Follow-Up

There are 521 posts filed in Follow-Up (this is page 36 of 53).

Off the caffeine again

Remember my love-hate relationship with coffee? I decided to become a caffeine underachiever again and stick with decaf after I read how caffeine greatly inhibits REM sleep stages. Being a lucid dreamer (or at least, trying to be), I value REM sleep because thats where lucid dreaming takes place.

It’s not as if I’ve had lots of caffeine lately. About 1/3 of the coffee beans I had been grinding have been caffeinated. Even that little amount provided a strong addiction, enough so that when I cut it down to about 1/10th this week I had a few days of unpleasant headaches. By the third morning, though, I was fine without it.
Continue reading →

One-way streets and property values

By BigBuzzMedia


I did a little bit of Googling tonight on the issue of one-way streets and property values. It seems that many sites say that one-way streets likely decrease property values:

From the University of Louisville comes Matt Hanka, ABD; and John Gilderbloom, Ph.D.’s paper entitled How One-Way Thinking is Hurting Historic Downtown Neighborhoods (a short but informative read):

One-way streets pose many threats for pedestrian and motorist safety, make city streets seem less safe, disproportionately impact poor and minority neighborhoods, hurt downtown businesses, reduce the property values of homes, and negatively impact the environment and contribute to global warming. Conversions to two-way have already happened in more than 100 cities around the United States.
Continue reading →

Obama’s conspiracy, revealed

The N&O’s Jim Jenkins skewered Wake GOP’s Susan Bryant today. This had me laughing out loud!

“Susan Bryant clearly is a genius,” said the insider. “I expect Rick Perry will have her on as chief strategist. And I wouldn’t be surprised if the president simply decided not to run for re-election. He said to me just last night, ‘Look, maybe we should get out. If Susan Bryant in North Carolina can read our minds and follow our every move like this, what’s the point in trying to fight her?'”

via Obama’s conspiracy, revealed – Jenkins – NewsObserver.com.

Startup incubator

I’ve been thinking more about Raleigh’s need for a startup incubator lately. I did a little research last night on the available warehouse spaces around town, wondering if any might be good candidates for housing techies. A few on South Wilmington Street look good as does the old Alcatel plant on Wake Forest Road near Costco. A really good location is the old Winn Dixie warehouse at the corner of Whitaker Mill Road and Atlantic Avenue because that warehouse is close to a future transit stop. I think an incubator needs to have good public transportation in order to be successful.
Continue reading →

Un-CERT-ain future

Remember that great, free, emergency training I received earlier this summer? It’s now an endangered species. The Raleigh-Wake CERT team is imploding, with the organization’s officers resigning left and right due to lack of funding. It’s a real shame for a program that could provide so much good in the event of a disaster (and did provide so much good in my neighborhood following the April 16th tornado).

From an announcement on their website:

Our organization is all-volunteer and has been sponsored by Raleigh Department of Emergency Management. Unfortunately, we have not had access to ANY funds for about a year now and our volunteers have provided all materials at their own expense. In addition, we were informed recently that our sponsor at Raleigh EM is now providing advisory support only.

Consequently, the President, Secretary/PIO, and Logistics officer of Raleigh-Wake CERT have resigned and as of September 26, 2011, the only standing officer will be the Planning Section Chief.

I’m trying to get some time together with Fin Cert, RWCERT’s former PIO, to find out what happened and see if I can help the org get back on its feet.

Blogosphere fame

Out of all the thousands of people at Reynolds Coliseum today I was amused to see Shawn Rocco walking by, a day after the photo he took of me ran in the newspaper. I stopped him and said hello.

“Thanks for the picture, Shawn,” I told him. “That was great.”

No problem, he told me, and asked if it had led to anything yet. I laughed and told him no but I was staying hopeful.

“Hey,” he said. “I didn’t realize you were so big in the blogosphere!”

Well, that makes two of us! I chuckled and shook my head.

I’ve had others tell me that and it’s always news to me. Sure, my blog has a brag page and each of the things on it are most certainly true. My blog is but one of millions, though, and I really only write here because I love to write. It seems some people take it more seriously than I do, or at least consider it more seriously than I do.

And that’s fine. I enjoy sharing my thoughts here. Some of them I may even be proud of. But I do it really for me and if other folks enjoy my blog I consider it a bonus. For those of you who’ve been following along, thanks!

(… and don’t let the others know I’m making this up as I go!)

Raleigh incubator, part deux

In my job quest, I began checking into Adzerk since I’ve got connections there. On Adzerk’s blog, Andy Schrader bemoans the (perceived) lack of pizazz that Raleigh offers startups:

Problem is that we’re barely considering a move to Raleigh because of its perceived lack of culture (we’re not a law firm or a government office).

Raleigh has made great strives to rejuvenate Fayetteville street and bring businesses back downtown but why no attention to startups?

Here’s your proof that Raleigh’s “stodgy” reputation is driving away promising startup companies.
Continue reading →