Individual Liberty — Individual Responsibility 

This is why I blog

I love a good debate.

Generally verbal political discussions have a tendency to turn into shouting matches when two people are on opposite ends of the ideological spectrum and discussing issues they're passionate about. That's not a good debate.

Today I had one of the best exchanges with a reader to my blog that I've ever had. I doubt very much that I convinced her to take my point of view. In fact I'm pretty sure I didn't. Hopefully I made her think about the things she believes. I know I had to think a bit to give decent responses to her arguments.

It was obvious from her responses that Sheila is an ideological liberal. It also became obvious fairly quickly that nothing I had to say would sway her. The fun in the conversation though was having the opportunity to explore some of the issues in more depth than I did in the original post.

I've had very few discussions like this one on this blog, or on any other blog. Most of the time I feel like bloggers are really preaching to the choir. We generally have a tendency to read blogs that conform to our ideological viewpoint and we comment on the posts we tend to agree with.

At times like that, blogging gets to be a bit of a drag. Sometimes it seems that we're all saying the same thing, or variations on the same tune. Sometimes it seems like we're all trying to be the one that makes the same point in the "best" way, or to come up with the most profound insight into an issue.

That's not why I blog.

I blog because I want to have a discussion with my readers. I might choose a deliberately provocative approach to something I have to say about the news, but ultimately the goal is to have an open discussion. When a reader feels passionately enough about something I write to argue with me about it, I've achieved my first goal in blogging.

I'm happy when I get a chance to learn new things while I'm blogging or reading other people's blogs. Sometimes I learn more detail about why things are the way they are, as when Lemuel Calhoon and I had a discussion about the concept of "anchor babies" and the 14th amendment over on his blog. I learned a lot then, and I'm sure it will help me to debate the topic more effectively the next time I have a discussion.

I'm also happy when someone can convince me to change my view about events. The recent flap over the Christmas trees at Sea-Tac airport comes to mind. When I first read the news about that incident, I wasn't inclined to look very kindly on Rabbi Bogomilsky. Angel and Michael Medved convinced me that I was wrong.

That's why I blog.

I've been thinking about new features to work on for the blog. I've written about a few that I have planned, and I intend to implement all of them someday. The nice thing about working on the software for this blog as a hobby though, is there aren't any deadlines, and no customers to disappoint if I don't implement them all right away.

Still, I've announced the plans, and I will follow through on them.

Having said that though, I like to work on the fun stuff from time to time. So I've come up with a new feature that I'll be implementing as soon as I've got it designed.

The new feature is inspired by the GOP Bloggers straw poll that some of you commented on when I embedded it into one of my recent posts. I'm going to create a survey engine that can be used to conduct online polls and to take reader surveys. I don't know whether the idea will take off or not, but I've got a fairly decent idea of how I want to do it, and some of the questions I'd like to ask.

I've also thought about implementing a post rating widget. I think it would be interesting to see how my readers rate my posts, and why.

This is your open trackbacks post for Tuesday, February 20, 2007.

If you have something interesting you'd like to share, feel free to link it here and leave a trackback.

Just remember the trackback policy.

For the best exposure, go to the blogger's oasis and use the linkfest chooser to choose the posts you'd like to hook up with.

One more try for Snap Preview Anywhere

Some new options are available for Snap Preview Anywhere that made me decide to give it another try.

• First, there's an option to use a little preview icon instead of the entire link to trigger the preview. That doesn't get in the way of clicking on links. That was one of my problems with it in the first place.
• You can choose your own color theme with the service now. This makes it easier to blend the previews into your site's existing theme.
• You can make the script load after your page completes loading. This is a plus in case their server is offline, because you won't have to wait for the load of their script to time out before your page renders.
• You can add your own logo to the preview bubble.
• You can give users the option to turn previews on or off.

I haven't started using the last two options, but I've tried out the other three. I'm not totally sold but I think it's an improvement.

There are still some problems with it. Hopefully they'll address them soon. I still get this little annoying popup whenever I use it on my site in IE 7.

I sent them the exact location where this blows up on my browser the last time I had their script installed. It doesn't look like they've worked out a fix for it yet. If they don't come up with something, I'll take it down again. I don't like broken scripts.

Back again

We're back from our trip to Oregon. The trip down was pretty good, and the birthday celebration for my father-in-law went pretty well. Sadly I spent most of Saturday in bed with a splitting headache and horrible aches and pains in my back and legs. Most of the headache was gone on Sunday, but the other aches and pains persisted.

We went to see "Ghost Rider" on Saturday night. I didn't think it was a bad adaptation of the comic book, but it was definitely a bit intense for a PG-13 rating. "Back in the day" before PG-13 ratings it would have been a solid "R" rating. It's certainly not recommended material for impressionable kids, or even some impressionable adults I would guess.

On Sunday my brother-in-law Stan, Lucas, and I went to the beach for a walk and to feed the seagulls. There were at least a half a dozen sea lions frolicking in the waves. There were also a bunch of seagulls, some of them brave enough to take food right from your hand. Lucas had a great time feeding the birds.

It was a good weekend, with only a few minor inconveniences. The worst part was being without Internet access, but the fun we had more than made up for that.

This is your open trackbacks post for Monday, February 19, 2007.

If you have something interesting you'd like to share, feel free to link it here and leave a trackback.

Just remember the trackback policy.

For the best exposure, go to the blogger's oasis and use the linkfest chooser to choose the posts you'd like to hook up with.