I’ve been interested in genealogy since I was young. I watched my father review the records he had, and I asked and learned what I knew from him. The Internet has made it much easier to post and share information online. I’ve been lucky to grasp this in a way that can be applied to genealogy, and I’ve continued to learn and grow as a result. I’ve taken what I’ve found back home to share with family – and now I do the same with my wife and other friends and colleagues.

I expect this blog will continue to carry a share – a growing share – of genealogy posts. But I’m about to get some other topics to delve into.

The past few months have been filled with research, analysis, and observation. It’s also set me down several new courses in life. I’ll have plenty to share as I publish what I’ve learned – and, hopefully, learn from what I publish.

Jessica always has ravioli for the holidays

The daily calendar that sits on my desk is getting thin. Another year is wrapping up. Jess suggested including our blog addresses in the Christmas letter and writing our own notes online. You must have liked the idea.

As I first starting writing this post, Jessica and I just finished making ravioli for Christmas Eve. You can see some of our results pre-clean-up. The homemade goods are a family tradition that we’ve kept up – along with my family’s meatballs when we put up the tree.

This past year has been one filled with hard work. I dove into the remaining coursework I had to do to complete my graduate degree – finishing almost 60 percent of my classes this year. I’m looking forward to reading for pleasure again – and tackling projects that aren’t due at the end of the semester.

We cut back on trips – visiting Washington, D.C. twice, Columbus once, and Atlantic City once. We also returned to St. Marys for Thanksgiving. Yes, that’s a light year of trips – only five states, counting the one where I live. This might be the fewest number of states I visited in a year since high school.

I completed my second term as president of the local chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution. My final meeting brought out the largest turnout of chapter members in the last decade. We elected a new slate of officers, and they’ll do a great job taking over the chapter. I’m glad that I was able to stablize the chapter’s finances, recruit a new team of officers (and provide them with all the relevant information about the duties of their office), and overhaul and update the chapter roster. I’ve also continued and expanded my work with the Lackawanna Historical Society. I produce the Society’s quarterly newsletter, and I helped organize a database of previous newsletters as well as preparing program brochures for several events this past year.

Want to see more of what we did this year? Check out Jessica’s holiday post.

Our creations sometimes aren't the easiest solutions.

Background: The cat successfully caught and killed a mouse early Friday morning. (This is the first year we’ve had any mice issues… cat only has back claws.) So my wife had me get mouse traps the next day – to set out this weekend to catch any other mice who come inside the house. We have a couple traps – but none set out when this morning’s events happen.

So I make a quick decision. We put the cat in room upstairs with the litter box and food, and my wife and I set the mousetraps downstairs. We run out to shovel snow and run a few errands. We return home. No mouse caught, and the cat seems pretty content in the comfy chair in the upstairs room.

This got me thinking: Can I and all of the gadgets I love do better than the cat? Can I build a better mousetrap? This reminded me of an essay I read in The Cluetrain Manifesto.

How Lego Caught the Cluetrain (links to a video presentation that covers the same topic as his essay) by Jake McKee tells the story of how the Lego Company entered the world of social networking as part of its communication outreach. Lego had been aware of AFOLs (adult fan of Legos) but only marketed to children. The company slowly began to embrace AFOLs who had built websites, message boards, forums, e-mail groups, photo sites, and virtual stores to buy and sell pieces. Lego joined the conversation on the existing websites and developed new programs that made it easier for AFOLs to create their own designs and purchase the needed blocks to build those creations.

One paragraph in particular stood out. It highlights something that Jake says Lego did not do – something Lego did well.

“The mistake many companies make when they first engage a community is to rush in and try to replace unofficial efforts with official efforts. Even if such a move is well intentioned, it’s as if the company is saying, ‘Your efforts are sub par. Let us professionals step in and show you how it’s done.’ Not a very good way to start off the relationship.”

Lego included and built off the work that the fan community had already established. Lego joined the community. Its customers welcomed it, and they didn’t try to replace the work that was already done. The lesson is important for any company that connects with customers online – whether through a simple website or on a series of online communities. Don’t work to create an “official” and “artificial” community; go to where the customers are. You can add a legitimate voice to the conversation, but don’t hijack what’s already been built. Look for ways to complement what your customers, users, and constituents are doing.

Sometimes you can’t build a better network, and you waste resources and annoy everyone involved. That’s what my cat taught me about mousetraps today.

Thanks for picture: Picture is Creative Commons licensed from Joming Lau through Flickr.

One of the women in our group finally decided to go ask their age. (15 – nope would not feel comfortable with a set of parents around.) The part of the story that became more entertaining quickly was how she got around to asking their age.

She began by asking how the two teens knew each other. That brought stares from the two who didn’t know how to respond to the question. The girl tried again: You two look so cute together. How long have you known each other? The couple responded to the second approach (a year) and answer the other quick questions my friend asked.

I kept thinking about this on the drive home from the pool. I’m not sure what they thought of the first question, or whether it was the surprise of someone intruding into what they thought was solitude, but they simply didn’t answer. The second question – which began with a compliment – drew them in. The couple responded when my friend framed the question in a friendly way.

It isn’t that “how do you know her” isn’t friendly. It’s neutral. But “you look so cute” is friendly. It reminds me of the old positive-negative-positive lesson of feedback that I was taught in high school.

Framing your remarks – even in an offhand and incidental conversation – is the best way to get a response.

The only dry part of the Memorial Weekend cook-out was the grill lighting.

This summer has been particularly moist. It’s been cloudy and wet – half the days in July had rain. But my wife and I have done a good job sneaking in meals at the grill. It’s been a few more lunches than expected (and even breakfast one time). Our big Memorial Day bash was drenched – the out-of-town guests still said they had fun. We’ve dodged rain drops to grill and to pick and choose the days and meals we cook outside.

Earlier today, we grilled out for the 60th time this year. We’ve done the classics – burgers and hot dogs, steak, and chicken. We’ve grilled brats, salmon, tilapia, and pork chops. We’ve even grilled bacon and sausage (but not the famous explosion). And we’ve grilled countless vegetables as sides to almost all of these meals.

Summer is winding down. Fall weather is great – but it isn’t always the best for grilling. Grad classes start a little more than a week from now. That will bring shifts in our work and responsibilities. My wife and I have a busy few months planned – organizing and combining books and movies, scanning photographs, wrestling with boxes of files from one of the community groups I’m involved with. There’s also a handful of weekend trips – weddings and orchard visits among them – scheduled.

Here’s looking forward to at least a dozen more times over the grill.

The article is the written exchange of two of the magazine’s editors in a competition to track their energy use. I had downloaded my electric bill about a month earlier, and I decided to join in the comparison a year late (and without the technological gadget). Without the special software, I would only be able to estimate my daily use. That’s still good enough for me to begin to understand how much power my wife and I use compared to other households.

First, I checked out PPL’s website, which lets consumers access special tools to understand their electricity use. I downloaded the account history and looked at the kilowatts used. Big increases in the winter months and valleys in the summer. Our rented half-double has no insulation (we’ve bugged the landlord about it to no avail – and without much opportunity to look for other options). That means the heating unit uses plenty of electricity trying to keep the old house warm during the cold winters. We topped out at 693 kilowatts in February 2008 – before we began dialing the thermostat way down during the day. Our best full month was July 2007 when we used 336 kilowatts.

An easy spreadsheet formula gave me the number of days in each billing period. From there, it was easy to track the average kilowatts per day. The Outside article (if you didn’t follow the link) says the average American household uses 30.25 kWh per day. The most we used was 23.1 kilowatts in February 2008, and our best month was 10.5 kilowatts in July 2007. The two competing editors fell between about 8 and 18 kilowatts. I have some work to stay in their league. My median was 14.86 kWh, and the mean was 15.28 kWh. There aren’t big fluctuations in our energy use except for a few key months when it really spikes.

Average daily electricity use

I wondered what the trend was from year to year. I took a few minutes to reconfigure the chart to map out the monthly use over the course of 2007, 2008, and 2009 – and I checked the mean for each of the 12 months. So far in 2009, we’ve been below the monthly average every month except for January.

I’ve actually followed the average pretty closely for most of this year. August heat and air conditioners have driven up our electricity in the past – that’s something we haven’t done this year with a cooler summer. Look like the windows are staying open this year, and I’m looking for ideas on how to winterize.

Mr. Peanut and I in healthier times

I’ve been off work for the past few days taking care of a sick cat. Great that I have a week of vacation for this. The cat recently had surgery to repair/reconfigure the surgical procedure he had done in August. The cat is leading the family in surgical procedures in the past year…

So from my spot on the kitchen floor, I’ve spent a lot of time working on the spring newsletter for the Lackawanna Historical Society and getting some grad school work done.

I’ve also been working on a series of posts about social networking – something that I get to do at work each day. I’ve used my time off work thinking about a few social network questions that I posed to myself about a month ago:

• what’s hype and what’s real?
• what’s here to stay and what’s a fad?
• where should we put our online efforts?
• what’s talked up just so people can waste their time on it?

Of course, I’ve found some time to spend on the popular networks as well. One of the best things about Facebook and Twitter is all of the favorite quotes everyone will post. Best one I’ve seen this week?

“Everyone wants to change the world. No one thinks of changing themselves.”
-Henri Nouen

Two players threw down their gloves 5 seconds into the game. The crowd went wild. The hockey really hadn’t begun, but the fighting had started. Binghamton and Wilkes-Barre. Really? This isn’t the Browns and Steelers or Cowboys and Redskins. This isn’t the Red Sox and Yankees or Ohio State and Michigan. This is Binghamton and Wilkes-Barre. Not your Grade A rivalry. But don’t tell that to the folks of Luzerne County.

As for the game, Binghamton won 2-1. The fans were disappointed, and I don’t blame them. Binghamton’s players sure appeared to knock off the net intentionally several times. The refs missed the Penguins’ lone goal. The review booth had to go back and give credit for the goal at the next stoppage.

It was nice time – just like the other three times watching a Penguins game. I was a bit more impressed with the Capitals game that I saw in 2000. But this is a much more intimate arena. This is one of two major teams in the area. Well, major as in major points of pride. They’re minor league teams. The fans love the fact that they have a local hockey team. They’re proud, and the team isn’t a cellar dweller.

One other random note from the night. It really isn’t a sporting event if there isn’t some form of a race between sausages, pop bottles, or some other goofy thing on behalf of a section or row. We weren’t paying much attention and were surprised to see that our row was represented by Diet Pepsi in the race. We weren’t too enthusiastic and were surprised to watch our pop bottle win. Now I have a gift certificate for some soda fountain drink for the next time I go back. Unless I frame it first.

We’re reading and reviewing The Leadership Challenge by James Kouzes and Barry Posner for the assignment that’s due next week. The book is very outline heavy: It has a five-part framework; each part has two practices; each practice has two focuses. Each practice has three action steps… You get the idea.

I was glancing through some of the underlined and starred passages today while getting ready for the project. One of the highlighted sentences stuck in my head and connected to a running conversation I’ve had with a few people. “If work comes to be seen solely as a source of money and never as a source of fulfillment, organizations will totally ignore other human needs at work….” The authors go on to mention all sorts of needs they see – self-worth, learning, pride, service, etc.

Yikes! I hope nobody derives their self-worth solely from their career. That’s a sign of an unhealthy work-life balance. I spend more time at work than I do on anything else in a week. I hope to always have a job that’s stimulating. I hope I take it upon myself to learn and to volunteer without being told by a boss though. That’s just something you do to excel – just like busting your butt for your employer.

The Digital TV switchover has been sitting out there for years now. A year ago, television stations went frantic in trying to convince millions of Americans to race out for special receivers and converter boxes to avoid a blank television on February 17. A few weeks ago, Congress and the President even changed the law to delay the mandated shut-off date for broadcasting on analog. The stations in my market went ahead with the switchover today anyways. I doubt many noticed.

More than half of Americans have cable and aren’t affected. And even more have bought a television recently enough to catch the digital signals without a special piece of equipment. How many Americans might be affected? 14 percent. If they all have really old TVs. Leave No Television View Behind. (They might start reading.)

Lots of fear, because without urgency I might miss my third-rate newscast. DTV-2K. Hype overblown.

We missed a great chance to stimulate the economy today because of months and months (and months) of breathless DTV hype. We should have had broadcasting television stations make the change without any announcements. Then we might have had hundreds of thousands of Americans scrambling for new televisions today and placing calls to repairmen. The result would have been a huge spending spree and millions of dollars of retail purchases. Could have started an economic turnaround if somebody would have thought it out. Instead, those millions of purchases were spread out over 12 months – diluting their impact and leaving us to wait for small tax refunds, rebates, and reductions.