Frank’s Corner

Seems like only yesterday I was whining and complaining about not knowing what I’d actually managed to do or not do in the 6 months previous. And now I’m looking back on a month saying Wow “How did all that happen?” - where’d the time go!

Let’s see, first there’s Brooklyn’s birthday. (Yeah, I know, that happens every year, but this year I have no idea what he may want or what to get him.) Well hey, turn a light bulb on over my head - He said he’d like to figure out how to market MILK & CHASE merchandise and we’ve already made bowling shirts, I’ve got the logo files. We want to sell footage and stills for the business and there was a time when when I was doing some research on this stuff - what’d I do with that? Found it, I can set up a pro account at Photo Stock Plus for selling stills and products made from them. Then I can order M&C shirts and mugs from myself for his birthday and see what kind of a job they do on their products at the same time. (He liked them so much he had me set up files for the 4 main characters of M&C the comic and then he ordered a mug of each and a poster showing the 4 of them for himself, which he ended up hanging in the video control room at church.)

Army Dude finishes AIT and is coming home for 2 weeks of Hometown Recruiting before leaving for his first true duty station in Korea (Where he will probably not be coming home from for at least 6 months and definitely not be phoning as often from.) Only two weeks and he’ll be working and mom’ll be working and his brother’ll be working, but it’s over Easter so everyone’ll be around and together for at least one day. Well everyone was working, but we did manage some family time and some individual time with him and we did get the computer and third screen at Church working as correctly as possible in the time we had - After Easter pastor asked if we could put his notes up on the rear screen instead of the sermon outline we were putting up for the rest of the congregation on the front screens - of course the possibility of using multiple images on multiple screens was why they allowed the 3 projectors, screens and computer (specially built and programed by Army dude, Linux based with multiple video inputs and outputs) system we ended up installing. Naturally though, the original idea was to grow into the system and keep adding the new features over time AND that Army dude would either have already accomplished all the programing or be around to do it as Brooklyn and I got the wiring and video equipment in place to even send it all to the computer for distribution, let alone have the operators, much less trained operators to work it. Anyway, we just told pastor “sure, no problem.” Then the two of them went about figuring out how and making it work. Now pastor sends us the slides for the 2 services and a single slide of his notes and we set up the 4 slide presentations, 2 front and 2 rear. Some day we’ll get additional switching equipment and run the other video lines from the control room to the balcony for the projection computer, for now the projectionist just switches between front and rear slide presentations. Anyway, the boys said their goodbyes and mom and I got Army dude to the Airport (where, with no amount of moms pleading would they let “we’re his parents, he’s in the Army and going to Korea” us go to the gate with him.) and as far as security would allow to the gate. We’ve had a couple emails from him and he seems to be doing fine.

Let’s see Brooklyn’s birthday, Army dude finished AIT, was home for hometown recruiting and left for Korea, we got some work at church finished, I set up a still photography account to compliment our video stock account, we celebrated Easter with family, and Oh Yeah at the end of March mom retired. Everything had been piling up on mom for a while- She wasn’t happy at work, then they changed her job, son the younger wasn’t happy with college so he joined the Army (He did do the research and got a good deal and a contract guaranteeing the job he choose, but HE JOINED THE ARMY.) Son the older having graduated college and being hired where he had been interning and hating the 4 hour a day commute moved to Brooklyn, and then dad (me) goes and gets cancer so I guess yeah mom had allot on her plate, so we looked into and revised and revised and revised her retirement plans again and again and then she just decided this was it and did it. Mom’s still settling into getting used to being retired, but I think it’s difficult for her to understand I really do things most of the day most of the time. When I “retired” both boys were still in school and mom was working so I just continued going about things as usual except for going to “work” and then replaced that with working at setting up and growing a family business based on synergizing our complimentary talents and interests with what we were already doing at church. In other words putting together a business which allowed us to have to buy the equipment we needed to make the technology we were pushing the envelope at church with work. So I never had huge vacant time periods to deal with that mom now has. I only hope I’m smart enough to put aside time from some of the “stuff” I’m doing to really spend it with her now that we can. We’ve taken a couple days and gone to the beach and a couple parks where we’ve just walked around and taken some cameras so I’ve gotten some stills for Photo Stock Plus and footage for Brooklyn to edit for Shutterskock. And of course we’re going to Cape Cod for several days to visit an old friend, who just happened to be pastor at our old church. Also it’s like only a week after our 35th anniversary—-.

Admittedly just learning to do the web sites Army dude had been handling and working at growing the business much less adding a new large web site and dealing with the idea of having cancer has not been as easy as I thought it would. And while I Know GOD never allows us more than we can handle I don’t Believe that means we’ll always handle it as well as we could, so yeah it’s been a pain in the butt and that means I’ve undoubtedly been one also. With my platelet count stabilizing, the Dr’s been getting the Prednisone cut back further and further to the point where lately my count averages just about 100,000 and I’m only taking 2.5mg every other day, which has finally gotten me feeling almost the way I think I should - well at least I’m not exhausted all the time. So, even though it’s still watch & wait with the CLL for symptoms to show up and have to then consider what, when and how to do about it, it’s back to life as usual. (I hope.) Which unfortunately included catching up with and taking care of those mundane things like the bills I’ve never liked doing anyway and therefore found being tired a really good excuse for not keeping up with. Yeah, that didn’t work for long - you don’t pay them, they just send you more, you still don’t pay them they just start calling you and send you more till you do pay them. Anyhow with mom retiring it’s only right to start off with everything in order, so of course our newest and we thought best running vehicle decides to roll over and play dead - for keeps! It was replace the engine or the car and as the car was a ‘96 we decided to replace it. We found a ‘98 with only 64,000 miles on it, the price was right and mom liked it - so we bought it.

For those of us who seldom look at the comments- In response to the next installment Ted commented

“Let’s see your outlook after you handle a shoot at church all by yourself. I agree, it’s progress, and that’s all great, but I fear we are backsliding, and we may not be able to regain the lost momentum.

Then again, this is a marathon,. not a sprint, so we don’t want to burn ourselves out. We’ll make it work, from week to week as long as we can.

Might not be pretty, but that’s what M&C.com is for … You just say “We did it!”

Well Ted, you certainly have me posting more often as your comments require complete answers, especially as they give me the topics and the internet gives me the soapbox. First things first though - Enrgeeman thanks for adding me to your blog roll, hopefully by the time you get home next week you’ll have that new computer working the way you want.

Okay, now Wednesday for those who don’t know is “blood day” my weekly blood work to see if I still have sufficient platelets and if possible (or necessary) change my daily dosage of Prednisone. Today I also saw the Dr. she told us because my platelets have been over 100,000 for the last four weeks I can now start coming in every other week, but we’ll keep to the 2.5mg Prednisone to try to keep the count up and because it might help keep the CLL in check. She also told mom I’m not “sick” or fragile, I just have to be careful and watch for symptoms of the CLL. That was the great news, the bad news was after lunch we went to see about the Merc. unless they find a good used engine for it - it’s done. It’s allot worse than just an oil pump, give them a couple days to check on engines, but be ready to buy another vehicle.

Then comes the Lenten Service at church and almost your wish for me “to handle a shoot at church by” myself. Now remember you’re in your early twenties and I’m well, 60 and, not as fast as I used to be. Mom and I got to church just before 7:00 PM, service starts 7:30 PM, I have the Special Edition DVD for Ida and a quote for the electric for Judy to deliver also. As we arrive we meet Mrs. Matlack who asks if I know where her wreaths were moved to (they had been in the outer room of the loft) I told her no but I’d go with her to check the loft as she did not have a key- sure enough someone had moved them in there. I checked with pastor to see if they would need more than the 1 lav. he told me they would need a second one. I arranged with him for pastor Moore, the guest, to use lav. 1 and he would use lav. 3, which I handed him with the batteries. As I was headed up to open the sound board, which I had turned on at the modesty rail I ran into Vuman who asked if there was anything he could do to help with video. I silently said “thanks Lord” and immediately told him YES! lets go down to Atlantis and get things turned on. Josh reminded me you had already shown him everything down there including how to use the Grizzly so I left him to turn things on and set himself up to do the whole video, while I went up and put the batteries in the GL1’s. (I had only planned on running the middle camera wide as a 1 camera shoot for the night , while I would be on the sound board.) When I got back to check Josh had everything turned on and set up except for the switcher, so we turned that on and he was ready to go. We went over when to start and stop the recorders and I headed for the balcony and the soundboard as the choir and pastors entered the sanctuary. With pastor at the lectern and giving the welcome I noticed I’m getting no signal from lav. 3, which he’s wearing and should be working. As pastor announces the greeting I run down from the balcony and up the aisle up to the front of the sanctuary to check his transmitter, its on and the mute is off I tell I’m getting no signal so forget it for communion and speak louder. I had also noticed I was getting no signal from lav. 1 but when pastor Moore had put that one on I had a signal so I hoped he had muted it or he wasn’t going to leave the pulpit. He had and he didn’t. Sound for the rest of the service was okay, for pastor at communion I brought up the pulpit and lectern mics and actually managed put him through the system that way. When the service was over and I was heading down to see how Vuman had made out Laurie asked me if we were ready for Friday’s movie night and did I want the movie now because she would not be there Friday, so I got the movie from her and then headed down to Atlantis. Josh was no longer there, but he had finalized the both DVDs and turned everything off. I collected up the batteries from the GL1’s, the lavs and put lav 3 back in the balcony, locked up the soundboard and met mom in Fellowship hall for coffee.

Now I grant we had rewired Fellowship Hall Sunday for Friday’s movie night so I did not have to set up for the simulcast, and I did not put out the DVDs of prior services. Nor did I turn on the balcony computer and projectors. I did not use the projectors because we had no slide presentation and I did not want put up sides on 1 front screen and the rear screen and leave the other front screen blank, if I had had the time to possibly get both front projectors images I would have left both of those on with a single slide, but I just did not want to use one and not the other.

Oh, as the Vus were leaving Josh’s friend Chris made arrangements to meet Sunday morning to work with the Video team on the 9:00 AM service before going to his own church and being an usher. I call this good and progress, not backsliding.

You did say you realize this is a marathon and not a sprint. Let me remind you though, the original marathon man on reaching Athens and delivering his message of victory - dropped dead. I humbly submit to you these times of “backsliding” are truthfully resting periods for us to revision the goal, make necessary course adjustments and continue with a new vigor and enthusiasm which will instill that vision in others who will continue the journey when we’re no longer there, because my friend this is a never ending mission.

In his comment Brooklyn (MilkandChase) asked “Will the next installment reflect the negative aspects primarily? or will you still try and spin it in a positive way? Or is this a PR exercise, leaving M&C.com to tell the nitty gritty technical details?   Let’s think about this a second or two.  Think back to the sound system of years ago, a mic at the pulpit and another at the lectern, an on/off switch to an amp and two speakers (we know - we found most of that equipment and salvaged it from the loft and other storage places, remember?)  Then somewhere along the way they added a Lapel and two hand held wireless mics.  Later a cassette tape recorder was added. That’s about where we came along, do you really think those who put together what we inherited didn’t have any difficulties moving from “speak louder” to what they handed off to us?  The point is from where they were to where they got was progress and that was good.  Our journey from where we were to where we are is progress and that is good.  We both see a great difference from where we are to where we believe we should be, you see our not being there yet as negative and I simply see it as still having a great deal of work to do.  So yes, my story will always be positive.  And yes I’ll leave it to M&C.com to tell the nitty-gritty of breakdowns of archaic equipment and the heroic efforts of the people working with it to constantly find new work-arounds and ways of getting the job done, besides you always manage to do it in an entertaining and informative way.

Looking back I realize while I pretty well covered what we do at church I didn’t hit much of what we or in particular I was doing otherwise.  We started the year with a paying job for BCS (paying in this case meaning covering materials and hopefully coffee and big gulps.) wiring their building and all the classes and offices for internet.  Of course as soon as we finished the job their PA system went bad and their tech. blamed our Ethernet wire being next their wire for the problem - we knew it wasn’t, but had to pull all our wiring out of the classes where it was in proximity to theirs to prove it, then of course we rewired them all putting in our own conduits.  Then (soon to be) Army Dude gave us a price (parts only)  to bid on building, programing and installing a new computer for the sanctuary  projector system.  Then we managed to talk Gram into buying us the Grizzly  PTZ remote system, which meant we could buy a single unit system off eBay and a new disc copying tower also.  We used the Grizzly system for the West Islip Spring Concert, which turned out to be the last real paying job Army Dude (enrgeeman.com)  got do with us as he shipped the week before the LIYM Golfouting, which we pulled off by using the Grizzly system and asking Cowpie Productions ( Mr & Mrs Dein, from church) and 2 of the young people who were part of the church Video Ministry to work with us.  Other than a few minor things our next paying jobs  through Sept. ended up being 2 shoots on the same day, which we only managed because they were both at the same location as 90% of our equipment - namely church.  The first and real job was the documentation of the assembly celebrating BCS’s 30th anniversary, with State Senator O. Johnson attending.  We used one of our GL1’s,  a borrowed HD camera from Cowpie and a borrowed HD camera from Atlantic TV, the idea being for M&C.com to eventually do series on the relative merits of each of them on the shoot. (never has been completed)   The second shoot of the day was a wedding in the early evening in the sanctuary.  Some of the family couldn’t make it and we were asked if we could do a live edit to DVD to send to them or be played over the internet for them. For this shoot we relocated 2 of our camera locations in the sanctuary and used 3 GL1’s.

May was Graduation for (soon to be) Brooklyn (B.F.A. in Film making from Five Towns College) his internship with Atlantic TV became a real 5 day a week job, with dad transporting him daily to and from Babylon RR station until he moved to Brooklyn Dec 1.  Of course nothings quite as simple as it seems, he wanted to start a web comic but decided he couldn’t draw so dad offered to lend a feeble hand and things were going pretty well till someone wanted a M&C logo for posting on the web comic (80X80pixels) naturally I had to draw the font pixel by pixel to make it fit,  once he liked that it was “make it a desktop” then Make it a bowling shirt for the bowling team (we bowl every other week in the Sayville Methodist Churches league)  That’s what I was working on there when October came.  Since October he’s been drawing his own comics and doing a better job then I ever did.

At church I was working on the coordination of the installation of the carillon, a gift in memory of a long time member, elder from his family.  We were also getting ready to host the CNN Worship Summit simulcast on Nov 2 & 3.  The first contracted dish installer backed out without letting us know, so on Nov 1 I’m still going back and forth with Chicago and Colorado trying to get an installer lined up.  Nov 2 the gentleman they got left Jersey thinking he had plenty of time, but arrived in Babylon at 10:30 - we got the dish installed and actually had the video up at 11:57:23 with the telecast starting at 12Noon.(I guess he did have plenty of time.) It was a good 2 days and we learned a great deal.

Yeah, It was June 13  when Army dude shipped out and it suddenly dawned on me anything that was going to be done on any of the web sites we were handling would now have to be done by me as he was the one who had built and maintained them for us.  Rather than admit how long it had been since I did any real coding or having to relearn HTML and then the other languages he interspersed in the coding I found it easier to breakdown and buy the Serif web10plus.  I have in another post related my wonderful time working with that when we lost power and it crashed.  After rebuilding our site, clenchpics.com, and our churches site, 1stpresbabylon.org, I actually brought in a couple new  paying sites.  I then started researching SEO and Affiliates to draw traffic to our sites hoping to scare up some real paying business so mom would also be able to retire, but then came October.

Next time from October to present- I hope