Sunday, August 18th, 2002
OK, I really really promise to get the photo gallery up and running, since I’ve got tons of cool photos to put up. Especially all the shots I’ve been taking while racing on Mistral (there’s a small site coming soon for that too), a Beneteau First 35.5′
Most of the races have been in Biscayne Bay, although we did have one at the end of June from Miami to Bimini, which was just terrific. Much more detail about my racing experiences will be placed in the Mistral mini-site, and if there’s really cool stuff I’ll post it here too :-)
Sigh…my to-do list continues to grow…
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Thursday, August 15th, 2002
There’s a really good article on ALA this week (well, two really, but I like this particular one the best): 10 Tips on Writing the Living Web, by Mark Bernstein
I promise I will read it at least twice :-)
Seriously, even though there are a lot of good comments and concepts in this article, my personal favorite is “Write for a reason”. Too often I find people (businesses, copywriters, individuals posting to blogs, whomever) just putting something out there, no matter how trivial or superficial (not superfluous mind you ;-) just so they have something to show.
Effort is something I miss when reading lately; it is clear that folks are turning into machines, simply churning out content as needed. It’s a little sad, and I’ve been guilty of it myself from time to time.
Write for a reason.
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Wednesday, August 14th, 2002
My quartet sang for our Bass’s church this past Sunday morn (two services), nothing complicated, just our Gospel Medley and the Irish Blessing. Both were very well received, and we sold some tapes and CDs to boot.
However: Part of the deal was that I actually had to sit through each service and do my best to look like I was paying attention. The problem with it is that occasionally I actually did pay attention, and what I heard pissed me off.
The pastor was in the middle of his sermon, and started talking about some Christian radio talk show he had been recently listening to, and went on to mention this woman who called in and said that P.C. no longer stands for Political Correctness, but instead stands for Persecuting Christians. The pastor then went on to say that this kind of comment, while extreme, is not entirely without merit. He said there are people in our country who would like to prevent Christians from practicing their religion, from promoting the “Word of God ™”, from actually being Christians, and that all Christians must be strong and fight for their right to preach their faith!
It was that last line that really got me hot under the collar. I’ve been a practicing Agnostic for many years (that’s somewhat tongue-in-cheek), and one thing that has always bugged me about Christians (in my experience, it’s always that bunch) is how many of them force their faith and beliefs on unsuspecting bystanders. I had a friend when I was about 10 who, when he asked me about God and I replied “I don’t believe in god, I need more proof”, proceeded to tell me that I was going to hell if I didn’t believe in God, and that I would be forever damned. He was my age. His family wasn’t a crazed bunch of bleeding-edge religious lunatics, they were “normal” chuch-going folk. They moved from our street a few years later, and his parents actually attend the church that my girlfriend’s parents/grandparents attend (and prior to meeting me, my girlfriend had known this family…of course, Lauren and I lived just a few blocks from each other for about 7 years when we were much too young to have been dating, but that’s another story for another day).
Don’t worry, Lauren isn’t religious :-)
I’ve been preached to so many times by so many different people that I’ve completely lost count. My ex-girlfriend was a Catholic (she was a lovely girl, but I still think Catholics are the worst of the bunch), and even she couldn’t resist the occasional reminder that I was probably not going to heaven, even though I was more of a ” Good Christian” in my behavior than many church-goers she knew. All because thinking otherwise went against her belief system.
Now, I don’t want people to have to stop believing in their faith, nor am I going to tell people that I think they are wrong, and that it’s sad to see so many intelligent people acting like a dumb flock of sheep, etc. etc. What I do want is for people to keep their beliefs to themselves.
I don’t force my silence or neutrality upon others, and I would appreciate if others would be so kind as to not force their beliefs upon my ears.
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Sunday, August 4th, 2002
Down with Verisign!
This quaint little site/blog/portal is dedicated to getting the word out about Verisign’s shady business practices, not to mention their poor service, high prices, etc.
VerisignOff is now one of my favorite sites :-) See the brand new link on the right!
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Friday, August 2nd, 2002
Of course:
Consolation Champs: Eric Meyer on CSS Contest
For my final attempt:
.pleading>begging {
Poor designer waits
Can’t afford to buy the book
Needs to win contest
}
This is my last one
So good luck to all who tried
May the best one win
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