Not that I've been posting all that frequently, but I'm going on a little vacation for a few days - so the blog may not be updated for a few days. I'm gonna go check out southern South Carolina ("The Low Country").

Today I'm in Charleston, and having a swell time. I'm staying a colonial B&B that was built in the late 1700's - and they have free wireless internet. Most impressive.

I've already bought a book of weird Southern ghost stories. And I also got some plastic Civil War soldiers. This evening they fought a major campaign in the hotel room bathroom.



We've already eaten at a bunch of restaurants - way too many for only being here since noon. Somehow we ended up at the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company for dinner (wasn't my idea). Eating at Planet Hollywood is bad enough with all its lackluster 90's movie memorabilia in your face. But, a restaurant based around a movie that's like 12 years old is a bit much. Don't get me wrong: I like the Forrest Gump. But, this place felt very "warmed over" and desperately wanted to 'keep the magic alive". And none of the actors (except Robin Wright Penn) seemed to have granted the use of their likeness for marketing, so they're oddly absent from everything. Even the guy who played Bubba.

When the server came over to our table to start-up a game of "Forrest Gump Trivia", it was officially too much. Of course, I'm such a dork that later I thought about reading the sequel to Forrest Gump, so that I can go back really impress them with my...um...Gumpology.

Anyway, with all that said about the place: my dinner-with-a-stupid-name was really good.

So there.

Today the temperature was like ninety-something, but with the humidity it felt like a hundred-twenty-something.

So, today the newscast is hitting the heatwave coverage pretty hard. Gordon and I went out to do a round-up package about kids "beating the heat", as we like to call it.

Our first stop was the little town of Greer, where the fire department pulled up a fire engine and let the fire hoses loose on a bunch of little kids there. When we got there it took a minute to adjust to the NON-STOP-HIGH-PITCHED-SCREAMING from the hundreds of soaking kids. [It's kinda like that chicken/egg thing: Were the children screaming because they were being blasted with a fire hose?...Or were blasted with a fire hose because they wouldn't stop screaming?]



The firemen were cool and let Gordon up on the fire engine, so we could record some teases for the show. And they let him blast a few kids - something he seemed to enjoy way too much. Although, they wouldn't let him open the nozzle to full blast, so how much fun could it really be?

After that we headed down to the Discovery Island Water Park, which features: water slides, a lazy river, and a kiddie water island (which is basically a big urine slick).



I wasn't fortunate enough to be armed with a fire hose, so I had to fend for myself against an onslaught of splashing kids. In the photo above, you can see me giving my "do not splash the camera man, or you won't be on television" lecture.

Did they care enough to stop splashing me and my camera?
Hell no. I got soaked.
But, on a hot day like today...I didn't seem to mind.

Consider this a random product review.

I was skulking around the local Target store this weekend - looking for bargains - and came across an interesting find. Waiting for me on one of the clearance aisles, as if fate had magically planted it there for me to find, was a reduced-price Gillette M3 Power Nitro razor.



For those of you not up on the latest in shaving technology: the Gillette M3 Power Nitro is the apex of personal shaving technology. I would go so far as to say that it's the evolutionary missing link between hand razors and the electric shaver. Its name ends with the word Nitro, so it's gotta be all that.

Anyway, it's basically a razor with a AAA battery in it. When you click on the button, the razor vibrates much like an Xbox game controller (it's probably no coincidence that the razor is black and green) and you're able to shave better. Did I mention it has a battery in it?

You see, for the last few decades reusable razors only had like 2 blades, and suddenly through some technological breakthrough the razor companies found a way to add another blade. Thus, upping the total to three blades! THREE BLADES! But in a world on the verge of destroying itself with nuclear weapons while stuffing its fat face with Doritos Extreme Kickin' Chili tortilla chips, three razors clearly just isn't enough. So before you know it, they started cramming another blade (just below the lubricating glide strip) into disposable razor cartridges. FOUR BLADES! So, you can imagine that when I saw the Gillette M3 Power Nitro on television it brought a tear to my eye. This isn't just another @#$%ing razor blade crammed in there, they crammed a servo motor and battery into the handle. It's not just another razor now, it's state of the art technology.

But, I digress...

The Gillette M3 Power Nitro boasts a "breakthrough experience" when shaving. Apparently, the vibrating razor makes the hairs on your face stand-up at attention, which makes shaving a whole lot easier.

Does it work? Sure. Although my hand went numb halfway through shaving my face. Also, the razor kinda vibrates the shaving cream all over the handle of the razor, so it kept slipping around in my hand. I'm sure that if I was in a hurry one morning I could probably do a good job of slitting my throat if I wasn't careful (which is actually the situation every time I take a razor into my hand at 7 am).

I haven't fully explored the awesome potential of the Gillette M3 Power Nitro, but all loyalty I have to the product will likely vanish the moment another silly razor comes along - probably something with one of those red laser sighting beams. How rad would that be?

This totally just reminded me of this catalog of japanese inventions. Check it out, I especially like the head tripod for sleeping on the subaway.


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I have more comic book pages added to the Anamorphic blog today. I'm telling you, it's looking rad.

Today I was assigned to work in the Spartanburg bureau office. I've driven past it a few times, but never had the pleasure of working there until this morning.



The office is located on the first floor of an old marble building, which isn't in the greatest shape. I didn't think it was bad as some of the crazy stories I've heard over the past few months, but it definitely isn't as luxurious as the Anderson bureau office (which is rather modern, and has: couches, a personal chef, and masseur).



Among the key attractions at the Spartanburg bureau today was: the toilet raised up on a platform like a majestic throne, the old-timey bank vault, and trace evidence of 'furry little friends' who occasionally pay the crews a visit.

Elise gave me a little tour of the office, and I chopped together a quick WMV video.

The Spartanburg Bureau - 1:30/2.9mb/WMA

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unrelated items of interest:

I saw this awesome Russian keyboard prototype, called the Optimus Keyboard. Each key is a micro color LCD screen. My supercomputer is starting to look a little less super. It might cost a bunch, but I am totally going to get one if it ever comes out.

I found the perfect t-shirt to wear down here in Nascar country!

I wasn't sure if I was a fan of the Stella show on Comedy Central. I pretty knew what to expect from their short films and the State, but it didn't click with me right away. But last week's office party episode won me over - especially when the "Higher and Higher" workout song from Wet Hot American Summer kicked in over the party games. And now it's stuck in my head forever. Into the fire...it's getting higher and higher...higher and higher...

The fabulous Trent posted a never-aired promo clip from ABC's mega hit, Lost. I am SO GLAD this thing never aired. But, I guess now - thanks to the internet - it kinda did.

Today I was on "Potter Patrol". Basically, I just drove all over town today shooting Harry Potter stories. [I put Harry Potter as a hyperlink, in case you've never heard of it.]

It was quite an adventure:



1. Here I am posing next to "Mount Potter" in the stock room at the local Barnes-N-Noble. They had this massive, shrink-wrapped mountain of boxes in the corner of the room that everyone was supposed to put out of their minds until the official release date - despite the fact that it took up half the room, had HARRY POTTER stamped all over it, and looked like it could easily crush someone to death if they tried to snatch a box from it.

2. I went to the public library to get shots of kids reading Harry Potter. When I got there I was escorted (you're escorted everywhere when top secret Harry Potter stuff is involved) to the children's reading center at the back of the library. I met with a few dozen kids who were dying to get on TV. I got them all rounded up and in chairs, and then I gave them the "everyone-on-their-best-behavior-and-don't-look-at-the-camera-speech."

I started shooting, and everything was going great until this 11-year-old boy jumps up from his chair, crying, "I can't read!" and then ran away blubbering. Talk about uncomfortable. I felt bad for him. I eventually got him back in his chair, and told him he only needs to pretend to read. Which didn't go very well either, since he pretended to read out loud - as loud he could.

3. Then, I shot little video where I was going to have a bunch of kids recap the last Harry Potter book. I was gonna stitch it all together and make a funny little video for the show. It went great except that I DOUBLE PUNCHED my record button (meaning that I thought I was recording, and then hit the button to stop, but started recording - or is it vice versa?). I was mortified when I got back to the station with my much-hyped Harry Potter package, and realized that I only recorded ONE kid talking. Great! Now there's two more kids that I will probably make cry today.

Anyway, I'm going at midnight to get my copy of Harry Potter - which gives me plenty more time to accidentally make some more young children cry. Especially when I cut in line to get my book and yell, "Eat it! Gryffindors suck! I'm a Slytherin, bitches."

On second thought: maybe I should just pick it up tomorrow morning. I'm way too hyper right now.

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Also, every time a new Harry Potter book or movie comes out, I feel compelled to repost these photos of Hasser and myself in our Harry Potter halloween costumes.

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pumping gas

I posted my little story about pumping gas the other day, but there's no way it can top this live truck gas pump nightmare story from the anonymous Portland gossip blog.

So, today the space shuttle launch got scrubbed. You know how I found out? I was pumping gas.

We rolled into the gas station - nearly out of gas - I pulled up the closest pump. And, as soon as I started pumping...

*click*

The television came on, blaring CNN. And by television I mean the TELEVISION ON THE GAS PUMP.



How could I not know that there was cable televisions on gas pumps until just now? I mean I've heard people talking about it on the news it like, "someday people are thinking about putting televisions at gas pumps."



But I never actually heard that it was accomplished. I have a sneaking suspicion that they weren't really there yesterday, but someone went back in time to the prehistoric era and accidently killed a moth. That caused a slight change in the time stream which altered several things, like: television is in gas pumps, and Tom Cruise is now engaged to Katie Holmes.

Actually, I've only been pumping my own gas for the last few months (I'm from Oregon), so the gas pump people could've had television this whole time and I had no idea.

Anyway, I though it was cool. I actually slowed down pumping the gas, so I could hear the last part of some astronaut-guy's soundbite. It's kinda comforting to know, that while we still haven't really achieved any epic space program goals, there's still some kind of scientific progress going on down here on Earth (at gas stations, that is).

Last night I posted a litte video of Marla and I "pumping up the jam" in the news car. Today, I noticed something interesting in Itunes' Today's Top Songs. (Hint: it's number 8)




How did Technotronic suddenly slide into the electronic charts? Coincidence?

(Um...yeah it probably-most-likely is. It's a cool song, even now.)

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I updated my Anamorphic blog with some new page art and layouts. It's actually starting to look like a real comic book!

Today was my first day as a 'dayside' photographer. From the way that everyone's talking to me about it...becoming a dayside photographer is like opening a magical box of wishes or something.

"You're working dayside now? Nice. Welcome to dayside!"

It'll be nice to have more time to catch-up on some computery-related stuff. And I'll be able to actually watch TV shows at the time that they're actually on TV. That'll be a change.

But moving to a new, much-coveted shift means leaving behind my awesome nightside peeps. And, Team Marla & JL has come to an end. We'll have some occasional random team-ups, but she's got a new photog now - and I've been thrown into general population (I've been watching Oz) with the other guys.



To commemorate our time together, I put together a little video of our adventures over the last few months. Every night when we drive back to the station, we listen to Technotronic's Pump Up The Jam and...well...pump up the jam.

Here's the clip:

[Marla and JL present Pump Up The Jam - 2:30trt/5mb/MOV]

It might look like we're screwing around, but after I edited out all the city/county council meetings and legistlative/educational stories, it was a lot shorter and more exciting. Think of it like Peter Jackson cutting out all parts of the Lord of the Rings where the Hobbits eat, sing about eating, talk about eating, or complain about not eating - that was like 4000 pages he didn't have to put into the movie trilogy.

Kinda like that.

What was I talking about again?
Oh yeah. Dayside.
It's not bad.
Today I did a story about a guy having a heart attack.
What will tomorrow have in store? Who knows?

We had the opportunity to pose with another weird-cow-themed-mascot-thing.



Although this one is way 'sexier' than the Chic-Fil-A cow.

The South Carolina upstate felt the aftermath of tropical storm Cindy yesterday - mostly through extended weather coverage, but there was also rain, flooding, and some random forces of nature.

Marla and I went to a marina where a little tornado came through and tossed a bunch of the boats around.



And the dock, as well...



Ahh! Gotta go get ready for hurricane Dennis!