If I Had Possession

Seeing as how father’s day is but a few days away, I think that it’s time for me to make a list of those things that I want. I’m speaking neither about theology and/or faith nor those things that are simply impossible, such as Otis dressing less gay or GROB having trustworthy integrity. This list is made of nothing more than wanted material possessions with an midland or higher ooh-aah cool factor.

1) Google - Yes, that's right. I want to own Google. The company has so many cool things that they simply give away. I like giving away cool stuff. The link will take you to Google Labs.

2) EzVision Video eyewear - Seems pretty darn cool to me.

3) iPhone - Have you seen the latest ads? The link is to one of them.

4) Mac Pro - I have one at work but I want one for home. It's like the ultimate computer and can be upgraded for years to come.

5) A Wired Home - Imagine every electric object in your home integrated wirelessly, controlled by one remote and accessible/controllable via the Internet. You could check from your phone whether you left the iron on and then take the necessary steps at the press of a button, or have an email alert if a something strange is happening.

6) One Massive Hard Drive - This kinda goes hand-in-hand with the above. It would be used to store every photo, movie, song, document and the like. On a properly networked system, these items could be accessible via the Internet and/or a LAN. No more paper and no more CD/DVD!

7) Nikon D2X Camera with a Nikkor DX 10.5 mm Fisheye Lens - No real story here. I just like taking good photos with great equipment.

8) Sony HDR-FX7 HD Handycam - High Def prosumer video in a small package. Very cool!

9) Bose Lifestyle 48 Home Entertainment System - I can't imagine better sound. However, I'd like to wait until they come up with a version that has a Blu-Ray DVD player.

10) Eric Clapton's 1964 Gibson ES-335 - One of the greatest guitar players playing one of the greatest guitars. I want it.

So there ya go. This now ends my greedy materialist rant.

Please Welcome The New Irish Bubba

Jack William Reilly. What? Are we in Camelot here? Am I kin (or close to kin) to the 2044 presidential candidate? How wicked cool is that. Or maybe, as Jay might hope, Jackie-boy could be an upcoming replacement for Mike Lowell. Who knows? Seeing as how the boy ain’t yet 24-hours old, maybe I should set my hopes on seeing him and his happily astounded parents home from the hospital safely.

There are very few words of wisdom, if any, which can prepare my buddy and his wife for the times to come. Inconsolable crying seemingly without reason isn’t logical and is very hard with which to cope. New babies cry a lot, too.

So to my friends I say a few things. These are not words of wisdom, but certainties.

Trying to describe the changes in your lives beginning right now is energy worthlessly spent.

• Soon you will be peed on, and you’ll laugh.
• Your decision to handle the present situation is the best…(uh, sans shaking).
• Babies cry inconsolably at times because they have to expend their energy. It’s the only thing that they know how to do aside from eating and pooping.
• When it comes to loving or holding your baby, too much is never an answer.
• The complexity of growth and simplicity of a child will make you ponder your beliefs.
• News stories about a child being harmed will illicit a new emotional meaning of rage and sorrow.
• Your appreciation for your parents will drastically increase.
• Your spouse’s business trip is no longer bachelor/bachelorette time.
• The aroma of milk poop will become synonymous in your mind with being home.
• Regardless of current size, you will need to go purchase a new hard drive for all of the digital photos and video.
• Your protective instinct is very empowering
• Having the grandparents baby sit, however often, isn’t taking advantage of them.
• Scheduling a date night with your spouse, beginning right now, is unbelievable important.
• You will soon understand the meaning of true, unconditional love.

An unexplainable space/time continuum force is about to enter your realm. The phenomenon is known in parental circles as T6O4O9M8U4C84H7S4H5I4T. It’s a force that acts very much like a black hole. It will find any randomly passing square inch of open space and suck it into an exponentially shrinking environment.

The paradox lies within what your eye sees and the actually math equaling the square footage of your home. It all looks and measure the same, but your living space continues to disappear day by day.

I’m currently working on my own equation to contradict this force but have yet to make substantial progress. So far I have SqFt>M=M+C2trashcan
M=T6O4O9M8U4C84H7S4H5I4T

Tag, I'm It

It’s a blog game where writers eTag one another. It is then responsible to write about certain aspects of It’s life that certain others may or may not know. It is also responsible for tagging several others. I doubt I’ll do that.

Now that I’m It, I’m going to write about me, not that I don’t really write about me every other time. My spin on the game is going to be a little bit different. Considering that life is significant, I’m going to dribble monumental moments that have certainly impacted my life. I’ll probably forget one or two, but I’ll get most of them. So hold on to your hats because here we go:

• Born - Same year that man 1st walked on the moon; Woodstock; Hillary and Norgay made it to the top
• Sometime between day one and year seven – Met for the first time soon-to-be life-long friend, Fluid
• ’77ish-‘78ish – Met for the first time soon-to-be life-long friend, Popeye
• ’77ish-‘78ish – Parents divorced
• ’79 – Parents remarried
• ’80 – Father died; Brother moved to college; Mom working full-time
• ’81-‘82 – Met for the first time soon-to-be life-long friends, Crad, Brew
• ’82-’83 - Met for the first time soon-to-be life-long friends, Cerra
• ‘83 – Accepted God as my savior; became a member of the RUMC - I believed , but had an understanding of a teen. A point made obvious by several of the following.
• ’84 – 1st use of adult beverages, and got caught - Cerra, RB, Popeye, Def Leppard
• ’84 – Suzuki Shuttle, my moped
• ’84 – 1st kiss-JS; First time I ever felt a girl's boobie, Shannon (someone) from Doylestown
• ’84 – High school freshman
• ’84-‘85 – 1st smoke, both the brown leaf and the green leaf
• '85 - Got busted by RHS for smoking pot, suspended for one week
  
• ’85 – First Concert, Motley Crue w/ Y&T opening
• ’86 – Lost a status with the help of JS
• ’86 – 10-0 football season, 1st long-range goal successfully accomplished as part of a team
• ‘86 – My mother remarried, BF
• ’87 – Graduated High School; Began College
• ’87 - Met for the first time soon-to-be life-long friends, TF, VW
• '88 - Worked at Stone Lab, an island in Lake Erie
  
• ’88 – First long-term girlfriend – TB
• ’88 – Obtained my first real job at the Faculty Club
• '89 - TB and I drove to the Grand Canyon, worked as wait staff at the Bright Angle Lodge for the summer
  
• ’90 - ’91 - Met for the first time soon-to-be life-long friend, LM
• ’90 – Popeye starts college and we move in together
• ’91 – Met for the first time my nephew - TW
• ’91 – First Grateful Dead Show
• ’92 – 1st true broken heart - TB
• ’92 - Graduated from College (struggle!); moved to Gvl, S.C. and in with my brother, his wife, and his two kids; Met for the first time my niece - KW
• ’92 – Obtained my first professional position at WYFF; Met and started dating Kimberly
• ’92 - Met for the first time soon-to-be life-long friend, MD
• ’92 – Met for the first time my future wife, PH
• ’93 - Met for the first time soon-to-be life-long friend, JR
• ’93 – Cousin, KW, killed in a car accident
• ‘94 – Started dating my future wife
• ‘95 – Started shooting TV News
• ‘95 – Windows 95; first computer;
• '95 - Jerry Garcia dies
  
• ‘95 – Met for the first time a person that would later help cause havoc in my life, EJS
• ’96 – 1st award for photojournalism
• ’96 – Moved in with PH
• ’98 – Married PH; 1st time home owner
• ’99 – 1st Emmy Award– Collaborative Effort
• ’99 - Met for the first time soon-to-be life-long friends, MB, BW
• ’00 – 2nd Emmy Award – Best Photography
• ’00 – Switched positions at WYFF from photojournalism to web-based journalism
• ’00 – ’01 - Met for the first time soon-to-be life-long friends, TG, GD
• ’01 – Entered the field of public relations, a local hospital
• ’02 – My first digital camera
• ’02 – Diagnosed with ADD & HD – drastically over medicated, extremely life-changing, opening of a new world
• ’02 – My angle was born
• ’02 – Joined Brookwood Church
• ’03 – My first recognition of possibly being over medicated on adderall
• ’03 – A year of firsts, mostly dealing with shame, embarrassment and GHS; fixed medication issues
• 03 - Purchased my first personal video camera
  
• ’03 – Beginning of a long journey to fix that which was broken in my life
• ’04 – New Job - 1st PR agency job - resigned after four months
• ‘05 – PW's dad dies
• ’05 – New job – Editor and Chief of Upfront Publishing, former publishers of three magazines, laid-off
• ’05 – New Job – Public Relations Clemson University; began a quest for knowledge dealing with all things computer, digital, and communication; my 1st digital SLR
• '06 - Started my own personal website
  
• '06 - Joined a men's small group at my church
  
• ’06 – Gman dies, video
  
• '07 - Started Blogging
  
• Today – Happy Birthday to Me

By the way, the photo above is the house in which I grew up, 147 Grandview Blvd.

The Illusion of Growing Up…and a Big Tornado

The Graduate:
I am the very proud father of a graduate. Amongst a large mix of gleaming grandparents, crying pre Ks and frazzled but pleased parents, the Overbrook Baptist Church preschoolers took to the stage Thursday singing a mix of traditionals before teachers handed out graduate certificates.

I can’t believe that at the end of this summer my little girl will be going to big school. Right now she’s on-the-books for Mitchell Rd. Elementary.

I’m still hoping for Stone Academy. We’re 3rd on the list to get in. As a graduating present, Mom and Dad gave REW her own (Wal-Mart special) digital camera. Surprisingly, it works fairly well. She’s thrilled…as am I.


Visions or Illusions:
The things that I take for granted are amazing to me, and it’s take a child to make me understand.

The RER clan, REW and I made a quick trip to Greer Family Days last Saturday. Both Otis and I spent about $30 on $5 worth of food before spending another $7 to ride the jumpy things.

Who knew that God was about to go bowling after the first bouncing fiesta?

Our first refuge seemed great until we discovered the wind was blowing in our direction. The brick overhand didn’t help much. We then darted across to the shallow awning of the Greer Citizen.

This is where we stood for the next ½ hour making reference to Caddy Shack and joking about the citizenry of the town while rain torrents rotated to pesky drizzles and back again.

Otis the Younger learned to mimic the fearful sounds of REW after each major clap despite his daddy’s pleas to raise the arms in victory and then punch it home. Having a daughter, it’s always fun for me when a friend’s male child exhibits girly traits.

Digressing: Most adults would wash the day with a stroke of bad luck. The treat actually came after the rain. After nearly five years of reading in various books about them, REW saw a rainbow for the first time. I think it was probably The Younger’s first as well.

Judging from REW’s expressions, I would have to conclude that the prismatic colors are both visions and illusions…at the cost of $74.



On a Completely Different Note - Before and After:
Pictures are many words, but I’m going to give you a few words anyway. If you’ve been dead to the world for the last couple of weeks, you may not have heard.

A large tornado caused extensive damage in Greensburg, Kansas on May 4th. Okay, large is a bit of an understatement. Reports claim that the tornado was 1.5 miles wide. ONE POINT FIVE MILES WIDE!

Imagine a destructive whirling mass filled with cows and cars, light posts, two by fours and aunt Janet’s dentures rapidly advancing on your position.

I can only imagine that it sounded like a freight train traveling through my back yard.

However, I don’t have to imagine the destructive force. These before and after photos give me a pretty good mental image.

Hey Joe Died

It was me a hundred times over during the course of nearly ten years in the TV news industry. Somewhere on a highway shooting the scene of an accident was where I cut my teeth, or at least learned how to always white balance. When the weather was bad and driver visibility lessened was when I was dispatched the most.

I once did a 11p live shot in the sleet/rain on I-385 at the intersection of I-85. We were stationed at the apex of a blind hill so we could get microwave reception. The on-coming drivers saw nothing until cresting. They would then be blinded by the frezzi on my camera and any extra lights I could set up before deadline. Mix in with the weather and the bright lights the ohhh & ahhh factor of a big TV news van and a reporter. What you get is nothing but a journalists’ nightmare.

To me his name was Hey Joe. That’s what I said every single time I called the assignment desk at Fox Carolina. The response was always the same; a semi-husky and friendly tone of, “Hey Tim, what’s going on? How are ya?”

Joe Loy was one of those embedded Upstate journalists with nearly an entire career covering local news. Like most journalist that work in this market for more than five years, Joe knew everyone…and their phone numbers. He knew how to get from here to there no matter either location. He understood news and he understood Upstate news. There is a difference. He was a very sweet man who always had time for conversation, and he always cared, or at least seemed to care, about the hack pitch du jour.

Joe worked the assignment desk at Fox but would pick up a camera from time to time. He was certainly no stranger to it. While covering the subsequent gawker wreck of a major accident on I-85 in Spartanburg County yesterday, an impatient driver recklessly cut off a van along that stretch of highway. The van driver overcompensated trying to keep his vehicle out of danger. Investigators are uncertain right now if the van hit Joe or if it slammed into the news vehicle and the news vehicle hit Joe.

I wonder if the impatient driver was hurrying home to see his kids. Joe has kids, too. I’m sure the driver learned this information on the 11p news last night. He certainly didn’t stick around scene to find out. When the police find him (or her) and take him to jail, I wonder if his kids will miss their father. I also wonder if this man (or, again, woman) has enough integrity to step up to the plate and turn himself in. I wonder if he even knows it’s his time to bat or did his impatiens leave him blind to everything that happened, everything except that which was in front of him.

Joe died doing that for which his professional life was dedicated. He will be deeply missed.

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