Atlanta

Big Data Week – Atlanta – 2014 Keynote Panel: The Road Map to Implementing Big Data

 

Escape From Suburbia

ESCAPE FROM SUBURBIA
by Sherri Caldwell – The Rebel Housewife®
https://rebelhousewife.com

The suburbs offered one form of happily-ever-after; but, at a certain point, we had to get out.

As far as suburbs go, “Stepford of the South” was very nice: big houses, two-and-even-three-car garages, enormous lawns. It was like having your own private park, front and back. Of course, the front yard was for show, purely ornamental. The back yard was for living.

Not that anyone wanted or needed privacy. Stepford was a community, a haven for People Like Us, with families and neighbors destined to become Friends For Life. It was written into the sales contract, and the neighborhood bylaws.

After all, we paid extra for upscale family storage. The corporate bosses of our hard-working commuter dads paid well to keep the family far enough away, with a large enough mortgage and household expenses, to ensure job dedication and healthy separation.

Every Monday, the husbands went to work. The children went to school. The wives kept house, shopped, socialized and maintained a busy schedule of community and school-related commitments, basically running the world from their designated PTA regiments.

In the afternoon, the children came home, briefly, and were then carpooled to their various activities. Dinner was inevitably a la drive-thru. The husbands came home late and scrounged for leftovers. Exhausted from the daily round, bedtime came early, after homework and school projects. Repeat through Friday.

The weekends were sacrificed to the Gods of Lawn Care– Olympics-worthy competition amongst the men, all weekend, every weekend.

My Prince Charming became a commuting, work-in-the-city, weekend-lawn-warrior stranger. When I realized I was spending far more quality time with my crazy neighbor, a doctor’s wife, than my own husband, the suburban fairytale started to break down.

The big, roomy house with lots of space became too much to maintain, to clean, to keep track of young people and family pets. I realized I hadn’t seen my middle child for five years in this mausoleum.

As for the lawn… You know, the city offers and maintains municipal parks. They are generally bigger and better-equipped. And you don’t have to feed every random child who wanders through.

Friends For Life and People Like Us had been selling points, but who can stand their own company interminably, without any variety? We began to plot our escape. From Soccer Moms and Minivans, to the diversity of the city, where we belonged.

The stranger we called Daddy transformed from an exhausted commuter/weekend warrior to a healthy, happy and involved father who walks to work and is home every night for dinner. All of a sudden, he’s always there, where and when he hadn’t been before. While it takes some getting used to, we got out just in time.

—
Sherri Caldwell, The Rebel Housewife®, is an author, columnist and reviewer at www.RebelHousewife.com. After many years as a PTA Mom in the suburbs, she now lives happily-ever-after with her husband, three teenagers, and Mocha-the-Dog, in a midtown high-rise in Atlanta, Georgia.

BDW13ATL: Can Big Data Mitigate Threats?

The Continuing Adventures of a Non-techie Writer Live Blogging Technology…

Big Data Week: Atlanta
Can Big Data Mitigate Threats to Public Safety and Security?

From what I do know about Big Data, this will be one of the most intriguing sessions of the week, sure to be of interest to Big Data techies and non-techies alike.
Big Data’s role in protecting us from another recession (fraud detection), petty crime, gang violence and more…international terrorism & domestic events like the Boston Marathon Bombing: Surveillance, Protection, Deterrence & Aftermath of crisis. (Spooky stuff)

Live Blogging Adventures: Big Data Week



In a week that includes my 7th grade virtual school student going to a very real-world testing location every day to take the Georgia CRCTs…AND my crazy mother packing up and moving from Georgia to Washington State…AND my 10th grade daughter conquering the world with power smashes and aced serves, playing high school varsity tennis as a sophomore — and winning! — in the state championship preliminaries…all this week…

It’s also BIG DATA WEEK:ATLANTA!!!
Hosted by Emcien Corp, a company with which I am intimately involved.
[Disclosure: My husband is a co-founder and the Chief Technology Officer of Emcien.]

This is a Very Big Deal, on a level that I, as a non-techie, could not have expected, in terms of international scope, big-corporate participation, the calendar of activities scheduled, and the number of people involved and so very, very enthusiastic about the Next New Thing in Technology: Big Data.

Big Data is everything, from the location & use of your cellphone, to online transactions, to what you put in your shopping cart at the grocery store, to healthcare, to your social media activities. It is mind-boggling, and in many ways downright creepy, how much information is out there, the extent of our individual & collective digital footprint, and how that information can be used.

So, in the midst of CRCTs, State high school tennis competition, and my crazy mom, counting down the days to high school graduation (exactly 30) and my oldest son’s departure to the Navy (OMG, exactly 60 days from today)…I am visiting the World of Big Data and live blogging my experiences as a non-techie writer in the techie world. Adventures indeed:

The Future with Big Data: Atlanta Kickoff Event

See the prelim info: Live Blogging Adventures: Big Data Week.

Let’s make it clear: I am a Lifestyle, Humor & Book Reviews/Literary Rebel writer. My Live Blogging and most-recent reporting experience for Patch Media has been primarily in Education & Civic Issues. I am a non-techie girl, living in a very tech-geeky world, between my husband, the CTO, and our very tech-savvy three children (ages 18, 15 & 12).

So here goes Big Data Week:Atlanta and The Rebel Housewife®
(remember: non-techie) Live Blogging Technology for the first time (unless you count the Rebel Review – Kindle: Love or Hate?).

[P.S. I don’t know why the early blog-entry tags carry my usual “atlantaparent” screen name, and why I couldn’t go back and change it, but there you go. Sorry.]

APS Grady HS Community Mtg After School Shooting – February 28, 2013

For more information about the school shooting at Grady High School in Atlanta on February 27, 2013, please see:

APS Calls Thursday Grady Meeting to Talk School Safety
Midtown Patch – 02/27/2013

I also want to note that the Grady High School award-winning student newspaper, The Southerner, provided excellent coverage on The Grady Southerner Facebook Page as events unfolded yesterday, including accurate information, details and pictures. The student coverage was a great source of reassurance and relief to parents on the outside and informed the community about what was happening on the locked-down campus.

I will be LIVE BLOGGING the APS Grady HS Community Meeting tonight (2/28/2013), beginning at 6:30 p.m. Join me here live tonight or for the re-cap tomorrow in Midtown Patch/Patch Media.

Camp Mommy: 2010

July 2010 – Forgot to mention there is a NEW Rebel Review up:
BOOK GROUP REVIEWS [new feature!]: The Lost City by Henry Shukman

The summer is ambling along at a fairly quick pace, for summer. The kids are all three active and busy in various activities and we are actually going on a REAL vacation this year (as opposed to tent camping in Talladega, Alabama and our other “value-conscious” family vacation misadventures over the past couple summers!): We have rented a condo in Cocoa Beach for the 4th of July holiday – woo hoo!

Now that the kids are older — 15yo Puberty Angst Boy, 13yo Drama Queen and 10yo ADHD Phenom — Camp Mommy is not as active or in demand. That’s a good thing, on the whole, but still…I kind of miss my cute little campers. The 15yo is either sleeping; on the couch watching TV; on the computer playing World of Warcraft (sometimes both at the same time!); off with his friends; or, last week, away at Army Camp at Fort Benning, Georgia, part of his JROTC program in school, which he loves. The 13yo has herself hooked up with a great job this summer, as a Summer Camp Counselor for a day-camp program in Piedmont Park, which is right across the street, so she, too, is fairly independent and over Camp Mommy. Fortunately, I still have the 10yo, my brilliant, quirky, very bright, very ACTIVE boy. He still loves and appreciates his Mom! (The others do, too, I know.)

The Young One and I have been spending most of the summer at the Georgia Tech CRC (Campus Recreation Center) which is, in a word, amazing! We are very fortunate to enjoy membership and use of the facility (hubby is hooked up like that, since his company is affiliated with the Georgia Tech ATDC – Advanced Technology Development Center). The 10yo doesn’t much care for summer camp programs or crowds, sensory overload in general. He *loves* the CRC, especially the indoor recreational pool, with a big ol’ waterslide (!!!) and, perhaps even more, the separate Olympic Competition Pool & Diving Well (built for the 1996 Summer Olympics hosted in Atlanta), where he can dive to his heart’s content from the low & high diving boards. He loves to dive, go figure. He’s also savvy enough to “join” (kind of) the summer camp program for kids at Georgia Tech — timing our visits to the recreational pool during swim time, so he can play in the pool with a huge group of kids — or not, if he’s not feeling it — and he can leave anytime, go over to the diving well and have the place to himself after the campers leave. Genius. So we spend hours at the CRC and it is wonderful. (There are adult-only hot tubs at both pools and comfortable lounge chairs and a sundeck at the recreational pool — excellent for reading!)

It’s a good summer, 2010, after a season or several of change. I guess that’s what Life is all about, after all.

Joshilyn Jackson in Atlanta – Favorite Author Sighting 2.0!


I am very excited, and yes, of course, I’ll tell you why:

One of my most-favorite authors, Joshilyn Jackson, has a new book out!

Not only that, she will be appearing at
The Literary Center at the Margaret Mitchell House
990 Peachtree Street | Atlanta, GA 30309-1366 | Phone 404.249.7015
to introduce Backseat Saints — see the Rebel Review —
Tuesday, June 8, 2010 at 7pm.

For more info about Joshilyn Jackson’s books, check out Rebel Reviews:
2005 – I liked GODS IN ALABAMA — a lot.
2006 – I love, Love, LOVED (still my favorite) BETWEEN, GEORGIA.
2008 – Liked THE GIRL WHO STOPPED SWIMMING — the author-crush began.
2010 – Buckle in for a wild ride with the spectacular BACKSEAT SAINTS!

SEE ALSO: Focus on The Author: Joshilyn Jackson 2.0




It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas…

…or is it?!

I’m trying, I really am — and this will not be one of those whining, complaining blog posts about how hard the Holidays are on Mom; how there’s never enough time or money or magic; how everybody’s either looking for donations, cash, checks, party contributions or time on your oh-so-limited calendar…

No, let’s not go there.

The Holidays can be, and usually are, stressful, but there’s also an awful lot of good stuff. I can come up with 10 Things to Be Excited About, I know I can:

  1. The Magic kids still believe in: My older kids, now almost-15 and 12, want to force a confession about Santa, in no small part to “educate” their younger 9-year-old brother. I keep the discussion limited: “If you don’t believe in the Magic, the Magic won’t believe in you…and THE MAGIC can’t leave you a really great gift under the tree or a stocking full of goodies!” (It works!)
  2. Christmas Lists! If my children do no other creative writing all year, I can count on them for something truly entertaining and wonderful on the “Come-on Santa, Bring It All and Make My Miserable Life Complete Request List.” Want to see an example? 9yo Boy’s Wish List
  3. The Giving: Not so much the shopping, but the thinking, the planning, the scheming to surprise and delight, the giving is wonderful, especially when you find Just The Right Thing, big or small, for someone special.
  4. Gingerbread Cookies! An annual tradition in the Rebel Household, we make armies and armies of decorated Gingerbread Men for holiday parties, school friends, teacher gifts and neighbors…
  5. Cold Weather & Snuggling
  6. Winter Break – sleeping in and NO HOMEWORK!
  7. Christmas Cards – love to receive, even the letters.
  8. Decorations & Light Displays – another annual tradition, the Christmas Drive-Around to see all the lights and displays. We drive far and wide, to professional displays (around Atlanta: Stone Mountain, Lake Lanier Islands, Calloway Gardens) and to see everything at homes & businesses in-between. With a Thermos of hot chocolate, a to go box of gingerbread men and holiday music on the car stereo (now XM Radio Channel #23 – Holly) and we are set for several evenings of family entertainment.
  9. Christmas Music – all of it, from classical to elevator renditions to The Chipmunks!
  10. Christmas Classics – TV Shows & Books

That’s it. It’s nice to keep it simple. Of course, there is Christmas Morning and the children’s delight (hopefully) over their holiday haul; visiting friends & family and oh, yes, the holiday eating…

It is beginning to look — and feel — a lot like Christmas…
I’m on it!