About SoWal Scene

About SoWal Scene

• Launched: January 1, 2008
• Published by: Jill Gaupin (that's me in the pic.)
• Where is SoWal?  SoWal is short for South Walton county - we are located in the Panhandle of Florida, smack dab between Destin and Panama City on the Gulf of Mexico.
  
• Why I started SoWal Scene: To celebrate my adopted hometown and be a positive information source for both locals and the millions that visit our beaches every year.  I personally wanted something like this, couldn't find it, so started it myself.
• Why I picked the name "SoWalScene.com"?: Because SouthWaltonScene.com seemed too long.
• I've lived in South Walton since: 2002
• Stats: Married to my best friend, Olivier; have two wonderful preteen boys and one animal named Valerie, an unusually spry 11-year old Bassett hound from Alabama that we rescued.
  
• I'm happiest when: I'm sitting around a table eating and drinking wine with family and friends.
• My favorite movies: Brokeback Mountain, The Age of Innocence, Elizabeth, Elizabeth The Golden Age, Knocked Up, The Godfather Series, Magnolia, Boogie Nights, Goodfellas...
• My favorite music: Elton John, Dave Matthews, The Fray, The Verve, Christmas music, Coldplay, John Mayer, Pearl Jam, and I'm a sucker for "lite hits" from the 60s and 70s.
• My favorite color: Soothing, cool blues.
• My favorite thing to eat: Toasted sesame seed bagel with cream cheese, thinly sliced Vidalia, and in-season tomato drizzled with olive oil...YUM!
• I'm inspired by: people who think-outside-the-box; people who listen to their intuition - not others - and go for it; people who devote their lives to helping the weakest amongst us; wide expanses in nature.
• My favorite thing about South Walton is: the natural beauty - it puts things into perspective for me.

And for those who care ... the long story:  My name is Jill Gaupin (nee Nelson) and this is my weblog about my adopted home town, South Walton county - a.k.a. SoWal to us locals - which I think is one of the most beautiful places in the world.

There are a few ways to communicate with me.

• Email me 24/7 at jill@sowalscene.com.  Send in hip happenings, local gossip, notable news, photos, new businesses you know are opening, local special interest group information, your thoughts, ideas for the blog...anything!  Talk...talk....talk to me!
• Add a comment to any post.  At the bottom of each post, there is a little "comment" link or a comment entry form depending on which page you land on. Here's a step-by-step on how to post a comment on SoWal Scene -
  1) Name - Enter either your real name, a preferred screen name or just your initials - whatever you want. 
  2) Email - If it asks for an email, this is to verify that you aren't a robot/spammer only!  I PROMISE neither I or any third party uses it for any other purpose than to filter out crappy spammers and it will not show up when you post your comment.
  3) URL - have your own blog or website you want to plug?  This is where you can do that.  If you enter your URL (techie talk for your website address), your name will be highlighted and visitors can click on it to go to your site.  Feel free to also put a text link reference in your comment to your blog or website!
  4) Comments - chat away in this big box - keep in mind once you post, you can't go back to edit or correct typos, though.  I personally suck at proofreading and am the queen of typos so don't feel bad if you realize you've made lots of errors - we can still usually decipher your comment.
  
  It's that simple!  I will try to monitor comments and respond as much as possible.

My disclaimer

• I will never post or allow anything slanderous about any person, business or thing.  This is intended to be a happy, optimistic online informational source to celebrate people and the South Walton community at large. 
• I will try my best to post factual information but know I'm not a journalist and if information is coming to me from an outside source, I don't have a staff to "check the facts".
• If you do send in photos, please-please-please make sure everyone has given you permission to do so first.  And if I post your picture and you aren't happy about it, please send me an email about it and complain...don't sue me. :) 
• Lastly, I am pretty bad with typos but am good at catching them at a later time so bear with me.

Thank you for your attention and happy reading!