Canadians Create Scary Work Safety Ads

Somebody today sent me a link to one in a series of horrific work-safety ads that broadcast in Canada: http://prevent-it.ca/
The Work Safety and Insurance Board of Ontario, Canada, has created these over-the-top ads to promote workplace safety.
Below is one someone sent me. If you're squeamish or easily offended, DON'T LOOK:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=noFCekWiUGE&feature=related

Yikes! It might be awhile before I go back in the kitchen.
I'm not sure these things are working, and they might be public disservice announcements, but they sure make for some entertaining viewing if you've got the stomach for it. They also show how much better foreign commercials can be over U.S. commercials.
Here are some more:

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Haa4QImf40&feature=related

Heads up!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qf_LWq88H5I&feature=related

Pow!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsbZ0sSMeRA&feature=related

Boom! Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uniqmkPeaZ4&feature=related

- 30 -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxLX-0thgf0&feature=related

Anatomy Of The Airport Story

It started with the premise that Southeast Texas Regional Airport's main terminal remained in disrepairs two years after Hurricane Rita, with an expected industrial boom looming on the horizon.
Next, we got the statistics on boardings, which unfolded a staggering loss of customers in recent years. Then, we compared those figures to airports such as Tyler and Waco, where boardings in recent years have increased overall, despite them being as close to a major city's airport as we are to Houston.
With every piece of information we researched, a increasingly bleak picture emerged.
Customer losses. Not much in the way of marketing. A resignation to the downward spiral. A vision that focuses on land instead of air in the form of commercial development of available airport property.
The airport now joins Ford Park in the category of Jefferson County's alarming failures, ones that come with a kick to taxpayers' pants.
While the massive Ford Park outdoor arena, bigger than anything Houston has, sits there growing grass most days of the year, Southeast Texas Regional continues to hemorrhage customers.
Read all about it in our special report, which took about four months to put together:
http://www.beaumontenterprise.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=19055899&BRD=2287&PAG=461&dept_id=512588&rfi=6
Personally, if flying alone, I use the local airport. A round-trip ticket might cost $100 more, but I make up for it on the gas, parking and time I would spend going to Houston. However, if I'm flying with my family, I'm going to go to Houston and save a few hundred bucks.
As boardings decline, I wonder how close we are to losing Continental, our sole commercial provider. A region this size needs an airport with commercial service.
And the region, particularly Jefferson County, needs leaders with a vision to turn around the airport's fortunes, not surrender.

Timewaster Of The Week-Nov. 26

Played this one for a little while at home over the rainy weekend:

http://www.armorgames.com/games/deadofnight_popup.html

It's another shoot-the-zombie game. Zombies apparently are popular targets out there in the Internet gaming world.

I lasted like 7.2 minutes.

Working The Post-Thanksgiving Friday

Friends and relatives often ask why I work the Friday after Thanksgiving, and I usually answer with this: "The news don't stop for weekends and holidays!"
I've worked almost every Friday after Thanksgiving for the past 21 years. I suppose I could take it off, like most people do, but I rather like being up here on a day like today.
The newsroom is relatively quiet. My phone isn't ringing. I've got some weekend stories to concentrate my editing skills on with little, if any, interruption.
Barring some big breaking news, my day will be rather relaxing. I like to edit under these conditions, because I can focus and treat raw copy as little puzzles that might need some fixin'. I just finished editing a story that required me to change something in almost every sentence, little things such as a missing comma, although I did find a couple of incomplete sentences. I just deleted those. Nobody will notice anything missing. I promise.
At some point, I'll wander over to the gym for lunch. It'll be quiet there, too. I'll dial in an easy workout to burn off some of yesterday's gorging and then return to the office, where I'll leisurely edit a few more things, keep one eye on the Texas A&M-t.u. game and then call it a day, hopefully sooner than later.
Thousands today are in the mosh pit at the local malls and elsewhere. I don't have the motivation or energy for that kind of thing.
Shopping tops my list of least-favorite activities that don't include colonoscopies, dental work and pouring habanero sauce in my eye. I get frustrated at people's general misunderstanding of the logical ebbs and flows of human movement. I'd know if it I were blocking someone's path, so why can't you?
I'll leave all that for the mall masochists. For me, the day after Thanksgiving is an unofficial stealth holiday, one of quiet relaxation, with thoughts turning toward Christmas.
Of course, as soon as I hit the "publish post" button on this baby, I'm sure all hell will break loose out there.
So here we go ...

Kiddie Feast A Smashed Potato Success

The menu was eclectic.
The atmosphere was fantastic.
The presentation was superb.
The service was excellent.
The only thing missing was the Ping-Pong table.
It was my son's idea to have a feast like the one in "Charlie Brown Thanksgiving Special," which aired on TV last night for what I estimate to be the 35th time.
A few weeks ago, when we started talking about Thanksgiving, my 5-year-old - Curt, who fell in love with the TV special last year and watched it on video numerous times right into the new year - announced that he wanted to have a dinner just like Charlie's.
So why the heck not?
We sent out colorful invitations to his friends and classmates.
On Saturday, I set up a big table in the grass in the back yard. The feast menu was buttered toast, popcorn, pretzel sticks and jelly beans, just like Charlie and Snoopy served. Curt requested "smashed potatoes," so we had that, too.
We even had mismatched chairs, just like they do on the TV special. The only other difference, besides the smashed potatoes, was no Ping-Pong table and a green, instead of white, tablecloth.
I figured only a couple of kids would show up Saturday for the feast, but the turnout was overwhelming. Cars packed our driveway and spilled out into the street, and our back yard was filled with kids and moms.
The kids went nuts for the food, too, gobbling down taters, toast and the rest of it as if they hadn't eaten in days.
The cost of the whole thing was minimal. It required only a little cooking, and setup and cleanup were a breeze.
The party goers deemed it a success and requested that we make it an annual event, which we will.
Charlie, whose feast guests were not nearly as gracious, would be proud.
Maybe I'll score a Ping-Pong table for next year.

The Day The Hugs Died

This morning might have marked the moment I've been fearing, when my kindergartner, Curt, decides maybe it isn't so cool to give Dad a hug in the hallway before he bebops into the classroom.
When we first enrolled him in pre-kindergarten, a big goodbye production ensued morning after morning. One last hug and one last kiss on the cheek almost always became the second-to-last hug and second-to-last cheek peck.
Last year, when I spent a few minutes in his class as part of the morning routine, he wanted me to pick him up, smush him up against the all and pepper his cheek with kisses. Then, when I got about halfway out the door, he'd want one more hug and kiss before I departed.
I suspected, and dreaded, that the moment would come when the big production got downsized.
We still have our little time together in the car on the way to school.
Last year, it was a long drive to China Elementary, with a choice of about a half dozen routes. Curt would pick the route.
Now that he's in Sour Lake Elementary, there's really only one route, so we focus on making observations along the way.
During the months of cooler weather, there's a hawk that sits on a power line about halfway to school. Some mornings he's there, and some mornings he's not. It's always a Big Deal when he's there, most likely scanning a nearby field in search of tasty rodents.
When we get out of the car in the campus parking lot, Curt chooses the route to class. Sometimes we go through the cafeteria, and other times we go under the outdoor walkway, with a chance to see what we call The Cowbell Truck. There's a silver pickup truck that has a cowbell on the trailer hitch. Sometimes we see it, and sometimes we don't. It's always a Big Deal when we see it.
When we get outside the classroom door, he always asks me the same thing: "Where are you going?"
And the answer is almost always the same: "I'm going to work, and I can't wait to see you tonight!"
Up until recently, we did the one more kiss and the one more hug.
Then about a week ago, just before we got to the door, he said, "I don't want a hug today."
I made him give me one anyway. I needed a hug, damnit!
He still asked me the same question, and I gave him the same answer, and then he bebopped into class.
This morning, he told me he didn't wanted to hug, asked the question, got the answer and then quickly bebopped unhugged into class.
And I let him go.
As time goes on, there will be more letting go, until I finally have to let him go for good, off to college, getting married or wherever his life's pathway takes him.
For now, I'm going to be thankful for everything I get and let him go at his own pace.
Otherwise, someday, he might just go and never come back.

Timewaster Of The Week-Nov. 20

A co-worker passed along this one to me:

http://www.ferryhalim.com/orisinal/g2/applegame.htm

It doesn't get more simple than that. Apples fall, and you move the mouse around to catch them in a basket.

Some 100 apples fall. I played it once and managed to catch 85. I guess I get a B for effort.

I probably won't play it again, because I find these kinds of games annoying.

But I'm sure someone else will like it.

Ho Ho Huh?

Santas in The Land Down Under have been ordered to knock off with the ho ho ho-ing.

Why?

Because some believe it is offensive toward women:

http://sg.news.yahoo.com/afp/20071115/tap-lifestyle-australia-christmas-offbea-5a1703c.html

They're supposed to say "ha ha ha."

Crikey! What's next?

We say hah-hum instead of ho-hum? Hah-tel instead of hotel? Hah-ldout instead of holdout? Don Hah instead of Don Ho?

And, I suppose, we'll be singing "Hah-lly Jolly Christmas," "Oh Hah-lly Night" and "Deck the halls with bows of "hah-lly" this year for the holiday season.

Sheesh.

The Dog-Hitting Coward Drove Away

Every weekend afternoon around 4 p.m. becomes driveway party time at the Pearson spread out in Pinewood.
The neighbor, whom I call The Right Hand of God for all the help he's given to us the past year or so, will come over with a big glass of whiskey, and we'll sit in the driveway, poke fun at the passersby and observe nature, such as the hawks, owls and other flying critters that call Pinewood home.
Sometimes other neighbors, and even their dogs, come over, and then a little party ensues.
However, yesterday's party ended rather abruptly with the sickening sound of bumper on flesh out in the street. The Right Hand of God didn't have a clear view and thought my son might have been struck. I had a clear view and saw that it was the neighbor's dog, a 14-year-old German shepherd mix, that got his rear end pasted.
The dog's owners - including two young elementary school kids - saw it happen, a horrible thing for a child to have to see.
What happened next caused the blood in my head to turn into habanero sauce. The car's driver hesitated for a second but then just sped off down the street.
Considering that the old dog was large and moved at a rather glacial speed, I suspect the driver was drunk, talking on a cell phone or distracted in some way.
But to not stop was cowardly and inexcusable.
The neighbor's kids were crying and trying to comfort the dog. Then a funny thing happened: The dog got up and started walking around, looking as if he were wondering what all the fuss was about.
Considering the impact's sound, I thought for sure that this dog was dead. And he might very well be by now. I haven't talked to the neighbors since last night.
What frightened me the most is that it very well could have been one of my children who got hit. My wife and I work very hard to teach them the dangers of cars, but you just never know when a kid will slip up for a second and run out into a street, with a parent's worst nightmare ensuing.
I pray that the cowardly driver at least learned some kind of lesson out of this, to be more alert and careful driving around in a neighborhood where lots of kids play and dogs roam free.
I'll be looking for that car when I'm out on my run tomorrow morning, and if I find it, I plan to have a conversation with its driver.

Bravo To BISD Bond Supporters

It was flawed and took too long to get onto the ballot, but the $388.6 million Beaumont school bond issue that voters approved Tuesday will help get the district going in the right direction - at least structurally.
Campus embarrassments will be gone, and students, teachers, principles and other staffers will have facilities of which they can be proud. The schools will no longer be neighborhood eyesores.
Prior to the election, I harped on BISD for not breaking out the bells and whistles, such as an athletic complex, into a separate proposition so that it wouldn't torpedo the real-needs stuff. This what happened in 2002 when a BISD bond issue went down in flames thanks, in part, to Lamar stadium renovations being part of the package.
The region is poised for an industrial boom, which in turn will ignite a boom in real estate and businesses large and small. Having good schools is at the center of community prosperity.
However, shiny new facilities will not translate into academic and disciplinary successes.
Take, for example, Price Elementary School, located in a lower-income neighborhood in Beaumont. The school was built a half century ago, and it looks outdated. I took my son here two consecutive summers for summer school. The place smelled, and the carpets were cheesy. A few blocks away at a car wash, two people were shot to death.
Under the bond plan, Price students will be moved to a new facility at the Fehl campus.
There has been something special going on inside Price for years. Despite the socio-economic situations that many of its students face, the Title I campus consistently receives high marks for its academics. Earlier this year, it gained the highest label of "Exemplary" in the state's accountability ratings. Only three other BISD campuses achieved this. The others were Dunbar and French elementaries.
Recently, the 2007 honor roll of top Texas schools named by the Texas Business & Education Coalition included Price. It was the second time the school made the list.
Meanwhile, the picture hasn't been so rosy at nearby Ozen High School, where a band director stirred controversy by canoodling with a student. In May, several Ozen High School students were arrested after a brawl at an end-of-school dance in an American Legion Hall.
Central Senior High School was named a "dropout factory" in a recent study conducted by Johns Hopkins University for The Associated Press. The report said there are 1,700 such schools nationwide. The data compared freshman enrollment with the number of seniors three years later.
BISD has problems that go beyond bricks and mortar, beyond natatoriums and stadiums. Now that it has $388 million in its britches, it needs to turn its attention to its students, teachers and academics. It needs to broaden and improve its preschool and special-education programs. It needs to get more kids into college.
Otherwise, we're just putting a pretty $388 million Band Aid on a festering flesh wound.

Timewaster Of The Week-Nov. 5

I was going to say something about tomorrow's big elections, but I'll leave that to The Gator (our snarky friend over at our Bayou blog, which you can find at http://http://www.beaumontenterprise.com/

I ran across this little rock quiz today:

http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/17177243/
the_almost_8212_impossible_rock__roll_quiz#

It's every bit as hard as it says it is, and there is a Southeast Texas connection ...

I got a 37, which vaulted me to "Whiz" status.

But it did note: " ... you omight need to spend more time reading the liner notes."

I can't believe I got the Led Zeppelin question wrong.

Doh!