Site Updates

A personal website has just been a thing I’ve never been able to let go of. I’ve been horrible about updating them, but I’ve always kept a site around. As such, I realized recently that I’ve had a website continuously for almost 30 years. I got my first website around 1995 or 1996 when I headed off to college. Let’s just say, none of us knew what we were doing. We coded our sites from hand and filled them with every animated gif we could find and no background image was too busy. The flaming logo still remains my personal favorite touch on my websites.

When I started OKC Bicyclist in 2008, on-line communities for Oklahoma City cyclists were pretty much non-existent. There were a few mailing lists, but there was no consistent source for area cycling news including both events and advocacy. Since then, much has changed both in the local cycling community and with the ways and means to collect and distribute news. We’ve seen both large advocacy groups such as the Oklahoma Bicycling Coalition and personal advocacy efforts such as Susan Lash’s All For the Love of Bikes dramatically expand their on-line outreach. In my own small way as the VP of the Oklahoma Bicycle Society, I have tried to expand their blogging and on-line outreach as well. And then there is the technology explosion of Twitter and Facebook which has completely changed how to distribute interesting news and links. At this point, the idea of a link blog such as OKC Bicyclist is a bit of an anachronism and has become a burden for me to maintain.

It’s with mixed emotions that I retire my home on the web for the last decade. When I purchased radicalwacko.com back in 2001, I was a young, aggressive Libertarian, who thought that he could and should change the world. In other words, I was an insufferable, young, recent college graduate that you wanted to avoid making eye contact with and save yourself from the pedantic lecture that would inevitably ensue.

Now as an older, crankier libertarian - who increasingly doesn’t give a damn - it starts to be embarrassing to give out a domain like radicalwacko.com. If you are over the age of 35 and still think of yourself as a radical or a wacko, you are either deluding yourself or you really probably should be on a watch list. I actually blush every time the Best Buy clerk asks me for my email address. At a certain point, you have to ask yourself why keep a domain name that you refuse to acknowledge.

Generally, I avoid joining protests, but occasionally there are ideas so bad that I can’t stay away.  Such is the case with the Protect IP Act (PIPA) which is coming up before the Senate next week.  The goal of protecting intellectual property is certainly a laudable one, but the means to achieve that goal must not come at the expense of the 1st amendment, nor should it fundamentally weaken the technological structure of the Internet.  The Protect-IP bill does all of this with a vague and poorly thought-out bill.

This site remains the project that I never seem to have enough time for and yet the project I don’t want to set aside.  Over the last couple of months I’ve been missing this site more and more and trying to find the time to write.

Then, at the beginning of the year, one of my favorite bike blogs (especially from a photography point of view), EcoVelo shut down.  I decided I didn’t want OKC Bicyclist to vanish from sight without a strong push to keep the site going and to grow it into the real local cycling news site I’ve always wanted it to be.

[caption id="" align=“alignright” width=“240” caption=“Photo By: Gino”][/caption]

So unfortunately, it has been another long delay since I was last able to dedicate some time to the blog.  At least this time I was able to spend some time during the last few months getting some great riding in, including a wonderful trip during this year’s Oklahoma Freewheel.  There has been a lot of news in the last couple of months so please have some patience as I get caught up . . .

 
Picture By: Mo Riza

Well, it has taken nearly two years of me saying, “Geez, I need to get caught up on OKC Bicyclist,” for me to actually do something about it, but finally it’s done.  Additionally, for the last couple of years, I’ve seen a true explosion in the number of cyclists out there, so I really think that this site could actually have an audience to serve.  So I guess, in a strange way, I’m calling this the grand opening of OKC Bicyclist.

When I started this site, I had dreams of enough spare time to keep it up.  Then I up and switched jobs.  The move has been great but it has eaten up an extended amount of my time for the last few months.  I’m slowly getting back to an even keel on things and have the itch to get back into posting.  I’ve got a bunch of catching up to do so look forward to more frequent updates.

Sorry, it’s been busy around the office as of late and this site has been slower to get started than I had ever imagined, but I’ve got several posts to make and should be able to get started on the rest of the work soon.

Staring at trucking regulation software code had started dissolving my brain as of late.  I’ve got way to much to do and too little time. And yet, I needed a project to take my mind off of it.  As many of you know, I’ve really gotten back into cycling lately (no spandex jokes necessary) and while I love riding around town, there’s not much in information about resources for Oklahoma City cyclists.  So, I’ve started OKCBicyclist.com in hopes of someday fixing that problem.  There’s nothing there yet, but you’ve got to start somewhere.  I figured a few of my local readers might be interested.  Oh yeah, before I forget, I know that  I’m no graphic designer. ;)