Mark Turner

Another stellar East CAC meeting

Just when I think I’ve hit the high mark for the East CAC meetings, a meeting comes along that tops it. Tonight’s was such a meeting. We had probably 70 neighbors in attendance: the largest crowd in my time as CAC chair and possibly its largest crowd ever. We had so many neighbors we had to open the back room to accommodate them all.

The folks weren’t there to hear me tell jokes, but to become informed. We first had a presentation about the nomination of Longview from Martha Hobbs about Longview Gardens’ nomination a historic district. Then Police Chief Harry Dolan conducted a brainstorming session to see what the residents’ concerns were. We also heard about the RPD Volunteer program as well. In attendance were two City Councilors. It was great to see everyone enjoying the meeting and building a community.

Before the meeting began, one longtime attendee asked me if being a CAC chair was a full-time job for me. I laughed and said it was simply a hobby. She complimented me on how well I was doing and how informative and tactful my emails have been. I thanked her for the compliments!

On the way home, though, I realized I gave her the wrong answer. Leading the neighborhoods is not simply a hobby of mine. It’s more than that: it’s a passion! It’s a bona fide passion. Sure, it takes organization and planning and setting a course – and there’s some effort behind all that. But when the third Monday rolls around and I walk out of the room with a smile on my face, knowing I’ve made a real difference in my neighborhood – that’s the reward. That makes it all worthwhile.

Getting tanked

I thought I was slick when I positioned my 330-gallon “Lake Turner” rain tank next to my garden. I was even slicker when I hooked up a timer to it a few weeks ago so that it automagically watered my tomato plants. However, my feeling smug stopped yesterday when I realized there was no water flowing through my drip hose.

Oops. It sure looked slick, though! No wonder some of my plants were looking a bit withered.

It turns out the timer I used was dutifully opening at the set time but the water pressure from the tank wasn’t enough to push through it. I switched to a different kind of timer yesterday and suddenly had a pleasing stream of water going to my ‘maters.

The moral of this story is to “measure twice,” as they say!

Cheap thoughts: digital clocks

Why do digital clocks always reset to 12:00 AM? I know 12:00 AM is the start of a day, but most people spend the majority of their days in the afternoon and evening. Any clock-setting will most likely occur after noon, so why not make the clock show noon by default?

Then again, maybe if clock makers provided easier ways of setting clocks this wouldn’t be an issue.

Has space lost its appeal?

A rather inane AP story ran today, questioning whether the romance of space has worn off of Americans. While reporter Ted Anthony’s answer measuring pop culture impact isn’t the way I would gauge interest, the question does bear asking.

I think America had big plans for our space program and those plans were never fulfilled. Sure, the first moon landing was a momentous occasion but humans last visited the moon December 1972. While that was exciting while it lasted, it didn’t continue. We cheered the astronauts’ successes and dreamed of getting our chance.

We’ve had the pioneers. Now when do the settlers get to go?

What we had in the meantime was the space shuttle. The shuttle’s appeals to us as it looks like a plane, and in our minds we hold out hope that spaceflight is as simple as hopping a plane. Even then, the shuttle is nothing more than a 4 billion dollar dump truck, unable to rise above low-earth orbit. It’s space on training wheels. Woo hoo.

If spaceflight is to be exciting again, people need to be able to see themselves as astronauts. In the last 40 years, the closest the general populace has gotten to spaceflight has been private enterprise, with the development of Spaceship One. With that milestone achieved, armchair astronauts could revive their dream. For the vast majority of us, though, spaceflight will remain just a dream, and a dream that can never be fulfilled tends to lose its appeal.

Dan Zanes

Dan_Zanes-20090718We enjoyed the Dan Zanes and Friends show at the North Carolina Museum of Art this evening. I’d been looking forward to it for so long (four years!) and Dan and the band didn’t disappoint. Their smiles becoming as infectious as the music.

Highlights were a cover of Wabash Cannonball, a whirling dervish end to The Monkey’s Wedding, and guest appearances by Raleigh’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Children’s Choir and the Durham Ukulele Jam Band.

Dan stayed after the show to sign autographs, which is very classy. But then again he’s just a great guy.

It was DZ and Friends’s first visit to the Triangle. We’re already looking forward to the next one!

Zydeco moon

Kelly and I had a chance to go on another date last night, so we went out to see the movie Moon (if you don’t mind spoilers, see the Wikipedia entry.). All the reviews were right: it was a very good movie. Actor Sam Rockwell had a huge burden, as he is the sole actor on screen for almost the entire film. He pulls it off, though.

We left the theater in time to head downtown to hear Zydecopious play at The Big Easy. We stayed out dancing past 1AM. Haven’t done that in a while!

Seeing the Light: touring Wilson’s municipal Internet system

Greenlight_LobbyI was invited today to tour the City of Wilson’s Greenlight municipal Internet system, so I took the day off and jumped at the chance. I’d helped win the latest battle against the anti-municipal broadband bill and the folks at the City of Wilson wanted to offer a tour to show their appreciation.

I arrived a little after 10 and met Brian Bowman, Public Affairs Manager with the city. He took me around the office and introduced me to other staffers (as a “famous blogger”…ha!) before giving me a ride out to the Greenlight offices in the city’s maintenance services building.
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