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FriendFeed

I have begun to play around with FriendFeed and have added it to my Facebook page and most recently to this blog. Does anybody else use FriendFeed? I like how it allows all of my content that I place elsewhere to be placed within it, but I’m still not sure if this is good or bad. For instance, some content is really only for some eyes. If you’re my friend, and you’re internet savvy, then you’re likely connected to me on one of these social media networks. But FriendFeed allows me to broadcast my activity on these sites here on other pages … and I’m not sure if that’s what I want. Hmmm….

UH homecoming

Recently, I accepted a Web Developer I position at the Department of Instructional Design and Technology at the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences at the University of Houston.

It’s an exciting position that I am very much looking forward to. I start on Oct. 27.

For me, it’s kind of like a homecoming, since I graduated from the University five years ago after working for The Daily Cougar for most of that time and for the Journal of Classroom Interaction in the College of Education for part of that time.

Feel free to wish me luck on my new endeavors here, and to everyone I’ve met and had the pleasure of working along side at The Houston Chronicle: Thank You.  Keep in touch.

Photos: San Marcos for the weekend

Last weekend, Kim drug me to San Marcos to attend the wedding of one of her best friend’s sisters.

It was a blast.

On the road again with Kim and Brandon

So … much … outlet … shopping …

San Marcos River gawking

Check out 95 more photos of our trip here or see my 8 favorites – among other great photos of the two of us – here.

For Kim, the trip was a vacation from planning. Which meant there was no itenerary. So a day or so before the trip, the idea pops in my head that we should see my cousin Michelle and her husband Dan. So I e-mail her and plans are thrown together … but they were in no mood for pictures, because the day was also the first day they biked home from work in downtown Austin. They estimated the trek at 15 miles, mostly on a bike trail through Austin’s green belt … but Michelle said it was more brown than green.

Here’s an old picture of them anyway.

Michelle and Dan Bost, Thanksgiving 2006

Anyway, so we were going to see the Bosts, and their new house in Austin. OK, it’s three years old. But I don’t get out much.

Since it was a vacation without planning, we had planned to not plan dinner, and Michelle was going to treat us to her famous shrimp and grits. But as we were driving, Kim mentioned that Texas Monthly mentioned that Luling, Texas (pronounced “Lull-ing” … just kidding, Kim!) was home to two of the top 50 barbecue joints in Texas. So, we stopped and I bought dinner at what Texas Monthly said was one of the 5 best “Smokin’ Joints” in Texas:

City Market in downtown Luling

City Market in downtown Luling

It turns out that when buying barbecue, you don’t need a pound per person. I know this because I bought four pounds of this stuff, and as a result, was eating it all week. What a tragedy! Nah, it was really good barbecue, perhaps the best I’ve ever tasted from an eatery. And, the smoke is still on my clothes from stepping into the smoke room at City Market. Yum.

Almost a week later: The last of the barbecue, shot at Kim’s house.

Also during our trip, we went to the outlet mall in San Marcos and the San Marcos River. I took lots of photos of everything I saw. Oh, and there was a wedding. So go check out the photos already.

Spring resident captures video of power line explosion

Today, an article I wrote appeared on Tropical Storms / Hurricanes blog on Chron.com.

For the article, I interviewed Spring resident Steve Guthrie, who was in the right place at the right time with a video camera to capture a power line explosion following Hurricane Ike.

Storm blog post
This story was published on the Chron.com Hurricanes blog following Hurricane Ike.

Here are the first few graphs of the article:

When the lights flickered on last Wednesday evening, and then began to dim, Steve Guthrie began to realize what was wrong.

After Hurricane Ike knocked out power to his house in the Oaks of Devonshire neighborhood in Spring, a pecan tree in his backyard lost a limb that became entangled with a power line. With no power, that was no big deal.

But when power was restored to his neighborhood, Steve was ready with his camera to capture sparks and explosions that nearly shocked him off his feet. He later posted his videos on YouTube.

Installed: ShareThis!

Last night, I added a new plugin to my blog which allows users to share my posts across any imaginable social network or link posting service.

I originally stumbled upon the ShareThis service by avidly reading Wired.com, which uses it. I used it a few times to forward articles to that certain someone, you know, to further affirm my geekness 2.0. When I first saw the ShareThis interface, I thought: How much is too much? I mean, seriously: All of the latest and greatest Web services just seem to be small variations on the same four-pronged theme: Post content. Share it. Comment on what your friends are posting. Repeat.

Of course, the only problem with that idea is that, thanks to the outburst of all these nifty services, everyone does the same thing a different way. Usually, compatibility seems to be the last consideration.

With ShareThis’ more-is-never-enuff approach, though, at least none of my readers can claim they were left out.