| |
THIS IS A TEST!
Yesterday I raced into the shower to get ready for a fundraiser for folks who live with Cerebral Palsy . I was running late and I debated on just quaffing and spraying my hair one more day since I hadn’t washed it in days. I have been holed up in edit mode of my first shows that begin airing this month around the country and they had to be delivered to a hub which feeds them to the stations nationwide today.
But yesterday as I was washing my hair, I was satisfied that we made the deadlines and I could breathe for the first time this week. That is, until I heard the phone ring in the bathroom. (yes, I even take my cell phone with me to the bathroom) I jumped out answered the phone trying to keep water streaming down my hair from getting into the key cracks of the phone, only hear, Steve, my syndicator and Shelly, from the feed company on a conference call saying my tape had insurmountable problems and I had to resend them. Oh, and I had 14 hours to fix the problems and get them to the West Coast and my watch said 6pm at the time.
As Shelly rattled language used mainly by NASA engineers, I interrupted by saying, “okay, how can we make this happen?” Instead of panicking which was definitely an option I have chosen in the past with challenges like this, I stayed calm and remained open to learning all these neat technologies like fiber to transport video and all sorts of things that I found fascinating and never thought I would EVER have to know. Then I got on the phone and called around to anyone who knew what I was talking about and could help me accomplish this mission improbable.
In the past, the minute I would say, “oh, I don’t have to know that” is when I could count on a future event where I most certainly needed to know that. So through my own experience, when faced with a difficulty, I now immediately go into “I must need to learn something” mode so I have the information in my memory banks for that future time.
For years when I started working in television I would sometimes say, “Oh I am not going to learn how to edit on an Avid system because I do enough by finding the stories, writing, producing, etc. it will just more time squeezing!
Sure enough, I was brought to my knees on this lack of willingness to learn how to edit when producing my own shows on a tight budget.
So I finally forced myself to learn the AVID system and not only do I enjoy it now, the creativity of editing and being taught by cool editors has actually helped me move me forward, not hold me back like I once thought it would.
We have the capacity to learn and learn and learn and we should never be afraid of a new things because they are foreign to us. If it takes a bit more time out of our other duties, somehow we find the time if we want to make it happen. That is also human nature. You find the time for things you want to do.
If we have the chance to learn something new when it is presented to us, I believe there is a great reason to learn it. We may not know at the time it is presented but just know we'll need it..
As for our mission improbable last night of getting new tapes to the West Coast in time for the 2pm feed today, the mission is now complete and successful. The great editors, Tom and Giilian with whom I work came in for an all nighter and we found the fiber company to send off this morning .
Sure, I got 2 hours of sleep last night but I feel good that I talked to so many great people like Shelly, Steve, Eileen, Lawana, Jim, Matt and Adam, Lianda(I called a TON of people) who tried to help me. I feel very lucky and grateful for their kindness. That was the best part of the whole exercise!
And, I learned about transfer systems and more aspects of television technology which is good to know and it feels great to have found a solution to a problem.
It is said that difficulties make you more intelligent. So today I feel like one of the most tired, but smartest girls in the world!
|
|
