Fifteen Years of Thundering

by Cowboy Bob Sorensen

My calendar reminder tells me that today is the anniversary of this, my first weblog. I think it was a contact in a newsgroup who encouraged me to do one. As expected, many things have changed and I have learned a great deal.

When I started, I had no idea what to say, so I did a getting to know me thing. The subjects were about whatever struck my fancy, and Stormbringer's Thunder was written in a conversational style. This still covers a variety of subjects, but I focus on logic, refutations of atheism, and internet things such as browser security.

Quick fun facts about the Edge browser. It has Immersive Reader to make a page more, well, readable. In that is a Read Aloud function (Natasha is my favorite voice). It also does a read aloud thing even if the site is not conducive to Immersive Reader. Like other browsers, Edge will open up PDFs. Here's what was fun for me: Using the Reader View by Yokris extension, a user can annotate and mark up a web page, then save it off as a page in HTML. Open it in Edge and the favorite Edge voice, can be used.

Yes, Lake Katrine really exists

I try to keep it active about once a month, sometimes more if I need to post something extra. There have been times where Fakebook decided something I was trying to post was spam, even though it was from an established site. So, I cranked out something and couched the link and then posted it that way. Also, social(ist) media stifle speech about homosexuality, transgenderism, and other subjects, so I have written about them and used titles that are less likely to trigger their bots, such as "Science Faces Reality of Genders."

For quite a while, I wrote in an "Italian businessman" persona and had some associates, several of which were based on real people. This may have provided some entertainment when I was doing political material, and can be seen in older "Logic Lessons" and other material.

I deleted quite a few posts and articles from the past. By the way, my distinction for a post is something where I do not contribute extensive original content, and an article has substantially more.

It seems to me that articles and posts require graphics or they're more likely to be missed. The one I used here, which is my own, has nothing to do with this article. It was added to fulfill the "requirement" for a graphic on a post. You savvy that, pilgrim?

Something that I learned is that a blogger cannot just grab any old photo and use it, and a slight modification is not a derivative that qualifies as Fair Use. One day I got alarmed, read up on copyright infringement, then spent many hours deleting graphics from my sites and account. While it's safest to use your own images, it's not always practicable. Now I know that there are plenty of free photos to be found that can be used legally (as I explained in this missive). That is one thing I hope any writer will seriously consider.

I set up shop on Blogger (owned by Alphabet, owned by Google, owned by Pyra Labs). Adjust settings, endure forced changes in the format that made a lot of the work look crummy... Most recently, I had to change the overall theme so that the weblog was mobile-friendly. That resulted in many nightmares and even cries for help to the Google community. Finally got most of my Goolag-owned properties looking okay.

Along the way, I had to learn some HTML basics as well.

Interestingly, I don't even have the Chrome browser installed in my PC. I use Chrome extensions on several of my browsers, though. While Google and Chrome are safe from interlopers, the watchers have to be watched; Chrome and Google spy on people. But you know all that.

When I started this thing, I was probably using Firefox. Although Chromium-based browsers rule the Web, Firefox is still in there and may be regaining some of its popularity. However, it needs "hardening" to cut down on spying. After breaking up with Firefox because they support censorship, I gave the fork called Waterfox a try. It was an adequate substitute for Firefox. Several settings recommended for Firefox safety are already established. However, Waterfox must have grown in a short time, now I use it frequently. Waterfox uses Firefox extensions, so we got that going for us, which is nice. That Multi-Account Containers extension helps with security.

My writing has improved over the years, and there are times where it is more formal. Learning new words and paying more attention to grammar in serious posts and articles has been a challenge at times, but helpful.

Time to wrap up. Things I've learned doing this weblog have helped with the other ones, and vice versa. Although my work will never be famous, it is dedicated to the glory of God. Remaining faithful to my calling is most important.