BB FAQ

Funny, there have been several recurring questions I've heard lately.

In light of that, I've decided to post some Frequently Asked Questions. If you've asked one of these lately, please don't feel like I'm picking on you or anything; everything here has come from multiple folks of late.

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So you're in school? Where?
I attend school Tuesday evenings and Saturday mornings at Texas Wesleyan University in Fort Worth. It's a small private school that's quite old. I think there are about 2500 students. Lectures are three hours long.

What are you studying?
I'm working on a Master of Arts in Counseling. I expect to graduate in spring of '08. I will have to pass the NCE (National Counselor Exam, I believe) to get licensed, and I still have practicum (kinda like internship) hours to do during my education and internship hours to do after I graduate.

So no more TV jobs for you?
Probably not. I spent about eight years working for PBS stations, and I found that experience pretty fulfilling. Once I moved to commercial television, though, everything went south. During my time there I dealt with:

The endless drudgery of rearranging commercials all day

Bad, BAD managers. Wow. It was exactly like that show The Office

Screaming ad executives

Over-coked, over-caffeinated ad executives... guess this ties into the item above

AEs who wanted me to fudge invoices and reports

Clients who cursed at me for sticking to department policy

A foul-mouthed manager who, 48 hours after glowingly telling me I'd be welcome back anytime, had security escort me out of the building for calling one of her managers "annoying" on this very forum. I'd be much more upset if I'd ever given a damn.

But you have another job now, right?
Yes, I start Monday. I won't be writing anything specific about it for reasons that go above and beyond the blog-related butt-chewing I got at my last job. I'm entering a different industry, and the ethical concerns are in some ways a lot more prominent. Believe me, ethics aren't exactly on the hearts and minds of TV execs.

Since when do you speak Spanish anyway?
My Spanish is pretty good. I suppose I have a modest gift for languages, okay, but I'm not some genius (and if you stop by here often you know that, eh?). During many of the EIGHT years I noodled away at my undergraduate degree, I was an English major. That requires a lot of Spanish coursework as well. I'd also had a couple years in high school. Long ago I took a look at all the faces around me and realized that it'd be in my best interest to retain the ability to speak to my neighbors. It's interesting to me, and I think it's what we all ought to do.

So you're fluent?
Eh, not quite. I look at it like this: This other language, to me, is like a big puzzle. When I want to say something, I take the pieces of the puzzle I have and try to create the picture I need at that moment. I have a lot of pieces, so to speak, so by and large I can communicate what I want. As far as comprehension, I'm okay at that, but I still get that blank look when dealing with, say, someone with a thick regional accent. Sometimes what they say is quite clear, and other times it's not. Puerto Ricans and other non-Mexican Latinos are difficult to understand. I did okay while vacationing in Spain, though I don't particularly like their lispy pronunciations.

You're learning Kung Fu now?
No. The shortest answer I can give is that I'm studying Krav Maga and kickboxing at a school close to the house. Krav Maga is a standup martial art that is Israeli in origin. We learn punches, elbows, kicks, knees, headbutts, eye gouges, takedowns, and armed/unarmed gun and knife defenses. I've also learned or seen techniques that our Sensei clarified as being from Haganah (a similar Israeli martial art), Hapkido, Judo, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and others. I've been there since March of '06. I'm currently an orange belt.

In early 2005 I spent one month in a local Judo program. I still love Judo, and love watching guys like Karo Parisyan and Mike Swain utilize it. This particular program, though, wasn't for me.

I like what Sensei is teaching us quite a bit.

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There you go.