Click Here to Watch the On-Air Video from December 15, 2008 

Christmas Light 'Tacky Tours' Spawn Online Community
FoxNews.com - Entertainment - December 12, 2008 - Chris Kensler
Click Here to the FoxNews.com Article

Matt Burgess thinks Christmas is tacky-tacular.

Burgess runs the website TackyLightTour.com, an online community for people who festoon their houses and yards every Christmas with millions of colored lights, plywood cut-out holiday characters, and massive blow-up Santas, Rudolphs and snowmen.

He got the idea for the site when he found himself spending hours planning the annual family car trip to the best Christmas lights in Richmond, Virginia.

"The process involved plotting addresses from my local newspaper on maps, then determining the best route to take throughout the city," Burgess tells FOXNews.com. "With the advent of free online mapping services, I knew there was a better way."

Burgess built the site's first version in 2004. Soon, he was getting requests from tacky people around the world to display their light shows on his site.

"So, in 2005, I opened up the site for anyone with more 10,000 Christmas lights to list their display," he says. "Traffic to the site has doubled every year since, and so has the total number of lights."

And while cities and suburbs from Green Bay to Galveston have their own "Tacky Tours," Burgess's home town of Richmond is probably the best -known Christmas-light display destination in the country.

"The first over-the-top displays in Richmond go back to the late 70's," Burgess says. "At some point in the early 80's, Richmonders started calling the unusually large number of displays the Tacky Light Tour. On any given night in December, traffic jams form around certain neighborhoods as dozens of vans, limousines and tour buses take their Tacky Light Tour." 

How To Do It Yourself: Replace Brake Pads on a 2002 Honda Civic LX

Just Brakes in Atlanta, Georgia has an incredible deal to get new brakes and rotors for $99 with a lifetime warranty, so when the brakes on our 2002 Honda Civic LX starting to squeal last year I took the offer. Within 6 months the squealing was back, so I took the car back in for the lifetime warranty to find out I needed $250 in additional work. I never could get a straight answer on the root of the problem, but at one point I was told the newly installed brake pads had cracked. Forget the lifetime warranty, I installed premium Akebono ProACT ceramic pads in their place. My experience with Akebono ProACT pads has been great. They provide the perfect combination of stopping power, quietness and low-dust.

Step 1: Remove both of the front wheels. If you don't know how to do this, then abandon the project completely and take your car to a mechanic. You will surely hurt yourself.

Step 2: Dislocate the piston housing from the caliper by removing two bolts from behind the caliper using a ratchet. Do not let the piston housing dangle as it could damage the brake line. Rest the piston housing on something so some slack exists in the brake line. The top of the wheel is fine.

Step 3: Slide the old brake pads from both sides of the rotor.

Step 4: Dress the new Akebono ProACT brake pads with the supplied lubricant. The lubricant is applied to the metal bracket attached to the brake pad.

Step 5: Slide the new brake pads into place where the old ones were. The pad with a protruding metal bracked goes on the side facing away.

Step 6: Reattach the piston housing by doing the opposite of Step 2. The piston may slightly engage while it is off the wheel. If it does you need to push the piston back in the housing, so there is enough room to slide the housing back into place over the new brake pads. To do this take a block of wood (or some other hard flat material) and a C-clamp. Place the flat material against the piston and contract the clamp pushing the piston back into the housing. When you reattach the piston it may seem like the housing is loose, but so long as the bolts are tightly fastened this is normal.

Step 7: Place the wheel and you are done. Repeat Steps 2-6 for the other wheel.

2008 Weather Channel Atlanta Marathon and Half Marathon

The oldest marathon in the Southeast and one of the ten oldest in the country, The Weather Channel Atlanta Marathon on Thanksgiving Day is also the only U.S. marathon run on an Olympic course—approximately 90% of the course is the same as that run by the world’s best at the Atlanta Games in 1996. Runners pass under the Olympic Rings on their way to the finish line, an exhilarating end to a challenging event. The accompanying half marathon is among the largest in the U.S., and while slightly less demanding is still guaranteed to work up runners’ appetites. Together, the two races have become a holiday tradition for thousands of runners and hundreds of friendly and dedicated volunteers.

Click Here for the Run The Nation Listing

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The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life (2003), Twyla Tharp

One of America's greatest choreographers, Twyla Tharp, shares her insight into the creative process in her sophomore venture into authorship. The best part of The Creative Habit is at the end of each chapter where exercises are prescribed to the content of the corresponding chapter. In between you will find stories primarily from Twyla's experience with musicals and other artistic ventures.

I tend to prefer straight forward talk and therefore found the majority of each chapter to be boring and unneccessary.  However, she should be credited with successfully mixing content about a methodical process with interesting narrative. Although I prefer different, readers may find her interspersed examples refreshing especially those that enjoy the inner workings of broadway or fans of the Movin' Out musical.

The 2nd Annual Between Shake and Bake Chili Cookoff
Between Shakerley and Bakewell in the Village at Tributary
October 11, 2008 from 4-10pm


Over 200 people attended the 2nd annual chili cookoff in the alley between Shakerley and Bakewell in the Village at Tributary. From 4-10pm tasters identified the best chilies and annointed the winner with the coveted Shake and Bake Trophy, which will be on loan until the 3rd annual cookoff.

The original Evite: http://www.evite.com/pages/invite/viewInvite.jsp?inviteId=EOUMODBLWCUMWQEUCLJJ&li=iq&src=email

Results Without Authority: Controlling a Project When the Team Doesn't Report to You

Tom Kendrick's book on project management was worth of 14 green Post-It flags bearing references to valuable information.  Results Without Authority is an excellently written book and will serve most anyone as a practical reference for project managers at any level, especially those with a particular title.

Kendrick has compiled 10 chapters a couple appendices of information centered around the concept of controlling a project from start to finish. The first part of the book focuses on the types of control being process, influence and metrics. The second section starting with Chapter 5 goes into the workflow of a project starting with project initiation and ending with project closure touching building control, maintaining control and monitoring control along the way.

Results Without Authority is an excellent book that I recommend. It is written extremely well and presents a great volume of work on a topic that involves most of us.

How To Do It Yourself: Replace Spark Plugs on 2002 Honda Civic LX


Step 1: Using a flathead screwdriver loosen the two plastic fasteners holding the engine nameplate.


Step 2: Using a wrench loosen the spark plug caps.


Step 3: The caps are attached to long tubes.  Jiggle each cap loose from the engine block, then pull an inch or two out so that the electrical connector can be detached. To detach the electrical connector, press the tab on the righthand side so the connector releases. After disconnecting, pull the entire tube from the engine block. Repeat these steps for all cylinders.


Step 4: Remove the spark plugs by deploying a spark plug socket into the empty tubes. It may take some thrust at first, then many turns with the ratchet before the spark plug is loose.  Be sure your socket is magnetic, so the plug attaches itself to the socket for removal from the cylinder.  Repeat these steps for all cylinders.


Step 5: Using the same socket and ratchet set, install the new spark plugs. Be sure to apply plenty of pressure, so the plugs are tightly secured in the engine.  Repeat these steps for all cylinders.

Step 6:  Repeat steps 1-3 in reverse order to reassemble the engine.

Congratulations you've just saved yourself a lot of money in a short period of time! 

The Unwritten Laws of Business (2007), W. J. King

King presents over sixty tips for keeping your job and never jeopardizing opportunities to be promoted along your career path. Chapters cover relationships, behavior and management. Good advice abounds like promote ideas and be aware of personal appearance. I just wonder if exactly 100 pages of advice like this is worth $15. For some people that answer is yes.  For people interested enough in the Personal MBA (PMBA), I doubt this level of advice is groundbreaking.

I wish I had more to say about my experience with The Unwritten Laws of Business.