Thoughts on Thursday Night

There are numerous reason why I write this blog. Today I had some opportunity to think about them. One of the reasons for it is my own therapeutic need to download my thoughts. I think while I sit here waiting for video to process, I'll do just that.

Railroad Park Opening
It was a beautiful day today for the opening ribbon-cutting ceremony for the city's new Railroad Park. It is truly a crown jewel for the city, and I am so proud of all of the many people who had a hand it making it happen.

In addition to some speeches and the ribbon cutting ceremony, the city rented some golf carts and parks personnel drove us around showing us some of the cool features such as energy-efficient field lighting, emergency sirens, lightning warning systems (like what LISD just installed). If you have the patience to watch the videos, you'll get a chance to hear some of this. I rode on the golf cart with Councilman John Gorena and his better half Maria, and you can hear us joking around on the video.

Work
Since I took about 1/2 hour longer than I expected to at the park, I decided to work during lunch, and skip my last-minute plans to go down to the LISD Board Retreat and listen to the proceedings.

My work computer needed a reboot after the weekly updates. As I was waiting on that, I decided to download all the videos from my cameras. Apparently I didn't hold my leg just right and say the incantation because it crashed my laptop too. Things pretty well went down hill from there. I got a bit done, but wasn't as productive as I like to be. I ended out the day trying to recreate a bug that I could almost swear that I've dealt with before. I just couldn't get the offending interface to display at all - much less recreate the bug behavior.

Unfortunately I had to get home early to be home for the kids when they got out of school. Mamask8z is volunteering for the Breast Cancer 3-day Walk, and she was in Plano today.

Talkin' 'bout Blogs
I spoke to a student reporter today with the Lewisville H.S. Farmer's Harvest - basically just talking about how the blog and its role in the media mix.

A Facebook friend tells me he wrote a paper about this blog's recent conflict with the LISD media policy for his Media Ethics class.

One of the reasons I don't use my personal name in the byline here is that I just don't much care for self promotion or being a part of the story. I'd rather write about ideas and events. It's not that I hide my identity though.

Fort Hood Shooting
When I got home, I got the notification about the mass shooting that happened today down in Fort Hood. It just made me immensely sad. People always look for the meaning in things like this, and try to find who or what is to blame. No doubt, this will be analyzed in detail over the coming weeks in the broadcast media. All that we can really know at this point is that someone did a very evil act. It is very human to try to make sense of such a senseless act. Everyone wants to know the motive. I don't know that it matters.

What is important for now, I think is that we all realize that there are 31 wounded people right now, some of whom may be fighting for their lives. There are worried families and grieving families. In fact the media hardly reports any more on the troops who come home from Iraq and Afghanistan in flag draped caskets. Whether you agree with their current missions, we must not let them and their families bear all of this sacrifice on their own.

It is not clear to me right now what is needed the most, but one need that I have heard of is that there may be some need for blood donations. In Lewisville, Carter Bloodcare is open from 9 - 6 on Friday and 8 - 4 on Saturday. Whether or not your donation goes to Central Texas to serve those wounded troops, there is always a need for blood donations, and they can be used to replenish depleted supplies.

If you are a person of faith, then I would imagine your prayers would be greatly appreciated by those who need them.

Three-Day Walk
Mamask8z is going to be out tomorrow and this weekend volunteering for the Komen 3-day Walk for Breast Cancer. She raised money and did the walk last year, and is volunteering to staff the event this year. She'll be driving one of the vans that picks up tired walkers along the route, and cheers them up. I am so proud of her for doing this, and it just shows once again the big heart she has that caused me to fall in love with her more than 16 years ago.

15 year anniversary
Today was the 15th year wedding anniversary for MamaSk8z and me. Because we are so busy today, we're putting off celebrating until next week. All I can say is that if I had it to do all over again, I'd marry her again.

Well, my videos are through processing and ready to upload. I guess that's all I have for tonight.

Peace.