If you're a fan of local racing or even local history, you must listen to the weekly podcast Billy Simkins and Lee Jensen have started on their Dirt Racin'  Station. They're also streaming their shows on bakersfield.com (thanks, guys!).

Of particular note is Sunday's interview with Spud Simkins, a legendary local figure with deep ties to Bakersfield Speedway. You'll hear how Spud overcame polio, won track championships while driving with one foot and how he finished 1st AND 2nd in the same track series in the same year! You'll also learn how his son Danny (Billy's dad) learned to drive with one leg after undergoing an amputation.

If you're into visuals with your audio, check out the accompanying photo slide show on iTunes (I've attached a few sample shots in the slideshow to the left), which features dozens of great photos from back in the day, showing Spud and others living the wild life on local speedways.

Their blog and podcast are great examples of two passionate race fans collecting local history in a way that's fun and conversational and informative. I'd encourage others to dig into their passions, and share their history and inspiration with us, as well.

We at Bakersfield.com have been stunned by the generosity of so many local people who have contributed goods and money to our holiday homeless project.

On Wednesday, these two wonderful children (shown to your left) stopped by our offices to donate items for the project. Kaleb, 7, and Naomi Jennings, 5, used money earned from their chores to buy soap, deodorant, toothpaste, socks, lotion and toothbrushes. How cool is that?

 
And on Thursday, one of our big-time bloggers dropped off a card addressed to community content coordinator Jason Sperber that contained $40 for the project. The blogger – who also gave $40 to the Rescue Mission -- signed the card with his online persona, but because he left before we could meet him, we don’t want to post his name without permission. Let us know if you want to be ID’d; we would love to let the world know what a wonderful person you are.

And an hour or so later, donations collected by an unidentified elementary school class were dropped off in our lobby.  
Our cutoff for donations is Friday, so here’s a quick update on what we’ve been able to achieve do far with your donations: 553 complete kits! Awesome work, and thank you so much to the dozens of donors and everyone involved with the sorting and packing.

 
Here’s more good news: We have 275 kits that are partially complete: They just need toothbrushes, faces towels and deodorant. So, if you’ve been waiting to donate to a holiday project or have some of that stuff stored around the house, consider dropping it by so we can put it go good use. Here are details on some of the other items we’re looking for as well as background on the program.

 
One final quirky note: Some of the donated combs are imprinted with “Senator Walter Stiern,” who served Bakersfield in the state Senate for many years, beginning in 1957. A local elementary school and the CSUB library are named in Stiern’s honor. But, where have these combs (see a picture of one in the gallery) been all these years?

 
Thanks so much for helping the homeless this holiday season and for your continued support of Bakersfield.com.

Bakersfield.com has launched its bigger and better Jobs section, which is loaded with new features and a new look. We think it continues to be the best source of local jobs anywhere!

 
For job seekers, our new features allow you to:

• Search ads by any number of possibilities, including job title and company name.
• Post your resume so employers can see what great skills you have.
• Sign up for e-mail alerts, that let you know when the jobs you’re interested in show up online.
• Read tips for improving your resume and prepping for job interviews.
• Researching Kern County’s top employers and fastest-growing jobs.

 

 For employers, our new features allow you to:

• Post your jobs on Bakersfield.com, even those that you post only on your own websites.
• Search our database of local resumes for the perfect candidates.
• Accept job applications online.
• Highlight your jobs

 
We’ve even added a work-related poll for a bit of regular fun.

 
As always, check it out, tell your friends and family, include the link in your Christmas letter, etc., -- and let us know what you think.

Ever dreamed of Bakersfield on the Beach, like in the old days? (OK, so it was a million years ago, when we were under water here, but it did happen). Anyway, Bakersfield is once again beachfront property, this time in the virtual world of Second Life.

If you’re new to the concept of Second Life, here it is in a nutshell: It’s an online world inhabited by real people who live “second lives” through “avatars” (digital alter egos). You can visit Second Life through your computer; it’s free to visit, but you need to pay real money if you want to buy anything, like land, designer clothes, blow money in casinos, etc. Here’s the crazy part: More than $500,000 in real money (U.S. dollars) is being spent in Second Life every day, by people who are buying land, building houses, and otherwise living the high life in this crazy digital world.  So much money is being spent in this world that Congress is studying how to tax all the activity. Seriously.

So, why am I writing about this on the BdotCOM blog? Because Bakersfield.com is building on land in Second Life, right on the beach. Just look for the replica Bakersfield sign as you fly over our plot(we’re near the rail station and the wicked tree house). Stop by our cabana and share a few drinks at our bar, or shop for Bakersfield t-shirts or mugs at our little store. Or, if you’re feeling adventurous, you can dip into the water and swim with our fish. You can even read the latest headlines from Bakersfield.com, piped in from the Real World through the wonder of RSS feeds (as shown in the photo). 

We’re just experimenting with this, and have lots of ideas. Dan Pacheco, our senior manager for digital products, is leading this work for us -- his avatar is shown in the photo -- and has shared some of his thoughts on his Future Forecast blog, which will give you an idea of what we're thinking.

But we'd love to get your ideas too. Come visit us in Second Life (you can look for me; my avatar is named Bronko Nagorski), tool around a bit to see what it’s like and maybe visit with other Bakersfield residents who are hanging out. Then help us build something fun and innovative to complement the fun and innovative bakersfield.com we've got back down on Planet Earth. 

We've rolled out a few new features today on Bakersfield.com that we hope you find useful.

 
First, we’ve changed our site registration process. From now on, we’re allowing all new visitors to view up to four pages before we ask them to register. And the only personal information we will ask you to provide is your ZIP code, age and gender. None of that information is personally identifiable.

If you want to sign up for newsletters or create blogs or post photos, we’ll ask you for more information, such as an email address, but only at those points in the sign-up process. Every six months, we’ll ask all of our readers to again provide their ZIP, age and gender so we can ensure our information is up to date.

 
Second, we’ve not only improved your ability to post photos, MP3s and other items to your blogs and profile pages, but – by reader request -- you also can import YouTube videos (like the one to the left). More detail on thist posting process is in the Blogging Bako blog.

 
Third, again by reader request, we’ve added the ability for you to sort blog comments by either the first post or the most recent post. We know that will make it easier for people to stay on top of hot conversations with a minimum of clicks.

 As always, let us know what you think.