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Return Of TheWVSR: What Were You Doing On The Day This Domain Name Was Registered?

August 24, 2015 By Jeff 47 Comments

SoCal trafficSo, what do you guys think? I’m reasonably happy with it, but something still feels ever-so-slightly askew. Clearly, there’s some work left to be done. But my neuroses will take care of it. Just give my full lineup of mental illnesses the time and space to work, and magic will eventually happen. That, or a series of suspicious warehouse fires. We’ll see how it goes.

A few notes about this latest incarnation of The Surf Report:

The theme is “responsive,” which means it will adjust to whatever device you’re using. The old version with the big ol’ header looked great, but played havoc with cell phones and tablets. After I finish tweakin’ and monkeyin’ I’m confident this one will look equally as great.

I’ve got it set up so comments close after 30 days. I had a serious problem a while back with comment spam. In fact, a previous hosting company took my sites offline for several days because of it. It was a shitty turn of events, and poisoned my opinion of that company (rhymes with “Host Gator”).

I don’t think this will be a big problem, since 99.9% of comments are posted within two or three days. In fact, I might change it to close after 14 days. I have a plugin called Akismet, which filters out the spam. So, it never actually makes it to the site. But the server still has to deal with it. Check out this notification. Crazy!

Akismet

I’m not going to make any grand proclamations about how often I’m planning to post here. But I’m hoping to increase the frequency. Stay tuned, while I get my sea legs.

I’d like to get your opinions of this new West Virginia Surf Report. I know new is automatically met with skepticism — I’m definitely guilty of such things — but I’m hoping you guys can see something positive here.

I originally bought the domain on March 9, 1999. I was still living in California at the time, and our youngest son was four months old. He’s getting ready to start 11th grade in a few days, and that’s a pretty good run. TheWVSR feels like home.

For the record: I wanted wvsr.com, but it was already taken. There’s a radio station in Charleston, WV with those call letters, and you would think they had it, right? Wrong. It’s an outfit called The West Virginia Split Rail company. They make fences and whatnot. And they’re still chugging right along, apparently. I keep my eye on that domain name, but don’t think it’ll ever be mine. Oh well.

Speaking of that, I’m also always on the lookout for mockable.com. Metten and I ran mockable.org for a few years, but the dotcom address has been elusive. I just checked on it a few days ago. Here’s the hilarious response I got:

MockableCom

Over the long weekend I also started working on the Surf Report archives project. I was laughing my ass off a few times. Remember that hunk o’ junk Blazer I used to drive? Man, that thing made me insane, and triggered many rants. Funny stuff, now that I’ve got some distance from it.

I’m planning to edit the archives down, and make them available as low-priced ebooks, and paperbacks. I’ll take out the stuff where I’m going on and on about my hatred of Al Gore, etc. and just keep it within the scope of Ridiculous Adventures in Suburbia. That’s the theme. Ya know?

This project is going to cost some money: cover art, formatting, ISBN numbers, etc. Many of you have already made generous donations, but the tip jar is still on the counter. If you’d like to help, I’d be much obliged. If not, I understand. It’s all good.

For this first Question of the Reboot I’d like to know about your personal situation on the day I purchased the Surf Report domain: March 9, 1999. Where were you living? What was going on? How have things changed?

As I said, we were in California. Some days it was OK, but I mostly hated it out there. Too hot, crowded, and expensive. Plus, my job was 100% corporate. Meaning I spent my days on conference calls and sitting in meetings, and had to do my real work after hours. Many days I drove home at 9 pm. One of the few positives of that situation: I discovered Phil Hendrie’s radio show during those late commutes. Genius!

But what about you? Tell us about it in the comments. I’m reasonably confident everything will work.

And I’ll be back soon.

Thank you guys! Have a great day.

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Ognir says

    August 24, 2015 at 12:59 pm

    I must have been at work – the same place I still work today. It must have been in late 1999 or early 2000 when I found the Surf Report.

    Reply
    • Swami Bologna says

      August 24, 2015 at 3:29 pm

      Since we’re back at the WVSR, you were supposed to declare: “First !”

      Reply
  2. ldub says

    August 24, 2015 at 1:01 pm

    First Welcome back thewvsr.com

    3/9/99. I was under 40, working at a school for barely over minimum wage and waiting to hear when my start date would be for my first web team job.

    Reply
  3. Walter says

    August 24, 2015 at 1:02 pm

    I was doing real work in March of 1999, came in to the office in October of that year.

    Reply
  4. Skippy in WV says

    August 24, 2015 at 1:09 pm

    Hmmm…1999? I was 19, workin at Go-Mart, bein a dumbass…like most 19 year olds are.

    Reply
    • Skippy in WV says

      August 24, 2015 at 4:29 pm

      I forgot, livin in Nitro, WV

      Reply
  5. Lee Harvey Ramone says

    August 24, 2015 at 1:09 pm

    I was living in Athens, GA and working on the second semester of a PhD program that I ended up completing at the University of Maryland. I probably discovered the site at some point during 2001.

    Reply
  6. JM says

    August 24, 2015 at 1:10 pm

    I was in 9th grade. That happens to be my good friend’s birthday, so I’m sure antics were involved. I know I had foods class, PE, and biology. That’s all I can really remember about that day.

    Reply
  7. SeanInSac says

    August 24, 2015 at 1:11 pm

    I was a senior in high school, living in the High Desert of Southern California in a tiny town counting the days down for my departure to boot camp down in San Diego. I also listened to Phil Hendrie on KFI back then 🙂 Also, thrilled about the return. I will always be a Surf Reporter and never called the site by its new name, it was still the surf report…

    Reply
  8. Jeff says

    August 24, 2015 at 1:15 pm

    Just to clarify… I registered the domain in early 1999, but didn’t launch the site until October 2000. By then, we’d moved to Pennsylvania.

    Reply
  9. Ognir says

    August 24, 2015 at 1:23 pm

    That’s right. It must have been Winter of 2000 or Spring of 2001 when I found this place.

    Reply
  10. Steve E says

    August 24, 2015 at 1:31 pm

    Thank you again for introducing me to Phil Hendrie. Phil has turned into an unending source of joy for my family and I. There’s nothing like having my mom ask to listen to some “Ted Bell” when we are on roadtrips… proving to me that I have great parents. 🙂

    -steve

    Reply
  11. Steve in WV says

    August 24, 2015 at 2:26 pm

    I was working in the same place I am today and I was a Junior at Marshall. I was probably asshole-deep in some bullshit project for school that was designed to give me real-world experience. Most likely a group project, too. Nothing sucks the life out of a college kid like a useless group project.

    Reply
  12. Gonad the Bavarian says

    August 24, 2015 at 2:38 pm

    I sure do miss a bowl of corn mother fuckers!

    Reply
  13. DT in .DE says

    August 24, 2015 at 3:26 pm

    If the Bunker Cam and Further Evidence are back to stay, you can count me in! I’ve been a lurker here since 2003 when someone attempted to count the fucks in Deadwood. In 1999, my whole life revolved around that mystical hour of midnight that was coming up on 1 January 2000. Tracking down computer bugs and rewriting ancient code. Ah – good times!

    Reply
  14. aminor says

    August 24, 2015 at 3:38 pm

    Just start dating someone new earlier in 1998. After a lousy Valentine’s Day with said new boyfriend, I probably was trying to figure out how to break up with him and started a subscription with Match.com. I ended up meeting my husband later in 1999 through that website and will be celebrating 14 years married.

    I also lived in Orange County and commuted to downtown LA everyday, so I was probably in LA. Early morning stuck in traffic and late afternoon stuck in traffic. Oh, well.

    Reply
  15. Turner says

    August 24, 2015 at 3:45 pm

    I first discovered the WVSR with “Alli Side Effects” and have since become an avid fan (and made a couple-dozen people shit themselves with laughter by sharing that one).

    March 99 I think I was in school for a trade that is not remotely related to the job that I do today. No plans for family (or the rest of my life for that matter). 2 marriages, 2 kids and 3 or 4 careers later, I couldn’t be happier to see thewvsr.com back online.

    Welcome back Jeff!

    Reply
  16. Jera says

    August 24, 2015 at 4:31 pm

    March 1999 I was a senior in college. I was deciding what I could do with a B.A. In Psychology(nothing) and researching graduate programs. I decided on a School Psych since my GPA was “good enough” for programs. I had a huge crush on a guy who turned out to be gay and was getting drunk often since I’d just turned 21.

    Reply
  17. Matthew says

    August 24, 2015 at 5:21 pm

    Jeff! It is great to have you back at the WVSR! Excellent, Excellent, Excellent!

    Whoo-hoo!

    Reply
  18. johnthebasket says

    August 24, 2015 at 7:31 pm

    Jeff,

    The site is very nice — tidy, trim, soft with muted colors, professional, well organized with vastly improved margins, and slightly conservative. I like it very much in that I think it represents who you are in 2015, and, perhaps, who the majority of the Reporters are as well.

    In March of 1999, I was managing the IT infrastructure for a global family-owned company that had been sold to a large insurance company three months before for a billion bucks. The family had been very hands-on and my team of 20 was equally freaked by the likely loss of the “family” work environment and the likely panic in the streets coming in nine months.

    I was still about four years away from stumbling on the WVSR site while planning a quick trip to the coast (Pacific) by checking on a series of surf-cams to determine whether my kite and/or golf ball would be visible through the omnipresent fog. I had no idea I was looking for the WVSR until I found it; then I realized I’d been looking for it for a long time.

    John

    Reply
    • johnthebasket says

      August 24, 2015 at 8:29 pm

      RE: Bunker Cam. . .

      Hokey smokes, that’s how I light my cigarettes. By which I mean my crow strikes the match and my ward lights up and hands it to me. Maybe after all the naked celebrity pics I shouldn’t have trusted the cloud. Thank God one of them was dressed in that photo.

      jtb

      Reply
    • revashane says

      August 25, 2015 at 6:21 pm

      Hi John, how do I get my avatar back? Missed my old boy when he didn’t pop up.

      Reply
      • johnthebasket says

        August 25, 2015 at 7:13 pm

        revashane . . .

        Here is the site Jeff gave us. I created mine here. It looks like it got a little more complicated since then; I think you now need to create a wordpress account before you can create your avatar, but I don’t think it costs money. Let me know how it goes.

        John

        http://en.gravatar.com/

        Reply
  19. Hotshoe says

    August 24, 2015 at 8:51 pm

    I was waiting for the birth of the West Virginia Surf Report (a day in infamy). I’m glad that you are back. http://www.thewvsr.com FOREVER!

    Reply
  20. Ed says

    August 24, 2015 at 11:55 pm

    Seems like the main body should be on the left and the smoking fish and tweets etc. on the right. Could be that it’s just what I’m used to, or it could be more graphically satisfying in some way, I don’t know right now. Maybe you should put up lots of photos of split rails just to confuse people.

    Reply
  21. mike says

    August 25, 2015 at 8:45 am

    Good to see you back!
    1999…. 5 kids under 10. Sweet Maria I don’t know how I survived.

    Reply
  22. adam says

    August 25, 2015 at 9:58 am

    The site looks nice and clean! March 9, 1999 I’m certain I was skiing while on spring break my senior year of high school.

    Reply
  23. JCIII says

    August 25, 2015 at 11:10 am

    Good Morning Surf Reporters!!!!!

    It’s been too long since I’ve been able to say that. Happy the WVSR is back, better than ever.

    Reply
  24. Joe T. says

    August 25, 2015 at 11:19 am

    I was still living with the Qweezy Mark as we were trying to flatulently outdo one another.

    Reply
    • The Qweezy Mark says

      August 25, 2015 at 4:33 pm

      I’m betting they are still trying to air that place out!

      Reply
      • The Qweezy Mark says

        August 25, 2015 at 5:35 pm

        Also, that may be around the time when I was dating that ex-nun from The Marvine, who, on our first date dry-humped me on her mother’s couch.

        Reply
        • Joe T. says

          August 25, 2015 at 5:43 pm

          She had to get it out of her system. You had the ‘kevorka.”

          Reply
  25. C1-NRB says

    August 25, 2015 at 3:53 pm

    March 1999 I was in, unbeknownst to me, a job that would come to s screeching halt in four short months.
    I found the Surf Report some nine years later, managed to read through the archives over the course of several months, and have been a loyal Reporter since.

    Reply
  26. Chad W says

    August 25, 2015 at 4:32 pm

    I was 40, living in suburban Chicago, and in the middle of a run for public office on a local park board (I lost). Working for a united states cellular provider. The day after the election the company decided that they were tired of me, and if it wasn’t for a friend who’s an employment attorney, most likely would have fired me. He advised me to ask if the termination might be age-related (I was the oldest in the department). As a result of that instead of getting fired, I was put on ‘special assigments’ which meant sit at your desk, use the internet or whatever to go find a job somewhere else but don’t make it too obvious. We might ask you to do some work once in a while, but don’t tell anyone the real story. I did that and ended up soaking up a salary for about a year before I found a great opportunity which moved me out of Chicago.

    Reply
  27. Root 66 says

    August 25, 2015 at 5:02 pm

    In March of 1999 we were in Columbus Ahia, and our youngest kid was 2 months old (he’s now almost 17.) We were struggling to make ends meet and was only months away from starting my “part-time job to pay the bills” which became my “full-time job to pay the bills!”

    I didn’t find the WVSR until around 2010 or so. I was intrigued by an article comparing photos of fast food to the ads and was directed here. I then read the macaroni and beef story, Alli side-effects and have been hooked ever since out of nothing if not sheer morbid curiosity! I always get a kick out of the great insights and observations of human behavior. This is the biggest comeback since they got rid of “New Coke!”

    I also like the larger print…thanks for thinking of the old folks!

    Reply
  28. revashane says

    August 25, 2015 at 6:19 pm

    March of ’99 I was one month away from being a mom and living in New Jersey. 16 yrs later we just uprooted from Arkansas and landed in South Carolina.
    I found Jeff from a link to the “beefy-mac-colon-blow” story. Jeff and family were traveling London if memory serves.

    Reply
  29. chill says

    August 25, 2015 at 8:15 pm

    Welcome back, Jeff. It’s a great day. The site looks good.

    In March (or October) 1999 I was slightly over 40 and living in the same house where I am now. I was working at an AV system integrator (as I am now) and was becoming increasingly bitter and frustrated with the place (as I am now) and was in a new job by the end of the year (which remains to be seen, now).

    A little something to set the tone (quoting from some Brit): “…the prodigious quantity of liquid excreta shot from his anus directly into the waiting jaws of his own trousers.”

    It’s nice to be here.
    .

    Reply
  30. Darb says

    August 26, 2015 at 10:11 am

    I was told there would be refreshments.

    Reply
  31. madz1962 says

    August 26, 2015 at 10:55 am

    YAY. Just YAY.

    Reply
  32. Phil Jett says

    August 26, 2015 at 7:06 pm

    I was making about 50k more than I’m making now (thanks Enron!) in a job I loved. I found the WVSR via a blogger and surf reporter named Erica that I use to follow.

    Reply
  33. malcolm says

    August 26, 2015 at 7:18 pm

    I had just been promoted, was living in Chapel Hill NC, and was working up the guts to separate from my first wife – I knew it would be ugly and was I ever right about that. Only blessing was no kids, but several hundred thousand dollars later (including at least $50K to HER lawyers) I was free. Finished paying her off for her share of the house in 2012. That was just about the only thing on my mind in March 1999 – how to get away from that…person.

    Now happily married with 3 boys, just moved to northwest OH with a 70% salary bump to e a big shot academic Director. Life is good.

    Not quite sure how (or when) I discovered the original Surf Report, but the classic “fast food ads vs. reality” is ringing a bell.

    Looking forward to THEwvsr 2.0, Jeff, and congrats on having the good sense to do it (said in Wilford Brimley’s voice).

    Reply
    • t-storm says

      August 27, 2015 at 6:47 am

      Woooo northwestern ohio! (I’ve been here for almost 3 years)

      Reply
  34. t-storm says

    August 26, 2015 at 9:10 pm

    Glad to see you back and has it seriously only been 15 months since you left?

    I was in the last part of my second to last quarter at uc. I was single. And I was delivering pizzas.

    Reply
  35. -- Steve says

    August 26, 2015 at 10:08 pm

    1999: The Company had just moved me to Atlanta for one year – which turned into a permanent move once I discovered you don’t need a snow blower down here!

    Simply DELIGHTED to have the Surf Report back!

    Reply
  36. SC Shawn says

    August 27, 2015 at 4:06 pm

    On that day we were preparing for our big vacation to Arizona and Las Vegas, me my stepson and my pregnant wife. Daughter was born in July that year, these days she just started 11th grade as well and is driving her own car. Was living in Northbridge MA working a boring job, now loving the Carolinas while I work a similarly boring job, but make significantly more money.

    Reply
  37. Alex says

    August 27, 2015 at 8:51 pm

    I go away for a few days and thewvsr is already back! As one of the vocal ones about the importance of the Surf Report I’m disappointed I missed the grand opening considering I checked the url regularily even before you announced its return.

    Site looks good.
    Feels even better that it is back.
    Colors are spot on. (as in, my old eyes can read it without squinting)
    Seeing the old smoking fish was like meeting a long lost friend.
    Like Ed said above, not having the main body on the left may be whats giving it the slightly disjointed feeling.

    1999 I would be working where I still am. Also would have been shortly after they expanded our shop. I’d be in my corner area, and having a production line of printers and tv’s on the go for repairs. Lot less on site calls then, much more shop time. Totally reversed now, spend (and prefer) to be out on the road doing almost exclusively on-site repairs.

    Reply
  38. Limey says

    September 5, 2015 at 3:26 pm

    I am pleased the WVSR is back 🙂

    I spent most of 1999 “commuting” between London and California and Arizona, working on some vitally important tech project that will all be in the trash now 15 years later.

    This was pre-9/11 and I was single so it was fine. I would hate to do it today.

    Reply

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