My sweet parking spot at the Littleton Circuit City at Wadsworth and Belleview.
0 comments
Black Friday has begun. A line stretches from the front door, around the west side of the building, and out to the street. Somehow, I managed a killer parking spot. Doors open in 5 minutes.
0 comments
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Getting closer to 30 I am... amazing how much like 13 I still feel. The world is a young place these days. When I was in grade school looking at the adults around me, I always wondered if I would become like that. Serious, losing my childhood to time and the work around me. But here I am about to turn 27 while waiting for more Super Mario Brothers plush dolls to arrive from Hong Kong and hoping for a couple of goofy t-shirts for my birthday next week. Yeah... I'm happy I haven't hit that point yet.
With my birthday comes winter, and with winter comes SDS... Stormtrack becomes an interesting (and often humerous) online venue this time of year. You can always count on bickering among the herds which I account to a lack of weather to chase. This year particularly... I mean, looks at us here in Denver. I'm about to write BORING all over my 7News forecasts.
In a thread started at some point last week, a chaser posted an ad in regards to a 30 minute DVD he was selling covering the Greensburg tornado. Obviously the video shot was his own, and for a $25 price tag, I'm sure its worth the watch. Almost immediately, a reply was posted by a well-repected chaser asking if the proceeds were going to profit. Off-the-bat, I thought that was putting this chaser on the spot and certainly had a few WTF thoughts on that. Later on, he posted his rebuttle which was more than enough to simmer me down. I have a lot of respect for the chaser who "put on the spot" the video's author, and while I didn't agree with the call-out, I'm quick to forgive the jump and certainly hold nothing against him for asking. Could it have been handled better; sure! Couldn't anything be handled better? Personally, I could care less where his profits went! And while it may sound selfish, I don't think I'd consider donating what few sales I do make away unless the event hit close to home. Trust me, if an EF-5 wiped out my hometown (Circleville, Ohio), I would be the front-runner to help with that! However, I feel pretty good about making a contribution somehow, hence why I've produced chapters for the charity DVD for the last couple of years. Its my tiny way of helping out those that have been affected by the weather we pursue.
But, in true chaser form (unfortunately), an explosion occured in the thread, and the tides turned from video donation to a slam at veteran chasers and their lack of respect for us "Twister-era yahoos". I quote that cause that is not my opinion. Obviously I stemmed from the Twister-era regardless where my interest began. Only by bad timing does my chasing coincide with Twister. The movie was in theaters before I could drive, and chasing on foot wasn't very practical. So call me a victim of circumstance if you really feel the need to classify chasers in that regard.
Yes, there are idiots running through the country roads and sending the goodie-goodies into panic about how bad chasing is looking. Yes, there is jealousy and anger in the highly over-saturated video market. Yes, there are people who found a niche and are making money, good money, from chasing. And yes, I've fallen victim to instances of all of those. But who cares? I certainly don't!
What I do care about are my friends in chasing, which are a high mix of "Twister-era yahoos", "money-hoarding bastards", and "egotistical old farts". As I've said a million times in the past, more than any other reason in the world, I chase because of the company I get to chase with! And that mix of people, regardless of their experience, has accepted me and the quirks I bring out. Outside of that group, I'm fine with people. Yes, there are a few, but for the most part, I manage to make nice with just about everyone with little "faking" needed. I have a respect for anyone who does this, regardless of their means, goals, and reasons.
Bottom line, you make what you want of this, and some want to make war out of things. Chasing is not going change; people aren't going to stop being Yahoos; and that needs to accepted. And amazingly enough, chasing isn't the only thing in the world suffering from this. But as with anything, make what you can out of what you have, and if you're doing it, have fun and worry about not getting sucked into the vortex. Like with the weather, whatever happens happens. Just enjoy what you have. And if its that bad, go elsewhere.
On a lighter note, and a humerous point of how I've been accepted by my fellow chasers, I was called out on another thread in Stormtrack. My reputation for being a childish Mario-loving yahoo landed me 90 second of a great laugh!
Thanks Fred for passing that along!
2 comments
Sunday, November 11, 2007
I know when it's been a while since I've blogged when this blog drops to forth in the list of the six blogs I participate and/or manage. That typically happens when there is no weather to speak of, and lately, there is plenty of no weather.
I am actually writing this entry to inform you of a HUGE facelift coming to the website at a time yet to be determined. The lull in the weather and my lack of other major projects sent my creative side into overdrive. In fact, I am so creative, I am learning Flash as I go to take the sketches from papers and put them into digital format.
My first project was a new top banner and navigation bar. With Flash, I was able to combine the two! I created a five-image banner fade that has a six-button navbar that separates the banner fade and a static bio image. However, I used some coding in Flash CS3 to make an image slide over the static image for the buttons. Yeah, its pretty nifty! And I did it from scratch! No templates, no code theft. All me!
I have also coded a simple Javascript clock that reads the local time of the user as well as displays the Zulu time next to it. I have the same basic clock on the bottom of most of my current pages minus the Zulu readout. The coding is a simple script which is very basic and easy to throw up. This realtime text clock will be moved to the top of the page next to the banner where a couple of shortcuts to a contact page and my Facebook page will sit. Also, a new feature; a website search which will allow a user to search my site for just about anything! Not sure how that's going to turn out yet, but its one of many new features.
The index page will see the biggest change as I am going to code a slideshow-link for my five most recent chases. I am also going to pull the RSS feed from my latest blog entry and post a snippet on the page with a link to the blog.
The video section and the presentation of the videos will be changed up as well! I am going to re-render all my online videos and host them with google with timecodes added to those videos. I am pretty pleased with the currentl layout for each video page and may not make any huge changes to that. The re-rendering and recataloging of all those videos will be a secondary project AFTER the majority of the website is done.
The overall look of the site won't change much. Color scheme, text, and overall layout will remain pretty much the same. I have a few potential backgrounds from cloud pictures I've shot which I may use, but that's still on the drawing board. The content and its presentation will be the biggest change.
But that's just scratching the surface! There will be a few other Flash goodies here and there, but the site will remain primarily done in standard HTML. The layout will be widened, but will have the same basic top-to-bottom format. I have eliminated most of the bottom clutter. A new look is expected for the chasing logs and media sections. Also, I'm hoping to incorporate the new photo galleries into the chase log itself so everything related to a single chase event is easily accessed and in one place. I am also working to improve upon an eariler idea of a LIVE chase page which will include GRLevelX updates, Spotter Network, and perhaps a webcam feature. A different organization to the site will also be a key change as I am trying to make finding various information a bit easier than I have it now. I am also going to use a lot of XML/RSS feeds in the site which will make it easier to present forecasting information.
So that's the big news with me! Something I've certainly been flirting with for quite some time, and with Flash becoming more prevelent in the world, I felt my time had come to play with it! And to satisfy my urge to learn new multimedia stuff, my website once again delivers a perfect excuse. Again, no timeline as to when this will go live as I have a lot of work to do! I will say with certainty that the new layout will go live before I do much with the video section. My hope is a January 1 launch, but we'll see! Definitely stay tuned!!!
0 comments
