Computers aren’t free. Internet service isn’t free.

Free is nice, don’t get me wrong, but the idea that anyone offering something for free has an obligation to the people who take the free thing is beyond presumptuous.

I read a comment recently on a site where the site owner was making a highly useful piece of software freely available, and a user had the nerve to chastise (in the ugliest, most ungrateful way possible) the software creator for not making the software usable by "EVERYONE" because "software should be able to be used by EVERYONE" and said user was "not happy" with the software creator. How disgusting. This was several paragraphs of complaint and censure and frankly, it irritated me to no end.

I wondered why this unhappy user didn’t just go buy some software that was better suited to their computer.

It’s not the complaints that are the problem here. It’s the user’s unbelievable gall in thinking the software creator has the obligation to make their software not only free but to make it acceptable for anyone who might ever want to use it.

Why are people like this? What is it about the internet that makes people believe everything should be free and that free stuff has an obligation to be good?

When Free Means Shut Up - Read more posts like this at Perpetualized

That’s what I have here.

What I don’t want to do is keep updating this crappy challenge thing. All right. Yes, I know. I sound like a quitter. But sometimes you’ve got to quit the things that are making it hard for you to stay focused and do what needs to be done.

I prefer to think of my website empire in the making as my own personal thing. Making it public was a bad idea in the way I’m making it public, and frankly, I’m not comfortable with it. I prefer to feel free to talk about my sites and not worry about all the crap that I’m worrying about with them.

This post might not ever see the light of day, but getting it down here is helping me to realize a few things.

I’m not cut out to publicize my life.

I like my privacy.

I like to make decisions and then reevaluate and having a “challenge” like this is interfering with my methods.

I’m bored with this site. :)

Sorry, if you’re reading this, this is the last post on this site before I gut it and do something else with it.

By the way, read You Are Not a Gadget if you have a few hours. It’s quite interesting. It’s unrelated to the topic of this post, sort of, but it did have something to do with my sudden desire to change things up.

You Are Not a Gadget

Jaron Lanier

Google books has pages available to read if you just want a taste of the book.

What I Want is What I Get - Read more posts like this at Perpetualized

However, I had a change of heart for one reason or another and decided to go with WordPress after all. In the end, it really did boil down to me wanting to put a blog on nearly all my websites because I enjoy blogging as long as I don’t feel compelled to do it. Since I wanted to build sites that emulated static websites with a blog, the blog doesn’t become the centerpiece of the website, so there you go… no compelling reason to blog when I don’t want to.

Setting WordPress up to make it appear you have a static website with a blog is simple. Having a good theme helps, because it keeps your site from looking like a regular ol’ blog.

How to set up WordPress as a static site (even though technically it’s still a dynamic site :-)

First, create a few new PAGES for your site using the Admin Panel or something like Windows Live Writer (which I happen to think is fabulous).

• Home – put content on this one because it will be your homepage
• Blog – this one should be a blank page
• About – this will already be there, so just edit it
• Contact – fill out with some contact information or use a plugin to generate a contact form for it
• Any other pages you might want on your "static" site

Then, in the WordPress Admin Panel, go to SETTINGS: READING and choose "Front page displays – A static page. From the dropdown, you should select Home for Front page and Blog for posts page. Save changes.

Now, when you visit your site, you’ll have a static homepage and a separate blog, where you can "post" to. Any pages on your site should be built as WordPress PAGES and blog entries should be done as POSTS.

There you go, an ultra-simple way to create your own static site with a blog using WordPress.

How to Emulate a Static Website With a Blog Using WordPress - Read more posts like this at Perpetualized

If you know of a good blogging application I can use with my Palm OS device, I would love to know about it. Just leave a comment here and I thank you greatly for your help!

Looking for a blogging application for my Palm OS phone - Read more posts like this at Perpetualized

This site is simply a compendium of my total works. Yes, I know I have too many websites. It’s like telling a reader she has too many books. So what. I have that problem too and my family never fails to remind me of it when they need shelf space that’s already taken.

So that’s it. This is my life…

This is my life… - Read more posts like this at Perpetualized