Warning Objects In This Picture Maybe Slower Than They Appear

We rode our bicycles today. The weather was warn (60 ˚F), windy, cloudy and it drizzled off and on, but it felt good to get back out on the bikes again. Anne took this post’s photo the last time we went cycling, which was two-week ago. The light was better then. It was sunny and not raining. The trees had more leaves, but at least my outfit was the same. You might notice some Photoshop effects in the picture. It is called the burst-zoom effect and it works quite well with this photograph’s subject matter, if I do say so myself. This effect is new to me. I found it when I upgraded to Photoshop Elements 13, as part of our new desktop PC upgrade this month. Warning, objects in this picture maybe slower than they appear.

The big news in town is of course the impending grand jury decision on whether or not white police officer Darren Wilson will be indicted for last August’s killing of black teenager Michael Brown. Any new wrinkle in the case inevitably leads the news. The grand jury met and recessed today, without making any announcements and will not reconvene until Monday. The prosecutor that is leading the grand jury has promised to give 48-hours’ notice of any impending announcement, to allow Saint Louis to prepare. The prosecutor had also promised a decision by the end of the month, which is a week away. This whole story is sad from start to finish and offers little hope for an outcome that will help heal our community. Still, one can hope and pray that from the ashes of these events something good can occur.

At work preparations for dealing with civil disturbances have been underway. Last week, we got a memo and had two drills that were related. The memo asked that in the coming days all employees should be extra watchful and vigilant. The first drill was an online drill. In this drill a pop-up appears on your computer screen alerting you to an emergency, its nature and any action that the employee should take. The problem with this kind of drill is that it is only effective if an employee is actually looking at their computer. This week only one out of the six colleagues that were discussing this drill was even aware that it had occurred. The other drill comes over the PA. I was aware of this drill, because a speaker over my cube blared it at me. It ends with the instructions, “If you cannot hear this announcement, contact maintenance. Test is now complete.” If you can’t hear the announcement, how can you take any action?