Paul O’Connor: Big government from Raleigh | Salisbury Post

Well said.

RALEIGH – The true conservatives were all in a lather about federal intrusion into states’ rights during Tuesday’s House Education Committee.

First they complained about the federal courts and their attacks on God, then about federal intrusion into education and then about the lack of judicial and congressional attention to the 10th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

The true conservatives, you see, believe that local folks know best how to govern locally and that this big, bad government in Washington should just stop interfering in the affairs of North Carolina.

What was most amazing about the prolonged committee meeting, or you might call it a rant, was that no audience member stood up and shouted: “Pot, kettle. Pot, kettle. Pot, kettle.”

via Paul O’Connor: Big government from Raleigh | Salisbury Post.

Loving my job

I stopped attending the engineering scrum this week as my boss began representing my group in the meeting. This morning my boss asked me if I would like to continue attending. It seems that everyone liked how I ran the meetings and missed me when I stopped going. I love my job!

The Hackers Who Recovered NASA’s Lost Lunar Photos | Raw File | WIRED

Fascinating story of how geeks restored long-lost moon photographs from NASA analog tapes.

Sitting incongruously among the hangars and laboratories of NASA’s Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley is the squat facade of an old McDonald’s. You won’t get a burger there, though–its cash registers and soft-serve machines have given way to old tape drives and modern computers run by a rogue team of hacker engineers who’ve rechristened the place McMoon’s. These self-described techno-archaeologists have been on a mission to recover and digitize forgotten photos taken in the ‘60s by a quintet of scuttled lunar satellites.The Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery Project has since 2007 brought some 2,000 pictures back from 1,500 analog data tapes. They contain the first high-resolution photographs ever taken from behind the lunar horizon, including the first photo of an earthrise first slide above. Thanks to the technical savvy and DIY engineering of the team at LOIRP, it’s being seen at a higher resolution than was ever previously possible.

via The Hackers Who Recovered NASA’s Lost Lunar Photos | Raw File | WIRED.

Green Tie Awards

Our family attended the Green Tie Awards and dinner of the North Carolina League of Conservation Voters as guests of Bill and Bett Padgett. It was great seeing so many familiar faces in the crowd, so many I couldn’t possibly talk to them all.

The highlight, though, was the speech Hallie gave to the crowd at the end of the program. She marched right up to the podium and gave a heartfelt speech on why conservation matters to her. Kelly and I were justifiably proud of her and her speech generated a lot of positive comments from the attendees.

Afterwards, I had to chuckle at the spectacle. When I was Hallie’s age, there wasn’t enough money in the world to get me to speak in front of a crowd. I would have died on the spot, or nervously mumbled my way through it yet our daughter can belt out a passionate speech to a roomful of strangers without even breaking a sweat. That’s a pretty powerful skill for a kid. It took me until the age of 30 to even get close to that.

So, even though my attention is drawn in dozens of directions right now, it’s great to have the opportunity to cheer the accomplishments of our kids.

Vic Lebsock retires

I had to take a moment out of my day to attend the retirement party for Raleigh greenway planner Vic Lebsock. Raleigh’s greenways have undergone a transformation since Vic took over, growing from less than 20 miles in 1990 to over 110 miles today (with more under construction).

I’ve served on the Parks board for 20% of Vic’s time with the city. During that time I’ve attended many greenway dedications, gone on many greenway excursions, and forwarded many questions to Vic during that time. I was happy to see three other Parks board members there to say thank you to Vic.

Enjoy your well-deserved retirement, Mr. Lebsock!

Speaking of speaking

Totally unrelated to my new gig as Ligon PTA president, I have been offered a spot on a PTA panel about “safe routes to school” at this weekend’s North Carolina PTA meeting in Winston-Salem. The NC PTA was intrigued by my work on the Frank Street sidewalk and thought the members could benefit from my experience.

Yeah, it’s a long drive to WS, and yeah, I have to take a half-day off of work to go there, but I do very strongly believe in the importance of schools and the accessibility of schools in particular. One does not beat one’s head against a wall for three years unless one is either committed or needs to be committed. If I can help fellow PTA members find a way to get their own projects done then it will be time well spent.

(I just realized I left my MT.Net readers hanging about Frank Street – it was approved by City Council. Yay!)

Fellow me not

Word came today that I didn’t make the finalist cut for the Friday Fellowship program. I have really mixed feelings about this. While I would totally geek out over discussing leadership with like-minded citizens and enjoy the bonding experience, frankly I came within a whisker of deferring my nomination for another time. I’ve taken on an engaging new job, I’m helping multiple nonprofit organizations, trying to be a good father and husband in there somewhere, and have now committed as Ligon Middle School’s next PTA president. I had to be kidding myself to think that I could juggle all this and the program, too.

On the upside, I didn’t so much mind rescinding the vacation requests I made a year ahead of time for the retreats I now won’t be attending. I’m certain to fill those weekends with other tasks, and now I can consider adding those vacation days to an epic trip of some variety.

It was a honor being nominated, to be sure. I gave it my best shot and that’s all I can do. Time to move on because life doesn’t wait.

Doing away with generators at Raleigh’s street festivals

Noisy, smelly generators are bad, mmmkay?

Noisy, smelly generators are bad, mmmkay?


I’ve long thought that Raleigh’s Moore Square is a poor place to hold festivals. The foot traffic, lack of infrastructure, damage to trees, poor sight lines (from the aforementioned trees), and other aspects make it a tough place for large crowds. However, there is one thing that Moore Square offers that Fayetteville Street cannot: silence. Vendors working in Moore Square went about their business without one thing you almost always find in other festival areas: generators. The Moore Square vendors didn’t need generators because Moore Square provides power facilities vendors can plug into.
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Photographing art

Intellectual property? Um hmm.

Intellectual property? Um hmm.


I’ve never understood why artists get so uptight when someone photographs their art. It always makes me shake my head when I go to a concert or show and the artist prohibits photography. Are you really worried, Mr. Artist, that a simple photograph could compare to actually attending your show? Is your act truly that boring? If a photo of you onstage is so much of a threat to you, why are you in business? What are your fans getting for their $50 tickets? I’ve never seen Bruce Springsteen live, but I can’t imagine a photo could take the place of the three-hour experience he provides. I ran into a similar attitude at Carnegie Hall.

I felt the same way when I walked among the stalls at Artsplosure last weekend. A few artists that had put up signs restricting photography, so obviously I had to photograph them. Now I know these folks put a lot of work into their art and they’re justifiably proud of it, but when they display it openly in a public place on a public street there’s nothing to keep it from being photographed. And why should they fear this? I couldn’t possibly reproduce this man’s sculpture from a photograph, nor could a photograph ever capture the essence of a three-dimensional work of art like sculpture.

At least Mr. Mosquera said please on his sign. The one at this next booth takes the cake. Continue reading →

Teacher attrition

Yesterday morning I was voted in as the new PTA President of Ligon Middle School, succeeding Vickie Adamson. Vickie leaves big shoes to fill since one parent said “that woman is everywhere.” I’m looking forward to the challenge, though, and really appreciate how I’ll be at the front lines during a difficult time in North Carolina education.

I was looking forward to my election, thinking what a happy moment it would be, but the party was quickly spoiled when Ms. Dula, the principal announced to the PTA members that one of her star teachers is leaving the classroom. I will never forget the look of dejection on her face.

It makes me furious how disrespectful and dismissive our Republican state legislature is of our public school teachers. Their shortsightedness is destroying our state’s future. These kids will grow up to one day lead our state. They will educate future generations. They will build the companies that will power our state’s economy. They will take care of us when we’re old and frail. And we’re dooming them to a mediocre education, loading them down with needless tests, and hurting ourselves in the process. Education is an investment in our future and these screwups in the General Assembly are mortgaging that future away.

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