Report This!: Writer and (Former) Journalist Joe Wessels personal blog

Category: Web Page/Blog

  • Beautiful evening on Fountain Square



    Beautiful evening on Fountain Square

    Originally uploaded by hjoew


    Great weather in Cincinnati… Cubs in town and the center city is
    hopping.

  • Reds’ Opening Day



    Reds’ Opening Day


    Great seats. Sun trying to come out. Not as cold as I thought it would
    be.

    Thanks, Doug!

  • New blog design: I need one

    Ever since I moved Report This! to WordPress a couple years ago, my now-tired Minama Plus theme has served me well. But I envision this blog getting a makeover soon presumably through a new theme. There are several excellent ones out there (notice: not all are free), but which one and all the time involved in switching over is a pain.

    Anyone have any suggestions for good themes? Also, locations on the Web for instructions on how to change a theme without going mad with frustation? Or better yet, is anyone even reading this? 🙂

  • Open Left:: An Election Without Parties

    I hope to be part of the change with the Driehaus for Congress Web site. Here’s what “Open Left” had to say about something I have become rather preachy about to those who will listen (and even a few who won’t):

    I’ve been browsing dozens of congressional candidate/incumbent campaign web sites and was stunned to realize that apparently the Founding Fathers’ vision of non-partisan elections had been achieved! Why I could hardly find a single “Democrat” or “Republican” running for office or re-election anywhere in America. I thought “It’s a miracle! Surely this means the 111th Congress will be a utopia of respect, compromise and accomplishment. It will be made up almost entirely of non-aligned candidates!”

    Open Left:: An Election Without Parties.

  • Cincinnati blogger convention glee

    I was super happy that I was able to make it down to the Cincinnati Blogger Convention last week at one of my favorite places in all of Cincinnati, the Mercantile Library. Chris Messick – who has to be the world’s least grumpy librarian (he’s actually cheerful and friendly) – helped orchestrate the whole thing, which, I have to say, seems to have been a rousing success.

    Though I was only there for about an hour and fifteen, I really liked the experience. I have found out recently that I rather enjoy geeking out with the geeks.

    And today, Mr. Messick so politely sent us a list of all conventioneers replete with links to their respective blogs. So, here I post.

    5CHW4R7Z (http://www.5chw4r7z.blogspot.com/)

    Bad Pitch Blog (http://badpitch.blogspot.com/)

    Building Cincinnati (http://www.building-cincinnati.com/)

    Buy Cincy (http://buycincy.com/)

    CETconnect (http://cetconnect.blogspot.com/)

    Cincinnati Area Commercial Real Estate Trends (http://cincicommercialrealestate.blogspot.com/)

    Cincinnati Blog (http://www.cincinnati.blogspot.com/)

    Cincinnati Dealer (http://www.cincinnatidealer.com/)

    Cincinnati Locavore (http://cincinnatilocavore.blogspot.com/)

    Clark Street Blog (http://clarkstreetblog.blogspot.com/)

    Die Fladermaus (http://mattvant.blogspot.com/)

    ENCORE (http://encorecincinnati.wordpress.com/)

    Girlfriendology (http://girlfriendology.com/)

    Gonz O’Lager (http://gonzolager.blogspot.com/)

    Hello, Gerard (http://hellogerard.blogspot.com/)

    Joe Wessels (http://www.highprioritypartners.com/wp/joewessels_wp/)

    Juliet & Juliette (http://julietandjulietteblog.com/)

    Kate’s Random Musings (http://www.katesrandommusings.com/)

    Keeping it REAL Estate (http://livingcincinnati.com/)

    Kelly the the Max! (http://kellyhudson.blogspot.com/)

    Live Green Cincinnati (http://www.livegreencincinnati.com/)

    Liz Wu Music (http://www.cincychic.com/component/option,com_mamblog/task,show/action,user/id,808)

    Make Cincinnati Weird (http://www.makecincinnatiweird.com/)

    Mommy Bits (http://www.MommyBits.blogspot.com)

    Cincinnati Women Bloggers (http://www.CincinnatiWomenBloggers.blogspot.com)

    My Wine Education (http://www.wine-girl.net/)

    Not Really a Book Blog Blog (http://nrabb2.blogspot.com/)

    Permasmirk (http://permasmirk.com/)

    Prospective (http://prosepective.blogspot.com/)

    Queen City Survey (http://queencitysurvey.blogspot.com/)

    Queer Cincinnati (http://cincywestsidequeer.blogspot.com/)

    Soapbox (http://www.soapboxmedia.com/)

    Strategic Public Relations (http://prblog.typepad.com/strategic_public_relation/)

    The Journey is the Reward (http://blog.morristsai.com/)

    Turning the Page (http://www2.cincinnatilibrary.org/blog/)

    Urbanophile (http://theurbanophile.blogspot.com/)

    Wine Me Dine Me (in Cincinnati) (http://winemedinemecinci.blogspot.com/)

    With my attendance at the aforementioned convention and the frequent comment I heard being, “You need to post more often,” I have decided that I will. Now, I’ve decided this before, so we’ll see how it goes. But I have now reasons (more than just the nice requests for more Joe-tent) to do the bloggy thing. I will expound later on. Meantime, enjoy some of these wonderful Cincinnati blogs!

  • Blog news

    I don’t talk about blog stats much – well, at all – because there isn’t really much to say. I average about 60 to 100 unique visitors a day – with random peaks and valleys – and that has been fairly consistent for several months. But a few weeks ago on April 17, when the earthquake hit Cincinnati, I received nearly 1,100 unique visitors. Woo-wee!

    The earthquake woke me up so I decided to get on the computer and start blogging. Within 10 minutes I had made my first post and updated with more for the few hours after that. So, I got a barrage of Google hits on the subject. That was pretty cool.

    Also, I’ve added a few widgets to the sidebar. A while back I added a Twitter widget (to go with the Flickr widget). Just a few days ago I added the Google Reader shared posts widget.

    Twitter, if you haven’t discovered it yet, is a cool little application that asks the question: What are you doing? I update it as much as I can through my cell phone (either by sending text messages or using the phone’s Web browser) or by going to the Twitter Web site. Or my new toy: Twhirl.

    The Google Reader is an RSS feed reader that allows me to read text (or a summary) and see some photographs from several Web pages at once in a single Web page. It also allows me to hit a “share” button that puts up the blog posts I think are worth checking out, which then appear on Report This! I highly recommend the reader – and checking out the posts I share.

    I also added some Google ads to the sidebar as an experiment. I more or less just wanted to see how it worked and how quickly pennies added up. Turns out the only people making money off this blog is Google! Expect the ads to come down soon.

  • All better

    Looks like upgrading to WordPress 2.5 solved my weird database problems, that I suspect might have been created my my cheapo Web hosting provider, IPowerWeb, when they upgraded their (our?) control panel and did some other wizardry. Now, the Web site is back up and running smoothly. Now, I’m thinking I might go ahead and re-design the site a little bit (already took off the “new” in the title – ’bout time) in the days ahead. I love tinkering around and learning how to do all this stuff myself.

    By the way, I have to tip the hat to the developers of WordPress. The new version is really nice and has added some very nice features. Plus, it appears to have taken a way a lot of the clunkiness that existed in prior versions. Thanks, guys! This Internet thing is kinda cool 🙂

  • This guy has the wrong idea

    I have been recently adding some content to this Web page, along with a much-needed “Contact Joe” form.

    Now you can find updates on the “Published Works” page, including my recent Cincinnati City Hall and Hamilton County goverment coverage for The Cincinnati Post. There are also links to two pieces written in the last few months for Cincinnati Magazine.

    To boot, I also have added a ton of photos taken in the last few months. Enjoy!

  • Why he Blogs, I Blog, too.

    Just about every journalist gets the daily e-mail from Florida’s Poytner Institute. Their slogan “everything you need to be a better journalist” is a good characterization of how useful the site and the organization has and continues to be for many working in the media. Their daily e-mails, especially one called “Romenesko”, is chock-full of links and articles and tidbits of information about what’s happening and changing in the field. And nowadays, it’s lots.

    As Blogs take more and more hold on the mainstream media landscape, I often wondered how my experience of determining what and what not to write about on this Blog corresponded to others who were writing on a Blog, especially those who now did as part of a new job requirement. There’s also a fair number of journo-Bloggers in my Blogroll who just do it because they want to.

    So, it was good to run across this article from Poytner’s Chip Scanlan which pretty much sums up why I Blog. Reading it I thought I almost was reading my own reasons and I began to feel more comfortable about what I was doing here. Report This! is an experiment, to say the least. One that scares me half the time (for fear of which future editor might be reading it), and delights me the other times (because I can express myself and, according to my hit counter, somebody actually reads it).

    So, I thought I’d share this. I appreciate Chip for being so frank in his reasons and helping me realize they are some of my own. Lowered expectations, my ability to see something, then write about it. Freedom, ah, glorious freedom. And I can get un-stuck from my doldrums and write about something I care about and get it out of me. Then, I can move on. This Blogging is cool stuff.

  • Well, this looks different…

    It’s still me. Joe Wessels.net is just getting a new look.

    After much thought and prolonged discussion (years, really), I have finally revamped my Web site. Where’s the goat? He’s gone. Miss him? You can still view my Web site, as it was last updated by adding “old” in front of my old domain name. For example, to get to the old main page go type “old.joewessels.net” without the quoatations marks into your Web browser’s address bar.

    I’m really excited about what I have accomplished here. There will still be a few noticiable changes in the Blog over the next few weeks, and likley into the future. But this will put everything about me in one place, elminating the need to have a seperate Web page, Blog, etc. I will now stop updating my old Blog and everything from that site has been imported here. I will be working on updating links on this Blog to my old personal Web site. Some may not work right now, but remember add “old” in front of any link (where the “www” would normally go) and it should work.

    Thank you for taking the time to stop by. Check back soon for new updates and new changes.