Things I've learned

July 20th, 2005 | Filed under Work

So, one of the many exciting things I “get” to do at work everyday is make things work. I know that sounds ridiculously simple, but at times it’s fixing the technical problems of others that makes me happy.

For instance, today I ran by the conference that Edge is hosting at a local hotel downtown. I only stopped by to drop off a couple of CDs that we had just finished burning (by the way, big shout outs to our developer, Irene for putting the finishing touches on 5 CDs in the past 4 days.), however I ended up sticking around to do a little trouble shooting for the bosses (the owners of Edge).

I had just stepped into a conference room to check out the set up for a presentation tomorrow and I ended up helping set up a powerpoint presentation (the tech people forgot to plug in the cable all the way) and get a microphone for another conference room. While these may seem like really simple, stupid things….remember I prefaced this post with the comment that sometimes doing stupid and simple things for people is nice.

Which brings me to the heart of this post, things I’ve learned. My senior year of high school I was given some advice that has been one of the most important pieces of advice in my short professional career in video and troubleshooting. It was given to me by the electrical engineer at USD 308 in Hutchinson, Jerry Kinser. Kinser is the man in charge of everything electronic throughout the district, which makes him a very busy, busy man. However, he was always patient and polite anytime Buck or I would page him with some crazy broadcasting question, or pleading for help. After a while it just became to much for him to stop by our classroom all the time as we kept adding new equipment, so as a replacement for his presence he gave us a quick and simple check list for troubleshooting.

1. Is it on?
2. Is it plugged into the power?
3. Is it plugged into everything it needs to be plugged into (i.e. video, monitor, camera, projector, stereo cables)?

While this may seem ridiculously simple you have no idea how many times these three simple checks have manifested themselves in projects I’ve worked on.

So I guess I just wanted to take this time to thank Jerry for taking the time to help a couple of bratty “know it all” kids. Buck and I spent countless hours in his office hanging out and asking stupid questions about technology and he always took the time to answer. 90 percent, if not more, of my technical ability comes directly from Jerry. Not enough people take the time to care like that.

p.s. Unfortunately the current broadcasting teacher treats Kinser like shit, and subsequently his one-on-one student interaction has fallen to nil….which is a bummer for everyone involved. More posts comming soon…also feel free to send me an email or use the comments to let me know what you think of the new site and things you would like to see more of.