Good news!

I was expecting to be working this morning, since it was my Saturday on the rotation. However, there's nothing happening in our coverage area this weekend (seriously, we all called around Friday afternoon looking for something) so I'm just on-call if something breaks, and I'll work Monday like normal.

My editor was actually happy with this plan because it allows us to have two reporters while still covering for our photographer, who will be off Monday since she is working today.

Janie, Eliza and I met up with my sister Lee and our mother last night for some delicious Italian food at Carrabba's, followed by hanging out in our basement room and then getting some Starbucks. Today we're meeting up for lunch before they disperse back to their homes, and then I think we're going to do a little looking around at Hamburg Pavilion just to get out of the house.

Right now, though, Janie's watching "The Goonies" and Eliza's taking a nap.

Of hard benches and bad lighting.

As the crime and courts reporter, I naturally have to spend a lot of time in courtrooms. In my career, I've seen plenty of them, and let me tell you: the state of Kentucky has a lot to learn about acoustics and lighting.

The number of courtrooms in this state that are badly lit, hard to hear in or both just amazes me. It's like they were designed without any thought to people being able to hear or see what's going on.

The inability to hear is the worst part, by the way, because it A) makes it difficult to get the info you need and B) with all the sitting and waiting inherent in a court proceeding, it's tough to stay focused for long periods of time when it's hard to hear what's going on.

The lighting thing is more of a photography problem than anything else. The lighting in courtrooms is dim and inconsistent, which makes it impossible to take good photos without a fast f/2.8 lens and a master's degree in white balance management. I've seen some really good news photographers struggle with getting consistent photo results in courtrooms with pro equipment, so you can imagine the problems I used to have with an entry-level Nikon DSLR and a slow lens.

I did get to shoot with a D1 and an 80-200 f/2.8 today, which helped, but I still had problems. The lens won't autofocus well (it hunts constantly) so I have to leave it on manual, and the white balance was off so everything came out a little yellow. Fortunately, we were able to fix it in importing.

In other news today, I almost had an automotive emergency. As I left the courthouse this afternoon, I noticed what looked like a nail sticking out of the right rear tire of my car. Since there's an auto repair place next to the office, I took it over once I got back into the office to get it fixed, expecting to have to pony up $30 for a plug. Fortunately, though, it was just a machine screw that was superficially stuck into the tread and didn't go into the tire itself. They didn't even charge me for it, which was nice.

Now, back to the BCS Championship Game. More on that tomorrow, I'm sure.

Welcome!

Welcome to The Bullpen Daily, my new personal blog of daily ruminations on life as a small-town journalist.

I chose the name for two reasons. One is that, like most working journalists, I don't have an office, just a desk in the bullpen. I also chose the name because of my love of baseball.

I decided it was time to start a new personal blog because there's a chance that the site hosting my current blog may not be around much longer, so I wanted a place to land.

Now, a little about myself for those of you who don' t know me: I'm the crime and courts reporter for a small seven-day daily newspaper in central Kentucky, the Richmond Register. My wife, Janie, and I live in Lexington (for now) with our new daughter, Eliza.

My interests are baseball, photography (more on that later), Kentucky basketball, video games, technology and motorsports.

Expect to read a lot about all those things, as well as random links I find, story and photo links from work and the occasional self-indulgent whining.