Page Header ~

I have often wondered if the page header tells the story’s mood?  I also wonder if just one header used over and over is proper?  I often consider the page background, that is, colors and style and if it makes a statement?  I do, however, think all these things have a lot to do with telling the personality of the person.

I find large colored text annoying and distracting and gaudy backgrounds tend to make me irritable.  “Floating” text is another thing that tends to make me leave a blog page in a jiffy.  Dark, or real bright colors put me off quickly, too. 

I settled on the colors you see and have changed them a few times over the months that I have been here.  However, I like greens, browns and tans, but favor olive hues as I use here. 

There are sites on the web that do color coordinating for you.  Pick a color, click and all the compatible color combinations are displayed.  I have seen some sets of colors that look very good, but I have not been tempted to use them . . . yet.

I like the Disney characters and the Calvin and Hobbes characters.  Pinky and Brain are also two of my favorites to use with headers.  The one you see on this post was the one I was going to use continually as the master header.  However, it imparts a dark and dreary mood and looks a bit dominant for my simple posts.

I guess I will just continue to swap around amongst the headers and create new ones as the need requires.

Norm

It seems the subject of not plagiarizing, here at Blogstream, has gained in intensity, although it resides within a hidden audience.  Perhaps this is better, nothing like making someone wonder just what in the Hell is going on?

I received an email from a friend a few days ago (shown in the comments on the previous post), wherein she took the text to Microsoft Word and ran the “Find” tool to search for text.  This is good, but it can also be done with most word processor programs and most good text editors, as well.

When searching for questionable text and if the person using this questionable text is pretty clever, they will get it from the center of a document off the web.  Usually the search engines stop at the article, column, page, or multiple pages.  It then becomes your problem to glean the contents.

To do this, copy the pages, one by one, if necessary and enter them as a string into Notepad, i.e., one after the other.  It is best to save the text at about five thousand words, if the article is large.  Then all you need to do is type the suspected text into the “Find” box and click on “Find”.  It works very much like the search engines.

This is how many “clever” plagiarizers are caught.

Every now and then an advertiser happens to find a site where plagiarizing is prevalent and they pull their advertisements.  This is becoming far more frequent and is causing some sites serious concern.  Advertising dollars are shrinking and the advertisers are becoming far more cautious.  A few complaints by honest writers to the advertisers and things happen quickly.

Note:  To answer a question, yes, it is absolutely okay to copy and paste these posts as attachments to your email.  I have no problem with that at all.

Norm

Notepad and Wordpad

I removed this original post to add modifications and some stronger clarifications.  I will say at the outset that this post may seem rudimentary to some, but there are others who would like to know how this works.

Notepad and Wordpad are default text editors in Windows and have existed since Windows was developed.  Like Windows Clipboard, these two wonderful programs go mostly overlooked.

Let me concentrate on Notepad.  To locate it, click “Start”, then “Programs”, then “Accessories” and find the Notepad button bar.  Right click on the bar and then “Send to Desktop”.  Once there all you have to do is double click the icon and you have Notepad.  However, to add ease of use, drag the icon to the left side of your task bar beside the Start button and it will “sink” and rest in the taskbar.  Then when you need it, one click brings it to you without minimizing the open programs to find the icon on the desktop.

Mine is that way and has been for many years.  I use Notepad continually for all kinds of computer needs.

We all know about screen capture, or print screen.  However, to use the content you have to retype it.  Notepad saves the entire article, or page, in plain text.  All the advertisements, frames and so on are removed.  So, when you see something you want, highlight it, or right click and “Select All”, then copy it and save it to Notepad.  If you want to keep it, save the Notepad contents to any name you like and there you have it for posterity.  Nothing wrong with doing that when you consider most all plagiarizing is done the same way.  Only thing is, you aren’t looking for something to plagiarize, you are looking for truth.  Plus, it is kind of fun.  Better than opening, closing and reopening your blog to run up the hit counter.

The text from Notepad can be copied and pasted into any word processor, or Blog editor and used as though you spent hours creating it.  The downside to this is the text does not lose it original value.  Any good search engine can still find it even though it has been ostensibly  “filtered”. 

If you are looking for the source of the text, that is, who originally wrote it, take a sentence from the Notepad text and paste it in your browser search line and click “search”.  If the text is clean, you will get no positive results.  If it has been “scored” you will usually be directed to the original source.

Sometimes, however, the search engine will stop searching at the top of the entire article, chapter, book, or magazine.  Depending on your determination, you can continue and locate the data.  Usually suspect data, depending on the boldness of the offender, is located in some remote part of the article.  Look deeply into the located text and frequently you will find it.

That’s about it.

Norm Nunn

Off The Grapevine  ~

I once blogged on a site where they called it, unimaginatively, “The Mole Railroad”.  Most blog sites have a Mole Railroad, usually known as “private email, or regular email”.  Members use this system to stay in touch and transfer information between themselves, thus bypassing the blog post and comments.  Just plain secrets, or gossip.  Best known as, “The Grapevine”.  Like most everyone else, I receive and send message this way.  It is convenient, out of the public eye and offers a way to compare information.

Occasionally, however, it is necessary to come to the surface with some of the details to put, at least, my mind at ease and perhaps allay some of the misgivings others may have about what seems an obtuse position on my behalf.

First of all, this plagiarism disagreement was not my doings.  I was not the one who plagiarized and I was not the one who tempted these ultimate events for several months.  I even went so far as to leave Blogstream for months at a time in hopes my antagonist would give me a little slack.  This wasn’t to be.  The moment I returned and set a post he was on me with usually a crass comment, or veiled innuendo.  This was ultimately brought to a head when I posted a notice that my favorite cousin had died on the First of April this year. 

His comment concerning her passing was rude, arrogant, ignorant and totally unacceptable for public display.  His actions even surprised me and I am used to his crass behavior.  With the line then drawn, I quite simply made public what I have known for several months, the man plagiarizes, then attempts to give it a coat of whitewash using a wide brush.  He acts vicariously, feeding off the comments of his followers.  The more they agree with him the more he is encouraged.  Sad thing is, after getting around to reading all the comments yesterday, only one person knew who I am and she disagreed with him.  He told her she was wrong when she was absolutely right.

A person has to have a very shallow life to fall in with someone who can take them from reality to fantasy, truth to fiction and they never ask a question.  Nations have been toppled by such mentality.  Keep in mind, if he will do it to me, he will do it to you, too.

He referred to me in a very cheap and vulgar manner which simply affirmed what I have always thought about him.  In the comments I could see where he was turning the facts outward and pointing all the blame on me.  By the end of the comments he had his followers worked into a mob mentality.  I could read where he was going, he was losing all sense of awareness and was becoming what he accused me of being, i.e., Nuts.  He was little more than a raving lunatic.

He took my “About Me” where I poke fun at the asking and make it a paranoid based answer.  It is humor, a play on words and a tongue-in-cheek pun.  However, being one of most humorless people on this site, he used it as a way to make me look like a fool.

I didn’t have a viable platform to answer his accusations, he wouldn’t tell his followers who I am, so he had everything working in his favor.  Makes no difference, the man plagiarizes, has no creativity without support.  This is the crux of the information being churned on the grapevine, now public in part.

Norm Nunn