I use Microsoft products. I haven’t always given Microsoft great reviews, and I don’t think I’ve ever just jumped up and down about any of Microsoft’s features. Well, I recently upgraded to Office 2007. I have used it for a week or so, and it seems to do just fine, but I didn’t see anything to get excited about until today.
Today, I was writing blog articles. I usually type them up in MS Word and then copy them over to my blog. That way I get the full use of spelling and grammar checks from Word. In Word, I clicked on New Document, and it prompted me with “Blank Document” or “New Blog Post.” I thought that was interesting and selected New Blog Post, not expecting much. It then asked me what type of blog I use (Wordpress) and asked me to enter my site’s address and user info. I entered it, still not expecting much. But lo and behold! It worked. It publishes just fine! I can’t set the date stamp on it to publish future posts (although you can publish it as a draft), and it won’t let me choose multiple categories, but other than that, it works great, and it’s simple! It even uploads pictures that you insert. It also handles multiple blog accounts.
Way to go Microsoft! You get a standing ovation from me for this one!
One of my favorite features of this website is the statistics program. It keeps track of how many people visit the site, which pages are viewed the most, what cities (and countries) my visitors are from, and even what search terms people enter to find my site. I was surprised by two people that came to my site this month by entering Google search terms. One person searched with the phrase ”I am weary of the church” and the second one searched “Why am I losing interest in the church.” These two people visited my blog looking for answers to serious questions, and looking at the current content, I know that they did not find what were looking for. This is not just a blog, but a method of evangelism, a tool for teaching, and a place for Kingdom building. You never know who is reading, and what they are searching for. I will write a reply to those two people in the near future.
Seeing as most of the people that read this blog are fellow bloggers themselves, I thought I would just put this thought out there: Christian blogs actually reach people. If someone is visiting your blog looking for Christ, will that person find Him there?
For fellow Wordpress bloggers, I suggest these plugins:
- Stat Traq Keeps statistics on who is visiting your website
- AutoMeta Puts hidden tags into your webpage that allows search engines to find your site easier.
One day as I was returning from lunch in one of my previous churches, the receptionist asked me to call the church administrator. He informed me that he had received a forwarded email that contained a warning about a serious virus file that had been popping up on computers. The email included instructions on how to locate and delete the infected file.
Our administrator had checked three computers and discovered the file on all three. He was growing concerned that the virus had spread across our entire network. He asked if I had time to help him get the file off of all of our computers. I told him to relax. The email was a hoax designed to trick people into deleting system files. Luckily this email identified a mostly useless Microsoft system file, and he didn’t do any damage by deleting them. (more…)