07/18/03
I'm In!
I've been accepted to grad school. YAY! Thanks to those who supplied the recomendations. Now the fun begins. Time to go back to studying.
11/27/02
The More things change, the more they stay the same.
9/28/02
It's Been Awhile...
Sorry folks.. my self imposed blog hiatus is over. I haven't died or disappeared... just gotten lazy. I want to do a redesign since the old "Big Yellow Cheesburger" motif is wearing thin.
A lot has happened in the last 20 months. I've changed positions within Blue Cross. I have a new PC. My golf game has improved 5 strokes. I've lost 25 pounds (new pics soon - stay tuned). I've stopped drinking.
The biggest thing has to do with the events of September 11th. As of today, I personally do not know of anyone who perished - although I have loose ties to several people who died. The media has familiarized us with Mychal Judge so that he could have been the minister down the street.
What hurts me the most is this: hearing all the stories about all the young families who have lost a father because some insidious band of scumbags decided to declare war on us by striking 2 American icons (It would have been 3 had it not been for the self-sacrifice of those aboard the flight that crashed in Pennsylvania). It hurts that the city that I consider my home was ripped to shreds. It hurts that so many people whose jobs are to help others were brutally butchered simply doing what they were being paid to do - save lives. Protect and serve.
1/29/01
Welcome to the new millenium.. officially!
The last 4 months have been a self-discovery phase for me. Not only have I decided to leave TV News Producing behind, I've tried to reinvent myself. I'm trying to discover new features and talents that I might be good at. Perhaps I might be able to reset my sails in some direction, and start a new career.
I've tried lots of new things in the last 4 months. One that I did last Friday was relatively simple.. and it makes me wonder why I didn't do it before.
I gave blood.
Yes that's right.. I offered to give the gift of life. Before you write this off as "gee... shouldn't we all be so beneficial?" you must understand that I'm the #1 cynic in the world.. it's just my nature. Add that to 6 years in TV news where the Red Cross ALWAYS seemed to cry and scream "we need blood" when it was a slow news day (regardless of whether the blood bank was filled or not).. and you can imagine why I didn't want to fall victim to this version of Chicken Little.
In Chattanooga.. it's different however. There's this private company called Blood Assurance that makes the whole thing fun. First of all, I don't remember the same routine cries for help. The only time Blood Assurance called and asked for help was when one of the larger hospitals was on the verge of cancelling surgeries because of the lack of blood (now that meets a true emergency in my book). How can giving blood be fun? Well.. Blood Assurance would lure donors into the centers with offers of free t-shirts and stuff. Heck, the weekend before the big Tennessee-Alabama football game, Blood Assurance turned it into a competition (called the "Blood Bowl"). Donors could pick whether they were an Alabama or Tennessee fan... and get a free t-shirt in the process. The team who had the most donors would win.
Plus.. it's SOOOOO easy. I walked in.. gave them a picture I.D., waited 5 minutes until a nurse called my name.. and walked into a booth. She asked me some questions.. took my blood pressure.. pulse.. then walked me over to a couch. I took a seat.. saw her scrub a spot on my arm with antiseptic.. then cover the spot with gauze and slide a needle in (it didn't hurt). 5 minutes.. and one pint later.. I was done. I got up.. feeling fine.. walked over and helped myself to a couple of free Twinkies and orange juice from a spread of food.
Folks... it doesn't get any easier than that. You can give once every 8 weeks. Best of all.. that one pint can go a long ways towards saving a life. I'll never know who's life I saved, but I do know that it's the least I could do to help someone out.
Oh yeah, yesterday was the Super Bowl. The Giants got creamed. End of story. So what. They were lucky to play in the first place.
12/14/00
This is the LangaList webring that I now belong to. If you surfed on over here thru this, please sign my GUEST BOOK!
I am flying home for Christmas! That in itself is a treat (albeit for my parents, who have not had me home for this holiday in a while).
All I want are these things: (Yes Santa, I've been good!)
In the meantime, I'll pray for a little snow
and go sledding!
Oh, as if I forgot. Usually in the Peltz family, we have a tradition. On the 24th, we always used to gather at my Grandmother's house (my father's mom), read a couple of chapters from "A Christmas Carol", and "T'was the Night Before Christmas". Needless to say, it was a pleasant family tradition. We haven't done it in more than 10 years, but I found this version of it on a mailing list (needless to say, it's laced with Grateful Dead references).
Finally, if you didn't get a Christmas Card, you can have this one!
11/18/00
HOMEWARD BOUND!
Saturday, just two days from when I fly back to Vermont for a Thanksgiving visit. GOD, i'm looking forward to this! It's been 6 years since I broke bread with my family around the thanksgiving table. We have a tradition: my parents rotate hosting duties with my Aunt May and my Cousin Leo. This year it's my parents turn. The one thing that makes me most thankful is that I am getting this opportunity to come home for a week.
SEARCH ENGINES
Wednesday, I submitted the site to about 2 dozen search engines. It's not that I'm looking for hits; I just want people to know that I'm on the web! It's been a learning experience, but it's been pretty easy. I need to do more with the meta tags. But hopefully I'll attract some visitors from all over the world.
Perfect
example: this search engine called Matilda. It's based in Australia. I've also
signed up for a computer newsletter called the Langa List. It comes out twice
a week, and it's filled with tips on how to optimize your PC, check your connection
speed and many more! Fred (the author) writes in his most recent issue about
Navigator 6, the new version of the Netscape browser. At this point, folks are
trying to figure out what bugs are in it. Interesting note: there's no Netscape
Navigator version 5.. Netscape chose to skip that version number so it could
jump ahead of IE.
CERTIFIED!
Another
momentous occasion this week. If you look in the upper right hand corner of
the page, you'll see a logo that looks like this. I passed the test for HTML
to become Brainbench certified. I intend to take the JavaScript test before
leaving for Vermont. I passed the sample test with a perfect score, so I don't
think there will be a problem. JavaScript is the stuff that makes web pages
fun and interactive
NEWS BLUES
It looks as though television stations are undergoing a wave of cutbacks, unfortunetly, right before the Christmas season. My friend Keith used to work for WXLV in Winston-Salem. He's now working in Arizona, but his girlfriend is still in Winston-Salem. This week, employees learned that the station was cancelling the morning show, the weekend newscasts, and laying off a bunch of people. Fortunately, Bridget still has her job. The company that owns her station, Sinclair, has made cuts at many of its stations. That's got to send a chill up anyone's spine. How eerie the feeling must be, to come to work and find out that dozens of your co-workers lost their jobs because the company is cutting back? It's not the greatest Christmas present either.
10/20/00
Just in time for my 10th reunion - check out this slide show I put together of my boarding school classmates.
SUBWAY SERIES.
I'm sure everyone in New York City who likes baseball is in heaven right now. The rest of the country couldn't care less. Fox Network, which is carrying the series, is facing massive ratings losses. It's interesting how ESPN is hyping this thing as much as the media hypes the super bowl. Oh goody. The first subway series in 44 years. How exciting.
Actually it is a big deal. The series will divide the Peltz household i'm sure. I'm a Met Fan. Dad's a Yankee Fan. Mom and Jack couldn't care less. I'm not sure about the dogs.
Speaking of family, I learned last week that Joris, my Dad's older brother, has colon cancer. He must undergo weekly radiation therapy treatments. I'm praying for him. There's nothing more than what I'd like to do than surprise him with tickets to the World Series.
But there are 2 problems.
Still, I can dream.
FUNNY EMAILS
I get about 10 jokes a week thru email. Starting today, i'm going to post one for every new entry. This one comes from another southern transplant, and it's based on Jeff Foxworthy's popular series.
10/12/00
Hooray! I am taking a break from producing TV news. I am happy to be off the line and no longer producing newscasts. Honestly, I am burned out by it. I am looking to get into web design and publishing as a job. The hard part is.. how do you get a job with little experience? It's a catch 22.. but hopefully the qualities that a) I am a hard worker and b)I know computers will shine through.
I am playing with Dreamweaver.. editing this site with the program. It's a little different than FrontPage, but I like the publish functions better. It's also easier to define CSS Styles, and drop in other objects.
Now, on to baseball. The Mets won game 1 of the NLCS 6-2. Mike Hampton pitched a great game. He should have had a shutout, had it not been for some 9th inning goofups by the Mets infield. Hey, a win is a win, and a win on the road is even better.
The Yankees, baseball's sleeping giant, appear to have woken up. After their late season swoon, they were on the verge of losing to the A's. Suddenly, they exploded in the first inning of Game 1 for 6 runs. Then, against the Mariners, they didn't score at ALL in the first game, going 21 straight innings without a tally. Late in game two, down 1-0, they erupted for 7 runs in the 8th inning. I hope the sleeping giant has woken up, because now they are off to Seattle.
9/3/00
Well... i'm home from vacation.. and pouring myself into two online classes. One is called HTML 2, and the other is called flash
. Flash deals with the program from Macromedia. They're taught by LVS.
So Richard Hatch won the "Survivor" Challenge. Of course, they saved the best for last. Kelly and Sue looked like they were going to rip each other's hair out! Expect to see them on WWF Wrestling soon! (not that i'll be watching.. LOL)
One more thing: Colleen Haskell is A BABE! She's gorgeous!
8/15/00
Aahhh to be back in Vermont! The Green Mountain state is lush with color.. lots of rain.. and lots to do. I've spent the past 2 days visiting friends.. going back to Salisbury.. and wondering how I could be so far away from this place for so long.
I paid a visit to a college roommate.. Evan. He's taking the world by storm with his company Flywire , based in Portsmouth, NH. I knew he'd always be successful.. considering while at Syracuse he had a dozen projects going on at the same time. I'm not surprised he's on the fast track to the top of the world. Heck, I'm grateful to know him.
7/24/00
Vacation is near. I'm headed back to Vermont (thank god) to see my folks and some friends.
Little Elian has finally left the country, and it's about time. I'm happy he's with his father, but it was kinda lame to see Castro give daddy a medal for whatever he did. Castro calls it standing up to the resistance. Oh please.. gimme a break.
It's interesting to see how CBS is trying to recruit members of the younger generation with "Survivor" and "Big Brother". Looks like "Commonly Broadcasting for Seniors" has gotten lucky, even though both shows look strikingly similar to MTV's "Road Rules" and "The Real World". I'm even more amazed that NBC, ABC, and Fox haven't decided to copy them. A perfect example, is ABC's "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire". Shortly after that show first went on the air and got terrific ratings, the other 3 networks tried to copy them. So far, "Millionaire" is the only one left standing. Time will tell.
6/9/00
Some more additions... check out the places i've been page . I've added a couple pictures of Chattanooga and my trip to Nashville. That same weekend I also hit Memphis.. look for photos on that later.
Pretty soon, I plan on putting together another site for my family. Everybody is into the geneology thing... I think it will be pretty neat to get them on the web too!
6/4/00
Geez.. I need to keep this thing updated a bit more.
Anyway.. some new features. As i'm sure you've noticed if you've read my bio then you would know my musical tastes. Good news.. I have a small collection of ticket stubs from some concerts. I've put together a page to showcase those. It's located right here.. and it's pretty neat. Check it out.
4/10/00
Finally, I'm back in the web building business. It's been a while. I need to create more time to do my own web site. I'm working out some kinks with FrontPage... supposedly it can upload all this stuff without me having to use a separate FTP program. Hopefully with some time I can figure this one our.
Little Elian is STILL here.. but at least his dad is here in the US. I wish Dad would escape his bodyguards and stay here in the US fulltime.. but that's not going to happen. Elian will have to go back with dad to Cuba. All the Rush Limbaugh Republicans are going to be sad, but at least he's with his REAL father.
Crime of the month... 2 weeks ago here in Chattanooga.. some school bus driver decided to keep on truckin' over some train tracks instead of stopping to check if a train was coming. Bad choice. A train smashed into the bus. She never stopped. The kids never had a chance. Result: 3 dead kids (2 immediate, 1 a day later) and a bus driver who's pretty sorry. She screwed up.
Moral #1: don't play games if you are a bus driver.
Moral #2: Wear your seatbelt! (A little girl who was buckled in walked away.)
Question: Why were there no crossing arms and lights at the crossing?
The next issue is the state of Tennessee is going to try and get more safety equipment installed on backroads train crossings, at the railroads' expense. Yeah.. sure. They're going to fork over 100 million on a whim's notice. Looks like we're in for a long fight on this one folks.
Okay, that's enough editorializing for today. Time for some comic relief.
1/25/00
Sorry for the delay. It's the first entry of the new year.. 25 days late. I've been reading some books on JavaScript. That's the language that can teach you how to do stuff like this. (move the mouse over the word 'this' and you'll see what I mean).
In the meantime, i'm still plugging away at producing TV news. We are about to enter sweeps... the time of year when you see stories like "Can killer burritos really kill you?" and "Is your toothpaste really safe?". In other words... it's full of sensationalistic crap that stations use to sucker you into watching. Some of them are neat. Others are lame. Then there are the stations that have to bribe you into watching by running a contest during sweeps. I get a kick out of those stations because any other time.. there wouldn't be a reason to watch. It's sad how greedy we as Americans can be.
I'm impressed.. it's been 2 months and Elian Gonzalez is STILL in the United States. I wonder how much longer he'll stay here. It's sad.. but the boy needs a father, even if he's in a communist country. I know there's no way that there will be a resolution where everyone will come out happy. As much as some politicians had hoped against it coming down to this.... it's sad.. the boy has turned into a political football.
Finally.. Widespread Panic on New Year's Eve ROCKED! I left work just before 6pm and got down there around 8:30. I called a woman up who works at CNN and with whom I have become friends with over the phone. Problem is.. she and I have never met face to face. I called her up from the bar at CNN Center but found out she was on the phone. Oh well, I told her co-worker.. just tell her that Harry is downstairs at the bar and I'll try to call her later. About 10 minutes after that.. I hear "is there a Harry here?" "Hello Harry"? Turns out she walked through the entire bar looking for me by shouting my name! Kinda funny.. and makes you feel good to feel that someone would do that for you... even if the bar is filled with Widespread Panic Fans.
12/12/99
I'm hoping to add some more pictures to the site. I took a few when I hit the Widespread Panic shows this summer in Raleigh and Merriweather Post Pavillion. I'm going to the New Year's Eve show in Atlanta! One advantage of living in Chattanooga is that it's in the middle of all the places where WSP seems to play. If you are wondering where this band is headed next, then click here .
A couple of comments on stories in the news. First off.... my heart goes out to the Salisbury School community. When EgyptAir Flight 990 went down around Thanksgiving, one of the passengers was a woman named Henrietta Mead.'Henny' as she was known helped hundreds of Salisbury boys improve their reading skills. Her late husband, Robin, was the schools wrestling coach in the 60's and 70's. I said hello to Robin in the halls every now and again. My memories of Mrs. Mead are a little more abstract. A friendly nod, her gravelly voice, and the sight of her smoking a cigarette outside the dining hall are about it. Still, she decided to join two friends for a trip to Egypt when tragedy struck. It's sad how your limited memories of someone are reduced to a footnote about how she died.
The other note is about that 6 year old kid, Elian Gonzalez. It's interesting that no one of note (I.E. a political hotshot, like President Clinton) has tried to stick up for the kid and keep him here in the U.S. Now that his mother has died, he'll probably have to go back to Cuba. Why? Well, the one person who still has custodial rights, his father, lives there. It's a shame that here we are in the United States, looking for any possible way to defeat the last bastion of communism, and we have to let a little 6 year old boy go back to Cuba. I hope i'm wrong, I hope that Elian can stay. But it seems natural that he should be with his father, and he (the father) seems to be the poster boy for Cuban support these days. Wouldn't it be interesting if years later, we find out that his father was going to try and leave for the U.S. too!
