I think as long as we have the internet, we will have some form of spam out there that drives us nuts. Have you ever run into blog spam? As the owner of a blog, I’ve run into comment spam, which is where a spammer leaves a comment on your blog that is completely unrelated to your post and advocates some action like clicking a link or visiting a site. Everyone knows about the other kind of spam that gets into your e-mail. I even know some who have tasted the original Spam meat product.
Blog spam is an odd little thing in that it just sits out there on a little-known website address, usually on a free blog site like blogger.com. It contains words and key phrases designed to trick Google and other search engines to direct you to their site. If you use Google Alerts, Google will let you know about this great new web site that just came out with the words you asked it to look for. Only when you get to the site do you realize that you’re a victim of blog spam.
Ironically, these blogs use Ads By Google and other pay-by-impression advertisements to boost their hit counts. That’s how they make their money. Marketing is a game of percentages. They know that if they can get even the slightest percentage of Google searches for a particular phrase, they will make money. It doesn’t matter to them what you’re looking for. If they can get you to their site, that’s all that matters.
The spammers who set this stuff up know that they are violating the terms of service agreement for the free blog. In most cases on Blogger, the spammer has removed the Nav Bar at the top that allows site visitors (also known as spam victims) to flag the blog for review by Blogger. There is a way around that of course, but it takes three or four clicks, some searching, some reading, and some typing to make it happen. Only people like me who have a little time and are committed to fighting spammers would go to the trouble it takes to report the abuse. For that small, hardy band of spam blammers ("blam" as in explosion), the steps to report a Blogger or BlogSpot spammer are at the end of this post.
This is going to become a bigger problem. I hate to sound so “positive,” but I’m pretty sure it’s going to happen. Although this can be stopped on so many levels from the search engine to the hosting site to the unfortunate victims, public outcry and frustration will have to rival the congressional brouhaha over e-mail spam a few years back in order to get the attention it needs. Until then, search engines will continue to get clogged with useless links, and people will get frustrated by irrelevant search results.
To report a Blogger spammer
Find the URL (the http://... in your address bar)
Highlight and copy the URL to the clipboard. It must have from the http to the .com part to give them a good URL
Ever since making an itty-bitty change to my hardware, my desktop has imploded. I can't keep it going for more than a few hours. After flashing its BIOS--not as dirty as it sounds--and re-installing drivers that must have fallen out of a cab somehow, I think--emphasis on the word think--I have it repaired.
This is of little consolation to my public. Both of them have been clamoring for more since last Friday and, alas and alack, it's nigh on to Thursday following.
Did I mention that working on my computer makes me a little punchy?
A little patience and I'll be back to my normal, fun-loving self.
Hey there, folks! Just checking in on my blog. I have been working on some pieces, but they're not flowing out as easily as I'm used to. I'm beginning to wonder if they should even see light on my blog. Something to pray about anyway.
In the meantime, as everyone's turkeys are thawing in savory anticipation of this Thursday, I'd like to introduce a tool I just discovered today. Google Notebook seems to allow anyone with a Google account to copy snippets of text to a private data collection on the web. This is a big deal for researchers working from more than one computer. Instead of toting the data with you, why not simply log in and pull it down when you need it?
Here's a little bit about me, in case you're wondering.
I am 6 foot even (usually) and I battle my weight a lot. I'm currently near my maximum of 370 lbs. although a lot of that is left over from my body building days in high school. So I don't look that heavy, but I sure do feel it. Please don't recommend a diet because I can't lose weight if I'm not able to exercise that much. Has my weight contributed to my disability? Absolutely, but it's hard to know which was the precipitating factor, the cause for the other.
Ok so far? All right. I was born in Colorado and first lived on a mountain pass west of Denver. I don't remember a whole lot, except being told I couldn't go outside to play because there were bears in our yard. Another unwelcome guest at this same house was the lightning. Two houses I have lived in have been struck by lightning, but the one on the pass was struck multiple times, usually taking it through my mom's stainless steel kitchen sink, although we had ball lightning a couple of times according to my dad. My dad calls me Sparky because of my tendency to find thunderstorms in the mountains.
Education was difficult for me. I was "gifted and talented," although they never clarified which of the two I belonged to. I went to public and private schools. I've tested above average on raw intelligence--this doesn't mean I'm wise--and I was diagnosed with what came to be known as ADHD. These factors practically guaranteed that I would not fit in with the crowd and when you go to a private school with only one or two cliques, this means you're alone in your outsider's world. Rejection stinks, and it was one of my motivating factors in deciding to homeschool my children. College was better both academically and socially, but I ran out of money before I was able to complete my degree. Based on my experience, I don't recommend college for anyone until they are sure they know what they want to do for the rest of their lives.
I've made a lot of mistakes in life but here's what I consider my biggest that if I had it to do over again, I would. I started dating girls around age 13. I broke a lot of hearts and had my heart broken a lot in those next five years. I got emotionally and physically involved where I had no right. This isn't a recrimination on any of the girls I dated. I simply should have not been in those relationships in the way I was involved and I often wonder if I made any positive contribution to any of them. I probably did, but it's hard to see it looking back.
God is amazing, and he allowed me to start over. I realized my mistake and repented, promising myself I would let God direct me to my wife when He judged I was ready. A few months later, I found myself falling in love with my friend and future wife, Karen. We were engaged far too long, but even then, God helped us and kept us from messing things up. Our wedding was a simple, church ceremony by our pastor and God was a big part of the ceremony. Our honeymoon was in Silver Creek, a beautiful, smaller ski resort.
Making the adjustment to married life is never very easy, but we made a good decision in getting good counseling before getting married that saved us a lot of grief. We found ourselves being drawn to youth ministry and that defined our role in our church for years.
Eight months after our wedding, I was involved in a car accident that didn't seem too terrible, but it was the pebbles that started the avalanche towards my disability. I rear-ended another car and found myself folded around the shoulder strap of my seatbelt. The injury to my throacic part of my spine was treated, but it never really healed. In five years, I made a career migration to an office job that was less demanding and allowed me to earn more. I ended up working for ministries based in Colorado. That's what I did for a day job, but my wife and I began to find ourselves moving from youth ministry toward young marrieds and families.
Our family began growing in 1996 with the birth of our first daughter and grew again in 1999 with our first son. Our introduction to parenthood was traumatic with our daughter requiring a crash C-section and cardiac surgery 40 hours afterward. God was amazing and walked us through the first days and years of parenting.
My wife and I first began feeling our long-term calling in our first year of marriage, but it didn't really hit home until our realization that we were burning out on youth ministry. We took a very low cost retreat and it had a deep impact in our lives on all levels. We began to see that performing as servants of God is a distant second to being His children and that we needed to plug into God as the source of our strength instead of relying on ourselves. The retreat was a key moment in our lives where God allowed us to reconnect with Him and with each other.
Our vision now is to see God use this in more people's lives, especially those who are in ministry themselves and needing to make adjustments. We believe that despite my limitations, God can do great things in us. We are eager for what he wants to do in us and through us.
Someone nominated me for the Best Dads Blog at the Homeschool Blog Awards. I really was surprised to find out about this. Whoever nominated me, thank you for the compliment!
I have a new blog with an easy to remember name. It's www.waldenswits.com. Pretty spiffy, eh? But just because I have a new URL, it doesn't mean I'm leaving the HSB community. I would not do that unless something was wrong. I'm just finding that--just like in real life--I'm a big guy and I need some space to stretch out and try new things. And, in case you're wondering at the title, the answer for my visitors is that things will remain the same. All of my posts will continue to show up here as well.
If you are reading this in a feed reader (like yahoo!, google, bloglines, etc.), however, this is very important news. I will soon be moving the feed on this blog to the new feed from my new blog. In order for you to continue to receive my posts,please go to this link to add my new feedhttp://feeds.feedburner.com/WaldensWits. It doesn't make sense to maintain two different feeds out there that say the same thing, does it? What a waste of XML! Just kidding. I have new features in the new feed that wouldn't carry over in the old.
If you have any questions about switching feeds or you want to know more about anything I've said, comment in or e-mail me at waldenswits@gmail.com.
The winter storm seems to be moving off a little and it looks like we're going to get a bit of a break from the flakes. Thanks to God, because my back couldn't take much more of trying to clear the snow from our driveway. It's going to take weeks if not months to get this stuff to melt off. Still, it will melt unless we get a cold spell. Colorado may get blasted with snow, but it doesn't hang around all season. I wonder how our neighbors to the north handle it hanging around like I'm sure it does.
Speaking of neighbors to the north, Ian, an old Canadian buddy of mine, is going to guest-blog here tomorrow. He's a great guy and I'm thrilled to announce that he's engaged to be married this spring. How I'm going to afford the cost of making it to the wedding is something God is going to have to work out. On the other hand, I don't think my family could have made 15 months without a regular, full-time income. God is truly great!
Anyway, Ian's told me that he's going to blog about entertainment and Dakota Fanning's new movie (no, not Charlotte's Web).
I might not be writing for the next couple of days. My new doctor changed around my medications and until we figure them out, I’m not sure if I’m in a clear mind to write what I would like to. I hope you understand.
In the meantime, I will probably put out a Christmas story I wrote for my family a year or two ago. If you like the advent series by Arnold Ytreeide, you might like this. It’s pretty long, so I’m going to break it up into installments.
I would appreciate your prayers both for my healing and my family.
I try not to bad mouth my hosting service, but they've been having latency issues since they made some changes over the weekend. It happens to the best of us. I just wanted to let you know that you can still access my feed at any time if you subscribe by e-mail or by feed*. Here are your options...
The life of the habitual blogger is filled with thoughts like, I should blog about that, or, That would be great to put on the blog. I have had several thoughts like this every day. So why am I not writing about them? There are two reasons. My disability is keeping me from being able to stay at the computer for more than a few hours every day. Additionally, I seem to be having some trouble remembering them when I do get time at the computer. Its like trying to recall notes from a half-forgotten song. Its so frustrating!
Anyway, bear with me. I plan to post later on today about violence in video games. Tomorrow, I hope to write about disability and its ties to rejection. Just some light reading, eh?
