Odd Policy...

Sometimes I'm not quite sure where my brain gets off track. One minute I'm dead focused on something, doing an interview with a nice guy who owns an insurance company.

The next minute I suddenly find myself in the mustache section of a Beach Blvd costume store.

How did I get from a story about odd insurance policies ((all started with this gem about Holly Madison getting a $1million on her chest)), to full blown in medias res of me in a 1980s mustache?

A screen cap from a portion of my video shoot today

This is a potential problem.

A superior told me I was "toeing the line" today. I agree... my theory is it's always easier to dial it back than to amp it up.

So I need to get my head straight I think, any suggestions would be much appreciated... in the meantime... here's a little something extra from my video shoot today... the point was, well, I guess the point was I was a jerk with a mustache and I fire a guy, he rips off my 'stache and I lose everything b/c of it. Therefore, I realize today that I should have had mustache insurance: for this to make any sense you'll have to click here for the original story.

These are just some raw moments with my co-worker Paul, not really an edited story line... just something to check out if you'd like:

Today was a lot of fun. If my desk isn't cleaned out on Monday, I'll write another blog then.

Talk to you next week,
Lew

Calling In Sick... Red Bull Can Help

I was so depressed this morning.

 It started as a mild case of denial last night and turned into full-fledged, "I'm calling in sick to work", not getting out of bed, shave my head bald sadness this morning.

Then I realized Chipper Jones and Brian McCann don't cry themselves to sleep when I make a bad edit, or forget my subject/verb agreement.

I put down the electric clippers and I stepped away from the toaster.

I did the right thing and went to work today, despite my favorite baseball team, The Atlanta Braves missing out on a post season opportunity.

Let me tell you something, I've never been more happy about a decision in my life. I managed to get the perfect assignment for what was ailing me, and I met the coolest dudes in Jacksonville.

They really cheered me up.

They call themselves "The Pirates of The Care Free Being." A band of five friends (I met three of them today: Tyler, Kayne and Ryan) who's sole purpose in life is to get on a boat and sail away.

They want to sail around the world, and they're starting what could be a monster marketing campaign to do just that: By building a flying device for the Red Bull Flugtag. If you don't know what the Flugtag is... here's some youtube video.

So I watched these guys build their craft. It's going to be a pirate ship with a hang-glider looking contraption on the top, that's at least what I gathered from our conversations.

This is Tyler Watts, the Pilot

Here's a shot of the guys working on the contraption in their Jax Beach front yard. Funny thing is, no one actually looks or pays much attention to what they're doing. As if it's totally normal. 

We drank copious amounts of Red Bull for the story, I'll give more detailed examples.

So while shooting the story, I had the bright idea to slam some Red Bull with these dudes. They had cases of the stuff and I thought it would add a different element to the story. Naturally when you're taping something, you've got to do several "takes" as they say in the moving picture business... that required me to slam one too many BULLS. So now I'll never sleep again.

Here's what I'm talking about... remember the sweet opening credits from last time? They're back!

Also, here's the link to the more "news traditional" story I did on firstcoastnews.com, it includes just a minor snippett of the RedBull chugging that went on today.

A Walk Down Memory Lane...

All this talk about how much everyone HATES the new facebook stuff makes me LSHIF**

It's friggin hilarious.

I screencapped some of the facebook statuses that I came across randomly. These aren't necessarily my favorites I've seen, they're just the first I came upon. There are tons of these hilarious pics...

I saw one that was the old Calvin cartoon... but instead of him peeing on a Chevy symbol, or a Jeff Gordon 24, he was peeing on a sign that said "Facebook Changes."

Classic.

Hahaha... sorry, i can't help but chuckle and then transcribe that chuckle here in the text of this blog.

Let's be honest, facebook has changed some many times since it was "Thefacebook.com"... remember that? It had a "The" in front of it.

And with every change, we all get so mad. And rightfully so... I'm so angry I haven't even really noticed what the changes are. But I'm sure they're oppressive.

So what would happen if we all just boycotted Facebook? What are our alternatives? Myspace? Well, if that's the case that poses a bit of a problem for me and my long term memory, which is the topic of today's Turnerloose VLOG:

A. Good points.
B. How 'bout those sweet opening credits, high quality. I'm putting that on every Turnerloose Video for the rest of time.

Blog!

Mahalo,
Lew

**for more on what LSHIF means, follow me on twitter @LewTurner and check my feed (shameless social media plug, baby!)

"Punctual" Is My Mother's Maiden Name...

So it would make sense that a little of that would rub off on me. You'd think perhaps "Punctual" would therefore be my middle name.

Nope.

Don't get me wrong... I'm not strolling in a couple hours late to work, dressed down and lazy. However, I'm usually right on time.

And we all know, if you're not five minutes early, your late.

So today, in an effort to change my entire life, I left for work in time to be a full half hour early.

And then this happened... Murphy mailed me a copy of his law with all the important parts highlighted and circled in red pen:

24 Hours Later, I still can't dunk...

...But I feel like a much better human being.

If you haven't heard about the American Lung Association's Fight For Air Climb, that was what I was practicing for during the 42 story stair climb yesterday.

Here's their website for some more info, you can also sign up individually of with a team for the event in February.

(((breaks screech......))

February??? What? Why did I go through that 5 months ahead of time?

Well simple, the answer is that climb takes practice. I came in at 15 minutes, but the winner is going to finish sub 7 minutes. So, practicing is crucial.

And you can go to the Bank of America building downtown Jax every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday to run the steps. Have a ball.

So, I promised yesterday that I'd post cell phone video as I made the climb... here ya go... I make a few stops along the way... I edited this all together rather poorly, but gives the general idea.

I'm glad you watched that. Thank you.
If you didn't watch it, that's fine too... you basically just missed me being sweaty and out of breath while I climbed some stairs. I also made the mistake of bad mouthing my boss, but quickly took it back. I was light headed.


Mahalo,
Lewis

After Today I Better Have A 48 inch Vertical...

...Because I'm being set loose on 44 floors worth of stairs. Part of my assignment today is to cover practice for the Lung Association's big event: The Bank of America Building stair run.

I am in poor physical, cardiovascular condition.

I'm live at 5 and 6 on First Coast News tonight (Thursday). The 5:00 will be pre run... the 6 will be after I made it to the top.

I literally found out about this at 10:00am today. A mere 7 hours to train and condition to get ready for what will surely induce vomiting.

So after my first story shoot today... which we'll talk about later and will also be airing in the 5:30 FCN broadcast... I went to the gas station and bought some Gatoraid products. I wanted to get the G1 G2 and G3... but there was no "3" at the store. So I got two G1s and a G2.

I'm gonna friggin carbo load the heck out of myself. I'll also report back to tell ya if these things made a difference. As long as I live through this, then they worked.

Please wish me and my calves good luck.

Mahalo,
Lew