Signs to Mark the Evacuation Route?

The other day I was driving on the gulf coast of Florida and every few hundred yards were signs marking that the road was a hurricane “evacuation route.” Now, I’m a firm believer that we have too many road signs in this country — case and point, a sign that tells you a historic marker is coming up — and these evacuation signs seem a little excessive if I’m being totally honest.

Hurricane route marker from Anthony Insurance Agency site

To help explain my thought process… when a hurricane is coming, ISN’T EVERY ROAD AN EVACUATION ROUTE???? I don’t need a sign to tell me which road leaves town, because I’ll drive on any road possible to get out of the way.

*side note: I still don’t know what THIS road sign is*

I’ll admit, though, as I’m typing this that it occurred to me why might these signs exist. Let’s say you’re trying to escape the path of the approaching hurricane. If it’s coming from the south, you’d want to head north. So at the very least, as needless as they seem, it would support the idea of using signs simply for the fact that you know you’re heading in the right direction to get far away from whatever coast is about to be hit by the storm.

But if you’re at the beach and don’t know which direction goes away from the beach, I think there are bigger problems that these signs can’t fix. So I’ll return to my original mantra if a hurricane is approaching: Every road that goes away from the shore is an evacuation route, whether there’s a sign confirming it or not!

Am I being too close-minded about this? What am I missing here?

Thanks for stopping by!

-Out of the Wilderness

TUI’s new adventurous TV ad – The Music and More!

UK travel group TUI has a new ad on the telly called “Live Happy.” You can guess what that means coming from a travel agency– amazing destinations with people you love. It’s all here in the new 90-second ad…

Strictly from a production standpoint, this is a great ad. I love the quick edits, the transitions between certain clips are connected through motion and colors, but my favorite part (as an editor) is the use of sound. They rely on the age-old, yet tried and true, method of WYSIWYG… what you see is what you get. It’s first noticed with the alarm ringing. Then throughout the ad there is a subtle use of sound that shows their attention to detail. For instance when the woman dives in the pool and we see her underwater. The soundtrack also sounds as if the song is being played underwater. Speaking of which, the song in this ad is “Ah Bah D’accord” by Juniore.

The French title translated to English the means, “Ah Well OK” according to Google Translate.

This ad is exactly what an ad should be. It shows off the company and what they can do for their customers. It’s easy to understand, so along with a great song and precise editing, it’s a win. If I lived in the UK and wanted to travel, I would definitely be compelled to check TUI first.

How do you feel about the ad? Is there anything they could’ve done differently to make it better?

Thanks for stopping by!

-Out of the Wilderness

The “Amen” Person

It seems like everywhere I go there’s a church that has an “Amen” person. I lived in Nashville for 16 years and sure enough the church I attended most regularly had a person who was known for this. A great guy, most importantly! People knew him for his “Aaaameennnnn!” during the sermons.

Now, in Florida, he’s got a rival. I attended church this morning and there was an “Amen” woman! I would guess there was anywhere from 25 to 30 amens from this woman during the entire sermon, even belting one out that sounded more like a personal opinion than a word of support for the point made by the pastor. In a single word, with a vibrant delivery, everyone knew how she felt about what the pastor had just said…even drawing chuckles from a few folks.

I’m not saying either Amen-er is too eager to express themselves, if you know these folks you just get used to it. I don’t believe they’re seeking attention either. It’s probably good to have an auditorium saturated in Amens.

I suppose it could be distracting, I mean, I AM writing an entire blog post about it without mentioning the sermon was on Psalm 100. And it could be worse — *ahem* that guy who said “A-woman”… Right?

How do you feel about these loud listeners? Chime in below, and thanks for stopping by!

-,Out of the Wilderness

Osprey bird photos

I should’ve taken photos of the muddy ocean water I had to sludge through — well, I was about to brag but I didn’t *have* to walk through the slimy mushy ocean bottom but I’m just stubborn enough to not say no. Gosh, that sounds like a humble brag, doesn’t it? Let’s just say I am stubborn and leave it at that!

Why did I get my feet so dirty? Well, there was an Osprey up in a tree and I had to get on the sunny side to get a colorful photo of the giant bird.

I snapped way to many photos but here are a few. The last one instantly became my favorite. I love the details of the plumpy feathers and the clarity in it’s eye.

This is off the gulf coast of north Florida. Thanks for stopping by!

-Out of the Wilderness

Big Sky Episode 4 Music

We’re on episode 4 of season and the music was not quite as prominent as previous episodes (episode 1 music, episode 2 music, episode 3 music) but nonetheless, here are the songs from the show!

“Coming With the Hellfire” Extreme Music – Dark Country 5

“Silver Surfer, Ghost Rider Go” Trentemoller

Thanks for stopping by…

-Out of the Wilderness