TheLeong.com

Around 1AM, things were finally winding down at IUSTV, and I was getting ready to go home. G calls me, and apparently a frat house on North Jordan was on fire. Great. So I call Pat back, who left a minute or so prior, and Elliot and I grab a camera pack and hop in Pat’s Jeep. We’re on IUSTV news special assignment.

It was freezing. I had gloves and a coat, but it was SO COLD. Long story short, the vacant Sigma Alpha Epsilon frat house was on fire. When we got there, there were huge amounts of smoke coming out of the house, and a bunch of fire trucks, police, and spectators. IUSTV News Team assemble! Pat did the reporting, I did camera, and Elliot found some people to interview. I hadn’t actually worked camera in a long time, and I have to admit it was fun. The “journalist rush of excitement” was also there, although by the end of our 45 minute stint outside, I was cold, tired, and didn’t want to be there anymore. I’m no journalist, I’m a producer.

It was cool however, to see who else was out there. The IDS (school paper) had photographers and reporters on the scene around the same time as us. They have obviously done this in the past. We’re not journalists, but we’re TV at least. The IDS’ printing date is midnight, so they already missed the chance to get this in Thursdays paper. It will be in Friday’s paper (it’s already online though). IUSTV will be running the video footage package on the Thursday evening news update, so in that respect, we might have a bit of a head start. We’ll swing by the IDS office in the afternoon to see what kind of partnership we can work out. Maybe they’ll want to direct people to watch us to see footage. Maybe they won’t.

It was a long, funny day, much like that of a sitcom. Mainly because I was with Pat for a few hours, and I don’t know how he gets into some of these situations. I’ll elaborate later probably, but I was challenged to a lightsaber duel in the mall, Pat left his business card for a (likely) 16 year old girl, and then this whole fire thing. All this on my day off. I’m going to sleep!

I don’t know if I should be proud or ashamed of this, but you have to admit it’s a LONG time:

That’s right. I was online for nearly 18 days without shutting down my computer OR logging off of AIM. Shortly after taking that screencap last night, I turned my computer off for the night to give it a rest. I left my computer on for so long mainly because I’ve been downloading a lot of Kamen Rider and stuff, and eMule likes it if you don’t log off (can get quicker access to files). But wow, my computer is still a tank.

It’s been a while since I posted, I have noticed. Anyways, it’s been a somewhat busy last few weeks, although not too bad. IUSTV picked up a few new members in the past week…actually over 80 to be exact. All this during a time that the university is freaked out about low student involvement on campus. Bahaha. New staff has since been sorted into teams, oriented, and have started working on their teams. Things actually seem to be going smoothly around the station, which is AWESOME. I’m pretty happy with everything at the station right now. If only I can hurry and get this off-campus fiber connection finished soon.

I also found out that I didn’t get an interview with JET, the program I was planning on going to Japan with. I applied for the CIR position, which stands for Coordinator for International Relations, and (not to sound arrogant, seriously) I was pretty sure I would get in. I didn’t even get an interview. Not just me, but none of the people I know who applied for CIR got interviews either. WTF Embassy of Japan?! I was almost sure that everyone I know (we’re all pretty qualified) would get interviews. At the very least, I was half right. Everyone who applied for the JET’s ALT (assistant language teacher) position that I know got an interview, which is awesome. I’m counting on everyone getting in so I have somewhere to crash when I’m jobless and wandering in Japan. Ah well, no JET for me. I accepted that a day or two after getting the letter, so I’m not really that bummed about it. I still have ways to get into Japan, I just have to think of a scheme. Heck, I don’t know if I’m even going to go to Japan, although it sounds like a pretty good idea to me. I should probably actually figure out what I’m going to do after graduation…

Time for me to get dorky for a minute. Hibiki ended in Japan and the ending was pretty much ruined. Poorly done plot resolutions, stupid ending overall, blah blah blah. Ah well, it was a good series overall. I also finally saw the Hibiki movie, which came out in Japan like a few weeks after I left this summer. Typical Kamen Rider movie: cool to watch but pretty weak story wise. Half of the reason I watch it is just for the cool designs and fights anyway, so I was happy. I’ve watched it twice so far and will probably watch it many more times. The 3 main oni are in it, and since it’s set in feudal times, the new 5 movie-only oni are a little cheesier. Their weapons include a triangle, a gong, a blowgun flute, and a pair of cymbals. Yes, it sounds so lame. Anyway, with Hibiki over, of course the following week the new Kamen Rider started. Japan really keeps up on these things, don’t they. On your right there, please see the new show for ’06, Kamen Rider Kabuto. Looks cool; I’ve already seen the first episode and it reminds me a lot of Faiz. I’ll likely (OK, surely) be watching this whole series as well.

Wow so I thought I would only get dorky for 1 paragraph, but then I forgot that I actually started an entire new dorky club. Since Joey (from IUSTV, not my brother) and I wanted to watch Godzilla Final Wars on a big screen like in a classroom projector or something, I went ahead and started an entire IU student organization for this. Yes, we are now an officially registered IU club, with a constitution and everything. I was also able to reserve a classroom (TV245) for a 4 hour block every Friday until the end of the semester. The group is The Giant Organism-caused Destruction and Zoological Interest and Learning Liaisons Association, or the G.O.D.Z.I.L.L.A. Club for short. Awesome? Yes. Overdone? Maybe slightly. Expect much movie watching and video game playing being done in the Telecom building every Friday from here on.