Off The Coast: December 2005

HOME!

See you next year!

*note: I will NOT be wearing those glasses.

Nope.

love

Holidays

I can't be home for Christmas. It's a by product of the job. But I'm lucky to have an understanding family and good friends.

Over our mutual TH, FR weekend, one of my friends invited me to her childhood home...

The food was wonderful, and the company was excellent.

Having to work on Christmas isn't fun, but I'm grateful to have gotten a chance to have a little family fun... Even if it wasn't my own.

It made me really miss my family.

I wish I could be there.

No worries. I'll be home soon!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Sunset

"I-team"

I've been shooting for the investigative unit the past couple days.

Today we really attacked a tough issue in our community.

Potholes.

I shot it from above... and below...

That pothole didn't know what hit it.

It cowered in fear.
That pothole won't be all... pothole-ish on our watch.

Door to Door

I went "investigating" today.
Or should I say, I drove Sarah to west prairie-ville and watched her knock on doors for 2 hours.

House one.

No luck.

House two.

Nope.

While she was at house three, I started getting bored...

This is what I'd call "journalism in park."

Sarah talked to everyone.

And I waited...

She made several attempts...

while I perfected the self portrait...

took to reading my book...

and taunted her while she walked down the street.

I lost track of houses.
I got bored counting them.
We got SO close to finding someone who wanted to talk to us. At least four different people were on the fence but no matter how much Sarah pleaded they weren't convinced... We had made up our mind to visit one more house.

ONE more.

Low and behold...

SUCCESS!

Another day of television in the books.
TV is so glamourous.
Why don't they mention this in school?

They're here!

Young and free

It's friday night.

I'm cleaning my apartment.

Let the good times roll.

Woo.

SOT Rocket Inductee

In November, I inducted somone from AAA into the "SOT Rocket Hall of Fame."

This month I have an equally qualified inductee.
This guy from the BBB.

You give him a talking point and off he goes. One question and that's it. He's an interviewers dream.

So here's to you, Sir! Congratulations!

You're a SOT rocket!

Newbies

I was lucky in college. I had great professors and awesome classmates. In my broadcast classes there were a MAXIMUM of 16 people and we became our own little newsroom.

Gary and Ken, our professors, would give us 2 weeks to find, write and edit one story each. ONE! IN TWO WEEKS! Each time we would try and get a jump on the game. We swore we'd finish early. But low and behold, every time, we would fill up the computer lab the night before deadline. We spent hours editing our pieces into mediocrity. And finished or not, at 10:00 sharp, we'd get kicked out of the lab...

But to home we did not go. It was out to the bar to drown our sorrows. It was usually a Tuesday, always the same place, and no one was out but us. It was awesome.

We've all scattered here and there. Most everyone has stayed up north, working as producers and reporters. We are all still very new in the business and I don't think we knew what we were in for.

Read this:

"So i raced up the stairs to the studio with the breaking news just as the opening theme song played. I clipped the mic and buttoned my jacket just as the anchor tossed to me. I was so out of breath, my throat closed and i could hardly spit anything out. But it was a 45 second reader with no cover video... and there's no way it ended in 45 seconds. Worst experience of my life. If you can't resist, go to my website and watch the 6pm friday newscast. Just don't be too hard on me... it was my big story."

This is a post from my friend Lou on our newsteam forum. He's going to be a great reporter someday, but this was not one of his best performances. You just have to see it. Click on the link, scroll down, and select the Friday, Dec 9th news at 6. (it will only be up until Dec 16th at 6) Wait through the anchor intro, he's the lead story.

Way to not miss slot, Lou! Just make sure you keep this because in 5 years from now that will be comedy gold!

Bikers

The station parking lot was overrun by bikers today.

We knew that they were coming. In fact, they were welcomed guests.

It was the 26th annual toy run for Toys for tots. Hundreds of bikers gathered by the river, drove around town, and ended at our parking lot. It was an incredible sight to watch them come in. It was a sea of leather and chrome. They filled the streets for miles. And each one of them had a toy or two strapped to the back. Hundreds of bikers, hundreds of bikes, hundreds of toys.

I went up on the roof to get a good shot and the sight was just overwhleming.

The weather was gorgeous and the bikers were so much fun to watch. All I needed was a chair and some snacks and I could have stayed up there all afternoon.

Clay thought so too.

I wish I had a picture of the mountain of toys they brought in.
It was HUGE!

The whole newsteam was there collecting toys. I think they collected toys for at least 2 hours straight. The line went out the building.

It was such a neat event.

Saturday

I haven't been inspired to write lately. Nothing really exciting has happened. Everything has been pretty run of the mill for a news photographer... armed robberies, abductions, stand offs... Nothing exciting.

I did get to shoot the downtown parade tonight. It's always fun to do something fun like that. My station had a ~~live truck towing a large toy box~~ float with a bunch of ~~talent~~ reporters waving and greeting the people. I'm not going to go crazy and write all about it. It's just a parade. Here's a bunch of photos for you to see instead.