Lights, camera. . . no wait. . .

So tonight marks the second time that the paper has trusted me out in the world with one of its cameras. The first time was when I was sent to cover a tribute dinner hosted by the Elks at the Eagles lodge. . . or was it hosted by the Eagles at the American Legion. . . or was it. . . (I had to go to a couple of places before I got the right one). But anyway, one of those organizations that tend to have fish fries and BBQ nights was having a dinner to honor a nearby volleyball team that won the state finals. So my boss thought that it would be a good opportunity for me to get my feet wet with the camera because people sitting around tables are a lot easier to photograph than are people participating in any sort of athletic endeavour. But yeah, my pictures were crap, nothing was published.

Tonight? Um. . . I took the first picture. Then when I looked at the display to see if I had gotten a good shot, over the preview picture was the text "No (something something) Card." Damnit! I had a camera but no memory card. And driving twenty minutes through the gusty snow to get the card and then driving another twenty minutes to get back to the game was not an option. However, even though none of the pictures were going to be saved, the camera still displayed a preview of the most recent shot taken. So I did get some practice in.

I wanted to make this a long, entertaining post. But I've grown tired before making it long or entertaining. But it is a post. So one out of three. That's a good batting average.

I'm grateful for "To Kill a Mockingbird" (20).

Here I am

Rock you like a hurrican. . . Yeah. I know. I know. But let's just pretend like I didn't totally punk out for the past couple of months and get down to business.

I'm still working part time, writing sports stories for the local paper. I have been getting more hours lately, and they finally gave me a key. But the hours are still nowhere near enough to live off of, and they didn't give me the password to the security system so I can really only use the key when there are people there. But you know, it's progress.

For the most part, the events I'm sent to are the ones that the boss doesn't want to go to. So I'm usually writing stories about blowouts or about competitive cheer meets (I may write about cheerleading at a later date). Occassionally, I'll get lucky, and two bad teams will face off, and I'll get to see a close game. But most of the time I consider any game that ends with fewer than twenty points between the teams to be a closely contested battle. But still, I'm enjoying it. I'm learning a bit more each time out, and I like everyone I've worked with both at the paper and at the schools we cover. I've actually started to get to the point where people in the local sports circle are recognizing me. Of course, half of them think I'm a talent scout. But you know, baby steps. . .

Speaking of baby steps. . . I'm pretty sure that's what this is. Instead of a bigass post filling in the past two monthes, I'm going to give you guys a bunch of melt-in-your-mouth-not-in-your-hand-sized chunks. If you chouldn't tell, this was the first chunk. . .

I'm glad to be back (20).