Hoffmania.com is Switching Hosting Services

We might be down for a spell when that happens, so please bear with us. The insanity should commence Monday.

Thanks!

DAMMIT!!!

DAMMIT DAMMIT DAMMIT! CRAP! And I'm up to my ass in tee shirts and bumper stickers. DAMMIT!

Hey. Wait! They're now collectors' items!

Please Stand By

TypePad Service

7:57 AM PST TypePad Application is down. You may see automated errors if you have been working in the application and try to save. We're working to resolve the issue as quickly as possible.

May 20, 2009 at 7:56 AM PDT

TypePad Blogs

TypePad Blogs are down. We're working to resolve the issue as quickly as possible.

May 20, 2009 at 7:56 AM PDT

"Democrat Socialist" - Wear It With Pride!

Our readers should really be careful what they ask for. Like this.

The Hoffmania Democrat Socialist Store!

Shirts and stickers telling the world we're Democrat Socialists - and we still kick Republican ass.

I Smell Bad

Maybe we'll win the Koufax award for Best Post Title with this one. Nah. It's not in our DNA to win awards. But I'm making a pitstop at a tavern in Port Townsend, WA after a few nights in the wilderness, camping. We're now going to be spending some time with my politically polar opposite in-laws, so I'll no doubt be in a writing mood.

But it's still beautiful here. Spend some vacation money here if you can't afford Europe this year. And you can't, so do.

Travel Day for the Team

We're grabbing the dog and computers and heading for the Pacific Northwest. We'll be checking in tonight with the view from up north.

Okay, So We Have Banner Ads

They raised the rates on hosting, so this'll offset it. If it's a problem, put an inch of duct tape on the top of your screen. On with the show.

Say Hallo to Our New Twitter Followers

Vickiroush, Marusoze, xaymaca9, ViewsNews, Grandchessboard, vrenejuste, and...Alan Colmes? Yep. Alan Colmes.

Welcome all of you. Hop aboard and we'll tweet your ass too.

Isn't Life Grand?

Ya gotta take care of it occasionally. I did today, and I'm back.

On Lack of Advertisers

I've said this a zillion times before, and I'll say it again. This blog costs me a grand total of $14.95 a month to run. The other little apps like the live chat and occasional Zonkboard cost an annual fee which are far from bank breakers.

I do this mostly as an outlet, a way to propagate some of the more fascinating things being said out there and as therapy for me and anyone who wonders if things are really that nuts out there. Hoffmania tells them "Yeah. They are. So let's deal with it."

For that, $14.95 is much cheaper than therapy, so it's a price I'm glad to pay.

If someone wants to reach our readers (averaging 1500-2000 a day and has totaled 3.5 million so far), there's a link over there in the right column. But if they don't, I'm not going to go broke.

So when I see the A-list blogs worrying about advertising revenue, I wonder how the hell they're handling their affairs. I'm not talking about the Josh Marshalls and Markos Moulitsases who each have a full time staff to handle the enormous communities on their sites. But I mean the Blogspot/Typepad/garden variety sites (like this one) which I'm certain aren't being bilked for a huge monthly nut by their service.

I know as well that a lot of people get annoyed when I link to Al Giordano because he sees things through the eyes of an actual organizer and not as an armchair pundit (like Glenn Greenwald and uh...me [not that I'm in the same online bracket but I admit my armchairedness]), so he doesn't always align with the well-worked talking points we have. But the story he posted yesterday about blogs and advertisers struck a chord with me, and I highly recommend it.

I'm not as prolific as I was during the past four years because well, we won last November. I'm now trying to wean myself off all that anger I was feeling with all of you, and we've segued into trying to hold a mirror up to what's passing as discourse today.

With that switch in the (groan) paradigm, advertisers on the left are feeling two things right now. The economic pinch and the lack of windmills during this wait-and-see period of the Obama presidency. But because they're not throwing as much money our way, that doesn't mean we shouldn't give them space. I'd say this piece is costing me around 17 cents to post. So...

MoveOn.org. ACLU. Democracy for America. Michael Moore's new venture, whatever it may be. And I'll even throw in a few I see on these blogs. Claritin. Capital One.

There. Free shout outs because they support our side. Didn't cost me anything, and I'm not expecting any of them to buy ads here. We won't collapse either way.

Get your financial houses in order, now more than ever. The road's not going to get any less bumpy and we're gonna need each other at the end of it.

And when you need to raise some fast cash, tee shirts and bumper stickers are a great way to go.

Oh, look. I have to send TypePad another $14.95. Here comes another month of this crap, America. Thanks for reading it.

The Hoffmania Bloggregator Welcomes...

Buzzflash, The New York Times Caucus and Paul Krugman's "Conscience of a Liberal."

Nominees for the Bloggregator

We're considering a few additions. Got one of your own? Throw it in the comments.

Another Idea Bites the Dust

My latest creation...rejected. Damn.

Hoffmania Game Reset

The billions of readers of By Ken Levine were greeted by today's post over there with a link to this little party. We not only welcome them, but question why Ken would risk his reputation like this. No matter. We're glad you're here. For the benefit of them and those who are regulars with short attention spans, here are a few of our features.

Origins - Back in 2003, I got fed up with sending emails with fascinating articles and my own ranting and raving. Going through the address book, picking and choosing who gets what got to be really time consuming. I launched Hoffmania (with guidance from Stanger at Blah3) and told 'em all to go there to pick and choose what they liked. Within a year, we were mysteriously getting over a thousand visits a day, and today close to four million have walked through the turnstiles here. Apparently we're striking a nerve. Likely, it's that little nerve on the top side of your pinky that REALLY hurts when you cut it.

Live Chats - During big events (elections, debates, breaking news) or when we feel like throwing things open, we conduct a really active live chatroom. We used to do them every Tuesday, and we're thinking about bringing them back. What made us think about that was just renewing our contract with the live chat server last week.

The Hoffmania Bloggregator - Many consider this our crown jewel, and it's our most-visited page. (The link is at the top of the right column.) It's a one-stop page with the top stories from all the top blogs, news sources and even a few online bargains. It automatically updates every minute, so reload often.

Johnny Consumer - He'll pop up here once in a while if there's a steal to be had on the web. Among them have been the Dell $189 laptop, the $20 Aeron Chair at Amazon (turned out to be an error, but damn that was a fun night), tech and gadget reviews and a mulititude of freebies.

All that, plus videos, music and a weird little online radio station called Great Big Radio, and you have what we call "The Hoffmania Experience." You'll call it "that site...what's its name." Enjoy the ride.

Site Problems Fixed

It took a while, but we figured out why the site was fighting itself. And oh yeah, we have a new president.

Bloggregator Update II

It's back. Hooray.

This is a good time as any to let you new viewers know that the Hoffmania Bloggregator is a one-stop page which gives you the newest posts at your favorite blogs, newspapers, news channels and more. It's constantly updated 24/7. Bookmark it and make your life easier.

Bloggregator Update

Feed Informer is overhauling their site and this glitch happened (don't they always?) that kinda froze all their feeds. They're working on it so they say.

One Swift Kick Oughta Do It...

Bloggregator seems to be stuck on 9am this morning. We're working on it.

Happy Monday!

Oh, wait...it's Friday. Cool! This holiday kicked ass!

The First Post of 2009

I better make it a good one. Well, so much for THAT.

I Asked for a Lump of Coal in My Stocking

I got this.

Wow, Time Warner Sucks

Of course, I'll change my mind if their "installation of regional amplifiers" (their explanation on the phone) gives us mighty internet bandwidth. Until then, we're still down into tonight. Beep Beep my ass. So I'll throw some toons up while I glommed this crappy DSL line from God-knows-where. Enjoy!

Boy Do I Hate Time-Warner

Great cartoons until about fifty years ago. Useless now. TW Cable is out in much of Southern California today so I was SOL until now (now that I'm at work). It's remarkable how much our house is internet-dependent. You always say, "Well this gives me a chance to get stuff done!" not realizing a lot of stuff you have to get done is, yup - online.

So...let me see what I've missed and play catch-up.

Actually, I'm Enjoying the Calm After the Storm

I'm actually getting stuff done, for better or for worse.

Getting my work life straightened out. The election season threw it in a blender for several months.

I'm now spending a lot of my free time figuring out the new channel lineup on XM. Last night, I heard the great Broadway Bill Lee on the 60s channel, which will remain true to the XM presentation. Most of the other channels didn't fare as well. Obviously, Sirius is going to win out over XM in most of the decisions since their management is the overriding factor in the merger. The reggae channel made its third move in as many weeks, and every other specialty channel has been replaced and moved. The changes are here. Bottom line: another consumer broadcast choice goes the wayside by consolidating.

I'm also slogging through the LONG process of upgrading Parallels Desktop to version 4.0. This allows you to run Windows within the Mac OS. My computing experience was boring without external attacks. Life becomes exciting again.

And if you use Road Runner in Southern California, WTF? The service has been abysmal. Speedtest.net just laughs at me.

Back to life. I see out of the corner of this window the words "Unable to upgrade the..." I'm afraid to hit the post button, but heeeeere...I...go.

Lipstick on Our Pig

A couple of changes to the Bloggregator, and bittersweet ones they are. Today we said farewell to the Obama '08, Pollster.com, FiveThirtyEight and Gallup feeds. We'll bring them back at future election seasons, but it sure felt like sending your kids to college when I set those feeds free. Our enormous thanks to them in keeping us informed.

And we put our own feed at the top. Not because of ego. Okay. It was ego. But it was also for a purpose. A lot of people have the Bloggregator bookmarked and they check it without checking our home page, so we put it there to let them know what we're talking about.

Enjoy, and thanks for visiting us, no matter what page you land on.