Debate and Rebuttal

I worked my first Gubernatorial (Hehe. Guber.) debate tonight. I've never been to one really. It was interesting though a shame it was with three republicans. I won't be voting for any of them because none of them impressed me (and well I'm registered as a Damn Liberal Dem.)

But all in all it was interesting to watch. My job was originally going to be to take recorded audio and convert the files to MP3s and upload them to our server where the copy desk would then download them and begin transcribing them We had an ambitious goal of offering a full transcript of the debate in the next day's paper which means the audio had to be completely transcribed 2 and a half hours after the debate was over.

Well of course my computer wouldn't connect to the server from the debate site because of all of a bunch of security stuff the company made me put on my laptop so I was completely hindered while trying to do my job. I'd been agitated about the whole audio pressure thing all weekend - to the point of having a dream in which the city editor, a mild-mannered and very nice man, yelled at me and told me I'd let the paper down. He said he'd planned his entire news package around me being able to bring off this audio thing and I screwed it all up. Thank goodness it was just a dream and he had a good chuckle about it when I told him about it. But I think that's the first time pressure from real life manifested itself in my dreams. Weird.

Anyway we had a backup plan which was to have three recorders and we just recorded the debate in thirds. One person recorded the first half an hour and then took the recorder back to the paper so the copy desk could start transcribing. Then the next person did the next half an hour, then I finished up the final half an hour. It worked well enough and in hindsight was probably the best way to do it. Doing it with the MP3s and downloading etc would have needed more planning/training time with the copy desk.

So yeah, the debate was good and the transcript was in this morning's paper and is getting good feedback methinks.

Cleaning Fit

A mild cleaning fit Saturday afternoon led to a semi-reorganization of some of my vids. It still looks cluttered I know, but trust me, it looks a hell of a lot better than it did. Someday I'll organize by genre or alpha or something but right now I'm not that ambitious :) I know where everything is so that's enough for me :)

Sort of a week from hell.

I'm going to cheat a bit. Sorry it must be done. This week has been alternately great and it has sucked balls and to be honest 365snaps has been the furthest from my mind. I have a few images to post that I've taken but just haven't had time to pull off the camera so I'm just gonna do it all in this post, but I'm missing a day here and there and I'll try to get back on track starting tomorrow.

The sucky? Indyknow was hacked several times and I've had to fight with it all week to get it back to some kind of working order. It's still wonky but hopefully with help from tech support I'll have it back to normal.

The great? My 24 blog, 24addict.com somehow got noticed by FOX TV :) I got an email from them asking if I'd want to post a teaser to an interview with one of the show's creators. When I asked if it was true FOX reads my blog they replied, "Of course we do ;)" and I could not be more stoked. So now I'm going to get weekly info from them with clips and teasers I can post. Squee! :)

Anyway, on with the photos:

April 22nd:
Shannon had an Orchestra competition in Kearney that we had to get up at stupid o'clock for and she had to be in full formal dress as well. This is her getting ready to go in:



April 23rd:
IndyKnow was hacked. Hacked hacked hacked. Screwed up and mucked around. Data lost. Stupid f'ing hacker script kiddies motherf'ing moronic loser idiot from hell. I would like to chain them to the bumper of my car and drag them around a few miles of gravel roads and then drop them in a vat of lemon juice.



April 25th:
I steal peanuts from Texas T-bone. They have the best peanuts.



April 26th:
Shannon worked her first fundraiser at Wendy's. A poorly organized fundraiser that illicited more puzzled looks then fundgiving from the patrons but ah well. At least she got to clean some tables.

Cramming

I had intended to spend more time getting my TV column fine-tuned this week, but with things as crazy as they are I didn't have the time. So I had to sort of cram it in before it could be placed. It's not bad, but it could have been better.

Next time I'll make time.

Ahh the colours

For a brief bit of time in the spring the trees are virtually exploding in vivid colours of pinks and greens. This is at my usual park and the cam phone just doesn't do it justice.

Bye Judy...

After work I met my grandpa up at my aunt's house where we picked up several boxes of stuff I had stored there after mom died. I hadn't seen this stuff in five years and couldn't remember what it all was but I had a good time poking through some of it. I'll go through it in-depth this weekend but for now we needed to get it out of my uncle's house because he's moving.

Yep he sold the house. After my Aunt Judy died we often wondered if he'd rattle around in the place on his own and after a few years I guess he decided it was too much for him.

I'm gonna miss this place. We spent a lot of happy times here, especially at Christmas which Judy always made sure was spectacular for the kids. She had a good time decorating the place as well. It was hard to go back in it after all this time but also sort of a good thing too. Time to move on.

Shiny

I got a new pen.

Normally this would not be very exciting. But this isn't a normal pen. It's a sweeeet pen. Very shiny. Built-in laser pointer and bright-ass flashlight in the top. I've never had a laser pointer before. My cat enjoys it immensely. This may be the first impulse item I've every bought in a checkout line that has been so thoroughly fun and useful :)

A pretty for the pretties

I gave the kid a lovely cherry wood jewelry box for Easter. She needed something to hold her growing collection of jewelry - a better place to put this stuff instead of by the side of the bathroom sink anyway :)

I think I might take it and get it engraved too.

[I will have a pic forthcoming. She disappeared with the box in her room and I'm scared to go in there.]

Weird skies

Did a little Easter shopping at the Devil tonight. When I came out the clouds looked really cool, an impending storm that turned out to be fairly weak and disappointing. Ah well.

Video hunt

Been wanting to check out a couple movies of a particular actor I like so I went on the hunt at Movie gallery since it's close to work. Couldn't find the one I really wanted, which was "Urban Legend" (Had never seen it, would probably have never tried to see it were it not for this particular actor.) MG didn't have it of course (their selection is for shit) but I did find "Poolhall Junkies" which turned out to be a real gem.

No pic today.

Yeah. Today was a bad day. Would rather forget it so no pic today.

Daily trip to Walgreens.

Went to Walgreens this am to pick up some brekkie food. Walked the same path from the entrance to the muffins. Stopped took this pic for no other reason than this aisle was empty and I wouldn't feel like a tool for snapping a photo inside Walgreens.



Dull day today in other words :)

Ugh. Gas prices.

I feel like I'm entitled to moan about gas prices because I drive an economical-ish car rather than some monstrous SUV I don't really need to own. Prices are expected to pass $3.00 again this summer just when I was hoping to make a roadtrip up to see my dad. It's going to hurt. A lot.

Vote Lex!

Yeah it's Jack bauer Monday. But I'm so sucked into Smallville that I watched the DVDs until 24 time. Something about Lex on this show is what makes this the current obsession. I make no apologies for being a thirty-something watching a WB show. Bite me :) Lex is hawt.

Spring is in the air

I'm starting to notice little buds of green on the trees. I like the renewal and it will be nice to look outside while I'm in the shower and see pretty trees rather than their bones and the pervy neighbour behind me. I still prefer Fall though.

It's that time.

Gotta maintain that shiny red hair.

Me. In Art.

Tonya sent me a link to this fun little program that transforms your picture into a bunch of different things. It's my IVL post for today and a good little timewaster.

So here's a pic of me as seen through the eyes of JAVA and a Czech artist named Mucha:



I sort of morphed the original pic and the rendering together there. Anyway here's the full rendering thingie:



Fun huh?

Spring Storm

The big news today was a massive front moving through our area that promised some excellent storm watching. It hit us around 4-ish and it's still thundering as I'm getting ready for bed.

It was magnificent. Storms just do it for me you know?

Anyway this shot is looking towards the Yancee building as I left work for the day.

Concept of Time

I love teenagers. They have no concept of time :)

Today I get a call from my lovely teenage daughter from her cell phone letting me know they had early dismissal today but could she please hang around the school for another half hour so a friend could give her a little cello lesson. "No Problem." I say.

So I wait half an hour and drive up to get her. And I wait. And I wait. I listen to a tune or two ('Bloodletting' by Concrete Blonde and 'Save Me' by Remy Zero), I decide to take my pic for today of the interesting building that is her high school, and then I start to get irritated.



So I drive around the block thinking I was at the wrong entrance. By the time I get all the way around the huge campus, I find her walking down the road looking for me.

Her excuse? "I was in a room that didn't have a clock." Priceless :) This from the child who just called me from her cell which of course, has the time right on it.

Kids these days :)

Love you Shannon :D Don't be late again. Hehehe.

Beautiful Scenery

And we all know that's why I love Brokeback Mountain :)



I was surprised to find that Walmart is carrying it. I didn't go get it there because I figured they wouldn't be selling it until I read about the ridiculous AFA and their protest against Walmart for selling it and pushing the "gay agenda."

Dunno about you but I don't know any gay person who has an agenda. Silly AFA.

Temp message

I'm having a hell of a time getting stupid Blogger to upload pix. That's why I'm behind. I'll keep trying though.

Snow? What snow?

Almost two weeks ago now we had a hell of a snow storm. Nearly 2 feet of snow was dumped on us and most of the city was shut down. I took this pic the day after as we slogged our way to work and school:



Now here's the same shot today:



All that snow is pretty much gone now. Amazing.

Addictive

I spent quite a bit of today hitting the old F5 button, refreshing the Movie Madness results. Surprising what people vote for really. My own bracket is already busted.