Congrats to Ashley Burns for being selected as Best Local Blogger over at the Orlando Sentinel!

For those of you who don't know Ashley, he used to be the editor over at UCF Future. Even when I moved away from Orlando for a couple years, I'd read his sports column religiously. It was in the midst of our 0 and forever streak, so it wasn't always kind, but it was always funny as hell, rather truthful, and thoroughly enjoyable. I think he's writing for Axis now occasionally, but I'm not sure.

Anyhow, he has a blog called "Blumpkins for All," and was named best local blogger by the Orlando Sentinel (who shamefully didn't print the name of the blog ;). Ashley's site is generally a brash, offensive stream of lunacy and youtube links that's probably only outdone by his myspace blog. It has traces of the humor you'll remember from the UCF Future days, only completely unhinged. When it's all said and done, it's that level of authenticity that blogging is about and what makes his site stick out from the noise.

"My blog is every thought that crosses my mind regarding sports, pop culture, politics and especially Orlando - completely unedited and uncensored. Everything is 100% original and I apologize for nothing."

Heck yeah. If you haven't subscribed to Ashley's blog, and you aren't easily offended, go check it out.

His win is even more important than it may appear though. The two other finalists were a local radio station and a Sentinel columnist. Turns out, Burnsy (as most folks probably call him) wasn't just rep'n his love for Blumpkins. He was representing the "actual bloggers" category of the contest.

Scott Maxwell is a great columnist, and his Sentinel blog is of similar quality, it just seems rather strange to have a msm journalist who works for the paper be nominated. Heck, if any Sentinel blogger should be nominated, it should be Dave "Get off my lawn!" Ballentine for his outstanding, truthful coverage of the downtown area. I hate those damn birds next to Lake Eola too, Dave.

There are a ton of great bloggers in the area. Lots of folks from Weblogs, Inc, one our blogsmith networks, blog professionally from the region . Then there are local community folks like Josh Hallett, Ryan Price, Mark Baratelli, John Rife -- heck, John Rife took an RV and drove around North America for three months video taping small towns and attractions for FindingAmerica.tv. How about John Frost and the Disney Blog? Erik Hersman's new Roofable or even WhiteAfrican? The guy spoke at TED for crying out loud. And if we're talking orlando blogging, there are a slew of hyperlocal, orlando only, blogs with folks like East Orlando Life, The Other Orlando, and Living Orlando (which is awesome).

Hopefully by next year, we can see a number of the great writers in the area start to be recognized for their efforts. I'm really glad that Burnsy won, as it would have spoken volumes if someone from the MSM won the category instead. "Orlando Sentinel's best local blogger is... ourselves! yay!"

In 2006, Orlando Business Journal listed UCF as a larger area employer than Lockheed Martin. The school is home to 46,000 residents, the majority of them under the age of 23 (largest undergraduate population in FL) Each year, the school pumps out thousands of educated professionals into the local economy.

In a town not known for much outside of tourism, UCF's growth is helping to diversify our economy. The addition of a medical research facility has the potential to radically affect the area. Investments into digital media by Orlando and UCF stand to further Orlando's technology sector. UCF's aggressive push to build state of the art facilities are already attracting major acts that would otherwise find themselves in Tampa. UCF has very quickly become a key ingredient to our booming economic and cultural development.

On Saturday, Orlando's newest venue opens up with a football game against the Texas Longhorns. While UCF has been playing ball in the Citrus Bowl, the move to an on campus stadium will bring a true sense of college football to Orlando for the first time. Affordable family entertainment against a nationally ranked team in a safe, clean environment. It's not just a win for UCF, it's a win for the city.

If you're an Orlando resident, there are numerous reasons to be excited about the developments going on over in East Orlando. Imagine if someone gave you the chance to design your very own university, what kind of campus would you build? Now drive out to UCF and take a look around, because that's exactly what's going down. A modern, clean, advanced college atmosphere.

With all that being said...

It surprises me how many folks look for reasons to talk down UCF, and it seems to almost always be UF alumni doing it. For years, Orlando has been a gator town. Gainesville is only about an hour out of Orlando, and UF is the big name public university. I'm just not sure if I see the threat, the comparison, or the need for college affiliations of a local region to be so exclusive. It comes across as nothing more than defensive.

My claim may seem anecdotal, but when you consider Facility Senate member Kathleen Price voted against (successfully) awarding Gov. Jeb Bush with an honorary degree because he approved funds for other state schools to have medical facilities (that is, UCF), or when Orlando Sentinel reporter Jeremy Fowler, who rumor has it is a UF graduate, needlessly bashes the home town team the week of the stadium opening, you have to wonder what their deal is (or, in the later case, if the Sentinel's traffic is truly that bad. Hope the link helps...;). Who, exactly, benefits from bashing and attacking the efforts of UCF to enter the "big time", when the city of Orlando gains so much from them doing so?

I often find myself preaching the Orlando gospel to folks outside of the area. It helps to find cities to compare us to, usually a more club-centric (ugh) version of Austin (in terms of size and tech. sector revenue), or a less sprawling version of Atlanta seem to fit (Charlotte and Atlanta are the only two southern-style cities that have a decent tech presence that come to mind for me).

Atlanta seems to be a fitting situation, and works perfectly in context to this post. UGA, Georgia's name brand university, is located in Athens about an hour out of town. Ga. Tech, an engineering school, is located inside the city. Add in George O'Leary and UCF's uniforms and I think we have a viable comparison. UCF is to Ga. Tech as UF is to UGA.

Maybe USF/UCF is not the budding state rivalry we all thought it was after all... ;) 20 years from now, FSU will be rebuilding after Bowden fires his grand children (even if he should pass, Bowden will still be coaching FSU from the other side), USF and Miami will be fighting over the definition of South Florida and UCF/UF will be engaged in a full out turf war. When it happens, remember that you heard it here first. God knows what the Sentinel's slant will be ;)

Etan Horowitz wrote an article on the Spirit Airlines debacle. It's one of the better explanations of exactly whats going on. If you've been following this saga or looking for background, check it out.

I'm told the print version has a funny picture of me badly needing a haircut. I haven't seen it yet, but hey.. Waddayado.. We've been programming up a storm around here. (it's online now.. as Mike just said to me, "Nice photo, champ".... someone just asked Gavin, "why's alex wearing a wig?"....I get it, I get it.. jeesh. I'll go get a haircut.)

Christy and Jim have talked to a few other MSM press folks. Ben wanted them to tell the world, so.. now's their chance ;) I'll update this post as I come across things.

My Spirit Airlines Blog Posts:

• Do not fly spirit airlines
• Power to the people
• Ben Baldanza from Spirit Encourages Awful Customer Service
• What I've Learned

CEO E-mail Blog Press:

• SotP: "Spirit Airlines Suckitude - It just doesn't stop"
• Consumerist: "Spirit CEO learns dangers of Reply All"
• Elliot.org: "Let him tell the world how bad we are."
• Gadling.com: "Spirit CEO could care less."
• Rick Seaney: "Spirit vs. Southwest"
• CEOSmack: "Let him tell the world how bad we are."
• Jaunted: "CEO learns lesson with Reply All"
• Upgrade: Travel Better : "Spirit CEO flips his customers the bird"
• Fare Market Value: "We've got spirit, yes we do!"
• (on and on and on, I'll try to post more later..)

MSM Press:

• Orlando Sentinel: "Blog says 'Do not fly spirit airlines.'"
• USA Today: "We owe him nothing."
• MSNBC: "What we can learn"

Shameless self promotion:

• Create an account on Emurse.com (as they say, "always be selling"... ;)