Jason Whong: Renaissance Man-in-Training

Grand jury service is done

Filed under: General — jbwhong @ 5:18 pm

Today marked the end of my service on a federal grand jury. I was seated on the jury November 1, 2007, and served through today, when I was dismissed. It was a truly educational experience.

Grand juries are different than trial juries. Instead of deciding guilt or innocence, the grand jury decides whether a serious case ought to be tried in the first place. If no grand jury will indict the person or corporation being investigated, there can be no trial.

The purpose of the grand jury is to make sure no unwarranted prosecution occurs, and (though it rarely happens) to investigate and indict on its own when no prosecution has been suggested by an attorney. The check against unwarranted prosecution is an important fifth amendment protection: no felony is prosecuted without the agreement of a majority of a grand jury.

I enjoyed my time on the grand jury, and my advice to anyone that receives a summons to appear at a federal courthouse for grand jury selection is to go, especially if you are someone that cares enough to ask hard questions of powerful people.

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ERIS QUOD SUM

Filed under: General — jbwhong @ 9:38 am

The name of the seventh episode of Heroes this season is called “ERIS QUOD SUM.” I’ve been wanting to write about NBC’s Monday night lineup all morning, since I noticed that people were looking up the hummingbird position on Google after last night’s episode of My Own Worst Enemy, appropriately titled “Hummingbird”. But I’d rather be opportunist at something new.

So, what does ERIS QUOD SUM actually mean? First of all, it’s in Latin, which explains why it is in all capital letters. (The Romans used what we call capital letters for formal things, like titles of show episodes.) Here’s the rest of what I can get from the rest of my reading:

ERIS - second person singular, future tense of “to be”: You will be
QUOD - neuter singular nominative or accusative pronoun (in this case, I think the accusative): which or that
SUM - most people who have taken latin at least recall the first person singular, present tense form of to be: I am

That gives us a transliteration of “You will be that I am,” which translates a bit better as “You will be that which I am.”

My gut is telling me that there’s a mistake here; I think there is probably some word other than SUM to be used in this sentence, because now there are two verbs wrestling for control of the sentence, as they’re both in indicative mood. I think SUM needs to take a subjunctive mood to balance things out.

The first person singular, present tense form of “to be” (in subjunctive mood) is SIM. Plugging it in to the sentence, we get “ERIS QUOD SIM” as a better rendering of the Latin.

But I think I’ve at least discerned the writer’s intent in translating it to English. Now the mystery remains: Who is saying “You will be that which I am” to whom? Future Peter to Peter? Future Hiro to Hiro? Sylar to Peter? Peter to Sylar? Papa Petrelli to Nathan? The possibilities are endless.

Technorati Tags: ERIS QUOD SUM, hummingbird position, Hummingbird, Future Peter, Peter, Future Hiro, Hiro, Heroes, Latin, NBC, My Own Worst Enemy

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Various goings-on

Filed under: General, journalism — jbwhong @ 7:32 pm

I haven’t updated in a while. Today is the four year anniversary for Erin and I. So, happy anniversary to us! We celebrated on Monday, since that was the day I don’t work.

I haven’t subbed yet this year; I have been called three times, but I had a good excuse each time for not going. I forget what was happening the first time. The second time, I was already scheduled to speak to a journalism class at Ithaca College. And this morning, I had a dentist appointment that I totally forgot about. Doh.

Speaking of speaking at Ithaca College: I spoke to a journalism class taught by friend and coworker Ed Bond. I have a feeling that if we didn’t work together, we would find something to geek out on. So, he let me talk to his class Monday, and it was fun. I told them a bit about the kinds of videos I did for the Star-Gazette.

One of his students blogged about me, and it was pleasant to read what she wrote. So, thanks Julia! it was fun, and I am glad you enjoyed it.

That is all for now. Go see “The Express”.

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Tooting my own horn: NYSAPA award

Filed under: journalism, photography — jbwhong @ 7:07 pm

In the 2007-2008 New York State Associated Press Association awards I received third place in the online photography category (in the under 50,000 circulation group) for the following video:

I shot it last october at Max Erlacher’s studio, as part of the paper’s “Extraordinary People” series, kind of like an über-neighbors column.

Yay. That is all.

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Seven rosy angels

Filed under: General — jbwhong @ 8:08 pm

Today, I was in Corning, shooting pictures to go with a story about glassmaking in the city, its future, and such. I had been to two glass studios that morning; nobody was working, but I did get some people shopping. Then I went to Hands On Glass studio, and when I got there, nobody was working or shopping (not that there is a huge shop there - the draw of the place is that you get to work your own glass, rather than buy someone else’s.)

The proprietor suggested other times I could come when she knew she had something scheduled; I told her I’d wait around for a bit and see what happened.

Suddenly there was a swarm of people. A family from Fruitland, Md. (no, not Suitland. Fruitland, in Wicomico County) showed up, as well as a group of seven women who were doing their own college flashback trip - one they do each year to a different part of the country.

Both groups had people that saw my Fenwick Island shirt and reacted to it positively. Most people around here ask “Where is Fenwick Island?” But the women said they loved Fenwick, and the family said they lived nearby. It was highly unusual for me, but now that I think about it, I have taken a few pictures for tourism stories in the last year and a half, and today was the third time I took pictures of Marylanders. It makes sense, because we’re only a day’s drive away.

(Other odd fact: One of the women was from Westminster. I have taken pictures of three people from Westminster in the last year, one of which was while doing a story specifically about tourism; another was during a Ferrari event, and the Westminster family was driving through and saw all the Ferraris, so they stopped for a bit. Of course, last year I could remember the name of Carroll County. This year, I was stuck… Cecil? Calvert? I knew it began with a C!)

These women, who were getting up in their years but didn’t look very old, were wearing matching rose-colored tops. I asked them if they were barbershoppers, but they weren’t. I forgot the name they had for themselves or the name of their college. (because it is in my notes, at work, to be used in the photo that is going to run about August 17 or thereabouts, which is also why I can’t show you the picture.)

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Seven rosy angels

Filed under: journalism, photography — jbwhong @ 8:07 pm

I met seven nice ladies today. They were having a friendly gettogether. I will write more about them when I find out why my blog is broken.

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YayT&T: you read it here first (or maybe on Twitter a few minutes ago.)

Filed under: Apple — jbwhong @ 4:10 pm

I like my iPhone, but I don’t like my wireless service provider, because AT&T’s network leaves a bit to be desired in these parts (to be fair, so does the original iPhone’s antenna.) Anyway, I sent an e-mail message while sitting in my car at work, then drove home, only to find that the message was still sending over AT&T’s network.

So, I exclaimed, sarcastically, “YayT&T.”

I don’t need to be famous for this, but wanted to at least put it onto my blog, because right now there are no hits for this term on Google.

Technorati Tags: iPhone, AT&T Wireless

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Rapid fire

Filed under: journalism, photography — jbwhong @ 8:59 pm

OK, so I am back from vacation with Erin. I took a lot of photos, and Erin took a few also. They’re posted in her Picasa account. So check them out!

I’ve been back to work for a few days. On my first day back, I got licked by a cow. The person I was trying to photograph told me “that cow likes to lick people. it’s coming for you.” I didn’t see it because I was looking into the camera. Then I felt its tongue on my arm. I let out a surprised yelp, and the cow kept pushing me, so that I could not line up the shot the way I wanted to.

The farmer told me to swat the cow, but I am inexperienced in such things, and didn’t want to make it angry or injure it. So I tapped it, and the farmer laughed at me. Then I slapped it so I could hear an audible smack, but that was not very hard, and the cow just sat there. Eventually I moved around the cow and got the shot I was looking for. But the cow continued to lick my other arm.

Later at the same shoot, i was licked by goats, but I was expecting that. What I didn’t expect was when I came home: Kelsey (remember Kelsey?) licked my feet. And then the cat licked me, too. So, all in all, Tuesday was a day of being licked by many animals. It doesn’t happen to me at work all that often, but I am sure nature photographers have to put up with animals licking them.

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Oh where, oh where has my PageRank gone?

Filed under: General — jbwhong @ 3:23 pm

I used to have a Google pagerank of 6. Or maybe it was 4. I know it was an even number higher than two. Back when it was that high, I received offers from people that wanted to buy ads on the blog.

I think the pagerank was highest when I was blogging about the Virginia Tech incident. That was when I blogged more frequently. Now, I am lucky to get in one post per month. I don’t know why I am so lazy.

Right now, I am at Pagerank 3. That’s still one higher than Chris, but he’s the first hit if you search for whong. I’m the third. whong.org is second.

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Graduations and special requests

Filed under: journalism, photography — jbwhong @ 9:19 pm

Tonight I shot two graduations.

Both began at 7 p.m. I didn’t know that; all I knew was that I was to go to one school at 7 and the other at 8ish.

The problem with covering two events that occur at the same time but on opposite sides of town is that I can’t do very well at either of them. But that said, I think I still did a decent job.

I was at the second school’s graduation, and I heard some of the kids call my name. It was strange to hear them say “Hey, Jason Whong!” because normally, I’m doing my thing, and people are mostly concerned about either staying out of the way of my lens, or mugging for it, or they just don’t notice I’m there.

I don’t do anything crazy, I think. I mean, I don’t do any tactical tumbling or combat rolls or whatever, but I suppose that my stance when I am trying not to block anyone’s view looks a bit like a commando. I walk like those people in the opening credits from M*A*S*H, keeping my head very low, taking a knee to stop and aim, then click a few shots and move again. The kids that had called my name were commenting on my style. “That’s awesome!” they said. My khakis are ripped at the knee, but I am not sure whether they were already that way before tonight. I do a lot of ducking.

Allen Barton or Alan Barton was the one that asked me to blog about him. I made a voice memo to myself, but left the graduation program in the office, so I don’t know how to properly spell his name. But I think it is one or the other. Allen or Alan, congratulations on graduating, and good luck in the future.

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Jason Whong: Renaissance Man-in-Training

October 28, 2008

Grand jury service is done

October 21, 2008

ERIS QUOD SUM

October 9, 2008

Various goings-on

August 18, 2008

Tooting my own horn: NYSAPA award

August 2, 2008

Seven rosy angels

Seven rosy angels

August 1, 2008

YayT&T: you read it here first (or maybe on Twitter a few minutes ago.)

July 30, 2008

Rapid fire

June 30, 2008

Oh where, oh where has my PageRank gone?

June 27, 2008

Graduations and special requests