I’ve noticed a trend in the past several months of people not putting their real names or any contact/location information on their blogs in order to protect their privacy. I’m not a stickler about this, but I am also not about to post my name, age, social security number, phone (home and cell), and street address in a blog post or on my blog. But I’ll put up a way for the reader to contact me (e-mail) if they really want to.

Some people keep all indentifying information off their blogs. They come up with cute names for their family members and use those instead. Or they write things like K. and A. took L. for a walk with their dogs M. and S. or My DH told my DD to find her shoes. They don’t post pictures, and there is no way to contact them.

Personally, I feel that if you are going to write for the world to read, just use your normal name. You don’t have to use a last name but seriously, do you know how many Sarah’s, Tom’s, Jacob’s, etc. there are in this world?

But here’s the one that I don’t understand. The blogger goes through a ton of effort not to reveal who they are, where they live, or any other details but they post about 1000 pictures per entry of their kids, their house, their car (with license plate numbers showing), their pets, their parents and anything else you can think of. If you are going to plaster your kids faces all over your blog, what difference is it going to make if the world knows that the 6 mo. old naked in the bathtub is Little Janie or DD? Either way, when your kid is 16 she is going to be really pissed that you posted that picture online.

Sorry I’ve missed a couple posts. Getting ready to leave for Kansas and then driving for 12 hours the next day doesn’t leave much time for blogging. I’ll make up for it with some riveting posts later this week.

Anyway, just a quick update, we’ve received our copy of the home study, now we are waiting for a few more documents to show up in the mail (hopefully they will be waiting for us when we get home) and then we can send in our dossier.

And HUGE thank you to the people who have donated.

Here are a couple of interesting blogs on adoption:

San Fransico to Ghana - These 4 people went to Ghana to start an orphanage.

Steppin’ Heavenward - A family of 9 kids. 5 are biological, 4 are adopted from Ethiopia and they are waiting for 2 more to come home from Ghana (the orphanage from the first link).

Bringing Desta Home - a couple adopts a girl from Ethiopia who is HIV positive.

Happy Reading.

I just realized I posted about 4 new entries in one sitting. Mostly because the computer was being crabby this weekend so this is the first time I’ve been able to log on in a few days. But the list of random, rapid-fire posts is over now.

Thanks for playing.

It’s opinion time.

Kevin gave me a couple of links to easily change the look of my blog. It involves no “techy” work at all, which is good, because I don’t really care that much about the tech part of the site. I don’t like dealing with the code and programming and all that (every time I link to something I make Kevin tell me the code for it). All I really want to do is have a place to ramble.

So here’s the deal. I’ve been looking through some of the skins that people have created. Some of them are sort of fun looking (all though I am sure that the graphic designers of the world are sheilding their eyes, but whatever), some of them are cutesy looking and some I can’t decide if they are so ugly they are cool, or if they are just plain ugly. I’ll probably switch the look of my blog several times before I decide on one, so if you have any input on the look, now is the time to speak up. I won’t be offended if you can’t stand it since I didn’t design it. So, tell me what you think.

You may have noticed that the look of my blog has gone from boring to worse. Apparently my site is not letting people comment, even after they sign up. So Kevin tried resetting the blog template, hoping to fix it. That didn’t really do anything except make it look worse than it already did.

Hopefully we can get everything working again soon. But until then, if the site rejects your comments know that I still love you.

Since it’s a crappy day outside, I’ve decided to catch up on my blogging - even though I don’t really have much to say.

But here’s what I am thinking. This site needs an overhaul. It’s pretty dull. Even the colors are dull. I’m not thinking I need anything big and fancy - and absolutely nothing that spins, bounces, flashes, blinks, or makes any type of noise when you load the page - but I do think that I need a few pictures, maybe a banner at the top, a new color scheme…what do you think?

We’ve moved all of the entries that talk about Madeleine to a new blog: But Dad. And cute baby pictures can be found here.

Les Savy Four (from Jenell)

FOUR JOBS I’VE HAD:
– Selling overpriced, tacky Black Hills Gold rings to men who forgot birthdays/anniversaries/Christmas from Shopko’s jewelry counter
– Construction Clean-up
– Unloading trucks for Market Day fundraisers
– Babysitter

FOUR MOVIES I’D WATCH ON REPEAT:
– 10 Things I Hate About You
– Reality Bites
– LOTR Two Towers
– Two Towers is really long so it counts as 2 movies

FOUR TV SHOWS I LOVE:
– Cosby Show
– Gilmore Girls
– The Muppet Show
– Buffy the Vampire Slayer

FOUR CAREERS THAT APPEAL TO ME:
– Teacher
– Social Worker
– Receptionist
– Dog Trainer

FOUR JOBS (FILLED BY PEOPLE I KNOW) AT WHICH I WOULD BE TERRIBLE:
– artist
– scientist
– the one where you work on computer programs all day
– cable guy

FOUR VACATION LOCALES I’D LIKE TO HIT:
– Alaska
– Australia
– Disney World
– Washington

FOUR FOODS I LUST AFTER:
– chocolate peanutbutter ice cream
– corn on the cob
– grapefruit/oranges/clemetines
– really good hamburgers

FOUR CHANGES I’D MAKE TO THE HOUSE:
– add more closets
– add a den/office/library type room
– change the exterior color from ugly reddish/brown to anything else
– take the carpet off the stairs

FOUR BEERS I LIKE:
– I’ll get back to you on this one.

TAG:
– You’re it.
– You’re it.
– You’re it.
– And you.

What I like: (in no particular order)
Kevin
My Dog
Computers
Reading
Teaching
Kids
Killer Bunnies
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Chocolate
E-mail
HomeStarRunner
Blogs

What I Hate:
Blogger - I hate the fact that it takes hours, sometimes days to have a comment show up on the site. I hate the fact that you have to have a blogger account in order to not be known as “annoynomous.” I hate the fact that when I tried to get a blogger account to fix the “annoynomous” situation every name I entered said that it was already in use. Okay, seriously how many people do yo think are trying to use the name “chicken head” for their account? In general, I hate blogger. I love all of the blogs that all my friends have on blogger but their commenting systems sucks royally.