May 24, 2016
Hello, blog readers, this is Neil. This past school year had some unique ups and downs. These are the three things that were probably the most important things I learned in the past school year.
1.) How to, at the very least, lay the groundwork to make a good podcast. Last year, the podcast that I made reviewing Avengers: Age of Ultron that I thought could be the first episode of a film review podcast series that I would make over the course of the summer and maybe beyond was pretty weak. Music ran for too long, parts of audio only went into one ear, and in general, it was a Level 1 podcast. The podcast that I made this year was better, and yet it still was something I'm not too proud of. Much of the discussion was rushed through, it was a very surface-level look at both BoJack Horseman and Rick and Morty (the administrators that were listening to the podcast were even led to believe that they were the same show, which is a sign that I should either only talk about one show at a time or put more clearly defined transitions from one show to another), and due to time constraints, only four out of ten minutes of the podcast have been heard (let's be honest, just because something is able to be heard by many strangers doesn't mean it actually is, and it's not being heard because my Vimeo account has literally no promotion outside of my BCTC classroom). Fortunately, I did learn from these experiences and think that I can now try to make an actual podcast about an actual topic in an actually well-made style. I could start a series relating to one or more of one of my many fandoms (to see what these are, go to my Wix website, which is nrush7396.wix.com, and look at my bio page, or go to my Weebly website, which is concernedalien.weebly.com, and look at my bio page there) or to make a podcast series in similar vein to Sarah Koenig's podcast news show Serial but about local affairs or things happening at BCTC, such as the dress code controversy, but make the podcast series not so much about the dress code itself so much as various student and teacher attitudes towards the dress code and why it matters so much to certain people that a dress code is or isn't in place.
2.) How to make a website. I've actually managed to make three websites- one on Weebly, one on Wix, and one on Wordpress. The Wix one is the one that I use the most because of how the Weebly website doesn't work on BCTC computers and the Wordpress one, which is more of an industrial-quality web blog than a full website, required me to make a new email address because of a leftover blog from a few years ago that I got bored with using, as you're not allowed to have the same email address on more than one blog on Wordpress. The website showcases everything I have made at BCTC and includes a small bio of myself, a list of what my dream projects would be, and a blog of its own which I am currently using to give bios of the main characters of the thing I hope will be my magnum opus, a teens-and-up animated semi-satirical speculative fiction action-comedy-drama I call Fanz. The three websites in question are nrush7396.wix.com, concernedalien.weebly.com, and concernedalien.wordpress.com, if you would like to visit them. Due to lack of both promotion and previous wide acknowledgement, I can't know for sure if people I don't personally know are visiting any of my websites, but for now, I'm OK if only people I'm able to tell about the websites locally and in person are visiting them, because at least that's somebody.
3.) How to stop worrying, do what I love, and love what I do. Life is confusing. People on all different sides are trying to tell you different ideas of right and wrong, making it hard to even trust your own judgement. There is so much to read, write, watch, play, and do, yet so little time to do any of it. People want acceptance from family and friends while being unable to accept differing opinions and behaviors from themselves that their family and friends exhibit. So in the end, the best you can do it sit back, relax, find something or someone you really, really care about, and do something good for it. It's why I like to study fandom behaviors. Fandom is basically religion minus the global political cultural assimilation (though that could easily become a part of it somewhere down the line). It's amazing how the fiction we consume changes how we live in reality. So when life's confusion becomes too much, remember what you identify as a fan of, and do something with it, whether it be reading a book or comic, watching a movie, TV show, or web series, playing with a toy, game, or video game, drawing fan art, writing fan fiction, making a fan film, or in my case, creating an original production that takes influence from what it is you like and what you know and trying to make it into its own media franchise. At the end of the day, just know who and what you are and be proud of it. And if there's something you want to be but aren't sure if you can be it, whether it's a decent jogger, aYouTube Lego critic, the creator of a cartoon, or just a person you can be proud of, remember the words said by the jogging baboon at the end of BoJack Horseman Season 2 (link at the end of the post).
I may or may not use this blog over the summer if I have anything to say that I think is worth saying that hasn't already been said by me on another blog, podcast, or web video, so stay tuned if you're not too busy. Have a good summer, and I'll see you back here this fall for my final year at Berks Career and Uniform Center- I mean Technology Center. (All jokes aside, this is a very good school with good educators teaching me very good and useful skills.)
BoJack Horseman Episode 212 Final Scene
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