Wasn't meant to be...

I'm going to need a new title for this blog...

I was informed late this afternoon that I am being laid off along with close to 20 other people. The station just does not have the funds it needs to keep us employed. There will also be a lot of changes to the shows and the number of shows that will air. This is all a complete shock to me. I have 90 (Jan. 29) days until my contract is terminated, but due to the holidays I have the option to leave Dec. 19.

The response from my co-workers has been nothing short from disbelief and sympathy. I've already had two people offer to write a recommendation for me. Right now I think I am still in shock. I refuse to let myself cry over the situation - things happen for a reason, but I do feel as though my spirit is broken. I practically just unpacked.

Don't hesitate to call or ask questions. Mentally, I just can't write anymore today.

Happy...

...birthday Adam!!
And happy Halloween to everyone!

I hope everyone is enjoying the last day of October. The year is sure flying by fast. The newsroom is decked out in orange and black which is fun. I opted for a black top and orange ribbon in my hair. Rumor has it "Count Corey" will give the weather tonight. I'm not sure if I will be able to hand out much candy since I work into the evening, but it will be interesting since there isn't a curfew here. I just hope little kiddies aren't ringing my doorbell at all hours of the night. I will be sure to post a picture of my pumpkin as soon as I can. I don't have my camera disk to load the program onto my computer, but I can always have my images loaded onto a CD at Target. Anyways, I will be sure to write again tomorrow or Sunday to fill you in on the week/weekends activities and give my weekly movie review. I saw Changeling last night with Angelina Jolie.

Thank you Kelli for the wonderful Halloween card - it made my day!

My car and I miss the Midwest

I can't believe I moved away from this... to pay almost double!!

TGI the Weekend

You know you are tired (and blind) when you wipe your eyes with the liquid blue nail polish remover instead the blue make-up remover. Ouch! Yes, I did that the other night. Luckily the smell caught my attention and I didn't break out in a rash or anything. Needless to say, I'm happy it's Saturday.

Thursday night's movie, "Pride and Glory" was good. It's about a family of New York City police officers that get caught up in twist of good cop/bad cop. What's interesting about it is you really have to pay attention to find out the entire story. The writer doesn't reveal all of the past information/events that effect the characters at once. It's strategically pieced together as the movie unfolds. It's very dark, but at the same time very realistic. I definitely thought it seemed long, but then again I could have just been tired. (All of the screenings I see start at 10pm.)

I don't have a lot planned this weekend. I want to pick up a pumpkin to carve and maybe visit a haunted house or corn maze with some friends. It's a pretty nice day here so anything outside sounds great. Thanks for reading and keep in touch!

Long Time No Blog

I can't believe it's been almost a week since I last wrote. It's been a little weird not having a computer. I do have Internet access at work of course, but once the 6:30 show is over I just want to get home and curl up on my futon. The 6pm producer has the week off so the other producer and I have had a little more work to do. I fill in when and where I can. I'm looking forward to the weekend; maybe some pumpkin carving, hiking, and a bit of relaxing. I definitely need to catch up on my TV shows. I'm behind from going to bed early and not having a computer to watch them on. Tonight I'm going to my weekly movie screening. We're seeing Pride and Glory with Edward Norton and Colin Farrell. Should be interesting. The movie screenings give me something to look forward to at the end of the week.
Too bad I can't be in Indiana this weekend for Homecoming. It's always a fun couple of days. Sometime down the road I will be a returning alumnae. I'm counting on it.
It's hard to believe it's almost Halloween. Thanksgiving will be right around the corner and then bam! it's 2009. I won't jump ahead too much though. There are still plenty of days to get through first. Sweeps begins Oct. 31 and runs through the entire month of Nov. So, there are plenty of things to think about before the year is over.
I hope everyone has a wonderful Friday. I will be sure to update you on the movie when I can. Enjoy your weekend!

Weekend Wrap Up

First off, I want to say congratulations to one of my best friends Emily for auditioning and making her medical school's a capella group "Say Ahh!". She's an AMAZING performer and I'm so happy she is pursuing both her passions: music and medicine.

My computer is still acting crazy. I'm really frustrated because when I called Apple's technical line the guy told me that my warranty expired which includes phone help. So needless to say he couldn't help me. He also added that even if I still had a working warranty my computer is old (4.5 years??) and he wasn't educated in the model. He did give me an address to a place around here that does work on Mac's. Hopefully the store is open tomorrow. I don't know what I'll do if it's only open during the week since it is not near the station at all.

Enough about computers. Thursday night I went to see "W". I must add that I was extremely tired by Thursday and didn't stay asleep during the entire thing. I kept falling in and out of consciousness. It's hard to comment on the film because I don't really know what happened during White House meetings or whether or not things really happened the way Oliver Stone portrayed them too, but I will say Josh Brolin had George W. down. He played the character perfectly. The voice, mannerisms and above all W's laugh! On the other hand, Condoleezza Rice was somewhat creepy. Her character just came off really odd. Now, all of us who attended the screening did agree that we felt bad for George W. The movie had a way of reminding viewers (us) that he is just a regular person trying to make the best decisions for the county. He doesn't have super powers, but instead makes mistakes like you and I, unfortunately some of those mistakes were shared with the entire country. And, knowing that his approval rating is dropping each day, I only hope that the real relationship he has with his father is NOT how it is portrayed in the movie. The absolute worst part of the movie: the ending! In a nut shell, save your money and wait for it to come out on video.

Last night I attended a hockey game with a couple of co-workers. The Ams were playing Seattle and someone from the station offered us tickets. It was a nice way to unwind after a long week - cheering for a group of grown men slamming each other into the Plexiglass walls.
Today has been quite low key. Not surprising since I slept until 11:20.... oops! I never realized how much time I use to spend doing homework.... I really need to get a hobby ;)

Enjoy the weekend

Good & Bad News...

I will start with the bad news first...
My computer is in a coma right now and I can't use it. I've had battery problems with it for a while, and now it refuses to stay on for much time. The screen goes black, but it doesn't shut off. Almost like it is in sleep mode and won't wake. I took it to the Best Buy, but they don't have a contract with Apple so they wouldn't look at it or even ship it off to Apple. One of the engineers here offered to look at it which is GREAT. I'll just have to wait to see. I just wanted to explain if my blogging or e-mails seem to lack.

And the good/exciting news is that I had the opportunity to do a little anchoring today. The producer who usually puts together the webcast for the day is filling in for the night producer/anchor. I asked the news director yesterday if I could take a shot at it and he gave me the OK. Not a bad opportunity considering I've been here less than 3 months. So, I will fill in the rest of the week and one more time at the end of the month when she fills in for the morning show producer.

Alright, back to work. It's crunch time before the 5pm show.

Article From Yesterday's Link

I was informed that the link in the Spell Check post yesterday doesn't work anymore so I decided I would just post the article. That way a new link can't disappear later.

Big ballot boo-boo: Osama for president?
Rensselaer County gaffe makes national news after absentee ballots misspell Barack Obama's name

By BOB GARDINIER, Staff writer
TROY — It could have been Ovama or Ofama. Or even Olama.

But with one "s" the Rensselaer County Board of Elections turned a single wrong letter into a national embarrassment Friday.

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's last name is spelled "Osama" on some 300 absentee ballots mailed out this week to voters in Rensselaer County hilltowns.

Is it a Freudian slip, intentional gaffe or a mistake? Voters are sure to have opinions, and one politician pointed out that the letters "s" and "b" are not exactly keyboard neighbors.

"Of all the letters to hit by mistake," County Democratic Chairman Tom Wade said. "Unfortunately it is a mistake which negatively impacts our Democratic candidate for president."

The typo was first reported Friday on timesunion.com, and quickly grabbed national attention.
"It was crazy, everybody across the country called," said Edward McDonough, the county's
Democratic elections commissioner. He said calls came in from The New York Times, the New York Post, Daily News, Wall Street Journal and Court TV.

McDonough said he was one of the people who received a misspelled absentee ballot at home, and he didn't even notice it.

Elections officials on both sides of the aisle insist a simple typographical error caused the national embarrassment. "It was a mistake innocently done," McDonough said. "We catch almost everything."

Republican officials were apologetic. "We have three different staff members who proof these things and somehow the typo got by us," said Republican Commissioner Larry Bugbee. "We really apologize."

On Row 1A, Barack Obama's name is spelled Barack Osama — a name bearing an unfortunate resemblance to terror mastermind Osama bin Laden - but further down on the Working Families line it is spelled correctly.

The Obama camp took the controversy in stride.
"We're glad officials are working to correct this error and we assume it won't happen again," Obama spokesman Blake Zeff said.

McDonough said the absentee ballots with the error went out to voters in Brunswick, Nassau, Sand Lake, Schaghticoke and Schodack. Three voters called to report the error.

By day's end, officials decided to issue new ballots to all 300 voters. They realized some people might cross out the misspelling and write in the correct spelling.

"Election law is quite clear that any corrections done on a ballot will nullify the vote, so to be safe, we re-issued them," McDonough said.

One Sand Lake resident who caught the misspelling, and who asked to be anonymous, was skeptical. "It's a little suspicious and at least grossly incompetent," the voter said.
District Attorney Richard McNally said the incident is unlikely to produce a criminal investigation.

"Both sides are saying this is an honest mistake, so unless we find out otherwise, I don't see it going that way," McNally said.

Rensselaer County is the only county in the state that prints ballots in-house.

"It saves the taxpayers a lot of money," McDonough said.

Wade said it might be time to rethink that practice.

This is Why You Can't Count on Spell Check

I found this on the AP wire today. It's the perfect example of why...
A. you can't rely on spell check and
B. you should take your time on things.
It also showed up on the Seattle pi... take a look!

Have a great weekend - stay warm!

Playing by the Rules

I know I've mentioned a couple of times about how this is such an interesting and exciting time to be a part of the media and have unlimited resources into the events and facts of the day's current events. I don't know if it's the fact that I'm working and swimming in election information or that I finally reached the age when presidential elections really mean something and are intriguing to follow, but this one seems a bit over the top. I find myself upset with things that I'm hearing and reading. Case in point, this CNN article. Campaign parties aside, this is SO wrong! It really angers me to learn about events such as these going on around the country. Similar things were/are going on in OH. A group registered homeless people multiple times in multiple counties. What happened to playing fair? I can't remember a time when voting and registration was this bad. Although, this is only my second election.

And, as it is my second time voting I'm extremely disappointed that I still won't get to go to a voting poll. I was in school four years ago and while I am a resident of WA, the entire state votes absentee - how bazaar is that?! Why would anyone want to open and count ALL the ballots by hand when it could be done by a computer? Those people who have mailboxes near the street could have their ballots stolen and someone else could fill it out. Then there's always the possibility that when the ballot is mailed back it could get lost in the mail.

Wow, I can't believe I just went off on a voting/election tangent. I'll leave you with a funny e-mail I received from a great friend...

Edge Designs is an all-women run company that designs interior office space. They had an opportunity to do an office project in NYC. The client allowed the women a free hand in all design aspects. The client company was also run by all women execs...
The result...We know men never talk, never look at each other and probably never laugh much in the restroom...it's a serious and quiet place...Now, the men's restroom is a place of laughter and smiles.

Smart Shopper

I stopped by the grocery store today during my "lunch break" to pick up some stamps (it's closer than the post office) and I saw this in the parking lot...

My first thought was to take a picture, then I wondered where this person was going to put their groceries. Not only is it a small car, but it has a teeny tiny trunk if there is even one at all. I apologize it is not the best picture... I was in a hurry.

Yesterday I received my first invitation to a Theta alumnae event. It's a potluck dinner for next week and a reminder about a Christmas party in December. Unfortunately I won't be able to make it because it's too far away for me to drive to after work. It did put a smile on my face to receive mail that wasn't a bill and to know that there are events to look forward. My mom did send me a package over the weekend so I do get fun stuff once in awhile. She sent a couple of books I plan to get started on. I will give you a full review when I can.

How Ironic...

O. J. Simpson is found guilty on 12 counts of armed robbery and kidnapping today, exactly 13 years to the day he was acquitted of the murder of his ex-wife and Ron Goldman. He could face life in prison...
I did not attend Flash of Genius last night. I opted to get some sleep instead. I did learn that it's based on the story about the American windshield wiper inventor. However, according to our movie reviewer it's not worth seeing at the theatre. He says to save your money and rent it. On a side note, I just found out that Hollywood Video gives you a dollar back when you return a movie the next day. That's definitely something to keep in mind when you want to rent a movie.
Not much else to say. It's getting late and my brain is fried from the hectic day (There were so many problems today. My newscast was a mess!) I apologize if so many of my posts are about news stories or news topics you may or may not be interested in reading about. I will try to find and add more pictures and visually stimulating items.

October, Really?

I don't have a lot to write about. I've been sick since Friday and am finally starting to feel better. Although, I'm still waiting for a good night's sleep. I'm hoping it comes tonight. If not I have all day tomorrow to catch up. The news director gave me the day off since we only have the 5pm show due to the VP debate. It looks like the 6:30 producer and I will trade off for the next two debates since she had last week's debate day off. So tomorrow I will have plenty of time to do... nothing :)
Last night I did try to have a little fun . A couple of us from the station got together for a homemade dinner and a movie. It was fun and relaxing at the same time. We watched Iron Man which I have never seen before. It was different than what I was expecting, but I really enjoyed it. The special effects were amazing! I'm sure soon enough the technology showcased throughout the movie will be mainstream.
Tomorrow night is the weekly movie screening. I still haven't decided if I will go. It depends on how I am feeling and what I can learn about the film: Flash of Genius. Please, if you've seen a preview about it let me know what you think because I haven't seen a single thing about it and I've seen a lot of previews over the past couple of months.
Well, it's about time to take off these heels and just relax for the night.