Craptastic

No blogging for a while. Suffered a critical equipment failure last night (i.e. computer stopped working).

Bye bye.

Violence!

I am amazed at how violent this town can be at times.

Saturday morning, before I even had a chance to do any slacking off, I was on my way to a reported murder in the city's Bolden area. A couple of old timers who were roommates at a LVHA old folks high rise got into it and one stabbed the other to death.

Then, before I even got to that one, there was another report from the far east side of the city of a shooting at a party. There were two people shot, so I hauled ass over to the old folks home, sprayed it, then flew to the east side, where there were three crime scenes.

I shoot each of the crime scenes and end up at a Denny's, where they found the suspect vehicle, with the suspect inside.

Yeah, apparently shooting someone made him hungry for some Moons Over My Hammy.

I was there chatting with Lt. McGraf, the watch commander who was kind of telling me what was going on. I asked him the status of the shooting victims. He was about to tell me, when his phone rings. After a second he walks back over to me.

"One just went 419. The other will be okay."

'Damn.' I thought. Just a couple of weeks ago I covered a shooting that happened at a party up near J Street. A 12 year old kid was shot and just recently died. And just last night (for some reason I didn't think to take a picture of it) there was a party in Northtown (North Las Vegas for those of you not in Vegas) that ended in gunfire. That kid was only shot in the leg and will be okay, but still.

What the hell happened to just fighting? You're pissed off at someone, kick his ass. Why the need to open fire into a crowd? None of these three party shootings seemed to end up with the intended target being shot. Just some innocent kid who was probably there simply to have a good time.

People have to think before pulling out the gun.

Come on, mother fuckers. Guns are not supposed to be offensive weapons, except in war. You people are going to cause people like me to lose our rights to own guns to protect ourselves from people like you!

If you feel that you absolutely, positively HAVE to use your piece on that person who is bothering you, challenge them to a duel. No need to fire blindly into a crowd. 10 paces, turn and fire.

Anyway, it's almost time to go see if tonight will be just as fucked up as this weekend was.

New York New York

This picture of the New York New York casino actually came our pretty damned good, so I thought I would share it with you. I really like this phone.

Last Chance!

Since I have not embarrassed myself enough on my blog, and since I obviously want to ruin any chance I have of ever running for future political office, I have decided to post the movie that we (myself, Jason Devall, Brian Tremain, Chris Gosnell, Andy Davis and others) did in high school. To be more precise, the Capital Area Vocational Center.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Last Chance.

Last Chance is a story about an underground, post apocalyptic world that is full of violence, murder and intrigue. Our hero, Elmo Rise (played by the ever talented Jason Devall) is the president of the Allied Delivery Service - also known as the head mailman. He ends up being framed by his rival, Big Bubba Bob!

Elmo is put in jail, so he has to escape to clear his name! In the meantime, his love interest, Gaffy Laser (yes, they all sound like porno names. Get over it...) is kidnapped by Rick Dogg, one of Bubba's henchmen!

With the help of his best friend, Anderson Jefferson (played by the possibly queer Erin Winking), Elmo must clear his name and rescue Gaffy before she's killed, or at least rolled into a closet or something... I don't fucking know.

Last Chance started as a cartoon. We (myself, Chris and Jason) did a cartoon in our first year - Attack of the Killer Numbers 4 - which was successful to people like us who set the bar of success real, real, real, real, real low. It was called Elmo, the Disgruntled Mailman.

A note, this was back when postal workers going, well... postal, was in, and being the insensitive assholes that we are, we wanted to make a dark comedy out of it!

Anyway, the script to Elmo was 100% rejected by our teacher, Mr. Jim Grimes. He handed my script over to Jason for retooling.

A few weeks later Jason came back with Last Chance. I protested, till I realized that I didn't care, as long as I didn't have to do any real learning. Several months later and a few re-edits later, here is what we came up with.

Now, some disclaimers... First, don't watch this unless you have 22 minutes of your life that you don't need. There are no refunds. You go into this in full knowledge that you will never get these wasted minutes back.

Second, I apologize for the video quality. First, it's a VHS copy that's been sitting in the 'Closest of Mystery' for a year, and even longer in my basement back in Illinois. You then have to take into account that the actual movie was shot on 3/4 inch tape, on cameras that a PUBLIC school had to be able to afford.

Third, it's what I call an 'inadvertent comedy'. I am pretty sure it was supposed to be a drama, with maybe some comedy in it. But the damn thing is just so bad that it makes me laugh all the way through.

Or maybe I'm crying, as I look sooooooooooo gay... And not the good kind of Will & Grace gay... More like Big Gay Al from South Park gay...

Well, you've been warned. Video will pop up in new window. LAST CHANCE; THE MOVIE

The Unexpected...

I hate the unexpected... Except if I expect it. But I didn't expect this...

Got an email from the ND today, rearranging the AM (overnight) reporters. We were expecting it to go one way, and BOOM it goes WAY WAY WAY the other way...

None of it effects me, which is good, but with this kind of "GUESS WHAT! BAM!!" policy/schedule changes I have to be on my toes. It scares the hell out of me to think I might be moved to dayside... Just typing that makes me shudder...

On a related note, one of the swing shift photogs wants to switch shifts with me for three weeks. I'm tempted, just to get a chance to do some GA packages and other bullshit dayside people do, but at the same time I will have to work dayside.

Oy! What do I do?

Miina Miyafuji & Karen Onodera (AGT #3)

For this Tuesday's installment, I've decided to double your pleasure and double your fun with a pair of anime girls from the anime 'Please Twins!'. Both of these beautys think that they are the twin sister of Maiku Kamishiro, even though none of them look alike. But they do all have the same picture from when they were young.

The anime it's self is pretty damned funny. I've only gotten through the first disc, but it's been bumped up on my Greencine queue.

Miina is the red head, and Karen is the girl with the green hair. Enjoy, and if you get a chance, go ahead and rent this series!

screen captures - karen

screen captures - miina

screen captures - twins!

wallpapers

other

As a special treat for the more hentai anime fans out here (you know who you are, McFly...) here are two special, not safe for work images! Nothing 'pornographic', just a little ecchi... Miina in the tub and the twins in the bath. WOOT!

Things that shouldn't be...

So I was reading Mighty Dyckerson's Mighty Blog and came across a his post about people being sports car pussies and it brought back an experience of things that shouldn't be.

This happened when I lived in St. Paul. I was coming home from work at Best Buy and I saw a brand new, totally pimped out 2000 Ford Mustang (this was back in 2000, that's why 2000 Mustang is new). I mean this bastard had 17 inch rims, dark tinted windows, the entire 'I wish I was black so I could be cool' package. She was a GT, 5.0 liter engine, a car that could easily do 0-1,000 in a little over a nanosecond.

I pull up beside the car to get a better look. The windows were down so I looked over and into the car.

I then proceeded to poop myself.

In the drivers seat was this old lady who couldn't have been any less than 85 years old. She was a blue wig and a skeleton with some skin attached. The light turns green and she proceeds to move this work of art 25 MPH down Snelling Avenue (which if I recall correctly is a 45 zone).

I didn't even think the car could idle that slowly, much less move at that speed.

I drove beside her for a moment, screaming at her, telling her that God will be angry at her for not using his greatest creation to do what it was made to do.

Go fast!

If I would have car jacked her, and left her my Contour, the police wouldn't have filed charges against me. In fact, I am pretty sure that I could have brought charges against her with The Hague for crimes against humanity for treating that poor car in such a shabby way.

Anyway, the point of the post is one of the things in life that shouldn't be is old women/men driving fast cars. Feel free to add to the list of things that shouldn't be!

It's never a real bomb...

That may seem like an odd thing to complain about, but it's really quite boring to have to sit on these damn 'suspicious device' calls for sometimes hours before they find out it's a fucking Walkman.

This morning I was checking out a different call when I stumbled upon a road block. I walk up to the officer and ask him 'what's up', since it must have been something sneaky as nothing misses my scanner hawk ears (oops, I locked my scanner down on a different channel and forgot about it).

The officer told me that there was a suspicious package against the wall. This wall surrounds a big freakin' hole. It's the place where the construction trucks come to pick up dirt. It's about 100 feet deep. It's REALLY big...

Anyway, someone driving by found a suit case. And since the terrorists would want to blow up the big hole in the ground, METRO called out the bomb squad. (Yeah, I'm just being cynical...)

So they arrive and a guy in a bomb proof suit walks over to the suitcase. I'm eyeing him through my viewfinder, 2X extender fully active - lucky for me this street had lights - and it looks like he is running some wire to the suit case.

I jump for joy! It's a real bomb and they are going to detonate it!

I continue to stand and stare through my now frozen camera, waiting for the guy to dive and yell 'fire in the hole!'. Alas it never comes. In fact the bastard opens the suitcase and takes something white out of it.

"Are they going to blow it up?" I whimper at the crime scene bouncers.

"No. It's nothing."

"WAAA! It's never a bomb! Can't they blow it up anyway?" I plead.

"I already asked them. They said no." The cop replied.

I have been on at least ten of these things since I moved here, and not once has it ever been a bomb, and not once have they ever blown it up. That's probably good, but still, I am dying to see something explode around here - assuming no one gets hurt! Bomb scares are turning into the new standoff. 98% of the standoffs I go to, we find out that no one is at home, and they haven't been there for quite some time.

I guess I will just have to rely on tonight's 24 to get some explosions to masturbate to!

Nightshots

One of the things that has been standing in the way of my work related blogging was the fact that my crappy little HP digital camera takes terrible shots at night. With the flash on the shutter closes to quickly, making the picture to dark. With the flash off, the shutter stays open to long, making the picture too bright!

However a recent trip to T-Mobile changed all that.

I had just reached a year in my T-Mobile contract and was told that I could now upgrade my phone. Well, the one I had was junk so I thought 'what the hell'. There was an nifty little phone for $49.99 that had all the features I needed.

Not one who can be content with just something I need, I started looking at a $150 Motorola phone. It had games, Yahoo! Messenger, AOL Instant Messenger and ICQ on it, plus a camera phone that could do both still and video. To top it off, it's got a built in MP3 player!

So I bought it. Later that night I decided to try it out while I was at work. I have to admit that amazed would be an understatement on how impressed I was at the results.

Now obviously the pictures are NOT as good as they would be coming from a professional camera, or even a medium end consumer digital camera. But compared to my HP camera, well they're gravy.

Now, after all these years of blogging about my job at night, I can actually show you the sights and maybe even some of the sounds, of what goes on in the middle of the night in Vegas.

Finally, no more photoblogging of only the stuff I go on once the sun comes up! I will finally get a chance to show you my life in my element! And I couldn't be happier! I do figure though that some of the other photogs from the market will be groaning and getting a little peeved that every sixteen seconds I am snapping off picture after picture of them.

Well, if they don't, then T.S. :)

Since I have a little extra room, I'd like to remind you that there is still time for you to vote on which blogging format you like better! This one that you are reading now, or this one (WordPress). I look forward to your opinions, which you can write in the proper thread!

Staying Discrete

Normally when I arrive on a homicide I slip into what I call my 'chiseled professional' mode. I find myself a discreet spot, in the darkest area possible, and shoot. It keeps me out of the view of most family and a majority of on lookers. Eventually I move into a more public place to get info.

However this morning right before the end of my shift I was sent to a 419 (dead body) that was 'suspicious'. In this case the deceased was in his early 30's, so death wouldn't be normal at this age.

I hate daylight homicides, mainly because it's very difficult to not be noticed during the day. But what is worse is a daylight homicide, in an apartment complex that's inside an apartment.

I roll up and find that the complex is gated. Lucky for me someone was coming in and I followed the guy in. I drove around this enormous complex for a bit before finding two black and whites. Not many for a homicide. Once I finally find a place to park, I realize that I am going to have to walk across the parking lot with my gear and set up next to the police car that has the person who found the deceased in it.

I decide to wait. There is no point in traumatizing this person more if its not even going to be news worthy. Homicide still hasn't been called, which means they police are trying to determine if indeed it's a homicide.

That's a bonus for me because usually if there is no obvious signs of trauma (i.e. bullet hole in head) then it's most likely a OD. At least that's my experience.

I stay in the parking lot, watching the police in the rear view mirror. Finally I hear a voice on my scanner.

732, negative notification pending coroner's findings.

Thank goodness. The violent crimes detectives who came out came to the conclusion that it is most likely not a homicide. I call the desk and tell them that I am coming back, happy I didn't have to shoot this.

I don't know what killed this man. Could have been a lot of things, but at least this time it wasn't the hands of another.

Which means I will probably have one tonight.

Looking For Opinions...

Considering switching to WordPress as my blogging software. Its got its advantages over Blogger, but Blogger seems easier to customize.

So I have created a second blog here. I'd like to know if you think I should stick to this blog, the way it is, switch to the WordPress blog or do a REAL redesign of this one!

Please comment and use the poll in the upper right hand side!

UPDATE!

Thanks for all your opinions! I have decided to stick with this format and software, with a few minor changes. :)

As pleasant as a root canal?

It was an interesting morning. Had to go to the dentist. Thought I was just going to get a cavity drilled and filled. Turns out it was far worse than I thought and I needed to get a root canal and a crown.

Now when I was a youngin', my grand mother took me to this dentist who apparently minored in sado machosism. This mother fucker didn't use a drop of anesthetic, and because of him, I am scared nut less of dentists and their damn drills.

Hell, the last time I was at the dentist to get a cavity filled and he started numbing my mouth I was like 'you can do that?!'

Anyway, so they squirt the Novocain into my gums and wait... And wait... Eventually Dr. McGee and the nice dental assistant come back and get to work.

"MUAFDAFDHG!" I call out.

Apparently I need a horse dosage to numb my mouth. However once that kicked in, the whole procedure, while uncomfortable, was not painful. It hurts a little now that the stuff has worn off, but nothing as bad as this tooth would have hurt if I had let the nerve get exposed. (In fact, I lost his right side twin a year ago because of my stupid fear.)

I did learn one thing. Dental insurance doesn't help much. I had to fork over $150 for the work today, and will have to pay another $400 for the work still to come. Oy!

Moral of the story? Take care of your teeth, idiot!

Tagged, Again!

I've been tagged by Rain! This is the blog version of those email forwards that you have to fill out. I don't mind though, since it gives me something to talk about!

Four Jobs You've Had In Your Life

1. McDonald's
2. Security
3. Armored Car Person
4. News Photog

Four Movies You Could Watch Over And Over

1. Airplane
2. Robin Hood: Men In Tights
3. The Last Samuari
4. Any of the recent Bond movies

Four Places You've Lived

1. Springfield, IL
2. St. Paul, MN
3. Milwaukee, WI
4. Las Vegas, NV

Four TV Shows You Love To Watch

1. 24
2. Older Simpsons
3. The First 48
4. Aqua Teen Hunger Force

Four Places You've Been On Vacation

1. Florida (Disney Land, NASA, ect..)
2. Los Angeles
3. Road Trip ending in Montana
4. Atlantic City

Four Blogs You Visit Daily

1. (Viewfinder Blues)
2. (Globex Corp Newsletter)
3. (Adventures of Chad Cleanly)
4. (D.C. Thornton)

Four Of Your Favorite Foods

1. Pizza
2. Thai Food
3. Pasta
3. Philly Cheese Steak from Triple Play (Oakey & Decatur, LV, NV!)

Four Places You'd Rather Be

1. L.A.
2. Sarasota, FL
3. Tokyo
4. Houston, TX

Four Albums You Can't Live Without
(I don't actually buy albums... I buy songs, but for the sake of simplicity...)

1. Hybrid Theory - Linkin Park
2. Meteora - Linkin Park
3. The Chronic - Dr. Dre
4. Blood Sugar Sex Magik - Red Hot Chili Peppers

Four Vehicles You've Owned
1. 75 Olds Delta 88
2. Some POS Lebaron
3. My baby, a 95 Mustang
4. 99 Malibu

Four People To Be Tagged

No one plays a long so I say, why bother....

Day 5, 8:00 - 9:00 AM

We start off with a recap (even though the show just ended 5 minutes ago) and it points out that I forgot to mention that Audrey is back! I don't know if that's good or bad though.

Anyway, Edgar comes running in with some important information.

EDGAR: We've identified the Palmer shooter!

BILL: Who is it?

EDGAR: You should see for yourself!

(That is another part of the 24 Death Count Drinking Game. Anytime someone makes someone else 'see for themselves' when they could save valuable minutes by just saying the name, please take a shot.)

So Edgar spends about three seconds explaining high res filters and all other sorts of non existent techno-bullshit. We then wait about 7 minutes while it processes. Then we see the face of our killer:


I KNEW IT!

The President doesn't care though, and won't delay the summit. He doesn't want the Russians to realize he's a pussy!

So we go to some mysterious looking man who seems to enjoy hanging out in KCBS's Master Control. He's getting updates from some guy who seems to ask all the right questions to help fill in the holes. We soon learn from MysteryMan that they launch within the hour. That's good, since there is less than an hour left in the episode!

So Jack, Chloe and New Kim drive down to the scene of Palmer's murder, even though he is the most wanted suspect. While there we find this:

Some how this over-dressed photog is able to perform a live shot, mast down (um, downtown LA, mast down? I think not!) and no cables. Come on people, realism!

Speaking of realism, Jack manages to walk right into the crime scene after bitch-slapping a FBI agent who apparently didn't know who Jack was. (In all fairness, Jack was wearing sunglasses...)

Jack heads up to David's penthouse where he greets Wayne.

Wayne: You son of a bitch, you killed my lover! Errr, I mean Brother!

Jack: He was my lover too! Why would I kill him?

Faced with Jack's impeccable logic, Wayne had no choice to be best friends with Jack again!


Wayne helps Jack dig through some files to find Palmer's real killer. They find the name of a guy at an airport in Palmer's files. He's Russian! Is it fore-shadowing? I'll never tell!

Back at CTU, Edgar finds out that Chloe is logged in on an external socket! She's alive! Edgar almost explodes with excitement. But why is she at Palmer's apartment building? Things seem shady and there is only one explanation. Jack's forcing her!

Now, despite 10239210392014787327498178472987398217398 agents after him, Jack still manages to get away. Chloe drives the van right at the police. Of course having read my advise on driving right at people with guns, she escapes.

But only for a little bit. She then stops and the police arrest her. But Jack isn't in the van! Neither is New Kim! They escaped via a different route, steal a car, and head to the airport to see a man about a horse. Just kidding, it's to meet the Russian dude who was in Palmer's files.

Meanwhile, the MysteryMan calls some Russian guys to make sure that everything is on schedule. The Russian guys are running late, which makes MysteryMan mad, but he forgives them. He then orders them to go dark, and he will talk to them after the attack! Could the summit be the target?

In a side note, the Crazy First Lady tries to convince Logan that Palmer called her to warn her about something. But the audio recording says otherwise! She is crazy! Maybe...

Regardless of the Crazy First Lady's warning, Novack's warning, Walt's warning (whatever Walt's job is), Logan will not let people know exactly how much of a pussy he is and demands the summit go on as scheduled...

Everyone watches with baited breath as the Russian President comes in via Marine One. Will it explode? Will it?!?!?!?!

No.

Jack arrives at the airport and gives New Kim back to New Kim's mom. Jack doesn't have time to explain, though and runs off. New Kim sees some bad people though, and rather than do the sensible thing and call 911, he runs in to tell Jack in person.

Just like Kim would have done.

Jack, meanwhile, has located the Russian guy and roughs him up. But there is a loud noise and Jack turns around, just long enough for the Russian guy to off himself via an icky pill.

What was the noise though? It seems the Russian's who were talking with MysteryMan weren't going to attack the summit, but the Ontario Airport (which Jack got to from downtown LA within a half an hour at 8:30 in the morning - Jack's the greatest!). Of course New Kim is now one of the hostages! Just like Kim would have done!

As the clock counts down, Jack sees people running down the hallways with Russian's carrying AK-47's (a very stereotypical weapon for Russian terrorists. It doesn't seem very fair to do that. Why can't they have bazookas or something?) right behind them and realizes something is amiss; and he is the only help that these people have.

Either that or he realizes that he needs to go pee...

We ain't done yet, beyaches! As if this episode couldn't get anymore suspenseful, MysteryMan gets another phone call... And it's from Walt! OMFG!!!!!!!! WALT'S A MOLE!!!!! The terrorists have once again managed to plant a mole in a high ranking position! Who ever does the background checks for the government needs to be let go!

OH THE SUSPENSE!!!

Day 5, 7:00 - 8:00 AM

Sorry for the delay... Damn screen captures...

As we start out Jack has a new life and a new name. His name is Frank and he works at oil pumps. There was no work for him today.

Former president Palmer is working on his memoirs with his brother Wayne, but he has something on his mind. It was something so important that he called the president's wife, who's insane, to warn her. But alas it was for nothing as David was capped from across the street. Need to get some bullet-proof glass in those condos.

So some shit happens and we meet Jack's new family, which consists of a lady and her son who I will call 'New Kim'. Why? Because it seems like this new kids job will be to get in the way and make shit even more complicated for Jack. Just like Kim! Too bad he isn't a hot girl with nice boobies like Kim was though. She had at least one redeeming quality...

My least favorite character is back, Chloe. I couldn't stand her one bit last year, and that still hasn't changed. But, in Chloe's credit she does make a great first impression this season:

Well, there are some hotter shots of her, 'specially in her panties (yum yum) but this isn't a sex post, it's a violence post!

So the pussy president, President Logan, finds out about Palmer's death and gets all angry - well as angry as the little beyach can get. We find that is wife has amazingly large boobs for a first lady, and she doesn't mind showing them to people. Damn it Logan is really, really annoying...

On to some non annoying characters, Michelle and Tony are back. Of course they are arguing, but they still love each other. I was happy to see them together, after the turmoil they faced last season. But I was worried. You should always worry about the longevity of a character when in the titles it says 'Special Guest Star' and then the actor/actresses name. Within moments, Tony and Michelle are dead. Well, Michelle is all dead, Tony only has half his head blown off. And of course instead of taking him to a level one trauma center, they bring him to CTU.

"We can protect him at CTU."

Yeah, but he'll be dead, jackass!

Anyway, now the same mother-fuckers who killed Palmer, Michelle and half of Tony are after Chloe. OH NO! It's everyone who knows Jack is alive! Could it be that someone is trying to frame Jack?

Continuing on, Chloe gets chased and calls Jack.

"This is a breech of protocol!" She tells him. Jack tells her 'Duh' and has her come to an abandoned oil place. Knowing that the most effective route from point A to B is a taxi, Chloe calls one.

Edgar begins to worry about Chloe. She's not in yet and he's beginning to see a pattern, even though he doesn't know jack is alive. Edgar loves Chloe and when he finds out that Chloe is banging some skinny dude at work, he dies a little inside. Sounds like only Krispe Kreme will fill this void!

Jack arrives somewhere and beats up a fireman to steal his helicopter, since only Chloe can take a cab cross-town in time. Jack finds out that New Kim followed him. He orders New Kim into the helo at gunpoint (as you would your new child) and they go to find Chloe.

Chloe, not even thinking that the bad guys who were chasing her would think of following her, is surprised when they show up. Jack, Chloe and New Kim try to leave in the helo, but Jack inconveniently turned the damn thing off and it didn't get up to speed by the time the bad guys arrived. They also must have taken cabs.Jack tells Chloe and New Kim to run and hide, which they do, right in the open.

Jack quickly mops the floor with most of the terrorist, including the one driving the car up ahead. If there is one thing that we can learn from 24, it's that when being shot at you should always drive straight at who is shooting at you.

Or maybe that's what you shouldn't do...

Anyway, one bad guy who found Chloe and New Kim in their expert hiding place gets shot in the leg by Jack. Chloe spins around and blasts the dude in the tummy. I have to admit, Chloe looks uber hot when she's shooting people. Thought it might be less about Chloe and more about me having a thing for girls with guns...

Anyway, Jack forces a confession out of the dude Chloe shot in the stomach. Apparently if you tell a terrorist that you will take him to the hospital, he will admit that he is the one who shot Palmer.

Jack needed revenge though and puts a round right into the guys head. If you are playing the 24 Death Count Drinking Game, this is what is called a 'Fuck You Bitch' look on Jack, and requires you to do a double shot.

And that brings us to 8:00AM...

Belldandy (AGT #2)

This Tuesday's Anime Girl is Belldandy, Goddess First Class, Unlimited License.

She from the anime 'Ah! My Goddess'. She's a goddess who is sent to Earth to grant young Keitchi one wish, since he's freakin' pitiful. Well his wish was to have Belldandy always at his side.

Oddly enough, God grants the wish and Belldandy stays, and strangely enough, likes it. Long story short, she falls in love with Keitchi and they stay together for all eternity, I assume.

Bell is the perfect GF, IMHO. Loyal, sweet, hot (but not skanky hot) and she has magical powers. WOOT! Anyway, McFly, I apologize. I'll have someone skanky hot next Tuesday.

Moods

Wallpapers

How NOT to treat your goddess...

I can't remember the exact situation that led up to that terrible, terrible slapping, but don't EVER do this! Not only is it wrong to hit a girl, but if you slap a Goddess you will just incur more wrath from God. And I really don't think we need anymore God wrath. Just ask Ray Nagin or Pat Robertson.

Lying on the internet...

You know what I like about Blogger? I can lie about the date and time I post something. Not that this information has anything to do with a pending post...

Official 24 Death Count

Here is how it works. During each episode I will keep track of how many people from each side get killed. I will then update the death counter, which you can find about ½ way down the sidebar.

I am also going to try and keep track of who is killed, in order to keep the death count as accurate as possible.

Why am I doing this?

Because I have no life.

But there is more. You can turn the death count into a drinking game. For instance, you take one shot every time some schmuck rent-a-cop jumps up with his gun drawn on 10 terrorists with AK-47s! (2 shots last night.) How about a double every time Jack kills someone with that 'Fuck you, bitch' look on his face!

The killing of terrorists, innocent bystanders, government agents and schmuck security guards can be fun!

(Disclaimer: I only mean on TV. Killing real people is bad. Once more, TV violence = FUN! Real violence = BAD!)

Here are the rules of tabulation. First, they must be confirmed, or otherwise obvious kills. For example, the security guard shot by the terrorist. He got a bullet hole in the chest with blood. It's safe to assume he's dead. However, when Jack attacked the FBI agent, we can assume that he did not kill him, since Jack is a good guy. Suicides do count. If someone who is a good guy dies, and it is later discovered that he is a bad guy, the score will shift appropriately.

And for the record, Tony got half his head blown off, that's why the good guy death count doesn't end with a whole number.

If you notice any deaths I miss, please bring them to my attention! Soon you should be able to click on each death to see it! Also, feel free to hotlink to the deathcount graphic, if you desire. You can get the location by right clicking on the image and selecting 'properties'.

EPISODE	GOOD GUYS	BAD GUYS
7 AM - 8 AM	DAVID PALMER MICHELLE ALMEDA TONY ALMEDA (½ DEAD)	MAN AFTER JACK IN CAR #1 MAN AFTER JACK IN CAR #2 MAN AFTER JACK IN CAR #3 MAN WHO CONFESSES BUT JACK CAPS ANYWAY
8 AM - 9 AM	SCHMUCK AIRPORT SECURITY GUARD #1 SCHMUCK AIRPORT SECURITY GUARD #2	CHEVENSKY
9 AM - 10 AM	HOSTAGE WHO TRIED TO USE HIS PHONE (TO CALL 911 I ASSUME...) HOSTAGE #2	TERRORIST WHO JACK BLEW UP TO SAVE 'NEW KIM'
10 AM - 11 AM	HOSTAGE #3	TERROISTS CTU CAPS X 7 (PENDING FINAL RECOUNT)

UPDATE: I've noticed people hitting this page lately. Just so you know, I am no longer keeping track. I lost count at one point, and never caught back up! Sorry!

24

Well...

It kicked ass.

Screen captures to be posted soon. Unfortunatly transferring from my TiVo to my computer is an assinine-length process. Not to mention then I have to convert it from the TiVo format to AVI to make the captures! Oy!

Anyway, here's a short rundown...

SPOILERS!
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Palmer was killed. Michelle was killed. Tony was almost killed. Jack was framed (again). I still hate Chloe and Edgar still needs a treadmill. Logan is still a pussy and there is still a mole in the administration.

Starting out great!

Holy Freakin' Crap...

In a bid to further increase my productivity, last night, spur of the moment, I uninstalled EVERY SINGLE GAME I had on my computer.

I'm already having 'Civilizations' withdrawal, which seems to be kicking me more than smoking withdrawal!

Anyway, I hope to use my new found time to do some more writing, to let my creative muscles run free, and to see if I can master the art of DVD authoring.

Just need to find a good, cheap program though. Any suggestions?

UPDATE! I suck. I reinstalled Civ 4. But I am going to put EXTREME limits on its use. I hope I can do this!

The Biggest Benefit

While the fact that I am becoming able to breathe almost normally again (I constantly have stuffy sinuses that will probably require some type of surgery), to me that doesn't seem to be the biggest benefit from my stop smoking scheme.

No I think the best part is the fact that when I check my checking account's running tally, it doesn't seem to be decreasing as fast.

Before I had it dropping with many, many purchases of $7.00 (smokes and a soda) twice a day. Now it only seems to drop at the rate of $2.00 twice a day! (Still addicted to Diet Pepsi!)

One of the advantages of never using cash. You can see just how much your poor spending habits are effecting you, right away!

The Saga Continues...

For those of you who have stumbled here looking for anime stuff, the beginning of the latest story in my fan fiction saga 'Moon Trek' is online now now.

If you're curious, it's an alternate universe fiction featuring characters from Ranma ½, Sailor Moon and some origionals, placed in the Star Trek universe.

You can find it here, at the official Moon Trek website. Six stories, six reasons I should never be allowed to have children.

Anime Girl Friday...

It's being moved to Tuesday. Since Tuesday's suck and stuff. Just so you know. This Tuesday's subject? Belldandy from Ah! My Goddess.... With her serving God, it might just be time for me to convert religions!

Somewhere I Belong?

disclaimer: if you are uninterested in my personal life and are just
here for the lack of anime girls, my photoging, or looking for big ass holes,
this post will be of no interest to you. please come back tomorrow. thank you,
management.

So I realized that I have been whining and moaning about Las Vegas pretty much since the first day I got here. I was all upset that the job didn't turn out to be as great as I had expected, nor was the city as glamorous as it was supposed to have been.
It took me a while to figure it out, but I finally realized what the real problem was.
It's me.

Here's what happened. 12 years ago I started making plans for what I was going to be doing when I was a grown up (still waiting for that to happen, BTW...). First I planned and pictured myself being one of Springfield's finest. But then I went to CAVC (the vocational school in Springfield) and got into television. Bounce around a little bit and while I still wanted to be the police, I wanted to do TV too.
So I started my own business. I got written a bad check and that was the end of that. Got sued because of bad checks I wrote thinking they would be covered by the bad check I was given, and you can imagine how everything spiraled downwards from there.
I STILL don't have my credit repaired from that shit.
Anyway, onwards I went and Jason, Chris and I came up with Erin and Gosnell. Then I had a bright idea to move to Minnesota and go to school for television broadcasting, even though I already had a fucking job in television, I decided to cement it with a $15,000 education.
Moved there, went to school, the school screwed my ass like the professionals they are, and left me without a degree and with a $72 a month bill for the next 22 years. Not to mention the money my mom and dad are still paying. I feel bad for it, considering that I probably would have this job even without the education I did receive, but I live on my undying thought that one day I will be able to repay them plus a billion.
So anyway, I left school, but stayed in Minnesota. I asked my friend, Chris to move up there with me, as I was lonely and the only thing that really matters is me, and he did. I spent two years finding out exactly how selfish I am, and how much of a fucking asshole I can be, and now Chris and I don't speak. I blamed him till I pulled my head out of my ass.
Believe it or not, I actually had a hot, nympho girl friend back in Minnesota. No kidding! You should be able to figure out what happened based on everything I've said so far. That's right, Erin, the person who is more important than anyone else fucked it up. Go me!
So what did moving to Minnesota do for me? Besides put me in debt, trash my credit more, nearly kill me, and reveal how god damned arrogant I am, not much. To my credit, moving there where no one knew me allowed me to be myself, not the Erin I had become in Springfield out of shame, low self esteem and cowardice. I truly had the best time of my life there.
But as I was being myself, I found out who I was.

Don't know if I really care for that.

After my near death experience I calmed down a lot. I left my job, that I loved, and moved to Milwaukee. Learned two important lessons. One, Milwaukee is a craphole. Two, never, NEVER move based on the word of your new potential employer. Sean, you suck donkey schlong.
Defeated, I ran with my tail between my legs back to Illinois, where I took refuge in Blaine's (my dad's) basement. For the record, all references to 'my dad' are to Blaine. He's not my real dad, as in he didn't do my mom, but he did everything else dad's do, unlike my real dad who I hope to find dead in the ditch someday.
Once back there I returned to the only job I ever had that I was really, really good at. McFrakin'Donald's. I was stuck there till FOX finally got a full time job I could have. Once I worked there for a while, Tim K, who is about the coolest guy on Earth, somehow convinced NewsChannel 20 to hire me as a photog. I worked there for a couple of years, and now here I am.

So now that I have given you a short rundown of the past 12 years, let's look and see what's different about it than what should have happened.

When I started my production business, I expected to be doing it full time within 2 years. Didn't happen. SO what happened when things didn't go my way? I quit.
I planned on having Chronicles on the air within 5 years, and Jason, Chris and I would have been obscurely famous with a cult following - kind of like She Spies. But alas, I have constantly been putting off Chronicles. When we were planning on it back in '97, I ran to Minnesota. Jason and I were gearing up for it here in '05, so what do I do? I run to Las Vegas. And yet I wonder why Jason won't write me back, won't take me seriously, when I tell him I am still serious about doing it.
Why do I keep doing that? Fuck if I know...

I did not plan on living in a one bedroom closet at 28. I did NOT have THIS, whatever the hell it is, scripted out for me. But, that's life.

I came here expecting the perfect job, in the perfect city, for the perfect pay. I got none of the three. Don't get me wrong, my job is great, and the pay is great. But because it's not 'what I wanted', well it sucks, apparently.
It took me 12 years to finally say that to myself.

"It's you man. It's not the job, it's not your life, it's you."

I could be handed a million dollars tomorrow and complain that I didn't get two million. I have been handed so many things. I got such a free ride as a child, and I totally took advantage of that. Blaine has helped me out, amazingly, even though I don't deserve an ounce of it, and what do I do? I take advantage of it. I look to my mom to bail me out every fucking time I hit a speed bump, but what the hell do I do for her? Do I do anything? Have I EVER done anything?

They say hindsight is 20/20, well it is. I'm looking back and realizing that EVERY SINGLE bad thing that has happened to me since 1993 was 110% my fault. Jesus Christ, almost every bad thing that's happened to my friends was my fault. It was my doing, and no amount of shifting blame is going to change that. No looking to other circumstances life has dealt me gives me the right to deflect blame.
So now that I have finally realized that, what do I do? Do I lament about the past, the people I have wronged; the decisions I have made? Do I continue forward like nothing has happened? I'm totally lost. I have a sign on my wall that I made. It's a quote from an anime (obviously).

There is no 'if'. There is only the present.

I do know one thing. I refuse to leave Las Vegas right now. All running away would do is once again prove that I am nothing more than a scared child who uses this exterior to protect himself. I will once again show myself that running backwards is the only direction I know how to go. Ya know, so what if I made a left when I should have made a right. That doesn't mean that I should go back home and start the trip over again. Hell, I don't have an unlimited supply of gas here. At the max, based on my family history and my current health I have about 40 years left. Why the hell should I spend it running backwards?
I have my destination in mind, I know where I am going. I just have to figure out how to get there, and right now I'm trying to find my way from an unknown location. I am sure I will get there, but when I do, will I look at it and say 'Well, this isn't good enough'? Will I be happy when I finally get Chronicles on the air. That, to be 100% honest is ALL I want to happen right now. Nothing else matters to me. Why? Because it's my legacy. It's something that will keep ME around forever. Until I typed that I never really realized exactly how narcissistic I can be!

Anyway, I apologize for going on for so long. This was kind of my 'Forgive me father for I have sinned' confession. I am REALLY tempted to turn off the comments, since I really have no interest in hearing my conclusions that I'm a prick confirmed. But, also being someone who enjoys inflicting pain on himself, I will leave them on.

For now. :)

In parting, here's a Linkin Park song. I think it goes along with what I just wrote, in a way... I've bolded the most relevant part...

Somewhere I Belong

(When this began)
I had nothing to say
And I get lost in the nothingness inside of me
(I was confused)
And I let it all out to find
That I’m not the only person with these things in mind
(Inside of me)
But all the vacancy the words revealed
Is the only real thing that I’ve got left to feel
(Nothing to lose)
Just stuck, hollow and alone
And the fault is my own, and the fault is my own

I wanna heal, I wanna feel what I thought was never real
I wanna let go of the pain I’ve held so long
(Erase all the pain till it’s gone)
I wanna heal, I wanna feel like I’m close to something real
I wanna find something I’ve wanted all along
Somewhere I belong

And I’ve got nothing to say
I can’t believe I didn’t fall right down on my face
(I was confused)
Looking everywhere only to find
That it’s not the way I had imagined it all in my mind
(So what am I)
What do I have but negativity
’Cause I can’t justify the way, everyone is looking at me
(Nothing to lose)
Nothing to gain, hollow and alone
And the fault is my own, and the fault is my own

I wanna heal, I wanna feel what I thought was never real
I wanna let go of the pain I’ve held so long
(Erase all the pain till it’s gone)
I wanna heal, I wanna feel like I’m close to something real
I wanna find something I’ve wanted all along
Somewhere I belong

I will never know myself until I do this on my own
And I will never feel anything else, until my wounds are healed
I will never be anything till I break away from me
I will break away, I'll find myself today

I wanna heal, I wanna feel what I thought was never real
I wanna let go of the pain I’ve held so long
(Erase all the pain till it’s gone)
I wanna heal, I wanna feel like I’m close to something real
I wanna find something I’ve wanted all along
Somewhere I belong

I wanna heal, I wanna feel like I’m somewhere I belong
I wanna heal, I wanna feel like I’m somewhere I belong
Somewhere I belong

Boom Goes The Dynamite!

Fuck I hate that phrase...

Anyway, welcome to the most extensive coverage Otakuphotog has EVER had on any one topic! Part of the reason for the delay. I needed to pull the TiVo'd newscasts to my computer, convert them from the naziesque TiVo formats to AVI so I could take captures, and I pretty much fell asleep soon as I got home yesterday and woke up at 6 this morning.

Anyway, the day went smooth as a day can go. I did have to attempt to chase down a couple of spot news stories early on, which is fine since I hate sitting around, but they all turned out to be whack. I did find a neat car into house to shoot. Couple of people at home with minor injuries, but nothing serious. Good video though!

Then, as if everyone in Las Vegas read my blog and decided to obey it, at 4:00 the scanners went silent. It might have had something to do with the fact that I turned them off, but I am more content in thinking it was because everyone did what I told them too, and stopped the violence.

At 5:00 I rolled up to the site of the Castaway's Hotel. I checked in and found that Ashanti and Jorge were already in the place I was told to go.

"Well, this is going well." I mumbled. I drove around the lot and found a Lowe's across the street where Peter from FOX, his reporter, Ann, and John from NBC were hanging out. I decided to join them because it really was the greatest view of the building.

I set up my live and remembered why I loved this job. It's really fucking cool to have some red tape screaming DANGER DANGER and tons of civilians beginning to line up behind it, the demolition police keeping them back - but allowing you to roam around in the DANGER zone (anyone else thinking Top Gun here?) just because you're media.

Most of what was done was sit and wait. Peter had to do half hourly live hits, but John and I only had to sit around and wait for the building to come down.

One of the main things we were worried about was dust. I've gotten dust inside my camera before and I can tell you the engineers don't like it! So I placed the crappy rain gear (which does about a good of a job protecting my camera in the rain as an umbrella made from toliet paper would) on my camera and then stole a Wal*Mart sack from John and used it as a crude frag shield.

I didn't really work, for the record, as the dust began to rain on us about 10 minutes AFTER the implosion. D'oh!

Fifteen minutes before the planned demolition time, the deconstruction people came over and told us that we couldn't be inside the DANGER zone. But seeing as how they allowed us to set up in there (in fact we were in there long before they even set up the DANGER tape), they decided that we could leave our camera's, but at T-10 minutes we were going to have to abandon them.

Not an issue for me.

So at T-10 we all got word and scurried outside the danger tape. I was listening to Ashanti talk about buildings and dust and actually felt bad for her because it was just 10 minutes of 'time filling'. But soon those ten minutes passed, and it was time for the implosion.

You can watch the implosion here.

What was interesting was that there were several large bangs, and nothing happened. I know I wasn't the only one who was like 'Oops!' But then - BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! Much larger explosions and down came the building.

from my digital cam

from my television cam

I was a little upset that my digital camera wasn't snapping off pictures as fast as I wanted. If anyone is feeling generous and would like to send me $25 for the ’Buy Erin a New Digital Camera' fund, please feel free.

This was the first implosion I had ever seen in real life and I got to say, it was really fucking cool. Pictures and TV do not do a building collapsing in a heap of rubble and debris justice.

One of the strange things about this was the dust cloud.

It looked like it was coming right at us. But then it didn't, and it turned and headed towards some other bystanders. That's not to say we didn't get dusty. In fact I probably have a half inch of Las Vegas history still on my jacket.

I did get to demonstrate how dusty it did get where I was, on live TV no less. I felt a little stupid slapping my foot on the ground, causing dust to come up, but it was my idea. I guess I Wish hadn't gotten all my attention whoreness out of me yet. ((Soon I will have video of this! Yay! Once it fucking encodes right!))


I am seriously looking forward to the next casino they implode. Hopefully, the next one will be even bigger! WOOT!

A Strange Turn of Events...

I am actually looking forward to something I have to shoot in the morning.

As is tradition in Las Vegas when it's time to get rid of an old casino, the Castaways Hotel will be imploded tomorrow morning. I am one of about 2782713892321 people from my station slated to be there.

Anyway, I would kindly request that the citizens of Las Vegas stop killing, shooting, stabbing, running over and setting fire to each other at 6:00 AM so that I may watch a building implode.

I wish they were going to EXPLODE it, as I think watching flaming fragments of an old hotel rain down on people during rush hour would be interesting, but whatever.

I'll have picture here as well! Check back tomorrow, 'cause if you don't, I'll stab you.

UPDATE 12-JAN: I'm just waiting on some
video to encode. Everything should be up and spiffy by 10:30A PST. Never fear!

Yuna Miyama (AGF #1)

Finally, an anime girl post! Yay! Anime Girl Friday begins, albeit on a Tuesday...

Yuna is from the anime 'Maburaho', which is a quite funny show about one guy with tons of girls tripping over themselves to get to him. Ah, to be an anime boy... The DVD's are currently availible from ADV, but if you're really nice and you bring me beer, you can come over and watch them at my house.

Anyway, less talky, more pictures!







Screen Captures


Wallpaper

Other Pictures!

I don't own these pictures, so feel free to take them for your own website, collection, whatever. I do, however, own the bandwidth, so if I find you hot linking, I'll be quite pissed. Please host the pictures on your own server, thanks.

24

Sunday, January 15, 2006... The only day that will matter throughout the entire year (barring the apocalypse and I actually have sex sometime this year).

Season 5 of the greatest show on the planet, 24, begins on FOX.

The countdown has begun. Check back here the nights of the shows as I will be posting screen captures and reviews!

Uh, Sorry...

Seems I forgot about Anime Girls Friday, despite reminding McFly about it yesterday. All that walking and gawking at CES must have fried my noggin. Anywhoo, I will get it done tomorrow or Sunday or Monday or Tuesday or Wednesday or Thursday, I promise.

I am pretty sure I'm being insulted there, but we'll let it go.

Keeping My Resolutions!

Although I do wish I would have remembered to buy a lime when I was at the store.

Oh well. Bottoms up!

I Hate My Favorite Thing To Shoot...

I hate fires. I really, really do. I hate them more than anything else in the world. I hate the smell, I hate the sounds, I really hate that beeping noise the fireman locaters make. I hate everything about them.

But I love shooting them.

Sounds odd, huh?

A fire is really the worst thing that can happen to a person (that doesn't kill them, obviously. And if the person's dead, then they really don't care that they're dead, because they're dead...... You know what I mean). What basically happens is that a person becomes instantly homeless, they lose everything they own, and to top it off they get every TV station in town to come out and tell everyone.

I used to feel like shit every time I had to respond to one, but one event changed that. I never understood how broadcasting that someone's house burning down served a public interest until I was on a live shot outside of an apartment fire.

After a couple of hits, people started coming by. Some of the residents, who were in amazingly good spirits all things considered, were hanging out with us (they had no where else to go...). But the people came by and were bringing clothes and toys for the children, bottled water, even a restaurant nearby came by to tell the people that they could all come over for breakfast and it would be free.

It was amazing, and I realized that if this hadn't been on TV, the only help they would have gotten would have been from the grumpy old Red Cross guy. (A note, not all Red Cross people are grumpy. Just this guy.)

Anyway, I still hate going to fires, but I keep in the back of my mind that I am NOT exploiting these people for my station. I'm actually helping them. Even in this God forsaken city, the people here can be amazingly generous.

Even with my distaste for the way my clothes smell when I leave, from a photographic stand point fires are my favorite things to shoot. Here are some captures from a fire I covered in Chatham, IL:


The visuals are amazing. For some reason I couldn't get the video to play to my favorite shot (I think it might have been corrupted when I brought it over from DVD), but the lighting and flames and smoke just dance around the people involved. Plus the impact of certain shots from a fire can be amazing.

For instance, in the Taylorville Fire (A Lesson in Futility) story I talked about, I had a shot of a dozen or so firefighters standing around, not able to do anything but watch this house burn to the ground. It's stuff like that people remember.

One that was actually kind of amusing was a car fire I went to. The car was in a garage, so I went incase it spread to the house. The car in question was a Porsche, and I got a shot of the cars owner looking like he had just watched 17 kittens get slaughtered. He must have REALLY loved that car. (He had insurance, so I am sure he has a new one by now.)

It's an absolutely amazing feeling to be rushing full speed towards something that you loathe. I hear those firemen arrive and go 'flames showing' or 'fully engulfed', the pedal goes to the floor. And I am silently complaining all the way. But if you don't make it there before the fire is out, all you are doing is shooting aftermath, which takes the only positive aspect for someone like me away. I honestly won't go to any fires if they call a knockdown before I get there. Again, I don't like them and I am sure the people don't like me there.

Plus, I have recently learned that any fireman who appears on TV has to buy treats for the rest of the fire house, so I have been feeling guilty for making the poor firemen spend their money like that.

There was one who scolded me, because I stepped over his hose (not my fault they parked a truck in my way!). So I showed him like three times. I hope he got his comeuppance.

Fark the Police!

From The Chris Rock Show. How NOT To Get Your Ass Kicked By The Police

Contains foul language. Of course if you're a fan of Chris Rock, you should realize that.

I Wish (a/k/a The First Post of 2006!)

Without a doubt the most popular post I have ever done was 'Hey Fatso'. To to celebrate the new year, and to go along with my resolution to have more fun, I hereby present to you 'I Wish'. Enjoy!

I Wish

Skee Lo (c) 199something

Hey, this is radio station W-S-K-E-E
We're takin' calls off the wish line
Making all your wacky wishes come true

Hello

I wish I was little bit taller,
I wish I was a baller
I wish I had a girl who looked good
I would call her
I wish I had a rabbit in a hat with a bat
and a '64 Impala

I wish I was like six-foot-nine
So I could get with Leoshi
Cause she don't know me but yo she's really fine
You know I see her all the time
Everywhere I go, and even in my dreams
I can scheme of ways to make her mine
Cause I know she's livin phat
Her boyfriend's tall and he plays ball
So how am I gonna compete with that
'Cause when it comes to playing basketball
I'm always last to be picked
And in some cases never picked at all
So I just lean upon the wall
Or sit up in the bleachers with the rest of the girls
Who came to watch their men ball
Dag y'all! I never understood
Why the jocks get the fly girls
And me I get the hood rats
I tell 'em scat, skittle, skibobble
Got hit with a bottle
And put in the hospital, for talkin' that mess
I confess it's a shame when you livin' in a city
That's the size of a box and nobody knows yo' name
Glad I came to my senses
Like quick-quick got sick-sick to my stomach
Overcome with my thoughts of me and her together
Right?
So when I asked her out she said I wasn't her type

I wish I was little bit taller,
I wish I was a baller
I wish I had a girl who looked good
I would call her
I wish I had a rabbit in a hat with a bat
and a '64 Impala

I wish I was little bit taller,
I wish I was a baller
I wish I had a girl who looked good
I would call her
I wish I had a rabbit in a hat with a bat
and a '64 Impala

I wish I had a brand-new car
So far, I got this hatchback
And everywhere I go, yo I gets laughed at
And when I'm in my car I'm laid back
I got an 8-track and a spare tire in the backseat
But that's flat
And do you really wanna know what's really wack, What
See I can't even get a date
So, what do you think of that?
I heard that prom night is the bomb night
With a