started like any other day for me. I got up for work just like any other day, and running a couple minutes early, flicked on the news. One of the local news ladies said "...and the Krispy Kreme craze has hit
Pittsburgh with the opening of a new store in the Cranberry area. People are lined up around the bui..." I flicked it off thinking "COOL!" and got in my truck heading off to work. As soon as I got there and got my computer started up, one of my buddies IM'd me. Keith is always talking about how good Krispy Kreme donuts are, and today he blurts out "dude...did you see the news?" "Yeah man...Krispy Kreme has a store in Pittsburgh now!" "uh..No dude...the World Trade Center is being attacked."
Along with the rest of America, my heart sank, I got a lump in my throat and felt this very
nauseous knot in the pit of my stomach. My friends and I have a chatroom on AIM that we frequent every day while we work, and we were all talking about this all day long. At some point, the
PowerPoint slide show you may have seen reached our group, and we thought it would be nice to have some music with it. We tried to do this with
PowerPoint, but it turned out to be a pain. That's where I come in.
I am an amateur Flash programmer, making little things to enhance friends websites, and I knew that Flash was the tool to get done what I wanted to do. After having the pictures extracted from the Power Point presentation and gathering some other shots with much help from my friends, I set forth to try to touch the FEEL of the days events.
I uploaded my creation to Geocities, and in a couple short hours, crashed my Geocities site. It was quickly
apparent to me that I needed some help with a server. That's where Dana Williams of Total Escape steps up and offers to host my movie. She was convinced that her site could handle the traffic and so far, we have had one heck of a lot more hits than either of us expected. Her site is handling the traffic, barely, but handling it none the less. I have
received countless emails from people all over the world, all of them thanking me. Well..I need to thank the person (unknown) that made the original
PowerPoint slideshow for giving me the push to start the creativity. I need to thank R.E.M. for the great song (even though I doubt they know I am using it yet). I need to thank all the people that are helping during this tragedy, all the emergency personnel and all the people that have given their life so that others may live. I can never begin to HOPE to thank all the people that need thanked, and I hope that my movie will do in place of verbal thanks. - Jason Basham
People are asking me many questions in the emails and there is no way I can answer each of them individually. I will try to answer some of them here.
How can I save the movie to view later?
There is no need for you to download the file again once you have viewed it. This file should still be in your "temporary internet" folder located on "C" drive. Look for a file called usa2.swf It has to be there some place. I can't send the file as an email attachment, as it's size prohibits that for me. I will try to get someone to host a zip file for downloading that has both the HTML page and the .swf and take some of the stress off the Total Escape servers. For now, just keep sending out the link, and book mark this page for further updates.
Can I mirror this movie on my site?
Sure..as long as you do the following:Include the original HTML page with the counter and disclaimer intact. Don't use it for profit in any way or another. AT ALL. PERIOD.The .swf file is not to be altered in any way.You EMAIL ME the URL of the mirror
Where did you get those pictures and can you send some of them to me?
I got them on the web, and if you poke around, you will be able to find them too. Most were taken from news articles and discussion forums. I cannot email them to you.
I am sick of people trying to profit at ones loss...and this tragedy should not be taken advantage of like that. I went to get a flag recently...just a little flag to put on my truck. Fifteen dollars for a flag that cost them fifty cents. Unbelievable. I bought it anyway...and got it for the price I was willing to pay after I shared my opinion with the store manager.
A couple months ago, I was at a meeting of the Triangle 4x4 club near Pittsburgh, and at the beginning of the meeting, we stood and recited the Pledge of Allegiance. I stumbled because I had forgotten the word...my mind raced to remember them. I will never again forget these words as they have a renewed meaning for me. I think every kid, every PERSON in the country needs to not only know the words, but what they stand for..what our flag stands for...what our COUNTRY stands for. And to all those who reside in this country and don't like the way our leaders or systems work...for those that don't understand what our
forefathers believed in...For those that don't support those values and beliefs of our forefathers, I urge you not to let the door hit you where the good Lord split you. I'm not a "Sunday Christian"...God is in my life every day. I will no longer be an American only when our country is in strife...I will ALWAYS BE AN AMERICAN!
