Tuesday, August 30, 2005 | by nathan

O-Trip

On Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays I work at the Admissions and Records Department at Oklahoma City Community College, AKA OKCCC, AKA Oh-Triple-C, AKA O-Trip. When I started it was enrollment time for fall, and we were swamped with new applications, requests for transcripts, and people needing new ID cards. It was miserable.

Now, classes have started and things have mellowed significantly. It’s $9.05 an hour, the position is temporary, and I get to sit here at the desk and write. Doesn’t entirely suck. And - cross your fingers here - it may help me afford the new computer I’ve been dying to get all summer, as mine lies near death, like some written-out soap opera character. Pray for this, folks; it would help a lot.

Mostly, pray for Summer, because she is still hurt. Auvrey and I are plotting a jaunt up to St. Louis for the end of next week, but I have yet to work out the work schedule stuff.

Also, pray that we get out of Iraq soon, and with a minimum of chaos and death. This will require a miracle, so you should probably stretch before praying, and drink lots of water.

In other news, I gave up my reluctance about the UCC and went to Mayflower for church on Sunday, and you know what? I LOVE it! I love the whole “God is Still Speaking” campaign, and Dr. Meyers, the pastor, rules, even if he doesn’t seem to have a bit of a yen for Bishop Spong, whom I like in theory somewhat but can’t stand in reality. Brian mentioned that he had almost joined Mayflower back in the spring but then hadn’t. I suggested that we join together, and that perhaps this was the reason for his reluctance.

One thing I loved when I was perusing Mayflower’s website today:

“It is our goal to reverse the present trend toward using the proceeds of church growth to construct larger and larger facilities, and to feed the budgets that are necessary to support them. Instead, we have self-consciously decided to direct more and more of our resources toward the least fortunate among us. Our ultimate goal is to spend at least 50% of our total operating budget for purely missions and charity.”

That’s awesome.

Anyhow. Our realtor, Monty, will be back this week from his vacation and hopefully will get to show us those houses. I’m looking forward to that. For now, though, I love the loft, I love Brian, and I rather love life at the moment. Mostly good, some problems.

Amen.

Sunday, August 28, 2005 | by nathan

Noo Yeer. Gud.

Since classes began six days ago, the following have happened. These are not in order of chronology or importance:

1) I have begun my Teaching Assistantship in the Video Production class at OU’s Journalism and Mass Communications school. I was terrified when I came in last Monday morning, as I have about as much experience and know-how in video production as the students I am to be teaching. But some wonderful things happened. The sound board that we use is an Allen & Heath GL3300, which is almost exactly what I used to use in Wait Chapel at Wake Forest, when I worked for Jay Lawson. I remembered enough of the light board to get by, and now the only piece of equipment I don’t know is the switcher, which is a machine of such horrible and ugly complexity that I prefer not to describe it to you. It’s all blinky lights and thousands of buttons; it’s like something from Star Trek. I can’t wait to learn it, and I’m loving what I’m learning from the class. The instructor, Ana, is fantastic.

2) Ana was contacted by the History Channel to do a cooperative Independent Study with the Honors College to produce two 3-6 minute mini-documentaries on Native American history for their show “The History Center.” I signed up for the class - since I was going to be helping her with it anyway - and am now in the process of making two mini-documentaries. Yowza! And yet, this is something at which I have always wanted to try my hand and about which I am hella-stoked. We had a conference call with the producers last Wednesday, and our pitch meeting with them is on September 15. So - does anyone have any ideas about mini-docs on Native American history? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?

3) I also began my stint as a reporter for our NPR affiliate, KGOU/KROU (Norman/Spencer). Our show is called “Assignment Radio” and is basically like “This American Life” only we do it all around Norman and Oklahoma City. Next week we learn about remote audio production and check out the equipment.

4) So with all this audio production stuff happening, I was talking to Justin Lee the other day and I just started brainstorming on how to make my column on gaychristian.net something new and exciting for this year. You may have noticed that I tend to take every summer off - I think of them as the “Summer Season,” which conveniently divides my columns up into seasons like on television. As I think that eventually I will have an agent who may force me to stop doing GCN columns for free, I would like to make the column much better as I go into a new “season.” As such, I brought up the idea of doing both a print and audio version of the column, which he loved. So, now - I have a podcast! Or rather, I will: I am still awaiting a few things, like the acquisition of an iBook for myself and the checking out of the audio equipment necessary to do the podcast. But it is forthcoming, and Justin and I are both - again - hella-stoked.

5) My classes, for the most part, are good. Dr. Beard loves Fox News. This may be a problem.

6) I attended Mayflower United Church of Christ this morning with Brian. We had an absolutely wonderful time, even if Dr. Meyers, the pastor (whom I greatly admire) did reference Bishop Spong in a positive light. I ranted to Brian in the car about this, and about the fact that gay-affirming churches didn’t always lean theologically the way I like, but what is more important to me these days is community. I am intelligent enough to maintain an intellecutally sound theology, and, after all, the crux of the Christian faith does not involve mainly my intellect. I must remember this all the time, as I have a tendency to lean on my strengths and think that, if I can grasp God intellectually, I must be doing Okay in my life. Ah, Nathan. The more things change…

7) Monty, our realtor, went out of town. So the House Hunt is on temporary pause. But he will get back on Tuesday and we are trying to get together with him on Thursday to look at a couple homes we like, including this one (http://listings1.mlsgateway.com/Search/Scripts/MediaDisplay.asp?UID=252184&MlsNum=226576&PropType=res) and this one (http://listings1.mlsgateway.com/Search/Scripts/MediaDisplay.asp?UID=248339&MlsNum=223111&PropType=res). [I apologize: inserting links into this blog on a Mac is as yet foreign to me.] Don’t let the green kitchen scare you; it is much, much cooler in person than on the web.

I am more in love with Brian than I thought possible. Can you believe that? I still maintain that I do not deserve hiim, but he loves me and I him, and I am positive that this will be enough.

Thank You. Thank You. Thank You.

Sunday, August 28, 2005 | by Nate

The Wit…Good Band Name…