Warm spring weekend

I enjoyed our beautifully warm weekend. It was the weekend of the ACC basketball tournament, so I had the TV on while I worked Thursday and Friday. Kelly’s brother and his family came to visit so we spent time with them, heading downtown to the train station to take a tour of the Amtrak train.

Upon returning from the train, David joined me on the couch to watch Saturday’s horribly-officiated game between N.C. State and UNC. I cooked a lasagna dinner and we relaxed a bit after that.

Sunday morning, we headed over to Adventure Landing on Capital Boulevard for some go-kart racing and Putt-Putt golf. The kids (no matter what age) enjoyed it all. Then after lunch at Chubby’s we said goodbye to David and Anna and headed back home. Kelly got in a 5 mile run and I got in a 10 mile bike ride. We also visited with our neighbors for a bit as the sun went down.

It was a nicely-paced, fun-filled weekend, and it was nice to enjoy every minute of it!

Workday routine

Kelly returned from her three-day business trip yesterday and, while I missed her, I’m happy to say that I never missed a beat while she was gone. I took the kids to Hallie’s basketball tournament, appeared (briefly!) before City Council, met friends for lunch, got the kids to Hallie’s soccer practice, chaired my Mordecai Historic Park board meeting, cooked dinner, made school lunches, kept the kids in clean laundry, did some blogging, and even got a lot done at work. I even found time this week to help push a disabled Jeep off of Wade Avenue.

Dads can certainly do the “Mr. Mom” routine. The first few weeks take getting used to, and sometimes I still mix up the kids’ lunches, but overall it’s worked out very well to have Kelly away at the office while I hold down the fort at home.

How to survive the daylight saving time switch – Calgary – CBC News

Today, the original purpose of daylight saving time — maximizing the amount of light during waking hours —still holds true. But more studies are popping up suggesting that people who are already susceptible to certain health problems, such as high blood pressure and depression, will feel the effects even more when the clocks move forward.

A Swedish study published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2008 found the risk of a heart attack increases in the days right after the daylight saving time change.

via How to survive the daylight saving time switch – Calgary – CBC News.

Amtrak 40th Anniversary Exhibit Train

This looks like fun!

How often do you hear the whistle of a train these days? Probably not as often as 40 years ago, when Amtrak first opened its passenger cars to America and transformed the way people get around. Chances are, if you hear a whistle in Raleigh on March 10-11 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., it will be the free Amtrak Exhibit Train heading to the downtown Raleigh Amtrak station to commemorate the train’s 40th anniversary!

via Amtrak 40th Anniversary Exhibit Train « visitRaleigh blog.

Copywriter for MT.Net?

Like a few others, I got an intriguing email from “someone” claiming to offer copywriting for my blog:

From: “Imogen Reed” imogen@linegray.com
To: blah blah blah at gmail.com
Subject: Professional Copywriting for Mark Turner Dot Net
Date: Tue, 14 Feb 2012 04:34:56

Howdy J. Mark,

I hope you had a great weekend. I’m just getting in touch to ask if you’re in need of any freelance writing at Mark Turner Dot Net – if so, it’d be an honor to help out and I would love to get involved if you have any need for me.
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Cheap Thoughts: phone numbers

Alex didn't need no numbers


This week’s reminder that 10-digit dialing is coming to the Triangle made me wonder why we even use phone numbers anymore. With all the smartphones, voice dialing, and Voice-Over-IP (VoIP) systems in place, having to remember a 10-digit number to call someone seems … quaint.

The VoIP system I have at home can easily handle phone numbers made of digits, of course, but it can also handle calling using a SIP address that looks more like an email address (sip:phone@pbx.markturner.net). In fact, my phone calls can be routed entirely over the Internet, never touching a traditional phone switch (or as they’re known by phone geeks, the “public switched telephone network”).

Imagine having to remember the “dotted quad” IP addresses of all the Internet sites you want to surf. It would be pretty futile, wouldn’t it? Smart people like Jon Postel and Paul Mockapetris dreamed up the Domain Name System (DNS) years ago so humans could remember words (www.markturner.net) instead of numbers (67.217.170.39). Why haven’t we applied the same thinking to phones by now?

Back in the day, one “dialed” phones by picking up and telling the human operator at your local phone company office who you wanted to talk to (“Ruth, get me Pennsylvania 65000“). There’s no reason now why one couldn’t simply do the same now, only talking to a computer operator. In fact, AT&T actually has some of the best voice-recognition technology of anyone.

It is 2012, almost a hundred and forty years since Alexander Graham Bell patented the first telephone. In this day and age we should be creating fewer phone numbers, not more!

NC Medical marijuana backers try to make their cause heard

I hope more people speak out favorably on this cause.

Margaret Wakefield is not a college student nor does she sport dreadlocks and Birkenstocks while chatting about how the world should focus more on peace and love.

Despite her clean-cut appearance, Wakefield is a vocal leader for, what some may find, a surprising cause — medical marijuana.

Wakefield’s mother died from cancer a year ago, and the life-changing event has made her very open and passionate about allowing people suffering from chronic illnesses to use cannabis as a form of treatment.

“If I had known then what I know now … (my mother) would have had some to smoke everyday,” said Wakefield, a member of the North Carolina Cannabis Patients Network.

via Medical marijuana backers try to make their cause heard.

Moonrise

Moonrise over Raleigh, Wednesday, 7 March 2012


I snapped this picture of the amazing moonrise over Raleigh tonight. It’s one of those instances where my 200mm telephoto is stretched to its limit. The clouds were fast-moving as was the moon and I couldn’t stop them both with such as skinny lens. Oh, if I only had one of those fat lenses that cost more than my car . . .

Brew adieu

New Belgium Ranger go bye bye


Here’s a pic of me buying the very last six-pack of New Belgium’s ever-so-tasty Ranger IPA left on the shelf at my local Food Lion. There have been times I’ve gotten to the shelf too late and found it empty, and being that this is the only beer my wife will drink that doesn’t do anyone any good!

New Belgium sure has a lot of fans here in North Carolina. I look forward to visiting their Asheville brewery some day!

Encouraging volunteerism

On my way out of the municipal building yesterday, I passed Cindy Trumbower, volunteer coordinator of the city’s Parks and Rec program. She told me she just got back from a volunteer event where a bunch of students from Michigan State University had painted a city gymnasium as part of their Spring Break service. These kids didn’t hit the beach and stay drunk and rowdy for a week (even being from a chilly place like Michigan) but instead gave their time to help others. How cool is that? I thought that was just awesome and asked if she could provide the Parks board details at our next meeting.
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