Category Archives: Fun

Drowning my sorrows in fun

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Stacy left me this weekend…no, not for good, of course! She had family business out of state. It was very difficult to give her that last hug and kiss and watch her go thru those gates at the airport. So what did I do to cope? Everything!

While I missed my wife, I also saw an opportunity to “get it out of my system” and spend my every waking moment on bachelor-style activities. After all, I lived alone, except for the bird, for over ten years…marriage is quite an adjustment, no matter how happy we are.

So I rode a lot of mountain bike. I rode a lot of motorcycle. I played a lot of Xbox. I played some tennis, drove my little nitro RC trucks (see above), went stargazing until early Saturday morning, the whole works. Ah, to be a kid again.

One realization I had this week was that, although I really love doing all those things, there’s something I choose to do before all of them: be a husband. Marriage is when it’s time to make good on all that stuff you promised your girlfriend you’d do. And not begrudgingly so, either. Now that we’re married, my wife and I share some of those things that were so fun to do on my own. Some we don’t. But what it all comes down to is that a guy has to be a husband first…soon I’ll add “father” to that description as well. And when I get a few days to play around like this, it’ll be a nice vacation. And it’ll help keep my mind off missing my wife for a few minutes!

The path I’ve chosen

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Well, at least the one I chose Sunday night…it’s the bike path above Pioneer Park, which had its heyday in the mid 1990s. That’s when it was developed and expanded to serve as the course for the Prairie Rose State Games mountain bike race. It’s one of three really nice mountain bike trails in Bismarck-Mandan, and I’ll highlight the other two down the road. This is where I tend to join the trail, just off the paved path above River Road. You can see this big pointed hill if you look down from the lookout point accessed from Burnt Boat Road.

This trail isn’t all grassland; it dips down into the trees numerous times. There are some nice drops and climbs in there, some old car bodies, and some welcome shade on a hundred degree day. There are a number of different possibilities on this path, winding all over the place.

Once you pop back up out of the trees there are a couple of loops along the hill, over by the Interstate, and then even back up the BSC side and around that area. I didn’t choose to do that part Sunday night due to time constraints. This trail overlooks some of Bismarck’s best river scenery. On much of the trail I was able to hear the live music from Merriwether’s.

There are some fun parts like this…don’t end up falling on your head and tumbling down to River Road! You have to look out in some places, because the city has closed certain parts of the trail to protect against erosion. Points like this can clearly be seen from River Road, although they don’t look nearly as serious from the bottom.

If you’re looking for a workout and have moderate mountain biking skills, hop on the trail above River Road…it’s a challenge! If you think it isn’t, do three laps sometime. That will change your mind.

Live from ShoBOX

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Friday was a fun day…Showtime was in town (well, New Town) to televise a North Dakota installment of their ShoBOX boxing series. You may have heard it promoted on the radio. I was on the TV crew as a ringside boom mic operator, so I took the day off from my regular job and headed north.

I wouldn’t choose any other line of work; video production is the greatest. LIVE video production is by far the most fun. I’ve been on crews for sports on NBC, CBS, FOX Sports Net, ESPN Sportscenter, Outdoor Life Network, and now Showtime. In the past I took photos of our jobs but didn’t have a blog to post them on! So we’ll start with this show. Here’s a little photo diary of the day.

These are the trucks we used to produce and uplink the show to Showtime. The big one is the rolling production studio, the little one is a separate satellite uplink truck.

This is the production area of the truck where the directors and producers sit, along with the graphics operator. For most of the shows I’ve worked in the past I’m at the graphics position, but I wouldn’t qualify for this show. Besides it’s neat to be in the arena during the telecast too! Note the bag of candy, open can of Dew, and bin of licorice whips. You can NOT do a show like this without a lot of sugar.

This is where all the tapes and replays are done. There are a ton of tape machines and an EVS (commonly called an “Elvis”) which is a hard-disk based replay system. There are multiple operators recording multiple cameras to make sure there are replays to show the viewers. There’s also another similar area to this one where all the cameras are controlled…not the focus and zoom and that kind of thing, but the balance of color balance, iris and other detail settings. That’s what makes a TV show look so good, even the pro cameras need constant tweaking for quality and consistency.

This is a separate area of the truck where the audio operator(s) work. There’s a lot of equipment above that wouldn’t fit into the shot. In addition, there were big mixers like this inside the arena and stuff too. The audio guys show up a day or two before the rest of us because they also take care of all our intercom headsets, hang microphones…it’s very complex.

A couple hundred grand worth of camera here. These cameras take two people to assemble; just the body and lens are a foot high and a foot tall, and a foot or two long. They’re enormous. But that’s how ya get the good pictures from a distance! There were two of these cameras on a platform south of the ring, as you can see.

That’s all I have for now; obviously I was there to work, so I could only take pictures over lunch. The truck is so full of people and so busy while we prepare for the show and during the show that there’s no room for pictures then.

Another cool perk (short for perquisite) is the “swag” as the kids call it. That being the t-shirts and hats and stuff. After all, we’re a Showtime crew. Gotta look like one. So these get added to my collection of shirts and hats with different station and network logos. Cool, huh?

One cool thing about a job like this is that everybody works hard. If you don’t, your phone doesn’t ring the next time the network is in town. It’s easy to get a reputation in any business, and you can’t screw around with a live TV show. The lighting guys take two days to set up, audio almost as long, and the crew that I was on started stringing cables, cameras and monitors nearly twelve hours before the show went on the air.

Everybody enjoys what they do, we’re very well fed with pizza, sandwiches, and enough free Mountain Dew to crystallize a kidney. Plus it’s fun to talk about other shows we’ve worked, swap business cards, talk about North Dakota with guys who’ve never been here before, and just have a good time. At least three times over the 14 hours a guy in charge would come by and say, “stop working, go eat” or “take a break” or “finish your pizza before you do that.” It’s all very professional and everything is well looked after.

Much of this event was staffed with video professionals from North Dakota, guys I’m proud to hang out with every time we do a show. Plus, it’s not every day that we can hang out with friends from Fargo and Grand Forks, so these give us an extra opportunity to visit. The local component of these crews is a great core of guys who I’ve learned valuable lessons from over the years. Having started in broadcasting as a kid in the late 80s, I’m the junior guy on the crew.

I taped the show and was told that I was on the air a few times (how can you not be, sitting ringside?) but I haven’t watched it yet. We didn’t get back to Bismarck until this morning, and I went straight to bed. It’s always fun to come back home and see what the show looks like, because on the crew, often we have no idea. And as long as we’re told “good show!” at the end of the day, that’s good enough for us.

It’s always racing season somewhere

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And thank God for that! Just because the temps are below freezing doesn’t mean it’s not a good time for racing. Well, there’s ice racing, but we haven’t gone out to do that so far this year. I’m talking about the indoor kind, like the electric cars they’re running at Wheels, Wings and Hobbies today.


These guys are on the platform controlling little electric cars that absolutely FLY around the carpeted track. The track surface itself is a special carpet that doesn’t have any loose fibers to clog the motors of the cars. The guy down on the end is Jeff, the owner of the shop, who’s announcing the running order while running the computerized timing and scoring. These cars have tiny radio transponders on them so that the computer can keep track of lap times and order of each car.

These cars are VERY high-tech, with carbon fiber chassis parts and intricate suspensions. There are workbenches in this room where the racers work on their cars, charge their batteries, that kind of thing. Spectators are welcome, and the racers are friendly about answering questions in between races.

There will be another race on March 18th at Wheels, Wings and Hobbies — on the Strip in Mandan. They’re also putting on a big event called the Prairie Knights Classic (I’ll give you three guesses which casino it’s being held at) on April 1st and 2nd. If you’re looking for a really fun hobby or just want to watch some unique local racing, head out to WWNH any time. They also have a web page at wwnh.net.