My British friends will be excited to hear that I filmed your new Prime Minister yesterday. Gordon Brown was in the states for a visit. He stopped by Congress to meet Senator Reid and company. The British Pool videographer and I were the first to arrive. We leisurely set up our cameras and tripods. Soon the Congress Press Agent showed up and told us that there were 5 or 6 more photographers who would be joining us. Brown's Press Agent told him that there was no room for additional photographers. After a short argument, the additional photographers were allowed. Next Senator Reid's Press Agent came in and told us that we could not use tripods. The British Press Agent argued with her and won, allowing us to keep our tripods.

When we were all ready for the shoot, a few photographers entered and crouched in front. Then a few more. And a few more. Then an entire hoard of photographers and videographers piled in. No one else was allowed to use a tripod and they were not happy that we were. The room was packed. I had to push away the camera next to me to prevent it from entering my shot. Brown entered a few minutes later and the room lit up with flash bulbs. We were allowed to film for two minutes, before we were all shuffled out of the room.

My first shoot yesterday started at 9:00. I drove into the city and made it to the office at 8:30, when I was suppose to begin setting up for the shoot. I quickly grabbed the heavy bags of gear and started my trek on foot. On 17th street, someone yelled after me and handed me the small notebook that had fallen out of my back pocket. Apparently the gear bag had pushed out the notebook. I immediately checked my other pocket and found that my wallet was missing.

I asked a few street sweepers, but they hadn't seen it. There was no time to keep looking, so I went straight to the shoot. The Prime Minister of Lesotho was giving a speech. I arrived sweaty and disheveled. I could not even shake hands with the other media people covering the even, because my hands were all sweaty. I got there just in time to set up my camera and catch the speech.

Afterward, I lugged my equipment back to the office and went searching for my wallet. No one had seen turned it in. I needed an ID to get into the afternoon shoot, so I had to find the wallet. Finally I searched my car and there it was!

The afternoon shoot was at the State Department. The Prime Minister was signing an agreement with the Millennium Challenge Corporation to receive a development grant. Condoleezza Rice was there to give a speech. The shoot went easily and I was able to edit both the English version and the Nguni version in a total of 45 minutes. We have to do two versions of everything we shoot for the South African Broadcasting Corporation.

Today I was sent to the White House to cover Ban Ki Moon's visit with President Bush. I attended the White House press briefing, which was quite interesting. Ban Ki Moon (the head of the UN) was suppose to arrive at 1:00. So I waited outside the with cameramen from other news agencies to cover his arrival. I was going to bring my copy of the Koran to keep me entertained while I waited, but decided that it would not be the best reading material for the White House.

After a hot and sweaty hour and a half of waiting, we found out that he had snuck in the side door, met with Bush and left. I had to wait until 5:00 to record the footage from the AP feed. It took until 9:30 pm to edit and upload the story to SABC.

I've been doing some interesting interviews for my new job. Yesterday I was at the CATO Institute, a Libertarian think-tank. Today I was interviewing William Howard Taft IV, the great-grandson of president Taft. He was the chief legal advisor for the Department of Defense under George HW Bush and the Deputy Secretary of Defense under George W Bush. Normally this would not be a person with whom I would want to spend my time, however he was an outspoken critic of Guantanamo. The interview went well. It will be shown on France 24 sometime soon.

Friday my new job sent me to New York to cover a concert in Brooklyn. They put me on the fancy all business class train from Union Station in DC to Penn Station in NYC. The train was not as luxurious as you would expect, slightly larger seats, but no food service. The Feature Story News office in New York is in the UN building, so my first stop was the credentials office. One of the guys from my office had already started filling out the form, so it didn't take long to get my badge.

The media offices at the UN (at least the ones I saw) were packed into a small area behind the womans bathroom, which looks like it was designed for storage. I met the South African Broadcasting corespondent, with whom I was working on the story, and we caught a cab to Brooklyn.

The first guy to perform didn't allow any media coverage whatsoever. All of the cameras had to be turned away from the stage. I heard he even tried to ban cell phone cameras in the audience. It didn't matter though, because we were there to cover the main performance. It was a huge production, consisting of a 100 piece choir, a string section, 4 opera singers and a video instillation. The concert set music to the words of Apartheid survivors. It was great, and I wish I could have stayed longer.

After the concert, we immediately returned to the office to edit the video and upload it to the news station in South Africa. I finished around 3:00 am. The company owns an apartment in lower Manhattan. I took a cab downtown and easily found the building. Unfortunately, when I tried my key in the lock, it didn't work. I called everyone I could in the office, but no one answered. I spent the next few hours walking all across Manhattan, through Greenwich Village, Chelsea, Times Square, and up to Rockefeller Center. Finally at 7:00 am, I got a call from someone at work. When I got the information about the apartment, I thought the note said apartment 5D, but it was actually 5P. I took the subway back downtown and fell asleep on the couch.

I woke up a few hours later and met Kat for lunch at the first pizzeria in the country, before catching the train back home.

I got the job I wanted! I will be working at Feature Story News doing all kinds of video production and editing for international news stations. Thanks for hooking me up Aaron! My main job will be to produce the online videos for The Economist magazine.

Yesterday was my first day of work. I started creating the opening motion graphics for The Economist. They are coming along well. I've been using Motion, cool new program to do motion graphics. It is like After Effects, but much easier to use. Without even looking at the manual, I was able to create some nice 3D graphics sequences. Look for my work at www.economist.com in the next few months.