What's a blog without a blogroll, right?
Monday, March 16, 2009
One of the harder things to deal with when getting back in to blogging after such a long period of time is re-creating a blogroll. And honestly, with the way that bloggers shift about even more than some hockey players do from site to site, or affiliate themselves with megablogs (which I'd never do ... no offense, or anything), it becomes very apparent that unless you have a pulse for what is going on and never take your fingers off said pulse, you lose track of things very quickly.
So whoever is out there that is actually peeking this way, with the occasional post or two coming once every few days now, I humbly request some assistance in finding blogs that I should put on here for linking purposes. I already have a good few in mind, but I'd like a day or two to hear from whoever sees this post, to see if there is anyone I should keep an eye on.
Oh, and apparently someone kidnapped the 2008-09 Blue Jackets and trotted out some cloned versions of the 06-07 version of the team yesterday afternoon during a 4-0 trouncing by the Red Wings. But, hey, it happens.
So whoever is out there that is actually peeking this way, with the occasional post or two coming once every few days now, I humbly request some assistance in finding blogs that I should put on here for linking purposes. I already have a good few in mind, but I'd like a day or two to hear from whoever sees this post, to see if there is anyone I should keep an eye on.
Oh, and apparently someone kidnapped the 2008-09 Blue Jackets and trotted out some cloned versions of the 06-07 version of the team yesterday afternoon during a 4-0 trouncing by the Red Wings. But, hey, it happens.
Labels: blogosphere
My kingdom for a full press area.
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
Three posts in one day? I must be bored.
I'm watching the post-game for the All-Star Game right now, as NHL.com is streaming it. It looks ... dead. I mean dead dead. Deader than the mouse I found dead a month ago in my apartment dead. There's probably no more than, maybe, 4-5 media-type folks at the seats there, as they ask some questions to Joe Sakic, and before then Brendan Shanahan.
It's saddening, really. Look, I understand that this is the All-Star Game, so media representation is hardly a big deal to any newspaper or media outlet in the U.S., and maybe even in Canada to an extent. But the problem is that this looks depressing. Like there's no one there that cares.
Then I remembered this entry made today by Paul over at Kukla's Korner, talking about the recent meeting held by the Pro Hockey Writers Association, where the question about bloggers getting press credentials was brought up.
And really, when you look at the fact that newspapers in the U.S. are leaving the NHL like rats abandoning a sinking ship, what is there to lose? So far the NHL has actually been the vanguard for sports when it comes to welcoming the Internet with open arms, drawing in people with things such as YouTube and Google video uploads, and even the hiring of people such as Paul for regular articles on their website.
Is there anything that the league -- and the individual teams -- has to lose by opening its doors to bloggers and independent writers without any newspaper/media affiliations, and allowing them the ability to get a more up close and personal with the teams or the league? If you want to penetrate the Internet populace, then giving the people who have a hand in the fanbase of the sport on the Internet -- bloggers -- a chance to be more in-depth with their writing and fan following, can only help.
All things considered, by next year's All-Star Game, they may be down to just three people asking questions. Or less.
I'm watching the post-game for the All-Star Game right now, as NHL.com is streaming it. It looks ... dead. I mean dead dead. Deader than the mouse I found dead a month ago in my apartment dead. There's probably no more than, maybe, 4-5 media-type folks at the seats there, as they ask some questions to Joe Sakic, and before then Brendan Shanahan.
It's saddening, really. Look, I understand that this is the All-Star Game, so media representation is hardly a big deal to any newspaper or media outlet in the U.S., and maybe even in Canada to an extent. But the problem is that this looks depressing. Like there's no one there that cares.
Then I remembered this entry made today by Paul over at Kukla's Korner, talking about the recent meeting held by the Pro Hockey Writers Association, where the question about bloggers getting press credentials was brought up.
And really, when you look at the fact that newspapers in the U.S. are leaving the NHL like rats abandoning a sinking ship, what is there to lose? So far the NHL has actually been the vanguard for sports when it comes to welcoming the Internet with open arms, drawing in people with things such as YouTube and Google video uploads, and even the hiring of people such as Paul for regular articles on their website.
Is there anything that the league -- and the individual teams -- has to lose by opening its doors to bloggers and independent writers without any newspaper/media affiliations, and allowing them the ability to get a more up close and personal with the teams or the league? If you want to penetrate the Internet populace, then giving the people who have a hand in the fanbase of the sport on the Internet -- bloggers -- a chance to be more in-depth with their writing and fan following, can only help.
All things considered, by next year's All-Star Game, they may be down to just three people asking questions. Or less.
Labels: All-Star Game, blogosphere, ranting
Well, it's a start.
Monday, January 22, 2007
See what you can do when you put your mind to it? Instead of agonizing over coding, I instead grabbed a template!
So now I have a layout that I was aiming for. There's still some problems I need to fix, though:
-Make a new banner.
-Clear the gray from the body, so that the entry text is right on the background.
-Align the entry text so it is between the stripes, and make the background behind that white.
-Spend tomorrow updating links, as several blogs have either died, or changed homes.
-Miscellaneous tweaks.
But at least the layout is what I wanted. That is probably the most important thing.
I know I tend to apologize way too much when it comes to if I fall in to a lull when it involves writing on the Blue Jackets or the NHL as a whole, but I just want to apologize again. Personal issues have been cropping up over the past week, and when things look to be quieting down, something new happens.
Anyway, that's it for tonight. I got a book I need to read.
So now I have a layout that I was aiming for. There's still some problems I need to fix, though:
-Make a new banner.
-Clear the gray from the body, so that the entry text is right on the background.
-Align the entry text so it is between the stripes, and make the background behind that white.
-Spend tomorrow updating links, as several blogs have either died, or changed homes.
-Miscellaneous tweaks.
But at least the layout is what I wanted. That is probably the most important thing.
I know I tend to apologize way too much when it comes to if I fall in to a lull when it involves writing on the Blue Jackets or the NHL as a whole, but I just want to apologize again. Personal issues have been cropping up over the past week, and when things look to be quieting down, something new happens.
Anyway, that's it for tonight. I got a book I need to read.
Labels: blogosphere, ranting
My brain asplode (website ranting).
Friday, January 19, 2007
Like I mentioned a few weeks ago, one of the things I've been trying desperately to do with Army of the Ohio is to make the site look better. To that end, I've spent the past few days just abusing and manipulating the frell out of CSS/html code, vainly trying to figure out what in the world I want to do.
I actually have a scrap blog to do it in, AotO Beta, but if you take a look you'll see that I'm having an impossibly hard time trying to do anything. So far all I've been able to do is make up the background, which is actually a picture I took of the bottom, horizontal stripe around my Blue Jackets' jersey, manipulated and tinkered with for background wallpaper use.
The big problem is that I don't know where to go from there. In my mind, I'm envisioning two sidebars, one on either side; one with a long list of links to sports sites and other blogs, as well as an "About me" section like you currently see. The other side I want to have statistics on the Blue Jackets, since the current way I do them has led me to just stop bothering with them altogether (having to redo the top banner for AotO after every game is just a pain! And that's why it hasn't been touched since late December, too).
The other thing I need to work on is a new banner that will fit accordingly in to the center section. That's been a titan's task in itself! I already know I want it to involve this image I found of a Union Army kepi, but after that it becomes a fight in futility to make anything that looks good.
The real problem, and this is my own fault more than anything, is that unless my blog looks good, I feel weird even updating it (though that also has to do with being extremely busy with real life obligations the week after my final projects wrapped up Sunday, and not only 'feeling weird'). Call it being graphically shallow, but I like to have my blog look just as good, if not better, than the content I might write for each entry.
Too bad I have the Photoshop skills of a typing monkey.
Give me until Sunday, folks. I plan to keep at this, and once this is done and over with I'll finally be able to focus on the sport and the team, and not just what the site that talks about those things looks like.
Edit (3:06 PM EST): Before I head to work, here is a crude example of what I am trying to do. Seriously, am I just code retarded or something?
I actually have a scrap blog to do it in, AotO Beta, but if you take a look you'll see that I'm having an impossibly hard time trying to do anything. So far all I've been able to do is make up the background, which is actually a picture I took of the bottom, horizontal stripe around my Blue Jackets' jersey, manipulated and tinkered with for background wallpaper use.
The big problem is that I don't know where to go from there. In my mind, I'm envisioning two sidebars, one on either side; one with a long list of links to sports sites and other blogs, as well as an "About me" section like you currently see. The other side I want to have statistics on the Blue Jackets, since the current way I do them has led me to just stop bothering with them altogether (having to redo the top banner for AotO after every game is just a pain! And that's why it hasn't been touched since late December, too).
The other thing I need to work on is a new banner that will fit accordingly in to the center section. That's been a titan's task in itself! I already know I want it to involve this image I found of a Union Army kepi, but after that it becomes a fight in futility to make anything that looks good.
The real problem, and this is my own fault more than anything, is that unless my blog looks good, I feel weird even updating it (though that also has to do with being extremely busy with real life obligations the week after my final projects wrapped up Sunday, and not only 'feeling weird'). Call it being graphically shallow, but I like to have my blog look just as good, if not better, than the content I might write for each entry.
Too bad I have the Photoshop skills of a typing monkey.
Give me until Sunday, folks. I plan to keep at this, and once this is done and over with I'll finally be able to focus on the sport and the team, and not just what the site that talks about those things looks like.
Edit (3:06 PM EST): Before I head to work, here is a crude example of what I am trying to do. Seriously, am I just code retarded or something?
Labels: blogosphere, insanity, ranting
Who? What? Huh? ... yeah. Um.
Wednesday, November 29, 2006
With the possibly permanent hiatus being taken by Predsguy over at Predspage, I find myself a little antsy at the sudden lack of any real blogs for three particular teams in the league. More so because two of those teams are also members of the Central Division. In no particular order ...
Blackhawks - Come on, people. There has to be at least one blogger out there that covers and follows the Blackhawks, despite the way that Billy Wirtz has just about buried this team in a mile deep grave. This team has such a long and storied history, it's a depressing surprise that there isn't a single blog out there on them. It also makes talking about them during game time depressing; I have no one to rib!
Predators - I think what surprises me the most is that it was only Predsguy who I knew of that wrote about the Predators, considering how they've been moderately successful over the past three seasons now (this one included). And now that he's gone, I'm even more concerned. Is it really that dead in Nashville? I know that James Mirtle has a link to a forum-based blog by the Predators themselves it seems, but it isn't really the same.
Coyotes - Yeah. The 'Yotes. I guess I can't really blame the lack of a blog for this team on anything in particular. Even so, there must be someone out there that writes about this team and follows them. Anyone? ... anyone? ... Bueller? ... Bueller?
In any event, I also just wanted to thank the recent string of a few people who added me to their blogrolls. Every new link definitely means a lot, since it gives me even more to read when I manage to squeak in some free time amidst new jobs and bucketloads of classwork. Incidentally, if I ever improperly put down someone's blog's name? Feel free to let me know and I'll fix it post-haste. As it stands, I get that often enough: "The Army of Ohio", "Army of Ohio", and so on (I take full responsibility for the name being "armyofohio" in the URL, but that was just so it wouldn't be pointlessly long).
Don't blame me, though, for the rather broken English name: Army of the Ohio. Blame those geniuses back during the 19th century and the American Civil War, since the name is based off of the real Army of the Ohio.
Blackhawks - Come on, people. There has to be at least one blogger out there that covers and follows the Blackhawks, despite the way that Billy Wirtz has just about buried this team in a mile deep grave. This team has such a long and storied history, it's a depressing surprise that there isn't a single blog out there on them. It also makes talking about them during game time depressing; I have no one to rib!
Predators - I think what surprises me the most is that it was only Predsguy who I knew of that wrote about the Predators, considering how they've been moderately successful over the past three seasons now (this one included). And now that he's gone, I'm even more concerned. Is it really that dead in Nashville? I know that James Mirtle has a link to a forum-based blog by the Predators themselves it seems, but it isn't really the same.
Coyotes - Yeah. The 'Yotes. I guess I can't really blame the lack of a blog for this team on anything in particular. Even so, there must be someone out there that writes about this team and follows them. Anyone? ... anyone? ... Bueller? ... Bueller?
In any event, I also just wanted to thank the recent string of a few people who added me to their blogrolls. Every new link definitely means a lot, since it gives me even more to read when I manage to squeak in some free time amidst new jobs and bucketloads of classwork. Incidentally, if I ever improperly put down someone's blog's name? Feel free to let me know and I'll fix it post-haste. As it stands, I get that often enough: "The Army of Ohio", "Army of Ohio", and so on (I take full responsibility for the name being "armyofohio" in the URL, but that was just so it wouldn't be pointlessly long).
Don't blame me, though, for the rather broken English name: Army of the Ohio. Blame those geniuses back during the 19th century and the American Civil War, since the name is based off of the real Army of the Ohio.
Labels: Blackhawks, blogosphere, Coyotes, Predators
