So lot's of changes over at New Voyages huh kiddies?
Well I can tell you this, it's all for the better, in any expanding organization you're going to have growing pains. There's going to be differences of opinion and new, but unrelated, opportunities that present themselves through all the contacts you're expanding business makes.
In a situation such a New Voyages and Retro Film Studios the production company where it is filmed, explosive growth sometimes goes unmanged because there's so little time/money to do all the management necessary. Fortunately during post-production of To Serve All My Days we've had the chance to get all our ducks in a row, alot of what you're seeing regarding the changes at New Voyages is exactly that.
In other news I've seen the first vignette "Center Seat" what can I say other then WOW! Ron Boyd and John Lim have awesome chemistry on screen. Ralph Millers sound effects give it incredible ambience and the Max Rem special effects OH MAN! there's this one shot of the Enterprise... but I can't give away any more then that.
So look for an all new New Voyages starting in 2006. You're going to be blown away with what's coming.
Thursday, December 29, 2005
Thursday, December 22, 2005
Free (well almost) back rubs
Have you had the opportunity to check out these new Shiatsu Massage Cushions? Holy Crap are these things sweet!
I tried one out yesterday and it was like getting a massage from a (insert appropriate massuse joke tag here) , but no really it's awesome.
I asked for one for Christmas. Do yourself a favor and get one!
Tuesday, December 20, 2005
See I can be sweet too.
See I can hold a child and not have it freak out!Most of you know me as a unloving, uncaring, conservative, but kids really know the truth, I'm nothing but a big softie!
Monday, December 19, 2005
A Vermont Transportation Issue
Circ-Williston EIS Commentary
by
Charles E. Root Jr.
There is a disease and plague in the State of Vermont, the disease is liberalism and the plague is out-of-state interference, unfortunately both these pox have infected the circumferential highway project.
The Circ. project has languished in this state for decades, the citizens of this state a generation ago saw the need to divert traffic away from urban areas yet here we are with precious little of that vision actually completed so many years later. Originally the delay centered around cost, but eventually the tree huggers (Vermont Smart Growth Collaborative ) and out-of-staters (Conservation Law Foundation) that want to treat Vermont like their own private environmental Disneyworld insinuated their unwanted and unsolicited opinion in to the project. Now the state has to jump through a three ring circus of legal hoops erected by liberal activist judges sympathetic to the obstructionist entities opposed to the project.
Imagine, if you would, the State of Vermont without Interstate I-89 or Intrastate 189. If these projects were being proposed today undoubtedly they would face the same amount of encumbrance faced by the circumferential highway project. How would the state be fairing right now economically, environmentally, and socially if those major highway project had been stopped? I think we can all agree not very well.
The opponents of the Circ would like you to believe that once the Circ is built areas in and around Chittenden county are going to turn in to downtown Manhattan with sprawl sending houses halfway up the side of Mount Mansfield. This alarmist, untrue position can be refuted with one word, zoning. The towns that are close to the Circ’s route have stringent zoning laws especially Williston, that for example, has several thousands of dollars in fees for building permits and maximum allowable growth of 64 new homes a year. Where’s the unregulated sprawl there, I don’t see it.
I think Circ oppositionist, besides being dishonest are disillusioned. Chittenden County is the urban center of the State. That urban center has its bedroom communities and places like the Church Street Market Place, IBM, IDX, Costco, Home Depot, and Walmart People need to have an efficient way to get from home to these locations and back. My God, take a look around Chittenden County! Does it look anything like Orleans County or Windsor County? No of course not, because they are different places, with different needs and different people. If the Circ was being proposed for one of those areas I might be able to see the desire to oppose it, but Chittenden County is not those places. Chittenden County will never go back to pristine wilderness and farmland and no amount of wishing, hoping, lying, or legal maneuvers will change that. Any other assessment is being offered by someone living in a fantasy land.
Circ oppugnants would like you to believe they have the areas best interest at heart. Nothing could be further from the truth! They offer up plans like placing rotaries along route 2A or building “the Circ Rd” a road that follows the same path as the Circ Highway, but stopping short of route 2. I almost choked when I read these plans. Let me briefly tell you why these are disasters in the making.
Rotaries – A feel good European traffic device that liberals will enjoy pointing out work great in France (boy wouldn’t liberals love it if Vermont was part of France, but that’s another argument). There are two rotaries in Chittenden County one on Shelburne Rd. and one on Maple Tree Drive, both are dismally ineffective at controlling traffic. Having to use the rotary on Maple Tree Drive every single day I can tell you from experience. People don’t yield, people dart out in front of oncoming cars, semi trucks can’t turn around them. Others treat them like an obstacle in a slalom course and actually increase speed as they approach them. If you were to put these along route 2A you’d essentially be turning it in to a drag strip and cars waiting to get on from side streets would be waiting a mile deep. Semi trucks turning on to Industrial drive would block traffic while they slowed and backup and shimmied to make the turn. Of course proponents of the idea tell you they could make them big so that traffic could navigate them easier. How? By seizing the private land which boarders the road? Private land that also includes a memorial to our Veterans. What a nice liberal idea of governmental power, land seizer. Then there’s the chill inducing thought of a rotary at Essex Five Corners, FIVE CORNERS FOR GOODNESS SAKE!! I can’t imagine it, it would be a traffic nightmare, throw a train blocking certain outlet roads, you might as well call it the Essex Five Corners Parking Lot.
Circ Rd. – This is the idea for a road that follows the path of the Circ, but doesn’t connect to I-89. It’s real easy to tell you what’s going to happen here. Cars will get off this “Circ Rd” and go through residential neighborhoods to weave their way to Williston and I-89. Great idea, good thinking there. Let’s increase traffic where our children play. The very suggestion of this idea makes me wonder about the honesty of Circ opponents. Wouldn’t this road create the same amount of pollution and noise?
Building the Circumferential Highway should be a no-brainer. The land is already bought and it goes through already developed areas, it’s not like we’re mowing down the Green Mountain National Forest or turning over 2000 acres of farmland to build this. Storm water runoff can be controlled by effective engineering, you need not just let it pour directly in to Lake Champlain.
I invite you to swing by Essex Five Corners during rush hour and sit there for literally 20 minutes, or drive north on I-89 and marvel at the line of traffic attempting to get off at exit 12, and you tell me that the Circ shouldn’t be built or that we should play Mickey Mouse games with “alternative” suggestions. We are only going to continue to grow in this county and things are only going to get more and more congested on our existing roadways. I would ask Circ adversaries at what point will the addition of new roads in this area be okay? When the population grows from 146,000 to 200,000? 250,000? What’s the magic number or do you think that the current roads will allow for effective traffic flow regardless of how large Chittenden County gets?
Chittenden County needs the Circ. Citizens want the Circ and the iconoclast minority that wish to defeat the project need to know how much they are opposed by a silent but very large majority.
by
Charles E. Root Jr.
There is a disease and plague in the State of Vermont, the disease is liberalism and the plague is out-of-state interference, unfortunately both these pox have infected the circumferential highway project.
The Circ. project has languished in this state for decades, the citizens of this state a generation ago saw the need to divert traffic away from urban areas yet here we are with precious little of that vision actually completed so many years later. Originally the delay centered around cost, but eventually the tree huggers (Vermont Smart Growth Collaborative ) and out-of-staters (Conservation Law Foundation) that want to treat Vermont like their own private environmental Disneyworld insinuated their unwanted and unsolicited opinion in to the project. Now the state has to jump through a three ring circus of legal hoops erected by liberal activist judges sympathetic to the obstructionist entities opposed to the project.
Imagine, if you would, the State of Vermont without Interstate I-89 or Intrastate 189. If these projects were being proposed today undoubtedly they would face the same amount of encumbrance faced by the circumferential highway project. How would the state be fairing right now economically, environmentally, and socially if those major highway project had been stopped? I think we can all agree not very well.
The opponents of the Circ would like you to believe that once the Circ is built areas in and around Chittenden county are going to turn in to downtown Manhattan with sprawl sending houses halfway up the side of Mount Mansfield. This alarmist, untrue position can be refuted with one word, zoning. The towns that are close to the Circ’s route have stringent zoning laws especially Williston, that for example, has several thousands of dollars in fees for building permits and maximum allowable growth of 64 new homes a year. Where’s the unregulated sprawl there, I don’t see it.
I think Circ oppositionist, besides being dishonest are disillusioned. Chittenden County is the urban center of the State. That urban center has its bedroom communities and places like the Church Street Market Place, IBM, IDX, Costco, Home Depot, and Walmart People need to have an efficient way to get from home to these locations and back. My God, take a look around Chittenden County! Does it look anything like Orleans County or Windsor County? No of course not, because they are different places, with different needs and different people. If the Circ was being proposed for one of those areas I might be able to see the desire to oppose it, but Chittenden County is not those places. Chittenden County will never go back to pristine wilderness and farmland and no amount of wishing, hoping, lying, or legal maneuvers will change that. Any other assessment is being offered by someone living in a fantasy land.
Circ oppugnants would like you to believe they have the areas best interest at heart. Nothing could be further from the truth! They offer up plans like placing rotaries along route 2A or building “the Circ Rd” a road that follows the same path as the Circ Highway, but stopping short of route 2. I almost choked when I read these plans. Let me briefly tell you why these are disasters in the making.
Rotaries – A feel good European traffic device that liberals will enjoy pointing out work great in France (boy wouldn’t liberals love it if Vermont was part of France, but that’s another argument). There are two rotaries in Chittenden County one on Shelburne Rd. and one on Maple Tree Drive, both are dismally ineffective at controlling traffic. Having to use the rotary on Maple Tree Drive every single day I can tell you from experience. People don’t yield, people dart out in front of oncoming cars, semi trucks can’t turn around them. Others treat them like an obstacle in a slalom course and actually increase speed as they approach them. If you were to put these along route 2A you’d essentially be turning it in to a drag strip and cars waiting to get on from side streets would be waiting a mile deep. Semi trucks turning on to Industrial drive would block traffic while they slowed and backup and shimmied to make the turn. Of course proponents of the idea tell you they could make them big so that traffic could navigate them easier. How? By seizing the private land which boarders the road? Private land that also includes a memorial to our Veterans. What a nice liberal idea of governmental power, land seizer. Then there’s the chill inducing thought of a rotary at Essex Five Corners, FIVE CORNERS FOR GOODNESS SAKE!! I can’t imagine it, it would be a traffic nightmare, throw a train blocking certain outlet roads, you might as well call it the Essex Five Corners Parking Lot.
Circ Rd. – This is the idea for a road that follows the path of the Circ, but doesn’t connect to I-89. It’s real easy to tell you what’s going to happen here. Cars will get off this “Circ Rd” and go through residential neighborhoods to weave their way to Williston and I-89. Great idea, good thinking there. Let’s increase traffic where our children play. The very suggestion of this idea makes me wonder about the honesty of Circ opponents. Wouldn’t this road create the same amount of pollution and noise?
Building the Circumferential Highway should be a no-brainer. The land is already bought and it goes through already developed areas, it’s not like we’re mowing down the Green Mountain National Forest or turning over 2000 acres of farmland to build this. Storm water runoff can be controlled by effective engineering, you need not just let it pour directly in to Lake Champlain.
I invite you to swing by Essex Five Corners during rush hour and sit there for literally 20 minutes, or drive north on I-89 and marvel at the line of traffic attempting to get off at exit 12, and you tell me that the Circ shouldn’t be built or that we should play Mickey Mouse games with “alternative” suggestions. We are only going to continue to grow in this county and things are only going to get more and more congested on our existing roadways. I would ask Circ adversaries at what point will the addition of new roads in this area be okay? When the population grows from 146,000 to 200,000? 250,000? What’s the magic number or do you think that the current roads will allow for effective traffic flow regardless of how large Chittenden County gets?
Chittenden County needs the Circ. Citizens want the Circ and the iconoclast minority that wish to defeat the project need to know how much they are opposed by a silent but very large majority.
Tuesday, December 13, 2005
Success in Iraq
What you're seeing above is success in Iraq.
Is Iraq as peaceful as say Maine, No.
Is Iraq as Democratic as say Florida, No.
Is Iraq as wealthy as say California, No.
Is Iraq as dangerous as it was 3 years ago, No.
and that my friends is the key. What you're seeing above is soldiers voting in an election that is free and fair (no more 100% of the vote going to Saddam and opponent ending up dead)
This new freedom has come at a heavy price 2000+ young Americans dead, 300+ supporting nations soldiers dead and over 30,000 Iraqis dead, but what you are seeing above is the same event that happened 60 years ago in Japan and Germany when fascist were overthrown and the cost then was in the millions of human lives.
So yes while the road has been hard and the struggle is not yet over. Don't let anyone tell you it hasn't been worth it, don't let anyone tell you it's been in vain or we've been defeated, because that picture above proves them wrong.
When your grandchildren are vacationing in Iraq 50 years from now visiting their Arab friends in the vibrant world city of Baghdad, you will KNOW it was worth it.
Monday, December 12, 2005
The dreaded Christmas Party
The Christmas Party a staple of this time of year. They can be form of torture if not done correctly
How many times have you been to a party only to wish you were home all curled up watching TV? I think the worst part is the contrived gift exchange. If you're forced to exchange gifts with people you don't even know, I ask, what's the sense. Save your $10.00.
Then there's the booze, inevitably someone doesn't know when to say when, and ends up making a total ass of themselves to the embarrassingly of everyone there. This can really happen at family Christmas Parties, because people seem to feel free to say anything they want, I mean hell their family right?
There's the wonderful, "Let's all go to a restaurant" Christmas Party, where your group of 15 garners a bill of over $1000.00 and there's always the math whiz in the group that doesn't understand that yea while you only had the salad and water and it came to $15.00, you're on the same tab as everyone else. Therefore your $15.00 salad just turned into $40.00 when you count your share of tip and tax on a $1000.00 tab.
Of course the weather can be an issue, nothing like sliding home on ice covered roads only to go in to a ditch and have to dig and push the car, while in slacks and wingtips.
Yes it truly is a wonderful time of the year.
How many times have you been to a party only to wish you were home all curled up watching TV? I think the worst part is the contrived gift exchange. If you're forced to exchange gifts with people you don't even know, I ask, what's the sense. Save your $10.00.
Then there's the booze, inevitably someone doesn't know when to say when, and ends up making a total ass of themselves to the embarrassingly of everyone there. This can really happen at family Christmas Parties, because people seem to feel free to say anything they want, I mean hell their family right?
There's the wonderful, "Let's all go to a restaurant" Christmas Party, where your group of 15 garners a bill of over $1000.00 and there's always the math whiz in the group that doesn't understand that yea while you only had the salad and water and it came to $15.00, you're on the same tab as everyone else. Therefore your $15.00 salad just turned into $40.00 when you count your share of tip and tax on a $1000.00 tab.
Of course the weather can be an issue, nothing like sliding home on ice covered roads only to go in to a ditch and have to dig and push the car, while in slacks and wingtips.
Yes it truly is a wonderful time of the year.
Saturday, December 10, 2005
New Voyages News
Ahh the things instore for the future of New Voyages.
Last night James Cawley the Executive Producer and creator of New Voyages was in California meeting with the Hollywood movers and shakers that will be involved in the next episode.
There's going to be some big names so make sure you check out the New Voyages website www.newvoyages.com probably on Monday to read our big announcements.
Last night James Cawley the Executive Producer and creator of New Voyages was in California meeting with the Hollywood movers and shakers that will be involved in the next episode.
There's going to be some big names so make sure you check out the New Voyages website www.newvoyages.com probably on Monday to read our big announcements.
Friday, December 09, 2005
Tis the Season
SHOP! SHOP! SHOP! The commercialism of Christmas is shoved down our throats starting somewhere around Labor Day now, so sick of Christmas shopping do people get that the whole idea of a Merry Christmas and Peace on Earth goes the way of flipping off the driver who just took your parking spot at the mall.
But that's not the type of shopping that I wanted to talk to you about today, I wanted to talk about a type of shopping that I find relaxing just about everytime I do it (now some of you will groan when I tell you this), but I love grocery shopping.
I was getting my lunch today at the local massive mart and the weather had been crappy all morning but as soon as stepped on the polished floors and the endless produce section a smile came to my face.
There's just something about walking up and down the isles loaded with every conceivable can of vegetables grown world wide that relaxes me.
I think it has something to do with the fact that I love to cook and entertain and that when I walk by some box of ingredient du jour, I begin to think about standing in the kitchen, nice jazz playing on the stereo, a pan sizzling with my latest creation. I know it's weird, but it's better then the alternative a relaxing six pack of beer.
But that's not the type of shopping that I wanted to talk to you about today, I wanted to talk about a type of shopping that I find relaxing just about everytime I do it (now some of you will groan when I tell you this), but I love grocery shopping.
I was getting my lunch today at the local massive mart and the weather had been crappy all morning but as soon as stepped on the polished floors and the endless produce section a smile came to my face.
There's just something about walking up and down the isles loaded with every conceivable can of vegetables grown world wide that relaxes me.
I think it has something to do with the fact that I love to cook and entertain and that when I walk by some box of ingredient du jour, I begin to think about standing in the kitchen, nice jazz playing on the stereo, a pan sizzling with my latest creation. I know it's weird, but it's better then the alternative a relaxing six pack of beer.
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