Saw a sad thing as I was rolling down Kettner Boulevard this morning – they’re taking the San Diego National Bank sign off its headquarters building.

San Diego National Bank was known for the Wyland mural of whales on the side of its main building and its “whale” logo. Its parent company, FBOP Inc., failed in October, making SDNB the largest local bank to fail during the recent financial crisis.

Let’s hope whoever occupies the building next will be a marine-mammal-loving organization inclined to keep and maintain this landmark mural.

For me, it started with a blaring car horn.

Hearing this sound at 8:00 in the morning is not unusual in our neighborhood. Many tend to hit their horn instead of a doorbell when picking up a friend. We’re resigned to it, though it sometimes inspires my husband to sing “In the ghetto…”

This was different, though. This person was leaning on their horn. Like it was malfunctioning. Or something was wrong.

I went to our second-floor bedroom window that looks out on 22nd Street and glared with my best how-dare-you-some-folks-are-sleeping look. I saw a white minivan parked in front of my house and a Mexican woman standing outside it who seemed agitated. She was arguing with the driver and pointing at the house next door. The horn continued to blare. I wondered if it was stuck and she was trying to tell the driver how to fix it.

Her eyes met mine and she seemed embarrassed, though I think by now I looked more curious than angry. She hurried across the street and the van started driving off in another direction, horn still blaring. What the heck was going on?

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The San Diego News Network launched last week creating buzz about a new, vibrant source for local San Diego news. Just the fact that such a site was launching at all, anywhere in this climate, was man-bites-dog enough to attract interest and attention.

The SDNN.com launch has been a soft one. To use the common web parlance, the site is ‘in beta,’ which means the site is rolling out features and content and also correcting bugs.

Apparently also in beta was SDNN.com’s founding executive editor and publisher, Ron James, who appears to have been ousted by the investors within a week of the site’s debut.
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In ur timeline, posting ur newz

Metblogs recently extended its reach into its 57th city and the consciousness of San Diegans. Now San Diego Metblogs will be even easier to follow, as it has its own Twitter feed!

Are you in San Diego and have a Twitter account? Or maybe just miss San Diego and its perfect weather? (Yes, that’s a dig at you, East Coast.) Want to read local blog posts from 14 of the finest bloggers (more added every day) in America’s Finest City? Then just start following @SDMetblogs, my friend.

We’ll serve up local happenings, quirky observations, bargains, and fun things to do with a decidedly San Diego flavor. You know, like a fish taco. Okay, and some crazy-old-man-next-door-style rants. You know it will happen. Either way, you’ll get a tweet sent to your mobile phone or computer whenever there’s a new post to read.

So no more hanging around my front door demanding more blog posts, okay? Follow @SDMetblogs instead, and get offa my lawn!

AtenLabs was able to corral Brady for a quick interview. He was kind enough to indulge us. Read on for some squishy hacker-friendly goodness about Etech this year!

Aten: How much of your life does Etech consume?

Brady: it consumes… I start working 10 months in advance. In some ways 14 months in advance. 10 months is the theme for the following year, its my first conference of the year, so it gets my attention. I’d like to have as many worthwhile things as possible crammed into into that time – the conference is only four days. Every facet of the conference has to be interesting. There is tech/art in the halls, events in the evenings. Its broad.

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I’m really not sure why this hasn’t been done before – but I created a google calendar to showcase events in town that are ‘in our scene’. That being – the barcampers, the web dev scene, the drinky drink scene, etc.

It would be nice to have a calendar with *EVERYTHING IN TOWN* on it, yes? I thought so too :)

Drop me a note and I can add your google account to have write access to this calendar!

Read access to this calendar: XML ICAL HTML

Whether you call it real-time conversations or microblogging, Twitter is a tool that San Diego’s media are picking up and putting to use. You can follow individual reporters or on-air personalities in San Diego as well as subscribe to Twitter news feeds:

Media Tweeps
@dodgemedlin – San Diego Union-Tribune assistant news editor
@RickyWhy – San Diego Union-Tribune local government editor Ricky Young
@ninagarin – San Diego Union-Tribune ‘Street’ reporter Nina Garin
@jimtrageser – North County Times reporter
@drolland – San Diego CityBeat editor David Rolland
@ericwolff – San Diego CityBeat reporter Eric Wolff
@catherine739 – NBC 7/39 anchor Catherine Garcia
@carondg – San Diego Foodstuff blogger, freelance food, travel and tech writer Caron Golden
@lcaloh – KPBS convergence editor Leng Caloh
@culturelust – KPBS arts and culture producer Angela Carone
@tmack01 – KNSD 7/39 photographer
@helenchang – San Diego News Network business editor (launching in March)
@michellemowad – San Diego Business Journal real estate reporter Michelle Mowad
@Hula933 – 93.3 FM AJ’s Playhouse personality Hula Ramos

San Diego News Feeds on Twitter
@sdut – San Diego Union-Tribune
@utstreet – Union-Trib’s Street section
@sdbackyard – Union-Tribune’s SD Backyard community social media news site
@nctimes – North County Times
@sdcitybeat – San Diego City Beat
@kpbsnews – KPBS FM news
@nbcsandiego – NBC 7/39 News
@10news – KGTV 10 News
@sandiego6 – San Diego Channel 6
@SDSU_NewsTeam – San Diego State University news / media relations
@UCSDNews – UCSD news / media relations
@bizsandiego – BizSanDiego
@sdbloggers – SDBloggers.com

If you’ve got other local media or newsfeeds on Twitter to suggest, send them to @juliewright. And thanks in advance for any contributions.

Gamasutra broke the news this morning that Midway was delisted by the New York Stock Exchange as the company continues it’s decent into the blackness of bankruptcy.  This is a pretty serious blow to local Midway Home Entertainment, the console games division located here in San Diego and the related Midway Customer Service division located nearby.

This comes as no surprise to those of us in the industry who have been following Midway’s steady slide for the last several years, but this is looking increasingly final.  Personally, I’ve been pulling for the old gal, as I have fond memories of classic titles like NBA Jam, Mortal Kombat, and nearly everything they did back when they were called TradeWest back in the day.

Kotaku has a nice write up of the lengthy list of barbarians at the gate here.

@morrisato

The Embarcadero Marina Fitness Course @ Sunrise. Image Courtesy of CrashMattB's flickr photo stream under a Creative Commons license. Check out his entire "Hello San Diego" set.

Now is the time of year when most of us start thinking about the summer months (which in San Diego is most of the year).  Unfortunately this year, now is also the time that many of us are letting our gym memberships go due to tough times and prudent frugality.  Who’s got disposable income for the fitness center right now?  Fortunately for San Diegans, the city has got you covered.  For the next couple of weeks I’m going to reveal all the good local free fitness spots I know of around the downtown and surrounding areas.

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Photo courtesy of Union Tribune

While on Twitter the other night, I got word that “King” George Stahlman had passed away last week.  If you’ve lived in San Diego for any length of time (or are a native), then you probably are familiar with the successful bail bondsman and local fixture.

I have a unique connection to George Stahlman — my father, Jerry Reeder, worked for Stahlman as a bail agent when we first moved to San Diego in 1978.  As a five year old child, I only knew “Uncle George”, as a very warm man who was kind and generous with me. I didn’t know him well, but he and my father had what I perceived to be a somewhat father/son-esque dynamic.

Within a year or two, they had a falling out (though as a kid, I have absolutely no idea what it was about — but it must have been a biggie) and my father quit working there… with gusto.  He opened up his own bail bonds agency two doors down on Union and B St. and went on to become a very successful bondsman in his own right, eventually dubbed locally as “The Prince of Bail”. (more…)