Thursday, April 24, 2008
New Blog
Yes, believe it or not, it's me, Katie! I am still alive! Sorry for not posting much these days. I've been very busy with work and school...throw a little romance in there and you have a recipe for chaos! I love it! God is moving in so many ways and life is very exciting. I have a new job working in ministry...FINALLY! I'm doing what I love...serving God through ministry and earning an income at the same time. Unfortunately, it doesn't leave much time for writing. However, one of my recent assignments from school has birthed a new blog and I would love for you to drop by. It's still in the early stages but I'm sure it will grow in time. So, I'll leave you with a link and I hope you will stop by for a visit! Labels: Blogging, Personal Interest
Visit Firmly Grounded
Posted by Katie at 11:14 PM
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Friday, September 14, 2007
Blogging Without Letters
September 8th came and went virtually unnoticed, although I did mention to Katie that September 8 marked the 5th blogiversary of Sisters' Weblog: It Bloggles the Mind! Labels: Blogging, Personal Interest
So, yay, Happy Blogday to us.
My computer is one year younger, but it is showing wear. Wonder how many blogs it takes to wear off ALL the letters on the keyboard?
Oh, and it looks like it may be time again for another run through the dishwasher...amazing how the camera's flash finds all the crud in the keyboard. I made the pic B&W and small so as to keep the gross factor low. LOL
Posted by Susan L. Prince at 3:30 PM
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Friday, May 18, 2007
Christian Blogosphere
Labels: Blogging
There's some blogs on the roll I'm familiar with, and a whole bunch more to investigate. If you would like to join, just click the picture and follow the very simple directions!
Speaking of The Blogosphere...Katie and I were recently featured on the local news because of this blog, Sisters' Weblog: It Bloggles the Mind! (For more info, see "Did You See Us On TV?")
I feel the TV station did a good job of telling the story of how our blog came to be and what our purpose is. You can listen to our interview HERE, or watch the VERY raw video of a video HERE.
Today a customer at work, whom I did not know, recognized me from the news spot. I thought that was cool! No paparazzi yet though! LOL
Well, that's all the news for today! It Bloggles the Mind!
Posted by Susan L. Prince at 10:57 PM
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Sunday, May 13, 2007
How To Block MySpace Profile Songs
Thank you Andy Skelton! I don't know why I didn't search for a solution before now, but thanks to Andy Skelton I found out How to block MySpace profile songs. YAY! Edit this file: This may not take effect immediately. You can run The nice thing about this method is that it works for any browser you have installed; no ad-blocking or proxy software is required. Disclaimer: editing files that you don’t know from config.sys is risky. Your risk, not mine. Labels: Blogging, Personal Interest
Supposedly when editing a MySpace account, you can turn "off" the function that allows music to play on sites you visit. That hasn't worked for me, but there's a lot of things on MySpace that don't work for me...like importing address books, (but that's another story).
Andy Skelton's solution has worked:
I HATE music on sites, with a passion! Katie gets tired of hearing me say everyday, just after some song starts playing, "grrrrrrrrr, I HATE music on sites!"c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts (try /etc/hosts if it’s not Windows). Add the following as a new line and save the file.0.0.0.0 lads.myspace.comipconfig /flushdns to make Windows obey.
Why do I hate music on sites while I am surfing?
My friend Katie says she likes music on sites, because she either likes the music or she might be introduced to something she hadn't heard before. I still say, then, if you want to share some music with people...GIVE US A CHOICE!
It's not hard say something like "Hey, I found a really neat new band. There music sounds like this and that. I like how the lead singer evokes an emotional response by the way he delivers a phrase, blah blah blah." Then give the reader the OPTION to listen. DON'T FORCE ME TO!
Truth is, when I come across music on a site, I leave immediately when it starts to play. Because you have music playing, I never read what you blogged about. Wonder how many great blogs go unread because the music you make us endure forced a large majority of us away from your page?
Posted by Susan L. Prince at 2:41 PM
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Tuesday, May 08, 2007
Did You See Us On TV?
Hey! Thanks for dropping by the Sisters' Weblog! It seems we have a few new visitors since we made our television debut tonight! Whew! I was nervous a bit about how our hour and a half interview would come together into a two minute segment on the news, but I think it turned out well. Labels: Blogging, christianity, entertainment, Personal Interest
>>>>INSERTED: CLICK HERE TO SEE A VIDEO OF OUR TV INTERVIEW<<<<<
Here's a pic of what we looked like on tv. I'm hoping to get the actual video of it to post, because they actually included some of the parts where I talked about Ganns, my friend in the Phillipines, and the atheist that we communicated with a few years ago about matters of faith. I tried to take a video with my camera of the tv, but that doesn't work out so well...you get all those black lines that float throughout the frame. What is that anyway? Half the time we looked like talking torsos. LOL
There was only one thing that was reported in error, and that was the part where the reporter said I, Sue, was from Kansas. I am not from Kansas. I have never been to Kansas. My sister lived in Kansas for a short while, like 6 months, but he wouldn't have known that, and it really has nothing to do with me. Anyway, Katie and I figured out why the error happened. After the "shoot" two weeks ago, we were talking with Brad Douglass and the camerawoman about our story and mentioned how we met on the Internet. We gave them a quick rundown of some of the interesting things that happened to bring me to TN and they said "Wow! See! All the really interesting stuff comes AFTER the interviews!" So, I think they tried to recall what we said and got most of it right, just not the Kansas part.
I actually moved here from Iowa, although my home is Ohio.
Oh, you can read that interesting story about how we met and became friends by clicking HERE. Yeah, we posted the interview my dog Whyzer did one day about how Katie and I became friends. (Yep, you read that right!) You can find out even more about us by looking in the menu on the right under each of our names and then click "take a closer look" and that will open a menu and you can follow the links to various bio pages and other sites.
What you will find on the pages of Sisters' Weblog: It Bloggles the Mind! are many things. We share about day to day things, sometimes just the silly things that we do or we might share about spiritual lessons we have learned or are in the process of learning. We want to glorify God by using this blog as a vehicle to share our faith in Christ, that is our main goal. We can be theologically deep at times, and just plain silly in other moments...but that is because we only try to be who God created us to be. God loves the sound of our laughter and holds our hearts in the palm of His hand when we hurt. He is the reason we are friends, and to Him be the glory!
Here is a file of the transcript of "The Blogosphere" if you care to read the interview as it was presented in the television segment. Like I said, we hope to get a video of the interview asap!
If you saw us on the news, let us know what you thought by leaving a comment! We'd love to hear from you. If you just happened by, leave a comment too! We'd like to meet you!
**** UPDATE!!!!!! 05/11/07 *****
SEE OUR INTERVIEW! CLICK HERE!
Posted by Susan L. Prince at 11:11 PM
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Monday, April 23, 2007
Sisters' Weblog Featured on TV
Living with Katie sure has it's exciting moments! (Exciting is not always a good thing...but today it was!) Today, WBBJ, the local ABC affliliate is here at the house interviewing us about a special series they are doing on blogging. "The Blogosphere" Labels: Blogging, entertainment
is a series that will run on Tuesdays, starting tomorrow (April 24) through May. It should be really fun! Tune in to WBBJ on May 8th to see US! (If you are an early riser and miss the show at 10pm on the 8th, you can catch the segment again on Wednesday, May 9th at 5:30 am.)
I have to admit, it is pretty rough trying to blog with a GIANT camera in your face! LOL
AAAAUUUGGGHHHH!! The pressure!
Right now as I type, they are going for the sound of the typing on the keyboard. This is very interesting! All this recording for probably 2 minutes of material.
Next, Katie will be up to be interviewed and I'm sure she will have A LOT to say! (She always has A LOT to say!) LOL
Well, hmmmmm....not sure what I'm to be doing now. There is a camera pointed at me and I'm supposed to keep typing as though I am blogging for real. I am blogging for real! LOL
(A little later after Katie's interview we had to do a "fake" blog together...what you are reading right now is this "fake" blog)
We told them how we share our faith and everything else that goes on in our lives on our blog. We consider this series "The Blogosphere" on the news, and our inclusion in it a God thing....another opportunity to spread the Word and could possibly drive more traffic to the Sisters' Weblog, to glorify God even more!
Dreaming Big....Katie's recent retreat was all about God's desire to dream big for us, His children. Katie didn't understand the "dream big" part, but now that the Sisters' Weblog is an "Award Winning Tennessee Blog" and is being featured on local television...well, hey, that's pretty big. Not like earth shattering big, but big enough!
It bloggles the mind!
Posted by Susan L. Prince at 2:20 PM
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Friday, March 23, 2007
McDonald's WIFI
I have found that when you accidently uninstall your modem, and you are waiting for a new installation disk and drivers to arrive in the mail, that McDonald's WIFI is sufficient for an Internet fix. Labels: Blogging, Personal Interest
I've tried downloading the drivers on katie's laptop and transferring to my desktop, but that hasn't worked to correct my problem.
So here I sit in McDonald's parking lot blogging.
There are some pretty interesting characters going in and out of Mickey D's tonight.
Have you ever sat in the parking lot of a fast food joint?
It's gonna be a loooooooong weekend without my Internet connection. I've even thought about volunteering to work someone's shift so I don't have to sit at home and attempt to do something constructive. LOL
Posted by Susan L. Prince at 9:43 PM
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Thursday, January 25, 2007
Soul Sisters
Found a great article at Christianity Today: Soul Sisters Labels: Blogging, christianity, Personal Interest
Sally Miller and Cheri Mueller share about their spiritual journey as "soul sisters". Katie and I could've written this! Great stuff!
If you are wondering why we call this "Sisters' Weblog: It Bloggles the Mind!" well, first we are "soul sisters" like this article talks about. Second, it's a weblog that we've kept since September 2002. We use it to share about our lives in it. Sometimes it is just the silly things we do that boggle the mind, errrr, bloggle the mind, or we share about the mind boggling, errrrr, bloggling things that God is doing in our lives.
Sisters' Weblog is a peek at our spiritual journey as friends, as soul sisters.
Posted by Susan L. Prince at 12:48 PM
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Monday, January 08, 2007
Can't Anything Be Simple?
The new Blogger upgrade has the nice feature of "labels" now which allows Blogger bloggers to categorize posts. (See "Labels" in menu at right) However, as with the rollout of any upgrade, here come the bugs. Labels: Blogging
Blogger now tries to create new "post pages" for every single one of my posts for the last 4 years...that's a LOT of posts. It's taking my FTP allotment and I don't like it! I'm not the only one having this issue either and I'm hoping for a fix soon!
I actually just posted this to see what is going to happen with the little "hack" job I did on my server.
Posted by Susan L. Prince at 10:06 PM
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Saturday, January 06, 2007
Blogger Beta Permalinks
Hmmmm...anyone else having trouble with permalinks in Blogger Beta? For some reason my permalinks have the post # doubled in the permalink addy. Weird. Some archived posts do not have that problem, but the ones posted in Blogger Beta (or I guess it's out of Beta now) the new Blogger are not posting correctly. It's very irritating. Labels: Blogging
* * UPDATE * *
Well, I fixed this issue by removing some code in the template. You know, I like when Blogger upgrades, but everytime something like this is upgraded, there is a snowball effect. Fixing one thing, leads to needing to fix another and leads to other unforseen issues. Now Blogger doesn't publish my entire blog anymore...it seems to get hung up somewhere so if I have a major template update, I have to manually go in for some months and fix it. I don't know if it just isn't connecting to my server or what the problem is. Oh well, it gives me something to obsess with.
Posted by Susan L. Prince at 10:24 AM
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Tuesday, August 29, 2006
A Christian Blogroll
Here's another place to find some great Christian blogs...and list your blog too! Labels: Blogging, christianity
Christian.bloggers.com
Posted by Susan L. Prince at 10:16 PM
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Friday, July 07, 2006
Blog on USA
Labels: Blogging
Another blog directory to check out!
Posted by Susan L. Prince at 6:16 PM
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Monday, June 05, 2006
Blogrolling is Down
Panic! Labels: Blogging
My blogrolls have been down. I don't know for how long, but I first noticed it when I went to visit some of my favorite blogs late this afternoon, and the rolls all came up blank. Boo!
So I went to blogrolling.com and was taken to a Tucows site with nothing there about Blogrolling. I started to consider the possibility that my rolls were forever gone. Vanished into cyberspace! POOF! This would not be a good thing! I never realized how dependent on my blogrolls I am!
Then I found my way to http://news.blogrolling.com/ where I saw: Please note that blogrolling.com is curerntly down for maintenance reasons. We have been experiencing technical issues with the database and have to take down the entire service in order to repair the problem in a quick fashion.
We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.
The BR team.
I take some relief from that.
* * UPDATE: 10:00PM * * ALL IS WELL NOW * * Whew! * *
Posted by Susan L. Prince at 8:05 PM
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Thursday, June 01, 2006
Christian Carnival CXXIV
The latest Christian Carnival is posted at Parableman. Check it out! My post below "Would I Be Convicted" is one of the featured posts, and there are many other great ideas presented from other Christian bloggers. The carnival is a great way to find the best posts from the last week. Labels: Blogging
Posted by Susan L. Prince at 9:39 AM
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Tuesday, May 16, 2006
The Factors that Determine Battle of the Blogs Winners
Now for the results you have all been waiting for. Labels: Blogging
*cough* Well, *ahem*, the results you, one brave reader, have been waiting for:
The biggest factors that decide winners are that a blog has interesting and engaging content and that it looks good. Content slightly edges out layout in importance, which is encouraging, but the whole "look" thing explains why I lose battles. I don't have a fancy layout. The sister's have a plain template, because I LIKE PLAIN! I am plain! I like plain! I like my burgers PLAIN! I like my chicken nuggets without any sauce, in other words, PLAIN! Less is more!
Then, as indicated by recent polls, it is interesting to note that some people will always vote FOR specific blogs and AGAINST other blogs. What happens if there are two blogs battling each other that you have always voted AGAINST? I must admit, there are some blogs that I always vote against too, and they are usually blogs that I find offensive. My bet is that there are some people who will always vote against Christian blogs because they can be equally "offensive" to some.
People tend to favor blogs that convey an optimistic and positive tone. That is encouraging! So, then, why do I see so many blogs that are definitely NOT optimistic and in fact, downright disparaging and filled with rant after rant winning battles?
Thanks for participating in the poll. It was only for fun and to get some insight as to one's mindframe when picking which blog wins. It is in no way a scientific poll!
Battle on!
Posted by Susan L. Prince at 8:14 PM
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Tuesday, May 09, 2006
Blog Explosion and The Battle of the Blogs
This is mainly for people surfing in via Blog Explosion. I'm curious...what factors do you use to gauge which blog you choose to vote for in a battle? Labels: Blogging
I've set up a poll and invite you to participate by checking the factors that are important to you when deciding who wins the battle. Check up to five of the most important areas you feel you use as part of your decision making process and if anything, this poll will effectively eat up your 20 seconds of viewing time.
Thanks for participating!
Remember, check up to 5.
Posted by Susan L. Prince at 9:24 PM
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Wednesday, April 26, 2006
Christian Carnival CXIX
CXIX? Thats uh....100 + 10 and then....uhhhhhh, a 9? 119! Labels: Blogging
This weeks Christian Carnival is up at Brain Cramps for God.
Christian Carnival CXIX is #119 of the Carnival! Wow! That's a lot of excellent Christian posting! So, for some of the best posts of the past week from Christian bloggers, please be sure to check it out!
I submitted "The Day I Was Crucified", and there are some other excellent posts from others as well:
There are so many great posts in the Carnival this week, so I highly recommend you head on over to the compiled list at Brain Cramps for God to check them all out for yourself. You won't be disappointed.
Posted by Susan L. Prince at 12:35 PM
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Wednesday, February 22, 2006
Thoughts on Blog Designs
I am no website designer by any means. I think looking at this blog makes that pretty clear. LOL Still, I like this blog design for the Sisters' Weblog. "The shadows prove the Sonshine" Labels: Blogging
As I surf many many blogs a day, I see a lot of different and creative designs. Seeing all these colors, banners, buttons, lines, shapes, fonts, plug-ins, blogrolls, profiles, and icons, I started wondering if people can learn anything about a blog's author, not from reading posts, but by examining blog design. As readers, do we make suppositions about the author simply through what we see in the blog's design?
I notice some blogs (Drama Queen's Guide to Life, Mystickal Insense Blog, Mommy's Busy...Take a Number!) have these really interesting modern "art-deco", cartoon looking characters in the header of their blog. I wonder if these characters are representative of the author? Do they share some physical resemblance at all, like in a caricature? Did they design these sites or have a professional designer build it from scratch for the author? I really find these type of designs interesting and nice.
Some bloggers opt to stick with the generic templates, possibly with minor tweaks, offered by whatever blog software they choose to use (My Opinion on Sports, i On Global Trends, Jazz Coffee). I wonder sometimes if they chose a template because it matches their taste? Or maybe they figure they can use it as a "launch" pad and learn how to tweak it to their taste later? That's kind of what I like to do. Or, maybe the look of the blog isn't as important to them as the content they can share on it?
Some authors have these wonderfully magnificent, visually stunning pictures or interesting artwork that immediately capture a reader's attention (One Man Bandwidth, Nature's Artwork, This is Not the Life I Pictured). Obviously these banners/headers are very cool. They are nice to look at and work very well to get a surfer's attention, probably enough so to hang around a read an entry or two. I wonder, are these author's feeling more "pressure" to write outstanding posts to live up to any expectations their blog design commands? Why did they choose that picture/artwork? Does it represent them in anyway, or is it just a pretty picture?
Some bloggers have gobs and gobs of things on their blogs; blogrolls, polls, scriptures, music, videos, "blinkies", buttons, weather pixies, clocks, puzzles, ads, etc. I call them "busy" and wonder if this reflects what goes on in the author's life? Some blogs are so simple in design, I can scarcely know anything about the author because there is not even a profile posted. Are these authors shy? hiding?
I'm a simple person, therefore I am partial to simpler designs. This blog demonstrates that with a simple header, a blog and one sidebar. The sidebar contains information pertinent to us, and hopefully if a reader is interested in learning more about the sisters, it is easy to find a quick profile. With some more investigating, it is possible to click on the "+" signs and follow some more links and discover even more things.
The design of the Sisters' Weblog is an important one to me, partially because I've learned a lot in "tweaking" templates and trying to make it "my own". It has been fun playing around with fonts and colors and stuff that is at least representative of myself and my friend Katie. This
We are sisters, not in the biological sense, but in the sense that we share a common bond through Jesus Christ. Our faith in Him make us sisters, sisters in Christ. We try to honor God with our lives and through our blog we want to glorify Him. We hope that people stopping by might be blessed by what they learn about us, and what they might learn about Him.
So, sometimes I am just curious as to why a blogger chooses the design that they do? Or why they change it? and why they change it again every week? or why I am sometimes, as the reader, given the choice as to what design I want their blog to be? Why is your blog designed the way it is? How does it represent you? or does it?
Posted by Susan L. Prince at 5:57 PM
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Wednesday, December 21, 2005
Christian Carnival: Christmas Edition 2005
The Christian Carnival is posted at The Bible Archive this week. There is a lot of good stuff listed there so be sure to check it out!
Posted by Susan L. Prince at 9:53 AM
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Tuesday, December 13, 2005
Humbled
Ganns of Superblessed.com announced award winners today in his post The one with the Superblessed Christian Blog Awards 2005 winners. Labels: Blogging, christianity
The Sisters' Weblog was named The Blog On! Most Superblessed Christian Blog of 2005. The most exciting thing about this for us is what Ganns had to say: Sisters' Weblog is more than a blog: it is a moving, living, breathing testament to God's glory, and for that I am superblessed, honored, and privileged to have known the authors behind this glorious online testimony to Jesus' power.
To know that this blog is an online testimony of Jesus' power is the best compliment! To God be the glory!
The other really cool thing is that this reward was renamed in 2005 to include the encouraging signature phrase "Blog On!" coined by Benediction. The Sisters' Weblog is in no way in the same category as many of the fine blogs Ganns' has recognized in his annual award ceremony, but to receive this honor, along with the kind words and with it the distinguished "Blog On!" title is humbling to say the least!
Go visit the sites of the other award winners listed here, and check out all of the outstanding blogs of the numerous nominees listed here.
Posted by Susan L. Prince at 6:03 PM
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Thursday, October 06, 2005
Christian Carnival XC
Christian Carnival XC is up at Attention Span. My contribution to the Christian Carnival this week was Heaven Will Pass Away, my post from a couple of days ago. If you are unfamiliar with the Christian Carnival, go to Wittenberg Gate to read about what it is and see how you can participate next week! It's a lot of fun and categorizes the most recent posts from some outstanding Christian bloggers. It's like getting a "best of" list of Christian posts over the past week. You may even get the honor of hosting a Christian Carnival if you so desire! Labels: Blogging
Just sit right back and you'll read a tale (or two, or three)...on a three hour tour, so I hope you don't have a short Attention Span.
I especially enjoyed my stops at:
Posted by Susan L. Prince at 2:40 PM
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Tuesday, October 04, 2005
Cool, My "Away Team Missions" Article was Posted at blogs4God
My article on "Away Team Missions" was posted at blogs4God. Go check it out and share in the comments section your opinion on Christians spending so much time, effort and money to go to the other side of the world to share the gospel, when our next door neighbors are just as hungry and thirsty for spiritual food. Labels: Blogging, christianity
Posted by Susan L. Prince at 5:15 PM
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Wednesday, September 28, 2005
Christian Carnival LXXXIX
LXXXIX is that 89? I think it is. Labels: Blogging
Anyway, go check out this week's Christian Carnival! It's 89th Christian Carnival and indexes some of this past week's most in-depth, spiritual posts by Christians. It's a "Holy-istic approach"!
Posted by Susan L. Prince at 3:21 PM
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Thursday, September 22, 2005
Cool, My "Grease" Article Was Posted
My "Watered Down Grease" article was posted at blogs4God. What a privilege. I hope someone finds it "compelling". Labels: Blogging, entertainment
I did what Mean Dean suggested and sent feedback about some of the dead link problems I was having navigating the new blogs4God site and it looks like a lot of them have been fixed. YAY! The new blogs4God site is starting to come into its own once again!
Another interesting thing to note in regards to my blogs4God published article, was that yesterday Katie's kids came home from school sharing all the facts they learned about sexually transmitted diseases through an abstinence presentation."Did you know national figures show an American teen becomes pregnant every 37 seconds?
...and every 11 seconds a teen contracts an STD?"
I find it interesting that Jackson Christian School is promoting abstinence and has presenters come in to share the dangers of premarital sex, and at the same time begins rehearsals for the sexually immoral musical Grease.
Posted by Susan L. Prince at 3:14 PM
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Wednesday, September 21, 2005
I'm Sorry To Have Offended
Duly "reprimanded" by Mean Dean from blogs4God: Labels: Blogging"Please, next time, use the the handy-dandy feedback form instead of posting a vent/complaint here."
I didn't mean to vent or complain, but I guess it did sound negative toward blogs4God, for that I'm sorry. I was simply sharing that I was having difficulty navigating the site and attributed that to some "bugs". I also mentioned I don't use aggregators and was just questioning if it would be useful to me. I've since sent feedback, but wonder if it'll reach someone because I received another error doing that.
I love blogging and want to see a very successful blogs4God. It has great potential to be bigger and better than before and anything that helps to spread knowledge of God and the love of Christ is something I will always support.
I apologize for stepping on the toes of those who are working hard to make blogs4God THE "semi-definitive list of Christians who blog."
Posted by Susan L. Prince at 9:53 PM
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New blogs4God Introduced
Blogs4God is back up and running. It stalled to a halt when it was invaded by evil spammers and has now been revamped and relaunched in hopes to improve it. What is that? I am registered...I am logged in for the page "calls" me by my username. I just don't understand. I'm thinking there are bugs to be worked out, either that or I am so totally clueless as to what exactly I'm supposed to do at blogs4God that I keep getting lost! I'd hate to think that I am totally clueless though because I'm a pretty avid surfer and have learned to navigate the Internet and various sites very well as I've been doing it since 1998! I used blogs4God quite often in the past to help me locate new reads. Now it is set up to use as an aggregator. I know a lot of people use those, but I haven't found them very useful for my reading habits I guess. It seems logical to me that those who use aggregators have theirs already set up, so I don't see why they would need another one via blogs4God. I just don't understand I guess. I just follow the links in my blogroll, and often times find new bloggers via other bloggers pointing me to them. I am most interested in Christian blogs, which is why I found blogs4God so useful in the past, and actually I've been finding some interesting reads by surfing Blog Explosion, especially since you can now surf by site description. I've found some other great blogs through the new Christian Bloggers Blogroll, and the Christian Carnival. Blog4God has made it quite clear that they are looking for high quality blogs and to maintain a high standard of posts and basically have a pretty strict set of "rules" for inclusion. Any Christian blogger who is not insane and updates frequently can be aggregated, but for a post to be worthy of inclusion you must be "capable of generating some some seriously compelling content both on your blog and in your weblink submission here to get your site listed." The blogs listed as examples of compelling content definitely out pace the Sisters' Weblog, but those sites aren't what I find compelling at all. We all have different tastes, and different things/stories/blogs we find compelling. This blog is a personal journal of sorts and isn't designed to be "compelling", it's just here. We've posted some compelling stories and observations, we've posted some humorous tales, and we've posted the mundane day to day things in life. I want to glorify God through what is posted here, and sometimes it is not very compelling material to decipher and unpack Luther's theses, as much as it compelling to celebrate the blessings God has given us in our framily, our home, our salvation and redemption through His Son. I am happy to point out that Ganns Deen of Superblessed! is one of the newest moderators at blogs4God, so I do know from that, that that they have chosen some high quality people to uphold the blogs4God standards. I have been reading Superblessed! since the Mere Madness days. In fact I was just thinking the other day how that through reading blogs, one establishes a type of "relationship" with people. I was thinking about how I "knew" Ganns before he was engaged, and now he is married and a proud father. He allowed his readers to share in his proposal and enjoy stories as he brags on his wife and son. Blogs are cool that way. I live half a world away from some of the bloggers I read, yet we all, or at least most, share a common faith, and in a neat way, through technology, we get to peer into another person's life, probably into the life of someone we will never meet person to person. I wish blogs4God blessings on their new endeavor. I hope to play around a bit more at the site and learn how to best utilize the site. I encourage you to head on over and list your blog and check out some of the features as well. If you want to offer me some suggestions on how to get around at blogs4God better and find it advantageous, please do so in the comments. Labels: BloggingBlogs4God "exists to provide these 'God-bloggers' a way to connect with other practitioners of 'Historic Christianity' by listing their site, aggregating the work of their peers posting compelling content and identifying the weblinks that exemplify the best and brightest of their community."
I have again listed this blog and have attempted to navigate my way around the new blogs4God site but I have been met around many corners with this:
Posted by Susan L. Prince at 11:06 AM
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Wednesday, July 27, 2005
Christian Carnival
This week's Christian Carnival is up at Daddypundit! Go check it out! Labels: Blogging
Posted by Susan L. Prince at 1:36 PM
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Wednesday, July 06, 2005
Christian Bloggers
Hey! Over time this roll will inevitably grow, so this is a good time to surf it! Labels: Blogging
I just sent an email to ask to be included on the Christian Bloggers Blogroll. This was exciting to me because it led me to find some new Christian Blogs out there. I've been blogging close to three years and over time some bloggers have retired their blogs, slowed down posting significantly and/or have just moved on to other things in life. I've been looking for something fresh, and from the blogs I've seen here so far, well, there are some good reads.
For example:
Posted by Susan L. Prince at 7:16 PM
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Wednesday, March 23, 2005
Wow, We Won an Award!
Yay! Labels: Blogging
Thank you Tennessee Bloggers!
Posted by Susan L. Prince at 5:59 PM
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Tuesday, December 14, 2004
Sisters' Weblog: It Bloggles the Mind!
As I've made banners for the Blog Explosion rotation, it got me to thinking that people might wonder about this blog's title and what the different banners refer to. While some of it is self-explanatory and obvious, maybe other things aren't...especially to visitors only here for the obligatory thirty seconds.
Labels: Blogging
"Sister's Weblog" refers to the fact that Sue (me) and Katie are sisters in Christ. We are not blood sisters, or related to each other in any way except in the family of God.
One banner says that we are two completely different women, "loved by the same man". That man is Jesus Christ and I used that banner to spark some interest and apparently it works with the click thru % I'm getting on that one! Katie and I are completely different too! I am an introvert and love my alone time, she on the other hand is an extreme extrovert and can strike up conversations with anyone. One time she even had a woman follow her home from Walmart to get the giant bag of cedar chips for her guinea pig, after ours died and we had no more use for it. A total stranger! Followed her home! LOL I am "not the mom" and she is the mother of two teens, but we all share a home together and call ourselves a framily. Actually, any friend of ours is considered a framily member. She likes to spend hours fixing her hair and makeup and dressing all pretty to go out for coffee at a local cafe. I like to throw on a pair of jeans and a sweatshirt and play on the computer for hours at a time. We both acknowledge that only God could have matched us up as friends who could manage to share a house together. Anyone who knows us would agree that we are two totally different kinds of people, but when a common bond is God, things have a tendency to work out.
Another banner I use says "we share the same blood you know...boy! moths sure do stink when they burn!" This refers to a comical moment in our early online history. Katie and I were internet buddies and would IM through ICQ quite a lot. I am adopted and have no knowledge of any blood relative at all, so that whole concept intrigues me, you know...actually looking like a family member, sharing traits and all that stuff. Well, one day as Katie and I chatted online, the conversation turned personal and she blessed my soul when she said "we share the same blood you know". I sat back in my chair pondering that wonderful sentiment and how deeply it touched me. I didn't have a chance to type anything in reply, when another message from Katie arrived and it said "Boy! Moths sure do stink when they burn!" because apparently a moth got caught in a lamp near her and got a little too close to the light and burned. That sure did ruin a tender moment in our friendship! LOL
"It Bloggles the Mind!" is a play on words and comes from that fact that I love to ponder things. I like my mind to be boggled, and nothing boggles my mind more than the grace, mercy, faithfulness, forgiveness and love of God. At times on the Sisters' Weblog, we ponder and blog out our thoughts on scripture or other facets of Christianity and God things. Early in our friendship Katie and I would read and study scripture until all hours of the morning. We would blow each other's minds with some of the ponderables we'd share and it was great fun. I miss those days! Life and work have a tendency to interrupt stuff like that, but we still study...we just need our rest too.
So, that's a bit of information for you about the title of this blog. I hope you enjoy your visit to the Sister's Weblog and thanks for stopping by!
Posted by Susan L. Prince at 1:11 AM
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Wednesday, December 08, 2004
Blog Explosion Observations
Blog Explosion has me addicted to blogging and blog surfing again. I've been a pretty consistent blogger since I started in September of 2002, never really going more than a week between posts, and I've always been steady about reading through my blogroll, but BE has brought some new excitement to hunting down some new sites.
Labels: Blogging
I find myself staying up past my bedtime to earn more credits. Just a few more credits! I work retail so this time of year is NOT the time to lose sleep due to a blogging addiction! There I am, sitting at the keyboard, earning those surfing credits and enjoying the reads I find until the wee hours of the night morning. It's sad really.
I'll be sitting here staring at the monitor saying to myself, after the next few credits earned surfing, I'll get to bed. Then I win 2 mystery credits and I figure I'll try to hold out until the next mystery credit window appears sponteously. So, I continue surfing and reading until my head starts bobbing and my eyes start moving side to side uncontrollably fast.
This brings me to mention some things I've noticed about BE:
So, those are just some quick observations about Blog Explosion that I have. Do you have any to add?
Congratulations, if you read this entire post, you have successfully managed to stay here for more than thirty seconds. In fact, depending on the speed of your reading, you probably lasted a good two minutes! You may continue surfing now, or if you so choose, add more BE observations in the comments section of this post.
Thanks for stopping by!
Posted by Susan L. Prince at 3:44 PM
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Friday, December 03, 2004
Poll
Here are a couple of polls for you:
Labels: Blogging
Posted by Susan L. Prince at 5:05 PM
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Wednesday, November 24, 2004
Blog Explosion and Blog Surfing Habits
The Sisters' Weblog is getting more traffic, but does that mean anything?
Labels: Blogging
I've been enjoying surfing some new weblogs discovered via Blog Explosion. Blog Explosion does in fact "explode" traffic to your site, but does anyone linger around long enough to read any of its content?
Does anyone linger around long enough to respond to its content?
Does anyone linger around long enough to sign the Guestbook and say hello from wherever they are from?
Everyone has their own purpose for blogging. Mine isn't necessarily to get hits, although I'd be lying if I said I'm not interested in seeing people actually visit this blog.
One of the most enjoyable things about blogging for me has been developing some online aquaintances. Some blogs I have been reading for two or so years. During that time period, one "gets to know" other bloggers because you have been "following" their life for a good period of time.
Blogs attract a certain readership, and eventually you start to "know" your "audience". From time to time comments are left and dialogue begins which can serve to deepen the online relationship, as thoughts and ideas are exchanged. When tragedy strikes the encouragement pours in, or goes out. When the wedding occurs we share some of the bliss. When the new born baby arrives we "hear" all about it. I actually think about some bloggers during the day, wondering if they are doing better or if they got that job they shared about.
I'm not sure any of that is happening with the thirty second visit from a Blog Explosion surfer.
I guess what Blog Explosion can do is increase the chances of making more online contacts. I know I have found a couple of sites that I will most likely end up adding to my blogroll.
I visit a lot of sites on a daily basis. I usually read most of my blogroll, and now that I have been checking out Blog Explosion, I have found a wealth of new ones. I do not often leave comments at other blogs, I'll read...ponder...move on. Now and then I do leave comments if I am so moved, or want to take the time to do it. Usually though, I catch up with that blogger's life from that daily post, and continue on.
So, I'm curious, what are your Blog Surfing Habits:
What are your blog surfing habit?
How do you find new sites?
What determines if you add a link to your blogroll?
Do you make mention of your visit via comments? tagboard? guestbook/map? email?
Posted by Susan L. Prince at 10:24 AM
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Sunday, November 21, 2004
New Blog Directories
I've noticed a couple of new Blog Directories popping up recently at different sites I've surfed across. I've found Blog Explosion, Blog Catalogue, Blogrank.net, and the Blogs By City Directory.
Labels: Blogging
One that really has potential to increase traffic to your blog is Blog Explosion. It's a pretty sophisticated directory with bidding for banner ad time and earning credits for surfing member blogs. I still haven't figured it all out, but it has given me a new way to surf blogs. I've also noticed more hits daily to the Sister's Weblog, but I wonder if any are return visits? Blog Explosion requires a visitor surfing your blog to stay a minimum of thirty seconds, very few of those that surf this blog manage to stay beyond that. I know that when I surf blogs, I can usually determine whether or not I want to stay to read it within ten seconds, so I don't need that full thirty, but I stay to earn that credit. LOL I do think this nifty directory with some new fangled ideas woven in will catch on and who knows what will become of it.
While gandering through Blog Explosion I did "bookmark" some sites I ran across. I found something there that held my interest so I'll be making return visits. These are some of blogs I found that were noteworthy (at least to me):
Some other directories I've come across that seem to be fairly new are:
So, for those avid bloggers out there...have fun exploring some of these new blog services!
Posted by Susan L. Prince at 11:01 PM
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Wednesday, October 27, 2004
Superblessed Christian Blog Awards
The Sisters' Weblog was nominated once again for a Superblessed Christian Blog Award. Always an honor, thanks Ganns!
Labels: Blogging
Go celebrate the winners!
Superblessed Christian Blog Award winners 2004
Posted by Susan L. Prince at 2:52 PM
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Thursday, August 19, 2004
Blog Punctuation and Grammar
Labels: BloggingAnyone who types in all lowercase needs to be taken out back and beaten. You are not e.e. cummings; you are not being "artistic." You're just too lazy to hit the shift key. If you can't be bothered with the extra keystroke, I can't be bothered to read your site.
That was a quote from Jennifer Garrett, from an article that was published at the Blogger Knowledge page. Her post there is called Eats, Blogs & Leaves.
I think she has some interesting things to say and I for one do get annoyed with people who do not capitalize when emailing or blogging. I don't know why it bothers me, well, yes I do BECAUSE THAT IS NOT HOW WE ARE TAUGHT TO WRITE/TYPE!
This type of post always invites criticism and I'm sure Garrett had many decided to go word by word and criticize all she wrote in that post, but I think she has a point. I know that not everything I post is grammatically correct...heck, you should have seen what I went through simply trying to put the apostrophe in the correct place in Sisters' Weblog! I misspell words. I can at times use comma splices, and run on sentences, and fragments. I'm not talking about the occassional "poetic license" or typo. I'm talking about outright defiance! LOL
Why is it that some people choose to avoid using the shift key to capitalize words? Garrett points out that many people excuse this laziness by saying "it's just a blog". There is some truth to that, but what are you trying to do with that blog? It's hard for me to assume that intelligent thought went into a post if it is typed without capital letters where they are meant to be. The rules of punctuation are many. I don't claim to know them all. I do claim to know a few of the basics which would include capitalization, periods, quotation marks, etc.
The basics of punctuation really do help a blogger convey his/her thoughts more clearly. So, why do so many choose not to be clear?
Posted by Susan L. Prince at 1:55 PM
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Sunday, June 13, 2004
Sisters' Weblog Site Rejected
This is a rejection letter I recieved from We Spread the Word:
Labels: Blogging
Your link:
http://susanlprince.truepath.com/blogger.html
that was submitted to WeSpreadtheWord.net on 11-Jun-2004 has been rejected for one of the following reasons:
1. Unsuitable content.
2. Duplicate URL.
3. Non Christian Content
4. Invalid URL
5. No Reciprocal Link On URL Submitted
If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask.
Links Manager
Unsuitable Content? Nah, that can't be it.
Duplicate URL? Nah, this is a new Christian Site and I've never asked to add this site to it.
Non-Christian Content? I HOPE this isn't the reason!
Invalid URL? Nope, that is the correct URL.
AH-HAH! When I first ask to have the Sisters' link added, the message said "It will be 2-3 weeks before the site is evaluated and added." so I thought I had plenty of time to add the link to We Spread the Word. Guess not, they surveyed this site within 24 hours!
We Spread the Word is a Christian Directory. Message Boards, Chat, Entertainment news, and a Directory to other Christian sites all categorized by type; Apologetics, Ministries, Missions...etc. Check them out!
(Hopefully this post we help the Sisters secure a link from We Spread the Word!)
Posted by Susan L. Prince at 8:05 AM
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Tuesday, June 08, 2004
Adding to the Blogroll and Various Other Things
I've added to my blogroll after trimming some abandoned blogs or blogs I wasn't reading often enough to warrant them staying in my roll. Usually the only time I remove a blog is when updates don't happen frequently enough for me. Give me a couple of posts a week at least.
Labels: Blogging
Some of these blogs I happened by while using some of the new Blogger features that crosslinks bloggers with similar interests. It's been fun finding some new reads and I thought I'd pass along some links for those of you looking for something new too.
So, there are some new places to visit and I'll have fun checking back at those sites as well.
I added a Google search to my site. It helps when I try to find posts that I know I've written and can't seem to find. It's a feature I use at times on other blogs, and I have used the Pico Search on mine for awhile. I finally found the code for the Google Search and like it much more!
Update on the A/C at work...it started working on its own. It was nice and cool when I went in this morning. The A/C repair guy can't figure out why it quits and starts on its own. Aliens I think. He's got it hooked up to an EKG or something now to "monitor" it. I just love that the repair bills are coming out of my budget, when so far, nothing has been repaired! This is the third time I've had the dude come out to "fix" it!
Posted by Susan L. Prince at 11:32 PM
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Tuesday, May 11, 2004
New Blogger
I don't like the new Blogger interface. There are really no new benefits except possibly the profile page, and commenting features which are really no use to someone who already has commenting set up and has an "about me" page.
Labels: Blogging
I really dislike the posting page. I used to be able to see my older posts in the lower half of the screen, while I create a new post on the upper half. Now, all I can do is create a new post on a blank page, and to go back and edit other posts is annoying because you have to open up a new page to edit each entry. One used to be able to scroll through a bunch of posts, now it's one by one. I do not like this one bit and I wish they would change it back.
Oh, I did just notice the blockquote capability. That is a good benefit. I just hate the interface now!
Posted by Susan L. Prince at 5:26 PM
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Tuesday, February 24, 2004
New Sites
Nicole stopped by Sisters' Weblog and wished to inform us of a couple of new sites she has started. I know that many do this to shamelessly promote their sites, but I took a look and thought she deserved mention here. Both sites look great and have good starts. She hopes to fill one with testimonies of how God is working in the lives of His children at The Truth of It All and another site that looks to be aimed toward young people. It looks to be a Christian magazine online and has many different areas of interest to explore such as music, books, and missions. Check out Example E-Zine.
Labels: Blogging
While I'm at it I will point the reader to a couple of other blogs of note. I've been reading with intense interest Jack's Personal Growth Chart as she shares about a recent event in her life that has her crying out to God "Oh, God, please ... please help me... help me get through this, help me accept this... I feel so lost, so weak, so defenseless... I don't know how to not have a mom, Father... I need your help, I need you so much... It hurts, God, and I'm scared... Please help me."
Holly has her new site up and it's streamlined and pretty. She has very humorous insights and I've been reading her blog now for over a year! Hollyrhea just cracks me up!
I checked out a couple of new blogs via blogs4God and found Nykola.com where Ambra posts about life experiences and her thoughts on current events. She expresses a certain spiritual maturity and is very forthright in her convictions. Her blog is a pleasure to read when I see things like her take on the Screen Actors Guild Awards "I wasn't paying attention much, but I caught a statement made by the president of "the Guild" that struck me, "We have the ability to foster tolerance through new insights and the deep understanding of each other." Eww, how I hate that word tolerance. Tolerance goes on my list of "Top 10 Loads of Crap Taught in Education".
So if you are looking for something new and interesting to read, those are some suggestions to check out. Enjoy!
Posted by Susan L. Prince at 7:44 PM
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Tuesday, February 10, 2004
What's Up With Blogger?
Hmmmmmmmm? For some reason Blogger is sending me to the "basic" interface instead of the "classic Blogger" interface to blog from. I don't see anything in the status to indicate why this is. There is mention of some api trouble, but I wouldn't think that would effect the interface that I am using.
Labels: Blogging
I also had trouble with a username/password combo at another site I frequent. They even reset my password, but I still can't log in. They are looking into it.
This on top of the problem I had seeing the Sisters' button, which I recently remedied with some tweaking of Norton Internet Security. You know, sometimes the more bells and whistles that come with a program make it difficult for the user.
Years ago, my main method of communication online was ICQ. I remember downloading and installing the huge program and once I said "you know, I wish you could just download the basic program...who needs all this other junk?" and sure enough, ICQ got the clue and now allow you to choose which program to download...I chose ICQ Lite.
Bells and whistles are fine for some, but I think simplicity still rules.
Computers are weird.
Posted by Susan L. Prince at 11:09 AM