At work we send all of our footage to Getty Images, who then sells it to other production companies for lots of money. One of the clips which sells every month is a shot of someone getting arrested. Around my neighborhood I see people getting arrested all of the time, so I decided to film it and make some money. Of course, when you're looking for something you never find it. Kat and I have spent the last couple nights driving around the neighborhood with a video camera and stopping when we see the police. So far we haven't seen anyone getting arrested, but we're going to keep trying until we get the shot.

I've has had a busy shoot schedule for the last couple days. Yesterday Emily and I did a two camera switched shoot for Rand Corporation. The event was held at the new visitor center of the US Capital, a beautiful facility which is well suited for these type of policy meetings. Plus they always serve delicious cookies. Immediately after that shoot, Malcolm and I walked over to the Heritage Foundation and shot an interview for Newsmax with former Attorney General Ed Meese.

Today I was at the National Press Club shooting a story on Diarrheal Disease for the South African Broadcasting Corporation. They also served nice food, but the topic sort of killed my appetite. I got back to the office just in time to leave again for our first two camera interview for Newsmax. The interview subject was Senator Kit Bond of Missouri. It was held in his office conference room. It is always easier to shoot interviews with people in the Senate rather than the House of Representatives, because they generally have much larger offices. You can check out the interview on the Newsmax website in the next couple days.

Saturday was the White House Correspondents dinner. Emily and I attended a brunch for the Washington big-wigs at Tammy Haddad's house. Most of the people there were from the news networks, but there were some Hollywood types there too like Val Kilmer and Christian Slater.

We arrived at the hotel where the Correspondents dinner was being held in the late afternoon and claimed our spots along the red carpet. Murry (our freelance cameraman friend) was shooting on one end and I was on the other. We hired Kat for the evening and got her to conduct the celebrity interviews. Before anyone even arrived, the photographers were trying to push their way in. There were a few photographers who showed up late and tried to squeeze into a spot up front. Those of us who were there early to claim our spots weren't having any of it. Some of them got pretty mouthy with me, claiming that I was taking up too much room with my tripod. I just said, "too bad, in this business you have to be on time." The guy next to us was from Extra, and he seemed to be personal friends with all of the celebrities. Kat just stood next to him and stuck her microphone near whoever was there. I will try to list the people we spoke to and hopefully I wont forget too many: Louis Gossett Jr., Barbra Walters, Woopie Goldberg, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Christian Slater, Samuel L Jackson, Wanda Sykes, Denis Leary, Jon Hamm, Mayor Villaraigosa, Alicia Keys, Carrol King, Ludacris, Rick Schroder, Al Sharpton, Clinton Portis, and Richard Belzer.

Last night I was really angry with someone in my dream. Emily had to wake me up when I started punching her. This morning, I let the dogs out. It was raining, so I grabbed an umbrella from my porch. When I opened it, a dead bird fell out and hit me on the head.

Monday, Emily and I did a multi-camera shoot for The Week magazine. The event was their 6th Annual Opinion Awards. All of the usual Washington political pundits and media types were there. Emily, Kate and I were at the office until 6:00 am editing the videos.

Does anyone else find this whole global warming debate a bit misguided? It's not the Earth that we should be worried about. It has been here for billions of years. The climate has and will always be changing, regardless of our involvement.

The Human Race is the one we should be worried about. We need to drop this biblical notion of mankind being dropped into a world ideally suited to our survival, which is only changing as a result of our behavior. The real question is how to adapt to the planet. I doubt that even the most dire predictions about global warming will have much effect on our ability to survive. At most, it may impact the number of humans the Earth can sustain.

We should instead be worried about actual threats to our survival. In that regard, we are our worst enemy. Man's quest for dominance over other men will kill more people than global warming ever could. But, I guess it is much easier to build a windmill or recycle a can than to look within ourselves to the root of the problem.

Oh, and we should probably worry about diseases too.

Emily and I have been really busy lately. It's good though. We get bored easily. This week is the Spring meetings for the IMF / World Bank. These things are getting old very quickly. They meet twice a year and it's always the same thing. Yesterday I attended the Sub-Saharan Africa forum. I could have conducted the meeting myself. "Africa has been affected by the global economic slowdown. The continent as a whole will experience negative growth this year. Blah blah blah." And I'm sick of hearing economists use ridiculous phrases like "negative growth".

I have to head down to the IMF early tomorrow morning to shoot an interview with the South African finance minister. It always takes awhile to arrange for these high profile interviews, which will probably mean that I will be waiting around for a long time. Luckily, the meetings are the only time I can get good shots of the World Bank and IMF buildings without being shooed away by security. So that should give me something to do.

This is such a fascinating time we live in. The pace of technological innovation is faster than it has ever been, thanks in part to electricity, computers and the internet. It is amazing how quickly our lives are changing. I was just reading about new hard-drive technology and wondering when it would be available for use in video cameras. Even now, most professional video cameras are moving from tape to flash based memory cards. One day I will be telling young videographers about how I use to shoot on tape. It makes me feel old just thinking about it.

I spent the morning at the South African embassy in Washington DC filming ex-pats voting in their national election. There was a steady stream of voters, despite the fact that it is cold and rainy here. The photo is of ambassador Welile Nhlapo casting his ballot.

FSN has a new blog. There are some pictures of Emily and I, as well as a link to the video we did for Rand a couple days ago. Yes, I will be duplicating posts to both blogs, so don't give me crap when you read the same post twice.

Emily has been editing the India pieces for Newshour all week. I helped finish the last one, which will air today.

Here are the first three: Four Months On, Slum Rehabilitation, and Two Indias. Click on "Streaming Video" to watch them.

In other news, we finally got another offer on our house in Orlando! It is great timing too, because our tenants will be moving out May 31st and the buyers want to close around that time. Unfortunately the house is worth so much less than our mortgage, that we have to do a short sale. It will affect our credit, but not like a foreclosure. The buyers are certainly choosing the right time to buy. If only we had such foresight.

About President Bashir of Sudan being indicted by the International Criminal Court... Most people I have spoken to, both here and in Sudan, think the ICC decision was long overdue. Bashir has sanctioned and even supported the atrocities in Darfur. It is widely assumed that his government supplied arms to the Janjaweed militias. As a result of the ICC, Bashir has kicked all international aid organizations out of Sudan.

We have seen the Sudanese people protesting the ICC's decision and their position is hard for many of us to understand. Don't they know what is happening in Darfur? Today I got a very different perspective from one of my Sudanese friends. She was trained as a doctor and recently opened her own medical clinic in Khartoum.

She writes, "The crisis is not just in the states its double here in Sudan with the international financial crisis & the ICC. Work in the clinic is not fine. The number of patient shrunk because of the ICC & no one is talking about this in the media. The number of sales in the pharmaceutical companies is also decreasing. I am looking for another job beside the clinic & trying to leave Sudan as soon as possible! Something I want to say to you is that people in Sudan hate the Americans now because of the ICC & what happened in Palestine. But for me you are still my best American Jewish friend & I think is one of the last bright points in me now. I still can judge people according to their behavior not from their skin color, nation or religion & I'll love you whatever they are saying about Jews & how much that they are bad, because I know you are good person."

Friday I got stuck at the White House for a good part of the day. I was there to film the daily press briefing, because Priscilla was hoping to get a question in about Roxana Saberi. We cleared it ahead of time, but they gave me some crap about where to setup the camera. I ended up being stuck in the far back corner against the wall. And after standing there for an hour trying to shoot over some lady's shoulder, Priscilla didn't even get to ask the question. After the briefing, Mayor Bloomberg, Gov. Rendell and Gov. Schwarzenegger were giving a press conference after meeting with Obama. I got there just in time to set up my tripod next to a big thorny bush, which I then stood in while they answered questions.

Yesterday I covered a protest organized by Answer Coalition. As with any of these protests, the participants seemed to average one shower a year. It was a fairly typical event - speeches and a march. The march, however, went on forever! They started near the Lincoln Monument and went all the way past the Pentagon to Crystal City Virginia! Manalisi and I were exhausted when we finally got back to the office.

I did a two camera interview with Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma (the South African equivalent of Hillary Clinton). The interview was originally scheduled for 4:00, but I got a call at 3:00 to get to her hotel right away. Priscilla, Mima and I quickly set up the lights and cameras. She walked in just as we were finishing. There was no time to check the shots or the audio; luckily everything looked good. The interview itself was incredibly boring, but at least it looked good. So that's all I care about.

Yesterday, Emily and Kate shot an interview with the President of Palau. The secret service didn't know that it was a video interview, so they had to wait half an hour for the bomb sniffing dog. Emily said that the president was very friendly and even stood around afterward to watch the recording of the interview.

I did a couple shoots on Capital Hill this week, including the meeting between John Kerry, Dick Lugar and Ban Ki-Moon. I shot a quick photo-spray (where you go into the meeting room and shoot a few seconds of video) before the meeting, then had to wait an hour for them to make statements afterward.

Yesterday Larry Summers spoke at Brookings. I always like shooting there, because they serve nice pastries and coffee. I got there 45 minutes before his speech and the whole back of the room was jammed with cameras. By the time everyone arrived for the speech, it was standing room only. Luckily I got the last available spot on the first row of cameras. My tripod is too short to go on the back row. The speech was boring, but at least it was much more comprehensible than when Bernanke speaks.

I had a pretty busy week. Manelisi (the SABC correspondent) did at least seven stories this week. Yesterday I had a shoot in the Rayburn building on Capital Hill and Ron Paul was there to liven things up. James Baker, Warren Christopher and someone who I didn't recognize were there to propose changes to the way the president interacts with congress when deciding to go to war. Ron Paul clearly disagreed with their proposal and he engaged James Baker in a heated debate.

Emily and I have a new intern named Mima. She came with us to the political conventions, so we know she is a good worker. We convinced her to go to Sudan and join SVP after her school semester ends. Now her parents, who are friends with Simon, are asking him about us and trying to find out how these crazy people convinced her to go to Africa. They are clearly not pleased with us.

I've been studying my chess books and playing games against my computer, but I have not improved much. I found out that the US Chess Center is a couple blocks from my office and they hold tournaments regularly. I'm going to play there when I have some time.

I'm working late tonight covering the Obama speech. Earlier I was at the State Department waiting for Hillary Clinton and the Pakistani foreign minister to make a statement after their meeting. They were 45 minutes late for the press briefing, which is really annoying when the whole thing lasts 3 minutes.

They let the still photographers crouch in front of the videographers. There were a couple journalists who were obviously not still photographers, but happened to have little cameras, so they were allowed upfront. Unfortunately they were not keen on the idea of sitting. The CNN cameraman and I told them repeatedly to sit down and stay down until Clinton has left the room. They finally sat down a couple minutes before the briefing, but jumped up as she was leaving the room, ruining the walk-out shot. Why are people so obnoxious?

I tried to make a nice Valentines day dinner for Emily and I, but failed miserably. The sauce was suppose to be a vinegar reduction to go on the steak, but the sugar caramelized and it turned into a hard, sticky mess. The worst part is that it didn't harden until I got it onto the steak. It stuck to the plates and silverware like vinegar flavored hard candy. We had to throw out the pot I made it in. The potatoes were good and the steak was good, but I didn't know that you are suppose to cut the ends off fresh green beans. Emily had to cut the ends off each one before eating them. I made bought chocolate covered strawberries for dessert. They were good, but the chocolate didn't stay on. We had to eat a bite of strawberry then a bite of chocolate. Even that was hard, because the chocolate flaked off all over us.

My poor, sweet sugar glider Morty died last night. He seemed fine yesterday, but today he was just laying at the bottom of his cage holding onto the bars. I picked him up and tried to feed him, but he was very lethargic and didn't want to eat. Emily and I brought him to the vet last night. They put him on oxygen and tried to figure out what was wrong. But about an hour after we got to the vet, he passed away. He was the nicest little guy and we will miss him.

We finally had the family Hanukkah party last night. Yes I know, Hanukkah was two months ago. It was held at the Hantman's house and all the usual people were in attendance. After dinner we played Taboo. Grandma Mitzi caught on quickly and became the hero for our team.

Yesterday I was shooting a briefing about the US arms deal with Israel. It was in one of the Congressional office buildings. A few minutes after the briefing started a tall, young, red-headed woman walked in. I thought, she looks like Dennis Kusinich's wife. Sure enough, following behind her was Dennis Kusinich. Would I have ever recognized any other member of congress' wife? Of course not. I'm a big fan of Mr. Kusinich's stance on the Israel / Palestine issue, so I'm glad he showed up to speak. It was pretty tacky, and I usually don't do this, but I couldn't stop myself from shaking his hand and complimenting him on the work that he does.

So I'm finally getting around to writing about the inauguration... In short, it was a long, cold, exhausting day. Emily and I were both up by 4:30am. She was working at the Washington Post and I was headed to the National Mall. I arrived around 5:30am and met up with Daniel (the correspondent). Neither the police nor the information officers knew where the media entrance was, but they all agreed that it must be on the other side of the Capital. We took the long hike around the building and found that the guards on the other side didn't know either. We saw a small line of photographers at the entrance to the Rayburn building, so we decided to go through security acting like we knew what we were doing. We got through the first security screening, went down to the basement and out the capital side entrance through another layer of security. We were now on the mall, but not where we needed to be. A line was forming near the south entrance to the Capital. We stood there hoping we wouldn't get turned away. We made it though the final security checkpoint and found ourselves on the balcony where the inauguration was taking place! I quickly set up my camera and got a great crowd shot.

The next few hours were spent getting interviews with people in the crowd and trying desperately to stay warm. We were successful in the former, but failed miserably in the latter. When the ceremony finally started, I found a good spot beside the Capital reflecting pond to set up my tripod. I was meant to be shooting crowd shots; the speech itself was to be shared freely among all the TV networks. I was right in front of the Capital during the swearing in and Obama's speech, but I would have gotten a better view if I had been further back. I couldn't see any of the Jumbotrons from where I was standing. Nevertheless, I was there to witness the event and film the crowd's reaction.

Afterward I had to walk back to the office. Most of the streets around the Capital were closed and I figured the metro would be jammed, so I walked under the Mall via the 3rd street tunnel and started the long hike. I ended up staying at the office editing for SABC and other clients until 9:00pm. I'm glad I won't have to do another one of these for four years.

Professor discusses the evolution of religion.

Was this Onion article really written in 2001?

UN suggests Israel is guilty of war crimes.

Now Israel is using phosphorus shells against civilians and the UN.

More than 1000 people have been killed in Gaza in the past 19 days. Almost 1/3 of the dead are children.

Click here to read the story on the BBC website.

Israeli soldiers using Palestinian children as human shields:

This is sad...

Today I received a forwarded e-mail containing a "Crash Course on the Arab Israeli Conflict." The following are the assertions made in the e-mail and my refutations (in bold):

1. Nationhood and Jerusalem. Israel became a nation in 1312 BCE, Two thousand years before the rise of Islam.

The newly created United Nations approved the UN Partition Plan (United Nations General Assembly Resolution 181) on November 29, 1947, dividing the country into two states, one Arab and one Jewish. Jerusalem was to be designated an international city – a corpus separatum – administered by the UN to avoid conflict over its status.

On May 14, 1948, the day before the end of the British Mandate, the Jewish Agency proclaimed independence, naming the country Israel.

2. Arab refugees in Israel began identifying themselves as part of a Palestinian people in 1967, two decades after the establishment of the modern State of Israel.

The first widespread use of "Palestinian" as an endonym to refer to the nationalist concept of a Palestinian people by the local Arabic-speaking population of Palestine began prior to the outbreak of World War I, and the first demand for national independence was issued by the Syrian-Palestinian Congress on 21 September 1921.

3. Since the Jewish conquest in 1272 BCE, the Jews have had dominion over the land for one thousand years with a continuous presence in the land for the past 3,300 years.

Between the time of the Israelite kingdoms and the 7th-century Muslim conquests, the Land of Israel fell under Assyrian, Babylonian, Persian, Greek, Roman, Sassanian, and Byzantine rule. Jewish presence in the region dwindled after the failure of the Bar Kokhba revolt against the Roman Empire in 132 CE and the resultant large-scale expulsion of Jews. In 628/9, the Byzantine Emperor Heraclius conducted a massacre and expulsion of the Jews, at which point the Jewish population probably reached its lowest point.

4. The only Arab dominion since the conquest in 635 CE lasted no more than 22 years.

The Land of Israel was captured from the Byzantine Empire around 636 CE during the initial Muslim conquests. Control of the region transferred between the Umayyads, Abbasids, and Crusaders over the next six centuries, before falling in the hands of the Mamluk Sultanate, in 1260. In 1516, the Land of Israel became a part of the Ottoman Empire, which ruled the region until the 20th century.

5. For over 3,300 years, Jerusalem has been the Jewish capital Jerusalem has
never been the capital of any Arab or Muslim entity. Even when the Jordanians occupied Jerusalem, they never sought to make it their capital, and Arab leaders did not come to visit.

Jerusalem is considered Islam's third holiest city after Mecca and Medina. Among Muslims of an earlier era, it was referred to as al-Bayt al-Muqaddas; later, it became known as al-Quds al-Sharif. In 638, the Islamic Caliphate extended its dominion to Jerusalem. With the Arab conquest, Jews were allowed back into the city. The Rashidun caliph Umar ibn al-Khattab signed a treaty with Monophysite Christian Patriarch Sophronius, assuring him that Jerusalem's Christian holy places and population would be protected under Muslim rule. The Umayyad caliph Abd al-Malik commissioned the construction of the Dome of the Rock in the late 7th century. The 10th century historian al-Muqaddasi writes that Abd al-Malik built the shrine in order to compete in grandeur of Jerusalem's monumental churches. Over the next four hundred years, Jerusalem's prominence diminished as Arab powers in the region jockeyed for control.

6. Jerusalem is mentioned over 700 times in Tanach, the Jewish Holy Scriptures. Jerusalem is not mentioned once in the Koran.

Jerusalem is also mentioned over 150 times in the New Testament, but the United States is not. Perhaps the entire US population should move to Israel.

7. King David founded the city of Jerusalem. Mohammed never came to Jerusalem.

The Dome of the Rock, being among a complex of buildings on the Temple Mount, (the other being the Al-Aqsa Mosque) is one of the holiest sites in Islam. Its significance stems from the religious beliefs regarding the rock at its heart. According to Islamic tradition, the rock is the spot from where Muhammad ascended to Heaven accompanied by the angel Gabriel.

8. Jews pray facing Jerusalem. Muslims pray with their backs toward Jerusalem.

The most basic knowledge of geography shows that the only Muslims who pray with their back to Jerusalem are the ones who live in Saudi Arabia north of Mecca and in southern Jordan.

9. Arab and Jewish Refugees: in 1948 the Arab refugees were encouraged to leave Israel by Arab leaders promising to purge the land of Jews. Sixty-eight percent left without ever seeing an Israeli soldier.

Typically the Jewish forces carried out reprisals directed against villages and neighborhoods from which attacks against Jews had allegedly originated, The attacks were more damaging than the provoking attack and included killing of armed and unarmed men, destruction of houses and sometimes expulsion of inhabitants. The Zionist groups of Irgun and Lehi reverted to their 1937-1939 strategy of indiscriminate attacks by placing bombs and throwing grenades into crowded places such as bus stops, shopping centres and markets.

10. The Jewish refugees were forced to flee from Arab lands due to Arab brutality, persecution and pogroms.


True. However, the Zionists used the same tactics against the Arabs. According to Ilan Pappé the Zionists organised a campaign of threats, consisting of the distribution of threatening leaflets, 'violent reconnaissance' and, after the arrival of mortars, the shelling of Arab villages and neighborhoods. The idea of 'violent reconnaissance' was to enter a defenceless village at night, fire at everyone who dared leave his or her house and leave after a few hours. Pappé also notes that the Haganah shifted its policy from retaliation through excessive retaliation to offensive initiatives. During the 'long seminar', a meeting of Ben-Gurion with his chief advisors in January 1948, the departure point was that it was desirable to 'transfer' as many Arabs as possible out of Jewish territory, and the discussion focussed mainly on the implementation. The experiences in a number of attacks in February 1948, notably those on Qisarya and Sa'sa', were used in the development of a plan, detailing how enemy population centers should be handled. According to Pappé plan Dalet was the master plan for the expulsion of the Palestinians.


11. Arab refugees were INTENTIONALLY not absorbed or integrated into the Arab lands to which they fled, despite the vast Arab territory. Out of the 100,000,000 refugees since World War II, theirs is the only refugee group in the world that has never been absorbed or integrated into their own people's lands. Jewish refugees were completely absorbed into Israel, a country no larger than the state of New Jersey.

Palestinians in the diaspora by place of residence:
Jordan 3,000,000
Syria 434,896
Lebanon 405,425
Chile 300,000
Saudi Arabia 327,000
The Americas 225,000
Egypt 44,200
Other Gulf states 159,000
Other Arab states 153,000
Other countries 308,000
TOTAL 5,256,321

12. The Arab-Israeli Conflict: the Arabs are represented by eight separate nations, not including the Palestinians. There is only one Jewish nation. The Arab nations initiated all five wars and lost. Israel defended itself each time and won.

a.) The Arab nations initiated all five wars.
False: The Six Day War was initiated by Israel. Operation Focus was the opening pre-emptive airstrike by Israel at the start of the Six-Day War of 1967. It is sometimes referred to as "Sinai Air Strike" since the focus was primarily on airfields around the Sinai Peninsula. At 07:45 on June 5, 1967, the Israeli Air Force (IAF) under Maj. Gen. Mordechai Hod launched a massive airstrike that destroyed the majority of the Egyptian air force on the ground. By noon, the Egyptian, Jordanian and Syrian Air Forces, with about 450 aircraft, were destroyed.

b.) Israel defended itself each time and won.
False: According to the Winograd Commission Report, the Second Lebanon War was regarded as a "missed opportunity" and that "Israel initiated a long war, which ended without a defined military victory". The report continued to state that "a semi-military organization of a few thousand men resisted, for a few weeks, the strongest army in the Middle East, which enjoyed full air superiority and size and technology advantages". Furthermore, Hezbollah's rocket attacks continued throughout the war and the IDF did not provide an effective response to it. Following a long period of using standoff fire power and limited ground activities, the IDF launched a large scale ground offensive close to the UN Security Council's resolution which imposed a cease-fire. "This offensive did not result in military gains and was not completed".


13. The PLO's Charter still calls for the destruction of the State of Israel.
Israel has given the Palestinians most of the West Bank land, autonomy under the Palestinian Authority, and has supplied them.

The most controversial element of text of the Palestinian National Charter were many clauses declaring the creation of the state of Israel "null and void", because it was created by force on Palestinian soil. This is usually interpreted as calling for the destruction of the state of Israel. In letters exchanged between Arafat and Rabin in conjunction with the 1993 Oslo Accords, Arafat agreed that those clauses would be removed. On 26 April 1996, the Palestine National Council held a meeting in camera, at whose end it was announced that the Council had voted to nullify or amend all such clauses, and called for a new text to be produced. At the time, Israeli political figures and academics expressed suspicions and doubts this that this is what had actually taken place, and continued to claim that controversial clauses were still in force. A letter from Arafat to US President Bill Clinton in 1998 listed the clauses concerned, and a meeting of the Palestine Central Committee approved that list. To remove all doubt the vote this time was held in a public meeting of PLO, PNC and PCC members which was televised worldwide and in the presence of the President of the United States, Bill Clinton, in person, who arrived in the Gaza Strip for that specific purpose. Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accepted this as the promised nullification.

When is this Israel-Gaza conflict going to stop? It is the same war that has been going on for decades. This time the Palestinians are using rockets instead of suicide bombers. They have no choice when they are walled into Gaza like a modern day ghetto. The rockets certainly don't accomplish anything. Except maybe making them feel good about standing up to Israel. And Israel is not accomplishing anything but fueling more hatred, violence and further justifying the US foreign aid they receive to purchase weapons. We need to stop funding the Israeli military. It's the only way this conflict will end. Let them throw rocks at each other until they are worn out. Instead Israel uses four casualties to justify invading, bombing schools and hospitals, killing hundreds of civilians (including 30 children in one school) and cutting off access to aid organizations. They have even shot a UN truck, forcing the UN to halt food shipments. The Israeli government and its supporters need to look back at the history of the country. Think about the holocaust survivors who fled to this land and the people who originally envisioned the state of Israel. Is this any different than the way they were treated before they left Europe?

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