Thursday, January 24, 2008

Here is Aunt Shelley and Uncle Don's bird addicted to Coke! :)


I've finished editing Brandon and Diane's wedding video. I'm hoping to get it mailed out this weekend! :)

Monday, January 21, 2008

Friday, January 18, 2008

RESULTS OF THE STARGATE VIDEO CONTEST HAVE ARRIVED!
As you may remember, I finished 2nd in the last contest and won a Stargate Atlantis uniform. That sounds impressive (well, maybe) until you find out 1st place won a Mac Laptop and a live video chat with David Hewlett!

This time around, the prizes were the same only the live video chat is with Amanda Tapping. So how did I do?

I logged onto the contest page and saw a topic called 'results'. I paused for a moment. This is it. This is the moment I've been waiting for. This is the last moment I will have where I have that exciting anticipation of knowing I could possibly win a Mac, chat with AMANDA FREAKING TAPPING and throw a huge party to boot. I clicked on the thread. They listed the winners in descending order:
10th place-- nope, not me!
9th place-- not me either!
8th place-- not me!
7th place-- nope!!
6th place-- nope!!!
5th place-- nope!!!!
4th place-- NOPE!!!!!
3rd place --NOPE!!!!!!!

--this could only mean one thing. I have either won another uniform, or I have won the grand prize. I was very hopeful because the 2 videos I thought could beat me had already passed by. I slowly scrolled down:

wait for it...




wait for it....




wait for it.....




wait for it.....


2nd place: 'The Gate Room' by amoriconi

Yeah, that was anticlimatic, sorry! I won 2nd-- again. I won another uniform which I will undoubtedly force my family and friends to wear in my next attempt to win the laptop, chat and awesome stargate party.
Booo! :)

Thursday, January 17, 2008

Oh look! I'm back! I know I've been a bad blogger. I'm going to try and get back in the blogging groove. :)

My brother and his girlfriend bought Hartman a kitty enclosure for Christmas (Cydney calls it Hartman's 'cube'). Watch this video and you will see it quite possibly brings more joy to Dave and me than Hartman! hehe.





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Here's Scott, Rich, Dave and me at CES in Vegas! We spent 5 days there, turned pkgs everyday AND shot a one hour special that will be airing in primetime on Monday!
I know, I know, 'that's great', you say, 'but what about the 20 bones you dropped in the Wheel of Fortune machine?'.
I am happy to report that turned out quite well! I admit, it took more than 20 bones. In fact, over the course of 5 days I was up a bit, down a bit, even... But on the 5th night, I spun for 200! Woohoo! I was able to walk away a winner probably because all the treking around CES wore me out and I was too tired to do any more gambling. :)
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This is how I travel while walking the 1.8 MILLION square feet of the Consumer Electronics Show! Even though I had Mr. Squeaky (this is the name we gave this cart ages ago. ironically, it has never squeaked), I still heard the same comments I hear every day. I believe I heard:
3 or 4 "is that thing heavy's?", a couple "you need a man to help you with that thing's!", 4 or 5 "you mean he makes you carry all that's" and many "that camera is bigger than you are's". You would think that after shooting for 12 years I may stop finding the humor in this daily ritual... Not so! My bizzarre sense of humor always wins out! While I was on my own shooting some b-roll, an older gentleman walked up to me:
Old guy: Oh my! That's a big camera! Do you know how to operate that?
Me: Hey, how are ya? Yeah, this camera is my baby.
Old guy: Do you need me to help you with it?
Me: Thanks, but I've got it.
Old guy: What kind is it? Mini-dv?
Me: Sony XDcam.
Old guy: I have a small camcorder at home that takes pictures just as good as that.
Me: Oh yeah? (I smile and continue shooting)
Old guy: Yeah, they should give you one of those to shoot with... Are you sure you don't need me to help you with that camera? I was in broadcasting for years. I'm sure I could figure out how to use your camera. I wouldn't mind if you needed me to walk around with you and shoot.
Me: That's very thoughtful of you, but I going to have to decline. Thanks anyway!

You may think you've just heard the best of it, but wait! There's more! :) While I was walking with the reporter to another location, this guy with no legs and only half an arm in a wheelchair was wheeling by:

Man With No Arms or Legs: You mean he makes you carry all that!

Yes, a man with no arms or legs looked at me and thought "she's handicapped!". It doesn't get any better than that does it?:





That last clip was at the Emmy's, not CES fyi. :)



Let's move on to the holidays! I went home for Christmas this year! I know this will seem strange, but there are no pictures! I brought my personal video gear to shoot Cousin Brandon's wedding and decided to just use mom and dad's still camera... but their camera wasn't working! d'oh! Here's the top moments from Xmas '07:





1) My brother and me conspiring together on Mom and Dad's gift. John hooked up their new tv while they were picking me up from the airport!


2) Mom walking right past said tv without noticing it!


3) Dad noticing it!


4) The Griswolds getting lost on the way to Charlotte and James' (awesome) house.


5) Cousin Jana and me beating John and Dad at pool! And it had nothing to do with Jana being a pool shark! My strategy of hit the white ball really hard and hope the stripey balls go in the holes was quite effective!


6) John and me reliving how little johnny and tiny angela used to prance in circles around Dad after he would fall asleep in the livingroom chair listening to his tel arc sampler classical music cd. We always tried real hard not to laugh as we pranced, but the muffled snorts always got the better of little johnny and tiny angela. I think we only woke Dad up once though! Someday I'll tell you about 'Orf'.


7) Watching Denny Crane and the midget with the fam! The gag with Denny not realizing the midget was standing in front of him while he made his Denny Crane-ion comments never got old!


8) Brandon and Diane's wedding. It was great spending a lot of time with my Kansas City family. Oh! I must upload their bird drinking coke!


9) Grandma Lola making me my peanut butter fudge!


10) Getting a necklace that belonged to Grandma Jo

That's Grandma Jo on the far right. On the far left is Great Aunt Ag (of styrofoam cup crushing fame) and Great Aunt Alice in the middle.

Dad's been uploading a bunch of old photos on his flickr page. You should check it out! I'll blog more about them later. I have to get up extra early tomorrow to go wade around in sewage (don't tell Mom!) and to answer "not really, it's only about 20 lbs" to the inevitable "is that thing heavy?"

Saturday, January 05, 2008

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Merry Christmas! Happy New Year! I've been so busy! I have plenty of stories to tell so hopefully things will slow down a bit and I can catch up. I'm heading to Vegas tomorrow morning to cover the Consumer Electronic Show all week, so it may be a while before I have the chance to blog. I know, poor me. hehehe. I will once again feed a Wheel of Fortune machine 20 bones. I'll let you know!