AGT #5 Kaname Chidori

At the anime blog!

Caption This!

It's the first ever otakuphotog caption contest!
You don't win anything, but it's fun to make fun of me, so the effort is its own reward!
I'll start.

'You want to speak to the chicken? He's a little busy right now.'

Thanks to John Farrell for the photo!

393 Days Later and I STILL Don't Get It...

Rain is apparently the scourge of all mankind in Las Vegas.

All night long I was on rain patrol. I wasn't given the order, but I was under the impression that nothing else mattered, and short of Osama bin Laden caught masturbating in the men’s room at Pure, rain held priority.

All night long it sprinkled off and on. And I am being generous by calling it sprinkles. I didn't even start using my windshield wipers until well after daylight. And even then it was just because I felt sorry for them.

Around show time I was sent out to find rain. They gave me a general direction to go, and I did. I could see rain coming over the mountains, so I set up my live shot, put on my rain coat, and waited.

And waited..

And waited...

The rain either turned and went north, or it disappeared once it came across the mountains.

I'm really not complaining though. I knew I was going to be out on rain lives, so I brought my laptop with me. Unfortunately I picked a spot with no WiFi nearby (God, I love stupid rich people who leave unsecured WiFi networks on... The rich neighborhoods are ripe with WiFi hotspots!) but I did manage to load my hard drive with unwatched episodes of Shakugan no SHANA that I was able to watch between my hits. I'm almost caught up! Hopefully they'll send me on another whack-ass live tomorrow too!

Whack-ass lives are good for some things.

For the record, it began to rain steadily as I was heading back to the station. So I hopped out and shot it and everyone at the station was all thrilled. This mysterious water like substance falling from the sky was the noon lead.

I still don't get it.

More Changes...

As of next week I have been usurped of my weekend shift, and my wonderful 'freedom' shift during the week and will be taking Monday - Friday, same hours to work as the Midnight reporter's photog.

My chief swears that this is only temporary, until they hire a replacement for the recently departed Brandon, but the intensity of his insistence makes me believe otherwise.

We'll see. Maybe before too long I can find some other skill and leave this insane business all together. I missed it before when I did it, but then again that was back in Illinois where I was useful.

Sittin' On The Side of the Freeway...

Just sitting here, waiting for something interesting enough to blog about.

I'd blog about why I am sitting on the side of the road, but it's not interesting, just sad. Poor guy on a motorcycle, hit by a car and thrown from the bike. Then run over by multiple other cars.

One of the dangers of riding a motorcycle, I guess. Then again, out here anything you do on or near a roadway is dangerous.

I've come to the conclusion that in Las Vegas, vehicles are far more dangerous than guns and the mafia combined.

Space Filler...

This picture came out really cool, so I thought I would share it with you all.

This is Sol, the overnight photographer over at ABC Action News 13. Or 13 Action News ABC... I don't know what they hell they call themselves.

We were at a near fatal MVA about 6:30 or so Saturday morning.

Anyway, hopefully I will have something interesting to blog about tomorrow!

Another 'Bomb'.

While I'm on the subjects of bombs today, last night I overhear on the scanners that police are setting up a command post and beginning evacuations.

I hate it when I hear that and I don't have any clues to what the hell is going on. The best I have is that it's in the Northeast Area Command, which is only about 1/7th of the city (there are seven area commands).

I page the Watch Commander (the Watch Commander is a Liuetenant who is in charge of all the police officers on shift that night. He's kind of like the Swing Manager at a McDonald's or madam at a brothel!) and beg him for information.

Of course, before he calls back I am given a major clue to the location (ahem, the name of the place they are taking the evacuees), but he calls just before I look it up in the phone book.

The weekend Watch Commanders are the greatest thing since sliced bread. I don't know how I get so lucky, but all the watch commanders have been very media friendly. Some, like Lt. John Farrell (no relation to the photog John Farrell) and Lt. Jim Dixon are so friendly that they will actually chat with you!

Imagine that. The police and the media chatting! (On a side note, I miss Jim Dixon... Makes me want to cry that he's not a WC anymore!)

Anyway, I am given the location and arrive to find cops everywhere. Apparently some dude walked out to his SUV and found a backpack by it. He called METRO to have them check it out. METRO arrived and found wires sticking out of it.

At least it wasn't just a bag. This one actually looked like it MIGHT have been a bomb, unlike last time.

The bomb squad arrives and after about fifteen minutes all the police run to their cars and begin to squeal out. Basiclly all I am thinking is 'OMFG!' But nothing happened. They just wanted to block traffic quickly. The bomb squad pulls their cars around a wall and I am informed that they want everyone away from the street, in case it blows.

I comply without hesitation. One thing I have learned is that if the cops start running, you better too.

I'm only moved back away from the street, and still have a good view of what is going on. I figure I am still close enough that if the thing blows up, I will get flames and debris and cool stuff like that.

But of course the bomb squad has to ruin all the fun. They come up and x-ray the bag to find it containing a car stereo. The wires sticking out were from a car stereo.

Here's my theory (as once it was determined not to be a bomb, I didn't care to find out the real facts); someone was in the neighborhood stealing car stereos. Dude who found the bag startled the theif, so he ran away, leaving his stereos behind!

Makes sense.

For the record, I once again asked if they could blow it up anyway. This time, though, Lt. McGrath looked at me like I was an idiot.

I am, but still...

I'm Ashamed To Admit It, But....

I was one of the weirdoes who really liked the 1990 TV flop Cop Rock.

In case you didn't know, or have repressed the memory, Cop Rock was from legendary producer Steven Bochco. According to the Internet Movie Database (IMDB), Cop Rock lasted for four months. The show got mixed reviews from critics, some calling it ka-ka, some calling it genius. However the ratings were craptacular.

ABC demanded that Bochco removed the musical numbers, but he refused. It would have made the title pointless! Anyway, after it was cancelled it was rebroadcast on VH1 for a while.

Cop Rock, despite being known as the biggest flop of the '90s, won two Emmy's and was nominated for three more.

You can find some clips here at TRIO Plus. This is a link I found, so I hope this isn't a pay site!

A discussion on Medialine and a posting on a libertarian, former cop's blog is what brought this up, in case you're wondering. I remember seeing the commercials for Cop Rock at the movie theater. I remember all the people in the line up breaking into song, and saying to myself:

"This is the most awful thing in the world! I love it!"

Cop Rock is one of the reasons that my show, Chronicles, has musical numbers in it. They aren't as often and as important to the plot, but they are there. Hopefully someday the show will see the light of day so you all can see it! And it can be canceled after four months, but I will still know it rocked. Heh...

No More Anime Posts Here!

They can all be found at ewink's FUNKDAFIED anime girls blog! The old ones will still remain on this site, and the links in the side bar will continue to go to the ones here, but future links will be directed to the new site!

Another Hole

I'm not sure what my fascination is with holes on this blog. I mean, I don't really like holes that much. I can't walk up next to them, as I am afraid of heights so I will freak out. But yet in less than a year, this will be the forth time that I have blogged about holes.

This hole tale begins close to the end of my shift last Monday. I had already been running my ass off all night. In fact, I do believe that I had to get gas twice. It really wasn't that busy, it was just nothing happened anywhere near anything else.

Top that off by the frustration I had because my mast was malfunctioning (took it 30+ minutes to drop from a fire I was feeding back video from) and you can understand why I groaned loudly when I got the call to head to a possible 'man in a hole' call in the north part of the valley, when I was mere moments from the station!


Click to see map full sized!

I like maps.

Anyway, I head that way from the Chevron on the south Strip where I had refueled for the second time. I hear my adorable producer dispatch Skywitness 8 and inform her that I will be going that way too, but she will probably beat me!

She could have landed, gotten Jack In The Box and she would have beaten me!

Dayna arrives in the helo and yes in deed there is a man in a 18 foot trench. North Las Vegas Fire was first on the scene, but doesn't have the equipment for this kind of rescue so they call in Heavy Rescue 44 with Las Vegas Fire Rescue! They arrive on scene and I am thinking to myself 'there is no way I am going to be there in time!'

However, it was a holiday, so traffic on the 15 was pretty light. (You notice how I have become a west coast person? Referring to the freeway as THE 15?) We went live with the guy in the hole and it was still going on when I got to 215 and headed west towards Decatur. The fire department put a blanket on this guy to keep him warm, so of course all the stations with their helos up are speculating that he might be dead.

I, of course, groan again and yell at the tvs and radios 'THEY AREN'T GOING TO RESCUE A DEAD GUY!' (As OSHA and NLVPD would have to do their investigation before the body could be moved.) Plus the Mercy Air medical helo is on its way as well.

I finally arrive and begin to establish a live shot. Soon as I do, Dayna reports that they are on fumes and will have to rush to North Las Vegas airport and refuel.

While they are gone, they start to pull this dude out of the hole! I'm the only station live (assuming that NBC and ABC didn't cut in - they did have their birds overhead). They stick with my shot as our anchors ad libbed what was going on in a way that would make Vince Scully proud.

They got old boy out of the hole, then confused everyone by putting him into an ambulance. The ambulance took off, drove a couple hundred feet, then they stuffed him into the helicopter. Eventually the helo took off and took the construction worker to UMC where he had his broken ankle patched up and was sent on his way.

That's right. All this production for a broken ankle.

Though it's alright. It was good video (I called it my 'Emmy show' as I don't do anything anywhere near Emmy worthy any other day of the week) and everyone was okay. That's best. Plus, since he was okay, I can make fun of him, as he apparently slipped and fell into the hole.

Whoopsie daisy!

As for Dayna and Skywitness 8, her and her pilot, Chris, had a hell of a time getting fuel. And they got back as I was packing up. I hop on the 2-way and tell her she missed all the fun.

Her grumble made me proud.

HOLY SH!T @ HARRAH'S!!!!!

I am not sure about the other overnight photographers here in Vegas, but there is NOTHING I hate more than news happening on the Strip.

First, the casino Nazis are on Media Watch in full force. You'd think since we were there that they would have better things to do than deal with us. Nope. Second, you have all the drunk mother fuckers who think they are being original by walking up to the camera and going 'I did it' or 'No autographs!'.

Note to people: Unless your goal is to seem like a complete fucking moron, don't do that.

My final distaste for the Strip falls in the lack of parking. You can't park in a parking garage with a live truck. And you even more can't park in the parking garage of the casino you're covering. (Of course if you are there for something they like, they'll have six valets waiting for you...)

Well when the initial reports of 434's (shots fired) at Harrah's turned into a 415A (shooting), I was hauling ass down there. Lucky for me, my station is just off the Strip, so even though there was a ton of traffic from the Magic Clothing Show, I still made it quickly. Quick enough to have to hard right to avoid four black and whites screaming towards me at a little over 152 MPH.

I arrived shortly after the ABC station (who is a little farther away, but didn't seem to get caught in as much traffic as me). He had the greatest idea known to man. He parked in the middle of the street.

So I did too! I figure the cops would have more issues to deal with than me.

Boy was I right. The whole story is here on KLAS' website, but the jist is some dude shot another dude on the 20th floor of the casino. The cops and paramedics responded and then dude shot at them!!!

Well the cops managed to get the guy who was shot, but he died. The shooter decided to stay in the hotel room.

Shit turned into a 7 hour standoff. Couldn't have picked a colder night either.

Eventually we had to move out of the street, since once the cops realized that they were going to be there for a while, they determined that they had time to hassle us.

Stuff with METRO just seemed to go downhill from there. They sent their PIO (Public Information Officer) out with the sole purpose of telling us that no one will be talking to us. He then tells us that Lt. Roberts (of Homicide) will be giving a statement in two hours. This is around 2:30. We ask 'Was someone killed?'. METRO doesn't answer.

Well obviously someone was, otherwise the homicide lieutenant wouldn't be coming out. Hell those guys won't show up till they body's in rigor!

At any rate, METRO continued to ignore us. So without any confirmed information, we have to go off of what the guests in the hotel have been telling us.

Later, METRO gets pissed that we reported inaccurate information (even though we classified everything as 'according to witnesses' and 'unconfirmed reports'.

I left after setting up Brandon's (our other midnight photog who works with a reporter) live shot. Brandon, as you can see, was being all serious all night, while the rest of us were being jovial. Brandon's weird like that. But I guess someone has to be the Felix to my Oscar.

Here's us being jovial. The guy who looks kind of concerned is Jason. He's the new photog at channel 13 (ABC). I don't think anyone let him know that he's allowed to play with us, as long as his boss isn't looking.





Peter!

Even while working, John has time to pimp his hoes! (Not Ashanti in the background, the hoes on the phone. Ashanti is a pimp in her own right!)

Welcome to Las Vegas, Jason!

People might ask, 'HOW CAN YOU ASSHOLES BE HAVING FUN AT A MURDER?!?!'

Well, maybe if METRO had told us it was a murder, we'd have been a little more low key?

Probably not, but it's fun to blame things on METRO. Besides, you have to do something to distract yourself from your freezing toes.

Two Alcoholics and a Blind Man

Two Alcoholics and a Blind Man

One of my Springfield friends, Nancy, has started a blog. She just started and already her writing is better than mine!

Really, Boss, I >>WAS<< Working!

As I told you yesterday I was out in Red Rock Canyon and came across some snow. But it was sofa king dark out there that all I got was what could have been dandruff floating past my lens.

So I returned upon daylights emergence. Wasn't snowing at all. In fact, while there were some clouds on the top of the mountains and it appeared to be snowing there, down here on Terra Firma there was nothing.

That's okay though because I got to use the trip to play tourist again. Here are some of the pictures I took! Red Rock is in the west, so the colors of the sunrise bouncing off the mountains is really cool.

It's Dark Out There...

Have you ever been on a road where you stop and say to yourself "This is the kind of place where people go to be murdered."? Of course you haven't. No one does. That was a dumb question.

I have though! I've blogged before about how the lack of lighting at crime scenes makes my job more difficult, but there is one place in town that puts that story to shame.

State Route 159. I've talked before about this road and how it seems to be a death trap for those who decide 192 MPH with no seat belt is a good idea. Saturday morning I was out looking for a crash. I missed the status of the victims so I had to go see for myself what the dillio was.

Long story short, I never found the crash. But even if I did, what the hell would I have shot? It's dark as all hell out there.

Basically, for those of you not familiar with it, what you have is a canyon, with mountains on both sides of this winding road. So there is no city light coming in. Add that to the fact that it was cloudy (and actually snowing out there - I drove through a blizzard even though it didn't seem any colder than maybe 38) so the moon was obscured.

I somehow managed to shoot the snow, as I know my station would have flogged me something good if I hadn't. It was wonderful video of snow flakes passing my lens in front of what looked like a black screen. Gain all the way up, iris all the way open and my light on and you STILL couldn't see more than 10 inches past the camera.

I was standing there thinking that I am either going to be attacked by a coyote or some weird truck driver with a hook for a hand. A fire truck passed me by as he was heading back to the fire house, but I don't think he was able to see me. Maybe just my Frezzi. They probably thought it was a UFO or a ghost and sped up.

I returned to SR 159 that morning to see if it was still snowing. It wasn't, but me, NBC and ABC all made a road trip out of it! Pictures coming soon!

ewink's FUNKDAFIED Mid-Winter Anime Recommendations!

Yes my pretties, it's that time of the year again. When I totally geek out and let you, my faithful readers (and of course the majority of you who are just here looking for porn) what anime (non-US released) that I recommend you watch! wOOt!

Magikano (マジカノ)

This one might take the cake as 'most hilarious', but I dunno. I've got quite a few that are pretty fuckin' funny.
Magikano revolves around Haruo Yoshikawa, a young high school student (aren't they always) sees a girl seemingly vanish in a gust of wind.
Soon he finds out that she is not the ghost he thought she was, but a new classmate, Mamiya Ayumi.

Mamiya is a witch, or some sort of magic using girl. So are Haruo's sisters, Maika, Chiaki and Fuyuno. However they don't let Haruo know this, and do everything they can to make it so that their brother can lead a normal life, rather than one that's magical; I suspose.

Here's where it gets a little weird(er)... Apparently many years ago, Mamiya was cursed for reasons that I forget. They only way to break the curse is to unlock Haruo's magical powers. To do that she needs to.... ahem.... 'make a man out of him'. Take that as you will.

Haruo's sisters do everything in their power to stop Mamiya from doing such an act to (or with... again, take as you will....) Haruo. This, of course, is complicated more by the fact that Mamiya now lives with Haruo and the others as their maid.

This show is beyond hilarious. I often browse around the anime forums trying to track down new anime to watch, and I have decided that anything some of the die hard anime fans say is bad, I will like. I don't know what is wrong with some people. In fact, some of these bakatakus (I just made that up! It means 'Stupid Otakus'!) were COMPLAINING that the show had some fan service in it. The fan service is NOT that blatant and I have seen worse (or better, depending again on your attitude towards nekkid chicks).

I laughed nearly non stop throughout the entire 24 minutes. And it wasn't just 'ha ha' laughing. It was 'nearly died' laughing. I was actually rolling around on the floor! Glad I did to, as I found something for dinner.

Magikano is availible for download from Anime Universe (the wonderful people who brought us Shuffle!). Get it while you can!

links

Official Website (Japanese) | Wiki | Download

Shakugan no SHANA (灼眼のシャナ)

I'm still trying to get a grip on this one myself, but so far, it's great.

Unlike most of the anime I watch, this one is not a comedy. In fact, Shana is quite dark. It's listed as a comedy on the Anime News Network, but I really haven't seen much to laugh about yet.

Here's the scoop from Shana's Wiki page:

An ordinary high school student, Yuuji Sakai, living an ordinary life, has a run in with the extraordinary, and meets a girl in the process. Her name is Shana, the flame-haired red-hot-eyed hunter. She is a Flame Haze whose task is to hunt down Crimson Denizens (Guze no Tomogara). After letting him know that he is an existence that shall soon be gone from this world, she protects Yuuji, who is actually a Mistes (a special "Torch"), from those who hunt him.

These Crimson Denizens are beings from the Crimson Realm and steal the energy that forms the basis of this world, Existence, from the people living in this world and utilize it for their own selfish ambitions. One of their hapless victims was Yuuji. Flame Hazes are the ones who seek the destruction of those Crimson Denizens. By the hand of the Flame Hazes, these erased persons are turned into Torches in order to repair the strain on reality resulting from the actions of the Denizens. Torches take on the forms of those erased persons, but before long, they will vanish from the memories of the living.

That explains the plot a lot better than I can.

Like I said, I haven't really gotten my hands all the way around this one yet. In fact I plan on grabbing a Corona and heading to the TV tonight to watch all the episodes I have.

But I have enjoyed it. There is action and suspense, and my favorite thing in the world, cute girls who kill things. Eclipse is subbing it. I saw that it was licensed, but I have yet to see it on shelves, so I will go ahead and post the link to the download. Enjoy!

links

Official Website (Japanese) | Wiki Page | Download

Karin (かりん)

Have I already declared a 'most hilarious' yet? Because if I have, I lied. Karin wins, hands down.

Karin is a very light hearted and hilarious anime about a family of vampires that live in Japan. There is the Mama and Papa, and the three kids, eldest boy, Ren Maaka, middle girl - and our star - Karin Maaka, and youngest (and seemingly the brightest) Anju Maaka. Most of them are typical vampires. Stay inside during the day, and go out at night and harvest peoples blood.

Karin isn't typical though. She's got an 'odd' constitution that causes her to create blood. So instead of biting people to suck their blood, she bites them to put blood in them! But if her blood becomes too full, and there is no one to bite, well then GOOSH!

Oh, also garlic doesn't bother her and she loves the light and can't see very well in the dark.

Her blood growth seems to be spurred by the unhappiness of one Usui Kenta. So Karin does everything within her power (well not everything, if you catch my drift) to make him happy. This includes, but is not limited to, making him a daily lunch! Well it seems to work for the most part.

Here comes some more hilarity! A real winner named - uh - Winner Sinclair comes into Karin's life as a transfer student. He's immediately drawn to her, head over heals in love! The only problem with this is that he is a vampire hunter. Of course he does everything he can to woo our boobtacular protagonist, and she does everything she can to get away from him.

Winner's afraid of blood too. Did I mention that? No? Well he is. He also doesn't know a thing about vampires, actually running into several of them through out his adventures with nary a clue.

Karin is subbed by a ton of groups, but I try and stick with the ones I know best, and the ones I know do a great job, so I recommend that you download from Anime Shrine! Enjoy this series!

links

Official Website (Japanese) | ANN Listing | Download

School Rumble (スクールランブル)

Have I declared a 'Most Hilarious' yet? Because if I had, please ignore it and come straight down to this one. I was turned on to School Rumble by someone who left me a comment on last summers 'FUNKDAFIED Summer Anime Recommendations. So after taking a decade to find and download some episodes, I was hooked.

From the opening on you cannot help but laugh non stop at this off the wall take on school life. It's a little like Azumanga Diaho, except this one sorta has a plot and isn't AS off the wall. But there is plenty of stuff to make you go hmmmm...

Here's the jist of it. I've made this nifty graphic to help you follow along with the love train...

The story follows Tenma Tsukamoto, a pretty young high school girl who is madly in love with Ohji Karasuma. Why, I'll never know. He's the oddest mother this side of the ocean. Well, I guess it would be THAT side of the ocean, but whatever. Anyway, Kenji Harima, the meanest, biggest delinquent in school is madly in love with Tenma and is willing to do WHATEVER he has to in order to be near her and eventually confess his love to her. Even if that means GOING TO SCHOOL!!!

Pretty much everything else that happens in the show revolves around Tenma trying to get with Ohji and Kenji trying to hook up with Tenma. There is some other stuff that goes on, but I really don't know how relevant it is. All I know is that this show is non stop laughs from beginning to end.

Reading the Wiki entry on this, it seems that as the show progresses they story seems to drift away from Tenma, Ohji and Kenji. Obviously I haven't made it that far yet, but if it's true I hope (for their sake, otherwise I will have to book a trip to Japan and start kicking some ass, yeah.) that the hilariousness continues. I can't imagine that it wouldn't, though.

School Rumble isn't licensed, as far as I know. But their distributor requests that fan subbing be ceased. I say 'FINE!' Just hurry the fuck up and get it over to this side of the ocean so I can buy it then! Until you do that, I will be happy to link to where you can download this great series. Wannabe Fansubs is doing a kick-ass job on subbing this series. God bless their little hearts.

Seriously though, hurry up. I want to buy it!

links

Official Site (Japanese) | Wiki Page | Download



Well, I hope that you've enjoyed my recommendations! I hope that you find this useful in picking some new anime to watch! If you have any recommendations for me that you think I might like, feel free to leave a comment! Of course if you have recommendations for anyone else, comment away as well!

Why I Love My Job...

There are a few reason why my job is cooler than most other jobs like McDonald's grill boy or elephant poop scooper at the Shrine Circus, but this one is my favorite reason.

My super producers needed me to pick up some video of the Luxor. Shooting fresh video is always easier than digging out recycled video, so I shot off down to the south end of the strip to pick up a quick 40 seconds of video.

When I got there, I saw there was no place I could park and get an unobstructed view!

So I just pulled onto the sidewalk!

See, if you try this, especially on Lad Vegas Blvd, you'll go to jail. Or at least get a ticket. But being in a big ass media truck has its advantages! At least two black and whites drove past me, not giving me a second thought!

Some tourists even walked by! They had to walk into the street to get around the T-TIC, but they didn't complain! Nope, they were like 'COOL! TV!'

So to all my media friends who are feeling burnt out, don't sweat it! Just go find someplace illegal to park and enjoy the 'eh whatever' you get from the police and the public alike!

disclaimer: otakuphotog is not responsible for any beatings received by either the police or the public for following our stupid advise.

As if I need to present proof...

I'm weird...

Mai Tokiha (AGT #4)

Welcome back, AGT! Even if it is Wednesday! Today's lovely animated lady is Mai Tokiha from the very popular series 舞-HiME (Mai-HiME). In case you don't know, here's the jist of the series from Absolute Anime:

Fuuka Academy... on the surface, a prestigious learning institution, but unknown to most of the student body, it is a place where several young girls who have the power to summon weapons called elements have been gathered. Girls who can see a bright red star in the sky. Girls known as HiME. Among these HiME, three in particular come to our attention... Mikoto Minagi, who came to Fuuka Academy in search of her older brother, Natsuki Kuga, who is aware of the true purpose of the HiME, and Mai Tokiha, who came with her younger brother Takumi, barely realizing that she herself is a HiME.

This series is VERY good, and will be availible here in the US in March. There is tons of action, some emmotion, a rockin' soundtrack, and most of all.... Mai!

I apoligize for the lack of pictures... Somehow they are very rare!

screen captures

wallpapers

other

John Farrell >>IS<< Satan!!!

I am John Farrell... If you are a hot girl I command you to take your pants off and go to Erin's house! If you are an ugly girl, go there anyway, but keep your pants on. For now... I HAVE SPOKEN!

Fire In The Hole!

There are some things in life that are just really freakin' cool.

One of those things is fire shooting out of the ground, almost thirty feet into the air.

The morning started out simple enough. The Bourbon Street Hotel and Casino just off the strip was set to be imploded at 2:30 AM. (Follow the link for video.) I had one of the greatest views from the 26th floor of Bally's, across the street. It was a neat experience because I was set to go live from up there. I was wondering if I was going to have to string 26 floors of cable, but no. I was issued our nifty little 'Stinger'. A portable microwave transmitter!

It's really fucking heavy, and now my arm hurts.

Anyway, as all this is going on, there is a report of a fire. That's nothing interesting as there is a lot of fires here. But it's a gas fire, so they pull one of our ground crews off the implosion and send them.

The implosion goes off without a hitch. I get some interviews, pack up, and head back down to the car. After returning my junk to the station, and editing a quick VO that I had shot earlier, I hope into my live truck to go trolling for news.

It's now about 5 AM, so I set the radio in the live truck to listen to the IFB feed, so I know what's going on. Ashanti, at the fire reports that it's STILL burning (this is 4+ hours later) and that flames are over 20 feet high!

"WTF?!" I ask myself. I decided that this was something I would HAVE to see in person, so I haul ass back towards Flamingo and Arville in the valley's southwest side (this is near the Palms and the Rio, FYI).

I could see the fire from about 6 blocks away at Desert Inn and Arville.

The pictures are a little over exposed, but it's a camera phone. I snapped one on my digital camera and it was freakin' useless.

But like I said, it was REALLY, REALLY, REALLY cool. It was kind of like the construction crew dug a little bit too far and broke into hell! And now Satan was all pissed off 'cause he's loosing precious fire!

No body got hurt as well! Traffic was a CF since they had to shut Flamingo down to fix the road (once they got the gas that was feeding the fire shut off).

What's funny is that I am always scolding people for standing around and gawking - I usually tell them I get paid to do it, what's their excuse - yet here I was standing next to the crew from NBC, doing everything I possibly can to not slip into full Beavis mode and start laughing and screaming 'FIRE FIRE! HEH HEH!'.

Too bad the last big hole I was on only had stinky sewer gas flowing out of it!

Back to Normal

I don't remember if it was John or Sol that I was talking with about this or not, but we (the Las Vegas overnight media) had come to notice that lately METRO had been really nice to us. They weren't shooing us away from scenes, they were setting up over exaggerated crime scenes to keep us from any decent view of the action - more or less they were just leaving us alone!

Well that's all over and done with. Things are finally back to normal - which gives me mixed emotions.

It's Sunday morning and I roll down to a 419 in a small Clark County island in the middle of Henderson. Normally, around here at least, when they find a body lying around it's usually a poor homeless guy who died. But this time the responding Henderson Police and Henderson Fire people reported it as 'suspicious'. (Yeah, the guy died from obvious gun shot wounds, but they can't just say that... They have to say 'suspicious'...)

I arrive and find a nice, big crime scene roped off. I park in a small desert area and get out of my car. A sergeant walks up to the two officers manning the perimeter.

"Uh, we need to get the media out of here. Rope it off at the street."

I really takes EVERYTHING I have inside of me not to just start screaming, especially when I hear:

"We're having the media STAGE over there." (Pointing across the street.)

I just want to slap the guy and say 'You can't tell me where I have to go. You can tell me where I CANNOT go, but you cannot tell me where I have to go!!'

But being as it was 6:30AM - getting close to the end of my shift - and I am really not that confrontational, especially when I really don't care that much anymore, I moved.

I was tempted to come back across with my camera and shoot, as there was room between the street and the second police line (or what we refer to as the MEDIA LINE) and Lake Mead Pkwy. But the fact that I am a lazy ass kicked in, so I just stayed in my truck.

Luckily I had a live truck, so I was able to use the mast cam to get some decent shots that weren't impeded by traffic, or the fact that the crime scene was downhill. I think it's pretty bunk that METRO thinks they can move us so far away that we HAVE to use the damned mast cam just to get some police car shots, but it was a nice sign.

Why nice?

It signifies a sense of returning to normal after the murder of Sgt. Prendes. All the media here in town did a WONDERFUL job of covering that story, from the time it happened to his funeral. I have to say I was VERY proud of us. I think METRO appreciated that, and decided to be nice to us.

But it's been almost two weeks now, and I guess they realized that being nice to the media just isn't as fun as being METRO.

I still love them. But just because you love someone doesn't mean you don't want to just smack the shit out of them every once in a while...

Happy Freakin' V-Day...

Ah, to be an ivory hunter right about now...

Boooooo! Booooo love!!!

What's Coming...

First, I'll get my nerdyness out of the way...

Coming in the next few days will be two missed weeks of Anime Girl Tuesday, featuring Mai Tokiha from Mai Hime (coming late March to the US, wOOt!) and probably Tenma Tsukamoto from School Rumble. I will also be doing a follow up to my highly unpopular FUNKDAFIED Summer Anime Review, called, well, my FUNKDAFIED Winter Anime Review!

You don't have to be origional on a Thursday.

Other than that, and a few work related catch up posts, I have nothing much else to promote. This blog kinda just happens.

Have a spiffy day.

Ta Da!

Yup. I fixed my 'puter! Indeed my guess that the issue was a FUBAR'd power supply was correct! A brand new, $65, pretty lights 500 watter is now running, happily pushing along electrons through the mother board.

Prepare yourselves, people, as I have been holding back for quite a while. I have two tuesdays of Anime Girl Tuesday I need to catch up on, I've got work related stuff I need to talk about, and I want to talk about other things as well!

MUHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!! THE END IS NEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My Condolences

Yesterday, around 1PM, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Sgt. Henry Prendes gave the ultimate sacrifice while upholding his oath to protect and serve the citizens of Las Vegas.

Sgt. Prendes was gunned down while responding to a domestic violence call. You can read about the event on KLAS TV's Website. Another officer was wounded, but will be okay. The suspect was killed.

I would personally like to express my condolences to the family of Sgt. Prendes, and every single LVMPD officer as well, as police officers are all part of a family as well.

I think a lot of people, myself included, take for granted the work that police officers do. No other occupation, excluding the military and firemen, purposly put themselves within harms way, and risk what happened to Sgt. Prendes on a daily basis. It's important to remember that they do this, and they do this for us. For the people who abuse them, who mock them, who treat them like crap.

I encourage everyone to take a moment to find the nearest police officer and tell them 'Thank you.' And for the police officers out there, please be careful.

Again, my condolences to Sgt. Prendes' family and the Las Vegas Metro Police Dept.

UPDATE 2/9/06: I wish I could have talked more about this when it was all going on. Tuesday was Sgt. Prendes' funeral. It was live on all the television stations and I am proud to say that I did watch most of it.

I wish I could have watched it all, but in my defense, I did work all night and dosed off a few times. But I did see all of it from the time they left the church through the ceremony at the cemetery.

This is really odd, what I am about to say...

I haven't cried (like really cry - tears, sounds, runny nose, ect...) since the day my best friend Rob passed away. But as I watched the graveside memorial, when Sheriff Bill Young handed the flag from Sgt. Prendes' casket to Dawn Prendes, his widow, I lost it. I bawled my eyes out.

It was amazing. The fact that I could have such emotion for a man I never met once in my life. Such compassion for a family I have never seen in person, and probably will never see.

Taps, Amazing Grace via bagpipes, and the flyover in the Missing Man formation (which every station managed to screw up, I might add) always makes me a little misty eyed, but this was more than that. My reaction was far more than the normal clenching in your heart that you get when you hear these or see these things...

I really felt like I had lost someone special to me.

Why though? Was it because he was a police officer? Was it because of all the coverage he has gotten - all the information we have learned about him changed him from a stranger to a friend?

Or was it just because he died protecting me? He did it without asking for anything in return. He did it out of duty - a duty he had to do what ever he could to keep me safe.

I hate to get on a soapbox again, but every single police officer on the streets has a duty to protect every single one of us, no matter how shitty we treat them. No matter how much we curse them because they caught us speeding. They don't know us, yet they are honor bound to protect us, sometimes at the cost of their own lives.

Henry, I hope you are resting well, knowing that I, and about 1.5 million other people thank you for all you've done to keep us safe.