Whew! I survived my first newscast!

The first episode of News10@9 was this morning and it went pretty smoothly. Of course, I was nervous and had to avoid caffeine in the morning so I wouldn’t talk at record speed, but other than that it wasn’t bad.

But it wasn’t all me -- as I'm the newbie on the set. The crew and on-air team were fabulous and held it together when I was floundering. Our anchor Dan Elliott saved me when I was trying to talk about why Marty Schottenheimer was trending high on Facebook. Sure, I knew he was interviewing for the Bucs, but not being a big sports fan, I couldn’t convincingly give my opinion about the interview.

Thankfully, Dan was ready and willing to give his sports opinion.

But when it came to talking about the Occupy movement at UC Davis and Modesto Junior College, I had that area covered and could them exactly who was doing what and where. Whoohoo!

Now I just have to do it all again tomorrow -- and I should remember to suck in my stomach.  I had no idea the camera would have so many full body shots.

Check out the opening segment in the video.

Getting smart quick

Last night I had this crazy dream I was in the Tardis. I was all alone and it was fun -- kind of like being on a joy ride.  All these buttons everywhere, but which one should I push?

For those of you who don't know what the Tardis is, it's the phone box/time machine Dr. Who travels in. It's got a lot of buttons and levers, and I don't even think the Doctor knows how to the fly the thing properly.  It seems a lot of luck and "go with the flow" is involved when getting to your destination.

Dr. Who and I share the same philosophy.  Like him, I go with the flow and I don't really worry about stuff as I figure if you prepare in advance, you'll be able to handle any situation that comes up and if you can't, then there was probably nothing you could do about it anyway.

So this week I'm preparing for the new 60 minute in-depth news show on News10 where I'll be bringing in a social media perspective to the hot topics of the day. Doesn't that sound cool?

There's just one problem: We're going to talk about issues and debates as they happen, which means there isn't much to prepare in advance. It's a completely unscripted show-- so what I'm doing instead is what I call fluff stuff. 

I'm learning how to do my hair so it looks like I did more than just roll out of bed and brush it (BTW...my hairdresser Tony laughed at the photo I brought in and told me the only way it would look like that was if I wore a wig).  I'm learning I shouldn't wear silk on-air as it makes you look fat -- this is devasting to me as I own a lot of silk as I like shiny things. I'm learning my lips are really skinny and I need to wear brighter lipstick.

See? Fluff stuff.

But I'm also learning as much as I can about our guests, the issues in the news and who the movers and shakers are in the social media world who have interesting opinions on these things. I'm watching more news and news satires, reading more blogs and listening to what the average person is saying about what's going on in the world.

Yes, that's right.  I'm cramming.