Westendorf.US

Yesterday I filled in on master control for the afternoon and evening.  This meant running MC for the fair broadcast.  Two hugely fun things complicated the whole deal.  First, our main microwave receiver is about to bite the dust and since we're moving to digital by the end of the year, it probably isn't going to get fixed.  With just one liveshot to tune it, it's fine, but we had two: the fair and the airport.  I decided to make the fair look good since that was pretty much 90% of the newscast, and so the airport suffered and looked like crap.

The real problem came in, though, because of the recent FCC freak out.  Since a single fine for nudity or swearing can land a station a couple hundred thousand dollars, the station invested in a time delay server.  Originally scheduled to be on a five second delay, they dialed it back to 1 second.  Still, I can't express to you how confusing and creepy it is to hear the director calling out things and you rolling breaks, only to see them about 2 seconds later.  In all, it turned out okay, but my brain about melted out of my ears in the process.  Thankfully I'm not in MC today, and I don't think I have to do it for the rest of the fair either.  PHEW! 

Posted in Personal/Miscellaneous

I'm normally quite slow at posting updates, so the mere fact that I've now posted photos from two outings in a row within 48 hours of getting home should impress the lot of you.  In fact, bow in my majestic goodness.

Anyway, be sure to checkout the Flickr photoset of Ben's birthday. Pam and Sam were the official photographers.  I took a couple, but obviously the ones with me in it, I didn't take.  A note to Sam or Pam…  Fingers on lenses and photos don't match.  Notice the last half of images with a smudge along the side.  Just a friendly note for next year's 4-H projects. 

Posted in Personal/Miscellaneous

I read a story tonight on how to make the most of your sleep from ScienceCareers.org .  In a nutshell, I'm screwed.

• Sleep only as much as you need to feel refreshed the next day. What if I don't have enough time to do that?
• Get up at the same time, 7 days a week.  Oh crap.
• Exercise regularly.  Do my bowels count?
• Make sure your bedroom is comfortable and free of disturbing light and noise.  Whoo-hoo.  I got one!
• Make sure that your bedroom is at a comfortable temperature during the night.  Hey, it's pretty close.
• Eat regular meals and do not go to bed hungry.  So eat at the same time?  Crap.
• Avoid excessive fluids in the evening. Cut down on caffeine products.  And I'm supposed to survive our crappy programming how?
• Avoid alcohol, especially in the evening.  Hmm, that one's easy.  I've got 3 points for me!
• Smoking may disturb sleep.  No problem here either.
• Don't take your problems to bed.  My problems are that I don't get enough sleep!  Oh man…
• Train yourself to use the bedroom only for sleeping and sexual activity.  Wait, I can do something else in my bedroom?  Hmm
• Do not TRY to fall asleep.  If you don't know you fall asleep, have you really fallen asleep?
• Put the clock under the bed or turn it so that you cannot see it.  Clocks are for wussies.  I use my phone.
• Avoid taking naps.  I tried taking naps, but I don't know where to put them after I take them.

Well, I got 6 out of 14.  I suppose that means that I'm only deprived of sleep 42.9% of the time. 

Posted in Personal/Miscellaneous