Archive for August, 2007
And then it was the Weekend
Posted by smokingpen in Odds-n-Ends on August 31, 2007
Well, another week, another series of headaches, another series of sleepy nights and not-so-rested mornings, and another weekend looms ahead of me. Not a whole lot planned, at present, outside of waking up way too early tomorrow morning to help clean the chapel and then, probably, going back to the house and going back to sleep for a spell. It sounds like we might go clothes shopping, I need some new pairs of jeans as the ones I bought back in December (right before becoming engaged) are pretty much going the way of the wildebeest and need to replace them. What that means, more, is that my mom is acquiring more pairs of jeans from me for the long-promised denim quilt.
Waiting! Waiting! Waiting! Waiting! Waiting! Waiting!
Anyway, this weekend precedes the start of school next week. The semester begins on Tuesday September 4, 2007. Erin gets to go to class that day. I get to go to work later in the day.
I am a little excited for the semester to begin. This year I got to work all summer without going to class. Last summer I spent the first part in classes and the second part sleeping and working. Not a bad combination. This summer has been long, long days of sitting in front of a computer assisting customers for the company I work through. Come Tuesday, it will be semi-long, long nights of sitting in front of a computer helping customers.
As it is currently Friday, I am a bit surprised that we are being slammed with the number of calls that are coming through. At the same time, though, I am not too surprised. People are probably calling in hordes (today) because they don’t know we are open weekends (well, there are people here, I am never here) and think we will be closed on the Holiday – or want their issues solved before the holiday. The phones are closed that day and Tuesday, I can guarantee you, will be as busy as a beaver with a group of felled trees and a river needing damming.
Which reminds me, I was walking along the Provo Canyon trail and on the way out of the canyon I like to stop at a bridge where I know a group of beavers live. Sometimes you see them, most times you don’t. When Erin and I walked it late one evening a week or two ago, we saw one in the light of the flashlight I was carrying. That was kind of cool. However, the other night (when I was by myself) and dusk was settling in, I stopped and looked for the beavers and was a little startled to see a white face with black eye mask staring back at me. Then the raccoon made a noise and took off. There, in front of me, where, normally beavers play, was a really large raccoon. It was cool. I’d never, actually, seen a raccoon in the wild and there it was, just staring at me before it decided that disappearing in to the underbrush was a better idea than staring at me.
At one point I was going to be working Monday (sometime) but then decided not too, to spend time with Erin on our last full day before our lives drag us in opposite directions with school and work throwing us in to a very large tizzy and whirlwind of occupational hazards dragging us around and around and around until we wonder if that person we are sleeping next to is really the one we are married to.
Outside of all that, I’ve had a hub here at work that has my name on it. I left it here over the honeymoon and was a bit surprised it was still sitting on the desk, and intact, when I got back. However, it was and next week I may end up losing my seat, which means, also, that I will have to move my being and belongings to a new location; which, in turn, means that I don’t want to leave the hub there for just anyone to think they can take possession of. As I am under the impression that my changing shifts is going to cause a bit of upheaval in my work life, I am taking it with me. Also, I don’t like the way the dude I share the desk with handles the desk, leaves it dirty (I came back after being gone for a couple of weeks and literally had to clean off some sticky scummy mess – AND discovered my hub sitting out in front of everything with the cables sitting wherever the hell the dude felt like they needed to go… I come in most days to have the network cable plugged in to my computer just sitting half-hazardly across the desk and on the ground being stomped upon) that I am done being nice and sharing.
Still, this next week looks as though I get to go to school. I am taking a class from Bennion, again. This one is on fiction writing. I am, actually, kind of excited about it. He asked why I was taking this class… the reason, because BYU requires me to take something at this level and he was teaching it. I am also taking a 400 level class on writing online for business which requires me to get a copy of Dreamweaver. Wicked exciting.
Not really sure what will actually happen this weekend. Not like last weekend (or was it the weekend before???) where we, on a whim, went to a movie. I was hoping the next movie I want to see, Across the Universe would be out this weekend. It’s not. Not until September 21. Too bad. Will have to wait three more weeks to watch it. The first time I watched the trailer for that movie, with Erin, in a theater, I was a little weirded out by the visual imagery being used. It was more of a music video than a trailer; but it stuck with me. The next time I saw it, I was more interested in the movie. Combine that video with the trailers that have been released and I have become increasingly more interested in the movie than I was the first time.
I did find out that the Henson Company (creators of The Muppets and Henson Creature Workshop, group responsible for a lot of Sesame Street) has a new stage production called Puppet Up. I didn’t think that Brian Henson was involved with it, but he is pretty involved as one of the talents. I’ve informed Erin we need to go. Don’t know when we will go, as it requires a trip to L.A. and she made me promise we’d see something worth seeing (stage production along the lines of Phantom of the Opera or Les Miserables), but Puppet Up has become a need-to-see in my list of things to see.
Anyway, guess we’ll have to wait till Monday to find out how the weekend goes. Personally planning on doing a little writing. Spending time with Erin. And doing little else. Guess on Sunday we are going to Bountiful to Jack’s house. That’s about it.
John Hattaway | smokingpen | Alicia Grey | Clockwork Princess | Bond. James Bond
Sad, Sad News
Posted by smokingpen in Odds-n-Ends on August 31, 2007
While looking at various news articles today I came across one where iTunes (Apple) will be dropping sales of NBC shows. This isn’t too bad, in my opinion, especially given that Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip lasted all of one season, I don’t (really) watch a lot of NBC (specific) shows; but I do watch NBC-Universal shows. Specifically, I am pretty well addicted to Psych and Eureka which reside on the USA Network and the SciFi Channel, respectively. Both of these channels (cable or satellite subscription required) are owned by NBC-Universal and the method for watching them is not to anxiously wait in front of the TV until they are broadcast, I am far too busy a person for that, but rather to pay for and download them via iTunes; then plugging in my iPod in to the television and watching the shows that way.
iTunes will stop selling NBC related shows in the fall of this year (2007), and the contract Apple has with NBC will expire at the end of December 2007.
The reason for this change is because NBC wants iTunes to charge a lot more money per episode download than they are currently charging. NBC, of late, has reached an all-time low of 4th place in the network race, being beaten by (in no particular order) ABC, CBS, and FOX. Not too long ago, NBC was at the top of the heap. They owned Thursday night, they were the network everyone was trying to keep up with… and now, they are declining and fast.
What gets me, here, is not that NBC is on the downward spiral, it happens. A couple of years ago, ABC was the bottom of the top four heap (apparently, the WB and Paramount network, now the CW are not real competitors along with PBS and other broadcast networks) until ABC came up with a powerhouse combination of Lost, Desperate Housewives, and Grey’s Anatomy. Since then, ABC has been able to create show after show that gets viewers attention and keeps it.
NBC does not.
NBC’s shows that I pay attention to are not even on their flagship network. Rather, they show on cable. I get cable. I can actually, if I had the time, watch one of the shows when it is shown (Friday nights, by the by); but I don’t have the time, AND I don’t want to make a special time slot simply because the show is airing. I would rather download it.
This does not mean that NBC and Apple’s little tiff over cost and money is going to cause me to become a rabid supporter of either side. I like Apple because through iTunes they help control a market that I believe needs better money management. A lot of the suppliers of music and media want Apple to raise prices. They see success and then want to raise the price of that success; Apple has refused realizing they are on top of a good thing. If they raise prices, then the outcome will be that they will lose customers to competitors who are forced to charge the same prices.
I also understand NBC wanting to make up revenue on the front end for shows that are being downloaded. With that said, though, I have a top-end price I am willing to spend on downloaded TV shows given that I only pay for downloads of shows I also intend to purchase on DVD. If the total cost-per-download is equal-to or less-than what I can expect to pay for the DVD’s when they come out, I am good with that. On the flipside, though, when the cost-per-download goes far in excess of the cost of the DVD’s when they come out I am less willing to purchase. What will happen, for me, is I will save my money and purchase the DVD’s, watching the show when I can put a disk in my machine rather than plugging my iPod in to the TV and watching.
When it comes to both Eureka and Psych I intend to own the DVD’s. I also have the seasons available to my iPod. The cost of downloading, both, is less than what I can expect to pay for the DVD’s when they are released. The same is true of the other show (singular) that I currently download. It is not an NBC property. However, if NBC thinks that its customers (me in particular) who use iTunes as a way of keeping up with different shows (last season Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip and The Black Donnelly’s were shows I followed almost exclusively through downloads) then they are seriously, seriously, SERIOUSLY mistaken. I am not going to get iTunes to change their policy. In the long run, it saves me money. By not buying downloads I get to wait longer for the shows to arrive on DVD, but at the same time, I don’t have the extra expense of downloading them.
Truth told, I think that NBC will realize this is a poor business decision. In the long run, I think that NBC will decide to allow Apple to set the pricing guidelines for downloadable shows. In the long run, I think that Apple has the better business model and will win out over competitors. However, in the long run I could be entirely wrong. Neither the convenience of downloading television or music or watching those downloads at my convenience is enough to get me to pay more money to purchase through iTunes and NBC is foolish to think that the consumer will side with them.
I believe that NBC is shooting itself in the foot and the winner here will be the consumer.
Go Apple.
John Hattaway | smokingpen | Alicia Grey | Clockwork Princess | Bond. James Bond
The Walking Writing-Individual Person
Posted by smokingpen in On Writing on August 30, 2007
I read somewhere, not so long ago, that some very famous writers did a lot of walking. For example, Charles Dickens would go out every night and walk for hours. I like this trait. It seems to match my own tendencies when I have the opportunities to have them. Though, on the flipside, I think it interesting the change in atmosphere from when Charles Dickens would walk and where and how I would walk today.
When I was living (and going on long walks) in New Hampshire, many days and evenings I would find myself stopping, on occasion, and talking to different people. This was interesting, in the sense that I was clearly a stranger in the neighborhoods; but a stranger with a purpose – putting pavement behind me. I had ulterior motives for walking, mostly health related and surviving the day; but the other side of the coin was that I had a lot of time whenever I went for a walk to just think about things.
As a result, I can see how authors would become walkers. Especially when dealing with a deadline or working through an issue with the piece, the act of walking helps one collect thoughts, work through ideas, look at other options that might be present (or available), and for the truly insane (not really), hold conversations with their characters; or the author can just walk (mentally) through the landscape of the environment that is being written in.
I’ve started walking again, pretty regularly. Sometimes I get in to modes where I forget how much I enjoy walking – mostly that happens when I am not walking, and then I wonder what it is going to take to get me walking again. This week, I don’t know what it was… I just started walking again. Sunday, specifically. After church I told Erin I wanted to go for a walk (she is always invited) and then informed her if she was going to come with me we needed to turn around when I wanted to turn around – which meant a longer walk than normal. Monday, because the length of the walk hurt me, I went most of the way to the Riverwoods and then turned around. Tuesday, Erin went with me again and we made it all the way to the intersection on University – which really means we made it to the Riverwoods. Last night, I walked the Provo Canyon trail (same as Sunday) and was out for a couple of hours.
The cool thing about last night was that I got to focus, more, on my talk for church and I started to think about a decision I made earlier this year dealing with someone I was working for. I’d never thought about the ramifications of what I’d done, quitting a job, until last night or many of the reasons I felt it necessary; and yet, after nearly an hour of working through the reasons why, I realized that I was very comfortable with my decision and the reasons that led up to it and could stand in front of the person I’d worked for and confidently and coherently tell him (if I was ever asked) why I did what I did.
I don’t think that will come up. I don’t see a reason I would ever need to do that. At the same time, it was nice to have a little bit of my past come together at an unexpected time and to realize that, if nothing else, I was true to my own convictions and had gotten to a point where I was really ready to move on.
Walking is so nice and therapeutic. I mean, so much happens between the front door and the front door and all with nothing more in mind than to put one foot in front of another again and again and again – getting halfway to tired, and then turning around and making your way back to the same front door. I find this more helpful than almost anything.
I think, in the long run, when I am done going to school, done with tech-support, and done with other aspects of my current life, I want to be known as a Walking Writer.
John Hattaway | smokingpen | Alicia Grey | Clockwork Princess | Bond. James Bond
Writer’s Block
Posted by smokingpen in On Writing, Writer's Block, Writing Fiction on August 29, 2007
There are movies and books that are dedicated to the (we are led to believe) common issue of “writer’s block.” These movies make the viewer believe that something strange happens to a writer and he or she is no longer able to put words in to sentences and sentences in to paragraphs and paragraphs in to cogent ideas. Somehow and in some way, bad magic or mojo happens and the outcome is a lack of ability to write.
I think it’s a load of ….
Writer’s block is a lazy writer’s way of saying they don’t want to move on to something else for a period of time.
What I mean by that is that a writer is working on a piece of fiction and hits a stopping point. They have a plan. The plan is to get the character from point A to point B. The writer plans for his character to meet a magical beast which will benevolently help the character to point B. However, once your character reaches the magical beast you hit a wall.
Writer’s Block!!!!
This is bad. After all, you had a plan. This was planned. The creature was (boringly) benevolent and going to help the character from one point to another. And then nothing.
No matter what you do, that creature just ain’t going to help your character anywhere. You try to write it this way, and that way, and then another way, and nothing doing, the creature fails your character and you as the writer and you are stuck at point A and not somewhere closer to point B.
Essentially, this is what writer’s block is.
However, I think this is crap. Stinky, smelly, fresh crap.
About a year ago I met a girl. I don’t remember her name. What she said, that stuck with me (though she did not say this to me) was, “I finally got over my writer’s block the other night. I wrote for hours.” At the time, I thought about asking, “What changed to fix the writer’s block?” But, in truth, I decided silence was better and decided to sit and work on whatever it was I was working on at the time. Whether or not she actually produced anything of value, I don’t know. What I do know is that one day she didn’t feel like she had the ability to write and the next day she was writing up a storm.
What I do know is that late night spurts of writing often produce crap.
What I do know is that when you find yourself stuck with benevolent beast not helping (properly) your character, something else is happening.
Something else is not happening to your character, something else is happening to you. Meaning, there may be another direction that was discovered as you wrote that you needed to follow for that character. Maybe the benevolent magical beast is not benevolent, but rather is actually rather malevolent and as such is helping your character with nefarious purposes. Maybe, just maybe, you need to write something else entirely.
And, it is the idea that you need to be writing something else entirely that I am going to follow, for the moment.
You see, writer’s block often comes at awkward times and it is my assertion that one of the causes of writer’s bl0ck is not an mystical inability to write, but rather, a personal inability to realize that your mind and efforts need to be repurposed for a period of time to something else.
Something else could be another writing project, a blog entry, freelance work, professional work, or even the activities that are necessary to live ones life. That’s it. Writer’s block is a personal expression of different needs. For a writer, those other needs probably manifest in other writing projects. For me, “other writing projects” are often representative of my blog, journal, school projects, or just dealing with something that matters to me at that moment.
Which then means that writer’s block is a lack of understanding, by the writer, on what they need to be doing. Moreover, writer’s block is the insistence by an individual that what they are doing, right now, is the only thing they can be doing. My solution for the magical condition is to take stock of one’s life, look at other projects, determine that they’ve 1) eaten and 2) don’t have something more important; and then, after all of that, to go out and stare at a blank piece of paper until they are willing to accept what it is they need to be doing (which could take a very long time) before they go back to writing what they think they need to be doing.
The Uphill Climb
Posted by smokingpen in Odds-n-Ends on August 29, 2007
On September 30th, a Sunday, Erin and I will be speaking in church. Anyone in the Provo area that wants to hear us speak about obedience is welcome to come. We meet in the white chapel on North Canyon Road at 9 a.m. I’ve already invited my parents.
The point, though, is that I now have an uphill climb in creating a talk that I think meets the requirements for the topic, and matches my testimony of and belief in the principles of the gospel. Truth told, I look forward to the challenge, and, at the same time, realize that I’ve not followed advice in other areas very well. This does not stop me from writing the talk (and, fingers crossed, memorizing it), it just makes the writing harder than it needs to be.
This is how I am approaching the subject.
First, I am trying to see what the church has to say about the subject of obedience.
Because I am an active member of the church I want to know what the doctrine is.
Second, I want to figure out what I feel about the subject.
Specifically, what experiences and beliefs do I have?
And how do those experiences and beliefs come in line with what the church teaches?Third, I need to discover how I want to share this with other people and what stories and experiences, scriptures and thoughts are pertinent to the discussion.
Interesting, I am sure.
The point, though, is that I am in the process of working on writing, working on inordertowrite.com, about to head in to school where I am actually taking (at least) three classes that will require a bit of writing, and ultimately have to fit this in with work. It’s proving to be an interesting exploration.
The question for me, at the moment, is:
What is obedience?
My tendency with this question is to look at the parent-child relationship and the people I have lived with who have had children of varying shapes and sizes still living in the house. What does it mean for a parent to expect a child to obey? Sub-question: Is tacit obedience a sign of respect or can a child be expected to present their own beliefs or morals in a specific area?
None of these questions need to be answered. They help me come to terms with what I am thinking and, immediately, the stories and experiences I am planning on sharing. One of the aspects to writing the talk is figuring out what my testimony of the subject is, write it out, then try and simplify it so that it pairs with the simplicity of the gospel. I try to approach most (gospel) subjects, and most things in life, as simply as possible. I find that if you are looking for complexities, all you will find are riddles and mazes without answer or exit; whereas, if you realize that most issues will resolve in the simplest way – and sometimes simplicity is removing an entire problem and replacing it brand new (this does not denote least expensive), then the outcome is that you are looking for the most likely and simplest answer to a problem.
Anyway, that’s what I am thinking about, today, outside of Alicia Grey and the start of school, soon, and a whole host of other things.
John Hattaway | smokingpen | Alicia Grey | Clockwork Princess | Bond. James Bond
Now That Erin is Done with Harry
Posted by smokingpen in book reviews on August 29, 2007
Now that Erin is done with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows I will tell the world what I think.
First, Harry DOES NOT DIE. I never thought that J.K. Rowling was writing a book where her principle character would die; and, moreover, was extremely pleased when I got to the end of the book and the dude was still alive. I’ve said, for a few years, that the prophecy that everyone thought was meant to kill Harry (and Voldy) really meant that Harry could not expect a normal life if Voldemort was still alive. Voldy is the one who misinterpreted the prophesy and, as a result, made a mess of things.
With that, Voldemort dies. Yup. You heard me correct. Voldy dies. I thought, “Great, about time.” I also thought, “Interesting that Rowling is allowing all of the principle kid characters have a chance at defeating a piece of Voldemort.” Since Voldemort had divided his soul in to six parts and Dumbledore destroyed a couple of those before dying (in book six, shhh… don’t tell anyone) that left one for Harry, one for Hermione, one for Ron, and one for Neville.
I thought that Ron running away from Harry and Hermione when the going got tough was not good. Moreover, I found that ENTIRE section of the book to be boring and far too much exposition. It was like slogging through mud filled with leaches while I was bleeding.
With that said, I thought it sucked the Dobbie died.
I didn’t like the fact that Fred died and was a bit off-put by it.
Percy returning to the fold was more a matter of time, for me, than something that wasn’t going to happen. I think it was forced in to it.
Having Harry become remus Lupin and Tonk’s son’s godfather was nice, then they died. Which sucked.
I liked how Harry faked death and that the Malfoy’s helped him, semi-redeeming themselves after supporting Voldy.
Moreover, I loved the fact that I was right, all along, about Snape. Snape is a good guy and was under Dumbledore’s orders – even if meant that Snape HAD to kill Dumbledore. I loved it. Moreover, I really liked what kept Snape good, and that was Harry’s mother Lilly, whom he loved.
Pretty much, I am ruining anything to do with Harry Potter. I might write more later, but, in the past month if you haven’t read it; well, it’s your own fault.
Erin is a bit nicer than me.
John Hattaway | smokingpen | Alicia Grey | Clockwork Princess | Bond. James Bond
Stupid People, Stupid Politicians
Posted by smokingpen in Politics on August 28, 2007
Was over at MSNBC.com and came across one of their Newsweek articles on a group of men starting what amounts to a PAC (Political Action Commity). The name is the Punchbowl Group and consists of lobyists, ex-members of the fed, ex-politicians, hedge fund managers, corporate leaders, and more who want the government to legislate a change in the way the Fed can change the interest rates.
The article can be found HERE!!!!
Basically, the gist of the group is that interest rates should be legislated to remain low because we, as American’s, are a country who has based its economy on borrowing money.
More, there have been more than 14 million people in “X” number of years go in to debt to buy a house, and as the housing market is the one that is currently under attack, it is up to the Federal Government and the Legislative branch (e.g. the House and Senate) to create a bail-out plan that will not cause various industries to lose jobs, have to lay people off, or just get uncomfortable as the market resets itself. Most of the men joining these Punchbowl groups are wealthy because of investments and being industry leaders.
Unfortunately, this group, as a lobbying group, is actually having a great deal of success as it approaches Congress to force an unnaturally low interest rate. Specifically, they want the interest rate to be kept low except for specific conditions they are setting forth. Congress is listening to them.
Part of the big issue with this is that the housing market, which does help fund a lot of other markets… one of the participants in this group, the auto industry.
The auto industry is actually really good at going to Congress for monetary assistance. The outcome, instead of making vehicles that are affordable and getting rid of the cancers that exist within their organizations, one of the worst of which is the unions, they raise prices and then cry , “Foul,” when the public does not immediately leap and buy new SUV’s or pick-up trucks. This, in turn, forces them to lose money, go through more lay-offs, and have to go through what is termed a restructuring and in my opinion is a way to get Uncle Sam to step in and buy the companies way out of the issues they are presented with.
In the case of the housing market, housing prices have unnaturally been on the rise first because the Fed has kept interest rates lower and mortgage lenders have been handing out hundreds of thousands of dollars at a pop because they could and because interest rates were low due to a recession back in 2001, 2002, and 2003 and forward. Moreover, there has been an active effort to convince every person that has a job that they are also entitled to the joys of home ownership and, as such, that they should go in to debt because building equity within something is better than renting. This I agree with and disagree with, but then, I agree and disagree with a lot of things.
The issue here, is that sub-prime lenders have offered loans based off of variable interest rates with promises that cannot and do not pan out. In other words, lenders have repeatedly and knowingly lied to home buyers doing two things: one, bringing a lot of people who normally would not be able to afford a house in to the housing market; and two, building a time bomb in to the housing market where, invariably, there will be an implosion when interest rates started to rise causing mortgage payments to also rise, considerably. This, in turn, causes people to default on mortgage payments leading them to lose their homes and declare bankruptcy.
Evidences of this can be seen in and around many big
There is a cascading effect to this. People start to lose jobs as different aspects of the economy are affected, which in turn means that those same people cannot spend money, which means that more jobs are lost as more revenue is lost, leading to another recession.
Recessions are bad things in the sense that recession equals a lot of people out of work; however, recessions are also good things as it means the market and economy is in a state of resetting itself to reflect more realistic values. The problem with the punchbowl groups, though, is that they want Uncle Sam, through the Congress, to artificially keep payments and interest rates low thereby allowing for them to also, artificially, keep housing and other prices high. Higher prices mean higher earnings; and higher earnings means that, publicly, it appears that these same individuals are doing extremely well.
The thing that really gets me going, though, is to claim that we, as a nation, need to keep our credit market stable to maintain markets in other countries. However, this, too, is a red herring as other markets will find other outlets and will also look to produce products for less money. China, for example, is in an explosive growth stage. If we were to enter a recession this would affect China negatively. What we fail to acknowledge is that our spending may not be good for the economic growth of China or other nations that produce what we are looking for. Moreover, product manufacturing is sent offshore to reduce costs; the more manufacturing that is sent to a nation, the higher the costs because, as a result of the business sent offshore it is necessary for businesses to become more competitive, salary-wise, to get and maintain employees. This, in case you don’t pay attention, is the reason why phone support and manufacturing changes nations semi-frequently – it is to keep corporate costs down and low. When they start to grow because you’ve invested in India (or China or elsewhere) you move them to another nation that will charge less money.
The point, though, is that the market is in desperate need of resetting. A recession will help reset it. We are better off going through a recession than attempting to maintain the current, explosive, monetary standards we are keeping. If we try to artificially avoid a recession the outcome will be hyper-inflation and an unavoidable massive recession with every nation on the Earth being affected very negatively. The problem is that the movers and shakers in the country care less about what will happen in the near future over what they think should be happening, for them, under their watch, right now.
John Hattaway | smokingpen | Alicia Grey | Clockwork Princess | Bond. James Bond
Moving On or Moving Along
Posted by smokingpen in Odds-n-Ends on August 28, 2007
So, had a chance to change the underlying software for inordertowrite.com by adding a WordPress blog as the main software for the site. I am happy with this because it allows me to operate and manage the site with a lot less stress, plus, with a little effort, I was able to make RSS (reel simple syndication) feeds show up as blog entries. Granted, there are some issues with that, still, like finding the proper URL for the blogs I want to feed in to the inordertowrite.com WordPress install, but I feel that is a small issue and not a large one. As such, I have pubrants.blogspot.com feeding to inordertowrite.com which means that site can become a stop for people wanting updates from various people around the web — I intend to add links in the Links area on the right side of the page.
Gotta admit, finding, getting Erin and my Mom and a lot of other people to use WordPress has caused me to have to learn a lot more about it. I like the program a lot. Especially since it is open source and is very well supported within that community. You can, pretty much, find all sorts of information, plugins, and themes for the website and with a little effort, you can also edit and change the themes, once downloaded, to reflect what you want them to reflect. This is very cool.
More, I can start working on entries or ideas within the administrative section of my WordPress install and save them until I’ve worked through them enough, upload images, create static pages… pretty much do whatever I want through a gui interface rather than trying to figure out how to code HTML and CSS and make both work together. Don’t get me wrong, I am not interested in changing this blog, just finding it very interesting and entertaining to be able to change inordertowrite.com and Erin’s site, and my Mom’s site whenever we need to – along with the community support that exists for the software.
With all that said, we shall grow inordertowrite.com and hopefully generate traffic that justifies the time, energy, and other efforts that have existed for that website. Of course, I just looked at the current feed and outside of showing what category it belongs in, I am not finding a linkback to the original source. That is important. I will have to mess around with it, maybe create something that links back better, and try again to make sure this is working properly.
Anyway, thought all my loyal readers would love to hear about inordertowrite.com and the most recent changes.
John Hattaway | smokingpen | Alicia Grey | Clockwork Princess | Bond. James Bond