Blogging

I have been a "blogger" for about three months now. Since I have started this weblog, being the analyzer that I am, I have thought a lot about the different things associated with the "blog world". Some examples: weblog traffic, the types of blogs that people have, the comments that are left on mine and ones I leave on other's, the interaction with people that I have met solely through my blog, how the web (no pun intended) of blog connections starts with leaving a comment on another blog and other regular readers of that blog seeing your link and looking at your site...the list really goes on.

I have thought about it a lot lately because I know that I haven't been able to post as regularly due to work, and I know once my semester starts in a couple of weeks, my entries are probably going to be limited as well. It made me think about the regular readers, if they would get frustrated and just stop coming to visit my site...or not having interesting things for new people to read and thus not drawing any new readers.

I read a blog entry in a friend of mine's blog (denny burk...see article "Understanding Blogs") that was a short commentary about an article in another blog (USS Clueless). The latter of the two, though somewhat a little cocky in his article, had some good points.

One thing that the author, Steven Den Best, pointed out of interest, also what Denny comments on, is the types of bloggers. Steven categorizes all bloggers into two classes on a broad level of categorization ("informal portal" and "writers").

The first of these two classes simply adds some commentary to an existing article (see Number 2 Pencil for a great example), and puts it out there for people to read. The latter of these two will write about anything happening in the news, or life, or interact with other stuff that is written, etc...according to Steven, the second type of blogger creates something new, but that does not mean that links and such will not be involved.

As I analyzed his thoughts and my extensive blog reading over the past few months, I find that on a very basic level he is correct. I would go on to say that there are several other sub-categories and that it does not break the rules if a blog crosses those categories.

For instance, I feel that I would probably fall into the second category of Steven's classifications for the most part, but there are times when what I write is solely a short commentary on something else that has been written.

Breaking it down even further, I would say that the main subject matter of what I write about is not set in stone. Some of it is about current events, or my life, or exercise, etc...I would say, for the most part, this is true of all blogs.

Even though some weblogs begin for one reason or another, from what I have seen, I think that most blogs cross the lines back and forth when it comes to subject matter or the two classes that Steven points out.

My IPod Shuffle

The IPod shuffle is one of the greatest inventions ever created. I guess that would count for all MP3 players...

I just recently purchased my shuffle from a good friend of mine (he got a stinkin' 30 gig IPod...who needs that much space really? :)). I have been adding songs from my CDs for the past few days (about 90 songs so far), and I still have enough space for about 30-40 more songs. I even fell into the trap of ITunes and purchases a few 99 cent songs.

That brings me to my thought of the day...ITunes. Whoever thought of the idea of the ITunes store was brilliant. The simple fact that if you have an IPod, you are kind of a slave to ITunes to be able to manage what songs are on your player...that was their first smart move. I am not quite sure if there is a way around that. But beyond that, they are probably making a fortune off of people like me and you...those of us who will buy a few songs here and there at a cost of only 99 cents (not even a dollar). I am sure there are people out there who have purchased numerous songs that are less than a dollar...it has to add up.

"Realistic" or a "Recipe for Failure"

My parents are in the minority of couples that have remained together in this day and age. Divorce is an epidemic that is at an all time high...especially in America. I feel very blessed that I did not have to experience what it is like to be a part of a broken home. In fact, oddly enough, most of the close friends that I had as a child did not have to experience that either...so I never really have seen it first hand.

My heart goes out to people that have been forced to go through this, either as a son or daughter watching their parents break the vows, or as a couple who has determined that they no longer need to be man and wife.

Thumbing through some internet articles the late stages of my friday afternoon at work (counting down the minutes until my weekend starts :)), I ran across a very interesting article. Apparently, the part of the wedding vows that say "Until death do us part" are gradually being phased out of the standard vows that are being used today.

The article reports, "Vows like "For as long as we continue to love each other," "For as long as our love shall last" and "Until our time together is over" are increasingly replacing the traditional to-the-grave vow -- a switch that some call realistic and others call a recipe for failure."

My thoughts on this are the latter. I think that if the mindset of the couple going into the marriage is "as long as we continue to love each other", it is a sad statement of the commitment level of the couple...and a sad statement of the non-committal mentality of the world that we live in.

William Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, said this, "It's a change for the worse. The 'death do us part' vow is really unconditional. Once you change it to 'as long as love shall last' or something of that nature, it's conditional. It's almost analogous to a prenuptial agreement — simply saying 'we hope it works out.' It goes against the grain of marriage."

I am not married, but when I do make those vows, I want my wife to know that I am in it for the long haul. Tough times will come, there will be days when the "love" that we feel for each other will have to be more than the fuzzy feeling that we get when we first said "I do". Love takes work sometimes...and to say that we are only in it as long as the love last is indeed a recipe for failure.

Lines at the Post Office

My office has a postage machine, and a mail pick up each day. Very seldom do we ever have to leave the office to mail anything. However, there are a few occasions when I am forced to make a trip to the post office (I am that guy in our small company).

When you are going to the post office, you never know exactly what that trip will be like. Sometimes, I have gone straight through the door and straight up to the counter, and I am back in my car in a two minute round trip. Other times, however, it can be very frustrating.

Today was a good example of the latter. I actually went to two different post offices before I settled into a long line. The first one that I went to had a line out the door and one person behind the counter. Since I was grabbing lunch for a couple of people, I decided not to wait in line. I simply jumped back in my truck and picked up the food and dropped it off at the office on my way to another post office.

This second post office had a line out the door as well. However, there were four people working behind the counter. Even with four people it still took me about 30 minutes to meander my way through the line.

The thing that frustrates me stems from the fact that you really never know how it is going to be when you get there. Post offices don't have a "rush hour" per se. There is no "lunch rush" as you find in a restaurant within a two hour window. At any given moment of the day, the post office could be a ghost town or have a line out the door. I don't really understand that, and being a product of the fast pace society we live in, I would love to know when the "slow times" are for my next trip to the post office. Furthermore, being a planner, I would really like to know what to prepare myself for.

Supersize Me (part 2)

I decided to finally rent the Supersize Me movie a couple of nights ago (I have wanted to for a long time, but never took the time to do it). I highly recommend it to anyone that cares about their health.

Though there was a little bit of "boringness" through a couple of parts (I guess most documentaries have a little bit of "boringness" lol), all in all it was pretty good and very informative.

Throughout the entirety of the movie, the guy points out several statistics about Americans. The statistic that stuck with me the most is the fact that, if current trends continue, one out of every three children born in the year 2000 will develop diabetes. That is alarming to me. I am diet controlled diabetes, and my blood sugar has been under control for several years now. But when I was diagnosed with it, I read up on it. Plus my mom and grandmother both have it. The effects of developing diabetes can shorten ones life by many years, and the risk of coma or a loss of eyesight at some time in life is high.

Another thing that was alarming was the effect of eating three meals of McDonalds a day on his body. He had several doctors examine him before he began and he was in excellent health. Before it was over, he was having chest pains, his liver was beginning to show signs of damage, his cholesterol skyrocketed and his blood pressure was horrible. The doctors were recommending that he stop before he even finished the 30 days.

If you have not seen this movie, I recommend it.

Crazy, Busy Life...

I feel like such a bad blogger...I haven't been posting much lately. Its not because I don't want to...I have just been busy. This summer has been a very unique summer for me. I have been even busier than normal...and I have been out of town quite a bit. I have also not been able to have a regular weekly schedule at all, and that has been driving me crazy. And now, I only have a few weeks left before classes start and those few weeks have been fairly booked already.
My work has been really hectic the past couple of weeks, and dealing with being without a computer for a week made me even more tense. And since I only post when I have time here, I just simply have not had any time to post.

Analyzing this summer's events has led me to a question...If I could go back and start this summer over again, what would I do differently? or more correctly, what could I have done to prevent the craziness of this summer from happening? (I don't know if I could have done anything to prevent it actually)

If I could do this summer over again, I would definitely try to plan more down time. In my 10 years of school, I have only taken summer classes once. I have always felt like taking classes during the summer kind of defeated the purpose and allowed no break. For several years of my schooling I have worked 40 hours or more a week even while I am taking classes. The summers allowed me to just focus on work and not school. At this phase of my life, I also know that down time must be a planned event...to keep me from going crazy. The lack of down time this summer has made me somewhat tense.

I also would have read more. I started a book over vacation a few weeks ago, and I still haven't finished it :). It is not from a lack of trying, I have just not had the time.

With summer being 3/4 of the way done...is there anything that you wish you would have done differently or more of?

YAY!!! I have my computer back.

After almost an entire week of waiting on this guy to come put a new power supply in my computer (and jumping between like three or four different computers), he finally came this afternoon. After about two minutes worth of work, I am up and running in my own desk again. Everything feels right in the world now :).

Keep an eye out in the near future (probably this afternoon). I am going to be putting up a new mini poll question in my sidebar to the right of this page.

The new interactive poll will feature the question:

Which piece of technology would you find it the hardest to live without?

Supersize me or a new "McDonald's-only diet"???

A movie has been out on DVD for quite a while now called "Supersize me". I have not actually seen it, but I have heard that is a documentary of sorts, depicting a man who eats only McDonalds for a month and gains 25 pounds.

A woman in North Carolina challenges the findings in this movie Losing Pounds Under the Golden Arches. She apparently is a busy lady that eats three meals a day at McDonalds. According to the report she has lost 33 lbs after doing this for more than two months.

She is quoted as saying, "I just [stay] anywhere between 1,200 and 1,400 calories a day".

A few thoughts:
1. Of course she is going to lose weight if that is all of the calories she is eating. Her body would burn more calories than that if she were sleeping all day. Honestly, in my plight to lose weight I started with my calorie intake around 1500-1700, but now that I know more, I know that my body needs the nutrition from a diet with more calories than that.
2. There is no way that her body is getting all of the vitamins that it needs strictly from processed, McDonalds fast food.
3. Is she exercising too? Even if her weight is getting better, is she actually getting healthier or just thinner?

Barry Popkin (not to be confused with Mary Poppins) is a "nutritionist at UNC". He actually gives her big props saying, "She's created, for her lifestyle, a very smart diet".

I think this is crazy that a nutritionist is actually condoning this way of losing weight.

Technology...a blessing and a curse!

I work in an IT world with IT things and IT minded people. Over the past year, as I have been introduced to that world more and more, I have been sucked into it...now I very much enjoy checking out the new technology stuff that comes out (even though a lot of it I may never understand or need or want).

Over the weekend there was a power surge in my building. Unfortunately, though I was mistaken in my thinking, the power strip that my computer was plugged into was nothing more than just that...a power strip. It was not a surge protector. Therefore, I came into my office Monday morning to a computer with no power supply...it was fried. (all of which was caused by a squirrel on a power line by the way...that is the second squirrel in the past six months that has met his fate on a power line connected to our building and caused headaches for us)

All of the computers that are in our office are being used. Therefore, I have spent most of yesterday (after I spent a lot of the morning on the phone with the computer company) and all of today using a foreign computer in a conference room across from our office.

What have I learned from this?

1. I wish I had my own office all of the time lol...I have been in here by myself, and not that I goof off all day, but I don't feel like I am being baby sat now. Furthermore, I have a window to gaze out of in here (as I watch a rabbit playing in the rain...running in circles between two bushes) lol.

2. I miss the fact that all of the websites I need are just a click away in my favorites dropdown box on my own computer. In here, I have been forced to type in all of the web addresses and/or email addresses, and that has definitely slowed me down some.

3. I miss knowing where everything is on my own computer. I have all that I need and use on a regular basis saved on the desktop of my own computer. If it is not there, it is very easily accessible for me to find. In here, even though I have access to our shared drive, the shared drive itself is sort of a challenge to get to.

4. I have no access to old emails. All of the emails I have are saved in Micro. Outlook on my hard drive.

5. I feel out of place away from my seat, away from my desk, away from my computer and away from my desk phone.

Bottom line: My work has been choppy at best the last couple of days, and I blame a lot of that on the fact that I am using a computer that is foreign to me. I have often thought about how dependent we are on the technology that we own (not that I own my work computer, but I use it 40 hours or more in a week...so I have a personal attachment to it).

Here is another example...If I needed to call someone, and I did not have my cell phone with me, I would not know how to get in touch with them. In most cases, when I get a number from someone now, I never even look at the actual numbers anymore even as I type them in. Sometimes, I trust technology so much that I just have them call my phone and I save the number that appears on my screen. If it is in my phone I have it.

Are there any technology things in your life that would cause your world to become bumpy at best, or maybe even shut down for a while, if you did not have access to them????

Wow!!

I have had some time on my hands today, so I have gotten a little "blog happy" :)...or I may be trying to simply make up for some lost time...

At any rate, I ran across a reference to this article on another blog (Number 2 pencil...a great blog btw)...and the sheer stupidity of this woman from Utah mades me want to share it with the world.

Apparently, this woman auctioned off advertising space on her forehead. Placing a tattoo of the highest bidder (a casino website) right over her eyebrows. If you don't believe me, here is a picture of it on another weblog.

Enjoy, and have a good laugh.

Creation Museum

There is a museum going up in my great state of Kentucky that teaches a biblical worldview on history. Check it out and let me know your thoughts.

Creation Museum

Le Tour De France

This is the first year that I have attempted to try and keep up with what is going on with the Tour de France. I honestly don't understand it at all...I have never sat down and tried to figure out how it all works...the yellow jersey, the green jersey, the different stages, team stages versus individual stages, and how the point system works...there is a ton of stuff that I am sure fans of the biking world understand, but I would need a crash course to be able to keep up with it. Also, I do not have cable, and I work during the day, so there really isn't an opportunity for me to watch it. I am reduced to reading the live updates online.

Even if you don't like biking, or keep up with sports of that nature, Lance Armstrong has an amazing story. Lance has the greatest overcoming adversity/comeback story that there is.

Lance began racing/winning Iron Kid triathlons at the age of 13 in Plano, TX. Three short years later, he turned pro. It was a short road to the top, and he continued at the top well into the 90's and was ranked as high as 9th in the world ('96). In October of 1996, Lance was diagnosed with cancer and given less than a 50% chance of recovery. He was told that the cancer had spread into his lungs and brain. Lance was determined to beat it, and sought advice from specialists. After taking a very aggressive form of chemotherapy, he began to recover and to think about racing again.

Nine years later, Lance has accomplished only what some would dream of. Not only has he battled cancer and survived, but he has made a tremendous mark on the biking/sports world. His first year back ('98), he finished 1st in four events. 1999 was his first year to race in the Tour de France after his victory over cancer, and he not only finished first, but he won four stages. Furthermore, he finished 1999 (two short years after battling his cancer) ranked 4th in the world. If that is not enough, he has won the Tour de France every year since (6 titles), and was ranked as high as 2nd in the world ('02).

Lance has used his experience not only to motivate himself in his sport, but to encourage others. Off of the race track, he is very active in the community. He set up the Lance Armstrong foundation in 1997, which is a non-profit organization that helps people cope with and learn more about surviving cancer.

Lance's story is there for the world to see. It could not have been better scripted. I am sure that his story will be shared with (as it should be), and it will be an encouragement to generations to come.

Sad Times!

Well any doubts to the rumors have now been confirmed...Jen and Ben's Surprise Wedding! I was hoping that Jen would think twice about tieing the knot with ole boy, and consider me :)...but to no avail, she went through with it.

I hope everyone has a nice 4th of July weekend. I am heading out of town again.