23 July 2005

Omnium gatherum

PyromaniacOK, I know I was supposed to post the next blog entry on the evangelical disaster Friday night or Saturday. But I've decided to wait.

I have already written it, and it's ready to post. It's a very important article in the series. It will probably ruffle a few feathers and generate a few passionate comments. But since we're already into the weekend, and my blogtraffic is typically half or less on weekends, I've decided to wait till after the weekend to post it. (Which means I'll post it Tuesday, because Monday is Menagerie Day, reserved for more lighthearted issues.)

I hope you'll think it worth the wait when you read Tuesday's post. Please don't miss it.

Meanwhile, here are some odds and ends:

  1. Technorati is a cool search engine. Over the past couple of weeks, however, it has been irritatingly sporadic and flaky. Tonight it seems to be working better and faster. Hopefully, they have fixed some issues with it. When I first searched there, it was smart enough to put ads for John MacArthur resources next to the search results that had links to PyroManiac. My recent posts naming some evangelical oddballs seem to have skewed those results, however, because tonight when I searched, the ads it gave me included "Holy Ghost Preaching: Anointed Sermon Outlines" and "Sermon Movie Illustration: Illustrations from Major Movies."
  2. For those who have asked, there is no "typical" day in the life of the PyroManiac. I live by deadlines. Each day is different, depending on what's due. Today:
    • I awoke at 6:00, got ready for work, and read for a brief time.
    • Starting about 7:25, I wrote the morning blogpost and left for work by 8:15.
    • I arrived at the office a few minutes late (8:34). I had several meetings scheduled (including one that was about an hour and a half long). The first meeting began at 9:00.
    • After all the meetings, I wrote a column for Pulpit magazine.
    • I skipped lunch in order to finish the article by 3:00.
    • In between a dozen interruptions (phone calls, people bopping into my office, etc.), I answered some urgent e-mails and a couple of non-urgent ones.
    • After finishing the article, I browsed through my mail. (Kim, my secretary, is in Europe on a two-week short-term missions trip, so I had to look through junk mail that she would normally weed out for me.)
    • Rich Barcellos phoned me twice between 4:30 and 5:45. The second time he called, he reminded me that it was time to go home.
    • That's just what I did.
    • At home, my son and his wife had come over to watch the Cubs' game. We ate dinner together while watching the end of the game. The Cubs lost again. Even though they lost to the Cardinals on a squeeze bunt in extra innings, it wasn't as painful as yesterday. (Because all I could think about yesterday was that the iMonk was at the game, enjoying the Cubs' loss).
    • I relaxed for an hour or so, and watched the news until 8:30 or 9:00.
    • I browsed quickly through the comments at PyroManiac, surfed a few favorite blogs, and wrote this post.
    • After finishing this, I'll probably go to bed. It'll be close to midnight then. That's about as routine as my days get. Tomorrow I'll do yard work for half the day and study the end of Galatians 2 for the other half. I'm teaching through Galatians, but Don Green is teaching Sunday, so there is no pressure to get a whole message ready this weekend. I'll enjoy tomorrow. Perhaps I'll write a BlogSpotting post tomorrow evening.

  3. Speaking of the iMonk, Li'l Brudder was quoted quoting Spurgeon on a Catholic blog. I've always said the Monk is at his very best when he's quoting Spurgeon. He should do more of it.
  4. I have received several helpful suggestions regarding the blogformat and blogtools. Thanks for your feedback. I've decided not to switch to Haloscan for now, because that would delete all the existing comments. The benefits don't seem to outweigh the downside of that. Also, I briefly tried wider columns and did not like it. The narrow columns are easier on my failing eyesight. I like the current format, and for those who think the graphics are a waste of bandwidth, sorry. I like the look and feel of PyroManiac. As long as I don't get a lot of complaints saying that the content is a waste of bandwidth, I'm happy with it.
  5. Incidentally, it's been less than two months since PyroManiac premiered, and yesterday marked exactly one month since I added the hit counter. The hit counter just passed 50,000, which is encouraging. I'll keep posting as long as people keep giving me feedback.

..and the crowd roared!

13 comments:

David McKay said...

Enjoying your fiery blog. And appreciating your efforts to keep it readable for us visually challenged geezers. The content's good, too!

The Man said...

C'mon, Phil- you aren't old enough to have a son who is married, are you? :)

Anonymous said...

Nice!

wonky73 said...

CUBS!!!!!!! CUBS!!!!!!.. Dude, are you a cubs fan? I have a vague memory of reading that somewhere else. You'd think I would remember a fellow poor doomed cubs fan. Today's and tomorrows games are on national TV so the whole country can see the cubs (lose). I hate losing to the cardinals.

Justice said...

Amazing schedule Phil, I heard you guys were only busy when the Shepherds Fellowship posse came into town. Great job on the Blog.

Nick Reddin
monergism.blog.com

JMFjr said...

Go Cards!

Joe said...

Who are these bandwidth whiners anyway. The overall layout of your blog was what attracted me to it in the first place! It is SO readable.

Jason Robertson said...

Speaking of baseball -- how bout dem Braves!

Jason Robertson said...

For some unbelievable insight into the Emergent church mindset check out http://www.paperstreet.org.uk/ikon/

Also the Dog Pound has a post on it at http://fide-o.blogspot.com

Jeremy Weaver said...

I noticed that you linked to yourself a lot in this post. Are you trying to be blogspotted?

Jonathan Moorhead said...

"Phil Johnson Joins the Blogosphere" OK, no one just joins the blogosphere with a blog so fancy pantsy. I've tried and tried . . . lament . . . and still can't figure out this template stuff. Who's helping you on the side Phil? By the way, I am eagerly looking forward to your next evangelicalism post.

Fred Butler said...

Tomorrow I'll do yard work for half the day

Yard Work? Really?
I've seen your yard and I am at a loss as to what you would actually work on for half a day. Do you mow the 6X6 patch of grass with scissors? Re-arrange the pea gravel with a trowel?

Fred

Hip and Thigh

Terry Lange said...

Hey Phil,

I just got back from vacation and did a quick read of the entries that I missed while gone... Thanks for the "Day in the life of a Pyromaniac" Wish I had more time in CA, I would have liked to get together with you for coffee at Starbucks or one of many other coffee establishments in that area...