I’m very excited to say that I got a new job. It’s at a cool web consulting firm in Frederick, which is where I live. Which means less time in my car and more time with them. I’m scared and excited. I will miss all my old work friends, but look forward to making new work friends. Ch-ch-changes.

I have been very busy the last couple weeks wrapping stuff up and getting ready to move on. I presume this perpetual state of movement will continue in the coming weeks and I wont have a whole bunch of time to blog here. You can always count on some little nuggets of fun from my Tumblr blog though (subscribe via RSS or email).

Wish me luck!

Are you a poker chick?

This documentary will focus on the increasing numbers of females competing in tournament-level poker, and provide insight into the motivation, psychology, and characteristics of this emerging demographic.

The producers are actively soliciting interviews with California- and Maryland-based local/regional champions, as well as World Series of Poker (WSOP) and World Poker Tour former bracelet winners and current competitors. The goal is to profile 4-6 women who represent the range of personalities among female poker players, and illustrate through their experiences the rewards and challenges of participating in this sport.

While this documentary will necessarily show women in tournament settings, the focus will be on the player as opposed to the actual play. The producers are eager to learn about and share with viewers the mind, heart, and soul of female players.

We’ll be in Las Vegas for the WSOP Ladies No-Limit Hold’em event, June 7-10, 2008; and for the Main Event, July 3-6, 2008. If you are interested in being interviewed for “Poker Chicks”, please email Candi at candi@celticknotproductions.com or call 301-529-3322.

The producer of this documentary is a good friend of mine. She is also looking for sponsors for the film, not to turn a profit, but to off-set production costs. Please pass this along to any “poker chicks” you may know.

I was in my local paper this week. Nothing major, my name, a quote, and my picture (a really bad one, thankfully only in the print edition). Last week I took a tour of a new local restaurant currently under construction. I’ve been interviewed for the Baltimore Sun, Frederick Magazine, and a couple more articles in my local papers.

Why in the world would reporters and restaurateurs care about me? Because I blog about the town I live in. About 4 years ago I started a blog about my town. What started as me plinking on the keyboard about my favorite local wing or beer joints for an audience of my friends and family who humored me is now a group blog with 200 plus subscribers and out 30,000 page views a month. Ok so it’s not Techcrunch or Boing Boing numbers, but it still amazes me.

I’m not writing this to toot my own horn. In fact I’m still amazed that reporters call me or people read the blog. The reason that I’m writing this is to encourage you to start a blog about your town. Or if you don’t want to start a blog find one and participate (you’d be amazed, but there is probably someone out there already publishing insider news about your town), connect with your neighbors on Yelp!, or some other local gateway.

Local blogging is a great way to learn about the place you live in. For every nugget of information you publish you will probably learn double from tips or comments from the people reading your site. There has never been a better time to start a blog with multiple free platforms to use. Go ahead and give it a try you may actually learn something or make some new friends.

I can probably expect more of this today with the rain we are getting.

My new favorite evening snack is a small bowl containing the following ingredients …

• One scoop of vanilla ice cream
• One heaping spoon full of peanut butter
• And some chocolate syrup drizzled on top

A couple nights of these coupled with my inactivity due to injury (a banged-up knee and pinky toe from kickball) and I should be good and fat soon.