The Governor is a schmuck (in the connotative, not denotative definition). A cheating husband who gives “cross-the-line” interviews self-defines. But why on earth is his wife making statements to the press? What office is she running for? This comes close to creating a new connotative defintion for schmuck-ette. Did no one ever talk to this couple about dirty laundry?
Social Fourth
Posted by – July 2, 2009 – Share on Facebook
Update: Peggy reminds me in comments that Brenda’s role wasn’t highlighted - mea culpa. Brenda is one of the most good-humored and clever people you’d ever want to work with. She’s got a great line for every situation!
FunFourth is organized by Grassroots Productions Limited, a small and extremely hard-working nonprofit in downtown Greensboro (they also manage Festival of Lights as well as scheduling in Center City Park). [disclaimers: TechTriad built and host their Web sites and advise on Internet strategy. We also are the backup for the most annoying problem they're having with a piece of shelfware that's misbehaving in a dramatic fashion.] As reported in the N&R, Peggy Hickle is the tech-savvy hard worker behind a lot of the new communication. When the organization decided to go social, Peggy implemented it.
We discussed the Twitter account early on - what did they really need it for? The answer started with a narrow focus: the status of the fireworks. We estimated they could get half their message out via Twitter and given how many tushies can sit in Jamison Stadium, that was a pretty large number. The rest could:
- Get it on Twitter @grassrootsgso
- See it on the web site
- Read it on the N&R site or N&R breaking email
- Read Grassroots/FunFourth email and blog
- Find it on Facebook
- Hear it from friends
Way back when we first started on the site, the entire social platform was in the works. Not only is Peggy managing the online comm before the Festival, she’ll also be the gal with the computer in Center City Park updating ya’ll on Twitter during the day. Look for the blonde with the new air card and give her a high five!
Don’t Leave Home Without It
Posted by – July 1, 2009 – Share on Facebook
What is it with Gary, Indiana, and birthing celebrities? Karl Malden died at age 97. Aside from his film, stage and TV credits, Malden was famous for his commercial, “Don’t leave home without it,” for American Express. But those were the days when you had to watch commercials.
Wednesday dog blogging
Posted by – July 1, 2009 – Share on Facebook
Shayna got a new toy - about as big as she is - and Simcha played with her favorite toy (scratching on the carpet). If dogs take on their owner’s personality, I guess we’re all just strange.
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Sam I Am
Posted by – July 1, 2009 – Share on Facebook
Sam came to visit. He brought black socks with monkey heads from his latest Asian adventure (I love black socks!) and we had a great visit. Sam fixes computers, manages online projects and is an old bud.
Legal kudos
Posted by – July 1, 2009 – Share on Facebook
The arrest of Wright at 82 Melha St. in Springfield came based on a tip from North Carolina law enforcement, The Republican reported Tuesday.
Kudos to NC law enforcement for doing it right.
NCLEG Embarrassing NC again
Posted by – June 30, 2009 – Share on Facebook
Update: from Binker’s re-tweet - boycott Amazon? No, I don’t think so. It’s the only place I can get things I need at best prices. Great delivery. Reviews I rely on. Better solution: compromise this situation and support small businesses in NC.
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How do we elect these business-unfriendly legislators? From the mouth of an NC Legislator, House Speaker Joe Hackney no less (and no more):
“I have my own way of dealing with it, which is I just won’t deal with Amazon.”
Background here and here.
Potassium
Posted by – June 29, 2009 – Share on Facebook
Am happy to update the dog lovers that Simcha is officially diagnosed with low potassium and is on supplements (probably forever) plus bananas (my choice). With all the info I got via Facebook, the Cairn rescue group and Twitter, I could have easily saved a bunch of money on diagnostic tests (although I wouldn’t have known about the low potassium). Interesting thing, though, is that puppy-mill rescue dogs have issues (a given) but as they age, those issues become more pronounced. Even though Simcha has had a fairly luxurious life for the past 5 years, her sadness and anxiety have grown as it does with puppy-mill rescues.
Her panting results from her fear of separation (from me, so sayeth the vet and it makes sense). If I leave her outside to have 20 minutes of fenced-in sunshine, she’ll pant more frequently and hide in her crate. If I let her out to do her business and let her come right back in (what she wants), there’s almost no panting. I’m glad I realize it now.
Her terror of loud noises and thunderstorms is a common dog issue. (He gave her a little Xanax for the Fourth of July; I don’t go to fireworks anymore. I just reassure her and the Rx might make her more comfortable; I kept talking him down in dosage.) I don’t think even Cesar could fix her 4-5 years in a damned puppy mill.
Not all doggies are chase-the-ball dogs. This one needs to live by my right leg. She’s the sweetest dog on the planet and I told the vet I’d simply love her through it.
Slowest news day evah
Posted by – June 29, 2009 – Share on Facebook
After I blogged a funny story about my father, Irving Lecin (z”l) being called for jury duty (twice) after he passed away, the N&R asked for a phone ‘interview’ to discuss it and it wound up on page 1 (it got one of those BIG online links, too, see image below). If you think that’s a little bit much, it was also picked up by the Charlotte Observor [ht jw]. This has got to be the slowest news day I can remember.
OK, this has to be some automated feed thing:
Well, darn! I didn’t know my father wrote a letter to the NY Times in 1990. This Google thing is great!
WordPress plugins for the too-busy
Posted by – June 28, 2009 – Share on Facebook
I ditched a lot of plugins and searched for more yesterday, given that I hadn’t updated most of them in a year or two. There’s been some good development in the WP community and thanks to all those who’ve written plugins that make my life easier. (Did not include the obvious Akismet because if you don’t use it, you’re not really a WordPresser.)
- Add to Facebook is great. I’m not happy with where it’s showing up, but I can fix that with a little time. It’s got its own CSS (kudos to the author) and I just need to futz around with it a little.
- Clean Notifications is handy. It sends sensible email to me about each comment. No mess.
- I added a contact form on the contact page. Too darned easy. Fabulous programming.
- Mobile Press. Worthy of its own mention. Just get it. Transparent. What a gift to the WP community from Alex King!
- Subscribe to comments. Have always wanted to do this.
- Lightbox. Transparent. Brilliant.
- Add your favicon to WordPress - do it yourself with WP support. Copy. Paste.
- EmbedIt - maybe you have to “get” programming a little to use this, but this simplifies adding video, embeds, etc.
- Must have: WordPress macros. Thanks again to Alex King. Stuff you type all the time? Make a macro out of it. Unbelievably easy to use.
Fruits of labors
Posted by – June 28, 2009 – Share on Facebook
The patio/corner garden is producing veggies and we’ve eaten one green pepper, several cucumbers and are waiting for the cornucopia of tomatoes that will appear very soon. How does your garden grow? [Previously]
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| Slicing tomatoes - almost ready! | Green peppers - easy, bushy and plump |
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| This corner gets the most sun & fence is for climbing | Neighborhood rabbits make in-ground gardens hard |
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| Cucumbers grow as you watch them | Cherry tomatoes - ripen on the counter |
This post is for my east-coast big-city lawyers who don’t believe that a geek like me will get her hands dirty. Heh!
Wordpressed
Posted by – June 27, 2009 – Share on Facebook
Am done for a while updating my blog. This weekend, we’ll upgrade to WP 2.8 and if that goes well, upgrade all the blogs on the server. There are some great plugins out there for WordPress. Take a look and install what suits your blog. And get the automatic, easy-to-use WP mobile plugin.
Plain and simple
Posted by – June 27, 2009 – Share on Facebook
Took a little while today to make this blog mobile-friendly and move to what I’m hearing called the “2010″ Web. After complaining about some business sites where my Blackberry is fairly useless to find their address or phone number, I decided that improvement should start at home. Am working on mobile CSS as well. Once perfected, it’s a going to be a standard.
Tell your Web folks to make sure you have a mobile-friendly landing page.
Landlines
Posted by – June 26, 2009 – Share on Facebook
We have needed new phones for a while - even a tech small business needs phones. Our small biz system is at least 10 years old, perhaps older, and like most Panasonic multi-line phones, the #1 digit is broken on most of them. It’s a known issue (tech speak for “it’s a design flaw and no, we’re not going to do anything about it.”) So I knew I wouldn’t buy Panasonic again.
I finally ordered a new system today and can’t share enough how wasteful I think spending money on phones is. I tend to yell at the phone when it rings incessantly (I despise the voicemail intro message so I changed it to send a .wav file). Scoble has the right idea: his vmail message says, “Please don’t leave a voicemail. Just call me later. I promise to answer if I can.”
Jury duty in Greensboro
Posted by – June 26, 2009 – Share on Facebook
Update: Well, darn. Someone reads my blog. Got an email and a call from a N&R reporter about this jury summons and my sister and I talked to her. Working on a Sunday, no less! Other note: she used the contact form I installed yesterday. Ain’t this technology thing great? (original post follows)
I’ve mentioned that I receive repeated jury duty summonses when my friends tell me they never get one. But this is better. Guess who got a jury summons today? My father (z”l) who passed away in 1995 has such an invitation to serve with the caveat that he can go down to the courthouse on Tuesday or Thursday from 2:30-4:30 p.m. to request an exemption (or mail it in). Noted on the form for valid exemptions: the candidate is deceased.
I suppose this would be laughable if not for the fact we DID go down there two years after he passed away (the last time he got a notice) to make sure they knew and that there was no identity theft involved.
A perfect almost-ending to a Friday. Government. Can’t do the big stuff right till you get a handle on the small.