Do not Fear, Word Press is Here

Just a reminder that this site is still up and might become the main site soon.

This Site Still Alive

This WordPress version of nourishing obscurity is meant to be used whenever Blogger goes down, which is less of late.

If it ever seems you can’t access my Blogger site or something feels wrong, then come over here and there’ll most likely be a message for you.

[blogger] weaving their special magic

Blogger obviously saw this, as they’ve now suddenly come back online.

[blogger down] how many more times

Blogger is down again. Ho hum.  This is the site for now.

[missale romanum] for easter

Not the complete text:

Exultet iam angelica turba caelorum:exultent divina mysteria:et pro tanti Regis victoria tuba insonet salutaris. Gaudeat et tellus tantis irradiata fulgoribus:et, aeterni Regis splendore illustrata,totius orbis se sentiat amisisse caliginem.

Laetetur et mater Ecclesia,tanti luminis adornata fulgoribus:et magnis populorum vocibus haec aula resultet. Quapropter astantes vos, fratres carissimi,ad tam miram huius sancti luminis claritatem,una mecum, quaeso,Dei omnipotentis misericordiam invocate.

Ut, qui me non meis meritisintra Levitarum numerum dignatus est aggregare,luminis sui claritatem infundens,cerei huius laudem implere perficiat. Flammas eius lucifer matutinus inveniat:Ille, inquam, lucifer, qui nescit occasum:Christus Filius tuus,qui, regressus ab inferis, humano generi serenus illuxit,et vivit et regnat in saecula saeculorum. Amen.

May peace find you this day and henceforth every day.

[hallelujah] things back to normal

As you’ve probably gathered, things are back to normal at Blogger Nourishing Obscurity, thanks to Firefox and Halls of Macadamia.

I’m a bit sad about that because I’d just got the hang of the WordPress and had worked out a way to get the Blogrolling.com lists into it.

I’ll host the Blogfocuses from here but the other posts will be back at the regular site for the nonce. Thanks for your patience during this messy time.

[help please] my blogspot site is down

Just in case any kind soul can help, let me outline what is happening with the Blogspot Nourishing Obscurity:

1]  Everything else is working except posting - template changes, comments on other sites and mine and so on;

2]  When I go to post, the window comes up and all the extraneous details below such as “print” and “time” and “options”.  the problem is that the bar with all the font, picture upload, justify, colour and so on is just not there, nor the facility to switch from html to plain and back.

3]  The post is locked in html mode, therefore, when I push the button to publish below, the header and labels are published but none of the text in the window.

That is the only problem with it and yet it might mean the end of my site.  I say that as others do not appear to have had any problems.

This is depressing because I’ve been with that site for a while now and have built up some nice stats. I do understand that one can ‘tweak the dial’ on the new site but stats aren’t everything.

The main thing is that the readership knows my old site, not my new one which is so limited anyway.  This means I’ll have to start getting readers all over again.  It would be nice to have the facility to automatically redirect but I don’t know the technology involved in this.

I understand that readers out there have real problems in their lives, as distinct from my miniscule blog ones but forgive me a bit of depression just now, all the same.

[crucifixion] from a medical point of view

So much has been written about the whys and wherefores of the Crucifixion.  The slightly insane Mel Gibson produced a gory film I’m still not sure about.  I’ve also thought long and hard whether to run this article by Dr. C. Truman Davis, vice president of the American Association of Ophthalmology, which is gory in its medical descriptions.  It is not for the faint-hearted and if you can’t stomach such things, best to pass this over.  All I can say is, having read it, that it wouldn’t have been a whole lot of fun for Him.  The main focus of Easter is the resurrection but His death bears thinking about as well.   Here goes:

It seemed to me that as a physician I might pursue the physiological and anatomical aspects of our Lord’s passion in some detail. What did the body of Jesus of Nazareth actually endure during those hours of torture?  

This led me first to a study of the practice of crucifixion itself; that is, torture and execution by fixation to a cross. I am indebted to many who have studied this subject in the past, and especially to a contemporary colleague, Dr. Pierre Barbet, a French surgeon who has done exhaustive historical and experimental research and has written extensively on the subject.

[miracle cure] they do a lot of this in france

Was there ever an issue to challenge and divide an otherwise friendly community of bloggers? 

A French nun, on March 30th, recounted her “miracle” cure from Parkinson’s disease in testimony that could prompt the Roman Catholic Church to make Pope John Paul II a saint. Sister Marie-Simon-Pierre, 46, explained how her illness, which had been in an advanced state and is considered irreversible, was “cured” overnight in 2005 after her congregation prayed to the late pope to intervene. When asked whether she believed her recovery was a miracle, she replied: “I was ill, and now I am cured. The rest is for the Church to decide. 

The Aix-en-Provence diocese finished its year-long investigation into the nun’s claims last week. “The Church has deep respect for science, and it had to be established that there is no explanation using current scientific knowledge: this is where science and faith meet,” said Father Luc-Marie Lalanne, who led the investigation.  To qualify as a miracle in the Vatican’s eyes, a patient’s recovery must be sudden, complete and permanent, and inexplicable by doctors.  

The nun is to fly to Rome to take part in the process that will culminate in the beatification of the late pontiff, which would put him on the first step to sainthood. Catholic observers suggested there may be political considerations for choosing Sister Marie-Simon-Pierre’s case over other alleged miracle cures: her congregation was very close to John Paul II and they had suffered from the same disease.

Can’t you just see the bemused smiles, the cynical disdain, the snorts of disgust from most of the blogosphere?  As for me, I don’t know, so how can I speculate?  It’s all too convenient, as the last journalistic paragraph points out and yet - why not?  Do you believe miracles can’t happen? And if you put it down to some amazing property of the desiring mind over matter, then is that not also miraculous or at the very least, wonderful? 

And whom do we praise for such a marvel of bio-technology?  Or are we so hell bent on refusing to give credit where credit is due - do we put it in the ‘too hard’ basket and skip over it?

[blogger and wordpress] head to head

Don’t know about you but I quite like my WordPress design - the heading is very Nourishing Obscurity.  Here is a head to head comparison with Blogger, as I see it.

Posts 

Font and variance:  Blogger allows choice of font and colour and justify function, WordPress doesn’t.

Indented paragraphs: WordPress has the clear edge [on this template].

Inserting links:  Both are good.

Consistency of text [spaces, gaps and so on]: Both are woeful.

Templates

Blogger allows choice and has far more back up by irregulars e.g. gecko and fly. WordPress allows only a limited number of set choices.

Blogger allows infinite widgets, WordPress have only two or three you can choose from what you’d want to use.

Blogger allows Bloglinking.com [which opens all links in a new window]. WordPress does not and so every site you visit changes your main window each time. On a slow computer, this is hell.

There’s no usable three column WordPress.  Blogger has several from irregular sources.

Navigation

Blogger is far better, when it’s working. WordPress forces you into threads you don’t wish to enter and when you try to circumvent that through Favourites, it makes you sign in all the time.

Summary

My particular Blogger template allows infinite choice and for this I love it.  WordPress is a set two column for beginners and has only strictly limited choices - their choices, not mine and not ones I’d care to use.  I like to arrange my site my way but with WordPress, it has to be their way.

Reliability wise, WordPress has the edge, of course.  Blogger is woeful - truly the worst host ever in the internet.