365 Slick

No new picture= lame blog post...oh well.

2010-06-05T06:09:00.003-04:00

Once again I'm sitting in this edit bay fighting the urge to take a nap. This is breaking news...at least by the standards we've been setting lately.

At any rate, this week has been interesting...and kind of promising, at least for the business Nate and I have. If someone would have told me that I would own some of the companies I used to freelance for a few years ago I wouldn't have believed a word of it. That's right...I said Businesses...plural. After a meeting last Wednesday with RaMarie of Mind's Eye Media, we discussed and obtained her business as well. Holy crap. As a direct result, the new business phone we have was ringing all day on Thursday! Alot the the work from Mind's Eye will be smaller jobs, but not bad jobs. Bascially instead of shooting and editing a wedding for one or two grand which could take 8-12 hours to shoot and anywhere from 12-30 hours to edit, we'll get smaller jobs that may take only a hour or 2 to shoot, (give or take), and another few hours to edit for a couple to few hundred dollars. Not a bad thing as long as there are alot of these little gigs...which are easier with a quicker turnaround.

Of course, one thing we've noticed is how Mind's Eye got alot of business because the owner under-charged quite a bit in alot of situations...mainly from lack of knowledge/experience on certain matters. The toss up now is do we maintain the high-volume/lesser-pay situations or the inverse. Decisions decisions.

We also need to invest in a decent HD camera for when those projects come up...and I believe they will be in increasing amounts. However, the only way to do this at the moment is to risk more of my personal credit by purchasing business stuff through my credit. The business will be able to pay for it I'm certain in time, but hasn't established itself enough yet to get it's own credit yet. Plus, I need to pay off my own debt first...and quicker. Anyone looking to dish out a small loan?

Anyway, the next item on the immediate list are our business cards...which I'm glad we didn't already purchase. One side will be fore Digital Weddings and the other for Mind's Eye media. Now I just need to design a newer nicer logo for Mind's Eye.

here are the current websites for all the business related stuff:

www.digitalweddings.com
www.adigitalproduction.com
www.mindseyecols.com

All Digital Productions came with the wedding company...but the site isn't very well optimized. It has a nicer, cleaner, and more professional look than Mind's Eye, but Mind's Eye has been heavily marketed, etc. over the past few years. So Mind's Eye is bringing in business where All Digital is not.

Now, we just have to start marketing these puppies.

Currently accepting ideas and input.

Awe. Puppies.

brain test

2010-06-03T18:38:00.000-04:00

Right Brain/ Left Brain Quiz
The higher of these two numbers below indicates which side of your brain has dominance in your life. Realising your right brain/left brain tendancy will help you interact with and to understand others.
Left Brain Dominance:	(16)
Right Brain Dominance:	(16)
Right Brain/ Left Brain Quiz

I knew it.

giving it another go-

2010-05-30T04:00:00.002-04:00

It's 4:00am. I'm sitting in a dim edit bay...eating microwave popcorn. I am patiently waiting for my producer to finish writing scripts. It's dark...and I'm wearing sunglasses. Hit It.

It's been since September since my last posting. Alot has happened, but in my opinion not enough. I started thinking on my way to work for my 2am shift that these weekend days afford me the time to at least write in this blog once or twice a week. So here I am!

This weekend marks the first wedding my newly purchased company is shooting. Due to this awesome shift I'm not able to really attend it, so Nate and a long-time shooter for the company, Aaron Syler, are shooting it. I'm fairly confident Nate will do a good job, however this IS his first REAL time using a pseudo-professional camera and is shooting video for a business...so hopefully things go okay! I may make a cameo when I get out of work at 10am...

At the moment, we have 3 other weddings booked so far this year, with possibly 3 more soon to come. An old business contact has recently called me to take on a chunk of their overflow, which is good. I'm hoping to expand the biz into some other areas and get some work and experience in motion graphics, commercials, and eventually perhaps TV shows, etc. in the near future. One thing that may come up sooner than I'd like is the need to invest in some HD cameras and other equipment. I was hoping this could wait longer, but already it sounds like a job is waiting in the wings and needs an HD camera... so here's to breaking out the contact list and finding an HD camera! (btw all investers, grantors, donations to the biz are currently being accepted...)

Here's a title I did for a gaming Blogger named Savitar. I'm hoping to expand and get into the motion graphics stuff more. I heard from a friend of mine that Savitar needed a new intro, so I decided to make him one for free. It took about 6 hours of barely knowing what I was doing, but I'm a quick study, and he really liked it. So the experience was pretty sucessful.

Anyway, I watched the season finale of Fringe yesterday. It had been sitting on the DVR for a bit and I just remembered it was there. The show started out pretty decently, then sort-of lost itself...but was still pretty good. This most recent season the writers seem to have found a good story/concept to run with now, and the show really seems to be taking off. If you're not watching this show, and like the Sci-Fi/Drama/Suspense genres at all, watch this show!

In other news, my furnace has started leaking again. Awesome. This furnace has been the bane of my existence for awhile now...thanks Robert. The scenario has been this: It works okay...oh damn, it leaks. Why does a furnace leak you ask? Well, it's a high-efficiency CONDENSING furnace. Basically it condensates while it runs in certain spots...for whatever reason. The manufacturers designed a system to drain the water correctly, however my old contractor did not understand this, and treated it like any other furnace install, not paying the extra money to have it installed correctly. That, and the guy he used was "new" to the industry and didn't exactly know to put up a fight to get this done right...or how to do things very well...

Long story short, we stopped the leaking in the first summer we had the furnace. Then came our first winter, and it started condensing/leaking somewhere else once we started using heat. Another long story later, it gets fixed and stops leaking again. This past winter, the furnace exhaust pipe, (constructed from PVC pipe and joints), started to fall apart, (see where I said the guy was "new"), and so my Bro-in-law and I fixed the exhaust pipe.

Fast forward to a week+ ago when I fired up the AC for the first time in months...whatayaknow...leaks again! I traced the leak to the drain coming out of the furnace. Over the winter when Dave and I fixed it, we tried to force the drain into a downward direction as it wasn't angled quite the way it should have been. Well, our pushing and "forcing" ended up creating a defect in the place where the water exits the furnace, which = leak. I thought I fixed everything...but it turns out I only fixed ONE of the leaks. I'm trying to avoid calling a furnace repair man...money it a bit of an "Object" at the moment...but we'll see.

I figure once I get back into the swing of things this blog may take more of a "direction", but that remains to be seen. Again I am writing this in the wee hours of the morning on a Sunday...so we'll see. Maybe I'll include actual pictures in the next one!

Later...to whoever still checks this thing!

A Dying Breath photo shoot

2009-09-01T17:09:00.003-04:00

Had a new photo shoot with Dave's band last week. Here's a before and after comparison of a couple pictures I've had time to work on.

The above probably took me close to 2 hours. With more practice, (which I'm sure to get), I should get alittle faster. One of the big time-consuming things is adjusting skin tones, etc., although that's not as bad as keying out a green screen. Fortunately I think I've found an easy way to work that out for next time.

Another experimentation. This picture turned out pretty good I think, and there was more to it than simply making it black and white, (with alittle yellowish tinge). Let me know what you all think! I'd love some feedback, ideas, tips and trick if you've got them. I'm building my photoshop photo retouching skills, and I'm just going about it and learning too. Also, out of curiosity what do you think you would pay for work like this...I'm curious.

Oh my holy crap, it's been updated...

2009-08-24T11:50:00.004-04:00

Soooooooo here's the update you've all been waiting for! Or at least the update the one or two of you who happen to still check my blog have been waiting for.

It's been a looong time, and I think the reason being is the "second job" killing alot of my free time. I didn't realize this until recently, (I thought I was just being lazy), but my last post was only a couple days before I started teaching at the Ohio Center for Broadcasting in Whitehall. It's been a fun and interesting experience to say the least. Anyway....
Here's the current state of the house! We got alot of the landscaping done thanks for Megan and Joel! There's still work to be done, but at least the house looks decently respectable at the moment. For those who forgot, here's where we started-
The before and after, (or after and before in this case), is pretty interesting. The most recent fix is the foundation around the porch. The above picture shows alot of the holes, crumbling, discoloration, etc.
It took a bit of work, trial and error, etc. But, I repaired all the issues here myself and got some landscaping in! Dave was awesome and was able to hook my up with some decorative stone to cover this area up...fancy it up a bit. I just haven't had the time, energy, or really the know-how to put it up. At this point I'm thinking of paying his guy...or someone to put it up for me.

Now the bricks below I'm hoping to make a pathway from the driveway to the walkway to the house. Not sure if I have enough... We'll see.

Here's the side view of the house, and all its' crazy growth. My neighbors told me about how the previous owners ended up with pumpkins and corn growing in this area of the yard...and how funny it was. Some said how they used to show their kids how big the pumpkins were getting each day. Well, I happened to have an abundance of tomato and pumpkin plants this year and no place out back to plant them. So why not stick with tradition...right? I'm probably getting alot of point for uniqueness...maybe.
I also can't say I've quite figured out pumpkin growing yet. There's apparently a trick to it. I'm getting better, but I still feel like I could be doing something better. My mom gave me a couple different kinds of pumpkin seeds. This is a white pumpkin. weird.
And these are pumpkin pie pumpkins. Unfortunately I don't have any normal carving pumpkins planted...(I didn't realize that until later), but these still work. Right now I have 3 PP pumpkins and one white pumpkin growing. I might have had more under some different circumstances, but considering how much space one pumpkin plant takes up to grow just one pumpkin...well... yea.
and what would a post be without the dogs. This time, they're sporting some summer cuts!
Levi's cut turned out the best, (we did them ourselves). Titus' coat, however, is thick beyond reason...and his cut turned out more...interesting. It doesn't look bad, but oh well.

Finally, we have a sample of all the flippin' tomatos we've picked. I actually picked most of these yesterday...and I have no idea how we're going to eat all of these. the above tomato slashing happened after I dropped him in some pumpkin territory...and the little needles that grown out of the stems/stalks/whatevers sliced him up pretty decent. Pumpkins are tough characters.

Dog Outtakes

2009-02-28T17:00:00.003-05:00

So how long has it been since my last post...? Yea, about a month. What can I say...no really. Well, amidst everything that has been going on, I opted instead to feed you a small pointless post that I dubbed, "Dog Outtakes." Prettymuch, less than perfect pictures that were taken over the past couple weeks which make up for their technical issues, (focus, framing, etc.), with their comedic or "Awwe" factor. So here they are, enjoy.

Meg took this of Levi in his "Awwe" curled up pose. It's pretty dang cute, especially the tail over the nose part.

Another picture Megan took. Not sure what was going on, but once I saw this picture I laughed.

Peanut...butter...yessssssssssssss...

She's throwing the ball now!!!

So all the pictures are of Levi I know. Izzy and Titus have their moments, but I guess the camera isn't always accessible at those moments. Oh well, Levi works for now.

Dog nose time

2009-02-01T14:28:00.004-05:00

Had to update again with some backlogged pictures. Check out the dogs' new toy! I couldn't resist...and since Levi is so cooperative, here you go.

he's trained well...sometimes.

Cat Scratch Band-aid Fever

2009-02-01T14:10:00.005-05:00

The Perp.

The Victim.

The Crime.

The Solution.

The Overkill.

Megan had a brush with death...apparently. That "death" being Keelee, the bringer of all things bloody. Meg tried to carry her downstairs...which resulted in the above wounding. I always make a habit of putting a firm grasp on the "cat-handle", (that chunk of skin behind their necks), before carrying her anywhere. It ensures she doesn't put up much of a fight.

So who needs a shower when there is plenty of melting snow and ice on my roof? Not me!

I really cannot wait for the gutters...seriously. Notice all the water dripping off my roof.

On a lighter and probably a "what was he thinking?" note, check out the new stove.

Apparently I can't settle for the "normal" stove, I had to spend all kinds of extra money on the fancy "convection" stove. Good news is, no interest for 2 years. So each month I have a decently small monthly payment for an admittedly nice piece of equipment...I guess. Plus since I know we probably won't be taking it with us if/when we move down the line, perhaps it becomes a small buyers incentive...at some point.

Auto-conversion...so we can enter in normal cooking times and temperatures and the stove will convert them for convection times and temperatures. Pretty nifty...seeing as I don't feel like doing math problems before I eat lunch.

It's been far too long since I updated...I know, I know. Hopefully I'll get better at this...then again, I probably won't. Later!

Snow Dogs

2009-01-16T01:13:00.002-05:00

So I decided to allow the dogs to play out in the yard...with 6 inches of snow on the ground.

Pretty-much what you'd expect. Snow covered dogs. One thing you get an extra-special helping of with the long-haired dogs...

Super-Snow Toes!!! Well, at least thats how it looks...but it's just as possible Levi was attempting to do his nails. That was until he realized that whole "opposable-thumb" thing was going to cut his dreams short.

So why don't we just eat the snow between our toes instead!

Titus wasn't nearly as willing to be photographed. That is dog-spit frozen all over his neck making it puff out like a lion's mane. I actually had to remove some ice frozen to his whiskers on the left side of his face to get a picture of him. He kept trying to bite them to get the ice off. I didn't have to heart to tell him he'd never reach the tips of his whiskers with his mouth...then again, would it have mattered?

Cleveland

2009-01-16T00:59:00.003-05:00

So I took a trip about a week ago to visit Joel and Amy in Cleveland. Megan was supposed to go, but got sick about 2 hours before we were supposed to leave. Levi then became my co-pilot and navigator for the trip north. The above is a view of the city not far from their apartment...not too shabby.

I probably should have taken more pictures, especially considering the lack of attention I have been giving this blog. I guess I'm just not one to take pictures of anything and everything, but I almost wanted to! Almost. Then I didn't, and you get a picture of the chains. The out-of-focus cabin in the background is the alleged first place settled in Cleveland...well, a re-creation.

Joel and Amy took me to the beach with the dogs. They loved it, particularly all the dead fish laying around. Despite the temperature and wind it wasn't really that bad out there.

Here's the artsy money shot of the post. Ooooh...Ahhh...
Despite feeling and being too short, it was alot of fun, (that's what she said). It's always refreshing to go somewhere new and different. Hopefully the opportunity to get out of Columbus even for short stints arises soon... Until then, Joel and Amy should expect a few more visits...at the very least ;)

More Stuff

2009-01-06T12:28:00.002-05:00

More photos I've taken recently. For some reason it just seems there aren't enough hours in the day...and my blog takes the brunt of it. If anyone still checks this, here's some pics to tide you over.

Dog Blog

2008-12-29T12:31:00.003-05:00

I should just start a new blog and dedicate it to inane random photos of all the pets of the family...then again, I can't keep up on this blog by itself.

Garrette Park in West Jefferson

2008-12-23T12:45:00.003-05:00

Stumbled across this park in West Jeff yesterday after being sent to shoot a house. This park was hidden off the main road, but it looked pretty awesome. I had to stop and snap a few photos.

New Lens Time

2008-12-20T15:13:00.002-05:00

So I bought a new lens for my camera today! It's not some super-fancy lens, but one that I hope will give me a few better pictures in certain situations. The main thing being it allows me to let significantly more light into the camera while not reducing my shutter speed to minuscule levels.

Here is a "Before and After" comparison. The old lens, (above), allowed this shot at an aperture of 5.6 and a shutter speed of 1/6 of a second. To try and put it simply, (given I fully understand all of this), the greater the aperture means the more it is closed. An aperture that can open wider allows more light into the camera thus allowing quicker shutter speeds. The faster your shutter is able to move, the better the chance of catching that action-shot without it looking like a giant blur of crap.

Here is the same, (roughly), shot with the new lens. I'm not expert so I'm sure I could have gotton a better comparison, however I was trying to achive roughly identical shots with both lenses. My old lens could go to a minimum aperture of 3.4. This new lens can achieve an aperture of 1.8. A nice heafty jump that allows my camera to recieve more light. This picture was taken at the full 1.8 aperture and a shutter speed of, (wait for it...), 1/60! At such a wide aperture you also get a shallower depth-of-field as well.
To make these comparisons alittle truer, I should have taken these shots at both lens limits, in this case being their widest apertures at the same shutter speeds...I think. Either way you get the idea and the fun test will be at ADB's next show!

Ugh.

2008-12-17T22:43:00.004-05:00

Came outside today to find this. Our neighbor informed us to the possible culprit, a semi truck on our street from: http://www.e-zmovers.com/.

The cable company was called and I told them it was their fault because they did not hang the wire high enough. My theory is the minor bit of ice buildup from last night caused the wire to droop more than normal, making it susceptable to the above.

Another option, this moving company came down our street with a "semi" according to our neighbor. Semi trucks are not allowed on our street, (so I've been told), so I am contacting them to see what they say. The presence of a tall semi where it shouldn't be could be the main reason for this...maybe.

We'll see how this goes. I have learned one thing, there can be a price to having certain wires tucked under your siding. Sure it looks much much nicer...until a fat truck rips it out of your house. At least he didn't rip the cable jack out of the wall of my house...

holy crap! two posts in one day! (sorry for the lack of updates...I am so letting my public down.)

Doggy Zen

2008-12-17T22:28:00.002-05:00

Ying Yang Dogs, Dog Yang, Ying Dogs, whatever you'd like. This is what you get when your dogs lose themselves in oversized chews.
It's a good thing Titus ate this whole bone in under 24 hours. He didn't have the runs at all...and it was super fun fantastic!

Levi, on the other hand, paces himself in such a way that he'll eat a chunk right away. Then, he will strategically place the remaining piece wherever you plan to take your next step...EVERY next step. He'll then never finish eating the remaining piece...ever.

And Megan snapped this photo of Titus sneaking a nap on the couch. Soooo dogs aren't allowed on the couch without explicit permission...jerk.

The Great Escape... (or maybe just the Mediocre escape)

2008-12-02T11:35:00.003-05:00

The escape artist.
The diversion.The escape route.

The promised land.

The victim. (my unfinished bowl of cereal).

Today not long after I woke up, Titus decided he was going to take an unsanctioned trip of the neighborhood. Here is how it went down...

I let the boys out, (one at a time to keep down on dreaded "Dirt Paws"), and it was Titus' turn. While he was doing his thing I went back to my computer for a couple minutes to finish my bowl of cereal. After a couple minutes I decided to check on him, let him in, whatev. I went to the back kitchen window and saw him apparently doing some romping around, playing, whathaveyou, and figured I'd let him stay out and play some more. Well, while watching him out the back kitchen window, Levi comes up to me and pushes his face into my side. It diverted my attention from Titus who was currently investigating the area around the damaged gate on the east side of the yard. In the 2 seconds I looked down to when I looked back up, Titus had vanished... The game was afoot.

I concluded he jumped through the hole in the fence left when a large branch damaged it in the past wind storm. It hadn't been fixed yet because it didn't seem to be a problem...yea. After running around the neighborhood for about 10 minutes, then driving around a for a few minutes I found dorkface in a neighbor's backyard across our street. Not the best way to start your morning, but at least he's back home...dorkface.

I almost feel I was plotted against as Levi diverted my attention at just the perfect time for me to NOT see Titus jump through the hole in the fence...but then I realized dogs don't plot...because they're dogs.

2008-11-29T10:46:00.002-05:00

Look at the well-behaved puppies. Surprisingly these moments aren't TOO rare, but maybe not frequent enough just yet.

Levi always cracks me up when he curls up in such a tiny ball. For a 60+ lbs. dog, he can curl up and look half that size. When he does this, the power of the cuteness is almost overpowering.

And I had to include this picture because I think it's funny. Megan falls asleep to about 90% of the stuff that's on tv, but this time it was alittle bit funnier than normal.

So here is our tree! Thanks to Joel and Amy for providing the "tree" part. It's the first normal size tree I've had in quite a long time actually. We decided to go the "colorful" route for this year, and it turned out pretty nice I think.

You know how sometimes in a picture you catch the "truth" about something. Maybe you see something for what it really is, or something that wasn't there before? Oooh...scary...
Well, I think that happened here, and it happened in the form of Levi not having a head. What does it really mean?? Ooooh... Does it mean, my dog is a ghost?! He's like the headless horseman! Or maybe it just means he's alittle lite in the "brain" area...
I kid, I kid. He's a smart dog...most of the time...

Rockin' out with Chili Dogs

2008-11-23T14:17:00.004-05:00

Megan rocks out on the drums playing Rock Band 2. It's been too long since my last post, but wutcha gunna doo. Not a ton of new news to report, other than being slightly sick yesterday. It was nice staying home all day on the couch. I did remember, however, how much I hate watching movies on cable. Stupid commercials every 10 minutes.
The first snow of the year through my kitchen window. After this picture my camera battery died.
Of course what recent post would be complete without pictures of the two dorks. We finally got them to play tug of war...with a toy actually designed for such. Titus has the advantage...not sure about weight, but definitely in strength. So Levi went to taking the "low" road...
...by laying on the ground. Of course Titus just ended up dragging him which was pretty hilarious. Even though I've been alittle sick lately that didn't stop me from whipping up a batch o' chili.
Oh yea...eat that!

Dogs, Dogs, and Dog n' Cat

2008-11-14T10:49:00.002-05:00

The kids, sort-of allowing me to snap a couple pictures. The cute-factor is overpowering...

Titus' first meeting with Brutus. Brutus' expression pretty accurately shows us his opinion, but overall he handled it well. After all, it's not everyday the big kid's shadow doesn't cover everyone up anymore.

A meeting only dogs fully understand...we think.

Aside from a slight blur, a pretty good representation of Titus' demeanor. He had his first vet visit today, and it went pretty well. Dr. Brush thinks he could be a Belgian Trevurn and Belgian Shepherd mix, but German Shepherd and Collie were mentioned here and there as well. Either way, everyone thought he was quite the looker. His attention, however, almost never ceases to fall on anything other than this...

...it's to the point of an obsession. We figure he's never been around cats, but holy cow does he find a ton of interest in them. If he's in his cage and hears Izzy meow, he starts whining....even if he was previously asleep. I locked him out of this room so Izzy could relax, and he started whining. He doesn't do much other than stare at the cats, maybe give some chase here and there. In this picture he stuck his nose alittle close. That raised paw of Izzy's just gave him a warning bat. We were secluding Titus to the downstairs so the cats could relax upstairs. Dr. Brush said just let them go and once Titus gets a good swipe on the nose, his fascination will quickly dissappear. sounds like fun!

Rockin' Out with our New Dog's Out

2008-11-08T10:15:00.003-05:00

Well, maybe not new "Dogs" but new "Dog." Meet Titus...at least that's the name were trying to stick with although we've been known to yell "No Titan!" several times in the 1st day we've owned him. You can't see it in this picture, but Levi is undoubtedly showing Titus a toothful.
We decided to adopt Titus, (formerly Champion), after we, (heavy on the Megan side :)), thought Levi needed a pal. Hopefully Titus can fill that role. He's roughly 1 and a half yrs. old. and was listed as a German Shepard Collie mix, although we're thinking he's some sort of Belgian Shepard mix.
They seem to be getting along pretty well and Levi is warming up to him so far. Levi has been attempting to assert his dominance in the house and although being smaller, he seems to be doing a good job. Of course, I've noticed that Titus seems to have a submissive personality so this has been working out...so far. Titus also seems to have an extreme interest in the cats...to the point of obsessing over them. If he sees a cat, (usually Izzy), in a certain part of the house he continually goes to that spot, (whether she's there or not), looking for her. We're working hard to break him of this, and Izzy has unwillingly been nominated the guinea pig to help expose Titus to cats more as he's obviously never been around any small animals. In other news:
My Brother-in-law's band, A Dying Breath, had their first show last night at the Newport. I recorded the event and took some pictures with a few coming out pretty decent. Out of the 3-4 bands I saw while there, (there was a total of maybe 8 or 9), Dave's band was by far the best. The music style is pretty heavy, unlike alot of bands where all it seems to be is the same song over and over with mostly unintelligible throaty screaming, their band was certainly not that. Each song had a unique sound and had a nice mix of heavy and lighter parts. I'm no music critic, but they rocked.
You'd be surprised how difficult it is to get good pictures in such low light. I probably snapped about 300 pictures, with only a handful coming out pretty nice. I'm pretty sure that's just the nature of shooting in those conditions, but I'm not quite an expert with my camera yet...
It was an awesome show, and I would have liked to stay all night, but since I wasn't sure what to expect when I got home to the new beast I decided I needed to get back home to the dog/horses. Seriously, when they play/wrestle around, the house shakes...

My house suddenly seems so much smaller now...

Halloween '08, picture-lite style.

2008-11-01T20:17:00.003-04:00

My porch on Halloween. Awesome. Notice my lame last minute decorating attempt in the bottom right-hand corner. Hopefully in the near-future I'll get an outside outlet so I can do a better job decorating for x-mas.
Ooooh. Scary. So I got the last-minute birght idea to paint a pumpkin like a ghost. I bought some spraypaint and went to town. Not surprisingly I found out the glossy white spraypaint does stick to the pumpkin, but like to stick to almost anything else better...and would come off quite easily. I also found out that matte finish paint, (the black spraypaint), doesn't like to sit on glossy paint very much. Either way it worked out in the end.
About midway through trick-or-treat Megan was approached by a group of our neighbors. I was finishing installing a dome light in the bathroom at the time. Our neighbors all seem like very nice people, and they're all very glad to have us in the nieghborhood...especially since we removed a big eyesore from the block.

The next day, today, we had our "inspection" by the bank. The guy seemed pretty laid back. He said he prettymuch was just verifying work had in-fact been done on the property. So he stopped by, took a few pictures, and said the bank should have his report monday and everything should be good. FINALLY. I spent my past two days off trying to tie up all sorts of loose ends around the house in anticipation of this inspection as I had no idea how much he/she would scrutanize the house. Although it wasn't very necessary, at least a chunk of stuff on the to-do list was taken care of.

The AC dilemma.

2008-10-26T11:38:00.004-04:00

So it has been getting a bit nippy in here lately...as would be expected for this time of year. Too bad I can't heat my house properly. "How on earth can't you do that Seth?" you ask? Well, the culprit is here:
Now I have no gripes with this air conditioner...for the most part. It seems to do it's job well...when I ask it to. So what is it doing now? It's cooling the house everytime we try to heat the house. Oh yes. sweet. Now I know it's not the unit's fault. The guy my contractor hired to do the job thoroughly stinks at his job and prettymuch refuses to come and install everything correctly. Once I get his company's information, I'll be doing some extensive reporting of his arse. The pictures below further detail the ineptness...
Now, I've heard of completing a job with a spare a part left over here and there...but COMEON!!! This is crazy! He was "supposed" to install all this....stuff. It has laid down in my basement untouched for months.
Oh yea, and this is lovely. After they installed this, it leaked water...strait down through the unit. As they installed the furnace directly on the floor, the bottom has now rusted a bit due to the water. Thanks alot. My contractor got him back out here to lift it up, (he charged my contractor money to come out and fix stuff he screwed up to begin with), which they put 1/4" plastic corner pieces under it, (woo hoo). They were supposed to install all those extra bits you saw above, but didn't. They DID hook up the gas line and the exhaust vent for the furnace...why that was EXTRA and not part of the ORIGINAL INSTALLATION I'll never understand.
Here's the blower area.
And here's all the water that accumulates...because the effing A/C is still running. ugh. Hopefully when my brother-in-law comes out he can figure out why the air conditioner keeps kicking on. For the time being I have turned off the breaker to the condensor outside. However this still doesn't stop the blower from running long after the furnace has stopped producing heat. Anyone have any hints/advice? I'm looking for help anywhere I can get it!

Post Frenzy!

2008-10-21T14:47:00.002-04:00

I saw this online today before work and had to post it. In case anyone who read my post a couple weeks ago about my Xbox RRODing, (red ring of death...ing), here's the pumpkin version of said catastrophy.

Some double-posting action...Slasher Style.

2008-10-21T01:22:00.003-04:00

OOOOoooh! Navy Seals! I had to try and capture the sky. It was in rare-form...rare Awesome form, Boo Yaa! (don't ask).
Here's a David-Rooftop live-shot! Boo-Yaa!
Sooo when did Freddy get so...dainty? This is Megan's new Halloween costume. It's actually pretty awesome...of course I would probably approve anything Freddy Krueger related anyway. From a costume standpoint, not a bad comparison...
We decided to have Dog for dinner... Nothing like looking down the barrel of a gun, eh Levi?

If Ms. Krueger was going to pick her nose in the scariest possible way...grr.

AAAH!
I'd say this was a good choice for the Halloween party...then again like I said, Freddy related stuff is never a bad choice with me.

BTW, the above reference...Clerks...for you noobs.

One shooting please, hold the homicide...

2008-10-21T00:59:00.003-04:00

So I was sent to this scene last week. It was a shooting on the east side in a neighborhood off Hamilton rd. in Whitehall. Woo hoo... Apparently we cared because this guy "could" die. I mean, psh... yea. Anyway, I sat around by myself, (channel 10 was there before they realized they didn't care...and left), waiting for a manager back at work to decide if we wanted to go live. awesome. So I decided to snap a few picks, when... "HEY!"
I looked over and these two cops were skipping, (or maybe it was a light jog), over toward a teen walking in-between the apartment buildings. The teen pretended not to hear them...or didn't hear them...or didn't care...and kept walking. I rounded the corner and...

OWNED.

Take that...defenseless kid. I kid, I kid...no pun intended. I moved on to more important things like:

OOOoooooh. A rainbow. It's there it you look hard enough. Notice I didn't have my microwave dish pointing anywhere yet. Hmm...I must had some opinion about said possible live-shot...I wonder... We'll end the post on this:

A big fat D-bag. Okay, okay, I parked on the line a bit. Big whoop. Apparently though, this guy had to have THAT spot. He's too good for the OTHER open spots. Oh yea, let me try to put in typographic form what it was like to sit next to this guy's car. BOOOM-BOOOM BLAH-BLIGGITY BLAH BLAH, WHAT WHAT?! Word.

Yea, Captian D-bag there decided to leave his stereo on...while he wasn't even near his effing car! It sat like that, blaring for about an hour. Oh, and the car owner/driver? The above teen's...something...Dad, uncle, Brother, whatev.

What do you mean I haven't been updating?!

2008-10-18T13:28:00.002-04:00

Yes, yes...I've been a bad blogger. I have some pictures and stories to post here soon, but in the mean time here's a bit you might find "mildly" interesting. Apparently we've decided to do some live streaming at work. Interesting idea I suppose. However, I think due to the quality of the video and the craziness you encounter with the erratic nature of the videos, perhaps this would be best done as a higher quality video that isn't "live." I mean, people like behind-the-scenes stuff, but I'm not sure we're so popular that people would be interested to see this stuff live-streaming.

Anyway, once the video is over, several other videos pop up that you can click on to watch. Obviously all these aren't live anymore, but I'm sure if you were, in-fact, titillated by the idea of these live videos you could find the link to them from our website, www.nbc4i.com. Layterrrrr.

The Missing, The Failure, and The Block.

2008-10-12T10:02:00.001-04:00

So Friday morning I'm sitting here, at my computer when Megan brings it to my attention. She says she hasn't seen Izzy since she got home last night around 11:45pm. I came to realize I hadn't seen her either...so we did a thorough search of the house and found nothing. Lately she has been trying to sneek out whenever we've had either of the doors open for any amount of time, and Thursday night this week we left the door open for about 20 seconds while I helped Megan unload some stuff out of her car. Apparently Izzy seized this opportunity. After doing a neighborhood search, the fliers went up. I couldn't see her wandering too far, and the fact that she was nowhere to be seen, (or heard...if you know Izzy, you hear her ALOT), to me said she could have been picked up by someone. I called the city to see where I was and wasn't allowed to post signs. It turns out you can't post anything anywhere in Reynoldsburg, but the lady assured me there was no "fine" for doing so...(prettymuch telling me to do it anyway). She even went as far as to say she spotted a cat this morning matching Izzy's description. We toured the area she said, even though it was a good mile away from our house.

Well, at about 9:30pm we came home from running an errand, and *poof*, there she was. Sitting on our porch like she'd never been gone. What a brat.
In other news, my Xbox RRODed again, (red ring of death). I thought of taking a picture of that...but it was too depressing. What wasn't depressing is that type of failure is covered under Microsoft's new 3 year extended warranty. So I called Microsoft to setup the process of shipping it back to have it repaired, (again), and then immediately went to Best Buy to get a Arcade console to tide me over. I did this because I knew I could return it in a couple weeks once my old Xbox was repaired. I may end up trading it off to Nate for some handywork and a few bucks...
Oh, and that errand we ran right before finding Izzy Friday night?...was for this:
Pretty snazzy... couldn't turn it down. Ok, so Anyway it's Glass Block Time!!
The glass block was being installed yesterday finally. We're certainly in the home-stretch now!
These windows went in without incident.
Ooooh. shiney.
This one...went in with minor incident. hmm... I thought that wood was supposed to stay in there, (...that's what she said...)
Termite damage. Yea, I knew there was some residual termite damage in a few places in the house, but the house had been treated for them awhile ago. It's pretty amazing how they turned this piece of tough wood into the strength equivalent of cardboard.
So what the hell is this? I swear we've found some of the strangest things in this house, (I'm pretty sure I found a piece of rib bone in the basement wall...). This was stuffed in a firebrick cavity once the termite wood was removed. I bet there's a finger inside...but I'm not looking to find out.
I put up our house numbers the other day. We got a new mailbox, and as our old mailbox had sticker numbers on it and our new one, (below), doesn't, we put these up. I mean, I assume there's some sort of city code requiring you identify your house number. Too bad that takes the fun out of making everyone guess...

My very first DB.

2008-10-08T00:42:00.003-04:00

First stop today was a house that had caught fire. The rumor was the FD found some pot plants growing in the basement. Turns out, there were about 80 plants in the basement. Go Team, GO! So when David Wayne and I were on our way back to the station from THAT scene we were diverted to THIS scene:
It was a fatal shooting on the north side in a rough part of town, (surprise). After we worked the scene for a bit, did a live shot, and waited around for a bit, I noticed this orange partition that I hadn't noticed earlier...
It probably revealed itself once a crusier had left that had previously impeded my view. I immediately figured it was a partition set up to block the victim's body from view.

I took some video of it since even though what it was blocking was pretty intense, the barrier itself was much more "PG" in nature.

Anyway, because David and I were on the opposite side of the scene from the other tv stations, (which may I add was the better side), we made our way to the side where everyone else was. This was so when the lead homicide detective was ready to come give a statement and interview, etc., we'd save him two trips. So we went over there, got our interview, (rolled our eyes at Ken Landers of channel 10 for being an ass and asking the detective why the body was left for so long in plain view of children, blah blah blah. I mean, first of all these officers aren't issued "Body Blankets" or anything that they carry around with them to cover bodies. Furthermore, shouldn't it be the PARENTS responsibility to keep their children INSIDE when a DEAD BODY is lying in their parking lot?? Seriously.) So apparently during this time another cruiser or two had left the scene. While walking back around to the other side of the street, I looked back in the direction of the orange partition and there it was, the D.B.

Up until this point I had only been on scenes where the body was well out of view or well out of view and covered by a sheet. This was the first full view I had experienced; while it was still roughly 100 ft. away, it was still a bit jolting to see. I figured whenever it happened, (seeing a body on scene), I probably wouldn't be too fazed by it considering all the reality crime shows I've seen, etc. (Like crime 360). Maybe I was to a point, but it's hard to tell at the moment. The main thing I thought about was just how odd it is. That guy got up this morning, put on all his clothes, shoes, etc. Probably had plans for the night, (some of them questionable maybe). He never had any idea that that was the last time he'll be putting on those shoes, pants, etc. It just seems a bit surreal. I guess the real test will be when I have to get up close and personal with a DB for a job. Joel has already seen a handful that way working on Crime 360 up in Cleveland. And it doesn't sound like people are going to stop "offing" each other any time soon, so the day will come...

My deepest appologies

2008-10-04T21:51:00.002-04:00

My blog has been officially slacked upon. I promise more posts, and of quality soon. I've been a bit busy with alot of stuff lately. Hopefully this picture, a gift strait from the heart, will suffice.

Dagwood, part duex.

2008-09-30T14:49:00.002-04:00

Jason snapped this gem yesterday of me going after the Dagwood...for a second time. I had impressed upon many co-workers the enormity of the sandwich before, but I'm pretty sure that no one expected what they saw last night. After last week's Thurman Burger attempt, (which Omar and Ryan handled problem free...I got sick of it), I wanted to see how they handled this monster as it is clearly larger than the Thurman burger, (twice as big...at least). Anyway, the above picture doesn't do it justice, check out the 365Maze blog link for more pictures. I found that eating it like a sandwich seemed to help me get trough it a bit easier...still can't do the fries though, (on take-out orders they give you potato chips). Bad news was Omar forgot about the Dagwood challenge and ate before they arrived...so Ryan and I we the only ones to go for it. He was faster, but we both were hurting afterward.

At least it's a good sandwich...

I've been busy...slackin' on the blog!

2008-09-26T11:51:00.003-04:00

This was the house alittle less than a week ago right after the rest of the old siding was removed and the insulation was placed on the house. I came home late from work and snapped this picture in the morning when I noticed...
...wavy siding! I thought that was pretty cool, and very unexpected. After looking around I noticed a house down the street sporting the original wood siding, (why?), has a similar thing going on with their gable...but ours is way cooler. seriously.

Now we'll pause for a second with a word from my cat.
AAAACK! HAIRBALL!

Alright, moving on...
This is how we're looking so far today. Yea, it's looking pretty dang awesome. And to think the below picture is where we started. And apparently I rock...and roll...all day long when it comes to snapping pictures in practically the exact spot I did today as I did back in June when the below was taken. Right? Sweet Suzy? (Kung Pow reference).

Waterdog

2008-09-18T12:50:00.003-04:00

When you don't have a showerhead that doubles as a removable sprayer, and you have a skinkball for a dog...you get this.
He asked for some candles and incense...you know, to set the mood.
I said, "no way, dog."

Words cannot express...

2008-09-17T23:45:00.003-04:00

Stumbed upon this on the inter-nets. Yea... So what is her name...Darth boobs? Or perhaps Darth Rediculously Oversized Shoulderpads? Darth Orthopedic-Shoes maybe. Either way, this is about the dumbest picture I've seen all month.

I need some killin' tools.

2008-09-17T01:17:00.004-04:00

This was the scene on one of those giant digital LED billboards near the station.
David Wayne and I thought it looked pretty interesting. It's not everyday you see a giant billboard with nothing but snow/static on it. So, getting back to the backyard...
Ahh yes. Here's the mess as it stands.
And here was a small tragedy I wasn't able to recognize in the dark. Thanks alot...tree. Jerk.

The only tool in my arsenal. I need some better killin' tools. Maybe a giant axe or some of the pruning sheers... Oh well, here goes nuthin...
And here was the scene when I got home today. Some minor progress in the siding department! My contractor seems to be finally realizing how long this job has taken and how seriously it needs done ASAP. I guess it wasn't obvious before as now it really seems to be hurting him. I'd feel worse about it if I didn't already know I've done everything in my power to help him when various snags have arisen. Hopefully we're done with everything in a week or so... Until then, my house wins the award for most varied forms of siding visible at one time...
What? No mitered(sp?) edge on the window framing?...

Ike...likes to blow stuff.

2008-09-15T01:01:00.003-04:00

When you first walk down my street at night, things look kind-of okay. Once you get about half a block or so, you start seeing stuff like this:
And this:
ouch.
My house only seemed to experience some annoying stuff in the front yard. Mainly debris and whatnot everywhere since Robert has left alot of house construction trash everywhere, (one of my old windows which are propped against the porch fell over and shattered...nice). That is until you hit the backyard. The main victim is my fence gate. Mark and I were able to prop it back up as it was flat on the ground.
yea...it was a crap gate anyway...
The second victim was the tall skinny tree in the back. I bet he'll look great in the daylight. He got abused...
this limb is roughly 6 inches in diameter...

not bad for pictures in almost complete blackness.

I must be a cool cat...

2008-09-14T00:03:00.002-04:00

The computer room/office. It's a work in progress...but I'm thinking I might be able to concentrate on...well...stuff more effectively now that I have a room dedicated solely to this stuff.
Apparently this room is cool. Why you ask, well as you can plainly see...it's where all the cool cats hang out. I mean, I suppose the jury is still out on whether THESE cats are actually cool...for those of you who don't know, Izzy, (the calico), is kind of a dork, but still...

Ooooh...
Aaaahhh...squirrel...yum...
Yea, no cool "Lolcatz" for you. Strike a stupid pose and we'll see...

Gimmick? Maybe. Smart? Well, I don't see any Biden Action Figures...

2008-09-12T11:57:00.003-04:00

And what exactly would a Joe Biden action figure consist of? Hmm...I'm not sure, but I'm thinking something pretty generic...since Joe Biden himself is...pretty generic. I felt compelled to write this post after seeing this on a website I frequent:
This first Sarah Palin videogame. It's obviously a lame flash game on the internet, but all the same it's a representation of this strange Palin obsession that has been sweeping...well...somebody. I'm not picking sides with or in this post. Those that know me know I'm currently sitting on the fence between candidates. However this certainly begs the question, WAJB?, (What about Joe Biden?)? Why isn't he videogame/action figure worthy? Is it because he doesn't score very high on the "Babe" factor? (Is it Babe "factor" or "scale"? I'm not sure which one of those is more correct...). Now I haven't played this "game", but I'm willing to bet Sarah Palin doesn't shoot nor has ever shot a Polar Bear in real life, (perhaps since it's highly ILLEGAL). I'm also pretty sure she doesn't dress in mini skirts or schoolgirl outfits, (outside of her bedroom anyway). So what EXACTLY gives here?
I suppose a Joe Biden game would have to be equally fabricated, yet still be relate-able to him in some way. When I say "relate-able", I mean obviously one can "sort-of" relate Polar Bears to Sarah Palin via Alaska. As for the mini skirt and schoolgirl outfit, (not pictured), you could say a good chunk of Palin's male fan base would like to see her in those outfits... So what would the Joe Biden equivalents be? Hmmm... Perhaps a game where your goal is to take Joe Biden to the dentist, (he seems to have extremely white teeth...and about 200 of them in his face from what I can tell), and perhaps his action figure would include...uhh...fisherman gear? You know, maybe a little pole and flannel shirt. It'd probably include a little brown hat with fisherman lures and flies on it. I mean, if we wanted to use the same logic for both potential VPs, Joe would have to be dressed in something people would WANT to see him in, (as with Palin's action figure). But what in the hell would anyone want to see Joe Biden wearing? Not a little schoolboy outfit. Certainly not something he would be wearing in the bedroom. Honestly, I can't think of anything.
I think they should market the VP candidates alittle differently with all this new information.

Sarah Palin, the candidate may potentially fantasize over.

Joe Biden, the most teeth you'll ever see.

Post slackin'

2008-09-09T10:59:00.004-04:00

I wear my sun-glasses at work, so I can, so I can...sing lame 80's tunes and take pictures while bored at work... Yea.
Jason's son's homework. He copied and posted it on a cork board at work. It teaches us all a valuable life lesson. That lesson? Don't forget to button your shit.
Here, my house is becoming naked!! Robert started removing the siding today...or on THAT day as "today" is far from when he started.
and what did that reveal?....
A second door...interesting. I guess it'd be too much to ask that someone merely walk into the dining room first and THEN make your way into the living room. "F" that man, I want a door STRAIGHT into the living room....geez.
The old siding, up close and personal. Surprisingly, not in bad shape...until you look at...
THIS siding. Old Asphalt shingles, used as siding...wtf. We actually knew that was under the siding...but why? I guess that's just how they did it...whenever they did that. Why it's not on the very front of the house we can't say.
All the old siding is staying on the house...not much reason to take it off, (know of any reason?). It should provide for a decent amount of insulation...only problem is the stuff is pretty dry-rotted, and comes off quite easily just by picking at it. Of COURSE when we get the siding after a month of no rain, we get a lot of rain now...soaking into the crap dry-rotted siding...PERFECT. In the end it should be okay I think.... My guess is, even if it's still slightly damp once Robert starts putting the new insulation and siding over it, it should eventually dry and not be an issue. That is unless SOMEONE informs me otherwise...any takers?
And much to Megan's elation, we got her washer and dryer all hooked up and ready to go...for the most part. I swear the previous tenants/owners cooked some illegal drugs in this room... It was completely walled in before, (we took out all the drywall, insulation, etc.), and once we removed all of that we unearthed a smell so fippin' awesome I can't stand it! It smells like urine...yea. Maybe cat pee, maybe not. Of course, after all the "fun" things we've found in this room, I think it's pretty certain. At any rate, whatever nasty chemicals or "whatever" was used, (maybe they weren't making drugs, but stinkbombs!), have soaked into the sandstone used in our foundation. More importantly, it has soaked into the mortar used between the stones and bricks. I think a combination of age, and being sealed up with a ton of fiberglass insulation happened to hold a bunch of moisture right next to all the mortar joints, and most all the mortar is now pretty crumbley and useless. Last thursday I decided to slap a bunch of *NEW* mortar in and around the stones.
Looky there. Huh?! Pretty sweet...if a 5 year old were mortaring their basement. Oh well. It's more for function rather than aesthetics.
Although it does resemble icing...nasty icing.

Jason striking his Andy pose

2008-09-02T01:28:00.003-04:00

Jason doing his best impersonation of Andy at work today...spot on!

here's the original.

Trashing Childhood memories via photoshop

2008-08-31T14:15:00.006-04:00

A photo of Joel. Plus+
A photo of Joel minus a few years. Equals=....

BAM!
Joel put together the picture below of me a few weeks ago. I can post the before and after of that if anyone is interested. Talk about sexy.

Peanut Butter Dog

2008-08-30T14:29:00.000-04:00

This is the image I walked into earlier today. We've gotten into the habit of giving Levi our empty peanut butter jars so he can "lick the bowl." I put it in the living room as it was rolling all over the kitchen floor. It looked like he was smiling at me a big toothy smile because the lip of the jar was pushing his upper lips up.
He was really going at it...

Ever see that look before...that look is Dog Euphoria...in peanut butter form...

Your door is ajar...but is your jar a door?

2008-08-29T01:22:00.002-04:00

New door getting installed today. I watched our contractor heave and ho trying to get the door jam disassembled. As with most of the projects in the house, this certainly wasn't without it's share of "fun."
Those diagonal wood slabs are huge cedar pieces. They don't make them like that anymore...
I'm pretty fascinated by the past...and when I say that I refer to life that happened loooong before I was around. Seeing old craftsmanship like this is good for reminding me of that. It's hard sometimes to keep things in perspective. It isn't too often when I stop and think about everything that was here and happened long before I started sticking my nose into things. It's cool how just this small view into an otherwise unseen part of my house reveals so much. Just thinking these boards were nailed to this wall almost 100 years ago and haven't seen the light of day until now...it's pretty mind blowing. I also thought this shot was cool because it's almost like looking at the rings of a tree. The oldest part, (the big cedar boards on the right of the picture), followed by the old wood siding, then another set of flat stuff, (some sort of board or insulation), followed then by shingles, (yea...weird...but Robert says they probably insulated well...still they probably looked like crap), and finally the junky more modern vinyl siding, (soon to be replaced). We also found the original wiring for the doorbell...which I forgot to snap a photo of. I know I didn't, but did any of you ever think about how old "doorbell" technology is? I didn't before today. Pretty cool stuff.
The new door about to be fitted. I give ya the juicy pics of the new door in the frame tomorrow. It's "almost" done.
And today I got to hang with my nephew for a bit. His mom carted me to Sam's club so I could stock up on a few things, then we played some videogames for a couple hours after while she gave blood...you know, to save the world. Here's he's watching mom play some Wii Mario Galaxy.

My Old House...the secrets...

2008-08-27T01:24:00.002-04:00

The closet in the kitchen looks very intimidating...dare I venture inside...
What will happen if I open the door?....Will a ghost pop out?...Perhaps a Gremlin?....or maybe I'll just get slimed....

WHOA!!!!!
That was close. What's this? A secret passageway perhaps?? Well then, let me just unravel my trusty whip..er...drill and investigate...

Cold chills run down my spine... DO I feel a breeze coming from inside there? Am I hearing....chanting?....

I can...hardly...stand....the........Pressure...........sus.....pense!.....

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!
It's.....IT'S.....TAB!!!!!!!
So this is what I uncovered in my house today. I noticed this piece of drywall screwed in place inside the closet...and never much thought of the "why" about it until a few days ago. Now that the contractor has finished the flooring in here I felt like investigating. It's kinda cool finding little odd and ends nooks and crannies in this old house, (although we all know I'm secretly hoping to find some hidden fortune...not sure if TAB cuts it...maybe I should check inside the bottle). This discovery comes after another less exciting discovery while cleaning out the area under the basement steps a couple weeks ago. I found a sizable gap in the walls that you can peer down into. It was mildly entertaining. Perhaps I'll take some pictures of that sometime.

The Great Cell Phone Debate

2008-08-24T17:27:00.002-04:00

So my contract has been up with sprint for a few weeks now. The offered me a deal to sign back up for 2 years and I would get an instant $100 credit on my account. Nice eh? Only problem is I'm not sure if I can get a better deal with another carrier. It doesn't look that way, but I'm not sure. Other issue is I'm thinking of getting a "smart" phone for internet, text, etc. However, most family plans start at about $130 a month, which is flippin' rediclious. Any thoughts?

Oh, and Megan and chompin' at the bit for a new phone. Mine is still in decent shape as is hers, but that hardly competes with the shiney newness that comes standard on any new piece of technology...which wears off after about 2 days of having the new gadget.

On another note, my pumpkin plant appears to be dying, (no picture yet). I think my pumpkin is turning ripe, which probably means it won't get any bigger, (it's about7-10lbs.). I'm not sure what the heck happened, but whatever it going on its killing both my pumpkin plant and cucumber plant. Any thoughts? Would lack of fertilizing them be the culprit? I am perplexed.

Yea, I'm a jerk...but it's fun.

2008-08-22T13:24:00.002-04:00

I made this today. Not exactly a picture, but after watching the video of her getting shot the SNL video is the first thing that came to mind. Is that bad? At least she was okay afterward. If she had died...well, that'd of been in a tad on the bad taste side then wouldn't it.

Blue Breakfast

2008-08-20T11:46:00.002-04:00

A blurry picture of my cereal...blueberry style. Remember the days when cereal came in about 3 or 4 flavors...total? You know, Chocalate "whatevers", Vanilla "puff-evers", strawberry "marsh-evers", and bland cereal flavor "flake-evers". I suppose you had your blueberry stuff from time to time, but that may have been excluded to "Boo-berry" cereal...and then your "honey" flavored junk... Alright, so like 6 flavors. What's pretty funny now is whenever we see a cereal in a "new" flavor, we often have to get it just for that reason. The reality is it's usually not a "new" flavor at all. Someone just had the bright idea to inject some "Boo-berry" into my mini-wheats. Big whoop. Oh no...we gotta try it! We HAVE to find out what fake blueberries would taste like with sugar and milk! Whatever. I say give me some original flavors...stuff no one would think of, or at least be very uncertain of the taste. I'm not talking about those mystery bags of Doritos that pop up from time to time, (and on that, I think there last flavor was turpentine). Market a cereal as something no one could predict the flavor, even if it ends up being some kind of lame berry combo, keep me guessing! I want to see "Boo-Yaa!" flavored cheerios or Shmack! flavored Mini Wheats. What am I talking about exactly?... I don't know.
Okay, so the fridge thing is s'pose to slide back in the hole thing an...that's it.
King Tomato rules the middle-earth of my counter.
Our psuedo-clean and set-up living room. I think we'll leave the board over the window...for color.
Papa-san! Pu-pu-papaSAN!

Yet another picturefest!

2008-08-15T10:53:00.004-04:00

So the room is finally done-ish. I forced Levi to lay down while I snapped this picture...he's been striking exceptionally pathetic poses lately. Anyway, aside from a few touchups needed here and there, leaving out some of the poorly sanded, (or lack-thereof), areas, it looks pretty good.

The monster sink is now firmly planted in our awesome countertop. Not bad for free! Thanks Dad's Boss and sorry I forgot your name. Dad, I need to get his info from you again for the thankyou...it got lost in the mix...
The IKEA Trip!!! On a whim, we decided to go to IKEA yesterday. This sign is probably one of the largest freeway signs I have ever seen. Too bad we didn't get a picture of it coming in as it look exceptionally larger. When we first saw it, there was a large hill with trees behind it several miles in the distance. I first thought it was mounted on the hill several miles away which would have effectively made the thing about a half a mile long! Turns out, it was just this beast of a sign on poles.
Bask in the blue and yellow glory. I guess those Swedish are Michigan fans.
The loot. We came to this arrangement after several tries. The box contains our new coffee table, and it weighs about 2 tons. You think I'm kidding... Anyway, we were very weary about putting it on our snazzy new framed photo/picture thing. It worked out okay. Oh, and we got a rug.
Megan with more "Loot"...swedish fish. She kept getting yellow fish over and over.
I gave Megan a crash course in picture taking with the camera while driving home. I liked this one. Just FYI, she took it like that on purpose. She took about 200 photos once she started having fun.
One I took. The Road.
The photo/picture we bought from IKEA. Do we like yellow alot or something?

Mmm whatcha say...

2008-08-09T23:31:00.002-04:00

See more funny videos at Funny or Die

Bored at work, here's some videos. Trust that I wouldn't post them if they sucked. On second thought, maybe they will to you as my sense of humor often leads others scratching their heads sometimes. Either way, watch them...or I will punch you right when you're about to eat something.

See more Sarah Silverman videos at Funny or Die

See more funny videos at Funny or Die

Lap dogs, pumpkins and nearly-finished kitchens!

2008-08-09T13:23:00.005-04:00

This is a picture from last night. Since we haven't been able to move the couch(es) in yet, we've been forced to sit in a couple chairs...of sorts. Well, since Mr. Dog isn't allowed on the couch, (usually), the chairs are apparently fair game to him. He's lap dog size..right?

MASSIVE "Red" pepper. At least thats what the package said...so perhaps this pepper will turn red, once it takes over the WORLD! Seriously though, this picture doesn't do this pepper justice. It's like six inches long at this point.
The baby pumpkin gets bigger and bigger. Nate said I should do my best to ensure it doesn't get moldy on the bottom...which is a good point since the pumpkin plant is too good to grow only in the garden.
Here comes little brother pumpkin...or maybe sister. I won't force a gender upon them...wouldn't want them to grow up with a complex.
Well...I suppose when you're told, "The whole downstairs will be completed by friday" you have to do some internal contractor speak translating in your head. "Whole downstairs" he meant "Kitchen", and by "Completed" he must have meant "completed to the point where it "looks" almost done, but still isn't quite useful." Yep, that's our kitchen. Everyone doubted my choice of floor tiles...silly silly people. It looks awesome...just accept it. At least we got the fridge moved in and the stove back where it belongs. The door where the sink is leaning, my idea, (I hope), is to remove the door there and slide the fridge into that closet...since there are two.

The current state of the dining room. Can you spot Cousin It?
Our new door. Nuff' said.
Megan's purple bathroom. We unintentionally painted our house in Reynoldsburg High School colors, (purple and gold). At least that's what you think when you walk from the living room into the bathroom. Once you're in the bathroom you then think almost solely of Pickerington High School colors, (purple and white). Not intentional...I think.

baby pumpkin

2008-08-06T13:19:00.002-04:00

As I'm sure most of you have concluded, here is my first baby pumpkin. Yea, fascinating, but I've been waiting for that beast of a pumpkin plant to pay off for awhile now.

I want to kill my garden...apparently...

2008-08-02T14:17:00.002-04:00

Here's my picture for August 1st. Megan and Levi laying on the floor as I prepare to get my game on! Maybe we need another chair in here...
So this is what results from an amateur trying to go green. I've read several places about how you can use a soap and water mixture as a simple and effective pesticide. Well, I STRONGLY advise anyone who hasn't tried this to be very particular about how many parts soap-to-water you should mix, as "winging-it" can be...well...no good.
Within a day many leaves and tomato buds were either turning brown and getting all yellow and "speckly." Within two days...looking much worse.
After the apparent problem presented itself the next day, I tried to rinse the tomato plants off with water. Apparently in their weakened state the extra weight of the water made many branches too heavy...and this resulted.
There are still signs of life! I guess this year instead of 5000 tomatoes I might only end up with 3000. For those who are asking themselves why I felt compelled to use a home-made pesticide...well...I notice over half of my tomato buds/flowers were dying very prematurely. I then noticed very tiny bugs only on the buds...possibly sucking the life out of them. I decided to take action. Good news, the bugs died...
I still have some tomatoes going strong. This one is so fat he's splitting. I've nicknamed him Jaba.

Show me your pics!

2008-08-01T11:23:00.003-04:00

The First Harvest. One. One chili pepper. It was a start. This was "harvested" (if you can "harvest" only one vegetable), last week out of the garden. At least it looks like it came straight out of a Chilli's commercial...then again, I think every red chili pepper probably looks that way.
Move in night. Megan thought it was too soon...I say no way!!! We're movin' in tonight! I mean, I had just had the cable/internet moved that day AND the bathroom was ready to go...so lets do it! It was a bit messy, but what the hell do you expect from a house currently under construction. BTW, anyone want some pre-mixed grout?
The bathroom lovingly color coordinated by Megan. There are still a few touch-ups that need to be taken care of...but I'm more concerned about getting all the big crap out of the way, (like getting the HOUSE done). Megan has been showing me various mirrors for over the vanity. Why do mirrors have to be so damn expensive? Just give me a piece of tin-foil taped to the back of a piece of glass...anyone? anyone?...
As I was taking this picture Meg was intentionally looking the other way...so I just stood there and waited for her to turn around and give me the inevitable look of, "Why aren't you snapping the pi...dangit!"
Levi started sniffing this area like crazy the next day. I kept shoo-ing him off of it as normal protocol for this type of behavior is for him to Sniff Sniff Sniff, realize how stinky the spot is, then roll roll roll!! Too bad dog brains don't look even slightly into the future as the next step there is bath bath BATH! Anyway, after shoo-ing him away several times I decided to sweep my foot over the pile of grass and fur/fuzz to reveal this...
AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! WABBITTS!!! Actually one did scare the crap out of me as it hopped out immediately after I uncovered the den, (it's a rabbit DEN, right?). There were at least two in there having heart-attacks as I looked at them. Cute little buggers. We were hoping mama wouldn't abandon them since we infected the den with human...stuff...
SECOND HARVEST! Aren't those the dumbest looking banana peppers you've ever seen?? Not sure why they grew like that, but as you can see they started to turn reddish...which means they were fully grown. I also picked most of the lettuce as it wasn't getting any greener. Oh, anyone have a good recipe for chili??
Sunday night, Mark expands his NBC4 resume by being volunteered for the assignment desk. I was pretty entertained when I walked up here and saw the sea of post-it notes. If that were me up there...well...lets just say the tv screen in top left corner of the picture describes how my night would have gone...
Here's one of many fair live-shots our station has been doing. I got to do this one as I was put in a live truck earlier in the week. This was the end of a very long and weird day. The first 5 hours of my shift consisted of sitting in the ghetto with David Wayne on a shooting. A 5 year old boy and 7 year old were left home alone with their drug-dealing relative who decided to leave them home alone with a loaded assault rifle in the house. Lets put these items on the scales shall we? Watch the kids, deal some drug.....kids......drugs....
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Drugs. Definitely. What's the worst that could happen??...
Well, the 5 year old could shoot the 7 year old with the gun. Check. You could then see what happens and take the fatally wounded child outside in a lame attempt to keep the cops from coming inside your house and discover your stockpile of cash, drugs, and guns. Check. You could then NOT call the police and wait for a mail carrier to discover you covered in the childs blood sitting in your front yard most likely sealing the fate of said child. Check. You could lie to the police and say you "found the kid in an alley" hoping they would completely disregard the house you are sitting in front of. Check. You could then get taken to the station for questioning and ultimately get charged with three different felonies including Child Endangerment, Tampering with Evidence, and some felony weapons charge. Check. Check. Check.
So after a live hit every hour on the hour, a mini-package and VO/SOT, and NO air conditioning later, David, the reporter sitting in the ghetto shade in the ghetto neighborhood in a long-sleeve shirt, pants, and tie gets a mild case of heat-exhaustion and has to goto the ER. Fun times. I survived with little more than a headache, and went on to shoot a sports package on the new football coach at Hartley(sp?), and Amy Basista's live shot for the 11pm.

My first pictureless post

2008-07-26T18:27:00.002-04:00

So I figured I would give those readers and update on the blog as it has been pretty barren for several days now. We're slowly moving into the new house as the upstairs is done and I haven't been able to update the blog. I HAVE, however, been taking pictures each day, so I will have some very picture heavy posts in the coming days. I know you're all on the edge of your seats...so take a break and grab a donut.

Bugs and Birthdays and Big Storm Damage

2008-07-23T00:39:00.005-04:00

A praying mantis I found on the side of Megan's Grandparents house while we were there celebrating her birthday last Sunday. Ever time I got in front of it to take a picture it would stop walking and look right at me as if to ask, WTF?

Now I think the picture below perfectly represents a 21st birthday. You can visualize a whole day/night in this picture. She was still awake in this picture, but who could tell anyway...and not for long.

These pictures are from Junction City in Perry County. They were hit pretty hard. These pictures are of our Satellite truck we sent there for live shots in various shows. These pictures don't even scratch the surface of the damage there.

Some more weekend related pics

2008-07-21T13:14:00.002-04:00

Bathroom progress report: The toilet is no longer in the tub, the tub surround is being placed, and the vanity has made it's way into the bathroom...it's not quite upright...details...
In case you happened to see the picture of the baby pumpkin plants taken within the first couple days of this blog, here's an update. The pumpkin plant I chose to rule them all, (a.k.a. the one I actually planted), has become a monster beast, laughing in the faces of all those other unworthy pumpkin plants, (a couple are in the pots). If Mark decideds he'd like them, here they wait...crying for him to release them from their pot prisons.

The rest of these pictures are from my Nephew's B-day party on saturday. He's a big, bad 4 year old now. My sister found this baby baby kitten in the middle of the road the other day as well, and is trying to pawn her off on me...or someone...anyone. Any takers?

Oh, and there was some fun water battles at the part between my Dad and Xavier. Guess who got a face full of water?

Imagine the Jaws theme here...

2008-07-20T10:52:00.004-04:00

Da Dum....

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Da Dum
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da dum
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Oh hell with it
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AHHHHHHHH!!!! It's.....ORANGE!!!!!

A couple days...a few more pictures

2008-07-17T15:25:00.001-04:00

This was the room as of last weekend. The carpet job was kinda sub-par. Fortunately that was remedied on monday.
Here is the wall I tore out on the other side of the main bathroom. I had to paint all around the area with KILLZ to try and eliminate some undesirable odors. It's seemed to do the job so far.

Since I've missed a couple days here and there, here are some pics for wednesday. A on/off button the a monitor and one of our editing keyboards, (they're very colorful). How often do you see a button like that in an extreme closeup? Not much I'm betting.
And finally, here was the room as of wednesday night...I think. After work I wanted to see how everything looked, and it looked much better. The edges looked alot cleaner and the room overall is no longer "sub-par." I'd say using the elementary school grading scale of "O" for Outstanding, "S" for satisfactory, and "U" for Unacceptable, the room is now a solid "S+". In addition, my roommates wife, Marcy, gave me her seal of approval on my color choice in the bedroom. She said that blue looked "very nice." Oh yea, there's those art skills at work! Of course, I have yet to post a picture of the area formally known as the "Red Room." It WAS painted a dark red, and the trim and part of the ceiling was done in a "Chocolatey Quick" type of brown. I chose a color I thought would be motivating...you'll have to let me know what you think when I take a picture of it. To put it simply, when you're outside of the room looking in it's direction from down the hallway, you THINK there are alot of lights on in the room. That's how freakin bright the wall color is. hmm...

Excuse me Officer, I had to snap a picture for my blog...

2008-07-15T00:17:00.002-04:00

Excuse my weaving fellow freeway drivers...I had to snap a picture for my blog. I technically took this picture monday night on my way home from work. I went in early since lately we've been scheduling more reporters than photogs. lately. Of course, since I have a couple vacation days coming up, none of it was OT, just strait pay. woo...hoo...

David Wayne and I got to spend over 4 hours at city hall today. It was torture. We were there because there was this new bicycle helmet law proposed, and "someone" thought that a council made up of all democrats was going to heatedly debate over the topic. Apparently, someone hasn't been to a council meeting here....EVER. I'm sure that there was some disagreements at some point, but heated?? This is a council that seems to turn every meeting into the city's most publicized circle jerk. I don't know how many "Thank yous" and compliments were flying throughout the room over those 4 hours, but I practically had to break out my Cardigan sweater and Choo-Choo train and welcome people to the neighborhood. "I'd just like to thank councilman blah bla-blah for telling us about this." "I'd like to thank other councilman blah bla-blah for thanking me on that" "I'd just like to thank both councilmembers blah and blah for giving me the opportunity to witness them thanking each other for blah bla-blah freakin blah." Now imagine over 4 hours of that bullcrap. Then, once everyone during the voting got down to the last flippin' votes one councilman made us sit through the most painfully pointless statements of the night, (which consisted of him telling us how toddlers should NOT be riding their tricycles in the street....NO Freakin' CRAP!!!!), we had the have yet another councilwoman go on for 10 minutes about why SHE was going to vote yes...after everyone else already voted yes. WE. Don't. CARE!!! Just freakin' vote already!!!

Ugg. I need a nap.

BUSTED.

2008-07-13T00:16:00.002-04:00

This is what I come home to prettymuch everyday. Too bad the picture can't convey all the snorting and figiting. We've got him almost to the point where he stays off of the gate, (yes that is a baby gate), but sometimes he gets overly excited and stands with his front paws on it. And we also see one of my two cats, Izzy, planning her strategy to get on the other side of the gate while avoiding the dog's wrath.
As I figured, he had to chew up something. Levi relapses once every couple weeks, (at most), and chews something that isn't his. Actually, he just fell off the wagon recently, (not alcohol), when he chewed up some of my sandal. He was several weeks strong!! Why?!!
Yea, so I forced him to pose next to the casualty, (look at that guilty face...hehe, he knows...). It was the cardboard box my new shutter control came in. It WAS kinda cool as it HAD all sorts of interesting Chinese stamps on it. Apparently that's where my shutter control came from...I had no idea idea the auction said "China", but it still cost me less than $10 after shipping. I didn't scold him too much as it WAS left on the floor, which as most dog owners know makes it fair game for a good gnawing on. Whenever an animal in the Distelzweig household gets "sick" on the carpet and we clean it, we mark the trouble spot after we clean it to avoid any sock mishaps. Yesterday Mr. Levi puked...twice in about 10 seconds...in two separate places of course. Megan cleaned them up, marked one danger zone with the bottle of resolve, and the other with...you guessed it, the Chinese delivery box. Nuff' said. Bailiff, take him away!

2008-07-11T20:34:00.002-04:00

Megan cleaning the grout off the tiles after I laid it all out...oohh yeea. I'll admit I was alittle nervous about the whole "grout" thing after seeing a tv show on the HG channel where some dude let all the grout dry too long and he couldn't wipe it off his tiles. So they had to tear out all his tilework and start over. Considering we used every single tile we had, (Cause we're awesomely resourceful...we even made use of broken tiles in the boxes for cut pieces!). Just to fill you in, we used 6 full boxes of 12"x12" tiles, (12 to a box), plus 5 tiles my parents had left over...like I said...awesome.
At any rate, here's the pseudo-finished bathroom floor! I'll have to wipe it down again tomorrow, then seal the grout starting on monday. What can I say, we rock. Big props to Nate on saw duty who came through with all the cuts!

Bathroom Tile Flooring Bonanza!!

2008-07-10T23:07:00.003-04:00

We laid the tile flooring in the bathroom today! I forgot to snap a picture, so say tuned...but not really. When I say stay tuned I don't mean I want you to sit in front of your computer screen waiting patiently for me to post the pictures. That would just be crazy talk.
It took us ALL DAY...sort-of, but it's going to look AWESOME! We get to grout it tomorrow. I wouldn't go as far as to say I'm "nervous" about it as it's supposed to be pretty easy, but I'm never grouted before, (I've laid tile one other time...so that experience along with the help of my roommate helped.) I also had plenty of advice from my Dad and Brother-in-law on the subject. So hopefully all goes according to plan tomorrow morning!

Does anyone else think the term "Laying tile" sounds dirty? Like, So I took this girl back to my apartment last night, and we Laid Tile....oh yea ;)I received my new shutter control in the mail! It has a lock on it so I don't have to hold the button down the whole time. This starry night exposure is after roughly 10 minutes. I'll get it right eventually, but I wanted to get the earth rotation shot...so here's the first.

Catchin' up with a Courthouse

2008-07-10T00:42:00.004-04:00

So our story yesterday took us to Washington Courthouse. Not much there except a...Courthouse. The story wasn't that fantastic, so I'll spare you the details. The intern, Emily, was with us and asked odd, yet intriguing questions as she tends to do. This trip, she asked why people would build a town here. Ya know, for as simple a question as that is, I couldn't really answer it. I said, "well why does anyone settle anywhere?" She replied, "Water." Good answer, so I couldn't really tell you why there's a town here. It probably had something to do with some dude's wagon breaking down in the area some time ago...and instead of fixing it and moving on, why not start a town, build a courthouse, and name the town after said courthouse. Heck, lets throw our nation's first presidents name in front of it...sounds more official. I have no idea what I'm talking about. I think our intern should do some research on the town and answer her own question...for all of us.
Other than that it was a normal day. Oh yea, I bought some wine. Riunites Lambrusco(sp?). I have to say it's decently tolerable. I think I'm going to have a glass right now! Chao.

Super Funky Hippies gone WILD!!!

2008-07-09T00:36:00.002-04:00

A serious police situation erupted downtown Monday afternoon! Columbus was on Red Alert! We were at DEFCON 1!...or 5!...whichever is worse! I'm not sure! What was the source of all this pandemonium??
These bad boys...and girls. Hippies. Well, I'm not sure if they were "Hippies", but my definition of "Hippy" has slowly morphed over the years. It used to be almost anyone who donned a tie-dye shirt and sandles, (at the same time), while going on about their hemp...whatever. That was deemed a hippy...in my mind. That definition has sort-of morphed over the years to encompass those individuals who fear or actively hate on the "establishment", as well as have a serious aversion to soap and water, (these hippsters were RIPE!).
To give you some background, apparently they started what they termed was a "peaceful" protest in front of some company wanting to open a new coal burning powerplant. About 100 of them showed up to this protest, (I bet the smell was AMAZING). Well, according to some of them, a couple of their "brothers and sisters" were pepper sprayed and tased for NO REASON WHATSOEVER!! UNPROVOKED!! Like, Dude! She was totally complying with the officers and they tased her 3 times!! Coal KILLS!! Aren't you glad you DIDN'T use Dial?? Don't you wish NObody did?

yea.

Police make a habit of tasing people for NO reason...it gives them a rush. Actually, if I heard right, the CPD officer manual clearly states they actively tase all Hippies on site...or smell...whichever. Anyhoo, this other picture is of a scanner at the desk. Since I can't quite keep all my posts timely, and since the hippy pics were taken on monday, the scanner counts as my tuesday, July 8th, picture of the day. So eat that!

Ultimate Geek Car

2008-07-07T12:29:00.002-04:00

That's what one website dubbed the Delorean, and I have to sort-of agree. At the same time, the Delorean is probably one of the most recognized obscure cars ever to grace the earth. I wonder what would have happened had the Back to the Future Trilogy featured a Pinto, or random volkswagon. The Delorean is so cool in itself that people remember this car long after seeing the movie. Plus, how many cars can you say would inspire some photogs to dress up like Doc Brown from the movie to pose with said model vehicle parked in our parking lot a couple nights ago. Apparently this Delorean belongs to the Litton family, (Jason Litton is a Director here at the station), and it's a fine representation of this car species. I wonder how many people ask to pose with this thing when it's out and about?

The air tastes so good.

2008-07-05T12:13:00.004-04:00

This blurry picture is of my cat singing along to Guitar Hero Aerosmith...or just yawning. I haven't decided which. I missed a post yesterday, but hey...I was sleepy. I should have taken my camera with me to the family gathering at Memaw's house, (my grandma), but I forgot it after walking out of the house and didn't realize I had, (I intended on bringing it), until after I was halfway there. Oh well. It was fun. My bro-in-law Dave set off some small fire-crackers, and I had to tell Memaw's new miniature pincher who the boss was a couple times. She was apparently abused as a puppy and has some real trust issues. Hopefully she'll get over them. If she hadn't had her little muzzle on, she would have made a nice bloody snack out of my hand a couple times. The main concern, of course, wasn't my hands but those of the lil' ones running around. Dogs can bite me, (or Try...), but mouths off the kids...
I snapped this photo this morning in my messy apt/basement of my dork of a dog trying to eat the air exhaust from the microwave. I tend to make alot of noodles for lunch, and everytime I do this goofball makes his way to the microwave so he can sniff and lick the air. The air smells like food, so I guess it's not too much to think it could taste good...although it can't be very filling...can it?
This pic was snapped by Mr. Andy Long while we were at the Clinton Obama debate in Cleveland last winter. This was during Amy Basista's and my live shot. Behind her was a live set for Chris Matthew's show, (not visible), and later I shot a live shot of her and Patrick Preston interviewing Tim Russert, (pic to come). Pretty cool stuff...too bad most days at the station couldn't be THAT interesting...

Guitar Hero Pajama Rockin'

2008-07-03T22:08:00.006-04:00

Megan rocks out some Guitar Hero Aerosmith...on the hard setting. I can barely play medium.
This action shot looks alot less action-y as a still...
Awwww yea, that's more like it. She's playing EXPERT during this shot.
No, those aren't my shorts hanging off a pull-up bar in the background...but yes, I am using a cat scratching-post as a speaker pedestal.

Everything's going according to plan....but not mine.

2008-07-03T17:19:00.004-04:00

I snapped a few pictures last night at my live shot with Mr. David Wayne. They turned out pretty decent. Obviously the first is of my camera, tripod, and a streetlight. We did a story about Red, White and Boom and featured some of the crazy folk who were camping out ALREADY. I guess if you have nothing better to do but sit around somewhere for days on end, the camping isn't a big deal. Most of us who live in the REAL world, however, aren't afforded such luxuries. Other than that, Today we headed to the house early and met with Robert. With his help, we gave my credit card a several thousand dollar workout, (it made me feel happy inside...or terrified...they're such similar feelings). Megan and I then headed to Lowe's to pick out our paint colors, and what a palate it was...what can I say though, I'm an artist at heart and like bold colors, (see the bedroom pics from the past couple days).

Anyway, we got back and with the help of Megan's grandparents we tore up some stuff in the basement while Robert and his painter worked upstairs. Robert couldn't figure out the situation with the vent going into the floor from the downstairs. I helped him figure that out, and apparently the morons who used to live there re-routed plumbing right over top of the vent. Instead of remedying this situation, this genius decided to plug up the vent with fiberglass insulation, (wha?), and put the floor over top of it. Awesome. Needless to say Robert said taking care of this would set us back some time, but what else is freakin' new. I snapped this pic of Megan today, and apparently I'm a focus noob. I actually had it on manual focus from when I was taking pictures last night at the live shot, and forgot it was on manual, so most of today's pics are alittle furrier than normal. I waited until Megan turned around and said, "Hey!" to snap this one. Even blurry, it's still a good one.

The impending wallet workout...

2008-07-02T12:03:00.002-04:00

The aweosme sight of work being done on the house, Behold! So apparently it takes these roofers two days to do a roof that should be done in one. Oh well. As long as it's done today I really don't care as rain is in the forecast tomorrow. The bathroom also started getting it's workout this afternoon. The psuedo plan tomorrow is to start laying the floor tiles, and Robert should be starting to put the new tub and surround in. Hopefully all goes according to plan.

What has NOT gone according to plan is the flippin' bank...AGAIN. So along with all the other things this bank has sucessfully screwed up, not disclosed, etc. It was not made clear to me the way in which the "Draw" system works for the money to do all this work. I was told I get 2 draws. That sounds...well...EXACTLY HOW IT SOUNDS. No. What is means is I get 2 draws TOTAL, the second being the final payout on completion of ALL WORK. So the bank expects $28,000 worth of work to be completed on the initial draw of $14,000. Yea, so how are all the raw materials and labor in the mean time going to be paid once the first half is used up? Who knows! The bank sure doesn't seem to care! So it looks like my wallet will temporarily be funding the remaining materials and labor costs. I'll be reimbursed once the project is all completed with the final check. Lets hope Robert's timetable of being completed before the end of the month holds true so I can avoid and finance charges...but thank god for credit.

See Bob. See Bob paint. (I don't know if that guys name is Bob, but my beadroom is looking....blueish).

Hey big boy, is that a new roof in your pocket...?

2008-07-01T21:35:00.003-04:00

So we stopped by the house today, and the new roof was being put on! Woo hoo!! In addition, they said all the boards underneath the old roof looked good, so no hidden surprises there. Whew! I would have taken a picture of the roof being removed, but I'm a bad blogger and forgot before we left the house. I know everyone who reads this is utterly dissappointed they can't get a dose of young mexican workers working on a roof. I'll try to come through for you guys next time. We had to rush from the house to get lunch and get home in time for me to leave for the carpool. I must say, as much as I love saving the gas, that one hour I miss each day feels like I'm losing alot of time! It's okay, I can tough it out.

Anyway, Robert thinks his painters quit...or died on him, he's not sure which. They haven't returned his calls for a few days now OR cashed their paychecks he wrote them last friday. Interesting... He says he won't accept an excuse from them outside of, "We are/were in a/some comas." (Is the plural for coma, comas?...I'm so bad at plurals). Anyway, Robert was painting our bedroom himself. The bedroom did look nice with a fresh coat of paint on it, but he said the primer we bought wouldn't stick to the trim...hmm. We looked and there indeed was alot of drippage on the trim. I hope to God he figures it out and makes it look nice. Oh, and I THOUGHT, (shame on me...thinking...), that whoever painted that room would notice a couple spots needed SANDED...but no. We'll just paint over everything apparently. Robert also thought we wiped down all the walls ahead of time. What happens when we "Assume" Robert...? Yea, exactly...we'll, except for the "me" part since YOU are the expert...or should be. whatever. I think he's just a noob when it comes to painting, (noob is short for Newbie...as in a new person to something...case you can't follow the slang ;). you can also call someone a "noob" if they are just lame at something...). He was spraying it on, and after talking to some people AND doing alittle brain work on my part, I think he A. had the paint too thin, and B. was having humidity problems. A guy at work said paint has alot of trouble sticking in higher humidity. I bet that's it. If Robert knew alittle mroe about painting, he probably would have known the issue. Makes me think he bid on some work while not knowing as much about it as he "could" have. Oh well.

I'm writing all of this from work, and therefore can't post pictures as easily, so they'll be added later. Depending on how my night continues, you can expect to see a few lovely photos I took on the way home last night from Jason's car. Technically they were taken today as they were after midnight, so eat THAT!

(the top picture is the two-way from work. it's one of many ways the station chats with us, or as you can see, Chopper 4!)

Day: Yesterday

2008-06-30T12:14:00.003-04:00

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...

2008-06-28T23:55:00.002-04:00

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!

2008-06-28T14:14:00.004-04:00

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...

2008-06-28T03:23:00.006-04:00

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...

2008-06-26T22:05:00.002-04:00

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

2008-06-25T13:09:00.003-04:00

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...

2008-06-24T14:31:00.005-04:00

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...

2008-06-23T12:55:00.004-04:00

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

2008-06-23T12:18:00.005-04:00

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.