From my earliest memories, my grandparent’s house was always filled with what seemed like a thousand people. Whether it was Thanksgiving, Christmas, or just someone’s birthday, my entire huge family was always there. I looked forward to these events so much because I knew how fun they would be.

As a kid, I thought everyone had a large family that they were really close with. The older I got, the more I realized that this was something very special and a thing to be cherished. Despite having 7 children, 18 grandchildren, and 3 great-grandchildren, my grandmother always made time for each of us. I remember her coming to my elementary school for ‘grandparents’ day’ and bragging about having 18 grandchildren and how amazing they all were. They would ask all of the grandparents to stay standing until their number of grandchildren was called. My grandmother was always the last one standing.

Sometimes you don’t understand how strong a person is until they have to deal with tragedy. My grandfather passed away rather suddenly when I was 10-years-old. This was a very tough time for my family and something that I know devastated my grandmother. Some people would have been defeated by the loss of their true love, what must have been an overwhelming experience. My grandmother, however, dealt with the loss by bringing the family even closer together.

One of my grandmother’s greatest sources of pride was that she, as a single child, created a huge family that now is comprised of 28 people. The more you think about this, the more incredible it really is. And what is even more incredible than the size of our family is the love she infused throughout it.

I consider my family as one of the greatest gifts that I have been blessed with. It’s because of my grandmother, Mary Smiraglia, as well as my grandfather, that our family is what it is today. To me, her lasting legacy will be in the lives of her children, myself, and in all of my cousins.

To honor her, we must all continue her legacy of putting family first, caring and loving each other, and enjoying the gift of family that she has given us.

Over the last few months, she had to deal with a lot of physical pain. Even during this time she always had a kind and loving word for each of us. It’s almost trite to say this, but it’s true. I know she is in a much better place now and I am so grateful for that.

We also have many other things to celebrate today. A huge number of new voters came out yesterday. People who previously couldn’t care less about politics were bursting with pride and passion for this candidate and becoming involved in the political process. Countries around the world are looking at America once again as a place where anyone can rise to the top.

President-Elect Barack Obama’s acceptance speech last night was absolutely amazing. He spoke with much honor, thankfulness and hope. One of the most powerful moments came when he told the story of the 106-year-old Ann Nixon Cooper who voted yesterday. He talked of all that America has accomplished in the last 100 years and all that we hope to accomplish in the next century.

But Obama also spoke with a bit of a somber tone. He said, “This victory alone is not the change we seek, it is only the chance for us to make that change.” There is so much work to be done and now we have the opportunity simply to begin that work, with Obama leading us in the right direction.

It is time for all of us to relinquish our prejudices and our red or blue tags and join together to create the change that we so desperately want and need.

This is a proud day for America.

Yes we can.

I have spent a lot of time researching the candidates, watching debates, and talking with people on both sides. There are so many huge issues to deal with in America and around the world. From the economy, to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, to what I believe is the most critical issue, energy independence, and many more. With all of these issues to consider, the decision for me came down to who I believe is best equipped to lead the United States in the right direction.

For these reasons, this morning I cast my vote for Barack Obama. I believe Mr. Obama has the vision and leadership ability to unite our country and move it in the right direction.

We should not, however, expect immediate change. The problems with the US and global economies were not created overnight and will take time to correct. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will need to be handled properly in order to ensure victory and peace in those countries after we leave. And the issue of energy independence needs a well thought-out, long-term solution.

While we cannot expect immediate change, what we can expect with Barack Obama is a president of high integrity who will motivate and inspire Americans to reach for something better. We can expect a president who looks out for the middle class and not the most wealthy Americans. And we can expect a president who deeply cares about our country and will bring in the best team possible to help get America back on track.

Regardless of who you are voting for today, I encourage you to get to the polls and make your voice heard. We all have a chance to be a part of history today and I wouldn’t have missed it for anything.

Again this year, I’m proud to participate in Blog Action Day. Last year’s topic was the environment, and tons of high-profile blogs participated to raise awareness. This year, Blog Action Day is focused on a very important issue that is close to my heart, Poverty.

Now, I myself have never been poor or experienced anything close to poverty. However, anyone who lives in this world and has their eyes open notices poverty, how it affects people, and how difficult it can be for people to pull themselves out of it.

The problem is that most people don’t have their eyes open.

Even living in a major American city like Baltimore, which has pockets of severe poverty, it is so easy to ignore the problem. That’s because poverty doesn’t always infiltrate our neighborhoods and daily lives. But this doesn’t mean that we don’t have a responsibility to confront the issue of poverty and do something about it.

Now, I’m not calling for some massive socialist-style redistribution of wealth. Many Americans have worked extremely hard to build wealth and deserve everything that they have. What I’m suggesting is much simpler, and I would argue more effective than simply handing money to those in need.

What I believe would actually change this country, is if each of us pledged to become involved with an organization for 1 year that benefited those living in poverty.

Over the past year, I’ve received so much joy and had amazing learning and growing experiences by being involved with both Sandtown Habitat for Humanity and Big Brothers Big Sisters. Not only do these organizations address some of the causes of cyclical poverty - employment/home ownership and fatherless homes, respectively - they also give people who aren’t poor a face and a name to attach to this issue. Knowing and working alongside our neighbors who are working to get out of poverty gives us a real sense of urgency to combat this issue.

I am also very excited and proud to be part of a church that is absolutely committed to addressing the issues relating to poverty in Baltimore. I have long believed that it is our duty as followers of Christ to treat people exactly how He did, especially those who are less-fortunate and marginalized. It’s invigorating to spend time with people who not only think the same way, but are actively involved in working to address poverty. If you are interested in this at all, please feel free to ask any questions about Grace City or come check out a service.

What will make Blog Action Day or any similar effort successful is if we each make a commitment to step outside of ourselves and do something to help those around us. It really doesn’t take a lot, just a caring for others and a little time goes a long way to combating poverty. As a first step, don’t donate money. Donate something that is more valuable and will change you forever. Donate your time and you will actually be able to see the difference that you’re making.

As is usually the case though, I don’t believe the tools are to blame, but the user of these tools. My main question for myself and any readers is, ‘How do I balance my need to be connected with my desire to think through and find answers to complex questions?’

Some of these questions deal with work and the best solution for clients. But in today’s world there are so many other questions that I feel the need to be educated on. Should the government have gone for the $700B bailed out? I don’t know. What should be the focus of US foreign policy? Umm, not sure. Wait, did anyone reply to my last Twitter update?

Now, it’s not like anyone is waiting for me to come up with these answers. It’s not like G.W. is calling me in the morning for my final decision. But lately I’ve just felt the need to step outside of myself and my daily routine and think about some bigger issues. And more important, not just think about them for 30 seconds, but actually take the time to learn enough about a topic and think about it enough to form a full opinion.

So I guess I’m really just looking for suggestions. With the distractions that surround us every day, what do you do when you need to think about a question long enough to come up with an answer?

My first impression when calling them to make a reservation was realizing how busy they are. Almost a full week in advance, the only openings for a dinner reservation for 2 were between 5-6 and after 8:30. When we pulled up at the front door I understood why they are so busy. I was struck by the beautiful building that houses Woodberry Kitchen. They have done an amazing job restoring this old building in Clipper Mill and reusing the original structure.

Upon entering, we were immediately escorted to our upstairs table which overlooked the main dining room. Our table was set a bit close to our neighbors and at times I found it a bit distracting. Regardless, the ambiance was really nice upstairs and much more private and quiet than the downstairs dining area. Our waitress was very knowledgeable and helpful, if a bit slow.

Now, on to the food. We started with the Smoked Eggplant Dip and Hidden Hills Aged Gouda for appetizers. Both were nice, but I don’t think I’d order the eggplant dip again. Both Lauren and I ordered our entrees off the specials menu. She had the Alaskan Salmon and I enjoyed the Kansas City Strip Steak. The entrees took a rather long time to arrive, but we weren’t looking for a quick meal, so this just gave us more time to enjoy the evening. Both entrees were prepared wonderfully and were quite delicious. The meal was accompanied by a very nice bottle of Pinot Noir that was recommended by the waitress.

My favorite restaurants always find a way to add small touches that make them stand out. For Woodberry Kitchen, this was the individual-sized french presses that they served the coffee in. This was the perfect way to end the meal.

While Woodberry Kitchen is a bit on the expensive side at $25-$35 for most entrees, it is definitely worth visiting. I had high expectations and Woodberry Kitchen lived up to them. If this place was less expensive, I would go there very often. But maybe reserving it for a nice night out keeps it a bit more special.

Have you been to Woodberry Kitchen? What was your experience like?

First, Virginia Beach on Labor Day weekend is a very interesting place. I had never been there before, so I’m speaking purely from this one experience. I’m not going to bash VA Beach, but I will say that the clientele was not of the highest regard. There were also signs posted all over asking people to refrain from activities that no self-respecting person would participate in in a public setting.

After a long, often traffic-filled, 6-hour drive, we finally arrived in VA Beach. About halfway through our trip the clouds broke and the sun came out and didn’t leave us for the rest of the weekend. The weather was great and the water was nice, despite the seaweed.

Now, on to the race. The half marathon began at 7:00 am and at that early hour it was already incredibly humid. There were a few points in the race, specifically between miles 6 and 9 where I wanted to stop, but at that point it’s a long walk back to the finish line. Luckily my perfectly-executed playlist kept me going until I hit the finish line during the final song.

Here’s a shot of the crew we ran with. This was the first time I met most of them, but everyone was really cool and made the trip lots of fun.

My goal was to finish in under 2 hours and I got very close to that goal. I finished in just over 2 hours, 4 minutes. While I did not quite hit my goal, I was still happy with my time and proud to have crossed the finish line.

I’ve been training for the past 6 weeks or so and feel quite good about where I am in my preparation. I’ve started to have some pain in my shins and knees lately, but don’t foresee that being much of a problem on race day.

This Friday morning I’ll be driving down with Lauren and Andrea and meeting up with their friends at VA Beach. Hopefully we’ll have some sun for the weekend and not feel the wrath of Gustav.

I’m shooting for a time of under 2 hours, which would be close to a 9:00 pace. The Baltimore Half took me 2:08:00 so I feel good about my chances.

Since I love overthinking and overanalyzing seemingly unimportant details, I have been diligently creating the perfect half marathon playlist. Here is the official Chris Walbert VA Beach Half Marathon playlist:

See These Bones - Nada Surf
Inní Mér Syngur Vitleysingur - Sigur Ros
The Birthday Wars - Oxford Collapse
Stay Positive - The Hold Steady
Once in a Lifetime - Dragonforce
Scotchguard the Credit Card - Les Savy Fav
Play Your Part (Pt. 1) - Girl Talk
Shut the Club Down - Girl Talk
Let Down - Radiohead
Such Great Heights - The Postal Service
Wake up - The Arcade Fire
Fireworks - Animal Collective
Heroes of Our Time - Dragonforce
Constructive Summer - The Hold Steady
Kids - MGMT
Stuntin’ Like Black Rock (Birdman & Lil Wayne vs. Blackrock) - The Hood Internet
I’m a Flirt (R. Kelly feat. T-Pain and TI vs. Broken Social Scene) - The Hood Internet
Mattresses Underwater - Colour Revolt
Lucky Ones - Broken Social Scene Presents Kevin Drew
Let Down - Radiohead
Firebreather - Thrice
My Spirit Will Go On - Dragonforce
Reinventing Your Exit - Underoath
Defect From Decay - Beloved
Goin’ Against Your Mind - Built to Spill
Let Down - Radiohead

Below is the course map. One of the cool things about this race is that there are bands playing at every mile market. I guess I won’t really be paying attention to them, though, since I’ll be jamming out to my masterfully-crafted playlist. I’ll post my time/results next week.

The vast majority of Baltimore citizens can agree with this. We need professional, full-time journalists to cover our city and bring all of the stories into the public eye. What Berry doesn’t discuss, and what many newspaper executives around the country are no doubt struggling with, is how do newspapers remain relevant and increase readership in the 21st century? How do newspapers grow and remain profitable so they can afford to hire and retain these journalists and run a paper that people want to read?

Advertisers are the major revenue stream for any newspaper. As all of us know, there has been an explosion of new media options over the past 5-10 years. Where advertisers used to only have to choose from TV, radio, magazines, and newspapers, their choices have been compounded exponentially by the options available on the web, mobile, and other digital platforms. Newspapers have been hit especially hard by the web and the accountability and tracking it offers.

What most newspapers have done is to try to replace the dollars they’ve lost in print with online advertising dollars. The problem with this strategy thus far is that those online dollars have not even come close to what newspapers were used to receiving for print ads. So how does the Baltimore Sun, or any regional newspaper for that matter, go about increasing their online advertising revenue and building a new business model?

First, the web of 2008 should be especially exciting for journalists and news organizations. News stories now have the opportunity to be spread, shared, and acted upon at an incredible rate. The Baltimore Sun needs to stop thinking like a newspaper and start thinking like a web property.

A web property like BaltimoreSun.com makes the majority of their advertising revenue through display ads that run alongside their content. They sell display ads on a CPM basis (cost per thousand impressions). This means that in order to increase revenue they can, A) increase the CPMs they charge, or B) increase the number of impressions or page views they receive. Let’s focus on B, increasing impressions.

As you can see from the above Compete.com graph, traffic to BaltimoreSun.com has increased a bit over 50% in the past year. That’s not bad, but with barely over 1,000,000 unique visitors a month, there is a serious cap on the amount of advertising revenue that can come from the site at this point.

The first and simplest step The Baltimore Sun should take in increasing their traffic is implementing a search engine marketing campaign. I was pretty sure that the Sun wasn’t engaging in any SEM, but a few quick Google searches this morning confirmed that. While the Baltimore Sun has great content on subjects like Michael Phelps, the Baltimore Ravens, and today’s front page story about developers in East Baltimore, unless you came directly to BaltimoreSun.com, you’d never know it. Go ahead and Google any of those items, you will not see a Sun ad. SEM is a cost-effective way to drive traffic and should be used to promoted every story featured on BaltimoreSun.com

Newspapers should also be more involved with social media. What the world of blogs and sites like Digg and Twitter need is actual news stories for their members to discuss. Without breaking news or strong editorial, people have nothing to share, comment on or argue about. TechCrunch blogger Michael Arrington uses Twitter quite well to share each and every one of TC’s blog posts to an audience that really cares about them. As of this moment, he has 23,631 people who have specifically signed up to follow Arrington and get updates any time he posts a new story. This is an example of something small that newspaper sites can do to start becoming more engaged with their readers and add new readers.

In addition to distributing content more effectively, a newspaper must remain focused on providing the excellent content itself. One of the major advantages of having seasoned, full-time journalists is that they have the time and ability to investigate and build excellent stories. These are the kinds of stories that will help re-establish The Baltimore Sun as the best source of information. There is so much noise on the web today that now, more than ever, the sites with the best content will be the ones that thrive.

The main point I’m trying to make, and what I think Berry was saying, is that it is critical that there be a serious news organization to cover every major city. Even in the day of ‘citizen journalism’ Baltimore needs professional, full-time journalists working to investigate and uncover major stories. So it is critical not just for the Baltimore Sun, but also for the health of our city, that they find a way to remain relevant.

The Burton I have been riding was also a very inexpensive, starter board. While I will not be competing in the X Games any time soon, it was definitely time to get a larger, nicer board that I can plan on riding for the next 10 years.

The new board, pictured above, is a Capita 156 and is part of their Outdoor Living line from 2008. Carrington at 3 Rideshop was nice enough to hook me up with this beauty at a very reasonable price. In fact, the price was so reasonable that I decided to pick up new bindings and boots as well. Like I said, I’ve been riding the same setup for the past 8 years.

I know it’s just August, but looking at this board as it sits in the corner of my room really makes me want to ride. Last season was kind of a disappointment as I only got out a handful of times. I’m hoping that 2009 will be much better and that I will be able to get a proper trip planned.

3 Rideshop is located in Belvedere Square and has a great selection of snow and skateboards and apparel. I highly recommend stopping in and checking them out. However, I still recommend bypassing their neighbors at Zen West Cafe.

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