Recently in Meta-blogging Category

MT4 Tip

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So, since we switched over to Movable Type 4, several things about my own blog have annoyed me. One is that I could not figure out how to separate the "Lu" in Papa Lu from the "on" that follows it in the line just below the title. I even found the spot in the template where the code that produces this line resides and I still couldn't fix it after adding an empty space. Well, I just fixed it and am posting it here in case anybody else using MT4 has this problem:

After you log in to Movable type, go to the blog you wish to fix and click the "Design" button towards the top of the screen. When it loads, you'll see a box with a heading that says "Quickfilters." One of the links under there should be "Template Modules." Click this link and in the list that then appears click "Entry Metadata"

You will now be inside the template that produces that text. Find the line that begins with the word "By." It should read somewhat as follows:

By <address class="vcard author"><$MTEntryAuthorLink show h_card="1"$></address> on

You might think that all you need to do is add a space between the code that prints the name of the author of the post and the word "on." That's where I made my mistake trying to fix it the first time, but you'll notice there's already a space there. So I put a space in between each of the bracketed lines, so my template now looks like this:

By <address class="vcard author"> <$MTEntryAuthorLink show h_card="1"$> </address> on

I don't know exactly which of the two extra spaces fixed it, but it worked.

Yes, it's a small problem, but when I got my 20th email addressed to "PapaLuon," I decided enough was enough.

QUICK UPDATE: I don't know if this works the same for all styles, or not, but I think it should. In case it matters, I'm using "Minimalist Green." I imagine it would at least be the same for all "minimalist" styles.

UPDATE 2: ARGH! Figures! this is only an internet Explorer thing. All of you people who use real browsers (I only have IE at work) were probably wondering what the h I was talking about.
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Twitter

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So, um, you may have noticed the decrease in activity on this blog. I've started a Twitter account and a lot of my snark has migrated over there. (You can see my updates over at the top of the right sidebar or follow me here if you're on Twitter.)

Anyway, most people I mention Twitter to say something like, "Oh yeah, Twitter, I've heard of that. What exactly is it?" This NY Mag article is a pretty good look at just what the heck Twitter is.

The first day I was in the Twitter office, I sat in the corner, playing with my own Twitter page, taking notes (it feels somewhat silly to write in a notebook there), and waiting to talk to Williams. For lunch, executives, including Stone, hosted programmers in the lounge to talk about some sort of open-source mumbo jumbo I didn't understand. Their HD television was tuned to a still photo of a fireplace. They were wrapped up in the meeting. I attended to my computer.


And then I noticed something on Twitter Search. The first person was "manolantern," who, at 12:33 local time, posted, "I just watched a plane crash into the hudson rive (sic) in manhattan." After that, the updates were unceasing. Some fifteen minutes before the New York Times had a story on its website (and some fifteen hours before it had one in print), Twitter users who witnessed the crash of US Airways Flight 1549 were giving me updates in real time. One of them was a man named Janis Krums. Krums lives in Sarasota, Florida, and happened to be on a ferry navigating the Hudson when the plane hit the water. He immediately took a photo and posted it to TwitPic and sent a "tweet" with a link to the picture and "There's a plane in the Hudson. I'm on the ferry going to pick up the people. Crazy." He then, perhaps coming to his senses, began to help passengers off the plane. (He ended up giving his phone to one of them and didn't get it back until that night.)

Now think about that for a second. In the midst of chaos--a plane just crashed right in front of him!--Krums's first instinct was to take a picture and load it to the web. There was nothing capitalistic or altruistic about it. Something amazing happened, and without thinking, he sent it out to the world. And let's say he hadn't. Let's say he took this incredible photo--a photo any journalist would send to the Pulitzer board--and decided to sell it, said he was hanging onto it for the highest bidder. He would have been vilified by bloggers and Twitterers alike. His is a culture of sharing information. This is the culture Twitter is counting on. Whatever your thoughts on its ability to exist outside the collapsing economy or its inability (so far) to put a price tag on its services, that's a real thing. That's the instinct Stone was talking about. If the nation has tens of millions of people like Krums, that's a phenomenon. That's what Twitter is waiting for.

Of course, no one at Twitter noticed any of this going on. This is the New Communication. There was no screaming and running through a newsroom, dispatching any reporter in the vicinity to the scene. For an hour, the boring open-source meeting droned on. No one in the room knew a plane had crashed. The next day, Stone would tell me that the site didn't even get a traffic spike. "That's only for huge shared experiences, like the inauguration, or Mumbai." Twitter had unleashed something ... and its executives were completely unaware, as its system worked on its own, without them. That might be what the future holds for Twitter. Or it might not be. It all depends on whether you're willing to wait for something that might not come. It all depends on whether you're willing to believe.

Well, I can't say I "believe" in Twitter, but it's combination of immediacy and simplicity is compelling.

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Feeds

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After kvetching a while back, I forgot to mention that the new rss feeds for this blog are active. Here they are

http://papafamilias.stblogs.org/index.rdf
http://papafamilias.stblogs.org/atom.xml

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Feeds

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Soooo....

If you read this blog using rss feeds, the old feeds are no good anymore. I wil get you the new feed addresses as soon as I know they're working. I'm not sure how you will know this if you only use the feeds to know when i update, but, hey, that's life.

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New Look

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Obviously, this blog is undergoing changes. It will take a while, as I stubbornly prefer to figure out this stuff on my own (and since I don't quite have the same amount of free time as I did 4 years and three boys ago when I set most of this stuff up). But rest assured, what you see is not the finished product.

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Giving the People What they Want

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To whomever showed up looking for "why eomer screams":

Because he thinks his freakin' sister is dead!

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Busy

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3stooges.JPG

So um, like, yeah... I've been busy.

tbone.JPG

New baby, tax season, annual conference, side projects....

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I'm not sure when I'll be back to posting with any kind of regularity, or even if this blog has much of a future, but I'll be deciding that after tax season. Until then, check out an Iraqi nun making the case that the US needs to get out of Iraq.

toughguy.JPG

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An honor for me

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TS has spanned the globe, and yours truly was caught up in the whirlwind. Specifically, this post.

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My dark side

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Sometimes a certain kind of blogpost can make me remember how low an opinion I have of humanity (in practice, as opposed to as created and willed by God, of course).

I'm not saying I have a low opinion of the blogger, I'm saying see the comment at around 11:51:48.

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Surfacing Briefly

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Hey y'all!

I've been pretty busy for a couple of weeks. First I had an out of town conference, and then I was home for a couple of days before escaping for a quick mini-vacation. I'm back now, but strill incredibly busy at work and likely to remain so through, oh, approximately April 16th. I will continue to blog, but it will be even more sporadic than usual.

Check back tomorrow (or later in the week - I said it would be sporadic) for pictures from the impromptu jaunt to the woods.

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Del.icio.us users!

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You can now put me on your network. Here is the link.

I signed up mostly so I could put up a little widget over in the sidebar that lets me post links to recent articles. Now, instead of throwing bunches of links up very few days, I can post articles to del.icio.us pretty much as I read them and they will show up on under "MY BOOKMARKS" on the rfar right column. Pretty sweet, huh? I think so.

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On Blogging

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The Cub Reporter has an interesting meta-post up on the relationship between sports blogs and mainstream sports media.

This says it all:

...earlier this year one of The Cub Reporters sent out very cordial emails to a variety of “real” journalists asking their support in promoting the work done here [Papa-Lu sez: I mentioned this series here] by “Dying Cub Fan” arguing for Ron Santo’s selection to the Hall of Fame. The premise was that while the Veteran’s Committee casts the votes, pro-Santo publicity by the mainstream media could only be a positive influence on the VC’s decision. Some of the journalists sent courteous replies of varying degrees of interest. One “journalist,” however, responded with the terse rebuke that they knew of Santo’s credentials, and that it wasn’t up to the fans to decide.
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Commenting

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I have no idea why commenting is so difficult. Error messages keep popping up. stblogs just added an authentication system, so that should make things easier, but it hasn't happened. Sorry!

If you really have something you're itching to say, you can get a free typekey account (it would let you comment on any blog that uses typekey).

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Day of pride

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It's not every day when I can hold my head up high and proclaim myself the number one Internet authority on a subject.

Here is the "proof": I am Google's number one search result for gem clear 190 proof.

I'm not even in the top 100 if you use Yahoo, so I guess we know which search engine I'll be using from now on.

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New digs

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RC has moved us over to a new server and upgraded our version of Movable Type. For the past few months, I've been unable to edit my sidebars, so look for new links over on the right!

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Sucker

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Here's a tip to anybdy who wants something of me: just compliment my kids and you're in.

In that spirit, I direct you to Benedictxvithemagnificent.com, the site of a French artist who has portraits of the Holy Father for sale.

Speaking of my kids, expect to see an update of new pictures soon. Our digital camera was mislocated for a while, and we just found it last night.

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Utterly Bizaare Linkage

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The post two down from here, about the "new" Communion vessel rules, is drawing tons of hits from Bird Flu News site.

Apparently, that post makes this one of "The-Best-Bird-Flu-Blogs: The most Informative, interesting & controversial, Avian Flu, H5N1 Blogs."

Either there are not very many H5N1 blogs out there or perhaps BirdFluBreakingNews.com isn't the best source for all your bird-flu needs.

Not that I don't appreciate the traffic, I guess...

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Stirrings

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An old friend of this blog (well, actually of my old blog) has a couple of fresh posts up. Any of you fans of Dylan's fine blog should say hi to him if you can spare a moment.

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Nerdy Catholicism Makes a Comeback

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It seems there is some renewed interest in The Catholic Nerd Blog.

I put up a few posts earlier this year, and suddenly there are 20 or so new comments and a whole lotta new hits.

Jenny, Monika? Feel like posting?

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Happy Easter!

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Things have been busy here Chez-Lu. We had an excellent Triduum, even making it to the Vigil at our parish (my first Easter Vigil celebrated somewhere other than the place where I was Confirmed and received my first Communion).

Regular, blogging has been impossible and looks to be so for a little while, but just 'cuz I hate to show up empty-handed, here's a nice little blurb on Easter in Mongolia, where 70 new Catholics were baptized this Easter, bringing the Catholic community there up to a grand total of 370 members.

Not many diocese can say they grew by 23% in one year...

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This page is a archive of recent entries in the Meta-blogging category.

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