[we finally slept through the night]

We finally slept through the night
No 10 year old stuffed nose in site
Hannah did not wake
Restless night to make
Today I am feeling alright

[in a fairly bad mood am i]

In a fairly bad mood am I
Playing messenger man don't fly
You speak to me
And I speak to he
Just tell him yourself, says I

[i know what you don't]

Me: Newsroom

Caller: Yeah, I live in Galesburg and I'm getting channel 8 but there's no sound.

Me: Do you have cable or over the air?

Caller: I have basic cable and extended cable. I pay for both of them.

Me: Okay, there have been some problems with the cable provider in your area and our station. It's something on their end, so you need to call your cable provider.

Caller (miffed): But, I get all of the other channels just fine. It's just your's.

Me: Okay, but it's something on the cable provider's end that we cannot control. It's not happening at the station, it's the cable provider, which we're trying to work out with them, but you need to call your...

Caller: But, the picture is all fuzzy and...

Me (rolling eyes): Okay, we'll see what we can do. Thanks for your call.

[Hair Today]

I've taken to not putting product in my hair. For one, it looks less thin when it's not confined by product. And, for two, I actually don't like doing my hair because I'm not really sure how to do it.

Instead, I wash my hair, drying it so it's spiked and then let it fall into place with the help of the return of its natural oils. By the time I get to work, it usually looks at least normal.

Today was no different, except that I am on air on Fridays in the 11:00 a.m. newscast. Did my hair fall into place? Some of it. But, not enough to look normal. Instead, I went on air with hair shooting in odd directions, and not in that "messed up to look good" way.

Even as I write this at 6:30, it's still a weird mess. Time to change my hair plans.

[little faith in humanity]

I just received an e-mail from a viewer who says I'm worthy of his disgust. This after trying to defend our meteorologist against his false attacks.

It's these kinds of messages that are eating away at my spirit. While I love the idea of opening up the newscast to viewer comments and creating a dialogue with them, rather than just a lecture, I actually am growing to hate it in practice. My e-mail inbox, the website comment boards and my voice-mail are filled with hate-spewing messages from people who obviously speak of which they don't know, but with just conviction and complete disregard for their fellow human beings.

Allowing voices to be heard does not paint a pretty picture of people. I grow more and more disheartened, longing moreso for the day I can stay home and take care of the house and not have to deal with anyone else, except on my terms.

[don't be a snob]

Just recalled a story from the days under the previous News Director.

Jason and I were working to get more in touch with our audience. We'd share ideas on how to interact with our newscast's viewers. One idea was to invite them to see a movie with us. We hoped to line it up with a local movie theater and invite viewers to join us at a certain time for an undisclosed movie. We wanted the focus to be on Jason and I (news anchor and movie reviewer) interacting with our audience. We didn't want it to be on the movie, so we weren't going to say which movie we were seeing. We'd then solicit reviews from those who attended and I'd use them in my next on-air review.

I presented the idea to our News Director at the time. She liked it, but immediately wanted to control it and take it in a bad direction. She said we could only do it if we invited viewers to a screening of an independent Christian movie produced by a couple of Quad Citians. I stood up to her and said I had several problems with it. One, the main one being the movie was terrible. I mean TERRIBLE! This is my reputation on the line. As a movie reviewer, it would've been the end of me to invite viewers to arguably the worst movie they've ever seen or will see. I'm exaggerating a bit here, but it was truly bad.

The ND talked to me about all of this in a corner of the newsroom. I tried to pull her into an edit bay, at least, for some privacy, knowing this to be inappropriate to be arguing so publicly. She refused. And, after making my points quietly to her, she raised her voice and told me not to be such a snob. What?!?!

Jason and I dropped the subject completely after that. The ND kept sending me release information and all of the stuff for us to go through with the viewing, but we ignored it, except for running a small story about it.

[CAT Is Not Cat]

Me: Newsroom

Caller: Yes, I was just watching your coverage of CAT (Caterpillar) announcing layoffs and my cat, Max, purred and I said 'I know, Max. It's bad everywhere." And, I thought I should let you know.

Me: Thank you.