Posted by Chris Walbert on November 4th, 2008 and has no comments.
I am proud to have exercised my right as an American citizen and voted this morning. I arrived at my polling location at 7:10 am to find a line of approximately 200 people already there. This is much larger than the line I stood in during the 2004 election, maybe even twice the size.
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.
Posted by Chris Walbert on October 15th, 2008 and has no comments.
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.
Posted by Chris Walbert on October 7th, 2008 and has 1 comment.
Even as I sit to write this post, I’ve been distracted from starting by emails, IMs, Twitter, coworkers’ questions and a ringing telephone. As vital as all of these means of communication are, they often keep me from truly ruminating on a thought, problem, or idea long enough to come up with a stance or solution. Lately I’ve even started becoming frustrated with myself and my increasing lack of focus.
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?
Posted by Chris Walbert on September 17th, 2008 and has no comments.
I’ve been wanting to visit Woodberry Kitchen ever since it opened almost a year ago. The premise of the restaurant is to use local and organic ingredients in all of their dishes, many of which are seasonal. This past Saturday I finally had the chance to enjoy the food and atmosphere at Woodberry Kitchen for the first time.
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.
Posted by Chris Walbert on September 9th, 2008 and has no comments.
This past weekend was the Virginia Beach Half Marathon. As I mentioned in my last post, I trained for about 6 weeks for this one. By race day I felt good and confident that I had trained properly.
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.
Posted by Chris Walbert on August 27th, 2008 and has 2 comments.
That’s right. This Sunday, August 31 is the Virginia Beach Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon. This will be my second Half after running the Baltimore one this past October. This course is supposed to be much flatter and faster than the monstrously hilly Baltimore course.
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.
Posted by Chris Walbert on August 21st, 2008 and has 2 comments.
This week, John Berry penned a very interesting and thought-provoking piece for the Baltimore City Paper titled, “Press Release, The Sun’s Ever-Shrinking Newsroom Isn’t Good News For Baltimore“. In this piece Berry takes us through the last 10-20 years of staff cutbacks, branch closures, and formatting changes that have occurred at the Baltimore Sun. Berry makes many great points and shows why every major city needs a credible, well-researched, daily news periodical.
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.
Posted by Chris Walbert on August 1st, 2008 and has 2 comments.
Every year, for at least the past 5 years, I’ve said I was going to buy a new snowboard. And every year I ended up not buying one and just riding my trusty old Burton. It’s not that there was anything specifically wrong with that board, it’s just that it’s the board that I first started riding when I was 19, now 8 years ago.
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.
Posted by Chris Walbert on July 16th, 2008 and has 2 comments.
If you are reading this blog, or have seen a computer, newspaper, television, or any other media device in the past week, you know that last Friday Apple released the new iPhone 3G.
The vast majority of what I have read has been in glowing praise of the new iPhone. Despite the major issues experienced at Apple and AT&T stores across the country last Friday, everyone who has one seems to love it. I have been suffering from a severe case of iPhone envy over the past week.
There are now also tons of very useful applications that you can download to your iPhone. Mike got one that allows him control his computer’s iTunes via the Airport Express directly from his iPhone. This is only one small example, but there are many out there.
Now, let’s look at my current mobile device situation.
Posted by Chris Walbert on July 7th, 2008 and has 3 comments.
Baltimore Restaurant Week is quickly approaching and will occur July 26 - August 3. I have yet to attend Baltimore Restaurant Week, but am really looking forward to going this year. There are a lot of new restaurants that I am anxious to try as well as some that I just haven’t gotten around to visiting yet.
For those that don’t know, Baltimore Restaurant Week is a celebration of our city’s fine dining establishments. During this week, you can eat at a number of area eateries for a very reasonable price. Each one offers a variety of three-course dinners for $30.08. Some also have three-course lunches for $20.08.
