Category: Web/Tech

Sorry, folks, but except for the note immediately above this one, I’m afraid that I’m having to take an undesired blog day off.

TypePad’s service was down Wednesday evening (and much of the day) and this prevented me from blogging. Assuming there are no new problems, normal blogging should resume tomorrow.

UPDATE: TypePad seems to have had to revert to a backup copy of their system in order to solve the problem they were having. As a result, some of my posts went back into draft mode (they have now been restored) and it looks like they lost yesterdays comments. Rats. I loved Suzanne’s amazingly candid one on the post about godparents.

Just a note to folks who may be new to the blog that it operates under Da Rulz.

One of these is Rule 3, which states:

3. Also because of the format restrictions, everyone must be concise. Don’t go on at length about things. Pasting large amounts of text into the combox also counts as going on at length. Going on at length constitutes rudeness.

We’ve had a couple of posts lately where people were violating this–I think simply because they’re new to the site and weren’t aware of Rule 3–so I wanted to post a general reminder rather than just starting to delete overly long comments.

Thanks for your cooperation!

Everything seems to be working fine now. Turned out it was a DNS problem.

BTW, the reason for the DNS change (which is now working fine, though it may take 24-48 hours for it to propagate to you) was to make it easier to get to the blog.

Up to now, you’ve had to type www. in order to get here. Otherwise you got a blank page.

Now you don’t.

TRY IT: jimmyakin.org

Typepad seems to be having a bug that is preventing the comments pages from working right. I’ve created a help ticket, and hopefully they’ll have it resolved soon. I’ll let y’all know. Sorry for the inconvenience.

A reader writes:

Given all you cover here (blog) and Catholic Answers, what works best to keep you keep from running dry?

Hm. I haven’t really thought of it in those terms. I assume that the reader is asking this to try to figure out what works for me so that he can apply similar techniques himself, so I’ll try to answer from that angle.

Usually the problem is not running out of things to say. I’m constantly on the lookout for new material on my own, and many folks write in with questions or send links. The problem is more like not having the time needed to say all of the things I could. I have to force myself not to blog more than I do because I need to spend time on other things (like having a life).

That said, there are some things that help keep me going. One is the feedback I get in the combox and via e-mail. That tells me that I’m making a connection with the readers and that they’re interested (whether they agree or not) with what I have to say. If nobody was interested in what I was saying, I’d get disappointed and quit.

The links that I get from other blogs and seeing my blog doing well in the rankings also show interest in the work I’m doing, and that’s positive reinforcement as well.

Beyond that, it’s just trying to maintain a healthy curiosity about all kinds of things and keeping an eye out for good material

If I had to summarize, I’d suggest these points:

1) Pace yourself. Figure out how much time one could afford to spend and then don’t exceed it.

2) Look for what kind of positive reinforcement you can get and take satisfaction in it.

3) Stay curious about things. Always try to be learning something new.

4) Keep on the lookout for good material. Always be pre-planning what you’re going to do next.

Hope these help!

Since JimmyAkin.Org is my most active site these days, not much attention has been paid to JimmyAkin.Com of late. For time reasons and for technical reasons that I won’t go into, I haven’t been able to update it for some time. (Think: Years.)

I’ve left the files up there, warts and all, figuring that they’d do more good than harm, but I’m frankly embarrassed by the state of the site and would very much like to get the files moved to a location where I can more easily manage and update them.

But I need help.

I may need a little css help, but what I mainly need is assistance in getting the files transferred from the current JimmyAkin.Com site to the new site.

This will not involve doing real html coding. It will mostly just be copying and pasting text from the current files into a web form.

So I’m asking for volunteers!

If you’d be interested in helping out with the project, please e-mail me or let me know your interest and e-mail address in the combox.

I’m not asking for long-term commitments, just what time people feel they can affort to volunteer. I also don’t think it’ll take that long to get the site converted to the new location once we start.

Hopefully, a number of folks will be interested in helping out and we’ll be able to debut the new, revised, and updatable JimmyAkin.Com very soon!

Thanks much, folks!

Today will be a blog day off, so go out and cook some burgers and dogs and set off some illegal fireworks or something.

Have fun!

Sorry to international readers, but I do need breaks from this stuff and may as well take them when everyone else (here) is.

A reader writes:

Would you please consider having a weekly prayer intentions post?  Your blog is so well visited that it could only be a good thing couldn’t it?  The com box could be open for visitors to leave their own intentions and prayer requests.  I know it’s none of my business what you do with your blog, just thought I’d offer the suggestion 🙂

I’m open to doing this. I don’t know if weekly is the right frequency, though if I did I’d probably do it as the final post on Fridays (like this one, for example) so that the intentions folks posted would be on people’s minds going into the weekend and Sunday.

I’d hesitate to do this too frequently, because others have established prayer ministries, and what I’m doing here is different, but prayer is an important part of the Christian life, and my blog is a pretty diverse place, so I’d like to hear what readers think about this idea and how often it should be done.

Feel free to change your handle if you feel the need to do so to give your opinion (though let’s not have a dozen different anonymous commenters, okay?).

If we do do it, I’d encourage folks to be careful what private information they reveal about themselves. They might want to change their handles–particularly if they’re using their real names as handles–when they post prayer requests.

So whadda y’all think?

I’m going to be largely offline this week as I’m putting my computer back into the shop. (They didn’t fix the problem last time, unfortunately).

In anticipation of the new repair effort, I do, however, have material scheduled to go up each day until the computer should be repaired, so the blog won’t be inactive in the interim.

My co-bloggers are, of course, welcome to toss in anything they may have on their minds to make up the difference.

Thanks, folks, and have a great rest of the week!

Sorry, folks, but I need a blog day off.

Have fun with the recent posts and archives!