Rubey Rambles

I have officially had my first…my job rules moment. I won ‘t bore anyone with the details of what my job is, because I am still learning how to actually do it, but the one part of my job that I actually understand fully, is the coolest part. At ESPN, nothing airs without being cleared, which means, making sure we have permission to use it on TV/Social Media/Everything, ya know, ethics. Last week during the most epic comeback by the Auburn football team in the even more epic Iron Bowl against Alabama, one YouTube video caught the attention of some ESPN staffers and I was asked to clear the video, which basically means, reach out to the person and make sure they don’t mind we replay the amazing reaction video 902345786 times over the coming days. When I viewed the video, posted by a women in Alabama named Sheena, she posted the video simply stating “ Auburn Wins the Iron Bowl 2013..and this is my husband's reaction” Well, when I viewed the video it had maybe 30...

One week ago I quit news cold turkey. For more than two years my life revolved around news; any type, shape, size, or political matter.  News was in my veins, it helped me sleep at night and also kept me up until all hours of the morning. I was addicted to the rush, the high and the crash. I would get settled into my desk and wait for the first needle of news to hit my veins and get me high. I would power through news stories like I was addicted to the bad news that made up most stories. Oh, there is a shooting...wait it is fatal? Instant high. Oh, a police report is out showing that there was a criminal history on a man who took his wife hostage and killed her and himself... Instant rush. I often found myself breaking down when I was alone, all the sadness that I covered would get me high and would make me forget that what I was covering was truly heart wrenching and saddening, until the buzz of the scanners stopped and the phones stopped ringing and the magnitude of w...

I have always thought that when it came time to write this blog all the words would flow freely. I thought I would be able to create a blog filled with the utmost scathing words I could find to describe how much I can't stand Rob and his damn Duck Dynasty beard. I thought I would be able to quickly write down some quip filled paragraphs filed with stories of my time at WFSB including the lack of sleep, horrible addiction to Indian  that formed over two and a half years and my utmost passion for water main breaks (sarcasm) but it is not that easy. You may have read that and said "wait what...her "time at WFSB?" yes...yes... I must confirm the tweets, Facebook inquires, the flooding of my inbox and the numerous inquires to my mother... I am leaving the Big 3. It wasn't an easy choice considering I grew up watching Channel 3, ended up interning in the sports department and eventually cementing myself in the Assignment Desk hall-of-fame for the last two or so...

After working at WFSB for two and a half years I have learned quite a few things, but the one thing I have learned is that you need to be able to take a joke...and that is what today's blog is about. On the "hexagon" (the assignment desk nickname for my new followers) we have double-screen computers so we have a better work flow and can easily juggle multiple screens at once. Assignment editors are constantly juggling multiple things and often are running around the newsroom or running to the ice cream truck when it comes. Over the last few months I started to notice that when I would leave my desk, I would return and both computer monitors would be off. This was happening to me a lot, I don't have an exact number of times it happened but it was occurring often enough that I just accepted the fact that the computers hated my existence and would turn off any chance they got. Please Note: When I left the screens would be up and fully functioning. (not sure why...

As a few of my blogs have outlined, I am a die-hard nutmeg-er and a loyal Channel 3 viewer/employee/spokesperson. I remember growing up in the townhouse my mother owned on the outskirts of town...Simsbury town that is....and crowding around a small television in the kitchen watching WFSB before school and during dinner. I think maybe that is when I should have realized that I was going to eventually work in TV, but instead I was hell bent on making ice cream, working in college atheletics and completely denying any form of an idea that I would work in television. I remember watching my mother cook dinner, usually Mac and Cheese because I was a SUPER picky eater, and watching Bruce, Denise and Dennis every night while chowing down on a mean bowl of Annie's White Chedder Mac. I remember the old studio, walking down in Constitution Plaza during Christmas time to see the lights and admiring everything about Denise D'Ascenzo. Borrowed from http://dennishouse.wordpress.co...

Today marks a day in my life that I will never forget, oh no no, I did not give birth, win the lottery, or get married...Today... I had my first "Verified" twitter follow. Unsure what a "verified" account on twitter is... read this ----->  "What Does The Blue Check Mark Mean?" Now, a "verified" Twitter follow is almost as good as any other follow one might get on Twitter, but this one meant more to me than I think it should. I have two twitter accounts, a personal one I use to tweet rap lyrics, and a professional one that tweets news and usually hate tweets directed in Rob Polanskys direction. My work account has a lot of "verified" followers due to all the reporters at NBC 30 being lucky enough to get bestowed upon them the lovely blue check mark, so this wasn't my first "verified" follow but the first "verified" following on my  personal account. To be completely honest, I follow every membe...

The newsroom has been buzzing lately.  You can hear constant chatter and mumbles of something...could it be leftovers in the Better Connecticut kitchen? Ice cream in the freezer? Or Brenda's lastest social media plunge? No no, the latest craze in our newsroom, "Orange is the New Black". If you are not sure what that is....here is a quick reality check of what you are missing.. . Truthfully I started watching the show on a whim with my tv-show-marathon-watching-partner-in-crime Christina not knowing the show was such a hit. I believe we finished watching the whole season in about a week and a half. When the final scene ended I found myself searching Google for more information on when the new season would start and where did this show come from? Turns out the show premiered on July 11th on Netflix and I was going to have to wait a WHILE for the new season. I quickly became addicted to the "Orange" and starting to suffer from withdrawals. I was su...

The day is here ladies and gentle-people... The Most Interesting Woman in the World...Brenda....has done something we never thought she would do. For those who don't know...Brenda never had a Facebook...this was something the newsroom found completely crazy.  Her lack of a social media presence was marked in T-shirts and a ever growing fan base in a grassroots campaign style Facebook Group. (Pictures Below) Time to donate this shirt to Goodwill The Official Group About Brenda's Lack of Social Media All of this changed today....Today, on this 14th day of July in the year 2013...Brenda Kestenbaum has joined the vast majority of the human population and created a profile where she can show the entire world what she does when she isn't working. Well...unless you sit at my desk and can hear her phone calls all day...I usually know what she is doing anyway. Either way... Today she let the world know that she is going against all odds...Phil Collins style and...

Today marks my two year anniversary at the big world of Channel 3. Time has flown, weight has gone up (thanks to newsroom food, and the banging Indian place down the street), and my tolerance for bull$#!+ has really dropped. Not many people know I was an intern in the sports department, but you really should know that if you are an active follower of my blog because I did post about it a few weeks ago....if you want...you can re-read it again here -----> http://newsroomhexagon.blogspot.com/2013/06/hey-you-where-is-my-coffee.html Anyway, following my blissful summer tending to the world of sports, I was hired as a vacation relief Assignment Desk/Associate Producer.  Vacation relief meant that I would fill in for people who were on vacation....duh I stuck with this position for two solid years, every shift, every holiday, every day.  While it was not glorious and I always wanted that safety of a "Full Time" job, i.e. benefits, sick days (I have a weak immune system),...

I have been wondering what my next blog was going to be about, I have been really been hitting a blogger-writing-block but than...Friday...I looked up...and I found my muse....Brenda. Now, according to my math, and the legends that have been told, Brenda has been working for WFSB longer than I have been alive...which is at least 23 years. There is a pretty solid chance that Brenda has done it all. She makes the pretty obvious on a day-to-day basis when she has a story for any topic that comes up in the newsroom. For example, but not limited too, seaweed growth in the Great Barrier Reef, the tectonic plate shifts, UK Top 40 charts...and even Robin Thicke....yes I am talking about that smooth voice with a slight hint of womenizing... Now, I am young person, I should be up on what hot on the radio...but I am really not apperently...that was made clear by Brenda who informed me that her favorite song was "Blurred Lines"...after a quick YouTube search...I have learned that...

Many, many moons ago, I was an intern.  Yes yes, calm down people, Elanna Rubenstein didn't just land this gig without any experience, I had to work hard, very hard. It was the Spring of 2010.  I was a wee fetus of a college student, or technically a junior going into my senior year.  I needed to find myself an internship to go along with my degree so I could be a real force to be reckoned with when I entered the post-grad world. I was luckily blessed enough to get an internship in the sports department at none other than...CHANNEL 3! Go figure right? because I work here now?! what are the chances.... Anyway, why I am blogging about my experience as an intern is because now two years into my post-intern-real-job-title position here at WFSB I have had quite a few interns fall under my wing. Summer 2010 Flashback: My Internship Aside from getting to hangout in the sports department with none other than John Holt and Joe Zone, I got to spend quite a lot of time wi...

So, here at work we cover bomb threats way too much, whether they are at a school, court houses and/or banks...yesterday we covered our own bomb threat. It was just a typical day before the Memorial Day weekend.  Tracy and I were talking about everything under the sun and I was making fun of Chris for his new laid-back-chest-hair-showing-sneaker-wearing-style. Nothing out of the usual for our assignment desk. That all changed at 4:42.  I intercepted a call from the our security desk, the young lady on the other end who I  have talked to often said "Hey it's the security desk, someone just called me and said that there is a bomb in the building...what should I do?" Without sounding harsh, my first thought was..."I am an assignment editor...you're security...shouldn't you be out ninja chopping some ass by now" but I knew that wasn't the right thing to say.  So I told her I would take care of it....what exactly I would take care of I am not sure, ...

So, hey there, I'm back with a brand new track aka, some newsroom shenanigans....lets get this train moving. Yesterday afternoon we had a guest in our newsroom.  A lot of times national stations will conduct satellite interviews with guests using our studio.  This happens often and most of the time we don't even realize they are going on. My Work BFF Frank sent out his normal email with who the guest was, what station they were talking too, etc.  The name of the guest sounded really framiliar to me.  Was he the bail bondsman I skipped town on in Myrtle Beach? (Sorry Mom) Was he that guy I gave a fake number too at the bar two weeks ago? No no, this man was a legacy, this man is why my room smells like endless rows of "Fresh Springs" and "Patchouli"...the man in our studio was Harlan Kent...the CEO of Yankee Candle. We didn't know it was him until later (I googled him)... but he left a major mark on our studio, handing us the biggest mind F%$K...

It has been a while since my last posting, I think hangovers/vacations/and overall lazy tendencies play a factor in that but here we go.... So, in the newsroom our lifeline is a system called "ENPS" in this lovely program we send out notes for everyone to see, we can keep track of  local/national/world wide news.  Without this system I think we would drown daily in sticky notes. In this system we can create "lines" which will contain all the information about a particular story. A lot of what goes into the "grid" as we like to call it, are police reports/press releases and events that are  happening. One of the most important things we have to do on the assignment desk is slug the stories so they catch the producers eye and also don't get lost in the shuffle of a busy rundown. Now, one might ask, how do you "slug" something to catch a producers eye? Simple...involve drugs...body parts...and something you only learn through divers...

So, I didn't forget about my blog...I was blessed enough to have the opportunity to travel to London and drink a lot of beer and enjoy some much needed time off. With that being said...I'm backkkkkkkkk I am so back in fact, that I decided it would be super duper fun to run a 5K full of obstacles after completely letting my workouts go to waste while in London. I am not sure when I committed to being a willing participant in the Fitathlon...I have a feeling I was coffee wasted when the email was sent out and I said 'yes' due to a caffeine high. A video explaining what a "Fitathlon" is can be viewed here-------> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pu4ZINmTDQ So this morning, I laced up my chucks (not really, I wear New Balance) and headed down to The Rent in East Hartford and prepared to meet my team. Now, we are not the most agile group here at WFSB.  More than a year ago the station committed to bi-weekly boot camps and I have been pretty good abo...

I am not sure how to start this post but I will be honest, this post isn't going to be satirical, or full of pictures of me slamming my butt against things, I think this post is a long time coming. Today I ran in the "Sandy Hook Run For The Families" in Hartford.  Myself along with 15,000 other runners were huddled in the streets of Hartford on a VERY cold morning, for one purpose, to remember 26 angels that were taken from this earth way too early. I ran this race because I am an avid runner and I have a goal of running 100 races in my lifetime.  Today marked race #27, which is fitting because 27 people died in Newtown on December 14th, 2012.  20 beautiful children, six amazing facility members and one mother who did the best she could raising a child who would turn out to be something bigger than she could handle. Without getting into politics and creating a hole I may have to dig myself out of, I will leave it at that. I am an assignment editor.  I am an a...

So....three days after I exposed the world to my now "World Famous Booty Bump"....we got new ID Badges. RIP Key Fob RIP KEY FOB   It would only be fitting that after I expose the world to my Fob-Lem shake that I now must come up with some more new and exciting ways to scan my new ID Badge....and trust me...I will. This post will not contain pictures of me dropping it low to scan my badge, although this may have just sparked a new post for next week, we will see. Regardless, on Wednesday we got new ID Badges, and thankfully my picture was taken after working an overnight shift so my picture will not only be my new Facebook default but I plan on using it in every way possible, that is sarcasm, I look exhausted, hopefully we have picture day every year so I can actually be prepared for it and maybe my Mom will want to purchase a 8.5x11 for the mantel. New Badge Everyone in the newsroom was puzzled when we were handed just the badge, no laynard, no s...