Although aggregator readers might have thought I was taking some more time off, those who visited this site over the past few days noticed that Winecast was down. Most of the time this is due to a short term outage with my web host but this time it was a corrupt WordPress installation.
So if you use WordPress, a few words of advice. First, upgrade to WordPress 2.6. It’s solid and worth the upgrade for it’s ability to activate multiple plug-ins at once and addition of Google Gears compatibility. But when you do your upgrade, look at your plugins, particularly those with some age on them and eliminate anything you are not using. It is also a good idea to delete your cache folder and files if using WP Super Cache. The plugin will recreate what it needs when you reactivate.
And finally, check out your wp-config.php file against the sample in WordPress 2.6. There were several lines missing in mine as I have not touched it since WordPress 1.5. I think it was a corrupt plugin or two but it also could have been these missing elements in the config file. If you are looking for more WordPress tips, follow the series on my company blog.
And now back to wine blogging…
My apologies for the lack of content these past several weeks. All is well and I will return to regular programming shortly. Thanks to all who checked in…
The Unfiltered podcast with co-host Jeff Lefevere of Good Grape rolls into it’s second season this Sunday afternoon and you are invited to join us.
Instead of recording our Skype call and producing the show for later release, we will be streaming live from Talkshoe. We have invited another group of wine bloggers, writers and podcasters to discuss the burning issues of the day. If you would like a jump on the topics, just head over to our del.icio.us feed and look for “episode 8″ links.
The best part of this arrangement is you can call in and be part of the conversation or you can hang out in our chat-room which I will monitor as we record.
We will start the show at 4:00 pm EDT this Sunday, March 30th.
So if you’ve wanted to be on Winecast, now is your chance.
Call in details:
Phone Number: +1 (724) 444-7444
Call ID: 16856
I’ll also record and release the podcast as usual on the feeds after we are concluded for subscribers.
OK, I’ve got to come clean, dear reader, I’ve been a bad podcaster. For nearly two years now my production has been few and too far between. For that, I’m sorry but things are about to change.
As I thought about my dearth of podcasts one thing was consistent: I didn’t have a “to-do” list.
So that is now in place and beginning tomorrow things will start to become more consistent here from an audio perspective. I have 9 shows recorded and just need to record intros and tasting notes segments. I also have a new idea for a new podcast version that I will try out in the morning.
You will see a continuation of the classic podcast, quick picks and unfiltered along with something I’m calling repost… and I’ve got some new ideas on how to do video (no, Gary will not be challenged).
Thanks for your support so far and the best is yet to be recorded.
One of my blog subscriptions is to Hugh MacLeod’s personal blog, gapingvoid. If you don’t know Hugh, he’s the guy who is behind Stormhoek’s conversational marketing success. I interviewed him and Stormhoek principal Jason Korman last year.
Yesterday Hugh posted some thoughts on his blogging (or lack, thereof) that rang true with me:
| So this last week I’ve been telling people I work with, I’m changing the game plan. I’m going back to basics. From now on building “the gapingvoid brand” will become my first priority. |
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Like Hugh, I’ve let the various demands of commerce get in the way of my blogging and podcasting here. So it’s back to basics with daily posts and more wine reviews. My bi-weekly podcast regime is also back in action, which will be maintained from here on. It’s easy to let this blog slide as it produces next to no income but it’s what the conversation triggers that produces the reward.
Winecast is back in business full-time… thanks once again, Hugh!
For listeners who want to stay up with the latest podcasts while traveling, I’ve setup a new iPhone-friendly page and have put a new button to it on the right sidebar.
Since I don’t have an iPhone yet, I hope it works as advertised; let me know… A trip to my local AT&T or Apple Store is in my immediate future to see how it works on the real thing.
There is a bug in my WordPress template so I’ve temporally switched to a plain text theme until I figure it out… at least it will load now.
A few folks have asked me about how my wine cellar is doing since a fire there some weeks ago. I’m happy to report that it is today back to the way it was when it was first constructed almost 4 years ago. The final touches were put on this morning and it is now a blank canvas awaiting new racks and a Breezaire cooler.
Here’s some pictures from this week I’ve uploaded to my Flickr stream:
The blocks that the fire dept. broke are replaced and wall put back in place…
…next is the vapor seal…
…the cedar panels are in place awaiting some new racks.
I’ll be posting again once the racks get installed and I’ll be in stocking mode. Perhaps we can have some fun with that last bit…
