Cheers and Jeers

It’s that time again. Time for me to share a short list of things, good and bad.

Let’s begin on a positive note.

CHEERS – ROC the DAY

If you are unfamiliar with the “ROC The Day” Campaign, it’s an epic one-day giving event where individuals are encouraged to give to causes that matter most to them via the website ROCtheDay.org. Hundreds of local nonprofit organizations participated in last year’s event, which raised $567,000 in one day, all for local organizations in our 9 county area.

What’s really cool about it is that I can give to many organizations that may otherwise not be ‘on my radar’ so to speak. Donations of all amounts are welcomed and users can pay via PayPal. Please participate and share it with your friends, it’s an amazing project. For more information, visit the site at ROCtheDay.org.

JEERS – Time Warner Cable

If you are a customer of Time Warner Cable, which I assume most are, you no doubt received a little post card from them recently.

Normally, I would just throw out the small type, boring looking piece, but I decided to take a quick look. It was a notice that they will now be charging customers a “rental” fee for the cable modems they already have. While cable modem rentals is nothing new, what is new is thinking you can just send a notice and say you’ll begin charging for something already in my home. Better yet, they failed to give proper notice and began charging people immediately.

Needless to say I wasn’t the only one concerned. This week, a class action lawsuit has been filed against the company for violating their own policy on the matter. Read more here

CHEERS – My Parents

If you know my parents personally, then you no doubt are aware of their commitment to the paper, the community, and each other. After a series of health scares of the past several years, it seems they are both doing very well for the time being.

My mom has lost an incredible amount of weight and my dad is now beginning to follow suit as well. With health issues in check, they are now able to do things they never were before. Little things that probably seem goofy to most, mean a lot to me.

My family doesn’t take breaks too often. The fact they can take short little trips to NYC to see some plays and walk around the city is just very cool to me. They have reached a point where they should be enjoying things more. After a life spent working many jobs, long hours, thankless days and sleepless nights, they are finally getting to enjoy life a little bit and I love it.

I tried calling them last night at around 8pm. They were still out to dinner. Crazy kids.

JEERS – Writing my Column

While I do enjoy sharing bits of my life with anyone willing to give it a read, I still dread having to write something every week. As a matter of fact, with everything I had going on this week, it totally slipped my mind. I’m writing this at 6:00am on Thursday when I normally finish it early Wednesday afternoon.

My life over the last year has changed quite a bit. On top of my duties here and my occasional web consulting, I co-founded a tech startup and we’re working on building a pretty sweet little mobile app. I’ve learned a lot, mostly that I’m able to work ridiculous hours and still pull it off. For whatever reason I thrive when I have multiple things going on…likely my darn A.D.D. acting up again.

Don’t worry though, I will continue writing for a very long time. So the hand full of you that read this column on a regular basis (probably my family), rest easy. You’re stuck with me.

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