An ex-Air Force broadcaster, transplanted Oregonian, die-hard Portland Trail Blazers fan and Christian living in Springfield, Missouri.
Hi Mom!
In honor of this Mother’s Day, in addition to the gift you received from me earlier, I would like to present this YouTube video to you. Mr. T taught me once to treat you with love and respect and every time I would sass you, I would look at this video.
No, it is not a rickroll. That would be cruel on Mother’s Day.
Enjoy! Love you Mom.
A Christian music legend is gone today. Here’s the report from my employer:
MOUNT VERNON — Gospel singer-songwriter Joyce “Dottie” Rambo died early today when the bus she was in ran off a road in southwest Missouri and struck an embankment.
Rambo, 74, of Nashville, Tenn., died in the crash about two miles east of Mount Vernon on Interstate 44, the Missouri State Highway Patrol said. Seven other people in the bus were injured, including a 3-year-old boy and an 8-year-old boy, and were hospitalized in Springfield with moderate to severe injuries, the patrol said.
It was unclear if the accident, which occurred about 2 a.m., was weather-related, the patrol said. Severe storms and tornadoes hit the region about 6 p.m. Saturday, killing 14 people. Sustained winds and storms swept through the area later in the night, according to the National Weather Service.
“She was a giant in the gospel music industry,” said Beckie Simmons, Rambo’s agent. “Dolly Parton recorded some of her songs.”
She was on her way to a Mother’s Day performance in Texas, according to her Web site. Last month, she performed at churches in Springfield and was scheduled to apper on the Jim Bakker Show in Branson in July.
Rambo was inducted to the Kentucky Music Hall of Fame in 2006 and the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2007.
Rambo had more than 2,500 published songs, including gospel classics such as “He Looked Beyond My Fault and Saw My Need” and the 1982 Gospel Music Association Song of the Year, “We Shall Behold Him.”
Very sad news, even for non-southern gospel fans such as myself. There’s no denying the powerful impact her ministry had and it’s really weird to think her death will probably end up being included in the storm totals that took 20 other lives yesterday.
I tackled my first week as the video reporter at the News-Leader with more anticipation and excitement than for any other job (as I’m sure the photo above shows, that’s me in the parking lot).
Now a bunch of you are thinking “wait, what is a newspaper doing getting involved with video?” Good question — but when you think about how valuable an information clearinghouse that the Internet has become, the N-L has done a pretty good job of harnessing it and using the ‘Net to deliver all sorts of content. That would include video, something obviously you can’t see in a newspaper. Video and the paper go hand-in-hand and I think they feed off each other.
Anyhew, back to the main topic…
Of course, getting a new job also means orientations and procedural stuff you have to go through, but that was minimal and I was able to work more than train this week, which was great.
My first shoot for the N-L involved going to Millwood Golf Club — a gorgeous golf course out by Highland Springs and just down the road from James River Assembly — to shoot a few golf tips with renowned golf entertainer Dan Boever. The guy is hilarious and he had some pretty sound advice…the only problem with the shoot was, it started pouring just before noon, so we shot a few more takes then went into the pub to eat and talk college sports.
The Pub at Millwood has some nice tea, and their burger was absolutely ridiculously good. I’d recommend it to anyone who’s at the links for a grand ole time.
My next shoot was Thursday, and I went into work a little early to shoot a voiceover for a shooting at a car wash in the southeast side of town, a place that’s not normally known for gun crime. Of course, the news media here flocked to it — fortunately only KY3 was there, doing their noon live shot while I was shooting my B-roll.
I also had another shoot, but you’ll have to wait until next week to find out what it is. It’s in the can waiting to be popped open for next weekend.
Aside from shooting I made myself at home in the office, and worked at creating some Avid tutorials and some new templates for titles, lower thirds and all of that juicy goodness.
I’m looking forward to next week…and the week after that, and the week after that…it’s gonna be good.
This might be the most interesting thing to happen to the Seattle Mariners all year.
What a pathetic 2008 MLB season. All my teams suck this season.
That being said, I heard tonight that the Mariners are partnering with Women Against Abuse in a noble effort to speak out against domestic violence against the female gender. They have also pledged to go the extra mile by promising not to hit anything themselves, and that includes baseballs during MLB games.
I have also heard that the M’s are trading a couple of highly touted minor league prospects to be named later to Bed, Bath and Beyond for a stack of white, navy blue and teal towels to commemorate their 2008 season.
The Daily News of Longview, Washington invited members of the Rainier School Board and people behind the effort to recall them, to an editorial board meeting at the paper’s office yesterday.
According to TDN, the Rainier school board members present were Dale Archibald, Bill Scholten, Penny Blahm and Rod Harding. TDN editor Cal FitzSimmons, Opinion editor Jim Bross and reporter Barbara LaBoe represented TDN at the meeting.
Kudos to TDN for providing this session’s audio to the community…and you can find it here.
My take on the audio:
Cal FitzSimmons and the TDN reporters asked the school board members some very pointed questions and it was obvious they were doing their best to inform the community of the board’s motives. They succeeded in my opinion.
Dale Archibald could have been a little bit kinder in his responses to FitzSimmons’ questions about Superintendent Michael Carter being placed over Jeff Gilbert to supervise his plan of assistance when the board placed Carter on one himself. Archibald seemed to settle down later on, but I got the feeling he was a bit uncomfortable during the entire interview.
Penny Blahm and Rod Harding are to be commended for their collected demeanor and hard hitting responses to the questions asked of them.
Bill Scholten spoke from the viewpoint of someone who has recently had children in the Rainier School District, and it was refreshing to hear him speak with candor…you could tell he was coming not from just the perspective of a board member, but from a concerned parent.
Many other thoughts and I will post more of them after I listen to the audio again. I may have to wait until the video is posted.
To summarize:
Even though I am still in support of a full recall, I give props to the members of the board who were present at the meeting. They stated their case very well and it was bush-league on the part of those supporting the recall not to send anyone although TDN invited them.
Granted, more than 500 signatures were collected for the recall ballots and yes, all six members will be recalled, but since no one from the recall effort showed up to the editorial board meeting, the ball is now in their court to provide the public a clear reason as to why they are recalling six of seven school board members.
It is getting very ugly in Rainier right now. I wish it could all be over soon, the board recalled and let’s get on with educating our children with a clean slate for the community.
I use the Internet daily…it’s a part of life for my job, my hobbies, and just to dink around on for a bit. Can’t go a day without visiting the Drudge Report, Digg, The Daily News, News-Leader.com (of course now that I’m working for them), Oregon Media Insiders and Jude 2.
I also can’t, unfortunately, go a day without seeing a bunch of common spelling errors across the Internet, and for some reason they really get on my nerves. For example, if someone is talking about how someone was involved in a car accident and how it messed them up, they’ll type something like this:
“Joe got in a wreck and it effected his hearing pretty bad.”
Or how about swapping it’s and its:
“Its a real fun time playing football. Our team celebrated it’s 20th year today, in fact.”
And finally, one of my favorites, misspelling definitely:
“I definatly agree that President Bush is the worst president of the 21st century so far.”
STUFF LIKE THIS MAKES ME MAD! Go back to the third grade, do not pass go and definitely do not collect $200.
Anyone else out there annoyed by horrible spelling and grammar usage? If so, give me some rather humorous examples.
Jason, it’s on like Donkey Kong Galaga.
I hereby challenge you publicly to a duel of epic proportions, to be held at 1984 in downtown Springfield at a date that will not eat into both of our work and church schedules. We shall throw down on Galaga and see who comes out victorious.
The loser must pay for the other person’s coffee/food at the Coffee Ethic, and will also be forced to park at least ten blocks away as punishment for having lost the game. (Oh wait, scratch that, that’s how downtown parking is anyway.)
After my Blogaroni prediction victory over you, I shall prevail once again in an epic Galaga battle. This shall be the sight you will see three times in the match of death:
Accept the challenge or prepare to be called a coward on thy wedding day in front of God and all the witnesses.
Curt Cook, the Associate Pastor of James River Assembly, shared a good word yesterday of how Jesus warned against false prophets and false doctrine in the church. He encouraged everyone to look to the Word and pray for guidance, and to live our lives full on for Jesus yet be aware of spiritual attacks from not only those outside our Christian circles but within as well.
I was particularly interested in a great example Pastor Curt brought up, and he basically denounced the Emergent church movement that has been sweeping America lately. He (correctly) called it a postmodern, relativist movement with no absolutes to stand on. You can hear the message below, and his warning against the Emergent church is about 1/3 of the way through.
The Emergent church reference in yesterday’s service eerily reminded me of a post I wrote roughly a month or two ago as a rebuke to postmodernist Christians. Only his points were more thought out where mine were an amalgamation of thoughts stemming from righteous frustration against phony “Christian” garbage.
Pastor Curt didn’t just denounce the Emergent church though, as he only used it as an example in his sermon in which the broader message was to spiritually beware of Satan trying to undermine one’s faith. He strongly encouraged everyone to respect the inerrancy of Scripture and its truth over building relationships…building relationships and community is necessary, but if truth and absolutes aren’t a higher priority then there is no basis for any relationship to stand on.
I thoroughly enjoyed the entire duration of the message and I will provide an embedded player for it below.
Also in my blogroll I have added a link to Pastor John Lindell’s new blog. He’s WordPressin’ it too!
Sandwiched on the 3rd day of the month in between May Day and Cinco de Mayo, the city of Republic today held its 5th Annual May Day 5K. My brother Jason and I were willing participants and he outran me like a wide receiver outruns a slow, fat defensive lineman.
Honestly, after having not run a full competitive 5K (just a little over three miles) since 2000, and not even remotely being in running shape, I still finished it in what I believe to be under 25 minutes and Jason beat me by about a minute or more.
It was fun, and it also kicks off an effort for me in which I will try to run at least three times a week. We’ll see how long that lasts.
Jason and I played basketball against each other tonight.
Seriously, it had been six years since we had done this. I think it was summer of 2002. I had just graduated from high school, possessed a freakish leaping and running ability, and had a limited yet passable set of skills in the game of basketball. I remember beating up on him and Branden Blumenthal in the Kelso COGOP parking lot.
But oh, how times have changed.
His shot took awhile for him to warm up, and initially I believed him when he said he hadn’t played basketball in three or four years. You could have made the backboard worth two points and he still would have been shut out for the first three or so shots. But he finally got with the program and started draining weird shots and so we played a game to 15, by 1, win by 2.
I drove the lane on him a few times, then started to play a little softer and took outside jumpers, which I still hit somehow, and opened up an 8-4 lead. Just when I thought I would coast to victory, he starts draining two-pointers (three-pointers in a real game) all over the place and in my face, and he’s up 13-9 before I could catch my breath.
A layup and two-pointer later, I caught up to him at 13-12 but allowed him to sneak in for a layup putting him one point away from victory. Improbably, I hit a two-pointer for a 14-14 tie and we each played each other tight on the perimeter.
The score went 15-14, 15-16, 17-16, 17-18, 19-18 then 19-19. Crazy because 15 was supposed to be the game, but ya gotta win by 2, so this game went forever.
He and I both clanked a few two-pointers off the rim, for we each wanted to win the game with one shot. Finally I hit a two with him running at me, to win it 21-19 and I’m sure if we played to 40 we still would have ended up tied.
Jason did pretty well, and I have to say that if he got better by not playing for three years, I’m going on hiatus starting now.
Anyone wanna go see the Springfield Cardinals play at 6 tomorrow — er, today?
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