Suggestions for Blogger/Blogspot Users

This post is about changing a couple of settings on blogs at Blogger/Blogspot to make your blog easier to find, and to comment on.

The first problem? When people click on comments in Blogger, they often get a "This page contains both secure and nonsecure items. Do you want to display the nonsecure items?" popup. This is really a problem with Microsoft Internet Explorer, near as I can tell, and has nothing to do with security. It happens because there are profile pictures showing near the comments. I turned this off on mine, as I don't want to bombard readers with unnecessary annoying popup messages.

Here is how to get rid of it:

1. Log in.
2. Go to the Settings tab, then Comments.
3. Scroll down.
4. Make sure that the "Show profile images on comments?" is checked No.
5. Click on "Save Settings" at the bottom.

This gets rid of the profile pictures, which gets rid of the bogus security warnings.

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Next, some of us comment using Blogger accounts, but don't have a Blogger blog anymore, or some of us have many blogs in the blog list that shows in the profile, with no indicator of which is the real or main blog in the list. I've seen long blog lists in profiles where the active one is buried in the list of dead ones. The problem? In situations like this, it is hard to find your blog.

This doesn't apply if you have 5 blogs in your list and all of them are active. But usually when I see someone with 5 blogs in their list, they all have confusing names so you can't tell which is the real active one, and there is only one active one and the others never really started or haven't had posts since 2007.

The solution:

After you log in, click on the little Dashboard thing at the top, toward the right. Then click on "Edit Profile" in the middle on the left. Scroll down and put your full blog address in "Homepage URL". Scroll the rest of the way to the bottom and click "Save Profile".

I have only one blog, and it is at Blogger, so I don't have to do this in order for my blog to be found. But I did add this now, and you will see my blog listed below my profile picture now as a link for "My Web Page".

TCFF - Movies to See?

Tickets will go on sale soon for the Traverse City Film Festival [TCFF]. I'm wondering what movies to see.

So far, I am considering these movies:

"Men in Black". This has become a favorite movie of mine over the years. I am not sure if I will be able to see the other movies for free, but "Men in Black" will be shown outdoors for no charge.

"The Only Good Indian". The director and the star of it will both be in attendance. It looks like a sort of "end of the Western-era Western": "....Brutally taught to adopt Western tradition, Charlie runs away in an attempt to reclaim his family and heritage. Sam Franklin (Wes Studi), a Native American who conforms to white society by becoming a bounty hunter who hunts his own people, is hired to bring the boy back to the school...."

"Metropolis". This is a grand science fiction movie from the silent-era (1927). I have not seen this for years. There will be a live orchestra, too.

"Dead Snow". Zombies are scary. So are Nazis. So what can be more scary than a movie about Zombie Nazis? I suppose a movie about Zombie Nazis on an airplane, who spit poisonous snakes from their mouths might be scarier, but that's not happening. I am way behind on zombie movies, and "Dead Snow" looks interesting. It's a midnight movie, too.

The entire list of movies is found at this link. [Traverse City Film Festival - Events by Title]. What do you think might be good from this list?

Movie Ticket Line

The tickets go on sale for the Traverse City Film Festival at noon today, but I saw this line about 8:30 this morning, stretching from inside the parking deck to the left to the film festival office to the right. I've been in some long lines before. The longest wait I can think of is a line that seemed like it was half a mile long, outside the Vatican walls, waiting to get inside. I think that was a wait of about an hour and a half. Over at the State Theatre, a volunteer just inside the doors washes the windows. She's doing this for free, just like the rest of the legion of volunteers who work at the State Theatre.

Saturday Scavenger Hunt - "Scrap"

The Saturday Scavenger Hunt word chosen for today is "Scrap". It was chosen by Crazy4Coens.

I got a few photos this morning. The first shows the "Open Space" during the National Cherry Festival. The festival has been going on for about 6 days now, and the "Open Space" (which is a park they keep forgetting to name) is ground zero for the festival. They must be cleaning up the rubbish every night and doing a pretty good job. About half a million people attend the festival every year, so that's a lot of scraps of litter they are taking care of. I was able to get this photo of a few scraps of litter scattered over a large area, which is a pretty low amount, considering.

Downtown I found a store display with some interesting items in it. I got this photo of what I called a M*A*S*H Turtle. It's crafted out of scraps of metal, junk, and something like an army helmet. Perhaps it might be good for taking care of casualties after Tarkus battles. It's for sale, and a price tag is under its head.

Not very far away is a large piece of art crafted together out of scraps and junk. It's the Boardman River Guardian, created by Benzie County sculptor Dewey Blocksma. The M*A*S*H Turtle is rather small, but I think that the Guardian statue stands over 10 feet. The shoulders are an actual canoe.

Moving away from my photos, other scrap-related things come to mind. Such as Scrappy-Doo, to the left. Scrappy is a rather despised character. He's basically the Jar Jar Binks of the Scooby-Doo cartoons.

Finally, to the right, another obscure "Wizard of Oz" character. She's the Patchwork Girl, otherwise known as Scraps. Scraps is an animated (perhaps overly-animated) being made out of patchwork quilting. Scraps is a little like the Cindi Lauper "Girls Just Want To Have Fun" character. The character appeared in a movie called The Patchwork Girl of Oz, almost 100 years ago. This movie is now in the public domain, and you can watch it here.

Space Shuttle Enterprise - Postcard Friendship Friday (PFF)

Today's "Postcard Friendship Friday" entry features a postcard of the Space Shuttle Enterprise.

This postcard, published by the Alabama Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, says on the back "Space Shuttle Enterprise lands at Redstone Arsenal Airfield March 13, 1978.

According to Wikipedia, "Construction began on the first orbiter on June 4, 1974. Designated OV-101, it was originally planned to be named Constitution. However, a write-in campaign caused it to be renamed after the Starship Enterprise, featured on the television show Star Trek."

I remember at the time, comedian Dennis Miller hosted a segment of Saturday Night Live called "Weekend Update". He showed a photo similar to this and said "There we have it. For the first time, we have photographed aircraft mating in midair"

The shuttle has been adopted into "Star Trek" itself, and appears in the opening intro for the TV show Star Trek: Enterprise, (below) and also in the movies where they have displays of the different vessels that have had the name Enterprise.

Dogman on "Hannity" Program Tonight - Reminder.

Just a reminder that the Dogman legend will be featured on the Fox News Channel tonight. From a press release:

"This evening, the Fox News Channel will highlight the legend of Michigan and Wisconsin’s Dogman!

The Sean Hannity show, airing at 9 pm, Friday, July 10, will include a segment from his ‘Conspiracy Month’ that discusses the legend of the Dogman.

In particular, the segment will show the controversial ‘Gable Film’ which is a startling piece of potential Dogman evidence. The approximately 10 minutes of Hannity’s show devoted to the Dogman will also chronicle sightings by Linda Godfrey who is the undisputed expert on weird happenings around the Great Lakes as well as the legends of the Dogman in both Michigan and Wisconsin. "

The Gable video is also found on Youtube, and appears below:

Free Food

Who doesn't like free food? I recently found out about these offers in the United States:

Free Arby's BBQ Burger. You must buy a soft drink. Good now through July 14. And, you must use a printed out online coupon [click here]

Free Slurpee at 7-11. Good only on July 11. Click here for more information. No purchase necessary. The only catch appears to be "As a caveat, the free Slurpees are available in special 7.11-ounce cups. (The regular sizes of Slurpee cups range from 12 ounces to 44 ounces.) The promotion is only eligible while the supply of cups lasts in stores, and not all flavors are available in all stores." Click here for 7-11's official press release.

In the Summer Sky....

I snapped this photo the other day of a hot air balloon passing over the gilded-tipped spires of the local asylum building. I thought of an obvious caption/title for the photograph. I wonder if anyone else will come up with it?

The Dogman - To Be Featured on "Hannity"

According to Steve Cook, who documented the Dogman in his song "The Legend" [click here for Youtube video], the Hannity program (9 PM Eastern) on the Fox News network on Friday, July 10 will feature a segment on the Dogman. The segment is supposed to be about 10 minutes long, and will center on the Dogman's appearance in Wisconsin and also the Michigan "Gable film" from a few decades ago.

"Hannity" or "Hannity's America" is the top rated cable news TV program in its 9 pm EST timeslot. It used to be known as "Hannity and Colmes"

Out standing in their field

I waited for these two deer to cross the road in Acme before I snapped this picture today. Being Acme deer, perhaps they are wary of wiley coyote.

New Dogman Book - "Nagual"

This past Saturday, a new Dogman novel by Frank Holes Jr. was released. It is called Nagual: Dawn of the Dogmen, and it traces the legend back from modern times (taking the Dogman tale to the Lake Ann area in Benzie County) back through the 1700s and ultimately back to the last ice age, when ancient Native Americans faced annihilation by monsters.

In the acknowledgements page/disclaimer, author Frank Holes Jr. writes: "Also please note that this novel is not based on any known Native American legends. I know that the sharing of real stories and legends of our Native American friends is a highly sensitive topic, and the only references to the various tribes herein are for historical accuracy and identification purposes only". This seems like a reasonable way to handle such things. It would have been good if Stephenie Meyer had such a disclaimer in the Twilight books concerning her fictional background for the Quileute Indians.

Nagual is available from Frank Holes' website http://www.griswoldmountain.com/dogman.htm. His previous two Dogman novels are also available from Amazon (see the illustrated Amazon links on this page)