July 2004

We managed to get lots more than the minimum three venue votes needed for the Boston Blog Meetup. Anything less than that and Meetup.com cancels the gathering. Twenty-three people voted. So, now it’s time to RSVP. If you’d like to join us, you can RSVP at http://blog.meetup.com. If you’d rather not sign-up at Meetup.com, add a trackback ping or comment on the info about the shindig at Boston Blogs.com.

BunkoSquad has learned: Unconfirmed sources are reporting that, as part of pre-Democratic Convention security, local and federal officials are discussing the option of just rounding up everyone in Boston and surrounding cities and shooting them.

In the latest issue of A List Apart, Thomas Scott describes a nifty tip to keep people from using images hosted on your web server on their own pages. I haven’t tried it yet, but it looks interesting.

The previous sooz.com design had a page for some of my favorite websites. This category is for whatever websites seem interesting at that particular moment.

Color Scheme: Not sure about what colors to choose for your website or living room walls? This is a nifty helper. Speaking of walls, I think I’m going to paint my room a combo of something close to #FFF280 and #FF9BF.

Boston Common: I don’t really know where Adam finds enough time in the day to keep tabs on weblogs around Boston. He’s our local, human aggregator for the local Boston weblog world.

Rose Polenzani: Anyone who has known me for more than an hour has probably heard me ramble on about Rose’s music. Her albums are good and her live performances are spectacular.

Michael alerted me to a couple Nebraska-related articles that are on The Boston Globe’s website. It seems like they spotlight Nebraska articles more often than I would expect. Is there a fellow Nebraskan working at The Boston Globe? I have fond memories of the Nebraska State Fair. I hope they can work things out.

Nebraska state fair loses money, visitors: The Nebraska State Fair — a nearly 136-year-old tradition in the heart of America’s agricultural heartland — is in trouble. It has been losing money and visitors, and its future may hinge on a Nov. 2 vote on whether to use $2 million a year in state lottery proceeds to repair buildings and make other improvements to the fairgrounds.

Man wins buffalo chip toss with 108-footer: Ed Sydow threw a dried buffalo dropping 108 feet, nine inches Saturday to be named winner of the World Championship Buffalo Chip Toss.

I upgraded to Movable Type’s latest 3.0D a couple weeks ago and I’m working my way through all my websites to get them updated and back in action. So far I’ve got Free Agent Boston and Boston Blogs mostly finished up (there is always room for more tinkering) and now I’m working on sooz.com. I’m not sure how much of the old design I’m going to bring back. To be determined! And then once this site is in a better state of mind, it’s on to my oh-so-neglected child named Exploit Boston! and then the site for my event planning biz. I was going to apply to blog at the DNC if I managed to get EB! back in action before their deadline. But that didn’t quite happen. Things are moving forward nonetheless.

The nickname “Sooz” was given to me by a friend in 1997. I’ve been online since 1993 and made a few attempts to put a personal website together but nothing really stuck until sooz.com came along in 2001.

I grew up in Nebraska and moved to Boston May 1994. If you ever need to pack your life in three pieces of luggage and need advice on how to do it, let me know! I wanted to live in New England since about the age of 12 though I never actually visited until I was 20 during a spring break trip with a college pal.

I’ve been hosting social events and gatherings in the Boston area since around 1997 and I also provide event marketing services to clients. If you’ve got a business or personal event coming up, perhaps I can help! I send out an email newsletter every few weeks listing interesting events and happenings in the Boston area and invites to gatherings I’m hosting. Once or twice a year since 1998 I’ve hosted a sushi dinner party. Photos from past gatherings are in the photo album. Sometime soon I’ll be setting up a website for my event marketing services at www.susankaupevents.com.

Current Projects

:: Exploit Boston! is a new project featuring interesting art, culture and entertainment events in the greater Boston area. My role: publisher. Officially launching sometime, someday. But probably sooner or later.
:: Free Agent Boston hosts social, educational and networking events for free agents, consultants and freelancers in the greater Boston area. It started out as a small lunch for freelancers December 1999 and has grown a lot since then. My role: host.
:: Boston Blogs has hosted events for web writers in Boston off and on since 2002.

UPDATE 7/28/05: My event newsletter is now back at sooz.com.

I host events in Boston and sometimes in other locations where I happen to be. Join one of my event mailing lists at WhizSpark if you’d like to receive updates on social and networking events that I’m hosting in the Boston area.

Sometimes I forget that Boston is such a walkable city. Yesterday after finishing up some work around 5:00 near the Boston Common area in downtown Boston, I decided to walk home to Ball Square/Somerville. It took a little over two hours. I suppose if I had better walking shoes and was a speedier walker it might have been a bit less than that. It was a great walk and various spots along the way broke it up into reasonable chunks. My first destination was Charles Street in Beacon Hill where I did a leasurely stroll and some window shopping. Next up was the Longfellow Bridge heading into Cambridge. I walked through Kendall Square and then down Hampshire Street to Porter Square. Then up Willow to my apartment in Ball Square. I’d like to do this a lot more this summer to/from other locations in the greater Boston area. And if I have to work in Boston during the DNC happenings, I can always walk part of the way.