rob’s place

I feel better now. Found some Reese cups. It was a 3 pack. I can’t decide if that makes Canadians more greedy (bigger than the 2 pack) or conservative (smaller than the 4 pack). Guess it’s the queen size. It cost $0.75. I paid with a $5 so I got a quarter and 2 loonies back. Can’t get used to that.

I was IMing with Karin about candy. Fun discussion. Some excerpts:

Rob: ah…found reese cups
Karin: are they cold?
Karin: i only like them cold
Rob: they have all kinds of reese here
Rob: they have an “inside out” one
Karin: what?!
Rob: yeah, pb on the outside, choc on the inside
Rob: hadn’t had it yet
Rob: and of course the white choc ones too
Karin: hmmm…..sounds sketchy
Karin: the white choc looks sick
Rob: they have large kit kats the size of a regular candy bar
Rob: it’s like an overgrown kitkat stick
Karin: WOW! i wanna go to canada
Rob: they also have stawberry kitkats. that looks gross
Karin: maybe i don’t want to go
Rob: i want to sample all the good candy before i leave
Rob: it’s my duty
Karin: how do you know it’s good before you sample it
Rob: thats the point!
Rob: i don’t want to sample bad candy
Karin: what’s your favorite in the US
Rob: Probably Reese cups
Rob: but they aren’t filling
Rob: Snickers satisfies
Karin: i don’t like snickers
Karin: i like 3 musketeers
Rob: it’s okay
Karin: twix
Karin: kit-kat
Karin: those are my style
Karin: gummie bears
Rob: twix is good
Rob: hate all gummie stuff
Karin: skittles
Karin: starburst
Rob: skittles rock!
Karin: i LOVE gummie stuff
Rob: and candy corn
Karin: only at halloween
Rob: any time
Karin: but circus peanuts?! amazing
Rob: i like those, but they make me sick
Karin: that’s becuase they’re pure sugar…and colored orange
Rob: yup, so you’d think I’d like it
Karin: no kidding
Rob: btw, some of this convo is going in a blog as we type!
Karin: sweet!

I just had pizza and root beer for lunch.

I need candy to make it perfect.

Must…find…candy…

I started reading The End of Marketing as We Know It today. I can’t say much about it yet but all the intros were good. I hate it when a book has so many long introductions. This one has the introduction to the paperback version, the preamble, the acknowledgements, then the introduction. After reading all that I felt pretty good…then realized I hadn’t even started the book yet!

I’ll get there yet.

Today class, we’re going to expound a bit on posting photos. Last time we talked about how to get an image on your blog if that image is already online by using HTML. However, there’s a good chance you’ve got a photo that is on your computer, not on the internet, and you want it on your blog.

What’s a blogger to do?

Well, if you’re with blogger.com like I am, then you have a couple of choices.

(UPDATE: I exclusively use Flickr now)

First, if you have a website or have a way to post photos online, try that and then use the code (minus the underscores). However, some places that allow you to post images won’t let you use HTML to post them elsewhere. ‘Tis a safeguard for you so that your photos aren’t published all over the place in other people’s blogs! But it works against you in getting it into your blog.

So, here’s what I suggest (and do). Get yourself a free program called Hello. Pretty simple name, and pretty easy to use. Google just bought them just like they own blogger.com, so they work together pretty well.

However, a friend who will remain nameless and photoless had testified that hello isn’t as easy as one would think. So, here goes my crash course with hello.

Once you get hello installed, you have to join it with an ID and password. It is really an instant massager for photos. So to add photos to your blog, you have to add a friend called “BloggerBot”. It should already be there. So look for the bloggerbot name and double-click it. A new tab should appear inside hello called “BloggerBot”. From there you can change your settings for how you’d like your photos to show up and to which blog (if you have a few).

To post a photo, you simply click “Send Pictures”. It’ll ask you to find the photo on your hard drive. TIP: the image must be a .jpg file. Hello won’t “see” other files for some reason. Before you can send it to your blog, however, you must give it a caption in the bottom right-hand side. Do so and hit “publish”. Then watch the magic begin!

Another tip: you may want to go back to your blog and edit that post by adding the HTML tags like “align” and “hspace”. Just play with it, then type out the rest of your post.

Now, for those of you who are on a Mac or don’t want to use hello, there is another option. It’s called Flickr. I know two people who use it, and one of them swears by it! I’ve never used it so use at your own risk!

I hope this hasn’t gotten too complicated, but then again, it is a sophomore-level class.

Next time: Publishing.

Last night I added trackbacks to this blog from Haloscan. Tonight I took them back out. I’m not impressed with Haloscan and their service. They said I could “install trackback and/or commenting into your weblog“. I wanted to just install trackback and it didn’t work. Their version of comments were added and I couldn’t take them back off. That meant I lost ALL the comments that were posted on here previously.

I emailed them questions and posted on their forum. I know it’s only been 24 hours, but I’ve gotten no response from them.

So I’m out. If anyone has any other suggestions of how to add trackback only, let me know!

I’ve been using My Yahoo! as my homepage for a long time. And I’ve loved it.

Today Yahoo! announced it’s new beta version of My Yahoo! Check it out. It’s pretty slick.

And the real cool thing? Well, they’ve been able to do this for a while, but you can add this blog to your My Yahoo! (that wasn’t too confusing, was it?) There’s a new button to right on this blog, just scroll down. Click on the “Add to My Yahoo!” and it will.

Fancy.

Mt. St. Helens is starting to show signs it might erupt. Well ain’t that just grand? We got away from the weekly hurricanes in Florida to get closer to a volcano?

They say “a repeat of the big 1980 blast at Mount St. Helens is unlikely.”

Uh huh. And all the hurricanes weren’t coming to Orlando.

Here’s another quote: “The key issue is a small explosion without warning. That would be the major event that we’re worried about right now.”

Oh well.

I’m not one to post much about politics. And this one really isn’t about politics. It’s about sports.

And I find it funny.

So go check out Football Fans For Truth. Someone tipped me off to this site, but I can’t remember who. Let me know if it was you and I’ll give proper credit. Sorry.

Haloscan commenting and trackback have been added to this blog. Unfortunately I’ve lost all the comments I had on this blog (at least for now). I’m working to get them back, but you can still leave comments. Maybe HaloScan will help me get my original comments back (or anyone else?).

Oh! What is a trackback? I’ll let Haloscan answer that.

Well, I guess it’s time to tell you about my new blog. I’m trying it out for a while to see how it works. I’ve been thinking of starting this blog for a while…and I’m finally getting around to it. I guess I’m following the Andrew Careaga model of having a personal and ministry blogs!

It’s my effective web ministry notes. I’ve been passionate about people not just having a website for ministry, but having an effective web ministry…and not just a website, but a ministry. So at this blog I hope to place notes, links, resources, etc to help others (and myself!) have an effective web ministry.

Enjoy.

Next door to work they are building a giant Costco. Well, I say it’s giant. It’s probably just normal. But it seems giant! No, not Giant, just giant.

Anyway, they’ve got the earth movers and shakers over there. They are making such a ruckus I can feel the earth move under my feet (sorry for the Carole King homage there). But it’s wild. My co-worker said it’s like working in California with all the shaking going on.

Sounds more like Jerry Lee Lewis to me.

Well it seems that Hurricane Jeanne has made it’s way through the Orlando area and most of the reports I’m getting from friends tell me it wasn’t so bad there. We heard from the family staying in our house and they said so far they don’t see any damage. I’m sure tomorrow we’ll learn more in the light of day!

Gov. Jeb Bush had a great quote today:

“Sometimes it feels like this is a test of resiliency for our state … and people are up to the challenge. Other times, I feel like I’m Bill Murray in ‘Groundhog Day.’”

It seems that Jeanne had the strength and impact of Frances, but the speed of Charley. Also got this from a friend in Orlando:

Hurricane Jeanne is about over. We’ve survived another one. Our house held up well. We had some shingles flopping around, but no damage and no leaks. We had winds of 50-70 miles per hour. [We] measured about 6 inches of rainfall in our rain gauge.

Newsmen today reported that the farmers almanac predicted 5 hurricanes for Florida this season. They are saying we may have one more…Jeanne and Frances crossed the Florida coast within 5 miles of each other. Highly unlikely.

What a crazy season this has been!