Category / Just For Fun

by Leo Suarez

Turkey Day Musings

Blogging has been slow but work continues behind the scenes on a new project for the website. This I hope to share within a few weeks and hopefully gets the ball rolling. In the mean time, here’s a topic for everyone to discuss over the weekend.

If you didn’t know already, the acorn in Moore Square was damaged during the tornadoes in April 2011. A few weeks ago, the council approved some money to repair it so that it could be used at First Night, downtown’s New Year’s Eve party. Could it actually have been a good idea to leave the damage in the acorn as a way to remember the tornadoes of 2011? After the trees in the cemeteries are finally cleaned up, the acorn would have been the last thing to remember this event by.

One city councilor was thinking about this back then.


– bonnergaylord

by Leo Suarez

RalCon Grows Legs, Celebrates Four Years of Blogging


The Raleigh skyline from the Boylan Bridge in February 2007.

RBC Plaza may be the tallest structure in Raleigh but RalCon has it beat with age and wisdom. Today four years ago, this blog started and has been steady ever since. Downtown Raleigh has plenty of stuff going on and those paying attention should know that there is always something to talk about.

My biggest disappointment is not having enough time to really take this blog further and carry out my ideas. Slowly, it will all happen.

The support of the blog has been great and I want to thank every reader for following. The blog generates no money and there are no plans for ever monetizing it through advertising. For those interested, I’d like to share some visitor statistics.

  • Estimated RSS subscribers: 900
  • Estimated E-mail subscribers: 150
  • Average Monthly unique visitors: 3000

I seldom get e-mails with questions or comments for me and “my authors”. It is funny to me that some think there is a crew behind the website but let me assure you that this is a one man show. If you are interested in contributing however, get in contact with me and we can work something out. As long as your writing is relevant to downtown Raleigh, there is room for it on RalCon.

In 2011, my goal is to push the RSS subscribers up past the 1000 mark, even with my modest personality and no desire to market this thing.

Thanks again for following.

by Leo Suarez

RalConniversary: 3 Photos, With Wallpaper!

While not necessarily the best photos that have appeared on the blog, these three make for great desktop wallpaper. I’ve used them myself and now want to share them. I’ve included multiple versions of the most common screen resolutions used by readers of RalCon, gathered by the power of analytics, as well as the original version if anyone would like to play with it. Enjoy!

You are free to do what you want with the images at a personal level. Please respect my Creative Commons license (non-commercial, attribution) if using them on the web. Thanks. Click on the photo for a larger preview.

Satellites and Antennas

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Density

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The Raleigh Skyline

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Original photo

by Leo Suarez

How Much Fun Did You Have During The Winter Storm of 2010?

I’m sure lots of people were enjoying the winter weather we had this weekend, especially the kids that are staying home from school this week. For those that watched the local news each and every minute up until the storm, I’m also sure it is a big relief that the apocalypse did not happen.

For more media of snow and Raleigh over the past few days, click below to re-live it all.

Photos on Flickr tagged with Raleigh and snow.

Videos on Vimeo tagged with Raleigh and snow.

Pictures on Twitter on snow in Raleigh.

by Leo Suarez

RalConniversary: 3 Best Videos

Video wasn’t my strongest skill but I did take some over the years. Enjoy these three videos that have made appearances on the blog.

The Shimmer Wall (under construction) from Leo Suarez on Vimeo.

This video was taken on June 14th, 2008. It shows just a small piece of the then new shimmer wall on the still under construction Raleigh Convention Center.

Snow in Downtown Raleigh from Leo Suarez on Vimeo.

This video was taken on January 20th, 2009. Between 2 and 4 inches of snow fell in downtown Raleigh that day.

Raleigh Pillow Fight from Leo Suarez on Vimeo.

This video was taken on April 4th, 2009. Just watch it and make plans to participate this year.

by Leo Suarez

Three Years of RalCon. Three Years of Downtown Geeking.

Yes, this is true. The RalCon blog turns three today and in order to celebrate, a theme of three will take over for the next few days. I’d invite all readers out for a beer but maybe I’ll save that move for when DTRaleigh hits a larger milestone.

Anyway, it all started as a hobby and I’m still keeping it going. I was the guy that hated English classes in school and now I write in my free time. What are the odds? I had hoped to have a special announcement for this day but it’s not quite ready yet. Everyone will have to wait.

For now, enjoy a blast from the past and look at the blog archived on October 15th, 2007. (via archive.org)