Friday, April 28, 2006

Saturday 29 April 2006

08:49 -- I am sitting in front of Internet Xtreme, Ninoy's cafe. We finally got the wifi working so now I can sit here with my laptop and check email and work at my ease. It is nice to sit here and watch things go by on the street in Compostela. It will be a great addtion to Ninoys cafe for college students with laptops and for tourists who pass through. We have spent the past couple of days getting caught up from the Island. Pa's sisters came over yesterday. They seemed to enjoy my videos of the train trip in October. We leave early tomorrow morning for the States. Pa is very sad as Suyen has told him that we probably won't be back for 2 years. My rotten cold has progressed to sniffling sneezing and stuffyness, which will be fun on a plane. I'll see if I can get something like Nyquil Nitetime to knock me out so I'll sleep all the way. Vacation is almost over and I am about vacationed out which is good. We spent the past few days taking trips into the city. On Wednesday Ninoy went swimming with his dog and I got swarmed by the local young kids as soon as I got my video camera out. Yesterday Ninoy and I went around to a Jeepney stop and talked to some of the drivers/passengers about Jeepneys. They didn't have a whole lot to say except that it's a cheap means to an end and that they didn't particularly care for that mode of transport except that it's a living for drivers and a way from getting from point a to b for passengers.

19:21 -- We have had the big family dinner and going away party. We took some portraits and tomorrow bright and early, or is that dark and early, we are heading to the airport here in Cebu bound back for Manila. I am sitting in front of Internet Xtreme again as Suyen is seeing if we can print our online boarding passes from United yet.

Wednesday, April 26, 2006

Wednesday April 26, 2006

20:49 -- Too much to write about, not sure if I can do it in the time alloted.
I am now sitting at Ninoy's internet cafe called Internet Extreme in Compostela. It seems really busy here and successful.
On Thursday last, we all went to Bantayan Island

After driving up the east side of Cebu Province for about 2 hours, we made it to Hagnaya, the port for the ferry ride across to the island of Bantayan. After lunch in Hagnaya, we boarded the ferry with the car, and had a nice ride over.

There are 3 towns on Bantayan Island, Santa Fe, Bantayan and Madridejos. We left Santa Fe, the port and headed towards Bantayan.

We stopped in Bantayan for bread ... mmmmm bread.
After the bread, of course we drove to the school. The weather here was really really really hot and sticky. The school has come along. The main school building has a large addition. Ma tells me it is to meet with Philippine standards. The old 3rd and 4th year building is soon to come down to be used for something else. I am told that Ninoy was instrumental in the construction of the new building. Also changes and improvements have been made to the dirty kitchen and other buildings as well. The school grounds are beautiful and green with many local varieties of plants. The grounds are a little brown now as it has not rained for some time. We got to the school and slept there the first night. It was hot and sticky even with a fan. The next day I awoke with a sore throat -- probably jet lag and an adjustment to the environment. I always get sick when I come to the Philippines -- it SUX!!! The rest of the family showed up on Friday with all the kids. Dondo and his family -- and Sandro, Mina and Ajoe. The kids were not too happy with the arrangement. Ajoe cried alot and Vivian got sick. I also got worse with my sore throat getting so bad it hurt to swallow. On Saturday we went to the beach in Santa Fe. We had a family picnic of crabs that we bought that morning in the fishing village in Madridejos. The Kota Park has really come along and is a great place for tourists looking for a fun out of the way historic place to enjoy. After I napped at the picnic, I waded in the waters at the beach -- it was nice and warm and pleasant and made me feel much better. I hung out with Dondo and the kids then went for a swim with Ninoy. My fear of harmful aquatic life abated much even in the light of seeing a small jellyfish swim past us. Ninoy and I actually swam/walked to the nearby resorts looking for a room for all of us to stay. We all sort of agreed that if we stayed at the school it would be uncofortable and the kids would want to go home early, so an airconditioned room in a resort would be a nice place for us all. The resort we wanted -- Marlin, was full, so we went to Kota Beach, which is where Suyen and I stayed on our first and third trip. We got a room for all of us at Kota beach and had a nice stay, even though brownouts (blackouts) kept defeating our air conditioning. We got up early the next morning (Sunday) to go to church in Madridejos. We brought Pa along so the priest could do a private service with holy communion with him. Pa is very immobile due to losing his hip and the ravages of diabetes. So the priest did a service for him in the pickup, then we had church service. I didn't understand a word -- it was all in Bisaya. Then we headed home for lunch. More awful throat was not getting better. The family all left, except me, Suyen, Ma, Pa and Ninoy. We were to stay one more night and leave monday at about noonish. That we did in the Isuzu pickup loaded with us, a lot of stuff, and four pour helpers who were crammed in the back for a four hour trip. The weather on Monday was much cooler and nicer. The Island was gorgeous when we left. The ferry ride was great with the calmest seas I've ever seen. Monday night we reposed. My sore throat was even worse, so we got stronger meds for it. Tuesday I was feeling a little better. We went out shopping in the city, and ate Korean, which Ma didn't seem to enjoy. I thought of my friend James when we ate there. The food was really good and cheap for a Korean resturant, by American standards -- quite expensive by Filippino standards ... most of the clientele seemed to be Korean ex-pats with some Filippinos mixed in. We came home last night and all was good except that I got into one of my dry throat coughing fits just as Ajoe started crying and the dogs started howling all at once --wierd. Today, Ninoy and I went into the city. We got some things we wanted to look for done -- I called it our safari. We looked at professional espresso and Ice cream machines. We'll find out about the prices tomorrow. Then we went to Bo's Coffee Club at SM mall. It is good to be away from the "Joe with a Ho'" fishing holes. Then we got to talking about furniture and native woods and crafts and looked at a native craft store. Then we went in search of CD's for the pictures and home. We ate at home then came here.

Wednesday, April 19, 2006

Thursday 20 April 2006

08:56 -- We've spent several days in the Philippines. Tuesday morning we got up and made a short trip into town to get pandesol. On the way back we ran into Orley, who let me pedal his tricikad, which was quite amusing to all involved.

We made our first long shopping trek into Cebu that day. We met up with Sandro and Mina at Ayala in Cebu and had dinner. We picked up Ma and did a little shopping, then headed back. Wednesday Ninoy and I went took Ma, Ayee and Suyen into town and dropped them off at SM. We then went over by the Raintree mall and changed some money and had coffee at Bo's Coffee Club. We got a photo copy for the car licensing then went back to SM. We picked up Ninoy's daughter, Shawn, then we headed back.

We had dinner at Ayee's and Suyen and I had a nice front porch talk about politics with Edgar.

Today we are getting ready for the big trip to the island. I have mentioned to Ma that there is a way to get internet access to Rural villages. Bantayan is quite remote and the people there more than anything want the internet. I mentioned that there are many small towns and villages using a connection and redistributing via wireless technology. Need to do more research on that.

Monday, April 17, 2006

Tuesday 18 April 2006

09:26 -- Hello from the Philippines. We arrived late yesterday afternoon after a loooong day and a half trip.


Suyen did a great job booking us flights and we saved some money too -- however, our travel required 5 different planes and a stopover in Denver, San Francisco, Hong Kong, Manila and finally Cebu.


Get this video and more at MySpace.com
The tranfer from the International to the Domestic Terminal in Manila and the long wait in the Domestic terminal with all the aircraft clogging the one active runway was the worst. I guess by that point we were tired, and a little delay (turned out to be 2 hours from the advertised) was the final straw. Suyen chewed out the poor manager of Cebu Pacific -- it wasn't his fault. There were hundreds of people clogging the domestic terminal as they were all heading to prime vacation spots in the Philippines and were all dressed like vacationer tourists. We decided to go to San Francisco's airport after last years fiascos at LAX. SFO was a much more pleasant experience. We packed last minute Friday night after my working 7 days straight. I had to clean out the dog feeder as the bottom had gotten wet and rotted -- it was gross. Saturday we got up early and I mowed the lawn. We finished packing, went to the Post Office, then went to parents. We had an easter brunch and relaxed a little on the back patio as Dad was working on the Air Conditioner. Then, at 13:00 we headed to the airport. Mom drove us and saw us off. We took off at 15:30, just as some rough weather was popping up. The turbulence was terrible and Suyen about bit my arm off. I told her to pray instead of hurting me and I later figured out if I squeezed her ring hand tight enough when she started grabbing/biting me she would quit as she would be in too much pain to do anything. Here is a link to the Fox 4 weather blog on Saturdays weather:

When we were in Denver we caught a glimpse of CNN and they were talking about tornado warnings in the KC area. It has been a rough spring.

On our first full day in Compostela, we got up early and walked into town to get some pandesol for breakfast. Then on the way back we met Orley, and I got my chance to try out a tricikad.

Also, we had our first brunch in the Philippines.

This gives you a good idea of our route in and out of the city and how much traffic there is...

Friday, April 14, 2006

Good Friday, 14 April 2006

Saturday 15 April 01:06 -- Suyen and I just got done doing a lot of work for tomorrow. I got home after woik and Met Suyen at Wal*Fart --


Wal*Ocaust

ha ha. That site is being sued by Wal*Fart for using their image. I wonder how that will go. We et at
Affle house

after. Jeez, we live in a trailer, we shop at Wal*Fart, we eat "vittles" at Affle house and we even have a pink flamingo in our yard. We ARE white trash... Wait 'til I get the soil in the spare toilet and get the yard planter a goin'. Anywayz, today at woik, I got to see a swearing in ceremony for new US citizens. Tom and I were going to do a story about the illegal immigration issue. We got switched however and did a story on the case of Mumps found at City hall. We did our live out in front of city hall and Barry ENG'd. I got some time to clean out my car today, even found time to submit two stories for the NPPA quarterly contest -- Zumba and Bridge Move, both weekend stories done with Lori and Kim. Oh well, after today and tonight, I'm tard....
good night.....

Thursday, April 13, 2006

Thursday 13 April 2006

22:08 -- Today I traded with Bob so that we could have the weekend. I worked with Tom on a story about


Benjamin Appleby's hearing

. We had the help of Kevin which was badly needed. We did a live for the 17:30 & 18:00.

Tuesday, April 11, 2006

Wednesday 12 April 2006

12:13 -- Just got home after woik. We are both tard. I got Stuck-N-Shit for both of us -- too tard to fix din din. Today at woik I was with Peter. We ended up going to Garden City Missouri on a bus accident. We saw the red Monte Carlo that ran in front of the bus and got T-boned. We actually had to follow the tow truck all the way up to Pleasant Hill to get video. Then we went back to Garden City to get sound with the Fire Chief. Garden City seems like a really nice town. Man, Missouri is gorgeous this time of year. We headed back up to the station and got a vo/sot on for the 10. I was sent out late on a guy who fell from a 3 story balcony as he was apparently trying to get into his old apartment he was evicted from. I then went home tard.

01:07 -- EUREKA!!!!! I've found something that will work on the NPPA stuff -- WOOO HOOOO!!!!! Now lets see if I can repeat it and remember it tomorrow.

13:13 -- I've just finished editing the NPPA stuff. I realized that It would make a good resume tape too, so I'm going to edit another sequence. Time to get ready for woik....

23:05 -- I just got home after quite a day in Grain Valley. Shelly and I spent most of the day camped out by the sally port of the Grain Valley police station Zorpia Photo Sharing: Free Unlimited Storage & Bandwidth waiting
for the Eversons
to walk out so we could perhaps get some sound with them. They didn't talk of course, and we had to buzz on up and do our package for our liveshot. Kyl came up to give us some tapes we needed, and he turned out to be a real help as he ended up going to the couples house and getting an interview. We did lives at 21:00, and one at 21:30 for Orlando Florida. Phew, watta day....

Monday, April 10, 2006

Tuesday 11 April 2006

01:35 -- I am now working on compiling some clips for the Quarterly NPPA awards. Today I worked with Tom on a story about the Missouri Highway Patrol going after agressive drivers. The early part of the day started interesting. We got the story shot in no time at all, which happens rarely. I eng'd our liveshot at the Summit Overpass, but unfortunately, my camera decided to go kaput moments before the shot so it was scrapped. I got home and started on the NPPA clips. Suyen came home with some mystery mail from the IRS. She got upset as it seemed to say we owed the same large amount of money twice. I read the fine print and it said we only owed it once. It all made sense in the end but Suyen got upset with me about the whole thing. Argggg.

Monday April 10 2003

12:42 -- Yesterday after hanging at Crave, I went to Wal*Fart and got the fixin's for our cookout. I got home and started grilling the pork chops. Debbie, Megan and Mathew showed up at about 18:00, and Suyen got in about 18:45.

13:42 -- heading out to woik. It is quite warm outside -- NICE!!!!! I contacted closerhosting.com about my errant webpage www.lawrencefs.com, trying to see what happened. I've started uploading videos from my 1999 train trip titled The Journey is the Destination. I am trying to get my sprint pictures into my photo album too -- quite busy -- now to woik!

Sunday, April 09, 2006

Sunday 9 April 2006

15:27 -- I'm sitting in Crave Cafe. I got off woik at 14:00, and went to Mission Road in Westwood to walk the neighborhood and grab some flyers from some of the houses I saw for sale there. Most are out of our price range. Yesterday I worked with Bob on a story about a shooting at Price Chopper in Blue Springs. Last week there was a murder in Blue Springs, so the Police there are a little overwhelmed. I got some vo's as we are short this weekend and finally got to eat at Town Topic for Lunch. Today was a little calmer. Lori and I did our lives at 34th and Broadway where the police tactical units were staged because at around 05:00, police went into the Apple Market and found a guy with a sawed off shotgun. The police shot at him and nicked him before he turned himself in. The tactical units were there sweeping the building in case the guy had a buddy in there. After the morning lives I shot a Palm Sunday service at St. Michaels Episcopal church and I shot an easter egg hunt at 106th and Nall in the Leawood City Park. I got a chance to eat brunch at the Corner in Westport. When I was wrapping up the easter egg hunt, a woman came up to me adament that we should do a story on why the park was not recycling the easter eggs -- so, there you go, the Leawood City Park was not recycling their plastic easter eggs this year -- shame shame shame.

The Corner Restuarant = http://www.google.com/local?hl=en&lr=&client=safari&rls=en&q=corner+restaurant&near=Kansas+City,+MO&radius=0.0&latlng=39099722,-94578333,10307930875611331260&sa=X&oi=local&ct=result&cd=1

St. Michaels = http://www.stmaa.com/

Friday, April 07, 2006

Saturday 8 April 2006

01:32 -- I've finally gotten those aforementioned train videos to load up -- I had to do it on my desktop -- I don't know why I can't do it from my laptop. I'm presently trying to edit a video of the crossroads tonight using the Avid free dv -- It's late and I'm losing -- sux....


The aforementioned Train video
or:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=6aW7fSjSx50

02:43 -- I fought the good fight and managed to cobble it together. Here is some of what we saw at the crossroads tonight as edited on Avid Free DV..... of course, as soon as it loads up on YouTube.... I'm going to bed.

09:10 -- Finally, here it is.....

I'm going to work now....

Friday 7 April 2006

02:43 -- The reason and purpose of our stopover at Wal*Fart was to pick up a copy of Narnia http://adisney.go.com/disneypictures/narnia/index.html . We just got done watching that flick and now it's time to turn in.... I still haven't been able to upload that video to YouTube from my laptop like I promised. I wonder what the major malfunction is....

22:12 -- We just got back from the Crossroads Arts District http://www.crossroadscommunityassociation.org/ where they are having their 1st Friday's art openings. The weather got cool and grey today and I'm sure that kept some of the crowds down this month, but it was still quite busy. Suyen was in her usual grumpyness when it comes to art and artsy types. We spent today shopping 1st at Costco, then at the J.C. Penny Outlet on 75th in Overland Park. We are now at Crave Cafe on 39th Street.

Wednesday, April 05, 2006

Thursday 6 April 2006

Supposed to be a severe weather day, we'll see. Some of the weather bunnies are trying to hype up the fear factor. It will probably blow past us and form up east of our area like it did last week. Oh well, spring can be exciting around here. We are watching the wx channel now as I type. I've been making an effort to write in my little green book, which is what I use for creative writing. On Saturday afternoon while I was waiting for an assignment, I wrote what was on my mind, which was the weather:

The spring thunder has begun. This time of year when the seson is in its adolescence, not knowing which way where to go, can be quite interesting. When your armpits feel warm and sticky, but the hairs on your arms are standing on end from the goose bump chills, it is time to be paying a little attention to the skies here in the midwest. Change here can come violently and suddenly, then be perfectly calm and gorgeous afterward like nothing ever happened, save the scarred landscape and broken lives. But, ohhh the beauty of a late afternoon thunderstorm with it's drama, followed by torrents of water, then gently bubbling rain -- it is something to savor and enjoy. So, as the days grow longer, so too do the chances of the evil mix of opposite air masses that produce the boiling looming angry thunderheads with their crackling lightning and blasting winds with heavy rains and one of the plagues of the almighty -- killer hail. After the tempermental towers of wind and lightning do their worst, they taper to a gentle trickle of tiny drops inviting those of us lucky enough to have the time and a nice porch or awning to partake in the gentle nature of things. The storms eventually move on in the evening, usually leaving the landscape cool, dry and clean feeling, like a giant shower has just come through and scrubbed everything and renewed the earth. The only reminder of the drama that just happened is a distant rumble and light show on the eastern horizon and the water draining down into the freshly washed streets as the ghostly fingers of mist reach up to the sky, as if yearning to rejoin that which has forsaken it, wanting to go from the liquid state back to the gaseous state, and rejoin the thunderheads that produced it -- yearning to be free, yearning to be pure -- elemental.

I've added another video to YouTube, yes, it's another train.....when it uploads to YouTube that is.

Also, the national weather service has put us under a high risk for severe weather. The last time we were under a high risk was May 4, 2003. Uh Oh!!!!
--- 09:38

Well, another day of chasing, but all we saw were some great clouds and some lightning. It all looked hopeful for some formations early on in the afternoon, but everything developed way north or way south. We started out by going to Lawrence and waiting. I got a haircut, which was actually in the plans before the threat of severe weather. Suyen did some shopping and got herself an x-wing bra and some blouses. We headed out west towards Topeka from there when things started popping. We went out in search of storms and WiFi hotspots. It looked good in topeka, but the storms to the west went north, one storm to the south which we decided to chase petered out, and there was one blob way to the south that we ended up catching up to south of the metro -- some dramatic lightning but not a lot of severe stuff. We put about 300 miles into this trip. We ended up in Warrensburg when we gave up the chase. We had some bad Chinese and stopped at Wal*Fart before heading home. -- 23:45

Wednesday 5 April 2006

Wednesday, April 5th, 2006
1:41 pm
Wednesday 5 April 2005
Uhg!

Woke up with stomach problems. I'm here in the burg to see the doc. Feelin' quite illin. I can't be anywhere that doesn't have a bathroom close. I got a call today from Phil of http://www.lawrence.com/. He is interested in knowing about my video I shot at "Day on the Hill '92." He's seen the tribe after tribe part of it, but apparently hasn't seen the Pearl Jam Portion. Here's a link to both....

Tribe After Tribe: http://youtube.com/watch?v=LQC2bhGmQr0
Pearl Jam: http://youtube.com/watch?v=eX8bgUoT_q4

I'd put the embeddable players on here but I think that would be annoying and confusing. C'mon ya lazy shits, click the links for once....(Comment on this)
1:39 am
Saturday April 1 -- Tuesday April 4
April is my favorite month of the year. The weather turns bueatiful and the landscape blooms spectacularly. My old journal has exploded somehow, so now I'm going to try this. On Saturday I went out with Bob on a story about the first Kansan to die in the Iraq war. On Sunday I worked with Kim on spinning for cancer at the Woodside center. Then I went with Bob where we did a story on KC's 23rd Homicide. Monday I worked with Tom on a murder in Blue Springs where the guy tried to cover it up by burning down the duplex. Today I did vo patrol and shot a dance party at Waids on 103rd where the people were all elderly, including a 91 year old lady who dances pretty much through the party. Then I went to an American Idol watch party at 150th in OP. We did an anchor package on that.

Here is the video I shot from Warrensburg last Wednesday.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=p0qkzUgV88U
(Comment on this)