Leaving Live 5 News

Heather and I had our last day at Live 5 News...we were real sad to go because there were a lot of people we met while here that we will miss...Heather said she is going to have a hard time getting used to working in a different place since she
felt so comfortable at WCSC...
and I know I am going to have to get used to hanging out at home playing playstation and shovelling snow...which is a lot harder than it sounds...especially with Heather saying "Get a job You bum!!"
I know I will finally break down and go out and get one...until then I am living the dream...except I won't be able to see you guys on a daily basis anymore...I'm definitely gonna miss that...we were quite the family...(disfunctional though it may sometimes have been)...
We do take a good picture though...think of us when it's sunny and we'll think of you when it's snowing.

WORKING 9/29/2005

This is the last day I have to cover a council meeting or any kind of meeting...It has been a struggle but I made it...I got into this business to chase pimps down the street...or watch people rescue a deer from the mud...I've only enjoyed one type of meeting and that has been Hollywood Town Council...The mayor and council could not agree and usually there had to be security there to keep them from killing each other...
When the new Mayor replaced the old mayor (who was a drunk and was banned from the town soon after) People kept screaming about how slavery would be reintroduced to Hollywood (the new mayor happened to be a white dentist)

Hollywood Town Council 2004

The People I Meet

I found out at the bar the other night that the guy who has been checking my id is actually the former road manager of G G Allin and The Murder Junkies...Not only that but it was in his apartment that Allin actually perished after leaving his last performance early and overdosing...I found this out because this other guy and I both commented at the same time that T Rex was what was playing in the background of the bar and how cool that was...then we played pool...and then he pointed over to the door and told me that story...I checked it online and it seems to be legit...anyway who would lie about that...To find out more about G G Allin and his band check out www.ggallin.com but beware it ain't pretty.

Fast Food? #2

I went to McDonalds and my service was horrible...I wasn't going to bring it up until I saw what happened to the guy behind me...He had two little kids with him and they had ordered flurries...The girl started the flurry and then walked away without saying anything...I started and finished my meal while he continued to wait...I came up to talk to him at the same time as he finally got someone's attention from the back...They stated that the girl went on her break and they were going to finish the order for him...
I asked him what restaurant he thought had the worst service and he looked me straight in the eye...(tears glistening)...and said he only came in these restaurants for the toys for his girls...that when they ate out they got much faster service at a sitdown restaurant...He also asked me a question that I hadn't thought of before...why did they turn of the timers?...They used to say if we don't get your food to you in a minute we'll give it to you free...Now those same clocks still sit there in the drive-thru windows...but they aren't even plugged in.

Random Thought #2

Here is a screen background I made formatted to fit most screens...I like it because it says "I'm tough and may have amoral thoughts" Bosses dislike it because it makes them uncomfortable on four different levels...So if you want to get fired this is one tool to build that house of unemployment.

Southern Harmony Chorus

We had a group of serenading singing ladies at the television station today...they were there to answer the phones for our Hurricane relief hotline...
but before that they harmonized for Bill Sharpe with an acapella version of "When I'm 64", a Beatles song I'm rather partial to after hearing it from these members of the local chapter of the Sweet Adelines International...
They're recruiting and want people to get involved...and when I told them I was moving on the day of one of their performances they volunteered to help me move if I went to their performance...
I spoke to three ladies in the front table answering phones and Helen, Edie, and Evelyn had a hard time singing for the camera and answering phones...That was partially because just before they were about to sing the anchors would tell everyone to call in for hurricane relief...At one point it looked like there would be dead air because all of them were on the phone but they just started singing with the phones in their hand...They get and A for effort and a Plus for singing Beatles tunes

Fast food?

Fast food is not what it used to be...I went to Burger King because I was starving and needed something to eat FAST. I must have waited a good 5 minutes while the three people behind the counter did everything except take my order...In fact I finally asked the girl who kept walking in front of me if anyone was taking orders and she mumbled she was going on her break...Finally someone did come over and take my order...But then I had to stare at the "Have It Your Way" sign they had pinned up for near 10 minutes...All they needed to do for me to have it my way was put a little pep in their step...It's crazy that in the 21st Century we are allowing worse service than we have ever recieved...and that with the self-serve drink stations, and the credit card acceptance things meant to make our fastfood experience more efficient...maybe I should get behind the counter and show them what initiative looks like.

Here's Tyler

Tyler and I spent an evening of ridiculous amounts of drinking with our wives in Tyler's new House in Surfside Beach, SC. I am told that after we had switched from Jager-bombs to Southern Comfort I was raving about how I had enough and that I really was uncomfortable with the amount of liquor in my stomach...I don't remember much else.

Straight from my Cameraphone

I now am capable of sending at least pictures with a title from my cameraphone...This will be useful during our move because I will not have internet access on the road...Be prepared because on that day I will be hitting the send button a lot during our trip up...The days for that fateful trip are Sunday and Monday the 2nd and 3rd of October.

This message was sent using PIX-FLIX Messaging service from Verizon Wireless.

Cooking when you're moving

Most of our cupboards are bare...Heather says we can't buy any fresh food. Her idea of the menu for this week is three square meals of PB&J everyday...I look through the seven items left in the cupboard hoping to find dome forgotten jar of fluff to break the monotony...then it hits me
I have a little bit of penne, three cans of tomato products, two cheeses, a lump of thawing hamburger, and a bag of frozen spinach...sounds like an Italian dish to me... I chopped the burger and what's left of an onion up and start browning it...threw in three cloves of garlic cause it's good
for the heart...boil up 1/3 of a box of penne and a handful of spaghetti...steam the spinach. I then layered the pasta and spinach mixed with half a bag of shredded mozzarella in a large casserole dish. I boiled up a can of tomato paste, tomato sause, stewed tomatoes,
and the meat and onions...
then dropped that on top of the pasta. I put all this in the oven using the last two sheets of aluminum foil...turned it to bake and raised the temperature to somewhere around 400F waited until I could smell it and wallah...

Now what am I gonna cook when this runs out?

Guarding the Hotel

So I was walking the hotel last night about 2AM making sure everyone is safe when I happened upon the strangest club in the world... The International Guild of Knot Tyers. Just a bunch of regular guys who love tying knots...They showed me knots I
had never heard of... Like a Monkey's Fist, Button knots and #857...They said they creator of #857 was famously uncreative and that everyone was surprized when he came up with the knot...He had spent all his energy on the invention of the knot that when it came time to
name the knot he fortunately chose #857 over the only other name he could think of....
When we parted ways so that I could continue doing my rounds they gave me a Friendship Knot...no really...that is what that one is called...and I think I might join this esteemed
club...because I now understand what my mother meant when she told me as a child, "Dusty, There are two ways to get ahead in this world...treat everyone you meet with respect and learn crochet...It didn't make sense then but now I understand...Thanks mom.
The rest of the night I took many opportunities to try and learn some of the knots they had shown me...

Hotel Security

Me at the Comfort Inn around 1:23 AM
So I picked up this part-time job to make some extra money...My Dad turned me on to the idea...Well let me tell you it ain't all roses and kid shows. I roam the grounds looking for perpertrators and vending machine thieves. I just started this job and it's probably a good idea that my career as a security guard is winding to a close.

The first night I was real ambitious...I had my keys at the ready...I paced the perimeter every 45 minutes...I fought to stay awake the whole night...I asked if I was doing everything I should be and was told the other spends a lot of time in his car.

So the next night I was going to be the exemplary security guard...I had been spending the time I wasn't patrolling in the lobby...I should have spent that time watching the hotel from my car...So I did that on night two...until about 4AM when it became very difficult to keep my eyes open...I fought with myself...held my eyes open with my fingers...and then I discovered what the other security guard had been doing in his car...He'd been sleeping the whole time!

Night three it was like I had been hotel security for years...I walked in wrote in the log and walked to my car to take that 45 minute nap...Even though I am now a pro at this job it still is hard to patrol the last few hours...I end up looking more like a character from a bad zombie movie than I do a protector of the peace.

In two more nights I will be saying farewell to this possible future for me and move on to my next new career as a groundskeeper.



Me at the Comfort Inn around 5:34AM

STAY TUNED MEMORIES 9/22/05

Stay Tuned Title Page
-Dusty Wood (1997, 2005)

Stay Tuned had a really cool intro. We took a whole day to shoot it even though it is literally one camera shot. We slipped in a quick appearance of Chainsaw as the featured performer. It started off as a visual idea I had been working on for months trying to perfect sped up film with our somewhat inadequate gear. Shane and his band, Peter James, wrote a song for the intro. We took our originally planned cast of four and ran a sped up scene that was reminiscent of the Intro to another show that was introduced that same year...

Stay Tuned Cast Lineup
-Dusty Wood (1997, 2005) That show was King of the Hill, created by Mike Judge. Of course we were better dressed...seeing as we were progressive thinking college kids and they were rednecks from Texas.

King of the Hill Cast Lineup
-Mike Judge (1997, 2005)

Probably one of the smartest things Stay Tuned did as a show was showcase Chainsaw's talents as a lovable lunatic who seemed to just roll with the punches. One of his foils in an episode was another popular character, The Mime. (played by Yours Truly)

Chainsaw and The Mime
-Dusty Wood (1997, 2005)

Random Thought #1

I've been thinking there are always animals with three legs...It really isn't that odd when you think about it. Everyone I know has seen at least one. So why can't someone come up with a solution to this overwhelmingly common problem? I am looking for volunteers to help me come up with ways to create a prosthetic limb for them. Any sketches or technical drawings would be greatly appreciated. I am most interested at this time to see some ways to get around the difficulties faced with a paw...maybe something hydraulic? Any way email me @ dusty@dustywood.com and maybe we Can make a difference. We can't just have them hopping along or give them used human ones.

WORKING 9/21/2005

Here I am at work trying to stay awake...I was up late last night putting some stuff together for my resume and now I am up early to work a dayside shift...at least I am working with Heather...we're doing a 16th anniversary piece on the Horrors of Hugo...the Hurricane ripped through Charleston in 1989.

By the Way I found this picture of Heather and I when the new bridge was opened and I gotta say I am looking forward to some snow...The heat down here is apparent by the moisture on my shirt.

Swimming today

So yesterdays post got me thinking and so today Heather and I enjoyed a refreshing dip in the pool seeing as how we won't be able to enjoy that for a while when we get up to the North. Heather says I'm obsessed with my camera phone and I think I see her point since it took me nigh on a half hour to take the closeup since I had to hold the phone inches away from the water and I thought my eyes kept going Japanese in each picture I took. I almost drowned twice. (That glob coming out of my nose is an air bubble I swear)

WORKING 9/19/2005

I look forward to the days Heather and I work together...Here we are at Sullivans Island in South Carolina waiting for Ophelia...It was a pretty day and the waves were crashing and I had setup the liveshot so that she could walk in the water...Can't do that every day...I'm going to miss the weather down here...especially come February 18th when I'm sick of skiing and a nice brisk swim would be nice after a long days work.

STAY TUNED MEMORIES 9/19/05

The slogan of our campaign, "PSTV...it's unexplained"
- Dusty Wood (1997, 2005)
In the Fall of 1997 there was a show on our college television station that was called Stay Tuned...

One of the first things produced by the cast of that particular season was a promo series that was themed after X-Files, the popular Fox television show. Myself, Chainsaw, Tyler and Shane started what would become an ongoing storyline that never answered any questions and basically was an excuse to shoot at night and look mysterious.


(From Left to Right)
Myself (Agent Wood), Tyler (Witness), Chainsaw (Agent Hill)
- Dusty Wood (1997, 2005)
The funniest part of the promo series is that we rarely said anything and whenever we wanted a plot twist we would just have someone point off in the distance and act catatonic with shock. It was a useful device since we never introduced any clues or any real detective work.
That was the beginning of a very creative period for our crew. Since then there has been a void of really good projects that stretch the creative skills of our fraternity of fools. Hopefully we can fix that in the future.

Just getting my website and blog started

This is very exciting...I am getting the website together and boy do I have plans for it...For now this will be my blog design...It will be my way of getting the freshest information to you...also featured here will be Heather's and my journey back to the NE and our adventures getting setup there in Manchester NH.

This is a picture I took of Bush on my camera phone...

Me in Mississippi