Monday, January 31, 2011

I AM STUCK ON A TITLE!!!

I am not a good blog post titler. So that will have to suffice, even with all caps. They convey my frustration with subject lines and paper titles and blog post titles and all of those things, you see.

Just like John Dickinson! Um, you don't see the correlation? See, I am reading John Dickinson, a rather sharp colonist who published some letters right before the Revolutionary War (I'm reading some of his Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania for Freedom's), and he totally typed in all caps.

I know, I know. He didn't type. But what I'd like to know is, how did he convey his frustration with a quill pen? Jab holes in his paper? Occasionally dump his ink pot under the important phrases?

...or maybe he actually scrawled in all caps.

But that was completely irrelevant to this blog post, although it is something I was thinking about tonight. Maybe you can tell I'm desperate to fill space here?

I don't have much to say, mainly because last week was fairly quiet. Quiet in the sense that I was sick and spent an awful lot of time sleeping. A bunch of the kids have been sick too, so we were all rather miserable. Well, I speak for myself. ;)

But, after nearly a straight week of being feverish, achy, weirdly tired, weak, and just overall blahhh, I'm very thankful to be almost completely better today!

It's a good feeling.

Today has been a great day, especially compared with last week. The box of books that my family mailed me a few weeks ago arrived at the post office today!!! You know, the box of books that I need to finish the school semester. Pretty cool!

Yesterday I finished a missionary biography of the life of James Fraser called Mountain Rain. I highly recommend it; very inspiring. Anyhow, I was in a contemplative mood, and one of his quotes struck me:
"I often think that it is only the very, very few who are prepared, by rigorous self-discipline (not a very popular thing nowadays), for a lifetime of great usefulness like John Wesley."
So now I am wondering if I am preparing in the best way possible so that God can make my life greatly useful. I want Him to maximize my life for His glory.

A few random thoughts before I sign off here...

-Josh's phonetic spelling continues to crack me up. Tonight he told me he was "gunu et slopejos." Then, concerned about my health, he asked "hav you ben eting ulot"). I laughed.
-I fail at eating tacos. I think there's an art that I have yet to cultivate. Mine collapse on my plate in a sad heap of...taco insides. But I will learn!

I'm going to bed early tonight, so this is it for now. I'll try to update sometime when there's something more blogworthy to write about!

17 comments:

Nadea said...

This is very legitimate blog material. I see absolutely nothing wrong with it, and it's extraordinarily interesting besides. And it made me laugh. Thank you so much!!!

ps - don't stress so much. names for blog posts ... 'real' things to write about ... those are all rather negligible things. You have all the important things. :)

Danielle B. said...

1. I am in STICHES at the thought of John Dickinson furiously trying different ways of scrawling on his parchment to express his frustration. BAHAHAHA! (We JUST covered the Letters from a Farmer in-class today!)

2. Am convicted and challenged by the quote about self-discipline...*sigh*...how often are my priorities on myself, and not on God. How much each little investment counts!

3. Little bros are hilarious. I got two letters from mine and it made my day!

Twilight Shadow said...

Just came across your blog in my mad web exploration and thought
"I haven't seen Jessica's blog yet"
So here I am. First, Whats with the Comment Moderation? Don't you believe in freedom of speech? And a catchy TITLE is important. Although good content is more important, a good title will attract people to your post. If the title sounds boring then people might not read it in the first place even if it has good content. Anyway, I'm glad you are feeling better. In your spare time (lol!! I heard you where keeping busy) you should come see our blog. Your sisters and home-school friend's are enjoying it. "http://learnunderstanding.blogspot.com/"

P.S. For being "Desperate to fill space", you sure know how to fill a screen :)

Anonymous said...

Nadea, thanks for the encouragement, although I'm starting to think that I could just throw any words together, call it a post, and you would read it and be satisfied. ;)

Danielle,
1) Yes!! I'm so glad you found that funny...sometimes you just have to be in the class. ...and you're making me wish that I were taking Freedom's on campus...
2) Ah yes. I struggle with that as well.
3) They are!! And letters and emails from home seriously rock!

Twilight Shadow,
Hey, thanks for checking out my blog and leaving a comment! Comment moderation...is completely necessary because I get at least five spam comments per day, and if they all published, my blog would be overrun by now! Yessss, I know that I need to check out the free for all forum on there; I keep hearing about it. And actually, I went on there to get caught up the other day, was completely daunted by the sight of 56464653 comments, and saved it for a day when I have less to do. But I will try!
PS: have I ever struggled with having enough to say in real life? :P

Twilight Shadow said...

Ah yes, Spam :) There is a way I can help you with that my friend. If you so wish. And the only post on the Metis that you would need to read is "THE BATTLE ARENA" which is currently at 179 comments and Gryphons post about "what if?". Although you could just jump in on the "Arena" and join the sparing. No need to read the entire thing in one shot.

Anonymous said...

You can help me with spam?! That would be fantastic! It seems like the more I post and the more hits I get, the more spam comments I get....annoying!

Ah, ok, I will check those out and wade my way through *only* 179 comments... ;)

Twilight Shadow said...

I will be Switching commenting systems on the Metis. And you can see if you like it. It allows you to block users based on the IP address. So if you let spam in once or twice you can block there IP. It also allows people to comment using a facebook account, OpenID, Twitter, Disqus, and one more type of account I think. And this is all customizable of course. You can also allow people to post as a Guest and just let them type there names. but you can get a look at it when I switch over the Metis. if you dicide you like it and want help I can give you a hand.

Gryphon said...

better late than never.Good for you Jess reading all those weighty comments:)

Anonymous said...

@Twilight Shadow: Ah, I see. I'm just thinking that the spammers will still be able to comment, since I'd have to do the post-as-Guest option. But hopefully I'm wrong!

@Grypon: Thanks for popping in over here! And yes, I was quite pleased with myself for reading them all...until I realized how quickly I could get behind again!

Twilight Shadow said...

Well The "Post as Guest" option is, well, optional :) And if you block there IP then it would not matter anyway because any traffic coming from there IP would be blocked. So even if they try to post as a guest that doesn't change there IP address.
Unless they use a proxy to get here.
If that happens then I will think of something else ;)
By the way, what did you do to tick so many people off that they send spam?

Anonymous said...

Hmm....but would I still get notified when people comment? Because I'm bad enough as it is at getting back to people, and I have to approve their comments, meaning I *have* to read them. :P But I might forget my blog entirely if I'm not emailed continually with comments!

Haha, I have no idea! They are just jealous of my blog's HUGE popularity, no doubt.

Twilight Shadow said...

Yes. There is an option to receive an Email notification when people comment. This option is useful when you're the tech support and are asked questions ;)
Would you like to try it out?
I had posted a comment about the process on the Metis.
"http://learnunderstanding.blogspot.com/2011/01/battle-arena.html#comment-140760867"
If you encounter difficulty you know how to get ahold of me.

Anonymous said...

Ok, that's helpful to know. I'm still not ready to make the switch, though, because it's my understanding that if people don't have a facebook account they'd have to create one with Disqus in order to comment...am I right? And if they comment with facebook, their real name shows up?

Twilight Shadow said...

I made a account with Disqus without a facebook account. Oh, never mind, that's not what you meant. I haven't had my morning cup of tea yet so I am still a little foggy :) forgive me.
ummm.... Yes you would need to create a disqus account to put it on your blog. People would have a lot of ways to comment. There is openID, Twitter, Yahoo, Disqus and Facebook. If people used facebook to sign in and comment then whatever name they put on there facebook account would show up. I have heard that your google public profile can be used as an openID. Or if you want to you can allow guests to comment with whatever names they want. of course I already have a Disqus account so it wouldn't be a problem for me :)
And even if you leave the comments open to guests you can still block IP addresses and your spamer's will still be blocked. And you can easily add or remove the Disqus comment system whenever you want if you decide you don't like it. But if you don't feel that you need this then you don't need to use it.
It was just an idea to help make your life a little bit easier by hitting the root of the spam problem.

P.C. said...

If talking about switching to using the software that is being used on Metis then yes if one comments with their facebook account then yes their real name shows up. They can also however comment as a guest or using an openId. I do not see how switching would stop spam. I also think that comment review is quite reasonable on a blog. Freedom of speech does not mean one can say whatever one want where ever one wants to.

Anonymous said...

Heh...morning cup of tea? You sound British! ;)

Ok, I think I've got it now...sometimes I am "dense like brick" (and I'll let you determine the origin of that quote...). Basically, if I used Disqus, it wouldn't necessitate that commenters go to all the hassle of creating an account with something (facebook, disqus, yahoo, etc) since I could allow people to comment as guests. And if a spammer commented as a guest, I could block their IP and delete their comments, though I'd be unable to moderate anymore.

Weighing pros and cons here...I think I'm going to stick with what I've got, though I really appreciate all your trouble to educate me and help with the spam problem!

Maybe I just like the feeling of power that comment moderation gives me. ;)

Twilight Shadow said...

Switching would not lessen your moderating abilities but it is a little different. Just thought I would through this option out there.
Sorry, I will stop bothering you now :)