Category Archives: The South

I wish I was in the land of Dixie. Oh wait… I *am*!

Back from WordCamp Birmingham 2008

By Dougal | Published: October 1, 2008

Dougal, Mitch, and Donna

As mentioned previously, I gave a presentation last weekend at WordCamp Birmingham 2008 on “The Future of WordPress”. My section on “The Past of WordPress” ran a little longer than I had planned, but a lot of people told me that they liked that overview, so I guess it was alright. [...]

Also posted in Blogging, Community, WordPress | Tagged .net, acnatta, Alabama, app, ariedana, birmingham, dazzlindonna, griner, jeremyflint, Microsoft, plugin, SEO, sidesways, SocialNetworks, studionashvegas, twitter, wordcamp, wordcampbham, WordPress | 4 Comments

WordCamp Birmingham Registration Deadline Approaching

By Dougal | Published: September 22, 2008

If you have been thinking about attending WordCamp Birmingham 2008, but haven’t committed yet, now is the time. There are only a couple of hours left to sign up. Registration is only $25, and that includes lunch and a tee shirt — talk about a bargain! Register now!

Also posted in Announcements, Community, WordPress | Tagged Alabama, app, birmingham, conference, vulcan, wordcamp, wordcampbham, WordPress | 6 Comments

WordCamp Birmingham

By Dougal | Published: September 4, 2008

If you haven’t already heard, WordCamp Birmingham is coming up on September 27 & 28, 2008. And for those of you not in the States, that’s Birmingham, Alabama, not England. [...]

Also posted in Announcements, Community, WordPress | Tagged Alabama, birmingham, conference, events, future, geek, meeting, open sessions, presentations, public speaking, talks, Tech, Web, wordcamp, wordcampbham, WordPress, xfn | 15 Comments

Alabama Tornadoes

By Dougal | Published: March 2, 2007

Many of you are probably currently familiar with hearing about the tornado that hit Enterprise, Alabama yesterday. What you might not realize is that my wife and I both graduated from the high school that was leveled in that storm system. Seeing the devastation in our old home town has been very surreal for both of us.

Our niece, who is a senior this year, was at the high school when the tornado hit, and suffered some cuts and scratches. Her car was also damaged, but unlike many others we’ve seen on the news, her parents think it should still be drivable. [...]

Also posted in Family, Personal | Tagged Alabama, Feeds, Google, RSS, Tornado, Tornadoes, Weather, Wiregrass, yahoo | 9 Comments

Helping Hurricane Victims

By Dougal | Published: September 29, 2005

Do you wish that you could help a victim of Katrina or Rita? Do you have items that you think they need, but you aren’t sure where to send them? If you knew what somebody needed, would you like to be able to get it directly to them?

The Been There Clearing House is “an informal clearinghouse in which individuals offering in-kind donations and individuals in need can connect.” You can read the stories of those affected by the recent storms, donate or request goods, or adopt a family.

These stories are starting to get less media coverage now (except for some of the finger-pointing), but there are still many, many people who need help. [...]

Also posted in Community, News, WordPress | Tagged Charity, Hurricane, Katrina, Rita, WordPress | 5 Comments

Katrina aftermath

By Dougal | Published: September 6, 2005

I talked to my mom this morning, and she said that all of our Mississippi relatives are accounted for. One family lost their house and is staying with other relatives, and one of my great aunts fell and broke her hip, and is in the hospital. Other than that, everyone is fine.

Also posted in Family, News | Tagged Hurricanes, Katrina, Mississippi, Relief, Storms, Weather | 4 Comments

Katrina

By Dougal | Published: September 2, 2005

I have a lot of family in the areas affected by Hurricane Katrina. Fortunately, my closest relatives — my mother, father, step-father, grandmother, plus some aunts, uncles, and first cousins — were not in the most heavily affected areas. Granny was visiting one of my aunts in New York. Her flight home was canceled twice, so she returned on Wednesday instead of Monday, but at least she has a home to return to. My mom rode things out at her house in Fairhope, with not much worse than power outages and downed tree limbs. [...]

Also posted in Family, News | Tagged Alabama, Atlanta, Charity, Disasters, Georgia, Google, Hurricanes, Katrina, Mississippi, PHP, Relief, Storms, Weather | 16 Comments

Redneck

By Dougal | Published: June 6, 2005

I’m a redneck.

Not because I was born in Alabama and spent most of my life there. And not because I now live in Georgia. And definitely not in the sense of chawin’ tobaccy and watching NASCAR.

I’m a redneck because I spent most of hottest portion of Sunday out in the hot sun. I finally got around to starting a project of refinishing some old dressers for our kids — a project that Susan has been asking me to get done for quite some time now. We first had to clear a bunch of boxes out of our garage in order to get to said dressers. But the garage is packed to the gills with stuff, so the actual work had to take place in our driveway.

As a result, I now have a quite prominent farmer’s tan (hey, wow, no Wikipedia entry yet!). [...]

Also posted in Family, Fun, Personal | Tagged Alabama, Georgia | 5 Comments

Stone Mountain Highland Games

By Dougal | Published: October 19, 2004

Bagpipers on Parade

Susan and I went to the Stone Mountain Highland Games last Saturday. We had been told that it was “huge”, but we thought that it wasn’t that much bigger than the Alabama Highland Games, which we’ve attended the past few years. [...]

Also posted in Music, Scottish | Tagged Georgia | 6 Comments

Tips for Travelling in the South

By Dougal | Published: August 19, 2004

This is one of the funniest (and truest) things I’ve seen in a while: Tips for Travelling in the South (via monokinetic).

13) Donâ€™t ridicule our Southern manners. We say sir and maâ€™am. We hold doors open for others. We offer our seats to old folks because such things are expected of civilized people. . [...]

Also posted in Fun | Tagged dom | 8 Comments