Things are continuing on the same path much as I want them to.
Over all since leaving the news world and taking up this contractor job life has been pretty good. Looking to move out soon (once I sit down and analyze my finances).
Which leads me to my current crossroads...
My current predicament is this... I have two options for moving out of my parents house (yeah I know, still living with them at almost 26 is kinda lame but with the way the economy is and the job market I don't regret it. I'm certainly not hurting like some of my friends are and I've give back a lot to help my family. How many people can say that?)
Anyway... my two older sisters are looking to move into their homes. One moved back into our parents house as well after finding work back in Charleston and the other needs to upgrade from her townhouse now that her family has grown. Both sisters have suggested that I take this oppurtinity to move out, which I agree.
But my options are as follows: A) Take over residents of the townhouse my oldest sister owns, rent from her (at a reduced rate). The townhouse is well taken care of even with having two dogs and two very young children in it, washer/dryer/fridge are included. Plus I'd be living totally on my own. B) Move in with the second oldest sister when she finds and buys her own home. The major purpose would be to offer her support and someone else in the house as she would be living alone with her dog. Financially, this is the cheaper of the two choices, but I still would not be totally independent. Not that my sister would be in my business. The other problem with this is with the way the housing market is, she's having little success finding decent homes in the area, so the time frame to moving out is potentially a lot longer.
Either way I'd still be helping a family member, just that both arise different issues and conflicts.
Elsewhere in the world of Ryan, picked up Ghostbusters: The Video Game. So far it's pretty fun and looks great. I haven't found any complaints. Just hope the multiplayer modes are good, haven't tried them out yet. Still WoWing it as well. Got my Bloodelf Paladin up to 80... that makes 3 80's now. Next stop my Troll Hunter who has been sitting at 64 for litterally years.
As per my newyear's resolution I've taken an active approach to being more active. Doing things with friends on the weekends and just being generally more social... I think a lot of it has to do with leaving Live 5 News. I'm not feeling emotionally and physically drained all the time from being stressed out and shift-hoping all the time. So can't complain there, hah!
Settling in to the new job pretty well. I've got a lot more downtime now, especially since my work load is slowing down. Which is good and bad... bad for the reasons of not getting paid as much. But I can at least be thankful that I have a job during these times and that it pays ok, enough for me to stay afloat. I'm still looking and hoping for the next step, what ever that may be.
I've been trying to get back in to the things I enjoyed doing before my last job sucked out my soul. Going out more with friends... who happen to still be at WCSC, even hopping back on IRC from time to time and of course plowing my way through Wrath of The Litch King on my new warrior tank... I swear, I could probably be really good at WoW if I didn't have like 20 different characters I play.
Anyway, looking forward to the holidays, all the Singletary kids pitched in and got our dad a gift we think he'll really enjoy this year, he's usually so damn hard to shop for cause he hates the idea of people spending money on him.
But over all, things have smoothed out a bit and now I just need to refocus to my next set of goals.
Happy late Thanksgiving to all and Merry early Christmas/Holiday Extravaganza!
Quite literally, I'm back from the Upstate from training on my new job, trying to stay busy cause I don't know where to start. Thrown into the fray again in what feels like a sink or swim situation. The problem mostly is distance. Everyone else is so far away, I'm the only one here in the Charleston region and my boss is on vacation. Good timing right? I know it wasn't meant for this to happen like it has but I'm not confident in what I'm doing to work on my own, because If I mess up it could cost thousands upon thousands of dollars.
The only thing I can do is try and stay busy, hit my hours and hold out till someone can come down and give me a hand getting caught up on work I have little clue how to do still.
Four days in a completely different area that I have no familiarity with in a field have no experience with leads to one frustrated Ryan. But I did ask for this... and part of my family's fate, all our choices blow up in our face. I'm damn sure that's how it works. I really don't know what my ancestors did to piss off destiny but I wanna make a time machine and find out... so I can kick it in the balls.
I put in my notice on Monday at WCSC, now I'm looking towards my decision and hoping it's the right one. Though I've have been planning this for a long time, I just hope I came prepared for the battle I was expecting.
I'll have more when I know exactly what's come true and what hasn't... but at this time, come October 10th, I won't be a News Producer.
Here's to recovering from all the stress and pressure.
Figured I hadn't messed with this in awhile, so what better day to keep it update then today.
Work's been ok, the buy-out went off and we're now transitioning to a whole slew of new equipment at the station. Working days and weekends, I haven't been put into that 12 hour shift yet, I'm sure they are still planning it but so far they've had bigger problems.
My sister bought a puppy, a golden retriever about a month ago she seems to have brighten things up for the rest of the family so far. Which is good, gives dad something to do.
Other than that, life keeps moving... I keep looking for other opportunities, though none have shown themselves. Sometimes I wonder if I'm cut out for this job and yet I continue to get tons of support from my co-workers. Which baffles me, I'm probably being way to hard on myself, but I guess that's the motivation to keep working harder. I'm certainly not getting any support from management.
Anyway, I'm still alive... turning older today, and hopefully getting lower car insurance!
You know whats funny... ...my dad was going through a lot of our random places where we keep old documents and pictures for my sister and found some of my old medical/testing records from elementary school. Turns out they tried to diagnose me with ADHD in 3rd grade and my parents told them to screw off. I find that pretty funny and only furthers my belief that ADHD is a bogus diagnosis and an excuse to medicate children as a means of control. I think I've turned out pretty damn good without it... as many people that I know say I'm too laid back to have hyper-anything.
Then again... none of you have seen me when I booth a show... as many directors have threatened to beat me with a bat or as they call it "The Producer Training Stick" to get me from yammering on about whatever I'm talking about.
Note to self... I don't care how tempting it may be... I will never drink two cups of coffee with in a two minute span ever again... let alone one cup of coffee. If being cracked out on lack of sleep for the morning show is bad... this is 10 times worse.
I am not a coffee person... and it showed. By 9am I was out of my freaking skull. Hah... twitching and yelling stuff all over the newsroom.
Now time for sleep... oh for anyone who has a Wii and Super Marion Strikers Charged... I picked it up recently and would like to play head to head against ya sometime.
Get ready... It's 1:22am and its time to get pumped up for work...
Going to be pimping live shots all morning for American Idol tryouts here in Charleston. What this means for most of you, absolutely nothing, however if you are in the Charleston area, pop over to Fox 24 at 7am and see the magic... or lack there of... or to a lesser degree Live 5 News at 5 and at 6. Since we are both the same station they will have it as well, but I'm more special cause it an actual Fox show.
I guess this shift is getting better, I'm sleeping during the day more... which I guess is good and a friend is making me get out more which is good as well. My motivation has been lacking for a lot of things since starting this shift... but I'm trying to change that.
I just realized I'm doing this "..." a lot... it may look annoying but its a habit I've picked up from work. When writing a script and you need to put a pause or a comma somewhere you use "..." instead.
So... yeah.
I think I'm going to pass out... I tried out some axe that I found under the sink and its making me feel all weird. I wonder whats up with that... maybe I'm allergic to it.
But on Monday when we had the CNN YouTube debate I had Chief Washington Correspondent and former CBS Evening main anchor Bob Schieffer on my show for a live interview... which means for a slight moment I was his producer, that was pretty cool if you ask me. I also had CBS reporter Drew Levinson toss to his own package that was running on my show... how cool is that? Two things that will probably never happen again and on my show. I was actually kind nervous talking to Mr. Schieffer, but in the end it really didn't matter... the interview was actually really cool as well.
I also want to say thanks to everyone who offered me birthday wishes over the passed few days... it means a lot. I was actually surprised with the amount... both at work, online and even on the phone. Y'all rock.
Hitting the big 24 today... one more year till the great insurance drop!
Just a quick update... got my new computer up and running, its pretty awesome and thanks to Blake for coming down to help put it together.
This is started off as one crazy week and im already drained, with the CNN YouTube debate here in Charleston on Monday and President Bush at the Charleston Air Force Base yesterday things have been too hectic to catch a breather, and the rest of the week looks like more of the same. Gotta head up on Saturday to Columbia to help get a washer and dryer to my sister's apartment and have to work from 10-7 on Sunday. The managers at Live 5 have already hinted at taking me off my 4pm show to put me on to one with more responsibility... what that means the most right now is that I'll be back on weird hours, I was very much enjoying my 8-5 shift... which was as close to normal working hours. But I guess I gotta go where they tell me, don't think I have much choice.
Beyond that... I'd like to think things have gotten a lot better since this time last year, I'm in a better position now with my life then I would have been if I had done what I wanted to do and not what I had to do.
I'm glad I have the friends I do, I found out who they were... the ones that would stand besides me when things took the direction they did.
I definitely don't look back anywhere as much as I once did.
Time to finish gearing up for another award winning day. ~Ryan
Everything has been going a lot better lately down here. Not saying things have settled news wise... still got the fire investigation, triple murder, possible murder-suicide, eight car wreck that killed five people, the YouTube CNN Democratic Debates happening at the Citadel on monday... busy busy.
A weird thing happend to me on Friday. I had left from work and took a different route because of the eight car wreck.. rather than worrying about dinner I stopped and grabbed some Zaxby's. While there I was talking to my dad about the wreck and when I was done a woman in the booth over asked me about it. I told her non chalently about the fatalities, she just kinda looked at me for a second and then went back to eating... am I already that desenitized to death and seeing graphic images. Think about what you see on tv, thats probably a quarter of what we see and have to filter through.
Now back to looking for stories before I go in to work.
I've been working at Live 5 now for one full year... I've come a far way into what many call a career after college.
Not looking towards Friday... starting at 10am the North Charleston Coliseum will have the memorial for the fallen firefighters... even with my paid time off from Monday, looks like I'll be pulling massive overtime for all these extra shifts.
... but atleast today was a bit better than yesterday.
Nine Charleston firefighters were killed last night in a warehouse fire that started roughly right before 7pm.
It has been said to be the worst firefighter fatality since 9/11.
It was pretty emotional throughout the day here at the station, as everyone was pulling long hours, myself pulling a 12 hour straight shift and will probably be doing the same all week.
It didn't really start getting to me till much longer through the day when I started getting e-mails from fires departments from across the nation. Not much you can do in my side of the business except push through it, which got me thinking. I watched multiple co-workers get calls about their friends, breaking down and minutes later coming back and going full steam back into the shows. We talk a lot about counseling groups for fire fighters and victims in the devastating cases... but who's there to watch our health... the minds of the writers, the producers, reporters and anchors... the photographers and the crews that every day we're face with this stuff every day. It takes a thick skin to do what we do and go back in and do again and again, something I don't think many people realize.
Maybe that should be a study somewhere...
Time to hit the bed, to turn around and do it all again tomorrow. I believe this is what makes or breaks you, devastating tragedies that makes you reach a whole new level of performance. I often wonder what those NY news stations and national stations went through the morning of 9/11, or that of the Virginia Tech Massacre which I was a producer during...
It must be something like this, but much more intense.
Current Music:Blessed Union of Souls - She Likes Me For Me
Things got pretty rough a few weeks ago at work... dumping the pressure on me like never before. But I think I've come through it a better producer, handling the entire show much better on my own, which I think is a big improvement.
What it comes down to is I think my two greatest traits, will power and determination. Mostly to push through all the stress and the pressure of putting on my show, what other producers can get away with I cannot.
A lot of my post college life has been about setting goals, which I've made a lot of sacrifice for, that I'm finally seeing the rewards from.
Like this... my 2007 Wrangler Unlimited X 4x2 finally came in.
Now that I have the Jeep I've always wanted and the full time job to pay for it, the next step is a two parter. My health, one depends on where I see myself down the road with my job and the other depends on physcial activity. I started working out again atleast twice a week in the garage. Bought one of those stand up punching/kicking bags and built up my own workout around it. Going to start adding in weights for resistance.
Tomorrow morning I get to see what my Wrangler can handle, breaking it in with a nice long drive to Spartanburg for a friend's wedding, got my first paid time off in awhile. Gotta use it before I head into July which is another month of ratings, when PTO is hard to get.
I've also been officially assigned to the 4pm show. I'm trying to figure out a way that I can post my shows online so people can watch my work, I'm sure there is a way through shadowtv (program we use for posting to our website) and Youtube. Dunno if that's allowed.
Growing up is weird, eventually we all fall into the fold.
It was probably karma... cause the day after I posted last I was told to pull a 14 hour shift and produce both the 4pm and 11pm since the 11pm producer called in sick. Which did suck a lot as you can guess.
The 11pm is a lot like the 6pm, all the same expectations but also a lot less resources, one reporter two photographers... relying mostly on stringer footage.
This week was also alittle weird... today was the last day for one of the producers that had been there for 7 years. She had pertty much been the sole person to train me on the 4pm. Went to her going away party which was a lot of fun, but tomorrow will definitly be kinda weird.
As I mentioned in my last post about my vehicle situation... I did end up ordering my Wrangler... should take 6-8 weeks since there is a national restriction on hard tops. But hopefully shorter then longer.
I also bought a Wii about a month back, so if any of yall have a Wii drop me a message and we can exchange numbers.
And I finally got the footage back from WBTV (sister station) for my sister. For those of you aren't in the Charlotte NC area. Two Charlotte-Mecklenburg officers were killed in the line of duty a couple of months ago. One of them was a relative of mine. His brother married my sister. So while up there for the visitation/funeral I asked WBTV for the footage that they got. It came in very nicely packed and professionaly edited. Im glad they took them time to do all that as it ment alot for Becky and Scott.
Atleast its close to the weekend, debating to go to a Cinco De Mayo party thrown by one of the reporters or go fishing with my dad. Weather down here is almost like the mid-summer... hitting the 90's.
They've dumped a lot on me as of late to see how much I can handle, throwing me straight into the hardest shows possible with very little training. I've gone from the 4pm, to 6pm, then the 5 and 5:30 block. Here is a quick run down of the shows.
4PM: First at Four: The show I'm the most comfortable with. This show contains a little bit of everything. Local, National, Traffic, Weather, Guest Segment, Covering the Counties, Health and Consumer Reports. The thing about this show is its entirely producer driven. No reporters offer stories for this show and it is often given the scraps of the major shows (5-5:30 and 6) This is because it goes up against Oprah... and we all know how powerful she is.
5-5:30PM: The hardest possible show to do in the evening block. For one it is an hour show. Also it contains a lot of reporter stories which means a lot of micromanaging to relay communications between many parties. Mostly Local and a few National stories. Contains two talk segments Talkback Online and Talkback and multiple weather hits. Very difficult show to pull off.
6PM: Also a difficult show to pull off, almost entirely local stories. Your standard evening news shows as I see it. Local News, Weather, Sports.
So in the span of a few months I've produced each of these shows at different times.
Other shows I've produced or written for are the 10pm Fox show and Weekend 6pm.
10PM: Probably the easiest show to write, all rehashed stories from throughout the day.
Weekend 6PM: From start to finish this show is completely on the producer, on the weekend the producer also acts as the assignment desk. So making beat calls and determining stories is also key... usually completely solo too.
As of this week the 4pm will be "my" show until the end of book, which makes me very happy. It's a lot less stressful then the 5, 5:30 and 6. Plus I like the feel of it, even though I'm locked in epic battle with Oprah.
Today was the first day of book, which means for the next month we are in April ratings, this determines how we rate against WCIV and WCBD. Which was a great kick off with the Democratic presidential debates going on in Orangeburg.
Just happened to notice we're on wikipedia... but I guess who isn't these days.
Now that I'm making decent money it's time to look into getting my first brand new car. I may have to order what I want... a Wrangler Unlimited 4x2 since they are pretty rare. I miss driving a Jeep a lot, so I better get one as my dad says, "It will be the last time I'll ever be able to get a car completely how I want it." Hopefully since it will be a four door hardtop I can keep it around for awhile for what ever the future holds.
Now time to get some sleep before another day in the news mines cause I'm First at Four!
I made a vow to myself... I would not post in this journal until I made it into the news business full time... well now I can say I have. Eight months of putting my nose to the grind stone working two jobs, one for free, I can finally say the one quote I've been wanting to since I started on this path.
"Guess who write tonight's show...me, I write tonight's show." -Space Ghost Coast to Coast
I was offered a full time Producer job at Live 5 on Wednesday, a real good Valentines present if I say so myself. All the sacrifice I've put in finally has been noticed. I start officially training next week, working the Fox 10pm then will be given my own show... probably the 5am CBS show.
The offer won't be official till next week when they get all the paper work settled, but the job is mine and I've already given my verbal commitment.
I'll still be working as a PA for a week or so while we finish out the rest of February ratings so the next few weeks are going to be pretty hectic with training and my studio responsibilities but you won't hear me complain... I've made the mark I needed to.
With working mornings, I'll finally have weekends free to go visit friends like I've been wanting to.
Other news... I'll be Riley's Godfather when he gets baptized this March, so that will be cool too.
Now off to start my last full days of studio work... and from here on out nothing gets any easier, but at least I know I've made the right choices.
Its official... got the call around 1:34 A-M as Blake, Josh, Sig and myself were about to farm Zul Farrak in World of Warcraft. Becky went into labor. So Kristy, mom, dad and myself hightailed it to Summerville Medical Center and waited outside Becky's door.
At 3:15 A-M I became an uncle...still kind of unbelievable...and now, I shall sleep.
Expect a few more posts to appear tomorrow/tonight.
There was a time... where I used to think about what to write in here, ideas would come to be in the most random of places, and I would bring them here. I guess thats kind of thing hasn't happened to me in awhile. I think alot of it has to do with college being over and the certin issues that I won't go into here.I find the span that I write in here increasing, however I still check my friends list daily.
I think alot of it has to do with my lack of anything going on in my life beyond work. Things have been going very well in that regard. Working in news has kept me pretty up to date on current events, mostly local though. However there is alot of desensitizing going on when you here the same story rehashed multiple days in a row. One such story, a few months back a father alledgedly slammed his infant child's head into a bathroom wall to get her to be quiet. The father and mother, both in jail for child abuse/neglect are now trying to sue the doctors for pulling the plug after their child remained in a coma for the past 40 days. How can someone who physically killed his child even dare to bring a suit against the doctors that did what they can to say his child. Another story, just a few days ago a young mother alledgedly smothered her twin 9 month olds, now she is in jail. How do these people become parents? Every other night its breaking news on another shooting downtown. And here we are writing, producing, directing, anchoring, promoting, and putting on a show that we go to great strives to be unbias.
I guess thats how the world works, no matter how clear the evidence is, in the real world you can't act as a judge. Though most people today have no problem exploiting this clause in our social contract. I guess thats my own personal problem to ry and avoid when I climb the ladder.
Speaking of which, I had an interview last week with our news director for a full time prooducer position. I think it went well, though I probably won't get that position as sweeps are comming up soon and the news director wants someone who has more expereince. However, she informed me that our station is currently working on a deal to bring New Media to Live 5. After looking at my resume she said I may be a really good fit for the position of producer of new media should the deal go through. New Media being Podcasting and online news. Which I told her I would definitly be interest in such a position. Probably won't hear about either position for atleast another week or two, but I hope I hear something soon. I've already started working with the nightside producers to learn their system and general producer work. I need to get back in to writing broadcasting style, which to fix this, I've begun rereading my broadcasting books in my free time. Granted writing for the web and writing for tv is a bit different so I may try to find my older journalism work and review that.
I've also been put in charge of training all new people on the shows while our supervisior is gone. Which is a pretty nice complement though it has pissed off one of the girls who works with me, she's worked as a PA for longer than I have and doesn't like the fact that I'm training everyone and going above her heard on things like shot compisition and directing duties. Oh well, she'll deal with it, in two weeks she's gone anyway.
And now time to hunt some food and get ready for my shift tonight.
The daily read through... I saw this, originally posted by dandon_trj, out of all the things that will be played during the next few days, something along these lines should not be skimmed over.
The last two weeks have been busy at Live 5 with Ernesto's miss of the coast, the Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon, new anchors and new proceedures, the beginning of Friday Night Lights (highschool football friday show), general daily news, the continuation of hurricane season, and of course the passing of Steve Irwin. We actually did alot of stories on him during the days following his death. From the intial story to having Talkback segments to stingray saftey (we have a large stingray population off the Charleston coast. I can't go fishing off the beach without atleast catching two) I think the general consensus was that he was an immortal, someone who could stare down death easily, I know alot of people have said that as of late and I don't think we should change that image.
Other than that, we live on. I've been thinking of applying to a position as a Producer at Live 5, I probably should cause Im starting to get antsy in Production and looking for the next step up and on with my life. I should start refreshing my news writing, I never thought it was my strongest area but after working in the business I think its worth the effort.
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ryanohki's journal
