Thanksgiving, ice skating, symphony

The Turner/Hunter clan

Wow. What an action-packed few days we’ve had here.

Wednesday the kids were out of school so I had to figure out something fun to do with them. The weather was still warm (near 70, if I recall) and Travis wanted to go to the store to look at Legos. Rather than get in a car and drive there, I decided the family would bike there instead. The North Hills Target is about 6 miles from here via the greenway, so we hopped on our bikes and pedaled our way there and back, enjoying a smoothie after our window-shopping. That’s 12 miles of biking and a whole lot of fun!

Thursday was Thanksgiving, of course. Travis and I had started dismantling our garden Wednesday evening, so Thursday morning we finished the job. All the dying or dead plants were pulled up, the wire fencing that supported them was rolled up, the ground raked, and a weed-blocking cover placed over the garden. It was some work to clear it out but it was so satisfying to get it done!
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Break-in, one year later

Michael Darnell Green


Speaking of anniversaries, today is the first-year anniversary of the break-in of our home. Though Michael Darnell Green was arrested for a string of break-ins around our home at the time, our home was not among those that Green confessed to burglarizing.

Since that time, I’ve become convinced that Green was the burglar. Our burglar appeared to know what he was doing and by all accounts Green is a seasoned professional. He certainly fits the description offered by my neighbors and by the surveillance video that shows the suspect. It could be that Green didn’t remember our home because the detectives taking him around the neighborhood didn’t lead him through the woods the way Green most likely approached our home. Green also was unsuccessful in entering our home, so he might not have remembered it as clearly as the others. He allegedly hit so many homes, I wouldn’t be surprised if he couldn’t remember them all.
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Domain anniversary

Ten years ago today I registered my domain, markturner.net. I got it with eye towards blogging, bill I didn’t start blogging until January of the next year.

Bloggng is more than just a hobby, it’s an obsession. I could never guess how much fun would be ten years later.

Building Raleigh’s startup scene from the ground up

Officials from Raleigh and N.C. State announced a partnership Monday to make Raleigh a “city of innovation.” A conference, known as the Raleigh Innovation Summit, will take place on January 18th, 2012 to discuss ways to give the city’s startup scene a boost. Being that I’m not yet working again and I have experience with startups, I grabbed my camera and headed to the press conference, eager to hear more details.

The press has already done a good job covering the details, it turns out. Thus there’s not much I can add to this except a few thoughts after the fact.
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UC Davis pepper spray gets snarky Amazon reviews

Now this is funny. I always love the snarky Amazon product reviews, this time focusing on the pepper spray used on the UC Davis kids on Friday.

Amazon sells the type of Defense Technology police-grade pepper spray reportedly used on the UC Davis protesters. Customer reviews of the product are now dominated by snarky comments about the campus incident.

“Accept no substitutes when casually repressing students,” is the title of one review posted Monday.

via UC-Davis | Pepper-Spray | Amazon | The Daily Caller.

Pullen Pike

Things got a little out of hand at Saturday’s Pullen Park Grand Opening.

Pullen Park speech

Pullen Park ribbon-cutting

Here are my written remarks from the Pullen Park dedication Saturday. I frequently compose my speeches on the fly but Pullen Park is important so I spent more time on this one.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve been waiting for this day for 124 years!

Today we celebrate the grand opening of a park that actually opened 124 years ago. Hard to believe, isn’t it? I did a little research to get a better idea of what Pullen Park’s first grand opening must have been like.

On that day in March 22nd, 1887 when Mr. Stanhope Pullen donated the land that created Pullen Park, N.C. State University was a mere fifteen days old. Fayetteville Street – where this morning’s Christmas Parade took place – had only been paved for a decade. Raleigh sprawled to almost two square miles and had a booming population of 13,000; qualifying it as the fifth largest city in our state.
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Raleigh wants a startup spark

Raleigh is building a startup environment. Software company CEO Josh Whiton gets it:

But the talent is too spread out around the city, says Josh Whiton, the 31-year-old CEO of TransLoc, a software company next to downtown’s Moore Square that makes web sites and apps for mass transit systems.

“We’ve got a lot of good companies, but they’re miles apart from each other,” Whiton said. “There’s not the serendipitous running into each other when you go to the coffee shop.”

“Durham has that concentration. That’s what Raleigh needs.”

It’s not a stretch to say I’ve worked for more startup companies than just about anyone. And Whiton is right on the money. This is what Raleigh needs to focus on with its entrepreneurial efforts: creating a startup scene. It’s all about those serendipitous meetings. Foster that feeling and success will follow.

What it takes to accomplish this is essentially what it takes to make any kind of development take place in the city: it all starts with staking a flag someplace, so to speak. Find a part of town that offers the “raw materials” that might make for interesting work places. Look for a place with “good bones,” as the real estate industry calls it. Then designate this place as the startup area and sell it with PR. It helps to attract an “anchor tenant,” which for Raleigh might be Red Hat.

Then wait. And wait. Then wait some more. And commit to nurture it with whatever it needs. Listen to the companies there to see what it might need. Look around for any good ideas being implemented in other places.

Like Whiton said, there are plenty of successful startups born here in Raleigh. We’ve got a great foundation. Now we just need to focus this activity in one area and help it grow!

via Raleigh wants a startup spark – Local/State – NewsObserver.com.

Coverage of Pullen Park

Here are a few links to the media coverage of the Pullen Park grand opening.

News14 Carolina’s story features a quote from my speech and a good shot of the Turner kids during the ribbon-cutting.

Pullen Park ribbon-cutting


NBC17 also had a good story but only has a brief clip of the Turners during the ribbon-cutting:

WTVD sent a reporter and had a brief story but didn’t post the story video.

T. Keung Hui wrote a story for the News and Observer but there’s no mention of me (nor any pictures of the ribbon).

As far as I can tell, WRAL didn’t even show up. I guess they had their hands full with the parade coverage.

Occupying the high ground

My thoughts on the whole Occupy Wall Street movement have just changed considerably. I just watched the video of UC Davis Chancellor Katehi walking to her car, surrounded by thousands of completely-silent student protesters. Calling it the “Walk Of Shame,” the silent protest was in response to Katehi’s order which resulted in the egregious pepper spraying of a dozen peaceful protesters on the UC Davis campus Friday.

As Garance Franke-Ruta of The Atlantic points out, Friday’s unprovoked attack was much worse than the above video shows, with police holding the peaceful students and directly pepper-spraying them in the face and throat.
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