Day: Yesterday

Sooooo I didn't get a chance to post yesterday, so here's a pic I took while driving during work on 315 heading South. I was originally sent to the 315 and 257 area for a woman who decided jumping off a bridge was going to solve her problems. Well, she jumped, and lived, and because the news organizations in the country are twisted, we're only interested if she had died. Granted I understand how "NOT NEWS" someone jumping off a bridge and LIVING is, but is it really THAT much more important that we report on if if she was successful? Seriously, if we're taking a position of news that affects the most amount of people, how does one suicide play into the equation? Now if it was Marc Dann that'd be one thing, but woman X with a crap life is another.

Anyway, other than that I shot with Tom Brockman. We did a story on an apartment complex that a storm knocked out it's elevator, fire alarms and A/C. They've been out for weeks now. The owner's PR guy tells us they've had trouble locating a "Motherboard" for the elevator, since it's so old. Are you freakin' serious? A Motherboard. Last I checked, elevators go up and down. It only makes perfect sense that such a series of complex movements can only be calculated by a very involved computer system...which is the only place you will find "Motherboards." What a load of crap!! First off, if your elevator does indeed have a motherboard, that's one freakin' advanced elevator! Does it serve cappuccinos during your ride as well? Perhaps it gives backrubs. So if your stupid elevator is sooooo old you're having trouble finding parts, than you're even more full of crap. I'm sure elevators built in the 50s were jam packed full of "Motherboards." If you're elevator is that freakin' old, (I've said freakin alot), that replace the whole dang thing because it's probably unsafe anyway. Morons.

Man, my bulbs are all twisted...

Here's a good article I came across about fluorescent lightbulbs. It mentions that whole Kelvin color temperature thing I mentioned the other day. Check it out...if you're bored. http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/magazine/16-07/pl_home

The Empire, (of green worms), Strikes Back!

Look at this bugger, chomp chomp chompin' away on my broccoli leaves. I banish you to a fate of squishiness between my fingers!!! The battle continues, but there were only a few this time compared to the army I tackled a few days ago. Now if I can only find the set of teeth eating away at my pepper plant leaves.
Now take a look at the A/C Beastmaster in my backyard, (the pop bottle is to help give you an idea of size). When you look down into the thing, it seems fairly empty actually. According to the dude who installed it, its a "very efficient unit" although it wasn't like I spent my life savings on it so I'm sure it's not some premo model.
Other than those tidbits of info, I'm at work today editing...woo hoo. I snapped this pictures of that yellow wax pepper plant, (see my first post with an earlier picture), and my dominating pumpkin plant. The peppers seem to be growing nicely, (at least THAT particular plant), and I think I chose my pumpkin plant wisely...he definitely seems to be the strongest of all pumpkin plants...in my garden.

A lesson on that mystery in the universe...the White Balance...

Exhibit A, the noob who doesn't realize he forgot to white balance.
Exhibit B, the other noob, but he CAN white balance. Bask in the glory!!! Just because I felt like giving a pointless lesson on something most people understand, I felt like pointing this out. In case you didn't know, "White Balancing" your camera, (which I did not do in exhibit A), is actually telling your camera, (video or still), what "white" looks like in the lighting or setting you are currently in. Most people don't realize that wherever
aring it.
The reason we went outside in the first place was for me to snap a few photos as I was pretty busy today. To sum things up quickly, I helped Joel move some stuff he was both donating to our cause, (the cause of he had lots of cool stuff he needed to lose before he moves, and we were glad to take said "cool" stuff), plus we now have the space to assist him and his wife in storage. We're more than happy to help. Joel and I tore up the crap flooring in the one weird room in the basement,(pic below), and moved the stuff right in.

Also the basement people stopped by, (I called them and told them to kiss off). Actually I called them and said that A. we don't know if we have the money, and B. don't know if a company that says, "If you don't want to commit now, we'll get our money someplace else..." is really the right "fit" for...well...anyone. The guy who showed up, (a different bloke), was pretty nice and agreed with us. So I got all my money back.
Aside from that, the Furnace, A/C, and hot water tank are in and running! The A/C is HUGE, (pic to come), and my GC, (general contractor), said he expects a big X-mas gift as he was putting in a 75,000 BTU furnace, (as that's all we needed), but for reasons that remain a mystery we got a 125,000 BTU furnace. With that, I plan on heating the whole block...apparently...

Anyhoo, this picture is my attempt to capture some lighting bugs in action. I tried and tried and tried, and this pathetic little picture was all I could muster. Click to see it bigger and you MIGHT be able to see the little yellow streaks. I wonder if there's a better way to do that, because I couldn't get anything better than that...and THAT is a bit lame.

Thanks for all the comments and feedback!! Amy...call me you freak! Do you have a blog or anything? When I clicked on your name it didn't do anything. Also, (back to the basement), I wonder why your basement only cost $9500 but our was a whopping $13,000, (before the fancy dancy $1000 off for the FORCED commitment). You're basement is over twice as big...so maybe that guy was trying to get us to pay off his student loans in overcharges. After I sat and thought about it, our water problem may not be that serious, (actually Megan is more concerned than I am about it), and we'll be able to better evaluate it once we get all the junk torn out of the basement as well.
For those curious, Shenandoah is my dude from work. Check out the crazy flooding I mentioned we almost died in, (not really). His blog is http://365maze.blogspot.com.


"Let me out, Let me Out, LET ME OUT!!!" says my cat. Dork. hehe. Look at her face, bloodlust if I ever saw it...

Let the Battle Commence...

Caught, Green Wormed! This little bugger has been munching away on my broccoli plants! Well, try this bugger and about 100 of his little friends. Funny how I never noticed them before...I always noticed the munched on leaves and bits on the broccoli, but never thought to look UNDER the leaves. Apparently those pretty white butterflies you see fluttering around are laying little eggs usually on the underside of the leaves, (I believe there's a little egg shown in the bottom left-hand corner. This one was actually on the top of the leaf...and these jerks blend in very well. There was one that repeatedly tried to head-butt me every time I went to pick him up. I recruited him for home security.

Between all the errands of the day I stopped by the folk's to visit for a bit and pick up the Sunflowers in desperate need of planting. While there I snapped this picture of Xavier and Brutus. Brutus is a jerk to shoot. Every time I got his attention, the test flash would go off effectively causing him to immediately look down on the floor for the light. Dork.
Also a wonderful sight...finally seeing some work getting done on the house, Woo Hoo!! These painters were pretty nice guys. They have some more to do tomorrow. The hot water tank and furnace were also brought by and will be finished tomorrow. Megan had the basement company EVERDRY stop by to give us an estimate on our basement...yea. This dude, although very nice, took 3 HOURS to get through his whole shpeel. It got alittle trying at times. The kicker, of course, was that we'd get $1000 dollars off if we signed today. We have 10 days to cancel and get our money back, (we needed to give him some commitment money...I gave him $50). He made it seem pretty urgent to set things up and although I like what he had to say, I'm not thinking I want to pay for that right now, and will probably cancel. Besides, I'm willing to bet I could get it done cheaper. Plus, he said if we didn't commit, they'd get their money elsewhere...WTF's up with that? I understand wanting us to buy, but that's being...what's the term?...Oh yea, an Ass. Like I said he was nice, but a few jerk statements came out of him mouth near the end of his bit there, and I could of done without those.
As expected, the storms kept me late at work. I was out on a officer involved shooting scene until about 11:20pm. Some moron robbed a store on Greenlawn, shot at the cops then drove to the Bottoms where cops gave chase and shot him twice in the chest, once in the leg, once in the arm, and once in the head. Lesson: Don't shoot at the cops, idiot. As of last night, he was in critical, (you think?!), and I helped set up the live shot and shot some other video at the scene.
Upon getting back to the station, a tornado warning came out of nowhere, and David Wayne and I were sent right into the storm...as is expected when you work were I work. While we're on air telling people to stay indoors and get into their basement, our bosses are sending up straight into the lion's mouth. Smart. Needless to say there was no tornado, and once the warning expired at 12:30am, our news director kept us on the air well until 3am when we all were finally relieved of duty. There was no reason to be on the air for thunderstorms like we were. The probable cause was Channel 10 was still on, and was staying on until they saw us sign off, while we're looking at them waiting for them to get off the air. Flippin' stupid, but what are you going to do. This picture was snapped right before I got home. Jason, David and I were in Jason's neighborhood and almost caused David to drive his car into 2+ feet of standing water...and we didn't even know it until we saw an almost half submerged car ahead of us. Talk about close call.

BTW anyone who reads this feel free to comment and leave feedback. Just click were it says "X comments" down at the bottom any particular post, "X" being the number of posts, (usually 0).

Carpet, Ceiling Fans and Puppy Tongues

Today Megan and I headed to the house to check on things, water the garden, blah blah blah. Our contractor was there with his Heating and A/C guy touring the house which was good to see. He joked with Megan about the double vanity she priced for the house saying the cost of that alone was most of his budget for the bathroom remodel. He claims he was joking, but the funny thing was is it was one of the cheaper double vanities Lowe's carries, and he does most of his business there. So we'll see. I have a feeling he estimated some items on the cheap end without having very accurate knowledge of what they actually cost. We also discussed carpet options the previous evening, so Meg and I checked out and priced some carpet. Yet again he said our price range was estimated around $1.25 a square foot...which is pretty dang cheap carpet, but I figure we can work it out if what we pick is slightly more expensive.
Meg and I picked up lunch and headed home so I could get ready for work soon. I snapped some of these pictures as Megan and Levi wrestled a bit...I think Levi's won...by a tongue...(har har har).
Last night I worked with LD (Lauren Dietrich) on an E. Coli story. It wasn't too bad. I suggested we shoot her working some raw beef for the package, and felt we needed some Cow video. We came accross a field of cows, but none of them spoke....not...one...moo...

Day Three: One Bank, Two Bank, Three little Banky-Banks...

Today I woke up later than I wanted to as I had a small list of items I wanted to accomplish before heading to work. I was up playing Bad Company with Jason and Andy from work...effectively getting completely frustrated with the lack of balance in that game. So I was up alittle too late playing that, and as a result I got up just before 11am. Shortly thereafter I headed strait to the house to A. see if any work was being done, and B. water the garden. For whatever reason I was not surprised to not see anyone working on the house. So I picked up the mail and watered the garden. On my way home I called Mr. Neff, the general contractor, to get an update on the house work, (and ask why nothing has started yet).

Apparently his bank had put a hold on the check waiting for it to clear. The hold, they said, would last until June 30th. Seeing as I want to be living there around that time, this was obviously a problem, and he recognized this. His bank, in a nutshell, was saying they couldn't get funds verification from my bank. So I preceeded to call my bank, Countrywide. It turns out Countrywide, (a bank), set up the escrow account for the home rehab money through Chase, (another bank). Robert's bank is Charter One, and apparently doesn't know how to pick up a phone and call another bank...or they just don't care. So anyway, a very helpful woman at my bank said she would do alot of things I really didn't care about because obviously my priority is getting the problem resolved. I wasn't going to bog down my brain with the details because....why would I?

Good news in that the helpful woman solved all the issues and Robert Neff now has the money. Work is set to begin tomorrow or Thursday...so woo hoo!

The first picture is that of the sky and tower behind my station. I thought the clouds were interesting, and the same for the picture below. Ana and I were out doing a package on Morse road about SRB, (Special Response Bureau), moving to a new location. After shooting some generic video of cars driving on Morse road, I snapped the picture below.

This picture was inspired by none other than Mr. Jason Mays who, after getting bit by a creative bug after a bottle of wine, decided to take his camera outside and shoot the sky at night. I decided to do the same, sans the bottle of wine. The picture turned out pretty neat. This is after leaving the shutter open for 30 seconds. You can subtley see that the stars are elongated, (since they're sitting still and we are moving...).

Day Two...really...

Day two. I went by the house today, and to my surprise, (not really), there was no one there doing any work. I suppose Robert saying work "Should" begin monday meant exactly that... Although there's no reason to panic yet as I know work will start fairly soon, I decided to split my pumpkins up. They seemed to be big enough and you're supposed to weed out all but the strongest one on the hill, but I couldn't bring myself to simply toss out so many healthy baby pumpkin plants. I planted them in some of the old planters I had laying around. If they survive perhaps I'll find them some good homes.
This is two days ago, obviously before the separation. Now time to get ready for work. Jason's driving, so let's hear it for showing up an hour early!

Day One...sort-of

So I've decided to hop on the 365 blog bandwagon. I'm not quite sure how well I'll stick to the rules, but I think the idea of taking at least one picture everyday and writing a blip about...whatever, is a great idea. Since I decided now was the best time to buy a moderately expensive camera, (and it probably wasn't), what better time to start a 365 blog...that and I can't find my old digital camera.

So my first day I was trying to start this was yesterday, Sunday June 22nd, however I had a couple technical difficulties, so here is the stuff I was trying to post yesterday. These pictures are of a fire in Circleville I went to with fellow photog Mark. I was sort of forced to go as we car-pooled and I was his ride. So rather than sit at the station until god knows when, I decided to tag along. Considering the call came in at about 11:25pm, (I'm off at 11:30pm and Mark is off at midnight), it would have pretty dang boring sitting around the station.



We got back around 1am. The original call sounded like there were victims trapped inside...making it a potetially large news story, but it turns out they were only trapped in the fenced-in backyard. The police had to break down the fence to get them out as apparently climbing over it wasn't an option....you know...splinters and stuff.

I'll include a couple other pics I took the first day having the camera...trying to flex my cfreative muscle.