No, I was not hit by a car (though I did almost hit a deer). And no, I haven’t dropped off the face of the planet, though that trip is at the tail end of the planning stages, and I expect to go through with it in the next few months. I hear it’s quite a blast, though getting back on the face of the planet is kinda troublesome. Let’s just say that, with a new job position, new hours for that position, and new forms of recreation at a friend’s house, I haven’t really been home all that much to do a lot of blogging. And let’s face it - the age of the personal blog (excluding those blogs that are specifically focused on a certain topic or area of expertise) has just about seen it’s demise, courtesy of “new” (not really new, but perhaps mostly mature) outlets like Twitter and Facebook, to name a few. For self-published news digests, how-tos, and other related miscellany, blogs remain the sine quo non of their fields. But for personal communication, social networking sites have taken over as the new standard in forcing your up-to-the-second status on people. Hey, at least with blogs people could choose whether or not to view what you were having for dinner.

All that to say, things have been quiet around here, with the exception of that HCSB thread that keeps getting traffic on a consistent basis. To all who have commented - you should be receiving yours shortly. My source apologizes for the delay.

And what back-from-the-grave update would be complete without a notification that more bloggers have been added to the list? Check this out:

1. Title: GraceFlow
   • URL: http://www.graceflow.org
   • Author: J. D. Coleman
2. Title: The Mercied
   • URL: http://themercied.blogspot.com/
   • Author: Rebecca Phillips
3. Title: The Confessing Historian
   • URL: http://timtaylor.edublogs.org/
   • Author: Tim Taylor
4. Title: One Little Hour
   • URL: http://paulmatzko.edublogs.org
   • Author: Paul Matzko
5. Title: Cafe Biblia
   • URL: http://www.CafeBiblia.com
   • Author: Craig Johnson

Okay, who remembers’ back when I started this site and people were thinking, “Who’d want to scorn mounty? mounty scorner? What’s that about?” Well, eventually word got around, one way, or the other, that no one was scorning anything and the site, in fact, represented mounty’s little corner of the internets. The folks at 1&1 didn’t get that message:

Some Friday afternoons are frantic - trying to get things done before the day ends. Others are…um…not. I’ll leave it as an exercise in imaginative thinking to decide which today fell under, for me at least. It led me back to a stray thought that’s been banging around my head for a while. I shall start my discourse in true mathematician style:
Click for more…

This, oddly enough, is post 500. I just now noticed this as I logged in to add juxtaposition, the official blog of Beth Murschell (BJU and, again oddly enough, UBCS alum), to the list. Congrats, Beth, on being the occasion of my 500th post!

Now I gotta go find a party hat for Groovin’ Guy (c)…

I’ve made some changes this weekend. The biggest is that I’m now running WP 2.1 Release Candidate 2. It’s interesting and all that - mostly I just try to keep up with the most recent releases. If you notice any quirks let me know.

Speaking of quirks, some of you may have noticed that occasionally this site looks like all the text has been piled on top of itself. I know it does this in 2.0.x releases of Firefox on Windows XP; if you see it on any other OS/browser, let me know. At the moment I’m calling it a Firefox bug, but just because I haven’t seen it elsewhere doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen. Thanks.

One good thing about subscribing to boring news feeds like the one for Wordpress.org is that you find out quickly when a new update has been released. Wordpress 2.0.7 is out and features a few extra security patches. The upgrade from 2.0.6 to 2.0.7 was painfully easy - I only had to replace six files. As far as I can tell everything works correctly.

In other WP news, Wordpress 2.1 RC 1 is out for testing. If you’re the kind of person (like me) that likes playing around with release clients, you may want to download the RC and give it a whirl. I probably will sometime just to see what it’s like. I’ve seen screenshots, and I think I’m impressed. The list of new features is impressive, but then geeks are easily impressed by lists of new features. Time will tell.

I’m getting three or four new members a week using Cashette.com as their email domain. Since no one actually posts or subscribes using those accounts, I’m just going to start deleting them. I may even block the domain. If you happen to have an account with those folks and legitimately want to sign up, comment here. Also, if you used to have an account at mounty’s corner, but don’t anymore, and you think I deleted you for looking suspicious, comment here too and I’ll apologize or something.

This is close enough to the two-year, two-month anniversary of the starting of this blog. (So I’m late. Sue me.) Yes, mounty’s corner has been around (at this domain) for just over two years. Before that there was the more-or-less ill-fated Blog-City home that lasted (I think) three months before I decided it was too much effort for so few features. Someone who’s not behind a firewall check and see if that’s still up and running. I’m kinda interested in pulling in the old posts for posterity.
Click for more…

I’d like to let everyone know that THE MAP is now online for your viewing pleasure. Details can be found on the actual page. Suffice to say it’s a geek’s paradise. XML, Ajax, LAMP…it’s the best of Enterprisey Web 2.0.

I just upgraded to Wordpress 2.0.5 - as always, WP admins/users are strongly recommended to upgrade. The swag can be found at the usual place and is a painless download and upgrade. If you find something that doesn’t work quite like it used to, drop me a comment or something.

There are also three more bloggers to report over at the list. First off, Pastor Jeff Davis up in Wilson, NC, submitted his blog shortly after the Calvary Quartet (minus me) ministered at his church. Go on by and check out PastorJD’s Weblog. Up next is Susan Elwart, family webmaster and winner of today’s Catchy Title award - I can see her blog now saying, “Hey Guys! Over Here!” And the most recent addition to the list comes from Alysia (and husband Ethan) LaVigne, proud parents and owners of The LaVigne Family blog. Do yourself and these folks a favor and check out the fine blogging on a variety of topics.

Finally, I leave you with a bit of my vacation. This picture (click for the whole thing) was taken on the rocks at the Portland Head Light in Portland, Maine. It was cold, windy, and absolutely gorgeous. There was some concern about whether we were allowed to be out there beyond the fence…meh.

Fifteen hours. It took fifteen hours to get from Telford back to SC. I could almost go back and forth in that time if I were driving my car (and there were no state troopers on the road). Long though it was, and cramped as we were, it was still worth it.
Click for more…

Someone using IE 6 check the single post pages and tell me if that grey bar is lined up right. Looks good in IE 7, but I don’t have IE 6 here to test. Someone check it out and report back, PLEASE!!! I think I got it - I added a position: relative; height: 1%; declaration to the rightbar post_wrapper div, and that appears to have solved the problem.

UPDATE: Apparently it’s only fixed when there are comments the post length hits a certain vertical height. If there are no comments, then it’s not lined up right. I’m close…I can feel it…

UPDATE 2: Now I think it’s fixed. Tip of the hat and mad props to Brade for suggesting that 1% hack. Remains to be seen what IE 6 and other browsers do with it, so please do comment.

For the next few days, as my webhost switches over to a new server and restores everything, you may experience some functionality loss, particularly on the list. Fear not - I’ve got a few backup measures in place to make sure I don’t miss entries…like the 50-odd (okay…actually it was only 7) entries by one Caroline Lee this morning. Thanks, Caroline, for getting me in touch with at least one friend I’d lost contact with. See? Isn’t the list great?

Out of the barren wasteland of not-funniness, I come riding to your rescue. Yes, faithful few, stats are back after a several-month hiatus. I could claim that the reporting means for all my raw logs were scrambled for the past three months…or I could just admit that I was too lazy to compile these. Take your pick.

First, a school update. GA’s now pay for only the meals they attend, but the price of laundry went up $0.25 a load. Supposedly it’s an even trade, but I’d prefer getting charged for not eating Swedish Meatballs (blech) than having to pay an extra quarter for every load of laundry.

And now, the stats for July:

Most viewed: More from Good News Publishers with 27 views. Pitiful, I know. I think something’s wrong with my stats tracker.

Browser stats:

BTW, did you hear about Firefox Day? Supposedly it was July 15, but I didn’t hear anything about it until today.

Top Referrer: As usual, I weed out the SI blogroll and any referrals from my own site. That done, Katie Jaspers is July’s top referrer, probably over a span of less than a week, too. It’s funny in a way - usually my top referrer comes from someone I’ve actually met at one point or another. Oh well. Congrats, Katie…I wish it didn’t have to come like it did.

Searches:

12 out of the top 50 searches were about the whole Maranatha thing. Combine that and the 30 comments on that thread before I closed commenting, and I’d say that issue pretty well dominated this site last month. On the lighter side:

• DORGH - I know. Sometimes I feel like shouting that, too. SOMETIMES I EVEN DO SHOUT.
• wallpapers of honesty is the best policy - Try under http://www.parent-isms.com
• may the good lord bless you and keep you John Rutter - John Rutter has done a number of spirituals, and if you pronounce this right (”Lawd” instead of “Lord”), you’ve got another one that he may have written.
• meter for hymn I could not do without Thee O Savior of the lost, - It’s funny - if you know the words, and you know how to count, you can probably find the meter…though it’s pretty tough.
• twisted mounty - Only when I’m in a disagreeable mood…or when I’m doing these stats.
• threat in opening a coffee corner - Too much caffeine? Is that a threat?
• 4 corner napkin quarter scam - This, as opposed to a 2 corner napkin. Or maybe a two-thirds scam.
• dangers of toilet paper - “But next, we’ll discuss the hidden dangers of a very common thing. It’s probably in your house, and you probably never even thought about it. Why you should lock up your TP and run screaming for the hills…next, on Channel 13 News.”
• Controversy-Pensacola Christian College - Did they change their name? I’m not sure many people in “our orbit” actually picked up on that.
• how to brade parts of our hair - When multiple personality disorder meets mistaken identity. Don’t worry if you don’t get it - very few people will.
• count of mounty crystal - When French Lit meets homophones.
• pic celebrate halloween in a godly way - I can hear it now: “Look, everyone! I’m St. Sebastian, and these are real arrows!”
• pictures of chronic bronchitis - Ewwwwww.
• most romantic restaurant in greenville, SC - Still trying to figure out how this led to my site.
• missed one - No, I didn’t.

Until September 1, adieu.

I’m creating a new category - Site News - which will serve as your clue that, unless you are that fascinated by what goes on behind the scenes, you can safely ignore what was written and still be considered cool.

This, however, should not be ignored, at least not right off the bag. I’ll make it bold for you: if you’re running Wordpress, YOU SHOULD BE RUNNING THE LATEST VERSION THAT CAME OUT TONIGHT - 2.0.4!

There. I’ve said it. I feel better. I promise I won’t shout again. I shout because I have been made aware of a security flaw that existed in 2.0.3 an earlier that has the potential to cause severe embarassment, at the least. I won’t go into details, but you should upgrade IMMEDIATELY (sorry!) if you haven’t done so yet.

…

So why are you still here? Go! Now! Oh, wait…the download site. Oops. Here. Now go!