20th Blogiversary

The 20-year-old blog "Chasing the Wind" began as lighthearted stories and evolved to address politics, faith, and the author's personal experiences. With gratitude, the author acknowledges the impact of their faith, sharing learnings and teaching Bible study for 18 years. They express appreciation for the support of their readers.

Happy 7th Blogiversary

Yeah, I know. Chasing the Wind has been sleepy for a while. My passion for pithy comments has waned somewhat, Facebook has replaced the blog as the social network, and I'm on hiatus from bible study teaching so there are no lessons to post. But hey, I still own this domain name. 🙂

Toodledo

I'm still looking for that perfect to-do list manager. I really liked the Windows Mobile 6.1 syncronizing solution (except for the occasional hiccup that duplicated everything). But now that I'm using a Windows Phone 7, that solution is gone. Right now I've settled on Toodledo.com which is working really well. It's an easy to use, … Continue reading Toodledo

Disqus

Image by barloventomagico via FlickrDisqus. Pronounced "Discuss." It's a new feature I'm trying out, and I'd love your comments. Really. The whole idea is to encourage better comments. You can see replies to your comments, there's a discussion page, you can better see other people's comments. It even links to social sites like Twitter and … Continue reading Disqus

Plaxo

Do you use Plaxo? I've been using it for years and generally been happy with it. The feature that originally drew me to it was that I could send somebody a link and they could update my address book. Instead of replying to my email and then me cutting and pasting into my Outlook, they … Continue reading Plaxo

Naked DSL

Actually, I've never heard it called "Naked DSL." This is the choice of getting DSL without the accompanying land line. I've heard it called "Dry Loop." Naked DSL sounds too risqué. My favorite part of the article is this: The San Antonio-based telecommunications giant had feared customers would ditch their phone lines in favor of … Continue reading Naked DSL

There's No Reason to Visit

... if I don't write anything. Sorry, been traveling and working, just like last year. It may be several weeks before I surface again. I have another book review coming up, but that's about it. On the other hand, *you* could post. There's not's of room below.

Silence!

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know I haven't posted much. Been really, really busy. I still owe Jennifer my answers to The Eight. I'll get to it, soon, I hope. I wanted to blog about how the Democrats are findng religion. Apparently it's ok with The Media if the Democrats talk about their faith, but if … Continue reading Silence!

Kramer Pingbacks

This will appeal only to the technophiles; I installed a WordPress plugin yesterday called Kramer (or at Kramer) and I like it so far - one of the features is automatically to show pingbacks from Technorati, even if the originator doesn't support pingbacks. For 99% of you reading that, it meant absolutely nothing, so here's … Continue reading Kramer Pingbacks

Not Found

I searched Chasing the Wind today for some relatively obscure words I occasionally use in conversation. Bloviate. Ameliorate. Pernicious. I received a "not found" message - I've never written a post with those words. There. Fixed *that* little problem. 🙂

Blogrolls

Cleaning up the website to match the new template, I don't know where I should post the old Blogrolls I no longer use (but I still want to maintain the links. I'm posting them here for now, but there's no need for you to click this link to continue, there's nothing interesting there. Eventually as … Continue reading Blogrolls

New Theme

I don't have the time lately to tweak html design, so I'm going to go with this off-the-shelf theme called Lorelei Bliss 2.0. I'll add back in some of the goodies like "recent comments" and stuff when I have more time. I'm teaching Sunday so the day is devoted to study.

Borked

Still not sure what's wrong - comments stopped working again yesterday. I'm reverting back to a plain vanilla WordPress installation without plugins or any special themes until I can figure out what happened. Maybe *then* Google will remember that this website exists.

Degooglized II

Still trying to track down this Google delisting. The frustrating thing is just by posting the question, that used to gather knowledge from others who find my post by Googling. Now I'm just speaking into the void. I learned this week how to generate a sitemap, and Google acknowledges I have 1500 links. They just … Continue reading Degooglized II

Degooglized

None of my posts are listed on Google anymore. Only 10 static pages can be found, but since those pages are there, Google knows that Chasing the Wind exists, but Google's not listing any of my posts. They *used* to, but they don't anymore. Moreover, they show exactly -0- sites linking to Chasing the Wind. … Continue reading Degooglized

Writely

I think this is an interesting website - Google purchased Writely.com and made it free to the public. It's a free, web-based word processor. I have Microsoft Word on all my machines, so I can't think of a reason I'd want to use Writely. I suppose if I bought a new compressor, I might not … Continue reading Writely

Hiatus

Brain full. Stress level high. I find the need to decompress. Wordy prose the first to go. Blogging will be light to non-existent for the next 3 weeks. Guest bloggers (and you know who you are) may or may not step in, depending on softball schedules and such. I am oocupado (that means I'm busy, … Continue reading Hiatus

Blog Tweaks

I added some plugins to the WordPress today - 1 - On the sidebar, you can see who's logged in and who's visiting. You're not alone! Dozens of strangers are surfing with you. This is the WP-Useronline plugin from GaMerZ. 2 - Did you need a printer-friendly version of a post of mine? There's now … Continue reading Blog Tweaks

No Longer Googling

No longer googling. From Google's leftist leanings (98% of their contributions go to Democrats) to their support of Chinese censorship, I need a new search engine. I've switched to A9.com. It's owned by Amazon.com, you can earn credit on Amazon stuff, and it's easier to type.

Don't Click It

Just don't click it. This was a very interesting experiment for me since I seem to be developing some tendenitis in my right forefinger I use for clicking. A web-design interface with no clicking is appealing, though trying to teach computer-challenged people how to use it might be difficult.

Leave a Message at the Beep

I was in a meeting all day, 12 hours straight. Tomorrow, too. In fact, the rest of the week. Blogging will be a) late b) light, or c) nonexistent. There are some guest bloggers around here somewhere, but apparently they have jobs, too. 🙄

Uptown Girl Turns Two

Uptown Girl was one of the first blogs I stumbled across when I was trying to figure out how to get Chasing the Wind running. Of course, her website didn't look as girly-girl back then 😛 . Her blog just turned two today, so go over and wish her a Happy Blogiversary!

Dilbert Blog

Scott Adams, author of the comic strip Dilbert, has started a blog. And if you thought his comic strips were off-the-wall, his random daily brain wheezes will surely convince you. Today's entry, "Blogging Under the Influence: Today I am whacked out on pain killers because yesterday I had surgery to correct my deviated septum. I … Continue reading Dilbert Blog

Avantgo RSS

Avantgo now supports RSS feeds! That sentence only means something if you use Avantgo.com (I do!) and use RSS feeds to get customized news (I do!). If this news doesn't excite you, then you're Geek Quotient (GQ) isn't high enough.

AlphaOmega Theme

I've changed the default theme, the background graphics, to AlphaOmega (adapted from Stevish 2 almost as-is). If you prefer the older Blue Swirly theme (or you *still* see the Blue Swirly theme and want to see the AlphaOmega theme), there's a Theme Switcher box in the sidebar. Switch back and forth all you want. 🙂

Bad Behavior

Spammers are annoying. I know I've mentioned this before - behind the scenes here at Chasing the Wind I delete a lot of spam. If you're a first-time visitor, your comments are automatically moderated, meaning I have to approve it. Once I've approved one, the rest are automatically approved unless you use a naughty word. … Continue reading Bad Behavior

PalmSource and Palm OS

PalmSource was just sold off to a Japanese company called Access. The Palm LifeDrive I just purchased runs Palm OS 5.x and is owned by PalmSource. Any techies (Sean?) that have an idea of what this means? No more Palm OS updates? Switching to Windows CE? What happens next?

Galloping Buzz

About 6 months ago, my computer at work started to make a random buzz once in a while. Not often, not a constant buzz, but a particular pattern that only happened occasionally. Sort of a "bzz.. bzz.. bzzz.. bzzzzzzz" pattern. Last month, my computer at home started making the same buzzing noize. At home, I … Continue reading Galloping Buzz

Konfabulator

Konfabulator was an up-and-coming commercial widget organizer, but Yahoo bought them last week and now it's free! What's it do? A thousand little things, you get to choose. I was looking for a hurricane tracker for Diane and found it. Control your TIVO from the web, Display traffic jams, a pharmacy of drug information, baseball … Continue reading Konfabulator

Brain Vacuum

Yeah, I know I should write something. My muse went on vacation for some reason, taking all the interesting topics. Karl Rove? John Roberts? Kids that breakdance? Why the Inquisition wasn't so bad? How many "Ten Commandments" are there? Which of our two dogs is getting on top of the kitchen table? So many topics. … Continue reading Brain Vacuum

Blogging Kerfuffle

Stuff I'm not likely to blog about this week: - The latest Harry Potter book. It sold a lot of copies apparently. - The Karl Rove kerfuffle. Like the Tom DeLay witch-hunt of last year, it's just partisan yelping trying to find something, anything, that'll burn the conservatives. I think "kerfuffle" is a silly word. … Continue reading Blogging Kerfuffle

I'm Famous!

My name was mentioned in the Houston Chronicle! Or rather, my name was mentioned in a blog run by the Chronicle. Well, actually, I was referred to obliquely as "a reader." Still, *I* think I'm famous. I asked Dwight Silverman on a recent post for pictures on some upcoming Microsoft combined keyboard/mouse combos, and Dwight … Continue reading I'm Famous!

Podcasting

I keep reading about this; I want to participate in the "podcasting" frenzy. I want to be a consumer. What I really want is an automatic way to put podcasts on my Palm Lifestyle when I hotsynch. I want to select podcasts once and have them update automatically. The only software I've found so far … Continue reading Podcasting

Blogpoll

I'm checking out a new tool I found at CoffeeSwirls to take online polls. Looks like it's working fine, except I don't really have anything I want to poll about. Vote anyway. 😛

Stealing Wi-Fi

A Florida man was charged with stealing a neighbor's wi-fi signal. ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - Police have arrested a man for using someone else's wireless Internet network in one of the first criminal cases involving this fairly common practice. Benjamin Smith III, 41, faces a pretrial hearing this month following his April arrest on charges … Continue reading Stealing Wi-Fi

Blog Tweaks

I'm tweaking the blog tonight. ("So, what did you do last night? Nudge nudge, wink wink, knowhatImean?") Er... where was I? Oh yeah... I dropped the "Reciprocal Blogrolling" portion that listed 15 other blogs linking to me. There was something wrong with it though - of the 15 blogs, *I* was one of them, and … Continue reading Blog Tweaks

Edible Computers

My hobby, ever since around 1975, has been computers. I play games, I dabble in programming, I communicate with others... but I've always wished I could just eat my monitor. My wish is nearly here. The Tastescreen has small plastic flavor cartridges that drip flavors across the monitor. "A user can sample the dispensed flavor … Continue reading Edible Computers

Google Satellite Maps

Google has added Satellite Maps. So cool to zoom from space all the way down to your house. All you have to do is click the "satellite" link on the right; click the "map" link to return to the mode for driving directions.

We Had the Idea First

Apparently the news that Diane & I are engaged has been an inspiration. Not only did Miss Vox get engaged, but she done ran off to Nevada to get hitched, too. Now she's Mrs. SG. Drop by her site and wish her the best!

Thanks, Apple!

After struggling for 3 days trying to get my PC to recognize my iPod, I returned it yesterday. Today I received an email from Apple.com: "Dear Michael, Thank you for registering your new Apple product." Amusing.

iPod Troubles

After turning in the possessed iRiver H10, I exchanged it for the iPod Photo 30. I don't think the possession factor is any less. Installation was a piece of cake, but the iPod isn't always shown as "mounted" which is when the software is transferring music to the iPod. The iPod continually cycles between "Do … Continue reading iPod Troubles