Technical and off topic mumbo jumbo here…

I’d like to point out that, for a year or so, I have had in my ownership a domain name of a site that I thought went dead… Tampa Bay Sports Net (the domain name is tbsports.net). I snatched the domain up when it expired and have held onto it for safe keeping and possible use in the future. If you visit the domain, it currently points here (as does Raw Lightning)

While doing some research on Friday for a friend, I happened across… well? Tampa Bay Sports Net — the same Tampa Bay Sports Net that had previously owned said domain name. I’ve attempted to contact them through email and through their site (contact form is broken) because I had no malicious intentions when I snatched up this domain name. I was and am hoping to return tbsports.net to it’s proper owner.

So let me publicly request someone at TBSN1.com get in touch with me if they’d like their domain name returned to them. Thanks.

…which doesn’t mean I will be blogging more often but I was tired of the old design, big time, for Boltsmag.

As it stands, it’s not easy to find comments unless you visit the permalink for the post. That should be corrected with time.

BUMP AND UPDATE 10-07-2008: Some aspects of the site are still not working and I can’t quite remedy them until next week. I’d appreciate it if people can either use the contact form and report errors on the site or try to leave a comment (I can’t guarantee comments will get through with thanks to anti-spam software).

Got a post-mortem season poll for the Bucs up over at Sticks of Fire regarding the team’s direction. Please head on over there to vote, kvetch and all that jazz.

The site note I have to bring up is a change to the anti-spam plugin employed here at Boltsmag. I’ve just switched to the built in anti-spam Akismet plugin for Wordpress due to a conflict inspired by Spam Karma on my other blogs. The technical mumbo jumbo shouldn’t effect many (or any) on Boltsmag but if you suddenly find your comments locked-out, please get in touch with me over the problem.

To Boltsmag readers, my friends and acquaintances on the Tampa Bay and Hockey blogosphers… I wish you all a safe and happy new year.

Another site note here at Boltsmag: You’ll notice a (ugly, misaligned) calendar on the left hand sidebar where the Poll usually is located. This is due to be an all-purpose calendar for the site — not only will it display days where I posted, but also show upcoming events in red. I want to get the calendar to look right before programming in every event (game days, deadlines, etc).

Believe it or not, I’m not dead, maimed, brainwashed or any other malignant thing…. well, that’s subjective (lazy can be termed as malignant, can’t it?).

At any rate, I’m currently working behind the scenes here at Boltsmag after upgrading it to the latest version of Wordpress. Those who actually are on the site (hi Tiny) may run into a few problems or speed bumps or what not. Pleas let me know if you do run into a conflict (note — a conflict with me not keeping the site up to date during the season doesn’t count :-p ).

Thanks

Update: Mind the error codes, will you?

And I’m now aware the Lightning Wallpaper page isn’t quite working. Why doesn’t anyone kvetch to me when these things break?

Update #2: I’d like to announce an official Archives page has been added to the site. I need to make some changes around here so that the Archive page shows up in the title menu…

I gotta get on a jet plane in the morning and travel ou twest. That being said, rumors of my return to Boltsmag and blogging my discontent about the Lightning at the moment have been greatly exaggerated :p. I’ll be back around Sunday though.

We got a few games between then and now - including tonight versus Florida. Matt Smaby has been recalled, Dan Boyle is back on IR and Absolute Hockey’s purchase of the Bolts couldn’t come soon enough.

Just a heads up to readership here at Boltsmag — I wrote up a preview of the Lightning’s 2007-08 season for Pensblog. Of course, Pens fans aren’t going to be cheering anything about the Lightning (we being the thorn in their side last season and now employing one hugely frustrating players on the Pens last season) but that’s a different story (or an explanation for the comments on Pensblog, take your pick ).

I moderated a discussion between Ski of Best Bucs Blog and Scott of BucStats this week concerning the Buccaneers upcoming season… Though we rambled quite a bit with the discussion and not all of that is included, you can check out part one now at Sticks of Fire…

…Part Two has now been published.

The whole thing was a ton of fun and I really wish we could have gone on for a while. Of course, giving questions and witty retorts to replies is easier than what Scott and Ski had to do in giving answers. Hats off to them.

Still a little loopy and out of it post-op. Everyone’s seen me around of course covering the uniform situation and the like the last few days, so yes I am operating back on normal parameters… Just not physically firing on all cylinders offline.

Anyway, I have to voice a concern about something that’s gone missing in the Lightning Blogosphere (or Boltosphere to paraphrase a term Tapeleg threw out last night about the Canuck fans online).

Where the hell has Lightning Hockey Central gone?!?

My focus, as a blogger, was off for most of 2006 as I concentrated more on a volunteer gig than on covering the Lightning and what not. I didn’t get back in gear until last winter and Lightning Hockey Central was one of the sites that filled the Boltosphere void in my absence. I’ll be frank that I felt a little threatened when I first learned of the place because I was used to being the pseudo-lone Bolts blogger out there (I was aware of Bolt Prospects and the LiveJournal community which isn’t so open bloggish, I wasn’t aware of Bolts Blog or Erin’s Tampa Bay Lightning blog). But then I woke up - you gotta embrace your co-patriots and varied opinions concerning your team, not feel threatened by them. It’s like Ski and Scott with Best Bucs Blog and BucStats respectively - they may not always agree but they’ve got one central thing that matters most — the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and their love for that damned franchise.

I lament for the (temporary?) loss of Lightning Hockey Central. The site hadn’t been updated since March even when it was operating but it mattered as a varying (even a more informed) voice than my own.

I also request here — through comments — that others point out other Lightning fan sites and blogs. Some I’ve been tipped off about in the past but never added to my “fan sites” blogroll due to quality issues. Others (Thunderdome News specifically) are listed where appropriate (though TDN was just moved from Message Boards to the Boltosphere as it’s taken a decidedly un-message board turn).