4 posts tagged “blog”
After quite a few suggestions, hints, etc., I have decided to try blogging on Blogger again. I love Vox, but one of my goals has always been to get people who are actually reading this stuff to post comments. The required registration has been a pretty big deterrent from progress on that front, so I'm trying out Blogger again. My new address will be ayoungexample.blogspot.com. Pretty much the same thing, but a different format. I'll just have to get used to not being able to see the archive of my photos, videos, etc. easily accessible on the front page. I'm sure there's a way past that, but whatever. It's late. I'm lazy. We'll see how this turns out soon enough.
-Caleb
Well, it's that time again. Finals are here, and I've got a pretty full plate over the next two weeks. For the two or three of you (and I know I'm reaching there) who read this, I'll be back in a few days. You know, when I'm not bombarded by 20+ page papers and exams over dead philosophers. If you're in school, too, good luck. Just a few more meters left in this race. Go summer!
To comment on this post, you can register for free at Vox.com. Alternatively, you can send comments here, and I'll post them below.
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- What have you talked about in your blog lately? Paste a few recent posts or a URL here and find out what your language looks like.
- Japan has some truly bizarre culinary creations. A recent discovery: about twenty bizarre and unique flavors of KitKat.
- Hilarious (and fake) leaked Lebron James beer commercial. Won't make sense if you haven't seen this.
- The future of our civilization, contends Roger Scruton in a great but lengthy essay, will depend on our ability to return to the days where we could draw the line between liberty and license. Citizenship, as the ultimate goal, can only lead to an intense loneliness. There must be something deeper than mere membership to unite people.
- In honor of Earth Day, read CS Lewis' poem, "The Future of Forestry." With all the increasing lack of trees in modern cities, Lewis seems to think that our longing for an Eden has only grown stronger.
- Why doesn't every workplace or office have one of these? Brilliant!
- I have had a dog for some time -- Angel, a white labrador large enough to be called my "polar bear" -- and I often wonder about the nature of pet companionship. Is it a "friendship?" A writer recently asked the same question of his relationship with a wolf.
- The only real way to stop genocide is often viewed as a last resort or sorts: physical interference. Because few are willing to take this step, as Tod Lindberg explains, genocide will continue to rear its ugly head.
- A complex question (sort of) looming over the Supreme Court: will the real Shakespeare please stand up?
- Dikembe Mutombo recently suffered a knee injury that will likely end his 18-year basketball career. More than just a great shot blocker and inventor of the finger-wag, though, "Deke the Great" was also a passionate philanthropist who opened a hospital in his native Congo. Hall of Famer, for sure. I think we're all in agreement that every McDonald's resurrecting the "Jumbo Mutombo" in his honor is entirely appropriate.
I have a love-hate relationships with blogging. By a technicality, I “keep” a blog. I own it, I post on it, and supposedly, people read it. But I don't always enjoy the fact that I have one or fully appreciate the opportunity it affords. Friends of mine -- like Kyle, Jeff, and Jose -- are blog freaks. These guys publish like every day, sometimes two or three times by lunch, while I struggle to put out something worthwhile every week.
Part of my occasional aversion to all things blog comes from a discussion I had in a class during my first semester at grad school. “What is the nature of community?” was the question discussed. I held, with no apparent irony stemming from the fact that I had just checked my Facebook and Myspace profiles, that any form of contact on the internet was nothing but a poor substitute for community. Helping people keep in contact across great distances does not, in itself, solidify or deepen that contact beyond anything superficial. At the time, I acknowledged blogging and the odd story of internet relationships becoming something real, like the odd story of an old coworker at Barnes & Noble who met her significant other playing World of Warcraft. I even brought up that infamous South Park episode. In a grad class. But I did not, and never will, say that a blog post is worth more than say a well-researched article. Nor does it count as a great conversation. It might stimulate one, but it can't, by itself, be one.
Then I started a blog. And I enjoyed it. I still do!
So now I'm here with A Young Example, my latest attempt to compromise my distaste for the promise of internet communities and my joy for writing and communicating. I've decided (finally) that if I'm going to keep a blog, I'm going to keep the heck out of it. I wrote down (not 'typed,' actually physically wrote) a list of topics that can become regular posts. Here's a list of things you can expect from this blog on a regular basis. I'm going to do my best to make the most out of this medium, even if it only becomes a chance to write down my thoughts and talk about them later with people...face-to-face.
Without further ado, my blog, 2.0:
Weekly Updates:
Song of the week...now with Genius!
Posting my favorite track of the week has been a regular part of this blog since its inception, but I decided that with my new iPod I can create instant playlists from the song. Now, I'll give the chance to have a weekly playlist to check out of 20 or so songs, most of them good. Most of them. This Genius program can be a little kooky.
Links/bullets
A takeaway from the excellent TrueHoop on ESPN's NBA page, I decided to compile all of the bizarre links I encounter into a single post, in bulleted form, every Friday morning. Most of these will probably be articles, but I'm sure an occasional YouTube video or movie review or something more nefarious might slip in.
Monthly Updates:
These kind of explain themselves:Week 1: Book(s) on the docket (fiction, non-fiction, assigned reading like philosophy or politics)
Week 2: Movie Top 5s by genre
Week 3: Site of the month
Week 4: Great writer/book/article
Regular Updates:
Devotionals
I recently started a John Piper devotional, and each reading could be a post in itself. I've decided, every other day or so, to expand what I'm reading into something substantial. The blog needs some kind of spiritual content, right? It is named after a Bible verse. I've grown and matured from the book, and I'm hoping others can benefit from these postings.
Emailed responses and comments
I'm aware that while Vox provides excellent blog formatting, it doesn't allow a feedback option for visitors unless they've chosen to register (which, by the way, is a free process). My friend Kyle's blog is often also a forum of sorts, so I thought I would incorporate as much “conversation” into this substitutive conversation as possible. I've started a new email address (ayoungexample@gmail.com) where comments can be sent. I'll post them straight to the blog and sometimes highlight the really, really good ones.
So there's the plan. In addition to these regular posts, I'll also have other articles on random things: church services, breakfast conversations, sports, music debates, my inability to write short emails or blog posts, etc. The fun part is going to be finding out if I can actually do any of this! I have a paper to write this weekend, so the official launch date of A Young Example 2.0 will be April 1. But I'm no fool. I know it will be difficult, but then again, everything worthwhile is, right?
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