Blogger's Back - So is Most of This Blog

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Update (5/13/2011 6:15 p.m. Central/11:15 p.m. GMT/UTC)
This blog's two missing posts are back:

• "Crab Nebula Superflare: It's Not Supposed to Do That"
  (May 13, 2011 (original post: May 12, 2011)
• "Lemming Tracks: Rules Should Make Sense"
  (May 11, 2011)

The Lemming is relieved!

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First, the good news: The Lemming is now able to use Blogger's editing/posting service.

That's nice.

Now, the bad news: Wednesday's post is still missing. So is Thursday's.

That's frustrating: since the Lemming had opined about a (daft, in the Lemming's opinion) decision by school authorities (on Wednesday); and about the Crab Nebula (on Thursday).

Credit where credit is due, though: Blogger has acknowledged that there's something wrong - and been giving folks in the Lemming's position status reports.

Here's what Blogger has to say about the situation, in part:

"Friday, May 13, 2011

"Blogger is back now. We're still working on restoring some of the data. For more details, see this post: http://buzz.blogger.com/2011/05/blogger-is-back.html

"Posted by Chang at 10:32 PDT..."
(status.blogger.com)

That's good news, too, in a way :"still working on restoring some of the data." The Lemming hopes that the two missing posts from this blog is among the data they're working on restoring.

No rant, by the way: Blogger's system is big, complex - and SNAFUs happen.

Blogger's folks have a few words to say, themselves:

• "Blogger is back"
  Blogger Buzz (May 13, 2011)

The Blogger shutdown isn't exactly front-page-headline material, but it has made the news:

"Google's Blogger was recovering on Friday from an outage that knocked the popular service offline.

"A Google spokesman said at 12:30 pm (1630 GMT) that users had been unable to publish on Blogger for the past 19 hours.

" 'Recovery is underway and we expect things to be back to normal soon,' the Google spokesman told AFP in an email. 'We're very sorry for the inconvenience this is causing.'...

"...Visitors who attempted to access the site at blogger.com were met with the message: 'Blogger is unavailable right now. We apologize for this interruption in service.'...

"...Google was providing updates on Blogger's status at its official Twitter account, @Blogger, and on its status page at status.blogger.com."
(AFP)

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"Google got Blogger back online late this morning following a maintenance-related glitch that kept blogs dark for more than 20 hours.

" 'We're nearly back to normal -- you can publish again, and in the coming hours posts and comments that were temporarily removed should be restored,' Eddie Kessler, tech Lead/manager at Blogger, wrote in a post on the Blogger Buzz site at around 10:30 a.m. PT....

"...Here's what happened: during scheduled maintenance work Wednesday night, we experienced some data corruption that impacted Blogger's behavior. Since then, bloggers and readers may have experienced a variety of anomalies including intermittent outages, disappearing posts, and arriving at unintended blogs or error pages. A small subset of Blogger users (we estimate 0.16%) may have encountered additional problems specific to their accounts. Yesterday we returned Blogger to a pre-maintenance state and placed the service in read-only mode while we worked on restoring all content: that's why you haven't been able to publish. We rolled back to a version of Blogger as of Wednesday May 11th, so your posts since then were temporarily removed. Those are the posts that we're in the progress of restoring.'

"The publishing site has millions of active blogs, he said.

"Updated 10:59 a.m. PT to say Blogger is back up and provide more details."
(CNET)

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"If you’re one of the many people that uses Blogger, a free blogging service owned by Google, you may have noticed some issues with your blog lately – namely, that you can’t update it. Blogger users have been locked out of their blogs since Wednesday night when a behind-the-scenes maintenance update went wrong.

"Users were informed on Monday that there would be an outage on Wednesday at 10 p.m. PST for an hour-long maintenance update. However, at 11 p.m., Blogger wasn’t back up. Blogger users were unable to update their blogs, and haven’t been able to for about 36 hours. Site content has been put into read-only mode, which means visitors can still come to the blog and read posts, but bloggers just can’t add any new material.

"As if that wasn’t bad enough, any posts that were added after 7:37 a.m. PST on Wednesday have been removed. We’re not sure if the content is just missing temporarily, or if the content is gone forever. We’re hoping it’s not the latter....

"...Owned and operated by Google since 2003, Blogger is mostly used as a personal blog platform. However, Google uses it as its blogging platform for its Gmail and YouTube official blogs among others. This means that if any of these popular services have announced news in the last 36 hours or so, Google has been unable to blog about it."
(Geek.com) [emphasis mine]

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One of the reasons that the Lemming has used Blogger for years is that it's huge - and so is likely to get noticed by search engines. Think about it: If you were running a startup search site, would you take extra time to make sure that your bots paid attention to some blogging service run, say, out of someone's basement in central Minnesota?

Another reason the Lemming has used Blogger is that Google owns Blogger - and uses Blogger. The Lemming figures that the folks running Google aren't particularly daft, and will realized that it's in their own best interest to keep their blogging platform in working order.

Back to the news.

"Blogger is still down, after a routine maintenance update on Wednesday appears to have caused a major malfunction in the popular online publishing platform....

"...For blogophiles, this is a huge blow. No new postings from your favorite blogs, and no way to blog about the stress this is causing you....

"...By Friday morning, even viewing the blogs was shut down. For many people, reading the blogs they follow is as routine as watching the morning news, or drinking their morning coffee. How would your life be changed if these routine activities were suddenly taken away? No doubt, withdrawal would soon set in. If you are a blogger or blog reader, what are you doing today?"
(Gather.com)

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In my case, it's not quite as bad as Gather.com said. The Lemming's blogs are avaiable for reading. It was editing and posting that wouldn't work. Editing which included adding a URL that's missing from one of those also-missing posts.

Now, some blatant self-promotion. Blogs which you should be able to read. For the time being:


A Catholic Citizen in America


Through One Dad's Eye


Drifting at the Edge of Time and Space


Apathetic Lemming of the North

Now, one more bit of news, from yesterday:

"Google's Blogger service has been offline or unreliable for much of the day, with Blogger-hosted blogs changed to read-only mode, and posts and comments made after 7:37 a.m. PDT on May 11, 2011, removed....

"...Blogger had started rolling out its first major redesign in years in April. The team said in a tweet that the outage was not related to launching the new design."
(All Things Digital, CNET News)

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The Lemming sincerely hopes that the outage isn't related to the new design. If it is, Blogger is in for the sort of off-again-on-again sporadic service that was plaguing Twitter for a while. Neato-keen, spiffy, new bells and whistles are nice - but reliable performance is better. In the Lemming's opinion.

While blogger was offline, the Lemming took a sort of unplanned sabbatical from blogging, organized some data, worked on a little art, and relaxed.

Relaxing is good.

After Blogger, What?

The Lemming's been told that WordpPress is a nifty bit of software for bloggers. The Lemming's also been told how easy it is to work with WordPress code and tweak it. And how many delightful hours can be spent, tweaking WordPress software.

The Lemming has coded now and then - but the Lemming is one of those bloggers who prefers to do research and writing for blogs, not spend hours playing working with the software. That's one reason that the Lemming hasn't started using WordPress, or any other alternative to Blogger.

Another is the time it takes to set up something new.

The Lemming had quite a lot of time, yesterday, and today. Also a very real incentive to find a sort of backup for Blogger.

There's nothing ready for viewing, yet: but the Lemming is working toward having a sort of 'companion blog' for Apathetic Lemming of the North, and other blogs.

The Lemming has also started composing and saving blog posts before copying them into Blogger's service - in case this happens again.

Now, to see if this will get posted.

News and views:

• "Google's Blogger recovering from outage"
  AFP (May 13, 2011)
• "Google revives Blogger after outage"
  Elinor Mills, CNET News (May 13, 2011)
• "Blogger down for 36 hours but 'will be back to normal soon' "
  Jennifer Bergen, Geek.com (May 13, 2011)
• "Blogger Down for Second Consecutive Day"
  Gather (May 13, 2011)
• "Blogger goes down, taking 30 hours of posts with it"
  Liz Gannes, All Things Digital, CNET News (May 12, 2011)

Yet Another Random Twitter Poem

"Failures – Random Twitter Poem for June 9th"
Wanderer Thoughts Poetry (June 9, 2010)

"Failures

"Disheartening philosophy
"of misty sarcastic perseverance
"indefinable bittersweet ambition...."

This isn't a terribly long poem - Dragon Blogger, the author, collects words for these 'Random Twitter Poems" through Twitter. On June 9th, Twitter was unusually prone to produce 'over capacity' messages when folks tried posting 'Tweets.' Frustrating: and probably accounts for the relatively small number of words supplied.

About the poem itself: This isn't, I think, going to replace the sonnets of Shakespeare in English literature. On the other hand, I've had days when I felt like that - and I think Failures does a good job of expressing a particular sort of emotional response to - I won't use the word "failure," I'll say "setbacks."

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A tip of the hat to dragonblogger, on Twitter, for the heads-up on his poem.

Intellectual Property Rights: Yes, They Matter

"On the Media: Las Vegas Review-Journal bares its claws"
James Rainey, Entertainment, Los Angeles Times (June 9, 2010)

"The newspaper has filed lawsuits against more than 30 websites and blogs it says used its works without permission. So what is fair use?

"The newspaper people had me pretty much in their corner until they went after the cat people.

"Allegra and Emerson Wong have a website called City Felines Blog. A few months back, the cat people posted a story about the suffering of a bunch of birds that died in a fire at a wildlife sanctuary.

"That created a problem, not because cat people shouldn't write about birds, but because the story had been reported, edited and published originally not by the cat people but by the newspaper people, otherwise known as the staff of the Las Vegas Review-Journal...."

The Wongs - and something like three dozen other websites and blogs - are in trouble. The Wongs face a federal copyright infringement lawsuit. The Los Angeles Times column implies that the other three-dozen-or-so online publishers do, too.

The problem? They used Review-Journal stories without permission. And, again by implication, entire stories, not excerpts.

That, in my opinion, wasn't very smart.

Hypocritical? No: Critical

So, how can the Lemming be so high-and-mighty? This blog quotes other people's work all the time.

Make that parts of other people's work. With rare exceptions - like the recurring Disapproving Rabbits and Cute Overload micro-reviews - I quote excerpts of the posts and articles I discuss. I'm careful to establish who published what I'm reviewing, where they published it - with a link to the source - and when it was published (when I can determine that).

The photos? I've started copying the originals, storing copies on one of my domains, using my copy for the bandwidth-eating graphic displayed here - and making the image a clickable link back to my original source.

Here's an example, from one of this week's posts:


(from Whitney, via Disapproving Rabbits, used w/o permission)

That photo of a rabbit is a copy of the original, stored and accessed on my dime, with a link back to the Disapproving Rabbits post I found it on.

A distinction - and an important one - between what I do on this blog, and full-bore plagiarizing, is that these posts are micro-reviews. Emphasis on "reviews." I discuss what I found, say what I think of it, give a sample (or the whole thing, when the text is six words, as with that photo's post), and move on.

I get to write my commentary and criticism, like any other reviewer, the folks who created the content I review get free publicity, and I have - to the best of my knowledge - operated well within the "fair use" envelope of American law.

What's "Fair Use?" Good Question

Not that anybody really seems to know what is - and is not - "fair use."

Back to that Los Angeles Times column:

"...The rub has been where to draw the line to determine what, exactly, constitutes 'fair use.' Stacks of court cases suggest many factors must be weighed — the amount of material reused, the purpose of the reuse (commentary and criticism get wide latitude) and, especially, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled, the economic effect on the copyright holder...."

I'm concerned about the "economic effect" of the copyright holder, myself: since in addition to these micro-reviews, I create original content. Taking Disapproving Rabbits as an example, again: Anybody who sees one of my micro-reviews of a Disapproving Rabbits post and likes what he or she sees can click right out of this blog to Disapproving Rabbits. If they're smart, they'll go to Disapproving rabbits from that point on, to get that blog's daily update.

Which is fine by me. This blog is about 'interesting stuff' I find online, for the most part. Sometimes that's rabbits: most of the time it's not.

Good Guys, Bad Guys, and Everybody Else

I've got a fairly well-defined attitude about what is and isn't reasonable, when it comes to jumping on the throat of some slob who - - - No, I'm not going to finish that sentence. Scroll to the bottom of this post, for a link to a list of the Lemming's posts about intellectual property. Or, no: you choice.

My position is that:

• Some bloggers and webmasters rip off the intellectual property created by others.
  • They may or may not be aware that they're doing anything wrong.
  • There have been some - interesting - ideas about property and respect floating in the lagoon of American culture over the last few decades.
• Some 'proper, respectable,' old-media bosses have exaggerated ideas about how much control they have over what the common lot may do.
  • That's being polite about it.
• Most folks don't fit into either of those two categories.
  • At least, I hope not.

So, what can a simple blogger do? Here's the last excerpt from that Los Angeles Times column. If you're a blogger or run a website, I strongly recommend that you read the whole column.

"...Two Web journalists who Twittered me on Tuesday independently offered the same rule of thumb —- don't republish more than three paragraphs. Always name your source. Always link to the original...."

That's really close to the guidelines I use. Obviously, I don't stick strictly to the "three paragraphs" rule. Not when each paragraph is a short sentence. Or, in cases like this post, where the original is a column over a thousand words long: and I'm trying to give a hint as to how much ground it covers.

I'm strongly inclined to think that the last two points in that bit of advice are the most important:

• Always name your source
• Always link to the original

Partly because that's close to the rules of scholarship I learned:

• If you copy someone's work, and tell who you're copying from
  • That's scholarship
• If you copy someone's work, and claim you wrote it
  • That's plagiarism

My take on intellectual property rights:

• "Intellectual Property Rights"

Blog Comments Categorized: Encouragers to Aliens II - The Response

I did a micro-review of the first post Matthew Warner wrote on this topic Last Friday.

A few things, before this week's micro-review:

• Matthew Warner is Catholic
  • You Have been warned
• These posts on blog comments apply to just about any sort of blog
  • I think
• Despite that "Part 2 of 2" thing - he may come out with a part 3 (of 2??) next week

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"10 Types of Blog Comments: Part 2 of 2"
Matthew Warner blog, The National Catholic Register (June 2, 2010)

"Now for the exciting part-2 conclusion of last week's surprisingly controversial post: 10 types of blog comments (Part 1). Make sure you read Part 1 first to get caught up.

"I had a lot of excellent feedback on part 1, including some very funny comments. So, first of all, thank you for being such great contributors to the topic. We also had some suggestions/criticisms for a few 'types of commenters' that I missed.

"One suggestion was the 'Clown,' who just tries to be funny and sometimes randomly silly. But I think the 'Clown' comment can easily fit under either Contributor, Non-contributor, or Encourager. A Clown is just funny in the process…which is usually a bonus. There's also the 'Tome-ist,' as one creative commenter added. This is a commenter whose comment is so long it could be it's own book. I like that one...."

There's a recommended (specifically not 'set in stone') way to respond to the ten original types. I think Matthew Warner's giving good advice - but then, I agree with most of it. Like this:

"...9) Self-promoters - If a 'promotional' comment is something positive and has to do with the topic, I leave it and perhaps thank them for it. It adds value to the community and discussion. If it's obviously spam, I delete it. If it is promoting something that is dishonest or offensive, I delete that too. I often get people posting anti-catholic websites on my blog comments over on Fallible Blogma. If the link is to an honest site that just happens to disagree with the Catholic Church, I generally leave it as part of the discussion. If it is blatantly dishonest, I usually delete it. I have no obligation to help propagate dishonest lies...."

Which raises an interesting question - if there are "dishonest lies," are there honest lies?

Anyway: It's a pretty good post. Probably worth reading for entertainment value - and with take-in-or-leave-it advice.

Related post:

• "Blog Comments Categorized: Encouragers to Aliens"
  (May 28, 2010)

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A tip of the hat to MatthewWarner, on Twitter, for the heads-up on this post - and for writing the thing.

Blog Comments Categorized: Encouragers to Aliens

I'd better warn you: this post is just simply crawling with Catholic cooties. Don't worry: The Lemming has another post coming soon, that isn't.

You might (maybe) find something useful - or amusing - in this bestiary of blog commenter.

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"10 Types of Blog Comments: Part 1 of 2"
Matthew Warner blog, The National Catholic Register (May 26, 2010)

"Blog comments are like the graffiti of the untamed digital continent.

Some are helpful, like the spray paint on the fence that says “beware of dog.” Others are very impressive, like a beautiful mural. Some obviously took a lot of time and thought. Others are done passionately and quickly. Some are for self-promotion, like a gang sign. Others are done simply to exercise our power to do harm and cause suffering. Many are angry. And still others leave us scratching our heads.

"As bloggers and blog readers, it's helpful to distinguish between the different types. Blog comment sections can be very powerful places to get unique perspectives on an issue, share helpful information, build people up, engage in thoughtful discussion and contribute to the 'soul of the internet.' But far too often they turn into annoying and useless diatribes of self-congratulatory tit-for-tats anonymously pounded out from behind an impersonal keyboard and obscured by thousands of miles of virtual space. That's a waste of an opportunity...."

Matthew Warner is a Catholic, and that "soul of the Internet" phrase is a reference to something the Pope said (see "Giving the Internet a 'Soul?!' No, Really: This Makes Sense," A Catholic Citizen in America (May 8, 2010))

This week's post describes the sort of people you find, leaving comments on your blog. Next week, he'll suggest how to deal with them.

Here's his list, with a paraphrase of how he describes the types:

1. Encouragers
   • Leave simple, encouraging comments
2. Non-contributors
   • Like the encourager, except without encouragement
3. Contributors
   • They write something that makes sense - in the context of the post
4. Destitutes
   • "They just want somebody to talk to."
5. Slackers
   • They didn't read the post, but they've got an opinion
6. Brawlers
   • They like to argue
     • Not learn
7. Angries
   • They're angry
     • And it's somebody's fault
8. Posers
   • They say they don't care - but took time to comment anyway
   • "Their comment basically says 'I don't care about this, but I still took the time to comment and tell you. That's how much I really don't care about this. And now I'm going to get really defensive about something you said-but I really couldn't care less about it.' "
9. Self-promoters
   • Spammers
   • Link-baiters
   • Honest people who want to promote something
10. Aliens
    • Don't make any sense at all
    • From another planet, maybe?

The first comment on that post added two more types:

"Posted by Barbara Garro on Wednesday, May 26, 2010 2:25 PM (EST):
"Here are two more:
"Diarists—those people who tell you they are tired, just got up, have a cold and other information no one needs to know.
"Political Activists—they come with their needle stuck in their cause and post and post and post, sometimes many times a day."

Bottom line? If you blog, odds are that you've gotten comments - and I think you'll find at least a few of these types familiar. I think Matthew Warner did a good job of describing the sorts of commenters bloggers get - with a bit of humor.

What I'm looking forward to is next week's post, when he says how to deal with them. I've read some of his work: so I'm pretty sure that he won't recommend boiling oil and pitchforks.

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A tip of the hat to newadvent, on Twitter, for the heads-up on this post.

And, thanks to MatthewWarner, also on Twitter, for writing the post in the first place.

"Eating Binge" - Yet Another Random Twitter Poem

"Eating Binge - Random Twitter Poem for Feb 9"
Wanderer Thoughts Poetry (February 9, 2010)

"...Eating Binge

"Unlimited tempered hunger wounds
"seeking to behead your appetite...

"...or the warble of a theremin sounding
"eating binge is finally satisfied"

It's another poem by Dragon Blogger - and a pretty good one. I've micro-reviewed several of these, I see. The poems are "random" in the sense that Dragon Blogger asks for words from folks on Twitter - and, when he's gotten a selection, writes a bit of verse around them. Sometimes getting pretty good insights into the human condition in the process. My opinion.

And, in this case, a shout-out for the theremin.

You just don't hear much about theremins these days.

Related posts:

• " 'Lucky Numbers' - Another Random Poem"
  (February 2, 2010)
• "250th 'Random Twitter Poem' "
  (December 2, 2009)
• "Another 'Random' Poem"
  (October 27, 2009)
• "13 - or is it 11? - 'Random' Words Inspire a Poem"
  (October 16, 2009)
• "And Now, for Something Completely Different: a Strange Poem"
  (July 27, 2009)

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A tip of the hat to dragonblogger, on Twitter, for this 'random poem'.

Prison Time if Your Blog Makes Somebody Feel Bad? I'm Not Making This Up

"Prison Awaiting Hostile Bloggers"
Threat Level / Privacy, Crime, and Security Online op ed, Wired (May 5, 2009)

"Proposed congressional legislation would demand up to two years in prison for those whose electronic speech is meant to 'coerce, intimidate, harass, or cause substantial emotional distress to a person.'

"Instead of prison, perhaps we should say gulag.

"The proposal by Rep. Linda Sanchez, D-Los Angeles, would never pass First Amendment muster, unless the U.S. Constitution was altered without us knowing. So Sanchez, and the 14 other lawmakers who signed on to the proposal, are grandstanding to show the public they care about children and are opposed to cyberbullying.

"The meaasure, H.R. 1966, is labeled the Megan Meier Cyberbullying Prevention Act. It's designed to target the behavior that led to last year's suicide of the 13-year-old Meier....

My take on this is that H.R. 1966 could be a well-intentioned bit of legislation - and a potential threat to free speech.

I know about Megan Meier. What happened to her is very sad:

• "'MySpace Suicide' Prosecution, Law, and the Web: Be Careful What You Ask For"
  (May 16, 2008)
• "'MySpace Suicide,' Cyberbullying, and the Law"
  (May 16, 2008)
• "Missouri Mom Indicted in Megan Meier's Death"
  (May 15, 2008)
• "How to Read the News: Or, Missouri Teen Suicide, Lori Drew, and Victims"
  (December 7, 2007)
• "Megan Meier's Tormentor: Knowledge is Power"
  (December 6, 2007)
• "Megan Meier's Online Predator Has New Problems"
  (December 6, 2007)
• " 'Murder?' Not Legally, but Megan's Still Dead"
  (December 4, 2007)
• "Ersatz Boyfriend Kills With MySpace"
  (November 13, 2007)

But, I think that anyone who's been even moderately active in online communities knows that there are people who are very good at being offended. As an active blogger, I don't want to face prison time because someone, among Earth's billions, (1) Read my blog; (2) Felt bad after that, and (3) Blames me.

Ridiculous? I'd like to think so, but I live in a country where this sort of warning label is fairly common:

(More, on my opinion of being 'protected,' at "Wacky Warning Labels: Off-Road Commode Wins This Year" (April 29, 2009).)

Never mind how good H.R. 1966 may make legislators and their constituents feel: Americans live in a country where manufacturers have to warn consumers that a jar of peanuts contains peanuts: or face ruinous lawsuits.

Make it illegal to make someone feel bad, with "intent" or not, and I think there's reason for concern. Except for the hypersensitive and their lawyers, of course.

"Get Off My Thread" - Discussion Threads, Ownership,and Netiquette

"Ownership of/Responsibility for Threads"
BlogCatalog discussion thread (started July 16, 2008)

"This morning I saw a comment from someone who said that he 'loved when someone started a thread and then left'. I've heard comments like that before and seen posters start threads and take care to note that they won't be back for a while. The flipside of this is the large number of people who seem to feel that they have some ownership rights in their threads, telling others how to respond and even 'get out of my thread' or 'start your own' or some such.

"I'll admit that I'm pretty old and not all that up on netiquette, but I can't quite get my mind around the idea that someone either has any rights in a thread on a public forum by virtue of having been the first one to comment on a topic or takes on any kind of management responsibilities by having done so. Am I missing something?"

I've got my own opinion - which I posted on the thread - and there are quite a few others.

I'd say that this was a good discussion about part of the evolving online culture.

A Media Executive's Personal Blog

"Kevin D Goodman "

"Personal weblog for Executive Creative Director of Sundown Media Concepts ------------------- NO HOLDS BARRED"

(from Kevin D. Goodman, used w/o permission)
"Arms" Kevin D Goodman

This blog is a pretty good place to go, if you want an inside look at a small business (small, as in not as big as Microsoft or Sony, with a very very hands-on executive).

Kevin D. Goodman has been updating every few days to a week or so lately, so you'll have a chance to see how the business - and his view of it - is evolving.

My favorite post to date is "Fictitious Planning. " (June 17, 2008). The blogger is getting some academic work done, including "... a fictitious marketing plan, based on a fictitious business plan, all evolving around hypothetical situations.... One thought in particular stood out in this post: "This project has reminded me that as we become embroiled in details we should occasionally refresh, step back, examine the larger picture, and reconsider different strategies."

Mr Goodman's got more material, on squidoo:

• "Publicity stunts 101"
  Pretty good summary/introduction to the topic
  (an irrelevant aside: I remember how Pat Paulson (who?) got national attention as an unsuccessful waterwalking swami)
• "and How to Distribute a Press Release"
  Also a pretty good summary/introduction to the topic

Both of these squidoo pages are well-organized, have relevant links, and show signs of being written in a hurry - I noticed typos, on a fast read. Still, I think these are pretty good resources.

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Update (July 7, 2008)
A new URL for the Sundown company:
Sundown Media Concepts LLC - http://sdmc.info

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"Me, Too!

I've got a personal-view blog, too: "Starting a Small Business Without Losing My Mind" ("The continuing adventure of publishing online. Or, starting a business in a new market, with new technologies and no tried and true business models. Or, what to do with a miscellaneous resume. Or, getting laid off for fun and profit.")

There are quite a few differences between my blog and Mr. Goodman's.

• He updates his blog more often than I do
• Although we've got about the same amount of hair, his is mostly on the top of his head - mine is mostly on the bottom half

China, Egypt, Iran Lead World in Blogger Arrests

Have you ever thought that there should be a law against criticizing your favorite ideas or people? Places like Canada, America, and England now have 'hate speech' laws that, rightly or wrongly, make it illegal to express unsanctioned ideas.

The leadership in some countries goes a few steps further, making headlines like this possible:

"Blogger arrests hit record high"
BBC (June 16, 2008)

"More bloggers than ever face arrest for exposing human rights abuses or criticising governments, says a report.

"Since 2003, 64 people have been arrested for publishing their views on a blog, says the University of Washington annual report.

"In 2007 three times as many people were arrested for blogging about political issues than in 2006, it revealed.

"More than half of all the arrests since 2003 have been made in China, Egypt and Iran, said the report."

Having lived and been educated in America, I realize that "hate speech" is one thing, and the right to criticize the government is another. And, that "human rights abuses" can be a very serious thing indeed.

So, two points:

1. If you're one of the bloggers who risk genuinely harsh treatment from your government, if you express the 'wrong' ideas, my hat's off to you
2. If you live in a country with fewer restrictions, be careful what you wish for: that 'protective' restriction on expression might not be as good an idea as it seems

Four Good Reasons for Linking to your Sources

"Do You Link to Your Sources?"
MarkStoneman on BlogCatalog (May 19, 2008)

"Too often I come across an interesting piece of information on a blog that does not contain links to the author’s sources. That’s too bad. All I can do at that point is shrug my shoulders and wonder if the story is true. Then I’ll probably close that browser tab and go somewhere else, ..."

He points out that some blogs don't need to link to sources: but for everyone else, this is a good, concise, discussion of why you should link to your sources.

"How is Bradley" - the Only Blog I've Seen With a Moodometer

"How is Bradley"
a blog

The blogger ought to know that answer to that question: He's Bradley.

"Just a guy sharing the wacky world of bipolar disorder, the humbling experience of getting in shape and some random thoughts sprinkled in."

The most recent three posts are:

• "For Mom"
• "I'll Have a Beer To Wash Down My Prozac, Please"
• "Where Do I Go From Here?"

The most recent post is a touching Mother's Day tribute - and one that's a bit off the 50th percentile. It starts:

"It wasn't easy growing up in my household. I don't remember my dad at home much and moms moods were unpredictable.

I'm not sure what was wrong with Mom mentally, but I know she was frequently depressed. Sometimes she'd lock herself in her bedroom for a week at a time. ..."

A Blog About a Webcam: What Next?

"Keeping an Eye on Ash Street"
Small Town America: Minnesota (May 2, 2008)

"From the heart of darkest Minnesota: my view of small town America.
"And, the first view-on-the-street webcam in Sauk Centre, Minnesota.
"At the corner of Ash and South 9th in Sauk Centre, sometimes this webcam catches more than two cars at a time!"

I created this blog today (May 2, 2008), to give people who visit the webcam a chance to make comments. Creating a blog like this seemed easier than setting up another commenting service.

Chosing Your Niche in the Blogosphere - Some Ideas

"How to Choose a Niche Topic for Your Blog"
ProBlogger (April 26, 2008)

"@jonathanguinn asks: 'I am new to internet marketing and am struggling to find my niche. Maybe some pointers about that would be helpful.'

"There are many factors to consider when choosing a niche. I've written about many of them in this post - but for me a lot of it comes back to choosing something that you know about, that you feel you can say something useful and interesting on - ie what are YOU about?....."

Pretty good advice.

An Avatar is not the Real Person, and other Observations from the Blogosphere

Once in a while, I run into a rich node of good sense. It happened again this morning.

"I have learned that an avatar is not the real person and that blogging is not a 'who can outblog who' contest. While recognition is nice, I am ultimately choosing to have my '15 minutes of fame' allotted elsewhere; perhaps in a way less self-serving. I have learned that I need to blog responsibly and that words have the ability to inflict a lot of damage; especially to our young people and to those who could possibly be 'on the edge'. I believe that I can do it without compromising my core self.

"I have learned that 'draft' is not a bad place for hot posts to cool off before making them 'go live' (or not). I have learned not to post anything that I wouldn’t say to a person's face, and if I happen to get 'called on it', it's 'my bad' for having posted it. And, I have learned just how big the world is, and that to step outside of my own sometimes, can be a very good thing.- Nards"

a comment by nardeeisms, in "What Have You Learned from Blogging so far?" (BlogCatalog discussion thread (started April 30, 2008)).

A Crafter's Blog: Experiencs and Resouces

"My @Ventures..."

"This is where I put my craft accomplishments: felt and crochets, and everything else.

"Disinilah kutempatkan kreasiku dari kain Flanel, dan semua yang lain-lain." (Indonesian: repeats the English "This is where" statement. Thanks to Melisa Sriwulandari, the blog's author, for letting me know.)

Here are some excerpts:

• "Here it is, my first attempt at crocheting with plastic bag yarn. Turns out my yarn was too short though, so it's a three-quarter coaster. Why? Because I don't have the same kind of plastic bag anymore."
• "This is such a wonderful thing to found out that I have to share it with you. I found this link from hooksandneedles who found gooseflesh from crochetme."
• "This is another question mark. Did I do it right? How am I supposed to single crochet around for the border? It looks like a rotten heart."
• "They paved paradise and put up a parkin' lot
  With a pink hotel, a boutique, and a swingin' hot spot
  Don't it always seem to go
  That you don't know what you got till it's gone
  They paved paradise and put up a parkin' lot"
  (I haven't heard these lyrics for a long time - that was a pleasant trip down memory lane)
• "What We Can Do To Save Our Earth
  "I've been thinking about the Story of Stuff these few days, and this is what I came up with: "
  1. Buy basic necessities only
  2. Buy natural stuff (not manufactured with toxins)
  3. Buy things only when your old ones are totally unusable already, like your shoes, bags, other wearables.
  4. ....
  "

Looks like a pretty good blog: a journal of someone who is working with crafts.

Posts frequently include photos.

Bloggers Blogging about Blogs

"Define you blog....?"
BlogCatalog discussion thread, started April 12, 2008)

So far, seven bloggers (including myself) replied.

I used two of their comments to get caught up from yesterday's lackadaisical lack of posts.

BlogCatalog is quite an online community: bloggers blogging about blogs, blogging, and how bloggers blog - you get the idea.

Blogs from All Over

"Describe yourself and your blog with one word!! Don't forget to put the URL's blog"
BlogCatalog discussion thread, started March 27, 2008

The first one-word-description+URL was made by the same person who started the string:

"It's difficult.... Let me try
Technology =D
pchaus.blogspot.com/"

The blogs listed have no nifying theme, except that the are all (I think) in English, and that the bloggers are in the BlogCatalog online community.

I picked these samples, simply because they sounded cool. I have no idea what the blogs are like.

Recent ones include:

"jjwright85
unimaginable
It puts the A in Amazing ----> lifeofjustin.com
lol"

"SolReka
FREEDOM
www.solreka.com/blog"

"JoyChaser
Steampunk.
gloria-fidelis.lunaticpress.net"

On the way, there's

"nardeeisms
Real
www.nardeeisms.blogspot.com"

"ThriftShopRomantic
ThriftShopRomantic Offbeat
thriftshopromantic.blogspot.com
cabbages-n-kings.blogspot.com"

"Donlewis
Broccoli
humorium.blogspot.com"

"Knibalism
Techno
knibalism.blogspot.com"

"daniel23
Syndicalist
strength-freedom.blogspot.com"

Who is This Guy? and What's He Doing?

I tweaked this blog's header today, but didn't have the heart to throw out some of the text. So:

• Who am I?
  A blogger whose home state is north of the flyover states, and whose state of mind is far from the coastal trade routes
• What am I doing here?
  Taking a look at blogs, the blogosphere, other blogish matters and anything else on the Web, with micro-reviews, observations and opinions.

There's more to me than that, of course: That's me, in relation to this blog.

Blogs and the Blogosphere: and the One Thousandth Post on "Apathetic Lemming of the North"

This is my thousandth blog post on "Apathetic Lemming of the North: A good enough reason to put several links about the Internet and the blogosphere in one post.

I'd hoped to find some up-to-date information about how many blogs there are now, but what I found was a information that's a few years old. Either people have stopped trying to keep track of the blogosphere's population, or this isn't one of my better days: maybe both.

Here's what I found:

---

"Yahoo cites huge potential online ad market in declining Microsoft’s bid" InternetRetailer.com (February 19, 2008)

It looks like there are one billion (American definition: 1,000,000,000) people using the Internet these days. That's a lot of people.

---

"Measuring the Impact of Blogs Requires More Than Counting" Wall Street Journal (May 26, 2005)

There were tens of millions of blogs in 2005: about 3.5 million of which were active; with between 350,000 and 900,000 posts per day.