I sometimes get questions about the LeFlore County Journal and would like to answer a few of them.
The most asked question is how and why I started the Journal. As some of you know, I once worked at a newspaper and was a journalism major in college.
During the mid 2000s, I started a website called heaveneronline. It was a big hit and I kept it up for a couple of years before I took a job which prevented me from running the website.
I missed it. So I still wanted to do something along the lines of heaveneronline, but make it bigger. After talking it over with some friends, I decided to do something for LeFlore County. At the time, I was considering doing one for the county, or one just for Poteau. I actually listened to the suggestions and I think that was the best decision.
Even before I started the original heaveneronline, I realized there was a better way to get news, sports and information out instead of the traditional newspaper. At best, you are looking at getting the information the next day, but only if you purchase a paper. Typically, the information would not be available online until two days later.
That is why I am such a big proponent of publishing news and information on a website. I can get the information out there quicker and that is one reason why the Journal has grown.
Second question is if the Journal is profitable. I do have some dedicated advertisers and a few supporters who donate to the Journal, but I also work a full-time job and can’t dedicate the time selling ads for the Journal as I would like. So I do make a little more income than I spend, if you don’t consider the two hours or so I spend on the Journal most days.
Third question is about the people who write a column frequently and if I pay them. Unfortunately, no, I can’t pay them. I wish I could. The Journal is fortunate to have some really good writers. We also have some readers who send in information frequently and that is also greatly appreciated.
Traci Barnes has been sending in columns for the longest. Don Barnes has been a frequent contributor while John Inman and Bobbi McAullife have sent in columns for the last few months. Happy Frazier has sent in some columns and David Deaton with the LCBGC has contributed his weekly column over the last few weeks.
I can’t thank them enough.
I haven’t been asked this question but wanted to tell what my biggest mistake was with the Journal. That was with the Journal ezine. It was a weekly publication I put out with all the latest stories and photographs. It looked like a weekly newspaper, except full color and not as big.Just when it started to take off, I started my job and there wasn’t enough time to do everything.
But with the ezine, I did it the wrong way. I had people subscribe to get the information. Instead, I should have made it available for free and tried to bring in income from advertising.
Hopefully, I will be able to resurrect the ezine in that manner. The thing I always liked the best about it was people could print off a certain page and keep the publication to show others.
Now, I just need to figure out how to start this up again.
I have also been working on a new project, which I hope will be a big hit, especially for the sports fans. Look for more information in the next few days.
The Journal has come a long way since its debut on Sept. 19, 2009. I started spreading the news about the Journal to a few people, who shared it with others, who did the same thing. Even in the slow times, the Journal gets several hundred hits a day.
As always, if you have any suggestions on making the Journal better, please send an email to craig@leflorecountyjournal.com or leave a comment below.
Thursday, July 7, 2011
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Vacation ends...sadly
It is with a great deal of sadness that my brief vacation has ended and I must return to the toils of labor today.
Because of skillful planning, I combined two days of vacation with a weekend and the July 4th holiday to form a five-day escape from work.
But as I mentioned previously, that ends at approximately 8:20 this morning.
As you are probably breathless in anticipation of my exciting vacation, I will share it with you!
FRIDAY—uh, was the first day of vacation. I, uh, can’t remember what I did. I vaguely recall renting a movie (or was that Saturday?) We’ll call this a relaxing vacation day.
SATURDAY—let’s see, that was the second day of vacation. I, uh, crud, what did I do? Oh yes, the brain cells are not completely frittered away. The wife, mother of mine and I went to Fort Smith and visited my 96-year old grandmother, Rena.
Okay, I have been a negligent grandchild and have not seen her in a long time. Consider me scorned. She has lost a little of her speed over time but is still sharp, although she could not grasp why I could not print off the LeFlore County Journal and show it to her. “It’s a website, not printed!” I tried to say. Of course, she probably has not ever seen a website and has no interest in surfing the old web.
I introduced her to my wife, Trish, several times. With my past marital strikeouts, I can see how this would be confusing.
After that, we went to eat at a Fort Smith restaurant I shall not name because they failed to advertise for their mention or grant me free eating. It was good, though, and I enjoyed making a mess with the peanuts and Trish not having grounds to scold me for making the above-mentioned mess, for once.
SUNDAY—I was actually a semi-sorta bee (or Craig) on this fine day. I mowed a portion of the grass which had not died yet, cleaned the wood floors (which have somehow become my responsibility) and went to a local laundry to clean a rug. Unfortunately, while at the laundry, I forgot an almost new thing of laundry soap. Trish figured this out later on when she decided to do laundry.
I went back to retrieve the soap but somebody had pilfered it away. NEWS FLASH: Thieves terrorizing local laundromat! I have been reading a lot of mystery novels and thought about breaking out Detective Craig, but decided that would probably be a waste. I considered confronting a person visiting our fine country from south of the Red River, but did not want to deal with all the language difficulties. Plus, he wasn’t there earlier so I had to buy a #%$ new thing of laundry soap at a local store, which I will also not name since I did not mention Logan’s earlier.
MONDAY—The big day! Not only was it the birthday of our country, but Trish turned a year older! I would tell you how old she is, but I forgot. So we had a big cookout, I came close to a personal grilling record by knocking out 24 angus burgers and 16 hot dogs (no, not the Anthony Weiner variety).
Fans, let me tell you, it was a hot one as I labored in front of the old grill to make sure nobody went home hungry. I sweated in places that I did not know could or would leak perspiration.
But bravely, I fought through the discomfort, the pain, the constant mosquito attacks and the frequent “when are we going to eat?” questions and I conquered the challenge! The grub was good, also, as you probably expected from a grillmeister of my fame, but no fortune.
After everybody scooted, it was time to watch the fireworks. Fortunately, our homestead is just below the hill and we had a great view of the explosives. After much prodding from my wife to take it easy and relax, which I had been doing since approximately 5 or so, we settled in out front. Coach Andrew Perdue joined us and we rejoiced in the splendor and magnificence of the fireworks and good company, since I was there.
And that leads us to the final day…
TUESDAY—a sad day this was, knowing my parole was fixing to end. I actually slept in (to almost 8 a.m.!) because of the grueling Independence Day and staying up WAY past the optimal sleeping time for Craigman.
Met a couple of friends for lunch and then went to swim at a friend’s house, even though they were home. We planned on having a cookout but I was a little wheezy (probably from the suffering on Monday) and we had to leave before the food was grilled.
So, there you have it! My vacation in a nutshell (or rather long-winded narrative, if you must).
Less than an hour of freedom remains. Now if life had a pause or rewind button.
Because of skillful planning, I combined two days of vacation with a weekend and the July 4th holiday to form a five-day escape from work.
But as I mentioned previously, that ends at approximately 8:20 this morning.
As you are probably breathless in anticipation of my exciting vacation, I will share it with you!
FRIDAY—uh, was the first day of vacation. I, uh, can’t remember what I did. I vaguely recall renting a movie (or was that Saturday?) We’ll call this a relaxing vacation day.
SATURDAY—let’s see, that was the second day of vacation. I, uh, crud, what did I do? Oh yes, the brain cells are not completely frittered away. The wife, mother of mine and I went to Fort Smith and visited my 96-year old grandmother, Rena.
Okay, I have been a negligent grandchild and have not seen her in a long time. Consider me scorned. She has lost a little of her speed over time but is still sharp, although she could not grasp why I could not print off the LeFlore County Journal and show it to her. “It’s a website, not printed!” I tried to say. Of course, she probably has not ever seen a website and has no interest in surfing the old web.
I introduced her to my wife, Trish, several times. With my past marital strikeouts, I can see how this would be confusing.
After that, we went to eat at a Fort Smith restaurant I shall not name because they failed to advertise for their mention or grant me free eating. It was good, though, and I enjoyed making a mess with the peanuts and Trish not having grounds to scold me for making the above-mentioned mess, for once.
SUNDAY—I was actually a semi-sorta bee (or Craig) on this fine day. I mowed a portion of the grass which had not died yet, cleaned the wood floors (which have somehow become my responsibility) and went to a local laundry to clean a rug. Unfortunately, while at the laundry, I forgot an almost new thing of laundry soap. Trish figured this out later on when she decided to do laundry.
I went back to retrieve the soap but somebody had pilfered it away. NEWS FLASH: Thieves terrorizing local laundromat! I have been reading a lot of mystery novels and thought about breaking out Detective Craig, but decided that would probably be a waste. I considered confronting a person visiting our fine country from south of the Red River, but did not want to deal with all the language difficulties. Plus, he wasn’t there earlier so I had to buy a #%$ new thing of laundry soap at a local store, which I will also not name since I did not mention Logan’s earlier.
MONDAY—The big day! Not only was it the birthday of our country, but Trish turned a year older! I would tell you how old she is, but I forgot. So we had a big cookout, I came close to a personal grilling record by knocking out 24 angus burgers and 16 hot dogs (no, not the Anthony Weiner variety).
Fans, let me tell you, it was a hot one as I labored in front of the old grill to make sure nobody went home hungry. I sweated in places that I did not know could or would leak perspiration.
But bravely, I fought through the discomfort, the pain, the constant mosquito attacks and the frequent “when are we going to eat?” questions and I conquered the challenge! The grub was good, also, as you probably expected from a grillmeister of my fame, but no fortune.
After everybody scooted, it was time to watch the fireworks. Fortunately, our homestead is just below the hill and we had a great view of the explosives. After much prodding from my wife to take it easy and relax, which I had been doing since approximately 5 or so, we settled in out front. Coach Andrew Perdue joined us and we rejoiced in the splendor and magnificence of the fireworks and good company, since I was there.
And that leads us to the final day…
TUESDAY—a sad day this was, knowing my parole was fixing to end. I actually slept in (to almost 8 a.m.!) because of the grueling Independence Day and staying up WAY past the optimal sleeping time for Craigman.
Met a couple of friends for lunch and then went to swim at a friend’s house, even though they were home. We planned on having a cookout but I was a little wheezy (probably from the suffering on Monday) and we had to leave before the food was grilled.
So, there you have it! My vacation in a nutshell (or rather long-winded narrative, if you must).
Less than an hour of freedom remains. Now if life had a pause or rewind button.
Saturday, July 2, 2011
July 1st
July 1st has come and gone once again. It is one of those days that probably do not mean much to most people.
For a lot of us, it just means the Fourth of July and fireworks are about here.
Everybody has a few certain dates they remember. It could be birthdays, anniversaries or special moments.
I remember July 1st because it was three years ago that we lost my father.
My father, Gene Hall, had battled cancer once previously in his prostate. The cancer returned to his body in the fall of 2007. We were frustrated that it didn’t seem like the doctors would do anything about it and his condition grew worse.
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His battle ended on July 1, 2008, three years ago to the date.
I try not to dwell on his death and the absence he left for my family, but remember the good things he did.
My father loved several things: his family, Heavener, photography and OU football. At the end of his funeral service, we didn’t leave on a sad song, but blasted Boomer Sooner, which we all thought was appropriate.
Some people consider me to be a pretty good photographer. I take some good ones, but nothing compared to my father. If he was in the right location or got a good break, my father would have been considered to be as good of a photographer as there is.
He was a perfectionist in many ways, including his photography. He used film for photography and for a long time, had a dark room set up in one of the bedrooms of the family home.
Now, two rooms of the home are filled with his images of people and places, mainly of Heavener and LeFlore County, but also from OU football games.
He took pictures for the Southwest-Times Record of Fort Smith of many OU games in the 1970s.
I always think the best pictures tell a story. His certainly did.
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Probably the one best known is the one pictured here to the left. At first glance, it is not all that remarkable until you consider the OU running back is Billy Sims, who won the Heisman Trophy the previous year.
The game was against the University of Iowa in September, 1978. If you look to the right in the picture, the player wearing No. 41 was a freshman for the Hawkeyes named Bobby Stoops.
That freshman weighed around 170 pounds, and was diving over an OU blocker to tackle the best football player in the country, one who outweighed him well over 30 pounds.
I think that tells something of the drive that Bobby Stoops had and why some 21 years later, that player, now better known as Bob Stoops, became the head coach at the University of Oklahoma and returned the program to the greatness it had achieved in so many previous autumns.
My father has hundreds of pictures from OU games. He made the trip to Dallas several times and he could capture the excitement of that adventure known as OU vs. Texas like few others.
We watched the OU-Texas game together in October, 2007. Somehow, I had a feeling this was a special day and this was probably the last time we would watch an OU-Texas game together. It was. And the Sooners winning that day made it even more memorable.
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I also wanted to share my favorite photograph my father took. It is one from Wister Lake with the sun looking huge and a pair of boats out on the lake.
This photograph should have been on the cover of every tourism magazine for Oklahoma. It is not easy to get a picture like this, trust me, I have tried many times.
He captured it perfectly. Remember, this was taken back when photographers used film. There weren’t any viewfinders on the camera and you could not check out the image and make changes like we can now.
My father used to enter his pictures in the Fort Smith Photography Alliance contest every year. He won some awards, but one of my prized moments was when a photograph I took several years ago won second place in the contest.
He was probably more proud for me than if the award went to him.
For a lot of us, it just means the Fourth of July and fireworks are about here.
Everybody has a few certain dates they remember. It could be birthdays, anniversaries or special moments.
I remember July 1st because it was three years ago that we lost my father.
My father, Gene Hall, had battled cancer once previously in his prostate. The cancer returned to his body in the fall of 2007. We were frustrated that it didn’t seem like the doctors would do anything about it and his condition grew worse.
I try not to dwell on his death and the absence he left for my family, but remember the good things he did.
My father loved several things: his family, Heavener, photography and OU football. At the end of his funeral service, we didn’t leave on a sad song, but blasted Boomer Sooner, which we all thought was appropriate.
Some people consider me to be a pretty good photographer. I take some good ones, but nothing compared to my father. If he was in the right location or got a good break, my father would have been considered to be as good of a photographer as there is.
He was a perfectionist in many ways, including his photography. He used film for photography and for a long time, had a dark room set up in one of the bedrooms of the family home.
Now, two rooms of the home are filled with his images of people and places, mainly of Heavener and LeFlore County, but also from OU football games.
He took pictures for the Southwest-Times Record of Fort Smith of many OU games in the 1970s.
I always think the best pictures tell a story. His certainly did.
The game was against the University of Iowa in September, 1978. If you look to the right in the picture, the player wearing No. 41 was a freshman for the Hawkeyes named Bobby Stoops.
That freshman weighed around 170 pounds, and was diving over an OU blocker to tackle the best football player in the country, one who outweighed him well over 30 pounds.
I think that tells something of the drive that Bobby Stoops had and why some 21 years later, that player, now better known as Bob Stoops, became the head coach at the University of Oklahoma and returned the program to the greatness it had achieved in so many previous autumns.
My father has hundreds of pictures from OU games. He made the trip to Dallas several times and he could capture the excitement of that adventure known as OU vs. Texas like few others.
We watched the OU-Texas game together in October, 2007. Somehow, I had a feeling this was a special day and this was probably the last time we would watch an OU-Texas game together. It was. And the Sooners winning that day made it even more memorable.
This photograph should have been on the cover of every tourism magazine for Oklahoma. It is not easy to get a picture like this, trust me, I have tried many times.
He captured it perfectly. Remember, this was taken back when photographers used film. There weren’t any viewfinders on the camera and you could not check out the image and make changes like we can now.
My father used to enter his pictures in the Fort Smith Photography Alliance contest every year. He won some awards, but one of my prized moments was when a photograph I took several years ago won second place in the contest.
He was probably more proud for me than if the award went to him.
Thursday, June 30, 2011
A grand idea!
I had what I thought was a grand idea the other day.
I had just gotten home from another long and difficult day of work at the Lyle T. Whitworth Allstate Agency in Poteau, and went outside to play ball with Molly.
You might say this is how I unwind after work, assuming I was actually wound up at work.
Anyway, every evening I take Molly outside and throw the wiffle ball for her. She thinks this is great fun and will repeatedly go chase down the ball and bring it back to me to…be thrown again!
This actually serves a dual purpose. In addition to spending quality time with the family dog, since we are suffering through global warming here in southeastern Oklahoma, I hope it tires her out.
She has the bad habit of wanting to play right as I want to go to sleep and I do my best to wear her out, not that Molly is prone to get worn out.
This has nothing to do with the whole concept of this blog, but while playing ball, Molly also has a bad habit of accidentally dropping the ball so it will fall down under the deck so she can rescue it and get dirty in the process.
This is not a good thing for Craig. See, if the Trish (AKA wife) sees Molly go under the deck, she assumes the dog is dirty and that means the above mentioned Craig must give Molly a bath. So I try to conceal Molly’s actions whenever possible and pick her up and kind of give her a shake, hoping the dirt will magically fall off.
Anyway, I regressed. So I was throwing the ball as far as possible. The gun just isn’t what it used to be and it isn’t exactly easy to get much distance from a wiffle ball. (CRAIG’S NOTE: it is spelled wiffle, not whiffle, even though my spell check keeps trying to get me to change it!).
I started thinking of ways to improve the Journal, which I typically do some 20 to 30 times a day, and possibly bring in more income. Another idea! I thought of making the Journal a 501(c) 3 non-profit corporation. Hmm, that would mean anybody who donates to the Journal could get a break on their taxes.
What a great idea! I had brain flatulence and decided to see what the wife thought about it. I spelled out my plans and waited with great anticipation for her response.
“I thought you were already non profit,” she said.
I told her the benefits for both the Journal and readers and how the corporation is set up.
“But you’re already not making a profit on the Journal.”
Aargh.
I had just gotten home from another long and difficult day of work at the Lyle T. Whitworth Allstate Agency in Poteau, and went outside to play ball with Molly.
You might say this is how I unwind after work, assuming I was actually wound up at work.
Anyway, every evening I take Molly outside and throw the wiffle ball for her. She thinks this is great fun and will repeatedly go chase down the ball and bring it back to me to…be thrown again!
This actually serves a dual purpose. In addition to spending quality time with the family dog, since we are suffering through global warming here in southeastern Oklahoma, I hope it tires her out.
She has the bad habit of wanting to play right as I want to go to sleep and I do my best to wear her out, not that Molly is prone to get worn out.
This has nothing to do with the whole concept of this blog, but while playing ball, Molly also has a bad habit of accidentally dropping the ball so it will fall down under the deck so she can rescue it and get dirty in the process.
This is not a good thing for Craig. See, if the Trish (AKA wife) sees Molly go under the deck, she assumes the dog is dirty and that means the above mentioned Craig must give Molly a bath. So I try to conceal Molly’s actions whenever possible and pick her up and kind of give her a shake, hoping the dirt will magically fall off.
Anyway, I regressed. So I was throwing the ball as far as possible. The gun just isn’t what it used to be and it isn’t exactly easy to get much distance from a wiffle ball. (CRAIG’S NOTE: it is spelled wiffle, not whiffle, even though my spell check keeps trying to get me to change it!).
I started thinking of ways to improve the Journal, which I typically do some 20 to 30 times a day, and possibly bring in more income. Another idea! I thought of making the Journal a 501(c) 3 non-profit corporation. Hmm, that would mean anybody who donates to the Journal could get a break on their taxes.
What a great idea! I had brain flatulence and decided to see what the wife thought about it. I spelled out my plans and waited with great anticipation for her response.
“I thought you were already non profit,” she said.
I told her the benefits for both the Journal and readers and how the corporation is set up.
“But you’re already not making a profit on the Journal.”
Aargh.
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Friday marks a new beginning
Friday is a big day for Heavener and LeFlore County.
July 1, 2011 marks the beginning of a new era as the Friends of the Runestone take over operation of the historic park.
In case you missed it over the last few months, the Oklahoma Tourism and Recreation Department washed its hands of the Runestone and six other state parks.
To the OTRD, good riddance. They didn’t want the park so to heck with them.
Now, the park will be run by people who actually care about it. The Friends of the Runestone and city of Heavener will be operating the park.
It has taken a lot of hard work by a lot of people to keep the park gates from closing for good and taking away the major tourist attraction for Heavener, and one of the main ones for the county.
Mike Kennerson, city manager for Heavener and president of the Friends, deserves a lot of credit. So do a lot of others.
But for all those who love the park and want it to be there for the future generations, your help is needed. Heavener does not have the funds to keep the park operating. Neither does the Friends of the Runestone.
That is where all of you can and need to help. We need to support this financially and any other way, by volunteering or getting the word out to the world about the beauty and historical significance of the park.
Here is a link to a story Kennerson wrote about the Park with a link to a membership form.
There are various membership amounts available for individuals and businesses. The Runestone will not get any help financially from the state so our tax dollars are being used for other purposes, which will not benefit the citizens of LeFlore County.
It’s not about sticking our thumb (or other finger) out or up at the OTRD, lieutenant governor or the governor. But this is a great way to show everybody, especially those government goobers who made the decision to close the state parks, what can happen when people work together and hopefully we can make the park even better than it was before.
We will miss Vicky Hurst and Lester Rowland and thank them for all they did for the Runestone, and also wish them the best in the future.
And I hope all of you will do what you can for the Heavener Runestone Park.
July 1, 2011 marks the beginning of a new era as the Friends of the Runestone take over operation of the historic park.
In case you missed it over the last few months, the Oklahoma Tourism and Recreation Department washed its hands of the Runestone and six other state parks.
To the OTRD, good riddance. They didn’t want the park so to heck with them.
Now, the park will be run by people who actually care about it. The Friends of the Runestone and city of Heavener will be operating the park.
It has taken a lot of hard work by a lot of people to keep the park gates from closing for good and taking away the major tourist attraction for Heavener, and one of the main ones for the county.
Mike Kennerson, city manager for Heavener and president of the Friends, deserves a lot of credit. So do a lot of others.
But for all those who love the park and want it to be there for the future generations, your help is needed. Heavener does not have the funds to keep the park operating. Neither does the Friends of the Runestone.
That is where all of you can and need to help. We need to support this financially and any other way, by volunteering or getting the word out to the world about the beauty and historical significance of the park.
Here is a link to a story Kennerson wrote about the Park with a link to a membership form.
There are various membership amounts available for individuals and businesses. The Runestone will not get any help financially from the state so our tax dollars are being used for other purposes, which will not benefit the citizens of LeFlore County.
It’s not about sticking our thumb (or other finger) out or up at the OTRD, lieutenant governor or the governor. But this is a great way to show everybody, especially those government goobers who made the decision to close the state parks, what can happen when people work together and hopefully we can make the park even better than it was before.
We will miss Vicky Hurst and Lester Rowland and thank them for all they did for the Runestone, and also wish them the best in the future.
And I hope all of you will do what you can for the Heavener Runestone Park.
Friday, June 24, 2011
Picture this
Tuesday night, I let Molly the sometimes (and frequent) pain in the buttock dog go do her business.
Since Molly sometimes refuses to take care of her calls of nature unless she has company (don't ask me why), I followed. As soon as I looked out the back door, it looked like a disco bar was going on outside.
Strobe lights were apparently firing off every second or so. Being the curious person I am, I walked to the side of the house to find out what was happening.
I was expecting a work truck or something on the road in front of the homestead.
Nope, no work truck. It was a natural light show going off. Overhead the clouds were clear and stars were visible. But to the east, there was a large cloud firing off lightning at a rate I have never seen before.
Typically, there will be a flash of lightning, followed by another a few seconds or minutes later.
Not this time. There was continuous lightning going off with flashes in different locations inside the cloud.
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This was neat, I decided, and glad this wasn’t overhead. Despite the brightness of the flashes, the cloud was far enough away no thunder could be heard.
I alerted my wife to this and asked her to come look. She wasn’t all that excited to get off the couch since Trish had a rough day vacationing. But finally, she came outside and took a look.
This actually interested her for a few seconds before whatever was on the telly prompted her to move back inside.
When I see something unusual or interesting, this was a call for me to morph into Craig the Photographer!
I got the old camera out, changed the lens to one better suited to the conditions and grabbed the tripod. There are big trees in front of my house, so I decided to go to the top of the hill and take some pictures.
One of my favorites is pictured in this blog!
I got set up pretty much in the middle of the road next to the water tower, hoped nobody would run thine rear over with an automobile and took to firing pictures.
I set the shutter at a slow speed so I could capture a string of lightning, and that is what I got.
While fighting off the attack from a swarm of mosquitoes and other irritating insects which wanted to distract me, I spent about 20 minutes firing off pictures until the cloud moved to the north and behind a group of trees.
I looked in the viewfinder and reviewed the pictures. They looked good! Of course, they all look pretty good until I post them on the computer and cull out the bad ones.
I loaded the pictures and went through them until I narrowed my choices to a couple. I always shoot on RAW instead of JPEG so I have more control over the processing, er, process.
I edited the picture and got it ready to go and this was the result from the light show.
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I go in stages where I take a bunch of pictures and times when I am not so active. Yesterday, I saw some little flowers in the yard and took the second picture. The flowers were roughly the size of a dime.
And since they were low to the ground, I got out my miniature tripod and loaded up a macro lens to try and get the picture.
Not my best effort, but it turned out okay.
People sometimes ask me what I like to take pictures of. My favorites are sports, macro (bugs and flowers) and wildlife. People? Not really. I don’t really enjoy the whole posing thing and prefer taking candid pictures of the little ones doing cute stuff like smashing cake over their face.
Since Molly sometimes refuses to take care of her calls of nature unless she has company (don't ask me why), I followed. As soon as I looked out the back door, it looked like a disco bar was going on outside.
Strobe lights were apparently firing off every second or so. Being the curious person I am, I walked to the side of the house to find out what was happening.
I was expecting a work truck or something on the road in front of the homestead.
Nope, no work truck. It was a natural light show going off. Overhead the clouds were clear and stars were visible. But to the east, there was a large cloud firing off lightning at a rate I have never seen before.
Typically, there will be a flash of lightning, followed by another a few seconds or minutes later.
Not this time. There was continuous lightning going off with flashes in different locations inside the cloud.
I alerted my wife to this and asked her to come look. She wasn’t all that excited to get off the couch since Trish had a rough day vacationing. But finally, she came outside and took a look.
This actually interested her for a few seconds before whatever was on the telly prompted her to move back inside.
When I see something unusual or interesting, this was a call for me to morph into Craig the Photographer!
I got the old camera out, changed the lens to one better suited to the conditions and grabbed the tripod. There are big trees in front of my house, so I decided to go to the top of the hill and take some pictures.
One of my favorites is pictured in this blog!
I got set up pretty much in the middle of the road next to the water tower, hoped nobody would run thine rear over with an automobile and took to firing pictures.
I set the shutter at a slow speed so I could capture a string of lightning, and that is what I got.
While fighting off the attack from a swarm of mosquitoes and other irritating insects which wanted to distract me, I spent about 20 minutes firing off pictures until the cloud moved to the north and behind a group of trees.
I looked in the viewfinder and reviewed the pictures. They looked good! Of course, they all look pretty good until I post them on the computer and cull out the bad ones.
I loaded the pictures and went through them until I narrowed my choices to a couple. I always shoot on RAW instead of JPEG so I have more control over the processing, er, process.
I edited the picture and got it ready to go and this was the result from the light show.
And since they were low to the ground, I got out my miniature tripod and loaded up a macro lens to try and get the picture.
Not my best effort, but it turned out okay.
People sometimes ask me what I like to take pictures of. My favorites are sports, macro (bugs and flowers) and wildlife. People? Not really. I don’t really enjoy the whole posing thing and prefer taking candid pictures of the little ones doing cute stuff like smashing cake over their face.
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Tragedy, controversy and more
We offer for you today, a multi-topic blog.
----
Like many others, I was saddened to hear the news about what happened to the Watkins family of Heavener.
Eric, only 21 years old, and his seven-month old son Bryor, were killed in an auto accident near Verdigris last Friday. Eric’s wife and Bryor’s mother, Ginger, was also in the vehicle, but survived the accident.
The Watkins vehicle was struck by a vehicle driven by Keaton Hannah of Verdigris, an 18-year old who had just hit another vehicle, left the scene and then crashed into Watkins' vehicle.
Hannah was charged with manslaughter, DUI and leaving the scene of an accident.
I don’t understand why somebody is charged solely with manslaughter when they drive while drunk and then take the life of another person. I do know that to be charged with murder, it typically must be premeditated, but is this enough punishment?
I know Hannah will have to live with the memory of this the rest of his life. But hopefully the justice system will throw the book at him. And hopefully they can find who supplied the alcohol to an underage driver and go after them, too.
-----
Next up, the superintendent situation at Poteau continues to draw controversy. The school board named Wayland Bonds of Moore as the interim superintendent at a meeting on Tuesday.
Bonds recently retired as Moore superintendent. He takes the place of Dr. Alice Smith, who is retiring at the end of the month. In case you missed it, assistant superintendent Hank Harris was earlier named to the position, but that offer was later rescinded by the board in a controversial 3-2 vote last week.
Supporters of Harris are passing around a petition in support of him. The petition has over 400 names on it, but was not presented to the school board at the meeting on Tuesday as they hope to add more names to the list.
The issue has left the community divided. Supporters of Harris are outraged and no official reason has been given by the board on why the offer was rescinded.
Harris' supporters have held meetings and threatened to do other things to pressure the board to try and reinstate him.
I do not feel like this will accomplish anything, other than get the board members to plant their feet firmly in the ground. If somebody does not support the actions of a board member, they should remember this when the next election happens. Threatening to do this or that is not the solution.
------
And to wrap up this blog, I watched Glenn Beck’s talk show yesterday afternoon. Typically, I do not watch talk shows as they are a waste of my precious time.
But I was flipping through the channel and caught him talking about basically how the country is headed for a mess. His studio audience consisted mostly of college students.
Beck’s message was the students and others have a great opportunity and could turn things around. He also talked about how the college system is flawed, which is something I have believed for a long time.
Instead of wasting time taking classes that will never help students in their career choice, they should be taught how to succeed in their chosen profession. Much like the technical schools do.
Beck also pointed out the cost of attending college is growing faster than it should.
It was interesting listening to the students. Some complained about how they can’t find a job and it was like they should be owed a job after completing college. Others were taking action and starting their own businesses or interning for companies to learn the profession.
Naturally, some complained about having to intern and not get paid anything for it. One of the persons in the audience said they learned so much by being an intern that it more than made up for not getting paid.
It was easy to see who will succeed and the ones who will struggle and complain that it is the economy’s fault or the fault of somebody else.
----
Like many others, I was saddened to hear the news about what happened to the Watkins family of Heavener.
Eric, only 21 years old, and his seven-month old son Bryor, were killed in an auto accident near Verdigris last Friday. Eric’s wife and Bryor’s mother, Ginger, was also in the vehicle, but survived the accident.
The Watkins vehicle was struck by a vehicle driven by Keaton Hannah of Verdigris, an 18-year old who had just hit another vehicle, left the scene and then crashed into Watkins' vehicle.
Hannah was charged with manslaughter, DUI and leaving the scene of an accident.
I don’t understand why somebody is charged solely with manslaughter when they drive while drunk and then take the life of another person. I do know that to be charged with murder, it typically must be premeditated, but is this enough punishment?
I know Hannah will have to live with the memory of this the rest of his life. But hopefully the justice system will throw the book at him. And hopefully they can find who supplied the alcohol to an underage driver and go after them, too.
-----
Next up, the superintendent situation at Poteau continues to draw controversy. The school board named Wayland Bonds of Moore as the interim superintendent at a meeting on Tuesday.
Bonds recently retired as Moore superintendent. He takes the place of Dr. Alice Smith, who is retiring at the end of the month. In case you missed it, assistant superintendent Hank Harris was earlier named to the position, but that offer was later rescinded by the board in a controversial 3-2 vote last week.
Supporters of Harris are passing around a petition in support of him. The petition has over 400 names on it, but was not presented to the school board at the meeting on Tuesday as they hope to add more names to the list.
The issue has left the community divided. Supporters of Harris are outraged and no official reason has been given by the board on why the offer was rescinded.
Harris' supporters have held meetings and threatened to do other things to pressure the board to try and reinstate him.
I do not feel like this will accomplish anything, other than get the board members to plant their feet firmly in the ground. If somebody does not support the actions of a board member, they should remember this when the next election happens. Threatening to do this or that is not the solution.
------
And to wrap up this blog, I watched Glenn Beck’s talk show yesterday afternoon. Typically, I do not watch talk shows as they are a waste of my precious time.
But I was flipping through the channel and caught him talking about basically how the country is headed for a mess. His studio audience consisted mostly of college students.
Beck’s message was the students and others have a great opportunity and could turn things around. He also talked about how the college system is flawed, which is something I have believed for a long time.
Instead of wasting time taking classes that will never help students in their career choice, they should be taught how to succeed in their chosen profession. Much like the technical schools do.
Beck also pointed out the cost of attending college is growing faster than it should.
It was interesting listening to the students. Some complained about how they can’t find a job and it was like they should be owed a job after completing college. Others were taking action and starting their own businesses or interning for companies to learn the profession.
Naturally, some complained about having to intern and not get paid anything for it. One of the persons in the audience said they learned so much by being an intern that it more than made up for not getting paid.
It was easy to see who will succeed and the ones who will struggle and complain that it is the economy’s fault or the fault of somebody else.
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