Google's Feedburner Burns Me

Okay, I have to say, even though someone kindly mailed me a Blogging For Dummies book, and even though I read that entire book, including the chapter about Feeds, I still don't understand the concept.

As in what is the point of burning a feed? And why do people subscribe to a feed? Rather than just going directly to a blog, if you like that blog?

Soon after I started this blog I, to use the vernacular, burned a feed of this blog, using Feedburner. At that point in time Google had not yet acquired Feedburner.

Feedburner had a 'monetize' option. It seemed easy to set up. You could use your Google AdSense code. However, Feedburner had you adding code to your blog layout. This was totally screwed up. It did not add the ads to the Feedburner feed. Instead it messed up the ads in the blog. So, I removed the code from the layout.

Time passed and Google bought Feedburner. I was then told I could manage Feedburner ads from my AdSense account. So, I did so. I enabled ads for feeds. But the ads still did not show up in Feedburner. They showed up in the html code for Feedburner. You could see the space where the ads should appear. But no ads appeared in the feed.

But. The Google ads do appear in other feeds. Like Google's News Reader. Why does Google have both Feedburner and Google News Reader? I can't help but wonder.

Are some Feedburner geeks annoyed at being eaten up by the Google monster and retaliating by messing up the Feedburner code?

Another Feedburner thing that bugs me is the number of subscribers. The number goes up and down, constantly. Yesterday it was 47, today it is 45. 45 subscribers? And that's just with Feedburner. And yet when I look at my AdSense account, like I just did, it shows there were only 6 Feedburner page impressions. So, I've got 45 Feedburner subscribers, but of those 45 only 6 pages were looked at? I don't get it.

Anyway, can anyone enlighten me out of my ignorance regarding this Feedburner conundrum?

Taking a Fort Worth Bus to the Tandy Hills

Today a bus riding aficionado talked me into riding Fort Worth mass transit, in the form of a natural gas-powered bus, for the first time. The destination was Tandy Hills Park to do my usual Saturday mountain hike. The distance, about 4 miles.

The bus arrived right on schedule, the #21 bus, pulled up right at 11;52 am. The bus aficionado gave me his pass to swipe through the ticket machine while he bought another ticket for $1.75. He thought it was a round trip ticket. This turned out to be erroneous, we later learned.

I have been on mass transit buses previously in other locales, that being Seattle and my old home zone of the Skagit Valley. In the Skagit Valley they were called SKAT buses, due to it being Skagit Area Transit. Bus rides in the Skagit Valley were free, back then, paid for by a slight increase to the sales tax.

In Seattle the buses are HUGE, long articulated things, meaning the bus is so long, two halves are connected by an accordion like thing so it can go around corners. The Fort Worth bus was quite small and noisy. I loved how the bus zoomed along, like some sort of ride in a theme park. At the most there were 8 passengers on the bus with me today. My last time on a Seattle bus, last summer, zipping through the Seattle bus tunnel, it was standing room only.

On the way to the Tandy Hills the bus stop exit point was not were I was told it would be. This resulted in about a half mile walk on city streets to get to the park. We hiked around for about an hour, then hurried back to Oakland Street to catch a return bus. Got to the bus stop ahead of when the bus should get there.

15 minutes went by. No bus. Called the bus center. After about 5 minutes on the phone we were told the bus was late and had just left the transit station. That meant it should reach where I was standing in about 5 minutes, which it did.

Getting back on the bus I swiped my pass. Then the bus aficionado swiped his and was told it was a one-way ticket, that he'd need to buy another ticket or a transfer pass for 75 cents. The bus aficionado somehow thought that $1.75 got him a roundtrip ticket to go 4 miles each way. When it actually cost $3.00 for a roundtrip ticket. This seemed a bit expensive to me, all things considered. I think I paid 50 cents the last time I took a Seattle bus from the north end to downtown, with Seattle buses being free in the downtown zone. When the bus aficionado bought the $1.75 ticket the driver asked if he wanted a transfer pass, to which the bus aficionado, not knowing what a transfer pass was, said no. With a transfer pass, apparently one could do the 4 mile round trip on one ticket. It all seemed way too confusing to me.

So, the bus aficionado asked me if I had 2 bucks. All I had was 2 ten dollar bills. After way too much brouhaha the super smiling sweet lady bus driver said she'd pay for it. And then we were on our way. A short distance later a lady got off the bus with a huge number of bags filled with groceries. The super sweet always smiling lady bus driver helped the lady get her bags off the bus, helping her get mobile on the sidewalk.

Early on in today's bus ride adventure I was thinking I'm liking this. I always do the driving, it was nice to be able to look around. And the ride was fun. But, by the end of the bus ride adventure it seemed like something I would likely not soon repeat. Even though the bus drivers were very nice.

But, it was a good hike around the Tandy Hills. I saw another illusive Celestial and the sky has now returned to total blue from that unfortunate wildfire haze we had going on a couple days ago.

Ride a Seattle bus with me through the Seattle bus tunnel last summer in the YouTube video below (note all the buses in the tunnel, all as crowded as the one I was on, unlike today's bus ride)....

Texas Temporary School Buildings

No, that is not a minimum security prison in the picture. What it is is windowless temporary school buildings at an elementary school I drive by when I go to the Tandy Hills.

Temp Buildings at schools are a blight all over America. I think my old home state of Washington may have had more temp school buildings than I see at Texas schools, but the Washington ones are not as bleak as the Texas ones that I've seen.

These temp buildings cost money, not as much as a permanent building, obviously, but they still cost money. Why is there not some universal design of these things, some well designed modular, easily assembled structure that has windows and does not look so prison-like.

How much would it cost to end this blight on our schools all across America? To replace all the temp eyesores with a temp building that is not an eyesore. Would it cost $1 billion? $5 billion? $10 billion? Would it cost just a small fraction of the bank bailouts? Would it not be a good stimulus investment?

Temporary school buildings have bugged me for years, way before my move to Texas. They seem like a real penny-wise, pound foolish solution to a real problem, that being having enough classroom space.

The Lone Star Telegraph: A New Blog In Town

One of the Tarrant County Underground's highly principled members, dedicated, among many dedications, to overthrowing the Good Ol' Boy Network and Ruling Junta that keeps Fort Worth and Tarrant County from having a truly representative democracy, has started a Blog.

The goal for this new Blog is to hopefully be a venue by which Tarrant County voices might be heard which the powers that be refuse to listen to.

Or if you have been frustrated by the way the Ruling Junta's mouthpiece, i.e. the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, has distorted a letter to the editor that you have submitted, or refused to listen to you tell your situation, that you had hoped the paper would act as an advocate for, doing its duty to shine a light on a dark situation, well, maybe this new Blog can be your mouthpiece.

So, if you have any Tarrant County issues that are bugging you and you have been frustrated in your attempts to get help or be listened to, visit the Star Telegraph. The Star Telegraph wants to help fix things that need fixing.

Celestial Sighting in the Tandy Hills?

I'm happy to report that the hazy, smelly wildfire sky has cleared up and Texas is back smelling good and looking purty as the wildflowers brighten the landscape, except in those unfortunate zones where they got toasted black by a raging wildfire.

It was a bit breezy at noon at the Tandy Hills. That strong breeze had blown yesterday's dark haze somewhere other than here.

When I was last at the Tandy Hills I reported on my frustrating inability to find one of the supposedly ubiquitous celestial wildflowers.

Today, I think I may have found one. It sort of looks like the wildflower that Don Young identified as a celestial. I await confirmation.

Perfect Manhood & How to Attain it in Texas

A couple weeks ago I read a book by Harold Schechter titled The Devil's Gentleman: Privilege, Poison, and the Trial That Ushered in the Twentieth Century.

This was the first OJ type trial of the new century, that being 1900, that riveted the entire nation. Back in what were known as the Gay 90s, when the word 'gay' had a different meaning than it did during the Gay 1990s, America was booming, after recovering from the Panic of 1893. Good times would continue til the next Panic, which I think was in 1907. Both these Panics were in many ways worse than our current Panic. America always seems to recover from her Panics.

Anyway, during the Gay 90s there was no such thing as the FDA. No one regulated food production or drugs or medicines. The type murder people feared, during this period, was being poisoned. There was one sensational poisoning after another.

And then William Randolph Hearst bought a New York City newspaper and set out to take on Joseph Pulitzer by out yellow journalisming him. Hearst needed a sensational poisoning story. And then Roland Molineux obliged. The son of a revered Civil War general, Roland was accused of some nasty poisoning murders. Two trials later he was set free.

Now, that story was very interesting, but what I want to share with you now is part of the book that dealt with the thriving industry of curative elixirs. Roland bought a lot of these elixirs, attempting to cure some of his "manhood" issues.

What struck me as bizarre is way back then there was already an industry that I thought was born only in our modern era, that being the industry that produces those annoying spams that are directed to fixing some of our current, supposed, "manhood" issues.

A Dr. Vincent G. Hamill, president of the Marston Remedy Company had a thriving business selling his curatives. Below is the info on one of his widely distributed advertising circulars...

PERFECT MANHOOD
AND HOW TO ATTAIN IT

A BOOK FOR MEN MARRIED AND SINGLE

A full explanation of a wonderful method for the quick restoration of
PERFECT MANHOOD, in all that term implies.

A method that overcome EVERY EVIL CONDITION of the sexual system. Gives to the weakest organs and parts their
NATURAL VIGOR AND TONE.
And to those shrunken and stunted their
NORMAL AND PROPER SIZE.

IT EXPLAINS how to build up all sexual vigor.
IT EXPLAINS how to avoid all the physical evils of married life.
IT EXPLAINS how to cure sexual weakness in any stage for all time.
IT EXPLAINS how to cure unnatural losses from dreams, in urine, etc.
IT EXPLAINS how to cure nervousness, trepidation, lack of self-confidence.
IT EXPLAINS how the entire sexual system of the male may be brought to that condition so essential to general good health and peace of mind.
IT EXPLAINS how to develop, strengthen, enlarge all weak, stunted, undeveloped, feeble organs and parts of the body which have lost or never attained a proper an natural condition, whether through early errors, ill-health, or other causes.
IT EXPLAINS how to be free from degrading thought,
superior to debasing conditions, to feel

A VERY KING AMONG MEN!

Good Friday: Jesus Died Today, Revived on Sunday

Today is Good Friday. Celebrated, well, not exactly celebrated, but noted, as the day Jesus was murdered by the Romans.

I have always had trouble with the concept that Someone so loved the world that He gave His only Son so that those who believe in Him can have everlasting life.

For one thing, just a couple days after the Father gave up the Son, the Son supposedly rose from the dead and went to heaven to be with his Father. And if you believe that, then that too can happen for you when you die.

And then there is that God in 3 Persons, Father, Son and Holy Ghost thing. Which would seem to mean that Jesus is God, God is Jesus and both are the Holy Ghost. So, Jesus isn't actually God's Son, instead he is God in human form? So, again, where is the great sacrifice if God in human form is murdered, yet isn't really dead, going from the murder, and being dead, to heavenly rewards and back alive a couple days later?

A few days ago someone sent me a very earnest email about this subject, detailing in gruesome detail what Jesus suffered on the cross.

The email ended with...

Jesus had to pass all this experience, so that you can have free access to God. So that your sins could be 'washed' away. All of them, with no exception! Don't ignore this situation. HE DIED FOR YOU! For you, who now read this e-mail. Do not believe that He only died for others (those who go to the church or for pastors, bishops, etc).

He died for you! Accept the reality, the truth that JESUS IS THE ONLY SALVATION FOR THE WORLD.

Jesus went through all this human misery so that your sins could be washed away? But only if you believe He went through this misery for you. And was then back alive a couple days later. "He died for you." But he didn't die? He was dead for a couple days. Apparently. And then wasn't.

I also have trouble with how people take this stuff all as gospel, I guess that is some sort of pun. I mean, it's all words, written by men, long after the events supposedly took place. If God wanted to send his "Son" to earth in order to somehow get the earthlings to behave in a Godly fashion, would it not have been a better plan to wait a couple thousand years, to the point in history where the Earthlings had used their God given talents to build systems of mass communication, so the news of the arrival of the Son of God could be mass communicated? He could perform a few miracles, have us all in awe and ready to follow Him and there'd be no need for a ridiculously gruesome Crucifixion to cement the deal.

It all really just seems like really bad planing on God's part, if you ask me. Which you didn't. Okay, I am ready to be struck down for blatant blasphemy.

Killer Texas Wildfires Smelly Smoke

Yesterday, late in the afternoon, I took off to River Legacy Park to ride the mountain bike trail. As soon as I hit the road I was appalled by what the air looked like, as in very very hazy/smoggy with very diminished visibility.

I didn't know what was going on. We were supposed to be getting thunderstorms and the sky looked very strange, I thought this might be some HUGE storm starting up.

Turns out the thick haze was the result of wildfires that sprouted up all over North Texas and Oklahoma yesterday, some of which continue burning today. The air this morning has the acrid smell of burnt grass. It is not a pleasant smell. I have not left my abode yet today, but from my current vantage point the sky looks blue, I'm not seeing a lot of haze.

It was so bad yesterday that flights had to be delayed at D/FW Airport. Fires burned in more than a dozen Texas counties. Thousands of acres burned in the D/FW zone, including forced evacuations west of Fort Worth. Two people near Montague, that's about 80 miles northwest of Dallas, died and their son was injured when a wildfire consumed their home.

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality warned that people sensitive to smoke or with respiratory woes should stay indoors. I have neither of those woes, as far as I know. But I do have my windows open and I'm not really liking that burnt grass smell that is wafting through here. But I like the breeze. It's a conundrum.

Naturally Fun at Village Creek Natural Historic Area

Against doctor's orders and ahead of predicted afternoon Thunderstorms, that have yet to materialize, I went to Village Creek Natural Historic Area around noon. I saw only one wildflower in the park today. You can see that fragile beauty below.

A sign had been stuck in the ground since my last visit to this park. The sign told me to get my Passport Arlington today, along with a cryptic message, "Trail verification code A."

What did that mean I could not help but wonder. At the bottom of the sign I was told if I wanted more information on the Passport Arlington program I could visit www.naturallyfun.org.

I did as directed, like I always do, and went to the Naturally Fun website to find some of that information that the sign mentioned. However, the naturallyfun.org domain redirected to the City of Arlington Parks & Recreation website.

I looked and looked but I could not find how to get my Passport Arlington. So, I gave up. I'm easily discouraged.

But on the website I did see something interesting. A YouTube video of a proposed park using the long mothballed Caleum Moor Stonehenge-like sculptures. I've no idea where this proposed park is located or if the Caleum Moor sculptures are proposed to be placed in an existing park, like River Legacy.

The Caleum Moor installation disappeared prior to my exile in Texas. I remember they were in a book of things to see in the Dallas/Fort Worth zone, but when I went to find them they were no more. I later learned that the land upon which Caleum Moor sat was turned into office space. And the sculptures went into hiding due to some Buckle of the Bible Belt Thumpers being convinced that Caleum Moor was some sort of pagan blasphemy endangering the purity of the locals.

Apparently, now, wiser heads are prevailing. Below is the Caleum Moor YouTube video of the proposed new installation of the sculptures.

River Legacy Mountain Bike Trail

Yesterday I learned if I don't get around to blogging within a reasonable amount of time some people start wondering what's happened to me. Well, I've recovered completely from yesterday's viral assualt. I think the Chicken Tortilla Soup and grapefruit fixed me.

I got a comment to that blogging about ailing from Mister Twister. Mister Twister commented...

Yup, I was wondering what was wrong, too. By the way I finally made it out to River Legacy Park and took a little spin. On one the trails I was on it spilled me out onto the concrete walking path. A few minutes on, I saw a sign warning about being fined while on the concrete path. The sign was right by a dirt path so I went back out. One question and one observation. What do the two red dots painted on the trees mean? Also River Legacy is a more enjoyable ride than Sansom Park, although it's not near as challenging as Sansom Park. River Legacy is much prettier, being that it is river bottoms, dirt trails and meadow like conditions, while Sansom is rocky and scree. Now there's definitely some challenging loop do loops at River Legacy but overall it is much more enjoyable and pretty too.

Well, I was planning on biking River Legacy today, but rain has intervened and disrupted that plan. To answer Twister's questions, I have no idea what the red dots on trees mean. I've seen them too and wondered. I don't think it means those trees are going to be cut down, they don't cut down trees in that park.

I think Twister misunderstood the bike warning sign. It is perfectly okay to bike on the paved trails. The warning signs are put wherever a dirt trail takes off of the paved trail. You aren't supposed to bike those dirt trails. The only dirt trails you are supposed to bike is the Mountain Bike Trail. I think the park is being real wrong-headed with those warning signs. The bike riders have turned the mountain bike trail into the best non-paved trails in the park, with hikers feeling safe walking on them. Biking the other dirt trails would do no harm, in my opinion, it would instead make the trails be in better shape.

I can understand how Twister may have gotten off on a wrong trail and ended up at the paved trail. The Mountain Bike Trail is quite a maze of intersections. Most are well marked, but there are a couple key junctions that are not marked with directional arrows with the result of going the wrong way possibly being on the pavement.

The Mountain Bike Trail is a one-way trail, though every once in awhile you'll run into someone, literally, going the wrong way. To get it right, follow the directions on the map above. Get to the mountain bike parking lot, you'll see a sign at the west end of the lot (that's it in the picture on the left), with a map of the trail, though this map does not show all the new loops, like Fun Town and the Prairie Loop and others.

To the left of the sign is where the trail begins. Follow the arrows. You barely enter the trail when you take a right turn and go on a minor roller coaster for a bit, just keep following the arrows and you shouldn't see any pavement.