Housekeeping.

Cast your eyes to the right of the screen and you'll notice that I've updated my blogroll. It's been a while since I did some housekeeping here, and there were several blogs sitting in my favorites folder that deserved links. Here's what's gone and what's new.

What's gone:

Fred Thompson - His candidacy is done, and so's his blog.

NeoAuteur - Actually removed this one some time ago, due to that blog's retirement.

Simply Conservative - One of the first blogs to add me to its blogroll; sadly, clicking the link
results in a site not found error.

What's new:

Beauty and Depravity - Eugene Cho's blog. I discovered Eugene's blog via Michelle Malkin during the South Korean hostage crisis last year. Once that situation was over, I found that, while Eugene does not necessarily share my political views, I enjoy reading his blog. He's funny, insightful, Christian, and is not afraid to take shots at himself.

Conservative Propaganda - A conservative blog by a fellow HotAir commenter. Tantor doesn't post often, but when he does it is always well-written, well-researched, and soundly conservative.

Dr. Laura's Blog - Yes, the Dr. Laura Schlessinger. I recently read her book, The Proper Care and Feeding of Marriage, and was amazed at how different it was from the typical marital advice books, which do little more than denigrate men and place primacy on the wife's needs and wants. Dr. Laura acknowledges that a marriage has two people, and problems are not always the fault of the man; sometimes men behave the way they do because of how women treat them. Her blog is as interesting as her book.

Polis Politics - A local blog, focusing solely on Indianapolis, filled with biting commentary towards the Democrats in my hometown.

Shane Vander Hart - A recent addition to my favorites, Shane is a Christian blogger. Check out his recently begun series about abortion.

The Punch Die - A history and numismatics blog by the blogger formerly of The Oxford Medievalist blog (now defunct). Titus is a historian by training, and an obsessive coin collector. His posts are interesting, and he has some great pictures of Roman coins. I never got interested in coins and coinage, being drawn to art and architecture, but the study of coins is an important facet of archaeology, and I'm glad that individuals such as Titus have taken it up (better them than me, heh heh).

The Thirst for Freedom - Another conservative Christian blog. Worth a visit, even though other concerns have kept him from posting much lately.

Use the Oxgoad - Travis Gilbert is a fellow Christian Hoosier, a Baptist minister, and an IU sports nut. Excellent reading, and I love his comment descriptor.

Underground Update.

It seems that I jinxed myself by starting my fantasy fiction site, Jezla's Underground. Having posted the intro and a short character sketch, I promptly succumbed to writer's block and have been stuck ever since. I've had some ideas, but they all are little more than Dungeons and Dragons fan fiction, which I want to try and avoid. I'm listening to lots of Celtic music, hoping to get a little inspiration!

In order to do something with the Underground, I dug up an old pencil drawing and posted it. Click the link above to see it, and thanks for visiting!

Happy New Year!

For those of you who like blogs better than parties, allow me to offer you this:

The Recipe For Jezla

3 parts Nonconformity 2 parts Inspiration 1 part Wisdom Splash of Savvy Finish off with a squeeze of lime juice

What's the Recipe for Your Personality?

Dubious Distinction.

It's amazing what Sitemeter can tell you about traffic to your site. One of the features it has is to show you the referring link to your site, so you can see where people are coming from. Lately the bulk of my traffic has been coming from Google searches of XP vs Vista (my thoughts on which you can find here).

Today, however, I was rewarded with a treat. The latest referring link came from a post at rightwingsnarkle.blogspot.com. Type it in your browser if you want - I'm not giving this guy any free traffic. At first glance, it looks like RIGHTWINGSPARKLE, a blog on my blogroll. Looks can be deceiving I found, as I clicked the link and came upon a typical, filth spewing left-wing blog, evidently dedicated to highlighting those of us on its 'G-list' of wing-nut bloggers.

Then I decided to check my email, and what did I find in my spam folder, of all places? A brief love-letter from Mr. Snarkle himself, informing me that he has added me to his blogroll. It seems he has dubbed me "Tennessee Jed." While I feel flattered to have earned such a distinction, I'm offended that he has seen fit to try and hijack one of my favorite blogs. So, here you go: the real RIGHTWINGSPARKLE. Enjoy.

Interesting Discussion.

My post about sex sparked a discussion with The Critical Bookworm about legislating morality. Jim Sullivan makes some good points, none of which are easy to respond to or refute. I've tried my best, and you can read it here.

Lunchtime Link.

I'm on lunch, skimming the blogs, and came across this excellent post at Conservative Propaganda. Enjoy!

Call Me Frosty.

I guess this fits, since I was accused by my college roomate of being an eskimo, because I opened the window in the middle of winter.

You Are a Snowman

Friendly and fun, you enjoy bringing holiday cheer to everyone you know!

What Christmas Ornament Are You?

(h/t BigDadGib)

Picture of the Day. (Updated)

I posted this picture last night before I went to bed. I was tired and thought it was funny, since I'm not a Mac fan, and the geeky side of me doesn't like their Mac/PC ads.

Having slept on it however, I realized that the picture is not really in keeping with the tone of this blog, and does not represent the message I want to send on a daily basis. I still think it's funny, but this is not the way to react to feelings of inadequacy. I apologize for appearig to advocate it.

So, instead of a picture, you now get a link, with suitable Content Warning.

Tagged by the SEO Monster.

I'm not usually into going along with memes, but since I got tagged a while back, I've been thinking it would be a poor sport of me to ignore it. I've picked three posts from my blog and added them to the list. Take a few minutes and peruse all the links; after all, the purpose of these things is to build traffic.

~Start tag~

This is based on the SEO theory that links to posts inside your blog are more important than links to your home page. I have selected three posts I want to promote along with my site’s name. You should do the same thing. Keep it simple and spread our good work around to both share and build some ratings! Pick three posts that you feel are your best or those you simply want to promote. Your site name is listed with your 3 selected posts beneath. Once you have your post up: Add the sites and post links of the folks you tagged onto your post. Try to add the site and post links to anyone involved to maximize the effectiveness. Tag a minimum of 5 people! Try your best not to double tag people so it will spread better! Please actually read the posts from everyone so you can see some really good work from our beloved blogging friends! Make your title a little different from mine to avoid repetitive titles. Please try maintain some friendly updates to your post too.

Revellian dot com
SEO Keywords For Beginners
Content: The Kings Illegitimate Stepchild
Tales of Blogger-X Illusion

Mariuca - Wishing On A Falling Star
Love In Disarray
In Love With A Dream
The Good Client

Mariuca’s Perfume Gallery
Perfume Shopping Spree
Defining Beauty
In Full Splendour

First Time Dad
Homer Kidnapped
Something Ends
Good Night Sweetheart! Hello Basil!

Speedcat Hollydale Page
Rocket Boy in Hawaii - DC9
Speedcat’s Death Ride into Terror!
The Boy Inside All Men

R Playground
Friends101
Shy Blogger
Soul Music

LadyJava’s Lounge
Are you a Genius??, The secret to a happy marriage, I’ve got a twitch in my eye

Rooms of My Heart
Let’s Celebrate with Us, Join Tribute to Dads Project, 8 things that make who I am now

Being Woman - The Joy of Being One
A Handbag Lunatic, A Real Deal, What makes you fat?

Make Money Online
Share Uploaded Files and Earn, Fight Back against computer-security threats, Earn Money 3 Ways with Shareapic Program

Cat Tales
Sunday was Bathday, Someone got locked in!, When she’s sleeping….

Life with the Two Crazy Dogs
35W Bridge Collapsed Survivor, 10 Questions, Traffic Violation - Bite Me!

Attitude, the Ultimate Power
Cookies Happiness is a Decision; Choose to be Happy Happiness Vs. Human Nature

Terri Terri Quite Contrary - Just How Immature Are We?, Finding a Voice, So Much More to See than the Game

Amel's Realm - In Memoriam, On Trust and Relationship, Marriage Review

Choc Mint Girl
Failure in Every Success
Feel Like Singing?
Warm Wishes to Dad

Back Home Again
They Shall Become One Flesh
The First Year
Archaeology in the Holy Land

ADD YOURSELF HERE.WHEN DONE, LEAVE A COMMENT WITH ME

~End Tag~

Here goes. Tag, you're it:

1. Devilish Girl
2. BigDadGib
3. Shiny Sink
4. Mental Poo
5. Heh, can't think of any others...if you're reading this, consider yourself tagged!

Diggity Digg.

I've been working tonight trying to get a Digg button attached to each of my posts. I've found code for various types, but what I really want is the new style button that shows how many times a story has been dugg.

As you can see, I've managed to get it working, but it's still not to my satisfaction. For one thing, the lawnmower post is showing digg information for the Sam Hornish post. The Digg button also seems to look a little...hinky.

So, if anyone out there knows a good way to get the button I want working, please leave a comment with your suggestions!

Update: Well, I found a different set of instructions, and got the look I wanted, but now I'm not sure I like it. I may go back to including a simple digg graphic in the footer of each post. Opinions?

A New Experiment.

I've decided to try something new here at Back Home Again. Every day I see posts in discussion groups about making money with a blog, so I've decided to give it a try. There are many ways to earn, but since I don't like clutter on my blog, paid posts are the way to go.

One such service is bloggerwave. It's a paid post service based in Europe that connects bloggers with opportunities from advertisers. The advertisers pay for ads, the bloggers provide. What's great about this service is that you can take whatever opportunity you wish, so you don't have to worry about endorsing something you don't like or approve of. That's the danger with embedded ads; I can't tell you how many times I've visited a site in which the ads were directly opposed to the content of the site. Paid post services leave some power to the blogger, which is how it should be.

100.

Here it is: my 100th post. I've been racking my brain over the last few days for a topic to write about. But I saw this post and got to thinking how much bloggers obsess over numbers; we track subscribers, hit counts, page visits and views, posts, comments...bean counters extraordinaire we are.

Well, for this one post I'm bucking the trend. It's a throw-away. I'll still check my hit counts and page views. But my goal is and has been to share my thoughts. If you agree or disagree, admire or revile, thanks for reading.

Infrequent Updates.

Update 10/9/07: Well, I've worked out a deal with my ISP so that I can keep my connection, but I still may not post very often for a while as I just haven't been able to think of anything I want to write about. I'll post occassionally, so keep a weather eye on this space.

I've been pretty busy this past week, and have not been able to update this blog very much. Now, due to financial reasons, I'm having to drop my internet connection. I'll try to get to the library about once a week and update from there, but they'll probably be just quick and dirty posts, nothing major; so, I'm officially calling myself on hiatus until probably after the New Year.
Thanks for reading thus far, and please check back from time to time until I'm able to resume posting on a regular basis. Thank you!

Go Ahead - Push My Buttons.

I'd like to take a moment, dear Readers, and direct your attention to the sidebar, beneath the Blogroll.

Here you will find a few features that are of use to me, and I hope will be enjoyable to you. First is the subscription button, which allows you to subscribe to this blog via Feedburner. Second are the reader lists from Blog Catalog and MyBlogLog. These show you (and me) who has visited from those communities, and who is part of my neighborhood. Click on some one's avatar in the list and you will be taken to their profile page. It's a great way to find blogs to read and build readership at your blog, since people tend to visit the sites of those who visit theirs.

Next you'll find the Technoratti Fav button. Click on it to add this blog to your list of Technoratti Favorites. The Blog Catalog button takes you to the directory in which this blog is listed at Blog Catalog. You may find similar blogs there. The Stumble Upon button takes you to my Stumble Upon profile page. I don't update that one very often, but if you visit it you can get an idea of what I like and dislike.

Finally, the Digg button. It's normal procedure to place a Digg button in each post, but I have yet to find a way to do that to my satisfaction. The last instructions I tried to follow placed the button in the upper right of each post, which was an offense to my stylistic standards. If any of you know where I can find directions to add the button to the end of each post, please post the link in the comments to this thread.

These are some of the tools I use to build traffic here and to see who is visiting. Please avail yourselves of them. You may find another site you like, and it will let me know who my readers are and what they like. If you're a member of Blog Catalog or MyBlogLog and you like this blog, then please join the neighborhood! I'd be thrilled to welcome you.

Junkie

62%How Addicted to Blogging Are You?

Mingle² - Free Dating Site

Heh. Well, at least I'm not as bad as some people.

Readership.

As I draw near to 1000 hits (and some of them are my own), I'd like to find out a little about you, the reader. Some of you have left comments, and I thank you for that, but I'd like to know if you're just a visitor, a regular reader, how you found my blog, and what you like (or dislike). I welcome your comments and suggestions.

Thanks for reading.

The World in my Pocket.

Some of you have commented positively on the pictures I have posted here. I would very much like to take the credit for them, but unfortunately the continuance of peaceful relations at home compel me to give credit where it is due. My wife Alicia took almost all of these pictures here with our simple Sony digital. If you like them, you can find more examples at her photo blog, The World in my Pocket. Visit and leave her a comment or two, if you would be so kind.

Ego forbids me from relinquishing all the glory, so I will say that some of them are mine, but though I can't remember which ones, they are assuredly any of lesser quality.

Blogging Monday.

I've been away from the blog for a few days, what with work and family time. I have quite a list of subjects to blog about though, so keep your eyes tuned to this space. There are a plethora of posts coming on Monday!

Dear Diary

I've been blogging for nearly a week now, and in that time I've looked at many other blogs, both on Blogger and BlogExplosion. I have also followed political blogs for some time now. I've tried to get an idea of what to do, what not to do, and what blogging is all about in general. I read this the other day that offers some good advice, I think. Here are some of my own thoughts:

Blogging is a powerful new medium of expression. You can blog about news, politics, sports, music, even video games. It is a remarkable outlet for the thoughts and opinions of people which didn't exist a few short years ago. However, I have seen one facet of blogging that is distressing to me. A blog as a personal diary.

In a way, I think the anonymity of the internet makes it easy to forget that what we blog about is read by countless other people. This has already created problems for people who blog about work and then fall afoul of the boss for doing so. Using a blog to air your mind of your most troubling thoughts and feelings may seem therapeutic, but like a secret diary, the danger is that more people than your little brother will take a look at it. The snipe about that girl at work who aggravates you simply by existing? She may see it. The rant in which you call your hubby every nasty name in the book? Hope you like the doghouse, 'cause that's where you'll be sleeping the next few days. You see, a diary blog has the same weakness that a hardbound diary has: you're gossiping with yourself and whomever happens to read it. Like any gossip, you don't want it to get back to the person you're gossiping about, lest more pain ensue than that which prompted the rant in the first place. But how do I vent my frustrations, you ask, if my blog is supposed to be nothing but happy mush?

Rather than gossip with yourself or your cyber neighbor, why not tell your feelings to someone who actually cares and can do something to change them? God. Rather than pour forth venom on your keyboard, take your troubles to God in prayer, and ask him how you can deal with the hurt you feel and the anger and bitterness. He will listen, and he can make it better through his wisdom and grace. I think the Bible's advice applies in the blogosphere as much as it does in personal relationships, so I'll leave you with this:

"Reckless words pierce like a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing." Proverbs 12:18.

Who Needs a Shiny Sink?

Well...I do. By now, dear reader, you have probably noticed my slim blogroll and visited the sites where I get my daily dose of opinion and thought. One of those is 'Shiny Sink,' the blog of my lovely and devoted wife, Alicia. I can't describe in mere words how much this lady means to me. Though a self-described 'messy' (whereas I prefer to identify with the more humble and apt 'slob'), she has always made my home warm and cheerful, whether it was a two room campus apartment, or our little ranch in the Indy suburbs. She blunts my sharp ego with her soft compassion, and makes each day a joy. She worries and frets, and at times it seems as if cheering her up is a second job, but the beauty she reveals when she smiles makes it well worth the effort. For my part, I try to be the comforter and provider that she deserves. She was even kind enough to give me a shout out on her blog, so I'll do the same. If you would, click the link and pay her a visit. Here's to you, my love!

Oh, and she does keep the sink shiny.