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.
I’ve been away from the blog – and computer – for more than I expected the past few days. I’ve been sorting and organizing files from various events, trips, organizations, and projects. These had been kept in the room I use as an office. But I hadn’t used it as an office lately – because of the piles from events, trips, organizations, and projects. (It really isn’t that bad. The room doubles as a guest room, which we kept set up during the summer. The bed comes down early next week, which will let it really convert back to a home office.)
Organizing has been a good project for the past few days though. Dave Matthews Band comes to the local concert venue today, and I’m excited to see the band again. (I have the best wife ever – thanks again for the birthday gift…) While a longtime fan and an avid traveler, I haven’t hit the road often to see the live shows. Somehow, this is only my fifth concert.
The concert starts in just a few hours. I’m spending a few minutes revisiting some of the fan sites and listening to concerts from the past few years..
It’s the start of a new season of TV shows, which sent me to Hulu earlier today. After all, I have to catch up on the end of last year’s seasons before starting the new season.
One series that I wanted to watch last year – but never found the time – was Kings. It isn’t coming back this year. Hulu mentioned that the entire series was being taken offline on September 20. It didn’t take much poking around to discover why. DVD sales start September 29.
That left me with a question. I’d only seen a handful of episodes. Do I try to watch the whole series on Hulu in its last days in that incarnation? Or wait for the DVD release? Or skip the show as something I wanted to do but never had enough time?
Perusing Wikipedia’s plot summary of the series made it easier for me to make my decision. A familiar tale, retold. Just like another retelling that I stumbled across but never was able to finish. I’ll get to Kings on DVD after I finish reading the blog version.
Bloggers are snarky. The writers snipe anonymously at one another. But aren’t blogs just another way of producing content for the web? Can you take the format, the writing style – but change the tone – and use it in the corporate world?
That’s the question I’m looking at for my cumulative project for my graduate degree.
As part of my research, I’ve been reading Say Everything by Scott Rosenberg. Most of today was filled with typing and transcribing handwritten notes as I’ve made my way through the chapters throughout September. The great thing for my research – and for you, if you’re interested in blogging on behalf of an organization? Say Everything is a great resource, and it’s led me to a few other articles, books, and blog posts as part of my research.
Earlier today, I tracked down information about the cluetrain manifesto, Robert Scoble’s advice on bizblogging, and Clay Shirky’s essay Power Laws, Weblogs, and Inequality. Take a few minutes to review them.
