Saturday, January 28, 2006

UU Blog Awards - Finalized nominations

The nominations have closed for the year 2005 UU blog awards. Apparently last year all nominations were elligible for voting, and I don't see a reason to change that for this year. I know I said otherwise on the web site. If anyone has serious objections feel free to post. But honestly i can't remember why i thought it would be a good idea to limit the voting to only a few nominees.

Anyway, I know I haven't read all the posts for all the single entries, so I have some catching up to do before voting which will open on the 30th.

Wednesday, January 25, 2006

UUism 1.2 or 2.0?

As I have been reading through the fixing UUism series of posts I keep asking myself "so is this a bug fix, or a new feature request?" Yeah, I know, I deal with software too much.

To try and put this in non-computer geek terms is this a fix for something that is broken, or is it just a new idea - a way to enhance what we have? The reason I wonder this is because for some of the suggestions I can't figure out what the suggestion is trying to fix. For example does a lack of a UU monestary mean we need a fix?

Perhaps I am focusing too much on the words being used (I do that), but for some of the suggestions I do think it would be useful to know if it is a new idea, or specifically what problem the "fix" is trying to address. Just as an example one of the entries I have commented on is the Member ratification of GA resolutions . If we have a problem of alienating "right of center-UUs" I am not sure if they would be more or less alienated by a ratified "left of center" social witness. Not that I want to fire up the discussion here, I would just like to know along with the fixes what exactly the percieved issues, if any, are. Some like Eliminate UU Hypocrisy are sort of obvious. Maybe they are all are, but just not to me.

So are we trying to fix some bugs (moving to the next stable release of UUism takes us to version 1.2), or are we trying to enhance our product offering (major enhancements take us to version 2.0)? Of course all this assumes we are currently at 1.0...

UU Blog Awards Updated Jan. 25th 2006

I have updated the tallies for the UU blog award nominations. The results can be seen here.

Interesting notes from this this update:
  • Someone stuck "James fields BLOG !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" in the comment field, not sure what to do with that.
  • So far ChaliceChick is the most "written in" nomination, my guess is the nominators couldn't find " The ChaliceBlog" which is the offical name of the blog.
  • Language Games and Miscellaneous Arbitrary Marks managed to get nominated for "Best Online Community or Group Blog", "Best Non-UU-Themed Blog" and "Best UU-Themed Blog" not sure what, if anything, to do about that.
Please feel free to comment regarding anything related to the UU blog award process here.

Monday, January 23, 2006

UU Blog Awards - Late Category Addition

I did get a comment which was a suggestion to include a category for "Best Religious Writing or Theological Commentary - Single Post/Entry".

So, since this is late getting posted (my apologies)...

If I get enough nominations for particular posts in the above category as responses to this post then I will add this category prior to the voting process. So, if you would like to nominate any posts for theological or religious writing feel free to nominate those posts here.

I am seeking additional nominations through this blog entry as opposed to modifying the site since I did not want to worry/confuse people regarding what would happen in the case of "multiple submissions".

Wednesday, January 18, 2006

Lake Fellowship Member Murdered, son is suspect

Nancy Everson, a member of the Lake Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists church in Shorewood MN, was murdered this past Sunday. From the Twin Cities Pioneer Press article:

Everson was well-known in Chaska. She was training to become a volunteer rescue diver for the sheriff's department. She was always busy with church and community groups. She treated friends to vegetables plucked from her back yard.

...

Nancy Everson sold AFLAC insurance with her husband from their home office. She was active in the Lake Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists church in Shorewood and helped out with area Girl Scout and Boy Scout troops when her children were younger.

"She was an amazing person," said Gauer, who counted Everson among her closest friends. "One of the most high-energy, empathetic and compassionate people you know. She was very passionate about everything she did."

The news rattled the congregation at Lake Fellowship, which dedicated its Sunday morning service to Everson.

"Our group is small," said church member Terry McGlynn. "We're all grief stricken."

Her son Grant Everson is being held at the Carver County jail on suspicion of murder.

Tuesday, January 17, 2006

UU Blog Awards Updated Jan. 17th 2006

I have tallied the results for the UU blog award nominations. The results can be seen here.

The only entries I had a hard time deciding what to do with was one entry for "Best of class" which referred to a specific post instead of a blog in general, so I moved the nomination over to the specific entry and under one of the specific entry categories ("Best Review or Cultural Commentary") someone nominated - Philocrites without referring to a specific post. If someone wanted to nominate a specific post please submit it again.

Please feel free to comment regarding anything related to the UU blog award process here. Also, I haven't done much to promote the fact that the blog awards are going on, so please do feel free to promote the blog awards in any other forum you feel appropriate.

Friday, January 13, 2006

Second annual UU blog Awards

Philocrites asked Will there be Second Annual UU Blog Awards?

Yes! Nominations are now open for the 2005 UU blog awards.

Please feel free to comment here regarding the awards. I basically just set things up to to automate the tallying of the nominations/votes and used last years categories. So, if there are any suggestions for changes, additions etc. please feel free to comment.

This is going to be my real blog

I have finally decided that I am not really interested in maintaining the blog software I had been using so, this will become my "real" blog. I will transition content over here at some point, but I wanted to start using this blog for some of the upcoming blog entries i will be posting.