Sunday, March 04, 2012

WELCOME FORMER PLUGGED-IN READERS

I want to thank everyone who has followed me from Plugged-in Scottsdale to my Blogspot blog.  Although this blog is new to many of you, I have been doing it since 2005 when I did a weekly 800 word column for the hard copy North Scottsdale Independent  newspaper.  

The days at the Independent were fun as they let me do my own thing which included a variety of subjects with as little about politics as possible.  During that time I did a couple of concert reviews in Laughlin, Nevada (ZZ Top, Crosby, Stills, and Nash) and covered the McDowell Mountain Music Festival.  That and the other subjects that you see listed in the title of this blog are and were my main items of interest.  I think we have so many political so called “experts” now that you don’t need to be reading another amateur’s opinion on that subject.

Plugged-in Scottsdale was fun for the 5+ years it lasted but it was doomed when the comments on the blogs became too nasty for the Republic to bear.  An attempt to solve that problem by accepting only Facebook comments was a failure.  Hence, the Plugged-in blogs will now join the long list of historical footnotes.

As far as what I am about, you can get a good idea about me from my short bio in the right column of this blog.  To that information I would add that my career was in sales to the grocery and drug store trade.  I spent my career working in the mid-west and living in Johnson County, Kansas which was basically a suburb of Kansas City, Missouri.  I have no children and my wife spent her career as an elementary school teacher.  At this time we have been married 44 years so we get along fine.

This blog has gained something of a following over the years as I have received hits from many countries besides the U.S.  Since I have several topics listed in my title, I think a lot of those hits are people generally researching some of the subjects I have written about.  If I had to guess I would say that the two blogs visited the most are “Kids growing up too fast” from November, 2008 and “Dancing with Fred and Ginger” from August, 2011.   Those are two different subjects for sure but they are consistently numbers one and two in popularity.  It’s not that they get a lot of comments, but the hits are numerous.

That is pretty much the case with all these blogs over the last seven years.  I average over 100 hits a week on them with few comments.  Now that Plugged-in is gone, I should have more local interest and the comment totals should increase to at least close to the 30-40 per week I received at Plugged-in Scottsdale.

Thanks for stopping by and if there is any subject you would like to see discussed, let me know.  I also can add photos if you think you have something you would like published.  Remember, all comments will receive a reply and if you like what you see here, tell your friends.

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nice to have found your blog Jim.
(BTW,regarding the party photo, the handsome,bearded, intelligent looking, gentleman in the green shirt, looks like he'd make a fine blogger;-)

midnightsstaff said...

Once again cameras everywhere wait until I have left the scene- ah well I guess I will never enjoy the inclusion that only Scottsdale residents enjoy- such is the fate of the seis dos tres caste.
I'm not even going to mention another get together... those happy moments are well past and never to happen again, azcentral did do one thing well- the stratification of red meanies and the blue ones is complete..
Let's just say that Azcentral is not a publication of the future- Izvestia was possibly the first, but the Gannett cartel has refined ineptness and incompetence to a fine art largely unknown outside of the federal government.
what was the topic again??
one thing tho, the format here is conducive to the intent but it would be nice to include some of my pics in a topical manner.

Jim McAllister said...

Proud, I must admit that guy is pretty handsome and would probably be a fine blogger. Maybe it is just a coincidence that a couple of law enforcement agencies have contacted me about his whereabouts since I published that photo. Apparently he and his wife are wanted for questioning in New York!

Middy, I will dig through those photos and see if I have a photo of you. I'm still not sure the world is ready for that though. LOL If I get enough followers on this blog, we may have another Cien Agaves party. It would be fun to get everyone back together again from the Plugged-in days. One way to get a good crowd would probably be to have more food and free drinks. It works every time!

Mike Slater said...

Jim, always a pleasure to read your blogs.

Your picture of the snow brought back memories of when I worked at the phone company and covered Cave Creek, Carefree, and Pinnacle Peak. It wasn't uncommon some years to see snow in the desert.

midnightsstaff said...

na... don't bother, most believe I resemble John Wayne so don't burst anyone's bubble just for me..
besides I am only a shadow of my former glory, I have lost thirty pounds since then and hope to not ever see them again.
fighting with the computer trying to wrest it back into compliance- had to get windows completely re installed.. what a hassle.
P.z..

Glo said...

Hey Jim: Keep on blogging! Your topics are always fun and informative, and people feel comfortable providing feedback. What annoyed me about the previous Plugged-In blogs was that so few bloggers felt the need to respond to their readers' posts. Sure it's time-consuming to do so, but it's a matter of respecting the audience as persons worthy of consideration. You always show respect and naturally get it in return. Yours is truly a two-way street.

CJ Phoenix said...

Hi Jim. I invited Lynda Z. so maybe she will show up later this week.

Jim McAllister said...

Mike, I think those photos were from last year. We got up one morning and it was all white. Nothing this year but usually we get snow once or twice. Being a lifelong resident of the area, you know how rare that was! I quickly got out the camera and clicked a bunch of shots of the golf course and the mountains while they had snow. That was about 7:30 a.m. By noon, the sun was out, the snow was gone, and the golfers were out in force. Ya gotta love AZ and its weather especially up here where we have a bit of altitude.

Jim McAllister said...

Middy, My hat is off to you. I would KILL to lose 30 pounds!

Jim McAllister said...

Glo, Thanks for the nice words. You were one of my first blogger regulars along with CJ when the Plugged-ins started in '06. Having your respect means a lot.

Jim McAllister said...

CJ, That would be great to have Linda stop by again. Last Thanksgiving we exchanged some comments to each other. She is doing well in South America but says it is VERY expensive to live there. A Thanksgiving turkey was $45, gas is very expensive, and driving on the other side of the road takes some getting used to.

midnightsstaff said...

only as good as the last up at bat Jimmy- something just snapped and I have quit abusing myself eating all the time. beers weren't helping that much either.
Yeah the original blog at azcentral seemed more reserved- I suppose opinions tend to get the better part of good judgment once that familiarity breeds it's contemptuous offspring.
this dvd series on John Adams I was telling you about is something everyone would enjoy, I borrowed this copy from a friend but think I will get a set on ebay myself... it's a keeper.
P.z...

Kevin O'Brien said...

Jim,
Glad to see you have a back-up plan to Azcentral. Sad what happened to those blogs. Such is life though. Look forward to seeing more from you. Nice not to wade through 100's of spam blogs to get to the good ones.

Unknown said...

I thought that I'd drop in and visit the opposite extreme from the Taliban writers. I found Middy's Muslim counterpart, only he's much more polite, but can't be reasoned with either. Got rid of the horses and I don't wish to help the music industry anymore. The Muslim has a point; rich people are to blame, but that is the world we live in. Yes Jimmy, the VA did find the difficulty causing my irritability. Once again, the wealthy are to blame. If the Republicans get in, cut Food Stamps and Welfare, you can count on seeing a whole lot of people like me and much, much worse. Rich people will destroy themselves through their own ignorance and greedy desires. My friend the rock star did absolutely nothing to help me and you can thank her for your misfortunes Jimmy. No doubt about it. Rich people are definitely the dumbest people on the face of the planet. Drunks and drug addicts take a close second. My problem? A nutritional deficiency and not one person did a thing to help. Islam vs rich folks and I'll do anything I can to help that happen. Like two extremes killing each other.

Joe Finnerty said...

Yes, metropolitan Phoenix has grown since the end of WW II, spurred by many favorable economic factors including relatively inexpensive land, water, electricity, and gasoline. Water and electricity prices have remained remarkably affordable and stable, but speculators have driven gasoline prices to absurd levels. If we had to pay four bucks a gallon back in 1945, not many folks would have driven from St. Louis to San Bernadino on Route 66, one of my favorite tunes.

Jim McAllister said...

Kevin, Thanks for the compliment. I was proud of the Plugged-in success i had. I pretty much stayed away from politics because nothing ever gets settled there; just a lot of arguing. My method of writing about everyday subjects worked well and showed there was a market for it as I got far more comments than anyone else. When i received 74 comments from 40 people on a blog about "Soda, Pop, or Coke" I knew I was on to something! LOL

So far, so good on this blog. I'm sending notifications to everyone I can think off who followed me before and the response has been great. I'm getting some good comments and a LOT of hits. So far this week I'm up to 165 hits.

Take care and thanks for reading.

JCML, I wanted to put you on my notify list but I lost your email address. Could you please send it and I'll add you.

Hi Joe, Those days of cheap gas were great. You're right, not many would have understood Bobby Troup's song if gas was $4 in the forties. The cheapest I remember it was when I was in college in the late 60s in Warrensburg, Missouri and it once was 19.9. I'm sure you remember it for less than that in your youth.