Friday Fragments #49

Friday Fragments

Nov 13

Written By

Wow! I am really overdue for some fragging! It has been a month since my last FF and what a month it has been. I am glad to be back and catching up on some of the Fragments that have filled my Fridays and the six other days between.

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My mind has been focused on what it is to turn 40 . When I started blogging over five years ago, it sat large in my mind. I was 38 and realizing that I would not have marked any great worldly accomplishments before that milestone. Since seeing the dark side of 40 (too bad there's no Pink Floyd album for that), I have realized that my car did not turn into a pumpkin and I am still wearing both shoes (well, most of the time). Life goes on after 40 and so far 41, 42, and 43. Yet this Wednesday, it pushed back into my consciousness in a big and somewhat unsettling way.On November 12, 1974, my brother entered this world. He was born early, just as he left. He died a month shy of his 21st birthday. He has missed two huge milestones of adulthood and untold absences from life. At the time of his exit, he was a funny, cocky, loving, enraging slice of mercury. In other words, he was a 20 year old boy at the cusp of his manhood.When someone is taken too soon, we are not just robbed of who they were, we are robbed of who they would have become. I have no image of my brother at 40. Would he be married? Be a father? Would we still butt heads or would time have settled both of our egos and calmed our tempers? I like to think so on all accounts. The truth is that I will never know these answers and this week, it haunted me. I do know that he is still loved by all who knew him aged 40 or 20 years, 10 months and 26 days.

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As Monty Python would say, "And now for something completely different".My mind has also slipped to some of the silly things done in news reporting. Why do they make reporters go out and stand in the cold or the heat or the dark to report from closed places? How is that location reporting? It just seems silly to me. What happened to just a picture behind the anchor? And on that note, why do they have to loop 12 seconds of video? When they use video, the B-Roll is only about 10-15 seconds and often of questionable value. Instead of playing it once and returning to the reporter, they play it over and over. It is annoying.Almost as annoying as those DVD Menus that play 10 seconds of music on a constant loop. Anyone who has fallen asleep to a movie knows how irritating it is to wake up to that!