Sisters

Saturday April 29th, 2006

I spent most of the day with the kids, while Erin did attended the emergency preparedness fair she's been working on so hard lately. I took these photos this morning in order to keep Matt from screaming after Erin left. How can the kids be so cute and so aggravating at the same time? 

RSS - Really Simple Syndication (Part 2) or What's the Benefit of All This?

In my first installment of this article about Really Simple Syndication, I showed that your blog content is also available as a structured feed. Melinda asks, "What's the benefit of RSS?"

The Benefit of RSS

Now that blogging has caught hold of all the Melchins, I'm guessing that you all have your daily routine of clicking through to check everyones blog for new posts. Right now you may have only a few blogs that you read, but once you really get into it, you'll find more that just family blogs -- you'll find blogs about blogs about cars, blogs about computers, and news blogs. I read 28 blogs on a daily basis -- only a few of them are the personal blogs of family members. Most of them are news and technology related blogs.

What if there were a way to have all the blogs you like to read, come to you in one place -- without you having to click all around blogger (and the Internet) to get to them. Sort of like subscribing to a blog you're interested in, and receiving new posts as they're made.

RSS Feed Readers

An RSS feed reader is a program that can consume thoses structured blog feeds I referred to, and present them to you, all togehter, in one place. There are dozens, maybe hundreds of RSS reader programs. Some are free, some have a modest fee. My personal favorite is called FeedDemon -- I've been using it for years. Here's a screenshot (click on the image below to see a lager view):


Here you can see a categorized list of all the feeds I subscribe to. Go ahead, download a feed reader, and give it a shot.

In my next installment, I'll show you how to subscribe to a feed.

RSS - Really Simple Syndication (Part 1)

Now that every single person I know in the whole world is blogging, it's fitting for the Blogfather to further enlighten the minds of my humble followers on a subject of real blogging import: Really Simple Syndication!

Really Simple Syndication (RSS, or a "feed" as it's affetionately known among geeky) is a protocol (read tool) for syndicating (read distributing) structured data (read blog posts).

Translation: RSS is a tool for distributing blog posts.

Every Blogger Blog has structured feed for distributing your blog posts. The feed for my blog can be found at http://tuscan.blogspot.com/atom.xml, if you use blogger as your blogging tool, you can see your feed by pointing your browser to: http://insert-your-blog-namehere.blogger.com/atom.xml. Some will point out that blogger doesn't use RSS, rather ATOM for syndication, but we'll discuss that is later posts. For now check out your feed, and in my next post, I'll show you how to use a "feed reader" to access all the blogs you read from a single screen.

Best Blog By a Melchin, or a Melchin Relative

Ever since I won the Judy Taylor award for Best Blog by a Melchin, or Melchin Relative, I've been under such pressure to produce the consistent high quality posts that vaulted me to where I am today. I don't want to do, as many A-list Holywood actors have done, by following up an Academy Award winning performance with a dud. I promise my fans that I will not disapoint!

Detractors may claim that Judy has diminished this award with a string of posts trying to cover up her true feelings -- but I am not shaken. True genious is always criticized, then copied...

Still Other's have tried win Judy's attention by adding glitz. I am confident that Judy will not be taken by such superficial maneuvers. Real blogging takes passion, character, grit.

Alas, I am left, the Godfather of Blogging, to watch over my followers, nay -- my blogging children (my "blogchild" if you will), and continue to deliver!

April 14, 2006

Started building a gate today (or should I say, JD and Jeff Shipley started building a gate today, and I watched). We'll fininsh it off tomorrow. Erin is so pleased to have a closed area for Matt. I think this summer I'll stain the fence, and we'll start to have some semblance of a back yard. Likley no deck until next year -- maybe.

Matt had a great time outside with me today. He needs to be outside and engaged -- it's really good for him. When the digging was done, we had the Taylor's over for pizza (Shipley's were doing some Easter event). I think the kids had a nice time together.

We went to dinner and a movie with Sean and Libby Haslam this evening. It was nice to go out and have some personal time.

April 12, 2006

Erin was sick today (mom's shouldn't be allowed to be sick). Mom helped out with Grace and Matt (I ended up going in to work really late). Mom took the kids to play in the MacDonald's playland, then for a Happy Meal. After that they went for a treat a 7-11. Grace went to school, and Matt went over to mom and dad's place. They all ended up a Lara's house to complete the afternoon.

I went to Lara's house to pick the kids up, and like a dummy, I left the car runing. Dummy. Matt wandered out and got in the car, and managed to put the car in gear. He drove the car into the Freiberg's garage door. Fortunately his legs aren't long enough to get he feet on the pedals. Frieberg's door was damaged (not really badly, but enough to leave a dent). Dummy.

I took the kids out for a hike in the ravine, which always ends up with me carrying Matt home on my back because he's soaking wet. This time was no different.

I had another late night last night at the stake presidency meeting. We finished up at about 12:50 AM. I think this may be the last of the real late meetings. Nice to see Melinda and Judy are now blogging. If we could just convince Amy and Keri (and heaven forbid, Cathy) to start, then all of my extended family would be bloggers!

If you're interested...

1. Elise & Kevin Wolff
2. Marge & Robb Wolff
3. Lara & Sean Freiberg
4. Melinda & Micheal Palmer
5. Judy Taylor
   

And my dad's old car blog, Cars of My Dreams

More photos of Matt

Erin woke up early this morning feeling quite ill. I didnt' go into work until quite late (later than normal) and mom came over and took the kids for the morning.

When Grace went to school, mom took Matt over to her place, so Erin could rest. Dad shot some really great photos while he was there.

Pictures Grace, Matt and Hannah

We had dinner with my folks on Sunday (as we normally do), and dad took some really great photos of the kids.

Foxy Mama!

 

Isabella Meets Hannah

Isabella Meets Hannah
Originally uploaded by scott.wolff.

Here's a great photo taken of Great Grandma Wolff with Hannah. We visited grandma Wolff in the hospital shortly before she died. This was the first, and only time grandma Wolff saw Hannah.

Indefatigable

Sean and I at the top of Mt. Idefatigable in August, 2002. 

Matt

Had dinner with the Melchins on Sunday. This is Matt sitting on a small table out in the play area. How can he be so cute and so agravating at the same time? 

Photo Says It All

Active Kids Photo Album

SmartFTP, or "Good Stuff is Better than Bad Stuff"

I'm a big fan of good stuff. Erin says I'm obsessive in some cases. I went looking for an FTP client today to upload some work on a website I'm working on, and I ended up downloading two pieces of FTP software. The first looked promising (it was a FireFox browser extention), but when I put it through it's paces, it kept locking up. This forced me to go looking for something else.

What I found was perhaps some of the nicest free software I've ever seen. SmartFTP, a program I'd never heard of, is hands down the nicest FTP program I've ever used. I just had to tell someone. Oddly enough, Kevin is the only person who will have the first clue as to what I'm even talking about.

Anyway, that's really all I intended to post, but if you've read this far, and didn't understand what I'm talking about, then here's a little bit for you...

Good stuff (be it software, car repairs, reclining chairs, customer service) is far better than bad stuff. Getting good stuff just knocks the socks off getting bad stuff.

I've had bad experiences at the following establishments, experiences that has led me to never patronize these locations since the experience. I can proudly say I haven't eaten at Taco Bell in well over four years (though I came close onece or twice).

1. The Brick (furniture and appliance store)
2. Tirecraft (Crowfoot location)
   
3. Taco Bell (specifically the Montgomery location, but they're all the same)
4. Vonage -- don't even get me started.
5. HP Parts Store (Canadian location). This is perhaps the single worst customer service incident I've ever experienced.
   

I've told those close to me (whose activities I can monitor closley) that if I ever hear that they have frequented one of these establishments, I will not speak to them for a week.

P.S. I just got a note from Kevin saying that since reading this post, he signed up for Vonage while sitting in the waiting area of Tirecraft, eating his Double Decker Taco Supreme and perusing a Brick catalog.

What Blogs Do You Read

I spent some time this evening rebuilding my computer and cleaning up my feed reader. I've eliminated all feed subscriptions other than the two dozen that I read most often. I'm curious to know what feeds other people read. Post a comment and let me know.