Celebrating a happy new (fiscal) year with the next generation

Last night, I spent some time with the AFCEA Bethesda’s Young AFCEANs at their third annual Fiscal New Year party — held this year at Current — a hip club on Connecticut Avenue in DC.

Some photos from the festivities, thanks to Tchad Moore of Blackstone Technology Group.

More after the break.

Happy birthday to… rising star Steve Ressler

Steve Ressler (photo by Matthew Borkoski)

On this Oct. 13, a big DorobekInsider slice of birthday cake to Steve Ressler.

I mentioned Ressler earlier this year — he was part of the freshman class of FCW’s Rising Star award winners. In the years since then, Ressler has become a friend. He is one of those people who just can look at problems in new and innovative ways. (I hate those people! Actually, I LOVE them!) He was one of the co-founders of the Young Government Leaders, and now is the pervayor of the social networking site GovLoop, which is a social networking site for feds. Federal News Radio had Ressler on our mid-day program, InDepth with Francis Rose. You can hear that interview here. [.mp3]

So… happy birthday Ressler.

As public radio’s Writer’s Almanac reports, it is also the birthday of Margaret Thatcher and Paul Simon.

It’s the birthday of the former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, born in Grantham, England, in 1925. She said, “Being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren’t.”…

It’s the birthday of singer and songwriter Paul Simon, born in Newark, New Jersey, (1941). In 1964, he and his friend Art Garfunkel recorded a folk album, Wednesday Morning, 3 AM. It was a flop, and Paul Simon moved back in with his parents. But without telling Simon and Garfunkel, a producer added electric guitar, bass, and drums to the song “The Sound of Silence” and released it as a single. It went to No. 1 on the pop charts.

It is also the birthday on controversial comedian Lenny Bruce (10/13/1925 – 8/3/1966), who was actually tried on obscenity charges. You can read the NYT’s obit of Bruce here.

Other big events on this date in history:

1775 The Continental Congress ordered the construction of a naval fleet. (Happy birthday to the Navy!)

1792 The cornerstone of the White House was laid during a ceremony in the District of Columbia.

1960 Richard M. Nixon and John F. Kennedy participated in the third televised debate of the presidential campaign, with Nixon in Hollywood, Calif., and Kennedy in New York.

1974 TV host Ed Sullivan died at age 72.

And, from the government IT world, from the archives of Federal Computer Week, this week back in 1996, nine companies won SEWP II contracts, the Defense Science Board report said the Defense Department need to “move aggressively to outsource most DOD support activities” — and one of the attractive early candidates were data centers. And this week in 1996, VA rolled out its then new Veterans Health Information Systems and Technology Architecture (VISTA) system. VistA is now used across VA hospitals… and, I believe, is even used by some commercial hospitals.

And… happy birthday to Steve!