Politics

Being middle of the road means freedom to criticize both sides without regret.

Double Standards

Gotta love people who say one thing then demand the other.

Religion

My take on what’s right and what’s wrong with religion.

Television

The crazy world of television. Believe me: I know crazy when I see it.

Grammar

Good grammar makes me smile. Bad grammar makes me blog.

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Articles in Blogging

In a Word, I’m Feeling…
February 6, 2010 – 2:35 pm | No Comment
In a Word, I’m Feeling…

We bloggers love comments, but most bloggers realize that the people who read their blog are also reading many others as well, and that leaving comments for every post isn’t always possible.
So I’m trying out a new feature just to see how it goes. 

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Time Bomb?
January 26, 2010 – 7:01 pm | 4 Comments
Time Bomb?

Different pages load at different speeds.  Most of that is controllable, but some of it isn’t.  The parts that are controllable are those that I want to focus on, and some recent slowness on the site, which seems to have been caused by some plugins suddenly gone badly awry, has been resolved.
Or so I thought.
I’ve received these comments from an …

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Moving Faster…
January 25, 2010 – 10:25 am | 7 Comments
Moving Faster…

I think I may have found at least part of the problem with the slowness of this website over the past few weeks. I had to do something drastic: I had to rename my plugins folder then start a new folder called “plugins,” and I’m gradually moving each formerly-active plugin, one by one, to the new plugins folder.
I have …

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Please Forgive the Delays!
January 25, 2010 – 2:31 am | 2 Comments
Please Forgive the Delays!

If you’ve been trying to access my site over the past few days, I’m very sorry about the problems many of you have been having.  You’ve likely had to wait a long time for the site to load, or you’ve gotten 404 or 500 errors.  We’re working on it, and hope to have it fixed today.  Again, sorry for the …

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Missteps in Spam
January 8, 2010 – 4:25 am | 2 Comments
Missteps in Spam

One spambot in particular attempted several visits to the blog the other day, but my multi-level spam-fighting system blocked all of it. When I went into the spam filter just to see what was there, I found this dubious collection.
The remarks are no doubt designed to blend into whatever conversation is going on, then slip a link to a …

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Best of the Blog ‘09
January 1, 2010 – 9:20 pm | 2 Comments
Best of the Blog ‘09

The end of another year means that it’s time to take a quick look back at some of the better posts here at Patrick’s Place.
As in the past, I make my selections based on what I said and how I said it, not comment counts or the number of times the post was viewed. The sad fact of blogging …

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So Far, My Record is 7
December 28, 2009 – 4:33 am | No Comment
So Far, My Record is 7

Since switching to the current design for this blog, I’ve had to make one notable adjustment in the way I post new articles:  I’ve had to add thumbnails.
If you’re reading this from the blog’s front page, you’ll see the thumbnail images next to almost all of the posts.  If you’re reading this from the post’s actual single page, then you’ll …

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The Post-Christmas Keyword Stats
December 26, 2009 – 3:03 am | 2 Comments
The Post-Christmas Keyword Stats

I figured I’d share one of those occasional keyword search lists to give you an idea of what a lot of people were looking for when they managed to land here at Patrick’s Place.
I couldn’t understand why the post I did about South Carolina’s paltry state Christmas tree was listed at the bottom of the page as having received so …

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What a Difference a Check Box Makes!
December 21, 2009 – 4:52 pm | No Comment
What a Difference a Check Box Makes!

Remember that little addition I mentioned not long ago, the one that allows you to leave comments here without having to decipher warped, twisted “Captcha” text?
When leaving a comment, all you have to do is just check a box to indicate that you’re a human, then voila: you’re done!
As a general rule, when I go to the admin panel for …

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Oh, Yeah…I Got Skills
December 17, 2009 – 5:36 pm | One Comment
Oh, Yeah…I Got Skills

For a brief moment yesterday, I actually felt like a webmaster. Like I said: it was brief.
If you read my earlier post about the best man who decided to play a very dirty trick on his friends the newlyweds, you may have noticed that I reposted one of the guy’s Twitter messages — tweets — in a nice little graphic …

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Better Blogging: What’s It All About?
December 15, 2009 – 6:45 am | One Comment
Better Blogging:  What’s It All About?

This is an ongoing series of posts about making blogs better. I’ll take a look at what “experts” say we bloggers should be doing to attract more readers and make our blogs more user-friendly, and then I’ll throw in my take. Your input is always welcome, because I’d love to know what you think, especially if you’ve had …

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As Blog Changes Go, You Should Like This One
December 8, 2009 – 9:36 pm | 3 Comments
As Blog Changes Go, You Should Like This One

Nobody likes Captcha.
You may not recognize the name, but you’ve no doubt seen what it is: those squiggly, hard-to-read words that you actually have to read and type so that your comment can be posted on someone else’s blog.
Some blogs require everyone to deal with a Captcha automatically.
My blog doesn’t make you do it unless your comment contains certain …

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Ever Paid for One?
December 1, 2009 – 10:38 pm | One Comment
Ever Paid for One?

It won’t be this week’s topic, but I’m working on a future edition of Better Blogging that focuses on premium themes versus free ones.  If you’ve ever paid for one, please click the Contact tab at the top of the page and let me know.
Specifically, I’d like to know the following things if you’d be willing to share:

What made you …

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The Week in Posts: Nov. 21-27, 2009
November 29, 2009 – 12:44 pm | No Comment
The Week in Posts: Nov. 21-27, 2009

Here’s a look at the posts that hit the blog last week (Saturday through Friday) in case you missed anything. They’re organized by most-applicable category for your browsing convenience.
The holiday weekend limited my posting, but there were still a few highlights to be found:

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Those Clever Spambots!
November 23, 2009 – 3:02 pm | No Comment
Those Clever Spambots!

I’m usually pretty good at spotting comment spam when I see it. Normally, that’s because the “name” entered winds up being something suspicious like “Stress Management Ideas” or “Christian Dating” or something that is clearly a business-related title.
Most of the time, if the comment is associated with a name I don’t recognize, then I check out the URL entered …

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CSS Drives Me Nuts!
November 21, 2009 – 1:13 am | 3 Comments
CSS Drives Me Nuts!

There.  I said it.
Since I switched to this new theme — and very soon there will be an entire post about that experience — there have been a few little issues I’ve had with various sections not displaying quite the way I wanted them to.
One of the first issues I wanted to tackle was the font size.  The default was …

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The Week in Posts: Nov. 14-20, 2009
November 20, 2009 – 11:58 pm | No Comment
The Week in Posts: Nov. 14-20, 2009

This is a new little idea I decided to experiment with:  it’s a weekly recap of the posts made over the last seven days here at Patrick’s Place.
There’s nothing new in this post, actually; it’s just quick links, by category, to some of the posts I’ve done recently.  Let me know if you like this idea: it’s generated by a …

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Better Blogging: Pick a Topic, Any Topic
November 19, 2009 – 12:16 pm | 4 Comments
Better Blogging: Pick a Topic, Any Topic

This is an ongoing series of posts about making blogs better. I’ll take a look at what “experts” say we bloggers should be doing to attract more readers and make our blogs more user-friendly, and then I’ll throw in my take. Your input is always welcome, because I’d love to know what you think, especially if you’ve had …

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