Chris Cree

Whatever I find interesting

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I’m on 25 Peeps

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They’ve put me on 25 Peeps.com!

What is it? Here’s the blurb from the site itself

see the 25 peeps above? click on someone you like and we’ll send you to his or her weblog. peeps are sorted by popularity, which is based on clicks and referals. when a new peep enters the roster, the least popular peep gets pushed off the site. with a bit of luck, though, it may end up in the big 25peeps.com hall of fame. go ahead and try it yourself!

It will be interesting to see how long I stay up there with all the various exposed body parts vying for clickage…

If you want to help a fella out, go on over and vote for me by clicking on my photo. (I’m the fully clothed guy in the upper left photo below.) 😉

25 Peeps

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Travel Stories – Australian Style

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Gorgeous and I went to a birthday party last night for a friend of hers she met through our local Small Business Chamber. Eventually we all got talking about travel.

Map of Australia

It turns out Gorgeous and a couple of the other guests had all lived in Australia for a while. The evening went by quickly as they each took turns telling stories of their time there.

I was fascinated because the three of them all spent time in different parts of the country and seemed to have very different experiences.

One of the guys had lived in Perth for a couple years and said he felt very isolated there because the city is so far from anywhere else.

Of course he decided isolation was a bit relative when he heard that Gorgeous had spent a year living in Broome, which they both agreed was the “back of beyond.” Gorgeous said the locals used to talk about slipping into “Broome Time.” Apparently nothing moved quickly there.

Of course that may be changing a little since she was there, what with the increase of tourism and all. Check out this web cam on the beach in Broome and decide for yourself. (Remember they are about 12 hours out of sink with us here in the states so it will be dark there during our day time.)

Sydney Opera House at nightThe third gentleman at our party was a little older and spent some time in Sydney during the 60’s. He said that when he was there then the memory of World War II was still pretty fresh and the Australians absolutely loved Americans then.

If you are in to travel then go ahead and check out Where is Basil? The blog is about the ongoing travel adventures of a fictitious donkey. The idea is there is a set of DVD’s of the old British TV show Fawlty Towers which is being mailed around to people who sign up at the blog and for the week that they have the DVD’s they describe what the Basil the donkey does while he’s there. Then they send the DVD’s off to the next person on the list an Basil heads to the next place. It is truly a global travel adventure.

I bring it up because Basil is here in Savannah and I’ll be posting some tourist type things over there for the next week or so.

I tried to explain the whole thing a while back in Adventures in Traveling. But don’t take my word for it. Check out Basil’s blog.

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Believing and Actors From the Military

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Gorgeous and I watched Second Hand Lions last night.

If you haven’t seen it, it is a fun movie, rather silly through out. Kind of a boy meets grumpy old men story. The pair of crusty old guys are played by Michael Caine and Robert Duval. The Duval character cracked me up with his over-the-top grouchiness. There were several points that I had to pause the movie because I was laughing too loud for Gorgeous to hear what was going on.

But there was also a fair amount of wisdom given out. For example at one point the Duval character tells the boy

Sometimes the things that may or may not be true are the things a man needs to believe in the most. That people are basically good; that honor, courage, and virtue mean everything; that power and money, money and power mean nothing; that good always triumphs over evil; and I want you to remember this, that love… true love never dies. You remember that, boy. You remember that. Doesn’t matter if it’s true or not. You see, a man should believe in those things, because those are the things worth believing in.

Second Hand LionsI’m still noodling over that one.

Should you choose to believe something simply because it is worth believing in, and not sweat whether it’s true or not?

Many folks would say that those of us who follow Jesus are doing exactly that. Of course those of us who do follow Jesus believe that we have actually found the truth and believe in it.

I have this powerful desire to be “right.” And when I encounter someone who thinks differently than I do, my natural instinct is to “prove” that I am “right” and they are “wrong.”

But is that really the important thing? To be right?

I’m not so sure that it is anymore.

When I was poking around this morning I noticed that both Robert Duval and Michael Cain had spent some time in military service. I didn’t realize that they had both been in uniform.

I did some more poking around and found that all of the following actors had spent some time in uniform:

Jimmy Stewart actually takes the cake when it comes to military service.

He was drafted in WWII but was initially refused due to a weight restriction. He finally convinced the Draft Board to accept him and enlisted in March of 1941. The Army didn’t really want to send famous stars to the front and Stewart had been making movies since 1935. So the Army kept him in the states even after he successfully finished flight school. They posted Stewart to New Mexico as a flight instructor for B-17’s.

Jimmy Stewart - ColonelBut Stewart was not content to be an instructor. He managed to get a transfer to an operational unit and entered combat operations flying bomber missions over Europe in December 1943. He was awarded several medals for actions in combat and by the end of the war Stewart was promoted to Colonel. He was one of the few Americans to rise from Private to Colonel in four years, a rather impressive accomplishment.

Jimmy Stewart was the highest ranking Hollywood actor in the military of all time (after Ronald Regan, of course).

It's a Wonderful LifeHis first movie after the war is my personal favorite of his: It’s a Wonderful Life. Talk about a film that addresses personal beliefs! It’s a great reminder that each of our lives affects far more people than we ever realize.

Who doesn’t remember the moment when George Baily discovers Zuzu’s petals? Or how the town’s folk rallied around him to help him out of his jam? Good stuff for sure.

We could all stand to see more movies like that.

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Did You Know There’s a Storm Brewing?

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Y’all should know that there’s a storm brewing. My namesake, Chris, is gaining strength down in the Caribbean. The storm’ll probably be a hurricane by the weekend or early next week.

Hurricane Chris TrackDo you think that might be part of the reason things have been so chaotic around our house lately? … Nah. But it is an interesting coincidence, eh?

August tends to be the worst month for Atlantic hurricanes. Katrina was an August storm.

But it is unusual for them to only be getting around to the C name this late in the season. Last year this time they were watching Harvey. Usually the C storm peters out early on and isn’t much worth paying attention to.

I’m going to keep my eye on Chris this year. I suspect she’ll make landfall somewhere near the Texas/Louisiana border sometime late next week or into that weekend.

Here’s to hoping that she ends up being a small storm and doesn’t harm anyone.

US Navy Hurricane Tracking SiteIf you want to have a good source for up to date info on her, click on the button to the right for the US Navy’s hurricane tracking center. I keep that button over in my right side bar all the time because it is a useful resource. You can come here anytime and get to quality Hurricane info.

I don’t use the Navy’s site because I’m former Navy, but because they seem to be the best at predicting where the things will go. Being in the maritime industry, hurricanes are a special interest to me. They can significantly affect my job so I pay close attention.

Over the years I have watched hurricanes through several sites. (I have a whole folder in my favorites for weather. How geeky is that?) I’ve seen that the Navy’s site consistently has the most accurate track prediction out there. So I keep going back to there for my info.

You’re welcome to click through anytime. And if you are on the Gulf Coast, I’d be keeping an eye on Chris myself. At least until we get an idea of where she really is going.

One of my favorite weather passages is in the book of Job where God is giving Job a talking to, kinda reminding Job who he is. When I read the sarcasm that God uses, I can’t help but believe that God does have a really good sense of humor. Check it out.

“Do you know where Light comes from and where Darkness lives So you can take them by the hand and lead them home when they get lost? Why, of course you know that. You’ve known them all your life, grown up in the same neighborhood with them!

“Have you ever traveled to where snow is made, seen the vault where hail is stockpiled, The arsenals of hail and snow that I keep in readiness for times of trouble and battle and war? Can you find your way to where lightning is launched, or to the place from which the wind blows?

“Who do you suppose carves canyons for the downpours of rain, and charts the route of thunderstorms that bring water to unvisited fields, deserts no one ever lays eyes on, drenching the useless wastelands so they’re carpeted with wildflowers and grass? And who do you think is the father of rain and dew, the mother of ice and frost?

“You don’t for a minute imagine these marvels of weather just happen, do you?”

Yeah. I can hear the sarcasm pouring from that speech. Sometimes we just have to be reminded of our place.

We can watch the hurricanes until the cows come home (or get blown away). But at the end of the day there is nothing we can do to change where its wind blows or how hard it hits.

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3 Free Web Tools That You’ll Fall in Love With

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This morning I am going to go a bit off topic and talk about three tools that I have grown to love and I highly recommend. I think these gems will greatly enhance your online experience. The second two I’ll talk about will really work better if you choose to go with the first one, just so you know. And, remember, these three wonderful jewels are all free. So without further ado let’s get to the first one, shall we?

Firefox

Firefox is a web browser that can make your internet life easier, more organized and greatly customizable. Now I’m not one of those Microsoft haters. They do a grate job as far as I am concerned. For me the choice is simply a matter of what works better, has better features and allows me to customize it to suit my needs.

Why is Firefox better?

Tabbed browsing. Think of it as having multiple sites open in the same window, but layered in tabs so that you can easily switch between them. With Firefox it is easy to open a link in another tab and keep reading down the site you are on while you wait for the new one to load. then you can either close the old one, or keep it open to come back to. Since you only have one window open, it seems to take less of the system resources.

Easier Search. If you like the Google Toolbar for Internet Explorer you will love the search in Firefox. It has a drop down menu that you can customize with different sites to search with one click. In addition to Google, I have Yahoo, MSN, Wikipedia, Dictionary.com, IMDb and others. I can search the same term in the different places with one click of the mouse to find what I want. And there are dozens, if not hundreds of different search engines you can add and access with just one click of the mouse.

Customizability. (Is that a word?) You can add Downloads, Extensions, Plugins and Themes to do all kinds of things straight from your Firefox browser that you’d have to get additional programs to do with Internet Explorer. For example I am using a Firefox Extension right now as I write up this post using a tool that I’ll tell you about in a minute. You can move the different pieces, toolbars and buttons around, add ones that are useful, and remove ones that you don’t use (or no longer use) – all very simply.

There is one down side that I’ve noticed with Firefox and that is the customization doesn’t always work as easily as advertised. Most times it does, but occasionally I’ll have to wrestle with something that the instructions say should be pretty easy. I don’t know if that is a case of “operator error” or if there are really a few issues with some of the things I’ve added in.

Go download Firefox and get started.

StumbleUpon

I’d heard about StumbleUpon a while back but didn’t try it until just recently. It is kind of a cross between a social bookmarking site and a search engine. Basically you download their toolbar, take about two minutes to sign up with their free service and enter some basic interest categories and then you are ready to start stumbling around the internet.

What you get is a surfing session that is oriented toward things you are interested in. Then as you hit the “Stumble!” button you have an opportunity to give each site you encounter a thumbs-up or a thumbs-down vote.

The service somehow uses those votes to learn your preferences and give you sites even more oriented toward your preferences. Imagine cruising around the internet and the vast majority of the sites you find are actually interesting to you.

How cool is that?

And if you are a blogger you need to be using StumbleUpon and refer your own posts. My traffic has more than doubled since I started using it. And the best part is you don’t have to feel guilty because people who StumbleUpon your site are actually interested in what you have to say. Just be sure to use the appropriate category and descriptive tags that describe your posts. Then you will find the time visitors spend on your blog will go up too. It’s all about providing quality content and good honest tags.

Performancing

This last tool is really just for bloggers. Performancing has a free Firefox extension that you can use to edit your blog right from your browser. If you follow my blog at all you’ve probably noticed that I have spent some time using Qumana as a blogging tool. I’ve got to say Performancing is easier for me to use.

I can’t tell you how many times Quamana locked up when I tried to move a picture around. I’ve gotten used to very few crashes since I’ve been using Firefox. It’s a known bug with their program, but it sure seems like they’d fix it already.

There are a couple features I’d like to see them add to Performancing, though. I’d like to be able to define the alignment of graphics and add titles to graphics and hyperlinks. As it stands I submit my posts as drafts and then put the finishing touches on them before I publish them.

Oh, and I did have a bit of a go-round getting the spell check feature they recommend installed and working correctly. I did it, but it wasn’t easy for me. I would think they’d incorporate spell check right into the blogging platform. But all’s well that ends well, eh?

There you have it. Three web tools that you’ll fall in love with. There all really good. And best of all they’re all free. Go ahead, download Firefox and get started with them.

Enjoy!

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Sears Tower Tourist

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Yesterday I finally had a chance to play a bit of the tourist after being here in the Chicago area for over a week. I worked most of Friday night (after a normal work day on Friday) and was able to get some sleep around 9AM.

When I got up yesterday afternoon I decided to make good on my plan to see the Sears Tower so I headed that way.

My hotel is about an hour South of downtown Chicago. With no traffic. If I don’t get lost. Fortunately I studied my Mapquest pretty thoroughly (I don’t have anyway to print here in the hotel room) and I drove straight to the parking garage by the tower. It still took a bit over an hour. There was more traffic late on a Saturday afternoon than what I’d experience in all but rush hour during the week.

One of the first things I noticed on my drive is that as I got closer to downtown the ratio of imported cars increased. The areas I have been tooling around south of the city here are overwhelmingly dominated by American made cars. Compared to the mix of autos I am used to seeing on the road it has seemed downright weird. I’m not sure why it is, either.

I do know that there is a Ford plant that I drive by several times a day most days. Apparently they are in the middle of a shutdown right now. I’ve yet to see any activity there.

But that doesn’t really explain the different car mix for me.

Sears Tower Skydeck View SouthSears Tower makes going up to their Skydeck a whole tourist experience. I am used to the times I’ve gone up in big buildings in NYC. There you buy a ticket, stand in a bit of a line for the elevator and you are up. Here you have to stand in a serpentine line to go through a security checkpoint. A nod to 9-11, I’m sure.

After the security checkpoint they take your picture under the guise of a tourist thingy to take your money on the back side. I’m sure it is really a security thing as they made everyone get their photo taken even after they protested that they didn’t want a photo.

Then you stand in another line to get your ticket, which is nearly 12 bucks. Mine said it was transaction number 216,538 and I know there is no way there could have been that many people there yesterday, but I don’t know what time period it was measuring.

Next you get to stand around some more while you wait to go into a theater to watch a 10-15 minute video about the Tower excerpted from a History Channel show. Then you get to wait in line for the elevator.

It is a bit of a bummer for me to spend all that time standing in line by myself. I’m not much of one to make small talk with strangers, being a bit of an introvert and all. Besides there were a lot of languages around me that I don’t speak. Most of the ones that weren’t English, actually. And there were a lot of those.

I did manage to strike up a little conversation with a local couple while we were waiting in the last line for the elevator. We got on the 9-11 / big building subject somehow. Probably because it is heavy on my mind for some reason. They’d been to NYC but only post 9-11 and I haven’t been there since years before it.

Sears Tower Skydeck View EastThe view from the top is spectacular, as expected. There was a thunder shower off to the Southwest that gave us a spectacular lightning show. The sun was stetting off beyond O’Hare airport. I pointed out to the guy next to me that at nearly 1500 feet we were at the same altitude as the jets approaching the airport. He thought that was pretty cool. And there were lots of them. The jets were staggered in alternating pairs for the parallel westerly runways back across Lake Michigan as far as I could see.

I still love airplanes.

The background music loop had a rendition of Sweet Home Chicago in it that made me whish I had my Blues Brothers CD in the iPod. But it really belongs to Gorgeous so I haven’t wanted to fill it up too much with my music.

Apparently Sears Tower might be destined to not be the tallest building in America much longer. There are plans afoot to build a bigger tower here in Chicago. Could be interesting for sure.

This morning I am off to Naperville which is also about an hour from my hotel. There is a church up there that I want to check out, Christian Community Church. Their head pastor spoke at a conference hosted by our church a couple months back so I thought it would be cool to check them out since I am in the area.

Anyway it has been nice to have a little down time. I needed it. I was originally supposed to be on a plane right now to get home to Gorgeous. But I was informed late last week that my services would be required here for another week. Ugh! So I changed my flight to Friday. We’ll see how much more of Chicago I get to check out.

Oh, and I bought the photos from Sears Tower. Go figure.

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A Tourist to Remember

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Sears TowerWhew! It’s been a busy week so far. Lot’s of stuff to do. But looking at what we’ve got for the rest of the week, it looks like I might actually get a little down time. Gorgeous suggested I make sure I get some authentic Chicago style pizza while I’m up here. We definitely like our food, us Cree’s.

Another friend suggested I take in the Sears Tower. My first thought was that I’ve seen lots of tall buildings in the four years I lived in New York City. Wall Street New York City

Growing up an only child and then going to a military school in the Bronx, I used to enjoy the solitude of heading down to the financial district on the weekends, especially on Sunday mornings. Sometimes I’d go walking down by City Hall or over to the Brooklyn Bridge. I remember there was a book store down there that was often the only thing open in the mornings and was a good spot to get a cup of coffee. It always seemed peaceful to me to be in the heart of a giant city like that with so few people around.

Of course, as I got to thinking about those times I remembered that two of my favorite buildings in NYC are no longer there. The World Trade Center just seemed to me to be a strong place. I remember just being in awe at how massive the twin towers were. Sometimes I would walk right up next to the outside of one of them, lean back looking up. They seemed to curve back over my head, they were so tall and straight.

Twin TowersGoing up in them to the observation area on a windy day you could feel the building sway in the wind. It was always cool to look down on the helicopters that were scurrying around the city.

They were a beacon of the NYC skyline as far as I was concerned. I knew the air was clear when I could see the towers from our campus on the other end of the Bronx.

I remember flying up that way one time when I was in the Navy. The view out the cockpit was nothing but a solid cloud layer below us all the way from our base in Florida. Then, there in the distance when the layer ended was the NYC skyline with those two towers standing majestically on watch.

It was my day off work that day when they came crashing down in a pile of concrete, steel, and dust. I watched the whole thing live from my living room in Florida. The next few days were eerie with no contrails in the sky because all flights were grounded.Twin Towers Collapse

I’m not here to comment on the state of world affairs, but do think that it is important that we remember some of these events from time to time to keep our perspective on where we stand.

We humans are naturally a forgetful people, especially where our history is concerned. That has been true since ancient times. The word remember occurs in the Bible over 150 times. The first time is when God gives Noah the rainbow as a symbol of hope.

I’m glad I got to see so much of those buildings in their relatively short lives. Those are good memories.

So maybe I will go see the Sears Tower while I’m up here after all.

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Historical Happenings

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Birthday CakeHere’s some things that happened today in history

  • 1767 – John Quincy Adams born
  • 1798 – The United States Marine Corps is re-established after being disbanded at the end of the American Revolution
  • 1804 – Aaron Burr kills Alexander Hamilton in a duel
  • 1859 – Charles Dickens publishes A Tale of Two Cities
  • 1914 – Babe Ruth debuts in the Major League
  • 1936 – Triborough Bridge is opened in New York City
  • 1955 – The phrase “In God We Trust” is added to all US currency
  • 1960 – To Kill a Mockingbird is published by Harper Lee
  • 1967 – Chris Cree born
  • 1987 – World Population passes the 5 billion mark
  • 2006 – Microsoft ends official support of Windows 98 and Windows ME

Just thought you might want to know.

(Source: Wikipedia entry for July 11)

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Declaration of Independence:
Great Men with Great Ideals

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And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”

Fireworks1These are the words that close out the Declaration of Independence. The men who signed the document that paved the way for our nation knew the possible consequences of their actions.

John Hancock encouraged his fellow delegates to hang together in their task of signing. To which the Benjamin Franklin, in all his wit and wisdom gave his famous reply, “We must all hang together, or we will most assuredly hang separately.”

Years later Benjamin Rush remembered how incredibly serious the moment was, as well as the gallows humor these great men expressed in a letter to John Adams.

Do you recollect the pensive and awful silence which pervaded the house when we were called up, one after another, to the table of the President of Congress to subscribe what was believed by many at the time to be our death warrants? The silence and the gloom of the morning were interrupted, I well recollect, only for a moment by Colonel Harrison of Virginia, who said to Mr. Gerry at the table; “I shall have a great advantage over you, Mr. Gerry, when we are all hung for what we are now doing. From the size and weight of my body I shall die in a few minutes, but from the lightness of your body you will dance in the air for an hour or two before you are dead.” This speech produced a transient smile, but was soon succeeded by the solemnity with which the whole business was concluded.

There is some debate as to how much the signers actually suffered during the war with the British that resulted from their signing. There is no doubt, however that several of the men did endure hardships because of their convictions.Fireworks2

John Adams had a firm belief in the rightness of the cause and its ultimate victory. He also had an incredibly clear vision of the importance of the day. The very next day after the Declaration of Independence was adopted he wrote his wife and told her about the future of the day.

I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires, and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.

You will think me transported with Enthusiasm but I am not. I am well aware of the Toil and Blood and Treasure, that it will cost Us to maintain this Declaration, and support and defend these States. Yet through all the Gloom I can see the Rays of ravishing Light and Glory. I can see that the End is more than worth the Means. And that Posterity will tryumph in that Days Transaction, even altho We should rue it, which I trust in God We shall not.

The bottom line is that the course of events was far from certain on that hot July day in Philadelphia. Yet these great men went forward anyway with the force of their convictions in spite of the risks.Fireworks3

And in what was perhaps one of the greatest coincidences of history on July 4, 1826, the 50th anniversary of the the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, both Thomas Jefferson (its author) and John Adams (arguably its leading advocate) died on the same day. Adams was 91 when he died that evening. His last words were, “Jefferson still survives.” He was unaware that Jefferson himself was gravely ill and had passed away earlier that afternoon at 83 years old.

There is definitely a Divine Symmetry to the events surrounding this historic document. Folks can argue the place of the US in modern history and the pros and cons of current foreign policy. But few would dispute the revolutionary ideals put forth in the Declaration of Independence or the passion and determination of the men who signed that amazing document.

Enjoy today. Celebrate in the manner Adams envisioned. Honor those who sacrificed and went before.

For a short summary of the signers, what kind of people they were and what happened to them check out this article. And you can find short biographies of each of the signers here.

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Resources for Hurricane Season

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Well the first storm of the season is heading out to sea. Alberto was not much of a storm, as far as hurricanes go. At maximum winds of 70 mph she (he?) didn’t quite even qualify as a hurricane.

However the storm did dump over 5-1/4″ of rain on us here in Savannah. We needed it badly. The week or so before the storm had been so hot that I told Gorgeous over the weekend that if it kept up I might not have to even mow the back yard. The grass was going to just burn off for me. (We water the front lawn in the interest of inter-neighbor relations.)

Living in the Southeast and working with ships I keep a close eye on hurricanes and tropical storms. Not only will they potentially affect my home life, but they also generally can wreck havoc on my work life too.

There are a lot of places where you can get hurricane info when the storms are brewing. Most of you are familiar with the National Hurricane Center. Their information is some of the best. Some folks like the Weather Channel’s Hurricane Central. I get tired of all their obnoxious ads so I tend to skip that one.

Did you know Wikipedia has a page for the 2006 Hurricane Season? Interesting stuff. I’ll be checking that one through out the year. If you ever have some obscure need to get info on past hurricane seasons, you can check their index of Atlantic Hurricane Seasons. With pages going back to 1494, I’m sure there’s enough information in those pages to make the average head explode.

That brings us back to the blog here. You may have noticed this little blue button in the Navy's Hurricane Tracking Siteright side bar under Good Stuff. It will take you to the Navy’s hurricane tracking site. I tend to be a raw-data guy. I’ve had some formal weather training because of my maritime and aviation backgrounds. My weather guesses are usually at least as good as the folks on the Weather Channel. I’ve found over the years that the Navy’s computer model for course prediction seems to be one of the best. Their predicted tracks are usually close to what actually happens.

So if you want to get an idea where a storm is going, come on in here and click on the button in the side bar. ➡ You might even find something interesting to read while your here!

Enjoy!

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