I took the Kiersey Personality test again yesterday and it pegged me as an ENTP. My values were pretty strong in the Extroverted and Intuitive traits but almost exactly down the middle for Thinking and Perceiving. So it’s not too far off from the ENFJ that I came up with six years ago.
January 2014
Dogs in parks issue moved to committee
Last week, the Raleigh City Council moved the issue of restricting dogs from certain areas of parks to the Council’s Public Works committee. I was aware that might happen but don’t know what the committee might hit on that the parks board and its committees did not. We have carefully considered the issue, collected public feedback, and made sure all along to take our time to get it right.
Again, I feel the key to success here is to provide more dog-friendly areas, whether they be dog runs in existing parks or biting the fiscal bullet and ponying up for additional much-needed dog parks in our growing city. Part of the Parks board’s recommendation was to be tasked with studying where more dog-friendly resources could be added. I hope the Council will see fit to approve that.
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After loss of key doctors, WakeMed seeks to stabilize
I enjoyed John Murawski’s excellent health care story in today’s N&O. You should read it if you haven’t already.
One underlying theme I deduced from the story is summarized here:
“Hospitals have a possibility of providing you with a network of referring physicians, where you can sleep on a more comfortable cushion, knowing that you’re going to get a share of the market and referrals on a regular basis,” Lacin said.
Lacin also said working for Rex frees him and other doctors from money worries and lets them concentrate on practicing medicine.
This got me thinking. Could medical care simply not be a good fit for the so-called “free market?” Honestly? Doctors don’t want to hassle with the business side so they let someone else (i.e. hospital) deal with it and, before you know it, our medical costs are soaring.
What if we went to single-payer healthcare in America? It seems to me that the burden of business hassles could be taken on by the government just as easily as a hospital and the costs could be much less.
With its soaring costs, I think it’s fair to say the free market is failing the medical industry. One day Americans will wake up to this and join the civilized societies which value the mutual health of their citizens.
via After loss of key doctors, WakeMed seeks to stabilize | Health & Science | NewsObserver.com.
Century Drive Solar Farm
Century Drive Solar Farm (click to embiggen)
Now that the leaves are off the trees I’d been eyeing this solar farm near the Crabtree Boulevard exit of the Beltline. My daughter Hallie and I took a little time this afternoon to explore this installation.
According to the Raleigh Public Record story on it last year, the Century Drive Solar Farm was approved by the City Council in May 2013. At the time the property owners, J.T. Hobby and Son, stated that it could be 10 to 15 years before the land could support solar panels due to the land being a former landfill and in a floodplane to boot. Apparently they worked out some of the engineering issues because the panels have been present since the end of October, at least.
Raleigh Public Record says there are 4,000 panels here and the filing with the state public utilities commission [XLS] says the solar farm is 1 MW is size. Pretty cool to have a large solar installation in such a high-profile location!
Lonely times
It can be lonely times when one is between jobs. I don’t exactly feel like anyone’s hero right now. It can be challenging to keep my spirits up while focusing on next steps. In-between states like this always make me very uncomfortable.
Then again, the situation I just exited wasn’t a lot of fun, either. If there’s a silver lining to having choices, it’s that I have a say in the future.
Cheap Thoughts: Parking meter app
Dinosaur
Paying for parking? There’s an app for that. Or at least there should be.
Walking down a downtown sidewalk this week, I pondered a sawed-off pipe near the curb where an old-fashioned parking meter once stood. A few years ago, the City of Raleigh got rid of all the traditional coin-based parking meters and put up new electronic parking kiosks instead. Drivers simply note the painted number for their parking space and enter that into the kiosk along with their payment.
Simple, right? Instead of collecting coins from hundreds of meters, parking staff simply empty the money from kiosks, which take credit cards and paper bills in addition to coins. Drivers can also refresh their parking time from nearby kiosks, avoiding a trip back to the kiosk nearest the car.
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STEM night at Conn Elementary
An N.C. State student demonstrates a Crooke’s Tube at Conn Elementary
Tonight Conn Elementary hosted a STEM night with the help of students from N.C. State’s College of Engineering. STEM of course stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math.
Multiple stations were set up around the school cafeteria where Conn’s students could perform experiments and learn more about science and engineering. I took Travis and Kelly volunteered. We all had a blast!
Symphony rehearsal field trip
Symphony rehearsal
Being between jobs has its advantages. I spent the morning acting as a chaperone when Ligon’s orchestra students went on a field trip to Meymandi Hall to watch the North Carolina Symphony rehearse for its upcoming Beethoven performance. It was interesting to watch the conductor and orchestra work out the (barely noticeable) kinks in the performance. The kids were also remarkably well behaved, though I think some were quite restless by the end of the two hours.
One of the highlights of the performance was the pianist, Irina_Zahharenkova. She is a phenomenal pianist, memorizing the music so completely that she could know what to play when the conductor asked to start again at measure 415. She also has 8 fingers on each hand, which is the key to her playing. Ok, I made that part up but she can sure play like she has extra fingers!
I hoped to ride Hallie’s bus the five blocks to the concert hall but the seating arrangements made it unworkable. I opted to let her hang with her friends at the hall, too. With that many kids it was tough finding one-on-one time with her. Even so, we compared notes (ha!) afterward and agreed it was good to have gone.
Orange orbs over Cork, Ireland
Remember those mysterious floating flares I saw over Raleigh the night of Bluegrass Wide Open in September? I never did figure out what they were, nor did the city’s 911 center have any records of anyone calling about them. Yesterday, though, I came across this video someone took that shows what is purportedly fiery orange orbs descending over Cork, Ireland in December 2012.
Now, I don’t know if these are UFOs, flares, Chinese lanterns, or simply some fancy video editing. Providing there’s no photographic trickery involved, the objects are extremely bright, probably flying at a low altitude, and seem to appear out of nowhere instantly. What’s more, they look exactly like what I saw floating at a distance back on that September night.
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Rock Band Invites 11-Year-Old Guitarist Onstage
This kid’s got chops. I love how nonchalant he remains.
Fisher and his dad waited four hours to nab seats in the front row at the Midland Theatre. And then during the concert, Fisher suddenly graduated from his spot in School of Rock in Millard, Neb. to center stage at a big-time rock ‘n’ roll show, WOWT-TV in Omaha reported.Steel Panther called him up on stage.The band asked Fisher if he was nervous. In front of thousands of fans, he said no — and with that launched into “Eruption,” the iconic electric guitar instrumental by legendary six-string master Eddie Van Halen.Not more than a few seconds into the flurry of notes the Steel Panther guys were visibly impressed…