Kind people have inquired as to whether or not I'm blogging anymore, and some were even certain that I had passed on to the big park in the sky.
"Yes" to the former and "no" to the latter.
It seems that much of my blogging energy is being channeled into the park's facebook page.
(cue music)
Back in November my position was converted to "subject to furlough" status; that means that I can expect to get an annual lay-off for two to six pay periods. That's not the Service being mean to me, its merely a reflection of economic realities, no doubt you are feeling the pinch too.
Rangers who get furloughed either have to get their Home Depot application in order, marry a very wealthy person, hit the Powerball, plan a perfect jewel heist with Michael Caine in the lead role:
or find what is called a "detail". A detail entails temporarily working for another park, and being on their payroll, ideally for the length of one's furlough.
Fortunately I live in the NCR which in this instance does not stand for National Cash Register but National Capitol Region. That's fortunate because there are many parks near me when the furlough reaper comes a knocking at my door. Parks near my driveway include C&O Canal National Historical Park, Harpers Ferry National Historical Park, and Monocacy National Battlefield. Traveling closer to DC (and the traffic which that brings) one finds Glen Echo, the National Mall, Ford's Theater, Fort Washington, Manassas etc.
It was at Manassas that I found safe harbor during my March - April furlough. Somebody must be on my side because I didn't have to go looking, that is to say someone was looking for me, not to mention looking out for me.
My detail was technically through Manassas National Battlefield, though I only went there twice for briefings, I spent all of my time at...
Antietam!
Working with the wonderful folks of the NCR social media team my assignment was to produce content for the new Antietam facebook page. The Service has really jumped into the various social media with both feet and we already see the results in both increased interest as well as increased visitorship ("I saw it on facebook").
For two months I wrote and stockpiled entries to get our page through the end of our battle anniversary with daily posts, photographs, short videos, or all three.
I've been a media guy for a long time. For four years, back in Michigan, I taught kids how to shoot and edit their own videos.
(I still have the shirt)
Another example of my incredible media prowess can be viewed here
And those of you who know me well know that this is only one of a few blogs I keep
So this detail was right up my alley
Although there are about four people involved in the authorship of the site, I have had readers of this blog spot either my prose or my photography, and that's nice.
Now here's the cool part; posting daily to the parks fb page is no longer my sole responsibility, but its still one of my responsibilities, and I'm getting lots of participation from the people that I work with. Just as I have in my blog, I've been showcasing the efforts of the Cultural Resources folks, the gang in the Maintanence Division, Education, Visitor Services, Natural Resources, everybody!
Whew!
So what I'm getting at is that I'm still blogging, except that I'm now doing it on the down-low as a member of the region's social media team.
So that's the deal, I expect to be back here with regular posts some time after battle anniversary.
Until then, indulge me with an album of some of the photos which I posted (or thought about posting) on the park's fb page over the last few months (if you'd like them larger just click on them):
Antietam Album 2012
Do stop by from time to time...
I'm still enjoying life...
just north of Sharpsburg.
Mannie
.
Historian Slotkin (Regeneration Through Violence) moves from his path-breaking studies of America’s cultural mythology of violence to a set piece of real-life carnage in this gripping, multifaceted history of the Civil War’s bloodiest day. The author pens a fine narrative of the Battle of Antietam, balancing a lucid overview of strategy and maneuver with subtle, novelistic evocations of the chaos of combat as men “edg[ed] forward step-by-step each time they loaded and aimed, trying to get out of the smoke so they could see better how to shoot.” It’s a dramatic saga, full of coups and blunders, but it’s just the capstone of Slotkin’s searching analysis of the campaigns of 1862, when the conflict, he contends, took a “revolutionary” turn toward intense bloodshed and radicalism. (Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation immediately after Antietam.) At the center is his vivid rendition of the power struggle between Lincoln and Union generalissimo George McClellan, one of history’s great neurotics, who combined paralyzing timidity on the battlefield with grandiose ambition to become a virtual dictator and reverse the abolitionist thrust of Lincoln’s policies. Grounding military operations in political calculation and personal character, Slotkin gives us perhaps the richest interpretation yet of this epic of regenerative violence. 10 illus., 8 maps. Agent: Carl Brandt, Brandt and Hochman. (July)