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by: Josh Roseman | 11Alive.com Web Producer
Tue, 28 Oct 2008 13:07:00 -0700
Names of people and places have been changed, but nothing else. As I've said in previous blog entries (I think), I happen to be of the Jewish persuasion. When I go to temple, I go to the same one as my father-in-law, who is more observant than I. Once, at Temple Z, there was a "Torah Bowl" sort of thing where two teams from rival shuls competed against each other to see who knew more, or some such. We went to support my father-in-law and the Z team. The competition was held in the temple's social hall. This was 2005. Fast-forward three years. I noticed that my friend Robert, who is also Jewish, posted a photo of himself and his daughter on Facebook. I haven't talked to Robert in a while, so I posted a comment asking where they went to shul -- Robert was wearing a yarmulke and both he and his daughter were dressed nicely, so I'm guessing it was some sort of Judaic event. Almost immediately after I posted that, Robert's wife Marni sent me an e-mail -- it happens that, when I was recently in Massachusetts with my brother-in-law, I was in the same town where Marni grew up. We discussed that for a moment (so to speak), and then I said that it looked like the photo in question was taken at Temple Z. Marni said "you've got a good eye; it was at Z." I haven't been to Temple Z since my daughter's naming, back in 2006. I haven't been in that particular room in Temple Z since 2005. I've only been in the room one time. And somehow I recognized, from the small portion of wall that I could see behind Robert and his daughter, where the photo was taken. It worries me a little that my brain holds onto things like that, but can't remember to take out the garbage or call our contractor. Does anyone else notice that happening?
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by: Josh Roseman | 11Alive.com Web Producer
Thu, 02 Oct 2008 11:55:00 -0700
You may have noticed that the news these days has been a little depressing. Humongous financial bailouts, no gas in the area, political candidates taking potshots at each other... it can all be a little overwhelming. You may also have noticed that we installed a smartboard in our Information Center. It's like a touchable computer screen. In terms of location, it's in a place where everyone in the room can see it. It had CNBC.com on it earlier, and I have to be honest... I'd had enough. I was ready for something cute.
That's pretty cute, right? (Courtesy Cute Overload) But the moment I changed it, one of the chief engineers said "that's got to come down." I was confused; we weren't on the air, so why couldn't we all enjoy a cute kitten for a few minutes amid all this bad news? "If there's breaking news, it'll be on the air," he told me. Aw. Poop. Let's be honest, though... would it be so bad if, during breaking news, you looked around the anchor's shoulder and saw a cute kitten? Might take a little sting out of the bailout bill, or the gas crisis, or the political season. Everything's better with kittens, right?
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by: Josh Roseman | 11Alive.com Web Producer
Fri, 12 Sep 2008 05:51:00 -0700
With all the furor over gas prices, and the Ike Effect, I'm really glad I bought my Thanksgiving plane tickets last night, while the getting was good. Thanksgiving is one of two major trips my family makes to Florida each year to see everyone -- parents, grandparents, aunts, cousins, more cousins, still more cousins (I have a ton of cousins), and also my friends who still live in the area where we grew up. The other used to be July 4, but now that my daughter is old enough to need her own seat, we go in June instead. Thanksgiving, though, has always been our big family gala. My daughter will be 27 months old in November, and even though she's small enough to pass for 18-21 months, she's as active as a girl who's almost three, and (at least in my opinion) at least as smart. I don't want to take any chances that she's going to blurt out her age and get me in trouble. Besides, like I said, she's very active, and having her own seat -- especially on airplanes with rapidly-declining leg room -- is going to be exceedingly helpful. Plus, my in-laws have a spare booster seat approved for use on all Delta flights. We've tried several different ways to go to Florida for Thanksgiving -- we've made the 11-hour drive and been stuck in traffic because everyone else had the same idea. Last year we briefly considered driving to Savannah to take the Amtrak train. We've flown Monday to Friday. We've flown Wednesday to Sunday. We've even done Tuesday to Saturday. But the way prices are going these days, the most cost-effective option to fly to Florida is Thursday through Tuesday. And even then it's not cheap. Once you decide to take the plunge, you have to think about what amenities you need. As someone with a child, my family really needs to sit in the same row. Therefore, pre-selecting our seats is important. Can't do that on Airtran without paying substantially more per ticket (I think last night it was an upcharge of $20 apiece), and Spirit also charges you. Fortunately, I didn't have to make a hard choice; Delta and AirTran cost the same, and though I've had a couple of bad experiences with Delta in the past, the benefit outweighed the cost. $214 per ticket with pre-selected seats, or $214 per ticket and select seats the day before. I know which one I'll choose every time. But each airline has its own set of bonuses. Delta planes used for short trips like Atlanta to Ft. Lauderdale tend to be their older jets, not equipped with changing tables. Every time we fly Delta, we use our seats when my daughter needs a fresh diaper. Spirit has all new airplanes, complete with changing tables; though the bathrooms are extremely tiny, it's much easier to change a diaper when you've got a flat surface. Many AirTran planes also have changing tables. And on-time-ness? Well, I've had several delay experiences with Spirit and only a couple with Delta -- they did an excellent job with the flights for my honeymoon, back in 2003 -- but AirTran has always been relatively on-time, or at least their delays were mostly related to weather or traffic instead of poor flight planning. But Spirit makes up for that if you get one of their planes where there's no row four on the right side -- check seatguru.com to see what I mean. If you can grab 5D-E-F, it's even bigger than a bulkhead or exit row. In the end, I'm not displeased with the deal I got from Delta, and of my three options -- no other carrier had a ticket price lower than $220 -- it was probably the best of them. The only place I'm really going to lose out is on the under-seat storage; in both directions, we lose one storage area to what I believe are unused entertainment boxes. But it's a win because, since we purchased three seats, we get six carry-on bags, and that'll be plenty of space for six days worth of clothes. So what's my point in writing all of this? You know, at the moment, I kind of forget. But I guess I would say that shopping around for airline tickets and comparing costs to benefits is easier than ever, and spending an extra half-hour comparing and contrasting is well worth the money you'll save in ticket prices and fees. Happy Thanksgiving!
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by: Josh Roseman | 11Alive.com Web Producer
Tue, 05 Aug 2008 07:28:00 -0700
I read so much during any given day -- as many as 1200 items pass through my RSS reader on a daily basis -- that I fear I've become inured to the strange and unusual. But yesterday I heard something that I simply had to share. There's a man in the Stone Mountain area named Steve Eley who runs some of the most popular fiction podcasts in existence. I'm not 100% sure on the facts, but I think that one of them -- Escape Pod -- is one of the top-five most-read sci-fi publications in the country (if not the world) and another -- Pseudopod -- is the same, but for horror. He also produces a third, Podcastle, which is pretty new -- about four months online, I think. Fellow 11Alive Web Producer Michael King (dude, he's got a Wikipedia entry; that's kind of awesome) turned me on to Escape Pod more than a year ago, and I've been listening ever since. Now, just like any other fiction publication, not every story is great, and there are a few that everyone considers stinkers but some people like. But last week's episode of Escape Pod made me laugh so hard that I just had to take time out of my day to tell you about it. Imagine a police procedural drama. Now imagine one of the two cops is a K-9. Now imagine that we're a few years in the future, we're in Detroit, and the dog has a computer that makes him an effective officer of the law. Yes. That's episode #169. The author is a neuroscientist and ER doctor in Detroit. The narrator is Mr. Eley himself, who outdoes himself in portraying the main character of the story, Officer Bull the K-9. The only thing that might turn some people off to the story is that there's a fair bit of cursing, enough that if it was a film, it would be rated R. So if cursing bothers you, please don't listen to the story. But if you want a good laugh, and you have an open mind, and you love dogs (or, at least, don't hate them), I think you'll like the story. Being read to is one of the pleasures of childhood that, as adults, I think we forget we loved so much. Some of the most touching scenes in the otherwise-adult world of author Laurell K. Hamilton, for example, are when three of the main characters read books like Treasure Island to each other. So give Escape Pod a try. Even if you don't like sci-fi, it might open up new avenues for you to consume fiction -- through your ears, that is, instead of your eyes. (NB: this was written totally unsolicited; I am not an employee of Mr. Eley's, just a fan of his publications.)
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by: Josh Roseman | 11Alive.com Web Producer
Fri, 25 Jul 2008 15:47:00 -0700
This is the final entry in a series of three about the transition from gas-powered SUV to hybrid. I'm not one for environmental friendliness, on the whole. At least, not if it's difficult or expensive. I switched from a gas-powered vehicle to a hybrid because, in the end, I believe it will save me money. If I have to fill up the tank once every ten days instead of once every four, that's quite a pretty penny saved on fuel. By driving the Prius, I'm going a little greener and saving money at the same time. Enlightened self-interest, you might say. I recycle plastic, cans, and glass at my house because it's free. My trash company doesn't charge me extra for the bin or the pickup service, and my daughter (who's almost two) gets a kick out of helping me by carrying the cleaned-out plastic containers to the bin and tossing them in. My wife recycles newspapers at a collection station near her office. We do the easy things. But I don't buy carbon credits. I don't use my BP Visa rebates to help the environment. I haven't had my windows or my air conditioner or my furnace or my house treated to make sure the seals are good. I don't have a new, freon-free air conditioner. I don't open the windows (I would, but our screens need to be replaced and I have no desire to climb an extension ladder and do that). I don't compost. I don't make any special effort to save water or collect tub drippings to water plants. I don't volunteer for highway cleanups or environmental protests. And even though it aired on 11Alive, I didn't participate in Earth Hour. I think I'm the same as a lot of people. All the hemming and hawing over the future? The future is then. This is now. I'm all for saving the environment, as long as it's convenient and easy for me, and I see an immediate effect. By owning and driving a Prius, I see an immediate effect on my gas budget. Putting out the recycling bin every Thursday evening is easy. Becoming an environmental activist? Boycotting foods not packaged in recycled plastic? Not so much. It's not really the right road to take. I know that. But I'm sure I'm not the only one driving a hybrid because it saves money. Go ahead and call me names, but when the chips are down, it's really hard to go out of your way for anyone but yourself and your family. I'll keep going green in my own little ways, but am I really going green? Probably not. Want to discuss how you're helping to make the world a better place? Why not start a conversation in our Science & Technology forum?
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