Dale Jr's new ride
F-18s practicing for the prerace show
Dale Jarrett's final race
Inspection
Jamie McMurray being interviewed (then a fuzzy zoom)
Bobby Labonte
Kasey Kahne
Saturday, March 29, 2008
race weekend
I went to Bristol a few weeks ago... but the only day I had tickets to the track was rained out! I had a ticket to Pole Day Friday... here are some pictures:
Dale Jr's new ride
F-18s practicing for the prerace show
Dale Jarrett's final race
Inspection
Jamie McMurray being interviewed (then a fuzzy zoom)
Bobby Labonte
Kasey Kahne
Dale Jr's new ride
F-18s practicing for the prerace show
Dale Jarrett's final race
Inspection
Jamie McMurray being interviewed (then a fuzzy zoom)
Bobby Labonte
Kasey Kahne
Saturday, March 08, 2008
more snow pictures
Here are some more snow pictures - this time, after the sun came out. Some of the prettiest snow pictures include the bluest sky... but the snow doesn't last long under that blue sky!
snow!
Since we’ve not seen snow in a while, I thought it’d be nice to remember some pointers:
First, make sure you don’t eat any yellow or dirty snow. Here are some examples of what I’m talking about:
First, make sure you don’t eat any yellow or dirty snow. Here are some examples of what I’m talking about:
Once you know what to look for...
...then you can enjoy the scenery...
...and have some fun!
Thursday, March 06, 2008
what the...
First of all, I don't understand the violence or the desire / will to kill someone. Don't get me wrong - I've known a handful of people that I think the world would be much better without - not to mention those "famous" pieces of crap that have left their mark on the world. But never would I be ok with actually pulling the trigger on someone who wasn't trying to kill me first.
Next, I don't understand why people still believe that "gun free zones" are safe and - gasp! - gun free. Since last April - not even a year! - we have had Virginina Tech , Louisiana Technical College, and Northern Illinois University. Now, in just two days, we have two more college students shot and killed on or near campus: the first at Auburn, the second at UNC - Chapel Hill.
I realize that these last two incidents are quite different from the first three, but I can't tell you how many times I had to walk across a large campus at night... early in the morning, late at night, whenever. Once, in broad daylight, I was followed by a bum for a couple of blocks when walking home from campus. I wasn't about to lead him to my apartment, so I went to a nearby Burger King. So did he. I went straight to the bathroom and stayed there for 10 minutes... luckily, he was gone by then. I was not on campus at the time, but I came from campus. Had I been able to carry, I may not have felt as helpless and afraid. I currently work on a college campus, and assume the position of "sitting duck" if someone came into by building with a gun. "Gun free zones" are only gun free for those who follow the rules. Doesn't anyone realize that criminals don't follow the rules?!? Why doesn't this make sense to otherwise sensible people?
Next, I don't understand why people still believe that "gun free zones" are safe and - gasp! - gun free. Since last April - not even a year! - we have had Virginina Tech , Louisiana Technical College, and Northern Illinois University. Now, in just two days, we have two more college students shot and killed on or near campus: the first at Auburn, the second at UNC - Chapel Hill.
I realize that these last two incidents are quite different from the first three, but I can't tell you how many times I had to walk across a large campus at night... early in the morning, late at night, whenever. Once, in broad daylight, I was followed by a bum for a couple of blocks when walking home from campus. I wasn't about to lead him to my apartment, so I went to a nearby Burger King. So did he. I went straight to the bathroom and stayed there for 10 minutes... luckily, he was gone by then. I was not on campus at the time, but I came from campus. Had I been able to carry, I may not have felt as helpless and afraid. I currently work on a college campus, and assume the position of "sitting duck" if someone came into by building with a gun. "Gun free zones" are only gun free for those who follow the rules. Doesn't anyone realize that criminals don't follow the rules?!? Why doesn't this make sense to otherwise sensible people?
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Friday, February 22, 2008
a three dog night
While last night was a three dog night, we managed to survive with only two. Here are just pictures of some rotten dogs (the extra one does, indeed, make three!):
Thursday, February 21, 2008
total eclipse of the...
I absolutely love astronomical events... not that I'm all that educated about them, but I love to witness them. Nature can really put on a good show, if we only tak the time to watch it!
Last night was a total eclipse of the moon. I watched off and on for about an hour and a half, going in and out (into an 11-degree night!)... after waiting about half an hour for the last sliver to disappear, I admit - I got impatient. So, the following pictures almost lead up to a total eclipse...
Here's one with a star in the lower lefthand corner... it looked cool on the camera, but not so much here! 
This one I took on a twilight setting... it really brought out the orange!
Thursday, February 07, 2008
American Chestnuts
The American Chestnut Cooperators Foundation is an organization committed to the restoration of the American Chestnut tree. The American Chestnut used to make up about 25% of America's eastern forests; unfortunately, they were basically wiped out in the early 1900s by the Chestnut blight.
The ACCF is trying to breed blight-resistance into their seeds, which individuals can request (along with a $20 donation to the ACCF, and a pledge to give an annual report on the status of the trees. There is another organization that has cross-bred an American Chestnut with a Chinese Chestnut (which supposedly has no issues with blight) to create a Chestnut tree that can survive long-term. However, they claimed ownership to all trees that individuals grow... so we went with the ACCF. Their trees are "all American" anyway... that's always better!
So, here we are, a century post-blight. Alpine and I have decided to try and replace a few of these lost trees... see if we can first, get them to grow, and second, help them to survive... but most importantly, see if they will grow to be blight-resistant!
Here are our seeds, started indoors a few weeks ago. My dad already has two sprouts (out of 10 also)... I just hope I have some success! I'm sure my dad's will do well - he has a wonderfully green thumb. Mine is pale, but I'm still hoping!
Updates to follow... wish us luck!
The ACCF is trying to breed blight-resistance into their seeds, which individuals can request (along with a $20 donation to the ACCF, and a pledge to give an annual report on the status of the trees. There is another organization that has cross-bred an American Chestnut with a Chinese Chestnut (which supposedly has no issues with blight) to create a Chestnut tree that can survive long-term. However, they claimed ownership to all trees that individuals grow... so we went with the ACCF. Their trees are "all American" anyway... that's always better!
So, here we are, a century post-blight. Alpine and I have decided to try and replace a few of these lost trees... see if we can first, get them to grow, and second, help them to survive... but most importantly, see if they will grow to be blight-resistant!
Here are our seeds, started indoors a few weeks ago. My dad already has two sprouts (out of 10 also)... I just hope I have some success! I'm sure my dad's will do well - he has a wonderfully green thumb. Mine is pale, but I'm still hoping!Updates to follow... wish us luck!
New cake
Here is the cake I made for my dad's birthday... he's a big Oklahoma fan! Too bad the helmet looks like it was hit by a train. My next cake will be a pirate cake with skuuuuls on it for my cousin. That should be fun!
Fly Away Home!
I've never seen the movie, but I've been privileged to see the real thing twice! Last year was purely by chance: I heard on the radio that morning that the whooping cranes would be flying over soon. After I got ready for work, I just looked outside by chance, and by george, there they were! This year, this leg of the flight was postponed a day for weather, so I was able to prepare a little better. I got some better pictures because of it... not great ones, but decent ones for sure. It's a good thing - the project may change the route of the migration because of the weather in Kentucky that time of year. They came through (literally right over our house!) on December 6, 2007... so, without further ado... enjoy!
(If you are interested in this migration project, visit their website: http://www.operationmigration.org/)
And a little video:
It's been a while...
I've thought many times about posting some stuff, but just don't. Alpine has inspired me to a point, but another friend has started posting again and has pushed me over the hump. So... I'm going to post a bunch of late stuff - forgive me. My sole reader (as opposed to my soul reader) has stopped reading, so let's see if he's completely written me off. =)
Monday, September 03, 2007
school work
Classes are back in full swing. I usually end up sharing some of my reading material with Alpine, whether he likes it or not... so in an effort to keep from bugging him to death, I'll just put it here. It's interesting stuff, especially when you really think about the big picture.
My reading comes from Diffusion of Innovations, 5th ed, by Everett M. Rogers. In a nutshell, we are studying change, and how decisions are made to accept change by an individual or an organization. Most of this is based on communication, whether among friends, strangers or the media. This is the section on the diffusion of news events (pg 75-77):
"News diffusion investigations focus mainly on tracing the spread of spectacularly important news events such as the assassination of a U.S. president, or a Norwegian prime minister; the launch of Sputnik or the Challenger disaster; or some other major world news event, such as the September 11 terrorist attacks. At such times, all the mass media virtually crackle with the excitement of the news."
"What happens next, as the news reaches the public and spreads from individual to individual, is the main concern of news diffusion scholars. These investigations show how important radio, television, newspaper, and interpersonal channels are in diffusing the news event, and how quickly such diffusion occurs: very rapidly, Deutschmann and Danielson (1960) found."
"Salience is the degree to which a news event is perceived as important by individuals. What determines this salience of a news event? The media convey to their audience strong clues about the degree to which media professionals judge an event to have high news value: whether a news story is given bulletin status (that is, by interrupting regular broadcasts), whether it appears in bold headlines or at the top of a news show, and the length of broadcast time or news space allotted to the news story. Audience individuals evaluate the news story on the basis of whether it concerns someone of celebrity status, such as "Magic" Johnson, the U.S. President, or the pop, whether it affects them directly in some way, and whether it has local implications."
And then we go to page 84, where the author discusses Social Marketing:
"We can force people to adopt certain innovations. For example, city and state governments enforce laws requiring motorcycle helmet use, automobile seat belts, and driving under a certain speed limit. Cigarette smoking is not permitted on domestic airlines in the United States, nor in restaurants and other public places in the many cities that have adopted no-smoking ordinances. In these cases, society has imposed its will on individual behavior. Such coercion in forcing behavior change is understandable not popular with certain members of the public. A different approach to effecting the adoption of innovations that can improve health, raise literacy levels, and extend life expectancy is social marketing, the application of commercial marketing strategies to the diffusion of nonprofit products and services.
Social marketing was launched more than fifty years ago with the rhetorical question 'Why can't you sell brotherhood like you sell soap?' (Wiebe, 1952). In recent decades, the social marketing approach has been applied to energy conservation, smoking cessation, safer driving, decreasing infant mortality, HIV/AIDS prevention, family planning, preventing drug and alcohol abuse, anti-littering campaigns, and improving nutrition. Often social marketing campaigns seek to convince people to do something that may be unpleasant. For instance, many Americans wish to lose weight, stop smoking, exercises, and floss their teeth, but they do not engage in the health behaviors. The main applications of social marketing are to change behaviors in directions desired by individuals whose actions are impeded by inertia or other factors."
So... next time you watch the news, pay attention. Realize and understand that someone else is impressing on you their opinion on what is important news... and furthermore, what is actually news. Also, notice the difference in terminology dealing with social marketing. First, the author says that forcing people to adopt certain innovations isn't popular among some people, but another way to achieve this is through social marketing. Hmmm... isn't it really the same thing? It seems to me that social marketing is subjective... for infant mortality, anti-littering campaigns, etc, that's social marketing because you can't really argue against those issues. Motorcycle helmets, seat belt use and speed limits, however, are "forcing", because there is an alternative choice there. Isn't there an alternative choice with the other issues, too? Sure, nobody wants babies to die... but what about those people who die because they were driving too fast? What about those motorcyclists who become vegetables because they didn't wear a helmet? I'm not suggesting that we should force people to wear their seat belts, but they sure know how to sugar-coat it to make the "innovation" more likely to succeed.
Moral of the story: think for yourself, and take responsibility for your own self. Then, we wouldn't have to "force" you to do what's best for you... or change the wording a little so you don't realize that you are being forced.
My reading comes from Diffusion of Innovations, 5th ed, by Everett M. Rogers. In a nutshell, we are studying change, and how decisions are made to accept change by an individual or an organization. Most of this is based on communication, whether among friends, strangers or the media. This is the section on the diffusion of news events (pg 75-77):
"News diffusion investigations focus mainly on tracing the spread of spectacularly important news events such as the assassination of a U.S. president, or a Norwegian prime minister; the launch of Sputnik or the Challenger disaster; or some other major world news event, such as the September 11 terrorist attacks. At such times, all the mass media virtually crackle with the excitement of the news."
"What happens next, as the news reaches the public and spreads from individual to individual, is the main concern of news diffusion scholars. These investigations show how important radio, television, newspaper, and interpersonal channels are in diffusing the news event, and how quickly such diffusion occurs: very rapidly, Deutschmann and Danielson (1960) found."
"Salience is the degree to which a news event is perceived as important by individuals. What determines this salience of a news event? The media convey to their audience strong clues about the degree to which media professionals judge an event to have high news value: whether a news story is given bulletin status (that is, by interrupting regular broadcasts), whether it appears in bold headlines or at the top of a news show, and the length of broadcast time or news space allotted to the news story. Audience individuals evaluate the news story on the basis of whether it concerns someone of celebrity status, such as "Magic" Johnson, the U.S. President, or the pop, whether it affects them directly in some way, and whether it has local implications."
And then we go to page 84, where the author discusses Social Marketing:
"We can force people to adopt certain innovations. For example, city and state governments enforce laws requiring motorcycle helmet use, automobile seat belts, and driving under a certain speed limit. Cigarette smoking is not permitted on domestic airlines in the United States, nor in restaurants and other public places in the many cities that have adopted no-smoking ordinances. In these cases, society has imposed its will on individual behavior. Such coercion in forcing behavior change is understandable not popular with certain members of the public. A different approach to effecting the adoption of innovations that can improve health, raise literacy levels, and extend life expectancy is social marketing, the application of commercial marketing strategies to the diffusion of nonprofit products and services.
Social marketing was launched more than fifty years ago with the rhetorical question 'Why can't you sell brotherhood like you sell soap?' (Wiebe, 1952). In recent decades, the social marketing approach has been applied to energy conservation, smoking cessation, safer driving, decreasing infant mortality, HIV/AIDS prevention, family planning, preventing drug and alcohol abuse, anti-littering campaigns, and improving nutrition. Often social marketing campaigns seek to convince people to do something that may be unpleasant. For instance, many Americans wish to lose weight, stop smoking, exercises, and floss their teeth, but they do not engage in the health behaviors. The main applications of social marketing are to change behaviors in directions desired by individuals whose actions are impeded by inertia or other factors."
So... next time you watch the news, pay attention. Realize and understand that someone else is impressing on you their opinion on what is important news... and furthermore, what is actually news. Also, notice the difference in terminology dealing with social marketing. First, the author says that forcing people to adopt certain innovations isn't popular among some people, but another way to achieve this is through social marketing. Hmmm... isn't it really the same thing? It seems to me that social marketing is subjective... for infant mortality, anti-littering campaigns, etc, that's social marketing because you can't really argue against those issues. Motorcycle helmets, seat belt use and speed limits, however, are "forcing", because there is an alternative choice there. Isn't there an alternative choice with the other issues, too? Sure, nobody wants babies to die... but what about those people who die because they were driving too fast? What about those motorcyclists who become vegetables because they didn't wear a helmet? I'm not suggesting that we should force people to wear their seat belts, but they sure know how to sugar-coat it to make the "innovation" more likely to succeed.
Moral of the story: think for yourself, and take responsibility for your own self. Then, we wouldn't have to "force" you to do what's best for you... or change the wording a little so you don't realize that you are being forced.
Sunday, August 26, 2007
living history video
Saturday night, they had a nighttime artillery firing. First, if you've never been to a civil war reenactment, you should probably go - just once. Second, if you've never heard a cannon fire, that would be well worth it. To desensitize, you should stand behind it the first time. Then stand to the side for a totally different experience. If you shoot guns, you know what I mean! Last, if you haven't seen a cannon fire at night, that was well worth it. I've been to several reenactments, and this is the first time I've ever seen a nighttime cannon fire. The only thing that could come out of my mouth after the first shots was "Whoa." Enjoy the video!
living history
This weekend, Alpine, his mom and I went to the civil war reenactment of the Battle of Richmond in Kentucky. Here are some pictures from the weekend... enjoy!
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