2009

Dec152009

Still Wet

I don’t remember getting much work done at the doctor’s office today. We were a bit late to arrive though. I went to the station at four this afternoon. John Snell was co-anchoring live from Raceland today to cover the flooding there following a couple days of heavy rain. His feed dropped out once during the show which was unfortunate. Jennifer Hale also had a live shot that dropped as she was wrapping up. Overall though, the broadcast looked pretty good.Between shows I wrote a short story about the Boeing 787 Dreamliner’s successful test flight today. It went on air almost exactly as I wrote it. Bobby broke my lead sentence into two separate ones. A murder occurred comparatively early this evening but we could not get any details on the incident so it didn’t make air.I was at the desk until 12:30 this evening. Luckily there were no more incidents this evening.

Comments Off

Dec142009

More Rain

Most of my time at the doctor’s office this afternoon was spent fooling with medical record copies that had to be sent out. I handled the printing for the five o’clock news at Fox 8 this evening. I didn’t have much to do with the downtime. John and I got dinner delivered from Five Happiness. I had the self-discipline to only eat half of it following pizza for lunch earlier today.The greater New Orleans area was subjected to heavy rain much like what we saw on Saturday. We had some live coverage but the rainfall was not severe enough to cause significant street flooding when we were on air. We had people out until about midnight, however. With a lot of people still on the clock well after we were off the air at 10, I was not alone in the newsroom this evening. John didn’t go home until 11:30, right after a morning show producer, Andrea, arrived early. Kim Vaughn was around too to do live weather updates on the hour. It seemed to rain at the station steadily over the course of the evening and we did get a couple reports of street flooding while I was there. I left at 12:30 and luckily I got a cab in a reasonable amount of time in spite of the weather. I updated my log after I got home and talked to Krystle on the phone briefly before bed.

Comments Off

Dec132009

13 – 0

I watched the Saints play the Atlanta Falcons this afternoon. The Falcons aren’t a push over team and again it was no blowout. Atlanta was in the game until the end but a few strokes of luck turned things in favor of the Saints who won 26-23.I went to work for five this evening. As the Saints were playing out of town we didn’t have very much game coverage to worry about. Fin went out to shoot video of the fans greeting players at the Airport and we had the Final Play sports show. I don’t remember any problems with the newscast. Even the sports show was half decent. We didn’t have the same timing problems as the past few weeks, but we did end the show prematurely. John Henry and Vilma could have chatted for about another 20 seconds in the show close.I didn’t have any trouble getting home this evening. A familiar cab driver picked me up after 10. I spent the rest of the evening fooling with instant messenger apps. I tried unsuccessfully to import my Trillian chat logs into Miranda IM and eventually gave up and started using Pidgin again. I talked to Ami online for a good while before bed.

Comments Off

Dec122009

Rained Out

I was at home through the day today. I slept in today after getting home at 4 AM last night. I spent the better part of the day fooling with my computer. I installed Miranda IM because I can skin it to fix the default Aero Glass UI better.There was some serious rain across the city this evening. Streets were starting to flood around four this afternoon. Dad took me over the river at about 4:30 to get me to work. It was raining heavily and Dad had to avoid deep water in the street on several occasions. After taking the Claiborne off ramp we hit the corner of Earhart and Magnolia where the HOV lane ramp is. Just beyond that we saw some very deep water that Dad’s Eclipse likely would not have successfully crossed. We hooked a right along with other smaller cars and headed back to the west bank and back home. I called the station and let them know I was unable to make it to the station. I talked to Allison who seemed pretty understanding. Apparently I wasn’t the only one having trouble. As we were returning we could see water in the drainage canal on General De Gaulle look like it was about to spill into the street.I figured I might make another attempt to get there if the weather let up but it rained continuously through the better part of the evening. I basically spent the rest of the evening on my computer. We had heavy rain and a bit of lightning but we didn’t lose electricity tonight.

Comments Off

Dec112009

Not Quite Birthday Party

I took the day off today and spent most of it doing nothing. It was rainy all day and night. Late this evening, I went to a quazi-birthday party for Patrick’s girlfriend Erin. Her birthday isn’t until January but she will be going abroad soon.The party was at a friend of a friend’s house, nobody I really knew. There were a handful of unfamiliar faces there. I’m not motivated to describe the gathering in detail but it was fun and Andrey and Stephanie teamed up to make mojitos that were pretty good. I had three, some beer and later lots of water to compensate. Sometime after three the party broke down and I went with Andrey to his place to call a cab. I got home around four and went right to bed.

Comments Off

Dec102009

Last Practicum Class

I don’t recall much from yesterday. I went to work but other than that I cannot remember any details of the day. After work today I went to my final media arts practicum class. I finished up my work last week but I did have to turn in an evaluation form I was late in receiving and I was curious to get my project back and read the comments. There were three class presentations remaining and we were done by 6:40. Ms. Hart was fond of my journal but didn’t like my final report, and rightfully so. I didn’t like it either. Regrettably, the class is pass/fail so extra efforts did not count for anything.

Comments Off

Dec082009

Tuesday

Overall today was what is now a typical Tuesday. I had some work at the doctor’s office this afternoon but not too much. I arrived at WVUE on time and did the reads for the five o’clock show and then printed the 5 while Dana prompted. I satisfied a personal curiosity and timed how much time actual news burned during our hour long broadcast. Excluding commercials, weather and sports, there was just under 25 minutes of real news.I wrote a “rest of” news story to fill some time between newscasts although I gave more attention to my beef teriyaki from Mikimoto for dinner. It was just four sentences about the White House gate crashers. It was good practice though and John Snell and Kim only had minor gripes. I am currently reading a book on broadcast writing which so far has been quite informative. I prompted the newscast which featured some breaking news about a cab driver shooting and a “Heart of Louisiana” package. Near the end, the time management left a lot to be desired. In the H block, several rest of stories were killed and at the end of the show we still had loads of time. Bob Breck took plenty of time for final weather and that still left well over a minute for the show close which featured over a minute of a rather dismal Saints tribute song and a Jefferson Awards graphic and skycam shots after that. All of rest of could have been read in that time.The scanners were quiet during my late night monitoring until I left for the night at 12:30. A cab arrived almost immediately and I had a speedy ride home.

Comments Off

Dec072009

Sources

Before leaving for work this I had a couple reports to work on at the doctor’s office this afternoon and I cleared some charts off my desk and filed them. A pizza from Subway was lunch.I was at Fox for four. The five o’clock news appeared to go pretty smoothly although I was printing it and not watching intently. I did not do much to do during the downtime. There were no “rest of” stories needing attention. I mostly nursed my e-mail which is in constant need of culling thanks to the small mailbox size limit.Through “sources,” it was learned that Mitch Landrieu will be announce his candidacy for New Orleans mayor tomorrow. We had a guest for the nine o’clock news, Loyola professor Peter Burns. He and the anchors had a nice chat in the A block (the first segment, before the first break) about the implications. There was also some sports news of personal interest tonight. A high school teacher of mine and football coach, Frank Wilson, has been hired by LSU. He will be their running backs coach and recruiting coordinator.I was at the station until 12:30 AM. Luckily nobody got shot so I didn’t have to wake up any photographers. There were no “good” choices tonight. On the way home, I had an interesting conversation with the cab driver, Eddie. He has a psychology degree and also did paralegal studies. Over the course of our conversation I learned he used to work for an attorney Dad does business with and the driver was actually a patient at our clinic before Katrina.As I was fishing through my wallet pay the driver, he asked if I was on the phone because he said he heard someone say hello. My Blackberry was in my pocket so I dismissed him but when I got out the car and had a look I saw I had inadvertently called Claudia. It’s not the first time my phone had dialed someone in my pocket.I also missed a call back so I called her to apologize. Luckily she was awake and just got off work. We talked for about 20 minutes on how she is doing at WWL-TV. In short, she is doing quite well and seems quite happy there.

Comments Off

Dec062009

Whew Dat

In addition to playing with my computer this afternoon, I also watched the Saints game versus the Washington Redskins. Like last week I was in disbelief but this time for different reasons. Our smack down of the lauded Patriots was pleasantly shocking. Today, our languishing performance but “improbable” comeback win was just as surprising. I didn’t get a headache last week though.I went in to work for five this evening. At around seven, there was a murder on Bass Street in the East. With a few people at the airport for the Saints fans welcoming and a couple other circumstances, we didn’t have any photographers to send out immediately. A couple hours passes before someone was on scene, which no doubt displeased management.The nine o’clock news was plagued with technical issues. During the weather segment, Nicondra’s microphone wasn’t working and the director rolled a commercial break after about 20 seconds with no sound. The problem was fixed and we did another take after the break. There were also a couple instances where talent was on camera where B roll or other video should have been. The Final Play show was plagued by the typical time management problems and general sloppiness. After the Final Play, we recorded morning sports and I was able to go home around 10:40. I had time to play on my computer before bed. I also watched some TV including the season premiere of Shatner’s Raw Nerve.

Comments Off

Dec052009

Later Than Usual

This afternoon, I spent some time with my desktop computer and Windows 7. I recently bought a retail copy and installed it on my desktop over the release candidate I had set up to dual boot with XP. I fixed a couple problems I was having with the second monitor. My USB audio interface seems to be behaving now as well.On Saturday, I “discovered” after I arrived that I had to work until midnight tonight instead of 10 PM. Nearly a month ago, I agreed to cover part of John’s shift so he could leave early tonight at 10. I was rather bummed since I planned on making use of what would have remained of my evening. I felt better after getting something to eat, however. I went with Nicondra to the grocery store around seven and bought a ham po-boy which was pretty decent. I only went myself because I needed to get cash back. Since I was staying later, I was not expecting a ride home now. Dad had agreed to pick me up Saturday night since he was going to be up.I prompted the broadcast at nine. I don’t recall any irregularities. By 10:30 I was pretty much alone in the newsroom to monitor the scanners. There was a murder in Marrero around 11 and I called Travis to check it out. He volunteered himself should I need someone this evening and I lived in reasonable proximity.Around 12 AM after Jessica arrived for the overnight shift, she pulled Travis to go catch a perp walk at central lockup. When I left for the night, I found Dad waiting outside for me. I obviously misunderstood what he said when I called him earlier to say I would be late.

Comments Off

Dec042009

Fox Party

This evening after an uneventful afternoon at work, I got as dressed up as I could stand and went to the WVUE / Horizon Entertainment Christmas party… update to come.

Comments Off

Dec042009

(Last) Class

I took the day off on Wednesday to work on my final project for Media Arts Practicum class. I had to write a short report on my internship experience which I bundled with in journal and some other previous work to hand in as one package. I had a hard time focusing on the work, however, and didn’t finish until late that night.This morning, it still needed some final polish like a table of contents. I worked on this before leaving for work today and a little bit after arriving. On the way to the office we stopped at Office Depot so I could buy a little plastic report binding thing. I managed to get it all put together in reasonably short order so I was able to get some actual work done today. At around two I went to Venesia for lunch and had the fettuccini alfredo.This evening’s media arts practicum class was wholly devoted to class presentations. In place of a regular exam, we had to speak in front of the class about our internship and what we learned from it. Earlier in the week I prepared a slide show of pictures of the station to accompany my speech. I wrote an outline for it but I did not formally prepare anything. Even so, I think I got by alright and I think the pictures were a successful distraction.Several other students have their presentations as well. A couple students worked at non-profits, one worked at WDSU and another had a decidedly unremarkable experience at Where Y’At magazine. Class was dismissed at about 7:30 and Dad picked me up shortly before eight and gave me a ride to the uptown campus for the final session of ballroom dancing this evening…

Comments Off

Dec012009

Late Start for the Nine

Dad and I got to the office at quarter to noon. It was cold and rainy out today, quite cold. I only had some housekeeping work to handle today, no reports to write. After a big dinner from the Italian Pie last night, I was not hungry this morning or afternoon.I arrived on time at Fox this afternoon. I did the anchor reads and printed the five o’clock news while Dana prompted. The broadcast appeared to go smoothly enough even though the entire sports block in ENPS was dragged into the trash minutes before we came back from commercial.After the show a handful of us in the newsroom ordered dinner from Lebanon Café. I’m not a big fan of Middle Eastern food but was willing to try something different. I had a beef shawarma. The ingredients sounded good on the menu but the sauce in this ‘sandwich’ has a sandy texture I didn’t like.Due to Obama’s primetime address on Afghanistan, the nine o’clock news started 37 minutes late. Fox just ran So You Can Dance in full after the speech. I prompted the nine o’clock news largely without incident. Later in the evening there was a non-fatal shooting that I didn’t send any photographers to. Things were quiet enough outside of that.

Comments Off

Dec012009

11 – 0

Fox 8 did a three hour pre-game special today leading up the New Orleans Saints appearance on Monday Night Football versus the New England Patriots. Janette asked me to come in early at one this afternoon since we were going on the air at three, an hour before my shift usually starts.Dad and I arrived at 11:30 this morning so I was only at the doctor’s office for a little while before heading out to WVUE for the rest of the day. I got a little bit of housekeeping done but didn’t have the time to do much substantive work.I got a lift to the station shortly before one, stopping at McDonald’s to pick up some lunch to take with me. I was not very busy after I arrived so I was able to eat my lunch. I was interrupted by a request from Paul to fetch a battery charger out of his car… which was only a bit of a hassle because it took three tries before I took the right keys out to the parking lot. Before John and Nancy left, I printed a few scripts for them to take to the Superdome where they would be broadcasting from.With the exception of one segment, everything was live at the dome or various packages and VOs so there was nearly no prompting to be done. I printed the scripts. The broadcast was divided into two rundowns. Since most of it was packages and cues for live shots, there was not much hassle with the printing. I was able to watch a good portion of the special from the control room. It’s always interesting to watch a live show like this unfold in the control room. Truly anything can happen on live television. Overall, this broadcast appeared to go pretty smoothly and they got plenty of great content in. Even though it was gray and damp outside, there were still more than enough fans outside for scenery. A good portion of the show covered the tailgaters, although we did have a couple sports anchors inside the dome for “X’s and O’s.” Sprinkled in between that were weather hits with Nicondra in studio. Kim Vaughn was with John and Nancy for occasional weather commentary as well.In the second segment of the five o’clock hour we did an in-studio news segment with Val Bracy anchoring. Although there was more than enough real news today, it was only given a token time allotment. The Saints game started at 7:30. Monday Night Football is on ESPN but WDSU was simulcasting the game as well. At nine o’clock we ran our usual evening newscast even though the game was still on. I can’t imagine why anyone would be watching us over the football game but it wasn’t my decision to bother with. It’s not permitted to run highlight clips while the game is ongoing so we couldn’t say a great deal about the game. Natasha did a live look at Bruno’s Tavern. It was nearly halftime during her segment. John Henry and Rob were broadcasting live under the seats at the Dome but they basically just commented on the noise and relayed the score. Monica was kind enough to run prompter for the show which freed me up to just print and keep watching the football game.…and what a game it was. I cannot wax eloquent, but I can say it was an astounding match up. Like a lot of people, I was expecting a closer game, maybe even a Patriots win. What we essentially got was another Saints blowout. The Patriots answered our early field goal with a touchdown but the Saints pulled ahead in the second quarter, outscoring New England 21-3. I never would have guessed the Saints would be two touchdowns ahead of Tom Brady and the Patriots at the half.The Patriots narrowed the gap early in the second half with a touchdown but two more touchdown passes from Drew Brees in the third and fourth quarter sealed the deal. Final score: 38-17. Who Dat!The newsroom largely emptied out after 10:30. Eric was working late and Avis got back to the station to play solitaire shortly before 11. There was a auto accident on the Danziger Bridge shortly after 11 which had a fatality confirmed close to midnight. I didn’t send anyone to the scene, however. I left for the night at 12:30. The wait for the cab felt pretty long as it was so cold outside.After I got home, I looked though a couple pictures I took today and talked to Krystle on the phone for a little while before bed.

Comments Off

2009

Recent Posts: