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December 31st, 2009

Never Reboot While Blogging

I had a blog post typed up and was within a sentence or two of being ready to post when I decided to click “YES” on a request to reboot to complete a security update installation.  Wow!  That was not very smart because just as you probably guessed, the post was lost.  This should be common sense and I must be lacking any. :)   Well to sum up the post that was lost, it was just a year in review post.  I was telling how 2009 was a year of milestones in our family.  Many things happened that made it a very memorable year.  For example my wife and I celebrated our 20th anniversary.  I graduate the University of Oklahoma.  I completed ten years of service at my current employer.  My oldest son turned 18 years old. My family and I was able to visit my mom’s side of the family in New Mexico for the first time since 1989.  My wife and kids had never met them and so this was a huge moment for us.  I lost my mom in 2005 and as much as I miss her, I do not want to lose touch with her side of the family.  Also my sister moved back to Oklahoma for the first time in 31 years.  This was a rough transition but things are going very well for her as well.  On a sad note, I lost my grandmother in March when she died at 90 years old.  This was the last grandparent that I had.

Two of these events, namely my graduation and our trip to New Mexico was a little tainted because I was suffering from the worst case of poison ivy that I have ever had.  I helped my dad clean up some vines and brush that was growing on his fence line and three days later I found myself itching out of control.  Five weeks, three trips to my doctor and one visit to the emergency room later and I finally overcame this breakout.  My doctor gave me some medication that I was allergic to that made it even worse eventually resulting in my going to the emergency room in Las Cruces, New Mexico.  This was in May and June when this happened and to this day I still have some discoloration on my legs.  For this reason my wife ordered me to never go into my dad’s backyard again :) .  My graduation was supposed to be a glorious event though I could not enjoy it at the moment.

The National Weather Service reported that we had 14.1 inches of snow, later revised to 13.5 inches on Christmas eve.  Even after the estimated snow fall was scaled back it was the most snow we have ever recorded in Oklahoma City.  Here it is eight days later and we still have some snow on the ground.  This year has been very eventful and happy for the most part.  This year we have decided that we want to move away from my childhood neighborhood because the crime has reached a point that we want to have a restart.  We will not be moving until 2011 but we are currently restoring the house to make it sellable.  We are trying to go the extra mile so that we can get the most from our home when the time comes.    We are hopeful for 2010 to be a wonderful year for our family.  It will be difficult to match 2009 as far as impacting our family in a dramatic way.  I will keep you up to date and see if it lives up to the previous year.   I would like to thank all of  you for your making my blog a place to stop.  I really enjoy sharing our lives with the rest of you.  I wish you all a very happy 2010.

By Paul • Posted in Events, New Year, Personal, blogging, opinion • Comments
December 19th, 2009

Comment Troubles

For those of you that have been trying to comment on this blog and have been unable I can tell you that I had a problem.  I have been so busy with life that I did not even notice that I had a malfunctioning Wordpress plug-in.  I had a Google Friend connect plug-in that was activated and was not installed correctly.  Without my knowledge not only were all comments hidden but no one was able to post any new comments.  I repaired the problem so that comments are now authorized.  I made a point to use the Disqus blog commenting system because it shares the comments on my Friendfeed and Facebook feed.  This way these comments can be commented on from other sources.  It sort of gives a social network feel to this blog.

I just wanted to apologize to anyone that has tried to post a comment on this blog over the last couple months.  I was not trying to prevent anyone from responding to one of my posts.  As much as I like to keep this site up and running, I often get busy and forget to check in.  I appreciate your patience with my lack of maintenance.

By Paul • Posted in Personal, blogging • Comments
October 26th, 2009

Twitter or Facebook?

A question that I hear frequently is “Which is better, Facebook, or Twitter?”  I do not think this is the proper question to be asking because they complement each other.  In fact Twitter by itself may seem less useful although I disagree.  It is the ability to use Twitter with Facebook and other social networking sites is where the real value comes in.  With Twitter, you can post either by SMS, or by using a smart phone.  I think that if you really want to get the most out of all these sites is to have your own site that does not move.  This site is my attempt at doing that.  If you put together a permanent site, preferably a  personal domain, everyone will know where to find you. At this point, you can put links to other sites that you use.  Social networks come and go and though you may have many friends/contacts on all of them, you need a place that is always there.  It does not have to be a blog.  Some people just put together a site full of links.  As you may have seen technology writer John C. Dvorak does this very thing.  He put together channeldvorak.com so people have a central location to find him.

Once you have a presence that is all yours and that is not going anywhere then you can sign up for other programs or social networking sites.  These sites often have plug-ins that can be installed on your personal page.  Many of your friends will only participate on Facebook, or Myspace.  Many will only get on Frienfeed, or Twitter.  You can see the dilemma where you find yourself jumping from one site to another.  With the advent of the really simple syndication (RSS) feed, many systems have been established where all social site feeds can be fed together on one site.  Friendfeed is one of these as well as Google Reader.    Facebook is the big rave these days with more than 200 million active users so that is where many people gather.  The problem with that is popularity comes and goes with these sites.  You may remember Xanga.com when it was the big thing.  Then it was Myspace and so on.   It is only a matter of time before Facebook will be supplanted as the number one place.  By having your own page that is always there,  people can find you when one of the social sites goes under.  Secondly, by having your own site, search engines can find you allowing people to search for you.

If you have a Twitter account and use it the way it was intended, you will see that it is far more than just an instant messaging (IM) system.  Most of these social sites have a feature built in that allows your Twitter updates to automatically update your status on their sites.  Twitter is so light weight that you can use it even if you do not have a smart phone, or one capable of data transfer.  They allow you to send text messages to a short number, 40404.  As long as you do not post more than 140 characters in a single message, it will be posted on your Twitter page located http://www.twitter.com/yourusername.  Not only can you follow your updates on the Twitter page in real time, but it also updates other social sites simultaneously.  I have found that with many Twitter updates that I send, I get responses on Facebook, Myspace, and Friendfeed.  Since all of these sites notify you via email when someone responds to you, it makes it easy to immediately respond back.

If you ever find yourself bored at the doctor’s office, you can just send a text message that you are waiting for your doctor and someone on Facebook responds and it starts a conversation.  It helps when you are bored and stuck doing something you are not that excited about doing.  So to ask whether Twitter or Facebook is better, you should be asking how do you use them together.  I have met many ham radio operators online that also communicate using these tools.  It is really fun once you learn how to use them.  I hope this helps to explain a few ways to use them together.

By Paul • Posted in blogging, opinion, social networking • Comments
October 4th, 2009

Friendfeed Sidebar

I took the Twitter activity sidebar off the right side of this blog and replaced it with the Friendfeed sidebar.  This is because every time I send a Twitter message, it goes to the Friendfeed anyway.  Secondly, any time I send a Facebook, Flickr, Delicious, Youtube video, it also goes to Friendfeed.  I figure this is a better way of keeping the web site updated because whatever social networking program I post on, it will show up on the side bar.  Also, with the Friendfeed side bar on my page, I can post right from my page without even having to go to the other page.

What a pretty morning with the rain coming down.  It is only 64 degrees and rain and I love it.  For once we can turn the air conditioner off and let the outside air in.  Unfortunately having the window open means hearing all the neighbor noises but since it is daytime, I think we can handle it.

By Paul • Posted in blogging, social networking • Comments
August 11th, 2009

What to Do About This Blog

I have been trying to decide what to do with this blog.  When I originally created this blog, I wanted to talk about things that interest me.  I wanted to tell the world about my faith in God and the payment his son has done for me with his death on the cross.  I wanted to tell about photography, technology, and ham radio.  These are just a few of my hobbies.  What it has become is a place for me to vent when I am having a bad day.  Instead of staying in God’s word and being transformed by the renewing of my mind as spoken in Romans 12:2.  Instead of being a light in the world as I originally had intended, I have used this blog to gripe, moan, and complain about everything from politics to neighbors.

Anytime a person only posts when they have had a bad day, it gives the impression to the rest of the world that maybe this person is a grouch and hardly worth listening to.  Secondly when I use this medium to complain and post when I am in a bad mood, then I am motivated by anger.  Being motivated by anger makes it sound as though I am a raving lunatic.  I have read a few of my posts later when I was more calm and found myself laughing.  It is hard to be rational when you are angry.  I apologize if any of my posts have been offensive.

I have always used writing as therapy and a way to vent.  When I am stressed out, I often write my feelings down like I am talking to the person.  It always makes me feel better.  Writing has always been my favorite way to communicate because I can say what I want without interruption.  I have been doing this blog for more than four years though my posts only go back as far as late 2006 because I had a system crash and lost my posts.

Surprising this blog does get a lot a views though not many people post.  I have a program that summarized the traffic to this site including referring URL’s, referring domains, search terms, and all sorts or statistical data.  Most of my views seem to come from Google.com searches while a sizable number come from Flickr.com. At this point I am undecided on the direction I will take with this blog.  At times I want to wipe it clean and start over.  At other times, I just want to make it a static page with links.  The one thing that I do not want is to be offensive with my ranting when I am in a grouchy mood.

I have some very strong opinions about things and like to post about them when stories are over covered in the media.  At the same time, I find myself becoming a little over zealous and too staunch to a point where they can sound offensive.

I do not want to be so politically correct that I cannot speak my mind either.  I do not have time to make any drastic changes at the moment but I will think about my options and make up my mind soon.

By Paul • Posted in Personal, blogging, opinion • Comments
July 12th, 2009

Blogging Versus Social Networking

This morning I ran across a post on Friendfeed that proclaimed how Friendfeed was so much better than blogging.  He posted how he has thousands of followers on there and how it was real time for people to interact with the posts.  To my surprise, most of his respondents were in agreement with me in that blogging was better than social networking.  My stated reason was that a blog has a permanent address so that people can find you.  I use Twitter, Friendfeed and Facebook among others just like thousands of others.  The problem with all of them is that they are vying for your time and attention.  They are all competing against each other in an attempt to unseat the other one as being the number one network.  Each time another network comes out, people go sign up for them and some stay and some keep their old network.  Many like myself keep all of them but have to divide my time among them.  Twitter wins out almost every time because I can post quickly from my phone and it automatically updates the others.

My blog keeps the same address and is not subject to the popularity of a particular social network.  Since these networks come and go within a two year period it would be easy to lose contact with some people.  If you do not actively use these networks then you could lose contact with those friends since the popularity of that network could dwindle and its followers would move on to another network.  For those that prefer to use these social networks as their primary interaction with friends, I would suggest you also maintain a domain hosted web site.  This can be a blog or just a static site where you have a permanent address where people can find you.  These addresses are indexed by search engines making them easier to find.  This way as the Facebook of the day give way to the newest social network, people will still be able to find you.

Also one of the benefits of having a blog over a real time social network is that you control the content and the duration of the post.  If you use a social networking site, the content is only visible as long as no one else is posting.  As new items are posted, these posts are moved down on the page giving way for new content.  Eventually your post is moved completely off the page.  In addition to this, there is another benefit to a blog over the social networking site.  Most social sites have limitations to how many characters you can post in a single post.  Like Twitter will only allow you to post 140 characters at one time.  These limitations vary depending on which site you go to but there are limitations.

Another problem with these social networking sites is that there seems to be a erroneous cultural attitude that email is obsolete and going away.  This idea is not very well thought out because email will never go away unless a newer “mail” technology comes into play.  This is because many or maybe I should say most employers require all communications to be made using the company email system.  At my work for example, they block access to all social networking sites and web based email systems.  If you would like to communicate with someone outside the organization, you must use the employer’s email system that is subject to monitoring.  You cannot control the content of a social networking site and therefore not allowed.  For this reason, many of those on social networking sites refuse to check their email.  To them it is an antiquated system that is not worth using.  They fail to realize that every one of these social networking sites requires an email address to confirm their identity.  Email is not going away.  These people discard their email and so you cannot leave them a forwarding address if you move.  By keeping a permanent web site that is available for search engines, you can still be found after several years.  These are just a few of the reasons why blogging is better than social networking. 

If you have not spoken to someone for five years, they can always go to their favorite search engine and search for you.  Your blog or permanent domain will be found in the search engine results while many of the social networking sites may not be.  You may not like to blog but having a permanent web address can be used to point your friends and family to your social networking site that you prefer to use.  I too enjoy using many of these sites and in fact use Twitter every day.  By having my permanent domain, people can find my Twitter page without having to search around all day.  I hope I have been able to explain a few things here so that you will understand why I maintain this blog even though I do not have time to get on it as much as I like.  On a social network, I would not have been able to post my information in such detail.  This makes it easier to fully explain my point.

By Paul • Posted in Personal, blogging, opinion, social networking • Comments
January 13th, 2009

Why Do I Have a Blog?

In the world you will find that everyone has an opinion whether you agree with them or not.  I frequent blogs, news pages and all sorts of message boards.  Sometimes I agree with the points of view and sometimes  I do not.  There are places that you can post dissenting opinions and others you can’t.  Sometimes it is because of policy while other times it is because the atmosphere it is so hostile that you cannot post without being attacked.  I am very passionate about my beliefs and sometimes I am right while other times I know I am off my rocker :) .  There are times where I see something on TV that drives me crazy and I just want to vent.

This is my place to be able to to vent my frustration or speak what I want without having to be worried about hurting someone’s feelings or being politically correct.  I know there are times that I get so worked up and post something that later I read and feel like an idiot.  That is okay because at that time I meant every word.  I know I offend people on here occasionally though that is not what I set out to do.  As bizzare as some of my rants may be at times I have a very strong sense of right and wrong.  When a situation is too much for me to deal with I often resort to sarcasm in an attempt to make a joke out of things.  This is when I am most likely perceived as some nut case.

I have found that having a blog is therapy for me when I am stressed out about things.  It is a way for me to speak my mind because the truth is that I am very uncomfortable being around people.  I know this is very strange but it is true.  There is nothing more uncomfortable for me than to be in a position where I am in front of others.  This is an awkward position when I have such strong feelings about things.  As much as people are offended by some of my rants at times, I do have a silent group that returns despite their silence.  I often check my page statistics and find this page gets so much traffic that I had to change plans to handle the excessive traffic.  This is not bragging but rather telling how people like to see the bizzare.  It is sort of like a car accident where people cannot help but to watch.

I know that not everyone that comes to this page is offended but it is interesting to see how many hits this page receives despite the lack of comments by the visitors.  I sometimes think that it is my abrasiveness that scares some people even though I do not intend to be that way.  I remember one time when I was just a Senior Airman in the Air Force I had a Technical Sergeant (TSgt) tell me the supervision was scared of me.  That has stayed with me for a long time.  I thought he was joking about this at first but he reiterated himself.  It is strange that I come across this way because that is not who I want to be.  There are times when I get so worked up or indignant over injustices or my perception of injustice that I tend to lash out at people without even meaning to.

For this reason I usually keep to myself most of the time.  I know I make people uncomfortable when I am around them so I am most a peace when I am at home with my family.  I sometimes think that it is my abrasiveness that caused my son to run away.  I only wanted the best for him though he apparently did  not see it that way.  This is one of the reasons that I have a blog.  I can say what I want and be totally honest about it.  I can post exactly how I feel at that moment and not worry about how it is seen.  Sometimes I just want to be able to fix things while the world has gone mad.  While right has become wrong and wrong has become right in the world I can still speak the truth on my blog.  People may disagree with me or I may even be wrong but I can speak what I think is the truth.  For those of you that have never tried it, I would give it a try. 

It is actually interesting to see people’s responses whether they agree with you or not.  The good thing is that you have moderator capability and you can always respond to those posts that you disagree with.  You can also use this opportunity to learn from those you disagree with.  As I said I am wrong at times and when I am in a rage I seem to lose all sense of reality but that is fine.  It is my blog and I can be right or wrong.  I do not want to be wrong but if I am, I can learn from others once I cool down.  I find that having a blog is a good way to share your life no matter how it is.  The good and the bad can be shared.  There are enough political blogs on the left and the right.  There are tech blogs and there are any number of other blog subjects out there.  This one is my blog and about what ever interests me this day. 

You can be successful at your own blog as long as you post regularly.  I am definately not the example of a success story but I do know this web site gets a lot of traffic even if it is just curiosity.  It is the bug that cannot help but to fly into the blue light.  It is the cat that must jump on the leaf blowing across the porch.  Start up a blog and post on it regularly whether anyone posts on it or not.  I have found that as a ham radio repeater owner you have a similar situation.  When we use our own repeater all the time and talk on it, people just show up.  People show up where they hear people.  How many times people have told me they scanned across our frequency and heard voices.  The same concept works with your blog.  You post on their regularly and people will just show up because their is current activity even if it is a car wreck.  I think it is really fun and I would recommend it for everyone.

By Paul • Posted in Personal, Technology, blogging, opinion • Comments
August 31st, 2008

Consolidation

In the past I have spoken about all the social networking sites such as Facebook, Myspace, Friendfeed, among others.  I am currently closing most of these accounts with the exception of this blog and my Flickr account.  I have a presence in so many places that it is hard to keep up with all the web sites.  I had been using Friendfeed as an aggregator for all these sites but since I have decided to close that account I am left with many different sites.  Although I do enjoy all these sites, it is not that convenient for people to keep up with you unless they join a half dozen sites.  So far I have closed my Friendfeed, Facebook, Myspace, claimID, Pownce, Digg, ping.fm, and Zooomr.

With my busy schedule I do not have time to maintain all these sites and respond to them.  It is sort of like some of your friends use Windows Live Messenger, while others use Yahoo.  You find yourself with 9 different messenger applications running on your computer and your whole computer is bogged down.  I am limiting myself to Skype, this blog, and Flickr for hosting photos.  I searched for my name on Google and Yahoo and found that I have way too many search results and if someone was trying to get in touch with me, they would be struggling to find the one that I maintain.  I have grown to love the SMS capability of Twitter so I will hold off on canceling that one for now.

I have found that many of these sites have become a breeding ground for political arguments and that is okay if you have the time to respond to all of them but I do not.  Do not get me wrong, I am not disappointed in these sited but rather have decided that it is better to have one single presence online and then I can maintain it much more efficient.  Yesterday I found myself in an argument on Friendfeed and was piled on by nearly 20 people.  When that happens it is hard to explain your views thoroughly without letting your emotions take over and then you lose all sense of rationale.   I have found that I do not fare well in that type of environment because I get upset and do more damage to my cause than I help.  Anyway, I think keeping a single presence online is better for myself and others.

This Zooomr account is really not wanting to cooperate :) .  There is not single place to delete an account.  They even have a blog thread dedicated to the cancellation of ones account.  I have been deleting my photos one at a time.  I have no problems with them but this is another example of having a presence in too many places.  I have decided that Flickr is a better venue for me.  I just wanted to let everyone know what is going on.  I am not upset at anyone but think this may be the better option for me.

Thanks for the patience.

By Paul • Posted in Internet, blogging, opinion • Comments
August 16th, 2008

What?

Oh no!  As I posted earlier last week I spent the entire weekend putting my blog back online specifically because I updated to the latest version of Wordpress 2.6.  I just posted another post and right on the top of the page is says…

WordPress 2.6.1 is available! Please update now.

Holy Cow!  No way I am tackling that upgrade this soon!  I think I would need a valium to calm my nerves this soon after going through that just a week ago.  Actually I have updated to the newest version before but last week I made a mistake with the database upgrade without backing up first. That was my own fault.  Still I thought that was funny seeing that upgrade notice just one week after I upgraded.  I think I will wait a little while before doing this again.

Technorati Tags: ,,,
By Paul • Posted in Technology, blogging • Comments
November 16th, 2007

Finally a Blog for Normal People

Sometimes people tell me they would like to blog but do not understand how.  I have found an option for those that do not like technical things.  It is Microsoft Live Writer.  This is an application that is a “what you see is what you get” (WYSIWYG) editor that will allow you to post to any number of blogs simply by typing what you want and clicking “Publish”.

All you need to do is click “weblog” in the tools menu then select “Add weblog account”.  Of course it will default to the Windows Live Spaces blogging service that Microsoft runs but it will allow you to set up your blog on other providers also.  All you have to do is put in the URL of your blog with your user name and password and it will detect your settings.  It has the usual blogging features like adding pictures, adding links, and adding tags for the majority of the blogging aggregators.  It runs on all the major blogging services such as WordPress, Blogger, Moveable Type, and others.

Microsoft Windows Live Writer as you might have guessed only runs on Windows.  I personally like it.  I don’t like that it will not run on Mac or Linux but what do you expect from Microsoft?  I also like the fact that you can have multiple blogs on different servers.  I think you should try it out.  If blogs have intimidated you in the past, I believe this will get you online quick.

Technorati tags: Microsoft, Live, Writer, blog, blogging

By Paul • Posted in Thanksgiving, blogging, social networking • Comments
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