Yellow Blog Journalism

My Tweaking

I noticed today that my blog has slowed down significantly since the last time that I played with it. The usual offenders were all in place, led by remotely hosted graphics. I've taken a knife to some of the worst offenders and changed the face of my side bar in the process.

Gone are the graphic links to Aquinas and More, a catholic bookseller that is well worth your time, and also Compassion international. I'm going to be looking for a good way to support those sites without increasing the load time of this blog by a factor of ten. Also gone is the post calendar. Really, how many links to my October archive do we need?

There are a few new additions to the sidebar on the right. The four top items are all new. You have a drawing of me at Waffle House by the talented Sarah Richter, an old friend from A-S.com That is followed by a link to my About Page with a brand new bio, an email link so that you can contact me directly and an RSS feed subscription graphic. Three of these things were inspired by a post by Darren Rowse about increasing reader engagement on your blog.

Feel free to send me any feedback that you may have. Try the new email link.

My Double Take

I had to look twice at this ad. I totally didn't expect it to be for American AIrlines

My Blog Just Can't Compete

Indexed
via American Papist

My Lust List Continues

I'm not much of an early adopter. I don't even own an Ipod. I don't have the fastest computer, a PS3 or a Wii. But I do love my phone. I have a Helio Drift and if you know me, you know that when I leave the house, I'm more likely to forget my pants than I am my Helio. I like being connected to everything. I can post a blog, check my facebook/myspace and twitter without anything larger than a cellphone. Unfortunately Helio is being bought by Virgin Mobile USA. I don't trust that they are going to be able to maintain the kind of service that I was getting with Helio, so that leaves me searching for an alternative.

Something amazing has happened

I would consider this to be unheard of. I'm seriously considering trading in my helio for one of the dumbest of the dumb phones. I'm talking absolutely zero functionality beyond voice and text. Now I am not completely forsaking the internet-on-the-go or any of the myriad of other functions that I don't feel that I can live without. I am simply going to be finding a seperate device to handle those functions.

First I looked at the Mylo/Mylo2 Then I looked at a few different UMPCs but finally I settled on the Nokia WiFi internet tablet. Linux based, webcam and slider qwerty sold me. Of course these aren't it's only functions. Because of the glory that is open source  the potential is seemingly limitless. Toss in the WiMAX upgrade version for 50 bucks more and I'm finished. I love the N810.

My Weekend Twitter Traffic

Tmason47

 

 

Home again.Back on the ambulance in a few hours

                   

 

  9 minutes ago   from web    

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

@loswhit swimming and flirting with the wife          about 1 hour ago from txt               in reply to loswhit
85 is on lock down at west point          12:48 PM June 21, 2008 from txt
Almost to the state line          12:30 PM June 21, 2008 from txt
heading to Auburn to be with my family.          08:20 AM June 21, 2008 from web
Surface streets are rough inside the city          07:10 AM June 20, 2008 from txt
I'm in traffic and i just realized that i forgot to shave          06:51 AM June 20, 2008 from txt
I would like for the cover of my memoirs to feature someone riding on top of a train          06:47 AM June 20, 2008 from txt

My Phone Carrier

Is Virgin Mobile going to kill my phone?

My Favorite Shirt Doesn't Exist

If only...