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© 2000-2008 Anton Zuiker, a Zuiker Chronicles Online website. Sweetened with Textpattern, Textdrive, OSX, skEdit and memories of Paama.
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ScienceOnline'09
It’s conference-planning season for me, which means I’m back at the kitchen counter every night between 9 and midnight to iron out details for the third annual science blogging conference in North Carolina.
We’ve named the conference ScienceOnline’09, added another day, and broadened the topics to be discussed, demonstrated and debated. Registration — the conference is free! — has been open for just a few weeks, and we’re already past 100, with space for up to 200. Register soon.
Want to sponsor or donate or volunteer or participate? Send me a message.
The launch of Inside Online
For much of the last 13 months, I’ve been working to create a daily news website to complement Inside Duke Medicine, the monthly employee newspaper that I edit as part of my job at Duke University Health System.
The goal: flip Inside from its boring print-to-Web version to a more interactive Web-to-print strategy. I wanted a site that could better reflect the ‘river of news’ that flows through Duke Medicine every day, a site that could collect the announcements and articles and stories that then would make it into the newspaper (which we redesigned and reformatted earlier this year — see the latest issues\).
Two weeks ago, Inside Online finally launched, at http://inside.dukemedicine.org.
Inside Online is a daily news website, public but meant for the employees of the health system. We’re using Wordpress as a content management system; my friend Brian Russell developed the site, patiently working through all the design and functionality changes I sprang on him through the months. (Brian’s now onto a bigger and better project, Carrboro Creative Coworking).
I’m proud of this accomplishment, and eager to see the site succeed as the go-to source of news and information at Duke Medicine.
Have a look, and share any suggestions for how we can make it better.
Erin on the job
I’m still so amazed and proud of what Erin’s accomplished — law school (and two years of grant-supported study of Swahili), passing the bar and transitioning smoothly into her job as attorney at law, all the while being the most awesome and loving wife and mother.
For the record, Erin now works on the health care team at the Raleigh offices of Smith Moore Leatherwood. See her bio page.
She's legit
Over the water
To celebrate Erin’s great news last night, I drove out into a spectacular thunderstorm with nonstop lightning to retrieve tiramisu and a DVD. I returned to the house to find a candlelight picnic on the living room floor, and, basking in the relief of Erin’s passing the bar exam, we drank red wine while watching the Irish musical Once.
Another movie rental from last night, this one for the girls, was Nim’s Island, which Anna and I watched tonight. Erin walked into the room just as a cruise ship with Australian tourists descended upon Nim’s untrampled beach.
“Look familiar?” I asked. Erin laughed.
We were remembering that time we’d traveled by motorboat from Paama across to Epi Island, where the villagers of Lamen Bay had agreed to play host to a visiting cruise ship for the first time. As we sat with our Ni-Vanuatu family and friends, a couple hundred Aussies came ashore to wander the small village, wondering how to purchase with their Australian dollars the woven pandanus mats, carved dugongs and other handicrafts that were valued in vatu, the Vanuatu currency. At noon, the ship’s cooks set out food at the school grounds, and the crew played the locals in a game of soccer.
When that ship departed — they bagged all their garbage and took it with them (though probably dumped it out at sea) — we walked down to Tasso’s guest house and ordered a couple cold Tusker beers.
Erin Shaughnessy Zuiker, Esq.
She did it! Erin passed the NC bar exam, and is set to practice law in this state. Congratulations, my love. I knew you would do it.
BlogTogether Backyard Barbecue, again
The annual BlogTogether Backyard Barbecue is this Saturday, August 23 from 5pm on, at my home in Durham. I’ll provide a cold keg of Carolina Brewery suds, a hot grill and tasty pulled pork barbecue, and a deck perfect for conversing into the night. More details here.
Join us (but let us know you’re coming, please).
Taking stock
One year ago today, I started my job as manager of internal communications at Duke Medicine, a job I’ve poured myself into and enjoyed. To mark the anniversary, I’ll take a break from the dozen projects and deadlines and tasks currently stressing me out so to walk over to the Duke Gardens and sit among the bamboo.
School for the girls starts tomorrow. Erin starts her job in two weeks. BlogTogether conferences and initiatives are languishing. I owe time on a freelance project.
Fortunately, we’re all healthy and well. It’s just that I’m struggling with this complicated life I’ve planned around me.
In the kitchen just now to pour a glass of orange juice and feed the cat, I found a lovely note from Erin reminding me to recapture the relaxation of our Miami Beach vacation.
By the end of day, then, I’ll be in shorts and flip flops, whittling away some of the complications of my to-do list.
Tell me about wine
The quiet house has been getting to me this week — Erin and the girls are still in Cleveland — so I fled the eerie peace last night to see Tell No One, an excellent French murder mystery.
And tonight I went to see Bottle Shock, a dramatic retelling of the 1976 head-to-head blind tasting of French and California wines, in which the Americans shocked the oenophiles. A delightful film, this one.
As I drove home, I remembered the blissful New Zealand spring afternoon when Erin and I stopped our camper van near budding vines and green pastures to have a peaceful lunch and glasses of the wine we’d collected on our tour of the country’s wineries. (I mentioned our favorite in this previous post.)
The house is still quiet, but promises to return to its bustle and hum when my darling little women return this weekend. Travel safely, Erin. I have a bottle of chardonnay chilled for your arrival.
Miami Beach report
Another run along the boardwalk, and weight training in the gym, then a block down Collins Avenue for lunch at a Cuban diner, fried sweet plantains and a papaya shake.
After reading underneath a palm frond umbrella for a few hours, we showered and dressed, then hopped into a cab for a short ride to the Art Deco Hotel Victor, where we made the most of a Miami Spa Month promotion (there’s a similar Miami Spice Month for dinner specials around town.)
“I feel like a shiny new red car,” I told my masseuse, Kelly, during the sea-salt scrub — this after a muscle-melting 30 minutes on the massage table. A few glasses of orange-infused and cucumber-infused water quenched my thirst, and then I hit the steam room to sweat out any remaining hints of stress or worry gathered over the last year.
Upstairs, the Hotel Victor lobby has a tank filled with white undulating jellyfish. (Read this interesting NYTimes article about the decline of the seas leading to a rise in jellyfish.)
Outside, past Gianni Versace’s Casa Causarina mansion (read my previous post about my connection to the first victim in the murder spree that ended with Versace’s death), around the corner, we had an early dinner — turkey burger, Monte Christo, chocolate malt — at the 11th Street Diner.
Walking toward our hotel, we walked up Washington Street, finding our way onto the pedestrian mall, Espanola Way, and immediately getting sucked into the Cavas wine tasting shop. I most enjoyed the Terravid# carmenere and Erath 2006 pinot noir.
All in all, another fine day in Miami Beach.
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Anton Zuiker's personal website and