• News & Events

    Time for SpeedCon

    On of the many things I love about fall is all the activities that seem to blow up this time of year. Sure, it gets a little overwhelming, but these are some of my favorite activities of the year: football games and tailgating, hockey (ok, maybe not this year), band competitions (NERD!), and conferences. Yes, I said conferences. For me, fall holds a really staggering number of conferences, which generally include BarCamp, WordCamp, IgniteRaleigh, UNC CAUSE and our very own SpeedCon. I am a big fan of conferences. I think they’re a great way to get people together, to network, to share ideas, to break out of the box. This…

  • Vote!
    Opinion,  Profile

    The obligatory political post of 2012

    Every four years we find ourselves back here, don’t we? Our TV’s spew angry ads and our radio’s hurl insults. Internet bloggers chortle with delight at the latest nominee faux pas or bristle at perceived slights. It’s a free-for-all of who can convince the most people that their lot in life is terrible – and it’s the OTHER guy’s fault. Most of the population ducks and takes cover for the 4-6 months preceding the November general election and I admit that’s my basic strategy, too. It’s not that I don’t care about the country — on the contrary, I really, really do. But I had a whole class on rhetoric in grad school and…

  • News & Events

    BarCamp

    I look forward to several annual Triangle events: IgniteRaleigh, BeerFest, the Sanderson Band Competition (yeah, what? I’m a band geek, ok!), and I’m very pleased to be able to help out with one of those events types of events this year– BarCamp RDU.  BarCamp is an unconference. In case you’re not familiar with that term, it’s when lots of people show up with a variety of ideas for talks based around a topic – in this case that topic is “technology”. Vague, yes? But an unconference is uniquely perfect for a topic like technology which is so dynamic and fast-paced that a traditional conference format often can’t keep up. Rather than…

  • News & Events,  Profile

    A Year of Twitter

    I have been so busy posting to my blog on a regular basis I belatedly realized that I have hit 1000 posts on Twitter! I guess my micro-blogging habit has really interfered with my regular blog updates (not that I was doing terribly well at blogging before the distraction of Twitter…). I spent some time going back through all my fascinating posts and realized that I’ve nearly hit another milestone: 1 year on Twitter. My first post was September 18th, 2008. It was at times sweet, nostalgic, painful and hilarious to read my thoughts on events of the last year. There were very few things that I couldn’t find a…

  • General Information,  News & Events

    Something to Look Forward To

    So to preface this post, I’ve had a little to drink tonight. And I think there’s some rule about don’t drink and post but I’m FAR too wise to listen to such silliness. Went out with some friends this evening. It’s so nice what a little alcohol and some good company can do with an evening. Anyway, among our ridiculous suggestive comments, stupid ideas, happy/dirty/forgotten memories and frustrated work stories was a discussion on travel. Now these are some of the same people I went to NYC with this past New Years and we had a great time. What’s more, we traveled well together (I thought. Wait, you don’t agree?…

  • Opinion

    The [adjective] Old Days

    In the process of moving my blog over from Blogger I had to shift some “categories” and “tags” and I’m still updating old posts that had nothing. So it’s been in turns, funny, pathetic and nostalgic to review my earlier posts. A couple of posts in particular stood out: some comments on politics, old family trips, my yearly devotion to autumn. But there were two things I really enjoyed, and I think they’re a good reason to actually wallow in my nostalgia for a moment. Mac vs. PC I stumbled across a couple of pro-Windows posts from years past. I found it hilarious to read about Windows Vista since I…

  • Storytime

    Thanksgiving: The Horror

    Yes, all right, it’s been a month since I’ve posted. I am going to add a “Post to blog” task on my “Remember the Milk” list and monitor it via my iPhone. I know, it’s hard to believe I don’t have time to post since I obviously don’t have a life. So I am one of those people that, when asked by friends and neighbors “how was your Thanksgiving?”, feel compelled to really answer. A simple “fine” is not in my vocabulary. And when I stopped to recall this Thanksgiving, it was really quite chilling. First there was the conversation at Thanksgiving dinner. Somehow I ended up sitting between my…

  • Opinion

    An Admitedly Early Holiday Celebration

    I was sitting on my couch enjoying my favorite at-home activity: browsing the web while watching TV, when I was distracted by the sound of my first Christmas commercial. Actually it’s my first Christmas anything, of the year (FYI it was the “Carol of the Bells” ad with the cash register lights but that’s not important). Anyway before I could even work up exasperation I found I was smiling. I should have been annoyed- it’s November 5th- but I’m a little impressed they made it past Halloween. I suspect I was also excited by the contrast between carols and candidate attack ads. So in case you haven’t heard your first…

  • Updates

    Fall Frolicking

    Well, I still feel bad about having dropped my class but there’s no doubt in my mind that was the solution for me. Things have been much easier without a class to worry about, although I do still owe my professor a project from the Spring. But I am good at procrastinating and having flexibility does wonders for my mood– so much less stress! Really makes me not want to go back to grad school, too… The last few nights I’ve just been home, doing laundry and watching TV. Sure, I still work from home, check email, update Drupal etc., but it’s easier now that I don’t get home at…

  • General Information

    101 Posts

    I missed it at the time but “Poli-ticked Off” was post number 100. I can’t believe I’ve been doing this for so long- or that I’ve managed to stay on this one blog the whole time. It’s very amusing, and somewhat depressing, to read my old posts. I’m not really sure how far I’ve come, but it is kind of nice to have a record of the path. So happy 101. Thanks for reading! In other news I dropped my fall class today. Work continues to be very busy; our CIO has big plans which sadly seem to require large amounts of work from my unit. Doing school work, and…