"Recent" Posts from my Blog Roll

Blog Insider: An unsolicited and superfluous look beyond the minutiae 

 Today's Episode: Recent Posts from My Blog Roll

What is a Blog Roll?

It is a list of other blogs that appears on a sidebar of blogs and websites.  Each blog listed contains a link to the blog and often contains a link to the most recent post.  Some will include a snippet of the most recent post, and the date last posted.

Are Blog Rolls still popular?

Blog Rolls used to be a very popular feature of blogs because they were an easy way to find other blogs to follow.  Just as blogs have lost popularity over the years blog rolls have as well.  One of these is due to technological advances.  At the height of blogging popularity computers were the main way blogs were accessed.  Now that cell phones are supreme, many people access blogs on those or on iPads.  When you access a blog on a phone, the blog looks different and a lot of the features like a blogroll can not be seen readily.  On my phone, I can switch to the regular computer view on the bottom of my screen but I assume very few people do that.  Also, many people just subscribe to blog content and don't access the entire blog that way.

Call me a Blogosaur.

I continue to use my blog and format ir like it was 2009.  I use my blogroll as a way of keeping up with my favorite blogs and even in my lean months (June through October) when I'm not posting as much, I am still on my blog using it to access the most recent posts from other blogs that I follow.  

I currently have 53 blogs listed on my main blogroll.  I have them listed by hy how recently they posted so the most current content keeps on coming to the top.  I do list on my blog roll how recent the posts are so I can tell you that as of 1:00 p.m. central time today (November 5th) I  follow fourteen blogs that have posted in the last 24 hours. Nineteen more blogs were posted at least once in the last week.  An additional eight more were posted between a week and a month ago. Seven more were posted between a month and 6 months ago, leaving five more posted in the last 12 months.  On another blog roll that I have titled" These blogs are so last year,"  there are 3 blogs that haven't been posted on for over 12 months. For the rest of this post, I will link 1 blog from each of these categories and state how I've come to follow it,

Posted in the last 24 hours

For the most part, the blogs that fit into this category are blogs that post very frequently often with multiple posts a day.  This isn't always the case, sometimes I might catch a blog that only posts every 5 or 6 weeks immediately after their recent post.  But as I said, for the most part, these are blogs that are constantly providing new content.

The Sound of One Hand Typing  is a blog I have discovered through my association with the A to Z blogging challenge that takes place every April.  The most recent post by John Holton is his prompts for the Weekly Writers Workshop that he holds on his blog.  I have participated in this the past few weeks and hope to join the fun again later this week.

Posted in the past week.  

The blogs here could be of the variety where they post on average once or more e  a week or they could be recent posts of blogs that blog a little more sporadically than that. Lindy Scott is someone I've mentioned on my blog multiple times.  Back in the mid 80's he was one of my first pastors, and has been both a mentor and hero of mine.  He has recently retired from a career in academia as a professor of Political Science.  His most recent post is called "Trump's Plan to Eliminate the Federal Income Tax: Why would any Sane Person Support it?" Its title indicates that it is an analysis and critique of Trump's most recent idea,  

Posted in the last month.  

\Some of these blogs are updated every 10 days or so and some of them are updated quarterly or more it just depends at what point you catch them.  Andy Unedited is one of my favorite blogs about literature, editing, publishing, and biblical living.  What else would you expect from a former editor at Inter-Varsity Press?  Andy Le Peau's most recent post, A True to Life Allegory, a review of a book that combines John Bunyan's A Pilgrim's Progress with Peter Kreeft's  Between Heaven and Hell.  It sounds intriguing as it intertwines two of my favorite books by two of my favorite authors,   The retired editor did spell Bunyan wrong, but, then again,  he once wrote a post called Confessions of a Bad Speller, so that's understandable.

Posted in the last 6 months

The 6 blogs listed here run the gamut from "where blogs go to die" (formerly prolific posters now on their last legs), semi-whenever posters, and some who are still on hiatus after finishing the April A to Z blog fest.  Another Fearless Year may look like it's on its way out.  After averaging over 80 posts per year between 2019 and 2021, it has only generated 18 posts since then.  I am hopeful, however as two of those posts were in September of this year.  The most recent of which, Grief, A Brief Description, is an excellent poem.

Posted in the last year

This is a kind of an endangered blog list.  Some of these still publish but are now on yu tube or another type of platform.  Some only post during the A to Z challenge which now ended over 6 months ago.  The A to Z challenge blog is an excellent example of the latter.  Its most recent post is about the A to Z Road Trip.

Posted more than a year ago

At midnight on New Year's Day each year, I change the name of my blog roll to "These Blogs are so last year."   As the blogs post new content,  I remove them from that blogroll and then decide whether to put them on the new blogroll or part company with the blog. Generally, by the end of March, almost all these blogs have posted again.  There are always some stragglers.  The Star Trek Sci-Fi Blog  , for example, went 22 months between January of 2023 and October of 2024 in between content. I just changed blog rolls on it at the end of this month. 3 blogs have not added content since 2023 and I really don't expect any of them to do so before the end of the year.  One, near and dear to my heart, is a blog I encourage my oldest daughter to share her poetry. The last poem she shared on the blog was called Growing Up. Fortunately, she has other outlets for her poetry and continues to write just not on her blog.

The deep dive into the minutiae of this blog is over for now.  But when I thin of more information less exciting than watching paint dry, Ill be certain to share it again.

A 12 Sentence Post (which is better than no post at all).

 It is Fall, and I am in my usual  decline of posting here at Leap of Dave. Lately, when I have posted,  I've just been putting out OPV (Other People's Videos) instead of mixing in my own content. It's not that I don't have things to write about, there are plenty of post ideas that I am wanting to get out there; it's not even about lack of time, it's more like I need a jump start to get this blog churning again.  So, for that much needed jump start, I went to my blog roll and saw that John Holton of The Sound of One Hand Typing  put out this week's Writing Workshop prompts. 

Along with trying to write this post using 12 sentences only, I will also use another of his prompts to tell you why I use Google Chrome.  I am not a Chrome snob by any means it is just something that I am used to, it doesn't try to invade my computer like Microsoft Edge does, and I never really got into Firefox. 

As a long term substitute teacher at a middle school my job is both varied and predictable.  For the past few days I've been subbing for 7th grade teachers.  Our 6th graders last year were a bit of a challenging bunch, and I have been glad to see that many of them have matured since last year.  Many, however, is not most, and the past few days while not difficult, have been eventful.  

Thanks again to John Holton, for helping me to have something to write about today.  I also appreciate John for reminding me that Weird Al Yankovic is turning 65 today, making him exactly 4 years and 11 months older than myself. 

12 New Movies 2024 Film #1 In The Good Old Summer Time

 When It comes to placing content on this blog I continually am reminded of the Peanuts comic strip.  Lucy would hold the football for Charlie Brown to kick it and then pull it away from him at the last second .  He would fly through the air and land on his back.  Lucy always seems to be able to convince Charlie Brown that this time it will be different and each time it ends exactly the same.

In my blog I have these ideas for recurring posts and quite often I start them but then never get to finishing them.  One of these actually predates my blogs and that is the idea of watching 12 movies I have not seen before in a year.  Of course I complicate this simple plan by stating that the films must be from different eras.  Each year by April or May I have forgotten which new movies I've seen and I don't meet my goal.  I thought blogging about them might help me keep track, but it only ends up documenting my failure .  In some ways I am both like Lucy luring me to try again each year and like Charlie Brown convincing myself that this time I'll be different  falling flat on my back when the football is metaphorically pulled from my path.

My wife likes to say that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and expecting different results.  But that same wife once co wrote a song with me entitled I'm insane, you're insane, who's gonna win.  So since I already am (I won) sanity challenged, trying again this year isn't that bad of an idea.  Maybe this time I'll at least make it to AAUGHust. 

As I said I try to split the films up so they are not all from the same era. I try to choose 4 films that are older than me and 8 that have come out in my life time 

This year I plan to see 2 new to me films from each of these 6 eras

I. 2009 to 2023

II. 1994 to 2008

III. 1979 to 1993

IV. 1964 to 1978

V. 1949 to 1963

VI. before and including 1934 to 1948

I have already watched 2 new movies this year.  

The first was the 1949 film In The Good Old Summer Time.  I have wanted to watch this one for a while, and actually was reminded of it when I shared a YouTube video here  earlier this month.

By IMDb, Fair use, Link

I would give this movie a rating between 2 1/2 and 3 stars out of 5.  The film takes place in the early years of 20th century Chicago featuring  Judy Garland and Van Johnson  as two music  music store workers  who are also engaging in a mail correspondence not realizing that they know each other in what will be called " IRL" more than a century later. This musical is based on the  1936 Hungarian play Parfumerie by Miklos Laszlo which has spawned 2 other movies and one Broadway musical. One theme from the film is that circumstances can effect the way we view the world especially how we  evaluate people. I really enjoyed the performances by Buster Keaton (Sherlock Holmes, Jr.) , and S.Z. Sakall  (Casablanca) as the shopkeepers nephew  and the shopkeeper, respectively.  Their presence helps bring out much of the films comedic elements.  One aspect of the film I did not enjoy was that many of the musical numbers, although entertaining on their own merit, did not really go with the story that was being told.  This led to kind of an uneven feel to the film, which led to my mediocre rating.  I would definitely recommend this film to fans of Garland and to those who like to watch different adaptations of the same source material.  

Taking A Mental Health Day

 I went to Greece last month and it was an amazing trip.  It was a time to celebrate 25 years of marriage to my best friend,  I had an idea of posting about each day exactly a month later on my blog and then posting it on on mine and my wife's FB page.  Now, to be perfectly blunt, very few people consistently read my blog and none of my FB friends are putting any pressure on me at all to post everyday.  Yet I put pressure on myself to do it.  So when I didn't post yesterday and got one day behind on this self imposed deadline and decided I would do two days today, and as of 9:30 p.m. had not done either I began to freak out.  Why? I really want to post about every day, but who cares whether it's exactly a month behind?  Why do we put so much pressure on ourselves for no real reasons?

I think everybody goes off kilter sometimes.  Not exactly like me, but I don't always go off kilter for the same reasons.  But it is important that when I do go off kilter, I bring myself back.  When this happens, I ask God for help.  I ask my family for help and I make changes.  Sometimes it just means letting myself off the hook for something.  Sometimes it means not believing lies.  Sometimes it means changing my plans.

So, as far as my memories of the trip go, I hope to recount each day  on the blog and then on Facebook.  But I do that because I love writing and I loved the trip and for no other reason.  It's not going to have to be each day 1 month later like some self imposed a to z challenge. And If I never finish it, so what?  It was a good trip and Amy and I both know it.

There are enough pressure on us as a society, that we need to stop putting additional burdens on ourselves and our friends and family.

I'll be back tomorrow, or so, to tell you about losing my phone on the Island of Sifnos on June 11th and the other more interesting things that happened that day.  I kicked myself a lot for losing my phone, but that was not an important thing that happened that day. I kicked myself a lot for not posting yesterday, but that was not an important part of yesterday.  Today, I worked for 8 hours at the movie theatre and when I got home there was a tornado waning after dinner.  After our family got back from the basement, my time was better spent decompressing with the family than holing myself up with the computer just to meet some imaginary time requirements.  I just sometimes have to remind that to my foot when it wants to kick myself.  

March Stats

 I am taking a scheduled rest from posting on the A to Z challenge today.  I have been posting my monthly stats the first day of the new month, but since yesterday was the first day of the challenge. and I knew I'd have a respite today, I decided to wait until today for the stats post.  I posted on my blog 8 times last month.  I had posted 9 each in January and February, so my average for the year has been pretty much the same.  At this rate I should have 104 posts by the end of the year.

My average posts per month for the past quarter have been 8.63 rounding up to 9.  Over the past 18 months I have posted 167 times for an average of 9.28 posts per month.  If you take away my most prolific month (April 2022 - 28 posts) and my most abysmal (November 2021 - 1 post) my average  goes fown to 8.63 post per month which is nearly identical to my output this quarter.

With my A to Z post yesterday this is the 30th month in a row that I have posted at least once on this blog.

I should be back later today with a second post regarding my last 5 books read since I was up past midnight finishing An Old Fashioned Girl.  I have some work to do on the challenge as well today and make sure my next few posts are ready for publication.  

February Stats

 1/6th of the year is in the books.  It's now time again for a look at last month's posting trends.  A look at my blog archive shows I published 10 months last month and 9 in January.  While that is technically true, I actually wrote 11 posts last month and backdated this one as it was supposed to originally appear on January 23rd. The breakdown goes like this 10 posts in February,  A total of 11 posts from December to January, and 7 posts from September to November.  The 10 in February is quite a bit higher than the 6-month monthly average of 4.67 and is 2 more than February '22 and 4 more than February 21.  

At the end of January, I was on pace to get 96 posts this year.  The 19 posts in 2 months have me slated at this pace to get 114 posts by year's end.

January Stats

 In January of 2023 I posted 8 times.  This was five posts more than I had in November and December 2022 combined.  I  really limped tot he finish line of 2022 blog wise. 2022 wasn't a wholly unsuccessful year in that regards.  I had 102 posts in 2022 just 15 less than I had in 2021.  The problem was that 86 of those posts were from January to June and only 21 were in the 2nd half of the year.  I consider that a missed opportunity.

The 8 posts this past January put me on  pace to have 96 by years end.  Hopefully this will not be a February flop but will be even more successful than how the year began.  

Thanks to my lovely editor/proofreader/wife who keeps me on track bloggingwise and in so many areas of my life.  

Love,

Dave

Poetry Friday: For The First Time

I hope you are not confused by the title of this post.  It is simply the name of the weekly blogging event  I am participating in, and the title of my poem which will appear therein. 

I did not mean to imply that I was participating in Poetry Friday for the first time.  This, in fact, is my 4th appearance in as many weeks.  Prior to that, I was an irregular reader of some of the entries through links to some of the other poetry blogs I follow.  My blog is not a poetry blog as such, it is more a mixed bag of miscellany in the shape of a blog. It is true that I am certainly on a poetry kick these days. While this is not the first time I have posted on Poetry Friday, this is the first poem I have written specifically with this blogging event in mind. 

I really enjoy these blogging events.  Back when I was homeschooling my kids, and this blog was called Home School Dad, I participated in weekly blogging events called Three Things Thursday, Works for me Wednesday, Wordless Wednesday, and my favorite the Carnival of Homeschooling.  Some of my favorite posts in my 13 + years of blogging were when I hosted the aforementioned carnival.

In a few months, I will be hosting one of the Poetry Friday's which I am very excited about and have already begun drafting.  One thing I will put an end to, at least for the week I host it, is this whole Poetry Friday on a Thursday thing.  This is very typical of all the blogging events I've ever participated in.  If you want to be one of the first posts on the Linky list, and who doesn't?, you need to post the day before.  Now I must ask you my fellow existentialists, is it really Poetry Friday when you post it on Pre-Poetry Thursday? 

Therefore, When I host in August, my post will drop at 11 p.m central time on Thursday Night.  That's because it will be Friday in New York City and if that's good enough for New Year's Rocking Eve it's good enough for me.  

I believe that's more than enough pre-amble/rant.  Here is my poem for the week ...

 For The First Time

Meeting someone

Is like

Walking

Into the middle

Of two movies

They walk into yours

You walk into theirs

You both walk into

What could be

The pivotal scene

Of your lives

Poetry Friday is being hosted this week at Reading to the Core. 

 

I have 100 posts in draft status.

 Blog Insider: An unsolicited and superfluous look beyond the minutiae 

Today's Episode: Draft Status 

Back when I started blogging getting to your hundredth post was kind of a big deal.  People would celebrate the accomplishment in different ways.  When I got there I made a list of 100 people I knew who who influenced me.   At 500 I wrote a parody to I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles). Since I consolidated all my blogs here I have been in the process of consolidating all posts from all those blogs here as well.  Because of that I'm not quite sure what number post I'm at exactly but I am nearing 1,300 for the ones that have been written or transferred here.  

Earlier this week, I discovered a different century mark.  I noticed that I have 100 posts here in this blog that are in draft status.  That means they are not currently accessible to you. the reader. I was astounded that it was that many.  

When I consolidated the 2 other blogger blogs here it also brought over anything in draft status from those blogs.

The most recent of my posts in draft status was from May 26th.  Over the past 3 years I have had  35 more identical posts/  They have no title and no content whatsoever.  I don't think I was aware that i was leaving phantom drafts 

The oldest of my drafts is originally from my sports blog.   It is from January 10, 2012 (more than 10 years ago!) and entitled A thought on Harold Baines and the HOF.  It was written right after Baines was removed from the HOF ballot by failing to received more than 5% of the writer's vote.  Written is too strong of a word as the only thing written was the title of the post.  Baines was eventually voted into the HOF on the veteran's ballot in 2019.  So since the motivation for my post (expressing my opinion that Baines is HOF material) has been for all intents and purposes been achieved there is really no reason to keep it in draft status.  

The most recent of my posts in draft status was from May 26th.  Over the past 3 years I have had  35 more identical posts/  They have no title and no content whatsoever.  I don't think I was aware that i was leaving phantom drafts.  That's more than 1/3 of the 100 drafts and those will be easy to delete. There are other posts like the Harold Baines post that are title only with no content. 

The remaining posts  are basically in the following categories. 

* You Tube videos.  

I post quite a few you tube vidoes straight to my blog.  Since I have had in the past more than one blogger blog at a time, when I put those videos onto my blog I get a screen shot like the one below.  

If I accidentally put the video in the wrong blog it usually gets trapped in draft staus in that blog without being immediately aware about it.

* Consolidation

When I moved my sports blog and vlog to this one, I also brought whatever blogs I had in draft status with me, like the aforementioned Harold Baines post.

* No longer relevant, No longer interested, could not do it justice

These are actually 3 very similar situations.  In each case I start a post and put it aside to finish.  By the time I get back to them they are not worth finishing for one (or more) of the above reasons.

* Work in progress

After I have finished this post, this should be the only category of posts in draft status that remain.  These are posts that I am either still working on or do not want to give up completely on.

* Ready to publish/overlooked.  

There are a few posts that are in draft status by mistake.  When I find those I go ahead and put them into the blog as was originally intended.

100 posts in draft status is not an achievement I ever anticipated achieving.  Now that I'm finished achieving it, I'm going to spend a few minutes behind the scenes and unachieve it.  

 

My blog is a teenager and going through some changes.

 13 years ago today at the beginning of my 2nd semester of being a stay at home Dad for the purpose of continuing the home education of my 3 children aged 22-13, 20-13 and 16-13 at the time (I take it you can do subtraction). I began this blog.  Here is a link to my first post. 

This never was a home education only blog. We finished homeschooling proper when our youngest daughter  graduated Middle School in 2020.  I haven't been the full time stay at home dad/home educator since 2013.     Yet I continued to call this blog Home School Dad, shortening it to HSD a few years back.  

HSD is just one of 4 blogs I have been producing over the past several years.  On Dec 12, 2009 just 11 months after starting my first blog, I started a 2nd called Crazy Uncle Dave's Sports Blog.  Here is the first post..  

Sometime in 2011 I started a vlog at Word Press called Dave Out Loud.  I abandodned the word press site and brogh Dave Out Loud to Blogger.  Here is the first post. 

In Janaury 2019 I decided to consolidate all my blogs and bring them to Word Press in a blog called Random Acts of Roller.  Here is my first post.

In 2020 during the corona virus pandemic I decided to go back to HSD as my flagship blog and have had basically 2 flagship blogs ever since.  

Over the past few weeks, I have been making some wholesale changes to HSD.  First of all you can probably see it is no longer called HSD.  I have changed the name to Leap of Dave.

I have also transferred all my Dave Out Loud And Crazy Uncle Dave posts here.  I am still in the process of transferring all my Random Acts posts here as well.  I will still be continuing posting sports content and videos and they will be labeled Crazy Uncle Dave or Dave Out Loud but they will appear in this blog.  I am exploring leaving blogger altogether but could never really get the hang of Word Press.  Until that day happens Leap of Dave becomes theone stop shop for all my blogging hijinks.  With 13 years in the books I am hoping for smooth sailing and many more fine years in my blogging future.

Things I'd like to post more about.

 Blog Insider: A look behind the curtain at HSD

Tonight's Episode: Some things I'd like to post more about.

When I first started blogging I kept a notebook with all the blogging ideas I had and would cross them out when I wrote about them and add more as the ideas come to me.  This got to be a bit of a problem as I would often not have my notebook when I got an idea and often could not find my notebook when I was working on my blog.  Also, not all of my ideas were blog worthy.  Some were time sensitive and by the time I got to writing them down they were no longer relevant.  Some just worked better as an idea but did not make sense when they saw the light of screen.  

I have decided to make one of those lists as a blog post to give me a reference point I can't leave in my other coat and also to give the readers (if there are still any out there) an idea of what sort of things are interesting me these days.

• I would like to write more about my work as a substitute teacher.
• I would like to write more about my ADHD.
• I would like to write a little about the combination of my ADHD and my work as a substitute teacher,  
• I have began recompiling my list of my 100 favorite movies.  I would like to write more about the particular movies and my process in compiling the list.
• My wife and I have have lost over 100 pounds this year.  I'd like to write about my weight and my goal to stop yoyoing and get down to my weight in high school.
• I would like to share more poetry here.  Which means I'd like to write more poetry.  
• I would like to take more pictures and post more pictures.
• I would like to write more about my faith.

There are certainly other things I'd like to blog more about, but at this present moment these are the forms of content I'd like to delve into more in the future.  

I am also thinking of making some wholesale changes in my my blogging presence  at the beginning of the year.  I currently have 4 blogs active and am finding keeping those active more and more challenging.  I once commented to someone that as long as I am posting at least once a quarter on each blog I would be satisfied.  I have certainly been doing that but I'm noticing some redundancies and have spending a lot of thoughtspace on how to more efficiently scratch my blogging itch in the months and years to come.  

12 from 2020

One of the reason why I continue blogging is to read and respond to the great content other bloggers provide.  I have decided to highlight 12 posts from other blogs from 2020 that really moved me.  

Blogs these day are somewhat of an endangered species.  I feature 9 different blogs in this article.  2 of them only posted one time in 2020.I feature posts from two other blogs that have been dark for at least 4 months now.  So, unless those 4 blogs begin to produce content again none of their fine writing will be here on display if I choose to make this an annual thing.  

As you might imagine, the majority of these posts are about Covid, race, and the election. Each bloggers puts their own unique take on these and other subjects,  Some of these bloggers are fairly well know people like Rhett McLaughlin of Rhett and Link fame and Pastor and Author John Piper.  Others are regular everyday people like my Sister-in-law.  . In any case, I think they all deserve more mention than my mostly unread blog can provide.  However, we all should do what we can, and I can cut and paste links.

Blog: Out Walking

The Kinship of Things March 4, 2020

It may be difficult to imagine a hopeful piece about house arrest. Steve West talks about his life in an early covid lockdown and by using his and other's memories talks about doing far more with far less.  

Favorite line: I keep my neighbors at a distance, and yet hold them close.

Blog: Home Spun Juggling

Sudden Homeschooling: A Beginners Guide

Cristina Ramos Payne brought her blog out of mothballs :) to bring encouragement to Covid induced new homeschooling parents.  She must have saved the moth balls because unfortunately for the blogosphere she has not posted since. :(

Favorite line: The idea of having the kids home 24-7 can be overwhelming, but it is also an opportunity to deepen your relationship.

Blog: Peace Love, and Yoga Pants

How are the Kids Feeling? April 3, 2020

 

My Sister in Law captured Covid anxiety as seen  through the eyes of her children in a palpable and powerful way. 

Favorite line: I finally said to him, "I don't know what it's like to be you!"

 

Blog:  Out Walking

Allies  April 29, 2020

One of the many things I like about Steve West's fine blog is that to misquote When Harry met Sally is I want to have he's having over the more than a decade I've been following his blog his descriptions of film, literature and music have informed what I have consumed. I need to read his posts with my library card next to me so I can look for the materials he's mentioning right away.

Allies continues the house arrest theme he started in The Kinship of Things but focusses as our homes  being the hero of the story. A concept he is quick to point out comes from author D.J. Waldie.

It's hard to make 1 line my favorite out of such a profound and poetic piece.  One line that sums up the piece well is ...

My ally stands. “Here’s a place—a fragile, earthen vessel, admittedly, yet one that will hold you, for now,” it says

And yes, I just did order Diane Keaton's book House which D.J. Waldie wrote the text for from my home librray. 

Blog: Stories by Rhett Mclaughlin

Letter to a White Man May 31,2020

Rhett McLaughlin gives advice to himself and all other white men about how to process  the racial discord  of the Spring of 2020. I found it a helpful reminder.

Favorite passage: Before you begin building your case as to why you’re not contributing to the problem — or why there really isn’t a problem in the first place — just be quiet.  Black Americans are speaking loudly and clearly. If you take a moment to stop defending yourself or finding fault with those fighting for justice, you might be able to listen.

Blog: Lindy Scott

Idolatry and Politics August 5, 2020

In 1982 I started attending Des Plaines Evangelical Free Church. Shortly after that their former youth minister took the job as their pastor.  He influenced much of my early Christian thinking and thanks to his blog continues to do so almost 40 years later.  

In Idolatry and Politics he makes a convincing argument that poliitcal extremism on any side of the political spectrum is just another name for idolatry.  Lindy's posts make up 1/4 of this years review, so expect to see a couple more of his writings later on in the list.  

Favorite Line: If people are totally "pro-Trump" or "anti-Ttump" they have abandoned their use of logic and reason. 

Blog: Lindy Scott

What kind of Republicans (and Democrats) does our Country Need? October 17, 2020

Author's Note: Erstwhile (former) and penultimate (2nd to last) are 2 of my favorite words and I use them as often as I can.

My erstwhile pastor appears on this list for his penultimate time with a profile of Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse.  At the time of this post's mid October publication, Sasse was one of the few  GOP lawmakers who would stand up against President Trump.

My favorite passage was a quote from Sasse:

 “If young people become permanent Democrats because they’ve just been repulsed by the obsessive nature of our politics, or if women who were willing to still vote with the Republican Party in 2016 decide that they need to turn away from this party permanently in the future, the debate is not going to be, you know, ‘Ben Sasse, why were you so mean to Donald Trump?’ It’s going to be ‘What the heck were any of us thinking that selling a TV-obsessed narcissistic individual to the American people was a good idea?’ It is not a good idea.”

Blog: Thirst

The Good Place October 21, 2020

Full disclosure: I discovered this blog earlier this year while researching my previous post about Comedian a song by Steve Taylor and the Perfect Foil. While I did not originally read this post in 2020,   it does meet the 2 the criteria I set for this list: 1) it is a post from 2020 and 2) The blog it comes from is on my blogroll.  

Keith Shields post which waxes philosophical about the NBC comedy The Good Place is one of the few post from this list that is not about covid, politics or race relations.  It is an old school blog post that takes a culturally relevant topic to explore the human condition. 

I liked how Shields did enough explaining about the show so someone not familiar with the show could still relate to the point he was making but did not over explain it in a way that would take meaning away from the point he made.

Favorite Line: It becomes obvious that we must give up on seeking to be good or we will turn ourselves into neurotic do-gooders who question every move. 

Blog: Desiring God 

Policies, Persons and Paths to Ruin: Pondering the Implications of the 2020 Election October 22, 2020

Author and Pastor John Piper  is not the only contributor to the blog on the Desiring God but his posts are generally the ones I most appreciate.  This post I found especially gratifying as I had decided on the same course of action for the election as he did.  Well approximately the same, he chose a write in candidadte, I just moved on to the next race. Piper makes a very good defense of not voting for Trump or Biden without mentioning either by name.

Favorite Line: In fact, I think it is a drastic mistake to think that the deadly influences of a leader come only through his policies and not also through his person.

Blog: Lindy Scott

"Heads I Win, Tails You Lose" and the Election October 25, 2020

In the aftermath of the horriffic events of January 6th, 2021 many people wrote that they were not surprised by the events.  Lindy Scott was one of them but I think that's because he said this 2 weeks prior to the election: (Italics mine*) 

Something similar is happening now in the presidential election. Trump has predicted that he will win when the votes are counted OR if the tally shows him losing, it will be because of vote fraud. He has also affirmed  that he would take the election to the Supreme Court if he loses. This is dangerous for our country. If there is a fair election AND Trump actually loses, many of his more devoted followers might protest the counting of mail in votes and declare fraud. Some of these followers might turn to violence.

I am certain this is not something Lindy wanted to be right about. At least we can't say He didn't warn us.  

* I've always wanted to say italics mine.  As long as we are doling out punctuation marks, I'll take the ampersand.

Blog: The Aaugh Blog 

Colorblind Eye Patch Dec 9, 2020

The Aaugh Blog is an independent Peanuts website that I quite enjoy.  I really liked this post that talks about some of my favorite strips from when I was a kid when Sally had lazy eye.  No favorite line just favorite memories.

Blog: Thinking Person's Guide To Autism

Losing Hard Won Freedoms: The Pandemics Toll on People with I/DD  December 10, 2020

I hate to end on a sour note but Covid has been especially hard on people with disabilites. as I'm typing this on My daughter who has high functioning autism is playing monopoly with her Mom and sister.  (More on this epic game here and here.  That reminds me  that she has been unable to attend her monthly game night for young adults with HFA for almost a year.  As Ivanova Smith  states it ican be much more difficult for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities than just missing a game night.  

Favorite Line:  (Smith describing the effects of the isolation that pandemic restrictions has caused her). I feel like I am stuck in a car that keeps going backwards and backwards and I can’t make it stop.

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State of the Blogs

The past few months I have been tweaking my 4 existing blogs with the intent of keeping them filled with content and not laying dormant in the basement of the alamo of the internet.  My 4 active blogs at this time are in oldest to youngest  Home School Dad which I have shortened to the initials HSD, Crazy Uncle Dave's Sports Blog, Dave Out Loud, and Random Acts of Roller.

I have decided to make HSD the flagship of the four blogs.  That is why directly under this post you can see links to the latest posts of the other 3 blogs.  To that end, periodically I will make a post of whats coming next in all of these blogs.  Consider this one of thos posts?

What Am I Working On?

HSD: Aside from this post I am not working on any posts on this blog at this time.  This week I hope to participate in Wordless Wednesday.  I have a couple of ideas for the feuture Muzak Lessons I started last week and may start working on one of those soon.

Random Acts: I am currently working on a piece that combines politics and Christianity.  Instead of trying to write it all at one time, I usyally only work at it for 15 to 30 minutes at a time.  part of this is because of my schedule at work, the other reason is that I am trying to be much more deliberate about my writing at this time.  I think taking my time to get my thoughts together and working without a deadline may aid that.

Crazy Uncle Daves: I just posted ther for the first time in over a year.  This blog has never been a real time sports blog and I'd really like it to be.  Unfortunately there are no real time sports at this surreal time .  So until then I'll be trying to find a pace and contentent  for posting that matches my time and inclinations.

Dave Out Loud.  I am working on my first "live" segment of Dave out Loud in some time.  I'll be taking the random takes idea I mentioned in my last post and running with it.

What Am I Thinking About?

I have been thinking about a podcast.  I'm not sure if I'll ever pull the trigger on such a thing.  However  do expect a piece in Random Acts in the near future of 10 people I'd love to interview on a podcast.

Two weeks ago I participated in Wordless Wednesday for the first time in years.  Last week I participated from 2 of my blogs.  I am thinking about participating from all 4 on the same week sometime.  I want to get a few more posts at Crazy Uncle and Dave Out Loud before I attempt such a feat.

What am I Planning?

I participated in the A to Z challenge this year at Random Acts.  I need to work on an index page of my involvement and gave myself the month of May off from doing that.  Here is my index page from my  a to z challened last year.  In June I plan to put up this year's index page.

I also  have big plans for the a to z challenge for next year.  There will need to be quite a  bit of behind the scenes planning for it.  I shall begin that work in earnest come June.

That's just a snippet of what to expect over the next few weeks and months.

Home School Dad Revisited.

Hello and good morning.  My name is Dave and I used to go by the moniker Home School Dad.  11 years ago I began this blog, as I was a stay at home dad and the home school teacher of the family.  I started home schooling the kids in 2008 and did that full time until the fall of 2013 when I went back to working full time.

I still blog but now do most of it  at Random Acts of Roller. I have started many blogs over the years but my favorite has always been HSD (Home School Dad).  I have been thinking a lot lately of restarting Home School Dad. With that in mind, I decided to post one of my earliest blog entries.  You can click here to see how it appeared on 1/8/9.

If clicking here is not your thing, it's okay cause copying and pasting is mine...

When I first heard about Homeschooling.

First appeared in Home School Dad

January 8, 2009

Do you remember where you were the first time you heard about home schooling? I was at a wedding. At the reception, I was placed at what I call the odd duck table , the table where you sit friends, family and coworkers not likely to know anyone else, I have a name for it because I have been placed at that table many times.

So at the odd duck table there was a lady from out of state, Colorado, I believe, who home schooled her children. This was the mid to late 80's and I had no idea what homeschooling was or why anyone would want to do it. I just sat there as she regaled other wedding guests with stories of her home schooling journey.

I think it's appropriate that I first heard of home schooling at the odd duck table. Home Schooling itself has been an odd duck for many years. People aren't quite sure what to make of it. It can be frustrating as  a Home School parent, when you see the  same reaction from each person who learns you are home educating your children. This is why I asked you to recall your first experience with the concept. Perhaps, your initial reaction, was not unlike those you encounter today. We often expect people to understand things the way we do and forget our understanding is part of an ongoing process often evolving over many years.

Homeschooling over the years has quietly been inching away from the odd duck table. Everybody seems to know someone these days who is home schooling. It is not uncommon now for park districts and libraries to have special activities for home school families.

2020 Perspective:

First of all,   if you did  look back on the original, you may have noticed I did a little editing of my piece.  It bothered me  that I had let regaled be spelled incorrectly for 11 years.  I also had a tendency back then to just end my posts and go on to the next thing. I began this post some hours ago, got this far, and was really tempted to end this post abruptly as I had just finished an overnight shift and was much more interested in sleeping than culminating. Instead, I went the save button route and came back to conclude.

So much has changed since 2009 when I wrote this that it's hard to provide appropriate context.  Obviously most parents with school age children have now found themselves more knowledgeable about what schooling at home looks like.  The Covid 19 shelter in place orders have seen to that.  schooling at home is in some ways different than homeschooling.  I currently have an 8th grader who is home-schooled , a 12th grader who is public schooled and a daughter taking some college classes. Now that everybody is staying at home, my responsibilities towards their school work have not changed at all.  I help my 8th grader with math and I do nothing with the older ones.  When I wrote  the original post they were were 3, 7, and 9 respectively and I was involved with every aspect of their education.

In the coming weeks I will begin to post more here.  I plan to revisit earlier posts as I did today, but mainly I hope to move beyond that.  In June, our homeschooling journey will end as our youngest moves on to public high school.  As the pandemic continues to take its course, our world will adjust to a new normal.  In the same way, our family has been adjusting to a new normal over the past 5 years as our homeschooling has lessened and lessened.  Amid these changes, I have been tempted to change the name of this blog.  I have decided not to yield to this temptation.  The content may be different or perhaps non-existent, but on these pages and in some parts of myself, I shall always be a home school dad.

The Most Important Job at the Food Bank

Last month we started volunteering as a family at the Northern Illinois Food Bank in Geneva, Illinois.  Technically speaking our youngest can't volunteer until she turns 8 at the end of the year.  Today we trekked over there, sans our 7 year old, and spent 3 hours working with a team of about 15 volunteers transferring cereal from a 1600 pound container to 20 oz bags.

After we put on the requisite hair nets, aprons and rubber gloves , our supervisor Don started handing out assignments.  It became readily apparent, at least to me, that I had been given the most important job.

Yep, call me Scoop Roller.  It was my job to take the cereal from the big box and scoop it into those grey bins on the table.  Don chose me first for the prestigious assignment.  In the three hours that we worked I  scooped cereal from that box until, I could scoop from the second step and then from the lowest step until I finally eschewed the step stool altogether and just scooped from the floor until I had to finally kneel down to get to the level of cereal left behind from my labors.By the end of the day we had packaged enough cereal for almost 1,000 meals.  And each flake of cereal used was scooped out of it's conveyance by yours truly.  

Yes, I thought I had the most important job.  That is until that young man on the left of me, took a short break.  You see his job was to take my bins brimming with flaky goodness and provide me with a new bin.  In the beginning this meant I could stay on my perch and concentrate on the task at hand.  He was also responsible to take the full bins and give them to the 2 tables of volunteers responsible for placing them in bags and weighing them to assure they reached their 20 oz. capacity.  He would take their empty bins and bring them back to me so I could refill them.

When he was there, I was able to keep up pace with the 8 baggers and sometimes run out of empty bins to fill which would allow me to cut down the plastic surrounding the box, which greatly eased my ability to scoop.  When he left, I did his job and mine for a few minutes and it quickly became evident that he was the drumbeat of the process and that without his support the whole enterprise would quickly break down.

So when he came back, I told him that I thought he had the most important job, and he quickly agreed.  You see, people like to be valued.  Even if they are just volunteers, they like to be valued.  After he came back I got to thinking about it more.  I started on concentrating on what job was most important.  Was it those two tables of cereal baggers?  Three of my favorite relatives helped man those tables.  Without  them my scooping and Nathan's tempo would just leave 16 filled tubs and a box mostly full.

But even with those 8 bagging and weighing away, the whole operation would come to a halt with out the bag sealer.  Yes just as I scooped all the cereal into bins, the four people seated sealed every bag. the person standing took the sealed bags and prepared them to be distributed to the food pantries, soup kitchens, and summer feeding programs that the food bank supplies.  And let's not forget about Don, who went from station to station informing and encouraging each group of workers; perhaps he had the most important job.

Sometimes the most important jobs are the ones behind the scenes.  We were able to volunteer today because a friend watched our 7 year old while we were there.  We volunteered with a group of employees from Capital One.  I am not sure exactly what had to conspire for them to come.  But I imagine that compensation and covering of duties was involved.  It seems the more you break it down, the harder it becomes to determine the most important job.


So what is the most important job? To steal from City Slickers, it is one thing.  It is the one thing that you were assigned to do.  The most important task in a project is the task you were given.  That task is your chance to shine.  You have been given that task for a reason.  Do the best you can at that task and the project has a better chance at success, than if you just did it 1/2 way because you wanted to be the one to scoop cereal out of a big box.

Volunteering is an important job.  Feeding the hungry  is an important job.  If that includes digging up a ton of cereal, then I can dig that.







If you thought  this post was a departure of sorts, you were right.  It was a departure from writing nothing or next to nothing for months at a time.  It is also a departure from my usual homeschooly things I had been writing about until I slipped out of internet existence. 

As the new title suggests, I am no longer just a home school dad.  I am a home schooling dad transitioning back to the business world.  My most important job, to ride that horse one more time, is to land a job.  This blog will reflect on my past jobs and my current search.  

Next Time: My very first job.

Happy Zoo Year

We are all feeling better finally.  We are having relatives over and while the young ones are watching shows I have a few minutes to post what will probably be my last HSD entry for 2012.

Let me tell you a thing or two.

1.  Puppy (who will be to the  changing nicknames in 2013)0 faced down a lion yesterday.  Amy took her on a special day to the zoo.  

2.  Before I got sick, I quit my summer job.  I had the job from early July to late December.  That's some summer.  That's 4o+ hours a week I am looking forward to getting back.  I am going to use some of that time on our home school co-op and looking for a career rather than a job.

3.   I am also planning on getting back to some sort of blogging schedule.  I am  used to going week at a time without  an entry so it will take me some time to get back into practice.

This entry does get me one step closer.  I hope to write a quick homeschooling piece in the next day or two. I hope you all have a happy and joyous new year.

Status Update

My blog seems to be dying a slow death.  In April it had a mild resurgence because I participated in A to Z Blogging.  I have not given up entirely on blogging.  However, I will not be doing any homeschooling this Summer. Now that her school is off for the summer,  Amy will be teaching the kids for 1 hour a day 4 days a week in what we used to call skills roundup.  I am hoping to land a summer or part time job. 

This week I am working on a carnival of homeschooling at Dave Out Loud.  I plan to post once or twice a week at each blog this Summer.  But finding a job is the priority. 

I also plan to catch up on all the posts I owe to various people before I go onto other stuff.  To that end,  I will be announcing the winners of the quarter give-a-way soon. 

Two Questions about Blogging Slump

 

I have not been posting very prolifically lately.  This is often because a) I don't have a lot of time to post or b) because when I have time, I can't think of a lot of good posting material. 

So here are my two questions that relate directly to this problem.

1) How do you bloggers carve out time in busy schedules to devote to posting?

2) What do you do when you have bloggers block?

Looking forward to the answers

For more questions head over to Self Sagacity.

Friday Fragments - Promotional Considerations

It is Friday Fragment time again.  This week's fragments all seem to be self promoting.  Oh well, if I were a true narcissist wouldn't tie them all up in one post, I would write them all out separately.

Fragment 1

If you don't follow my vlog Dave Out Loud. (and at this point no one does) you are missing gems like this . . .





Fragment 2

I have just created a resource for quality home school blogs.  It  takes all 20 Homeschool Blog Awards (HSBA) categories and features the winner in each category.  I also go behind the scenes and say who I voted for in each category and why as well as sharing a sample post form all 20 winners that I think gives us a good glimpse of their work.

Fragment 3.

Mine is apparently not the only resource throwing bouquets to home school bloggers.  It seem that one of those bouquets was even thrown my way.



Yes Teacher Certification Degrees dot com did a fantastic job compiling 100 Homeschooling blogs and a few honorable mentions.  Here is what they said about HSD:

Dave is the “Home School Dad”, White Sox fan and movie buff whose sense of humor shows in creative nicknames and occasional rants; wife Amy adds her voice as a guest contributor to this lively blog filled with ideas for budget-friendly family fun, reports on Lego robotics action and a fresh perspective from the homeschool front.


Occasional rants! I wonder what they mean by that.  Well, I never.   They have a lot of nerve.

Fragment 4.

Speaking of Robotics . . .

The State Robotics Tournament is tomorrow and Saturday.  Unlike last year, Spider Droid's team will not be participating.  They did great at their regional.  Just not great enough to be one of the 3 teams from a field nearing 20 to make it. 

Here are  some pics from the regional. 

Well those are all the fragments I have for today.  For more Friday Fragments click here.

7 reasons why I'd like to win a ticket to the Titus 2:1 Conference

The Titus 2:1 Conference is coming to your town.  That is if your town is Sterling, Va. The Conference takes place in April 27th through 29th and is a homeschool bloggers conference.

Kris, of Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers,  is one of the speakers at the event.  She has been given 1 ticket to the event (a $199.00 value) to give away on her blog.  This post is my entry to said give-a-way.  My goal, to explain why I'd like to win a ticket to the conference.

Here is a list of my reasons.  Some are serious, some are silly and some are just plain HSD.

Reasons I want to attend the Titus 2:1 Conference

1.  I like to go places where it's not certain that I'm welcome. 

The Titus 2:1 Webpage page says:


The 2:1 Conference is a faith based conference for homeschooling parents that blog (not just about homeschooling), or are otherwise interested in social media outlets like Facebook and Twitter.

Well that's me, a homeschooling parent who blogs.  So I'm invited right?  Not so fast.  The Conference Home Page, the one you read before you can even get to the About page, says this in the first paragraph:

2:1 is the premier conference for bloggers like you - mothers, in the trenches of homeschooling, with hearts for God. 

Well, I am in the trenches of homeschooling, but am not a mother.  It seems like it might be kind of awkward for me to go to a place where I'll stand out like a sore thumb.  This brings me to reason 2.

2. I don't mind standing out like a sore thumb.

A seminary professor of mine described me to a mutual friend years later, by saying that I marched to a different drum.  I am told that he meant it as a compliment, and I certainly took it as one.  As a Homeschool Dad who is actually the stay at home teacher rather than the go to work provider, I am used to sore thumb status.  I finally got our co-op to stop calling the break room the Mom's room and refer to it as the parents room instead. 

Seriously, I think I can learn a lot by being with so many bloggers in one place, that my sore thumbs won't mind so much.

Or I could, as Steven Keaton explained to his wife Elise in Family Ties what he would do at an all female architects convention, arm wrestle for money.


3. I'd like to learn some technical aspects of blogging especially advertising.

I would love to do more advertising on this blog and would like to talk with other bloggers how they do that.

4. Because winning a ticket is much better than losing a ticket.

Seriously, you are on you way out the door to go see a show. Then you realize you don't have the tickets. Where are they?  Now we are going to be late.  Puppy did you make that mess?!?


5.  I love D.C. and have relatives in the area I could stay with.

6.  To find out how to increase my readership. 

I think being a teaching blogging Dad in a Mom's world hinders the type of audience I can attract.  However, maybe this conference can help me get the word out on HSD as well as give me new strategies for increasing my readership.

7. I could certainly use the spiritual refreshment.

  I like that this conference is faith based. Teaching my kids at home is the toughest job I ever have had.  It depletes my energy and my spirituality.  A conference like this will be a great blessing.

So those are 7 reasons why I'd like to win a ticket to the conference.  I'll be back later today with some Friday Fragments.