Pullen Park train, now with no waiting?

Pullen Park Train


There have been many positive news stories about the newly-remodeled Pullen Park and the plaudits are rightfully deserved. The renovations brought new life to the park and attracted huge crowds to what was already a popular park. There is one issue with the park that wasn’t addressed by the renovation. In fact, the renovation has made it a bigger problem than ever.

I’m talking about the line for the train. It’s often way too long, trapping families when they could be enjoying the park.

I’ve been pondering a solution to this and I think I’ve found one. It occurred to me that boarding the train is what it used to be like boarding a Southwest Airlines flight: you buy your ticket and wait in line for eventual “open seating” boarding.
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New Citizen Advisory Councils to kick off with first meetings

I was quoted in today’s Midtown Raleigh News, discussing the city’s new CAC boundaries.

Chelsea Kellner wrote a great, concise story which explains CACs perfectly. I love how this turned out!

“The new CACs provide one cohesive community organization for neighborhoods that were right on the boundary of the old CACs, to bring people together and focus more on the needs that are specific to that area,” said Mark Turner, chairman of the Raleigh Citizens Advisory Council.

via New Citizen Advisory Councils to kick off with first meetings – News – MidtownRaleighNews.com.

Good things on the way

I just had an insight that some amazing, exciting things are on the way for me, things that will make my full, already-exciting life seem dull by comparison. Life-changing stuff. Perhaps even world-changing stuff!

I’m not sure what it means but I’m curious (and brave enough) to find out.

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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Family mountain biking

The weather was a beautiful, balmy partly sunny and 70 degrees, so we took advantage of it by heading out for the mountain bike trails at Lake Crabtree for a little exercise. We had an absolute blast!

Travis had impressed me earlier this week with the way he was riding the hills around the “creek” area after school. That showed me he might be ready for some off-road biking. Turns out not only he was ready, but Hallie as well!

We hopped off our bikes to watch people play in the field and soon found ourselves wrapped up in an impromptu soccer game with a kid and his family. Before we knew it it was approaching 5 PM and we had biked and run far longer than we ever expected we could!

It was a fantastic family day and a great antidote to the brutally-cold start we had to the week. Gotta love winter in North Carolina!

Laptop disaster

Last night I was lunging towards a misbehaving dog when I knocked my laptop onto the floor.

Oops. Fortunately only the hard drive appeared to be damaged, but the fact that the drive was less than a month old made me feel really, really stupid. On the plus side, I had a backup that was less than a month old so I didn’t lose much.

I’ve got a new drive which I’m loading up with my old files right now so I’ll be back up and running again in no time. And from now on I’ll be a bit more careful!

It’s about quality of life


I attended this morning’s official announcement that Red Hat is moving to downtown Raleigh. While that’s a welcome announcement, it isn’t itself news. What CEO Jim Whitehurst joked was “worst-kept secret in town” has been known for months. What did capture my atention was one of the reasons Whitehurst mentioned to another open-source company as a reason to move here: quality of life.

Quality of life is one of the most important “incentives” a company looks for in a new location. If your employees aren’t happy where they are they’re more likely to go elsewhere. A good job market, a city with the right amenities, good government, and good schools are all important ingredients to an attractive business environment.

Raleigh has had the foresight to keep investing in itself so that it remains one of the best places to live and work. That strategy continues to pay dividends.

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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