I’m often asked “What is a blog, really?”
“Well…” is often my reply. It’s an easy question, and a tough one. At it’s simplest, a blog is like an on-line diary, with the words just pouring forth. But a blog can be more complex. Blogging can be an adjunct to conventional reporting, or in opposition to it, or supporting a particular point of view, or holding forth on an issue that other, more conventional means of discussion, might not allow.
I used to be a reporter. In fact, I still am, although I’m not getting paid to do that now. I’ve also worked as a communications consultant, a photographer, and a host of other occupations, some of them relevant to what I do now, some of them not. I’m a freelancer now, working for other people to build their websites, update their communication plans, help out with their media relations, work on the messages to their employees — I like to think I do it all. And some of it I talk about in this blog.
But a lot of what I write here is personal — my own feelings and thoughts. I ask questions that I don’t expect answers to and I offer answers to questions I haven’t been asked. But it’s my blog and I can write what I want. However, my mixing up my consultant’s work with my personal interests sometimes gets me confused. So I’m investigating either starting up a second blog or separating this one into different topic areas…I’m not sure which is the more appropriate route to take.
But this is a new area of writing, and there are people who want to talk about it and explore its potential. So last week, a group of people gathered for Bloggercon III, to explore the meaning of blogs. Online Journalism Review’s Staci Kramer has written an excellent overview of the conference. You should take a look if you’re interested in this subject.
Category: Uncategorized Page 71 of 76
I got this from a friend of mine. We don’t know who wrote it originally, but
it raises a lot of important questions. So I thought I’d share it with all
of you.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Dear President Bush:
Thank you for doing so much to educate people regarding God’s law. I
have learned a great deal from you and try to share that knowledge with
as many people as I can. When someone tries to defend the homosexual
lifestyle, for example, I simply remind them that Leviticus 18:22
clearly state it to be an abomination. End of debate.
I do need some advice from you, however, regarding some other elements
of God’s Laws and how to follow them:
1. Leviticus 25:44 states that I may possess slaves, both male and
female, provided they are purchased from neighboring nations. A friend
of mine claims that this applies to Mexicans, but not to Canadians. Can
you clarify? Why can’t I own Canadians?
2. I would like to sell my daughter into slavery, as sanctioned in
Exodus 21:7. In this day and age, what do you think would be a fair
price for her?
3. I know that I am allowed no contact with a woman while she is in her
period of menstrual uncleanliness (Lev. 15:19-24). The problem is, how
do I tell? I have tried asking, but most women take offense.
4. When I burn a bull on the altar as a sacrifice, I know it creates a
pleasing odor for the Lord (Lev. 1:9). The problem is my neighbors. They
claim the odor is not pleasing to them. Should I smite them?
5. I have a neighbor who insists on working on the Sabbath. Exodus 35:2
clearly states that he should be put to death. Am I morally obligated to
kill him myself, or should I ask the police to do it?
6. A friend of mine feels that, even though eating shellfish is an
abomination (Lev. 11:10), it is a lesser abomination than homosexuality.
I don’t agree. Can you settle this? Are there “degrees” of abomination?
7. Lev. 21:20 states that I may not approach the altar of God if I have
a defect in my sight. I have to admit that I wear reading glasses. Does
my vision have to be 20/20, or is there some wiggle-room here?
8. Most of my male friends get their hair trimmed, including the hair
around their temples, even though this is expressly forbidden by Lev.
19:27. How should they die?
9. I know from Lev. 11:6-8 that touching the skin of a dead pig makes me
unclean, but may I still play football if I wear gloves?
10. My uncle has a farm. He violates Lev. 19:19 by planting two
different crops in the same field, as does his wife by wearing garments
made of two different kinds of thread (cotton/polyester blend). He also
tends to curse and blaspheme a lot. Is it really necessary that we go to
all the trouble of getting the whole town together to stone them (Lev.
24:10-16)? Couldn’t we just burn them to death at a private family
affair, like we do with people who sleep with their in-laws (Lev.
20:14)?
I know you have studied these things extensively and thus enjoy
considerable expertise in such matters, so I am confident you can help.
Thank you again for reminding us that God’s word is eternal and
unchanging.
I did something today I’ve been thinking about for years. I went to the Remembrance Day ceremony here in Hamilton.
I’ve often thought of attending, but over the years, I haven’t. Why? I couldn’t say for sure. It’s always been a special day for me. I’ve often watched the ceremonies on TV. But I have only attended an event a couple of times in my life. Of course, I went to special events when I was in school. I don’t remember too much about them, but I know we would listen to a veteran talk about his experiences and we’d spend a couple of minutes in silence. Not complete, of course. That’s too much to ask of school kids.
This year it will be 10 years since my Dad died. And I find myself thinking about him a lot these days. At this time of year, I think about his time in the service. He went overseas in 1943, just after his wedding. And he was away for almost three years. He was in Europe, but he didn’t see much fighting. He was an engineer, and his job was coming along after the infantry and helping to rebuild the roads and other infrastructure that were destroyed in the liberation.
He never talked much about those years. We have some stories and some mementoes, but there’s not a lot I know about what went on. And I don’t think that Dad ever attended a Remembrance Day ceremony. At least, not while I was around to remember. I’m sure he did after the war. But it wasn’t something he talked about much. Now I find myself always thinking about what he was doing when he was my age and it’s a strange feeling. In some ways, I think I’m becoming like him…in other ways, we’re quite different.
Today, I found my mind wandering during the service. I was surrounded by a lot of people, yet I was alone. I live in this city, but I don’t know anyone. It is always strange to wander through a crowd like that and not recognize anyone. I wonder what it was like for those young men so many years ago to be sent to a foreign country and asked to make the ultimate sacrifice for their loved ones back home? Looking around at the faces today, I wonder whether we’ll ever see that kind of selflessness again. The world has changed, no question.
I’ll close with a short tale from the ceremony today.
One man told us about attending a conference in Windsor, Ontario, in 1994. He was there with his friend, a man from Scotland, who had suffered a stroke and was unable to move half of his body. They went down to the cafeteria for breakfast. Another man was sitting at a table by himself. So they asked whether they could sit with him. When their breakfast came, their small talk turned to shared experiences. The man telling the story said he could tell the other was an ex-serviceman and so he asked him which service he had been in. It turns out the man had been in a Tank brigade and had served in Italy during World War II.
“So I asked him, if you could meet one person from the war, who would it be?” our speaker told us. It’s a question he often puts to veterans, and he says it usually brings out an interesting story.
“That’s an easy one,” the other gentleman told him. “I would want to meet the man who saved my life, and the life of every man in my command. He was a small Scottish engineer. I was in command of a tank group and we were preparing to cross the river at a low point, where a lot of tanks had crossed the day before. But before we entered the river, this little Scot came running over, shouting at us not to move,” he said.
“There’s a German gun hidden in the trees on the other side, and they’ve been picking off everyone that goes into the river all day,” the little man told him. “Just stay put until we find another crossing.”
“I’ve never forgotten that guy. And if I had the chance, I’d give anything to shake his hand and thank him properly for what he did that day.”
At this, the stroke victim put his spoonful of corn flakes down. “Well, you’d better just go ahead and shake my hand now, because you may never get another chance,” he said.
Hard as it may be to believe, those two men were brought together by fate fifty years later. And for the next five years, until one of them died, they were inseparable. Quite a story.
I remember.
I had meant to post this earlier, but I couldn’t find an Internet connection…but the news from Montreal is all good for Jaime. Jaime and her three team-mates won the lightweight women’s Four event at the Canadian University Rowing Championships, which were held this week in Montreal.
The weather was cold and windy, especially on Saturday. But Sunday was a better day. But none of it made any difference to Jaime. Her boat won their heat on Saturday and easily outdistanced their competition on Sunday. What a great race to watch.
Go here to see a complete report on the weekend activities. Now, I’ve got to run, ’cause we’re heading back to Toronto today.
It’s been awhile since I’ve mentioned what’s happening with rowing around here. Well…Jaime (my oldest daughter) is now at the University of Victoria, where she’s continuing to row every day. And doing very, very well. She was chosen to row in the Varsity Lightweight Women’s 4, which is very impressive for a freshman!
So this weekend, Jaime and her team are in Montreal for the Canadian University Rowing Championships. And of course, the rest of us here in Hamilton are heading down to watch and cheer. It will be a lot of fun for Jaime, especially because she’ll get to see all her rowing buddies from around here. We’re all very excited, and so what if the water’s frozen, there’s snow on the ground and we can’t feel our fingers? Hey, that’s what rowing is all about, right?
Jaime has a digital camera, so if I get a chance, I’ll upload a few pics from the weekend’s activities. I’ve set up a Flikr account in order to be able to add some visuals to my blog, but I haven’t tried it out yet. This will be a good chance to give it a go.
In the meantime, Jaime had a regatta last weekend in Victoria, called the Head of the Gorge. She had a lot of fun, and rowed in a double (with her Australian partner, who’s also in the Four with her in Montreal) and a quad, with the same women she’ll be rowing with in Montreal.
If you want to see them, this is Jaime (on the right) and her doubles partner, and this one shows Jaime (2nd from the right) and the others all dressed up in the Quad. Oh, and if you’re wondering about the uniforms, don’t forget it was the day before Halloween!
It’s time for Canadians to take a valium, or something. The reaction this morning to President George Bush’s re-election seems a little out of proportion here in Canada. There was a lot of “holier-than-thou” comments form Canadian pundits, who love to like to think they know a lot more than Americans. Let’s just face facts here. For all that Canadian media and pundits think they know what’s best for everyone else, the American people have spoken. And they spoke pretty clearly.
There was a record turnout and they voted for the President. Period. Sure, there’s a big split in the country. But the system worked. The people had a vote, and they used it. Let’s just move on…
The hand-wringing among the Democrats and plenty of others will begin immediately. Here in Canada, Stephen Harper immediately started trying to accuse the Liberals of being anti-American. Same old, same old. Canada doesn’t look particularly sterling right now, not after the way we ran our own election just a few months ago. And in the good old USA, Canada doesn’t rate a mention. I don’t think there’s many issues that Canada will have much impact on in America for awhile.
Canada used to be the land of two solitudes. Now, it looks like America is splitting into two pretty distinct camps. And the rise of the evangelicals is a real phenomenon. Just what the continuing impact of their power will be is still to be determined. But it’s going to be significant, at least in the short term.
So let’s just chill out, and see what happens. It’s going to be an interesting next few months…
Today is election day in the US and I can’t believe the kind of crap that’s about to go on in the polling stations across the country. What a way to have an election. If this kind of stuff happened in any other country, the US would refuse to recognize the results…but that’s the way it is in a “mature” democracy, I guess.
I might have more to say on the election process as the day continues, but I’ll probably wait to see what happens.
In the meantime:
I came across this list on <a href=”http://andrewcoyne.com/archives/004032.php “>Andrew Coyne’s blog</a>…from the Letterman show.
I haven’t had much to say about the US election for awhile, but I couldn’t resist sharing this little gem.
Top Ten Punch Lines to Dirty Election Jokes Â
From The Late Show w/ David Letterman:
10. "With a poll like that, I’m suprised he can gallup at all."
9. "She starts chanting, ‘four more minutes! four more minutes!’"
8. "That’s not the voting lever, but don’t stop pulling."
7. "This isn’t how it looks — I’m just joining a third party."
6. I prefer Bush, but I don’t know who I’ll vote for."
5. "So that’s where Katherine Harris was hiding the Al Gore votes."
4. "Unfortunately, his margin of error was plus or minus three inches."
3. "Get used to it, honey — we live in a swing state."
2. "I thought you had trouble maintaining an election."
1. "I saw your sister with Mary Cheney — there was no sign of Dick."
I don’t have a TIVO, or any of the other personal video recorders that are out there. But I’d like to have one. I know that there are good TV shows on the air and I’d like to be able to watch them on my own time. But I don’t have time or the inclination to sift through the trash. Nor am I able to organize myself enough to set up the VCR on a regular basis. And while I like watching commercials at certain times, in general, I detest the interruption — especially if I’m watching a movie. Movies edited for television should really be illegal. So TV is not a big thing with me.
But I am very interested in what’s happening in TV-land, especially when it comes to how people are watching it. There is a lot of cool technology being used out there to help people enjoy the TV experience, and I like reading about it.
I’ve written before about Robert X. Cringleyand how much I enjoy his columns. Today, he’s talking about TV and a cool new way of keeping up with your favourite soap opera — even if that soap is airing on a local channel in another country. It’s good stuff.
What sets Cringley’s work apart from most of the breathless (or cynical) reviews of the latest gee-whiz gadget that’s being touted, is that he wants people to consider how technology is affecting what we do. Not in a rarified theoretical way, but in the day-to-day activities that we all enjoy. That’s why he’s so taken with how technology helps him live his life and if it doesn’t help him do it better, it’s not worth much.
He’s a good commentator to have along while we surf the information highway, because he’s always willing to give an opinion on whether things are making sense.
I just realized I haven’t updated anyone since I had my problems switching over my domain hosting.
Well, I’m happy to report that everything is up and running fine at davetraynor.com. I’ve got the e-mail thing happening, the website has been transferred, and everything seems to be working all right.
My only problem now is dealing with the Spam Alert software my new web hosts have on their system. It seems to be a bit sensitve and I’ve been having a few problems with stuff bouncing back that gets sent to me. But I’m figuring things out. So now it’s time to move on to updating my website and carrying on with my grand plans…yeah, right.
If you’re reading this…you must be a dedicated sort. And thanks. I’ve been switching domain name providers and website hosting companies, and it’s proving to be a lot more difficult than I had expected. I wanted to move davetraynor.com so I started the transfer process, but my old provider wasn’t happy about it. Sure, the transfer did go through, but my request to change the name server information was ignored.
So, when the transfer happened, all the extra services I was using, like automatic forwarding of e-mail info, domain name info, etc., ceased to function. But because the name servers are still listing the old company, there’s nowhere for anyone looking for davetraynor.com to go. Oh well. It should all be fixed up in a day or so, then my website will be back up and running, with the links to this site working again, and my mail should be back on line. But it’s kind of a drag to have to put up with all this.
We get so used to everything working fine that we’re a bit stunned when something goes wrong and we can’t fix it in seconds. Wait a whole day? Seems like a lifetime…maybe I need to go back and read some of my own posts about slowing down, life in the slow lane, yadda, yadda, yadda. Sure, that’s easy for you to say…you’ve still got your e-mail connection!