On October 18, 2017, I had the privilege of driving with my nephew Greg Jones, who had just received his driving permit a week before. When we returned from our drive, I had the opportunity to talk to his dad, my brother-in-law, also Greg Jones, about the new driver and the concerns he might have now that his son is driving.
NFL 2017 Playoff Predictions
The following playoff predictions for the 2017 NFL football season from six outside experts with over 100 combined years of football watching experience.
Trolling Justin Marcus
During the 2011 fantasy football season, I received numerous unsolicited voicemails from Justin Marcus regarding his team and the unfavorable season that I happened to have that year. I saved the voicemails for the purpose of this compilation.
30 for 30 – The Marcus Files
Put together this favorite of mine in 2014 before our league’s fantasy football draft. The video is edited mostly from VHS footage from a camping trip in 1997. In no way is the video intended harm the individual that it portrays, but it is meant to motivate him through self-reflection and humility.
Community Outreach Response Team
Downtown Team – CORT from EPD PIO on Vimeo.
I put this video together last year around this time of the Community Outreach Response Team, which was a fairly new program at that time. Definitely my favorite part of working in the public information office is getting to see officers interact with the community first-hand and having the opportunity to capture it in video or photos.
What I find most impressive about these officers, is how calm and understanding they are when working with people in crisis. It definitely takes a special person to be able to interact with people in this way, and I am overwhelmed with how much they care about these people and the community.
The CORT program uses the EPD Downtown Team, working together with CAHOOTS and Lane County Behavioral Health to focus efforts on outreach in the downtown community.
500 Miles From Galveston TX
(Click on image to view photo album in Flickr)
These here are a few photos from our June trip from Galveston Texas to Cozumel Mexico, Georgetown Grand Cayman, and Falmouth Jamaica. Missing are the pictures that I took with the disposable waterproof camera from when we went snorkeling. They aren’t any good. They do however have sentimental value and are hidden away in the archives of the desktop, including over half that have what appear to be a finger over the lens. Not a good snorkeler, which translates to the quality of photos that were taken while snorkeling/drowning.
Also not included are the fogged-up lens photos. I have never experienced weather so muggy that it affects the lens of the camera. Several of the photos that I took at each port, including Galveston Texas, came out foggy.
The trip coincided with a mild tropical storm, Cindy, which formed off the coast of the Yucatan Peninsula. The ocean was never completely calm, and there were brief periods of over 10 foot swells and lighting. While driving around Cozumel with out taxi driver Guillermo, we did run into a few heavy downpours, but that seemed to be the extent of it.
Overall, the trip was excelente and I was sad when it ended. It is always nice to return home, but we will be back. Oh yes, we will be back!
Eugene to Springfield with Dad
Here is a short 2-minute video I put together of our bike ride with dad on June 3, 2017, when he and mom came to visit from La Grange California.
We started at the Valley River Mall in Eugene and came off the trail in the Jasper area of Springfield before finishing at home in Thurston.
The Peter Iredale Shipwreck
These pirate youths jumped into the frame while I was taking photos of the Peter Iredale shipwreck near Fort Stevens. Despite their ferocious looks, they are not as dangerous as they appear. Continue reading “The Peter Iredale Shipwreck”
The Year of the Rupture: The First 100 Days
DAY 1
The year of the rupture began on February 12, 2017 at the Willamalane sports complex in Springfield Oregon. The basketball game that day was scheduled for 5 p.m. I ran the treadmill per the usual pregame warmup. All was good, minus a hobble from a slight meniscus sprain sustained three week prior. Injuries happen. That’s expected at age 37, but I had never experienced anything that could have prepared me for the type of pain that I was about to endure for weeks to come.
Continue reading “The Year of the Rupture: The First 100 Days”
Cape Disappointment/ Fort Stevens
“The coast in the neighbourhood of Clarks Mountain is sliping off & falling into the Ocean in immence masses; fifty or a hundred Acres at a time give way and a great proportion in an instant precipitated into the Ocean. these hills and mountains are principally composed of a yellow clay; there sliping off or spliting assunder at this time is no doubt caused by the incessant rains which have fallen within the last two months.” – Meriwether Lewis, January 10, 1806 (Original Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, 1804-1806
A sign at the bottom of the hill where this picture was taken at Cape Disappointment Washington mentions the resemblance that it has to William Clark’s journal description during the Corps of Discovery’s stay in Oregon. The hill is now a significant distance in yards from the ocean, but in 1806, before erosion, it would have been situated next to the ocean with the waves crashing against it.
