mercredi 3 février 2010
Comment confusion
I'm none too pleased to read that Haloscan is going defunct and is requiring its users to pay $12/year for its replacement commenting system, so it looks like I will lose 1087 archived comments (although I've exported my comments, it appears I've also lost everything from between 2003-2006). It's unfortunate that nothing at this point exists to allow for a transfer of comments between Echo and Blogger, so I suppose my archives are now glaringly incomplete. I could manually enter the comments from 2006-2009 back into Blogger but in the grand scheme of things in life, I don't want to make the time for that.
As a result, I am immediately switching over to Blogger comments - which I should have done a few years ago when it was made available - and will remove Echo before the end of the month. In the very unlikely case that anyone will comment on here, please use the second commenting system instead. I'm sad that I'll lose this key part of interaction on my blog, especially one that has been with me for almost seven years but at least I'm hopeful that Blogger won't do the same thing to its users. The funny thing is that I've barely had internet access for the past month and just when I finally get it back, I have to receive news like this. Well, I suppose it is one way for me to write something on here! Another way of looking at it is that since I've already lost the comments from 2003-2006, losing the ones from 2006-2009 shouldn't be a big deal, right?
Libellés : blogging
lundi 19 octobre 2009
Disappearances
Silly me - I haven't checked this blog for months and lo and behold, my images have disappeared. I'm sad to say that it took me a bit of time to retrieve them too as I didn't save any of them to my computer in the first place. Oh well, lesson learnt; my blog looked far worse when I first started out (Wayback Machine can be a scary tool - I definitely cringe when I see how messed up my HTML was in the beginning!) so I'm not too concerned about a few missing pictures now.
In a way, I've disappeared as well. I've started journaling once again in real life and that has been one of the reasons for my absence, among others (which I don't need to elaborate on but includes the following: dial-up internet, a geriatric computer, and a crazy ministry life).
Not much has changed over the past several months since I've returned from my missions trip. I'm still very much enjoying ministry and putting out interesting fires here and there. The majority of my closest friends have either moved overseas or elsewhere so I've been a hermit this past year. I took a leap of faith this fall by getting involved in two ministries at my church that are new to me but I'm recognizing that my busy ministry activities are keeping me from doing too much and that I may need to cut back a little bit. One of my commitments ends in a few weeks so that will be nice!
I'm also anxiously looking forward to my holidays and although I've succumbed to the "staycation" trend as a result of finances, I know it will be so refreshing to slow down and take a break. I've been overworked for the past month and have gone two-three weeks without a day off, which I know is a warning sign to stop something somewhere. Thankfully, by November, this insane pattern will stop and life will return to normal.*
Thus concludes my brief post in which I assure my non-existent readers that I am alive and well :) I'm content in where I am at and I look forward to a full but not overwhelming schedule. Plus, it looks to be a warmish winter which always sits well with me!
* What is normal when you're in ministry? I know, rhetorical question.
Libellés : blogging, everyday life
vendredi 23 janvier 2009
MIA bloggers
Seriously? I have almost 500 unread things in my news reader. I don't know how I'm ever going to get around to those, much less the nearly 100 things I've saved for future reading. How and when did I accumulate so many feeds to read?! I know that the majority of those aren't from blogs because a lot of my friends and classmates have stopped updating their blogs. In fact, most of my links are to "dead" blogs so perhaps I'll link to them in a post instead of having them in my sidebar.
Without further ado, here are the bloggers that have gone missing in action over the past several years:
- Can You Keep Up?!
- Join the Foreign Guy's Adventure
- Popcorn Medievalist
- Trevor's Thought Cloud
- Truth is Discovered
- What Would Kim Do
There's a few others as well but I'm not really sure if they've stopped blogging yet. It's too bad - I really enjoyed the aforementioned blogs.
jeudi 14 février 2008
Holidays and writing
I'm inadvertently wearing pink - how appropriate for Valentine's Day :) I don't really celebrate this holiday, except for the fun cards that we used to give and receive in elementary school, so I'm treating it like every other day - somewhat like St. Patrick's Day since I'm not Irish. Truthfully, I'm more looking forward to Family Day since it'll be the first one that I've been able to celebrate in the last four years. I've spent the last three Family Days in Quebec, which is alright since it's typically our "out-around-the-town" day but it's not the same since a) there is no Family Day in Quebec and b) I'm far from my own family, defeating the purpose of the holiday. It'll also be good because it means my friends won't be in school or working that day, so maybe we can get together a little earlier for Bible study and not have to worry about leaving so late :)
It's been so nice writing a few more posts than in recent months even though I've been a little blogged-out lately. I started another blog this week for a school assignment and it's been filled with super-long and super-theological entries. I realize I'm writing less and less about what I'm learning in school on here, as opposed to how my blog was in the first few years, but I appreciate that I can dump whatever has been happening in my life into posts without having to cite sources or provide biblical references for every thought I have. I suppose that's one of the things you get used to in seminary, but it sure adds a lot of extra work when all you want to do is spout off what's in your brain or make lists like I tend to do.
So, in a non-academic writing style, here is what has been happening with me. Some of my dearest friends are now off on their first term on the mission field. I miss them terribly but am thrilled that they are actually out there doing frontier missions, which is what they have been preparing for the last several years of their lives. Another good friend is going to be heading off next week to do the same thing in a neighbouring country. The fun thing is that they'll be working with the same people group and learning the same languages (although with different organizations), so my hope is that I can maybe visit them in a few years and see how they're doing on the other side of the world :)
Also, a bunch of my classmates have just gone through the accreditation process with the school denomination, and it's made me think about whether I should seek accreditation or licensing/certification with either the other denomination or with my own. I figure that if I've spent the last few years in school getting trained in ministry and theology, that I might as well become "official" somewhere, but I'm not sure how and what this will look like. Going with the school denomination would be beneficial since I hear the process is quite rigorous and it would open me up to do global missions work with them, but I'm not so sure that I fit in with all of their views, theologically and otherwise. The flip-side is that I really like my own denomination, although I think the opportunities to work with them globally are more limited. I guess I'll have to wait and find out what God has in store for me after graduation so that I can make a more informed decision!
In terms of life after grad - something that one of my friends refers to as the 'question of the century' - I'm still not sure. I made a list the other day of all the things I want to do, but none of those things include uh, shall we say, active employment. I would like to get a job after I finish school, but I have all of these other things that I've been hoping to accomplish or experience as well. A couple of these items have been deferred for a while, and I keep telling myself that there's not another time in my life when I can necessarily do them (well, maybe there is and I'm unaware of it at this point, but still!). Anyways, I'm going to get back to reality and homework right now, and I'll leave those plans and dreams for another time when I'm finished with my coursework....
vendredi 22 juin 2007
YULblog, YYCblog?
This is true. I've always wondered if there was a semi-definitive Calgary blog that contained all the latest news and civic events, and just plain Calgaria-stuff but I haven't found anything. That's too bad because I really enjoy reading Montreal city weblog and Metroblogging Montreal (and just recently, Midnight Poutine) - those are some of the best places to find new restaurants or to hear about recent festivals and such around town. I do hope something for Calgary gets started soon; I've been feeling an eensy-bit homesick and it'd be great to find out what's happening there :)
dimanche 27 mai 2007
Clean slate
Since I haven't been all that consistent with my blogging in the past year-ish, it really feels like a clean slate now that I'm getting back into it. Most of my readers from the first few years have either stopped blogging or they've stopped checking back here ;) So, it's somewhat strange knowing that I can express myself again without knowing who, if anyone, is reading my words. It's just like my early days of blogging where most of it was about rants on homework and procrastination (aha, not much has changed). It's crazy going back in the archives and seeing who I was then and what sort of ideas I was able to toss about; the even more fun part is seeing the other bloggers that I've had a chance to get to know a tiny bit. At this point, I am looking forward to what's in store and to seeing what great things God will do in my life. It feels like a solo journey for me on this blog but feel free to tag along, whoever you are :)
Libellés : blogging
lundi 20 novembre 2006
Crossing the line
Well, I finally received that invitation to switch to Blogger Beta (see the tour here) but I'm wondering how everyone else's experience has been with the new version. I understand that I will need to use a Google account and that I cannot revert back to the old Blogger, but beyond that I'm still not sure if I should try this immediately or wait a little while. Any opinions? I realize that my posting frequency has really plummeted over the past year but this could be an additional incentive to start writing more :)
Update: I'm on Beta now, and it's pretty nice so far! I'm enjoying the layout and exploring the new functions but I don't think I'll have time to label all my posts (categorizing +720 posts, ahh!).
Libellés : blogging
samedi 11 novembre 2006
Blog ramble
I didn't think I'd see this headline in the batch that I usually see after signing out of Hotmail but it doesn't surprise me: Blog-Proof Your Kids. The practice of blogging isn't new but I suppose it's finally become mainstream enough to warrant articles about parental caution. When I first used the internet ten years ago, my friends and I had our own personal websites but those pre-blogs were pretty geeky compared to how they look today. I remember neon colours, sparkly text, scrolling marquees and a plethora of other web effects gone crazy all on one page! I'm sure glad it's tamed down since then. My sites/pages from junior high would probably be very embarrassing to look at now :) I don't think what we did then was as dangerous so it's sad to see how things have "progressed".
This statement was surprising though: Recent studies show that teenagers write roughly half of all blogs today. When I first started "officially" blogging (on the joy that is Blogger), I figured most bloggers were middle-aged men and that us college students were the young'uns in the blogosphere. I guess I didn't consider the junior high/high school websites as blogs but they must be if that's what this statistic is saying for teens. I'm wondering if this number also includes things like MySpace blogs and whatever else there is. I don't read any teen blogs which means I'm missing half of what's going on in the blogosphere - if this statistic is correct. Interesting.
Libellés : blogging
vendredi 1 septembre 2006
Weblog, web log, we blog
Boundless has a couple of articles this week on blogging and has started its own blog. The following are some statements that really stuck out to me and have challenged me to take a different perspective of my blog:
...If you're going to write a blog, write about something that matters. Unless you don't expect anyone to read what you're saying, ask yourself if what you're writing will serve your readers in any way. It might be funny or serious, your own reflections or thoughts from others. Your blog might simply point to resources, books, or music that has encouraged you. But the content should in some meaningful way bring glory to God.Or, as Carolyn McCulley says on Blog Responsibly: "Just because you can hit publish, doesn't mean you should."
...It never seems very sinful when we're writing from our heart, striking a few keys and, pushing "post." No one's there to give us feedback and we're just happy we said what we wanted to say. That's why Christian bloggers need a generous dose of humility. The nature of blogging implies that I think I have something worth saying. That's misleading. The ability to post my thoughts on the Internet is no guarantee that I have any idea what I'm talking about.
- Blogging to Worship God
In a world of exponentially increasing information and news, not to mention blogs, it's obvious that words can lose their meaning and become frivolous. I can relate to the whole writing-anything-for-the-sake-of-writing-something dilemma and I know I've used it a lot on here, but I don't want to do that anymore. I want my words to be edifying no matter what my post is about, whether it's an update on my life or links to other things. I want my words to be Christ-honouring and Christ-centered and I've noticed that I'm slipping away from my original purpose. So, I'm not sure what this means for me but it's best to end it here than to babble on.... :)
Libellés : blogging
mercredi 23 août 2006
Scattered summary
It is such a relief to finish school for the summer, even if I only have two weeks left to enjoy my time off. I've been able to get out a bit more and even received my first mosquito bites of the summer (obvious hint: staying indoors and writing papers is a great way to prevent insect bites)! Unfortunately, I received six of them just from sitting on a lawn chair in a park.
Over the past two months, I've enjoyed helping out with children's ministry at my church and I'm really excited about this coming weekend. It's going to be salvation weekend and we're praying for the kids to invite Jesus into their hearts for the first time (prayer would be fantastic)! All of the lessons that we've been teaching has been leading up to this and I know God has been drawing these little kids closer to Him through these presentations of Christ. I admit I'm nervous about this and I'm praying that the Holy Spirit will guide me as I pray with the kids.
I'm not transitioning between my paragraphs too well here, probably to the dismay of my English professor. One of my friends is getting married the first weekend of September but it's in a different province so I won't be able to celebrate with her. Another one of my friends just got engaged last week. And I'm waiting for one other engagement announcement to come soon from some friends in Quebec. In addition to this, I think there was about fifteen or so weddings that took place with fellow Bible college classmates. Phew!
I'm noticing that some people on my blogroll have stopped blogging... either from the end of a mission experience or a decision to stop writing online after a certain period of time. I'm going to miss reading some of those great posts but such is the variable nature of the internet. There have been times when I thought about ending this blog since I'm getting pretty horrible at updating but I'll keep it for now.
And to end this summary, here are some random links: If only we had these books and class was like this via Challies
mercredi 12 avril 2006
High school revisited
I think it's funny that students from my school who have online web journals/blogs/etc. form communities based on whichever hosting service/website they use. For example, I know that there are a ton of music majors who are very well connected with each other on MySpace, a bunch of English language teachers who have their own group on Xanga, and the rest of us here on Blogger. I prefer to call us Blogger-ites the eclectic mix since we're all from different majors and doing various things at the moment (working part-time, interning, studying full-time, all of the above). It's almost like online cliques.
Onto another topic, I'm trying to cram in as much as I can before I leave. Just this week alone, people have brought up names of places I should go to and other things I should do and I'm thinking, "I wish you'd have told me that when I first came!" I think I have an overbooked schedule at this point but I suppose I can always catch up on my rest later :) It's going to be a whirlwind of a month and I'm going to need this summer to recover; good thing nothing is concrete yet!
Libellés : blogging
mercredi 15 février 2006
This labourious task
These days, it seems as though everyone has a blog. On the one hand, it's nice to know that people can understand me when I say "I have a blog" and they don't think it's a disease or pimple. After all, odds are probably high that they're a blogger now too. But on the other hand, I feel like blogging is such a fad because it has suddenly exploded into the mainstream. Initially when I started writing on here, I wanted to be a Christian witness by sharing how Jesus has been working in my life. Then it became a way of remembering things that periodically came up. And now, I find it hard to write anything on here other than updates few and far in-between (and I notice I don't write much about my spiritual journey either - I pray that's not indicative of my walk with Christ!). In some ways I feel the same that Esther does, that blogging is becoming a popular trend among Christians. I'm not sure how I feel about things becoming trends in Christian circles, but that's an aside thought.
Something else that's random: I like how "blog", "blogger", and "blogging" are considered incorrect spelling within Blogger. It's the ironies of life that bring me back here :)
Libellés : blogging
mercredi 1 février 2006
An encouragement
Thanks to Andrew for writing the following! I really liked your comment so I'm posting it here :)
Dear Neely,
sometimes working in a church, attending a bible college and staying with a French-speaking family... seems so so foreign to a Chinese in Singapore! Apparently not so in Canada! =)
When I was newly converted to Christianity more than 10 years ago... I was in awe with the white flowing robes, the cleric collar and the role the priest has in preaching and administering sacraments! These days, I still respect the clergy profession just as much but realise that it takes more than the desire to do and wear the above to become a Christian priest or pastor! =) The calling from God is important! Then again, as a young Christian at that time, I thought that despite my naivety I dared to dream out of the norm and dream big! I wish you all the best in your pursuit to work in Christian ministry!
Libellés : blogging
dimanche 24 juillet 2005
Back to the bubble
So, humour. That's quite an odd way to open up a post, but after randomly finding some myspace accounts that belong to people I know from church, I have quite a sour taste in my mouth. I guess I didn't expect some of them to write and joke about things that aren't exactly umm, decent. Yeah, I'm pretty naïve when it comes to what people actually talk about now, but I had hoped to not hear it from Christians. Well, now I know that if I run into these people it will be definitely be awkward. Gotta love the internet and how everyone is linked together somehow, making some acquaintanceships too close.
Libellés : blogging
mercredi 22 juin 2005
Back to the future
I've been blogging for two years now. I still don't think I'll get used to that word though :)
I've been cleaning my room this past week (wonderfully exciting) and getting ready for my move next year. It'll be nice knowing that I've cut down on the boxes and boxes of paper I've managed to accumulate through my life. Yesterday, I came across this youth financial magazine from 1990 with a blurb called "What's New?" I'll share the funniest portions:
Future World
The World Future Society offers the following predictions - by the year 2000:
- The lifespan of cars will be about 22 years, compared to 7.5 today.
- Dangerous prisoners will be sent to distant planets or to underwater prisons. Robots will be their guards.
- Mariculture, or ocean farming, may produce more food than land farming.
Computer Jitters
If you're worried that you need to know all there is about computers to get a job in the future, don't. While most workers will need a basic knowledge of computers, only 5% of the workforce will need extensive computer training and education. The engineers, scientists, computer designers, programmers and repairers of tomorrow will get the computer training they require with their education.
- excerpted from Street Cents Vol. 1, No. 1, 1990
Libellés : blogging
jeudi 20 janvier 2005
New blog on the roll
While I was taking my seminary class last week, I got to meet some really nice people who go to the school full-time. One of the guys I had lunch with writes on this group blog called Motion Sickness. There's a lot of great discussion going on with the posts and it's becoming one of my favourite blogs to read. There's also forums and articles, with a ton of interaction from the group bloggers. In fact, one of my classmates is even writing for them. Do hop on over there and check them out!
Libellés : blogging
jeudi 13 janvier 2005
Adrenaline rush
Well, I finally did it - I admitted in front of my friends today that I had a blog. I tend to keep this under wraps, although I'm not sure why. The funny thing is one of them probably forgot and the other is looking to start one, which I might help get going. Ah, compartmentalized life.
I never know how I make decisions, but it seems I don't use a lot of rationality when it comes to the important ones. I probably spend more time debating and doing deep analysis on socks than I do on things like flying somewhere.
Libellés : blogging
lundi 23 août 2004
Here and there
Blogger is now offering AdSense to bloggers where they can get paid for allowing advertisements to be shown on their website that pertain to the topic of their posts. I wonder how it's going to change the medium of blogging - if people will become less personal and start writing more about what they think will generate profit for themselves. I guess I'll have to wait until someone on my blogroll joins the program and then see if their writing has transformed in any way.
I came across a great post the other day about how the church is being relevant in culture. Tim from challies.com posed the question, "How Relevant Is Too Relevant?" Even though he wrote it pretty quickly, I thought it still hit on a lot of good points.
And in other news, Vanity Fair will be theatres on September 1. I had to read the book for my Lit class and because it was so huge, I kept reminding myself that the movie was coming out soon. Now it's just a week away! I've heard mixed opinions on Reese Witherspoon's performance of Becky Sharp, but as I was reading the book, I could picture her in the role. It's great to see a recent movie adaptation of a novel from 19th century England. I hope this trend continues.
Well, I should be off to practise my Greek alphabet. I've got most of the letters memorized but none pronounced correctly. It turns out that some of the ones I've learned from math, chemistry or physics weren't said the way they should have been. One of my friends told me that pi (3.14159..) is actually pronounced pee rather than pie. But I don't think that would fly too well with junior high boys.
Libellés : blogging, church, college, media
mercredi 18 août 2004
Frustration abounds
Errgh, can't for the life of me figure out why my sidebar won't match up with the body of the page. Any techies know why? I've tried to change every possible setting on Blogger but it's driving me nuts because there is no answer!
On happier news, I've finished my course, (somewhat, to an audible extent) have my voice back, and am getting ready for school in less than twenty days away! Work is going to be busy these next few weeks, as will the first two weeks of classes. I pretty much either go to class and then work or work and then go to class. That will be my life in September.
Funny anecdote:
I was driving to something a few weeks back and saw a van with the following words in the rear window (put on there with white stickers): Caution - Blind Man Driving. Well I almost had a heart attack thinking, "What?!" Then underneath in the tiniest letters was an advertisement for some company that sells blinds. Talk about a double entendre!
Libellés : blogging
mardi 8 juin 2004
Downfalls to a public site
I just found out that Theophilus has stopped blogging and shut down his site. I didn't realize for a while because I use Bloglines to read half of my blogs and it wasn't updated for a while. (Side note: Blogger users, please please please syndicate your blogs. Thank you!) Anyways, I found out from Clint's blog the reasons why Theo quit, which was quite sad but understandable. I hope that no one has to go through that sort of thing online.
On an interesting note about blogs, I found out that my boss has one! And through either talking to friends or accidentally stumbling upon them, it seems that some fellow classmates do as well. To me, it's something of a hobby that I don't really discuss with others, unless they bring it up somehow or ask me, which hasn't really happened. But I think there are others who are much more open about it and tell everyone about their blog. I don't think I'll ever reach that stage. Right now, it's still a pretty well-kept secret. As I've written before, I just don't seem like the type of person who would publish their thoughts publicly. Who knows though, I would say about 80% of the people who stop by here are coming off from search engines so I could be found out one day. I read on a blog somewhere once that said something to the effect of, "Always assume that everyone who knows you has read what you've written online." That's a somewhat scary thought!
Libellés : blogging
