Author: Tom

80% Won’t Post This

Posted on By Tom 6 Comments on 806 Won’t Post This
Internet, Rants

…and that’s a GOOD thing.

Take a look at this popular Facebook status update…

Every person has 1000 wishes. A cancer patient only has one wish, to get better. I know that 97% of Facebookers won’t post this as their status, but my friends will be the 3% that do. In honor of someone who died, or is fighting cancer – post this for at least one hour….

Now look at this one….

Today I’m going to pause to remember all those who are suffering from cancer, as well as their friends and family who are affected by this terrible disease.

…or this one…

Please remember my friend _____, who is battling cancer right now. Feel free to repost if you know someone else that might be concerned about him/her.

The first one is trite and passive aggressive. The last two have similar messages and concerns, and the second even encourages reposting, but to me are much less offensive. There is none of the guilt-inducing “you can’t be my friend if you don’t copy me exactly” sort of language. To me the last two messages are much more effective.

Danielle Foster, a contributing writer at Suite 101, describes this type of Facebook activism very succinctly:

The purpose of raising awareness about an important cause is to inspire people to reflect on the issue. The hope is that after awareness is raised, action will follow. Do status memes promoting awareness accomplish action, or are they merely providing short-lived entertainment and self-validation?…

…What this whole message is really doing is fishing for validation under the cover of supporting cancer victims. If you are the poster’s true friend, you will re-post the message because being that person’s true friend makes you a great person who would not dare dis-honor cancer victims, or the poster’s friendship with you, by not re-posting. You are this person’s friend aren’t you? You don’t hate cancer victims, do you? You had better re-post.

Read more at Suite101: Raising Awareness With Facebook: Does It Work? http://www.suite101.com/content/raising-awareness-with-facebook-does-it-work-a319040#ixzz1D6NkBMuF

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Hanging Out in Asheville

Posted on By Tom No Comments on Hanging Out in Asheville
Travel

Wall Street, Asheville

After our tour of Biltmore on Saturday, the plan was to hang out in Asheville and do some window-shopping Saturday evening and Sunday morning. Karen and Herman had given us a list of their favorite places in Asheville, and we wanted to check out a few of them.

Asheville always strikes me as a city of opposites, but not necessarily bad ones. You have the opulence of Biltmore and Grove Park, combined with a funky hippy vibe and alternative lifestyle mecca. That’s born out by the businesses downtown, where eclectic music venues and interesting restaurants sit side-by-side with lawyers’ offices and high-end retail shops and art galleries.

This particular Saturday evening lots of people were out enjoying the milder weather. We walked through several blocks of downtown, and most of the restaurants were busy. On one street there was a long line of young adults waiting to get into some club – I’m guessing a favorite band was playing there. Other places were just about as crowded.

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Touring Biltmore

Posted on By Tom 3 Comments on Touring Biltmore
Travel

Laura and I needed a weekend away together. We’ve done a good bit of traveling lately, but it’s either been for business or to see family. However, we didn’t want to drive too far. We decided to head up to Asheville for the weekend and visit the Biltmore Estate.

I’ve only been to Biltmore twice, and the last time was well over ten years ago, so I was stoked. After work Friday we drove on up and spent the night downtown. That means that we were in town early, so we were able to head over to the Estate as soon as it opened.

Laura had talked to Karen B and had gotten some good tips about what we needed to see. She said that we really needed to do the Roof Tour. When we got there we didn’t see that as one of the tours. However, we did find out that the Architect’s Tour had replaced the roof tour, and we got the last two slots available that day. We also paid for the general audio tour. The whole deal was quite pricey, but we really wanted to see as much as we could.

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Prosperity, Pomaria, Peak

Posted on By Tom 1 Comment on Prosperity, Pomaria, Peak
Family, Local

…and other towns that don’t start with “P”

Pomaria Pump Color Focus

Saturday morning my sister Glynda and I headed down to Prosperity to visit the parents. Mom and dad were in the mood to get out and explore. We decided to hit some of our favorite places – the communities just to the east of Prosperity. Even though I had visited these places with the parents, Glynda had never been out this way.

First stop, Pomaria. The central business district of this little place is pretty much a ghost town, although there is still a lively community surrounding it. We stopped on Main Street to take some shots.

PeanutsPomaria PumpWilson's Pomaria Lomo

Interestingly enough, most of the businesses had the name “Wilson.”

From Pomaria we headed south to Peak.  This has always been an intersting, somewhat isolated little community on the banks of the Broad River.  I had always thought that the town got its name because of the hilly terrain, sort of like the nearby Little Mountain.  However, it was named for the railroad superintendent of the time, Mr. H. T. Peake.

The main draw for Peak (apart from its quaintness) is access to the Palmetto Trail and the spectacular bridge that spans the Broad River.  The town’s people initially rejected the plan, fearing strangers wandering through their town.  I can only see this as a good thing for the community, as more people come to visit to see the bridge and the other railroad trestles that they are converting into footbridges.

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Snow Days

Posted on By Tom No Comments on Snow Days
Local, Miscellaneous

Winter Wonderland panorama

All the weather forecasters were predicting it – a whole bunch of snow late Sunday night into Monday with significant accumulations. It was certainly cold enough. Laura and I did our regular trek to the grocery store on Sunday, and, of course, certain sections were seriously depleted in anticipation of the storm.

It stayed sunny for most of Sunday. I was a bit surprised when our district called off school so early, but I guess they were taking the forecasts seriously. They turned out to be correct. Monday morning we awoke to a blanket of snow covering everything.

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