Stupid Random!

I've been busy, and have been wanting to post, yet I haven't found the gumption to sit down and write one. I didn't even do a Lost post this week! Well I am forcing myself to get at least one post out, so I might as well make it a random one.

"Back" in the field

OK the back sprain is healing pretty good and I think I am ready to go shot again. Well, it might also be that I am sick of show editing. I've not touched a camera for two weeks now and I need to start up again. I've got a small amount of discomfort when I sit, but we will see about carrying heavy items around. At times I fell the station thinks I want to get out of shooting, why else am I always getting injured? I just need to do more preventive work like stretches and actually lifting the proper way. My goal is no more injuries for at least one year. Stop laughing.. seriously, I want to be injury free for a year. OK, I'll go for 6 months, that's a good start.

Dog Watch March 08

For the last year we have had a battle of will in our house, baby vs dog. You can probably figure out who wants what. My argument is that we start with a dog and then we can see how we do there and then go for the baby thing. It's kind of like The Wife's brother and his wife, they got a dog, everyone but them realized she was going to be crazy and now that they have a baby, she is well, crazy.

Well The Wife decided to meet some of our neighbors and guess what they had... A PUPPY! and she fell in love with it. To make things even more awesome, they told her my idea was a good one. I finally won a battle!!!! I felt like there should have been balloons and confetti dropping from the ceiling. We started a search and came across Odie on craigslist. We have been emailing back and forth and then we could not check our email on Sunday and from that point on it went quiet. I emailed twice on Monday and no response, finally I open my email and see a message from the woman... Odie may be adopted to someone else. The current owner for some reason took no emails on Sunday as several days. We both would love to have this dog, now it looks like we may have to move on. We'll try and give updated.

"You Ain't No Kind of Man if You Don't Own Land"

That quote came from the movie O Brother Where Art Thou one of my favorite movies, and from it you can probably figure out we are looking at buying a house... sort of. This past Sunday, we had lunch with some friends and they happen to live near a house for sale. We look at it and it's a nice house and then we see the price has been dropped. The builder is actually selling it for less than it's worth. Then an agent just happens to show up. We are thinking this house has to be for us what are the odds of all this happening?

We look at the house and think it would be a great place to buy. Then comes the part I feared the most... figuring out how we can get a loan. You see back in aught 5 I subconsciously decided that credit was not that important and well, destroyed it. Money wise, I'm fine, yet they look at that score and cringe and usually hang up. The Wife's credit is much better, but she doesn't make enough, so we have constant problems with anything that involves credit.

I call a group that specializes in first time home mortgages and amazingly enough we get approved and at 6% fixed. Considering that is no money now... not too bad, then the bad part, the payments are 180 dollars more than we pay in rent now. We could probably make that payment, but things would be tight. We have done well in getting rid of some of our debt, I'd have to see us revert back to having problems. It's kind of hard to get that close and then find out that everything is just out of reach. At least I now know that I can buy a house if we want to.

Basketball Postseason

For the past 6 years I have been able to cover some form of basketball post season. I thought I was about to make it 7 till I was pulled from the ACC women's tournament because of "overtime" issue. Then I threw my back out and the point was mute. It just feels odd not having to travel cover pressers and rushing around trying to feed out video. It was always a lot of work, but I loved it. It all started with the MAC tournament when I was in West Virginia, I got to see Antonio Gates play basketball not football. I covered three years of high school basketball in Ohio and got to see OJ Mayo, Raymar Morgan and Bill Walker play. Last year I covered North Carolina in Winston-Salem and then East Rutheford, New Jersey.

There were rumors that I would run the sat truck, but they installed new equipment and I have no idea how to work the truck now. There could be an outside shot, but I'm not holding my breathe. We are short two photographers and no way are they going to give anyone up to sports. Yet another era for me ends.

Birthday

This will be the first time in 6 years I won't have to cover basketball on my birthday so that's a nice trade off. I normally hate birthdays and usually bad things happen around them. Nothing horrible, just random bad days that make me not want to have birthdays. This year I was hoping to get Odie, but now I might get to go to the Bentonville Battlefield reenactment. I know a Civil War reenactment... I'm a dork. I like the Civil War, it was an interesting time in our country and I live near the final battle sight so I'm going to see the reenactment.

March Madness 2: The Official End

official
Well, maybe it was karma by me having my picture taken with the Hoya mascot, but North Carolina chocked it hard than Mama Cass on a ham sandwich. In the final 5 minutes of regulation they did not make a basket. All they could do was hit free throws will Georgetown could not miss. With this lose I will not be heading to Atlanta this weekend. I'm actually a little upset, but I am happy at the same time. I do go back to my normal schedule but I can sleep in my own bed and see The Wife (she's happy about that).

I learned a lot over the last two weeks and that is the key to my stay at JDOG-17. With the move here I am no longer #1 or at least second or third option. I'm technically option 11. I know I can do just about any job they throw at me, it's just that they have to trust me and these trips went a long way.

Ay Ziggy Zoomba

I have a theory about Bowling Green State University Athletics. They are only allowed to have one good major athletic team a year. What do I mean my major? Here is my list:

1. Football


2. Men's Basketball


3. Women's Basketball


4. Hockey


5. Soccer

For the last three years the most dominate team was the women's basketball team. For most people and some of our alumni, they don't care for women's basketball. I'll admit, I'm not a big fan, but my love for BG overrides that. Also if it was not for the Falcon teams of the mid-ninety's, I would probably not be in New Jersey this weekend. My sister shots the women's team every year and make a highlight tape for them. For three years I shot for her. The first year I did maybe 6 games. The second year I did 10 and 1 road game and my busy senior year I shot 8 games. I learned my craft because of them so I will always be a fan.

So this year BG was the best they have ever been. They won a first round game and then shocked people by beating Vanderbilt in the second round. BG was getting national attention. They were even getting consideration for beating Arizona St. Alas, the dream ended with ASU, they beat the falcons handily and BG's season is over. I want to just say thank you for your hard work and for taking our University to a level it has never seen in either basketball programs. You ladies will go down as legends and will always have a place in true falcons hearts. I thank coach Curt Miller for his coaching ability and for turning this team back into a winner. Also please stay at BG and I hope the athletic department will actually do the right thing and give you are raise and keep you as coach

March Madness 2: The electric-boogaloo

Due to some previous problems, I am going to do one of my random post for my first post of the new trip so let's get too it.

Hello New Jersey!
I am continuing on my journey with the North Carolina Tar heels, and last week I was in the exciting cities of Winston and Salem, so where did I land this time? East Rutherford, New Jersey. I know, I know you all wish you where in my shoes, and as a bonus we landed in Newark, it was thrilling! Seriously, could I not get New York, San Antonio or somewhere that's not East Rutherford? I can see my Manhattan from the lobby, so why don't we kick the NIT out of Madison Square Garden and we go there. I know of four things that came out of New Jersey, Bon Jovi, all the Kevin Smith movies, Bruce Springsteen and King Tom. So out of respect for the King I will leave Jersey alone... for now!

I Hate Banks
Over the last seven years TV has not been the best paying job. I've not helped by making some really bad job choices and poor money management, but The Wife and I have made a huge turn and we have seen daylight in our dark debt world. So with that said, the problem i am having now is that we have money, but nothing is clearing fast enough. The Sheraton Meadowlands (more on these guys later) charges you up from for the room. Well due to the fact that things from last weekend are still working their way through I did not have enough on my credit card for the room. We kept making payments every time something popped up so that we would not have this problem, but the credit card people are holding all transactions for up to three days. So now The Wife and I are playing Money's version of Russian Roulette. I had to use money from our bank account that is technically not there so I can get a room. We maybe overdrawn, but I get paid at midnight so is anything going to over lap and throw everything off and we get charged with large fees, or are we going to somehow slip through and be fine. I hate banks for holding money and causing these kinds of problems.

Hotel Cost
I know I am in the shadows of New York, but $187 a night for a hotel that is not that good really necessary? Also that is with the traveling media discount! For me I normally stay away from hotels that cost more than a hundred, I know a lot of times that means I get places like Howard Johnson's and Days Inn, but sometimes they are not all that bad. So when I pay this much I would think I'd get a pretty nice room, not so much. The room is decent, but I have had better for much less. Also the Internet it not free. I am paying $20 for access, if it was not for work I'd not get the Internet, but I have to feed out video at night so I kind of need it. So somehow Red Roof Inn Internet is free, but at the Sheraton where it's more expensive, you have to pay for it.
Also somehow my reporter got bumped up to a nicer room. He has a living room and a refrigerator and I have well, a bed. How am I drawing the low card on this trip.

What the Hell is on HBO
I have no idea what is on HBO right now, but I just watched a guy get disemboweled. It's 10am and I am not accustomed to this kind of violence this early. It's some kind of show about England in involves Mary the Queen of Scots. I was just typing and then the next thing I see is two guys cut open with people throwing their innereds onto a fire while they sort of watched, then they throw, I guess, an important character on a table and cut him open. I saw them open him up and there was his spleen. How are they getting away with this on at 10am. I know this must be an encore from last night, but damn! I normally like my disembowelings after a good lunch, not before.

Ok enough complaining, about the last day. I hope things will get better and I can be chipper.

March Madness: Sneaky Pete

For me to watch any of the games I have three options: 1. Watching from the compound which I have done.
2. Sneak onto the floor and sit at our unused station seat, but security is tight and I don't have the proper credentials... stupid terrorists!
3. Go to the main concourse and walk into a section and hope for the best.
4. Crowd around a small TV with 20 other media types.

I picked option three today. Georgetown is taking on Boston College. This game does not have any direct interest to North Carolina so it's pretty much bonus. I go up and find an area that does not have seats and just stand up against the wall with five other people. To be honest it's weird to just watch a game. 90 percent of all sporting events I attend, I'm usually working so I can't just sit and watch the game. I took in about five minutes and came back down. I may go back up for the second half, it's getting to the point I'd rather be at home with a beer in hand watching the games on TV... well only if I got paid.

March Madness

I have been given an opportunity this week to travel with a college Basketball team while they are in the NCAA Tournament. I am really excited, but at the current time of 5:48PM I have no idea where I am going, when I am going and there may be a slight change my team could change. I am currently going to follow Duke, they are down this year, but a down year for them is a 10 lose season, unlike my alma mater that only won three conference games. The process for this trip is a little maddening. I won't know anything until they announce the brackets, then I have to call in and find who I'm following, call the reporter I'm going with, call the corporate travel lady for flights and hotels, then start packing.

I'll give updates throughout the night as I find things out. So hopefully with in an hour I'll at least know where the local teams are heading and then the fun begins.

6:03 Well found out the number 1 seeds in order of highest to lowest, Florida, North Carolina, Ohio State and Kansas. UNC is in the east bracket so looks like they are going to play in Winston Salem.

6:13 Oh the Midwest is done and my hopes of Chicago are not going to happen. The interesting thing is Maryland is a 4 seed and Georgia Tech is a 10 seed. I think Duke will get a better seed than Tech, so I'm guess an eight seed, but maybe as high as a 7.

6:21 I know you want to know this my underwear is now packed. Duke gets the sixth seed... In Buffalo. Freaking Buffalo, that's the best place to spend my birthday, at least I can get some wings. Oh yeah they are playing Virginia Commonwealth University and if they win they may face Pittsburgh. I like my chances in the first game for a second game.

6:27 Well UNC is playing in Winston Salem on Thursday. Called my chief and he has no idea where I'm going. Time to pack warm just in case.

6:36 THE BIG BLUE X! Xavier made it in and they could play Ohio State in the second round. M Thomsen will like that BIG FREAKING BLUE X!

6:40
Me: Hey do you know where your going
M Justice: (laughing) Do You know where your going?
Me: Damn it, I'm going to Buffalo.
M Justice: (Laughing) Yep, have fun with that.
Me: At least I can get some Cubans and Wings.
M Justice: True.

7:08 Still haven't figured anything out yet. I hope this gets done before 9:00pm

7:17 Big Curveball was thrown, I'm now going to Winston Salem by myself. Our female sports anchor will travel back and forth, but I am getting everything on my own. Better location, not so awesome plan, but I've done it before while I was in West Virginia and did the MAC tournament in Cleveland.

7:26 Just told The Wife about the change, she was more worried about me missing bible study than being closer. SO now I get to save a huge amount on my credit card, no airplane.

7:49 Spent the last 20 minutes on the phone with our corparate travel person and nothing close was open. So I was stuck at an average hotel room on the other side of the city. I then call the Sundance Plaza the official media hotel and get a room. Note to self, do it yourself.

8:30 Finally got most of everything figured out. I have repacked for the warmer climate and I sort of have an idea of what needs to be done while I am at the Tourney. I will be trying to blog while I am there.