Back Down

Indeed, the rumors are true. A minor yet debilitating back strain has forced Duff into "light duty" for the week. At first, it seemed like a mini vacation- free from the stresses of story deadlines, live shot malfunctions and those yappy reporters. All I had to do was crank out a stack of pre-shot stories for the show, and I was sitting pretty.

The first day was very strange. As show time approached, people were running around, shouting at each other, live shots were having trouble, packages weren't being fed on time... yet for the first time ever, none of it applied to me. As I wandered through the chaos of the newsroom, I felt like Willem Dafoe in Boondock Saints, dancing through the firefight, unharmed by the violence.

Then day two came along, and I started to realize that this desk job stuff ain't for me. As the crews were hustled out the door after breaking news... Fire! Kidnapping! Gay wedding! Go! Go! Go!... I stared down my adventure for the day: a stack of scripts...

...and a pile o' beta tapes.

When I first started off in this biz, I was quite the editor. Could crank out three shows and roll tapes without breaking a sweat, I could. Now a-days, it ain't the same. As much as there is to complain about when working as a photog, I now realize how lucky I am to be out on the dusty trail, chasing down the story of the day. I'm a man that needs adventure, and cranking out vosot after vosot ain't what I call adventure.

I have also been reminded that I'm not one to deal with boredom very well. Back in my market 120 days, there were a lot of slow times being the only nightside photographer in a city where nothing happens after 6 pm. Former colleagues can attest to the fact that this has resulted in a number of bizarre discoveries around the station, including Beta Tape Adventures:

BabyBear Malone, the ex-con editor:

and the infamous Polar Bear in the Boss' Office:

Today's mundane queue of point-and-click tasks led me to deface a mayoral candidate's mother's newspaper picture, which amused me for much of the day:

Wow, I really need to get back to my normal job. Fortunately, a much-needed vacation begins for me next week, with a whole series of adventures lined up and ready for consumption (more on this to come). Until then, I have two more days of "light duty", and I'm just hoping that I don't accidentally draw a mustache on someone with the power to demote me to "full time light duty". Oh man, if that were to happen, then polar bears would start showing up in a lot more places than just the boss' office, and that wouldn't be good for anyone.