I blame @ghidotti

#LRTweetup killed my blog.

Before I gave myself fully over to the microblog, I was cranking out three posts a week to wholebrevitything.com, but then the 140-character miracle took over my social life, and I found a truer whole brevity thing. Okay, maybe it didn’t kill this blog, but I need someone/something to blame. I love to blog, but as far as time investment goes, Twitter is just way too easy.

I joined Twitter in the fall of ’07, but I did not really become an active user until the following summer when I got hooked on @Loopt. Loopt was the bridge that moved me from Facebook to Twitter. I went from tweeting once or twice a month to tweeting like ten whole times a week.

The Little Rock Twitter scene raised it’s head above water in the fall of ’08, and then really took off in the Spring of 2009 – I blame Lance Turner and his LR Twitter directory. Yes, back then, there were so few Little Rock folks using Twitter that Lance could house all of our names in a single blog post.

Soon, the idea of this crew getting together in person started churning and then this happened:

I jumped in with a two word commitment

I’ll save you the chronology of the next twelve months of this community’s growth, but that first night was an awesome experience of having drinks with a competitor, meeting amazing young talent, discovering how hilarious @robertblake truly is, and learning that there really was a person behind the pseudonym, @tsudo.

If it doesn't have a hashtag, it didn't happen

It has been very difficult for me to put into words how LRTweetup has crossed Twitter over from an online chat into real world relationships, so let me get all PowerPointy on you:

• This has turned my colleagues into my friends.
• This has nurtured kindred spirits out of profile pics.
• This has shot the hell out of Dunbar’s number.
• I have hired two people because I first got to know and trust them through this local Twitter community.
• This community have shown me real, tangible love and concern.
• My heart goes out to these folks when their lives get sideways, and I really do smile with them when they stumble into happiness. (however, I will never LOL)

It is surreal how real these LRTweetup connections have become. I feel very lucky to have found a place with these friends. Maybe I can get these folks to help me kick start this blog back to life.

I’m out of words now…

(ps. If you haven’t been following #LRTweetup Stories, I think that it would really be worth your time to do so.)

 My friend, Mike Rowe, will be the emcee for this little shindig. Now, Mike doesn’t know he’s my friend, but since he comes over to my house all the time, and we share some laughs, i think that should count. (for the record, the same should apply to Steve Carell, Keith Olbermann and, of course, Stuart Scott)

Many attempts have been made to line Mike up with a dirty job while he’s in town, but many of the folks in H.S. seem to think that it might be “bad for business”. Seriously. Millions of dollars worth of PR is the opposite of “bad for business” in my book, but who am I to question the Hot Springians. I may get a chance to have lunch with Mike tomorrow, and if I do, I’ll tell him that you said hi. (“you” as in the singular reader that I have retained with my intermittent posting to wholebrevitything.com)

Sadly, do to a little soccer game, and the Dad and Lad Cake Bake (seriously, that’s the weakest masculine name ever) the Jones family will miss the parade. And this is the part that really breaks my little heart: after the parade has completed it’s romp down all 98′ feet of Bridge Street, MINI-KISS will rock and roll all night.

I’m out of words now.

McFadden + the Fighters of Foo = extraawesome.

i’m out of words now.

no worries any more, there has been an explosion in the safe harbor for personal release in our capitol, Little Rock. all 300,000 of us can now choose from 4 different lines in which to dance the i-gotta-go-go.

i’m out of words now.

—————-
Now playing: Ryan Adams – Dear Chicago
via FoxyTunes

Some kids like chapter books, and some kids like picture books. I was more of a picture book kid. That’s why I’m loving Arkansaw Pitchers, blog #11 on Tour de Blog LR. Drew Stephens is posting images both personal and historical of one man’s life in the Natural State. It would really be worth your time to hop on over. His artwork has a lot to say.

I’m out of words now.

LR Blog #8 is grandfathered in to the classification of being a Little Rock blog. The Expats reside in Oakland, CA and Atlanta, GA respectively, but they were raised in Little Rock. (I’m stretching the limits due to the fact that only Floaty has passed along a list of folks worth touring.) …

Razorback Expats is — and I just now realized this… after all of the photoshop work… and the linking — a whole week old! I’m at a loss for words… I just… I’m sorry, but… Well… Let’s just ignore that fact and keep on rollin’ with Nolan. (Fellas, for the love of Lou, please don’t give up on this blogging thing in the next week or next month.)

What sets this blog apart from the many Razorback blogs on this intergalactic highway of information, is that Razorback Expats offers a long-distance view of the Arkansas sports scene. I hope they stick it out, because it will be nice to see how they handle the new season of Las Cronicas Locas De Boss Hawg.

I’m out of words now.

Number #7 on the Tour De LR is Floaty’s Arkansas TV news and culture blog. Though these folks have only been around for a short time, they are full of it. That’s a good thing. This is an insiders (they know nussing) view of spin in Little Rock. It’s a lot of fun to see the news through Floaty’s eyes.

I know this is brief, but hopefully Floaty will understand.

I’m out of words now.

Destination three takes us to a list of blogs that won’t be reviewed. This 30 in 30 is about folks who are mostly amateurs posting on the world wide interweb. However, there are some LR folks out there who are gainfully employed via blogging, and frankly it would just be rude to ignore them. Here are a few links (in no particular order) for you to peruse:

• the ladder
• sync weekly
• arkansas blog
• localist
• bullwhiz
• rock candy {recommended}
• little rock blog

I’m out of words now.

Stop #2 on this Tour de Blog LR takes us to strangepup. The blog is not so much about Little Rock, as much as it is the work of a LR icon, Philip Martin, and his cast of friends. Martin’s day job is to review films for Arkansas’s most widely read newspaper, the Arkansas Democrat Gazette…

You’ve heard of a “one-paper town”, Arkansas is a “one-paper state”. And Martin has the best job at the paper. “Whoa,” you say, “music critic is the best gig.” Right. Tell me that after you see a music critic wrapping up their work day amongst ashtrays @ 2 a.m. while the film critic is sleeping, perhaps dreaming about the next film junket they’ll attend in California or Utah.

Back to the blog. Martin and crew are intelligent and super-skilled in the craft of writing. And when those attributes are mashed up with the interesting articles/videos/tidbits that they find throughout their days, you and I are rewarded greatly. Go check out the extraawesomeness.

I’m out of words now.

I had given up on the idea touring 30 Little Rock blogs in 30 days, until I remembered grubintherocks.com. Sites like this are the justification for pursuing this project.

While working on the site for North Little Rock, a friend recommended that I check out this site that reviewed Central Arkansas restaurants. It’s always refreshing to see a first-person, non-professional perspective about local fare, and that’s exactly the itch grubintherocks scratches.

A quick peek at the About Us page makes it pretty clear that these folks aren’t interested in a lot of self promotion. What they are about is posting restaurant menus, a few snapshots and then cutting users loose to post their own reviews. They don’t even review the restaurants themselves, it’s just about the customers and their impressions.

These guys still have plenty of restaurants out there that need to be added to their catalog, but they do have Gadwall’s listed, so I’m sold.

I’m out of words now.

I’m out of words now.

My friend, The Short Fat Kid, has been tagged by a guy who is reviewing/sharing with the world 100 of his favorite blogs in 100 days. It’s inspired me, but I’m lazy at heart, and  100 is way too many for me. So, here is my plan, I am going begin reviewing/sharing with the world 30 Little Rock blogs in 30 days.

Listen, college football season doesn’t kick-off (punny, huh?) for another month and I’m looking for a new hobby/collection.

There is a problem with this endeavor… other than a few friends, I have no idea where to hunt for interesting local blogs. So, friends give me a hand, leave me a comment, and point me in the direction of some of your favorite blogs from our southern metropolis.