Mother of the Year contest

This morning I had the pleasure of delivering hardbound copies of An Incredible Dream to every producer, and I'm not being sarcastic.  I love the smell of new books, I love the feeling of a book in my hands.  I love how you can read a book without feeling like you're staring at a floodlight; some of these big-screen HD computer monitors aren't far from it.  I opened up a bunch of boxes, stacked books on a cart, and noted the most witty quips from people who suspected this book was less of a gift and more of a merger hurdle.

Otherwise, I spent most of my time going through the nearly 10k submissions we received for our Mother of the Year contest.  I felt pretty bad judging people in the beginning, and ended up 'starring' one out of every twenty, until I learned that we should probably shoot for more like one out of seventy five.  It got easier after that, especially considering a good, clear picture is a must.  It sounds superficial, but TV is a visual medium - it would be different if it were a radio contest.  It began to be tough again after the 4th hour or so, I just couldn't help but feel a little down after reading submission after submission about moms with sicknesses or kids with sicknesses.  It makes me glad for my good health and my family's good health, because there are a lot of medical issues out there.

Fat Kitty Reincarnate and the Royal Wedding

We ran a story today on a cat named 'Meow' who weighs just under 30 lbs.  He was a chunky thing, and actually looked quite noble, despite the handler noting that fat animals are usually less happy than healthier, leaner ones.  This cat reminded me of the cat my family used to have as a kid - once called Tiptoes, then dubbed Fat Kitty once she became fat.  That cat was 6 months older than me, and it stayed that way until I was 10.  Some of my friends as a kid remember her sitting lethargically on some furniture in the basement, watching over us as we played N64.  This cat was up for adoption, and we only got one call about it.  Seems like pudgy cats don't have the draw that scruffy dogs do.

I spent some time today trying to get my resume from my crippled computer on to a computer here, to no avail.  My computer can't connect to the internet anywhere, and these computers don't recognize my hard drive, so I couldn't even do a little transfer that way.  I'll have to borrow my roommate's computer again and email myself the documents so I can access them at work.  I'm getting antsy - I want to apply for the page position ASAP, but technology's dark magic isn't having any of it.

I also stayed after 5 today to finish up some work - I had to record and copy the Royal Wedding special from last year.  It wasn't exactly work, I just had to mind the machine while it did everything.  There were no commercials (surprisingly) for the 2.5+ hours that I had to record, so I really didn't have to even stop and start to skip past them.  It was so long that it took three DVDs to finish.  I'll end up finishing it all around 8, which gives me enough time to visit the open gym back at the Y.  I missed playing basketball this weekend so I need my fix, especially after today.

Monday on the Moon

I spent nearly all of yesterday logging tapes about the Apollo XI moon mission.  I hadn't seen anything about the moon landing prior, the only thing that rung a bell was the classic "one small step for man...".   It was definitely interesting to see a new perspective - one from the late 60s, where mankind was taking its first attempts at expanding its influence past our atmosphere.  Plus they had no Internet, which is always weird to think about.

My roommate mentioned how alien life theorists classify sentient-life civilizations, from stage 1 to 4, based on how that civilization harvests energy for its own use.  Stage 1 civs harvest energy from their planet, stage 2, from their solar system, stage 3, from their galaxy, and so on.  The moon landing represents popping the bubble of stage 1, but we might actually be close to making strides in stage 2.

I read an article today about how some of the most capitalized entrepreneurs are investing in Planetary Resources, Inc., a company who aims to begin mining near-earth asteroids in the next couple decades.  It sounds illogical, but these asteroids are the homes of platinum and other platinum-like elements which we use in modern technologies like fuel cells, batteries and electronics. 

These elements are extremely rare on earth, which is part of the reason why these products are so expensive (and a big part of the reason why we don't have hydrogen fuel-cell cars yet, as the amount of these elements needed to produce one of these engines makes the venture not feasible).  However, scientists posit that most of these elements are so rare because they accumulated on the Earth's crust from asteroids-turned-meteorites pelting the surface over time.  And one of these near-earth asteroids is said to contain more platinum than the world as a whole mines in one year.

If Planetary Resources, Inc. goes public at any point, I would invest in it for sure. If anything, I'd want to help support a novel venture into Stage 2.  The article quotes some pretty high potential prices for the loads they could get from some of these asteroids, so I could enjoy some gains from that investment.  I'm thinking if it does work out, the prices won't stay high for very long because we'd simply have access to more of this rare material.

Seriously, TGIF

Friday was the longest day I've had here so far, I was scheduled for control room which started at 5:30am as usual, and I was also scheduled to help for an interview shoot that ended around 5:30pm.  From when I left in the morning to when I returned, that Friday ended up being about a 13 hour day.  However, it was a full and fulfilling day for sure, so TGIF meant more for me 'thank God it's the weekend tomorrow' rather than 'thank God this week is over'.

I signed up for a conference open to NBC/Universal interns concerning how to make the transition from being an undergraduate to landing our first entry-level position.  It was extremely helpful, mostly because it was ran by a member of the HR team who handles hiring for most of NBC/Uni. positions that become open.  He was one of the real people who would read my resume once I send it in - which is good to know, because most applications for NBC/Uni jobs are online, and it's easy to think you're sending your spirit into a void once you click 'send'.

It was at 11am in a building essentially in Times Square. I left a half hour early to give myself some time to get lost, which I did, but I ended up on time.  I also got lost on the way back; NYC being a grid is helpful for navigation, but you really need a compass to actually use the grid. Both times I got lost I ended up going in the exact opposite cardinal direction that I needed to go. Usually my sense of direction is good, but in a concrete jungle where you can't see the horizon or sun half the time, a compass would be really helpful.

I took notes at the conference, and had all my questions (and more) answered within the first hour.  The most important thing I learned was not to spread my resume across a breadth of different positions just because they're open. He advised that it's better to wait a few months for a job opening that you're passionate about and somewhat qualified for, than to toss your name in as many hats as you can.  He also kept on stressing that landing a job really depend upon the specifics of the position, which you might not know about just from the listing, and about a ton of other variables that are behind the scenes.  "It depends" was the motto for this meeting - a bit relieving to hear, actually, because now I know that when I get rejected for jobs that I apply to, it may simply be due to those variables that are out of my control.

The interview that I helped shoot was much more engrossing than I thought it would be, especially considering how tired I was toward the end of the day.  We interviewed Ted Wells and Stan Grayson, two prominent lawyers who graduated from College of the Holy Cross.  They were part of a graduating class that went on to achieve immense success in their fields, including a Supreme Court Justice, a Super Bowl winning coach, a Pulitzer prize winner, to name a few.  They were also all African American students, who were all part of one of the first years of integration which occurred in higher education during the late 60s.

Having just finished my undergraduate experience, I could really relate to how they spoke about their experience.  I'm usually pitifully incapable of truly relating to people who are a generation or older than me, so this was one of the first times where I actually understood where they were coming from; I felt like I was listening, rather than just hearing, what they had to say.  They were both friends in school, and both had a personal relationship as well with Clarence Thomas, so they were able and willing to provide an intimate perspective on the Justice. 

I had to lead them upstairs to where we were shooting the interview, and I would be lying if I said I wasn't nervous.  These men are both extremely established, self-made, and have withstood more adversity than I most likely will ever have to face, and as a result, they each had a palpable presence about them.  I didn't want to lead them up in silence, but I also couldn't think of any good conversation that I could really provide (I'd choke myself before I'd ask 'so how about this weather?'), so I went with a less than stellar 'has it been a good Friday so far?'.  Dr. Wells could tell I was ambitiously nervous, so he politely asked about me, allowing the conversation to veer towards something new for him and familiar for me.

After the interview I smiled and shook hands with both men during the rounds of hand-shaking.  Dr. Wells remembered that I mentioned the page position, so he sincerely remarked to my producer to help me out a little, seeing as I'm trying to get a job very soon.  That made my day.  It was after 5, and I should have been, by all means, soup in my shoes.  Instead, I felt invigorated.  It made me so happy to see that there are successful people who are genuine, and genuinely nice.  I would have felt the same about Dr. Wells and Dr. Grayson, oral recognition or not, but that bit of personal attention goes a long way for a little guy like me.

3, 2, 1, Live! - 4/19

On Thursday I helped out with a segment I hadn't worked on before.  '3, 2, 1, Live!' is a close cousin to 'Who Knew?' in that it includes audience participation, questions, and it airs in the 4th hour.  I thought it would be harder to get people for this segment, because I went out to search for participants later than I usually would for 'Who Knew?', but it didn't end up being too difficult. 

I managed to nab the rest of the people from the dwindling crowd in the plaza outside the studio.  I was able to get about 3/4 of the people who were there, a much more successful participant to crowd ratio than usual, but that makes sense considering the more diehard fans stick around until the end.  I also grabbed some people from the first floor of the NBC store.

Otherwise I distributed some mail, and ended up clearing out the really full mail boxes by delivering it all to their desk.  It seemed like a significant day for mail that day, there were a couple different magazines that sent out their newest issues all at once.  I felt like a weird Santa because I was delivering what I thought of as presents  (who doesn't like mail?) but I learned pretty quickly there's a difference between personal letters and magazines, and a difference between magazines and spam-ish mail. 

Whatawednesday

Today was a full and fulfilling day. I even had a hamburger at lunch, and although it was from the commissary, in my mind, it legitemizes the title's pun.

I started this morning at 6:30, and made sure to wear my team USA Olympic shirt. Two other interns and I shuffled up and down the line of people around the plaza, handing out American flags, team USA shirts, and applying tattoos to hands and faces. There was a nice variety of people who showed up, including some Brits, some Irish folk, and a smattering of midwestern/east coast Americans. I met somebody from Akron, we bonded over being from Ohio. The Brits gave me a UK flag, so I wore it sticking out of my pocket by my American flag. I also ended up getting a Team USA flag (one of the ones that I spent time ripping tags off of a few days ago), which completed my trifecta of flag souvenirs.

I also logged some tapes of an interview of Jess Brown, the lady who makes Jess Brown Dolls - handmade rag-dolls of the finest, most snugly materials. She had an interesting story, starting with the accident that brought her to make her first doll for her first daughter, and ending with where she and her business is today, and what other items she'd like to begin creating. Kudos for her philosophy on her products, she believes things should be handmade, with high quality materials, and made to last years and years.

I met with Monica, the contact that Matt and Jackie passed along to me, about audience demographics. I ended up coming away with a ton more advice and helpful suggestions than I anticipated getting, and a new contact who said she'd help me with my resume, or with delivering a story idea to the proper producer. She told me about how she ended up getting her job, which was great to hear, because I'm not too far away from trying to land a more permanent position here.

She also told me all about the different demographics that we try to hit, the reasons why demographics are split as such, and how Today tailors content in different portions for these different demos. It all made sense as she was talking to me; while I had an idea about demos beforehand, her explanation, especially after seeing a bunch of different segments that have aired at different times, makes much more real-world sense now. That info will definitely help me in my discretion as far as passing story ideas along to producers concerns.

Today was really exciting and productive. It was fun working the Olympics segment, and it was fun/helpful talking to Monica. I now realize how important it is to really talk to people around me here; not only because I learn a ton when I do, but because they are always nice people, and often offer to help me out in some sort of way in my quest to get a job here at NBC.

One goal down

Today was busy, starting early in the morning in the control room. We had a ton of calls, and a ton of packages to RTS. I don't mind busy work while I'm here, I figure that's a good litmus test for my compatibility with this industry.

I caught Matt while he seemed to have a bit of free time, so I followed up on my request to see somebody to learn more about audience demographics. He and his assistant Jackie recommended somebody to me, so I'm now scheduled to meet with her tomorrow afternoon.

Seeing as I want to write for TV, and TV is all about audiences, and that writing is all about knowing/being able to deliver to your audience, this is some important info that I need to know. I have a general idea about it from classes, but I've learned here that a general idea in an academic sense is the tip of the iceberg when it comes to actually doing something.

Highlights from Friday-Monday

I covered the 'books' desk on Friday, and just like a week ago, it was pretty slow. I logged the books that came in, but otherwise I spent my time arguing with people on the internet. I don't recommend it.

This weekend was like my other weekends, except I busted my lip and dislocated my shoulder playing pick-up basketball. It's the first time I've dislocated something; I heard a 'pop' and my left arm was not at all where it used to be. After a few moments crouched down, nobody looked like they knew what to do, including me, so I just sort of fanangled my elbow on my knee and pushed, and luckily it popped back in. I finished the game, but it was really sore on Monday.

The only thing I remember from Monday was pulling tags off 150 Team USA Olympic flags. That and catching up with my family, which was a nice off the clock activity. I'm really trying to be constructive after work; after being constructive all day, I'm especially sensitive to when I'm wasting time. Not that I don't waste time any more, but nowadays, I can almost taste it when I do, and it's really bland.

Wild goose chase

Today was a full twelve hour day, starting at 530 this morning in the control room. I manned the desk for a while until about lunchtime, then I started on a pretty sizable log project.

The videos we're interviews with women who had read a popular book called 50 Shades of Grey, or gray, it's a character's name and I can't remember. From what I gathered in the interviews, it's about an S&M relationship between a 27 year old billionaire and a 21 year old virgin. Not exactly my type of literature, but it was funny and interesting to hear these women in their 40s talk about it. I definitely gained a new perspective from the three interviews I logged: one was a writer who liked the characters and dynamic, one was a level-headed mom who thought it was terrible writing but good exposure to a strange part of society, and one just read it so she could flaunt how comfortable she was with talking about her sex life with her friends. Nice variation.

I was also asked to find an unpopular book from '08 called "Crossbearer", do I called a few places until I found a store who said they had it in stock. After 30 minutes between walking and subway hops, I found my way into the cave of Christian literature in this store, only to not find the book and have an employee explain that it was probably an inventory error. At least I got to try a new subway line and see some more of downtown.

"Who Knew" take two

I helped out again with the "Who Knew?" segment that airs during the 4th hour. This time, people were more eager to sign up for the experience - I think part of it was that I had more confidence this time, and perhaps last time I seemed less legitimate, which turned people off before I even spoke. I also had a little routine down with what/how I told people about the segment that got better results.

We had a good crowd with people from all over (we even had a couple from Manchester, England, who seemed to be there because Ricky Gervais was on the show today), and they all had much better energy than last week.

Otherwise I was on my feet all day, doing dubs and running things around this maze of a building, but I got to see some new places and people working on different shows. My heels are raw and losing the battle of malleability with my new-ish shoes, but the war isn't over yet.

I'm starting to get to know, or at least recognize, more people and names here. My next goal is to shadow a producer while they work on a concept for a segment, and hopefully help out on the actual production that would go in to creating the content for the segment.

Legitamate callers

The internet where I'm staying is a bit dodgy, so I wasn't able to post yesterday.

I had some actually compelling story ideas from callers today. I've learned that journalism these days isn't just cut and dry facts, but that you need a story (most likely a face) that personifies a greater issue, instead of just the issue itself. Both of these callers seemed like legitimate possible 'faces' for the problems they represent.

One was about a lady who adopts children from Bulgarian orphanages, which are severly underfunded. She described them as "holocaust camps for kids" because many of the children are extremely underweight when she picks them up - one ten year old she claimed weighed ten pounds when she arrived. She brings them back to the States for rehabilitation and hopefully for adoption, her blog is thesousabrownfamily.blogspot.com if you'd like to read more.

The second story came from an Iraqi vet who is finding civilian life very hard due to her PTSD. She doesn't recieve support from the military and she was recently fired from her job due to her anti-social behavior, so she lives at home off of meager support from the government. She doesn't want to be pitied, and doesn't want to be entirely supported by the government, but she doesn't know of anywhere to turn that could basically de-train her from being a soldier to being a civilian. She only gets 45 minutes of sleep a night, because she subconsciously waits for the alarms that would go off during active duty. However, the worse part, she said, is she never hears the "ALL CLEAR" that used to calm her nerves during those stressful nights of her tour. It's like she's in a constant state of combat stress limbo.

Hopefully one of these stories gets picked up (although they are both kind of downers) because I'd really like to help produce either one, considering I spent a good 20-30 minutes talking to each lady on the phone, getting a good mental sense of what they and their situations are like.

3rd Monday

The Internet on my computer doesn't work again, the plot thickens in my quest to understanding the magic behind how the Internet actually works. This post is short because I have to type it out on the iPad, and because i didn't do much today.

We ran a story about a really small puppy today which everyone thought was cute, I thought it looked like a sickly bat-rat, but I guess it's all in the eye of the beholder. I got a call today from an older lady who wanted to know how she could adopt the runt. I told her that's not an option, but her local animal shelter probably had some dogs that she could adopt. She said she wanted this one because it's so small, and I insisted that dogs need lovin' no matter what their size. She sort of laughed but I don't think it was for the same reason that I sort of laughed.

Good Friday

It was a slow day yesterday, people were out on holiday seeing as it was Good Friday. I covered a desk on the 4th floor from 9 to 12 and logged a few packages. Being slow, I was able to get some homework done which was helpful. I'm actually caught up on my classwork, so I'll use this weekend to get ahead.

I'm preparing for a panel interview that I hope to get after a phone interview for the page program at NBC. Other interns have had their panels already, one knows she's been accepted, and the other is confident that she did well in hers. It's a group interview, which I've never done before, but they say that it's a little more intimidating/high stress than an individual interview, because you're interviewing with other people who want the position as well. I think the group aspect will actually work to my benefit, I'll be able to see what I'm up against.

Ambush Grammaniac

The interactions I have with people are the most fun part of this job, and the two fun things about today spanned the spectrum of possible interactions, from laughing with people to laughing at them, or rather, him. I helped out on a segment called "Ambush Makeover", where we choose two women from the crowd to makeover, and reveal the new 'them' to their family and to themselves as well. The two ladies that were picked really enjoyed the experience, if you want to see the segment, click here and scroll down the page a bit, and on the slight left hand side you'll see videos and another small scrollbar, scroll down that one a bit more and you'll see the video. One lady was here with her husband, 5 year old son and 3 year old daughter. These kids stole the show, they were almost too cute and candid to handle.

Yesterday I answered a call from an older gentleman who was peeved by a bit of incorrect grammar in a segment that, he said, he's watched for years, and has been incorrect for years. The segment is called 'Today in 2 minutes', and apparently at the beginning the announcer says "here are some of the stories we'll cover today" or something like that. He claims that every time the video only reviews one story, and that plural isn't necessary.

True, if the video actually did review one story, but it hardly ever does. He called again today to complain and asked to talk to my supervisor because I failed to change it for him yesterday. Little did he know that I do more (than I should) to help callers than anyone else at my desk, at least in terms of sympathizing with their lonely existences, so when he talked to my supervisor, he was shocked at the tone he received. After an impressive three minutes on the phone, longer than my supervisor ever puts up with useless callers, he got hung up on. Lo and behold he calls back, I answer, and he asks for my supervisors name, threatening to write an angry email.

Of course, I'm not going to give out his name, so I tell him his name is Ben... Jacobson, with the pause and everything. To me at least it seemed like the falsest of monikers, but it gave me enough juice to improv some more bullsquat about 'Ben Jacobson', and why he's in a bad mood, until my supervisor got bored with my fabrications and hung up on him for me. He didn't call back, although we were waiting so we could block his number, but I'm sure somebody's going to get a well written email complaint about a 'Ben Jacobson', look him up in the system, and delete the email, thinking it was sent to the wrong address.

Mo' money, mo' taxes

Today was an interesting day, or rather, yesterday was, so much so that I forgot to post. I helped out with a segment called "Who Knew?" that airs during the 4th hour of the show. It's a multiple choice segment, and usually Kathie Lee or Hoda ask about eight people the questions, but Billy Ray Cyrus had the honors of playing Trebek today.

I had the honors of gathering participants and a crowd for the segment, and I was surprised because it wasn't as easy as I thought. I should have asked more people from the crowd in the pavilion while they were still there, but I only signed up two participants during that time, so I had to find the other six among the transient groups passing by outside our building. Also strangely, a good half of the people who I approached were foreign; it wasn't strange that they weren't American, it was strange that I pegged them as such and my inclinations were so off. I eventually gathered enough people and sent them up to the cafe to shoot the segment. I felt a little bad because they were all nervous, and most asked what types of questions they would be asked - I told them it was general pop culture, but it ended up being Easter questions. I could see a few raised eyebrows when the real topic was introduced.

We also celebrated another intern's belated birthday today with a little pizza party lunch. All of the interns, our supervisor, and our intern coordinator sat down for the first time as a group, and it was really nice! I can't stress enough how great the people I work with are, I always had the notion that this business and this city is a bit cold, but so far my experience has been quite the contrary.

The title of this post is irrelevant, to this post, and, I guess, to republicans?

Bogged down with logs

It was an early morning today again, but I requested it in order to watch Sarah Palin as the guest host. Honestly, she was funny and entertaining, and even informative during certain segments. She co-hosted for one hour, and the segment I remember most was the one about raising teenage daughters. For all the hullabaloo raised yesterday, it was a pretty tame episode. We did get a bunch of calls anyways, but at least they weren't all negative. Some people still called just to rant and hang up, c'est la vie.

I logged a bunch of tape today, luckily it was on a subject that I enjoy: river monsters with Jeremy Wade. It was very interesting listening to his interview, especially the parts where he reflected on his viewership, and the qualities of the series that he thought contributed to it's success. I learned he'll be in on the show on Thursday, so I'll have to make sure to watch that segment.

River Monsters finished filming their 4th season. Logically and truthfully he admitted that the series didn't exactly have the legs to keep on going as it's going, but he mentioned that perhaps the show would morph into something else to keep fresh. I'm trying to think of ideas that would modify the premise while keeping the theme. It's unlikely that I come up with something legitimate before Thursday, but it's not unimaginable. So far I've learned that potential is everywhere, except when you rule it out, so I might as well brainstorm.

A full bin of comments

I thought I got a bunch of negative calls after the Brinkley fiasco, but it was nothing compared to the shitstorm that blew in after people realized that Sarah Palin is actually going to co host for an hour tomorrow. It wasn't an April Fools joke, although it is (or should be) kind of funny. After about an hour at the desk the comments line was full. That didn't bother about a third of callers, however, as they would call with a shaky voice, full of rage, and blurt out a tirade only to end it with a stick-it-to-the-man hang up, not leaving me a chance to say anything. The first time that happened it really bothered me, because I really do try to help people when they call, but after a few more I found solace in apathy. If it makes them feel better to rant to an intern, so be it. After a while I ended up enjoying being a rage sponge for these lonely people.

I'll be going in tomorrow early to work control room, and I'm looking forward to it. I feel like ratings season must be close or something, because it seems like the show is pushing it's self-defined status quo. Of course I've only been here a week so I could be way off base, but it seems like the programming is getting more tumultuous than normal.

In other news, I met candidly with a producer in the mail room towards the end of the day. His reputation as a nice, genuine guy proceeds him, and for good reason. We chatted about sit-coms and he showed me a cave of all sorts of shows and movies, and he also recommended that I watch a few series in particular, seeing as I want to eventually write and produce my own. He gave me the same sort of advice that I've been hearing, that I should make the most of this experience in various ways; but I really took it to heart this time. I felt like he was talking to me instead of at me, but that may be because I was paying particular attention to what he was saying. Something about his personality or character piqued my motivation to pay attention. I wish I could put my finger on it, maybe he's just a good leader.