Metablogging: October 2003 Archives

T.S. O'Rama blogged this from Camille Paglia--an eccentric, egocentrical Valkyrie of a woman who, despite her lifestyle, I find myself much admiring. As I do admire her much, and as I have considered this before, I find her statements dismaying and tending to encourage me once again to silence. If blogdom is really this awful, do I do anyone a service by contributing to this surfeit of "political or media junkies preoccupied with pedestrian minutiae and a sophomoric "gotcha" mentality. I find it depressing and claustrophobic."

Today, at least, I feel she is right.

I hereby promise not to blog any more on my obsession of the moment EXCEPT to reiterate requests for prayers, as Ms. Schaivo is not safe from our gentle justice system yet.

We now return control of your browser. . .

Please let me know if the present line-length in the main blog is comfortable. If not, too long, too short? I think it's about right for good column length and probably good for most poetry display. But let me know if you think it needs something different.

Too much time spent trying to find where the problem was and fix it. So until there is some easy transformation we will stay at the 3 column format. Thanks to all who responded. I will be working on this from time to time--but don't expect great advances any time soon. Thanks.

Does anyone have any idea why the blog displays this way? What is controlling the length of the second column? I don't see any indication of length in any of the code/stylesheets/etc. I found one missing semi-colon, but nothing else. This is very frustrating. That and the lack of a break between "Frequented Blogs" and "Categories."

This is why I don't want to start a new page--hours and hours get poured into trying to get everything to display properly.

When I have an opportunity today--a review of the Exhibit from the Vatican--the purpose of our trip to Fort Lauderdale. Preview--All you Florida people--yes even you JAX people, make an effort to get down to Ft. Lauderdale and see this--it is worth the time and effort.

I have been requested and am in the process of considering a change back to a two-column format here. I can see some of the advantages of both means of doing this. Personally, I prefer the three column format most of the time. However, it does tend to lengthen posts and scrolling--so two might not be bad. In order to do this I would probably have to create a separate links page, so I would have to either impose upon my hosts to that extent or build a separate page on my own site. I have resisted building my own site precisely because it would become the kind of time-sink which would require me to leave off blogging entirely.

Does anyone else have an opinion on the matter? I respectfully request any such in the comments box below or by e-mail. Or perhaps you all have some solution that I have not yet considered. Please let me know. Thanks.

Good News: I'm back and experience suggests that I do not need to abandon the blog.

Bad News: I don't have much to say today, so there may be one more entry and then silence again. Thanks for all your encouragement.

For the next few days as I consider other things more closely and decide if/when and where this will end.

Ms. Knapp very graciously gave me permission to reprint her examen question in toto I found them profound and profoundly helpful.

Karen Marie Knapp  
Queries for a Bloggers' Examen II: the Catechism of the Catholic Church on Blogging

In church-bureaucrat-speak, blogs are called "a medium of social communication", and paragraphs 2493-2499 are about us. So, from reading then, what questions do rise up?
2493 is definitions.
2394: Do I consider the common good when I post and publish, or only my own ego-shine? Do I tell the truth? Have I ever omitted or manipulated some of the facts to make them say what I wanted them to say? Do I keep in mind that the people I blog about have rights and human dignity?
2495: Do I truly seek to know and respect others? Do I respectfully challenge ideas, or do I attack people? Do I shout down without a hearing those whose ideas differ from my own?
2496: Do I neglect my duties in real life in order to read sites? Do I keep in mind that not everything I read in the blogosphere may be factual, and that all that may be factual may not be true? Do I discipline myself to avoid those sites that are, for whatever reason, near occasions of sin for me?
2497: Have I ever lied in my blog? Do I acknowledge and respect the distinction between reporting facts and judging individuals? Have I ever defamed anybody by my blogs? If so, have I made amends, insofar as possible?
2498, which is mostly about civil authorities: Have I ever used my blog, or anywhere else on the Net, for illegal activity (e.g., libel, slander, warez, inciting civil disorder)? Or for unethical or immoral activities, even if legal (e.g., porn, spam)?
2499, about totalitarian regimes: Am I thankful for my freedom to write and publish? Do I respect this freedom, and rightly use it, never abusing it?

Whether intentionally or otherwise, I cannot copy material from M'Lynn's site, so I send you there to read the last paragraph of so of this entry. What is written there is wise and good advice to us all. Not only should we purge all that plunges us near despair, but everything that provides near occasion of sin. Thanks M'Lynn.

Via Fructis Ventris this remarkable help--an examen for what we do as we blog-- from Ms. Karen Marie Knapp--touching precisely on thoughts I have had this day. Thank you Ms. Knapp.

The next couple of entries are reposting what was lost from early yesterday. I'm truly sorry the interesting conversation re: Mr. D"Hippolito's comments has been foreshortened, but then these things happen.

Many of you may have noticed that Dylan paid a visit to the blogworld yesterday. It was a much needed, much appreciated boost.

My flurry of poem-posting reminded me of one of the reasons I started this blog at all--poetry. And so contrary to what might seem to be implied by the housekeeping entry below, I have no intention of abandoning the posting of poetry--I intend to pick back up and post it more often. Part of what has been missing here is that interaction and synergy with more last than star. I hadn't realized it, but my missing Dylan had taken the unconscious form of a lack of poetry on the site--kind of a wandering in the wilderness.

I do miss his voice, and I am profoundly grateful that he found his way here. I'm glad to know that he has the ability to contact us, however fleetingly. And it is to his eventual release and return to us that I dedicate each day's poem.

I have been doing a fair amount of editing and categorizing of previous posts. Most of these include posts from the archives and I have noticed a disconcerting tendency for the titles of the posts to be deficient in certain information. In many cases one could spend an hour analyzing the title to try to figure out what it was I was likely to be telling everyone and not come even close. Thus, I've determined to try to make my titles more informative, but hopefully no less interesting. This will give those of you who have expressed a passionate dislike of poetry, mine and otherwise, a chance to escape before you have read too much. I will not eschew the humorously, sly, or ironic when appropriate, but I do hope that I have learned something from all this editing I've been doing, and I trust that it will better serve the readers of this blog.

My blogroll has become so bloated that it is literally impossible to get through it and pay any attention whatsoever to the articles written in a day. What is a poor person to do? Where can you possibly cut a blog-list? It's impossible. So I suppose I must get myself into some sort of routine that allows me to crawl through the list in thirds or something. But I've noticed with my erratic visits I haven't been hitting all of my favorite spots nearly so often. So, forgive me, but know that you're still a favorite--I'm just not terribly well organized yet.