Some People Have Asked

So I used to be a journalist. I started this blog as a journalism project, why aren't I doing any journalism? This picture is why.


Despite my recent foray into reporting on child porn I don't want to be that guy right now. At least not with the world watching. So until I get an archive of old show stuff up and running or it becomes very very relevant like the above story I'm not going to be doing stories about prostitutes, religion or murder. Unless it happens in a game, then its all good.

Journalism homework, after trying daily for a week.

Here are my blog posts for journalism 367 for some reason the site won't let me post

I have not been able to past how is everyone else getting their posts up? why won't mine appear. I'm making one last attempt before class starts

All green to me:
I was not a big fan of the color scheme and I didn't understand why I was supposed to be interested in the material. I didn't like the double navigation bar. Perhaps its just that I'm so technically inept that I can't even post a blog entry but I couldn't navigate well.


CNN versus Mightygodking.com
Mightygodking went more deeply into what people think the law currently is and how they are mistaken. The CNN article assumed a great deal on the part of the reader. First assuming the audience knows the current law and then how the change would affect the reader. All in all I think reading both rounds out the story

Trying to Get a Sandwich, Finding Child Porn

So I went to Trabant in search of a meal. Normally I count this as a mistake due to overpricedness but today it was a mistake for a far different reason. I'm apparently engaging that part of my brain that cares about journalism again so I'm listening to all the conversations around me. Frat boys in ties for their frats in front of me talk about how the announcer for their hockey games has been arrested with six computers full of child porn, the girls behind me lament about how they forgot that chick-fil-a is closed sundays so what on earth should they eat. They then start talking about social events. The man making sandwiches talks about under staffing and changes in Trabant. A boy I walk past, looks to be in high school bumps me and looks out after his sister, clearly a freshman, she is showing him the campus and it turns out he's involved in some sort of skate something happening soon.
I choke back the urge to ask questions of any of them and all of them. Eventually I decide that even normal people would ask about the child porn so when most of the frat boys leave their friend on the sandwich line I ask, he tells me what he can. I find out he's wearing a tie for a chapter meeting, but there are a thousand threads of story that lead out from here.
I decide not to eat there and immediately go home to find out if the story has hit the papers yet. It turns out it (or something like it) has. I link to it in my blog. They didn't take the tactic I would've. I might have had a sentence about the Wilmington Man. At least I used to, I would have asked, where does he work? how is he known? did he make the films himself or were they sent. I do have an advantage over the reporters, I started hearing about the story as a piece of someone's life with a connection to the community. I know he announced at college hockey games. The person who wrote the piece probably only saw it on a police blotter.
Something interesting about the even shorter story here, it says there were 30 videos and 29 counts of child pornography. What's in the 30th video? What is the disconnect? Also why didn't they at least google the offender's name. one of the firts hits when I goolgled it, after the child porn thing is this.

Bill Panuski
Director of Broadcasting

Email: xxxxxxx (email and phone hidden by me as some sort of vague attempt at responsibility)
Phone: xxxxxxx(if the university takes the site down thoug I want to keep this copy of the bio here)

Bill Panuski is in his 6th year, as the Voice of the Fightin' Blue Hen Hockey Club. He is the Public Address Announcer, as well, as the Radio / Internet Play-by-Play Broadcaster. In addition, Bill became the ACHA Director of Broadcasting, for the Division I National Tournament. He is also, the Voice of the Blue Hens Volleyball Team and the Men's and Women's Lacrosse Team

This is a far more interesting story. The way I would have written it and its still short and only takes 30 more seconds.

Wilmington/Newark
Local Sports Announcer Charged With Child Pornography
Ben Walker March 6 2009

Delaware State Police have charged The Director of Broadcasting for the University of Delaware Hockey Team with more than two dozen counts of child pornography.
State Troopers carried out six computers out of thirty-eight-year-old William Panusik's home today. A forensic preview has so far found 30 videos depicting child sexual exploitation.
The source of the videos is as-yet unreleased.
The University so far has no comment.

Here is where you show the mugshot.

The whole thing would have been in 12 point courier new.

Then again what the hell do I know.

Calm Before the Storm

I have looked at the blogs and webcomics and suchlike that I want to emulate, it turns out they have something in common, they take one to 2 days off a week. I'm not sure when my day off will be, either Saturdays or Sundays, so until I figure that out I'll give you the reader an idea of how to set up before a shared universe larp.

12:00 noon, wake up, shower, prep any costume pieces you might need

1:00 breakfast, and by breakfast I mean no more than a single piece of toast and some oj as lunch wil be heavy, deal with angry and confused calls that you ignored the night before asking about character actions before game start, calm the masses, breathe.

2:00 chase down other staffers, make sure everyone is briefed for their roles, fix any problems on wiki (see 2 blog entries ago)

3:00 Ultra-lunch, carb and caffeine load a luncheon, save some for later for the nights will be long. Discuss metaplot and plan for games, also schedule of the evening with players and/or staffers over stromboli.

4:00 type, print, and cut all the scene reciepts, schedules for the night, see if there are any last minute changes, call stragglers that may not have rides, arrange rides for up t 10 peopleif unlucky, self if lucky.

5:00 breathe, organize backpack, do equipment check, does laptop work, does backup laptop work, do walkie talkies work, are backup batteries prepped? call other staffers, make sure their equip works, (printer, other computers, etc)

6:00 go to site, remove squatters , make sure security knows we're supposed to be there, check to see correct doors are unlocked, clear room of trash, check lighting, check sound system at site.

6:30 bind and package, receipts, schedule, walkie talkie for staffers, prep sign in sheet, load web documents, (wiki, maps). find/purchase/borrow pens,

6:45 first players arrive

7:00 players are allowed to begin sign in and get sheets,

8:00 in-game clock starts

9:00 most people are there

10:30 second wave of people arrive

11:30 things either wind down or explode

12:00 midnight end of game announcements

12:30 clean up site, shoo others out

12:45 post-game analysis at diner

1:30 am post diner analysis at home, drinks provided to those who are of age, staff drinks free.

4:00 am sleep

5:00 am breathe

Wiki Fatigue

I have just finished several hours of editing a wiki. I am beginning to suffer 21st century fatigue. On the plus side the best damn rules for Vampire The Masquerade LARP in the whole damn world are now just a little bit better.
I am willing to make the boast of Lu Buwei anyone who can add or subtract a single rule and have it pass the standards of heaven (the head storyteller) shall be richly rewarded.

Dogs, both Reservoir and Sled

Well apparently I am no longer 12. I have discovered this in my recent attempt to take advantage of the snow day and sled. I was under the impression that Delaware is largely flat, flatter than the various square states, in fact the flattest place in America. Moxy Fruvous even had a trivia section in one of their concerts called "the lowest highest point" that mentions that Delaware is freaking flat. Flat however doesn't mean flat. there is a hill in Newark. not a natural one, like Val from chorus line (Dance Ten: Looks Three) Newark has brightened up its image with an implanted water reservoir.

After many years living in this town I found myself at this reservoir. I looked up at the hill, the hill looked down at me, powder and icy breeze from the reservoir whipping down and I trudged. when I reached the top I fell down. I realized I have not gone up an incline steeper than 15% since I lived in a house nestled in Rock Creek Park, but those days of freewheeling rock climbing and spelunking have vanished beneath 200 extra pounds of movie watching and rpgs. I was lying in the snow, looking up at my better half watching her run around on her sled, ingeniously MacGuyvered out of a waxed cardboard fruit box, some origami, some work with a pocket knife and several years of mechanical engineering training. She was playfully gamboling amongst the snowflakes after showing the requisite amount of concern that I was not actually dying and I felt something nudge me. A small dog has been let go on the slopes, it had decided I was the warmest non-moving object and had decided to take shelter beside me to get out of the cold. Some insane bint had let the dog go amongst the snow and water and such leash still around its neck, trailing its lead behind it with a tiny doggy sweater. now this doggy sweater I think mishandles the basic problem of an 8 inch tall dog in 10 inches of snow. First it was wool and therefore absorbed water, second it only covers the front half of the dog. I know if I was a tiny dog in deep snow I'd want some snowpants or something.

I waited fora while then climbed another hill to better get a look for my erstwhile girlfriend (and ride home) who had since disappeared amongst the snowbanks. the dog, this time bringing friends followed, we sat on the bench, we looked at each other and I have rarely felt such a kinship to an animal. we both had gone out into the cold with the people we love, the promise of a great adventure and winter fun in our hearts, and both of us were let down by the weakness of our respective clay.

Lindsay returned with her sled , tired and happy and offered it to me. I looked at the dog and it looked at me. I sat upon the cardoboard and crushed it into what turned out to be an oddly aerodynamic and effective shape. After a few feet of scooting I slid. Years of Calvin and Hobbes came back to me in a rush as I made my way down the smaller hill before a much larger descent and when I sat up after my winter wipeout I found that the small dog had followed me, skidding down in my wake, tail wagging. It seems my weight and momentum has cleared out or packed down the snow to the point where the dog could be happily rejoined with his master without trudging through show up to its shoulder.

A few minutes later I slid, (sledded? sled? sleighed?) down the big hill and it was fast and fun and wonderful. Lindsay followed on a borrowed skimboard, oddly enough borrowed fom the owner of the small dog, happy to be re-united with her put upon pet.

On the way back home a friend of mine told me that the reservoir had only become a park and such a picturesque place as an attempt to recoup some of its legal losses and big controversy involving its construction. I know this was a long way to go for anything newsworthy but I had fun on the journey.