The WGOM

40 posts and 1,943 LTEs, did you read everything?

Effective immediately, there shall be no stories or LTEs regarding politics whatsoever at this site. All LTEs that are political in nature posted after this entry will be deleted. Any user who persists in commenting on politics will be warned once and subsequent political postings will result in their accounts being deleted.

That is final.

You may be asking, Why? Why, SBG, did you change the look of your site so much? What's with the colors? OMG, are you crazy?

Well, yes. Yes, I am. Glad you noticed.

Click here to continue reading Why?...

Have you ever wanted to e-mail an SBG Nation Citizen just to chat about something, but didn't know their e-mail address? Well, I haven't because I have a list of email addresses that each of you gave to me when you registered to the site. But, I am loathe to hand those addresses out. What to do?

Well, here's an answer. Part of my domain package includes an e-mail client. That's right, I have an e-mail account sbg at stickandballguy dot com. Cool huh? Well, I am opening up the client for all citizens of the Nation. Here's what I'm thinking. Send me a message and I'll open an e-mail account for you using your screen name. So, for example, if you want to discuss beer with brianS, you would just e-mail him at brianS at stickandballguy dot com (assuming he plays along).

The client is web accessible and it's pretty easy to use. Plus, you can just port the email over to another account if you wish. I've tried it out with Andrew (Andrew at stickandballguy dot com) and it works just fine. If you want an account, let me know and I'll set you one up. I'll also put a link up for you to access the mail on the front page (and one the single post). Plus, I'll put up a mail directory up on a mail page.

Sign up (by leaving a comment here). It's free. Here's the WGOM Mail Login Page. After you sign up, I'll send you an e-mail at your registered e-mail account with a password (change that, please).

I started this blog on July 17, 2004 and for the first five weeks or so I didn't have a counter on it. In that time I took the bar, went on vacation and didn't do all that much with it. Then, on August 23, 2004, I put a counter on the site and started keeping track of how many people stop by. The last couple years on this date, I've mentioned what the site traffic has been. I'll do the same today. Let the navel gazing begin!

Click here to continue reading Thanks for Stopping By...

The WGOM's server is acting up, in case you didn't notice. I don't know when it will be better, hopefully by gametime today. There's nothing I can do to correct the problem -- we're at the mercy of my ISP.

The WGOM's server is acting up, in case you didn't notice. I don't know when it will be better, hopefully by gametime today. There's nothing I can do to correct the problem -- we're at the mercy of my ISP.

I'm an old design engineer at heart. One of the first things I learned is that when designing a product, you get to choose two of the following three things: cheap, fast, and good. When I am working on the look of this site, I always choose cheap and usually I choose fast. So, good takes a back seat until another day.

I happen to love the current template for the WGOM -- A nice left hand column for the regular posts, a horizontal column for our videos and for what I'll call minor posts: This day in history and SBG shorts, and a three column arrangement underneath for various features, including the cup of coffee, list of recent articles, recent comments, top commenters, pictures of my daughter, search window, etc. and so forth.

I like the template, but there have been some issues that have been bugging me. This weekend I spent a little time fixing some of these.

1. I made the text smaller on the top commenters. I tried to organize by registration, but that has some problems. I'd like to be able to give Rhu_Ru, Will, and New Guy credit for the comments they made with their other monikers, but until I get that figured out, it'll have to be like this. True, the numbers aren't in a pretty line like they were (I took the table out) but until I add smaller print for the table in that column (not this weekend), it'll have to stay as is. I blame BeenAroundAwhile Guy for his long name, which caused the whole table to get out of whack. Kubel!!!!

2. I fixed the recent comments so that each comment gets a line feed. It bugged me that that was lost when I went to this template and now I have it fixed. Now all I have to do is put formatting of text back in and life will be grand.

3. I fixed the Recent Articles column. There was some funky spacing, but that's gone and now we have the last three days of posts lined up. Check that out so you know what's been posted recently.

4. HERE'S THE BIGGIE. I added a link to the MUSIC archive in the "Links to Popular Features" and I've also made it easy for our VJs to add a link to the posts. If you go to the ARCHIVE, you can watch all of the previous videos without clicking through pages! Well, at least the last few -- I have to manually manipulate the videos to make this happen. But, going forward, they will all be there for you! I'm pretty excited about that.

5. I experimented with some things on the single post. I hate that the single post has two different colors and no column whatsoever. I want to fix the single post so that it has a column and looks better. That won't happen for a while, but some day (probably in the off season).

6. If only there were an artist in the Nation who could dream up a logo for this site. That would be cool.

7. I would love to fix the page navigation in the header. Would love a drop down on roll over. Would love to Sh--can the plain blue header. See #6.

8. I rearranged the columns to what I thought was a more usable arrangement. I'd pull the links portion if I could get a nice drop down header as in #7. Too many links is like having no links at all. It doesn't help direct people to any other content because it's too damned busy. I don't even use my links -- I have SAGE reader integrated into Firefox. That works a whole lot better. But, I also have a desire to point people to other good Twins blogs. If only I had a better way.

9. I fixed the login page so that it isn't shifted to the left anymore.

If you have any other suggestions, let me know. (I know, the link button doesn't work in the comments.)

What's a Nation without a convention? We need to come together, set aside our differences, and work toward a common goal! I say that goal should be to watch, in person, the September 22nd game against the Chicago White Sox. It is an 11:10 AM start to accommodate the Goofer game that day. I like these late season morning games. If we can get a crowd together, we'll make this a tradition (until the new stadium ends the Saturday morning games).

I talked to Seth Stohs and he indicated that he might be able to make it. A couple of people have already expressed some interest. Citizens, it's time to stand up and be counted. I'm thinking that those who want to can show up at Hubert's in the morning for a little breakfast -- you know, so that we can talk Twins over a cup of coffee. Then, we can amble over to the game, cheer for the good guys, see who's got good oral snark skills and who's hiding behind their keyboards.

If you are interested, send me an email at stickandballguy at hotmail dot com. Also, peer pressure should be applied here to those who may not be committed to the cause.

Stand up and be counted!

Three years ago today, on July 17, 2004, I started a blog that I called "Stick and Ball Guy". The url for that site was stickandballguy.blogspot.com, a site that I left and has now been usurped by a cybersquatter. All of the original posts have been ported over here, but any images that were posted are lost.

I had long wanted to start a blog, but I was in law school and it was tough to work, go to school, and write a blog, or so I reasoned. Three years ago today, I was out of school and studying for the bar exam, which I desperately wanted to avoid, so I started this blog. I've written before about what it was like to start a blog and write when nobody was reading, but what I want to talk about today is the last year, which I have found to be the best year of this site.

First, though, I'll recount the site traffic over the last three years:
July 17, 2004-July 16, 2005: 50,133 page hits, 35,166 visitors
July 17, 2005-July 16, 2006: 177,988 page hits, 88,559 visitors
July 17, 2006-July 16, 2007: 431,827 page hits, 148,745 visitors

Clearly, the WGOM has had an increase in traffic over the last year and I thank all of you for stopping by.

I'd like to thank some people who have kept this thing going when I thought it might die. When Lucy got pregnant, I wondered if this site would survive. With a new baby, it seemed like I was going to have to make some choices. Clearly, I couldn't pump out a bunch of content with a new baby coming. So, I decided to open up the WGOM to people if they wanted to contribute. The result has been that the site is better than ever. So, I give thanks to the following people.

ubelmann -- This site would have died without ubelmann. He took it over almost completely for about two months. Plus he's written a ton of great stuff and he does the game logs. ubes has put as much, if not more, time into this site this year as I have. Well maybe not quite that much, but he's done a whole hell of a lot. I hope you enjoy it, ubes, because we enjoy what you do. Thanks a ton.

AMR -- I always liked AMR's old blog. He has a little different perspective on things and I've always enjoyed it. I decided to invite him to write and told him to do what he wanted. The result was "Mugshot Purgatory", which never fails to amuse me. Thank you so much for providing some truly original content to the WGOM. I feel lucky to have asked you.

Big Mak -- Big Mak approached me and asked if I'd like to have a series preview from the perspective of the other team's blogs. I jumped at the chance to have someone write this as this was something that I'd kicked around in my head for some time. It takes a lot of time to research and write that kind of column and his work is always well done and interesting. Thanks, Big Mak, for making a valuable contribution to this site. I always look forward to your columns.

brianS -- I decided one day to give brianS privileges to do videos. He left a comment saying that I must have left something on, because now he could edit things. I told him that that was his new privileges -- that's how he's found out. He's been a tireless contributor of music videos and an occasional column on beer. He's more than welcome to write more beer columns and I really appreciate all his participation on the site.

Andrew -- Andrew, I think, was the first person to contribute guest columns when he wrote about soccer a while back. I'm not sure about that, but I know he was one of the first. He came to me with an idea about profiling the Citizens of SBG Nation. I was willing to give it a shot and it has turned out to be very interesting and a big hit. Thank you very much, Andrew, for your contributions, the BKAC feature has been a whole lot of fun.

Banjo -- Banjo has made a couple of different contributions to the site. He's been a voice that has always said, now wait a minute, I don't agree with that. Believe it or not, I really like that. Disagreement builds discussion and that's what we need around here. He's also given me some really cool stuff, including Guard Dog Watches and some Banjo Brothers gear for my bike (and Lucy's bike, too, but her bike got stolen). Plus, he offered to write a column about grilling. I thought, all right, let's give it a try. Turns out that his On The Grill feature is a very well written piece every time out. I love reading about his grilling exploits and am more than a little jealous. I'm looking forward to actually using some of those recipes on a new grill at my new house. Thanks, Banjo, for well-written pieces that are quite interesting.

Rhubarb_Runner -- Rhu_Ru has created the SBG Library. The magazine covers are interesting (Zoilo!) and the books are of course worth discussing. Rhu_Ru has put a lot of time into this and he's secured an interview with the author of Cool of the Evening that will run tomorrow. Very nice work, Rhu_Ru. Rhu_Ru has done an excellent job with this feature and I'm very happy that he's provided his quality work to this site.

frightwig -- frightwig has been a long time reader and has been a great commenter. I knew his time was cramped with the new baby and his site had gone abandoned. I asked him if he wanted to contribute here and he has responded by doing a great job with the SBG video feature. I know he's got a lot of stuff keeping him busy, so I hope he can stick around and help out when he feels like it. Thanks for your help.

CarterHayes -- CarterHayes has contributed a couple of articles, including one on baseball cards and another on platooning -- military style. He's a talented writer and always welcome here. Thank you.

The Rest of the Nation -- To all of the readers of this site and especially to those who have commented, I appreciate your attention and contributions. This website is mine in that I own the URL and pay a few bucks to host it. But, it ours in that so many of you (listed above) have contributed and made it a real community. One of the things I marvel at is that every person who has pitched me an idea has had a good idea. I appreciate all of the people who have contributed to this thing. You've made it much more than I could ever have done by myself. It's been three years and we'll keep plugging away.

Lucy A special thanks to my wife, who still lets me do this without (much) complaint. She has recognized that this is my hobby and she's let me have a lot of time to do this. I appreciate that very much. She's a wonderful woman and she's got a very lovely little daughter.

Happy Blogiversary to us. And may we have many more.

The Wordpress software is being upgraded today. If the site looks weird, that's what's happening.

Update: It appears that the upgrade was successful.

I've figured out that I have to adjust Big Mak's and AMR's accounts so that they can schedule posts with the new upgrade. Fudge!

Series Preview in Blog and Mugshot Purgatory are now up. Next week, we should be okay.

SBG

Lucy and I are heading down south this morning for a trip to the inlaws. I'm feeling like crap -- I've got a nasty cold and just about as lethargic as Barry Bonds running out a one-hopper to the pitcher.

The keys are handed over, enjoy the weekend. I'll be back on Sunday night.

Are you seeing the Mugshot Purgatory? It's published and should be showing up, but I'm not seeing it. If you don't see it, click here.

Note: Now that I posted this, I see it.

Update: The same thing is happening with the series preview in blog. Must be "the upgrade".

If the site looks terrible, by that I mean all jumbled up, bear with me. I have a unique problem that I can fix temporarily but it recurs until I have time to figure out what to do long term.