Blog at Richard Call Dot Net

A year …. one passed and one starts..and I’m not excited

// January 7th, 2012 // No Comments » // personal, personal growth // personal, personal growth

Last year sucked for me … it sucked bad.. I lost too much and the bad thing is this next year it looks like I might lose more. over the last 2 years I made some ill advised decision based on faulty information and it has come back to bit me….. big time.

Soooo… what to do. Well, I guess I will set some goals and do my best to accomplish them.

Goal #1 and the most Important: SAVE GRAD SCHOOL.

back story, when I graduated back in 2001 I started to defer my student loans because I wasn’t making much in the job I had and my payments were around $450 dollars a month. Fast forward to Oct 2010, when I found out I was going to lose my job I applied to a couple of grad programs. One I didn’t get accepted to because i had not taken my GRE and the Other accepted me provisionally based on my first semester grades and my GMAT score. But due to circumstances far out side of my control and part of that faulty information I got from someone else, I did not accept it, even though I should have and almost did anyway. Had I started that fall semester of last year I would have been able to a in school deferment of my loans. It would have been an MBA program which ins’t what I wanted but it would have helped me in my derailed plans to make more money. A few months ago I got a letter form the student loan people telling me that my deferment had ended and that I needed to start paying again (payments now at $575ish). All my requests for deferment and forbearance have been denyed. Which means I currently defaulting on my student loans simply because I am unable to pay the payments and if I can’t make them or hold off defaulting I will not be able to get a loan for the first semester of the next fall or ever. I will lose grad school. Not to mention that if you default the federal government will garnish your wages for 15% of your income.

Anyway.. my goal is to figure out a way to hold off default till the fall. This the one that I think will be nearly impossible but I have to try.

Other Goals:

1) study for and take my GRE (just in case I can pull off a miracle).

2) reduce my spending and build up my savings (I will write about how I am doing this)

3) finish fixing my mediocre credit rating.

4) print and hang up some of my photos.

5) redesign my blog and write here more….I really need to work on my writing skills.

6) Cook more and start a cooking blog to record my good and bads.

7) take more pictures… something I haven’t done as much as I’m used to.

8) put more diverse content on my photo blog fstopblues.net including producing video content tutorials.

9) Organize my stuff which I will have less of after I get rid of anything I haven’t used in over a year.

10) Move closer to work … so I can either walk or ride my bike in. May not happen till after this semester ends and depends on goal #1 which might take me out of state.

11) Increase my 5K time to under 30 minutes and run the County Music Half Marathon on April 28

12) take a Yoga Class.

13) start the LifeHacker Workout Plan

I think this is a good start. I will try to keep up on the progress.

My Directorial Debut — Common Sense for Dummys Pilot Eposide

// August 16th, 2011 // No Comments » // Uncategorized // Uncategorized

Last summer, on the weekends, a group of friend set out on an adventure to shoot and produce a TV show Pilot. The results are below. I present the Common Sence for Dummys “Cheap Shots for a Bad Economy”

Part 1 (approximatly 15 minutes)

Part 2 (approximatly 15 minutes)

one of the promos I shot and Directed (written and edited by Emily Steele)

we would love some feedback….let us know what you think…

Written by and Staring Emily Steele, Ender Bowen and Tim Todd cs4d.com
Shot and Directed by Richard Call richardcall.net
Produced by Kenny Grarner kennygarner.com

Mix Tape for 6-12-11

// June 12th, 2011 // No Comments » // Uncategorized // Uncategorized

Some of the random song I have been listening to the last week:

1) Antlers – I don’t want love
2) Cults – You Know What I Mean
3) Hooray For Earth – No Love
4) Best Coast – Fist City (Loretta Lynn Cover)
5) Chuck Prophet – Summertime Thing (live 1-23-10 Berkeley, Ca)
6) B Roc of the Knocks – There’s something About us Under the Sheets (Ellie Goulding vs. Daft Punk)

I made the local news

// May 27th, 2011 // No Comments » // Uncategorized // Uncategorized

Talking about the Cicadas….. I show up at minute 1:10 (there is 10 seconds of dead air at the begining)

Nashville Floods, A year ago this month

// May 18th, 2011 // No Comments » // movies, Nashville, news // movies, Nashville, news

The short film Nashville Rising was screened at the 2011 Nashville Film Festival. Narrated by Billy Bob Thornton, Directed by Zac Adams and Produced by Zac Adams, Camron Carrier, Mark Slaughter it won the Tennessee Ground Zero Spirit Award for Best Documentary Short. I missed it on Nashville Public Television but fortunatilly its been posted to Vimeo in its entirety, It runs 25 minutes long:

I took some Photos of the flood that weekend One of which made it to Yahoo! News main page for a short while:

my photo that made Yahoo! News main page

This photo was featured on CNN news a few time. I didnt get to see it because my cable and inernet went out for the days of the flood:

Photo Featured on CNN News

I took some 100 or so photos around my neighborhood as the water was rising and around downtown nashville as the water peaked. Some of them were taken from the Shelby Street Walking Bridge just before they kicked everyone off of it. You could feel the structure vibrate due to the amout of water running below it:

I also shot this around downtown as i was there with my Flip Mino HD camera:

I wasn’t affected directly but I knew a lot of people that were… do you have a personal story to share? Please do in the comments.

Time to Make Some Sizable Lifestyle Changes

// May 13th, 2011 // No Comments » // personal, personal growth // personal, personal growth

Last week I went in to get my yearly physical done and have my cholesterol checked. Physically in doing quite well but there are a few things that are of concern that I need to work on.
Concerns:

My blood pressure. It has been consistently running at 138/75 -80. According the the National Institutes of Health that falls in to the pre-hypertension category.
My Cholesterol level is great @ 167 but my HDL, or good cholesterol is @ 26. Normal is anything above 40
My fasting triglycerides are @ 305, normal is lower than 150.
I currently weigh 252 lbs. According to WebMD’s BMI chart this puts me in to the Obese category @32.4 Ideal is 24.9

This was an eye opener especially since I have heart disease running through my family. All of these levels put me at high risk for advance cardiovascular disease, heart attack and stroke, as well as metabolic syndrome and Type II Diabetes. None of which I want.

How will I correct these?

Blood Pressure: Since my blood pressure has consistently been in the 138/75-80 range for as long as I can remember. My doctor wants me to keep up my running routine and get my blood pressure and weight checked every 2 week for the next 2 months to see if my blood pressure drops as my weight drops. I will try to keep a log of it on here

Cholesterol and triglycerides: My doctor has suggested that I start taking 2 grams of fish oil each day as well as eating 2 servings of some sort of fish high in Omega -3 fatty acids (tuna, salmon, trout, ect) as well as including oils and foods rich in alpha-linolenic acid, like flaxseed, canola oil, and walnuts soybeans and soybean oil. I will write more about my dietary changes in future posts.

Exercise: Currently I am working towards running a 5K without stopping sometime in the next month or so. I am running between 3 and 3.25 miles 3 times a in a time of 35 to 40 minutes. My goal is 3 miles in 30 minutes. My doctor recommends that I walk at least 30 minutes a day at a bace of 2 miles in 30 minutes. I can do that now pretty easily but I don’t walk on my non running days. One good thing is that I do park ¼ mile from the building I work in so I am at least walking a half a mile each day. I suppose I will need to start taking Chloe out to walk every day since I do live right on a long greenway.

Anyway that were I plan to start. As always suggestions are welcome.

This Year So Far…

// April 23rd, 2011 // 1 Comment » // personal, personal growth // personal, personal growth

I have been in a dumpy mood lately. I’m not sure its full blown depression but it might be. I thought that a lot of it was due to holdover form being unemployed over the holidays last year and losing something/someone very important to me at the same time. Turns out that may play a part but isn’t the complete cause. I have not had any motivation to do anything for the last few months, my apartment looks like a storage shed, I been eating like crap because I am not cooking like I used to, ect. I could go on and on.

I mentioned this to a friend of mine who pointed out that it seems I have been in a negative mindset for longer than I imagined. I been told by other that I a pretty negative person and I have always thought that there has been some sort of curse or I pissed off some god somewhere whose out to get me. Ever since I left home to go to college, nothing that I have planned or wanted has come though nor has anything I ever done gone the way it’s supposed to or even been remotely easy. This has been extremely and overwhelmingly frustrating to me. I have actually quit making long term plans because of this. I also think it has made me this person with a negative mindset.

My friend suggested to me that make 3 lists of 100 things I am grateful for in my life, professional life and personal relationships. The idea is that I will try to be more appreciative of all the things that are good in my life and quit focusing on the bad or negative things in my life. This should help shift my overall thinking patterns to a more positive place.

Interestingly enough this TED talk by Ric Elias, who was on Flight 1549, the plane that crash-landed in the Hudson River in New York in January 2009, came across my Facebook feed as I wrote this. He talks about what went through his mind as the plane started to go down. (video is 5 minutes long)

Now I have not that bad of a traumatic near death experience happen to me but in light of the losses I have had over the past few years in my life I can relate to everything he said. But I am going to use his words to help motivate my life changes as if I was in his shoes. I plan on appreciating the things I have, mend the things that are broken, and go for and achieve everything I have been putting off for soo long because I was afraid of failure.

My Top 10 Album List for 2010

// December 23rd, 2010 // No Comments » // Music // Music

2010 has been a fairly good year for music. The the following are the albums I feel are the best of this year:

10) LCD Soundsystem — This is happening

I Can Change
Home

9) Gorillaz — Plastic Beach

Stylo (feat. Bobby Womack & Mos Def)
Rhinestone Eyes

8) Kanye West –My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

Lost In the World (feat. Justin Vernon of Bon Iver)
Runaway (feat. Pusha T.)

7)Deerhunter — Halcyon Digest

Helicopter
Revival

6)Warpaint — The Fool

Undertow
Warpaint

5) Sufjan Stevens — The Age of Adz

Too Much (Short Version)
I Walked

4)Best Coast — Crazy for You

Boyfriend
When I’m With You

3) Arcade Fire — The Surburbs

Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)
We used to Wait

2) The Black Keys — Brothers

Next Girl
Sinister Kid

1) Sleigh Bells — Treats

Infinity Guitars
Tell ‘Em
Rill Rill

Unemployment Chronicles: I am No Longer a Statistic..Best Chrstmas Present Ever

// December 23rd, 2010 // No Comments » // personal, personal growth, unemployment // personal, personal growth, unemployment

I got a job……. YAY !!!… I was called 2 days ago about a permanent Research Coordinator spot at the local research hospital and I was offered slightly more than I was making at my last job. My stress level just dropped to next to nothing. Talk about a weight being lifted…. man…

I was starting to think my transition from academia to the private sector was a mistake. But it was hard not to take a job that increased my income by $10,000 a year. But the training and experience I received helped me get hired quickly and allowed me to be able to apply for and ask for a higher pay rate. I love working in the academic setting. The job give you a feeling of actually doing something meaningful in the life.

So what has being unemployed taught me, a lot:

Sometimes bad things happen for a reason. Losing my job has changed my life and realigned some of my priorities. It also shook me out of the “rut” that I can sometimes get stuck in and have problem getting out of.
Allowed me to look at and reduce my financial issues. I have never been very good with my money but when you dont have much money coming in you need to prioritize what you spend. I have been able to eliminate and reduce all those things that are not necessary and tend to suck your extra cash away. Now that I have a job the key is to not bring those back but to try and save/invest.
Showed me that I need to save. One big issue I had when when i found out i was losing my job is that I did not have anything at all in savings. That was scary because it would have been much less stressful waiting for the government assistance to kick in than it was.I will be restructuring my budget to include a 10% savings.
I was able to look at all my stuff and get ride of the things I don’t need. In an effort to try and get some additional cash in had I starting selling things I have on amazon and ebay as well as taking stuff to Goodwill. With all the free time I was able to sort thought and clean out my closets and get ride of the junk and or stuff I dont need or use. One of my new year projects is to live more simply.
It showed me what me priorities are. Health, happiness, creativity, social interaction, love and friends. I have also reinforced the thoughts of not letting my life become my job unless it something I really really enjoy. My last job was there to pay my bills and not something that I loved to do. I didn’t hate it but a change was needed but I would have preferred it happened on my terms. Sometime we just need a kick in the pants to change.
Showed me who my real friends are. I know some fantastic and amazing people. A lot of them were super supportive , amazingly helpful, and I could not have kept the positive attitude and the motivation I needed to keep trying without them. Even people at my last job were super supportive. I will be trying to give back to all of them as much as I can over the next few months.

Unemployment is hard, very hard. For someone like me who has never not had a job or never been unemployed before. The life lessons I learned have and will make me a stronger person more grateful person in the future.I Just need to keep the motivation I had.

I plan on writing about how I will be changing my life over the next year and applying the lesson of the last month and a half.

———–

Part of my series focusing on what I am learning and focusing on after being let go from my most recent job.

Previous Post in this series (link).

stalk me: Facebook (richard.call), Twitter (@callrw), linkedin (richard call) and flickr (callrw).

My Resume (link)