Maine: Part 1

My latest trip to Maine was a whirlwind experience. Action packed from start to finish and the activity kicked up a few days before I left San Francisco. It started with a deadline for a story. SmartMeters were the topic and I gotta say its hard to write a sassy story about utility meters. After staying up bleary eyed for a few nights and pounding my thumb with the hammer a few times I finally hit the railroad spike on the head. I'm now working on a story about an obstacle course designed to give physically fit adults a fit. I better get my ass to the gym to keep up with my interview subjects.

My flight landed in Boston just after 6:30 in the morning September 1st. I really can't sleep on airplanes, so the red eye flight really did have that effect on my whites. I grabbed my checked luggage and made my way to the curb where I waited for Chris to pick me up. I hate taking the bus back to Maine after a red eye for a couple of reasons. First, I'm paranoid about missing my Portland stop so sleep is out of the question. Second, the movie is always terrible. Third, I always miss the bus by a couple of minutes and have to wait 2-3 hours for the next one. On this day Chris was running a little late so I ended up waiting for a while. Luckily not long after taking my seat on a bench to inhale car fumes for an hour Evan sat down next to me and lit up a smoke.

Evan was your typical 20 year old from Bah-stin. His thick accent was unmistakable. His pasty white skin covered by a dark beard with a twinge of red gave away his obvious Irish ancestry. The brim of his newsboy cap covered his uni-brow which you could tell he occasionally passed a razor through. He wore a giant bead neckless, the type that could gain you a major cleavage show at Mardi Gras. Evan wasn't returning home from New Orleans though, he was fresh off the plane from Las Vegas.

Sin city was kind to the young man who borrowed his 22 year old brother's license for the week. No Vegas bar or club turned him away. In fact, he was only carded 4 times during his entire week long adventure. Evan's luck didn't end there, he was up gambling as well, but he blew all that money on his "girlfriends". One of which was a smokin' hot polish chick whom he stayed up all night dancing with and then...Chris arrived! Parting Evan's side was such sweet sorrow.

The ride back to Maine was invigorating. Chris and I talked about our fast approaching trip to Baxter State Park and attempt to climb Mt. Katahdin. Shortly after crossing the Piscataqua I got a call from my dad. Two things became obvious at this point. One was that I needed Dunkin Donuts coffee in order to have a coherent conversation with the old man upon my return home. Two I needed to grab some sleep to get ready for the long days ahead.

I've decided to pick up the pace at KALW a bit. I really enjoy the work I do there. I just don't like the pay rate. My dad says "Close your eyes. What do you see? Well that's what you're gonna get!" Even though English Soccer announcers would describe the payment as "nil". I feel like some of the skills I can work to acquire and keep sharp there are valuable. My patience for writing 5 minute long news story needs a touch of improvement and if banging out a few more stories for the old portfolio is what I need to do to finally score a paid radio job in this town then it'll be worth it. I'll also be sure to have some fun on the way.

My work for the Teen Media Network's summer session is finally over. We had a great session with 5 kids, a couple of field trips, and we slapped together 30 stories! I feel really good about the work we accomplished this session and the kids were really into some of the interviews I set up for them. The best experience of the semester for many of them was our trip to the Marin Museum of the American Indian in Novato, CA. The students got to talk to a tribal elder and interview the museum's director. They watched younger kids paint horses and got a grand tour of the museum from the guy who donated a lot of the artifacts and photographs. The trip to the museum was certainly worth it for me because I got a radio story out of it and the kids got more than 10 stories out of the experience.

In less that 8 days I will be flying back to Maine for a 2 week vacation. I will certainly miss San Francisco, but as the Wizard of Oz taught us there certainly is no place like home. I am really looking forward to running around the old stomping grounds and seeing my friends that I haven't seen in way too long. It will be a nice mental break after what has been a very busy month of August.

Lassen and other things

I just got back from Lassen Volcanic National Park and it was one of the most fantastic natural experiences of my life! I'm an Eagle Scout with a lot of camping miles on the odometer so that says a lot. I've never claimed to be a scientist, but my science class of choice in high school and college was Earth Science and Lassen is certainly a one of the few living examples of that in the lower 48. On Friday, Candace and I first checked out Bumpass Hell where mud bubbled, steam rose, and the stench of sulfur spewed from the ground. The earth was a multitude of color from orange to blue and gray. The water was silver, bright blue and even black in spots. We dipped our toes for a bit in a naturally heated stream.

Saturday we did some hiking, saw a waterfall, some beautiful alpine meadows and lakes and checked out some of North America's newest rocks formed during the 1915 Lassen Volcanic eruption. The highlight of the day however was actually at night. We went to the lake to look at the stars. I don't think I have ever seen such a exquisite night sky. The stars were so bright they reflected in the hundreds off the lake's water. To describe the scene as truly amazing would hardly give it justice.

On Sunday, we hiked to Lassen peak. The views from the summit were breath taking. We could see the central valley, lakes of varying shades of blue, and the snow covered Mt Shasta. At more than 10-thousand feet it is the highest altitude either of us have hiked to. We ate lunch at the top, hung out for a bit and begrudgingly made our way back home promising ourselves a return to the Northern California woods.

Life at the store is as good as ever. One of my bosses was having difficulty with a mathematical equation today and asked me for some assistance. Now I'm the last person to proclaim superiority when it comes to advanced number crunching and problem solving. Save for the cats (and that's debatable), I'm by far the worst in my household. But I accepted the challenge and offered my assistance. You may be wondering, what is this nearly impossible brain teaser? 22-1. Yes, that is what is a dollar off of 22 dollars? HOLY *#@^! A Forest Gump quote seems appropriate to end this paragraph, "That's all I'm going to say about that."

The past week has been one of change. My buddy Tom is moving to Pittsburgh, PA. Not to be confused with Pittsburgh, CA, which is at the end of one of the BART lines. Tom's departure for the greener pastures of owning a giant T. V., actually having a married life, as well as the promise of a top notch masters and eventually a doctorate degree leaves all of us remaining in San Francisco without a token British friend to hang out with. If anyone knows someone with British accent who enjoys sports, hates tea, and isn't afraid to tackle s'more making we're taking applications. Seriously, Tom and Sandra are already missed very much and we better all get our fannies to Pittsburgh to visit.

The rest of July went something like this...the 4th, dad tries to sell the house, Keith visits, American River rafting, teaching in Fairfax, hello "in-laws", garden harvest, plan my Maine return, plane nearly crashes into WGAN, and work on next KALW story underway.

The Decision

The last thing I expected to be writing a blog about right now is LeBron James' hour long ego stroking ESPN special "The Decision". But Jason MacDonald, a former Scarborough Redskins' Baseball teammate, asked me whether we can believe anything ESPN says about LeBron since ESPN hosted the show about his flight to Miami.

My professional opinion as a reporter is that we can trust ESPN to report fairly about LeBron for the rest of his career. From my understanding all of the advertising revenue for "The Decision" went to The Boys and Girls Club of America. It is a reporter's job to get scoops and whomever booked the King for "The Decision" was doing their job. Reporters strive for exclusivity, and ESPN landed the biggest sports story in America since the Lakers won the NBA Finals.

On another note I am not impressed with the ridiculous level of coverage ESPN has given Lebron over the last 48+ hours. 2/3rds of Sportscenter today was dedicated to one sentence that was uttered on their airwaves last night. I wanted to see baseball highlights and World Cup Championship previews. What I got was crying Clevelanders, manic Miamians, and the coronation of a new NBA champion before the first preseason game has even been played.

As far as LeBron's decision to play in Miami, I think he can play where ever he wants. He's actually taking a pay cut to play with the Heat and if winning championships is important to him he's certainly upgraded his chances. Although going on national T.V. to rub it in the faces of his home town supporters was a classless and tasteless thing to do.

My 1st Earthquake!!!

At 7:47AM Pacific Coast Time I was sitting at my computer, minding my own business, and eating breakfast when a 3.5 rumbler shook my pint glass of iced coffee. Work crews have been disturbing the peace and quiet levels at my residence for the past couple of weeks, so at first I thought some of the workers dropped some heavy machinery in the basement. A simple check of the USGS website proved differently. A 3.5er centered just a few miles from where I sat was the undeniable culprit. Candace, who was sitting down at the table with me felt the shaking. Ashley and Veronica, who were still in their beds didn't feel a thing.

The Bay Area is used to earthquakes and the only inconvenience that I read about was the BART subway system having minor delays so that the tracks could be checked. Other than that life goes on. For most people that live here today's quake will be just another in a long line of minor earthquake memories, but for me the sight and sound of ice gently slapping against the sides of my pint glass is not something I will soon forget. Welcome to California, more than a year later!

B2B and Yosemite

Bay to Breakers Sunday started like any other Sunday. Candace made a half gallon jug of gin and tonic, Chris, Ben, and I put on skin tight denim shorts and plaid tops before stuffing a handle of Jack into a backpack and heading out the door. Meanwhile Veronica, Ian, and Ashley were the proud owners of a walk of shame theme. High heels attached to handbags, smeared make-up, and messed up club attire matched meticulously with a handle of Jim Beam.

Any good road race competitor will have at least one goal. Ours was simple. To find our way home while completing approximately 2/7th of the actual race. Seems like a fairly simple and easy task, but not when you mix in booze with 119,993 other clowns, mythical creatures and pants-less wonders. Ben nearly got arrested for uncaging the urine monkey on a fence in Hayes Valley. I wasn't sure what to expect when the bicycle riding boys in blue told him to beat it. Chris was on a mission to lose his pants ever since we saw a group of people in their underwear yelling "just say no" to pants. He tried to tell everyone that the giant rip up the side of his denim booty shorts was a mistake, but I know him better than that. The gesture was an attempt at solidarity with the pants-less army that he wished to join. Candace on the other hand thought it'd be a great idea to take the final 1/3 of her drink out of a skull funnel. There might be some mathematical equation or some famous words from a philosopher that describes how we all arrived home safely that day. If you find either or both let me know.

Monday arrived before the last human dropping was cleaned off our neighbor's porch from the day before. For most that meant heading back to work. For me, Chris, and Ben the fun was just beginning. We were Yosemite bound before the sun reached its highest point in the sky. When arrived to rain, snow covered parts of the ground in the higher elevations and fog disguised the magical splendor that is the view from the valley floor.

We immediately set up camp and started asking around about out planned accent up Half Dome. Some people told us we wouldn't make it very far, but to spite those nay sayers we hit the trail loaded up with gear the very next morning. The climb was tough, but we didn't hit the snow until we were about 85% of the way to the top. That snow was packed down solid. We got all the way to the cables, which were laid down with no steps in place for safety. We decided to conclude our accent rather than try to scale the final 400' with our depleted shoulder strength and no real safety gear. I certainly plan on finishing off this piece of unfinished business very soon.

The rest of Chris and Ben's visit I'll sum up with a few words and phrases, you can fill in the rest of the blanks...lost camera, ouch my tooth, burritos to remember, red wine to forget, no need for sun block, sushi, Indian Food, and the Clifton comedy cashier of Yosemite.

Robogames, Mankend, and the travesty of TJ's

After a week and a half of going on a sojourn for just the right words, actually sitting down and writing, an mostly just editing, Robogames is just about in the books or on the air. The amount of work that goes into producing a single story for Crosscurrents still amazes me. Like a finely mixed cocktail the slow production process is one part I'm new at it and two parts no overwhelming sense of urgency for stories about robots. I guess the robots will show us one day when they take over the planet!

The toughest part of the entire process perhaps was voicing the piece. My voice is a real live wire. I wield a lot of authority and sound like an announcer even while speaking with friends and family. I really had to tone it down and talk at a level out of my comfort zone for this one. After an hour of throat clearing-water sipping excitement, I finally produced enough usable tracks to make the story. Note to the friends/family who I announce to on a regular basis, some voice acting classes would make the perfect birthday gift (November 18th, wink-wink).

Working in radio is clearly one of my favorite things to do. Even when a story takes a long time to produce or eats away from my free time I still enjoy the work. Something that is increasingly not my passion is working at the store. I've been there for over a year now and the needless stress is starting to get to me. I haven't learned anything new in a long time and the work is the same everyday. I realize most jobs are repetitive and not very exciting but as a reporter I have been trained to want more. I feel like something is lacking if I'm not learning something new every day, expressing myself through my work, and striving to get better at what I do. A working environment that doesn't engage those qualities is boring at best and soul crushing at worst.

Once in a while there are glimmers of light that come out of the retail darkness. Just last week a guy decided to wash himself under the nozzle in the store's parking lot. The man was stark naked at 6 o'clock Friday night bathing himself as customers came and went from the busy store. Management called the police, but in San Francisco citations for public nudity are not high on the to do list. The cop arrived about 10 minutes after the gentleman finished his leisurely shower session. Events like that don't happen often, so fortunately I have other outlets for my creativity and to blow off steam.

Enter Man-kend, its like a weekend where you do manly stuff. Candace and our roommate Veronica were both out of town last weekend. As a result Veronica's boyfriend, Ian and I decided to get some guys together. We started by catching the hit movie Kickass. Then made our way back to my place where we drank beer and started talking about the state science funding in America, military spending, British politics, the Arizona Immigration law, and finally strip clubs and boobies! You can probably spot in the previous chronologically written sentence where the beer started having its effect.

Soon we started a longer than necessary walk to The Pig and Whistle, a so-called British pub on Geary. The journey was longer than necessary because "We're men! So what the hell do we need a map for! The meal was very unmemorable partially because of the band of 60 year old rockers trying to recapture their youth through playing really annoying/terrible music at decibel levels scientifically proven to cancel out brain waves. One other thing made the meal less than notable, the food sucked! Even Tom, our token British friend, thought so!

After the meal that made us all hope for Amnesia we started walking down Geary looking for a place to throw some darts and watch some boxing. We found such a place at 5th and Geary, the Abbey Tavern. There we watched Mayweather defeat Mosley, had a couple of drinks, watched the current version of Ian have a dance with Ian 40 years from now, and started chucking darts! All in all a fun night. One that no farm animals were harmed in the making of, always a bonus!