The Cowtown Chronicles

Huh… It’s taken me 3 years almost to figure out what blogging/podcasting is all about…

It’s about the people you meet and the ones you touch through the things you create. It’s such a democratic medium that there’s not nearly the polish that one would get from a “mainstream” news outlet. But that’s okay. I think there are a whole lot of people out there who don’t want that. They’re tired of the sanitized and watered-down “news” they get from the big media outlets. They want context, and raw input. They want to be brought along on the pub crawl or listen to the podcast interview done “man-on-the-street” style, vs. the highly packaged and processed content they get from “traditional” outlets.

More than anything else, though, people want to feel as if their voices are heard, and there’s no better outlet for that than blogs, podcasts, and social networks. I know that’s why I got into all of this, and two years later, I can’t tell you how glad I am that I did. I’ve met so many amazing people — many that I haven’t written about — and honestly that’s worth every penny I’ve spent paying for web hosting and all the rest.

I can’t tell you how excited I am about 2009 in terms of what you’re going to be seeing and hearing from me and the rest of the Panther City Media crew. If you thought last year was good, hold on to your hat and prepare to have your socks knocked off in 2009!

What do you think? I’m thinking that it’s going to change soon, since it’s not as customizable as I originally thought.

I’m open to suggestions! Send me blog layouts you like and I’ll check them out to see if it’s copyable.

In keeping with the current theme of my life — “improvement,” I hope to be able to spend some time working on the design and layout of this site over the weekend. Don’t hold me to that, though, as there are a TON of things for me to do around the house and in preparation for our trip to St. Croix next month.

In the meantime, feel free to click on the “vote” button in the pane on the right. I’ve entered that photo of Barley in a contest, and I’d appreciate your support!

Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve been working with some of the other extremely talented bloggers in Fort Worth to set up a joint effort site, one that covers the City from nearly every possible angle, but keeps the flexibility and humor that you’re used to from reading our individual blogs.

I’m VERY happy to announce:

WestandClear.com

Over the last year of doing this, I’ve realized that I wasn’t going to be able to cover everything myself, both because of a lack of time, but also because I just can’t possibly be as informed or talented as a group of people would be. West and Clear is the answer to that. Please, go check it out, add it to your favorites, and be sure to come back and visit often!

Cowtown Chronicles isn’t going anywhere, I’m just going to transition it to more of a personal/opinion blog. The podcast, however, WILL be moving over to westandclear.com. I just don’t have the creative juice to produce and record two separate podcasts every week without them being repetitive and boring. I’ll try to make it as easy as possible for everyone to transition to the new podcast feed.

I’m chronically early, so I’m already at The Chat Room.  Waiting…

(As Steve might say: “That’s so meta.”)

This week: Saying goodbye to The Wreck Room, why downtown drilling is bad for you, and what every well-connected blogger will be doing this Monday.

You may have noticed that there have been some issues lately with the podcasts. The software I’m using just released a new update, and I’m going to see if that takes care of the issue. If not, then I’m going to have to figure out how to get everything back to where it was before when the podcasts actually worked.

And I wanted to spend today at the Cultural District, but now I’m stuck inside fixing things.

Update:  I can’t figure it out.  I’m going to research alternatives for hosting the podcast tonight.  I’ll keep you updated.

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