Metro I-4 News

As I mentioned in an earlier post, there’s a house down the street that was abandoned and is now owned by Bank of America. There was lots of crap inside the house that was also abandoned and someone about 6 weeks ago cleaned out the house and piled all the garbage bags in the front [...]

Here’s some bipartisanship I can get behind. Justice Sandra Day O’Connor and Congressman Lee Hamilton penned this op-ed piece for the Christian Science Monitor about the importance of civic education.
Of course, there’s no reason Florida (or Hillsborough County, or Tampa, or YOU!) needs to wait for the federal government to do something about it. [...]

I want to thank council member Charlie Miranda, code enforcement, and whoever is responsible for building the Tampa.gov website. The website is relatively easy to use and has a pretty smart design (though there’s still room for improvement!) and all have promptly responded. Thanks to everyone for their prompt and courteous response.
Unfortunately, the end result [...]

Bruce Sterling has a new science fictional monologue in Rudy Rucker’s latest issue of Flurb. When I think about recreating Tampa this is what I’m thinking about. Vision. We need to be looking ahead. Tampa needs to start now to be among the leaders in cloud computing in a quarter century.
Computer Entertainment Thirty-Five Years From [...]

I’m sure we’re not the only block to suffer from the eyesore of abandoned homes. As I walk around the neighborhood there are several obviously abandoned homes with overgrown lots.
One particular eyesore is just down the street from me. After contacting Bank of America, and the Realtor on the sign out front, I contacted Code [...]

Vote Vote Vote!
We’re halfway through the month and I needs lots more votes.
Don’t be overwhelmed by the number of choices. You aren’t expected to vote in every category. AND, if there’s a category you don’t see, Invent It!
Either vote in the comments here, or send me an email at patadave AT gmail.com.

I’ve been lax on the music Monday posts the last few weeks. That whole Labor Day thing threw me off.
This week is a pointer to Probe is Turning-on the People!
This is the kind of music site that makes me delirious with joy. There’s no top 40, or classic rock, or indie, or alternative rock, or [...]

Tommy at Sticks of Fire is looking for suggestions on how to increase voter turnout, especially elections that don’t involve presidential candidates and don’t take place in November. Here are the suggestions I offered.
1. Voting registration drives in the political off-season. During the heat of a political season, wary citizens are afraid of being bamboozled [...]

Giblets takes a look at the “Jesus-fearing moose-hunting hockey-mom mother of five” that has won the whole world’s heart.
“So maybe Sarah Palin doesn’t have all that much “experience.” Maybe she doesn’t pay much attention to your fancy-pants “foreign policy” or “domestic policy” or “policy.” Maybe she’s “crazy” and “corrupt” and was picked by a [...]

Mariella lays out the case against Brian Blair here.
And, the Ybor City Stogie has been collecting info about Blair for some time at The Blair Watch Project

Re/Creating Tampa supports transparency in government and candidates who shun lobbyist lucre. Blair’s alliance with developers casts a pall over every decision he makes as commissioner. Hillsborough County will [...]

Green design is great, but when I think about recreating Tampa I’m really thinking more along these lines -
Grow Your Own House.
Here’s an example of a living treehouse.
This chair, grown by John Krubsack, (photo taken in 1919) is an early example of functional arborsculpture.

I’m a sucker for pop surrealism art. Since I can’t afford the real thing I download art I like into a folder and let it run as my screensaver.
The Jonathan Levine Gallery webpage is a great resource for this kind of art. Check out these tentacle lamp/chandeliers by Adam Wallcavage. I’d be deliriously happy if [...]

If you’ve ever found yourself wondering, “What’s the deal with Facebook and Twitter? I just don’t get it,” then check out this NYT article by Clive Johnson which does a great job of explaining what these social networking tools are doing.
“This is the paradox of ambient awareness. Each little update — each individual bit of [...]

That’s it. I’m firing today. Friday, you’re fired!
Everything I turned my attention to today turned out to be excruciatingly boring. The stuff I had to read, the stuff I had to write, dull, dull, dull. Even the internet let me down.
So, I’m firing Friday and skipping straight to Saturday morning. Now, if you’ll excuse me, [...]

I’ve been checking out Google’s new browser Chrome and there are parts of it I like a lot. The best feature is the tab crash control. Tabs are independent of each other, so if one crashes it doesn’t take down the whole browser.
Overall, though, it’s not ready for prime time. I didn’t realize how many [...]