lights sparking

The downtown area of Franklin was in a festive spirit Thursday evening as the annual Holiday Stroll took place. Sponsored by the Franklin Downtown Partnership, many of the businesses opened their doors to special activities which drew attention. A chilly evening was filled with happy voices of families as the moved from the Fire Station to the Historical Museum to the craft tables...

It was a fun evening!

More about the evening can be found on Franklin Matters here and here

loose screw

A screw came loose
or a bolt lost its nut

the sign now hangs giving a message
that is difficult to read

will it be more likely to catch someones attention hanging this way?

will it be more likely to be ignore hanging this way?

what would it take to fix the sign?
how long will it take to fix the sign?

The boys choir that walked out

Please do stay to the end to see why!





Original link
http://www.artsjournal.com/slippeddisc/2012/11/the-boys-choir-that-walked-out-on-its-audience.html

Thanks to Patti Digh for sharing this!

see the forest for the trees

The woods can be inviting. With the leaves down, you can see further now than you could earlier this year.

Perspectives matter. What do you see? Do you see further?

Do you see hazards?

Do you see the potential?

Bluegrass Monday (video)

Coming off a busy and mostly filled with family events weekend, bluegrass music is good for this Monday. I'd need to talk about as quickly as they play to relate it all!




Enjoy!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I am quite proud to be part of the Franklin community today.

just before the start of the race/walk


The Feed the Need Turkey Trot 5K race/walk drew over 300 participants who combined to fill the Franklin Food Pantry van with goods

and raise over $5,000 to help our neighbors!


This is a great start to Thanksgiving! I have so much to be grateful for. I wish you and your family all the best!

Frosty mailbox

Another frosty morning here in Franklin, MA.

The mailbox is coated. The car windshields are coated. Drivers please take a few minutes to clear all your windows before heading out on the road.

You'll appreciate the visibility you get with all your windows clear.

Drive safely!
 

In color style

The variety of leaf colors in New England is legendary. This fall is no exception. Color surrounds us. Most trees seem to have dropped their load aided by Hurricane Sandy but some still hold on.

Running around Franklin Sunday morning found this stretch of trees dropping their leaves as the wind blew.

Frosty morning

Back in the house, I am coffeed and warm. It was a cool morning with 27 degrees Fahrenheit recorded on the back deck before going running. I put on my tights for the first time to run  this season and certainly not the last.

As the sun rose, the shadows moved and the frosted grass turned green.

4 chords

1, 2, 3, 4

Yes, just four chords

How many songs can you recognize that use the same four chords?




And yet such variety!

Enjoy


Note some NSFW language added to this updated version from the Axis of Awesome

5 podcasts for Friday

I haven't done a "Five for Friday" in a bit so here we go:

On Being - some highly intelligent conversations around big issues

http://www.onbeing.org/podcast/help

WTF - Mark Moran, a comedian with some raunchy language but a great interview technique and interesting conversations

http://www.wtfpod.com/podcast

Here's the Thing - Alec Baldwin, yes, the actor who actually is more serious than how he usually appears

http://www.wnyc.org/shows/heresthething/  and dig into the archives to find his interview with Billy Joel - priceless!

RadioLab - explores the scientific side of things in interesting ways, with shorts and longer podcasts. Only issue is that it not as frequently published as I would like

http://www.radiolab.org/series/podcasts/

And for something not yet available other than via a weekly email, the MondayMorningMemo - yes, once a week, religiously on Monday's

http://www.mondaymorningmemo.com/

Enjoy!

Network, network, network

Network, network, network

Yes, that could be taken as an update on the legendary "location, location, location". You do need to keep your network aware of what you are doing. You need to be aware of what is happening within your network. I have heard it said that "it is how you know". I have also heard it said that "it is what you know." I think it is more of a combination of those two: who knows what you know and can do!

How do you keep your network informed? Publish updates, send emails, with technology opportunities today, there are so many possibilities. Do what you are comfortable with and works for you.

How do you keep informed of what's happening in your network? Likewise, there are any number of tools available to use. One tried and true method is simply presence. Go where your network is. See and be seen!

I will be at the Franklin Downtown Partnership networking event this evening, if we haven't already meet, please be sure to say hi. If we have, let's catch up on what's been happening since we last met!

"Thursday, November 15th - Starting at 5:00 but come anytime...before 8:00 and we will be there.The event will be at Six One Seven Studios'state of the art film studio located at 25 Kenwood Circle in Franklin"

Additional info can be found on the Downtown Partnership page
http://www.franklindowntownpartnership.org/2012/11/network-with-fdp-members-thursday.html

It's my Twitter birthday!

Wow! Has it been that long?

@shersteve Happy 6th TwBirthday! You've been around since 14 November 2006! twbirthday.com/shersteve/
— TwBirthday (@TwBirthday) November 14, 2012

If you'd like to follow me on Twitter you can find me here
https://twitter.com/shersteve

Deja Brew - 6 kettles

The "Band of Brewers" gathered at Deja Brew Monday evening for another 6 kettles. Some heavy beers are in the mix so we'll return in three weeks to bottle them in time for the holidays.

The grains are draining in this photo. We had the pleasure of doing the Winter Jubilee Barley Wine

Winter Jubilee Barley Wine	A nice, smooth easy to drink year round Barley Wine
Oatmeal Stout	A thick, velvety stout. Wilfred Brimley would be proud
Evil Santa's Ale	High in alcohol and hoppiness! A new type of hop for us
Hearty Christmas Ale	A hearty Ale, spicy, flavorful and inviting!
Hearty Christmas Ale	A hearty Ale, spicy, flavorful and inviting!
Old Man Winter Ale	A very nice winter warmer. Malty and high in alcohol!

Only one new beer in this mix. The Oatmeal Stout. The others are tried and true favorites!

Change is the nature of weather

especially here in New England. Mark Twain is credited with saying that if you don't like New England weather, stick around for 5 minutes and it will change.

And in many cases, that is oh so true. Snow via the nor'easter on Wednesday, windy rain Thursday AM, sunshine forecasted for Friday with a rise in temperatures to 60 by Sunday and maybe 70 for Monday.

The snow will have melted and we might be able to enjoy the deck in our shirt sleeves!

Fasten your seat belts, this will be a roller coaster ride!

snow

The nor'easter brought the first snow to us on Wednesday. It doubled my drive time home from work and provided some shoveling exercise.

I gave the driveway two passes, once when I got home and then again before going to bed. It was good that I did the later as this morning, it was so much easier to just take off the dusting that did fall or drift around overnight and then tackle the end of the driveway. The plows had come by sometime after I shoveled last night and left their usual pile at the end of the driveway.

I'd rather have snow than a hurricane!


For the record, we did end up with about 3" or so.

Common ground

All the robocalls are done. All the campaign literature will stop becoming a recycle opportunity.

I hope that all the winning candidates will now get to business of creating a dialog with their second most important segment. Of course, the most important segment of their audience is their voters. The second most important is their fellow legislators, whatever the role as representatives, senators, etc.

Together you will have the opportunity to govern as you promised. Governing you will find, if you haven't already, requires compromise. Compromise is not a bad thing. Together you can discuss how to reach a common ground so that we all can walk forward together.

Your success in finding that common ground will determine our overall success!

"The Naked Truth of Social Media" - Phil Gerbyshak and friends

What has Phil Gerbyshak been up to lately? Phil has pulled together a fine group of folks to publish an ebook on social media.

You can get your copy of this ebook through this link
http://socialmedianakedtruth.com/



Related posts:

Phil is my birthday buddy
http://steves2cents.blogspot.com/2009/12/steve-sherlock-is-social-media-and-so.html

Taking the blog off the blog:
http://steves2cents.blogspot.com/2007/03/conversation-with-phil-gerbyshak.html

#sobcon

Franklin, MA: Voter Information for Election - 2012

I prepared this for the voters in Franklin, MA

honest or dishonest? (video)

RSA does good animations and in this talk tackles honesty and dishonesty via Dan Ariely!



Enjoy your Friday!

aftermath

It is almost too hard to watch TV as the news programs reveal the devastation left behind by Hurricane Sandy in New York and New Jersey.

While the news is focusing on what has happened to the US, we should not forget that this all started in the Caribbean. Haiti, hard hit in prior years, was hit hard again by this storm. And they weren't alone!

Wikipedia has a good overall recap of the full path of the storm and effects
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Sandy

What can we take away from this?
Do what you can in your own way to help your neighbors.