Well. I've got excellent news. My family and friends are sensational and I got a good amount of help with all of this transcription business. Special thanks to my beautiful sister Crys, my genius brother David, and my dear friends, in the truest sense of the word, Seth, Vicki, Juan, Natalie, and Pickett. Seth already sent me his section and it is amazing how much easier this is going to make my life. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I hope to have my first rough cut done by March 12. Yes, this is fairly industrious, but I am running out of time (another reminder: this thing is due on April 28. I'm trying not to freak out). 

On a personal note (Since I'm a fan of alliteration, let's call this a Producer's Personal Paragraph.), I feel like I am learning so much about myself and about my family throughout this process. And, if you don't mind me going macro with this, I'm learning so much about marriage and the human condition. As I've been sifting through my siblings' thoughts and observations (and reading everything on marriage and divorce that I can get my greedy hands on [currently polishing off Committed which I highly recommend]), I am seeing so many patterns. I am learning all the ways divorce can be avoided... all the things that were glaring signs of issues that went unattended. You know the saying, "Know thine enemy?" Divorce is most certainly my enemy and I am really starting to get well acquainted.

I finished going through Derek's interview. Here's a bit from it about his hope for my project. And yes. We'll just have to see. 

Well. I have gotten through the bulk of my interviews. I'm now left with about 20 tracks that range from five to fifteen minutes. I just sent out a desperate email to some family and friends begging them to help me transcribe all of this stuff:

Hi family (and dear friends)...

As you know (I think), I was totally screwed by the lady that was going to transcribe my master's project audio. I am achingly behind. I have been able to go through all my recordings and grab the sections that are most pertinent to my piece... basically making 20 tracks or so that range from 5-15 minutes. 

Anyway, I am reaching out because I am desperate! Would any of you be willing to help me transcribe a couple of these? I just got the approval to take Spring Break off from work (Monday, March 8 to Friday, March 12). Essentially, I have to get the piece mostly done by the end of that week. If I had all these bits transcribed by then, I think I could make it happen. 

NO PRESSURE at all (honestly), but if you have any spare time... you'd be my own personal hero.

Some fabulous people exist in my world; I am trying to get over my ridiculous need to do everything myself. I am hoping I have done enough good in life to earn some good karma.  

This piece is due to Emerson on April 28 in order for me to graduate on May 17. I've got this. Right?

This doesn't have much to do with anything, but I just thought it was funny. I was editing the sibling conversation this evening and came across a discussion of Luigi's "slippery feet" and his ability to jump higher. My brother David also touts his clout... apparently he collected every single coin with both Luigi AND Mario. My family is extremely accomplished.

Awful news. The woman I paid to do my transcription completely bailed on me. She made up some crappy excuses (which I am 99.9% sure were a load of crap) and just kind of said, "Sorry!" Thanks, lady. That price really WAS too good to be true. So, I lost a couple weeks of time waiting on her to give me something to work from. So freaking obnoxious. I was super pissed when I found out (Saturday evening), but I have just accepted it at this point (late on a Monday night). I didn't think I was going to get my money back, but I did. I am so happy to at least have that. As soon as I found out that I was screwed, I called up my sister. Her reply? Something to the effect of: "And this is why you can only count on yourself." My sentiments exactly.

In better news, my spell of complete inactivity with my project are over. I think I was just so overwhelmed by the amount of work that is needed that I just could NOT get myself to start the editing in earnest. [Inspirational quote/reminder here: "Don't let fear stop you from creating things." - Dieter Uchtdorf.] I finally came up with a workflow today and got a good chunk of work done. I was concerned with the size of a Pro Tools session that included all of my audio (around ten hours or so). It would take FOREVER to back up and move around (I will be working on three computers... my laptop, my PC at work, and [most likely] one of Macs in the audio suites at school). I needed to break these interviews up a bit. Make the amount of audio material more manageable. I went through my proposal again to re-read my narrative description (needed to remind myself of what exactly I am doing...). My proposal stated that the questions I would ask of my siblings (and I imagine the final piece) would be focused on five phases of our lives: life before we were aware of major issues, the disruptive events leading up to the divorce, the divorce itself, life following the divorce, and now. So. I started with my interview with my sister Crys. I created five tracks, one for each of these phases (track titles for my own reference: BEFORE, CRACKS, DIVORCE, POST, NOW) and one track for the answers to an interesting question I asked: "How do you think the divorce affected your siblings?" Then, I just listened to the interview, cut stuff out that I know I won't be including (even though some of it is absolutely fascinating) and separated her commentary on each phase into its corresponding track. I just finished bouncing all six of those tracks (don't worry, Pierre, I left handles on each side of the sentences I like!). I will do this same process for the interviews with my brothers and the conversation all four of us had together. I will finish this part of the process this week. I feel like I am actually going somewhere with this. So excited. I am going to ask for some time off of work so I can actually put this thing together.

Pretty productive for President's Day.