Saturdays Game

The big question this morning has been when will the game be played on Saturday. Will it be the logical 6:15 EDT or the ridiculous 9:00 EDT time. We come to find out we are the late game and the NCAA needs to get their heads checked.

The reasoning you will here is the better game is the UNC Louisville game, but when the other game is being played out west and involves UCLA... University of California Los Angeles... you might think more people out west would rather watch that game at 6:00 Pacific instead of 3:00.

The real reason is money, the NCAA wants the game that more people will watch later, why? They can charge the advertisers more because the east coast is more likely to stay up to watch UNC than UCLA or Xavier. The west coast will tune in for UCLA and CBS hopes they will stay and watch UNC. More people at one time, that equals a lot of money.

I don't mind people making money, but when it comes at the cost of making the game enjoyable and forcing people to stay up late and hope to see a final is going to be the NCAA's down fall. Last week I did not know who UNC was going to play because the game ended after midnight. I'm not that die hard of a fan and I can wait a day or two to find out who they will face.

Logic needs to prevail, yet I know it will not. This also hinders us from doing our job, we can't show highlights during the 11 because the game will still be on. Then if the game ends during the show, we now have to scramble to get back inside and hope to get sound about how they won or lost. Instead of wanting to do what's right for all the NCAA will greedily force everyone east of the Mississippi to lose sleep or not watch an ending of a good game.

I know money rules and the NCAA will do what's best for them, but think of the public as well.

Yesterday Wrap

Ok, it was a long day, but over all good. UNC played OK, they looked a little sloppy, but Washington State is known for their defense and if they could have hit a few of the threes they missed, it could have been a more interesting game.

After the game ended we were unable to show the highlights, why might you ask? Some silly NCAA rule, so we did a reenactment with dolls, and Gilbert was one of them. go to the video page and look for UNC dolls, it's a pretty creative idea and we have gotten a lot of publicity for it.

After it was all over I ended up working 15 hours and I'm really tired. More to come from the tourament later.

Long Trip

The one think I do not enjoy on trips like this is the live-shot at nauseum idea. To make it even tougher, the live shot location is on the other side of the building. So anytime I need a battery, something from the sat truck or just to go to the bathroom involves lots of time. I don't mind live shot, it's part of the job. I just wish i didn't need a beast of burden to carry all the equipment. I missed most of the first half and hopefully I will get to watch a little bit of the game.

WSU Kids

This update took a little longer than I wanted it to take. Lots of live shots and having said shot on the OTHER side of the building has made me a little tired and sweaty. Earlier we talked to some kids who actually drove the 40 hours from Spokane. They only made spots at gas stations, so they had to hold it or do the old Dumb and Dumber Coke bottle bit.

That's dedication to a team, I don't think I could ever do that. Considering they are playing the top seeded Tar heels. I hope these kids have fun and one day be able to tell there kids about it.

In Da House

I'm getting this in later than I wanted... Internet access is a little bit sparse around the building and I just finally finished my story for the early shows. The biggest difference from last year to this year has been, well, the city. East Rutherford = hole, while Charlotte so far is warm and there are places to eat that do not involve me crossing an eight lane highway. Also all the locals are nicer and it's a lot warmer. I'm actually going to crack out the shorts tomorrow. Next update will be about these guys who drove in from Spokane.

So It Begins

Within a few hours, I will be heading to Charlotte for the third and most like fourth round of the NCAA tournament. I am going to try and do it like last year, with many new posts about everything I am going to do, and what I see. The interesting aspect this year will be that I am a day behind everyone else that is there. Because of scheduling problems I had to stay and edit the Wednesday shows. I hope this does not cause problems and hopefully I will get into the swing of things. I am leaving Raleigh at 9AM and hope to be set up around noonish or maybe one.

Not Again

The other day I get a call from The Wife, she sounds a little distraught. While she was babysitting, a woman came to the door looking for the person who owned the Silver Mazda. The woman had hit the car while backing up. Of course, it's my car, there is not a lot of damage, but still the front panel is cracked and the side light is knocked it of place. The best part of this story is the woman did not want us to contact the insurance company, first thought was year right... you say you are going to pay for damages, till you find out how much and then we are left with a bill. I hope this does not become a big problem.

Meet Lucy

The great puppy search of aught 8 is over, meet Lucy the puppy. She is 7 months olds and we have no idea what kind of dog she is nor did her previous owners, so she is a full mutt.

I can definatly tell this is our dog, she's been chasing her tail half the day. So far she's gotten it about 3 out of 10 times.

This so far is my favorite picture, finally a puppy all my own. She's been doing really well so far, only one accident in the house, but she has no idea of this concept I call walk. She'd prefer not to have the leash and run wild. We'll work on that.

Puppy Watch 08

We are on our way to meet Lucy, cross your fingers.

Prodical Castaway Returns

I liked this weeks episode of Lost, but for some reason there was a disconnect for me. Maybe it's because I stayed up a little to late playing poker last night and I'm still a little tired. The one thing I find interesting is the fact you never really see Walt. The big problem is that he's suppose to be 10 yet in real life he keeps aging and he is going to be 16 this May. The writers have been doing a good job keeping the character in the show without really showing him.

For the first time, I think we actually were given out a lot of valuable information. We find out that Whitemore was the one who planted the plane and that people from the island have a problem dying. We also have conformation that the sea people are in fact wanting to kill everyone.

I think there needs to be a list of created TV characters and Ben is going to be near the top. That guy is so evil, yet at times you feel that he some how is trying to protect the greater good. Has there ever been a more manipulative guy on TV? Has has everyone eating out of his hand. Even after Alex finds out that Ben is not her real father and she still listened to him. Or course that led to the possible death of Rousseau and Karl. He also got into Micheal's head. I loved the line about Ben doesn't kill innocents, yet when Micheal called him out that Micheal had to kill Anna Lucia and Libby the response was, Ben didn't tell him to kill them, Micheal killed them. Damn, that cut him hard.

I'm not pleased with the fact I have to wait a month for new episodes, I know the writer strike threw everything off, but I want more as usual. Here are a few random thought.

We saw a lot of dead people in this episode; George McCaskey, Naomi, Libby and Tom.

What kind of super powers does Miles have? We know he talks to ghost, but what else is there.

Interesting that Sawyer is starting to question Locke about not giving everyone answers.

I'm thinking Miles opened Locke's eyes a little about Ben with his pound cake line.

Don't Make Me Pull This Computer Over!

I know I just posted about my NCAA trip next week, but this is really getting my goat. The Wife and I recently reorganized our CDs out of their cases and into a large CD folder. Since we buy albums from iTunes we don't go to the store and buy many CDs any more so this is saves a lot of space.

While organizing I notices a bunch of CDs were not ripped onto our computer (Stupid computer meltdown of aught 7!) I start to load them in with Windows Media Player because my MP3 player is not recognized by iTunes, and things were going fine till iTunes decided to open up every time I put in a new CD. SO I had two programs trying to rip music off of the same CD and it was causing things to go very slow.

It's now to the point I'm closing down iTunes every time it starts up. I'm not a fan of Windows Media Player, yet because of the fact iTunes won't allow non iPods to come in and play I'm stuck with this stupid situation.

The Streak is Alive

Today starts the NCAA tournament and I had been a little sad that I was not going to cover it, well that changed. Since UNC is playing in Raleigh we don't need the extra crews, but next week I am heading to Charlotte if North Carolina moves on. I know it's a lot of work, but I enjoy it. You are on the road, it's just me and a couple people and no management. How great is that! I will attempt to do what I did last year and blog the entire experience.

The Bunnies

Last week I was asked by my church to create a video for them and the above is the result. I've always wanted to try stop motion animation, and now I have and it's going to take a lot to get me to do it again. It was a lot of fun, but you have to move each piece little by little and hope it looks good in the end.

I am very proud of this video and I need to get my creativity out somehow. This at least was a creative and productive way to get the crazy out of my system

My Day

This might sound like a random post, but I'm going to just do this as a kind of log of my day. In news weird things happen and today was just odd. I don't know why, maybe the reason is I was working with The Serg, those days always seem odd.

When I got to work I could not get into the building. For the past year and few months we have been using these key fobs" on our key chains, but that was not good enough. They recently decided to go with the lanyard and ID bag. There has been some discourse over this system, but I don't care, we had it at The Network and it was fine. The problem was, I'm not use to the badge yet and I left it at home. So all day I had to either borrow some one's badge or coordinate my comings and goings with people schedules. Of course I'm the first one to forget my badge... yeah me. I know I have a tendency to be a little flaky, but to be the first really sucks.

It's hard to explain working with The Serg sometimes, it's not a bad thing, but our conversations go all over the place. We have had actually people listen into our conversations and tell us we are strange. We had time to kill so we stopped off at a local coffee shop called the Mad Hatter. That led to me talking about why the mad hatter was actually crazy. I though it was starch in the hat, but, it's actually mercury vapor used in hat making. Then that divulged into crazy relatives, and then into all the people around us using lap tops, then strange movie characters. It's rather fun way to waste time, I never know where the conversation may lead but I will know that it will some how always go back to Emo Phillips, Paul Lynn, Las Vegas New Mexico, and Ice Pirates.

While at the Mad Hatter I was asked "What kind of milk?" for my drink. I was confused, many of you might know what she was getting at, I missed it by a mile. As I was about to say cow she could tell I was about to say something stupid. "You know skin, 2% or whole." I seriously thought they had options on what animal the milk came from. This was a froo froo coffee place and you never know, maybe I had a choice between cow, goat, llama or some other exotic animal.

We finally get back to our OH SO exciting story... drought and construction at city hall. If you want to know my least favorite story ideas that's all three right there: drought, new construction whoas and meetings. Plus we had one of our beat reporters there as well, she was not pleased we were on "her turf," but hey, I didn't pick the story. Well, our story changed within the first 10 minutes of the story. Durham city council honored the officers that caught the suspected killer of Eve Carson and Abhijit Majahato. It's a meeting, but the mayor wants to find out why these guys were let out on bond with multiple court hears within the near future. He felt that they system did not check itself and Durham has to do something so this will not happen again. I'm giddy, this is much better than our other story, yet who gets it... us the night side crew or the beat reporter. I look at it this way, dayside are the lions we are the hyenas and they are the other animals. You see our original story was taken by dayside so we had to find something else and that else was Durham city council. In the wild the hyenas kill the prey and then the lions scare off the hyenas and have their fill. The hyenas get the left overs and what ever is left is up for grabs. I hate doing that to the beat reporter, but we HAD to turn something that night, and she didn't fight for the story so I don't feel guilty.

Maybe it was karma for taking the story, but I almost did not get the story on air. We get back a little later than we wanted, so there was not a large room for error. The Serg's laptop started freaking out and he couldn't log everything that was recorded. By the time I got it, my laptop started to get a little nutty. The docking station would not read my external hard drive that had all my Eve Carson file. My computer froze and I had to restart it, then it would not open the editing software. I finally had to give up using my computer and work in an edit bay. I had 25 minutes to get it done. In news when you are in a crunch and need total concentration, everyone wants to talk to you. The Serg asked where the video was, and the producer kept asking how I was doing. I finally snapped back "If people would stop bothering me I'll get it done!" I got it in 5 minutes before the start of the show. I've only missed "slot" once, and that's because the guy taking in my story was being picky about audio and had me keep making changes, so I don't even count that as my fault. When will they realize that I will get things done, I know we are the lead and if I can't get it done the show goes to hell in a hand basket.

I thought Learning Physics Was Tough

I am confused about tonight's episode of Lost, I'm not 100% sure what actually happened, but I'll give it a shot. For the post part it was about Jin and Sun as we find out that Sun is the 6th member of the Oceanic 6 (I'm taking partial credit, I thought it would be Jin). We find out that Sun has made it off the island and is giving birth. Then there is the tricky thing that is throwing me off. They kept showing Jin, King Tom thinks it is a flash back to throw us off, I am not too sure about that. Maybe he is alive and he is working for Ben or Witmore, either way that can not be good.

I was shocked at how Juliet convinced Jin and Sun to stay on the beach. I think telling Jin about Sun's affair was a very Ben move. I think she wants off the island like the rest of the losties, but there is something there that almost seems that she is going to stay. Maybe Ben has a stronger hold on her than she realizes.

The biggest shock of the episode is the return of Micheal I mean Kevin Johnson. Other people who find little nuggets of information realized this weeks ago, I did not so I was surprised by Micheal being the one who is Ben's informant on the boat. I guess Ben convinced him to help him a little bit more, "Hey I helped you get off the island, I need your help."

What is up with everyone killing themselves on the boat? What effect does the water around the island do? One woman jumps off the ship and another blows his brains out. Man, note to self, so not go on any freighter trips to islands of mystery.

Overall this was a good episode, but after what we got two weeks ago and part of last week this was a little bit of a downer. If this episode would have happened last year it would have been a top 10 instead it's only going to end up in the middle... I hope. With only 16 episodes for this seasons, there can't be that many meh shows. No random thoughts because, well there wasn't many.

The Things We Do

As I am typing this I am sitting outside the lovely Durham county courthouse awaiting for my story and subsequent live shot. If you had not heard they finally caught the second guy that may have killed UNC student Eve Carson. That happened Chapel Hill, so why am I in another county? Not because he was arrested here, it's because he may have killed someone else prior to Eve. I know this post is sounding a little morbid, and depressing... well like the news, but my tale is not about this story, but what we do in our waiting time.

I'm with The Serg and when we are working together it's like pop culture overload. Tons of obscure references and silly comments. While standing on the porch trying to get someone to answer the door, I thought of a new game. Who's career would you rather have. You basically take two celebrities and decide who you'd rather be.. ie the first one was Prince or Bon Jovi; we both picked Prince. The Serg asked Tina Turner or Cher, I went with Cher, because I didn't want to deal with the beatings of Ike Turner, yet I had to consider that video where she was wearing that duct tape and fish net thing... I don't thing that would look good on me. Next was who would you rather be, the other guy from Wham! or Oats. It was decided Oats because at least I knew his name.

Here are a few more you to mull over:

Rodney Dangerfield or Oingo Boingo
Bangles or the Go Gos
Jean Claude Van Dam or Steven Seigel
Bobby Brown or one of the guys from Bel Biv Devo
One of the guys from Color Me Bad or one of the guys from O Town
The guy who was Alf or the guy who was HR Puff n Stuff
Charles Neslon Rieley or Paul Lynn
Men With Out Hats or Dexies Midnight Rinners or Flock of Seagulls

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.

Constant(ly) Awesome

First I'm going to say this, read King Tom's post. He did a much better job than I tonight, I'm blaming the medication.

For an episode that I have no idea what was going on, this week was great. Yet I am confused, I thought we were going to get flashbacks, but instead we find out Desmond is flashing back and forth through time… well at least his consciousness is doing that. I felt like I was in an advanced Physics class at times, yet I wanted to know more. So does that actually validate what happened to him when the swan blew up and he started to see into the future and went back in time? I think Desmond is going to be the key for every major reveal. He is like Lothar the key master.

I love Desmond episodes, you never can figure out what is happening till the end. Desmond was flashing back and forth from 1996 and 2004. I knew Penny would be involved, but I didn’t know how. I was confused, anxious, worried and relieved for the entire episode. What we got was a love story, I was almost moved by the fact that Desmond finally got to talk to Penny. I felt like this was a little Princess Bride with the whole true love thing, but I can deal with it. No I wasn't crying, I just had something in my eye.

Not a lot of answers, but some new information popped up and all that will be revealed in the random thoughts:

Hey, it’s the Black Rock and the first mate was Tovar Hanso! The only thing found was a journal 7 years after it wrecked. It's not quite an answer, but at least it's a small reveal. Maybe we will get more information about Hanso, the Black Rock and why Mr Whitemore bought the journal.

Why was Penny’s dad bidding on the book. I think he has something to do with the boat. Penny is just a cover for him.

I felt like I was watching 12 Monkeys for a while.

I still can’t figure out the pilot, is he good or is he bad. I think he has a hidden agenda, I don’t know what, but something big will happen with him this year.

Was Daniel 1996 modeled after Lazlo?

OK is Daniel jumping around as well? I’m confused; this is going to get weird.

Stolen line of the night: I love you and I always have. First was used in Braveheart. I use that line with the accent on The Wife all the time.

Worst character name so far…. Dr Ray.

I love (George McCousky) he has been in a bunch of TV shows and one of my favorite bad movies Hackers. He always plays a great strange or bad guy.

Down in the Back

It's been a few since I last posted, it's not because I haven't wanted to, more like I couldn't take the sere pain. On Sunday I was helping out at my church and I reached down to pick something and I felt a pop in my lower back. Thought nothing of it, I've had this happen before. I continue on my way acting all nimbly bimbly till I get a call from work and I'm on call (yet I work on Sundays). I grab my gear and go to work.

After my first assignment the back feels... not so good. I go the second story and everything feels bad. By the time I start heading to Durham I'm in so much pain I'm starting to see stars. I finally call the desk and tell them I can only get one, I need to not drive any more. The middle managers find out that I am in so much pain and they want me to go to the urgent care.

Come to find out I have an acute sprain of the back. This sucks, I can't sit for more than 5 minutes and I can't lift anything over 10 pounds. I can't even sit to edit, that's how bad it is. By Monday I will have missed 3.5 days of work. I just want this to heal, I can't even enjoy my days off. I can't golf, walk, or anything that involves movement. I can't even write more and I need to get back to the ice pack and the comfy chair.

The Devil in the White City

I'm trying to read 11 books this year, and it wasn't looking that good, I finished one book, but I was struggling to finish the second. I put it down and started to read The Devil in the White City on the recommendation from Justice. This is a true story about the celebration of 400th anniversary of Columbus finding the new world. Chicago won the rights to the fair, which later was called the Worlds Fair. It was about all the insight and struggles they had about pulling off this grand event. How a depression almost shut down construction, inability to get plans in, dealing with committees and political in fighting. I know what your thinking, that book sounds like suck! That's not all, it also has a serial killer. Just happens to be a real life killer that when on a killing spree that lasted as long as it took to start and finish the fair.

A lot of the killings he could not have gotten away with today, but with no instant communication, or computers and video keeping track of everything, he took advantage. He was very charming and conned his way around creditors and young women (most of his victims). All I will say is he may have killed as many as a hundred people, yet today he is unknown by many. Most of his killings never fully got documented yet they found remains and well did find many people that he came in contact with.

I read this book with in two and a half weeks. The Wife was happy I finished this book, because I'd stay up and read in bed till 2AM. Every chance I got I had to find out what happened next. Erik Larson, weaves both stories very well, I loved the serial killer parts and well liked the early development of the fair chapters. He would not have three straight chapters of the fair then one of the killer, he alternated each one. I would feel like I was getting bored with the fact that there was a fight about money and who controlled it. Yet, I knew that Holmes (the killer) was about to do something evil.

I know someone else who is reading this book and is loving it as much as I do. I would if you want an interesting story that reads like a novel, yet it's based on facts, get The Devil in the White City.

I Got Scooby Doo'ed

It's Friday so that means another Lost episode recap and for the second week this season I actually got to watch the show as it happened. I took notes this time, yet I left them at work... stupid me. Overall I am not a fan of Kate flash bask/forward episodes. I agree with King Tom to a point, I think Kate is a strong character, except when its a Kate-centric show. It lacks something and I don't know what it is. Also I am getting a little tired of the love ping pong. We get it she runs to one guy then gets bored or picks a fight with Jack and runs to Sawyer (now swap names and repeat).

All episode long I was waiting for the swerve, at first I thought it was going to be Miles. I was for sure he was the spy... nope he just wants lots of money. What is it with him and money, first he's shaking down ghosts and now Ben for 3.2 million. I'm with Ben, why 3.2 million? Why not make it an even 3 or even better 4 million. There's something there and I'm almost wanting to know. Then I kept thinking it was that Kate was preggos, as we find out, Kate was not. Then they waited till the end to reveal it, the next member of the Oceanic 6 is Aaron. I had a feeling when Kate asked if he had seen any of the coverage, I started to think that it was Aaron. According to The Wife she thinks he's probably 2 so if that is true and "currently" Aaron is about 4 months and a trial can take a long time, probably at least four months from arraignment to trial finish, Claire might get killed off in any where from 6 months to 14 months, I say she'll probably die at the end of next season.

What is it with Locke, he is starting to turn into a demented less smart version of Ben. He's threating to kill Kate, shoves a grenade in Miles mouth and exiles Kate and talks about punishments, he is about to loss it! This is the second time Ben has got Locke to crack and throw plates around. Maybe Locke should stop being the guy to give the food to Ben. I can't figure out how far they can take Locke before he goes all Texas bell tower.

I'm loving the post Charlie Hurley more and more. Yet again he had the line of the night. Kate tricks him into telling her the location of Miles. Once it happens he responds with "You just Schooby Doo'ed me, didn't you?" I laughed and then a minute later I get a text from The Wife with that phrase on it. That needs to be added into standard vernacular.

Finally before my random thoughts I need to revise my list of Oceanic 6, so far I had been 4 for 4 and then I missed with Aaron. That means we currently have Jack, Kate, Hurley, Sayid and Aaron and I now think the last one will be Sawyer. If you look at the list of people still alive, he, Jin and Sun are the only logical ones left, I have a feeling Sun won't make it and Jin will go crazy. Now on to my other random thoughts

Why are Daniel and Charlotte playing three card Monte?

I guess Locke feels like chicken tonight.

Why at the bond hearing was Kate wearing cloths from the set of Dynasty?

I agree with King Tom yet again, I loved Hurley and Sawyer as roommates. That needs to be a webispode type thing. Each week they give us a 5 to 10 minute show about how Hurley loves to watch Xanadu too much and Sawyer never cleans the kitchen.

Where are the "Others" hiding out? It's been a few days now, I think the remaining people might want to return home or at least want to know what happened to Locke and Ben. Last season I kept complaining about The Others and now I want them back.

Grenade in mouth equals non sass... good to know.

Kate learned all her deal making abilities from her mother. I didn't see the I'll not testify if you let me see my grandson card.

Almost a Story

I normally do not and won't blog at work, but I am attempting to load video off my laptop and it is taking an hour longer than it's suppose to, so I don't care right now. My story tonight was kind of a strange one. All The Serg would tell me is was about an attempted abduction. My reaction was this "You're tell me that we are doing a story on an almost crime?" I know abduction is a serious thing and the guy who nearly did the abduction has been harassing people for weeks. At the time I did not know that. It was just bizarre to me that we were going to do this almost story and for the rest of the night everything was about almost. Then, I kid you not, they almost arrested him. They spotted his car and pulled him over in a parking lot. Of course, he ran like the wind.

When we found out we were within a mile of the scene, the only problem was, the intersection had about 7 strip malls and countless parking lots and no one knew which lot and there were not any tell tale signs of the scene. It consisted of only one marked police car (lights off), an unmarked car and the suspects car with a vanity plate on the front saying "Fear This." After searching the area, I spotted another live truck parking and I head towards them and then I spot the front plate. I think the cop was laughing at me when I pointed and screamed "FEAR THIS!" It had to be funny; we were searching for over 20 minutes.

We do a live shot for the 7 and find out they want a shot for the 11 as well. After we ate lunch we went back to the location. As locations in Durham go this is not a great spot to be at late at night. Countless police cars circle the area, yet we are approached by three different homeless guys. I kept thinking about the South Park episode about the homeless asking for spare change. At times I don't mind giving a little when I have it, but when I am working I usually won't give them money, I will food if I have it. We are a giant walking billboard and everyone thinks we have money. I don't carry any money, The Wife doesn't allow it, and something about it's hers.

While all this is going on I get a call, regretfully my wish of an easier week at the church got worse. They are now doing a video this week. To make this work I need to go Thursday morning and get a little training at the Mac store on Final Cut Express. Friday morning set up the camera, leave and come back when the video is done being shot, finally edit it all day and hope it works. If it doesn't I have to go back Saturday and make it work. Sunday I'm probably going to have to shoot the opening of the new site as well. I am getting tired of this. We are doing the video this week because the main guy didn't want to burden another minister with a last minute sermon. Yet I guess it's OK to burden me. I know it will have to get better, if it doesn't I'm going to have to stop helping. I no longer enjoy helping.

Random Insomnia

As I sit here at 1:30 in the morning I am tired, yet I can not sleep. I've had a lot on my plate as of late and I'm starting to feel the effects. Work has been all over the place, my church has asked me to do a lot and I had a little family situation:

Work Front

I don't know what it is about Raleigh, but nothing interesting will happen for a long time and then all the sudden we have major news events every day. I blame Duke vs UNC for the start of my work stress. As I have mentioned I do not like Chapel Hill and yet JDOG-17 saw it fit to send be there to cover the possible riots if the Tarheels won the game. For the most part the night went smooth... except that I got hit by a car. I had a guy want to park next to the live truck and we put cones up so no one couldn't. Lets just say he started off on the wrong foot with me and I didn't make things easier. I started to move my cones and he guns it and swipes my arm. I am still not sure how he missed my foot. Luckily for me Shawn was there as well as two reporters and an intern. Come to find out later he was running late for a radio interview. That's ass, for nearly running me over so you can go to another media outlet.

After the brush fires, there was an explosion outside downtown Raleigh. Someone tried to take live mortar shells to a scrap yard and two went boom. As the night side crew Boston Stevie and I got to baby sit the scrap yard as the military decides what to do with the other 40 shells. Well the military gets the great idea to start blowing them up on site. Yeah that went over real well with all the locals who had to be evacuated or kept hearing explosions all night long.

One Church Two Locations Not Enough J Dog

I go to a church that meets in a movie theater, it's different, but The Wife and I like it. Since land is getting very expensive here, and we are out growing the current theater, we are opening in a second site. The new expansion is in Wake Forest, so now we only get to drive 10 minutes instead of 30. But there is a catch here, they are not increasing the ministry staff. How is that possible you may ask? That's where I come in, they are currently going to tape a sermon in advance, so I have been tapped to help. I have spent the majority of my off time at the church trying to help them figure out how to make this work. It's not that bad, except at times I feel like I'm trying to move a mountain. They want to save money, yet make it high end; use my skills, but use an editing system I've never touched; try lighting with 5 times the light needed, adjust it to make it work. I don't mind this extra work load, it's that my normal job has started to see a little bit of an effect from it. Hopefully after the opening this week everything will calm down.

Family

I was working Sunday and The Wife called and told me that my grandfather is not doing well. He is starting to have kidney failure. After talking to my mom, I guess it got to the point where she didn't think he was going to make to the end of the week. He's 94 and has led a full life, but he's my grandfather! He lived next door and I would go over every Monday and Friday and stay till my parents got home. When I was young and we moved around a lot. I would stay with them as the family packed. I still haven't gotten over the death of my grandmother and that was 6 years ago. I just can't imagine not having him here. Over the last few years I have taken him forgranted, I hate seeing him in a nursing home, it's just hard and makes me realize his mortality.

He did make it through and is getting better, no longer are we 100% worried (more like 50%) yet I am still shaken by this. I am actually wanting to get back home and currently there is no way to make that seven hour drive and not kill myself even more. With this news we were planning a trip to just Columbus in June and now we may have to include Ironton, just so I can visit.

Enough random ramblings for the night, hopefully I can get to sleep soon.

Lost Goes All International Man of Mystery on Us

Well I am correct so far as to who is part of the Oceanic 6, Sayid has made it off the island. Yet, I had no idea that he would turn heel. I definably could see him as a hit man, but a hit man for Ben? What does he have over Sayid? I know he mentioned his friends, but what is going on here? As King Tom asked maybe Ben is actually good? I myself am starting to go with the philosophy that he is neither good nor bad. The people looking for the island maybe evil, but Ben is less evil. Yet, who is it that Sayid is looking for, I'm guessing the people who sent the boat, but who are they, regretfully they are the new "others." We keep looking for answers, yet we get more questions.

I am a little upset at Hurly, I thought he was going to become a leader, instead he has become patsy to Locke and I have lost a little respect for him, even though he had the "Great another Saywer" and the"break dance move" lines. I think Hurly has figured out that Locke may not be "stable" and some how will leave the group and rejoin Jack, but I think it we be because Locke will kick Hurly out and some how shame him. He wanted to stay, but was forced out. That is why he wants to go back.

I thought it was eerie that when Katie saw a pair of boots walking towards her from under the bed and that it was Sawyer, it reminded me of Sawyers flashback. The one where we see his dad kill himself.

What's up with Ben's secret room? Is he an international man of mystery? Why does he need so many passports and types of money?

Mental note, to get to Sayid, use a woman. He needs to learn that women are his down fall. First Nadia then Shannon and now Elsa, come on Sayid... look at the trend.

What's up with the time difference on the island, are they some how behind everyone else by 45 minutes? Is the island on a different time space continuum?

I don't trust the pilot, he seems shifty and I don't like it.

I am confused by Jacob's cabin, does it really exist of is an island trick. I'm thinking Locke has lost favor with Jacob for some reason and that Hurly is the key.

Even though I have no idea what is going on with the show (in terms of finality) I love it and I want to see how this ends. How can one show cause so much confusion and yet I keep coming back.

National Pancake Day

I'm sorry for the lateness, but today February 12 is National Pancake Day. I guess this is a day created by IHOP, but if you donate something you get free pancakes! How can you pass this up. It's almost free pancakes! The only thing better would be a free burrito or maybe a free pie. It's for a good cause and you get almost free food. COME ON EVERYONE PANCAKES FOR ALL!!!!

How Can an Entire County be on Fire?

Yesterday was one of the most windy days I have ever seen. I went and did a pintsize sports story and it was one of the hardest shoots I've done in a while. Our sports guy wanted a lot of natural sound, well, all he got was a lot of wind.

I didn't think much more about the wind till I realized that we had all of our crews chasing brush fires. I kind of forgot that since we are in a drought, that when it's that windy if can help cause fires. I didn't think too much about it till I kept hearing one word, Franklinton. Even though we are technically in Wake Forest I actually live in Franklin county and live eight miles from Franklinton. Then I found out that most of Franklin county is on fire, I called The Wife and asked if Fried Chicken Drive is well not fried. I love her response, "Is that why I keep hearing fire trucks?" She had no idea that everything around the county was on fire. Fortunately, we are fine, it did come that far south everything stayed about 3 miles north of us.

I was worried for most of the night I kept wondering what I should tell The Wife if she sees the fire, what should she grab? Wedding photos, the lock box, the external hard drive and some clothes? We do have renter's insurance, but still to lose would be awful, I hope this ever happens to us.

Air You Ready To Rock!

I'm sitting here on Fried Chicken Drive looking for something to do and I find on VH1 a documentary about the two Americans trying to become the World Air Guitar Champion. Most of you are now looking at google or the link and see if I am hallucinating. Oh no my friends, I am not. This is a serious competition that has its finals in Oulo, Finland. The documentary was shot in 2003 and no American has ever entered into the competition so this was a big deal in the world of air guitar (to let you know I am laughing as I type this). Everyone is taking this extremely serious and they are freaking great at it. It’s been going on since the mid 90s, and just like their metal the Fins love and revere their air guitarness. I seriously thing one of the competitors (Bjorn Torque) actually thinks he is a rock star. All these guys have personas and when they are on stage they try to embody this creation. Bjorn was supposed to be a new age punk rocker and he seriously thought he was the greatest air guitarist ever.

The US winner C-Diddy is wonderful, he is actually an actor in New York who went to UNC Chapel Hill. His shtick is wearing a Hello Kitty backpack around his chest. He is unbelievable and he actually won the world championship.

Every one of you have to admit that you have picked up an air axe and whaled on that thing and rocked it like Dokken! I know most of you admit it. I'd love to see one of the competitions and there happens to be one in Columbus the week AFTER we are supposed to be there. I’m actually going to see if we can change the dates and go see the show, maybe I could even compete. Now all I need is a name, Maybe something like Hambone McGhee.

HELLO COLUMBUS! ARE YOU READY TO AIR ROCK!!!!

Just Found This

I was was going through the nearly 600 emails just sitting in my mail box (Why do I keep all those messages?) and I found this picture. I have ideas I want to write about, yet I can't get my mind to funtion enough to type them out. Yet I am putting my "nose to the grindstone" and I will get a post out soon. I know that was bad.

Down Then Way Up

I actually got to watch this episode live, after a long Wednesday (more on that in a later post), I was asked to edit and I was actually happy to. The main reason was exhaustion, the secondary was because Lost was on. Overall I wasn't happy with the beginning of the episode, I was not a fan of the new flashbacks, and I think they prepped up last season for this with the Nikki and Paulo episode.

For the most part I don't like the boat people, Miles is the stereotypical loose cannon, Daniel is too much of a whiner, the only thing going for the English chick is her red hair (sorry, personal thing) and her finding a polar bear with a Dharma collar. Yet you have the pilot guy, I actually liked him, I'm thinking he is going to turn and want to stay on the island, I just have that feeling. This episode took forever to get going, and I started to get interested when Ben shot the English chick, from there on, it was great. I loved the fact Ben is the reason the boat people came to the island. What did he do, was he D.B. Cooper or something? Then when Locke asked about the smoke monster I thought we were going to get answers, I want to know what smokie is! For an episode that started out slow, it ended up being pretty good, so dear creators of Lost, less slow more awesomeness... onto the jackassery:

Ben looked shocked that Hurley knew about the Jacob house.

When Sawyer was about to "pop a cap" in to Ben, Locke said something to the effect of are you going to kill him in front of his daughter, why didn't Sawyer comeback with "Look Shiskabob, she ain't his daughter." In Lost time that revelation only happened like two days ago. Is Hurly going to become a leader now?

When Sawyer was debating about killing Ben, he looked to Hurly and Hurly shook him off. I seriously think Hurly will be playing a huge roll this season.

We figured out how they will explain Walt's growth spurt, just say the island made him 6 foot now.

What is up with Abbadon the bald black guy with the empty office, The King thinks he has a connection to Penny's father, I'm not too sure, I think it's something else, but I don't know yet. Maybe he's with the Polar Bear black market and Ben stiffed him.

I may have more later, the lack of sleep from the past few days has caused some memory loss, I need to rewatch the episode.

Confusion and Vindication

While at work yesterday I was minding my own business when I had a young reporter come up to me and ask me a question. "Do you have a Myspace account?" She was not looking to add me as a friend, she didn't have an account. To me this was shocking I started to wonder if she was Amish. Someone in their early 20s not having a Myspace page, isn't there a law against that or something? To top it off she had no idea how it works. She was trying to find pilots in the area, I don't know why she was wanting Myspace, wouldn't Google be better? I felt like I was explaining the internet to my mother-in-law. I'm not a big fan of Myspace, yes I have a page, but I only check it when The Wife tells me to. She did all the leg work on the thing, I just created it, I'd rather just blog than look at Myspace.

A week ago I mentioned how I had a story ripped from me and we put it on hold. Well a miracle happened... I actually got to edit the story today. Of course, it almost didn't happen again. I was text that it was on the docket of doom, but things could change. I walk in the door and Donna the desk chick gave me a look. I raised my hands in the air and said to words "Told you." She still has hope, her soul has not been crushed. The Serg was sent to do another story and I was sent to retread a day side story. Well, somehow the stars aligned and God was looking down on me and the next thing I know we are doing the story. I was so pleased with the story, I seriously think it's the best story that I have done since I moved here. Go over to the station page and see the story.

Long Wait Is Over

I was a little dissapointed by the fact it wasn't a full two hours of Lost, it's a little bit of a mean joke to mention two hour premier and show one hours of a clip show. Yet I was very happy with that one hour.



So far we only knew that Jack and Kate actually got off the island, yet somehow I thought everyone might make it, till Hurly started screaming about the Oceanic 6. I kept wondering who are the six? We know three, but who are the other three? I must know I'm guessing Sawyer, Jin and Sayid. I love the fact that Hurly was freaking out and wanted to go back to the psych ward, the one place he sort of knew peace. The three biggest intriuges for me in the flash forwards are the cop asking about Anna Lucia, Jack and the mysterious visitor in the mental ward. I'm wondering if the cop knew something and was pumping Hurly for info for Mr. Suit. Then what was that all about Hurly talking about I should have gone with you instead of with Locke? I don't trust the guys on the boat, but still what did Locke do? I guess time will only tell.



This was a very strong start to the season, with only 16 episodes, I'm hoping there is that normal 5 to 7 week drop off and every week is this good, now onto the randomness:



-OK is Hurly special? He did see Jacob right? Yet Hurly has a history of crazy, maybe Jacob is a group crazy thing.



-Was it me or did Jacob look a lot like Jake's dad... just sayin'



-Yet again rain, everytime something bad happens rain is involved, was the split the cause of the rain.



-King Tome made the comment Ben is the strongest person on the island and I would agree. He has had his ass kicked by Rousso and Jack yet he is still trying to manipulate everyone.



-Holy crap, Jack was going to shoot Locke! I think Locke now understands that Jack REALLY wants off the island, he better be glad he emptied the gun.



-I am still sad Charlie is gone, I hope they keep him around as a ghost, or an island mystery.



-How did Naomi climb a tree? She was stabbed in the back? You know what, she might have lived longer if she hid in a bush or something. Kate has a history of being captured, for a tracking expert she should learn how to hide her own tracks better.



I think it's interesting that Rousso is going along with Locke, I know she does not want to leave the island, why not go back to your hideout and get to know your daughter.



-I'm guessing the next flash forward will be Kate. They won't reveal the next person for a few weeks. I'm guessing we will learn the past of Richard, he is the only one a complete mystery.

Finally

Since the end of May I have been waiting for the season of Lost to start. There are so many questions that I must know the answers to, yet ABC and I'm guessing the creators of Lost pushed the season start date till February. As time went on my lust for finding out the needed answers died as time went on. The new year hit and I was to the point I almost forgot that the season was starting soon. I started to get a little giddy and then I found out that iTunes had a recap of Lost that's 8:15 long... and it was free! AWESOME! Then King Tom has a link to Missing Pieces and I'm even more giddy! I want it to be Thursday so bad, I've even had the thought of calling off sick, I won't but man, I don't know if I can wait till midnight to watch the 2 hour premier. I almost think this needs to be a holiday or something.

Off My Chest

I had one of those days, the kind of day that it will take a while to bounce back from. While working, I finally figured out the worst thing you can do to a photographer. It's not call him a videographer (that's for Wilson), nor is it going to countless press conferences or meetings, those are boring, yet you are generally inside and don't have to work all that hard. It's not chasing spot news across the area, it is stressful, but your day will probably go faster. The worst thing you can do is take away the hope of a good story.

Today I shot a story about a church organ, it's one of the largest in the state and I really wanted to knock this story out of the park. I was shooting everything possible, we even went up and got the guys tuning the thing. I was even creative with interviews going low angle and putting crap in the foreground. As we finished I realized I shot over 60 minutes of video. To give perspective on this, I average 20 minutes on a crappy story and a good story will be around 35 minutes. I went over board to say the least.

I guess no one realized the President was going to speak tonight so they put our story on hold. Normally this may not sound as bad as I am making it, but there is a history here. When I shoot a story and we save it for later I HAVE NEVER EDITED THE STORY! In the year in three months I've always dished the story off and it never looks the way I want. The person editing doesn't want to weed through my hour of video, they will find something quick and slap it together. It's not their fault, they just don't have the time to find the really good stuff.

This put me in an awful mood, this is the second time in a month I've worked on a story like this and had it pulled from underneath me. The last one never made air, it just went away. All I look forward to is that one story that will allow me to show off my skill and make me want to continue shooting. Every time this happens it gets harder and harder to want to shoot. I had three people reassure me that I will edit this story, I will believe it when it happens... or should I say believe it when I edit it and I see it on air. I need a drink.

Get It Out of My Head: WITH UPDATE

For some reason when I post once I must post often, but this is very serious and I need help. I have a phrase in my head and I don't know why. I keep saying it over and over and over, yet I have no idea where it came from. I know I have heard it, but where?

"Your running around all nimbly bimbly."

Why am I saying this? For some reason I think it's funny and I don't know why? Help me please!



OK, I figured out it was from Super Troopers. Thank you Donna for figuring it out and Wilson wins the prize of being first to comment the correct line.

Random Stardom

I'm not the type that needs to know what celebrity entered rehab or who is sleeping with whom, that's more of The Wife territory. Yet, there were two events that I wanted to talk about and either one does not quite deserve it's own post so here is a Hollywood random moments.

Heath Ledger If you did not know Heath Ledger died on Tuesday and I was kind of shocked, I hope it was not suicide, but you never know. He was one of those actors that everyone knew about, yet he really didn't do a lot of films. Still he has quite a few memorable rolls, starting with 10 Things I Hate About You, Patriot, A Knight's Tale, Monster's Ball, and Brokeback Mountain. I didn't think Brokeback was as good as it was hyped, but I though Ledger did a good job. I think he could have had a solid and long career.

The one thing about his death that is a little disturbing to me is the people taking pictures of his body being wheeled out. I understand the media, and I somewhat understand the paparazzi, yet there were a throng of people with their phones and cameras taking picture of his body bag. What are you going to do with that picture? You're not going to be able to sell it, too many others with better cameras, put it on your blog or are you going to show it to a friend. Will they think you are cool? "Look man, I got a picture of Heath Ledger's body bag."

Hey There, I Don't Care The Emo band Plain White T stole concepts from everyone from the White Stripes to Budweiser commercials to write the song "Hey There Delilah." It is a little catchy, but for some reason people, like The Wife, were enamored with who was the real Delilah and today the Today Show revealed it was some track athlete, Delilah DiCrescenzo. They even did an interview with her... Whoopeedee Do! Now we can get on with our lives now that we know who Delilah really is. When did something like this become important. The 80s and 90s were full of songs about people, yet we didn't need to know who the person was about, I don't want to know who the real Mandy is or who is this Mickey and why he is so fine. Just enjoy the music and use this thing called your imagination and think up a story, or can you America, can you?

Pie

January 23rd is National Pie Day! For most of you know I enjoy pie, it's actually one of my addictions. It was created by the American Pie Council (How did I not know about the pie council?). So go out and have a pie, make it apple, banana cream, chocolate, pumpkin, rhubarb, meat... whatever, just have pie.

This whole pie running joke with me started back at The Network, one day someone brought in a chocolate pie. I walk by and thought, "Ooo pie," so I had me a slice, but the problem was there were no plates or forks, so I used a napkin and my face. Of course, I got a little, well maybe half of it on my shirt. I tried to get it off, but there was some still there. I walk into editing and DCZ sees the mess. "What happened to your shirt?" I wanted to explain, but I couldn't, so waved my arms around and could only say one word while point to the spot... "Pie!"

DCZ laughed hysterically for a good five minutes. It was rather funny, here is a guy with stuff on his shirt and the only explanation was one word, yet it conveyed everything.... pie.

MLK Day

Strange Holidays: International Hot and Spicy Day

Happy international hot and spicy day, go out and eat a burrito with some habaneros or eat some Indian food. I heard Ethiopian food is also very spicy.

Freaking Out

If you don't watch news or work in it let me inform you a little bit about news and weather; they love to freak out over it. No matter where I have worked if the word snow is used, you will find people running around screaming, changing schedules, whaling and gnashing of teeth. I use to work in Toledo and they would freak out, come on your in Toledo, it's cold and snow will happen. At The Network the weather guys would be live for hours on end and the news director would order pizza.

Here in Raleigh I understand that they are not use to snow, I mean the average temperature in January is around 40. Yesterday they had a slew of people running around trying to get snow video. They got some video of said snow, but all of it was gone by 9 in the morning, yet we were still running video of it in the 11. Now we have a serious threat for Saturday and I seriously believe that if Durham was attacked a la Red Dawn (WOLVERINES!!!!!) we would not be going this full out for it.

The sad thing is all the other stations are probably doing the same thing, why do we do this? People get tired of the freak outs. Back in Columbus people would laugh at the stations for going all out for rain storms. The public is tired of us telling them that the world is about to end because we are getting three inches of snow.

I'm probably cranky about this because if it does happen, I will have to work 13 days in a row. Not a happy camper about that... stupid snow

Small Market News

If you have been living under a rock for the last few weeks, there was a female marine killed by a male marine in Jacksonville, NC. Now this is not technically in the Raleigh market, but it's close enough. Then on top of it there happen to be a few connections to the Triangle, because of this I am blogging from a Days Inn in Jacksonville.

Due to some issues we had to feed our story over the Internet so we actually got to watch the local news. These stations so not have a lot of resources and most of the on air presence is either real young of people who have been there since the dawn of time. Some of the stations looked good, the graphics could be used in Raleigh, but some... wow were real bad, I mean one looked like it was out of the 80s and with a set to match.

I never worked in a any market this small, I started out in Toledo (at the time in the 60s) and then to Charleston, WVa (also in the 60s). It amazes me to see reporters that young learn how to be in news. I created a phrase, they are playing reporter not being a reporter yet. Some day they may be the next network anchor, but right now, they are probably one year out of college. I wish them all luck and hope they move up the ladder, I'd rather keep working with Boston Stevie and The Serg.

Strange Holidays: National Nothing Day

Every year for Christmas my mother buys me a calender, for the longest time it was a Farside daily calender, but this year she bought me a Simpsons mini calender. Not only is it cool for being a Simpsons calender, it has birthdays of strange celebrities plus strange holidays. Some are from other countries, then there are my favorite ones, National Pie Day, International Hot and Spicy Food Day, Talk Like a Pirate Day. I'm going to try and post about each of these holidays on the day they occur.

NATIONAL NOTHING DAY January 16th

This is a whole day is devoted to doing, well nothing. Back in 1973 newspaperman Harold Pullman Coffin created a day "to provide Americans with one national day when they can just sit without celebrating, observing, or honoring anything."

This is why I am posting this a day early, I am going to try and do nothing on Wednesday.

Bowl Game Trip Wrap New Orleans

After the bitter taste of a 63-7 lose, we got up the next morning to head to New Orleans. We planned to spend most of the day near the French Quarter. It seemed like everything was pretty close and easy to get to, parking was my only concern.

As we are waiting for our car I noticed a news crew, the local Biloxi station was going a story about fans staying in Biloxi instead of New Orleans. I see the reporter talking to a valet and then a few minutes later that same valet comes up talking to us about the game. Hmmm, Mr. newsman is staging his scenes... very interesting. Finally the reporter and photog come over and asks us a few questions on camera, I mention afterwards I'm in TV in Raleigh, they just kind of move on. Now when ever I encounter someone from another market I at least act like I'm interested, they blow me off... note to self Biloxi news crews... bad. Even though they blew me off I decide to at least give the guy a nat sound moment, the photog sees our Ohio State decorated car and starts rolling, I roll the window down and yell OH! I get the IO from the guys behind him. Your welcome.

After two more hours of driving we finally get to New Orleans. The last time I was in this area was after Katrina and I was in a Humvee, a lot has changes, yet a lot still looks the same. There are buildings that are still falling apart and that need to be torn down, yet three years later, they still stand empty and looking awful. The GPS took us through one of the down trodden areas I'm shocked people are living in some of these places. Then all of the sudden we turn a corner and we are in the French Quarter. I at least expected to have a transitional section on land, instead it was falling down building, next block, beautiful French influenced buildings.

I hate looking for parking in crowded areas and after a half hour we find parking a mile outside the Quarter and we start walking around. To be honest it's like going to another country, you don't feel like your in the States, yet you are. The architecture, the drinking in the streets, the people, just feels different. We had a lot of fun, we saw street performers ranging from Dixieland bands, guys with puppets and a guy posing as if he is climbing a ladder. Also we found countless Voodoo shops, I finally convinced The Wife to go into one and it was interesting, all kinds of Voodoo dolls for sale along with weird statues. I would have taken a few pictures, but every store had the same sign inside... no pictures. For a tourist area I find that a little odd, even the stores selling T-shirts didn't want cameras out, Gilbert the Gnome did not like this idea.

After a few blocks we finally head towards Bourbon Street, holly crap there's a lot of people packed into a small location! You just walk the streets and try to go with the flow. Even though everyone is in the middle of the streets, the road is not closed, people trying to get to the other side of Bourbon had to honk their horns and almost ram their way through. If you are visiting the area, TRY NOT TO CROSS BOURBON STREET, it took probably one car 30 minutes to cross.

I called my sister Julie who had been to the area before and told me about Pat O'Brien and they made the Hurricane, of course I now wanted one, and I tell you what, that drink is STRONG, I defiantly did not need a second, if I tried I'd be laying in a gutter somewhere. The one thing The Wife wanted more than anything else was some Jambalaya, she talked it about it for weeks! After walking for a few hours what better way to rest than to sit and eat. We get in pretty quick at the Cajun Cabin and we even get to sit on a balcony! The food was out of this world. The gumbo I had was better than the one in Mobile and her Jambalaya was just as good. The Wife is now happy and tired of the crowd, we take a few side streets and took at the wonderful town as we head to the Superdome.

To be honest I would have sat in the upper section behind a poll, I mean the tickets were free and they were in a great location. We could see the entire field and we were close enough that the players did not look like ants. We enjoyed the first quarter and after that things got ugly. OSU lost and I am no long wishing to go to any more bowl games.

Even with the two loses we had a great trip I would love to go back to New Orleans again just to see more. Maybe there might be a guys trip there. I think Skybus now services New Orleans... who's with me!

Bowl Game Trip Wrap Mobile

Sunday we made it to Mobile for the GMAC Bowl, but we had a lot of time to kill since the game did not start till 8:00. I was told by Dan to go see the USS Alabama, I wasn;t too interested till we saw it. Sweet mother of mercy that thing is HUGE! We pay the 26 dollars to park and take a tour. It was interesting to see the quarters and how much climbing you have to do. We only saw about half the ship and we were getting tired from all the climbing and hiking. You see the 6 main guns, but there are so many all around the main deck. I just kept imagining all the people running around while being attacked during WWII.

They also had numerous airplanes and even a submarine, I of course started yelling ROLL TIDE! I don't think I was the first to yell that because the locals were rolling their eyes. I would never want to work on a sub. Those things are tiny and not a lot of room to move around. The bunks are stacked on top of each other and men had to sleep 6 in a room. If you want to serve on a sub, fine by me you are a better person than I. ROLL TIDE!

After all that walking we find a lovely pub and eat some wonderful Cajun food. I love gumbo and they had some of the best, The Wife had a shrimp po boy and that think was PACKED with shrimp. If you are in Mobile go to the Hurricane Bar.

We still had a lot of time left and The Wife was wanting to buy a shirt for the next day. We heard of an outlet mall not to far from Mobile and we head that way... we missed the exit and could not turn around for 10 miles. We see signs for another outlet mall at the next exit... even better. Then we take a wild turn, The Wife sees a sign for beaches. She loves beaches and since it is near sunset she wants to see the sunset in the gulf. Time is short, we can only do one, so we start for the beach. The sun is going down fast and the game starts in a couple hours. Finally signs about the beach! We are almost there we are so close we can.... toll road... 14 miles! Forget that noise, TO THE OUTLET MALL! We get to the mall, we can only spend 20 minutes there and The Wife doesn't see a store she likes... except the Coach Purse store. I just drove 40 miles out of our way and WE ARE STOPPING AT A STORE! We go in and of course all the purses she likes cost more than $200 one was closer to $400! We finally leave for the bowl game.

We get to the stadium just in time for the game. We walk in and BG is coming out of the locker room right in front of us! I pull out the BG flag and try to encourage my team, I guess I didn't help enough. Come to find out BG forgot how to hold onto the ball or play defense. BG lost 63-7 to Tulsa in the worst bowl loss EVER! We actually left the game while it was 49-7 and headed to Biloxi

Bowl Game Trip Wrap Intro

I've had a few days to rest and I am still tired, we drove 1900 miles in 4 days, I think that will make anyone tired. For the most part we had a great time, we divided the trip into two parts, the bowl games and the good parts. Bowling Green broke a NCAA bowl record for losing by 56 points... at least we are number one at something. Then Ohio State lost, that game was a little better, but still hard to deal with. I'm probably not going to any more bowl games for a while, I'm afraid I might go into convulsions, drop to the fetal position and have flashbacks to these games.

Instead of dwelling on the games too much I'm going to write about the fun parts of the trips, we got to see the USS Alabama, ate some great food, and walked around the French Quarter. I'm now going to take another nap and then write about Mobile.