Blogolalia

Tuesday, May 10, 2005

John Hawkins has a good list of items that will help newish bloggers to get along in the ‘sphere. I completely disagree with #19, however.

19) Don’t spend too much time in your comments section. The time spent there writing things that only a small percentage of your audience will see would be better spent making posts for your blog.

IMHO, if you are a new blogger and you have comments enabled, then you have an obligation to hang around in your comments. You have invited your readers to speak their piece and it would be rude for you to ignore them. In your early blogging days, your comments are your bread and butter. If your blog gets huge and it’s too hard for you to respond in your comments, then you must make it clear somewhere on your blog that you will read all comments, but may not be able to respond to all comments.

Just my 2 cents.

Courtesy: Michelle Malkin

The awful majesty of severe weather.

Incredible pictures courtesy of Bryan.

Wednesday, May 04, 2005

Tony has a post that truly shocked me. Click over if you’ve prepared yourself for a very disturbing visual.

This is no joke warning. Safe for work, I presume.

*going to scrub my eyes clean*

Friday, April 29, 2005

First comes an enlightened post from Dean. A snippet:

Ultimately I think the real lessons of Vietnam are not whether one side or the other was correct. The real lesson is that anyone who thinks there are always simple and obvious answers in war or peace is being foolish. If you opposed American intervention in that area, that doesn’t make you a bad person. On the other hand, if you can’t acknowledge that by pulling out, we left those people to suffer a horrible fate, then you’re either deeply ignorant or just plain dishonest. (And when I say “you” I don’t mean anyone in particular. It’s a generic “you.”)

Maybe giving up and leaving was making the best of a bad situation. But it’s wrong not to acknowledge what the cost of giving up really was.

Which leads to a post via email from the blogger himself - Alan K. Henderson has a nice round up of informational links about the fall of Saigon. Did you know that today marks the 30th anniversary of that day? I did not. So thanks, Alan, for the reminder.

Wednesday, April 27, 2005

I’ve been tagged.

(The following is a C&P from the Songstress) Ogre here has created a new meme (not that I needed another one) and has been tracking its progress throughout the blogosphere as sort of an unassigned research project… Fascinating stuff, really.
How this works: Immediately following there is a list of a bunch of different occupations. You must select at least 5 of them (feel free to select more). You may add more if you like to your list before you pass it on (after you select 5 of the items as it was passed to you). Each one begins with “If I could be…” Of the 5 you selected, you are to finish each phrase with what you would do as a member of that profession.

Once you’re done you get to tag three people you think will actually respond - and would have a good answer. Oh, and by all means, don’t forget to trackback to this post… and to Ogre’s original post so he can keep tracking the progress of his little creation.

If I could be a scientist…
If I could be a farmer…
If I could be a musician…
If I could be a doctor…
If I could be a painter…
If I could be a gardener…
If I could be a missionary…
If I could be a chef…
If I could be an architect…
If I could be a linguist…
If I could be a psychologist…
If I could be a librarian…
If I could be an athlete…
If I could be a lawyer…
If I could be an innkeeper…
If I could be a professor…
If I could be a writer…
If I could be a llama-rider…
If I could be a bonnie pirate…
If I could be a servicemember…
If I could be a photographer…
If I could be a philanthropist…
If I could be a rap artist…
If I could be a child actor…

OK, I have to choose five.

1. If I could be a musician…I would be a torch singer. You know, singing those old standards like Rosemary Clooney in smokey bars or clubs. And my mother is horrified that I didn’t say gospel singer - I already do that, Mom. =)

2. If I could be a chef…I would have a Mom & Pop homestyle restaurant, where the locals are all regulars and known by name, but where the food is first class, plentiful, and affordable.

3. If I could be a psychologist…I would tell everyone that comes to see me to snap out of it, get over it, and move on. Dwelling on the past is unproductive - look to the future and take it one day, one step at a time.

4. If I could be a writer…I would write the Great American Novel, of course.

5. If I could be a servicemember…I would choose the US Navy, which goes without saying since my father was a career Naval officer/aviator. I often considered joining the Navy while I was in college, but the boot camp put me off. Me no likey exercise.

Now, to the three whom I choose to pass this little game on to…

Ith (although she just got back from vacation, so there might be a delay)

Eric

Dave

Tuesday, April 26, 2005

Dogette (formerly known as TopDawg) sums up forum boards beautifully.

And then the post immediately prior is laugh out loud funny after the initial shock from the photo.

Thursday, April 21, 2005

Ok, so I’m all for you serious pundit bloggers trying to make a little bank to defray the costs of your oh, so expensive bandwidth. *my tongue is firmly in cheek because really, blogging ain’t that expensive* But you’re going to lose readers like me who hate to see an ad front and center like this.

Dude, you know I love your blog, but you need to rethink that ad placement. Please?

LATER: Trackbacked to OTB’s Beltway Traffic Jam.

Wednesday, April 20, 2005

Hey, via Jim, I just learned that one of my favorite bloggers is back from her way too long hiatus.

Go visit Two Nervous Dogs - all Deadwood and espresso and dogs and amusingly bizarre art all the time. (If she continues where she left off, that is.)

Monday, April 18, 2005

Lemonlye-Molly is a great parody writer. Robert LB may be interested in her Star Wars as written by P.G. Wodehouse.

Thursday, April 07, 2005

I just wanted to thank our Gathering of the Blogs hostess for her excellent work in putting together another fine Tartan Day in the blogosphere. If you didn’t visit her yesterday, you should rectify that mistake today. She has a great collection of posts about all things Scottish/American.

Thanks, Ith. Well done, lass!

Monday, April 04, 2005

Thinkling Bill has announced his solo blog - Out of the Bloo.

He developed the blogware that he’s using to run this particular blog. Almost makes me wish that I had waited a little longer before spending the money for EE, but I think that the comment spam would have driven me right out of the blogging business before OotB launched.

Welcome back, Bill.

Sunday, April 03, 2005

Me no likey.

Hey, bloggers, you may need to change the clocks in your blogware. You computer will automatically reset it’s clock, but your blogware may not.

In EE, within the control panel you need to go to “My Account” and then click on “Localization Settings” in the left menu. Mark the box for Daylight Savings Time. Otherwise your posts will be an hour off. And then make a note that you’ll need to uncheck the box in the fall.

Friday, April 01, 2005

I can’t take the time to write up my thoughts on the subject at length. However I can point you to two posts that speak to it.

First is my sister’s post from yesterday about the use of secular music at her “seeker” church.

Second is Matt’s mention of an article at Lark News that should make a lot of churches reevaluate how they do business.

Monday, March 28, 2005

Dean has a follow-up post to last week’s post about Jews and Christians and Biblical understanding. I have no comment on what he said (well, I do, but I’m not posting it), just wanted to give the heads up to those of you who read his other post.

Friday, March 25, 2005

Dean posted an essay that still has me scratching my head in wonder. He, a self-proclaimed atheist, is often welcoming of religious thought, which I appreciate. Interestingly, he has a pretty open mind about a lot of things spiritual that leads me to believe that he’s more agnostic than true atheist. An orthodox rabbi friend of his agrees, which led to Dean’s post in the first place.

In a nutshell he challenges Christians to understand that Jews think we’re heretical (that’s no surprise to this Christian) and that we have an incorrect understanding of the Old Testament. I happen to think that Jews have in incomplete understanding of the Old Testament.

ADDED LATER: For the Christian, the OT all points to The Christ. Our interpretation of Scripture is all colored by the fact that we believe that Jesus is the promised Messiah. We believe that every part of the Old Covenant/Testament was put into place as a pointer to the promised Messiah. Since we believe that Jesus is that promised Messiah, we look on that covenant and the tradition as having been completed. As Dean said, Jesus said that he came to fulfill the Law. We Christians believe that his coming did, in fact, fulfill the Old Covenant and ushered in the New Covenant. So sure, I admit that Jews will find my faith and interpretation of Scripture to be heretical - as they found Jesus to be. It’s why he was crucified by the Romans at the behest of the Sanhedrin, no?

His addendum to the end of the essay is mind-boggling, too.