Follow-Up

There are 521 posts filed in Follow-Up (this is page 43 of 53).

News media latches on to smoking in parks issue

I’ve always wondered why the news media constantly fails to cover the happenings of Raleigh’s parks department and its board. Parks is a huge city department and Raleigh’s abundant parks are enjoyed by so many citizens that it’s easy to assume that a reporter would be present at the board meetings. Such is not the case. In the two years I’ve been on the board, the only reporter I’ve seen at a meeting is the Independent Weekly’s Bob Geary, who was there when the board discussed the Honeycutt Creek greenway route.
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Smoking in parks

My ire for littering is well-known. It annoys me to no end that some smokers think the world is their ashtray. Anytime I see some careless bastard tossing a cigarette out their window, I send their license plate number to the NCDOT’s Swat-A-Litterbug page, resulting in a nastygram being mailed to them from the highway patrol. I’d venture to guess I’m one of their top litter reporters.
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Getting paid to have fun

Wow. Last week’s business trip was exhausting and very last-minute, but incredibly energizing at the same time. Before I left I was really nervous about the trip, which puzzled me as I’ve gone on countless similar trips before. This time, however, I was flying blind for most of the trip. Never before have I had to learn so much on the fly and maintain my cool. And you know what? I did it. It wasn’t perfect but I did it.

Now I think I’m addicted again to being in the thick of things. It’s becoming apparent that I could be very successful at this and it’s got me thinking about how I should prioritize my time. There are many after-work things I could be doing (the most important is being a father and husband, of course) and these activities will suffer if I am traveling regularly. Beyond the time commitment, I have plenty of creative ideas to add to my job: things that would keep me working well past a traditional 8 hour day.

In short, I think I have finally found another job where I get to exercise all of my talents. I’m getting paid to do what I like to do for fun.

That makes me an incredibly fortunate guy.

N&O mistakenly says Raleigh out of Google Fiber hunt

There was a small story in the political section of the News and Observer last month, noting that Raleigh City Councilor Bonner Gaylord’s twins weren’t named after Google’s founders as he had jokingly pledged to do if Raleigh was chosen as the site for their 1Gb Internet Google Fiber project.

Twins weren’t Googled

Raleigh City Councilman Bonner Gaylord is now the proud father of twin boys, who were born early this week. But no, they aren’t named after Google’s founders Larry and Sergey as Gaylord had previously promised – without consulting his wife – if she had boys and Google wired Raleigh with high-speed Internet. Google passed on the City of Oaks, so instead of Larry and Sergey, Gaylord’s sons are named Demetri and Mont. Overall, it’s bad for Raleigh, good for Gaylord’s marriage.

The problem is that Google hasn’t passed on the City of Oaks. It hasn’t passed on anybody, actually. The company has yet to make its selection.

A few days ago I left word on the N&O website, pointing out this error but the paper has not yet responded. Hopefully a correction will be printed, lest Google think the City of Oaks has written them off.

The man of a dozen voices

Like many kids who grew up watching cartoons, I was amazed by the vocal gymnastics performed by Mel Blanc: “the man of 1000 voices.” Blanc was the voice behind so many cartoon characters, possessing such a range that he could voice the majority of characters in a show without any two voices sounding alike.

As I went about my weekend it occurred to me that I could try to be more like Blanc in my voiceover work. I spoke in my announcer’s voice when I was in my voiceover “class” but that’s certainly not all I can do. While listening to the N.C. State game on the radio, for instance, I easily slipped into a good ol’ boy Southern accent as I repeated one of the commercials.

“Duh!” I thought. This is the kind of stuff I do all the time without thinking about it. I can make my voice sound just about any way I want to.

For the rest of the weekend, I spent the break time between the stuff I was doing just recording little clips of voices I had come up with: creating a vocal library. All of those little voices I use off and on during the day can be easily forgotten if I don’t capture them.

The voices themselves might not be marketable but the exercise itself helps me expand my vocal variety. And it’s fun, too!

Tardy Tavern

I had planned to post an update on my Isaac Hunter’s Tavern trek. Instead I found a bunch of more resources (actual books!) that I would like to consult before I post again. I don’t want to go off half-cocked, so look for a more complete update in a week or so.

The sad story of Kenny Cross

I was searching the Internets today when I ran across this excellent article by freelance writer Emily Badger. Badger tells the story of Kenny Cross, a young black man raised in Raleigh in a loving, supportive, well-off home but who deliberately took a wrong turn in life. Cross had the potential to become an Olympic swimmer but fell in with the wrong crowd in college. Convinced he needed to prove he was “black enough,” Cross joined his criminal friends on an armed-robbery crime spree across the Southeast, holding up dozens of motels and check-cashing stores. He’s now in prison serving a 15-year sentence.

Though Cross’s mother is a doctor and his family apparently did everything right, Cross still chose a life of crime. As his father put it, “He’s stealing from people $300 when he could have called home for a thousand. It made no sense. It still doesn’t make any sense.” Cross had such a promising future but he threw it away. Why?
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Hunting Isaac Hunter’s tavern

Wake Forest Road in 1965


On a whim I looked back at the 1965 aerial photo I got from the North Carolina Geological Survey when I was researching the Raleigh Speedway. It turns out this photograph nicely covers the Wake Forest Road area north of the Beltline! This means it probably shows Isaac Hunter’s Tavern, but the question is where?

Looking at this shot you can see many residential-type buildings along the road. At the bottom is the Beltline, still being constructed and at the top of the photo you can see the eastern half of St. Albans Drive branching off. This area roughly corresponds to this modern-day view shown on Google Maps.

Now my Navy military-intelligence training did not make me a satellite imagery expert, but looking at this photo and comparing it to the roof of the tavern as shown in the Flickr images it’s pretty easy to rule out many of the buildings shown. Second-story homes cast longer shadows and the tavern is decidedly single-story. There are also homes with much fancier rooflines than the tavern, so those are easily ruled out. What does that leave? I’ve (crudely) highlighted two buildings that seem like good candidates.
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