Snickerdoodles: Blogspots and other blemishes

After a well-deserved complaint from Iyov regarding my miserly syndication of summaries for the Lingamish blog I have switched it to full syndication of the most recent 5 posts.

The original reason for syndicating summaries instead of full articles was that those who were interested could click-through and come to my blog and read the full article in its glorious context with my template rather than an ugly Bloglines or Google Reader layout. More importantly it bumped the number of views to my blog which as you know for me is crack for my stat-starved soul.

In Bloglines I can control whether or not I view a summary or full article for the blogs I’ve subscribed to. This is very important for blogs like Jim West’s where he publishes so much rubbish that if I had to read it all I would go insane.

Actually the reason for my complaint about John’s summaries was that when I clicked-through on my cell phone, his bloated blog overloaded my phone’s memory and so I couldn’t read his articles anyway.

Iyov is a more balanced poster than any of us although I don’t always understand what he’s talking about.

And while I’m flippantly insulting my friends, let me just say that Blogspot is a blemish! The comment system sucks. The syndication is very erratic. For some reason I get Suzanne’s post about “turning on a tent peg” almost ever time I check my RSS reader. Argh!

Some of my favorite bloggers are on Booger but sometimes I just wish that like Peter Kirk, Jim West and myself, they would come to their senses and convert to WordPress. Come on dudes, just one click and you’re on your way: Blog at WordPress.com. Import is easy.

Well, in case you haven’t noticed I’m catching up on things after several weeks of workshop insanity. I’ve emptied my email inbox, actually written a prayer letter to our long-suffering supporters, and even tweaked a few things on my blog. The best thing is that I get to sit for three weeks at the feet of one of the grand masters of Greekery, Dr. Stephen Levinsohn. If you don’t have access to his Discourse Features of New Testament Greek (DFNTG), you are being deprived of one of the great goody bags of exegetical wisdom. He drops pearls like bird seed and I’m taking notes that will keep me happily engaged for months of Greek study.

His biography is here. There are a couple free downloads there but I can’t find a version of DFNTG online. Sorry, you’ll have to buy a copy. I might be perhaps persuaded to email you a copy if you beg but I’d have to clear that with the Big Man first.