Archive for Weblogging
March 20, 2007
My Screen is Controlling Me
8:27 am | Weblogging | Comments: 5
I wanted to post something really great today. You know, one of those posts that are simultaneously funny, wise, and relfective about the true nature of life. But I’ve got nothing. It’s times like these that I go back to some of the best advice about weblogging ever written, a collection of posts by none other than the legendary webrogger J. Dub.
Which of course brings me to the post No Excuses. At the time I was tired of people who would claim to run weblogs but never post - and by never I mean six or seven months would go by with not so much as a line from a song being posted. Most are just lazy, but some actually suffer from “Brogger’s Block”. I think the best advice from my post is about haikus.
Stop posting; get dressed.
A Haiku cannot save you;
You are late for work.
September 26, 2006
Abuses of the Brog
1:38 pm | Weblogging | Comments: 8
As most of you know, I’m a big proponent of webrogging. I’ve written virtual reams of material on why brogs are good, useful, humorous, and informative things. As far as bad aspects of webrogging are concerned, I’ve mentioned those too. I found another one today, browsing through the typically filthy cesspool of comments garnered by one of Steve’s posts. It was, in fact, a weblog devoted to being mad at Steve. Should you be thinking about starting a weblog the primary purpose of which is to rant about somebody else’s webrog, I discourage you for several reasons. First, nobody can take such silly nonsense seriously. Second, if you want to rant, just leave comments. While it’s true that OpenDiary has the most ridiculous Nazi comment laws in the history of time, spending any time at all posting to a “this one guy sucks and here’s why” weblog is to be considered unholy and worthy of the pit.
I never like to leave people hanging. Rather than engaging in madness and fussbudgetry as outlined above, devote your weblogging endeavors to enlightening people with truth rather than cracked-mouth-drooling raves about how much you dislike a certain individual. The Webrogosphere will thank you.
July 24, 2006
The 2006 SIO Top-10™
11:06 pm | Weblogging | Comments: 13
Yes folks, it’s that time again. SIO’s expert team of analysts has compiled the definitive ranking of community webroggers. Much has happened in the local webrogosphere since 2005, and this year’s list has plenty of names that you all know and love, as well as a several newcomers. Let’s get started.
1. Set It Off - Simply the best.
2. Gimme Back My Bullets - Mark earned major points with his layout change, securing his 2nd place spot for the second year running.
3. In God We Trust - If the only criterion was sheer volume of written material, Steve would be #1 with no trouble. NotLiberal still has the most boring layout ever, though, and is also plagued by grammatical and typographical errors as well as being commented by a host of mush-brained trolls.
4. Presbyterian Thoughts - Visual beauty and subtle humor combine with consistently solid theology to garner a solid 4th place finish for 1-year veteran blogger Nate.
5. Wendler Cottage - A recent and worthy addition the Lanning Dynasty of brogs, Mrs. Pickering writes about her new and growing family with a captivating style, including plenty of food for the eyes as well. She has a shady past in webrogging, having initially run several not-on-the-up-and-up webrogs writing under the name “Cramp Bottom”.
6. The Jurries Dynasty - The rest of the list could literally be filled with Jurries blogs. The Jurries Dynasty, begun days after SIO itself by loyal sidekick Mark, has sprawled to include an estimated 6 webrogs, which in addition to #2 on this list are: Penultimate Grooviness, The Random Potatos Present Blogapalooza, The Delta Institute, The Epsilon Institute, and Ace’s Place. While the minority of these brogs could make it into the list on their own merit, the combined force of the Jurries Dynasty must be reckoned with.
7. On the Fringe - Another newcomer over the past year, Deacon Jeff introduced us to the modern-day Engrish influence and keeps us all up to date on kook-fringe happenings around the globe.
8. Yes, I Have No Bananas - In addition to gaining ground by being the only community brogger to do her own illustrations, “Eva Lemmon” has actually made a few valid points in her typically zany and farfetchual posts.
9. Exhale - Not only a gifted and emotive writer, Stephenie is also a killer snowboarder.
10. A Poor Man’s Blog - Making an appearance on the SIO Top-10™ in its inaugural year of operation, B consistently gives our minds something solid to chew on. B is also alleged to have operated several more happy-go-lucky brogs in the past.
Membership in the SIO Top-10™ is contingent upon actually knowing me in person so that the inevitable Kung Fu battle can take place within a reasonable timeframe. Please note that the SIO Top-10™ is subject to change for any reason and without notice. SIO would like to thank our sponsors The-BoB.org and Blogger.com for making possible the SIO Top-10™. Please note that due to sanctions against Xanga.com, no Xanga webrogs are allowed in the SIO Top-10™.
The 2005 SIO Top-10™ Review
11:03 pm | Weblogging | Comments: 1
In the wake of the announcement of the latest SIO Top-10™, let’s do a little review of the brogs and broggers featured in 2005’s SIO Top-10™:
1. Set It Off - SIO continues to rock, rock on, having weathered spam storms (which eventually claimed the life of the grand and glorious RandomChat™) and several other crises. Always innovating, pulling order from chaos and sense from blithering nonsense, SIO continues to dominate the universe with its sheer monopoly of hip.
2. Gimme Back My Bullets - Not only is my loyal sidekick Mark still going strong, he’s actually changed his layout.
3. Presbyterian Thoughts - Nate’s brog has been rock solid for over a full year now.
4. In God We Trust - Still perhaps the most prolific of the community webroggers, and certainly the most verbose.
5. The Delta Institute - Still around, and procreating as well.
6. Farmer Buie - No clue what happened to Buie. Word is he ran off to rake muck in Oklahoma (in case you read this, Bryan, we love you and want you to come back).
7. JWS - Now here’s a sad story. John gave up on a very promising webrog career to persue his interests in collecting belly-button lint, then sunk so low as to start a Xanga which he also quit.
8. Don’t Write Yourself Off Yet - Gone with the wind, though Maggie still operates a Xanga.
9. Penultimate Grooviness - Though rarely updated these days, Janna’s concise posts still garner piles of spam comments.
10. Yes, I Have No Bananas - Still really strange, and now with custom illustrations!
July 17, 2006
Finish the Race
7:33 pm | Weblogging | Comments: 5
I could talk about life, I could talk about love, I could talk about the love of life, a life of love… all those things. Currently I’m not talking about any of those things. Right now I’m talking about one of the more difficult aspects of weblogging, which is constancy. In weblogging, as with just about any form of print media I imagine, you often come up short for something to write about. This is not because there’s nothing to write about; it’s because you can’t think of anything to write about. Such inability of cognition stems from laziness, sleep deprivation, and/or being just plain stupid.
After more than two years, I often will begin weblog posts only to decide that the subject is something I’ve written about before or too many other people are writing about it now, or it just isn’t interesting to me and thus I scrap the post altogether. It’s an ongoing struggle, one which a majority of would-be webloggers are unable to overcome, opting instead of make an “I Quit” post. You’ll notice that most “I Quit” posts are followed up by a renewed attempt at weblogging, rather than a real cessation thereof. It’s normal for people to get bored with something and stop doing it, only to come back to it later (dog returning to its vomit? you decide). I always recommend that webloggers periodically take some time off, or just relax the pace a little bit. This point has been stressed on SIO many times in the past, but I keep running afoul of people who think they’re too good for weblogging.
“I Quit” posts always come off as whiny and cheap; a weblog is cruising along, and suddenly you get a very terse and stubborn-sounding post explaining how life is far too important to spend time weblogging, and people who spend time weblogging aren’t redeeming their time, and how they, the now-ex blogger, are moving on to much greater and redemptive persuits, blah blah blah. It’s a total crock. Let me tell you something: you’re either lazy, or you made too many people mad, or you’re put off that you don’t get enough comments. But time is not a factor. Many great weblogs are run on one post a week; that’s 10 minutes per week that such people “waste” in order to express themselves, organize their thoughts, and maybe even help some poor soul along the old road of life. Sometimes, it’s nice to check up on a weblog you haven’t read in a long time, just to see how one of your pals is doing. An “I Quit” post from 8 months ago isn’t going to be of any help at that juncture.
June 10, 2006
I’ve Looked at Life from Both Sides Now
11:28 am | SIO | Weblogging | Wisdom | Comments: 7
Allow me to be the first to wish SIO a very happy second birthday. The festivities this year are somewhat subdued in comparison with last year, but the party hat is back! This past year has brought many moments of various emotional extremity: joy, love, melancholyitude, and sheer terror. College has passed; the long, dark winter of work awaits me. The lines go very deep now; I always try to think 12-15 moves ahead. Many, many moves are to be made in the near future, all leading to the ultimate goal. Not killing kings and queens and bishops, though that might seem desirable for the moment. What’s the goal, you ask. Isn’t that the question mankind has been asking since we all became enemies of God? I think it is, though I have the answer. Tell me, Mr. Deadman, do you have the answer? Repent and believe! Glorify God and enjoy him forever. Life isn’t so complicated when you look at it though the lenses of eternity. If this is a recurring theme in my weblog posts, then I have been successful. Many happy returns.
April 1, 2006
Goodbyespace
11:14 am | Culture | Weblogging | Comments: 4
A couple days ago I deleted a Myspace account I had running (sorry to all my hundreds and hundreds of Myspace friends). Myspace is now officially the biggest Internet destination in the world, with 66 million users and 1 million new users every four days. It’s also the biggest collection of freaks and weirdos imaginable. You’ve got creepy old dudes looking for hot chicks, you’ve got creepy old dudes posing as hot chicks looking for dudes, and similar stuff. Myspace is trying to clean up its image as a hotspot for Internet predators, but I’d say they’d have to delete the whole mess to achieve that. This is not to say that there are no decent people in the mix. Of course there are. That being said, Myspace is a cesspool.
March 30, 2006
The Case Against Xanga: Part II
12:46 am | Weblogging | Comments: 4
I thought I would share an analogy that has popped up in recent discussions. The analogy began by saying that using Xanga was like fornicating. The issue we ran into there was the moral problem with fornicating, whereas using Xanga isn’t (to my own chagrin, I suppose) morally wrong. However, we came up with a much better analogy.
Using Xanga is like drinking cheap beer. Cheap beer is in itself reprehensible stuff. If you aren’t into beer all that much, you just have to trust me on this one. Xanga is an easy, shallow, popular alternative to something with the possibly of richness and depth. I should say right now that I don’t hate people that use Xanga (or people that drink cheap beer). I personally have tasted the better beer and it is pleasing to my lips. I want to share that with one and all. Therefore, I say to you all that Xanga is the cheapest and most ill-tasting of all weblog services. Do you not want to taste of the better beer? If so, pour that Xanga down the drain!
March 27, 2006
The Case Against Xanga: Part I
10:20 pm | Weblogging | Comments: 7
To open my case against Xanga, I’ll quote a post from a fallen brogger (a brogger who began with a real brog and fell into the cesspool of Xanga).
On popular demand, I’ve been personally asked to write another post on this forsaken xanga. This post will contain the subject “why I do not use xanga,” and will also be posted on my not-so-forsaken blog. Let us begin from the start (which I hear from Marry Poppins is a very good place to start… or was that the sound of music lady… hmmm…. no matter).
The first and foremost reason why Xanga is not as superior to Blogger is because a.) it does not allow random un-xanga users to comment. Commenting is by far the best reason for blogging. I’ve often said that commenting is the gasoline of blogging, it keeps you going just to see what others have to say on your writing. So limiting Xanga users is nothing but injustice. And b.) because there are no adds on blogger. That’s right, no crazy “FREE IPOD” or “HEY DORK, FIND A CHICK!” or “MAKE MONEY AT HOME”. All blogger that’s up on your banner is YOUR stuff. And finally, B.) because everything is just so much more neat. When you look at anyone else’s blog, it’s all un-orderly and un-capitalized, and for a perfectionist like me, it brings paranoia to my very bones. I end by saying Blogger is better.
That is all.
(originally posted 9.28.2005 by [name protected])
Now, even though the fallen brogger (we’ll call him “John”, for the sake of discussion) in his pre-fallen state was incorrect regarding comments being the “gasoline of blogging”, he makes many great points about Xanga. The question remains, then, what would cause an individual of such an opinion to fall from grace? The answer, sadly, is conformity. The only argument that can be made in favor of using Xanga is, “waaaah but all my friends use it!”. Needless to say, this is unacceptable. If you find yourself in such a situation, it’s obvious that all your friends are toadeying jabber-nows, and it’s your duty to educate them in the true art form of webrogging. We can learn much from the sad example of this fallen brogger, especially of how the Xanga (pronounced “monster”) within us all can take over at any moment. We need to adhere to the pure paths, my friends.
March 10, 2006
Allow Me to Illustrate
3:52 pm | Pictures | Weblogging | Comments: 14
Any questions?
