Visiting London

Emily and I spent a few days in London earlier this month. Actually, she was there for over a week and I only came for the last few days. FSN sent her to train their London staff how to shoot and edit video. I figured it would be a good opportunity for us to have a little vacation, considering her company was paying for the hotel and her food.

I arrived Saturday morning, took a little nap, then went out to see the city. We had been to London three times before, but had never been to Covington Gardens, Westminster Abbey or Buckingham Palace. We spent a few hours walking around the shops in Covington Gardens. They were nice, but had many of the same stores as we have in the malls around DC. Next, we walked down through Trafalgar Square and the park near Buckingham Palace, before stopping at the palace itself. From there, we walked to Westminster Abbey. The royal wedding was a few days away, so the place was packed. We sat in the grass and relaxed, instead of waiting in the long line to go inside. We went back to Covington Gardens for dinner.

Sunday, we did more sight seeing. The highlight of the day was seeing the Tate Modern. Many of the exhibits were that kind of weird modern art that leaves you more confused than inspired (or however art is suppose to make you feel). I don't see how 2"x4"s hanging over piles of dirt is art. But there were some really interesting exhibits like the photography, Russian propaganda posters and the huge paintings by Rothko.

Monday Emily had to work, so I spent the day walking around shooting stock footage. That night we met up with David Walton from the Sudan Volunteer Program. We had a nice dinner and caught up on SVP news.

Tuesday, I went with Emily and the FSN staff to shoot an interview with the designer who made Princess Diana's wedding dress. I have fun doing video shoots even if they aren't for my job! We arrived at her studio and got to work moving the mannequins around to make room for the interview. There were wedding dresses hanging on all of the mannequins, so we had to be extremely careful when moving things. I really didn't want to ruin anyone's dress. The CCTV correspondent was conducting the interview and he seemed to know a lot about fashion and this woman's life. She actually said that it was the best interview she had ever done, because he was so well informed.

That night, Emily was busy editing the interview, but I met up with some of my friends from Sudan. We had dinner at  little deli near Leicester Square that is famous for their salt beef. I had never had a salt beef sandwich before, but it was pretty similar to pastrami. After dinner we went to what's know as the 'cheapest bar in London'. It was great, the upstairs was set up like someone's living room and there was no music playing. It was the perfect atmosphere to hang out and catch up with friends. I wish they had pubs like that in the US. It's hard to find somewhere with such a quiet, relaxing atmosphere. Emily finally made it to the pub as they were closing, but at least she got to say hi to our friends. The next morning we woke up extremely early and flew home.

The last few weeks have been very buys on the shooting and editing front. The most fun thing I've done was a promo / music video for the creative agency where I work. One of our print designers wrote the song and the company gave us a few hundred dollars to buy props and rent some additional camera gear.  On the shoot day, we had guys dressed as spacemen running around annoying everyone and singing the song. Half of it was shot around the office and half was shot on a green-screen. The company used it at some kind of industry conference, but I can't show it publicly yet.



Last month, I worked on the Intel STS science fair (pictured above), which takes science fair winners from across the country and brings them together to compete for college scholarships. It was a fascinating experience for everyone involved. We followed the students through the entire process and really grew to know and like them. I was almost as excited as they were to find out who won!



One of the goofier projects I've worked on recently was for a video where the client wanted to paste real mouths on still photos of J.P Morgan, John D. Rockefeller and FDR for a funny video about credit card swipe fees. The biggest challenge was trying to keep the actors from moving their heads as they said their lines. I came up with the idea to have them lay on the floor and put sand bags on either side of their heads. They must have been pretty uncomfortable, but it really cut down the amount of motion tracking the editor had to do!

I was also fortunate enough to get some time to visit Florida and see my family. I met my mom's new boyfriend for the second time and my dad's new girlfriend for the first. It's very interesting (and a bit creepy) to see how they act around their new loves. Oh well, I'm glad their happy.

For years I have been buying everything on my debit card. I don't have any credit card debt and wanted to keep it that way. But lately I have been thinking about the benefits of owning a credit card. My brother-in-law Todd was telling Emily and I about how he buys everything with his American Express card, then uses the points to book free flights and hotel rooms. My dad does the same with his Southwest Airlines card. I figured I should be taking advantage of rewards cards as well, so I spent last weekend researching rewards credit cards.

Keep in mind that these rewards programs only work if you buy everything you possibly can on your card and pay it off in full each month. Running a balance quickly nullifies any rewards you may earn. In addition, you have to spend a LOT of money to make it worthwhile - especially with the cards that have yearly fees.

Before we look into my findings, here were my considerations:
- I was really only looking at rewards cards that were good for travel.
- I gave special consideration to the American Express cards, because Todd spoke so highly of them. I liked the fact that on the Green and Zinc cards, you are required to pay them off in full each month.
- I looked very carefully at the USAA cards, because Emily and I have all of our bank accounts with them.

I put stars next to the ones I liked. Look down at the bottom to see which one I ended up choosing. Here are my research notes...

AMEX Green Card - $95/yr

No bonus points at sign up

Pay in full each month

Online financial tools

1 point per dollar // 2 points for travel THROUGH THE AMEX TRAVEL SITE ONLY

Transfer points to airlines for travel

Purchase Protection, Extended Warranty, Roadside assistance, Car rental / Travel insurance...

If we spend $25,000 per year, transfer to airline and get a flight in North America

 **AMEX Zinc Card - $25/yr + Eco pack $0 + Connect Pack $20 = $45/yr

 10,000 bonus points at sign up ($100 value)

 Pay in full each month

 Get the Personal Finance Pack for financial tracking

 1 dollar = 1 point

 Buy Travel Pack for $20/yr, if we spend over $1000 in airfare per year on the card

 1 dollar = 2 points for Eco friendly purchases like shopping at Whole Foods and many others (with Eco Pack)

 1 dollar = 2 points for Cell phone and internet bills with Connect Pack $20

 CAN NOT transfer points to airlines for travel

 Purchase Protection, Extended Warranty, Roadside assistance, Car rental / Travel insurance...

 Book flight on AMEX site with points

 AMEX Blue Sky - $0/yr

 No bonus points at sign up

 1 dollar = 1.3 points ($7500 spent = $100 in travel rewards)

 Can not transfer miles to airlines

 Purchase Protection, Extended Warranty, Roadside assistance, Car rental / Travel insurance...

 Travel on any airline, stay at any hotel, book through any site - Redeem points for travel expenses after you travel

If we spend $25000 per year, we get $330 towards travel expenses

  **AMEX Blue Sky Preferred - $75/yr

  7500 bonus points at sign up ($100)

  1 dollar = 1.3 points ($7500 spent  = $100 in travel rewards)

  2x Rewards on hotel, dining and rental cars (with no limit?)

  $100/yr allowance on airline expenses like excess baggage, in-cabin seat upgrades, meals, entertainment, etc.

  Can not transfer miles to airlines

  Purchase Protection, Extended Warranty, Roadside assistance, Car rental / Travel insurance...

  Travel on any airline, stay at any hotel, book through any site - Redeem points for travel expenses after the trip.

  If we spend $25000 per year, we get $330 towards travel expenses (minus $75 fee for card, plus $100 travel credit and any extra points)

  AMEX Starwood Guest Card - $65

  10,000 bonus points at signup ($100)

  4 - 5x points per dollar spent at Starwood hotels

  Transfer points to airlines for travel

  Purchase Protection, Extended Warranty, Roadside assistance, Car rental / Travel insurance...

  Best for hotel rewards

  If we spend $25,000 per year, transfer to any Starwood airline and get a flight in North America

  Discover Escape - $60/yr

  25,000 bonus miles if you make a purchase every month for the first 25 months

  1 dollar = 2 points ($5000 spent = $100 in travel rewards)

  No other allowances, so first $3000 is spent on yearly fee

  Can not transfer miles to airlines

  Car Rental Insurance, Lost or Damaged Luggage Insurance, Travel Delay Insurance, and Trip Cancellation Insurance.

  Travel on any airline, stay at any hotel, book through any site - Redeem points for travel expenses after you travel

  If we spend $25,000 per year, we get $500 in travel expenses, minus $60 for card = $440

 

  **Capitol One Venture Rewards Visa - $59/yr

  10,000 bonus points when you spend $1000 in the first 3 months

  1 dollar = 2 points

  No other allowances, so first $3000 is spent on yearly fee

  Can not transfer miles - buy tickets, then cash in points for travel reimbursement.

  Concierge service, Travel assistance, Roadside assistance, Extended warranty, Travel accident insurance, Auto rental insurance

  If we spend $10,000 per year, we get $200 in travel expenses, minus $59 for card = $141

  If we spend $25,000 per year, we get $500 in travel expenses, minus $59 for card = $441

 

  **Capitol One VentureOne Rewards Visa - $0/yr

  No bonus at signup

  1 dollar = 1.25 points

  Can not transfer miles to airlines

  Concierge service, Travel assistance, Roadside assistance, Extended warranty, Travel accident insurance, Auto rental insurance

  If we spend $10,000 per year, we get $125 in travel expenses

  If we spend $25,000 per year, we get $312 in travel expenses

 

  Chase Sapphire Preferred - $85/yr

  1 dollar = 1 point

  Adds 7% to your total number of points each year, even if you've already redeemed them.

  Transfer points to Airlines at 1:1 ratio

  Points are worth 25% more when purchased through their online store

  If we spend $25,000 we get one flight plus 7% or 1.25 flights booked through Chase store. 

  **USAA Card (AMEX or Mastercard) - $0/yr

  2,500 bonus points

  Cash rewards of $135 + 1.25% of purchases when you spend over $17,000/yr

  Auto rental insurance, Travel insurance, Warranty coverage, Purchase protection,

  If we spend $25,000 per year, we get $250 towards travel expenses

 

  Southwest Card

  One free flight with sign up

  1 dollar = 1 point // 1200 dollars = 1 credit // 16 credits = 1 standard flight // $19,200 per flight

  If we spend $25,000 per year, we will get a free flight plus carry over points till next year.

  Chase United Card

  One free flight with sign up

  25,000 miles per flight in US

  1 dollar = 1 mile

 

  Citi American Airlines Card

  75,000 bonus miles if you spend $4000 in first 6 months - More than enough for a trip to Europe

  1 dollar = 1 mile

  100,000 miles per year is the limit

  25,000 per round trip flight in US

  If we spend $25,000 per year, we will get a free flight in the US

I ended up applying for the Capitol One Venture Rewards Visa card, because it gave the best return per dollar spent. I was also concerned that if I got an American Express card, it wouldn't be accepted in as many places and therefore I wouldn't earn as much money towards travel. The airlines cards are great if you are loyal to one airline, but I want the freedom to use any airline when I travel.

Indianapolis shoot

I was in Indianapolis for a couple days this week for a video shoot. We were shooting at a large engineering and manufacturing plant that, among other things, fixes fighter jet parts and designs digital displays to replace to old analog instruments. And they had a tank. A really big tank. They took it out to show it off and started doing doughnuts in the snow. It was crazy watching this huge thing spinning and sliding around right next to me, but I avoided getting run over and got some nice shots. That's me on top of the tank in the picture, in case you cant tell.

It was a fun shoot, because we were able to rent dolly and do some nice camera moves. It was also well planned and we had a great crew. Everyone in Indianapolis was so nice! Like strange mid-western nice.

The night before the shoot we ate dinner at St. Elmo Steak House, a famous Indianapolis restaurant. Apparently they are known for their shrimp cocktail. They pushed it on us relentlessly. When we said no, the waiter brought out a small bowl of the sauce and some crackers. I don't even like shrimp, so I still didn't want it, but my colleagues relented. The waiter promised that even people who don't like shrimp like this dish. Nope, not me. Still don't like shrimp. The steak and potatoes were fantastic though.

I have never been a fan of Christmas. This probably stems from the fact that I was raised Jewish. The obnoxious music doesn't help matters. My wife, however, loves Christmas. She has fond memories of spending time with her family, getting presents and doing whatever else people do for the holiday. This year she is bummed because her family isn't having a big celebration, so I planed to surprise her with a Christmas tree.

I arrived at Home Depot alone, which was my first mistake. I obviously didn't think my plan through very carefully. When I got there, only two trees were left on the rack outside. As I was checking them out, a couple drove by and pointed at them. Thinking I needed to act fast, I ran in and told someone I wanted to buy one. They told me to wait outside and someone would be there soon.

I went back out, staked my claim on the larger of the two trees and tried to keep myself warm. Twenty minutes later my extremities were numb, but no sales associates had arrived, so I went back in and asked again. They directed me to the other outside - the garden section.  There were hundreds of trees out there - doh! I chose a nice fat one and waited while the guy wrapped it in mesh. I was hoping someone would help me carry it out, but no such luck.

That thing was heavy! At first I tried to grab it on both sides to avoid getting my jacket dirty, but I could only carry it a few feet before I had to put it down. I gave up that method, bear hugged it and headed to my car. Now you have to imagine me waddling like a duck and bumping into things.

Finally I made it to my car. I looked at the roof and back to the tree and wondered how the hell I would get one onto the other.  I brought a sheet to keep my nice new car from getting scratched. I thought that a fitted sheet would work best, because the elastic ends could go over the top and bottom of the tree to keep it on, but I miscalculated the size of the tree. It was way bigger than the sheet. The elastic made the sheet even smaller by bunching up every time I tried to wrap it around the tree. After a few unsuccessful attempts to get the sheet around the tree, I held it in place with one had and lifted the tree with the other. I got it up near the top of the car, but couldn't make it all the way.

At this point I started looking around the parking lot for someone to help me. If it was warmer outside or earlier in the day, there may have been some day-laborers around, but not tonight. A few unsuccessful attempts later I realized I needed a new plan. This time I tried putting the sheet on top of the car and lifting the tree up onto it. I tried, but couldn't lift the tree up over the exposed portions of my car's beautiful paint.

Finally I draped the sheet halfway over the roof and left part of it hanging over the side of the car. I lifted the tree up, put it against the sheet and slid both onto the roof. I had enough foresight to bring a rope, with I used to secure it to the roof by wrapping it through the open car windows and took a chilly ride home. Next year there won't be a surprise. If she wants a stupid tree, she's coming with me to buy it!

Emily and I went to the Jon Stewart / Stephen Colbert rally yesterday to shoot some behind the scenes footage for Comedy Central and FutureView, the event's production company. We arrived at 9:00am and the National Mall was already starting to fill up. Because we were there to shoot behind the scenes footage, we had all-access passes, which allowed us to go backstage and hang out with all of the celebrities. When we first arrived, we heard a band rehearsing. I though they were doing a cover of a Black Sabbath song, but when they were done, Ozzy Osbourne walked out of the trailer! Everywhere we looked there were famous people. We saw all the Daily Show correspondents, Stephen Colbert, Kid Rock, Cat Stevens, John Legend, The Roots, Sheryl Crow, and Tony Bennett. But the ones I was most excited about were the Mythbusters! When I saw Adam Savage walking toward the VIP tent, I made Emily wait with me while he walked past. I was so nervous, I almost peed myself. Jamie was already in the tent. I wanted to go say hi, but I decided it would be better not to bother them.

We spent the first few hours before the event started shooting footage of the production staff - the director, audio mixer, lighting director, etc. Then when it was about to begin, Emily, Ted and I got strapped in and took a ride on the scissor lift. Most of the big overhead pictures above are from the top of the lift. I got some great shots, but the stupid still photographer up there with us wouldn't stand still, so most of the shots are shaky.

During the event, we were just a few feet from the stage and went back to the VIP tent a few times to see what everyone was up to. Overall, the event was amazing. The performers were great and everyone seemed to have fun. But most importantly, there were three times as many people there than at the Glenn Beck rally.

Note: This is a video I edited for the campaign, not the one I was shooting.

Thursday I did a shoot for the Brown Bailout campaign. The point of the video was to make fun of UPS's attempt to change Federal regulations to benefit themselves and hurt FedEx. We shot around the Capitol building with the Brown Bailout Guy (a character you'll probably recognize from all the advertisements on Youtube) dressed as a hunter, chasing the "Lame Duck Congress". It was a fun shoot, because the Capitol police let us do whatever we wanted. It was absurd at times. At one point the Capitol police asked us what we were doing, but the second I flashed my press pass, he turned around and walked away. I couldn't believe what they let us get away with. We had the Brown Bailout Guy pulling a decoy duck out of the reflecting pool, dancing around the Capitol lawn holding a big net and even riding a Segway while making duck calls into a bullhorn!

NASA

I was in Houston for a couple days last week doing a shoot at NASA. We were shooting in building 9, where the astronauts are trained using exact replicas of the space shuttle, International Space Station and various Russian capsules. The mock-ups had to be set up exactly like the real shuttle and ISS, down to the placement of each square of velcro.

We arrived at NASA at 7:00am on the day of the shoot, quickly set up and started filming. I was able to get some shots from the visitor's walkway overlooking the mock-ups, before the sound guy and gaffer arrived. They showed up around 7:30 and we set up for the first interview, which was with the head trainer / facility manager. Afterward, I took some shots of the exterior of the ISS and the cockpit of the shuttle. Next, we interviewed one of the engineers, who gave a good technical background about the training modules. Then we set up for astronaut Anna Lee Fisher, the most important interview of the day. Our producer, Capella, was completely star struck and made a point of getting a picture with her afterward.

When the interviews were finished, I spent the rest of the day wandering around the building in amazement and shooting the interior of the ISS and other mock-ups. It ended up being one of the most relaxing shoot days I've ever had. If only they could all be that easy!

Almost Epic Fail

Yesterday I was hired to shoot a video for an event downtown. I got there at 7:00 am and shot some footage of people arriving and mingling at the breakfast reception. They started the speeches around 8:30 and I had a prime spot with a view of the Capitol building right behind the speakers. When they finished the introductory speeches, they moved the lectern out of the way and prepared for the ribbon cutting to kick off the event. The event organizers made a point of discussing the ribbon cutting in all of the pre-event conference calls. I had to get the shot.

The minute they moved the lectern, I ripped my camera off the tripod and ran to get a better view. I jumped into place and focused my camera just in time for them to cut the ribbon. When it was over, I looked up into the corner of my viewfinder and realized that my camera hadn't been recording. I must have hit the button while I was running! I panicked for a minute and told the producer and director that we had to re-stage it. They quickly found some tape, while I told the event organizers that I wanted to re-do the ribbon cutting so I could get a better angle (or some crap). They posed for pictures, while the producer and director scrambled to find another ribbon and tape it up. I got everyone back in position, handed them the giant scissors and had them do it again. They didn't seem to mind and I made sure to get the shot this time. The rest of the day went fine and the video will turn out nicely, but they would have been pissed if I didn't have the shot of them cutting the ribbon!

Hardball with Chris Matthews picked up a soundbite from an interview that Emily shot for the PBS Newshour! Check out the whole interview (her bite is 1:10 into the segment).

New Job Update

So far I’m liking my new job. It is similar to my old job, but the projects are a bit different. I enjoy knowing my schedule ahead of time and being able to plan for the shoots (something I couldn’t do very much of in the news business). I’m also getting to do a fair amount of travel. Last week I went to NYC for the day. As usual, I had to drag a heavy light kit on the train, but at least I had a production assistant meet me at Penn Station to help with the shoot. I was only there for the day, so I shot an interview and caught the 5:00pm train home.

Two weeks ago I went to Detroit for a shoot. The client was holding a small event in conjunction with the huge classic car rally that was happening that week. Detroit reminded me of Daytona Beach during bike week, only it was cars instead of motorcycles. At night, after the shoot was over, the producer and director wanted to go to the casino. I don’t really like gambling, but I had to go, because our dinner reservations were at a restaurant in the casino. They played craps after dinner. I didn’t know how to play, so I just watched, but they won a ton of money. If I had known they were good at it, I would have just bet on whatever they did! At least now I have a very cursory understanding of the game.

Later this month I’m suppose to go to California. Unfortunately the client is very secretive about the whole thing, so I don’t know the dates, the city or anything about the shoot. Hopefully I’ll know more soon and won’t end up having to wear a blindfold on the plane!

Sony Shoot

Last week I went on my first location shoot with my new job. We were shooting promo videos for Sony's new 3D TVs. Mark (my new boss), Roy (a freelance cameraman) and I headed to San Diego early Wednesday morning. We met up with Jennifer from the PR firm the owns my company and made it to Sony headquarters that afternoon. The set designers and gaffer had been there most of the day, so the engineering space where we were shooting already looked like a mad scientist's lab when we arrived. It was great; there were waveform monitors and vector scopes everywhere, along with a ton of props brought by the set designer and of course the Sony TVs. We spent the next few hours tweaking the lights and finalizing the set design.

Before we left for the night, Ray from Sony gave us tickets to a professional woman's tennis match that his company was sponsoring. Most of us had never been to a pro tennis match, so we headed over there. It was really exciting. The #2 ranked woman in the world, who I had never heard of before that night, Jelena Jankovic, was playing. We settled in with some food and drinks and watched her lose.

The next morning, we arrived early and made the final adjustments to the set and lighting. Ray and Arturo (one of Sony's 3D TV engineers) were the stars of the show. They went through three half-improvised, half-scripted demonstrations about the features of Sony's 3D TVs. At lunch, we came up with some funny "that's what she said" jokes to go into the segments and filmed them at the end of the day, but I doubt they'll be seen outside of my edit suite.

The TVs themselves were really amazing. The image quality was, in many ways, better than what you see at the theater. The image was bright and clear and it really looked like things were popping out of the screen. Now I've got to start saving up for one.

Overall, the shoot went well. I really enjoyed working with a larger crew. When I was shooting news, I had to bring all the lights, camera and sound gear myself and I had to be the set designer and sometimes the makeup person. It was nice not having to worry about everything.

New Job, New Belt

I just finished the first week at my new job and so far so good! I'm now the director of photography / video editor at Proof. It's a small creative agency owned by a large PR firm. I like that it retains the small company feel, but draws on the resources of a larger organization.

I spent most of the week trying to get my head around all of the projects they have going on. I will have to learn quickly, because next week the main freelance editor will be gone for the political season and I will have to take over. On top of all the editing, we are going to San Diego for a shoot next Wednesday through Friday. Then in two weeks, we're going to Detroit for another shoot. I love shooting on location and I'm looking forward to all of the travel.

My other big news this week is that I got my blue belt in Jiu-Jitsu. I've been training for over a year now, but still don't feel ready to move past white belt. It's such a complex sport and there is still so much I have to learn. I'll probably never feel like I know enough. I guess that's a good thing and the reason I keep coming to class. Regardless, it feels good to be making progress and I can definitely tell I'm getting better. Emily has been taking kickboxing classes for a year as well, so if we ever got in a fight, it would at least be interesting to watch!

Photos from Road Trip

Here are some photos from my road trip with Beth. Too bad we had to cut it short, because there were some beautiful landscapes along the way! Check out the photo set on my Flickr page.

Photos from Alaska

I uploaded some pictures from our cruise to Alaska. Check out my Flicker set.

Things have been pretty crazy around here. After Turtle was attacked, we had to bring him to the vet every couple days for a few weeks to get his bandages changed. I spent much of the time researching the dog bite laws and trying to figure out if we could get the owner of the dogs who attacked him to pay for the vet bills. Kat and I visited a free legal clinic and they said our first option should be to contact the guy's home owner's insurance and file a claim. My neighbor called his insurance to file a claim, but didn't do much follow up. I got the policy number and claim information from him and called them every day. Eventually they asked me to fax over all of the vet bills. Kat helped us write a letter to the dog owner and his insurance company to prove our case. Finally I got a call from the insurance agent saying they would pay the claim! It was a huge relief to get back the $5,000+ we paid for his treatment.

Last week Emily, my mom, sister and I went on a cruise to Alaska! There wasn't much to do on the boat, but we did get plenty of good gym and reading time. The excursions were the highlight of the trip. We hiked to the Mendenhall Glacier in Juneau, biked and hiked in Sitka and went on zip lines in Ketchikan. Lindsey drove the kitchen staff crazy with her complicated orders. She had to put her special orders in the night before, but by the time she sat down for dinner, she had either changed her mind or decided to eat elsewhere. I felt bad for the dining manager. She told him that she was a vegan, so she could order off the vegan menu, but would then order a rack of lamb to go with her vegetables.

On the way back from the cruise, Emily and I got stuck in Minneapolis. The airline put us up in a hotel and gave us meal tickets for dinner. We got to the hotel just after 11:00pm and the kitchen had just closed. We woke up very early the next morning, fought the mob of people trying to get on the 5:30am bus back to the airport and finally made it home on Sunday.

The day I got back to work, I put in two weeks notice at my job. The previous week I found out that I got the job I had been applying for at Proof. I will still be shooting and editing video, but I will be working on much higher end productions at my new job. My goal was to learn about this type of video production to broaden my experience in the video industry. I'll let you know how it goes!

At first it was cute when the neighborhood kids came to visit Turtle, but now it's getting annoying. I made the mistake of letting them play my Playstation once, now they're over every day. They hardly even pay attention to Turtle anymore. They just want to play videogames and eat my food. One of the kids even tried opening my door to let himself in without even knocking. Ugh. I have started using excuses like, "Turtle is sleeping, you'll have to come back later", but Turtle doesn't know how to play along with it. He gets up and meets them at the door with his tail wagging.

Today, I vowed to not answer the door if they knocked, but one of them caught me while I was putting out the trash. Soon I will have to resort to harsher measures.

My dog Turtle was viciously attacked by my neighbor's dog. He is alive and will recover, but it has been a tough week.

Last Saturday, I flew to San Francisco to help my friend Beth drive across the country; she is moving to the Philadelphia area. We planed to take a leisurely trip along I-80 and stop at all of the usual tourist spots. The first night we made it to Reno. The second night, as we were arriving in Salt Lake City, I got a call from Emily.

She was out walking the dogs in the alley behind our house. The neighbor's large, wild dogs broke away from his control and jumped on Turtle, biting him and tearing a huge gash across his back. The guy didn't do anything to try to get his dogs off Turtle, but another neighbor saw the attack and kicked the dogs until they let go. Emily rushed him to the vet. When she called me, they didn't think he had a good chance of surviving. They were able to stabilize him that night and the next day he seemed strong enough to undergo surgery.

The vet cleaned out his wounds and stapled him shut. He stayed there for a few days recovering and gaining strength. Meanwhile, Beth and I drove from Salt Lake City to DC in two days. I was incredibly worried about Turtle and I felt horrible that Emily had to deal with it by herself. I just wanted to be back with them. Beth and I got in to DC on Tuesday night; Wednesday Turtle was ready to come home.

The last few days Emily and I have been keeping up with his rigorous schedule of medicines and warm compresses. He is spending most of his time in bed resting, but does go walk around in the yard a few times a day. Our neighbors have been great. Many of them have come over to visit him and bring treats. Even some of the neighborhood kids have stopped by. Turtle will need one more surgery and a long period of recovery, but he will eventually be ok.

I spent the beginning of last week in Pennsylvania shooting a story for the PBS NewsHour about the Democratic Senate primary race between Arlen Specter and Joe Sestak. I went with producer Sarah Clune and correspondent Judy Woodruff, who were both really great to work with. Sarah was incredibly organized - the essential quality of a good producer.

Most of the days were spent following the candidate to their rallies. I have attended many rallies for presidential candidates, but I can't remember ever going to a rally for a congressional candidate. They were hilarious. Joe Sestak gave a speech in a suburb outside of Philadelphia from the bed of a pickup truck. Arlen Specter gave one in a union hall where there were more people on stage than in the audience. Sarah and I felt really bad for him after that one.

Unfortunately, some of my favorite footage didn't make it into the piece. We spent a couple hours at the famous Pat's cheese-steak restaurant. I got some great shots from inside the kitchen of them cooking the meat and making the sandwiches and we shot some vox pops with the customers, but the segment got cut. We also spent a lot of time trying to get nice shots of the skyline. I got some from the Phillies stadium and some from the top of a parking garage at Drexel University, but those didn't make it into the piece either.

Like most of these trips, the days were packed. When we were done shooting, I couldn't just go to sleep. I still had to offload all of the footage from my camera to external hard drive for Sarah to log and transcribe. Monday we left the hotel at 7:30am, shot all day, interviewed Joe Sestak at 9:00 that night and didn't get to bed until 2:00am Tuesday. I shot over six hours of material and WETA shot a couple more, but when it was done being edited, the piece was only ten minutes long.

Here's a link to the video.

Last week the Prime Minster of Singapore was in town for the Nuclear Summit. Actually, just about all the world leaders were in town, but I was shooting for Singapore based Channel News Asia, so he was the one I was focused on (Singaporeans just call him "PM" - like "Let's go film PM giving a speech"). The Nuclear Summit was held at the Washington Convention Center and they had the whole place fenced off for a few blocks in every direction. It was a huge pain trying to get into the convention center, because there was only one entrance and it was nowhere near the metro or any other convenient access point. I spent most of my time carrying my heavy gear in a large circle around the building. When I did get inside, the shooting schedule was a bit frantic. I had to run from PM's meeting with Hillary Clinton to the Group Photo with all the world leaders, to the Plenary Meeting, to PM's meeting with the Crown Prince of UAE and back to the media center to send everything. On Tuesday, Obama gave his big wrap up speech, which I filmed from the "cuts riser" off to the side of the stage. The riser was mobbed by still photographers, many of whom acted like it was a trampoline, making it hard for me to get steady shots. Finally the CNN cameraman and I yelled at them enough times to make them stand still and we were able to get some nice shots of the President.

On Wednesday, I followed PM to Chicago along with a hoard of Singaporean journalists and his large delegation. We covered his speeches, his meeting with Richard Daily (it was fun going to Daily's office), his meeting with the President of the University of Chicago and his lunch with Singaporean ex-pats. But the highlight of the trip was, of course, the food. I brought the journalists to Due's for deep dish pizza the first night we were there. They loved it and wanted more. The next night we tried to go to Gino's East, but it was closed by the time we got there around 11pm, so we went to Giordano's instead. After two nights of deep dish pizza, I couldn't look at a slice of pizza for days (a rarity for me). I got back into DC on Saturday and had barely enough time to rest, before starting another hectic week.

Tuesday was The Week Magazine's awards dinner. I was in charge of our technical operations, which meant setting up the cameras, switcher, record deck, live digitize computer and live streaming computer. The event itself was interesting - it was headlined by Rahm Emanuel and featured a panel discussion with Rep. Eric Cantor, Senator Amy Klobuchar, Gov. Ed Rendell and Steve Schmidt. Afterward, Kate and I were at the office until 5:30am editing video segments for their website.

The rest of the week was spent shooting interviews with Sen. Inhoff, Gov. Pataki, Dick Morris and Grover Norquist, chasing around people in whale costumes for an anti-whaling documentary and crash editing a video for the Lowell School that we shot a year ago, but have basically forgotten about until now. Hopefully this coming week will be a bit less hectic.