It’s forced me to make more regular trips to this site to keep an eye on things.

Let me first make this clear — you don’t have to be signed up for either site for these malicious emails to be sent to you. They aren’t news pieces, they are attempts to get your interest and lead you to fake web sites. So, no, you weren’t signed up for things without asking.

That being said, I just guffawed looking at this headline:

msnbc.com: BREAKING NEWS: NASDAQ index gains 720 points overnight upon war announcement

Uh, newsflash: NASDAQ doesn’t do shit overnight. Unless you are in Asia. In that case, why send out an email in English with that title? Because the English speaking world (most of it) who follow MSNBC are awake during NASDAQ trading.

But I digress. I find humor in this… But I’ve also given it more attention than it deserves.

Last year, I purchased a couple domain names – TampaBayRail.com and TampaBayRail.net. I intended to launch a web site on mass-transit and address the Tampa Bay area as one region. Not a separate-but-equal take that local government has had in the past on transit solutions. But those plans were soon forgotten as other issues worked into my life (including hand surgery, political campaigns and walking the dog).

Now, for those of you aware of what the local blogosphere has to offer, you already know David Pinero has Tampa Rail.org up and running. Pinero’s site is a great civic orientated pro-rail web site. The plan in my noggin’ with my own blog/site were just to ride the “rail” names but talk about all transit issues in general. But all of this is really beside the point, so let’s move on.

Basically, time goes by, the seasons change, the Gators were champs and John Grahame sucks. A few weeks ago I got notification from my domain registration company that both domain names were soon going to expire. I could renew the domain names for however-many-years I’d like or I could simply let them disappear into the digital tumbleweeds of the interweb. They’d likely be snatched up by a spammer or domain-name broker with no interest in Tampa, Tampa Bay, transit in Tampa Bay or rail in the region.

The whole thought reminded me of what happened to the previous official website that the city of Tampa and Hillsborough County operated regarding a rail system. A few years back (2002), those governments held the rights to TampaRail.com (check the wayback machine). For some reason, the powers that be (City of Tampa? Hillsborough County?) let that domain name expire around 2003. The name was quickly snatched up and exploited by a Russian domain name broker. The web site and url shifted to BlueHeronMedia.com, then ended up drifting into oblivion before being removed from their servers. Tampa’s official rail website was as dead as the pro-rail movement in the region. But the movement is now stirring again.

This past summer, we were all witness to the grand spectacle of the Hillsborough Expressway Authority trying to launch a new sprawlway through the region. Along with Mayor Pam Iorio (and the Tampa Bay Partnership and Tampa International Airport) renewing a push for a regional rail system through the Tampa Bay area. Emphasis on the Tampa Bay regionalism of their presented interest.

So, what’s a guy to do? I have control of TampaBayRail.com and .net. I could sell them and possibly recoup some of the costs of the domain names — eventually. Instead, I decided to do some good. I offered both domains to the City of Tampa. You entrepreneurs may see this as a waste of money on my part, but just consider it a good deed.

Suffice to say, the city was receptive of the idea, so both names are now controlled by Mayor Pam. I don’t expect you to see a regional rail website any time soon, but there is the possibility for a united Tampa Bay rail effort on the web — with TampaBayRail.com potentially it’s base location on the web.

For those on DREAMHOST who upgraded to WordPress 2, you will not have access to your server stats from Dreamhost unles you correct some information in the HTAccess file that WordPress installs by default.  You can find the resolution here. 

I wonder if any Beatles fan would buy anything form this one?
Hmm, I wonder….

That being said, I’m still playing with the idea of what could improve things and improve member additions to the site.

The site merger is all but nixed — too much uncertainty and too much negative outlook. Too little control. What I am toying with to bide the time, however,is to have vBulletin put onto the site instead of phpBB. VBulletin gives a better look to the forums and mroe functionality. PHPBB is open source, hackable… Extra spamable.

I need to ask around if I should make the switch… Its just a thought right now – and it will set me back 90 bucks at least.

I’m taking a break from the Stonegauge for I don’t know how long or even if The Stonegauge will be back up in the future. I’m just goign to stop with the site because…. Well, lets be frank and honest – you could care. By you I mean by everyone who is out there.

I know that really sounds pessamistic but that’s how it feels right now. I’m not writing much on here lately for oen reason or another and what I do write is too self-absorbed to really have any worth. I know I write something that not only gians people’s attention but also interests readers over at Boltsmag. I can’t say the same here at Stonegauge.

Who cares about my opinions? I express them on forums and in the Newspaper and they haven’t brought out change. I’ve shared my writing and my day to day dealings and it’s not as if many are reading this right now.

I’ll probably end up posting shit elsewhere just because it’ll be more private or because it’s not a target for spam (or hasn’t turned to shit because WordPress 1.5 sucks).

Bah I’m down.

It was not so nice, however, to discover that my former love and my bane at the same time has gone the way to digital tumbleweeds, so to speak. Beatlelyrics.com is now a spammer site… Apple Corp LTD couldn’t be bothere dto renew a domain name and now a spammer owns it. Nice, fellas. You guys suck so much when it comes to business, it’s not even funny.

That being said, if you are looking for something on the web and got a error message on my site, type it in on the left-hand Search menu and look there. It might just come up.

Yes, those who are on MT will tell me to use the MT blacklist… I already have it in place. Still, I’d like another anti-spam buffer I guess. Either I stick with this or perchance I convert to WordPress and fight spam through that. Oh well.

I have been parlaying a lot of time toward my new online endeavor along with trying to help out the search engine placement for Rocheleau Cabinetry… Building an online community is tough but with the amount of downtime i have, it should be no problem. There is a problem however and that is trying to bring in people who already have message board communities and cliques of their own that they don’t want to abandon. I’m not much one for spamming but I am on for recruitment of smart people.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, it’s cloudy and rainy here in Florida. I don’t think it’s anything close to what people up north have dealt with lately but it’s miserable. You can’t believe how humid it is to boot. That makes it even worse.

Speaking of weather, how come it’s so friggin’ impossible to find the Tropical Update on Weather.com? It’s only a glut of people who need to know what’s brewing out in the tropics that could lead to potential hazards. Not like that’s important… :rolleyes

You are just a number, you are just a member, you are just a person that is defining their bottom line. To quote Tyler Durden, “You are not a beautiful and unique snowflake.” Not in the face of corporations, you aren’t…

….Or if you are a member of FanHome.com

Now, let me address something I did on Monday Night – I emailed moderators who I thought were my friends, who I thought were people who trusted me and who I thought understood how bad the situation on FanHome has gotten. I used certain features on FanHome to contact these people and in fact I abused the system in order to “spam.” That was wrong.

Not as wrong as what people on FanHome are putting up with, have been putting up with, and continue to put up.

In December I had some of my friends throw up their hands in disgust and annoyance due to lack-of-action and incorrect conclusions drawn by certain Administrators on FanHome. This administrator, who hadn’t hung out and dealt with moderators with anything other than corny, over wordy statements the past 2 years; went ahead and attacked some people who I have dealt with, worked with, talked to, and have become friends with over time. Dear friends with.

And I don’t like anyone fucking with my friends.

So FanHome is selling itself out one forum at a time right now, ruining the New York Mets baseball forum first, now the Chicago Cub forum… Pissing some people off. I contacted the moderators with an alternate site as a chance to show my loyalty to them, even if that sounds twisted. I’m not looking to administrate this new site very long, I’m not interested in doing more than talking on a web-forum that I can actually use without technical flaws left and right…

Of course, some people are more loyal to the FanHome brand than myself. Some people are in denial things are wrong with FanHome, or that Administration may be fabricating what they tell people. They see me as the enemy now because I spammed the site. Fine, be that way. Then again, I ran the site for 2 years and I made FanHome my #1 priority in life. I made you guys my friends and I care about you whether you realize it or not… If you can’t see that I’m trying to reach out to you before the ship sinks, well… That’s your loss, I’m afraid. If you don’t see I’m offering an alternative to the place you call home because the alternative works (and someone you know is involved with the alternative), as compared to your current… well, that’s your choice.