Say Cheese

One of the things that annoy the living daylights out of me is a pile of unorganized pictures. I do not know what it is but this one thing will consume me till I have every picture in the house put into an album and the extras stored in some box far away from sight. The Wife on the other hand does not care and could have a mountain of pictures and it would not bother her. I know this has to be on my top 10 list of least manly thing about me, but hey, I like photos and organizing them so sue me. I'll take the hit to my man card.

While cleaning the house I found 9 packet of pictures sent to us from the Mother-in-Law. For the last three days all I have thought about were those pictures and where can they go. Luck was on my side, The Wife had two "brag books" lay around without photos so I went on a mission to fill them. Considering the combined photo capacity of the folders was 34, I did that real quick. Yet again, I have a bit of luck two 100 count photo albums. I start going through each packet and then I realized something, most of the photos are very similar.

I am not trying to make The Mother-in-Law feel bad here, but she loves taking pictures and will take at least 5 shots every time and then go to the local photo shop and print them all out in triplicate squared. To me this is insane and a waste of money and resources. Maybe it's my years in news where you get what you need and get out. These extra copies are a little much and I understand maybe having doubles but when you have 9 different pictures of Logan sleeping and then five copies of each, I can't handle that many photos. To me I have to put them somewhere and we don't have the space for that many copies. I may just start shipping some to family, but they may not want a picture of "Experience Columbus."

She means well and this is going to be one of those things I will have to deal with. So if anyone wants a few extra pictures of Logan and people you may not know just post a comment and I'll ship them out. I must get all these photographs put away... can't sleep till it is done!

Be Kind Rewind

I understand that I am getting older and I know this because I can now say back in my day and have a group of kids have their eyes glazes over and wish I would stop talking. I bring this up because I saw a job posting asking for a demo reel on VHS tape. I know this is not like asking for a reel on laser disc or film, but still... VHS? When I started in news nearly a decade ago the main way to show an employer you could use a camera was via VHS. I remember going to Wal-Mart and buying a 10 pack and dubbing my master reel over. I did this for every job I have ever received. Even here in Raleigh three years ago. DVDs were becoming easier to burn. I would have done DVDs, but The Network only had one DVD burner and it was just easier to make a VHS copy.

In that time though, you can put your reel on the web and the cost of DVDs and burners are cheaper. I seriously would have to go out and buy a converter so I can export my video to VHS. The job was in a small market and I know small markets do not advance as fast as other areas, but I just wonder what that station has to be like for the post to make a point in saying VHS. Technology is moving fast and equipment is getting cheaper. Hell, I create a webcast from my house. ON TV news, how far we have come, yet how little has changes.

Nothing In This World Is Truely New

Yesterday I was sucked into another TV marathon, this time it was the 1980s mini-series V. The Sci Fi Network (sorry I refuse to use their new spelling) ran all the episodes back to back and then today they are showing the TV series. Why are they bringing back a mini series from 1983, we besides the fact that it's the Sci Fi Network. ABC is airing a remake of this classic series.

For those who do not remember the series, where is a quick recap. Aliens came to Earth offering peace and just wanted to hang and help out. In teh beginning everything is fine until it is found out that they are reptiles and they want to turn Earth into a giant Krogers. Yet, they have great PR and most people do not realize that the aliens are shipping humans out to eat. Finally a reistance is formed and finally end the reign of the aliens.

As a kid I remember this series with fondness and all my friends and I would play V. I even remember going to an Ironton version of Home Depot and acting like the showers were containment cubes used by the aliens. I was usually followed by my dad asking me what I was doing and to stop it. As I watched the original I was shocked that it actually held up fairly well for being 26 years old. There were moments like the alien babies that was a bad muppet or the bad special effects at the end where the half alien half human girl saves everyone and she starts to "glow and sparkle," but over all the show kept moving forward and did not have too many of those bad 80s 15 minute lulls where the plot never progressed. It was an enjoyable flashback to my youth. Also realizing the Beastmaster was the lead in the series made the watching more enjoyable.

Yet I kept thinking about the new version, maybe it was because there was a promo every break for it, I don't know I just kept wondering why must we remake everything. I've written about this in the past about the entertainment industries sudden lack of creativity. In the past year they have remade Transformers, GI Joe, Land of the Lost and others that I can not remember at this time. Where have all the original ideas gone? Has Hollywood really become so gun shy that if anything that does not involve toy sales or an older idea that was one popular it gets shot down?

As much I am wanting to see what they are going to "change" from the original I am not going to watch the new V. Just going to ABC.com I can tell that the new version will only be V in name only. We have to stop watching this retread crap and clammer for something new. Who am I kidding, Candyland the movie will be number one. If they are going to continue this trend why can't they remake something cool like Airwolf or BJ and the Bear, now there's a concept I can't get enough of: a man and his monkey.

Update
Just found out they are also remaking the Karate Kid with Will Smith's kid. Come on! Leave the classics alone, if you want to remake something do something that sucked and make it better. Hey Will Smith what about Made in America your kid can do that one over.

Work: Giving Up The Dream

It's been almost 11 months since NBC17 decided that they did not need my services any longer and I thought I'd try and give an update as to what is happening. For those not in the know I am still looking for work and taking as much money from Uncle Sam as I can. I've been trying the freelance thing and I have a couple clients but for the most part unemployment has been our biggest provider.

I've been living with the hope of two things, not to work in news and trying to stay in the Raleigh area. As time creeps on those options are starting to look like they are not going to happen. I think the market is too saturated with freelancers and I don't have a lot of connections so I'm playing with about a quarter of the deck. So I've started searching TVjobs.com for news jobs and I've applied to 7 news/sports jobs in the country and all of them are out of the state. We hate this idea, but we have to start thinking about the extended future and how are we going to pay for everything. We are scrapping by and we can't continue this game of who gets the money this month. As much as I dread the news world I have to come to the realization that I am good at it. It takes a lot out of me and I'll have to work weekend nights probably, but at least it's work and I know how to do it.

The one small hope we have for staying here is that I have been a part of a group that won the bid to shoot a 20 DVD workout set. The original plan is to shoot and do prep for six weeks and I make a lot of money in that time. The amount is not enough to get us ahead, but we can get a lot closer to normal. Mortgage could be caught up and we could have a couple credit cards paid off. I'd lose unemployment for a couple of weeks, but it would be worth it. On top of that a clothing chain has an opening as a studio photographer. So I'd be taking photos of kids and families, the pay is VERY SMALL and it's only seasonal, but if I can get those two jobs and make it work with a few small freelance jobs I do already, we could turn a corner and start to see daylight and live in the area a little longer. Also if I did have to move it would make that transition a lot easier.

Who knows what's going to happen, I've just have to keep plugging along and hope something breaks soon. Maybe I can still get that baseball job or that local company that has an editor position open will call me back. This next month will be very tough and yet be helpful.

Going A Little Too Far

This week started the North Carolina State Fair and The Wife and I are excited to go. We wanted to go this past Thursday, but rain and cold prevented us from going. One of the things about the fair I get a kick out of is what crappy food concoction will they create next. Most are things I have no desire to eat (deep fried Coke), but every once in a while they will hit a home (deep fried Twinkies). While on facebook, local company Burt's Bees mentioned the new craze at the state fair... chocolate cover bacon.

That made me throw up in my mouth a little bit. Yes I love bacon and I also enjoy chocolate, but who thought up this travesty. It's can't be as simple as the Reese's commercials of yore. "You got peanut butter in my chocolate." This had to be some bored Carnie sitting there eating the rejected pig that did not get sold and looked at the chocolate and went, "What the hell." and poured chocolate over the bacon.

I do not see how those two tastes can EVER go together, and I'm the guy that likes mustard on his french fries, I actually enjoyed the deep fried twinkie and yet this I want no part of. I don't even think Homer Simpson would touch that, who am I kidding it was probably on an episode and I just can't remember.

As I kept reading stories online about this new phenomenon I wonder what did they try and thought was not suitable. If chocolate cover bacon made it past, I'm guessing the list was pretty short. Carnies need to get a grip on reality here. I know it's the fair and everything has to be deep fried, covered in something or on a stick but please stop mixing things like bacon and chocolate.

Free Stuff

I was over at the kingdom of King Tom and he had an interesting post. Someone wanted him to review their product. In other words, he was about to get free stuff! I want free stuff! King Tom had written about a turkey cannon and you know what, I'll freaking review it. It's almost Thanksgiving and we might be buying a turkey.

I know the King is wildly more success than this blog, but still come one Aquafina, I've had people coming to my site wondering about your stock. Freaking sponsor me, The Wife loves to buy bottled water, why not give it too us. Mmmm Aquafina is delicious. Hey, I'm not above whoring myself out to the highest Internet bidder that wants to send me stuff. I'm looking at you snuggie and you too Old Spice ad that keeps popping up on facebook. Hey Bruce Campbell, I'll hawk Burn Notice for you, it's not like I've written about you or named my child's middle name after one of your characters. Come on people, send me free stuff so that I can support my child. Huggies, I have your new promotions guy right here. Who am I kidding the King will get that sweet sweet Huggies swag.

Things Stuck In My Head

For the last few months I've been trying to make a little money shooting recitals and one local dance studio has hired me to shoot a weekly track out camp recital. It's not that hard and it's not a lot of money, but there is one draw back, the music. I'm not talking your standard pop music I'm talking music designed for preteen girls. Here is the list of shows I have done, Hannah Montana, Spectacular, High School Musical, Princess Protection Program and The Cheetah Girls.

In a singular form I can handle 20 minutes of this music, but the problem is I've done multiple of each. If you click on the links above you can hear the music that is involved. It's very poppy and over the top and once it bores itself into your skull it won't leave, it's the ash borer of music. The biggest offender is The Cheetah Girls, it feels like every other time I shoot I walk into a studio with cheetah print all over the place. Cheetah Girls is Disney at it's evilest, it's basically diva training fro preteens. I think every eighth word has to be cheetah and there is always a whoo involved. I will finish my shoot and I will have one of their songs in my head for the next three hours. No matter how hard I try and force it out with better music or even sports radio, nothing works. The musical flu has to run its course and I hope there is not an out break sometime during the week.

I like the studio, but I don't know how many more Cheetah Girls shows I can handle. I never thought I'd want to hear more High School Musical. With a 2 month old, I know the music in my life is about to get worse and won't get better for a few years.

Job Search

For those not in the know, I've been out of work since December and to be honest I never thought that as we turn the calendar over to October that I would still be without a full time job. At worst I thought maybe I'd be in some kind of freelance rotation for companies, but that has not happened either.

I've applied to so many jobs that I ran out of DVDs and I've sent out over 60 emails with links to my demo reels on youtube. Out of that 60 I've had less than 90 hits per link and I know I'm about 1/3 of those because I click on it to add the link to emails. Part of me wonders if my cover letter is unimpressive or is it with this economy that I am "too experienced" and get over looked. In February I cold called a bunch of production companies and every single one would look at my resume and give that look of "holy crap, this guy has done a lot" and give me the ol' we are cutting back. So what and I to do in this situation?

I've got two new opportunities out there and one is with a local sports team and the other is at a large company that is know to be great to their employees. Also for the first time I have someone one the inside helping me out. To be honest, I just want a call back and maybe an interview. That way if I don't get the job at least I might have the chance to find out what I am doing wrong. My fear is that I will get the answer of I'm not doing anything wrong. That means I am done with video work, and have to find a new career.

I've seen the trend of hiring young to save money, but I wonder when that trend will level out. At some point in time quality has to be an issue. With this whole Internet low tech and the easier access to video everyone can do some kind of work. It seems that to most that just enough and that they can get by with that. Everything looks the same and has the feel of being homemade. When will the polished look come back? Will it ever? Maybe my thoughts of grandeur are false and I need to come to the realization that video is a dead art form and I need to find a new career.

Sleep

People who say they sleep like a baby usually don't have one. ~Leo J. Burke

I've not posted over the last couple of month because of a couple of reasons; I've been in a "down" mood because of the lack of a job and has caused problems all over the board and most of the time I would want to write it was very negative and dark that I would probably get phone calls from family and friends wanting me to put down the knife (I was just making a peanut butter sandwich... seriously). Then the other reason, my mind has been turned into a kind of puree or slurry which does not allow any form of thought to flow easily. What is this thing that has my brain in constant zombie mode? Lack of sleep.

For months before Logan was born I was told that I needed to get all the sleep in that I could. To those people, I hate you, you gave me the wrong advice. I needed to do the opposite and ween myself off of sleep. I'm the kind of person that needs 8 hours straight or I just don't function properly, and since the arrival of Logan, I do not get that 8 hours any more.

Also this kid can sense when I am about to enter REM sleep, 20 minutes after I hit my pillow he starts screaming. We have a system setup for feedings, I do anything prior to 2am and some how I now have the post 5:30am as well. Once the crying starts I get up, start the bottle warmer, change a diaper and then it's bottle time. If I am lucky he will be out in 30 minutes. Then there are the nights that he's up for an hour, then 5 minutes after I lay him down he's back up. One night I tried to stay up until he was hungry and that turned disastrous. I was up till almost 1am and he started crying at 1:50am. I get him a sleep and the next thing I know The Wife is waking me up and it's after 5 and I have to feed him, I finally end up falling asleep on the couch while he is asleep in the swing.

Maybe it's a good thing that I am currently unemployed, I'd be a wreck at any kind of job and I still can't figure out how I get some of my "freelance" stuff done. Logan is getting closer to sleeping longer hours but I think we are a few months away from getting him to sleep from 10-6.

The Wife and Logan are leaving for a week to see family in Ohio and maybe I can get some sleep and get myself back to a some what normal life. Maybe I will get a call back or even an interview. Yeah right, I start with the sleep and hope that another position somewhere opens up.

Unexpected Suprise

So much for the baby beard. 90 percent of you know what I'm talking about, but for the people who randomly came to the site Logan came early.

For the last few weeks people have been telling The Wife that she looked like her belly had dropped and she started to complain about her pelvic area. I thought she could go a little early, but on Monday July 13th at 3:30AM I wake up to The Wife leaning over me. Obviously I am a sleep and I have no idea what's going on, I thought see was leaving for work. "My muscus plug came out and my water broke. For weeks The Wife kept thinking up senerios about when her water was going to break. According to our baby classes, only 12 percent of all births begin with the water breaking. We had numerous friend with water breaks so law of averages were against this line of thinking. She needed to plan to have contractions and then maybe after a few hours her water breaking. Stupid classes making me look like a fool!

I get out of bed and we start to get the last items needed for the trip to the hospital. I'm calm when talking to The Wife, but inside I am freaking out that our son is coming a month early. We get on the road and we are making great time. So great of time The Wife lets me stop for a donut and a coffee. Mmmm donuts.

We get to the hospital at 4:30 and go up to the waiting area. The next hour and a half go by like a blur. The Wife is now on a gurney with an IV and a gown on. Around 5:00 we are told that it could be a while till we are scheduled, then at 6:00 we have a 7:15 time. Time started to slow down and we couldn't do anything, she's on a gurney and I'm internally freaking out. We talk and try to pass the time, but when you finally have the finish line in front of you, it feels so far away.

As we are given information, they mention the cathater will be put in a little bit. The Wife looks at me and ask, "where are they going to put that?" I explain that it's so she doesn't have to worry about going to the bathroom. Her eyes get the size of saucers and asks if this is done after the spinal tap. As a good husband I laughed for a good five minutes. She is always laughing at me when I get hurt and for some reason, seeing her worry of the cathater and not the giant hole about to be cut into her made me laugh. That was my pay back moment.

We are next informed that they are takin her to the OR and I will be put in scrubs. Me being me I lean over and ask if she can call me JD or Turk from the TV show Scrubs. She gives me the wife look of death and then I get the ol' stink eye when I ask if she can call me The Todd. We are seperated for a few minutes as I scrub up. I walk into the OR and all I see is The Wife's head and a giant sheet. It is mentioned that I can look over if I want and as I mentioned in a previous blog I did not want to see that. After about 15 minutes of pushing and moving behind the curtain we hear, "there's the butt" followed by "I think he's sucking his toes?" Followed by a cry and I look over to The Wife and she is balling, I am tearing up as well and we see our son being taken past us to another room.

I'm allowed to follow and to be honest a new born baby is kind of discusting, they are slimey and covered in blood. I of course don't care and crack out the video camera and digital camera and shoot away. After a few minutes they have me put the camera down and I am now holding my son. It's strange yet awesome all rolled into one. I take him in to see The Wife and as I sit down I accidentally glanced past the curtain, all I saw was a giant hole and what appeared to be flesh. I duck down fast and shudder for a second. The Wife is crying even more now and she gets to see him for a few minutes.

Logan and I leave the OR and we go to the nursery for all the tests and everyone loves this kid. Look at that picture with all that blond hair. Watch out newborn girls, Logan is on the prowl. By this time, he has only cried once, when he first came out. He was vocal, but never did that typical cry you hear from babies. The other two newborns in the room are doing that, but Logan is quiet. He passes most of his test with flying colors and after 30 minutes I go back to see The Wife.

For having a giant hole cut into her, she is doing pretty well and it even surprised the nurses. She instantly saw Logan again and went into mother mode in .00000001 seconds. From that point on things have gone smoothly. I know I'm a week behind and I'll try and catch everyone up within the next few days

Complaint Department

I will try and make this as short an not complicated as I can, but I am going to try and not reveal some names so this might be tough to read.

A few days ago I was listening to a podcast of Bill Simmons (The Sports Guy) and he interviewed ESPN radio host Colin Cowherd. I use to be a fan of Cowherd, but I thought he got a little too big for his britches and stopped listening. Yet, I thought what the heck, I'm going to listen to this podcast. To my surprise, he seemed to be less jerkish than on his radio show and was even candid. Simmons did a good job an even brought up the fact he helped crash a blog. Cowherd apologized and to be honest I was a little shocked that he appologized and he is now a fan of that site.

Oddly enough I read that site as well and when I saw a response to the interview I got pretty much what I thought. They were bitter and upset and complained about how hard it is to make money as a blog and it seemed they had a thing against Simmons starting out on an AOL server and now being a success. They also felt Cowherd was a little demeaning at times towards blogs I decided to send a email to the site and just mentioned they need to back up a little on Cowherd and that blogs have only been around a few years and ESPN (for some reason the bane to all sports bloggers) started out small.

I actually got a response and come to find out that the creator passed the assignment off to another writer because he was too close. A good move and I read this writers comments to me and he had valid points and I moved on.

While driving to a shoot for a webcast something dawned on me about the writer... he was 19. Wait, he was complaining about making money and he is 19 and in college? At 19 I was working summers at Bob Evans saving all the change in tips so I could do laundry for a few months. I understand the main writers are probably older and my have more expenses, but when you are in college and an intern at this site, should you be writing about how hard it is to make a living as a sports blogger? I'll back track this to the Simmons comments in the article, Simmons is about to turn 40 and should be in a position to be making very good money at ESPN. I'm just stunned that I never picked up on this kids age until a day later. I think you can make money as a blogger in this new age, will it be tough, yeah, but you need luck, a story that breaks big and quality work to keep the momentum of that big break. Maybe that website should not pass off an article like this to a 19 year old intern. Like I said the kid seemed nice and could do something in the future, but for this story, give it to an older writer.

Baby Beard

We are in the last month of the pregnancy and I feel like this is the playoffs and we need something else... baby beard. Friday morning is the last time I will shave until Logan finally comes. I mean hockey players do it for the Stanley Cup and this is kind of as big as the Stanley Cup so I might as well try and get as much luck as I can. The longest I have gone without shaving is about two weeks and it was driving me crazy. Hopefully this will get The Wife a little help in the pain department, if she sees me struggling through the itchy part of full beard then maybe she will think that she can get through this. Who am I kidding, she will yell at me for complaining about an itchy beard while she as a small person inside her. At least this way I can save money on razors and shaving cream.

I'm taking a picture every day that I remember. I already forgot on day two, but you can't tell any difference between day two and three so that really doesn't matter.