Saturday, May 30, 2009

The SEC

Waaay more sexy than the Securities and Exchange Commission, it's Saturday Eye Candy!
Today's feature: Hugh Jackman



ENJOY!



Saturday, May 23, 2009

The unpredictability of life

First of all, is that even a word? yes, according to http://www.dictionary.com/ it is:

un⋅pre⋅dict⋅a⋅ble 
 /ˌʌnprɪˈdɪktəbəl/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [uhn-pri-dik-tuh-buhl]
–adjective
1.
not predictable; not to be foreseen or foretold: an unpredictable occurrence.
–noun
2.
something that is unpredictable: the unpredictables of life.
Origin: 1855–60; un- 1 + predictableRelated forms:
un⋅pre⋅dict⋅a⋅bil⋅i⋅ty, un⋅pre⋅dict⋅a⋅ble⋅ness, noun
un⋅pre⋅dict⋅a⋅bly, adverb
Synonyms:1. erratic, fitful, variable, uncertain.

Not only is it a proper word, all the definitions fits my life!

On April 29th my life was changed by the death of a co-worker. My job is such that I fill in for vacationing or ill co-workers as needed. This is the first time I've had to fill in for someone who died. Not easy shoes to fill since he was a beloved local news and sports anchor. I don't do sports and barely did news until a month ago when I stepped in to fill the hole created by Rich's sudden passing. Since then I've had to learn how to get up at 3 am and be coherent enough at 4 am to write and report news stories on the radio every 30 minutes for 5 hours, 5 days a week. At first I couldn't sleep because I was scared to death I would sleep through my alarm! then I was nervous about getting the stories written on time for the first newscast (15 minutes, all me). After about a week, I started to relax and build my confidence-I learned my alarm wouldn't fail me and that I always get the stories done on time. It is still weird to be filling in for someone who is no longer with us and I'm not crazy about doing the news, but a job is a job right now. I can now add news anchor to my radio resume.

On May 13th, my life changed again with the crash of my hard drive (see previous post). For the first time in 5 years I was unable to complete the Senior Sweet Memories video which was finished but lost along with everything else. I had to start over from scratch and lost $500 in the process (unable to complete the project on time) Still smarting from how stupid I feel about not protecting my livelihood better-an expensive lesson that I will only need to learn once!

The one constant seems to be Summer-we are members of the same pool, the boys always join swim team and a bunch of us hang out together enjoying "sun and surf" I can count on riding my scooter around and making a bit of money filling for vacationing DJ's...looking forward to the predictability of that-BRING ON SUMMER!




Friday, May 15, 2009

Oh the heartbreak of a hard drive crash

My hard drive is now a paperweight after a massive mechanical failure late Wednesday night. On top of losing precious family photos, gobs of business and personal records, I had the unfortunate task of telling clients that their projects and photos were gone! I felt absolutely horrible that a video project due Friday wasn't going to happen.

I won't bore you with the details, just know that I lost everything! Those that have been through it, know the heartbreak, frustration and disappointment. Those who were smart enough to protect themselves from this ahead of time-I bow to thee-way to be prepared. But please don't "tsk, tsk" me ...shoulda, coulda, wouldas are meaningless. For those of you who haven't backed up your computer yet, see this as a cautionary tale - don't wait until tomorrow, hope it doesn't happen, or any other excuse you can think of. Do it now.

new hard drive: $139
additional external hard drive: $109
pile of flash drives: free from Comcast
Carbonite storage service (www.carbonite.com): $54.95
peace of mind: priceless

Saturday, May 9, 2009

Saturday, May 2, 2009

What a week...

It started off like any other week but quickly went down hill on Tuesday when we were all called in to a meeting to find that out that there were two less employees due to budget cuts...dang it-again! and two of my favorite people no less. Even though the rest of us were told "this is the last cut" none of us felt any better or more secure.

I was woken up Wednesday morning at 4:30 AM to a phone call saying "the news guy didn't show up can you fill in?" oh dear, this man is a professional -I hope he didn't come down with the "blue flu" in protest. My other thought was 'something is terribly wrong' and that nagged me all morning until the worst was confirmed: his wife called and told us he had suffered a stroke and was in the hospital. We didn't find out until later that night how bad it was and then right before the Thursday morning news, we found out that he had passed away...no, no, no! I went from filling in for someone who was "just in the hospital" to now I'm filling in for a beloved local news and sportscaster who has died! A friend, colleague, really great guy and now someone I have to deliver a sad news story about like I don't know him...ugh! Needless to say, a rough morning on Thursday and surreal still.
A few links to find out about the man:


An audio tribute put together by Chris and Kramer:

We will miss you Rich!