Posts Tagged ‘Gus’

Aww, you shouldn’t have…

Yes, it’s true.  Despite the limits of good taste, the conventions of grammar, the call of life’s obligations, and a complete lack of quality and talent, Gate 21 is one year old.  As the birthday header makes clear, our mascot Gus is really excited.  (To see the Birthday header, click here.)

It’s hard to believe that it has been one whole year since the very first post here at Gate 21 was published—a post that was monumental in its complete lack of substance.  Well, at least it’s good to see that some things haven’t changed around here.

When I first typed those opening words: “Good Afternoon and Welcome to Neyland Stadium…” I really had no idea what I was getting myself into or what Gate 21 would become.  I didn’t even know what I was starting—but, as I am wont to do, I decided to jump on in with no concept of what I was about.

• The Words That Started it All:

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Those first few weeks of posts reflect that lack of direction…

Still, despite my cluelessness, here we are 12 months, over 300 posts, more than 86,000 visitors, countless wasted hours of my life, and endless examples of poor writing later and the Gate is still here—serving as the entry into my bizarre, inane, and orange tinted world.

Since starting out, I have learned a few things along the way:

Timing is Everything: The informational cycle in the blogosphere spanning from “cutting edge” to “washed-up and out-to-pasture” is just slightly shorter than the attention span of a 4 year old with ADHD who just consumed four bags of Skittles and washed them down with a Red Bull;

Know Your Audience: You can’t be everything to everybody, choose your niche and dedicate yourself to never failing to fail in that one area;

Never Take Yourself too Seriously: Always keep your tongue planted firmly in your cheek and show your willingness to fall on the sword (even if it is because you tripped over it); and

When All Else Fails, Cheap Sight Gags Work: Yes, the Tennessee Home for the Visually Offensive has served the Gate well.

Over the course of the last year, the Gate has also changed in more ways than I care to recount.

Our Mascot: Gus

In total, there have been more than twenty different headers from the boring original, to the current standard, to the patriotic, to the ridiculous, to the world of livestock, and a few others in between.  We also added my tribute to Sam & Andy’s, our mascot, and Defender of the Faith, Gus, and so many other distractions and eyesores.

Blogging—at least blogging with some purpose—is a lot of work, much more than I ever realized.  It entails endless hours of writing, editing, site maintenance, research, graphic design, code crunching, and observational brainstorming.  Oh, and contrary to what you probably think, there is no money in it—the Gate currently makes Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac look like a good investment.

It is, however, a hell of a lot of fun…

You don’t do this because you want to get rich, you do it because it intrigues you, then you enjoy it, then you love it.  It’s kind of like being addicted to crack (I  think) or Tennessee Football (I know) sometimes you want to quit, but you can’t.

Fortunately, I’ve had a little help from Home Sweet Home and the Blazer Chronicles—which, on the whole has increased the quality of this joint immeasurably.  In all seriousness, I have written a lot of complete crap over the course of a year.  There is a lot of stuff which is hardly worth reading.  There are a few things, however, that I am proud of.  Hopefully, the few of you out there that regularly step inside Gate 21 enjoyed the good with the bad.

Hmm… I guess Mike Hamilton doesn’t care much for Gate 21…

Most importantly, however, I have made a lot of good friends over the course of the year, and got reacquainted with a few that I had forgotten about.  From fellow bloggers, to commenters, to flamers, I have genuinely appreciated the support and the criticism.

This first year of editing and publishing Gate 21 has been as much a learning experience as it has anything.  That is obvious, considering that I started a blog which was originally focused exclusively on college football with only 2 weeks remaining in the 2007 season.  Hopefully, everyone out there in internet-land has enjoyed it a little.  If not, well, sometimes ignorance is bliss.

Anyway, thanks to all of you that have taken the time visit the Gate, thanks to all of you who have commented on a story or post, thanks to all of you who have either directly or behind the scenes given me a little help along the way.

This first year has been fun, hopefully the second will be even better.

In the meantime, in the words of Joel over at RTT, his sidekick Jackson the Mule, and our mascot Gus, all I can say is this:

“Woo!”

Thanks for a great first year.  Hopefully there’s even more to come in the next 12 months.

– Go Figure …

Audio Clips Courtesy of: The University of Tennessee / the Vol Network / IMG

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Our man here at the Gate — Gus, Defender of the Faith — has uttered the word.  He has invoked the commencement of the Rites of Fall.  The word he has uttered?

Football…

With that lone invocation we here at Gate 21 have begun the final countdown to kickoff.  Thus each day from here until we tee it up and kick it down in Pasadena, the header will change — signaling the approach of that which we hold dear.

That is, unless yours truly forgets to change it…

Bring it on!

(Note: you may have to hit refresh for the header to update)

– Go Figure …

After goofing off for the last few weeks with a construction fence across the header here at Gate 21, the fences are finally down.  What should have been a 2-3 day minor renovation has turned into a multi-week exercise in my dragging my feet which has finally come to lackluster fruition.

Thus — although I am still working on updating a few things — Gate 21 is now back open for business without fear of having a virtual crane drop anything on your head.

The primary changes may not immediately be apparent, unless you look closely.  The high points are a wider post area (HT to MoonDog for that idea), wider sidebars, re-schemed colors, improved load times (hopefully), a nametag for Gus, and a completely re-organized blogroll which now lives in both sidebars.

There are still a few more things to be adjusted, but — for the most part — the remodel of the actual site is done and things should be returning to my normal level of questionable quality and poor taste.

Hopefully, Gus will begin the 10-day countdown to kickoff with daily changes to the header here leading up to gameday.  I assure you that each day will be suitable for framing (if you consider a faded bamboo calendar for 1968 hawking Esso gasoline to be fine art, that is).

And to think you all thought I was actually going to change something meaningful…

– Go Figure …

Well, in case you haven’t noticed, I am still in the process of changing the graphics and layout here. I decided to get rid of the “Power T” Flag on the header for a couple of reasons.

First, while I do focus on the Vols of Tennessee, my goal is to also cover the SEC and beyond. Thus, in the interest of being a little less partisan, I decided to remove the implication that Gate 21 is about nothing but the Vols.

Second, in light of all of all of the “cease and desist” letters that schools and teams have been sending out to bloggers over the last 12 months or so (See Busted Coverage’s issues with the Big Ten, and MissouriTigers.com’s issues with Mizzou), I decided to remove anything that could lead the University of Tennessee to tell me to can it. While I am all about free and fair use, the fact is that Tennessee would have a pretty easy time demonstrating that I was, essentially, using one of their trademarks. Given the fact that Tennessee had to take Texas to court over the whole “UT Interlock” logo and the “Power T” logo, I imagine that they would be willing to take steps to defend their marks. Furthermore, I don’t particularly want to get into an adversarial relationship with my alma mater. No, I’m not surrendering, I still plan on using the “Power T” and other logos where appropriate, I just figured it probably shouldn’t be in my header. Besides, it’s always better to create your own identity rather than ride on the coattails of others.

Thus, I introduce my new “Gate 21 Volunteer,” which I designed, and who now lives in the header, and may undergo a little more plastic surgery until I get him the way that I want him. I hope you like him, and — in case you care — I’m naming him “Gus” in honor of longtime … media-type-guy … at Tennessee, Gus Manning. Why? Well, I’m not sure, except that I’ve never been clear on what Gus Manning does, but everyone at Tennessee seems to think his opinion is pretty important; in terms of age he’s on the older side of “completely indeterminate;” and he’s a pretty comical character along with his buddy Haywood Harris. Again, it was the only name I could come up with.

Anyway, say hello to “Gus” and let me know if you like him, if you think he needs something else to make his placement in the Gate 21 header make sense. Also, if you’d be interested in having a logo designed for your, blog, website, organization, etc., shoot me an email — I work cheap.

Oh yeah, the BasketVols play Georgia tonight at 7:00. Let’s hope for a win.

Given the topic of this post, it is obvious that I have little to write about today…

- Go Figure …

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