Odds ‘n Ends

I’ve been sitting here waiting for email confirmation of my domain registration of LorenWebster.net and confirmation that I can start building my new web site at my new ISP. While waiting, I’ve started looking at the instructions for installing MT.

If you don’t hear from me for awhile, you can assume I’m buried under some geek language, lost in my own version of Loren in Wonderland. After blundering my way through Burningbird’s discussion of RDF/RSS I can hardly wait to get started trying to understand the "guts" of how MT feeds information to NetNewsWire Lite, my latest toy, one that, along with OmniGraffle, makes me delighted that I’m an OSX man, even if I’ve been made fun of by the Mac community for objecting to the upgrade price on OS X. (Nope, I still haven’t upgraded and I’m not rushing to. I’m having too much fun spending my money on other toys.)

NetNewsWire, through Kuro5hin.org, helped me find this interesting article by President Jimmy Carter on the fundamental changes "taking place in the historical policies of the United States with regard to human rights, our role in the community of nations and the Middle East peace process — largely without definitive debates."

Perhaps not coincidentally, the virtual web tapped into my pocketbook again today as I mailed off a check to

After having sent off several letters to my government representatives via their web site, I felt obligated to support their efforts by writing a check to them today so that they can continue their efforts to encourage people to get involved in the decisions that their government makes about the environment.

I’m not at all sure that the internet’s ability to keep me "better informed" is entirely a good thing in these troubled times. Sometimes I find it makes me feel obligated to do things I would prefer not to do.

Lately, I seem to want to spend more time solving Baldur’s Gate II, basking in the glory of a scantily clad priestess/warrior who has obviously joined my merry, adventuring band because she’s attracted to my masculine charm and bravado.

Oh yeah, and when I’m not escaping the harsh reality of my limited technical skills and the current discussions on "sexuality" and "sexism" in the blogs, I’m likely to be lost in Catch-22 again so that I can review it for the Banned Book Project.

Trivial Pursuits

Browsing through someone’s Burningbird’s links (is this really how you’re supposed to correct an error later rather than just correcting it like I usually do?), while avoiding thinking about To Kill a Mockingbird, I found Michael’s Subject to Change. While his proposal to save baseball might have been funnier a few hours ago, it’s still darn funny. (Oddly enough I found the link through Bb’s side links because his name is close to mine, not her article link that I just noticed while looking up the link referenced below.) Lot’s of other good stuff there, too.

Course it couldst be funnier cause I be subsidizing the Mariners this weekend in a big way, though I toldst my woman I warn’t buying no damn $5.00 hot dog and $5.00 soda pop this here year.

We won’t need no oxygen masks or periscopes this year ‘cuz we done sprung for lower level seats down there on d’ first base line. I can ‘ford ’em if’n I don’t buy no hot dogs or no sof drinks. (Sorry Burningbird, but I jest had to try out yorn’ sugges’n that I tries to applies the style of the latest book I be readin’.) I jes dons’t know if my ex-students gonna lets me get away wit it.

No Answers Here, Just More Questions

After finishing my Mockingbird essay that’s been posted at The Banned Book Project and reading Whiskey River’s "less preoccupying thoughts" and reading Jonathon’s philosophical entry today, the following thoughts occurred to me:

If you think you know the answers to life, you probably don’t know the question.

otherwise known as

Asking the right question is the key to finding the right answer.

Don’t Block the Plate

Not only do I have writer’s block, I have way too much on my plate right now. Now that I’ve been writing this blog for nearly a year, I’ve been considering redesigning it, not in the small ways I’ve been redesigning this page constantly, but in some major ways I’ve been trying to avoid.

In order to make most of the changes that I want to make, I’m going to have to go to another ISP provider besides AT&T, something I hate to do since I’m already paying AT&T for the right to host a web page.

What I really want to do is switch to MT and have permanent links and comments. In order to do that, I’m going to follow Jeff Ward’s advice and switch to his ISP at some pretty reasonable rates.

I hope to divide my new web site up into different areas. The main focus will still be In a Dark Time, because personal philosopy and literature remain my main focus.

But another major focus will be environmental, and necessarily political, issues as that is another of my passions in life. I’ve been reading several web sites regularly that cover environmental issues but have been struggling with how to integrate these issues into my site. Until I do get the new page up, I suggest you visit Michael Webb’s MLWebblog site for interesting commentary and links on environmental and political issues.

Meantime, I’ve finished writing the review of To Kill a Mockingbird which should appear on the Banned Books Project in the next few days. Eventually I will probably archive it on my new website but not right now.

I’m still working on a more detailed analysis of the book which should also be coming shortly.