Reasons Why Leaving Las Vegas Was Probably Good...

Reason #662

I either would have missed, or worse yet, been woken up to cover the Monte Carlo fire. Although, I am upset that I apparently missed KLAS anchor Gary Waddel socking it to FOX5 Anchor Monica Jackson. I liked watching Gary. He reminds me a lot of Tom Brokaw, at least in the level of 'trustworthiness.' I do question the necessity of breaking into programming for three hours though covering the fire.

But I'm just a photographer. Hell, I can't even start a sentence without using the word but. What do I know?

Beginning the Tests...

No... I'm not STILL up. I actually, somehow, got myself to sleep last night around midnight (best I could do) and now I am up and headed to St. John to begin my first of two days of testing. Today's test... EEG! Worst part, the sticky crap in my hair from the little electrodes! That and having to get up at 6AM.

Drug Interdiction

I think this story was really well done. I enjoy shooting traffic and police cars. Plus it was VERY sunny today, so I was able to shoot on filter 2 with 1/2000 shutter which adds a lot of depth of field. Plus there were some nats as well!

Probably the best story I am going to shoot in the next 3 months, so say hello to my NPPA entry.

Video Here.

On a related note, those black Supulpa police cars are bad-freakin'-ass.

Story Links!

Tuesday! Drug Task Force losing $$!

VIDEO!

Monday! Homeless Sex Offenders that LIE!!!

VIDEO!

File Video With Attitude!

Did a pretty interested story today. Twas (kind of) about a big bust last night where dudes were trying to buy a couple thousand dollars worth of Best Buy gift cards with cloned credit cards.

Of course, we missed it (because why would you cover it. I think I heard it go out and it went out as a larceny. Shoplifting isn't news), though Channel 6 got it - we won't speculate on why they went or who tipped them off to the fact this was no regular shoplifting.

Anyway, getting off topic here. Since most of our crime stories have very little to do with the actual crime that occurred (personalization, you know) we went out and talked to a detective and some random dude who had been the victim of identity theft. But I had NOTHING for b-roll. Of course Jim came through for me and gave me video he shot for a sweeps story! Tons of credit card stuff.

So I filled my package with it. However, just plain Jane video is lame. So I slowed some of it down, dropped the color and smashed the brightness. All it needed was an evil music cue and I would have had one badass file package. See for yourself!

Yay?

PSO Rate Hike!

OMG!!!!!!!!

Here's the story...

Funny thing is, station did a poll. Do you think that the PSO (our power company) should raise their rates in order to pay for the cost of recovering from the ice story.

92% of people said 'NO'. WTF? Why exactly should the power company be forced to simply eat the costs? God forbid your power bill go up $5 a month.

Monday and the Beck & Call of ORU...

Some one must have heard me complaining about last week, because to start off our week this week, we did three stories. Of course, one was totally shot before we were moved! Figures. The second, a dude commits suicide by hanging himself. Not going to comment on the fact he did it in a public place, got in trouble for that before. Didn't end up shooting it, thankfully (if you ever want my opinion on suicides and the news worthyness of them, just ask).

Then the next call came. Scurry to ORU - which is Oral Roberts University - they have an announcement to make!

It would take me the better part of the day to explain what's going on at ORU. I suggest you Google it. But the jist is that they have been having some issues with money and corruption and lawsuits.

Anyway, it's 430... We're live at the 5. Been there, done that, but the really interesting fact is how amazed I am at the fact that a place that's been quite frosty to the media regarding the stuff that has been happening, needs only snap their fingers and they can get 4 live trucks and at my best count, 6 other crews there in the period of a half hour.

METRO, in Vegas was good at that too. "Media? Screw you people!" Then, they want to tell everyone how they dropped the rate of car burglaries by 0.03%. "Media! Assemble here now!" And of course the media is like 'Yes Masa! We be right there, masa!' It's like one of those abusive relationships where the woman refuses to press charges on some asshole because she knows, deep down, he loves her.

Like most things, being at people's beck and call seems to encourage bad behavior. Its unlikely to be a factor at ORU now, as they were friendlier to us then I can ever remember them being. But still, my point remains.

I've always wondered what would happen if one day, some one snapped their fingers, and no one responded.

Writer's Strike

Real quick...

While I really hate the writer's strike because it's left us with reruns and more fucking reality shows (and worst of all, has pretty much sealed the non-existance of 24 this season), I must stand in support of my writer brothers and sisters.

While I am not a member of the WGA, since you actually have to get paid for writing in order to become a 'professional' writer. Stupid rule, in my opinion. I should try to get in though. I have helped reporters on more than one occassion write a tease, intro, etc...

Anyway, my point is all the writers want is to be paid for their work, regardless of how its distributed. You wouldn't tell Steven Spielberg 'Hey, you did a great job directing, but we're only going to give you a cut of the box office revenue, and the DVD revenue, but all the money we make from selling your work online, we're going to keep for ourselves.' Of course you wouldn't! The writers simply want a cut of the 'new media' money (in this case, an example would be online distribution) and from what I can tell, the studios are telling them to fuck off.

Anyway. Just sayin', in case you were wondering about that graphic on the left. (If its gone, that means the strike is over.)

7 Stories, 4 Days, Nothing Accomplished

One of the more interested aspects of my day is the fact that regardless of what the board says when I get into the station, my story at the end of the day can be completely different. I am certainly not opposed to that. The different kind of weird shit we get to see close up is one of the main reasons I actually still have this job. And to be honest, most of the stories the reporters get assigned or come up with are what I call 'newspaper stories.' Not bad stories, for a newspaper, but when you have to visualize them....

When it becomes frustrating is when you put a lot of effort into your board story, and THEN get moved.

Happened a couple times this week. Monday, Justin and I had shot our entire package, and were then moved, but I don't remember to what. Wednesday, Mia and I had shot maybe 1/3rd of a package, went somewhere to get an interview and found a more interesting story about a meth lab and a funding cut. Friday, shot a big chunk of a story about a crappy neighborhood the city wanted to decrapulize, but were sent to a gas leak. That was actually mostly shot, so all I really had to do was edit and shoot the interviews.

At any rate, it really didn't seem like much was accomplished this week. Nothing I could put on a resume tape, not that I have anywhere to go, and no stories that seemed like they would end up changing the world. The gas leak was kind of interesting - although Abbie and I arrived after it had been sealed. It did give me a chance to tell people about the last gas line break I got to go on.

Here's hoping for something better next week. To be honest though, I'm not in any real hurry for Monday to get here.

Calling In Sick...

I hate doing it. I really do. Unless of course its for a good reason, like there is a party to go to or some girl is wanting to sex me up. But since neither of those things happen, calling in sick sucks.

Woke up this morning, kind of early (10am, but that's early for me). Drug myself out of bed and was messing around on the computer. Suddenly, I just got super light headed. I pretty much fell over when I tried to walk to the bed, because my legs felt so heavy. Very strange sensation. Went back to sleep for a bit, got up and still felt like shit, so I some how drug myself to the phone and called in - ever since 7 Dec, anytime I feel a little weird I get freaked out about driving.

So I then went back to bed, and woke up about 4, not remembering if I'd called in or not! Cell phone didn't have 152 missed calls, and my email showed the newsroom wide email about me not coming in, so that was a sigh of relief.

Went back to bed for a bit, got back up at 7 and now I feel fine. Legs still feel a little heavy for some reason, but whatever.

I considered going in for the last 3 hours of my shift, but I really didn't think there would be much for me to do, so here I am still. Nothing much for me to do here either. At anyrate, hopefully tomorrow will be thrilling enough to make up for today.

On a semi-related note, still waiting for my insurance card to arrive (stupid Clear Channel/Newport sales failure) so I can get in and get my brain tested. I am sure they will find a chipmunk sized tumor there. What a pain in the ass that'd be.

So Where'd I Go?

Lean back and relax. This is going to take some time to tell.

So my last blog post was in September, and it was totally unrelated to television news photography. It was what really seemed like my last ditch attempt to save my blog with something, even if my something was nothing interesting.

Essentially, I have developed a real apathy for my job. Not necessarily FOX23, as they are good people, but for news shooting in general. I came to Tulsa mainly for two reasons. One, so I could be a lot closer to my family. Of course this turns out to be moot because I am still to far to drive up there unless I can get some time off and take - at a minimum - a three day weekend. That never happens, so I don't really see them much more often then I did when I lived in Vegas. Top that off with the fact that Allegant now offers direct flights from Springfield to Vegas and back (which, like anything having to do with Springfield and Capitol Airport, won't last long) I was pretty bummed.

Secondly, doing nothing but VOSOTs on the overnights, I had no real chance to do any story telling. So I came here with the expectation that going back to general assignment stuff, I'd get to flex my creative muscles again. I was wrong. That may sound like a negative slam against 23, but its really not. You have a hard news station that is in a market with very little hard news. It makes for some pretty boring stories. It works for them, as FOX's ratings are going up, but it wasn't anything near what I had expected or hoped for.

So anyway, the apathy and... I won't go as far to call it depression, but it was a really melancholy outlook on everything... It really nixed my desire to do anything, especially things that were related to work. I was essentially going to work, doing my job to the best of my ability, and going back home. I started playing EVE again on a regular basis, where at least I could make people feel somewhat as miserable as me by blowing up their internet spaceships.

November went by, in which nothing of note happened. I dislike having to create stories at work, so why would I want to do it here? Thanksgiving came by... I had the holiday off (but ended up working Thanksgiving Day anyway due to a coworkers injury) and spent it at home trying to figure shit out. Couldn't come up with anything!

End of November I went home to Springfield. Spent time with my family, drove around and cried about how Springfield sucks, and came back. The worst part of the whole thing was that I avoided several of my friends, and even didn't tell them I was coming back. Why? Not because I didn't like them, but because I simply wanted to spend the time with my family and not have to deal with drama that usually ends up bombarding me every time I go to that God forsaken city. I honestly feel like a complete asshole for doing it, but I have found trying to please everyone usually ends up a total failure.

Once I got back, December 7th happened.

The truck doesn't look that bad (more pictures here), which I think is a plus for the Ford Explorer that outweighs the issue with gas mileage, but this crash made December 7 the second scariest day of my life.

I was having a good day. It was Friday, and I was on VOSOTs. I'd shot a couple and now I was taking my dinner break. After eating in the parking lot of the QT on 31st and Sheridan, I chatted with a cop for a bit, then began to head back towards the station. As I reached the edge of the parking lot, getting ready to pull out onto Sheridan, I felt a strange sensation come over me. The next thing I know, I have 3 firefighters trying to get me out of the Explorer. I was totally out of it, but I was conscious. The firefighters noticed this and were telling me to come out of the car. I tried to open the door but couldn't. They informed me I was going to have to come out the passenger side. I did the best I could to comply in my state, but was pretty much just dragged out by the fire department.

As I started to come to my senses, I began asking what happened. According to the paramedics and police, I apparently had a seizure, caused the Explorer to cross 5 lanes of Sheridan (which at about 6:30 PM is very busy, so the fact I hit no one on Sheridan is amazing), flew through the Drug Warehouse parking lot, plowed through three cars and came to a stop when I or a car I hit collided with the building.

One other person sustained minor injuries - sore shoulder and some glass in his eye.

I was taken by ambulance to the hospital and released a bit later. I would like to take this moment to express my gratitude to Holly, our General Manager, Melanie, our News Director, and Chad, our assistant News Director for all coming to the hospital to check on me. And of course my Chief, John, for taking me to get my meds, to get food and driving me home.

The rest of the newsroom also showed great concern for me, and I appreciate that. I've only been there for 8 months at this time, but they treated me like I'd been there forever. Thank you guys.

I could talk about this for hours. The idea that I could just blank out and not have any recollection of colliding into a building scares the crap out of me. I still have to undergo more tests to find out if I have some sort of seizure disorder or if this was just an isolated thing that may have resulted from my blood pressure.

The Sunday (or Monday, I forget) after this happened, the ice storm came. I lost power and didn't have any for 4 days. I spent two nights sleeping in John's office at work and ended up only taking 2 days off to recover from the crash. Nothing in December managed to rekindle my desire to blog, or really to converse or interact with anyone else in the world.

So now it's January. What's changed? Nothing really, except for the fact I sit around and think to myself 'Exactly how long can I sit around here feeling sorry for myself?' I realize that I shouldn't do that, nor do I need to. I was bitching about not being able to do anything creative, but I have something creative right here.

I really enjoy writing. If I could figure out someway to do it for a living, that would be grand. But for now, I can do it here. Commenting on things in the world and what it's like being a news photographer, for as long as this is going to last. (I tell myself that this is going to be my last TV news job, but I also said that about KLAS.)

I have other things to work on as well. I have my fanfiction, which I haven't worked on since 2006 I think, I have other stuff I have been writing, some for Eve, some just original stuff I have come up with. There is plenty I can do. I also realize I do something creative every day. I try and make otherwise mundane, non visual stories as interesting (visually) as possible.

Anyway, to summarize, I am going to do more blogging. Daily. Even if it is just a link to the story I did that day, I am going to blog. Of course after three months of inactivity, no one will be reading, but whatever. Hopefully someone will notice and word will spread that ewink is back.

Happy New Year.

Erin

New Years Resolution!

I am going to blog every day, even if it is just a link to the story I did that day!

Of course the story I did today isn't on the internet, which is fine because it sucked. Here are some from the previous days!

Edit: Apparently Dayport, the system FOX23 uses to put video on the internet doesn't like having more than one video embedded on the same page, so I am just linking the sad one. I will make a point of linking to the rest of them.

This story makes me sad... I actually almost turned into a blubbering baby having watched it over a dozen times in the process of editing it... Not everyone had a Merry Christmas.

Christmas Without Power