News & Updates
| BobG on Our float needs a theme… | I drive a Dodge Stratus !!! | [READ MORE] |
| Anthony on Guess (Photo from BobG) | I assume you are speaking from personal experience? | [READ MORE] |
| BobG on Guess (Photo from BobG) | that's cuz when idiots get locked up there, they're gonna yell "DAMN!" | [READ MORE] |
| Nick on Guess (Photo from BobG) | Well I would have never guessed that. It really does look like a dam though. | [READ MORE] |
| BobG on Guess (Photo from BobG) | Wow that took a while. (yes, thats what she said...) This is from the 10th floor of the current Wake Co ... | [READ MORE] |
Our blackout for SOPA was short and really just facilitated a little time for me to do a quick rewrite of the social media links you see to the left. At least I hope you see them to the left. If not I wasted time trying. (Click one – you know you want to.)
So why did we darken the page today? We like many other sites on the web are against the SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) that could be used against small sites and possibly even big ones by the government and large corporations that don’t like what they see. Basically censorship.
You can see lots of info on the news and you can always use Google to learn more (who did a great job on their doodle today). Our blackout was done in the style of Wikipedia’s one of my favorite resources who did a great job posting links to the various Senators and Representatives (Click here for the Raleigh list).
I hope the blackout got everyone’s attention and you will act accordingly. The more calls / emails / letters that are sent the better the chances are that SOPA will disappear and the Internet can stay a great place to live. We wouldn’t want to see the great sites, creativity and everyone’s favorite at work pass time go dark.
We made it – or rather survived 2011. And now – with the Raleigh CAT buses sporting our name – we’ll jump head first into 2012.
I’ve made no resolutions and no real plans for this year. That means we are about to crash your party. After the jump are all the pictures that were cleared for publishing by the individuals in charge. The big New Years Eve bash downtown included a mini-Eiffel Tower, an over-sized Light Brite and a moderately-sized Ferris Wheel. We also met Daniel Boone/Davey Crockett and may have had more pictures had I remembered to use the camera.
Hope your New Years Eve was less interesting that mine and yes that is a blessing – not a curse. Here’s to 2012 – if you see a NO SVC out and about send it in. We’d love to have it in our collection.
We did this last year and it was more popular than I would have guessed so here we go with another “best of” list in the form of a Top 10. Again we’ll start with number 10 and work our way up to the number one post/memory/action of 2011. The list encompasses my personal favorite memories, posts that were well commented on or saw more than average traffic.
10. Def Leppard - possibly the best part of this concert was the solemnly sworn agreement that we would sit “front row” the next time they came into town. The post also let me pull up this picture from when we met the band in 2006.
09. Charleston, SC – with a mandatory stop at South of the Border. We were there for Thanksgiving and while the trip was short it was fun and much like Savannah, GA this is a place I would like to go back to with a lot more time to explore. The weather was great and it was easy to capture some great photos. Best of all – it wasn’t crowded.
08. Caffeinated Wild Turkey American Honey BBQ Sauce was #5 in an article titled “8 Fantastic Delivery Methods for Caffeine” on Topless Robot. What started as a joke of sorts (yes – I really made the sauce) took off to become one of the most viewed pages of the year. Traffic was high for almost a month after TR ran their article with a daily spike of over 1000 visitors.
07. New River Camping Trip – I’m not sure how this made the list because I am fairly certain it didn’t really happen. There is no way we would go camping in the rain (again). Do you believe in golf cart Jesus? They really did leave that in the store and the New River Campground has already ordered four cases for next year. We’ve quit our hooping and hollerin’ and yes your picture will just end up on my damn website.
06. Another brick in the wall? 2011 brought us LegoPalooza, Brick Magic, Lego Kidsfest, and Mystery Bricks. It was a good year to be addicted to bricks because the Triangle had more than a few opportunities to see some awesome Lego displays. Thanks again to BobG for finding and grabbing the now oldest bricks in my collection and the only ones made in the United States (by Samsonite).
05. In the Kitchen with Nick (I, II, III) if the world were a fair place we’d have a cooking show based on the premise of Nick going in and taking over kitchens at weddings and bar mitzvahs. The world is a cruel mistress and we’ll probably never see the concept come to life. I blame the camera guy and the intro music. And since imitation is the most sincere form of flattery we should mention this In the Kitchen with BobG created at his 40th birthday party.
04. Maine – we took a vacation to Maine and it resulted in a few posts. My favorites? Lobster (Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner) and Whale Watching – there were a lot of highlights from the trip but I would go back for either one of those experiences.
03. NCAA Tournament Charlotte – yes Raleigh > Charlotte but we ventured down for Rounds 2 & 3 of the NCAA Tournament to watch two Triangle teams dominate their respective fields. Highlights included a glimpse of Micheal Jordan in his box and Charlotte’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade. If we had known we could have had the crew down for a second run in the Queen City. I mean we had already won one parade – why not try for two?
02. NHL All-Star Weekend in Raleigh – I skipped the game but didn’t miss the party. It was awesome to have the NHL All-Star game in Raleigh and great that Southern-fried Hockey got stellar reviews. Thanks to BobG for live pics from the game and behind the scenes and yes that is the Stanley Cup.
01. St. Patrick’s Day Vikings – if you haven’t ridden a rocket, the S.S. Minnow or a fire-breathing dragon down Fayetteville St. then you might not understand how this is better than the NCAA Tournament, the NHL All-Star game and really anything short of a shuttle launch. It is something you can’t understand until you’ve done it and once you’ve done it you are unable to explain it. It is like being dead or famous – once you are there it is too late to explain it to anyone else.
So how are we going to raise the bar on 2011? Check back next year.
Did a little holiday house cleaning and updated the WordPress theme from the earlier version that I named “Creative” to a new version for a new year named “MMXII.” The functionality has stayed largely the same but the look and feel has been reworked to be a little faster and hopefully a little easier to use. This update also addressed some of the issues I had with the earlier them since shortly after I launched it and never seemed to have the time to address.
Fixing some things tends to break others so as always – feedback would be great. If you have a mobile device you can use the new mobile theme located at m.nosvc.com.
Hope everyone had a great Christmas! We’re looking forward to 2012 with the new release and a lot of new plans for an exciting new year.
Five years ago boredom and frustration were channeled into an ounce of creativity and NOSVC.com was born. I had lost all interest in my previous project and small message boards like ARTMUSIClife were drowning in the undertow created by the tsunami of MySpace and Facebook. I needed change both in direction and perspective to move forward with a new project.
With almost 900 slightly less than inspired posts behind us we’re still here. We’ve got no real direction and the game plan is still a little fuzzy but that might be the point. Maybe there is a deeper meaning to it all but there are no plans here to try and look for it.
For those of you that have stuck around reading this nonsense – thank you. On average we have 50-100 visitors per day and while I know some of you personally and some of you by only your IP address I really worry about all of you. Reading this site on a daily basis probably isn’t healthy.
As we wind down 2011 and head into the sixth year of NOSVC insanity all I can promise is more of the same. Keep your expectations low and you’ll never be disappointed. Might not be a bad idea to ignore bad grammar and spelling too. As always – thanks for stopping by and here’s to another year of whatever this is.