Wonky Comments Too

So not only has my blog been wonky, but now I see the comments have been wonky too.

No, the comments themselves haven't been.  (My apologies Suzanne, Melanie, Cheryl, Jane in SB, and Karen in MI.  You're not being weirdos at all.  Well, not any more than the likable weirdness that is the norm.)  Something IS up, however, with the comment feature.  Today I noticed that a request for comment moderation was dumped into my spam folder.  That's when I discovered that a whole bunch of other comments were awaiting moderation -- comments from months ago.  Comments that never arrived, not even diverted to the spam folder.  They were simply sucked into a tiny corner of the blogger program.

Well, they have been found and posted.

Settings have been adjusted.  I was moderating comments only because my mom couldn't manage the "Prove you're not a robot" verification.  But Mom's not reading my blog now, so I no longer need to take that into account.

The trick now is to see if I can remember to keep peeking into that little forsaken corner in case of older comments.  And in the meantime, I have to watch for new comments that would hawk lower mortgages, exercise equipment, new roofs, and sexy girlfriends.  (I suspect you want those things just about as much as I do.)

Recent Events

Elizabeth's arrival is the best of the recent events.  But, oh!, I do wish I had the strength and endurance to go help more, visit more, snuggle more. 

Gary's hungry.  He's having some health problems that require [deep serious voice--] Dietary Changes.  Right now it seems like there's nothing he can eat but veggie salads.  Nothing with sticking-power.  Yeah, but how much of that is real, and how much is scientists and chemists trying to figure out the art of medicine?  Once he gets the pain under control, I suppose then we can begin experimenting.  I'm wondering: if we fix guts, might the rest of the body straighten out too?

Sister, brother, and I divided up most of the belongings of my mom's house.  I've heard stories from other families about what happens when a parent dies.  Oh my goodness -- I am so thankful that we can get along and be nice to each other!

Maggie and I have an appointment coming up at Easter Seals to see if they have any programs that might benefit her. 

Between Gary, Maggie, Rachel, and me, it seems like we're seeing doctors or making appointments or receiving test results practically every day.  My head is swimming. 

Pretty soon I will be leaving my job.  Working and homeschooling and healing-from-stroke was at the utter limits of what I could do.  There was no margin.  Mom' death and helping with settling things just didn't/won't fit in.  So something has to go.  Since Maggie's not expendable, and since I have no magic wand to [poof] achieve full healing from my brain injury, the job is the only thing that I can take a break from.  I will miss it.  I will miss some of the customers.  I will miss the paycheck.  But mostly I will miss the nice feeling of having finished a task completely and correctly.  I keep reassuring myself that I can always reapply for the job when some of these family matters are wrapped up.

Google tells me that the European Union has instituted new rules for cookies on websites.  That means bloggers must inform readers about cookies and obtain consent.  I don't know how to do that!  And I don't have the time or brain power to bother with figuring it out right now.  So my counter (which is, I think, the only cookie I have) had to go bye-bye.  If you leave an anonymous comment, please sign something on the bottom so I know who you are, so I can allow the comment to go through.  (You could use initials, or first name plus last initial, or "Friend in Janesville," etc.)  It's getting tempting to just shut-down the blog or make it private (readers by invitation only).  But I'd need to save a lot of information first, including printing out recipes.  And that too is too much work right now. 

Katie, Maggie, and I watched "Pride and Prejudice" at APT last weekend.  Sarah Day does such a great job with fussy, busybody women-characters!  And Marcus Truschinski is the best Mr Darcy I ever saw.  

I'm working on lacto-fermenting veggies.   The corn relish was made with fresh-picked corn from the farm.  I made it a few years ago, and it was my favorite pickled recipe.  It's great to make another batch.  I should get my hands on some more corn while it's still available.  The pickle-batch I set aside today was sauerkraut.  Fresh, unheated sauerkraut is so much yummier than the cooked/canned soft kind.  I think broccoli slaw may be my next attempt.  There are so many possibilities that sound good.  And non-vinegar pickles are so much tastier ... as well as being super-healthy.

Community -- Technology

Americans naively accept new technologies, thinking only of what these technologies can do, but never what they can undo.

Crunchy Cons, page 33,

referring to Neil      

Postman's Technopoly

Yes.

TV.  Facebook.  Smart-phones.  Email lists. 

But they're here.

No undoing it.

How do we respond, 

using the technology wisely,

and yet preserving what that technology will undo?

The Popularity of Sims

In Bible class recently, we were discussing how God's word determines the value of things.  God made the light, and He declared it to be good.  He said the earth and seas are good.  He said the man and woman He created (and the marriage by which He joined them) was very good.

God is the one who gets to say what's good and what's not.  Hey, He was the one who made it.

Now, if you create a universe, then you get to decide how things go and what value things have.  If you create the universe, you get to decide, for example, whether "being happy" is more important than being moral.



And that's when I realized: maybe that's why Sims and Minecraft and other video games are so popular.  It's where we get to be god.

Crucifix Shopping

Shhh: don't tell the computer or Big Brother.  I have figured out how to get NICE ads in the sidebar of my computer.  If you go shopping for a few hours on eShakti, they start sending you gazillions of ads.  If you keep clicking on them, pretty soon the ads go away that want you to [ahem] meet singles or buy Bounty or subscribe to some liberal magazine.

Tonight I spent a couple of hours looking for crucifixes.  On ebay.  On Amazon.  On various Catholic church-supply sites.  And now I have crosses and pretty dresses popping up as ads.  Nice!

While shopping, I discovered how

few people knew what a crucifix is.  There were plenty of empty crosses listed under "crucifix."  There were also the kind that some of our kids received as baptism gifts from the congregation -- the kind with a kneeling child in the center.

"I don't like that cross, Mom!  I don't want to die on a cross!"

Uh, yeah, that was when those crosses went away.

I also discovered somebody's crafts: turquoise and yellow beads, strung together like we used to make at summer camp to be key chains or lanyards.  In a cross-shape.  Turquoise and yellow.  Ugly as could be.  Mixed in with the crucifixes.  Good grief.  It takes a lot of sifting to shop for something online.



PS: If you need an introductory coupon for eShakti (which also offers free customizing on first-time orders), let me know.  You'll get $25-35 off your first try, and I'll get a $10 referral coupon.

Facebook Friends

I now have nearly as many "friend requests" as I have friends. 

I struggle to cope with my computer addiction.  I don't want to miss what's being talked about.  I hate being geographically-distant from friends, and emails/FB/blogs help me stay a little bit in-the-loop.  Because of my lack of self-discipline, I use other self-controls.  One scheme is to limit myself to fewer-than-100 Facebook friends. 

My self-imposed rule is that FB friends are
~people I lived with (parents, siblings, children),
~people who live with people I lived with (in-laws, some of the nieces/nephews)
~a few close friends
~some of my kids' best-buddies
~a few folks from church

If I'm friends with the wife, I probably am not friends with the husband too.  I figure I'll hear news of their family from one of them.

Gary and I have a nice balance between our FB accounts.  I have few friends, but I can actually keep up with them.  That way, Gary hears about interesting things he might not otherwise notice.  Gary, on the other hand, has loads of friends.  This means he can contact people for me through his account, or let me see pictures, or hunt up information for people that are my in-real-life friends (or acquaintances) but aren't my FB friends. 

So if I haven't accepted your FB-friend request, don't be hurt.  It's nothing personal.  It's my feeble attempt to do some chores and interact with my family instead of spending my time glued to the computer. 

Computer Fix

I think I fixed it!

Loads of old programs were wiped out and not re-installed.  I even figured out how to delete the back-up file that was space-hogging after I'd re-installed everything.  (Okay, so some of you are shaking your head at the simplicity of this.  Shhh!  I am proud of myself.)  The computer moved a whole lot faster after I ditched everything and put it all back.  But when I got rid of the back-up file (which the computer self-generated) everything moved much faster yet.  Hot diggity dog!

Now I suppose it's time to get back to housecleaning and yard work and homeschooling and all that other Regular-Life stuff.


In other news, the girls are back from a visit to Texas.
Nathan quit his job at Xerox to start a new job editing.
We've been singing unusually good hymns the last few weeks.
Maggie started volunteering at school again, a fabulous experience.

Philip took a brief trip to Canada just for fun.
Brewers game and tailgating with some friends this week.
The strawberry bed has been undone and planted to grass.
Two APT plays so far this year, and two still on the docket.
Olivia went to college (nearby) so Andrew is gone more.
Maggie and I joined Curves so that she can get in shape.
Now that the computer is fixed, maybe we can turn our attention to the water situation next.  It's getting funny how the gals at the grocery store expect to see us every day for water refills.
It's been nice to hear several other adults in the last week or so say that at 9:00 they're getting ready for bed.

Squeamish about Using Credit Cards Online?

Gift cards.

Yup, that's the answer.

If you're nervous about the thought of putting your credit-card number out there in cyberspace, Visa gift cards can solve the problem. Our bank sells the cards for a $3 fee, and you can buy a card with any value up to $1000. Many banks sell these cards, and you can even buy them at grocery stores and department stores too. Some people use the gift cards as [gasp] gifts. Some use them as pre-paid "credit" if regular credit is unattainable. And some use them specifically for online purchases. If you want to shop at Amazon, say, you can buy a $200 card (for $203) and use the gift-card only for online shopping. Or maybe you know you want to buy a book that will cost $13 with its shipping, so you spend $16 for the $13 card. One way requires more money upfront that may sit around unused for a while; the other way eats up more in fees. But either way eliminates risk to your credit and identity.

Faking It in English

Because the word-verification system made it hard for my mom to comment on my blog, I removed it.  Whoa -- I started seeing spammy comments that seldom made it through when the captcha was operating.  So now my blog is set to require my approval of any comments before they appear online.

Yowza!  My mailbox is filling up with spam.  There are more ad-comments submitted than real comments.  Most of them try to flatter me into approving their comments.  And the English is atrocious.  It can be funny how bad it is.

Some examples:


~I like what I see so i am just adhering to you.

Band-aids?


~Hello! Your article rocks as well as becoming a respectable amazing realize!??

Well, who'd want a "realize" which isn't respectable?



~It is the best time to make some plans for the future and it is time to be happy.  I have read this put up and if I may I wish to recommend you few fascinating issues or advice. 

A put up?  
And I see he has only a few fascinating issues to recommend.




~Do you mind if I quote a few of your posts as long as I provide credit and sources back to your site?  My blog site is in the exact same niche as yours. 

So this one has proper English.  But the link being advertised later in the comment had nothing whatsoever to do with anything I write about.  Do some people fall for this line?



~I thіnk thiѕ iѕ among the such a lot impoгtant info for me. 

Huh?




~Preserve up the terrific works men I've incorporated you fellas to my private blogroll.

Huh? again.  





~I personally experienced a number of intricacies employing this website.   I became asking yourself when your website hosting is OK? 

I have no idea what it is to "experience intricacies."  And there's no telling what word "became" was confused for.  



The spam-for-smut annoys me.  But some of the rest of it can be a hoot.

 

Exceptionally Good Deals Online

When the kids want to buy something online, and find a super-dooper el-cheapo deal, I've always been a little uneasy.  I couldn't say why.  Even though it's unlikely, I've wondered if maybe it was stolen merchandise.  Then there's also the mantra, "If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is." 

I learned recently that sometimes a disreputable company will post unbelievable prices.  After all, the customers think, why pay $30 for something when you can buy it for $4?  Yes, that's a real price.  And yes, you'll get your merchandise.  But the company might also implant malware that will log your key-strokes, so that they can obtain your passwords to various accounts as well as financial information.  If they get past your firewalls and other protection, that cheap stuff is going to cost a lot more in the long run.

Sometimes it's worth it to pay more.

Private Music

While piano-hunting, the salesmen repeatedly pointed out the benefits of the earphones that can be plugged into a digital piano. They told us how great it is to be able to practice without disturbing the people around you. I can see benefits there. If you live in an apartment, you can play without annoying the people upstairs. If you work odd hours --or if you awaken in the night and want to play hymns for comfort-- the earphones make it possible for you to make your music while the rest of the household slumbers away. If you're learning a piece and embarrassed to be heard, you've got privacy because of the earphones.

And yet ...

Is that good?

Isn't there something good about all of you hearing the same music? Isn't there something good about learning to take turns -- someone playing piano for a while and then someone else listening to the tv or radio -- sharing the airwaves? Isn't there something instructive about listening to a person learn to play, whether it's the primer book, simple scales, or more complicated pieces? Isn't there something good about the whole family hearing Jill's piece for the recital 287 times in one week?

When we use the earphones, we disassociate with each other. But that's not all. We also take away our exposure to someone's fumbling about while in the learning-stages. And that's not a good thing. Especially in our day of recorded music (where there might have been over 100 attempts at getting the recording Right before the entertainer finds a "keeper") it's important that we experience the process of learning. Children especially need to see that mistakes are made, and that we all do a cruddy job in the beginning phases of gaining a skill, and that it takes work and practice before a piece is smoothed and polished and refined.

I'm not going to toss my piano's earphones into the trash. We will keep them. Sometimes we will use them. But for the most part, earphones seem like another wedge to family togetherness, as well as another way to portray excellence while hiding the path of hard work and the plethora of errors that led to that excellence.

Facebook

In an attempt to cut down on my computer time, I've decided to ban myself from Facebook four days per week. I intend to cut my friends-list in half or more. When I originally signed up for Facebook, my plan was to "friend" only close family and a couple of friends. I was "hidden," and my list consisted of around 20-25 people for many months.

Then Facebook took away the option to be hidden. The recent changes on Facebook seem too overwhelming for me to figure out at this point in my life. Facebook wants to give us more reasons to interact on their site, and that's the exact opposite of what I want. Given that I've spent the last few years trying to curtail my attraction to goofing on the computer, this seems as good a time as any to back off in this one area. I'm not willing to axe the whole account (at least, not yet) because I want to see baby pictures and wedding pictures and reunion pictures, all of which are easy to share via Facebook.

If I believed in signs from God, I would say that He sent several this week confirming that this is a good plan. Please don't take it personally if I 'unfriend' you or fail to respond to FB messages. I'm just trying to spend more time with In-Real-Life interaction than electronic conversations.

Wish me luck.

Theology-by-Quote

If you've been around the Lutheran cyberworld, you have run into the Quote Wars. Somebody quotes the Bible or the Confessions to support his point, and then says, "So, what do you say to that?" Or there will be quotes from Luther, from Walther and Pieper, from Cyprian and Augustine, even from Sasse and Marquart: "Take that! And that! So how do you answer that, huh? See, Luther said it. You'd best not disagree with Luther!"



Once upon a time, my children were active on the Higher Things email list. Oftentimes, theological discussions would arise onlist, and those topics would invariably spill over to the dinner table. At one point, there was a discussion of the image of God, what it is, what it's not, what it means, etc. The teenagers onlist were debating; pastors got involved too and gave input. As the kids and I talked about the right and wrong points of various participants, I was reminding them of what Pastor says in Didache (and other venues) about the image of God being interwoven with a plurality of persons in one union, giving and receiving love.

The surprise came when one of the pastors (who was disagreeing with what my kids were saying as they echoed Pastor B) quoted Pastor B to prove his point.

Huh?

When questioned, the pastor was adamant that this quote from Pastor B's book proved that my kids were wrong. It's right there in print; this is what Pastor B says; so thus-and-such is what he means, and he agrees with what I'm saying. Wondering if we might be misunderstanding Pastor, I asked him about the topic. Nope, I'd understood correctly from the start. Nope, that quote was taken out of context and did not mean at all what the other guy took it to mean.

Oh.

It made me wonder about other quotes. What happens when someone says, "This is what Luther says! Don't you agree with Luther?" What happens when someone pulls out a Bible verse and asks, "You aren't going to tell me you disagree with God's word, are you?" (Interestingly, the devil kind of said the same thing to Jesus during the temptations immediately following His baptism.) I've seen quotes that I had a hard time believing were quotes from the person cited; when I looked into the matter further and saw the context of the quote, everything fell into place. No, that writer/speaker was not saying what the quoter suggested he was saying ... even though those are the words that came from his pen or from his mouth.

I've become very skeptical of Quote Wars, especially when agreement-with-quotes is used as a litmus test. Wouldn't it work better to communicate in your own words with the individual person?

Passwords

Gary and I both have to change our passwords frequently at work. Many companies' computers are programmed to require new passwords every 30 or 60 or 90 days. But how to remember those passwords that change frequently? (And yes, I know we're supposed to change them at home that frequently too...)

One of my ideas for passwords is using various friends' phone numbers. (Does anybody besides me still memorize phone numbers in this age of speed-dial and cell phones?)

Another idea is using people's names with their birthday attached, or couples' names with their anniversary attached. (Maybe we don't remember people's celebration days anymore either, what with Facebook reminders of birthdays.)

Another idea is to use the name of someone for whom you want to pray. If you have to use your password 3-10 times a day, then each time you type in the person's name, you have a reminder to pray "Lord, have mercy" for this person.

Curiosity -- Good or Bad?

It's a whole lot easier to homeschool a kid who's bursting with curiosity. They must know what's inside that book! They must understand how this-or-that concept ties in with a scientific principle! They must read more more more [non-fiction] when they come across tidbits and factoids in a story they're reading! They must play with a new building toy or science kit until they've got all the combinations and permutations figured out!

However ... I have also noticed that my kids who have less curiosity are also the kids who tend to be more content.

Some of my homeschooling friends talk about their FOMS disease (fear of missing something). It can lead people to spend too much time with friends online, or too much time listening to the news and trying to solve the world's problems, or too much time wondering what's the scoop on Facebook (whether it's a fight or an inside joke). I have had a terrible case of FOMS; I have had all my life; I am [sloooowly] getting better as I realize how comfortable it is to be in the garden or reading to Maggie when other people are in an online uproar.

So, it may be harder to do your schoolwork when you're not driven with curiosity. But if it means it's easier to be content and to not be a buttinsky, maybe that lack of curiosity will have some very good results later in life.

Lack of Jokes

Some of my friends and family have greatly enjoyed the daily jokes I used to have on my blog. I hear about people missing the daily laugh when I don't get around to gathering jokes. But it's been hard recently to find jokes. Internet copyright laws have become stricter. Sifting through online jokes involves skipping over lots of really filthy (and unfunny) jokes. Then there are the mediocre jokes which aren't worth laughing at. And when I find something funny, these days it is inevitably copyrighted. I spent an hour this morning hunting jokes and found only one I could post, and it was only slightly funny. I found a three hilarious ones, but I'm not willing to risk the fines if somebody finds out I've posted them here. And I'm not willing to post the links because there may be one or two good jokes on a full page of other stuff (including icky ads). Gary suggested finding old joke books, old enough to have gone out of copyright. But those are probably old jokes that y'all have heard before. Besides it would take a lot more work. I understand that people want to be paid for what they do. But still, ... "pay me to pass on my joke and brighten somebody else's day"?

Computer Use

1. The computer has been running like molasses for the last several weeks. I have rebooted frequently. We defragmented the computer. The virus scan and spyware scans come up clear. The specs tell me there's still oodles of free space. So why is this machine so slow?? Yesterday the internet connection disappeared altogether, and we had to reboot the modem. Wow -- suddenly it's like I have an all-new speedy computer!

2. Because most of the kids' friends are either in conventional school or are homeschooled on an 8-3:00 M-F schedule, we have been facing lots of temptations and interruptions to the schoolwork that fits nicely into the evenings and weekends and school vacations. This week I figured we should give up trying to hold to the schedule that we used for a couple of decades, and just submit to "do school" on the same schedule that The Rest Of The World does school. First constraint we put on ourselves was no television or computer playing (Facebook, chats, you-tubes, blogs, video games, etc) from 7:30 until 3:00. We have managed to survive three days thus far and [hold onto your hats!] the world has not collapsed. I hope, as we continue this, that the self-imposed limitations become easier to live with.

Back When I Was Young

"Back in the day," we used to watch live television. You turned on the tv, tuned in a channel, and watched whatever was coming over the airways. The show started at a particular time, and ended at a particular time, and it had commercials. If you got there five minutes late, you missed the first five minutes of the show. If you had to go to the bathroom or grab a drink from the kitchen, you missed whatever was on tv while you were out of the room.

We seldom watch tv anymore. We watch you-tube videos. We watch DVDs, both for movies and sit-coms. We watch Netflix shows.

This is very hard for Maggie to understand. Live television has been explained to her, but she has so little experience with it that it's hard for her to truly comprehend. If we're watching live tv (such as the Superbowl) she may tell us to "put it on pause" while she leaves the room to fetch her colored pencils.

It happened again yesterday. I was listening to the live-streaming of the synodical convention. Katie called to ask mommy-advice about split chins on children. Maggie was having a booger of a time finding the "pause" button on the live-streaming. I told her she could just turn down the volume, but she didn't want to do that. She knew I'd miss something, see?, if she didn't stop the "show" while I was gone. She was trying to be helpful.

It always shocks me when I realize how little she understands about the difference between broadcasts and recordings. But then, why should she??

Reason for My Blog

Just a reminder (in light of something I heard recently)...
This blog exists for two main reasons.
1. So that Mom and my kids can keep up on some daily happenings in our household.
2. Because the margins in my Bible aren't big enough to write down all the notes I want to scribble there. Don't be offended if I write about theology; I'm not being didactic: it's just that this blog is my own little pensieve.

I do need to rethink the posting of daily happenings. With a huge increase in recent months of strangers visiting my blog (via the "next blog" button on blogger) I've been hesitant to post things that I previously would have put up.

Oh, wait. There's another reason for my blog.
3. Writing helps me keep my hold on sanity. It's an outlet.

Goal Achieved

No doubt, some of my friends will be disappointed in my rejoicing. But here goes anyway...

I have been trying to gain control over my computer addiction. I'm trying to limit my time on Facebook and email discussion-boards. I'm even blogging less -- which drives me a bit batty when my fingers are itchin' to type and empty out my brain into my pensieve.

It so happens that one of the email lists in which I participate has counters of people's posts. When the group started, I was one of the top posters. Last August, in a fit of "I must cut back on my computer time," I determined that I would work my way off the Top Ten Contributors list. That list was a visible and objective way to measure how much time I spend playing online. Within a month or two, I was no longer listed on the Monthly Top Ten List. It has taken since August, but today somebody else finally bumped me off the All-Time Top Ten list. Success! (At least for a day or so.)