November 2008

There were 84 posts published in November 2008 (this is page 8 of 9).

Another Mark Turner cuts his fingers

I see from my recent incoming Google searches that another Mark Turner (the jazz musician, I believe) has apparently severely injured two of his fingers with a power saw.

According to his friend and fellow musician Aaron Parks:

I’m afraid I have some sobering news to share, though, about one of my friends, someone who is an inspiration to countless musicians, a true genius, and a beautiful spirit: Mark Turner.

A few minutes ago, I received a text message from Kurt Rosenwinkel informing me that Mark severely cut two of his fingers with a power saw, and is in the hospital awaiting surgery tomorrow morning. They will be trying to reattach nerves, tendons, and arteries. With luck, the surgery will be successful, and he will eventually regain the use of his injured fingers. It’ll be no less than 6 months of rehab, though.

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NBC 17 Interview

I was crossing Fayetteville Street in front of a cameraman for NBC 17. I had seen him out and was trying to avoid him when I heard “hey, can I ask you a few questions?”

Bah. Got caught.

He then asked me four or five questions about the presidential election. I answered that the election shows the world that America is ready again to play well with others. I also said Obama’s got a tough challenge with the economy in tatters but he’s a smart man and will build a good team.

Talk about pressure, though: its a huge challenge to answer five questions coherently on camera with zero time to prepare. At least politicians giving news conferences have some control over the agenda, but I had no clue what I would be asked. I worked hard at keeping my bobblehead tendencies in check so hopefully I might look good even if I don’t sound good.

No telling when the segment will run but I’ll record tonight’s newscast just in case.

Update 6 Nov: They didn’t use my interview. Something about my forehead being too shiny or something. Good thing I have my blog stardom to sustain me.

Cheap Thoughts: On-demand escalators

Something caught my eye when I walked by the empty Raleigh Convention Center last night: every escalator in the place was chugging along though there was no one in the building.

What a bunch of wasted electricity! These are hefty machines and they’re left running? And though it would be an improvement if someone would come by and manually shut them off, what would be even better would be to give the escalators the ability to turn themselves on when needed.
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GSK to only have one US HQ

When I contracted with GSK in the early days of the Bush administration, one of the things I found puzzling was the dual U.S. headquarters GSK maintained: on here in RTP and one in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania. It was like a snake with two heads or something.

Well, the N&O says that now RTP will be the only headquarters. Yet there’s this one interesting tidbit:

Spokeswoman Mary Anne Rhyne says that’s meant to eliminate confusion. Rhyne says there are currently no plans to cut jobs or close offices in Philadelphia.

No job cuts? Seriously? KOP will no longer be a headquarters but nothing is really changing? Or will the folks supposedly doing HQ jobs be given new jobs?

Sometimes I just can’t figure GSK out.

Still celebrating

On the way in to work I heard a car horn and turned to see a jubliant African-American woman spontaneously shouting “Obama! Obama!” through her open windows. I couldn’t help but laugh.

What an amazing night.

Post-election poll-worker props

No matter which candidates you supported in yesterday’s elections, I think you’ll agree that the Wake County Board of Elections did an outstanding job managing the election. Early voting was super-easy and wildly successful, voting machines worked well, ballots were easy to understand and counted fairly, and poll workers knew their jobs and performed those jobs efficiently. Rarely did I see anyone waiting more than 5 to 10 minutes at the polling places I visited. Even the Board of Election’s post-election results webpages, farmed out to SOE Software, easily handled the load.

Managing a presidential election is a mammoth project but from what I can see Wake County pulled it off flawlessly. Kudos to all the poll workers who put in long hours to make voting so effortless!

Yes we did

Its been a long day, but it had a happy ending (except for my friend Al Swanstrom, who sadly lost in a squeaker). I’m beat and the blogging will have to wait but tomorrow will sure feel like a new day in more ways than one.

One poll greeting done, one to go

I’m in the eye of the election storm right now. Just got back from the Apex polling place where I’ve been campaigning for Al Swanstrom since 6:30. Things went well except for the bone-chilling drizzle. I came prepared for that with a raincoat and an umbrella, though I didn’t use either of them. More of that in a minute.

The polling place was at the Fairview Rural Fire Department station on Ten-Ten Road. When I arrived at 6:30 there were cars lining both sides of the road. I parked about a quarter-mile away as that was the closest parking place. When I got there there were perhaps a hundred people already waiting inside.
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Crunch time

Vote!
I’ve taken tomorrow off to campaign for a few good candidates. I’ll be in Apex tomorrow working as a poll greeter for Al Swanstrom (NC House). Then in the afternoon I’ll be in Raleigh’s Five Points campaigning for Josh Stein (NC Senate) and Grier Martin (NC House). I hope to wrap up the day celebrating victory but I won’t know that until the evening.

Believe it or not, I’ll be so happy all this is over, even if its just a little while. Its high time to get on with other things!