Chronicle Project - Day 8

Day 8 - You know how in grade school they taught you that birds fly south for the winter? Well, it's true. We get a ton of birds in our area, and these little honkers were hanging out on our roof this morning. According to my grandparents, they've had upwards of 100 ducks land in or yards before.

It was around 35 degrees here today; I was walking around in just a sweater and jeans, helping secure a nice warm house for our dogs outside in case it rains overnight.

It's supposed to hit freezing tonight; I can't imagine what it's like up at my apartment. Hope Derek's staying warm up at my apartment this weekend.

Chronicle Project - Day 7

Day 7 - I was all packed up again, ready to drive back to Denton since my car was fixed, but a friend informed me that some roads had already been iced over. So, I stayed home and decided that instead of just a picture (which is of my boring luggage) I would try posting an audio clip now.






One week down, and my experiment has been successful! Let's hope the weekend is kind to me, and the roads have cleared up by Sunday. It's going to be a long week.

Chronicle Project - Day 6

Day 6 -Finally got to spend some time with my friend Tanya, who has been buried under a pile of responsibility known as "New Motherhood" for a little while now. Her son's name is Maverick Swayze, and yes I have already made my fair share of jokes at the name. She says her next son would be named Goose, but I think that's just cruel!

We watched the People's Choice Awards, talked about old times, caught up on new developments, and I got to play with Mav a little. Then coffee, more chit chat, and I headed home. Considering I got my car back this morning, I imagine this is my last night in town this week; at least I made it a good one.


Day six is in the books, and I am almost at a straight week of this new project. I'm quite happy with how it's turning out. I can only hope to keep it up as the year goes on.

Chronicle Project - Day 5

Day 5 - I had plans to see a good friend of mine today, but they got canceled at the last minute. So I decided to keep catching up on Lost and indulge in a nice cup of hot cocoa. Boring day, but it'll do for now...

Chronicle Project - Day 4

Day 4 - I fell asleep at 3:00 a.m. and woke up at 7:00 a.m. for the first time in a long while. I had to deal with the car problems, and I had made a deal with myself to start long distance running again -- Dario made sure this happened today as planned.

So I told myself, "Take the bad with the good." Even though I was in pain, tired, and stuck in the Rio Grande Valley for a little while longer, it offered me a chance to see some old friends. I grabbed coffee with Tiffany and Julio, and we talked about how some people our age (specifically old classmates) are moving their lives rather quickly. Sometimes it's a gift, and sometimes it's a curse...

• The friend with the children that can't spare a minute to grab a bite to eat.
• The friend in debt because of the divorce they are going through.
• The friend happily married to their HS sweetheart for years now.
• The friend planning a wedding on a loan because they're paying tuition too.
• The friend headstrong in a fruitful career but without prospects for love.
• The friend with a child, a great job, and a loving household to come home to already.

But on the other hand are those of us outside the circle of adulthood, still grasping to what youth we have left in the half a decade or so before we all turn 30. And then the people in our lives who might never have had any options. The picture is equally as imbalanced...

• The friend still mooching off family / friends / strangers to get by.
• The friend with a degree in a good field, but still can't find work.
• The friend partying every night, but isn't any closer to graduating or finding work.
• The friend moving from place to place trying to find work.
• The friend engaged, but waiting to make wedding plans until financially stable.
• Or what's worse, the friends that passed away along the way.

But, alas it was tough finding anything wrong in our own lives while we had friends, laughter, and a little caffeine. Thankfully, our hometown got a Starbucks since we all graduated, so we could have all three. I still miss Art 6 and Jupiter House though...

Chronicle Project - Day 3

Day 3 - Today was fairly uneventful. Since my car broke down yesterday, I had to make it back to my family's home. Took a couple of hours, but I made it and then griped for about an hour about needing to get my car repaired. Still, it gives me another few days with my family, and my gorgeous (albeit often stupid) dog, Ditch!

He's a few years old now, but I still refer to him as 'my puppy' when I talk about him. He's the latest in a long line of family dogs with a name that starts with "D" -- just like my brothers and I. We found him when he was ditched on the side of the road one day while I was down for summer vacation; he looked malnourished and only about a month old. I thought -- given the circumstances of his freedom from his obviously horrible previous home -- that his name should be Ditch.

He's a mutt, but I love him because I know I am too. But, I know that if I ever want to take him with me, someday I need to own a backyard because he's too big and hyper to be an inside dog.

Chronicle Project - Day 2

Day 2 - Today I was driving back to my apartment in Denton from my Family's home in Harlingen. It's about a 10 hour drive, and during the first hour you have to pass a U.S. Customs and Border Protection (formerly Border Patrol) checkpoint. I have passed through checkpoints more times than I can count, and they become a kind of familiar haven for me.

However this time around, I ran into a bit of an issue with my car after leaving the checkpoint. My transmission busted and dropped to first gear. I slowly made my way to the safety of my best friend's apartment in Kingsville, and I will spend the night here until I can tow back tomorrow. The irony is I just got my car inspected, but state inspections don't include transmission checks.



A long day to not accomplish much of anything. Nought-Ten is already proving to be a tedious year for me. We'll see how tomorrow goes, but at least I'm making good on my project so far.

Project 365

For the sake of starting fresh this new year and decade, I'm going to borrow a page from something I read about last year: Project 365. It is a movement inspired by a Jamie Livingston's life project called "Photo of the Day."

But, since I have always been an advocate of multimedia convergence journalism, therefor I am going to to put my own twist on it. So today -- January 1, 2010 -- will be day one of what I will call The Chronicle Project. I always have either a phone, camera, or recorder with me; I am investing in webspace to build my own website; and I think the idea of only taking a picture per day is a little too simplistic (though I don't mean to belittle the amazing work that Livingston did).


So here's the plan: I will post either a picture, a video, an audio recording, or some other form of multimedia per day for an entire year. Each will include at least a caption, but some might include a story too (in the case that I find a reporting job).

• Sometimes it won't be posted right away (like if I'm on the road).
• Sometimes it will only be a photo with a caption.
• Occasionally I may ramble on if something big happens.

But the gist of it is, I want to apply myself daily in a way that would allow me to create a chronicle of my life through this -- arguably the most important year of my life to date. So I start today with this picture of my family's Christmas Tree...


Day 1 - In the beginning of the year 2000, my family moved to Harlingen, Texas -- the city I was born in. It was a 14 hour drive from where I had used to live. There's not a lot to do there, and so on break like this when I visit my family it's always kind of a culture calm. I visit old friends, family, and occasionally places in an attempt to reminisce; this includes stories around the tree. This year, my younger brothers were out of town, my parents now live in Washington D.C., and Christmas morning was a very brief event. Soon, I intend to move out of Texas and it might mean a lack of chances to visit during the holidays. So, in order to someday remember what it was like to have a family Christmas tree, I wanted to take this photo before they took it down.

Time means nothing...

Welcome to my last post as a college student. I officially graduate today, and my degree will be mailed to me in about three to four weeks. Real life starts soon, but before that I'd like to just say what a pleasure it's all been.

There's not enough room to quite encompass all the time, energy, blood, sweat, and tears me and my fellow graduates ground out over the past 16 or so years of our lives (about 18 total for me, from Kindergarten to now). It was a tough road -- we've come a long way, and we're better for it.

I look back and I realize how many options and directions were presented to me, and how often I chose the path of most resistance. I sometimes wonder what might have come out of taking the easy way out. But then I am reassured that my choices, however sporadic and strange, took me to here and now.

I have met so many amazing people, and had to contend with almost as many intolerable people through my time. It's not to say that I have seen it all, but more to say that I know now more than ever that I can handle anyone life sends in my direction.

As far as special thanks go, my family would come first. They have always tried to be there just enough to support me, without coddling me. I was bitter for it at times, but the older I got the more I knew it was working.

Next are to a few of my closest friends, without whom I would not have found this comfortable niche of a person that I am now. I suppose that means KC and Jess first and foremost, but also the dozens of other groups of people I've been involved with over time (even my exes played crucial parts in crafting who I am). You should know who you are; but if you have the slightest bit of doubt that you were one of these friends, rest assured -- you were.

I suppose my educators would be next. Not just teachers, doctors, professors, coaches, or counselors, but anyone who has helped me to grasp the world from a realistic perspective and taught me just how well I can keep my creativity in tact. My imagination runs rampant, and my ADHD never helps, but I have been able to quell my distracted nature and accomplish some amazing things.

Now, to be most specific, I would like to thank the North Texas Daily. Everyone I have worked with over my two and a half years there have inspired me in amazing ways. I've seen true, unbiased, unfiltered human characters at their finest; I've also seen myself at my most raw, which helped me to clean out the last shreds of unprofessional nature I had before beginning the career hunt.


I got to write about, report on, edit, and design things I never imagined might even occur in my lifetime. The thrill of true journalism is something I hope I never have to leave, but at least if I do, I'll know that once upon a time I got to be in the fray. My parting gift to them was (and is) the new website, but I still don't think it's enough to show my gratitude for all they've done for me.

---

...so there you have it. As short as I could keep it. 18 years of education have led me to now. I remember certain songs from my youth until now, and the kind of feelings they conveyed. A friend of mine once said that "Closing Time" by Semisonic was the perfect way for the 90's generation graduates to say goodbye. Another friend of mine much later told me that "After Hours" by We Are Scientists was the 'closing time of our generation.' I think I like that idea...



Albert Einstein once said, "Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in school..." I guess that's the next goal for me then, isn't it? I suppose since I am about a year and a half away from 25, I should be hitting my quarter-life-crisis soon. After I have settled into everything, I'll probably want to buy a house, get married, and maybe have kids and let them start a life all their own...but if they have half as many amazing people as I did, they will do just fine.

For the time being, I will be building myself a new website, sending out more résumés, working on stories, videos, and pictures, and finding a new job somewhere. People keep telling me that I need to hurry, and that I it will take a long time before I am settled into real life. But, as far as I'm concerned, time means nothing right now.



Over and out,

David A. Lucio

My absence isn't without purpose

Sorry for the lack of posting Blogosphere! School started back up, and it's my FINAL semester before I graduate. I'm excited, but it also means little to no time.

I continued my job as Webmaster, and now with daily printings, I don't get out of work until 2:00 a.m. typically. It sucks a little, but c'est la vie. I enjoy my job, just not the time constraints because it leaves my friends in the dark sometimes.



Like this morning, I had been invited a couple of weeks back to my friends' wedding, but I didn't want to have them contend with grumpy sleepless David on the greatest day of their lives. I wish them the best, but you get my point.

Sometimes things fall at the wayside when real life gets in the way. It's a terrible way to look at things - like they're disposable - but some parts of life have to be able to at least get out of the way for a bit.

I promise, I will find time to post more often. In the mean time, Happy 09/09/09...maybe I'll go see "9" later to celebrate. Or I'll just take nine shots before going into the office at 9:09 p.m. tonight. Better plan? Yes.



Over and Out,

David Lucio