Switching gears

This weekend, I wrote a post. It was a little snarky and maybe that's why I had second thoughts about posting it. So I reverted it to a draft and removed all external links to it.

It didn't take long to discover that my feed still had the article. Anyone who follows my blog using a feed aggregator (like Google Reader, Thunderbird, or Outlook) can still see it, although the pictures in it are now gone (after I went to Picasa to delete them myself).

I've been a little bothered by the complication of blogger. The HTML it produces is ridiculously decorated. And there's the issue of Google Analytics; I trust Google to be responsible with the data its analytics tools collect, but I don't know that I want my readers to have to be tracked to read my postings. And there's the simple fact that it isn't my server and it's not under my control. Most importantly, conversations go to blogger to die because the default is for no email notification to be sent for follow-up comments. So people comment and then never know that anyone responded.

On the other hand, maintaining my own server is no trivial task. It'd cost money, even if I only wanted a domain name registration – and that would mean paying for power and cooling for my own server. I'd be responsible for updating it. It'd take time.

But I sure would learn a lot writing my own blog.

So I will. But I'll probably end up just using wordpress in the end. Incidentally, keep your eyes open for a change of location.

Stepping off my soapbox

I wrote an article about communication a little while ago. I have strong feelings about communication because it is crucial to the success of relationships and relationships are what life is all about.

To be perfectly fair, my temperament puts me on one extreme of the spectrum of communication styles: I’m direct. This, I’m sure, will not surprise anyone who knows me. It’s not that I can’t pick up on unspoken messages or read between the lines; it’s that I’m always uncertain if I’m interpreting things correctly (that is, in a way that harmonizes with reality). My inability to discern the meaning behind veiled communications has caused me no end of trouble and I’ve chosen to rebel against the system.

Read the whole story...

The search for truth

I don’t think it’s always clear to people that when I express my opinion, it’s not always because I’m positive that I’m right and I’m trying to convince everyone else to think like I do. There are certainly times that it seems to me that I’ve found an element of truth that most people don’t seem to have grasped and I try to share it with them. But even in those moments, I often find that my discovery is incomplete and that there is more to learn in that specific area. I believe that the discovery of truth is far more important than my ego, so I appreciate correction. There are times when I fail to be gracious about being corrected and I ask my friends to forgive me for those lapses.

I frequently express my opinion in my blog posts and usually do it emphatically. When I do so, I argue for truth as I understand it. However, I recognize that I do not fully understand the truth. As such, I enthusiastically welcome others’ opinions. I would love to hear from people who agree and from people who disagree. I also welcome explanations to accompany opinions (why do you agree or disagree with me?), because it is frequently in the explanation of why that we find more truth.

I'm going to begin a flurry of posts in the next couple of days, if all goes according to plan. It would please me greatly to see intelligent debate about my ideas. So, gentle reader, please respond after you read.

Explanatory note

I originally created this blog so that people who were a long ways away could know how I was recovering from a jaw surgery that I had about a year and a half ago.

I've since fully recovered and haven't been blogging.

I decided that it's now time to start recording the Adventures-o-Petey(TM) without limiting them to just the adventures that relate to particular medical procedures.

In short, it's time for Petey to start blogging for realsies.