Freedom Burn

Last Monday, I woke up with my face three shades of red. It was kind of a gradient effect. Dark red on the left, gradually changing over to a milder shade of red on the right side. This was not sun burn. This was a case of Freedom Burn!

If the sound of military aircraft flying is the sound of freedom, then the burn on my skin caused by watching military aircraft fly during the day is Freedom Burn.

Last weekend I took the family, and some friends from out of town, to the Oceana Air Show. I love the planes and the noise! We went on Saturday and Sunday this year. Double your fun!

The first day we got there late, but we did have some excitement. As my friend PR and I were looking for earplugs, we saw a guy get arrested. I have no idea what for, but they shuttled him off pretty quickly.

PR is a tall guy and no sooner than we noticed the ruckus did he blurt out, "Hey what are the doing that for?"

I about freaked out! There are dozens of military police standing around where we were with M16's. You don't question these guys or even make eye contact when you are on base. Regular laws do not apply. So, I quietly told him to shut up, and snapped the picture below as PR posed in front of the B-52 on display.


A minute after this picture was taken, a squad of MPs, and an attack dog, ran from where the first guy was hauled away, to a new group of people. That picture is below.


I have no idea what was going on and I didn't stick around long. I was surprised that I was able to take these photos, but I wasn't the only one taking pictures.

Day two was incredible! We had the best spot out there. VIP tent location with free food and $1 beer. I spent most of my time trying to keep the kids happy while taking pictures and video clips.

I am a terrible photographer/videographer. I take way too many pictures and video clips. Most of them are of my shoe and the tarmac, but every once in a while I do get something that passes for acceptable.

I put some of the better images together in a little movie below. I hope you enjoy the highlights of the the airshow!

I must give a special thank you to my neighbor Don for getting us the most incredible VIP passes in the world. If you looked at the video, you can really see how close we were to the action. After the jets passed by, you could feel the heat blast from their engines.

Awesome!

NECC T-shirt, follow-up!

Kim Caise, a teacher who also missed the fun NECC liked my shirt and offered to help anyone who wants one get it at a lower price! If you are interested in a shirt, try out Kool Imprints.

Her comment- "We can print the shirts for you for around $14 including shipping. Feel free to contact us for a price quote at: http://koolimprints.net/default.aspx." That is at least $3 less than what I paid for mine!

This is what the shirt looks like...

Thanks to Tracy Murdach at http://www.all4techintegration.blogspot.com/ for the shout out on your blog!

Thank you to Vicki A. Davis at CoolCatTeacher, http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2008/07/hilarious-tshirt-for-those-who-didnt-go.html! My picture is on her blog! Man, I really need to work out or something...

Thank you to the Tech Chick Tips, http://techchicktips.net/2008/07/08/necc-08-t-shirt-anyone/! I am honored by the attention.

I think it is great that people like the t-shirt. I would be very excited to see someone wearing it someday.
:-)

NECC T-shirt

About a week ago, I decided to create a t-shirt to show my displeasure at having all the people I follow on Twitter go to NECC and leave me behind. I was bored and it seemed like something fun to do. I designed the shirt based on the Twitter status link that shows individual Tweets.

Here is the original design that I made.

I tried to keep things simple and just made everything in Word, and took a snapshot of it with the Print Screen command. I used Picasa to crop the image and convert the it to a jpeg.I uploaded the file to Zazzle.com and they showed me a preview of the shirt.

It looked good, but Zazzle warned me that the the image might pixelate. I was willing to chance it, so I went ahead and ordered one. My shirt arrived today and this is what it looks like-

It looks better than I had hoped for! The only problem is that I didn't order an extra large... As long as there is no shrinkage there should be no issues. The shirt has no tag in the back- I love that!

If you would like a t-shirt like mine, click this link! I tried to set up a Zazzle page to share and sell my t-shirt but I was not interested in making a profit. I thought that $17.45 was plenty to pay for a t-shirt without me trying to add on a 10% profit on all sales. So I sent myself an email with a link to to image on a shirt, and you can have the shirt for what I paid for it if you like it. If you have any problems with the shirt, let me know I will help.

I also searched Google for a Zazzle coupon (I embedded the search into the link), I found one for free shipping and paid only $17.45 to have the shirt sent to me.

Zazzle is only one of many online stores that will put anything on a t-shirt, mug, mouse pad, etc. I think making a t-shirt has never been so easy, even if you don't like mine- make your own!

The Alamo

This is me and my Second Life friend Thunder in costume looking at a poster at the Alamo with our names on it.

Sunday was the big day. Day one at the big NECC and the Alamo tours in Second Life. A small group avatars volunterred to be tour guides for the Alamo re-creation at the ISTE sim. I had been concerned about doing a good job, but it seems that I was worried about nothing. I gave two tours to a total of 4 people. I guess I had been hoping for more.

This Video was made by my SL friend Norma Underwood.

This Video Was made by the Alamo Tour organizer Valibrarian (SL name).

I was excited to meet some new people and it really was a very good example of how a virtual environment can be used for distance learning applications. Of course I did stretch myself by doing something completely new, so I think it was a great experience.

This is me, Alfredo, giving a tour in the Daughters of the Republic of Texas Library.