Today, Mayor Bill Bunten issued a proclamation temporarily changing the name of our city from Topeka, KS to Google, KS in the hopes of differentiating us from other cities competing to be Google’s test market for a new fiber optic network. Think Big Topeka has taken the community by storm with more than 10,000 members of its Facebook group. TransformTopeka is encouraged to see such a surge of community support. Topeka, KS, oops, I mean Google, KS has not secured our place atop Google’s list yet. Think Big Topeka needs your help. Please become a member of the Facebook group and check back often for things you can do to support their effort. Please also, submit a nomination as a member of this community to Google. Let’s do everything possible to ensure Google chooses Google, KS for its test market, truly making Topeka, KS the Capital City of Fiber Optics.
Late last week Rob Reynolds mentioned on Twitter that Google wanted to install fiber optics in selected cities across the nation and we thought it would be great if Topeka was one of the chosen cities!
Early this week Jared Starkey started a Facebook Group page to help support the cause. Alissa and I jumped on board to offer our help. We invited all our Topeka friends to the group and help startup a website to educate the public. The URL is ThinkBigTopeka.com, we strongly urge everyone in Topeka to check the group or site out and click this Google link to help nominate Topeka for Google Fiber.
If you are on Facebook, join this group and invite all your Topeka friends. We all want faster internet, why not let Google pay to lay the infrastructure?
If you have a camera you can make a YouTube video like John Ary did here.
Imagine Topeka as an a technology hot spot. A place where citizens, schools and businesses have unparalleled access to an internet connection so powerful they’re able to make daily life more efficient, just by residing here. Where, instead of waiting minutes or hours for a file to download or a video to load, it would occur in seconds, allowing technology to take us places we’ve never even imagined before. With Google’s Fiber Experiment, this is all completely possible.
Brandon SheleycloseAuthor: Brandon SheleyName: Brandon Sheley Email: admin@vbulletinsetup.com Site:http://brandonsheley.org About: I'm the "webmaster" as some have said. I've been playing with sites online for the past 6 years. I maintain and host the TransformTopeka website as well offer my input on what can make Topeka better in the tech area.See Authors Posts (9)
This past weekend, My mom and Grandma had purchased a wooden dollhouse for my niece for her birthday that came equipped with everything except the dollhouse people. My mission was clear, I needed to find wooden dollhouse people to give to my niece for her birthday that would compliment this awesome dollhouse that she would also be receiving. A friend suggested that I begin my search at The Toy Store on 21st Street.
I had never been in this store (again very sad considering I have lived in Topeka all my life). Walking in felt strange because I remember this store as Hastings and used to frequent the store to rent VHS tapes when I was younger. I was greeted immediately upon walking in by a nice young lady and she was able to direct me upstairs when I asked about some dollhouse people. To my delight, I was able to purcase an entire wooden dollhouse family (grandparents, parents, and siblings) for $20. I was amazed at the selection and price in the store and will definitely be returning for future toy purchases.
It is so great that Topeka has one of only two independently owned specialty toy stores in the world. The Toy Store has been open since 1976 and has stores in both Topeka and Lawrence. You can also shop online. The Toy Store is a perfect combination of family owned business and global capabilities.
This weekend Aaron and I had the pleasure of attending a show at the Topeka Civic Theatre. Neither of us had been there before (shame on us). Topeka Civic Theatre was founded in 1936 and is the oldest continuously running community dinner theatre in the country. In July of 1999, it moved to its current location on 8th street inside the former Gage Elementary School.
We went to the show called Laughing Matters. This show is a “fast-paced improvisational comedy” that reminded me of the TV show Whose Line Is It Anyway starring Drew Carey. The host of the show leads the sketches (sometimes participating). The audience assigns roles to some of the actors which results in a very hilarious show. From the Newlywed Game, where the audience assigned roles to the men and the women had to guess what roles their “spouse” was playing to the game Hitchhiker, where the audience assigned roles to 5 actors and the driver had to guess what role their “hitchhiker” was playing, the troupe keeps the audiences attention and keeps them laughing. My favorite was the game of gibberish telephone that was played. The audience had to assign a situation (similar to the game of Clue): who was killed, where they were killed, and how they were killed. Only 1 actor was aware of what the audience had assigned. He had to communicate it to the next actor in 1 minute with charades and gibberish. The 2nd actor had to communicate what the first actor communicated to him/her to the next actor in 45 seconds. The 3rd actor communicates it to the 4th actor in 30 seconds, and the 4th actor communicates to the 5th actor in 15 seconds. At the end of it, the message was very messed up and the results had the audience laughing. I laughed throughout the entire show and hadn’t laughed this hard since watching the movie, The Hangover.
The show lasts approximately two hours. The cost of each ticket is $10 (movies are around $9) and then you pay for your drinks, dessert, and tip. It was a very entertaining evening and we will definitely be returning.
We wanted to take a minute and provide an update on what we are doing for the 3 families we adopted from the Christmas Bureau. We raised $605, and it is because of that generosity that we have been able to do so much for these 3 families (total of 16 lives we are touching). We spent $122.35 at Toys R Us on toys for 9 of the 11 kids. We spent $337.71 on clothes for each of the 11 kids, gift cards for 2 of the 11 kids, and gifts for the 5 adults. We spent $82.99 at Hyvee to buy holiday meals for each family: 1/2 a Ham, potatoes, veggies, rolls, and pie. We area also giving each family a $20 gift card to Dillons to meet any other needs they might have (e.g., food, diapers, soap, paper goods, etc). Who knew $605 could do so much?
We will be making deliveries on Tuesday and Wednesday to the families. I only wish we could do more for not only these families, but for all those in need this holiday season. Thank you to everyone who donated money to help us help more in our community.
