Happy People

Some people who made my day brighter today: Soni, the cashier at Smith’s; Alex, the “To Go” person at Tony Roma’s; the cake-decorator at Baskin-Robbins (didn’t catch the name, sorry!); and especially Rebekah, who always puts a smile on my face.

February 28, 2007 | Filed Under people | 1 Comment 

Stamp Act

Postal Service to raise rates. Um…OK. Do any of you still use stamps? I don’t recall the last time I purchased stamps - with the exception of Energy West, I pay all of my bills online - mortgage, credit card, NW Energy, Bresnan, Qwest, even City utilities. For Energy West - I just drive by their downtown location and drop off the payment. So what do you think? Do you buy lots of stamps - will this hit you hard? Or are you strictly an online person, and don’t worry about postage?

February 28, 2007 | Filed Under news | 2 Comments 

A Hobby By Any Other Name

How many of you have a hobby? Or two, or even three? Let’s see…I’d wager that most of you enjoy at least one of the following hobbies: hunting, skiiing, reading, exercise, outdoors, model trains, baseball cards, watching sports, working on your car, home repair, sewing, shooting, photography, bowling, gardening, community service…you get the idea. The point is, there are lots of hobbies out there. Hobbies are something that a person does for enjoyment; a hobby can be defined as: “An activity or interest pursued outside one’s regular occupation and engaged in primarily for pleasure.”

So how come so many people seem to simply not “get” that blogging can be a hobby just like any other? That’s precisely what it is, for many of us. It’s not simply typing a bunch of random words for hours on end for no reason or purpose. I spend time surfing lots of websites, looking for new bloggers, reading all types of local publications and sites, noticing things around Great Falls, taking pictures, and chatting with plenty of people in order to create entries on this blog. I also spend time learning about new developments in the blogging community: tweaking templates and files, understanding what brings people to the site, trying to figure out how to make it visually appealing, and so on. It’s not exactly “work,” so I’d say that the time that I spend working on GreaterFalls.com qualifies as a “hobby.”

So I’m a bit puzzled when Rich Ecke says: “How people are able to devote the time to keeping up their blogs is beyond me, but it’s clearly a popular phenomenon.” Come on, Rich - don’t you spend any time at all on a hobby of some sort? And I’m not trying to be snarky, nor single you out - your attitude is one that I encounter quite often. I’m not offended by it - just curious. I am able to devote time to maintaining my several websites the same way that your next-door neighbor is able to “devote the time to keeping up” with developments in NASCAR; and your co-worker is able to “devote the time to keeping up” with her gardening, and your boss is able to “devote the time to keeping up” with his hiking and subsequent journaling. See? My hobby is just like their hobbies: it occupies my time, takes some effort, and I enjoy it. It’s really that simple.

UPDATE: hope nobody thinks that I’m picking on Rich - actually, he was one of the first local columnists to notice blogs nearly two years ago, and I appreciate that he took the time to learn more about them. I’m addressing the general “where do you find the time?” attitude that many people have about bloggers, not criticizing Rich!
MORE: Hawkeye, a new contributor over at GeeGuy’s Electric City Weblog, does a semi-fisking of the article.

February 27, 2007 | Filed Under blogging | 13 Comments 

Snow Snow Snow!

Let’s recap: two weeks ago, it snowed for about three days non-stop; not a whole lot of accumulation (about 10 or 12 inches?), and the Chinook got rid of it pretty quick. And then on Friday morning, we had that snowy/rainy/slushy stuff that wreaked havoc on the roads (and caused my first-ever collision with another object). That wasn’t “fun” snow. And now today, we’re up to about, what, two inches so far? Not as powdery as two snowfalls ago, but not nearly as wet as Friday’s. I suspect that most of you know how I feel about the snow, but I’m curious - have you had enough, or would you love to see even more of the fluffy white stuff?

February 26, 2007 | Filed Under weather | 3 Comments 

New Kid On The Blog

Woohoo! Another Great Falls blogger - this one goes by the name of GiftShoppeGuy. I first crossed paths with him over at the Montana forums a few days ago (thanks to GeeGuy). GiftShoppeGuy also operates the Cowpie.biz Montana-based search engine. Go say howdy!

February 25, 2007 | Filed Under blogging | Leave a Comment 

Taking The Pulse

Received an email from Amy, the new leader of the organization formerly known as “YES! Great Falls.” The new name for the group is Pulse-Great Falls, and it sounds like the group is off to a successful re-launch. here’s a condensed version of her message:

February 25, 2007 | Filed Under business, civics | 2 Comments 

Wanna Blog?

If you’ve ever considered starting your own blog…there’s no time like the present. Why would you want to create a blog? Well, maybe you just want a forum to express your opinions, whether personal or political. Many people blog in order to share their creativity, including literary, foody, and visual.

February 24, 2007 | Filed Under blogging | Leave a Comment 

Good Bad and Ugly

Over at Mountain Front Observations, there’s a classic quote from Tuco. Which reminded me that if you are reading this on Saturday afternoon (February 24), and you happen to love “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly,” you’re in luck - if you have Bresnan digital cable, anyway. The ultra-classic movie will be shown three times on channels 523 and 524 today (the Western Movie channels); once at 3:00, once at 6:00, and once at 11:00pm.

February 24, 2007 | Filed Under media | Leave a Comment 

Amazing Toys

Pssst…wanna hear a secret? Just found out that Amazing Toys - located downtown on Central Avenue- is having a 10% off sale! Just go to their website and print out this coupon to take with you during the month of March!

February 23, 2007 | Filed Under business | Leave a Comment 

Great, Greater

Last year, on February 20, the Trib released the results of an informal survey of Great Falls residents: “What Makes Great Falls So Great?”

Which got me to thinking: what keeps you cool people coming back to GreaterFalls.com? Is there anything specific that you like about the site? Conversely, is there anything that you don’t like about it, or would like to change in some way?

And one other thing: if you visit this page but have never left a comment, now is the time to do so! It’s time to come out of “lurker” mode and leave a comment and say HI! to Great Falls!

February 21, 2007 | Filed Under civics, blogging | 4 Comments 

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