Has it all been worth it? A big question, mostly rhetorical. For what it's worth we've kicked the pants on the competition. This may well be the event that puts Fox News on the map for good, and begins the demise of MS-NBC. But does this have any purpose in our civic lives? In some ways it does, giving Americans around the country and folks around the world a front row seat to the goings on here. But is that worth anything when the outcomes are already known, the goings on all scripted?

Probably questions for the talking heads on our air, and not for a humble engineer like me to contemplate.

August 02, 2000 - A different kind of day for me today. I actually wasn't in the convention compound! Last night there was a brief scare as President Ford checked into the hospital. We were all ready to deploy to cover the heck out of it when we heard it was just a nosebleed. Well, when he checked back in this morning for other symptoms doctors decided he had had two small strokes.

So, a little breaking news to spice up my life. The president is recovering now in ICU, and were standing by for news at the hospital all night.

While there were moments of craziness and rushing around, once we got set up the pace was hurry up and wait. So, for the first time since I got here I had a chance to watch some of our coverage of the convention. This night both Cheney and Bush officially secured the nominations of the GOP, and the party shifted into fourth gear. Tomorrow night Bush makes his address to the party and the people, and this convention hits its end.

But of course it's not the end of the show for us! We will be doing live shots for our affiliates until 0200 Friday morning, and then we prompty start to break down. Since most of the gear here needs to get out to LA for the Dem Convention, we will be up all night getting gear packed to leave on Friday afternoon.

August 01, 2000 - We continue on into Day Two of the Republican National Convention. Today I spent half my day up in the "SkyBox" helping to set up live shots for our affiliate stations.

I also find myself on the backside of a little case of Tonsillitius. I actually went to the ER on Monday, and am now wacked out on antibiotics and painkillers. I guess it makes me one of the first casualties of this convention. I guess I should have seen it coming after the 40 hour marathon in Austin. But I'm functioning, and at least I can talk to people again.

Folks here are already showing their weariness of this event. It has been a long road of setup and pre-production. And the hours now are really taking their toll on everyone. But we are all trying to stay focused, and the yelling and bitching is at a surprisingly low level. Two days down, two more to go.