Saw this at the local Italian supermarket and it made me laugh, and then it made me wish I had a microwave in my dorm room.

Aww yeah! Today was my last Olympic press conference of the 2006 Winter Olympic games. Before clawing my way to the athletes, I snapped one final shot of the media cluster. Hidden somewhere at the end is Sasha Cohen.



Hopefully, I'll have time to post some more stuff before we tear down our workspace (and LAN), but here are a few quick Torino updates:

1. The "Our Driver Alex" video I posted yesterday is being picked-up by the (Hearst) Olympics Zone, so it's going out to the affiliates this weekend. Our little death metal driver is gonna be a star.

2. Saw some dirty, grubby, filthy pickpockets working a crowd last night. It was quite imaginative, as the guys pretended to play football (that's soccer to us Americans) and they kicked the imaginary ball over to some people passing by. They got all up in the tourists face and pretended to really kicking the ball around - trying to steal it back - which was absurd because the people didn't pretend in return. They got right up next to them as they aggressively bumped them and got in their pockets. After that the "footballers" turned their attention to us, in our bright blue media jackets, but we made it clear we didn't want to play. Tonight I'm wearing black.

3. The Italian version of White Castle is still delicious even when you're not drinking late at night. And, I've learned there's a REALLY bad franchise of late-night food vendors around town. The name: "Geno Panino", if you can believe it.

Time to go get some pizza and fizzy water. Talk to you later.

One of the best things about our trip to Torino has been our two drivers, David and Alex. They are both completely different, yet equally rad.



I was scrolling through my home video the other day and realized that I have a ton of Alex video (whereas I have a million photos of David), so I chopped together a quick video so that you can see this guy in action, first-hand.

He loves death metal. He is a road warrior. He is our driver, Alex.

"Our Driver Alex" - Windows Media 4.7MB

"Our Driver Alex" - MPEG 4 video - 3.4MB

Today was a fun assignment. We went downtown and interviewed people about what kind of interesting photos they've been taking while in Torino and at the games. Somehow we ended up getting a bunch of really funny people with awesome photos, and entertaining stories.

After the interviews we borrowed their flash cards and downloaded the pic for our story. I thought it was going to be a logistical nightmare, but everything went so smoothly and all the people were surprisingly willing to hand over their photos to bunch of weird strangers. Digital camera technology is so rad - we couldn't have done a story like this a few years ago.



And we ran into Trisha Dunn-Luoma (who is such a fun person - and worth 3 points!) and got some excellent behind-the-scenes celebration pics of her and the team. She also pulled out her bronze medal and let me check it out.



As she was taking this photo, dozens of people gathered around and started snapping photos of me, and I realized that they thought I was an Olympic medal-winning athlete (which is absurd if you get a even a three second look at me). Then it was really funny when I had to explain to all the foreign folks why the bronze medalist was taking my picture with her medal.

*sigh*

Maybe you had to be there.

It's weird covering the Olympics, and not being able to acknowledge stuff that has happened in the games because the events won't air for 8 more hours in the United States. But this just in: replacement figure skater, Emily Hughes just rocked the shit. I don't know if she's won yet, since the event is still going. But, she has a new personal best record, and showed everyone that she deserved to be here. [update: Kimmie Miesner, also kicking out the jams. You heard it here first.]



In other news: I have a cold. It's not severe or anything, but it does make carrying heavy gear in freezing temperatures kinda sucky. Also, I try to hold in my coughing at press conferences because I don't want to make the athletes all nervous and run away. Luckily, thanks to all the generous corporate sponsors, there's a seemingly never-ending supply of Olympic branded Kleenex and Minute Maid orange juice.

Right now I'm on "guard duty". Basically, that means I hang out here at the workspace in case any Olympic athletes come by for interviews later tonight. So, I better quit blogging and keep my eyes focused on the perimeter.

Not my idea.

Our Olympic crew has been just cranking out tons of footage and athlete interviews. Hundreds of tapes.

And, It's finally caught up with me, as I have been editing packages (news pieces) nearly non-stop for the last few days. There's not much adventuring to be had when I'm hunched over a edit deck all day.



I did get sent out on a few small things yesterday, one of which was to interview the entire Ethiopian delegation. It's just one guy, and he was totally cool.

And, I've decided that I'm probably not going to keep posting too many more of these random athlete photos - simply because I'm taking around ten of them a day. In fact, we were all getting so many that our photo scavenger hunt now yields 3 points for bronze medalists (rather than gold), as they are harder to find.

As soon as I get out of my editing grind (I see a light at the end of the tunnel), I'm probably gonna post some short videos that I've been shooting up with my nifty little handycam.

And, now it's time to download another episode of Sleeper Cell and head for the bus before it gets too late. Later.

After a hard day of work, Scott and I went out (in our free time) with our driver, Alex and some of his Italian pals. Somehow the topic of White Castle hamburgers came up, and - no matter how hard we tired - they didn't understand what we were talking about. Anyway, after a few drinks, and a long walk through downtown, we ended up at this sketchy sandwich hut.



Alex exclaimed (and I'm paraphrasing), "You must have this sandwich. It is complete shit, but you will enjoy it because it is late and you are hungry, and you have been drinking. It will be the perfect thing for your stomach, but if you ever come back again in the daytime. It will not be so good."

Without missing a beat, Scott and I both shouted back, "That's WHITE CASTLE! That's what White Castle means in the US!" And then he was all, "This is the White Castle?" and we were like, "Yeah! White Castle!"

And, just like he promised: best sandwich ever.
But, I'm tempted to go back during the daytime and see if it still holds up.

After a late night of hockey awesomeness, I was a little bit tired for this morning's gauntlet of morning live shots. But, all the athlete cameos at the live shot platform kept things interesting.



NBC (or the Olympics people) have been really good about bringing athletes by the NBC HQ here, so that the affiliates can get a piece of the interview action. It's sorta weird to look up from editing a story and seeing one of the athletes walking through the newsroom in their sleek team jerseys.



But my favorite moment of the morning was when Montel Williams (who is apparently HUGE snowboarding fan) came by the live shot platform. Were in the middle of live shots, and I turned around at the sound of someone coming up the stairs. And a moment later I was all, "Hey, Montel." Kinda random.

I'm not starstruck by all of this or anything, but it's just really surreal to be in a world of non-stop Olympic athlete interviews and random celebrity run-ins - even when I'm stuck in one spot all day. At the very least it keeps work (and the photo scavenger hunt) more interesting.

Near the end of a long day, one of the swell guys from NBC came over to our workspace and handed over comp tickets to the USA vs. Kazakhstan Men's Hockey competition - which started in less than an hour! Aww yeah!



Fellow photog, Scotty and I quickly finished up our work and caught a cab over to the arena (which is the smallest hockey venue I've ever been in). At the time, we really had no idea what teams were playing (we just knew it was men's hockey), but were still really psyched to get out of the office for a few hours and relax.

And, no one was more happy that we were there than our new drinking buddies, Neve and Glis.



Watching the game was a blast, and our seats were right on the ice. The whole atmosphere of being at an Olympic game, surrounded by your fellow countrymen was just so awesome that we decided to join in the fun and get ourselves some American flags.



Most of the people in the crowd seemed to be European, but with a bunch of areas in the stadium that were filled with really, loud and enthusiastic Americans. The television camera crane was right over us the whole time, and on several occasions, Scotty and I ended up on the jumbo screens - cheering and dancing like robots. I doubt any of that made it to onto the show, but I plan on watching the playback here in the workspace and seeing if I can spot us.

Anyway, it's been kinda surreal to be here in on this assignment - where everything we do is focused on the Olympics - but not really go to any of the events. So, last night's adventure has made me so much more excited about covering the games.

Geoff and I finally made it down to the Today Show set! I wasn't "ballsy" enough to go up to one of the security guys and be all, "We kinda work with NBC, so how about someone gives a tour?" Considering that 60% of the news people work with NBC, they probably wouldn't have let us in anyway.



But, it didn't matter. You know the Today Show - all the fun is outside anyway. I was surprised how close everyone actually is to the set. I guess that makes sense when I think back to watching the show and all the people with their crazy signs and homemade t-shirts aren't ever that far away. My little camera was able to zoom in and get a pretty sweet close-up of the cast.



We got there before the crowds really picked-up, and within thirty minutes the piazza got really crowded.



But, Geoff and I scoped-out the perfect spot to stand in the background.



I have a feeling that we might've actually been on the Today Show (for like two minutes, until we got bored standing on the giant statue).

Here's a quick shot of the large newsroom in the Main Media Center (you may remember a shot of the smaller newsroom I posted earlier in the week). This is the newsroom portion of the building and it's enormous - you really tell becuase there are walls of monitors dividing the room up, so here's one section.



There aren't any cool balconies in this place, so the shot is sorta anti-climactic. But, you get the picture.

I'm considering starting a photo scavenger hunt for the remainder of our time here in Torino. Each day, when everyone returns back to the office we regale each other with one-line stories like, "I ran into Al Roker at Piazza San Carlo." or "That dude from MSNBC cut ahead of me at dinner."

Also, we've all recently started snapping digital photos as unofficial proof. With the number of random 'celebrity' reporters and Olympic athletes around town, the results of the game is in constant flux - which keeps things interesting.



I was doing really good for a while, but Scotty jumped way ahead after hanging around outside the Today Show. Today I was finally able to say (with a benign voice), "I saw Billy Bush over at the live shot tent."



No one was impressed, as they've all ran into the Access Hollywood crew like 15 times each in the last 2 days (those guys get around). So my photo wouldn't have really counted for all the much, but I was able snap him with Olympic gold medalist, Ted Ligedy. Two for one, baby! I'm back in the game.

Shifting gears away from the games, my reporter, Jim and I set out to shoot a story down at the downtown market. It's a gigantic indoor/outdoor market with hundreds of produce vendors, and all sorts of crazy stuff. I maneuvered my way through hundreds of elderly ladies in fur coats, and shot a bunch of wild stuff.

For example: the horse meat vendor.



I watched in awe as this skillful, little dude just carved the hell of out that horse carcass. Our translator told us that the old lady next to us was worried we were trying to cut in front of her. Apparently, she had been waiting for over an hour so she could get the best cuts of horse.

The place was a real eye-opener. There was a ton of other interesting things to see, some of which I plan on having wiped from my memory whenever the technology is made readily available.

Also, after seeing all the dead goats and sausages hanging from giant hooks at every turn, I wasn't the least bit surprised when I saw these [below] hanging in the market as well.



Scary, and yet somewhat delicious looking.

I had a late night last night, waiting around to interview Olympic gold medalist, Joey Cheek - who has got to be the nicest guy in the world. He plans on giving his $25K prize money to charity (I had no idea they got cash rewards in the games).



While waiting for the athlete's entourage, I waited down below all the live shot platforms and got my gear all set up. I snapped this photo [below] of the big NBC live shot platform. If it were an automobile, it'd be a limousine. There's tons of space, portable heaters, and some sweet gear.



I snapped this next shot to show you some of the preparation that went into making some of the areas around here "media friendly". They cut down all the light poles along the edge of the park, so that they wouldn't block the live platforms.



It's kinda funny to still see them light up each night.

I've been seeing this sign everywhere, and I never really paid enough attention to consider what it was all about. For the record, I didn't really care because every other sign here is kinda weird looking.

Anyway, it's an exit sign and in no way relating to 8 bit video games like Berserker or Pitfall.

Getting around Torino is rather easy, but it takes forever if you use the media/public bus systems. I find myself getting up earlier and earlier each day to catch the one I need to get where I'm supposed to be.



There's nothing I can do about the time, but I've got the boredom problem solved - actually I solved two problems at the same time. I'm a total TV addict, and while being away for a month in Italy is totally rad, I'm missing SWEEPS. You know, that's when all the most flashy episodes are on.

Luckily, I'm able to download a bunch of my favorites from iTunes and watch them on the bus rides to (and from) work. And if everything goes according to plan, the 45 minute shows end just moments before my bus ride. I'm totally caught up on Lost, Battlestar Galactica, The Office, and even Desperate Housewives.

But now, I'm considering laying-off the iPod while I'm on the public bus. One of our producers had his digital camera jacked from his pocket the other night. Someone was "falling" on the bus, and kinda crashed into him - then his camera was gone. The next day, he went out and got cheap replacement camera and it was also stolen from his zipped coat pocket hour later. Crazy right? I know!

So yeah, I'm torn between getting my backpack emptied by gypsies while I watch Lost, or waiting until I get 'home' and hooking it up to my television.

Tough call.

Here's a quick shot from the press center up on the mountain. It's a massive room with long rows of desks for print, internet, and radio media to do their work.



All the way down the line are ehternet cables and AC outlets. There's dudes cutting stuff in Final Cut Pro and uploading it right to the web, while other people work the phones and type like mad.

And, just so you know there's a room just like this but ten times larger in the main Torino press center.

My reporter, Kate and I hit the mountain today with one main goal: interview the US Skeleton Team. They were a swell bunch of folks, who all deserve a little more respect. If not for being really cool, then at least for rocketing down an icy chute on a sled, head first at a thousand miles per hour.



I thought all of them were really cool, but my favorite would have to be Katie Uhlaender, with her RWB striped hair. I could easily see her joining my Elite Olympics Action Force, with Geoff and Apolo Ohno. [Katie: There's a spot waiting whenever you're ready to join-up!]



And, we rounded out our story by hanging out with Eric Bernotas at a nice little outdoor cafe, sipping on cappucinos.



I change my mind after every Olympic press conference, but the skeleton crew are my new favorite Olympic team.

I got up super-early this morning so we could drive up to the alps! Many of the qualifying trials (and some of the events) have begun up there, so we set out looking for a story.



Actually, we had a story to do (it was on the US Skeleton team), but we got out work done early and set out to get some more good stuff on tape. The town reminds me of something from Epcot center or Enchanted Forest. There are parts that have that old timey European look, and I fully expected to see people dressed in leiderhosen. Which we didn't, but we did see every other stereotypical tradition Euro costuming: clogs, kilts, viking hats, you name it.

We basically stood in one area - the town square - and at least a half-dozen stories came our way, including Bode Miller's parents.



But, even though we were getting a ton of great stuff, we had to leave eventually. That moment came when a bunch of models from Los Angeles showed up to promote their web series, Aspen. They were dressed head-to-toe in white ski outfits, and wearing furry white Chewbacca boots. Their manager ran around waving a giant American flag and handing out business cards.



The ladies posed for some photos, and although we're all doing some awesome karate moves in the other pic, I look really weird and fat, so there's this one instead. As we were taking the photos a crowd stared to gather and we were being photographed by all kinds of crazed tourists and Ukranian television stations. Seriously. It got really weird, really fast, so we left. [Which is a good thing anyway, considering we shot 4 tapes of stuff]

Last night - after a hard day's work - the gang headed across the street to the local pizzeria for a late dinner. I was hungry. I needed to eat, so I just went with what I knew and ordered a basic meat&cheese pizza. Fellow photog, Scotty, decided to be a bit more adventurous and he ordered an little-known Italian delicacy: French Fry Pizza.



I gave in a tried a slice, and it was pretty much what you'd expect. Pizza covered in greasy fries. Kinda weird, I guess.

But, when in Rome Torino...

Here's a shot I took from my patio this morning.



Everything looks so calm and serene, but to get the full effect you have to imagine the sound of a half-dozen Italian drivers slamming on thier brakes, honking, and swearing at each other. All day and all night long. Brakes. Honking. Swearing.

I'm of to go shoot a few stories now! Ciao.

After all the live shots today, it seems like the whole crew has been in full-on editing mode. I've had my big "old school" headphones on for so long that I kinda feel a little naked without them.

Where was I? Oh yeah. Working hard. I was at my little editing unit for hours, cutting together all kinds of Torino goodness, and then - all of a sudden- my "spidey sense" started going off. Something wasn't right. It's that feeling you get when you sense that the environment around you has changed, and you sorta magically realize it.

I looked up an people everywhere were gathering around the large projection screens in the workspace. I glanced around the room and noticed a few other people at their desks that saw that was something was going on. It was like one of those scenes from disaster movies like Independece Day when people are all watching the news coverage of aliens blowing up the world, and some guy comes over and is all, "Hey, what's everyone up to?" And then the supporting character (who later falls victim to the aliens/earthquake/whatever) says, "What? Haven't you been watching?! It's all over the news..."

What was it on all the televisions?



The Olympics!

I jumped up from editing (but only for a moment), and snapped a shot of people gathering around and watching the show. It's a weird feeling to be here covering the events, but not really going into the actual Olympic ceremonies. The show looked good, and I plan on glancing up form time to time to see if Tomba carries the torch. (as of this post, he's getting 2:1 odds here).

Now that the games are about to get underway, our jobs have changed a little bit. Instead of running all over Torino, one crew will be doing live for a good chunk of the day. Today was my turn!



The live shot platforms aren't that far away from our workspace, and they're just outside the Fiat plan we work in. The building is so massive that it blocks out the sun on one side of the building, keeping it at arctic temperatures. It has to be the coldest place in Torino. The photo below is an example of one of the locations, this one being the Telemundo tent - all alone in the cold tundra of the Paravella skating complex.



We are doing live shots for nearly all the stations in our media group, and some of them twice. Between each shot, the reporter hustles to switch out mic flags. Sometimes it was hard to find the one we needed, as there were at least a million.



While the mic flags are getting switched, the field producer calls the next station and I quickly dial into their IFB system (so the reporter can hear the control room folks in his/her ear) with a handy little dialer attached to my tripod. As soon as I get that done, I have to quickly write down the anchor's names and the station's outcue on a dry erase board and hold it under the camera. There are dozens of stations and each one has thier own catchy action news outcue.



During the 4 hours of non-stop live shots, I thought it'd be interesting to see if Geoff would read whatever I ended up writing on the board.


But, he was a professional and wasn't easily fooled.

We've been swamped in work, especially with all the pre-Olympics press conferences. But between our various adventures around the city, I found time to feed one of my favorite addictions: comic books.



Back in the states (which seems odd now that I said that), I usually take my reporter on a detour, so I can pick up my weekly stack of comics. So, today we had about an hour between stories (which is rare), and I made our driver take me to the comic book shop - which had a cool sounding name that I can't remember, nor pronounce.

Here's on of my favorites that I bought. It makes the Fantastic Four seem even more fantastic.!



Also, a few blocks away there was a toy store, so I ran in there real quick to see if they hadn any tin robots. I had a hard time explaining it to the old lady at the counter, so I found myself actually walking and talking like a robot and making weird Kraftwerk beeping noises until she finally exclaimed, "Robo!" And I'm all, "Yeah! Yeah! Robo!" And then she glumly said "No" and sunk back into her chair, thus ending a spirited game of charades.

I haven't even scratched the surface of this city, so I'm sure my robot hunt will turn up something. Ciao!

This just in: Apolo Ohno is really popular. This morning I packed up my gear and headed down to the media center for a press conference, but I didn't know what the sport was or anything. I was just about to walk in the door when it hit me, "Oh man. That's the team Apolo Ohno is on."



I got into the room just in time, as it was PACKED with cameras from every media outlet. Somehow I managed to walk up and get a perfect spot, dead on with Apolo in front of my lens.



But, my perfect scenario turned into another Tomba situation when they allowed the journalists to make a run for the athletes. Basically one hundred and fifty people crowded around Apolo Ohno, while three or four folks interviewed the other half-dozen people on the team.



I tried to get a good shot through the pack, but decided to wait until the fervor died down a bit - which is never really did.

And, eventually we caught up with him I only know him from promos and photos, but he struck me as a very professional, and somewhat humbled guy. That, and he's short.



The three of us make a pretty rad team! Apolo's super speed will come in really handy when we're fighting ninjas and laser sharks in a parallel Olympics dimension.

This photo looks like I'm about drink a delicious glass of Guinness, but sadly no. It's actually the legendary Italian coffee-drink "Bicerin" (I hear it's available only at one place in the world, "Al Bicerin").



The drink is a thick, muddy blend of espresso, coffee, and some kind of top-secret chocolate syrup. I'm curious about what's actually in the drink because after that I had a crazy jolt of energy. A "jolt of energy" doesn't really even do it justice. The best comparison would be if a horse kicked you upside the head and somehow imbued you some kind of amazing, supernatural clarity and energy.



I thought it was good, but not as much as Geoff and our driver, Alexandro - who were just really over-the-top insane about a cup of coffee. Also, I'm really trying to downplay the whole experience because I don't want to get hooked on a drink that I can only get at one store in the entire world.

Yesterday Geoff and I were sent to go check out the unveiling of Samsung’s Olympic Welcome Center. Erin, our executive producer was all excited when she told me, “We’re sending you to go interview Alberto Tomba!”

I stared back at her with a vacant look on my face and said, “Um…okay.” She looked oddly let down, and I went, “Is he important or something? I mean…I guess I’ve hear the name before but I’m not really up on….um…whatever his name is.”

Okay, so from what I’ve been told over the last few days, I’ve learned that Tomba (as he’ll be referred to from this point forward) is a former Olympic athlete and all around Italian mega-star. Maybe that’s bad that I didn’t know all that much about him, but I’ve met people who still haven’t seen Star Wars - this kinds of stuff happens.

We got to the event, and I realized instantly that this thing was going to be way over-the-top. The tell-tale sign for me was when I counted more media people than spectators - and there was pretty respectable crowd of spectators.

Anyway, the usual corporate mucky mucks did their speeches while everyone took turns going over to Tomba in the front row and shoving a camera in his face. There was like five or six speeches and then the doors opened to the Samsung building. You could hear the noise of dozens of news camera unclicking from their tripods as the photographers all hustled to jump Tomba. I imagine the sound was similar to the plague of locusts that decimated ancient villages, as described in apocalyptic bible tales (or maybe it was the last part of Ghostbusters - I don’t remember).

Here’s a shot of Tomba getting his face rocked by hundreds of cameras and microphones. I should point out that this is when the crowd died down a little bit.



Eventually, we got our chance, and talked to Tomba. We asked him a few “off the wall” questions, and he gave some awesome answers (if the video ends up online I’ll post a link somewhere.).



Tomba didn’t have time to pose for a photo with my reporter, Geoff. But, that didn’t stop Geoff from posing in a photo with him.

Tomba. Who knew?

There's plenty of yummy Italian food to enjoy while we're here, but since we're working all the time, most of our meals come from that various cafeterias and catering services in the NBC and media villages.



The food is pretty decent, so I have no complaints. But, I have noticed one disturbing trend: hot dogs. They're everywhere, and at nearly every "American" meal. The "authentic American breakfast" has a giant pot of hot dogs every morning, and tonight we had some pork kababs with a little hot dog at the end!



But like I said, the food is decent and occasionally you'll see a little celeb in the NBC cafeteria. Tonight it was Brian Williams from NBC Nightly News. My friend Scotty snapped this little photo of him chowin' down with his troops. No word yet on whether or not he had the hot dog kabobs. I'll keep you posted.

Okay, so being a photographer means I'm inclined to talk about my gear with my fellow photogs. I've blogged about my massive betacam back in the Carolinas, and now it's time to share my thoughts on my Torino cam.



Basically, a bunch of gear was sent to Torino a few months ago is massive shipping crates [seen above photo] and most newsrooms don't have a bunch of spare DVCPRO cameras sitting around, so naturally the camera that was put in the case would be something kinda expendable. It's an old camera, but I knew that going into this and I don't really mind.

We arrive. The crate is opened, and we get to work unpacking it. Scott, one of the other photos (who got a brand new camera, I might add) came up to me and said, "Hey dude, did you see your camera yet?" I'm all, "Nope. Is it unpacked?" He points across the room as he walks away and says, "Yeah. It's the turd."



What? Well compared to his camera it was a bit heavy, and old (and did I mention heavy?), but it takes a really great pictures - which is all that really matters.

It's so large that sometimes you can't see my head from the side and I look like some weird-ass villian on one of those Power Rangers shows.



I did wonder how long it would take for one of the million photographers here with state-of-the-art gear to mock me and the turd my camera. The answer: Four hours into the first day of using it. But, it's all good the turd my camera and I are both kinda dorky, and we make a great team.

Ciao!

I've only a quick moment to show you some shots of our workspace. This empty Fiat factory is now a temporary home to hundreds of NBC related folks.



Here's a interior shot for scale. The offices that we're actually working in are only a minute fraction of the building (which you can just barely see in the left corner.



Here's a shot right down the center of the huge newsroom we work in. The room is a dense jungle of television screens teeming with video/ethernet cables and used junk food containers.



Some shots of our Hearst work station (and crew).







Okay. Enough shots of work...time to get back to work.
Later!

Okay, we've been waiting to get some internet for the last few days so I could start blogging. It seems like FOREVER! I'm like a total crackhead without my internet fix.

Anyway, I've got like 30 seconds to do a quick post! Here goes:



We're here! The plane trip was long, and uneventful (with the exception of some guy passing out and unconsciously puking all over himself). We got into town and have been running ever since. The town is pretty cool - and completely different than expected - more on that later. I got a ton of photos to post, and some stories to share, but right now...I gotta run!

Ciao.

I'm at the GSP airport, ready to go. The airport lounge pianist is playing a medley of John Denver songs, beginning with "Rocky Mountain High". Not sure if I should take that as some sort of sign.

I have no problem with the TSA folks, but I've noticed that one of the officers (who I'm now calling "Bobby the Rookie") enjoys sliding passenger's laptops really hard down the x-ray ramp, trying to relive the thrill he had in his youth when he tortured neighborhood pets. I'm blogging now, so his evil plan to destroy my chance at using free wifi failed.

Boarding soon. My reporter Geoff isn't here yet, but I'm pretty sure he knows about the flight. Gotta go now - I'm need to download some shows for my iPod.

Not everything at LLR headquarters is about Torino these days. I've been working overtime to get a bunch of projects and loose ends all tied up.



And, tomorrow morning (on my way to the airport) I'll be mailing off my comic book submission packet to Image comics. At first I said to myself, "Well now I have one less thing to worrk about this month while I'm away." But now, I realize that it's quite the opposite - I'll be checking my email twice as much in anticipation of their answer. Oh well. Fingers crossed!