God knows I can’t come up with my own content these days. So thank goodness my cousin Dean gave me the green light to post his semi-frequent e-mails to family and friends. This one is a great one. <3 dogs!

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What I learned during my summer mini-vacation: When you walk a dog, the whole world is your friend.

We didn’t grow up in a pet household, so for years, the whole “Man’s Best Friend” phenomenon eluded me. My uncle used to remark that when he lived in the Philippines, “We didn’t have dogs. We ate them!” (Oh, I hope he was just joking…) But now that my brother and sister are grown and have families of their own, they share their lives with a number of pets, including three beautiful canines.

During the recent Independence Day weekend, I met my sister and her family at our mom’s place in Columbus. My sister drove from New York with Dudley, an 81-pound American bulldog.

For two nights, Dudley and I were roommates. His green dogbed was parked two feet from my bed. We got up at the crack of dawn and went for long walks while everyone else slept. Then we walked again a few times during the day and once more before finally crashing for the night. We totally bonded. Whenever he saw me, he got up, all excited; he probably thought my only job was to grab his leash from the laundry room and carefully place it around his neck.

Just about every time we ventured outside to walk around mom’s development, we were stopped by neighbors, many of whom were strangers not only to Dudley, but to me. Some wanted to talk. Some wanted us to meet their dogs (Dudley really liked a little poodle a few houses away.). Some wanted to pet Dudley. He loved it!

One afternoon, we all went to Graeter’s. While sitting outside on benches eating our ice cream, countless people, young and old, came by to smile at Dudley and to say hello. Would this have happened had I been there alone? Uh, no way!

This past weekend, I flew to New York to visit my sister and her family. Once again, Dudley slept in my room, just a few inches from my feet (or perhaps I should say that I slept in his room, a few inches from his paws…). Despite a flare-up of my gout, we enjoyed going on walks day and night around their Manhattan condo. Yesterday morning, I was still annoyed at my Reds for losing an ugly, UGLY game on Saturday at beautiful, new Citi Field during a cold and windy evening that evoked memories of Candlestick Park. The only saving graces to the night: The give-away was a way cool blue lunchbox featuring a smiling Mr. Met, I munched on a delicious spicy Italian sausage sandwich complete with onions and peppers, and we got to ride the infamous No. 7 subway line (Eat your heart out, John Rocker…) through Queens to and from the game.

I love the subway! But I digress…

After church yesterday, my brother-in-law and I walked Dudley a few blocks before heading out for brunch (at a terrific, mini-Little Italy on Arthur Avenue in the Bronx — check it out the next time you’re in New York). We were just a few feet from the front door when a passerby predictably uttered, “Hey, pooch!”

Of course, Dudley isn’t the only conversation starter. For years, I’ve walked my brother’s dogs, two chocolate labs named Buck and Crystal, with the same fun result.

When my brother and his family lived in Albany, we walked Buck (named after my brother’s beloved Ohio State Buckeyes) around their neighborhood. No matter how cold it was — and believe me, it got plenty cccold up there — people waved to Buck, meandered their way around the mountains of snow and started conversations with me.

Now that they live near Chicago and have two dogs, we walk both. The kids and I love Buck and Crystal (named after my sister-in-law’s beloved Crystal Lake in Michigan, where they got her a few years ago), and they also elicit many a discussion. And just as Buck is calm and mature, Crystal is a wild puppy who will lick anyone wanting to stop and talk.

I visited them last Thanksgiving, and we saw a 3-D animation movie called “Bolt,” which is about a lost dog and his adventures finding his way home. One of the lines in the flick we especially liked concerned the motivating force for Bolt and his owner to reunite. Bolt was told that the girl who owned him would never quit searching because she loved him so much; she was his “person.”

When we got home from the theater, Crystal came and spent a lot of time with me, so the boys now joke that I am Crystal’s second person (Willy is Crystal’s person, and Daniel is Buck’s). For Christmas, they gave me a framed picture of me with the dogs. Willy also enclosed a separate picture of Crystal attached to a stick-em note on which he jotted, “You’re my person, No. 2.” Both shots now sit atop the TV in one of my bedrooms. (They’re safely situated, as I’m the only person in the world without a high-definition flat-screen.)

I’m back in Ohio now, and I’m going through Dudley withdrawal. But I realize that I can’t have a dog of my own. My schedule wouldn’t make it fair to the pooch.

And besides, I’m far from ready. I still freak out at having to pick up their poop. For those of us new to the world of dogs, the thought of taking out a plastic bag brings out nightmares.

Hmmm. Maybe that’s the lesson for my next summer vacation…

Dean

My friend and co-worker Jason Blanton is doing some really good things with the Columbus blog Greatest City of All. He recruited some great writers and they are really doing a bang up job blogging about Columbus. Kinda what I intended for the270, but got a little burned out. Plus, you know that Twitter takes up all of my writing energy. But one of these days, I’ll get back into it. Maybe some friendly competition will help me get the band back together.

My cousin Dean is an amazing writer. After all, he’s a former reporter and editor. Today I got this amazing e-mail about libraries. He doesn’t mention the Save Our Libraries campaign. But we all know what it’s all about.

Enjoy.

Libraries are cool. That’s right, cool. I chose the word carefully.

They’re so cool that I’ve been a card-carrying member nearly my whole life. Chances are, you have been, too.

Growing up, I can remember riding my bike to the Upper Arlington library on Tremont Road. In school, I spent my free periods doing homework at the Academy library. At Northwestern, I studied for tests at the Deering Library, and on those occasional lazy afternoons, I found a comfortable cushion in the nearby Norris reading room, grabbed a magazine and let my intermittent snores mix in with the soft music piped in overhead.

When I was starting my journalism career and had to watch every dime (as opposed to now, when I just watch every dime), I spent many an off hour at the Palo Alto library, and then at the Presidio library in San Francisco, and then at the Pleasant Hill library, where I would splurge every once in a while and cough up 50 cents for a used paperback.

I still love the library. While in Sarasota, I routinely stop by the Selby or Fruitville branches to read my e-mail. Here in Cincinnati, I stop by between appointments; the librarians in Mariemont, Madeira and Blue Ash recognize me the moment I walk in the door.

Libraries just feel good. They have a cool aura. All those stacks of books and magazines are very cool. Lots of people come for the myriad activities, as well. I always joke that during the daytime, there are only three kinds of people there: Old men reading newspapers (Yeah, yeah, yeah, I count myself in this category), moms, and their pre-schoolers enjoying story time.

And despite the occasional crying kid (Shhhh!), it’s a pretty calm environment. That’s cool, too!

Libraries come in all shapes and sizes. The library I liked in college is a historic, ornate structure that could easily be converted to a beautiful church; it is complete with spirals and stained-glass windows. Curiously enough, it adjoins the much larger, newer library, which looks like it just landed from outer space.

Most of the branch libraries I frequent these days are modern, with vaulted ceilings and lots of open spaces. And when I sold real estate, I always thought it was neat to see the libraries people created in their homes. Some were formal, most were makeshift; it didn’t really matter. While holding open houses (ugh…), I’d peruse the rows of book titles to get a better sense of what my sellers were like.

Today, I count as a good friend someone who for years was a librarian at Lakota schools north of Cincinnati. She’s a very cool lady.

Our library system in Hamilton County this year has a cool reading club called Creature Feature for students on break from school. In each branch, kids can sign up and earn prizes after they reach designated reading levels. (My brother and I used to join a similar Summer Vacation Reading Club while growing up outside Columbus. I still remember our names scrawled on Browser Bear on the library wall.)

It’s a great way to encourage a lifelong love of reading — and learning. Kids who read a lot even receive colorful signs they can place on their front lawns so the world can see that “A Library Superstar Lives Here.”

When I first saw one of the signs on Euclid Avenue in Madeira a few weeks ago, I admittedly cringed for a second. The sign, obviously patterned after placards placed for years in front of homes of high school athletes, seemed like a well-intentioned idea, but I feared some may deem them as “kick me” signs for perceived word nerds.

That concern was obliterated a couple days later, when I saw a proud teenager walk out of the library on Miami Avenue, sign in hand. She looked quite happy, and I’m certain that the sign is now a distinguished lawn ornament.

Since then, I’m checking out more and more of the signs popping up in neighborhoods all over town.

And that’s cool. Very cool!

Dean

And here’s the mapped results!

Okay my twitter followers. Henceforth, some of my tweets will have the acronym OGFY, which stands for “Oh Good For You”.

What’s the significance? Those words were sarcastically uttered by Christian Bale in his famous Terminator outrage. Here’s a clip:

And here’s a clip of the full outburst (NSFW):

Just consider it my snarky contribution to twitter.

I’m pretty excited to goto the 10th Annual City Hop today. It’ll be my first. The City Hop is put on by the Columbus Landmark Foundation so that Columbus residents can discover why other Columbus residents are loving living downtown! It is a self-guided walking tour featuring furnished downtown properties, providing an intimate first-hand look into Columbus’ urban lifestyle.

Our first stop will definitely be The Condominiums at North Bank Park. I watched this building grow up from a hole in the ground. It’s a fantastic looking building and is located in the Arena District.

I’ll report later what I think, but go see for yourself. City Hop is today only from 10 to 6. More information can be found at the first link of this post.

Or should have I called it High School Cliques? I don’t know, but I love watching the drama play out on Twitter. It’s all good in my opinion.

Ignite Columbus 3 is fast approaching. Come join un June 19 at The Ohio State University Mendenhall Labatory from 6-8 to hear some legendary speakers.

As you know, I organize, with the help of many people, some tech events around Columbus, like Startup Weekend, Ignite, and WordCamp. Along with my many co-organizers, these events cannot be done without the help of some awesome sponsors and venues. I’ve found that there’s a lot of people that want to sponsor and support tech events in Columbus. But you have to find them.

And other than Startup Weekend, the big institutional investors seem reluctant to sponsor small niche tech events like the ones I put on. As a thank you to my sponsors, I’d like to give back by helping tech events in Columbus find sponsors. Little sponsors. You and I. The ones with “personal brands”.

I want to put together a syndicate of people that give a little to pool their money for sponsorship. The event will have a link to a landing page with all of the individual sponsors and we’ll also set up individual pages so you can get some Google juice.

The first event I want to do this for is eRubyCon.com. Why eRubyCon? Because it’s being put on by EdgeCase, which have sponsored Startup Weekend and Ignite. Thanks objo!

The bronze level of sponsorship is $750. I’d like to get 30 or 31 people to commit $25 a piece to sponsor this great tech event. Comment below if you want to help me out. If I can get enough to commit, then I’ll collect money and we’ll get it done.

Cheers.

Yesterday, I attended my first Tastecasting event at The Suisse Shop. It was AMAZING! We tasted some pretty awesome tortes, of which the carrot cake and the amaretto crown. Here’s some pictures.

About TasteCasting (by the way, I came up with the name, but not the concept)

TasteCasting is a growing team of socially networked, and social media savvy people that establishments invite to attend a complimentary tasting. In exchange the TasteCasting team broadcasts to their collective network of friends, followers, and linked connections using Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, Youtube, WordPress, Flickr, and more. The cameras, Flip video, camcorders, smartphones and more tell a complete story about the establishments menu, the taste, smell, the recipes, ingredients, the specials, the history and the overall experience.