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Friday, Dec 10th, 2010 |
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We held our annual Christmas dinner on Friday, December 10th. Lauren Rowe, the
anchor of Local 6 News and the Sunday news show, "Flashpoint", was our guest
speaker.
Lauren spoke to us about how the news gathering and decision making process
works behind the scene of television news. She also talked about journalism
ethics and remaining impartial.
After her presentation, there was a very lengthy question and answer session,
with topics ranging from viewer and advertiser demographics to the choice of
clothes that reporters wear! If you missed this, you missed a very informative
and thought provoking evening.
We also collected a great haul of toys for Toys For Tots. Sandy Sanders and his
wife Charlene gathered up the toys at the end of the evening and dropped them
off at a collection point for us. |
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Tuesday, Nov 2nd, 2010 |
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Dan Leonard, Cyber Security Analyst for the Florida Department of Law
Enforcement, was our guest speaker at our November luncheon. Dan spoke to us
about some of the risks we face going online with our personal computers, and
some ways to mitigate those risks.
Dan's talk covered three main topics: protecting your computer, protecting your
information, and protecting yourself.
Use anti-virus and firewall software to protect your computer. There are many
free versions of these types of applications, including AVG, Avast, Windows
Defender, and ZoneAlarm. In addition, many ISPs provide these applications for
free. But, they only protect you if they are installed. Each of your computers
should have this type of software installed.
Protect your information by creating strong passwords, installing security
patches, and backing up your data. He also discussed being careful with
downloads and attachments to emails.
Protect yourself by keeping your personal information private on social
networking sites. Also, be very cautious when using public computers and public
wireless networks.
You can find detailed information on all these topics at
www.SecureFlorida.org . |
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Tuesday, Sep 7th, 2010/font> |
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Tom Sorrells, the Emmy award-winning meteorologist from WKMG, Local 6, was our
guest speaker to kick off our 2010 - 2011 club luncheons. Tom is a very humorous
guy and a gave a great presentation.
Tom grew up in Tennessee and received his undergraduate degree from Western
Kentucky. While at college, he got his first exposure to media while working for
a local radio station. When an opportunity to work on television was presented,
he jumped on it. His television career took him to Detroit, Columbus, and Myrtle
Beach. While working in Columbus, Tom studied meteorology at Ohio State. 10
years ago, Tom was offered a job at WKMG in Orlando, and has been here ever
since.
Tom spoke to us about his background, hurricanes (since it was currently the
historically most active time of hurricane season), and one of his favorite
topics - lightning. After the weather discussion, he talked a little about how
television news works behind the scenes. He finished up with a lively question
and answer session.
As the luncheon finished, I heard this comment from one of the brothers: "Best
meeting we've had!". If you haven't been to a meeting in a while, you are
missing out. |
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Friday, Apr 9th, 2010 |
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Friday, April 9th was filled with history.
50 brothers, spouses, guests, and actives were on hand that evening
to help 5 brothers celebrate reaching milestones with Phi Delta Theta.
The evening started off with a social hour, followed by dinner. After
dinner, guest speaker Thomas Tart presented us with a history of Florida,
starting in 5000 BC and working his way up to the Civil War. 7000 years in
under 45 minutes!
In 1982, the Windover Dig discovered an archaeological site near Titusville with
skeletal remains of 168 people, dating to the early Archaic period (around 5000
years BC). The remains included a boy about 15 years old, who had spina
bifida. As his spinal condition almost certainly meant the boy was
paralyzed below the waist, this find was important for assessing the society's
commitment to ensure his survival for 15 years in a hunter-gatherer community.
Some of the other highlights included Andrew Jackson as the first military
governor of Florida, and his role in helping to get Spain to cede Florida to the
United States for $5 million.
Following Mr. Tart's presentation, the club celebrated the history of Phi Delta
Theta by performing the Legionnaire ceremony with the help of actives from the
Florida Beta and Florida Iota chapters.
John A Williamson, Florida Theta, received the Silver Legion pin. Houston
Briggs II, Texas Gamma, received the Golden Legion pin. Donald Greer,
Alabama Beta, and Robert Duncan, Florida Alpha, received 55 year pins.
Dabney Davis, Florida Alpha, received his 60 year pin. |
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Tuesday,
Mar 2nd, 2010 |
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We had a great turnout to listen to Aaron (AJ) Jeromin, a professor at the
Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy (FIEA) graduate school at UCF. AJ is a
Phi Delt from Ringling, with a degree in computer animation. AJ spent several
years in the video game industry, including over four years at Electronic Arts
Tiburon studios in Maitland, working on games such as NASCAR, NCAA Football,
Madden Football, and Superman.
The FIEA started with 12 students in 2005. They currently have 60 students,
which is their current capacity. There are 6 full time faculty. The FIEA mission
is to prepare skilled art, programming, and production talent for the video game
industry. FIEA follows a nonstandard educational philosophy which centers on the
simulation of a professional video game development environment. A capstone
videogame creation project for each class of students forms the focus of the
second and third semesters of work, comprising pre-production and production
phases, respectively.
AJ showed us pictures of the facility, located in downtown Orlando at the old
Expo Centre. He focused on the 3200 square foot motion capture sound stage. It
is the largest on the east coast. This is used to capture human actors motion by
attaching sensors to their body, while reflecting light off them from various
angles. Multiple cameras pick up the light and transfer the motion as wire frame
animations to a computer. Software is then used to flesh out the characters over
the wire frame animation. These characters are then used in video games. This
same technology is used in current movies, such as Avatar. details. |
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Tuesday,
Feb 2nd, 2010 |
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Brian Gilliam, assistant director of security for the Orlando International
Airport, was our guest speaker. Brian is a veteran law enforcement
officer, who retired at the rank of Lieutenant after 27 years with the Orlando
Police Department.
The Orlando airport is almost 24 square miles in size, and the Greater Orlando
Aviation Authority has over 500 employees. However, there are over 20,000
badged employees at the airport. Based on passenger counts, the Orlando
airport is number 1 in Florida, the 11th in the US, and 22nd in the world.
After Brians talk, brother Billy Grott spoke about the UCF chapter's new house.
Billy has teamed up with the UCF house corporation to buy a new complex near the
UCF campus to serve as the new chapter house. The complex is 2 sets of 4
apartments, sharing a connected balcony. One side of the complex will
serve as housing for chapter brothers. The other side will serve as
housing and chapter common rooms. The UCF chapter is currently has 89
actives and 26 phikieas. If you are interesting in donating to the UCF
house corporation, see
www.transmitphidelt.com for details. |
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Tuesday,
Jan 12th, 2010 |
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Twenty brothers were treated to a trip to Iran courtesy of Leon Handley and
brother Jack Sneed. Leon and Jack have been friends for many years, and have
taken many adventurous trips together. They recently returned from a trip to
Iran.
They were there just before the last elections. They had a slide show of
pictures to go along with the stories of their trip. They started off in Tehran,
the capital city. Tehran has a population of around 8 million. They found a
modern city, but also reminders of ancient civilizations. The people were
friendly and curious about America. And the weather was hot!
They travelled by bus to several other cities, including Shiraz. Shiraz is known
as the city of poets, wine and flowers. They also visited several tombs,
including the tomb of Cyrus the Great. Beautiful architecture, history, and
friendly people let lasting impressions on Leon and Jack. I wonder where their
next adventure will take them? . |
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