Twerrible Towel

This is pretty awesome. Click here to see the Terrible Towel spin when someone Tweets #steelersnation.  As you can see in the image to the right it posts your Twitter name and the number of times the towel has spun.  How does it work?  They offer a completely oversimplified version on the site but really – does it matter?  That is pretty cool.

Twitter is something that I am just starting to play with and really understand. I started an account for NOSVC (@NOSVC) and myself (@Anthony_McLeod) a while ago and still have crappy Klout scores (10/27). But I’ve started to find it a little more interesting as I’ve learned how to use it.  I’ve heard Twitter described relationally to Facebook as “Facebook being for the people you know and Twitter being for the people you want to know.”  I think it is easier to see Twitter as the Junior High School lunchroom of social media.  It is fun but it is still vaguely anonymous and not at all structured.  This doesn’t make it bad – just another obstacle to getting work done at times. It is interesting to see what people are thinking both friends and ‘celebrities’ and it is fun to interact with them on occasion.

After the jump I have an image where I made the towel spin with my personal account and a conversation I had with NC State’s Julius Hodge with the NOSVC account.

Happy Groundhog Day!

Punxsutawney Phil did NOT see his shadow.  Per tradition this means winter is over and spring is near.  After this winter I’ll call this cause for celebration.

Hopefully this will mean warm (but not too warm) weather for the St. Patrick’s Day parade on March 12th.  You know – 38 Days, 4 Hours and 20 Minutes from now.

Breaking news – Sir Walter Wally (the local ground dwelling herbivore) agrees with Phil’s assessment.  It appears that winter may really be over or these rodents are collaborating.  We’ll see.

On another note it appears the more famous groundhog is making more than a weather prediction this year ending his message with “GO STEELERS.”

Yes – I know the video to the right isn’t a groundhog per se but gopher / groundhog / woodchuck – does anyone really know the difference?

Update – Just saw that ABC 11 is claiming Sir Walter Wally saw his shadow and confirmed it on WRAL.  This means six more weeks of winter.

Norman Rockwell Exhibit NCMA

In the middle of all the All-Star action this past weekend we decided to take a moment and visit the North Carolina Museum of Art – specifically the American Chronicles: The Art of Norman Rockwell exhibit.

I know – a little culture in the middle of a lot of sports doesn’t always seem to fit but it was the last weekend for the exhibit and I’m glad we made it in before it closed. Norman Rockwell was largely a commercial artist doing advertisements and most notably covers for The Saturday Evening Post.

You may be thinking right now – I can’t wait to see the pictures. Well – look to the right and enjoy. Photography was not allowed in the exhibit so that is as good as it gets.  Not that you can’t find all of my favorites online anyway – like this one, this one, this one, and this one.  You can see all The Post covers that were in the exhibit here.  The realism and attention to detail are unbelievable.

One of my favorite pieces in the exhibit were the illustrations of the Four Freedoms from President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s 1941 State of the Union Address that inspired the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights.  The very simple yet very important concept that everyone deserves Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Religion, Freedom from Want and Freedom from Fear.  The accompanying art by Norman Rockwell captures these ideas in a simple yet timeless elegance.  (It also sold War Bonds he was a commercial artist to the end.)

The exhibit was probably being packed up today getting ready to move to another city.  I’m glad we took a short break in the hockey action to see these awesome pieces of art and to reflect on the freedoms that let us have both great art and awesome sports weekends.  Enjoy the links and in case you are interested I posted a large chuck of the FDR “Four Freedoms” speech after the jump.

Somehow I completely forgot about this piece. I don’t think it ever ran on the cover the of the Saturday Evening Post but it is by far the one I identify with the most. I feel that way a lot when I am sitting down trying to design a website. I may have to get a print of this one and hang it in my room to remind me I am not alone when I can’t think of what to put on the page.

Greatest Sports Pep Talk Ever

We’ve had a lot of sports talk over the past couple of weeks. Looks like we may need this…

Southern-fried Hockey

or Hockeytown, R.F.D.?*

There is no better place in hockey in the United States than Carolina deep in the playoffs. The coterie of fans swells in the spring — currently the Hurricanes, outside a playoff spot, are drawing at a little less than 90 percent of capacity — and it treats each game like an event, tailgating as if it were North Carolina playing N.C. State in Carter-Finley Stadium across the parking lot from RBC Arena. In Game 7 of the 2006 final against Edmonton, there was no one in the seats at the rink. The reason: fans stood the entire game. Cameron Crazies met Caniacs. In the past decade, the NHL has not had a more delightfully organic moment.

and

Carolina Hurricanes owner Peter Karmanos expressed it well: after reaching a Stanley Cup final in 2002, winning the Cup in 2006 and serving impressively as All-Star host, Raleigh has crossed the divide from non-traditional hockey market to traditional hockey market.

Read more: Venue will go down as biggest star of NHL’s All-Star weekend

* R.F.D. (R.F.D stands for “Rural Free Delivery”, a quaint postal depiction of the rural Mayberry community) is a spin-off and direct continuation of The Andy Griffith Show under a new title. [LINK]