Happy Halloween!

Today, morning anchor Beth and I went to interview the guys from the "Power Team" (not to be confused with, Team Impact who I met in June). They were showing off their super powers at a local elementary school.

I gotta admit, I was impressed by some of their 'feats of strength' (breaking giant piles of bricks, ripping phone books, stuff like that). But, it must've completely blown the little kids minds - considering that some of them can't even lift a gallon jug of milk.



And they took a moment to pose for a photo [above]. They power guy is perched on my back because he can't fly, and we were all about to go fight super villains together. I'm able to bound over large buildings like the Hulk, so it made the most sense to travel that way (Beth and the other guy only have minor flying or teleportation abilities).

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Oh yeah! My little story on the medieval festival people aired today [here's the WYFF video link]. Watch for the wizard! I would've made a whole story around him, if I had enough video.

[Update: Just a weird, little pic I snapped from inside my viewfinder between live shots.]

For the most part, people in the newsroom are assigned general news items, or whatever breaking news comes our way. But on occasion, folks are selected to do certain stories based on their interest in the topic - or if it's their specialty. For example: a photographer really into sports will shoot extra football games, or a reporter that's into consumer affairs will do a bunch of stories about email scams and credit report nonsense.

So, when it comes time for someone to shoot a story about people who dress up in medieval armor and beat on each other with wooden swords while under the supervision of a dark wizard...naturally they choose me.



Perhaps the managers know that I play a half-elf bard in Everquest 2 during all my spare time, or perhaps I just have DORK written all over me.

Regardless, I grabbed the mapquested (is that an adjective?) directions, and went out to make some photo essay magic. And, by magic I mean: all kinds of swordplay, wizardry, jousting, and wenches maidens - but sadly, no unicorns.

It was a nice way to end the day. It went like this: bank robbery, middle school activity, editing, and medieval swordplay.

All in a day's work.

Now it's time to go home and see all the same medieval stuff again on my computer (but, thankfully this time there are plenty of uniorns).

While shooting some community fundraiser, I came across some firemen setting up their truck (to show off to the kids). "Are you gonna let kids ride in that thing?" I said, looking up at the crane-bucket-thing a hundred feet in the air. The fireman next to me said, "Um..no. But, you can go up in it if you want."

Of course, I said, "Sure!"



It was pretty fun - especially since a dozen or so kids all gathered around, begging to go up - and they wouldn't let them. Ha Ha!

This is the obligatory post that says, "Hey, I'm changing around my site, in case you think it's broken or something."

I'm trying to get all my various sites and blogs together under the LLR umbrella. The links, and blogroll should be back up soon - along with some new electrickery that I have planned.

Today, Meterologist Jennifer Valdez and I were assigned to cover tonight's Powerball drawing (which at this hour, I still haven't yet won). We had a swell time, but got kinda stressed out when it came time to do our "look how crazy the lines are in this local convenience store" live shots.

Here's the thing: the lines were crazy. But, they were never crazy during the 5-7 times they went to our live remote. It was just Jennifer frontin' by a quiet lotto machine.

I've prepared a photo-illustration:



This is the kind of luck I have when it comes to these type of live shots.

When people are supposed to be buying lottery tickets (survival supplies, fireworks, and Thanksgiving turkeys) there's no one there as the camera goes live.

Of course, the it also works the opposite way: when it comes time to show the Mardi Gras (St. Patrick's Day, and New Year's Eve) celebration, everything is somewhat calm, but when the camera goes live...up come the shirts, beers, and middle fingers.

/sigh

It was still fun, and someday it'll be a fond memory when I look back at my life before the zombie apocalypse winning the multi-state lottery drawing.

Today the photographers of WYFF came together to unite under a common goal: Fashion!



As part of a promotion campaign for our Friday night football show, our (totally rad)station GM inked a deal with local outdoor clothier, Oobe, setting us up with some new station logo'd clothes.

Now, I was content with the visits by the ice cream truck this summer, but he really stepped up his generosity by giving us TEN SHIRTS (!!!) to add to our wardrobe.

Honestly, many of us had never heard of Oobe before this whole thing began. But, now the word is muttered about 25 times a day around our station - especially by the photogs.

Getting our clothes today was great, but the best part was few months back - when the Oobe folks came in for our fittings. You should've seen the photog staff, as we all gathered to plan-out our styles and colors.

"Dude, do you think that this shirt looks good on me?"

"Naw man, with your complexion, you're more of an 'autumn'. I think the pumpkin short-sleeved shirt would look much better than seamist green."

"Thanks man. You look great in eggshell, by the way."

Everyone in the station got something to wear, but field crews were them most 'outfitted'. Here's a quick sampling of some of the various colors we had to choose from:



Of course, now that we have ten shirts (and new vests, fleeces, and jackets), we're kinda expected to wear them to work every day - sorta like uniforms. But, I don't really care, man. I got some merlot golf shirts and a futuristic space jacket. I'm ready to go!

[But for the record: I didn't get anything in pumpkin or sage.]

Today was Marla's last day at our station, and she's outta here (she got a job working for Fox News as a field producer). It seems like months ago that I interviewed her when I first arrived at the station. Before long, we were stalking movie stars, striving to win tease contests, and (of course) pumping up the jam.

To commemorate her last day, we tried to recapture the magic of our previous Pump Up The Jam video.

Here goes:

PUMP UP THE JAM (AGAIN)

[Best of luck, Marla!]
[last edited: 10/17]

I've been seriously neglecting the blog for the last few weeks, but I have excuses. I work three jobs: news photographer, Everquest 2 half-elf bard, and wanna-be comic book writer.



Anamorphic, my comic book project is nearly ready to send out to the publishers. I've been working feverishly on proposals, scripts, and all that kind of paperwork stuff. Over the past few months, I've assembled a pretty kick-ass team of collaborators, and all our hard work will soon be evaluated by the professionals.

Here's something interesting I kinda realized today: This project has been done entirely through the internet. I have yet to physically meet or speak to anyone. I've only used bulletin boards and email for communicating (and paypal for expenses). And, some of the publishers are okay with primarily using email to communicate. But, I guess eventually I'll have to talk to someone, right?

This is reminiscent of my several attempts to order pizza over the internet, in order to bypass human communication. I just can't get past the meeting-the-person-to-get-the-pizza part of it.

I've been watching the entire run of SciFi channel's Battlestar Galactica over the past week. And, I've learned that all this internet electrickery comes with a price - the eventual conquest of the human race by robot overlords.

So, I think a comic book publisher calling me in the next few weeks wouldn't just be rad...it'd be one small step in taking back our doomed humanity.

I need to start posting more often, if only to get that scary sassy britches doll off the page. And, today I found a suitable rant: live strong rip-off bracelets.



Okay, so there's the Lance Armstrong yellow cancer bracelet. And, then there's the purple breast cancer one. Actually I think all the cancers are covered now, which is cool.

Of course, the bracelets have started getting more trivial and obscure to the point where we're running out of colors. Including the green one for retired comic book creators (seriously).

Are people still buying/making these things? The answer is: yes, but now they're making them.

Today, one of our producers was sporting the "Think before you speak!" bracelet, given out by a local school in an effort to curb teen profanity.

That got me to thinking..."What if they made us wear one these [fascist] bracelets at our various TV stations? What would mine say?" Here's a few of thee top of my head [I'm sure some of ya'll will think a few clever ones]:


Look up and live! - for live truck operators (safety orange).

Think before you white balance! - for photogs (white blue)

Spell check! - for graphics folks (um..red, I guess?)

Don't forget to write your vo/sot for the morning show - for reporters (okay, I'm running out of suitable colors already. I can't use yellow - which would signify "sunshine", because that's already used by cancer. Maybe a brownish, bacon color?)


That's just a few that I could think of before Prison Break came on TV - which is okay since I've already grown bored of news related bracelets. How's that for a microcosm?

[Also: if I had to wear one at home it'd be "Why haven't you taken out the garbage yet? You know how I hate that."]