Archive for the General Category
Some time ago I became irritated that Darren Durrett was using the Blognitive Dissonance title (see darrendurrett.com). I posted a rather terse comment on his blog (which I think he is in the process of removing) and it took awhile for him to respond. The reason: he was on vacation. I also wrote a post in which I took a few additional swipes.
Well, Darren could have completed the circle and made it into a fight. It’s pretty clear he came up with the “blognitive dissonance” name on his own just like I did (and as others are doing — though as far as I can tell we are the only two people to use it as a blog title). Who was first could be up for argument, but I don’t think either of us is really interested in pressing the issue. I say this because last night and today we emailed each other a bit. Darren seemed more relaxed on the issue and I began to feel ashamed of my initial rash tone with him. He also initiated the suggestion that there is room for both of us in the blogosphere. He’s right.
To make a long story short, we’ve agreed to live and let live. We have different approaches and different audiences and there’s no real reason we can’t both use the same blog title.
Occasionally I’ve observed bloggers complaining that they feel rejected by the LDS blogging community or expressing indignation that their membership in the Bloggernacle has been threatened or possibly revoked. Where is the bill of your mother’s divorcement? Almost always (if not always) the complainer is being oversensitive and perhaps giving too much credit to the blog that has banned him/her or to the LDS aggregator that has removed his/her url from their blogroll.
The identity of the Mormon blogger and his or her membership is usually defined by a single factor: self-identification. Only in the rarest situations (outright deception, for example) does a second factor, blogging community consensus, override the first. It should be said that the Mormon blogging community is fairly large and is continuing to grow. The community encompasses many contrasting expressions of faith and doubt as well as diverse political views. No one group blog or blog aggregator holds such decisive sway as to speak or act in behalf of the entire blogging community.
The Mormon blogger is any person who publicly (on a blog) and credibly self-identifies himself or herself as 1) a real person and 2) as a Mormon. That’s it. Anyone who fulfills those two criteria is a Mormon blogger and a de facto member of the Mormon blogging community (usually referred to as “the Bloggernacle”).
Note: in this long and interesting comment, J. Max Wilson explains why he feels he qualifies as a non-Nacle LDS blogger. His views expressed there differ from mine. I still think it’s an interesting read and position to take.
UPDATE (9/7/06): The tone and content of this post has been scrapped. Darren Durrett and I have been in communication with each other and we’ve agreed to live and let live. You can read a little more about the resolution of this issue here.
It appears Darren Durrett at darrendurret.com chose to name his blog without checking to see if another Blognitive Dissonance already existed. My first post was created on May 5, 2005 at 1:51pm. His first post was created on June 28, 2006 at 9:58pm. If he bothered even once to google the title of his blog he would have seen immediately that the blog name had already been taken.
Update 1: I left a comment on his blog and saw a message that the comment was in moderation. So far no response.
Update 2 (8/23): Still no response.
Update 3 (8/29): Still no response. Now Snarkernacle has made a few choice comments on the subject.
I was happy to discover the homepage for the American Hemerocallis Society at http://www.daylilies.org
I grew up with a father who loved planting and tending his gardens. He particularly loves his daylily plants. We used to wake up each morning and go outside to see what new daylilies had opened up. They can really be quite stunning in their shades and colors. We also would pluck the stamens and cross-pollinate the daylilies so that we could create new hybrids with unique colors. My father would sometimes give tubers to people and they would start their own day lily patches. Once planted these flowers grow very well and don’t require a huge amount of care. They are perennials, so healthy plants will create new flowers every year.
I think daylilies are at their best when they are left in the ground and attached to their roots. Though it’s possible to cut them or buy them, I just don’t think these flowers work well as corsages or bouquets. But that’s just a personal bias.
From time to time I go over to Central Park, which is only a block and a half away from our apartment. There are some daylily patches here and there and the flowers are nice — but the lack of color diversity is disappointing. I sometimes wonder if I could help that process along a little.
I am interested in learning more about buying a “naked PC” desktop or computer, that is a laptop or desktop that does not come with a pre-installed operating system or other software. Have you purchased “naked PC” before? Where? How much did it cost?
I am hearing that Ubuntu works very well as an operating system, that OpenOffice works well for wordprocessing and other needs. I have been using Mozilla Firefox exclusively browsing for a long time. If such excellent software is available for free, I see no reason to pay for pre-installed software. Any thoughts on this out there?
Update: a friend suggested two links that might be helpful. They are here and here.
Note: comment moderation is still on.