Adventures of Reporting

Oh boy. It's been a while. Since I blogged, that is. On this site anyway. And I may be the only one reading my posts (lol), but in case there are a few of you out there that check back from time to time, I'll continue my journey in trying become a full-fledged blogger. Although, I prefer to stick with a term that sounds so much more eloquent to me. Writer. Yes. That's what I am. I am a Writer. Today's blog is centered around my recent adventures in reporting. It seems simple enough on a Sunday afternoon. From here on out though, I pledge to be better at this writing stuff. If there's any excuse that I can use it's that I find it hard to blog about things I want to. The divide that separates "me" from "journalist" is a thin line. If you can call that a divide. Seems to me as though the two bleed into each other, and quite often.

So let me begin before I babble too much. Wait a minute. I can babble if I want to. No copy editors here. No time limit to my story. I'm my own boss on ninevehdinhanews.blogspot.com Now there's something to smile about. Although I'm not generating much revenue. None at all. But sometimes, or arguably most times our happiness is derived from the things that we hold most dear to our heart.

Here I've pasted some photos taken with my photographer's (Mike) iPHONE. They are just pictures of me in action with short captions that follow. Like I said, it's Sunday afternoon.


Why not start with American Idol? LOL. The show gets more votes than presidential elections. Although one could argue that the Democratic National Convention had quite the turnout. That could be my next topic in blogs. Barack Obama's speech. A more than 80,000 turnout in the stands alone. I'll be interesting to see how John McCain spins the pendulum back in his direction. Although one could say that the pendulum is already swinging, following his VP pick announcement. Sarah Palin. Quite the strategy. Alright, back to my day at the first ever American Idol Auditions held in Salt Lake City, Utah. I have to say Utahns have a way about them. They turn out for EVERYTHING. I love that about Utah. Seriously. There was nothing like reporting in a crowd of people (5,000) for nearly half the Fox affiliates in the country. I thought a lot about my sister though. A 17 year-old beauty with the voice of a mature opera singer. There were so many talented people at the auditions. But what would AI be without the crazies? The ones who have the worst singing voices? Now that's what I tune in for. This day was fun, but exhausting. Even more annoying, Ryan Seacrest was there. Who knew that I would be denied access to meeting him. At least Simon, Randy and Paul weren't there. They will be here for the next round of auditions in September (25th). And by golly gee, if I don't get to say hello to Randy. We go way back. I owe him some gratitude quite frankly. I interviewed him years ago (in college), not in regards to AI, but about the "state" of state universities in California. I included my interview with him on my resume tape. It's the first clip I put on it! Maybe Randy's star power impressed my first News Director? Doubt it.

Speaking of American Idol...

David Archuleta. Need I say more?

Meet Rhett Davis...

He's from Hooper, Utah by the way. Yeah, if you're not from the beehive state then you don't know. Here's all you need to know. A farming community. But growing none the less. So if you stare at the picture long enough you'll notice a couple cars hunkered down into the ground. They were put there by Rhett Davis. He wanted to STICK IT TO HIS NEIGHBORS. What a great story. This guy gained national attention with his antics. That land is his. There's a farm with barn yard animals and everything. The works. So here's the deal. A new development is proposed and built. Quite clearly there's a farm in front of these new homes. The new homeowners, who I assume fully knew about the farm and the smell of dunk began to complain about the farm across the street. The smell, the sound etc. So like a true "redneck" as Rhett calls himself, he built a fence. With cars. It was his way of saying, "I was here first." The good news (oh how cliche of me), there was a HAPPY ENDING. Rhett and his neighbors made up. They are on good terms, and yes the car fence is coming down.

Covering the President...

Okay. It's not everyday that a reporter (local anyway) gets to cover the President. Politics aside. Personal opinions shoved on the back shelf. It's the President of the United States of America. And that is Air Force One. Enough said.

Reporting LIVE in a hard hat...

I'll spare you, because unless you're a bridge enthusiast you won't care about a multi-million dollar project to replace and restructure bridges in Utah. 12 of them to be exact. Only took them 12 weeks thanks to state-of-the-art technology. This was their (UDOT) last bridge replacement, and I was at the bridge farm which required me to wear the hard hat. Oh and the visors and vest as well.

I'm on a bus!

Yeah, this photo is completely personal but I found the experience quite surreal. I was driving to the gym one afternoon (nobody told me about the bus campaign, thanks by the way) and as I'm trucking along I get to a stop light. I turn my head to the right and there I am staring back at myself. I let out a loud shriek. Thank the Lord we are all at a standstill. Full disclosure about our bus campaign would have been nice.

And last but not least...

Just one of many soldiers who left for Afghanistan in 2008. It'll be a year long deployment. To all the men and women who serve our country, thank you.