Posts Tagged Blogs

My dear friend, Angela F., has started a blog.  She is a wonderful Christian woman who has been through the ‘real world’ and lives to tell the tale!   She is also a gifted writer.  And, last but not least, I love the name of her blog:  Accidentally Angela.  Do check it out!!!  I think you’ll be glad you did.

I’ve been reading a lot of really good blogs lately, and can’t help but think that there are so many ways that I could improve this one.  I could make it look more “professional”, somehow.  I could focus on just one of the things that interest me, like political commentary, or family life & homeschooling, or genealogy (which I think I will still just make an entirely separate website for that), or Catholic Issues/Apologetics, or, or, or. . . .

The problem is, my brain goes in too many directions at once, all the time.  And I can’t even blame the children for that, I’ve always been this way!  For example, last week, I wanted to blog about so many things that I wound up not blogging about anything.  For example, I had a really great blog post floating around in my head entitled “Dude!  Where’s My Plane?” about Obama pretending he didn’t know that someone took AF-1 and did a low flyover of NYC, terrifying the people of Manhattan and causing them to evacuate buildings and have major PTSD flashbacks of 9/11!!  All for a “Photo Op”????  I hope Obama is smarter than that, but at the same time, that would simply mean that he really is that sinister, to intentionally terrify his own people like that.  (Good thing he didn’t try a stunt like that over Dallas or Houston!)

Or I could talk about homeschooling.  About Faith, and how she’s been so busy lately digging up herbs in our yard and woods, and drying them, chopping them and making herbal remedies!  Our kitchen smells kinda funny from time to time, but I am so proud of her! Or about Alex, and how he did so well in school this year, and how funny he was co-hosting the HCHA Talent Show last week (see pictures all over Facebook!!), or about how Kendall is finishing up his first year at UNC-A, and how much he is enjoying studying Journalism, and how cute he is running around with a digital microphone and interviewing everyone he can.  I could say that Gaylon is still in Texas, and that we’re still in North Carolina, and it still stinks!  Our house hasn’t sold yet (duh.) and we are going to move to Texas at the end of the summer anyway, to be with him and get the kids plugged in.

Then I thought about how I’d like to discuss how well my genealogy research has gone lately, and how much I have enjoyed getting in contact with cousins I didn’t even know about down in Central Texas on the Adams side.  We’ve exchanged pictures and information and it’s just been incredible! And did I mention I’m building a website just for genealogy?   That way I can not only separate my genealogy from my political and religious views, but I can keep from boring to death the few readers I have who are not related to me!

And then there is my Catholic Faith, which I am usually pretty low-key about, because I have so many friends who are not only Protestant, but have been taught that Catholics are not Christians, and must be ’saved’!!  My Jewish friends are much more understanding of me being Catholic, probably because of that whole persecution thing.  But I absolutely LOVE being Catholic, and there are so many things I could ‘blog’ about, that might help people understand our faith, our beliefs, our Christianity.  That would probably be best in a separate site, as well.

So, what to do?  What to blog about??  It’s not like there are all these people reading my blog, and hanging on the edge of their chairs waiting for my next post!  Most of my close friends don’t read my blog at all, and of my family, I think only Gaylon, Kendall, Mom and occasionally Faith read it.  And of course, Lishi, (Kendall’s fiance) who is one of the only people who ever leaves me a comment. (And of course, Laura R. and Laura S.!!  I love my Lauras. . .)  I know there are a few folks scattered across the country who read it, but they never comment.  I tried a Poll once, and only a few folks participated in that, so perhaps the bottom line is this:  I blog for me.  If someone doesn’t like what I have to say, they certainly don’t have to read it.  Lishi’s brother, Steve Skojec, always has really great taglines for his blog, like “Cogito, Ergo Blog” (I think that was it. . . . I don’t remember exactly, and now he’s changed it) or his current one “You Didn’t Ask, But I’ll Tell You Anyway”.  Okay, that one really fits my situation, as well. LOL.  I’ve never met Steve, but I love his blog!

So, yeah.  My blog will probably continue to be a collection of randomness, and my title, “Chasing Thoughts” is probably very appropriate.  Maybe someday I will actually be able to focus on one thing for a great length of time.  But then, I will finish writing those books I’ve started, and not worry about blogging!

This has been one of the longest weeks I can ever remember.  Starting out any week with mourning is always tough.  But, to add to the mix, on Monday night, Alex wrecked his new car.  He is okay, but his car is not. He is not sure what happened, but thankfully nobody else was involved.  He lost control of his car just past the Green River Bridge on 176.  He said he wasn’t speeding, and I believe him.  That is a really winding road, and it was a really dark night.  Interestingly, just a few days later, a friend of his lost control of her vehicle in almost the same spot.  Only she was luckier than Alex, and didn’t hit anything.  He hit an embankment.  Thanks be to God, because he could have ended up going over the edge of the road into a ravine.  So, anyway, once he’s done with Orphan Train, he is planning on going back to work to pay for damages to his little car.

Tuesday found me doing laundry and a bit of cleaning for Bonnie’s family.  Mom went to help, and that was really nice.  We came home to find Faith with a 102.8 degree fever, and her upper lip really swollen.  Note to anyone who might need this info:  Alleve can cause swelling and hives.  So, no more Alleve for Faith!  Benadryl seemed to fix the swelling, but she ran fever for another day, and started finally feeling better by Thursday.

Thursday afternoon we attended Bonnie’s funeral.  She was buried in an absolutely beautiful location, high up, overlooking the mountains.  It was a glorious autumn day, and I am sure I felt her smiling at all of us.  Her service was short and very sweet. Her pastor talked about how Bonnie had kept a journal, and in part of it she had made a list of the things she wanted to do before she died.  One of those things was hiking up to the top of a mountain with her family and singing “How Great Thou Art”.  Although her children didn’t get to go along,  she and her husband did do just that.  And I thought about how all the things I seem to want to do cost a lot of money and involve so much time.  Like travelling to Greece or Europe.  I think I am going to make a conscious effort to want the things that God gives to us for free.  I think there’s some sort of great wisdom buried in that simplicity.  It seems even in death, Bonnie is still teaching me!

Last night we had our Halloween Party, and it was nice.  Almost all of Kendall’s friends were unable to come because of a football game at Appalachian State, so it seemed much quieter than last year!  However, we enjoyed the friends that did come, and the food and games.

Today, as you may have noticed, has been spent updating my blog again.  I never did really get used to the ‘theme’ I was using.  Even though it was very customizable, it just wasn’t ‘me’.  I found one I really liked a couple of weeks ago, but haven’t had time until today to play with it and make it work.  I am very happy that I’ve been able to tweak the code to make everything that I was having trouble with work for me.  Let me know if you find anything strange that I need to fix, such as broken links or missing images, or places where images just don’t seem to fit right.

So, that concludes our long week.  Next week, with the election, may feel even longer.  God Bless America.

Well, if you’re reading this, and you’ve been keeping up with me recently, then you know this is the third theme in as many days!  I’m gonna get a bit “geeky” and “techy” here, so bear with me.  As I mentioned in my previous “New Theme” post, Wordpress has been upgrading relentlessly  this past year.  And, I like what they are doing!  At first, I had some doubts, but by this point, even someone like me who has no clue how to create software, can appreciate their hard work in improving the interface and usability.  I love all the new bells and whistles!

However, as I mentioned before, the upgrades have rendered many older themes crippled, at best, and useless, at worst.  My old “Coffee Cup” theme (AKA: ‘Downtown Java’ by Brian Garndner) could no longer keep up with the new platform.  So, a couple days ago, I thought I would try the theme “Amazing Grace“.  I liked the name, and it seemed like it would be really easy to customize.  The guy has some pretty good forums for people to go to for help, and it works great with the latest Wordpress release. He also has some really amazing plug-ins.  I particularly like his “Theme Test-Drive” plug-in, which allows you to play with a theme on your own site, while everyone else who visits the site still sees your regular format.

But for some reason, I couldn’t get my own images to load, at least not all the time.  And, I couldn’t get rid of the default images.  Now, I’m not a coding expert, but I know enough code to usually be able to go in and tweak whatever I need to fit my needs.  So, I went to the forums for help, and started reading posts, thinking I might find my solution there.  Nope.  Furthermore, I didn’t think some of his responses to people were very friendly.  Instead, he was rather sarcastic.  I imagine he gets frustrated with folks asking him lots of questions, all the time, but he could be a bit gentler!  Granted, he has offered the theme for free, and if he charged for it, then that might make a difference in the tone of his customer support.

So I continued my quest for a new, customizable theme that I could use.  I Googled “Wordpress 2.6 Free Themes”, and found that Wordpress.org itself offers a listing of themes that are compatible with their newest release.  The one I am trying out now seems very promising.  Although I like the headers that come with it, I am going to create my own header, and use it instead.  I have had several folks (including my husband and my daughter, whose votes count double!) tell me that they really miss my old header, and liked it better.  So, for those of you who agreed with them, but were too polite to say so, I will be creating another header, hopefully even better than the last one, to go with this theme. But I’m keeping the little stars!  Aren’t they cute??

And what theme is this, that I have chosen now?  Glad you asked!  It is called “Mandigo“.  These guys actually offer several themes, but this one will work best for me, I think.  If you have your own domain, and you use Wordpress for a blogging platform, check them out.  (This would be a good time for me to point out that the free blogs available at Wordpress.com are very, very different than the stuff available at Wordpress.org).  Wordpress.org is where you get all the wonderful OpenSource stuff, including this wonderful blogging software!

Okay, so I’ve loaded this post with all sorts of links, if you are so inclined to follow my path through the Blogosphere and try to figure out what I’m talking about.  If not, that’s okay, too!

With Wordpress constantly updating their software, many themes are becoming obsolete.  Sadly, my original theme is one of those dinosaurs!  So, after spending way too much time searching for a new theme, and even going as far as setting up a test site just to try out different themes and see if I liked the way they looked, I have found a theme I like.

And, like all new things on the Web, it’s “under construction”!   The pictures on the upper right hand side of my header will soon be replaced with photographs of my own choosing, but for now, please enjoy the ones that came with the theme.  Every time you re-load my blog, a new photo will display.  Yeah, I’m gonna have some fun with that!

I am not too crazy about the “Category Tabs” at the top, and will be working on figuring out how to change or possibly delete them. (Update:  I have already deleted them!) I am also considering adding a “Wall” and maybe a Poll or two.  I do hope that everybody likes it . . . I’ve threatened to change my theme for a long time now, and everybody I’ve mentioned it to has begged me not to, but sometimes you just gotta keep up with the times!  Please let me know if you find anything weird or glitchy, so I can try to fix it.  Thanks bunches!

I just discovered that if you “Google” the phrase “March for Life 08″, my blog comes up as the fourth listing!  Wow. . . could this be my moment of fame?

Here’s the update for now on the March:  there were over half a million marchers, including Kendall and Alex.  Alex forgot to take the camera we sent with him to the march, so we are just going to have to take his word for what he saw.  Kendall took his camera, and promises that he got some pictures of both the Belmont Abbey College group and the St. Barnabas group.  He also got a picture of Alex, but for some reason didn’t manage to get a picture of himself with Alex.  I’m not going to try to figure that one out.  Not being a teenage boy I’m not sure I’d understand anyway.

On a random note, I am starting to think evil thoughts about Adobe Software again.  Their programs are excellent, but they are so restrictive with licensing that it makes me want to scream!  I am the editor of our homeschool support groups Yearbook.  We have roughly 300 families in our group, and about a third of them participate in the yearbook.  Last year, we earned enough in advertising and yearbook sales to buy the latest version of Adobe InDesign CS3.  But it only came with two activations!  So only two of us can use it, making it very frustrating for several people to be able to work on the yearbook simultaneously, which had been my hope.

After calling Adobe and asking about their “Volume Licensing” program, I am almost tempted to used PrintShop or some other cheap program. Each additional ‘license’ costs $200 for non-profits, or, if we bought a minimum of 10 additional licenses, under their ‘educational licensing’, then it would only be $160/license.  Ha!  As homeschoolers,most of us are already on a shoestring budget, having sacrificed that second income to be able to stay home and educate our own children.  We simply don’t have that kind of spare cash laying around.

Okay, I’m done.  I will come down off of my soapbox now.  If anybody has any spare Adobe InDesign CS3 programs that they are trying to get rid of, let me know.  I could use them!

Check back in a day or two for more details on Alex’s experience at the March for Life and the Holocaust Museum.

Well, I went to see the surgeon this afternoon, and he took my bandages off and discharged me! Yay! I am glad to have them gone, but they did come in handy at one point. I was sitting around talking to Kendall and Gaylon, who were having a friendly debate over who had the worst and most wounds. So I sat there and listened to them for a while, then lifted my shirt up, displaying my ugly, blood-stained bandages, and said “Oh, yeah, guys?? Beat this!!” Yep. . .I won that one!

For free entertainment, we having been watching Faith’s new kitten, Bandit, chase the other cats and Bonnie around the house and try to attack them. It is so funny to watch him! He is this little black puff of fearless fur! Waldo Pepper took a new approach, and just sat on him. I think that should win some sort of award for most random act of heroism!!

In other news, I forgot to mention that Gaylon has gone back to school again. He is now working toward a Business Management Degree. I definitely admire his determination! It does keep him down in his office a lot more, but I do get a kick out of listening to him complain about things like “Moodle”, for his online class!

I have been updating this site bit-by-bit, and have now added pages on Homeschooling and Genealogy. (Subject to change soon). There are some pictures on the Homeschooling page, and I am hoping to add some pictures to the Genealogy page before too long, as well. But that involves uninterrupted scanning, so that may take a while longer. Check back!!

It’s only halfway through the first month of the new year, and a lot has happened already. On the 3rd, I had gallbladder surgery. It went well, and the only problem I had afterward was with my tongue! Apparently they pinched it when they intubated me, and it HURT! Seems better now, and I no longer sound like I have cleft palate. I think the best thing about having surgery is that everyone expects and encourages you to sleep for a few days afterward. I can always sleep!! On the 9th I had more dental work done, which I hate. But since the root canal right before Christmas, at least I’m not having the migraines anymore. Just a couple of days after my surgery, Faith’s hamster, Autumn, died. We had had her for about a year and a half, so she lived a fairly long time for a hamster, but that didn’t make it any easier. Then on the 10th, Gaylon’s work truck apparently had a mind of it’s own, the emergency brake released, and it rolled down our driveway, hit a tree and totaled itself. *sigh* On the minor side of things, Kendall got a fairly nasty chemical burn at work, but the good news is that it missed his eye by half an inch! He has laughed it off saying that now he has that rugged, dashing look!

But we are all still remarkably hopeful that 2008 will be a great year. I finally took the plunge and got my own web domain (which, if you are reading this, you probably already know!) and am having a lot of fun playing with themes and designs and widgets. I am using a new blogging platform, which has been a source of some frustration, but once I get it figured out, I’m sure it will be wonderful.

I still have my old website, because it’s free, but for the most part, by the time I’m done (if one can ever truly be ‘done’ playing with a website/blog) I will have moved all the information from there to here, as well as from my blog to here, and it will all be in one convenient place. Sadly, none of my family members are very interested in web design, or blogging, or figuring out scripts and protocols, so I’m on my own with this. But that’s okay, it gives me something to obsess over!

So, that’s the update. We are praying that the year improves, with no more mishaps, and that things will be much smoother from this point on. Please leave me a comment if you were here. I love hearing from you. This will be updated a LOT over the next few weeks, as I continue learning more about this software and how to play with it and tweak it to suit my needs.