Signing off.

I got home about an hour ago from recording with Andy, Dave and Dylan. And let me just say - it was an absolute blast. I'm very pleased that everyone decided that Dylan and I should do our stories together, because after we both read ours for the recordings, Andy had us talk back and forth to compare stories of our upbringings in small towns versus the big city, aka, Fort Wayne. Andy doesn't know if he's going to use the dialogues that he recorded for that, but in any case, it was still really fun to be recorded. We were all cracking jokes the entire time through to lighten the mood, which was a bit strenuous, I might add.

Walking into the recording studio for the first time was very intimidating. I followed Dave through the doors and was greeted with the huge amount of recording systems. Speakers, microphones, you name it were abound in the room. Dave told me I could sit anywhere with a mic, and he would go get me a cup of water for the recording. Dylan and Andy showed up then, and by that time, I was already on my second page of my script. I kept screwing up out of nervousness, but then eventually calmed down and just had fun with it. I'm a bit worried that I come off really monotone and boring, but in the same instance, I feel like it came out well. To be honest, I'm really just happy that the recording part is complete. It was lots of fun, much more than what I was expecting, but it's a load off of my mind to have it out of the way.

After we both recorded our narratives (which Andy hacked and slashed, by the way, for time restraints), Dave wanted to try something different with the two of us. He instructed us, at different times, to say certain things, or express and shout words or sounds. He recorded these in hopes of inserting them into both mine and Dylan's narratives as a way to express underlying thoughts or moments to set the scenes. It'll be interesting to see how this pans out because he has me speaking in parts of Dylan's script, while Dylan is speaking in places in mine. Andy also loaned his voice for these little recorded quirks, so I'm very stoked to see the final outcome. Andy and Dave said they'd probably have the finalized recordings done by either tomorrow or Wednesday, but I'm hoping sometime tomorrow so I can get the recording mp3 into Professor Cain in time for the final portfolio.

I'm really hoping to get this all done and completed at the same time, but since Citizen Wayne people got an extension to turn in the portfolio, I'm not so worried about it anymore. It would be nice to have it all done for the finalized date, though. We'll see. Andy and Dave both said they are going to stay late tonight in order to finish things up with everyone's narratives, and they are expecting another Citizen Wayne-r to come in tomorrow night for recording, whoever that might be.

All in all, the recording went very well, and I'm happy to have it done. It was a total blast to be in the station with Andy and Dave and to get this project underway. It was a fantastic experience, something that I hope to continue with in the future since that is the path of Journalism that I hope to take in my future - that being radio or television. So it was pretty cool to get to have the feeling and experience of that already. Hopefully I can take this experience and use it to my best advantage in the future!

In terms of the final project, I (surprisingly) had a very good time with it. I wasn't expecting to have fun seeing as how there was such a large workload put onto us and with crucial time restraints, but I got everything done on time and (soon) will have everything turned in and ready to go. Once I get the actual mp3 from Andy and Dave, I will listen to it and possibly burn it to a CD in order to turn in, but if it's not done on time, I might get one copied for my exit conference - we'll see.

So, I guess this is a conclusion to my blog posts. I hope what I have here kind of sums up my experiences with the final project, and what I have gotten out of it. I realize I complained about things through the majority of it, but never once did I ever doubt things getting done, or the way things would turn out. I was really just stressed out because of the time restraints placed on us (which are understandable), all of my other classes homing in on me and Andy's delay in replying to us via email. But it all got worked out, and I'm pleased with the end result. Now to finish up the portfolio for turn in tomorrow afternoon, and I'm all set.

Thanks for the fun times, and doing this Citizen Wayne project was a fantastic and fun way to get my experiences out to the Fort Wayne community. :)

- Dan

On and on and on...

Ah, finally. The date for the recording is set, and we're scheduled to go in for recording tomorrow (Monday) at 8:30pm. I'm still sacrificing some moolah from my job, but I don't really care at this point. I just want to get this final project completed on time and done well. I'm so close to having this semester under me, I can taste it! ...and it doesn't taste so good.

Anyway, this isn't another rehash entry like the past couple of them seem to be. And I'm certainly not going to complain all throughout this one. Instead, I'm going to start my annotated bibliography in a very ROUGH DRAFT-y sort of way. As in, I have no idea how to set this up, but I'm going to toss out my sources in this entry to keep this on subject.

I first used my old roommate, Andrew Stackhouse(in the narrative, I refer to him as "Cody"), a senior alongside me here at IPFW. We're still good friends, so it made it easy to get some quotes and memories and whatnot from him to use in the narrative. He was a good sport about the whole thing, even though I tend to poke fun at him through the whole thing. It's cool, though.

So, I guess I'd set this up like this:

Stackhouse, Andrew. "Quote, quote, quote, blah, blah, blah."

Meh, I don't really know. If that isn't right, I'll have to just look it up on Google or something. Regardless, my other quotes came from my friend Tasha Truelove (referred to in the story as "Amanda," I believe). And some others came from the IPFW housing campus administrator, my old resident assistant, etc.

So...

Stackhouse, Andrew. "............................."

Taylor, Krystal. "..............."

Truelove, Tasha. "................."

Warner, Molly. "...................."

City of Denver (?)

Other such assorted things (?)

Uh, what exactly am I to include in this annotated thing? I don't really even know how to set these up, let alone what to put in them. That's kind of pathetic for an English major in his final year of schooling, huh?

I came into this entry anticipating setting up my entire bibliography, but that obviously didn't work, and now I'm out of time with this. I'll have to come back tomorrow and set it up, and I'll let you know how the recording with Andy and Dylan turned out. Also, tomorrow marks the date that I have to finish up the portfolio, and the blog entires, as well as almost everything else on the planet. We'll see how this goes! Wish me luck!

More

One of my classes was cancelled today so, since it was such a beautiful day out, I decided to park my car at my apartment and take a stroll around my neighborhood. I walked all up and down Hobson Road, nearly getting hit by multiple cars as I passed the major roads that crossed. I still don't understand the basics of crosswalks and stop lights, thanks to my upbringing in a tiny town that didn't have any of those things. But anyway, I ended up on Crescent Avenue at some point, and then on Anthony Boulevard, and Coliseum, etc. I literally walked everywhere around my apartment complex within a six mile radius. It was a really nice walk, and I took in the scenery around me. Although it wasn't much, it was still Fort Wayne, so it related to my Citizen Wayne project.

Anyway, I got a hold of Andy, and I guess Dylan and I are to record our narratives this upcoming Monday night. I originally wanted to do it Tuesday night, but the actual portfolio is due that afternoon, thus causing problems with the reflection paper. And Dylan didn't want to hassle with writing half of the paper, then coming back to it later on, which I can't blame him. I didn't really want to do that either, but seeing as how I have to work on Monday night, I didn't have any other options. Until I decided to just call in sick.

Yes, I'm giving up money to do this recording. Something that I'm not insanely happy about doing, but something that has to be done anyway. I guess. There isn't any other time to do it - I have a crammed weekend ahead of me. I have to go back to my hometown to visit the family that I haven't seen since Christmas, I have to finish up a zillion other papers for other classes, I have to get stuff going with the portfolio, I HAVE TO WORK. It's all so much to cram into a weekend. It's really getting pathetic. I want to get this Citizen Wayne project done, and I want to do it well, but these time restraints are killing me. Wah, wah, wah, can I possibly complain anymore than what I've been doing in these past couple of blogs? For real. I need someone to smack me.

It'll get done, and I'll do it well. Forget work - this week is Citizen Wayne.

Moving Forward

We did our final project presentations in class last week, which came as a total shock to me. I had no idea we had to present what we were going to do, and what we had already found, to the class. However, I threw together a nice PowerPoint presentation (if I do say so myself) real quick-like and told the class what was up.

Since the presentation, I have done some more research for my Citizen Wayne findings, but alas, not much is able to be used. I'm honestly having trouble trying to relate my findings back to my narrative and my script since the whole thing is basically from my point of view. But regardless, I'm sure I'll find some spiffy way to do so. I have talked to a couple of different people for my piece, including my old roommate (the one that I actually still talk to, not the horribly weird one), and some other friends from my past that I got reconnected with in order to get some quotes and what not that I can use for my annotated bibliography thing. I still don't really know how that is supposed to be set up, but that's nothing that the internet can't help me with.

These darn time constraints for this project are starting to really wear on me, though. Andy set up a Doodle.com or whatever thing to get all of us Citizen Wayners a time to record, and I think Dylan and I are set up for next Tuesday at 8:30 or something at night. I don't really know how that is going to pan out, though. I'm very much stressed out because I have a ton of other projects and reports that need to get done for the end of the semester, and now we have a final portfolio to put together. I'm just... ugh. Stressed out! But I know this will come together. All I really need to do is continue with the recording, get that done and figured out (which I think should only take one try, right?), write up the reflection essay (which will be a breeze), and whatever else the portfolio includes. I don't really know the full extent of it all, but it'll all come together. I have - what? - a week to get this all done? Gah, no wait, the portfolio is due on Tuesday. And I record Tuesday night. Ahhhh, I don't know how this all is going to get done. I wish Andy would have gotten on the recording process a bit earlier, or the portfolio were pushed back a bit. I really don't want to have to write up the reflection paper, but then end it short and go back later after the recording to write it. Ugh, whatever. It'll get done. Right? Right.

Anyway, it's coming together. Slowly, but surely. I have a bit of the bibliography complete (aka, none of it - just word of mouth), but the narrative is complete. The actual script itself isn't done yet, or even started, but I figured I could complete that after the recording process with Andy is done and over with. That way I'll know where the music and the sound effects and whatever else will be placed in the script. I can't possibly write that up beforehand, I don't think.

Can you tell I'm stressed out?

Updates

Nice. I have the script all typed out and everything now, as of two days ago. I think it's how I'd like it to be, but at this point, I don't even know what Andy is expecting from me. I am a bit unnerved knowing that another student and I have a ton of similarities in our scripts, even to the point of having a character named an almost identical name. How in the heck did that happen - what are the odds? At any rate, I think he's changing some of his stuff, while I'm leaving mine be. We'll see, I guess.

Anyway, I added in some parts to the script to kind of balance it all out. I discussed a conversation I had a few years back with a friend of mine (who became my roommate as seen in the script) while we were downtown about how I had no idea where I was going in the "great big city" of Fort Wayne. I mentioned how he mocked me a bit since he hailed from a large city in Ohio and how I came from a nearly miniscule town in southern Indiana. I think it added some balance. I also ditched my previous idea of talking completely about myself and my past in favor of talking about Fort Wayne aspects a bit. Subtle things such as having to pick up the pace of my walking speed, and rude customers and such. I think it adds a bit more feel to the piece, but I guess we'll see what Andy and Prof. Cain have to say about it. I hope it's going well, at least.

I haven't got a date set up with Andy yet to record... I guess I have to wait for him to read my script (which I think he got late - I hate IPFW's email system!) and then reorganize it or whatever before we get a date set up. Ughhh, such a hassle. I'm stressing out since I have a bazillion other things due in the coming weeks. It's all so overwhelming because of the time restraints. Oh well, I can only complain so much, huh?

Until next time... Fingers crossed that I get a date for recording set soon!

And so it starts.

I've started this blog a few days late. Five, to be exact. I had all intentions on starting my final project blog on April 1st, just so it'd all make sense in the end, and I could have an entire month's worth of writing. However, that didn't happen, so I'm beginning it today - the first Monday of the month. I may just end up blogging on the project every Monday from here on out to keep this functioning, unless otherwise noted.

Anyway, to being this, I have to be honest. My final narrative for the Citizen Wayne project isn't even completed yet. I'm starting to get a bit worried by the time restraints as they are definitely coming up quickly. I have until next Tuesday to get the final narrative into Andy and Prof. Cain, but that's all the while juggling five other classes and a heavy workload to boot. And that same week (next week, gah!) I'm to have a date set up with Andy to get the audio recorded. So much to do in such a short amount of time. I'm starting to freak myself out, but just taking things one step at a time always helps to ease the nerves.

As for what I do have done with the narrative, I have the first couple of pages typed up. I have chronicled the first day of my college life, talking about moving my belongings to Fort Wayne from Peru, Indiana, and moving into my new dorm building. I have already typed out the first meeting with my roommate of the time, and how I was less than impressed with who I'd be sharing my living arrangements with for the remainder of the year. That part of the narrative has already taken up a lot of space, what with the dialogues and the "setting up the scene," if you will. Hopefully this narrative doesn't turn into a fifty page piece. Fingers crossed.

I will continue to update this weekly, or if anything else life-changing (as far as the Citizen Wayne piece is concerned) happens to spring up. I will also be detailing my upcoming experiences with the recording of the piece with Andy and all that other stuff that is coming up within the coming weeks. Stay tuned.