Interview Beard

Right before Logan was born I decided to grow a baby beard. I was going to grow a beard for the last month of The Wife's pregnancy. Of course three days later he was born. I have decided to bring back the beard and this time it's for a job interview. The last time I shaved was Sunday January 10th and as you can see from the picture the growth is starting to pick up. I just need something to do during this time. I just hope that this experiment ends as fast as the last beard attempt.

This Ain't Flipper

Jeff Foxworthy use to do a bit about when he was a kid and the President was on television it was a total catastrophe "Oh, no the Presidents on, we're gonna miss Flipper!" Times have changed and even more than I had thought. A TV show has forced Obama to change the time or the date of his State of the Union address. What show could possible force the leader of the free world to do so or maybe it's a super natural force from the Earth that is creating this change. Would it have anything to do with Ben Linus and John Locke? Yes it does, that show is Lost.

Not just any episode of the greatest show on ABC, but the premiere of the last season. As you can tell I am a follower of Lost and I have been waiting for a new episodes since the credits rolled on May 13th. Regretfully I have devoted a lot of time to this show and I want answers to the show. The thing with Lost is if you miss one minute of the show, that's it, your done because you missed something. I just know that if I am not watching it live I might miss not find out what "smokey" really is because my DVR will crap out.

I understand the importance of the State of the Union it's the Presidents way of telling the nation what he plans to do for the next year. The only problem is with ability to send information out to the masses in an instant, the State of the Union has become nothing more than a campaign PR moment. He's going to talk about health care, the economy, the wars, people in the audience that have done something and he will get about 50 standing ovations which will push the address time to about and hour. Then of course NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN and Fox News will have a pissing match as to who will be on longer and will fill their airwaves with pundits on both sides of the politic aisle as they try and push for their parties views. Because this is what America wants, mindless blather by people who think they are smarter than the masses.

It may be blasphemy but I won't learn anything from the State of the Union, if there is something new it won't amount to anything. Remember when Bush mentioned hydrogen fuel, how did that work out I haven't seen Howie Long push one of those yet. I get the whole pushing the agenda thing but I am unemployed and can't get a call back to save my life, Just let me watch Lost and have a moment where I don't have to worry about losing my house or why I can't find a job.

A Man's Guide to Babies

With King Tom and others having "youngins" and Logan about to hit the 6 month mark I thought I'd share what I have learned about this whole baby thing. Going into the new phase in life I had no real idea of what was going to happen. My whole goal was to follow the lead of The Wife and keep my head down and hope Logan made it through. You see no one told me the important things I needed to know about dealing with babies.

First go back and read this previous post and FREAKING DO IT! I'll sum it up in once sentence; If you are having a baby ween yourself off sleep.

After the little one is born and you are in the hospital look around the room and find things that you can take. I'm mostly talking about diapers and formula and anything that is not nailed down that the baby will use. The thing is they are billing you for everything and keeping track of it and if you have any kind of insurance, little things like diapers and formula are such a small part of the bill it's barely going to show up on the section you will have to pay. One set of friends ended up with 15 packages of diapers and 11 formula boxes. We didn't make out with that much, but as we are checking out I asked the nurse for a little extra and she loaded us up.

Here is why the diaper thing is so huge, tell family and friends to buy you stage 2 and 3 diapers. If you can make out like a bandit from the hospital you are set for infant diapers and that leaves you with stage 1 diapers. I still don't fully understand all the stages but the one thing I know Logan was out of infants within a month and was in stage 2 by around 3 month. He is now exiting stage 2 into 3. Baby don't stay in those early stages long so you can afford to buy that first stage. Stock up on the later ones as early as you can. It's not like they are fruit that go bad. We had two giant boxes of stage 3 diapers just sitting in a closet waiting for this day.

When you are using all your gifted diapers, use the ones that you do not have a gift recite first. Babies R Us are crazy about this, we had to jump through hoops to prove that the diapers came from their store so we could exchange them for a larger size. I understand that we live in a time where people are going to try and get away with murder but it gets a little crazy. I'd even say if you are given diapers as a present ask the person for the recipte. I know that might sound a little harsh but freaking diapers are not cheap.

Diapers are freaking expensive and Target brand diapers kick ass! Logan for some reason always pees through Huggies and Pampers, but put him those polka dotted Target brand diapers and he will stay dry. I think I bought 96 diapers for 13 bucks or something last week, now look at how much that would have been with a major brand. For 20 more it's 33.99 and that's on the cheap side. It's a total racked and they know it. It's like professional video cameras, the cameras do not really cost any where from $6,000-20,000 but they know it's niche market and people have to buy them. Diapers are the same, every baby needs them and they are going to make you pay.

Speaking of diapers lets go to what ends up in them... poop. I never changed a diaper till we had Logan and it's an experience. For a new dad here's the deal, it's black and looks like tar at first. It doesn't smell but looks like it came out of a tar pit and a miniature dinosaur bones are in there somewhere. Once the Labrea Tar Pit ends it's not that bad for a while, it's a little messy but still not a lot of smell. Once they start to use more formula then that's when it becomes bad. For some strange reason this smell does not effect women as much as men. She can muscle through when I get the gag reflex going. It must be a mother thing because that smell gets foul and I need to cover my nose. She wants to laugh at me, but hey I could turn into 50s dad and make her do them all so at least I am helping.

Back to the sleep thing, I love sleep and early on I was a creature of the night, now I go to bed early and here is why. Babies have an extra sense that science has not figured out yet. They know when everyone in the house is sleeping and they hate that. Starting out Logan would wake up ever two to three hours and want food. I said I'd take the late night feedings. I'd try and try to stay up until he woke up. Some nights it worked, most nights not so much. The second I'd lay down and start to get into that deep sleep he would scream his head off. It was like clock work and I think infants hate when more than two thirds of the house is asleep. This is where researchers need to be doing their work. My advice is go to sleep and just forget trying to time it out, sleep is your friend.

Another thing for new dads is remember babies are repulsed by testosterone, it's like Brut and any woman under 50, they don't go together. In the beginning if The Wife left for more than two hours I'd have a screaming baby on my hands. The Wife would return and the second I handed Logan to her the insanity would stop. As the months rolled on the time has increased and now I can go about 5 hours before bedlam is unleashed. Don't get frustrated, I've been told this happens to everyone and sometime after a year it changes and babies want their dads more. Just roll with the punches, buy really nice earphones and throw on some speed metal or something loud and wait for that change.

Finally, don't let the mother get all crazy and buy a billion outfits. Logan started out 16 inches
(don't quote me on that) and now he's about 25 inches. Babies grow fast and we have some outfits he has only worn once and a few he never got to wear. The big thing is find friends who have had babies 5 months earlier and someone who is having one after you and share all the clothes. We have two good friends, one with a one year old and another with a 9 month old. We have given them clothes and they have given us the ones they can't use anymore. It's going to save you a ton of money. It might also help to invest in those horse blinders or something to help keep the momma away from the baby clothes section. I may get a few nasty emails and comments from women in my family or passerbys but all I know is The Wife still comes home with new outfits all the time. Most are on clearance but it gets crazy and before you blink the kid is popping out of the outfit.

Some people will read this and think that I am crazy for not realizing all this stuff earlier, but hey for a lot of guys out there this will be new and they need to know this stuff. I'm probably forgetting a lot, if you have a tip add it in the comments or for those that know me email me and I'll try and do more of these. As men we need to stick together and have our own guide to this baby thing.

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.

Final Baby Class

With Logan being breech we almost didn't go to the last class, but since we threw 80 buck down we might as well go. Fortunately we went because they talked about C-sections. I had one problem with the instructor on this part of the class. We told her that Logan is breech and that a c-section was scheduled and she starts by saying that almost all c-sections are caused by bad health and things that could have been avoided. Well, geez, that's for that up lifting and made us feel all warm and fuzzy because we now thing we caused this. The biggest problem with the instructor is she is very anti drugs, pro breast feeding and pro natural birth. During the epidural lecture she kept telling us about how she never had one and all the women in the class are not in pain, they are just pushing hard. Last time I checked the only people to yell that loud and much were tennis players. I don't mind giving her views, but at times it was a little much. Give us the information and we will decide. I'm having the Stadol, I don't know about The Wife, but I'll need something to take the edge off.

She then went on to mention other reasons for a c-section and we saw our two reasons; breech and placental eruption. The eruption part was from an earlier incident, but that is part of the reason they don't want to try and turn him around. I start feeling a little better, then they showed the video. I was like the scene from Alien where that creature ripped it's way out of that guys stomach. I have seen way too much from this class.

I'm happy the class is over, but I think someone needs to retake it. The Wife keeps asking me questions about contractions and I keep giving the answers. "When do we have to go to the hospital?" I answer, "When the contractions are about 5 minutes apart and you should be about 4 centimeters." Why am I the one that has to know this? I should be asking not her. I finally asked her why she can't remember this. While watching the movies all she kept thinking was let's go up stairs and have this thing now!

I hope for both our sakes he does not come early. I feel we will be one of "those" expecting parents, all crazy and clueless.

Defiance In The Womb

The Wife and I went in for a baby appointment today and we found out that Logan is still breech. What does that mean for us? The Wife now gets to have a C section sometime around August 4th. My first thought was great, we paid for those child birth classes for nothing. The Wife's thought was great, now I can't tell out friends what a natural child birth is like.

They told us there is a 5% chance that he will turn around and with The Wife having gestational Diabetes, a placenta up front and this being our first child, they don't want to mess with trying to move him around. To be honest I'm fine with that, now we will know pretty much when he will be born and can prepare for it. The Mother-in-Law now can book a flight and we can get the house cleaned and ready to go.

The Revolution

I've been doing some work for a natural life science website that does a weekly webcast about the pharmacutial industry, I know it sounds hella awesome. Since the owner of the site has moved to Raleigh and the web presenter (I use that loosely) is a friend, we have been featuring different cities in each episode. This week being having Independence Day we thought it would be a great idea to do it at a Revolutionary war site.

Growing up in Ohio, I always thought of the Revolutionary War as happening in land far away, even the Civil War to an extent. As a few locations to shoot was mentioned, it finally dawned on me. The Revolutionary War happened close to where I live. Wake Forest is within an hour and a half of three locations that are registered sites.

We picked the Alston House or as it is known, the House in the Horseshoe. In the grand scheme of things it was not a major battle, it was barely a skirmish, but the house still has holes in it from the battle. Let me help you sink that in, these bullet holes are 227 years old. I'm not talking little paux marks I'm talking holes that go through a wall that then lead to another hole on the other side of the room.

What happened was this Alston guy had a group of patriots and they were attacked by a group of loyalist called the Tories. Alston's group thought they were going to lose and ended up retreating into his house. After a few days Alston surrendered and that was that. Your never going to see a major motion picture made of this incident, but for me it was the greatest thing. I was walking around in a house during the founding of our nation. These guys fought to become what we are today. Did these guys push us over the edge and made us free? No, but at least they tried. If I were alive I probably would have had the same thing happen to me, it's just my luck (or I would have died of dysentery).

So for me this Independence Day weekend, I feel I have learned a little and feel a little closer to our founding fathers. It's not every day that you can stick your finger into a hole made from enemy fire that's over 200 years old.

If you are wondering why I did not post a picture of the holes... I forgot to take a picture, I have video of them so that my get posted later.

Baby Class Update

My sister Julie wanted an update about how baby class is going and all I have to say is I have seen too many breasts and vaja jays for my comfort. I keep hearing about how beautiful the birth of a child is and I want to know if these are the same people who enjoy crime scene photos. With TV shows like Baby Day and whatever else TLC shows, they usually blur out the lower region and truthfully that's fine with me. The class on the other hand shows it all. There's screaming, yelling, and a blood covered body sliding out of another person. It's like Alien, but with less death and toxic spit.

Coming from the TV world I sit in this class thinking how did the production crews get permission from these people to be in there. I had trouble getting people to talk about gas prices and these guys have a camera two feet away from the action. I can't get a digital camera two feet near The Wife before she starts freaking out. Yet after watching the carnage in the video The Wife leans over EVERY time and says that she wants to have the baby now. My reaction is why isn't this the 50s, I get to sit in a waiting room with 5 other dads and then the nurse comes out and says it's a boy. I get all excited and hand out cigars. I'm guessing it's going to be different when it's my kid, but freaking a man, do they need two solid weeks of showing me the delivery?

There has be one conversation I did giggle at for a few moments... episiotomies. This is where the doctors snip the region below the birth canal and the rectum. For most people my age, that region is know as the taint. I don't know why this turns me into a 13 year old boy, but it does. The Wife hates when I bring up the episiotomy, because she does not want it done and I giggle like a school boy. There was one point in the class where the instructor talked about rubbing some ointment around this area. The Wife leans over and gives me the best movie reference she has in months. "Can I just spray a little Pam down there?" Look at the above movie clip and you laugh as much as I did in the class.

This past week we had practice with dolls on how to waddle them and how to take their temperature. On the temperature there are two ways to do this, under the arm in rectally. The under the arm one seems pretty easy. Then we learned how to do the other and a collective groan went through the room. The instructor said the baby probably won't enjoy this. Really? The baby doesn't want something shoved into that orifice? I'm glad I'm past that stage and can just do an oral thermometer.

Finally, I felt bad for one guy in the class. We had to answer some questions and his was about warming up a bottle. He started out with the easy answer of running it under the faucet. Then he gave a wrong answer and said microwave. I thought four women in the class were about to get up and club him like a baby seal. He tried to recover by saying he was testing everyone but the damage was done, he's "that father" the one who is going to screw up his kid. To be honest, I would have probably said the same thing and looking around the room there were at least two others that would have said microwave. I'm glad we had the easy question about introducing your pets to the newborn (thank you Shawn, Melissa and magazine article in the doctors waiting area).

Next week will be just as fun, breast feeding and rehearsal for delivery. At least we're done with things coming out of vaginas.

Recital Work

This past weekend I shot my first long recital, I had to clarify that because I've shot three mini musical recitals. While shooting and editing what has been condensed down to a three hour program I have learned a few things and also I have some questions.

The biggest question that I kept asking was when does grace occur. When I say grace I mean the fluidity while dancing. The five year olds were cute, but they weren't really moving to the music. Instead they were just jumping up and down and doing what they thought they were taught. As the age of each group started to rise I started to notice that around middle school some people were starting to show signs of grace. Of course, others were flopping around like fish, grace is something that can't be taught. Trust me I am not graceful at all, and this is not a slight towards The Wife, but grace has not been her strong suit. I remember in first grade during music class the teacher had me stand up and sing a song. I was actually singing, it takes a few years of like to actually sing and not just say the words in a rythmic pattern. What is that age when grace starts to creep in? What is the age when you finally say yeah, maybe you need to do something else.

Then I started to wonder, do the parents of the ungraceful not see the fact their child has no rhythm or major skill at dancing. One girl looked to be in high school and you could tell she had no desire to be on that stage. The other two girls dancing with her, were not the best dancers but they were putting out a very admiral effort. The other was going through the motions. I kept imagining her inner dialog.

"Gosh, why am I still doing this... step ball change... I hate dance, like, I haven't wanted to dance for like three years... hop, pop, slide... I just want to go home and read Twilight for the fifteenth time... spin, drop, pepper grinder... Edward Cullen is so dreamy."

Then you had the kids that you could tell LOVED being on stage yet did not have any skill. For them I say keep dancing, I would be in this group, they are oblivious to everything, but they just gotta dance man!

There were many kids on stage that just did a great job and have some sort of skill, yet with those kids there is a subset, the divas. They believe they have skill and they believe they are the next big Broadway star. Even though they can be a little "over the top" to be honest those are the kids with the parents that will ALWAYS by a DVD and even though I hope my kid will never turn out that way. The more the merrier, keep buying my DVDs for $25 and help me make a living.

For the most part things for me went off with out a problem, except for one guy. I'm shooting a tap group and this guy walks up to me all angry asking for the manager. It takes me a few seconds to wonder what's going on and during that time I swear I smelled Bourbon. I tell him I think the back because there is a production going on. He keeps asking me questions and finally I had to tell him I am not connected with the company directly, I'm just freelance. He storms off, come to find out his child's name was left off the play bill. I hated it for that kid, but really, you had to interrupt me shooting your kid dancing? Maybe I don't understand parent logic because my kid is still baking, but couldn't that wait till oh I don't know afterwards? It's not like they told her she couldn't be on stage, it was a typo. Deal with it later, enjoy your kids performance. Be happy now and then rip someone a new one. If I was vindictive a certain name might get left off of the DVD, but I can't cause I need money.

Over all it was a good experience and hopefully enough people will like this DVD and maybe I can get a few more ordered before I jump the price up another ten dollars. Even better I get 20 more after the price increase.