I am Matt Thomas » 2006

Get that donut, girl

April 24, 2006

Maggie’s new favorite game is “jam my face into the center of my plastic donut.”

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So it’s 5 in the morning and I’ve been awake for two hours. I’ve been sick for two days and not feeling any better. At 3 this morning I woke up after I puked on myself in bed. I’ve never taken a shower and done laundry at 4 am before but it’s pretty refreshing. The television options at this time of day aren’t great. I’m exhausted but I can’t sleep. My dog is wondering what the fuck is wrong with me. None of the medicine I’ve taken so far helps. It’s been a long time since I was this sick, but when it came back, it really hit me with a vengeance.

Update: Well I worked on Friday, but Saturday hit me like a truck. I’ve got a fever, and more cowbell is not going to help.

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Less Does More

April 17, 2006

Those of you with Baltimoronic inclinations might have noticed that we rolled out a major revision to Blogtimore, Hon over the weekend. We’ve ~~nearly~~ reached our goal for the first-ever Blogtimore Beg-a-thon and it seemed like this would be a good time to remind everyone of our commitment to the site—my significantly-southward new orientation notwithstanding.

The biggest changes are behind the scenes. The software that was previously chugging along behind the scenes, Lilina was great at the time, but shortly after we launched late last spring, development on the project ground to a halt. While some of its features were very interesting, it just wasn’t built to handle a blogroll the size of ours. Despite a few temporary hacks on our behalf to help it run more quickly, as we added more contributors to the site we were seeing delays of up to a minute for pageloads, which meant it finally had to go.

In its place we chose Planet. While the pickings are somewhat slim in the open-source-web-based-feed-aggregator category, Planet seems to be at the top of the pack. Despite a few glitches here and there, I’m happy with how it’s working so far. Adding feeds has been trimmed from a 5-hour to a five-second process, and the site itself is loading reasonably again.

We also nixed some features that seemed not to be adding much to the site. Organizing sites by neighborhood seemed like a great idea in the beginning, but as more and more sites signed up, I realized just to what extent Baltimore is a city of neighborhoods. We had nearly as many categories as we did actual feeds, and as sites would stop publishing, we found ourselves with multiple neighborhoods featuring one or fewer blogs. At the end of the day, Baltimore really is a big small town, and we don’t think it’s something that will be missed terribly much.

Favicons have also gone by the wayside. Again, it seemed like a good idea in the beginning, but the vast majority of users’ icons were either their CMS’ default icons or blank altogether. Planet allows us the possibility of adding custom avatars for each feed, something we’re strongly considering adding in the near future.

There’s also little things. An updated color scheme, hide/show links that actually work in Firefox and Safari (maybe our most-griped-about “feature”), and an updated layout courtesy of the brain trust at Position is Everything. While we still have a bit to sort out before the trains can run themselves again, all in all the updated Blogtimore is a welcome change that should see the community through even greater growth in the coming year.

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Sneaky

April 13, 2006

I haven’t had time to write much about Maggie, my new dog who I adopted last week from my old pal Charlie. She’s a fun dog and we’re getting along great. She’s always happy. I’ve tried to teach her a few new tricks, but she just looks at me like I’m an idiot. And she’s probably right. But all in all, I’m loving being a dog owner again for the first time in fifteen years.

There’s more pictures on Flickr—all of which I had to trick her into letting me take. I think she’s afraid of the flash on the camera.

℘ | | Opine

Huc-a-Poo’s Blast from the Past

April 11, 2006

A few months ago, Eric Thomas, the owner of Huc-a-Poo’s, was interviewed by the Savannah Morning News. What he had to say about Huc-a-Poo’s seemed especially fitting considering recent events.

I can’t tell you how much I miss those guys.

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Who else seen the Leprechaun say Yeah!

April 10, 2006

Meet the Internet’s newest celebrity. We don’t know his name or what he does, but his off-the-cuff shoutout has struck a chord with our generation. He is the guy on the increasingly-famous Leprechaun in Mobile, Alabama video that’s so hot right now on YouTube.

This guy’s saying is poised to be the latest “All Your Base.” There’s already three hundred hits for the phrase on Google. And undoubtedly climbing.

Then tonight, I was directed to this: I wanna know where da gold, an original song featuring the best pieces of the Leprechaun video. I have to say that I kind of like the fact that at the moment, this guy is the most famous man in Mobile, Alabama.

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Mattcast 060408: I love this place

April 8, 2006

The latest, maybe final, Huc-a-Cast, coutesy of my friend and former partner-in-crime, Brian. Brian and I first found Huc-a-Poo’s in the fall of 2003.

Mattcast 060408: I love this place

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Here Stood Huc-a-Poo’s

April 7, 2006

Early this morning, a fire broke out, engulfing the building in which stood my favorite place on earth, Huc-a-Poo’s Bites and Booze.

“I love Huc-a-Poos, and you!”

To say that I loved Huc-a-Poo’s would be an understatement. From the time I first went there, I knew something about it was special. It wasn’t just a bar—even by Tybee’s already unique standards. Everyone, and everything, about Huc-a-Poo’s made you feel like you were an invited guest at a private party. Eric and Shep, its proud owners, made it seem as though you were visiting them at their own home. And when you left, they didn’t let you forget it—when I moved away from Tybee in 2004, a message appeared on the menu demanding “Come Home Matt!”

“I definitely love Huc-a-Poo’s.”

It became our home. Throughout the year that I lived on Tybee, Huc-a-Poo’s was my living room. While the bar in our house was special to us, we knew that it was temporary. Huc-a-Poo’s is what we always knew we could count on even in the worst of times. There wasn’t a time that you couldn’t go to Huc-a-Poo’s to see a few friendly faces. After Brian and I had to move out of our house on Tybee and I was shacking up with friends, Huc-a-Poos was the only place in my life that really felt like home.

Despite the disappointing turnout of my life in those first months after graduating from SCAD, I knew I could count on the people there. There was never any judgement at Huc-a-Poo’s, it didn’t matter what your race was, whether you did odd jobs or owned your own business, gay or straight, crazy or just plain weird. The only thing you could ever do to become unwelcome at Huc-a-Poo’s was to fail to respect the place or the people who made it.

“Huc-a-Poo’s is the best place in Savannah.”

I know that Huc-a-Poo’s was about the people, not the place. While many of us have unfortunately had to move away from Tybee, we also still consider that island our home. It’s sad to know that the place we always loved won’t be there the next time I visit. And while there’s talk—and I’m praying that it’s true—that Eric may rebuild, as much as I want that to happen, I know that there’s some things (like the original Kat Wheelchair napkin shown above) that can never be replaced. The original ring toss, the bizarre wizard painting, the photograph of Eric and Shep beside the front door—these are mementos that I keep in my mind when I’m away, and always check for when I return. It’s hard to know that the next iteration of Huc-a-Poo’s, wherever it is, will have to begin anew with its own ephemera—things that were created long after I moved away.

“I love Huc-a-Poo’s baby, come on down!”

And while it’s too early in the morning for a drink, I’ll raise my glass to Eric, Shep, and all of the countless people who made that bar such an amazing place to spend some time. While I can’t wait to see what they do next, I’ll always miss the original.

Update: The Savannah Morning News has preliminary coverage, including a picture (of Ric’s apartment, not of the actual bar area).

Update: Coverage from WTOC.

Update: Video from WTOC.

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