It looks like I have a few summer projects to start working on!

1. NBC and YouTube have launched the "make you own promo" for The Office contest. They provide the graphics and music. You provide the hilarity. I am SO making a promo! Hopefully, working for an NBC affiliate doesn't disqualify me from the start.

2. Okay, I'm probably not going to participate in this one (not yet anyway), but the Yeah Yeah Yeahs have started posting finalists in their very own "make your own video" contest. This week's featured clip is part-creepy, part-buffalo-bill-from-silence-of-the-lambs. Although he does make a pretty convincing Karen O...

Anyway, I'll post my The Office promo when it's done. Also, the casting couch is now officially open.

For my "Click on JL" webcast segment this week I had a story all set up, but the people I was supposed to interview kinda cancelled on me. That left me scrambling to get something together fast. I've been holding out on doing a "how to replace your failing iPod battery" story, so I broke the emergency glass and got to work. But I had one problem: I like to demonstrate stuff, but I'm not in any hurry to crack open my sparkling, pristine iPod case.

I decided to find an old or defective iPod to experiment on, but much to Apple's credit, I haven't seen to many faulty iPods on thrift store shelves. I managed to find a few on eBay, yet the prices were totally ridiculous.

I thought, "Oh well, It's not going to happen. Just focus. Get this story done" as I headed off to iPlace, the local Mac store. For me, going into a Mac store is kinda like one of those dreams where you go to work only to realize that you're naked and everyone laughs mockingly at you.

I walked into the store feeling like they could instantly tell I didn't own a Mac. Fast forward three minutes. I explained why I was there, got the manager's number, and the asked if they happened to have and broken or defective iPods I could buy. One of the extremely helpful sales guys said, "Um.. we have working iPods that you're more than welcome to take photos of or do whatever you need to.

I hesitated for a moment and then said, "Yeah. That won't really work. I plan on smashing one with a hammer."

There was an awkward pause for a moment, so I followed it up with, "It's kinda my thing." Both of the sales guys silently nodded as if they were taking it all in, and a moment later they seemed excited, suggesting ways for me to make it explode when I smash the empty iPod case they provided for me.

The explosion I should mention didn't happen. I savagely beat the iPod at least four or five times and it not so much as even cracked the case (except for the click wheel).

Anyway, now looking back at the video, I realize that it was cool to beat the shit out of an iPod, but probably not really all that necessary. I guess it's kinda my thing.

I was bored and decided to put together a playlist loosely related to television news. The challenge was to populate the list mainly by song title, but still keep it listenable. I found it really easy to fill the list - weeding out the lame songs and redundant titles proved to be the hard part. Anyway, here it is:



I think I succeeded about ninety percent, since not all the songs flow together that well...

All that work for something I'll probably only listen to once, but that't the fleeting nature of art in this digital age.

While a have sec, I'm going to take a quick moment to talk about my favorite new comic book, DMZ. The story (set in a 'not-so-distant future') follows Matt, a young photojournalist, stuck in a demilitarized, battle torn New York City during wartime.



It's a smart, edgy, unflinching look at being a news photogapher behind enemy lines - especially when lines between friend and enemy become blurred. Not that I know what that's like or anything, but I've been stuck at some county council meetings that've been kinda like that.

Anyway, the first collected volume was released a few weeks ago and is totally worth checking out.

Also, the comic book's writer, Brian Wood is going to be at HeroesCon this weekend in Charlotte, and I'll do my best to tell him how much I like the comic without alienating him and coming across all creepy.

Here's a quick preview of my "moves" from this week's Click on JL segement. It's probably best you're viewing them this way, since most ninjas people only witness them when they're on the receiving end of my "justice strike" finishing blow. And yes...I'm using a computer keyboard as a weapon.




[Here's a direct link to this week's video blog segment: Defense Against Spyware]

Today's assignment had the intrepid crew of Gordon & JL out hitting the streets, doing some real investigative work. Our job was to track down the meaning of several cryptic, nonsensical billboards around town. The most annoying being, "Red Hot Toe Picker"



Actually, it only took a 15 second Yahoo search to figure out that the billboards are part of a Cartoon Network ad campaign for Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends. But, the real fun was interviewing folks about what they thought the billboards were all about.

The most surprising was when a guy thought the "Clowns Hate Tangeloes" sign was in reference to some sort of hate group (with tangeloes being a racial slur against someone).

But, of course everyone's attention was on the "I Pooted" billboard bordering the freeway - which made for an interesting news tease:

"Tonight on WYFF 4 we'll say the word, 'pooted' on the air...And also try to figure out why it's up on this billboard."

[video link to our news report]

It was a refreshing change of pace from all the murders I've been covering, and now I plan to continue relaxing by watching some of the cartoons off YouTube, the most magical site on the internet.

Here's some interesting (and somewhat geeky) articles I found on the internet today:

1. I saw this link off Huffington Post: "People are going to be having sex with robots within five years" [interesting reading!]

2. I'm not much of a DC Comics fan, but I'll admit that I'm kinda getting excited for Superman Returns -especially now that the early positive reviews are trickling in. Although, this one is kinda stupid: "Next to Singer's champagne, most recent superhero adventure movies are barely sparkling cider."

3. TV producer, Bryce Zabel and JMS (creator of Babylon 5) pitched a new Trek series/movie a few years ago, and now they've made the treatment available to download off Zabel's blog. They basically thought it'd be cool to start the franchise over from the beginning, but keeping the original core characters (Kirk, Spock, Bones) - much like (the best show on television) Battlestar Galactica. They called it Star Trek: Reboot the Universe, and it's an awesome behind-the-scenes Hollywood story.

Also in Star Trek news...

4. After reading this article in the NY Times, I sorta want to make my own Star Trek web show. And much like all of these shows creators, I will also play the ship's captain (a life-long dream of mine). Wait. Fuck captain! I'll be an admirial. Admiral Daniel "Dash" Sterlington. Hypothetically, if I were to make it...What character would YOU be playing? [comment link below]

Much like everyone in my newsroom, I was rushing all over the place today doing election coverage. But there was one thing that got everyone's attention. I was startled as I strolled by the bank of televisions on the wall. I half-shouted, "What the F?" pointing to the television tuned to our station.

On the screen was a frozen image of several demons (and perhaps the devil himself) shooting flames from their nasty hellspawn mouths, and causing all sorts of evil-specific mayhem. Something you don't see on television very often down in the bible belt.



But, don't give me too much credit for whipping out my camera and snapping the screen, since it was up there for well over two minutes. Plenty of time for me to take a photo, lower my voice, and speak in tongues in front of the television (much to the chagrin of my coworkers).

Anyway, I think the image was a scene from Passions or something. I'd also like to add that it is probably the most awesome thing I've ever seen aired on our station, or perhaps on daytime NBC.

I haven't seen it on television yet, but I've heard that my promo has started running. That's right! My very own promo! [If you don't count the Olympic promos where I was stuffing my face with pizza.]



The shoot wasn't all that difficult. Basically, the promotions folks gave me a script, and said, "Dance, Monkey! Dance!" And I did take after take, each time rolling my eyes a little bit differently as I talked about how much I love the internet.

I would've liked to have been battling ninjas on a futuristic alien landscape, or maybe shoot something involving a robot laser battle. But, it was explained to me that we had a "budget" and my expectations were "unrealistic". I also wanted to say many of my lines doing those "finger quotes" thing, but that was also "discouraged".

Anyway, here's the video link to my promo [mov].

Enjoy!

[Also, since it's election day tomorrow, here's a link to my latest "Click on JL" video segment, where I get all political up in here. Vote Robot!]

I totally forgot to post this photo on Friday, so I'm doing a little retro-posting.



I was shooting live shots in this apartment complex, when someone drove their car into someone's living room between live hits. I'm not even sure how it got there. I think that the parking brake wasn't engaged, and it rolled there or something.

Anyway, it was really weird. The people living there didn't seem to mind all that much that a car was hanging over thier front door. Random people were kinda standing around as kids started playing on the car, as the rear tire just kept spinning.

The impending apocalypse came and went yesterday without much fanfare. But there was one curious moment when I opened my myspace inbox. A friend request from Slobot?



Now there's been some spririted comments about a possible grudge match between me and my cardboard colleague, but I'm putting all of that to rest today as I accept his surrender friendship.


Other things that I found interesting:

1. If you live in the upstate then you've probably been following the Tiffany Souers murder case. And my favorite coverage online coverage so far, has been from [rapid eye reality] Otis's blogging of all the recent coverage.

2. "You need these!"
Melinda in PDX sent me a link to the most rad invention since the video iPod: video goggles for the video iPod! Who cares if they cost just as much? I want them!

3. "It's SICK. With awesomeness."
Mac in LAX sent me a link from his blog to an awesome clip on YouTube. Even if you aren't a comic book geek (like myself), then you'll still enjoy watching the absurd comic book geeks in costumes recreating one of Marvel Comics greatest story arcs. And you know what? It's better than recent Marvel films Elektra, The Punisher, and Fantasic Four - and I'll even go out on a limb and say Ghost Rider.

4. While I'm at it with the geek links...
Here's a link to a pie chart showing World of Warcraft's dominance in the massive online RPG world. Keep in mind that Blizzard only puts out ONE online game and it beats all of Sony's online games by like 40%. Stickin' it to the man. I was also surprised at how many people still play the original Everquest. Maybe it's time to get my half-elf bard out of retirement!

5. "Where all my pockies at?!"
I just remembered Patton Oswalt's stand-up routine about the apocalypse! Here's a link to the track in the iTunes store.

- robot out.

Apparently there's now more than one robot blogger in upstate South Carolina. This fact was pointed to me today by my reporter, Gordon. He said something like, "Have you seen this Slobot thing?" Which made no sense to me at all until I checked out the Spartanburg Herald-Journal website and saw it all for myself.

That's where I found Slobot.



Slobot is basically some guy wearing a cardboard robot head, with a computer keyboard strapped around his neck, who reports on various community events.


After clicking through photo galleries of him at redneck festivals and bike marathons, I started to wonder. If I were to ever come across Slobot while out covering news, I think my first impulse would probably be to push him into traffic, or throw him down a flight of stairs.

But the more photos I've seen of this Slobot [especially this one], the more I've come to realize his true genius. The kind of genius only a guy wearing a cardboard robot head, with a computer keyboard strapped around his neck can possess.

I eagerly await the next adventure of Slobot the Spartanburg robot.

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Entertainment news that makes me happy (or weirded-out):

1. Rob Zombie has signed on to remake the horror classic, Halloween!

2. I can't wait for the new season on Deadwood to premier this weekend (or is it next weekend?). And, I'm thrilled to learn that the show will return to HBO for several movie-length episodes next year. Too bad they didn't do that with Carnivale.

3. I saw over at Stereogum that Paris Hilton's single "Star Are Blind" [NSFW link] has hit the internet [mp3], and it's freaky how much she sounds like Gwen Stefani. Freaky. And kinda terrible?

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In other news:

Way to go dozen! I just want to say congrats to all my peeps at Fox 12 in Portland for earning the NW Emmy for Best Newscast (and lightin' fire to the late night/early news numbers). Double it! I'm so proud of you guys.

I heard back from Image Comics yesterday about my comic book submission. They passed on our comic book - although it wasn't right away. There had been previous emails from them, talking over some things they liked/disliked about the project. But in the end, Anamorphic didn't make the cut. I'm staying positive though. There's still a bunch of other other options, and now I know what things to work harder on. The emails I got from them would've made perfect blog material, but there's a whole non-disclosure-agreement-thing going on.

I was bummed out for like an hour, but it was hard to stay that way. I've had a pretty kick-ass week so far. The weather has been awesome. I had fun putting together my "Click on JL" segment this week. I crafted some really durable +5 magic pants in World of Warcraft. See? I'm sitting on top of the world.