Hello local 217 Internets, we’re holding another get together or “Tweetup” as the kids are saying these days. 11/11 (Wednesday) 5:30pm at J P Kelley’s in Springfield.

You don’t need a Twitter, Facebook, iPhone, or even a blog. Just show up to share some drinks and meet some local people. We do draw the line at Myspace accounts.

If you’ve got questions:

twitter.com/gotshoo

gotshoo at gmail dot com

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Be it as it may that the Illinois Times probably still thinks us bloggers and Twitters are shut-ins living in our parents’ basement, a group of 15 showed up last week at Brewhaus for some brews and chatting.

I even convince Mrs. Shoo to come out. She was convinced after all the talk about Twitter to create her own account @mrsshoo.

A few people were unable to make it, so I think we’ll be putting another together in the fall.

Yesterday I attended two weddings. One was DJ’d by a guy, good friend of the Shoo’s actually, that was completely digital. The other was DJ that was completely analog, they had about 4 large cases of CD’s.

As a computer guy, I was amazed by the digital guy’s setup. One laptop, an external Western Digital hard drive with all his music, USB Mix board running to the amplifier to two large speakers, he also had projecter with screen to project images and videos corresponding to the music. I believe he was using PCDJ to control all of the music and video playback.

It was a great setup.

The bride forgot to include “first dance” song on the list of songs they wanted to be played at the wedding. It was actually a  pretty obscure song. All the DJ had to do was connect his phone to his laptop and bridge a connection to the internet. In a matter of ten minutes he had the song ready to play.

Man, I love technology.

The other wedding I attended was completely analog. If someone wanted a song, they either had it or you were out of luck. Which was disappointing because the groom’s parents were hard core Rolling Stones fans. Not one Rolling Stones song was played… not even a “Start Me Up,” more like a “Shut Me Down.”

If you’re interested in the digital guy, check out DJ Bando Productions.

I love that Springfield is a town that there’s nothing to do one night, but yet go out another night and meet people from another town that are doing a Tweetup, with a tweeter that has 15k followers, meet with up and coming local tweeters, talk to a guy that knows your blog life better than you do, then run into a lobbyist of a major city in Illinois, and another major lobbyist group…. all in one night.

Ahh, Springfield.

Sarah Borges and The Broken Singles from gotshoo on Vimeo.

An excellent show last night. Thanks to Dan and Russ for the invite and front row seats.

Photo taken by BradJWard

Roll call: Who made it downtown for Jobama?

Mrs. Shoo and I talked about it briefly, but we had a laundry list of stuff, so standing out in the heat for three hours was kind of out of the question. I am curious to hear everyone’s thoughts on the rally and your opinions about these two canidates.

Yes, that’s right bloggers, commentators, lurkers of the internet, July 13th (this Sunday) has been designated as the meet-up date. The game begins at 6:05. Check out the Sliders page for more info or Johann’s blog post.

And just for a roll call so we know who to look out for, can those attending leave a comment? I think the plan is to show up early and get seats all in the same section. Unless you want to be creepy and sit by yourselves. And since everyone hasn’t posted their mug for the world, just look for me.

Again, everyone is welcome to join us.

If anyone has questions – gotshoo -=at=- gmail -=dot=- com

It looks like someone was trying to work out some complicated SQL.

A while back there was a blog post from a nondescript blogger that was leaving ‘Stinkfield’ for good. They had lived in Abe’s town for three years and their final words was that it was one of the biggest pits in the universe.

I guess they hadn’t checked out the new Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum.

I was taken back by their post. For the first time ever, I was offended by someone talking badly about my town. I’ve only lived here my whole life and for the majority of it I would have told you living here sucked too, but in recent years it’s grown on me. I’ve got a great job, my house is more than affordable, and it takes me less than ten minutes to get to work.

Now the segue.

Those local cable access heroes Just Two Guys are considering doing a documentary based on a staggering online poll from the SJ-R where 96% of pollees rather live somewhere other than ‘Stinkfield.’ Before they start filming their doing their own poll to get a better idea of what people think of Springfield.

I’ll just go ahead and publicly answer mine:

Many people say there is nothing to do in Springfield. Do you agree with this statement? Please explain your answer.

There’s stuff to do, you just have to look a little harder in Springfield.

The music scene is a hit or miss. Most weekends all you can find in town are local cover bands or karaoke joints. But I’ve managed to see The Avett Brothers, BB King, John Prine, The Ditty Bops, Alkaline Trio, Mu330 and plenty of unknown punk bands, all in town.

Don’t expect to see a Dave Mathews Band or Poison, unless the State Fair happens to book the act, but they usually slip under the radar.

The bar scene. I have my favorite place, but the number of bars downtown has to have tripled in the last ten years. I heard someone say once that Springfield had one of the highest bar per capita ratios in the country. Don’t know if that’s true or not but they’re plenty of neighborhood bars scattered throughout the city.

The Arts. Last weekend was the annual art fair, and in the summer the Muni is a great showcase of local talent.

Random things you could do in Springfield (or neighboring communities): Rock Climbing in Rochester, play pool at Mowie’s Cue, really good Mountain biking at Site M (okay, a 45 min drive), fishing at Lake Springfield, Frisbee golf at Lincoln Park.

A common complaint about Springfield is that there is a serious lack of shopping. Do you agree or disagree? Again, please offer an explanation to support your answer.

I’ve got Best Buy, Ace, and Old Navy. Covered head to toe.

Is Springfield headed in the right direction? (yes or no)

Yes. But could someone add some hills please.

In your opinion, has Springfield gotten better in the last 10-20 years or has it gotten worse? Please explain your answer with some examples.

I am going to be optimistic here. I remember when Lincolnshire was just a cornfield and the Olive Garden was the newest chain restaurant.

In the last 20 years, downtown has improved tremendously, there’s a skate park and two bike trails.

There’s probably a slew of other things, but those stick out.

If you could live anywhere in the world, where would you live? Why?

Fort Collins, Co. It’s beautiful, Fat Tire beer, and I don’t think I could ever get tired of looking at mountains.

Why do you choose to live in Springfield? Give as many examples as necessary.

It’s affordable.

My commute is under 7 minutes.

1 1/2hrs from St. Louis, 3 hrs from Chicago.

How would you describe the people of Springfield? Please use as many adjectives as possible.

Corny, Abraham Lincoln-y, flat, relaxed, Midwestern.

What is your opinion of the job situation in Springfield?

Business is good in the IT field. When I first graduated entry level IT jobs were few and far between and a lot of state jobs were in limbo, but looking through the classifieds lately, things look good.

Answer your own poll at:
http://just-two-guys.blogspot.com/2008/05/new-j2g-project.html