ColinAke.com…until I write a book.

For those of you who are not “in the know” or fans of what I like to call the godfathers of modern rock and roll (AC/DC), the aforementioned band releases a new CD on October 20 (available only at… WalMart??!?) and kicks off a tour shortly thereafter.

All that to say, I’m extremely pumped and looking forward to the AC/DC concert in Atlanta on December 16.  I’m going with Nathan, Lance, and Mark, some good friends of mine.  Nathan and I recently started a to-do list for the concert, which includes:

• Pre-Order new CD
• Wear AC/DC shirt to show
• Familiarize yourself with lyrics most likely to be sung along with
• Take Earplugs
• Purchase shirt from current tour

We’ve also started finishing every correspondance we have with “And we’re going to AC/DC!” or some variation thereof.

For the unconvinced, check out AC/DC’s epic songs - and this literally is the tip of the iceberg - Back In Black, Shook Me All Night Long, Thunderstruck, TNT, For Those About To Rock and more…

Any way you put it, I’m excited to be going to the show.  Need to start hunting for that t-shirt.

Colin

I’m cutting edge here, y’all. By cutting edge, I mean I happened upon IntenseDebate a few months ago and have been beta testing the heck out of their new WordPress plugin, which has some SWEET features that are not offered by their competitors.  So you blogger peoples out there should be thrilled to see IntenseDebate acquired recently by Automattic, the outfit that runs WordPress.  There will soon be even better integration between ID and WordPress and I think the plugin I’ve been testing is the core of this purchase - it’s sweet to be in on something that millions of other bloggers aren’t.

On another note, I LOVE seeing success stories like this go down.  Michael Koenig, the ID support guy, is perhaps one of the nicest people I’ve “met” online - he’s been great in relation to ID support and has taken the time to drop me a personal email during the loss of my grandmother. I really appreciate the attention to detail, willingness to get to know their customers and listen to bloggers, and dedication to creating a better product.  IntenseDebate, with this new plugin, is THE best comment system in WordPress without a doubt.  The trick is getting people to comment on my blog now. :)

Congratulations to Jon and Michael, and the rest of the team.  I love it when people roughly my age succeed at starting and selling a business. I’m sure that the rest of you WordPress users will see IntenseDebate become more popular and an even more awesome comment system in the years to come.

Congrats, guys!

Colin

• Heading to bed. Up way early to head to Savannah to see my cousin, who is recovering well from surgery. #
• Beginning the drive. RATM on the radio, making me happy. Unfortunately it won’t last. #
• @ericvon you need more signal. Driving to savannah, about to be condemned to 9 sucks 1. :( #
• Made it just in time for Savannah’s rush hour. Sweet. #
• It was too recent that I was in a hospital room like this one. Kind of eerie to be back. Heading back to Atlanta to beat traffic soon. #
• Battling traffic and pondering value propositions. #

I recently joined a starting meetup group of bloggers in Atlanta - the Atlanta Bloggers Meetup… It’s an interesting group with a wide range of bloggers, from beginners to people who have been blogging a while, to people like me who start and stop without notice.  Last time we were given homework - write a post about our blogging platform.  So, for those of you who either blog or want to blog, here’s my plug of WordPress and why I like it.

WordPress makes it easy to start blogging.  Whether you’re using WordPress.com - hosted blog solutions (yourblog.wordpress.com) or WordPress.org if you’re hosting it on your own server, WordPress is easy to use. WordPress.org is VERY easy to install (famous for the 5 minute install) and it’s quite the platform beyond that.

WordPress has TONS of plugins. From comment systems (IntenseDebate is the way to go) to stat counters to SEO optimization to spam filters, WordPress has got it going on. Frankly, you can find almost any plugin to modify your WordPress install into a photoblog, podcast, or any other popular blog format.  I think you should have the following plugins, at least… StatCounter, IntenseDebate (currently in private beta), FeedBurner (RSS feed tracker), Akismet (spam killer), and MyPageOrder (lets you order which pages show up in navigation where). Beyond that, make your own stuff up - but if you need it, it’s probably out there.

I think WordPress makes it easy to blog. Easy to write. Auto saved drafts. Always updating, always purchasing new technologies that make blogging easier. And it’s not THAT incredibly hard to modify themes, which, by the way, are readily available… There are billions of free varations out there.  Ok, maybe not billions, but a bunch.

So go start a blog. The trick is consistency, something you should know by now that I’m not good at.

Let me know if you need WP help.

Colin

• Hunting for some #atlgas near collier/howell mill. Wish me luck. #
• Got gas at Defoors and Collier. Waited 3 minutes, 4.29. #atlgas Pumps are reee-heee-heeeally slow. #
• Shell @ Howell Mill north of I-75 reportedly will have more gas tomorrow at 6AM. #
• @JonathanTorrell Ha, no thanks. I’ll be up that early but I’ll be heading to work. Just head up Collier now if ya want, maybe a lil wait now #
• @JonathanTorrell Let me know how that works out for ya. I have a bike if you need to borrow it. #
• @betsyflanagan Thanks for the follow. And IMO @IntenseDebate is the bomb. Great WP integration, great team of guys, reachable on Twitter. #
• Jon Stewart is on his game tonight - perfectly skewering pretty much everyone and everything. #
• Reading: “NASA at 50: Lost in space? - CNN.com” ( http://tinyurl.com/4nmknt ) #
• Haven’t gotten an email from Barcamp despite signing up a week-ish ago. Wonder if that’s normal? #
• Wishing there were a site that would connect entrepreneurial spirits in college in the same city… Need a CS dude. #
• @adams472 Two weekends - Oct 17-18. http://www.barcampatlanta.com #
• @davidbauder Whatever it was, it was all my fault. I was feeding my addiction to Doritos. #
• Talked @timake and @stephenake into a family startup weekend later this month, hopefully. #
• @adams472 My thoughts exactly - Since McCain will win GA easily, I’m giving every candidate a look and voting for who I think would be BEST. #
• Cousin’s in surgery on his broken neck (two places)… Pray for him if you get a minute. #
• Executive speakers from Grant Thornton’s consulting division. Just labeled SarbOx good business practices… #
• The more I sit through ERP related classes, the less I want to be an ERP expert. #
• Despite an energy drink I’ve been dozing… Looking around there are about three others battling sleep. Hint to speakers: you’re boring. #
• Attempting to use A.Viary for some mockups. #
• Are there any TechStars/YCombinator programs based in Atlanta? #
• @MelanieBrandt Treating high school kids that way is the best way to ensure the project is revealed. #
• Cousin is out of surgery and recovering well. Still in lots of pain, asked about seeing me… Trying to figure out if I can make the trip. #
• Executive Speaker Jim McCaffrey of TBS at Impact Speaker series. #
• @bperdue Wish I’d have known you were there, would have been good to put a face with a Twitter account. #
• Great talk by Turner’s Chief Strategy Officer tonight. Awesome slides, too. #
• @artisonian wish you could have stayed. Thanks for fixing the computer/projector system. #

Getting gas in Atlanta is not an easy task right now.  First, you have to find a station with gas. Second, you have to wait in line for anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour and a half.  If you’re lucky, you won’t get cut off, yelled at, run over, sworn at, flicked off, or rear ended.

It’s interesting to see how the city is coping with the gas shortage.  AJC.com has begun to link to search.twitter.com searching for the hashtag #atlgas, which is a tag people put on the end of their tweets regarding gas in Atlanta, helping people find gas.  If you’re looking for another way to find gas stations, check out JamCode and enter your zip… I think it’s proven useful to some people.  If you have an iPhone, there’s a JamCode app available called GasBag.

A few things to remember…

• Don’t fill up just for the heck of it, please. It doesn’t help to have unneccesarily high demand.
• Drive less. Bike. Walk. Or work from home.
• Don’t cut me off in line even if you DO work for the federal government. Everyone should have to wait in line, unless they have a gas pump maintained by their employer, like the Police do.
• Drive slower when you do drive - make sure overdrive is turned on too - both of these things use less gas.
• Keep the air conditioner off and the windows open. The weather is beautiful anyways, so take the opportunity to sing (even if you’re bad at it) with the wind in your hair.
• Be courteous.
• Send me $20. Just making sure you’re actually reading.

Alright, that’s the gas deal in Atlanta.  If you’re out of town, be happy. If you’re in the greater Atlanta area and use Twitter, use the #atlgas hashtag to let others know when you see gas.

As for me, I hope I can make it through the week on just under half a tank.

Take care.

Colin

• Great night at the @mondaynightbrew. Off to the last regular season flag football game! #
• Just logged into FeedBurner to check on my blogs. From 13 subscribers to 0?? I’m not buying that. Not fun to figure out why, though. #
• Still looking for resume feedback… Pile on if ya want! DM/email me, or just review on Razume. http://is.gd/2P9R #
• People giving presentation are picking on the noisy over involved student in front of class by asking his opinion for laughs. Hilarious. #
• Over involved student is now giving critical review of presentation group as if he’s the topical expert. Oh, and he didn’t pay attention. #
• @pfreet Is there an article to go along with those quotes? #
• @ChetHusk Consumer Behavior. Group presentations today. #
• @gregbond Disgusting. How many babies can you fit in… etc. Absolutely repulsing. #
• Participating in a study on calculator purchasing habits for College of Management for 10 extra points on an exam. Boring study, easy points #
• @benag Is it open to people who didn’t get the invite? #
• This is GREAT - found through @Regator - Subprimes explained in stick cartoons. A MUST see! http://is.gd/3lzv #

I don’t pull for Alabama all the time, even though I have friends who wish I would.  I was raised to root for two college football teams every Saturday… Georgia Tech, and whoever is playing Georgia. For as long as I can remember, I’ve pulled against Georgia and now, more than ever, I’m glad I do so.  This was supposed to be their championship year, their year of undefeated football. And they got destroyed by ‘Bama this past weekend.

More than ever, I’ve noticed how obnoxious UGA fans can really be - they’re not normal obnoxious, it’s like they’ve taken obnoxiousness classes… And with majors like “Pre Business” and “Building,” who can blame them? Got to fill hours somehow.

So - go Alabama - that was a great game, if you’re not a “Dawg” fan.  And I’m not just NOT a “Dawg” fan, I pull against them.  Now, excuse me, I should really go buy the shirt from the bookstore that says “I pull for GT and whoever is playing UGA.”

I bleed white and gold, sucker. And I’m impressed with our team, and looking forward to November.

Colin

PS - Hope KnowShow is healthy in time for the Jackets defense…

• Definitely believe I’ll be biking to work/school Tuesday/Thursday this week. Need to buy a bike lock - any suggestions? #
• Proof that my mind isn’t ready for school: forgot which floor my first class is on. #
• @TwitterFeed is difficult to use. I’m logged into WordPress.com but it won’t let me log in with my OpenID. Laaaame. #
• Hah. Trying to find better ways to feed my blog RSS to Twitter than TwitterFeed. Second google result is @Stammy’s blog on the subject. #
• Beginning our SAP simulation in Business Process Analysis and Design… Sweet. #
• The fact that people are rushing to a decision on the $700B, 100+ page bill that will impact my future is NOT comforting. #
• Not sure, but I think I’m cool with the bill failing. If you have money (read: not in college), buy now? #
• Newt: ““The bill is not the best proposal for solving the crisis. It is not even a good proposal for solving the crisis.” http://is.gd/3hXU #
• @bigpeteb I’m with @ciono - throw ‘em on FB. Really hard to look at them when each file has to be downloaded. #
• @gregbond I’m with you, but there’s no way it actually happens. #
• In case the economy fails, anyone else want to chip in and just get this sucker? http://www.silohome.com I’ll bring the popcorn. #
• @ChetHusk So just go take it over? I’ll bring the….pitchforks? #
• Looking forward to the ever-awesome @mondaynightbrew - headless horseman pumpkin ale? Nice. Looking forward to coffee with @gcrisp first. #
• Unfollowing people who incessantly rant irrationally against either political candidate. #
• Just met with @gcrisp regarding Project Mayhem. Time to run home. Still searching for a primary entrepre-developer… Any ideas out there? #
• @mondaynightbrew Bringing another roommate along tonight, I believe. Looking forward to hanging out for longer than last week. #
• Watching: “YouTube - Ron Paul: Corporatism - not free markets” ( http://tinyurl.com/3ktj8q ) #

Hey Fellas -

I’ve implemented a new widget on the right-hand side of the blog recently - it’s called Skribit and it’s a content suggestion system that YOU get to control.  Want to see more reviews of web 2.0 applications?  Vote for it. Want to see me write about open source in the military? Vote for it.  Want to see me write about monkeys in the amazon rainforest that use Twitter?  Suggest it.  Skribit is a great tool for you to use to let me know what you want.

Skribit is the brainchild of Georgia Tech student and popular blogger Paul Stamatiou.  Paul introduced the Skribit idea at Atlanta Startup Weekend last year and the application was built.  He works with a couple other programmers and gets frequent advice from people over at Georgia Tech’s ATDC.

Give me some suggestions - they don’t have to be groundbreaking but they may make me blog more.

Take care, and good luck getting gas if you’re in Atlanta.

Colin