Sure, stoopid April Fool's jokes are a dime a dozen.  Usually it's based on a lie that isn't hard to detect as a lie.  Everyone has an uncomfortable laugh and then gets on with the day.  Worse yet is a made up tragic story that causes wailing and sobbing only to be replaced by fists flying when the truth is revealed.

However, I do have one story of a joke that I actually planned out and pulled off that wasn't half bad.  This is that story.

It was years ago in Roswell, New Mexico.  I was the main Weather Anchor on the 6:00 and 10:00 news on KBIM-TV.  I brought my son and daughter to work with me on April Fool's Eve along with the suit and tie that I was going to wear the next night.  I used a photog to shoot the video.  By the 6:00 o'clock news on April Fool's night, I was ready.  I instructed my director to mess with the clipping on the weather wall shortly after I started my weather and then roll tape once I walked off camera.  It worked brilliantly.  Here's what the viewer saw that night in 1993: 

We came out of the commercial and I got 10 or 15 seconds into the weathercast when I started to fade in and out on the air.  I turned to the camera said, "something's not right, I'm gonna go check this out."  I then walked off camera and out the studio door with the camera following behind.  I walked into the control room and up to the "director" and it was my 4 year old son and 10 year old daughter.  My son had the headsets on and my daughter was at the controls of the switcher.  I looked at 'em and said, "I know it's your first time directing and all, but can you please try and get it right?"  They said in unison, "OK Dad.  NOT!"

I then walked back into the studio shaking my head and went on with the weather.

Fun times!  Great team work between a news photog, director, tape op and my kids.  My only regret is I didn't save a copy.

Oh, and HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my brother Chris!  Seriously.

Adrienne and Mike in the Morning 1996-99

Anchoring at CBS13

Pie Eating Contest

President Bush

Yes, that’s the President. As for my camel hair jacket with purple spot tie? It only proves that I had (have) no fashion sense :-) This was taken when President Bush was running for Governor of Texas.

The content is the same, except I added a bio page.  Otherwise it’s just a face lift.

I decided on the change after helping a client install and customize WordPress on his site.  If I can help someone else, I decided I could work on mine too!  So, I browsed through some of the Word Press themes and settled on this one.  I liked the banner pictures at the top, but thought it would be even better to feature my own photography up there.  So, I switched theirs out and put mine in!

I really really like WordPress.  They really do make installing a blog easy.  I know just enough html and php to do some tweaks, and there you have it.  After helping my friend, and making a few bucks doing it, I’m thinking there might be more opportunities in using WordPress as a template for designing web sites for folk.  It could happen!  If you want to hire me, leave your contact info in the comments!

Having received the call, I go in to work to redo the WXs.  I also e-mail Robert to make sure he did them to begin with.  He did.  He also resent them, even though he is no longer an employee as of yesterday!  I recorded new weathers as well and sent them.  Jackson, MI July 4th WX has been sent three times now!  If there is a problem, it’s technical, which means I had to skip my hike for no good reason.

It’s an hour later than I wanted to leave and already 83 degrees.  If I left now, I’d be hiking down with the temps near 104.  I think I’ll ride my bike :-)

I’m back from an incredibly wonderful visit to Texas!  It’ll take more time than I have to recap it all here, but I will try in the coming days.

One thing I have noticed lately that is really bugging me is my vision.  Most of the time it’s great.  I have 20-10 and can see both near and far very very well.  I try not to take it for granted.  It’s a gift from God that I really do appreciate and enjoy.  I should probably quit showing off like I do occasionally by reading someone’s e-mail off of their computer screen from half way across the room.  “You can read that from there?”  Yeah.  It’s annoying, I’m sure.

I started noticing this three weeks ago driving back from Yuma after visiting Dad.  It was getting dark and I was still on the highway.  I took off my sunglasses and everything had a slight blur to it.  I could still see OK, but everything was just slightly out of whack.  I thought maybe it was the glasses since they are kinda scratched up.  So, before the return trip from Texas yesterday I bought a brand new pair.  That ought ta fix it!

Not so much  :-(  Same thing last night.  It was getting dark, I took off the glasses and there was the blur again.  I guess it’s time to get my eyes checked, although the rest of the time I seem to have my usual excellent vision.

It’s not likely to last forever.  Dad had great vision and ended up getting cataract surgery.  Aunt Lora V. had awesome vision too, but now is going blind from macular degeneration.  Mamaw had that too.  I think I’ll enjoy what I have while I have it and try to keep my attitude of gratitude!

My advice to you young people;  Don’t get old!

One of the cool things about RTNDA at NAB is the NAB exhibit hall at the Convention Center in Las Vegas.  I’m looking forward to having a little more time to explore, although I’m not sure when that is going to be!  I did find a couple of things that might be useful back at the station.

Here’s a snapshot of one of the more visual exhibits.  I told them they should have Chicago playing.  One of the younger guys told me it was 5:45 in Chicago.  He had no idea what I was talking about!

So, then I had to fill in in the afternoon and in between there was paperwork and a ton of weather forecasts for all of our stations in the network.  Honestly, I was getting a bit overwhelmed late in the morning.  A little cranky.  Then I tried something revolutionary.  I prayed!

I asked God for strength and a good attitude.  At one point I felt my patience slipping and I just felt God saying, “I’m with you.”  That was all it took.  I had peace all day!  Not only that, but I had FUN today even though I was severely over worked ;-)

I have more work tomorrow, but I am considering climbing Pusch Peak to the top.  The main thing that is stopping me is groceries.  I don’t have any!  I’m going to bed as soon as I post this.  I’m beat!  So, maybe I’ll do a shorter hike or ride my bike and get some errands ran.  I don’t like running errands on a Saturday.  That’s when all of you are too!  Knock it off!

The best part in all of that is I get to interview Joel Rosenberg!  I am very excited about that.  Ever since I read his book, “Epicenter,” I have been interested in his ministry.  When I saw him talk here in Tucson, first at my church, and then at Calvary Tucson, both in December, I was even more convinced that the Joshua Fund was very much something that I wanted to be involved in somehow.  All of that alone is worth missing some sleep!

The early early shift continues until April 4th.  Then it’s Share-a-thon April 7th – 12th and then the next day I leave for Vegas for RTNDA!  On top of that, my quarterly reports are due on April 10th!  One thing for sure is, the time is going to go by VERY fast.  That tends  to happen when you’re that busy.

Pray for me!  And please don’t call after 5pm Tucson time!  Thanx :-)

Imagine my surprise when I came back to work from lunch Tuesday. It was Super Tuesday Two and Senator Hillary Clinton was in the fight of her life to stay alive in the Democratic race for President. So, on my voice mail was a person from the Hillary Clinton Campaign asking if we’d be interested in interviewing President Clinton that afternoon?! I thought about it for a few seconds and called ‘em right back!

I was a bit nervous. We are a 501 (c)3 and are not allowed to endorse any candidates. I knew we couldn’t let him on live and just urge everyone to vote for his wife. I thought maybe his people might decline us the interview if I told them we would have to record the Former President’s comments and then do some editing.

I called and explained and they were still interested! We have stations in Amarillo, Lubbock, and Midland/Odessa so it made sense that they would like to reach segments of all three with one phone call. So. I started preparing questions and waited for the call.

FINALLY they called at 5:30 p.m. and gave me the number and code to join the conference call and wait my turn. I heard Clinton wrapping up his last answer to the guy before me and then he asked the President for a liner! So this guy is saying, “could you say, ‘you’re listening to so and so on Fox such and such.’” After two or three tries you could tell that President Clinton was getting frustrated with the guy and told him he was having trouble hearing him. He got through it sorta monotone with a half stumble and that was good enough. My turn.

Someone from the campaign got on the line. “Mike Shaw are you on the line?” “Yes I am.” Then Bill Clinton’s voice. I thanked him for his time and made the comment that his schedule must be grueling. He agreed with that but said he was enjoying traveling around Ohio and Texas and that he had been to all three cities, Amarillo, Lubbock and Odessa. Then he just kept on going. Urged everyone to caucus after they vote for Hillary. The Texas two-step. Only time you can vote twice and not get in trouble., etc.

I was then able to ask him three questions before we ran out of time. Actually, I sorta stole the time for the last one. I expected him to be personable and smart and I was actually surprised just how well he handled all three of my questions. Especially when I asked about his wife’s faith and how that might help shape her policy. As he was answering I was thinking that he sounded like he had actually read James a few times. Not sure why that surprised me. I guess you look at all of the controversy surrounding his time in office and I suppose I was thinking that maybe he hadn’t read a lot of Bible. Ever since the interview, I’ve been wondering, and hoping, that he has a relationship with God and that just maybe we can visit in Heaven about the interview and maybe some other stuff.

The time went by too fast. I ended up talking to him maybe five minutes. If I had to do it over again, I would have ditched my third question and instead followed up on his wife’s faith. I would have liked to ask him to reconcile the answer he gave about having a faith that works vs. her stance on abortion and stem cell research. Unfortunately I didn’t think on my feet fast enough and the moment passed.

All in all, it was a very interesting experience. I mentioned to him before we got off the phone that we have a lot of stations in Michigan. If they end up re-voting, I would like to talk to him again! We shall see.

Here’s a link to the three questions and answers on the stations web site.

The shift, not the place. It’s a weird thing setting the alarm for 11:30 p.m. to be at work just after midnight! It takes some getting used to. Thankfully, it’s a short term, and occasional, “problem” currently.

For the past 7 work days, I’ve been filling in for Robert, who anchors our newscasts for Jackson, Michigan, Macon, Georgia, and Topeka, Kansas. Since I live in the Mountain time zone, and two of those stations are in the Eastern time zone, I have to get in extra early to meet my deadlines for the 6am news. So, the alarm is set for 11:30 p.m. so I can get to work by 12:30 a.m. The first thing that happens when I get up is start the coffee and then take a shower. I’ll have a cup of coffee here and then bring another cup to work. Then the work starts! The best thing is the early AM shift is VERY busy. It is literally reading and writing and writing and reading news stories for about 4 hours straight. The constant deadlines for 3 stations keeps the adrenaline flowing which keeps you awake. Once I get through the bulk of the work, I usually get sleepy. Problem being I normally have some weather forecasts yet to cut for those three stations, plus a few others. What I’ll usually do (like I did this morning) is recline in my chair and take a nap in the newsroom! Usually it’s about 10 minutes. One morning I was tired enough to sleep 20 :-) After my nap, I feel refreshed and I’ll knock out the rest of my work and go home.

By now it’s around 7:30ish. I’m driving opposite of rush hour traffic and when I get to the apartment sometimes I’ll run into people leaving for work as I’m arriving from. It usually takes me about an hour to wind down and get to bed and I’ll sleep anywhere fro 2 – 4 hours. Obviously, the longer the better! By now it’s late morning, or maybe Noon. I’ll get up and have lunch. Sometimes I feel fairly run down the rest of the day and I’ll mostly watch TV or laze around the apartment. Sometimes, I’ll feel more alive and do something! Matine at the movies when it’s cheaper (that is less the case these days), or maybe a nice hike with the trail all to myself! Then sometimes I’ll take a short afternoon nap (in my case, how else!). Depending on the evening, I may go to Wednesday night service, or Tuesday night Bible study, or watch some TV. Once the Sun goes down, I usually start feeling tired. I try to get to bed early enough to get 3-4 hours of sleep before work. Sometimes it’s only 2. That means to bed anywhere from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m.  Then the alarm goes off at 11:30 and do it all over again. It’s funny going to work at Midnight:30. A lot of times I will hear people’s TV’s or see ‘em in the parking lot, still up from the day before!

So, the graveyard shift isn’t all that bad once you get in a rhythm. I do tend to feel more tired more often on that shift, but having afternoon’s off is pretty cool! Still, I’m glad I’m back to “normal” on Monday. Maybe I’ll see a movie this afternoon. Fred Clause or Michael Clayton? We’ll see.