Rock Climbing, Part 2

Just a couple more pictures of the kids climbing rocks at Cherokee Rock Village.

Meet The P2

Ladies and gentlemen, we have entered a new world here in the Sand Mtn Bureau. Say hello to the new camera. Officially, its a Panasonic SPX800P with a P2 drive. But all you need to know is the P2 part. For the first time in my career as a, ahem, videojournalist, I go out each day and don't shoot on tape. Everything is all on the little P2 card like in the top photo. Each card, at $650 a pop none the less, holds about 16 minutes of video. The camera has no moving parts to break down, its all electronic, which I quess means I'm really not shooting video anymore, I'm shooting 0's and 1's. The station bought 3 of these new camera systems, one for me, one for Carter Watkins in the Shoals, and one for Gregg our chief photog. Shot everything for the last couple of days on the P2 and have packed up the old tape camera and got it ready to send to Hunts-Vegas(Huntsville) for another photog there. Anyway, I just wanted to let you meet the new camera, hopefully we will all get to know him better in the coming weeks.

Edge Of The World

Here they are again, the Dynamic Duo of Forrest and Jemma, this time after a hard day of rock climbing. Friday we took off to Lookout Mountain in Cherokee County to a little place called Cherokee Rock Village. It's a mecca for rock climbers, nothing but big ole rocks as far as the eye can see. They even filmed part of a movie there last year, "Failure To Launch" with Matthew Mac-whatever-ahey and Sara Jessica Parker. Anyway, this rock was the location for one of the scenes in the movie, overlooking scenic Weiss Lake far below. Kids look kind of nervous because it is literally on the edge of the mountain. Anyway, it is kinda in the middle of nowhere and there are no facilities other than rocks and bushes, but if you are into rock climbing there aren't many better places to go.

Has It Really Been Almost a Month??

My how time flies. I'm sorry it has been so long since I last updated this blog-thing, but you know me. I'm a very busy man. Anyway, been on vacation for the last week and took a quick little trip to Florida to visit the in-laws. The weather didn't want to play along for our earlier than normal trip to the beach, so no beautiful sunset photos or kids playing in the sand. Instead I went to the other extreme, looking for driftwood and that sort of thing to express my artistic side. So here you go, one picture of a tree stump looking weathered and worn with the Sound as a backdrop. Coming up in the next couple of posts, photos from our trip to Cherokee Rock Village for some rock climbing, and a photo of the Sand Mountain Bureau camera. That's right, we have a brand new camera here in the office, and I will brief you on the new technology of the P2 card and the tapeless camera. See you soon!

State Parks Re-Visited

Seems that the voice of the people is heard sometimes by our state government. After many complaints by people, state legislators complained to the head of Alabama's State Parks about the $3 usage fee about to be implemented. And what happens? A press release late yesterday afternoon announced that the fee idea has been dropped. In defense of those who run the parks, they do not receive any tax money for the day to day operation of the parks, and the money raised by the fee would have given them some much needed funds. But I think the idea of having to pay to take your kids or grandkids out to the park to hike trails or look for deer was just the wrong way to do it. As it is, those who camp, play golf or stay at the lodge(when it finally re-opens) fund the park. And no one wants those costs to rise. No easy answers here, but at least one wrong answer has gone away.

Crime Doesn't Pay?

These pictures are from a drug bust Tuesday in the DeKalb County community of Kilpatrick. A half pound of cocaine was seized and four people were arrested. But the thing that got my attention was the $98,500 in cash the drug agents got in the bust. Yes, almost one hundred thousand dollars of cold, hard cash these druggies had in their run-down old trailer. Let me tell you, that much cash laid out to see is quite a sight. "Did you think about grabbing the money and running?", someone asked me. Well, yes, and if not for the presence of about a dozen agents armed with high powered rifles, I might have thought harder about it. Notice the guy above guarding one of the druggies. But that was a really pretty thing to see, $98,000, just lying there. So, Carson posed the question, "Is it wrong to steal drug money?". What do you think?