Problems are for Solving

I’m still trying new things on a regular basis, and anything that will shortcut my blog posting is always a welcome addtion.

I’m writing this post in BlogDesk, which I found out about from Smashing Magazine, thanks to Isaac’s shared items (I love Google Reader!). The review said it would work really well when you want to use pictures in posts.

If this works, below this paragraph is the full view of the picture in my header.

Testing. Testing.

The Chicago River

If I’ve done this right, above these words is a picture of the Chicago River from the walkway behind my hotel. The picture is actually stored at Facebook, and was taken and uploaded via my Blackberry.

If this works, I now have a shorter way to put pictures in posts than I have before, that is, upload to Facebook and link in the post.

UPDATE: After checking the post, I find that all there is is a link to the picture, which is an OK thing, though I don’t know if people who aren’t my FB friends can get to it. If anyone who is *not* on FB could click the link and let me know if it works in a comment, I’d appreciate it. I know I have at least three readers who don’t do FB.

I have some other thoughts on easy ways to get pictures into posts, but since I’m not taking lots of time on media in posting (I want to actually post), this is what you get for now. I’ll experiment more with photos another day. Whatever I finally figure out will have to be very quick and easy (I wish my Word template that uploads blog posts for me would just upload pictures I paste into the document, for example) or there will be no pictures. Because when I wait around for time to post pictures I don’t post anything and then having a blog is kind of like having a snow shovel in Miami.

Oh–and I’m updating the picture in the title bar again today. I won’t always tell you, but since this is new I am now.

BTW, there was an actual post yesterday that was not blog related, and there will be another coming tomorrow morning.

…to come to the actual blog, not just the RSS feed. :0)

I change the picture at the top every now and then. I thought the expressions of the children are pretty typical for the four children in the picture above. There’s actually 5 in the picture, but only Elsie’s arms made the crop.

I also added my google reader shared items to the sidebar.

Those of you who don’t use the RSS feed have noticed I have a new theme. The only thing I miss about the last theme is the twitter updates at the top of the posts column instead of in the sidebar. Those of you who use the RSS feed should check out the new theme and tell me what you think–it has a customizable picture at the top, which I really like.

And this is the first post of July. Umm….yeah.

I’ve been busy, but not really too busy to blog. I’m going to try to do better, but I’m not making any promises. I will say that don’t count on any pictures other than the ones in the top of the blog—that takes too long to make a post and I’m giving up on it, at least for now.

I stopped working out for a while. I missed two straight months. But I’ve gotten 5 workouts in the last 8 days: four at the gym and one in a hotel room. I’m praying that is a new pattern, rather than a break of the badness back to the badness.

We had another trip. We visited my sister in Ohio for my niece’s graduation party. Then stopped briefly in Erie (thanks Adiel!) and on to visit my great aunt in Rochester, NY. She had some family tree news that we enjoyed and my kids got to meet her again (not since 2001 have they seen her). (Grandpa Lansberry’s father’s sister) We had a lunch and a chat and then headed on to New Hampshire, stopping for a late supper in Bennington, VT.

We stayed in a cabin at the newly purchased Woodbound Inn with my sister and her family. During the day I helped out at Cindy & Aylmer’s new place of residence which is still a few week’s from being ready to move into. The inn is beautiful and we’re hoping to get back sometime soon. It was nice to see it—and the high point of the trip, as usual, was dinner at Aylmer’s Grille. (soon to relocate to the inn).

Saturday after that we travelled to TC ’s grandma’s house and spent a few days there, including a long morning picking up old fence in the weeds. Then back to Sandy’s for a night and to a meeting near Cincinnati, OH, which included a day at the creation museum.

It was good to be home.

And then TC and I went last week for a couple of days to Atlanta and now I’m back in town for a whole week. Sometime I’ll post the year to date travel numbers. Still pretty light.

More to come sometime—including some writing projects in the work. For today, though, this is it.

New in the sidebar I have added a few new links, but also a new RSS feed. I use Google Reader, which allows me to share posts with other google reader users called “friends.” This RSS feed (look to the right under recent posts) shows posts on other blogs I’ve read that I thought were particularly interesting. Sometimes the title is enough to know what it’s about, sometimes not, but this is the only way I can get my sidebar to do it with my limited computer skills.

Because I use an RSS feed for reading (and so do some of my readers) I have to tell you when something is new on the actual blog page.

OK. I’ve decided, at least for now, to keep the current theme. It has all of the formatting issues solved, I like the double, rearrangeable sidebar, and everyone seems to like the flames at the top (I can change the color to a few others, but I liked this one best right now–you might see a different color in the same theme from time to time).

I also added last week to the sidebar a link to my Pandora stations. If you haven’t checked out Pandora–you should. You can create a station from a specific song or artist and Pandora will play other music like that song/artist. They don’t have everything, but they continue to improve and you’ll discover new artists in genres you like and I find that totally cool.

I also took the time to make a new page with favorite music artists of the moment (don’t know how often I’ll update them) with links to their own pages.

If anyone took the time to try to comment on posts since I changed themes, I know it’s not working now. I’m contacting the systems admin dude and finding out if there’s a way to fix it. Until then I’ll be switching to another theme as soon as I find one that will work with the two sidebars that isn’t really ugly.

Sorry.

UPDATE: As you can see in the comments below they now work, and I’ve switched to a theme that isn’t quite as nice looking, but has all the features of the theme I picked yesterday, plus one more: comments work.

Thanks for your patience. If the system admin can get another version of the Royale theme that has a comments form that works I’ll switch back. Until then you get this one.

I’m playing around with themes today (and maybe tomorrow) trying to find something I like a little better. I’m liking the 3 column look, but I’m not sure about the dark theme–I’m used to my white background. I haven’t found a lighter one yet that I like though. Let me know what you think.

And I figure it’s the same for my half dozen readers, so I’m holding off the posting of the next in the spiritual warfare series until Monday. At 700 words a pop (though most of them in the next one aren’t my words—they’re a quote from somebody smarter. I know “somebody smarter” doesn’t narrow it down much, but …) I figure you’ll need some time in between the long posts. And so I provide this: a short post!

A few newsy things. First, there’s a link in the sidebar to an index of the current blog post series. That way if you get behind you’ll know where I’ve gone before and what’s comes next.

Next, I’m back on the wagon on going to the gym. I made it to the ‘plex four times this past week, which I think equals the total visits for December. I’m really excited about working out in the mornings instead of the evenings because I’m having energy throughout the day.

Also, there’s some excitement going on in our house. I can’t give any details about it right now, but we’ve got some time-sensitive decisions going on that will greatly impact our time and energies for the next six to eight months. About which more later.

I’m continuing to make updates to the blog, including moving the sidebar around from time to time. I’ve added a photo to my profile, and I’ll put in a plug for the photographer, David Price of Black Olive Photographic. I also added a link to an index on the current series of posts, the first series that has made it past post #2.

So here’s your break from the long posts—there will be another post on spiritual warfare Monday morning.

I added a page you’ll find a link to in the sidebar called Showcase Articles. This is a list of ten articles that I’ve written in the last year or so that are the best (yes, I know that’s a relative term) of my writings. I think the list is too long, so I need your help.

I’ve always referred to myself as a theological parasite, with very little in the way of original thought. As I considered what to put in the list, I had a hard time whittling down examples of typical writing for new readers. As I picked these, a common theme occurred in many of them: most of the posts that I’m most pleased with were inspired by songs (and sometimes writings) of someone else. In this list you’ll find a post inspired by a thought from my wife, a posts inspired by songs from Andrew Peterson, Anthony Hopp, Michael W. Smith, Charlie Peacock, and David. The other major source for blog posts is things that happen in my life that are hard. When things are going extremely well, I need someone to inspire me. When things are hard, words seem to flow more easily. Except when they don’t.

Anyway, to the few readers I still have: which of these posts deserve to be in this list? Which don’t? Is there another post that’s missing that you remember finding helpful or particularly good? I’d prefer the list be shorter, but I’ll whittle it down over time.

You can find the link in the sidebar, or by clicking here.