Going door to door

Not me. I didn't go door to door.
Well, I guess I did, but I was tagging along with Medford city officials and police officers.

Those city employees were visiting an at-risk neighborhood to get a better idea about what problems the city may be able to help with.

In an age of social connectedness and multiple ways to get in touch with people (email, phone, snail mail, probably even Facebook), these public servants are going to people's homes and asking them face to face. Pretty cool.



I tagged along and packaged the story for the 11 on Tuesday. I was able to put a mic on one of the officers as they went to one young woman's home and asked her questions.

One of the reasons TV is so successful as a medium is because it can transport the viewer to wherever the action is. And getting a microphone into the middle of these door to door visits, amplified it.

That piece of video became my favorite, and I think it held the story together.

Pretty happy with the way both of them turned out. The video and the surveys.

Let's Go Gaels

I've been meaning to write a blog about something I've been feeling pretty heavily the past few months. But now, at 1 am, I feel overwhelmed to the point of writing several hundred words. About "Nostalgia."

SMC Basketball was one of the best parts of being Saint Mary's. And I was a lucky chosen one who traveled with the team to the NCAA Tournament and the Sweet Sixteen in March. Most of my video production memories are in McKeon Pavillion.




The Gaels are playing on ESPN right now. I get home from work at 11:45 and it's just before halftime in Moraga. The HD view of the gym and the surround sound sound of the crazy fans bring me right back.

"S-M-C (CLAP!)"
"D-D-D, DE-FENSE!"
"AUSSIE, AUSSIE, AUSSIE. OI OI OI!"
"LET'S GO GAELS, (clap, clap, clap-clap-clap)!"
and that two syllable synonym for Fertilizer.

I'm overcome.



I miss the screaming, the cheering, seeing friends, yelling at refs, yelling at the other team, being with friends, and, most importantly, having an excuse to go nuts for a few hours and for a good reason.

There's just something about college basketball that makes it so great. It's my favorite. There are so many moments that the sports writing legend, Bill Simmons, calls, "Hrrrrr-aaaAAHHHHHH!" moments. It's when the crowd anticipates something about to happen, and explodes the split second it does. It could be crisp passes leading to a wide open three that arcs just right. It could a fast break leading to an undersized guy dunking when he really shouldn't. Whatever it is, every single person in the building knows what's going to happen, then goes bonkers when it does.

There's nothing better than college basketball in person.

I would love to go back. Hopefully, I can get back for a game in January or February and pretend I'm still in college for a weekend or two.

I hope this feeling continues for years, decades to come. I've always heard that SMC feels like community for an alum's lifetime. And if these current feelings persist, it should be for me too.

I think they will.


(note: These in-game photos are from November '07. At that point, my 'fro had not been cut in 8+ months. I miss that.)

Last weekend, great weekend

Last weekend (6th and 7th) meant watching football, eating delicious foods, and seeing some of my best friends.

Saturday started great. I went to a co-worker's house to watch football. In Oregon, there's one nearly unifying belief that stretches from Portland in the north, to the Siskiyou Summit leading to California: The U of O Ducks are the greatest football team ever assembled.

This particular co-worker is a native Oregonian and a huge Ducks fan. I've always sort of liked Oregon. Of course, they're still many steps below Stanford, but they are a fun, explosive team, especially this year. And in Medford probably one in three cars has an Oregon decal or flags attached. It would be like combining all of the shirts, jerseys, and hats of the Giants, A's, Niners, and Raiders fans in the Bay Area, and that's the amount of support the Ducks. It's unreal. Especially since they're currently #1 in the BCS polls.

Anywho, a handful of KDRVers went to Evan's house to watch the Ducks/Huskies game. We brought beer and Evan made delicious bean dip. Breakfast of champions.




Later that evening, I got to talk with my brother, Kevin, for a good hour and a half. Then spent another 90 minutes talking with former co-worker, still friend, and current MidWest resident: Emily Wood. Fantastic to catch up with both of them.

But the catching up was just starting...

One of my best friends from High School as in town. Lauren Lagano, a girl who has been like my sister and one of the people I see most often when I come back to Oakley, was in Southern Oregon for the weekend. She was at a conference at SOU in Ashland, and told me she'd be just a few miles from me. Of course, we made it a point to spend as much time as we could together. Saturday evening, she snuck out of one of her workshops early and we spent time driving around Ashland, eating Wendy's, and talking about everything going on in our lives. Sunday was the last day of the conference and she had a short break between the closing ceremonies and her flight out of Medford and back to San Diego. I picked her up and we went to lunch at delicious Ashland restaurant Standing Stone. It was cool outside, but I showed her around Lithia Park, a beautiful area in downtown. The tree-laden park was just past peak Autumn colors, but there were still many bright reds and yellows and burnt oranges on the trees.



Seeing Lauren was exactly what I needed. It was a nice reminder of all of the support from friends and family back home. It's tough not to be home in the Fall and only getting a handful of days to in the company of the people I love during the holidays, but spending a few hours with her gave me a nice boost that should carry me through the Christmas season. Either way, I'm glad to have seen her and shown her around my new home and very much looking forward to seeing family and friends during Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Follow Friday

VERY GOOD FORTUNE

Was it cheating? Was it intuition? Was it good fortune?
This woman may have performed the best "Solve" on Wheel of Fortune.


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CONAN'S COMEBACK

Conan O'Brien returns to Late Night on. However, now he's on basic cable on TBS. After nearly two decades on network TV, Conan wants to relearn the boundaries of appropriateness.
I'd rate this one PG-13.


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"LIFE IN TECHNICOLOR" - by COLDPLAY

A fun music video from the British band.

Snow Season

It's officially Autumn here, and the mountains surrounding the Rogue Valleys are occasionally dusted with snow.

Tuesday saw a big storm blow through Southern Oregon, dropping rain in the valley and snow above 4000 feet. There were reports of several accidents on the Siskiyou Pass near the Oregon/California border. I got up there and saw the snow in full force. I've only spend a handful of days in the snow, so it was pretty novel and pretty awesome and pretty pretty.





A ski mountain, Mt. Ashland, is preparing for the winter and hiring seasonal jobs. I covered the job fair and when the mountain hopes to open.

I was happy to do this story because it included some cool visuals, I got to talk to a bunch of fun people, and the way I pieced the story together in my head worked out when I started writing and editing. Fantastic!

It's like Skype...on steroids

The largest hospital in Medford, and all of Southern Oregon, is getting new technology that allows the greatest minds in healthcare to connect better than in the past.

It's called TeleMedicine.



It works a bit like the video-conference program for computers called Skype. Skype lets people to have video or audio conferences anywhere in the world.

TeleMedicine works a bit like that, but it's on a much more secure, confidential, and reliable network. The Oregon Health Network connects all medical centers in the state, and is now the base for TeleMedicine.

Local pediatricians will be able to use the new technology to seek specialists' expertise when they need it. They say sometimes a patient will show symptoms that require an expert's opinion. That's when TeleMedicine will come in to play.

The TeleMedicine machine has two cameras and two microphones and a monitor, giving the doctor the sense that they are actually "in the room" of the remote hospital.

Portland doctors say they've used TeleMedicine to assist in code scenarios when a child has needed resuscitation.

Local pediatricians anticipate using TeleMedicine several times a month, especially as the winter season can affect children severely.


I liked covering this story. It's a great piece of technology that will, hopefully, help many people.

Fantasy Football

The highest scoring member of my Fantasy Football team had 28 points. The second highest scored 21.54

Why is this interesting? The highest scorer was the Packers Defense.

They had 4 sacks, 4 takeaways, scored 2 touchdowns, and only gave up 7 points.

Jets QB Mark Sanchez got second place prize.

Despite having five players score two points or less, I may still win this week.

Nice.