Peoria Pundit

“Build the Block” beat “Block the Block.” I’m sad, but not surprised. I take pleasure in the fact that we put up a good fight.

I was rooting for Beth Akeson in the 3rd District. When the votes were counted, she was down by 16 votes. If there’s not a recount, she’s insane. That’s about a half-vote per precinct. I didn’t want Tim Riggenbach to win because of his enthusiastic support for the tax increase referendum was all I needed to know about his support for essential services first.

I continued to support Barbara Van Auken, not because I agreed with all her votes, because I didn’t and she knows which votes I’m talking about. But she is a friend, she’s supported me when others did not. And I think those who backed Curphy Smith because Van Auken didn’t give them the 9-1 vote the wanted (as opposed to the 10-1 we sometimes get) were fooling themselves. In the end, her large margin of victory is a sign that her constituents agreed with me and weren’t distracted by side issues.

I didn’t have a favorite in the race for city treasurer. Half of one is the same as a half dozen of the other.

It’s for the best that Jim Ardis won as mayor. I’ve been POd a bit at some of his votes. But on ballance, he’s the best mayor we’ve had since I first attended  a council meeting back in 1980.

And as for the fifth district race … I really don’t give a rat’s ass. Almost none of the people who live up there give a rat’s ass about people who live south of War Memorial Drive, and I’m just returing the favor.

It’s done. Done. Over. We have to move on and rebuild our relationships with each other. This election has turned  friends into enemies. It is important that we ALL grow the Hell up a bit and realize that politics is not anything worth losing friendships over.

And now some site news: I’m moving on. Well, actually, I’m moving back. I started blogging exclusively on The Blog Peoria Project because I wanted to resurrect the site using the original domain name, which I had ignored for several years, except to keep it running. But I keep running into site issues. Peoria Pundit gets more than 1000 unique visitorts a day and even more hits and page views. It’s too much for the structure of the site, especially with the host I’m using.

So I’m going to blog at the old site from now on, which should reduce loads on Blog Peoria.

More news will follow.

UPDATE: You 5th District people have no sense of humor. And for that, I am sorry. Anyway, I’m closing comments on this site, as I am now blogging here again.

Blogger Bash will be held at 6 p.m. Tuesday, March 31, at TnT’s in Peoria Heights. Located at 4319 N. Prospect Rd., it’s at the former Penguin Tap.

EVERYONE is invited, I don’t care where you blog, if you just Tweet or Facebook.

UPDATE: I’ve posted about this on Facebook and Twitter. I expact lots of pople to be there, be on their (reasonably) best behavior and ready to have fun. I’ll bring name tages and a Sharpie.

I’ve been under the weather. In fact, I had to go to the doctor. I spent 2 hours 45 minutes at St. Francis Prompt Care. The doctor was in the same room for me for a grand total of five minutes (thanks crappy PPO!). And isn’t there a rule about sticking a patient into a windowless exam room and not checking their well-being for 45 minutes? And I would like to thank the OSF employee who cooked his/her lunch in a microwave while I was waiting. I fasted in anticipation of tests that never happened (thanks crappy PPO!) and the hunger pangs were quite an interesting experience.

I’ve been treated with more compassion about my well-being by jail guards. But then, jail guards face consequences when people they are watching keel over and die.

Anyway, I still feel like crap. I am insufficiently medicated (thanks crappy PPO!) and I really don’t feel like blogging and I probably won’t tomorrow either.

Thanks commenters for making the site so lively today.

For those so inclined, please click on the PayPal button on the right and contribute to The Blog Peoria Project. Your donation helps defray the not-inconsequential costs of dedicated virtual private server hosting, technical support and and Internet access.

The fifth Tuesday of each month is traditionally set aside for Blogger Bash, because as the last Tuesday’s there’s usually not going in the way of public meetings and hearings and such. These are social events, with some drinking and goings-on, but not big blow-outs.

There was a fifth Tuesday in December, but there wasn’t a bash because the consensus was that few if any people could attend.

So we are due.

After some consideration, there are now plans underway for a joint BlogPeoria/Peoria.com BLOGGER BASH on Tuesday, March 31. I decided to include the PDC crowd because of that site’s ability to bring in new attendees.

Remember, anyone who writes a blog, comments on a blog, reads a blog or is the topic of a blog is welcome to attend. Since these things are held in public places, nothing is stopping anyone from dropping buy. Newsmakers are always encouraged to attend.

The next step is to pick a location. Criteria includes:

1. Refreshing beverages.
2. Food.
3. Amenable to folks walking around, chatting in groups.
4. No blaring televisions/jukeboxes.
5. Preferably, not a soulless corporate joint, thus encouraging local businesses.

Here are some locations under consideration:

Kouri’s on Sterling.
TnT’s in Peoria Heights.
Donnely’s on Glen near Sterling.
Gormans in Campustown.
Whitey’s on Sheridan north of West McClure.
Panache in Sheridan Village.
One World at Main and University.
Crusens on Farmington Road.

We have PLENTY of time to debate, so add your suggestions.

Since you are reading this, you should know that the site upgrade went well.

I swore a couple dozen times at Comcast, since they seemed intent on giving me the lowest cable Internet connection known to mankind.

I’ve eyeballed a dozen member blogs, and all seems to be well.

Unless you are a registered and logged in member, you won’t notice many changes. Members will notice they can use Buddy Press to communicate in many ways with other Blog Peoria Project member. New plugins will allow then to easily pass along links to other member blogs, and keep track up new posts and comments all across the Blog Peoria site.

One of the new features is that is allows for captioning of photos, which I am going to attempt here:

Kevin Connolly is still recovering from the "trauma" of filming a love scene with Hollywood siren Scarlett Johansson, because he perspired so much preparing for his big moment.

Yeah, Kevin. I’d sweat too. But not over this upgrade.

As you can, hopefully, tell by this post, the upgrade to WordPress Mu 2.7 went very well.

I took advantage of the ease of the upgrade to go ahead and install BuddyPress.

It’s too late in the night and I’m too tired to want to give members a tutorial. So, I’m just going to ask member bloggers to click the links in their admin bar or in their dashboards and add a detail or two to their BuddyPress profile.

The upgrade of the Blog Peoria Project site is in progress. That means a full site backup is underway. Any post, comment or change to settings will MIGHT not carry over.if there is a problem with the upgrade. Be warned.

The following is an update I sent out via email to Blog Peoria members:

If you’re getting this update, it’s because you have signed up for a blog, make frequent comments on or have registered with the Blog Peoria Project.

Sometime this evening, I’m going to be upgrading the software that operates the Blog Peoria Project. During the upgrade, the site — including member blogs — might be down.

Once the upgrade, readers won’t notice much difference right off the bat. Those who operate blogs will notice the dashboard is very different. It has all the functionality of the current version of Word Press Multi-User (WPMu) software we’re using now, but the layout of the pages are different and might take some getting used to. I recommend watching some of the videos at WordPress.tv to see what I mean.

The upgrade is necessary because, as we’ve learned from experience, the longer you put off scheduled upgrades, the harder it is to get technical support. NO ONE wants to muddle around with out-of-date code.

And there are other benefits. This new version will let users add captions to photographs. There’s going to be a “turbo” button that might speed up page loads for regular users. There’s an integrated admin bar across the top of the pages, and it’s much prettier than the one I had hacked together some months ago.

And it will allow us to use the nifty new Buddy Press social networking plugins that will let Blog Peoria members communicate with each other. Trust me, you will like it.

If you have any questions or concerns, let me know.

On this days (actually yesterday) in 2003, the notion of the blogging platform that would become Word Press was conceived. Congratulations Matt.

I started thinking about the Blogoversaries of Peoria-area bloggers, so I brought back the page that listed the dates. I look a look at it and realized how out fo date it was. I went through by blogroll and started adding dates that I could find. I’m no where near complete, of course, and I am hampered by the fact that many blogs (myself included) don’t have archive listings. I strongly recommend them, even if it’s on a page separate from your main site.

I went through my mail and added the dates that have already been sent to me. I’ll continue to go through my blogroll as time permits and ads those dates that I find. But If you are a blogger and want your blog birthdate listed, be sure to contact me to ensure your site gets listed.

I am coming up on a serious deadline for for freelancing work, so blogging will be light this coming week. If any of my regular contributors have anything to say or share, now would be a good time.

Out of necessity, I have gone back to the previous theme, and tweaked out almost all of the plugins that I have been using. I needed this page and the Blog Peoria Project home page to load faster and reduce the number of database queries. I’ll pick up where I left off after the first of February and upgrade to WordPress Mu 2.7 and finally (maybe) install the BuddyPress networking software.