10.03.06

Outrage at Harper’s Ferry, WVa.

Posted in General at 7:57 pm by brmeyer

In a previous post I mentioned how greed was playing a factor in a proposed casino to be built near the Gettysburg National Military Park. That greed and ignorance is not isolated to Pennsylvania. I received a letter today from the Civil War Preservation Trust - a group dedicated to preserving Civil War battlefields across the country and of which I am a member - outlining an outrageous act of vandalism at Harper’s Ferry National Military Park in Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia, on August 19th and 20th of this year. Harper’s Ferry was the site of a small Civil War battle in September 1862. Confederate Lieutenant General Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson sieged the garrison at Harper’s Ferry so as to prevent it from reinforcing Union forces as Confederate General Robert E. Lee moved the main body of the Army of Northern Virginia into Maryland. Jackson forced the garrison to surrender and returned in time to join Lee for the Battle of Antietam on September 17th.

The vandalism occurred on School House Ridge where Jackson’s headquarters and three of his infantry divisions were placed for the siege. A housing developer cut a ditch 45 feet wide and half a mile long to lay pipes for water. They did so without permits which are required by Federal law. Park rangers - including the Chief Ranger - ordered the developers to halt, but three attorneys who accompanied the developers refused to stop the machinery. By Sunday evening, the damage was done. Hallowed ground - possibly containing the remains of veterans who died during service - was destroyed along with any artifacts in the ground. When a preservationist arrived at the park to take pictures of the destruction, the developer rudely flipped him off. This is the kind of apathy and immorality that seems to invade business. It is my hope that these people are severely punished for ruining such sacred and historic ground. Greed is such an evil sin, and this incident only serves to reinforce the sentiments in my earlier post about the casino.

Visit the Civil War Preservation Trust website for more information.

Vandalism at Harper's Ferry, WVa.

10.02.06

The Tivo Party

Posted in General at 8:45 pm by brmeyer

Jess kindly brought to my attention that I haven’t written a blog entry in quite some time. I decided that this was my chance to catch up. On Saturday, friends of Jess’s had a Tivo Party at their place in Squirrel Hill. I had never heard of the concept of a get-together to show off Tivo before, but it was interesting. Tivo has been around for some time, but it’s basically a box that connects to a cable signal and allows the automatic recording of television shows and movies. It also allows the watcher to pause live television. It also has a multitude of new features of which I wasn’t aware. The Tivo box can be connected to a home network and music from an iTunes playlist can be played through the television. Pictures placed on Flickr - a web site used for hosting photos - can also be shown through the television using Tivo. I think it’s a great concept that is becoming more prominent in home entertainment. The XBox 360 gaming system includes the ability to play music directly from an iPod and display pictures from a networked computer running the Microsoft Windows operating system.

The party was fun. The group played several games, including Name the Actor which required looking at a picture and guessing the actor’s real name as well as a show or movie in which they acted. Name the Theme Song was another game played. I think the rules behind that one are obvious! Another game was to guess the number of Fruit Loops in a bowl. I was lucky enough to win that one and got Alf: Season One on DVD. Definitely a flashback to the 1980s! Jess, unfortunately, didn’t do so hot at the games, but she was happy enough to be able to watch some of the episodes of Alf. I guess, in some way, shows like that make us feel like kids again.

Here’s a picture of Jess and I at the party.

Bryan and Jess at the Tivo Party