The Writing On The Road

My job has its ups and downs. One of the downs is that I have to go to just about any tradegy that happens on my shift. One of those happens to be an AutoPed - a car verses a pedestrain accident.

The pedestrain never wins.

I was sent out to one on East Lake Mead Parkway in the northeast corner of the valley. A kid, about 15 tried to run across the street outside of the crosswalk in the dark and was hit by a car doing about 40 MPH.

He did not die on the scene and was taken to the hospital. However it was very likely that he was going to die so METRO called out their fatal detail.

What they do is reconstruction, taking measurements and whatnot, in order to deteremin if there are any criminal charges to be filed in a fatal or potentially fatal crash.

As a side note, I have seen some pretty disturbing things. This PD does NOT cover bodies (for the CSI investigation I guess). I have seen more dead people since moving here than I had in my entire life before I moved here.

Anymore it doesn't really disturb me. I feel sadness for those who have died, but the sight of a dead body no longer bothers me.

However there are other things that do.

In the course of their investigation METRO's Fatal Team makes markings on the roads. Like where the cars are, tread markings, ect. In this case, they made this marking:



That says "BOY SCUFF". As in a scuff mark on the road from where the kid bounced after being hit by the car.

That sent a shudder down my spine. Just thinking of what this poor kid must have went through after being hit by that car. The fact that he was hit hard enough to not only be thrown far enough to bounce, but to have hit the ground hard enough to make a scuff mark.

You try not to forget that these are people involved, but when you see it as much as someone like me does, you try and distance yourself from it. That's why you sometimes see cops joking around at scenes like this. You have to in order for it not to get to you so bad that you snap.

I was doing a good job at that till I saw the traffic guy write that on the street. Even still it makes me pause for a moment just looking at the picture.

Someone will be wondering why I posted it then. Why would I talk about it? Because I want people to see what I do whether it be fun, boring or sad. I constantly wonder if it's worth it. But as I tell people, by broadcasting this accident maybe someone will see that it's NOT a good idea to cross a major street outside of the crosswalk and at least one needless death will be prevented.

I might just be dreaming, though.

Discovery...

Yesterday morning, the space shuttle Discovery launched after not only a two week delay, but a two and a half year delay.

This launch cost the taxpayers over one billion dollars. Every year NASA is given 15 billion dollars of tax payer money.

I for one can't think of a better way to spend it.

For every naysayer of manned space flight there are hundreds of other people who think we should continue to send humans out to explore space.

But why? Why bother? I'll tell you why. One of the things that drives the human spirit is the pursuit of the unknown. The desire to know more than we already know. The drive to become better that what we are. That is what makes humans great. We all have different opinions on things. Different political views. But yesterday there were millions of people who gathered together to watch these seven brave men and women strap themselves to 500,000 pounds of explosives and be thrown into a realm in which only a few dozen people have ever been before.

If you were to set aside any scientific value of spaceflight and you may have an even better argument against manned missions.

However manned spaceflight isn't only about science. It's about exploration. About our desire to find out 'what's out there?' People were asked why they climbed Mt. Everest. To that they responded 'because it's there.' Why should we send a manned mission to Mars and beyond?

Because it's there.

Space exploration has been a recurring theme in science fiction for years. It inspires the imagination of children and adults alike. It encourages kids to study math and science in hopes of becoming one of the elite few who get to go there. It brings us together in awe and wonder. If we can send a man to Mars, what else can we do?

Is it dangerous? Sure. In the last 20 years we lost 14 astronauts to space shuttle disasters. But what worth doing doesn't have an element of danger? Ask any of the families of those 14 - I'll say it - heroes if we should continue manned space flight. I guarantee you that you'd get a resounding 'YES!'

NASA and the space shuttle could be considered the pride of the United States. I contend that the space shuttle is the pride of Earth. Those seven people aboard Discovery have a little bit of each of us in them. Our amazement. Our wonder. Our pride.

To echo launch director Mike Leinbach, Good luck, and Godspeed Discovery.

(Launch photo credit NASA/Bill Ingalls)

UPDATE: NASA has indefinitely grounded the shuttle fleet because another piece of foam came off the external fuel tank. This piece missed Discovery, so she is in no danger. However as I heard on one radio show this morning, some at NASA think this might be the last shuttle flight. Ever.

It's sad if it is, but hopefully someone will be able to develop a new and improved reusable space craft for the near future.

I wonder, though. Why don't they just build the tank inside out? You know, with the metal on the outside and the foam to keep the liquid hydrogen and oxygen cool on the inside? Or at least add another layer of metal.

Big Ass Hole

Not to be confused with a big asshole, which I might be. And that's not to be confused with an asshole that's big. Even thought I am big, and an asshole, I do not have a big asshole. Now I'm confused.

If there is anyone still reading this, I am talking about this. One big freakin' hole in the ground.

How'd it happen you ask? A construction crew, about 3 miles away on Frank Sinatra and Tropicana, nicked a water main. The pressure shift caused the pipe to also break here, at Maryland Parkway and Tropicana.

The big ass hole was all over our Skywitness Traffic, with both land and air coverage. Why? Because Tropicana in this area is already a serious cluster fuck. The big ass hole was just making it more of one, dropping traffic down to one lane.

My favorite part of the day was watching the bus stop people. Even though there was this big ass hole right in front of the bus stop, they all still assumed the bus was going to stop there. They all sat there, and then looked surprised and pissed off when the bus drove right past them.

He was nice enough to stop down past the big ass hole and wait. But then people would migrate past me, grumbling. One lady actually told me 'you need to tell Channel 3 about this.' I wanted to tell her; 'no lady, you should watch Channel 8!' But I didn't because I am sure my ND would punch me in the face for being rude.

It might have been worth it though.

Once 7:55 rolled around, the big ass hole was still there, but the show was over and there was nothing more we could do. So I broke down, had a doughnut with the construction guys, and rolled on back to HQ hoping that I wouldn't have to deal with any more big ass holes that day.

'Round Vegas #5

The sun rising over the bus that passed the people at the big ass hole (see next posting for details!).

2000 Hits?! Holy Flurping Snit!

Hey!

Thanks for visiting! I hope I have been enjoyable enough to warrant a return visit! If not, go to hell.

Just kidding.

Peace and Luv,
ewink

Hey Did You Hear? GTA: SA Has A Sex Scene!

No kidding? Well now I certainly won't allow my 9 year old to play this game. I will also now cause an uproar and make myself look extremely stupid to every American with a lick of common sense in this country!

I am assuming that must have been how the conversation went between a pair of parents after the heard about this sex scene in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.

Personally I am having a hard time trying to figure out who are the biggest jerks of this whole incident.

First we have Take Two who makes GTA:SA. They didn't inform the ESRB of the sex scene that was found to have been built into the game. Self policing doesn't really work when you don't admit to all your crimes. My biggest fear in this is that now the government will say 'See, self regulation doesn't work now we need to step in.' Hopefully that doesn't happen.

Second we have the ESRB or the Entertainment Software Rating Board. For what ever reason they decided to rate GTA:SA with a M despite the incredibly violent scenes and sexual references. And now they look like schmucks.

Thirdly we have a country full of moron, brain dead parents who decided that it was okay to purchase a copy of GTA:SA for their young child, even with the M rating and the years of press the GTA franchise has gotten in regards to the extremely violent content.

The best part is that even though they thought it would be okay for their young child to play a game where they can do drive bys, beat and rob prostitutes and murder police officers - now they're in a fuckin' uproar over this hidden sexual content.

More proof that in this country violence is more acceptable than sex, which is just sad.

And finally you have the politicians like Hillary Clinton who are running around ala Helen Lovejoy screaming "THINK OF THE CHILDREN!!!" Pretending they give a damn about family values and such, it having nothing to do with a presidential election in three years........

See here is where it really gets to me. I have seen a couple of news stories where they show children (about 9 or 10) playing GTA:SA. Then you have a parent looking at the camera in their most sincere 'concerned parent' face saying how upset they were to learn that their child could access such filth. All the while in the back ground little Johnny has just put a cap in the ass of his ninth gang-banger.

GTA:SA is not for children. You should know this. The GTA franchise has been around for at least six or more years. It's been decried, banned in Brazil, and shunned by every politician and preacher in the republic.

If you should be upset about ANYTHING it should be the random acts of violence that this game portrays. Sex doesn't hurt anyone. (I'm talking about consensual, dammit.) Violence does. You desensitize a child to sex the worst end result is he has a lot of sex! But you desensitize a child to violence. Well you get the world we live in now.

Any parent who bought their child this game should be ashamed of themselves. In fact I think you should go out side and ask your neighbor to horsewhip you. You should then go get yourself sterilized. I honestly don't know why they let everyone become parents. You need a license to drive a car and that's far less complicated.

For the record, I am not against GTA:SA. I am just one of the intelligent people on this planet who knows it should NOT BE GIVEN TO A CHILD! Not every video game/cartoon/comic/whatever is for children. YOU as a parent need to wake the hell up, do your damn job as a parent and keep this stuff AWAY from your children.

'Round Vegas #4

More clouds! Little bit of smoke too!

A Burning Sensation

I am sure a lot of people have read about the fires here in the southwest. I had an interesting experience as this is the first brush fires I had ever covered (at least in this large of a scale).

It started on a Wednesday morning. Over night we had a lot of lightning. However one of the oddities of the desert is that the rain that comes with the lightning doesn't make it down to the ground.

So what ended up happening was the lightning ignited very dry brush. I believe that there were 16 fires in and around Las Vegas due to lightning.

The first one that we discovered was atop the mountains. This one was small, but like all wildfires would soon grow, so I was dispatched to get some video of it until our helo came up.

My poor truck was under the weather that day so I was stuck with either 20 or 21; the UgOlPST's as I like to call them. That's pronounced Oog-Ole-Pssst. I have to have an acronym for everything. Do ask why. It's just the way it is. Anywhoo UgOlPST is short for Ugly Old Paint Scheme Trucks.

I grabbed Unit 20 and rolled as far to the west as I could. It was hard to find this fire because basically all I had to go on was a small bit of smoke wafting off the mountain. And, based on my angle of attack, the smoke disappeared several times.

I finally arrived at the intersection of Craig and Durango in the northwest valley. I assumed this was close enough because while I might have been able to get a mile or so closer, I had a pretty unobstructed view from where I was.

No one else was out there so I assumed I was first on the scene. Unfortunately that wasn't true as NBC had a tower cam focused in on it. But we had me! So that made the footage 14% better! It all would have been pretty moot come 6:10 when our chopper ace Dayna Roselli would be up and able to fly up there.

Until then I was able to offer our viewers the closest view of the fires. Closest being 25 miles away. I had my 2X extender activated and the fire STILL looked far away. This is a view from my camera off the monitor in the back of the live truck.

The fires didn't stop there. As I was returning around 8:00 I noticed heavy black smoke coming off the northern mountains. Turns out there were four fires up there that eventually combined into one big ass fire.

There was also a fire in the southwest. This one was the closest one to the city. At one point it came to within a half mile of SR 159. I covered that one most of the weekend (well the over night part of it at least). I wish I had gotten a screen capture of what I shot because it was AWESOME. I had one shot that made it appear that the entire mountain was on fire.

The biggest problem caused by that fire was the closure of SR 159. That's the only direct route from Las Vegas to Pahrump. The highway was closed for 12 hours so people who worked in Vegas and lived in Pahrump had to take a 120 mile detour. How'd you like ot have to make a 2 hour drive after working overnight?! A lot of people simply camped out at this gas station, hoping the road would open soon.

Eventually all the fires in the valley area were extinguished with no damage to the population of Las Vegas. I know that people in Phoenix and in Utah weren't as lucky. But it could happen again. It got very humid here a couple of days ago and people were worried more lightning could come.

'Round Vegas #3

Some people have found me weird because even though I have been here six months I am still in awe of the mountains.

'Round Vegas #2

While I don't necessarly like cloudy days, some times they can just be breath taking... The clouds that is.

'Round Vegas #1

My 5:48 traffic hit is ALWAYS my favorite...

Tales from the 'Right' Seat

As I have mentioned before, I am the defacto traffic photographer. In fact my schedule was adjusted from the straight overnight it was supposed to be to it's current 2A - 11A state so that I can shoot stories with Eyewitness News This Morning's traffic god, Justin Cooper.

A few weeks ago, Coop and I went out to investigate strange drippings from the McCarran Airport Tunnel that takes you from the airport to I-215. The drips aren't anything big, but they tended to annoy motorists who just got their car washed and others who were frustrated they had to turn that little knob to activate their wipers.

As part of the story, we were going to make a couple of passes through the tunnel and try and get some video of the drip hitting the windshield of the T-TIC. (Hey, quit lauging. Traffic b-roll can get very dull! We gotta do something to spice it up!)

To achieve this I was required to become the passenger so that I can shoot. Apparently Coop didn't trust me when I said I could do both.

Being the passenger when you're always the driver is a little strange. The drive from the station wasn't long, but it was long enough to give my brain time to ponder things.

What did I want for lunch...
Does the truck always rattle this much?
Is he going to rear end that guy?
Wow, that chick is HOT!

Before I knew it, we were at the tunnel. After two passes with no drip, we went and did our interview. Quick and easy. I was thrilled. I would get to regain my rightful position in the left seat. The power seat. The seat that had control.

"Let's shoot a promo with me driving through the tunnel." Coop suggested.

"Huh-Wha?" I asked.

"Come on it'll look good." Coop stated, climbing back into the drivers side of my live truck.

I whimpered and took my position in what I will no longer refer to as the bitch seat. I'd hate to consider myself anyone's bitch... (No laughing again, please...)

On the drive back to the tunnel I pondered some more. Mostly about my impending death because I had to take off my seatbelt in order to shoot Coop.

I tried to keep in my head some manly things to yell when we crashed because I would be damned if the last sounds of my voice would be a shrill 'eeek' that could shatter glass.

At any rate, I obviously survived. Or did I? Maybe this is purgatory... Now I cherish my spot in the driver’s seat and enjoy it as much as I can. Even though, I might surrender to the driving urges of ol' traffic man again. Having a few extra moments to ponder could come in handy!

UPDATE! I just realized that this truck is 21 and not 22, the T-TIC! Well 22 is the origional one as the T-TIC is more of a state of mind then it is a truck. It's zen man. I'm like a ninja with a fifty foot antenna and a 7 GHz microwave...

Prepare Yourselves...

I have just prepped almost 100 pictures! That means over the next several days I will be posting ad nausium! Check back daily!

Also, I will be posting a daily pic in my 'Round Vegas series. While this city has its problems, one thing that amazes me EVERY morning is the sunrises.

'Round Vegas will show a different one each day, starting with today. Enjoy!



Click to enlarge...

The Adventures of Chad Cleanly

The Adventures of Chad Cleanly

A poster on Medialine that's not an uber-political nutjob? Yup there are a couple.

This is a comic strip from a poster named Cadal Evershield. If you don't work in TV you might not get it, but check it out anyway. I laughed and I don't laugh at much.

Except those Geico commercials... That's brilliance.

Anyway, Cadal is a new artist, so go easy on the artwork. But she has the drive and that's all you need to succede at anything. Good work, Cadel.

Winking 10, Israeli ID Thieves 8

A long time ago there was this program called ICQ. It was the first messaging program (well, the first that was widely accepted.) that allowed you to send files and do all the things AOL Messenger and Yahoo! Messenger now let you do.

I was happy. I was one of the first 300,000 people on the planet to get this new fangled device. My ID number on there was 265891. I think they began the numbers at 100000 - leaving the lower numbers for beta testers and administrators.

Anyway I used ICQ for years, but then I kind of got out of chatting so my account sat for a while.

Recently I decided that I would see if I could get back in touch with some of the people I used to know on ICQ so I tried to log in. I found out that my ICQ account had been hacked and some dude from Israel took it over.

First, I wondered what the point was. ICQ accounts are now, and always had been free. That's like knocking out the lady at the grocery store and stealing the samples. I guess he was a computer geek like myself and was more interested in the low number than anything else. (FYI I did sign up for a new account and the number was 283 000 000 or something like that...)

So I contacted ICQ and told them of my situation. They stated that since the account is so old, they can't access the password themselves and I'd have to use the password retrieval system. Problem is that the email address I used when I started the account was to my Minnesota ISP and the email no longer existed.

Then I had a brainstorm... I wrote my old ISP and asked if they could set up an email account for me that could forward to my Yahoo email. They could and they did and today I have successfully reclaimed my low, original ICQ number.

Only one person on my list still seems to use ICQ, but that's moot!

Now I am getting message after message in Hebrew to this person who ganked my account. I am telling them pretty much that the thief is no more and I have regained control!

They send a message back, but since I can't read Hebrew, I have no idea what they are calling me.

Alas the moral of this story is good always triumphs over evil, even when it does come down to moronic low numbered chat program id's.

London Bombings

I would like to send out my condolences to the victims of yesterdays bombing in London. I would also like to pass this message on to my fellow Americans. The British people stood side by side with us after 9/11. The grieved for us and helped us though the darkest day EVER in American history. I certainly hope that every American will stand side by side with the British after this cowardly attack, both now and in the events that will surely come later.

Remember... The Video

Okay, I think I have this whole video thing worked out. Check out this link here for the video, hosted on OurMedia. (In case you weren't paying attention earlier, scroll down a couple of posts and you will see 'Remember...' posting. This is the video that goes with it.)

For the record, I don't own the copyright to this; WICS TV and Sinclair Broadcast Group does. The story is an off-air recording and I see this as no different then taping the story and showing it to people.

Feel free to comment on it. It's not my best work - from a photographic stand point - but it is one of my favorite stories.

((In case the above link doesn't work, try this one.))