We have been hanging out with Emily's family all week. Sara arrived just a couple hours after I got back from Ecuador and Jen and Todd arrived the next day. Kat, Emily and I have been playing Risk obsessively, so we taught everyone else how to play and instigated a large, hostile takeover of the world. The game went on for days. Kat and Jen were the last people left, but they got bored and declared a truce.

Emily planned and cooked the big family dinner (with the help of her sisters). We had standing rib roast, potatoes au-gratin, broccoli casserole, salad, and five desserts - panna cotta, chocolate souffles, brownies, cookies and ice cream.

Since we were done with Risk, we started playing one of the many Cranium variants. It was us against the timer, trying to act, draw and give clues so that others could guess what was on our cards. It took awhile, but we were finally able to beat the timer.

Now our friends Serena, Brad and their little girl Bella are in town. We are trying to think of someplace to take them for dinner tonight. We will probably end up back at Skewers, our default restaurant in the city.

Today we biked around Cotopaxi, the second highest peak in Ecuador and one of the tallest active volcanoes in the world. We met the guides at 7:00 at a local coffee shop, picked up a few other tourists and drove for an hour and a half. The driving distance was not that far, but it takes forever to navigate the winding roads and the insane traffic. We stopped at the base of the volcano. The guides gave us each a bike, a helmet and a meeting point about 7km away. The top section was very steep and bumpy. I had a great time going as fast as possible down the hills while barely maintaining control of the bike. Luckily, if I fell I would have only hit rocks and tumbled off the mountain. The road got much less steep after the first meeting point. I had to pedal hard to keep up my speed. We stopped for lunch at a beautiful lake near the base of the mountain. The remaining 12km were mainly uphill (we had to push the bikes) and through shallow streams. Tomorrow we will leave Ecuador, but there is so much to see here that I will have to return. Next time I want to visit the Galapagos islands and the Amazon jungle.

Yesterday we went white water rafting. Neither of us were really looking forward to it, because it is pretty cold in Quito. However, when we drove down to 300 meters above sea level (from 5000 meters) the air was much thicker and warmer. It was a three hour drive to the river. I stayed awake for most of it and enjoyed watching the people in their small Ecuadorian towns. When we got to the river the guides inflated the boat, gave us the customary safety talk, and we set off. No more than five minutes downriver they steered the boat directly under a waterfall. I jumped out before getting soaked, but everyone else took the falls head on.

We rafted for a couple hours before stopping on a sandy beach for lunch. The guides served tacos and I got to observe how the real South Americans make them. The ingredients were the same as we are use to, but they put everything into the shell in reverse order. They started with the guacamole, sour cream and vegetables. They didn´t add the meat or beans until last. I kept meaning to try their technique, but forgot. A nice little dog joined us for lunch, waiting patiently while we ate. When we were full the guides fed her the leftovers. Overall the rafting trip was lots of fun and I am glad we didn´t back out.

Today we went horseback riding in a large volcanic crater. The walls and floor of the crater are very rich in nutrients, so many farmers have settled there. The ride lasted a few hours. Dad was apprehensive at first and had a little trouble controlling the horse, but he quickly got the hang of it. We stopped for lunch at a small inn with a beautiful open courtyard. There were many local families working or living there and about 10 dogs running around. We had fun playing with the dogs and trying to talk to the people. After lunch, we took the horses down a steep rocky path. It was a little scary at times, but the views were spectacular. We passed the official equator mark on the way home. Thanks to "Bizarre Foods", I knew that the official mark was not actually on the equator, but about 250 meters south.

Dad and I hiked in the Andes mountains today. We were picked up at 8:00am in the hotel lobby by the guide. He drove us about an hour and a half outside of Quito, stopping at a bakery in a small village along the way. We picked up a couple cheesy breads and a chocolate loaf for only 90 cents.

We hiked around between two of the largest volcanoes in the world. Hiking at that altitude (over 14,000 ft) proved difficult. We slogged our way up to the top of a large hill below one of the volcanoes, rested and took some photos. I noticed a couple of alpaca next to the hill, so I went down to see them and heard them up the hill. I was able to get them most of the way up before they turned and ran down the adjacent side. On the way back from the hike, we saw a pack of wild horses. Dad yelling at them and trying to direct them into a good composition to photograph. Every time they came close to where he wanted them, they turned their butts toward the camera. I think he was eventually able to get his shot.

My dad and I are visiting Ecuador this week. We flew into Quito last night, so today was the first day to really explore the city. We had a large breakfast at the hotel, before taking a cab to the historical center of the city. Cabs here are so cheap! It was $4 (Ecuador uses the US dollar as their currency) to get downtown. A large group of protesters were gathered at the presidential palace. I never really figured out what they were protesting, but I think it had something to do with taxis (being too cheap maybe?). We walked around the old part of the city for an hour, before one of the locals tipped us off to the changing of the guards at the palace. A marching band set up on a side street and guards with elaborate uniforms and tall spears prepared to march. When the changing of the guards started, the band and soldiers marched into the square and the protesters respectfully put down their signs and stopped yelling.

Dad and I tried to cross the square to get a better view, but we got stuck in the crowd of protesters. We watched with the crowd as the soldiers marched in unison and the President appeared on the balcony. Everyone clapped for the band and the President, but as soon as it was over they raised their signs and yelled to get his attention.

We quickly made our way out of the crowd and went to see some churches. The best one was built over the coarse of 160 years by Jesuits and indigenous workers. They had a superstition about leaving any part of the church undecorated, so the entire thing was intricately carved and covered with gold leaf. Quite impressive. We had lunch at a restaurant recommended by the church tour-guide. Afterward, we planned to visit one of the many delicious looking bakeries in the city, but got sidetracked looking for a USB cable for the camera. Eventually we found one near the Ecuadorian Central Bank. I took some video of the bank with Dad´s camera to use for the Economist videos. The people at my office should be happy about that.

A porter at the hotel directed us to a lovely little bakery just a couple blocks from the hotel. We split some pecan pie and kiwi cream pie, which were wonderful. Dad took a nap in the late afternoon while I uploaded the videos. Eventually I got tired and slept for a couple hours as well. We found an Italian restaurant at a nearby hotel for dinner. Now we are back at the hotel and I am about to beat him in chess again.

I had a great time in San Francisco. It is a beautiful city and I can see why so many of my friends moved there. I got to see Diane my first night in town, Nate and his fiance the second night and Beth the third night. Nate, Lavinia and I went to a lovely Thai noodle restaurant then back to their house to hang out. It was great catching up with Nate after not seeing him for so long.

Beth and I met near her school and took a cab up to North Beach. The area is really cool, full of Italian restaurants. After dinner, we went to a cool little coffee shop where the beatniks use to hang out. There was a whole group of guitar players, who had actually practiced together, and sang funny songs like ´La Bamba´.

On the work front, I went to Lawrence Livermore National Lab to see their laser fusion experiment, UC Berkly to interview a physicist and shoot a Prop 8 protest, and Silicon Vally to shoot an interview and b-roll about stem cells. I was fascinated by the scientific research, but incredibly disappointed by Silicon Vally. It was just a big office park! I was expecting the Magic Kingdom of technology. Regardless it was a nice trip and I would love to visit San Francisco again.

I'm in San Francisco on a shoot for Newshour. It's been a long day... I left home at 5:00am, caught a flight to St. Louis, got delayed because of fog in SF but finally made it here. This afternoon, I shot a couple interviews at the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine. I met Diane for dinner at a nice little Punjabi restaurant, then drank some coffee and walked around downtown for a bit. She just moved here a month ago, so we're lucky her iphone had a map. Without it, we would still be wandering around.

Here are some photos from Thanksgiving and our trip to London...

Emily and I had a cool, interactive dinner on our last night in London. The table had a computer screen projected on it from above. Each person had a touch-pad built into their side of the table. Using the touch-pad, you could browse the menu, order food, play games, watch a live stream of the kitchen, and customize the display. When you looked at each dish on the menu, a picture of the food was projected onto your plate. The food was even timed to come out 15 minutes after you ordered it, so you could precisely coordinate your meal. The entire table had a wallpaper, which you could change and customize. Even with all the effort put into the tabletop, the food was really good.

Yesterday, we finally had some time to be tourists. We spent most of the morning at the office, but we left around 11:00am to see the sights. It was a quick walk from the office past Downing Street, to the waterfront. We walked over the bridge for the famous view of Parliament and Big Ben. We passed Westminster Abby, but admission was £12 each, so we passed. After wandering around for a while trying to find the palace, we headed back to catch our flight.

Emily and I are in London! We arrived Thursday morning, after an uncomfortable overnight flight in goat class. Our hotel is near Paddington Station and the office (yes, we are here for work) is near Oxford Circus. We have spent most of our time at the new FSN bureau, trying to wire everything up and make the gear work. So far we have done a pretty decent job, but we won't know for sure until the ISDN lines are turned on tomorrow.

We have gotten a bit of time to see friends, shop and sight-see. Friday night we met up with David and Peter (from the Sudan Volunteer Program) and had a nice dinner in Chinatown. Tonight we are going over Peter's house. The food has been decent, but not spectacular. The one really good meal we had was at an Italian restaurant a few doors down from the office. We got some amazing multi-cheese pizza with a really nice deconstructed salad. Last night we got over to the Tower Bridge and the Tower of London. They were interested, but we only stayed about 10 minutes. How long can you really spend looking at a bridge?

Thursday the wheels for my fixed gear bike arrived. I was worried about the spacing and chain line, but it came together perfectly! I was off work on Friday, so I had plenty of time to ride it around. Fixed gear bikes are such a pleasure to ride. There is only one gear and it doesn't allow you to coast. Whenever the wheels are moving, the petals are turning. You can resist the movement of the petals to slow down or stop. I had to work on Saturday, so I rode my bike to the office. It only took 15 minutes, which is less than it takes to drive or take the metro.

Saturday Malcolm, Manalisi and I got an interview with the president of South Africa, Kgalema Motlanthe, who was in town for the G20 meeting. We conducted the interview in a suite at the Mandarin Oriental hotel. Security was tight and the room was flooded with South African officials and Secret Service. Despite the heavy security, they didn't actually check us or any of the gear. Usually we are kicked out of the room for 15 or 20 minutes while they search the equipment. This time they just stood around watching us and talking amongst themselves. The interview seemed pretty uncomfortable. Manalisi kept pushing an issue that Motlanthe knew nothing about. The whole thing lasted less than 10 minutes.

That night, Kat, Emily and I went to Jessi's house to watch UFC 91. Kat and I had been debating for days the possible outcome of the Lesner, Couture fight. Kat bet on Lesner and everyone else bet on Couture. During the fight we were standing, yelling at the screen and cringing every time Couture got hit. After the first round, Jessi lost her voice and Emily had a headache. Lesner ended up winning the fight, which made everyone (including Kat) sad.

We are resting up after election day. November 4th was long and exhausting. I was at the local polling station at 7:00am with Kat. She waited in line, while I filmed the crowd and signs. Emily joined us a bit later and we all voted. Afterward, we headed to the office to finish testing the video equipment for our live coverage. By mid-afternoon, all the guests arrived, Emily left for the Post and we started the show. Channel News Asia kept the FSN coverage going almost the entire time. Simon did a great job of reporting the events and balancing it with in studio analysis. Miraculously it went off without a hitch. Everything worked as planned and no one tripped over the wires linking our office back to Singapore. We did our last live hit at 1:30am, then headed to the bar until it closed 30 minutes later.

The rest of the week was slow. There were the typical reaction pieces to Obama's win, but that was about it. Emily and I spent plenty of time resting on the couch this weekend. I also got some time to work on the fixed-gear bike I'm building. It should be done this week (when the wheels come). I will post pictures soon.

I'm busy with election coverage today, but I have a bit of exciting news. I finally have my own IMDB page!

Emily and I spent most of the day building a studio in our office. On election night, Emily is working at the Washington Post and I will be running the Channel News Asia coverage from our office. There will be a CNA host and guests doing commentary and interviews. For the studio build, we got three new risers, set up cameras for full coverage, lit the entire office and ran wires for mics, cameras and talk-back. My job on election night will be a lot easier than Emily's. We only have to fill 15 minutes per hour. Her show is live for at least eight hours straight! So if you get a chance, head over to Washingtonpost.com on election night and watch her show.

I spent Tuesday and Wednesday following around Jacob Zuma (presumably the next president of South Africa). Sherwin, the SABC correspondent from New York was in DC for the week. He was in constant contact with Zuma's press liaison, who told us exactly when and where we should be each day. Of course, plans quickly changed. Zuma was suppose to meet with Condeleezza Rice at the state department. So we got there early to film his arrival. We waited and waited, but he never showed up. Sherwin got a call saying that Zuma was on his way to the White House to meet Bush. We rushed to the White House and got there just in time to film his arrival. He was detained at the front gate and almost not let in, because he didn't have ID. When Zuma was finally let in, his body guard pulled me aside and told me not to use the footage because it was embarrassing to the president. Oh well, I used it anyway. After the White House meeting, we got a quick interview with him and went back to the office to file a package.

Wednesday Sherwin and I went to the Ritz to film a story about Zuma's meeting with Richard Branson (the owner of Virgin Airline, among other things). They were meeting to discuss plans for Branson's charity to help with health issues in South Africa. We waited outside the room while they met and talked to Branson's personal assistant. She had a cell phone, two Blackberrys and a laptop. She didn't have time to chat because she was constantly talking on the phone, e-mailing on the laptop and answering messages on her Blackberrys. After the meeting, we interviewed Branson and Zuma together, then hung around the hotel suite eating their delicious baked goods and drinking coffee. They hadn't even touched the food!

Emily, Kat and I went to Eastern Market today. I've lived in DC for years and I have never gotten over there. It was fun! I spent most of the time looking at bikes, but I walked around with Emily and Kat for a while while they looked at home decor and the like. They went into the food area and got a bag of homemade fettuccine, which we just had for dinner. After Eastern Market, we went back to Costco. We were there yesterday, but Kat had to return something. I got some new thermal pants to prepare for the winter. We went for a jog this afternoon. Then Em and I watched some TV before falling asleep on the couch. Now Emily and Kat are watching some dumb movie and I'm bored.

I spent Monday and Tuesday in Chicago. I flew in on Monday with Susie, the MEP consultant who is producing the video. We went straight from the airport to a company which manufactures the glass on oven doors. There we conducted a few interviews and I got some b-roll of the factory. I got some ok shots, but the manager was very touchy about certain things being filmed. We had a huge deep dish pizza for dinner at Gino's East. After dinner I walked up and down the Magnificent Mile. It wasn't really that magnificent, just a bunch of shops. Tuesday I attended a meeting to learn about the PickensPlan from T. Boone Pickens. The presentation was interesting, but there wasn't much we could use for the video. The trip was easy and I enjoyed being in Chicago without freezing my ass off.

Today I went out to Fredricksburg Virginia for a Newshour project. It was another long, grueling day of interviews and b-roll. At least I had it easier than the correspondent. He flew into DC early this morning and took a flight back to New York at 7:30pm. The best part of the day was shooting at a local Italian restaurant called Basil and leaving with our arms full of fresh Italian food. It is definitely worth eating there if you are in the area.

Emily and I were in Boston last Friday and Saturday. We went to shoot the opening of the Greenway park, which is located where the highway use to be before the Big Dig. We got into Boston on Friday, filmed at the produce market near city hall and had a very nice dinner of homemade pasta in the North End. Saturday morning we went up and down the Greenway filming the events, including the official opening of the park. We spent the afternoon in the North End, which is like the little Italy of Boston. It is filled with delicious restaurants and pastry shops. We had lunch at an Italian restaurant that was so small the host had to stand outside. We had to squeeze in with all of our camera gear and wedge ourselves between the wall and another couple. At least the food was good. Neither of us had been to Boston before, but we had a great time. I would have liked to stay longer and see more of the city. Hopefully I will get up there again soon.

I spent last weekend in Jacksonville with Ted from FutureView. We stayed at the Marriott Sawgrass, a famous golf resort. It was quite an enjoyable weekend. Ted and I were producing videos for Georgetown University, who where having an alumni fundraiser there. Saturday we shot interviews with many of the alumni and I cut together a collection of soundbites. Sunday I made a photo-slideshow for them and Ted filmed their events. They had delicious buffets at every meal and all the free alcohol we could drink. It was so different from working in DC. The hotel staff were incredibly friendly and never asked any questions. In DC, they wouldn't have let us into the building without checking our ID, calling their supervisor and writing down all of the personal information we would give them. They even gave us a golf cart and let us roam the course.

I spent Tuesday and Wednesday in Baton Rouge on a shoot for the Manufacturing Extension Partnership. Susie (the producer) and I flew into Louisiana on Tuesday afternoon and met with a local MEP representative for dinner. She took us to a popular seafood restaurant near LSU. We ate fried alligator, hush puppies and fried fish. The alligator was nothing special. It just tasted like chicken.

Wednesday we visited a local company which makes some kind of membranes for oil platforms. They gave us a detailed description, but I have no idea what they are used for. We shot an interview and some b-roll to be used in an upcoming MEP video.

Today I shot an interview with Charlie Wilson (the Charlie Wilson's War guy). It took place in an enormous mansion on the Potomac. This was one of the largest houses I have ever seen, but they gave us a small room to conduct the interview and limited the amount of gear we could bring in. It lasted about 30 minutes and will be shown on an Afghani TV station. He mostly talked about the clandestine war he helped fight. The most interesting part was hearing what he had to say about the current Iraq war. He criticized it harshly and said that it was pointless. He also said that if the US government had helped build infrastructure in Afghanistan after the Soviet Union left, we would not have had to invade.

I just got back from the Grand Canyon with my family.

Emily and I flew to Arizona on Thursday. Lindsey missed her flight. She got on the next one and we had to wait a couple hours at the airport for her to arrive. We stayed in a very nice hotel called the Phoenician. Too bad we didn't get to sleep or see much of the hotel. I won't go into much detail on this one.

Friday we drove up to the Grand Canyon. Along the way we stopped in Sedona (too touristy) and at a Flintstones themed roadside attraction (spectacularly tacky). We arrived at the canyon in the evening. It sure is a big hole.

Saturday we hiked into and back out of the hole. It took five hours and was great fun. I have a very fit family and we made the long hike seem easy. But after dinner we were exhausted and went to sleep early.

Sunday Emily, Lindsey and I went horseback riding in the morning. It was a guided trail ride and the guide wouldn't let us go faster than a walk. The scenery was nice, but I would have liked to go faster. Lindsey lost her camera sometime during or after the ride. She was so upset you would have thought her best friend just died. After lunch, we took a helicopter over the canyon. It was amazing! I had never been in a helicopter, but I soon realized that it is the only way to travel. I'm trying to clear some space in my backyard for a landing pad. That way I will have somewhere to park when I buy one. That night before dinner Emily and I took another hike into the hole. This time we only went for an hour and a half. Nice workout before dinner.

Monday we headed back to Phoenix after a brief stop in Sedona. Mom, Dad, Emily and I had a nice lunch at a Mexican restaurant. Lindsey opted to find takeout at another place. But she neglected to actually order any food, so she was quite upset when we left without waiting for her to eat. That night, we were suppose to stay at the nice Marriott near the mall, but were booked into the dumpy one near the ghetto. My mom was clearly not ok with the arrangements. She took care of the situation and we were promptly booked at the nicer hotel.

Yesterday our flight left at 9:30am and got in at 5:00pm. Stupid time change wasted the whole day. Emily and I brought small carry-on bags. Lindsey checked a large suitcase. Luckily her's was the first off the baggage claim. Or so we thought. Soon after leaving the airport, Lindsey got a message that Southwest had a bag with her name on it. We checked the trunk and realized that she had picked up the wrong bag. The bag we had belonged to a woman who was about to get married. Her wedding dress was in the suitcase. Lindsey turned the car around and swapped bags with the poor, hysterical bride.

Today I was out shooting b-roll of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The whole time I was waiting for a security guard to stop me. At Fannie Mae, they just told me to get off the grass. But at Freddy Mac the security guard started bothering me. I was hoping this would happen.
He said, "You can't film here, this is private property."
I said, "Not anymore it's not." And that was the end of that conversation.

We got back from the RNC yesterday. We had dinner with Emily's mom, step-dad and sister, before picking up the dogs. Today we slept until 2:30 pm. I don't remember the last time I slept that late. We saw the movie TransSiberian with Kat and Lindsey. It was really good. Lindsey kept getting scared and grabbing on to me. But it wasn't a scary movie, just suspenseful. Now Emily and I want to plan a trip on the Trans-Siberian railroad.

I flew into Minneapolis on Friday. Emily, Malcolm, Denis, Steve, Kate and I spent Saturday at the Mall of America. It is the the biggest mall in the country, but it has the same crappy stores as every other one. The only difference is the indoor theme park in the middle. We rode a couple of the rides and Dennis screamed like a baby the entire time. Emily was laughing so hard that she was crying (on the roller coaster).

Sunday we spent most of the day setting up at the RNC. That night we went to the Minnesota State Fair. It was amazing! They must have had every game, ride and fair food ever made. All of the food was either fried, on a stick or both. We tried the peanuts and chocolate on a stick, pork chops on a stick, enormous hotdogs, cotton candy, fried cheese curds, french fries, mini-doughnuts and fried cheesecake. Malcolm, Steve, Denis and I played all of the throwing and shooting games, but didn't win anything.

Yesterday was the first day of the RNC. The convention was cut short by the hurricane, but all of our clients went ahead with thier events. It was another long and busy day. It is a bit easier than the DNC though, because everything is in one building. We don't have to walk far to get anywhere and don't need seperate credentials to get into the convention events. I was pulled out of our morning shoot to interview Laura Bush. I didn't even have time to change microphones, so I had to record into the on camera mic. I rushed upstairs, found her surrounded by press and secret service and put a camera in her face. She mostly talked about Palin and I got some good soundbites. The interview was shown on Politico.com, Yahoo.com, Channel News Asia, and the Newshour online and TV.

So far all of the discussion at this convention has been about McCain's senseless choice of Sarah Palin. No one knows who she is and she still has not made a public appearance since she was announced. When we call the campaign to find out her schedule, no one knows where she is or what she is doing. She is suppose to show up at the Texas delegation dinner tonight, but she probably wont. I am going to head over there in a minute to wait for her.

I love messing with customer service representatives. I just got a call from Comcast asking me a series of questions, which I was suppose to answer on a 1-10 scale. The call was to rate my experience with their billing department when I called a week ago. I had originally called because my bill was much higher than expected, so I wanted to test their math.

I started answering with decimal points (for example 3.675 instead of 3) and making her round to the nearest number. Then I went to division, multiplication, irrational numbers, square roots, cube roots and powers. I asked her to answer the math problems to make sure she could accurately rate my dissatisfaction their service. She did ok, but I still don't trust them to bill me correctly.

Yesterday was hectic. We arrived at the Denver athletic club at 7:00 am to shoot our morning breakfast panel. Our guest was Nancy Pelosi and she had other commitments, so it only lasted 30 minutes. I came back to the workspace and edited the videos for Yahoo and Politico. In the afternoon, we had an hour and fifteen minutes to shoot two 2-camera interviews and a live shot. It all had to be done in the workspace and the live shot was between the 2-camera shoots. So we had to tear down and rebuild the set between each shoot. The first interview was with Ray Nagin, mayor of New Orleans. He came in with a whole group of assistants, who proceeded to take up every remaining foot of space in the studio. After Simon's live shot we interviewed Gavin Newsom, mayor of San Francisco. He seemed like a nice guy and I agreed with much of what he said, but I couldn't get past the size of his hair. I wanted to touch it to see what was sticking it up.

This morning our Yahoo / Politico coverage included the governors of Arizona and Montana, as well as a senator from Colorado. The videos made the Yahoo homepage both days. I missed it yesterday, but here is a link to today's video. Tonight we are in the process of packing all of our gear and shipping it to St. Paul for the Republican National Convention. We will go out tonight to celebrate the end of the DNC.

We had a classic media road trip moment last night. We finished at the DNC around 9:00. By 9:30 the "Pimp Mobile" (our huge SUV) was packed full of people and pizza. We were heading back to the hotel. Emily was driving, Steve was getting directions on his GPS and yelling them to her from the back seat. Suddenly, Olly received a call from one of our radio clients to do an analysis of the presidential race. He eloquently answered all of the questions, while balancing a pizza on his lap and ignoring Steve's audible GPS. We gave him a nice round of applause when he was done.

This morning we started our series of 4 camera shoots for Yahoo and Politico. It went relatively smoothly, but the audio people were causing huge problems. They have not showed up to any of the meetings and had no clue what they were doing. They clearly did not test anything before the show, so the microphones were causing feedback the entire time. CSPAN was broadcasting the event live, but they were forced to stop because the audio was so bad.

Emily and I arrived in Denver on Friday. After renting a car, we checked into our hotel and went to the site of the Democratic National Convention. Our workspace is within the vast Newshour complex and we have had to cram in all ten of us plus the video studio. There is hardly room to walk. Meanwhile, the rest of the Newshour space is neat and spacious. Dennis, our cameraman from Moscow, arrived Friday afternoon (without his luggage). We went out to dinner with him, Jen, and Todd. He was so excited about the American food and service that he giggled like a schoolboy every time a waitress came to our table.

Saturday the rest of the FSN crew showed up and we spent a few hours arranging the video set, before going out to dinner. We were all too tired and jet lagged to stay out late, so we were in bed by 10:30.

Today was hectic. We left the hotel at 7:30am and spent the morning trying to get our equipment to work (unsuccessfully). At 1:00 we had a practice run for our Politico coverage, which went surprisingly well. The Politico shoot is going to be our most complicated gig of the conventions. We must set it up from scratch every morning and shoot a panel discussion with 4 cameras and live switching. When we came back to the office, Simon was about to go live on Chanel News Asia. We were having trouble connecting the camera to the live video broadcasting unit. Ten minutes before he went live, we propped up the live video unit on cardboard boxes and used the built in camera (which is used for video conferencing) to shoot.

It was an exhausting weekend. Emily and I took the 6:00am bus to NYC to help Kat move. Her apartment was mostly packed when we arrived, so her and Emily picked up the truck and we started loading. It didn't take as long as expected, but a couple hours of heavy lifting wore us out. Just as we were heading out for lunch, Kat realized that her keys were locked in the apartment. The apartment next door was undergoing renovation, so we were able to climb onto the shared fire escape. Unfortunately her a/c was screwed into the window and we were not able to move it. I noticed a small (12" x 6") window into her kitchen. I squeezed through the window suffering only minor cuts on my arms and ribs and unlocked the door. We ate lunch at a cool little Mexican restaurant near Kat's house in Brooklyn. Then Emily and Kat drove the truck and I took the bus back to DC. We got home around 10:30.

Sunday we unloaded the really heavy stuff from the truck while waiting for Lindsey to arrive. She was suppose to come over at 11:30 so we could make it to my cousin's going away party on time. At 11:20 she still hadn't left the house. So I told her that we were leaving at noon regardless of whether or not she was with us. Miraculously she made it on time. So Emily, Lindsey and I drove to my grandmother's house in Baltimore for the party. Emily had a good time talking politics with grandma's friends. We all stuffed ourselves on grandma's food and her amazing (flourless) cupcakes.

My company hired me out to another company this week to edit a PBS documentary. It is a big project, the show is one hour long, and it is fraught with internal politics. (Section deleted at the suggestion of Jen and Todd)

Aside from the politics of the edit, there was some excitement on Wednesday. The office suddenly got very dark. It looked like the lights had been dimmed, but we quickly realized that the sky had blackened. The wind began to roar past our window. I looked down the street to the left and saw trash and debris spiraling upward. We were startled by a loud noise on the other side of the office. Someone suggested we go downstairs in case the (presumed) tornado hit our building. It was over as quickly as it began. We looked out the windows on the other side of the office and noticed that the roof had been blown off the building next to us.

I had an eventful week... Tuesday Emily and I helped the Newshour team with an interview of the Pakistani Prime Minister. We were there to capture the interview live for the web. We arrived early to get past the legions of security and sat around listening to the crew bitching about how hard their job was (despite the fact that they were sitting around for hours bitching about their job).

Wednesday I was at the White House to shoot Bush signing some Aids bill. I had to get there two hours before the event. After sitting around for half an hour in the press briefing room, they escorted all of the cameramen into the East room to set up. Then we had to go back to the press briefing room for another hour while they checked our equipment for bombs and we were finally let back into the East room to shoot the event. The usual path between the briefing center and the East room was blocked, so I got to see a new part of the building, the basement. The White House, like so many federal buildings, looks so nice and new from the outside, but on the inside they really show their age.

Thursday I was on Ted Stevens watch. He is the senator being indicted for concealingly gifts from an oil company. I had to wait for hours outside of the DC courthouse for him to take the "perp walk". After waiting a couple hours, I walked up to shoot the SEC building for the Economist. The security guards at the SEC didn't care, but the ones at the building across the street had a fit. This lady kept trying to call me over to talk to her (ruining my audio), but I wouldn't come and she wouldn't leave her post. Finally she called her supervisor. I explained that it wasn't a crime to film a building, so he called his supervisor, who brought along HIS supervisor. Finally there were a whole group of security guards (each one managing the one below him) discussing what to do with me. So I let them talk, finished shooting and walked away.

Yesterday, Emily and I got new tires for the car and walked around Costco and the Pentagon mall waiting for them to be installed. Last night, I went to the Nationals game with Aaron, which was a lot of fun. It was the first time I had been to the new stadium. We were worried that the game would be rained out, but it ended up being very nice weather.

Emily and I drove to Florida on Friday for a vacation. The drive was easy; it took about 12.5 hours each way. We stayed at my parent's house in Orlando for the first couple nights. Saturday I went to the gun range with my dad, while Emily went to the mall with my mom. That night we had a great dinner at a Lebanese restaurant for Emily's birthday. Afterward, Diane came over with her dog. We had playtime for all the dogs in the backyard.

Sunday we had breakfast at First Watch before driving to the beach. Our friends Serena and Brad came with their daughter Bella. We hung out on the beach all day and burnt ourselves to a crisp. Emily and I wanted to take them to our favorite pizza place, Shroomers, for dinner. It was all boarded up when we arrived. Too bad. I have been eating there every time I visited the beach for the past 12 years. We tried a middle eastern place off International Speedway. It was also closed. We drove up the road looking for a restaurant, but everyone we tried was closed. Finally we ended up at a horrible Chinese buffet which made everyone nauseas.

Monday Emily and I spent the day on the beach reading and working on our sunburns. It was just what we needed after working hard for the last few months. We saw the Dark Night in the evening. It was great. I usually don't like comic book films, but this one played like a real movie, with just enough campiness, but not too much.

Tuesday we went to dog beach with Turtle and Piggy. They had a great time playing and digging holes. They kept going in the water, rolling in the sand, then jumping on us and making a big mess. Wednesday we drove home and got caught in the rain for 7 hours.

Why can't we be more like the Swiss?

Ever wonder what my job looks like? Here is a short video with my footage from the recent Lulac convention attended by Barack Obama and John McCain. We had two cameras at the event. One on the riser and another for cutaways. I found myself on a shot from the second camera. Take a look.

I love going to mid-day events. Most think tanks and NGOs will feed the audience and press a free lunch. I've gotten a free lunch every day this week! I tell people that I go to these events for the food, not because I have to film them. Today's lunch was the most ironic. If you can call lunch ironic. I was at a conference about the global food crisis and they had a huge spread. Chicken, beef, salmon, orzo with vegetables, salad, bread, cookies and two tables of drinks.

Friday, I saw Wanted with Emily, Matt and Neetha. It was a ridiculous shoot-um-up movie with an unrealistic plot and a terrible script. Besides that, it was very entertaining and a decent popcorn movie. My dad would probably love it.

Yesterday, Emily and I took the pups to Rock Creek park again. Last time we threw Piggy into the water to make her swim, but this time she waded into the river on her own! Very brave dog. Turtle, who is usually the scared one, likes the water and goes in without a problem. It started raining when we were on the trail, 30 minutes away from the car. The trees kept us from getting too wet, so the rain felt nice in the heat. That night we went to my cousin Lilly's Bat Mitzvah. I haven't seen anyone from her family since my Bar Mitzvah. It was nice to catch up with them. They live just outside DC, so we will probably meet for dinner sometime. I also got to meet my Uncle Ricky's girlfriend, who was lovely. Apparently my grandmother scared away his previous girlfriends, so it is good to see him dating again.

Today Emily and I met my parents and sister for lunch. There was a quite a raucous when we were leaving, because no one wanted to drive with Lindsey (aka Miss Toad's wild ride). We ate at the Cheesecake Factory, home of the enormous portion size. I got a pizza and a side salad. The salad could have fed the entire table. When they were leaving the restaurant, my sister was suppose to take my parents to the airport. My dad insisted on driving and she did not take his request kindly. I'm glad I wasn't riding with her! Emily dropped me off at the metro on the way to her friend Rachel's house. I stopped in Clarendon to check out the new boxing gym. Emily and I use to take kickboxing classes in Orlando and we might start taking them here. Then I met Matt, Neetha and a couple of their friends at Elephant and Castle to watch the Euro-cup finals. The game was fun. We were all (except Kateland) rooting for Spain and they won!

I had an eventful weekend. Saturday, Emily and I took the dogs to Rock Creek park for a hike. I had not explored the park before, so I enjoyed walking along the river and following the paths deep into the woods. Piggy and Turtle had fun too, but Piggy was terrified when a horse rode by on the trail. Afterward, we went to Target and ate at Aladdin's in Shirlington. Always a good place for some Middle Eastern food. We also saw the movie Mongol, about Ghengis Khan. This was Kazakhstan's entry in the foreign language category of the Academy Awards. It was interesting, but seemed to miss important parts of the story. Emily thought it seemed much longer than it really was.

Today, Matt and I went to the national mall for the bar-b-q cook-off. I don't think I will go again next year. They charged us an entry fee which allowed us to look at all the advertising booths, but not eat any bar-b-q from the competition. We met Aaron at RFK stadium for the DC United game. It was fun! Our seats were decent (in the shade); after many sloppy plays and a few good ones, DC won 3 to 1. Next we are going to catch a Nat's game.

Monday I took the bus up to New York for the Venetian Snares concert. Instead of taking the Chinese bus, I took MegaBus which was only $25 round trip. When I got there, I met Aaron in midtown and we took the subway to little Italy for some brick oven pizza. The pizza was good, but we were not yet full. So we walked over to Chinatown and ate dinner again. This time I had vegetable noodle soup and he had dumplings.

The show was at the Knitting Factory. We arrived a bit too early, so we had to watch the opening acts. The first two were boring. We stayed in the bar where it was still possible to hold a conversation. Otto Von Schirack played third. I don't really like his music, but he put on a good show. He was dressed up in a funny outfit and wore a robber's mask. There was also a girl on stage with an alligator mask. He spent most of the time screaming into a microphone run through heavy distortion.

Venetian Snares finally took the stage at about 12:30. He blended all of the fast, hard parts of his songs together seamlessly. Everyone went crazy, dancing and jumping around. Aaron stayed in the club for most of the show, but eventually he retreated to the bar because it was too loud. I don't blame him. It was one of the loudest shows I have ever been to. It took 24 hours to regain my hearing.

I stayed the night at Aaron's new Brooklyn apartment. We ate breakfast at a local bagel shop, before heading back into the city. Our company (he also works for FSN) has two offices in New York. He went to the office at the UN and I went to the Brooklyn office. I was suppose to meet Paige there to help with an edit, but I had to leave before she arrived. I met Kat for lunch at an Indian restaurant called Kati. It was nice getting a chance to see her while I was in NYC.

I almost missed my bus home, because I lost the conformation number. I tried pulling up on my cell phone's internet connection, but the browser crashed every time I clicked on the MegaBus e-mail. Finally it worked as the driver was about to shut the door.

Monday I had one of my most difficult shoots ever. It was for a "Save the Tigers" event at the National Zoo. I was working with a correspondent who does not have a very good sense of time. We arrived 10 minutes after the event was suppose to start. I had to run to the tiger enclosure at the very back of the zoo, which took another 10 minutes. I was dripping with sweat by the time I arrived. The event was lead by Robert Zoellick (head of the World Bank) and Harrison Ford. Luckily they were also running late.

The press was squeezed into the narrow walkway used to view the tiger enclosure. The cameramen improvised a riser by climbing onto the wall opposite the enclosure. The wall was almost parallel to the podium, so everyone was right on the edge to get a better angle for their shot. Positions are claimed on a first-come first-serve basis, so I was stuck with horrible profile shot. The background was a bright white wall; it looked awful. Harrison Ford sat next to the wall. I had to lean over the edge to get a shot of him. The entire event was spent jockeying for position behind the CNN cameraman and between the AP guy and the still photographers. The footage was barely usable.

I spent all week working on a corporate video, only to have the assignment canceled just before it was finished. Last week I went to Baltimore to shoot an interview and some b-roll for the corporate video. I shot in the warehouse of a government contractor who makes unmanned boats. They were constructing one of the boats while I was there and I got to climb inside. It became quite obvious that it was not made for passengers. I had to squeeze in between the massive engines to get a shot of the workmen. After filming various workers on the factory floor, the company's owner took the producer and I out on the Baltimore Harbor. Luckily we took a boat that was made for passengers. I tried to get some shots of the harbor and cargo ships, but I could not hold the camera still enough.

I spent all week cutting my footage together with the interviews they had already shot (which looked like crap) and manufacturing b-roll from the FSN library. This type of edit usually takes weeks, but I had to finish the video in four days. Yesterday, the day before it was due, we got a call from the producer saying that the entire project was canceled. Apparently the Deputy Director had planned all of the materials, designs and multimedia presentations for the company's 20 year anniversary without getting approval from the Director. When he finally saw the plans, he hated the entire concept. All of the work that was put into this meeting was dropped. I still had to finish the video and send an approval copy and we will still get paid, but no one will see the finished product.

Emily and I (and the rest of her family) spent the weekend in Steamboat Springs Colorado for Jenny's wedding. Congratulations Jenn and Todd!

Thursday we flew through Dallas and into Denver. The Libertarian Party convention was in Denver this weekend and I thought I recognized someone at the Dallas airport as a potential nominee. So instead of just asking him, I got on the phone with Kat and talked about the convention while standing near him to see if he said anything. He didn't. We got into Denver around 7:00 (after a long delay in Dallas), rented a car and drove three hours to Steamboat. The sun had set by the time we got into the mountains and it became incredibly foggy through the mountain passes. At one point we could only see 10 feet in front of the car. Emily was driving and was terrified. We couldn't even see the side of the road to check how far we would fall if we went over the edge. Finally we made it to the hotel at 10:30.

Friday we went for a jog with Sara. We took a path along the river and marveled at the beautiful scenery. But the altitude and steep inclines took a toll. We made it back to the hotel exhausted an hour after we started. The rest of the day was spent exploring the town and preparing for the wedding. That night we got a huge Mexican feast and ate ourselves into a flatulent bliss.

Saturday the girls woke up early to attend a practice hair styling appointment. They were not particularly happy with the stylist and contemplated firing her. I met up with them around mid-day to attend the family BBQ. The event was held in a local community center and was scheduled to be four hours. We couldn't figure out what we would do for that long. The first hour we mingled with the other guests and met Todd's family and friends. After the food arrived, we ate and spent the rest of the time talking to Emily's sisters.

Sunday was the big day. The service was held at local botanical garden. Everyone was worried about the weather, because thunder storms were predicted. Luckily it was sunny and beautiful outside. The ceremony proceeded without a hitch (or with a hitch, but the good kind) and we stayed afterward for photos. The party was held at the hotel in a nicely decorated ballroom. Emily and I made a photo-slideshow, which played while everyone ate. They had a local A Capella rock group sing after dinner. Todd's cousin assumed responsibility for the music when the group was done and the dance floor eventually filled up.

Then came the only real mistake of the wedding. Todd's friends decided to take tequila shots. One of them pulled Jenny over, opened his mouth and raised the bottle above his and her head. The liquor poured out of the bottle and right into Jenny's eye. She stumbled around holding her eye and it took a while for her to regain vision. Eventually it stopped hurting and she was fine.

After the party, everyone headed to the bar across the street from the hotel. Emily and I only stayed long enough to have dinner. We were exhausted. That night the power went out across Steamboat. We used our cell phone alarm to wake us up at 5:30 to drive to Denver and catch the flight home.

Last weekend Emily, Lindsey, Turtle, Piggy and I went hiking on Sugarloaf Mountain in Maryland. I had just finished reading "Into Thin Air" about the disastrous 1996 Everest expedition, so I spent most of the time pretending we were on Everest. For example when there was a bottleneck on the trail near the top of the mountain I pretended we were at Hillary Step.

Most of the trials were not very steep, but there was a section where we had to use our hands to help climb. The weather was beautiful at the top. Warm sun and a cool breeze. We brought some lunch and had a picnic on the rocks. It didn't take long to complete the trail, so we drove around the mountain and hiked up the other side.

Tuesday I left for Cleveland with Martin, the US correspondent for the Polish station TVN. After checking into the hotel, we met the Polish doctor who is the focus of the story at a Hungarian restaurant. I had goulash and hot wine, at his recommendation. Both were very tasty; the hot wine was spiced like Chai.

Wednesday we arrived early at the hospital and got suited up from head to toe in surgical scrubs. Oddly enough they didn't do anything to disinfect the camera. I was quite nervous about filming the Gastric Bypass surgery, because I am prone to throwing up or passing out.

When I entered the ER, the patient had four tubes sticking out of her stomach. There was a table beside her holding long metal instruments with handles on one side and various tools on the other. The assistant surgeon inserted a small camera through the lower left hole in her stomach. Her guts immediately flashed up on the three flat screen monitors surrounding the operating table. The doctor then issued a spoken command to the computer to lower the lights. Now the room was only lit by the monitors and two focused surgical lamps.

The doctor proceeded to slide small pinchers into her stomach, move her liver out of the way and sew her stomach to 1/5th of its normal size. I felt queasy at first, but it soon passed. The surgery lasted about two hours. I spent most of the time circling the patient and shooting the surgery. Surprisingly enough, it did not make me sick to watch the doctor's video feed. It was actually quite fascinating to see them cut the small intestine and reattach it to her truncated stomach.

Afterward, we conducted interviews with the doctors and two patients who had received the surgery. We were finished by about 3:00, so we headed to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame before our flight. The museum is housed in a large building, but the exhibit is relatively small. My favorite items were the Ramones collection, Michael Jackson's red jacket from Thriller and Madonna's pointy bra. Martin liked the Doors section, but was disappointed by the lack of AC/DC paraphernalia.

I spent Friday with Martin, the Polish TV correspondent. He was doing a story about Jenna Bush's wedding, so we drove to Baltimore to visit the home she recently purchased. The home is located in the Federal Hill neighborhood. I expected upscale colonial style row houses, but instead the neighborhood was a bit ghetto. It was full of bars and liquor stores. We interviewed someone who lives on the opposite corner from Jenna's new home. They said that their two homes are often peed on by people leaving the bars, but hopefully now there will be secret service to keep the drunks away.

Martin was nice to work with. He told me that people always ask him the same question, "You came all the way from Poland for this?" He either answers in Polish or (if the story is really stupid) says "yes, of course". It took us all day to gather the material for the story. We went to a local think tank where we interviewed a supposed Bush family expert. Then to Baltimore to film the house and the neighborhood. And finally back to DC to film the White House, where Jenna did not want to get married.

Nevermind - I had to take this post down. E-mail me if you want the post.

Just for fun, here is a list of my nicknames for the dogs.

Turtle:
bumpkin, bumpkarino, bumpkin boy, turt, turdie, turbie, turbie-burbie, pooper, terbalina, terble, senior poop-in-pants, poo-poo, turtalie-poo, turbalie-poo, boy, little boy, little man, nerdie, nerd-boy, scaredy-poo, turtaloonie,

Piggy:
pickle, picker, pickaloonie, pickaroo, macaroni-butt, twinkle-butt, girl, girlie, cuteums, snookums, pickle-boo-boo, nose licker, missy, mrs. pickle, missy-poo, mrs. messy-pants, barkie-pants, pickalina, pickalina macaroni, baby-girl, lickalina

Turtle and Piggy together:
monsters, monkeys, monks, donkeys, crazies, kooks, poopers, nerd dogs, pups, puppers, puppins, bumpkins, puparonies, puparenoes, puparenoses, babies, boo-boos

This Rev. Wright issue is being blown completely out of proportion. What really bothers me is that everyone is denouncing his words and adding fuel to the fire, without actually listening to his speech. I, of course, find it my duty to keep my loyal blog readers well informed. Here are some clips I filmed at the Press Club Speech. Keep in mind I arrived late, so these bites are mostly from the question and answer portion.

I went to Rev. Wright's speech at the Press Club today. I didn't find out that I would be covering the event until I got to the office this morning. By then it had already started. So I jumped in a cab and listened to the cabby's anti-Wright and quasi-racist diatribe on the way there.

The room was absolutely packed. It took a couple minutes just to get past the people squeezed into the doorway. The back wall of the room was jammed with press. A couple nice cameramen made room for me and helped me climb over the chairs to reach my spot.

Rev. Wright was in his element; most of the audience were there for the NAACP meeting. They stood and cheered after every couple sentences. The speech was interesting, but the question and answer session really got him going. Say what you will about the man or his message, but he owned that room. I may not agree with his message, but I was very impressed by the delivery.

Emily and I did yet another live video feed for the Washington Post today. It was 7 hours of people talking about the NFL draft. But we couldn't use video of the actual draft, so we just had people talking endlessly. They seemed to enjoy themselves, but I doubt we got many viewers. Why watch online commentary when you could watch the actual draft?

Emily and I spent the weekend in Florida. We hadn't been there since we moved away. It was good to see the family and friends, but I'm glad I don't live there anymore. We got in on Thursday night, after doing the Washington Post live coverage of the Pope all morning. Friday we visited the dentist (aka my dad) for a cleaning. Apparently I don't brush hard enough.

Saturday was the Passover Seder which was attended by the usual crowd - my parent's crazy friends. We took some family photos (including the one above) before the Seder. Don't you just love the expression on our faces?

We spent all weekend shooting and editing IMF / World Bank stuff. Emily has now been working for three weeks straight and me for two weeks. The press briefings were just as boring and un-news worthy as ever. But of course we did two stories a day for the SABC.

I also covered a Save Darfur rally at the National Mall. They had mock refugee tents set up to show people what it was like for the people of Darfur. I visited some refugee camps in Sudan and the tents set up here were WAY nicer than anything I saw. They were fully stocked with pillows, blankets, cooking pots and medicine. I saw none of that stuff at the camps I visited. Just flimsy, roofless straw huts with maybe a wire bed or two inside. There was no sign of help from the relief agencies.

I got kicked out of the Oval Office today. I was suppose to be filming Bush's meeting with the Singaporean Minister. But apparently they recently started enforcing the 'no jeans in the Oval Office' rule. Luckily Malcolm was there to shoot instead.

Emily has been in Portland Oregon for the last few days. She went on a last minute, ill planned trip with the SABC to Nike headquarters. Her and Manalisi (the SABC correspondent) were sent to film the Nike products being given to the Olympic athletes (Nike paid for the trip). Apparently it has been a disaster from the beginning. They didn't book Emily's flight or hotel until the day before she left. Even then the flight dates were wrong and they put her in the wrong hotel. She had Nike fix the problem less than 24 hours before she was set to go. When her and Manalisi arrived, they had no schedule and no idea what they were doing. Nike set up an interview for them, without asking or giving them any idea who they were talking to. Manalisi had no idea what to ask during the interview.

Most of their time has been spent in lecture halls being preached to by advertising executives. This would make riveting television, I'm sure. They have been barred from filming anything that would make a nice story; Emily even had to sign a form saying that she wouldn't "give away company secrets". She was not allowed to film in any of the product testing or design labs. I can't wait to see what they will scrounge together for a story.

Over the weekend, my front yard became a kids playground. It started when a group of neighborhood kids spotted Turtle and Piggy in the yard. They wanted to pet the dogs, but they were scared. Surprisingly enough, many people in my neighborhood get off the sidewalk when they see my dogs coming. Finally the kids got the courage to come into my yard. The dogs immediately jumped on them and licked their faces. One of the boys admitted that he had never held a dog before. When they realized that Turtle and Piggy were friendly, the kids played fetch and chased them around the yard. One of the boys noticed an old fashioned lawn mower between my house and the next. He politely asked if he could use it. I graciously allowed him to cut the grass while I stood around feeling like Tom Sawyer. When the job was finished, they spotted the hose. One of the boys grabbed it and doused the others. They took turns spraying each other before leaving to get changed. They promised to come back soon.

I just saw myself on CNN! I guess I was standing opposite the CNN cameraman when Hillary Clinton was shaking hands after her Iraq war speech. So there I was standing next to her holding the camera...

I finished the "Powerful Women in Washington" trifecta today. Last Wednesday I filmed Condoleezza Rice at the State Department. She looked extremely tired. I think she had just stepped off the plane from the Middle East. Thursday I did a press conference with Nancy Pelosi at Congress. She reminded me a lot of my mother and when she cheered her hometown of Baltimore, I realized why. Today I arrived at GW for a 6:30 pre-set to film Hillary Clinton's speech about Iraq. It was a lot different than seeing an Obama event. She spoke about the specifics of her plan (a bit wonkishly) and did very little glad-handing. Obama speaks in generalities and walks slowly around the room greeting everyone both before and after he speaks.

I am amazed at the energy and drive of both Clinton and Obama. They have been traveling, making speeches, debating and raising money for months. I'm surprised they haven't dropped out of the race from pure exhaustion.

Emily and I had date night last night. We went to see the movie 'The Band's Visit' about an Egyptian Police band going to play a show in Israel. It was great! Not 'There will be Blood' great, but a nice character driven type film. The characters spoke English, Arabic and Hebrew. I was impressed with my ability to understand some of the Arabic and Hebrew. I wasn't as good with the English.

Last week The Economist had a small article in the magazine about our online videos. We are getting good at them now. They don't take nearly as long to make, and they have been turning out well. Look for the images with little film strips here.

The report I filmed and edited in Russia is online now. Click on 'Streaming Video' to watch it.

I'm back from Moscow. Sorry I didn't have time to blog. The entire trip was spent running around Moscow shooting everything that moved. The best parts were the honey festival, the homely food market in Ivanovo, the fabric factory and the interview with a top Kremlin official. The worst part was all of the bureaucratic harassment. The camera was almost confiscated on multiple occasions. In the Ivanovo mall, Anya had to convince the guards that we were just practicing, not actually shooting video, which was why the camera had no tape. In realty, Simon took the tape and ran off when we saw the guards coming. On Friday, I edited for 12 hours straight to get the piece to Newshour on time. It was a ton of work, but lots of fun.

Simon, Anya and I have been running around like maniacs to shoot all of the necessary components for Friday's Newshour piece. Yesterday we drove four hours to Ivanovo, which is north east of Moscow, shot all day and got back at 2:30 am. Today is more shooting, more digitizing and more insanity. At least we have been eating well on the Newshour's money. We have been making Podcasts for the Newshour online. I posted them here to keep everyone up to date.

I spent most of the day yesterday running around the city shooting b-roll. We parked across the river from the Russian White House, so I could shoot from the water's edge. The problem was that the staircase to the water level, as well as the entire landing, was covered in ice. I slid down half the stairs, but managed to keep my balance. I stepped out onto the landing and crept toward the edge. I carefully anchored my tripod in the ice and shot while holding on to a pole to avoid falling in the water. I also got some shots overlooking the Kremlin and shot an interview with a woman from the Carnegie Institute.

You're not going to believe this... I noticed that every time we drove around the city, we go in these crazy loops. It turns out that there are very few places in Moscow where you can make a left turn! No joke. You have to drive around in circles (right circles, of course) to get anywhere. You can't even cut across the street to park. Yesterday we had to go around the entire Kremlin to park on the opposite side of the street.

I am in Moscow once again. This time to shoot for the Newshour with Jim Lehr on PBS. Everyone should watch the show on Friday, because that's when the package will air.

The flight here was a bit shaky. Simon (my boss) and I flew from DC through NYC. Before we left Washington, they announced that someone had forgotten to do the security sweep, so everyone had to de-plane. We waited in the breezeway nervously checking our watches. Finally the sweep was done and we flew to New York.

By the time we got to JFK, it was too late for Simon to upgrade to business class. He complained the whole time about having to sit in "goat class" and kept talking about how much better the flight would have been if he had gotten the upgrade. He even went as far as saying that there was a special type of lip balm that he would have gotten, if he were in the front of the plane.

We arrived in Moscow at 10:00 am, got our baggage and almost had the camera confiscated. The camera, microphones and all other gear had FSN stickers on them. We tried to convince the guards that it was only for personal use, but they weren't buying it. Finally, Anya (the Moscow bureau chief) got on the phone and cleared things up. The guards could have easily taken the camera and never given it back.

After checking into the hotel, we went on a search for some Russian dolls of Putin and Medvedev. The first place we looked was a bust. Next we stopped by the Old Arbat Street and found some dolls. Anya met us there and took us to a honey festival. This thing was fantastic. There were hundreds of independent honey producers from all over Russia. I was in heaven; they all gave samples! We spent at least an hour filming, tasting and buying honey. I hope the Newshour will pay for my cavities.

I'm on my way back to Moscow Saturday! It was somewhat unexpected. Simon (my boss) was going to Russia to cover the elections. Malcolm (a co-worker) was scheduled to go, but he had problems getting his visa. Luckily, mine was still valid from last month. I will probably be shooting for Bloomberg again. This time doing live shots about the election. The results will not be a surprise (Medvedev is going to win), but it should be interesting anyway. I may also be doing some work for Fox News and The Newshour with Jim Lehr. So watch the programs next week and I will try to keep everyone updated about my work.

Monday I shot another Obama event. The usual press woman was off duty today, so an inexperienced staffer was in charge of the media. There was plenty of riser space, but she was convinced that the major networks were going to take it all up. 'Foreign Press' like myself (shooting for SABC) were confined to the floor. The only shot I could get from there was the back of someone's sign. I saw that there was plenty of riser space, so I moved up. She quickly came and kicked me off. This happened over and over again until I finally secured a spot just before the start of the event and she left me alone. It was really obnoxious because it was obvious that she didn't know what she was doing and was simply trying to appear in control.

Yesterday Emily and I again ran the Washington Post and Newsweek online election coverage. This time it went much more smoothly. We didn't have many celebrity guests, but the event was more carefully planned and much more manageable. We will be doing it again on March 4th. Don't forget to watch.

For those who missed it here is a clip from Emily and my Super Tuesday coverage on Washingtonpost.com. We will be doing another live broadcast tomorrow for the MD, VA, DC primaries. Look for it on Washingtonpost.com and Newsweek.com.

This clip starts with Mike Huckabee's phone call. Sorry for the audio problems.

Just a quick word of thanks to my loyal comment posters - Kat, Todd and mom - I appreciate it!

Emily and I ran the live Super Tuesday video coverage on Washingtonpost.com, Newsweek.com and Slate.com. They had never done this type of event before, so it was quite disorganized. Emily was the director and I was the switcher. Neither of us had headphones, so we had to watch our bank of monitors and switch to whoever was moving their lips.

The set was not very well thought out. It was in the middle of the Washingtonpost.com newsroom. All of the video equipment was scavenged from other parts of the building. I had THREE switchers. Each one was routed through the last, so I had to carefully trace the video path and press three buttons to pull up any source.

The coverage lasted from 6:00 pm to 1:30 am - commercial free. We were exhausted before we even started, because we had arrived at 7:30 am to interview Rick Warren (the Purpose Driven Life guy). As the night went on, Emily had to give me more and more time to pull up a video source, because it was getting harder to trace the correct path.

John Meacham, the editor of Newsweek, hosted the show. We were joined in studio by Bob Woodward, and other political commentators. We received phone calls from Ron Paul, Mike Huckabee, John Kerry, Howard Dean and journalists around the country.

The worst part of the night was when we went live on BBC World. We were so nervous about the camera placement, that we decided to adjust it mid-interview. As soon as we unscrewed the tripod, the camera was jerked to the right by a taught cable. Emily quickly adjusted it as almost pulled out my hair.

We are doing another live event this Tuesday for the DC, Maryland and Virginia primaries. Don't miss it!

I went to the Obama rally at American University last week. I arrived at 8:40 and was told that I was too late. It said on the invitation that live trucks had to be set up by 8:30, but everyone else should arrive by 9:30. Soon other cameramen began to arrive and were told the same thing. A large angry crowd began to assemble at the media entrance. When they saw the size of the crowd, they quickly called the Obama campaign and cleared things up. I stood out in the cold for over an hour before finally being let inside. They made everyone drop their gear near the door while the Secret Service searched it. It was 10:30 before I finally took my place on the media riser.

The line at the public entrance was over a mile long. It took two hours for everyone to get inside and the place was packed. Many people had to be turned away (including NBC's Chris Matthews). Campaign members passed out signs, including hand-made ones designed to look like they were made by supporters.

Obama arrived with Ted Kennedy. The latter gave a rousing speech, while the former talked about how honored he was to receive the endorsement. Overall it was a bit disappointing. Barack looked like he needed time off.

I have a new blog feature. Check out the lower left panel for my Twitter updates. This will allow me to send text messages to my blog, keeping everyone up to date about what I am doing right now!

I attended a rally at the Israeli embassy today in support of Palestinians crossing the border with Egypt. Here is the news package.

Here are some photos from Christmas at Emily's Mom's house and from my trip to Moscow.

I'm back in Moscow after my tropical vacation in Kalinigrad (where temperatures got above freezing). Here's the recap:

I flew into Kaliningrad on Thursday with Ellen, a Bloomberg TV reporter. Our hotel, the Baltica, is located on the edge of the city. We had dinner at the hotel's French restaurant, which we dubbed "the best French food in Kaliningrad". It was awful.

Yesterday, we ate a surprisingly decent breakfast at the hotel, consisting of tomatoes, cucumbers, cheese, salami, yogurt and tiny pancakes. All of the other journalists on our trip were staying at the same hotel, so we were picked up in a large bus. Our first stop was a local government office, where we were searched and detained for an hour.

Next, we were driven to a soy manufacturing plant on the Baltic Sea. Dmitry Medvedev (likely the next Russian president) and his entourage showed up an hour later. He was met by the owner of the plant. The two stood around talking while the press swarmed around for pictures. The photo op was suppose to be of him looking at the sea, but he faced the wrong way, so it looked like he was in a parking lot. Medvedev then joined a group of business people and government officials in a board room, where they gave boring speeches and he occasionally mumbled into the microphone. He certainly does not have the charisma of most world leaders.

From there, the procession moved to a brick making plant. I got some nice b-roll of the plant, but when Medvedev arrived he stood facing a large yellow dumpster. Again poor planning led to a poor photo op. That night, Ellen and I asked about the "best Italian food in Kaliningrad". We were directed to a restaurant near the center of town. This time it was actually good.

Catching a cab in Russia is more like hitch-hiking. Anyone can be a cab driver, so when you stand by the road you are often picked up by the first passing motorist. This time it was a man and his sister, who were out looking for the sister's husband. The husband had just stormed out of the house after one month of marriage. We drove slowly as the sister searched the side of the road. Eventually we dropped her off at an apartment building and were taken back to the hotel.

Now I am back in Moscow, hoping to find one more decent meal before leaving tomorrow.

I woke up late today. I just didn't want to get out of bed because my room was so cold. The heat is still not working, despite my complaints. I got dressed and went outside to warm up (just kidding). Anya told me about a pedestrianized street that runs from just across the river to near Red Square.

I took a walk down Old Arbat St. and stopped in a small cafe for breakfast. Hardly anyone speaks English, but luckily they had an English menu. The waitress and I worked out my order by comparing each item's position on the English menu to the corresponding position on the Russian menu. It worked! I got my pancakes (very thin, rolled-up and served with jelly) and cappuccino. The pancakes did not fill me up at all, so I had to order an omelet as well. After picking up a gift for Emily, I headed back across the river.

I don't know how anyone affords to live in this city. There are clothing stores everywhere, but the prices are astronomical. I could hardly afford to walk into the stores near the office.

In the afternoon, I met Anya and found out that my trip with Dmitry Medvedev (most likely the next president of Russia) is on! Tomorrow, I will be traveling to Kaliningrad as the Bloomberg cameraman.

Anya, her friend and I went to a Georgian restaurant for dinner. We ordered about ten small dishes and shared everything. The food was great and we stuffed ourselves. Anya's friend spoke only limited English, but she could understand it. So we mostly spoke English, with Anya acting as the translator.

I met Anya (the FSN correspondent) and Dana (the Fox News correspondent) for breakfast at an American style diner. I couldn't believe that I came all the way to Russia, just to eat diner food. The walls were covered by old Americana signs like Ford and Coke advertisements.

After breakfast, Anya and I went to the FSN office. It is large, but mostly empty. I spent a few hours looking over their camera gear and trying to figure out how much of it I could take back to Washington. People from other bureaus routinely use the DC office as their personal gear warehouse, so we are left with the stuff no one wants.

I went to the enormous mall near my hotel to eat dinner. This city must have the highest concentration of malls per square mile in the world. Every time I open a door, I find myself in another one. Anyway, after wandering around the mall for a while, I got pizza, because I could order by pointing.

I am getting better at reading Cyrillic. It is actually not that difficult. You just have to remember that the 'B' sounds like 'V', the backwards 'N' sounds like 'E', the 'P' sounds like 'R', the 'H' sounds like 'N', and so on.

I'm in Moscow! I got sent here last minute by my company to fill in for some cameramen who are on vacation. I got my visa Friday and jumped on the plane Saturday.

I sat next to the stereotypical Russian grandmother on the plane. She was very friendly and smiled broadly with her cooked yellow teeth. I practiced my Russian phrases and she helped with the pronunciation.

I was met at the airport in Moscow by a taxi driver, who held up a poorly written sign with my name. My last name was spelled Z3rivitz. He spoke no english, but Anya (one of the FSN correspondents) told him in advance where to take me. I am staying at the Radisson, across the river from the Russian White House.

After dropping off my luggage, I walked two miles to Red Square. Along the way, I tried to pick out the buildings constructed during Communism. I passed the Foreign ministry, one of the 7 Skyscrapers built during that time.

The Kremlin was difficult to get into. Not because of security, but because I couldn't find an open gate. Finally, I made my way into Red Square (which is actually made of black bricks). I felt very strange standing in front of Saint Basil's Cathedral (the ice cream cone looking church). It is a building I had seen so many times in movies and photographs, that it almost didn't seem real.

Recently, St. Basil's was opened to tourists, so I ventured inside. I expected a large, open cathedral. Instead, the building is a series of curvy tunnels with small rooms for worship. I became quite lost as I wandered through the chambers. The tunnels make up a strange labyrinth. Now I understand why Ivan the Terrible forcibly blinded the architects (the legend isn't actually true).

It was becoming dark by the time I left Red Square, so I decided to take the Metro back. There are almost no English signs in the city or on the metro. My map was written in Cyrillic, so it did little good. However, I carefully studied the characters on the map and compared them to the signs. Eventually I figured out which train to get on, and I made it to the hotel.

Look at me at the State Department! I had to ask the technical guy something about the lights and I caught it on camera.