My spam filter doesn’t work with the latest version of WordPress.  I can’t deal with 15,000 spam comments per month, so I have disabled comments until they update the spam filter software.  Sorry for the inconvenience!  I can’t spend the time to dig through thousands of spams to find the one comment that might be legitimate.

I’ve updated a few things about the blog which should hopefully be transparent to all of my readers.  There’s a new version of WordPress on the back end, in addition to an updated Theme for the visuals.  I’ve doubled the number of Random Quotes on the sidebar so frequent readers should see some new ones now.

If you find any problems with the site, please let me know so I can fix them.  Thanks for visiting!

Well, making the blog private didn’t work out so well.  I have a much larger following than I anticipated both here and at Flickr.  WordPress also doesn’t allow a person to cache a login, nor does it allow you to only present entries to those who are Subscribers.  Overall I suppose since my entries have been public for so long, there’s not much good in making them private at this point.  Therefore, I have once again made the blog public.

Thanks to everyone who came forward to show their support.  I never realized how many friends and family were eagerly anticipating my next update!  Hugs to you all!

After much consideration (and staring copyright violations and image theft in the face) I have decided to make this blog private.  If you would like access to it, send me an email and I will create an account for you.  I will continue adding private content for family and friends.

Well, it finally happened. The day has come when I found one of my own images, posted on Flickr to share with other creative souls, stolen and displayed without credit on a spammer site.  If you search for “Cricut birthday card” on Google Images, it turns up on the first page.

They stole all the articles, they stole all the images, and it’s a huge front for a spammer with Google ads.  Not that it matters, but I did leave the site a nice “comment” since there is absolutely nothing else that can be done.

I guess it’s time to restrict access to my images.  My Flickr account will now be available only to those who are “friends” of mine on the site.  If you’d like access to my images, send me an email.

With the advent of Flickr, Facebook and Twitter, blogging has become a thing of the past.  Other than me and Andrew, I can’t say as I know anybody who has a blog anymore.  This one has suffered too, since most of my postings are done on social networking sites that are popular today.

I joined Flickr on July 20, 2008 as a pro user.  Since then, I’ve posted 1,656 photos.  No videos though – those go up on YouTube instead.  Flickr is incredible for sharing and organizing photos.  I love the groups feature, and finding neat photographers is easy.  I’ve gathered a lot of inspiration from people I’ve met on Flickr.  DaD is on there as well, and posts pictures of his model builds.  Andrew has a complete catalog is his Transformers collection and has quite a following of fans.

Facebook, I just can’t say enough cool things about.  I joined during graduate school in Fall 2007 as a means to collaborate with my classmate at ASU.  Now, nearly my entire family is on Facebook, and many of my friends.  My Dad, Ashley, Joe, Aunt Colleen, Grandma Cole, Uncle Keith, Aunt Cathy, Uncle Bret, Aunt Patte, Sara and Courtney, and so many others.

Even my MOM is now on Facebook, as of last week!  That’s something I never thought I would see.  In fact, we got Mom a cell phone on our plan, and she even sends me text messages a few times per week.

My Facebook Profile

Facebook is easy to use, easy to update, and allows you to keep in contact with tons of people at once.  It has become the primary means of communicating and socializing these days.  Andrew’s family stays away from it, as does my sister.

Twitter is another way to keep up with everyone, in short bursts of tweets.  Since joining on January 12, 2009 I have posted “tweeted” 467 times.  With just a line or two of text, you can broadcast to the world what you are doing at that moment.  Whether you’re getting ready for work, standing in line at a concert, or driving to California, it doesn’t seem to matter as long as you tweet it.  I follow a few dozen celebrities and some friends, as well as informational tweets like from the Town of Gilbert, or AZCentral.  We’ve found some neat things to do through tweets, such as free sliders or events at a local park.

Another feature I have recently come to love is Google’s Reader. It allows you to subscribe to and organize RSS feeds, which bring you news and updates from any website that posts with RSS. My feeds are organized into folders, which provides a good insight into my current interests:

Baking and Food
Business
Friends
Fun
Genealogy
Google Picks
Movies
News
Photography Sites
Scrapbooking
Technology
Travel

Is social networking the end of blogging?  Only time will tell. Ironically, I have started scrapbooking again after a 5-year hiatus. Kathleen and I went to the Creating Keepsakes Scrapbooking Convention in Glendale, AZ the first weekend in October, 2009. It inspired me to work on recent vacations and event tickets. At least the art of recording information isn’t dead – it’s just evolving to use technologies of today!

We’ve been distraught with horrible network speeds at home for quite some time now.  Cox advertises download speeds that are radically higher than the 950k we had been experiencing.  Andrew and I thought maybe it was just Cox Communications and our neighborhood. A few months back, we replaced our main router because it seemed to have bit the dust, but the speeds did not get better.

Walking around Best Buy tonight, we happened across a Linksys cable modem.  Having $10 in Best Buy bucks combined with a 10% off coupon, we thought it was worth a shot.   We came home and installed the new cable modem, then called Cox to register the MAC address for it.

The download speeds immediately shot up to almost 6MB/sec, about 6x what they were before!  We can’t be positive it wasn’t something that Cox did on their end, but it looks like the cable modem did the trick.

Hooray for 6x faster!

For several years, I’ve been using the Nine Shades of Green template for WordPress. While I love the template, it seemed like a good time to try something fresh.

This new template is called Ahisma. I like it because you can collapse the sidebar on the left. It was pretty simple to customize and add an image.

I was able to get the Google Calendar to work again, but I took it out after realizing how much longer it takes to load the page. With it, the page loads in about 5 seconds. Without it, about 1 second. Until I can find a more efficient way to add the entries, I think I’ll just leave it off.

Let me know what you think!

For all of you who wander to this blog, looking for an update… I’ve got something special planned for you.

Over the next 80+ days, a new post will appear every day. Each one will contain an original poem or essay written by me. They range from 1993 through 1999 and cross every topic from love to hate to society to random beliefs. These poems are from books I have compiled of my own poetry and prose. You can read it, comment on it, hate it, but ASK before you use it.

My three books of poetry are:

The Apprentice (1993-1994)
Thorns of the Rose (1994-1995)
Fire in the Sky (1995-1996)

A quick note to my readers: I am a writer. I write things that come from experience, ideas, thoughts, fears, etc. I want it clear to all people who read my work that I did not necessarily experience the things I write about. Some of my work is controversial and downright scary. Some of it really makes you think. Please do not be offended by any of my ideas.

Some of it is good – most of it is crap – but at least you’ll see updates! Enjoy!

Inauguration of Barack Obama

On January 21, 2009 I watched our new President, Barack Obama, navigate through his lengthy inauguration.    Times have definitely changed!  Via the web through CNN Live on Facebook, I watched the event and was able to chat live with my friends about what was happening.

It was a very cool use of technology.  It was the first time in history that I was able to communicate with friends regarding a live event being broadcast on the web and across the globe.  Quite an exciting day!

I hope that our new President can bring us many things the previous administration failed to accomplish.  With a motto like “Yes, we can!” I sure hope he actually can!