Bec’s Blog

Multimedia camp is one of the most time-consuming things I ever participate in. From day one until day one hundred and one (just kidding… it doesn’t go for THAT long) I go, work, laugh, work, breathe, work, talk, work, create and work. And between the early mornings and the late nights this camp and this room become my world. I don’t have time to watch news or check my emails or catch up with friends. Little bits of information of the goings-on out there dribble in bit by bit. But I don’t have time to digest it all because there’s always something else that needs my attention.

This week some pretty huge things have happened, and now that I have reemerged (even if it is only for the morning) I am trying to comprehend a week’s worth of happy and sad.

If intensity was a person, he visited me today, and it wasn’t just a short visit - he stuck around! The 6:30am start (yuk!) should have been enough to allude me to the fact that today was going to be a tough one. I pushed through early morning chaos only to arrive at camp amidst a full-throttle discussion about the deep inner workings of all the technological things that we take for granted. Props to those boys (and girls) out there who make all of this stuff work, with your zero’s and one’s and algorithms. Too much for me to fully comprehend, but I appreciate it none the less.

After our ‘little chat’ we got stuck into the things that we do. Now this is the part I love, sitting in front of those little screens, making things happen. It’s what I love to do. But, as always, it is intense, time-consuming and frustrating. I’m still trying to figure out why I find it enjoyable…?

Then a little later on this afternoon I took on a role on the opposite side of a screen… that’s right, I was being filmed. A brief moment of my life was captured by some little black boxes, what a strange thing it is when you think about it. Recording life as it happens so that you can replay it over and over. Quite amazing when you take a moment to stop and ponder… being on the flip side of the screen always makes me feel a little uncomfortable, but I’m sure that’s just a lack of experience thing.

Then after pizza and some laughs we were right back into it again until late hours of the night. I doubt that I have accurately conveyed the true chaos and intensity that my day held, it is hard to do so with just words… but I’m not complaining. It wouldn’t be the thing I love if it didn’t constantly push me to the limits.

So, in short, I’m learning lots. I think I’m helping a bit (I hope!). I’m juggling three lives. I’m drinking lots of tea. and somehow I’m finding time to write about it all in this little corner of the internet that I am going to claim as my own. this crazy, crazy day is one that I will remember.

Just four short years ago I thought that Vegas was just a city in America, Macs were big things driving around on the highway, firewire was what happened when my dad got stuck into the electricals in my house and MegaBytes happened around the table at dinner time. Now, however, I have been enlightened. and I have learnt that, in fact, all of these things (and there are millions more) are tools to be used in the amazing phenomenon that is media.

To give even a brief summary into the things I have learnt while doing these “nerd camps” (as they have become affectionately known to those of us nerdy enough to keep coming back) would take me days and days, pages and pages. The information is limitless and endless. The technology is broad, advanced and ever-changing. but the one thing that remains the same is the core reason we spend all the time we spend doing all of this - to tell people something.

This year our message comes in the form of a warning about the dangers of technology. Last year we shared stories of hope to encourage and inspire. Each year the message is different, but each year there is a message. Sure we have a whole stack of fun doing what we do, and yes… we learn A LOT, and no, we don’t get much spare time. But we keep coming back… (well, i do anyway) because we’ve still got things to tell and people to help.

And this year, as I am moving into a new chapter of my life, I can’t help but think that God is whetting my appetite for what is to come. In the time such as this… He is calling me to send His message of faith hope and love to people of all cultures and all nations using the extraordinary tool of media. And I’m starting to answer His call here, in a ‘nerd camp’, at a school, just doing what I do.

This is the A team.

The Bradinator.

a slice of heaven belongs within this bag.

You read the sign. Back to work.