Hey folks!

Thanks for stopping by.
I know that I haven’t given you much reason to do so lately.

I am working to change that.
To that end I have launched a new site that will be focused on the family news.
(see previous post)

This will allow DougMeade.com to get back to it’s original charter… me.

You may have noticed that I have also redesigned the site a bit.
(screenshot)

I hope you enjoy and welcome your feedback.

As I ease myself back into the swing of things here please excuse the mess.
I am still tweaking the design and there may be some rough edges.

Please comment here if you see anything weird.

Thanks!
Doug

Hey there everyone!
I’m very pleased to announce the launch of a new website.
TheMeadeFamily.net!!

Why a new site?
Well I know that many of you are only checking DougMeade.com for the latest news,photos, and video that star Ethan.
Now you’ll be able to get your family fix without sifting through my “off topic” rants on this or that.

I will still put the much of the Ethan related material on DougMeade.com but I will also still be posting other items that are on my mind.

So the choice is now yours…
TheMeadeFamily.net for no nonsense Family news. or…
DougMeade.com for that and anything else I feel like posting.

Enjoy!

Ok so I think it’s pretty clear that I’m on … leave… regarding dougmeade.com.
I will eventually get back to it.

I’ve SOOOOOOoooo much going on right now I just don’t have time to blog.

Many of you are here to keep up with the latest happening with Ethan.
You can keep tabs on our adventures via our photos here.

See you back here…
later…

The Meade Family Photo Album.

Hi folks…

Some news worth reporting for anyone that follows the cigar related posts here.

I have started a new blog specific to cigars.
It’s called “Stogie Cast” and you can find it at stogiecast.com

From now on I’ll be posting my cigar related posts there.
Occasionally I’ll post a link to one of them here.
Here’s the first such occasion.
This post is pretty interesting pertaining to a very high profile cigar company.
CAO Bought out?!

“Cigar Aficionado is reporting that CAO cigars has been bought out!

For better or worse CAO is a very strong brand in the cigar world and I find this news a little discomforting.
Even if you’re not a fan of their cigars (I happen to be pretty big fan myself) you have to admit that the company’s hip marketing has elevated the industry to some degree.

People often talk about the cigar boon in the mid 1990s as a mixed blessing.
It brought new life to the industry, but also strained supplies.
Manufactures rushed to meet demand and thus quality of the cigars fell as tobacco was used before it would normally have been.
(or so goes the story)
Waves of “no name” brands entered the market… and were dead and gone by 1998.“

Click HERE for the whole story…

Well hello there everyone.
Sorry for the long delay.
The good news is that I am finally getting the photos updated.

I’ve decided to use a service called “Flikr” to host our photos.
So far I am very impressed with the service.
I don’t have a lot added yet - and there is some clean up work yet to be done - but at long last there is light at the end of the tunnel.

I’ve also started the process of integrating the flikr service into my site here so that the experience is seamless for you, my beloved visitors.
Here’s the link to what will eventually be the DougMeade.com photo section.

Please keep in mind that at the time of this writing there is MUCH left to do.
The actual look & feel of the photo section isn’t at all close to done yet.
Also there aren’t a great many photos available.

But in due time we’ll get everything moved over.
Until then I will at least do my best to keep the most recent photos updated in a timely fashion.

Check it out HERE

Ok folks we’re finally up and running on WordPress.
Dave helped me with the tedious conversion - Thanks Dave!

Now we should see a marked reduction (if not elimination) of the ridiculous spam that was flooding the site.

There are a few things you should know about the new system.

1) Your user name was saved - but your password was not.
(For security reasons even I do not have access to that data)

If you want to log in - you can use the “I forgot my password” link to get a new one if you’d like.

Of course you don’t really NEED to log in but it will save you some time.
Logged in users don’t need to enter in the security code to prove they are human. And of course the site will remember logged in users’ info … so less typing all around.

2) There are still some loose ends.

I am still going back and tagging old Blogs with appropriate categories…
This is a tedious process and may take some time.
Until it’s complete just know that if you click the “poker” icon at the top of the page you may or may not be seeing ALL relevant posts

Also the links, and Resume pages are not 100% just yet.

3) New Navigation concept.

The icons at the top of the page will take you to all posts with the categories that the icons represent.

I think that’s neat… but please know that those are not the ONLY categories.
As you peruse the site, should you stumble upon a post that has an interesting category… click it! There may be many more posts in that genre.

4) Photos to be re-done as well.

Soon (I hope) I will have the photos section moved over to a new (more robust) solution. Once that’s done expect a lot more photos of Ethan to be posted.

Attention !!!

The stupid slime eating hackbas have been filling my site with spam faster than I can delete them.

I can no longer allow links to porn and drugs to clutter the site.

To that end commenting has been disabled.

I am working on a long term fix and will post again when commenting functionality is restored.

ATTENTION Friends, Family, and Loyal Readers:

As you may have noticed DougMeade.com has been getting flooded with “comment spam”.

Some idiot hackbas that post porn links and what not on any site that lets them post a comment have found our little internet gem.

(if you know what hackbas means then you have truly been with DougMeade.com for a long time… comment with it’s meaning and perhaps I’ll send you a free DougMeade.com T-Shirt!)

Anyway…

There are a couple of things I COULD do to stop said hackbas.
I could build a security application into my site.
But that would take some time and effort that honestly… I’d rather not expend.

Or… I could move the site over to an entirely new system.
A “best of breed” blogging application.

There are pros and cons for each possible solution.

The UPSIDE of moving to a new system is that I will get away from my “built from scratch custom” web site.

While I used to take great pride in running such a web site… as I get older I find myself with less and less time to keep it up to speed with all the latest cutting-edge technologies.
(thus the hackba spammmers).
I still want to USE the latest cutting-edge technologies … I just don’t have the time I once did to write my own version of them.

The DOWNSIDE is that once the site was moved over all you wonderful registered users would likely have to follow the “I forgot my password” link to reset your DougMeade.com password and thus initialize it in the new site.
Annoying? Yes.
But a small price to pay if it means the end of spamming hackas.

Please post here if you have any strong opinion / emotion on this proposed solution.

By the way - anyone who posts a definition of Hackbas without a relevant comment regarding the possible move to a new web application will not be eligible for the T-Shirt.

If you aren’t gonna read the whole blog you don’t deserve one.

If you read the whole blog - take the time to comment - but don’t bother to say something relevant … you don’t deserve one.

The links to my friends, family, and daily Blog intake will be back.

It’s not gone forever, I just haven’t added them to the theme.

Stay tuned… I’ll update this story when it’s all back up and running.

Ok…

So there’s been LOTS of work going on among the Triad lately.

HFO is midway through it’s efforts at re-creating itself.

It’s going to be a new and exciting site, and I personally can’t wait!

And several tweaks have been done here as well.

1) The XML / RSS pages have been updated.

Not only is it easier to navigate but I’m working towards listing the feed in iTUNES.

2) The Vlogs now play inline

So you don’t have to deal with a pop-up window to watch them.

3) And I’ve added the cool little calendar to the right of the page.

The Calendar highlights, in red, each day that there has been a Blog, Vlog, or Podcast.

Click on the red number to see the posts for that day.

All very exciting.

Some classified work has been going on behind the scenes as well, and it will all culminate in the launch of a new theme, and my RSS feed being available in the iTUNES directory.

Some big tasks still need to be done.

The “templating / style” system of Wiba has been a hack ever since I moved the main content to phpbb so I need to fix that before I launch a new theme.

Once done though it will be a big load off my to-do list, and all the old themes will once again be available.

Probably the biggest pain in the neck though is iTUNES.

I don’t have QuickTime Pro and I can’t find away to convert all my Vlogs to QuickTime with the “faststart” functionality without it.

And until I figure this out.. the iTUNES directory listing remains just out of reach.

This is a problem because I find I don’t even want to release a Vlog until I get a solution for this.

Which is slowing the content here. Sorry.

Now I know that most of you will say

“Um… go buy QuickTime Pro.”

To which I reply

“THIRTY DOLLARS?! Good LORD that’s a lot of money.
How about I give you a nickel and you sing me an iTUNE!”

But it looks like I may have to break down and get it.

Though… I’ll likely wait until after the holidays. All my extra cash is going towards presents at the moment.

So hang in there.

Thanks for visiting, and rest assured there IS activity.

Many good things are on the horizon.

+12 Kudos point to Dave for his work on this site, and on the HFO.