February 2009

There were 46 posts published in February 2009 (this is page 2 of 5).

Snoring stymies sleep

I awoke early this morning to a loud noise that seemed to come from my side of the room. The noise was gone as quickly as it arrived. Only at breakfast did I realize that noise was me: I caught myself snoring! I had my mouthpiece in but it didn’t seem to do any good. I think the lift it once gave my lower jaw is now gone because my mouth has gradually reformed the mouthpiece’s shape.

I think I’m just going to have to get my sinuses fixed once and for all. That will have to wait until I have something other than a contract position. I’m pretty tired now and don’t want to spend the rest of my life always feeling tired.

Healthy Cities forum

Saturday’s Healthy City talks were more urban-design oriented than Friday’s Growing In Place symposium. It was held in a ballroom of the new Convention Center and attracted a more professional crowd it seemed. As a lowly parks volunteer I felt a bit out of my league but tried gamely to keep up.

I found a few presentations to be a bit dry, but the presentation by James Charlier was amusing and informative. His slides showed many examples of well-designed city streets and poorly-designed city streets, many of which exist in the same city. I also enjoyed hearing all about Chicago’s green initiatives in Sadhu Johnston’s presentation. Chicago is going green in a typically-Chicago way: big.

Beyond that, the day was useful for networking, and I got a chance to say hello to some good people designing good cities. While Saturday’s talks didn’t carry the impact of Friday’s for me, they were still well worth attending. I’m glad I got a chance to go.

Growing In Place Symposium

Friday’s Growing In Place Symposium was about how cities could be designed for not only adults but kids as well. There were many discussions which focused on city parks – a topic near and dear to my heart as a Parks board member. The takeaway is that playgrounds should not engineer all the fun out in an effort to eliminate all risk. There were also some cities mentioned which do a good job of making themselves kid-friendly. I loved seeing these approaches.

I spent quite a bit of time chatting with the speakers after their talks, picking their brains about these ideas and collecting their presentation slides when I could. I also tried to make note of all the books mentioned so that I could become more informed.

It was a long day in one room but I appreciated all the new ideas I discovered. Hopefully I can help put them to use here in Raleigh.

End of a busy, busy, busy week

The third week of the month is typically busy for me, but this one was especially so. I led a boisterous East CAC meeting Monday, bringing me home around 10 PM. I had Tuesday night “off.” Wednesday night was the Raleigh CAC meeting, which began at 7 (allowing me to eat supper with the family) and got me home about 10 PM.

Upon returning home Wednesday night I discovered my home computer server was wheezing and apparently on its last legs, so I spent another three hours moving it all to a new server. Bedtime was at 1:15 AM.

Thursday evening was my Parks board meeting, beginning at 5:30 PM and ending around 6:45 PM. That night, I spent over an hour picking through and explaining some new zoning issues for a nearby neighborhood, an effort which went largely unappreciated, sorry to say.

I took the day off of work Friday to spend it at the Growing In Place Symposium. Friday followed by the Healthy Cities presentations most of Saturday. Oh, and we also squeezed in a visit to Rolesville to visit our friends and former neighbors for dinner.

Now I feel sleepy. Is it any wonder?

Peanuts, and more

I decided to enjoy a snack of peanuts after taking Rocket around the neighborhood. The label says “Harris Teeter Peanuts – Dry Roasted, Lightly Salted.”

They are indeed dry roasted and lightly salted. Unfortunately, they are also a few other things, too. The ingredient list:

Peanuts, Salt, Cornstarch, Sugar, Maltodextrin, Monosodium Glutamate (Flavor Enhancer), Yeast, Dried Corn Syrup, Paprika and Other Spices, Extractives of Paprika, Hydrolyzed Soy Protein, Natural Flavor, Garlic and Onion Powder.

I really only wanted peanuts and some salt, though its good that they slipped in the “natural flavor” at the end of that list – as long as it’s natural. Don’t want anything that isn’t natural, you know. Also, I’m not sure how “extractives” differ from “extracts,” either. It might be like the way some people say “utilize” instead of “use,” as if the extra two syllables somehow add importance.

At least salmonella wasn’t on the list.

Healthy Cities Symposium

I’m at the NCSU College of Design’s Healthy Cities symposium, co-sponsored by the Raleigh Planning Department. Its a two-day conference on such topics as making sure kids have the chance to get outside time as well as how to design cities for a healthy population. Should be good stuff, and apropos to my service as East CAC chair and Raleigh Parks board member.

Being a geek, I’m also busy hacking the network here at Marbles Kids Museum, naturally.

Sleep? What’s that?

It was a busy day yesterday. I awoke before 6, worked until 5, had dinner with the family, and headed back out to my RCAC meeting. I got home at 10 to realize our home fileserver was about to croak. Fortunately, I just upgraded the server I’d hoped to replace it with, so I spent the rest of the evening decommissioning the old server and setting up the new one. Bedtime was after 1 AM.

Ain’t life grand?

Record stores

I woke up with The Police’s Born In the Fifties on my mind. That got me thinking to my early exposure to The Police – in a music store of all quaint places. I vividly remember browsing through The Record Bar in a Columbia, S.C. mall and seeing the Ghost In The Machine logos everywhere. Must have been 1981.

That got me missing the glory days of record stores. My kids may never grow up to know the joy of browsing actual, physical records in racks. There was a kinship there with other customers: just being around would often lead to someone suggesting a band to you you would’ve not otherwise heard. Its not so easy doing that in the age of iTunes (though Pandora comes close).

CAC

I conducted another CAC meeting last night and came home buzzing. There were 42 fired-up neighbors there: one of the largest CAC meetings I’ve seen anywhere. I’m continually amazed at how passionate people are about their neighborhood. It’s like a jolt of electricity to me to be in that room.

I may one day stumble into political office but I can’t imagine I’ll ever have as much fun as I’m having now as a CAC leader.