Thanks to Doulos.

The audio from the “Band of Bloggers” panel discussion is now available for download here.

According to the site that does the ratings:

This rating was determined based on the presence of the following words:
death (6x) hell (1x)

By including that information above, the counts for “death” and “hell” jump to 7x and 2x respectively. Actually, 8x and 3x because of that sentence. Anyway, I wonder if that bumps me up to PG-13?

There comes a time in everyone’s life when they realize, “Hey, I’ve really made a colossal mess of my bookmarks!”

That time came for me recently. Specifically, with regard to my del.icio.us links. If you don’t know what del.icio.us is, well, it’s a “social bookmarking” tool that lets you basically store favorites on the web. Click the link there to learn more.

Anyway, my del.icio.us links got to be quite a mess. For starters, I never used tags when I started using the service. Plus, I had a lot of stuff that I would bookmark hoping to get back to later, but never ever did. So… I decided to “reboot” my del.icio.us. Actually, what I did was export everything, wipe it all out, and add back in the wheat only, leaving the chaff behind. (Well, at least in my opinion.)

One other result of this is that I’ve now added My del.icio.us Links to the sidebar on the right. You can see my 5 most recent bookmarked items, or click the title (“My del.icio.us Links”) to view all my links. In case you’re interested in what I have found interesting on the web…

And speaking of reading I find interesting, the other addition to the right sidebar is my Google Reader Shared Items. These are basically blog posts that I’ve read recently that I find interesting. (And you can see all my shared items by clicking the More link at the bottom of the list.)

The bottom line is that whenever you visit my site, even if I haven’t posted anything, there’s probably still something new to read! Enjoy…

My esteemed colleague Joanna has awarded me with the prestigious Blogger Reflection Award.

I remember the first time I heard of the Blogger Reflection Award, as though it were yesterday. Actually, more like the day after yesterday. I was sitting at my desk this morning, reading my usual blogs (see the sidebar on the right; note to self – update the sidebar). And I read the above-referenced post from Joanna, where she was awarded the Blogger Reflection Award herself. (To keep from typing that over and over, I will hereafter refer to it as the “Reflecty.”)

After gushing over the honor of being a Reflecty recipient herself (“Thanks, Ashley!”), Joanna proceeds to nominate others for this prestige, along with the “Rockin’ Girl Blogger” award which, sadly, I did not qualify for. Some sort of technicality.

Writes Joanna,

James, a coworker, has a blog that he fills with book reviews, links, and very reflective thoughts on faith. His deep thought always challenge me to examine my own heart and beliefs, and I appreciate it.

Thank you, Joanna, for this award. Part of me wonders if the award is to put pressure on me to come up with more deep thoughts. I shall certainly try to live up to the challenge. In the meantime, there’s always this.

Note: Part of receiving this award is to then pass on to others. I will therefore also be trying to come up with other reflective blog favorites to nominate.

Read the Bible first.
It is important to read what God is saying in the morning before reading what bloggers or news reporters have to say.

And other advice on being a better blog reader here.

OK, if you use a newsreader like Google Reader to read the site, I apologize for the flooding of old posts this morning. I’m trying to get Technorati to recognize my recently-implemented tags.

Also, I recommend not visiting the site itself at the moment, as things are a bit slow until that’s done. I recommend trying later this afternoon…

Update, 4:20 PM: I’m done playing with  the site. For now.

As you may or may not have noticed, I’ve updated the look and feel of the site. I think this new theme is easier to read than the old one. I’ve also spent the past few days going through and cleaning up some old posts. I haven’t changed any content, but I have…

• Updated broken links where I found them, particularly internal ones from when I migrated the site to WordPress
• Fixed old pictures (baby pics!) that were lost in the migration also
• Updated all Bible links/references to use the cool ESV plugin. I also hacked the plugin to be able to use the Flash player for the “Listen” link at the top of each Bible excerpt. Try it out, and listen to the Bible being read to you as you read my posts.

And that’s about it for now. I’ll be tweaking the sidebars over the coming weeks, so keep an eye on those. Until next time…

My friend Jerry has just joined the blogosphere. He starts with a review of Iain Murray’s The Forgotten Spurgeon. Welcome, Jerry!

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the challenges of blogging, and the first one I’ve identified is this…

“First Season Jitters”

What does that mean? Well, let me tell you.

Have you ever noticed how bad the first season of TV shows are? Especially shows that turn out to be really good. You go back and watch the reruns of the first season and ask yourself, “How did this ever turn out so good?”

Examples:

Star Trek: The Next Generation.
When this show started, I was 14, a huge classic Trek fan, and a geek. (I’m no longer 14, but that’s about all that’s changed.) I was ready for new Star Trek on TV. And… it stank. It was wooden, contrived, and, amazingly boring. Check it out. You can identify any first season episode of ST:TNG by this – Riker doesn’t have the beard. Compare any episode with a beardless Riker with any later episode, and you’ll see what I mean. The show turned out to be pure gold, but what a shaky start!

Seinfeld
When Seinfeld first came on the air, it was good, but not as good as later. What was missing? The interweaving story lines. Character development. Elaine wasn’t even in the first episode, and Jason Alexander spent most of season one acting not like George Costanza, but Woody Allen.

So… I’ve got the First Season Jitters.
Yep. No doubt about it. I’m worried that my “first season” of blogging will turn out like a beardless Riker. Or an overly nervous Woody Allen wannabe. Oh, I’m sure my writing will grow to the later, better developed Number One. Or the more mature “my life stinks but I’m not going to be neurotic, I’m going to relish it” George. But until then, things might be a bit bumpy.

What to do? I will press onward. I will let my writing (hey, it’s been 13 years since college) redevelop naturally, and through consistent practice. And I’m confident things will work out OK.

Bear with me, my friends. Bear with me…