Month: October 2018

SAISA Swim Preparations – 17.10.2018

amccoy20 on

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October 26th, a date that draws ever nearer, one that carries feelings of excitement and angst. Because October 26th happens to be the first day of competition for SAISA swimming, and the culminations of the swim team’s efforts. SAISA(South Asia International Schools Association) Swimming is a swim tournament in which schools from around the region of South Asia complete against each other. This year’s tournament is being hosted in Amman, Jordan. The pressure is on for OSC to do really well, as they won first place in the previous year(I was not at OSC then).

The season is quite short by most standards, only allowing roughly 2 months of training. As well as that, within 2 weeks of traveling, we had a week school break, meaning that we get slightly out of shape from not swimming as much. However, for me the break was a relief, as it allowed me to rest my body fully, before the hardest part of the season. I did swim over the break, but it was difficult for me to do so as I was mainly visiting family in the U.S.

Over the break, the sign up sheet for the events was sent to us, and we were to complete it. We had to choose seven events(out of nine), and number them in order to indicate what we wanted. One was the event that you most desired to swim, seven was the one you least desired to swim. My choices were as follows:

  1. 50 Fly
  2. 100 Freestyle
  3. 100 Fly
  4. 50 Freestyle
  5. 200 Freestyle
  6. 100 IM(Individual Medley)
  7. 400 Freestyle

The events I actually got were:

50 Fly

100 Freestyle

200 Freestyle

100 Fly

I am really excited with the events I got, as I like all of them and it’s going to be really fun. I especially was excited to get 50 fly, as in my opinion it is the most exciting race of the whole meet(minus the relays). I also am in some relays, but am not sure which ones currently.

I’ll make a post with my times after the meet.

Gecko Network Update – 15.10.2018

amccoy20 on

First off, I must apologize for not saying anything about Gecko Network or making posts about it or anything. It’s kind of hard to say a huge amount about it, but I’ll try. I also apologize again for the lack of photos, as Gecko Network takes photos of other services, not itself.

 

When I first joined Gecko Network, I was deeply worried about being a handicap and having no idea what was going on, due to my lack of knowledge of video editing. I had never edited a more professional video, and never with expensive software. I also was worried that I wouldn’t know how to operate one or more of the fancy camera rigs that Gecko Network has. Those initial few weeks made me feel like the biggest idiot there was. Everyone was working hard and efficiently, knowing how to do the tasks that they were assigned, while I was standing around knowing not how to do anything. I started to pick up some things, like the vocabulary of what the other people where doing, but not nearly enough to be competent or useful. Luckily, the service leader recognized it and gave me a break by putting me in positions more alined to that of a director. I found that these were actually the positions I enjoyed the most. It wasn’t just because it was my only option, it made me genuinely happy and satisfied to see my views or ideas come together in front of me. I actually found it similar to being a patrol leader in Boys Scouts, in regards to interacting with people. I tried to be a good director, and I listened to everything that the people editing the videos told me. I think I might have found one of my creative strengths through this though, being able to close my eyes and see my vision of something.

So far, Gecko Network has published around 12 videos. These vary in length, and I’ve been a part of 2 of them. For the SAISA Swimming video, I was director, and for the canteen pre-order instructional video, I co-directed and also starred in it as an actor. Of the 2, the SAISA Swimming video was definitely more intense and required more. The purpose of this video was to help hype up the swim team for the masses at the upcoming pep-rally(even though they didn’t play the video there). It was actually my first project, but the editors I was paired up with were both great to work with and helped me through the process(even though the director should know these things…). Our final product was OK, it’s issues mainly coming from the sudden shock of having a deadline suddenly shifted on us(long story that happened rather quickly). My second project was the Canteen Pre-order system instructional video. This was a small assignment, that only required two meetings and a little bit of outside work to complete. The video was meant to demonstrate how to properly use the new system in the canteen, so it wasn’t long or complicated. I did enjoy the more straightforwards way of working on these uncomplicated videos, it was a nice refresher after the swimming one.

Here’s the link to both of them

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMWQunGSnuU&feature=youtu.be

 

Be on the lookout for more in the future, we have some big plans here at Gecko Network, and I think that they’ll be interesting. While I won’t say too much, we do have some mini-documentaries about the other services coming up soon, and some other neat stuff about the things that go on at OSC.