Categories
Weblogging

Welcome to my new home

Recovered from the Wayback Machine.

I liked Movable Type so much that I decided to make the move even though I haven’t finished all the back end processing.

For the most part, this won’t be a problem as long as you’ll all be patient with odd fits and starts. Oh, and the weblog might be off at times, too.

If you know Unix or one of its variations then you’ll know what I mean when I say that I love ln — the link utility! Unix will always kick Windows butt by providing access to powerful command line utilities such as ln when you’re making a move as I am with the weblog. The smartest move Apple’s made is basing Mac OS X on Darwin, the FreeBSD Apple derivative. (And the Titanium laptop was a pretty good move, too.)

I love Movable Type. I love Unix. I love Linux. I love FreeBSD. I love my Mac OS X and Darwin. I love all of you! I love the really good margarita I just had!!

BTW — if you link to me, could you please change your link to point to this new location (weblog.burningbird.net), babies? The Bird will be eternally grateful.

Categories
Technology Weblogging Writing

Work, work, work

Working weekend this weekend.

I’m finally finishing my writing for the UPT book after too long a break (with apologies to my long suffering and extremely patient editors). And I’m finally porting my weblog to Movable Type, hopefully finishing by Monday or Tuesday.

I am partial to Blogger, and think it’s the best blogging tool to use when a person is just starting; however, the Blogger servers are just too overloaded and I want to control the hosting of the blogging tool as well as the content on my own server. If there’s a problem, then, at least I can deal with it personally.

Sorry Phil. Sorry Ev. Think of it as one less weblog stressing the system.

Radio’s a good weblogging tool, also, but I don’t care for the Userland Radio cloud and my server is FreeBSD, which means I can’t host my own Radio cloud. There are other weblogging tools, but none seem to have the level of sophistication, adaptability, and usability of Movable Type. It was the natural next choice for me.

BTW, I’m not only porting my weblog to a new tool, I’m also incorporating some features that are very unique, unusual, and abnormal for a weblog.

Abnormal. Yeah, that’s me.

Categories
Weblogging

Taking the new weblog out for a spin

Recovered from the Wayback Machine.

I’m taking the new MT weblog out for a spin. It’s new location is http://weblog.burningbird.net, existing as a separate virtual host to isolate it from my other web sites.

Be aware that this is a test spin, only. The weblog doesn’t have the backend work finished, which is going to take at least a few days; and there’s no connectivity between the ported entries and the existing comments.

A major change with the new weblog — no Google. I’ve effectively told Google that it isn’t welcome within the new weblogging environment.

If you’re familiar with web spiders and bots, then you’ll know about the robots.txt file. This file is located at the root of the web site and provides information for various bots as to which directories can be accessed by which bots. In the case of the new weblog, I’ve added entries to the robots.txt file that all bots are forbidden access to the entire weblogging web site except for blogging specific bots such as the Daypop bot.

As I’ve found by careful analysis of log files in the last few months, Google doesn’t provide any value within the weblogging environment. For instance, look at recent search terms:

    • email spammer
    • add node to morpheus
    • from hell’s heart i stab at the
    • hallelujah shrek wav
    • fire bird cars
    • romance and respect

I think what finally decided me on this decision is when the weblog got a hit for the term orange prison jumpsuit after my CT scan weblog entry of a couple of days ago.

Yes, these Google search results lead people here, but what does this buy? The people who come are looking for specific information, not personal ramblings with accidental groupings of words. All Google is doing is wasting my bandwidth. And if you think on it, my weblog is impacting on the accuracy of Google searches.

If we had more sophisticated search systems based on a more elegant meta-language such as RDF, then general search engines such as Google could be more effectively combined with weblogging.

I do have weblog postings that would be effective resources for Google and I have a plan in place for these — to be discussed in a future post. I also have a plan in place for people specifically looking for my weblog through Google. Again, to be discussed at a future time when everything’s ready to go.

Unfortunately, one of the negatives with the no Google approach is that my weblog’s Google page rank will be zero — no rank at all. This means that I’ll be one of the weblogging unclean. People will come to my weblog and they’ll think to themselves, “Poor girl. No one links to her. No one must like her.” I will be cast out into the desert of the Google disenfranchised. I will no longer be a part of the Great Collective.

Cool.

Categories
Weblogging

Tim Tams

Recovered from the Wayback Machine.

I received a package with several different varieties of Tim Tams on Friday. I tried the praline ones and they are quite good, and very unique — I’ve not had anything like them here in the states. The chocolate coating is sweeter than most chocolate coatings used in this country, and the cookie had an unusual taste, almost as if it was made with a form of barley sugar. Crisp, too.

I’m glad I finally had a chance to try these. Thanks to the Australian delegation for sending me this gift.

Categories
Political Weblogging

And sometimes you want to sing

Recovered from the Wayback Machine.

Peace bloggers. We have an official name, now. Of course, can’t have a term without a definition, and my definition of a peace blogger is anyone who believes, as Hodja did, that everyone in the Middle East conflict is right. And we believe this because we know that no one in the Middle East conflict is completely wrong. Takes two sides to make a war. Takes two sides to make a peace.

I guess peace starts with us, doesn’t it?

Unlike the typical warblogger, peace bloggers don’t always talk about peace. We don’t always talk about the Middle East. We don’t always talk about this story or that in the “biased and misrepresentational press”. In fact, there’s a lot of folks who are “peace bloggers” in heart, mind, and soul who don’t talk about the Middle East at all. And you know something, that’s just cool.

It seems to me that If you subscribe to an extremely narrow view of what’s right and wrong, why you’d have to spend pretty much all your time defending your view. So folks like Glenn Reynolds who focus on the Middle East and the evil Arabs and the wrongness of leftist-pinko liberals (me! me!) kind of have to because they’ve placed themselves on a ledge of belief that doesn’t have a lot of give, sure as heck doesn’t have a lot of take, and no room at all for movement.

How many warbloggers can stand on the head of a pin?

I know. It does seem as if there are a lot of warbloggers and they get a lot of buzz and a lot of hits per day and we can feel a bit overwhelmed at times. However, I’m finding that the warbloggers also link to each other in a kind of (close your eyes, AKMA) masturbational frenzy of self link love that’s a bit, well, kinky. However, that’s cool, too.

(I grew up in the generation that firmly believed in “whatever turns you on, as long as you don’t scare the cows”.)

Just because we’re peace bloggers doesn’t mean we have to spend all of our time refuting the warbloggers and crying out for peace. If you’re a peace blogger and read something that you feel strongly about, then post your thoughts, say the words, hum the tune. However, don’t feel you have to speak out just to balance the warblogger word count.

Remember the Vietnam war? Now what was it we were fighting for?

A peace blogger blogs for peace anytime they talk about their dog, show a picture, say a poem, sing a song, debate Post-Modernism, promote a book, talk about our significant others, talk about our kids, our jobs, our friends, about sex (we really do need more sex in weblogging), technology (Radio doesn’t count), and generally talk about life and what about life turns us on.

Always with the remembrance that wars result in people who have had their lives turned off. And nothing…nothing…nothing…will ever justify this.

Honk if you want peace, babies.