little lost robot

I got a cake! That’s a big deal around here. You see, the only guy who gets cake is our weatherman, John Cessarich. A few times a month there’ll be a station-wide page, alerting everyone to the newly arrived sugarish delights - each of them emblazoned with his name and frosting version of our logo, but by the time we’d get to the cake they’re half devoured.

Anyway, today was my day. I was the keynote speaker for a middle/high school career day in the remote area of Tamassee-Salem, about an hour from our station. Here’s a shot of me dropping, “truth bombs” on the kids in the auditorium.

In case you can’t tell: my cake is shaped like a old-school 386 PC.
How rad is that?

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After yesterday’s post, I’ve been reminded that when talking about only one paparazzi that you should use the term, paparazzo (and not “pavorottis” like Kevin Federline). But I’ve been given a chance to make-up for that by posting my video from today’s ‘day in the life of a paparazzo’ adventure.

So much stuff happened in under an hour that I could easily have chopped together a five minute piece on this guy. I think we need to see a Juan the Paparazzo reality show- which would be rad if it got popular and he was then forced to hide from telescopic lenses and camouflaged stalkers.

Today while Valdez and I were downtown we came across one of the paparazzi guys that’s been following George Clooney and Renee Zellweger around town. His name is Juan and he’s a celebrity stalking machine, responsible for hundreds of photos you’ve seen in magazine and on websites throughout the past year.

He’s got a massive lens attached to a Canon 30D resting inside his backpack, available at a moments notice - ready to fire off 20 shots a second. We actually had him show us how fast he was and it was hilarious. He pointed at two people on the street and exclaimed, “Hey there’s Brad and Angelina!” and then fired off a hundred close-ups of two guys walking towards a hot dog cart. Juan was such a character that I shot a ton of video of him in action (or inaction, I suppose) and we’re gonna follow him around on Wednesday for a fun feature story (I’ll link the video tomorrow).

Anyway, as we were leaving downtown I decided to hide behind a moving van and fire off video of Juan when we wasn’t looking.

It was fun when he eventually looked over and then realized that he was being photographed from way down the street. Ha! Gotcha, Juan! [although, unfortunately his photo isn’t worth 30K]

I snapped these shots this afternoon when I was digging around in the back of my pollen spore covered news rig. I’ve always had my camera cages covered in stickers and junk, but I haven’t really worked on my new one apart from a few random magnets - which somehow found themselves side-by-side, as if they’re meant to be.

That would be the most rad movie/show ever. Which leads me to wonder what and Elvis and Robot buddy movie would be called…
based on his earlier film titles, I think The Trouble With Robots or Rustabout would be good ones…

It’s been a busy time here at LLR headquarters. Here’s some of my weekend obsessions (broken down into handy categories):

Video Games:

Crackdown
I wasn’t really interested in this Xbox 360 game at first, but my pal Mac sold me on it (and even sent it to me) and now I can’t stop playing. It’s basically all about running around the city like those GTA games, but in this one there’s no cops to worry about pissing off. My supercop can now leap onto rooftops and kick tanks down the street. I thought my reign of terror couldn’t be much worse…and then I found a rocket launcher…

Warhammer
There’ll never be another Everquest (circa 2000-2002), but that doesn’t stop me from playing every MMO until I find that feeling again. My new hopes rest within Age of Conan and the looking-more-badass-every-day, Warhammer Online. I’m playing Vanguard right now but I’m taking issues with it.

Television:

Battlestar Galactica
All I have to say is: OMFG.

The Tudors
I’s no secret that Showtime has some pretty kick-ass programming these days. Who doesn’t live The L Word? But they’ve finally risen to a level that only HBO could achieve: They’ve forced me to read. That’s right. Just like Deadwood and Rome, I’ve been on wikipedia reading up on Henry VIII - which are considered spoilers I guess. Old timey spoilers.

My reporter (Gordon) and I were downtown today, so I took the chance to run over a few blocks and check out the new R2D2 mailbox! I posed all C3PO-style for the photo - which I thought should be taken for posterity before someone comes along and paints some “robot junk” in the front of the mailbox.

In case you didn’t know: mailboxes all over the US have been wrapped as Artoo to commemorate the Star Wars 30th anniversary stamps being issued by the USPS. Honestly, I’m not as excited about the stamps as I was about the mailbox.

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Okay, so I’ve installed the new site banner - which will replaced by a full color version in a few weeks - and I’m gonna be making minor changes here and there each day for the next week or so (spring cleaning, if you will). I decided to devote some attention to my site since my home PC only stays on for ninety seconds before shutting down. Maybe it’s sign that I should be doing something other than playing Vanguard. Or perhaps my new Xbox 360 has asserted itself over the other electronics in the room- much like a new prison inmate, sticking a shiv in the biggest inmate in the yard.

I’m heading to NAB again this year for more fun in the sun (and by sun I mean flourescent lit showrooms filled with booth babes and HD aquisition gear). I plan on kicking it the b-roll.net gang - especially at the photographer’s bash on Monday night. I still can’t figure out how to get into the Avid party, but I have a plan: I’m gonna disguise myself as a database error and sneak in…that always seems to find a way into my AVID editor at the station.

I’m halfway through the work week, and just over an hour away from tonight’s thrilling episode of Lost. Here are two items of note:

1. Went into the comic shop today (it is Wednesday after all) and life was getting back to normal in the wake of Captain America’s tragic death. In most comic shops there’s a bunch of grody t-shirts hanging on the wall with various superhero logos on them. As I was walking out the door I thought to myself, “I wonder if there’s a Cap’n shirt,” I glanced over and noticed there was an empty spot on the wall where one used to be. I was kinda sad about it, but also sorta angry at myself for being such a dork and thinking about wearing a Captain America shirt.

2. Went through the frustrating process of picking an Xbox Live gamertag. My previous gamertag, “lostrobot” was taken, but I think it was taken by me since I had an account a few years ago and never resubscribed. At the time my chosen name, “littlelostrobot” (natch) wasn’t available, and still isn’t. Believe me, if I come across that player on the battlefield he’s fucked - even if he’s on my team. My next choice was “snatch” - which didn’t work. Then I tried a bunch of random names that I thought were clever, but none of them worked. So I ended up going with one that I knew would be there (and probably should’ve tried in the first place): LL Robot.