The Blogsite Takes Flight

Inauguration Day 2011? The full-grown blogsite? Not sure what to call this posting, but it is the first being posted directly to our Stillwater Symposia site and automatically sent from there to each of you. And each of you can now do the same! With just one holdout (name begins with Josh), you are all registered authors on the site. Meanwhile, Josh and anyone else, if you'd rather just keep sending emails, I will be happy to post these for you, but please, give it a try!

In compiling what we've got so far, I gave myself just two rules: emails to or from less than all of you are not posted, and emails that didn't seem intended for a symposium are not posted. Not much fell into that last category ---a more personal prayer request, one more general newsletter ---but let me know if I've over- or understepped on this. Better, from here on out, each of you as authors can choose for yourself what is postable.

There are no other rules, as far as I'm concerned, but take note of a few format guidelines. First, as noted already, the titles. No more strings of emails with recycled subject lines, now you've gotta name your posting.

Second, and more trickier, using the pages. It took me some time (and no instructions from Blogger!), but I figured out how to link the categorizable posts through the different pages. I'm happy to do this for you, but to make it easier, please post what would have been your attachments as separate postings, in order to give them their own linkable address. And if you want to figure out how to do the page links yourself, just copy the linkable address, press the edit (the pencil) button on the page getting the link, use the Edit HTML tab and follow a prior example on that page.

Third, and least importantly, follow your font (Dan=Georgia, Mom and Dick=Times, Josh=Trebuchet and Anne=Verdana), post your name in the Labels section and give your more creative postings the full-justified blue-grey font I've chosen to set them apart.

Finally, and most importantly, post away! Anne, we've got two handmade postings from you ---they are fun to read, please send more! Dick, one Arizona picture inspired a week's worth of postings ---how about one from Wisconsin? Dan, we're ready for Act Two! Mom, feel free at any time to turn us back to our faith base! And Josh, no excuses!

As for myself, I will, at Dan's prompting, eventually post Mathematics, and I'd like to share a little more of my Walled Gardens project with you all, especially as it is probably my most faith-based set of poems. But let me know what you think of what you've seen so far.

Apart from the Symposia, also at Dan's prompting, I've started adding the third party poems to my Thirty Birds site, not within the blogtext itself but as comments after each poem. This is actually just a trick to avoid having to get permissions (although most of what I've posted are public domain poems), but I've also, on the opening page of the site, offered a general invitation for anyone to add their own favorite bird poems in the comment sections. Dan, in that spirit, feel free to add Havranci as a comment to my Raven poem.

See you all Saturday,

love, Jon