In case you didn’t know, in a parallel universe I am a meteorologist.
And have been for years.
When I last traveled to Southern Thailand, I set up some multimedia accounts for the Burmese human rights org I volunteered for, Foundation for Education and Development (FED) — formerly named GHRE. Now they’ve got some American volunteers who are working with staff to create videos. Woohoo! Here’s the latest one about some of the Burmese migrant children going through the traditional process of becoming monks (all the Buddhist boys do this at some point as a rite of passage):
< technifiling > So I made a ridiculous investment (hello consumer debt, my old friend) in a new 500GB, 8GB memory MacBook Pro + lots of multimedia software. The first MBP had a 7200rpm hard drive that vibrated so consistently it made my hands go numb. After 24 hours I had it shipped back to Shanghai, and a week later got a replacement. I want to say technology is stupid, that machines are objects and they don’t matter and spending so much credit card unmoney on a computer instead of a vehicle, horse or intercontinental plane ticket is totally not worth it, but no! This computer is amazing and super fast with great battery life, and owning it and Final Cut 7 means I can do all my editing at home now. And do freelancing/consulting. Which, in about a year, might earn me enough to recoup the initial cost. Also I can write it all off on my taxes. Tra la! < /technifiling > < / justification >
Meanwhile, exactly a year ago I was in Cajamarca, Peru, washing my socks in a hotel sink and listening to great guitar singalongs led by a man named Jaime at a bar called Usha Usha. And taking taxis through the Andes every day and hiking to villages to interview rural entrepreneurs who mostly had broken internet connections for a film I am just now finishing. And eating fish & pizza & candy & Inka Cola and watching bad American TV shows. All of this with Mau (God bless you Mau, even though I felt like arm wrestling you 80% of the time) who is still in Lima, teaching attractive young women how to take digital photographs. {“con pasión y coraje haré este viaje contiiiiiiiiigo. y juro que secretos y recuerdos no los venderé, no no no.”}
Meanwhile, summer has arrived. Swooping in like a stealthy thief. The same fruit fly circles around my sofa every night, and birthdays come and go — of several friends, and soon my own. Instead of crying on the phone to FedEx employees from someone else’s living room, this year I will spend my birthday getting my master’s degree in an endless outdoor ceremony. How things change…
Last week I submitted my master’s thesis on civic production in live-streaming mobile video. Very exciting! Now I need to edit my Peru documentary and work on a collaborative web/multimedia project with a team in New York and apply for some art/culture/media research grants in Germany. Two years ago, sitting behind a desk in my fluorescent office, I never thought I’d soon describe my life in those sentences. My gratitude is unbounded.
