The Last Supper
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mwehmeier/sets/72157604733795195
About the set
The Pharmacy Staff had a dinner for Doug’s Departure from GEMMC. There were others in attendance, but I didn’t get those pictures… May be Doug did. We’ll see.
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At the moment we are upgrading Hello Mary Lu. We have encountered several problems with the new Wordpress software. And after several hours of fighting through the upgrade– we are calling a halt to the process for the night. We will attempt to work on this sometime Tuesday.
Full Disclosure: My long time readers know I have done a reasonable amount of Amazon linking on my weblog for years. What few bucks Amazon pays me goes directly to support the web server fees and costs associated in running this blog. So if you’re thinking I’m a budding spammer and link hacker– guess again. 98% of all the links on HelloMaryLu.com to Amazon are books or items I either personally own, or recommend.
However a couple things are changing, but don’t think you’re going to get over run with ads here… Here’s what’s happening.
So today I posted the following special bargains:
Duct Tape Wallet: We’ve got one of these beauties for the person who loves Duct Tape and can’t live without completely Duct Taping their life. The wallet is a commercial well made wallet which is a bi-fold, with room for credit cards, cash and four photos. It’s brand new– Get yours here from me on Amazon– today for $6.99.
More to come… later!
Tags: Duct Tape Wallet, Duct Tape, Amazon Storefront, Griffin RoadTrip, iTalk, Griffin RoadTrip iPod, iPod iTalk
True Confession Time: I am a Craig’s List-o-holic.
We interrupt your regularly scheduled webzine to discuss a matter of public importance…
As a regular reader and shopper via America’s Want Ads, AKA Craig’s List, I have come to the opinion that most people are clueless when it comes to writing a decent ad copy, This causes readers, like yours truly, to spend countless additional hours trying to sort through the ads, and writing countless notes to supposed sellers in the hope of getting a response to either close the sale or at least facilitate a conversation to insure we are not mutually wasting our time. So consider what I’m about to say as a PSA (Public Service Announcement.)
At the moment I am searching for a couple replacement appliances for the kitchen in the hope of saving a few bucks as well as helping someone unload some things they no longer need. However tonight I spent over two hours searching for what I want–
The Reality Check: Remember not all buyers are flakes. Yes there are some– but for the most part, we CL’s are trying to purchase an item at a reasonable price. For my part as the buyer, I will do what I will do what I say and not attempt to insult your intelligence. If not you do have the right to banish me to the Hinterworlds!
If done right– using Craig’s List It can be a rewarding experience for both of us!
And now back to our regularly scheduled programming! Thank you!
Tags: Craig’s List, Craigs List, craigslist
Every year I do several major gigs as a professional event photographer with Peter Louis ( left,) who plays Santa Claus during the holidays. We do holiday and home events, schools, hospitals and parties– you name it, we do it. If your in the Los Angeles area Call or email us and we’ll even book you now for the upcoming 2008 holidays.
Over the past three years I’ve shot over 1000 pictures of kids on Santa’s lap, most are photos you would be happy to put on the mantle, send to the friends and family, and put in the family photo album. Peter, er Santa and I work very hard to make the kids feel welcome and happy. In all these years there has only been one little girl who nearly refuses to sit on Santa’s lap to get her picture taken.
Well tonight someone, who shall remain nameless sent me a link to Ellen’s site where she asked her viewers to send in their "Bad Santa Photos." The one on the right AKA "Number 21" was submitted by Jen Desillier is best summed up as follows:
Wordpress has announced WordPress 2.5, the culmination of six months of work by the WordPress community. With this change comes a number of serious upgrades to their software. The new version is wonderful and makes writing easier. Only problem is that the upgrade and all the under side applications require hours of work.
So should I look like a deer in the headlights over the next couple days, you now know why.
Tags: Wordpress
Today marks the first anniversary, or Yahrtzeit of Ron Jellse’s passing and to many skaters throughout the USA, this year has seen a number of irreplaceable World Class coaches including John Dayney and Charlie Wahlig pass away all too soon. So today in remembrance of Ron and the others, I am reminded to honor him in a most traditional way.
The Kaddish is one of the world’s oldest prayers in Judaism and the most known form is the Mourner’s Kaddish. The prayer also is the basis for the Lord’s Prayer in the Christian faith. It is tradition that the Mourner’s Kaddish is said to express the mourner’s love of God and acceptance of God’s will, even while the mourner is feeling great loss and remind the living who honor the dead to not lose their faith because of a loved ones passing. The prayer is said on the Yahrtzeit or anniversary of the honored person’s passing.
It is my hope that this day serves as a remembrance of Ron, and the other coaches, who taught many of us to not only be Champion Skaters, but good, decent, productive and ethical members of the human race. It is a good day to renew our dedication to the sport we love and to one another.
Despite my distance it is apparent this year has been a difficult time for many of Ron’s students to cope with the loss of him as their coach. Several of you have just began to reach major steps in their climb up the competitive mountain and to have lost your courageous mentor and coach far too soon. But your loss of Ron and how you conduct yourself to continue will be the ultimate test of your resolve. Just remember you are not alone. Remember the greatest gift Ron’s gave to you is a solid fundamental background and a demand for excellence as skaters and individuals. The coaches who have stepped up to work with you have done so out of respect for him and understanding of your needs. Rise to that challenge and make his memory proud. No matter what you will succeed. Remember we are all cheering for you.
Tags: Ron Jellse, John Dayney, Charlie Wahlig, roller figure skating, artistic skating, skating
We are in the process up updating the weblog. So over the next week or more you will notice that we are changing the weblog, adding some features and bringing new things to you.
Today we are playing with new Themes, so do not be surprised to see several changes as we check out the new looks.
Also today we will be cutting our day short in order to remember Ron Jellse’s passing one year ago today. I intend to edit Ron’s Remembrance piece later today.
In honor of Ron this week we will be rolling out a new site for skaters. Stay tuned.
Dancing with the Stars News: Last night the "first-ever double elimination" show started the fifth season of DWTS off to a quick start– meaning that the worst dancers getting booted off the show first. For the men, it was big guy magician Penn Jillette; for the women it was the tennis champ Monica Seles who never got comfortable the dance floor. I’m still rooting for Kristy. Wonder why?
Spaceweather.com is reporting that Solar activity is beginning to surge. Tonight they reported three large sunspots have materialized and at least one of them harbors energy for strong solar flares. An M2-class eruption on March 25th hurled a coronal mass ejection (CME) into space and emitted radio bursts audible in shortwave receivers on Earth. NOAA forecasters estimate a 50% chance of more M-flares during the next 24 hours.
Tags: Spaceweather, solar flare, M-Flares, shortwave noise
Editorial Note: Dino K6RIX our fearless photographer and now reporter on the scene has added some information and corrections to my original post in Comments #1 below. I greatly appreciate this contributions and corrections. MLW
If this wasn’t so serious and dangerous, it might be funny. But it’s not.
This all started while I was taking my blogging sabbatical during 2004–
On the morning of December 19, 2004, I was lying in bed reading the Sunday paper and drinking coffee, while listening to Leo LaPorte do his Tech Guy show on KFI (640 AM) when all of a sudden I heard a POP followed by ominous dead air. Now for those of us who have been around radio stations a healthy portion of our lives, the popping sound was unmistakable– and like all good little radio engineers I began to count out loud one-one-thousand, two-one-thousand, three-one-thousand… to see if it were a temporary problem with the transmission, as Leo does his show remotely from his studio in Petaluma, CA. But by the time I got to ten seconds, I reached for the telephone to call the station’s producers here in LA to advise them.
The phone was answered on the second ring by a producer who was clueless that I was about to totally screw up his morning. After doing a quick intro I informed the producer/board operator, "Look, I’d heard a massive pop onair, and KFI’s dead air." These words tend to strike fear in the hearts of most broadcasting types. I further suggested whomever was running the show had better call the Chief Engineer ASAP and screw up his Sunday Morning. Because in my never so humble opinion from personal experience that someone or something had just caused the tower to fall. KFI’s 50,000 watts was off the air. I know he must have looked down at his console about this time, because all I heard was the loudest gulp heard in history– and a "THANK YOU!" as he hung up.
Next I reached for the scanner to see if there was any emergency activity, while refilling my coffee cup. Sure enough there were emergency services moving toward the tower site in La Mirada– there had been a reported airplane crash. Add two and two– and you’ve got one hell of a mess on a Sunday morning when most modern stations are not fully staffed. No doubt hell was breaking lose at KFI– and I was just glad not to be on staff. Lucky for KFI they powered up the back up transmitter within an hour and Leo was back on the air.
However over the next couple hours we learned that Jim and Mary Ghosoph, of Temple City had been flying a rented single-engine Cessna and had taken off about 9:30AM from El Monte airport. It was when the Ghosph’s were headed on final approach into Fullerton Airport to pick up some friends for a day on Catalina Island, when the small airplane had hit the tower square on and crash. The Ghosoph’s died in the crash. Witnesses on the ground reported they saw a huge fireball and the 760-foot-tall tower collapse. Federal investigators from the FAA later ruled the accident pilot error. (The tower is well marked on all FAA maps and material.) Thankfully no one was in the transmitter, the parking lot or surrounding building that morning, which averted further injuries.
Since that time KFI has been operating with a temporary 204-foot-tall tower which was erected on the La Mirada site until a more permanent solution could be found. The major objections have come from local pilots and Fullerton airport officials who are concerned that if Clear Channel (who owns KFI,) was allowed to build another tall tower, or even one with or without 24 hour tower lighting another airplane crash could occur. The antenna is 1 1/4 miles from the Fullerton Municipal Airport. This is the second clear day crash into a KFI tower at that location in the past 40 years.
Clear Channel (who purchased KFI since 2000) needed to rebuild the tower in its current location. While the reasons are a technical overload for most to understand– it is basically because KFI is a government licensed and mandated 50,000 watt clear-channel AM radio station who is legally bound to be able to broadcast news and emergency information to a very wide area of the Los Angeles Metro area in case of a major emergency, such as earthquake, natural disaster or attack. Without KFI’s ability to broadcast at that power puts all citizens in the Los Angeles area, as well as most of Southern California at risk. There are very few radio stations who hold this type of license in the USA. In today’s real estate market there is no other suitable or affordable location in which the company can relocate the high tower necessary to broadcast to the demanded coverage area without overlapping into other Southern California radio stations coverage areas. FYI: FM stations can not carry this powerful a signal– and the only way to get this type of effected coverage area is by the using a large vertical tower where the tower IS the ANTENNA.
Long Story - Short: While both the pilots and KFI had serious concerns, a compromise had to be reached. No doubt this is one of those situations where you can’t please all of the people all of the time. However the good of the greatest number of people had to be held to a higher importance.
A compromise was reached and all the approvals were given to have KFI and Clear Channel build a new tower on the site. The height of the tower was reduced from 760 to 684 feet above the ground. A "top hat" antenna was added to the top of the tower design to give the added length to the antenna to give the station the required power necessary to achieve the proper signal and strength. Clear Channel agreed to add flashing white lights during the day and flashing red lights at night for pilot safety. The FAA, and FCC and the powers that be in the City of La Mirada all came to some reasonable agreement. However not everyone was happy about it being rebuilt: namely the local pilots and some officials at Fullerton Airport. But again you can’t please all of the people, all of the time. But at least Clear Channel had tried.
So some two years after the crash, on Saturday, March 15, 2008, Seacomm Erectors, began to build a new 684-foot-tall tower at La Mirada site.(Thanks to George Jacob, N6VNI for the photo left.)
Everything appeared in this video, to be going just fine. By Tuesday the tower had reached about 250 300 feet… when about 2:30 p.m. the tower came crashing down. Photos of the carnage are thanks to Rick Dino K6RIX who happened to be onsite that day. The photo of the tower falling on the right is Rick’s Dino’s and I thank him for letting me snag it. More of his photos are on his site here.
Lucky for everyone involved there was no one riding the tower at that point when the gigantic erector set’s pieces came crashing down. See corrections from Dino below in the comments section #1. There had been guys up there attaching the sections earlier. However there was one construction worker, whom we don’t have a name on yet who was injured as he was knocked off a construction platform next to the tower as it fell. Dino states he was within 15 feet of the failure point, and got taken in to the hospital for a check up– .
As a result of the tower collapsing there was damage to a couple of the trucks in the parking lot, and a hole was knocked in the roof of one of the warehouses. But all in all it appears everyone in the immediate area was very lucky– as it could have been a lot worse in that busy lot surrounded by all the warehouses and commercial trucks that surround the tower area today.
It’s my understanding that insurance and safety people are all over the site trying to investigate the cause. No doubt it will be something simple that got compounded then failed. It normal is in these cases. It will be interesting to see if this gets settled quickly.
My inside confidential sources who are all broadcast and tower engineers, are telling me that it appears the point of failure in the collapse is where the lower slant bar and turnbuckle separated. It is being debated if the steel in the components were too soft or if the tread sizes were mismatched could have also contributed.
But time will tell– this should get interesting. Wonder how long it’s going to take KFI to get a new-new tower up?
Tags: KFI, Clear Channel, Broadcasting, AM Radio, Radio, tower collapse, radio tower, broadcast tower, structure collapse, LaMirada, 640AM
Thanks to Mr. Boardman, my 8th grade American History teacher and his weekly quizzes on "Current Events and Political Figures," I am a certifiable current events junkie. Ask my friends.
Rarely do I go anywhere without the radio on to News and Talk Radio, the News Channels (Foxx-CNN-etc.) on the television, or easy access to a newsreader packed with the RSS Feeds (thanks Dave,) of nearly every newspaper of record available at my fingertips. Google News Feeds on my computer with X-number of news topics of my choice feeding me the current events in real time. Thus is the life of a news junkie.
The other day Susan Kitchen’s over at 20-20 Hindsight challenged her readers to take the most recent Pew News IQ Score Test on current events and news. I didn’t have time to get to it until this morning, but scored a respectable 91%.
What is strange is that the average man scored better than 56% of the public, while the average woman did better than 39%. What’s up with that ladies? The article about what Pew learned from this quiz is here. It’s interesting.
Tags: Current Events, News, politics, public intelligence
The news this morning came in that Sir Arthur C Clarke passed of cardiac failure at the age of 90 in his adopted home of Sri Lanka. While much has been written during the day, there are several of us who remember meeting him not as a science fiction writer, but as a hard scientist who had the mindset and desire to cultivate talent. Today I am both humbled and sad to know that another of the top science fiction writers, including Gene Roddenberry, Issac Asimov, Robert Heinlein have passed on. Another is fighting for his life, and I pray for him daily.
More on Clarke here later– as "The truth, as always, will be far stranger."
The news just broke that William F Buckley, Jr has passed away in Stamford, CT home…
It is known Buckley was working on a book about Reagan. In all, he produced more than 40 books and 5600 of his biweekly newspaper columns, which all began with his first, God and Man at Yale where Buckley took his alma mater, Yale University to task over religion.
For those of you who don’t really know, William F. Buckley, Jr. was the founder of the New American movement in conservative thought. Buckley was his own man who loved to teach, challenge and inspire. He has a rare breed of individual who came from wealth, but used his mind to influence and guide at least three generations of conservative thinkers. Mr. Buckley demonstrated and challenged us to understand that our ideas are powerful things and have the capacity to change the world. For that I and many in my generation are personally grateful. His conservative ideas he eloquently championed America to change for the better.
And the short version is: While Buckley was not politically correct, he was always a gentlemen and a brilliant mind. Buckley was conservative before conservative was cool.
An old Chinese Proverb says "The Earth trembles when a great man departs." Last night "Feb. 27 (Bloomberg) — England was hit by a magnitude-5.2 earthquake, the biggest recorded in the U.K. since 1984, damaging buildings and sending shockwaves as far afield as Southampton and Scotland." Truer words have never been said.
Buckley married Patricia Alden Austin Taylor, after graduating Yale in 1950. Their only son Christopher Buckley is an author known for his novel, “Thank You For Smoking.” Mrs. Buckley was a prominent socialite, died in April. Buckley is survived by his son Chris, brothers FA. Reid and James and sisters Priscilla, Carol and Patricia.
Tags: William F Buckley, Christopher Buckley, Patricia Buckley, National Review, the National Review, Firing Line
Check this out! Last week it was announced that the new season of Dancing with the Stars opens with a double elimination event on March 25th OOPS 17th, with none other than figure skating’s Kristi Yamaguchi being paired up with Mark Ballas!
A little FYI about Kristi- Within the skating world Kristi is considered one of the most highly respected female skaters in the business. Just ask around. Kristi’s firmly grounded and except when touring, she lives a pretty normal life with her hockey player and husband Bret Hedican, with their two daughters in Raleigh, NC. But her passion is helping other kids of all types.
Last month Kristi was awarded the Thurmon Munson Award for her Always Dream Foundation’s success in helping children who normally would not have access to various sports and recreational activities in the field of play.
Other DWTS Celebrities include TV star Cristian de la Fuente, R&B singer Mario, Actor Steve Guttenberg, Former tennis pro Monica Seles, NFL Player Jason Taylor, Actress Marissa Jaret Winokur, Oscar-winning actress Marlee Matlin, Actress Priscilla Presley, Actress Shannon Elizabeth, Radio personality Adam Carolla and none other than our other personal favorite Magician Penn Jillette
Recently the entire cast visited Oprah to discuss the upcoming season.
Tags: Kristi Yamaguchi, DWTS, Dancing with the Stars, Skating, Figure Skating
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"Price of outfit for Santa Visit…….$22.99
Standing in line 45 minutes to have picture taken by instant camera….$14.99
Having your kid telling Santa she’s Number #1
and having it forever in your scrapbook…………. Priceless."
Tags: Santa, Peter Louis, Santa Peter, Photographer, Mary Wehmeier Event Photographer