Browsing Category Off-topic

Charlottesville is Brainy – For Everyone & For Those Under 35

in Off-topic on
water_st_maples [Explored 10/18/2012]

No, really, Charlottesville is the 15th brainiest metro area in the US.

From the Atlantic Cities article:

Lumosity data scientist Daniel Sternberg explains the prominence of college towns this way:

College towns tend to do well because education is correlated with cognitive performance. We’ve seen in our other research that those with advanced degrees tend to perform better cognitively throughout the lifespan. When we looked at some trends based on American Community Survey data, we found that the percentage of individuals within a metro area with advanced degrees, and the percentage of individuals within a CBSA pursuing advanced degrees were both strong predictors of the cognitive performance score for that metro area.

Not bad. The ancillary effects of the University of Virginia are well known, but this is the first time I’ve seen the Charlottesville area as being noted for the under-35 demographic – I’ll take that as a very good thing for the future of our area, should it be a reasonably accurate conclusion.

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Hearing Cicadas for the First Time

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Cicadas in the most unlikely places

Ironically, I am hearing cicadas in Charlottesville for the first time on a new construction site. I remember the last time they were out, we were using them for bait. 🙂

A friend told me last week that cicadas aren’t in places where ground has been disturbed in the past 10 years. Living in Crozet, most of that space has been disturbed.

The contrast between new, graded lots and trees that will stay is striking.

20130522-114408.jpg

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Charlottesville Loves its Restaurants

in Albemarle Charlottesville Off-topic on

Charlottesville is the #14 most “Restaurant-Crazy” City.

I like that they qualify “Charlottesville” as “The Charlottesville area” by virtue of their noting that “Charlottesville” has a population of 204k.

and:

Restaurants: 460

Restaurants Per 10,000 Residents: 22.8

I have my favorite restaurant(s) (Brookville, ahem) in Charlottesville … and many of their chefs are featured at Beyond the Flavor, (note their Kickstarter campaign).

The food in Charlottesville is remarkable, and helps to make living here pretty nice.

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What Happened to the Daily Progress’ URLs?

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http://www.dailyprogress.com/news/article_5885bff4-e808-5ab6-ad42-fcb60512f9b5.html

http://www.cvilletomorrow.org/news/article/12548-scottsville/

In doing brief research for an upcoming post, I discovered that (sadly) the Charlottesville Tomorrow article displays a snippet and the “Read More” goes to the Daily Progess article, the URL of which is at best a scrambled-alphabet with do decipherable logic whatsoever.

I’m no coder, but I am a firm believer in simplicity and planning for longevity.

I might pay for a subscription if I could be assured that the Daily Progress wouldn’t delete their archives again, as they did in 2008.

Community newspapers provide a true service; they are an archive for the community’s history. Hopefully libraries are archiving the Daily Progress – on microfiche or whatever – so this history won’t be lost.

/rant

Update 18 November 2012: It’s not just the URLs; it’s the entire “new” site that’s changed for the worse. It’s like they have a strategy to drive readers to print.

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Photo courtesy - http://www.flickr.com/photos/cobalt/273212143/

Pumpkin Patches in Charlottesville

in Albemarle Charlottesville Off-topic on

In search of pumpkin patches in the Charlottesville area –

1) I love my clients who still come to me after closing …

2) This message the other day got me thinking – (My son’s) birthday is coming up and I would like to take him to a pumpkin patch.  Do you know of a real fun one in the area?  I am currently planning to go to the Plains where the living earth folks
seem to have a really nice one with corn maze, slides, animals etc.

I haven’t been to a pumpkin patch with a maze in years. We usually go to Chiles Orchard in Crozet. Graves Mountain Lodge has hay bales to jump on and such when they have their Apple Harvest Festival (this is the last weekend for it).

So … when researching something, I went to Twitter and Facebook and got some great responses:

– Charlottesville and Albemarle region of Virginia’s Pumpkin Patches, Corn Mazes, Hay Rides and More
– Liberty Mills Farm

From my Facebook:

– Pumpkin Patches and More
– Liberty Mills Farm was the clear winner.
– Silver Creek and Seamans’ Orchards, Inc. – “Bonus: near Crabtree falls, which is especially beautiful now”

From the RealCrozetVA Facebook page:

– Back Home on the Farm in the Shenandoah Valley.
– Get Lost in the Corn – a corn maze at Bridgemont Farm – 600 Wissler Rd, Quicksburg, VA 22847

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A few of My Favorite Hikes around Charlottesville

in General Real Estate Off-topic on

Hiking in Charlottesville and Central Virginia is one of the biggest “selling points” for those choosing to move to or stay in the Charlottesville area. Even if you don’t hike; the mountains, the air, the trails, the parks contribute to the exceptional quality of life we all share here.

I hiked a lot when I was in high school growing up in Charlottesville. I’ve long told my clients about the wonderful hiking opportunities and how these opportunities contribute to the great quality of life in Charlottesville – and how they should hike – and last year I realized that I’d been advising friends and clients to go hiking yet I hadn’t gone myself for years.

Life should be about memories; why live (here) if not to make a few?

First, a couple tips –

1 – Take a lot of water.

2 – Be prepared – food, socks, extra shirts … I’m grateful for the backpack I still have as a high school graduation gift. Hiking if only for a few hours helps one appreciate the need to be prepared at home.

3 – I’m finding that (thankfully in a lot of ways) most of these areas don’t have cell phone coverage; either turn it off so as not to drain the battery or turn it on airplane mode so you can still use the camera. Download maps and directions and such to your phone before you go (or print them out). I use Evernote for this purpose (as well as for so many other things)

4 – Enjoy. And hike often.

5 – What are your favorite hikes?

Humpback Rocks – a relatively easy hike on the Blue Ridge Parkway with remarkable views. Last week we made it to the top in just over 30 minutes. Start in the morning and then make your way to Blue Mountain, Devils’ Backbone, or any of the other breweries in Nelson County.

Humpback Rock

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