Archive - Sep 2011
September 10th
Chris Donovan Campaign Office Opening
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sat, 09/10/2011 - 18:48Friday evening, after work, I headed over to the grand opening of the Chris Donovan for Congress campaign office opening. I was running a little bit late so I couldn’t even get into the room where Chris was speaking. Hence, I’m writing more about the people that were there.
They say you can tell a lot about a person by the friends they keep, and perhaps this is a good way to look at the event. As the Connecticut Speaker of the House, Chris attracted a large number of legislators and their staff, many of whom I’ve gotten to know through various campaigns or advocacy, and it was great to reconnect with many of them after a long and difficult summer.
I also saw a bunch of old friends from the labor movement and listened to some discussions about internal union politics.
Another group that I’m more recently spending more time with is the non-profit community, especially those that care for the underserved and underprivileged communities. There were several new friends from this group there.
The bottom line was that this was a large crowd of people who work hard to help the people around them. It wasn’t the high dollar group that is conservative in showing compassion.
Besides being a group people that work hard for what they believe in, it was also a group of people that enjoy being together, and unlike so many campaign events where the crowds quickly disperse after the speeches are made and the appropriate hands shaken, this was a group that continued to hang out later into the evening. Of course it helped that there was pizza, beer and wine, but what helped most was that they were people you want to hang out with.
September 9th
#ff #ct #politics @ChrisDonovanCT @ChrisMurphyCT @JoeCourtneyCT @RepJoeCourtney @BlakeForMilford @journalinquirer @CTNewsJunkie
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Fri, 09/09/2011 - 06:42As we head into the political season, I thought I should highlight some of the candidates that I follow on Twitter, as this Follow Friday (#FF) post. For those who are Twitter regulars, hashtags, like #ff, #ct, and #politics are ways of marking topics when you have only 140 characters to use, and Twitter accounts regularly start with an at-sign to indicate they are twitter accounts.
I’m starting off with @ChrisDonovanCT. Chris is running for Congress in the fifth district and this is his campaign Twitter account. He will be opening his campaign headquarters in Meriden this evening after starting his tour around the district this week.
There is a site called Klout which measures the influence a person has on Twitter. It is a scale of 0 to 100, and Chris’ Klout currently comes in at 29.
Next, is @ChrisMurphyCT. Chris Murphy is currently the Congressman from the fifth district and he’s running for U.S. Senate. I ran into Chris last week at an even in New Haven. He says that he’s been working on his social media and his campaign twitter account has a Klout score of 50.
Joe Courtney has two Twitter accounts that I follow. One is his reelection campaign twitter account. It has a Klout score of 1, with only 167 followers and hasn’t been updated since February. His Twitter account as Congressman, @RepJoeCourtney has is much more active and has a Klout score of 48.
At the end of the list for today is @BlakeForMilford. Friends of mine live in Milford and had been asking me about Ben’s online presence. @BlakeForMilford only has 25 followers, hasn’t been updated since July, and doesn’t even have a Klout score yet.
For those of you who don’t want to follow the politicians directly, there is always the Journal Inquirer with over a thousand followers and a Klout score of 31 and @CTNewsJunkie with over 3000 followers and a Klout score of 43.
These days more and more politicians are using Twitter to get their message out. President Obama mentioned Twitter in his speech last night, so it remains More and more news organizations are using Twitter to highlight their headlines, and everyone can benefit from this by checking out specific Twitter accounts, even if they choose not to tweet themselves.
September 8th
Back to School Ice Cream Social
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Thu, 09/08/2011 - 06:47With Hurricane Irene behind us and power restored to the people of Woodbridge, Beecher Road School finally started the day after Labor Day. On Wednesday, the Parent Teacher Organization held the back to school ice cream social. This is an annual event where a handful of parents in the PTO work diligently to get the school year off to a good start, and just about everyone else breathes a sign of relief.
Further complicating this year’s back to school ice cream social, it was raining yet again, so the event was held indoors. I was even later than I had anticipated due to a couple accidents on the parkway I passed on my way home. All of the energy of the children released itself in a level of noise which would have dissipated much more nicely outside.
To the parents of older children, the whole event was very familiar. It was the same old faces same the same stuff. Dr. Stella, First Selectman Sheehy, Senator Crisco, and Representative Klarides all did there part. For new families, it was a chance to meet other parents and members of the community and get a sense of the school their children were now attending.
Yet after Hurricane Irene and the cleanup, after the concerns about Hurricane Katia, the wildfires in Texas, the debt crisis in Europe, and gridlock in Washington, it was good to see the old familiar rituals carried out and the ability of people to carry on and make the best of things, even if it was a rainy start to the new school year.
September 7th
Wordless Wednesday
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Wed, 09/07/2011 - 11:58
September 6th
The End of Summer
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Tue, 09/06/2011 - 06:25So, yesterday was Labor day, a day to celebrate what working people have done for out country. It is also the symbolic end to summer. Fiona returns to school today. Kim and I are back at work. Saturday was Kim’s birthday and the anniversary of her mother’s death to cancer. Next week is the tenth anniversary of 9-11 and there is a family reunion and a work picnic. It is a good day for reflections.
Years ago, I attended a labor event, where one of the chants was, “Our life is more than our work, and our work is more than our jobs.” It has always stuck with me. There are many things that are important to me in my life. Traditions, my curiosity, writing, helping other people, and perhaps most importantly, my family. This leads to my work. Helping other people, and caring for my family, especially when I can do it with my writing, captures important parts of my work.
My current job as a social media manager at a community health center fits nicely with this work, especially when I get a chance to use my writing to help the health center care for others. To the extent that it helps pay the rent and put food on the table, it also fits nicely with my work, but, as the old labor chant goes, my work is more than my job.
I’m not a big person for horoscopes, but my horoscope for today seems to fit nicely:
You may need to deal with disapproval today, Cancer. This will likely come from someone you see as a superior or authority figure, perhaps a parent or teacher. While it's important to listen, if what they have to say involves your personal life and how you live it, it's no one's concern but yours. No matter what you do, someone will disapprove of something!
So, I’ll continue with my writing, both at work, and my personal writing. I’ll continue nurturing my relationships online with my online writing, including writing computer programs like the ones I’ve been doing for Empire Avenue. I will continue to focus on the political aspects of my writing. Even though our political system seems horribly broken with too much polemics and too little critical thinking, if I can just get people to think a little more about what their social contracts really are, I may be able to help in little ways.
As summer comes to an end, Cheryl Wheeler’s song, “Summer’s Almost Over” comes to mind:
Summer's almost over and I'm crying but I don't know why
Sentimental old fool, weeping for this blue, blue sky
And the way the cat is sleeping and the way the garden grew
Wagging dogs who lick my face and the way I feel for you
