Worlds Beyond Rittman Photography Blog: rc jones

Monday, December 29, 2008

Miracles, Assholes, and Other Stuff from 2008

Rittman Tear-jerking extremes the likes of which have since puked on me fill a huge portion of my worlds beyond Rittman 2008. In the dramatic category, deceitful promises, a ridiculous attitude, and a couple other jerkwads pull an unquestionable sweep. The blow-your-top category stars a freak who placed my daughter's image on a pro-pedophile website, and thanks to his website host, he then placed my name, address, email, and phone number on some hard-core underground pedophile websites. Education at home and work rank top in stressors; the afore mentioned jerkwads bring up the rear at third. Volunteer opportunities, photography, faith, war, and a little boy graduating fill some of the gaps. Inspired by Otis at Rapid Eye Reality, here is my year-ender.

For Unto Us a Child is Born

What can I say? Really. If you have a child you know. The Good, the Bad, and The Beautiful chronicles the birth of our latest from the perspective of daddy. It was different this time, not greater or less than last, just different. Here are the photos. We actually have video of the whole thing. We haven't watched it. Oh, and ya know all those people who tell you that the second one is cake after the first? Liars. The whole lot of them.

Favorite Video Project: My Daughter Being Hannah Montana

Favorite Toy: The VuPoint negative scanner that Santa gave me

Favorite Guilty Pleasure: Facebook

The RC Jones Chronicles

Although I promised my wife that I would no longer blog about our construction project, I'm claiming an exemption. I simply can't write about 2008 without mentioning our perfect and wonderful home improvement experience with Jimmy Hoffa, Ed Norton's Aaron Stampler (sans ending revelation), Hale-ly Davidson and the rest of the merry crew at RC Jones and JD Hale construction companies. I don't have a title for the movie, but tag line will be something along the lines of, "Without Lube". The saga will continues.

Surprises of the Year: Providing my skills in a volunteer capacity gives me a great deal of satisfaction; My sister-in-law getting baptized; Growing a full beard for the first time in my life.

Memorable Moment (aside from the birth of my second child): Getting a press pass to photograph Barak Obama when he visited Clemson University

Attacking Those Who Lust After Children

Website stats allowed me to discover that a stolen image of my daughter graced the pages of a pro-pedophile website. Rather than tracking down this person who can only be described as a freak and sticking a knife in his heart, I complained to his website host, Softlayer Technologies. Softlayer did the right thing and took down the site. They also made a horrible ethical decision by giving my complete contact information to this pedo-sicko who subsequently posted it for all pedophiles to see on core.onion, an underground secure web portal. I also launched a verbal attack on these "child rights" advocates so that other parents can glimpse into the true mind of a pedophile.

Events of the Year - The Lake Eden Arts Festival & Brookwood Church 15th Anniversary

Word of the Year - Accountability

Interesting Music Find - Zack Deputy

Reading, Writing, and Propaganda

I continue to be amazed at the capacity for which a child can learn. Along with this learning comes homework, much more homework than I ever remember having as a child. Although completely necessary, this additional homework three nights a week added a great deal of stress to the family. However, it's paying off. My child can now read and spell much better than I could at that age. She can also surf the net and kick my butt in Wii bowling. The propaganda part comes into play with my career. I work in higher education. One task this year was to, "come up with one of those award-winning videos that the kids can understand." Believe It is the result.

Favorite Blogs: The Daly Briefing | Rapid Eye Reality | Live Apartment Fire

Favorite Concert: Yonder Mountain String Band

Getting Old: Here are some of the facts:
My nephew was two-years-old when I moved to Gvegas. He graduated from high school this year.
I'm about one year shy of the age that my father was when he died. This has brought to my life a great deal of perspective over the last year.
I no longer have the capacity to drink more than one shot of liquor.
My Wii Fit age is 47.

Creativity: My passion for photography has returned, and I've transformed my blog into (mostly) a photoblog. I'm also leading my church Photo Ministry.

Favorite Photos: The Good, The Bad, and the Beautiful | Baby Leaf | Mother's Finest | Icky Pumpkin | The LEAF in Black Mountain North Carolina

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A Cosbyesque Image
LEAF HDR
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Do You Know Your Photojournalism?

Monday, July 28, 2008

RC Jones Company of Greenville, SC: A Woeful Home Improvement Experience?

RC Jones provides home and commercial improvement, repair and restoration. My experience with the RC Jones Company of Greenville South Carolina: A review of experiences, promises, and contract issues.

The memory is so clear. My wife was very uncomfortable while we strolled the isles of the annual home and commercial improvement, repair and restoration trade show. The RC Jones Company booth caught her attention long enough to distract the now ever-present YOU-DID-THIS-TO-ME vibe that all dads-to-be must endure.

John, the salesman, said the right things. An appointment was made. The caveat was apparent; we may have to cancel due to circumstances beyond our control. That caveat turned out to be a beautiful gift from God. We rescheduled.

I tried to not to like him. That ingrown man thing just kept pounding me to believe that John was nothing more than a plate of chicken wings and a cold beer to imbibe when I pleased. Cut emotions. Do not trust. Think. Question. Protect. Do not trust. C'mon, ya gotta give me a break on this one. All guys do it. It's a protection issue. This is a HUGE amount of money for us. If handled improperly it could severely cripple our family for years to come.

RC Jones Company Construction Woes Could Lead to a $100,000 mistake. My experience with the RC Jones Company of Greenville South Carolina: A review of experiences, promises, and contract issues.

Well, as it turned out, we both loved John.

He had brilliant ideas. His credentials were great. I had no doubt that he knew what he was doing. He told us that he, specifically, would be the project manager on this account and that we wouldn't have to move out of our house. With that, the deal was sealed. Although minutia fell within the details, the short of it is that we had the home and plans inspected, got the loan, signed the contract and gave a $10,000 deposit.

If you've ever watched Vh1 Behind The Music, this is the part where the lead singer gets hooked on heroin. (cue: dark, depressing music)

As soon as the deposit was signed and handed over, communication all but stopped. Phone calls went unanswered for days. Promised beginning dates lapsed. The excuse was that the company was waiting on the permits. ...and here we go.

I called city hall to check on the permits. They'd been ready for almost two weeks. I called (and emailed and texted) John, leaving my new-found information for him. Guess what? He called back. The work began the following Monday. Imagine that.

The rc jones is not providing what was promised to my family. My experience with the RC Jones Company of Greenville South Carolina: A review of experiences, promises, and contract issues.

My precious little girl is now nearly six-months old. My back yard is partially destroyed and littered with construction debris. My deck has been ripped off the side of my house and left to sit in my driveway. I'm paying a much higher construction loan interest rate while nothing happens. Phone calls for the past two weeks have gone unanswered. An unfinished exterior wall sits at the center of it all.

Coming Soon: Part two of my experience with RC Jones of Greenville, SC. Actually, RC Jones is based out of Mauldin, SC. Here is a tease: The thing that sealed the deal was John telling us that he would be our project manager and that we wouldn't have to move out of our house. We trusted him, me begrudgingly. The footer laid. The wall goes up. Work stops. My wife called the company owner after two weeks of phone calls not being returned. It seems that John no longer works for the company. I wonder when RC Jones Company was going to enlighten us with this tidbit of information? ...to be continued.

(Editor's Note) We are the target audience for home improvement, repair and restoration companies such as The R.C. Jones Company. We are of the right age and income. I understand that such a target audience tends to find product and service references via the Internet. My review is not intended as one of malicious intent, but only as a truthful review of promise, service and contract with the RC Jones Company. I will continue to update the RC Jones Chronicles with the experiences of my family, as we see them, over the coming months and until the project is complete. The RC Jones Company provides home improvements and commercial improvement, repair, restoration, construction, and several other similar services. They are based out of Mauldin, SC, and service cities surrounding the Greenville, Spartanburg, Simpsonville and Anderson South Carolina markets. The J.D. Hale Company (JD Hale, Co) is a wholly owned subsidiary of the RC Jones Company. Jim Hale is the owner of the RC Jones Company. JD Hale construction company advertises using the following words: Build Remodel Roofing.