Wow...it's been quite a while...I have been busy. This is the semester of speeches. I've been giving at least two to three speeches a week over the past month. It doesn't appear to be lightening up any time soon either. I suppose it's good to keep getting speaking experience, but it sure would be nice to get a week off. Anytime I'm not giving a speech, I'm taking an exam. So, this semester kinda stinks overall. I'm enjoying what I'm learning, but again...overwhelmed with work.

A few weeks ago I gave the keynote speech to Diversity Week on my campus. I had no idea I was going to be the keynote when I was asked to speak. I just assumed that it was another small presentation. Nope...I had one of the largest lecture halls on campus complete with two data projectors and a microphone. They gave out free food. They chalked all over campus. There were signs up. The news bureau did a press release. My home town newspaper even got notified. Such craziness.

I was kinda bitter about homecoming for a while. In a way I still am. The people that deserved to win didn't. The reason the people that deserved it didn't win is because of politics. The group that won always wins. Despite me having the more devoted fans, and the majority of the random vote, I still didn't win. The girl who did win queen admitted that my campaign was better. I put more effort into it. I spent more time campaigning. I stood outside in 40 degree weather wearing a wonder woman costume freezing my butt off. I spent $300 of my own money. I guess it just wasn't meant to be. At least I made it on court.

I had some of my own victories though. People remember me. Even the Monday after homecoming, very few remembered the name of the girl who won queen. There were a lot of people taking my picture at the parade. I had the entire faculty/staff behind me...too bad they couldn't vote. I think my favorite thing was the response I got from fans. I had people come up to me to tell me that I was their hero and that they voted for me. I had several of them do it right in front of the girl who won queen. I even had several people who got very excited to see me. Some wanted high fives. Some were just like "Oh My God!! You are SO Awesome!! I Voted for you!! You're my hero!! You ROCK!!". And I had a couple of those happen at the homecoming game while I was sitting literally right next to the queen. That never happened to her. To this day two weeks later, I still get comments like "You're the real queen to me." How cool is that? I mean...because of that I don't think I can say that I lost.

Here's some big news...I adopted a kitty. I've been thinking about it for a couple years now, and I finally did it. Her name is Inara (Yes I know I'm a huge dork for naming her after Morena Baccarin's character on Firefly). She's such a sweetie. I've never met a more mellow kitty. She sleeps a lot of course...but she's very loving. She loves laps. Oh yeah, she's two years old. She's spade, but not declawed yet. I have to take care of that soon. I considered not declawing her, but my landlord requires it. So...I guess I have to. I love her lots. I wasn't so sure I would want the responsibility at first, but now I've had her for three weeks and am really enjoying having her. Plus, I don't think I'll ever need a blanket again. She's so warm. I need to take her into the vet though. I think she may be sick.

I really need to learn to say no. I keep getting myself involved in more stuff, and it's nice and all. But I just need some time off. For two nights this week I am spending three  hours acting in the "Tunnel of Oppression" representing the trans population. Tomorrow night I'm giving two lectures. One of those is paid...so that's not bad. I'm getting something like $200. That'll pay for Inara's visit to the vet. I think that's worth it.

I'm not to happy about this, but I wont have work at all over winterim. Winterim is the break between fall and spring semesters. For us it's about five weeks long. Thankfully I have one week in there in which I do have work. The last four weeks I don't though. So...I'm considering unemployment for that time since neither of my current places of employment will allow me to work and no one will hire me for four weeks. I understand why I can't work at the help desk, even though I don't agree with the way they asked for people to work over that period. But my TV job in housing is what really bothers me. The Director of housing basically said "No hours for the TV station over winterim". In fact, that's almost a direct quotation from his e-mail. He didn't justify or anything. That was it. So now, I'm out of work. Unemployment is really my only option. Kinda stinks, but I need money to eat.

There are plusses to it though. As I mentioned earlier, I've been so busy that I haven't had time to sleep. Four weeks of nothing to do may be just what the doctor ordered. I can really use that time to catch up on some relaxation time. I'm going to play video games, watch movies, get back in to fencing, and sleep. I also want to start working on my book. So...perhaps I'll be in a little happier mindset when school starts up again in late January.

Another really cool thing happened last week. After we had one of our two hour live productions at the TV studio, four of my staff members expressed interest in having me stay on next year as station manager. I told them I can't because I'm graduating, and the studio is supposed to be student run. However, they still were adamant about it. How cool is that? I am really flattered. So they are going to start up a petition and seek out a grant to try to get me to be the TV studio's faculty advisor. The comment made was that this semester, the studio has run the best it has ever been run. I am so proud, but I think they forget that it's not just me that is making the studio so much fun. They all have a hand in making it what it is. :) Cheesy...but true. I doubt the director of housing would go for it, but if the job was offered to me, I'd accept.

I'm addicted to Smallville. It's no surprise to me. It's a superhero related show. The characters rock. Kristen Kreuk is really hot too. I have had the theme in my head since I started watching the show. I am looking forward to watching the rest of the seasons of it as well. It's my new favorite series.

Speaking of TV series...I finished the DVD of the TV series I produced along with my friends for my TV studio last year. It's a pretty rockin menu for a simple DVD. I hope people are interested in having the disk, because it was a fun show to make. We're working on the next series right now. I have to say I'm really really excited about it too. It's a heist series and is going to blow the campus out of the water. We're going to do some neat things with it. I'm working on the logo for it, and when I have it done, I'll post it.

The more I work as a producer and a studio manager, the more I want to do it professionally. I love my job. I love every aspect of it. I can't wait to build up my own studio/production company. Actually, Transcending productions is going to be in the credits of the new series. I'm putting a lot of my own money into it for props and such. So, I'll have to come up with some sort of neat animation for the production company to put at the end of the credits.

I'm submitting a video to a state wide video awards competition. It's a public service announcement for Crystal meth. The police department was blown away by it, and now we're looking at distributing it to other groups. The video would be free. I am happy about that, since the message needs to get out there. I still have to hear from Warner Bros. about use of the music from Batman Begins in the video. I think it'll be no problem, but I have to make sure.

The only other thing I have to add is that Jessica, the internet girl from Oklahoma, is still interested in me. After the whole Sabrina thing happened, I've been hesitant to ge

t into any sort of relationship online. I am still very distant in that respect. I'm not sure I take the whole thing seriously, and at the moment, I am happy about that. I do feel bad that she's still infatuated. I don't want to hurt the girl. However, if her feelings are real...then what do I do? She lives across the country, and any chance of us meeting is slim. However, she really wants to come see me in a few months. I'm not opposed to that, but I'm not trying to push her in any direction also. I'm doing my best not to lead her on, but at the same time, I'm happy that she's discovering herself. I guess I'm just caught between a rock and a hard place. Don't get me wrong, I like her. She's a beautiful girl and really smart. Heck, if she was here, I'd probably have a huge crush on her. I'd be stumbling over my words and such when she was around. I am just sick of internet bullshit. So...until something real happens, I'm probably going to be stuck in this situation. Granted...if her feelings continue...maybe theres more to this. We'll see.

Well, that's about it. Now that I've written yet another novel of a post...I'll get back to doing my job. Talk to you all soon.

Luv,
Jess