The GPS clock in master control finally reset itself. I was just getting ready to do it manually, but the clock re-synced and set itself shortly after 4am CDST. This actually explains my confusion the last couple times I did this. I think I was always trying to change the settings right around this time, which is why it felt like it was changing more hours than it should have been.
Archive for October, 2006
Comments: 0October 29th, 2006 by Ryan Westendorf
Comments: 0October 29th, 2006 by Ryan Westendorf
It's the same routine every fall and spring. We change our clocks ahead or back by one hour. I get the opportunity to witness this every time since I work at night. Which also means I never gain an hour of sleep, but always lose an hour of sleep. Basically, I'll probably die 50 hours or so before I'm supposed to. That's 50 hours I could have used for sleeping!
Anyway, the time will soon come here at the station where the clocks are supposed to fall back an hour. I've already manually done it to a bunch of clocks, but the main clock that runs everything should do it on its own. It has never worked right before, but I'll let it go this one time tonight and see what happens. If I never show up again it's because I'll have been sucked into a time warp and the Langoliers will have eaten me.
Comments: 0October 25th, 2006 by Ryan Westendorf
For some reason about a month back, I started getting spam comments on one of my posts. It started out slow, and the spam checked blocked pretty much all of the comments that were getting left. Recently, though, I've been getting somewhere around 160 comments posted a day. The odd thing, though, is that they all still go just to that post. I suppose it's a good thing, as then I don't have to look around trying to find the spam. I tried a new trick tonight by turning off the comments on that one post. Time will tell whether that stops the spam altogether for a while, or if they start migrating and moving to other posts. If that happens, then I'll be forced to get a script together that will close comments to any post about a month after it is originally written.
Comments: 1October 24th, 2006 by Ryan Westendorf
I'm just curious. Do other people also get these? I frequently hear of the newsies having newsmares, and I know others in our department have had workmares, but is this just a TV thing, or what?
Last night, mine revolved around getting a new router in the master control area. I have no idea why we got a different router other than it was to go with the new audio board. Anyway, every time you switched a source, everything would go black. But then you could route back in what you wanted. It was fine if you didn't have to change sources, but for some reason I kept having to route different things in and every time I did it, we would go black. Then someone would run in and help me route video back into all the places it needed to be.
It wasn't a particularly bad one, though. I've had others before where I was standing in the back room prepping commercials during the news. I would keep hearing the director yelling to roll tapes, but they were rolling. I then looked over there and I was supposed to be running tapes. The worse part? I had never run tapes before. Then I'd wake up to a cat licking my face. Actually, most of my workmares end that way. I'm not even sure I had them before I got Pepper. Maybe she secretly likes torturing me by making me have weird dreams.
Comments: 0October 22nd, 2006 by Ryan Westendorf
oCTOBER 22ND IS iNTERNATIONAL cAPS lOCK dAY. sO, GO OUT AND CELEBRATE OR SOMETHING. oR JUST TRY WRITING AN EMAIL IN ALL CAPS. sEE HOW FAR YOU CAN GO DOING IT BEFORE YOU HAVE TO STAB YOURSELF IN THE EYE.
nOT MUCH ELSE HAS BEEN GOING ON. sTILL WAITING TO HEAR BACK FROM isu AND THE OTHER PROSPECT. wORK HAS BEEN FINE AGAIN, AND THE STORM FROM LAST WEEK SEEMED TO PASS WITHOUT MUCH ADO. tHIS WEEK i NEED TO GET CAUGHT UP ON SOME UPDATES FOR THE DAY CARE CENTER, OTHERWISE IT SHOULD BE A PRETTY NORMAL WEEK. nOW, i NEED TO GO AND WASH OUT MY EYEBALLS. iT IS SERIOUSLY HARD TO READ THIS CRAP. 
Comments: 0October 16th, 2006 by Ryan Westendorf
Tonight was, uh, interesting. Watching TV tonight at 10:00 you may not have noticed it, but a storm was brewing behind the scenes. Let's just say an argument started (and will probably last for a couple of days) about operating procedures. Apparently some departments decided to change the rules, but not let everyone else in on the idea. I'm sure I'll hear more about it this week, but I also have this feeling I will be getting a phone call sometime during the day on Monday about it. I tried to stand my ground, but quite honestly, I shouldn't even have to do that. Other than that, I won't post much about it… if you want the details, you'll have to talk to me.
Speaking of which, you'll notice a new box in the top right corner. It's my Meebo widget that will let you talk privately with me. It made a brief appearance during my first trip to Florida, but since I was only online while you all were sleeping…which isn't off from normal… it didn't get much use. Now I'm going to try to stay or get logged into Meebo more often so you can talk to me if you don't have my IM details or an IM client installed where you are.
Reply back with a comment to this post, though, if you don't see the box. I doubt I'll be able to do anything about it, but chances are if you can't see it, it means your internet provider is blocking the Meebo servers.
See? I started cranky and I ended up being nerdy and pleasant. It CAN be done, people! 
Comments: 0October 15th, 2006 by Ryan Westendorf
The washer and dryer in the apartment building were full today when I wanted to do my laundry, so I went out. I found a good place (okay, the closest one) just down 86th street. It was a bit more expensive for the wash, but the dryer was freakin huge. And HOT. I think my fingers are still a little singed from pulling my clothes out.
Comments: 5October 9th, 2006 by Ryan Westendorf
Sorry for lack of posts lately. There are a couple of factors at work. Number 1 is that I now know some people at work are aware of my website and blog. Granted, I've never said anything bad or defamatory about work, but knowing someone could be watching has caused me to second guess several posts. Number 2 also deals with work. I've just be plain out frustrated lately. Even though I feel I do a pretty darn good job about 99% of the time at work, I only hear about the 1% that gets screwed up. And of that 1% that gets screwed up, it's usually caused by someone else 80% of the time. There's math in there, you can do it, I won't. Tonight I essentially got the blame for a wrong promo airing. Suffice it to say I got a little cranky after the first phone call. The second call 3 minutes later from someone who sits four feet away from the first caller sent me over the edge. It's not often I'm upset enough that I can't speak but it happened. I couldn't even swear! And if you know me well enough, you know I can swear quite easily. I don't swear so much because I'm mad, but more because I feel it doesn't need to have the negative connotations associated with it.
So, yeah, I've been frustrated. I don't get paid enough to get yelled at for everything that goes wrong yet never hear anything good. The recent trip to Florida was nice. I still didn't see anything. I actually turned in a 72.5 hour week while down there. Then I returned home to plenty of comments about my "vacation" to Florida. That was probably the beginning of my undoing and stress level. Since I've finally hit my one year anniversary, I have vacation time now. Maybe I'd better take it before I go beyond frustrated.