Blogrolls: Your Comments Welcome

In the early days of blogging, anything before 2010, building a healthy blogroll is how bloggers formed communities. I would list blogs on my blogroll that had something to offer my readers/followers. If other blogs were listing you then that meant a wider audience, more exposure, and a good sign that you were doing something right. From a strictly reader point of view, if you enjoyed a particular blog then chances are you would enjoy some of the blogs that blogger enjoyed reading and recommended. Blogrolls, Real Simple Syndication (RSS) and blog aggregators were the tools of the trade back when regular folks dreamed of quitting their jobs and blogging full time.

Happy Monday

The coffee is hot and ready too.

This is Happy Monday #386. 

Satur-deja Vu

The most American thing you will see today:

Unless you leave your house and go to pretty much any public place where masks are “required.” There you will see folks wearing masks over their mouths only, as chin straps, or pulled completely down to their necks. I said my bit about face masks a couple of weeks ago, not re-preaching that sermon. Hopefully the image made you smile. Welcome to the Satur-deja Vu.

Presented Commercial Free

For many years I saw this announcement at the bottom of every post on my blog. I didn’t know exactly what visitors saw since I was always logged in on WordPress when I was writing, checking stats or giving a new post the once over. I did suggest to the church that we pay the nominal fee to have ads removed from the church website lest something with a conflicting message appear on the same page as a sermon or church bulletin but never did so for my personal blog.

The Happy Monday posts are often done on Sunday evening, if not earlier, and set to publish at the appointed time. I was away from home some months ago and used my phone to check and see that the post was in fact up on the website. Happy Monday is very image heavy and what I discovered, looking at the post on my mobile browser, was that after every two or three images an ad had been inserted by WordPress. I was creating material with a certain aesthetic and not only was that being disturbed by the advertisements but of course someone else was getting traffic or selling product and I was not making a dime off of the real estate. WordPress, as the host, owns the real estate of course which bloggers use for free but it was my post with a bunch of junk scattered throughout and not just at the bottom below the line.

For what it’s worth, I have paid to have the ads removed from The Master’s Table. I have no plans to offer subscription only content or place ads of my own, but if you the reader ever think about linking content here from your blog or social media sites know that your audience will not be subjected to ads when they get here. Upgrade plans start for as little as $4/month (billed annually) if any WordPress blogger is interested in doing the same.

Bible Gateway Update

In addition to the occasional book review (I posted one earlier this week) I have reviewed a couple of Bibles in the last year at the request of Bible Gateway. Regular readers know about the Bible Gateway Blogger Grid and as a partner The Master’s Table posted reviews of The Illustrated Holy Bible for Kids and The Jesus Bible. A few weeks ago Bible Gateway asked Blogger Grid members to review the new website design at Bible Gateway. The new design has since rolled out so if you use that resource or follow our links from here then you have probably seen the changes.

Classic view

 

New design

From the Inside Out: Book Review

From the Inside Out: Reimagining Missions, Recreating the World by Ryan Kuja

Ryan Kuja grew up watching cartoons interrupted by commercials from the Christian Children’s Fund. I remember those commercials from my childhood as well. Young children, starving to death with distended bellies, surrounded by flies and narrated by compassionate voices designed to elicit a donation. Some organizations asked for a donation, others wanted you to join the organization, make a monthly pledge, sometimes in exchange for pictures or letters from a child you would personally sponsor. As a 7-year-old watching cartoons, Ryan Kuja wanted to do something. Adults either look away, change the channel, or do the good Christian thing and write a check (or today use their credit/debit card or PayPal from their phones). 

Happy Monday

Is Monday even a thing anymore? We used to slow down on the weekend, plan time for family, worship together, maybe take a Sunday afternoon nap, and the whole purpose of Happy Monday was to help you get back out there and put nose to the grindstone. Mondays are tough… or they used to be. For some people all the days of the week just run together now. For others every day is tough. Maybe 2020 has turned every day in Monday.

I don’t know. At any rate, this is Happy Monday #385.

Satur-deja Vu

I ordered them in April, sent two emails to the seller, asked my Facebook friends what they thought, then finally received a set of Loch Ness ladles last week. Here is one peering from my semi-famous Brunswick stew.

Happy Monday

Truth is, since I subscribed to Sirius XM satellite radio I very seldom listen to any traditional AM or FM stations anymore. But Kevin & Taylor keep posting memes, polls and quotes that I like to their Facebook page so they know where it’s at.

This is Happy Monday #384. 

Satur-deja Vu

Some way, somehow, wearing a mask in the United States has become an issue split down ideological lines. I hesitate to say party lines because it’s not that clearly drawn but people tend to fall into two camps; Those who wear a paper or cloth mask when going out in public because it is useful in containing the spread of the virus, by protecting others and possibly one’s self.  Also in the mask camp are those that aren’t sure of effectiveness but realize wearing one is expected, sometimes required, and they figure it can’t hurt anything. Those not wearing masks are taking a stand on freedom. I’ve read a lot of slippery slope speeches, claiming that if we give up one or two basic liberties that’s a first step in losing all our freedom and liberty. I have friends in real life that claim wearing a mask now, in the middle of a global pandemic – which many other countries have done a much better job getting under control – will lead to the government telling us in the near future what to wear, what kind of car to drive, who we can be friends with, etc.