Warm not so fuzzy feeling

It is flu season peeps.

Photogs are going out sick one at a time--except me. Which means I got overtime. Which is good considering I am moving after next month to a smaller, less expensive place. Deposits and first and last month's rent need to be paid. Since I am off the soda, I have been drinking more orange juice as well, so the vitimin c seems to be helping me stay healthy.

Working different hours gave me a chance to talk to my fellow co-workers who I don't usually get to work with. There was a story the other week which I don't want to discuss here--just let me say that it was an innocent event--nothing bad and it went around the newsroom fast. Most of the reporters seem more open to me. One even came into the bar last night to sing karaoke.

The new reporter here is nice and seems to be very very friendly--unlike some of the peeps in the newsroom. I figure she and I will be paling around. Nothing serious, just a possible friendship. I do kinda feel sorry for new people coming in as the newsroom here isn't as friendly as other ones. So getting friends here is a struggle. With the exception for one of the reporters and myself.

I took Sunday off for WrestleMania and for a break. My roommate leaves on Monday, so it gets me a chance to see him off and organize my stuff. Laters.

-MarQ

The Big D-O-C

I have been busy, as you can tell. I am helping my roommate find a new reporter gig, which shouldn't be too difficult. I am staying in my place at least an extra month. I figure I can find another roommate by then, seeing we are hiring reporters left and right.

So, my trip to Orlando. I basically went down US 17 there, which got me to see a bit more of rural Florida. What's funny is that its basically a bunch of small towns put together.

For some reason Orlando reminds me of Vegas. It has a strip of hotels along one road, and had those theme buildings. You can see a midevel joust and then catch a rodeo withing a few miles of each other.

I head to Universal and dined at the famous Maragritaville Restaurant. The cheeseburger in Paradise was excellent and the staff was as well. I will go back and get a pic in one of their famous chairs next time.

And then the wait. I waited four hours to get into the Destination X PPV. Getting in was a chore and if I would have known it would be this difficult, I would have used my press pass. VIPs were first, then "street team" members, who are basically regulars at the TNA wrestling chat board, then the ones who paid admission to the park, then the ones, like me, who went to see it for free. I did get in. The good news--I was at ringside. The bad news, I had to stand all through it.

I however got some great shots...





It was a great show, and if you look closely, you can see me a couple of times as they brawl through the crowd. The Utlimate X was great, as was the main event. I will definately come back for another wrestling card, but next time as press.

Before heading for home, I headed to Kisseemee to see something I thought I'd never see.




Yes you read that right. Pioco's chicken. Pio is spanish for bird,and co is spanish for rib. So if I open a chicken and ribs place, I can just call it MarQ Piocos.

That's it for now.

-MarQ

A Very Very Very Very Very Long Day

I just earned a lot of overtime money these past few days working on my day off. Where to begin...

I get a call Monday morning seeing if I wouldn't mind freelance shooting for the Minnesota Fox station for reaction to Kirby Puckett's passing. I said yes, considering I am getting paid overtime and it was a chance to shooting something intersting for a change. I went to the statium to find no one there. The Minnasota station wasn't able to get ahold of the reporter, as he was in Orlando, as I would find out later. So I basically waited, thinking it was a late game that day, and finally, thought hey, maybe the team is out of town. I check the schedual and sure enough, they were. I called the Minnastoa station and told them I could wait for the team to get back and get a comment, and they said that would be great. So I got the comment andwas asked if I would freelance again the next day for a few hours. I again said yes. Then went to work at Mona Lisa's.

Karaoke DJ was actually, fun, but only a few people sang that night. But the rotation was good, so it wasn't boring. This middle aged woman, drunk off her a$$ was hitting on me. She wasn't too atractive, but was very clingy at one time.

Ready to play timeline?

8:30--At work, getting gear and heading to the statium.

9:15--Get to the statium and meet Jim Rich, a sports reporter from Minneapolis. Great guy. We interview about eight or nine players, coaches, and hall of famers including Rod Curew. Awesome guy as well. I shot some training footage as well.

12:45--Leave statium, take lunch on the way, and told Jim I would meet him at the station at 2:00 to edit.

1:30--Get to the station. Find that my rommate Sean is cleaning out his desk and his company car. There was an incident over the weekend that he was afraid meant he was going to get fired, and he did.

2:00--Jim comes in and starts to log.

2:30--I start to edit one of two stories. Awesome peices of work for me--not rushed or anything.

3:00--Finished story one, worked on story two. I need to get out of the station by three forty-five to make it back to the statium in time to set up a live shot for Jim to be live in Minnesota.

3:45--Get out of the station, fight traffic, drive like a bat out of hell to the statium.

4:30--Try to establish signal to station--no dice. Too far south. Try another postion, but station calls me to get out of there and head to a brush fire for a live shot. Waited for the Minnepolis station and our station to fight it out. Our station won.

7:30--Got to location, set up the shot, and edited three stories.

10:00--Went live

10:35--went live

10:55--went live

11:45--got back to the station and unloaded.

Midnight--left for home.

Making it a, yes, 15 hour work day.

I came in today and cover the Twins yet again. But this was my only story, and actually got to enjoy the game. They figure I needed it easy after such a rough day.

That's all for now. Heading to Orlando on sunday and now looking for a new place to live. I have a few weeks though.

Laters.

Techno DJ

Hi all,

Here's the 411 for this week. I am going to dj at the karaoke bar I frequent Monday and Tuesday and will from then on have a shift once a week on either day. It's pretty cool, although Monday and Tuesday are the slowest days of the week. But I get to sing once an hour and play music when there are few people there. Plus I get paid for it.

Funny story relating to a friend I made back in 2002. I was out on a story tonight, had some time to kill, so I headed to Barnes and Noble. I bought this month's edition of FHM, because my roommate is a big fan of Kristen Keneworth from the West Wing, who did a spread for the magazine. I flipped through it and saw an article about Pro Wrestling Gurrella, a wrestling fed I used to cover in my wrestling column. And low an behold, a friend of mine was mentioned, Joey Ryan.

How I met Joey was basically a bunch of unfortunate circumstances. Back in late 2002, a friend of mine when I lived in Las Vegas took me to a wrestling card in L.A. He had connections and is one of those sweet talking guys you tend to meet in your life. (I knew quite a few--and regeted it sometimes--more on that later.)

He himself was a wrestler and had gotten a ring girl gig for this teenage girl for the card. The girl and her girlfriend supplied the car, but I was the one who was driving. (My friend was afraid that we would get pulled over across the California border, and if he was caught with the teenage girl, it could be seen as kidnapping, although the girls had permission from their folks.) Anyhow, we get to L.A., get into the card, and I had a blast watching it. Then it happened.

My friend gotten one of the wrestlers, named Vince, to let us stay the night. The girls were the major reason why. However, the girls decided to head to San Diego and party with another wrestler. So my friend and I stayed there overnight. I got to meet Joey Ryan and B-Boy, two other wrestlers, that night as well. Joey had gave me the name "B.S." seeing that I looked like another wrestler in the area named Supreme. The B stands for Baby, since I was obviously smaller. I had my wrestling column at the time, so they siad they would check up on it from timne to time. I had published results to card I went to that night.

The next day, my friend had a "emergency" at home and took a but to San Jose, leaving me basically stranded in L.A. The girls never arrived back, siting a storm had washed out the roads. So I ended up hanging with the wrestlers once more before the girls finally got back and I went back to Vegas.

I kept in touch with Joey and Vince for a while, until I had no more time for the column. So seeing this article made me want to write to Joey again, to let him know I saw it and congrats for the success.

That's about it for now.

-MarQ