Posted by Chris Walbert on May 14th, 2008 and has 3 comments.
On Friday evening I had dinner with my friend Jess at a new restaurant in Hollins Market, Baltimore Pho. I actually don’t think I’ve ever been to the Hollins Market before, and my only experience in that neighborhood has been at the Lithuanian Hall (Wow, a geocities website).
We made a reservation for our 7:45 dinner, but the place was surprisingly uncrowded for a Friday evening in the spring. The dining room has a nice cozy feel without being too small. The tables are a bit close to each other, but that wasn’t an issue at all. The only possible problem is the proximity of the bar to the dining room, which could make it quite noisy once it gets more crowded.
Now, on to the food. We got 2 orders of rice paper rolls, both the Vietnamese and vegetarian varieties. I preferred the Vietnamese rolls with shrimp. For our entrees we each got the beef pho. I’m not exactly sure why, but they are adamant about making sure you know it is pronounced “fuh”. It’s literally written everywhere the name is.
Continue Reading Restaurant Review - Baltimore Pho
Posted by Chris Walbert on May 7th, 2008 and has no comments.
On Tuesday I took and passed the Google Advertising Professionals Exam. This was a pretty involved, 117 question exam that covers just about everything that goes into creating, running, managing, and optimizing a Google SEM campaign.
So, what is the significance of passing this exam, you ask? Well, according to Google,
“Qualified Individuals and Qualified Companies within the Google Advertising Professionals program have passed the Google Advertising Professionals Exam and have met other requirements in order to achieve this level of recognition. By attaining individual or company qualification, you’ll receive:
Continue Reading Qualified Google Advertising Professional
Posted by Chris Walbert on May 5th, 2008 and has no comments.
This weekend, Microsoft withdrew their offer to buy Yahoo for $33 a share. This MicroHoo merger has been talked about in many different forums by many different people for quite a few months. In the past few weeks, talks have heated up and culminated in Microsoft basically issuing an ultimatum to Yahoo.
Though Yahoo’s stock price dropped about 20% this morning, word is that Yahoo’s executive team celebrated the withdrawal of Microsoft’s offer. How others at Yahoo reacted to the news hasn’t surfaced yet, but reactions from shareholders have been mixed at best.
Now, the real question is, Where does Yahoo go from here? In what I think is a somewhat questionable move, Yahoo just concluded a two-week test with Google delivering ads on a small portion of Yahoo searches. The test was intended to show that Yahoo can earn more money by allowing Google to serve search ads for them. Both companies described the test as successful.
Continue Reading Where does Yahoo Go From Here?
Posted by Chris Walbert on April 30th, 2008 and has 1 comment.
In order to make up for my lack of posts over the past few weeks, I feel I need to justify myself to my faithful readers. Here are some of the ways I have been spending my time over the past few weeks while not blogging. I know it’s a bummer to click on a blog and see the same post at the top that’s been there for 2 weeks. I promise to do better in the future.
Playing social league sports, but having lots of rain-outs.
Thursday nights with the ABL (Abbott Basketball League) are always a lot of fun. Some nights the actual basketball being played is better than others, but it’s always a good time.
I was a little reluctant about joining a kickball team this season, but am glad that I did. I’ve spent the last 6 Saturdays at Patterson HS playing on an awesome kickball team. We’ve also had some good team-building excursions to Kislings after the games.
The Sore Losers are yet again displaying our dominance in BSSC football. We have won all 4 of our games, even though I almost lost the last one for us. Strangely enough we haven’t had any Saturday kickball rainouts, but have had 3 on football Sundays.
Last, is the Parkville men’s softball team. I am really looking forward to playing on this team, but our first 2 games have been rained out. Lame.
Continue Reading What Chris Walbert has been doing so far this Spring
Posted by Chris Walbert on April 17th, 2008 and has 1 comment.
Last week I sat down with Baltimore hip-hop band Soul Cannon to discuss their new album, give us some insights into who they are, and try yet again to explain their sound. We talked for over an hour, but I managed to edit it down to a more approachable 9+ minutes. Make sure you watch the entire video. There are some real gems hidden in there.
Soul Cannon’s new album, aptly titled “Kaboom”, is out on April 22nd. You will be able to find the CD in various stores, but be sure to get your copy at the CD release show, which is being held on Friday, April 25 at The Ottobar.
I cannot stress enough how much you need to be at this show. This is your opportunity to not only see an excellent band, but to also have a great time. So check out the video, listen to the new songs on their MySpace page, come out to see them on the 25th at The Ottobar, and buy the new record, Kaboom!
Continue Reading An Interview with Soul Cannon
Posted by Chris Walbert on April 7th, 2008 and has 2 comments.
I spent the majority of this past Saturday afternoon in Cumberland, MD helping to clean out my grandparents’ house. My grandmother died 3 years ago and my grandfather recently moved into a retirement community. On the drive home I was thinking about a piece I wrote in 2005 after my grandmother passed away and thought it was appropriate to post it here in memory of her.
One additional side note: in the piece I talk about my grandfather’s deteriorating health. Well, it’s 3 years later and he is healthier than he was then. Even in his late eighties, he’s as sharp and quick-tongued as ever. He’s doing well in the retirement home and can be seen relaxing on the bench in front, smoking his pipe and reading a book.
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The recent death of my grandmother, the imminent death of her sister, and the deteriorating health of my grandfather, have made me think about how death affects families. Here are some thoughts.
As the oldest generation of a family dies and leaves this world, an entire layer of history is removed from our lives. No one remembers what it was like to live through the Depression. No one knows how Aunt Catherine acted when she was a child. And as the family members that have told us these stories leave us, so do our recollections of our family’s past. With the loss of this generation, we lose a portion of our family’s history.
Continue Reading Family
Posted by Chris Walbert on April 1st, 2008 and has no comments.
Yesterday I purchased tickets for my first show of the upcoming summer: Death Cab for Cutie at Merriweather. Even though it’s more than two months away, June 9 to be exact, I’m pretty excited for this show.
I first saw Death Cab a couple years ago at DAR Constitution Hall in DC. The show was good, but we were so far away that it was pretty hard to see. I also saw Ben Gibbard on a solo tour he did last spring with David Bazan at the 930 Club. That show was really excellent and a lot more fun.
I’m expecting the Merriweather show to be equally as good. I was at Merriweather last summer to see the Decemberists with the BSO. I had great seats for that one and had a really great time. My seats for Death Cab should be even better. They’re also playing with Rogue Wave, who I’ve been getting more into recently and am also looking forward to seeing.
Continue Reading Death Cab for Cutie at Merriweather
Posted by Chris Walbert on March 28th, 2008 and has 1 comment.
As is now tradition here on chriswalbert.com, I would like to give a congratulations and shout out to my friends Ben and Nikki Hughes who just had their second daughter. Lyla Faith Hughes was born on March 26th, 2008 at 11:50 am. She weighed 8 lbs, 14 ounces and was 20.5 inches long. According to Ben’s email mom, baby, and big sister Keira are all doing well.
Ben and I have been good friends since middle school and it’s pretty awesome to see him as a proud father now. It looks like he is continuing the Hughes tradition and building his own big family.
I’m not sure exactly what Ben looked like when his new daughter was born, but I imagine since he was both proud and excited he looked something like this (click the link to see).
Continue Reading Congratulations Ben and Nikki
Posted by Chris Walbert on March 20th, 2008 and has 1 comment.
Last week a headline came across my CNN RSS feed talking about the identity of the woman at the center of the Eliot Spitzer controversy. “Interesting,” I thought to myself. “Maybe I’ll take a minute to read what CNN has discovered.”
To my surprise, the CNN article had no first-hand quotes from the woman, Ms. Dupre, or even any actual news. The article begins by pulling one quote from a recent New York Times interview. The writer then did some amazing, high-level journalistic research and found Ms. Dupre’s MySpace page.
The writer did more than just mention the page however. Instead of interviewing Ms. Dupre or anyone who knew her to get some background, this writer spent all of 10 minutes browsing her MySpace page, copied and pasted it into an article, and called it a day.
Here are some of my favorite lines from this article:
Continue Reading CNN News Story Could Have Been Written by a Fourteen-Year-Old
Posted by Chris Walbert on March 12th, 2008 and has 1 comment.
The Wire has come to an end. After 5 seasons, the show has aired it’s final episode and is now a piece of our history. I’ve read numerous articles, blogs and message board posts of people arguing their disappointment or satisfaction with the finale. I don’t want to look at or discuss The Wire in the small scope of one episode or even one season. And I’m not left with either of those feelings. When that familiar song played at the end of episode 60, I was left with a mixture of sadness that the show was over and thankfulness that it existed in the first place.
After a lot of thought, I’ve arrived at a few reasons why I think The Wire has captivated the loyal audience it has and why people have reacted so emotionally to the show.
First, The Wire does not allow you to be merely a casual observer. You cannot sit down for an hour, watch an episode, and then just move on with your life. You have to form an opinion. You have to feel something about the characters, the situations, or the circumstances.
There is no way you can watch an episode where the police major legalizes drugs in restricted areas and not feel something or want to discuss the implications of such a policy. To me, this was one of the critical plotlines in the entire series. It showed not only the futility of drug enforcement policies, but also how devastating drugs are; not just to the users, but to the community at large. To watch the citizens of those neighborhoods try to live their normal lives in the hell of Hamsterdam was heartbreaking.
Continue Reading In Memoriam - The Wire
