A Delayed Stroll...

So I was planning on taking you folks on a stroll down memory lane today, but somehow, despite being the worlds most obsessive pack-rat, I cannot find my cassette Walkman.

Yes, I do need it, since the audio contained on several cassette tapes is relevant to the story.

I seriously spent probably an hour going through all my still unpacked boxes (despite the fact I moved in 18 months ago) looking for it. I found just about everything except the Walkman! For the love of God, I found at least six pagers. Why the fuck do I have so many pagers?

I kind of wish people still used pagers. I could make some serious bank on the used pager market.

Anyway, once I am able to either borrow or buy one, I will make sure to get the audio in and up as soon as possible! I know you will all be waiting on the edges of your seats for it.

As a side note, I also found my old high school records and I must question how I actually managed to graduate. My only A's were in vocational. Everything else was D's and D-'s. Top that off with the fact that I seemed to have failed health twice.

Oddly enough though, one semester I got a B in physical education. I honestly don't remember 'being a fatass' as a sport we participated in, but whatever.

It's Over...

My vacation, that is. I am sure no one here even knew I was on vacation. You're probably wondering to yourself, 'why didn't he blog about it?'

Well, okay, no one is actually wondering that. However, I will tell you why I didn't blog about it regardless. I have not blogged anything about it because I didn't go anywhere.

To borrow a made up word from the world of news, I had a 'staycation.'

Now originally the purpose wasn't to stay at home and watch my ass grow. I had planned on going back to Springfield and spending some time with my folks, Jerry, Troy, and all the people who are allied with me in my struggle known as life.

However, even making a seven hour vehicle trip - which I am wary of to begin with - costs money, and I, unfortunately, had none.

So I stayed at home. I made up a list of things I needed to do. I needed to finish my Operation Clean Sweep, which is a fancy name I came up with for cleaning my apartment. I had plans on starting my anime blog, do some writing, check out part time jobs, clean my car and spend some times with my online friends in Eve.

How much of that did I get done?

Well, I finished my anime blog (link goes to first post!). And honestly, that's probably just due to the fact that I was dying to do something partially creative. That and the fact that I was chatting with Keith and had someone to make go look at it and shower me with praise.

But for the most part I completely and totally wasted the past nine days. To make matters worse, I destroyed my sleep schedule and am completely on the wrong fucking side of the clock. I got up at 8PM Friday! I have to be at work today at 1:15, so I am planning on napping, but that doesn't usually work out for me.

So not only will I probably end up being awake for over 24 hours, I am going to end up having to stay late for work tonight due to the World Series. On the bright side (or maybe not, since not having work to do makes me cry) the show is (or so I've heard) only a half an hour.

Anyway, so back to work I go after spending nine days thinking about how much I don't want to go back to work. Well, I guess eight days since I was at the dentist on Thursday. Drilling and a cleaning. No thinking about work. That cleaning hurt like hell. If you are interested in a job where you cause pain to someone else, consider dental hygienist. Little metal hook and a patient's gums. Not fun.

So Like... I Did Something...

What did I do? Nothing illegal.

I created a new blog! FUNKDAFACATION! It's an anime blog. Sorry.

I know what you're thinking. You're thinking 'WTF DUDE?!?! You can't even blog on your regular blog! How the hell are you going to be able to blog on two of them?!?!'

Calm down and let me explain. First off, I haven't been blogging on here because I was still trying to keep the blog somewhat related to work. Of course that didn't work because my work is very boring and even if I did blog about it, it would be stuff that would probably get me a spankin'. And since they don't allow the reporters to do the spanking, well, I am not interested in that.

But now that I am not blogging about work over here anymore, I will be blogging more often!

Also, I like anime, so blogging about something I like will be better and I will be more likely to actually blog. Also it gave me a chance to be creative. I designed the entire blog myself, with a little help from http://www.code-sucks.com to get the layout started (yeah I can design with CSS ((Cascading Style Sheets)), but I still have trouble with the positioning) and more help from my good friend Keith Troutman in Houston who survived Ike only to have me whine about the color scheme.

Keith, being the friend he is, bitch slapped me via Yahoo! Instant Messenger and got me working on a good color scheme. Yay!

Anyway, go check it out. The video included in the first post should make you laugh, even if you've never seen an anime before in your life. Also, feel free to praise me on how sexy the whole page looks!

Here We Go Again, Redux

So, here comes Ike, coming to wtfpwn Tina, err Texas.

I was watching on one of the Houston TV stations website the storm surge, from the hurricane that is still 150 or so miles away, hop Galveston's sea walls like they weren't even there.

Check out what the NWS has to say about Ike.

LIFE THREATENING FLOOD INUNDATION IS LIKELY! ALL NEIGHBORHOODS...AND POSSIBLY ENTIRE COASTAL COMMUNITIES...WILL BE INUNDATED DURING THE PERIOD OF PEAK STORM TIDE. PERSONS NOT HEEDING EVACUATION ORDERS IN SINGLE FAMILY ONE OR TWO STORY HOMES MAY FACE CERTAIN DEATH. MANY RESIDENCES OF AVERAGE CONSTRUCTION DIRECTLY ON THE COAST WILL BE DESTROYED. WIDESPREAD AND DEVASTATING PERSONAL PROPERTY DAMAGE IS LIKELY ELSEWHERE. VEHICLES LEFT BEHIND WILL LIKELY BE SWEPT AWAY. NUMEROUS ROADS WILL BE SWAMPED...SOME MAY BE WASHED AWAY BY THE WATER. ENTIRE FLOOD PRONE COASTAL COMMUNITIES WILL BE CUTOFF. WATER LEVELS MAY EXCEED 9 FEET FOR MORE THAN A MILE INLAND.

The last NWS warning I have seen with the term 'certain death' in it was for Katrina. So I guess the point is that we have about 12 hours left for Galveston, before it becomes an island of corpses.

Of course I hope I and the NWS is wrong, but when you have police asking people to write their SSNs on their arms so it would be easy to identify the body... Well, let's just say that isn't a confidence builder.

I would like to wish my buddy, Keith, the best. He assures me that he is far enough inland in Houston that he will be fine. Good luck!

I failed... Sorta...

I have still not had a cigarette. Will be a week when I wake up later today. However I totally broke my carbohydrate rule today and ate some crackers with my ham and swiss snackable (which I was forced to buy from the Wheel of Death since I forgot to make my own lunch).

I also had some soup Saturday night, which pushed me over my 20 carbs a day.

I have determined that it's very hard to not eat a lot when I am not smoking. But, short of violating my carb limit, I still have kept my caloric intake below 1,000. So that should be something!

But another negative is that I seem to be substituting Sprite Zero for cigarettes. Instead of having a smoke every 20 or so minutes when I am on the computer, I am having a can of Sprite. Or chugging from a two liter.

The Sprite habit might end up costing me more than smoking. Lord, why did you give me such an addictive personality?!

If It Ain't Broke...

I have decided to do two long posts tonight, rather than one very long, multitopical megapost.

I have been pondering why I have been so miserable lately and I figured that part of it was because I am a lonely miser and part of it was because I am an uneducated buffoon. Figuring out why I was an uneducated buffoon was easy. I have no education and I am a moron.

The moron part might not be fixable, but the uneducated part can be rectified. Not this fall though, as I had hoped, mainly due to my financial issues. Going to try again in January and see what happens. Hopefully I will have my finances in order by then (one way or the other) and can focus on figuring out a class schedule to work around my work schedule.

The lonely miser part, though, was more difficult to figure out. But over the past few days I have been making graphs and flow charts, looking at old pictures and watching pornography to determine how to fix things. And I think I figured it out.

I am too damn fat.

That's right. It took me and a NOAA computer to understand that I am a big fatty! I have also come to the conclusion that chicks (well, hot ones) won't have sexual relations with a big fatso. I don't blame them. I saw my reflection in the mirror this morning when I got out of the shower and it gave me a stroke.

I also rarely leave my home when I am not working, so I have forgotten how to talk to people and have a good time. Probably because I get winded just looking out the window.

In summation, I realize I need to lose weight.

Losing weight is not easy, especially when you have been overweight your entire life. (Sidebar, this is why I truly believe that parents that allow their children to become overweight and obese should be arrested and charged with child abuse. They are making it so their child's life will be hell; from both a physical and psychological standpoint. If I ever decide to get involved in politics, you can believe that I will lobby hard to get legislation like that passed.)

I remember though that before I left for Vegas (where working overnights allowed me to slip into old habits of fast food and inactivity) I had lost 50 or so pounds and about 4 inches off my waist. And I did that via Atkins - or my version of it.

So my grocery shopping this evening was low/no carb. I also purchased enough food to last me till my next paycheck. I usually don't due to the cost, but some simple math in my head quickly showed me that what I spent tonight (70$) was far less than the usual 7$-10$ a day I spent getting my food from either the Wheel of Death at work, or from QuikTrip/McDonald's/Subway/Etc.

At any rate, my goal is < 20 carbs per day. It worked before, I see no reason it won't work now. BUT YOUR CHOLESTEROL!!!!! Surprisingly, my current cholesterol level is fine, and any raise in it will be, in my opinion, negated by my drop in blood pressure and weight. Plus I already take a dietary supplement and am adding a fiber supplement. So I am doubting I will do any more harm to my body than carrying all this fat is doing. Another bonus of this diet was that I was not that active (asides from work stuff) when I lost the weight before. I am not active now either, so I will be able to lose the weight semi-sedentary until I complete the next task. I am quitting smoking. I have tried about four times this year alone, and every time I have failed. However, when I was in Vegas, I quit for several months (rather than just a week or so this year) by using the assistance of the patch.

So I have purchased the patch. As I said before, it worked before, so I see no reason it will not work now. Once I quit, and am able to walk more than 4 feet without feeling like a fish out of water, I will be able to do more exercise. By that I will be losing more weight and eventually, hot girls will be begging me for sex. Either that or they will be repulsed by my personality and anime addiction rather than my Elephant Man like appearance.

Regardless, I think it will be an improvement in my life and I won't feel so fuckwad awful. It will also allow me to start taking Tae Kwon Do again, which I took in HS and enjoyed. Since as a skinny person, people won't be afraid of me and my mouth might end up getting my ass kicked.

Figures.

Another example how life likes to shit on me at every opportunity it can. During my cleaning and reorganizing that still continues several weeks later, I found an old watch that I hadn't seen in years! I was thrilled, but the battery was dead.

Lucky for me the jewelry store across the street does watch batteries, so I went over there and paid 15$ to get the batteries replaced.

Not more than 50 feet from the front door, the rubber band breaks. Wasn't cracked or anything, it just.. broke.

Every victory, even the small ones, are quickly turned into defeat. And people wonder why I don't believe in God. (Okay, I might be over reacting and being a drama queen, but still it's a telling indication of how things are going!)

Remember Your Hippopotamus Oath!!

It's a line used by Homer Simpson in an episode where he had a heart attack. He says to Dr. Hibbert, "Well, what doesn't kill me makes me stronger, right?" Dr. Hibbert chuckles as he does and replies, "Heavens no! In fact this has left you weak as a kitten." Hibbert then goes on to pester poor Homer by poking him, taking his nose, things like that. Homer then cries out, "Stop! Remember your hippopotamus oath!"

This is of course in reference to the Hippocratic Oath, which doctors tend to take and in part says 'you shall do no harm.'

Of course this should not be mistaken for 'you shall not hurt your patients.'

Finally, after about 8 months of on again, off again pain, I went to the doctor today to have my shoulder looked at. I go to the University of Oklahoma clinic, since that is where the hospital sent me after my first seizure. My normal doctor wasn't there, but the doctor I had seemed nice.

But of course since OU is a learning school, the first doctor who saw me was an intern (like Zack Graff's character on Scrubs). He had me move my arm and and listened and felt me up... Usual doctor things. He determined that it wasn't damaged or dislocated or anything, just that some of the cartilage was inflamed.

He told me he'd be back with the OU version of Dr. Cox.

When he returned, the overseer doctor wanted to verify his underlings diagnosis. Unlike Dr. Intern, he was a bit more rough with me, bending my arm, purposely, in the directions that it hurt. I don't think getting kicked in the junk would have caused as much pain as that guy did! I wanted to cry out like Homer, but having major pain being inflicted on me seemed to dull my sense of humor.

None the less, when he was done, he agreed with the intern and I was told to just take Advil. So, I will. But if it doesn't get better, I need to go back, which might be impossible. It was very hard to get an appointment. In fact, the next available date with my regular doctor is in October... I think I need to switch to a smaller clinic.

So, what's caused this, you may ask? Well, it started in December, so I blame the wreck. But it may also be from work, since many TV news photographers develop shoulder issues, though not usually so quickly (I have only been doing this for about 6 years).

Of course I will keep you updated, since I really don't have much else to blog about.

Macintosh And Gizmo

I could essentially sum up this entire blog entry in a single sentence.

I hate Macs.

No, let me fix that. I FUCKING hate Macs.

There are hundreds of reasons to hate Macintosh, including the fact that they are nothing but the attention starved little brother to the PC that try so hard to be just as cool as him. But my reason is a little more personal.

As part of what I am calling Operation Clean Sweep, which is an attempted to reorganize my life through both physical cleaning and reorganization of my personal effects, I am trying to turn dozens of Beta and DVCPro tapes into neatly organized DVDs.

So first I put all my Beta stuff on DVCPro. I lucked out as FOX still had a BetaSP deck. SP is quickly becoming extinct, so I am glad I did this while I could! Then came the more difficult task of digitizing the DVCPro tapes and putting the stories on DVD in a file format I could upload or otherwise share.

Here is where Mac comes in. It seemed like a pretty simple task. I would ingest my video into Final Cut Pro, then export it as a file. Rich, our news engineer, who is a Mac nut himself, explained it as a simple 4 step process. I decided tonight after my shift would be the perfect time.

Once the show was over I moved into Edit Bay One with my box of tapes, my freshly purchased DVD-R's, and the desire to complete this as quickly as possible. The problems began as soon as I sat down.

No, I didn't break the chair, but what I did notice - or more accurately fail to notice - was that this tower didn't have a DVD drive. Of course that is impossible because how else would you install the software? I looked all over and noticed a could of sliding doors. I managed to pry one open and see that there was indeed a disc drive behind it.

But there was NO FUCKING BUTTON to open it! I checked all the menus. There was eject, but it was shaded - probably because the drive was empty. I searched and searched. Apples version of My Computer, ironically called 'Finder', didn't even acknowledge that a DVD drive existed. Finally, after about 15 minutes, I declared that the Mac had won, and left Edit Bay One dejected and pissed.

Now I am sure some MacAssHat will tell me that it's simple to open the drive. Fuck you. If it were simple there would be a fucking button on the front that says EJECT on it. My computer has two drives, both of which have buttons on the front of the drive that open the tray regardless of whether or not there is a disc inside.

I wasn't entirely defeated though! I grabbed the keys to our live truck that has a Macbook in it and darted outside. I powered everything on and noticed that there did not seem to be a drive on this one either! WHAT THE FUCK??!! However, I did find it, camouflaged in the front of it. Just a little slit. Like a Mac vagina, kind. I inserted the disc and smiled. The Mac, much like my PC, asked me what I wanted to do with the blank DVD. Well, I had a lot of work ahead of me, so I told it to ignore it for now.

Big mistake.

An hour and a half pass as I ingest all my video into FCP. I take my first video file and set my in and out point and then go to export. Lots of options, most of which included words I don't even think were English. But Rich had told me to do Quicktime, since that would ensure comptability. So I chose that and waited the 2 minutes for it to write the file. I then of course checked to see if it was in my 'burn folder'. It was.

It was 2.8 mother freakin' gigabytes!

Jesus Christ on a fucking pogo stick. That was a 1:47 package. I wouldn't even be able to put another package on the disc!! Screw that! So I messed around and found that FCP won't let you export as anything else unless you use a program called 'Compressor'. So I did and despite the fact I was unable to export to an AVI (I chose MP4), I managed to get some stuff ready to burn.

Here's the fun part. I click on the seemingly to convenient 'Burn' button on the folder. It told me I need to insert a blank DVD. I told it I did, very loudly, probably confusing the drug dealers and hookers in the motel parking lot across the street, but it insisted that I hadn't. Fine, I conceded. I will just eject the disc and reinsert it.

Macbook was having none of that and refused to acknowledge there was even a disc in the drive. Every DVD related program refused to let me eject. Even the DVD Player, which had an eject button, beeped defiantly at me every time I clicked it. And of course, since some fucking Einstein decided not to install an eject button on the front of the drive, my disc was trapped.

At that point I told the Mac exactly what I thought of it, it's bigger sibling in Edit Bay One and that fucking douchebag on the commercial, and deleted my files (after I took 5 minutes using 'Finder' to find them). I then left as if I were to stay I am sure I would have destroyed it and would have certainly been fired and left with a $2,000 bill to replace that piece of shit.

So in the end, I still have a box of DVCPro tapes to move to DVD and no way to do that. Quite frankly I think I would rather go out and rent a DVCPro deck and do it at home than ever deal with a Macintosh again. And be warned. The first person to tell me that Macs are better than PCs... I will hunt you down and punch you so hard in your cock...

I had considered buying a Macbook as my next computer, but not now. I will deal with the viruses and the crashes in exchange for simplicity and the ability to customize. And eject buttons. Whoever thought that there shouldn't be eject buttons... I hope you get AIDS.

But Erin, STFU and tell us about Gizmo! Okay. When I announced to my friends in Vegas that I was leaving the bright lights, glamour and crime of Las Vegas for Tulsa, I was taunted and told that I would now be stuck covering 'cats in trees'. I of course laughed that off. No station covers cats in trees!

My first day I was sent with our Solving Problems photo John to the following story.

I didn't shoot any, I was just there to watch and learn. I may have mentioned this before. But now you can see the video, courtesy of b-roll.net TV.

Fail...

Hardcore, sickening fail.

I speak of CNN and its viewers/readers. As well as those who view FOX News' website.

Here are some facts:








What could very well be a major conflict that could end up causing the United States to deploy forces is going on in Georgia. Something that could cause disruptions to the supply of oil - Georgia has 20 or so thousand cubic meters of oil flowing through it. Something that is an INVASION by the Russian military...

No one cares.

I don't get FOX News channel (though I doubt O'Reilly and the like would ever talk about anything other than liberals) nor MSNBC, but CNN has barely mentioned it. What's been the focus tonight?

John Freakin' Edwards.

And us. Americans... What do we find important? Edwards. Sex changing athletes. Things in the larger scale that do not matter.

I have CNN on right now. Finally, now at 9:30, Anderson Cooper has found some time to talk about the war. And now, 9:35, all done.

Enough of that bitching though. Here's my opinion on the matter.

Between 1994 and 1996, and then again in 1999 into 2000, Russia used their military to attack and destroy separatists in Chechnya. Russia, under the rule of Boris Yeltsin for the first war and Vladimir Putin for the second, exercised their right to maintain their territory. Thousands of soldiers, irregulars and civilians killed.

August 7. Georgia exercised their right to have control over their territory, and launched a military incursion into the self governed, yet not independent (not a single country in the world recognized SO's deceleration of independence - including Russia) region of South Ossetia (SO).

Russia, who had granted the residents Russian passports and citizenship, decided what was acceptable for Russia was not so for Georgia and launched an incursion into SO. This incursion has expanded with, as of the time I am writing this, Russian troops moving outside of SO and into Georgia proper. As well, Russian forces have landed in another breakaway province, Abkhazia. There have been air strikes on Georgian military and civilian targets.

In my opinion, Russia has clearly violated Georgia's sovereignty and internationally recognized borders. Russia must withdraw immediately and unconditionally and an international and neutral peacekeeping force needs to be deployed to SO.

However the likelyhood of that happening is slightly between none and zilch. The UN, which has once again proved what a pointless organization it is, has tried for 4 days to draft a strongly worded resolution telling Russia to stop.

Of course since Russia can veto anything that comes before the security council, it's an exercise in futility. Right now Russia can tell the rest of the world to STFU and do what it wants.

So, what can America do about this?

Some armchair politicos have said Georgia's actions were encouraged by the United States. I doubt that very much. I cannot see the CIA and other military advisers not seeing that this would piss off Russia and egging the Georgians on. Besides, Georgia cannot join NATO if it is annexed by Russia - which to me is what this looks like this is headed for.

Right now it looks like the only thing we can do is what we have been doing. Making frumpy faces and telling Russia to stop. Our military is too over extended and tied up to force Russia out - not to mention that it would draw us into an even bigger war that - god forbid - may turn nuclear.

Europe is in the same state. While they may have the military in place, the EU has never done anything militarily. Also, both Europe and the US needs Russia to help keep Iran in check. Although after the WMDs in Iraq stuff, I don't know how much I believe US intelligence reports that Iran is indeed looking to build nuclear weapons.

What COULD happen is other former Soviet republics, afraid that Russia might come for them next, could supply forces or at least logistics and non-military aid to Georgia. The Ukraine has already barred Russian warships from returning to their Ukrainian ports, so long as Russia continues to occupy Georgia.

All in all, what is happening will impact the United States for the forseeable future. And it would be nice if the media and the public would realize that and stop focusing on nonsense and crap that doesn't affect a single person.

Sucks to be London...

Or Vancouver, though I don't think as many people pay as much attention to the Winter Olympics as they do the summer Olympics.

At any rate, I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall at London Olympics Organizing Committee's office after they watched the opening ceremonies in Beijing.

"Bloody hell, how are we going to top that?!"
"'Ell if I know. I quit."

It was a SPEC-FUCKING-TACULAR show put on Friday night. Long as hell - I missed the live cast due to my cleaning work so I had to stay up for the replay - but amazing. My only gripe is with NB-freakin'-C for cutting to commercial when they did fireworks.

Also I think I am officially sick of Matt Lauer and Bob Costas.

None the less, props to you, China. Ironically I don't think anyone in China would actually be able to read my blog, due to the Great Firewall.

If you want to see some pictures, check out NBC's Olympics Homepage. While you're there, check out the pictures of Dubya hanging out with Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh. There is a great shot of him checking out Misty's 'hand signals'.

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!

Faith?

As I complete my third or forth (I honestly cannot remember which) week of editing, I have come to determine that my station must have incredible faith in me.

A lot of people assume that since I was a photographer who edited my own work, I would be able to slip into an editors position quite well. But there are differences between editing a package and editing 263 VO/SOTs.

First, when it comes to editing your own work, you already have an advantage as you know exactly what you shot. You already have stuff in mind to use and you can already picture what most of your pack is going to look like. Of course this is all blown to hell when your reporter hands you a script that was not even closely written to the video. In fact the script has several specific references to things that you did not shoot. But you can still make it work by just saying 'fuck it' and using your cool, irrelevant shots anyway.

Second, you have track to work with. When you edit a VO for an anchor to read, you need to go over the script several times - and try to remember how the anchor reads despite it being over a year since you watched a newscast - to try and make sure all the video and cuts match what the anchor will be saying. With track, you just listen and make the cut when necessary!

Of course you can always say 'fuck it' and just put whatever video where ever, but then you have anchors and producers yelling at you and news directors jabbing you with sharp sticks.

Thirdly, if you don't like something, or you think something needs to be added, with a pack you can go to your reporter and demand they add it. Reporters are afraid of photographers since we have both the raw tapes and access to YouTube. Producers do not fear editors. If I were to go to a producer and tell them I didn't like something, they would laugh loudly at me, then burn me with their cigarette or maul me with their dog. Neither of those are very pleasant.

In this case the best option is to say 'fuck it' and remain in your editing stall.

Anyway, the faith my station has in me is astronomical. My very first day of editing, I was put on the noon show.

Alone.

Just me.

No one else.

Only Erin.

In fact, throughout my week, I edit four shows by myself. To be fair, the noon show does have a number of re racks from the morning show, but there is still a LOT of shit for me to cut. I arrive at 10, do a few of the things that are ready, then wait till 11:30 when I get 374,098,312 scripts.

Somehow I have managed to pull it off. Except one day that was fraught with breaking news and video that was sent to me unedited... I missed two teases that day. It broke my heart to fail, but I quickly remembered the two words that make everything better.

'Fuck it.'

I mean what can you do?

I tend to surprise myself with my own inability to really do this job well. Let me further qualify that by being a little self righteous and say that I have not had one other job - ever - that I did not do adequately or better. But to be quit honest, I suck at this!

The show today was written quickly and well by the producer and the anchor helping out. Scripts were coming off the printer early and I got the incredibly complicated open to edit in record time.

Yet I still found myself racing to get stuff sent to the server before it aired. I completed the 9PM show around 9:30, which quite frankly is asinine. I attribute some of that to the fact the show was very VO heavy, some had to be edited from raw tapes, some from archive, and some were national stories that had to be re-edited. (On a related note, fuck you Fox News Edge Affiliates and your VO/SOT/VO/SOT/VO/SOT format. Bastards. Send all the VO first, then all the SOTs!!!!!)

Regardless, It still sticks in my craw that it took me so goddamned long to finish.

So to remedy this, I think I am going to take more of a 'zen' approach to editing. Find a 'zone' and see if I can get myself in it. I will no longer edit the stories. I will be the stories. I will not allow the faith management has placed in me to be in error.

In fact, I will become the best editor ever.

Either that or I will just say 'fuck it.' Haven't decided which yet.

Funny Names?

Going through some old pictures of mine, wondering why I took some of them, when I stumbled across this one.





Took this when we were up in St. George for the Warren Jeffs trial. I'd say I have the mind of a 12 year old, but I think that would be an insult to a lot of 12 year olds.

Facebook!

Hi!

I have a Facebook profile. Facebook is like Myspace, if they banned teenagers and people like me. Except they didn't ban people like me. But none the less, I did have to keep my profile a little less juvenile. Here it is if you'd like to add me as a friend!

Please do. I only have like 9. Thanks.

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!

First Day Editing...

And I managed to not screw anything up! Go me!

I actually got the entire Noon show done, before it was over even! I will say this, I have a bit more respect for editors now. I always wondered how long it could possibly take to edit some teases and VO/SOTs. Now I know!

It was a semi-rough day though. Too much breaking news, not enough staff ends up giving the editors some packs to edit... Oy!

Tomorrow night I will tell you about my last day shooting, if you're interested!

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.

Facebook!

I have a Facebook profile now, for some reason. The link is http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=633320125.

So, add me as a friend. Or don't. Though I am pretty sure though if you don't, you will make me cry.

(As a reminder, my Myspace page is here: http://www.myspace.com/otakuphotog. Catgirl lovers UNITE!

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.

Back, New Locale, Same Crap? Oh, 500th Post Too!

HAI!

So basically I have been gone for three months. I have had a lot of personal issues, one of the most depressing having to do with money. This is why my blog is at a new location! I won't go into to many details, but I was unable to pay for my Yahoo! service and it got shut down. I was working on getting things back up yesterday, but their web hosting service has gotten very complicated and not worth the hassle or the money.

I decided to go with Go Daddy, not just because of the picture of Danica Patrick on the front. They actually have a decent price and the options that I needed. However, DA was still with Yahoo and it was even more of a pain in the ass to switch things, so I didn't. This is why you are now looking at OP on ERINWINKING.COM! Yes, I am so clever.

Actually, all the really obscure names I wanted were taken (irony much?) so I finally just gave up. Besides, now I already have the domain for when I decide to run for congress! Wheee!

Some notes, all though I say this every time, I am really, really, really going to make a point to blog again on a regular basis. Also, since the move, a lot of the old posts will be lacking pictures till I can go through them all and change the address AND upload them to the new server. Aye yi yi.

Thanks for sticking with me, although until I start emailing people, no one will have read this.

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.

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?