From the album Rubberneck:

Bended knee
Nine years old
Waitin’ for…
Just one word!

I was thinkin’ of all the things
My daddy told me of
Sin and salvation and
Manhood and dignity…
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I stopped by Raleigh’s community access television studio yesterday at lunch, hoping to find out how to get my producer’s membership renewed. I walked around inside for five minutes before finding someone to help me. His name was Edward and he ran the tapes.

The studio has changed quite a bit since I took the field production class back in 1996 or so. Gone are the tape deck editing stations. In place is a monster PowerMac with a huge flat-panel screen running Final Cut Pro. The racks of SVHS decks are gone, too, replaced by an all-digital station. Producers take their SVHS, DVPRO or DVD media and feed it into the system 96 hours before airtime. The tape gets digitized and placed onto their multi-terabyte server, where a Crispin suite schedules and airs programs. I was amazed at the technology.

The studio is also greatly improved, with all-digital sound and video boards, and three chromakey-capable digital studio cameras. The studio room has had baffling added and one large wall is a chroma wall. Gone are the Wayne’s World-esque toys: this stuff is pro quality! Though you’re free to do an Extreme Close-up should the mood strike.

I don’t have basic cable now, so I can’t see what is being shown now, but I bet the video looks good, even if the content is a little lacking. You don’t need to subscribe to cable to be a producer, though. All you need to be is a Raleigh resident and you have the keys to the kingdom.

Well, that, and you have to get trained on the stuff, which seems to be a stumbling block. I didn’t see anyone working with the equipment when I went in. I wonder if the staff is even fully trained on the gear. Edward couldn’t tell me when the next classes will be, so I’m stuck waiting for the time being.

Blogging is a cool way to share your thoughts with the world, and community access television seems to be a logical extension – telling your story with video. Already, I have a lot of ideas for shows, each of which remains my property to do with as I please. The only caveats are that the shows need to air on community television at some point, and they have to be non-commercial. Beyond that, your imagination is the only limit. Seriously. There are some community access programs out there which push the very boundaries of First Amendment rights. Indeed, commnunity access television enjoys the strongest of free-speech protection.

Anyhow, I can’t wait to take my first class with the new studio gear. Then the hard part begins – producing a program people want to watch.

Stay tuned!

I made the mistake of listening to the Right Turn Clydes MP3s I have on my hard drive. Now I can’t get “Wagon Wheel” out of my head. Damn you, Larry, Shane, and James!

Missed their last show at Six String Cafe. It’s probably for the better, since Larry says the club changed the format for open-mike night.

I saw this weekend that Durant Nature Park will be hosting live music this summer. Sure would be great to hear acoustic music in the great outdoors! Maybe I can talk the Clydes into playing there sometime.

This is the first week that my company is sharing digs with another tenant. They’re on one end and we’re on the other, with no doors/locks/boundaries between us. The common areas like restrooms and breakroom are shared, too.

I’ve already gotten into a battle with some unknown co-tenant, who insists on moving the restroom trash can near the door. Sorry, dude, but it belongs under the paper towel dispenser. Even got the countertop cut out for it, see? Just because you’re new doesn’t mean you can come in and put the trash can anywhere you like!

All kidding aside, it will be interesting to see how this works. I’m hoping it doesn’t suck, but odds are that it will, at least to some extent. The plan of the day is to just grin and bear it until we can get digs of our own. Right now, roommate issues are the last thing we need to be dealing with.

I’m putting the cap on another fun-filled weekend. Though we miss the warmer weather we briefly enjoyed the past few weeekends, we still managed to get outside for some substantial exercise. We went for a walk to Durant park Saturday morning and watched Hallie play on the playground. Afterward, when the kids were napping, I dusted off my mountain bike for the first time in months, and headed back to Durant. In a t-shirt and shorts, I pedaled through the park and up to the old office park where I used to work. It wasn’t a long ride, but it put me in a fantastic mood for the rest of the day.

Today’s weather was not nearly as nice as yesterday’s, but that didn’t stop us from another walk. This time, we hiked around Durant lake, with Travis tucked into Kelly’s jacket and Hallie sometimes in my backpack, sometimes walking on her own. I couldn’t get the grin off my face as we stepped through the woods. Kelly told me “this park adds thousands of dollars to the worth of our house,” and I wholeheartedly agreed. There’s nothing like having the wild outdoors for a backyard.

Kid-wise, we had a fantastic weekend, too. Travis slept better this weekend than he has in a long time. Friday night, he woke up just once between 7 PM and 6 AM. Even after 6, he snoozed quite a bit: long enough to let my eyes flutter open on their own. Once you wake up naturally a few times, you realize what a tool of the devil an alarm clock truly is.

Hallie has gotten very generous with her “I love you’s.” Last night I told Kelly that I’d probably been told “I love you” more in one day Saturday than any day of my life. Today’s count came close to that total, too. Its so sweet to be enjoying time with your kid and then hear “I love you” pop out of their mouth.

Kelly and I walked across the dam at the park today, holding each other’s hand. We’ve felt that close this weekend. Its fun rediscovering the world through the curious eyes of your children.

We got the kids passports in the mail today. This is about a one-month turnaround, which is actually pretty impressive. The gummint isn’t so bad, after all.

We filed for them at the Cary post office. Pics were taken there, too. Hallie looks like a zombie and Travis is on the verge of screaming his head off. In other words, its just how they will look after a trans-Atlantic flight!

Our Italy trip will be here before we know it: less than nine weeks away. I’m trying to think, but I’m convinced that nothing will top this as highlight of the year. The kids’ birthdays won’t hold a candle to it (so to speak). Maybe if, say, I won the lottery in the fall, that would top it. But that’s about it.
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The sun is out and we’re itching for some exercise. So now its off to hike around Durant Nature Park. It’s bound to be muddy from the 1/2 inch of rain we had earlier this week, but I say “bring it on!”

I knew the day was starting off right when at breakfast I looked up just in time to see that mystery Union Pacific locomotive rolling by. It was hauling five or six empty tanker cars north and snuck up on us by not blowing his horn until he was past us.

Got a good look at him this time, too. He’s UP 2908.

I’m too busy loving life to write at the moment. Work is crazy, but I’m still enjoying it for the moment. The family is healthy now, which is good, too.

I’m having fun watching the robins pick through our lawn in the mornings, looking for worms. Worms didn’t care for the weeds we had before – so having them here is a good sign.

I’ve been learning all about End Of Train (EOT) devices as my railfanning hobby grows. Now I can tune into these transmitters and get a five minute notice that a train will be coming by. I hope to use this to snap a few pictures of the locomotives I see every day.

Finally moved most all the boxes that were cluttering our bedroom floor up to the attic storage area. It makes a big difference in how the room looks. Still have some cleaning up to do, though.

Bought a new VoIP phone to test-drive at work. It’s a Polycom Soundpoint IP 500. Definitely head and shoulders above the cheap-ass Grandstream Budgetel 100s I bought before. The Polycom’s cost three times as much, but they really make the Budgetels look like the toys they are. Should’ve gone Polycom from the very start.

We’re in the midst of transferring our Bellsouth home number over to Voicepulse. We’ll then have all the kewl phone features on our home phone for a fraction of the Bellsouth price. And we’ll still have 911 service, using our soon-to-be dormant Bellsouth line.

I woke up a bit depressed this morning and not really knowing why. I suppose I was stressed about the busy day I had in front of me. Fortunately, it was only 10:30 before I began to grin stupidly, again not really knowning why. I suppose I decided to just enjoy myself – so I did. While it was a busy day, it was nevertheless good.

Now its off to bed, with an eye on making tomorrow a fun one.