Monthly Archives: November 2005

Blogger Design Tips

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Over the last few years, I’ve surfed a lot of weblogs, and I’ve discovered that there are well-designed blogs aplenty and poorly designed blogs even more aplenty. The good ones make me smile and inspire to hack my own code to create something just as nice. The bad ones, though, send me racing for that little ‘X’ in the upper right corner (or to center-click that tab) in order to close the window because I’m permanently scarred. So, out of the generosity of my heart, I offer a bit of advice derived from hard experience.

  1. Create a color scheme that is easy on the eyes. I can’t tell you the number of times I have surfed into a site and nearly been blinded by the horrendous soup of ghastly colors. If I hadn’t known better, I would have thought that the designer was completely color blind. Unfortunately, it couldn’t have been that simple, and it merely boiled down to bad fashion sense. If nothing else run a “Google search”:http://www.google.com/search?q=color+scheme&sourceid=mozilla-search&start=0&start=0&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official/. There are lots of “color scheme generators”:http://wellstyled.com/tools/colorscheme2/index-en.html out there that will quickly set you up with colors that look good together.
  2. Theme should suggest content. Along the same lines as point one, it generally looks better if the visual theme of the site matches the content. It doesn’t necessarily have to, mind you, since there is a bit more room here for artistic license. But some of the best sites use graphics and patterns that reflect the overal textual theme of the site.
  3. Lose the background music. I know it’s cool and fashionable to load a sound file, especially an mp3, into the background of your site. Weblogs are notoriously guilty of this sort of thing. There are several problems with doing this. One is that many people listen to music on their computer as they surf, so when a site loads that launches its own music, the clash is nothing short of teeth-grinding. A lot of sites also hide any possibly way of turning said music off, so it’s left to either turn off your own music as you read and deal with whatever tune the site owner has loaded, turn off the speakers so you can’t listen to either one, grit your teeth and deal with the clash until you’re done reading, or kill the browser and end the music abruptly without ever being able to read. (I usually tend toward the latter.) One final problem is that a lot of sites somehow manage to use up a lot of computer resources when loading the background music, sending the computer into electronic convulsions until the file is completely loaded and running. Ultimately, background music ends up being more headache than help, even though it lends that personal touch to the site.
  4. If you have trackback, use ‘em. I’m only just recently discovering a love for the power of trackbacking. Essentially, what trackbacking does is contacts a post on someone else’s blog that you might happen to be writing about and tries to leave a copy of your post as a comment on that post, thus notifying the site owner that you’ve written about their thoughts and adding your thoughts to the ongoing discussion on that site. It sort of helps aggregate discussion between many sites. So far, I’ve not written much that has been inspired by another site, but the couple of times in which I have, the trackback has ultimately failed because the feature has been disabled on the target site. It’s really a personal choice whether to enable it or not; there are some spamming issues concerned with trackbacking. But since I love discussion, I have it fully enabled on my site and welcome the feedback. I highly recommend that anyone with trackback functionality enable it, and let the discussion ensue!
  5. Keep the ranting to a minimum. I’ve seen a lot of blogs established with one purpose — to rant and rave against a person, a company or product, or another site. Ultimately, such blogs are less than enjoyable to read and a waste of everyone’s time and energy. They generally serve no purpose other than to tear down someone else, and the writing becomes very redundant. Ranting occasionally about a particular issue of interest is fine, so long as their is a point to it and the ultimate goal is to find a solution. But aimless ranting because of anger is pointless. So don’t do it.

Just a few tips for those of you serious about your blogging from one man’s perspective. Everyone’s ideal is going to be different, but these are just some things I have discovered about my preferences for blogging.

Geek Joy

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Is it sad to get all excited about a couple of relatively minor geek-tweaks to my site? Probably, but I don’t think I care all that much. I’ve been working on implementing ways to publish my site more widely and expand my readership. Today, for instance, I registered Writer’s Blog with “blogtopsites”:http://www.blogtopsites.com/ for site ranking and advertising my site. I also redirected my “RSS feed”:http://feeds.feedburner.com/WritersBlog to “FeedBurner”:http://www.feedburner.com to help me actually see how many people subscribe to my feed. So, if you use a feedreader like “FeedDemon”:http://www.feeddemon.com/feeddemon/index.asp or “Thunderbird”:http://www.mozilla.com/thunderbird/, or if you use a browser that tracks Live Bookmarks, like “Firefox”:http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/, then I can keep track of how many subscriptions call my feed and what service reads them. And to make things even better, the little tracking icons in my sidebar keep a running total of site rank and subscription count. It’s pretty cool information to have, and for a numbers geek like me, it could even provide some interesting analysis later on. So, feel free to bookmark my site with a Live Bookmark or subscribe to my feed. If you’ve already subscribed to it via the old feed (i.e. before today), then I would be most appreciative if you would update your feed with the new one.

Happy reading!

CrossConnector

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CrossConnector

I “stumbled”:http://flocksucks.wordpress.com/2005/11/30/web-20-evangelism/ across “CrossConnector”:http://www.crossconnector.com/ while running my daily blog search-and-read. Despite garnering the usual “criticisms”:http://flocksucks.wordpress.com/2005/11/30/web-20-evangelism/#comments from the non-Christian and non-religious communities, I tend to think that CrossConnector could be a very useful, functional, and effective resource for Christian organizations to plan and manage missions events and trips, as the Web drives ever closer to “2.0″:http://www.web2con.com/ and higher interactivity and as the younger generation, already very computer savvy, takes its place in church leadership. I try not to scoff at new experiments, particularly ones that strive to use the Web in novel and innovative ways. Who can say just how effective CrossConnector will be once it’s launched, but I am sure that there will be organizations that will make use of it, some more successfully than others.

Ideas Are Everywhere

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It’s interesting the places from which I get new ideas for writing fiction. Just about everything in daily life serves as a notion for at least a _piece_ of a storyline. I just had another really cool idea today for a book, set in a very unique environment, that came from a ‘what if’ question that popped into my head. The juxtaposition of character to environment and the ramifications of the setting would make, I think, the fodder for a really interesting story.

The most trivial things spark all these little ideas, ways to shape characters, mold environments, create new lifeforms (or just remake familiar ones). It’s very cool seeing the world through the glasses of an author. Frankly, I’m anxious to see where my craft takes me (though the fiction writing is on a bit of a hiatus right now until sometime after the imminent move) and what new worlds I discover. I can be an explorer without ever straying far from the borders of my own mind.

Goblet of Fire, Tungsten T5, and Empyrion I

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The Goblet of FireHarry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

How do you condense a 734 page book into a 2.5-hour movie? The answer is that you don’t. _Goblet_ was an exercise in thumbnail moviemaking. Each scene was little more than a visual sketch of each chapter in the book, jerking through the plot with all the grace of a wounded bird in flight. Each episode in the movie was clipped, transitions between abrupt. It was very obvious that the point was to get to the final graveyard scene, where more time and energy were spent on development and detail.

That said, I did enjoy the movie. It was interesting to see where the shortcuts were that made up for the lack of detail everywhere else. Character and relationship development were made more obvious, dropping subtlety in favor of the conspicuous to develop the storyline. The challenges were well-done, even if everything else was a bit shallow or gaudy. Most of the important parts of the story were brought out, and the things that were dropped or ignored were ultimately the bits that have no real effect on the final outcome of the story.

**Tungsten T5 from Palm** Tungsten T5

I recently purchased a Tungsten T5 from Palm. I probably wouldn’t have had I not received a bit of cash as a gift for the completion of my Master’s degree. Prior to owning the T5, my PDA had been the original Palm model — the M100, a monochromatic, 2 MB dinosaur that finally failed several months back. The upgrade from the M100 to the T5 was extreme, and I was exceptionally pleased the moment I got the battery charged and the device fired up.

The T5 has a color screen, optional Portrait or Landscape viewing, a new version of Graffiti (r), and Documents To Go (r). It plays mp3s and video, and you can create, carry, and move documents from your Palm to any PC with a USB port. The ability to add storage and functionality to your Palm via memory cards is another powerful feature.

The only problem I have had with my Palm is that Windows does not always recognize it when you plug into the USB port to perform a HotSync (r). It has been very problematic, and as yet I still have no solution to the problem. But my T5 has been a workhorse already. Add the infrared keyboard, and I have the ability to write whatever whenever and wherever the urge strikes.

The Search for FierraEmpyrion I: The Search for Fierra

Stephen R. Lawhead’s _Empyrion_ saga is science fiction with a Christian perspective. Orion Treet is sent on a mission to a colony world and, along with his companions, is quickly thrust into a world of mystery and intrigue. His mission requires him to seek out a lost colony of humans before the rigors of barren Empyrion can claim his life and those of his companions.

_The Search for Fierra_ is the tale of a man on a journey, one that is as much spiritual as it is physical. His trek and transformation across the desert is symbolic of the rebirth of the Christian faith, and his discovery of a utopian culture of love is a glimpse of what the future _could_ be for those who follow the Infinite Father. The story is strong, though perhaps a bit clichéd at times, and the characterizations are, for the most part, believable. _Fierra_ is the first of two books and ends with a cliffhanger as Treet heads back to the cesspool of Dome to find a way to prevent the inevitable war that will destroy Fierra utterly. Treet, in essence, becomes a missionary of hope to a dark, dying land slowly being undone by its own selfishness and lack of vision.

_Fierra_ is a good read — a little less than engaging at times, but the plot drives forward to the promise of an explosive confrontation with the leaders of Dome.

‘Holiday’ or ‘Christmas’?

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Boston “holiday tree” stirs controversy – Yahoo! News

I have to wonder just much this really matters. The city of Boston deviated from tradition this year, renaming the Christmas tree a holiday tree, sparking an uproar among the conservative Christian community (or at least with Jerry Falwell, who, in my opinion, is not particularly representative). The argument is that Christ is slowly being worked out of the Christian holiday, being replaced instead with a more secular tradition.

bq. Last year, California Gov.
Arnold Schwarzenegger lit what he called a “Christmas tree” at a state ceremony.

I wonder at the choice of verbiage in this statement. ‘Christmas tree’ has always been the traditional term for the well-known symbol, but the way it is worded in this article almost sounds like it is casting blame.

bq. Christmas has become too politically correct, said 64 percent of people who responded to an online poll by a CBS television affiliate in Boston.

I would fall under this 64 percent. On the whole I think our entire nation has become entirely too PC, worrying more about hurting someone’s feelings than about accuracy and truth.

All in all, I think this is still another stupid and superfluous battle that Christians have engaged in. The spruce tree has long been a symbol of Christmas but not, so far as I know, one of the Christian faith, _per se_. The cross still stands as the ‘tree’ of Christianity. Additionally, Christ will never be completely removed from the holiday season, so long as their are Christians alive to celebrate it. And I don’t think the point in this case is to remove Christ from the holidays, anyway. It seems like it is more of an attempt to include all peoples of all faiths in the holidays, even if renaming the tree (and ultimately, the holiday) is somewhat unnecessary. This is another case where I believe Christians would be best to just let it go.

Contentment Is Where It’s At

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I’m finding contentment right where I am. There was a point where I really wanted to get back to my “alma mater”:http://www.cedarville.edu and to settle back into that general area — and don’t get me wrong; I’d still be ecstatic if the opportunity to do so arose. But I am realizing that I am happy and at peace right here, which is fortunate, since I will be moving soon to a place somewhere not too far from here. My interests and intellectual cravings are being sated, my needs are met, and all-in-all things are good. I have no complaints. Granted, I’m a little nervous about the coming changes, but there is nothing in there that particularly scares or bothers me. I feel like I am finally headed in the right direction, to a place where my skills and abilities can be put to good use and where I can start learning how to do a few new things (look for some geek posts on those topics in the near future). God has certainly been good to me, to us, and I can’t wait to see what else He has in store.

Let It… Snow?

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With the weather outside the way it is, one would think it was Christmas vacation this week, rather than Thanksgiving. It is beautiful out there, though, and it was a pleasure to walk in it this morning. Snow is definitely preferable at 28 degrees to rain at 36 degrees.

All this snow, however, reminded me of a little childhood wisdom — no two snowflakes are identical. Being now older, wiser, and a little more well-versed in the world of statistics, it has occurred to me to wonder a time or three over the past couple of years just how this can be. Mind you, I wouldn’t put it past an omnipotent God to actually cause every drop of moisture to crystallize into a historically and relationally unique shape once it drops below that all-important threshold of 32 degrees Farenheit (or 0 degrees Centigrade, for those of you using a different system). But by the same token, it occurred to me to wonder just how much proof was really out there on the topic.

So, I ran a “Google”:http://www.google.com “search”:http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=snow+no+two+flakes+identical and “this”:http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_392.html is what I came up with:

**How do they know with any degree of certainty that no two snowflakes are alike? When I took statistics I was taught that to draw a valid conclusion one had to take a representative sample of the entire population. But considering the impossibly large number of flakes in a single snowfall, let alone that have ever fallen, how could snowologists have possibly taken a sample large enough to conclude that no two are alike? –Leslie B. Turner, San Pedro, California**

They didn’t, of course. Chances are, in fact, that there are lots of duplicates. What the snowologists really mean is that your chance of finding duplicates is virtually zero. It’s been calculated that in a volume of snow two feet square by ten inches deep there are roughly one million flakes. Multiply that by the millions of square miles that are covered by snow each year (nearly one fourth of the earth’s land surface), and then multiply that by the billions of winters that have occurred since the dawn of time, and it’s obvious we’re talking unimaginable googols of flakes. Some of these are surely repeats.

On the other hand, a single snow crystal contains perhaps 100 million molecules, which can be arranged in a gigajillion different ways. By contrast, the number of flakes that have ever been photographed in the history of snow research amounts to a few tens of thousands. So it seems pretty safe to say nobody’s ever going to get documentary evidence of duplication. Still, it could happen, and what’s more, Leslie, it could happen to you. The way I figure, anybody who could dream up a question like this has got to have a lot of time on his hands. Get out and start looking.

There are a whole lot of other mathematical discussions on that page, but unless you’re something of a math geek like me, you’ll probably just find it mind-numbingly boring.

My, How Quickly Things Change…

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At long last, after months of sending job applications and waiting, after two interviews (one involving a long drive out to Philly and back), the waiting has come to an end. The Office of Enrollment Analyst at Purdue University called me this evening and offered me the Enrollment Analyst position I interviewed for a week and a half ago! I will be starting officially on Dec. 5 (Lord willing), though I may have to commute from Indy for a little while. God has been good, and the swiftness of this process with Purdue has left me feeling dazzled! There is a _lot_ to do in the coming weeks, though. Best get at it…

Going From Cynical To…

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I’m working on trying to be less cynical. I overheard a comment today about hard how people have been working this week, and my first thought was to remark about how poor the guy’s work ethic was. It wasn’t until I’d followed that train of thought for a little while that I realized that his statement was probably more observation, less surprise. So, I started examining his words in _that_ context and discovered a much more positive and upbeat viewpoint.

A little bit of cynicism is good – to a point. It keeps a person cautious and aware of the fact that people are rarely exactly the way they present themselves to the world, that they may, in fact, occasionally stab you in the back (whether purposefully or by accident). On the other hand, though, too much cynicism is a bad thing. It causes you to immediately assume the worst of people, whether they deserve it or not.

In this fast-paced culture where so many of our judgments of others depend on only brief exposure to them, we have to rely on stereotypes to fill in the gaps of our knowledge. Unfortunately, cynicism is, in itself, a stereotype, and it is one that generally causes more harm than good by flavoring every other stereotype that we hold. Many arguments and debates are caused by cynical attitudes, relationships are damaged by thinking the worst of others, and sarcasm carries with it a bitter undertone of cynicism. The only good way of countering harmful cynicism is to take the time to think things through, and that requires adopting a slower pace of life (or at least taking a time-out from life) and training yourself to be aware, both of the world around you and of your own attitudes toward it.

Cynicism has its place, I think, but it is a _bit_ like a fine spice – a little goes a long way.