old post - Flip Video Camera

This one is from March 26, 2009 -

This is unedited video shot with my wife’s Flip video camera. It was too big to email, so I thought I’d pop in on here...

old post - and the trend continues

Another VERY short post from March 25, 2009, but it also links to the albums page. I've put all the pics below the post...

On the 24th we decided to head toward Union City to try and get a few more off our map. More info on the Albums page...

Heading to Union City, we detoured outside of Troy for a nice hike with some interesting sites to see. Vanessa talks more about it on the cache page...

retrieving the cache

hidden pond

another shot

family members?

makes your heart saddened and feel good too

in Union City - trying to avenge an after dark DNF

hmm... not there

and of course Bashful finds it

old post - more caching on break

This is a short post from March 25, 2009. It references an album over on Mobile Me, but I've put those pics in the post below...

Two days later, on the 23rd, we decided to grab a few more caches before heading out to dance. I took more pictures than normal, so you’ll find the full write up over on the Albums page.

And of course the Album was prefaced with - As mentioned over on the blog page, I decided to post here so I can chronicle the photos better.

Vanessa getting ready to take pictures of her own

The tire didn’t want to come back out...

Equipment at the parking coords

cool looking bridge

yep, it’ll hold us

Bashful with the cache

Because of Winn Dixie

Bubbles...

More bubbles...

she had fun and I had fun snapping the pics

almost done...

one more...

time to save the rest for the next finder

interesting bird’s nest we found on the way out

another shot - much smaller than it appears here

last one - couldn’t get a good focus - too small

making our way back out

where to next?

grabbing shots of a baby horse on the way out

wanted a place like this as a kid to play in

Conan came to mind

Mississippi River Bridge

part of our caching gear

another shot of the bridge

unusual view

chain link wire?

they were hanging the wire

stopped at the rest area for hotel info

cute arrangement on the mantle

old post - caching on break

Here's another old post - this one from March 25, 2009, back when we were a lot more serious about the sport/hobby called Geocaching. We don't do much of it anymore, as other interests have taken its place. I do miss the riding around at all hours of the night with my sweetie though. :-) I will say that we still do that some, just not caching along the way. :-)

Anyway - here you go...

On the 21st, we decided to run to the store to pick something up and found we were close to a cache, so we made our way to GC19HR6. The pic above is Bashful logging the cache. There was also an interesting marker (which was the reason for the cache location) -

I picked up some CO2 cartridges at the cache site to use possibly down the road with modeling.

We headed on to Jackson to pick up a few others. Vanessa grabbed this shot of me finding a PNG.

old post - wrestlin' or 'raslin'

Another old one - this one from March 25, 2009...

Last night Colton and I headed out to the Armory in Alamo for Memphis Wrestling. Jerry “The King” Lawler was there for autographs and to fight in the main event. Colton and I had a good ole redneck time of it.

I am not a Wrestling fan. I don’t watch RAW or WWE or Smackdown or any of that. I did, however, grow up watching ‘rastlin’ on Saturday mornings. This was before cable TV & Satellite stations and such. We learned years later that when someone would lose a “loser leave town” match that they would go off somewhere else and be a guest coming in to that market. This was first made known to me when TBS was the first “outside” station available locally and Jerry Lawler himself would come in there and be a bad guy.

Anyway, last night reminded me more of the old style promotion. These were “local guys” in training, basically. The heels were obvious & unknown, but they captured the hatred of the crowd VERY quickly. The good guys were beaten down but somehow found the strength to come back and surprise the bad guy at the end.

It was all very typical and nothing new, but that did NOT take away from the fun. A couple of times I predicted what would happen and I was close, but they’d put a little twist on it. I told Colton at one point that this was MUCH more fun than watching the scripted stuff on TV.

Lawler’s son was there as well - Grand Master Sexay. The crowd loved him as well and he managed to smile and draw their attention. He seemed more “open” to the crowd than some of the others. I know they’re all actors to a degree, but he seemed to be more comfortable in his role.

Another guy was there that I found out later was a known “rising star” from ECW - Matt Bryce. He was a little more athletic than the others and could really fall hard and jump around a little more. I’ve always enjoyed that athletic side of it.

Speaking of which... I remember seeing Leaping Lanny and his brother Randy Savage on Channel 6 out of Kentucky. We couldn’t get it EVERY week, but if the weather was good we enjoyed that too. When Randy Savage “made it big” it was no surprise to us because we’d been watching him all along.

I found out from a flyer last night that Memphis Wrestling is still being aired every Saturday morning at 11, just like in the old days. I set the DVR to start catching it for me...

And one comment from Bec -

If you liked the small town show you should go to a big Pay-per-View event. There's nothing like it! Jarrod is going to Wrestlemania in Texas this weekend! :)

Promised Land

Been meaning to upload this video for a while now... Finally got it processed and uploaded to YouTube.

This is for some friends overseas that wanted to see me make some music. Next up I'll be recording the song I wrote for Vanessa, and then the song I wrote this week...

So - enjoy. :-)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMvFjD_gzjs

old post - in response to Info overload

Whew - been busy with "data" stuff - so I'm getting sleepy... Thought I'd stop and archive another "old post." This one is from March 23, 2009 and was a blog response to a friend's blog post, along with his comments. :-)

Over on a friend’s blog, I have been responding via comments with my thoughts about this topic. Pop on over and read that. I’ll wait...

Back? Okay. The next response I would have made would have been to say that you are saying you don’t want “truth” defined, but quality. Who is to determine what is quality and what is noise? Please don’t presume to know what I would find useful. It sounds to me like you’re looking for a service to determine what Brent wants to know and what Brent wants to ignore. I think that’s a valid thing for you to consider, but I don’t want it for me.

It sounds to me like you’re talking about a news service... One of the big things to come out of Hurricane Katrina was the instant news being reported via Twitter & blog postings. I’m sure to a lot of people much of that was considered noise, but to some people it was not enough information. Did the NY Times report everything that was blogged? No. Those that bought the paper paid them to give them what was relevant. Did they do a good job? Probably. Was it complete? No. Was it complete enough? Probably. :)

I still maintain that something like you’re talking about should be opt in only, then I can decide if I want to take your word for it or not.

As for my comment about Wikipedia vs Britannica or World Book... Yes, I trust Wikipedia more for the very reason that a lot of people say they don’t trust it - because it can be changed by just anyone. Vandalism is dealt with quickly, for one thing, and I’d MUCH rather read about a medical procedure from something that’s updated frequently by the very professionals that engage in the activity than from a book that is only updated every few years and only then by a committee of “experts” that are only looking at information that other people submit, so they are also trusting others.

Thoughts? Comments?

Comment by CJ -

One of the good things about blogging is that it opens up opportunities to discuss issues like this, and disagreement is often a good thing as we all learn from it. To be honest J, I think tend to agree with B on this more, all in all. I work in a collegiate setting as you know and professors here would never take Wikipedia as an allowable source, but they would something along the lines of Britannica in certain situations. And it generates controversies of bias (on political or social issues) sometimes.

So again, I think the issue is all about what one wants to DO with Wikipedia. It's great for a quick way to get a light overview of an issue one doesn't really know much about already. And the biggest thing Wikipedia has going for it is accessibility--anyone can get to it anytime, for most any topic. The problem with the 'anyone-can-update' model is that it can avoid professional peer-review a little too much. I've seen a number of sloppily written entries on there and have sometimes seen information that presents opinion as if it were fact.

Also, from an academic standpoint though, the *search* for knowledge can be as important as the knowledge itself, and Wikipedia is almost *too* easy, to both find info and edit it. that's my 2 cents, which may be about all it's worth! :-)

Tuesday, March 24, 2009 - 09:54 AM

Comment by Brent -

Wow. I didn't realize I'd touched such a sensitive nerve here. Let me try to explain a bit more clearly.

1. I never suggested that I should dictate to you what you should read. That's what we call "censorship."

2. Who said the Internet had to cater to *my* whims? Who said I wanted to force my opinions on anyone? Where did you get the idea you might not be able to choose to "opt in" to any sort of quality rating system I made up? If you think I personally have some control over the Internet and the world in general, then you have a much higher opinion of me than anyone else does. :-)

3. Perhaps my mention of "Verisign" in my original post scared you off. All I meant by that reference was that there's a need for a sort of verifiable "stamp" -- but the community would provide the associated "quality rating," not a small outfit like Verisign. (Without something verifiable, anyone could just rate their own content and claim it was rated by the community.) Good analogue: RottenTomatoes.com. You might not agree with the results, but they're there for you to consult as you see fit. Apply that paradigm across the web. You don't think that would be useful?

4. "Who is to determine what is quality and what is noise?" Not me. I'll state it once again: the community. This is exactly what goes on now in the "real world," but the 'Net has such low barriers to entry that there are virtually no controls on content at the moment. Ex.: Say I decide to be a stand-up comedian. My success or failure will depend on how many people I can get to pay for the privilege of listening to me. If I'm no good (decided by the community, not by any individual authority), then I'll be "weeded out." Now, you'll say maybe *you* might think I'm funny, and you wouldn't want to be denied the opportunity to make that choice yourself. Really? Are you willing to do that for the 245,987 other people out there who think they're funny, too? Do you actually have that kind of time?

5. As for Wikipedia, we'll have to agree to disagree. II think you're giving up authenticity for immediacy. There's value in the latter, but never at the expense of the former. And honestly, I don't see much new happening in Millard Fillmore's life (for example) at the moment, so I think I'm safer consulting a vetted, professionally edited source for research rather than the Wikipedia article which as likely as not will have a curse word inserted somewhere by a bored 15-year-old.

Dude, this isn't about censorship. It's about trying to make the best use of my limited time. In reading my blog, you've probably already picked up on my obsession with that goal. If you don't want the community's collected opinion on the utility of information...then ignore it. But I would value such a resource, as a means to optimize my life and be able to get other stuff done...like posting overlong replies to blog entries. :-)

Tuesday, March 24, 2009 - 09:56 AM

Jimmy

Wow - can't believe I missed these comments till now. Sorry guys!

CJ - Disagreement is VERY healthy, IMHO. As for the professors dismissing it, I totally disagree with that mentality, but I can't say that I don't understand it. I think it requires a total mind shift.

RE: Wikipedia - yes, opinion is discouraged and is usually flagged after the fact, but I can see that it would keep you from trusting it 100% (which, BTW, I don't do, but it's "another" source I use). And I like the fact that it's easy to edit... If it were not, I think we'd lose a plethora of input from professionals.

Brent - sorry if I came across as sensitive. This has been an ongoing debate in my professional life as well. :)

1) Dictate - no, didn't mean to imply that.

2) Opt in SHOULD be the norm, but I'm afraid it wouldn't be, or at least it could be semi-forced. Buy anything online? Can you use Cash? No, you're forced to use Credit Cards - or PayPal if you want it faster. And no e-checks on PayPal - instant transfer or backed up with credit/debit only.

3) Verisign makes me run screaming, so yes I'm afraid. :) I think the community provides the stamp already, you just have to learn how to use it. To shortcut that could undermine freedom of use.

Bad analogy for me - I don't use RottenTomatoes.com or their rating system. I learned a long time ago FOR ME that the critics and I don't tend to agree. I even have a CW & DW friend that can't believe I enjoyed the latest Death Race movie. :) - okay, tangent here - just went to RT & they gave Death Race a 42% - again, I disagree. :)

4) No, I don't have that kind of time, but just denying me that access by "an authority" and not by "normal weeding out" is wrong, IMO.

5) Agreed. :)

On your last paragraph - to me Wikipedia IS the community's collected opinion. :) I'm not saying I wouldn't use a resource at all, but would possibly look at it first if it were condensed, then "look further" like I do now for more of the story (story includes facts, opinions, debate, etc.).

Again - sorry guys for the delayed response... It wasn't because I was mad. :)