Intro; DFA Training Academy in Tampa

Hello fellow Sunshine State Kossacks. I'm PattyP (obviously, heh) and I've been a registered DailyKos user since around March 2005, smack in the middle of the nationwide Terri Schiavo tragedy and Pope John Paul II dying. What a time I picked to introduce myself to the blogosphere, I tell you what. I'd like to thank gatordem for adding me to the Florida Kossacks posting roll a few weeks ago. My own blog is called spacebawl; it doesn't have any specific focus at the moment, but I'm going to try to write more on local politics as well as post more frequently, both here and there.

I recently started attending some of the City Council and Board meetings of my relatively small central-east coast town of South Daytona and would like to report on them, assuming that's not too narrow a focus for this blog. No doubt it will include some Volusia County and Florida legislature stuff as well. I'm also supporting Clint Curtis for Congress in U.S. House District FL-24, home of the notoriously corrupt and all-around icky Tom Feeney, and will no doubt write about this race from time to time. My primary political concerns are environmental protection and separation of church and state, which is certainly not to say I don't care about other issues, but that I really need to focus on just a few due to time and brain cell constraints. ;-)

Other than that, as my DailyKos bio says, I'm a librarian living in Florida with four cats, many plants, and varying numbers of tropical fish - that about sums it up. For some time I've been pondering the best topic for my first post here, but have yet to come up with one, so I figured a brief introduction is as good as anything.

I also wanted to mention that I'l be attending the Democracy for America Training Academy to be held in Tampa, Florida at the end of June. I would imagine most everyone here is familiar with the DFA Training Academies, but just in case, please check out the link. They did one in Orlando a couple years ago and a friend of mine who attended was very happy with it and learned a lot. If any Florida Kossacks are also planning to attend the Tampa training, let's try to meet up and "introduce" ourselves in meatspace. If anyone has attended previous academies, I welcome your reviews as well as advice for getting the most out of them.

The recent Florida Progressive Coalition posts on what's wrong with the Florida progressive blogosphere were very enlightening and I'll keep those suggestions in mind when I write. One thing that will be difficult for me to do is post frequently due to my work schedule, but I will endeavour to post regularly. I welcome constructive criticism so don't hesitate to offer it. I will do my best to be a productive contributor and look forward to working with all of you to Blog Florida Blue!