After 10 months, Patty is rejoining the workforce. She was offered a position with an architect in Charlotte (not as an architect) and she will start on Wednesday. Patty was contacted about the available position after I posted a message about her in Craig's List, with a link to her resume.

Labels: news, Patty, work

Maegan is going to flip over this news. It was announced today that a new Harry Potter theme park will open in 2009. The theme park is a joint venture between Warner Bros. Entertainment and Universal Orlando, and will be located within Universal's Islands of Adventure. Formally known as "The Wizarding World of Harry Potter", it will feature Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, the Forbidden Forest, Hogsmeade village and many other aspects from the Harry Potter series.

Maegan is now finishing up The Goblet of Fire and my mother just bought her The Order of the Phoenix while she was visiting this past weekend.

Labels: news

This afternoon there was a bank robbery in Fort Mill. Police chased the thieves in to Charlotte where the car crashed. One suspect was apprehended quickly but another darted in to a nearby apartment complex. Dozens of police cars were called in to search for the missing bank robber, as were two police search helicopters, and the S.W.A.T. team. The whole area was completely shut down for hours.

Maegan's school was on one side of the standoff and school was about to let out. Patty was at home on the other side of the standoff with the doors locked. I was far away at work watching events unfold live on television. Although there was a period of uncertainty, Maegan's school held her and other students at the school until the standoff ended. Police still have the road closed off but the bus took an alternate route around the area and Maegan got home about an hour late.

News Story

Labels: Charlotte, Maegan, news, Patty

So Boston was nearly shut down yesterday with perceived threat of a city-wide terrorist bomb scare. Bridges, tunnels, and subways were shut down, homeland security was put on alert, and the media went wall-to-wall with non-stop coverage. As it turns out, the suspicious objects turned out to be harmless electronic advertising displays for a show on The Cartoon Network called "Aqua Teen Hunger Force". This was part of an urban-roots guerrilla-marketing campaign in Boston and ten other major cities.

As unfortunate as the chaos caused by the misunderstood signs was, I find it outrageous that the city if Boston is now blaming Turner Broadcasting, owners of The Cartoon Network, for what amounts to domestic terrorism. Governor Deval Patrick is calling it a prank and a hoax, which insinuates that Turner planted these ads with the specific preconceived intention of fooling the public and generating publicity from a bomb scare. That's ridiculous. Turner was simply trying to promote their television show and their campaign was mistaken for something it wasn't. I'm glad that Boston officials take public safety so seriously but it was just a misunderstanding - a misunderstanding on their behalf. They freaked out and look like fools for causing all this trouble and now they want to save face by blaming Turner Broadcasting for "a hoax". In fact, they've just arrested the individuals responsible for planting the "suspicious devices" and city officials are vowing full prosecution for the culprits, and for Turner to repay the city's response costs.

Give me a break. It was just an innocent misunderstanding. The advertising campaign was a bad idea, made worse by the poor construction of the signage, but I think jail time and a half-million dollar fine is a bit excessive for hanging signs on public property without a permit.

Video of the signs being put up.

Labels: news, rant