Preshow 1x02

Where We Last Left Off: Shawn has gone to war with KU to try and graduate on time, despite being denied the necessary credits by the mysterious Academic Standards Subcommittee. Meanwhile, the Chicago process rolls on...

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Welcome to the second edition of the preshow. Nice of you all to "tune in." Please excuse the continual reference to this whole blog thing as a television show, but I'm trying a framing experiment here to build some drama and clearly delineate "episodes" of my life for easy consumption. The real show will start in the next few days. I promise.

After all the academic hoopla that occurred yesterday, I've calmed down a bit today and tried to get my head back on track. As an update on that situation, though, my SUA advisors have been gracious enough to call in their contacts with University administration to see if there's somebody, anybody who can help me. Right now I have a call out to one of the Vice Provosts who may at least be able to push me in the right direction. Keep your fingers crossed. I'm not biting the bullet just yet, as I don't have much of a taste for bullets, nor a taste for paying money to be screwed.

The only progress today was updating my Public Relations resume. I made mention in a previous post about The Checklist...which I'll share, just for some idea of what I need to get done. Remember that I'm essentially preparing myself for careers in three unique fields, so I'm doing a lot of different work towards evening out my brand.

Call it unhealthy, but I'm taking the position (at least initially in my career) of pushing myself as more of a product than an individual. I always get weird looks when I mention that I'm "cleaning up my brand" before I leave, but I think it's important to have a consistent and polished image before pursuing interests in a field. For me, that includes a graphic identity...website, portfolio, resume, logo/letterhead, business card...all that stuff matching up in style, color, presentation. That means making sure I'm easily accessible on-line in as many places as possible...not just Facebook or MySpace, but specialized sites like Coroflot for design work, LinkedIn for professional contacts, YouTube and Flickr for media hosting, etc (and, again, my own website, which is receiving a facelift and a change in host).

Yes, I'm commoditizing myself, but it helps in streamlining my self-promotional efforts if I can view things through that filter.

The Checklist, then, is just what I need to do to get all these things up to snuff, along with all the other pesky things that come with a move. This, I suppose, is just boring exposition, but it is also the foundation for the next few weeks:

Professional:
- Update my PR-focused resume
- Update my acting resume
- Team-up with Paul to record my demo tape for voiceover work
- Get new headshots taken
- Update my graphic design resume
- Assemble my final graphic design portfolio and design a new leave-behind
- Redesign and relaunch ShawnBowers.com
- Settle on a business card design
- Prepare clippings of writing work for writing portfolio
- Tweak new logo - (see it here tomorrow)

Personal:
- Lock in a move date by mid-May
- Settle on my Top 4 sections of Chicago I would want to live in
- Get the Second City schedule lined up and get application going
- Get resume sent off to at least 3 PR firms in the city
- Mine my remaining contacts for any freelance magazine work in the city
- Get up to Chicago for a scouting trip in mid-June

More added or subtracted to this list as it comes.

Soon: More war progress! Meet the new cast! The new logo revealed!