Month: March 2025

The Next Six Months

What is the biggest challenge you will face in the next six months?

The next six months will be interesting to say the least. There’s a lot I need to finish, and at times, it can feel overwhelming to think about all at once. I have to remind myself to take it day by day. I’ll talk about each item individually below. They aren’t in any particular order.

The first thing that I need to do is help with the post-production on the film I worked on last semester called Epochal. We made it as a part of our Advanced Film Production class. My job on the film was sound designer. It was my first time doing sound design, and my job isn’t done. Once we have the picture locked, I can work on adding sounds and music. There’s a good chance we’ll need to do Foley for it as well. I’m actually really excited about it.

The second thing is I need to finish my last class for my degree. I’m taking cinematography, and it is the final class I need for an A.A.S. in TV and movie production. I’ve been in college since I was 18 (that’s roughly 15 years). I spent a majority of that time not knowing what I wanted to do. It wasn’t until 2017, when I took a class called Intro to Motion Pictures & TV, that I discovered what I wanted to do. I want to work on TV shows and/or movies. That’s the goal. My dream job is screenwriter/director, but I also love editing videos. I still edit videos weekly. Most of what I edit is my own gaming videos that I post to YouTube, but I’ll edit videos for people if they ask me to.

The final challenge of the next six months will be finding a job in the motion picture and TV field. The film industry is a hard one to get into, and having a degree doesn’t guarantee a job. To start, I’d be looking for any job in video work. I feel like I’m a pretty good video editor, so I’d probably start there to build up a portfolio of work. I have done work for people in the past, so I wouldn’t be starting from zero. I’d be adding onto what I already have. While my future is uncertain, I am positive that I will find a job in that field. It’ll just take some time.

Life Before the Internet: A Nostalgic Reflection

The author reflects on life before the internet, recalling a slower, more engaged existence without constant digital distractions. While technology has made life easier and connected us, it also breeds addiction and unrealistic portrayals through social media. The nostalgia for a less connected time highlights a complex relationship with modern technology.

Do you remember life before the internet?

I like this question because I do remember life before the internet. It was so much different from life now. There are days I wish I could go back. We’ve become so reliant on our phones and being “online” that trying to unplug from it is nearly impossible. I constantly find myself checking my phone even though I know no one is messaging me. Or if they are, it doesn’t require an immediate response.

But life before the internet? It was slower. You couldn’t just look things up. News traveled by mail or phone call. There was no such thing as email. What did I do without the internet? Well, I didn’t have cable growing up either, so my TV watching was limited. I mostly played outside or played with the toys I owned. I did have two brothers growing up so that was also a source of entertainment. Honestly, it was a magical time to be alive. You had to be there.

But I also remember when technology started to be introduced. I remember when AOL was the big thing. I remember when cell phones went from big, to small, to big again, so we could watch videos on them. I remember when a phone call would kick you off of the internet. I remember having a timer on how long I could be online. It was about an hour, by the way. Maybe an hour and a half. Two hours if I was lucky.

I remember when you had to buy ringtones for your cell phone. I remember when cell phones couldn’t really access the internet. If you wanted to listen to music, you had to turn on the radio, or own the music on CD, vinyl, or cassette. There was no Apple Music or Spotify. There was no iTunes either. YouTube? Didn’t exist. Truth be told, I’m even older than Google.

The internet has made life easier, but it’s also made life worse. The creation of social media has plagued us with living in a world that’s always polished. Rarely do we post things on social media that aren’t good or happy times. We live for likes on posts and photos. We yearn for the feeling of being popular. And I was there for MySpace when you could rank your Top 8 friends. I remember it all.

Ironically, while I was in the middle of writing this post, I paused to scroll Instagram for 30 seconds. It’s like our brains are trained to participate in social media and there’s no way to stop it. It’s an addiction. I don’t wish for social media to not exist. There are good uses for it, and it has allowed me to keep in contact with people I otherwise wouldn’t be able to. It’s just that sometimes, I just miss the when the internet didn’t exist.