Rodney

Yeah, newscrews like "heartwarming" stuff like that. I've been working at a school for homeless children; yesterday, we had graduation ceremonies, and one of the big-city news stations from 75 miles away showed up. I'm on stage, so I'll probably appear.

Over the years, I've gotten on television a lot, mainly by accident. If there's a camera around, it generally ends up pointing at me, go figure. Problem is, I never see it. Other people do, and tell me about it.

A few years ago, I had a website that mapped and rated public restrooms in my fair community (had a nice point-and-click image map of the downtown area), and a local TV crew actually came over to my house, which was fun. I told them I was "flushed with pride." It aired, but I never saw it.

Back when the iMac was introduced, a camera crew caught me at a Mac-only computer store in San Jose on the day of the SF MacWorld, looking for man-in-the-street quotes on the future of the iMac. I gave them some. People told me they saw me on the toob, but I never did.

I was helping restock a beloved local bookstore that had been damaged in an earthquake when a camera crew came by doing a segment. I _did_ see this one, but my spot was all of about three seconds of me stocking shelves.

Aside from that, I've done a lot of public access TV, but that doesn't really count because maybe 50 people are watching, if you're lucky. It's fun to do, though, because even with a piddly little show it's easy to get local politicians and just plain strange people to come in and talk and answer your weird questions on camera. I interviewed city council candidates, school board candidates (icky people), minor league ball players, bureaucrats, science fiction writers, people who made fire-breathing robots out of ripped-off motorbike parts (Survival Research Labs), B-movie directors, and more. I recommend it highly.