BilikFamily.com

News junkie - From Philip Greenspun's Weblog:

"I've been without Internet, email, or telephone (brought the phone; forgot the charger) for two weeks here in Greece and therefore have missed out on the news.  Checking today from Santorini it appears that absolutely nothing actually new has been reported.  Hurricanes and typhoons have struck various places that get hurricanes and typhoons every year.  People who have hated each other for a long time continue to skirmish.   Politicians have given speeches and interviews where all questions are answered vaguely and blandly.  I've long thought that it is much better to invest time in books and magazine articles rather than the newspaper and every time that I'm away from the news this belief is deepened.  Yet most people can't resist reading the newspaper in the morning or clicking the "News" icon in the Google toolbar.  Could this be a source of economic and intellectual stagnation?"

I have to admit that I'm a news junkie who is probably in serious need of reform. My computer is very efficient at gathering and even filtering the news to give me relevant stuff. I missed it when it was down for nearly a week. I have this desire to stay on top of it all, to know "the latest" fill in the blank. I don't think anyone wants to view themselves as "uninformed" but to what level? It wastes a bunch of time on info that'll be meaningless in a month anyway.

I need to spend proportionately more time on books, the timeless rather than the "this just in". OK, so there'll be a vaccine shortage. OK, so there was another debate last night. OK, so the latest polls show... But really, aren't there more important things to spend my free time on? (Not that there's much free time in this house...) Especially if you probably wouldn't get the vaccine anyway and had decided who you were going to vote for months ago... Perhaps the problem is exacerbated by the news media always playing things up in a dramatic fashion.

Thoughts?

Webnotes - I made more progress in wringing out the webnotes. Thanks to Chris for pointing out that you couldn't actually save from IE or Mozilla/Firefox. I had falsely assumed that once you could view it, it was working. Certainly saves were working for me on our Macs. As my old boss once said, if you don't test it, assume it's broken, because it usually is. Once I ironed that issue out I've been looking over the data structures and contemplating the most efficient way to put something like "Suzy - updated today" or "Alyssa - updated yesterday" where the sidebar links are currently. That way you have a quick summary of any changes to the note spaces without loading each one. Lastly, I was thinking of putting in a new palette of colors that are a little less "Partridge Family" bright. Colors with a bit more "warmth" and a little less "neon". If you prefer the post-it style neon colors, let me know.

Saint Josemaria - For members of Opus Dei, today is the 2nd anniversary of the canonization of it's founder, Josemaria Escriva. Like Saint Thérèse of Lisieux he focused on the struggles of holiness in our ordinary lives in the little sacrifices and acts of love that we can all offer.