Yes, I am Alive!

I have been away from Twitter, FaceBook, and general socializing for quite some time now. I figured this would be a good way to fill all you in on my life.

Back in May I developed a tooth ache, not thinking much about it, I ignored it for a couple days. But then my gums around that tooth became inflamed and painful, so I made an appointment with my dentist to find out what was going on. By the time of my appointment all my gums on the upper left side of my mouth and the left side of my pallet where inflamed. My dentist had never seen anything like it before but suspected it might be a bacterial infection and sent me to a periodontist. The periodontist  took some x-rays and also suspected a bacterial infection but again he had never seen anything like it. He strongly recommended I go to the ER for some IV antibiotics before the infection moved up to the eye and eventually the brain. I was also having shortness of breath and felt very weak. So off to the ER.... There I was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes and had entered into Diabetic Ketoacidosis. They quickly started treatment for the Ketoacidosis and gave me IV antibiotics for the infection. Apparently High blood sugar can cause infections and infections cause high blood sugars. So the doctors focused on getting my blood sugars down and that plus the antibiotics should fix the infection. I was sent home from the hospital after 3 days even though the infection in my mouth had gotten even worse. 4 days latter the infection had progressed even further to the point that my pallat was deteriorating and my face started to swell and became very painful with a high tempature. That night I went back to the ER! The doctor gave me some more IV antibiotics and took a culture of the infection. He recommended I go see an ear nose throat doctor and sent me home. The earliest appointment with the ENT was in 3 days, by then I could barley eat anything and the left side of my face was filling strange (I'm not sure how else to describe it, other then numbness and occasional sharp pain) and my eye started to hurt with swelling around my eye and cheek. Once the ENT saw my mouth he immediately recognized it as Mucormycosis (an invasive fungal infection. No wonder the antibiotics were not working!) and sent me back to the hospital for surgery. That night he operated, pulling 5 teeth and the gums from the upper left of my mouth and removing 1/3 of my pallet up into the sinuses. After 2 more surgeries and another 2 weeks in the hospital I returned home on June 13th (my B-Day). Thanks for all the prayers and support!

The mortality rate for Mucormycosis is between 30% and 70%. I'm very blessed to still be alive!

Microphone shootout!

We had a Microphone shoot out for fun today, I thought I would upload the audio files for those that care.

First up is the Good old Neumann U87i At $3000!
https://dl-web.dropbox.com/get/Public/Neumann%20U-87%20Kristen_01.wav?w=AADfzitQItlau7hvwBSvXUIEpTWvZOJ--34E3oM9aBNQBA

#2 is the AKG 414 @ $1000.
https://dl-web.dropbox.com/get/Public/AKG-414%20Kristen_01.wav?w=AABxNJPF7FPJtUaCHmLM-ZFMWewdNN66gr30p3J_W6Ax9A

#3 is the Shure SM7b @ $350.
https://dl-web.dropbox.com/get/Public/Shure%20SM-7B%20Kristen_01.wav?w=AADyUiHUiQamUIe_A4SlZ17mEo4MkNSpMtv4z_vu130t5Q

#4 is the Gauge ECM-87 Stealth @ $149, This is based off the U87i, I think sounds almost as good but for A LOT cheaper!
https://dl-web.dropbox.com/get/Public/Gauge%20ECM_01.wav?w=AAB6tlQeMlZYqdIM18iNaESwjbtg-bdwHwXxYKLfz8i8Rw

#5 is the Heil PR-22 UT @ $115. I was very disappointed with this one, Heil is highly recommended by some good friends but this is terrible!
https://dl-web.dropbox.com/get/Public/Heil%20PR-22%20Kristen_01.wav?w=AAB1Q6-FK4x8BU5HWV-1Uw4MhDMc3afoaLFYaHuNjPLvNw

#6 is the Shure SM-57 Tried and true @ ~$99.
https://dl-web.dropbox.com/get/Public/Shure%20SM-57%20Kristen_01.wav?w=AADaCiqUOXtzRS6_vKdc2PwA3ZkwPfBgB84VZo15idYL6w


I really wanted to try the Heil PR-30 and PR-40 but could not get them, isf I find some I will post the audio from them as well. I really hope they are better then the PR-22!


In this shootout I think the Gauge wins when it comes to sound/price. What do you think?

4th of July Photos

More fire photos but this time with some surprises!

Ok the first one is fake! ;-)

American Fork Canyon Fire

Heres a photo I took last night of the AF canyon fire.

Mission?! 2

I think it is about time for part 2!

This Mission has been completely backwards from a normal one... I started serving early August 2011, then got set apart, then I got my "call", then gave my "farewell" talk, then went to the temple, and finally went to the MTC about a year into it (more about that in a future post). I started working with David Shaw in special curriculum recording, recording the churches standard monthly magazines, manuals, hand books, and other small audio projects. Doing mainly engineering, editing and mastering--as well as a huge project to digitize and cleane up everything that has been recorded in Special curriculum recording since some time in the 80's. Lots has happend in the last 10 months so the fastest way to get up to speed is with some pictures!!!

This is the special curriculum recording studio.

Behind that window is the recording booth

                   

I have digitized 200+ Miles of tape at 3.75 inches per second.

I've also archived a lot of old hard drives to the robot (this is about 1/4 of them)

This is studio E where I spend most of my time. Its has 5.1 Genelec speakers, ProTools HD2, and a Yamaha DM-2000!

For General conference, I head up north to the Conference Center (CCB) where I help make the web videos. This includes recording the sessions live to our 6 encoders then breaking up the talks and songs and making a file for every language and bit rate! Each session has about 2500 videos that get put on LDS.org This is my work station when teching conference.

Durring conference the church feeds us really well!

That's Lance the Head of QC

Conference also involves very long working hours!! This was taken about 5am after working since 10am

I also occasionally do audio work in one of the CCB audio rooms. This is the old Euphonix System 5 Console, It has since been replace with a SSL C200 HD Console

It's a blast at the CCB, Awesome people and a fun building. Here we are eating lunch on the roof.

I also helped with a video rougher upgrade involving LOTS OF CABLE!

And a UPS upgrade. We had to move all the servers over to temporary power for a week.

Back at the Motion Picture Studio (MPS)
Studio E got some sound proofing (guess I was making too much noise!) So I moved all the equipment out into the hall.

Guess what, construction was delayed and I was too lazy to move it all back in so this was my setup for a week.

This is a hidden office in the school house at MPS wish it was mine ;-)

Visual effects got some new computers!

Tha'ts long enough but there will be more coming! (in 6 months or so)

Mission?!

Going on a mission has always been something I have planned on. I don't remember any big decision point or anything like that, but it is expected and I was looking forward to it. The closer my 19th birthday got, the more daunting a mission looked , Frankly I was concerned about many things, including being away from family, having to break out of my shell and talk to people (often about subjects they don't want to hear), and how I would cope with my disabilities. But, as expected I went on with the preparation of working on my papers and meeting with the Bishop. I started talking with several return missionaries and learned that even a mission with a car would probably be more than my body could handle. So my mom called the physician over the missionary department and discovered that most likely my mission papers would be denied. So rather than sending in my papers and waiting for that outcome, I started looking at my other options. Before I started my papers I had seen a flier looking for church service missionaries for the Media Services Department. I also met one of these missionaries while teching a Stake production. Intrigued, I looked into it but found that they did not house the missionaries and I would have to live at home. With the normal route not being a good option, I decided that the Media Services Mission was the best fit for me. Applying for a service mission is a lot like applying for a job, I sent in my resumé and filed out a 2 page application and then waited. After a couple weeks, Elder Ayers, the Media Services missionary coordinator, invited me and my parents to meet him in SLC. He told me my resumé "raised some eye brows" because of all of my experience and that Richard Duke, media systems coordinator for the church, wanted me to work primarily at the LDS Motion Picture Studio!

Well that's long enough for 1 post, I will finish next time.

Elder Jensen