Blogging for Beginners

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2010-04-28T10:21:00.001-07:00

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Twitter

2007-05-14T11:44:00.000-07:00

What is Twitter? You asked that if you read the previous post, and followed to this post! Well, its somewhere between a blog and an IM. It uses both, if you want to.

What they say...
A global community of friends and strangers answering one simple question: What are you doing? Answer on your phone, IM, or right here on the web!

Multiple interfaces to a list of what you are doing. Your friends can "follow" you and get updates via their IM, the web or even their phone.

I have chosen to just use the IM and web, my phone makes noise and vibrates enough as it is.

Check out Twitter and see what all the Twittering is about.

Tumblr

2007-05-14T11:40:00.000-07:00

Tumblelogs are small blogs. Perfect for beginners. Very simple. The home page boasts that you can set up your own in 30 seconds. ( I did it in less, but I am not a beginner. ;) )

Go and check it out. I love this site.

My tumblr is at http://tumblr.dixbert.com/ - I post directly to it, and I also have it set to publish my Twitter feed. What is Twitter? Read the next post.

-Al

Other Blogging Revenues by Blogging Pro

2005-11-26T19:05:00.000-08:00

I’m always reading about how Adsense is the best source of income for a blog. While I love Adsense myself, I don’t believe it necessarily has to be the biggest source of income for a site. My sites’ biggest income comes from directly selling ads to people...

Other Blogging Revenues by Blogging Pro

Blogger Tool: AvantBlog by Blogging Pro

2005-11-26T19:03:00.000-08:00

Blogger users can post entries from their Palm or WinCE device via AvantGo using AvantBlog.

Blogger Tool: AvantBlog by Blogging Pro

Passion or Knowledge by Blogging Pro

2005-11-26T19:02:00.000-08:00

Every business day, I wake up and shuffle over to my computer and breathe a sigh of relief as I read through the RSS feeds I subscribe to on various topics. I then get to do my dream job which is to research and write about the topics I love....

Passion or Knowledge by Blogging Pro

10 Key Ingredients of a Great Blog

2005-11-16T08:35:00.000-08:00

10 Key Ingredients of a Great Blog | Performancing.com

Chris Garrett tells us some common sense requirements for a "Great Blog". Sometimes common sense has to be written down and read though, so here are the 10 things. You'll have to go to his post to get the lowdown though.

Credibility, Authority, Passion, Personality, Reliability, Empathy, Reality, Unique(ness), Timeliness, Membership.

There is also some good discssion by other members at performancing.com at the end of Chris' post.

Link Dump from eContentmag.com

2005-10-25T13:36:00.000-07:00

Link Dump: A link dump is a technical term that many bloggers use when they have a lot of links to put out to their readers, but not enough time to talk about each one. So here's a link dump on Blogs for you.

Blogging Hits the Conference Circuit at BlogOn

CBS.com Announces Blogging for Primetime Programs

AOL Extends Free Journals Blogging Tool to AIM Service

Live Bookmarks from Firefox allow you to "Bookmark" your favorite Blogs

Blog Search Market Heats Up

Learn how to link in your posts...

2005-05-31T08:13:00.000-07:00

One of the best attributes of a good blog post is its links to background information or supporting documents. It is one thing to state fact or opinion on a subject, and another alltogether to provide some means for your reader to explore the subject on their own and come to their own conclusions. This is one of the key differences between "blog" reporting and mainstream media reporting. Most bloggers love to reveal their sources...

So how do you make a link in your post to another location? All you need to know is the most basic of html tags and the destination URL (Uniform Resource Locator) of the page you wish to link to.

Lets say I wanted to create a link to Paschal Baute's home page. I know the URL is http://www.paschalbaute.com, and I include the http:// too. That is the part that takes it from just being a description of the address to being an actual, well formed web address.

Most blog interfaces contain a toolbar button for links. To use that button, simply highlight the term in your post you wish the reader to click on, and then click the toolbar button. A small dialog will pop-up will appear and will contain the text that you highlighted, and a blank space for the URL. Copy and paste the URL into the space provided and hit the ok or save button. Depending on the view of your work that you currently have, HTML or WYSIWYG, you will see the link applied to the text.

Doing so manually, is just as easy. Before the text you want to be the link, add this html tag to your post.

<a href="http://www.paschalbaute.com"> but replace my URL with the page you want the vistor to go to.

At the end of the text, close the html tag like this: </a>

So the end result looks like this:

<a href="http://www.paschalbaute.com">Paschal's Home Page</a>

When you post, the html will be rendered as part of the web page and all you and your vistors will see is this.

Paschal's Home Page

Copy/Paste problems

2005-04-11T07:35:00.000-07:00

Have you ever selected a bunch of text from a web page because you wanted to email it or add it to a document, or perhaps even add it as a quote to your own blog? What happened when you pasted it? Did you get pictures too, or tables and lines where you just wanted text? Did it take a long time to finally paste? If all of this sounds familiar, then you are probably a Windows user that copied text out of Internet Explorer.
A quick explanation of how the Windows operating system works first, then I'll tell you how to avoid this annoyance in the future. One of the early conventions in Windows was a Microsoft convention known as OLE - Object Linking & Embedding. This was a cross-application feature that allowed you to drag little Excel spreadsheets into your Word documents, or to put a graph you created in Visio into your Powerpoint presentation. During the process, a certain amount of data, and instructions about how to display that data is wrapped up into an "object" The final result is that "object" embedding into another "object", like your presentation in Powerpoint. The power of this technique was that if the data that was used to create the graph in Excel ever changed, the graph that you had already inserted (embedded) elsewhere would automatically "update" itself because it was "linked" to the original data. Hence, Object Linking and Embedding, (OLE).
Today, when you highlight a section of text on a web page in IE, this same process, which is now an inherent part of the Windows Operating System, creates an Object, along with the rules about how to display it, and copies it to your clipboard. When you paste that object into your listserve post, or your blog page, or your word document, the object, its HTML and its display instructions all go with. Its a lot of data, which is why it sometimes takes a little longer that when you simply copy and paste text.
If you do a lot of this, say you are an avid poster to list-serves or you are a frequent blogger, there is a simple solution. Get Firefox. Firefox is an alternative browser from the Mozilla foundation, an open source group that thinks you can do better than IE. And you can. There are many reasons to stop using Internet Explorer, which I won't list in this post. The reason you should switch if you fall into the category of web user that I described above, is because of an extension to Firefox that you can't get with IE.
What is an extension? It is an add-on. An enhancement. It is a little bit of code that adds itself into the Firefox program you initially downloaded and installed, and it makes it better. The extension I am talking about here is called the copy-plain-text extension. Once you have Firefox, you can download and install this extension, and here is what it gives you.
You want to use some text in a post you are writing, but the web page you found it on is cluttered with tables and lines and images. You select and highlight the text, but there is an image in the selection too - take a deep breath, right click on your selection. In the menu you will see an option called 'copy as plain text' - thanks to the browser extension you have. When you select this option, it removes the HTML, the image, and any display instructions associated with any objects and copies just the text to your clipboard, so you can paste just the text anywhere you want. I should mention that one additional thing it does can be kind of confusing. If you hold your mouse over some images, and a little box appears that has text in it, this text will also be included in what you copy and paste. Its not the image, its the text describing the image, and it is easily deleted if you don't want it.
This is a speedy way to get just the plain text off a page and into your post. Here are the tools you need to do it.

The Firefox browser can be obtained here.

After you have that installed, open this address and get the extension.

You'll have to close your browser and re-start it to see the option in your right click menu.

There are hundreds of extensions available at the site listed above. Some of them do things that I don't understand or have a need for - but there are some that add ease of use and additional functionality to the browser that will make you wonder how you got along without them. Check it out.

Media rich blogs at Lightning Speed

2005-04-01T06:20:00.000-08:00

Check out bubbler.com, a free public beta of a media rich blog host. It's only free during the beta, mind you, after that it will cost $4.99 a month. What is media-rich? From what I gathered from their site, it means you can drag and drop pictures, movies, sounds, spreadsheets, Word documents, whatever you want onto your blog page and it gets published.

One of the biggest differences between this blog host and others is that bubbler requires you to download an executable program that runs on your computer. It looks to me like a Macromedia Flash based program (hence the ability to drag and drop items onto your blog page). If anyone decides to try this one out, I would love to hear some feedback on it. I may give it a shot from home this weekend. As long as its free, it works for me.

Bloggers narrowly dodge federal crackdown

2005-03-25T06:13:00.000-08:00

Bloggers narrowly dodge federal crackdown

A March 10 draft of a document created by the Federal Elections commission would have required you political bloggers out there "to comply with the entirety of the regulations that apply to paid political advertising on television, radio and broadcast."

More than you bargained for? The bloggers have mobilized, and are gaining support.

I support the fact that bloggers, at least in the political arena, should be granted the same exemptions as "conventional" media when it comes to campaign finance reform and politcal reporting. The blogosphere has proven its lack of bias, much to the dismay of corporate media. For every "for" argument on an issue you can find an "against". That's not always true of the mainstream media.

"Bloggers are not subject to corporate constraints or concerns, and have shown their independence over and over. "

What are those funny characters?

2005-03-19T14:40:00.000-08:00

Despite the WYSIWYG (What you see is what you get.) text editor that most blog hosting interfaces provide, many people choose to create their posts in their favorite Word Processor first. I have heard that it is because Word offers spelling and grammar checks, or because people have “lost” posts due to a web page malfunction. Well, here is my take on word processors – You have seen what food processors do to food, right?

I typed the paragraph above into Microsoft Word, then cut and pasted it into the interface provided after I logged into my Blogger.com account. A quick check with the preview funtion revealed that the funny characters I refer to in the title are not there.

Here is an example – sometimes the hyphen – when you create it with Microsoft Word, you use the minus key. Word is smart enough to figure out from the context whether you wanted a hyphen or you really wanted the minus sign. Unfortunately, some versions of Word, mine excluded apparently, use a character-encoding that is not alltogether web friendly. When you paste from one application into another, such as from Word to a web-based interface, the character encodings may not be compatible.

Two solutions: 1) Use the editor provided by your blog host. If it is a long post and you fear losing it, click the save as draft button often. Most mature blog hosts provide everything you need, including spell check, right in their application. 2) Copy your post into a simple text program like Notepad. Almost all Operating Systems come with a basic text editor. If your post looks normal there, copy it again and paste it into the interface provided by your blog and publish it.

If you still see crazy characters in the final result, edit your post and look for possible offendees like the single and double "Smart Quotes" or foriegn language characters like the ñ.

2005-03-10T05:33:00.000-08:00

See how easy it is? I didn't even read the directions! This morning I downloaded Picasa and Hello, both free programs. Without reading any directions, I selected the picture you see above from the Picasa workspace, and clicked on the Blogger button. That opened Hello. Hello had the picture pre-loaded into it's workspace, and it asked me to login to my blogger account (it uses the blogger.com webpage login, so it was familiar). Still not having read any directions, I choose the correct blog (this one) and hit the publish button. That was it. I went and looked at my blog page and there was the picture and the caption that I had typed in using Hello. (I edited this text after the picture had been posted.) Absolutely ANYONE can do this!

Blogging Glossary (WikiPedia)

2005-03-10T04:44:00.000-08:00

These are some terms that new Bloggers will become familiar with. Links within are from Wikipedia...a free-content encyclopedia that anyone can edit.

Read it here.

Oh, another cool thing!

2005-03-09T14:31:00.000-08:00

Since I just got done talking about Google and how they integrated Picasa with Blogger, I should mention that the Google email service, Gmail. also integrates with Picasa. Gmail will create thumnails of your images in your emails when you send pictures to friends and family. No more ugly little document icons with the paperclip...I mean really, who ever bought the digital paper clip metaphor for "attachments" anyway?

Gmail is great, and it has replaced my Hotmail (MSN) account for personal use. You get 1000MB of space, so feasibly you never have to delete an email. I have 21MB currently, about 2%. Gmail lets you apply labels to organize your messages, or you can enter a search word and get all your emails that have that word in them. Kind of like Googling your inbox, if you know what I mean.

If you would like to try Gmail, and perhaps its interface with Picasa, email me here and I will send you an invitation to Gmail. (Its very elite, you need to be invited to use it. :P )

Alan

Pictures in your blog?

2005-03-09T13:58:00.000-08:00

In case you were wondering, and you should wonder once in awhile, blogs aren't all about text. Although the primary use of most blog pages is for the written word, and it is an excellent tool for that purpose, the mere fact that a blog is also a web page means it can support images as well.

I won't go into the details of picture blogs or audio blogs at this point, but keep them in mind for future topics I will post here, but the web is multimedia. Its orgins were in academic text, but as they say, "You've come a long way, baby."

But this site is called Blogging for Beginners, right? Right. And Blogger.com (owned now by Google, in case you didn't know that) has some new built in features that make it easy for even beginning bloggers to include pictures in their posts. They do so via a combonation of tools also provided by Google.

Picasa is a photo management program you can download, and let me tell you, even without its hooks into the Blogger system, its well worth the price. (Free!)

Picasa will find all your pictures on your computer for you, and does a pretty good job of organizing them. Some simple settings and you can tell it to only look in the My Pictures folder, or you can set it to catalog every picture that winds up on your hard drive. (Careful here, in most cases every picture you view on a website ends up stored on your hard drive as well, so I think you know where I am going here.)

Here is where Picasa, a service called "Hello" and Blogger work together, I won't re-write all the details here. Read about it on this page. To get straight to the point though, if you install Picasa and let it catalog your pictures, there is going to be a button in there that says post to Blogger. You select the pictures you want to post and hit go! Of course there are probably a couple settings in there, and I haven't tried it yet. (I am a geek, I know how to put images in my posts already. :)

I'll write more as I get a chance to try it out...

Alan

Hints from the field...

2005-03-08T17:35:00.000-08:00

A reader of the article "Ministry in your Pajamas..." sent me the following query...

I tried to follow the procedures in your article and when
it came to giving name and password I was OK then having to name what title
I would use for my blogweb nothing I typed in was accepted. I tried short
and longer names. Could not find a way around this. Can you tell me what was
wrong?

A smile crept across my face as I realized "I can help!" Below is my response, and hopefully this solved the problem, removing the roadblock from the information-superhighway for yet another molecule in the blogosphere, a new voice in the digital age...

Without actually seeing what you are doing, I have to guess. Here are my guesses -

1) you are using blogger.com

2) you are letting them host it at blogspot.com (you don't have your own website)

3) you are entering a name with either spaces or funny characters in it

Even if I am wrong about 1 and 2, there are a limited number of reasons it won't accept a blog name - it should tell you what the reason is when it rejects you (don't take it personally) - here are some common ones...

Either someone already has that name. . .
Or you have a space in the name (http://My Cool Blog.blogspot.com won't work, but my_cool_blog.blogspot.com will)
Or, you have a reserved character in the name, like < > ? & % $ or basically anything you need the shift key and a number to create...those characters are used by webservers for special purposes and can't be part of a site's name

Try it again, persistance pays off. keep it simple. if you are still stuck, tell me what blog organization or site you are using, and what you are trying to name it, and I'll see if I can help you out without guessing.

Watch this spot for updates...

See below for follow-on articles by Alan and Paschal
explaining more about blogging: what is is and how to get started...

Blog Glossary

2005-03-08T12:02:00.000-08:00

Here is the first draft of the Blogging Terms Glossary

http://www.dixbert.com/services/blog_glossary.cfm

MINISTRY IN YOUR PAJAMAS: Blogging 101

2005-02-08T22:58:00.000-08:00

MINISTRY IN YOUR PAJAMAS: BLOGGING 101
By Paschal Baute and Alan Dix
For Corpus Reports, Dave Gawlik, ed.

Is there something you are passionate about? Do you enjoy sharing a conversation about that with friends, possibly even with strangers? Have you ever written or wanted to write a letter to the editor? Are you confident enough putting your ideas down in writing, just to see if you can find a “soul friend” on that topic or simply another curious person who might respond? Do you use the internet for anything, mail or news?

Ministry can take on different dimensions. Not for everyone is visiting jails, preaching, or pastoring a local faith community. Discipleship assumes many forms. Even if you are retired (mostly), sofa bound, restricted in mobility from your vintage bones or physically impaired, you can still have a barrel of fun– if you have a PC, like visiting the internet, have ideas and time to share, ‘druther stay in your pajamas all day, and are passionate about one single subject. Even if you are on a tight budget. Available now is an easy way to create your own newspaper or journal online or your own magazine.

If you have an itch to start writing, or if you already write on a regular basis, a weblog is the easiest route to publication with a potentially unlimited audience. If you would like to build a small faith community around your values, but no longer have the time and energy of the past, consider forming a virtual community of common interests and sharing. The motto of blogger.com (http://www.blogger.com) is "Push-button publishing for the people."

So what is this new internet phenomenon that is exploding in such numbers and with such possibilities? What is a Blog? What can Blogs be used for? Why should I Blog? How do I get started? What will make my Blog stand out? Finally, consider joining the Blogging tribe so you have more stories to tell your grandkids so they know how really awesome you were!

What is a Blog?
An easy way to publish your brilliant thoughts in your pajamas. Blogs have taken the Internet by storm. Basically, a Blog (short for "Weblog" or Web log) is an interactive, personalized Web site, chronologically organized, for posting your views–anything you want to share with the teeming masses. Each entry typically contains the main post, a date/time stamp, and title. The contents of each blog differ, depending on the interests and style of the author. Some common themes/topics of blogs include: personal stories/diary-like entries, news, website links, commentaries, reviews, rants and raves, politics, journaling and current events. Yet uses are still exploding. .

Blogs are free and easy to begin. You can make entries ("posts" or "updates") to your Weblog any time you want. A What's New page–from news updates, including humor, insights, enrages, outrages, loves, hates, true and fictional stories. Or simply react to a previous posted comment. A blog is easily updated frequently with links, commentary and anything else you like. New items go on top and older items flow down the page. Whatever you want. It's up to you. This is personalized grassroots journalism.

The blog form is unique to the Web. Already there seem at least ten types: Personal bloggers, Political bloggers, Family bloggers, Business bloggers, Organizational bloggers, Teaching bloggers, Hobby bloggers, Professional bloggers, and those simply in love with writing as a form of communicating. (Maybe also . . . Lovers ;) My own love is sharing my writings with others. It is like singing in the bathroom, and maybe someone will listen.

What can weblogs be used for?
Almost anything. Early bloggers were excited about the web and its potential. They embraced this global network for news, information and entertainment. They surfed, created heated, funny, and irreverent discussions. They connected with humor, punditry and lively conversation. They provided news links to current news from a diversity of sources. Some are still functioning this way. The weblogging community has now exploded into hundreds of uses. Weblogs have become personal journals, daily logs, notebooks, complaint logs, conversation topics, teacher aids, dialogue blogs, business blogs, customer service blogs, company blogs, team building blogs, career promotion blogs, collaborative writing blogs, etc. Rebecca Blood in The Weblog Handbook puts it this way:

Passion is the purpose of a weblog: passion for a profession or hobby, passion for telling stories, passion for punditry, even a passion for civil, well reasoned debate. The things you care about, the things, you can’t figure out, and the things you find interesting– all are colored by the extent to which you care; if you don’t care, you might as well not publish at all. (Blood, p. 131)

Most people love to talk about their interests and themselves. Salespersons learn quickly to determine your “hot buttons.” Basically, a weblog is a coffee house conversation between several or more persons, in writing, with yourself as headwaiter or, if the conversation gets a little rowdy, as bartender. One characteristic of personal blogs is they tend to be about inner world ruminations or running commentary on one’s work or personal life.

Why Should I Blog?
The number one reason is appreciating and sharing our differing gifts (Romans 12:6), that is, we are talented, original and each has something to say. Being part of the Mystical Body means that our communities are stronger when we participate and share our gifts to help and heal the whole. The task of the future is not to access more information, but to develop ways to enhance our understanding and mutual cooperation, risking our gifts, to empower people and their connectedness, while screening out the rest of the stuff that doesn’t matter. For an increasing number of people, weblogs provide a useful filter and spur to these activities

Although there are many kinds of web logs, there are probably four main motivations for starting and keeping one: information sharing, personal expression and outreach, community building and career enhancement. Any of these can be your primary aim. No matter what you write about, your avocation or vocation, dayjob, nightjob, your day, your business, your ministry, your spiritual views, your take on national or foreign affairs, you are sharing information.

As you research and write, your competence in your subject of choice grows. You summon yourself to know a subject better. You become more reflective and often more balanced as you consider what you have written. When you take time to do this, to say clearly what you want to say, this makes you not only a better writer, but more authentically centered yourself. Furthermore, you can't do this without noticing what you are thinking, without building awareness of your less-conscious self.

Evaluating sources of information helps one become a more critical thinker. You may even become an expert in a certain field. Your weblog can translate into appreciation from distant readers, and greater visibility for some career advancement or simply playful hobby pursuit. If you enjoy spending some time online most everyday, you may be a good candidate for weblogging.

But if you use your PC only to check your email and buy an occasional book, or if you spend your working day with a computer, you will probably be better off spending time with your favorite hobby. Do not read further.

But when a weblog is an extension of something you already do, such as web browsing, writing, journaling, or connecting with others, you will likely to find the time spent rewarding. If you love reading, writing, connecting with others and exploring new ideas, the new user-friendly weblog you will create may become a new home place for your centering of yourself.

How Do I Get Started?
"But I have no idea how to publish a website, and I don't know any HTML (hyper text markup language)!" Be not fearful, future blogger, you don't need any knowledge of either. One of the reasons online blogging has become so popular is the relative ease with which an non-technical, or even computer illiterate person can start.

Although blogger.com is probably the most well known blogging engine with an easy start up menu, there are many more. Here is a quick list of sites that will have you presenting your creations to the blogosphere in no time:

http://www.blogdrive.com
http://www.freeblogcity.com
www.typepad.com
http://www.modblog.com
http://weblogs.about.com

Visit any of the sites listed above and you will see a link with the words "Start blogging" or "Create your Blog now!". What lies behind that link is a step by step instruction guide to creating, hosting and posting to your blog. Usually the first step is to fill out a form with the information about you and your blog. What is it called? Who are you and what will you write about? You type in a few short sentences and move on to the next step.

Where is your blog going to be? Not everyone has space on a webserver to publish their own blog. Even some people that do get web space from their Internet Service Provider have no idea how to use it. Once again, fear not, the blogosphere is user friendly. You simply choose a name for your blog, and your chosen blog host will create the URL (Uniform Resource Locator) for you.

For example, if you started your blog on blogger.com and wanted the name "myrockinblog", you could type that in to the publishing form. Provided no one else has already chosen that name, your Blog's address would be http://myrockinblog.blogspot.com - and viola! your blog is online.

The last step in setting up your blog is to decide how you want it to look. Here is where most people start to shudder and say things like "I can't make web pages, this is going to look terrible." Have no fear, there are people (like me, Alan Dix, for example) that design templates for aspiring blog artists such as yourself. A template can be as simple or as complicated as you wish, but its job is simply to provide the layout and colors for every page of your blog. The start-up blogging sites usually give you a choice of templates and it pays to shop. Once you set it up, you are done and don't have to worry about it again until you decide to change the look of your blogsite.

That's it, believe it or not! You are now ready to start entering your thoughts, dreams, rants, links or whatever you wish to your blog and to the world. Writing is a journey of self-discovery, a diving into the deep well of your inner landscapes.

How do I promote my Blog?
What will make your web log stand out? For all kinds of blogs, we can give the same answer: point of view, good linking and good writing, and the life experience of the writer. It is your unique contribution of interests, outlook, values, frames, humor, zest for life and prejudices that will make your web log compelling. One of the best advertising for your blog is word-of-mouth.

Most blogs offer the built-in ability for your readers to email a link to an particular post directly to someone they think might be interested. As with any web site, there are also several steps you can take to increase the visibility of your blog. Submitting the address to search engines and the proper use of "worm food" to ensure your site is listed correctly. Worm food refers to the correct use of META tags, especially the DESCRIPTION and KEYWORDS META tags. These two tags should be in your template file, so that they are included on every post.

The description should be a short 20-25 word description of your blog, and should include 3-5 of the keywords you want to be linked to your site. When people type in those keywords in search engines like Google, you want your site to be included in the ones returned. The same applies to the keywords tag. This tag is a list of keywords, 15-20 of them that are potentially what people will enter into a search engine when looking for content like you provide on your blog pages.

Conclusion
Web-blogging -- creating online journals that range from the too intimately personal to the smooth mature professional -- is certain to stay. Blogging Made Easy courses are proliferating. Like it or not, we're in the middle of another revolution in online networking, a new means of gathering and disseminating information and also, of keen interest to our kind, of sharing values and building community.

Blogs dedicated to spiritual and religious discussions are also proliferating. Beliefnet.com ran a special article last fall listing “Best Spiritual Blogs.” Google will find it for you. A few others are listed below. Then I discovered there was no married priests blog to illustrate this article, so I created one in five minutes. We named it the Married Priest Coffee House Blog: conversations about “dappled things: all things counter, original, spare, strange; whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)” from Gerald Manley Hopkins, Pied Beauty. You may visit to talk about this article. If you join that blog and become a member, then new postings come directly to your mailbox. Reference below

Some day your grandkids may crawl up in your lap and ask, “Grandpa, Grandma, Where were you when the great Blogging Revolution came along?” Well, maybe they won’t--really, but if it did happen, wouldn’t you want to be ready to say, “Kiddo, I was there! I was a blogger! In fact, I was one of the first bloggers in our family!” Some enhancement is permitted to vintage storytellers. But you’d better hurry! There are an estimated million bloggers already, and many more joining daily.

So if you haven't imagined yourself yet as one of the Blogging Tribe, you should reconsider. As a mechanism for publishing information, whether personal opinions or official announcements, and for connecting across distances, nothing's more efficient than a Weblog, or as easy to establish. Become your own editor and publisher now and completely control your editorial page. For the world to view!

And let the rest of us know so we can visit online, happily linking with each other from our couches in our pajamas! FUN! ‘n also cool! “All God’s talents are within us, to discover and to share.” –Hafiz.

Paschal’s writing blog: http://www.paschalbaute.com/writing
Alan’s website: http://www.dixbert.com/services/
Married Priests Coffee House http://marriedpriestscoffeehouse.blogspot.com/

References
Blogging Made Easy. Bob Bastian and Mark Hendricks. Omniwebmarketing.com, 2004
The Psychology of Cyberspace. John Suler, http://www.rider.edu/~suler/psycyber/psycyber.html
The Weblog Handbook. Rebecca Blood, Perseus Publishing, 2002.
“The Best Spiritual Blogs,” Beliefnet.com. Use your browser.

Examples of Catholics using blogs:
http://donjim.blogspot.com/ (Fr. Jim Tucker lists several in his right sidebar)
http://www.relapsedcatholic.blogspot.com/
http://ragemonkey.blogspot.com
http://disputations.blogspot.com
http://pontifications.classicalanglican.com
www.andrewcusack.com

new posts?

2005-01-25T18:33:00.000-08:00

I was expecting you to use new posts, so that I would have immediately the addition, suggestion or correction. May I assume that the revisions and additions you made were only to the last long post by myself? the one that was draft 1.4 ?

Good Morning, Sunday, Jan 23

2005-01-23T06:18:00.000-08:00

Are you cold? Fireplace going? Are you having fun this weekend?

Temps were fine for this time of year. Roads were sloppy, but once all the people who don't know how to drive go off into the ditch, its pretty easy.

Draft 1.4, 1/21 Busy now til Sat p.m.

2005-01-21T09:17:00.000-08:00

Draft 1.4 1/21
Note: to AD. I have gotten a lot of help from one of the Amazon books, Rebecca Blood, The Weblog Handbook, and she will be properly credited. Been reading this all week and some web browsing.
Review and overview.
I am not expecting you to keep up with my pace. You have a full time dayjob and I do not.
feel free to edit or contribute in any way. We are both learning.
revisions
(3) What can weblogs be used for?
(4) Why a weblog?
Here posted: paragraphs 3& 4 in our 9 paragraph plan, plus # 8 & 10 (new, = for conclusion)

(3) What can weblogs be used for? Almost anything. Early bloggers were excited about the web and its potential. They embraced this global network for news, information and entertainment. They surfed, created heated, funny, and irreverent discussions. They connected with humor and lively conversation. They provided news links to current news from a diversity of sources. Some are still functioning this way. The weblogging community has now exploded into hundreds of uses. Weblogs have become personal journals, daily logs, notebooks, complaint logs: conversation topics, teacher aids, dialogue blogs, business blogs, customer service blogs, company blogs, team building blogs, career promotion blogs, collaborative writing blogs, etc.

Rebecca Blood in The Weblog Handbook puts it this way:

Passion is the purpose of a weblog: passion for a profession or hobby, passion
for telling stories, passion for punditry, even a passion for civil, well
reasoned debate. The things you care about, the things, you can’t figure out,
and the things you find interesting– all are colored by the extent to which you
care; if you don’t care, you might as well not publish at all. (Blood, p. 131)

Most people love to talk about their interests and themselves. Salespersons learn quickly to determine your "hot buttons." Basically, a weblog is a coffee house conversation between several or more persons, in writing, with yourself as headwaiter or, if the conversation is little rowdy, as bartender. One characteristic of personal blogs is they tend to be about inner world ruminations or running commentary on one’s work or personal life.

(4) WHY SHOULD I BLOG.
The number one reason is appreciating our differing gifts (Romans 12:6), that is, we are talented, original and each has something to say. Being part of the Mystical Body means that our communities are stronger when we participate and share our gifts to help and heal the whole. The task of the future is not to access more information, but to develop ways to enhance our understanding and mutual cooperation, to empower people and their connectedness, while screening out the rest of the stuff that doesn’t matter. For an increasing number of people, weblogs provide a useful filter and spur to these activities

Although there are many kinds of web logs, there are probably three main motivations for starting and keeping one: information sharing, personal expression and outreach, and reputation building. Any of these can be your primary aim. No matter what you write about, your avocation or vocation, dayjob, nightjob, your day, your business, your ministry, your take on national or foreign affairs, you are sharing information. As you research and write this, your competence in your subject of choice grows. You summon yourself to know a subject better. You become more reflective and often more balanced as you consider what you have written. When you take time to do this, to say clearly what you want to say, this makes you not only a better writer, but more authentically centered yourself. Furthermore, you can't do this without noticing what you are thinking, without building awareness of your less-conscious self.

Evaluating sources of information helpos one become a more critical thinker. You may even become an expert in a certain field. Your weblog can translate into appreciation from distant readers, and greater visibility for some career advancement or simply playful hobby pursuit. If you enjoy spending some time online most everyday, you may be a good candidate for weblogging.

But if you use your PC only to check your email and buy an occasional book, or you spend your working day with a computer, you will probably be better off spending time with your favorite hobby. When a weblog is an extension of something you already do, such as web browsing, writing, joumaling, reading, or networking you are likely to find the time spent rewarding. If you love reading, connecting with others and exploring new ideas, the new user- friendly weblog sources may be a welcome new online home-place for you.

6 How to get started AD--suggest these be kept short on technical details w. lots of references to web sources.
7 How to get help AD--Here is place for you to talk a little about your work and ref.your consulting web site.
______
8 How to promote your blog. (by both? --early draft by PB)
What will make your web log stand out? We can give the same answer for all kinds of blogs: point of view, good linking and good writing, and the life experience of the writer. It is your unique contribution of interests, outlook, values, frames, humor, zest for life and prejudices that will make your web log compelling. One of the best advertising for your blog is word-of-mouth. Most blogs offer the built-in ability for your readers to email a link to an individual post directly to someone they think might be interested. As with any web site, there are also several steps you can take to increase the visibility of your blog. Sumbitting the address to search engines and the proper use of "worm food" to ensure your site is listed correctly. Worm food refers to the correct use of META tags, especially the DESCRIPTION and KEYWORDS META tags. These two tags should be in your template file, so that they are included on every post. The description should be a short 20-25 word description of your blog, and should include 3-5 of the keywords you want to be linked to your site. When people type in those keywords in search engines like Google, you want your site to be included in the ones returned. The same applies to the keywords tag. This tag is a list of keywords, 15-20 of them that are potentially what people will enter into a search engine when looking for content like you provide on your blog pages.

9 How to maintain it. (both, nothing here yet)

10. Wrap up or Conclusion:
The Larger View.

Some day your grandkids may crawl up in your lap and ask, "Grandpa, Grandma, Where were you when the Blogging Revolution came along?" Well, maybe they won’t really, but if they did, wouldn’t you like to be ready to say, "Kiddo, I was there! I was a blogger! In fact, I might have even been one of the first bloggers in our family!" Some enhancing stretch is allowed for vintage story tellers. But you’d better hurry! There are an estimated million bloggers already, and many more joining daily.

Web-blogging -- creating online journals that range from the too intimately personal to the smooth mature professional -- is certain to stay. Blogging Made Easy courses are proliferating. Like it or not, we're in the middle of another revolution in online networking, a new means of gathering and disseminating information.

So if you haven't imagined yourself yet as the Blogging Tribe, you should reconsider. As a mechanism for publishing information, whether personal opinions or official announcements, nothing's more efficient than a Weblog, or as easy to establish.
__

How to get started...

2005-01-20T17:42:00.000-08:00

6 How to get started AD--suggest these be kept short on technical details w. lots of references to web sources.

If you have the itch to start writing, or if you already write on a regular basis, a blog is the easiest route to publication and an audience of millions. The motto of blogger.com (http://www.blogger.com) is "Push-button publishing for the people." Although blogger.com is probably the most well known blogging engine, there are hundreds more. Here is a quick list of sites that will have you presenting your creations to the blogosphere in no time:

http://www.blogdrive.com
http://www.freeblogcity.com
http://www.15dn.com - Specialists in Business Blog skins
http://www.modblog.com
http://www.solisblog.com

"But I have no idea how to publish a website, and I don't know any HTML (hyper text markup language)!" Not to fear future blogger, you don't need any knowledge of either. One of the reasons online blogging has become so widespread is the relative ease with which an non-technical, or even computer illiterate person can start.

Visit any of the sites listed above and you will see a link with the words "Start blogging" or "Create your Blog now!". What lies behind that link is a step by step instruction guide to creating, hosting and posting to your blog. Usually the first step is to fill out a form with the information about you and your blog. What is it called? Who are you and what will you write about? You type in a few short sentences and move on to the next step. Where is your blog going to be? Not everyone has space on a webserver to publish their own blog, and even some people that do get web space from their Internet Service Provider have no idea how to use it. Once again, fear not, the blogosphere is user friendly. You simply choose a name for your blog, and your chosen blog host will create the URL (Uniform Resource Locator) for you. For example, if you started your blog on blogger.com and wanted the name "myrockinblog", you could type that in to the publishing form. Provided no one else has already chosen that name, your Blog's address would http://myrockinblog.blogspot.com - and viola, you are online. The last step in setting up your blog is to decide how you want it to look. Here is where most people start to shudder and say things like "I can't make web pages, this is going to look terrible." Have no fear, there are people (like me for example) that design templates for aspiring blog artists such as yourself. A template can be as simple or as complicated as you wish, but its job is simply to provide the layout and colors for every page of your blog. Once you set it up, you are done and don't have to worry about it again until you decide to change the look of your blogsite. That's it, you are now ready to start entering your thoughts, dreams, rants, links or whatever you wish to your blog.

Draft 1.2 pars. 8, 9, + 10 (= concluding par)

2005-01-20T17:23:00.000-08:00

6 How to get started AD--suggest these be kept short on technical details w. lots of references to web sources.
7 How to get help AD--Here is place for you to talk a little about your work and ref. your consulting web site.

Draft 1.2
8 How to promote your blog. (both of us )
What will make your web log stand out? We can give the same answer for all kinds of blogs: point of view, good linking and good writing, and the life experience of the writer. It is your unique contribution of interests, outlook, values, frames, humor, zest for life and prejudices that will make your web log compelling.

Many other avenues exist for getting a larger audience for your web log. namely...

9 How to maintain it. (both of us, lets keep this fairly simple and straightforward also, maybe with web sources, like Blogger)

Regular posting and linking, both to references and other sites are keys because you want your readers to return regularly to your site.

10. Wrap up or Conclusion: The Larger View, first draft 1.2

Some day your grandkids may crawl up in your lap and ask, "Grandpa, Grandma, where were you when the Blogging Revolution came along?" Well, maybe they won’t really, but if it did happen, wouldn’t you like to be ready to say, "Kiddo, I was there! I was a blogger! In fact, I might have even been one of the first bloggers in our family!" Vintage story tellers are permitted some enhancements. But you’d better hurry! There are an estimated million bloggers already and thousands more joining daily.

Web-blogging -- creating online journals that range from the too intimately personal to the smooth mature professional -- is certain to stay. Applications are multiplying and new uses found daily. Blogging Made Easy courses are proliferating. Like it or not, we're in the middle of another revolution in online networking, a new means of gathering and disseminating information.

Draft 1.2 pars 3 & 4 What use and Why?

2005-01-20T08:24:00.000-08:00

Draft 1.2 1/20
(3) What can weblogs be used for?
(4) Why a weblog?
Draft # 1.2, paragraphs 3& 4 in our 8 paragraphs plan

(3) What can weblogs be used for? Almost anything. They started out with early bloggers just connecting online with humor and lively conversation and providing news links to current news from a diversity of sources. Some are still functioning this way. They have become personal journals, daily logs, notebooks, complaint logs: conversation topics, teacher aids, dialogue blogs, business blogs, customer service blogs, company blogs, team building blogs, career promotion blogs, collaborative writing blogs, etc. Rebecca Blood in The Weblog Handbook puts it this way:

Passion is the purpose of a weblog: passion for a profession or hobby, passion for telling stories, passion for punditry, even a passion for civil, well reasoned debate. The things you care about, the things, you can’t figure out, and the things you find interesting– all are colored by the extent to which you care; if you don’t care, you might as well not publish at all. (Blood, p. 131)

(4) WHY SHOULD I BLOG.
The number one reason is appreciating our differing gifts (Romans 12:6), that is, we are talented, original and each has something to say. Being part of the Mystical Body means that our communities are stronger when we participate and share our gifts to help and heal the whole. The task of the future is not to access more information, but to develop ways to enhance our understanding and mutual cooperation, to empower people and their connectedness, while screening out the rest of the stuff that doesn’t matter. For an increasing number of people, weblogs provide a useful filter and spur to these activities

Although there are many kinds of web logs, there are probably three main motivations for starting and keeping one: information sharing, personal expression and outreach, and reputation building. Any of these can be your primary aim. No matter what you write about, your avocation or vocation, job, your day, your business, your ministry, your take on national or foreign affairs, you are sharing information. As you research and write this, your competence in your subject of choice grows. You summon yourself to know a subject better. You become more reflective and often more balanced as you consider what you have written. When you take time to do this, to say clearly what you want to say, this makes you not only a better writer, but more authentically centered yourself. Furthermore, you can't do this without noticing what you are thinking, without building awareness of your less-conscious self. Evaluating sources of information helps one become a more critical thinker. You may even become an expert in a certain field.

Your weblog can translate into appreciation from distant readers, and greater visibility for some career advancement or simply playful hobby pursuit. If you enjoy spending some time online most everyday, you may be a good candidate for weblogging. But if you use your PC only to check your email and buy an occasional book, or you spend your working day with a computer, you will probably be better spending time with your favorite hobby. When a weblog is an extension of something you already do, such as web browsing, writing, joumaling, you are likely to find the time spent rewarding. If you love reading, connecting with others and exploring new ideas, the new user- friendly weblog sources may be a welcome new online homeplace for you.

I am on target - started writing tonight - have a bunch of stuff to do, so I will get back to it in a bit.

Draft #1, 1/19

2005-01-20T07:54:00.000-08:00

Draft #1, 1/19/05
BLOGGING AS A NEW FORM OF MINISTRY
For the MP rag, Corpus Reports, Dave Gawlik, ed.
(AD note: easy change to "of Career Development" (for varied professionals, then we can use it for submission to local regional news papers w. slight changes in intros...)

Is there something you are passionate about? Do you enjoy sharing a conversation about that with friends, possibly even with strangers? Have you ever written or wanted to write a letter to the editor? Are you confident enough putting your ideas down in writing, just to see if you can find a "soul friend" on that topic or simply another curious person?

Ministry can take on different dimensions. Not for everyone is visiting jails, preaching, or pastoring a local faith community. Discipleship takes many forms. Even if you are retired (mostly), sofa bound, restricted in mobility from your vintage bones or physically impaired, you can still have a barrel of fun, if you have a PC, like visiting the internet, have a closet to work from, have ideas and time to share, and are passionate about one single subject. Even if you are on a tight budget. Available now is an easy way to create your own newspaper or journal online,
or your own magazine.

You do not need to become more efficient with pdf’s and attachments. A new invention called web logs is now so user-friendly that you will be coaxed into risking more of yourself online with your own personal web site that you can use anyway you choose. What is a web log, or "blog?"
What does it do? What can it be used for? Why is this form of communication growing (value)?
Why I should do it? How do I get started? How do I get help How do I promote my blog (include maintain) Rest of article takes each of these questions and answers them.

DIVISION OF RESPONSIBILITIES
What is it AD
What does it do AD
What can it be used for PB
Values in our world PB
Why I should do it PB
How to get started AD
How to get help AD
How to promote your blog. (both)
How to maintain it. (both)