Here's the second draft of our design for the new mousepads in the media lab. Bekka did the pencil sketch of the SPNN logo, and then I put it into an etch-a-sketch. I'm having a hard time getting the "Building Community Through Television" to look right. What do you guys think?

Just a quick update to let you know that I've posted the Youth Advisory Committee one hour video projects on google video. You can access them using the sidebar on the right. Check them out and let me know what you think! Our next YAC meeting is this Friday, and I'm still ironing out all of the details. If you have a chance, check out the Set It Up blog (also accessible using the sidebar on your right). The youth have posted a couple updates, and I also gave the look of the blog a little facelift.

If you haven't checked out the CTEP Media Committee Vlog, you should. Now featuring the legendary media committee ghost movie. I ain't afraid of no ghost.

One story from the CTEP office party I forgot to share - I was talking to Jeff about music. He talked about listening to anarcho-punk and hanging out with Profane Existence when he was younger. I said I'd never heard of them. As we drove home, Jeremy played "Stevie Nix" by The Hold Steady, so that I could hear this line: "When we hit the Twin Cities, I didn't know that much about it; I knew Mary Tyler Moore and I knew Profane Existence."

So the Set It Up videos are now on Google Video. They're listed in the sidebar on the right. Try it out!

As Thomas Fuller once wrote, "I can't estimate how important the weather/ climate/ seasons are to me. When I get out and feel the sun on my skin, I feel great. It's as simple as that." Yesterday was gorgeous, a perfect 70 degree day in downtown Saint Paul. So, of course Bekka and Ivan wanted to shoot outside. And of course they wanted their location to be the park. And of course I volunteered to help them out. The pictures on the right were taken with the SPNN Youth Education Department's new camera, a Canon Powershot A610, that I picked out. I think it's been working really well so far, and I've been really impressed with the image quality.

On a different note, I'll be attending the Macalester Internship Reception today to represent SPNN. One of our interns, Zoe Holmes, is a mentor for the Set It Up show. Being a Mac grad myself, I thought this would be a fun opportunity to check out the old stomping grounds.

Yesterday I uploaded the Set It Up episodes to Google Video. They're awaiting verification, but once that process is over with, I'm hoping that this will solve some of the issues that people have been running into with archive.org.

On a more life altering note, I've reached the point in my service year where I have to start thinking about what's next. I've been thinking about applying to do another year with CTEP. I've also been considering moving back to Washington state. I do love my job, probably as much or more than anyone I know. However, I don't relish the thought of living on the stipend and food stamps for another year. Ah, the life of an AmeriCorps.

Last night I attended an office party at CTEP HQ. The party was a joint effort by the people who share the sixth floor of that office building - an interesting assortment of artists, writers, and independent media producers. I brought Jeremy, Josh, and Erin along for the ride. There was a solid CTEP presence at the party, including Roxanne, Linda, Lindsey, Ken, Catherine, Jeff and his awesome girlfriend Olivia, and Rich with his lovely wife Barb. I stuck around to watch All the Pretty Horses play a set. The picture on the right was taken with my cameraphone (hence the graininess) during the opening song. I've also posted a picture of my awesome new shoes that I got yesterday in order to a) show off how awesome my new shoes are and b) pay homage to Linda's fantastic blog post about getting a pair of clogs.

Hey everyone,

So today we had our super awesome committee meeting/bbq. And it was super awesome. Much was accomplished, as can be seen by these pictures that I'm posting. If productivity is what your committee is after, then I suggest a bbq.

It has been a fun week at SPNN. Spring break is over and the Set It Up crew has returned. I've posted the mock ups I've made for the Set It Up shirt, which has gone through a number of revisions. What do you guys think? Bekka designed the logo (originally pencil on notebook paper).

I've also asked her to design the new mousepads for the media lab. I'm going to be posting the one-hour-video-project videos that the Youth Advisory Committee made pretty soon, so watch out for those.

I applied for a scholarship on Tuesday for the Netsquared conference in California this May, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed for that one. In other conference news, I'm hoping to go to the Alliance for Community Media Conference this July in Boston, possibly even bringing a couple of youth with me. I'll keep you posted on how things shape up.

All right boys and girls, it's the moment you've all been waiting for. I've finally posted this season's third episode of Set It Up for your viewing pleasure. As you probably know, the current episode deals with teen health. The screenshot on your right is a talking cheeseburger. Click it to view the episode. Once again, you'll need the latest version of Quicktime. Enjoy!

Over spring break, David was kind enough to host a couple of workshops on the animation and special effects program Adobe After Effects. It took me over an hour to come up with this short video.

For all of my rabid fans anxious for their Kevin fix, you can catch me on SPNN's channel 15 next Monday at 6:30pm. I hosted the latest episode of the All Things Access show. Don't miss it.

This week is spring break for Saint Paul public schools, and I've been helping out on a class SPNN is hosting called Real Reality TV. It's a documentary video production class run by Niknaz. The class is run through the Connections program, meaning that the youth involved get high school credit for attending. The class teaches them basic camera and iMovie skills, and it culminates in the creation of an actual documentary. Some of you may have seen the Homophobia video, which screened at the Girls in the Director's Chair Film Festival and was recently accepted into the Flaming Film Festival. That video was made as part of last year's Real Reality TV class.

In other exciting news, I'm getting a new work computer! I'm pretty sure I have by far the slowest computer at SPNN, and trying to do things like "multitasking" has been difficult on a 500MHz Pentium III. I put flame decals on the monitor, which seemed to give me a slight boost, but it was probably more placebo effect than anything else. Let me tell you, I'm pretty excited for this new computer.