The Travelin Begins

Ok, so I promised many of you that I would post stories from my trip to Australia. I had no idea that I would be so busy when I returned. I believe I am finally caught up. LET'S BEGIN! (probably only one person will remotely get that reference)

Now, I've decided to tell you all about the highlights of my trip but not necessarily in chronological order. Also as the stories are posted, feel free to look at more photos on my flickr site.

Where to begin?

How about Sydney?!?!

Sydney was where my plane landed. As for the 14 hour flight, it wasn't that bad. On the way there that is. You see I left LAX at 10:30 p.m. Friday, and landed in Sydney 6:00 a.m. Sunday. Australia is in the future. I think because I felt like it was night time I was able to sleep almost nine hours of the flight going there. Not so much on the flight back, but more on that later on.

Since I never traveled overseas before I didn't really know what to expect from the flight. I got to say I enjoyed it. There was a touch screen monitor on the seat in front of me that played On Demand movies, tv shows, and also video games. I didn't know it was free to use for almost two hours into the flight. The credit card swipe for use of the phone and internet usage confused me at first. I heard people complain about the food on flights before, but clearly they have never flown U.S. domestic flights where they give you NO food. I loved the food. They gave you a choice of your meal and feed you twice with snacks in between. Also I was able to walk around the plane which was huge. They even allow you to go to back and grab your own free drinks (water, soda, etc).

Once I landed, passed through customs, and got to the taxi line, I was just thrilled about the idea that I was in a different country. Hell I was in a different hemisphere! I had the biggest smile on my face as I rode the taxi to my hotel. I reserved a hotel room for the first two nights so I could have a base camp until I figured out what I would do. I wanted the trip to be an adventure so I decided to not plan anything in advance. I wanted to discover my way through the country. It was much easier than expected. As for the hotel I picked, it was in the best location. Near a very large city park called Hyde Park and the main downtown area of Sydney known as the CBD (I think it stands for Central Business District????). Also to my surprise there was a fun run that morning with the starting line at Hyde Park. More on that in another post.

Sydney is awesome! There is a fun hip vibe within the city and it does hurt that the scenery is beautiful.



The Sydney Opera House is amazing of course. It is hard to describe seeing one of the world's most recognizable buildings. It is a lot bigger than I thought it would be. The roof looks like a fan blades. There were a ton of tourists around taking pictures of that famous roof, but I think I was the only one taking pictures of the windows.



That is the reflection of the Harbour Bridge. There is a bridge climb on it that I wanted to do but just ran out of time. I later found out that they don't let you take your camera to the top. What is up with that?

I believe that I walked more around that city my first day than I ever thought I could walk.



In the next post I will tell you more about some of the cool Sydney sites. As of now I am quite tired just like my first day in Australia. I walked around all day and was in bed fast asleep by 7:00 p.m. I leave you with a few more pictures of the Circular Quay.







Remember to look for more photos on flickr

G'day Mates!

I know you all are eager to hear and see all the cool adventures I've been doing, but I can only promise to blog and post photos once I return. For those who haven't been following my random tweets or facebook posts, Australia is awesome! I really haven't been here that long and I feel like I have a lifetime of experiences. Sydney is an amazing city! I feel like I've only seen a small portion of it. My first two days I walked more than I ever believed I would. My legs are sore and tired. I saw all the tourist sites on my first day, and yesterday I went to the zoo. It was the coolest zoo I've ever been to. They let you roam free and even touch some of the in-famous Aussie wildlife. I touched a wallaby and took my picture with a koala and her joey. That was the best part of my trip so far.

Tomorrow I head north to Cairns for some snorkeling at the Great Barrier Reef and some more exciting stuff too. Be on the look out for more experiences!

Bat in the Newsroom

A very small bat was on the loose in our newsroom. All the women were freaking out, and that's when I stepped into action. The first thing was not to catch it, but rather get video of it.



Then we chased it around until we cornered it in a bathroom. Now it is trapped!!! We left it alone for the animal control to deal

All These Things That I've Done....

Ok, so a lot has being going on, but like you would know any of that. Where have you been?
I know where I've been. Watching the Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien, that's where.

First, the other day I got my visitor's visa for my trip to Australia. This is quite exciting! I can hardly wait to go. I also found out something really cool about the visa. It is good for a year, and within that year I can go to Australia multiple times, each time I'm able to stay there for three months. So I believe that I will attempt to return to Australia a few times this year. That is of course if I don't just decide to stay there.

Second, for all YouTwitFaces out there, I've finally joined Twitter. Yes, yes, I'm one of those people now. I didn't really want to do it. I already have Myspace and Facebook. I don't even check the Myspace that often anymore. Do I really need another social networking website? I think NO. BUT..... a friend of mine has been trying to convince me to sign up and go tweet crazy. He kept saying that I am funny and I have entertaining observations. I kept telling him that I am only funny when I'm not trying to be. I can't be funny when I actually try. In the end I caved. So now you can look to your right and see a few of my tweets. Follow me....I guess. I don't see how my stupid remarks can be interesting. Who is going to read my Twitter? No one ever reads this shit! The rest of you, Go nuts!!!

That said, I've found out that my station views this as the future of media coverage. They are encouraging every employee to start their own YouTwitFace sites. They are even considering buying the all field crews new iPhones to do so. In the future we all will have to upload videos, pics, and tweets about all the breaking news. Hey, free iPhone! That's cool with me!

Third, in an effort to save as much money possible for my trip, I have been working a lot. It seems like between working all day, being on call, picking up still photography jobs, and watching the new Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien (DVR'd everynight), I never have any spare time. No hanging with friends. No baseball games. No bar stops. No working on the music. I haven't played with the "band" in a few months. So to curb this fun slump, I've been playing games at work, and I think my craziness is infecting others. Today my friend and KLAS reporter Amanda invented a brand new news based game. Lately we been having a lot of weird breaking news topics, and with only one nightside crew (due to personnel issues) to cover the topics, we needed a way to decide which topic to pick. So we invented what we've coined Weather, Government, Dead Baby.

It is much like Rock, Paper, Scissors, and I think this can be applied to every news market. It is well stated that most people tune into the news for the weather, so when unusual weather occurs it becomes the top story. This is unless there is a good political scandal (i.e. Senator's affair), people love to bitch about the failures of their elected officials. Then what trumps it all... a dead baby found in a dumpster. This can result in weeks and weeks of follow-up stories. Of course this can all be forgotten once a good hurricane or other natural disaster comes down the road. Best two out of three wins, and the cycle continues.

Damnit, I'm missing some of Conan being funny, and my cereal is soggy. I blame you!

Friday Night Live

Summer in the L.V. is full of entertainment. Every Friday night throughout the summer there is a free concert and an open bar at the Hard Rock pool. The acts are very hit and miss. The last time I went to one of these performances was almost two years ago. My work schedule conflicts with the concerts.

This week Nico Vega as on stage.



They absolutely rocked the water out of the pool. Aja, the lead singer, was awesome! She is super hot too. I think I've found my future ex-wife. She had so much energy, and her voice was so explosive. It was amazing how they had so much range with a guitar, drums and her voice. If you haven't heard them, pick up the album today!

Oh yeah, Gavin Rossdale was the main act



At first, Gavin sucked it up. He came out and drained all the energy Nico Vega had created. I was not impressed, until.......



He played some Bush songs! Machinehead was like the fourth or fifth song in the set, and after that the concert kicked ass. Then in the middle he did a version of Landslide, Fucking great!!!
He played some more Bush favorites. Everything Zen, The Chemicals Between Us, Glycerine, Comedown.....all awesome!! He played Glycerine solo, and closed the night with Comedown. I felt like I was 15 and in high school all over again. I remember back then how much I wanted to be just like him. I practiced Glycerine for hours and hours. Now I look back at how easy that song is to play. I guess that's practice for you?!?!

It was a wonderful night! Gavin played for almost two hours, and Nico Vega was kick ass. I am glad I had their album before I saw them. It made the concert much more enjoyable. All for free too. "You can't beet that!"

Flight of the Conchords

"We are so Hard Rock right now. Do you know how I can tell we are so Hard Rock? It is 51 minutes to midnight." - Jemaine Clement

My seats were better than the picture shows. Damn shitty zoom on the phone.

They were funny as shit. One of the best moments was the Freebird Freestyle. Someone in the crowd yelled out "FREEEEEBIRD!". Bret made a comment about not being that kind of band and then they started playing their own version of Freebird. It was awesome!!

They also were great about interacting with the audience. The on going joke for the night was 'how hard rock 'n roll they were being' at the Joint in the Hard Rock casino.

Also the opening comedian Arj Barker was great too. He had a great joke about Kellogg's cereal and Micheal Phelps.

Dios Mio! Hace Caliente!

It is way too early in the year for it to be this hot. Signs point to a very miserable summer