Come this time next week, I’ll be preparing for a flight to Los Angeles on my yearly sojourn out of the Humidity of Tampa Bay and into smog (and drier, cooler temperatures) of LA. Yet I’m curious about a few things — and would love some input… For example, forRead More

For a couple of years, there has been an ongoing story in northern Pinellas County about the need for additional playing fields for local youth sports. Every plan takes a huge tract of land and creates multiple fields at one location. Thus the term “sprawlpark.” Heck, look at the cityRead More

I’ve got a friend who likes to highlight his frustrations and sometimes show off a perpetual defeatist attitude: One where he goes into a situation worried and “a wreck” and comes out worse off with no confidence at all. Usually these are either social situations where he’s trying to makeRead More

So here I am, writing a blog post from my Blackberry and wondering about jumping to Verizon for the Curve, or waiting for the Blackberry Storm, or maybe something else. Renewing with T-Mobile won’t happen due to poor Customer Service and other woes (MMS – picture – message support hasRead More

Has this: Been inspired by this: Gotta wonder but I have my doubts… Just cuz it’s The Beatles we’re talking about. And even IF they did announce at tomorrow’s event, it’s not like fans haven’t bought the CD’s or ripped MP3’s of songs from the Fab 4 they really want…Read More

Just a little update regarding those crazy college kids who are playing Metroid to raise money for Child’s Play: After 24 hours of play, they have earned $366 dollars. Their goal is $500. It’s kids being kids for the kids. Stop by the site and help’em out by donating.

48 Hour marathon of Metroid… 48 hours of video gaming and why? For what? A couple of locals are trying to raise money through this marathon session of video gaming for Childs Play — which is a great charity in itself. Yes, there are other ways to raise money forRead More

So I was all but settled on a Curve a few days ago — T-mobile was charging $149.99 for new signups to buy the device and I figured it would be gravy to go out and get the Curve at one point or another in the very near future. ThenRead More

Boring weekend with too much downtime and the end result is me posting a poem I meant to keep private. Yeah, Kate, you can get on my ass for being a morose m’fer (as you did last time 😉 ) but I thought this was good even if it wasRead More

Dear Rep. Gus Bilirakis: Congratulations! From the looks of things, Democrats have once again conceded your home base of Palm Harbor and Pinellas County. During this primary season, I have gotten more mailers (2) from you than from the three Democratic primary challengers (none). No signage was put up, noRead More

An ancient piece of web-humor aimed at the iconic cartoon.

(editors note, a lot of the questions that I have still remain unanswered from last season. I gotta wonder if they will be covered this time around. Some of those questions are re-hashed here) Lets Blog it Out! went ahead and reported several weeks ago (to much rejoicing from thisRead More

OK, it was cute leading up to the week how worked up people were getting about the storm. It was a tad annoying being told Armageddon was upon us and we had to be prepared, but it was cute in it’s anxiety breeding ways. But here we are, Friday, andRead More

I’ll give the ongoing weather caused by Tropical Annoyance Storm Fay this credit: It paints one damn beautiful picture…

I’ve got a few minutes here while waitng for technical support to get back to me on a plugin issue with some software, so I’m doing my normal Wednesday web-surfing rounds while I wait and I come across the always enjoyable Penny Arcade (10 years of Tycho and Gabe! AllRead More

If you’re a Tampa Bay area resident, you might want to partake in Creative Loafing’s annual “Best of the Bay” awards before voting ends on Wednesday. It gives you the opportunity to vote on best restaurants, best clubs, best TV personalities… worst politicians, favorite players for the three Major LeagueRead More

Anyone tried Dicewars yet? Strategy! Flash! Dice!

It’s been a long time since I wrote anything rhyme-based. In fact, despite all the hurt and emptiness — I haven’t been inspired to write shit. Usually the hurt, the pain, the anguish, the longing… It all drives me to write. It (or usually the source of everything inside) becomesRead More

Anyone else getting hit with massive amounts of spam labeled “CNN.com Top 10” or some such? How about being blasted the last 12 hours with another Phishing attempt from someone posing as MSNBC? Let me first make this clear — you don’t have to be signed up for either siteRead More

So, the contract for my Blackberry 8700g and my Tmobile account comes up for renewal at the end of September. For two years I’ve been pretty much happy with what I’ve gotten (sans a few aggravating moments here and there). I’m wondering if I should simply renew? Renew and replaceRead More

I’m trying to get the WP-Cumulus tag cloud to show up. It already shows up in the sidebar but… Well… I’m trying to get it in the content body of the front page (and elsewhere) so… Wish me luck? [WP-CUMULUS] Update: As you can see, this nifty, fantastic, rootin’ tootin’Read More

That being said, I’m tired of waiting for Trillian Astra to go to Beta or the official release. Tired of reading the development blog that updates too slowly and only talks about the technobable in developing Astra which goes beyond the average user (which I am)… And of course, I’mRead More

And now for something completely different! So, I saw Superbad sometime last year and didn’t quite enjoy it. Was I too old for it? Out of the target age group and all that? Maybe. Maybe it was just stupid, with the inability to connect to the two main characters andRead More

I have kept a memento album since sometime in the late 1990’s. Just a photo album with newspaper scraps, pictures of friends and loved ones, and letters/post cards from people that I’ve communicated with in the past. Not letters as in email print outs, but actual letters. You know, thoseRead More

How many people out there have a neighborhood haunt? Someone where everyone knows your name, like the song says? Someplace you can go out to and just be yourself… Unwind, maybe socialize a little… have your mind run it’s gamut and get some social stimulation? I’m not talking about aRead More

Just FYI for people who are being redirected here while searching for the other site. It’s an issue I am only starting to deal with now.

The St. Petersburg Times gave me my closeup (as Cecil B. DeMille was not available)

Before and after a major back operation in 2003, I had been using a walker due to the fact my balance and my gait were so far out of wack that I needed to lean on something or I couldn’t remain upright… Or I just couldn’t get from point ARead More

The Shoppes at Boot Ranch started to be constructed around the time I moved into Palm Harbor 19 years ago. The first major tennent was a mid-west food chain named Jewel Osco… The plaza was still under construction and by the time it was finished, there would be a TargetRead More

I’ve been taking a sabbatical from my Blackberry 8700g for the last few weeks… Mostly because of how screwed up things got via ill communication. That’s not to put down the Blackberry. No sir, it’s more along the lines of the statement I made a few months ago that SMS/TXTRead More

Everyone gets junk letters in the mail. They can be the local mass-advertising, they can be political campaigns, they might just be credit cards and pre-approved drivel… Maybe magazine subscriptions, renewal notices and the occasional national group trying to recruit members. And for somewhere close to 10 years, through theRead More

…but still some people don’t get it. The truth is out there. You may not accept it, but then again there are some people that don’t accept men landed on the moon, or the Holocaust, or that New Coke sucked.

You know, I wanted to write a long post about moving on from this ill-communication SNAFU that’s led to me drawing myself into a shell and feeling like someone died. Someone was snuffed out, and the person holding the gun simply said “oops” after the body hit the floor, hidRead More

it was Thursday night where I think I turned a corner on my funk. I am not in a good place still, but part of my turn for the better was finding a song that I identified with that wasn’t entirely a mope. It said exactly what I was feeling.Read More

It was a couple of years ago that I was wondering just what Michael Stipe was singing about in the R.E.M. classic “Losing my Religion”. For the prudes or the ultra-religious, the title might suggest the song is about a conflict in faith of the Divine. It’s a crisis ofRead More

I haven’t blogged in a while as I have been busy with other faccets of my life…  From politics to just internet de3ign and maintenance, I’ve been a busy little bee. But due to recent circumstances — the other shoe falling — I’m back for the moment and maybe longer. Read More

It finally happened. Albertsons Tampa Bya locations have been sold to Publix supermarkets. Why do I say it finally happened? Because I had posted in the past that East Lake Woodlands publix was done for in it’s current incarnation. Now it is assured. Meanwhile I hope everythign turns out okRead More

One of the hot topics around the Tampa Bay metro region right now is the Tampa Bay Rays proposed stadium in St. Petersburg, Florida. I’m not going to bother getting into the arguments but after reading a few knee-jerk reactions and misinformation about the plans… Well, I felt it wasRead More

I wanted to upgrade Stonegauge’s theme today. Or at least work on a new concept. The theme currently employed is not widgetized and — well, for the uninitiated, widgets are fancy thingamabobs and doohickies (dare I call them watchamacallits) that you can place in a sidebar on WordPress and theyRead More

The last post — the video — got me thinking to some of my own endeavors with SMS / TXT messages over the years. I’ve spent hours on multitudes of people waiting for responses, hanging in limbo, hitting highs and lows over anagrams, or perhaps misinterpreting things that are beingRead More

Author Note: This was published on Boltsmag.com and now exists on Boltsmag. Also please note – to access the stories on Raw Charge, you will need to use the Wayback Machine as the linked-articles are no longer available at their source URLs.

Why so sure? Because when a sports franchise employs a Hollywood marketing blitz comparable to what has been used the last year for The Dark Knight (in theaters later this summer) hyping a prospect, you know they are big on them. Seen Stamkos? (hats off to the guys who thoughtRead More

This would be funny if some of it weren’t so true:

So I’m on Pandora — I have been here a few times in the past trying to find similar music to what I love as a way to introduce myself to new music. The problem is more times than not I get introduced to stuff that doesn’t sound at allRead More

Here is a headline that is missing from the media around the state of Florida: Low Pants Controversey Grips Florida — Locals plead Tallahassee for Action (maybe now the legislature realizes how ridiculous their attention waste of time on the matter looks.

I dunno… Making a pop song out of Stairway to Heaven? 8 minutes condensed into 2:40? If you’ve never heard Stairway before, you might actually buy this as the standard. You be the judge:

OK so I’m writing this on the Stonegauge as those who regularly stop by will see. I’m also testing out a WordPress/Myspace bridge to see if I can post from my WordPress blog onto my Myspace blog. Lets see what happens eh?

You know, I wrote a bitter remark about the Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority’s web site and local mass transit a few weeks ago, and I gave a bit of a pass to PSTA after I figured out their Trip Planner and how to make it work. I ordered a coupleRead More

Hillary should know “elitism” and aristocracy when she sees it… (from the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston, Massachusetts)

For the umpteen-hundreth time, the Tampa Tribune / WFLA / TBO mothership is trying to cut corners and cut costs in order to boost the stock price of Mother Corporate. So, Media General, here is my suggestion to you: Sell the Tribune, sell WFLA, sell TBO. The Tribune has beenRead More