New Guest Editor's Picks for 6/24; Plus, a Call for Icon Ideas

Hi everybody, as I posted in the Journals Message Board, the new Guest Editor's Picks are up on the Journals main page, so please check them out.

Our Guest Editor this week is Paul (owner of Aurora Walking Vacation, Cowboy Poetry and other blogs.)

Paul is also Canadian, which explains all those funny date formats and strange spellings you'll see throughout his Journal.

Here are some of his top picks:

• Simian Farmer


• Point & Counterpoint


• Slack Back Mack


• Dust Bunny Club


• Dribble by Chuck Ferris


• In the Shadow of the Iris

Paul's theme linking all these blogs is interesting or unusual use of language. See more about why he picked what he picked, as well as some additional blog links, in his blog entry.

In other news, we're supposed to be getting a widget for the Journals main page that will show you a listing of all your Journals (it's a control panel, similar to the one on hometown.aol.com), but it keeps getting held up in production. Stay tuned.

Lastly, as I mentioned in the headline, I'm putting on my Expressions hat and calling out for ideas for blogging Buddy Icons. 

Since the Buddy Icon format is so restrictive (animated GIF, 48x48, under 5K), I'm thinking some sort of logo image with some sort of slogan, such as:

• I have a blog and I'm not afraid to use it.


• Back Off...I Blog


• Hey Baby, What Are You Blogging?


• and of course, the straightforward "Check Out My Blog."

If you have any suggestions, leave a comment or send me an e-mail at JournalsEditor@aol.com

That's it for now, have a great weekend. -- Joe

Tag: Guest Editor's Picks

Cleared: 6/22 Journals Outage

Hi all...we just had an outage, which I posted to the Journals Message Board. It started about 11:30am EDT and lasted just under 30 minutes. It should be fixed now.

This one was stranger than most.

Right now, it looks like they were moving around some hardware on the back-end, to replace some of the host machines. Typically, this kind of stuff is scheduled in the off-off hours (like very early in the morning), but apparently circumstances forced this one to go during the day.

So, like I said, Journals went down around 11:30am. They came back about 10 or 15 minutes later, but it was a good news/bad news thing:

Good News: Journals were back.

Bad News: Journals were all in Chinese.

Since this doesn't count as "resolved", they took Journals back down.

I did, however, get my screenshot, here:


I was somewhat annoyed that the Magic Smoke art header didn't come in, nor my Darth Tater photo.

Anyway, if you have a screenshot of your Journal in Chinese, post it to your blog and leave a link in the comments here.

Journals are back up now. Needless to say, I am very curious to see the explanation behind this one. Thanks -- Joe

Twofer Tuesday (Burrito Bonus & Tough Town)

Saw this on the DCist blog (it's a Washington, DC local interests blog -- AOL HQ is in the outer DC suburbs)  -- Chipotle (McDonalds's burrito-arm -- they make a pretty substantial burrito, though) is having a "Summer Soul-stice" special, where if you buy a burrito today (the summer solistice, as mentioned by Scalzi), save the receipt and it's good until Sunday for another burrito.

Like I said, it's a pretty substantial burrito -- between 800 and 1,000 calories a pop -- they don't give out nutritional info.

For more calorie-counting fun, check out http://www.cockeyed.com/science/food/food1.html -- Cockeyed.com isn't a blog, per se, but I see their stuff referenced on a lot of blogs; mostly because they do stuff like find out just how much is inside a can of shaving cream or replace the menus at TGIF.

Oh, and I almost forgot -- you know DC's a tough town when the police chief's car gets stolen.  -- Joe

Monday Stuff

Hi folks...no big updates at the moment. 
For me,

Monday is largely a day to catch up on all the stuff that happened
over

the weekend, and to reset for the upcoming
week.

Because I have

to keep abreast of stuff going on in the world and the blog space, I

tend to read a lot of technology sites and blogs (as well as the usual

current events and weird news sites). I won't give you a full download

of my routine, but I thought I would share a few of my usual Monday

sites:

• Chuck Shepherd's News of the Weird -- 'Nuff
  said.
 
• Yahoo's Most Popular News
  
  -- Covers most mailed, most read and most recommended news stories
  
  & photos. On the photo side, there are an inordinate number of
  bikini pics and runway models
  wearing sheer tops, which I guess is to be
  expected.
 
• The New York Times Technology Section (free
  NYT registration required)
 
• Jim
  Romenesko's Obscure Store & Reading Room -
  Weird news, as well as the foibles of the media (now in blog
  format).
 
• C|Net's News.com

 

Also, today found me at a couple of sites that I
check out periodicially:





Lifehacker.com

Tradetricks.org

Both

of these sites are dedicated to tips, tricks and shortcuts -- ways to

get things done.  Specifically, I was looking to see if anyone
had

anything on how to retie a tassel -- as you can see in the photo
below,

the tassel on my loafer keeps coming undone -- I haven't figured out

how to fix it:





If you have any ideas (hot
glue? straight pin?), please post a comment.

I
should have some more blog-specific stuff later in the week. -- Joe

Weekend Weirdness (or POTATOOOOOOOO)

 Hi folks...here are a few random weird blog and Web links for your weekend perusal and amusement.  It is mostly an excuse for me to post a picture of my Darth Tater:

(That background is actually a metallic fabric curtain that a co-worker of mine uses as a cubicle door...it looks pretty cool.)

From Boingboing.net (if there are A-List bloggers, the guys who run BoingBoing are it): Neal Stephenson, noted cyperpunk author, defends the Star Wars prequel trilogy in a New York Times op-ed (NYT registration required -- you can try www.bugmenot.com if you are so inclined), by basically saying that if you had done your homework -- watched the animated Clone Wars series,
read the comic books, etc. -- then you wouldn't be complaining about
the movies, making fun of Darth Christensen's overwrought
"NOOOOOOOOOOOO" at the end of Episode III, etc.

In fact, NOOOOOOOOOOO
has taken on a life of its own on the Web, as evidenced by a slew of
parodies such as Darth Vader's appearance on 'Wheel of Fortune': http://vaderfortune.ytmnd.com/ (You might need to refresh your browser after it loads.)

A little background on ytmnd.com (the site has some NSFW stuff -- Not Safe For Work
-- mostly naughty words & such).  YTMND stands for "You're the
man now, dog!", which was a big Sean Connery line from the movie 'Finding Forrester'.

For some reason, it took on new life on the Web at www.yourethemannowdog.com, and has grown into a subculture of sound bites and simple animation, repeated over and over and over again....(KHAAAN!  -- Flash clip)

Lastly, just because it's a pet peeve of mine -- here's a link to the Apostrophe Protection Society,
dedicated to stopping the misuse and abuse of apostrophes.  Like
using them wrongly as plural's [sic]. Oh, the blog bit? I think I found
it off of the Testy Copy Editors group blog.

Anyway, a little random weirdness for your weekend. -- Joe

AOL Journals Guest Editor's Picks for June 17, 2005

Hi everybody...heads up: This is mostly a repeat of my post to the Journals Message Boards.

Posting as a blog entry, though, should reach additional folks, plus it
gives

us some built-in archiving, so it should still be useful.



Here are the Editor's Picks for June 17,
2005:



As noted, we're trying a new programming feature, the AOL
Journals Guest Editor's Picks.



Dan, of Slapinions, is our inaugural Guest
Editor,

and here are some of his top blog picks.  Be sure to check out his blog entry where he talks

about his picks, why he chose them, and more:



* Tom's Astronomy Blog


* PostSecret


* Coldheartedtruth


* 'No One's Child'


* The
Squatch


* ArloAndJanis.com



But wait -- they're not AOL Journals!



Here's what's going on with the Guest Editor's Picks.



We're shaking things up a bit. Why? We've painted
ourselves into a bit

of corner, and in doing so, we're missing out on a lot of the stuff

that's going on in the wide, wonderful blogosphere out there.




And frankly, they're missing out on us, as well. By embracing more of

the blogosphere at large, we're trying to get them to embrace us back

(and link to us, and post comments in our Journals).



(It wouldn't have made sense to do this before AIM

Blogs came along -- now, though, bloggers can play in "our"

space, while still being a part of the blogosphere.)



Here's how it the process seems to be going:



1. Send me your name and blog address if you're
interested in being a Guest Editor.



2. If I pick you to be a Guest Editor, you then choose 6-8 of
your top

blogs  -- AOL Journals or blogs on the
Web-at-large -- and send them to

me.  If you like, you can choose a theme, or you can choose to
not use

a theme (or in some cases, I might ask you to incorporate a

theme). 



(2a. Note that in this particular case, all of the featured blogs were

non-AOL --

this is up to the Guest Editor's discretion, though I anticipate that

most folks will have a mix of Journals & other types of
blogs.)



3. Then, you do a blog entry, talking about your
picks, why you chose

them and a little bit about yourself.  If you want to
throw some love

out to fellow Journalers & bloggers, you can do that,
as

well.



4. Lastly, you send me a photo and a
completed photo release. (We'll coordinate all the
timing and details.)



5. When Friday comes around, I'll feature your photo, blog entry and

your top 6 (or so) sites on the AOL Journals main page.



There are more changes coming, not the least of which is I will be

posting here more often (not just when stuff breaks). I will let you

know -- please leave your comments below.

Lastly,
in

response to some of the early comments in the Message Boards and mails

I've gotten -- I think that everyone (even the suits over here)

recognizes that the AOL J-Land community is a unique group of folks

with a distinct character, not to mention being a powerful

resource.

It's kind of a fancy way to say that we

definitely want to preserve that flavor, as well as grow it
(hopefully,

one can have it all)-- we're going to be working on more tools and

programming to nurture those connections, so I look forward to

continuing this discussion with everyone.



Thanks, and Happy Father's Day -- Joe

































Tag: Guest Editor's Picks

Cleared: Private Journals Now Showing Up in List

Hi everybody -- the previously reported problem is fixed: you should be
able to see your Private Journals on the list of your Journals at http://hometown.aol.com.



Looks like some new Hometown machines were installed.  The
Journals machines talk to the Hometown machines; they have a list that
specifies which machines they're allowed to talk to, and the new
Hometown boxes weren't on that list.  It's been updated.



So we should be okay now. 



Thanks -- Joe

Private Journals Not Showing Up in List

Hi...the ops guys are currently working on a problem where Private
Journals are not showing up in your list of Journals (when you go to
http://journals.aol.com or http://hometown.aol.com [which are the same page, actually]).



Scalzi had passed along the report from a user, so thanks for the heads-up.



Your actual Private Journal is not affected -- it's just not showing up in the list -- Scalzi has a few workarounds listed on how you can access your Private Journal directly.

We'll let you know when it gets fixed.

Thanks -- Joe

Editor's Picks & Storm Blogs

Hi everybody...if you haven't seen yet, the new Editor's Picks are up live now on the Journals main page; the theme is blogs that are Different (a.k.a. weird, niche, or offbeat), so check them out.

In other news, people are watching out for the first tropical storm of the season, Arlene (it's currently a tropical storm, but may strengthen to a hurricane);
here are some of your blog entries about how Arlene is affecting your
lives:

• Peas or Carrots
• BeckyJean's Blog
• Severe Weather Discussion
• Treasure Chest Full of Life
• My Day of Thoughts to You
• Life in Gulf Coast Florida
• Living in Savannah 2
• RC
• Our Lives
• Making a Home
• Southern Comfort
• Joy's Journal
• Pocket Queens

Stay safe and dry, and have a good weekend. -- Joe

Cleared: 6/7 Journals Outage

Hi all...as I posted to the Journals Message Board, there was a Journals outage today that started around 5:17pm EDT, lasting a little over a half-hour.

Early
reports indicate it had something to do with firewall settings on a new
Journals host that was added to the rotation. (A Journals host machine,
of which there are several, handles the heavy lifting for viewing and
editing blog pages.)

We should be okay now (hence "cleared" in
the title. When choosing among any number of synonyms for "repaired,"
issues are usually "cleared," "resolved" or less often, "closed." )

In
an unrelated story, there were reports of sporadic problems (affecting
about 2% of users at any given time) viewing Journals this past Sunday
and Monday.

This was due to network problems with an "upstream provider" (basically, someone closer to the "backbone" of the Internet).

That problem also looks like it cleared up -- please leave a comment or send me an e-mail if you're experiencing problems.

That's enough with the "quotes" for one post.

Thanks -- Joe

Notes on the New Editor's Picks

Hi, folks. Happy Friday.

This week's Editor's Picks are live up on the Journals main page. The theme is Travel, and as I noted in my post to the Journals message board, we're looking at a few different aspects of travel and traveling.

A few thoughts:

• There are a good number of blogs out there by folks who are living abroad, teaching English to students. Maybe a future theme in and of itself.


• Special kudos to Jack & Sherry, keepers of the Ship's Log blog. They're hiking a section of the Appalachian Trail, updating their blog using IM updates from an old laptop.


• Also, there are two Journals that I would like to give honorable mentions, since they were built specifically for events that are, alas, over: Myrtle Beach Bike Week 2005, chronicling a road trip from Delaware to South Carolina, and Ric's Alcan Journal, a diary of a three-month journey from Annapolis, MD to Anchorage, AK and back.

That's it for now; have a good weekend everybody. -- Joe

Journals Server Errors - Fixed

We were seeing some errors trying to view Journals & Blogs.



The Operations folks have been notified and are looking into it.



This just in -- there was a problem with the Web servers that handle
Journals & Blogs.  It should be fixed now -- if you're still
seeing error messages, try clearing your browser's cache and then
revisit.



Please leave a comment if you still see the server errors after you've cleared your cache.



Thanks -- Joe

Playing Favorites and Popping Windows

Hi folks...as some of you have already noticed,
the tech
guys rolled out a favicon for Journals yesterday:



A favicon is a little 16x16 icon that shows up in your URL bar, bookmarks
menu and other locations (depending on your particular Web
browser).



Here's the Wikipedia entry on
favicons, if you want the gory
details.

Oh, and
as I'm writing this, I realize that I can give you a useful tidbit: If
you want your blog's hyperlinks to pop open in a new
window, use this link
syntax (this presupposes that you know a little bit about handcoding
hyperlinks using HTML):

 <a target="_blank"
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Favicon">Wikipedia entry on
favicons.</a>



The target="_blank" bit tells the Web browser to
open the link in a new
window.  It's useful if you're sending people off your blog,
though I wouldn't recommend using it for links
within your blog -- your
browser's forward/back buttons should be good enough for
that.


One note of caution: The Journals text
entry field can be a little
finicky when you're entering raw HTML for hyperlinks (which is why I
put
the target in front of the href -- it just seems to work better that
way). 



If you play around with HTML, you might want to work in a
plain text editor, so you can save your work as you go along, and go
back as needed.


Talk to you later. -- Joe