I’m writing this post over a span of a week. During this week, I’ve got ~7 freelance assignments for the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal. I’ve also got 3 homework assignments, a group project and two tests to study for. Also, I’ve got another group project that’s due on March 19th, the Tuesday after Spring Break. I’m going to try to get that done before the break, within the span of this post.
This post will be about the highs, lows, and how I’ve dealt with it all.
Here’s what I’m looking at in terms of class times and photo assignments:
Day 1, Wednesday:
In Computer Architecture class, I worked through the basics of the homework while the professor was talking about it. I’m about a quarter of the way done with that.
After class, I signed a new lease for next year, then got to work on databases homework. I’m mostly done with that, which is due on Saturday, I believe.
I did the assignment (labeled Robots above), and edited photos by 7:45. The event wasn’t that visually interesting. I tried my best, but it wasn’t a lot of fun to shoot.
After the assignment, I had some dinner and watched the Washington Capitals hockey game. Now, I’m going to try to finish Databases. Tomorrow, I plan on finishing operating systems and maybe computer architecture. Friday and Saturday will be very busy, so Sunday will be my next day to do any sort of homework or project.
Day 2, Thursday:
Got up, went to class. Lucky for me, the professor from Parallel and Concurrent programming (11-12:30) had the flue and cancelled class. I met up with my partner, and we talked about the project due for that class on March 19th. We have a good handle on the project after that meeting.
I sat through Operating Systems, then Databases classes. Both seemed to drag on forever, especially databases. The professor had two guest lecturers, both of which were PHD level microbiologists who study genomes and protein formations. It seems like a great topic for biologists, but for computer scientists, it’s a very dry topic. The point of the class was to demonstrate where some databases are used outside of the classroom. To be honest, I don’t think anybody in that class thinks that databases aren’t important. They seem critical to just about every serious software engineering project.
After class, I met with my group for the Databases group project and we set up a meeting time for 5-7 on Sunday. I wanted to go from 5 until completion, but some members are fans of The Walking Dead, and want to watch it. Either way, 2 hours should be enough to finish most of the rest of the project. If not, we decided that Monday would be an overflow day.
Anyway, following class, I sat down and did most of the homework for Computer Architecture. I got it all done apart from one problem, which I needed to look at the book for.
At 5:30, I went to a meeting to talk about competing in a team at a super computing conference. It was a basic meeting, and I left at 5:50 to go to another meeting: The Daily Toreador staff meeting. I had a hard time finding parking and was a bit late.
Following the DT meeting, I sat down, finished Databases homework, Computer Architecture homework, then started and finished Operating Systems homework. I felt like I was on a roll. I guess all the prep work I did paid off.
Day 3, Friday:
I woke up early today and showed up at the Cornbread & Beans Luncheon at 10:30ish. I stuck around at the luncheon until 12, when I went back to the Avalanche-Journal office and edited the photos. I got plenty that I liked.
I finished up editing by around 12:30, then I went to Chipotle for some food then directly to Levelland. I arrived around 1:30-1:45. I set up my computer and built code replacements for the teams I covered (Petersburg vs Texline and Smyer vs Wellington). This took me until about 2:30. The previous game ran late, so I still had plenty of time.
I then shot the first game, edited at half time and post game. I waited in Levelland until the second game, then I shot that as well. I edited during half time and the third quarter. After that, I got out a wide lens and then shot the post game. Neither of the teams I was covering won.
I went back to the A-J, and submitted photos, after that. I also emailed some of them to the Amarillo Globe News. They needed some photos of Texline.
Here’s some shots of both games.
The lighting was pretty nice in the Texas Dome.
I came home, went to sleep.
Saturday, Day 4:
Bright and early, I was up to take pictures of a spelling bee. I expected to be out by 12, and off to shoot men’s basketball. However, this was not meant to be.
Here’s how most spelling bees work: They have “rounds.” In each round, every contestant spells a word. If the contestants misspell a word, they are out. The only time a contestant is not out if they misspell a word is if everybody else misspells a word, or if the only person who correctly spelled a word fails to spell another to win the spelling bee. Usually, from my experience, it takes about 5 rounds to determine a winner after 1 on 1 spelling begins.
During this spelling bee, there was 18 contestants from around the region. It took 10 rounds to get that competition down to 2 people. From there, it took 30 more rounds to decide a winner. It was the longest spelling bee I’ve ever head of. According to the Avalanche-Journal article written about the event, the pronouncer called the event a “marathon.”
Anyway, I finished editing and got out of the A-J office by 1. I headed over to the Texas Tech basketball game. I ate lunch there and made code replacements for both teams.
I shot that game and got photos in.
After I got photos in, I came home and relaxed a bit.
Day 5, Sunday:
Finally, the last day. I went to the A-J around 11 and picked up the parking pass for baseball and a 400mm f/2.8 that the A-J let me borrow. I love that lens for sports.
I made some code replacements and ate some lunch in the press box, then got set up to shoot the game. Following the game, I edited photos in the press box, then turned in photos around 4:00. From there, I came home, dropped some stuff of and then went to a group project for Databases class. We worked on the project and got about half of the parts we needed done. We’re meeting again tomorrow at 4 to finish up.
Now, I’m done with photo assignments for the A-J for a bit, but this week I’ve got two tests and a presentation. I’ll stop this post here, though.
By far, the busiest day was Friday. Shooting from 11 until 9 in two towns. The deadline was hardest on that day, too. The game finished at 8 and the deadline was at 9, in a town more than half an hour away. Luckily, I was able to edit quickly.
Anyway. If anybody has questions about workflow, I’d be more than happy to answer them. Thanks for reading!
