Clark's Spot

My family has researched a lot of our ancestry during the past few years. I’ve worked on a project to record, photograph, and map the graves of ancestors. My parents have been a big help with this, and they’ve driven many miles of Ohio and Indiana roads with their GPS to get the exact locations of graves.

My parents visited two more cemeteries in the Cincinnati area about a month ago. With the information they collected there, I’ve updated the map, which is included in this post. (If the plugin doesn’t work properly, try to view the map here.)

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Clarkspot Ancestor Graves in a larger map

For more information on my family’s history, visit my genealogy section.

I’m not a golfer, but here’s something new I’m trying out. A few links for the weekend reading.

Bad customer service at Target. (I walked down to the aisle in time to catch the stock boy take the sale sign down. He told me he took it down. Not shopping there anymore.

What’s up with the Haiti seeds in Farmville?

You’ll have a long walk if you go to the Penn State game.

A worthwhile experiment – if you can remember to do it for a full month.

Pennsylvania’s new budget cuts funds for environmental projects.

I had too much fun writing this review for my profile on Goodreads. (I read it as part of my research for my PC for my graduate degree.) I just had to cross-post it here as well. Check out my review below, the cluetrain website, and the book.

Expanding on their website launched in 1999 (actually, expanding on the book published that expanded on the website), the four authors add additional commentary to their original work(s) and review how the Internet has changed business.

There are some good nuggets aboard this train.

First, you have to get past the voices. Oh, the writers are very proud of their voices. They explain how humanity hid its voices for The Corporation. They explain how the Web will free voices – has freed voices – and how if you don’t find A Voice and talk in A Voice, then your business will fail.

Perhaps they’re making up for lost time for their many years of hiding their voices. The voices must be stretched to check for their limits – the same way a 42-year-old at his college reunion tries to tailgate the same way he did as a senior.

You must also get through the tone, which can rail against business the same way a jilted lover proclaims all the failures of his or her beloved.

At times, the authors strike a tone similar to teenagers who sneaked into the office, turned on the P.A. system, and barricaded the doors – determined to have as much fun as they can squeeze into their minutes in the Sun.

That said, I’m convinced that markets are conversations. I’m convinced that conversations sound humans, and that ignoring those conversations means missing opportunities. I’m convinced that hyperlinks mean that networks can be as powerful as hierarchies within organizations. That smart companies can connect conversations that occur inside and outside the corporate firewall. That one of the changes wrought by the Internet and the World Wide Web is the lack of scarcity. That this abundance and this connectedness offer unique possibilities and challenges for all of the “people of Earth” – business and market.

So don’t misread my warning about voice and tone. Set those aside as you read it. This book offers four viewpoints (eight, now, with the new chapters and forward) of how to use the power of the Web to listen and to speak with your customers.

Northeast Pennsylvania, which includes Scranton, Wilkes-Barre, and the Poconos, is a beautiful region full of tree-covered mountains sliced by rivers and creeks. It’s a great area for outdoors enthusiasts looking for a place to hike, bike, ski, or canoe.

But it’s an area that sometimes struggles with keeping these attractions in top condition. Old mine water runs into the rivers. Abandoned buildings sit in ruins hoping to be renovated or removed for a new building.

The region’s environmental legacy just took another hit.

The EPA recently filed suit against the Scranton Sewer Authority. For dumping more than 1 billion gallons of raw sewage into the Lackawanna River last year. The entire city’s infrastructure needs to be improved, and the sewage lines are no different. The authority submitted a plan in 1998 and has not updated the plan (I assume that means they haven’t started either!)

The authority director may claim “substantial progress” in upgrading the sewage system, but we’re at a time when we need more. Nature is one of this region’s strongest assets. The area’s leaders shouldn’t be satisfied with progress, but in preserving its assets (oh, and meeting the law). That’s what makes for a livable community.