Tag Archives: Blogging
Goals
Posted on 15. Dec, 2008 by Kenny.
I’ve discovered that I’m a very goal oriented person. I can easily live life spinning my wheels and going no where. However, when I have clear goals, I progress. Even when I dont’ quite reach all of my goals, it’s usually still okay. Here are two simple goals I have right now.
Losing weight: If you follow my posts you know I’ve been working to lose some weight. After 6 months out of work, I put on some weight. When moving to Austin, I was the heaviest I’ve ever been. I was very sad about this. I changed my eating habits and decided that I wanted to lose 20 pounds by 2009. Last weekend I weighed in and I was only 2 pounds away from that goal. I think I might just do it. Right now I am the same weight I was 3-4 years ago. Yaeh for me! I’m not done though, still have 20 more to go. If I can lose another 20, I’ll be back at my weight when I got married. I’ll definately need to buy new clothes. From that point I think I would be really happy, but maybe set one more goal to lose about 10 more pounds. For years I’ve talked about losing the weight, but it wasn’t until a few months ago that I started setting goals. It also helps to have a digital scale that knows what my goal is and tells me how far away from it that I am every day.
Blogging: As some of you know, I took several months off from blogging last year while I was on the job hunt. I had been blogging for about 7 months and had less than 100 posts. However, in March I started blogging again with renewed passion and zeal. I absolutely love it. I set a somewhat unrealistic goal of hitting my 500th post before 2009. However, that would have required me to post twice a day, 5 days a week for about 5 months. However, hitting post 400 was much more realistic. As of a month ago, I was still on track to hit it. Unortunatley, now I am only 18 days away from 2009 and I am 60 posts short of 400.
There is a part of me that still very much wants to go for it. It’s more than 3 posts a day, 7 days a week. Although I feel like I’ve written plenty of silly posts, I don’t want to post a bunch of fluff to hit my goal. So, I’m going to do the best I can and see where I land. If I don’t hit 500 by 2009, maybe I can hit a high note on April 4th, the 2nd anniversary of this blog.
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Maybe blogging isn’t quite dead yet
Posted on 15. Nov, 2008 by Kenny.
I just found this blog post that was linked from ProBlogger’s twitter feed.
A few weeks ago I wrote this post in response to “the death of blogging.”
I enjoyed the article. Although I believe that the social networking has changed the web since blogging made it’s debut many years ago, I’m not convinced we’ve seen the end of blogging. The article made some good points. Personally I get a lot out of reading blogs written by other church leaders as I know many other do as well. I follow their tweets as well, but it’s not the same as the blog posts. I really don’t think the next platform has arrived that is going to usher blogging out. We’ll just have to see.
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Blogging dead? Say it aint so.
Posted on 28. Oct, 2008 by Kenny.
This has been bugging me for a many days now. The fact that I haven’t just let it go or forgotten about it is the part of what bugs me. Steven Dilla, the Preschool Pastor at Fellowship Church, Grapvine (and an incredibly great guy, he gave me a fantastic tour a few months ago… thanks Matt for introducing me to Steven) deleted his blog. He read this article and then deleted it.
Now I’m a big fan of Wired magazine and really appreciate the insight on technology and culture. After reading the article myself I would have to say that I agree. Blogging is so 2004.
However, the true question is, “am I ready for change?”
I don’t know that I am… yet. I think Steven is absolutely right. The Christian bubble is always 10 steps behind what is happening in the rest of the world. Since I entered the blogosphere about 18 months ago, I’ve been incredibly blessed. What an amazing community, and it is growing (but it doesn’t seem to be growing as fast as I would have expected it to).
Other than a select few, I don’t read magazines anymore. They’re almost dead to me. I get my information mostly from blogs. Rather than read an article from certain church leaders whenever a magazine has them write, I can hear their thoughts without the buffer of a publisher.
I’m just not convinced we’ve totally seen what’s next… but maybe I need it a little more spelled out. I twitter and find it to be an amazing tool for connection. But it’s not exactly replacing blogging. Neither is Facebook. So, I’m still looking. I think I’m willing to make a change, but maybe not until the next platform is a little more established… or visible. But that’s just me. I’m an early adopter, just maybe not the pioneer.
Anyone else have any thoughts on this?
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Valuable lesson: I’m no good at managing multiple blogs
Posted on 27. Oct, 2008 by Kenny.
I’m just not very good at it. I have three blogs right now. This blog, a personal family blog and a church blog that we use to communicate to parents. Probably in the next few weeks, I’ll be launching another blog for volunteers. It’s less about regular updates and more about a place where they can get lesson plans, documents and view training resources. Man do we need that soon.
But, I’ve found that I’m just no good at doing all of these… at the same time. I’ve not written a word in two weeks on this blog, but in the mean time I’ve been making many updates to my other blogs. Sorry to neglect, I’ve got some things to discuss this week, so I should be regular week again.
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Sorry to waste your time with this post
Posted on 17. Sep, 2008 by Kenny.
No really, there’s nothing important here. I had a few minutes before a meeting and simply came across this. Apparently I’m 91% addicted to blogging. Just one more thing for me to give over to Jesus… 
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Theme Upgrade… can you help a brother out?
Posted on 06. Jul, 2008 by Kenny.
Okay, this weekend I’ve been upgrading my blogs and doing various maintenance. I upgraded to the most recent wordpress build for my personal blog and I actually don’t mind it at all. Karl Bastian had some pretty mean things to say about it as it seems to have caused a lot of frustrations for his blog. So, I decided to leave this blog alone… for now. Instead, I found a REALLY COOL plugin that make the admin page TONS better, so it’s like I got a new build anyway.
However (I’m getting to the point), I did find an upgrade to my theme I’ve been using. I love it becasuse it gives me an extra side bar. That’s HUGE for me. The only problem is that I can’t decide what arrangement I like. Tell me what you think (I’ve already got an opinion) as it might help me finalize my decision.
Current Layout: (obvioulsy… you’re on it right now.)
Middle Layout:
Right Layout:
Thanks!!!
Technorati Tags: WordPress,Themes,Chidrens Ministry Online
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Final Twitter Post… for now :)
Posted on 14. Jun, 2008 by Kenny.
Okay, I’m going to wrap up my series of Twitter posts with this one, sharing one more resource and a cool story.
I noticed that a lot of the bloggers I follow on twitter have installed and application that sends a twitter feed when they write a blog. It’s a great add-on. Now for most of these people, I already subscribe to their blog feed, so I’m going to read their post at some point. This application though provided another way for me to get to their post. However, there are many people on Twitter that I don’t subscribe to their feed. Through this little application, I’ve found some new blogs that I now follow. So it’s a great tool. Using Google I found this great post here. It has the 10 best twitter tools for wordpress blogs. I’m sure you can find the same tools for type pad, blogger or whatever blogging service you use. I installed the Twitter Updater which does what I just said. I also tried the “Twit This” application but I couldn’t get it to work. Because my Twitter feed update my facebook status, people who only follow me on facebook are more likely to follow or even discover my blog. You can’t tell me this isn’t great stuff.
Oh, and now for my story. I’ve actually heard a few people complain about linking your twitter feed to your facebook feed because it just looks kind of silly. True, I won’t argue with that at all. However, I know many people who don’t update their facebook status very often, so they either have an out of date status or no status at all. Those who twitter are more likely to update more often, so people following them on facebook see their update more often. *** I did notice that if you start your twitter with @someone’stwitterID (a personal note to someone), facebook will not bring that update into the status. ***
But here is what is cool. I was driving to camp last Sunday and made a snide remark on twitter about driving through East Texas in the dark. A friend who I haven’t seen in over 10 years and recently became a friend on facebook contacted me the next day and said, “you’re in East Texas… we should meet up.” Three days later I had a little reunion at Cracker Barrel for breakfast as I drove back home. Because Twitter, facebook and this blog are all interconnected, I have a greater possibility to communicate to the most people possible. Isn’t that what technological advancement is all about, merging services and devices to where they all talk and work together.
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My Twitter experience
Posted on 08. Jun, 2008 by Kenny.
I said in my previous post that I’m not quite the early adopter that I’d like to be. Matt McKee had been talking about it for well over a year before I finally decided to try it. The biggest reason I didn’t twitter was because I don’t text. Well, I didn’t. I had a data plan, so I paid out the nose to be able to email people… which would irritate me when they would text me instead. So for me, twitter was a cool idea but without text, it wasn’t as convenient.
When I was between jobs this last year, I didn’t have a data plan. I found myself sending text messages more often. I fount that text messages was actually the best way to stay in touch with some family and friends. Then, just before Orange, I decided to really give Twitter a go. I fell in tech love.
I didn’t find that twitter created a new community, but it enhanced the blogging community. Most of the people I follow in twitter also blog, so twitter is usually all the fun, information and sometimes useless stuff that will never make it into a blog. I see some great potential for twitter. To me it is really just about fun and enhancing the blogging community, not really anything more. However, I feel that twitter or something inspired by twitter is right around the corner that could become one of my most valuable communication tools.
What do I use twitter for?
- For fun!
- To update my facebook feed (there are dozens of friends who have ABSOLUTELY no use for twitter, but because they are my friend on facebook, they are in a sense, following my feed. Here is the twitter app for facebook.
- To post updates on the front page of my blog
- I haven’t yet, but I need to install the plugin that sends a twitter out when I update my blog… I find those very helpful when others do.
I must say this though. My wife was not thrilled about my new found twitter addiction. I didn’t change my text plan with ATT and I had $35 in text fees last month. Oops!
If you’re interested, follow my twitter feed here!
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ScribeFire: A blogging tool add-on for Firefox
Posted on 01. Jun, 2008 by Kenny.
Are you a blogger? Do you use Firefox?
May I recommend a pretty cool blogging tool?
I have a WordPress blog. Initially I would log into my WordPress admin page to write posts. I don’t any longer.
For the past 5-6 months, I’ve been using Windows Live Writer. It’s a great little program. It has some bells and whistles that make is stand out from the rest. However, the other day I came across Tony Morgan’s list of favorite Firefox add-ons. One of them was the ScribeFire add-on. It’s so cool! I’ve now written 6 or 7 new blog posts using it. It manages multiple blogs and is still much better than the WordPress admin editor. I still think Live Writer is a better program with more options (a lot of great photo effects and scalers). However, I’m really enjoying ScribeFire for quick posts that I may write without a lot or pictures.
Technorati Tags: Blogging, Mozilla , Firefox, ScribeFire
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Show some love: Blog comments
Posted on 28. May, 2008 by Kenny.
A few months ago I helped my wife set up her own blog. Once it was up, she immediately wrote four or five posts. She added her website to her facebook profile and within hours the traffic started coming.
After a day or two, she came to me with a scowl on her face. She asked, “why are all these people visiting my site (I set her up with analytics), but no one is leaving any comments?”
I smiled and said, “join the club! Everyone who blogs wants more comments on their posts.”
It’s kinda just the way it is. Lots of people read, few respond. My question is simple. Why? Why is the percentage of readers who comment so small?
Here are the reasons I came up with:
- Readers don’t connect with the content. I’ve been known to skim over a paragraph or two. I guess that is why short posts are highly encouraged (something I’m working on).
- Readers don’t want to comment. I’ve been on many sites with the attitude, “I’m just looking.” I guess that’s fine. If I had to comment on everything I read online every day, I’d be spending a lot of time commenting.
- Readers don’t feel they have anything worth adding. Been there too. I’ve read some great posts but just didn’t feel like I had anything worthwhile to add. What’s the point?
My response? If you don’t connect, then I see no reason to comment… unless you’re a very honest reader and you want to let the blogger know that their post just put you to sleep. Harsh maybe, but honest. If you’re just looking for info and don’t have time to comment, then I understand that as well. However, if you don’t feel like you have anything to add, you’re completely wrong. I’d encourage you to at the very least post a comment like “I agree or here’s how I experienced that.”
Most bloggers expect/like comments. It’s the only good feedback we get. We can tell when a post generates a lot of traffic, but we don’t know if it’s becasue the post was inspiring or it was so dumb, readers are sending their friends to it for a good laugh. Even a simple, one liner is better than nothing. As a reader, it’s the least we can do.
Anyone agree? Dissagree?
So, the challenge I’m throwing out. Comment more! If you’re not a blogger, comments are you’re way of getting your thoughts and ideas out there.. without having a blog of your own. If you are a blogger, it’s a little of the “do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”
So, I’m challenging myself to be mindful of the blogs I’m reading, to post a comment where initially I didn’t give it a thought. If everyone did a little more commenting, we’d have significanlty more information out ther for the benifit of everyone!
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