My Master's Journey

Here are the past 12 months of my life as a grad student wrapped up in under 4 minutes....

Presentation Video

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so here is the picture of my content proposal of my thesis media project. 

Here is the video, stay tuned to hear about my final experience on Thursday.

River of Lies

When does a lie become the truth? Is it perspective or the absolute belief a person is correct? Is it hypocritical to call someone a liar when you have no issue making up your own story and changing it as it fits your needs?

Ok, so this is a bitter post today, but questions that I can’t help to contemplate. Recently I have discovered that lies are the new truths. It doesn’t really matter if there is solid proof or evidence available, the person who can tell the best story and get other people to believe it are the ones who will be held as honest people. The surprising part of this is the question of integrity. The honest person’s integrity will be questioned while the ones who make up stories to fit their needs will get away with whatever they send out to the universe. The way to survive then is to become the best story teller no matter if it is a true or false story. 

The best way I can put it is in a song. 

Photo Taken by Bob Walker, Jr NH Floods 2006, Dover, NH
Song: River of Lies ©2009 Bob Walker Jr Recorded by Bob Jr & the Martini Gardeners

My Chips Are Down

Going through an ordeal can take a lot out of a person. It’s something that can eat away at your very being on a daily basis. Then, once you think you are all through and you begin to move on, it hits you again when you least expect it. 

Recently, I was told that my chips were down as a result of an ordeal rearing its ugly head once again. What really happened is I decided to call out a group of people for being idiots in a situation. I wanted to pull the truth out, however painful it may be for me. I got the truth I was looking for and was not surprised at all from the outcome. Most of the group ignored what I had to say. Sometimes silence is louder than words.  Some friends contacted me with words of support and also stated that I am right on target with what I sent out to the universe. Those that really know me even acknowledged the responses I knew I would get from others. 

One response sort of caught me off guard. This is the response of where I was told my chips were down. I’m okay with the full blown rant and ignorance that was thrown my way from this person because it is what I expected. What stuck with me was this one statement. 

So, what it comes down to, is I need to be really happy that my chips are down. My current situation is: I am about to earn my Master’s Degree (I have a GPA of 4.0); I aced my thesis paper; I have an ok job (the pay sucks); I live in a nice home; I’m respected and active in my community; I have a girl who loves me (although drives me crazy on occasion); and I have kids who also adore me. Yes, I could use a better paying job and working in my ideal situation and there are a few rough spots as a result of mistakes I have made along my journey so far. If all of this is considered my chips being down, then there really is nowhere to go but up, so I’m cool with that. I now thank the crazy people in my life for pointing this out to me and will post pictures of my graduation next month if they care to see them. 

Photos from www.coolclips.com

Week 4 Final MAC Post - What is Work?

I was recently told, “anything that has to do with work is not your thing.” This comment brought out a few reactions, the first of which was shaking my head in disbelief that this would be a comment aimed toward me. I then started thinking about what people generally perceive what work is and what I do on a regular basis to possibly see why this comment would be made. 

What I love to do is make music. This is my occupation. I perform, write and teach music. When I am not performing, writing or teaching, I spend time listening to music and help support other musicians. When musicians meet each other, one of the first questions is always “what instrument do you play?” When I tell someone I am a musician, the question is “what kind of music do you play?” No one ever asks what instrument I work or what kind of music I work.

Now that I am earning a technology-based degree, I have to think further. I’ve spent the past eleven months on my computer (it seems non-stop at times). I’ve created music, videos, podcasts, images, web sites and interactive lessons (for playing music of course). I have logged time in SecondLife, Tweeted, posted to FaceBook and even spent a month playing games. Putting these activities together with the fact that I am still a musician, I can begin to believe that work is not my thing. 

I have to now wonder if the term work is an appropriate one. The people at www.whywork.org will agree with me on this one. Isn’t life about more of who we are than what we do? What we do builds our character and some of us are lucky enough to be doing what we love to do on a regular basis as a career. This is the path people should strive for. There are great mechanics, engineers, builders, electricians, and plumbers out there (just to name a few occupations). I even know people that do these things for enjoyment; their career is what they love. I would never second guess their motivation. So why is it I put in long hours honing my craft, as well as twelve months improving my knowledge so I can better serve those I support and teach, yet I am told  work is not my thing or I am considered “underemployed”? 

If showing up to a place for forty hours a week just because it is expected is what it takes to be considered successful, even if it’s drudgery, then I would rather fail. If this is what work is then I guess the comment made to me is correct, work is not my thing. However, if work is the effort exerted to complete a task, or reach a goal, even if it’s something that is considered fun by most, then this is what I love. Maybe I just need to send this person a copy of my current transcript along with the things I have accomplished at my place of employment in a short time. I could also send along the 40+ projects I had to complete these past eleven months. I think, I’ll just enjoy what I call success instead, it’s better energy and not as much a waste of my time; I have too much work to do:-)

Week 4 Post - Coming Full Circle

There have been many posts about getting over walls and hurdles while completing the last steps of our Master’s program. Some of my past posts have compared this process to similar challenges I have taken on in the past. During all of these challenges, something always gets in the way of success. The challenge of completing this program is no different. This post is about coming full circle with the process.

I took on this challenge at both an ideal time and probably the worse time in my life. It was ideal as I have begun the personal process of moving on and improving my life. Earning my Master’s degree has been a goal of mine and it is now becoming a goal obtained. The opportunity found me and I tool advantage of it. 

It came at the worse time as there were a few personal life matters that needed to be resolved. My first month coincided with the peak of this difficult time. My hesitation to begin this journey was due to the other aspects in my life I needed to deal with. Through the push of friends, I began the program in spite of everything else I needed to work through and focus my energy on. 

I am happy to announce that both events went rather well. I survived my personal ordeal and my first mont of FSO. I was also gained a group of friends in FSO who stuck together throughout the program. 

Now, I am about to enter the final month and I wonder where the time went. As I pull together all of the pieces from the past year to create a final media project, I find myself where I started. Some of the personal ordeal has resurfaced, at the worse time possible. I am learning how to pull together aspects of a project while still holding down work and family obligations. It will be an adventure entering the next cycle. 

Photo Credit: From en.wiki: Calligraphy by Kanjuro Shibata XX "Enso".

Week 4 - Reading - Be the Board

This week’s reading has been a bit difficult for me to get my head around as it seems to go against some personal philosophies as well as the difficulty I am having with other aspects of my life.  There may also be misunderstandings on my part on how this practice works. 

I often have followed the philosophy that I am responsible for my actions. I realize that I have limited control over what happens to me but I do have total control over how I deal with it. 

Zander (2002) offers the practice to take yourself out of a situation and choose to be the framework of your life. Although I understand taking a step back and looking in, I often keep myself as a player. I not only need to see the situations that are happening in my life, but I need to see myself as a player and how I react to the different situations. Overall, this practice seems similar to some of the practices I use in my life but the terminology is quite a bit different. My possible misunderstandings of this chapter could be me just not getting out of my own way to understand the terms of the practice. 

I often use visualization in my life through difficult situations. I become an observer, rather than a player in my practice. When I put all of the people and situations in front of my, I watch what happens. When I was in a Directing course for theatre, our instructor took us through a practice called center stage. In this practice we would have the actors work out the scenario we needed to work through. There would be a stand-in playing ourselves. As director in this visualization we could move actors to different places on the stage and even change the script. Once happy with the scene, we would take our place on stage where we had a stand-in. Outside of the visualization practice, it is then up to us to objectively assess the circumstances and move on without blame (of others or self) to learn from the different situations that arise in our lives. 

The consideration of being the board is possibly to put all of a situation on yourself to visualize how the game is going to be played. Then put yourself as a player in order to make a difference.

Sources:

Zander, B., & Zander, R. S. (2002). The Art of Possibility: Transforming Professional and Personal Life. Boston: Penguin (Non-Classics). (Original work published 1942)

Game Board Art from: http://dir.coolclips.com/