7.22.2008

Moronic Duties Part 1

So whenever I meet someone new, and they find out my profession. I usually get the same response. They think my job is interesting, amazing, exciting, fascinating, and even cool. They wish they had a job like mine. While my job can be all of those things. Yes I get to ride in helicopters. Yes I get to travel to new places. Yes I get to meet new interesting people daily. Yes I get to see things that most people will never get to see. That said, sometimes my job sucks just like everyone else's does. There are times when I have to do things that I don't want to do, and most of those things seem very pointless.

Take for instance last week. Now I don't know why, but it seemed like each day I was asked to do something more idiotic than I did the previous day. So I decided to document all this stupid shit to tell you all about it. Now some of you already know my pain, but there are a few of you who read this and you have no idea. At least not yet.

Monday

I hate Mondays. No matter how much fun I have during the weekend I always feel like Monday ruins it for me. So I get to work around my usually late time. It was raining all weekend, and everyone goes freaking nuts when it rains here. (more on that later) I walk into my newsroom. Talk to a few people. Say hi to some other people. Then my assignment desk manager asks me to go outside to shoot rain video. Thinking I was just outside and I didn't see it raining, but I go out there to do it anyways.



Once I get out there I see that it did rain, but not much. I'm talking like 1/36 of an inch. I call back inside to tell them that it isn't raining, and there is no need to shoot anything. He goes on to tell that our Executive Producer just left the buliding and saw it raining and told him to get someone to shoot it for the news. So he asks me to just do it anyways so he doesn't get in trouble later.

This is completely ridiculous! They're wasting my time on this nonsense. Yet I still have to do it. So I decide to give them what they want.

I shoot rain.......droplets



It is not raining, but I have prove that it did somewhere, sometime in the past. Or I maybe someone recently used a hose.

Tuesday

Sometimes I'm asked to do something so boring, so oscitant that I wonder why in the hell are they paying me to do this stupid shit.

As soon as I get to work on Tuesday, I was told to go stakeout the county dentention center (jail). Oooh, a stakeout....that sounds exciting. Well it is not! Instead it sucks. I have to stand outside a building that has many entrances, waiting for a highway patrol trooper that is believed to be turning himself into authorities. (information wasn't completely confirmed)



Here is the catch. I have no clue what he looks like. HA!

But they give me a discription. He's a somewhat tall white male. Great! Thanks!

Plus I get help



My "lookout" says that he claims to know what the man looks like, but then again he keeps jumping to attention whenever some person he "thinks" is the tropper walks by, but it never turns out to be the tropper. So we spend the next five hours or so moving from one side of the building to the other, and scooping out any fancy car that pulls up to the sidewalk. My reporter buddy believes that any second a lawyer in a fancy car will pull up with the suspect inside, ready to walk right into our direction.

It turns out that the highway patrol trooper turned himself in to authorities at his lawyer's office and he was transported (by police vehicle) to the detention center before we even go to the building. HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!

Oh you want to know why he is so omportant. Well a few weeks back the tropper was off duty and was involved in an automobile accident. He crashed into another car killing the driver of that car. At the time it was said that he had a diabetic seizure. It was later proven that he had marijuana in his system. Ooops!

That was just the start of the week for me. It gets even better as the week goes on. Tune in for the exciting continuation. Same blog time. Same blog channel

7.06.2008

Awards?? I guess

So I've been doing my line of work for about six or seven years now. I've never thought anything I ever created was good enough to win any type of award. I am more critical of myself than anyone. But I still enter my work into contests not hoping for much.

In fact at work I'm in charge of gathering up all the other photographers' work and submitting it into the NPPA quarterly clip contest. Sometimes I feel like a that one teacher in high school who tries to get to kids to work harder and try new things because he knows they can achieve something more. No one wants to enter anything. They all think it is a waste of time. Why wouldn't they? The only names you ever see on the winner's list are people who do special projects that are given days to work on stories. But I still keep telling everyone to enter because you never know, anyone could win.

Well now I can back that up. Both of my enteries for the first quarter have placed. This is the first time that I even placed.

Apartment Fire! Get Out! has won 2nd place in the Spot News category

Henderson CSI has won 3rd place in the General News category

Check them out tell me what you think