Tonight as we always do before bedtime, I asked Spud who he would like to pray for. He responded as he has for the last three months: "uncwarary" (Uncle Larry). This was ok and after a mild admonishment that we should also pray for others I suggested that we also pray for Uncle Dan and Auntie Laurie, seeing as Auntie Laurie is with child.
As I was straightening out the bedclothing prior to settling down to pray I heard I heard "hankew fur day pway fur uncwarary pway fur uncdaaan anh antwe rahree".
"Hey, you're praying."
(Translation: Thank you for today. Pray for Uncle Larry. Pray for Uncle Dan and Auntie Laurie)
Well, I asked him to go on and finish up. Just a quick prompt from dad to pray for a good night's sleep and then "n pway hn Juhses nhaaam. Ooooooh-men".
I'm not sure how much Spud understands who we pray to and why we pray, but I was still stunned beyond belief. These kids just surprise the heck out of me all the time.
This fatherhood thing really is great!
Wednesday, September 10, 2003
Multimedia Math: As I sat here scanning a couple hundred pictures into my computer, I got to wondering. . .how many wedding slide shows have the Kawfemate and I built? 13. We're on 14. And we have one more to do next year.
In rough chronological order with comments:
Darren & Melissa: North & South theme. Sorry guys, funeral dirge-like final song. Polachrome slides of wedding in show. Worked with Byron on this one.
Janine & Gary: Princess Theme, nice interludes with lute music. Combination of E-6 and Polachrome slides of wedding day in show.
Ted & Amy: MOVIES! Jet Li opening theme. Superman. Used crude Freehand illustrations for "fuze" effect during Mission Impossible sequence, possibly our first "animation". First use of a partially faded projector and overlaying an image from the second projector on top.
Lis & Leon: Family!
Dan & Laurie: Mad About You theming, Theme from Dukes of Hazard, MNF. First use of engagement photos.
Kim & Shane: Magic carpet borders, first use of a Disney theme. Polachrome slides of wedding in show.
Brent & Grace: B & G script theming. First use of computer generated titles on top of images and first (limited) use of digital image manipulation.
Scott & Grace: Stars! Disney music.
Scott & Soraya: The 1/2 slide show. Titles, credits and some pictures supplied to support a MAJOR 30 minutes skit. Disappointed that they didn't request a show, we slid one in there. . .heh.
Warren & My-Hanh: Narration overdub.
Byron & Christine: Law & Order, Friends, audio clips from Mad About You, audio clips from Friends, Knight Rider, Barrage. First use of Vegas to dub track, THANKS BRIAN!
Aaron & Tiff: Island graphics, great song by Bruddah' Iz--What a Wonderful World. Theme from Dukes of Hazard. Last use of slides.
Abel & Wendy: When Harry Met Sally theming, Celine Dion, You've Got a Friend In Me, first all digital show, first all Vegas show (v3.0), played off of laptop. First extensive use of digital manipulation.
Brandon & Grace: Let's Get Ready to Rumble, Everybody Dance Now, Sesame Street, Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, 90210, Lean On Me, I Will Be Here, complex opening sequence, first show mastered to DVD and played from DVD (props to Elijah for the projector). Vegas 4.0. First use of video clips.
Pui-Yee & Jeremy: Stay tuned.
Suffice to say, as we have done more and more of these, we've gotten better. The engineer part of me really is bugged that some of the earlier shows are, well, not as good technically as I would like. I guess that just happens as technology gets better.
I'm working on a personal project to collect copies of all the shows that we did, from Aaron & Tiff on back. If you guys have a video copy or know of a video copy, let me know!
Not included are the various slide shows we've done for youth camps or other church functions.
Whew.
My son and daughter are asleep in the back seat on our trip home. As we enter Ventura on the 101, a black and white from Ventura's finest rockets onto the freeway with the candy bar blazing. He weaves through traffic, failing to get the Silver Corolla S that just cut a few people off. Dang. I resist the temptation to follow. In the opposite direction another black and white, also code three, appears, maybe a fast mover to the next exit before turning around. It never occurs to me why the Ventura Police department is responding to a freeway call.
Traffic then comes to a bumper to bumper stop and go affair.
I spend the next fifteen minutes alternately staring at the back bumper of a Granite Clearcoat Metallic XTerra and looking in the rearview mirror for the second black and white.
The second police car shows and passes me on the left shoulder and disappears around a left bend in the 101. As we round the bend and then past a right bend, I see a pumper engine from the fire department on the other side of the freeway. After a few more minutes, flares creep into view, marking off the left two lanes of the three lane highway, and then the two black and whites from the Ventura Police department, acting as blockades to the closed lanes. Again, I don't seem to understand why the CHP isn't out there.
Merging into the only lane available, and passing the two black and whites, a civilian carrying a videocam and another carrying a long lens SLR is walking away from whatever is gong on. What IS going on here? Passing a black and white that is positioned under an overpass, there are more police vehicles on the street above. A glance to the left and I see a yellow tarp spread out on the ground covering a form.
The tarp isn't big enough to cover the shoe that lies several feet from the form.
A 10-56? As I drive past the scene, there are a few cars stopped on left and the right of the road and several people milling about. What happened? If it was an accident, it would have had to be something on the street above, because there was no obvious wreckage on the freeway. What was this person's life story that led to this?
A search of the CHP incident site found the radio transcript for incident 0496. At 4:46PM there was an "Attempted Suicide - Jumping from Bridge" entry. Here's the text:
| Incident: | 0496 | Location: | SB US101 AT S CALIFOR NIA ST | Map Page: | 491 2C | Info as of: | 5/27/2003 12:48:54 AM |
ADDITIONAL DETAILS
| 6:46PM | - 1039 VCFD |
| 6:47PM | - NUMEROUS VEHS PULLING OVER |
| 6:48PM | - 1039 S8 |
| 6:48PM | - OLDER LADY WEARING BLK PANTS GRN JACKET ON FAR LEFT LN |
| 6:49PM | - JUMPER IN #3LN |
| 6:51PM | - WHI HONDA ACCORD WAS HIT BY JUMPER, 1023 ON RS, CHP OFFICER THERE NOW |
| 6:54PM | - PED IS IN NUMB #1 UNDR CALIF |
| 6:55PM | - S8 REQ 1021 TO VPD TO SEE IF THEY CALLED CORONER |
| 6:55PM | - 305 ADVZING #1 AND #2 LNS CLOSED |
| 6:56PM | - #3 LN WILL REMAIN OPEN |
| 6:57PM | - PER VPD NEG ON CALLING THE CORONER |
| 7:00PM | - 1039 VPD / THEY WILL BE TAKING PAPER ON THIS PRTY |
| 7:01PM | - 1039 CORONERS OFFICE - JAMES REQ THAT ONLY MOVE BODY IF CAN TAKE LOTS OF POLAROID PICTURES SO CAN SEE WHERE CAME FRM IF NOT JUST LEAVE THERE -- ETA 30 MINS |
| 7:02PM | - 1039 S8 IN REGARDS TO CORONER |
| 7:04PM | - RED HOND AND WHI ACC JSO 1020 ON RS |
| 7:15PM | - S8 REQ ADVZ ON CALL MANAGER OF TC |
| 7:15PM | - ADVZ ON CALL MANAGER THAT WE HAVE ONE LN OPEN AND WILL BE OPENING ANOTHER ON AFTER PICS ARE TAKEN |
| 7:16PM | - S8 REQ ETA ON CORONER |
| 7:19PM | - 1039 CODE 20 |
| 7:22PM | - L2 REQ A CALL BACK WILL DURATION OF LN CLOSURE |
| 7:33PM | - PER S8 / BODY IS MOVED TO CD |
| 7:33PM | - S8 NOW OPENING #2 |
| 7:39PM | - 1039 L2 WITH LINE 44 AND 45 INFO |
| 7:39PM | - PER S8 / #2 LN IS NOW OPEN |
| 8:20PM | - S8 ADVZING ALL LNS NOW OPEN |
| 8:40PM | - S8 REQ ADVZ CODE 20 ALL LNS CLR |
| 8:40PM | - 1039 CODE 20 |