Conner's Blog

If I owned a bar, it would be a brewpub.  I would hire a brew master who enjoyed the heck out of his profession and was all about trying new and crazy brews.  We would brew no typical beers at my pub.  Of course, I would also have a large selection of other beers, both on tap and in bottles.  I would try to carry any beer that was brewed within 150 miles of my bar and have a solid selection of imports.  Liquor would be limited to the high-end variety.  When possible, we would make our mixers in house.

The music selection would vary with the focus on indie and local bands.  Customers would be encouraged to bring in mixed CD’s that would be rotated in and out at the staff’s discretion.  The volume would always be conducive to talking.  TVs would be allowed but would only show games of local sports franchises and college teams.  If no games were available, they would be shut off.  There would always be a $4 beer special and a $5 drink special.  This would rotate daily.

The bar top would be large with the focus on the bar itself.  It would be a round bar with very comfortable stools.  People would be encouraged to sit at the bar and not at the tables scattered around it.  It would be lit dimly but also provide enough light to read comfortably.  We would provide copies of newspapers, along with magazines like The New Yorker, The Atlantic Journal, and McSweeny’s.  A bookshelf where patrons could both take books and leave books would be located somewhere in the bar.

The food would be of the bar food variety: wings, nachos, pretzels, and the like.  Soups and chili would be the specialty, along with excellent sandwiches.  Locally sourced ingredients would be used whenever possible.

The atmosphere would be homey. It would be a place you would go after work, or early on a Saturday afternoon. Not to get drunk of course, but to enjoy something tasty and have a conversation with a stranger.  It would be named Samuel’s, for no reason at all.

Long overdue and inspired by Colin, Andy, and others.

My friend Doniree wrote a post about the Cocktail Question a few weeks ago.  I loved this post and it’s one I think everyone should read.  The premise of her post really hit home with me this weekend.  I went to Unsummit and while meeting a bunch of great people, as expected, the Cocktail question kept coming up.  For those that don’t know me, I’m an insurance adjuster by day.  But this doesn’t define me at all.  It’s what I do for a living, I work hard while I’m at work and enjoy my job, but once I walk out those office doors, or the clock reads 4:30, I’m done.

The problem I have is defining what I do.  I’m obviously a blogger, a social media nut, a photographer, and an overall web nut.  I’m also occasionally a web programmer and designer, a sports fan, and a beer geek.  I’m a pretty decent cook and a budding baker.

So I can tell you what I love, and what I do for a living, but when asked the question, what do you do I’m honestly not sure how to answer.  I hate saying I work for an insurance company.  I’m not ashamed of my job,  I love that it gives me the opportunities it does, but among peers who I want to connect with it doesn’t say what I want it to say.  My passions pull me in many directions, one day I’m working on building a Wordpress powered site, the next I’m tinkering with some other tool.  I’m a web host for myself, the family help desk, the office computer guy, and a passable Linux admin.  I have 500+ followers on Twitter for reasons that continue to elude me, a blog that gets less than around 2k page views  a month, and a strong opinion that social media is something you can’t do wrong unless you are a local news organization that has no idea what they are doing.

The best answer I’ve come up with for who I am is that I’m just a geek.  I’m someone who knows how to get the most out of whatever tool you put in front of me.  I pursue new experiences and new hobbies constantly, I get the basics down and then move on to the next experience.  I love to communicate with people whatever their background.  But really I’m just a geek, a guy who can have a conversation about almost anything, who loves being challenged, and tends to get animated and overly excited when talking about something I’m passionate about. (This is so bad I no longer let myself engage with passenger when I’m driving, and absolutely refuse to talk on the phone for more than a minute)

Somehow though, I think telling people I’m just a geek isn’t going to get me very far.  It’s a bit broad and unfortunately carries a somewhat negative connotation in some circles.  So I’m working on defining myself.  I’m not sure how I’ll do this, but for now I just stick with I’m Conner McCall and keep my answer to the Cocktail question an ever changing one.

I didn’t know David Carole, but he died 8 years ago today during the attack on the World Trade Center.  He was 46 at the time and had been married to his wife Beverly for 25 years.  He knew himself so well that on their first date he told her he was going to marry her. He was a family man who had quit his job as an executive who worked in the World Trade center to spend more time with his three sons.  He was visiting old friends who still worked there at the time of the attacks. I don’t know where he was born, or where he went to school, but he coached a baseball team in Denville, New Jersey, and had at least one sister, Joan.  He was a good friend and neighbor.

I wish I could tell you more about David today, but unfortunately I cannot.  My thoughts are with his family and friends today.  You have not been forgotten.

This post was written as part of Project 2,996.

I have a pretty big post I was working on this week but I just can’t get it finished.  I’m hoping to get it finished over the weekend, but it’s something I’m pretty excited to publish so I may take a little longer than normal to write it.  So today you get some thoughts and some links.  Photos are minimal but that’s okay.

• If you haven’t seen this mashup of the Brat Pack dancing to Lisztomania yet you’re missing out.  I’ve watched this video multiple times and it still gets to me.
• An onion tart is featured over at Orangette
• I never finished my post on seeing Solid Gold at the Lynlake Streetfest but here is a photo.  More can be found here.

• Simple, Good, and Tasty writes about a school in Newark that put growing lunch into the students hands.  I love this idea, I think everyone should grow their own food at least once.
• Do you restrict your hi-res photos on Flickr, read this please. (via Deets after Dark)
• The lock and dams in Minneapolis are pretty prominent features on your river, still I can’t help but wish we had this. (via kottke)
• No smoking in the Metrodome gives up the best thing I’ve seen in a while.  A Twins logo outside that will soon overlook real outdoor baseball.  Related:  Look at that view!
• A completely valid use of an ad.  Tim Olson, I agree with you.
• Freshtopia.net has a recipe for a virgin ginger mojito.  I tried it and it was good, and you could even ad rum if your feeling rebellious.  (found via heidiohlander)
• And because I’m posting this an hour before Friday, always remember, the Flickr: Last 7 days interesting photos link is always, always, always worth a click.

Have a fabulous Friday and enjoy the heck out of your weekend.

It’s Friday, I have the day off and instead of going fishing, photo hunting, or sitting on a patio with a drink all day I have to go furniture shopping.  I need a couch so I can invite people over so I can cook things and not eat it all myself.

• Via Emily, a tutorial on how to pet your cat.  If you don’t own a cat you probably won’t understand.
• Kottke posts this link to an article on how introverts travel.  I loved it because it described my travel methods quite well.
• We finally figure out what you see when you die.  Yes that is a cat on a keyboard in space.
• If someone was to buy this for me I would bake them a pizza.
• I love Minneapolis for many reasons, but the combo of the River, the Parks, and the Skyline is high on the list.

• Via Eyeteeth, an artist has redone the Wu-Tang Clan’s covers.  I’ve always been a fan of the Wu, and now I’d willing show off their CDs.
• Pancakes on heads make for great art.
• This one didn’t turn out nearly as well as I hoped it would, and the wood ducks I saw were a complete failure.  Still it was pretty cool just how close I was able to get to this guy.

• XKCD sums up why driving to bars sucks.  Someone always brings a goat.
• We had Bike to Work week in Minneapolis a few weeks ago, Bob Collins of MPR rode to work and filmed the endeavor.  I rode that route one time when I lived in Woodbury, I don’t think I would have been able to work afterwards.
• Finally Doniree asked what you will never outgrow and I realized that I’m always excited when I see big machines.  This crane just off the river in Minneapolis is just one example.

Well that’s it for me, I’m off to find myself some furniture.  Have a great weekend all.

A change to my old Thought and Links posts that I discontinued a while back.  I’ll use a similiar format but also include some photos that don’t really fit in a full post.

• I ended up in Northfield yesterday for work.  After finishing the meeting I was there for I stopped by the river walk to see what I could find.  I was ecstatic to discover these little guys swimming around.

1. Ducks, 2. Duckling, 3. Swim Fast and Free

• The Heavy Table looks at a couple of new burger joints.  Smashburger looks interesting, and if the 5 Guys in Edina is anything like the one in St. Cloud you should go.  Now!
• Les Petites Images gives us a two part series that teaches us how to make spinach Palak Paneer.   I’ve never tried making Indian food before and may dip my toes in soon.
  
• synapsecollapse shares a video and some links to local brewers.  Go buy some local beer now.
  
• I also stopped by Nakomis yesterday and got a few photos of the cherry blossoms.  This one was my favorite.
  
• I love these Cargo Bikes and this bookmark.  via SwissMiss
• Salon argues that parents should set their children free (via Kottke)
• I made a few site changes today.  First I added a Post to Twitter button to all individual posts.  I also have setup Tweetbacks that may or may not import comments about my posts on Twitter into my blog.
  

I wouldn’t be writing this if I hadn’t met someone today who was actually worried about it.  ABC published this article a while ago, and it must have aired on channel five recently.  It’s your basic public safety piece.  It’s about a “reformed” thief who breaks into a car and a home and steals a bunch of stuff and how the family is shocked to find out they are vulnerable.

These pieces always drive me a little nuts.  Everyone’s home would be an easy target if someone spent time learning their routine.  In this example, the thief knew the family was at a Little League game so it was obvious he would have free reign of the home for an hour or so.

This was the part of the article the woman I met today was worried about.

Let’s start with your car. If your GPS has a key lock, use it. If it doesn’t, don’t list your home as “home.” Instead, call your address “ice cream store” or “supermarket.” That way, a thief can’t find out where you live.

Dear ABC, I really doubt car thieves make it a priority to rob the same person twice.  Additionally, it’s not difficult to find the home address in a vehicle.  The last time I checked your home address is on a few items on your car including the registration and possibly your insurance card.   If a thief was really stupid enough to intentionally rob the same person twice, its the work of a minute to open the glove box and put the address into your GPS.

For anyone reading this who might not have their address in their car.  Please don’t think your safe renaming your home address “Ice Cream Store”   Security by obscurity is a poor form of security in any guise.

A list of things I’ve accomplished or done but failed to write about in the last few weeks

• Baked Bagels
• Baked pretzels
• Made meatloaf
• Made homemade ravioli
• Setup my server as a router
• Setup Jinzora so I can stream my music
• Setup a dhcp server and DNS caching server
• Baked whole wheat bread (though this was a failure)
• Homemade pizza on homemade crust
• Baked bread sticks
• Photo walked around the Lake of the Isles
• Ate way to much at theGranite City breakfast buffet
• Accidentally deleted most of the photos I took this year and finally setup a backup system so I never do something stupid like that again

Some of these weren’t exactly blog worthy, but I really need to get better at photographing and writing about things I do.  Especially the cooking, I love reading what other people are making for dinner, and should really share my own adventures.

It’s been a while since I posted one of these.  The Internet is littered with great content, here is just a taste. Remember, you can always follow my shared items for more links.

• The Big Picture has posted one of my favorite photo sets yet, Robots.
• If you have a website and you Google Analytics, here is a guide detailing ways to find out too much about your readers.
• NPR has a great site detailing the Presidents proposed budget.  
• An awesome poster for Photoshop shortcuts.
• My friend Marissa is raising money for Habitat for Humanity, consider making it your cause for the month.
• Emily shows you how to make a crappy day better with food complimented by beer.
• Cheap Healthy Good writes about homemade pizza.  I’m trying this sometime soon.
• In another food related post, Lifehacker posts about bulk breakfast burritos.  This will have to do until Chipotle gets their act together.
• Spring in St. Paul, a photo.  Which of course makes the waiting even more unbearable.
• Over at the new MN blog ambulancedriver.net, Duke writes about his encounter with a state legislator.
• Fivethirtyeight interviews the representative from my native state.  John Tester is an interesting guy.
• Another amazing photo, this time of the blue winter sky of Minnesota.
• Ryan Air is not exactly up to speed on the whole blogging thing.
• I have nothing else to say except Bacon Stuffed Waffles

There you go, another list of links to keep you occupied while waiting for the weekend to get here.  It’s Friday tomorrow, and now you have a recipe for bacon stuffed waffles you can try on Saturday morning.  How can the next 3 days get any better?

I’m not trying to ignore you.  I know it feels like I am lately, but I really think about you all the time.  The problem is that I just don’t feel like anything interesting has happened to me lately.  Now don’t take that to mean I’m sitting at home watching TV and not leaving the house.  It’s actually the exact opposite.  I’ve been having a blast.  Last weekend I went tubing at Afton Alps, spent the evening at PF Changs and Southdale.  In fact I almost ran into a fellow Twitterer at the Apple Store.  That had been preceded by a Tweetup at Grumpy’s where I met a group of people I knew from the Internet only and who I now know in what some call real life (like it’s better than Twitter, ha).

Speaking of Grumpy’s, apparently I put that on my MN todo list so that has been crossed off.  It was definitely a cool place. Of course since they serve Surley that could have been part of it’s charm.  Anytime you have a Furious or a Bender in hand your going to be apt to consider your location downright awesome.  I wasn’t as happy with the mini-tacos as I thought I would be.  I guess my tastes have changed since high school.

I also went back to the Herk on Tuesday this week.  I didn’t eat again as I has just spent the weekend eating out, but the beer was good again.  I hung out with Drew and a few of his friends who were playing shuffleboard.  I was only in uptown because I was looking at a new apartment.  Which brings me to the next thing I have going on, I’m trying to find a new place to live.  Though my current living situation is good, it’s time to move on.  I’m looking for a one bedroom or a large studio, somewhere near uptown or downtown.  I’ve only looked at one place, and I’m going to take my time.

Last night was another great night, I started out at the ACME comedy club, meeting with a new young professionals group that I had developed a website for.  I will admit to not being overwhelmed by the presentation that was being given, but as I ended up walking in late due to work and traffic I can’t judge it too harshly.  I met a few people, but I had the Twestival to get to and I was excited to meet some more of the people I communicate with daily in person.  So, after having a beer and chatting for a bit I headed up the road to Moto-i.  I had a blast hanging out with fellow Tweeple.  It’s nice to finally have a face to put to the tweets you read, and it’s fun adding people to your list after having a conversation instead of adding them based on their last two 140 character thoughts.

So yeah, I’ve been busy, but it isn’t an excuse to neglect you.  I remember chatting with Emily and Bill a bit regarding changing how you write due to getting more readers.  At the time I didn’t think I would fall into that trap, but as my reader count increased I started to try and be more interesting or funny.  But what I need to remember is the reason I started this site wasn’t to entertain everyone else, but to give me a place to write whatever I want.  I even put it in my About page.  So I’m going to try harder to attend to you more frequently that on Wednesdays.

Thanks for putting up with me.

Sincerely

Conner McCall