Knoxville Overground Spring Gala Fundraiser

This one is truly over ground. Tomorrow night KO is hosting a gala on the 6th floor of the Sunsphere (that’s one floor above the Wig Shop). The public is welcomed to attend, just a cool $25, but there is a limit to only 120 guests.

Official KO members, KO sponsors, and members of KO affiliate organizations receive a 20% discount for this event: $20/per person includes an evening of cocktails, friends, an upbeat vibe, and inspiring speeches about Knoxville’s potential to be even more sustainable, innovative, cosmopolitan, and empowered entrepreneurial community of cultural creatives.

This is a great opportunity to meet some of the folks involved with KO, and if you aren’t a member yet, you can swing by and take this quiz to see if perhaps you should be!

Big Knoxville Overground Event Tonight!

KO is working on building a micro-enterprise development center at 35 Market Square and is hosting a social mixer there tonight (link to the flyer).

From KnoxViews:

Their proposal, modeled off of the top-ranked San Francisco Renaissance Center, entails using the space as a resource where startups in a variety of industries (specifically companies positioned to bring in the majority of their revenue from outside Tennessee) can grow around a community of other startups, self-employed professionals, and organization representatives that specifically serve the startup community.

If you fall into any of these categories, swing by and check it out! And, as always, there’s the weekly Wednesday open house at the coworking space on Kenesaw where you can meet cool KO people and find out more!

Good Peanut Butter and Good Toilet Paper

…the rest of life is butter if you have those two things.  Really good butter.

Check out this awesome video of our ol’ buddy at ktownlowdown and his (much) better half, CouponKatie. You may have to watch the video twice, because the first time through you’ll most likely be distracted with thoughts of, “how did that guy land her?!?!?”

I don’t think such things, because I’m in a similar situation myself.

UPDATE–Had to link to the video…the autoplay was driving me nuts.

Katie is a serious money saving ninja and has built an incredible resource for families looking to save money in our area.

If I had any money I would actually pay her to come help me save it!!!

Retail Wasteland

Driving back from Nashville yesterday we stopped in Cookville to get gas and let Pea run wild through their mall. What we found was Zombie Mall. It was like something out of a Cormac McCarthy book. All the stores were empty with the gates pulled down, no one else inside but a couple of mall walkers. It smelled like an old country church, but you expected to be attacked at any moment by an undead congregation.

The only safe haven in the mall was a GNC at the far end of the mall. Why it was still open I don’t know…probably just to spite the owners into keeping every door at the mall unlocked. The only “big” store, JC Penny’s, wouldn’t even let you enter from the “mall”. You had to go outside and back in.

It would be cool if someone took these old retail spaces and put them to use with stuff like indoor skate parks, soccer fields, indoor playgrounds, etc. I mean, I’m not doing that with my money, but it would be cool if someone else did.

Knoxville Overground Co-Working Space Opening Next Week!

ko_openingOn Wednesday February 18 Knoxville Overground is holding a launch party and wants to invite the Knoxville blogging community to come check out the facilities from 7-10 pm.

There will be live music, photographers, food & drinks, guest speakers, the Press, and silent auctions for “an hour of time with professionals, consultants, and celebrity entrepreneurs.” Tours will be provided of the new Knoxville Overground community center (for entrepreneurs & local investors) and our coworking workspace every 15 minutes from 7pm – 8pm.

If you haven’t been by, the coworking space is a great place for things like blogger meetups, tweet ups, and other social events centered on increasing technical and economic development in Knoxville. It’s also a cool place to work during the day if you’re someone who has trouble working out of the house or would like a place a little more “office like” than coffee shops.

Come by and check it out!!!

Should Tennessee Take Bailout Money?

That’s what Blue Collar Muse is asking.  Here’s my take..

If bailouts are bad, they are bad. If people think they are good, they are ok still bad.

But here’s the thing….if Tennessee (or any other state) were to refuse the bailout money, does that mean those dollars wouldn’t be invested spent in another state? Someone is going to be standing there with their hand out.

Wouldn’t we be better off to take the money and then, ahem, “invest” it for an interest in future revenues of another state? For instance, why not buy 1% of Georgia’s state income tax for the next 10 years, or a piece of California’s lottery action, a some of Florida’s sales tax?

I’m just thinking out loud here.  I’m sure what I’m proposing is either illegal or would be deemed so pretty quickly by an executive order–can’t have the States exercising this kind of power and making these types of decisions, right?

I know I’m wrong here…tell me why.

Tennessee Martin vs Tennessee (Tennessee)

I DVR’d the game so I could badoop badoop it and not have to spend a ton of time watching it. I feel a little bad for Lester Hudson. He’s obviously a great player–you can tell just by the way he moves. But the Vols pretty much shut him down until late in the second half when, oddly enough, the Vols started playing pretty sloppy themselves. It’s too bad, because this was probably one of the few nights a lot of people in the state would get to see him play.

I think the real story of the game was Brian Williams who was getting it done everywhere on the floor. That dude is looking a lot better than last year. I can see J.P. Prince and him both having big years as everyone tries to contain Tyler Smith. Should be a fun season to watch the Vols.

Is Fulmer Gone For Real Now?

Tony Basilio is reporting on the air that University of Tennessee Athletic Director Mike Hamilton has requested a meeting with Jimmy Sexton, who is Phil Fulmer’s agent. This apparently signals an official move to end the Phil Fulmer error era at UT. According to Basilio, neither camp is going to confirm this, at least not right now.

There are some who aren’t going to believe it’s true until it is admitted on the UTAD’s state-sponsored radio station, but you have to give it Basilio–he’s called quite a few of these events early in the past.

So now we can (almost) officially ask the question–who are they going to get?

**UPDATE**
I just realized that it is completely possible that they are meeting to discuss a raise and contract extension.