Local Connections to Haiti Help Us Appreciate the Magnitude of the Tragedy

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Of all the countries to get pummeled by a major earthquake I can't think of many less prepared to deal with it than Haiti.  Of course there are other Third-World countries out there, but because of Haiti's proximity to the eastern U.S. those of us who live here in NC are more likely to know someone who has been there or is involved with a group doing work there than elsewhere.

In the last hour I've received two emails from people who have friends or acquaintances in Haiti.  One came from friend (and former neighbor) Susan Ewing, who has a very close friend, Pam Carter, currently in Haiti and she asked for all of us to pray for Pam.  Luckily Pam is okay and she was able to get an email out to her husband and daughters to let them know that she's fine.  Here's an article in the Charlotte Observer with more details. Of course things can go from "okay" to "very bad" in short order so please do keep Pam and everyone else in Haiti in your prayers.

The second email came from Bob Krebs, a board member of the organization I work for who is also heavily involved with Free the Kids.  Free the Kids supports an orphanage about three hours from Port au Prince and Bob wrote that the orphanage was okay, that much of Port au Prince is demolished and that food and water are quickly becoming a problem and since the orphanage's food supplies come from Port au Prince they do not yet have a solution for the food problem.

Another local connection to Haiti is Susan Midgett who raised $100,000 for the orphanage by doing the Escape from Alcatraz Sharkfest swim last year.  Hers is truly an inspirational story and I encourage you to take a look at the difference that one person made in the lives of literally thousands of children.

I'm sure there are many more local connections to this tragedy, and while it doesn't make the situation any more or less tragic I think it does help us appreciate the magnitude of what is unfolding down there.  If you know of ways that people can help please feel free to share them in the comments or by emailing me and I'll try and get the word out as best I can.

Update 1: Gotta love Twitter.  Just found this : Text HAITI to 90999 and $10 will be charged to your cell phone bill for the Red Cross effort in Haiti (via @barackobama )

What NOT To Do on I-40

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Yesterday I was driving on I-40 and about 30 yards in front of me a minivan in the middle lane was being tailed closely by a police officer. He turned on his lights and siren and waited for the driver of the minivan to pull to the shoulder. The driver of the minivan continued on at a stately pace for at least a half mile and didn’t make a move toward the shoulder despite having a clear lane to go through. Sensing that there might be trouble I backed off even more, as did the other drivers around me. Good thing, because when the officer pulled up next to the minivan to get the driver to pull over she proceeded to stand on her brakes and come to an almost complete stop before she started to inch over to the shoulder.

Before you say anything about me assuming it was a woman let me just say that we all had time to get a look at her as we passed by at 10 MPH. We’re all lucky we didn’t get rear ended as part of some colossal chain reaction.

Helping The Children’s Home

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This actually has to do with my day job.  The Triad Apartment Association (TAA) is gearing up for it's annual Labor of Love and this year we'll be working with The Children's Home to fix up a building that's been vacant for over 25 years so that it can be used as transitional housing for kids who turn 18. 

As things currently stand when a child turns 18 they are pretty much on their own.  I don't know about you, but if I'd been left to my own devices at 18 I would have been in a world of hurt.  The Children's Home envisions taking this refurbished building and using it as a place to temporarily house the 18 year-olds while they learn how to make their way in the world.

The TAA is going to take several teams of volunteers to clean up, paint, fix the landscaping and make repairs to the building over two weekends in February.  We're in the process of organizing our teams and gathering supplies for the project.  To give you an idea of the scope of this project we anticipate using a minimum of 200 gallons of paint and having dozens of volunteers on site at any given time. 

One of the most exciting aspects of this project is that we keep getting donations and volunteers by word of mouth even though we haven't really been pushing it to this point.  I can't tell you how many calls we've gotten from "friends of friends" who want to know how they can get involved.  What I've been telling them is that we will happily take donations of supplies, or money (financial donations go directly to The Children's Home for the project), to help with the project.  If we get a duplication of donations, say for kitchen appliances, then we've been assured that The Children's Home can find a use for them.  If you have any interest in helping out please feel free to contact our office at (336) 294-4428 or visit our web page about the project here. 

I wasn't yet at TAA when we did the 2009 Labor of Love so I'm REALLY stoked about this year's project.

 

Triad Lost 20K Jobs, Mostly in GSO and High Point

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Here's some not-so-surprising news from the Triad Biz Journal:

The Greensboro-High Point and Winston-Salem metro areas lost a
combined total of 20,400 jobs between November 2008 and November 2009,
according to the latest data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Most of those, 15,800 jobs, were lost in the Greensboro-High Point
area, a drop of 4.3 percent during the year. Winston-Salem lost 4,600
jobs, or 2.1 percent, during that time.

This part of the article was a little shocking:

The pace of job losses in Greensboro was among the 20 fastest in the
nation, tied with other areas including Tampa, Florida and Cleveland,
Ohio.

For all the talk of economic recovery and the celebration of the Dow's return to over-10,000 land, it doesn't mean much until people start working again.  Let's hope that November 2009 to November 2010 sees a return of at least some of those jobs.

Lewisville NC, Hollywood East?

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From a Yes! Weekly article about the new North Carolina movie incentives:

Rushtons Crimson Wolf Production released the
multimillion-dollar, sci-fi action thriller Eyeborgs in 2008. Eyeborgs tells
the story of a near future where robotic surveillance cameras keep constant
watch for possible criminal activity, and was shot entirely in Winston-Salem
using local crew.

Crimson Wolf, based in Lewisville, was started in the Triad
because we live here, says Rushton, the we referring to his partner in the
company, Richard Clabaugh.And because there's lots of great cast and crew
people and there's just no reason for Crimson Wolf to move anywhere else. Plus
the new incentives have fired up filmmakers we know to finally get projects
going they've been putting off, which is only going to grow the filmmaking


community already here.

Eyeborgs stars Adrian Paul, known as The Highlander in the
TV series and recent feature films, and Danny Trejo who played Machete in
Robert Rodriguez's Grindhouse. Its CGI, or computer generated graphics, were
described in a review on the film website the Quiet Earth on April 30, 2009 as
being more realistic and effective than mega-budget Hollywood spectaculars like
Transformers.

Winston-Salem Journal’s Managing Editor Heading Out

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Ken Otterbourg, the Winston-Salem Journal's managing editor, is leaving the paper at the end of the month.  From his blog post about his departure:

We will be running a story tomorrow announcing my resignation as
managing editor at the Journal. We told the staff yesterday. So
consider this the tease, as it will make you read the article.
But the short version is that a) I wanted to try some other things
besides running a newsroom before I got too old to make the transition
and that b) I had some substantial disagreements with our corporate
staff about some planned changes for our newsroom in the coming year.

Update: I'll keep in place the speculatin' that I wrote below just to show how off one person (me) can be when working with partial info.  According to the article that the Journal ran about Otterbourg's resignation his disagreement with the corporate office has to do with consolidating the copy editing and design functions of the three largest papers.  Of course that could have led to people being let go (speculation number 1), but still it looks like I really was speaking through my nether regions. Update End

That last line has me speculatin' and the three possibilities that pop into my head are:

  1. He's had to be the guy handing out pink slips the last couple of years and he doesn't want to do more of the same.  In classic corporate style the suits in Richmond want him to cut senior reporters since they cost so much and hand the reins to kids out of journalism school (if such people still exist) and hope for the best.  
  2. The suits in Richmond want the newsroom to be better integrated with advertising so that they can offer more "innovative" business solutions to their advertisers.  Hey, if it's good for Murdoch's peeps then why not Media General's?
  3. The suits are considering pulling the plug on the printed product and going entirely digital.

Remember this is pure speculation on my part and I could be totally talking out of my nether regions, but I don't think the speculation is too much of a stretch, especially the first one.  Believe me, I hope I'm wrong.

Sunday, Sunday, SUNDAY!

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Esbee links to the trailer about the History Channel show filmed at Bowman Gray last summer and set to debut this coming Sunday.  Looks entertaining and I'm sure it will be the kick in the pants I need to finally get me out to the track next summer.  I feel somehow un-Winstony for living here five years and not getting out there even once.  This despite the fact that a friend of mine who goes there religiously once described the atmosphere thusly (I'm paraphrasing):  "It's great.  There are all kinds of women there wearing halter tops and no bras, and they really should be wearin' bras since their tattoos get all distended."  If that's not a ringing endorsement I don't know what is.

Here's the trailer.  Show debuts on the History Channel at 10 p.m., Sunday, January 10.

For You Wake Hoops Fans

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Remember how bad you felt when Wake lost to William & Mary?  Well, this might help you feel a little better.  The current RPI rankings have William & Mary at #2 in the country behind only West Virginia. Wake is ranked 29 and Duke, at #3 is the only ACC team with a higher RPI.

As a George Mason alum I'm intrigued that the CAA has three teams in the top 40: William & Mary at #2, Virginia Commonwealth at #14 and Old Dominion at #39.  The ACC only has Duke and Wake in the top 40, but it has NC (49), Clemson (50) and Florida State (51) just below.  Sadly my alma mater, the boys who were seconds away from beating Villanova (15) at the beginning of the year and played Georgia Tech (65) tough, yet managed to recently lose to Radford (89) by 27 points, is ranked #131.

Unresolutions

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Since I never seem to succeed in fulfilling my new year resolutions I've decided to try listing my "unresolutions" in the hope that I succeed in not unresolving.  Or whatever.  Anyway, they are:

  • Gain weight.
  • Get out of shape.
  • Lose money.
  • Lose friends and influence no one.
  • Break everything I touch.
  • Fail miserably at everything I do.
  • Celebrate my laziness.
  • Live slothfully.

I think that covers it.  Here's to a terrible 2010!