Random Connections – Page 142 – A collection of photography and exploration focusing on Upstate South Carolina and beyond.

Fall TV

November 6, 2009 Tom 1 Comment

Entertainment

Watching television used to be so simple. You got three, maybe four channels from which to choose. Then there were the shows themselves. Each episode could stand alone. There were none of the these long story arcs where you would be lost if you missed an episode or so.

I completely understand the logic behind long story arcs. You get your audience hooked, then they want to see what happens next. The idea of a cliff hanger is not new, by any means. However, these can have negative effects, too. If a view misses too many shows, they may give up on it. If they come to a show late in the game, they may not want to get started with it, fearing that they don’t have enough back story.

I’ve certainly had that happen to me. Lost, 24, and several others looked interesting, but I never got started with them. I started watching Heroes, but missed an entire season, and haven’t watched it since because I don’t know what’s going on, or how the last story arc got resolved. This fall season I’m giving several new dramas a try, and I’m already running into problems keeping up.

Owls and the Moon

November 3, 2009 Tom 3 Comments

Miscellaneous, Photography

Sunday night the moon was spectacular – almost, but not quite full, with enough of a terminator line to highlight features on the lunar surface. I grabbed my camera and Celestron C90 telescope and headed out to the front yard to snap a few shots. I started with a 2X multiplier, but the camera shake … Read More “Owls and the Moon” »

??????????-????-???

November 2, 2009 Tom 1 Comment

Music

In case your Cyrillic is rusty, the title of this post is from Psalm 104, “Praise the Lord, O My Soul”, and is one of the pieces that make up part of Rachmaninoff’s All-Night Vigil. This weekend we performed the piece with the Greenville Chorale on Sunday afternoon at First Baptist Church.

This was a real challenge. The music itself wasn’t so hard, but there was so much of it. We did in an hour what we normally stretch out over two, when you add in soloists and orchestra. Throw in a layer of very difficult language, and you have a nearly impossible task.

I had done parts of the Vespers before, so I was somewhat familiar with the music. The sixth movement is the “Hail Mary” section, and I had done it several times with both the Latin Ave Maria text and the Russian. Even so, I found myself stumbling over music and text, even in the final performance.

Paddling South Carolina’s Rivers

October 28, 2009 Tom 22 Comments

Geocaching and Maps, Paddling

File – Paddling South Carolina Rivers (KMZ, 1.5 MB)

Google Earth has been one of the best resources for planning river kayaking trips, especially on new routes with which I’m not familiar. I’ll scan the route, locate put-in and take-out points, and put placemarks for certain landmarks such as rapids, powerlines, bridges, tributaries, or other interesting locations along the way. I would then use GPS Babel to convert my Google Earth files to GPX files then upload the data to my GPS so I would have it with me on the paddling trip.

Pretty soon I had a nice little collection of river trips in Google Earth. I began to wonder if anyone else was doing this. It seemed like it would be an excellent resource. There are some excellent books out there, such as Able and Horman’s Paddling South Carolina, and while the maps in these resources are fine for giving driving directions, there is no GPS information. SCTrails.net has started putting Lat/Long coordinates for some of their paddling trails, but not for all of them. So, I decided to make my own collection.

Autumn Paddle on the Enoree

October 25, 2009 Tom No Comments

Paddling

Kayakers – 3

Weatherman – 0

This makes three trips in a row where there was an iffy weather forecast. In each case, if we had followed The Weather Channel’s advice and canceled the trip, we would have missed out on a fantastic day of paddling. You’ve got to pay attention to the weather, but a 60% chance of rain doesn’t necessarily mean a bad day on the river.

Following on the heels of our last successful Enoree trip, David and Rick wanted to paddle another stretch of the river. They had done some scouting, and found a stretch starting at Whitmire that had great river access points. Add to that the fact that David had a new kayak to try out, and we had to put together another trip.

This was going to be a much smaller group than last time. Since the paddle route was longer, this just made sense. We would be joined by Dave W, a good friend of Rick and David’s, bringing our number to four.

Scenes from a Whitmire Truck Stop

October 25, 2009 Tom 4 Comments

Restaurants, Things Overheard

NOTE: This restaurant has closed. I headed out early for my kayaking trip on the Enoree River this morning, with the intent that I would get breakfast in route somewhere. I didn’t have to meet my fellow paddlers until 9:30, so that gave me plenty of time. I knew there were several Waffle Houses along … Read More “Scenes from a Whitmire Truck Stop” »

A Quick Trip to Arden

October 23, 2009 Tom No Comments

Local, Miscellaneous, Restaurants

I was really craving German food. Since the closing of Haus Edleweiss in Greenville there has been no way to satisfy that craving locally. My sister, Glynda, and I decided to make a quick trip up to Arden, NC, to the Black Forest Cafe to celebrate Octoberfest in style. We also found a potential shopping … Read More “A Quick Trip to Arden” »

Paddling Partners

October 18, 2009 Tom No Comments

Paddling

I was pleasantly surprised at how many people went on our last paddling excursion on the Enoree and Broad Rivers. In addition to our regular Lowcountry Unfiltered group, we had seven others from the Upstate and Midlands. There are several others from fairly close by that would have gone if they hadn’t had prior conflicts. That got me wondering whether or not we should start an Upstate version of Lowcountry Unfiltered. I don’t think I’m ready for that, yet, but my inquiries yielded some interesting things.

My paddling associations have always been informal. It’s always been just whoever was available on any particular paddling day. I’ve done more paddling with my friends Bob and Alan than anyone else, but there are others that join us with some consistency.

null The Lowcountry Unfiltered group is the closest thing to a formal organization I’ve ever joined for paddling. However, the thing that appeals to me most about it is its very informal nature. Apart from having a website, logo, and a set Saturday of the month for outings, it’s a very loosely-defined group. If it weren’t for the fact that some of the trips are a bit far away for me, and the fact that I’m not free every second Saturday, I’d join them on just about every trip.

While toying with the idea of an Upstate group, I decided to check the web to see what others might be out there. These range from the informal to the anal retentive, based on who’s running the group and how many paddlers are involved. Here’s are some observations I’ve made based solely on their websites…

Paranormal Activity

October 15, 2009 Tom 7 Comments

Entertainment, Weirdness

Apart from being the title of a movie I’ll probably never see, “paranormal activity” seems to be the phrase du jour right now. It’s the phrase people use when they want to tell ghost stories, but also want to sound all sciency and stuff. It ranks right up there with another currently popular phrase, “unexplained … Read More “Paranormal Activity” »

Olivia

October 15, 2009 Tom No Comments

Miscellaneous

In all of the hustle of having the flu and then catching up at work, I somehow neglected to acknowledge a HUGE event in our family on this website. I have a new great niece! Olivia Emily Caddell was born a week ago on October 7 to my nephew Chip and his wife Anna. According … Read More “Olivia” »