Climbing the Corporate Ladder

I've been given the chance to move from the morning show - overnight shift to two of the evening shows. Any other producer would have jumped at the opportunity to make that climb up the corporate ladder. Want to know something? My first instinct was to turn it down.

I know, I know. What person in their right mind would instinctively want to keep working the crazy schedule I've been working the past six months?

Well, let me assure you, I'm not crazy. I just genuinely like the morning show, and to be honest the hours really aren't that bad once you get used to them. There's also the fact that we recently reformatted the entire show, so everything is still relatively new in that respect. It's also very hands-on when it comes to producing. True, the material isn't "fresh" anymore, but you get to rework it so that it appears as if the viewer is just hearing it for the first time. And I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but I absolutely loveLOVElove to edit. There's a lot of that with the morning show. I also really like the people I work with on a daily basis, which is a major plus.

All of that is great, but let's be honest here. The morning show - overnight shift isn't where you want to spend your entire career in the news business. With that being said, I've gotten used to the wonky hours and have settled into a pretty comfortable lifestyle. I sleep through the heat of the day and have every Friday afternoon off. How could that be considered a bad thing? Accepting a position that would shift my schedule to 2:00-11:00 p.m. would force me to do a 180 when it comes to how I live, and at first that concept is pretty scary.

Ultimately deciding to accept the position resulted in me sitting down and really examining the changes I would be making, both in my career and in my personal life.

As a career move, acceptance is a really good move. The 6:00 and 10:00 newscasts are primetime shows and should I decide I want to advance and move somewhere else they would look really great on my resume. No one goes to work in a corporation without the thought that they're eventually going to climb that corporate ladder higher into the company. That would be completely irresponsible.

Did the opportunity to advance come earlier than I was prepared for? Definitely. Which goes a long way in explaining my reluctance to immediately accept the offer. However, I know better than to look a gift horse in the mouth. If I had turned the offer down flat, who's to say when or even if I would get the opportunity for advancement in the future. As I mentioned before, no one wants to stay on this shift forever, and the evening shows aren't all bad.

Speaking strictly as a producer, the evening shows have a lot of elements that are desirable. I'll be working with fresh news, dealing with live elements and have reporters I can send out to get stuff should the need arise. The shows are also only 30 minutes compared to the morning show's two hour-long blocks. Things will be faster paced and there will be less down time, which is honestly a big plus. The biggest draw is getting to work with people for the entirety of my shift, even though there will undoubtedly be more drama than I like to deal with.

And did I mention I'll be sleeping at night? I know I said earlier that sleeping during the day really isn't all that bad, and it isn't. But when you get down to it, as a rule people generally function better if they're sleeping when it's dark outside. I don't care how many hours during the day I sleep, as soon as the sun goes down my body automatically starts to shut back down. It's normal to sleep at night.

When all is said and done, the benefits of accepting the "promotion" far outweigh the cons I could think of. Do I regret taking time to really think about my decision? Not at all. My news director wasn't just offering me a promotion. She was offering me a new lifestyle. That's not a decision anyone should take lightly.

Looks like somebody's got a case of the Mondays

I'm much more tired this Monday than I've been being. I blame it on waking up obscenely early for weekend days and only getting a two-hour nap before having to be at work for eight hours. After waking up obscenely early to begin with. With that being said, I have the beginnings of a headache, haven't had any caffeine in hours and need sleep badly. And we're not even through the first hour of the show.

Political Pow-Wow

Murmurings of political corruption have reared their ugly heads here. Earlier this week, the governor of this fine state appointed a new district court judge for the county I work in. The following day the opposing party accused the governor of appointing the man as a way to save the political seat.

Basically, it all boils down to one thing: electronic bingo.

Now see, the governor is 100% against gambling of any kind, especially slot machines. For him, electronic bingo machine and slot machine are one and the same.

The talk around town is that the new district judge got his position in return for not allowing an electronic bingo operation to take root.

Last fall, an electronic bingo facility opened up here. It was promptly raided by the governor's anti-gambling task force and an all out battle began. In January, I went to a press conference in the state capital where opponents to gambling ranted and thumped their Bibles. That's not an exaggeration there. They really did thump Bibles. It was a bunch of Baptist preachers and a few political people.

One speaker said the battle for Alabama that will determine the fabric of its people is about to begin.

"It's going to be a showdown of the magnitude of Phenix City 60 years ago," republican Sen. Henry Erwin said. "If you go to Phenix City today to talk with the people that know and remember the showdown they had in that community 60 years ago they will tell you we don't want to ever see gambling ever again in our city."

 Back then, Phenix City was notorious for organized crime, prostitution and gambling.

Now I'm sitting here picturing a bunch of guys in pinstripe suits, fedoras and tommyguns running around town. Do I really think there's going to be a mob boss lording over a room full of electronic bingo machines? No.

When all the craziness in Phenix City was going on I'm pretty sure it was over way more than just bingo. It was a full-scale casino, complete with its own Godfather-like group of gangsters and prostitutes.

The bingo facility here had so much more than just a casino. There were restaurants and bars, and there's an amusement park and water park in the works. Not to mention the number of people it employed that are now jobless.

But still, there are those who can't get their heads above the gambling is bad attitude they wear so close to their heart to see that.

One preacher from Prattville offered this anecdote at the press conference:
Gambling is like licking a log out in the woods. If you turn it over, you see the rotten part underneath. That's how we believe gambling. When you look at the underside, it's not worth the cost.

 -Thomas Coleman

A former minister, Tom Anderson, of Columbia says, "It has a sordid history. I do not believe gambling can ever be cleaned up."

Another minister said gambling promises things it cannot produce.

Such close-mindedness is truly a tragedy. Are they so blind as to not realize these so-called sinners will just take their so-called addictions somewhere else? People who choose to gamble and truly develop a problem will not stop just because a bunch of Bible-beating, ultra-conservative republicans keep sending in a big bully with a bunch of guns to squash the livelihood of so many people (in a state where unemployment is above the national average).

Good Riddance, Tony

Do you guys remember when I talked about oil spills a couple weeks ago?

At the end of that post, I posed this question:
Now, if Mexico can stop an oil spill that happened at a depth of more than 11,000 feet below the water's surface back in 1979... why can't we stop one that's less than half that distance below the water?

 This is the Ixtoc I. It's the oil platform I was referring to with that question. If you recall, the Ixtoc I was used by a Mexico-based company called Pemex back in the 1970s. In June 1979 it exploded and finally sank, eventually dumping more than 71,000 barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico from a depth of 11,800 feet below the seafloor. 162 miles of beaches in the United States gulf coast were impacted.

 That is the Deepwater Horizon surrounded by a sheen of oil. This is about 50 miles or so off of Louisiana's coast. Oil has already far outstretched their beaches and reached up into their marshes and inland waterways, horribly damaging their ecosystems. Currently all the media outlets are concentrating on the deep-water drilling ban that's actually hurting the state's already reeling economy, as well as the rehabilitation of animals who've gotten into the oil.

Personally, I'm more concerned with stopping the well from gushing hundreds-of-thousands of gallons of oil per day. Currently, BP has put a cap on the well and is pumping a good bit of the crude to the surface. But it's not catching everything.

The latest word is that they're actually going to try what Pemex did with the Ixtoc spill - drill a pair of relief wells. It won't be something that takes immediate effect, but anyone who thought this should be something that only took a matter of days is seriously naive. As I pointed out in my earlier post, this isn't the first oil spill the U.S. has gone through. It's not the first oil spill to rock the world. We will recover from this environmental disaster just like we recovered from the others.

Meanwhile, BP CEO Tony Hayword is no longer the frontman for the spill. Serves him right, the insensitive jerk. Congress ripped him a new one last week after he told them he wasn't "up to speed" on all of the company's proceedings. How does that work exactly? And he certainly didn't win any friends when he spouted this off on national television: No one wants this to be over with more than me. You know, I'd like my life back.

Really? He'd like his life back? He's only ruined the livelihoods of thousands of people. And what about the 11 workers who were killed in the explosion? I bet they'd love to have their lives back. I bet they'd love to be able to take their yatchs and enter them in races in non-oil-poluted waters.

Good riddance.

Life of Ashton

One day last week the boyfriend and I somehow got to talking about age. I think it started with a discussion about the people I work with and a comment to the effect of "I work with all the old guys." Then he was kind enough to remind me that I'm not so far away from 30 myself, which isn't old. But his comment got me to thinking about the fact that I've almost been alive for three decades. That's pretty heavy. And then I started examining the things I've done and consequently the things I've learned in my vast almost-24 years.

I've graduated not once, but twice. I remember Columbine, Kuwait and the bombing of the World Trade Center in New York. More recently, I've lived through the election of the first multi-racial president, seen pigs fly (swine flu, fyi) and the most recent of all I'm living through the United States' largest environmental disaster in history. I'm old enough to remember life before computers and cell phones. I remember buying my first CD and playing the original Nintendo for years. In two-and-a-half decades, I've actually seen and experienced a lot, which would lead one to believe that I should have a pretty decent knowledge base. Right?

Well, I'll tell you this. The things I've learned that I consider to be the most important didn't necessarily come from a class. Some of it is practical knowledge. Some of it is what should be common sense. And some of it I learned along the way purely by missteps and chance.

You should click on this to make it bigger. It's pretty funny.

If your apartment/loft/whatever is on an upper floor, keep your blinds turned down. Otherwise people on the ground can see you in all your natural glory.

True friends are hard to find. And even harder to keep.

People are going to hurt you. Even those you care about deeply. The trick is to decide who's worth it.

Everyone deserves the chance to learn their limits. I learned mine in college. I also left them there.

No one should focus so completely on one person that they lose sight of who they are and what they need as a person.

The hurt of losing someone you love never goes away. It gets easier to deal with, but it's always there. It's called yearning.

Don't drink and drive. It's stupid and dangerous.

If you do drink, don't mix colors. Unless you want to throw up the rainbow. It's not as pretty as it sounds.

Putting bubbles in the fountains at school results in thousands of dollars worth of maintenance fees. That means eventually your tuition goes up. And if it doesn't, your lab fees increase.

Don't just sign up for any old teacher. Ask around.

Speaking of school, that party you want to go to sounds like fun but I promise you, studying for that test is the better choice. Hindsight is 20/20.

 If you're going to get struck by lightening, make sure your body is wet. Otherwise, the lightening is going to travel through your bloodstream and out through your feet. That means you die.

Just because you major in one thing doesn't mean you can't find a job, maybe even a career, doing what you want to do in something not related to your major. I'm a testament to that. Don't limit yourself.

It's infinitely easier to get along with people than to spend your life arguing with everyone.

Stress is completely overrated. Avoid it at all costs.

Those $1 floats you get from Walmart make perfect "boats" for no-swimming areas.

Sidewalks are only suggestions. Especially when they don't lead anywhere useful.

If you hit someone who's in a crosswalk, your fine will be significantly higher than if you hit the same person jaywalking.

There are some things you shouldn't buy the cheap version of. Like toilet paper. And mayonnaise.

Laughter really is the best medicine.

You're never too old to ask for help. Especially from your parents. That's what they're there for.

You know that saying "Everyone has to grow up sometime"? It's not true. Some people never grow up. And did you think you'd escape clicks when you got out of high school? Ha! Your naivety is cute. Clicks are everywhere. The difference out of high school is that you have more choices.

I'm sure I have more useless knowledge that I could fill your heads with, if you even made it through that list. Unfortunately I cannot keep rambling on. It's almost time for me to go downstairs and stare aimlessly at the t.v. while advancing the server. You know something? I don't really watch the show I produce. By the time I've spent an entire night with the material that's in it, I don't care anymore. Does that make me a bad producer? My discrepancy reports and ratings don't say so!

I'm A Survivor

I've been out of commission for the past two days, so I honestly don't know what's going on in the world of news. Which is kind of shameful when you think about it since my business is news. Oh well, I'm not going to lie. I rarely watch the news when I'm not at work. *shrug*

I'm actually working on something for you guys next week. I would have written it this week... but well, I was sick and didn't even get on a computer until I came back to work. Most of that can be blamed on the fact that I don't have my own internet, but that's neither here nor there in the scheme of things.

So I went to the doctor after I got off work on Tuesday morning. They gave me a shot. In my bum. It hurt, but I didn't cry until I got out to the car. Then I went and bought soup and pudding. I'm so sick of soup and pudding. I'm mostly better though. I can't really talk still, but at least it doesn't feel like someone is individually squeezing each of my tonsils. Right?

Anyway, on to more important things. I got an award.

Thanks to Jennifer over at more than a MOMMY. Now for the rules:

List 7 Things About Myself

1. I'm probably the most un-funny person you'll ever have the pleasure of meeting. Seriously. I only know one joke, and when I make an attempt at being funny it usually falls flat.

2. I'm addicted to sunglasses. I never leave the house without a pair. My mom makes fun of me.

3. The blood-pressure machine at doctors' offices makes me really anxious. I don't know why.

4. Monopoly pisses me off.

5. I'm a boring person. And that's okay.

6. Giraffes are my favorite animal. I have a giraffe purse, stuffed giraffe, giraffe blanket, giraffe wallet, giraffe tote bag, giraffe jacket... I'm obsessed.

7. I suck at math.

If you couldn't tell from that pitiful list, I totally suck at talking about myself but I think those 7 random facts about me will suffice. And now on to the next part of the award. Tag 15 People. Well, I have 17 followers so if you're reading this, consider yourself tagged.

Happy Weekend.

I'm a Sick Giraffe

That's what I would look like today if I were a giraffe.

But I'm not a giraffe.

Want to see what my throat looks like?

And you thought it was going to be gross, didn't you? I'm not so mean as to post an actual picture of my throat. Diagrams are much cleaner and not as gross as the real thing. But there you have it. My throat.

And that, dear readers, is why there isn't a post today. Instead, I'm going to fight to get through the rest of my morning and then drag myself, unwillingly, to the doctor.

And it's not my doctor, unless I chicken out and decide to drive 30 minutes to my hometown so my mom can go hold my hand just in case they give me a shot. I'm a big baby when it comes to shots. Seriously. I cry.

So you know I feel pretty rough if I'm going to the place where there's a high possibility that they're going to inject something painful into my arm.

Mondays Always Sucks

That pretty much says it all.

But I'll tell you one more thing before I run downstairs to produce my show...

I wish I was still here:

P.S. That black-looking stuff is not oil. It's seaweed.

Say No to Internet Drama

Have you ever gotten into an internet fight? You know, like on Facebook or Myspace or even Twitter?

If you have, you know you're an idiot right?

Were you expecting a just kidding after that statement? Well, you're not getting one. Fighting over the internet is one of the stupidest things you could waste time over. It's like winning a race in the Special Olympics: in the end, you're still retarded (yes, I know I'm probably going to Hell for that).

It's one thing to verbally or physically fight with someone, but to take it to the internet where anyone can see it is just a cry for attention. Let's face it. You want people to read your argument. You need them to be on your side. Well I hate to break it to you, but your cleverly-worded comebacks do not impress anyone. In fact, most people think your internet drama is stupid.

And we all know this to be true, but that doesn't stop some of us from airing our dirty laundry so to speak on the walls of Facebook, does it?

You may wonder what the point of this is. No, I did not just decide to rant about my distaste for internet drama. Something I found at work prompted me to dust off my soap box.

Have you ever watched the show Jersey Shore? If you haven't you're not missing much, but if you have then you know Snooki.

That's her at the CMAs earlier this week. Anyway, in the premier for the next season of JS, Snooki complains that she doesn't use tanning beds anymore because "Obama put a 10-percent tax on tanning."

She goes on to say: McCain would never put a 10-percent tax on tanning, because he's pale and he would probably want a tan.

Somehow this whole deal makes it onto Twitter, where McCain replied to her comment.

Did anyone know John McCain knew how to use Twitter?! Crazy.

Anyway, McCain told Snooki, "u r right, I would never tax your tanning bed! Pres Obama's tax/spend policy is quite The Situation. but I do rec wearing sunscreen!"

To which Snooki replied, "Haha yes!!"

 McCain, by the way, is a skin cancer survivor. And honestly, I'm not 100-percent sure I believe the Arizona senator is actually the person updating that Twitter account. Surely he would use correct spelling and punctuation, not to mention capitalize words that start a sentence.

Stuff like that is so stupid. Whether it's really Sen. McCain or someone pretending to be him, bashing the president through your Twitter account is just childish.**

**This is in no way a reflection of my political views. Whether I voted for our current President or McCain has absolutely no bearing on the comments made in this post. If the situation were reversed, my views on internet bashing would remain the same as expressed herein.

Nightmare on Honeysuckle Road

I had a work-related nightmare yesterday.

It was really quite awful. It was two minutes until my show was about to start. I was sitting in my usual chair, legs folded up under me Indian-style with my plaid blanket thrown across my lap. I had my rundown sitting in front of me and we were checking the tape list. And it was completely wrong. All of it. Not a single tape. They were either missing or not remotely related to the story they corresponded with. I kept reaching for the mouse to fix it, but then it would all just go to pieces. I was sobbing, not hysterically but big crocodile tears, and I was slumped over the board with my hand stretched towards the mouse, and my director was taking it from me while patting me on the back and saying, "It's all gonna be fine." The graphics operator was making snarky comments that only made the situation worse and everything else was completely silent, too silent. My show was about to crash and burn. And there was nothing I could do about it.

Absolutely worst dream ever.

Goonies Never Say Die

Do you guys remember watching The Goonies? You know, the Steven Spielberg cult classic from the 80s. It's seriously one of my not-so-guilty pleasures as far as a movie goes. It's incredibly corny, but what movie from the 80s wasn't? I remember one time my old roomie and I sat up until 4:00 a.m. watching this 80s movie called Valley Girl with a very young, not hot Nick Cage and it was quite possibly the corniest movie I've ever seen, but that's besides the point.

How could you not love the Goonies? I mean, they "never say die." They have the camaraderie we all crave and they get to find a pirate ship full of treasure while taking down the bad guys!

In the end, we all wanted our own Sloth.

Hey, you guys!

And we all envied Chunk's truffle shuffle.

And you can't tell me that you didn't secretly want to be like Data and have a boxing glove explode out of your jacket!

Anyway, the point is that the cast -the ones who're still alive- reunited recently to celebrate the fact that the movie is being released on Blue Ray in November. And in the process they unveiled a lost scene! Want to see it? I know you do.

Here's the article where you can read all about their reunion: The Goonies cast reunites

And in the meantime,

Never Say Die!

Confessions of a Deranged Serial Killer

Do you guys know who this is? If you don't, well you should. This is Joran van der Sloot, a 22-year-old Dutchman who has been the prime suspect in the 2005 disappearance of Alabama teenager Natalee Holloway. He was arrested twice in connection with the case, but both times there wasn't enough hard evidence to convict him of any crime.

Still not ringing any bells? His face has been plastered all over the news these days for the beating death of a 21-year-old Peruvian woman.

He confessed this morning to the murder of Stefany Flores. That was after police obtained hotel surveillance of the two of them getting into the elevator and going to his room and then four hours later van der Sloot leaving alone. Reportedly he told police that he did it because Flores saw information about Holloway on his computer.

Do we still think he's innocent?!

If you ask me, and I know you're not, this is one creepy guy. I know you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, but he just looks like a serial killer. And here's a little tidbit for you, he killed Flores exactly five years after Holloway disappeared in Aruba. And he's facing charges in Alabama for trying to extort $250,000 to reveal the location of Holloway's body.

I hope Joran van der Sloot fries (since he's in Peru he just might). And I'm not a violent person. And I'm also pretty sure anyone living in this area feels almost exactly the same way that I do about this bastard.

I Got Nothing

I didn't think I was going to have time to write anything not related to my show this morning, but apparently I was mistaken. And as a result of my assumption, I'm completely unprepared.

To understand my frustration with this past night, you have to have some concept of how I put my show together. When I get here, I open up my work center (it's called AP NewsCenter), and I open up all the shows from the night before. Monday through Thursday nights (a.k.a. Tuesday through Friday mornings) those shows are the 5:00, 6:00 and 10:00 shows from the night before. On Sunday nights (a.k.a. Monday mornings) I open up all of the weekend shows.

It's a given that there's not going to be a lot of local news coming from the weekend. There's only one reporter and there's usually nothing all that important going on, but I can usually count on there being two packages and a couple of sound bites.

Not today!

I get here last night, open up the weekend shows and immediately see a problem. Both of the packages are dated, which means I can't use them. That left absolutely no local news in the Sunday shows and only one video bite in the Saturday show. Which means, except for the Sports segment and Legal Matters, I had to put together almost an hour's worth of news to build my show for this morning.

I just finished that task about 25 minutes ago, leaving me really only enough time to post my stories to the web. But that dreaded task was not meant to plague me today. For whatever reason, the AP wire doesn't have a single story on it. Excuse me while I perform my short-lived victory dance.

Which propels me to my blog. Guys, I got nothing.

P.S. I promise I'll catch up with your blogs eventually!

Oil Spills Past & Present

Recently I've started getting invitations to join groups on facebook with titles like Boycott BP. I ignore them, of course, because I'm not naive enough to think that boycotting a company that doesn't own even half of the BP gas stations in the U.S. I mean, come on people. Boycotting BP isn't going to help the situation. It's just going to hurt individual business people.

Of course, the oil spill has been filling up my newscasts. It only makes sense seeing as how we're on the Gulf Coast and it's our beaches that are being threatened and our fishing that's being destroyed. And I know things are bad, but I'm a realistic person and know that it's not the end of the world. After all, this is not the first oil spill the United States has made it through. It's not even the first oil spill to happen in the Gulf of Mexico.

So I did a little digging, and at the risk of being long-winded and perhaps boring I'm going to share some of what I found with you. It's not happy news by any means, but I hope it will be eye-opening.

 

That's the Gulf of Mexico. And if you look closely you can see Campeche on the Yucatan Peninsula. Right off of Campeche is the Bay of Campeche, which is where back on June 3, 1979 the Ixtoc I exploded.

The Ixtoc I was a drilling platform being used by Pemex, a Mexico-owned company. They were drilling for oil in the Bay of Campeche when the drill got caught in some soft strata. Then when they dislodged it a whole lot of mud and other stuff was displaced, which did some stuff that I don't understand and the drill exploded, eventually causing the platform to sink into the bay. Oil began gushing out of a hole at a depth of 11,800 feet. By the time they got things under control in 1980, 71,500 barrels of oil had spilled into the Gulf of Mexico and 162 miles of U.S. beaches had been impacted.

 

Nine years later (March 24, 1989), the Exxon Valdez ran aground in the Prince William Sound in Alaska. Up until the Deep Water Horizon fiasco, this spill was regarded as the second largest in U.S. history. A total of 10.8 million gallons of crude leaked into the sound, and even today you can find traces of it.

 

The largest oil spill in U.S. history occurred back on March 14, 1910, in Kern County, California. The Lakeview Gusher #1. Drilling began on this well in 1909. Back then they didn't have all the precautions and safety mechanisms in place today to protect against the immense pressure of drilling deep into the ground, which is exactly what caused the pipe to bust and oil to begin gushing out. It took 18 months to get the "river of oil" under control. By that time, 378 million gallons of oil had spilled.

 

Which brings me to the largest oil spill in the history of the world: The Gulf War oil spill. On January 23, 1991, Iraqi soldiers opened the valves on all the oil tankers sitting in the Persia Gulf and let them dump the oil they were carrying into the water. This was just after Iraq invaded Kuwait and the move was said to have been in an effort to foil U.S. troops. Okayyy. 462 million gallons of crude spilled into the Persia Gulf. The slick was 4, 242 square miles and in some places was up to five inches thick.

Which brings me to the Deep Water Horizon. On April 20, 2010, it exploded in the Macondo Prospect oil field 40 miles southeast of Louisiana. Eleven people were killed, 17 were injured and nearly 100 were rescued with no major injuries. Right now it's estimated that there are 440,000 - 700,000 barrels a day pouring into the Gulf of Mexico. That's 18 million - 29 million gallons. However, those estimates are still uncertain because BP won't let real scientists measure the amount of crude coming out of the well. So far, almost every fix they've tried has failed and those failures have been blamed on the fact that the hole is located 5,000 feet below the water's surface.

Now, if Mexico can stop an oil spill that happened at a depth of more than 11,000 feet below the water's surface back in 1979... why can't we stop one that's less than half that distance below the water? Maybe BP should man up and admit they need help. And I don't necessarily mean the government or the EPA. In my opnion, humble though it may be, the EPA needs to back away and let BP deal with this without their interference. Yes, chemicals are bad for the environment but honestly, how much worse can it be than the oil?

Overheard on the Scanner

After Wednesday, today's show just seemed to fall together. And no, yesterday's post was not an exaggeration. I literally had no extra time. I even had to get my anchor to come in early so she could help me finish writing. But let's not dwell, shall we? Instead let's talk about tonight... well, it's really morning but I consider anytime the sun isn't up nighttime.

I've mentioned before that part of my job includes listening to the scanners. We have three - a local channel, state trooper channel, and one that rolls through every single one of our viewing areas. I'm talking the entire tri-state area (that's southwest Alabama, southeast Georgia and the central northern part of the Florida panhandle). For the most part they're just background noise and I listen for specific things.

For example: 10-70 means fire; an engine is not always a fire truck - in fact, more often than not it's an ambulance (that gets confusing sometimes); and they say 10-23 a lot but it's not important.

Most of what I hear amounts to traffic stops or some guy getting chased around town for trying to break in somewhere and tripping an alarm. One night I heard one of our meteorologists get a speeding ticket. Another night I heard one of our reporters get a noise violation for playing Rock Band.

I'm not getting off topic when I say that people joke about our building being haunted all the time. It's actually an old hotel that, to my knowledge, no one has ever died or been killed in. However, at times I think a poltergeist might have moved in. You see, the refrigerator sometimes sounds like it's trying to exorcise some kind of demon and other times, like tonight, the scanner is acting all crazy and possessed.

I swear, I could turn this blog into an "Overheard on the Scanner" site. That is, if I had time to sit and just listen for the funny, interesting or just plain weird stuff that comes out of them. As it is, I have a job to do that monopolizes most of my night. The scanner would not be ignored tonight though, so I scrapped my original post topic (to be used at a later date, of course) in lieu of sharing the midnight scanner experience with you guys.

Last night, and I'm not exaggerating this in the least, one of the scanners went all staticky and this creepy, horror-movie raspy voice comes over it saying: I can see you. I'm not sure if it's possible to hack into the air waves, but if it is I'm officially freaked out to be at work alone all night!

Tonight has been a trip. Here's the conversation that started my journey into the craziness.

Police 1: Why don't you get some gas before you run out?

Police 2: I don't think I will.

Police 1: (sarcastically) Okayyy.

I was hoping I'd hear "Can you come pick me up?" a few minutes later...

Then I got serenaded by The Temptations.

When the night is come

And the land is dark

And the moon is the only light we see.

No, I won't be afraid.

No-o I won't be afraid.

Just as long as you stand, stand by me.

Then I hear:

Please. Uh-huh.

Please. Uh-huh.

Let me ride that donkey, donkey.

Let me ride that donkey.

At this point I'm thinking, Really?! The scanners have never been this retarded, but they weren't finished. Suddenly, out of nowhere, I hear hysterical, almost-maniacal laughter that lasted a good two minutes. Two to three minutes later I hear a single but loud Yah!

I'd like to end this with something witty or a nice pun, but I honestly don't know what to make of this. You never know what's going to happen on this shift, but really? I'm slightly flabbergasted and kind of afraid of what's going to come out of it next! I'd turn it off but I don't know how, and throwing it out the window is out of the question. Unless one of you wants to start sending me a paycheck every two weeks. Any takers?

Election Day

I'm stealing a few moments during the second hour of my show to give you guys a little update.

This is the most boring show I have ever produced. Seriously. Three blocks of nothing but election results.

And I came in an hour early last night to deal with all this crap. That didn't make a big difference though. I was still running 90 to nothing until right before the show started. It didn't help that when I got to the station I walked into a disaster zone. Everyone was going nuts - there were no sound bites and the numbers weren't coming in like we needed them to. In fact, several of the races still don't have 100% reporting!

So I didn't post any stories to the website (as if I really care) and I didn't have time to come up with anything interesting to talk about, which isn't a tragedy seeing as how I had zero extra time last night.

And what does that all amount to?

I hate this morning's show.

I hate politics.

I want to go home.

Welcome to my Scene

Recently I've gotten a plethora of new followers. Yay! and WELCOME to my humble ramblings, because in all reality that's what this blog truly is. Okay, so it's not really that bad.

Since you guys are new to my scene (I never thought I'd be able to say I have a scene), I thought it would be fun for me to introduce you to what I do. Most people are relatively curious about what a t.v. producer does, and I'll go ahead and answer your most burning question: I don't make squat. I'm over-worked and under-paid on a daily basis. Seriously, my paychecks are laughable.

It's not a bad gig, but I have to be honest here and let you know that I never ever expected to be where I'm at right now. I knew I wanted to be a journalist, but I never really wanted to go the route of t.v. My aspirations have always lay in the world of the printed word, though not necessarily as a writer. Don't get me wrong, I love to write but my real passion is editing other people's work and taking all of the little parts of a publication and putting them together to create the finished product.

In a way, though, being a television news producer is almost the perfect job for me. And it would be the perfect job if it had more of the design aspect you find in newspapers and magazines. As it is, I guess I can technically say the only design-like work I do is decide the order or line-up of my shows, but there's nothing quite like arranging the text on the page with the photos and headlines and all other elements that go with a publication.

Anyway, the gist of what I do is determine the order of my show and then edit the scripts. I also cut some video, but there's not really much to say about that part mainly because it's not very interactive. All I do is double-click here, hit the "i" key here and then the "o" key there, drag everything down to this line and then hit export. I'm sure there are lots of other cool things you can do, but since I'm not a video person by nature I just stick to the process I just described.

It should be noted at this time that my schedule is completely backwards from that of normal working people. I go in at 11:00 p.m. and get off around 7:15 a.m. That's why my posts are hella early in the morning. I usually write them in the hour before my show goes on the air. Then while all you normal people are going in for your ordinary day shifts, I'm asleep. And because I'm poor I don't have my own internet source yet, so my intenet access at my apartment is limited which means I'm pretty much only using the 'net while I'm at work. That should explain why my comments are almost a day late on all of your blogs.

Another part of my job is staying alert to the scanners, which is annoying at best. On most days I want nothing more than to chunk the obnoxious chatter boxes out the window, but that's enough about that. If you'd like to read more about my scanner adventures check THIS and THIS out.

To be honest, my job is the inspiration for this blog. It's my last link to the world of printed news, although it's a small link. I try to find interesting things in my newscast or on the news wires that are interesting and then put my spin on it. I don't ever alter the facts, but you always leave knowing exactly how I feel about the subject. 

With that being said, lately the news is completely depressing, which is why I've been giving you more glimpses into my personal life. Speaking of which, I've got a problem. See there's this guy who keeps hitting on me, in spite of the fact that I blatantly told him my boyfriend doesn't like it. He keeps trying to get me to invite him over so we can "hang out." And he's taken to texting me at what I like to call the booty-call hours of the night. The problem is that we work together and it's gotten really awkward. We're not on the same shift, but eventually we could be and it's gotten to the point now where I come in later just to avoid the off-chance of running into him. I don't want to file a formal complaint against him but I want him to leave me the hell alone! Any suggestions (other than letting my boyfriend beat him up... I'm pretty sure that's grounds for me getting fired)?

Oh, and while I was searching for a picture to start this with I typed "tv producer" into the google images search bar and I got a pretty crazy result. Want to see? I know you do.

Where the heck does that fit in with tv producer?!