Houston Metblogs » samuraishawn

Republicat, Demopublican – whatever, just vote

samuraishawn — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 11:54:36 +0000

For the children, that is! The same people that help keep millions of teeth clean want you to vote for a hospital to receive an additional fun center for ill children. Colgate-Palmolive has already guaranteed one fun center for each hospital participating. Your vote will decide who gets an additional fun center. Right now, Houston is trailing in the no. 2 spot behind Detroit. Come on, peeps, vote for the kids!

What do you get when you join the wife of a comedian, a published author, a former technical documentor and a slap happy slosh of a samurai?

samuraishawn — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 02:21:15 +0000

WOW. No, not *that* WoW. It’s the White Oak Writer’s club ;-).

So I was browsing through the single comment left on my site (site has existed now for millions of seconds and yet only one comment, hmmm) and this comment was from someone inviting me to join a group of writers out at Cavatore’s. I’m really glad I went. These one’s are really good writers and I have enjoyed the various occasions that we’ve gotten together. They are indeed very impassioned about writing and I am privileged to have been invited. Due to the level of seriousness with which they approach writing, a certain expectation to contribute has been laid upon the flattest part of my head. I don’t know if this group has yet become aware but I don’t have flat parts anywhere on my head and therefor expectations placed on my head often fall fast. However, I have positioned my mind to accept the challenge of writing more and offering my humble efforts to their trained eyes. They are a good group of people and I’m enjoying their writing very much.

With this challenge in mind, what would any self-respecting samurai do? Naturally, I went to the store, bought some beer and put on some mariachi music and started writing. Linda Rondstadt does a really good job of singing mariachi music. I’ve heard mariachi music referred to as the Mexican Blues.

If you are interested in getting together with us, contact me at my website or by email at shawncarey1 @gmail.com.

So…let’s start slingin some ink!

America’s Giving Challenge

samuraishawn — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 04:24:56 +0000

On the heels of my previous post about the wildlife in Houston, I got a head’s up (in the form of a suggestion) about a contest that the TWRC would really, really, double really like to win. From the TWRC:

“The top 4 national organizations which bring in the most individual donations (by donation count not total dollars raised) are awarded $50,000 each for their organization. We have been running in the top 10 nationally (were in 3rd place at one time), and are now in 6th place. This challenge ends January 31. For us to win $50,000 in this event would bring quite a bit of attention to Texas, Houston, and to wildlife rehabilitation. We are in the process of looking to expand our facility so that we can rehab more on site, and enlarge our Baby Bird Program.

They have a donation page on their website where you can also grab the code and put the badge on your own blog.

And now a friendly critter’s PSA…

samuraishawn — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 21:04:20 +0000

I saw this video on YouTube and just wanted to share. The actors in this video were not paid. They are in fact lucky to be alive thanks to the efforts of the Texas Wildlife Rehabilitation Coalition.

With Houston being the enormous metropolitan that it is, it’s easy to sometimes get “stuck at Starbuck’s” and forget about the nearby resources we have to enjoy nature, the way nature intended ;-). So, here are some locales where you can go that shouldn’t take more than half a day to get there:

Obviously not an exhaustive list so if there is any other place in or around Houston you can think of, please do a favor and leave it in the comments!

Hey, Got Social Media??

samuraishawn — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 20:46:48 +0000

Next month there will be a gathering of the social media gods of Houston. Peanut Butter Media, PopLabs, and Startup Houston are sponsoring a conference designed to help business owners take advantage of current offerings in social media.

What is social media? Glad you asked!

Social Media is about People – Not Technology.*

Here is a link to their agenda.

* Erica O’Grady – http://gotsocialmedia.com/

Merry Christmas

samuraishawn — Tue, 25 Dec 2007 14:11:20 +0000

Happy Holidays!!

Photo courtesy of Paul McRae

Houston tech scene now owns The Planet

samuraishawn — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 05:51:23 +0000

According to StartupHouston.com, The Planet is taking up residency in Bayou Place, square in the heart of downtown. Straight from their blog, they plan to go head to head in competing with Silicon Valley for new tech business. Their recent donation of $25000 to the Houston Technology Center is an awesome step in that direction. It’s exciting to see the tech industry growing here in H-Town.

Could you do this here in Houston?

samuraishawn — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 05:43:26 +0000

I saw an interesting post by fellow Metblogger Julian Chadwick of Portland Metblog. In this post he goes into detail about how he has abandoned the idea of having a car (albeit temporarily) and will be documenting this car-less lifestyle. He makes the point that certain cities are more conducive to getting around by bike or mass transit. I tried thinking if I could get away with something like that and it seems difficult to even think about. Houston is just….so….freaking……HUGE!!!

At the same time, however, there are likely people in this wonderful city that simply don’t own automobiles for whatever reason. Are you one of those people? Are you trying to become one? I’m interested in hearing about whether this could be done here in Houston so feel free to leave your opinions in the comment section.

**Photo courtesy of San Diego Backroads Planet

Get discovered, Houston!

samuraishawn — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 13:30:24 +0000

I was allowing my attention drought disorder to run wild the other day and managed to surf 4325 different websites. Website #4324 was a review of a Web 2.0 social networking site (these sites spring up like roaches, although some don’t have as many diseases (-; ). The new site is Yippykya.com and they propose that you can meet friends, make money, or get discovered. I’m choosing to make friends through other outlets and I have no artistic abilities worth bragging about so naturally all I want to do on this site is make money. I was thoroughly frustrated after creating an account, clicking on the option to make money and then being told to create an account. So, I don’t really have a good review about this site but maybe you do. Oh well. They had a launch party on the June 27th (yeah, sorry for the delay, did anyone else even know about the site?). They are developing the Houston community first and will branch out to other enormous cities at some point in the future. You can read another review (maybe a little more favorable) at Profy.com

Chicken Shawarma

samuraishawn — Sat, 04 Aug 2007 16:09:30 +0000

We have a tradition at work of taking the new guy out to eat prior to a proper initiation that includes lining up all available computer mice on their desk, breaking computers so that they can fix them, etc, etc. Typical hazing that all new employees have to go through. But this post is supposed to be a food review so I’ll get to that right now. The other part of the tradition is to take new employees to Phoenicia Deli. I hadn’t ever been there before (they skipped the tradition for me!!) but they now have a loyal customer. The chicken shawarma was delicious and the menu offers enough for the culinary adventurer to be satisfied. There is a good selection of wines as well. The environment is super relaxed and inviting. And in case you want to try your own hand at cooking with international ingredients, Phoenicia Foods is across the street. What are some unique eateries that you enjoy?