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Some blogs are starting to have content that you have to pay to read. I believe in free enterprise -- if you want to charge for your blog, or pay to read blogs, have at it. While I have dropped some money in the tip jars of a couple of blogs, I don't see myself subscribing to read content anytime soon. As for this blog, I don't sink any money into it and I don't want any in return. LilacRose Blog is free...and worth every cent!
Whatever "normal" is...Despite the difficulties, the upgrade seems to have worked out very well. Windows XP is different, but I like it. The only remaining problem I have is with getting Easy CD Creator to work properly. Windows XP has CD burning built in and that seems to work fine.
UPDATE: I just noticed Roxio has a brand new update for Easy CD Creator 5 that's supposed to resolve a lot of Windows XP problems. We'll see...
No blogging or much of anything else from me lately. I've been working on upgrading my PC to Windows XP the last few days. I did a complete format and clean install because that's the best way to do it and because I wanted to change to the NTFS file system. The actual installation went relatively smoothly. Getting the cable internet working was agony, but I did it somehow. My browser would not open up new windows correctly, but I found an easy fix for that problem. For some reason, it took three tries to install Norton AntiVirus 2002. I'm still installing software and data files. Hopefully, things will be back to normal again soon. Next time, I'm going to pay somebody to do this.
There has been much controversy over this manifesto for Christian bloggers by JesusJournal.com. I’d like to throw in my $0.02 about this. First of all, I want to say that I believe JesusJournal.com means well. This is why I wanted to make sure I could respond without the irritation I felt when I first read the manifesto.
Why was I irritated? The whole idea of forming committees and enforcing a “Code of Conduct” rubs me the wrong way. Blogs are just individuals expressing their thoughts and opinions. Why should bloggers who are Christians be subjected to this regulation?
Unfortunately, this is the downside of the word “Christian” being used as an adjective...”Christian Music”, “Christian TV”, “Christian Books” and now “Christian Blogs”. Christians end up being relegated to some sort of ghetto. Christians end up being put in a box and separated from the “secular” world. And when that happens, Christians stop being relevant to the world.
Look at what has happened with Christian music. It became its own industry. It also became ghettoized and thought of as a “clean” alternative to all that dirty “secular” music. Now, there are musicians who are Christians who go out of their way to avoid getting trapped in the whole CCM thing (or desperately try to get out of that trap). They just want to be artists whose art is put out there for anyone to enjoy. They don’t want to be marginalized and just preach to the choir (or preach at all, for that matter).
I don’t want to see this happen to Christian bloggers.
I believe that blogs4God is a wonderful resource because it allows you to find blogs of people who share your faith. They have not sought to try to control a diverse group of bloggers. They have not tried to regulate or marginalize us.
I think the JesusJournal.com weblogger manifesto, while it means well, is an attempt to do just that.
Yes, I've changed the colors yet again. I took a look at my blog on the huge monitor at work and thought the colors were way too bright. I also came to the same conclusion here at home after switching to 800x600 mode and looking at it. So, I went for a more "lilac" look, used a little less purple and ditched the pink altogether. I also switched to a lighter color for the text. Anyway, I hope this is easier on the eyes.
I have been doing some reading about cascading style sheets. I learned to load my settings from a separate file, which makes changing colors so much easier than going into Blogger, editing the template, and republishing everything.
Another thing...I was dismayed to discover that my blog was not displaying properly in Netscape 6. None of my blog text would show. I figured out that the problem was the site meter. I moved it over to the sidebar, which solved the problem.
My blogging code is: B1 d++ t- k s u- f- i-- o- x-- e- l c
Find out your blogging code here.
(Found via Bene Diction.)
I have to agree with InstaPundit about the idea of CDs becoming obsolete and being replaced by files on a hard drive:
...I still buy a lot of CDs. And I'm not thrilled with the idea of hard drives as the main residence of music: that kind of storage is too impermanent. I have CDs from almost 20 years ago. My mom has Louis Armstrong records from the 1920s, long before she was born.......[W]hen I really like music, I want hardcopy, not just hard-drive copy.
Music in the form of a bunch of files on a hard drive is too ephemeral. I like MP3s, although they are not CD quality (yes, you can tell the difference). But if I enjoy an entire album, or if I'm a big fan of a particular artist, I want the CD. I want to hold the album in my hands. I want to see the artwork and liner notes. When I download an album that's out-of-print or is only available in MP3 form, I end up burning it to a CD and creating a label for it. That way, I know it's permanent...I can hold it in my hands and look at it.
It is for this reason that I don't believe files on a hard drive will replace some sort of permanent product. Will that product always be in the form of a CD? Probably not. CDs are bound to be replaced with some other medium in the future. But I believe that music fans will always want to have a permanent product available.
Andrea Harris links to an article about an appalling new law here in Florida:
South Florida Sun-Sentinel: Women who put babies up for adoption required to publish sexual pasts
What is the rationale for such a disgusting law? From the article:
The law is a part of revised Florida adoption requirements enacted last year that require a birth mother to make an exhaustive effort to locate the birth father to notify him about adoption proceedings.When background searches don’t work, a birth mother must place legal notices about the adoption in a local newspaper where the baby was conceived.
In the newspaper notice, the mother must list her name, describe herself, name or describe the possible father(s) and list the date and the city or county of conception.
The legislator who spearheaded the overhaul of the state’s adoption laws said they were designed to make adoptions better, easier and quicker.
To that last sentence, all I can say is that they have failed miserably. Again from the article:
“The adoption community is up in arms against this [law],” said Boca Raton attorney Charlotte Danciu, who represents the six women. “When women come into my office and find their whole lives have to be exposed in the newspaper, they are like, ‘Forget it.’ They can abort without consent, but they can’t give the child an opportunity to live without humiliating themselves.”
This is just stupid, sad and wrong. This is going to cause many more abortions and a lot less adoptions.
Andrea Harris has some excellent commentary on this law and adoption in general.
Tony Woodlief wonders why the media is so afraid to mention that "P-word"...prayer:
Do they really not know that average people pray, or are they simply afraid to say so?
I think it's a little of both.
First, I've been remiss in thanking Joshua Claybourn for mentioning my post about some of his posts the other day. I thanked him in his comments, but I realized I should do so here as well.
Also, I'd like to thank Dean Peters of HealYourChurchWebSite.com and blogs4God.com for his Anti-Spam E-Mail Obfuscator. Thanks to this handy tool, I now have an email link in my sidebar. Before, I had the email address in text only to keep from getting spam.
As seen on Bene Diction and Spleenville.