No Get Smart Quick Schemes, Please talks about the recent Disney decision to refund parents that purchased the Baby Einstein brand of music CDs and video DVDs and cassettes.
I emailed questions to all the candidates and incumbents for Jacksonville City Council.
Below are the answers from Mr. James Bryan (At Large). The answers are cut and pasted directly from the email and contain no altering of text, except for format (bulletized the questions and indented the answers).
I emailed questions to all the candidates and incumbents for Jacksonville City Council.
Below are the answers from Mr. Jerry Bittner (Ward 2), who is running against Councilwoman Reva Sullivan. The answers are cut and pasted directly from the email and contain no altering of text, except for format (bulletized [...]
I emailed questions to all the candidates and incumbents for Jacksonville City Council yesterday.
Below are the answers from Councilman Jerome Willingham (Ward 1), who is running unopposed for election. The answers are cut and pasted directly from the email and contain no altering of text, except for format (bulletized the [...]
The Jacksonville Daily News has posted profiles of the candidates for Jacksonville City Council. For your convenience, I’ve linked the individual profiles below (The JDNews page is a bit squirrelly and quiet a bit confusing…)
A couple weekends ago, AM and I took a quick trip to Duplin Winery for her birthday. It was a first time trip for both of us, so we really didn’t know what to expect, though we were looking forward to the wine tasting.
Certainly, moms have a particular perspective on raising children. Certainly, in Jacksonville and Onslow County moms have to deal with particular [...]
On behalf of the Down East Cyclists’ bicycling club, I’d like to invite you to participate in the Down East Cyclists Family Fun Ride on October 10th, 2009 at 9 o’clock in the morning.
The Family Fun Ride will begin at the Onslow County Tax Office on Court Street and will [...]
The 2009 municipal elections are just more than a month away and there’s been nary a word from the majority of candidates running for Jacksonville’s City Council.
Below is a list of questions I will be sending to all the candidates within a few weeks. Give them a read and [...]
This is another test post from the WordPress iPhone app.
I’m still not entirely in love with it, but it seems I was off base in a previous statement: There is a Link Assistant activated when “http” is typed. Once the app detects the magic phrase, a dialog box [...]
This is a test post from the WordPress iPhone app.
I’m not entirely in love with it. There’s limited text editing, no URL support and questionable photo support. There’s also no commenting ability or blog settings access.
I’ll play with it a bit, but the app is very limited and [...]
I’ve been elected chairperson of both the Parks and Recreations and Trails and Greenways Commissions at their most recent meetings. Though I wasn’t looking for either appointment, I’m looking forward to the opportunity to move Jacksonville forward on recreation and bicycle/pedestrian issues.
Filing for 2009’s municipal elections are over and the slate of candidates for November’s ballot is complete. It’s time to stop guessing who will pony up to run and prognosticate about the campaigning.
Since there’s not much campaigning to analyze so far, I figure that it’d be useful to lay a [...]
The filing deadline for 2009’s municipal election has passed and the final listing of candidates is available at the Onslow County Board of Elections site.
The incumbents:
Jerome Willingham (Ward 1)
Reva Sullivan (Ward 2)
Alva Williams (At-Large)
Randy Thomas (At-Large)
The challengers:
Jerry Bittner (Ward 2)
Hunter Hadley, Jr. (At-Large)
Robert Warden (At-Large)
James Bryan (At-Large)
Lori Ready [...]
AM and I recently purchased a new PC (actually, all I did was recommend a PC, she did all the purchasing) at our local Best Buy (Store 805, which is also available on Twitter).
I’ll summarize the adventures. If you want details, follow the jump.
The Jacksonville Daily News has a story, but it doesn’t name any of the “numerous people interested” in replacing Willingham, Sullivan, Williams or Thomas on the Jacksonville City Council.
Alva Williams has an interesting quotation, though:
"We’re not through with our work yet…I hope the voting public is smart enough [...]
While you’re reading online, go ahead and give the Declaration of Independence a read and think about what it means and what the founders of our nation had in mind when they wrote [...]
My week is almost over. I’m off tomorrow at Noon until Monday. So, yays for me.
If you thought recentdramas in Jacksonville were over, you were wrong. The folks at Americans for Prosperity have attacked Mr. Phillip Cherry (Director of the Onslow County Library System) for sending [...]
Jacksonville’s former City Manager, Kristoff Bauer, was fired in a 4-2 (Jerome Willingham, Reva Sullivan, Alva Williams and Randy Thomas for, Michael Lazzara and Fannie Coleman against, Sammy Phillips, as Mayor, only votes in ties) vote on June 9th.
After the firing, there was quite the bit of backlash [...]
…And that the rate I’m breaking spokes (4th in as many weeks was today), I’m beginning to fear for my rear wheel. I was really hoping to not leave the apartment all weekend. Drat!
Other than that, this was a pretty uneventful week as far as adventures in bicycling.
The City of Jacksonville’s Trails and Greenways, Parks and Recreations and Beautification and Appearance commissions met Monday, May 18th for their annual joint meeting. The agenda is here.
All commissions previous meeting minutes were approved.
The chairmen of each commission made reports on each the actions of each commission:
The Jacksonville Trails and Greenways Commission is meeting Monday, May 18th at 6pm in the Choate Room at the Jacksonville Commons Senior Center. This is a public meeting and all City residents are invited and welcome to come.
The agenda is below.
I. Call to Order
II. Approval of Previous Meeting’s [...]
Earlier this evening, HB 1451 – Bicycle Protection Act was removed from the NC House Transportation Committee agenda for tomorrow. This week is the legislative deadline for passing measures which do not involve money. There were no appropriations in the Bicycle Protection Act, so it is effectively dead.
As I mentioned yesterday, the NC House Transportation Committee is meeting Tuesday and will consider House Bill 1451 – Bicycle Protection Act. If you live in North Carolina, I hope you’ll write your representatives, especially if they’re members of the House Transportation Committee, as is Mr. Cleveland.
May is National Bicycle Month. May 11th to 15th is Bicycle to Work Week and May 15th is Bicycle to Work Day. If you can’t ride all month or all week, shoot for Friday. Think you can’t commute by bicycle? Guess again, my friends. Unfortunately, there are no events [...]
There were no presentations, but Mr. Mike Wetzel reminded Commission members that City staff (as well as outside agency staff (i.e. JUMPO, NCDOT, contractors, etc)) could be requested [...]
The week was full of incidents and accidents. Only one involved me directly, though.
During last week’s DownEast Cyclist Club meeting, I heard that one of the bicyclists that routinely ride the Jacksonville Rails-to-Trails multi-use path had been involved in a nasty crash along the fenced area of Highway 24/Lejeune [...]
It’s been a while since I last detailed my adventures in car-free commuting. And, while there’s not a whole lot to talk about, there’s been a few changes.
I’ve been reassigned from II MEF Family Readiness to Camp Lejeune’s Installation Personnel Administration Center (IPAC) located further into the base. The daily [...]
The City of Jacksonville’s Recreation and Parks Commission met at 6pm on March 23rd at the Senior Center located at the Jacksonville Commons Recreation Complex.
The minutes from the January 26th, 2009 meeting were approved.
The Recreation and Parks Director, Mr. Tim Chesnutt, reported several items. He covered the Recreation [...]
The next meeting of the Jacksonville Trails and Greenways Commission will be Monday, March 16th beginning at 6pm. The meeting will be held at the Jacksonville Commons Senior Center’s Community Room at the Jacksonville Commons Recreation Complex.
The agenda is below:
CALL TO ORDER –
REVIEW AND APPROVAL OF MEETING MINUTES - [...]
Apologies for the recent silence. I received some pretty bad, even if not unexpected, news last week and haven’t really been in a good blogging “place”.
There’s two stories here, but I can only give you the short one: My position, and my co-worker’s, with II MEF Family Readiness is in [...]
It’s been more than six months of full-time bicycle commuting and I’ve lived through near-misses by inattentive drivers, being yelled at and Jacksonville’s less-than-stellar bicycling environment. And, while I haven’t used the bicycle for enough other-than-commuting trips, I will be as the weather gets better.
The following is an email sent to Representative George Cleveland (Rep, NC House-14) and Senator Harry Brown (Rep, NC Senate-6). Brown and Cleveland have been assigned to their respective Transportation Committees and are in positions that could bring NC DOT efforts to the Jacksonville/Onslow area and Eastern North [...]
It was an uneventful and short week. I rode 3 days for a total of 46 miles.
2-Feb-09
Home to Bldg 40
Commute
6.5
2-Feb-09
Bldg 40 to Home
Commute
6.7
4-Feb-09
Home to Bldg 40
Commute
6.5
4-Feb-09
Bldg 40 to Home
Commute
6.7
6-Feb-09
Home to Bldg 40
Commute
6.39
6-Feb-09
Bldg 40 to Home
Commute
6.7
Ms. Talissa Hatchell (16) after being hit by a car at approximately 9:30am on Monday, February 2nd, 2009. Ms. Hatchell was attempting to cross Western Blvd (a major thoroughfare in Jacksonville which has 7 lanes of traffic, no crosswalks and few sidewalks along it’s length) to get to the [...]
The following is a list of questions I sent to Mr. Michael Wetzel. I asked these so that I can gain a better understanding of the role of the Trails and Greenways Commission and
Is it possible to remove the 2007 information on the Trails and Greenways Commission webpage [...]
This was a short-cycling week. Not voluntarily, mind you.
I was hit with a migraine at work on Tuesday and wasn’t able to ride home. AM came to the rescue with a pick up, which meant leaving the Day-Tripper at work. Wednesday, I stayed home with left-over migraine funk [...]
I decided, as a result of my experiences with their notebook PCs, to write HP’s CEO, Mr. Mark Hurd, a second letter.
Mr. Hurd:
I previously wrote you regarding the poor product quality and even worse customer support I received with my HP Pavilion DV2310US notebook PC in May of 2008. Immediately after I [...]
Monday was a federal holiday, Tuesday was Inauguration Day and I took the entire week off of work. I haven’t had a week off in the 4 years I’ve been a federal employee. And, let me tell you, it was not a bad deal at [...]
The subject of her post, cyber stalking, is something I’ve never had to deal with, as I have always written online by my given name. I do so for two reasons:
Mr. Quinn’s response is below, in its entirety, since it’s not available on the Jacksonville Daily News’ website.
Community’s needs greater than bridge To the editor: In his Jan. 8 letter to the editor headlined, “More use of bridge than some claim,” Thomas Brock acknowledges that Robert [...]
In what can only be described as an egomaniacal trip down horror alley, Craig Weber has announced via email his third bid for North Carolina’s Third Congressional seat.
The text is below.
To all,
I want to thank you for every effort that you made in this past election. It took [...]
The January 6th, 2009 edition of the Jacksonville Daily News featured an article titled “Rails-to-Trails bridge earns state engineering award”. This article unfairly portrays the Rails-to-Trails project, and the [...]
Since the last two weeks have been short (Monday and Tuesday for each week), I’m going to consolidate the two weeks here.
Mileage was low, what with only two days of riding each week, but I was able to get a couple really nice recreation rides in during the off days. [...]
Work to Help Base Bound Traffic Some delays expected during work
Traffic on Lejeune Boulevard bound for the Camp Lejeune main gate during the week of January 6, 2009 may experience delays while NC Department of Transportation crews work to alter traffic [...]
This is part of an ongoing series of posts on my 2009 goals.
My personal goals for 2009 are much more complicated than my bicycling goals…On the bicycle, all I have to do is get my behind onto the saddle and pedal. Personal stuff is hard and requires [...]
I’m not a big fan of making “New Year’s resolutions”, but I like having goals. So, here’s my list of goals for 2009:
Commute 5,000 miles by bicycle – This is pretty easy. In January my commute will extend from 6.5ish miles to 11ish miles. That’ll make for 112ish mile weeks, [...]
Another short week without any recreation rides…But it was far from boring…
It was warm this week…So warm that I only needed to wear shorts and a long-sleeved shirt Monday and riding shorts and wind-pants with long-sleeved shirts Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.
Warmth doesn’t mean the week was perfect, though, as it [...]
During this week, I passed 1000 miles commuted since August.
It’s amazing to me that I’ve been able to travel 1,000 miles under my own power. I’m healthier, physically and mentally, because of the riding. I haven’t been ill this year, I’ve lost a little weight [...]
In the article, Pollard claims that his “research” into other Registers of Deeds’ salaries was an attempt to ensure that Pollard (who has zero experience [...]
Here’s the Jacksonville Transit update from a recent Your City episode.
Jacksonville City Manager Kristoff Bauer and Assistant City Manager Ron Massey discuss the current state of Jacksonville Transit, the addition of three 30+ passenger buses, and upcoming changes to the system.
The City of Jacksonville’s Transit system is operating today from 10am to 6:55pm. The schedule and route (it is slightly modified from the standard route) is available here (be warned, it’s a PDF).
The Transit system is also expanding, on a trial basis through January 4th, 2009, the [...]
Fourteen weeks. Three calendar months. An estimate of between 65 and 70 working days and between 130 and 150 separate trips by bicycle. Nearly 1,000 miles since August 15th.
It’s kind of funny, when I’m on the bike it doesn’t seem much more complicated than putting one pedal down but [...]
My first meeting at the Jacksonville Trails and Greenways Commission was last evening. It went well and I was particularly glad to have been a participant in a late addition to the agenda (more on that later).
The Commission discussed the following:
The new Trails and Greenways brochure – City [...]
On the way to work this morning, the Camp Lejeune gate guard made me stop to check my identification. The problem? It was a last-minute stop and I lost my balance. I did not fall, [...]
Why are so many of the losing incumbents and losing candidates for election behaving so poorly? It’s an exercise in classlessness, from my point of view.
Take soon-to-be former Senator Elizabeth Dole from North Carolina as an example. Her concession speech was not conciliatory, it was not gracious, nor was [...]
It certainly doesn’t seem like it’s been three months worth of work weeks, but, I suppose the counting does not lie. I’ll hit 90 calendar days car-free next Saturday (15th).
I despise the end of Daylight Saving Time. Instead of biking to work in the morning darkness and home in evening [...]
It’s been 4 days since Election Day. I haven’t updated the Elections Page, but I will. There’s just been a lot to process (politically and otherwise) for me.
McCain concedes. Obama declared the President-Elect.
Unfortunately, even now, NC is at a near-tie with Obama and McCain both at 49.XX%. It’s rather disappointing to me that, in the rare opportunity to actually mean something in a Presidential race, we couldn’t count our votes fast enough to matter. We [...]