August 22, 2012

There were 6 posts published on August 22, 2012 (this is page 1 of 1).

A lesson in democracy, CAC style

With my vacation out of the way (though not the blogging of the vacation, yet), I’m now realizing the things that I’ve been meaning to blog but haven’t gotten to yet. One is a very exciting opportunity in mid-November to provide a lesson in democracy to some visiting students from Charlotte.

A few weeks ago, Charlene Willard with the city’s Community Services department put me in touch with teacher Katy Field, Ninth Grade Class Dean of Providence Day School in Charlotte. Katy told me she was considering bringing her 9th grade class to Raleigh for a few days so that they could see how our democratic process works. Charlene told Katy about all the ways citizens can get involved through Raleigh’s unique Citizens Advisory Councils and Katy became determined to make CACs a big part of her program.
Continue reading →

Tropical Storm Isaac

Tropical Storm Isaac

I’ve been keeping an eye on Tropical Storm Isaac as it progresses across the Atlantic. Though it’s still a week out, there appears to be at least some chance that Isaac will reach North Carolina. Whether we have severe weather from this storm or not, we most likely will get a good soaking from Isaac next week.

Stay tuned (and for a look at the latest models, go here).

Little Raleigh Radio blows past Kickstarter goal!

Little Raleigh Radio exceeds fundraising goal


I was thrilled to check the Kickstarter page for Little Raleigh Radio this evening and see that we’ve blown past our goal of raising $10,000 to fund our studio! What an amazing milestone! LRR aims to bring a community radio station to downtown Raleigh and Kickstarter funding really does make it a community-owned station. It’s definitely community-built!

A Kickstarter project doesn’t get funded unless donations reach a certain level. Should LRR not reached its fundraising goal by the end of the month, we would have gotten no money at all.

The community’s support for LRR is inspiring and humbling at the same time. Our neighbors have entrusted us with their money and have bought into our vision. Now its up to us to provide the goods.

The money and the interest is there. This is really going to happen!

The case of the broken cooler door

A cooler mystery you’ll never find


I walked into the office break room morning to discover that the glass door on our drink machine was shattered. No one in the office seems to know what happened to it.

I speculated that the office cleaning crew might have accidentally busted it while cleaning the break room, but later as I thought about it I decided that didn’t make sense. The focus of the break was too high up the door to be from something like a vacuum. The break room’s floor is tile, too, so a vacuum wouldn’t be needed. The “point of impact” shows no penetration: the spot doesn’t show any inward or outward bend. The glass is shattered but the individual pieces are still held in place by the glass’s coating.
Continue reading →