Mon - February 27, 2012

Interesting year…


And let's not speak of it. On to other things.

There will be some changes at this blog.

To start with, my hosting company MacHighway wants me to move it off of their legacy server. And iBlog is obsolete software, so I need to change that. I'm still debating if I will go back and recode all those old pages.

One thing that will defiantly change is that I won't be updating daily. it will probably be once or twice a week. I just can't keep up that pace, it takes too much to track all the news sources and keep my commentary current. My personal life takes a hit, and my companions don't appreciate it.

Posted Mon - February 27, 2012 at 06:57 AM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Mon - July 18, 2011

Not abandoned


Okay, I am back.

Long story short, I've had personal issues which have left me massively short on time and energy.

I will be migrating the sites to another platform.

Posted Mon - July 18, 2011 at 09:39 PM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Mon - October 4, 2010

Hiatus


My lady companions have strongly suggested that I drop things for a while and get my head back where it should be.

Blogging is one of the options I can skip for a while.

I guess I am not pleasant when I alternate between grumpy and depressed.

Since the lady always chooses and I am not enough of an idiot to forget that, I'll be back in a couple of weeks or so.

Posted Mon - October 4, 2010 at 06:58 AM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Mon - August 23, 2010

Sorry about that


Last Friday as I was working, I accidentally triggered a site reload.

This takes several hours as my computer replaces every one of the three thousand plus pages on the Pagan • Vigil site.

Which meant I couldn't do anything except one lousy post.

My goof.

Posted Mon - August 23, 2010 at 01:13 PM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Tue - August 17, 2010

Faster Loading


LibraryThing now provides some great widgets, and I don't have to go through both LibraryThing and Feed2JS to provide functionality.

The bottom line is that the page loads faster.

Enjoy.

Posted Tue - August 17, 2010 at 12:50 PM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Fri - June 25, 2010

Meet McLore


Folks, I'd like to introduce you to McLore, the iMac who will be replacing MaKai.

I've learned that you should NEVER try to order a new Macintosh on same week Apple introduces their new iPhone.

It's also a good idea to make sure that all your cables and adapters are up to date. Firewire 400 needs an adapter to work with Firewire 800 (thanks CDW).

So between that and some clan visits, what should have taken three days to replace and a day or so to set up has taken almost two weeks.

This particular post is a test to see if I can still blog.

I'm NOT going to stick to this wireless keyboard for long term typing. As long as I have to plug something in, I may resurrect the most comfortable keyboard I've ever had and use this one sort of as an auxiliary.

On with the posting test.

Posted Fri - June 25, 2010 at 08:21 AM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Fri - May 21, 2010

To sleep, perchance to dream. F*CK that, I'll take the sleep.


The good news is that I am still alive.

The bad news is that my insomnia is getting worse.

As much as I would love to concentrate my time on blogging, I have to eat. And take hot showers. I really like hot showers. That means I need the job-that-pays-bills because the rest of the stuff doesn't begin to pay the bills.

So I am sorry about falling off my schedule about midweek or so, but very honestly I find it hard to think without quantities of caffeine. So when it comes down to having the brain functional for the JTPTB or blogging, blogging comes up a distant second.

I have a list for PV of over a hundred links I'd like to talk about. I've got about 15 or so for TPY. I've got forty or so for TEK. But the brain is not cooperating.

I'll try to get more sleep.

Posted Fri - May 21, 2010 at 01:34 PM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Mon - April 19, 2010

Radio waves or aether, to the layman it's all the same


Outdoor humor writer Pat McManus wrote about the "situational vortex." It's one job that leads to several other jobs, each of which has several prerequisite jobs, and so on. So by trying to do one thing, you suddenly have a whole list of things that all have to be done before you have what you need to do the original job.

I put in a more recent model of an Apple Air Port Extreme (wireless router) so the connection speed on my iPad would be higher. But the Air Port Express that used to be in the library was slaved to the old WiFi network, and besides it was going to go in my living room for an Air Tunes (wireless speaker) set up.

MaKai, my trusty iMac, lives in the sanctum. Without the Air Port Express to extend the signal, the connection dropped to barely there at all. I had to move the old Air Port Extreme to the library and set it up to extend the network. Not a biggie, just a little time consuming. Have to move this, reroute the cable to the other thing, and I really should put a GFCI plug on that, and so on.

Now I have a strong signal again, and I should be able to post. Besides telling you about it, this is a test to make sure.

Posted Mon - April 19, 2010 at 12:09 PM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Sun - April 11, 2010

A question of style


Libertarians love to produce long philosophical screeds. I'm guilty of that myself.

So why don't I do that on this blog?

Because nobody reads them.

We live in the age of the sound bite and the six hour news cycle, not to mention the internet.

I have to get and keep your attention. I can't do that with long rambles on the ethics of freedom and the benefits of the free market.

I have to keep it short or most people click away.

Even if you have a "winning" formula, you can't afford to stick only to that. One of the most successful restaurant companies I know keeps about 65% of their menu to the things that they know their customers like and then experiments with the rest from week to week. But even the proven stuff has to keep showing it's worth.

For example, if I mentioned sex and Megan Fox twenty-seven times in one paragraph, that would definitely get me the search results. But I don't know anything about sex with Megan Fox. I assume that sex with Megan Fox would be fun, but I've no personal experience to back that up. Would sex with Megan Fox be better than say, sex with Brooke Shields? Could be, but I've never had sex with either. Meanwhile, there are plenty of ladies out there that might agree to a bit of seduction so I don't have to resort to dreams of celebrity sex.

I'll be experimenting with the format some. But I'll still keep it short and simple.

Posted Sun - April 11, 2010 at 02:24 PM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Mon - March 15, 2010

Trudging into the present


Sorry for the lack of blogging today.

I'm in the middle of upgrading MaKai my trusty iMac from OS 10.411 to 10.5.8 to prepare for my expected iPad.

I'm still testing what works and what doesn't.

This is part of that test.

Posted Mon - March 15, 2010 at 11:11 AM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Fri - February 26, 2010

Anti-social social impulses


I still don't get the Facebook thing. I've been doing it for about five months, mainly as a way to get people to read my blogs. And because there are a couple of friends who do Facebook more than anything else.

But I really don't understand this "life by soundbite." I suppose that is why I don't do texting on my phone either. I look at it as a tool to use when the occasion demands it. What's more, when I do use it, I want to be sure to people pay attention.

I'm thinking about culling my Facebook friends list. I don't mind "blipping" over the entries that don't interest me, heck, I've been doing that since the old Excite clubs. But some of them do two or three versions of the exact same entry, just submitted to different services. Spam is spam is spam.

There are maybe two times I think I had something to say outside the blogs and put it on Facebook.

Maybe it's not just a good place for a semi-hermit.

Posted Fri - February 26, 2010 at 12:21 PM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Wed - February 24, 2010

A couple of things


First, there are some people using shell domains from China and hitting this site too. There aren't any actual links on the default page on the shell domain sites and they certainly don't have anything to do with my content. There is no malicious coding being inserted, but you should be warned. It may just be me being paranoid, but when I don't know why someone is visiting my blogs I get suspicious.

Second, I finally traced down and fixed the CSS bug that was screwing up the "Recent Comments" in the sidebar and causing long page load times. If I have time, I will replace the legacy Haloscan code, which should speed things up even more. But that will probably require a complete site reload, so I'll give you notice.

Third, fixing the anthropomorphic/anthropogenic thing consumed a fair amount of time that I originally had budgeted for writing entries. I'll try to get to it later, but it may have to wait until in the morning.

Posted Wed - February 24, 2010 at 02:13 PM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Sat - January 23, 2010

Weathered


Cross posted to Pagan Vigil and Technopagan Yearnings.

My internet connection started being intermittent about a week ago Wednesday. It got worse over the weekend, and by Sunday evening I could barely load a page or get my email, much less do anything else. It was getting better, and by Thursday I had a decent connection.

Then it started snowing.

The Weather Channel called it the Western Wallop. In the desert, a little water goes a long way. In some places it doesn't take much more than an inch at a time to start flash floods.

We got more than that all over Arizona.

Now I'm in a rural location. My phone connections and internet go through Flagstaff. If anything messes up the connection between here and there, the only connection I have to the "outside" world is AM radio (ugghh) and cable television. But most of those channels died too late Thursday.

It was absolutely gorgeous to watch, especially from a nice warm house.

But I had no way to get online.

And now I have a backlog of emails.

Hopefully Monday I'll be able to get back to my schedule.

Posted Sat - January 23, 2010 at 01:57 PM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Tue - November 17, 2009

Where did he go?


So much for my Mon-Wens-Fri schedule, hmm?

I had a fairly good size design job, and since that does pay some bills, that takes priority.

It's mostly done now though.

Posted Tue - November 17, 2009 at 01:07 PM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Sat - September 12, 2009

Follow this blog on Facebook


You can now follow Pagan Vigil on Facebook.

Posted Sat - September 12, 2009 at 01:58 PM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Wed - August 26, 2009

Thunka thunka thunka thunka


They have the pile driver thing going just beyond the corner.

It's giving me a headache.

I'll think I'll see if a certain lady is interested in dinner and a nap.

Well, a VERY short nap.

Posted Wed - August 26, 2009 at 04:28 PM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Mon - August 17, 2009

Going to make it short today


They're tearing up the street outside.

The noise makes it hard to think.

Signing off for now.

Posted Mon - August 17, 2009 at 01:39 PM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Mon - July 6, 2009

Is this the secret agenda to prevent the Pagan Vigil?


About half the sites I use seem to be either offline or unaccessible. One of the big ones is TheAgitator.com, Radley Balko's site.

I'm going to assume this is my ISP and not some master plan to derail libertarians and true honest debate.

I'll try to get back to posting later today.

Posted Mon - July 6, 2009 at 01:21 PM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Wed - May 13, 2009

Swamped in the desert


Life is a bit busy for me today, blogging is a low priority.

I will try to get to it tonight, but I am not sure. It may end up being in the early morning.

And now I am off to make the world safe for cute fuzzy creatures from Deneb.

Posted Wed - May 13, 2009 at 02:57 PM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Mon - May 11, 2009

Time moves so very verryy s-l-o-w-l-y


I know Pagan Vigil and Technopagan Yearnings are loading very slowly.

I've managed to track it down to the Haloscan commenting system. Their main site is very very slow too.

Sorry for the problems.

Posted Mon - May 11, 2009 at 03:12 PM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Tue - April 7, 2009

Pagan Vigil FAQ updated with the new ZAP thoughts


I've added the bit on the Zero Aggression Principle.

You can find it here.

As always, thoughts and comments are welcome.

Posted Tue - April 7, 2009 at 02:22 PM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Thu - March 26, 2009

On my way


I was in Flagstaff yesterday and I am on my way to Phoenix today. Same reason too.

Stars above and Earth below, I really dread funerals.

I don't have to speak at this one, thank the gods.

I should be back Saturday, maybe Sunday. I probably won't be posting though until Monday.

p.s. In case it ever comes up, I hereby release you any and all obligations to come to my funeral. I don't plan on having one, and I am certainly not going to be buried. Just raise a glass, howl with the coyotes, and go find someone you can celebrate life with for a while. I don't care, it could be dinner, it could be sex, it could be Disneyland. Just celebrate and live life enthusiastically for a while.

Posted Thu - March 26, 2009 at 08:55 AM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Mon - March 9, 2009

Wind springs forth


I didn't quite get all the articles posted before the spring afternoon winds came up.

There aren't any phone lines coming to town. There is just a ground based microwave uplink that the phone and the internet use.

Wind + microwave tower = shaky internet connections, especially for uploads.

The short version is that all the new articles may not have permalinks yet and are only on the front blog page.

Oh, and the piece on the Zero Aggression Principle doesn't have all the updates on the permalink page yet.

Posted Mon - March 9, 2009 at 03:35 PM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Sun - March 8, 2009

It wasn't the cable company this time


Yes, I know I was supposed to post last week.

I had to reconstruct the blogs from backup.

It took a while.

Anyway, we should be on a normal schedule this next week.

Monday, Wednesday, and Friday will be Pagan Vigil.

Tuesday and Thursday will be Technopagan Yearnings.

And sometime in there there will be a teknologi update.

Also I will be going through the blog rolls.

Posted Sun - March 8, 2009 at 01:53 PM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Tue - March 3, 2009

In the works


Most of the entries in this blog fit one of three types.

Features - mostly original, longer, and usually written by me. These are the best on this blog, but they take longer to research and write.

Clippings - usually a link and a few quoted paragraphs taken from somewhere else along with a brief commentary from me.

Quick links - usually a link and a brief sentence from me.

Here's my issue, I can't publish five or six times a week and still put out a feature, even if I just do this blog. More times than not I find that I am concentrating on clippings and I end up with tons of links I never use.

So to push the quality back up, I'll be publishing Pagan Vigil on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. You can expect either three to five clippings or one feature on each of those days.

I'll be using the Watch List category mostly for the quick links that I feel threaten freedom or liberty, but occasionally I will be doing a feature there as well.

The new Beacons category will be for quick links that I feel promote liberty or freedom.

I'll probably do at least one Beacon or Watch List entry every day that I publish.

I'll be clearing out my link file on Fridays, so look for long Watch List and Beacons entries then.

Tuesdays and Thursdays are reserved for my other major blog, Technopagan Yearnings.

And I plan to do at least one entry a week at teknologi.

All that is in the works, starting today.

Posted Tue - March 3, 2009 at 06:50 AM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Fri - February 27, 2009

Have cold and eyes don't want to focus


Will be back as soon as I can

Posted Fri - February 27, 2009 at 09:29 PM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Tue - February 10, 2009

Lost Monday


So it was Monday.

I've skimmed the headlines.

I had my toasted english muffin with some sharp cheddar.

I had my cinnamon hot chocolate.

I'm ready to comment on the world.

My fingers are poised over the keys, and…

FOOSSHH!

The power goes out.

Of course, MaKai my trusted iMac has a UPS. And after many many adventures, my cable modem and my AirPort Extreme also share their own UPS.

But the cable junction box three doors down doesn't have a backup power supply.

So no internet, and only about twenty minutes or so of computer power.

No problem, I put it to sleep, confident that the power will be back up in an hour or so.

Two hours later and a wind/snow storm later, no power and I was getting a mite cold. So I left in search of something hot to eat.

An hour or so after that, I was out of extra time but still no power.

So here I am now, telling you about it.

I'm glad this storm didn't move in while I was car camping last week.

But I am back now and things seem to be working.

Posted Tue - February 10, 2009 at 07:11 AM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Fri - January 23, 2009

It's raining in the desert, guess what that means?


If you guessed two days of restricted internet access, give yourself a gold star.

The cable company says (AGAIN) that they are working on it, and they have given me two more months of free cable.

But the forecast says rain through Monday, so no promises.

I'm not even sure this is going to go up.

Ah well, an excuse for a Friday night date in front of the fire I guess.

Posted Fri - January 23, 2009 at 01:49 PM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Mon - January 12, 2009

My ISP doesn't think I should be able to put up new entries


Not sure this is going to go up, but I am going to try anyway.

They are "aware of the problem" and are "working on it."

The really depressing thing is that they are the most reliable ISP in my area.

Posted Mon - January 12, 2009 at 02:32 PM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Sun - January 11, 2009

My ISP doesn't like Sundays


Okay, we get to play this game again.

The new entries are on the front page, but don't have permalinks yet.

I'll try again this afternoon, but I am not going to sit around this morning.

Posted Sun - January 11, 2009 at 07:18 AM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Tue - December 23, 2008

Wet weather + desert = site update problems


Of course, I'm pressed for time and I am having FTP problems.

The articles for the 23rd won't have their own individual pages until I have a change to try a reload, maybe later tonight.

Sorry.

Posted Tue - December 23, 2008 at 02:55 PM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Sun - December 21, 2008

It's the solstice


For religious reasons, I'm taking the next few days off from blogging.

In case I don't see you or you don't see me, enjoy your holiday.

Posted Sun - December 21, 2008 at 03:02 PM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Mon - December 8, 2008

Resetting the site


Now that I have a decent connection, I'm going to do some much needed site maintenance. Some pages may not work correctly until I get the site reloaded.

Thanks for your patience.

Posted Mon - December 8, 2008 at 07:53 AM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Fri - December 5, 2008

Slow connections


I'm having some real connection problems, so I am going to hold off on posting.

Posted Fri - December 5, 2008 at 01:49 PM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Wed - November 26, 2008

Will be gone for just a bit - Updated



Hey ho!

I'm taking a couple of days off to do some recharging and some computer maintenance.

See you next week.

UPDATE - Sorry, I'm heterosexual. I didn't mean to imply otherwise. I just happen to like bears.

Posted Wed - November 26, 2008 at 02:10 PM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Wed - October 22, 2008

Shorter line to get to the good stuff


I thought using the Playing the Game entry until after the election was a good idea, it's amazing how neither major party has changed much in more than two years

But it is killing my readership.

So, I'll leave this stub up until after the election with a link.

Posted Wed - October 22, 2008 at 06:00 PM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Sun - October 5, 2008

Local ISP and blogging


I am having some real publishing problems, certain features on the site may not be working. Until I can get a decent upload speed, there is not a lot I can do about it.

My apologies for any difficulties.

Posted Sun - October 5, 2008 at 02:34 PM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Sun - September 28, 2008

Posting at long last


This is the first time in a few days I've been able to post, but after that last bit, outside is calling. It's eighty-four, slightly cloudy and with bit of a breeze. Think I'll go fill a water bottle and go for a bit of a walk.

Posted Sun - September 28, 2008 at 02:26 PM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Tue - September 23, 2008

Where's the competition when I really need it?


The "best" ISP in my area, the local cable company, has been upgrading.

"Best" is certainly THE relative term here.

Unfortunately, when one lives in a semi-rural location, that's one of the tradeoffs you make.

For the last week or so, my internet connection has been wonky. It's been hard enough just reading the news. Forget about blogging or email.

Honestly, it may have been a little better the last couple of days, but it was the equinox and most of my attention was somewhere else.

So let's see how much of this stuff I can knock back.

Posted Tue - September 23, 2008 at 01:47 PM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Sat - September 13, 2008

Down but not out


This last Wednesday brought a hard rain thunderstorm. Nothing like a hurricane, but for a few minutes the rain was coming down as hard as hail. And then CRACK! The power went out for about 45 minutes.

When it came up, I couldn't get back online. It didn't take long to narrow it down to the cable modem. The cable company is the most reliable ISP around, but I have had this argument with them before. The question was: who was going to pay for the modem?

The last time it happened, I won the argument, but barely. So when I was having electrical work done, I had the electrician drop a new line with a GFCI plug. It was a dedicated circuit just like the old one, the only things plugged into it were the cable modem and the AirPort Extreme wireless base station. All the VCRs and the television have surge suppressors (gee, I somehow forgot to get one for the cable modem *grins*).

So it was pretty obvious that it was the cable company that was at fault. Late Thursday, they agreed to give me another modem free of charge.

Friday the cable was down in my area, but Friday night it came up and several of the "fuzzy" channels are now clear. I've got only one questionable channel now, and it's the local ad channel, so no big loss.

I've been complaining about those channels and the self-destructing internet connection for years.

Competition would REALLY help, but I'm at least satisfied now. Especially with the credit on my bill.

Posted Sat - September 13, 2008 at 02:48 PM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Tue - July 29, 2008

What brings people to my vigil?


In case you are interested, here are my five most popular entry pages at the moment.



My KYFHO FAQ usually is one of the top two, I am surprised that it dropped to four this time around.

If I were driven by what people want, obviously I need to write more about sex, drugs, rock-n-roll, and naked people.

That may not be a bad idea...

Posted Tue - July 29, 2008 at 03:45 PM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Tue - July 22, 2008

Passing through, let's see how many of these links I can hammer out


Keep reading

Posted Tue - July 22, 2008 at 01:30 PM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Tue - January 15, 2008

Apple flakes discourage blogging


I didn't plan on going away, but...

I know that sounds flaky.

Since I posted here last, I have been busy. I had a trip to Vegas for an impromptu wedding (not mine), a trip to Tucson to settle some legal issues, and a trip to Colorado to scout out land. Add the holidays and a forty-something birthday (that I refuse to acknowledge publicly and wish other people wouldn't either which means NO MORE PARTIES), not to mention the job-that-pays-the-bills and the usual family obligations, and I have been stretched.

Last week the storms moving through knocked out high speed internet and mobile phone service for most of Northern Arizona for a couple of days, and things were shaky until Friday.

I've also had a corrupted calendar file to fix on my laptop, and some hard disk issues. Every time I would use iBlog, my trusty iBook would freeze. That can discourage anyone from blogging. The iMac is still waiting on a cooling fan to be shipped.

Despite what Apple says some of the time, even Macintosh hard drives can get fragmented. This can make your computer act flaky, unfriendly, and very unMac-like.

There will be light blogging the next couple of days to make sure I have things fixed, then I will ramp up to speed.

Posted Tue - January 15, 2008 at 05:15 AM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Tue - November 13, 2007

Not quite ten today


I seem to be having internet connection problems, so I had better call it a day while I can still publish.

Posted Tue - November 13, 2007 at 02:33 PM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Thu - November 8, 2007

Neo's other life


I am not going to do a whole lot here today, I've spent the last couple of days taking care of some family business and I am really spent.

Posted Thu - November 8, 2007 at 01:41 PM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Tue - November 6, 2007

New link


I've added a new link to the sidebar, the Antiplanner, "Dedicated to the sunset of government planning."

From the site description:

Since 1974, the Antiplanner has critiqued hundreds of plans written by a wide variety of federal, state, and local government agencies.

Randall O'Toole, the webmaster, is also the author of The Best-Laid Plans: How Government Planning Harms Your Quality of Life, Your Pocketbook, and Your Future.

Posted Tue - November 6, 2007 at 01:39 PM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Mon - November 5, 2007

Hold on


To get through this stack, I'm going to do a mix of old and new for a while.

I'll try not to do more than ten entries a day.

Posted Mon - November 5, 2007 at 05:24 AM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Tue - October 23, 2007

Delays, delays


I have a long stack to post and I should have some time in the next few days to get it down to manageable size.

On the other hand, it took almost 24 hours to post ONE entry on this blog.

I think I am going to check my upload speed.

Posted Tue - October 23, 2007 at 01:48 PM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Thu - September 13, 2007

Logically I can't post reliably


I'm having an issue with the logic board on my iBook, which leads to it freezing up in unexpected ways.

Until I get my iMac back, my posting is going to be extremely limited. Sorry about that.

Posted Thu - September 13, 2007 at 05:59 AM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Mon - September 10, 2007

I'm back...


August 21, 2007 13:25

I didn't quite expect that, but at least this time it wasn't lack of sleep.

After my cable modem started giving out the dreaded Pungent Blue Smoke of Electronic Death (fourth one to fry in the last year), my local cable company and I got into an argument over who was going to pay for the replacement one. They kept blaming my home network, which only has an AirPort Extreme (WiFi router) physically connected to cable modem, and both are plugged into a UPS.

Finally they started checking the outside wiring, and it seems that the "booster box" (and yes, that is what the tech called it) two telephone poles down was sending voltage spikes. Result, no effect on television tuners but enough to do strange, unnatural things to cable modems.

Then we had the go around about installing the cable company's software on my Macintosh computers. It is not necessary and never has been, my iBook can find the modem setup page by itself. Configuration is a snap. And now, only FIVE days later, I am back with internet.

So hello world, I am back.

September 10, 2007

Well, that is what I wrote weeks ago. But then I went to post and my trusty iBook locked up. I did a reboot, and then my computer couldn't find the built in hard drive.

It's been interesting, including several experiences that never should have happened to someone who calls himself a technopagan, but I am back now. Sort of.

This one is more of a test than anything else to see if I can still upload files.

Posted Mon - September 10, 2007 at 02:19 PM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Tue - July 3, 2007

Hi There! - updated


Sorry about missing Monday, my weekly collapse-from-insomnia stretched to ten days this time.

Anyway, I am back now, and I have some stuff in the backlog.

UPDATE - Oops, the "Breaking the robot" thing is a draft I started on Sunday and forgot about. I will work on it and publish later.

Posted Tue - July 3, 2007 at 04:47 AM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Sat - June 23, 2007

Devotionals


I had an opportunity fall into my lap for the solstice, that is why I have been gone the last few days.

I'm back now and almost caught up with my regular life.

Posted Sat - June 23, 2007 at 02:10 PM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Sun - May 27, 2007

My stuff, here and there


The "Featured From the Archives" section in the sidebar has always been the entries that are mostly me. Although they may be inspired by a short quote, it's my thoughts put down in electrons.

I had gotten out of the habit of updating the list. It's now current through May of 2006.

Most of this blog is a clipping service, I will admit it. For the five or so entries a day I post, I probably read a couple of hundred articles and about a dozen or so RSS feeds. I churn through a lot of material and most of it only needs the most minimal comments from me before I show it to you.

Of course, part of my reason for updating is purely selfish. There is some good stuff there and I would like you to read it. I also want Google and other search engines to be able to find it.

Posted Sun - May 27, 2007 at 03:28 PM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Sun - May 20, 2007

Global Warming FAQ updated


I updated my Common sense global warming FAQ to include recent information about higher corn prices and the impact on milk and milk products (thanks Sunni).

I also rewrote some of the ethanol information and added the bit about how belief does not equal proof.

As with any of my FAQs, it's a work in progress and I welcome comments and suggestions.

Posted Sun - May 20, 2007 at 05:07 PM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

"To sleep, perchance to dream"


I probably won't get an opinion piece out today. My insomnia is pretty bad this week and it is hard to think more than a paragraph or two ahead.

Guess that makes me a case study. I can react to what other people are saying and doing, but it is very hard to give rational and original thought.

Posted at 02:23 PM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Fri - April 13, 2007

Independent Gay Forum added to blogroll


There is actually a story behind this. TammyBruce.com is one of the sites I watch. Well, she had a racy animated GIF linking to the Independent Gay Forum on her main page. It's since been replaced with a tasteful art photo of a woman's face.

But man oh man, talk about controversy! Mainly about if it was "family appropriate" or "professional."

I admit, I clicked on it because it seemed a tad out of place. But after looking the site over, I am adding them as a news source or news referral or whatever these targeted news listing services are. Even though I am not gay myself, I'm always looking for a fresh view on the news.

Posted Fri - April 13, 2007 at 06:42 PM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Permalink problems


I tried to load some format changes, and evidently not all the pages uploaded.

It takes a while, but I will see what I can do to fix things.

Posted at 02:47 PM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Tue - April 3, 2007

Commenting issues


Haloscan is not working.

I am not ignoring you, I just can't enter any comments.

Posted Tue - April 3, 2007 at 05:25 AM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Sat - March 31, 2007

Extra links


Chances are you won't see very many of them, But any links you see with a double underline aren't made by me, they are made by Amazon.

I've only seen them in one new entry in the last couple of days. It looks like my blog is holding true to form and Amazon's servers aren't quite sure how to handle the information spread.

Posted Sat - March 31, 2007 at 01:57 PM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

My goof


I forgot to push the "Publish" button for Friday's entries.

Sorry about that.

Posted at 04:59 AM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Wed - March 28, 2007

Room for all


The renovations are done, which means that my time is my own again.

I still have to sort things and set the room up, but I will have time to read the web and blog again.

Posted Wed - March 28, 2007 at 03:18 PM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Wed - March 14, 2007

Paranoid ramblings


I am renovating my house. Basically I am converting the last third of my garage that ISN'T already a library to a private office/workroom/sanctum/thinking space.

Unfortunately, being the private paranoid person that I am, this means letting contractors in the house. Honestly, I have a hard time letting friends into the house, much less people I don't know.

It also means that there are a lot of boxes, and some of the items that aren't seen often by anyone but me are a little more exposed than usual. One of my statues has already caused problems with the air conditioning contractors, who weren't happy when I told them they had to extend the ductwork around a solar tube.

It's been a long, frustrating process and it is going to cut into my blogging, at least until the painting is done. After my friends and I lay the tile and do the painting, the contractors come back to put in the baseboards. Then I have a few days when people will drop by to see it before I can seal it off from the world and start going through all my stuff.

I have at least one major piece of furniture that will need to be repainted and slightly rewired before it goes in the space, then I can get the desk in. Then and only then will I move MaCei (my main iMac) into the sanctum.

So blogging is going to be light and will probably go in spurts for the next little bit.

Cross posted to Pagan Vigil and Technopagan Yearnings.

Posted Wed - March 14, 2007 at 06:14 PM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Thu - March 8, 2007

What does this have to do with John McCain?


If you were looking at Technorati for information about the Thinking Blogger Award and you came up with a rant against John McCain ads, you may be wondering what is going on.

Or Technorati may be showing your blog linked to a rant against John McCain ads.

There is a simple answer.

Technorati sometimes offsets my posts with the titles, I don't know why.

I may have nominated your blog for the Thinking Blogger Award.

Or your blog may have come very close to being nominated.

This post will stay at the top for a while.

Posted Thu - March 8, 2007 at 11:01 PM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Wed - March 7, 2007

Thinking about thinking - UPDATED


ShadowMonkey has honored me by nominating Pagan Vigil for a Thinking Blogger Award. The more I think about it (pun intended), the more I like the idea.

Although I am mildly obsessive about page statistics, I am more interested in old-style networking. I'm more impressed by quality instead of quantity. So this award is right up my alley.

The award means I need to pick my own five nominations. I have some criteria to add for my picks. Because I churn though news articles, updates are a must, they don't have to be daily, but they should at least be weekly. Each of my choices catches my attention frequently, not just once or twice. And as far as I can tell, each of these writers "walks the walk" in addition to "talking the talk." They are passionate, but they live their lives according to their beliefs and passions. So with that in mind, here are my five nominations with brief explanations.

The Agitator by Radley Balko
(no site description available)
The Agitator is one of the handful of sites that seeded the idea for my own blog. I think Radley was one of the very first "professional" libertarians I read who didn't take a patronizing attitude. That was refreshing. Radley's sense of justice closely mirrors my own, but he's better plugged in and gets the good articles first. I'm more than content to direct traffic his way on those great topics.

Frankly, most Pagan blogs don't have much to offer the mainstream. Often their content is too limited to appeal to general interest, or the politics are lifted from the Daily Kos, or it's more of the "notice me" than an original contribution. There are exceptions, and three of the best made my list here.

The Wild Hunt Blog by Jason Pitzl-Waters
Religion, politics, music and culture. A modern Pagan perspective
With the possible exception of film (a particular obsession of mine), Jason has better connections with popular culture than I do and writes about it with a Pagan twist . His viewpoint is enough to grab me by the skull sometimes, even if I don't agree with him I have to think about what he is saying.

Letter from Hardscrabble Creek
A Pagan Writer's Blog By Chas. S. Clifton
One of those "accidental" discoveries that has rewarded me time and time again. I had read some of Chas books before I ever found his blog, and I admired his thinking then. He is an academic, but certainly not an ivory tower type. I get the distinct impression that nudging people to think and ask questions is just as much a part of what he teaches as the subject matter.

Rite Wing TechnoPagan by Karl Lembke
Not Quite A Ronald Reagan, Carl Sagan, San Diegan Pagan, Since I Live In Los Angeles
Probably one of three or four Pagans that I know of who takes more grief from other Pagans over his politics than I do. The man knows how to think though, and is very good at defending his opinions.

And then there is my last nomination who is in a class by herself.

Sunni and the Conspirators: Individualism and Freedom by Sunni Maravilllosa
(no site description available)
Sunni offers a curious mix of freedom philosophy, practical living, and life commentary that I find helps me ground and look at things from another view. But that is only part of the attraction at this site. Almost as important are the people who have chosen to drop by once in a while. I'm not sure if she intended it or not, but she's built something up there. Not really a "community" as such, more of an ongoing cross between a checkers game and a town meeting and Saturday picnic. And I really like going through her links.

There are many other blogs that I go through regularly. Many Pagan ones I respect didn't make the cut just because they don't have enough of an appeal to a general audience. I like their ideas from several non-pagan blogs, but they aren't updated regularly.

Here are the participation rules for the Thinking Blogger Award taken directly from the original site.

1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think,
2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme,
3. Optional: Proudly display the 'Thinking Blogger Award' with a link to the post that you wrote (here is an alternative silver version if gold doesn't fit your blog).

Once again, thanks to ShadowMonkey for nominating me. And I have moved his link to Libertarian News.

Update - Changed to reflect new URL of the The Thinking Blog.

Posted Wed - March 7, 2007 at 11:45 PM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Tue - March 6, 2007

Need a faster connection


Not only am I having cable problems, but it looks like the Haloscan servers aren't working well so the new comments are vanishing into thin air.

Will check back later today and see how things are going.

Posted Tue - March 6, 2007 at 07:33 AM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Thu - February 22, 2007

Missing blogger


Between doing the stuff that didn't get done because of my trip last week and my insomnia flaring up big time (again), I have had NO focus this week.

Despite appearances, it takes time and effort to stay on top of the news, even if it is just scanning during mealtime. Sleep deprivation doesn't help, after a short while all the stories start running together.

After a while the body just screams "ENOUGH" and you collapse, whether you have time for it or not.

When I have time (ha, ha) and focus, I really need to think through what is causing this insomnia. It has not been this bad in years. It's not just affecting my blogs, it's affecting my temperament and my rationality. I yelled at the UPS gal the other day and I kept putting off putting gas in my car. Not because I couldn't afford it, but because I didn't want to get gasoline smell on my hands. Trust me, it made perfect sense at the time. Even if it seems a little wacko to me now.

Anyway, I am going to go rummage in the kitchen. That should be interesting because I can't remember what I bought Monday when I went to the grocery store. After I get something to eat, I am going to see about getting some entries hammered out.

And yes, I know there is a coding error on the individual entry page templates. That is going to have to wait until I am much better at sequencing than I am right now.

Posted Thu - February 22, 2007 at 02:56 PM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Sat - February 17, 2007

Whoops!


Guess who went to Phoenix.

Guess who forgot to put the computer bag in the car before he left.

Guess who was stuck with the office center at the hotel that didn't have a Macintosh.

Posted Sat - February 17, 2007 at 02:33 PM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Sun - February 4, 2007

Unexcused absence? Not quite


Between an unexpected situation at the-job-that-pays-the-bills and a record case of insomnia (even for me), I haven't been blogging anywhere.

The stress over my global warming FAQ wasn't helping, I am going to take a new tack there.

Heck, I haven't even answered my email in several days.

BTW, when a lawyer promises you that you won't have to give any more depositions, DON'T BELIEVE THEM.

Posted Sun - February 4, 2007 at 04:41 PM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Sun - January 28, 2007

Welcome readers of Letter from Hardscrabble Creek


And thanks to Chas. S. Clifton for linking to me here.

This isn't exactly the usual Pagan political blog.

Please take a look around and let me know what you think.

Thanks again for visiting.

Posted Sun - January 28, 2007 at 02:41 PM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Thu - January 18, 2007

Taking a break


I have some personal issues I need to deal with. I will be back Monday.

Posted Thu - January 18, 2007 at 04:25 AM  

 ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Wed - January 17, 2007

Comment issues


Haloscan seems to be having problems. Those servers handle my comments and trackbacks.

That means that while my "Most Recent Comments" section is working, there is nothing on the entries to show if there comments are trackbacks.

Haloscan is working on it.

I know it is not MacHighway (formally Itsamac) because I am having the same issue over at Technopagan Yearnings and it is hosted by Apple's dot Mac service.

Posted Wed - January 17, 2007 at 11:33 AM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Thu - January 4, 2007

Ooops what the heck is that?


There are some major issues right now with the day pages. I will recode them this afternoon when I am not as pressed for time.

Posted Thu - January 4, 2007 at 05:43 AM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Tue - January 2, 2007

Apologies


Blogging has been light the last couple of days. I am sorry about that.

Part of it was switching to 2007. That meant a couple of minor changes, but multiply that by over two thousand pages, and it takes a while to republish this site.

But most of it was me. I have been tweaking the templates for the new version of my Pagan blog, Technopagan Yearnings. It's already taken me more than a week longer than I thought it would.

Some of the tweaks and refinements are going to turn up here as soon as I get that one done. That is the big advantage of using modular code.

Anyway, blogging here is going to be light until I can go live with the new site there.

Posted Tue - January 2, 2007 at 05:46 PM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Sat - December 30, 2006

Holiday internet


I am still having internet access problems.

Some of the Saturday articles I have had in my think file for days.

Obviously it is messing up my uploads as well.

So you get the main page and the RSS feed, but today's entries do not have their own individual pages.

Unfortunately I have a commitment tonight and I do not have time right now to reload things.

I will get to it as soon as I can.

Posted Sat - December 30, 2006 at 06:35 PM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Thu - December 28, 2006

Cable company fails to deliver promised service


I am having a heckuva time keeping an internet connection. I am not sure if it is the weather or the holiday, but I am discouraged by cable internet. About half the time I can't even surf the net, much less update the site. Hopefully I will have more luck this evening.

I've been having intermittent problems since just before Thanksgiving. Right now, I only seem to have cable internet for about a third of the time. And I can never predict when.

Posted Thu - December 28, 2006 at 12:37 PM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Sat - December 9, 2006

Experimenting


I am experimenting with some CSS modifications and cleanup.

Things might look a little strange for a day or so.

Posted Sat - December 9, 2006 at 04:42 PM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Tue - November 28, 2006

Why does the site look wrong?


Yes, I am having FTP problems so I can't seem to complete a site reload.

This means the site may look weird for a bit.

The Pagan Vigil mail server is down as well, so you can't really tell me about it.

Posted Tue - November 28, 2006 at 08:35 PM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Mon - November 27, 2006

Miss me?


Nothing like the holidays to spread a little traveling bug. Add some mixed up internet over the weekend, and it's a recipe for frustration.

I think I am back now.

Posted Mon - November 27, 2006 at 02:00 PM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Tue - November 21, 2006

Going to yell at the cable company


The whole point of having fast internet always on is so that it is ALWAYS ON.

Blazes, I am not trying to host a server with it, I am just trying to update my website.

Same deal as Saturday, recent entries may not have their own pages yet,

Posted Tue - November 21, 2006 at 02:07 PM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Sat - November 18, 2006

Bleh, FTP problems


Well, it looks like either my cable company or Itsamac are having difficulties tonight.

Based on past experience, it's probably Cableone.

So I can load a new front page, but my RSS feed probably won't work and the new individual entries won't have their own pages.

I'll have to do a full site reload which will probably have to wait until Sunday.

Posted Sat - November 18, 2006 at 07:02 PM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Tue - November 14, 2006

DVD break


I probably should have done an update this morning, but I was lazy and stayed away from the computer.

This afternoon I went over to check on my stepdad after his feeding. Partially out of self defense (so I wouldn't have to answer the same questions I have answered MANY MANY times before), I took a couple of movies that I thought he might enjoy.

That is harder than it sounds, even for a movie buff like me. Even a few months ago, he wouldn't have liked most of my movies.

I finally settled on War Games and Pirates of Silicon Valley. Dad was a ham radio operator for many years and I thought he might relate to the workbenches in each of the films. I guessed right I think.

He saw Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow a few months back. Wonder if I dare recycle it?

Classic scifi? The Day the Earth Stood Still might fly.

Anything I can do to stimulate those brain cells.

I just got DVDs of James Coburn's Flint movies, but I think Mom would bar me from their house if I brought those over. Talk about misogyny. You know for a period that was supposed to be about freedom, it amazes me how much of the imagery and icons of the 60s and 70s was so anti-woman in it's tone and assumptions.

Posted Tue - November 14, 2006 at 06:24 PM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Wed - November 8, 2006

Got called out of town


Yesterday morning I got a call to make an unexpected trip out of town, I barely had time to vote before leaving. I didn't get back until late, and today in the office I had to make up for lost time.

So there are a lot of things to cover this evening.

Let's get started.

Posted Wed - November 8, 2006 at 06:20 PM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Sat - October 7, 2006

FTP problems possible for paganvigil.com


Date: October 7, 2006 2:05:16 PM MST
Subject: From Itsamac: FTP problems possible for your paganvigil.com web site

Neo,

Please Read:

Last night we completed an upgrade on the server your paganvigil.com web site is on, however this morning it became apparent that several customers could not FTP changes to the their sites. This is due to some permissions on the files not being properly transferred over to the new file system. We are in the process of repairing these permissions and should be done within a few hours (about 5 pm Mountain time) - we sincerely apologize for this inconvenience. We will notify you as soon as the repair is complete.

We genuinely appreciate your patience during this upgrade. Please let us know if you have any questions.


Thank You,
Chris Graves
President and Founder, Itsamac.com
President, Category 99, Inc.
<http://www.itsamac.com/>
or call toll-free 1-800-604-9960
Macintosh Powered Web Hosting,
Email & E-Commerce
for Mac Users, by Mac Users


_____

Well, as I write this, it's 15:54 and I haven't been able to upload all day. That's not entirely unexpected, which is why I posted the notice yesterday.

Posted Sat - October 7, 2006 at 03:56 PM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Thu - October 5, 2006

Scheduled Maintenance for paganvigil.com


Date: October 5, 2006 6:12:15 PM MST
Subject: From Itsamac: Notice of Scheduled Maintenance for paganvigil.com

Neo,

Please Read:

What:
File Storage System Upgrade.

When:
Friday Night (10/6/06) from 9 PM to 1 AM Saturday Mountain time. FTP (File Upload/Download site changes) will be disabled during this time, however expect only up to 15 minutes of downtime for your web site.

Why:
To increase storage space and improve reliability.

On Friday night (10/6/06) from 9:00 PM to 1:00 AM Mountain Time on Saturday morning (10/7/2006) we will be upgrading the file storage system (adding larger hard drives plus additional controllers) on the server your paganvigil.com site is on. During this upgrade period FTP (file upload) services will be disabled as all current files are copied over to the new file storage system. We expect no more than 10-15 minutes of downtime for your site on the server as we install new hardware. You will not need to do or change anything.

We are doing this to increase file storage space on the server as well as replace old hard drives that could potentially fail in the near future.

We genuinely appreciate your patience during this upgrade and your patronage. Please let us know if you have any questions :^)



Thank You,
Chris Graves
President and Founder, Itsamac.com
President, Category 99, Inc.
<http://www.itsamac.com/>
or call toll-free 1-800-604-9960
Macintosh Powered Web Hosting,
Email & E-Commerce
for Mac Users, by Mac Users

_____
It should only affect the site itself for about 15 minutes. I should be back online tomorrow sometime.

Posted Thu - October 5, 2006 at 08:34 PM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

thunderation


No entries today, internet connection is wonky and I am enjoying the thunderstorms.

Posted at 10:45 AM  

 ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Mon - September 25, 2006

The week that was


I mentioned the friend of the family who died. Not just a friend of my family, a friend of a lot of families. Over a four state area.

I'm not quite sure how, but I got to visit people over much of Northern Arizona. I probably shouldn't have, but I was needed and this person had been a friend and a personal inspiration. The politics of the situation mean that I can't share exactly what about them inspired me, and I can't exactly mention their name here.

I can share the loss face to face because there I am a concerned friend and not a radical libertarian Pagan with an agenda and an axe to grind.

This was one of the good ones, and they will be missed.

I'll have some more in depth stuff up this evening.

Posted Mon - September 25, 2006 at 04:22 AM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Mon - September 18, 2006

Best laid plans


I actually had time this morning to do entries. I was going to pick up my car with it's new tires and get to it.

Then I found out an out-of-town friend of the family had died.

Then I got to talking to a local friend who is going through a tough time.

The blogs took second place to that.

Posted Mon - September 18, 2006 at 05:35 PM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Mon - September 11, 2006

He did it to me again


I knew Bush was going to speak, but this is silly.

This is the second time he has effectively pre-empted what I was going to write about.

I think I will go do something else for a while.

Posted Mon - September 11, 2006 at 06:29 PM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Mon - September 4, 2006

Finding a niche


I've been looking at my statistics, both the ones from Site Meter and the ones from Itsamac.

I get some odd requests for searches. My favorite topics of liberty, politics, and free markets touch on many things it seems.

From the looks of the Google AdSense frame and the Amazon frame, their algorithms don't know what to make of my site either.

Somehow that brings me a strange sense of satisfaction. This blog can't be easily classified. Neither can it's readers. Keeping them off balance, that's us.

Posted Mon - September 4, 2006 at 04:20 AM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Mon - August 21, 2006

Hurry Up & Wait


Since Friday, I haven't had very reliable cable internet service. They are "upgrading," and they won't specify how long it will take or how much I will have in a given day.

I think we did this song already.

In other news, it turns out that Feed to JavaScript has a new web location and a new server. One of my goals this afternoon is to get the coding on my pages redone so I can turn the Recent Comments and Recent Posts from my other blogs back on. And yes, that means the NeoWayland Dot Net page as well. So all that should be up by tonight or tomorrow morning.

In addition to that, offline life is calling. The Job-That-Pays-The-Bills is in flux right now, and I may have to give a deposition. As it is, I get to play the Corporate Clone Game and tell Company Big Shots what they already should know.

Pahh, I thought I was done with that.

Anyway, I am not sure of my work schedule, or even my laundry schedule right now. So updates are going to be on a catch as catch can basis for a bit, at least for a couple of weeks.

If you hear whimpering from me, that is just me in schedule withdrawal. What is the point of having a new Palm if I can't put the week's schedule in it? Really, I think the frustrating thing is that my time is not necessarily my own this week.

Posted Mon - August 21, 2006 at 04:25 AM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Sat - August 19, 2006

Well, THAT was fun


Somewhere, I crossed the point from where internet is nice and handy to where it is necessary.

I depend on it just as I do water and power. I just wish it were as reliable.

My backup dial up account works, but I can't upload to the site with it.

Posted Sat - August 19, 2006 at 04:17 PM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Mon - August 14, 2006

My highspeed connection isn't so high speed this morning


I'm running out of patience, it just took me seven tries to load the New York Times page.

I'll come back to this later today.

Posted Mon - August 14, 2006 at 05:05 AM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Fri - August 11, 2006

News Flash! Blogger unable to fit 29 hours in a day


Yes, it's me.

I need to do more things than I have time for, one of the things that has taken a real hit this week is my early morning updates.

I've got something else to do right now, but I will try to get updates this afternoon or evening.

Posted Fri - August 11, 2006 at 08:44 AM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Thu - August 10, 2006

Looking at my readers


You know, I get a real kick out of looking at the statistics. It's one way I can tell what people read. Not to mention what turns up on the search engines.

My KFHO FAQ page is my biggest draw. It's ranked pretty high in most of the English search pages.

Every once in a while though, something will come through that is just plain odd.

Like the hits a couple of weeks ago from the Pentagon. I am still trying to figure that one out.

Or why people at Apple only seem interested in my Ant Bully entry.

And I would love to know why my RSS feed is so much more popular than the site itself.

I'll probably be tweaking some more, trying to drive more traffic here. Hopefully it shouldn't affect your reading.

Posted Thu - August 10, 2006 at 05:58 PM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Tue - August 8, 2006

Navigation bar problems


The service that lists the recent comments and the recent posts from my other blogs is having problems. For right now, I've turned those off in the navigation bar. That also means that the NeoWayland.net page is not working well.

Because the pages haven't been loading correctly, some of the traffic hasn't been tracked by sitemeter, but I won't be making any changes in the base number.

Posted Tue - August 8, 2006 at 04:38 PM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Fri - August 4, 2006

Pressed for time


Time is short this morning and I've been having a hard time finding liberty news stories that don't have to do with war in the Middle East.

More this afternoon.

Posted Fri - August 4, 2006 at 08:02 AM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Tue - August 1, 2006

Link Exchange with Religious Forums


I've done a link exchange with Religious Forums . It's a pretty riveting site containing all sorts of religious information and debate. I've barely had time to scratch the surface, but I am impressed by what I have seen so far.

Posted Tue - August 1, 2006 at 07:13 AM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Dot Mac came back up, but I am not happy with Apple


This blog is hosted by Itsamac, but my other two blogs are on my NeoWayland Dot Mac account. I hadn't been able to update them since Friday. I wasn't the only one.

Over the past four days, .Mac users have struggled to get its Web site publishing features, iWeb, and related file-share capabilities, iDisk, to work. Users have complained not only about the length of the outage, but also what they say is a tardy response from .Mac's technical support team, according to postings on Apple's discussion board.

"It is going on 96 hours for me. Completely Unacceptable," wrote a user named BK Broiler in a post to the discussion board. "The .76 IP now pings, since yesterday, but iDisk does not work still. It'll only work with the /etc/hosts trick, but not on its own. I got a canned e-mail from Apple today after 72 hours of silence from the time I sent the trouble call. Thanks, Apple, for making a joke out of long term customer loyalty, and for just not giving a ****. It may be time to switch away from Mac after 20 years."

Apple said Monday it is investigating the issue.

"We are aware of the outage and are looking into it," an Apple representative said.

The annoying thing for me is that the status on the dot Mac homepage showed no problems, and there was no news of any difficulty. As of this writing, they still haven't posted any news of the recent problems.

Honesty would go a long way.

Posted at 04:29 AM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Mon - July 31, 2006

Dot Mac Problems


Dot Mac problems means my other blogs can't be updated right now.

Posted Mon - July 31, 2006 at 05:46 AM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Fri - July 21, 2006

Looking for news about something other than the Middle East


It looks like the news in Lebanon is pushing most of the other news away. I'm having a hard time finding anything else to write about. I will check again this afternoon.

Posted Fri - July 21, 2006 at 09:11 AM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Tue - July 11, 2006

Slow liberty news day?


Guess I overdid the postings yesterday. Nothing is really jumping out at me this morning. I'll look again this afternoon.

Posted Tue - July 11, 2006 at 05:13 AM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Wed - July 5, 2006

Note to self: Next year skip the BBQ


Just stick to the hamburgers.

WELL DONE hamburgers.

Posted Wed - July 5, 2006 at 08:53 PM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Tue - July 4, 2006

Holiday fun


Looks like I am still having site reload problems.

But I don't have time to do a full site reload right now, so it looks like the permalinks for today's entries won't work for a bit.

I'll try to do an upload this afternoon.

Posted Tue - July 4, 2006 at 09:08 AM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Welcome readers from Wren's Nest and Cypress Nemeton


Please look around. Feel free to comment.

I'm not Pagan-specific on this site, I do that on my Pagan blog.

But I am very interested in personal freedom and individual rights.

Enjoy!

Posted at 05:29 AM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Thu - June 29, 2006

Why isn't Pagan Vigil Pagan focused?


I got an interesting email this morning asking me why the site was named Pagan•Vigil when it really doesn't deal with Pagan specific issues,

It's a good point and one I would like to answer on the site in addition to the email (check your inbox Ron).

I believe that Pagans do themselves a disservice by addressing only "Pagan" issues or political issues in terms of our faith and practices. I am not libertarian because I am Pagan, and I certainly hope that someone isn't progressive because they are Pagan.

As a committed individualist, I also believe that religion is first and foremost a personal choice. I think it is a mistake to consider any group monolithic in it's attitudes and actions.

I am a "person of faith" even if it is not one of the usual ones, and that is going to influence my individual actions. Since my faith does share an Earth focus, I'm naturally going to be very interested in environmental issues.

That doesn't mean I am going to necessarily agree with the majority opinion.

As a member of a minority faith, I'm very focused on religious freedom. But as an individualist, I don't want special recognition of "my" rights. When I do discuss religious rights, it will be in terms that all faiths share.

Basically I believe people have rights because they are individual humans, not because of any group associations. I believe freedom is defined by choices and responsibilities.

Finally, I use the name of this site to remind certain people that they can't wrap themselves in their faith and use it to excuse their political actions. Other people are watching, people with very different motivations. Competition breeds honesty after all.

For all of us.

Posted Thu - June 29, 2006 at 09:01 AM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Sun - June 25, 2006

Welcome readers from Sunni's Salon


Sunni, bless her heart, didn't tell me that she was reviewing Pagan Vigil. I checked the logs this morning as I was trying to get my uploads to go through, and there it is.

I'm more current event oriented here than Sunni is on her sites, but she is one of the people I read to keep grounded. It's easy to go over the edge when you read some of the more "passionate" commentaries from both the right and the left. I need to know that there are sane people who believe in liberty and freedom, and Sunni is certainly one of those.

Please, feel free to look around and offer any comments. I try to get back to those within a day or so.

Posted Sun - June 25, 2006 at 08:14 AM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Fri - June 16, 2006

Okay, so graphics aren't loading.


I'll try again in a bit.

Posted Fri - June 16, 2006 at 05:43 AM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Wed - June 14, 2006

Permalink problems still


Uploads won't complete.

I'll try again later.

Posted Wed - June 14, 2006 at 04:49 AM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Mon - June 12, 2006

Kicking cactus


My family has a saying. Getting angry and staying angry at something is like kicking cactus. It does no good and just hurts your foot. I've just spent the last couple of hours navigating the mysteries of voice mail and yelling at customer service representatives three states away.

This business of not having reliable internet frustrates me.

The reason I switched to cable was so I wouldn't have problems like this.

DSL is not available for my house, and satellite providers don't play nice with Macs.

I can surf (sometimes) on the net, but I can't upload new pages. My backup dialup ISP won't let me upload pages at all.

The good news is that I got a partial credit on my cable bill for this month. The internet portion at least.

I want internet to have the same reliability as telephone, electrical, and water/sewer services. I really don't think that is too much to ask.

Posted Mon - June 12, 2006 at 04:12 PM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Thu - June 8, 2006

Getting my internet fix


Ahhhhhhh.

Feeding my addiction.

All through Tuesday night, my cable internet kept fritzing in and out.

Early Wednesday, it was down for several hours for my entire area.

When it came back up that afternoon, it fried my cable modem.

Thursday morning I argued with the cable company over who was going to pay for the modem. They were supposed to bring me one by and hook it up.

Thursday afternoon, no modem. So I go by and pound on their door. That is when they told me they didn't support Macintosh and AirPort (Apple's name for WiFi). "Since when?" I asked, I had been using it for more than a year.

Thursday at 16:38, I got home with a cable modem and a tech who didn't believe it could be hooked up to Macintosh.

Thursday at 16:46, I had my Airport network and iBook and latest iMac up and running on the internet. The Powerbook and and Bondi Blue iMac will have to wait a bit.

And now I am writing this.

Cross posted to Pagan•Vigil and Technopagan Yearnings.

Posted Thu - June 8, 2006 at 04:57 PM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Mon - June 5, 2006

I am really getting tired of internet connection problems


My cable company is driving me nuts.

I'll admit it, I am addicted to the internet. Even if I don't look at it for a day, I like being able to look at almost anything I want at the the drop of a hat.

But no, it seems like lately I a spend more time down then up.

I still have my backup dialup connection. But I can't update the blogs from that. And it is way too slow.

Posted Mon - June 5, 2006 at 12:52 PM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Fri - June 2, 2006

Still having some upload problems


Permalinks may not be working on the newer posts.

My guess is that the local cable system has restricted upload bandwidth while they are upgrading, and that I am doing this at the wrong time.

If it doesn't work this time I will give it a couple of hours and try again.

Posted Fri - June 2, 2006 at 06:07 PM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Unexpected family stuff


My stepfather came home from therapy and rehab. It took longer than I thought to help get him settled.

After dealing with him, I didn't feel like reading headlines, much less commenting on them.

Posted at 04:27 AM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Tue - May 30, 2006

No new permalinks


I'm having some upload problems. I can get the main page up, but I can't get the permalink pages to load.

I'll try again this afternoon.

Posted Tue - May 30, 2006 at 05:07 AM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Tue - May 23, 2006

No site updates


I had a friend's funeral on Monday and I wasn't really in the mood over the weekend to update.

Posted Tue - May 23, 2006 at 08:55 PM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Mon - May 15, 2006

Site formatiing problems


I'm not sure if I should be mad at myself, Lifli Software, or Apple.

Long story short, I did what should have been a minor upgrade on the site. I only previewed it in Apple's Safari and I left the house for a rather pleasurable and distracting weekend.

As a shortcut, I copy/pasted some links directly from one of my .Mac pages. Now I have had problems with .Mac before, it occasionally changes the pages saved. In this case, even though I had saved it as a plain text file with an .html extension, some formatting information crept in somewhere. Now, the iBlog Navigation bar isn't supposed to save anything as styled text, that is what is the CSS is for.

So I got to go in an fix a bunch of links that had extra spaces.

Thanks to Talisen Pereldan and Marion J. for the heads up. This time I am previewing in other browsers.

UPDATE: Of course, now I can't get the upload to work.

Posted Mon - May 15, 2006 at 07:27 PM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Mon - May 8, 2006

Different definitions of "libertarian"


Thanks to Hammer of Truth and Kn@pster, I discovered that the term "libertarian" originally had different meanings.

I've updated my site FAQ to acknowledge that.

Very honestly the subject never came up with me before.

But I am beginning to understand that libertarians and Pagans are alike in this as well.

Just to make things simple, when I speak of "libertarians." I mean people who want a government smaller than absolutely necessary, and prefer private solutions whenever possible.

Posted Mon - May 8, 2006 at 04:21 AM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Thu - May 4, 2006

Latest banners


Well, the banner exchange fell through, but not before I finished the banners. My guess is that the Freakin' put them off. So I put the link codes in my Palm to keep them handy. Here's what they look like.


If anyone is interested, let me know and I will send you the linkcode.

As long as I am sharing, here are a couple of others not specific to the site, but still libertarian.


A few years ago, I wanted a distinctive simple design based on the Gadsden flag that also had a couple of Pagan undertones. My goal was to create a Palm startup screen, but long term I thought this might look pretty good as a flag. The green and gold would stand out in a sea of red, white, and blue, and people usually associate green and gold with money. The screen on my M515 doesn't quite do justice to the colors, but it still looks pretty good.

The design gets attention in a hurry and people tend to remember it. But greens are almost impossible to match. I like greens, but they are a real pain on film, video, and the web.


So here is my answer. Except for the colors, it keeps all the same elements. Since it is much more subtle than the original, I changed the emphasis on the design too. Still, I like it.

Posted Thu - May 4, 2006 at 07:24 PM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Tue - May 2, 2006

Banners


I had an offer to do a banner exchange. Unfortunately the main logo of the site doesn't really tell people what they are getting into, so it doesn't quite work in this situation. So last night I took a couple of hours and whipped up some example banners that would better reflect the content.

This one is the most in your face. Most of them aren't quite this extreme.


Here's one that has fun with the site motto.


A personal description.


Another personal description.


One of my favorite quotes, even if it is from me. It is a truism though.


Another quote.



And finally, libertarian thought in a nutshell.


These are still roughs, I will probably tweak them a bit more for this size if the deal goes through.

Posted Tue - May 2, 2006 at 07:09 AM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Fri - April 21, 2006

Well, that was fun.


As you know, my laptop was getting fixed.

I hadn't backed up my project files (including my blogs) since Saturday night.

On the 19th, there was some data corruption and the new entries wouldn't load.

I had to redo a few entries, which took a little bit.

The good news is that my iBook is up and working.

So we are back in business.

Posted Fri - April 21, 2006 at 05:50 AM  

 ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Sun - April 16, 2006

What's happening with Pagan•Vigil (Redo)


First, Challenge #1.

So far I have received three emails. That is odd because in the challenge I asked people to post in the comments. Anyway, the three comments all relied on "God's Law" and so were disqualified. While I accept that to them, their religious law should trump "man's law," that doesn't work for anyone who hasn't chosen to follow their religion. That was sort of the point. They don't expect their beliefs to take a back seat to mine, I don't think mine should take a back seat to theirs.

Second, my trusty iBook is sick, which limits my online time right now. I'm going to go talk to someone tonight, otherwise I get to ship it to Apple for a few days. I'll try to keep up the update schedule, but it is probably going to be afternoons only.

Third, you may notice some cosmetic changes like the new main page logo. There are going to be a few more things that change.

Posted Sun - April 16, 2006 at 05:35 PM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Tue - March 28, 2006

Spotty updates


I have family medical issues, so things are going to be a little iffy this week.

Posted Tue - March 28, 2006 at 06:31 PM  

 ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Fri - March 17, 2006

Slow blogging


I've a friend who has been in the hospital the last couple of days. They come home today. In about 20 minutes in fact. Sorry about the inconvenience.

Posted Fri - March 17, 2006 at 04:43 PM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Wed - March 1, 2006

Yep, I'm back.


My blogging might still be light the next few days. I've (mostly) wrapped up the thing at the job that pays the bills, so my time there will be 8-12 hours a day instead of 14-18 hours.

That means I actually have time to scan headlines.

And do a few devotionals here and there.

Posted Wed - March 1, 2006 at 07:02 PM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Mon - February 20, 2006

More this evening I promise


I still have my weekend opinion piece to finish, and my regular updates for Monday. These two were my Sunday updates, but I got a tad distracted.

Deliciously so.

Anyway, I have a lot on my plate this week, so the schedule is going to be catch as catch can. But I have a few hours tonight. Until then, I have to run.

Posted Mon - February 20, 2006 at 05:16 AM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Mon - February 6, 2006

Sunday opinion piece will be up Monday


I'm running a little late this weekend, one of my other blogs took much more time than I thought it would.

I'll have my opinion piece up tonight.

Posted Mon - February 6, 2006 at 05:00 AM  

 ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Wed - February 1, 2006

Traffic reports


Well, you can see that the Sitemeter counter rolled over to 1000. That's actually a little deceptive, there are a fair number of people who get the site from RSS feeds, which doesn't show on the counter. According to Itsamac, here are the latest totals.

Total hits: 85,699
Total page views: 66,844
Total visitors: 2,538
Total bytes transferred: 1.12 Gig
Starting day: 11/May/2005
Ending day: 31/Jan/2006
Total days covered: 266
Average hits per day: 322
Average page views per day: 251
Average visitors per day: 46
Average bytes transferred per day: 4.32 Meg
Average bytes transferred per second: 52 bytes

Not bad. Thanks for reading. I plan to be around for a while.

Posted Wed - February 1, 2006 at 03:45 PM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Tue - January 24, 2006

Light blogging today


I've going to a funeral this afternoon. It was a friend of a friend.

Posted Tue - January 24, 2006 at 04:36 AM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Fri - January 6, 2006

Feeling buried yet?


Sorry about the rush of entries, but I couldn't get an upload to work last night.

Posted Fri - January 6, 2006 at 05:36 AM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Wed - January 4, 2006

Worm warning


The hosting company for this site, Itsamac, sent this message.

Neo,

The source code for the Sober.Z worm (worms are similar to a computer viruses), which began infecting Windows OS computers worldwide on Nov. 21, indicates that the author(s) are planning to launch another attack on Thursday, Jan. 5 and Friday 6, to coincide with the 87th anniversary of the founding of the Nazi Party. On these dates, PCs infected with Sober.Z will be instructed to connect to numerous servers to download malicious code that will likely send out German and English language email hate messages. This Sober.Z worm does not effect Macintosh users.

There is a possibility of many thousands of infected Windows OS machines sending these types of email messages and overloading email servers worldwide. There may be problems or delays with email systems delivering your valid messages.

We encourage you to inform users of Windows OS computers to update and run their antivirus software.

Also, we can't express strongly enough to everybody to never open suspicious email, even if it appears to be from a sender they know. As well, do not open email attachments you were not expecting.

Please let us know if you have any questions.

My personal computers and the computers hosting this site are Macintosh, there should not be any problems with these machines. As a rule, I do not do mass emailings and I never send attachments unless I know the person.

If you have received an suspicious email with an attachment from paganvigil dot com, paganvigil dot net, or paganvigil dot org, please do not open the attachment. This will not be a message from me.

Posted Wed - January 4, 2006 at 07:51 PM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Tue - December 20, 2005

Quick, give me a meme fix!!


My cable internet went down yesterday afternoon between checking OpinionJournal.com and the Weather Channel. That was about 4 p.m. According to my iMac, it came on a little before 5 a.m. this morning.

And of course, my backup dialup account had a busy signal all of last night.

Ah, the perils of living in the high desert during the holiday season.

I actually had to resort to television news.

I haven't had to do that in years.

What made it worse was most of the stories were about things I had read about days ago.

Posted Tue - December 20, 2005 at 05:26 AM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Sat - December 17, 2005

Comments and links offline


Feed to JavaScript seems to be offline, or at least putting a bunch or extra stuff in which is screwing up the pages.

My "Recent Comments" and my other blog feeds both depend on Feed2JS.

I'm disabling them for the moment.

Posted Sat - December 17, 2005 at 05:56 AM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Tue - December 13, 2005

More updates tonight


I am not quite sure what caused the blank page last night, I have things up and running now, but I am having problems uploading.

Since it is too early to call my cable company and yell at someone who is actually there, I think I am going to give it up for this morning and go do something else.

Posted Tue - December 13, 2005 at 05:08 AM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Tue - November 29, 2005

Grrr


I'm having problems maintaining an internet connection, so part of the site isn't working. I've spent the better part of the three hours trying to get it reloaded.

I will do a full site reload tonight.

Posted Tue - November 29, 2005 at 08:02 AM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Wed - November 23, 2005

The Holiday


Unless something overwhelming happens, I don't plan to make any posts here on Thursday.

I have some new books on web design, XHTML, CSS, and JavaScript that I will be looking over to bring myself up to date with the current standards.

And if you are religious, may your day be blessed.

Even if you aren't American. *grins*

Posted Wed - November 23, 2005 at 07:21 PM  

 ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Thu - November 17, 2005

Up again and running


The good news is that I found out what the update problems were. It wasn't my cable company or Itsamac. It turns out that iBlog hands off a good deal of it's work to the Mac OS, and the standard OS X uses a buggy FTP Unix program. That makes sense if you stop to think about it, Apple wants to make money, so they have poured most of the integration efforts into Apple iDisk. Anyway there is a freeware Unix program that fixes the problem and makes FTP uploads much faster.

The bad news is that Pagan Vigil is now several hundred pages, which currently takes about a half hour to completely reload the site. There is some jerkiness I want to fix, I want to refine the feel, and I want to get the all the banner graphics preloading. That will take some time for me to do, and it will probably knock the site out each time. I'll try to do it when no one is likely to come, but no promises.

Anyway, I'll quit babbling now.

Posted Thu - November 17, 2005 at 05:46 AM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Wed - November 16, 2005

Finding the tweaks


Like I said, I did some major tweaks.

On all pages except the main page, clicking on the Pagan Vigil graphic will bring you back to the main page.

On the individual entry pages, clicking on the category in the banner will take you to the category page.

The category page is now much more expanded listing practically everything in that category along with the descriptions. Not only should this make it easier to find entries, it means that Google and other search engines shouldn't have to dig as hard to get to the content.

Posted Wed - November 16, 2005 at 07:11 PM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Tue - November 15, 2005

Where is Pagan Vigil?


Yes, I am having site problems. I'm trying to figure out if it is my cable company or itsamac.

It didn't help that I've been doing a major site tweak and had to upload all the new pages.

Hopefully once this is up, I'll only have to add the new pages until I get this straightened out.

Posted Tue - November 15, 2005 at 04:21 PM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Thu - November 10, 2005

Where to find me


Sorry about the lack of updates, my offline life has interfered in my news reading. And I am WAY behind on my email. Some of the things I have managed to sneak in are working on my homepage and some frame pages to drive traffic here.

My new homepage is not only my browser homepage, but it's intended to let interested folks know where I am on the web and some more of the things about me. It's still under construction though, but this is where you can find it. Actual address is in bold, frame pages are in italics.

While I was at it, I did some frame pages for my blogs. This is where you can find Pagan Vigil. Again, actual address is in bold, frame pages are in italics.

Technopagan Yearnings, my Pagan blog, can be found here. Same deal with the addresses.


Anyway, that is where I have been, and I should be catching up with posting tomorrow and the weekend.

Cross posted to Pagan•Vigil and Technopagan Yearnings.

Posted Thu - November 10, 2005 at 04:49 PM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Sat - November 5, 2005

New comment feature (Updated)


If you will look over on the sidebar on the main page, you'll notice that there is a section for the most recent comments. The good news is that this will let you see at a glance what the most recent comments are. Just hold your cursor over the link and it will show you the first paragraph of the comment.

The bad news is that because of the way that iBlog and Haloscan interact, there is no easy way to tell which comments belong to which blog entry. I'll work on it but it might take a while.

If you actually click on the link it will bring up a full size page with all the comments for that blog entry.

I've also added an RSS feed link for the most recent comments near the bottom of the sidebar.

Updated - Saturday afternoon

I've taken off the date and time, it seems only to track the time you load the page.

Posted Sat - November 5, 2005 at 09:03 AM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Wed - October 26, 2005

Light blogging today


I've got three things going on in the offline world today that I did not expect.

I will get back to things as soon as I can, hopefully tonight.

Posted Wed - October 26, 2005 at 07:46 AM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Mon - October 24, 2005

Update problems


Well, I couldn't update to my server yesterday, and it looks like the Haloscan servers are having problems this morning.

I do have some responses for comments that have been posted, I just can't post them yet

Posted Mon - October 24, 2005 at 05:11 AM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Sat - October 15, 2005

Experimenting


I've been doing some site maintenance with mixed success. I've been trying to tinker and get the comments to appear on the same web page as the permalink. It is not "ready for prime time" yet because apparently not all browsers handle the iframe tags the same way.

So if you go to a permalink page and it looks strange, that is why. Don't worry, I left the old popup comment window installed for now. And those will probably stay on the front page anyway.

Posted Sat - October 15, 2005 at 05:18 AM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Mon - October 10, 2005

A public thank you


Stone Bryson of The Stone Bryson Experience has decided to feature Pagan•Vigil and he came up with a handy mini-banner to do so.

All I can say is wow. I'm honored, really.

I've said it before, but I will say it again. Stone runs a great site and it is worth checking out.

Posted Mon - October 10, 2005 at 05:09 AM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Sat - October 1, 2005

Never get too smug


I was showing off my site with the new book list to a friend of mine who dropped by for a couple of minutes.

"The only thing is," I said, "I can't get the book list to do the two things I want at the same time."

"Why not have two book lists?"

"Well, I can't do that because, ummmm..."

Yes, I had a very sheepish look on my face.

Anyway, I got to playing with it, and I realized I could change the look of each list. Then I realized I really wanted three lists. And now you see the results.

And I owe my friend a big thank you.

Posted Sat - October 1, 2005 at 09:13 PM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Fri - September 30, 2005

Possible site problems


My internet connection seems a little unstable tonight. I've been trying to do some updates, but iBlog doesn't seem to be cooperating. Some page links may not work. It should be fixed in a day or so when I can do a full site reset,

I'm attempting to publish this from my backup dialup account. It is way too slow....

Posted Fri - September 30, 2005 at 08:49 PM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Thu - September 29, 2005

Well, about those books...


I actually broke down and did the Amazon Associates thing.

Now ordinarily I would say no way, but thanks to Sunfell I discovered LibraryThing. It lets me list the books I am reading and my comments on them. Yes folks, there are going to be some pagan and other religious ones slipped in there, and probably some popular science ones as well. But it is a cool feature to have a self adjusting reading list.

It won't show the cool graphics without an Amazon Associates account. If ads are the tradeoff, that works. And as long as SOMEONE is getting the money, it might as well be me.

Posted Thu - September 29, 2005 at 08:45 PM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Sun - September 25, 2005

No new tags yet


I was having difficulty with the Technorati tag feature I have in mind.

So if you'll look to the side, you'll see a few more changes.

I've updated the blogroll with some new entries. And I have selected some of my better posts for a featured list in the Archive section.

Posted Sun - September 25, 2005 at 05:17 AM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Fri - September 23, 2005

Done tweaking for now


Before I went offline, I had some things in the works to sort of clean up how the site looks and works. So you may notice some differences.

Some are pretty important, like finally putting in my liberty Amazon Listmania lists. Those should grow as I get time to add more books to them. Some are cosmetic, like changing how things are organized on the category pages.

Of course, all this got prompted by the whole Guest Article thing and having to revise the copyright notice in the sidebar. One of the cosmetic changes is the copyright notice on the bottom of every page.

Speaking of Guest Articles, if anyone is interested, take a look at the link in the sidebar.

Anyway, my next major project is an easy way to add multiple Technorati tags.

Posted Fri - September 23, 2005 at 08:17 PM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Wed - September 21, 2005

Taking a break


I am going to take a couple of days for personal business. I'll be back online on the night of the 23rd.

Posted Wed - September 21, 2005 at 04:51 AM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Sun - September 18, 2005

Guest Article Demo - Updated


Title of Article Goes Here

Author Name

Recently someone asked me if I could put an article of theirs on my site. I had never considered it, but I can't see any reason why I can't. So after poking around under the hood and looking here and there, I figured out how to make it work within iBlog without having to hand code an entire page. I still have to hand code the article block, but that is a lot easier. This allows all other features of my blog like Permalink, Comments and the RSS feed to keep working.

So, this is how I see it looking. It still compliments the overall look of the website. I can include any standard HTML code, but I would prefer if you stuck to links. The font is Palatino instead of Times New Roman Italic like in my normal quotes.

I'm not really an editor, but I am more than willing to publish almost anything within reason. It can't be too inflammatory and it should have some sort of logic. Even though I am a Pagan, this isn't my Pagan blog, I focus more on freedom and politics here. Other than that, I will publish anything, even if I disagree with it.

Maybe especially if I disagree with it.

For legal reasons, any graphics would need to reside in my server space, and I wouldn't be able to include any programming scripts. Obviously the article needs to be original and follow all copyright and fair use laws.

The article copyright information will show at the bottom of the block, along with any restrictions or permissions you would like to include. See below for examples.

This article is Copyright © YEAR by Author Name.
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this in any form without written permission from the author.

or

This article is Copyright © YEAR by Author Name.
All rights reserved. Quotes may be used for noncommercial purposes provided credit is given. For commercial purposes, please contact the author directly.

or

Permissions and/or restrictions that you specify.



Below the block, I would include a disclaimer. Something along the lines of "The views and opinions expressed in the Guest Article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect mine."

If you are interested, feel free to contact me using the Feedback link below.

UPDATE - Added a sample disclaimer and other samples of copyright statements. Updated sidebar copyright statement reflect guest author's ownership of their articles.

You can see the first official Guest Article here.

Posted Sun - September 18, 2005 at 07:05 AM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Sat - August 27, 2005

Upload problems


Sorry about the problems, iBlog doesn't always play nice.

Anyway, I have a few entries I am going to knock out over the next couple of days.

Posted Sat - August 27, 2005 at 08:06 AM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Sat - August 6, 2005

A few minor tweaks


I've added a couple of links to the blog roll.

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty is a news site that allows posted responses. The Castle Coalition is devoted to fighting eminent domain abuse. And I put in the new addy for Real ID Rebellion.

The biggest changes are to the category pages, each one can now hold up to 125 entries.

Posted Sat - August 6, 2005 at 08:27 AM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Thu - June 9, 2005

Technorati


Technorati is the biggest blog tracking service out there. The good news is that the codes embedded in the pages seem to be working now, so hopefully that will lead to more traffic.

The bad news is that Technorati doesn't seem to have all my content linked, not even all the content on the front page. This gets to be fun.

UPDATE: Fun is one description.

Technorati only tracks the top page of a blog. That makes sense I guess, especially when considering the number of blogs they track. They also require a date string within any entries they track.

Apparently when iBlog codes a page, only the most recent entry within a "date block" is associated with that date. So if I had two entries for a day, one would show in Technorati and the other wouldn't. There is probably a work around, but I haven't pulled my handy dandy JavaScript book and puzzled out a fix yet.

On the other hand, gregjsmith and bm have been enormously helpful with their suggestions and tutorials for making iBlog dance to another tune.

I also spent a little bit of time bashing out a quick version of the site logo that looks good at thumbnail size. You can see it at the site's Technorati Profile.

I should be back to real blogging by tomorrow, even if I don't that the date thing fixed yet.

Posted Thu - June 9, 2005 at 05:05 AM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Wed - June 1, 2005

It might be slow the next couple of days


I'm not the world's fastest typist, but I'm going to try to hammer an an article by the 4th.

My thanks to all the new folks who have stopped by, and I will be back.

Posted Wed - June 1, 2005 at 08:14 PM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Fri - May 27, 2005

Real ID


As a libertarian, I am seriously opposed to the whole idea of a national identification card.

If there is a single message I wish everyone could hear, it is that most of "new laws" for the war on terror are only necessary because the old laws are not being enforced.

I've haven't sorted out everything I really want to say on the subject, so for right now I am just adding Real ID Rebellion to the blog roll.

Hat tip to Alaskablawg, who also gets added to the blog roll.

Posted Fri - May 27, 2005 at 06:40 PM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Tue - May 17, 2005

New Features


I've added comments and trackback to the site.

I also fixed the graphic loading so it shouldn't try to reload the picture from the server every time you load a new page from the site.

Unless I put in advertising or a seach function, this should be the look and feel of the website for a while.

Posted Tue - May 17, 2005 at 05:15 AM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Sun - May 15, 2005

The idea for the site came from an argument


I had done some web design before, but this time around I wanted something that was easy to manage once I got it set up. iBlog fit the bill, simple set up, nice integration with the Macintosh platform, the files composed on my computer (which meant I would have backups), good interface, but it would still let me poke around under the hood.

Usually when I do the first designs in printing or websites, I do a quick rough in AppleWorks so I can get an idea of how the elements fit together and what colors need to be used. I stuck with one of the iBlog canned designs to start with, although I goosed the colors a bit (and accidently washed out the copyright notice at the bottom of each page) to stand out.

When it came to the logo, I took some time to experiment. I knew I wanted it white on a black background, but I wanted something to look fairly decent all while "underlining" the logo and the intent behind the page.


This picture was snapped from my desktop. The upper logo was my rough in AppleWorks, I knew about the elements and layout I wanted to get. The green dot was very important, it was going to be the only color in the banner. Once I had an idea of the elements and how they would work together, I switched to TypeStyler for the final work. This is a really incredible type program, unfortunately it isn't available in a Mac OS X version yet. It does work in Macintosh Classic (9.2 emulator mode) though, so I can still use it.

Once I finished in TypeStyler, I fed it into GraphicConverter to clean it up a bit for the web and remove the resource forks.

From there, it was just a matter of redoing the templates in iBlog so the banner didn't have any extra words. Oh, and fixing the copyright notice on the bottom of every page.

So yes, the whole website design is intended to emphasize the motto.

Posted Sun - May 15, 2005 at 09:40 AM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Fri - May 13, 2005

Other domains


Looks like all three domains are working. Paganvigil.net and paganvigil.org now redirect to the main domain.

Posted Fri - May 13, 2005 at 06:16 PM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Wed - May 11, 2005

We are official


Well, as of this evening, www.paganvigil.com brings your browser to this site. Please update your bookmarks if you haven't already.

I'd like to thank the folks at Itsamac , their customer service has been outstanding, especially considering I still don't have a working phone line next to this computer so I can actually talk to someone there. Any problems so far have been caused by me.

Posted Wed - May 11, 2005 at 09:38 PM  

Permalink  ◊   ◊   ◊ 

Pagan Vigil "Because LIBERTY demands more than just black or white"
© 2005 - 2010 All Rights Reserved