304blogs swag

Visit the 304blogs cafepress store for all your 304blogs swag needs. Products include shirts, stickers, magnets, and mouse pads, and they make great gifts. We are selling everything at cost (we are not making any money off the sales).

Thanks to everyone for your continued support.

Parkersburg has an anonymous crocheter

Just saw this story on the Parkersburg News and Sentinel site.

An anonymous crocheter has placed colorful crocheted creations in different spots around town, including in City Park by the horseshoe area on a one-way sign, outside the downtown parking garage on a lightpost and by the Wood County courthouse steps on a directional sign to Blennerhassett Island.

In an e-mail sent to The Parkersburg News and Sentinel this morning, a person claiming to be the artist responsible for these creations describes what she is doing by making Parkersburg cozier.

Her work was created to get people to change the way they think of handicrafts, cozies, graffiti, and light poles.

Each piece has a tag which reads "Public Art Courtesy of Los Crochet Locos" and a web address for a blog about the graffiti cozies.

It's good to see the idea of knitted and crocheted graffiti making it to other cities in West Virginia.

304blogs blog button

Chuck Hamsher, aka Just a Modern Guy, has crafted a very nice 304blogs button for use on blogs listed by 304blogs.com.

Please host his image on your own site. No hot linking please, and the link on the button should be http://304blogs.com.

Thanks to Chuck for doing this for 304blogs.

Sohovich lauches new restaurant

Soho's and Blossom owner Bill Sohovich is getting ready to launch a new restaurant: Billy's

Sohovich, the owner of Blossom and Soho's, has leased a building in the Southridge Centre off Corridor G, a space once occupied by the barbecue restaurant Smokey Bones.

He is set to open his new restaurant, Billy's, right after Labor Day, in the spot near a Red Lobster, an Olive Garden and a Quaker Steak and Lube.

It's quite a departure for the man best known for serving up osso bucco and beef carpaccio to the lawyers and lawmakers who dine mostly within a mile of so of the state Capitol.

"I'm a downtown man, I am," says Sohovich, 56. "My heart and soul is there. I fought coming up here for a long time, what with the traffic and everything, but, man, this is like hitting the lottery. I walked in and I just knew. This was just it."

What is "it?"

Well, don't call it "home cooking" or "comfort food."

Sohovich plans to open soon after Labor Day.

Chickens in the Road author profiled in the Daily Mail

The Charleston Daily Mail profiles Chickens in the Road blogger Suzann McMinn.

The sad saga of Marketing Genius from Maple Creative, and the happy ending

The Charleston Daily Mail has an account today of how the Marketing Genius from Maple Creative blog got taken down, how the deleted blog was then used by spammers, and how it got restored by Google.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Skip Lineberg lost his blog.

Lineberg is the chief creative officer with the local marketing firm Maple Creative. He has a site on the Web known as Marketing Genius, which he uses to discuss marketing strategies.

Skip Lineberg has started a more in-depth account of the events on the restored Marketing Genius from Maple Creative blog.

Fork You has an account of the Underground Kitchen

The fine folks over at the Fork You blog has an account and pictures from the recent Underground Kitchen gathering.

10-digit dialing practice

The West Virgnia Public Service Commission wants you to start practicing 10-digit dialing so you will be ready when it becomes mandatory in February of next year: Practice Makes Perfect Dialing

Breaking News: Marketing Genius from Maple Creative is back online!

Marketing Genius from Maple Creative has been restored to its former glory.

The first rule of Underground Kitchen is...

...don't talk about Underground Kitchen. The second rule of Underground Kitchen is...(Oh you get the idea.)

Go read Scrabble Crush: NOW there's so much I CAN Tell You About the Underground Kitchen to learn more about the latest Underground Kitchen event, but no talking about Fight Club.

Local adults using Facebook for business networking

The Charleston Daily Mail has a story on how local adults are using Facebook to network. I know quite a few West Virginians who are using social media to expand their social and business connections.

Skip Lineberg, 42, is chief creative officer at Maple Creative, a Charleston marketing company. He said Facebook has helped him network, recruit, promote events and notify his friends when his company blog is updated.

Lineberg was a member on LinkedIn, a professional networking system. A friend recommended Facebook, saying it would someday take over the business-networking site.

"I still use both," Lineberg said. "To me, LinkedIn is more of a chamber of commerce atmosphere. It's more professional. Facebook is business after hours."

The fun format and interesting ways of staying connected also appeal to the adult crowd.

While many opt for MySpace, the other major social networking site, Morgado believes that site appeals to a younger crowd. He also finds the design unappealing.

He said Facebook is more aesthetically pleasing and its users have more power over their pages.

Maple Creative responds to the hijacking of the Marketing Genius blog

Jason Keeling helped Maple Creative develop this statement, which has also been released at the ABetterWestVirginia.com blog.

Here is Mapple Creative's entire statement:

Bloggers Beware: Award-Winning Site Hijacked

July 21, 2008 (Charleston, W.Va.) – Since 2004, marketing firm Maple Creative has been sharing professional insights and gaining national recognition via its “Marketing Genius” blog (marketinggenius.blogspot.com). This week, however, Internet cyber-jackers overtook the site and stripped its original content.

Maple Creative’s award-winning blog is now infected with solicitous ads that may be part of a phishing-type scam, according to Skip Lineberg, chief creative officer. He is warning the public not to click on any of the site’s links at present. “Even though I knew what to look for, they still duped me, and I lost my domain,” admits Lineberg. “I am urging all bloggers to be extra careful. I have always been very skeptical of email scams and bogus claims.”

Lineberg says the hackers may have portrayed themselves as Blogger.com representatives, and over the course of several correspondences, they somehow gained control of the “Marketing Genius” blog. Maple Creative is working to regain control of the site, which was hosted by Blogger.com, a subsidiary of Google, Inc. Lineberg contacted Google several days ago to assist in confirming what occurred and helping to rectify the situation. At present, he is still waiting for a response. ”We are going to use this as an opportunity to recover, rejuvenate and re-launch our marketing blog,” Lineberg promised. “Let me be perfectly clear. We will not be deterred by this incident. Instead, we will harness the power of social networks and call upon the tremendous voice of all our friends across the online community to help us prevail. ‘Marketing Genius’ will be up again, soon and stronger than ever.”

For now, readers are advised not to visit the site to avoid potential harm or exposure to malware that spammers have recently placed upon the domain MarketingGenius.blogspot.com. The company plans to notify readers when the blog is re-launched.

About Maple Creative
Maple Creative is a full-service marketing firm based in Charleston, West Virginia. To its diverse clientele Maple delivers comprehensive solutions, which comprise a strategic blend of marketing, advertising, public relations, lobbying and e-business services. Recently, “Advertising Age” recognized Maple’s “Marketing Genius” blog on its Power 150 listing of the most influential media and advertising blogs in the world.

For additional information, please visit MapleCreative.com.

If you had you blog taken over by spammer or if you know someone who had a blog taken over by spammers, please leave a comment or email me. I would like to talk to you.

David and I have left the listing of 'Marketing Genius from Maple Creative' on 304blogs in the hopes that Blogger who respond to Skip's request to give him his blog back soon. For now 'Marketing Genius from Maple Creative' is a listing on 304blogs with no post.

Marketing Genius Blog MIA

I noticed last night while looking at blogs on 304blogs.com that the Marketing Genius Blog has gone missing in action. I pinged Skip Lineburg last night via Twitter, but it appears this morning that the blog is still down. Skip's Facebook status simply reads, "Dealing with adversity (again) but I'm getting good at it!"

I hope skip and the fine people at Maple Creative gets this figured out soon. I just sent Skip an email in case he wasn't aware of the situation.

Update: Skip has posted an update via Twitter: "Looking for MarketingGenius blog? It was cyber-jacked. We're working to remedy."

ArtWalk

ArtWalk is this Friday Thursday. I'll be out of town for a wedding, but I encourage you not to miss ArtWalk.

Update: Thanks to Blair for pointing out my mistake.

Fork You reviews Kaifu Japanese Cuisine and Sushi Bar

Blair and I make an appearance in this Fork You... review of Kaifu Japanese Cuisine and Sushi Bar.

Ten-digit dialing coming to a phone near you

Until Feb. 28 you can only dial seven digits and still get connected, but the whole thing is rather complicated. The Charleston Sunday Gazette-Mail reports:

Starting July 26, phone customers in West Virginia should begin dialing 10 digits (the area code plus the seven-digit phone number) whenever a local call is placed from the 304 area code.

Customers who forget and dial just seven digits will still be connected. But this "permissive dialing" period will end Feb. 28, 2009, when customers must use the 10-digit dialing procedure for all local calls. After this date, if customers do not dial 10 digits their call will not be completed. A recording will instruct them to hang up and dial again.

Beginning March 28, new telephone lines or services may be assigned numbers with the 681 area code.

This is all part of the transition to a system whereby the state will have two area codes: 304 and 681.

AT&T sent information about the transition to some business customers last week. Verizon is enclosing a brochure about the transition in its July bills. Byron Harris, director of the state Public Service Commission's Consumer Advocate Division, said information about the transition will be on the division's Web site, www.cad.state.wv.us, next week.

We took a chance when we named 304 Blogs with the new area code coming soon, but 304 will be forever be West Virginia's area code as far as most are concerned.

Are you a blogger if you read blogs?

More and more I hear people refer to people who read blogs as bloggers. Here's an example from WSAZ-TV.

West Virginia has below-average public transportation

The Associated Press reports West Virginia is one of 26 states that have below-average public transportation.

West Virginia is one of 26 states that have below-average public transportation service, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Economic Research Service. That lack of service is felt hardest in rural states; the federal agency reports that 40 percent of rural counties nationwide have no public transportation at all.

"On average, rural Americans drive older vehicles, more fuel-thirsty vehicles, and they travel farther to work and to shop,'' said Brian Dabson, president and CEO of the Rural Policy Research Institute in Columbia, Mo.

With few other options, rural Americans have to drive, which can mean a much bigger expense in areas where per capita income is below the national average.

Central City Cafe Follow-Up

The Central City Cafe has seen an increase in customers after being featured on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Drives.

The comfortable eatery is expanding its business - now selling to customers trekking to town just to eat there - all because of a short clip that aired on the Food Network's "Diners, Drive-ins and Dives" earlier this month.

Luther said he owes thanks to another local eatery - Hillbilly Hotdogs.

"(The Food Network crew) was here filming Hillbilly Hotdogs and Rocco's and the truck stop in Olive Hill, Ky., and they asked the people at Hillbilly Hotdogs where they could film another place in the area and they sent them down here, so we're very thankful for that," Luther said.

The clip originally aired on the Food Network on June 15, and Luther said he's seen a bit of a change in the amount of customers he's had.

"We've had a small increase in the number of people coming," Luther said. "I'm excited about the phone calls I get...I've gotten calls from St. Louis, Denver - you name it. People just say they're going to be in the area and they want to stop by and they want to know my menu. I don't have fax machines or anything like that so I try to explain to them over the phone what we have here. It's exciting to know that people 2000 miles away are thinking about you."

I wonder how long it will before we see the Rocco's footage?

Six new blogs and one photostream have been added to 304blogs.com

Six new blogs and one photostream have been added to 304blogs.com.

WV State’s Douglass Institute Blog
Mitch's Random
DC Comictician on Star Trekiology
Reversing the Numbness
Have Your Pill Today?
Communities United Against Hate
Flickr: The HUNTINGTON WV Pool

If you want to be added to 304blogs.com comment or send me an email.