without Page's vocals? No, probably not. It'll be interesting to see where they go from here. But it will be hard to get used to for quite a while. I grew up on these guys. I can't take this change lightly. We shall see...

One more project to go... Just one more project to go...

Well, sort of. I'm sitting here in the TV lab, waiting for a slew of high school students to come in for "Student For A Day." It's the third one I've had to show up for. I say "had to" because this is pretty much an all-day thing, meaning, no classes. The other part of that "had to" meaning that I have yet another project to do.

Another multimedia one that I've, once again, put off almost to the last minute. But with my doc out of the way, I get to spend all day today working on this. And on the even brighter side, once I also fix up my doc, I'm done...until the end of March Break. Still, yay!

Luckily, this one covers an event, so there's plenty of audio and photo ops. This makes my job much, MUCH easier, aside from having to put it all together. But until they come, all I can really do is just wait...

Speaking out on Sunday's bus crash

Everybody's has been talking about this tragedy this entire week. My prayers and thoughts go out to the families and those on the bus who were affected by the accident. Nobody should have to go through something like that, on both sides.

Even though I wasn't directly involved (meaning, I didn't see anything), my bus was called to try and help out the passengers. We were delayed by an hour to see if we could pick anyone up. Unfortunately, we had about half a bus full of people, so there wasn't enough room for us to load all 38 passengers. 

We were forced to make the trip to Fredericton, where I transferred onto the Orleans Express bus to continue on to Woodstock. My previous bus, now empty, then made the trip back to the scene to pick up everyone.

It was a surreal night. No one was sure how to react when our driver got the call and told us the news. Of course, we all felt bad for Mr. Porter and his sons, even though at the time, all we knew was that a car had hit the bus. But even then, it was a horrible thing to know. I don't think it really sunk in for me until I heard about the kids, and then it was cemented last night when my mom told me how frantic everyone was, thinking at first before the news came out that it had been MY bus.

Again, my prayers and thoughts go out to everyone affected by this traumatic event. 

Crunch time

So, once again we've been given another day's extension on our documentaries. This fills me with much more confidence about getting mine done, despite the fact that I'm pretty much halfway there. 

If there's a few things this project has taught me:

1. I never, ever want to do docs for a career.

2. Procrastinating because you're feeling lazy is extremely tough to get over.

3. Hopefully, knowing what NOT to do, I'll be better prepared for... *sigh* the next one.

It's been a stressful ride, but knowing that I'm almost done makes me extremely relieved. At this point, it's all about getting it done and making sure it's decent. If I manage to do both, I'll be more than happy.

Is Valentine's Day too commercial? ...Why should I care?

I have never had a problem with the holiday, other than the fact that I'd spent every single one from the time I was born till now alone. Do I care? ...Not as much as I used to.

People always argue that, much like other holidays, Valentine's Day is becoming too commercial. I've never really had a firm stance on this. Why? ...Because I never cared.

I never once thought about how companies force the holiday upon us through advertising and selling "romantic" products. You get that sort of thing with every holiday. It's nothing new. Valentine's Day, to me, was just another random, slightly less important holiday. Oh, but one that meant getting chocolates...paid for either from my own pocket or my mom's.

But the main reason I never cared about those aspects of V Day is because something more important overshadows it all. V Day...is my birthday. That automatically shifts my focus away from the mushiness to the fact that I'm getting a year older. And then there's the presents. And cake. And general family celebration.

For me, V Day will always be birthday first, holiday second. And, in a sense, it also means I can indulge in eating chocolate for BOTH occasions. I think I'm starting to like getting old...

And now for something completely different...

I want to take a somber moment for once and reflect on the Australian bushfires that, even now, are still going. As I write this, police there continue to search for the arsonist that started the fires. They have a photo now of the suspected culprit. He's also assumed to be an Australian himself. 

What is it that drives people to do things like this? Because of one act, 181 innocent people are dead and thousands are homeless. It really sickens me to know people out there are willing and capable of committing such horrible crimes like this. And if this suspected arsonist really is an Australian, then it especially sickens me to know that one man would do something so despicable to his fellow countrymen.

I have a friend on Skype. He's not by any means a close friend, because we know each other strictly through a website. But he has been greatly affected by this. Why? Because he was literally in the line of fire. Yes, that's right. He's Australian. Thankfully, he and his family are okay. But my prayers still go out to him and everyone else who has been affected by the fires. May those who were lost live on in their memories and hearts.

It's official: TV's not for me

At least, not the filming/on camera part. Recently, due to me having to struggle to work on my doc, I've concluded that TV is definitely NOT something I want to pursue as a longtime career.

Oh sure, some aspects of it are fun. Editing can be, as long as the material is interesting. And the same goes for writing. But with the recent creative licence we've been given to do our docs, I just feel...lazy. I know that's redundant, because I've been trying not to feel that way since January, but it's true.

And I've figured out why. Last term, when we did news stories, there was a routine. A pattern. Once we did a couple, we knew what to expect from the rest. But now...we've been given all this free reign to film and be creative. Which, normally, I would LOVE to do. However...I've figured out that having this new ability to be entirely creative is hard to put into effect when you're too lazy to even FEEL creative.

Rest assured, this doc will get done. And hopefully by the time the next one rolls around, I'll actually feel creative enough to WANT to do it.

Hooray for the tubes! (Internet)

So, there's finally a plan in place to give all rural areas in NB high-speed internet. And I couldn't be happier about it.

Not that it affects me in any way, because back home, we live just within range to get Aliant's connection. No, I'm happy for my cousins leaving not even half a mile up the road from me. Aliant has been stingy with them. They can't get high-speed, yet they CAN get dial-up. I still really don't see how such a tiny distance between where our house is and theirs would make a difference. But, okay then.

Anyway, this new plan may help them solve that problem. Woodstock's own Barrett Xplore, an internet company, plans on using the 13 million dollars given to them by the government to expand their broadband access province-wide. Currently, 90% of the province has high-speed. If their plan succeeds, the entire province will soon be high-speed friendly.

There's no set date on when this will happen, but they want to set up towers by May 1 and have a fixed wireless service by July 2010. I know I'll be telling my cousins about this, so hopefully it WILL happen. It's time we caught up with the rest of the country technologically, and if this way works out, no one will have to be hearing those annoying, screechy dial-up tones ever again. And what a great day that will be.

Wow, my memory's bad.

This marks the second time I've had to blog on the deadline! Gah! ...But it has been a busy week for school work.

So, to update from my last project-filled post, I have now caught up on everything except for my documentary. It's also the one thing that's been causing me the most stress to work on/eventually finish. Luckily, we've been given a one-week extension, so that helped alleviate some of the stress.

You know, it's funny. When I tell people I'm doing these TV projects, they assume it's so easy for me now to go up and ask people for interviews. Obviously, this comes from the fact that they've seen my work and think I'm well-taught and stuff.

But if only they knew... No matter how well-trained you are for this stuff, it really comes down to the person you want to talk to. A major chunk of your story may ride on that one person, and if they refuse to appear on camera, that's it. Game over. Time to move on and figure out something else. A lot of people don't realize that fact, but it's one that constantly plagues me every time I have to do another project.

*sigh* But then you get over it or work around it. And luckily, for the most part, it'll still turn out pretty decent. So, I'll keep working away at this doc. And hope against hope that I can make it work.