Tom – Page 125 – Random Connections

Bobby Lamb – End of an Era

November 21, 2010 Tom 2 Comments

I planned to do something I hadn’t done in nearly 20 years. I was going to skip Furman’s home game with Georgia Southern on Saturday – the last game of the season and with one of Furman’s main rivals – and go kayaking. Furman hadn’t been playing well this season, and I was just ready for a change. Be careful what you wish for. The change I wanted was much more dramatic than I had anticipated. On Friday, head coach Bobby Lamb resigned. I immediately changed my plans and decided to go to the game.

Bobby Lamb has been associated with Furman for nearly 29 years. My senior year at Furman Bobby was a freshman, taking over as quarterback for the team. He has been with the team in some capacity ever since, as an assistant coach, and for the last nine years as head coach. Unfortunately the last six years or so have not been kind, with Furman not playing the kind of football we saw in 1980’s. There were already grumblings.

Weekend Update

November 14, 2010 Tom No Comments

Miscellaneous

Just a quick update – I’ve got several posts in the hopper, but haven’t had a chance to finish them. On Thursday I went in for some oral surgery, and that’s had me kind of out of action for the weekend. I’d thought I would have loads of time for writing while I recuperated, but … Read More “Weekend Update” »

Veterans Day 2010

November 11, 2010 Tom No Comments

Miscellaneous

This week I’ve been working with several schools to put together Veterans Day programs. While doing so the strains of the third movement of Randall Thompson’s Testament of Freedom kept running through my head. Perhaps old TJ expressed it best… We fight not for glory or for conquest. We exhibit to mankind the remarkable spectacle … Read More “Veterans Day 2010” »

Greenville Open Studios

November 8, 2010 Tom No Comments

Local

This past weekend the Greenville Metropolitan Arts Council sponsored the Artists Open Studios. This is the ninth year for the event, and it’s always a welcome event, and unofficial herald of the upcoming holiday season. This year 142 artists opened their studios for visitors on Saturday and Sunday. In many cases, these were the artists’ … Read More “Greenville Open Studios” »

Everything Has a Price

November 6, 2010 Tom 2 Comments

Entertainment

A couple of years ago ghost hunting was all the rage, and every cable network had to have it’s own ghost show. Ghosts are still popular, but the latest TV craze are the auction shows. At last count, I’ve come across five new shows on the cable channels, some of which looks suspiciously like each other.

I guess the granddaddy of all of these shows was PBS’s Antiques Roadshow, which started out as a BBC show in 1979. People bring in their treasures to see what they are worth. The prices were often inflated, but the idea that someone might have hidden treasure worth tons of money was quite compelling, and that concept seems to have driven the other shows that followed.

Another oldie-but-goodie was Cash in the Attic. Again, this got its start on BBC, and an American version appears on HGTV. In this show the hosts and appraisers help people go through their homes to look for items to put up for auction, usually with some goal in mind. Various antiques in the home are evaluated, until enough are collected to meet that goal.

I often had a problem with this show. I can understand selling off possessions if one needs to downsize. However, selling off family heirlooms to take a trip to Disney or buy a used car always seemed like squandering those funds.

And that brings us to the new crop of shows…

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Taco Parilla

November 4, 2010 Tom No Comments

Restaurants

NOTE: This restaurant has closed. A steak house called “The Strip Club” now operates in this location.

I’ve always thought that the Trade Street area in downtown Greer would be the perfect place for art shops and restaurants. It’s a nice little contained area, and would make a good destination spot.

Restaurants have had their ups and downs in the area. There was a brief flurry of activity several years ago as several high-end restaurants opened. Unfortunately, several of these didn’t survive the recent economic downturn. The good news is that new places are starting open, and the restaurant situation is once again looking up.

Greer is only five miles from my office, so it’s definitely within lunch range. I decided to try one of the new places, Taco Parilla.

A Flotilla on the French Broad River

October 31, 2010 Tom No Comments

Paddling

Saturday the Greenville Canoe and Kayak Meetup held their fall paddle on the French Broad River through the Biltmore Estate near Asheville. The group does this trip twice a year, and the spring and fall excursions are their most popular. Nearly 80 people registered for last spring, and about 65 had registered for this trip.

I was a bit skeptical about going on this trip. I had paddled this section with Paul W some years ago, and wasn’t impressed. The river was nice enough, but the section through Biltmore was less than idyllic. There was a horse show on the Estate, and there were loudspeaker announcements all along the river.

I was also concerned about the number of paddlers. I had seen Jeanie Boyette’s photos from last spring, and it didn’t seem too bad. However, there were tales of the group being summarily booted from the Biltmore grounds when they tried to stop for lunch.

Despite the misgivings, I decided to go. I had missed several organized trips lately, and didn’t want to miss this one. It looked like the weather was going to be perfect, so I knew I needed to be on the water.

Distance Learning in Spart Five

October 27, 2010 Tom No Comments

EdTech

I’ve been working on a project at work for several weeks now. The idea actually arose last spring, and I had hoped to have this complete over the summer. What I wanted to do was create a one-stop shop for online learning for our district. This would incorporate Moodle for course management, a way to host online meetings, and a place to store digital media such as video and audio files. I wanted all of this in a nice attractive, easy-to-use interface. Today all of that finally came together, and I brought my online learning community to life.

I had put together a Moodle server several years ago, and we used it for some online courses. Unfortunately, the server that I had it on crashed, and we were left without. The first step was to get this back up and running. I started with a server and set it up with Ubuntu Linux and did a subversion installation of Moodle. However, I really wanted two installations of the system – one for students and one for teachers. Since I’m not really a Linux geek, I couldn’t figure out how to do that through a subversion process. I also planned to use Ostube for video hosting, but it proved to be a challenge to install, too. That killed the summer, and I wasn’t able to get the system online by the start of the school year.

Fifty Years of Singing

October 20, 2010 Tom No Comments

Local, Music

This weekend the Greenville Chorale celebrates the opening of its Fiftieth Anniversary Season with a concert this Saturday at the Peace Center. On the repertoire is the first piece that the Chorale did in its very first season – The Brahms German Requiem. Also up are two pieces commissioned for the event by local composers Robert Powell and Dan Forrest.

The Chorale got its start in 1961 as the Rotary Civic Chorale under the direction of William Jarvis. From 1968-1987 the organization was known as the Greenville Civic Chorale. In 1987 it became known as simply The Greenville Chorale. The Chorale started with forty-five singers, and now features about 160 singers.

It’s also a celebration for our director, Bing Vick. This is his 30th season as the Chorale’s director.

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Paddling to Newry

October 18, 2010 Tom 1 Comment

History and Genealogy, Local, Paddling, Photography

Several weeks ago the Greenville Canoe and Kayak Meetup group had a paddling trip on Lake Hartwell up to the community of Newry in Oconee County. I had planned to go, but came down with a ferocious head cold and had to miss the trip. I had been looking forward to it, and was quite disappointed that I couldn’t make the trip.

So, this past Sunday I was able to rectify the problem, and do that paddling trip with my brother, Houston. The delay was probably for the best. Based on the photos I saw, I think we saw and experienced much more than the group that went on the earlier paddling trip. At least, it turned into an interesting day that was a combination of paddling and exploring an old mill.