San Antonio, Here We Come :-)

February 3, 2009

Well, we are settled at Ft. Jackson, SC now.  We will be here for a total of 6 mos. before we PCS to SAN ANTONIO for our next duty station!  It’s still “unofficial,” but it’s as official as unofficial gets at this point.  In JUNE I report to Brooke Army Medical Center for a 1 year advanced civilian schooling assignment where I will be trained in CPE (Clinical Pastoral Education).  After that is a 3 year follow on assignment at Ft. Who Knows Where. 

We’re all excited to go back to San Antonio, to visit All Saints and old friends again.  Not to mention the great Tex-Mex and the Spurs  

So… I’ll be in school for the next 18 months.  I’m sure that I’ll have some intense and blog-worthy experiences while I’m in CPE, but I’m also excited about the possibility of sharing this blog with a Anglican Church in America Navy Chaplain friend of mine who will be deploying with the Marines.  More on that as he gets settled “over there.”  It’ll be good for us to keep him in our prayers.

Other news: FEB 16-20 is our 2nd Anglican Chaplain’s Conference at Daylesford Abbey in Paoli, PA.  Dr. Thomas Howard will be one of our featured speakers, along w/ Fr. David Ousley (who will lead us in a Quiet Day/retreat and speak on the essential elements of Anglicanism).  Please keep us in your prayers. 

God bless you.

Guest Post: Blogging for Beginners

December 5, 2008

This is the conclusion of a two-part series by writer and editor Lillie Ammann. In the previous installment, Lillie talked about starting a blog. Today, she will talk about writing blog posts.

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If you followed my instructions in the previous post on getting start with a blog, you now have a blog and are ready to start writing posts. Here are some tips for writing posts that people want to read.

• Choose an effective title for your post. The title should make visitors want to read the entire post, because they are curious or because they want to know more about the subject. The title of this post does two important things: 1) It makes clear this is not written by Father Jerry, and  2) It describes what the post is about. If you came here for an update from Father Jerry, you should know right away this post isn’t it. But if you’re new to blogging and want to learn how to do it, you’ll recognize immediately that you’re in the right place.
• Prepare to write your post—although you can write directly in the post box in your blog software, you may prefer to write the post in your word processing program. You’re familiar with the program and don’t have to learn a new—though probably similar—system. You can use functions like spell-check and grammar-check, and you don’t risk losing everything you’ve written if you lose your Internet connection.
• Plan your post. Some writers like to outline first; others prefer to start writing. If you’re an experienced writer, you’ll already have a method. If you’re not an experienced writer, you’ll probably find it helpful to plan what you want to say before you start. You can write a detailed outline or simply list the main points you want to cover in each paragraph.
• Remember your blog is public. Your family, employer, friends, and enemies alike can read it. Avoid giving personal information that could be used by a stalker. Don’t say anything that would embarrass other people or yourself. Some people treat their blogs as personal journals and forget that these journals are available to anyone and everyone.
• Proofread your post. Look for sentences that are awkward or confusing as well as for grammar and spelling mistakes. Reading the post aloud is one of the most effective ways to ensure that what you wrote makes sense.
• If you wrote the post in a word processor, copy and paste it into the blog post box. WordPress and Blogger have two tabs on the post box—one for compose/visual editor and one for HTML. If you write the post directly in the blog, use the compose/visual tab so what you see is what you get. If you paste the post from a word processor, paste it into the HTML tab. Word and other programs contain a lot of hidden code. If you paste the text into the visual/compose tab, all that code is carried into the blog. The blog software has a style sheet for the template that determines the font, spacing, and other formatting features so your blog is consistent and all posts look similar. If you paste text from a word processor, the font and other formatting will override the style sheet, and your posts will be inconsistent. Even worse, some formatting (such as curly quotes and other special features) may turn into gobbledy-gook. After you paste the text into the HTML tab, open the visual/compose tab and make any formatting changes that you want—bold, italics, bullet points, etc.
• Make your post visually appealing and easy to read. Internet readers don’t like huge chunks of text. Break your post up into short paragraphs, and use bullet points and other formatting to make it easy to read. Add photos and other images where appropriate—most professional bloggers use an image in almost every post. A picture will catch visitors’ eyes and draw them to the post. Adding a picture is simple—usually you click on an icon and follow simple instructions to upload an image from your computer. Just be sure that you have the legal right to use the picture—you can’t just use a picture you’ve seen elsewhere on the Internet.
• Make it easy for people to find posts that interest them. Remember that readers may come to your blog weeks or months after you’ve written a post. WordPress and Blogger have fields for tags or labels. List words related to your post in these fields. For example, I’ve tagged this post blogging, Dream or Destiny, guest post, and Lillie Ammann. 
• If you are interested in conversation, encourage comments on your blog. In WordPress, you can opt to moderate all first-time comments to avoid spam and inappropriate/rude comments. After you approve a comment from an individual, that person can continue to comment without further moderation. You can encourage comments by telling your readers that you want to hear from them and by asking questions at the end of the post. If you do invite comments, respond to them.
• Schedule your posts. It doesn’t matter if you post every day, once a week, or once a month, but readers are more apt to keep coming back if you post regularly. WordPress and Blogger both allow you to write posts in advance and schedule them to appear on the blog at a later date. You can also save drafts that may or may not be finished but that aren’t scheduled. If you have a few posts written ahead, you won’t get a panic when you can’t think of anything to write or if you get extremely busy and don’t have time to blog. 
• Have fun! Blogging shouldn’t be a burden. Write about a topic that you love or that is important to you, engage in conversation with people with similar interests, and have a good time.

I hope these tips help make blogging easy and enjoyable for you. I’ll be glad to answer your questions. Just ask in comments.

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Lillie Ammann is a writer and editor specializing in working with self-publishing authors. Her second novel, Dream or Destiny, has recently been released. The book is available from GASLight Publishing in paperback and e-book formats and from Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle editions. She has previously published two nonfiction books and a contemporary romance novel.

Lillie and her husband Jack live in San Antonio, Texas, where Lillie volunteers her time as Webmaster for All Saints Anglican Church.

Guest Post: Starting a Blog

December 2, 2008

This is a guest post from my friend Lillie Ammann, who is on a blog tour promoting her new romantic mystery novel, Dream or Destiny. Welcome, Lillie.

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I’m delighted to be visiting Father Jerry’s Jottings. Before joining the Army as a chaplain, Father Jerry was my priest at All Saints Anglican Church in San Antonio. Although I knew I would miss him, I and other parishioners were happy because we felt the chaplaincy would be good for Father Jerry and his family as well as for the troops blessed to serve with him.

I still remember the look on Father Jerry’s face when I told him I was giving him a blog as a going-away gift. He was trying so hard to be appreciative—he looked like most of us have felt at one time or another when we receive a scarf lovingly, but sloppily, knitted by our dear Aunt Agatha. We appreciate the thought but aren’t sure what we’re going to do with such an ugly creation! We’ve had a lot of laughs about his reaction since then, and Father Jerry has come to appreciate the gift as well as the thought.

Although he initially couldn’t imagine what he would do with a blog, he’s come to use it to stay in touch with family and friends. When he was deployed to Iraq, being able to stay in touch with him through the blog was a blessing to many. His readership has expanded far beyond people he knows, and  he can educate and inspire people he will never meet.

Now that he recognizes the value of a blog, Father Jerry has asked me to share some advice for anyone thinking about starting a blog. Today I’ll talk about getting started in blogging; on Friday, I’ll return to discuss what to do after you’ve got your blog set up.

First decide the purpose and topic(s) of your blog. Perhaps, like Father Jerry, you want to stay in touch with people you don’t see regularly. Maybe you want to educate people about a cause or a product or a hobby. You might hope to inspire others with your words. You could even be interested in making money from blogging. My advice is not geared to making money, but if that is your goal, leave a comment, and I will refer you to resources on making money through blogging. You will also need to choose a name for your blog.

My blog, A Writer’s Words, An Editor’s Eye, covers a variety of topics. Since I am a writer and an editor, I give writing and editing advice, and I also share news about books, authors, and publishing. I am a Christian and regularly post about my faith, and I am a patriot who supports our troops so I cover these topics as well. Although I include information about my writing and editing services as well as about my books, the primary purpose of my blog isn’t to promote my business or my writings. The primary purpose is for me to talk about things that are important to me and to connect with other people. I am constantly amazed at the number and variety of visitors who comment on my blog. People from around the world participate in the conversation.

After you’ve decided the purpose and topic(s), you need to decide whether you want a self-hosted blog on your own domain name or a blog hosted on a free service. If your purpose is to stay in touch with people you know, it doesn’t really matter where your blog is. Blogger, owned by Google, and WordPress.com both offer free blogs.  All you have to do is register and follow the simple instructions, and in a few minutes, you’ll have a blog that is free and easy to use.  The URL to your blog will be something like YourBlogName.blogspot.com or YourBlogName.wordpress.com. You won’t be easily found in search engines, but you will have some advantage from being in the Blogger or WordPress community. Although you will have some flexibility, such as choice of several templates for the design of your blog, you won’t have complete control over your blog because you’ll be limited by the restrictions of the host Web site.

If you want complete control of your blog, you will need to register your domain name and sign up with a Web hosting company. Father Jerry’s domain name is sherbourne.net, and his blog is in a directory on that domain. You can put the blog directly on the domain name as well; instead of sherbourne.net/blog, the URL for Father Jerry’s blog would be sherbourne.net. You can get more search engine traffic, though you will have to learn a little about keywords to rank high in the search engines. You will also have complete control of your blog, choosing among several different platforms (software) and  selecting your own design. Although free software is available, you will have to spend some money (less than $100/year and often far less than that), and you will have to learn a little more about installing, maintaining, and using the software.

I recommend using self-hosted WordPress on your own domain if you want to reach beyond your immediate circle of friends and family, especially if you want to present a professional image. You don’t have to be trying to make money to want to look professional—if you want to educate people about a cause you believe in, you’ll want to look like someone who is knowledgeable and credible.

However, if you want to try blogging before you make a commitment to spend money and time, you can start with a blog hosted at WordPress.com. Since WordPress uses the same software that WordPress.org provides for self-hosted blogs, you can become familiar with the software (though there are options available for self-hosted blogs that aren’t available for blogs hosted on WordPress.com). You can experiment with blogging—your posts will certainly improve as you gain experience. Then if you decide you want a self-hosted blog, you can link the original blog to the new one so readers can follow you.

I maintain blogs at both Blogger and WordPress.com because when I comment on blogs on those sites, they link to other blogs on the same site. All I post on the Blogger and WordPress.com blogs are announcements of posts on my primary blog, but they serve as a connection between other blogs on those systems and my own blog.

In summary, these are the steps you will need to take to get started:

• Decide the purpose and topic(s) you will write about, and choose a name for your blog.
• Determine whether you want a free blog on WordPress.com or Blogger of if you want a self-hosted blog on your own domain.
• If you choose a free hosted blog, register with the site and set up your blog. I recommend WordPress.com.
• If you choose a self-hosted blog, choose a domain name (preferably as close as possible to your blog name) and register it with a domain name registrar. You may have to try several names before you find one that is available. You may be able to combine this with the next step; often you can register a domain name with the same company that provides hosting.
• Sign up with a Web hosting company. Look for a company that uses cPanel for the Web site control panel and that offers the Fantastico installer. This software in the control panel makes it very easy to install and upgrade the WordPress blog software.
• Install the WordPress software and plugins (small programs that expand the capability of the blog—the only one you really need to begin with is a spam filter, and that is available as standard on WordPress blogs).
• Choose your template, and create all the settings in the administrative panel: things like your blog name, your name, and time zone.

Now, you’re ready to start blogging! I’ll be back here Friday to give you some tips on writing posts.

In the meantime, I’ll be checking in here throughout the day. Ask any questions you have about setting up your blog, and I’ll reply in comments.

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Lillie Ammann is a writer and editor specializing in working with self-publishing authors. Her second novel, Dream or Destiny, has recently been released. The book is available from GASLight Publishing in paperback and e-book formats and from Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle editions. She has previously published two nonfiction books and a contemporary romance novel.

Lillie and her husband Jack live in San Antonio, Texas, where Lillie volunteers her time as Webmaster for All Saints Anglican Church.

Lillie Ammann: Friend, Author, Editor and Guest blogger

December 1, 2008

I am very happy to welcome my friend Lillie Ammann to my blog.  She’s just recently released a great new mystery/romance novel called “Dream or Destiny.”  It’s a neat story about a woman who dreams about a murder that turns out to actually happen – and then how she meets and gradually falls in love with the victim’s brother while they are teaming up to find the murderer.

The blessed C. S. Lewis once wrote, “We must attack the enemy’s line of communication.  What we want is not more little books about Christianity, but more little books by Christiains on other subjects – with their Christianity latent” [from God in the Dock, "Christian Apologetics" (1945).]  This is exactly the kind of book Lillie writes, and this particular one has some excellent passages on the love of God and on dealing with grief and preparing funerals. 

Lillie will be stopping by to post tomorrow.  She’s not only a friend, an experienced editor, author and blogger – but she’s also the one who gave me my blog. 

I will never forget when I joined the Army as a chaplain.  I was a small church pastor at All Saints Anglican Church in San Antonio (www.allsaintsanglican.net).  I “cut my pastoral teeth” on them, and they cut some teeth on me, too.  We grew together and I knew I’d have many friends there for years to come.  So Lillie gives me the gift of a blog “so you can keep in touch with us and we can keep in touch with you.”  I tried my hardest to be (and appear) grateful.  In my mind I was thinking something like “Oh, great.  Now I’ll probably have to do something with that.”  But I knew she thought it was a really good idea…  So, eventually I brought myself to the duty of “doing something with that” and it turned out she was right: it really was “a really good idea!”   

So tune in tomorrow when Lillie will share some tips on starting a blog – and again on Friday when she’ll give some tips on how to post effectively.   And go to her website and check out her resume and book!

Retreats

November 4, 2008

As mentioned in an earlier post, we just finished two single Soldier retreats and one Couples retreat at Historic Banning Mills (http://www.historicbanningmills.com).

The Single Soldier retreats were themed “How to Avoid Marrying a Jerk.”  The program is based on Dr. John Van Epp’s presentation and book of the same name (www.nojerks.com).  It teaches singles how to build a healthy relationship that keeps the head and heart working together. This program is designed to provide singles with a plan for pacing a relationship and exploring the key areas that foreshadow what that partner will be like in marriage.  It’s all great “common sense” stuff – which has become way too uncommon.  Singles hear it and go “that’s right – of course – that makes sense” because it is so clearly right – and it rings true as soon as it is presented.  However, it isn’t taught anywhere else and even though it is almost “self evident”, it is so “against the grain of the popular culture” that it does need to be taught!  We hope, by this method and others, to help our Soldiers head off some marriage problems before they start – mostly by helping them make sure they really know the person they’re getting married to.

One of the big principles of the No Jerks program is that it takes Time, Togetherness and Talking to really get to know a person.  For example, we all tend to put our best foot forward when we’re dating, etc.  As a result, ways of relating that are unhealthy tend to stay hidden for up to 3 months.  Therefore, it is wise not to commit too hard too soon! 

In this context, we also talke about sexual involvement.  The fact of the matter is that if young women want to make sure they don’t marry a jerk – Biblical injunctions aside – the only thing they have to do is save sex for marriage.  Most jerks just won’t wait and will move on down the road.  Also, the male Soldiers present basically told us straight out: “if a girl wants to ‘put out’ on the first date, who am I to stop her?  Of course I’m not  interested in a serious relationship w/ somebody like that – but if she wants to give it to me, you bet I’m going to let her!”  There really are “girls you take home to meet the parents” (because you’re serious about wanting to spend your life with them) and “girls you just call for a good time.”  This is sad because studies show that most of “those” girls are hoping that the “good time” they provide will lead to something more meaningful…  Girls, wise up!  (For pointing this out, one of the male Soldiers semi-jokingly called me a “man hater”). 

Togetherness refers to consciously getting to know the person by being Together with them in a variety of life situations – not just chatting over the internet or spending all your time together in one setting.  Meet the person’s other friends and family; see how they interact in sports settings, not just over dinner or in a certain type of environment.

Finally, the Talking part – means engaging in real and meaningful communication about the things of life – finding out about the person’s past, family, previous relationships, financial plans, goals, dreams, job/career plans, likes/dislikes, religious beliefs, attitudes about marriage, etc…

I could go on, but that’s a fair enough intro (that I promised a few posts ago).  There’s more info at the website. 

We structured the teaching portion of the retreat around some great meals at a beautiful setting and coupled it with the Zipline Canopy Tour and an evening campfire and movie.  All in all a great time – and hopefully something the Soldiers found not only refreshing, but helpful. 

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