Ain't No Kinda Man

One of my favorite movies is O Brother Where Art Thou and one of the memorable lines in the film is Delmar talking about getting the family farm back and he says; "You ain't no kind of man, if you ain't got land." Well, The Wife and I are about to get land. That house over in the upper left will hopefully be ours by the end of June. We had the house inspected and the people fixed everything we wanted and even did some of the other stuff as well. Then today we were told by the mortgage guy to go ahead and tell give Fried Chicken Dr our 30 day notice.

I'm a excited about owning something this big, but at the same time... I'm now in charge of taking care of it. When something goes wrong I can't call the super or the property conglomerates, I have to fix it or pay someone too. I have to mow the lawn and take care of the plants and flowers around the yard. As a kid I hated to mow the lawn and on top of it I am allergic to fresh cut grass. With all the bad, I can't wait to move in and create a place of our own.

He's back

Thanks to blogger's post scheduler Gilbert is back up and running. I'm just for some reason I've been getting more traffic lately, I'm hoping to get a little love for the gnome.

Marriage

This past Wednesday was our 2nd wedding anniversary. It's a little amazing that it has been two years already, we have been through a lot. We moved to North Carolina 6 months after the wedding to a place where we only knew two people, that alone could have been disastrous. Yet, we are still together. We were told that the first year was the hardest and to be honest it was very tough. Even though we had been dating for almost three years there were little things we had to figure out, then there was always being around each other and finally finances. For use the finances was the toughest issue, I had a lot of debt and she had just lost her job. There were many a fights, but we still loved each other.

The move down here could have ended it, yet it has worked for us. We were told my family members that we were moving to avoid our problems. For me the move was never about avoidance, it was about a chance to finally get financial secure. I think we have proven that person wrong, look at us we are buying a house. We would never have been able to do that in Columbus. The move also made us closer, we had to, we didn't know anyone else. We have made friends, but we can be comfortable with each other.

I can understand why we have a high divorce rate, but at the same time I wonder if these people actually knew what they were getting into or were they willing to work at the marriage. Who knows, I'm just wonder what the next two years will bring for us.

Wasted

The one thing I can not stand is having my time wasted, so when I go into work and do my job and at then end of the day have nothing to show for it on air... I generally get all pissy and make the normal snide comments. Tonight I was pissy and was tossing out snide comments.

I had an easy night, I only shot one story and it was about Mike Farrell (BJ from MASH) was in town to talk about MASH and promote his new book. I know the story is sooo hard hitting, my thinking is, it's local and could be a kicker. I get to Quail Ridge Books, a locally owned bookstore, and the place is packed. The owner gets up to start everything off and she acknowledged that my station was there and I even had 10 people, or so, ask when it will air. I give the standard, 11pm baring cat in a tree line and I'm off.

I didn't get an interview because Mr Farrell showed up later than expected (for interviews not the event, just in case he ever google's himself and sees this story), so the odds of me getting interview is slim and also he's not going to get done signing till after 9 at the latest. I have some nice video, I cut it and put it in the show. around 10:30 the web producer comes over and asks if I can send him a copy of my video because he can't get it from the show. I look at him strange and he realizes that I did not know my story was cut. I go nuts, my story was cut because I didn't get an interview and somehow the story is less relevant without the interview, so instead puppies and tigers were shown. I'm not making this up, a story about a dalmatian and a tiger from god knows where is in the show instead of a local bookstore with a star from a famous show.

I keep hearing how we are suppose to be hyper local, but I never understand it when we do things like this. I kept hearing it went to the web, but we are still in broadcast and why are we not hyper local there. Some may say at least I got paid, I know, but at least I'm trying to make my product better and that is why I am upset. I get paid to take pretty pictures and I want the world, well OK the Triangle to see them. I shouldn't post this, but I don't care, the person I'm upset doesn't read my blog so who cares... I need a drink

Weezer

Living in the musical void known as Raleigh I have to rely on people like King Tom to keep me informed on the comings and goings of music. Thanks to Tom I learned that Weezer has a new album due out on June 3rd. I tell you want, from the two songs I have heard I am hooked and I already pre-ordered the album on iTunes.

Weezer is one of two to three bands that I listened to in high school that are still around. With the current carp thats out there I would think bands like Weezer would have died out years ago, instead they keep coming back with new music that is relevant. I currently work in an office where the staff is somehow younger than I am... on average of about 5 years. So when I hear the buzz about Weezer from them it's a little shocking. It just goes to shows you the power of the Weezer, good old classic rock n roll for the masses, yet not made for the masses.

The video above is for the single Pork and Beans, only a few bands can pull of this concept video of grabbing all the web memes and combining them into a video that isn't annoying. I was some what shocked that they got people from these youtube videos into the video. Well, probably not too shocked, they probably need what ever money the Weez threw at them. Just a great video that was not overly complex and yet creative.

Sick

Yesterday was a long day and my allergies were kicking up. I was feeling pretty crappy, but then this morning I had officially a allergy cold. If you do not suffer from allergies, an allergy cold is a lot like a normal cold, except your not contagious and for me it can cause dizziness and falling down. I should have called off of work today, but I was stupid an went in anyways (stupid 1.5 days of sick time remaining). From what I've been told I look like the walking dead, and better yet, we had spot news and since I'm working about quarter speed, that causes problems. I just want to go home and sleep.

Their Like Seasons But More Suck

For those not in the TV business let me give you a little insight into the world of television news. Four times a year companies like Nielson find out how many people are watching different shows. From there the sales staff can figure out how much to charge, the more people the more money. We in the business call these four month sweeps. You can tell when it is sweeps because there are always new episodes of your favorite shows. In news a lot of times you see those "You will die if you don't watch tonight's 11pm show!" or "Did you know you can contact 9 different forms of the plague from eating out? We'll tell you which restraints will kill you." You have all seen those stories.

The month of May is a HUGE sweeps month and we went all out and I somehow got tapped to do one of the series. The concept my three part series is that kids are giving out too much info on Facebook. So we set up a couple of accounts with two of our reporters and these accounts had actual photos of two people that are in their early 30s, so it's not like we tricked them. The reporters set out and invited a lot of kids and within three days had over 100 friends.

You can watch the videos to find out what happened, I'm just happy they are over. In a normally I will churn out one story and for the most part move on to another the next day. Not on this bad boy, we worked for over a week on it. We interview three kids and their parents and the Attorney General of North Carolina. I cracked out my light kit ever time and I think most of the lighting is really good. You can hopefully tell I put some work into it. Then we spent one whole day in a studio with a jib camera so we could get some great flying shots. Then I spent 5 days editing. I never take that long to edit, but when lawyers are involved it takes a lot longer. I would finish one piece, send it off and then legal could have problems with it so we would fight over what needed to be changed and then I would most likely change everything.

By the end I was numb, I blame these stories for a lack of posting this month. I think they are two pretty good stories and hopefully someone gets something out of it. I hope I get out of doing a sweeps story in July.

Flight of the Awesome!

I've been in a blogging funk, I've been stuck wanting to write, but unable to get the words out. I'd sit down and open up blogger, but as I start a new blog, I look at Risk and I decided to play that instead. Then the other issue is I usually blog when I get off of work, but lately I'd rather go to bed and read for a while. Reading has helped me with my writing, yet it also is taking me away from it. So to get back into it here is a post I can knock out quickly and it is a good topic.

For a while now I was told about this band called Flight of the Conchord; they had a show on HBO and I was told they where hilarious. With a name like that it was hard to remember and I never got the spelling correct. Finally, someone sent me a link and I tell you what, it was genius! The above video is called Business Time and it is 1. hilarious 2. we crafted 3. catchy.

Flight of the Conchords are a "Folk/Afro-beat/Comedy" duo from New Zealand, and musically they sound a little cheesy, but that's part of the craftiness. I love the lyrics are classic, my favorite line so far is in the song "A Kiss is Not a Contract," the song is about kissing does not lead to sex. The line is "They call it a (pants) fly because it takes you up to heaven." Another example is in the video below. "Red heads not war heads, blonds not bombs, we're talking brunettes not fighter jets." I can't stop laughing when I listen to every song.

They just released an album and you need to go out and listen to it. If you want go to youtube and look around. Who knew two kiwi's could be this great.

Long Trip

It's Saturday and I am very tired. I am currently in Ironton, Oh for my nieces graduation from college. I'm not tired from the graduation, I'm tired from the stress of driving Thursday night. You see that picture, I had to drive through the area where that happened.

To maximize out time with my family, we thought to was a great plan to drive after I got off work at midnight, stay overnight in Beckley, WVa and drive the last three hours on Friday morning. Well, there were a storms a comin' and I heard it was a bad one. Come to find out it was storm that had large amounts of hail and tornadoes. I decide to slow down and hope we miss it. Luckily we missed the hail and tornadoes, yet we had to deal with the aftermath. Over turned semis and trees on the interstate so we lost an hour and a half from that. By the time we got to Beckley it was already 5AM and I said screw it, I want to get there and I'll sleep for a few hours before the rest of the family makes it. Well, yet again fate was against us. A semi jack knifed going south bound and they decided to close our lanes to clean it up. We had to sit there for an hour and a half.

We finally made it to Ironton around 9AM. It took over 9 hours for a trip that takes 6 and a half. I hope the trip back goes a lot easier than the way up.

Election Fun

When I moved to North Carolina I was hoping to get away from election drama. Well, that has not happened. Even though, the North Carolina primary is one of the last primaries it now is of great importance. Hillary Clinton needs to do well to keep Barack Obama from having a chance of winning out right. So this means I have to cover the candidates and their families. Monday's assignment is covering Bill Clinton in a library. I am not looking forward to this; a small location, secret service, "outside issues" which I am not at liberty to discuss.

The big thing with these assignments is they are a lot of work for not a lot of air time. The event is suppose to start till 6:00pm, yet the set up is at 2:30. I know the event will not start on time and will last probably an hour or more. These press events are like tornado, they roll in and you feel like you've been pulled all over the place and you end up walking around afterwards wondering what just happened. These events are not for the people in the community, most of the people there will have been hand picked and they just want TV cameras to be there so that more people will see it. I think the '04 Presidential election then the '06 Ohio governors race has turned me off of covering elections. I just hope today does not suck .

Home Alone

The Wife left Friday afternoon for a women's retreat and won't be home till late on Saturday, so you know what that means... PAR-TAY!!! Oh man did it get wild on Fried Chicken Dr, there were ladies, guys, cigars, copious amounts of alcohol I mean the cops even showed up... to PAR-TAY! Woooo what a blast!

OK, that was a lie, you all know me and probably figured out my night alone and if you said order a pizza and watch seasons 3 and 5 of the Simpsons then you won the prize (as usual the prize is a hug from me). It's pretty sad state of affairs for me, but at the same time it was totally awesome. So I am now resigned to the fact I am a married guy and have become "that guy." I was never a partier, but I use to go out. Oh well, Lucy and I had fun any ways.

Hey Let's Kill Everyone

With the first episode for about a month, Lost wasted no time to "rev" it up. We had explosions, deceit, Risk, killing of small characters, killing of medium characters, and a smoke monster. This was a Ben episode with a flash forward so it was weird yet awesome. I'm still wondering how Ben awoke in the middle of the Tanzania. I wonder if his secret room has something to do with it. The mercs kill Alex and Ben exclaims "He changes the rules." Then you find out that Ben and Whitemore have some kind of arraignment. It felt like a bizarre Trading Places moment, instead of a dollar wager it's dead daughters.

I felt like I learned a lot about the island, yet I am still utterly confused about everything and have no idea what I learned. I'm guessing that the Whitemore's were first on the island or had something to do with Darhma and we know what happened from there. Who is evil? I don't know who I should be rooting for. The Losties are just screwed no matter who wins. Look at Sayid, Ben manipulates Sayid with the death of his wife (I'm still thinking Ben has something to do with it). From the looks of it Jack ruptures his appendix Hurley is now all alone with Locke and Ben, I'd say that's a lose/lose.

Oh yeah, then you have the return of Smokey the friendly killer cloud of doom! I guess Ben does control it, how, we do not know. Maybe it's something in Ben's Harry Potteresque room that allows him to control it. I also don't remember Smokey looking that long, nor do I remember it having any train like attributes. Maybe it's just me, but I expected to see a conductor on the back of Smokey. Onto the random thoughts!

I really hate Daniel, I am tired of his bad lying and his constant wishy washiness. Every time he opens his mouth I want to punch him so we can get the truth.

Early on I didn't like Miles and now I kind of do. He is getting shoved around, is lost... he's slowly become one of the Losties.

Hurly is right, Australia is the key to risk.

OK we saw Bernard, but where is Rose?

House Shopping

We met with our realtor today and look at 7 houses. It's feels a little weird going into someones house while they are away. I felt like I needed to steal something or look in their drawers, I did neither by the way.

We saw a few empty houses as well and it's interesting to see how it actually "looks better" when there is furniture in the house. I always thought it would be the other way around, but you get to see how the couch could go or where to put the bed. I can use my imagination to see where everything will go, but sometimes it's easier if someone already had it laid out. I also noticed we have a lot more crap everywhere. It's not that we are cluttered, it's just they have less items presented. When we move we may have to store more stuff instead of having it all out in the open.

We saw a few houses we liked, the best was in a small subdivision, the big thing for me and subdivisions is cookie cutter houses and fees that you have to pay. Luckily this subdivision has different looking houses with lots of different sizes. To be honest this house is right on the edge of our price range. If it was a year from now when we have paid off two more bills, it might not matter. Right now it does and I'm a little worried. We have been pre-approved for a loan larger than this house, but still, you have to be able to afford to live there. this is the only problems with past financial transgressions. They will come back and haunt you... stupid aught 5!

Poor Lucy

Yesterday we were responsible dog parents and took Lucy to get fixed. She has been tired since then and not allowed to go on long walks and I can't rough house with her. The worst part of the experience has been the cone. She started to lick the incisions and we had to put it on her. She was not a fan and fought us every step of the way.

After we got it on, she walked around the house moping, whining and bumping into things. It was sad and yet somehow funny. Lucy finally laid down and dealt with it; she is not a happy camper.

Rick Rolled?

I was visiting one of my favorite photographer message board and someone had a Youtube link to story he had shot. He loved it and wanted to know what we thought. The link led to the above video, supposedly we got "Rick Rolled." I guess it's the new fun web prank, you tell someone about something cool on Youtube and when you get there, you get Rick Astley. I can't figure out why this is funny. The video on Youtube has over 7 million hits, so there has to be a lot of people doing this. Maybe I'm out of touch, maybe it's actually because I remember when the song was a hit. To me this is on the level of chain letters, bad photoshoped pictures and guys saying "pull my finger." Please explain to me why this is funny? It's a fair song with a crappy 80s video. Wouldn't Flock of Seagulls I Ran be better how about Men Without Hats Safety Dance and my personal choice Snap! I Got The Power. You can be Snapped or Got Powered. This is getting kind of hectic and if I get Rick Rolled again or I will attack you don't want that.

Update; the above video is not working, I guess the Rick Roll people want you to ask for permission to embed the video. How about no, if you want go watch it, I just don't want to encourage them any more than I have to.

Why Are You Calling Me!

OK, I was going to wait to do this, but people are forcing me to reveal this a little earlier. We are looking to buy a house... again. So I was looking for property values and since the house is technically in a small rural county, they don't have any of that information on the web. To be honest, they barely have anything on their webpage.

So I go to Realtor.com to look for property value, because I know the house is not worth that much. Well, you have to go through some hoops to get the value; including a page for buying a car and selling a house. Stupid me did not use a fake phone number. As I am driving to pay for my car licence I get a call from a chevy dealer. He thinks I'm interested in a Aveo. I inform him that it was the first car I could put down so I could move on to find the property value. Two hours later another Chevy guy calls me another hour later I get a call from a lady asking if we need help selling our house. Obviosuly we don't have a house and who would want an Aveo?

This is what I get for using the internet to find information.

One for Me Nineteen to Uncle Sam

Today being tax day I guess I will have to do the obligatory people who are doing there taxes at the last minute. To be honest we sent our government tax in yesterday. We actually finished it back in March, but we owed this year. In the grand scheme of things, its not too much, but still we owed Uncle Sam over $750! So you can see why we waited to pay.

Yet, with all that money going out, North Carolina owed us over $400. Obviously we are using that to help out, and luckily I picked up 46 hours of over time on my last two pay checks. With The Wife's job, it's always going to be like this. We are finding new charities and other tax deductible ways to help out next year, so maybe we can get it down to the point we just send the government what North Carolina sends us. We also may have a big way to get a tax break... more on that later (Crosses fingers).

Finally The March Madness Wrap Up

I've been back for a week and you may be wondering why it took me so long to get a wrap up of my trip. The simple answer is, I was exhausted. I have never had a trip were I worked that hard, had so many problems and still get everything done. I'd say it was more exhausting than my post Katrina trip, and on that trip I slept on the ground two nights.

After my last post trying to convince UNC that they needed to win because they were loosing to a guy named Sasha, things didn't get any better. UNC lost and I had to go into the locker room for post game talk about how they were not prepared to play. We got a lot of great sound and things were looking pretty good. It was a late night but the next day should go pretty easy. Yet again, Murphy had other plans.

Sunday we had laptop issues ranging from my external hard drive dying to Gibby's laptop not reading P2 cards. Then here's where it really went down hill, the internet in some of the rooms in the hotel didn't work. Let me revise that only two rooms could not get internet connections; mine and Gibby's, the two people feeding out copious amounts of video. After having the business center guy not care about our plight Penn got his room to work and I continued to deal with the motel's engineer and his compatriots on the phone in some undisclosed location. All I got was I'm sorry for the problem and a bill for internet usage. We barely got everything in for the 6pm show... how barely... lets just say less than 5 minutes barely.

After we were done, no one at home knew we had a problem, in TV that's the biggest thing. You can have a day from hell where nothing works, yet when it's time for the story to air and it goes as planned all problems are for not.

After all the problems we decided to hit the town, we caught up with a couple of radio guys and had a good time. While sitting there I hear one of the radio guys mention he sees Dan Dakich. Poor radio guy, he did not know I'm an angry Bowling Green fan that is willing to make a fool out of himself. I taunted Dakich with everything but the kitchen sink; you suck, how many players left you, you destroyed our program, good job at Indiana, I think I even started screaming Ay Ziggy Zoomba. My sports guy was laughing while the radio guys hit under the table. They had interviewed him earlier in the day and here I am launching attack on him next to them.

Here's the thing Dakich has zero connection to North Carolina, so why where they talking to a guy who was not going to be out of a job and had no way of coming to our area. That's the problem with radio guys, they only worry about connections, they are almost as bad as PR guys. Of course I would never have yelled at him if I had my gear with me, I'm a fan and when I see a guy like Dakich or Urban Meyer I'm going to let them have it.

A Guy Named Sasha is Beating You

Dear UNC,

You are letting a guy named Sasha beat you. How can you allow that to happen, his name is Sasha! There is no way a guy named Sasha should be allowed to play anything other than figure skating or fencing. You are down eight, start playing like the other team has a guy named Sasha on it.

Either Win or Just Lose!

So I run out to the live shot to make sure it's good, when I get there the lead was down to 4. I set up the lights and get everything ready. I run back in and the lead is up to 8! Come on Tarheels take the lead or lose big, I want to know when my flight will be. If it gets ugly, we can call and change our flights, if they start to win everything is fine. I hate the waiting.