Cosmic Echoes…by Rich Fleetwood

Archive for the ‘Personal Life’ Category

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…for not posting to my very own blog lately. Because of that, you deserve a little update from Wyoming.

Since my last posting in early April, many things have happened. I graduated from Central Wyoming College with another degree. I lost my job running the college radio station because of that (bad timing, that…), which I have been doing for over three years. Sadly, my professor, boss, and good friend Dale Smith, after becoming blind due to complications from chemotherapy, spent the last few weeks of the semester in the hospital, getting out the day of graduation. He also had his job at the college changed from electronic media to humanities by the CWC powers that be. He’s doing better health wise, but I’m concerned for him as a friend, and will check with him regularly to see how he is doing.

The day after graduation, the wife and I and grandson loaded up a 5 by 8 Uhaul trailer for my daughter, and left for a cross country trip from central Wyoming, to Nashville, Tennessee, where she was moving. A nice leisurely trip there, got her unpacked and moved in, and then drove south to Birmingham, Alabama to visit family there that we hadn’t seen since our move to Wyoming in 2000. We spent 3 days there, had a wonderful visit, and still with the Uhaul in tow, headed west to Dallas, Texas…actually Plano, which is the northern boundary of the huge DFW metroplex. In Plano, we visited my mom and sister, and wife’s dad and step mom and brother. Stayed there for about 5 days, and then with the Uhaul loaded with tools from my late dad’s workshop, (which I spent 2 days cleaning out for mom) and a few pieces of furniture, we headed back north, home to Wyoming.

Then things got exciting. This was the day that the huge tornado hit in northeastern rural areas of Denver. Read the rest of this entry »

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In times of emergency, when natural disasters area doing everything they can to take you down…when Mother Nature is kicking your ass…when Life is taking every breath away from you….

What are you going to do? Will you give it all up, because it’s too hard to keep going on?

Or…will you Go The Distance?

Watch this.

You make the wrong choice and give up early because it’s too hard, you are not only hurting yourself…you’re affecting everyone else around you.

Don’t. Give. Up.

Figure out what YOU need to do…to be ready for the rest of your life.

Rich

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Well, looks like it’s time for an update from yours truly on the CE blog. Lots of news, updates, software projects, business opportunities, and more…a virtual plethora of digital goodness.

Yet another school year has passed here at Central Wyoming College, and we’ve added yet another college graduate to our family, as my son Kenny earned his music degree. As an extra treat, he arranged and sang a duet right before commencement began on the stage of the Robert A. Peck Arts Center here in Riverton. What was really cool was that the entire commencement exercise was broadcast via Wyoming Public Television for the entire town to see on the college’s education access channel.

I’ve got a DVD of the events, and will create a Youtube video of Kenny’s performance for his blog at www.automaticboymusic.com. Kenny’s graduation brings the total number of degrees earned by our family in the last three years here at CWC to SEVEN college degrees. I am very humbled by my entire family working so hard for full and complete educations, and pursuing further college goals in the coming months.

I’ll be starting classes via the University of Wyoming this fall, and will continue working towards my bachelor’s degree over the next couple of years, while working on my home business project. I’ll keep you updated on any news associated with UWyo from this end.

In other family news, we’re going to taking care of our grandchildren for the summer (and possibly longer) so our time for summer fun and travel plans have been put on the back burner for a while.

The SurvivalRing website is undergoing a MASSIVE redesign over the next three months, with EVERY webpage, every documentn, and every download being upgraded to state of the art web design and content management systems. Once all editing is done, changes are tested by a host of SurvivalRing supporters, and hundreds of downloads are added and cataloged into a database tracking system, we’ll flip the switch and let you run with it. Wanna peek at the new design? Check it out at www.survivalring.org/sr to get just a taste of what is coming.

While we’re doing the long awaited update, I’ll also be finishing off some entire new sites that will be part of the *new* SurvivalRing. These new tools include a Product Reviews website for prep and survival gear, a complete EVERYTHING FALLOUT SHELTER site with all the documents I have put all in ONE place for ease of use (and using the www.myfalloutshelter.com domain), and some over yet to be released projects still in the planning stages.

Once nearly all projects are up to speed, the new homepage for SurvivalRing will be a portal into all areas of the entire SurvivalRing network, that loads fast, gives a short bio of each site section, and let’s you just jump right into the area you are most interested in, without having to jump through any hoops.

As SurvivalRing moves forward, and the major updates are done, we’ll be creating a series of podcasts, videos, and new ebooks (and possibly even hardcopy versions) on all areas of preparedness.

Our Podcasts, to be called SurvivalRing Radio, will start broadcasting in July, and will include news, alerts, threat analysis, prepping tips, interviews, reviews, and a whole lot more. I’ll be producing weekly 30 minute shows at first, but the long term goal, after things are all said and done (all major projects for the site are finished), is to have a daily one hour show, which if things work out, may go on broadcast radio through any of a number of web/on air broadcast organizations.

Our Video Projects, to be called SurvivalRingTV, will start appearing after the first of the year, and will feature hands on tips, outdoors adventure, survival how-to’s, preparedness tools and uses, and eventually a complete series on fallout shelter building, designs, systems, and use.

As all these creative outlets are being worked on, I’ll be building up the business side of SurvivalRing as well, to support upgrades to dedicated hosting of the entire SurvivalRing network, HD video cameras and tools, audio mixing systems and needs for live radio broadcasts from my home studio, and a variety of other tools to create unlimited potential for online education for all website visitors. The business at SurvivalRing consists of CD ROM publications, online digital media content, membership sections, our new forums system, advertising opportunties, home business creation packages for anyone needing extra income.

Finally, to round everything out, our long overdue SurvivalRing Newsletter will begin production again in June. Expect weekly updates, free download links, news, tools, and commentary on the world of survival and preparedness, from someone who’s spent a lifetime living it. Yep…me.

More to come later. Stay tuned. This is The Summer of SurvivalRing.

Rich

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Cosmic Echoes has not been getting its fair share of my attention the last few months, and it is in a great position to help a LOT of people. I should be doing a better job of keeping this blog updated.

So, in that state of mind, I’ve made a commitment to myself, and to you, the reader, to make this blog a USEFUL, interesting, and cutting edge look at all things preparedness…again.

This year, after 3 years of heavy college student involvement, resulting in two college degrees, many awards (All USA Academic Team, New Century Scholar, Video Telly Award, and others), I am taking what we students like to call “a breather”, and do some half time college work and invest the majority of my time this next 18 months doing a specific set of projects. In no specific order these are…

• 6 to 8 credit hours of college classes towards my bachelors degree in Journalism(instead of 12 to 20 credit hours per semester…as I have been doing for my first two degrees)
• major update of SurvivalRing.org..the ENTIRE website…into a database driven, Web 2.0, easily manageable, and entirely up-to-date system. See the first glimpse here
• the addition of a citizen driven, science backed, and thoroughly complete compendium of BIRD FLU prep..including some deep discussion of the effects a very possible pandemic outbreak might bring to our society
• a greatly enhance fallout shelter compendium, with lots of comments, suggestions, and insight….versus just a ton of free downloads. You’ll have the info in your hands to print out with the downloads. Now, I’ll tell you the things you’ll really need to understand..if you’re considering actually building one. The Build A Fallout Shelter Page, in other words, is due to a massive overhaul.
• Podcasts….yes, long promised, yet, not online. I’ve been doing weekly music radio shows for my college radio station for over a year…now it’s time to make the SurvivalRing Survival Podcast a reality. Everything is ready (computer hardware, software, recording equipment, mics, etc)…but that ACTUAL podcast recordings. That will change, very soon.
• A lot of new articles from yours truly, on a wide range of preparedness topics and genres. These articles will also be making the rounds of magazine editors, to hit the real world between the eyes with what can be done with very little work, when it comes to being preparede.
• New CD Rom projects. I’ve published two multimedia CD projects in the past 4 years…I’m doing at least 3 more in the next YEAR. Watch this space for more news.
• New digital publications. I’ve mentioned here many times that I have hundreds of original government produced, unscanned survival and preparedness documents…some of which you never knew existed. I have at least a dozen ready to finsish and upload in the next month, and new scan projects queued and prioritized. You’ll love what is coming…
• Interactivity for you, the site visitor. I’ve had polls up for several years on the main SurvivalRing website, and had forums up for years as well, until spammers wreaked total chaos and havoc. I’ve got the old archives saved and updated, and will be opening the new SurvivalRing forums this spring, in a much more secure and stable software package. Chat has been working fine, but with little traffic. Comments in the new site design may be posted in ANY page or article, much like commenting is available on THIS blog. Take advantage of it!

That’s just the start. A new year, a new sense of adventure, and a lot of work to do…and a lot of work that has ALREADY been done.

Many things are happening in the background that will change the way we all see our future. SurvivalRing, Cosmic Echoes, and I will be here to help you get through what we fear will be tough times ahead. Consider me your friend, mentor, and guide…we will get through this together.

Rich

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A friend on another forum had an accident this last week, and hit a deer at high speed…with a big SUV. SUV had some damage, but he was able to drive home with it.

It got me thinking…about my “deers and driving” stories…and wrote the below posting on that forum.

Thought you might find it an interesting if you’ve ever had a close call.

Rich

My deer stories…

Went 24 years of driving without ever having any “real” road kill issues, either in Texas or Alabama.

Then, in 2000, I started driving cross country, with hotshot delivery of Lance Campers and Chinook motor homes from the factories, to dealers coast to coast.

DEER NUMBER ONE

I was on the road two months, before I took out my first and only deer. Had dropped off a load in Ocalla, Florida, after a LONG journey originating in LA, to Milwaukee, to Louisville, Kentucky, to Ocalla. Headed back empty to Birmingham to visit the inlaws for a couple of days, before heading back to LA for another load. They have a very steep drive, and the 44 foot long flatbed I was hauling was a bit too big to park on the curb (which as on a curve), so I dropped it off at a friend’s country home (with 20 acres) around 10pm one nite, visited for a bit, then headed off to the inlaws.

After leaving the friends driveway, had about a quarter mile drive down clay roads, to get to the gravel roads, and made a left. Lo and Behold, I see the ONLY deer I had seen in the wild in Alabama, after LIVING there for 9 years and not seeing a single one in the county, standing on the left side of the road, and since it is so unusual, I brake to peek at it. I’m driving a one ton Dodge dually 4×4 Diesel extended cab, and the deer stops nibbling grass to look at it. I pass it slowly, and it starts trotting along…then I speed up, and it speeds up. So it wants to race, eh?

Not wanting to lose, I punch the gas, and the deer takes a 90 degree right turn, right into the side of the pickup, hitting the front driver side of the bed…and then going under the dually rear wheels.

Unfortunately, the name of this backwoods gravel road was Deer Chase Road.

I felt very bad about this, but there was nothing I could do for it, and since the family is 1200 miles away in Wyoming, any venison won’t make the trip home. I figure that the local neighbors will find it within a bit, and make use of it.

…and then head on down the road.

DEER NUMBER TWO

Not two months later, after dropping off a http://local.google.com/local?q=from%3A+Yakima+washington+to%3A+albany+new+york&spn=27.187141,77.651367&f=d&hl=en from upper NY to Fredricksberg, VA, I’m taking the cross country route through WV, heading northwest, and it’s way in the wee hours of the morn…around 3ish or so. All the rest areas are full and overflowing with sleeping truckers, so I continue on looking for the next truck stop. Finally coming into a sleepy little town with a small truckstop, I take the exit…only to find some of those little WV deer leaping from the driver side of the exit to the passenger side of the road as I’m coming up the ramp.

Miss the last deer by inches…possibly clipping his toes as he leaps across the ramp into the woods. No damage to him…or the truck…but it’s a bit tough to stop a 5 ton truck hauling a 3 ton trailer in a heartbeat…so I was a bit concerned for a few seconds seeing a passel of deer leaping and prancing across my path.

Fast forward to late December 2000.

DEER NUMBER THREE

I’ve picked up another Chinook in Yakima, Washington, bound for the east, and head ESE across country with the aim of getting a day’s rest at home in Lander, Wyoming. I’ve got four choices of getting home…I90 (6 hours extra driving), I80 (8 hours of extra driving, Teton Pass (the fastest, but deadliest with black ice and steep grades, just west of Jackson Hole, or Alpine Junction, many miles south but much safer. So, I follow the little county highways across mid Idaho, cross the Teton range near Alpine Junction, and then head north to Jackson.

North up 91, then hit Moran Junction, and head east on 26, which goes directly to Lander..about 90 miles away. Now I’m heading towards Togwatee Pass, one of the worst parts of the state to drive in the winter time.

I come up on a wreck while going up the pass, where a small white pickup is laying on its side in my lane. Cops and wrecker are already there. As I pass them, and punch the gas a touch, the wheels spin…black ice….

I drop the truck down into four wheel drive with the flick of a wrist, and take it slow to the top of the pass…no problemo.

Now, I’m heading downhill (the right side of the Togwatee link above) and gaining speed, so I’ve got the ebrake on, and keeping my foot on the foot brake as well…an interesting roller coaster ride…with a $75,000 hi end motor home balanced on 35 foot dovetail fifth wheel flatbed trailer.

Then…that Stupid Deer walks slowly into the headlights, and into my lane, hundreds of feet ahead…and stops dead center in my path….and I’m doing 60mph with a lead sled.

Talk about pucker factor…about 21…on a 10 point scale.

I ever so lightly veer into the oncoming lane (thank God no traffic in 2am)…waiting for the deer to bolt…just like that one did back in Alabama weeks before…and it doesn’t move. I cruise on past…and resume breathing again once I’m back in the regular lane of travel.

Talk about a heartstopping episode.

Fast forward 18 months.

DEER NUMBER FOUR

I’m no longer driving cross country…been thru the lost job, homeless, starting over, and making it back to normal phase, and I’m the GM of the Worland, Wyoming McDs. Family is still living in Lander in a recently acquired apartment, and I’m commuting home on the weekends from a tiny apartment a block from my store, provided by my owner/operator.

Just coming to Riverton, about 23 miles north of Lander, on the only highway between the two. About five miles out, it’s pitch black outside…around 10:30pm.

Come over a crest of the next hill and there’s about two miles of straight road across the countryside (which is the heart of the Wind River Reservation), and lo and behold…again….a shape slowly forms in the gloom far ahead, just off the shoulder. Normally nothing except weeds along this stretch, so I slow down to about 50mph..wondering. As I get closer….it’s a deer…closer still…a big deer…yet closer…a huge buck…maybe an 8 to 10 pointer.

Flashback…Togwatee Pass….crap…not again.

So I slow farther in the next few seconds…and the deer is stepping on the shoulder and starting to cross. I do the oncoming lane thing again…

He Bolts.

Crap again….PF now of 25…

I’m now driving a front wheel drive 1990 Ford Taurus…which means good road control, but no safety from impact.

The deer is in my path 50 feet away…just about to cross the highway lines painted on the road…and he’s not stopping.

So, it’s emergency manuever Ralph.

PF 32.

Somehow, I miss the rear end of the deer by inches, with the rear quarter panel and tail light of the Ford. And, I’m a bit sideways from the instinctive jerk of the steering wheel, and it takes all I’ve got to straighten it out…and do.

Pull over to the side of the road for a moment to check the drawers, and catch my breath. Holy Crap…is the only thing on my mind.

That’s the closest I’ve come to death in a long time, and my last deer/car escapade.

DEER NUMBER FIVE…

However, Son Number One continues the tradition.

They were living in Spokane last year, and came home to visit for Christmas here in Riverton…

Nice visit, and they head home VERY early the next day…Riverton, to Casper, north to Billings, then west on 90 all the way to Spokane…

Until Belgrade that is.

Still in the wee hours, there is wisps of fog developing in the valley they’re driving down 90 on. They get a bit thicker as time goes along. Son is going a little too fast for the conditions.

Fog bank…70mph…huge ass deer….small Toyota sedan….

Accident. Headon collision.

Son, DIL, and precious grandaughter are ok, the latter two sleeping…no one is hurt…except the deer…and the car.

Both are dead.

Son hits the deer at just exactly the right scientific speed to cause the huge buck to fly OVER the car, instead of THROUGH the windshield. It’s antlers leave creases in the hood and top lip of the windshield, cracking the window, but not piercing it.

Son calls on cell phone to 911, then to us minutes afterward. Thankfully all are ok, but they’re stranded, and it takes a couple of days to get them back home to Spokane.

So ends the Fleetwood vs. All Species of Deer saga…at least for now.

BUT…every vehicle we own now has deer whistles (do they really work?), very bright light headlight bulbs, AND driving and fog lights…for those LONG distance, late night trips across the countryside.

Be safe out there…and DON’T take your eyes off the road for a second in deer country.

Rich

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As one of those kind of people that multitasks in nearly everything I do, this article was very interesting in opening up some insight to me about how I might even accomplish more than I do. It’s a long article, but well worth the read…

Rich

Source

Meet the Life Hackers
By Clive Thompson from The New York Times Magazine
Posted October 14, 2005

In 2000, Gloria Mark was hired as a professor at the University of California at Irvine. Until then, she was working as a researcher, living a life of comparative peace. She would spend her days in her lab, enjoying the sense of serene focus that comes from immersing yourself for hours at a time in a single project. But when her faculty job began, that all ended. Mark would arrive at her desk in the morning, full of energy and ready to tackle her to-do list only to suffer an endless stream of interruptions. No sooner had she started one task than a colleague would e-mail her with an urgent request; when she went to work on that, the phone would ring. At the end of the day, she had been so constantly distracted that she would have accomplished only a fraction of what she set out to do. ”Madness,” she thought. ”I’m trying to do 30 things at once.”

Lots of people complain that office multitasking drives them nuts. But Mark is a scientist of ”human-computer interactions” who studies how high-tech devices affect our behavior, so she was able to do more than complain: she set out to measure precisely how nuts we’ve all become. Last year, she pursuaded two West Coast high-tech firms to let her study their cubicle dwellers as they surfed the chaos of modern office life. One of her grad students, Victor González, sat looking over the shoulder of various employees all day long, for a total of more than 1,000 hours. He noted how many times the employees were interrupted and how long each employee was able to work on any individual task.

Read the rest of this entry »

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This article was NOT written by me….really! But, it was written about me, and was printed in an official college publication (the first issue of the Central Wyoming College quarterly magazine CONNECTIONS). Two weeks later it was added to the front page of the CWC website.

I didn’t get a chance to read it BEFORE publication, and there are a couple of errors in it…notibly my website address, SurvivalRing.org, which was printed in the paper as Survival.org, a defunct and dead website designed 10 years ago for the recovery of the huge Kobe, Japan earthquake. Yes, the site splash page is in Japanese. It says…

Activity of the survival * network which is born in the Kobe Earthquake opportunity ceased, the disaster revival support activity which is purpose of beginning. Next this home page we go to bed for a while making provision for activity. We appreciate in support of for a long time everyone.

Needless to say, I was a little frustrated. But, the public info office here at CWC DID correct it for website publication.

Here is the article.

CWC student recognized for PSA work

With very little money, borrowed equipment and local talent, a Central Wyoming College student has created a series of public service announcements that has landed him a Telly, the premier award honoring outstanding local and regional video and film productions.

The PSA series, directed at issues facing teens, particularly on drug, alcohol and tobacco abuse, were created by Richard Fleetwood with writing assistance from Riverton Police Sgt. Bart Ringer. One of the spots was selected as a finalist for the coveted award and was chosen from among more than 10,000 entries.

Fleetwood joins fellow CWC graduates Jim McGilvary and Jackie Dorothy, who won Tellys for projects they worked on as students for Wyoming Public Television.

Ringer, the resource officer for School District 25, came up with the idea of doing PSAs that would deal with the problems and challenges teens face today while making personal decisions on the use of alcohol and controlled substances. He had no video experience and went to the college for assistance.

He was directed to Fleetwood, who studies both web design and development and broadcasting at CWC. He took on the first three productions as projects for Professor Dale Smith’s broadcasting class, but to date, the assignment has mushroomed into seven completed video spots and plans for five more.

“I’ve always had an inclination to do volunteer work and this was an opportunity to make a difference,” said Richard.

Using his own camera, Fleetwood has done the shooting and directing. With the college’s editing bay, he also edited hours of footage down to the 30-second or one-minute spots. It’s his goal to send the spots to every television station in the state.

Fleetwood and Ringer also plan to develop radio PSAs with similar messages.

Besides the international recognition from the Telly Awards, the project has also caught the eye of Wyoming First Lady Nancy Freudenthal, who has a statewide initiative on curbing underage drinking. The spots now appear on the state of Wyoming’s homepage in addition to several websites developed by Fleetwood.

Ringer, himself a regular of CWC theater productions, recruited Riverton High School and Middle School students for roles in the video productions. The students are having so much fun; Fleetwood said more classmates want to help out.

One particularly moving spot is entitled: “How do you want to be remembered?”

It hit home for Jared Harford, the actor who volunteered to be in the short spot. The young man was filmed one warm afternoon along the windy and desolate Sand Draw highway. From a distance, Fleetwood zooms in on Jared, who is sitting by a nameless marker alongside the road. All that you hear is the howling Wyoming wind. The young man’s image is faded; leaving only a cross and the impression the teen has been killed by a drunk driver or died as a result of driving drunk.

A few weeks after the filming of the PSA, Harford’s good friend, Kyle Hawker, was killed in an alcohol-related accident, giving true meaning to the project and its participants.
“It really sort of stopped our collective hears for a moment,” Fleetwood said. “We realized how fate had brought us all together.”

While he’s spent countless hours in a small, crowded editing room, the project has been a great experience for Fleetwood. “It’s a great learning tool for me,” he said, admitting each and every spot gives him the opportunity to learn new tricks. Now he looks forward to doing a full-length feature documentary because he feels this type of work is his calling.

Fleetwood, a former mail carrier, began building websites in 1998 and combined his interests in emergency preparedness and survival in creating the site: survivalring.org. Since the events of 9-11, this civil defense website which provides resources for natural and manmade disasters has had 6 million hits.

Richard is someone who’ll talk your ears off, give you free books, and will quickly remind you about being prepared.
He’s a self-styled “content expert” in the areas of personal preparedness and civil defense. He’s been interviewed on the subjects by The Wall Street Journal and Time magazine. A portion of his income comes from selling plans to emergency shelters.

“I have talked with people the world over about individual, everyday preparedness,” he said. “I deal with fact, not fallacy. I back up my words with over 100,000 pages of cold, hard facts, in government produced and printed documents covering over six decades of government preparedness for absolutely anything.”

He shares his penchant for research with others who have like interests. “To me, nothing is more important than taking care of my family,” he said. “I gather and share these documents to help every other family I can touch via the web.”

His goal of earning an emergency management degree is particularly poignant in light of the recent mass death and destruction that happened as a result of poor preparedness with Hurricane Katrina.

As a Gulf Coast and Texas resident, Fleetwood has personally witnessed many natural disasters including tornadoes, hurricanes, lightning strikes and other storms.

Fleetwood’s goal is to combine his computer and video experience and with an online degree he plans to earn in emergency management from Jacksonville State University in Alabama.

Richard said he’s the “poster child” for reasons for getting higher education. At 43, the Texas native returned to college and began working on this new career. His wife Annie and three children are or have been enrolled at CWC, too.

* * * * *

NOTE FROM RICH: See the videos at my new website for this project, Young Adults Against Addiction. The Telly Award winning video is here.