Blog

Home / Blog - Page 84

  • That Looks Heavy

    So today was one of those days where you wake up and think “Either everything is going to go perfectly and today is going to rock, or it’s all going wrong. No in between today.”

    And boy did it come through. I took the Metro to Capitol Hill to cover a senate hearing on port security. I was also interviewing a representative for the same story. So that required a lot of walking between the two sides of the Hill as I tried to get both of those things done as quickly as possible so I could get back to campus, edit the story and anchor the show.

    Well the hearing went well, took a lot of good notes and had a script written by the time I left. The only thing that could have derailed me was not getting a tape from the hearing from FoxNews, who had the pool camera there. (sidenote: at hearings or events where it’s expected to be very crowded, a “pool” camera will provide video for all of the networks so that they don’t all have to try to fit in there).

    So I go to the lawn area in front of the Capitol to shoot my little reporter standup. I’m all set to go when I hear the rumble of a U.S. Capitol Police motorcycle. “Excuse me, do you have a tripod permit?” I’m sorry, WHAT? “Do you have a tripod permit?” I’ve never heard of that. I need a permit to use a tripod? “Yes, on the Capitol Grounds you must have a permit to use a tripod.” Oh. Ok then.

    The conversation about this tripod permit was about 10 minutes long, and perhaps the must utterly idiotic thing I’ve heard in my life. Apparently years ago there were problems with tourists tripping over tripods and hurting themselves as they fell to the sidewalk. Now I’m all about safety, but it was about 37 degrees, borderline raining and the beginning of March. There was not a tourist within a half-mile of where I was. But still, I needed a permit to use my tripod.

    So without my standup, I head off to interview the representative. As I wait for him to finish another meeting, I call about getting the tape from Fox. No dice. Awesome. No story for me today. I get the interview, and 13 seconds of it ends up on the newscast. So if you’re scoring at home, that’s leave home at 6:30, spend 3 hours in a hearing, leave the Hill at 2 pm, and have 13 seconds of that time end up being worth the effort.

    Oh and there was the extremely witty and helpful gentleman on the elevator ride down from the representative’s office at the end of all of this. He sees me carrying a backpack that weighs like 15 pounds, a tripod and a camera that I have been lugging around all day…”That looks heavy.” Yeah, it is.

    Thanks buddy.

    March 2, 2006 tripod Uncategorized

  • Another One Bites the Dust

    I did a little track workout at the park down the street from our apartment today. I think a duck laughed at me when I ran by. I looked back in his direction, and he laughed again.

    So there’s one more thing off of my 100 things to do before I die: No. 47 Get laughed at by a duck.

    February 27, 2006 animals running Uncategorized

  • This Blog is not a Panacea

    Panacea: (1) a remedy for all ills or difficulties. (2) the most overused word in Annapolis, Maryland.

    This week as a slave/reporter for Capital News Service, I attended no fewer than four House of Delegates or State Senate hearings in the span of two days. At said hearings, those who are for or against a particular bill are called to give testimony as to why the legislators should vote yes or no.

    The proponents of every bill have one thing in common–they love the word panacea. They all probably think they are being original and showing off their incredible vocabulary when pulling out the “p” word. But I hope that the delegates and senators are just as annoyed as I am when hearing it at every hearing.

    It goes like this: “I know this bill is not a panacea, but it goes a long way towards…blah…blah…blah.” Every time. Without fail. For the love of Pete, learn a new word.

    I do applaud the man at the hearing on eminent domain bills who pulled out “myriad.” “I know there are a myriad of bills on this, but what I have to say goes for all of them…” I note here that I originally wrote some smartass comment about him misusing the word, as for years I have known it only as an adjective making “a myriad of” an improper construction. But, shockingly I know, I can admit when I have erred and am happy to report that I learned something today.

    According to Merriam-Webster: “As the entries here show, however, the noun is in fact the older form, dating to the 16th century. The noun myriad has appeared in the works of such writers as Milton (plural myriads) and Thoreau (a myriad of), and it continues to occur frequently in reputable English. There is no reason to avoid it.”

    So despite covering five stories in three days–none of which I remotely cared about–I did actually have something productive come out of my week. Here’s to a repeat next week.

    And it looks like I’m off the hook for Lindsey Jacobellis’ snowboard fall. I guess this means Lindsey and I can be friends again.

    February 23, 2006 Olympics Uncategorized

  • My Bad…

    So to anyone who saw Lindsey Jacobellis fall at the end of the women’s snowboard cross finals last night, thus losing a gold medal, I apologize. It was my fault. All night I was cheering on Ms. Jacobellis–partly because of a cool name–and wanted nothing more than for her to win.

    But when she was way out in front I got a little excited. I thought back to her prowess in the snowboard halfpipe, and started egging her on to do a sweet trick at the end to cap things off. And since I am such a charming fellow, Ms. Jacobellis couldn’t help but oblige my request (we’ll ignore the whole time difference/tape delay thing and assume that she hadn’t already fallen hours before I started watching.)

    Then boom. She missed the landing. Ended up with silver. My bad.

    In other news, there’s another newscast up–Feb. 16.

    Not a particularly strong effort, but the panda story at the end might make you cry…

    February 18, 2006 Olympics Uncategorized

  • You’re Tough, For a Lady

    Sometimes when you least expect it, you hear something that is both surprising and equally disturbing, but was meant in the best way. Like today when I was selling this woman a pair of shoes. She was a little older and had trouble leaning down to tie them. So I offered to take care of that for her and was just about done with the second shoe when her equally old and non-agile-looking husband says “Damn boy, you got some skinny arms but they strong as hell.”

    Now I always thought I’d hear a comment like that in prison, or when being propositioned on a street corner somewhere, not when trying to sell a shoe. And of course the conversation didn’t end with that comment. It was followed by “Do you lift weights?,” my swift denial and desire to move a few feet away–Only those with tickets get to enjoy the gun show, and this man did not have the appropriate pass for admission.

    February 11, 2006 mall shoes Uncategorized

  • Caution: Automatic Blog

    I walked into Annapolis Mall yesterday to kill some time between getting shots of the mall for a story and shooting a press conference with Baltimore Mayor Martin O’Malley. Actually I really just wanted to hit the bathroom, but since I had almost two hours, I spent a good deal of time doing the random-mall-wandering thing.

    On the way in I took notice of something old but newly peculiar. The two doors slid open as I approached, thus allowing me to enter without any effort of my own. Now this is certainly not new technology, but it struck me in a new way. The doors have stickers that say in big print “Caution: Automatic Door.” Now these doors slide out of your way, not toward or away from you. There is no danger of them hitting you or anyone else who approaches.

    Granted, there are the same types of doors that do swing one way or another, and thus you need to be cautious so you don’t get hit by a door going two miles per hour. But in this case, what’s the danger? Am I going to be shocked that they move out of the way and have a heart attack? Am I going to think there is some divine intervention that has led me to this mall and the doors opening is a sign that I am in the right place? (note: I am a dork, and thus enjoy that I just used a gerund).

    We live in a pretty technically advanced society and should expect that a simple thing like an automatic door has the potential of existing. If you approach a door that has a little round sensor dealie above it, and that door opens without any effort on by you or any other person present, it was automatic and you should say “Hey, an automatic door, rock that no effort sheez.”

    Warn me about doors that may swing at me and risk striking my fragile self. Warn me about the possible expiration of my milk. Warn me about the speed limit dropping to 25 mph in 1000 feet. Don’t warn me about things that cannot have a negative impact on my life. If each mall saved just one “Caution” sticker a year, we could reduce our reliance on foreign oil by 20 percent by 2081. Do it for our grandchildren.

    February 10, 2006 Uncategorized

  • I’ll Call You Stampy

    Stampy of course is Bart Simpson’s pet elephant that he won from a radio contest. The DJs offered a thousand dollars or a pet elephant as a prize when Bart called in, and he of course wanted the elephant. But that’s the gag prize kid, everyone takes the money, the DJs said. Bart stood strong and demanded his elephant, and in the end he got exactly what he wanted. The elephant also later got what he wanted–an oversized decorative poncho.

    But that’s all far from today’s point. Last night I was finishing up my taxes and was delighted to learn that I will be receiving a refund. Hooray for making little money this year! After filling out all of the forms, attaching the pieces together in the correct way and saying to myself “I am confident this is the best effort I could give for such a venture,” I folded everything into an envelope-friendly size and shape and sealed that bad boy up.

    That of course was not the end of my tax ordeal, as I then had to fill out my return address and put their pre-printed label on the front of the envelope so that it may make its way to the proper place in Atlanta. Then comes the part that boggles my mind–postage. So the government sends out these tax booklets and asks that you fill out all these forms and send them back. There is this thing called the United States Postal Service that will pick up the completed forms from my place of residence and take them to Atlanta.

    That’s called scam city. Millions of Americans are required to put a stamp on the front of this envelope in order to get it delivered. There is no other option. Come on government, throw us a bone here. Paying for postage should be only for things you choose to mail. If you are required by the government, or a government, to mail something, that postage should be taken care of:

    Gov’t: “Hey postal service, uhh, everyone has to send one of these back to us, call it good?”
    USPS: “Word, word. We got you dawg.”

    February 5, 2006 mail Simpsons Uncategorized

  • Feeling Left Behind

    At work yesterday there were an inordinate number of items left in the store by customers. These are people who for some reason or another take an item out of a pocket, a purse, or just set down something they had been holding, then upon deciding they’ve had enough of New Balance for the day simply walk out without them.

    Now I am usually one of these forgetful people with items like that, which is why I tend to keep things like my cell phone in my pocket at all times and never just carry it around–it would be gone in about 3 seconds. So I can understand how it happens…well not quite.

    One of the items was a cell phone, and thankfully the guy was not walking that fast and I was able to catch up to him and return the phone without too much effort on my part. Another customer left his Mastercard, which almost got used to order pizza…well maybe not, I’m not a terrible person. The last, and easily the most humorous was a man who left his cane. Now I shouldn’t laugh at that, at all, but if you walked into a store using a cane, sat down on a bench, and got up, wouldn’t you probably reach for that cane when you were going to walk out? I certainly would. This man, who obviously needed said cane, made it all the way out of the store and a few steps down the hall before a fellow employee grabbed the cane and chased the swift senior citizen down the hall.

    So the lesson for today: Check for credit card, cell phone and cane when leaving a store.

    And I apologize for no links today…I’m feeling a bit lazy…

    January 29, 2006 mall shoes Uncategorized

  • Someone is Stealing Your Dreams

    According to Zorel, someone is tapping into your dreams, making a copy of your brain and using that information to steal money from your bank account. The same process is also being used to tap into the U.S. Government weapons department. But if you don’t live in Maryland, don’t worry, the antenna is only being used around Silver Spring, Md.

    I wish I could have made this up, but alas, it is all too true. Today in the UMTV newsroom we received a call from Zorel telling us of the existence of this antenna and evil plot to copy brains and steal money. I was sad to learn that he was calling from Miami, and thus I could not interview him. After all, he has a sixth sense and was able to predict that Bush would be elected in 2000, that Hillary Clinton would be elected the same year and that Avian flu would break out in Asia.

    If you feel you have been a victim of the brain-copy plot, he encourages you to call Montgemery County Police, though I would recommend you call the MontgOmery County Police who might be able to better help you because they actually exist.

    January 26, 2006 insanity Uncategorized

  • The Simple Joys

    Some would say that I am a bit…umm…different. Yes different. I had two great joys today, all within about a 15 minute period in the blustery cold.

    I was leaving campus for the day, but had to get a camera and tripod back to my apartment. Since the pair is heavy as a MOTHER, I walked up the street to the apartment and got my car, thus saving my shoulder from a great deal of pain this evening. During my walk at about 5:30, traffic on one of the main streets leaving campus was quite heavy. Great Joy No. 1 for the day: A bus passed me right when I reached the street. It’s maybe 3/4ths of a mile from there to my apartment. I out-walked the bus up the street. Even better was the look on some of the bus patrons faces, as they clearly saw me walk by several times as the bus grinded to a halt behind all of the other cars.

    So when I finally made it back up that same street in my car–with camera in tow–Great Joy No. 2 appeared. Next to me at the light was a young woman, I presume a fellow student at Maryland. She was bobbing her head and singing along to some song as if no one was watching. Curious, I quickly switched around to a few different radio stations to see if I could find the one she was rocking out to. Thank you Hot 99.5 for letting me know that this girl was a fan of Rihanna.

    January 25, 2006 music Uncategorized
1 … 81 82 83 84 85 86
Archives