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?

PSO Rate Hike!

OMG!!!!!!!!

Here's the story...

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

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

Monday and the Beck & Call of ORU...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Writer's Strike

Real quick...

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

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

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

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

Calling In Sick...

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

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

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

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

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

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

So Where'd I Go?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Once I got back, December 7th happened.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Happy New Year.

Erin

New Years Resolution!

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

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

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

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

Christmas Without Power

Greatest.. Ideas.. Ever..

Three things.

Self Checkout

Whoever invented this concept is a fucking genius. No more waiting in a line of people with 152 coupons and the asinine desire to dig out the pennies from the bottom of their purse so that they can get back a nickel instead of three pennies. You walk up, scan your shit, dump the 20$ into the machine and off you go.
In fact, if I had my way, it would be against the law not to have self checkout. I'm looking at you, Wal*Mart on North Dirksen Parkway in Springfield. Assholes.
And don't worry about it putting people out of jobs. You will always have people too stupid to understand how to use it, too scared of it, or just really lonely fucks whose only human interaction is with the minimum wage register jockey.
Self checkout. Wonderful. I also include other self service wonders like the postal station at the post office and the really cool machine they have at the Nevada DMVs.

Redbox

A fucking vending machine of DVD's. You swipe your credit card (or if that scares you, get one of those prepaid credit cards which is a pretty awesome concept in its self) and pick your DVDs. The machine bills you a dollar a day, for up to 25 days. After that, you get to keep it.
One of the coolest concepts is that you can rent the movies from one machine and return it in another machine. You can also preselect your movies, show up at the machine and it just spits them out! Hell, if it had a better selection (like it could burn you movies on demand), it would kick Netflix's ass.
I need to find out if they franchise out these machines.

Bluetooth

I used to think that people with these headsets were self important douchebags. But then I got one, and to be honest, I still thought that. In fact I remember commenting to my friend Troy back in Springfield how much I felt like a douchebag having it dangling off my ear. However the more I used it, the more I realized how fucking cool and useful it is!
I then learned that not just cell phone headsets use Bluetooth. You can get Bluetooth printers and various other gadgets (even medical stuff can use Bluetooth) to wirelessly connect to your technology.
And that, is cool as hell.

Now, this list is very small when you compare it to the things that I hate, but at least I have shown that I am not a complete negative nelly.

I do hate a lot of things though.

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...

Ach...

I'll post about my trip to Illinois soon. I swear to God I cannot go back to the Godforsaken state without there being drama. Usually involving the same person. What's worse though is I only had one horseshoe.

*cries*

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

Black Lagoon

It seems like I am changing my list of favorite anime at least once a season. My top two never change, but the rest do. As contender for the #3 position on my list, an anime that almost snuck past me. Luckily one of the people I play with on EVE pointed it out to me.

Black Lagoon.

Hot chick who kills people for a living and probably gets some kind of sexual high from it! What's not to love? If you want (need) to go farther than that, the show has some very interesting characters and a very strange case of Stockholm Syndrome at the beginning.

Anyway, the first season is out on DVD, so you can go rent it on Netflix, or better yet, buy it from Suncoast. The second season is either airing or has aired in Japan. I am unsure if it's licensed, so I am not going to provide you with a download link. Not like it would be hard to find.

By the way, the wild ass tribal style ink Revy has covering her arm and neck has inspired me. I wonder how many people at the annual Thanksgiving gathering I could give heart attacks to with something similar?

Well Duh...

From the 'No Shit' file...

Clock is Ticking on Las Vegas' Water Supply

The news coming from the Southern Nevada Water Authority Thursday about the valley's future water supply is worrisome. Unless we act quickly, there will be no water for hundreds of thousands of Las Vegas Valley residents in just three years.

Read the rest of the article on Las Vegas NOW (KLAS).

A major metropolitan area in the middle of the desert and mountains is short on water?! Whodathunk it.

You would think someone would have though about this before they allowed two million people to move there in under ten years. I feel bad for the Las Vegas natives, as they are going to have to pay for city, county, state and even federal improper management of the massive influx of people to the area.

And yes, it is the government's fault. The feds (BLM - Bureau of Land Management) sold off all the land they owned for private development. The county and the cities just hand out building permits like they were candy, with no regard to the strain all these people are having on the areas infrastructure. (Drive down Blue Diamond Road, if you can. Classic example of building 67321200182 homes before bothering to increase the road to 4 - 6 lanes to handle the traffic.)

And of course the state could give a damn. More people, more sales tax and casino revenue.

Nice knowing you, Las Vegas. There is of course one positive. Maybe this will kill off about a million or so Southern Californians! Of course those snobby bastards only buy bottled water, so it will probably only kill their lawns...

Defending The Homeland...

CNN is reporting...

National Guard Deployed to Battle Storm in Texas. See, this is why we need to send our troops to the Bahamas. Fight these storms over there so we don't have to fight them over here.

All political snarkieness aside, I did indeed find the wording of CNN's headline hilarious, and it spurred a comical Photoshop!


"Right in the eye, muthafucka!"

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!

STFU Already!

:)

I'm Not Dead...

I was, however, taken hostage by a group of Buddhist Mormons bent on world domination who thought I was the reincarnation of a magical ferret that was prophesized to help them rule all.

Once they realized I was actually just a fat schmuck, they let me go.

Blogging will resume shortly!

The First Couple Weeks... And Then Some (Part One)

Warning... This will be the most bitching you have ever seen in a single post! Although it's not bitching about anyone or anything in particular, I suppose it is still bitching. This will also probably be the most pictures as well...

April 11th was my last day at KLAS. For the most part it was uneventful and as I reported before, was a rather emotional day for me - which was somewhat surprising.

I spent most of the morning (as there was really nothing for me to do after we got back from the standoff) hanging out in the studio. Over two years these guys had become my friends, and what better way to show my gratitude by harassing them and making lots of noise while they were trying to do a morning show?



Justin (above top) and Sherry (above bottom - and if you couldn't figure that out, you're a total dumbass) got the most harassment, since they are only on air every few minutes rather than almost all the time like Denise and Dave are.

Still good times were to be had, until Justin made my fatass come up onto the traffic stage and then put me on television. I will post my 'on purpose' Las Vegas television debut (I've been on TV before - it's one of the hazards of doing shoots with all the other stations and everyone running around trying to get shots from different angles).

At any rate, it was actually a very nice gesture. Justin was one of my favorite people to work with in Vegas (reporter wise, don’t get your panties in a knot, John...). Here is one of my blog posts about a story I did with Coop, in case you're interested.

After work I went home and was all emo for a couple of hours thinking about the past couple of years. Then I prepared for my big night partying with everyone! Cause as I wrote before, when photogs party, shenanigans are bound to be afoot!

Of course that's when things started to go wrong. I guess actually things had been going wrong since about 1977, but for the sake of brevity, we'll only talk about the things that went wrong in the past 30 days. When the gang arrived at Hooters on Sahara, we found it closed. Not like 'closed for the night' but 'closed to be blown up.' Very sad. But we headed over to TGIFriday's, which was just down the street and had a pretty cute waitress. I think John got some video of her, but who knows. She would have looked so much better in a Hooters outfit, but what can you do. Anyway, the gang all had a good time with drinks and yummy TGIFriday's food!

From left to right, top to bottom, Peter, Sol, Tony and Mutha Fuckin' John Farrell.

Unfortunately a couple of people couldn't come, and I forgot to tell a couple others. At any rate, we ate, we drank, we told some of our favorite 'Erin's a fucking schmuck' stories (I don't understand how they had so many...) and then we headed over to the second part of the party!

Firefly Bar is where we went. Binky, the guy who isn't Mutha Fuckin' John Farrell, said it was a cool bar. He lied. Not really, but it was more of a restaurant than it was a bar. I was worried, but the problem soon solved its self!

No one showed up! (And I'm not going to pretend that it didn't hurt just a little bit...)

Well, almost no one. Weather Pimp (also known as Tedd Florendo) rolled in as well as Duke (below top) and Jason (below bottom). Lovely Carissa (who I was SO infatuated with.. damn her for being engaged) also showed for like 30 seconds, but it was long enough for me to get a hug! Unfortunately (or fortunately) I forgot to confess my love and propose. I wasn't drunk enough yet. And it didn't work the last time I did it (to a different girl) so it probably wouldn't have worked this time either.


Time passed and I got all packed up. Special thanks to Tony who was awesome and came over and helped me and my mom pack my stuff into the U-Haul. Less special thanks to Binky who arrived right after we finished. It's the thought that counts, I guess.

Mom and I hit the casinos before we left (we decided to leave a day early, which spurned the wrath of Mutha Fuckin' John Farrell who wanted to do Starbucks. After calming him down and getting the gates of hell closed again, Mom and I did some gambling and won some money! Hurrah! We spent it all on a real nice dinner!

Then move began. We stayed overnight in Laughlin which was neat. It was the first time I had ever been there. Was kind of nice. (This is actually when John called.. I'm a little out of order here...) In the morning we began the trek with plans to stay overnight in Amarillo, Texas.

Of course spurning John Farrell has consequences. Halfway between Bullhead City and Kingman, AZ, my car stopped working. Dead.

After two hours, the tow truck finally arrived. My mom's car insurance actually paid to tow my Malibu, but not the trailer. So I had to fork over $100 to pay for the towing of the trailer.

The tow truck driver was really nice and told us about a place in Kingman that could most likely get us on the road again today. But to be on the safe side he suggested that we get a hotel room. So he took us to a Motel 6 where we dropped off the trailer, and then headed over to Steve's Route 66 Auto Repair in Kingman.

Steve checked out the car and came to the conclusion that the alternator decided that it didn't like towing my possessions as well as my own fatass and decided to assplode. He found me a new alternator and replaced it, as well as replaced my air filter for $250 (he gave me the air filter for free!).

It took them about an hour and a half to actually replace the alternator. As a side note, I really recommend these guys if you are ever in need of auto repair in Kingman. They were very nice and did a great job. Also major props go out to Jim (#15) with Mike Pow-R-Tow, also out of Kingman; a really nice guy and great service.

After checking the time (it was about 6PM PDT) and the mileage we had to go, we decided to make a run for it. We figured that we could manage to get to Tulsa by 2PM - which is when the apartment place closed, according to their website. So we drove and drove and drove and eventually switched off a couple of times so we could nap a bit (I suck at sleeping in the car though, so I didn't sleep long).

We arrived near Tulsa at about 1PM. We had a 40 minute drive still so Mom called the apartment place who then informed us that the office was actually open till 4 and the website was out dated. We groaned as we skipped a tasty Cracker Barrel breakfast to make sure we arrived by 2.

Such is life I suppose.

After arrival we spent the next couple of hours unloading the trailer and dragging everything up to my third floor apartment. Luckily though this place has elevators! Hizzah! Could my fortune be turning around?

I'll tell you in the next post!

Almost Got It!

Internet has been ordered! Now, if AT&T would just get off their asses and SEND ME THE DAMN ADSL MODEM! Bastards.

Anyway, things are going pretty well. Waiting on some money - I have $60 to my name! Good lord that scares me. Hopefully I will get some birthday money from the grandparents when my mail starts catching up with me...

Anyway, Operation Tulsa was more or less a success. I look forward to getting back into the swing of blogging when I get internet hooked up at home. Right now it's annoying to have to ninja blog when no one is looking and I loot their internet.

Later!

Operation Tulsa Arrival...

I am changing the name from Operation Tulsa to Operation F**kmotherf**kingf**kingf**kerf**kf**k. I'll explain in greater detail once internet is costing me 20 cents a minute at Kinko's, but oh lord. This trip has been on tragedy after another after another.

That said, Tulsa is beautiful and my apartment is great! I have a good view, I'm on the 3rd floor so I don't have to listen to people fucking above me (that's fucking as in 'doing it') and I will never be affected by a flood - unless it's one of those 'need an ark' ones.

Anyway, I arrived in Tulsa, some how in one piece. Hopefully I can get my internets hooked up tomorrow so I don't have to do this to often.

Oh, it's my birthday today as well. Happy 29+1 for me! I don't think I am going to be able to relax and reflect as much today as I normally would, so 29+2 is going to have to be extra lazy.

Peace!

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!

Making Progress!

I can now officially see 75% of my floor! As far as I am concerned, that's progress.

I spent a decent amount of time on Wednesday going through my clothes and throwing out a lot that is just to old, or doesn't fit anymore. Some of the clothes I have I have to wonder if they ever fit at all.

I have given myself a challenge though. The clothes that are only a size to small for me I kept. My goal is to be able to fit into it before too long. We'll see how well that goes.

I think I can probably pull it off. I've noticed that my life on overnights actually physically damaged me in a couple of ways. First, I was a hell of a lot less active. When you work during the day you have pointless VOSOTS and packages to shoot. But on overnights, you only really get out of the car if there is shit going on. Even then I didn't have to walk to terribly far, thanks to the patented media oppression by Las Vegas' lovely law enforcement community! I also noticed that I smoked more, which is obviously not good for you.

Another thing is that lunch usually consisted of fast food. As did dinner since by the time I was off work I was too tired to fix any real food to eat. Speaking of tired, overnights will make you exhausted. It's not natural and if you don't make a point of working out (which I didn't) you will be to tired to do anything. It will be nice for that to change.

I look forward to seeing what my new life during the day will do for me, both physically and mentally!

A final note, tonight is my going away dinner (at Hooters of course) and then party at a bar with people from my station and beyond! It should be a ton of fun! I will be sure to include pictures and possibly video, assuming I survive!

Vegas Has Community...

Or so say Matt, my chief.

He brought up some good points of how I dopn't realize it because I really haven't been out looking for it. He's probably right. Though I questioned how I would be involved considering that I am sleeping when most community activities go on.

At any rate, he made some valid points so I will officially back down on my statement that Las Hellhole has no community spirit. I do wish I could have gotten to see what Matt loves so much about Vegas...

To those who think I am just a small town yokel though, I would like to counter that with the fact that the Minneapolis/St. Paul metro population is 4.4 million, and I would declare that MSP is one of, if not the, greatest city in North America. It's just too fucking cold!

Anyway, my point is that I stand down on my hard stance that there is no community pride in Las Vegas. But I am still moving.

Home is Where.... Where is Home?!

So now I am trying to find a home. Been checking out all the online apartment search places, but quite frankly I don't really care to live in another apartment complex. But I realize it's something that I will have to do, for at least my first year in Tulsa.

So there are about one billion apartment complexes in Tulsa. What's annoying is I find one I like (I have to have a W/D in the apartment. I'm too old for this laundry mat shit) and then I ask my people in Tulsa how the area is and they run around telling me I will certainly be murdered if I move to that complex.

Quite frankly the idea of me being murdered in Tulsa tickles me. It's irony, as I am move there to get away from the thugs and rif-raff in Vegas.

Anyway, Got recommended a place and it's beautiful. About $50 more than I cared to pay, but whatever. As Dyckerson would say, less Twinkies for me. So now I will apply and of course learn that I have been declined because my credit sucks and I am a deadbeat, ignoring my 2.2 years of flawless on time rent payments here in Vegas and instead focusing on collections from 5 years ago.

On a lighter note, the owner of my condo is being nice and is allowing me out of the lease that the HOA bullied me into signing (long story). He said as long as I leave the place in good condition, he'll return most of my security deposit. That's very nice of him. Now all I have to do is make the place not smell like someone has been smoking in here for the past 8 months... And of course some how convert it back into 'good' condition.

Worse comes to worse, it's Extended Stay America for me!

Whatup?

I haven't blogged in a while and there are a couple of reasons for this.

Reason number one. I've been a little frustrated with various events, and as I have learned before, it's best not to blog when I am like that. I'm not just talking about work events, but other events as well. Political, personal... Plus I have been really fucking busy.

Which leads me to reason number two. I'm leaving Las Vegas.

Yup. I finally caved in to my old homeboy from Springfield, Chad Mahoney and sent a tape over to KOKI in Tulsa, where he's an assistant news director. They apparently liked it and last Thursday flew me out for an interview. I enjoyed the city, it reminded me a lot of Springfield, which now that I am not there I realize I missed. The station and all the people who worked there were very nice... I just hope when I arrive I don't find out that they are actually Cylons...

Anyway, was going to accept the offer they gave me (more than I was expecting!) when by random coincidence, Matt - my chief here in Vegas - did my annual review and gave me what I will call a 'wow' raise. So I told Tulsa that I couldn't accept the offer. I was trying not to make it about money (I was, and still am taking a pay cut), but the differences in the two salaries was to great to ignore.

Tulsa counter offered. Something I have never had happen to me before, and had I known that they would have counter offered, I would have asked for more! (Yeah, it's capitalism. Suck it.) At any rate, the counter offer made up for the increase KLAS gave me (in fact, it moved me above what I started at KLAS for), so I took the job.

Quite frankly even though I am taking a pay cut and moving down in market, I think the quality of life improvements will make up for it. Everything is cheaper there; gas, food, rent, my car insurance bill is dropping from around $120/month (that's with a spotless driving record, mind you) to about $200/6 months. Why?

No southern Californians in Tulsa. That in its self makes up for over half the pay cut.

There are many other advantages as well. Oddly enough, many having to do with food. 6.5 hour drive to Springfield (free food!), Steak 'N Shakes (best Midwestern chain restaurant ever), Waffle Houses (smothered and covered, beeyach), four seasons (fall, summer, etc., not the hotel), tornadoes (yes, I do count that as a positive), and actual community (despite what many of the people who live here say, there is no sense of community in Las Vegas, with the rare exception of when someone like a police officer dies. Outside of that, no one gives a flying fuck about anyone else.)

I will miss a few things about Vegas. I'm not ready for a teary goodbye yet, so I won't talk about the people I met. I will miss 24/7 booze. I will miss half nekkid women on all the billboards. I will certainly miss the fact that during even the coldest winter months I can survive with a sweatshirt and my KLAS issue jacket. And I will miss people who I meet on the internet thinking I am somewhat cool because I live in Las Vegas.

So that is that. My last day at KLAS is on April 11, and I will be moving to Tulsa the weekend of my 29+1 birthday, April 22. I'll talk more about things as the next three weeks progress, but for now, this is the end of this post.

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.

She's Dead, Jim... REVISED!

Nothing can ever prepare you for this day... Waking up and walking into a room to find the one you love almost more than anything else, dead. Staring at you with a lifeless glare... Sure, they're making some sounds, but nothing like they did when they were alive and full of spunk.

I had to deal with that today...

My beloved Mai, I shared with you all her birth a mere two years ago. I awoke and came into my dining room to find that she had rebooted, and was stuck on a boot screen. I panicked and reset her, but she just stopped at pretty much the first step in the boot process. I worked feverishly for over an hour trying to fix her, but alas, it was futile.

Left with no other choice, I called it and shut down her power supply at 10:45 AM. An autopsy will be performed to determine what exactly happened to her. Hopefully the problem is something simple, so that her replacement will be able to make use of most of her parts. They way it's looking, it's her brain that failed. A total CPU failure. Surprising, considering that the CPU fan still works, but then again I do play a lot of CPU intense games.

At any rate, my trusty Sarah - my laptop - is my only connection to the outside world right now. Despite the sadness, some good will come from this. Till I can afford a new CPU, I will possible actually get some non-computer related productivity done. (HA!)

I now as for a moment of silence. Thank you.

UPDATE!

After deciding to go back and troubleshoot some more, I have determined that it was not my CPU, but an older 512MB stick of RAM that was the issue! This is both good and bad. It's good because it means I can get the computer to work, as all I needed to do was remove the faulty SIMM, but it's bad as RAM (especially RAM they don't make anymore) is actually more expensive than a CPU would be.

Will have to shop around, but will probably get 1GB from newegg.com.

Constructive Days Off?

We'll see, but right now I have plans to do some constructive things on my days off!

Although 'constructive' is a subjective term.

First order of business is to reorganize my computer area. It's a total cluster fuck right now. Second, I will be scanning all my photos and putting them into a Flickr account. Soon you will be able to see how 'cool' I used to be! (Again, another subjective term.)

Third, I will figure out why Vegas doesn't install right so that Tony will be able to come over and edit his video. Fourth I will figure out someway to get the fire-wire that I apparently have to work so that I can connect my XDCAM to my computer! I can finally start putting up illegally obtained video captures from stuff I shoot*!

Fifth, I am planning on pulling cable into my bedroom so that I am not just paying for TiVo and an extra cable box but not using them. Sixth, I am considering investing in a 7.1 surround system for my computer. I will shop around for the best price! Seventh, I will get some writing done, particularly on my fan-fic.

Eighth, I will actually remember to mail my movies back, so I can get more. Damn you Netflix and your rules... Ninth, I will come up with a 10th thing to do.

If I actually get two of these things done, I will be astonished.

*All video clips are actually used in accordance with the Fair Use provisions of US copyright law. Neener.

A Song About Ewink...

Kinda... :)