Schleifstein.net

Today it became official. With the publishing of my first post on DownloadSquad.com I have now returned to pro-blogging. As you may remember I started blogging about Flash way back in early 2005 on FlashInsider.com as part of the Weblogs, Inc Network. The network got bought by AOL that fall and FlashInsider got retired soon after (we only have a few bloggers and two of us were in NOLA for Katrina, so I guess you could say the site was another victim of the storm). A while later, after returning to New Orleans, I started blogging for BloggingNewOrleans.com (also on Weblogs, Inc). Soon I was promoted to lead blogger there and wrote often about the state of the city. Unfortunately the site was retired around the same time the baby was born and I decided to take some time off of blogging (I got burnt out writing about NOLA and didn’t have time). Last month of so I emailed DLS and asked if they were hiring since I thought they could use a Flash blogger and they immediately brought me aboard. And so today I have posted for the first time. Read my review of the science fiction short story podcast Escape Pod at Download Squad.

The place where I graduated from high school and college and whose locker room I kept clean will it was used by visiting teams playing the Z’s and I zipped around in a golf cart with Z’s equipment while I was a batboy is reopening tonight. For the first time since the storm the New Orleans Lakefront Arena at University of New Orleans is going to open its doors and have an event. Sure it’s high school music on ice, but its a start.

The concerts are sure to get better. All kinds of artists played there over the years and I ran into a few of them while a batboy for the Z’s in high school. I met Soundgarden once in the hallway while working a game (they were on their way to the stage before a show) and drove Meatloaf and a clubhouse manager and his manager on a golfcart to see a game once (while he was waiting to go on stage at the arena).

Anyway, welcome back arena, we missed you and thank you for being the latest sign of the recovery of the crescent city.

big girl blocks

Originally uploaded by schleifnet

I am Annabel and I am 6 months old. I live in a house in Metairie with my Mama and Daddy. I have a white cat named Gracie, a black cat name Gromit and Leo - he’s an orange cat. People say he looks like me - strawberry blonde and PRECOCIOUS. That’s what my mama says I am PRECOCIOUS it means I am very very very smart!

I am so smart that I already have blocks. Mama made them for me. Daddy says mama is precocious - I guess she takes after me. I am holding the “C” up because I am thinking about cats. There is an “A” on one side and that is for Annabel, there is a “B” on one side and that is for Baby Belle and there is a “D” on one side and that is for Devaney - of course.
Devaney is my third name - I have four names on my birth certificate - 34 letters - because I am very important. Annabel Margaret Devaney Schleifstein. I have more letters than the alphabet. Schleifstein used to belong to my daddy and Devaney used to belong to my mama and Margaret was my grandmother’s but now they all belong to me - just like Annabel.
My mama used to write about me - long ago when I was very small. But, she spends too much time feeding me and changing my diaper so I have taken over the writing - I think I am much better than her… it is because I am PRECOCIOUS. Before mama - this blog used to belong to daddy - but he only wrote about boring things… not about me.
I have to go now - mama is trying to change my diaper - I wish she would just let me go around without one - like the cats. When I am bigger I shall just use the litter box and then I won’t need diapers anymore.

Mike the admin here, just wanted to call you attention to two new things in the sidebar.

Although I don’t like the idea of certain types of social networks (stalking is bad) I have joined twitter, finally. I was sucked in by Twit.tv, Jason Calacanis, Slice of Scifi and PVPonline and just couldn’t hold out any longer.

 I also added a running feed of my del.icio.us bookmarks. I’ve used the site for quite a while to track cool sites and keep tabs on ideas for blog posts for WIN while at flashinsider and bloggingneworleans and i have wanted to add a running tag here for a while, but never got around to it til recently.

 Anyway just wanted to give you a heads up.

Baby’s fine. Wife’s good. Be sure to check flickr often for pics and now movies (add us as a contact to see everything, we like to keep most family photos private).

This past week powweb (my hosting company) did a mysql update and schleifstein.net went down… apparently they changed some location settings that borked wordpress. We wouldn’t have been effected, but i did the wordpress install myself before it became a standard install option for all sites on powweb (like the install on my dad’s site, buy his book) and so the upgrade changed his settings automatically, but not mine… anyway, all fixed now, yay.more posting soon, via me, maybe here maybe back on WIN… 

My father co-wrote a series for the Times Pic back in March called Last Chance. The series discusses coastal erosion, how we are loosing our coast and how Louisiana can hope to save it and rebuild it (good read by the by). The series was announced today as one of the finalists for the 2007 Investigative Reporters and Editors Awards. It was a finalist for a medal (the highest IRE Award) in the medium sized newspaper category. Congrats.

This weekend I decided to return to the past via my phone number. You see, right before Katrina Mandy and I decided to loan the brother in law, Adam, my cell phone. due to the storm I did not get back the phone until very recently. We decided to let him keep it indefinitely and added a third line to the plan for me with a Florida number. The plan was never to keep that number indefinitely, but only until we settled somewhere and then it would change area codes (I have been paying a florida and louisiana cell phone tax for over two years now). Well, since Adam got a new job with a work cell phone he didn’t need our extra line anymore. Since that was back in November and he passed out his new number to all who needed it and since its now March, I figured I could take back the line and return to my pre-Katrina number.Yes that’s right, my cell phone number is changing. If you need to call Mike, call his old cell phone number (the one from way back in the day) or Adam’s old number (the new orleans area code one). If you don’t know what that number is either email Mike at any of his addresses or use the contact form on this page to ping me for my new old number.Yay, new old numbers.