BLAST From the Past! Standoff.

Yo!

I am in the process of cleaning, part of which involves taking my old tapes that I have sitting around and converting them to QT so I can store them on my computer.

Anyway, as I find stuff I like, I will post it as a BLAST from the Past!

My first one is by far my favorite story I have ever done. This was from back in Springfield. I was dispatched to a neighborhood on the southeast side where people had reported a man in army fatigues holding an M-16 (or MP5 or whatever it is the Army shoots people with).

Springfield police arrive and sure enough, they see the man standing in a doorway! Well to make along story short, they get the sheriff's office, and their long guns and start yelling at the guy. A different man comes out and is taken into custody. He explains that he is an Army recruiter and the man they saw was a cardboard cutout he put in his doorway to advertise!

Police and deputies move in and sure enough... It was a cardboard army dude.

I love it.

Here's the video.

Cardboard Man Standoff!

My Last Sunday...

Why the fuck does it take me 13 days to write up the second part of my story? Because I had another seizure. Are you happy, you jerks? ARE YOU?!?!?!

I actually did, but it wasn't a big deal. Had to go to the hospital, which cost me 200 smackers, but the EMSA paramedic was H-O-T! As for the reason? Well, some of us are not lazy nor stupid. Some of us are. I'm the latter. Ran out of meds, waited four days to get some more, guess where this is going...

Anyway, whatever. Let me see if I can remember any of that Sunday from several weeks ago, so I can tell you the story. I am sure it was interesting, otherwise I wouldn't have returned from my exile to tell it.

Ah yes... I see it clearly now. My reporter and I were tasked with doing our story from Saturday that didn't get done. Easy enough. Most of the day I wandered around the station, trying to make sure that if there was breaking news, I would not be the first photographer the Sunday producer found.

Eventually though I was trapped in the newsroom as it was time for me to edit the Okmulgee murder package. I put it together as slow as I possibly could, but unfortunately it was just some sots with some VO from a day old scene.

The story behind it was that a man was found dead in the trunk of a car behind his house. It was sad, and he had been there for a few days. Some of the people who lived nearby pointed out some of the blood that had leaked out of the trunk and dripped onto the concrete below. I was more upset by the darker spot in the grass that was covered by flies.

Twas my first (and hopefully my last) time I almost stepped into decomposed human being.

Anyway, I put the story together (sorry, like most stuff done on the weekend, it wasn't put online) and attempted to flee once again, but was cornered.

Producer: "There's been a stabbing at XX Apartments!"
Me: "So?"
Producer: "Get a live truck! You guys are going!"
Me: "Is someone dead?"
Producer: "Go find out!"
Me: "..."

Anyway, we load up in the live truck and head towards North Tulsa. Not the safest area of town, so a stabbing didn't suprise me. Plus, I could swear I remember the name of those apartments from somewhere... But where?

Then as we started to get close I knew.

"We did a story about this place." I said.
"Oh?" My reporter asked, not really caring.
"Yeah. This place sucks."

My reporter decided to call dispatch to find out if it was anything before we arrived. However the dispatcher who answered the phone said she couldn't help us as she wasn't at her computer.

She wearing a wireless headset? Where was she, the bathroom? And what if we had been someone needing the police?! Seemed like we should investigate it, but instead we continued to the apartment complex.

Arriving, I smiled happily. It was gated and there were two security guards out front. However, the security guards must not have been aware that they could keep us out of the complex because they opened up the gate and waved us through.

That NEVER happens when you want it to.

Anyway, we got there, got yelled at by residents, and couldn't find any police, so we quickly scrambled away and headed back to the station. The rest of the night passed by without incident, which was great because I don't think I could have handled another goose chase on my last night shooting.

I hope you have enjoyed this! Because when (if) I do any blogging about editing, it will all be very hostile. I think they put me in that position to see if I would off myself. *shudders*

My Last Saturday...

Sorry, I know it's late. I get distracted by shiny objects and have been dealing with some frustrations.

Anyway... My last Saturday, which was last Saturday... It was just my last Saturday shooting, I still work there, but in case you haven't been keeping up, I was demoted (sorta) to editor. Sidenote: I can't drive still, so the reporters have to drive and it apparently ticked one of them off, so I got sent to editor. However, I didn't receive a pay cut, which is why I say demoted (sorta).

Anyway, I get in and we're sent out the door almost immediately to Okmulgee, OK to cover a homicide that happened the day before. Nice 40 minute drive. Once we get there, we make a wrong turn, which was fine until we cross some train tracks that failed to warn us of a nasty drop on the other side. Doing the speed limit (30ish), it felt like a Dukes of Hazzard jump!

Stuff in the back got knocked around, but didn't seem to be a big deal. Till we got to the police department that was. My reporter went in to find the cop we needed to talk to while I decided to get some b-roll of police cars, since I wasn't expecting to have much at the scene.

I set the camera on the tripod and flip it on.

Nothing happens.

I groan and assume my battery is dead, so I take it off. About that time I look at it and groan. One of the clips has broken off and is still attached to the battery plate! D'oh! I pull that out and get a different battery. Flip the camera on.

Nothing happens. Again.

"WTF?" I ask. Yes, I said W-T-F because that is how much I used to instant message and chat.

I pull that battery off and notice that one of the power connectors has actually broken off from the battery.

"D'OH!!!!!!!" I cry out. Several Okmulgee police officers look at me and move their hands towards their tazers. I assure them I am harmless and tell my reporter the bad news.

"They are going to have to send someone with a different camera."

Let me tell you something about Saturdays. There is no one there. One producer, one editor, one reporter and two photographers. And I was unsure what time the second one was off.

Luckily he was still on the clock and grabbed the only unsecured camera and headed our way. We spent the next 40 minutes listening to the police make fun of us for having broken gear. Once we were done there we headed to the house where it happened. We managed to find some nice neighbors who were happy to go on camera and tell us how nice the victim was and stuff. Beats knocking on doors, I'll tell you that much. We returned back to the station at about 6:30 and got to work on getting the story put together for the 9.

But wait, there's more...

Weather started to roll in, a big chunk of it severe. And it was headed right for Pryor, OK, where Rocklahoma - a rock concert, duh - was going on. Thousands of people and many, many bands.

And the weather knocked over two stages.

Minor injuries, but it was BREAKING WEATHER so my partner and I loaded up in the Nomad and hit the road.

Pryor is outside of our microwave range, so we needed a sat truck. I am not trained on the big one (even though when I started I told them I ran the SNG trucks in Vegas, they still didn't bother to train me on this one) so we took the Nomad, which is what I lovingly refer to as a sat truck for dummies.

Seriously. All you have to do is point it south, turn it on and hit deploy. The satellite transmitter finds the bird on its own and the guy at the sat center turns it on, adjusts the power, all that stuff.

However because of its simple nature, it's prone to failure. Add in storms and well, I think you can see where this is going. Another 40 minute drive later, and after I had stood in a foot of water to shoot what was left of the stage, the fucking thing would not work. So my reporter did a phoner with the sheriff, while I - drenched from a new line of storms rolling through - broke down my live shot.

Final result, NEITHER story got on air. Well, the homicide did a little. They ran a VO/SOT. However, they planned on doing a package on it Sunday; community reaction! Perfect! An easy day for me! Or will it be? Find out in our next installment!

OVERDRAWN!!!

I hate being overdrawn. I even more hate having to deal with returned checks. I miss Washington Mutual, who would charge a bazillion dollars in overdraft fees, but would still pay the check.

Blaine was very, very nice and sent me some money. Of course when I go to deposit it, I find out QuikTrip managed to rocket a check I wrote on Tuesday through the banks and it had already bounced.

Bah!

Hopefully they will go ahead and send it through again, but not until Tuesday. Otherwise I have to deal and fight with people to keep my name off of the permabanned check writing list.

There is a bright side coming soon. First, I am going to get some Friday overtime for the next four weeks. While I will no longer be shooting, I still get to go out and work on 'On The Road', a remote thing FOX23 does during the summer. Pretty much 9A-10:30P work day. I could complain, but they feed us. So I won't.

This Saturday and Sunday will be my last to photog days for a while. So I need EVERYONE'S help in hoping for a couple of good stories! Seriously, I will cry if it ends up being just 'we need something to fill the newscast with, so here you go.'

So place your good wishes in my comments. That way I know that people are still reading this shit.

OtakuEditor?!

Yup.

Apparently the reporters are tired of driving. Not that I blame them in the least, because I know I am sure as hell sick of being a passenger.

So anyway, starting on Monday, I go from disgruntled photographer to melancholy editor. I say melancholy because I am not upset about this even slightly. I am not being given a reduction in pay and I think I will be still stuck with the same schedule, so there really isn't anything to get upset about. Plus, Holly our GM, says that during my downtime, I can possibly begin to learn to become a Web Producer, something Chad was trying to help me get into before Black Wednesday.

So I will have no stories to blog about! Whatever will I do? Well, I do hope to keep on blogging about something, even if it is just the weather. So we will see how that works out for me.

As well, once I am able to drive again, Holly says we can reevaluate things. I should get a note from my doctor in August or September.

I also am dealing with the fact that my weekend this week is Wednesday and Thursday! I am unsure how much I care for this, though I cannot complain about the fact that a side effect of it was that I only had a three day work week.

Today was a hell of a day to go out on, though. My story was VERY sad. It's about CJD, a disease I cannot spell. I didn't shoot hardly any of it, as it was mostly shot a few weeks ago. But I did have to sit there and watch it a half dozen times in the process of editing it.

A couple of the most disturbing parts of it was that one, CJD reminds me of Alzheimer's, which is a very sad disease to begin with. Secondly, we talk about the fact that you need to get an autopsy to determine which kind of CJD you had - the kind that just shows up or the kind you get from cows (a/k/a Mad Cow Disease). We reference a man who Janna profiled, talking about the fact his doctor hasn't recommended an autopsy. He's not dead yet... So, it was kind of odd.

Anyway, watch the story here. It's long. It was 2:43 if I remember correctly, which blew my mind. They usually cry if they have to give you a full 1:30!

Enjoy. I am not shooting on Friday, working with 'On The Road', so my last two shooting days for the foreseeable future are going to be Saturday and Sunday; and the weekend crew seems to fail at posting stuff on the web, so you might not get to see any of my work ever again!!!!!! Oh noes!!!!!! Naaa, it all sucks anyway.

TIA Troubles! Talking To Travelers!

Man, I hate Dayport. The system we use for video. Just wanted to state that off the top.

Nothing thrills me more than going to the airport! I love the airplanes, so I am happy to go there and do a story, even if it is just a 'busy' story. Plus, of all the places to get MOSes (Man On Street interviews), the airport is usually the most successful, since most of the people there aren't from here and don't mind being on TV.

Unless you run into the guy we ran into today.

Now I wasn't right next to Frank, my reporter, when he approached this dude, but Frank had the mic on so I could hear. Frank asked if he would be willing to give his opinion on the cost of airline tickets. The dude went on to explain how he doesn't do MOS interviews because he feels that they suck and that they set a poor industry standard and how they bring down journalism as a whole.

He's right, but still.

Both Frank and I agreed that this man must have been a former newsie, but the way he said it led us to believe that he had seen us earlier and had been rehearsing the statement for at least 15 minutes.

Undeterred, we did manage to find three other people who would talk to us. Of course we only used one, but that's normal. I sometimes wonder what it would be like if other jobs were like mine. Say an architect. You design an one billion square foot building that is 172 stories tall and when it's complete it's a two floor ranch house with two baths and four beds measuring a meager 2,000 square feet.

Of course, somehow, when I do not shoot my ass off, I get back and end up with a script calling for 5 specific shots that I did not get. Oy!

Anyway, here's the story. The live shot is boring (well, the whole damn story is boring) but I have slipped into a mode where I put the amount of effort into a live shot that it deserves. Live for the sake of being live? Lock down the tripod and go flirt with the Avis rent-a-car chick.

On a semi-related note, I am thrilled to have Frank. He's not even been here a month, but he is getting me scripts ON TIME and they are well written and don't tend to call for shots we both know I don't have. I am quickly developing a favorite...

Keeps on Raining...

Well, not literally. Figuratively. Although it did rain both Friday and yesterday.

That isn't important though. What is important is that I blog. But of course it's not going to be about anything wonderful, as I don't have anything wonderful to blog about.

I worked today. That's right, I have been moved to weekends. Not by choice, mind you, but whatever. I was upset about it, but weekends are kind of relaxing and laid back, so it's not really that bad. My new schedule is Friday through Tuesday. I don't know how long that is going to stay like that, but I assume it will be until my work improves.

Yes, I have been told that the quality of my work sucks (only in the diplomatic, boss way). I wanted to argue that maybe it wasn't my work, but the stories that sucked and that I cannot be expected to make a wedding cake out of a pile of cat litter, but I decided against it.

Partially because I believe it. Not in the stories that were pointed out to me, which I do believe were very well done*, but in general. With all the stuff that has been going on in both my professional and personal life, my 'give a damn' has dropped far below the required minimum.

It's something I am working on though, since I am not, and have never been, someone who would not do their best just because I have a shitty attitude.

Anyway, on an unrelated note, I finally manned up and asked my dad to loan me some money. Eight days till payday and I am already 16$ overdrawn. Not good. Especially considering I will run out of food, gas and anti-seizure medication before then. Fortunately he's come through for me once again. I just fear it's going to take me so long for me to get my act together, everyone will be dead before I can return the favors.

I've also began the first steps in getting my college and high school transcripts - a step to get me into TCC this fall. I think I am going to go ahead with the EMT/Paramedic stuff. I figure if I see anything in class that grosses me out to the point of where I am going to barf, I will be able to quickly switch to a less exciting, and less gruesome Network Administration major.

Now, he's hoping I can get my student loans current before then, so that I can borrow more money! If not, well, I guess I can just take a couple of classes here and there for about 17 years till I get my certification!

Maybe I can see the silver linings after all.

*For the record, that story was edited in the truck; most of it on the trip back from Lake Keystone. I do believe I got it into the server about 1-2 minutes before the show started. If I had more time, obviously I could have done a better job on it; but given the circumstances, I think I did a great job.

Miscellaneous Things...

Some of the pictures on my blog are no longer available. For some reason I cannot seem to find them on my hard drive, so they were lost when Douglas Avenue died. I apologize for this, since I know how much some of you loved my maps and stuff. As well, I still need to go through and change the URL for the ones I still have, which will take some time.

Does it even matter though? I sit here thinking to myself that I will start blogging again. I have lots of things to talk about, I think. There are a few interesting stories I have done at work, there are some interesting things going on at work - though if I talked about those I would probably end up on the receiving end of a caning or waterboarding or whatever they do to insubordinates - but none the less, I have no real desire to get up in the morning and go to work; much less blog about it.

I don't know if you noticed, but my last real blog post was back in February. There is a reason for that. In February, I had another seizure. I wasn't driving, as I still wasn't (and still am not) allowed to. I once again took a trip to St. John Hospital here in Tulsa staring at the roof of an EMSA ambulance. On the bright side, at least now I have insurance, so it isn't costing me $1,000.

Things haven't gotten back to normal for me. Work just keeps getting worse and worse. Two weeks ago, on a day that has received the moniker 'Black Wednesday', Newport, our new owners, chopped 7.5% of their workforce - which ended up canning 14 people from my station. I was saved probably by the fact that the photography department was short two people and they were just able to eliminate those positions. Though, I will be completely honest and say I am neither relieved nor happy to have been spared. The severance packages handed out were very good, even for short time employees, and it would have saved me the effort of having to get the motivation to quit.

How can I be upset that I wasn't laid off? Pretty much because I absolutely hate my job right now. The why can be chopped up into the fact that I detest being unable to drive, so I cannot ever have a VOSOT day or go shoot anything on my own. I cannot get any overtime, and my current debt level, which was not that cool to begin with, has been exasperated by the bills from my first seizure. Hell, I don't even have a cell phone right now because I cannot afford to pay the bill. I really don't like the stories that I have been doing, nor the live shots that serve no purpose (What we in the business refer to as 'dog lick live shots'. Called that because it follows the philosophy of 'why does a dog lick its self? Because it can.'). Also, the only reasons I came to Tulsa are gone. I can't drive, so I cannot weather chase. Chad was caught in the layoffs, which double sucks for me because he was going to help me get an internet position with the station - and those were eliminated!

So I have applied to go to Tulsa Community College. Hopefully I can get some education into me. I have considered a couple of options. I am entertaining the idea of becoming an EMT and eventually working my way up to paramedic. I was really affected by the way the EMSA people treated me when I had my seizures and wreck, and it would be nice to be able to help people like they did.

However, I would have to find out how squeamish I am first. I am not a big fan of watching people stick needles in me - and God knows I have had that done more than any man should have in the past 8 months - and I am curious to see how I would respond to having to stick them in someone else. Also, I am a rather sensitive person and while I have seen my fair share of dead bodies in this job, I don't know how I would respond to seeing someone die in front of me. For reference, the only person I have actually seen die is my Grandmother, but that doesn't seem like a fair instance to judge by.

It's also a very stressful job. My current job is stressing me out, but being a medic has the bonus of being rewarding. Could that counter the stress? Plus while I am an EMT before becoming a paramedic, I would be the driver. I cannot think of anything more fun than driving an ambulance, except for driving a fire truck.

But that is only one option. Another is getting a degree in Political Science, since I am interested in stuff like that. Of course then the question is 'where do I get a job?' I'd enjoy being a lawyer, but law school is too long and I will probably be dead before my dumbass could pass the bar exam.

Urban planning is interested to me as well, but of course then I would find the sad realization that it is nothing like SimCity. English/Journalism would also be cool, since I enjoy writing. But again, I don't want to work in news, so where would I work?

Finally, there is computer stuff. CISCO certification could get me a high paying job, but it really wouldn't be that interesting. However, I think I could do a good job at it, since I am pretty computer savvy.

Another option I have been mulling around is joining the military. Decent money and they would pay me to learn how to do something, rather than the other way around. However, I don't like the idea of being sent to Iraq (I oppose that war - wouldn't have an issue with being sent to Afghanistan) and I would have to scurry my ass off to, well, get my ass off. I am pretty sure they don't allow big fatsos into the military. And being 31, I am dangerously close to the cutoff ages for most of the branches.

Of course what I would love to do is to open up an anime store. Selling DVDs, books and toys and the like. But that would, as all start-up businesses do, take money I don't have and, in my current financial state, don't have access to.

So, here I be, wondering what I should do. For now, I suppose I should just grin and bear it. I cannot find a placeholder job that will pay me what I am making now. I would, of course, pick the middle of a slumping economy to grow disgruntled with my career.

I would like to make that clear. I don't really hate my job. I don't hate my employer. I don't hate my co-workers. I don't hate Tulsa. I hate my career. I and my reporter spent the day today circling like the vultures we were outside of a funeral waiting to ambush mourners to get their unneeded opinions on the arrest of the deceased's husband. If looks could kill, both of us would have been dead before we had the truck in park.

That is what television journalism has become. Random sound bytes with random people for random reasons. It drives me nuts. There is really one thing that I miss about working for WICS in Springfield. We told stories. There wasn't enough death and mayhem to turn a chicken little the sky is falling story on a daily basis, so we actually did stories about interesting people and things that affected people in the community.

Shame I only made $8 an hour.

I think I have rambled on long enough for one post. This is another reason I need to blog more often. If I do it more than once every four months, I won't feel the need to blubber on for 18 paragraphs.

Couple of things before I go. First off, congrats to the SCOTUS for their recent decision confirming that the second amendment protects an individual's right to bear arms. I find it ludicrous that people could think that our founding fathers placed, in the middle of a document securing individual rights, an amendment that applied to the government.

Secondly, if you have a chance, pick up Neil Bortz's book 'Somebody's Gotta Say It'. Good reading, especially if you have any libertarian leanings.

See you in the next post, hopefully sometime before fall.

IT SNOWED!!!1!1!ONE!!!!!

In January. Imagine that.

Did some BREAKING WEATHER cut-ins this afternoon, shot a package that I noticed has an asston of jump cuts (way to start the book, Erin - I blame the fact that I was tired and still have mutagenic fluid in my brain from my MRI yesterday). Then as we're trying to leave our live shot, the fucking mast freezes. 35 minutes later I managed to get it down, thanks to our engineer Rich's helpful suggestions.

But I cannot complain. It wasn't a hard day, wasn't THAT cold, and the best part, my camera, which has been in the shop for audio issues since Jesus' 3rd birthday, was returned to me! That's awesome, because I hate the crappy old camera I was using as a replacement.

So you take the good, you take the bad, you take them both and then you have another freakin' Thursday. Another freakin' Thursday.

Oh, if anyone is interested, my MRI was uneventful - if you want to know why I had it Wednesday instead of last Friday like I previously mentioned, just ask - and Monday I have my follow-up. I am going with the goal of getting my doctor to determine that what happened to me on 12/7 wasn't a seizure as was originally diagnosed, but as a blackout caused by dangerously high blood-pressure.

I kid you not, the blood pressure medication I have been put on has made one hell of a difference. I no longer get the mind-wrenchingly painful headaches I had before and in general, I just feel a whole lot better.

As for why I want it declared a blackout - a seizure diagnosis makes it illegal for me to operate a motor vehicle in Oklahoma for six months. I do not believe there is any such law regarding a blackout, especially one that is unlikely to occur again since what I believe caused it is under control. Therefor, I could - assuming the insurance company allows it - be given my driving privileges back!

Being a passenger is okay for a while, but I really enjoy driving. As well, I cannot be sent on any breaking news, I cannot have a VOSOT day (where I pick up several small stories by myself and do not shoot a package), and I am kicked from the on-call rotation which means I do not have a week once every few weeks where I do not have to pay for gas (not that I am illegally operating my personal vehicle and needing gas now..........).

Anyway, my rant about SNOW has gone on for far too long.

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.

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.

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

I ♥ TPD

You know I was discussing the difference between the Las Vegas police and the Tulsa police to John Farrell the other day and I told him a story of how I arrived to a homicide about 7 minutes after it happened and missed the soundbite.

?!?

It's funny how two police departments can be so different. Having been in Vegas, I thought soundbites took 7 hours to get.

And take a look at how far TPD keeps up back from a scene...



This was a homicide. See, you can be nice to the media (or in the case of most TPD officers, just ignore us which makes us very happy) and still get your police work done! I have a game I play at every crime scene. I look around and try and determine where METRO would have put us.

Hell, Friday I was on a fatal where a dude was running from the police when he crashed into someone and killed them (they died yesterday, I guess, but still...). METRO would have had us so far back that we would have barely been able to see anything, at least until Tracy and the Fatal team showed up. TPD had the area of the crashed roped off and allowed us to park and go right up to the edge of the tape.

Amazing...

The Week In Review

Monday:
There was a homicide this weekend in Tulsa. So what better way to celebrate than by doing an unrelated neighborhood crime story! Sorry, the cynic in me made me say that, but in reality we profiled the most effective neighborhood watch in Tulsa. FOX23's Abbie Alford brings us the story! Some of you might know her, as she used to be with 49 in Springfield and 17 in Decatur!

As an aside, things went haywire and I ended up editing someone else's story and they edited mine and did the live shot. But he managed to get in a couple of the cool shots I shot!

LINK TO VIDEO!

Tuesday
Drugs in the schools! OH NOES! Actually, these drugs are a problem as they are the misuse of prescription pills but punk ass kids wanting to get high or get down or whatever. Dumb kids. Why can't they just be like we used to be and sniff magic markers or lick frogs?

Anyway, Noelle and I take a look into the world of illegal prescription drug usage by talking to a former addict. There's a group home for women here called 'Love For Life' which helps they get off of the junk through womanly love (not that kind) and the power of God (yes, I will admit God can be used for good on occasion). It's a great organization and they are really good about talking to us when we need someone to profile.

LINK TO VIDEO.

Wednesday
HOLY SHIT! WATER BAN!

Water pipe broke, so the city of Broken Arrow (no relation to the John Travolta movie which is actually pretty good...) needs to fill the reserves so that they can fix the pipe. So they ban outdoor water usage! And they mean business. $500 fine if you violate the ban. Oofda!

Anyway, I was having a miserable day this day as my camera was broken and I was doing all I can to even slightly give a damn.

LINK TO VIDEO.

Thursday
My Friday! Yay! I always seem to get annoying stories on Friday's. Annoying for no other reason than it's mostly file and other people's video and the whole story was a real stretch.

As a warning, if you are looking to move from a large market to a smaller market, or are about to hire someone who is doing that... Don't. Nothing you do will seem newsworthy.

We do so many stories that I would have just laughed about in Vegas. Oy!

LINK TO VIDEO!

Economic IMPACT!

What's better than doing a baseball story? Listening to all the baseball references the producers write into the intro and teases!

Neat story, the American Legion World Series (Semi-Pro baseball maybe? I thought it was little league until a guy who was like 23 years old interviewed with us.) is in Bartlesville, OK - a nice little town about 45 minutes north of Tulsa. We're doing the story of economic impact on the town! Yay!

Anyway, LINK TO VIDEO!

POWERBALL Mania!

300 million dollars. Time to buy the Powerball tickets. If I win I will give everyone who reads my blog $1,000. But I think it's only fair that if I lose, you have to give me $1,000... Yeah?

LINK TO VIDEO

UPDATE!

I didn't win. I will have a paypal account set up to collect your payments soon.

Construction Zone Enforcement!

81st and Mingo. Knocked down to 1 lane each direction with no turn lanes. I go through it often and find myself screaming and yelling at people who are trying to make prohibited left turns, since it keeps any of the forward moving traffic from moving.

So when Noelle told me that we were going to do the story on how TPD was enforcing this, I was thrilled!

The story turned out about speeding and I didn't get anyone on camera being a jackass and making a left turn, but I think it came out pretty well. Glad I didn't have to do a ride a long, considering these were motorcycle officers!

LINK TO VIDEO

Where Did I Screw Up?

How do I end up doing the same old mediocre crap like stolen air conditioners and shoplifting sprees, and people like Angie get to go into an airplane with Buzz 'Mother Fuckin'*' Aldrin and float around?

How the hell do you get out of GA and in to KA?

*Not to be confused with Mother Fucking John Glen. If you don't get this by now, time to log off!

6 Day Work Week...

This has been an ass of a week. Scripts coming in late, being shoved out the door the second I walk in, grumpy assignment editors and so much PGA that I want to find the nearest golfer and jam a sand wedge up his ass.

Seriously, if you're golfing and see me coming, run fast.

• SUNDAY: Dealing With PGA's Traffic


• MONDAY: PGA Parking Security


• TUESDAY: PGA Traffic in Neighborhoods*


• WEDNESDAY: People Stealing AC Units**


• THURSDAY: MASSIVE FUCKING POWER OUTAGE!!!!!***


• FRIDAY: Tulsa Co. Health Department Working on Stopping West Nile!****

*Couldn't get our live shot out. Damn trees and hills and tall buildings!
**97% file video. I don't even want to go into what kind of cluster fuck this story was...
***Poor Noelle. She worked 10 and a half hours without any break. She was a real trooper this day.
****More file video! This story started out easy, became a cluster fuck, then somehow fixed its self, recluster fucked when the laptop in the truck went FUBAR, then became good again when we were able to send back raw and one of the editors filled the holes in my mostly completed package (we needed video of spraying, which they don't do till 7, except for this day when they told us to be there at 7 but actually left at 6:30...)

Panhandlers Beware!!

TPD, right before the PGA of course, decides to round up homeless people. Panhandlers to be exact. TPD says if they find homeless who are not panhandling, not drunk and not doing anything else even partially illegal, they will be left alone.

I've seen these stories done in Vegas. They almost always end in the ACLU or some other homeless advocacy group (who IMHO usually do nothing but ensure the people stay homeless) going ape poopy.

So after interviewing TPD, we skirted across town to talk to a homeless shelter director, both Noelle and I expected to hear him blast TPD and call for the hanging of the chief of police.

Imagine our surprise when he not only approved of what TPD was up to, but applauded it. He went so much further as well. Watch the story, it's interesting.

One of the things he told us is that a majority of the panhandlers are not 'homeless', and if they are, they are homeless by choice. He is probably right, as he would understand homeless people better than us, being as he's dedicated the last 20 years of his life helping them.

When we went around with TPD we found one dude who was wasted off his ass. TPD asked him where he lived and he was 'no where.' He was indeed homeless. So could both TPD and the pastor we talked to be right? The homeless man claimed he could make between 20 and 60 dollars a day panhandling. When asked what he spent it on, he said 'beer, cigarettes and food.' 'In that order?' He was asked. He nodded.

The pastor explained that the majority of homeless people are homeless by circumstance and that they want to correct the situation. He talked of those people having their reputations sullied by the panhandlers.

It was not something that could be fully tackled in a single story, but we did our best. For the record, you might get motion sick from the live shot. As well, because I had to hurry back out to get the roundup, I some how managed to edit the package, from track to it hitting the server, in about 26 minutes. Not a feat to be cheered normally, but our editors are ass, and most the time I think tape to tape would be easier to use.

LINK TO VIDEO!

Sales Tax Holiday!

I almost gave myself heat stroke doing this story! Ish!

Wal*Mart also censored us, but their store, their rules, I guess.

LINK TO VIDEO!

Cops Prepare for PGA!

TPD prepares for the PGA championship coming to town! Random neighbor in 3... 2... 1...


LINK TO VIDEO

PGA Illegal Vendors

Vendors not paying there taxes and selling illegal PGA gear and ice cream! TPD is on it!


LINK TO VIDEO

DFest Bike Cops.

Bah. This story is another that could have been better than it was. Oh well.

LINK TO VIDEO!

Deadbeat Parents Beat Dead!

Not really.

Story with the Tulsa County Sheriff's Office about the round up of parents who wouldn't pay child support. To bad we only got one arrest on camera. And that was just because we were at the Sheriff's office waiting on them!

LINK TO VIDEO!

Bobcats On The Loose!!!

Another story with no video! Yay! Interesting story. The best part is the sound bite with the animal control guy. He's great and cracked me up!

LINK TO VIDEO!

Stories!

Okay fuckers (and I mean that with as much love as I can put out after a day of only three hours of sleep). Here's some of those stories you have been waiting for! Unfortunately I cannot embed video from the crappy player FOX23 uses, so there will only be links.

* * * * *

Brookside Enforcement

Airdate: Saturday, July 14, 2007

I shot this and left it for the weekend people. There is a funny story that goes along with it, which I may or may not tell at a later date. For what it's worth, I didn't shoot the interview. Just the nighttime video (and cop video).

LINK TO VIDEO!

* * * * *

Copper Theives Stike Church

Airdate: Thursday, July 19, 2007

Not spectacular, there wasn't really a ton of video to work with. Fortunately we had some good timing and arrived while the AC people were fixing the AC that was damaged due to copper theft (again!).

LINK TO VIDEO!

* * * * *

OHP Needs More Troopers!!!

Airdate: Friday, July 20, 2007

This story made me cry as right after we started on our ride-a-long, we got sent to do a bank robbery. So we only managed to do the interview with the Captain, the interview in the car (which you might notice my rain gear partially covering my lens (oops - figures Kathy would pick that bite to use) and get the single motorist assist. That ended up being ass to, because after I got video of him walking to the guy, I managed to squeeze my fatass and camera out of the cruiser (Crown Vic + Fat Guy + Big DVCPro camera = stuck) he was already on his way back to the car.

That's when we had to haul ass back to the OHP HQ to get my Explorer, so I didn't get anymore cut aways or stops or anything. Then to top it off, the bank robbery became a VOSOT, so we had to finish the package! Of course I had no video but Kathy said it didn't look bad.

As an added bonus, when watching the anchor intro and tag, look for the big yellow blob walking around in the newsroom. That's me!

LINK TO VIDEO!

* * * * *

Pizza Boy (and Girl) Robberies!!!

Airdate: Monday, July 23, 2007

I love working with Noelle because I always get to do crime stories which have NO video! That's not a stab at her at all. It's just interesting how I manage to some how find enough video to cover the entire 60 seconds. To Noelle's credit, she writes them really short, so it's not as difficult as say a 2:30 story with no video...

Anyway, pizza robberies complete with in your face doglick! You know I remember back when I was at WICS I used to complain that we didn't do enough live shots. The old adage is true... be careful what you wish for...

LINK TO VIDEO!

Critique away!

Something to Try...

I am going to be including some links to some of my stories. Check back soon!

D'oh!

So I get into boxing things and sweeping and this and that and before I know it, it's 12AM and I have missed my last planned shindig in Las Vegas, the b-roll.net NAB party.

Oh, the humanity! Free beer, prizes and a chance to say 'wazzup' to the b-rollers. Oh well.

On a somewhat related note... On Saturday we all arrived at Hooters to find it closed down. Forever. A quality statement describing my life in Vegas!

Priceless...

Cop seeing you pull up to an accident and not saying anything... Free
Sitting in the spot for 5 minutes without the police saying anything... Free
Getting out of the car and getting camera out, now to only have the police man demand you move back behind his car... Free
Getting into a shouting match with said cop... Free
Finally not really caring and moving to where the cop told me to... -1 cool point
Heckling the cop and yelling at him, demanding he moves the lookie-loos... +1 cool point
Cop finally getting annoyed with me, and goes up to his supervisor who orders him to allow me to move back where I was... Free
Taunting the cop until he actually said 'Yes, back where you were in the beginning.'... Free
Having another cop call that cop an asshole... Priceless.

Sometimes the payoff can outweigh you pussying out and complying with an illegal order from the police. For the record, I was going to move back to where I was once that cop left anyway, but this was much funnier. And no, I didn't roll on it because I am not going to roll on me disobeying my own advice not to get mouthy with the police. The funniest part I think was when he first started yelling at me, I yelled back "WHAT? I CAN'T HEAR YOU!" and continued about getting my gear out.

Who says police oppression can't be fun?

Strange...

This last week I've had a lot on my mind, and I finally came to a realization. This photo thing... This is my career, whether I like it or not.

Don't get me wrong, I like it. But it's weird to tell yourself 'You know all that other stuff you've been thinking about doing? Yeah, not going to happen.'

I'm a month and a half from 29+1. There's no changing directions now.

I guess now I am going to start having to take my job seriously and... become good at it...

Yikes.