I Forgot To Type the Title of the Post

Nearly everything I've written lately has not been posted here. It's partly because my blog here is stalled. I wanted a better set up, a smoother appearance, a better this, a nicer that, and in my ignorance, I let my domain expire rather than transfer it. A word of advice about custom domains: Never, ever let them expire. All the momentum I never realized I had gained here went away when that happened. I should have listened to that little voice in my head that said, "Wait!"

So. My momentum is no more. My "mo" is no mo'. Not exactly a shining achievement, but like my friends who lost nearly everything in the Waldo Canyon Fire, I have a chance to start fresh here. I have a few ideas that I'm starting to firm up. This blog will continue to publish as I go, making changes on the fly. Wherever I go, I'm going to do all I can to take you, my friends, along. I will be careful not to lose you again!

Why haven't I been publishing? Partly because my walk with God had hit a coasting spot. If you've walked with Him for any amount of time, you'll know what I mean by coasting. He's not really talking much, and I'm not in any hot water with any one. Nothing seems to be in crisis (aside from fire, flood, and famine, which we've seen before, to one extent or another). I just came to think that there wasn't really anything going on in my walk. Boy, was I wrong! Never ever (is there an echo in here?) believe the lie that God isn't working 24/7/365 on you!

Sure, there will be moments when there's peace around you and he's not visibly altering your heart by pressing it in a vice and heating it with fire, but that's where I got tripped up. I thought that since he wasn't coaching me and I kept talking to Him, that everything was fine and there were "no worries." It's the tagline from a Jaws sequel that haunts me: "Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water..."

It's always that problem that hangs just beneath the surface. Worse yet, it was contributing to my lack of writing. It seems to me that nothing is worse than a constipated writer. Sorry for comparing this to such a base idea, but when a writer is not writing, it's not that he's stopped writing. It's that he's stopped listening with his heart and writing from what he hears. All the other stuff he's written is not from that spot and the works range from little bits from his heart to what could be considered busy work.

I had been up all night, struggling over the issue, when I had finally resolved to "fix" the problem with what appeared to be the only solution. That's when my wife, wonderful Karen, asked in a middle-of-the-night croaky voice, "Did ya pray about it?"

"What?!" I responded in anger. Whoa. Wait a minute. Did I just yell at my wife? Yep, I shamefully confess that I did, and I was clearly in the wrong. Sorry. The worst part of it is that I hadn't consulted the God Who knows better than me in every circumstance. Sorry, again, Poppa. So I did, and He showed that He's got a better solution than I have. He is faithful, providentially faithful, even when we are faithless. He has never failed me to give me what I need, even if it's not always what I want.

Your brother in the Lion of Judah,
Steve

PS: If you want to read a bit of good news that has come as a result of last Thursday night in Aurora, there is a story of God's grace that, with a little help from me, has gone viral. Petra (PAY-tra) is a graduated homeschooler who already has a gift that shines even as her mom struggles to extend her days here with her. Brave young lady! I'm praying for her and all the others affected by this tragedy.

Chasing the Changes, Changing the Pages

So. What has been happening at Walden's Wits? Not much, obviously. This blog is "in transition," to put it mildly. I deliberately let the domain WaldensWits.com lapse because I really didn't want to spend my family's already precious income on what is essentially a vanity. That might change, especially if finances pick up again in the fall like they usually do. While I understand that some folks may not be able to find my blog anymore, I don't know that many folks found the custom name terribly memorable. In the meantime, suggestions for new names on this blog can be e-mailed or commented. This being a personal blog, it's themes will change from time to time, but something on my name or my nicknames will surface eventually and we'll change the name.

My life tends to oscillate between learning and teaching. When I started this blog, I was a gainfully employed husband and father of a toddler and two children under 10. Now those children will all be over 10 in a year or so, and my disability has prevented my full-time employment for most of that time. My family has started a ministry, a business and a few other ventures. I'm having to learn what it means to parent teenagers, how to manage hormones that aren't my own, and to do so without stressing myself out and making my condition considerably worse.

I was a blogger advocating homeschooling as an education choice, which, because of it's own merits, is like advocating safer driving or Arbor Day. In doing so, I felt a little bit like a boy scout helping a linebacker cross the street. Much of the educational community seems to have decided that homeschoolers are going to fight any abrogation of their rights and figured they would be better off trying to "help" homeschoolers back into schools with programs rather than harass or intimidate them. Right now, there's just not that much controversy, not that I sought controversy, but it is what makes some blogs popular.

Instead, I found my best work encouraging others in their efforts to educate their kids at home. Homeschooling is going strong and my wife and I continue to educate our kids exclusively on our own, a freedom we appreciate immensely and continue to support wholeheartedly. But change happens. Our local homeschool group disbanded, and it's emphasis on mothers didn't exactly help fathers engage. Our larger homeschool agency suffered a coup d' état, falling to folks whose views run contrary to our own, leaving us unaffiliated with a conference and without that seasonal boost to get us re-focused.

Rather than focus on these issues, I've wanted to keep my tone positive. The problem came when I held myself back from saying things. It shuts me down and I haven't wanted to write about it. I guess that may keep me out of a fight, but if I want to write, it's not such a good idea.

So. This is truly in transition! I'm not someone to champion a person or cause because anyone short of Jesus Christ is going to have problems and imperfections. I'm so fiercely loyal, I get wrapped up in those issues and my imperfect character and intellect can end up hurting a lot more than myself, and that is difficult to shoulder. I want to help, not hurt, protect, not proselytize, confirm, not condemn. I will continue to aspire to the positive. But I can't keep silent on issues I see. If I'm wrong, I'm wrong, but I don't want to drag everyone in with me. I'll simply recognize the error--hopefully--and go on. In the meantime, I need to give myself permission to just say what's on my mind and not take so much in the way of self-censorship. I might even float the odd fiction piece or poem, even if there's plenty of bad fiction and even worse poetry already out there. I will either add to the dross or let my work be judged worthy of someone else's attention. In the meantime, stay tuned!

Walden's Wits Returns

Annnnd, I'm back!

If you have been trying to check this blog recently, you most likely got a 404 error or something similar. It's because a service I was using to bring you WW decided to take its servers down permanently. Oh well. It was free and I got what I paid for. Now I'm using a paid service and I'm happy.

I know I haven't been super prolific lately and I'm grateful for my readers (both of them). I'm okay with it, because I can only do what I can. I'm no longer interested in personal success, if I ever was. I just want to be faithful to God and who He's made me to be by loving Him and loving those around me as sincerely as I can.

Air Chamber Versus Foam Mattress

I have sleep issues, this we know. An article at HopeKeepers asked which alternative bed (air chamber-sleep number versus foam) would be best for people who are chronically ill. Here are the comments I posted ...

I have had both an air chamber bed and a foam bed. Both of mine failed for the reasons specified (leaks and shape, respectively). It can be a real bummer when you've invested so much into both. The foam mattress reeked of chemicals for a few weeks, which was horrible for my Fibromyalgia sensitized-nose!

I have arthritis in my upper and lower back. The air chamber bed had interlaced chambers so that it didn't create the "hammock" effect on my back. This was the best support for my lower back and I did not "toss and turn" all night with Fibro pressure points like I do with my foam bed. I miss my air chamber, especially because it also used a memory foam pad on top. Nonetheless, the problem remains that there's no way to patch them well enough to keep them inflated, and the warranty from a company that no longer exists isn't worth much anymore, anyway.

I am waiting for technology to catch up with my needs on this. Springs and water are too hard. Air is to leaky. Foam is too "even" and un-adjustable. Maybe a floatation tank? (in my dreams!)

I'll let you know if I have any other thoughts, but I need to work on my other posts. I have many posts for WW that I've begun, but few have made it to the publish-able point. Ah, the life of a writer with chronic fatigue!

Tapping The Wallet For A New Set Of Keys

I haven't posted a great deal in a great while. It has been difficult, to say the least--ha!--to not write so much. Part--no, most of it has been due to the wonderful disabilities I live with. I've also been on a bit of an introspective where God has been speaking and I've been taking notes. I'm not sure where this latest leg of the journey is going, but it's been a healthy trip so far I think. My identity and its impact on others has been a lot of it.

What have I been doing lately? Most of the time, I've been coping with aforesaid disabilities, specifically Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. Other than that, I've been blogging on my railroad blog as a hobby. I've been coping as my family transitions to a new family business, helping my children manage the transition and offering as much moral support as one dad in a chair can.

More recently, I've been adjusting to life with a new keyboard. I don't normally buy things so expensive, but this was an absolute necessity. For years, it has hurt to type. Really, I've needed this keyboard since 2003 or so. For a long time, I knew what I needed, but I didn't know who made it, or where to get it. Now that I have it, the knots and spasms in my upper back have had much less to complain about. They still make a fuss, but it's just not made nearly as bad as when I was using the old keyboard.


Winters are hard to endure when you have certain arthritic conditions. It's painful, and most folks don't discuss it because it's something non-arthritics can't relate to. Pain, it seems, makes more people than just the sufferer uncomfortable. What can I do, though? Ignore it? That's hard to do when you don't want to get out of bed or, worse, can't make it to bed from the chair. Still, I've opted not to blog exclusively about pain this winter because it's not all that beneficial for everyone. On the other hand, having a keyboard that helps that pain is a positive worth noticing.

Thanks for hanging in there with me, friends. I hope this keyboard lets me post more often with less pain. That, or I'll want my money back.

Thanks For Reading Patiently

Wow! You're still here! Thank you!

Sometimes I'm amazed anyone reads my stuff or hangs in there long enough to read when I do actually post. For these people, I am truly thankful. And maybe I can offer an explanation of where I'm at.

Picture blogging as farming. There are some massive producers out there. Everyday, or even every few hours, some blogs produce a new post. It's as if they're a large co-op, delivering from a silo on demand. I'm more like a simple family farm, delivering as harvests come available. Sometimes, I need to let land lie fallow as well, because of my disability or other shortcomings. I harvest when what He plants has ripened enough. I sell it from a little stand, and I don't worry about much except what God wants to do next. I trust Him for the growth and the increase.

Thanks again for being patient! I hope to produce the quality worthy of His name.

A New Look

After staring at the same layout for so very long, I'm grateful that Blogger has been expanding it's resources a bit and now it feels a bit better. Ever since I was young, I've loved lions and I wanted to keep with it, just change it a bit. So how does it look? For the next month or so, I'll have a poll up here on my blog asking what you think, so let me know! I'll be adding information and more features as time goes on. Thanks for reading!

Incommunicado In Colorado

I suppose some explanation is in order for why I haven’t been writing nearly as much as I used to. It relates  to my disability. I have arthritis in my spine between my neck and mid-back. The pain is usually located between my shoulder blades and below. For me to have to hunch over a keyboard for more than a few moments brings on spasms that no pain killer or muscle relaxant can touch, at least not without affecting my thinking patterns. In other words, if I want to type, I must either endure extreme pain or wander about the corridors of my mind aimlessly, Neither of which sound very appealing.

I have been dictating, as I am right now, but this is a new challenge because the mental process that I use to speak is noticeably different than the mental process that I use to type. It’s an odd situation, because I use both to produce written words, yet the end product from one process is noticeably different from the other. I don’t speak like I type, and because I type better than I speak, it has been a slow process of retraining my mind.

Additionally, Windows Speech Recognition doesn’t take kindly to partial phrases and afterthoughts. If I use shorter strings of words, speech recognition has less context that it can use to make sense of what I say. Therefore, I have to put together complete sentences a lot of the time. This isn’t how people around me normally speak, least of all someone like me. What’s worse, my sense of concentration drops quite a bit when I’m speaking. I don’t know what it may be called, but my lack of concentration when I'm trying to communicate is frustrating!

Unless I get some sort of adaptive equipment that allows me to type pain-free, I am going to have to continue this retraining of my mind. It feels a bit like learning a second language. Eventually, I will get better… At least I hope so. I’m going to continue to write, regardless, because writing allows me to express myself and speak what’s on my heart. Hopefully, the labor to express myself will get easier. Knows? Maybe this computer will eventually understand what I have to say and how I say it.

The other source of delay is my sporadic network connection. Wireless is so wonderful when you have it! Until I do, I have to blog offline and wait until I can connect to upload. Forgive me, but this may cause some "blog bursts" of two to five entries at once. Still, as always, I hope you enjoy it.

Tinkering Under the Hood of my Blog, Part 2

One other effort I've been working on is consolidating my other blog about Disability into my personal blog, WaldensWits. If you subscribe to my feed, you may get barraged with the results, or--I hope--you may just see this post. Anyway, I have stopped posting that separate blog because the title, "Disablogger" was a negative title, as if I was all about the loss of ability. I'm not. I am so much more than my disability!I consolidated the ones I deemed worthwhile and filed them under Living With A Disability and other applicable labels.

So, if you are besieged by posts, I'm sorry. I only expect it this one time. Keep reading, and I'll keep writing.

Tinkering Under the Hood of my Blog

Hey there, folks! Just me doing a little housekeeping at 2 in the morning. I'm doing some blog maintenance. For example, if you need to translate my page, have altavista do it for you if you want to read badly mangled English with no subtext and metaphor. I won't have it as a link on my page, however.

Recommended resources went away as no one buys books they see on blogs, at least not my readers. I'm also shaving down my labels to a small fraction of what I used to have. If you want to find something I don't hightlight there, use the search blank at the top! Yes, Google searches my Wits! To that end, I've revamped the labels into something more consistent with what I write about.

And now, I hope I can go to sleeeeep.

Twitty Observation

I'm a twit. My heart is a-twitter. There really is no good way to say that I'm tweeting lately. My latest tweet was actually quite good, but not fully developed. It should have said, "If I live by the pen, and the pen is mightier than the sword, then if those who live by the sword also die by the sword, then am I living dangerously?" Yikes! It's the attack of the aphorisms! Maybe I should wear my pithy helmet before I tweet.

I don't even know if the tweet has a logical conclusion. It's one of the dangers of twitter. You start off with the notion, develop the thought and by the time you've put half of it into the twitter box, it's a blinkin' blog post. One of my followers said it best when she said that to be a successful twitter-er, you have to be succinct, which--she says--she is not.

Ditto... I think.

Spam Changes Shape But Not Substance

I think as long as we have the internet, we will have some form of spam out there that drives us nuts. Have you ever run into blog spam? As the owner of a blog, I’ve run into comment spam, which is where a spammer leaves a comment on your blog that is completely unrelated to your post and advocates some action like clicking a link or visiting a site. Everyone knows about the other kind of spam that gets into your e-mail. I even know some who have tasted the original Spam meat product.

Blog spam is an odd little thing in that it just sits out there on a little-known website address, usually on a free blog site like blogger.com. It contains words and key phrases designed to trick Google and other search engines to direct you to their site. If you use Google Alerts, Google will let you know about this great new web site that just came out with the words you asked it to look for. Only when you get to the site do you realize that you’re a victim of blog spam.

Ironically, these blogs use Ads By Google and other pay-by-impression advertisements to boost their hit counts. That’s how they make their money. Marketing is a game of percentages. They know that if they can get even the slightest percentage of Google searches for a particular phrase, they will make money. It doesn’t matter to them what you’re looking for. If they can get you to their site, that’s all that matters.

The spammers who set this stuff up know that they are violating the terms of service agreement for the free blog. In most cases on Blogger, the spammer has removed the Nav Bar at the top that allows site visitors (also known as spam victims) to flag the blog for review by Blogger. There is a way around that of course, but it takes three or four clicks, some searching, some reading, and some typing to make it happen. Only people like me who have a little time and are committed to fighting spammers would go to the trouble it takes to report the abuse. For that small, hardy band of spam blammers ("blam" as in explosion), the steps to report a Blogger or BlogSpot spammer are at the end of this post.

This is going to become a bigger problem. I hate to sound so “positive,” but I’m pretty sure it’s going to happen. Although this can be stopped on so many levels from the search engine to the hosting site to the unfortunate victims, public outcry and frustration will have to rival the congressional brouhaha over e-mail spam a few years back in order to get the attention it needs. Until then, search engines will continue to get clogged with useless links, and people will get frustrated by irrelevant search results.

To report a Blogger spammer

1. Find the URL (the http://... in your address bar)
   
2. Highlight and copy the URL to the clipboard. It must have from the http to the .com part to give them a good URL
   
3. Visit this page to report a Blogger.com terms of service violation. This will only apply to bloggers who are on the blogger.com or blogspot.com domain.
4. Click the circle next to Spam (click here to learn what Blogger considers a spam blog)
5. Click Continue
6. In the form that comes up, paste the URL in the blank.
7. Click Submit.
   

'Puter Problems

I... have been battling... computer issues.

Ever since making an itty-bitty change to my hardware, my desktop has imploded. I can't keep it going for more than a few hours. After flashing its BIOS--not as dirty as it sounds--and re-installing drivers that must have fallen out of a cab somehow, I think--emphasis on the word think--I have it repaired.

This is of little consolation to my public. Both of them have been clamoring for more since last Friday and, alas and alack, it's nigh on to Thursday following.

Did I mention that working on my computer makes me a little punchy?

A little patience and I'll be back to my normal, fun-loving self.

Recommended Resources

I've been doing a little maintenance to my blog. I've learned that template tinkering is just something you do with your blog and that you never really finish making changes. Among other things, I've added a recommended resources section. Instead of accepting an advertiser who gets to pick what they want to put up in their spot on my blog, I decided to create a section of resources I felt were truly helpful to my family and me. These aren't just homeschooling resources, but we find a fit well into our homeschooling lifestyle.

Add to this the fact that if you buy through this blog by clicking on the link, I receive a small commission on the sale. I'm not even close to making serious money on this, nor do I expect this to turn into a business. It would simply be nice (and a little encouraging) to have some income from something I'm already doing anyway. Incidentally, if you don't buy what I recommend but still pick up something from Amazon, I still get the referral commission.

Most of my readers subscribe to my feed, so you won't see this unless you visit waldenswits.com. Drop on by and see what I've recommended!

Another Handy Google Tool

Hey there, folks! Just checking in on my blog. I have been working on some pieces, but they're not flowing out as easily as I'm used to. I'm beginning to wonder if they should even see light on my blog. Something to pray about anyway.

In the meantime, as everyone's turkeys are thawing in savory anticipation of this Thursday, I'd like to introduce a tool I just discovered today. Google Notebook seems to allow anyone with a Google account to copy snippets of text to a private data collection on the web. This is a big deal for researchers working from more than one computer. Instead of toting the data with you, why not simply log in and pull it down when you need it?

Why I Won't Post Poetry

I've had a long-standing rule on my blog. I will not post poetry. In a world with so much bad poetry and an abuser-friendly forum such as the blogosphere, there's no reason for me to subject myself to criticism (or praise) because there is certainly more than enough verse out there already to hurt your eyes with.

On the other hand, there's an exception to this rule, and good poetry shines so much more because of it. Kristina Campbell, who blogs under the name of Onfire, posted one such beauty recently. Now, beauty is somewhat subjective and depending on the reader, this poem either grabs you or it leaves you wondering. To me, there is nothing more beautiful than two old lovebirds sharing the flame of love they have kept alight since their youth together. That's what I want to be when I grow old.

Random Thoughts

Sorry I haven't been able to write much lately. Here's just a few of the things I've been thinking lately. Call them "mini-posts."

• My son is into zoology. His favorite channel is of course Animal Planet. In all the time he and I have been watching, I have yet to encounter an animal with the quality of laughter (hyenas don't count, unless they know some inside joke).
• A kitten is a cat before it learns dignity.
• Technology is only as useful as the next idea.
• That being said, I still want a laptop for my birthday. It could help me reach those next ideas.
  
• Children will never remember your annual salary. This is both a blessing and a curse.
• My grandfather's last career was insurance sales. He had trophies lining his shelves. They were up there, collecting dust for years as a shrine to his industry long after he was gone. I would trade the lot of them if I could have had one afternoon with him where I knew I could trust him not to get angry. I bet my father feels similarly.
• I'm going to hug each of my kids tomorrow.
• Lightning is cool, but I like the smell of the rain better.
• I wish my lower back pain wouldn't make me walk funny.
• If I had a remote beeper for locating the remote control, I'd probably lose that too. No one loses cell phones that easily because you can call them.
  
• No one understands that medicine is a developing science, especially no one in pharmaceutical marketing firms.
• Not bad for 20 minutes.
• Homeschooling parents who buy curricula in hopes of making up for some perceived deficiency in their teaching skills are like a bunch of balding men buying Ferraris. What you have is who you are inside, not the other way around.
  
• If Archie was smart, he'd ditch the snob and marry Betty Cooper. I mean, could it be more simple?
• Some of these mini-posts are good. Your experience may vary.
• A good Secretary of Defense would commission a weapon that would disable/destroy car subwoofers.
  
• I shouldn't write after midnight.
• I shouldn't eat after midnight either.
• Oh well.
• Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Nominated? Me?

Someone nominated me for the Best Dads Blog at the Homeschool Blog Awards. I really was surprised to find out about this. Whoever nominated me, thank you for the compliment!

Update 11:34 PM: One of the folks behind the Homeschool Blog Awards is dealing with a brain tumor. I'm not sure I could walk through this sort of challenge...certainly not without His hand.
HT: Spunky

K-R-A-F-T Mac and Cheese

Ugh. Some stomach bug has reared its ugly head, changing our diet to Sprite and crackers. Momma, Glasses (my 10 year-old daughter) and Sunshine (my 3 year-old daughter) and I are all in it to varying degrees. The weather is just as awful too. This makes my FMS act up. I get painful back spasms that cover large areas and make my gait and movements very awkward. The only one seemingly unaffected is Bubby (my son) who is about to turn 8. He has miserable company.

When I was a little older than him, my folks went on a trip to Israel. It was a great experience for them. Unfortunately, both my sisters came down with a stomach flu the day after my folks left and they had it about as bad as it gets. The whole house smelled awful too. I was untouched and I survived on macaroni and cheese.

Fast-forward to tonight and what did I grab while I was out at the store? You guessed it, K-R-A-F-T. This was frustrating to my wife, who says the kids like an organic brand we've tried. Oh well, guess all I'm eating is Kraft Mac & Cheese for a while. Funny, I thought I was making life easier by getting something easy to fix.

I've been working on a post for a while now. It's nearly finished. I wanted to do something that looked special and cool, but it looks like I'm just going to have to settle for Blogger-esque. Hang in there. That's what I'm doing anyway.

Feedburner

I'm happy to report that the problems with feedburner appear to be resolved. Those that have subscribed to the feed for Walden's Wits will likely not experience any more difficulty after today. You may notice that several posts "reiterate" themselves today due to some changes I'm making. I apologize for any inconvenience. It should be resolved shortly.