Underexposed...

Well, well, well.

2008-09-28T20:03:00.002-06:00

I'm feeling ambitious tonight.

I haven't posted in almost a year.

I've been busy, sleep deprived, busy, chronically sleep deprived, and totally unmotivated at different times over the past year.

So. I feel pretty good right now.

No, I won't be telling any stories this time. But I've been threatening to update over the past several months and thought now would be a good time to start.

Now that I've done this, I'm hoping that I'll feel the pressure to do more.

Have a good night.

Thank you.

The Time is Now

2007-11-05T18:55:00.000-07:00

We are inducing labor tonight. Keep up with what's going on over on Erica's blog.

Old School!

2007-10-25T01:33:00.000-06:00

It was May, 1988 and I had just gotten home from my first year in college. I needed the car for something so I dropped my brother off for his last day of school. I was aware that St. Mary's was scheduled for demolition over the summer so I gave it a good, long look before driving away. The city of Phoenix had determined the property was way too valuable to be wasted on a small Catholic high school so they swapped some land and took over the campus.

I noticed someone standing over near the front door not wearing a school uniform. This person had a backwards baseball cap and a sweatshirt. A little hot for a day in late May in Arizona. As I drove past I saw the video camera sitting on the ground next to her.

“Hm.” I thought. “One of the stations must be doing a story on the last day at this campus.” As you can tell, I was pretty astute back then.

Later that night I watched the newscasts as best I could, watching for the story. I was lucky enough to catch it at the end of the newscast on channel 12. It was a nice, quaint look at the last day of school, touching on the tradition and spirit of the school and the people. I watch it, enjoy it and soon forget about it.

I finish college where I develop a passion for video and film. I get a job in TV in the Portland market and then get a job shooting in Salt Lake City.

It is now about a dozen years later. I am attending a professional seminar on TV news photography in Utah. One of the speakers is from the Phoenix market so I chat her up and mention that I’m from Phoenix and went to Saint Mary’s.

“Hey I did a story on the last day of St. Mary’s!”

The gears in my head start their usual slow cranking. The doors to the memory sections of my brain creak their way open. I start to remember watching the story. Then I remember seeing her outside the school that morning.

“…Wait a second. I saw that story. That was a great story.”

“Thanks.”

“I saw you. Outside the school shooting that.”

We kind of give each other incredulous looks for a couple of seconds.

“In fact, I have that story on one of my tapes here,” she explains.

She pulls an old tape out of her bag and we go back to an edit bay and watch the story again. I see people I knew back then, the old stinky gym, the classrooms with the painted cinder block walls. I can smell the campus again. I remember sitting out in the courtyard eating. I see the tree where I found a kitten that became a family pet.

Wow. What an odd set of events that brought me to watch this video again. I pull out one of my tapes and make a dub. Since then, it’s been sitting in a box in my garage. I had to find an old video player that still worked to even view it again. So I made my dubs again and converted it.

Enjoy…

My Other Blog

2007-10-17T18:17:00.000-06:00

Since the wife has been pregnant, we've been doing occasional updates on the prescence of a fruitful womb in the household. They are hosted over on her blog but here is a link to my entries.

Mark's Baby Blog

The latest one has some video of Erica shooting hoops at 8 1/2 months pregnant.

Nineteen Eighty-Seven

2007-10-05T15:43:00.000-06:00

Or more specifically, Class of 1987.

Yep, that is a picture of me. And, yep, it has been 20 years since I was in high school.

The concept is a bit odd to wrap my brain around. In some ways I don't feel like a damn-near 40-year-old. I'm hip, funny and virile. Completely different from all the adults I knew when I was a teenager.

But in other ways, I do feel like I'm knocking on 40's door. It takes a while for the back and ankles to stop hurting when I get out of bed. There's the extra pounds and less hair. I can't dunk a basketball anymore.

When I think back over the past twenty years, I guess I've done a lot: Two colleges (and one of the most unspectacular basketball careers ever). I have learned, and then have forgotten sign language. I've been to 3 Olympics for work, backpacked the Grand Canyon and gone under the knife for various surgeries 4 times (2 unsuccessfully - thus the sore ankles mentioned earlier).

I got a phone call a couple weeks ago from a classmate who had hunted me down. Renae, sounding just as sweet as she did 20 years ago, filled me in on the details of our class reunion. I had somehow misunderstood that a planning meeting in May was our actual reunion. I was on a plane to L.A. at the time so I figured that I'd have to miss this decade's event and catch up in another 5 or ten years.

So, good news for me, I didn't miss our reunion. Bad news (more just bad timing) for me, the reunion is being held on November 2nd which is the same day our first baby is due. So I miss out anyway.

Too bad, because I've sort of lost touch with everyone I went to high school with.

My folks moved from Phoenix a couple years after I graduated and went away to college. Since it was no longer home for me, I hardly ever went back. I moved on with my life and pursued a career.

Then I went to my 10 year reunion. I got everyone's contact info - phone numbers, addresses, emails, whatever. I went home and on set up a nice little file with everyone's info on my work computer. Unbeknownst to me, I worked at a company that came close to the Nazis in how it treated its employees. They would arbitrarily erase everyone's personal files without notice in the name of 'company security'.

So, one day I go in and all my files are gone. Our IT guy ignored me for about a week until I cornered him and asked what the deal was. He mumbled something about unable to do anything to help me out and said that the server was the property of the company and they had the right to do anything at anytime without notice. Technically, he was right but it would have been nice to know ahead of time so I could save those.

Anyway, I lost contact with everyone all over again. Only a couple of months after getting it all in the first place. On top of all that, I found out later that my company was filtering all emails that weren't work related. So if any of my buddies were sending me emails, they were getting read and blocked by my supervisors.

So all of you people in the Class of '87 at St. Mary's High School in Phoenix Arizona, give me a holler! I won't lose your info this time...and I'm registered at Babies R Us ;)

Making Excuses

2007-09-16T21:20:00.000-06:00

All right, it seems that half the time lately I've been making excuses for not posting. I have no excuses other than having some lame version of writer's block. I just think I've just been tired.

I will give a brief rundown of what I've been up to this summer:

1) My wife is pregnant with our 1st child - due November 2nd - it's a girl.

2) I took on some freelance work that ate up a good portion of June and pretty much all of my free time in July.

3) Almost all of August was spent driving two-and-a-half hours each way, every day to Huntington, Utah where those miners were caught in a cave-in.

4) My wife was fired due to "now is a good time to make changes" at the radio station two months before giving birth. So we are making adjustments after losing more than half our household income.

That's me in a nutshell ("Help, I'm in a nutshell!") over the past few months.

If the two of you who read this blog want more recent updates - go to 'My Beautiful Wife' and check out the baby blogs.

I Reek Of Smoke

2007-05-03T21:39:00.000-06:00

I'm sitting at home, it's midnight and I've been given a new set of rules in my house.

"If you cover a fire, when you get home you must take off all of your clothes and put them in dirty clothes. Don't set them on the floor. Do not lay down on the couch. Walk directly to the bedroom and take your clothes off. Otherwise everything will smell like a campfire."

This from my lovely wife after she got home and walked over to her smelling-like-a-campfire husband laying on the couch.

"Oh." I reply. Even though I'm thinking "I know. I just felt like laying down right when I got home...and the Simpsons were on."

Anyway, I've been shooting news for about a dozen years and I've never gotten any good fire video. Granted, I know that getting 'good' fire video means I'm capitalizing on someone else's tragedy. Someone loses a home or a business and I'm there with my camera to cover the story.

But if I'm going to cover a fire, it would be nice to have a real fire to shoot. Usually the video I get is of firemen rolling up their hoses, firemen drinking Gatorade, firemen carrying ladders and equipment back to their trucks. You get the idea.

In the past 10 days I have stumbled upon two roaring structure fires on my drive home from work. I mean the fully-involved, flames rolling into the sky kind of fires.

Tonight I had made a turn on the main road that takes me home from the freeway. A fire engine with full lights and sires went blasting past me. I assumed they were responding to an accident about a mile up in the next intersection where accidents happen all the time.

As I got closer I saw a huge cloud of smoke drift across the road. I pulled over, grabbed my camera and ran into the apartment complex. As I meandered my way through the several emergency vehicles, I came upon this scene:

This building was burning like a torch. Not one of those dopey torches they crafted on the island in 'Lost' but one of those torches they chased Frankenstein's monster around with in 'Young Frankenstein'.

No one knows how it started but there were no fire breaks in the roof so it spread to all the apartments in this building. The wind was blowing embers around the smoke blew close to the ground making visibility low for everyone.

I ran back and forth near this building getting various shots of the fire being fought, of emergency lights blinking in the smoke and people taking their own pictures of the fire. Luckily no one was injured. Everyone in the building evacuated safely.

Being as close as I was to this inerno, I absorbed quite a bit of the smell of the fire in my clothes and hair prompting that conversation with Erica. The overnight photographer showed up to start his shift so I handed over my tape to him. The fire was mostly out by then and I was ready to go to bed anyway so I headed the half mile down the road to my house.

By the time the editors got ahold of the video back at the station, they didn't use the best shots (I'm not quite sure why they chose the shots they did) but the story can be viewed here:

Apartment Fire Video

These photos I used are from the Deseret News and Salt Lake Tribune newspapers.

Hurry Up And Wait

2007-04-18T18:40:00.000-06:00

I'm sitting in the live truck right now. When I look up from the computer I look at the front of Lavell Edwards Stadium in Provo Utah.

Yay.

We rushed down here to an interview with a 15 year old boy who almost died in a hit and run accident while riding his bike.

Now I have 4 hours until the news starts and my reporter is viewing the tape so he can log the interview and write his story. I'm bored.

I wandered outside a few minutes ago and took some random pictures.

The mountains are covered with a springtime dusting of snow.

Some chick jogged by.

Twice.

John's a little distracted, he keeps talking to people on the phone.

Right now I don't care.

By the way, the 15 year old kid is mostly OK. They had just given him a shot of morphine right before we arrived so he was a bit loopy.

Stories I've Shot

2007-04-12T23:23:00.000-06:00

A few months ago Fox corporate decided to invest in the local websites for it's TV stations. For us, that was a really good thing since out previous one was the absolute worst site for a TV station I'd ever seen.

Anyway, the new site has a great video component and most of the stories I shoot are posted for all to see. I will occasionally email links to these stories to friends and family. A lot of them aren't great but it gives them a chance to see what I do from day to day.

So if any of y'all are interested, here are some of the stories I've done in the past few weeks.

You'll have to sit through a commercial before each story. Sorry about that.

Three year old girl falls out of 2nd story window.

Woman impaled through head by debris on freeway.

Pet food recall.

East High School soccer coach dies.

Woman fires gun in Provo library.

Egg prices going up due to ethanol.

Petition against school vouchers.

Construction causes traffic problems in Sandy.

Update on woman impaled through head.

Mr. Show Quote of the Week!

2007-04-12T22:13:00.000-06:00

"Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaay! Woohooo!"

-Adam

Angry and Guilty

2007-04-08T17:38:00.000-06:00

"Hey Mark. We need you to go meet Hollenhorst at the federal courthouse. The verdict for some trial is coming down."

"OK"

Some state official had been accused of extortion. He'd been taking payments from the owner of Envirocare (now called Energy Solutions), a nuclear waste storage company, to 'help him get some permits.'

The owner recorded several phone calls with this government official and turned them over to the Attorney General. An investigation and trial ensues and this guy is found guilty.

No sooner do I walk up to the courthouse than the accused and his family are walking out. John runs up and fills me in on who the players are.

"The old guy with the gray hair was just found guilty. He's not talking so just get me a good walk shot."

"OK"

In the world of TV news, a 'walk shot' is just that. It's usually a shot of someone involved in some story walking somewhere. In court cases, we walk with the person for 20 seconds or so and then let them pass. That way we can show this video while the reporter talks about what happened in court that day.

"Oh yeah, and the family has been pretty agressive toward the media."

Now these people knew what to expect. Here their dad, or whoever he was, was either taking bribes or extorting money from the owner of a storage facility to get permits. That in itself is a news story. He'd been found guilty - another news story.

They had been yelling at the media the entire trial but nothing like what they had done with me. Obviously they were a little more angry than normal at those they blamed for Dad's indiscretions. What I found interesting is not only did the dope in the glasses threaten me, but when I asked for clarification he not only repeated it but walked up to my camera and yelled it straight into the lens. That wouldn't have held up in a court had he decided to get physical.

An old lady who was a supporter of the family made the observation to John (read this line with a whiny, uneducated voice) "Can you believe that guy is putting that baby on TV?"

John brilliantly replied "You mean the baby that that lady is thrusting into the camera?"

I guess if you don't want your baby or your wife on TV, they shouldn't run right into the camera and announce "I'm trying to walk down the sidewalk!"

"Every Year" & "It's Not Funny"

2007-04-01T21:12:00.001-06:00

I once had a professor in college who gave feedback on people's projects in front of the class. I also had a friend in college who I teamed with on most of my projects.

Once, the only feedback we got on our video was, "You know, every semester I have students take a video camera into a bathroom and think it's funny. This semester is no exception."

Ouch.

'Bathroom Rhetoric' was meant to be a humorous look at how graffiti is sometimes a mirror to society. In hindsight, it wasn't all that bad.

Perhaps Dr. Pierce didn't find it funny that we quoted him from a toilet stall.

Maybe he wasn't amused with the shot of feet lined up in consecutive stalls that damn-near showed the genitals of our host - or the fact we covered it up with a twirling heart.

Then there was the news story I did on Andrew "Dice" Clay protestors in Portland. I used footage from one of his concerts and did a poor job bleeping out the F word. So when the story ran in class, instead of hearing 'f***' - my class heard 'f*uck'.

Anyway this isn't about 'Bathroom Rhetoric' or a news story with audible swear words in it, it's about our next project which we named 'The Running Rodent'.

Our assignment was to produce a game show that broke the rules of broadcasting. It's a common way to teach students about the rules by allowing them to break them. Because if we tried to produce a serious game show that followed rules - it would suck big time.

My production partner, Sean Smith, and I decided our game show would have rodents as contestants (broken rule #1). We made the assumption that in the world of our game show, rodents were intelligent enough to answer simple questions (rule #2). We also decided that living through the entire contest was not a given (rule #3). There were some other minor rules that we broke also.

We lined up a couple of friends to host our show, bought our contestants at a local pet store and started chasing gerbils around in little plastic balls with a video camera. What ensued was a hellacious several weeks of uncooperative animals, over sleeping talent and all night edit sessions.

Feedback from Dann Pierce: "If these guys could get their tongues out of their cheeks, they could be dangerous." - Is that good?

The production values are mediocre at best.
The audio is poorly mixed.
The acting and writing are suspect.
The chances we take are bold and cutting edge (meaning we may have crossed a line somewhere).
Entertainment value is minimal.

It's kind of like a car wreck - you know hard to look away...well actually it is easy to look away.

It's not all that good.

Anyway, check out part 1 - and if you want to see how all the gerbils die watch parts Two and Three.

Why I Go To Starbucks

2007-04-01T17:12:00.000-06:00

I try to support local businesses when I can. You know, the whole keep the money in our own local economy rather than send it to some corporate headquarters somewhere.

That's why I started to go to a quaint little coffee shop just down the street from my house. They roast their own beans. They have tasty and bold blends every day. And it's a comfortable setting.

So far, so good.

Now like most people in these modern times, I pay just about everything with a credit card. Apparently the problem is that when I pay for a two-dollar large coffee with a card, it makes the owners of this establishment unhappy. I first noticed it with the lady at the register. I handed over the plastic and she gave my card a look of disbelief and uttered a whispery "ahhh." I ignored her and finished my transaction and enjoyed my coffee.

So next time I gravitated to the man behind the counter. Ordered my coffee and handed him payment. This guy likes to look at the card, pause, and give a brief look at me that suggests a subtle "oh, come on."

I ignored him just like I did the lady but I started noticing a pattern. Everytime I paid with credit, I got some sort of look. Last I heard, I think that credit card fees are about 2%. So on a two-dollar purchase, the company might give up 4 cents. I know this adds up, but on each transaction, the amount is negligible.

The problem for them now is that they don't get my business from here on out. So instead of getting $1.96 profit several times a week, they get nothing. And the other problem for them is there is a new Starbucks about a mile up the road and they greet me with a smile and seem very happy to let me pay with a credit card.

So I tried. But good customer service goes a long way. Don't give me dirty look for paying for goods and services with a credit card. I know technology is a bitch. Sorry.

Conversation In My Head

2007-04-01T17:02:00.000-06:00

Thursday night after work:

"Hmm. I wonder if I should eat this salsa. It's been in there awhile."

"Eh. I'm sure it'll be fine - it still smells OK."

Will I ever learn?

No.

I did it again and ruined my weekend.

Back In The Groove...

2007-03-15T21:50:00.000-06:00

...or out of a rut. Or whatever. Kinda funny how those two terms express completely opposite ideas yet mean the same thing.

Anyway, I'm back. No good reason for the long absence other than I've been out of the writing mood. Once out of a mood (or groove or in a rut), it's really hard for me to get back into it. I've had to write some things at work lately and my brain has shifted itself back into that mode. So we'll see how well this run goes.

A quick rundown of what I've been up to since blogging on vacation last October:

- Finished my vacation in a nice, relaxing manner
- Had a very lucrative job offer which led to the most difficult professional decision I've had to make in my career
- Decided to stay at my present job
- Got in a very dramatic car accident on the freeway - Luckily there were no injuries
- Lost my expensive sunglasses
- Learned to snowboard
- Enjoyed a nice visit with my brother and his lovely wife and my parents in Vegas over the holidays before he started another tour overseas in Afghanistan
- Found the memory card for my camera from that visit had been chewed by my dog
- Got real sick a couple of times
- Wished we had snow this winter so I could snowboard
- Replaced my sunglasses
- Discovered a secret new trail system a mile from my house
- Learned that the housing market is so ridiculously expensive that I can't afford a house in the city where I've lived for the past decade
- That's about it.

On another note, have you seen this video? The reporter went to college with a co-worker of mine. She obviously isn't a cat person and isn't able to recognize behavioral warnings of animals.

"This little guy's having fun." Hah!

Why I'm Blogging So Much On Vacation

2006-10-16T21:25:00.000-06:00

Update on 3/25/07

What the hell? I added labels for this post and blogger erased it!

Essentially, the gist was it was raining a lot so after the earthquake we still couldn't do anything.

And I had this video of the rain outside our condo.

I Wanted To Sell My Photos!

2006-10-16T20:52:00.000-06:00

As I was watching all those people line up to buy grilled chicken, I thought to myself, "Gee, I think I'll get some pictures of this and maybe sell it to a newspaper or something."

It had kind of a human interest element to it. People were hungry, they couldn't cook and they couldn't go to restaurants. Grocery stores were closed so buying non-perishables there was out of the question. Some guy with a gas grill was obviously going to have a great day at work and make a ton of money because of that.

I grabbed my point and shoot digital camera (which actually takes pretty good pictures) and wandered over.

I snapped a couple photos of the grill. Got a picture of some lady making a purchase. And took some pictures of people standing in line. This is one of the pictures I take:

I've got some decent stuff. I start to look at the scene a little more creatively and I spot some guy pulling his professional camera gear out of a bag. I watch him walk over and start taking his own pictures.

I recognize his style and attitude as a professional news photographer. Damn! Why'd he show up?

I figured he worked for the local newspaper. So much for me selling my photos. I walked away. As we drove off a few minutes later, I looked over and he was getting some high angle shots of the line...Yep, he works for someone. Too bad for me.

So imagine my surprise when the picture that the Associated Press picks up is this:

Well, crap! Mine is identical! Granted his gear was a lot better than mine. But after being compressed and sent out, the quality will be just about the same.

Next time I'm on vacation and national news happens, I want all AP photographers to stay away from me. OK?

I did an internet search on the photographer - his name is Joe Kaczmarek - and he is a talented NPPA photographer who lives in Philadelphia. He must be on vacation here just as I am. I guess I'll start travelling with my video camera so I can write off my trips just like he's going to now.

How I Survived The Hawaii Earthquake

2006-10-15T16:16:00.000-06:00

I went outside.

Of course I'm on Maui which is one island over from the epicenter. Most of the real damage was over on the big island. By the time the shaking hit our side of Maui I think it was losing a lot of its energy.

First the condo shook a little bit. It felt like someone had started digging up the ground right behind our building with some heavy machinery. So I was slightly annoyed because it was way too early to do that on a Sunday morning. But I was also curious because there was something not quite right about how it felt. But when the rhythmic rumbling quickened into a strong shaking and the floor and windows started rattling, I recognized that we were in an earthquake.

I hollered over to my beautiful wife "OK, let's go" and darted out the bedroom and down the stairs and into the courtyard. Most of the other residents of this little complex were standing around wide-eyed. It lasted a total of maybe 15 seconds.

An aftershock hit a few minutes later that wasn't bad. Minimal damage in the condo. We did find out from a battery powered radio where the quake hit and that there was no threat of a tsunami. The power was out for about three hours so we couldn't eat at home and couldn't eat at restaurants.

There was a little place grilling chicken with a gas spit that was making a killing down in the town of Kihei. Every tourist and local wanted to get a grilled chicken dish but the line was about 150 - 200 people deep so most of us just kinda wandered and hoped the power would come back on.

The power eventually came back after about three hours and we could eat and everything was mostly normal the rest of the day.

More About My Dog...

2006-09-25T19:14:00.000-06:00

...Hey. I don't have kids yet, OK?

This video is what results after an afternoon alone with the dog, a room full of video gear, and boredom.

After swinging the dog around for a while, I wondered if I could get a bunch of viewers on YouTube. Kinda like the dog that chases the laser pointer. So pass this on to everyone you know whether you like it or not!!

Aww. Actually you don't have to.

Crap Machine

2006-09-22T15:49:00.000-06:00

Yep, That Sweet Face Is What I'm Talkin' About.

"Why'd you eat the cake?!!!"

*confused stare*

I hadn't eaten the cake. I hadn't even looked at the cake yet.

"I didn't"

"Why did you slice into Scot's birhtday cake?!!!"

*continued confused stare, moving to irritation* why am I being yelled at*

"I didn't"

"You ate a huge slice! Of all the treats I brought home you have to eat the cake!!!"

*She walks up to the cake and fully opens the lid*

"I DIDN'T EAT THE CAKE"

"WELL THEN WHO DID?!?"

*She sees the chocolatey paw print on the stove next to the cake* anger shifts from me to the

dog* Whew!

"GINGERR!!!!"

*wheww, again*

-----------------------------------------------------

Ginger rarely (it used to be never) counter surfs.

However, during a period of 15 minutes - while we were both home - she surfed, made her kill and returned to her bed only to lie there innocently.

Dogs aren't designed to eat large amounts of carbs or sugars. They are carnivores. They eat meat. Their digestive systems digest protein (and grass and bugs and the insides of stuffed animals - only not so well).

Anyway, once Ginger started to pass one-third of a large expensive and a damn tasty birthday cake, her digestive system revolted.

Over a period of time of about 10 hours, she pooped maybe 7 or 8 times. Lucky for her it was during the night so we could let her outside. Unlucky for me, I got to be awoken every 90 minutes to "eeeEEeee." "eeEEEEee." "EEEEeeEEEE!!"

She'd trot out and do number 2 once or twice. About 8AM she had finally purged her system of gooey choclatey goodness and was exhausted. She left me alone the rest of the morning so I could nap. That was nice of her.

"Choked On My Own Saliva"

2006-09-21T21:54:00.000-06:00

Was one of the more poignant comments left for this blog entry.

Freakin' Hilarious!

Listening to the Chinese speak Chinese is funny enough.

I'm going to Beijing for the Olympics for some 'Man fruit braise the north almond'

Yum!

Thanks to Maggies's blog for the link.

Weeeds*

2006-09-18T00:40:00.000-06:00

I'm not talking about your garden variety weeds, the ones that strangle and choke your flowers or pop up through the grass and go to seed in about 2 hours. I'm talking about the ones that grow along the freeway or in empty dirt lots.

Sometimes it's scraggly stuff - no leaves, no flowers, no color - just kind of grayish-brown things that don't amount to much. Sometimes it's thick, course green things that are kind of prickly on the outside.

Around here in late summer we get these bright yellow sunflowers – whole fields full of them. They line sections of the freeway. They grow down by the river. These pictures were taken behind a gas station while I stopped for a bathroom break at work.

In the dusty brown of the high desert in Utah, it makes for nice little moments during what are normally routine parts of the day.

* The wacky extra 'E's in the spelling of weeds is in reference to an old Saturday Night Live sketch. Bonus points to anyone who gets it.

Been Helpin' My Wife Start A Blog...

2006-09-16T20:45:00.001-06:00

My beautiful wife Erica is slowly catching up with modern times. She was encouraged at work to start a blog and drive listeners to the station web site (she is a disc jockey on a local radio station). As an incentive, the company is giving out cash awards to those who get the most increase in traffic and have the most creative blogs.

I've helped her get started and taught her a few things about creating entries and uploading pictures. Mostly it's very similar to the blogspot template. So most of my blogging time as of late has been spent getting things on her site. So if you are interested in my wife's views on things, give her a try here:

Erica's Life

I also shot and edited a behind-the-scenes video at her latest play. You can check it out here:

Mr. Show Quote of the Week

2006-09-07T23:14:00.000-06:00

"I thought that my home was my castle - With no one scrutinizing me.

No pigs, no lyin' bitch, no hassle.

Y'all are brutalizing' me."

"Can't a man not drink his beer in silence?

Can't a man not crudely lie and scream?

Can't a man not control his bitch with violence?

Y'all are brutalizin' me.

Y'all are brutalizin' meeeee."

-Ronnie Dobbs

A Word Of Advice...

2006-09-04T18:16:00.000-06:00

...to that poor guy on the blind date at the Bohemian on Friday night.

#1 Don't agressively LOOK for your date. You've obviously set up a time and place to meet. It's fine if she's a little late. But rushing out the front door of the restaurant every five minutes and looking down the parking lot, then looking down the street, then hurrying back inside sets you on a path of desperation that is hard to break out of once she shows up.

#2 Once she shows up, wait patiently for her to walk inside and greet her calmly with a nice smile and maybe a hug or a handshake. Do not rush out the front door, stand there and analyze the woman who gets out of the car and holler a 'nice to meet you' to her as she walks through the parking lot.

#3 The glasses that take up thrity three and a third percent of your face should have been left in the early to mid-eighties.

#4 Long sleeve green plaid flannel shirts aren't real stylish - especially in September.

#5 Don't start out the conversation with the woman who you just met with a long explanation of what you are looking for in a relationship. You must let these discussions develop and breathe. Then don't tell stories about 'this one girl that I dated once...' She doesn't care. She doesn't want to hear it. Stop watching "Blind Date" on TV to get conversation ideas. That show is full of losers.

#6 Do not react with aggressive incredulity when she reveals she has never dined at your chosen restaurant. A simple, calm "Oh, I really like it because..." might be more appropriate.

#7 And really, most importantly, do not ever, ever unfold her Match.com profile page (complete with picture) that you printed off the computer and set it on the table where other patrons can see it. And then use it as a reference page for questions...Especially when she groans as you pull it out. Bad move. But you had already ruined your chances for with her by then anyway.

Please take heed. You should have a better grip on reality and interacting with other adults by the time you reach your mid-forties.

Now I don't claim to be a ladies man. I had a hard time dating myself. But I certainly had a few things figured out. Come on!!

Good Luck with everything.

Mr. Show Quote Of The Week

2006-08-30T01:32:00.000-06:00

Back By Popular Demand!!

"Geh me a beehr. Shnlaaave!"

Twenty Five Percent Of One Year's Work

2006-08-25T21:27:00.000-06:00

* Interview a bunch of kids in a park about what they think of American Idol * Cops at city council to protest take home vehicles being taken away * Bike criterium at Rocky Mountain Raceway * Trampoline safety * Air traffic controllers demonstrate over union contract * Someone spray painting dogs * BYU softball in NCAA tourney vs. SUU * Bad weather and rough water at Utah Lake * Some guy’s truck catches on fire in his back yard * Strut your mutt * Utah PTA conference * Armed Forces Day celebration at Murray park * Motorcycle safety rally

* American Idol Finals in L.A. * 4A/5A Soccer championships * Bikers in Emigration Canyon for weather * Last weekend of skiing at Snowbird * Snowstorm at Snowbird * Brigham Young home is open for visitors * Eagles at zoo – showed up late * Rainy weather

* Arrest of guy who beat man to death with his fists – interview –location video *Baseball game (Bees vs. Tacoma) *House (actually a mattress) fire * Super Dell gets charged * House fire in West Valley City * Park City maybe has gangs * Woman drowns in Utah Lake * Inmates graduate from high school * Anti-immigration motorcycle ride * Westminster graduation at E Center

* UV index at 11 – use sunscreen – shoots at pool and grocery store * June 6th, 2006 = Six Six Six * Heat help for elderly – group fixes and turns on air conditioners * Propane leak at Ogden gas station * Soldier reax to Al-Zarqawi death * Taylorsville police chief fired

* Utah Lake plane crash and body recovery * Missing 10-year-old girl * Missing 10-year-old girl found – rollerbladed all the way across town (about a dozen miles) and found playing in park * Boy who fell in geyser water at Yellowstone survived and is doing mostly well – although a bit dopey from the pain meds * Grade school spells out seatbelt message on field * Wind blows down power lines and starts garbage fire * Ogden gondola public meeting

* SWAT dogs training (rapelling, attacking, chasing, etc.) * Skydive wedding * Motorsports Park noise meeting * Car chase - crash - search - arrest live shots

* Go Kart races * Primal Quest race website * Burned shack interview * SWAT team at apt – arrest Utah’s Most Wanted * Riverton city manager arrested for standing on counter at tanning salon to peek over partition into another room to look at 16 year old girl changing clothes – claims it was a mistake – mayor believes and defends him * Soccer team (Real Salt Lake) announces stadium is done deal * Organ recipient meets mother of donor * Bus bomb threat and evacutations * NBA draft * Live at Eleven – live at zoo at new tiger exhibit * PKG at zoo on new tiger exhibit

* Kennecott visitors center opens * July 4th traffic enforcement * Fireworks fires* Fatal car accident in Magna * Teen press conference * Roller hockey * Utah State Am. (golf tourney) – show up late – miss everything – mocked by other TV stations * House burns like candle on east side * Drunk airline pilot appears in court * Jaymz (from ‘So You Think You Can Dance) returns home at airport * Soccer stadium not gonna happen * Mexican consulate yelled at and insulted by cashier at national chain store * Pineview Reservoir drowning (“honey, watch this!” – disappears underwater and never surfaces) * Semi catches fire and starts a field on fire closing the freeway * Hot weather

* Mountain boarding at Sugarhouse park * Guy blows off a couple fingers with homemade ‘fireworks’ (pipe bomb)* Missing girl – wait outside police station for person of interest * Destiny Norton (missing girl from day before) search at Liberty Park * Auto/pedestrian accident next to park – [relatives of victim please contact me at onehunoz@hotmail.com] * Olsen trial verdict * Car stolen with 4 year old boy in it * ICAC bust

* Destiny Day 7 * Parade preps for July 24th – holiday in Utah * Destiny found dead in neighbor’s basement * Press conference with Destiny family representatives * Spanish Fork plane crash * Mayor/family of Destiny press conference * Gregerson charges reax * Acid spill – the day after * Chimney vs. man on roof – chimney wins * Motorcycle vs. car * Search and rescue for missing Utah county hikers * Fatal car accident in Lehi – sod truck hits car

* Provo storm damage * Prove storm cleanup * Flash flood victim press conference * Ogden fatal fire * Ogden fatal fire folo * Body found in freezer in Bountiful * BBQ fire * Tour of Utah * Airport taxi pass * Freezer body update * Family of woman in freezer speaks * Conjoined twins update * Arrest of son of woman in freezer

* Van with 21 immigrants rolls on the freeway * Some parents are upset because of school overcrowding * Baseball game (Bees vs. Fresno) * Gas prices at record high * SWAT team standoff at apartment * Man receives suspicious package from UPS – thinks it might be a bomb – puts it in his car and drives it to the fire department – bomb squad determines it is a birthday present from his daughter * A couple of 60 year olds compete internationally in triathlons * BYU - Meet the Team

* Man drinks too much – argues with girlfriend – decides best thing to do is stab himself in the chest * Truck turns in front of motorcycle * Charity motorcycle ride for childhood brain tumors * National Guard convention at Salt Palace * Man argues with friends – friends leave – friends come back try to kick door down – man shoots friends * Silhouette interviews with former escorts (prostitutes) * Car accident – baby thrown from vehicle * Apartment catches on fire * Local politician states on a radio show that Brown v Board of Education “was a bad idea to begin with” * Overnight fire in Farmington * Local marine killed in Iraq * East bench wildfires * Wildfire update * People buying tickets and concessions at movie theater * Arrest of guy robbing pharmacies for oxycontin

Lightning Over The City

2006-08-25T01:04:00.000-06:00

Most nights after work I take my dog outside so she can poop and sniff around. Normally, I will play games on my phone, or watch the dog, or lay in the grass and look up at the sky, usually very benign activities. Tonight to the north of where I live, the sky was pregnant with storm clouds. The ambient light of the city gave the bottoms of the clouds an orange glow which was interrupted every few seconds with the flashbulb pops of lightning.

The flashes and the storm were far enough away that no thunder was audible. The clouds would sporadically illuminate from their insides. I sat cross-legged on the ground watching the storm blow above downtown. Details of the clouds' edges would outline in brilliance.

A soft, cool breeze blew. The storm stretched from one end of the valley to the other. At times there would be 5 or 6 strikes in just a couple of seconds. I counted once for a full 60 seconds and saw 27 bolts.

I sat and watched this light show for more than a half an hour. Finally, the clouds made their way to my part of town and blocked out the stars above me. Big, fat raindrops fell out of the sky and I took refuge inside.

Then it got late and I went to bed to sounds of late summer rainstorm ouside.

Hey, All You Maine Readers!

2006-08-17T20:31:00.000-06:00

(You know who you are!)

Can you shed any light on this for me?

Is dead beast the marauding ‘hybrid mutant’?
Carcass may be that of legendary beast that terrorized Maine county

Well, Which Is It?

2006-08-17T19:49:00.000-06:00

Seen outside an elementary school this week:

I know that young brains are pliable but let's not confuse them any more than we have to. Apparently both versions of that word are correct.

From dicitonary.com:

"bus n.

- pl. bus·es or bus·ses -

A long motor vehicle for carrying passengers, usually along a fixed route."

Ironically, the day after taking this picture I was interviewing an administrator with the school district. He didn't find it nearly as amusing as I did.

If you are reading this and you are the principal of Mountain Shadows Elementary, expect a phone call from the district sometime soon.

Congratulations Go To...

2006-08-12T22:20:00.000-06:00

#1

Erik Spoelstra

This one's a little late:

I spent a year in college as a member of a measly, little excuse for a basketball team at the University of Portland. An old buddy of mine from that team just got an NBA Championship ring as an assistant coach for the Miami Heat. Erik has worked his way up from being a video coordinator and scout to a shooting specialist and bench assistant.

Even though he's not the first person from our college team to win a championship (I was the first as an assistant for the Clark College Penguins, which won the NWAAC championship in 1995), I still send Erik kudos.

What a thrill! Some people spend 30 year careers in the NBA and never get a championship. Congrats.

#2

Brooklynn Pulver

My wife has a friend who recently joined the cast of the travelling Broadway show 'Hairspray' in the lead role of Tracy Turnblad. She went to open auditions several months ago and was put 'on hold' for one of the touring shows. Everyone just sort of figured that was a friendly way of saying "Don't call us, we'll call you."

Well, they did call back and put her in a show. After rehearsing for a few weeks they started a long stand in Atlantic City before they hit the road for other places.

Brooklynn is the short, busty one in these photos (not the large man in drag). She's been getting rave reviews so far.

From The Atlantic City Courier Post:
"Lighting the way for this national-tour company is Brooklyn Pulver, who plays Tracy Turnblad, the zaftig, working class lass whose can-do spirit triumphs over whatever obstacles are in her way, be they her weight (a target of the thin, cool kids on the TV show), her wrong-side-of-the-tracks upbringing or the unabashed bigotry that defined life in pre-Civil Rights days.

Pulver is as much fun to hear as she is to watch; her voice easily conveys the emotions within. And she has a real feel for the kind of light comedy that defines the Hairspray book by Mark O'Donnell and Thomas Meehan."

From the AC Weekly:
“You have to love the fact that Tracy loves life,” says actress Brooklynn Pulver of her character. “What I like about her is she always sees the good side, and nothing is going to stop her.”

hairspray is the 26-year-old’s first role with a touring company, and she makes the most of it. With a voice as big as her hair, Pulver brings a fizzy joy to the part, and moves across the stage like jelly on a plate."

#3

Marni Hughes

My friend and (now former) co-worker just got a job as 10 PM anchor at the Fox affiliate in Minneapolis. She wanted to move back to the midwest to be closer to family and get an anchor job in a good-sized market. So she got both out of this deal.

Marni is talented, friendly, smart, and beautiful. She will do great in Minnesota and anywhere else she goes.

Congrats to Marni.

Made Me Chuckle

2006-08-11T17:22:00.000-06:00

Hope you don't have performance anxiety.

Fires And Death Are Bad

2006-08-08T01:39:00.000-06:00

I've been on scene of probably hundreds of fires. Several times I've been inside homes that have burned down. There is a very distinctive smell to charred homes. It is a lot like a campfire, but much more intense. There are other smells in there, hints of more industrial things, probably insulation and wiring and carpet and furniture.

It always seems dry and, despite all the dirt and soot, sterile. There are no bugs. The plants are dead. It is lifeless.

The other day, we got sent to Ogden to do a story on a house fire where someone had died. We were surprised to see family members of the deceased woman at the house moving her belongings out just a few hours after the fire.

They were understandably upset but brought us into the home to get video of the damage. One of the first things I noticed was the smell. A very rotten odor permeated the inside of the house. Kind of like when cooked hamburger is left in its own grease on the skillet for a couple days (I knew a guy in college…didn’t visit him much, though). It wasn’t overwhelming, but it was obvious.

There were also a lot of flies buzzing in and out of the open windows and doors. Again not overwhelming, there was no buzzing mass of insects, but they were around.

Already, those were two obvious signs of trouble.

As long as I was moving around, the smells and flies weren’t too bad. The 19-year-old nephew showed us the damage upstairs in the bedrooms and downstairs in the kitchen. He decided he would do an interview with us. I set up my camera in the living room next to some boxes on the floor. My reporter, John stood in a small clearing on the floor on the other side of the boxes. I did notice the odor was a little stronger here but I figured it was because I had stopped moving around in the stale air.

After asking the nephew about what had happened (he wasn’t home) and what kind of person his aunt was (giving – she let him live with her for free) he points out where his aunt’s body was found.

“Yeah right about here on the floor where you guys are standing.”

WHAT!?

I glance down at the floor and notice that the carpet is burned and black everywhere except where we are standing. There is a white, charcoal-like layer on the floor underneath our feet. It looks to be about body-sized.

John and I both fidget a bit and step away.

I, of course, am thinking, ”WHAT THE HELL!!?? YOU LET US STAND ON THE CHARRED REMAINS OF YOUR AUNT – WHAT THE HELL IS THE MATTER WITH YOU!!??”

Instead all I do is emit a non-committal grunt of acknowledgement.

“Yeah we kinda covered it up with those boxes.”

John finished the interview and we stepped away. But after that, every fly that landed on my arm, or in my hair, or that buzzed around my eyes and nose carried a whole different meaning. I envisioned these little guys looking for the dead flesh that we all smelled, wanting to lay eggs, or eat, or whatever flies do to dead people.

I hurried on out of the house and away from the charred remains I had been standing in. I sure didn’t want to take it home to my wife and dog on my shoes. When the family finally left, I made sure to wipe off my shoes in the grass, dirt and street real good before leaving.

My Dog's The Fastest!

2006-08-03T18:16:00.000-06:00

There was a press release in the file at work one day about a dog lure course being set up for the weekend. My interest was less news related as it was my-dog-related. Our dog Ginger has the unbounded energy levels of a young dog. She is also athletic and quick.

Lure courses are where a foxtail or some other thing that dogs like are pulled through an agility course. This particular one is called Course A'lure and they travel around to different Jack Russel trials in the region and set up their course. Any dog can run through it which is good because Ginger isn't a Jack Russel (although she might be part jack - we just don't know.

The lure is pulled through tunnels, around sharp turns, over jumps, and then through a sensor that stops a timer. It is six hundred feet long. From what I understand 12 or 13 seconds is a good time for a fast dog.

They had been running dogs all day by the time we showed up. Mostly jack russels. The best time so far for the weekend was just over 12 seconds. We watched for a while then tried our dog.

We sent Ginger through a couple times so she could get used to the course. She was real interested. Nose down, ears up she trotted after the lure. Once she got used to how this whole thing workde, she kicked it up a notch. BAM!!

Ginger's problem was she was more focused on catching the lure than she was on getting a good time. So she did things like jump over the fence and try to cut it off at a turn. Or she fell down and rolled under the fence, then tried to cut it off at another turn. Or she would follow it all the way to the end but not run into the finishing area and stop the clock.

The operator eventually helped us out by keeping the lure just out of reach of Ginger. She tried her damndest to get ahold of that thing and flawlessly followed the foxtail through the course. As she ran past the sensor, the clock stopped at 11.86, best time of the weekend!

Everyone who watched her run encouraged us to get her into some sort of competition running. I didn't matter what we did, but to do something. We've tried flyball, but Ginger seems to focus more on antagonizing the other dogs who are pracicing than on flyball.

Anyway, I just wanted to let everyone know, my dog is the fastest.

Oh, and Erica showed some stage mom tendencies as Ginger kept screwing up on the lure course - I better keep an eye on that when we have kids.

Maui Reviews

2006-07-31T00:02:00.000-06:00

We went to Maui for vacation last January. A couple weeks after we got back, we had some friends go over. I put together some observations on a few of the places we went. I figured if anyone else wanted to know what I thought about some touristy things to do on the island, they could. So here are

MARK AND ERICA'S MAUI REVIEWS

Some of our favorites:

Grandma’s Coffee Shop for breakfast – Erica likes the Belgian waffle with fresh fruit. Mark likes the Bullseye, a modern Polynesian dish consisting of sticky rice covered with a layer of corned beef hash, covered with a couple of fried eggs, covered with a spiral of ketchup and circled with grilled slices of spam…..mmmm, tasty.

Coffee refills will cost you 50 cents apiece but it is good coffee. Just be forewarned.

For a nice walk after breakfast, go left at the fork in the road and then take an immediate right at the next fork in the road about 20 yards up. There isn’t much traffic and there are some spectacular views. Nice and relaxing. We turned around at the gate for the bed and breakfast but you can go further but the road isn’t as nice.

Directions from Paia: Take Highway 390 (I think this is the road where you’ll be staying) several miles up to Makawao, turn right on Makawao Avenue. You will pass the massage school in a strip mall on your right and continue heading south. The road ends in a T intersection next to a store called the Pukalani Superette. Turn left there (Haleakala Highway) and then turn right at the next light onto the Kula Highway (Hwy 37). You will stay on the Kula Highway and travel several miles to Grandmas. It is on the right side of the road right next to a gas station.

Paia Fish Company (or something like that) - On the corner in Paia on the main strip and Baldwin Avenue. Any of the fish burgers are really good. Our favorite is the mahi-mahi. If you are eating fries, just get a side order of fries with two burgers. If you order the fries with the burger, you don’t get as much so get a side and share it.

They serve a couple of local beers which are pretty good. I had the Longboard Lager. It has just a hint of sweetness but I liked it. It gets busy right around lunch time. If it’s busy when you go in, you’ll need to keep on eye on seats and maybe one of you sits down while the other orders so you have a place to sit and eat when the food is ready.

Kimo’s in Lahaina for lunch – About half way down the main strip in Lahiana on the ocean side. Tasty lunch selections for a reasonable amount of money. You can sit outside and look at the ocean while you eat. Dinner is real expensive – their menu changes in the evening and it becomes a fancy dinner place. Excellent mai-tais. I don’t know how the beers are, didn’t have one…Sorry, Steve.

Fred’s Mexican Food in Kihei – I was leery eating Mexican at a place called “Fred’s” but the sun was setting on the ocean, we were in the mood for a Margarita, and no other place looked good. I was surprised and delighted on every level. The food was good, the margaritas were excellent and the service was delightful. I suggest the fried calamari for an appetizer. It’s not the chewy, rubbery, crispy ring-things you’re used to on the mainland. These are real chunks of meat lightly breaded and fried. Tacos were fresh. And our server, Alison, was great and finished every interaction with the casual flash of the ‘hang loose’ sign and a “right on”. If you time your dinner right (about 5:30 or 6:00) you can sit outside and watch the sun set onto the ocean. If you request a seat outside you’ll have to wait a bit more but it’ll be worth it.
This is located in the southern part of Kihei on the main strip next to the beach. It is just south of where the Denny’s is located.

Pineapple Grill in Kapalua – If you are looking to have a fancy meal and spend lots of money doing it, there are a ton of places on Maui to do that. A friend of my folks just opened this restaurant in Kapalua and it is pretty damn good so we recommend it.

The owner is a guy named Chris Kaiwi (pronounced kye-ee-vee). He used to run a restaurant called the Plantation but started this new place. If you are spoiling yourself, go here.

This place is spendy! My parents picked up the bill and I think it was close to $200. But we did order a $95 bottle of wine so dinner ran about $100.

Aloha Bike Tours – If you feel like riding a bike down the volcano, this is definitely the company to go with. Groups are small, you ride at your own pace, and actually pedal for several miles. It is a nice and relaxing experience with phenomenal views. Take a camera. A light breakfast is served beforehand and you get lunch at the winery afterwards. There are a couple extra routes you can ride if you are fit enough. The company is run by a former pro rider, but not the exclusionary type who is really into himself like the guys up at Canyon Bicycles.
http://www.mauibike.com/
800-749-1564

Other Points of Interest:

Sugar Museum is BORING and not worth the time, effort or money. Don’t go.

Erica is a big fan of the Old Lahaina Luau. She insisted I put it on this list. It is one of the best luaus around. You'll get a buffet style Hawaiian dinner and it has a pretty good historical dance performance.

Hana Hou is a nice restaurant in the town of Haiku. It doesn’t look like much from the front. It’s in the back of a parking lot next to some sort of market (I think there is also a massage school in the complex, too). Good food. From the parking lot in the front, you wouldn't believe you’re on the edge of a rainforest. But once inside, you find out that you are out in the middle of a rainforest– a rainforest with avocado trees.

Kihei Canoe Club – if you are interested in trying outrigger canoe paddling, they have beginners days where the inexperienced can go out into Maalea Bay with an experienced instructor. Tuesday and Thursday mornings at 8:00 are for beginners. The cost is a tax-deductible $25. http://www.kiheicanoeclub.com/ 808-879-5505

Pollis is the Mexican restaurant in Makawao. Our experience this year was mediocre at best. The chips were cold, the food was fine and the service was borderline rude. We may have been there on a bad day but after flying a couple thousand miles across the Pacific, I hoped for a bit more from a Hawaiian eatery.

We had breakfast at a place called Moanas in Paia. Nice place, pleasant experience, and I had another rice, meat and egg type dish that I liked. Much like the breakfast at Grandma’s.

Pacific Whale Foundation whale cruises will get you out to the whales, and you can find pretty good deals for a couple of the cruises every day. If we hadn’t seen the two whales breach right in front of us, the whole experience wouldn’t have been that great. The cruise was late and no announcement was made to the group of us standing around. The captain was full of himself and was rude to Erica, and we got stuck sitting inside until we decded to just go out and stand on the front of the boat.

This company works to save the whales and whale habitat so I like my money going to that. Again, maybe it was a bad day for them and their A team wasn’t working. They do know where the whales are on any given day because they are studying them. So you will see whales. If you take this cruise, be sure you are toward the front of the group when loading onto the boat. This should be easy because you walk a couple hundred yards from the meeting place to the boat. So stand toward the back of the group as they talk and walk briskly. Once on the boat, you will want to sit at least four rows up. What happens is when whales are spotted, everyone from the inside and back of the boat stands in the front and as a result, they stand in front of those seated in the first couple of rows.

The Waiting Game

2006-07-21T10:08:00.000-06:00

This has been the most waitingest week of all time for me.

Monday: The Stakeout

A 5 year old girl is missing. A big, organized search is going on in town. A 'person of interest' is questioned by police. The news gods in town decide that they need a shot of this person leaving the police station.

As a result, photographers from all the TV stations (me included) get to spend the entire day sitting/standing/pacing in an asphalt parking lot for their entire shifts. I arrive at 2:00 when my shift starts. Right at the hottest part of the day on one of the hottest days of the year. The brilliant part about this is that I was sent over without being told what I was doing so I didn't get to bring water, food or reading material.

When we are on a stakeout like this where we are waiting to get a shot of a person coming out of a building we never know when they'll come out. So we have our cameras set up aimed at a door while we stand/sit/pace next to them.

The problem is if this person comes rushing out and tries to leave quickly we have to jump into action and get our shot. Otherwise we miss the whole thing. If I were to miss the shot and we were the only station without it, it doesn't matter what I did on my last breaking news live shot or how many awards I've won, I'm in a lot of trouble. Same thing goes for all the other photogs. So every time a person walks outside for a smoke break, or to leave work, or to bring a bag full of garbage out, we all have to look at them to make sure they aren't our guy. Lucky for us, there was a patch of shade we were able to hang out in. I'm sure the sight of 4 guys with their big cameras, huddled in a small patch of shade in the parking lot amused many of the people working in the police station.

It turns out the cops let this guy go without charging him and they snuck him out of a side door. Eight hours worked and not a single frame of video shot.

Tuesday: At The Park

Little girl is still missing. There is an organized search and the command post is at a local park. The family is there and we need someone to be there 'just in case something happens." Meaning if the girl is found we can get reaction from searchers and family.

I don't have much to shoot since the day shift guys shot all the stories for the show. So I sit. I sit in the park with my camera and do alot of watching. I watch the family of the girl sit around and eat free food that has been donated by local businesses for the search. I watch the mom of this missing girl sit and smoke a pack of cigarettes while 8 months pregnant. I watch them sit and talk to friends and neighbors who come by the park to see how they are doing. I see a reporter for another station almost run over a guy biking through the park.

There is a press conference in the evening so I actually get to shoot some video for the day. Then a 20 year old girl wanders into traffic next to the park and gets hit by a car. So I get to cover that story too.

Wednesday: The Jury Deliberates

Good news: I'm not on the missing girl story. Bad news: I get to sit outside again for my entire shift.

A high profile case has gone to the jury. The defense didn't defend so it should be pretty cut and dried but they do need to discuss 15 counts. We know that they should come to a decision soon but we don't know exactly when. So we sit and wait.

TV cameras aren't allowed in the federal courthouse so we get to sit outside in front. There are no benches. There are no seats. There isn't any space for us to put our own chairs. There are some large planters that serve as a blockade for anyone who might want to drive a van full of explosives up the front steps. We can sit on these planters but they aren't comfortable and after a few minutes make your back hurt. This is where the news photographers sit/stand/pace during the day.

An interesting dynamic that develops during this kind of thing is how we end up being friends with our 'competition'. News producers look at the other stations as the enemy to be conquered and beaten in the ratings. Out in the field we obviously spend a lot of time with the reporters and photographers for the other stations. We chat. We get to know each other pretty well. I've spent more time with a couple of guys this week than I will all month with my wife. There's kind of a sense of camraderie amongst the worker bees. So these things are not always as bad as we like to think they are. I've worked at three of the four stations in Salt Lake so it's good to catch up with some of my former co-workers. Plus news photographers, by nature, like to bitch and moan a lot. So it's a great opportunity to do that.

We are on the shady side of the building and it's breezy. We talk about our equipment, our stations, how our freelance work is going, shows we've seen and other mundane crap to fill the afternoon.

The jury finally comes to a decision sometime around 7. Then it's back to work. Set up for a live shot. We cut into programming. Then rush back across the street to get reaction from family, prosecutors and jury. Then rush to the back of the courthouse to get a shot of the guy being taken back to jail. Then quickly write and edit the story and do another live shot at 9 for the news. The End for Wednesday.

Thursday: Internet Crimes Against Children

A little more activity for today. Local law enforcement is serving some arrest warrants on men who solicit sex from teenage girls on the internet. We are invited to go along and tape these dopes being arrested. I went to the police station to meet up with the cops. I found out that their meeting time was more of a suggestion. So we wait for everyone to show up and get briefed.

They wanted to serve eight warrants but for different reasons they only had four ready. They go out in teams to knock on doors and hope the suspects are home and then arrest them. This kind of thing is not nearly as exciting as the movies make it out to be. The proper term , I believe, is 'hurry up and wait'. There was no door smashing, or foot chases, or yelling or even resistance. One guy wasn't home so his dad (yes he's in his 40s and still lives with his parents) called him. We waited until he showed up and they took him into custody without incident.

One guy had moved out of state, another wasn't around. And the last guy answered the door when they knocked and gave up without a fight. So I got two arrests on video. Not too bad. I was hoping for more of a 'Cops' kind of an experience: running in and confronting some shirtless, toothless drunk while he's perpetrating some kind of devious act over the computer. But not this time. Now it's my weekend.

Exhaustion

2006-07-04T15:46:00.000-06:00

It started a couple months ago. I had a bout of insomnia where I sat awake until about 6 in the morning. I drifted off into an unsatisfactory slumber for a couple of hours before waking up again. I dragged my way through that day mostly in a stupor.

Physiologically I don’t know what happened to me. But I wouldn’t get a good night’s sleep for several weeks afterwards.

Most of the time I would have a hard time falling asleep at night, then get a few hours of unproductive sleep before getting up and feeling tired all day. At all times, I wanted to take a nap. The funny thing about that is when I could nap, I again couldn’t fall asleep. Granted, just laying there was a lot more enjoyable than walking around wanting to just lay there. But I never felt rested.

Eventually I stopped doing things I enjoyed. I couldn’t hike more than 20 minutes before exhaustion set in. I stopped working out. I felt beat and out of breath all the time.

I was able to remain functional in the important things: eating, working, and cleaning myself. But the quality and motivation for everything was lacking.

Every day became a painful mixture of exhaustion, headaches, weakness and confusion. Even if I did sleep for 8, 9, or 10 hours I still woke up feeling like a slug that had just been covered in salt. Obviously I wasn’t going to get better on my own so I broke down and went to the doctor.

“Well obviously you’re suffering from symptoms of sleep deprivation,” he told me after I described my symptoms.

Blood tests showed nothing other than I’m really normal. I slept with a blood-oxygen detector to see if I have sleep apnea (I don’t). So the doc’s theory was that my sleep patterns and bio-rhythms were so out of whack that we just needed to reset them.

He gave me a prescription for a medicine that has a side effect of extreme drowsiness. It works. I take one at the same time before bed and I’m out. After about a week I started feeling fully rested after a night’s sleep. Now I am tired by midnight and sleep restfully. I feel human again.

A couple months of inactivity did wreak havoc on my fitness levels but those should come back. It just sucks spending a good part of the hiking season getting back into shape.

Anyway, now I can spend a little more time keeping up with things here rather than lying around lamenting that I don’t have the energy to spend 10 minutes on the computer.

Afterglow...

2006-06-26T22:24:00.000-06:00

While I've been sitting in the afterglow of my fortuitous live shot last week, I come across this video on MSN video today.

It seems a news crew in Los Angeles was doing a live shot about some guy wanted for murder and he wanders up to turn himself in right in front of the news crew... Lucky bastards!!

Serendipity

2006-06-22T01:05:00.000-06:00

A guy driving a stolen car decides it’s a good idea to ram a police car, wreck the car he’s driving and run off into a neighborhood. The police set up a search perimeter using cops on foot, dogs and a helicopter.

I’m sent out the door as soon as I get to work. I load into a live truck and head out with my reporter, Max. We arrive on location where the guy drove his stolen car into the front end of an SUV. I hop out of the truck and get different shots of the scene: the cars, the cops talking to each other, a witness talking to cops, the helicopter circling overhead, and a bunch of other stuff that captures the essence of what’s going on.

In the meantime Max talks to the police and gets the basics of what happened.

Next, I’ve got to set up the truck for a live shot. I dial in with the station, edit some video and we do our first live shot. Nothing special about it. Max gives a quick rundown of how everything happened and I provide the live pictures.

We have another live shot scheduled in about half an hour. I take that time to untangle some cables, edit some more video and change batteries on my camera. So far this is all very ordinary. It’s a little rushed but really nothing unique has happened to make this day any more memorable than any other day.

About five minutes before our live report, word gets to us that the suspect has been caught. I’m not sure what this means as far as video opportunities go, but at least we have new information for our live shot.

Max asks the police representative for a live interview and she walks over and waits with us. I listen in my earpiece as the producer is giving us a ‘standby’ cue. A reporter for another station who has the reputation for being loud starts to yell at his photographer. “GET OVER HERE…..JERRY GET OVER HERE NOW…THERE HE IS”.

“You’re hot” comes through my earpiece – I know our producer doesn’t find me attractive so that means we are now broadcasting live for everyone to see.

Damn!! Finally something good is going to happen and I’m stuck across the street doing a live shot. Max starts speaking and I open my other eye and take a peek at what's happening. I can see a commotion going on next to an apartment building. I see photographers from the other stations scramble over there to where the police are escorting our guy in handcuffs.

I zoom in, expecting to have a bunch of people blocking my shot. But no one does. I have a great, clear shot of baldy being taken to the police cruiser. It’s a nice long walk, so obviously I have a nice long shot.

During all this, Max is getting all the new information from the cops.

Dude is put in the cruiser and as they drive off, I’m able to walk into the street and get a great picture of him in the back seat. I move back to Max and he finishes his live interview.

Timing like this almost never happens in live news. You can work for decades in this industry and never have anything interesting occur during a live broadcast. So even though I couldn’t walk right in front of the guy, we kicked all kinds of butt for visual storytelling.

I was just real happy with our lucky timing. But when we got back to the station later, everyone walked over and congratulated on how well we did and how great everything looked. The GM made a point to come into the newsroom and do the same. I was gracious and thanked everyone but I had a hard time taking credit for something that, when it comes down to it, was just plain old dumb luck. An accidental discovery, so to speak.

Back From Hollywood

2006-05-25T23:00:00.000-06:00

Just flew in from covering the American Idol Finals.

Stay tuned for more...

(might be a couple of days, though)

Snowman Fun

2006-05-17T22:21:00.000-06:00

During this past winter I did a bit of snowshoeing every week. One of our favorites was in a place called Killyon Canyon. It's a good spot because there aren't many people, dogs are allowed and it's a good steady uphill to a saddle where you can branch off in several other directions.

One day the snow was soft and sticky and we were inspired to build an old-fashioned snowman. I made a short video.

You will need the latest version of Flash loaded to view this video.

The CH-47 Chinook Helicopter

2006-05-17T02:05:00.000-06:00

As I mentioned in a previous post about my brother Paul, he flies helicopters for the army. I found this short video montage of the Chinook being used in Afghanistan. These are the types of things my larger little bro does.

Just imagine it without the music, but with more sweat, more stink and stifling heat and lots of sand in everything. And then extend that to 525,600 minutes instead of 1:40 and it'll be more like his experience over there.

You will need the latest version of Flash loaded to view this video.

I'm Not Sharing My Reward Money

2006-05-15T23:21:00.000-06:00

Last week, a female co-worker told me about a fan that she had. She received an email from some guy who supposedly had the hots for her. He is an aspiring actor or model or something and gave her the website for his agency. Curious about his looks we did the normal thing and did a search on the agency's site and this is what we found:

I didn't pay a whole lot of attention to this guy. I was more interested in teasing my friend. But I did notice his last name was Fisher because we recently had a guy apply for a job with us with the same last name.

Later in the day I'm over at the FBI office to do an interview on some doctor who ran an oxycontin ring out of his office. Just like at the post office, there's a bulletin board with all the losers on it who are wanted so I wander over. I glance past Osama Bin Laden and a couple of Mexican drug lords and see this guy:

At first I looked right past his picture but then did a quick double-take.

Same dark eyes. Same strong jaw line. Similar hair. And they both have kind of an angry crazy look to them.

Now the craziest thing is that he had the same last name! Since I hadn't paid much attention to the actor guy I couldn't be sure if I was imagining anything or not.

You can be damn sure I walked right up to my reporter friend and asked her to show me her fan's picture again. After closer inspection they don't quite look the same but it creeped out female co-worker pretty good.

It turns out the guy on the FBI's most-wanted list killed his wife and kids and burned down his house in Scottsdale and is considered armed and extremely dangerous. Normally wanted criminals don't move to an adjoining state, keep their same last name, and then aspire to be an actor/model. But some of them are quite agressively stupid.

Anyway, I've already alerted the FBI to this possible connection so if it turns out to be the guy I'll get $100,000. If any of you sees him, I do expect a percentage of the reward.

I'm more than happy to share your reward money.

My Brother Paul

2006-05-15T00:41:00.000-06:00

There's a new link over there in my 'Friend's Blogs' section in the right column. It actually belongs to my brother. He just started his own blog and he calls it 'Boring Paul's Boring-ass Blog'.

He actually should have all kinds of interesting things to write about. He flies Chinook helicopters for the Army. He skydives professionally on his weekends. He's spent time in Iraq (all right, admittedly for some reason the military made that part of his life boring). He might brew beer still. And he likes to mountain bike through the desert outside Las Vegas.

Plenty of interesting things.

Give it a read. It seems he barbecued some chicken last night.

Mr. Show Quote Of Last Week

2006-05-15T00:09:00.000-06:00

"GOD DAMN IT!!!"
-Bob
Oden-
kirk

Stories From The Previous...

2006-05-14T23:32:00.000-06:00

Two Weeks Ago(late due to illness)...

*Interview a bunch of random kids about what they think of American Idol
*House burns to the ground in dramatic fashion (basement full of ammunition – garage full of firewood)
*Soccer stadium not to be funded by county – interview with mayor – interview with fan – interview with Sandy City rep – video of proposed site – live shot at City Hall
*Man “hit” by light rail train (actually the 80-year-old man didn’t see it until he was about 2 feet away from moving train then fell down and cracked open his head because he was startled)
*Bars go smoke-free for one night – interviews and video from 3 different bars – live shot
*Oxycontin drug ring – interview with FBI – live shot
*Medicaid information meeting with public
* News anchors take (and fail) driving tests
*Scout-a-rama
*Interview with insurance company rep about ob-gyn reimbursement

Last Week...

*Man sentenced who committed 314 robberies
*Stranded hikers in snowfield near Sundance Resort
*Live shot for Glen Canyon documentary
*Returning soldier workshop for family of troops overseas
*Live shot at courthouse for Schanze sentencing
*Dirt bike hits woman in street after dark
*Live shot for man who fell and got trapped under light rail train
*Masonic Temple open house for public
*Flower deliveries for Mother’s Day
*State Democratic convention – some Olympic medal winner speaks
*New Motorsports racetrack to open – photographer training

Vomit Comet

2006-05-07T14:21:00.000-06:00

No! Not that plane that astronauts train in zero-gee. I just like rhyming today.

At my work a few of the Saturday crew started a tradition of barbecuing after the 5PM show. It’s the usual bbq fare: hot dogs hamburgers, the occasional steak. My shift ends before they start cooking so I always just head home.

Yesterday I get back from a late shoot and everyone is already out there eating fajitas. Some sort of seis de mayo celebration I guess. Since I’m there, I help myself to a chicken fajita – damn good! – some ‘several’ layer dip and guacamole – all good stuff.

"OK, see ya, bye."

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

My dog woofs at something in the middle of the night. I look at the clock and it’s a little bit after 4AM. The dog barking doesn’t bother me – it’s the rolling and grumbling coming from my belly.

I know the feeling – I know what’s coming – I also know that it’s going to be a while before anything happens. The juices still need to ferment.

The next coupe hours are spent dozing, waking up in a feverish sweat, and listening to my stomach churn. As we approach 7AM I know that it’s time.

Blue, plastic garbage can in hand I go sit on the toilet. Everything is primed. I just can’t tell which end it’s coming out of.

The only thing out of the backside is air. And it is the foulest, most-wretched thing I have ever smelt! My god! What the hell died up there?

I have never thrown up from odor before but in this situation it was the catalyst I needed. I ducked out of the bathroom and technicolor yawned into the garbage can.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Most of my day has been spent cyclically repeating this every couple of hours. Bleh!

The worst part is that I’ve now wasted my entire day off. I’ll happily be sick during the week when I can miss work but it’s a nice day and there are a lot more things I’d rather be doing.. This sucks!

Damn you seis de mayo fajitas!!

By the way, Pepto Bismol now is cherry flavored. And it has a cherry flavored aftertaste. Give me chalk-flavored any day.

Little Black III - The Final Chapter

2006-05-01T22:15:00.000-06:00

Well I finally made it to the top of Little Black Mountain in the foothills just to the north of Salt Lake City. Actually, I didn't make it all the way to the peak. The last 50 yards or so have a couple of dropoffs of about 10 feet and I'm not experienced enough to downclimb these with sheer cliffs on either side. So I didn't really bag the peak (even though my wife says that it counts because we were "close enough").

It took us about 6 hours round trip. I decided to include some pictures of the little things that make the outdoors so enjoyable - no grand vistas - no pics of us and the dogs: I've already put those on the other posts for this hike. Early spring brings out the colors, the smells and the animals that we haven't seen in months. It's refreshing.

We did see a coyote from about 250 yards away. Luckily the dogs didn't see it or we may have witnessed them getting their asses kicked by a scrawny and scraggly dog. There were lots and lots of horny toads sunning themselves on the trail. They would scurry off as we approached and none of them were very big. I spotted what I thought was a fossil on the edge of a rock. It looks like it might be some kind of nautiloid thing - or a hummingbird.

Now My Dog Is In The Media

2006-04-30T02:42:00.000-06:00

"Our baby is in the newspaper!"

"What??"

I'm talking to my wife on the phone, she's just picked up our dog from doggy day care.

"We need to get a newspaper for today. Ginger has her picture in the paper!!"

I'm trying to imagine what possibly could have happened that would put our dog in the paper. She hasn't run off. She hasn't bitten anyone. I can't think of any reason she would be in the paper. I'm getting ready to call bullshit on her story when she explains.

"The Trib did a story on Dogmode and Ginger is in two pictures! There's one where you just see her body but there's another where she's standing on a table kissing Sean on the face!"

I work for a TV station and I've been on TV before. My wife is in radio, dabbles in TV and does theater. So it's not a big deal when one of us or someone we know ends up in the media.

Now, it's our dog...and it was completely unexpected. Thus the excitement.

The local newspaper did a nice little article on Ginger's day care. It happened to be on the day last week when Ginger was actually there. Although she isn't mentioned in the article, she is featured in one of the pictures. Now we have a perfect media trifecta going in our household.

I can only imagine how obnoxious she was with the photographer. She thinks cameras are toys and need to be jumped towards.

Salt Lake Tribune Article

What I Shot This Week

2006-04-30T02:10:00.000-06:00

*Homes in Mountain were built on active landslide and sold with no disclosure + live shot
*Driving laws for teenagers will change
*Woman drives through building lobby to run over her husband + live shot
*Check out big accident on freeway interchange – cleaned up by the time I arrived
*2 year old boy found face down in creek in Farmington + live shot
*Man falls at construction site and impales forearm on chunk of metal
*Go to find neighbors of man run over by wife to see if they will talk – they don’t
*Pick up composite sketch of suspect who molested 14 year old boy in park bathroom
*Interview with cop about composite sketch
*Tip-a-cop: Cops pour water and sing for tips to raise money for special Olympics
*Check out where dynamite was found – it really wasn’t
*Mayor has new plans for downtown park
*War protest at city-county building
*Live shot at downtown park

Mr. Show Quote of the Week

2006-04-30T00:52:00.000-06:00

Eww girl EWww

ewwwoowoooo-oo-wooo

woo woo woo woo

-Three Times One Minus One

Happy Nika's Baby's Birthday

2006-04-24T20:48:00.000-06:00

April Twenty-Fourth

About nine months ago a friend and co-worker got married. A few weeks after that word started to get around that Nika was pregnant.

"Hey Nika - Did you get pregnant on your honeymoon?"

I get an unamused response, "Yeahh."

"That's not a totally bad thing. I know some really great people who were conceived on their parent's honeymoon."

"Like who?"

"Like Me!!"

"Who else?"

".............ummm I think that's it."

Still unamused: "So I have you to look forward to?"

-------------------------------------------------------

Several weeks later we find out her due date is Friday, April 28. Nika is worried because all of her sisters were born 2 weeks late. That means she may be carrying the baby until mid-May.

"Hey Nika - I'm voting for you to squirt that thing out on April 24th."

I get an unamused response: "Why?"

"Because I was born on April 24th! Great people are born on April 24th. Let's see. There is...me. There's ... ummm... Shirley MacLaine ... Barbra Streisand ...... and my brother-in-law. Oh yeah, and I have an ex-girlfriend who's neice was born on that day, too."

"Great."

-------------------------------------------------------

We repeated this conversation several times over the next several months. Almost to the point where my self-aggrandizing humor was bordering on becoming a bit on the obnoxious side.

Saturday night as I leave work I holler over to where a very pregnant and tired Nika is sitting, "Bye Nika. Don't forget to have your baby on Monday."

"Shut up, Mark."

-------------------------------------------------------

Sunday afternoon rolls around and our desk manager shows up instead of Nika. Panic sets in. Thers's no way she had her baby a day early. She did this just to spite me! Oooh I'm gonna let her have it whe she gets back from maternity leave!!

"Todd, what's going on with Nika?"

"Well her water broke but there aren't any contractions yet."

I look at my watch. It is 2:01 PM.

There's still a chance. YES!!

C'mon Nika you can hold on for another 10 hours. No problem.

Fast forward 14 hours and Nika gives birth to an adorable little girl named Ayda.

Thanks for waiting, Nika. I appreciate all you did for me. ; )

Welcome to the world, Ayda. You are destined for greatness.

This Week's Work

2006-04-24T01:52:00.000-06:00

*Stolen ultralight
*Car shop has water bill that says they used 192,000 gallons last month
*Man gets off train after getting beat up
*Electronics waste recycle
*Girl falls in river and gets sucked through culvert and is OK
*Contest to win musical instruments by keeping hands on cases
*Police foot chase ends in death after victim is tasered
*Car vs. power pole (Power pole wins)
*Bone marrow drive
*Healing field - flags against child abuse
*Budah (not) in dunk tank
*Utes spring football game
*Car vs. building (building wins)
* Bill goes bye-bye (last day of work)
*Girl 'stabbed' by fence as she tries to escape juvenile home
*Maybe high water because of weather (maybe not)

An Open Letter...

2006-04-22T17:17:00.000-06:00

...to that lady on the freeway:

I don't know why you would think it was appropriate to make a U-turn on an interstate interchange. But you are lucky you didn't die. You may have noticed, while you were turned sideways, that traffic comes through there at about 50 miles an hour. If one of us hadn't been paying attention you would have been clobbered by an SUV. SUVs have a lot of mass.

It is one thing if you want to die, but don't do it so others get hurt in the process. If you didn't want to die, then maybe you should give up your driver's license and lock yourself in a house with a couple dozen cats because you're obviously way too stupid to function in our modern society.

I've found that people as aggressively stupid as yourself won't understand things unless they are spelled out for you. So here goes:

DO NOT TURN AROUND ON THE FREEWAY!! DO NOT DRIVE AGAINST TRAFFIC ON THE SHOULDER OF THE INTERCHANGE AND MAKE A U-TURN TO REJOIN TRAFFIC ONTO ANOTHER INTERSTATE! YOU ARE A DAMN IDIOT!

...AND DON'T LOOK SO SURPRISED AND INDIGNANT WHEN PEOPLE HONK THEIR HORNS AT YOU! THAT COULD BE THE STRAW THAT SENDS THEM OVER THE EDGE AND YOU COULD BE DRAGGED FROM YOUR CAR AND BEATEN TO A BLOODY PULP (DESERVEDLY SO)!

Whew! ... I had to get that off my chest ... I feel better now.

Mr. Show Quote of the Week

2006-04-21T10:20:00.000-06:00

"No-oh-oo! I was on the 18th Ho-oh-oh-ole!"

-Jack Black as Jeepers Creepers

Adams Canyon Hike

2006-04-17T01:16:00.000-06:00

This weekend my brother in law was visiting from Phoenix. Before his evening flight on Sunday he wanted to get out into the backcountry for a couple hours.

There is a trail right off Highway 89 in Davis County. The trailhead is a small, dirt parking lot. The trail rises quickly then enters a small canyon with a creek running out of it. We followed the creek up a ways until the trail disappeared under snowpack. At the end is supposed to be some falls. I'm not sure if we made it that far. There may have been some falls near where we turned around but we weren't paying too much attention. We were trying to find the trail and obviously weren't looking at things around us.

Anyway, we were on the trail about an hour and a half. There were some great views of the Great Salt Lake and it was a nice hike through the woods and along the creek.

http://www.fs.fed.us/r4/wcnf/unit/slrd/recreation/trails/adams.shtml

Stories This Week:

2006-04-17T00:57:00.000-06:00

*LDS Church plans for downtown properties – interview and video downtown – city council meeting
*South Jordan meth-heads run from police and hide in in-laws house – live shot
*Managers meeting
*Spanish Fork graffiti
*Car accident on freeway that made the drive to Spanish Fork last 2 ½ hours
*Interview and video with ob-gyn for sweeps story – interviews at U of U hospital
*Brush fire – firemen discover cock fighting cocks next to field – live shot
*Interview with Danny White – coach of the Utah Blaze
*Interview with bookseller who bought stolen copies of first edition books of mormon and turned in the thieves
*Man shot 3 times in torso and leg – video, interview and live shot
*Gelande competition at Snowbird
*Interview with scout leader
*Check out stabbing on 3300 South - nothing

My Everest II

2006-04-16T22:56:00.000-06:00

A couple weeks after my first attack on the Little Black, I was going to give it another shot. This time I had the company of my beautiful wife, Erica and her co-worker our good friend, Scot.

We headed on the same route, hiking along the ridges. The snow had melted quite a bit since I had been up here a couple weeks earlier. Most of the trail was dry but there were significant portions that were soggy. It was along the wet parts of the trail that we found out Erica’s boots had lost their water repellency. She avoided walking through the puddles. But wherever the moisture touched her boots, they turned turned dark brown from their normally light dusty shade of brown.

The trail became snowbound as we reached the higher elevations of the upper slope. Because the weather was warmer, the snow was wet, dense and slushy. We still sank in quite a bit but our footwear would get wetter with every step.

I saw a snow-free slope about 50 yards to the south so we post-holed our way across. Erica’s boots were completely wet by now. The water wasn’t soaking all the way through yet. It was only a matter of time until her socks would start absorbing water so we decided to hike to the snow line and call it a day.

It was a beautiful, clear day although a bit windy (Erica classifies it as way too windy). Still got about 8 miles under our belt. Scot and I were reminded how good it is to have the world as our toilet as Erica wasn’t able to relieve her bladder all day. Lucky for us there had been a funeral at the mormon church next to the trailhead and she was able to run inside and pee before they locked up.

Mr. Show Quote Of The Week

2006-04-14T01:31:00.000-06:00

"I'm gonna spank you with my lips!!"
-Bob Odenkirk

Is My Dog A Pit Bull??

2006-04-13T10:53:00.000-06:00

Last year, on the last day of April we adopted an adorable 4 month old puppy. We went to one of those super adoptions in front of PetSmart where a bunch of animal shelters bring a bunch of their cats and dogs to adopt. Basil (that was the name given her at the shelter – we gave her the more feminine name of Ginger) loved greeting people and loved greeting the other dogs and had a very expressive, waggy tail.

We walked her around and thought about it and walked her around some more and thought about it some more. Our thinking was that if you take home a dog, your life will change forever - sometimes for the better, sometimes not. You just never know. We weren’t sure if we were ready for our lives to change drastically but we sure liked Basil. We stood around stupidly grinning and trying to make up our minds for about a half hour and finally decided that change was inevitable. She was going home with us.

The adoption papers said she was a terrier/lab mix. Terriers are good. We owned a jack russell once and could see some similarities – the pink, freckly skin; the adorable floppy ears; the cute, light brown spots. She had the body of a lab – longer legs with a slim, athletic build.

“What a great mix,” we thought. Probably she will be smart because of the terrier and not as hyper and energetic because of the lab (if you’ve ever owned a terrier, that last statement makes sense). Both breeds are active so she’ll enjoy hiking and running and stuff.

But, as she grew and filled out, she developed a lean, muscular look. She was never blocky or square-headed but people at the dog park started asking “who’s pit bull is that?” or making the observation “oh, you have a pit bull”.

Our reaction was always a slightly offended “No!” Then we’d explain how she was a terrier/lab mix and how she had the markings of a terrier and the size of a small lab.

We didn’t want a pit bull. We wanted something like a jack russell terrier because they’re so freaking adorable and not scary. We didn’t want to be associated with that gangsta-looking dope who brings his pick-up full of pit puppies and tries to sell them off all the time. I mean we were having some issues with this but we stuck to our story.

The shocker came when the guys at her doggy day care referred to her as a pit. We trust these guys and respect their opinion on all things dog-related. It was a lot like that movie where the guy fell in love with that chick and then after making out found out that she really had a penis but he was still in love with this person and had to deal with feelings of confusion and disgust. That was us.

We still aren’t convinced. Ginger isn’t thick or blocky. She doesn’t grunt. She isn’t squatty-looking. However she loves latching onto things with her jaws and having me lift her off the ground and swing her around.

But I’m not going to relent. I’m going to be like the crazy parent who lets his kid throw rocks at cars and swear at adults but as soon as a cop grabs the kid and scolds him, he’s on the phone to all the TV stations yelling about how his kid was mistreated (true story).

My dog is not a pit bull.

I’m sticking to my story.

Disclaimer to the preceding rant about pit bulls:
Pit Bulls, for the most part, are good pets and good dogs. My brother has three of them and they are some of the most friendly, lovable, dopey, farty and scared dogs that I’ve been around. Like most breeds, it is a bad owner that makes for a bad dog. Since they can be scary, it makes the news when they attack someone. You never see a news story about a collie or irish setter biting a kid, but it does happen. It’s kind of like how sky diving is statistically one of the safest activities, yet every time there is a skydiving death you hear about it. That’s all I have to say about that.

Stories I Covered This Week

2006-04-09T23:38:00.000-06:00

* Delta pilots voting to strike - interview with travel agent - video and interviews with passengers at airport
*Alpine City Planning Commission public comment on school in neighborhood
*Interview with police about 37 year old man having sexual relationship with 13 year old - shot video of 37 year old man who was having sex with 13 year old as he was walked from police station to police car on his way to jail - live shot with Sandy at county jail
*Interview father of soldier killed in Iraq
*Suspicious white powder in package sent to Federal Courthouse
*Avalanche sends car with 9 people down the canyon – No one is hurt
*Man hit and killed crossing the street in the dark
*Snowmelt and high water in the creeks.
-interview in Park City – interview in Heber – video shot in Big Cottonwood Canyon and Jordan River Parkway – live shot next to Jordan River
*MS walk downtown
*ROTC drill competition at U of U
*Ski Utah press conference at Solitude Ski Resort
*Possible Warren Jeffs sighting in SLC – it wasn’t him
*Car sized boulder rolls down cliff in Rock Canyon in Provo
*Weather shot of farm and mountains in Davis County

My Everest

2006-04-09T12:41:00.000-06:00

Just to the north of the city of Salt Lake City is a community called the Avenues. It is an older neighborhood which is full of eclectic homes, some aged apartment buildings, a hospital and some other stuff.

Above the Avenues is a hilly area appropriately called the foothills. It is criss-crossed several trails. Some follow the ridges and force you up and down the various hills, and some skirt around the hilltops and make for an easier hike.

The east side of these foothills rises steeply in elevation and peaks at about 8,000 feet at a place called Little Black Mountain. This is my Everest (at least so far this year it has been). This peak has been my destination twice and both times I have failed.

We are still getting winter storms and the last little bit of this hike is in snowy and steep terrain. But I it is my feeling that I should be tougher – or at least plan better.

My first attempt was about 6 weeks ago. We’d had a warm spell in the valley which left most of the lower trail snow-free. I departed the trailhead late in the morning with a full Camelbak, a few snacks and the companionship of my dog, Ginger. The hike across the hills was simple enough. Slow and steady got me across to where the hike starts to get steep.

Hiking along the ridges was windy and now the trail was covered in snow. It was soft and most of my steps sank about 2 feet into the snow. Luckily, someone else had been up this trail earlier in the day and so I was able to step into his footprints which made things quite a bit easier.

I’m not the strongest uphiller by any means. Climbing this steep section became more of a counting exercise than anything else. I’d take 100 steps, stop and rest, take 100 steps, stand around and wheeze, take 100 steps…well you get the idea. I did this for about a thousand vertical feet and finally got to the top. As I took the last few steps to the peak, I looked up and saw that I had another ¼ mile of trail that continued upward to the summit. Damn it!!

The trail wasn’t nearly as steep. I continued to walk upwards only to discover that my apparent destination was another false summit. I wasn’t even close! There was a ridge that ran another ½ mile or so to the true peak. I could see it now but the way was windblown with the snow angled over the edge in a small cornice most of the way. To my left was a steep dropoff that dropped a couple thousand feet into City Creek Canyon. To my right was another dropoff that looked like it went somewhere into Emigration Canyon.

At this point, I was about 5 miles from the trailhead. I was getting tired. I was hungry, having eaten my Zone Bars and fruit and peanuts. My dog was hungry enough to devour a Kiwi fruit so who knows how much she had left in her (although I’m betting it was a lot more than I had in myself).

I decided to make the call. I was going back. Coming to this conclusion wasn’t as depressing or as heart crushing a decision for me as it was for all those people who did the same thing on Mt. Everest. After all, I had invested all of two and a half hours into this adventure – not months or years and my life savings on it. But I thought it would be a crappy way to end the day as a corpse at the bottom of the mountain and my picture on all the local news stations. I would be back to conquer another day…

Take Two

2006-04-05T23:54:00.000-06:00

Well, after a couple months of thinking I didn’t have much to say about anything I’ve decided to give this blog thing another try. It’s not like anyone other than me had read it anyway.

I had a random meeting with another local blogger while jogging a couple days ago. While writing about that experience in her comments section, I found that I was actually enjoying writing. I still have doubts about my skills but I’ll give the old college try – even though I didn't really try that hard in college.

When I first started blogging I was determined that if I wasn’t going to update often, I wouldn’t do it at all. It’s frustrating when you try to follow someone’s blog and they update it every 6 weeks or so. I need my information quicker than that. So this time I think that I’ll get more than three entries before I quit.

So once again, let’s see how this goes...

My Playground

2005-12-12T21:04:00.000-07:00

There are some negatives to living in Salt Lake City. There is an embedded cultural intolerance of those who aren't members of the local religion. It's kind of a perpetual do as we want you to do ... that pervades everything from local and state governments to how schools are run to strict control how a person can buy an alcoholic beverage. People will sometimes joke that when you enter Utah you need to set your watch back 100 years. It's not a joke.

But on the positive side, you won't find a better place to live if you like recreating outdoors. I'm not talking about the outdoor activities that involve 3 cylinder gas engines, a lot of noise and the smell of dust and gas in the air (although there are plenty of things to do around here if that is your idea of fun in the outdoors - it's just not my thing). From the front door of my house I can drive 45 minutes and be at any of about 50 trailheads, 7 world class ski resorts, and dozens of places to cross-country ski, mountain bike, snowshoe, and fish. If you drive more than 45 minutes, the opportunities just increase.

Dominating the skyline to the east of the city is the Wasatch Range which is home to 5 canyons which are home to all the aforementioned activities.

I haven't taken full advantage of all these in my nine years here because of some undiagnosed muscle problems in my back and legs. After finding a specialist who was actually able to fix me, I'm starting to get out more often. And I'm just loving it!

Now that walking downhill doesn't bring significant pain, I'm thinking about dusting off my old film cameras and carrying them into the backcountry again. See if I'm any good as a still photographer.

Winter News

2005-12-03T21:37:00.000-07:00

Well it's that time of year again. The temps drop, it snows a little, and the news managers and producers go apeshit. They feel the need to cover every possible angle of the weather. Where it's snowing, why it's snowing, traffic related car accidents, any house fire that makes people stand in the snow, pictures of the snow, interviews with people on what they think about the snow.

Some pictures from an avalanche story last year.

Snow is not an anomaly here. I mean, the license plates here in Utah say "The Greatest Snow on Earth". Maybe this is what TV news has become everywhere and I shouldn't get upset. Do they run out everyday in Phoenix and cover hot weather? Or in Portland do they do live shots every time it rains? Maybe.

Anyway, it's time to batten down the hatches and be ready to spend some time outdoors for work. I've got my bag packed with my boots, long underwear, fleece, gloves and waterproof shells. They've been used a couple of times, too.

The worst is when we have to just stand around and wait for something to happen. Fires and crime scenes where we're standing around and waiting for a PIO to walk over and give us an interview. If I'm actually moving around and and there is stuff to shoot, then it's usually not too bad. The other night I got called out at 3:00 AM for a house fire. The official temperature was 16 degrees but since the firemen had been spraying water into the air - which subsequently misted and froze - I'm guessing it was a bit colder. I think being really, really tired helped numb me from the cold.

And then there is the blowing snow. It continually blows into the lens which requires continual wiping of the lens which sometimes leads to fogging of the lens. But I can't complain too much (although I think I already did). I could live and work in the midwest where it stays below freezing for weeks at a time. Winters in SLC are relatively mild compared to a lot of places.

Why A Blog?

2005-11-28T20:20:00.000-07:00

It seems that everyone's first blog entry is some kind of explanation about why they are doing a blog. Some people like to document a project they're working on. Some like to give a kind of running narrative about every detail of their life. And some people just seem to enjoy wallowing in the depths of their own boringness.

I'm not quite sure why I'm doing this. Maybe it's a way to develop some writing and storytelling skills (as opposed to nunchuck and bowstaff skills - those I already have - yeah I just got done watching Napoleon Dynamite again). Maybe I'll use it as a way for people I know to keep up with what's going on in my life. After all, by the time I finally talk to anyone, I've usually forgotten anything interesting that's happened to me. This way they'll know. I have a tendency to keep interesting details in my short term memory.

Why is it so hard to write complete sentences??
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Anyway, we'll see how this goes. It may develop into something good, or it could die a slow, uninteresting death like a lot of other blogs.

Enjoy...