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Wednesday, June 21, 2006
I know what you're thinking. "What are all those Et Cetera links about?"Well, I'll tell you.
Each one is something I've been involved in building or establishing, or have worked on. They range from my wife's blog to YahooGroups I've created to websites I maintain to my other blog. Here's a brief synopsis of each:
Amy Joe Jim Bob
A few months ago my bride, Amy, decided to start blogging. She has already garnered quite a following. As a Christian homeschooling mom of four, she writes about her experiences and what God is teaching her. I invite you to join those reading her edifying posts. Linked from her blog are two other great resources she has created.The first is her fledgling Recipe blog, where she posts favorite family recipes, personal creations, and recipes she's been asked to share. Still in its infancy, it shows promises of being a great resource for her fellow Proverbs 31 women out there.
The other resource is brand new, but we're hopeful it'll grow into another great resource for Christian moms. Many of you know how hard it is to find modest clothing these days. What if there was a place you could go to learn where other moms have had success finding beautiful, feminine, modest clothing? Now, there is... Amy Joe's Modest Dress Information Exchange. I'll let Amy tell you more about it.
Highlands Study Center
This is where I work. The Highlands Study Center was founded by Dr. R. C. Sproul Jr. in 1996, and exists to help Christians live more simple, separate, deliberate lives for the glory of God and the building of His kingdom. In case you don't know, Dr. Sproul is a prominent theologian in our day. He has written six books and contributed to several more. HSC also produces some great resources: Basement Tapes, conversations about the Good Life; Sound Teaching, 6-12 week teachings recorded live from our weekly Bible study for the community; and Every Thought Captive, our bi-monthly newsletter.We also invite folks to several events throughout the year: Couples Camp (Summer and Fall), where R.C. teaches on God's plan and covenant for the family; Pastors Camp (Winter), where R.C. and Laurence Windham teach on the pastor's role to shepherd the Bride of Christ; and our annual conference (Spring), where we invite families to join us for teaching from some of today's Christian Culture leaders. In May, we hosted Generations: Giving Honor to Whom Honor is Due. Over 700 people (that's men, women and CHILDREN) heard great talks on honor from Dr. R. C. Sproul and his son, my boss, Dr. R. C. Sproul Jr.; and Howard Phillips and his son, founder of Vision Forum, Doug Phillips. In 2007, we'll host Gene Edward Veith and Ken Myers, along with Laurence and R.C. for So Let Your Light: A Defense of Christian Culture.
In addition to all of that R.C. also writes for Table Talk and Homeschooling Today magazines, and speaks around the globe on homeschooling, theology, history; all of which fits his main topic: Building the Kingdom. It's a privilege and a joy to work at the Highlands Study Center. And remember, I'm not just the Director of Ministries, I'm also a student! ;)
Leading the Way
My "other" blog. This one was begun with a specific audience and focus in mind: To help men lead their families well. The Bible makes it clear that men are to rule their homes well. Contrary to what our contemporary feminist culture would have us believe, there is no such thing as a 50-50 marriage. The clear teaching of Scripture is that God holds accountable the husband for everything that goes wrong and right within the family. Our fallen nature is one that loves to shirk responsibility, to be passive, play the victim, and wimp out of doing right."Leading the Way" is a help not only in the call and responsibility to lead, but toward The Way as early Christianity was called in the Acts of the Apostles. Husbands are to love their wives as Christ loves the church—nowhere near an easy task... He died for her. Fathers are to train up their children in the fear and admonition of the Lord—not an easy task in our culture, either. And yet, there's no "Get out of Leading" card that we can play. As we go, so goes the family. Where we lead, they will follow. If we abdicate, they will flounder and do what is right in their own eyes, following the broad way of the culture, toward destruction. Let it not be so on our watch!
CHEACT
Though we no longer live in Central Texas, a part of our hearts will always be there. While there, I was privileged to serve on the Board of the Christian Home Educators Association of Central Texas (CHEACT) as Treasurer and webmaster. If you're anywhere near Austin or the Texas Hill Country, check out CHEACT. And tell them Jim Bob says Hi.ExCHANGE
ExCHANGE stands for Exchange for Christian Homeschool Articles for Newsletters, Groups & E-zines. While serving on the CHEACT Board, one of my responsibilities was co-editing the bi-monthly newsletter and helping find articles to publish. I kept finding it harder and harder to find fresh new content, so I created this YahooGroup to help authors and editors find one another. I've not given it the attention it needs, but I still think it's a good and useful idea.
Do you have something to say to homeschoolers? Sign up as an author. Need something for your homeschooling publication or co-op newsletter? Sign up as an editor. Better yet, do both! Perhaps now is the time to revitalize this group! ;)
StoryStones
Throughout history, people have used stones to tell stories, to teach lessons, and to share age-old truths. StoryStones™ Collectibles uniquely capture this tradition. My friend, Chris Lovett, is a great storyteller! And he's created StoryStones to help him and others relate Scriptural truths. He needed some help with his website and that's where I came in. These are great conversation pieces to set on your desk, carry on your keyring, or even on stage in large evangelism settings. Chris gives you the script, telling tips, and how to get the audience to participate.Jesus said, "I tell you, if my disciples are quiet, THE STONES WILL CRY OUT." StoryStones are doing just that.
FLYDaddy
Helping Husbands, Daddies and other Men get organized. I created this for myself to help me get organized; again... to help me lead my family, taking care of things around the home that are rightly my domain. Maybe it will help you, too.While in no way officially associated with FlyLady, FLYDaddy operates in the same manner as FlyLady, but is meant for us Men. If you're a Husband or a Father—especially if your Wife is a FLYer—you owe it to her to be organized in YOUR responsibilities. This is just one way to help you do that.
Each month is divided into workable chunks, called Zones. We'll work on one Zone per week: Zone 1: Vehicles · Zone 2: Home Interior · Zone 3: Garage · Zone 4: Grounds · Zone 5: Attic/Basement
This list will NOT bombard you with email. You'll simply get a Reminder on Monday what Zone you're on, and what Things you should consider working on for that week. For some weeks, you'll also receive an email suggesting a Resource for getting things done. It's also available through an RSS feed.
Peroutka in 2008
Originally created for Michael Peroutka's 2004 Constitution Party Presidential bid, it has continued to be a place to discuss his possible candidacy for 2008. While he hasn't said he would run in '08, his 2004 principles are still virtues I would like to see in a President. I invite you to join the discussion... and investigate the Constitution Party, the third largest political party in these united States.posted at 4:19 AM| Comment on Home page 
Wednesday, April 19, 2006
To fail to plan is to plan to fail. — Some Wise Fellow SomewhereI have a plan... well, a vision, actually... OK, for now, it's still a bit of a dream. But, I'm in the process of planning out my vision to make my dream a reality.
Though I was born in one of the wealthiest, most free countries ever founded in the history of the world, by the time I came along, most of that freedom had been lost, stolen, given away and otherwise squandered. We have given up our freedom for security; we've given it up for convenience; we've let it slip away piecemeal through various tax, building and zoning codes; we've squandered our freedom on the altar of personal peace and affluence. I've heard that in California, you can actually take out a 90-year mortgage! In order to have the house we want now, we're actually willing to make ourselves slaves for the rest of our lives, paying a multiplier just a little less than our interest rate times the sales price just for the privilege of living in it now (On a 100-year mortgage at 7.5% would cost 7.5 times the loan amount). But is it "living," when we're owned by the house we own. We actually enslave our children with our endless debt, just so we can have what we want when we want it.
Enter Skip Ellsworth, fourth-generation log home builder. Forty years ago, having grown up building log homes with his father, Skip started teaching others how to build log homes the right way. The "right way" to build a log home and Skip's philosophy of life have inspired tens of thousands of people to build their own homes at a fraction of the cost of other stick-and-mortar site-built homes. Skip has now passed the baton on to his son who, every month or so, invites about forty would-be log home builders to Skip's 7000-sq. ft house (Maurice Minifield's home in Northern Exposure) outside Seattle to teach them Skip's way of building log homes.
Now, Ellsworth and his co-teacher, Steve, know alot about building log homes; not just Skip's way, but how others have done it, how the kit home folks typically do theirs and why you want to avoid them like the plague, what makes a "log" home and when it becomes something else. They have a bias toward actual logs (as opposed to perfectly round 'dowels' made from trees, or so-called 'D-logs') because trees have an outer protective ring which naturally helps fight insect infestation; making a dowel or a 'D' out of them removes that protection, as does rough-hewing them into square beams. Additionally, logs have a God-given beauty to them that is destroyed when you make them all look the same: they taper from one end to the other, they bow, they have knots and branches, they 'check' over time and have a strong, rugged beauty to them that you lose when they're no longer logs. Once you start on the path toward log-home building (that is, building with actual logs), you find that there are several building techniques that have been used over the years, and a couple more that are used by kit home makers.
All of us who had Lincoln Logs™ growing up know about the 'chinked' method of building with logs: cut a notch on the top and bottom of the log, near the end, so that each layer's notches fit into the next layer. In this method, all of the 'load' is on the corners, which have been weakened by the notching. Any variation of the 'chink' to make the logs fit together will weaken the logs, right at the point that they're supposed to be holding up the weight of the house.
Kit builders use various 'cuts' into the logs to make them sit on top of each other, each of which contributes to splitting the logs over time (sometimes it's a very short time). Even though the weight is more evenly distributed down the length of the log, the weight from above pressing on the 'cut' below causes the logs to split. What you want is a full intact log on each layer, that is in full contact with the log below it to allow for equal weight distribution throughout. The only way to get logs to sit perfectly on logs is to 'cope' the top log so that it perfectly fits the log below it. This is called the Scandinavian Chinkless method. It's a very meticulous process if done right. Which is why kit home makers and even custom log home builders aren't likely to use this method.
So, the strongest wood-on-wood home is a Scandy. And to have it done right, you're going to have to do it yourself. But there's still a problem: rot. When wood gets wet and stays wet, it rots and disintegrates. Wood is of course very porous and 'wicks' water like the wick of an oil lamp pulls the oil up to be burned by the flame. When two pieces of wood are in constant contact with each other, water will be wicked to points of contact and stay there. Go to an outdoor lumber yard in the summertime when there hasn't been rain in a couple of weeks. As you lift dry boards, you'll see water between them. This water, over time, will rot both pieces of wood, so even though you have a stronger, more evenly-distributed home with a Scandinavian Chinkless home, you still have to figure out a way to keep the moisture out (or let it escape) so that your walls don't fall down from rot on the inside.
Ellsworth and Steve are all about energy conservation. "It's just that it's our energy we want to conserve." So their goal is to teach you the best, easiest, cheapest, fastest, lowest-maintenance, longest-lasting log home building methods and techniques. The object is to get a CO (certificate of occupancy) as quickly as possible so that you can move in to your debt-free home.
Now, they're also about quality construction, which is why they teach the butt-and-pass method. Using this method, you can build with "green" logs and your house won't shrink and it won't fall down. It doesn't settle. You don't have to use telescoping plumbing fixtures and leave big gaps behind the headers of your doors and windows, because the logs aren't moving, even though they'll shrink toward their own center over the first year and continue to expand and contract with climate changes. This is also one of the quicker ways to build.
Wallace Falls Lodge was built by Log Home Builders Association members. All of the wall logs were put up in two weeks by Tim and his daughter (who was nine years old, at the time!) during Spring Break. Then Tim put the entire roof on by himself in another ten days. You can see from the pictures that the place is beautiful, and well-constructed!
One of the great things about the LHBA is you only pay for the initial class. After that, the meetings are free for members to share plans, critique scale models; network for land deals, free mobile homes to live in while you build, sign up to help someone who's ready to build in order to learn hands-on; swap tools, etc. All the meetings are currently hosted at Skip's house in Washington, so there is the airfare, rental car and lodging aspect if you're not local. But Steve mentioned that they were hoping someone would build something big enough on the east coast (because there are LOTS of members on this side of the country, too) so that we could have some of those members meetings in our neck of the woods. I'm game!! ;)
But even if you can't make it to the members meetings, they have a "member's only" forum where Steve and Ellsworth and other "Certified Log Home Builders" share ideas, deals, etc... the only thing you can't get in the forum is face-to-face with a scale model. It's a great place to ask a question, to share your successes and get encouragement.
Do you want to be free? Build your own low-maintenance log home, debt-free. They recommend you take the class at least two years before you start building... the longer the lead time, the cheaper it's going to be; and the less frustrated you're going to be.
If you go to the class, drop me a line (especially if you're in the Mid-Atlantic, more specifically, Southern Appalachia). I'd be glad to compare notes, critique your scale model and swing a sledge to help you make your dream a reality.
Two tips when you go to class: (a) take some slippers to class (Steve says: "There are two kinds of people who take this class. Those who wear slippers, and those who wish they had."); and (b) don't forget your lunch—they have a large fridge and all the standard kitchen appliances, which you're welcome to use.
FREEDOM!!! —William Wallace
Tuesday, December 07, 2004
So you want to have Topics/Categories in Blogger...
It's easy... once you've done all the hard stuff.[UPDATE: As with most things, there are more than one way to do Topics/Categories... See the comments for this post for more options. Thanks, Everyone! —JBH]
As has been posted elsewhere on Blogger, the way to go about this is to have a separate blog set up for each Topic you wish to have. For example, you'll notice that I have 7 topics (when this entry was written) listed on the left sidebar. If you hover over the links, you'll see that each is actually its own blog ('Home' is the main blog).
- Home: http://billyjoejimbob.blogspot.com
- Advice: http://billyjoejimbob-advice.blogspot.com
- Beards: http://billyjoejimbob-beards.blogspot.com
- etc...
So, whenever you want to set up a new topic, you simply click on the "GET YOUR OWN BLOG" link at the top right of the screen, then follow the instructions below and your new topic will show up on your main blog.
Set up "Main" Blog
The first thing you want to do is set up your main blog. Blogger will help you with all of that. I suggest setting up your topics with the same template and description as your main blog, so you'll want to make note of those things for the future setup of the topics.Special settings for the main blog. Two things need to be set up for the main blog to "catch" the categories.
The first is on the blog itself. Go to Settings and then click on Email. You'll need to identify a Mail-to-Blogger Address and check the Publish box. Remember the address you set up; you'll need it for the second thing. This is the email address you can use to 'send' a blog entry to your blog for publish.
Next, you'll need to decide on an email box where you can route your topics back to main. I use Google's Gmail, which has great filtering abilities. You'll need to set up a filter that will take your blog topics and forward them to the "Mail-to-Blogger Address" you set up on your main blog. You'll have to experiment with the filter options to make sure only your blog entries are forwarded to the main blog.
(Note: When using Gmail, I also "Skip the Inbox" and give it a label of "Blog.")
Creating a "Topic" Blog
Now, you're ready to create a topic. Simply create a new blog. Give it a name (don't include the main blog's name) and a URL (I recommend that you include the main blog's name).Settings. Some things will be the same as the main blog, some things will be different.
Things that are the same: Description and Template. (We'll actually modify the Template in a future step, but you want the look and feel to be the same.)
Things that are NOT the same:
- Basic - Add your Blog to our listing?: No
- Comments - Comments: Hide
- Site Feed - Publish Site Feed: No
- Email - BlogSend Address: yourFilteringInbox@yourMailDomain.com
- Email - Mail-to-Blogger Address: blank
[UPDATE - 9 June 2006: I'm not sure if Blogger has been reading through this post, but they seem to have fixed the lag time, too. Thanks, Blogger! —JBH]
Main v. Topic Templates
As I said, you'll want the Templates to look the "same," but there are some modifications you'll probably want to make to each to make the overall blog experience more seamless for your readers.(For the purposes of these examples, I'll use "Billy Joe Jim Bob" as the title of the main blog.)
Title bar. The default page title—that is, the title that's displayed on your browser title bar—is the name of the blog. In this case, the name of the blog is simply your topic name, with no mention of the main blog at all. To remedy this, you'll need to make the following edit in your template.
Change:Page Title. Next, you'll want to modify the Title that appears on the page. Search your template for '$BlogTitle' and you should find something that looks like this.<title><$BlogPageTitle$></title>
To:<title>Billy Joe Jim Bob - <$BlogPageTitle$></title>
(Aside. [The following is not required for posting topics, but is useful in understanding how the page will work. —JBH] The <MainOrArchivePage> tags tell Blogger to only show this part on the main page or an archive page for the blog. Basically this means it will not draw this portion of the code on the "detail" pages—the 'permalink' pages. In the above case, what that means is that the BlogTitle is not a link on the detail pages, but IS on the main and archive pages. I didn't like that "functionality" so I removed those tags from this section altogether.)<h1 id="blog-title">
<MainOrArchivePage><a href="<$BlogURL$">"></MainOrArchivePage>
<$BlogTitle$>
<MainOrArchivePage></a></MainOrArchivePage>
</h1>
So, here's how that might look, showing the main blog title along with the topic. Note that I've chosen to make the main blog title be a link to the main blog.
Change:Comments. Since you've hidden comments, you'll want to point your readers back to the main blog to leave comments on the post there. I haven't yet come up with an algorithm for pointing directly to the comments form of the given entry on the main blog, so I've simply added the following after the section that begins with 'posted by...'<h1 id="blog-title">
<MainOrArchivePage><a href="<$BlogURL$">"></MainOrArchivePage>
<$BlogTitle$>
<MainOrArchivePage></a></MainOrArchivePage>
</h1>
To:<h1 id="blog-title">
<a href="http://billyjoejimbob.blogspot.com">Billy Joe Jim Bob</a> - <a href="<$BlogURL$>"><$BlogTitle$></a>
</h1>
Topics in sidebar. One last thing you'll probably want to do is add your topics to the template. Look for a line that looks like this:<MainOrArchivePage>
<a class="comment-link" href="http://billyjoejimbob.blogspot.com">Comment from the Home page</a>
</MainOrArchivePage>
<!-- Begin #sidebar -->Under this line—placement at your discretion—you'll add something that looks like this:
(Caveat. Whenever you add a new topic, you'll need to update this section on all of your topics and the main and republish all of them.)<h2 class="sidebar-title">Topics</h2>
<ul class="archive-list"></ul>
<li><a href="http://billyjoejimbob.blogspot.com"> Home</a></li>
<li><a href="http://billyjoejimbob-advice.blogspot.com"> Advice</a></li>
<li><a href="http://billyjoejimbob-beards.blogspot.com"> Beards</a></li>
<li><a href="http://billyjoejimbob-poetry.blogspot.com"> Poetry</a></li>
<li><a href="http://billyjoejimbob-reading.blogspot.com"> Reading</a></li>
<li><a href="http://billyjoejimbob-scrapbook.blogspot.com"> Scrapbook</a></li>
<li><a href="http://billyjoejimbob-squib.blogspot.com"> Thoughts</a></li>
One more thing. One problem I've noticed with this method—at least when using Gmail—is that each post messes up the formatting on the main blog and you have to edit the post there to fix it. Unfortunately, Blogger sends <head> and <body> tags with the post to the BlogSend email address, and, unfortunately, Gmail just passes it on. What happens is that the HTML for the blog page then has two of each of these and it causes the Blogger NavBar to get hosed.
To fix it, edit the post in the main blog and remove those tags. Publish and it'll be fixed.
[UPDATE - 5 June 2006 Blogger has removed the head and body tags when posting to the BlogSend email address. Thanks, Blogger!! —JBH]
Summary
Having topics is a nice-to-have that Blogger doesn't offer. This is one way to make it do it. It's not a trivial process for the blogger, but it does offer some benefits to the reader.Addenda and Errata. If you come up with some better processes to make this flow more smoothly, please let me know and I'll modify this entry on my blog. Likewise, if something is unclear or doesn't work the way I stated here, please let me know and I'll fix it.
As it has some value to many using this service, I will place a high-profile link on my blog so that it will always be easily accessible and edits will be easy to find.
Monday, December 06, 2004
Mike Noel has a great suggestion for you men out there looking to bless your wives. As he says, "it's not rocket science," but I'll let him share it with you in his own words. Here's an excerpt:"As Christmas approaches each year I look forward to continuing a tradition that I started a few years ago. On each of the twelve days leading up to Christmas Day I give my wife a small gift. While this idea was inspired by the song I don't actually give the gifts that the song suggests. She might like the five golden rings each year but I doubt she'd have much use for eight maids a milking, or the swans, or the geese, and so on. Instead, I give her small gifts that are sometimes sentimental, sometimes useful, and sometimes just funny."
Keeping reading...