About Us

Stanley K. Draper, R.L.S., has been in the Surveying Business for 18 years, beginning as an Instrument Man with a local Engineer, then moving to one of the more established Surveying Companies in Nashville for the next couple of years where he excelled as one of the most productive drafters on staff, and eventually, to a Large local Engineering Firm, where he was instrumental in re-starting their Survey Division, which had been dormant for several years, and had been there in responsible charge for the last 13 years. Now, he has taken the next logical step, and opened his own shop. After working for a myriad of local Architects and Engineers, he has special insight in to the needs of these professionals, while also understanding the laymen's point of view.

No Job too Large or Too Small.

Tennessee Association of Professional Surveyors (TAPS)

OUR MISSION
The Tennessee Association of Professional Surveyors (TAPS) is dedicated to preserving the heritage of surveying, promoting the profession in Tennessee, as the forum for developing ideas that advance the social, professional and ethical conduct of all surveyors, and provide opportunity for educational scientific and technological advancement.
An affiliate of the National Society of Professional Surveyors and American Congress on Surveying and Mapping.


OUR OBJECTIVES

* To promote surveying as a profession.
* To define conduct for surveyors.
* To promote higher education levels and continuing education programs for all surveyors.
* To promote high standards of practice applicable to the surveying profession.
* To increase the public knowledge of the value of professional surveying through ethical public relations.
* To unite all qualified surveyors of the state in one organization.
* To assist well-qualified and properly motivated young people in obtaining education and experience necessary to become Licensed Surveyors.

Brass Compass

You always get me looking around,.. for a REALLY nice gift,..let's look at this one,..I think this is the best one I've ever seen,..try Brass Binnacle,.. oh no,.. they have sextants there as well,.. ha ha,.. don't get me started,..


I've got a birthday coming up,..and I've always really liked the look of this compass here,.. it's a beauty,..and I love the brass look of it,..I'm also a fan of those old timey pocket watches, as well,.. anyway,..ran across this picture out there when I was working on a facebook ad,.. thought I'd share it with ya'll,.. I've coveted one of these for a while,..probably should just order one myself,..it's not that expensive,..it's just one of those things,..I don't know that you need, but you just WANT.

Closer to home,..

This job was just down the road, here, and it afforded me the opportunity to get on the Wilson County Surveyor's List,.. still working, but thinking marketing, ALL the time,..

Legend Homes

This is the best picture I took of the house itself, I was looking at drainage stuff, and different spots on the house, next time I'll try and remember to take a better picture,..anyway, HUGE house, small lot, very tastefully done, the landscaping was pretty intense, lots of detail here.

Robot on Site

Had to run out to one site real quick today, do a field check, took the camera, building was a bit complicated, anyway,.. got a picture of my partner here,..

Land Surveying (a definition)

from Merriam-Webster online: Surveying, function (n)-: a branch of applied mathematics that is concerned with determining the area of any portion of the earth's surface, the lengths and directions of the bounding lines, and the contour of the surface and with accurately delineating the whole on paper.

Then, from Wikepedia we have:

Surveying or land surveying is the technique and science of accurately determining the terrestrial or three-dimensional space position of points and the distances and angles between them. These points are usually on the surface of the Earth, and are often used to establish land maps and boundaries for ownership or governmental purposes. In order to accomplish their objective, surveyors use elements of geometry, engineering, trigonometry, mathematics, physics, and law.

An alternative definition, per the American Congress on Surveying and Mapping (ACSM), is the science and art of making all essential measurements to determine the relative position of points and/or physical and cultural details above, on, or beneath the surface of the Earth, and to depict them in a usable form, or to establish the position of points and/or details.

Furthermore, as alluded to above, a particular type of surveying known as "land surveying" (also per ACSM) is the detailed study or inspection, as by gathering information through observations, measurements in the field, questionnaires, or research of legal instruments, and data analysis in the support of planning, designing, and establishing of property boundaries. It involves the re-establishment of cadastral surveys and land boundaries based on documents of record and historical evidence, as well as certifying surveys (as required by statute or local ordinance) of subdivision plats/maps, registered land surveys, judicial surveys, and space delineation. Land surveying can include associated services such as mapping and related data accumulation, construction layout surveys, precision measurements of length, angle, elevation, area, and volume, as well as horizontal and vertical control surveys, and the analysis and utilization of land survey data.

Surveying (as it relates to Civil Engineering) from Britannica:Online Encyclopedia:

Method of making relatively large-scale, accurate measurements of the earth’s surfaces.

Its principal modern uses are in the fields of transportation, building, land use, and communications. Surveying is divided into the categories of plane surveying (mapping small areas) and geodetic surveying (mapping large areas of the globe). The Romans are said to have used the plane table, which consists of a drawing board mounted on a tripod or other support and a straightedge along which lines are drawn. It was the first device capable of recording or establishing angles. With the publication of logarithmic tables in 1620, portable angle-measuring instruments, called topographic instruments, or theodolites, came into use; they included pivoted arms for sighting and could be used for measuring both horizontal and vertical angles. Two revolutionary 20th-century innovations were photogrammetry (mapping from aerial photographs) and electronic distance measurement, including the use of the laser.

Land Surveying

In wondering around the world wide web as much as I have been lately Land Surveying, as a profession, has been my focus for so long, sometimes I don't always look at all the possibilities, so, that's what I've been doing the last couple of days, you find a ton of articles and sites out there that are just "Survey" sites, and for the most part, it seems, most of the job hunting sites don't seem to recognize Land Surveying as it's own separate profession, it kind of makes me wonder sometimes, you can always find Real Estate, Architecture, Engineering, and the like, but a separate category for Land Surveying just doesn't seem to be one that most of these sites include, makes you wonder why that is. I guess it's my job to put us on the map. Maybe the term "Surveying" needs to be upgraded, I don't know, just thinking out loud here.

The Flyer

Linked above to the Mapquest,.. this is where I'm hanging out my shingle, so to speak, I'll scan one of the cards that I made at VistaPrint when they get here in a few days, got like 250 cards, a free pen, magnet for the car door, lot's of other goodies, for like $25.00,.. and most of that was the shipping charges.. anyway, here's the flyer, basically, that I've been carrying around.

Save 25-50% off on custom printed products at VistaPrint. Order today!

Leica Robotic Total Station

This is the robot that I'm getting, a Leica TPS1200+, linked above, and it's a sweet one. Fully contained, has a built-in antennae and internal batteries, Bluetooth Wireless Technology, with an Allegro Data Collector running Carlson Software, it's a perfect tool for a lone surveyor, the camera has been upgraded from previous versions, and I can actually run this, on an open site, faster than a conventional two-man crew. We used one a lot like if for the Lenoir City intersection job. That one was a little older version, the battery and radio for that one are both external ones, and you have to carry those around separate, what makes this one neat is all those parts are actually contained inside the station. So, I've printed my flyers, and today was partly marketing and partly meeting with my new favorite person, he's a financial guru that my step dad found that is maximizing his 401(k), this all AFTER the big crash, I think he was down in his like $100,000, and he's brought him, I think, all the way back from that and then some, in this market, that's saying a lot,. so,.. needless to say, I'm transferring my 401(k) over to his hands. That's what's been going on today, that and still building a marketing list.

Here's the Dream

This is the house that I've got picked out to build on our lot in Mt. Juliet, the lot, of course, I've surveyed in the past, and the current Site Plan I've created for it is below. Now, this is where we're going from here, I would love to become a force in the Land Surveying Business in the Mt. Juliet, Lebanon and Hermitage areas, basically, Wilson County, and parts of Davidson County, as this is where I've grown up for the most part, so, I'm now involved working on my Marketing, I guess you'd call it, for now I'm just posting this as references to all the different types of Surveys that I'm capable of, these include, of course, simple Lot Surveys and/or Fence Surveys, where folks just want to know where there Lot Lines are, mostly for building fences, which can be your bread and butter, however, I am also very capable and equipped to do Boundary Surveys, Topographic Surveys, ALTA/ACSM Land Title Surveys, have had a lot of experience at the Engineering Firm I worked at with Road Construction and Route Surveying for Government Agencies, Strip Topographic Surveys for Utility Companies, and another area I'm really looking to try and latch on the market for is Mortgage Loan Inspections or Mortgage Loan Surveys (we don't really like to use that term, as Surveyors, though) because as far as the Bank is concerned, it's all the same, but their terminology can be misleading to the General Public, and this is what the banks like to have any time there is a transfer of Real Property, but it's not truly a Survey, per se, as much as an Exhibit.

Land Surveyor, Nashville and Surrounding Areas

This link will take you to the metro planning site, it's where you'll start if you've got the idea to do anything to your property in the Metropolitan Nashville area, it's open to the public, and you can search and look at your property online, see what the current configuration looks like, see what's of record and basically, it's the place of beginning for a Surveyor.

Tennessee Army National Guard-Catoosa Training Site

This site is actually in Catoosa, Georgia, that's right, spent some time having to convince the reviewers (the QC guys) at the office that this IS actually a TENNESSEE Army National Guard site,.. anyway, fun little job, and the week we were there was busy for them, as they had some inner city kids from around the Atlanta area there, some kind of outreach program for the one's who had done well in school, lot of them were there for their third and fourth straight year.

If you've been here before, and are wondering what happened to the drawings, I had to take them off of here for fear of copyright infringement, I did a bit of research, and since I've been laid off from HFR, I don't really have the right to show the drawings that I've done for them. It's a sticky area, for sure, so, to be safe, just going to post the drawings that I do personally as my dba.

2115 Elm Hill Pike

Most of our jobs are local to the Nashville area, which makes it easier to access the data we need, but I thought I might throw out something for the search engines here, we are also available for Land Survey work in Franklin, Brentwood, Ashland City, Mt. Juliet, Hermitage, Old Hickory, Madison, Joelton, Pleasantview, Antioch, Green Hills, Forest Hills, Oak Hill, Belle Meade, Bellevue, etc., etc., et al.

I guess I could list all the major suburbs around Nashville and Davidson County, Tennessee, but I think I've got most of them listed here, we survey where the jobs take us, for the most part, and have worked as far away as Mississippi and Kentucky, but I, personally, am only licensed for Tennessee.

ShopWiki.com

Check out Toys and Games, this website came in handy just recently, we were looking for a desk for Nicole, and went there and found the best prices, not only that, when we got there and went to the site with the cheapest price, we found out the desk we wanted was a clearance item, and saved even more money,.. and you know, of course, with Momma in charge,..it was a VERY SPECIFIC desk,..it just wasn't any old desk we were looking for,.. Nickelodeon's Dora The Explorer Art Desk with 100 Piece Art Supply Kit..very nice site here, can search for whatever you may be looking for,.. and this site does not JUST go and find the paid advertising out there on the web, it searches EVERYWHERE.
So, if you're looking for any of these items,.. try it out.

They also have write-ups basically all over every part of their site, if you're unsure of what you're looking for or just need tips and tricks, or maybe even some guides on how to use your equipment, it's all here. Also includes recommendations and buying guides,.. can navigate very easily from the main page to all of these.

Workshop and Home Improvements

They have an easily navigated website to find all your Tools and Hardware, Circular Saws, whatever,..anything you can even dream of,.. give them a try. There is no fee at all.
It's just a search vehicle, from what I can tell.

So,...go, now,.. Back to School

Shopping Online

Zappos.com web site that offered the absolute best selection in shoes in terms of brands, styles, colors, sizes, and widths. They carried brand name shoes like Nike shoes, available also for women's, and Nike's Kids. Shopping online is less energy, you don't need to go nowhere else just click the item or search what you are looking for.Most of us do shopping as a hobby and we mainly shop for various needs and purposes. But since many of us couldn’t spend much time on shopping these days due to lack of time and patience many prefer to shop online where they can choose whatever they want.

Zappos.com s one of the best shopping sites which help us to buy all the shopping needs and gives the best deals in the market. You can enjoy shopping online and find the things and the item that you needed.Online shopping can be fun but many people find difficult in finding the exact product they are looking for. To find your product visit Zappos.com . They're complete list of products include clothing, accessories and lot more on this site. in addition they offer the best selection and affordable price.

600 St. Jules Lane

This is a big one, the first actual surveying job that I've gotten thru this blog, very nice. Interesting job. We shot it with a Leica TCR 1105 Robotic Total Station, it's my buddy's station, he was the one that actually taught me most of everything I know about surveying, at least early in my career, I've picked up a few more things along the way, and I got licensed, where he didn't, he does strictly construction layout, and they (the Surveyor's Board) don't really recognize that side of the industry as being (or needing) to have those guys licensed for some reason.
Anyway, this is the job we shot yesterday, and I drew it this morning,..

Peachers Mill Road, Clarksville, TN

Well, old friend, we haven't spoken in a bit,.. but here we are, haven't been doing a lot of drawing lately, we've paired back our staff quite a bit and I've been working in the field a lot lately, construction staking mostly, which is a good sign for the economy, and have also been working on a couple of intersections in Clarksville, and also, since we've spoken, went on a field trip to Lenoir City up by Knoxville, and set some GPS Control up there, that was an interesting and educational trip for me, because I have never run the GPS Equipment that we have. The system we have is fairly uncomplicated, real user-friendly, for the most part, once you get it dialed in,..it's a Leica Smart Rover, and I've just added another skill to my repertoire, that, and I've been learning also to use the robotic guns we have. They are a bit different as well, and really, I don't know how efficient they really are, it seems we always seem to have a hard time keeping it following us, would be faster in my opinion, for us sometimes just to use the conventional guns, but that's not my call. Of course, if you're just one man, then they are the way to go, but if you have two available, the conventional gun is more efficient. You can't talk to the robot, that's really the only draw back,..with a person over there, they can tell you where you need to be to get a shot, with the robot, you almost have to be able to see it, not always, and the guy I work with is really good with it, but I struggle a little.

How to Save Money on Your Water Bills

Okay, we're all about the environment today, at least we SHOULD be, don't you want it to be nice for your kids,.. they say that a single toilet, now this is what I read at one at the gas station, which probably sees a bit more action than your toilet at home,.. but that one, made energy efficient, could save as much as 40,000 gallons of fresh water per year,.. in that vein, let me introduce you to dual flush toilets, convert your toilet now with the dual flush conversion kit, and save yourself money and help the planet by saving our fresh water supply,..

SelectAFlush is a dual flush toilet conversion kit, that can convert your standard toilet to this water saving device, help our future generations, and the myriad of folks around the country who are actually on water rations, as we speak,.. check this site for more tips on how to save our most precious resource,.. how to save water, and save yourself some money in the process, with the economy the way it is, saving money is a concern for everyone, so visit water savings
and see what you can do, I'm doing my part.

Hilton Garden Inn -Excess Property

I've provided a link above if you're looking for some Nashville Commercial Real Estate, what they've got us doing here is cutting off the brand new parking area they built in the back,..and they want to sell it to some type of other business, I guess to recoup some moneys, because they have the parking garage there for their parking, and the extra space in the back is some prime real estate right there on Division Street,..shown as Lot 2 there, it's around a half acre or so.

Hilton Garden Inn Nashville Vanderbilt

Judging by this website,.linked above,..we need to go ahead and get busy on this one,..their taking reservations now,..new job we just got the other day, and I guess we're making two properties out of one, that's our purpose there, I guess they're gonna sell off the parking garage part of this property to one of the big parking lot companies,..anyway,.. we got this one because we had done the previous survey, I reckon, and now they've built this hotel on the site,.. this is what the site looked like two years ago.

McEwen Drive, East of Wilson Pike

Wow, it's been a minute since I've posted here, sorry to let ya'll down,..just haven't had a lot going on, we've recently started to pick up a little bit, but, for the most part, the last couple of weeks,..we've just been working a little on existing projects,..and I've had to take some vacation time,..the work has just not been there,..anyway,..we got released to stake the Centerline of the above project,..and if you follow that link,.. it shows you different phases of the McEwen Drive project in Franklin, Tn,..well,.. the part we're on is not shown there,.. where we are now is at the end of the currently shown McEwen Drive,.. to the East,.. where it intersects w/ Wilson Pike there,..we're taking it that much further east right now,..over the river and thru the woods, to Grandmother's house we go,.. I guess the reason I'm up now is I'm itching a little bit,..we got thru around the first half of the total project today,..and we're out in the open field again,..w/ like waist high underbrush,..grr,..it's a bit rough to walk thru, but the last part we just came thru was fairly wooded,..and it seems,.. very tick infested,.. we sprayed up real good and everything,..but you still couldn't walk to far in there without getting attacked pretty good,.. and I washed my hair twice tonight when I got home, and ran the shower brush thru it real good,..and was still sitting watching a bit of TV earlier, and picked a tick off my ear,..and a couple off my arms,. their relentless,.as Chris says,.. whew,..anyway,..that's where we are now,..we may get to the end of it today,..then we've got a real interesting job downtown,.. where the ticks aren't,.. lol,.. can't wait to get there,.. and I'll show that to ya'll next,..
k

Ward Belmont College

Walking thru the print room today, I happened upon this old print of Ward Belmont College, circa 1924, this was a site plan done by Hart & Nevins (now HFR Design-where I work-if you've been paying attention),.. there were some others there, but this one caught my attention, and reading up a bit on it, I had thought originally that this was a print of Belmont College, (now University), and it actually is, partly, at the time, though, this was a women's college called Ward Belmont, since moved and renamed Harpeth Hall, an all girl's school here in Nashville in the Green Hills area, anyway, thought I'd share it with ya'll. Read on, faithful one,..



I believe, based on the maps that I've gotten, that the Ward Belmont portion of Belmont University was in that south-westerly quad there (Campus Map has South straight up-),.. there at the corner of Portland and Belmont Boulevard seems to be where this site was. It's hard to tell from the Aerial that I can pull up here, but it seems like there's something else there now, cause it doesn't look like it did then.



Excerpt from the Wikipedia article, which is linked above, tells us that this site is NOW Belmont University.

"In 1951, under financial constraints, Ward-Belmont's campus was sold to the Tennessee Baptist Convention. The campus was used to establish Belmont College (now Belmont University). A new, modern, non-residential girls' high school, Harpeth Hall School, was established on the Estes estate in the affluent Green Hills section of Nashville to take the place of Ward-Belmont."

Actually, the Ward Belmont College portion shown here is across the street from the Main Campus at Belmont.

Ft. Negley in Color

One of our surveyors today was telling me how he had the plot of Ft. Negley up at his house on the wall, in color, thought I'd make a copy for ya'll here. He worked on it, and liked it well enough to hang it in his home office.

NAS Atlanta

Windy Hill Annex to the Naval Air Station at Altlanta, Ga., I guess, is the way the military sees this sight, not a lot of web presence. The square whole to the south is the FAA Radar site.

Site Plan - Construction Layout

Well,this blog is not really the best place to showcase some of this stuff,... this post is under construction, as is this residence, we also did the one next door.

Part of Lot 4 of the William White Lands

This is one we're currently doing,.. and it's an interesting bit of history, good story, more story, funny story,.. nice lady,.. all in one. More later, gotta work today.

Ft. Negley, Nashville, TN

Ft. Negley, Nashville, Tn,.. as promised, and as it looked around 5 years ago, they were supposed to use the survey to refurbish the site, however, I have not been back there lately to see how they've done, if all is well, it should look now like the pictures below, but this is what it looked like before they started. I've always kind of thought the overall effect of the survey looks like a whale,.. if you stand back,.and look at it,.. it's just a hill downtown, but it is one of the most unique sites I have ever seen, and it became one of those drawings that I took a great amount of pride in,..Not that I don't take pride in all of them,..but this one was historic, in my life, and in the real world, as well.. anyway, the drawing came out really nice, but it was a beast to shoot,.. and took three of us several days.

Radar Central

The "Tiki Hut",.. that's what the guys on-site call this,..it's where the super has his office,.. kudos to Chris for these pics and "Sweat Tea", for putting up with me all day,..and a job well done.



Job done,..whew,..taking a break, we were basically through at this point, had a couple things left, and were waiting on the superintendent to show us his proposed utilities, so we could add to the plans without a return trip.



Randy and me, checking over the plans,..making sure we've got everything "shot",..don't want to have to drive to Georgia, if we've missed anything,..



Chris and his "partner",.. we call him "Robbie",...



Randy "Sweet Tea" Stubblefield, and I, with Randy running our robot "gun",.. takes only one person to run that,..that's why I'm grinning, at that point, I was done for that day,.. ha ha,..



This picture is yours truly, running our "conventional" total station, meaning it takes one person on the "gun" (EDM, is the industry term-stands for Electronic Distance Measuring device, I suppose) and one on the "stick",..the pen, as it were,..



The tab on top today takes you to a tight little site, where you can look at the different radar coverages,.. anyway, this is the radar at the station at Windy Hill, my mother, being a mother, and also married now to my step-father, (great guy, btw) who is retired Air Force Military Police, seems a bit concerned that I'm giving away National Security secrets, by posting about this in my blog,. so,..if you're a terrorist, please to go away, before I poke you in your eye.

Elmington Park Partial Topographic Survey

Actually did this one about 2 years ago,.. just figured out how to post these,..so,..hey,..probably more in the future, can click right on the picture for close up view,.. this is basically the type of survey we were doing at the Windy Hill facility this week,..locate EVERYTHING, with elevations (vertical datum).. won't have that drawing for a bit, but found this one, was actually looking for a copy of our survey of Ft. Negley,..look there at that diagram,...and it still looks amazingly a lot like that,..have a survey here somewhere, full topographic survey of that one,..and it's one of my finest works,..very proud of it,..but can't find it,..I'm sure it's on the network at the office, backed up,.. but I used to keep a copy handy here.
Here's what it looks like,.. if I can get this to work,.momma's about to give up on me tho',..lol.



Will see if I can't find that to show to ya'll.

FAA Radar at Windy Hill Naval Air Station

I may try to attach a Pdf of this site, at some point, to show ya'll what I do, don't have the drawing done at this time, for this job, that part has only just begun,..however, wanted to just give a shout to something on the site that we did not shoot, and when you see the survey, I'm assuming here momma will be able to help me post a pdf file, I can make those pretty easily,..anyway, what you'll see there is a gap where this FAA Radar Station is,..and what it looks like is just this huge white ball, (the one above seems to be quite a bit smaller than the one there, it was HUGE),..and apparently controls one of the airports down there,..the guy in charge of construction there was telling me which one,..and I guess I'm gonna have to start putting on my reporter cap, and taking better notes,.. because I can't seem to remember what he said,..however, there are several airports close there, and it seems he said something about the Atlanta Airport,..anyway,..the closest Naval Airport is only two miles away, and we saw, and heard,..(another semi-loud site,..not nearly as bad as Embassy Suites) several low-flying jets, of the TOP GUN variety,..

Here's something I found on the internet that I would assume is what the inside of that thing looks like,..




NAS Atlanta is very close,..but I don't think that's the one he was talking about, and, apparently this Radar is one of the biggest, capable of broadcasting its signal 500 nautical miles.

Georgia State Plane Coordinate System

hate to waste any typing done on this laptop,..so, forgive me SQ,.gonna copy/paste,..

more up early, than anything, I didn't even go to dinner with the guys last night, I was so tired,..I have to work more than them,..to process the data, and all that, so, I was working on getting the drawing started, and also putting together a picture for the superintendent out there, he wanted us to leave him with something to work with, for now,..so,..anyway,..when we left site today, came here, piddled,..crashed.

I had previously been putting together a drawing, combining the previous job with the current one, there's some things that had changed, but to better show what we shot, we wanted the linework to come in, well, I didn't have all that loaded on this computer, it's been a while since I actually set up a new computer that was capable of taking the data from "field to finish" as they say, and I didn't load one part of that. It's a pretty important piece, and sometimes it's a little geeky to set up,..I was just trying to get this one set up to import the points, mostly, didn't really think about trying to start the drawing while I was here, however, sent all the data back to the office yesterday and today,..well,.it seems the coordinates here are different enough that our program, made for the coordinate system in Tennessee just wouldn't work for it. So, even if I had that part of it,..it would be challenging to make it work,...we have a fix, and my office manager did that, but sent it back to me on a different coordinate system altogether, anyway,..grrr,..

Momma's favorite store,..

yeah, what a day here in GA,.. had some issues early, after bringing our points in, and getting our drawing started, went to breakfast, then to Target,..momma's favorite store,..TARGET.com,..she always calls it,...had to get Randy a jacket, it's a bit cool here in Georgia, and he left ALL his jackets in his truck, which is at the office,..so,..after that, we headed toward the site, around the time we started getting close, got a call from the Home Office, they need us to come move our rooms, 'cause somebody didn't book correctly, we knew all along it was gonna take 3 days to shoot this site, but they only had us down for 2. So, we head back,..and thank god for small favors, got me out of that stinky ol' room,..this one I'm in now is a little better, doesn't stink, but the internet access is iffy at best.

Once again,..my recommendation,..


Country Inn & Suites Atlanta-NW at Windy Hill Rd

Anyway,..tired, going back to bed,..just had to bring today's points in and get them ready so we could have a print to take to the field with us today,..

Days Inn at Windy Hill, Smyrna, GA

Nice place, for the most part, little stinky, my room,... psssht,..please. Had them come in and spray some freshener, it helped, but there's an underlying odor in here, that seems to be a part of the room. The guys are across the hall, and their room smells fine, I think it's just the singles. Grrrr....

my recommendation,..


Country Inn & Suites Atlanta-NW at Windy Hill Rd

Dancing w/ Dora,..

Didn't realize this, til after I watched the whole video, but at the end, ...it takes you to more videos of Nicole,..check out Dancing with Dora,.. funnee,.. or here ya go,..vimeo, the link takes you there as well.

Nicole's (second) First Easter Egg Hunt

Tornadoes in Murfreesboro,..

Just a little note for everybody to keep these folks in Murfreesboro, Tn, in your prayers,..as there was quite a bit of destruction there the other night,..

TORNADO UPDATE

Easter Sunday

Click the banner,..don't ever forget,..lol.

Well,..it's been a terribly eventful day, so far,....we were actually supposed to start earlier than we did, but,..we did get started. The plan for me was, for us to go finish the sewer line this morning,..but, once again, my faithful helper was not so faithful. That said, it didn't really bother me,..didn't much want to work on Easter Sunday,.anyway,..so, just kind of surfed a bit this morning, you know, at Goallineblitz, of course,.. and then, when momma got up, we rushed around a bit, got dressed and went to church, where, of course, we were about 30 minutes late,..actually, we might need to think about coming in that late more often,..ha ha,.. all the formalities were done by that point, and we made it just in time for the preaching, and this guy is a hoot!! Pulled up the website,.. of course,.. Joy Church, and look, there he is.

Also, can you tell, Grace just showed me how to put the links right in the blog,..hee hee,.. I CAN be trained, apparently,.. anyway,..so, good service today, but, as we're getting home, momma, of course, wants some pictures of her and Nicole on the front porch,..I'm sure you'll see those there in her blog momentarily, so, I take a couple of pictures, and go to hand the camera back to her,..and miss,..egads!

It hits the concrete from about three feet up, and "Ouch!",..she grabs it up quick,..and sure enough, it's broke. The little focusing thingie won't open. What a mess, I tell her,..I'm sorry,.momma, but she's inconsolable, if you've seen her blog,..you may know, I think she loves that camera more than just about anything, maybe even Nicole, most assuredly me,..

So, I take it and tell her I'm going to Electronics Express,..don't feel the need for a link there,..and I go. Well, so, I guess their doing Easter Eggs while I'm gone,..and I didn't know.

So, the Express is closed, of course,..so, as I'm driving back, I'm looking at the camera, might oughta have been watching the road, oh well, anyway,..the little circle thingie on the front is just a bit off center,..so, I decide to just ease it over a little,..and it got a little better,..acted like it wanted to open,..so,..did some more,..easy,..
Got home,..camera still wouldn't open, momma still has tears in her eyes,...so, I tell her it was an accident, I'm sorry,..blah, blah,..but she's still hatin' on me,...I come in here,..been messing with my email all day,..it was trying to download that outlook connector, and kept crashing,..started that over again,.then went out and got the camera and brought it to her, and shared my theory that if we got that thing back to center, it would open and work again.

She's very diligent, and she got it working, finally,..so, now she's a bit better,.and I take Nicole outside,..and she finds a plastic egg with some candy in it,..this is when I realize,.."They had the Easter Egg Hunt without me!!,..grrr,..", and I go in there, and ask her about it,..and she says,..well, you were gone,..lol,..

Anyway,.so, I tell her,..let's do it again,..hee hee, Nicole won't know the difference,.... and she'll be better at it this time. Can see the video, I'm sure, in a day or so,..at Grace's Blog. With the now fixed camera. Wow,..and it's not even dinner time yet.

Coalition of Owners

Subtitled:

Survivor GLB: Axis of Power, was the brainchild of thechief58831 (username) and mine, back in Season 4, I think it was,..banner click above for the website I made back then,..it's still there, but the website never really got the play that I was looking for,. but if you're interested in Goallineblitz, that site, the home page, will show you just a few of the things, on a cursory glance, that we're involved with doing in there. That was my second website that I made, and the better effort, at that time, than my Voodoo site, I think, and I just like the look of it.

Alright then,.. if you want to see it, here's also the link, in case you're just not paying attention, and need it handed to you,.. lol,..

Survivor GLB: Axis of Power

Embassy Suites Nashville-Airport

Finally landed a decent sized job, well, I didn't, but my boss did,..and we went and got it shot in today,..it's been a little while since I used to do these type jobs on a regular basis, lately, we had been working pretty much exclusively in the woods off Nolensville Road, there. Well, today was a totally different animal. The Embassy Suites, out by the Airport, in Century City, I guess it's called,..banner above,..of course, will take you to their website,..I think that's so neat,..love that my site is entirely, (almost) clickable,.. just about everything you click will take you somewhere else,.. My Santiago Voodoo site is like that, too,.. my other site there, is even better,..talk about that later,..

So,.. yeah,.lol,.see how I get,.easily sidetracked sometimes,. but not on the job,.. we got the whole site done today, and we had a big time. Our Office Coordinator even came out and located corners for us, as he lives close here, and he's needed a day in the field, he just had some surgery on his foot, and needs to get walking on it,..well, he got his walking in today. I had to go to the bathroom at one point, and I needed a bit of a break, 'cause a site like that, it's all asphalt and concrete, mostly, and if you've been walking in the woods for several days, you're feet and ankles and back are just not used to it. So, he had found the corners for us while we were shooting the site, and then he did the parking space count, oh, and he also went and got us lunch. It was a bit cool today, so I suggested we go inside and eat in the lobby. It was very nice, had a little area with tables and stuff. The reason I had suggested that was I had just gone thru there, thru the heated pool area to get to the patio out there to get that shot in,..and it felt delicious, did I say it was a little cool today? Enough that when I walked thru the pool, I wanted to stay in there for a few minutes. So, by the time I got finished with the patio, he was back with our lunch, and we all went in and sat down and ate.

You see how these walls of text start,. I seriously have verbosity issues,..

So, bottom line, after lunch, we got back to it, for another couple of hours, and by that time, he had all the parking spaces counted, and had investigated and found a drainage line we needed to located across the property. That's when I had to get me a break, and David, that's our office guy, he wanted to "stick" (remember we talked about the stick being the pen) a little while, anyway, because it's just been a while since he had been in the field,..he and I used to work together, exclusively, and we always cut up and have a big time, I think sometimes he misses me,.. lol,..

Okay, so, by the time I drove down to the store, and back, I kind of took my time, not really, store wasn't that far,.. time I got back, he was limping pretty bad. I told him he needed to run the gun at that point, it's hard work walking on asphalt, especially after a surgery, it's been a little while, and he's been thru his PT and everything,.. and he only did like 5-10 minutes of walking around, but he had been out there all day with us, and climbed a couple of little hills on either side of the site,..I climbed the first one, but he wanted to do the corners, so, we had split up at that point.

All that to say, he ran the gun for a little while longer, then we let him go on home. We were pretty close to being done anyway, had about another hour or so. One thing I forgot to mention, the hotel there, very nice inside, and out, but that has GOT to be the loudest site, outside that hotel, that I've been on in a while. Notwithstanding the planes flying over every now and again, they've got these huge refrigeration units, that just seemed to be screaming every time we had to get close to them. We don't have earphone radios, but that site might have required some, I think my ears are still ringing.

Going to a Marine Base North of Atlanta next Week,..more later.

HFR Design, Inc.

Previously, we flew under the name Hart, Freeland, Roberts, Inc., however, I guess, that being a mouthful,..and for years our nom de plume had been HFR, they've updated our new name to HFR Design,.. click the banner at the top for the survey section of our website, it's very basic, and hidden in our company's web pages, and you probably would never find it if you weren't looking for it,..I've long tried to get them to register us with Google, or some search engines, and to put, you know, Land Surveying, and that kind of thing so folks could find us, I doubt you would find us if you typed in Land Surveying, Nashville, TN, which is what I would search for if it was me and I was looking for a survey company here,..maybe now MY site will come up in that search, who knows.

Anyway, picked up a couple of jobs yesterday, one construction layout, we've previously discussed what that is, and one just like Site plan job,..where we just located what's there, and this one is an addition to an existing house, pretty simple stuff, and easy to understand.

Gotta get going now,..it's work-thirty.

Edited: 4-13-09 Ya'll are a huge help, forgot to mention this, but, yeah,.. registered both this site and our survey web page at HFR at google, thanks.

Metro Trunk Sewer, Nolensville, Tn

Okay,.. so,..our latest project is a trunk line sewer along Mill Creek in Nolensville, Tn,. which is around 25 miles from my house here in Hermitage,. we've been working on this one off and on for around 4 weeks now,..and we're almost done with it. Yesterday, my helper, and the boss' son showed up, and his back was bothering him a bit, he'd been to the ER last Thursday, I guess, and he had some pills from the ER Doctors, said he'd sprained it,.so,..anyway,. we went on out yesterday and were working on our punch list,..had to locate a few benchmarks that we had set leveling earlier in the job, and also start a new topo down a couple of the lateral lines heading back to a subdivision that's around 1500 feet south of the creek there. Well, we got all our benchmark stuff done, and sketched all our overhead, and we headed up this long driveway to this guys house where we were fixing to topo along his west line for the sewer lateral. It had been threatening rain pretty much all day, and it was kind of spitting a little, and we weren't in a huge hurry to get set up because I figured it was fixing to come down pretty hard, so, we got to talking to the owner there, and he's tellin' us about his daughter that does barrel racing, and also about his greyhound dogs that he's raised from pups,..apparently, they've had a nice career of racing, at least one of them did,..the other he said wasn't terribly fast,..however, he was saying, because Grace had been asking me this weekend about dogs,..that greyhounds are just great lap dogs, and just freindly as all get out, and blah, blah, blah,.. so, about the time we get set up to get started,..you guessed it, here comes the rain,..not only that,. it was the freezin' variety,.so,. needless to say,..we'd been out there for like 4-5 hours by that point, we just called 'er a day and headed on back to the house.

It's just a day in the life,.. and some of the interesting folks you meet out and about.

We got to talking about dogs the other day after going to Wal-Mart, where we saw a little family had some little boston terrier pups, giving them away,..well, that was just amazing to the little woman,.."they just giving those away,...why?,.. ",.. sometimes the commonplace stuff in our lives is foreign as heck to other folks,. (if you don't know, my wife is philippino,..and not an American one,..she's straight from the island),.. (she's also obviously beating the heck out of the child right now,..cause there's quite a ruckus going on,..it's bed time,.lol) she always has a fresh take on stuff,.. and so I tried to explain that to her,... anyway,.. gotta get back to my defense.

Holla back,..

Project Mayhem (A Love Letter)

Wrote the following article for a contest we had,.. sometimes I just explode, verbally,..and there's just nothing I can do about it,.. serio'.

From the Script of “Remember the Titans” (2000)

You got one minute, Coach

Take the other time-out, Coach.

Ronnie Bass!

Coach, Rev's going back in, right?

Not at quarterback, son.

I can't make that pitch, Coach.

Yes, you can.

When I was 15 years old, I lost my mother and my father in the same month, Ronnie--the same month.
12 brothers and sisters. I was the youngest one, but they were all looking up to me. Now, I wasn't ready yet,
either, but they needed me. Your team needs you tonight. You're the colonel. You're going to command
your troops tonight. - Do you understand?
- Yes, sir.

Twins right,
zero read.

Walt Whitman (1819–1892). Leaves of Grass. 1900.

193. O Captain! My Captain!

O CAPTAIN! my Captain! our fearful trip is done;
The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won;
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring:
But O heart! heart! heart!
O the bleeding drops of red,
Where on the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.

Captain, it is not yet critical, it is, but with sudden-death overtime. Goallineblitz, its players tell their own tale.

We, the players of Goallineblitz, are speaking here to Bort, our Captain, who we recognize as the founder, creator, enigma, and general wraith of the game, as we troll the forums for his little tidbits of information (affectionally called Bortisms), here and there, that get quoted back and forth, probably more than any other one persona within the game, he's the nerfer (in-game term used to describe a fix in the sim for an exploit that allows a particular type of build to excel) of player builds, and creator of the sim engine that we all love to hate, and hate to love. He has given us this game, the game of American Football, in an MMORPG, this, truly, is America's game of choice, be it at whatever level, from peewees to Pros, we, as Americans, love our football, we spend countless hours watching, playing, coaching, discussing, living and breathing this game, and Bort has become our best friend and our worst enemy, as he continually tweaks and prods the game engine, in an effort to make it at least, if not better than, then the equal to "World of Warcraft", most generally regarded as 'the" most popular MMORPG. We are saying here, it's almost time, but time we DO have, to truly get it right, before it comes out of "beta" testing and becomes THE Alpha game of THE Alpha sport of THE Alpha Nation of the world. Ask not for whom the bell tolls, Bort, it tolls for thee.
Where, you ask, do the players tell their tale?,..why, of course, in the forums. The whole site is based on forums, and there's a master page that contains all the latest updates to posts in each forum. From that page, you can navigate to anywhere within the site, or you can stay local, within your own team forum. Each time someone posts something new in a forum, the forum button reads new, meaning you haven't seen something yet within that forum that somebody has written. You could probably surf the site for days, and not read everything there is everywhere within, and a lot of us do endeavor to do just that,..there may be a Bortism somewhere we missed, and we the players, always trying to find some tweak of build or incremental advantage to the game would hate for somebody to know something that we didn't.

O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells;
Rise up—for you the flag is flung—for you the bugle trills;
For you bouquets and ribbon’d wreaths—for you the shores a-crowding;
For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning;
Here Captain! dear father!
This arm beneath your head;
It is some dream that on the deck,
You’ve fallen cold and dead.

One of the best parts of this game are the opportunities for discussion and debate, and of course, the general tomfoolery that you can find available in the forums, we have forums for everything in GLB, from public debate, where we discuss the different variations of the sim that come out every season, to private forums for coordinators to work on their various and complex AI's (Artificial Intelligence), all the way to even a private forum that discusses One Million Degrees of Purplesmurf (one user's in-game persona), from the "serious" GLB'er's, The Network, to the actual self-proclaimed "Mafia" of GLB in the GLB Addicts Forum, we have forums inside of forums, forums for each region where a lot if not all of the discussion is centered around your team and the various teams in your division, even to an Epic Suggestion forum, where the very best of the ideas espoused in the other forums go to live on, and eventually become a part of the game.

We even have forums dedicated to things that Bort has on his NTGH (Never Going to Happen) list, most notably, the Unofficial GLB Draft Forum, which was started as a suggestion, grew to a movement, and soon will be a staple of the well-informed owner. The game itself is ever evolving and changing, and so, to, are its players, as we get to know people more by their particular avatars and their wit and style, than their name, and more, as we, as players, tend to recruit our friends to this game, because we love it so much, we introduce even more diverse and varying interests to the game. I reference above a few quotes from one of my all-time favorite movies, "Remember the Titans",..where the bottom line is you judge a man more by his character than his color, here in GLB you are judged more by your intelligence, wit, style, and prose, and also by the quality of the product, your "team" and "players", that you put on the field.
Inside of the various forums, are the topics, called threads, and anybody is allowed to start a thread about whatever they wish, the only small issue there is, once you’ve created a thread, you’re the only one that can delete it, I guess you or the mod’s (moderator’s) and I suppose Bort and all his minions have probably deleted a lot as well. However, it seems, not everybody in GLB land is an English major, not by far, I find it hilarious, to me, personally, when somebody creates a thread with poor spelling or diction, and usually, if not right away, sooner or later, that person will take some heat for that. You can’t edit the thread title once you’ve posted, the only thing you CAN do is delete it and start over, however, usually by the time that person notices what he and/or she has done, the thread has filled up, and it would be a shame to kill it at that point.
Threads are where we as the users of the site can pose questions, or make statements, or just open discussion on any and all variety of topics, most being GLB related, but there’s also a lot of just general threads here as well. A personal favorite of mine, and probably of just about everyone on the site who has ever visited it, and of course, this site being not totally dominated by testosterone, but for the most part, yeah,..is the Megan Fox thread in the SouthAmerican Main Forum, where it started as a tribute to the actress, and there’s a lot of links to pictures of her there, but has degenerated considerably to include links to just about every internet beauty you could possibly think of, with a nod to its most famous and highly anticipated contributor, and also, a Soldier in the “family”, Adam Allison.


My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still;
My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will;
The ship is anchor’d safe and sound, its voyage closed and done;
From fearful trip, the victor ship, comes in with object won;
Exult, O shores, and ring, O bells!
But I, with mournful tread,
Walk the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.

Goallineblitz stands at the brink of glory, anxious to go public, to become, as they say an "Alpha" game,..it has been in "beta" status for a year, testing, tweaking, probing, getting feedback, analysis, learning, growing, becoming the great game that we all wish it to be, is it ready, is the game engine realistic, are the stats realistic, does it matter?,..it's an MMORPG, a massive multiplayer online role-playing game, and that is what it has become, we have all grown together, learned the game, the engine, the exploits, and as the game evolves, so too do its players, its coaches, its captains, its owners, and at it's core, the root of it all, it has become more than just a football game, it has become a way of life,..from the Addicts to the casual player, we all have become a community, and as, with any community, there are different factions, groups, cliques, etc., but we all have the one thing in common, the love for the game, and the written word.

[Coach]Ref!. Unnecessary roughness!

That's a penalty!
On the quarterback? Are you kidding me, Coach?

Na nanana

Whoo-hoo-hoo!

Did you see that, man?

That's a bad white boy, man.

Hike!

Na nanana

Hey, hey, hey

Good-bye

We've got ourselves a football player.

My Tale

My personal addiction to the game came about innocently enough, I played quite a bit of online chess, prior to finding Goallineblitz, and I was chatting with someone I was playing with one day, and they told me of another, different game, Bush League Baseball,..not an MMORPG, but, more a funny type game,..well, it was there, in the forums, that I first heard of THIS game. So, on day 6, of Season 2, I created Biggie Cheese, an OT, a rat, he was, a character from the Barnyard Movie, he sings Mr. Bombastic in that movie, and I just thought it was funny as heck, so,..my addiction was born. He signed on with a team almost immediately, and I began to make him strong, and a good blocker, and then I made another player,..a cornerback, Fastas Lightning, because the team I had just joined were in need of several pieces, and I was more than willing to help.

From there, it has gotten progressively worse, but there exists a light at the end of this tunnel, in another three or four seasons, Biggie will have to be retired, as in-game, the life span of our players is but ten seasons, after which their skills will start to decline, and there may exist at that time the opportunity for them to be enshrined or made coaches, or more probably, he will be retired, and here's where the never-ending story begins again, I will receive 70% of the flex points (in-game money) back for him that I've spent on his development and training, over his life as a player, and of course, Biggie Cheese will be reborn.

I now have over 60 players, and hold the title of GM on no less than 12 teams, two of which I'm the Offensive Coordinator for, where I offer build advice and espouse general football psychology, on another team, I am the Offensive Line Coach, where my job is just to make sure everybody gets their tactics set correctly, the other's being in-game friend's teams, where I most typically am the financial adviser.

Currently, I'm the Owner of the Santiago Voodoo, a team I have built from the ground up, starting at the beginning of season 4 with a level 13 capped team, that started existence in the A #8 League in SouthAmerica, a team that now plays in the AAA # 2 SouthAmerican Conference of GLB, after record promotion and relegation. We have a website that is open to the public, a totally completed stadium, and I have recently taken over the Offensive Coordinator duties there, as well, as I felt that I knew the players on my team as well as anybody, and there's that aspect of control that you must have.

I, personally, have probably written upwards of a million words within this game, it seems, and although not all the players tend towards the explosion of syllables that seem to come from my keyboard, there do seem to be a lot of varied points of views within these forums. I've thought at length of a way to combine all of these posts to a book of our experiences within GLB, because I have truly lol'd (laughed out loud) on more than several occasions at things that I've read here, but don't know if their would exist a market for such a thing. In RL (real-life, to the uninitiated) I am a Registered Land Surveyor, and although I do draw pictures, more or less, for a living, I believe my other calling is as a writer, I'm not always funny, or even astute, and it seems, this has ignited again with the passion I have for this game.

I began playing when I was around 8 years old, and when my son turned 8 or so, he, intuitively chose football as his sport of choice, and so I again became involved in the game I had grown up playing and loved so well. I started small, I believe when I started, I was no more than a water boy for his first team, however, my involvement grew, and before he moved on to High School ball, I had gone as far as to begin coaching a BBB team here locally. That lasted a little while, however, the passion faded a bit, and I began to follow, with earnest, my son’s high school football team, who went on to win two State Championships while he was playing there, and since have won another. However, my son has now moved on to University, and there again was the void where the game I have loved my whole life used to sit. I still loved to watch college and Pro football, but there’s just really nothing like being involved at the levels that I was.
Goallineblitz has filled that hole admirably, sometimes to the exclusion of all else, and now I’m a full-fledged card carrying Capo in the GLB Addicts Forum, I have moved up the ranks at record pace it seems thru service to the “family”, where I keep current a list of Greasemonkey scripts and also do recommendations on Veteran Abilities. It is the first forum I visit upon logging in to the site, after, first, of course, checking over my players, whom, it seems, have started to take on a life of their own, to see if any have leveled so that I can assign their skill points. You see, in this game, we have avatars for ourselves, our in-game persona, but each of our particular players also have their own avatar (or picture). Nightly, it seems, I arise at the stroke of 3:00 AM CST , that’s when nightly training becomes available, and I religiously do my training thru sleep-encrusted eyes with a fresh cup of coffee, after which, I will either troll the forums or work on scouting or Advanced Intelligence, or whatever. Goallineblitz.com has truly invaded my life, and filled the void, and for that, Bort, and of course, Digital Daggers, I, myself, and we, the patrons of your product, thank you.

P.S. Have since been promoted to Under Boss in the “family”, after further service and the publication of this article in the GLB Addicts Forum.

Goallineblitz

Thought I'd take a time out from survey talk to tell you of another one of my little internet hobbies, and if you get addicted like me,..don't come hollerin',.. This is the best game on the 'net that you may not be playing, I swear. I've actually got a page on Grace's Blog somewhere about it, could probably just cut and paste that thing here, but I won't,..there's a tab, second one over there, that takes you to my team's website, it's pretty tight, and has a little chat box that I use from time to time to holler at folks on that site, it's a lot quicker than getting somebody's AIM or IM name and loading that stuff up. Anyway,.. the game is a sim game, of American Football, really, an MMORPG,.. role-playing, more or less, but it's a lot more than just that.

I own the Santiago Voodoo, that's my team's name, but there are a ton of teams there, and I think upwards of 300,000 players, I think. What it is, in a nutshell, is you create players first, and then start leveling them, and we have leagues for all of them,..my team is towards the top of the tier at this point, AAA in the South American Conference, that's why the website is in Spanish,..thought it added something to it,.don't you? So,. we have a Pro League above us in South America, and there's talk now of a World League that would be where the top Pro teams would go to play.

So, the players, and ya'll know what a football team looks like, you have to get about that many to field a team, I have like 60+ players there, at this point, but there in all different levels of development, I have like 15 on my own team, and then the rest are other users in the game, and we play a season, which is 40 days long, and have a game every two days in the season. This is live action, not really, but the player's are dots on the screen, but you can actually watch a whole game and we have a lot of little scripts and stuff that lets you highlight your players. We also have different play books, Offensive and Defensive AI (Artificial Intelligence) that you set up to run your game plan, and Depth Charts, energy tactics, etc., etc., etc. It's a fabulous waste of time, I'm here to tell you. But, I love it. If you're a football fan, this is the game for you.

Check the website, or just click the link above,..will take your right there, and it's free to sign up and you get enough credit off the bat to create one or two players, depending on their position.

Anyway, that's what I spend way too much time on this internet doing, just thought I'd let ya'll know about it. If you do sign up, holler at me in there,..there's a user search feature, my handle in game is klite_98,.. which is basically been my username for just about everything on the net since I got my first computer back in, you guessed it,.. 1998.

The Park at Hermitage LIbrary

Thought I'd throw a bit out today about the picture in my profile there, and where it came from,.. it's me, of course, sitting on a bench at the park, the park is here in Hermitage, on the Library property, and we had taken Nicole there that day, first day she ever slid down a slide, so, that was a HUGE deal. What makes this significant, I think, or of interest, I guess, is in the picture there,.. on top of my head, you can see what looks like two bunny ears, in white, above my head. What are those, you ask?,.. well, those are the brain child of one of the Metro Parks Directors, and what they actually are are two airplane wings, stuck in the ground on the south side of the park,.. well, what does that have to do with me?,.. I'll tell you,..lol,.. HFR, the company I work for,..contracted around the time they finished this park, first, to locate the walking bridge, it's directly behind me in the picture, but you can't see much of it, and second, to show them where True North was. So, just to the south side of the walking bridge, is the Airplane Wings Sun Dial,.. yep, those two wings are a part of a Sun Dial,..now, to tell you the truth, I've been there during the day, and it's real hard to tell time with that thing,..cause the two wings cast two shadows,.. so, not necessarily sure that it's actually an accurate sundial as much as it is just a sculpture. Of course, I've not studied Sundial reading or anything, but I was there around, I guess it was 2 o'clock that day, and it was a fairly sunny day, and it's not the first time I've been over there looking at the shadows trying to see if it told good time. I'm also sure that not a lot of people actually know that it's even supposed to be a sundial, it has a plaque there, not really sure what it says, don't think it says that, per se, I don't remember what it DOES say, right off the top of my head. We were contracted originally to show them where TRUE North was for that thing,.. and we did that. As far as making the thing tell time, I didn't have anything to do with that part of it,.. but we did show them where North,..straight up 12 o'clock, should go.

What's a Land Surveyor?

Good Morning All,..

I guess most people tend to think of the guys they see on the side of the road sometimes with the tripods, and yeah, that's us, but not totally, actually, most usually, those are the guys that work for me,.. except now, since the economy has tanked a bit, it's me again, lol,.. and it's truly where I'd rather be,.. as an RLS, when times are good, I run those guys, tell them where to go, what to do, and then take their data and crunch it, but for now, I'm that guy, I'm out collecting data, and bringing it back here and doing it all. Which is how I'd rather it be anyway, because, usually, when I have someone else collecting, I'm not always entirely sure what they shot and how they shot it. Shot is a term we use to describe the collection of one point. The points make up our drawings, and the little rod you see, well, you have to think of that as the pen. So, actually, what you see out there, and most people have this backwards as well, the guy running the instrument is usually the low man, most people go to him to ask questions and stuff, but, for the most part, he's the new guy or the least experienced one on the crew, we always say, we can teach a monkey to run the "gun",.. it's the guy with the stick who is the experienced one, he has the "pen" as we say. So, that's our pen in the field, and when we get that back here in the office, I'm the one that takes what they draw out there and puts it all together to make the localized map. That's basically what surveyor's do, in a nutshell, at least the practicing ones, we have a lot that do a lot of different types of surveying, and there are a whole ton of different aspects to surveying, but, that is the simplest form that I described, I think. We also survey from planes, boats, automobiles, four-wheelers, etc., etc., etc.,..

Just thought I would get that out there on the front end, in case anybody is listening and wondering what surveyor's do, in general, and me, specifically, what I do. Now, I'm Registered, which means authorized, by the State of Tennessee, to do a myriad of different functions, most usually, the guys you see out there, they work under me,.. except for now, of course, the guys you see out lately, if you've seen any, are liable to be corps guys, that are the least expendable, as it seems, ALL the survey companies, at least in this area, have had to lay off quite a few. We're down from 5 crews at one point to two now, and I believe we have historically been one of the busiest, best equipped and largest survey firms in this area. Times they are a changin', as they say.

Also, we go the other way, as well, and take drawings made in the office, and put them on the ground, this is called construction layout, more or less, in its simplest form. Just an FYI there.

And there are a lot of different types of surveys as well, for different purposes, all of them, most people would recognize the need to know where their property corners are, to discuss in laymen's terms, and that's another type of service that we perform, however, only a small part of what we do, as for the localized maps, we do those for the aforementioned property maps, and also we make topographic maps, hydrologic maps (being maps of water bodies), subdivision maps, where we'll take an area of property and divide it up into tracts or lots for whatever purpose needed. I think most people are at least familiar with that part, as most people live in some time of subdivision or another. There are also consulting surveyors, and one day, hopefully, I'll go that route, as that seems to be where the big money lives, it seems, teaching others to do what we do. I tend to think I could teach anybody how to survey in a short period of time, I've actually even had Ms. Grace out of a job before, and she was quite a bit easier to teach, it seems, than some of the guys I actually have working for me. I've also taken my son before, he's pretty intuitive about it as well, and is in school now at Tennessee Technological University, hopefully one day to become a Civil Engineer, and the family business will be born.

Okay, well, more later,..

RLS and More

Well, here we go, Ms. Grace has convinced me blogging is fun, so, here's my effort,..

I'm married to this crazy little woman from the Philippines, she's cute as she can be, and funny, too, her name is Grace. We have a daughter, Nicole, who will be two on May 10. Besides that, I'm a Registered Land Surveyor here in the State of Tennessee, and we also have some land we plan to build on, and this year, we've started a garden there. The land is in Mt. Juliet, where I grew up, we currently live in Hermitage, Tn, until we can get a house built out there, which, as times are right now, might be a little while.

So, the surveying business is steady, not great, right now, but it's starting to pick back up. I also play a little football game that's a great waste of time but a lot of fun. You can check that out, it's free to join,..and if you copy/paste the link below, you'll get me some brownie points for referring you, or you can just follow the link there at the top of the page. I don't get paid to pimp this site at all, but it sure is a lot of fun, and I'm sure you'll read about that game here in time.

http://goallineblitz.com/game/signup.pl?ref=9419089

well,

it seems I have two blogs here now,. all of a sudden, just shows to go ya,.. don't know what I'm doing,.. but I'll learn,.. stay tuned,..

Okay, Grace, my blushing bride of almost a year now, says blogging is neat, and the way to go, and judging by my paypal account, which keeps growing for some strange reason, I must agree with her,.. I'll probably go a different route than she's taken, I'm sure, as I do have marketable skills, I do believe, I'm actually, in Real Life,.. a Registered Land Surveyor here in Nashville, Tn, we work all around the state, tho', and I've worked as far away from home as Mississippi, and I love it, that's what I feel like I was born to do,..

on the other hand, I do love to write as well, I've helped Ms. Grace to edit a lot of her blogs, so, I'm listed as an author there as well, anyway,.. this is the post numero uno, lots more to come I'm sure,..feel free to contact me for anything, truly,.. especially if you have a WR, SS, DE, DT, etc.,..on Goallineblitz.com,.. I'm seriously in need of a few pieces to make a championship run this coming season,.. that would be Season 9.

Also,.. and most especially if you have any Survey work,.. that's the real purpose for this, I guess, we need to get some jobs going to help us get our new house built.