New Blog Design for OCThen.com

For those of you reading OCThen via RSS, take a look at the website because I changed a lot of stuff around...

http://www.octhen.com

Primarily, I migrated it over to New Blogger, which Blogger actually refers to as just "Blogger". This means OCThen is now hosted on Google's servers. It used to be running Classic Blogger, via FTP, on my server.

The migration gives me access to several new features, which I have running right now...

Improved Search - search results shows you the full posts, instead of links to posts


• Recent Comments - this shows you the last five comments our visitors made. This was sorely needed, because the real gold in OCThen are the comments people make. Now you'll know where the latest comments are. Check back everyday because there seems to be new comments everyday.



• Comments RSS - If you already read OCThen via RSS, you can now get a separate RSS feed for just the comments. Click here.
  
  
• Form Commenting - There's now a comment form on OCThen. Previously, you had to click a link to open up a form window. This just eliminates the step of clicking the link.



• Instantaneous Commenting - Now, when you post a comment it will appear on OCThen instaneously. Previously, Blogger had to upload the comment to my server via FTP, which could take several minutes.



• Reorganized Archives - I reorganized the archives so that there's now just two sections, one for "Communities" and another for "Subjects". Previously, I had something like 20-30 different sections.



• It Looks Different - That's because I changed the design. It now resembles something like an old newspaper, giving it that nostalgic look. Hope you like it.

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Leaving on a 4-Day Camping Trip

Folks, this morning I'm heading out on a 4-day camping trip to Utah and back, via motorcycle. Myself and six other friends are going.

Camping at Zion National Park the first night.

Natural Bridges National Monument, camping second night.

Grand Canyon Caverns, camping third night.

That first night is the coldest, with temps in the 30s, and predicted for rain and snow fall that morning. We should miss that stuff, but am expecting wet and icy road conditions when we get there in the evening.

That next morning, we're riding up to Bryce Canyon. That'll be the toughest part of the trip, with temps that morning in the 20s, and more wet and icy roads. The rest of the trip should get better from there.

And for the record, I am by no means an expert riding a motorcycle on icy roads. I've tried it before, and ended up dumping my bike. Hopefully, things will be better only because we're staying on the more heavily travelled roads.

Anyways, feel free to follow me on my Twitter account:
http://twitter.com/stelis

I'll try to post updates there, assuming I have Internet access.

But I do have several more "memories" posts for OCThen scheduled to publish, so checking back for more.

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Notable Comments

Here are some noteworthy comments posted this week on our previous articles...

Feb 17 - Cloud 9 and Studio K - Gary comments that he's the one who came up with the idea for Studio K, and also was the guy who ran Cloud 9. He also says he came up with the idea for tearing down Studio K.

Feb 16 - Stehley's Egg Ranch - Anonymous remembers the exact location of the place.

Feb 16 - Intoxicating Smell of Orange Blossoms - Argo#67 remembers going to the United Methodist church in Orange, and recalls it being a white wooden structure, before they built the "submarine church", and recalls "Wheeler's Market" next to it.

Feb 14 - Beaches and Tastee Freez - Jim thinks the Van's Store mentioned in the article was in Stanton, on the NW corner of Beach and Chapman.

Feb 13 - My Favorite Orange County Restaurants - Anonymous wants to know what used to reside on the location where Acapulco Restaurant now sits, on Bristol Street, in Costa Mesa

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OCThen Forum - New Site Feature

I added a web forum to OCThen today.

You can access it here...

http://octhen.com/phpBB2/index.php

You'll also find it linked in the dark-orange horizontal navigation bar above, "Forums".

This is the first time I've managed a web forum, so, it's a learning process for me.

If the forum finds success in getting a lot of users and posts, I may cross post stuff from the forum to the blog. I'll be glad to add new sub-forums for other topics, for example theme parks, cities, schools, etc.

To post a message there you have to have a user account, which is different than the Blogger account that you may have used to post comments on this blog. Note that the blog allows anonymous comments, but the forum does not.

The advantage the forum brings to you as a visitor of OCThen is that you can start new topics, whereas on the blog, only myself and the few bloggers that have signed up, can start new topics.

So, click on over to the new forum, create a user account, and get to posting!

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Welcome Suzanne Broughton

I wanted to introduce our new blogger, Suzanne Broughton.

Suzanne grew up in Huntington Beach, and now lives in Irvine. She writes her own blog, "Emphasis Mine", where she rambles on about the past and present. She works as the Style Editor for Broughton Quarterly, a travel magazine.

I'll still be blogging away on OCThen, about as often as I normally do. Hopefully Suzanne can add stuff to make this website published more frequently.

What struck a cord with me is that she mentioned in her first post, "You know you grew up in Orange County in the 70's", by saying that she had a dance routine to the hit song, "Billy Don't Be A Hero". Because, my wife had her own dance routine to the same song. It would be scary to watch them compete against each other on The Gong Show.

And according to our, "Milk it for all it's Worth Department", yes, Bo Donaldson and the Heywoods are still touring, and they have a MySpace site.

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Subscribe to OCThen

Now you can receive each new OCThen article as an e-mail.

In the navigation bar at the top, you'll see a link "Subscribe". This link takes you to this article.

By entering your e-mail address in the space below, each new article I post here will be delivered to your inbox. The advantage to doing this is that you won't have to remind yourself to visit OCThen to see what's new. Instead, it'll come to you!

If you subscribed and you're not getting these e-mails, check your spam folder. If you find it there, mark it as "not spam".

Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner

Feedburner won't share your e-mail address with anyone, and you won't get any ads from this.

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Now You Can Search OCThen

I added a search engine to OCThen. You can find it on the left-most column "Search OCThen".

The search engine is powered by Google, and will display Google ads. But then again, Google isn't charging me anything to use it. Actually, they're paying me to use it!

I had the search engine there a long time ago, but when I implemented the current page design, I forgot to include it.

A couple of OCThen readers have asked me about it.

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Bloggers Wanted

If you love reading and writing about Orange County history, then consider becoming a blogger here on OCThen.

We need people willing to write about the people, places, and events of days-gone-by relating to Orange County, and engaging our readers to post comments.

Bloggers are expected to write often, as little as once per month, but preferably more.

The kinds of bloggers we're looking for...

• People who spent a lot of time living in Orange County, or


• People who spent a lot of time working in Orange County, or


• People who are familiar with the history of Orange County.

These are UNPAID positions; you'd do this because you love to share your thoughts about Orange County. But as bloggers, we'll let you identify your website and organization in a byline on each article you post.

Contact me if you are interested (click here for contact info).

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Submit a Memory

Tell us about something you remember while living or working in Orange County, and we'll consider it for publication on OCThen.

• Focus on something specific, like a school, a store, an event, a person


• You're free to submit as many memories as you like.


• Click on "Post a Comment" below, and type it out


• Be sure to provide your name (or nickname)


• Or, you can send it an e-mail, and attach photos if you'd like. Click here for contact info.

OCThen is about remembering the old days, and keeping those memories alive on the Internet for future generations.

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