Archive for April, 2009

Looking for Searings

Friday, April 17th, 2009

In all the right places.  There are 30 Searings on Twitter (including myself).  I have tried to ‘follow’ them all, but two are ‘pending’  (I think meaning they have to approve of me).  I laughed at Twitter at first, thinking it was just a place to list what you had for breakfast (and other things!).  But I kept reading about it and decided to try it just to form my own opinion…(a novel idea in the social network age, I know…:).  And, thousands if not millions of us must have thought the same thing, as its ‘members’ are exploding.  I have found some interesting topics and people and issues to follow, and been followed by a few obviously national advertising types…but also by friends, family, and other Searings.  It is still fun to make contact with other people of the same name, to see what they are doing, what they are thinking, and what their lives are like.  I did start a Searing Twitter group, but it isn’t very active….maybe I can rejuvinate it now that we have 30 Searings who are tweeting (that still sounds hokey!)  But that is a topic for another posting.  Hey, if you aren’t on Twitter yet, give it a try….Dan

Making Entries

Monday, April 6th, 2009

Tonight I finally posted the Searings on the Internet – January 2009.  Only two more months to get caught up in this category.  My methodology is to set up a Google Alert for as many permutations for ‘Searing’ as I can think of, as in: Searing family, Searing author, Searing funeral.  And let it bring internet entries to me.  I’m not sure how well the Alerts work, but it will find my blog entries within a day or two of my entries.  Very few of the ‘finds’ are about Searings…most are deleted by me because they are about searing as an adjective or noun (once I got enough entries for my Searing as a Part of Speech page..see the Pages list).  Then I research the entries, checking the sites, finding the date and reporter if its from a paper and edit the text, trying to provide enough information so a reader can find the entry on the internet.  I write or place the text in a Google Doc, and copy it to the blog space.  I’m certainly not adept at entering/editing text!  But it seems to work.  Why?  Because I like to see what Searings are up to, and I am still amazed at the power of the internet to provide a wellspring of information about our family members.     Dan

Searings on the Internet – January 2009

Monday, April 6th, 2009

This month has some interesting entries with Searings represented at the Inauguration in DC and providing love to an abandoned baby.On Jan 18, in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (online)- WI, columnist Jim Stingl noted that at the adoption proceedings for an abandoned baby, “More than a dozen family members and friends looked on and snapped photos, including proud grandmother Barb Searing, who said of James, “We’re all in love …”On January 17, in the Kalamazoo Gazette – MI, Kathy Jessup reported:”The stars have aligned for Portage Northern High School social studies teacher and student government adviser Rick SearingSearing and his wife got tickets…for the inauguration in Washington, DC”.  A report and photos can be found at: http://www.portageps.org/schools/high/nhs/feature/inauguration.aspx   Around Jan 10, 2009, in the Asheville Citizen-Times – NC,USA, Adam Searing of the NC Health Access Coalition called the program for health insurance for the unemployed “utterly inadequate” because of its cost to the consumer.  Adam also gets a mention on Jan 29 in http://www.bluenc.com/Also on Jan 10, in the Brazil Times – Brazil,IN, reporter Carey Fox wrote:In the second quarter, Kelsey Searing gave the Knights quality minutes with four of her six rebounds and a pair of free throws.  Kelsey also got a mention on Jan 13 in the Times.On Jan 8, 2009 in The New York Times, John M. Searing, deputy commissioner of the Suffolk County Department of Fire Rescue and Emergency Services, commented on a joint purchasing effort among four fire districts. Around Jan 1, in the Prince of Petworth Blog, in Washington, DC:  Room 11 partners Dan Searing, Nick Pimintel, and Ben Gilligan have hatched a weekly party to take place on Thursday nights at the Warehouse, starting on New Year’s Day, called Punch Club.  (Self disclosure: Dan is my son, and I’m an investor in Room 11, about which there will be more news.)  Room 11 also got a nice mention in the Jan 30 Washington Post Going Out Guide by Fritz Hahn at:http://voices.washingtonpost.com/goingoutgurus/2009/01/  Richard L Baldwin has authored a number of mystery books featuring:  Louis Searing and Margaret McMillan as fictional characters, including The Marina Murders, and Administration Can Be Murder.  No information is available on why the Searing name was chosen by this author.  Any information appreciated.

 

A Real Blog?

Saturday, April 4th, 2009

Time flies…but we all know that. In many ways that is the human condition.  Is that why some of us like genealogy?  To extend our reach?  Tonight I was browsing ‘my’ Searing family tree on ancestry.com and marveling that Searings have been kicking around since at least the 1500’s.  I say ‘my’ because all the work on the tree has been done and generously shared by Laura Davenport.  If you want access, write me and I’ll ask her.  She saved me literally years of work.   Also tonight, looking at the blog and my limited recent entries, I’m going to change directions a bit.  Instead of infrequent ‘Blogging the Blog’ entries by me, I going to try a regular blog…making more frequent entries about what I’m trying to add value to what I still hope will be a Web based touchstone for Searings.  Please check back!    Dan