2005 is all but over, and as I was browsing sites via Blog Explosion I decided this would be a good time to sum up my pet peeves about blogs and bloggers, and to resolve to not commit these blogging sins in 2006. So here, in no particular order – things that (will) make me hate your blog:

Layout that doesn’t adjust to the browser window: If you’re using a pre-packaged setup that provides a decent sized, centered column of text, not a big deal. But a 3″ column shoved against the left of the screen and/or a header image that pretty much eats up the entire opening view looks like ass, and there’s nothing to encourage the reader to scroll down looking for intelligible text. A decently coded website will use up all or most of the space provided – take the time to learn.

Auto-loading media: Do I even need to explain this? Back when it was new and unique to play music in the background of your site for visitors, this was all the rage. These days, people have music, video, noisy flash, and a variety of toys designed to be attention-getting. Please, folks… provide a link. If others are interested, let them click it, don’t foist it on your audience.

Thinly disguised advertisement sites: Sites that claim to be blogs (they’re listed in the blog directories and the blog-browsing services), but in fact have little or no content beyond advertisements. These are little better than spam in the mailbox, and a waste of everyone’s time.

Popup advertisements: Even using Firefox and an effective popup blocker plugin, sometimes these get through. It’s been years since these were identified as maliscious, annoying vermin, and yet people still occasionally use them. Who are they trying to impress?

Begging for dollars: Jimmy Swaggart playing to a more refined audience? These are no more effective than your typical pyramid scheme, and depending on the effort put into the begging, a huge put-off. If your writing is worth paying for, apply for a job with your local newspaper…

Unreadable text: Whether it’s the font, text size, color scheme, or the background image – if the site is hard to read, folks won’t bother.

Long loading delays: A good number of the readers here are using a service like Blog Explosion or Blog Clicker to visit blogs. These services require 20 or 30 seconds per visit to gain a credit. If a site hasn’t even loaded in that time, the visitor is not likely to hang out and wait for the content. Learn to arrange content such that those things that take a long time to load are loaded last. Get that content on the screen in readable format ASAP, and your visitors will actually get a chance to read it.

Restricted commenting: Bloggers, in general, love comments. If you have a commenting system in place, make it available! Requiring registration to some obscure service is nonsense. If you want to moderate comments, do so (or implement a “CAPTCHA” system) – but don’t make it impossible for your readers to leave comments without jumping through hoops.

Blog “awards”: In a nutshell, who cares? What makes you an authority? The last thing I need is some petty in-duh-vidual’s opinion of someone else’s efforts. Notice the blogs I’ve named here in this post? Right, I haven’t. I do comment or email the site operator if I have a compliment or criticism, but it’s a rare case where I’ll come back to my own blog for the express purpose of slamming someone else’s blog.

I’m sure there’re more – but these are the big ones I’ve thought of this evening. Many of these are relatively uncommon lately, but all still exist to some extent. I read a lot of blogs, and comment often (or try to), but when a blog is simply too much trouble to look at, I see no point in giving it any of my valuable time.

For the second part of my blog resolution, I’m going to clear off my “do not view” lists – it’s been awhile since I’ve added to it, and I think it’s time to see if they’ve cleaned up their act. Chances are some will make it back onto my list, but I have hope!

Happy New Year!

U.S. Teen’s Essay

There is a struggle in Iraq between good and evil, between those striving for freedom and liberty and those striving for death and destruction. You are aware of the heinous acts of the terrorists: Women and children massacred, innocent aid workers decapitated, indiscriminate murder. You are also aware of the heroic aspirations of the Iraqi people: liberty, democracy, security, normality. Those terrorists are not human but pure evil. For their goals to be thwarted, decent individuals must answer justice’s call for help … So I will.

The above is an excerpt from an essay written by 16-year-old Farris Hassan, a kid on Christmas break who decided he needed to see what was going on in Iraq for himself. Yes, his plan was not exactly well thought out, nor especially wise, but definitely gutsy.

It should be noted that Farris is Iraqi by descent (his parents moved to the US 30 years ago), so the historical events unfolding in that country likely have an even greater impact on him than most of us.

His journey:

Dec. 11 – Departs Miami International Airport, cutting a week of school.

Dec. 12 – Gets connection in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Dec. 13 – Lands in Kuwait City at 12:05 a.m. Tells parents for first time he plans to go to Baghdad. Reaches the Kuwait-Iraq border by taxi but cannot cross because of tight security before Iraq’s parliamentary election.

Dec. 15 – Flies to Beirut, Lebanon, and stays with family friends. Spends time interviewing minority Christians.

Dec. 25 – Flies to Baghdad International Airport, where family contacts pick him up and drop him off at a hotel known to house Americans.

Dec. 27 – Walks into the offices of The Associated Press. AP contacts U.S. Embassy.

Dec. 28 – Members of 101st Airborne drive him to embassy, which takes custody of him.

Considering the relatively unplanned wild ride this kid was on in a very short few days, I wonder if Hassan translates to Bueller?

If I know what is needed and what is right, but do not act on my moral conscience, I would be a hypocrite. I must do what I say decent individuals should do. I want to live my days so that my nights are not full of regrets. Therefore, I must go.

The more I read about this kid, the more amazed I am. Sixteen years old and more wise than the thousands of mouthy assholes filling the airwaves and the halls of congress with hate, discontent, disdain and their desire for failure.

The future of this country will forever remain secure so long as their are young people with positive ideals and a willingness to act on them.

Commandments display is upheld

I always get a kick out of the ACLU’s thinly disguised attempts at converting the entire population of the United States into some form of Orwellian/Communist entity. At least this time the judges hearing the case saw them for what they are; shrieking lunatics determined to condemn anything that can’t be viewed in pleasant shades of grey.

Judge Richard Suhrheinrich’s ruling said the ACLU brought “tiresome” arguments about the “wall of separation” between church and state, and it said the organization does not represent a “reasonable person.”

I, for one, could care less about the religious implications of the ten commandments. I do, however, recognize their significance in the formation of this country, and would rather have people doing the right thing for religious reasons than not doing the right thing at all.

Buy Light for Health Workstation Light Online at drugstore.com

After the ballast/power supply on my Eclipse Workstation Light burned out, I spent a few months without one. When I finally got around to looking for a replacement, I discovered the company that made them went out of business and they were hard to find. After a number of ridiculously priced Ebay sales on them, I finally tracked down the one vendor in all the world (apparently) that still has some on hand and for sale. They’re a little more than I paid for my first, but I think they’re well worth the price. If you’re looking for one – get it soon before these folks sell out, too!

Designed by a lighting industry veteran and design engineer, the Eclipse Grey Workstation Computer Light reduces desktop clutter while providing the proper level of light without producing any monitor glare.

Build your own Snowman!

Ok, I just killed the better part of an hour playing with this… your turn!

Not bad considering I haven’t had an American History class since High School.

You Passed the US Citizenship Test

Congratulations – you got 8 out of 10 correct!
Could You Pass the US Citizenship Test?

I’m not sure whether to be upset or amused.

Some chucklehead(s) using the names “castings”, “pneumatic”, “bearings”, and “fiberglass” keep dropping by and adding meaningless comments (“thanks, i get it”) in order to drop a link to their construction materials related websites. (Of course, since I’m not visiting, only reading the names, they could be porn sites!) So far, I’ve just followed behind and edited out the links, but I’m almost to the point where I’d just as soon start proactively blocking them.

Maybe if I just let the chucklehead(s) in question know that all links from comments are treated with the rel=”nofollow” tag to prevent abusive linking? Personally, I don’t think that’ll help. In fact, I’d be reasonably willing to gamble on castings/pneumatic/bearings/fiberglass adding another meaningless, innane, and frankly unwelcome comment on this post!

Who’s giving odds??

Fox News is reporting that Gov. Schwarzeneggar has decided not to grant clemency for Stanley Williams.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,178403,00.html Clemency Denied

California governor refuses to spare life of Crips gang founder Stanley ‘Tookie’ Williams, execution set for 3:01 a.m. EST.

If all goes as expected, the death penalty of Williams, 51, will proceed as planned at 3:01 a.m. EST (12:01 PST) at San Quentin State Prison. Williams will be executed for murdering four people in two 1979 holdups.

Funny as hell… hit the link and read it all, it’s worth the two minutes, I promise!

—
December 1st

TO: ALL EMPLOYEES

I’m happy to inform you that the company Christmas Party will take place on December 23rd at Luigi’s Open Pit Barbecue. There will be lots of spiked eggnog and a small band playing traditional carols … feel free to sing along. And don’t be surprised if our CEO shows up dressed as Santa Claus to light the Christmas tree! Exchange of gifts among employees can be done at that time; however, no gift should be over $10.

Merry Christmas to you and your family.

Patty Lewis
Human Resources Director
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Ok, time for a “lighter than usual” post… this one ripped straight from the latest “free” edition of http://www.langa.com/newsletters/2005/2005-12-05.htm The Langa List (Thanks, Fred!):

A steamy love letter I saw on a web site:

I will seek and find you . . .
I shall take you to bed and have my way with you .
I will make you ache, shake & sweat until you moan & groan.
I will make you beg for mercy, beg for me to stop.
I will exhaust you to the point that you will be relieved when I’m finished with you
And, when I am finished, you will be weak for days.

All my love,
The Flu

Ok, folks – if you have strong opinions, that’s fine. If you want to bully those with opposing opinions, that’s fine, too. If the voicing of your opinion demands that you disregard common courtesy and degrade or demean others in the rendition of your message… well, free speech is your right, so fine.

But leave the children out of it.

What am I talking about? How about http://www.jsonline.com/news/state/nov05/372678.asp this 3rd grade assignment? (Thankfully, http://www.madison.com/wsj/arch_local/index.php?ntid=62574 the school cancelled that assignment, no word on any sanctions for the teacher, though)

And are there any takers on betting this wasn’t the result of some misguided 60’s reject of a teacher’s work?

Yeah, look closely – the front is a nice, patriotic-looking hand drawn Christmas card from a “kid” to http://michellemalkin.com/archives/004021.htm Joshua Sparling, a wounded soldier recovering at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Several stamped images that bring thoughts of patriotism, the American spirit, and good will. But…

The inside is a disgusting message of hate, ending in the caring sentiment “P.S. Die”. Yes, you read it correctly. A child telling a wounded soldier to “have a great time dieing in the war”. Ugh.

The card appears to be the work of a child, but what child would write such a thing without being dictated to, or having been fed a steady diet of hate and contempt before setting to the task? Disgusting. I have nothing but sympathy for the misguided child – I can only hope “Miguel” breaks free of the brainwashing force guiding him and someday learns to think for himself.

As for whomever is responsible for poisoning the mind of “Miguel” and sending such a message to a wounded soldier – you are the lowest of the scum on the earth; you are worse than an enemy; you are below disgusting. Please, exercise your second amendment right to buy a gun and shoot yourself in the head, repeatedly, as many times as you are able. Soon.

For anyone interested in helping to brighten that soldier’s Christmas, here’s his address.
Joshua Sparling
c/o Walter Reed Army Medical Center
6900 Georgia Avenue N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20307-5001

I’m very sure he’s being inundated with cards, gifts, and positive sentiments, so if you’d rather spread the wealth a bit, so to speak, try this address, instead:
Red Cross
Walter Reed Army Medical Center
6900 Georgia Avenue NW
Heaton Pavillion
3EO5
Washington, DC 20307

Piss and moan all you like about the state of affairs in Iraq. Ignore the daily reports of actual, measurable progress being made in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Nod obligingly whenever Murtha or Sheehan makes a public statement condemning their own country, families, military, or government.

But never forget http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/03/19/sprj.irq.int.bush.transcript/ the reason we went there.

We have no ambition in Iraq, except to remove a threat and restore control of that country to its own people.

That threat came in the form of one man; Saddam Hussein. WMD’s? He had them and used them, most notoriously on his own people. Mass murders? He committed them and did little to hide the fact beyond creating mass graves to dispose of the bodies. Torture, rape? Staples of his “leadership style”.

In a new book published in France (*gasp*), Le Livre Noir de Saddam Hussein (The Black Book of Saddam Hussein), “The writers – Arabs, Americans, Germans, French and Iranian – have produced the most comprehensive work to date on the former Iraqi president’s war crimes, assembling a mass of evidence that makes the anti-intervention arguments redundant.” Of course, reviews of this book aren’t being broadcast on the evening news – I had to come across over on http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=18467 LittleGreenFootballs it while surfing blogs.

The Australian covers it in depth: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,17439165%5E2703,00.html The big black book of horrors

“The first weapon of mass destruction was Saddam Hussein,” writes Bernard Kouchner, who has been observing atrocities in Iraq since he led the first Medecins Sans Frontieres mission there in 1974. “Preserving the memory of the arbitrary arrests that Saddam’s police conducted every morning, the horrible and humiliating torture, the organised rapes, the arbitrary executions and the prisons full of innocent people is not just a duty. Without that one cannot understand either what Saddam’s dictatorship was or the urgent necessity to remove him.”

The obsession of many journalists and commentators with the fruitless hunt for chemical, biological and nuclear weapons has meant much of the evidence of Saddam’s atrocities in liberated Iraq has been under-reported. Sinje Caren Stoyke, a German archeologist and president of Archeologists for Human Rights, catalogues 288 mass graves, a list that is already out of date with the discovery of fresh sites every week.

While we’re all amused at the ex-tyrant’s little outbursts during his trial, this is a man who took and held power through the exercise of terror. Consider that the next time you start questioning the reason we’re there.

In Saddam’s Iraq no one, not even the dictator’s closest relatives and collaborators, was safe. Tariq Ali Saleh, a former Iraqi judge and the president of the Iraqi Jurists Association, writes that during the reign of the Baath party from 1968 to 2003, the security services arrested and imprisoned people without charging them, with no access to a lawyer or contact with their family. Everyone was targeted, including women and children. Torture was systematically used to secure confessions including beating, burning, ripping out finger nails, rape, electric shocks, acid baths and deprivation of sleep, food or water.
[...]
“The American war was perhaps not a good solution for getting rid of the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein. But, as this book shows, after 35 years of a dictatorship of exceptional violence, which has destroyed Iraqi civil society and created millions of victims, there wasn’t a good solution,” Kutschera writes.

http://www.islam-online.net/English/News/2005-11/26/article05.shtml French NGOs Blast Writer for Racism Against Rioters

“Finkielkraut will be sued for inciting hatred,” vowed the chairman of Movement against Racism and for Friendship between People (MRAP), Mouloud Aounit.

“There will be no dialogue with racists,” he said in a statement, adding that Finkielkraut and his ilk should know their limits.

Finkielkraut said in an interview with Haaretz last week that the problem with rioters is that they are “blacks or Arabs, with a Muslim identity.”

“Look, in France there are also other immigrants whose situation is difficult – Chinese, Vietnamese, Portuguese – and they’re not taking part in the riots. Therefore, it is clear that this is a revolt with an ethno-religious character,” he said.

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