little lost robot

A few months back I blogged about whether or not to tip while at Sonic. I’m still getting emails and comments on that post to this day - the most recent observing that there isn’t a line to tip on the credit card slip. Well, this weekend we went to Sonic for some late-night frozen desserts and decided to give it another try. Last time, we didn’t tip and the girl looked disappointed. This time, I gave the (different) server a dollar and she awkwardly accepted it and walked away without saying a word. My wife and I looked looked at each other and we each said something simultaneously to the same effect. I said, “solves that issue” and at the same time she said, “never again.”

Anyway, this weekend went by rather quickly. I played some Halo 3 and bought the Calvin Harris album I’ve been wanting, and the new Dexter book, as well.

Here’s a snapshot of our team Blue Ballerz from the fall kickball league, taken at last Friday’s game.

Every time we have a team photo taken I (unsuccessfully) try to summon the elemental forces to aid us in battle, so this time around Rod, the league photographer, finally photoshopped some lightning into the shot, since I have yet to actually summon storms. Yet. But if lighting were to strike out there on the kickball field, I think it would definitely hit near me and Ben - the only two nerds dudes in the whole league that wear glasses.

Today was a magical day at the office, as we all filed into one of the conference rooms to try on this year’s batch of Oobe gear. It’s become somewhat of a tradition at the station - this being the third year of the “employees get free logo’d station gear” program. And I’ll admit, it really pays to be a field crew on Oobe day - we get hooked up with all kinds of good stuff (I think I’ll be up to something like twenty-eight station shirts by the time we get our new ones).

And we can be quite a handful when it comes to trying on the clothes, as evidenced by this photo of John Hendon in action. He was sporting some kinda of sporty sweater vest and apparently testing it out by taunting Gordon (who chose his clothing based on the weird names they assigned each style shirt). Joanna’s reaction (left corner) says it all. I think that it had just dawned on her at that moment that, starting today, the photogs (myself included) will pester her every day until our new stuff finally arrives.

I haven’t done all that much this weekend, other than some random shopping and catching up on episodes of The 4400. But, I did have an awesome day on Thursday when Gordon and I hit the BMW performance test track for a story we were working on. He tore up the track while I got car sick in the back seat while videotaping. And I had that same feeling the following evening after we finished our kickball game, and then several bar games like “beer pong” and “flip cup”.

Anyway, I made a resolution to blog more this week, so we’ll see how that goes considering it’s ‘premier week’ and Halo 3 and all.

It’s been a while since I posted anything, so here’s this week’s vodcast (it’s sorta timely since Microsoft is working overtime to get broken Xbox’s into hands of Halo fans this week):

Man, I hope that my Xbox 360 never dies, or at least hangs on until the next one comes out in three years. On a related note: I find myself getting really excited for Halo 3, as I’ve come to realize that I’m often prone to falling for marketing hype. I didn’t get all crazy about Halo 2, but I think that it’s because Everquest 2 came out the same day. Whatever. I’m ready to get into some Master Chief action this week - however, I’m not waiting in line all night to get the game.

This is a screenshot I took of my space-age BAMF, in the upcoming online MMO game Tabula Rasa. I’ve been beta testing the game for a while now (but just now finally allowed to write about it), however I’ve lost interest since my character had been wiped in one of the recent upgrades. So I created a new one that looks kinda similar to me - if I were a dashing space adventurer fighting giant alien insects.

Anyway, I’ve had a hard time getting back into the it, knowing I’ll be erased again once the game goes live next month. So now my virtual guy just wanders around, trying not to get shot while helping people with tech advice or chatting about comic books. Doesn’t the space future sound awesome?

Sometimes when we’re out shooting news, it’s necessary to get still video of photographs to use in our stories. But often finding a spot out in the field to set down the photo and snap video can be a challenge, and that’s where a random car window comes in handy. And today we had a celebrity photo assistant handler: Mr Jesse Jackson.

He was in town as part of a cross-country bus tour he’s doing this month, and arranged a press conference concerning the questionable death of a local inmate [video]. I know he used to be from around here, but I still get kinda excited when he rolls into town and has random media events. Anyway, I think he was helping because he might’ve thought we were gonna steal the photos, but I appreciated his help all the same.

Every time I get into a conversation about the Xbox lately, Halo 3 always seems to come up. I eventually mention that I hadn’t preordered the game yet, and then the person I’m talking to - like clockwork - has a faux freak out, “Oh man! You didn’t order it yet?!.” I feel guilty for a fraction of a second and then remember how I saw a billion copies of Halo 2 days for days after the release. But after the fifteen, “I was smart and ordered my copy of Halo months ago” I decided to just play it safe and put down a deposit.

I decided to go with Best Buy over the dork shop in the mall for my preorder, as I would rather be clunked over the back of the head with a shovel than ever order something at Gamestop. Anyway, I walked out of the store, clutching my preorder box with a feeling of accomplishment, moments later I felt kinda let down, seeing that the box is empty and the game doesn’t come out for nine more days.