In the past week or so (since JU came back online), I have started getting incomprehensible replies.  No, not just so weird and out there that you can't follow them.  These are truly incomprehensible.  They are gibberish posts by anonymous users.  I cannot fathom the point of them, as they aren't even links for VIAGRA or CIALIS or VICODIN!! Is anyone else getting these?  Here is a prime example.  I guess I could be grateful they bump my articles back into view ...

Whew, almost a week without JoeUser, thanks to that darn Galactic Civilizations II game. (said in jest!) It was interesting just how much I missed the interaction here. When I have the time, I really enjoy stopping by and reading the thoughts of others. I found myself, in my spare time, trying to figure out where I should go and read. Did plenty of lurking and reading on the WC forums, and lots of reading on the Gal Civ II forums (trying to figure out things I am still learning), and...

While not to the exact day, it just hit me that I created this blog just over 2 years ago. Wow. That actually astonishes me. I haven't been a regular at any internet site for that long of a time. I usually find some reason to wander off and find new electric playgrounds. And while there have been times I have left for a while, I actually find myself feeling more 'at home' here than ever. I suppose it all boils down to one thing: The community. I am convinced it is that interacti...

A long while back Dharma had a really fun article entitled "Show and Tell" in which many of us posted photos of ourselves or our families. Something personal and fun. It was a great thread that allowed a lot of us to place a face to the nick name and the writing voice. Well, it has been a while and there are lots of new, pretty regular folks who blog here so I thought it might be fun to start up a similar thread. I will give it a go, with one of my current favorite pictures: Me ...

Well, as some know, my brother and I have been working on a music blog together called "Progged" . It has been a lot of fun, but to be 100% honest, not too many people stop by, as it can be tough to get much traffic on Blogger blogs unless you have already built up a following. However, I figure that, thank to the system over here at JU, we may get a bit more traffic and interest if we also blog here. So, I have decided that I will revive my old blog group "The Prog Geek" and we can...

Just a quick question, but is the sidebar not updating for anyone else? The most recent article showing up for me is Gid's "For Conservatives Only", with everything else seeming to be frozen for the past few hours. Wondering if this is a site issue, or just something special for me (I am suspecting the former, since I get the same error after cleaning the cache and with other browsers).

I am sure many of us are familiar with the numerous tools out there to generate blog traffic. Gratefully, here at JU we have excellent methods built right into the blogging system. But I know that some blogs at other sites don't get nearly the traffic, and so we break down and use other methods. BlogExplosion is one of the oldest I know of, and I have been signed up there for a while. A good choice. But there are others worth checking out. BlogMad is a new one that is still...

I know I am not the only one who has faced this dilemma before, as I have read comments from others along these lines. But it goes something like this. You read a blog, really enjoy what you read, but really don't have anything to say or add. So you wander on, and no one knows you read. I suppose you could just put a one or two word comment stating that you read and enjoyed it. So, I thought I would do something along those lines, just try to make it a little more fun. I am, therefore...

Another year, another chance to change. I guess. New Year has never been a holiday that had much meaning to me. I understand the symbolism of a beginning anew, I suppose it is just the timing that makes it sort of a snore. January 1st doesn't have any real significance in my life. Yes, I have to start writing 2006 instead of 2005, but that is really about it. Oh, and the time I go to church changes. However, seeing that I am STILL a student, the end of one school year and the beg...

According to the little sidebar, this will be my 300th article here at JU. While this certainly isn't my first blog, it has definitely become the most enduring and even I am surprised that I have stuck it out here as long as I have. Much of that has to do with the great people I have e-met here who have helped this become a 'comfortable' place to call home. There are many, too many to list, but some I would like to thank specifically. Please don't feel bad if your name isn't on the list, ...

And so it goes, on and on and on. Bloggers going bonkers. It seems to be a cycle here, one that repeats itself not infrequently. They often take the same form. For a week or two prior to the big bang a certain blogger engages in more atypical behavior. They are more vocal, more aggressive, more chaotic in their actions. They post to the forums, then to their blog, they open articles for comments, they then close them, then they open them again, then they start blacklisting people. ...

I found this while surfing earlier tonight and thought it was interesting. Now, I have no idea how these figures are calculated. But hey, have fun with it. My blog is worth $1,129.08 . How much is your blog worth?

What do the masses consider appropriate etiquette for replying to your own article? I have, in the past, used one post to reply to all posts my articles had received during the time I was away. I did so to avoid appearing to be a points whore. However, I often found that my replies became long, full of all sorts of quotes and just plain difficult to follow, at least in my opinion. So lately I have replied to each reply separately, in an effort to make it easier to navigate and see to ...

I realize that many of my recent blogs have been sort of cryptic. Hinting more than actually addressing anything, I have sort of beat around the bush. I apologize for doing so. Hopefully this will clarify. I mentioned many months ago that my wife and I were taking in a teenage foster daughter. It has been a very difficult road. There have been some wonderful times, and they have been accompanied by some of the worst, most horrible moments of my life. It has also inspired many blogs t...

It is a good thing that the whole points thing here doesn't really interest me. I have written, oh, about 4 blogs in about that many months. Suddenly I am playing around on my Wincustomize site and notice that my blog has a fair number of points. More than it usually had when I was writing daily. A virtual hop, skip and a jump over here and I notice my blog is ranked #18. Hmm, I have only cracked the top 20 a couple of times, and that was when I was writing a lot. I take a leave of abse...