welshmnky's Xanga

Oh hey it's me

Thu, 27 Jul 2006 11:56:03 GMT

Hey, I don't know how many people still have me on their subscription list, but I thought I should tell those of you who don't know...

I got married about a month ago to an amazing girl named Jeanette! We're living in South Bend where I work for Notre Dame, and she teaches Choir in the Elkhart school system. Being married is the coolest thing ever. Allow me to share some G Rated observations of the past month:

Sharing a bed with a girl is harder than you think. They are TOTAL blanket hogs!!
The aforementioned blanket hogs will accuse you of snoring if you say anything about them taking all the blanket.
Coming home to a wife who's missed you all day is sooo much better than a house full of guys or even a dog.
Laying with her head on my chest is the most peaceful place in the world.
Getting up in the morning is easier because i have someone to push me out of bed, but at the same time, she's really cute and snuggly and I don't want to get out of bed.
She is smarter than me in a lot of ways.
I can still beat her at Mario Party 7 though.

(ya I copy and pasted that from my site, I'm lazy)

Wednesday, July 06, 2005

Wed, 06 Jul 2005 18:38:33 GMT

When I was a child I blogged like a child.

Welshmnky is leaving.
But I would never leave you without a reason, and directions on how to follow.
Trust me. You want to. Here’s what Steve Smith from www.orderedlist.com has to say about Xanga:

Xanga is a ‘partially closed community.’ While public viewing of content is allowed, participation in comments is not. Membership is required, therefore discouraging non-members from joining in conversation. This is disadvantageous for many reasons, first and foremost being lack of public voice. Imagine if The New York Times
only read suggestion letters from those with annual subscriptions.
They would miss the possible feedback, be it positive or negative, from hundreds of thousands of newsstand readers across the globe.

Some might say that they don’t want public comments, or they only care about dialogue with a few friends. That still means that those friends still need a Xanga account to interact. There have been many times when I have wanted to comment on a friends post, but was unable to do so because I don’t (and refuse to) have a Xanga account.
Whether or not it is intended, it gives the impression that you don’t care what the general public (or those friends who belong to that
group) have to say. And if you don’t care what they have to say, why should they care about what you have to say?

In the beginning, Xanga was popular because it made it easy to join communities, to easily find other peoples sites, and be alerted each time they contributed content. That era is past, Xanga is outdated and ugly, and the internet around Xanga has progressed. RSS makes it so easy to keep track of hundreds of sites without the need for a closed, tracked online community. The flexibility allowed by other blogging software like Blogger, Typepad, Movable Type, WordPress, etc., far outweighs any community benefits Xanga used to offer. So break free, open your eyes and your blogs to the rest of the online world.

Steve Smith
www.orderedlist.com

RSS

This is the present and the future of news and blogging.
If you haven’t heard of it, check the link. It explains it better than I can. A great example of it is my.yahoo.com or even MSN. They are all pulling RSS Feeds. You could potentially pull a feed from any site with an RSS feed to my.yahoo.com and keep up on it from anywhere. These sites or programs that pull all these Feeds from other sites together are called Aggregators. I recommend this one: www.bloglines.com the directions are pretty simple and it is the only aggregator that I know that lets you watch xangas (Xanga doesn’t have RSS, this gets around that somehow… This will allow you to keep up on all your friends who haven’t left yet).
For my site for instance you can either just put my name in as someone who uses blogspot, or use my RSS feed (http://feeds.feedburner.com/Welshmnky) and you’ll get an instant update every time I post.

The next question is one of where should you go from here if you leave xanga. Well, do your research, and find an open community like Steve talked about above. I’m going to www.blogspot.com , but there are lots of others out there to choose from. If you know your html and such pretty well you can just build your own. Those are the coolest. The nice thing about RSS is that it doesn’t matter where you build your site as long as you have a feed we are still linked.

A LOT of you are here on xanga because of something that Gwyn and I started years ago at Bethel (and a good portion of you I just happened to meet through xanga). You had no idea what a blog was, but now look at you. You have become writers, each in your own degree. Everyone from Brooke’s crazy antics with her ex and her son, to Side’s reporting on our extreme sports.

It’s time to move. The transition has been made easy. Follow again. You’ll be glad you did.

-Welshmnky-
www.welshmnky.blogspot.com

Friday, June 24, 2005

Fri, 24 Jun 2005 18:49:33 GMT

Today is another momentous day for me. They all seem to be as of late. This afternoon I have a meeting to find out if I get my job back(I was RIFed) and then I think I have another one next Tuesday and that will be more about that. ALSO today is my mom’s 43^rd birthday so happy birthday to her. ALSO this morning Jeanette left for 2 weeks on a road trip with her mom to Prince Edward Island in Canada. Ya, granted in the grand scheme of things, 2 weeks really isn’t that long, but hey, I’m allowed to miss my girl.

Let me tell ya, this whole “Relationship” thing is great. I can’t say it’s been easy, because they never are; but it’s been good. We have our challenges, and our struggles, but we’re both committed to this and we aren’t giving up. For those of you that are counting we’re at 4.5 months. To quell your naysaying (those of you who naysay) who might say things like “oh, you hardly know each other! You probably don’t even get on each other’s nerves yet! It’ll never last! Just wait until she sees how annoying and messy and and and… whatever else you are!!” well to you, I’d like to do a little naysaying of my own…. “Hey! Shut up! Trust me, we get on each other’s nerves, we push each other, we get mad, we forgive, we laugh, we cry (well I mean… SHE does… I’m a man. I don’t cry), we grill out together. So there ya go. My daily quota of nay is now said. (Naysay is one of the best verbs EVER!)

Ok so anyway things are going well. Gwyn is gonna mail me her Cable modem so I can get internet up at home and then my blogging revolution will begin anew. Whether or not I’ll stay on xanga is yet to be determined, but I’m leaning away from it strongly. I’ll encourage you all to come follow. It’ll be fun out there. We’ll all go together. Once again a Welshmnky shall lead them. I don’t call you my followers for nothing.

Oh and if you are from work and you’re spying on me, I wrote this at lunch and posted it during some free time I had. Thought you should know.

Sunday, June 12, 2005

Sun, 12 Jun 2005 13:43:33 GMT

ok so here it is SUNDAY MORNING...

The reason for my recent departure from xanga was explained in the previous post that was protected for only those of you who i subscribe to.

but anyway... here i am now.

Came home this weekend and did some disc golfin with my brothers and Heather (nate's gf) we went to the park (which used to be a garbage dump) it was pretty fun, i played terrible, and nate lost a disc, but it was good hanging out with my brothers. Then we came home and went swimmin, and went to Das Dutchmen Essenhaus. It's the biggest restaurant this side of the Missisipi. Seriously. Gotta love the Amish.

This week starts the War of The Worlds series at GCC, this is the first weekend in the completed sanctuary. HOLY COW IT'S HUGE. I was there on thursday, and it was crazy big.

J went to a wedding yesterday for some friend of her family. But I'll get to see her here shortly cuz we're meeting at church.

sorry this isn't real thought provoking today... i've missed posting so bad. gotta get back into the feel again. My computer is being fixed right now, and as soon as it's done i'll start posting from home. Fear not friends... I shall return.

Friday, June 10, 2005

Fri, 10 Jun 2005 16:47:46 GMT

Protected. Check it.

Wednesday, May 25, 2005

Wed, 25 May 2005 19:47:06 GMT

Tired. So Tired.
Long busy hard day. I loved it.

SO yesterday for my birthday now that i'm 25 i went ahead and got car insurance, cuz i lost it when i lost my job back in December (it ran out in January). So then after taking the afternoon off i hung out with a friend of mine and then dropped him at his apartment (West Jefferson) which is a mess of one way's. Well i'd only been there one other time (when Gwyn lived there) and i went the wrong way. well when i came up to go OUT the IN this lady pulled in and hit me. my left front corner to her left front corner. kina impressive that we hit like that... anyway, my jeep (because it's a FREAKIN BEAST) sustained minimal damage, but busted a turn signal on her dodge intrepid. The cop came out and checked everything out. We were both ok physically, a little shaken obviously, but ok.

So yes, God is pretty flippin cool, If i hadn't had insurance today, i'd have been sooooo Screwed. but I got it at like 11am and got in the accident around around 2 or 3pm.

So how bout that huh?

Tuesday, May 24, 2005

Tue, 24 May 2005 13:03:40 GMT

Here it is Welshmnkyists,

IT'S MY BIRTHDAY!!!!
I'm 25yrs old today!!
Weird thought:

Yesterday on the 23rd I was 24 and today on the 24th I'm 25, but tomorrow on the 25th I'll still be 25.

A list of presents my girlfriend has given me:

Little Black book of Barbequing
Glow in the Dark Magnetix
Calvin and Hobbes: Scientific Progress goes 'Boink'
$30 gift certificate to Fun Tan
Coupon for free back rub
Coupon for free coffee from Starbucks
Coupon for free lovin'

A list of presents my brothers have given me:

They went Parasailing yesterday for me for my birthday...

A list of presents my parents gave me:

Well... Life.

A list of presents my friends have given me:

The guys are takin' me out to Wings Etc. tonight!

A list of presents my boss has given me:

A sticky Cinammon bun and OJ for breakfast
A pound of her family's homemade Polish Sausage

A list of presents my Xanga Minions have given me:

So far... bupkis. Time to get in gear xangans!

Ok so i have this great idea, i want like everybody here at work to give me one dollar, and then by the end of the day i'll have like probably... well maybe a dollar, and then i could buy a cheeseburger from Burger King on the way home. that would be cool.

Here's where i was last year when i turned 24. man i was cute back then...

Happy Birthday to Kyle,

born May 24th 1980 in Ball Memorial Hospital, Muncie Indiana

To Doug and Nina Sagarsee

10 lbs 11 oz 23.5 inches long.

Friday, May 20, 2005

Fri, 20 May 2005 13:50:19 GMT

Blue Jeans,
Blue shirt,
Lucky Red Underpants,
Spikey Hair...
It can only mean one thing...
PICTURE DAY!!!
Yup, gettin my picture takin for the "ND Sexxy Help Desk Workers" calendar. Evidently i'm the only one in the calendar. They're on sale to help raise money for colon cancer research here at the university. I'm just glad i can do my part, and do it in a speedo.

Thursday, May 19, 2005

Thu, 19 May 2005 16:50:28 GMT

The problem with posts like that is that you only pull out the true nerds. and the problem with true nerds, is that they are very opinionated. guess i forgot. (we tend to get pretty attached to what we like and will stand up for it unless it comes to fist fighting, then we'll challenge you to like, some sort of Homestarrunner quote fight because we're all overweight and blind from sitting in a chair for hours and hours staring at this screen.)
For those of you who aren't true nerds, just trust me that i'm giving you good advice. Everything i put in there is either free or cheap, and relatively easy to use.
so... enough on that.

It is rainy out today, and i love it. tomorrow and saturday are gonna be sunny and 70ish so i'll probably go top down till sunday. J and I are goin down to Ft Wayne to spend some time at her parent's house, which i'm excited about. She's been to my parent's house like 4 times, so she totally owes me. granted my parents DO live a lot closer... but, ya.

Ok, this is way cool... Let me give you a run down on whats been goin on...
Sunday i was at my brothers last choir concert and didnt get back till midnight. well i came home and found my bed pulled out (i sleep on a pullout couch) and made with a note on the pillow from jeanette, my kitchen was clean, the dishes were done and she had made all my lunches for the week (usually we do that together). BUT the coolest part, is that she put little notes in each one and they're all about things she likes about me. Here's the rundown so far.
Monday: She says I'm funny
Tuesday: She says I'm smart
Wednesday: She says I'm honorable
Thursday: She says I'm kind

Friday ofcourse i haven't seen yet, but in everyone she just writes a little bit about what she likes about me. I'm so excited to see what tomorrow is.
Gwyn said the other day online "Kyle, if you ever doubt that she's the one... STOP"
Wise words from the Dahler Llama

Wednesday, May 18, 2005

Wed, 18 May 2005 18:15:33 GMT

Ok, So as a computer guy I have knowledge that you as the "simple blogger" could use, and i feel it my duty to share it with you. So today i present to you

Kyle's List of Awesome Software You Should Have

AIM: Aol Instant Messenger is THE standard for IM, some people swear by Trillian, but i always get annoyed with it. AIM is simple and easy to use and FREE.

GDS: Google Desktop Search lets you search your harddrive for more than just file names like the lame regular Windows Search. You can search the actual content of a file, whether it's email, AIM conversations, Word, Excel, Powerpoint or your Internet History, GDS is AMAZING.

GMail: Ok, not technically a "Program" but this is THE best email account you will ever get. instead of a long stupid list of your email, it sorts them by conversation which makes things way easy and cool, PLUS you get over 2gig of storage space so you never need to delete email. Right now you can only get GMail by invite so if you want it, let me know and i'll hook you up.

LaunchCast: Also not a program, but a great Internet Radio. You build your own station based on what you like; then as music plays you rate it and it learns you and what you like so after a while it plays only music that you like. GREAT service. it comes free, but the upgrade to premium is cheap and gives you higer quality sound and no limit to skips which is cool. From Yahoo

FireFox: Beats the snot out of IE (Internet Explorer) Tabbed browsing will spoil you forever, RSS feed reading built in to the favorites, totally skinnable, and lots of fun.

Thunderbird: An email client put out by the same people who make FireFox. If you use POP3 or IMAP (don't know what those are? ask your IT guy to tell you if you do) this thing is great. Also has a built in RSS reader which is GREAT

Diskeeper: Made by a company called Executive. the best Defragger you'll find. Way faster than M$'s built in defrag, and can be set to run durring your screensaver. This one will seriously speed your computer up no matter what. i guarantee it. You WILL notice the difference. Not free, but worth the money.

iTunes/Napster/Yahoo Music Engine: Ok obviously you don't need all three, these each have strong points, iTunes is made by Apple and has a great look to it and an awesome store where you can buy music for .99 cents. Napster uses a subscription service where you can listen all you want for $15 but if you want to put it on your mp3 player you pay .99cents. and YME is brand new. It's in Beta, but worth getting. It has it's own music store PLUS it has built in LauncCast Radio which i've already mentioned.

IrfanView: Image viewer, definitely my favorite program ever. VERY small, opens pretty much everything and has some manipulation tools you can play with, but in general great for resizing pics for sending in email or posting on the web.

Microsoft AntiSpyware: This is also a beta, but a great piece of software. No Spyware software is perfect but this is really good at catching things before they hit your system. Great way to protect yourself.

So there ya go, my take on great software. I strongly recommend every single one of these. So... umm ya. go get all those.