Cleveland's 216th Birthday Party

Cleveland, the 216, turned 216 years old on Sunday July 22nd. Ohio Homecoming organized a birthday bash that attracted thousands to Nautica in the Flats for a party.
 

4 pages of photos and videos of the attendees, performers, fashion show and more

Chinese at Cleveland's 216th Birthday

The Cleveland Chinese community was well-represented at Cleveland's 216th birthday party.  

They performed a traditional musical piece on the guzheng (Chinese zither) and a group of youngsters performed several dances including the popular Happy Drum Dance.   

See the Cleveland Chinese community at the 216 birthday event.

Asian Indians at Cleveland Birthday

The Cleveland Asian-Indian community was well-represented at Cleveland's 216th birthday party.  

They had a booth for both FICA and India Festival USA, performed a traditional Karagattam Dance and a Bollywood Dance and participated in the fashion show.  

Asian Indians at Cleveland Birthday party

Cleveland Peruvians at birthday bash

The Cleveland Peruvian community was well-represented at Cleveland's 216th birthday party.  

They had a booth, performed a traditional Lando Dance and participated in the fashion show.  

Photos and videos of the Peruvians

Lithuanians at Cleveland 216th Birthday

The Cleveland Lithuanian community was well-represented at Cleveland's 216th birthday party.  

Besides singing upbeat polkas, they participated in the fashion show.

See photos and videos of the Lithuanians at Cleveland's birthday

Cleveland Lebanese at 216 Birthday Bash

The Cleveland Lebanese community was well-represented at Cleveland's 216th birthday party.

CAMEO - the Cleveland Area Middle East Organization - had a booth and the band Ajyal performed a traditional Lebanese Dabke dance.

See photos and videos of the Lebanese at Cleveland's Birthday bash.

London Calling - Summer Olympics

I love the Summer Olympics.  I have always felt that the track and field competitors -especially the decathletes - are the best  athletes in the world.  And there is usually no politics in track and field.  If you cross the finish line faster than everyone else, for example, you win.

Swimming is like that too.  We are fortunate to have an Olympic Gold Medal swimmer here in Cleveland.  Diana Munz won a Gold and Silver in Sydney and a Bronze Medal in Athens four years later.

Diana gave us the inside scoop on the swimming competition during the 2008 Beijing Olympics and now she is doing it again for London.  You can see her predictions and insights on the 2012 Olympic swimmers here where she talks about Missy Franklin, Dara Torres, Michael Phelps, Janet Evans and more.

 You can watch Diana do commentary on NBC as well.

Year of the Dragon Public Art

2012 is the Year of the Dragon on the Chinese calendar. To celebrate, St. Clair Superior Development Corporation filled our community with a collection of public art pieces in honor of the Year of the Dragon!

Local artists applied their talent & creativity to the fiberglass dragon sculptures to create an assortment of unique pieces of public art. The Dragons have been placed outside local business establishments in Cleveland, and will be auctioned in September.

Each artist was challenged and inspired by cultural influences, their personal history, and their own interpretation of the dragon as an object of art.

This is the 7th year of the project with prior art honoring the Year of the Rabbit, Ox, Rat, Pig, Dog and Tiger.

Browse photos of all the Dragons and then vote for your favorites.

Happy 216th to the 216

Cleveland - aka the 216 - celebrated its 216th birthday on Sunday.  216 for the 216.

There will be a lot of videos and photos from the bash at ClevelandPeople.Com soon but this short video showing about 40 Clevelanders wishing the city a Happy Birthday represents the diversity that makes the city so special.

Cleveland GiveCamp

I was very impressed with the quantity and quality of volunteers at Cleveland GiveCamp when I stopped by on Saturday.

GiveCamp is a national event that connects technology talent with the needs of local non-profits. In one weekend, developers, designers, database administrators, and other technology professionals work around the clock to tackle the wish lists of non-profits and create web and software solutions. More than 30 cities across the country host this event and that number continues to grow each year.

And Cleveland's has become the largest!  In 2011, Cleveland organized its second event and boasted more than 175 volunteers who contributed over $500,000 of development work.  It's even bigger in 2012.

Check out more info, photos and videos from the Cleveland GiveCamp

How Hot has it Been?

• The birds have to use potholders to pull the worms out of the ground.



• The trees are whistling for the dogs.




• The best parking place is determined by shade instead of distance



• Hot water comes from both taps.



• You can make sun tea instantly.




• You learn that a seat belt buckle makes a pretty good branding iron.



• The temperature drops below 90 F and you feel a little chilly.




• You discover that in July it only takes two fingers to steer your car.



• You discover that you can get sunburned through your car window.




• You realize that asphalt has a liquid stage.



• The potatoes cook underground, so all you have to do is pull one out and add butter.




• The cows are giving evaporated milk.



• Farmers are feeding their chickens crushed ice to keep them from laying boiled eggs.




• The Baptists are starting to baptize by sprinkling, the Methodists are using wet-wipes, the Presbyterians are giving rain checks, and the Catholics are praying for the wine to turn back into water!

Digital BookMobile

I have always been fortunate to live near a physical library. But many, especially in rural areas, have had to rely on Bookmobiles to deliver books.

 Now that we have digital content, Internet delivery capability and great software from Cleveland's own OverDrive, Inc. people can download all kinds of digital content 24x7 from any Internet connection to almost any device.

 The OverDrive Bookmobile travels the continent showing people what they can do and how easy it is.

 I caught up with the BookMobile at Shaker Heights Public Library and took a quick tour.

 It turns out that I was friends with and played football with the father (Pat) of the BookMobile guide, Dan Conochan. A looooong time ago.

 

St Casimir Church reopening

It was inspirational to see over 1000 people at the reopening Mass at St Casimir Church in Cleveland.

We have lots of photos and videos to be posted soon but here is a quick video on the processional into the Church from outside.

Slovenian Statehood Day in Cleveland

On June 25, 1991 Slovenia declared independence from Yugoslavia. To celebrate the 21 years of Slovenian Statehood, a special event was held in the Rotunda of Cleveland City Hall with dignitaries, music and food. Consul General of the Republic of Slovenia Mr. Jure Žmauc and Mrs. Janja Žmauc hosted the event.

Pics and video of the ceremonies

Pics of the people who attended

St. Casimir - Last Vigil

Sometimes miracles do happen.

The last Mass held at St. Casimir Church in Cleveland was held on November 8, 2009. 

Starting the following Sunday, parishioners and supporters met outside the locked church to pray. 

On Sunday July 8, 2012 the 139th and final street service was held.  St Casimir Church will reopen on Sunday July 15, 2012.

The St Casimir group was the first to meet outside the church and never missed a week despite Cleveland's dramatic weather.  They inspired 4 other church communities (St. Emeric, St. Patrick, St. Wendelin and St. James) to begin meeting in the street the following summer.

Now their prayers have been answered and St Casimir Church will reopen with a Mass at 11:30AM on July 15th.  The loyal group which was exiled outside for so long will be able to enter their beloved church again.

Many believe this to be a miracle delivered to them by the Blessed Virgin as Our Lady of Czestochowa.

Photos and Videos of the Last Vigil

Will you lose Internet access Monday?

GreatLakesGeek.com visitors are already aware of the impending shutdown of Internet access to systems infected with the DNS Changer malware.

The ring behind the DNS Changer virus, discovered in 2007, was shut down last year by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Estonian police and other law enforcement agencies.

About 69,000 computers in the US are infected. Symantec posted, "If your computer is still using DNS entries that are pointing to the FBI servers on July 9, you will lose TOTAL access to the Internet. No connecting to the office from home, no updating Facebook, nothing until the DNS settings are fixed."

Make it easy on your less technically astute friends and family and have then check their system here.

Higgs Boson

Yeah, it really is a big deal.


Even the mainstream press has been reporting that Scientists at CERN announced that they are 99.99% sure that they've found a new sub-atomic particle, and that it is likely to be the elusive Higgs boson. Layman have referred to it as the "God Particle" but scientists generally don't like that name.

Here is a good video explaining the theoretical particle.