Old Time Bloggin’

July 9, 2007

You kids with your fancy WordPresses and MovableTypes. Back in my day we had to enter each line of html by hand. In binary. With toggle switches. And we liked it!

You see before there was somegeekintn.com there was pr3d4t0r.com (I have a gift for horrible domain names. What can I say?) and before that, I had a little outpost called Casey’s Bit of Things which was hosted by my former employer. I’ve had the remnants of this old site laying about for a while, and the idea that I’d upload a copy somewhere. Someday. For whatever reason, I did that tonight.

I had to make a few changes and recreate a couple of missing pages, but it’s mostly intact. It covers the time period between October 2, 1998 and November 12, 2001. You’ll notice my last entry which says “I really should update this more often”. Some things never change.

So anyway, if you’re terribly bored, take a look and sorry about all the broken links.

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On the outside

July 8, 2007

Well looks like I was mistaken. In my last post I mentioned that I was asked for some input on the new Music City Bloggers site and the possibility was raised of some sort of partnership with a digg like companion site. As it turns out there was only one person with any real interest in that idea. And even that may have been more of a courtesy than true interest. So the MCB group is moving along with whatever plans they’ve made and I’m twiddling my thumbs. I’d like to say that I’m not disappointed, but it does bother me. Little bit. I’d been trying to connect a little more locally lately, but a bit too late perhaps to be considered one of the gang.

So, what to do? What to do?

[ time passes ]

I just read this post that Kathy made and how there are now at least four of these sort of meta blog thingies: NiT, About-Nashville, Music City Bloggers, and Metroblogging Nashville. So it could be argued that TN Blog Watch only contributes to the problem. But then I wonder… perhaps these sites already have their audience, and the existing audience is the primary source of material. If that’s the case then is there room for another whose aim is to find those bloggers who aren’t yet showing up on the radar screens of the big four? Well, probably not 🙂 But, that’s what I’m going to try and do with TBW. It’s either that or abandon it to my junk drawer of ideas. Not sure anything else will fit in that drawer. Besides that I just got finished making it all purty. Not the drawer, the web site. You know. Anyway, with that in mind, if you read someone local that doesn’t seem to show up on any of those sites I mentioned above, be sure and give them a plug on TBW.

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Once more with feeling

July 6, 2007

Yesterday while I was busy cleaning up later watch fights between big robots (in disguise), NiT was placed in suspended animation. I guess it’s going to turn into something else? No one knows. What we do know is that the community is not content to let WKRN set their agenda for them and with that in mind a group of local bloggers has created Music City Bloggers to fill the void and hopefully address some of the shortcomings at NiT. These same bloggers were also kind enough to ask for my input on a possible companion site and/or local aggregator.

You my recall that some time ago I put together a digg clone for local bloggers called losobo. That experiment never really got off the ground for a couple of reasons, but I thought, and so did others, that the general idea was valid. So I’ve site up yet another site called TN Blog Watch. It is also based on the same software, but I’ve restructured that categories and added automatic RSS importing so it won’t have to rely completely on manual input. It can also form the basis for local RSS aggregation if it does nothing else.

Of course if TN Blog Watch ends up as a nothing more than a glorified aggregator, I’ll be a little disappointed. The idea is for TN Blog Watch and Music City Bloggers to form a symbiotic relationship. TN Blog Watch will gather posts and the editors and could use the Live page to take the pulse of the community by watching what is being voted and commented on. It’s also hoped that the live page or the Upcoming page could live in a sidebar over at Music City Bloggers.

Like any site, TN Blog Watch is useless without people. To reach its true potential, it needs people to vote for and discuss those posts that are really interesting. I’m also really excited that TN Blog Watch includes community comment moderation. If you are a regular from NiT, you may recall one post in particular where trolls got out of hand, but there was no way to moderate some of the very nasty comments. That won’t happen here.

If you need a little more info, please take a look at the TN Blog Watch about page. I look forward to seeing everyone there.

One other little note: If you would like to add your Tennessee blog to the list of those being watched, please send email to admin at tnblogwatch dot com and ask to be added to the RSS feed importer.

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Counting down

July 4, 2007
Mike's Stash II
Mike’s Stash

It started simple enough. About 8 or 9 years ago my family and our good friends, the Benners, who lived across the street from us decided to get together for to celebrate our independence with some food, music, and a few fireworks. Our first show was mostly a few artillery shells, and a few cakes thrown in for good measure. Nothing too extravagant. It was a lot of fun. Especially the fireworks. Each year it seemed we’d buy a little more and a little more, until soon the better part of our block was looking forward to the show on the 4th. Sadly, the Benners moved away a few years back and I thought about abandoning our annual tradition. Another group of neighbors had no intention of doing that however.

And so it is, that what was once small but respectable display by a couple of guys, has grown into an all day event with no less than five households on my block participating in the celebration. My contribution, which was pretty substantial once upon a time, has diminished as the years have gone by. Not because I’m necessarily buying fewer fireworks, but because my neighbors keep upping the ante! Just take a look at the picture above. People from all over the neighborhood seem to wander over to watch our show an we’re pretty proud of that. We’re also pretty happy that, so far, we’ve not had any injuries or mishaps of consequence.

Tomorrow (actually later today I guess) will start with one last trip to the fireworks store for a few last minute items. Followed by the food, music, games and socializing, all the while anxiously waiting for the sun to set. And then the show will begin. Hopefully our best yet.

If your in the area and want to watch or better yet, participate, feel free to stop by. email, call, or tweet for details.

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Just one more day!

June 28, 2007

The long wait is nearly over. Tomorrow is June 29th and unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know what that means. We’ve all seen the commercials, the endless hype. Tomorrow we’ll find out if the hype is true. I have to admit, that I was a little skeptical at first. I mean it looks gorgeous obviously, but how well will it work? And who hasn’t grumbled about the cost? A lucky few have seen it and the reviews seem to indicate that it does indeed live up to the hype. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, there have been few missteps since Steve Jobs took over. So now I’m seriously tempted, and you just might find me in line with everyone else tomorrow. It’s silly, I know, but I know there are a lot of other people that will be standing in line to see Ratatouille too, so I’m not alone.

Oh, one other thing. You may have heard that Apple has introduced a cellular phone called the, um, iPhone. By shear coincidence, the iPhone is coming out tomorrow too. Of course it’s going to cost like $600, not to mention a contract with AT&T! Heh, can you imagine anyone silly enough to stand in line for that?

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