Been locked in the "sweeps loop" for the last few weeks. Non-stop grind at work. So, today's much belated post is a typical example of my day at work.

Here we go:

We shoot our story and all that stuff, and then get to our live shot location to put the story together. Most of the time, it'll be a place where the event/crime/action is, but there are occasions where we will just park in an emplty parking lot away from all the meth heads and crazy folk.

When we get there, I hop out of the news van and walk all around making sure there's no over head power lines that I could deploy the mast [see figure below] into.



At work we have to go through these regular safety sessions where we watch videos of live truck operators getting fried by powerlines, and simulations of a news team getting ready for a live shot. We all call it "look up and live" training. I hope I don't sound like I'm knocking it too much - it's a good thing.

And just in case we forget, there's handy notices all over the trucks.



After it's all safe, we throw out the cones - a 'safety perimeter', if you will.



And then after all that safety stuff (time willing) is done, out comes the PS2 that I keep in my special 'live truck toolbox'. I have a travel case Xbox, but I always forget to bring it with me. However, the PS2 lives in my toolbox.



Right now, I've been playing a ton of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. I never get anywhere in the game, since I only get to play it for like 30-40 minutes while the reporter writes our story. So, basically I just go on a cop killing rampage drive around the city.



Occasionally, I'll hand over the controller and my reporter will run around the game, getting into trouble and running over pedestrians.


So to recap our safety lesson:

1. "Look up and live"
2. Playstation 2
3. Edit story, live shot, blah blah blah...