Metroblogging

I was invited (via Katie) to participate in the Houston arm of the Metroblogging project.

What is Metroblogging?

With almost 40 active sites, Metroblogging is the largest and fastest growing network of city-specific blogs on the Web. From San Francisco to Bangkok, from Karachi to Toronto, Metblogs are a hyper-local look at what’s going on in the city. Our hand-picked core of regional bloggers give each site a new perspective on daily life; less calendar listings, more friendly advice. With Metblogs, you can read about life and times in your neighborhood, your favorite places to visit, places where you’ve never been, or get a feel for them all with the daily “best of” blog on the hub at metroblogging.com.

This from Wikipedia:

Metroblogging is an online local media project founded and owned by Sean Bonner and Jason DeFillippo. Started in Los Angeles in November 2003, the project currently includes 33 city-specific blogs around the world making it the largest location based network. Contributors include Xeni Jardin and Wil Wheaton (Los Angeles), Johannes Grenzfurthner (Vienna), and Joi Ito (Tokyo).

The Metroblogging network was recently voted into Forbes Magazine’s Best of the Web and has been quoted in and written about by various media – such as USA Today and Tagesschau. Parts of Metroblogging are also in Technorati’s “Popular blogs” list (the Top 100), which is measured by link popularity among the blogosphere.

Basically, Katie is my editor. I have not yet been granted an account on the site so I send my Houston specific posts to her for inclusion at Houston Metblogs. With all of my other projects/responsibilities I can’t dedicate too much time to it but it’s nice to be invited.

There are some good writers there and based on my log files the site gets a fair amount of traffic so it’s only going to add awareness to my other projects, plus it’s a chance to extend my writing even further.

Perhaps as time allows I will be able to contribute more to the project.

Dooley and the ice cube

My apologies to those who have already seen this…but I am moving the Dooley posts from the old blog to this one.

There are things one must consider when owning an exotic pet, not the least of which are their dietary needs. Foods that are necessary to sustain your pet are essential in the promotion of good health and mental well being.

Take Dooley, my African Gray parrot, for example.

Many of us enjoy the french fry but do you know where french fries come from?

That’s right! AFRICA!!

African Gray parrots are sustained on a steady diet of french fries which grow wild and plentiful in the deepest jungles of Africa. French fries contain essential vitamins and minerals not found in any other food. That is why it is important to supplement Dooley’s diet with the occasional McDonalds french fry.

 

 

Another little known fact about African Gray parrots is that every winter they migrate to Antarctica to feed on life sustaining ice collected from the glaciers. While it has not been determined the exact nutritional benefit of ice it is known that an African Gray parrot that is deprived of ice for long periods of time will become irritable and “beaky”.

Sadly, Dooley was not raised in the wild so was never taught the proper way to eat ice and, as a result, struggles with the concept.

 

 

Dooley takes the ice cube from the water bowl.

Left foot, cold.

Right foot, cold.

BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!

This is not a restaurant review

I’ve been in Houston most of my life and without disclosing too much we’ll just say that’s a long time.
This city has grown and changed over the years and looks nothing like it did even a few short years ago.

Houston landmarks are disappearing or changing with greater and greater frequency. The Houston Coliseum where the Beatles played is gone. The Houston Summit where I saw some of the greatest rock concerts of all time slowly changed to become the Compaq Center and is now the home of Lakewood Church. The eighth wonder of the world, The Astrodome, has gone from a magnificent baseball and football stadium to a convienent and expendable evacuation center for those seeking refuge from the devastating effects of hurrican Katrina. KLOL, Houston’s premier rock and roll radio station, is now a Spanish station playing Reggaeton, Spanish hip hop and pop hits (bleh!). Even Astroworld is slated to close it’s doors before the end of this year.

But some things never seem to change, thank goodness.

It’s been a long time since I have eaten at Star Pizza and when I was invited by my colleague Dwight Silverman to meet up for dinner to discuss the future of Technology Bytes with his friend Chris Hearne, the founding publisher of the Houston Press it seemed a most logical choice.

Founded 30 years ago by Hank and Marilyn Zwirek, The original Star Pizza at 2111 Norfolk has provided Houston with it’s most well known outlet for procuring a genuine Chicago style pizza in our fair city. It has also been a place one could go to get a tasty Italian meal and, more importantly, it has been an inner-city gathering place with easy access to the heart of Houston for all these years. It’s super casual with plenty of dining space inside and out. The atmosphere (combined with delicious pizza and adult beverages) is very conducive to a most animated and thoughtful conversation. Just about anyone you talk to knows about Star Pizza.

I don’t know if we accomplished much last night but I am sure glad I went. It’s comforting just knowing that they’re there and you can walk in on a Thursday night and get some good food served by a friendly and attentive staff of pizza proffessionals.

Dooley and the holidays

Dooley has an interesting sense of timing and can associate one event with another, for example:

When we get up and turn on the light in the kitchen he says “good morning”
When I pick up my keys he makes the sound of the house alarm being armed
When I close the microwave door he makes the sound of the timer being set
When I say goodbye on the phone he makes the sound of the teeny, quiet beep of the cordless phone being turned off
When I turn off the light in the TV room he says “good night” and then makes the sound of the house alarm being armed

Well, it’s October and Dooley has started to say “Trick or Treat”…something he’s only heard the last few years on that one special night when the kids come to our door. He hasn’t said it but a few times after Halloween last year and then not at all for the whole year. It’s like he knows it’s October.

This would be more surprising if he didn’t wait till December to sing Jingle Bells.

That bird is smarter than he looks.

Dooley on the yellow sproingy:

Ren Fest

Gadz, I have been involved at this festival for many’s a year (and I spent all me money on whiskey and beer). Mitch and I calculated that the band has been doing it for about 15 years.
I have been involved in some capacity or another since year 5 and this is year 31.

We have successfully made it through 2 weekends of the festival. The first weekend was unbelievably hot and miserable and there was absolutely no “magic” what-so-ever. Bleh!

Last weekend was much better. Cooler with low humidity.

Last Sunday (for a song or two) we were joined on stage by our friends from Queen Anne’s Lace, a lovely all woman acapella group. In this picture you can also see Jim Hancock, The Burley Minstrel who has been joining us in our first set of the day.

With any luck the weather will continue to become more moderate and things will pick up.

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