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Roger, Over and Out 

This will be my last post for a few days, barring any emergencies... We're leaving early tomorrow morning and will drive about six hours to Seminole.

Our plan is to stay with my parents Thursday night, Friday night, and Saturday night. On Sunday morning, we'll head back to Killeen.

If you miss me too much, take a look at some of my "most interesting" photos, according to the Flickr algorithm. Or my "best" photos, as picked by me. (Unless you're using Opera as a browser, which means the pages won't auto-load correctly.)

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The Weekend

To be honest, my wife and I didn't do much on Friday and Saturday (her two days off). This had little to do with Thursday's massacre nearby, and more to do with both of us being just a little worn down.

We did manage to get out and see A Christmas Carol in 3-D on Friday, starring Jim Carrey (read my review). It was better than expected, and stuck very close to the original story by Charles Dickens.

On Saturday, we watched college football and played Othello (our newest board game). We also talked to my parents on the phone, as well as my brother Zane, who lives near Spokane. By a happy coincidence, Zane will be coming to Oklahoma on the same day as us. This wasn't planned; it just happened by Providence.

So, I'll get to see my favorite brother at the same time as my favorite parents.

It's been warm and humid here, but with a cloud cover. In other words, just about perfect. We haven't run our A/C for over a month now, nor have we had to turn on the heat yet.

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All Calmed Down Now

Thank you to everyone who called, emailed, or commented on the blog, checking to see if we were okay yesterday. (Read yesterday's post.) It's pretty scary when something like that happens nearby, especially when one's wife is in the thick of it.

We're all calmed down now, and my wife is off work today and tomorrow (as per her schedule), so that should help her get past the worst of the upheaval on Ft. Hood. I imagine the next couple of days at work are the worst (for the survivors, I mean).

For those of you who read yesterday's blog early, or refreshed the page later, you might have noticed some misinformation. For that, I'm sorry. I was getting my info -- like everyone else -- from the television and internet, and that information changed rapidly throughout the afternoon.

I was frustrated with the news media in general, especially the sites or broadcasts that updated constantly with inaccurate information. But it wasn't all their fault. I watched live as General Cone at Ft. Hood told the reporters that the shooter was dead, and was counted among the total of 12 dead in the shooting. Later in the day, the same general alerted reporters that the shooter was in fact not dead. That's not the media's fault. That's the general's fault, or the fault of wherever he got his information.

And it once again brings up the point about the state of modern media, where situations like this are covered instantly and constantly.

When I first clicked on the CNN web page, their story was two sentences. Every time I hit F5 to refresh the page, words had been added, or removed, or changed. At first, a suspect was "in custody" and another was "cornered." A few minutes later, one suspect was "neutralized" and the other was on the run. An hour later, the story changed again to "dead" and "two others in custody."

Personally, I liked what the New York Times did with the story. They didn't even report it, other than as a "breaking news" banner, until an hour later, and they actually had a story. And they updated it slowly and carefully, instead of frantically and crazily.

Perhaps the most embarrassing thing I saw last night was when a CNN guy reported live from Walter Reed Army Medical Center (where the shooting suspect formerly worked). He said, "We're calling Walter Reed officials right now, but they're not returning our calls." What? I looked at the clock; it was 11 p.m. here. That meant it was midnight at Walter Reed. Of course they're not returning your calls, you idiot. They're asleep.

What do you think? Should TV news crews drop everything and cover something like this for 10 straight hours, constantly changing their information because accurate information isn't yet available? Or should they pace themselves to paint a more accurate picture over time?

Or, are we stuck with what we have because viewers (me) will change the channel if you appear to be ignoring the incident?