Baaaaa Baaaaa Baaaaa

So I don't think it's officially spring yet but it feels like it here and these little guys must have thought so too because they were born two weeks ago. As triplets, there always seemed to be one away from the others. Typical children. Lyrics to Mary had a Little Lamb and quotes from Le Petit Prince come to mind.

Baby Jaws

Some black tipped sharks were recently born at our aquarium... so I had a photo session with them. The tank was dark and even on high ISO I wasn't getting much. Luckily a very nice aquarium worker cleaned the glass and suggested a work light be brought over after he saw me dangling my flash over the edge of the tank trying to light the little suckers. The work light helped quite a bit. Then there was the silver fish that kept getting in my way. He must have liked me, he wouldn't leave me alone. That's his close-up on the bottom.

The Archbishop Comes to Albuquerque

Yesterday's special mass for firefighters and police officers brought the archbishop to town. He was a really nice guy. In this photo he was in mid-turn and when he finally saw me behind him he looked down at me, then back behind him and said, "That's going to be a good photo with the flag behind me." Then he asked my name, who I was with and shook my hand.

Office Toy

Journal Chopper 2 made its debut in the office today. No injuries reported yet.

Courthouse Love

I got courthouse weddings duty on Valentine's Day. I don't know how many weddings I actually witnessed. A lot.

One of those days...

Yesterday I had one of those days. First my car wouldn't start and since it was 8 am on a Sunday Volkswagen wasn't open. After a few failed attempts at a jump start I gave up and got a ride to work. Then my only assignment of the day was a reuniting with an owner and their cat that had somehow traveled 340 miles away. Cheesy, but at least a crowd pleaser type of story.

Well I pull up to the house where the reunion is about to take place, and right behind me are three TV crews. It was a slow news day. The animal service guy with the cat goes to knock on the door and there is no answer. Ut oh. A few phone calls later and about 15 minutes later he walks over with interesting news. Apparently the cat had been a Christmas gift from a woman to her fiancé. It was the fiancé that was going to get the cat today. BUT the couple had broken up this weekend and he was no where to be found. The woman was in the middle of her shift at Olive Garden. So guess where we were off to... Olive Garden! Oh boy.

Our caravan of news cars arrives at Olive Garden as curious patrons are looking out the windows and walking out of the restaurant. We are all joking around saying the people inside will have thought someone died by the amount of attention we are attracting.

Finally the woman appears to reclaim her cat. Suddenly I'm vying for position with the TV crews around this petite girl and the cat carrier. We can't take the cat out for fear it may run again. Lovely.

In the end she wasn't even able to take it home that day or today because of her work schedule so the cat went to the animal shelter for later pick-up.

Then for the rest of the day a stomach bug left me curled in a ball in the office and on the couch.

Children at the Capitol

A few days in a row it seemed like there were cute kid features everywhere in the capitol building. First there were the flamenco dancers, rehearsing and primping. Then there was the school group of kindergarteners and first-graders grabbing at a statue in the governor's office. And finally, the group of cute signing kids that were performing in the rotunda.

Shadow of the Governor

Last week was the final week of the legislative session. The governor made a speech on Native American Day in the capital rotunda and as I was in position for a standard podium shot of the gov, next thing I know he's pointing in my direction and walking towards me. Turns out the eldest elder of a pueblo was sitting right in front of me. Her name is Gregorita Chavarria. She is a young 102 years old and was glowing as the governor kissed her on the forehead.

Consul General of Italy

His name is Nicola Faganello and the women at the Italian American Association loved him.

Roses, Roses, and More Roses

Last week, in the haze of Valentine's Day consumerism, it was time to hit up local florists and see just how busy they were. I found a really nice little flower shop that let me stand around as long as I wanted and even freeze in the flower cooler. The woman assembling most of the rose arrangements summed it up best when I asked her how busy it gets. "There are a lot of people in love out there," she said with a smile. And she dreams of making the arrangements in her sleep.

Frog Jump

This is actually from a tryouts session for a new football team in town. Each one of the guys trying out for a team position had to complete the broad jump. I sat on the ground and keep thinking of big frogs with long lean jumping legs.

Lobo Basketball

Super Tuesday/Mardi Gras

It's Super Tuesday and the lines around town are getting long to vote. I'm not yet registered here so I'm enjoying Mardi Gras instead.

Ready for War

Feature hunting on Sunday led me to these guys. Wearing armor they were practicing fighting for a war coming up in a few weeks. Very nice people who wanted me to come back and join them. Don't know if I'm the sword swingin' type though.

The hole that ate Paseo

Road construction made the headlines when a MAJOR road had to close westbound here. Normally not only is road work not big news but it's something we all dread having to go photograph because it's always the same thing. This one however was a water line that broke and the road flooded and froze and then had to be dug up. But it took days. And when I was sent out to get some shots I wasn't too excited, but the construction guys were very helpful and let me climb in right next to the main hole. Maybe not the safest thing to do but it was kinda cool. One of those moments that makes you feel like a little kid again because you're amazed by this huge hole right next to your feet.

Jump

Another sportrait flew my way this week. This photo was to accompany a story on the lack of high school senior basketball stars this year but a promising junior class which will lead to an even better season next year. Luckily my chosen subjects were a bit of hams and up for jumping and dunking for me as much as possible before we got tossed out of the gym for a game to begin.

Multimedia Housekeeping

UF's Online Journalism teacher extraordinaire Mindy McAdams noticed the link to my old Nutcracker multimedia project produced while at the Gainesville Sun no longer had a functioning address. Had it and the others posted during my time there been moved or just re-moved? Knowing some of the inner working of the paper's attempt to keep up with producing multimedia, especially video, I'm kind of surprised the projects seem to be lost. But so be it. Files are hard to keep in place especially as a newspaper is updating their hosting.

So I will be digging out my old files and hosting them on another free server that seems to work quite well as a personal archive of my multimedia projects since I currently do not have an official Web site besides this blog. And I will be fixing the old links.

Will anyone care about my old projects? I don't know. But as a lesson learned I advise others who rely on the newspaper they work for to host their projects to look into another hosting method as a personal back-up. For all the hours zoned out listening to your audio, screams at a frozen Audacity file and times moving those little thumbnails in Soundslides around to create your masterpiece only to someday have the link you have been relying on to play your project vanish without a trace would only create more heart break. And even though we should all be burning a disk with our final project on it as an archive as well, it isn't live. And as our multimedia programs evolve they may not be able to read the old files we once created if we forgot to hit that little "export" button.

I hope this helps someone else forgo the sadness imposed on a journalist when finding their links have been discarded by a former publication. I feel in the event this does happen to a person it should not be interpreted as a slap in the face but instead as a kick to yourself for not taking into account the evolution of online journalism.

And if anyone is wondering, I have been using Webng.com to host my multimedia projects for free until I have my own paid for, and hopefully permanent, Web site.