retroblog.net

hey all! Just checking in after a full day of being super Retro Soccer Dad. yup, most saturdays means me chauffeuring around the kids to their various activities. Today’s highlight was seeing my 8 year old score his *first* official goal during a real match. that was super cool! I hope your weekend is going well. The weather is a bit *hot* around here for early May. we’re currently over 90 degrees at the moment. but I guess that better than cold and rainy, right?

anyway, I just wanted to wish all the moms that visit retroblog a wonderful and happy Mother’s Day weekend! Hope you all are enjoying yourselves!!

take care!!

As some of you already know, we recently had a rash of rude, obnoxious and just plain uncool comments here on retroblog. And like most bloggers, I like getting comments for the most part but when some oddball starts posting nonsense or starts harrassing others, it just gets on my damn nerves. Why should I empower these idiots by providing a platform that allows them to post whatever crude remark comes into their pea brain with absolutely no accountability for their actions? I guess in the Wild Wild Web it was inevitable and so I had to start placing all comments under moderation. I really didn’t want to do it but after what has been happening the last few weeks, it seems like the best thing to do. What this means is that your comments will have to be approved before they appear on the site.

And just to make things crystal clear, I thought I’d post some guidelines on what I consider an appropriate comment on a blog.

1) First of all, the comment needs to be on-topic. In other words, you should be posting something about the subject at hand and not about what you ate last night at Wendy’s (well, unless THAT was what the blog was about. heh). If you want to post something off-topic or want to address another user, please use the forums to do so and not on the blog.

2) Your comment should be coherent and should add some value to the blog. If it’s something like “You rock dude!” or “you’re full of crap!” don’t count on your post showing up here.

3) Be respectful to the blogger and the other commenters on the site. I’m open to other points of view. We don’t HAVE to agree on every subject. We’re all human so we’ll never see eye to eye on every issue. But if you are going to disagree on something, please put some thought behind your statements and add information to back up what you’re saying. If you’re going to criticize, please be constructive about it and not throw a hissy fit. We’re all adults here so let’s act like it.

4) Don’t be crude. No foul language and no harassing other individuals here.

Now don’t let this discourage you from commenting here. I’m all for comments and feedback. But I feel that this process needs to be put in place to keep the site healthy and in good running order. Thanks for your understanding.

—
**Update: 16Apr09 – After receiving feedback from all my regular commenters here, it appears that I may have overreacted in this situation. So, for now, I’ve opened comments back up for those that have “previously approved” comments. New commenters/visitors will still be moderated. Also, I’m going to be more proactive to placing those that don’t abide by these guidelines back into the “moderated” category.
—

As I’ve mentioned recently in previous post here, the wife and I are bound and determined to get this old house of ours back into shape. We’ve procrastinated long enough and let our duties as responsible homeowners fall by the wayside. In this sorry state of the economy, you just never know what will happen in the future so if the time comes when we need to move away, we want to be in a situation where the house would be pretty much ready to be put out on the market. We still have a way to go in getting our home in tip-top shape but I have to say that the exterior looks fabulous now with the recent paint job. Next on our list is to redo the window treatments that are located on the front side of the house. The sun rises on that side of the house so most of the blinds we have currently have discolored over time. We’ve been looking at various products that are currently available and stumbled across these new Eco-Solar Shades. Not only do these shades look cool and modern but they are also energy efficient – absorbing the heat of the sun during the summer months and keeping the cold out during the winter. I like the fact that you can still see through them while the shades are down which helps small bedrooms feel less closed in. But even with the shades being viewable, they still do their job and reduce the sun’s glare as well as protect us from harmful UV rays. And lucky for me, The Shade Store is currently offering 15% off purchases made on their website by using the code: IZEA01. Not only that but they’re offering free shipping as well. Now, how cool is that?

apparently an overnight billing system glitch caused hundreds of webhosting accounts (including mine) to be shut down. The glitch caused the system to view our accounts as delinquent and in turn, automatically switched our websites off. I’ve been trying to contact my web hosting provider all day but since they’re located in Australia and I’m in the eastern U.S., it’s impossible getting a hold of someone there during EST business hours since it’s night time on their side of the world. So, just in case any of you were wondering, that’s why the site was down today. Everything has been sorted out, I think. The support team is still investigating why the billing glitch occurred in the first place.

ugh. our house is falling apart. I can’t keep up with all the maintenance that’s needed. talk about a money pit. It’s more like, a bottomless black hole. The house is overdue for a paint job and there’s a bunch of rotted wood (mainly the trim) that needs replacing. And now we’ve been informed that our heat exchanger is cracked. and since our whole HVAC unit is approximately 11 years old, it’s recommended that we replace the whole unit instead of replacing just the heat exchanger. to make matters worse, they cut off the gas to the heat exchanger so we’ve got no heat right now.

so let’s see now…

exterior paint job
+ wood replacement
+ HVAC unit replacement
= I’m oh so screwed!

happy, happy, joy, joy!

I’ve posted in the past about how I hate mushrooms popping up on my lawn. Well, over the weekend while raking up the endless amount of fallen leaves on my lawn, I uncovered a slimy group of mushrooms that I haven’t seen before. I just had to take a photo because it reminded me of the “Little Shop of Horrors” movie except this time around it’s with mutant alien mushrooms.

and yes I had to touch them in order to remove these unwanted growths off my lawn. And YES, they were just as cold and slimy as they look. maybe even more so. yuck.

It’s tough trying to attain the perfect lawn. There are so many factors going against the average homeowner – long dry summers, fungus, persistent mushrooms and neighborhood dogs doing their business on them. Trying to keep my fescue healthy, luscious and green feels like a full time job at times. I’ve personally had a hell of a time this year trying to keep my lawn full and green especially since we’ve been under water restrictions for most of the year. Since I didn’t fare so well this year, I’m currently prepping the lawn for next season in hopes that things will turn out better next year. So, I spent a day earlier this week overseeding the lawn. There were a couple of bare spots that needed special care as well. Well, this morning I noticed some birds as well as some squirrels enjoying some of the seeds I laid down on those bare spots. I really got pissed seeing that happen. especially since I purchased the expensive name brand seeds this time around. I wonder if they even noticed that they were eating “gourmet” seeds. man, I can never catch a break!! …I guess I’ll head back out to spread some more seeds…

Night, field of stars above us
You pick one, we frame it with our fingers intertwined
Seeds of every generation between our hands
And the promise to teach you the little I have learned so far

Night, field of stars above us
I pick one and name it for you and all who are to come…

Seeds by Brooke Fraser

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

from the album Albertine
—

I sometimes think back on what I left behind at church – my friends, fellow bandmates, my faith. I’m still not totally sure if I made the right decision but I know I couldn’t stay. It just didn’t feel right to me to see a pastor living a relatively lavish lifestyle and driving around in a mercedes convertible. the church felt more like a business than a place of worship. Since I was part of the band for close to a decade there, I guess I was privileged in witnessing more of what goes on behind the scenes than the average church goer. And what I saw wasn’t about the holy spirit or nurturing the congregation. It was more focused on networking with the more prominent members of the community including local celebrities, athletes, politicians and the wealthy. Essentially the guideline was to latch on to the ones with higher profiles and the rest in turn will follow like sheep. So, it felt like the ones (like me) who didn’t have the money, power or celebrity status, were left on the wayside. And now that I’ve moved on, I’m wondering about the ones that stayed behind. Don’t they notice the corruption and the skewed preference for the wealthy and the elite? what about the downtrodden, the weak, the sick and the poor? Do they have their place in the megachurch? I guess, “the weak and the poor” can’t pay for the pastors’ McMansions and luxury vehicles like “the rich” can. and where is God in all this? Like today’s song of the day says – “Divine love never fails, mercy will prevail, I wanna swear it’s true but it’s hard to believe it.” It’s definitely the song of my heart.

Song of the day: Mercy Will Prevail by The Choir
I wanna swear it’s true but it’s hard to defend it
I know it comes from You and I don’t comprehend it
Love never fails, mercy will prevail
I wanna swear it’s true but it’s hard to defend it

In the chill of a cruel word
In the nest of a wounded bird
In the shadow of doubt, in the smoke
In the smoke of a torch blown out
In the flight of a sharp stone
In the rubble where children moan
In our own apathy, in the blood
In the river at Calvary
- Mercy Will Prevail (Hindalong, Byrd, Daugherty, Chandler)

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

(more…)

I’m grateful for all the rain this week especially since we’re all still recovering from a long drought. but man, the mushrooms are having a field day on parts of my lawn. there seems to be an endless supply of these things. I can’t seem to pull them out fast enough!

hhmmm, don’t some of these look a bit phallic to you? ..or is that just my mind in the gutter again?

wow. that was painful. my site went offline for about eight hours yesterday. wtf. I reported the problem to tech support pretty early on but since my hosting company is located in Australia, this was all happening “overnight” their time.

I never did get a straight answer from them but I think it had something to do with their nameservers.

well, at least the site is back up and running now.