4 hours ago
Well, it's been a while since I posted a review for the Blogging for Books program! The last couple of months have been so busy that I just never got around to requesting my next book, so a few weeks ago I logged back on and picked my next book.
When I was looking for my next book to read, "To Be Perfectly Honest" by Phil Callaway caught my eye. The description sounded very interesting to me - a guy decides to tell the honest truth for an entire year. As one of Callaway's friends says in the opening chapter, for a Christian "Isn't that a bit like giving up arson for Lent?"
His friend makes a point, since we should all work to live honestly anyway - but as Callaway began his "truth vow", it's apparent that there are many small ways where we may not be acting in an honest way without really realizing it.
The book is written in a journal format, with Callaway telling relevant stories from each day of his truth vow (sometimes he succeeds in being honest, and sometimes he doesn't). Callaway is a "humorist" and the stories are told in a funny (and honest) way. He pokes fun at different people he encounters in day-to-day life throughout the year - not in a mean way, but you should be aware that no one is safe.
There were a couple points where I wasn't sure I agreed with something Callaway said, but I could appreciate the humor in his observations. It takes alot for me to laugh out loud at something I read, and I found myself chuckling many times while reading this book.
The value in the book lies mostly in entertainment, but there were many lessons woven into his stories as well. I was especially struck by some of the creative ways he found to witness to others.
I also really appreciated how honest he was in writing about his thought life - those secret sins that aren't really put on display, such as pride, envy, critical thoughts, being judgemental, etc. I saw my own struggles in alot of the situations he described. He sums up the lessons he learned personally in the epilogue, and extends the truth vow deadline for another fifty years.
Overall, I enjoyed this book. It was humorous and light-hearted, even while dealing with some heavy subjects. I came away from the book feeling cheerful, and that's always a bonus to me!
Note: I was given a copy of this book for free by Waterbrook Multonomah Publishing Group for this review. This is my honest opinion of the book.
By the way, you should all go over and rank my review on the Blogging For Books website - mostly so they can see I'm doing my job and give me more options for books to review. And if you blog and want to recieve free books, take a look around their site while you're there!
So for some reason I decided to google my blog name under Google Images.
Probably not a good idea, unless you want to totally freak yourself out.
A bunch of pictures from my blog showed up on Google Images. Now, I've never been overly concerned with this before, but it concerned me that pictures of my baby also showed up on Google.
So, being the obsessive rational person that I am, I decided to do what I can to protect my pictures.
Now, for me, this does not mean that I'm no longer going to post photos on here. I like posting photos - I think they make the blog more interesting, and part of the reason I blog is for my own documentation, which includes pictures.
There are a few things I've decided to do though. . .
1. Watermark my pictures.
I use Photoshop Elements to watermark my pictures, using a custom watermark brush that I created using this tutorial.
If you want to adjust the opacity of your watermark while editing in Photoshop, just click SHIFT-CNTRL-N (or SHIFT-CMMD-N on a Mac) to create a new layer, and then apply the brush to that layer. Then you can adjust the opacity using the slider, or select a different style from the dropdown menu (I like to use "Overlay").
If you don't have Photoshop, PicMonkey.com is a great (free) photo editing site, and you can add a watermark using the text tool.
I used to transfer the images to Photobucket and copy the html code to put them in my posts. I liked using Photobucket, because you can make the pictures whatever size you want in your posts, and you don't have the data storage limits that Blogger has.
Then I started using Windows Live Writer (and later MarsEdit when I switched to a Mac), and I love it - these programs make it very easy to adjust the size of your pictures and move them around in your post, and then you can upload them all in one batch. Though it uploads to Picasa, which may be a problem if I ever run out of photo storage, but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.
Sidenote: If you are not familiar with html, and you compose your posts with the "compose" tab in Blogger, I highly recommend that you start practicing using the html tab. You can do so much with html once you figure it out, and the only way to do that is to practice! If you have any questions, please e-mail me, and I'll do my best to help (though I'm not an expert)!
2. Set all my albums in Photobucket and Picasa to private.
I just feel safer this way, and it shouldn't affect the pictures from showing up in your posts (though use caution, because I had trouble switching the privacy settings on one album and had to re-add all my photos to my posts after I had set it to private in order for it to work- yuck). By the way, Photobucket allows others to copy your photos to their albums unless you adjust your privacy settings so they can't.
3. Disable right click on the blog.
I read a post on Kelly's Korner, and she gave a link to disable right-click. Can people still save my images to their computer if they want to? Yes, but I feel like it helps discourage that. Plus my pictures have the watermark, so people would still know they are mine.
Here is the link to the code for disabling right click - but don't go edit the html for your whole blog like the site says. Not only is it scary if you don't know html code that well (you could mess up your whole blog!), but it doesn't work that way - I tried it. Just add a gadget under "Design->Page Elements" in Blogger, select an html gadget, and add the code into that and save. It'll do the same thing.
4. Disable left-click on my pictures.
I never realized it before, but Blogger and Photobucket add a link to your pictures when you upload them so that people can click on them and open them in a different window or see your Photobucket album when they click. I hate that.
To remove the part of the image code that makes it a link, you have to delete a section of the code. It's not as complicated as it sounds. I found a great tutorial on how to disable left-click on pictures in Blogger - check it out. You can always preview your post to make sure you did it right.
I so wish I had known that you can do this when I first started blogging, because of all the time involved in de-linking every picture on the blog. So if you're just starting out, I'd suggest doing this now if you're concerned with protecting your pictures.
5. Finally, you can edit your robot.txt file to tell Google not to file your images.
This is easier than it sounds. Take the following bit of code . . .
User-agent: Googlebot-ImageDisallow: /
And then go to "Settings" on your Dashboard:
Then "Search Preferences":
Then click the "edit" button next to the words Custom robot.txt, select "Enable", and then paste the code into the box. Don't forget to save your changes!
And wolla! Your images won't show up in Google searches anymore (though a couple might sneak through here and there). I decided to go this route because while I love sharing pictures of my family on my blog, I don't love it when my family pictures show up in image searches. Now they won't! You can read more about how to block specific images from searches here.
And that's what I've got! Any other things you all do to protect your pictures?
This week has been exhausting for me.
Not so much physically, though we have been very busy. No, I'm emotionally exhausted. So much has happened this week.
Someone I know had a miscarriage.
Another announced their pregnancy.
Another friend got a negative pregnancy test again.
My dear childhood pen pal got engaged.
I read a blog post written by a lady who lost her baby in the third trimester.
A couple Derek and I are friends with welcomed their son into the world.
So much joy. So much pain. The contrast has never been so stark to me.
We are told in God's word to rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep (Romans 12:15). In my heart that's what I've been doing this week - but so many ups and downs. I honestly don't know whether to feel more happy or heartbroken.
It's times like these that my vision seems so clouded. The phrases "Thank you, Lord," and "Why?" are tangled up in my prayers.
Oh for the day when we shall "know fully", as 1 Corinthians 13 promises! When instead of peering through that dark glass we'll see everything plainly, as it is.
What a comfort it is to know that the same God who is pouring blessings this week on some of His children is also holding His struggling children by the hand! We are never alone, in the good times or the bad.
So this week, I'm crying with those who cry, and my heart is breaking for them. And I'm also laughing with those who laugh, praising the Lord for His faithfulness. And the two can be reconciled, because I can see God's hand working through it all.
"Weeping may endure for a night,
but joy cometh in the morning."
Psalm 30:5b
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