Ginny from the Blog

If you’re looking for some ways to get in the holiday spirit in the Triangle, here are some tips. As always please add any events I forgot to list in the comments section! Happy Holidays!

Get your Gingerbread on. Seriously, you would not believe how many opportunities you have to get your hands (or just your eyes) on some gingerbread in the Triangle:

You can attend the Family Gingerbread Workshop on Dec. 12 at C’est Ci Bon cooking school in Chapel Hill. Or you can decorate gingerbread houses on Dec. 3 at the Capital City Club in Raleigh.

View the entries in the Raleigh Gingerbread House Competition now through Jan. 3 at Alta Oakridge Retirement Community.

See gingerbread houses created by the area’s top chefs and raise money for a good cause at the Triangle Family Services 7^th annual Gingerbread Gala on Dec. 17 at the Umstead Hotel.

Check out Durham’s Christmas parade at 4 p.m. Dec. 5. The eclectic event always features a random mix of floats, librarians and an appearance from Beaver Lodge Local 1504.

Ride the Holiday Express Train at Pullen Park. The city park will be decked out in holiday lights. You can ride the train to Santa’s village from Dec. 10 and 13 and tell the big guy what you want for Christmas. There will be concessions, carousel rides and more. Parking gets bad, so consider riding the shuttle.

Go see the Raleigh Ringers, the internationally acclaimed community handbell choir is based right here in the Triangle. My mom saw them perform on PBS one year, and I’ve had to hear about them ever since. Truly, it is pretty incredible what they can do with handbells. Besides bells pretty much equal Christmas music, right?

Want more holiday music? Here’s a list of all the Christmas Concerts in the area.

Give a computer to a student who needs one. If you have any computer refurbishing skills, then volunteer at the Mini Geek-A-Thon on Dec. 12 at the Kramden Institute, a Durham nonprofit that helps connect hardworking, less-advantage students with computers.

Go see the Nutcracker. I was obsessed with the ballet when I was a little girl. I would love it if my boyfriend took me to see it this year. The Carolina Ballet performs the classic holiday ballet from Dec. 5 to 6 at Memorial Hall in Chapel Hill or Dec. 19 to 28 at Raleigh Memorial Auditorium. You can also see it on Dec. 12 and 13 at Carolina Theatre in Durham.

Go see Disney’s A Christmas Carol at the IMAX in Raleigh. The 3-D flick will be on the big screen at least through Dec. 17.

Just whatever you do, don’t take your kids on a horse and buggy ride around Crossroads in Cary. That’s just tacky.

Instead of spending Black Friday at the mall, why don’t you do up the big shopping day craft style? The annual Carolina Designer Craftsmen Guild show starts Friday at the N.C. State Fairgrounds and is an awesome way to inject some Carolina flavor/creativity into your holiday gifts.

OK. I’m completely biased. I make at least 1/3 of my Christmas gifts every year. And one of my favorite low-key weekend pastimes is wandering around the N.C. State Fairgrounds at the flea market. So an excuse to spend the weekend at the fairgrounds perusing fine crafts, pretty much is the epitome of all I want in holiday shopping (so long as we’re leaving the Apple store out of the discussion). I’ve never been to this event before, but I have high hopes.

So here’s the deal: The show is open Friday, Saturday and Sunday in the Exposition Center at the fairgrounds. It features over 100 booths with everything from pottery, clay, sculpture, wearable fiber, blown glass, jewelry, metal work, wood work, furniture, photography, printmaking and mixed media, according to the show’s website.

The only catch is it costs $7 to get in, but guess what? The organizers have given me 2 free tix to give away! So how am I going to decide who gets them? (BTW, this is the first ever giveaway on GFTB). Well, I’m thinking I’ll keep it simple. If you legitimately want to go, just be the first to say so in the comments section and you get them.

ALSO … I saw a big sign outside the state fairgrounds that says the flea market is open for Black Friday!!!! It’s open Saturday and Sunday too.

OK. Don’t forget. First to say they want the tix to the Craftsmen Guild show gets ‘em. Happy Shopping!

It’s Try Transit Week in the Triangle, which means public transportation officials want people who normally wouldn’t ride a bus to climb aboard.

I’m fortunate to have a car, so I don’t have to rely on bus schedules. Sure, I could ride the bus to save gas, save emissions and cut down on traffic by taking my car off the road. But suddenly this independent chick would have to rely on other people, something I do not like to do. I like knowing that the bus is there, and if I needed it, you can bet I would take a seat. I also have no issues with paying taxes and fees to fund our local public transportation system, even though I don’t really use it. I understand the value the bus system provides to our community and I absolutely support it.

But other than riding the R-Line downtown, I have no plans to participate in this week’s festivities (which include free rides, ice cream and coupons to bolster ridership).

That said, I applaud local transit officials for setting aside time to help bring awareness to bus ridership and encourage new riders to ditch their cars. I’m not sure how much these awareness events have on ridership though. Last Tuesday was World Carfree Day, and the Daily Tar Heel reported that there didn’t appear to be an influx of riders (although, the article notes that rain may have been a deterrent).

Last year, fellow Raleigh blogger Leo decided he would ride the bus from his downtown apartment to his office in Research Triangle Park for one week.

He thoroughly documented his experience on his blog. The self-described “ecogeek” concluded that while it was nice to be able to watch videos on his iPod while the bus driver steered him home, he would rather leave a slightly larger carbon footprint than endure the 2.5 to 3+ hour roundtrip bus ride. He wrote:

“We all live and work in different areas so your particular experience will be different from mine. With that and the experience I just shared I have decided not to continue riding the bus as the time factor is the real kicker for me. The bus is just too slow and it is not worth it to me to ride it for so long.”

Another Raeligh blogger, John, is a daily bus rider and he seems to enjoy it. Best of all, he embraces the people watching and blogs about the characters who board his bus. With names like “Sci-Fi Fantasy Man” for the guy who loves his paperback science fiction reads to “Waffle House Man” for the guy who boards the bus after his shift. His blog is a must read for a snapshot of buscapades (as he calls them).

So if you’ve been thinking about giving the bus a try, this is the week to do it. As always, feel free to share your thoughts, experiences on the Triangle’s bus system in the comments.

About a month ago I set out to watch two full seasons of Mad Men. The goal was to finish them before last week’s season three premiere. I was watching hours of Mad Men almost every night. It was delightful to skip through the commercials and watch the lives of the ’60s ad men unfold without interruption.

If you haven’t watched the AMC show, I can assure you it’s worth the buzz. It follows the lives of the men (and women) who work in a Manhattan-based advertising agency in the 1960s. It’s filled with sexism, cigarettes, cocktails and infidelity, all of which often anger me and yet I can’t stop watching. It’s so well-written and the characters so complex (you can love them one minute and want to throw your Twizzlers at them the next). I highly recommend adding Season One and Two to your Netflix que and recording the rest of Season Three.

So how does this tie into life in the Triangle? Well, you’ve got to check out this blog post written by Ladye Jane Vickers, curator at Raleigh City Museum. Ladye Jane watched her first episode of Mad Men last night and it reminded her of the J.T. Howard Advertising Agency photo collection the museum has on file.

The collection features photos and ad campaigns the Raleigh-based agency created during the 1960s. The Mad Men stereotypes certainly shine through in these local photos. In one pic, a receptionist in a swimsuit popped out of cake, a lifesize Jack in the Box of sorts. It’s an interesting look at local history that relates to one of my favorite shows. See the photos here.

When I drive across the Boylan Street Bridge, I brake a little so I can take in the downtown Raleigh skyline. The bridge offers one of the best views of the capital city’s growing skyline, and I never get tired of it.

Last night, the BF and I packed our video camera and a tripod and headed to the bridge. We plopped ourselves down near the center and recorded the sunset for nearly two hours to use for an upcoming project.

While sitting on the bridge, several cars slowed down to take in the view. At least two drivers stopped on the bridge (one to snap a photo with his cell phone, another to let a woman in the back seat take some photos). I was glad to see that I’m not the only one who brakes for the view.

What are your favorite spots to view the Raleigh or Durham skyline? Feel free to share some of your secrets.

You might remember that Subway was in Raleigh back in March to film one of its annoyingly catchy “$5 footlong” commercials. Anyone could audition for the commercial.

The commercial recently hit the airwaves and I just so happened to catch it the other night. I recorded it with my iPhone, and you can hear my cat meow at the end of it. Even so, I thought some of you might like to see it:

It snowed in North Carolina overnight. And since everyone else seems to be posting their snow photos on their blogs, I figured I would join them. Here’s my snowy back porch scene:

But of all the snow entries I read today, none were as interesting as the post made by Durham resident Sonja Foust. She woke up to a car filled with snow. Here’s what happened.

I ate dinner at The Borough last night, and saw Raleigh’s new downtown circulator bus (called the “R Line”) drive past the restaurant at least four times. So we decided to climb aboard and check out the route for this new, free service.

The hybrid, electric bus service launched Friday and allows residents to take a free ride to various stops downtown.

We waited at the “R” stop for a few minutes last night, but it was quite cold. So we stepped back into the Borough and watched the stop from the door. We didn’t get out the door fast enough to catch the R bus when it made its rounds again, so we chased after it, with no luck.

On the drive home, we got a little goofy and decided to create some improv theme songs for the new bus service. For the record, we both know we’re not good singers. We strung together about six or seven possible themes, but I’ve only posted two for you. If you make it through this entire video, then you deserve a cookie.

The photos in the video were taken by Leo who runs the fabulous Raleigh Connoisseur blog.

Have you taken the R Line yet? It has recieved some positive reviews on the Raleigh Philosophical Society blog. I think the bus line will be a handy service that will help downtown Raleigh’s efforts to grow.

If you want to try your hand at creating a theme song for the R Line, feel free to send me a video clip or use the Seesmic plugin in the comments section.

If you’re on Twitter, you’ve probably read something about the Raleigh Twestival. Details about it have been leaking out under the hashtag #RalTwestival for some time. Here’s what you need to know and why you should go.

What’s the point of Raleigh Twestival?

The Raleigh Twestival is the Triangle’s version of a fundraising event that will be hosted on the same night by Twitter communities in appx. 160 cities worldwide. The goal is to raise money for “Charity: Water” an organization that works to provide access to clean water in developing nations.

When and Where?

The party/fundraiser is from 7 to 9 p.m. Thursday Feb. 12 at Edge Office in downtown Raleigh. This is the same cool space where we had the 30THREADS launch party and the most recent Triangle Tweetup.

What will the fundraiser be like?

Um, super fun! Among the highlights:

* The new Raleigh brewery Lonerider Brewing Company will be pouring its hefeweizen, Shotgun Betty, which must be pretty good b/c it received a favorable review on always-picky New Raleigh.

* A video booth where you can record a message to be posted on MyNC and the Twestival blog.

* A silent auction/raffle that includes items from local social media firms, giftcards, and a cute handcrafted Twitter necklace that I made especially for the event.

* A chance to socialize with all the Triangle Tweeps you’ve been following online, but missed at the Triangle Tweetup.

How much are tickets?

Tickets are $11.40 if you buy them in advance or $14 if you buy them at the door. All of the proceeds go to “Charity: Water.” If you can’t attend, but still want to show your support, you can make a $5 donation (or more) via the Raleigh Twestival website.

But I just went to the Triangle Tweetup two weeks ago, why should I pay to go to this?

The Triangle Twitter community has grown a lot in the past two years. It includes people of all different ages, professions, backgrounds and more. Tweetups usually have presentations and not enough time to socialize. This entire event will be a chance for you to socialize and network with all those new tweeps who you didn’t have time to meet recently. All the money goes to charity and it includes beer and food, so really it’s a great bargain.

I think Twitter sounds stupid, should I go anyway?

Absolutely. While this event is targeted toward people who already use Twitter, it’s not exclusively for Twitter users. So consider attending to meet an interesting cross-section of Triangle residents who appreciate the Internet (this does not mean we’re all geeks who blog in our pajamas). Also, this is a great event where single women can meet men and vice versa (so say my single Twitter friends). You may even leave the event convinced that you should join Twitter before it turns into the MySpace of the Internet.

I’m @GinnySkal, and this was your public service announcement about Twitter and Charity: Water. For more details, follow @RalTwestival on Twitter. If you have any questions, leave them in the comments section and I’ll try to get additional information to you.

I can’t remember the last time I saw more than an inch of snow, but I know it’s been at least four years when I lived in Illinois.

So I got up this morning and made a snow angel before work. We also pushed my sled (yes I have a sled, I bought it last year when it threatened to snow but never did) down the hill in our neighborhood.