{"id":18,"date":"2014-06-25T06:52:23","date_gmt":"2014-06-25T13:52:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/trailheadproductions.com\/blog\/?p=18"},"modified":"2016-02-23T15:33:19","modified_gmt":"2016-02-23T23:33:19","slug":"this-blog-is-now-gluten-free","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/trailheadproductions.com\/palette\/this-blog-is-now-gluten-free\/","title":{"rendered":"This Blog Is Now Gluten Free"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/rcm-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/e\/cm?t=trailheproduc-20&#038;o=1&#038;p=48&#038;l=ur1&#038;category=amazonhomepage&#038;f=ifr&#038;linkID=W4UIWGN2NL3DBEFJ\" width=\"728\" height=\"90\" scrolling=\"no\" border=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" style=\"border:none;\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>This is how to cross the street.<\/p>\n<p>If you\u2019re standing on the right side of an intersection, wait until a car on your left has passed fully through that intersection, which confirms a green light, rather than just a left turn only signal for cars coming towards you. \u00a0If you\u2019re on the left side of an intersection, wait until an oncoming car passes through that intersection, again confirming a green light, but in this case signifying that cars on your right won\u2019t turn into your path, which would happen if there was just a left turn signal rather than a green light. As far as bicycles and the occasional Prius are concerned, do the best you can. \u00a0<em>Never<\/em>\u00a0assume you have a green light just because another pedestrian is walking into traffic<\/p>\n<p>I should mention this is how to cross the street when you can\u2019t see where you\u2019re going.<\/p>\n<p>Hi. My name is Michael. I\u2019m visually impaired, and there\u2019s a good chance that someday I\u2019ll be completely blind.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s the truth and I can\u2019t change it.<\/p>\n<p>Ah, the blog. I think we all know that one of the most pressing issues of our<!--more--> time, other than the almost criminal apathy about the decades long absence of beloved 1970\u2019s General Mills monster cereal underdog (underrmonster?) Yummy Mummy, is the critical blog shortage in America. I mean, have you seen what\u2019s coming out of China lately? We simply have to step up our output. I finally came to the conclusion I need to do my part. For America, you see.<\/p>\n<p>Although I\u2019m a storyteller by trade, I have to admit the extended navel gazing that seems to be part and parcel of the blogging gig hasn\u2019t been part of my nature. \u201cYou\u2019re the storyteller, not the story.\u201d That was the mantra of one of my favorite news directors, so I tend to get antsy when I see too many capital I\u2019s in a blog, mine included. Still, I think I have something to say, so there will have to be a balancing act. Hopefully, I\u2019ll err on the side of information over indulgence. Bear with me.<\/p>\n<p>The story so far:<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve been a storyteller for the entirety of my adult life. My medium of choice has been the camera. For ten years, I scratched that itch by working in television news, both in front of and behind the lens. First as a reporter and a photographer (plus one, just one, night as an anchor\u2026 let us never speak of it again), then as just the reporter half of a reporter\/photographer twosome. I left television news in 2003 and started a video production company \u2013 a fancy pants way of saying I became a freelance videographer\/editor. I\u2019ve worked mostly with nonprofits, with the occasional foray into documentary editing.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve also been visually impaired, to one degree or another, since I was a teenager. The details are, methinks, a longer story for another post, but the basics are easy enough to relate. I lost the sight in my right eye when I was thirteen. I lost a large part of the sight in my left eye twelve years ago \u2013 enough to trade in my driver\u2019s license for a bus pass, but not so much that I couldn\u2019t figure out a way to shoot and edit. Frustrating but doable. You\u2019d be surprised what you can do with 20\/400 eyesight. This year\u2026 six weeks ago, in fact, I lost most of what was remaining. And losing what very little of my sight that\u2019s left is\u2026 if not inevitable, very much a possibility.<\/p>\n<p>So\u2026 that happened.<\/p>\n<p>It can be a tad\u2026 let\u2019s say disheartening to sit, as I am now, in my studio full of cameras and editing equipment, and not be able to use any of it. I\u2019ve used stronger words, too. I like shooting. I love editing. I miss both very much. There\u2019s a line in the movie \u201cSingles\u201d (the 1992 Cameron Crowe classic which, I am convinced, nobody but me either likes or remembers) when Campbell Scott\u2019s character, describing his cubicle based work crafting designs for a new rail transit system as \u201cmaking music with my fingers.\u201d He was being facetious, but I\u2019ve always been serious about that sentiment. Whether I\u2019m behind the wheel of a tricked out HP workstation, trying to make NewsCutter do what the Avid sales rep promised it could do, or hunched over the keyboard of a Macbook Air on the redeye from San Francisco to Chicago, proofing scripts and sending out call sheets. Making music with my fingers. That\u2019s when I\u2019ve felt most like me.<\/p>\n<p>So of course my thoughts these past several weeks have centered on how I could possibly keep doing what has been the defining aspect of my life in this new world of\u2026 well, if not sightlessness, extremely limited sight. \u00a0I&#8217;m not totally blind. \u00a0At least, not yet, whispers my subconscious from the back row. He whispers, but I can hear him just fine. Fogs and blurs, distortions and warps. This is the lens through which I see the world. The words \u201ccreative vision\u201d sure take on a cruel irony. Doesn\u2019t this turn of events make the last twenty-five years completely pointless? This is the shout from the front row.<\/p>\n<p>My fears can be summed up in one word: useless. Yes, other people with other problems (and who are, let\u2019s be clear, in far worse shape than I), worry about other words. Words like helpless. pitied. Or the big one: death. For me, number one on the hit parade is not being useful.<\/p>\n<p>My tools don\u2019t work. They\u2019re old and worn out. Now what?<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s where I landed on this. Of course, there\u2019s a story.<\/p>\n<p>My first reporting job was in Sioux Falls. It was cold. I was broke. It was also the best job I ever had, not counting the summer of 1986 at Little Caesar\u2019s. \u00a0So\u2026 much\u2026 free pizza. Wednesday through Friday, I got to work with a photographer. Weekends I worked solo. My gear was\u2026 unwieldy. All but unrecognizable to photogs shooting today, except perhaps from an evolutionary perspective, the way Homo Erectus kinda sorta looks like us, but if one showed up at your office, you\u2019d know it wasn\u2019t the FedEx guy. To the twenty-two year old me, the camera sitting in my gear locker, or even my less sophisticated but perfectly serviceable B-cam, would seem almost otherwordly in their power, quality\u2026 and seeming weightlessness. My iPhone, which has done yeoman\u2019s work in emergencies would of course be regarded as nothing short of science fiction. My gear back then was heavy, old and so worn out that I had to carry a portable hair dryer with me, because thanks to a hairline crack in the sealant of the lens housing, the lens would fog up on the inside of the camera whenever I brought it inside after shooting in South Dakota\u2019s sub-zero temperatures. Defogging the insides with a hair dryer was the only alternative to waiting for hours for it to clear up on its own.<\/p>\n<p>I complained about my gear once. To paraphrase a line from another classic movie I wonder if anyone else remembers, I complained once. Only once. Returning from a shoot fifty miles away, driving in almost pure whiteout conditions for a story which I was convinced, with my grand total of thirteen whole weeks of experience to back me up, was not a story and hauling close to seven thousand pounds of equipment around (I may be exaggerating), I was in no mood to hear the editor tell me I hadn\u2019t shot enough video for him to work with. I blamed the weather. I blamed the gear. I blamed the story. For good measure, I blamed the gear again. From the hallway alongside the edit booth, my chief photographer overheard my tirade. What he said next is something I\u2019ve never forgotten.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou don&#8217;t like the gear? \u00a0Listen, fucko. \u00a0If I send you out there with a box of crayons, you\u2019d still better come back with a story. \u00a0Got it?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I got it, and I never forgot it. It\u2019s advice I\u2019ve tried to pass on to others (I attempt not to use the word \u201cfucko,\u201d though, and I often succeed). Through decades of bad gear, trying conditions and questionable assignments, the sentiment stuck. Your tools are the least important part of your storytelling. They come in a distant second, compared to your ability to tell the story itself.<\/p>\n<p>So that\u2019s what this inaugural post has led me to say. The tools I\u2019m used to using aren\u2019t working very well. They\u2019re worn out and not nearly as good as everyone else\u2019s, but I have to believe that rather than conclude that everything I\u2019ve done so far has been pointless in the face of this new reality, it\u2019s years worth of proof that stories, good stories, come to life no matter what tools you have at your disposal\u2026 if you have the ability to tell a story. I honestly don\u2019t know if I have the ability to tell the stories I want to tell next, but I do know what those stories are, and I also know the moment I\u2019ve stopped defining myself as a storyteller is the moment I\u2019ve started defining myself as beaten.<\/p>\n<p>So this is me: I can\u2019t see your face, but I know you have a story to tell. I have some trouble finding the door, but I know there\u2019s a story behind it. Tell me there\u2019s a bone in the yard and I\u2019ll dig it up. Finding the story, telling the story and maybe doing a bit of good along the way. That\u2019s me.<\/p>\n<p>Hi. My name is Michael. I\u2019m visually impaired, and there\u2019s a good chance that someday I\u2019ll be completely blind.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m a storyteller.<\/p>\n<p>Those are two truths, and I can\u2019t change either of them.<\/p>\n<p>So, thank you for stopping by. I\u2019d appreciate it if you\u2019d consider sticking around. I\u2019m going to show you what it\u2019s like to come up for air after losing your breath, and build new skills with new tools. It\u2019ll be a bit me-centric at first, but don\u2019t worry, I promise we\u2019ll get to the good stuff. I can almost guarantee twists and turns. In the words of the ancient mapmakers describing uncharted\u00a0territory &#8211; here be dragons.<\/p>\n<p>My box of crayons is open.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; This is how to cross the street. If you\u2019re standing on the right side of an intersection, wait until a car on your left has passed fully through that intersection, which confirms a green light, rather than just a left turn only signal for cars coming towards you. \u00a0If you\u2019re on the left side [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-introduction"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5Rim5-i","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/trailheadproductions.com\/palette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/trailheadproductions.com\/palette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/trailheadproductions.com\/palette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/trailheadproductions.com\/palette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/trailheadproductions.com\/palette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/trailheadproductions.com\/palette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1017,"href":"http:\/\/trailheadproductions.com\/palette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18\/revisions\/1017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/trailheadproductions.com\/palette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/trailheadproductions.com\/palette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/trailheadproductions.com\/palette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}