Another year in paradise-ish

WOW. I can't believe it's been three-ish years since the last post here.

What a crazy period. I told the Advertiser I wanted to leave and then they broke up with me. I made the executive editor, now former executive editor Wanda Lloyd, promise to list me as "eligible for rehire" since, you know, I didn't do anything wrong at the Advertiser nor was I even accused of having done anything wrong at the Advertiser. But then we got into that nasty "dispute" about who actually owned the HABOTN domain and, yep, I'm that guy.

So I guess my days at the Advertiser are over forever. So it goes.

Wanda Lloyd now works at Savannah State, the Internet tells me, as the chair of a mass comm department. Good for her. Not necessarily good for her students, who may be learning more about what happened in 1985 than 2015, but so be it. They still live in Savannah, Ga., and that's a plus. What a pretty place.

I'm still chugging along at my "new" gig. I don't want Gannett to get mad at me, so I'll just say that I'm still working in AUBURN covering SPORTS for a DOT.COM. Some stuff went down in October 2012 and I kinda became captain of the ship. It was odd, sure, but I had a young, principled collaborator with me. How could that go wrong?

I do miss the "old" HABOTN. Great group of people there, very little mud slinging, lots of inoffensive sarcasm. Now the Advertiser has no Auburn-themed online community and I think that's sad. James Crepea, who took over for me, does a fantastic job IMO. Good guy -- for a Yankee.

Anyway, much love to errybody except Wanda. And this other guy named Terry Manning, but you don't know him. Heck, you probably don't even know Wanda. It's the circle of life.

Here are some pics I'd like to share.

That is MY AMIGO, David. (Pronounced "dah-VEED") I met him in the Dominican Republic and he served me a lot of beers. I like him.

This is TEAM TATE. We have fun.

I once saw a man-sized mackerel eat a man (while a crowd of people watched) and NOBODY rushed to the guy's aid. America today, you know? And he somehow escaped, though he was down to his drawers afterward. Have a nice day, etc.

Beer = good

Hey everyone.

Well, it's been another week. What have I learned? I have great friends.

I knew that before, of course, but it's always affirming when you get in a big group of happy friends. The picture above was taken at the epicenter of a happy group of friends Monday night in suburban Montgomery. Beer is good. Friends are good. It's all good.

Speaking of All Good, I recently downloaded a copy of Lotus' set at the All Good Festival from earlier this year. It's outstanding. I learned of Lotus only a few weeks ago while listening on Jam_ON via SiriusXM. They're right in my wheelhouse -- a fusion of rock, electronica and jammy jam.

You know what I like about Lotus? They used to be 100% jammy, like a watered-down version of Phish, but they began adding an synth element to their stuff. They have created a new kind of sound; one that is unique to Lotus. It takes courage to break away from the norm, the safe path, and instead do what feels best to you.

I think there's a lesson in there somewhere. It may be applicable.

... and as always, keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars.

A Sunset Strip

Hey everyone.

It's another great day in Lee County. I'm having a great time with my new job, snapping colorful photos, writing fun stories/notebooks and doing play-by-play analyses of the SEC team I cover. You may know them by the "AU" on their helmets.

So what's the latest with me? I love my new camera lenses. I snapped the photo above at dusk one day in July. How did I do that? Well, I used the camera as I navigated down a paved asphalt surface. It's called multi-tasking and I'm pretty new to the whole thing.

I thought the song was appropriately inappropriate.

Don't we all have friends whom we wish would follow "ancient history" and strip? Adam Ant sure does. Or at least did in 1983 when he recorded this minor hit. I'd never name names, of course, and it's important to note that Adam Ant didn't.

So how are you?

(I want to end it there, but I'd be remiss without offering you my favorite salutation: Keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars.)

Game Day and Ants: Together As One

Hey everyone.

It's GAME DAY here in the South. It may be GAME DAY somewhere else in the world, too, but I don't care about that. I'm just happy to have a game to attend tonight somewhere in the middle of Georgia.

It involves a team from upstate South Carolina and a team from eastern Alabama. I don't want to spoil it for you.

So why a turtle? Well, we canceled our subscription to the Montgomery Advertiser earlier this week. Until that moment, I had received a newspaper daily since May 1994. It was a sad moment until I realized that newspapers are like turtles -- they change directions slowly, wallow in dirt and honestly believe they're the best animal out there.

We all know the anteater is way better. YOU ALL ARE WITH ME, RIGHT?

If it's good enough for UC-Irvine, it's good enough for me.

Keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars. If you keep grinding, you can rise above the tomfoolery and become a better turtle anteater.

Pass the ants, people. Slurp, slurp, pass. xoxoxo

PHOTO CREDIT: Me. San Diego Zoo, June 2008

Happy days continue

Hey everyone. Gosh, what a great weekend I had.

Since my new job allows me to cover Auburn athletics without a bunch of busywork piled on, I'm able to finish my work and live my life. It's wondrous. So now I don't have to miss my daughter's soccer matches because of a high-school game or call-ins or similar time-wasting enterprises that appeal to no more than 10 human beings.

Anyway, the Capital City Streaks 02 Girls went 1-2 at the Vestavia tournament last weekend. Lost a heartbreaker to Vestavia, throttled Hoover, took a beatdown from North Atlanta SA.

I'm happy to report that my daughter wasn't carded. That's good.

Just a friendly reminder about my new professional life: I drive to AUBURN, I enjoy SPORTS and I work for a dot.COM.

Keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars.

If you keep grinding, better opportunities will come your way. Look at me!

Who's happy? THIS GUY.

Hey everyone.

Well, here's another picture from the Tate Family Stash, this one of a tree outside my home that has been pruned. It's not an analogy about my time with my previous employer, how they broke up with me after I told them I wanted to break up, or anything like that.

It's just a picture of a tree outside my home that has been pruned.

It's been an awesome month. My professional life may be busier, but it's far more enjoyable. I won't go into details about where I work or the web site's address. I can say that I spend a lot of time at AUBURN and I enjoy SPORTS and working for a .COM.

I hope 2012 is being awesome to you as well.

Keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars! If you're not where you want to be, keep grinding and YOU'LL GET THERE. I'm living proof.

BREAKING NEWS: Dodo lives!

Hey everyone.

Our friends at the Montgomery Advertiser suggested via their forum that "HABOTN.com is going the way of the dodo."

So here, live on the Internet, is a picture of the NOW-EXTINCT DODO.

Please don't distribute this picture among your friends or other media outlets. This is legitimate scoop gleaned from hundreds of hours of interviews and/or investigation.