Saturday, November 10, 2007

No Way to Filter all this

This news junkie is OD'ing.

From time to time I pause and realize that there's a lot going on the world, and that I have no clue how to process it all. Let me at least try to put it in list form to give you a sense of what I'm trying to process:
* Complete overthrow of the Pakistani Government -- all media is shut down and political dissidents are arrested and incarcerated
* Violent protests in the country of Georgia
* Massive Battle in the capital of Somalia
* US Dollar Values plummeting... imploding of the US mortgage industry
* A US presidential race that nobody really follows (Clinton? Obama? Thompson? Guiliani? Romney?)
* US Congress not passing a budget
* Following Catastophic fires in San Diego last week, this week a huge oil spill occurred as a barge hit the San Francisco Bay Bridge
* Writers strikes in NYC and LA that will completely shut down Late Night Talk Shows, Political satire (Daily Show, Colbert), and primetime shows. ... Complete shutdown of Broadway by stagehand strike.

That's just off the top of my head.

I have this lingering suspicion that I am supposed to have some sort of reaction to all these events. I don't know... I feel a bit catatonic since I cancelled my subscription to the RTD a couple weeks ago... I wasn't reading it... but I am starting to wonder if there is some other way to get a handle on all this news... and how I am supposed to respond, if at all.

I like to think I have pretty well-formed opinions on current events, but the volume of crises in recent weeks seem to have maxed out my reactive capabilities.

Sunday, October 21, 2007

My new favorite Scrabble Word and Witty Tidbit

UT -- the syllable once generally used for the first tone or keynote of a scale and sometimes for the tone C: now commonly superseded by do. [Origin: 1275–1325; ME; see gamut]


GAMUT --
1.the entire scale or range: the gamut of dramatic emotion from grief to joy.
2. Music.
a. the whole series of recognized musical notes.
b. the major scale.
[Origin: 1425–75; late ME re, mi, fa, sol, la, si) being named from a Latin hymn to St. John the Baptist: Ut queant laxis resonare fibris. Mira gestorum famuli tuorum, Solve polluti labii reatum, Sancte Iohannes]

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Party in my tummy

Speaking of morbid fascination... I feel a sense of horror and wonder as I watch this video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9PqjMSNfkU

the good kind of evangelism?

I am always morbidly fascinated by evangelism videos... namely street evangelism, where you go up to people Ray-Comfort-style and engage them in a debate about what the Bible says about how they are going to hell without Jesus. Part of me thinks this is rude and the other part of me... agrees with the first part of me. This is totally rude evangelism.

Don't get me wrong... the Good News involves repentance from sin... and Jesus was rude and confrontational sometimes... but I have to admit I am just not comfortable with the idea that the way to introduce people to Christ is by videotaping yourself accusing them of murder. "Hey, there, S%&$head, want to meet my friend Jesus? By the way, I'm taping this to show my Christian friends."


Are there other forms of public evangelism? the good kind?


I don't know ...these guys are more my style...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKOnqy61ahA

On the one hand it seems like singing in public can be a public nuisance...

...but if you are a street performer, and you are really good at what you do, most people will appreciate that.

There's a deep thought in there somewhere.

Sunday, August 19, 2007

I am proud of my sister

My sister is hanging out with people in Mali for a while. She is learning Bambara and helping them with their agriculture stuff (something to do with Shea trees or Shea Butter or something). Ok lets face it, I have no idea what she does all day but she is awesome. I think she is trying to feed the world or something. She just sent some pics to my parents. See if you can pick her out.



(hint: she smiles a lot)
First correct guess in the comment field gets you the shea butter product of your choice from Bath & Body Works.

Friday, July 06, 2007

An amazing New Technology??

Check it out... I got an invite today for this amazing technology that enables you to send messages, links, and files to a network of your friends... no, not email... silly...

... it's Pownce!!!

Pownce ( http://pownce.com/)



The only way I can think of this having value is if it stops the spammers and phishers.

Then again, it's a site that asks for your name, birthday, and financial information, so for all I know, it may be solely dedicated to phishing and spamming. Hmm... and it's called "pounce."

Ahh... who can you trust? Free Lunch goes to the best reponse (leave a comment)

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

More Richmondy Links

I just updated my Richmondy link farm (see right column). This post is for adding other Richmondy links that didn't make the cut.

* http://floricane.typepad.com/buttermilk/ -- He follows Richmondy stuff, but ... I don't really read this blog. Are there other bloggers I should be reading?

* A bunch of Richmondy N-blogs that I can't vouch for
** http://northrichmondnews.com/
** http://cjwn.net/ -- Carver&Jackson Ward News
** RVA Blogs
**Petersburg People's News
**Hills and Heights

* Food and Wine richmond wiki -- http://wiki.foodandwine.com/page/Richmond%2C+VA?t=anon

* There's a world of Flickr I don't yet understand... http://www.flickr.com/photos/murden/
etc

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

2011 and future technology

I just started playing with Google Earth.

Wow. (If you don't understand, I can't explain it to you. You have to see it.)


Then I found this article.

"For people who haven't spent much time in a 3-D world, of course, it's hard
to imagine feeling comfortable in either. But such environments may soon be as
unavoidable as the Web itself: according to technology research firm Gartner,
current trends suggest that 80 percent of active Internet users and Fortune 500 companies will participate in Second Life or some competing virtual world by the end of 2011. "

Wow.

Ten years ago Google didn't exist.

Four years ago Myspace didn't exist.

What kinds of technology are going to emerge in the next five years, and what impact will they have on our professional and social lives?

Wow.

The way I cope with all of this is that in five years you will still have groups of people who interact with each other. If you invest in people you almost can't go wrong.

Wednesday, June 06, 2007

New York Times plugs Fan Walking



Caption: Monument Avenue in the Fan District is one of the loveliest places in Richmond for an urban stroll




I almost missed it.. but thanks to the WoBD neighborhood blog for the link to the NYT article promoting my favorite hobby. I am telling you, I'm on to something here.

Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Surface Computing

I am going to get one of these coffee tables at work... someday... I hope.

This is where we are headed... we are getting closer and closer to that crazy power glove wall computer from Minority Report ... Awesome!!!


And guess what device has multitouch technology????? the iPhone ... coming to a circuit city near you in June 2007


More links
* Perceptive pixel homepage

* Multitouch research at NYU

* iPhone

Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Hip Hop

Yeah, so I'm in a hop hop phase.






Saturday, April 28, 2007

Richmond ZineFest 2007

I almost didn't go to this, but I thought it would be cool to see what kind of underground paper culture is floating around Richmond. The Richmond zinefest was held at the Firehouse Theater and at The Camel and according to the people I talked to, it was the first such festival in Richmond in about 14 years. As it turns out, about half the zine publishers were from out of town. Knowing nothing about zine culture except a vague reference from a 1990s Harvey Danger Song, I decided to learn more about zines from the people at the 25 or so tables.

I talked to most of the participants and picked up a lot of free schwag. The setup was rather like a flea market or comic convention, with each zine person sitting behind their own own table or half table. Some people had tee shirts and stuff for sale, but a lot of people gave me free stuff because I was talking to them.

You know this was a Richmondy event because RVA Magazine was there and it was at the Firehouse Theater (co-founded by Harry Kollatz Jr., aka senior writing editor of Richmond Magazine and guy with the funny hat who is always fan walking in Carytown). The guy from Patchwork Collective was manning the info table, and the Zinefest program he had put together was about as DIY as you can get.

Keywords for noobs:
* Zine
-- a Do It Yourself(DIY) magazine-like publication, usually 10 to 50 pages containing original art, poetry, opinion pieces, doodles, and random whatever.
* Distro -- sort of a zine middleman; a person who publishes lists of available zines and will send them to you. Examples include PaperChaseDistro.com, , parcell press , Valiant Death (records and Distro). Zineworld ("A reader's guide to the Underground Press") seems to be a good place to start... they review zines of all quality levels as well as writing articles on how to do zine stuff.

* PerZine -- someone who writes a zine about their PERsonal experience.
* Tower Records -- Apparently Tower used to be zine central, but now that they have filed for bankruptcy.
* Tabling -- I saw this on a flyer... not sure if it is zine scene lingo but it works... it's a verb... "who will be tabling at that event? Oh, I have a bunch of people who want their own tables"

As some of you may know, I originally intended sceneonerichmond to be a "newsletter" for the Richmond <>< scene. When my co-conspirators in the sceneone project bugged out in 2004, I started this blog in 2005. Even as I am now mostly internet presence, I have always had a place in my heart for making and distributing paper information pamphlets around Richmond. Here are some things I learned about the craft in case there are others like me who think about this kind of stuff...

* Frequency -- most zine kids are far less productive than they originally intended. The distro people told me it was fairly normal to have zines be created bi- monthy (that is... every other month). Some people put out zines only once a year. One guy shared a table with another "zine buddy" told me he put out two zines in August 2006 and started a third that didn't get done until last week.
* Media -- Most people published in 8" X 6" staple-bound "fold copy paper in half" format, and several mentioned to me that they relied heavily on the Staples copy center honor system or friends who had access to "free" copy machines. Several people went beyond the low-fi DIY norm and actually had impressive art and copy. The twine guy (28 Pages Lovingly Bound With Twine) was using a wooden spoon to get the twine the right length. I was also particularly impressed with the stuff at the substanceInk table (these guys were VCU art students). The other people who set the curve at this festival were the folks from Young American Comics. Not only that but, they gave me their price list for making buttons. Buttons!
* Content-- HOW TO tips like Gardening ... musings about love... documentation of experiences... Richmondy stuff... anarchists calls to arms... stories about a particular location... absurd anecdotes... tripped out doodles(brains melting, etc) ... personal poetry... artsy comics


My overall memory of this event was that it was a lot of down to earth people who are trying to build community by putting a little bit of themselves on paper. Many of them got into "the zine scene" by first reading other peoples' stuff and saying, "I can do THAT!"

I am struggling for a pithy conclusion here. I guess I'll just say that I also got the feeling that zine-ing can't be that hard. I have even though of a name if I ever do catch the zine bug... " ZineOneRichmond!"


-RCU

Friday, April 27, 2007

Summer Fun in Richmond -- Schedule

This post will be regularly updated with concerts and other fun stuff occurring this summer. **** This was last updated April 28, 2007****

If you want weekly schedules, go to weeklyrant.com or check out the event links to the left.

1. GENERAL CALENDAR

------MAY------
* Friday Cheers and other weekly summer concert venues (see below) kick off
* Jamestown 2007 kicks off, including Godspeed visiting Richmond and Henricus May 23-26
* Richmond 1977 "30 Days of 30 Years" kicks off ...
May 5 -- Cinco De Mayo on Brown's Island


------JUNE------
June 9 -- (tentative) River city Beer and Seafood festival

------JULY------
* July 4 -- Fireworks at Dogwood Dell and The Diamond... followed by Fan Walking
* July 5 -- Kingsfest at King's Dominion
------AUGUST------
* TBD -- Carytown Watermelon Festival (Sunday Afternoon Early in August)



2.
Innsbrook After Hours (Wednesdays, and some Fridays)
May 9 -- Wierd al Yankovic
May 16 Elliott Yamin
May 23 -- Dark Star Orchestra
May 30 -- Huey Lewis and the News
June 3 -- Three Days Grace/Braking Benjamin
June 6 -- LIVE
June 13 -- Gin Blossoms
June 20 -- Doobie brothers/Little Feat
June 22 -- Sugarland
June 27 -- TBA
July 4 -- No Concert
July 7 -- Taylor Hicks
July 11 -- Hootie an the Blowfish
July 18 -- Los Lonely Boys/Pat Green
July 25 -- TBA
July 26 -- Sara Evans
July 28 -- Chicago
Aug 10 -- The Wailers


3. Groovin in the Garden (Thursdays)
May 10 -- Seldom Scene... and the Avett Brothers
May 17 -- Dickey Betts & Great Southern
May 24 -- Medeski, Martin, & Wood
May 31 -- Big Bad Voodoo Daddy
June 7 -- Big Head Todd and the Monsters
June 14 -- Son Volt
June 21 -- TBA
June 28 -- 1964 the Tribute (Beatles covers)

4. Friday Cheers (uh... Fridays)
May 11 --- Carbon Leaf
May 18 -- Lee Boys / DJ Williams Project
June 1 -- Soullive/Exister
June 8 -- Keller Williams
June 15 -- AAE/Crucial Elements
June 22 -- Drive-by Truckers
June 29 -- The Slip

5. Other concert venues I will link but not list
* Fridays at Sunset (weekly)
* Dogwood Dell Festival of the Arts (Daily )
* Third thursdays at VMFA (monthly)
* Fourth Fridays at Artworks (monthly)
* First Fridays on Broad (monthly)
* Richmond Kickers games... not a concert but fun to watch with friends.


6. FALL 2007 EVENTS
* "Swingin on the Tracks" at the Science Museum (September/October) (weekly)
* October 5-6 -- 2nd Street Festival
* October 12-14 -- National Folk Festival

Monday, April 23, 2007

I suck at blogging, but...

... I have been linked, so I have to blog now. Let the real blogging begin!!!!

Ok, stream of consciousness wikification:

Today is April 23, which is, let's see... the third day of Taurus... that number 23 is coming up like in that movie.

I paid off my car today... I talked to my sister in Kita, Mali on a three way call for the first time since Christmas.

I am turning 30 in May, which means you should take the pledge. ... Richmond1977.com, aw yeah

All I need to be a great blogger is... practice! I think my slant for this blog will be that I go out in the world and assimilate random information and post it here so that other people can read it and assimilate it some more and then ... hopefully someday... it will be useful to someone.

...so you should expect lots of random but interesting links and facts!!!!!!!!!!

Friday, March 30, 2007

We are the Web

Yeah, so I have been telling everyone about "The World is Flat" by Thomas Friedman. We are all interconnected more than ever before.. in all of history.

Tonight, I found a cool link on YouTube that conveys this pretty well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gmP4nk0EOE


The phrase to remember is "We are the Web" The internet/blogs/Web2.0 is produced by people like you and me. If you don't like what you see on the internet, ask yourself what you have done to contribute. Nothing? Think about that.

Sunday, February 04, 2007

Top 50 from United Way

1 American Red Cross Greater Richmond Chapter 754,928 http://www.yourunitedway.org/NR/rdonlyres/D79F3739-8EBF-4ACF-9BDC-254FB6E4E11B/0/FundingbyAgencyFinal.pdf
2 Family Lifeline 742,268 http://www.family-lifeline.org/
3 Friends Association for Children 569,001 http://www.friendsassn.org/default.asp
4 YWCA of Richmond, VA 398,537 http://www.ywcarichmond.org/
5 Memorial Child Guidance Clinic / ChildSavers of Richmond 361,000 http://www.mcgcva.com/
6 YMCA of Greater Richmond 358,807 http://www.ymcarichmond.org/
7 Salvation Army - Richmond 353,678 http://www.uss.salvationarmy.org/richmond
8 Boys and Girls Clubs of Metro Richmond 315,311 http://www.bgcmr.org/
9 IVNA Health Care 277,000 http://www.ivna.org/index.html
10 William Byrd Community House 267,587 http://www.wbch.org/
11 Commonwealth Catholic Charities 164,304 http://www.cccofva.org/defaultHome.aspx
12 The Greater Richmond ARC 152,279 http://www.richmondarc.org/
13 HomeAgain (formerly ESI Connections) 148,000 http://homeagainrichmond.org/
14 Goodwill of Central VA 147,880 http://www.goodwillrichmond.org/index.asp
15 Offender Aid and Restoration of Richmond 135,000 http://www.oarric.org/
16 Jewish Family Services 129,612 http://www.jfsrichmond.org/
17 Children’s Home Society of Virginia 124,443 http://www.chsva.org/
18 Refugee and Immigration Services 123,469 http://www.richmonddiocese.org/ris/
19 CHIP of Greater Richmond 123,413 http://www.chipofrichmond.org/
20 Big Brothers Big Sisters Services 122,187 http://www.bigbrobigsis.com/
21 Daily Planet 120,000 http://www.dailyplanetva.org/
22 A Grace Place Adult Care Center 118,500 http://www.agraceplaceacc.org/index.php
23 Southside Child Development Center 115,160 http://www.mcgcva.com/about.htm ???
24 Boy Scouts - Heart of Virginia Council 95,220 http://www.scoutingvirginia.org/
25 Circle Center Adult Day Services 84,000 http://www.circlecenteradultday.org/index.php
26 Meals on Wheels Serving Central VA 40th anniversary!!!!!!!!!!
84,000 http://www.mowdelivers.com
27 Freedom House 83,000 http://www.freedomhouserichmond.org/
28 Fan Free Clinic 77,559 http://www.fanfreeclinic.org/
29 Central Virginia Legal Aid Society 76,231 http://www.cvlas.org/
30 CARITAS 75,000 http://www.caritasshelter.org/
31 Carol & Marcus Weinstein Jewish Community Center 70,246 http://www.weinsteinjcc.org/
32 Salvation Army - Southside 66,579 http://www.salvationarmysatx.org/
33 Girl Scouts: Commonwealth Council of VA 65,828 http://www.comgirlscouts.org/
34 Quin Rivers Agency for Community Action 54,108 ??? http://www.vadv.org/???
35 Senior Center of Richmond 48,000 http://www.benevolink.com/main.aspx?page=ConsumerCharityProfile&id=564578
36 Association for Retarded Citizens Petersburg Area 45,363 ??? http://www.unitedwayofhopewell.org/profiles.html
37 Hanover Adult Center 30,872 http://hanoveradultcenter.com/
38 Foster Grandparents Program-Petersburg 27,068 ??? http://www.yourunitedway.org/NR/rdonlyres/FBA6009C-60FC-4B28-A4F7-568F83CAC286/0/PARTNERCODES.pdf
39 American Red Cross Southside Area Chapter 27,000 ???
40 Hanover Arc 26,600 http://www.hanoverarc.com/
41 CARES 24,998 CARES, Inc.
(Crisis Assistance Response Emergency Shelter, Inc.)
P.O. Box 1142
Petersburg, Virginia 23804
(804)861-0849/(804)861-0865
Regional shelter serving persons in the cities of Petersburg, Colonial Heights and Hopewell, as well as the counties of Prince George, Dinwiddie, and Chesterfield who are homeless as a result of a housing crisis, transportation crisis or are victims of domestic violence. Provides service referrals, travel assistance, child care as well as a mailing address.
42 Lead Safe Petersburg (Petersburg Health Department) 24,000 http://www.upal.org/safehousing_petersburg.htm
43 READ Center 22,587 http://www.readcenter.org/







































44
Goochland Fellowship and Family Services -- 45th anniversary!!! 18,000 http://www.goochlandfellowship.org/
45 South Richmond Adult Day Care Center long link

46 CHIP of Petersburg (Petersburg Health Department) CHIP of Petersburg
Petersburg Health Department
301 Halifax Street
Petersburg, Virginia 23803
(804) 863-1652
15,000

47 Tri-City Literacy Council http://www.tricityliteracy.org/14,000
48 In Home Care Fund for the Elderly--Petersburg Department of Social Services ???11,421
49 Virginia Voice for the Print Handicapped benevolink link 11,000
50 Crater District Agency on Aging http://www.cdaaa.org/pages/1/index.htm10,000
51 Emergency Medication Fund Dinwiddie Department of Social Services ??? 8,000
52 Al-A-Mo Recovery Center ??? link?>?? 6,817

Tuesday, January 23, 2007

Other Good Causes

Still deciding whether to elevate these to "top 30"...

http://www.projectrescue.com/ -- Money donated saves the kids from brothels and helps to get women out of trafficking slavery. Pretty intense.

http://www.richmondhabitat.org/page3.html

http://www.forkeepsvirginia.org/ -- a project for the first lady about finding permanent placement for Va. teens in foster care

http://www.invisiblechildren.com/ -- it's a movie... not a charity.. but a good cause, of course.

http://www.virginiasupportivehousing.org/icf.htm -- Virginia Supportive Housing works with other community development corporations in the Richmond area to revitalize abandoned and substandard housing to provide safe affordable housing. Virginia Supportive Housing also works closely with Richmond area homeless shelters and transitional programs.

http://www.bgcmr.org/ Richmond Boys and Girls Club ... for the kids... (Donate here!)


Crisis Pregnancy Center -- The Center is dedicated to providing compassionate care and practical assistance to women who are unprepared for pregnancy. Since 1983, the Center has helped more than 20,000 women meet the challenges of pregnancy, childbirth, and parenting. All services are provided free of charge. 24-Hr Helpline: (804) 673-2020 or Email us at CPCRichmond2@aol.com

Central Virginia Food Bank -- " The Central Virginia Foodbank (CVFB) was founded in 1980 to procure and distribute food efficiently and effectively to feeding programs throughout the area. Since then, the Central Virginia Foodbank service area has grown to include 31 counties and five cities in the Central Virginia region. Presently, we distribute food through a network of more than 500 network partner agencies, which includes more than 130 child care providers serving needy children. In addition, we serve as many as 4,000 daily meals in the summer and 2,000 daily meals during the school year to needy children through our 54 Kids Café programs."

Monday, January 22, 2007

Bells and Whistles

Ok, so here are some elements to work on....

==Definite==
blog ... content to be developed ... sceneonerichmond.blogspot.com

Tee shirt
-- Logo... working
-- Schedule of May events to wear your tee shirt to(Cinco De Mayo, Friday Cheers, )
-- official purchase location for tee shirts
-- should I charge for tee shirts?


Website ... still need to decide on a URL... stick with sceneonerichmond.blogspot.com?


==Possible==
myspace account?
Theme song?
______ contest?

Take the pledge! Draft list of charities

The challenge: Take the pledge! Under the consultation of friends, I have chosen a list of 30 charities that I would feel comfortable giving money to and that I feel do a great deal of good for the Richmond community. I am challenging everyone I know to give$30 to one of these charities... or $1 to all 30.... however you want to do it. Consider it a b-day gift. To take the pledge, simply let me know when you have sent your gift the charity(-ies?) of your choice. Obviously, I can't tally how much money you gave because I can't prove it.. but I am going by the NPR honor system... I only tally the amounts that people have pledged!!!

This is a start. (in no particular order)

Send suggestions to sceneonerichmond@ g ma il. com. At some point, I'll put together a tee shirt design.... still need to figure that out.

1 William Byrd Community House Help out the kids.

2 CARITAS Richmond End Homelessness in Richmond Check out their "donate" tab... pay online

3 Homeward End homelessness in Richmond heck out their "donate" tab... pay online

4 ART 180 - "ART 180 creates and provides art-related programs to young people living in challenging circumstances, encouraging personal and community change through self-expression. Our group is based in Richmond, Virginia."

5 United Methodist Family Services "By making a gift to UMFS you can touch the life of a child or family in deeply significant ways. Your financial support enables UMFS to be a world-class leader providing human services that enable children and families to realize their hopes for the future." (Adoption, Treatment Foster Care, Residential Treatment, Support Services, and Affiliate Services.)

6 The Giving Heart (Community Thanksgiving Feast) - Providing basic needs, assistance, acceptance and opportunities to the underprivileged, elderly and those who otherwise are hindered in their desire to move forward 7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

29

30

Arbitrary 2007 anniversaries

It seems like 2007 is the year for arbitrary celebrations of increments of time ending in 0 or 5.

For example:

* 400th anniversary of Jamestown
* 385th anniversary of the Indian Massacre of 1622
* 265th anniversary of the founding of Richmond (1742)
* 200th anniversary of Robert E. Lee's Birthday
* 175th (ish) anniversary of the Virginia Historical Society
* 10th anniversary of Bandito's Burrito Lounge

And, obviously, the 30th anniversary of me.

30 days Of 30 years: The concept...

It all starts with concept...

Premise 1: I am turning 30 in May... people who turn 30 often do something drastic on their 30th birthday...

Premise 2: doing drastic things doesn't need to be negative... I can do something drastically positive on my 30th birthday... like get people to donate to charity. It is right to help out the little guy.

Premise 3: tee shirts are awesome. Richmond is awesome. Raising awareness of Richmond charities by putting them on tee shirts is awesome...

Premise 4: Viral Marketing sucks but it works... and advertising for a good cause doesn't suck .

I think the conclusion follows... A 30-day Richmond Charity Pledge Birthday Festival Website Tee Shirt


Coming to a capital city near you in May of 2007.

I will keep you posted via this blog.

Walking into 2007...

I feel a little like Rip Van Winkle....

ok, so apparently I didn't make ANY blog posts in 2006. That tells you what sort of blogger I am. I am a very bad blogger.

So what did I do in 2006? I did exactly what I said I would ... I walked the Fan, and I promoted walking the Fan. For my birthday in May, I took the GRTC and walked to Brown's Island and joined 3500 of my closest friends for a Friday Cheers concert by Fighting Gravity. The highlight of that evening was when the lead singer (Shiavone McGee), shouted happy birthday.. to himself... but little did he know that he was playing my party... the biggest birthday party that Richmond had ever seen.. up to that time.

The best part of the whole year was December 31, when over 6000 people joined me in Carytown and that dude from RVAmag yelled something passionate about community and we all waited for the New York Deli ball to drop... err rise... and then we all went Fan walking into late into the night.

So what's next for 2007? Obviously, I have to throw a bigger birthday party than last year.

... and that's a pledge...