13 Perfect Years TWICE

I have to tell you about the attendence record set at Southern Alamance High School this year.

It's hard enough for any given student to put together a perfect year, attending school every day. Certainly more difficult to do it for more than one year.

But imagine this. 13 straight years of perfect attendance from Kindergarten through 12th Grade.

When Jeremy Vaughn finished 8th Grade at Southern Alamance Middle School 4 years ago he got up on awards day to get his 9th straight perfect attendance certificate, with his mind already set on what he accomplished this year.

What he learned that day in 2005 was there was another young man at the school doing the same thing. During that 8th Grade awards ceremony 2 names were called for perfect attendence. When Zack Pickard took that stage with Jeremy Vaughn they learned that each had accomplished the same thing....9 straight years of perfect attendance.

Over the next 4 years the boys wouldn't hang out much more than their Athletic Schedules would allow. Jeremy playing football and baseball, Zack playing football and soccer, they kept track of each other's progress through each successful perfect year of high school.

Each of them managed to avoid major sickness or catch illnesses during holiday breaks or long weekends. Jeremy even attended at week of 6th grade with laryngitis, unable to speak.

The boys are stellar athletes and it's probably no coincidence the dedication of a grade school athlete that carries over to the classroom. And that drive to succeed also reflects in their grades. Both of them will graduate near the top of the 2009 class and they're both headed to good colleges in the fall.

Probably the only regret each of them have is Jeremy's 2 weeks off the football field for a knee injury and Zack, well he didn't mention any missed games, but instead says he played 2 soccer games and a football game with a sprained ankle.

Now the young men have their next challenge clearly in sight. College. And they both plan to continue their perfect attendance tradition.

Jeremy is headed to Averett Unitversity where he will play baseball and study Criminal Justice.

Zack is going to Virginia Tech to play Football and study business.

Watch the story HERE -

Chris Daughtry Premature Examination

When I arrived at work this morning I was ready to pick up Melissa Painter and head out on a trio of consumer stories scheduled across our day but when I saw our operations manager scurrying around the parking lot rumaging through newscars looking for spare equipment I knew something was up.


He asked me if I could get my gear together because Chris Daughtry was on his way and I was the first shooter to hit the parking lot. And honestly, I was one of only a handful of shooters even at work today.




I was already scheduled to help Stewart "Lenslinger" Pittman with this very shoot...on Wednesday...but for whatever reason...Chris Daughtry thought the interview was Tuesday...and you just don't tell a rock star to go away and come back tommorrow.

As I rushed to the Production studio and the production and creative services crews had lights up and chairs out. Melissa pushed our first shoot back an hour or so and I grabbed the three cameras and locked their timecodes.



Chris Daughtry was right on time...just 24 hours pre-mature. That's OK. We had our best guys on it...except for Lenslinger. He was one of those guys enjoying an extra day of a holiday weekend.


But never fear....Weaver's here. (oooh. that's way to cheesy and maybe a bit narcisistic.)




We had it covered though. I had primary camera and Carter took the reverse angle. Our Operation's Manager Timmy Hawks even grabbed a camera and was our roaming handheld. We even had a web guy taking stills, a creatives services dude shooting for an instant promo, and Chris Morton from production taking the photos you see here with my little Canon.



As always when the fodder is American Idol, Shannon Smith was the glue in this operation. She held it all together with her extensive knowledge of all things idol and the close relationship she's maintained with Chris since interviewing him when he was in line for the auditions almost 4 years ago.



The topics of the hour long interview covered areas like the new album coming out in July, his adament declaration that he'll always live in North Carolina, how he keeps his private life private and his new found love of Twitter. (He declares MySpace and Facebook too time consuming.)




After the interview was complete Chris didn't rush off, he stuck around for a bit, shooting the breeze with his Fox 8 fans from around the building.

Even Stewart "Lenslinger" Pittman made an appearance at El Ocho on his day off.



We couldn't keep him away but we didn't let him work...but he wouldn't miss a chance to stop by to say hey....Hell Stewart was right there with Shannon when Chris was just a guy in line to try out.


And this time Stewart even brought his wife for the perfect photo op.



The interview will air Thursday on the morning show. It'll be on the web. And it'll probably be in some of our other newscasts too.

Now that we've shot it...Lenslinger needs to get to work...editing.

Travel Channel Academy Segment from WUSA

Here's a short web-segment from WUSA-9 and USA today about the Travel Channel Academy in DC. Interesting the numbers that are thrown out...that only a small percentage of graduates produce video that the Travel Channel deem air worthy.

They also talk about using your furlough time to go take the Academy. lol.

Live at 39,000 feet

Internet on an airplane at 39,000 is cool enough but The Today Show did a live shot through the internet connection...and it looks good. I've gotta figure out what equipment get's the camera's video/audio so cleanly into the laptop to send out over the net.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

All in a Day's Drive Darn School Bus

On the way back from gathering the newest video and information about Sunday's Carthage Shootings, Nicole Ferguson and I were face with a challenge that many people face if they're anywhere on the road in the early afternoon....a school bus...and this school bus stopped 4 times...in a quarter mile.

I was beginning to worry that we might not make it back to the station in time for our six o'clock story slot. But the bus took the next left and we were good to go.

It's a good thing. We didn't leave Carthage until after 3 o'clock because of all the hustling we had to do just to flesh out a story in the first place. Being day 3 after the fact, most of the nuts and bolts information has been said. The key players who can or will talk have been talked to and the rest of the people who may have something to do with the case won't or can't talk.

Take the 911 operator who took the calls from the nursing home. She handled herself so camly that we wanted to give her 15 seconds of fame. Her bosses said no.

And the ex-wife of the the gunman, she had given interviews in previous days, but she said one of the other news crew had ambushed her for that interview and as nice as she was and as nice as Nicole could be, the former Mrs. Stewart declined our request for 2 minutes of face time.

A neighbor who knew Robert Stewart 10 years ago reluctantly went on the record for us and that gave us a basis for a story but we thought we could do a little better.

When we got back to town from Stewart's old neighborhood we noticed white ribbons popping up all over the place. A quick step into one of the businesses and we soon discovered that the local florist was making ribbons and giving them out all over town.

A quick glance across the street and, believe it or not, there she was. We followed her around for about 20 minutes as she popped in on businesses and hung more ribbons. Now we had a story. Something a little different and a nice way to wrap up this 3rd day of coverage.

Deal or Dud - Strap Perfect

You know, some stories are just plain fun to shoot. Take our consumer franchise 'Deal or Dud' for instance.

This week's Deal or Dud - Strap Perfect was one of the more interesting...ahem...visually appealing.....and fun to shoot segments.

Deal or Dud Lady, Melissa Painter and I started our shoot in our studio with Creative Services Producer Jeff Fabrizio as our "still photographer" so we could shoot our model Wendy in her natural enviroment.

From the studio we went to a clothing store where a stylist met us to try out the Strap Perfect under several different outfits. Of course...I didn't get pictures in the other settings...you'll have to watch the video for that.

After the clothing store we headed off to see how comfy the Strap Perfect would be over time...during a workout. We went to Planet Fitness and let Wendy jog on a treadmill for 15 minutes to see of the piece would aggravate her.

Today I spent 9 hours going through video, making edits, finding music and re-adjusting scripts. All so you, the viewer, can enjoy, just as much as I did, our Emmy Nominated Deal or Dud segments...especially this one.

Watch the Story Here

Sat Truck Crash on Black Ice

A Salt Lake City TV Station's satellite truck went for a wild ride when the driver hit a patch of black ice...

Video Courtesy of KSL.com

Frankensticks Miller

Remember Frankensticks?



It's moved on to a new home.



I now have Miller. Solo, that is.



I carbon fiber beauty and I don't think it weighs but about 8 pounds.