Planned Topics for Blog Posts

Here are some of my planned topics for blog posts:

1.  The UFO phenomenon

      Alien abductions, best books on the subject, best evidence, common characteristics of reported cases

2.   Vlogging, making YouTube videos, video editing, best vloggers to check out

3.  Common misconceptions and false stories about the War for Southern Independance.

4.  Flying drones.  Laws, rules, best practices.

5.  The Near Death Experience

Writing as Therapy

For Christmas 1955, my mom bought me a Five Year Diary.  It covered the years 1956, 57, 58, 59 and 1960.  The pages were predated so I had to write every day to avoid a blank space.  I still have the diary.  I soon converted to one year hand-written diaries and kept them for 1961 - 1964.  It got me into the practice of journaling and I still do it to this day, but now it’s in the form of this blog and a Word file.  I still have all of the handwritten diaries, but hope to put them into Word format so they can be easily shared with friends and family.

Many therapists recommend keeping a journal.  It is good therapy, a way to figure life out and record a history of your failures and successes, your sorrows and joys.  I wrote about the assassination of JFK, Martin Luther King’s March on Washington, the first moon landing, and other historical events as they happened.

I generally want my personal journal to be separate from my blog, which is public.  When it is public you may have a tendency to self-censor, and to get the most benefit from journaling you need to be uninhibited in expressing yourself.  You are writing for yourself, not an audience, and that can make all the difference.

There is another journal that I would like to start, in the form of an autobiography.  It may or may not be public, or maybe limited to specific friends and relatives.  I don’t want my most memorable life experiences to be lost when I die.  It too will be in an online blog format.

Why make these journals in the form of online blogs?  Because if online, you can access them from your iPad or iPhone and post when the inspiration strikes, no matter where you are.  I have missed many chances to write when dependent on a laptop, but I always have my iPhone with me. 

Disqus Sucks as a Commenting System

Disqus is a great security system, if you want to be protected from reader comments and messages.  Since I installed it many months ago, comments to my blog have slowed to a trickle.  When I do get a rare comment, I have to jump through the same hoops as anyone else in order to reply.

Those hoops include a login, password and captcha screen before you can get through.  If you get the password or login name wrong, you won’t get an error message until after you’ve gone through the captcha maze. 

Today or tomorrow I am sending Disqus into oblivion.  Commenting should be easy and straight forward, and not require a phd in programming.

“Always On Watch” husband Dave Dies

Dave, husband of blogger “Always On Watch” died yesterday of natural causes in Virginia.  RIP Dave and condolences to AOW, his wife who cared for him since his debilitating stroke several years ago.

Fighting Covid; Blog Cleanup; Links

 i am still waiting for my Covid test results.  I think i probably have the virus as I have been ill for a week now with little to no improvement.

Today I deleted a lot of old links from my blog.  Those that remain are ones I can heartily recommend.  

Now I am off to the television set and my big armchair while I await inspiration as to to posting and graphic art.

Blog Cleanup; Looking for My Next Clipart Project

 I am in the process of cleaning up my blog roll, deleting old links that no longer work, or represent sites I rarely visit or read.  

I am now looking for ideas about possible clip art projects.  My recent King Tut project was the best and most satisfying graphic art that I have yet created.  I would like more projects with that degree of difficulty, that also express thoughts, feelings or memes about the demise of the United States.  I will give it some thought.  Suggestions are welcome.

Whoa, Blogging Really is Dead, Isn't It?

Whoa, I got 14 hits on my blog today.  I used to get 500.  Of course, I have been off the blogosphere for two years so a loss in followers in to be expected.  However, blog readership is down for just about everyone.  Vox Popoli calls blogging a dead horse.  They may be right.  Social media sites provide much faster reactions and input, and many bloggers have gone to FaceBook, Twitter, Parler, MeWe. 

I believe the best use for my blog right now is as an accumulator site for my several projects:  YouTube videos, Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator projects.  It will act as  storage site for those efforts and a place for relatives and personal friends to visit.

Merry Christmas. I Guess. What's Next?

 Merry Christmas, December 25, 2020!  

What did you get for Christmas?  I got a Wacom tablet to use in making Photoshops and Illustrator projects.  It is a computer mouse in pencil and tablet form.  You can draw with it.  It will take some practice before I can use it efficiently, but I am up to the task.

So we no longer have a country, what's next?  Civil War?  Secession?  Massive civil disobedience? All of the above?  Shall we be smothered in despair and give up all hope?

For me, the current situation is somewhat liberating.  I no longer have to worry about saving our Constitutional Republic -- it is already lost.  My worry has decreased substantially.  The Republican Party is not actively evil like the Democrats, but is useless, feckless, cowardly and easily led by the enemy.  Screw them.  We need a new party, one that the majority of conservatives can easily switch their allegiance to.  Now is the time to clean up the rubble and look to building something better.  

Also, I no longer care about having a wildly successful blog.  I don't care if anyone thinks I'm cool, or wants to invite me into their clique, or floods my site with hits.  I don't care if anyone likes me.  I blog for fun and self-expression.  My feeling about blogging is this:  a blog should be informative, interesting and fun.  FUN should be emphasized, since few of us want to listen to lectures from a scold who imagines he has all the answers.  

Commenting on Saber Point

Due to malfunctioning of my Disqus commenting system, I deleted and then reinstalled it.

It seems to be working for the moment.

IF YOU DON'T SEE A COMMENT BOX, just click on the title of the post.  That will bring up the commenting section.

Crickets and Web Crawlers

A few days ago I checked my Statcounter record of visitors to this blog.  Since I have been neglecting the blog, I expected to see a very low number of "hits."  I was shocked to see my hits were 500 - 700 hits per day.  However, I wasn't seeing a ton of visitors on my Revolver Maps globe.  What was up?

I figured it must be web crawlers from Google and other search engines.  I was right:  Google was giving me a digital colonoscopy.  But why?  I think I know.

Google is a very leftwing organization, and dislikes conservative content.  So they are scouring conservative sites to see if they can't unearth some tie to fascism,, "racism," White Supremacy or other excuse for deleting blogs.  That's my theory, anyway.

Anyway, I fixed Statcounter so that it does not record web crawlers as "hits."  Today my hits are back to their pathetically low level.  Why Google would even bother is beyond me.

Trouble Commenting at Saber Point? Problem Solved: Site Meter Has Been Removed

I've used Site Meter almost since I began this blog in 2006.  It has been great for gauging the flow of visitors and discovering what they find interesting here.  This week, however, the database containing my Site Meter data has apparently disappeared.  When folks tried to log on to this site, many would get a pop up screen advising them to log on to Site Meter.  You could cancel the pop up, but if you tried to comment, it would come back.

I may reinstall Site Meter later, but for now, I'm tired of dealing with its inoperability.  I removed it, and now you can comment again.

My First and Second Blogger Awards

As a blogger, I have received my second award.  My first was when The Skeptic's Dictionary website tagged Saber Point as "the dumbest website ever."  Whenever you piss off liberals, however, you are doing something right.  I was honored by their assessment of Saber Point.

My second award is from Political Clown Parade.  Saber Point is one of sixteen conservative blogs to be awarded the honor.  The award is for "Standing Guard Over Liberty," which is the motto of Political Clown Parade blog.

Here is the award:

I Hate Ask.com

Ask.com is a very aggressive search engine.  Somehow it installed itself as my default search engine in Internet Explorer 11, and all attempts to change it to Google have failed.  This program acts like a virus or malware in its stubborn resistance to being changed or deleted.  It is for this reason I will no longer use Internet Explorer, due to my inability to reset my home page and desired default search engine.

This overly aggressive marketing scheme can only give Ask.com a bad name. 

Meanwhile, my Google Chrome browser has ceased to function and cannot load pages from the internet.  So I am using Internet Explorer 11, with its pernicious Ask.com homepage, for the time being.

I have really liked Google Chrome, but it has ceased to function several times in the past.  Restoring to an operating condition has been difficult.  Reinstallation did not solve the problem.

UPDATE:  I downloaded and installed the Opera Web Browser.  So far it is quick and zippy and works great.  I think I have found my web browser.

UPDATE 2:  I bought a copy of the program "Spy Hunter" and installed and ran it on my computer.  This great little malware removal program removed the Ask.com toolbar from Windows Explorer and made my Chrome browswer operational again.  I have McAfee virus protection as well as Spybot Search and Destroy, but neither of these programs detected or removed the over 900 malware and adware programs on my computer.  Spy Hunter did, and is worth the price of around $35.

BACKUP YOUR BLOGSPOT BLOG! Protect Your Blog From Sabotage.

Kimberlin Unmasked was a blogspot blog, but the author did not backup the blog.  When Team Kimberlin lied to Google about the nature of the blog, Google terminated the blog without any confirmation of TK's false claims (i.e., that KU was a "spoof site").  The result of this was that the blog owner lost months of posts and comments.

To protect your blog content from similar malfeasance, you should back up your blog on a regular basis.  I back mine up after every post I consider most important.

Here are the steps I follow to backup my blogs:

1.  Create a folder on your hard drive called "Blog Backup."

2.  Bring up the home page of your blogspot blog.  Be sure you are signed in.

3.  In the upper right hand corner of the blog page, click on "Design."  The "My Blogs" page will appear.

4.  To backup your blog template (the blog design, page structure, colors and such), click on "Backup/Restore."  A file of your template will download into your download folder.  Move this file into your "Blog Backup" folder (created in step 1 above).  Note:  this template does NOT include your blog content, i.e. your posts, your comments, your pictures and graphics.  However, if you have customized your blog page in any way, backing up the template can save a lot of work in recreating it, should disaster strike.

5. To backup your blog content, click on "Settings" at the left of this same page.  A list of subheadings appear.  At the bottom of this list, click on "Other."  A new page will appear.

6.  At the top of the page, click on "Export Blog."  A file will now download.  This is your content backup.  Move it from your download folder to your "Blog Backup" folder.  These files designate the date of the download in the file name, so it is easy to see the date of the latest backup.

You are now backed up.

Tax Season Has Grabbed Me By The Butt

The tax season is upon me and suddenly I am stretched thin and not enjoying it.  So blogging has been light this week.  

Blogging May Be Light or Non-Existent

I am leaving for Las Vegas tomorrow morning and won't return for several days.  I may not have an internet connection available, so blogging may be light to nonexistent until I return.

"Confederate Gray" Blog Goes Online

My crummy week is almost over and I haven't blogged at all.  What time  I had after work was creating a new blog called "Confederate Gray."  I so enjoyed my last exchange (see prior post) with commenters that I decided to start a blog that focuses on the War for Southern Independence.  It is a major personal interest, since my great grandfather and his older brother both fought for the South with the Alabama Cavalry.

So how relevant is the WSI (War for Southern Independence) today?  Pretty relevant, I'd say.  There are some close parallels.  The Northern states who defied the Constitution and the laws in 1860 are similar to Barack Obama defying the Constitution and the laws today (by refusing to enforce federal immigration laws).    For Southerners of that time period, Lincoln's election was the last straw in what they saw as a long train of abuses.  If Obama is re-elected, I will see that as the last straw; however, not being a state myself, I won't secede.  I will, however, urge actual states to do so.

In any case, if interested, check out the new blog.  It is Confederate Gray.  If you are a Yankee, you may not like it.

Maggie's New Banner (at Maggie's Notebook): Guess Who Made It?

I made it!

With a little help from Maggie's fertile imagination, that is.  She proposed the silhouette of a young woman who resembles her in profile, and I added that.  Also, I thought her colors were a bit too tame and needed to be more vibrant.  Also, the previous Liberty Bell was also too tame.  I added one in color, with its brassy shine.  Brassy like Maggie!  I also, at her request, modernized the bell a bit.  She likes blue and brown, so I added a blue border around the banner.

I tried several icons but she didn't like any of them.  Finally, realizing that simple themes are best, I added an open notebook with a red quill pen laying on top of it.  She liked it, and my plans to commit hari kiri were averted.

Blog banners are very personal and it sometimes takes a while to get into the blogger's head and see what inspires them.  Knowing what you want is the hardest part.  Sometimes you have to think about it and let your subconscious dredge it up.

As for my own blog banner, this wouldn't work.  No one wants to see an angry troll smoking a cigar on his way to taking a nap.  So I created the alternate banner for my site you see above.

See Maggie's new banner here.

Changes to Saber Point

I recently changed my banner.  I just got bored with the same old thing.  Hope you like it.

I also changed my commenting system to Disqus.  Let me know if you have any problems accessing the commenting section and leaving comments.

Using a commenting system other than blogger's can be dangerous.  A couple of years back I changed my commenting system, which increased its price tenfold after one year.  I ditched it, but in the process lost hundreds of comments, some of which represented long debates and useful discussions.  I have Disqus working in tandem with blogger, so if I stop using Disqus, I should still retain all comments.

Please try out the Disqus commenting system and let me know of any problems, at stogiechomper "at" gmail.com.

Roller Blog, the New Contact Sport

This past week has made me aware that blogging isn't the gentle hobby I once believed it to be.  Even fairly unknown bloggers can become targets of very angry people.  They can be sued, slandered, even put in jail for simply expressing their opinion (like Adam Walker).  Blogging has become a contact sport.  I call it Roller Blog.  The object (at least for lefty players) is to get your views heard while suppressing those of your opponent.

The left is increasingly desperate and ruthless.  For decades they owned a monopoly on news and information; with the growth of the internet, conservatives have a growing voice in the national debate, and it is making a difference.

Liberals are losing it...and they're pissed.

I am becoming more aware of the Roller Blog players.  Neal Rauhauser, Jay Leiderman, Nadia Naffe, Ron Brynaert on the left. Mandy Nagy, John Patrick Frey, Mike Stack, Lee Stranhan on the right.  These folks were unknown to me until this past week.

One thing is clear:  the left is dangerous, hate-filled, devoid of ethics and utterly ruthless.  They not only want to refute conservatives, they want to ruin them, hurt them, destroy their reputations and livelihoods, humiliate them, and even cause great bodily harm or even to kill them (thus the new tactic of SWAT-ing).

Considering the above, it makes sense that the more ardent "progressives" are willing to get into bed with a violent felon and pathological liar, as long as he believes in their politics.