The past week of training in Arkansas has been pretty good.  Last Monday we started with our specialized job training on how to make wonderful video and tell wonderful stories.  We got to learn some things from the broadcast operations chief of the US Army Reserves.  He introduced the rest of the broadcasters to Adobe Premier, a film editing software I learned at Fort Meade.  He also talked about our Sony PD-170 cameras and asked us to treat them well in the sand.  Then on the third day we were given an assignment to do a personality story on another broadcaster.  Our instructor made the mistake of telling us we could “make stuff up” about the other person to make it interesting.  We later learned he meant this exercise to be a bonding experience and not a comedy show.  SPC Volunteer made a video of SGT Tigers as an arrogant soldier.  At first she’s running around post telling everyone she’s the best soldier in the world.  Then next thing we know she runs into a sign, and I proceed to laugh.  SPC Volunteer got a nice tongue lashing by our instructor because it was fiction and wasn’t news, but it was funny.  My story below isn’t all that good.  I have some good soundbites and decent video, but the writing is weak and there’s a part I don’t like where I should have reshot.  I won’t say because then everyone will notice.  I’m only putting this up so I can point to something and say, “it was better than the Brian loves sugar piece.”

Brian loves Sugar from Adam Stone on Vimeo.

The Sorority Soldier posted her piece from our training on her new look website.  BTW – It’s a joke.  The CIA may have brought crack to the inner-cities of America, but the Sorority Soldier is only trying to do her part to shed some light upon the sad reality of crack cocaine addiction in America.

She also did this serious piece on PFC Tyler Maulding.  He’s a good guy from Seattle who has an impressive photography portfolio.  He swears he doesn’t know everything because he’s 19.  He authorized me to point out when he acts like he knows everything because he’s 19.  It’s going to be a fun year for me

I have another story I’m showing today.  I don’t think i’m going to edit it anymore, but I figure I should get a good critique on it first.  I’m thinking my writing is going to hold me back unless I work on it some more.

I got to missing the wife the other night when I got to hear Mr. and Mrs. Sassypants have a “discussion” on the phone.  It wasn’t the “discussion” that made me miss her.  It was when he told her they would “talk about it when he got home” that made me miss her and really start to count the days until I got home.  It was like this when I was in Maryland for three months.  When I was about a week-and-a-half from leaving, the anticipation about killed me.  I’ve been away for about half that time, but the anticipation is about the same.

One of my new nightly routines is to head to the Arkansas National Guard MWR building (it’s the national guard PX/BX) with SGT Tigers and  PFC Yo Lo Tango to get on the wireless internet. The barracks we stay in are close enough to the wi-fi zone for me to see the signal, but not close enough to stay on the internet.  While I was here I happened to mention Stuffwhitepeoplelike.com.  Yo Lo Tango said “I saw that book in the book store.  I read what they said about Indie music and I thought to myself ‘these guys get it.’  Then I read further and saw they were making fun of indie music.  I almost bought the book, I hate them now.”  The post on indie music is funny because Yo Lo Tango and I had a conversation along these exact lines while we were in Fort Dix a few weeks ago.  Is it wrong that I took pleasure in the fact that he had been properly sterotyped by stuffwhitepeoplelike.com?  If it’s wrong….I don’t want to be right

The above photo by SPC Darryl Montgomery is half of the broadcast section.  From left to right, SGT Kristen King, SPC Daniel Sullivan, and SSG Brian Raley at Pennicle Mountain in Arkansas.

This post is tagged 343rd MPAD, Brian Loves Sugar, PFC Tyler Maulding, PFC Yo Lo Tango, Sassypants, SGT Kristen King, SGT Tiger, Sorority Soldier, SPC Daniel Sullivan, SPC Darryl Montgomery, SPC Volunteer, SSG Brian Raley, Stuff White People Like