Jared W. Smith

UPDATE: A tweet from Clay Taylor (@imallergictocats) indicates that Norm’s will be back next year after a renovation. I sure hope that’s the case! Original post below:

As you may or may not know, Norm’s Pizza and Subs — home of the fabled Nerd Table and an otherwise very important part of my college experience — is closing for good today. (The original closing date was December 1, but the restaurant got a 11-day reprieve, opening from 5-midnight in December.) Word is they’ve run into lease issues, among other things. It’s quite a shame, because there stands to be a great deal of College of Charleston students who will never understand the importance of Norm’s takeout during finals week. A great deal of the MUSC community is also going to have to find a new place to get lunch — not necessarily an easy feat on the western peninsula.

As long-time followers of this blog know, Norm’s was a staple of mine in the several years I lived downtown. I found it to be a wonderful place to swap stories, make new friends, or even just a place to sit back and step out of the madness for a little bit, no matter how full it may have been on any given night. While living in West Ashley had made it difficult to stop in over the last year and a half, I still managed to make it in for lunch a fair amount, and did my best to stop in during the evenings as well, even if it wasn’t as often.

Thanks to Traye and the crew at Norm’s for the memories over the last several years. You’ll be missed.

I went up to Charlotte, NC on Saturday to take part in BarCamp Charlotte 2. I got a great deal of value out of the presentations, and it was really important for me to see a BarCamp in action — important as we prepare for the inaugural BarCamp Charleston on Saturday.

I was only able to attend the afternoon sessions, but fortunately I was able to see how Charlotte’s interpretation of BarCamp works. I even tried to pitch a session talking about what I’ve done with my weather projects, and while there was some interest, it didn’t quite pass muster. But that’s alright — I know I wouldn’t have been able to match the quality of the sessions I attended, which were incredibly well-thought-out and creative. I attended a session called “45 Questions in 45 Minutes,” which aimed for 45 questions about the web answered in a strict one-minute time limit (though people found loopholes later on :) ). I got to see a great demo of HTML5 — and from that, confidence that I can start to use HTML 5 now. Finally, I attended a panel about the future of journalism (a topic near and dear to this journalism major’s heart), during which I got to mention the #CHS Hashtag Summit, which likely sparked a Charlotte news hashtagging movement as well.

It was also great to connect and re-connect with a lot of my Charlotte Twitter friends. I think that’s the part of these events I enjoy most — connecting with all the people in “real life” that I interact with daily on Twitter. I also got to meet a whole lot of new people as well — always a plus.

The event seemed to go very well (at least for the few hours I was there), and I look forward to making the trip for BarCamp Charlotte 3.

There are a couple interesting but unconnected conversations in Charleston taking place, and the intersection of both intrigues the hell out of me. Let’s try it! Here’s the rundown:

• A couple weeks ago, Janet Edens posted at xarkGirl, asking what a Lowcountry co-working space would look like, with some incredible comments on the post. This is an idea that’s been kicked around a few times in the past and is gaining momentum. In fact, just today, it was revealed that a Summerville company, KFR Services, will begin providing space and some monetary investment in an ongoing program to aid local startups. This is a start, but the vision of our local creative and technical geeks is bigger (more on that in a little bit).
• Yesterday, a knockout blog post by Kristin B. Walker shed a lot of light on issues people are having trying to establish in Charleston. In it, Kristin insists that “Charleston is not Disneyworld” and that things need to happen in the city to better improve opportunities for local businesses to thrive and, more importantly, survive — especially in the face of business failures up and down King Street. It’s a great, honest read from the trenches, and if you haven’t seen it, read it.

The intersection, of course, is bringing that talent together in an attractive fashion to additional talent, to kick off those businesses — and the co-working space is a great place to architect an escape from Disneyworld.

read more »

Yes, folks, it’s open. After months of anticipation, Charleston, and South Carolina, for that matter, finally has an Apple retail store — officially the King Street Apple Store — in the heart of downtown. No more drives to Charlotte for a Genius Bar. It’s a pretty sweet thing for Apple fanatics and technology consumers in general. read more »

This past week marked the return to classes at the College. Because of my new job, I’m taking an abbreviated, part-time course load — and honestly, I like the way the classes break up my workday. Because my job no longer involves me going out of the office except for lunch, it’s nice to be able to still get out there every once in a while and trudge my way through thousands of students trying to get to where THEY need to go, too.

The real shocker in the first week of classes isn’t necessarily the classes — no, it’s the throngs of PEOPLE. Charleston effectively adds what, 7,000 at least to its population when classes resume? I definitely feel that when I’m walking by the King Street Subway and see a line 20 deep. I’m sure I could just tell the line that I’m Jared and cut through, but I digress. I get so used to the city and the campus being relatively deserted in the summer months…and then BAM! Oh well — it’s cool to see people back. These days, most of my friends live in Charleston year round, but it was nice to see a few people return from their hometowns.

Last Saturday I saw Superbad with the roommates. It was grotesque, outrageous, and oh, so hilarious. It’s a must see. (Leave the kids at home.)

Ryan Farish came out with some more tracks — it seems as if he’s getting back to that 2002 sound. I’m loving every minute of it, and highly recommend it. I’m getting them through his SNOCAP store on his MySpace page. (A topic for another day: How MySpace Effectively Destroys Attempts at Good Grammar Simply Through Its Name.)

Dean was a monster storm. Cozumel and Cancun sure dodged a bullet, though, didn’t they? Whew. Houston — and the rest of the Midwest, rather — got a little too acquainted with Erin, though. We would have gladly taken that rain off their hands — they certainly didn’t need it, as the flooding shows. The tropics are settled down a bit but it’s that time of year where things can just kick up and get going — and have a lot of time to grow. Keep an eye out. I love how Weather Underground is now tracking not only the defined tropical systems but also the Invests — pre-classified disturbances that the Hurricane Center watches closely for development. Previously, you had to dig around NOAA’s site to get at that stuff, so Weather Underground exposing it is a huge help.

I may redo a few things around the site in the next couple weeks. I need a new header picture (my hair hasn’t been that shaggy for months now) and I think the post interface could use a bit of work (and standardization, for that matter). We shall see. I’m off to hit the showers and the bookstore to get a refund on a book that was incorrect. Peace…

I had to give away my Obama ticket today. We had an emergency come up at work, and I had to stop in and see what was up…and thus, I missed Obama. No fun. :( Did anyone in the Charleston blogosphere go? I’m so interested to see how this went.