on the move (maybe)

Well, I may be moving my home on the web yet again. At least for the next month or so, I will be blogging over at blogspot, here. We’ll see how things go for the next month, and then make a decision to keep WordPress and stay, or make the move permanent.

blog existentialism

Every now and again, I tend to grow tired with blogging, or a particular platform, or just the nature of having an online presence. A facebook page is great is some ways, but limited to certain people…and if you can’t get certain people on facebook, i.e. family, than it can’t do everything you would want. Some dissatisfaction as of late with Twitter, not the use of it as much as being limited to 140 characters, caused me to have another existential blog “crisis” and do some searching and testing of other platforms. Some thoughts…

Twitter. I really like Twitter, particularly the ability to use my phone with it, providing short and quick updates on things I’m doing. It really is a great service, but sometimes I want more than just a 140 characters. And sometimes I want pictures as well.

Tumblr. Discovered this over the weekend. Nice site, can use your phone to update just like Twitter, but limited to those text messages at about 140 characters as well. You can however, do longer posts from the website, and you can upload pictures, even sent directly from your phone. But it seems like there is a built in limitation on having more than one picture in a post, which kind of stinks. Also, there is no real framework for social networking on the site…you can follow similar to Twitter, but no one can comment unless you edit the template code, which is okay. I like tinkering with that stuff from time to time, but I guess I just wish the nuts and bolts of a site are set, and I am just playing around with silly little add-ons.

Blogger. I have had blogger account for awhile (Google), and have had a blog address, just never really used it to recently. You can also provide the quick updates via a text message to the blogger blog, as well as the obligatory longer post from time to time. Its not limited to one picture in a post, which is nice. And I also get to play around with the template code as much or as little as I want. All very good things. But its new, and it could mean leaving behind this WordPress blog.

WordPress. I’ve been at this wordpress address for almost three years now. This will be the 160th post. Its a lot of history that carries some weight with me. I love the way it keeps tracks of stats, and it has a great variety of templates to choose from. However, I have yet to figure out an easy way to text updates to WordPress for posting on the blog. I’ve tried several things through their FAQ section, but it hasn’t worked for one reason or another. I also cannot tinker with the template code without upgrading…and I’m not into paying money for something like this. But I’ve been here for 33 months or so…hard to forget that.

So, that is the trivial thing taking up space in my brain for the last few days and today, and probably for the next few days. Wanting a platform that will be friendly and easy for my family to see is probably the most important thing. A simple website for my mom to visit, for them to see random text messages of what I am doing, pictures of events, etc., things to keep them more informed. I think they would enjoy that, as would I. So the handwringing continues. As the links show, I created sites at Tumblr and Blogger to play around with (can’t know how easy or good something is until you try it for awhile, right?), and I may end up at one or another permanently, I don’t know. While WordPress has the history, a clean break can sometimes be a good thing. Thoughts?

property taxes

So this story came about how Elkhart County finally has permission from the state to send out its property tax bills to homeowners. Normally, the first installment of taxes is due in mid-May, the second installment payment due in November. This year, at least in Elkhart County, first installment will be due in December, second installment will be due in early January. A quick search through Google News shows several other counties that have yet to send out their property tax bills, with some like St. Joseph and Marion County that might not have the bills due to next year.

Leaving aside some cynicism that the delay is due to not wanting to send tax bills out before the election, it means that the system is this delayed and tardy in getting the bills out, by almost 8 months in some cases. When Gov. Daniels pushed the property tax bill that would cap property taxes (but raise the sales tax resulting in an overall tax increase, but I digress), he talked about “streamlining” local government, getting rid of township assessor and tax officials, so the process would work faster. So in the first year of this new streamlined process, tax bills are grossly overdue.

What’s the big deal? Well, many individuals have their taxes part of their escrow payment on their mortgage, and the mortgage company pays it. That company has no obligation to pay it until its due…thus they rarely ever pay it early. When a homeowner like myself files their tax income return next year, and I itemize my deductions (which most anyone with a mortgage payment is going to do because of the interest), one of the deductions is for state property taxes paid. So, because of this delay, which is caused either by political machinations or streamlined incompetency or some other reason, tax payers in Indiana lose that deduction for this year. With the economy the way it is, particularly in our area of Indiana, another deduction allowing Indiana taxpayers to pay less in taxes and keep more of their own money when they pay their income taxes, would have been nice. The Governor’s “streamlined” system has already cost me more in sales tax than it saved me in property tax (the same with a lot of people – seriously, how can the tax revenue of the state increase by over $6 billion dollars and it be a tax cut, but I digress again), and now it has taken a income deduction away from, causing to me to pay more in income taxes than I would have had to otherwise. Thanks Gov.

The Republic of Pirates

Finished reading The Republic of Pirates the other night, and then had a follow of lecture/discussion at the local library with a professor from IUSB. As a history book goes, I thought it was a pretty easy read…while there were plenty of details and sources like any book, the author did a good job in presenting it in a manner which made it read a bit closer to a novel in some cases, although not all.

The book itself centers primarily on a few historical characters, such as John Avery, “Black” Sam Bellamy, Blackbeard, along with Woodes Rogers, the man who spent much of his life trying to end the age of piracy. It concentrates on the years of 1715-1725, which the author considers the golden age of piracy. The author’s thesis in part seems to be that aboard pirate ships, a level of egalitarianism, a level of democracy/republicanism (hence “The Republic of Pirates” title) was achieved that was not achieved in other segments of society at the time, particularly on the British Royal Navy ships. And while the author does a decent job of supporting these premise with primary documents and story, he is also doing a little bit of stretching from the actual known historical facts and speculating that certain things happened in certain ways (which, when dealing with an era of history where there is a little documentary evidence, is somewhat unavoidable). In addition, he doesn’t shy away from the brutal violence inflicted by pirates, which in some ways harms the egalitarian argument of his premise. In particular, one story with a cabin boy was particularly brutal…

On a journey from Charleston to Bristol, Captain John Jeane took a dislike to his cabin boy, whom he had whipped “several times in a very cruel manner” and increased the pain by pouring pickle brine into the wounds. Jeane strung the child up to the mast for nine days and nights with his arms and legs fully extended.

The details actually get more gruesome, but I’ll spare the details. In addition to these various stories of brutality, there are also stories showing the great courage and bravery of the men aboard these ships, and the excitement of various seafaring adventures.

The book also provides information for context of the times that I found particularly interesting. It provided a chart of the money breakdown from pounds and shillings, along with what certain professions were paid per week or year, and how much certain goods, like bread, clothes, and the like cost, which was a great way to better understand the frame of mind the individuals who chose a pirate’s life. It was also interesting to note the difference between the Gregorian and Julian calendar in use at the time, resulting in an 11 day difference in dates between records kept in Spanish and French archives as opposed to English archives.

Everything considered, I rather enjoyed the book and found it a fairly easy and interesting read. Would recommend it to anyone whose interested in learning just a little bit more about the history of pirates and some of the remarkable characters in history.

clip ons, basketball, and seminars

So, to update from my Twitter posting from yesterday and an earlier blog post, I did end up playing basketball last night at a local elementary school gym. Overall it was a good time, nice to meet some new people, but not sure how much I will continue to do it. As fun as it was to shoot some hoops after not handling a basketball for probably 7-8 years, my body unfortunately is not ready for that type of activity. Maybe a half court game without as much running, but my knees have been hurting from the running. It was enjoyable, and definitely something to work towards as a goal, for the time being, may have to take a break from it and work my way up. In the end, I am happy I worked up the gumption to go and try something new, and something I was pretty uncomfortable with, a decent sign to keep trying to make some changes.

Besides that, just a busy week. I broke down and went to the eye doctor yesterday to address the missing sunglasses…and ended up that the one pair of frames I liked was, after 10 minutes of shuffling through their computer system, was not available for prescription lenses. So, as a compromise for the time being, I picked on some clip ons. Never been a big fan of clip ons, but considering how significantly cheaper they were than new frames, it might be something to consider moving forward…just one more area where some money can be saved and put to better uses.

Anyway, later today I am off to Indianapolis for a seminar all day tomorrow. I’ll get to have dinner with a friend, but besides that, not really looking forward to it. Takes a lot of work to get stuff ready at the office to be gone for a day and a half, but this particular seminar I am required to take within my first three years after law school, so it has to be done. Oh well, gave me the opportunity to finally use the post scheduler on WordPress and schedule some posts for later in the day.

missing the sunglasses

A couple months ago, I was part of an unfortunate jetski mishap at Crooked Lake in Angola..resulting, among many other things, the resting of my sunglasses at the bottom of the deepest part of the Lake. Good times.

I have yet to get them replaced, thinking I could wait it out another year until I needed to go back for my routine bi-annual eye exam and just pick up a new pair then. But with all the snow we got here the last day and a half, along with the clear day we are having today…

the drive into work was very bright and I started wishing I had the sunglasses…I’m still trying to get over the headache from squinting the entire drive. Oh well, at least the snow looks nice.

the nephew

For just another example of things I have been wanting to post on here and have just forgotten or neglected…was my nephew Gavin’s first Halloween as Tigger…

Can’t wait for Christmas this year with the little guy.

odds and ends

I find myself wanting to write here more, but never getting around to it…either succumbing to an Twitter posting or Facebook status update that I later find inadequate, or simply just forgetting. If I could get comfortable doing short posts here, I could easily forsake the others, despite their convenience…mindless squabbles.

Anyway, was a long week last week at work, and probably will be much the same way this week…I have several meetings I have to cover for another attorney in our office who is out of town the first part of this week, and then I head down to Indy on Thursday for an all day seminar on Friday. So it will be packed. But hopefully I don’t let the pace become dictatorial and remain disciplined on the changes I am trying to implement into my daily routine (something for another post, maybe).

Over the weekend I finished a couple of books, Out Stealing Horses and If God if Love:Rediscovering Grace in an Ungracious World. The fiction book was just okay, but I really enjoyed the second book. The premise of it is the concept of universal salvation and the rejection of dualistic theologies, based on the authors first book – If Grace Is Real – which I am also planning on reading. Regardless of one’s belief in universal salvation, dualism in theologies, the existence of hell, etc., its a good book, providing lots of questions and challenges. Various areas that provide great opportunity for deep reflection on one’s faith, how it is structured or consistent, and most importantly, how it reflects in our daily lives, our interactions, our communications, our professions, even our politics. Very thought provoking read, and for anyone so inclined on religious-spiritual inquiry books, a good read.

In the past I would normally write more about the book, detailing my thoughts – but as I am still digesting parts of it, and not truly sure of my full reaction to everything in it, I’ll pass on writing any thoughts on theological dualism for now.

Now for more pressing concerns…some in my church get together on Wednesday nights to play basketball, so I have been debating whether I should show up…a good opportunity to get more active both physically (something I need) and within our community (something also needed). But just thinking about playing basketball after all these years and I can already feel my knees hurting…so we’ll see how that debate goes over the next couple days.

A somewhat shorter post…maybe I should have broken it up into several posts…anyway, off to a meeting.

the coming

the coming of a thick gray mist,
a foreboding sense of despair,
the ghosts of opportunity remaining
a groundless faith persists,
the last glimpse of hope,
vanishing amid the rising star.

a good weekend

It was an eventful past couple of days. Of course on Friday night was Halloween, and Jackie and I greeted plenty of little trick and treaters. This has been one of the most enjoyable parts of owning a home in a subdivision. During our years in an apartment complex, there was never any trick or treating. The last two years we have had this opportunity, and its great. See all the kids dressed up, especially the real young first timers. Candy may not be the best thing to be handing out, but I really enjoy the ritual if for nothing less than the little interaction you get at the door with them and their parents…the smiles, the chuckles, its a good time. Our town also does a parade downtown after the trick or treating hours with all the kids. Jackie and I were not able to make it this year (dinner plans), but I am definitely hoping we can make it next year, seems like a cool thing.

On Saturday, a friend had an extra ticket to the Notre Dame game against Pitt, so I partook in my first trip to ND stadium. Now, I am not a ND fan, I am a MSU Spartan fan, which has a good rivalry with ND (digression – MSU is 8-2 and Michigan is 2-7, man its been a good Fall), but it was fun to go to the game, enjoy the time with friends, and witness one heck of a football game (4 OTs), even if the result bummed most people in the stadium. Definitely a good time, and I absolutely love the atmosphere at any college football game…the bands, the student section, the cheers, its just a fun place. After the game finally got over, Jackie and I went to dinner with some friends, making Saturday into a very long day, but a very good day as well.

Sunday was our usual routine of Church, followed by going to my office where Jackie cleans (her second job), and then some grocery shopping. It makes the day busy, but I look forward to it each weekend for some reason. I find myself enjoying the our experience at church more and more, and am becoming very thankful for the fellowship. Beginning in January, I start playing a more involved role where I will be a member of the church’s administrative council…I still don’t know exactly what the role involves, but I think it will be good both to continue the involvement and participation in our community, and good for me personally on my own exploratory journey into faith and religious matters.

Anyway, it was a full weekend, but very good, full of lots of time with friends and community, something both Jackie and I keep trying to work at developing. As glad as we are to be equidistant from each of our families (1.5-2 hours), it seems like you have extra work to do to ensure that there’s some support network for you should something go awry, at least until family could get there. When you live by your family, it becomes easy to count on them for helping out from time to time (maybe even taking them for granted at times), but when they are not close, and you have weeks like we did last week, where nothing was seriously wrong just lots of little inconveniences at the same time, you realize how “isolated” you are when you are still pretty new in a community and trying to establish a life there. So it remains a journey for both Jackie and myself, but more and more we continue to develop good bonds, and more of a sense of “belonging” with each passing week/month.