Things have been going well here in Atlanta, except for the fact that my little old head is about to explode from all the policies, practices and procedures that are being crammed into it. I have the distinct feeling that I’m being quietly tested on different fronts to gauge not only my knowledge but my judgment (that’s it, I know I’m done for now) and my demeanor. But, no one has said “Get out” yet, so I guess I’m doing something right.

Earlier last week I decided I would go out this past Saturday and see a little of what Atlanta has to offer. I’m fortunate in that the rail system (MARTA) has a station about 10 minutes from my hotel and the train has stops very close to the places I was planning on visiting. I wish O-town had a mass transit rail system to move people. I rode all the way into Atlanta (about 30 miles if I had been driving) for $1.85 in comfort and no traffic in just 20 minutes.

Anyway, my first stop was CNN Headquarters to take the “Behind the Scenes” tour of the world’s first Cable News Network. Behind that ticket kiosk in the photo below is a security setup that rivals those at the airports in terms of thoroughness. Obviously, when you think about it. the headquarters of this news organization would be an attractive target to some moron(s).

Standing in the atrium and looking up you see the world’s longest free-standing escalator, leading into the huge world globe on the 8th floor. That is the escalator people take to start the tour and it’s a spectacular view from the top. Unfortunately, once you pass through security there are no photos or video allowed. This photo and the one below it were taken from the floor of the food court in the atrium.

The first stop is the CNN theater where you get to see the same screens that are in the control room and listen to the director and producer (and the on-air talent during commercials) talking about which shots will be cued up when, what stories are coming up and counting down when they come back from commercials. We happened to be watching and listening just as the news broke that John Mark Karr had been arrested on domestic violence charges and so during the commercial break we heard the director order up file footage and explain to co-anchor Betty Nguyen what the intro would be while the other co-anchor, T.J. Holmes, moved to another location in the studio for a different story. We saw the file footage come up on one of the multitude of monitors, heard the director confirm that the footage was what he ordered and then listened as the producer counted down and watched Betty Nguyen get herself set for the camera shot and ready to deliver the intro the director was giving her verbally and via the teleprompter. If you enjoy knowing what goes on behind a live broadcast, it is one of the best parts of the tour.

From there we went to a small studio set up to demonstrate the “blue screen” or sometimes “green screen” effect used in broadcasting the weather, where the weatherperson stands in front of what looks to viewers like a map but is really just a blue (or green) screen with the map inserted in the camera only. They also had a news anchor desk set up just like the “live” one and for $20 you could sit at the desk and have your picture taken as if you were delivering the news. No thanks, been there, done that.

By the way, these three photos are from the CNN website “Virtual Tour”. You didn’t think I had been sneaky and taken these pictures, did you?

Then it was on to the floor above the main news floor that you see behind the CNN anchors during the broadcast; the one where all the people are moving around in the background. Those are the live news checkers, writers, directors and producers who put together the pieces you see presented as news. We stood above them in a glass-enclosed hall looking down and watching them do their thing. For this part of the tour a big, burly, armed security gaurd joined us, I imagine to make sure no one tried to shatter the glass or something. All I know is I had my black duffel bag with both my cameras and some other stuff in it and he was watching me all the time, lol. Maybe he didn’t think his colleagues downstairs had done a proper job of checking me and my bag.

After that we dropped by the Headline News studio, which is of course MUCH smaller because they are just re-airing packages that have already run on the main CNN broadcast. Most of them are cut down in time and then made part of a 15 minute or so combination package and run continuously for several hours before being updated with “newer” news. We also got to peek in on the CNN International studio and the separate CNN Spanish broadcast. We finally ended up in another small theater watching a little “puff piece” by various CNN personalities like Wolf Blitzer, Anderson Cooper, Christiana Amanpour and Robin Meade explaining why the love the news business.

Then, just like the Disney, Universal and Sea World rides, we ended up at…the CNN Gift Shop. I laughed out loud when the tour guide brought us in, but quickly stopped and told her “thank you” for the excellent tour. I REALLY enjoyed it.

The year was 1997.

Bill Clinton began his second term as President of the United States.

Tony Blair was appointed Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

IBM’s Deep Blue defeated Garry Kasparov in the last game of the rematch, the first time a computer beat a chess World champion in a match.

Timothy McVeigh was convicted on 15 counts of murder and conspiracy for his role in the 1995 terrorist bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma and received a death penalty sentence.

The first book in the award winning Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling is published. (The last will be published this year)

NASA’s Pathfinder space probe lands on the surface of Mars.

Diana, Princess of Wales, dies in a car crash in a Paris tunnel.

Scotland voted to create its own Parliament after 290 years of union with England.

The domain “Google” was registered.

Hong Kong was returned to Chinese rule

The Florida Marlins won Game 7 of the 1997 World Series against the Cleveland Indians 3-2 in 11 innings.

The Green Bay Packers win Super Bowl XXXI, defeating the New England Patriots 35 to 21 on January 26th in New Orleans’ Superdome. (Sorry Jason)

The term “weblog” (later shortened to “blog”) is coined.

The late Elvis Presley’s manager, Colonel Tom Parker passed away, as did poet Allen Ginsberg, magician Harry Blackstone, Jr., French explorer Jacques Cousteau, American actors Robert Mitchum, Burgess Meredith, Chris Farley, Denver Pyle and James Stewart, American television reporter Charles Kuralt, Italian fashion designer Gianni Versace, United States Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan, American comedian Red Skelton, professional wrestler Brian Pilman and American musician John Denver, among others.

And while celebrities such as Woody Allen and his adopted daughter Soon-Yi Previn were getting married, an obscure man and woman (to everyone but each other) in Orlando, Florida were married in the beautiful backyard garden of the bride’s parents, writing their own vows, choosing their own music and surrounded by family and friends.

As I told my children shortly before the ceremony; outside of the days they were born, this was the happiest day of my life.

It still is.

Happy Anniversary, Blog Girl. Thank you for the 10 happiest years of my life. And thank you for loving the man behind the mask.

I’m lying here in bed in the BlogCave coughing my lungs up (oops, one just landed on the keyboard. Give me a second here to put it back in). At least I’m not suffering from the sore throat that felt like I must have swallowed hydrochloric acid and a nose that basically became a mucus faucet stuck on “open”, as I was for the previous 3 days this crap has been in my body.

We took down the Christmas decorations and tree today and got everything put back in the attic or hauled to the curb. That took about 2 hours and I was completely worn out the rest of the day. Slept about 5 hours in the afternoon and don’t have much of an appetite (good start for the upcoming diet/exercise program), but I’m not as achy feeling as I have been.

The required bed rest has given me a chance to read one of my Christmas gift books, Wally’s World, and I may even get to finish one more other book before the end of 2006.

Some sort of morbid curiosity (my friend Jenn will know about that particular kind of curiosity) made me half-sit, half-lie on the couch last night at 10pm watching the circus on CNN regarding Saddam Hussein’s execution. Commentators made the statement that “Hussein and his two co-conspirators were being hanged for their role in the 1982 Dujail massacre, in which 148 Iraqis were killed”.

That got me to thinking…the shrub and his two co-conspirators, Donald and Dick, are responsible for the deaths of almost 3,000 American soldiers and the wounding of tens of thousands more. That doesn’t count American contractors, soldiers from countries in the “coalition of the willing” (or their civilians who are in the country) or even the hundreds of thousands of Iraqi citizens who have been killed.

Is anyone suggesting they face a hangman’s noose?

I didn’t think so.

‘Twas the day before Christmas and all through the blog,
The Masked Blogger was bloated from too much egg nog!

Sometimes I wish they would outlaw the stuff, because I have no willpower when it comes to that sweet nectar of the gods. I have an unopened half-gallon in the refrigerator right now, yet I almost bought another when I was at Publix earlier this morning, “just in case”. Frankly, the only thing that stopped me was that our refrigerator is so full of holiday food that there really is no room for a single egg with which to make the nog.

As has become the norm lately, my schedule has been hectic and full. I received one of those typical “promotions” at work; more responsibility, more workload, same money. Worse than that, it has necessitated leaving the department I have headed for 18 months and the wonderful staff (still the best in the branch, as far as I’m concerned) I had the pleasure of serving with. On the other hand, I am looking forward to the challenges my new position will bring and the broadening of my knowledge base.

There have been very few moments of rest at home either, what with my new writing assignments, wrapping gifts, cooking food for the family dinner tonight at BlogGirl’s parent’s home, getting the BlogCave prepared for tonight and tomorrow morning, running errands that must be completed and driving 2 hours each way yesterday to visit BlogMom who is in the hospital with a severe UTI and dangerously low (so much so that she passed out) blood sugar. The good news is she is due to be released today.

As is our tradition, tomorrow, after the family has left and we have cleaned up the gift wrap debris and the breakfast mess, BlogGirl and I will hop in the Blogmobile and go see a movie. This year we have many choices, which has made the decision making process difficult. The first Christmas Day movie we saw was a Sylvester Stallone movie, “Daylight”, so I (being the traditionalist that I am) would like to see “Rocky Balboa”, but there are other movies that look good too, so we’ll see what we feel like tomorrow.

If you are a “24″ fan, you should watch this cute little Christmas video.

By the way, “24″ will air its season premiere on Sunday, January 14th, 2007. I’ll be getting home from the weekend camping trip with my father-in-law and 3 brothers-in-law that afternoon, so it will be a great homecoming.

And this video is fun to watch, even moreso if you have ever done voice-over or audio narration (the latter which The Masked Blogger has done in the past). Boy, does that bring back memories, lol.

Don’t forget, you can track Santa’s progress at NORAD’s site. Did you know that NORAD (formerly CONAD) got the idea for offering such a service because of a 6 year old who dialed a wrong number looking for Santa? It’s true.

“The tradition began after a Colorado Springs-based Sears Roebuck & Co. store advertisement for children to call Santa on a special “hotline” included an inadvertently misprinted telephone number. Instead of Santa, the phone number put kids through to the CONAD Commander-in-Chief’s operations “hotline.” The Director of Operations, Colonel Harry Shoup, received the first “Santa” call on Christmas Eve 1955.”

However you celebrate the season, from here in the BlogCave I’d like to wish you a Happy Holiday. Have fun, enjoy family and friends and above all, be safe out there.