The past week has been insanely busy. I haven't really thought about it much, but I've been arriving home at 7pm every night. The tree has been up since Saturday but it's undecorated. The dishes need to be done, our room is a mess, the bathroom needs to be cleaned, and I have no idea what I'm going to wear tomorrow. But, at school, I'm nearly caught up on grading, my to-do list is constantly getting shorter, and Mock Trial is in full swing.

It's been a bit of a struggle again this year with the beginning of the Mock Trial season - the problem I'm having is that I have 8-10 too many kids on the team. This is a good problem to have, but if I'd just registered for 3 teams for regions to begin with I wouldn't have such an issue - and I'd then have a 3/12 chance at sending a team to state versus the 2/12 chance I currently have. Also, the thought of cutting kids right before regions is making me sick. Already, this Saturday I had two kids crying because they either didn't get a spot on one of the two teams for the first invite or they were demoted to the B team because they have missed too many practices. I can't handle the crying! Just man up and get your rears to practice and you won't have any issues.

The video club recieved the grant today from Student Council so now we're set to finally purchase equipment, our editing program (Sony Vegas) and other assorted stuff like mics, etc. I'm wondering what the hell I've gotten myself into, but also stoked when I look at what the kids have already done with just their equipment at home and a less than high-end editing program.

Check out the preview we showed at the pepfest at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVwstcziLus. There is another video that was shown this Monday in advisement, but they haven't posted it yet at youtube. I've got some highly talented students involved in this who are bound to teach me a thing or two (or a million) about editing and film.

I've had a lot of questions about the organization and if it is mostly video broadcasting or film oriented, and the best answer I have is that it will involve a bit of both. This is all new to school, to me, to the students - so it is going to be what we make of it. I am committed to providing a quality experience based on First Amendment rights and a journalistic experience, but I'm also willing to let the projects be based largely in an artistic mode. It will be interesting and I get the feeling that none of us will be able to predict where this will take us in the long run.

We are going to test out our production schedule on a project for the area chamber of commerce and Explore Minnesota - there is a contest out there asking MN schools to create videos that capture a list of favorite things/places in the state. Our local chamber has asked us to produce a video for them and has even offered to give us some funding to do some travel if ncessary. As cool as this opportunity is, I have no idea how this guy even heard about our organization starting up. We've done no advertising outside of the school and we've had one official 'pre-production' planning meeting. I fear this will get out of my hands and I won't have time to keep it all in check. But damn it, I'm going to do my very best because how cool will it be to be a part of something that can produce videos like the one on youtube? And, if that is what was put together just to advertise, as a preview, what is to come, can you imagine what these kids are capable of with more resources and time? That's enough to keep me going, even without pay for the time being.