Archive - 2011
February 17th
Random Notes
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Thu, 02/17/2011 - 20:57So, recently, I received an invitation to Diaspora. I have logged in and looked around. It looks a bit better than the early version I had run on one of my servers, but it is still pretty primative. I have a few invitations and a friend is writing about it, so I gave her an invitation.
I also logged into Jumo a while ago. On Quora, I asked if anyone is doing anything interesting with Jumo and got no response. I haven't been back there very often.
NACHC has set their own social networking site, Health Center Voice. It actually has a little stickiness, with various tasks to do to promote health centers, and badges and points you can win. Pretty nice.
I received a book that I've been asked to review, a medical thriller. Sounds interesting, but I don't really have the time, so I want to load it on my wife's Nook. Unfortunately, it was sent as a word document and not as an epub book. So, I've been playing with Calibre to convert documents to epub format. It looks like it has worked and I've loaded the book on my Nokia N900. I'll load it on my wife's Nook later.
Had an interesting day learning more about electronic medical records. Lot's to write on that when I have time.
More later...
February 16th
Wordless Wednesday
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Wed, 02/16/2011 - 07:37
February 15th
Party With A Purpose
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Tue, 02/15/2011 - 20:38Monday evening, I went to a birthday party for Mark Masselli and Jennifer Alexander. Mark is the president and CEO of Community Health Center, Inc, where I work, and his wife Jennifer is a co-founder of Kid City in Middletown. They billed the event as their 105th birthday party, combining the age of the two of them.
The event took place at Eli Cannon’s in Middletown and was well attended by friends from work, various political figures that I knew and numerous other people whom I didn’t know or whom I was meeting for the first time.
In many ways, it was not really all that different from so many big birthday parties that I’ve attended. However, there was one thing in particular that set the event apart. Not only did they encourage attendees to donate to local non-profit organizations, but they pledge to match the gifts with a donation of their own to a local non-profit.
One of the nonprofits that benefited from this is Oddfellows Playhouse which lost 36 years worth of props and costumes when the building they were stored in collapsed earlier this year.
Another nonprofit benefitting from the support is The Buttonwood Tree. This is the music venue where I went to see Harpeth Rising during their Connecticut tour.
All in all, it was a great event, and hopefully others will be inspired to have similar parties with a purpose.
February 14th
Music Monday - Jeanne Kuhns and Lost Mothra
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Mon, 02/14/2011 - 06:23A week ago, I didn’t write a Music Monday post. I had stayed up to watch some of the Super Bowl and didn’t have the energy to put together a reasonable Music Monday post afterward. If I had of really been on my game, I would have used it as an opportunity to highlight a musician from Wisconsin. Oh well, I’ll just have to do it today.
As part of the Orient Lodge Music review, I receive submissions from musicians across the country via Sonicbids and one that has jumped out at me is Jeanne Kuhns and Lost Mothra.
Besides being a singer/songwriter, she is also a painter. I don’t know if she is a football fan. However, she appears to be a key player in a growing musical arts community in Wisconsin, organizing the Woodwalk Concert Series. Her bio says she is influenced by “Joni Mitchell, Bonnie Raitt, James Taylor, Eric Clapton, Arethra Franklin” as well as emerging indie artists. It is a great list of musicians to be influenced by, and you can hear some of the influence in her music.
There is something sad, yet empowering about her music; a beautiful melancholiness. It echoes the hard parts of life where hope still manages to sneak in.
As always, let me end it with a video of her performing. This video is from a performance at The Attic Books and Coffee, a “ a safe, welcoming, socially aware environment with exquisitely prepared espresso and tea beverages, high quality used books, and unique music.” It seems like a great venue for some great music.
February 13th
Valentine’s Day
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sun, 02/13/2011 - 20:40Sunday evening. Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day. Some people celebrated it Friday night. Others last night, and others will celebrate it tomorrow. We celebrated it this evening.
Food is very important in our family, so a high point of our celebration was dinner. We had duck. I don’t know the details of how the duck was prepared, other than it was started at a low temperature, was honey glazed, didn’t have stuffing, and came out incredibly well. We also had some sort of multigrain starch with the meal, as well as cheesy cauliflower.
Unfortunately, my stomach was bothering me and I couldn’t enjoy it as much as I would have liked. For presents we gave each other chocolates. Another focus in our family is quality over quantity. So, I got Kim eight chocolates from Tschudin Chocolates in Middletown, CT. These are not the sort of chocolates you eat by the handful. These are the type that you nibble a single chocolate, savoring the texture, the taste, the aroma, and the whole experience. These chocolates included curry, hot peppers, chipotle, and other unexpected taste sensations.
We took a break for Fiona’s Radio Show where she interviewed Francesco Bonifazi. It was a fun show.
Afterward, we had desert, a great chocolate cake from a local health food store called Edge of the Woods. It was sort of by accident. Kim wanted to stop at a cupcake store, but it was closed, so she stopped at the health food store. I wouldn’t normally expect a great chocolate cake from a health food store, but they came through.
Whatever you are doing for Valentine’s day, I hope it is wonderful, and that you consider looking for something small of quality instead of going for quantity.
