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Today I was at the Mall of America to cover the Big Black autograph signing. I shot a bunch of video and took some stills. I’ll edit and post the video tomorrow since I have been up most of the night. But here is some still photographs of the event.

Here is the video

Since I have not chased much at all this season I wanted to get away. Yes I have scuba dived a ton this season and yes I went out Friday and will be going out diving a few times this weekend, but I just wanted to get away and do some photography tonight. I headed up north to my spot that is totally dark and perfect for aurora watching but I went up to watch the stars.

I used to get away a lot to go and look at the stars when I was in flight school and missed that a lot. You look up at them and you wonder who else is looking up at them.

Above is a photograph of the big dipper and I sat and watched that for a while tonight or this morning and just wondered was there anybody out there seeing what I was seeing? Then I pointed the camera up at the milk way and I was lucky enough to catch a shooting star. What did I make a wish for? Well, if I tell you, it wont come true.

Well, it is late, I need to get some sleep to rest up for more diving. I found the dive platform in Lac Lavon lake and I’m going to try and make it back out and put a buoy on it so that crew from Scuba Daddy can find it.

About an hour ago I was just sitting here working on some stuff when POP, the laptop died. 

Dead, would not turn on, no power, nadda, it died and I smelled some smoke.Oh SNAP, the laptop died, but, call me MacGyver because guess who had a spare laptop for parts? ME, YES ME!

When my laptop messed up this spring, I needed a new LCD screen fast and I ended up buying a used laptop for parts for $300 on Ebay from someone that lives in town that night.

Well, I had the rest of the parts for the laptop so I had a spare motherboard and it took me an hour to tear down the laptop, swap parts to see if this was bad or if that was bad and then just do a whole swap and put it back together. What can I say, I’m that freaking good with computers and electronics that I could be on some watch list if I was a idiot.

Not much new happening here. Just working on video stuff. Still going through all of the diving footage from the trip to sort it all out to put it into catalogs. Not much is happening weather wise but it is a good time to get caught up on stuff.

I will be going back out to try and get more fish video this week.

Here is the flooding and chase video that I shot today. 

I shot some sweet flooding in the construction zone on Interstate 35W south near Diamond Lake Road.

While I was seeing and hearing a lot of people heading off to chase the line of storms that were forming west of the metro area in 7/3, I knew that area was going to suck since it was behind the line and the second line of storms that passed through the area. Well, I chased Southern MN and ended up on a couple tornado warned storms. I did not see much but it was not a bust. The storms this year are just lame.

Click here to watch the Windows Media File (WMV) video from July 3rd in Southern MN

www.weatherpaparazzi.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/07032007_short_chase.wmv

Well, you can’t say I am lazy… I’m almost done with the current project for the new site. Had to do a lot of learning at this end but I figure by the end of July I will have it done.

Once the new site setup is up and running, I’m going to be tossing most of BNVN storm stuff to my guys Dan and Bill to run while I focus on the next project.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m still going to be chasing if I see there is something worth chasing but I have a new project that has been sitting in the drydock for several years that Conus has been bugging the shit out of me to get going. It is nothing to special and is pretty hard to do but its pretty simple but a pain in the ass at the same time. It is pretty much researching video and collecting and archive of footage that has nothing to do with the storm chasing or hurricane chasing.

But, since the project involves a lot of work, the pay is going to be pretty decent if I can find what I’m looking for.

Still reviewing all of the dive footage but I did have to pull some more footage I forgot that was on a tape I forgot to dub. It was some footage from the deck cam that had the footage of the sunset of Loggerhead Key as we went past it back to the anchor spot.

So everything is going smooth at this end for the projects. The white board is in overload and I have a ton of notes on the walls on paper.

Saw this story on the AP feed and just had to share it.

SEATTLE (AP) — Duncan the dog is still registered to vote, and his owner isn’t pleased.
Jane Balogh signed up the dog in protest of a 2005 state voter-registration law she thinks makes it too easy for non-citizens to vote. She used a paw print to mark ballots on Duncan’s behalf.

At first, Balogh said she wouldn’t contest a misdemeanor charge of making false statements on a voter registration form. But on Thursday, she pleaded not guilty to the charge that is punishable by up to 90 days in jail and a $1,000 fine.

She said she changed her mind when election officials claimed her efforts showed the system worked. “She’s just kind of annoyed because Duncan’s still on the voting rolls,” said her lawyer, Kristen Anderson. “Somebody is clearly not getting the message.”

Laura Lockard, King County’s acting election program manager for voter services, said there is “an arduous process” to have someone, even if it’s a dog, taken off the voter rolls. Balogh put her phone bill in the Australian shepherd-terrier mix’s full name — Duncan MacDonald — then used it as identification to register him as a voter.

She submitted ballots in the dog’s name in the September and November 2006 and May 2007 elections. She wrote “VOID” on the ballots and didn’t cast any votes.

Ok I put together another video of the diving. This one is about 18 minutes long but after watching the dive trip footage, now you know why I think tornado chasing is a total lame waste of time unless it is in your back yard.

Scuba Diving Vs Storm Chasing

Storm Chasing, any yahoo can run out with a camera and do it.

Scuba Diving, the yahoo’s are the ones that end up in body bags or get bent.

Storm Chasing, way to many people in it now and almost everyone is in it for the money.

Scuba Diving, lots of people in it but its just for fun or research for almost everyone.

Storm Chasing, if you drive 500 miles to see a storm and the weather is hot and sunny and capped, you just wasted your day or weekend.

Scuba Diving, unless the sea’s are rough or a thunderstorm, you go diving because what is the worst that can happen, you get wet?

Storm Chasing, if a road is closed or debris covering the road, your screwed.

Scuba Diving, 75% of the earth is covered in water and a small fraction of that is off limits to diving. As one of the scientists said to me last week, THERE ARE NO FENCES
UNDER WATER, meaning life can do what it wants when it wants and where it wants to.

Storm Chasing, there are no major magazines other then weatherwise which is a scientific journal that is for storm chasers. Yes there are websites and forums but no storm chasing only publications.

Scuba Diving, there are dozens of magazines, tons of books and more videos of diving then could ever be done with storm chasing.

Storm Chasing, it seems like everyone wants to be number one and have the next viral video.

Scuba Diving, once you enter the water, humans are at the bottom of the food chain!Oh yeah, here is the video of better then weather It’s better then storm chasing!!!

Ok, just getting caught up on everything from the trip. I had a great time working for the UG crew with Brian and getting tons of footage. I have so much new footage that I don’t know where to really start but I have to get this stuff edited down and off to Rick at UG next week.

I did take a look at some of the stuff last night and here are some quick clips and photos. When you see the divers in the water, that is the Florida Fish and Wild Life staff along with the National Park Service laying down survey grids under water.

First off, here is the video. How Not To Bust!!!

Here are some of the photos.

On Loggerhead Key, FL there is a tombstone for the grave of Thomas Lehay from Massachusetts, a seaman that died and was laid to rest on the island.

And yes, one of me being a goof. I lost 2 pounds on this trip, but I lost like 20 in fat with all the diving and working out.