Geezer

There are 380 posts filed in Geezer (this is page 28 of 38).

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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University, Inc.

I’ve often considered going back to college. Then I read stuff like this from NCSU Chancellor Randy Woodson, citing the reasons for a massive 29% tuition hike:

With classes in some cases growing from 200 students to 300, faculty members struggle against a growing tide of test grading and other mundane chores, Chancellor Randy Woodson told the trustees committee.

“It takes them out of the business of being scholarly, of doing research and of moving the economic engine of this state forward,” Woodson said.

Let me translate this for you: “Those pesky students who are trying to learn are keeping us ivory-tower types from trying to pad our resumes and the university’s coffers. They should fork over their money and just shut up.”

Is it any wonder I’m disillusioned with higher education? Is it also any wonder that these schools’ big-time college sports programs get away with what they do?

Woman finishing up driving test crashes into Fayetteville DMV

This is a sad reminder that at a certain point some folks lose the ability to drive safely when they age.

Cars mean independence. If you take away someone’s driving ability, you take away their independence. We need to build our cities and communities so that one doesn’t need cars to retain one’s independence.

Three customers at a Fayetteville DMV office required medical attention Wednesday after a car came crashing through the building.

Gavin MacRoberts, spokesman for the Fayetteville Police, says a 2008 Acura crashed into the DMV office, located at 841 Elm Street, shortly after Noon.

It appears the driver, 77-year-old Annie Gore, was pulling into a parking space after completing a driving test when she accidentally stepped on the gas and crashed into the front of the building.

via Woman finishing up driving test crashes into Fayetteville DMV | NBC17.com.

Williamsburg

Fife and drum parade

Colonial Williamsburg

We returned this afternoon from a weekend trip to Williamsburg to surprise Kelly’s dad for his 70th birthday. After showing up at his doorstep unannounced Saturday morning, we finished breakfast and headed out to see Colonial Williamsburg.

Thanks to a press release from the Governor’s office, I knew ahead of time that Colonial Williamsburg (or “CW,” as it’s known to locals) had free admission to veterans this weekend in honor of Veterans Day. We were able to score free tickets for my family, which was a nice perk.
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On my way

I found this picture (slide, actually) in my collection of stuff and scanned it in a few months ago. It was taken on one of my very last days of boot camp, mid-April 1988, by the photo vendors of the now-defunct Boardwalk and Baseball theme park near Orlando, FL. I was on my way in a few days to my very first duty station: my A-school training at Fort Devens, MA. From left to right are James Kading (I think), Christopher Patrick, Richard Royston and me.

I have no idea where these guys wound up. Boot camp isn’t a place you have a lot of time to socialize. There was only one sailor in my company I got to know better, only because we spent 6 months together at the aforementioned A-school. I wonder what these gentlemen here are up to now.

Daylight complaint-saving time

I managed to make it through the whole day yesterday without my usual twice-yearly rant about daylight saving time. The truth is that Kelly and I completely forgot about DST ending and woke up thinking it was later than it actually was. Other than resetting far too many clocks it was a smooth transition for us.

Since I’ve blogged before about DST’s dubious benefits, I came across an interesting National Geographic look at DST. Some excerpts:

Likewise, Matthew Kotchen, an economist at the University of California, saw in Indiana a situation ripe for study.
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Sample in a jar

Wikimedia Commons pic by TurboTorque


I went to a job interview recently which went fantastically. The work was right up my alley, faces lit up when I described what I do, and one interviewer even exclaimed “he’s just the guy we need!”

Then I got handed off to the corporate HR staff, which sent me a 16-page job application to fill out. That wasn’t so bad, but on the porch today was a overnighted package with forms in it for a drug test.
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