best imitation of myself

blogland weirdness

there's some strange things going on around blogland. if I go to bob.chattablogs.com or chattablogs.com/bob then I can see my new entries. but if I go to www.chattablogs.com/bob it's only yesterday's stuff. and something happened to my comments thingy too?

JQ, rescue us!

calling xml/rss/mt/asp experts

thanks to JQ for the big brotheresque move of adding the comments thingy to my index page. people, it's frightening the power that he wields. be very afraid.

so here's my next request to the blog masters:

I want to display some of my category archives on my family website, which is hosted on a windoze server (iis 5.0). I've come to understand that I can do this with the RSS and XML stuff, but I havent been able to figure out how. do I need to parse the XML myself, or is there some (asp) code out there that I can use?

revival, anyone?

on the subject of "The Passion," this from a rabbi:

"...the faith of millions of Christians will become more fervent as Passion uplifts and inspires them. Passion will propel vast numbers of unreligious Americans to embrace Christianity. The movie will one day be seen as a harbinger of America's third great religious reawakening."

shall we pray that this comes true?

organ for sale

if you know anyone who wants one, I'm selling one of my organs. really.

states details

see the previous entry for the map. in no particular order, here are the highlights for each state:

NJ: born there, raised til age 3, lots of family still there
FL: raised there age 3-18
VT: summer home away from home, honeymoon location
GA: went to college there 1995-1999. lots of friends and flights in and out of atlanta
TN: live there 1999-present
NC: parents live there 1995-present
PA: wife born and mostly raised there
KY: sister lives there 2002-present
TX: sister lived there. spent a christmas there
MO: in-laws live there 1995-present
AL: college roommate's home state. a few good visits.
SC: fall break with another college roommate
VA: many many I-81 travels. honeymoon stopovers
WV: highschool missions trip
OH: bought our car from a nice couple there
IN: visited college friend for a weekend
MI: cousin's wedding, niagra falls visit
NY: many visits, including NYC for spring break, Cooperstown long ago
DE: aunt-in-laws beach house
IL, MS, LA, MD, NH: various drive thrus

while we're on the subject:
just went to the Bahamas with the family for a brief vacation
went to Scotland for spring break senior year
went to chile and mexico for 2 different HS missions trips

and there you have the best of travels with Bob

states and such

here's mine:

create your own visited states map

but I have a question: am I allowed to include states I've simply driven through? louisianna, for example, I doubt I even stopped there for gas on the way to/from texas.

in other news, we had a good partay last night, and it only marginally involved a certain football game. the usual alias crowd and a few more, and we did tex-mex food, which was so utterly yummy. plus good beer, birthday cake and ice cream: what else does one need?

I love turbotax.com

lately I've been very tired of the internet, even though it's the reason I have the job that I do. seems like a big waste of time overall. I guess it's just my fault for being prone to wander (Lord I feel it), but there's been too much espn.com, cnn.com, weather.com, and yes, chattablogs.com around here these days.

but I still love some of the online tools (such as netbank, amazon, etc), and the latest favorite is turbotax.com. I have no idea why anyone would bother doing their taxes any other way. If you got all your stuff in front of you, you can have your taxes done in and hour or two, for only $20, including electronic filing. worth every penny, as they step you through every little thing.

maybe I'm just giddy b/c we thought we were going to owe this year, and it turns out we get a bit back. bless the person who thought of having student loan interest be deductible (or a credit. or something).

dean and gillian

did any one else notice that howard dean is married to gillain welch?

blog vs. website

or: I think I'm outta here, but not quite sure.

I got this website, and I got this blog, and I think they're redundant. I like my site a lot, and I can update it just as easily as the blog. And I've trained old friends and family enough to go there and check it out now and then.

I like the community idea that's here at chattablogs, but I'm more into commenting on others stuff than anything else. So I think I'm going back to the family site. But maybe there's a way to feed the blog into my site directly? I don't know much about that.

Any thoughts?

puzzle for ya

Chris McCartney found this in a book:

Why are the following numbers in this order?
8 5 4 9 1 7 6 3 2

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I happen to work on rarecoffee.com, which is Greyfriar's site for selling the bestest coffee around. I'm sure some of you out there in blogland have heard of it.

I recently worked up a promotion for saving 10% off your coffee purchases there. After you order from your account, you can send-a-friend a 10% discount, and when they order, you'll get 10% off your next order. So check it out.

blog comments spam

Check out this article in wired. Seems like Andy got hit not too long ago.

neil postman is gone

On my way into work today, NPR told me that Neil Postman has died of cancer. He's the author of Amusing Ourselves to Death, a great book about the effects of TV on our society. I read this book my freshman year, and it changed my life, at least for a while.

Now I'm feeling guilty that, after seven years without, I've got a TV again, and extended cable no less! At least I've got good excuses to have it. Now back to Trading Spaces, and go Marlins!

need a ride?

I'm looking to sell one stylish hooptie that has been entrusted to me by none other than Joe Staven. It's a 89 Mercury Grand Marquis. Very fast. Lots of charm. Consider your investment in this amazing vehicle as a way to support Joe and Rachel as they're on the quasi-missions field in Honduras for a year. More details forthcoming.

T for your tulip

Have you seen the Stanford Prison Experiment?

My initial thoughts on first read-thru:
1. I never want to go to prison. Ever.
2. Same goes for being a prison guard.
3. As much as I'd like to believe otherwise, I too have that capacity for evil. Yikes.
4. How the crap can people think people are "basically good"??

taste and touch

I ache to taste and touch your beauty
Where faith, hope, and love remain,
So I might know and love you truly.

But my wandering heart is often unruly,
Seeking my own as I groan and complain,
Yet I long to taste and touch your beauty.

You freely forgive, release me from duty
That threatens to stifle my passion with shame,
So I might know and love you truly.

To die to myself, to turn from the fury
and take up what Jesus has gained,
so I can taste and touch your beauty.

Enlivened again, I take up with newly
Filled vigor the wonderful task: to attain
How I might know and love you truly.

I yearn to enfold you, take away worry
And love you so much you forget all the pain:
I live to taste and touch your beauty,
So I might know and love you truly.

boynton beach

I'm not too keen on sports these days, although growing up I took some interest in most. Speaking of growing up, my hometown boys are in the finals of the Little League World Series. That's right folks, Boynton Beach, Florida is officially on the map. All the hoopla almost makes me miss the place. I think I miss the memories more than whatever it's like now though. Anyway, here's hoping the boys can beat Tokyo tomorry...

opening salvo

So I've decided to add my two bits to the noise known as blogs. Although I am already endowed with a lovely website, I thought I'd give this medium a shot. I've been accused of being a writer now and then, and I'll let you, the anonymous blog reader, be the judge, jury and executioner.

I see that I've got a lot of friends (or at least friends-of-friends) here on the chattablogs site. Hopefully we'll be able to have a bit of encouraging community via this site. I may have a lot to get off my chest, specifically invloving life with chronic pain (my wife has fibromyalgia), so watch out for that. No telling if it's going to be pretty or not. Hopefully the conclusion will remain the same: God is faithful, even amid the crap.