Category: Local

He lived in Bend from January 2004 up until last week, and is now in North Carolina, but mountaintop.be was, at one point, a Bend blog. I won’t be adding it to the Bend BlogRoll, but I did want to at least mention it.

Based on my previous post about our meetup, I decided to see if I could find some of those LiveJournal folks on Google. I found not only some LJ users, but a couple other sites as well.

• Mountaintop.be: According to this page, the site is based in Bend. I’ll see if I can get ahold of the guy, as he’s the only non-LJ site I came across.

Then I came across a pile of LJ sites after clicking on the “Friends” info on a few of them:

• RAMBLETRON 4.75.269: A LJ site that’s updated every couple/few days. I haven’t read through it, but the entire latest entry is “Happy Mothers Day, Motherfuckers.” so take that as you will.
• Da Tea Party: Man, that’s an ugly site. Even for LJ.
• Tell me your name, tell me your story, ’cause i’m into it… Uh, OK…
• there is a boy who never goes out
• God-shaped Hole
• this is the blood we’re made of’s journal
• cause and effect
• The View From The Corner
• I introduce myself as nervous
• flowers and razorwire
• kerosene kills (which apparently has been “haxored”)
• Kaylin’s
• my_alter_idem
• JEANA….THE LOOOOOVE MAiD……>
• kp’s Journal
• BEND OREGON
• Oregon Local Bands

Most of the LJ sites are just mindless ranting and talks about sex and drinking and the like, but I’m sure there’s some useful content on some of them. I’ll be checking them periodically, but it might be a bit before I add them to the Bend blogs list.

Dane, you have plenty of targets, it would appear.

If any of you local LiveJournal guys has any comments, feel free to do so here.

OK, I’m like the last one to blog about it because I had been up since 5:00 AM yesterday, and after our Blogger Meetup last night, I was just too tired to blog. I tried to blog from the site, but couldn’t get a good Wi-Fi connection.

All in all, it was a good time, with a decent turnout. Shannon of There’s Always Something; Jon of Chuggnutt; Jesse of Bring Back the 80’s!; Barney of Bend.com; Roger of High Desert Skeptic; Simone of On the Bright Side…; Dane of Brainside Out; and Kerry of Bend Buzz. It was nice to put faces to names and to meet some of the weirdos that I’ve e-mailed with.

I unfortunately had to leave earlier than most of the folks as I had family obligations — I had to make it Wal-Mart for diapers before they closed. The joys of being a dad.

A few things I learned over the evening:

• Shannon has the longest commute (Bend to Warm Springs) while Barney probably has the shortest (he works at home).
• Shannon needs to get out and figure out Bend a bit more.
• Barney’s as big of a smart ass in person as he is online.
• Roger likes to take pictures close-up. I’m still seeing that stupid green dot.
• I wasn’t the only one there with kids (Jon and I are in the same boat).
• Dane is one guy I don’t even want to piss off, for fear of getting personal property covered with fertilized chicken embryo (eggs). Dane, you are a spaz, but a hell of a lot of fun.
• Simone is obviously a pro photographer, as she actually climbed up on something to take a picture.
• Chris missed out on a hell of a good time.
• Apparently there’s a group of LiveJournal users that hang out and mooch the Wi-Fi from the Barcelona (or Bellatozza? I don’t know downtown at all anymore) restaurant in downtime Bend. Rumor also has it they’re all about 12. Just for kicks, I tried to search for them on the LiveJournal web site, but you can’t search for region without a paid account — and I’m not about to pay for that crap. Anybody know some of their URLs? Generally, I don’t consider LiveJournal users bloggers because their software sucks and it’s generally overrun by pre-teen nit-wits, but there might be some exceptions. Maybe. Probably not.

Some of the local bloggers have entries up already. Jon had a good time, Shannon’s got an entry up with pictures stolen from Roger’s entry. Simone’s got a good picture where I look like a complete moron. Jesse’s got an entry up, and Dane beat us all online because he has way too much time on his hands and his parents were already in bed. If that boy ever procreates we’re all in trouble (OK, I know I’m getting egged for that one). Shannon, are you still coming to get my couch? Better grab it before Dane destroys it.

Update: Barney sent me these photos that he took, so I figured I’d throw them up here:

   

Just a reminder that tonight is the aforementioned Bend Blogger Meetup. Bend Brewery, 7:30. So far I’ve gotten confirmations from seven folks (Chris can’t make it, which is too bad as his blog is very entertaining). Barney might stop by (he’s like me and doesn’t drink, so we’ll be picking on all of you guys who will be). I’ll also be bringing my laptop to see if I can get any Wi-Fi hookups to see if I can get online and blog from the event.

OK, Shannon has pretty much taken the lead on this, and I know Jon (and in-turn, Dane) are up for the idea (and rumor has it Barney the Anti/Meta/[I’m at a loss for a prefix]-blogger might show up), but we’ve scheduled a Bend Blogger Meetup for Wednesday, 5/12/04, at the Bend Brewery. Shannon’s already called them, and they’re expecting us.

So who’s on board? I’ll be e-mailing a few of you who I know don’t frequent this blog as much, just to see if we can get some folks to show up. Otherwise there will about MAYBE four of us there :). Ideally, all these folks would be there, but I’m not holding my breath. Now I just gotta convince the wife to let me out of the house for the evening.

Update on 5/6: So far, the rumors are that Dane (hopefully), Simone, Jon, Shannon (who better be there, since she’s planning it), and I are going to be there. I’ll be e-mailing Roger and Chris to see if they will get in on the fun (feel free to comment here guys).

Update on 5/9: I’ve not got confirmation from Roger (read the comments) that he’s going to make it, Jesse (whose blog is in infancy) will making it (and will be bugging Barney to make it), and Kerry, the guy behind BendBuzz will be making it as well. It’ll be a party, folks! 🙂

We have another Bend blogger! A hearty welcome to Shannon at There’s Always Something. She’s transplanted here from the oh-so-lovely state of Nebraska, and loves blogging. She’s running her site on Blogspot, but it would appear she doesn’t have an RSS feed. Bummer…

So that brings up the total of Bend bloggers to the following (not including me an this site):

• Jon at Chuggnutt is the PHP/MySQL geek among us, and also runs BendBuzz.com.
• Dane at Brainside Out, who has been blogging for quite a while. Expect to see him in the ER soon.
• Chris at Monkey In A Box runs an entertaining site. I helped him get setup with hosting and MT back in the day, but he’s off my server, venturing off into his own land now.
• Roger at High Desert Skeptic has come out of hiding and is blogging more often now. He was running the Central Oregon For Dean site before Dean dropped out.
• Simone at On The Bright Side makes a living taking awesome pictures. She’s technically not in Bend, but since LaPine isn’t an incorporated city yet, she’s getting listed. That, and her husband works with my dad now and again, so it’s all good.
• Josh at Mr. Snazz doesn’t update his site too much, but he’s into Geocaching and has some Geocoins out there.
• Nick never updates his site, but he could still be considered a blogger.
• Barney’s probably the ultimate blogger as the reporter for Bend.com and while Bend.com technically isn’t a blog, Barney works his ass off to get content on there, and deserves some sort of recognition.
• And of course, Shannon, who I mentioned above.
• I actually know of one more blogger who I can’t link to because she runs a private blog (for good reason). If she’s reading this and gives me permission, I’ll happily link to her (she know who she is).

So that brings it to 10 bloggers that I know of that blog in Bend/LaPine. Anybody else know of any that I’m missing (any where in Central Oregon)? Feel free to post a comment here and I’ll get it added to my blogroll.

Shannon said in an email to me earlier that we really need a Central Oregon blogger meet up. I’m starting to agree with her.

I posted last month about the Bend High School dance that was shut down early for some naughty dancing. So with senior proms coming up, what’s the status now? Summit High School in Bend is just canceling dances entirely, and Bend High students are planning to hold their own “anything goes” dance off of school property. This could get messy, and is starting to show the workings of a sequel to Footloose — I can picture Kevin Bacon playing a bull-headed school principal.

Our tax dollars are going to fund a creation of a “manure spreading index.” Automated weather stations are being placed throughout western Oregon in the hopes of predicting the best time for farmers to dump their shit in the fields. Full story at bend.com.

Breaking the news before anybody else (as usual) Barney reports that an arrest has been made in the homicide investigation of the fatally injured man in Drake Park. A 17-year old Sisters High School student was arrested, based on information from other students and witnesses. This is Bend’s first homicide investigation in the last couple years.

Generally, when you’re working with someone in a plan to rob a gas station, you don’t have your partner in crime call the police to rat you out (especially when that person works at the gas station you’re trying to rob). Full Story.