Tag: sticks of fire
So this is what it's like running the local blogroll…
Almost a year ago, Tommy over at Sticks of Fire and Brett Glisson worked out a deal where Tommy… well, he bought / took over Brett’s brainchild TampaBLAB. For the uninformed, uninititated or the plain flat out uncurious (helloooo Bush family!) the TampaBLAB is an aggregator / blog reader. It shares new posts from blogs in the greater Tampa Bay metropolitan area.
It sounds really complex but really, it’s not.  It’s simply like this: You have a blog, most (if not all) blogs provide feeds — ways to syndicate or share their content with other web sites. If you’re a blogger living in the Tampa Bay area and you wanna’ share your blog with the rest of the Tampa Bay blogosphere, you submit it to TampaBLAB and lo and behold — every new post you write gets published at the BLAB (not in it’s entirety, mind you, just a lead in).
Of course, someone has to be in charge of the BLAB (acronym for Bay Local Area Bloggers). Tommy didn’t have the time to update the theme and add newly submitted blogs, nor maintain the main blog page on the BLAB. That’s where I’ve come in… Running the day to day and keeping an eye on things… Dropping defunct blogs that haven’t updated in a long while… Adding newly submitted sites. Occasionally posting on the BLAB Blog and fixing technical SNAFU’s that show up from time to time.
…Well, more often than not with thanks to the number of upgrades WordPress has gone through in the last few months and compatibility issues that arise because of it. But that’s techno-jargon you could do without.
So it’s been good so far, a little slow. Know someone who blogs in Tampa Bay and wants more readers? Suggest they submit their site to the BLAB. Brand spanking new blogs with no posts need not apply, though… Sorry. Blogs come and go so quickly that we can’t accept the newest of new kids on the blogging block.
Also, I’m trying to figure out if I should make the Skyway theme that’s employed at the BLAB available to the general WordPress-blogging public for download. It’s cute but not cutting edge, you know?
Losing a room mate
Many of you don’t know this but about 19 months ago or so I contact a guy who was using blogspot to post his items for his Tampa based blog, about me hosting his blog and upgrading things for him.
It’s been a long, strange trip but in the 14 months I’ve been officially hostingSticks of Fire, it’s gone from blogspot hotspot to dot-com phenom. I knew at the time I approached Tommy about upgrading things that he had something great going on… Little did I know how much it would grow.
Tommy Duncan is probably the Bay area’s most unheralded media star. He gets invites to speak in various capacities (round table discussions, conferences, TV spots) and pretty much has Tampa covered with himself and his cast of supporting writers.
And now, Tommy has taken the next step by getting into a business alliance with Tampa Gold. When that officially kicks off, Tommy will be departing from my server space at Dreamhost and going to the land of far-far-away… Or on shared hosting package with Tampa Gold, take your pick.
I haven’t seen profit from hosting Tommy’s site and I haven’t requested payment for doing so. I never stuck in some personal reference (“Hosted by Dreamhost” etc) or anything like that… It made me feel good to be doing this.
But to just make a long story short, I want to wish my buddy well with his new venture and I hope it takes him where I couldn’t take him — to his rightful place at the to of local pop culture and beyond.
A rare update
I haven’t really been in the mood to blog lately – on here or elsewhere. Maybe it’s because I’ve been in a bah-humbug mood with my life and stuff. Maybe it’s because I find myopinion or other things I say nonsense because even if you agree – it doesn’t really change things…?
I’ve been slow to update Boltsmag lately also because I feel out of place doing it. I don’t cover the team well, I am not in a position for inside information with the franchise or in a position to write the news regarding the team. It’s a good site with a bad writer and little input from readers.
I had hand surgery on my firght hand back in Novvember… It was actually a good thing in tha tI got rid of some painful nuiscance tumors but it slowed me down for a while – trying to get by with one hand (my left) which I am not strong with…
Madeline – my little Whippet pup – is over seven months old now. She’s extremely active still, and still hard to contorl in social situations as she gets excited when anyone new is around…
I’m trying to help Carl Zimmermann with his campaign website… As of current he cannot take online donations and the page is incomplete, I would like to upgrade the entire damn thing but life continues for Carl even as he runs for office – makign things slow in development. I tshould turn out ok though.
The Zimmermann campaign and contributing to Sticks of Fire with news scoops and articles are aobut the highlights of life right now – it’s been grim for the most part.
Take a walk
Tommy over at Sticks of Fire brings up an issue that is a hot topic in the Bay area right now and of course is an issue that is dear to my heart —
Tampa Bay happens to be one of the worst places in the country for pedestrians.
A five year old was hit by a car while she and her family were cross the street. Tourists… This was a hit and run and the coward couldn’t even come forwardand admit what they had done. Not yet at least. Rebecca McKinney was killed, I felt I had failed… but things get worse and worse and I just feel rage.
