Archive for the 'SASTP' Category
October 23rd, 2009 by Mike Redding
Being the techie I am NOT, what follows is a ver batum directly from my web designer Eric:
“Jenny O. (and Mike/Anna and everyone else), Google Reader works, but you have to delete the old subscription and add it again. The underlying address (behind stopandsmellthepeople.com) changed when the site moved, which is why the old subscription is not showing any updates. Good luck!”
Everyone good with this? Any questions? (Address them to me and I’ll pass them along to Eric, the smart one.)
Subscribe! MR
October 20th, 2009 by Mike Redding
I’ve heard from a lot of people that they cannot see this new SASTP website yet. If you’re seeing it, you’re one of the lucky ones.
How quickly it is available to you depends on where you live, how you access the Internet and what provider you use. For example, we started the changeover from the old website to the new one Saturday night around 8PM. I was on the phone with one of our web gurus at the exact second I flipped the switch. I saw the changes almost immediately. He didn’t see them in full until Monday! (We were not on the phone the whole time.)
Over a period of days everyone will be up to speed with the new SASTP website. Until then it’s kind of like we have all moved into a new home together. Anna and I are still unpacking boxes and trying to figure out where everything is… even basic stuff like “How do I post a new article? I forgot.”
It’s exciting to have the new website kicking in this week! We’re getting lots of compliments on the clean simple look. That was purposeful. The left column will be where Anna and I post our personal writings. The column to its right is where we will introduce you to the wonderful storytelling a SASTP-type stories happening all around the country and world. And the column to the far right is sort of the ‘hits, runs and error’s” list. The tab menu just below our SASTP photo banner will go through some changes. I’ll likely add a few more topics that are dear to my heart. But we have time for all that in the coming days.
Anna is still tinkering with the border color. I like blue. She wants something warmer. She has the final say on that because I can’t even where matching clothes on a daily basis. I swear they should have adult “Garanimals” for men like me.
Okay, we’re off and running! Hope you like it so far.
If you have suggestions, make them as a “comment.” We read them all and many have made it into our goals for the website as we move forward… MR
October 17th, 2009 by Mike Redding
Notice anything different? It’s a question women love to ask and a man hates to answer! But in this case, seriously… notice something different? Does this website make my if, ands and buts look big?
SASTP is starting its metamorphosis. It’ll take around 24 hours. I’m thinking of it as an opportunity for all of us to ponder my future awesomeness. Why is Anna laughing? She doesn’t get it. Or maybe I don’t. So long as one of us gets it, that’s good enough for me.
Where was I? Oh! Future awesomeness. While SASTP is being transformed… some features may be a little hinkie now and again. And we’re going to tinker with tools and video players and options and menu items over a period of days… and maybe weeks… because I’m never satisfied. Some of the tabs and links don’t work yet. But we’re close.
Right away you notice Anna’s presence…. HELLOOOOO she’s in the banner/logo! This was at my insistence. She’s a huge part of this website and I wanted that to be obvious to anyone logging on for the first time. More on this later…
In the next few weeks you will also see advertisers begin to appear. At that point, you should run out of your office or house and straight to that place of business and buy whatever it is they are selling! And tell them StopandSmelltehPeople.com sent you!
S000o bear with us. The new and improved StopandSmellthePeople.com is about to launch and give us all a little relief from a cynical world!
MR
October 9th, 2009 by Mike Redding
My number 1 son, Trevor Redding, won the race for reader 100,000!
His roommate, Justin Rushing, came in second.
And Lisa Mast came in third.
They each commented one minute apart: 6:55PM, 6:56PM and 6:57PM with the blog stats counter at 100,657.
I was out for the evening. I left the house at 6:45 with the website counter hovering at 99,842 so I knew it would top 1o0k within minutes of me leaving. I hopped in the car and started making my way across Charlotte. I didn’t hear my phone ring because I had the stereo cranked (with the baby at home, the car is the only place I can listen to my favorite music at “Spinal Tap” levels).
When I looked down and saw a voicemail from my son Trevor time stamped at 6:57, I turned down the stereo and hit playback. All I heard was him screaming the number “100,000!” and he hung up. I first thought “He’s excited to see the website doing so well and called to cheer dad on.” I actually thought that. My next thought was, “NO WAY! Can’t be! Did he win?” And I called him back. He picked up right away, which made me suspicious, and told me that he and Justin were logged on and commented at the same time but he only saw Justin’s comment posted. His was waiting for me to approve it.
Let me explain that. If you are a first time “commenter” or haven’t commented in a long time, the website holds your comment for me to read first and approve. It’s a way to keep questionable content off the website. What doesn’t change is the time stamp. No matter when I approve the comment, it posts with its original time stamp. So I told Trevor I would call him right back and I called my wife Anna at home. She logged on and saw Justin’s comment at 6:56, Lisa Mast’s comment at 6:57 and Trevor’s comment sitting in the “hold” file waiting for my approval. It was time stamped 6:55. I asked her to approve it and called Trevor.
I told him he won! We had a good laugh as he told me his strategy for winning. It was the same strategy winner #70,000, Janie Garber, used. One computer logged on with a comment half written ready to add the hits counter number and then send… and a second computer just for “refreshing.”
Obviously Trevor and I can’t have coffee. He’s still in Texas waiting to report to his Air Force base in November. And while I’m thrilled he won I felt a twinge of sadness that I wouldn’t get to meet face to face with a local reader. So I’ve decided to declare three winners! Trevor obviously is the official winner. And Lisa Mast was the first local to comment. And it wouldn’t be fair to write about Lisa when Justin beat her fair and square, so I’m going to write stories about each of them.
I’ll interview my son (which will absolutely be weird) and Justin by phone and set up a coffee with Lisa Mast.
Why not? 100,000 is a big number. Three winners seems about right.
I can’t wait!
It just keeps getting better and better… MR
October 8th, 2009 by Mike Redding
Many people have asked about the car reader 100,000 will win. Here are some tasty details to wet your appetite!
1985 Yogo (pictured before the explosion).
It’s Smokin’ Charred Gray color (literally from being burned in a fire) 1985 Yugo with low miles (It exploded two weeks after the original owner drove it off the lot)! But for those two weeks Vladimir Buttinski (God rest his soul) was in driving heaven… (before he went to actual heaven). His wife, Bavavava (the middle “va” is pronounced with the traditional Yugoslav accent) only recently decided to sell her late husbands “cause of death” and amazingly I was the first caller a year after Bavavava posted it on Craigslist! Talk about good karma.
Anyway, it has a massive 37-horsepower, air-cooled, partial-exhaust, 3-speed (no reverse) power plant cruising atop 11-inch retread wheels for a smooth-as-silk ride. The mostly melted ground effects kit is original. The 8-track mono stereo (right side speaker only) is after market. As is the genuine naugahyde interior!
Not the actual air freshener.
Oh, it also has the original YUGO 2-50 AC unit and a custom wooden stick for a tailgate prop.
The one sour point to the whole thing is the car smells like a rotting corpse inside. Seems they were unable to extract all of Mr. Buttinski’s ”being” from interior. So I’m throwing in a free pine tree air freshener and a roll of tape (upon explosion, the original rearview mirror was embedded into Mr. Buttinski’s forehead. So you’ll have to tape the air freshener to the windshield or perhaps hang it from the hole in the roof where the dome light used to be).
In any case, I know you’ll agree this is a one-of-a-kind “driving” machine! And I’m thrilled to give it to the winner of the “SASTP Reader #100,00″ contest!
(Car not included.) MR
October 7th, 2009 by Mike Redding
I have no idea exactly when it will happen, but at some point in the next few days SASTP.com will top 100,000 hits! The winner will receive a new car, a trip to europe, a sit-down coffee with me and a story about him/her right here on SASTP! (50% of those prizes are made up. If you can’t guess which ones… you really, reeeeeeally need psychological help.)
I’m still toying with the idea of getting all the previous winners together for that coffee meeting with Reader 100k but at this point in my life I need to simplify. So a face-to-face, between just you and me, might be the best thing.
If you’re just arriving at SASTP, here are the very simple contest rules: On the upper right hand side of this page there is a ‘Blog stats” counter. At some point that counter will jump from a number below 100,000 to a number above 100,000. The first reader to post a comment after the counter ticks above 100k is the winner. YOU HAVE TO INCLUDE THE NUMBER YOU SEE ABOVE 100K IN YOUR COMMENT.
Keep in mind the counter updates in batches. So it can jump from 999,921 to 100,165 in one tick. It’s that first number above 100,000 that natters and MUST be included in your comment.
I have so enjoyed writing about the previous winners. Click these links to meet each of them… #10,000…(Didn’t do one for 20k)… #30,000… #40,000-a & 40,000-b… #50,000… #60,000…#70,000…#80,000 and 90,000.
Any questions? Didn’t think so.
I’m going to sit back and watch. Talk to you on the other side of 100,000! (Crazy, isn’t it?)
Count on… MR
October 6th, 2009 by Mike Redding
I don’t know what to make of that number.
For a guy and his wife just writing stories about life, it’s sort of amazing. I think the thing that gets me the most is this: people are giving me their most valuable and precious resource… time. When a person gives you their time it’s the ultimate compliment. Time is the only thing we can’t make any more of. There’s only so many beats in every heart. When your time is up it’s up. So when you take time out of your day to spend with me here at SASTP.com it means more to me than I can express.
As we approach 100k, I wanted to say thanks to you all. You’ve made my transition from doing Carolina Traveler to writing for my own website a fun ride. If I said I knew what was going to happen next, I’d be lying. Judging by my past I can guarantee the future will be nothing short of unpredictable.
The one thing I can promise you is I will always try to tell the story of life… one way or another.
I spend my days trying to connect the dots of my life. And the more I write about that the more I realize how all of our dots are connected.
So here’s to you… and your 100,000 dots!
I’m trying to smell every one of them… MR
October 2nd, 2009 by Mike Redding
We’ve pushed back the launch date of the new SASTP website. What we thought could happen in September will likely happen in October. An exact date is something we’re working on.
The dream team constructing the new site is hammering out a few kinks in migrating the existing content. I’d be lying if I said I completely understood the work they’ve done and continue to do. They explain it in the simplest terms possible and I nod as if I get it. But I’m foggy at best. I’m just glad they get it.
Basically, they have to take something extremely complicated and not only make it functional for a classic “right brain” writer (me) but that have to make it so I can run the website like a “left brain” techie! This is no small task.
The new site will be clean and easy to use. And we wont to overload it with advertising. One advertiser is on board and we’re currently talking to two others. I want to emphasize here (and time and again in the future) that we are hand picking the advertisers. They are people with whom I have friendships which go back years. My belief is if a business puts its name and logo on this site I am endorsing that business. So I’m only asking companies I trust and use myself.
In a couple weeks I’ll hit you with an exact launch date.
Don’t forget, wherever today takes you, there is someone in your path worth smelling… MR
September 24th, 2009 by Mike Redding
I’m just back from a three day trip to Roanoke, VA. Had a great time with the news team at the powerhouse WDBJ Channel 7.
The upside is it’s always invigorating for me to interact with a bunch of talented journalists who care about their craft and are hungry to improve even though they already dominate their market.
The downside is I’m wiped out and haven’t had a minute to write the amazing story about SASTP reader #90,000. She’s truly remarkable… and I can’t wait to meet her mom! I’ll explain later today after a good night’s rest… in my own bed.
Happy to be back home with Anna and Crowley! Can barely stand being away.
Okay, off to sleep… check back later today for #90,000.
MR
September 22nd, 2009 by Mike Redding
I was without either time or Internet most of the day and night Monday. I knew someone won because my son, Trevor, sent me a text saying his buddy Justin barely missed being #90,000! maybe Justin will be #100,000!
I finally have internet and some time to see who won. I’ve sent a contact e-mail and hope to have a story about #90,000 soon!
Until then, start plotting your game plan for being 100K!
Peace… MR
