Geezer

There are 384 posts filed in Geezer (this is page 27 of 39).

Highlights of 2011: Parks board

Last year was the year I became chair of Raleigh’s Parks board after three years serving on the board. It was something I could not have imagined when I started out and yet here I am.

Looking back, I did have some preparation for the role. As a boardmember I attended many of the ribbon-cutting ceremonies, I chaired my first meeting right after my election as vice-chair, and I filled in for the chair to speak at other park dedications the times he could not be present. I figured I could do the job, so why not take the next step and do it?
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Highlights of 2011: CAC changes

Last year saw some transitions with my work with Raleigh’s Citizens Advisory Councils. After seeing how energized neighbors in the East CAC had become over a noise issue with Enloe High School’s air conditioning unit, I decided it might be a good time to turn over the reins to new leadership. When you identify leaders, the next step is to put them to work, right?

My decision did not come lightly. For over three years, I’ve been planning meetings, coordinating speakers, conducting meetings, and streaming live video from the meetings, to keep my neighbors informed and engaged. In between, I met with neighbors who needed help navigating the city departments to get something done. I also administered neighborhood email lists so that people could stay connected.
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Highlights of 2011: campaigns

The year 2011 was an election year for Raleigh and I was right in the thick of things again.

For a while now I’ve been wondering what it might take to play a bigger role in Raleigh government. In February of last year I quietly took a day off from work and drove to DC to attend a Veterans Campaign workshop aimed at getting more military veterans to run for office. It provided an eye-opening education to what it takes to win an election, some of which isn’t particularly pleasant.
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Highlights of 2011: Mordecai Historic Park

It was a bit unexpected that Mordecai Historic Park would become a milestone of the year 2011. I’ve served on this sleepy little board as the Parks Board liaison since I joined the Parks board but the last year was by far the most eventful.

Things really heated up in the spring when the board was presented with the location options for the Mordecai Historic Park Interpretive Center that’s been on the books for a number of years now. I’ve extensively covered on the blog the pros and cons and the thoughts behind my decision-making process, so I won’t do so again. Highlight entries are for reflection from a bit more distance, though, so from this perspective I see the growth opportunity this event provided me.
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Zombiehead

I woke up from a fitful night of sleep at 3 AM and never fully went back to sleep. I’ve thus felt like a zombie all day, especially this evening when I had to help coach Travis’s basketball team.

It’s now book time and then bedtime for me. ‘Night all!

Highlights of 2011: blogging milestones

This year marked a few milestones for my humble blog: my 5,000th post as well as ten years of owning my domain, markturner.net! The official ten-year anniversary of my first blog post happens next week, so that doesn’t count towards a 2011 highlight.

I’m proud to say that I’ve since blown past my 5,000th post. This entry marks my 5,289th, which means that at this rate sometime in 2013 I will reach my 6,000th post.

A few of my fellow bloggers have said that their blogs are dead or dying. While my blog’s visitor count may have already peaked, I don’t really care. I write it because I love to write it, not because I expect anyone to gain any value from it. I’m not obsessed with the page counts or anything like that. It is what it is.

Certainly there are other distractions out there and each has its appeal, but I don’t see myself ever giving up blogging. I love the fact that this is my voice on the web and that I own it 100%. I love that it’s open to anyone who wants to visit, not just to “subscribers.” I also love that I have nearly unlimited space to express my thoughts, rather than being limited to 140 characters or some other arbitrary limit. I believe in an open and free exchange of information.

Thanks for joining me in the conversation!

Even Flipper thought this was dumb

The kids watched the very first episode of the dolphin-pet TV show Flipper on NetFlix today. I used to love watching the show as a kid, so I was sorry to see that it didn’t hold up too well 35 years later. At least the first episode didn’t hold up well.

In this episode (called “300 Feet Below”), Ranger Porter Ricks and his son Bud get a distress call from a shark-bitten boater whose boat is 12 miles offshore. For some reason the Coast Guard is of no use so Porter and son decide to rescue him themselves. They pick up the boater’s girlfriend to lead them to the boat.
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Highlights of 2011: Adventures at the NCGA

How does this get me a job?

Y’all knew it wouldn’t take long for me to bring up politics in my Highlights list, didn’t y’all? This year had me doing more at the General Assembly, mostly fighting an old battle but also jumping into a new one.

My long-running efforts to protect broadband competition continued in 2011, though this time my luck ran out when the NCGA (with Perdue’s help) passed a law to block other municipalities from providing their own Internet services to their citizens. Some otherwise good legislators like Sen. Josh Stein and Rep. Rosa Gill bought into the pro-business hype and voted for the ban, to my disappointment. I think many supporters of the ban simply didn’t realize what was at stake, in spite of the opinion piece I got published in the News and Observer. (Note: I neglected to add my op-ed to my blog until now).
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Highlights of 2011: Family time

It was a big year for the family, full of growth for all of us.

This time last year, Travis was still in kindergarten. He had been put through a few aptitude tests at Kelly and my insistence, as we knew he wasn’t being challenged by the coursework. Then one afternoon last December, we got called in to meet with the school staff to review Travis’s results.

We’d been told again and again that grade promotion was extremely rare and not to get our hopes up, so Kelly and I weren’t fully expecting a change. Instead, we heard from wide-eyed teachers that Travis was not only performing above a first grade level, he was even above-average for second grade! I don’t know who was more astonished, them or us!

After much serious thought and discussion, Kelly and I decided it was best for Travis to advance a grade. Thus, Travis started kindergarten in the fall of 2010 and jumped into the second half of first grade in January 2011. He had a little adjusting to do but he caught on quickly and is now thriving in his new grade!
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Hello 2012

The Acorn drops in Raleigh on New Years Eve 2011 at 7 PM


Happy 2012, everyone! I expect it to be a great year.

I’ve heard some saying “good riddance” to 2011, calling it a “tough year,” but I don’t see it that way. The way I see it, any year in which you make it to the end is a good year.

I wish you peace, prosperity, and happiness in 2012!