So there’s not long left until the super-fantastic Hornets247 season launch party. In fact, it’s only about 24 hours away. Nothing like some free food, cheap drink, cool people, funky music, and a brand new season of Hornets basketball.

If you don’t already know, you can find all the details about the party listed right here in our calendar. In a nutshell: Handsome Willy’s, Wednesday night, unmissable. Here’s a map to the spot if you need it.

So let’s talk prizes

We’ve got some nice stuff to give away tomorrow night. We’ll ask you to write down a prediction about the game before it tips, probably a guess at a final stat line or something. Whoever guesses right or closest wins a $100 voucher to the team store at New Orleans Arena. Second prize is a pair of Hornets cuff links, valued at $50 and generously donated to us by the good folks at Cufflinks.com. Third prize is nothing because that’s where Baron Davis and Deron Williams were drafted.

But we do have some other stuff to give away at random times throughout the night, such as our Peja and Tyson caricature t-shirts, and a few Hornets bobbleheads.

Special Guest

Chris Paul has been invited but we can’t guarantee he’s going to show. He said he might have to work or something.

The Alternative

I’m not sure what the word “remiss” means, but methinks that’s what I’d be if I didn’t mention the Hornets official watch party tomorrow night. We’ve also got info on that posted in our calendar. It gets going at 9pm at the Fox & Hound in Harahan and it won’t be boring. Swing by that if you can’t make it downtown to Willy’s.

If anyone needs more info on any of the party stuff, let us know in the comments.

What’s new with the newness?

The new site has been live for two days now and I’m pretty happy with it overall. We have hit some rough patches, mostly in the afternoons, where the site has been unavailable for a few minutes at a time. That’s on account of a server issue that we’re working to resolve. If a page won’t load for you at any stage, take a break to call us names on Facebook and then check back.

Some other stuff I should highlight:

Lagniappe

I realize now that our new Lagniappe section isn’t prominent enough on the site given all the good stuff we’re dumping in there. If you haven’t been there yet, check it out and see what you’ve been missing.

Journals

Mikey and stormsurge have given the Journals a real nice kickstart with some recent posts. Massive thanks to them for that. Remember, every registered user can write and publish their own Journal. All you need to do is click here. Find your own voice and have fun with it. We expect each post to be a good quality read though, so put some thought behind what you write.

If you’re unsure how all the buttons and controls work in the journal form, don’t be afraid to just dive in and click around, see what does what, and rest assured that I’ll be writing up a tutorial on all that stuff real soon.

Feedback

We’ve already caught a few bugs and have plans to make corrections soon. I’m sure there’s plenty more out there though, so let us know if you see anything amiss. If you have any suggestions for future additions to the site, we’d love to hear those, too.

That’s all I’ve got for now. Just remember: Handsome Willy’s, tomorrow night, come along and bring everyone you’ve ever known.