I’ve been at this blogging thing for over 5 years, which makes me something of an old-timer in the ‘Sphere. But Charles…well, Charles is about twice as old as me, in blog-years, which makes him…older? Better? Wiser? Wittier? You betcha. I was lucky enough to discover Dustbury early on, and the dude just keeps getting better. As I once wrote about Dustbury & the genius behind it:

“There’s just something deliciously satisfying about reading something that has actually been thought out in advance, where the words accurately convey not just thought, but also nuance and subtlety.”

Happy 10th Anniversary, Charles. Thanks for the good humor, amazing trivia, and the sprinkling of wisdom. And FWIW, I’ve always enjoyed the bird - cute little feller.

charles dustbury

Finally! It looks like things are back to normal here at Better Living Thru Blogging! I got an e-mail from my buddy George in New Mexico early this morning telling me that my site had been “hacked.” Sure enough — some jackass script-kiddies managed to crack into my WordPress installation (1.5) and insert their own juvenile message. It seemed to affect only my index.html (or index.php?) file; everything underneath was working fine. But I couldn’t figure out how to fix it, so when I got home from work, I did a backup of my WP (using this wonderful plugin), and then did a clean install of WordPress 2.0 — and after the usual minor annoyances of any such install, my index page was back to normal. Well, almost normal — much like Steve Austin, version 2.0 is better, stronger, faster. And as you can see, I’m now using the updated Journalized Theme (thanks Mike!). The admin interface for WP 2.0 is waaaaay mucho better than 1.5, too; it has more features, more customization, and a slicker interface. I wish that I had upgraded when 2.0 first came out, but better late than never. Very much appreciate the e-mails and text-messages that some of you sent me today asking about the site!

UPDATE: doesn’t seem to be showing up very well in Internet Explorer, but just fine in FireFox and Flock. Hm. And I noticed that the comment count under this post still shows 0 comments, even though there are now two comments. Ideas?

MORE: well, for some reason it seems to display just fine in IE now. One problem solved, one more to figure out…

LAST UPDATE: Looks like there’s a fix to the comment-count issue!

wordpress wp 2.0

Spocko left a comment on my entry about the movie “Snakes On A Plane” and seemed to think that I was some sort of “viral messenger” for the movie, and that my blog entry and purchase of a SoaP t-shirt were somehow part of a larger campaign to promote the movie. In fact, there is no such campaign that I am aware of. I read a few entries on MetaFilter and Digg and a few other sites several months ago about the movie, and my first reaction was that it was some sort of gag based on the Saturday Night Live sketch. Lo and behold, it turns out to be a real movie (presumably). My interest in it is based on the following: the sketch on SNL was bizarre to the point of being humorous; the concept of snakes on a plane stretched into a movie-length story is oddly intriguing; anything with Sam Jackson gets my attention; and the t-shirt that I bought has such cute, simple graphics that I thought it would be fun to wear. (more…)

meme snakes on a plane

I usually dive right in to web-based stuff: began blogging in 2000, got my Hotmail account back in ‘96 when it was called “HoTMaiL” (remember that?!), pay all my bills online, enjoy a pretty low MeFi number, etc. But I’ve never cared too much for eBay; it has always seemed to be so cluttered and unorganized, and for some reason I’ve always had doubts about the quality of the stuff that’s sold. The wife and kids enjoy poking around on there looking at art and purses, and if I happen to be walking by it’s hard for me to figure out the screen…the pictures seem so un-uniform and random, and just generally messy.
But: the other day I actually signed up and made a bid on an item (cheap computer)…it was a Celeron cheapie, figured what the heck, might be a good one for the playroom just for surfing. I lost that one, after giving up when the price hit $45. But then I found this nifty aerial picture of my town and was captivated, so I put in a bid, and lo & behold, I got it! My very first eBay purchase!

ebay

“The fact remains, however, that there are reasons why I might pull the plug on blogging…”

And then one day she did. Hang in there, Margi…and come on back to us whenever you can.

margilowry.com

*re-post* Heh…I love these image generating sites (found via). Here’s my take on it:

blog einstein

I’ve been reading The Blog Herald since the beginning: it’s a blog devoted to, well, the news of blogging. Several months ago, Duncan embarked on a “100 Blogs In 100 Days” journey, introducing readers to blogs of all stripes. Yesterday’s entry in the series surprised me: it’s the Big Sky Blog! That’s the blog that I created a while back that is open to anyone in Montana, and is devoted to anything & everything Montana. Thanks, Duncan!

big sky blog montana

*We interrupt our regular Snow Blogging to bring you a blog entry that has absolutely nothing to do with snow…regular snow-blogging will resume shortly.*

From the Air Force Times, November 7, 2005, comes this Letter To The Editor:

“No Welcome Sign At Park”
It is with great disappointment and regret that I write this letter. I proudly served our wonderful nation for 20 years in the Air Force and have realized that Ohio, the state in which I reside, does not support the military.
I am an avid camper and take great pleasure in visiting its wonderful state parks. Until this year I was offered a military discount to stay at our parks. I have been informed this benefit has been discontinued. My commitment and loyalty to our great nation has not discontinued.
I am disappointed.
(signed)
Master Sgt John C. Goeke (ret)
Wilmingtion Ohio

Un-freaking-believable. Hey, John, the world does NOT owe you a magical discount on every little thing…and to say something so stupid as “Ohio…does not support the military” just tells the world that you’re a crusty old grouch. Get over it, dude.

Wulfgar, who is truly one of the best Montana bloggers, has come up with a “Big Sky Bloggies” contest of sorts. Sorting through the dozens of Montana-based blogs, it sure was tough to pick any of them, because so many of them are so damn good…but here’s my take, and I only included categories that I actually voted in. ALSO: to sweeten the contest, I humbly offer up one item of choice from the Big Sky Blog Store to whoever gets the most votes in Question #13, Best Overall. If anyone else would like to offer up a prize for any particular category, please let Wulfgar know. And now…on with my votes: (more…)

I’ve been doing a little election blogging over at GreaterFalls.com as the mayoral race entered the final weeks, and one of the newspaper articles about the race contained a line that kind of ticked me off. The article was about a local businessman (an acquaintance of mine) who had printed and distributed a newsletter that highlighted what he felt were reasons for not voting for the incumbent mayor. He cited several examples of what he deemed to be lack of leadership, political motives, and financial irregularities. The article mentions that the state regulators determined that the author of the newsletter did not violate any election or campaign-finance laws, but check out this one line in the article:

Another issue that could become tricky for political regulators might be Web logs, or blogs, on the Internet that are often anonymous.

Whoa there. I know there’s been plenty of discussion among much smarter people than me about this, but seeing it stated bluntly in my local paper, about an election in which I served as something of a conduit via my GreaterFalls.com site, definitely got my attention. All politics is local, and this issue just became local for me.

Public Service Announcement: I attempted to live-blog the Mayoral Candidate Forum that was held tonight here in Great Falls; although I wasn’t able to attend the Forum, it was broadcast on our local public-access channel, so I figured I’d take a stab at live-blogging it.

Now, on to the weather report: our first *real* chance of snow this season! The few flakes in early October may have been our first official snow, but tonight brings the chance for our first measurable snowfall! (more…)

Got an e-mail from a fellow Montana blogger; she wants to leave comments here at BLTB and over at Big Sky Blog, but my blog won’t cooperate. My initial reaction: I’m somewhat mortified that my blog was so rude! Sorta like when your child misbehaves in public. Does that say something weird about me (or my kids)? So here’s her problem; tell me if you have any ideas about what’s going on, or how to fix it:

I don’t even get the option of filling out anything….I don’t know what that means. I hit “comments” and then that’s it. No options. I can see the comments, but nothing else.

So, I turn the question over to my Blogging Brain Trust (that means YOU). Ideas?

If you ever get bored with the current theme here at Better Living Through Blogging (known as Journalized Sand, and courtesy of Mike Little), you can always switch to the modified Bionic Jive theme (courtesy of Theron Parlin). I’ve got the Theme Switcher over on the right column; just scroll down a bit.

Whoa — somehow my fifth anniversary just sorta slipped by me on Wednesday! I am now officially into Year #6 of “Better Living Through Blogging!” Do you see any wrinkles or gray hair on this page? Heh. And yes, it’s a bit schmaltzy, but here’s the link to what I posted on my anniversary two years ago — it’s all (mostly) still true, only even Better now. And if you look at my first few entries back in 2000, you’ll notice that even then I was excited about cold(er) weather and the approach of Autumn and Halloween!

Thanks, everyone, for making this such a nifty avocation - hobby - obsession - craft - joy - and so on. Without you, this would not be nearly as enjoyable, and arguably not worth the effort. Thanks.

Cheers: Big news over at Viking Zen’s place: she & McGyva became the proud parents of Baby Girl Zen (aka Snickerdoodle) a few days ago - wheeeee! Congrats to the whole family!

Cheers: D.C. Thornton celebrated his blogs fourth birthday! Four blogging years roughly translates to about 40 human years, so it’s quite an occasion - go say hi!

Cheers: One of our very own Big Sky Bloggers has been published: “Loving Miranda” by Teresa Bodwell. If you like Cowboys + Romance, you should probably check it out.