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!