As we have people visit, we’ve started to compile a list of activities (some are mega-touristy) and restaurants that we can recommend to everyone. Here they are, in no particular order:

• The Wine Room
• Disney’s Animal Kindgom
• Cafe Tu Tu Tango
• White Wolf Cafe
• Funky Monkey Wine Co
• El Coqui Mexicano
• Gatorland Zoo (Go Orlando Card)
• Sky Venture Orlando
• Florida Ecosafaris Zip Line (Go Orlando Card)
• A Day Away Kayaks – Bioluminescent Night Kayak Trip
• Blue Man Group Orlando
• SAK Improv Comedy Lab
• Sea World Orlando
• Wild Willy’s Airboat Rides
• Bok Tower and Gardens
• Manatee watching at Blue Springs (cold weather months)
• The Old Spanish Sugar Mill Pancake House, DeLeon Springs
• Disney Hollywood Studios (formery MGM)
• The Ravenous Pig
• Hamburger Mary’s Hambingo (Gay Bingo, Tuesday Night)
• Farris and Foster’s Chocolate Date Night
• Leu Gardens
• Kennedy Space Center (Go Orlando Card)

Note: links to Go Orlando Card are part of an affiliate program.

Mike Anello (ultimike) recently talked with Lynn Beighley, author of Drupal For Dummies from Wiley Publishing.

Update: Elizabeth Maupin has launched an independent Orlando theatre blog.

After almost 26 years on the staff of the Orlando Sentinel, Elizabeth Maupin has been writing and creating community togetherness. For my part in this game, I'd like to congratulate her and wish her the best.

Above: Maupin with Boris the Robot at the Orlando Fringe. Boris is a retired robot. As of this post, Maupin is a retired Journalist.

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Join Mike and Ryan as they sit down and discuss the latest Drupal news including Florida DrupalCamp 2010, Drupal 7 progress, Drupal jobs and more.

A smurf, a dragon-lady, and a witch doctor walk in to a bar. The robot bartender asks…

Thunder Hag

• Facebook
• MySpace
• Twitter

Curious about the lineup of this band, I dug a bit and discovered a link to Hannah, Brian Feldman’s wife, who he married for artistic and political reasons last week.

Join Mike Anello as he talks to Jesse Feiler, the author of Sams Teach Yourself Drupal in 24 Hours from Pearson Education.

Mike and Jesse talk about the beginnings of database-driven web sites, teaching the concepts of Drupal, usability in Drupal, Russians and COBOL (seriously!), and who should really be responsible for your web site.

Doug Vann (dougvann) joins Ryan Price (liberatr) in a man-to-man talk about training for Drupal, Doug's Drupal Genesis story, Florida DrupalCamp, and Doug's work with Drupal in the last 3 years, most recently for Duo Consulting in Chicago.

The Fair Trade Project is holding a poker run–bike style! Registration is only $5 and will start at 2:30pm at Austin’s. The 10+ mile ride will start at 4 and take you to local stores that sell fair trade: Chamberlin’s Natural Foods, Enzian Theater, Ten Thousand Villages, Whole Foods and Austin’s. You’ll pick up a playing card at each stop to complete your poker hand.

We’ll have great prizes from each stop for the person with the best hand, plus additional prizes, including great stuff from local bike shops. After we give out the prizes at 6:30, we’ll have a free show featuring local music.

Even if you don’t participate in the ride, we hope you’ll join us for the show. See you there!

Read more from The Fair Trade Project Facebook Page:

The Fair Trade Project seeks to help disadvantaged producers receive a just price for their goods while building relationships and encouraging social and environmental responsibility. When people are paid a fair price for what they produce, they can pull themselves, their families, and their communities out of poverty.

You can make a difference simply by buying fair trade products.

The SAINTS WON! The SoTG and Weasel tell you how.

All the right video clips, all the WRONG edits, effects, and titles. I seriously want to barf right now.

Give ANYONE with 3 ounces of talent access to your video library - there are some really great things in there, I’m sure, and you must have spent so much money capturing and acquiring all of that footage (or someone did), why would you then let a 3-year-old with a mouse and keyboard near it?

I apologize to the person who did the editing - you may have just been following orders, but they were BAD orders.

Yes my friends it is true.  Wendell Berry one of my favorite authors is speaking at Stetson University in a free lecture series Monday night the 1st of February.  I’m heading up to attend the lecture and I can’t even express how excited I am.  Berry’s non-fiction writing has played a pivotal role in developing many of my beliefs.  Through his writing I’ve come to appreciate the importance of nurturing of our local community, that the good life is more than consuming and that working with the earth, even in the middle of a modern city, is vitally important to the health and well-being of my family.

The lecture is sponsored by the university’s Values Council. His talk, “Simple Solutions and Package Deals,” is based on the council’s theme for the year, “How Shall We Live?”.  Berry will be discussing the impact of economic globalization on the way we live and it’s sure to be lecture chock-full of thought provoking ideas.

According to Berry, the good life includes sustainable agriculture, appropriate technologies, healthy rural communities, connection to place, the pleasures of good food, husbandry, good work, local economics, the miracle of life, fidelity, frugality, reverence, and the interconnectedness of life (via wiki).

Here are the details of the lecture: Stetson University at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Feb. 1, in the Lee Chapel of Elizabeth Hall, 421 N. Woodland Blvd.  The event is free and the public is invited to attend.

Hope to see you there.

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There was a bit of technical difficulty this morning regarding the Conference Championship Sunday show, but rest assured it is now repaired for your listening pleasure

The SoTG and Weasel bring you the games that determined this season's SUPER BOWL.

Every month, downtown Orlando galleries open their doors for a new art exhibition called Third Thursdays. Mark parks the Mobile Art Show in front of CityArts Factory on the corner of Pine Street and Orange Avenue.

Ryan Price wasn't able to make it for this week's podcast, so we went out and got ourselves a different Ryan. Ryan Szrama, previously of Ubercart fame and now leading the Drupal Commerce project joined us for a bit to clear up the muddy waters around recent changes in Drupal ecommerce development. Andrew and Mike were also joined by Marc Ray from Right-Sprocket to discuss the latest news from the world of Drupal.

The SoTG and Weasel continue their in-depth analysis but get help from friend of the show Chris Rankin.

Download a 10 minute podcast about the 2010 Florida DrupalCamp and our Coding for a Cause non-profit benefit

Open Source software tools are a great resource for companies and organizations to cost-effectively connect, communicate, and organize members using the Internet. One of these free tools for website creation and management is Drupal, a content management system that uses a modular approach that allows organizations to easily customise their websites and use blogs, video and user content to build their communities.

Drupal has a very active community that will gather at DrupalCamp Florida on February 20 and 21st, where new and seasoned users learn about and share their knowledge of Drupal. The event is an opportunity to get an overview of Drupal and the developer and user community in Florida. Guest speaker Addison Berry of Lullabot will discuss how everyone can participate in the growing international community. Saturday will be a day-long educational conference with beginner, intermediate and advanced tracks. Addison Berry of Lullabot will Sunday will be a Site Development Sprint to build a Drupal web site for a non-profit organization.

Information and Registration - www.2010.fldrupalcamp.org

Date: Saturday February 20th and Sunday February 21st

Location: Mind Comet, 385 Pearl Lake Causeway
Altamonte Springs, Florida

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A four day event, Otronicon is a celebration of interactive technology using video games to demonstrate the future of how we live, learn, work and play. The event focuses on a few key areas:

• Larger than life video game experiences
• State of the art medical and military simulators
• Game design workshops taught by industry pros

Whether you’re a video game fan or just wondered what it is you’re kids are doing in front of that computer, there’s something for everyone at Otronicon, Orlando’s biggest interactive technology expo!

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Volunteers are needed tomorrow Saturday January 16th from 8-10 am to help clear the area where the Spring garden will be planted behind the DePugh Center in Winter Park.

Anyone can participate and you are encouraged to bring any work tools you may have as well as bringing your own gloves and water.  We may be clearing away an old chain link fence as well so please bring any tools specific to that job.

The Center is located at 550 West Morse Blvd, Winter Park.
If you have any questions about the garden or if you would like to donate a monetary contribution or donate material items for the building of the garden, please contact Denise Riccio at 407-246-2212.  Any assistance is greatly appreciated!  You can also get more info at Our Whole Community’s website.

Related posts:

1. Wendell Berry is speaking at Stetson Monday Feb 1
2. Local Trio Jubal’s Kin at the Winter Park Library
3. Grandma Party Today at Stardust Video, Winter Park, FL

For the last few days we have been unable to get any calls through to Pere Elicio, St. Isidore’s the head priest, or Baba, the young man that runs the livestock and Peace Program. Well today, finally, Baba was able to get a short call into us and below are Ken’s notes on the call. I’ve also provided Beth’s photo-stream so you can see the faces of the wonderful people we work with down there and who we are so fervently praying for.

Click here to read the account from Haiti

I received a call from Baba at 10:45 this morning. He and Elmicia, his wife. and Cecilia, his baby, are fine.

Baba reported that at 4 pm Tuesday he was at Saint Benoit in the meeting room across from the old church working with Peace Program members. They were putting final touches on a presentation they were going to make to our group. All of a sudden they felt the building shaking. They ran outside. As with reports from so many others, Baba said that the shaking seemed to go on forever though it was just a matter of seconds. None of the buildings suffered damage. He immediately walked back to Saint Isidore. There he found Pere Elico, the principal of the school and other parish staff. The rectory, clinic and school buildings were okay; no damage. Baba said, “we all got together and began praying to the Lord. We prayed for a long time to thank Jesus that we were alive”. Tuesday night we slept outside because we were afraid to stay inside any building.

Early Wednesday morning Baba and a driver set off for the airport in Port-au-Prince. At that time I do not believe they had any sense of the damage. They did not want us to be at the airport alone. As they drove down the main highway they began to see more and more devastation. Here Baba mentioned the towns through which we pass. Each town was more and more devastated as they neared Port-au-Prince. “We saw more and more broken houses dead bodies along the road”, Baba commented. When we got to Port-au-Prince “I could not believe what I see; many building broken and bodies everywhere”. When we got to the airport we could see that there were not planes.

Baba continued, “on the way back I got off at the Texaco.(the way they describe the place where the road to Jacmel meets the highway) I took a motorcycle taxi take because the road was all broken. There were places where me and the driver had to carry the motorcycle”. I remember that the highway to Jacmel was the best in Haiti. Baba arrived in Jacmel at 4 pm. “When I got to Jacmel I found the situation terrible like Port-au-Prince”. The building were “broken” and “there were many many dead people on the streets”. “I was so worry. I kept praying Jesus my family okay.” He crossed the river and went up to his home in Basin Bleu. He found his wife and baby were okay. His house suffered no damage. “All of neighbors met and we prayed God’s blessing”.

Baba has not been able to contact Pere Elicio. I asked him to keep trying. Here is some general information Baba reported. He said that he will attempt to call tomorrow about this time. I tried to call him back immediately as a test but could not get through to him.

*The big problem for everybody is food. Food is expensive.
*”Big trucks on road can’t go”.
*He said that money coming in for all projects will “push things going”.
*He said a few times that we can get to Saint Isidore and “no problem”. I got the feeling that they would like to see the group that had planned to go this week. Maybe it is a morale issue; they may not feel alone.
*The trip from Saint Isidore by car is five hours. While the highway is bad, you can get through. Indecently, that is about the amount of time it took to travel that distance about 10 years ago.
*Baba said there is no trouble for them to get us at the airport. The roads around Saint Isidore are about the same as usual.
I will send you an update when or if I get another call from Baba or talk to Pere Elico.

You can stay in touch with the updates coming from our committee on the Saint Margaret Mary website here.

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I am a proud member of the MacGregor clan and an avid attendee of Central Florida’s Scottish Highland Games (CFSHG) festival each year.  If you have never been to a highland games you are missing quite a spectacle.  Great food, Excellent brew, superb music, top notch athletic competition, high stepping highland dancing and medieval weaponry demonstrations – I ask you – Who could ask for more?

We’re heading out to the festival this weekend to partake in our annual Scottish pilgrimage.  If you were following our Twitter feed this summer you would have noticed that we were up in Antigonish, Nova Scotia for the longest running North American Scottish Highland games.  It is only fair to say that as “authentic” as that Antigonish festival is the Central Florida Scottish Highland Games is far more enjoyable.  It is hard to peg exactly why but we love that CFSHG serves meat pies, has instruments and clan gear for sale, brings in world class Celtic rock bands like Enter the Haggis to rock the center stage and with Dunedin Brewing in house pouring the best ales it is just hard to compete with no matter how un-authentic a “highland games” may seem amidst the flatland of Florida.

Click here for details and hope to see you there. I’ll be in my McGregor kilt with a baby girl strapped to my chest.

Related posts:

1. Otronicon – Orlando’s Interactive Media / Video Game / Simulation Mash-up event

The stories and images reminded me of the growing up years I spent on the Deseret Ranch hunting and fishing along the Econlockhatchee river in east Orange Country with my Father.  Walking through the pastures and wetlands of this area I often saw the remnants and traces of the bygone Cracker era.   Dilapidated turpentine stills and Cypress mills with their rusted artifacts proved an imagination stirring site for me.

With these haunting memories still a stir I had the good fortune of discovering the Florida Historical Society’s website and their weekly radio magazine Florida Frontiers. A visit to their show’s website offered an archive of truly fascinating Florida history.  The show airs on our local public radio station 90.7 WMFE on Thursday’s at 6:30 and you can subscribe to their podcast as well.

I’m seriously excited about exploring their archive and catching the show each week.  I hope it continues to stoke my desire to explore Central Florida’s unique history.  I’m sure you’ll be seeing other posts about Cracker Culture here in the future.  I never thought about A Local Folkus might also showcase the folks of Florida’s past but heck they’re pretty interesting too!

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Wild Card Playoffs brought some beatdowns. Check out the SoTG and Weasel crushing some stats.

As many of you know Kamrin and I have another blog called Finding America TV where we document our love of hitting the open road.  We have traveled through 39 US states and 5 states of Canada with our trusty travel trailer Kodi and filmed the whole thing.  So when we heard the nomadic Airstream trekking musical duo Hymn 4 Her being interviewed by Julie Norris on Front Porch Radio we knew we had to see them live.

This duo, well trio if you include their full-time roadie their 3 year old daughter Diver, stopped through Orlando last week to play two gigs.  Here is some video I shot of their show at the Audubon Park Community Market hosted at Stardust.  Since the K’s were out of town I was flying solo but it turned out that Diver ended up being my table mate for the show.  Armed with a coloring book, 32 color box of crayons and wearing a set of noise canceling headphones she proved to be well equipped and content to let her folks do their thing.

Hymn for Her also played at Dandelion for urban sketcher Thomas Thorspecken’s art opening.  That is his sketch of their performance above. They will be back Jan 17th at the Copper Rocket’s 2nd Anniversary of their Southern Fried Sunday jams. You can catch them in February at Orlando Brewing as well, so hop over to their website for details and to check out the music video they put together as a tribute to their Airstream’s previous owners – pretty cool.

Related posts:

1. Audubon Community Market and Big Wheel Provisions
2. Talking Community with Julie Norris on Front Porch Radio WPRK

Join Mike Anello and Erik Baldwin as they talk with Travis Tidwell about his Flash With Drupal book from Packt Publishing.

To that end, to help demystify how to eat ethically, healthfully and to avoid the “edible food like substances” being marketed to us, Pollan has come to our rescue with a pocket sized “eater’s manual.”  It is a shame that an eater’s manual is even necessary but when our local grocery store offerings are 85% processed, non-whole food, food substitutes, finding the genuine article can be like finding the proverbial needle in the haystack.  So I’m going to pick the book up tomorrow and will write a proper review once I’ve given it a read, but to tide you over below is his interview on the Daily Show.  Enjoy and eat consciously.

FB3TJCFR7KPY

Related posts:

1. Jennifer Farhat – Locavore Instillation Art

The SoTG and Weasel talk up the regular season's conclusion as the playoffs are upon us. See their predictions and end of the year awards including Chris Rankin's vote on Rankin's Rankings.

For the record, Brian Cushing had 10 INTs, so Chris was right!

It's been almost a month since we had the gang all together on a single podcast, but good things come to those who wait. Andrew, Ryan, and Mike got together over the holiday break to talk about what has been going on in the Drupal community the past few weeks.

Since meeting Rebecca, Kamrin and I have made an effort to both attend Slow Food events as well as incorporate many of its tenants into our family’s food practices.  We now have a 300 Sft vegetable garden where we grow our own produce organically and with heirloom varieties.  We also have made an effort to buy from artisan and locally sourced food producers like Big Wheel Provisions, Olde Hearth Bakery, Wild Ocean Seafood, Lake Meadow Naturals, Winter Park Dairy, Winter Park Honey and others.

Eating locally is more than just buying food that is at the peak of freshness and not shipped cross country from California, more importantly it is about supporting our local food economy, its community and its unique culture.  By doing so it becomes normal to know your producers, to build relationship with the local farmers who supply your free-range eggs and organically grown produce and to know that you are getting the highest quality food for your food dollar. By supporting the “local” farmer’s markets like Audubon Park Community Market you are strengthening the bonds that connect each of us to the land from which our food comes and to the caring hands that provided these food stuffs for our consumption.

Slow Food in an effort to champion this vital connection is sponsoring an Eat Local Week January 25th – 31st.  Below is an excerpt from their promotional materials for this event.  You can be sure Kamrin and I will be fully supporting this week long event and you can expect to see a few write ups and videos on our site about it.  So take a look at the excerpt below and let us know in the comments what you are doing to participate in Eat Local Week.  Following an excerpt is a video of the mother of America’s Slow Food movement Alice Waters to give you a bit more insight into what Slow Food is all about.

EAT LOCAL WEEK -  January 25th – 31st

Participate in a week-long celebration promoting connection, community, culture and cuisine in Central Florida.  Grab your family, friends and neighbors and head to participating dining establishments during the last week of January, 2010

Goals of Eat Local Week:

Emphasize that eating local in Central Florida is not only possible, it’s delicious – ?The Eat Local Week definition of “local” is anything within 200 miles of Orlando’s city center.  Featured farmers and artisans for Eat Local week come from as far away as Clewiston.

Help local restaurants, farmers and artisans to develop lasting, mutually beneficial relationships – ?Slow Food Orlando wants to see locally owned and operated farms and restaurants succeed.  By facilitating relationship building between Central Florida dining establishments, farmers, ranchers, and artisans we hope to help businesses grow and become more profitable.

Build consumer awareness of local food and farmers, and promote reconnection with family and friends around the dinner table – ?Slow Food is all about taking the time to savor the food we eat and the people we share it with.  When our food is produced in a sustainable, responsible and consciences manner it is healthier for the environment and healthier for us.

Raise awareness about the importance of a local food economy and keeping money in our community – ?Purchasing food direct from producers or dining out at restaurants that feature locally grown ingredients cuts out the middle man and puts your money directly in the pocket of the people who produce your food.  When you, the consumer, spend your money with local businesses those businesses reinvest your dollars in the community, thus contributing to a more sustainable future for Central Florida’s food system.

Click here to see a list of the 18 or so participating restaurants.

Related posts:

1. Farm to Table Retrospective – Central Flrorida Locavores FTW
2. Farm to Table – an Ourlando Local Food Alliance event at the Enzian
3. Jennifer Farhat Part Deux: Locavore Instillation Art at Lake Eloa, Orlando, FL

All things being equal in the previous September, the New York Giants playing against the Washington Redskins would lead the mind to the kind of domination and cruelty by the ‘G-men’ against the ‘Skins that can be implied in the phrase ‘Cowboys and Indians’ (more than when Washington is playing the actual NFL Cowboys from Dallas).

The playoffs becomes a scrum for teams clinging to hope. Who will prevail? The SoTG and Weasel analyze . . .

Florida Creatives happy hours are an incredible melting pot of talent.  I’ve always come away with fresh inspiration, a few more creative contacts and with a full belly of gumbo and good beer.  Particularly if you are a freelancer or a work-from-home creative, this happy hour is a great way to meet other creative-shut-ins and make inroads to establishing your personal brand in Orlando’s creative community.

As an appetizer of the kind of crazy talent you can find in the Florida Creative members check out the amazing work of Plinio Pinto of GrapeSodaStudio,Inc. I just discovered his work though the Florida Creatives and I his illustrations are seriously “Legend”.

I hope to see you there tonight.  Please stop by and introduce yourself to me.  Check the About page if you need a picture to know who the heck I am.  Cheers.

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The atmosphere was one of the most paradoxical one could imagine with stories intensifying the match-up of the first 2009 sell-out of Jacksonville’s All-Tell Stadium between the Indianapolis Colts and the hosting Jaguars. The Jags fighting against the ‘Collapse of the Cats’ as conjectured by critics killing them in the media by constantly clamoring over close calls against crappy competitors combined with the concept of clashing against the cunning Colts who are competing to cultivate their calamity-free season.

The SoTG and Weasel sift through all the action. Apologies for the late posting. The server's being cranky again . . . not a fan of Amazon's S3 service

Upsets!?!?!? Playoff Picture!?!?!? NFL Revenue Sharing?!?!?!?! These and other questions will be answer by this episode by the SoTG and Weasel.

In a recent email from the Orlando Shakespeare Theatre, the self-nicknamed "Orlando Shakes", they made the very official and braggy-sounding claim:

Orlando Shakespeare Theater in Partnership with UCF is now one of the most transparent nonprofits in Central Florida. If you've been reading the paper recently, you may be wondering how much you really know about the community organizations you support. We are proud to be among the first nonprofits recognized by the Community Foundation of Central Florida with a Reviewed Status in their new knowledge base.

What the hell does that mean?

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Download Anna McCambridge and A Confluence
flcreatives_29_annamac.mp3
Length: 15:42

Local artist and curator Anna McCambridge joined us at the Maitland Art Center to discuss her most recent show, a joint show by 4 local artists, titled "A Confluence". Anna is the curator of the Visual Fringe, and helps to organize First Thursdays at the Orlando Museum of Art, as well as curating and supporting art all over Central Florida.
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• See Thomas Thorspecken's sketches of A Confluence
• A Confluence event on Facebook

Download Anna McCambridge