Back to Blogging

So, its been over a month and a half since my last post. That is a long time. But, I need to get going again. Being on vacation is a great opportunity, so get ready! Here comes some posts ... tomorrow.

Jinxed Myself

Yep just as sure as I think I'm out of the woods gonna be free to post some - WHAM! A thousand things pop up. I do still intend to keep this blog up, but right now. Every free minute is going into house prep, packing, finances, etc. I don't know when I'll have time to post anything real! 'Till then...

One Hundred!

Wow, this is my 100th post on Blogger! That is a lot of posts. I thought it would be a good time to stop and look back at this whole blogging thing. I put up my first blog here at Blogger in November 2004 - W0w! 4 years ago... Back then I wanted to blog about current events, get my big heady thoughts down ... that took about 3 posts. I didn't do much with that first blog. I didn't really get started blogging in earnest until August of 2006 when I started a Yahoo 360 blog. That blog was a lot of fun and quickly became the family oriented blog that I keep today. Counting my Yahoo 360 blogs, this would actually be close to 200. One of these days, I hope to retrieve those posts and move them here.

Probably the most exciting thing to happen in the last year has been to see my wife and family start keeping blogs! Cheryl's blog is awesome and often gives me a peek at what's going on while I'm at work. Cheryl has really taken off with blogging and has even racked up hits from around the world (she actually had hits from Tel Aviv and London!) I especially love that I can keep up my brothers' families via their blogs and even my Mom has taken a stab at it (if she can ever remember her password!) What a great tool.

Here are a couple of posts that I especially enjoyed from the first 100; let me know if you remember one that you liked!

• Prayer in School - 3 Parts
  
• Cock-a-roaches!
• Can I Hold Your Hand, Papa?

Hope you enjoy this as much as I do!

M: is for "Mobile Blog"

If you've read much of my Blog you'll notice that it it often illustrated with pics from my phone. Now I'm taking it a step further ... The whole post can now be done on the phone. I can now Blog no matter where I am and even include a photo! I won't be doing this all the time but it is a fun alternative to "breakout" while waiting for a haircut! I'm going to put the "M" at the beginning of mobile posts so you'll know I did that one while on the run (or in the can! ... Sorry - TMI, I know).

(PHOTO: my coworkers comparing phones... but mine BLOGS!)

Bloggers Block

Ahhhh! What is this? I can't seem to get a blog out these days! I think that I've got "Blogger's Block!" It may come from my rising standards of what I'll post. I don't know why I'm letting the bar go up, but I find myself lately not posting stuff while I wait on the right thing. Actually, lately I've been silent on a lot of topics because I don't want to get my blogs out of order. Since we've had a monumental event in our household about a week and a half ago (see next item...), I've been trying to get that posted before I do anything else... Stupid. I know. So I'm stopping it here. Let the blog flood flow!

High Speed Photography

Have you ever had one of those evenings where you had occasion to be out on the road and got to see an amazing sunset only the realize that you’ve got no way to capture it! Yes, gone are the days when life was slow enough to be able to enjoy these things from your porch. Those days are gone along with the days when people like myself could just enjoy this kind of beauty without feeling a compelling urge TO capture it, store it, blog about it and generally abstract the entire event! Ahhh, ‘Modernity’!

I actually don’t normally see driving as a photographic endeavor, but this sunset was particularly stunning. I had my phone in my hand so (without looking away from the road any more than I did to notice the view in the first place!) I snapped a quick pic.

Now I can share it with you! Aren't you glad you don't have to go outdoors anymore to enjoy these things. ...You're welcome. No... thank YOU.

So Many Blogs

It all started out with one little blog. Maybe this one. Then you started one. And so did your brother/sister/-in-law. Then they all started putting up link to their favorite blogs and you started finding your own. You might have even started returning a particular website to read their headlines! The number of articles and blogs to read just keeps on growing. If this keeps up you'll end up going nuts! We'll find you huddled in a corner of your closet with a laptop you stole from Best Buy strung out on caffine pills mumbling and typing what you mumble into a series of increasingly incoherentblogsthatyoujUSTCAN'TSTOP!!!!! DO YOU WANT THAT?! DO YOU, PUNK!? ...sorry, i think i need a time out from blogs!

Wouldn't it be great if you could go to ONE website and have all the articles and blogs you like to follow posted right there? You can! Recently a friend put me onto a cool service by (who else?) Google ... the Google Reader. It can take all the blogs you read and combine them into one list of articles. (The techie name for this is a "Feed Aggregator".)

If you don't already have a google account (your "blogger" account is one) you can start by setting that up. Then go to http://reader.google.com and start adding subscriptions - click "Add Subscription" and type or paste in the address of a blog you like. Most of the time this works with out a hitch. Give it a shot - you'll be glad you did!

Taggin' in the Bloggerhood

Yo dawg! ... hehe Ok, I know you know that I know you know I'm a lot closer to "nerd-core" than "Hard-core" so I'll spare you my lame attempt at ghetto-speak. I'm going to start blogging a wider range of topics and I'm setting my sites on some blogging related topics up front! Today: Tagging.

If you use "blogger", you've seen the "Labels for this post" blank below the editor window. But, do you use it? Uh, no, What's it do? Glad you asked! The labels are stored with your blog as a list of words that you choose to describe the content. Different internet sites have started using this system to give users yet another way to drill through the ba-zillions of giga-bytes of stuff out there to find what interests them. Sounds simple, but is something to consider before you start tagging: what type of style of tagging do you want to use. There are basically 2.

"Cloud Tagging" (my term) involves tagging every key word or idea in a blog. Every blog is different and you'll quickley end up with a LOT of tags across your blog. This can be good if you want to be able to get really specific on a "search" but bad because the list is too long to really browse. Yahoo does a lot with the cloud style to make it easier to use.

Blogger is friendlier to "Category Tagging" where you pick a defined list of tags and limit yourself to those. Because Blogger lists them (with counts) it makes for a manageable list. It also gives you essentially multiple blogs. When people click on, say, your "pets"category (posts that you tagged "pets"), they see only those posts. It's like a mini blog!

Whatever you choose, stick to it! It is hard to change later! I do the second style - categories. Take a look at my "tags" list on the side for an example. Have fun tagging - don't tell the police I told you how!

Where have you been!?

What am I doing up at 12:30 am? I have been shamed into blogging again. I know, I KNOW. I'm the one who wassoooo gung ho about this and then I just disappear! OK - forgive me but I have been a bit busy lately! In fact I've been busier'n a one-armed paper hanger (ask an old-timer if you don't get that). Here is the scoop: I've been working my ever-loving tail off! My Clark Kent job is mild-mannered webmaster for Judson ISD and it has been anything but a mild summer! We're busy around the house, too and in the meantime I try to keep up sleeping and eating. But not tonight! I'm going to blog if it kills me! Actually I'm really missing this - there are some really fun things I need to put up and it is high time! So, here goes...

Webshots - Pretty Pictures

Knowing that both of my brothers' families have enjoyed photography, I thought I'd share a website that I've really come to like for both posting photos and finding great shots - Webshots. I'm constantly amazed at the gorgeous images I find there, not to mention the great layout of the site - it is pretty amazing, too! Here are a couple of things that make it great:

• FREE! - yep, it's free. For the cheapskates like me, "Eeeet's the oooonly way to fly!"
• Beautiful - the site is great and makes you photos look great!
• Comments - there is a large community there, too. If you participate, it is easy to get great feedback on your shots.
  
• Widgets - the site offers easy access to 'code' snippets allowing you to put webshot on your own site, blog or even in an email. I placed the photo in this post with code from my album in webshots. Also, scroll to the bottom of the blog to see a larger module that displays your photos as an animated slideshow.

Webshots is a great place to have photographic fun! Enjoy!

OK... Comments are not Email!

This is the dirty look I give you!Just a quick open letter to my family. While I do love to get comments, it is traditionally a tool for responding to the POST AT HAND! Ok. You guys are cool, but next time ... just drop me an email!

Ahhh...

Wow, almost a month since my last blog. I'm just too busy right now! I can't believe how much I need to get caught up on! That thing that Isaac said the other day ... so funny. Julia started doing another thing, and then ... oh ... that other thing! Yeah. Gah, so much! I'll Be back soon... back to work!

Getting Started

I've never blogged before.

...Wow that wasn't hard. Just started typing and there it is: a posting. This should be easy. Now, what to blog about? ...