Raleigh has recently been named the #2 Best Performing City by the Milken Institute. You can see that Wilmington came in at #6.


On a side note, in the Small Metro category, Burlington, North Carolina came in at #57. Burlington is not too far from where I grew up. I'm sure in the Super Small Metro division, Mebane was #1.

Here's a little more about what the cities were judged on...

The Milken Institute/Greenstreet Real Estate Partners Best Performing Cities Index ranks U.S. metropolitan areas by how well they are creating and sustaining jobs and economic growth. The components include job, wage and salary and technology growth.

The Best Performing Cities ranking depicts those U.S. metropolitan areas that are recording the top economic performance.

HT: Marlow

Labels: raleigh

Do you ride a bike? Or, do you know someone that rides a bike?

Do you live in Raleigh? Or, do you know someone that lives in Raleigh?

If you answered 'Yes/Yeah/Uh.../Maybe/Yayer/Si' or anything else closely resembling an affirmative, then you have an opportunity to make life better for bike riders in Raleigh.

The City of Raleigh Bike Plan is in the final planning stages and and your input is desired and would be greatly appreciated. The City of Raleigh has hired Greenways Inc. "to conduct extensive fieldwork, evaluating the current bicycling conditions and creating a Bicycle Level of Service (BLOS) for Raleigh roadways. The goal of the inventory and analysis will be to identify gaps in the bicycle network and opportunities for bicycle facility development."

Part of their process is to allow residents and others to provide input via an online survey. The online survey is available now through October 3, 2008. You can find the survey and more information on the Raleigh Bike Plan here. Click the Comment Form link in the upper right hand corner of the page to take the survey.

Labels: cycling, raleigh

Some folks from Catalyst were down in the Baton Rouge area shortly after Hurricane Gustav ripped right through. They stopped by Healing Place Church and had a conversation with Pastor Dino Rizzo. You can see a part of that conversation in the video below.


Hurricane Torn Baton Rouge Needs Our Help!!! from Catalyst on Vimeo.

So, when asked what they needed, his answer was tarps.

So, what does Jesus look like to the people in Louisiana that have holes in their roofs? He looks like a blue tarp.

To help, you can go HERE and order a tarp.

You can have it sent to:
ONE (1) BLUE TARP
Healing Place Church
19202 Highland Road
Baton Rouge, LA 70809
225.753.2273

When you have purchased the tarp, please come back here leave a comment (anonymously if you wish).

The tarps aren't cheap. So, if you want to chip in on some tarps, you can go to flowerdust.net and see Anne Jackson's post about this where she explains how you can go in with other readers of her blog via PayPal. She is collecting money and will buy as many tarps as possible on 9/11.

Thanks. Much Love.

HT: Anne Jackson

Labels: activism, blogosphere, church, video

I just saw where twitter has a secondary application that allows you to search all of twitter for certain words so you can see what the buzz is about that word, e.g. "Palin" or "Hanna" or "Crunch-n-Munch". They even have an advanced search that really lets you narrow down your search. I think this twitter search thing could be used to give me almost every I want from my 'Searching' request.

I thought of another enhancement I'd like to see...

4. TinyURL
   
   I've noticed that sometimes when I enter a URL in a twitter update, twitter automatically uses TinyURL to shorten it. I'm not sure what is the determining factor for when they shorten it and when they don't. It's probably a length threshold.
   
   The first time I saw them do that, I was reminded of TinyURL, which I hadn't used in a really long time. Since, I have been shortening my URLs to give me more characters for the rest of my update. However, when I want to do that, I have to go to TinyURL.com, create my shortened URL and then, copy and paste it into my update.
   
   I would like to see a widget on the twitter site where I could create my shortened URL. I imagine that I would paste the the "long" URL into a field and then click a button. When I click the button, twitter would TinyURL-ify my URL, and the resulting shortened URL would be automatically be placed in my update.
   

I mentioned yesterday that I use Twitterific and in a comment Zack mentioned that he uses Twhirl.

What twitter apps do you use?

Labels: community, internet, twitter

I'm a big fan of twitter. A couple of months ago, they had some problems handling the load imposed on them by their users, but they seem to have gotten those kinks ironed out. Now, I can go on their site and quickly let the world, or at least the 83 people that follow me, know what I am up to. If you want to be number 84, you can follow me here: @rshannonsmith.

I also have my twitter updates go to my Facebook status and when I update using Twitterific, my Google Talk away message is automatically updated. It is quite the convenient service for those people like me that want to keep the world up to date with what's going on in their lives.

There are, however, a few things I wish twitter did that they don't, yet.

Here are the ones I am thinking about today...

1. Grouping
   
   I follow several people, 63 to be exact. These are people that I know personally, people that I know through others, and some people that I don't know at all except through what they post on the internet. I wish twitter had a way for me to create groups in my Recent feed.
   
   For example, Visio Dei has quite a few tweeters. I'd like to be able to see a feed of what my Visio Dei people are saying, separate from all the other updates. The same goes for people at work. I could have a group for them as well.
   
   If you work for Twitter and you are reading this, I would also like the ability to have a followee in multiple groups. I imagine it to be more like the labels in GMail, than a folder. I have co-workers that also happen to be apart of Visio Dei.
   


2. Sorting
   
   As far as I can tell, there is no method to the way followers and followees are listed on their respective pages. It just seems like some random list of tweeters. I'd like the ability to sort them alphabetically, by date added, and by date of last update.
   
   There are times when I am looking at my own followers and followees and I have to search for someone specific. However, I imagine I would also use this when looking at other people's followers and followees when I am looking for new people to follow.
   


3. Searching
   
   My updates are sort of like a timeline for my life. I update several times a day with whatever I have going on. Sometimes it is about what I had for lunch. Other times is can be about something I read. I'd like the ability to search updates.
   
   I'd like to be able to search my updates for a certain phrase, e.g. "Jesus for President". I'd also like to be able to search other people's updates. Maybe I could even search within my Visio Dei "group" for a certain phrase.
   
   I'd also like to search by date. Say I wanted to know what I was doing on July 4, 2008. I'd like to be able to put in that date and have it pull up my updates from that day.
   

Now, I know there are applications out there that are taking twitter data and making some of these functions available. However, I'd like to see some of these things available directly from Twitter; consolidated right there on Twitter page.

Do you have any enhancements you would like to see?

Labels: community, internet, twitter

One of my favorite podcasts is This American Life, a radio show with "a hard-to-describe sound". They to to sum it up this way on their web site: There's a theme to each episode, and a variety of stories on that theme. It's mostly true stories of everyday people, though not always. There's lots more to the show, but, like we said, it's sort of hard to describe.

The other week, in their episode Fear of Sleep, they featured Mike Birbiglia telling a story of a time he accidentally, nearly killed himself while he was sleeping. His segment was recorded live at The Moth.

The Moth is a club in New York City, where people tell stories, live, on stage, with no notes. He is what they say about themselves on their web site: Moth is dedicated to promoting the art of storytelling. We celebrate the ability of stories to honor the diversity and commonality of human experience, and to satisfy a vital human need for connection.

The Moth puts out a weekly podcast, which is the point of this post. After hearing Mike's story on This American Life, I went to check out the podcast for The Moth. It's great. I have loved listening to the stories people share. It's a small glimpse into their lives. They come across so authentic... so honest... so real.

Each podcast is around twenty minutes and the stories are great. So, if you are looking for something new to put on your iPod, this is it.

Check out The Moth.

Labels: community, entertainment, podcast, this american life

Sorry, but there is no video this week. Also, it is not week 13, but that is what Carlos put on his post. So, I am just going with it.

The last two weekends we have been on vacation. First, we went to the lake with some friends. Then, we went camping with Kim's family. Vacations are not good for my weight loss challenge because I take a vacation from all the measures I have put in place to lose weight and maintain my new weight.

The worst part that vacationing twice so close together is that the bad habits settle in. This morning, after the two weekends of bad habits, I weighed in at 213. That's up 3.5 pounds from my lowest weight, 209.5. It doesn't take nearly as long to put it on as it does to take it off.

So, starting today, I am back on the horse. This week, at least Tuesday through Saturday morning, I am going back to no sugar drinks and no snacking. I plan to weigh in on Saturday morning, but after that there is tailgating and football.

I have to admit that it has been challenging today to stay on track. I drank pretty much only water today and the only exception was some grape juice at lunch. The snacking has been kind of hard today, too. I think because I burned up a lot of calories, when I rode my bike to and from work, which has made me hungry.

I made the decision to get back on the horse while driving home yesterday from Savannah, but then tonight, I found out some good news, which gives me more incentive. Jeramie, who had also dropped the ball recently, is also getting back on track. He posted tonight stating his new goal. You can check that out here. Hopefully, with my renewed vigor, I can help him in his endeavor.

I hope you all will join me in supporting him and continue to support me

You can check out how everyone else in the challenge is doing here.

Labels: health, weight loss

This past weekend, we went camping with Kim's family at a KOA campground in Richmond Hill, GA, just outside of Savannah. Based on the trip, I have a few tips that I thought I'd share with all of you, in case you ever go camping.

There are no purple bathrooms.
Kim and I travel quite a bit and, like most couples, we only pack one bag of toiletries. Well, when you go camping at a campground, they have separate bath houses for men and women. This is problematic when you want to shower or just brush your teeth before bed. So, you need to pack separate toiletry bags.

There are a lot of obstacles between your bed and the head.
This is not something that I have to worry about, but with Kim being pregnant, she has to make some middle of the night trips to the bathroom. Well, when you are at a campground, that means walking to a building way over there. Between here and there are pine cones, roots, rocks, and all kinds of other nature. So, bring a flashlight with you.

Stuff gets wet.
This is more of a convenience than anything, but it would have been nice to have had a drying rack for our clothes in our cabin. We had shower towels, pool towles, and bathing suits hanging all over the place in our cabin. So, if you are annoyed by clutter, like I am, bring a drying rack.

This isn't a walk on the beach.
I wear sandals quite a bit, especially on vacation. Well, camping is not super conducive to sandal wearing. Beyond the many obstacles available for stubbing you toe, there are many flavors of bugs that enjoy to chow down on your exposed toes. So, bring some shoes. However, sandals are convenient for going to and from the pool and to and from the bath house for showers, and I know there are some people who like to shower in sandal when using public showers. So, maybe bring the sandals, too.

It is not too hot.
Those same bugs that chow down on your toes don't mind legs and arms either. I brought pants to wear in case it got cool, but it turns out they are more useful as bug repellent. So, bring pants, and wear them, especially at night. You will want to bring some bug spray, too, for your arms.

Bond. Goldbond.
If you don't know why you need to bring Goldbond, you probably don't need to worry about packing any, but if you have ever needed it before, you will want
to make sure you have some if you plan to go camping for a few days.

Make sure you know the law of the land.
If you are going to be spending Sunday night and you are camping out of state, you need to know if they sell beer on Sunday. In Georgia, they don't. So, plan ahead.

Do you have any tips you can add for other inexperienced campers?

Labels: camping, travel