This Weekend IsThe Gloucester County Renaissance Festival , July 16 & 17, 2011

Okay everyone. It's once again time for the Gloucester Renaissance Fest. It's here this weekend and these folks know how to put on a great show. We are looking forward to the new acts as well as the usual acts. So you all there.

US Coast Guard Member Breaking Virginia Laws Round 3

So now Scott Petty is threatening a law suit. Well first off I wish him luck finding any attorney dumb enough to take on a frivolous lawsuit. The fines the attorney will get hit with are not worth the consideration. Second, the counter suit of 1st Amendment suppression, something he is sworn to uphold and protect, would be forthcoming and I am being nice. But again let's re look at the video, he gave his full permission to post and show the video. Now what we still have not covered yet is the illegal storage of illegal fireworks and the illegal transportation of said fireworks. A question that the US Coast Guard must look into is how did he come about these illegal explosives and did he acquire them while on duty? Did he use the US Coast Guard to carry and transport illegal explosives for his own use? Did he use the Coast Guard to break numerous state laws by bringing these fireworks into the state? Trained in terrorism, is he bringing his training home and using it against others? I have interviewed a few of his neighbors who hate him for many reasons.

Again I will point out, if he is willing to violate a number of state laws, what else is he willing to violate while on the job? One has to ask.

More Virginia Law Regarding Fireworks

Fireworks #1 (Photo credit: Camera Slayer)

VIRGINIA
CONSUMER FIREWORKS
Specifically permitted Sparklers, fountains, pharaoh’s serpents, pinwheels, and whirligigs.

Specifically prohibited Firecrackers, skyrockets, torpedoes, and other fireworks which explode, travel laterally, rise into the air, or fire projectiles into the air.


DISPLAY FIREWORKS

Display permit Apply to local authorities at least 15 days before display date.

Insurance Bond adequate to pay for all damages to persons or property is required.

Operator No license specifically required in state law.

MANUFACTURE, STORAGE, Banned items may not be transported, stored or manufactured.
TRANSPORTATION


ENFORCING AUTHORITY Commonwealth of Virginia
Dept of Housing & Community Development
Office of State Fire Marshal
501 N 2nd Street
Richmond, VA 23219
804-371-7170
www.dhcd.vipnet.org/State_Fire_Marshal/

or

Local fire officials in those areas in which the local

governing body has elected to enforce the Statewide

Fire Prevention Code.

LAW NUMBER Code of Virginia, Chap. 11, Sec. 59-1-142 et seq.

Statewide Fire Prevention Code Art. 27

NFPA 1123, NFPA 1124, and NFPA 1126

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Local Coast Guard Member Seen Here Breaking Laws Round 2

Life is so interesting. So far I have been contacted by the US Coast Guard in regards to the video, and I mention this as there is a question about it, I shot. Yup. Not hiding anything or behind anyone. I shot and produced the video. There also seems to be a question about whether the fireworks in the video are legal. One's that are classified as explosives, as seen in the first section of the video, are. So for those of you who are questioning this, let me post the law right here for you. Link 1 Link 2 Link 3 Link 4
Now this is just to get you started. These are the links for you to do your own research instead of just taking my word for it. Want to have some fun? Try sending a firecracker through the mail. See if you do not go to jail. Unless you hide it in the middle of something, your going to go to jail for it.

Try sending the firecracker through UPS or FedEx. You have a better chance of getting it through, but you still risk going to jail for it. Go to any of the web sites where they sell explosive fireworks. States that are good for this are South Carolina and Florida. They won't send them to you. It's illegal to send them into Virginia. Have any of you ever stopped at the fireworks stands here in Gloucester? They can't sell you nor do they carry fireworks that explode. Why? Because they are illegal. Another question that has come up, seems Scott is now mad as hell about this video and is not going to take it. Wait, did you see the video? He gave his permission for me to post the video and to show it to his boss. Now I must confess, I have no idea who his boss is so I sent the video link everywhere all the way up to Congressman Wittman's office.

I figured someone in higher positions would know who his boss was and get it to that person. Now I have nothing against the military at any level. I have shot plenty of video of the US Army bands, Air Force bands and the like and fully support them in fact these videos produce thousands of hits. Someone somewhere through my grapevine told me that some officials are calling the video, illegal. I spent 5 years as a right hand para legal to one of the top litigation attorney's in the nation in New York. I have a pretty darn good idea of what is legal and what isn't and I am not intimidated.

Let's go a step further. Let's declare every Friday night, fireworks night down at the Gloucester Point Beach. All explosive fireworks are highly encouraged. How long do you think it will be before there is an accident on the Coleman bridge and all kinds of people will be charged with all kinds of legal violations? Wait, there are officials in this county saying that the explosive type of fireworks seen in my video are legal. So why should there be any legal charges? It's common sense here folks. No explosive fireworks at the beach please. You will probably be arrested and charged. And for those officials making that claim? Please keep in mind that you never know who you are talking to in Gloucester and or who might be listening. I see and hear a lot more than you think. It does not make it on here, and let's keep it that way.

Local Coast Guard Member Seen Here Breaking Laws

Local Coast Guard member, Scott Petty is seen here committing illegal acts. Says he is fine if we show everyone this video. So here it is. Scott Petty has been blowing off illegal fireworks from his backyard over into his neighbor's yards for years causing all kinds of problems and he knows the problems he has been causing. Reported many times about his constant bombardment over neighbor's properties, nothing to date has been done about it. Well we expect that is going to change as he also threatens the life and well being of my own family at this point. We have sent this video to Homeland Security, Congressman Rob Wittman, A top admiral of the US Coast Guard, and several members of our local board of supervisors. We do not need local terrorists in our community that hide under the guise of US Coast Guard members. If he is willing to break multiple laws here at home, how well is he protecting our shores? Can you say, "For a fee I can look the other way and pretend I didn't see those drugs and guns"?

He has compromised himself to where he can now be blackmailed due to his many now public breaches of the laws that we are all bound by. Would you even trust him as a desk jockey at this point? He could even be a risk for that job if anything remotely sensitive even comes through the office. For a fee that paper work might just go away or forever be lost? Okay, let's be fair here. Fireworks violations are a slap on the wrist and I have a zero sum issue with fireworks. I do have issues with them when they are used in a terrorist manner however, and that is the real story here.

New Window Pane Murals Are Here

We have developed something rather new and unique. We call them window pane murals. We take an image and split it up using a number of highly specialized programs and then frame the pictures to create one mural. The results give the illusion that you are looking out a window. The above picture is of Walter Reed Birthplace. This is a mini mural that measures about 15x23 inches. We can create panes and murals up to 16 feet by 20 feet with any size picture without loosing any clarity. Imagine putting a window anywhere you want with any view you want. We are developing these for the following markets, museums, hotels/motels, restaurants, businesses, commercial, ad agencies and of course your home when you are ready for something fun and different.
Just e-mail us at the bottom of this site for more details.

Art Galleries of Yorktown, VA

Part of our missions statement has always been that we support the arts and the art of living here at TTC Media. Now we are part of the art community. We have a few pieces of our work in Yorktown at the Yorktown Hall art Gallery and are looking into adding pieces in some of the art shows that the Gallery On The York holds periodically. We are also talking to the fine folks over in Kilmarnock at the art gallery there to include some of our work. We have been shooting pictures for years and we have over 100,000 images that we work with and ever growing. If you have not been to any of these art galleries, we highly recommend them. Only a short distance from here and a great way to spend a day.

Gloucester County Exclusive Print and Postcards Now Available

We have designed a new Gloucester County Print and have created a series of Postcards of Gloucester County. The print comes in various sizes from 8x10 matted and framed to 20x30 framed. These are actual photo lab prints for the larger sizes. The smaller sizes are being produced in one of our local studios. The postcards are a total of 20 different cards for series 1 also produced in one of local studios.

No one has stepped up to the plate to create collectibles for travelers and tourists through Gloucester County on any major scale. So we decided to step up and fill that need. Tourists are looking for little things such as postcards or prints that reminds them of their trip through Gloucester. Postcards and prints gives them just what they are looking for. Plus we have developed an entire series of prints of hot spots from around the county that can be proudly displayed in any business or even sold at local businesses. We will soon be traveling throughout the county showing off these new items as well as items under development. These items foster customer loyalty, repeat business and word of mouth future business. Can we afford to turn our backs on that?

Plus we can also custom create or assign from our own archives, specialty postcards and or prints. We are also developing a special art cards collection too. You can e-mail us at the bottom of this site if you would like to know about this sooner than we are able to find you in our travels.

The Bridal Boutique Here In Gloucester, VA For Sale

Site Update;  September, 2012.  This shop does have a new owner and is not closing.  We have no information on whether the phone number for the shop is the same or different.


After 20 plus years of serving Gloucester County couples, Lily Ridout is ready to retire. This well established bridal shop is now up for sale at a price of $40,000.00 which is less than the inventory is worth. A prime location on route 17 north, George Washington Memorial Highway, the shop is well established in the area and the only shop serving couples soon to be wed. This shop is a steal at the asking price based on the 20 years of good will already established and is turn key and ready for a new owner to just step in and run the business. For more details or information please contact Lily by calling 1-804-642-5157

Virginia State Police Violate Freedom of The Press

During a recent stop along the side of the road to take pictures for a news story on a tornado that devastated Page Middle school here in Gloucester, we encountered a very rude State trooper. It's one thing to move traffic along, it's another thing to demand that someone trying to do a job move now. We were out of the way and off the road of traffic. When we tried to explain to this trooper who we were and why we were there, he had no time to hear it. We were just demanded to move. Now we fully respect the tough jobs these folks do for us day in and day out. We respect the uniform. We DO NOT respect being treated like sheep especially when no emergency was in place and we were NOT blocking traffic and we were trying to do a job. He interfered with freedom of the press. A violation of the bill of rights of this great nation.

There was no courtesy whatsoever. Are we paying tax money to be treated like sheep here in Virginia? To have our rights violated instead of our rights being protected? We continue to see this more and more. We normally do not watch television, but on a recent stint we watched an episode of COPS. On that show were multiple violations of the bill of rights we are born with in this country. Are we so quick these days to surrender our rights or have our rights been usurped? Have we become the USSof A? (United Socialist States of America). When do we say stop? Enough is enough? How are our police forces being trained these days? We really want to know and we want to film it and show the world. So if we are treated with great disrespect, what is going to happen if we are in real trouble and need to call on our police? Do we question the idea? In court we are told we can not take the law into our own hands. On the streets we are shown that we can not count on those sworn to protect and serve? Where is justice? Have the state police come to the level of Judge Dread? We should hope that this is not the case. We rarely have issues or dealings with the police at any level. We live quite lives overall. So making assumptions based on limited exposure is not 100% fair, but this story based on unfair treatment still needs to be posted.

We are NOT seeking an apology nor would we ever dream that one would be forthcoming. We just expect more respect from those out there that are in place to serve us, not command us like sheep. Enough said.

Kodak Looses It's Edge In Printer Wars

Kodak states that they offer the lowest printer ink replacement costs in the industry. Well that has become a slight of hand move at this point as their costs on ink have risen considerably over the past 6 months and continues to rise on a regular basis. Yes the cost of their ink is still slightly lower than their main competitor, HP, but only by a couple of dollars. Why we say that it's slight of hand is because you can buy a comparable HP printer that will produce better quality prints for much less money than a Kodak. The cost difference more than offsets the difference in ink costs between the two companies. We have been using Kodak printers for the past three years exclusively. Prior to that, we used mainly HP printers and have used printers from all of the manufacturers with the exception of Brother. HP has always won our picture print wars in the most stringent tests even comparing their prints to Kodak and Fuji photo labs. HP has either won or tide against Fuji photo labs but always beat everyone else. (We still maintain all our prints from our public tests). We have never found Epson to win any test and Canon is a great competitor but their costs are still to high and we do not like their deceiving Green advertising.

Grant you, we have real issues with Kodak, we have had very bad experiences with their customer service and consider it worthless. We like their top end point and shoot camera's but find the competition to produce better products. We still own Kodak's first printer made for the recent industry wars but it no longer works that well. We are actually on our third printer from Kodak and the quality overall is average. The prints are outstanding, it's the durability that comes into play. We still have numerous HP printers that still work as well as the day we bought them 5 years ago. As you can see, we are unable to say this about Kodak printers. Our next printer? Sorry Kodak, we are back to HP. Our next top end point and shoot? Canon is the clear winner for us. Even in the camera wars, at some point we have owned them all. Our choices are Canon, Fuji and Nikon. We will give Sony camera's their due, but they do not lend themselves to what we demand. Just about all cameras are made in China except Canon. At least the top end Canon's are still made in Japan with top notch manufacturing that you can count on.

TTC MIA?

Well we have been MIA for a few months as we have moved and opened a new studio to boot. We have a lot to post and have steadily been writing articles but have not had the time to get them posted. This is now changing. We are back and will soon start flooding the site once again.

Education, The Next Revolution and Evolution

Some months ago we started a series on eduction. We left off with what we envision as the next evolution and next revolution in education. It started with a conversation with a very close and dear friend in Philadelphia working on a part of what will become the next revolution and evolution in education. My friend has proposed that camera's be put into city schools in an effort to limit and or control both the amount of violence and deaths going on in that city's schools. My concerns on this are the invasion of privacy issues in such a move. He held fast to his position and was trying to sell me on the idea that anyone could log onto a web site and check in on their son or daughter in the classroom and see what was going on. That's when it struck me. This is a potential educational tool. The ability to log into a classroom and view everything that is going on? The implications are nothing short of amazing when you look at the big picture.

As we went into these discussions, we came up with the idea that children could go home with a CD or DVD of the days major lessons as they were recorded during that day. Major changes on how one could go about preparing for one's homework or test. Then we came up with that should someone miss a day or two of school, they could always catch up by getting the video for that day and viewing it at home. The talks kept growing as to the many ways that video in the classrooms and the schools could benefit everyone. In talking with a friend in the social services sector about this, the concepts were very sound. What does one do with children on suspension or those that have been kicked out of school? How do they further their education? What of those who are severely sick or incapacitated? Could they benefit by logging onto a school web site and learning the lessons on line?

In this modern day of rising prices, cost cutting, cut backs and ever increasing fuel prices, would it make sense to start having classes in the home? The amount of days a student now goes to school is being cut down to it's bare minimum to address these costs now. Well let's look at the real potential here. There is no reason why we can't take the best of the best teachers from around the country and have them teaching students over the Internet while the children are home. Questions can be saved for a few days of school each week or each month that can not be addressed on line. Other teachers can be on standby at home for student questions or extra instructions where needed. The amount of teachers required nationwide can be dramatically decreased. Schools can be closed most of the school week or month cutting transportation costs, electric, heat / air conditioning, and food expenses as well. Payrolls would also be dramatically cut as well as benefits for teachers.

The quality and consistency of education can be brought up to all new levels at the same time. We would be able to use the absolute best of the best teachers to educate all of our children. This would require a major new investment in our Internet infrastructure which we need in this country anyway. Areas not marked for present and or future improvement would now get all the latest updates. The costs for increasing this infrastructure are easily offset by the savings in reduced educational and related expenses. I can hear all the teachers and those who depend on their living through the educational system screaming now as most of your jobs would be lost. Well there are plenty of jobs in other fields no? Welcome to the future. There is no reason not to go this route as the only arguments will come from those who will be displaced from their present jobs. The proposals have already been submitted in Pennsylvania. And now they are also entered here. So spread the word.

Orange, The Color of The Anti Green Movement. Treaties of Common Sense

Reduce, reuse, recycle. The mantra of those who have never taken the time to question the validity of what they regurgitate. The first question to ask is, “if recycling is such a great idea, how come it has not been practiced throughout history”? Why have not our forefathers taught us the wisdom of recycling? The answer is very simple. It's not a sound idea nor is it sound practice. In fact, recycling costs more than raw materials. Much more. Keep in mind that when you go to the store and look at a ream of paper. Recycled paper costs much more than regular paper. Why? The government offers all kinds of incentives and tax breaks for companies that produce recycled goods. Tax money is given to corporations to finance part of the operations. The government does NOT do this with companies producing the same goods that use raw materials, so recycled goods should be by far cheaper. But they are not. In fact, producing goods from previously used materials is considerably more expensive and uses much more resources than producing goods from raw materials.

Wait. Producing goods from previously used materials uses more resources? Yes they do. If more resources are being used to produce goods from used materials as opposed raw materials, then how sound is the practice and how green is it really? Are we being duped? That depends on who you ask. Ask those with a financial interest in duping you and the answer is of course no. My own children kept coming home regurgitating the mantra of reduce, reuse and recycle. So I took them to the store and showed them products made of recycled materials and their cost compared to goods produced using raw materials. In every case, the goods produced using raw materials was much cheaper. They no longer sing the mantra of the lunatic fringe.

Do major corporations really buy the green movement? Not a chance but they have to play the game all the same. Want proof? Go into any store and the proof is staring at you on every shelf. Why do we need so much packaging? Why is laundry detergent or any detergent sold in bottles? If companies really wanted to be green, all they would have to do is ship in containers of their products and you would just go in and pour into your own container what you need and pay for that. No extra packaging, waste and garbage for the landfills. The same with foods and just about everything else. The waste is everywhere. So do you really think there is a green movement? I don't.

So why orange for the anti green movement? We go over to Ireland for that. On Saint Patrick's day, the Catholics wear green in commemoration of Saint Patrick. The Protestant's wear orange as they do not recognize Saint Patrick. It's been a fighting tradition for quite some time. So we have borrowed our color from Ireland for our anti green movement. It's not religious, it's not political. It's just common sense.

First Shots of the Civil War, Gloucester, 2011 Re Enactment

Instead of the county putting on the last muster civil war days this year, the county instead did a first shots of the Civil War in Virginia. Those first shots were fired right here in Gloucester County against the ship, the Yankee back on May, 7th, 1861. The re enactment, planning staging and organization were top notch. Gloucester always does an incredible job of putting on events. Some of the best around bar none. What always bothers me is the lack of advertising the county does. How many people knew about this event? The amount of people who showed up was relatively low in my own opinion. A number of people we polled were there for the beach and went around the show anyway. The amount of people who could have been there would have been much higher if promotions were properly done. Did anyone notify the local radio station? Did the county post anything in any of the papers? We tried to work with the county at the beginning of the year to get all the dates for county events and we had planned a spectacular on line calender, but the county never got back with us......so....

Guess they could always claim it's not in the budget. Free advertising and promotions not in the budget? What? Didn't pay the phone bill? Please. On the one hand, we applaud the county for yet another great event, and on the other hand fault the county for NOT taking advantage of getting the word out more. We know that newspapers offer free listings of county events as do TV stations and web sites, such as ours. But you have to work with us and let us know. Nuff said on that note. We have the Gloucester Main Street Association putting on the concert with the Virginia Symphony Orchestra in June. We will post more soon along with a rare video of a past performance.