Monday: Finally, I Can - Relax?

If you follow me on Google+, 'never mind.' I posted most of this on G+ a little earlier today. (May 6, 2031)

Last week wasn't hectic for me, but not dull either. I was catching up on sleep lost to a 'need it fifteen minutes ago' task when my wife reminded me that we were going out of state for the weekend.

No problem: I wrap up Friday and Sunday's posts, schedule them to show up at the right time, and drive to North Dakota. While there, I enjoy time with #2 daughter and daughter-in-law, and start catching up on the previous weekend's sleep: plus what I'd borrowed for the current weekend.

Surprisingly, the cold I'd been dodging didn't catch up with me until today. It must have gotten winded in the process, because it's a puny thing.

For most folks with 9-to-5 jobs, Monday is when they trudge back to the cubicle for another five days of toil. For me, it's the day when I get to relax: except for a Knights of Columbus bulletin that I would have been finishing on the weekend, if I'd been in Minnesota; and the next set of posts; and - - - at least my life's not boring.

Not-completely-unrelated posts:

• "Sin, Outrage, and Making Sense"
  (May 5, 2013)
• "Prayer! Meditation! Science!"
  (May 3, 2013)
• "Antigravity Experiments, Quantum Entanglement, and Making Kidneys"
  (May 3, 2013)
• "New Glasses: For Me, a Big Deal"
  (May 2, 2013)
• "Looking Like Santa"
  (April 30, 2013)

The Case of the Incredible Jumping Posts

I've been annoyed recently by the way my posts behave. I'd load one, to see if I'd already said something, or check on what I had said. Or fix a typo.

The page with the post would load fine, except that it would jump down to around where the comments were. More or less. The post was there: but I had to scroll up to see it.

Annoying. And frustrating. Also a time-waster. It doesn't take long to scroll back to where a post starts: but it does take a little time, and that adds up after a while.

I looked in the HTML tags I'd put in the posts, to make lists or links: and they seemed okay. Nothing unusual, nothing wrong with the tags.

My son suggested that it might have something to do with the way my browser used cookies. Sure enough: the posts displayed fine in Chrome. So I tried dumping my FireFox browser's cookies. That sounds disgusting, by the way. Anyway, the posts still jumped.

Frustrating.

Then I noticed that the incredible jumping posts all had comments. Aha! That gave me something more to look for. I finally found this in a Blogger help forum:

• "Blank White Screen on certain posts in IE"
  Help forum, Blogger Help (January 13, 2012)

I don't use IE (Internet Explorer), except every few years when I have to deal with some company whose online presence won't work with anything except Internet Explorer. It's interesting, though, that an IE glitch showed up about the same time that my FireFox browser got the jumps.

The two issues could be related:

"...5) Description of the problem: The homepage loads fine, but when clicking on any article that contains comments with IE, the page loads completely, then goes to a blank white screen or it freezes completely. Posts with no comments load fine, so this problem is definitely comment related, and just started as the new threaded comments came out....

"...There is also a problem with Firefox 9.0.1 related to comments. When clicking on any post that has comments, the page auto-scrolls down to the comments instead of loading at the top of the page, or at the read more jump. Pages without comments load fine...."
("Blank White Screen on certain posts in IE")

There's more, including a way to fix the FireFox comment issue by changing about 14 lines of code in each blog's template. I am definitely not going to try doing that.

This, I will try:

"...We've raised this with Google Engineering. Until it is fixed I would suggest settings your comments to either Full-Screen or Pop up rather than Embed...."
("Blank White Screen on certain posts in IE")

It's simple, easily reversible, and may not annoy too many folks. Including me.

Now, to see if changing the comment settings works.

If this is something I have to do individually for each blog, I'll concentrate on my more-active blogs:

• A Catholic Citizen in America
• Apathetic Lemming of the North
• Starting a Small Business Without Losing My Mind

And, yes: That's an example of unabashed self-promotion.

My Son, the Techie

My son set up and launched his website yesterday evening. 'First' website, I suspect. It's still a work in process, but what I've seen looks good. Granted, I'm biased.

Today he's tweaking the WordPress-powered blog on the website. I told him that I'd be using him as a technical consultant when/if I start hosting my blogs myself - which I might, although Blogger's served me very well.

And you can't beat the price.

In other developments, the flooring project is in process again this morning - and still going well.

I located the stove - also the washer and dryer. They're in an arc, starting west and a little south of my desk, mostly in the west part of the north room. Happily, it's a big room: although with the movable contents of the kitchen and laundry room in here, it doesn't feel like it so much.

A New Wrinkle: Comment Moderation on This Blog

A few minutes ago, I reached my limit for Chinese-language spam.

Or spam of any sort, for that matter.

As of now, this blog's comments will be delayed for moderation. It's a hassle for me: but it'll also mean that you won't be seeing advertising for obscene and dubiously-legal goods and services.

Thursday: One More Day and It's the Weekend

Another day's done.

My wife, #3 daughter and son went to Soo Bahk Do class tonight and got a thorough workout. Someday I ought to get involved in that again.

My day was mostly writing posts - including one for Narcissus-X that's more the result of desperation than inspiration on my part: "Narcissus-X Contemplates the Viscous Chartreuse Torrent." My schedule says that there's a Narcissus-X post due today - and there's some small virtue to sticking to a schedule.

If nothing else, I figure it's keeping my creative muscles limber. Although, judging from today's results, a re-evaluation of that assumption may be called for.

It's getting late, I'm tired.

Goodnight, and may God bless.

Same Blog, New Look

Yes, this is "Through One Dad's Eye," my personal blog.

No, it doesn't look the way it did yesterday.

I've changed the look of "Through One Dad's Eye," to make my life a little easier - and maybe yours, too, when you visit this blog. It should load faster, and have fewer things to go wrong.

The old template looked fine: but it was starting to look, old fashioned. To me, anyway.

Brian H. Gill
Sauk Centre, Minnesota
"in the heart of darkest Minnesota"

So Much For Relaxing

Ha! That "relaxing for the rest of the evening" turned into a post about Halloween rants. ("Halloween's Coming: Why aren't I Ranting?" (A Catholic Citizen in America (October 29, 2009)).

What can I say? I noticed that part of my mind was starting on a topical post, and decided to give more attention to the project.

Working With My Son-in-Law, Catching Up on Writing, and - Good Grief! Half an Hour to Finish Another Task!

Earlier this evening, I spent a moderately-productive hour with my son-in-law, trying to work around a software purchase issue he had. His part of the Red River Valley of the North is getting snow, and his Internet connection is down. We think he'll be up and running - when he can get back online.

I don't mind spending the time: it was worth a try, and I learned a bit in the process. And, my son and I will catch up on reading Garfield tomorrow, I trust.

I've been catching up on one of my blogs (Apathetic Lemming of the North): not caught up, but making progress. At this I'll be up to quota by the end of the weekend.

The local Knights of Columbus bulletin needs a 'special issue' (actually, the November issue, mailed about two weeks early) - which will keep me occupied Friday, at least.

Apart from that, I've got a mess of photos I took while we were in northern Illinois to sort through.

And, I realize, about a half hour left to do today's entry of the Sauk Centre Journal.

Saturday: The Family Easter Get-Together

I think at least one of us went over to my father-in-law's to rest, but at one point around 18 people were here, including the 5/6 of my family who are in Minnesota.

It's the Easter get-together: this time we're hosting it. And, I think it's going quite well. Some of the younger kids are outside, playing in a sandbox, others are inside, #3 daughter and a niece are probably deep in conference, and just about everyone else is in the living room, talking and catching up.

I'm here at the computer by the north window, and one of my brothers-in-law is set up a bit south and east of me. I'm getting the day's writing done, and he's working on a Master of Science degree in Information Technology.

He's been working in the field for years - but this will give him the sort of academic certification that impresses companies. He says he's learning something, too. He's doing the coursework and 'attending' lectures online, though a Minnesota college. He said what it was, but I can't remember the name offhand.

Yesterday I started wearing flip-flops - a sort of informal milestone marking the beginning of my summer.

The hummingbird feeder is still inside, but I'll be setting it out sometime in the next couple of weeks, for the benefit of early arrivals. We had a pretty good clientele last year, and I'm hoping for another good season.

Whizz! That Was Wednesday and Thursday Going Past

I could blame it on the Ash Street Project.

It's been active in front of the house. This morning, a crew put in our new sidewalk. My son and I spent a good part of an hour watching that. And, in my case, taking pictures.

Maybe it's my diabetes.

That's not too realistic. Not all that much has changed recently: Although I'll know more, when results come back from today's tests.

My guess is that I'm distracted.

And, not all that well organized. "It could be worse" applies here, but my planning and organization skills could be better, too.

The point is, I'm back - and intend to get another post out 'soon.' However much time that is.

In case I'm not back today, have a nice weekend!

Hoo Boy, That Was Embarrassing

A recent post in this blog, "Minnesota Travel Blogs: a Commercial Venture," was supposed to be posted in the "Apathetic Lemming of the North" blog, where it is now.

You won't find that irrelevant post here anymore, by the way. I deleted it after copying the thing over to the blog where it belonged.

Now, to write something that does belong here.

Sorry about that!

This blog was unavailable for at least an hour this morning.

Since you're reading this, you've come back to try accessing it again: thank you for your patience!

Google seems to have been doing some maintenance: and about time! My service has been a bit 'iffy' for some time.

I'll be back with a 'real' post as soon as I can.

Through One Dad's Eye in the Big Blogosphere?

Maybe not, but I finally got around to creating a Technorati Profile. Technorati.com looks like a pretty good service for finding interesting and/or useful blogs.

Also, I'm going to see if Technorati can help more folks find this blog. We'll see how it goes.

Son of Blogkeeping

Aha! I think I unintentionally disabled the ability to comment on this blog.

I also think that I've fixed the problem (oops: resolved the issue), but I've been wrong before.

Blogkeeping

This post is a test of some changes I've made in this blog's settings. I'm still learning how this system works, and trial-and-error testing seems to be the best way to get familiarized.