|
Blog
The blog thing is confusing a lot of people
I have been getting weird comments and e-mail all day on my TSA post. People are following the backlink on the TSA blog to my blog and leaving comments thinking that I am the TSA which I find funnier each time I read them. Labels: blogging
jordoncooper.com vs. warrenkinsella.com
Warren Kinsella posted about the Top 25 Political Blogs yesterday and mentioned what I said here. My comment was that I think his ranking is hurt by bloggers who are still linking to www.warrenkinsella.com/musings.htm which was his old web location instead of linking to www.warrenkinsella.com which is his new one (it took me a couple of months to change my link so I am not judging anyone). A quick look at Technorati shows 1,213 links (or as Technorati says, "blog reactions") to his www.warrenkinsella.com and another 530 links to www.warrenkinsella.com/musings.htm. Google's algorithm shows 2,010 links to his site from both blogs and other websites. (of course those numbers will be one behind as soon as I hit publish) On the other hand, jordoncooper.com has 1414 total incoming links on Technorati and oddly enough I beat him with 2,050 links on Google.
What's the point of this? 1) It shows how flawed most web data analysis is because the number of readers or linkers does not equal influence. A better metric would be how far does ones ideas travel and who is reading one's blog instead of how many. Also my links come in from areas a long ways away from politics in Canada, mostly from church leaders and pastors with some sports blogs tossed in for good measure. Another way to look about it, when I write something brilliant, Mike Duffy doesn't hang on every word. Of course links and clicks are often used out of context and even if they were, I liked what Warren wrote here. Here’s one of Warren’s truisms, then: legitimacy is not found in numbers. Rightness does not equate with popularity. You can be entirely, utterly alone, as Jesus Christ was in the end – as the other prophets were, like Mohamed and Moses, at key moments in their lives – and still be irrevocably right. So how does all of this relate to web stats? Because, for me, this blog stuff is worth doing because (a) it is truly DIY punk rock journalism, and (b) it is a literal extension of diary writing. Personally, it permits me to write in a way that newspapers and magazines – having quit or been fired from not a few – never permit me to write. It allows me to write as I am writing right now – and then, three inches later, link to a hardcore punk band I currently adore. I do it, too, because I am – when you distil me down to my base elements – a diarist. I am alleged to have been writing 1,000 words a day since I was eleven years old: it is as fully part of me as is breathing, or Slurpees.
This made me ask why I keep this site going. It isn't a money maker. Despite my bluster, there is no jordoncooper.com media empire coming. I find myself using Twitter more and more which doesn't have stats and I have no idea if anyone is reading my most random and random thoughts. Yet at the same time I enjoy writing complete thoughts in 160 character or less and find it even more fun reading political campaign coverage in 160 character or less. I think the reason I keep this blog is it is a place that I can explore new ideas that I am thinking about and a borderline extrovert, it allows me to process and get feedback. The random links here and there get formed together later on and occasionally become and idea worth caring about.As I have written before the person who probably influenced my thinking and writing this blog is Thomas Homer-Dixon and his book, The Ingenuity Gap which is the idea that the problems and issues affecting us are far more complex than we often understand. I think my keeping this blog is my part of exploring and understanding the world around me (which does at times include sports). Labels: blogging, ideas, jordoncooper.com
Top 25 Canadian Political Blogs
 and for some reason I make the list. I beat Garth Turner out narrowly and for some reason I beat out Warren Kinsella but I imagine that has more to do with Google not clicking into the fact that his URL of his blog has changed recently with many people linking to his old URL.
I am not really a political blogger but in the spirit of being ranked, here is a great story about Barack Obama and his apology to local reporter. Update: Some more thoughts related to the post are here.
Technorati tags: Garth Turner, Warren KinsellaLabels: blogging, politics
The Brian Mulroney Media Room
Now normally an ex-Prime Minister having a blog (with a nice theme) would be kind of interesting but when I read it, it seems below what I expect from an ex-Prime Minister. I don't know if I agree with Warren Kinsella that he is guilty of anything but it sure makes me wonder more about it. Of course what I really want to see is Jean Chretien start using Twitter. Labels: blogging, politics
Best Canadian Religious Blog of 2007
Canadian Blog Award Finalist
The next version of Blogger
I was home sick yesterday and thought to myself that since I was pretty much immobilized that this would be a good time to switch to Wordpress. I looked at AKMA's new blog and I really like his template and went looking around for some other templates I liked. That is when I realized why I don't like WordPress. It is the themes. I am finding that sites like Adam Cleaveland and AKMA's site are the exceptions and many, many WordPress themes compete with the content rather than let the content shine. The minimalistic themes that I like seem to have been used over at Wordpress.com so I would have a theme just like everyone elses. I installed MovableType 4.x the other day and while I liked it, it is a lot harder to use than it needs to be. I can't believe that blogroll support was not included and has to be added via a plugin. Also, Windows Live Writer does not work with Movable Type for some reason. I suppose I am looking for a Typepad type version which SA is smart enough not to do because everyone would host Typepad themselves which would cannibalize their revenues. I did try out a free trial of Typepad and I do like it but then I am paying to host my site at Typepad and then also some hosting for Resonate as well on a different site which makes little sense. Although importing 8000+ posts into WordPress is easy but rather difficult into Typepad or MT. If anyone has an easy solution for this, I think I would switch. In the end I am still using Blogger and here are a couple of features I would love to see for those of us who use FTP and host our blogs ourselves. - Integration with Google Sitemaps. I know it can use my RSS feed to update with but there has to be a better solution for our old content. The publication of a complete sitemap of our blog content would be wonderful, even if the file was stored on Google's servers.
- A separate archives and labels page. This way people could browse our labels and archives easier and we could even move our listing of archives off our main page if we so desire. Actually Blogger used to do this and it is a feature I would love back.
- Some new templates please. If Yahoo! 360 has more template options, something is wrong. In the Pyra days you had design competitions. Do one again and involve the Blogger and design community. You may be surprised.
- Integration with del.icio.us: I don't know who started this feud but it would be great if my contextless links could be posted daily via del.icio.us. While you are at it, could you get together with some of your old coworkers at Obvious and work out some cool inline Twitter integration as well.
- Can you please enable labels of longer then 100 posts. When Blogger publishes it republishes almost all of my categories anyways. Why not have it publish less unchanged pages and update a couple of current pages. Limit each label to 100 posts on a page but simple do the "previous" link to older labels.
Labels: blogging, design, technology
What's in a Name?
Steven Heller on anonymous commenters: A rose is a rose, and a real name at the end of a blog post is an indication that the person who authored the statement is taking responsibility, indeed ownership of the words — it is a simple act of honesty. For too long bloggers have been given license that is not tolerated in letters-to-the-editor columns of newspapers and magazines (except in extraordinary circumstances). If one is willing to expound, exclaim, or critique it should be done under a real name and with links to a valid email or website address. If transparency on the web is the new black, then there should be no secrets. Exactly. Labels: blogging
AKMA now using WordPress
I really like AKMA's new design for his WordPress powered blog. Of course I was a little late to discovering it as I was subscribed to his MT powered RSS field. Technorati tags: AKMA, WordpressLabels: blogging, design
iPod Touch vs. iPod Nano
My goal was that after I got back from the Bahamas, I wanted to replace my iPod which I miss horribly. When the new iPod Nano's came out, I wasn't impressed but the new form factors have grown on me and I find myself more and more tempted by the 8 gig version. This week I was in Future Shop and they had a iPod Touch which I was able to play with and was blown away. I never tried to log into Gmail or Blogger so I am not sure if they will work with that and I was sad to see that Apple had eliminated calendar editing. After reading some reviews, I am tempted to get the iPod Nano and wait for the iPod Touch 2.x to be released. Labels: blogging, technology
One of the 100 Most Informative Blogs
The Hour Blog with George Stroumboulopoulos on CBC Television
I have hesitated to blog about this but The Hour with George Stroumboulopoulos has a blog. The reason I have been hesitant is because most television show and news blogs are terrible. The Hour's blog is actually quite good and would be a great blog even if it wasn't attached to The Hour and CBC. In addition to a blog, they seem to get what most American networks do not and that is having a YouTube page is a great service to its viewers. Here are some to check out. Labels: blogging, media, video
New design being created
Last night at work, I grabbed some paper and started to sketch out what the next version of this weblog will look like. I thought I would share a couple of things that inspired my thinking... - Derek Powazek: "Embrace your bottom". Evhead's new design was inspired by part of it.
- Khoi Vinh's weblog: Khoi controls the design and layout of the New York Times online edition and I hesitate to even link to his blog because it is so much better than my own ideas but we are generally inspired by those who are way better than we are.
- Michael Sippey's redesign made me realize what a poor designer I really am. His is the first innovative use of categories that I have seen in a weblog.
- Obviously: It is nice to see a weblog powered by Blogger that isn't using the old templates and actually looks good.
- Pernell Goodyear may be one of the best Blogger based designers out there. I liked his design from last week quite a bit. It reminded me a bit of an old design I had and liked (but none of you did).
- Jen Bekman has one of the best implementations of the famous WordPress theme Hemingway that I have ever seen.
The design is still a week or so away from being done. I have some other things that need to be done (plan for the Exiles, write a book, spend time with my kid) when I get off working nights but among them is to turn my sketches into a site. We'll see how it all turns out. Labels: blogging, design
Contextless Thoughts
- Yes, I am back with Blogger which is acting weird for me now that I have come back to it. The only difference is that I am linking to Will Sampson and I don't know of a feud between Will and Blogger that should be causing my problems. Also, Blogger doesn't have a way to contact them anymore outside of a support Google Groups thing they have set up but don't seem to respond to. In the old days, one could e-mail one of the Blogger team and they would always get back to you, now despite being part of a multi-billion dollar company, they don't offer support. How odd is that? I miss Ev and Biz Stone.
- I know this design is showing some age. I am working on a new design and should have something new in a couple of weeks. The early designs look promising but I need to let them mature.
- Some new content areas are also being worked on.
- Pernell has been redesigning the Freeway's website. From a branding perspective, I like them using the FRWY.ca domain name for the church, coffee house, and their internship program. Good stuff.
- Unless Michael Vick's name is completely and totally aquitted of all dog fighting charges, I can't see the Atlanta Falcons bringing him back to play for them. Of course is that word out of Atlanta is that Blank is so angry at Vick, he wants to feed him to some pit bulls so the issue is moot but as a dog owner, I can't see anyone wanting anything to do with him again and as a sponser, being associated with any NFL team that has Vick on the roster could really hurt your brand. Of course, even before the dog fighting investigation started, Vick managed to hurt his marketability quite nicely.
Labels: blogging, church, Contextless Thoughts
What just happened?
For three weeks I had been WordPressing along until I got an e-mail from my ISP saying I was using up a huge chunk of the server's CPU power. I deleted some wiki's and got another e-mail saying that I was using even more CPU usage while at the same time felt that WordPress was slow, even with the caching on. Reading the site was slow but internal Wordpress functions were painfully slow and much slower than WordPress.com At the same time some little things with K2 and WordPress started to bug me formatting wise so I decided I would make the switch back. Instead of building my own theme, I decided to come back to Blogger and then redesign my site later. I'll see what I can do about integrating some of the features back into Blogger. Labels: blogging, design, jordoncooper.com, technology
My Flirtation with WordPress
The other night I deleted all of my posts out of jordoncooper.com and decided to install the latest version of WordPress here. It took about 20 minutes to import all of my posts and comments back into WordPress (8000 posts, 2500 comments) and then I decided to install some WordPress themes to see which ones I liked best. After fiddling around with it for a couple of hours, I deleted WordPress and reinstalled Blogger. Here's why. - Themes work a lot better on Wordpress.com than they do with WordPress. Kudos to WordPress.com, which is an amazing hosted blogging platform but some features that I have come to accept as working automatically on Wendy's weblog needed some tweaking on my site.
- The themes that I liked didn't have the functionality that I wanted and the ones that had the features, I didn't like the design.
- I enjoy tweaking and customizing in my antiquated version of Dreamweaver. While I will see what the new Mozilla web editor is like before I upgrade, I don't mind tweaking HTML.
- I stood by Blogger when it stunk so it makes no sense to leave as it is finaly getting good.
That's about it. Nothing against WordPress.com users but I kind of like my site right now so there is no point in changing. Labels: blogging, technology, WordPress
8000
I just logged into Blogger and it told me that this is post #8000 which I actually find embarrassing. Apparently I occasionally have something to say which is kind of weird because I was logging in to post why I haven't been blogging that much lately. Labels: blogging, jordoncooper.com
Six Years of Blogging
It was six years ago at the end of June that I started blogging. I first heard about Blogger as a Content Management Tool from Andrew Careaga in his newsletter and started playing around with it after that. It's been fun. Not sure if I plan to keep doing this much longer but one never knows. Thanks for reading! In the next week or so I plan to start photoblogging again. I am trying to decide whether to incorporate a daily photo into this blog or set up another dedicated photoblog. If you have any thoughts (you know, as my readers), let me know in the comments below. Labels: blogging
ODEO to Google
I logged into draft.blogger.com recently and saw that Google is offering a video upload feature for Blogger (which makes little sense to me as they own YouTube/Google Video but whatever). What I and many Blogger users wouldn't mind is a hosted podcasting service tie in. I have been a long term fan of ODEO but with it for sale, I think it would be a great fit for Google since it already has the infrastructure in place to host and serve that kind of bandwidth. Also, since aquiring Feedburner, they have aquired the company that made it easier for users of Blogger to start podcasting (Blogger used only Atom which didn't have the enclosure feature of RSS 2.0). With the advertising technology that Google is developing and selling for YouTube, the same thing could be created for ODEO and Google becomes not only the leader in video but also has some really good tools to take on and popularize the podcasting market. Will it happen, probably not but who predicted Google's purchase of Blogger? Labels: blogging, ideas, technology
Contextless Links
- New government in England, Time let's us know what to expect. Newsweek looks back at the early days.
- Why Germany hates Tom Cruise: Apparently it has nothing to do with Mission Impossible II
- Note to the L.A. Lakers: Cut your ties with Kobe. Do you actually think that unless Phil Jackson can win every game and let Kobe score 100 points a game, he will start complaining about KG by Christmas.
- Calgary close to signing Iginla: Apparently he hasn't heard who his coach will be.
- NHL, NBA to develop blogger policies
- Why is Microsoft threatening Linux: Also an interesting bit on Google Data Centres: A lot of people do not realize that Google's architecture is based on cheap PCs running Linux and a customized networking system interlinking them. This design has galled and hurt the companies that make big iron servers, since Google's solution is cheaper and just as reliable. Well, at least it is as reliable as any PC. The actual beauty of the architecture is that if one of the PCs craps out and dies in the grid, it is just left there to rot. There is no need to swap it out. (This eliminates the need for a lot of workers, too.) This is similar in concept to a hard drive, where bad sectors are simply mapped out of existence. Slick.
- Total Cost of iPhone Ownership: Up to $5,914.76. Black turtleneck not included.
Labels: basketball, blogging, Contextless Links, sports
Blooger, Jordon Cooper
From a letter from a publisher asking me to review a book. I am not feeling the respect. Labels: blogging, books
Windows Live Writer
Microsoft just released a new version of Windows Live Writer. It has some new great plugins making it easier to embed YouTube and Google Videos, inline spell checking, supports Blogger labels, table editing, page authoring for WordPress and TypePad, support for excerpts and extended entries, improved hyperlinking and image insertion I have been trying it for a couple of days and I like it. Of course the price is right, free and this version also seems faster than the old one. You can download it here and the blog is here. It may be the best blog editor out there. Labels: blogging, technology
Talking about living life
Over the last 10 months people have commented over the decreasing amount of fresh content on the site and the reliance on links around here. Someone one criticised me as being a link blogger like kottke.org which I took as quite a compliment as I am a big fan of his blog but they are right in that the amount of original content around here is becoming as rare as a fair and balanced news report on Fox News. So where did all the content go? Looking back 10 months or so, we started the process of planting Church of the Exiles and I started working full time at the Salvation Army. While I do have internet access at work, I don't have a lot of time to surf the web although if our office. My bookmarks are Flickr (for wallpapers), Saskatoon weather (helps me make decisions on housing for people), Yahoo! Sports and Yahoo! and Google News (self explanatory), and some links to frequently asked questions (what time buses run, library hours, job search stuff), that sort of thing. The reason I don't surf that much is that for most of my shifts, there is a steady stream of people that need something or the other and that is what I am paid to take care of. Like most jobs, there is also some paperwork to be done, databases to input stuff into, and some chatting with co-workers. That is 40 hours of my week spent at work. Other than that, the Church of the Exiles is a labour of love and there is stuff that needs to be done by myself and as a group. That takes up time. Many of the things that I have blogged and written about will hopefully come to life in Exiles but it takes time and a lot of small steps. A friend of mine keeps saying, "I always overestimate how much stuff I can accomplish in the short run but am amazed by how much stuff I get done over the longhaul." Despite that, a lot of steps need to be taken in the short run for Exiles and more hours taken up. As I write this post, I am reminded of the underground seminary some of us are trying to start and the work that it needs to keep it moving. When I have time at home, there are the joys of home maintenance on a 80 year old home, a dog with a compulsive fetching disorder and slobbery tennis balls, frisbees, and sticks to toss. A couple of weeks ago when I started shopping for Mark's birthday presents, I felt sick to my stomach. When I turned seven my relationship with my father got a lot worse and he was gone by the time I was eight. By Christmas his last year around, I remember thinking he hated me and when he left, I blamed myself. While those feelings are from the past, I want Mark's next trip around the earth to be better than mine was so I find myself spending more time with him. By the time he is eight, he will probably be sick and tired of having me around but for now I am reminded of my past and the desire to make sure his future is different. Plus, we have a slingshot to master and some knives to carve things with. So what does that mean for the blog? It means that I am spending a lot more time living life then doing it. I enjoy being a pundit but I much rather enjoy starting things and living life. Labels: blogging, church, Church of the Exiles, Maggi, Mark Cooper, photography, Saskatoon, seminary, work
Contextless Links
- Canada to have American like four year election cycle: No one in Canada other then the politicians, Calgary Grit, Daisy Group, and Mike Duffy are calling for this and it turns our relatively painless 40 day writ into a long term American like election cycle. It looks like only the Governor General can save us now from this madness.
- Business Week on the expanding desire for private ownership of public roads, ports, and utilities :: But there's a downside to the quick cash: planned toll hikes that are usually quite aggressive. Chicago's Skyway could see car tolls rise from $2 in 2005 to $5 by 2017. For some perspective, if a similar scheme were applied to the Pennsylvania Turnpike during its 67 years of existence, the toll for traveling from the Delaware River to the Ohio border would be as much as $553 now instead of $22.75. Macquarie, which teamed up with Spain's Cintra to purchase the Chicago Skyway and the Indiana Toll Road, underscored the governmental trade-off during a presentation at the recent White House Surface Transportation Legislative Leadership Summit: "More Money or Lower Tolls." In an extreme scenario, governments could begin to sell properties that aren't tolled to private owners who will impose fees.
- Seth Godin has some excellent financial tips not only for businesses but for churches as well :: A lot of organizations decide to skip the rice and beans and studio apartment step. They decide to "go big or stay home." More often than not, they end up going home.
- John Stackhouse has some contrarian thoughts about how evangelicals look at numbers
- Darryl Dash quotes Daniel Block who has some thoughts on ambition and opportunism in ministry :: The cult is syncretistic, the priesthood is mercenary, and the devotees are evil. Instead of calling people to repentance the professional and spiritual leaders capitalize on the degeneracy of the times. Similarly, the "spiritual service" of many current pastors is motivated not by the call of God but by the opportunities for personal gain. The question the Danites posted to him is asked every day by pastoral search committees: "Which is better, to be the pastor of a small family or to be the pastor of a megachurch?" The contemporary problem of ambition and opportunism in the ministry has at least a three-thousand-year history.
- Do business (or church) books work?
- Prominent Baghdad blogger decides to flee to Jordan or Syria :: I remember Baghdad before the war- one could live anywhere. We didn't know what our neighbors were- we didn't care. No one asked about religion or sect. No one bothered with what was considered a trivial topic: are you Sunni or Shia? You only asked something like that if you were uncouth and backward. Our lives revolve around it now. Our existence depends on hiding it or highlighting it- depending on the group of masked men who stop you or raid your home in the middle of the night.
Labels: blogging, church, Contextless Links
The New Blogger
I am finally on the new Blogger. The big difference will be the support for labels which may or may not make it easier for you to find content here. I hopefully will integrate some new features in over time. Labels: blogging, jordoncooper.com
Only 648 Days Until the Election
I love this cover from Time Magazine and a reason why Canadians don't like fixed election dates. Sure it is 40 days of misery, bad attack ads, and a lot of candidates knocking on my door but then it is done, it is done. Enough of two year election cycles. Oh yeah, here is the link to the Time article about the cover. It also made me wonder about the hard core American political bloggers who are quite a bit more focused and intense than the Canadian ones I read. How do they not burn out on the same subject knowing it is here for the next 630 days? I don't know if I should be impressed or scared? Some of you may be interested with a CSM article on the messy relationship between politicians and bloggers. Labels: blogging
Contextless Links
- Wendy is writing about sex in the snow and no she isn't referring to the book
- Winner of the 2007 World Press Photo contest of a badly wounded Iraq war vet returning home to marry his sweetheart:: Their story is here. More photos of the couple here. via
- CEO of Cineplex compares those who camcorder movies to drug dealers :: It also endangers our young employees, because they are dealing with hardened criminals, for whom this is more lucrative then selling drugs. via who has more here
- Vive Le California? :: California to split from the United States of America? :: Governor Schwarzenegger is quite clear that California is not simply another state. “We are the modern equivalent of the ancient city-states of Athens and Sparta,” he recently declared. “We have the economic strength, we have the population and the technological force of a nation-state.” In his inaugural address, Mr. Schwarzenegger proclaimed, “We are a good and global commonwealth.” via
- Trouble for a University built on profits via :: The complaints have built through months of turmoil. The president resigned, as did the chief executive and other top officers at the Apollo Group, the university’s parent corporation. A federal court reinstated a lawsuit accusing the university of fraudulently obtaining hundreds of millions of dollars in financial aid. The university denies wrongdoing. Apollo stock fell so far that in November, CNBC featured it on a “Biggest Losers” segment. The stock has since gained back some ground. In November, the Intel Corporation excluded the university from its tuition reimbursement program, saying it lacked top-notch accreditation.
- Cows can't eat grass! Hurry, tell that to the several million grass fed cattle that roam Saskatchewan
- Curing Souls: The Forgotten Art by Eugene Peterson
- The real reason we love dogs :: They dance with joy when we come home, put their heads on our knees and stare longingly into our eyes. Ah, we think, at last, the love and loyalty we so richly deserve and so rarely receive. Over thousands of years of living with humans, dogs have become wily and transfixing sidekicks with the particularly appealing characteristic of being unable to speak. We are therefore free to fill in the blanks with what we need to hear. (What the dog may really be telling us, much of the time, is, "Feed me.")
- The John Edwards "blogger" scandal won't be the last. If I were you, I wouldn't trust anyone who has a blog.
- Rwanda, haunted by genocide has a new problem, overpopulation :: Though Rwanda is predominantly Catholic, the church’s leaders here are not expected to oppose a campaign for population control. A number of priests, nuns and lay workers participated in the 1994 genocide, which weakened the church’s moral authority, and has led it to avoid politics.
- Reading your own Stasi files :: Although the Stasi had little in their files about me, within days they had a relatively good idea of my activities and, at that point, I was charged with espionage. The order for my incarceration was issued two weeks after I was initially arrested--and about a week later than the East German law required such orders to be made. Such legal niceties, however, made little difference to the Stasi.
- Most IED's are coming from IRAN according to USA Today and MSNBC. The question is after being lied to so many times, do we believe them?
- Mark Cuban vs. Dwyne Wade :: I know Shaq appreciates your leadership as well. He called out your team a few weeks ago saying it was " embarassing'. Great leadership DWade. Your coach sat players for being fat. I guess you couldnt lead them away from the buffet.
- Hockey is being outmarketed by America's other fringe sport, MLS
- Free Methodist college fires transgendered professor
Labels: blogging, church, Contextless Links, economics, hockey, Iraq, war, Wendy Cooper
Friends of Gloria Reimer
Some of you who call Gloria Reimer your friend and read her blog know that because of the chaos caused by a) Blogger upgrading itself and b) her deciding she didn't need her own domain name, that her weblog moved to gloriareimer.wordpress.com and all of her archives were lost. It was the perfect storm of blogging. The good news is that with Google supports help, her archives were found and have all been imported into her WordPress.com powered blog. Not only that but it is much more searchable. I am not sure what you would be searching for but it's all there now. Technorati Tags : Gloria+Reimer, wordpress.com Labels: blogging
Doug Pagitt has come full circle
With his blogging platforms at least. I have been reading Doug as he moved from Blogger to Typepad to .Mac and I think he was even on Vox for a couple of days. Anyways he is back blogging at pagitt.typepad.com and I need to add him to the old blogroll (and since I am using the old Blogger, is a more complicated procedure than it should be). Labels: blogging
I (tolerate) the NHL again
The other night I watched my first NHL game since the strike two seasons ago. I realized that the other day that I had totally lost my love for the game. I wasn't even that angry at it anymore, I just stopped caring after the strike. A bunch of millionaires and billionaires had a hard time trying to figure out how to divide the pot. It kind of made me sick for a while. Then when I tried to watch hockey again, it reminded me of Arena Football. The game is different but if you watch an Arena football game, the first thing that hits you is how often the announcers tell you how great Arena football is. It happens over and over and over again. The same with TSN and the "new NHL". All Pierre McGuire and the TSN team could talk about was how great the new NHL was yet when I watched it, I missed the battles in front of the net. It was almost as if they made rushing the passer or running up the middle illegal in the NFL. It was still hockey but it looked like they were trying to compensate for the lack of talent in the game (which there was). According to this interview, I am not alone. Simply put, the league squashes any sort of rivalry before it can get going. Even worse, Gary Bettman ran around saying that the new schedule, with more interdivisional games, was put in place to promote rivalries. In fact, those that keep an eye on the business side of the sport know he did it to cut down on travel costs. That is why he wants to go to divisions defined by time zones next year. Anything to save a buck.
So I stopped watching NHL hockey. I would check out the highlights on The Score.ca with some interest but not much passion. I let the Hockey Pundits slowly die (although it hasn't helped that I can't access it since Wendy moved from the old Blogger to the new Blogger. Google, thanks for ignoring all my pleas for tech support) and if I watched hockey, it was WHL hockey live or World Jrs. or something like that.
I am not sure why I waited this long to watch another game. Maybe watching baseball and football is enough. Maybe I am still mad that they kicked the fans to the curb two years ago. Maybe it is just Pierre McGuire. Whatever the reason, I am far from being back in the fold and being passionate. The evidence? The game I watched featured the Edmonton Oilers and I didn't wish for a career ending injury to any of them. I must be apathetic. Labels: baseball, blogging, hockey, sports, Wendy Cooper
Just some random late night thoughts
- I am at work right now working the graveyard shift. One of my co-workers is ill and it is my turn to cover his shifts. The first time I was ever working here alone, I was wandering through the building and a warehouse area that we have to hold donations had a tremendous crash which sounded like someone was hiding in there. Ironically one of the guys who was at the half way house had earlier in the night assured me that if I ever ran into trouble, some guys that had violent pasts weren't too far away. I think he was joking.
- I was talking to someone about Social Services worker caseloads. Between 200-300 cases from what I am told. Yet I replied if you added the social workers, management infrastructure, and office space to lower that amount to the point where social workers could make a real difference in their clients lives, it would create a political fire storm because we the electorate doesn't like growing social services budgets. I wonder if a "surge" of spending and hiring in that department would not go a long way in actually helping people as opposed to just managing paperwork (which is all some can manage to do with that many cases).
- A while ago a guy told me that the reason that he loved to stay here is that we are the first people to treat him "real nice". Since then some others have said something similar. I can't imagine growing up in a world where your first pleasant connections with other humans comes in a shelter. That being said, I am glad we could be there.
- Wendy and I were talking the other day and it is going to be 25 years since my dad left in a couple of weeks. I was a year older than Mark when he left and even though I wasn't the sharpest kid on the block, I knew something had changed that entire year before. It's hard to believe that I have a kid the same age that I was when it all fell apart.
- Speaking of Mark, the other day he came and asked me to help him pass a level on his Game Boy. He walked past Wendy so I asked, "Why not ask Mom?" He answered softly back to me, "Have you seen Mom play a video game? She is worse than I am." Point conceded.
- This morning I heard Donald Trump justify all of the crude things he has said about Rosie O'Donnell because she made fun of his hair. He's totally correct in taking the low road as what about that dead cat that Donald Trump has stapled to his head and calls a hair cut can be made fun of?
- A couple of publishers send me free books to review which is cool. I generally make mention of them here even if I don't get around to review them but lately some publishers are offering to send me books if I meet their conditions for a review. Yeah, that isn't going to work that well, even if I wanted to review the book in the first place. I'd rather purchase a book, review it with integrity then be advertising for a publisher. They should know better.
- A new redesign of the Resonate website is in the works. The Resonate Greenhouse section will remain the same but a much needed update for the rest of the site which is looking tired.
- In case you don't like Qumana or ECTO, you may want to check out Windows Live Writer if you are using Windows XP or Vista. It is free and supports Blogger, Wordpress, and Typepad as well as most other blogging engines.
- The NCAA Football champion needs to be crowned on January 1st. Not January 8th. I am sorry but with 836 different bowl games (I hope you all caught the jordoncooper.com Bowl on ESPN9 this year) and even a couple of Pop Warner teams bowl eligible, what used to be a great post-season is getting overdone. When I was in high school, a bunch of us used to be able to recite all of the bowl games and the teams, now I don't even think the NCAA even knows all of them. How long until the Super Bowl is played before the BCS Championship game is played?
Labels: blogging, Resonate, Wendy Cooper
Gloria Reimer's new weblog
For those of you who know Gloria Reimer, her long lost weblog has been found at gloriareimer.wordpress.com. Don't worry, it's all right. It just wanted to see a little bit of the world. In reality, it was lost in the upgrade from Blogger to the new Blogger and Google's tech support hasn't fixed it or gotten back to me. Technorati tags: Gloria ReimerLabels: blogging
Signs of Emergence
 In case you haven't noticed yet, Kester Brewin has a new blog in anticipation of the American release of his excellent book, The Complex Christ. The good news is that with an American release of the book, you won't have to pay more in customs than I did for the book when I ordered it from Amazon.uk. The book is called Signs of Emergence and you can pre-order it at Amazon.com. I highly recommend you read one of the best books on the emerging church written. Like many authors, Kester is a pretty good blogger as well and publishes one of the weblogs that I read daily. Labels: blogging, church, Emergent, emerging church
|
