Father's Day, 2007

My father is dead now; he died on March 19, 2001. He missed the events of September 11th that year - thank God for small favors. Although I dearly wish he was still around ... I very much wish he was still around. I haven't met a father yet who even remotely compares to my own father. That's how great of a father he was.

Don't get me wrong, he definitely had his bad side. We all do. But he was unwavering in his faith to my mother. He really lived the whole "through good times and bad, in sickness and in health, til death do us part". No matter how bad it got between them - and in all fairness, I never witnessed it get really bad - there was never talk of divorce or separation. They stayed together through it all. I give both my parents a lot of credit for that. And I am extremely lucky to be married to a guy with the same sense of commitment to me!

I'm still getting to know my father-in-law. He is similar to my dad in some ways, vastly different in others. He is quite young, only in his 50s. My dad, who passed away more than 6 years ago, was 79 when he died. In my opinion my dad was much wiser when he died than my father-in-law is now, but my dad wasn't always so wise. He was in his 50s once too. Both dads strive to teach us, their children, which mistakes to avoid making, mainly those of the financial kind.

And both dads, be not mistaken, love their children very, very much.

All the world's a stage

I am more than wildly interested in the fact that today is the birthday of CNN. The Cable News Network turns a quarter of a century today. CNN is a mere 4 months older than my sister, Elizabeth, who is not someone I associate with CNN at all.

This is the day that commemorates the birth of a 24-hour news reality that is now accepted as a rather common way of life in this world today. Thanks to CNN, events such as the Battle of Mogadishu (yeah that didn't ring a bell with me either, truth be known) and the Oklahoma City bombing, and lest we forget the fiasco that turned out to be David Koresh, and 9/11, all these events were brought to us as they were happening, courtesy of a 24-hour operation dedicating itself to what is essentially the original reality show. Now here's a newsflash: yes, folks, there was life before CNN. And correct me if I'm wrong but we were living it pretty well.

CNN. A name that has become synonymous with trust, reliability, promptness, efficacy, James Earl Jones, and not to be outdone Accuracy, as it pertains to delivering news. There are many interesting facts that can be found by clicking here, but none that are nearly as tantalizing (to me) than this one: coverage of the first Gulf War, among other things, led to coining the term "the CNN effect": the perception that CNN's 24-hour, real-time brand of coverage of those events had such an impact on United States' government as to influence it's decision-making processes.

If that is so, and we look at our position in this world from a political and social perspective, and we add up all the rights and wrongs ... what does this mean? Is there a difference between what life was like 26 years ago and life now? Was life "better" back in the "good ol' days"? Does this mean that it's not Nixon's fault the Presidency is corrupt at all - it's CNN's fault!

The truth is, it's probably futile to make such comparisons. We'd have gotten here regardless, and whatever CNN's role in the pudding was, while significant, was not operating in a vacuum either.

It's still very, very difficult to ignore this little tidbit of history. For better or for worse, we live in a 24-hour world. But then, we always have, now haven't we?

Bomb Threat, A Love Story

A guy called in a bomb threat to Southwest Florida International Airport today. Authorities arrested the man, but not before a bomb search was conducted on a JetBlue flight (that poor airline has the worst luck). Turns out he was making a desperate attempt to keep his girlfriend from leaving.

 

The man is in custody, and the flight was only delayed by a mere 30 minutes. No word on if the girlfriend made it to New York or not, though.

Platoon

Well I just received a bit of a shock.

I was browsing IMDB's website, namely the homepage, I scroll down and there's a quote. I love quotes. Here's what I read:

"Day by day I struggle to maintain not only my strength but also my sanity. It's all a blur. I have no energy to write. I don't know what's right or wrong anymore. " - Chris Taylor

Underneath that quote is a link that says, "From which TV show/movie?" I am intrigued because that quote pretty much sums up my life these days! Although most notably my life working here at the news station.

I was floored when I clicked on the link and saw that quote is from Oliver Stone's movie, Platoon. Of course. A war movie. I've often compared life working in this news industry to PTSD (post-traumatic stress syndrome), a disorder often found in soldiers of war. And that confirmed it. Hm.

What the hell is wrong with people?

Tonight a 31-year-old Teacher of the Year in South Carolina was arrested on charges of having sex with one of her students. Immediately after hearing stories like this, we in the news business often ask each other, "Now why would you want to jeopardize your Teacher of the Year award, for any reason, but especially for that reason???" We get stories like this all the time. It's very sad. More and more and more and more I find myself asking that question: what the hell is wrong with people?

No shadows in Florida

This picture was taken around 12:30pm EDT in Cape Coral, FL to demonstrate how my shadow was almost non-existent from the sun being so directly square overhead.

This is a test

This is a test of the email-to-blog service offered by Blogger. Hope this works.