Al Anderson [re~born]

I want to make soap and candles.

Karen and I have opened a new online store called Simple Blessing . It is nice and all but we really need some new photos and stuff to make people feel good.

One comment that we have gotten is that there is just not enough stuff in there. Well stuff costs money so I was thinking about making stuff to add to the store that people will like. I was thinking about soap.

As far as I can tell the basic formula is water, lye, and lard in that order and everything else is the scent, suds, skin care goodness.

What makes a great soap? Suds? fabulous scents? or that cocoa butter and other oils that the dermatologists are so crazy about.

I really want to make a cool soap that can get it done in the shower.

The other thing is candles, people seem to like to decorate with candles and will put them anywhere. the formula for candles is a little easier wick, wax, and fire in that order and like the soap the rest is color and scent.

I like the candles that I have gotten from the Bullfrog Light Company but I think I could probably make a passible candle and have a corner on the market for my candles.

What kind of soap and candles do you like? [1]

The Import was Successful

The articles from Movable type were imported into Text Pattern using a script from a user called Ramanan. He actually based it on a script for moving B2 to TXP.

It moved the categories too so that will take some time to work out but the articles, categories, and comments were all moved. Now I have a lot of articles without comments and that shortens the page so that the textile help is not necessary sot that too will need to be worked out.

I am glad that they were salvaged.

Comments

Homemade Ad Shows real Advertising Chops

George Masters made an ad for the iPod that is really turning heads. As the tools for advertising become more affordable it is inevitable that the work at home and from the schools would start to resemble professional work.

What do you think? [2]

Restart the Engines

One of the nice things about starting over on a website is being able to pick and choose the old stuff to bring over.

One thing that is comming over is the CSS layout. This page is absolutely designed by stylesheets. There are minor concessions in each page to make the layout work. First, the layout requires a containing div and a div for the header. Aslo, the footer has to be inside the containing div to stick to the bottom and the content has to be kept longer than the left-side navigation.

I will translate the resume to the new look, not that I am looking anymore but people tend to use the CV to get to know me so it is useful to maintain.

I am liking textpattern very much. It has been eaisier to deal with than other systems, plus it just does its work and gets out of the way.

I will move over the Ouchita trail pictures and the Okatoma River pictures and I have two sets of Jamaica Mission pictures now.

The Amazon store documentation gets a lot of hits but it is not really that useful anymore since they updated their API.

So I will expand the church and religion coverage here, add some Communication industry articles, web design articles, pictures, my take on the days news, and the personal log.

I have a few sites that I am working on, mostly for the church. I will post some links to them also.

Comments are changing in this one. After a couple of weeks the comments will close on each article. I am a little tired of being the vehicle of choice to boost google page ranks for cheap drugs so that will keep the number of comment boxes that I have to patrol to a minimum without cutting the feature off all together.

Comment [2]

Tracking a New Trend - Christian Communication Media

I was reading New Man magazine had a one page article on Stephen Baldwin. I would link you to the article but it looks like it is only in the print issue. If you saw the second edition of Celebrity Mole on ABC you could not help but notice the cross on his neck and the Christian slogans on his shirt, the question I had was, can he back it up with action. In this article it sounds like he can.

Stephen Baldwin is investing his own money into producing quality christian media. He wants to raise the quality of christian media. He sees a move of the Holy Spirit in media to bring about a change.

He’s not the only one. Peter Engel produced family shows like “Saved by the Bell” and has moved to Virginia Beach to be the Dean of the Communication Department at Regent University He also sees a move of the Holy Spirit in media and is dedicated to training young people into shaping media with christian values.

But it is not all on the big screen, church media is not simple any more. Check out the file eXchange at ChurchMedia.net . See some of the items that media ministers are producing for their churches. Also check out AnthonyCoppedge.com, he is a church media consultant that helps churches ramp up their media to compete with today’s television.

As a student of media at a church sponsored school I find this topic fascinating. Anyway I will continue to track this topic and see if this trend is more than a local blip.

Comments [1]

Is a Webmaster guilty when his client is guilty

Today a webmaster in Idaho stands trial under the Patriot Act for providing expert advice and services to an organization engaged in terrorist activities.

From the International Herald Tribune

BOISE, Idaho Not long after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, a group of Muslim students led by a Saudi Arabian doctoral candidate held a candlelight vigil in the small college town of Moscow, Idaho, and condemned the attacks as an affront to Islam.

Now, that graduate student, Sami Omar al-Hussayen, is standing trial in a heavily guarded courtroom here, accused of plotting to aid and to maintain Islamic Web sites that promote jihad.

As a Web master for several Islamic organizations, Hussayen helped to maintain Internet sites with links to groups that praised suicide bombings in Chechnya and Israel. But he himself does not hold those views, his lawyers said.

His role was like that of a technical editor, they said, arguing he cannot be held criminally liable for what others wrote.

Civil libertarians say the case poses a landmark test of what people can do or whom they can associate with in the age of terror alerts.

When I was in the hosting business we had clients that I disagreed with their politics but the site was hosted anyway.

Is this the way that it should be or just the way it is. Further down the article the author uses a quote from George Bush that the Patriot Act defends freedom. I just do not know anymore.

Comments [1]

The Fifth Sentence

BurningBird suggested this

1. Grab the nearest book
2. Open the book to page 23
3. Find the fifth sentence
4. Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions

So the nearest book Communication and Persuasion, Hovland, Janis, and Kelley; 1953.

“having a definite intention to persuade others, the likelihood is increased”

Comments [1]

Cellular Number Portability, It is About Time.

I have had my Cell phone for five years now. One of the longest periods of time that I have had a phone number. It is to the point now that I would not change providers unless I could move my number. That is even if another provider wanted to give me the coolest handset in the world that would allow me to be online all the time, take pictures, post them online, and always be able to reach anyone I want to talk to anytime, I still would stay with my current provider because the number will not move to a new provider.

Number portability is about competition and consumers rather than technology. It has not been done yet because services wanted to lock users into their service. Now that numbers are becoming portable we need the handsets to become portable. Eventhough there is some portability in handsets many times there is a minor difference that makes the phone useless with competitors.

Verizon Begins Compliance with FCC Rule

“Verizon Wireless has begun complying with a federal mandate that requires wireless carriers to let customers keep the same cell phone number if they change service providers, a representative said Tuesday.

Despite its leadership role in the industry’s fight against the Federal Communications Commission’s “number portability’ requirement, Verizon sent letters to rival carriers this week notifying them that they should ‘be ready to allow their customers, should they choose to come to Verizon, to bring their numbers with them,’ Verizon Wireless representative Jeffrey Nelson said.

All wireless carriers have until Nov. 24 to comply with the FCC mandate, which is meant to conserve the shrinking pool of 10-digit phone numbers assigned to North American wireless users....

A U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., is scheduled to listen to carriers’ arguments against number portability on April 15, Nelson said….

The letters Verizon sent to rivals are part of the FCC method for complying with its mandate, Nelson said. T-Mobile sent rivals similar letters, according to Nelson.” [CNET News.com]

Can we please speed this up? “You hear that, Mr. Cellular-Carriers? That is the sound of inevitability.” Stop acting like the entertainment industry, recognize the profits awaiting you on the other end, and get on with it already.

Comments [1]

CNN.com - U.S. raises terrorism threat level - Feb. 7, 2003

WASHINGTON (CNN)—The federal government on Friday raised the national terrorism threat level to “orange,” indicating a “high risk of terrorist attacks.” [Daypop Top News Stories]

Thanks or the notification, right before the NBA All Star Game too. So now we are in Orange. I think I like the relative obscurity of living in Mississippi. They could come after us here but it just does not make the same kind of news. Even the ticket to ly into Jackson costs more. But then if they are looking for a place that no one would expect then by all means Mississippi tops the list. Look out though, it is rodeo weekend here and half of the audience is armed. they may not be Uzi’s but a parking lot full of shotguns in the gun rack will make the getaway tricky. you might not even get it.

Major Dot-Com Retailers Begin Levying Sales Tax (TechNews.com)

Some of the nation’s largest retailers this week started voluntarily collecting taxes on all of their online sales. [Daypop Top News Stories]

The free ride is ending. For a few years now there have been no sales taxes online in order to build the consumer confidence and nurture the market. This signals the end of the tax protection. Eventhough this is voluntary, I expect that the tax protection is ending very soon.