It's hard to believe. Alabama, the state, runs twenty-one state parks. They are actually run by the state conservation department.
They come to realize that over the years....so parks provide a profit and some don't. With a federal grant, they've somehow managed to survive. Well....up until now. The state is drawing up a plan for 2015.....to close down fifteen of the state parks.
Some parks.....like Bladon Springs, have been around since 1938.
The parks remaining? Well, you had to guess right on Gulf State Park, which is a four-star resort on the Gulf Coast. Wind Creek State Park? It'll be around as well, and is fairly well known for fishing competitions in the summer. Oak Mountain State Park has been around since the late 1920s and is just minutes away from Birmingham.
Some of the parks on the closure list? Guntersville State Park made it on the list . They actually had horseback riding potential, a championship golf course, and a fishing center.
Joe Wheeler State Park, from where I grew up.....made it on the closure list. It has a major boating center and a championship golf course. It also has a major hotel resort.....right on the water.
I admit five or six of the parks on the closure list.....just aren't pulling in enough customers to make them worth the effort of saving.
The closure business is not a guaranteed thing.....it's simply the first step and the state will go through the motions. My humble guess is that by December of this year.....at least three parks will go final and shut down. Maybe another three or four will shut down by the end of 2016.
My general view of the Joe Wheeler complex is that it's got all the dynamics to be a mega recreation center. The complex has been on plan A since it's beginnings in the early 1980s with the hotel and golf course. A few additions occurred over the last decade.....but they really haven't been forward-thinking or aggressive about visitors or use.
With the right advertising, a few added features, and some figure (TV star or entertainer) as a 'host'.....they could probably double the business that they currently achieve....all within three years. They could easily add more cabins and cottages. Another hotel could be put up on the property with more revenue potential. Advertising via national magazines would attract more RV visitors.
So, my suggestion is for the city of Rogersville (their next door municipality) to ask for the property and hire up a couple of smart folks to rebuild the image of the park.
I admit.....some of these state parks are practically dead and there's just not much you can save. These are parks that never should have been made into state parks.
Bottom line? This might be the best thing to happen to Joe Wheeler State Park....ever. And they might take the park to a whole new level within the next decade.
Thursday, 16 April 2015
Monday, 13 April 2015
Completed Fringe Finally
This past weekend, I finished up 'Fringe'. I admit....during the era when it aired, I probably watched five episodes of the entire series. With Netflix, I've finally sat down and watched Fringe from start to finish....all 100 episodes. It took me seven weeks but it's done. So five observations.
First, Fringe is what Lost, "V", Doctor Who, Stargate, Heroes, The X-Files and Twilight Zone all tried to be.....condensed into one single series. To be truthful....you could not afford to miss a single episode and you had to watch them all in sequence. Skipping one or two episodes per season simply left you without vital pieces of the entire story.
Second, Fringe had four-star writers from start to finish. With most series....you reach a point where you know the top writer or two have left the show and the epic points have disappeared. The script from day one worked....and you tended to admire some speech or frustration moment by a character.
Third, as bad guys go.....David Robert Jones and the Observers 'Captain' are five-star bad guys. The camera angles....the script and text of both characters....the dialog with the primary characters.....all lead to some successful stories.
Fourth, the alternate universe Fauxlivia....once introduced....was a heavyweight for each story.
Fifth, there is a simple fault with Fringe....in that you really need to watch three or four episodes a week and assemble the series within a limited time so that everything makes sense. To space it out over five years....probably make economic or business sense, but for the regular viewer.....one episode a week, and twenty episodes a year....simply delayed the potential effect of the series.
I would strongly recommend Fringe but you'd best plan an episode a day to make it work right.
First, Fringe is what Lost, "V", Doctor Who, Stargate, Heroes, The X-Files and Twilight Zone all tried to be.....condensed into one single series. To be truthful....you could not afford to miss a single episode and you had to watch them all in sequence. Skipping one or two episodes per season simply left you without vital pieces of the entire story.
Second, Fringe had four-star writers from start to finish. With most series....you reach a point where you know the top writer or two have left the show and the epic points have disappeared. The script from day one worked....and you tended to admire some speech or frustration moment by a character.
Third, as bad guys go.....David Robert Jones and the Observers 'Captain' are five-star bad guys. The camera angles....the script and text of both characters....the dialog with the primary characters.....all lead to some successful stories.
Fourth, the alternate universe Fauxlivia....once introduced....was a heavyweight for each story.
Fifth, there is a simple fault with Fringe....in that you really need to watch three or four episodes a week and assemble the series within a limited time so that everything makes sense. To space it out over five years....probably make economic or business sense, but for the regular viewer.....one episode a week, and twenty episodes a year....simply delayed the potential effect of the series.
I would strongly recommend Fringe but you'd best plan an episode a day to make it work right.
Sunday, 12 April 2015
Barracks Story
The Barksdale AFB dorm (in Shreveport)? This is a shot of the old dorm I lived in (renovation around 1984, after I left). It was one of the worst places you can imagine before the renovation, and I actually stayed there for roughly two years.
It'd been built in the mid-1960s and was state-of-the art when it was built. But from like 1981 to 1983....it was in terrible shape.
The cooling unit was no longer able to cool. It was a shocker to survive the two summers I spent there with almost no cooling whatsoever.
The heating unit would only heat to a sufficient level (around 25-degrees). Anything below that and it just subtracted from the general comfort of the room. At some point, around minus-five degrees....the room temperature was around 32-degrees. Even the mini-heating unit I bought could barely add ten degrees onto the room, and it'd pop the circuit breaker after thirty minutes of use.
The cockroaches? In the middle of the night, if you got up and turned on the light.....the one sink in the room would have around a dozen cockroaches scrambling around. I'd keep a can of lighter fluid nearby and spray them with that.
Mice were a problem on the first floor....luckily, I lived on the third floor.
The water for the showers....if you didn't have a problem with water switching from mild-warm to extreme-cold in the winter months....it was Ok.
The ice storm in January of 1984? It covered the fire escape entirely and made it impossible to use as an exit.
The natural gas leak in 1982? It took two days for them to get the gas cleared out and make the dorm safe for usage.
It was the only barracks that I came eventually to hate with a passion. If I hadn't had orders to leave in January of 1984....I would have said enough and just applied for quarters pay and moved off-base.
From what I can figure....they renovated the place in 1984.....again in the late 1990s, and finally tore the entire building down two or three years ago.
The Walter Scott Shooting
Typically, I strongly recommend a five-day waiting period before people get all hyperactive and think they know the entire episode to some chaotic event. In this Walter Scott episode.....I can make three observations.
First, this is North Charleston. Around the 2005/2006 period.....this was considered one of the most dangerous places in the US to walk around. Drugs, gangs, and chaos reigned. It's a town of 105,000 residents and it was deep into serious trouble. A decision was made by the city leadership after they saw strong hints of people vacating the area and escaping off to towns around it. The decision was to build up their police department and get fairly enthusiastic about law enforcement.
The town might have been predominately white twenty-five years ago.....but as the crime escalation started to occur....'white-flight' had already started. North Charleston had dealt various cards to regain stability and stop the chaos. Sadly, this meant a higher chance of residents in town (more black than white) getting pulled over for questions or small traffic violations. Walter Scott could have driven in hundreds of cities and never been pulled over in his entire life. But North Charleston doesn't have those odds.
Second....Walter Scott was formerly married and owed around $18,000 on back-payments for child support. Being a warehouse guy and fork-life operator.....he's making next to nothing. The odds of him ever making enough to cover a regular monthly payment? Zero. It's nice that the legal system has invented child support payments.....but it only works if you make enough pay to cover yourself and the payments.
What the guy feared was that the cop would see some warrant for his arrest....arrest him.....and put his one job into jeopardy. Without that one job.....he's one step away from street-life or living with relatives. So, when he freaked out.....he had justification to freak out.
Third....I still can't understand the necessity of pulling a gun on a unarmed guy who was running the opposite direction. If Walter Scott had shown a gun and started running.....maybe there's some justification (marginally, I admit).....but with no gun and running....there is zero justification. What was the cop thinking in terms of a threat? There is no threat. This is the same type of mentality that you'd see when some cop comes to an enclosed yard.....enters....encounters a family dog....and shoots the dog with no logic or reason.
The charges? It's between murder-in-the-2nd-degree or manslaughter. In either case, I don't see the jury giving the guy more than fifteen years. But I don't see this guy surviving in a state prison more than a year or two. Some gang hit will occur, and this guy will never finish his 'trip' in the state prison.
First, this is North Charleston. Around the 2005/2006 period.....this was considered one of the most dangerous places in the US to walk around. Drugs, gangs, and chaos reigned. It's a town of 105,000 residents and it was deep into serious trouble. A decision was made by the city leadership after they saw strong hints of people vacating the area and escaping off to towns around it. The decision was to build up their police department and get fairly enthusiastic about law enforcement.
The town might have been predominately white twenty-five years ago.....but as the crime escalation started to occur....'white-flight' had already started. North Charleston had dealt various cards to regain stability and stop the chaos. Sadly, this meant a higher chance of residents in town (more black than white) getting pulled over for questions or small traffic violations. Walter Scott could have driven in hundreds of cities and never been pulled over in his entire life. But North Charleston doesn't have those odds.
Second....Walter Scott was formerly married and owed around $18,000 on back-payments for child support. Being a warehouse guy and fork-life operator.....he's making next to nothing. The odds of him ever making enough to cover a regular monthly payment? Zero. It's nice that the legal system has invented child support payments.....but it only works if you make enough pay to cover yourself and the payments.
What the guy feared was that the cop would see some warrant for his arrest....arrest him.....and put his one job into jeopardy. Without that one job.....he's one step away from street-life or living with relatives. So, when he freaked out.....he had justification to freak out.
Third....I still can't understand the necessity of pulling a gun on a unarmed guy who was running the opposite direction. If Walter Scott had shown a gun and started running.....maybe there's some justification (marginally, I admit).....but with no gun and running....there is zero justification. What was the cop thinking in terms of a threat? There is no threat. This is the same type of mentality that you'd see when some cop comes to an enclosed yard.....enters....encounters a family dog....and shoots the dog with no logic or reason.
The charges? It's between murder-in-the-2nd-degree or manslaughter. In either case, I don't see the jury giving the guy more than fifteen years. But I don't see this guy surviving in a state prison more than a year or two. Some gang hit will occur, and this guy will never finish his 'trip' in the state prison.
The Newest Disorder?
For years.....I've been waiting on this to occur.
The British Daily Mail (one of my favorite newspapers) wrote up this piece on a new disorder affecting people.....Orthorexia Nervosa. It's basically a healthy food disorder.
Yeah......it's when a person has zapped themselves mentally enough....that they crave only fruit and vegetables....no bread....no dairy products....no meats. So when they get to some stage....they feel all negative and frustrated when they slip up need a piece of bread....negativity goes up in a massive sense.
Has Orthorexia Nervosa made it into the DSM-5.....the handbook/manual that mental health folks use to identify disorders? The simple answer is no. This would require a fair amount of surveys, polls and analysis....which is probably several years away from establishing absolute facts. So, it's a discussed item around mental health experts who have started to see folks who complain about this nervous condition or frustrations surrounding their diet agenda.
Here in Germany, I'd take a guess that one in a hundred folks are already slipping into this disorder. If you survey the dozen-odd state-run networks....there's probably twenty hours a week of nutritional news or shows. Some simply key in on how to eat healthy.....cutting out some grease or fat. But you could see after a while some efforts to maximize on eating healthy. It'd only take a year or two for someone to repeat their daily habits over and over....reaching the point where it's a food disorder.
The curious thing....no one has said how you treat the disorder. Teaching people how to eat an unhealthy menu of food? Forcing people to eat two slices of bacon? It's hard to say how you'd find some way of treating such a person.
Bottom line? You might be so successful in life at extending yourself and making yourself believe in good nutrition....that you might harm yourself with frustrations and negativity over such a diet.
The British Daily Mail (one of my favorite newspapers) wrote up this piece on a new disorder affecting people.....Orthorexia Nervosa. It's basically a healthy food disorder.
Yeah......it's when a person has zapped themselves mentally enough....that they crave only fruit and vegetables....no bread....no dairy products....no meats. So when they get to some stage....they feel all negative and frustrated when they slip up need a piece of bread....negativity goes up in a massive sense.
Has Orthorexia Nervosa made it into the DSM-5.....the handbook/manual that mental health folks use to identify disorders? The simple answer is no. This would require a fair amount of surveys, polls and analysis....which is probably several years away from establishing absolute facts. So, it's a discussed item around mental health experts who have started to see folks who complain about this nervous condition or frustrations surrounding their diet agenda.
Here in Germany, I'd take a guess that one in a hundred folks are already slipping into this disorder. If you survey the dozen-odd state-run networks....there's probably twenty hours a week of nutritional news or shows. Some simply key in on how to eat healthy.....cutting out some grease or fat. But you could see after a while some efforts to maximize on eating healthy. It'd only take a year or two for someone to repeat their daily habits over and over....reaching the point where it's a food disorder.
The curious thing....no one has said how you treat the disorder. Teaching people how to eat an unhealthy menu of food? Forcing people to eat two slices of bacon? It's hard to say how you'd find some way of treating such a person.
Bottom line? You might be so successful in life at extending yourself and making yourself believe in good nutrition....that you might harm yourself with frustrations and negativity over such a diet.
Thursday, 9 April 2015
Short Essay on Gender-free Bathroom Story
I noticed some big news group talked up the newest thing in the White House.....a gender-free bathroom. This is one of those new fangled bathrooms where males, females, or transgender folks can attend to their personal business.
I sat and thought about it. I also have a gender-free bathroom in my present house. You can open the door.....go do your business....wash up....flush....and then spray a bit (the guy-rule that my wife enforces).
I also go one step further.....it's a gender-free and paw-free bathroom.....meaning that two Maine Coons can also do their business as well. To be honest, I've had a gender-free bathroom for years....every since I got married. In the days prior to that.....I lived in the barracks where we had a open bathroom.....which means forty guys could use it at one time, if necessary.
This gender-free bathroom thing appears to be a hot topic. Folks marvel at the new and complex nature of this....yet never seem to ask any questions. It's like some alien species arrived last week and everyone jumped to toss in a new type bathroom situation.
In the old days.....if you stopped off at some gas station....you'd find that they had only one bathroom (the typical solution) and you got a key to walk over to the gender-free bathroom. It was one single stall with one single wash basin. You did your business quickly, and left (hopefully flushing). End of the discussion. Today? Business operations have multiple stalls and things appear to be slightly more complicated.
The odd question to ask the White House? It'd be interesting to note if it has a sensor and are counting 'users'. In an entire year.....is there anyone using the gender-free bathroom? And if they are using it.....are there any problems or complaints?
I sat and thought about it. I also have a gender-free bathroom in my present house. You can open the door.....go do your business....wash up....flush....and then spray a bit (the guy-rule that my wife enforces).
I also go one step further.....it's a gender-free and paw-free bathroom.....meaning that two Maine Coons can also do their business as well. To be honest, I've had a gender-free bathroom for years....every since I got married. In the days prior to that.....I lived in the barracks where we had a open bathroom.....which means forty guys could use it at one time, if necessary.
This gender-free bathroom thing appears to be a hot topic. Folks marvel at the new and complex nature of this....yet never seem to ask any questions. It's like some alien species arrived last week and everyone jumped to toss in a new type bathroom situation.
In the old days.....if you stopped off at some gas station....you'd find that they had only one bathroom (the typical solution) and you got a key to walk over to the gender-free bathroom. It was one single stall with one single wash basin. You did your business quickly, and left (hopefully flushing). End of the discussion. Today? Business operations have multiple stalls and things appear to be slightly more complicated.
The odd question to ask the White House? It'd be interesting to note if it has a sensor and are counting 'users'. In an entire year.....is there anyone using the gender-free bathroom? And if they are using it.....are there any problems or complaints?
An Amusing Fracking Story
CNBC did a report up today.....talking up the idea that fracking has caused massive radon build-ups in Pennsylvania houses (800,000 of them presently are mentioned in the news item). They use statistical data collected by Johns Hopkins to state their point. These are homes which were measured back in the late 1980s and again in the last five years. "Bad-boy" fracking.....obviously has to be the cause.
Sometimes.....you get the impression that a good story ought to be able to stand, and this would work good....if they hadn't put the date into the storyline. The data collection started in 1987.
If you go back to the 1980s....some people were starting to talk in public forums and to building/renovation crews about selling people on better insulation and high-standard door/windows. The deal spoken by environmentalists was that we were allowing precious cooled or heated air to escape a house.
Naturally, the gimmick here was to spend several thousand and buy some insulation protection. What happens after you spend the money? Your house gets insulated, and air doesn't escape. That also includes radon which might be in the house.....so you have radon build-up. Shocker.....?
Unless you also went out and put in an exhaust fan.....to help several times a week to 'flush' the house.....you were were going to collect and develop a substantial radon problem.
The 300,000 homes that CNBC talked about with big issues which lead back to fracking? No.....they lead back to the investment made fifteen to twenty years ago.....to better insulated homes. It's not rocket science to figure the consequence here.
Sometimes.....you get the impression that a good story ought to be able to stand, and this would work good....if they hadn't put the date into the storyline. The data collection started in 1987.
If you go back to the 1980s....some people were starting to talk in public forums and to building/renovation crews about selling people on better insulation and high-standard door/windows. The deal spoken by environmentalists was that we were allowing precious cooled or heated air to escape a house.
Naturally, the gimmick here was to spend several thousand and buy some insulation protection. What happens after you spend the money? Your house gets insulated, and air doesn't escape. That also includes radon which might be in the house.....so you have radon build-up. Shocker.....?
Unless you also went out and put in an exhaust fan.....to help several times a week to 'flush' the house.....you were were going to collect and develop a substantial radon problem.
The 300,000 homes that CNBC talked about with big issues which lead back to fracking? No.....they lead back to the investment made fifteen to twenty years ago.....to better insulated homes. It's not rocket science to figure the consequence here.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)