Okay, as you know I’ve been playing with WordPress since the Journal got moved over to that format. I’ve put most of the content of the Journal up as pages instead of posts.

Let me explain a bit for those of you who are not WordPress gurus:

WordPress is a blogging software. In that it is like Livejournal, Dreamwidth, Movable Type and many other platforms out there. I use WordPress because it is I) free II) scalable and III) able to be hosted on my OWN servers, which means I control all that you see and do and how it is used.

This presents problems, however. The content I have here is mostly articles that are put there for you to read. This isn’t a shock, but the WAY that WordPress implements this is a PITA. Pages are for content that is not dynamic, that is static and doesn’t change (I am aware that all three of those mean the same thing, I’m trying to give a context to those who don’t know). But, pages are also outside the structure of WordPress.

It would be like you have a diary over here. In that diary you put all the things you come across, things you think, things you write. But at the same time, you have a three-ring binder that you have really special articles you keep coming back to and rearranging. Both of those, the diary and the notebook, reside on the same shelf on your bookcase, and that’s all that is there, just your diary (full of entries from all the way back to before) and your notebook of special things. You have an index in which you have the contents listed out.

The shelf is WordPress, the diary is the blog side of this software, and the notebook is the pages side.

There’s advantages to having it ALL as a diary, adding the pages back into the timeline of the blog. You can see where in the life of a person this particular thought came to them. You can read the entries before and after and get a feel for what was going on at the time. But having the pages separate also isolates them. You can’t find them easily anymore.

I think I have solved the problem of finding an entry by having the categories on the left. Those indexes have all the entries of a category, both blog and page. I’ve had to hack the code to do it, mainly by using someone else’s plugin that will assign categories to the pages (for WordPress does NOT do this by default, and it’s a feature they are unlikely to bring into future revisions).

But now I’m at a point where I am tearing my hair out.

Recent updates to WordPress have broken part of the function of my site. Mainly it has made the Page Category Plus plugin stop working (the one that assigns categories to the pages). This removes those pages from the index completely, leaving them hanging out in the open. I could get something to list all the pages in one place, but you wouldn’t be able to tell an entry from The Tree from a Review.

As a result of that, i’ve had to downgrade my install of WordPress. This makes it vulnerable to hackers (since it is no longer supported). But I got the function back.

I COULD reintegrate ALL the pages back into posts (getting rid of the “notebook” and putting the pages back into the “diary”) with something else I have as a plugin, but I’m reluctant to do that since it would break the “structure” I have in my brain of what goes where. Pages are the Book of Shadows, blog posts are the Book of Mirrors (or metaphysical journal).

To you, you won’t see a difference. You will have navigation links at the bottom of EVERYTHING and the date the particular piece was posted on EVERYTHING, as well as any tags I have landed on those particular pages. Net effect is the same structure you see now.

So, I’m kind of questioning and second guessing myself.

Also, any time I add an article or “page” to here, it would show up in the RSS feed and on places like Dreamwidth and Livejournal. So more people would get notified when something new goes up.

There’s lots of people out there that use their WordPress exactly like this, but I think it’s stupid. However, it is looking like I will have to cave in regardless. I don’t wanna, but it is looking that way.

So, advice? I’ve put down all that I know and think in this post. Any thoughts or suggestions to help me make this decision? Come to Daven’s Journal, log in with your Livejournal or Dreamwidth account and comment.

(You can do that by putting your web log site in the “Open ID” field of the login section to the left. Just type in http://(yourusername).dreamwidth.org or http://www.livejournal.com/(username) and hit “login”. It will take you to a page on Dreamwidth or Livejournal asking you to authorize this, and when you do so, you now have an account HERE. Cool, huh? You can do that with a lot of logins.)

Long posts, articles and such, would be cut so that they don’t screw up your friend’s page on those sites, and lead you to the entire article here. Same with the RSS feed and so on.

Help.

You will be seeing on many religion blogs either that Halloween is dangerous and should be avoided by those who are truly religious, or probably posts from various flavors of Pagansim who are defending the Sabbat of Samhain. I won’t go into all those again, I’ll just direct you to Isaac Bonewits’ pages on his website on Samhain. He’s done a much better job than I could.

The Real Origins of Halloween
Halloween Errors and Lies

There is a page here that talks about Samhain:

Samhain Sabbat in Seax-Wica (note there is deity substitution present, this has been changed to reflect my deities)

No, I’m not going to go over that information again. What I am going to do is do an electronic ritual for you all.

So be it.

And that is the end of that ritual. Thank you for reading along. I hope it was as moving for you as it was for me.

Originally posted on October 31, 2006. Thank you for reading

I mean, REALLY need to read this.

http://liz-marcs.livejournal.com/206303.html

This was originally posted on Sep 10, 2006, but it is still relevant today.

Well, I’ve been playing around with Encryption these days, and I finally got around to implementing GnuPG encryption for my email. It’s taken some time, and a lot of work on my part to get it right, but I finally did it.

My public PGP Encryption Key (right click and “SaveAs”)

I’m doing this because I’m terrified of the Government’s far reaching influence and the slow erosion of things like personal privacy. You send me an email, I can read it on my server. That’s fine. But so can all the administrators of the server, so can the people who own the programs residing on that server, and so can anyone who has admin access. A Federal subpoena (and even those without one in some cases) can force the companies to present them with that information and those emails. And I wouldn’t know about it.

The only way to safeguard myself from that is to start using encryption.

Unfortunately, I can’t set up Daven’s Journal to send me encrypted emails from the email form page without buying a lot of specialized software and certificates and so on, which I really don’t have the money for. So, I tell you this:

My email address is all over this site. I have about 400 + pages and of those, there are a lot that have my email address on it, even if the link for the email address goes to the email page. Use your brain and copy that address, put it into your email program’s “To” field, use the public key to encrypt the information you are sending me, and send the email. Do this for important stuff, things that you would be embarrassed or upset if it got out. But use it. If you can’t find my email, it is daven (at) davensjournal (dot) com

And find out about online communication security. It’s becoming more and more necessary these days.

This was originally posted on Mar 08, 2006. This is a repost, but the links are current, and the sentiment is the same.

Well, you all asked for it, you got it. I set sitemap-2 as the default sitemap.

I gotta say, that’s the one I was leaning toward. It should make things easier if you know what the name of the article you are looking for is. But if you know what SUBJECT you will find it under, the default navigation should take care of that. It lists all the posts and pages under a category on that page.

Anyhow, I have some articles percolating in the back of my head. Have three ideas laid out on my site so I can write them up pretty easily. I might go and post an article I wrote for “Rending the Veil”, but which (looking at it a second time) I figured would be better suited to this venue.

Let me dig it out.

Anyhow, I hope your Yule is a wonderful one!

Okay, you may have noticed that I changed everything. I have the development site live now.

No need to change your shortcuts, it’s still at http://davensjournal.com .

There are still some housekeeping chores to do, like making the links all work. So if you come across a page/post where the links are pointing at the wrong place, let me know please? Just leave a comment on that article or post and I’ll get it.

I don’t have a page up for the links out to other sites just yet, and my classes are scarce. I plan on rectifying those problems soon.

Let everyone know, let your blog readers know, let those who just casually drop by that the new site is live. There will be some kicking the tires and so on, but I think this one is going to be a lot nicer.

And please, on this post, tell me what you think? I’d love to hear it.

Well, circumstances have conspired to force me to come up with a Copyright page, laying out in plain terms what uses of my work are acceptable and which are not.

I really didn’t want it to come to this, but I’m seeing more and more theft of intellectual property from more and more sites.  It seems that certain fluffy members of the Canar communities can’t be bothered with writing their own damned material, they have to go and take other people’s work.  With this statement, I hope to avoid the accusation of “I didn’t tell anyone”.

People, I work long and hard for the money I need to support my family.  I do this journal in my spare time.  I write my lessons in my spare time.  I do everything that has to do with Canaric life, Paganism, Druidism, Wicca and spirituality in my spare time.  This means that in many cases I short change my family to write what you see here.  Seeing this posted to other people’s sites, without my name or my email address on it PISSES me off to no end, and it’s illegal.  I don’t mind you taking it and using it, but doing so without permission and claiming it as YOUR work, or worse, as “unattributed” makes me see red.  If this continues, I will pull this site entirely and sic some lawyers on you all.  I watch for my work appearing elsewhere, and I do notify offenders.

Now, on to the legal stuff.

All original work © Daven.

This is the one unbreakable rule.  I have a LOT of original work on this site, and ALL of it is mine.  I claim sole copyright over all of it.  If that seems harsh to you, tough.  That’s life.  I created it, and I am the only one who can say who gets to use it.

Now in fair use, I do allow certain uses of my work without asking.

1. My work may be used as defined by United States Copyright guidelines for “Fair Use“
2. Personal use (meaning you and your immediate family) is allowed as long as the article is credited accurately to me.  Yes, under this statement, you MAY, without asking me, put my article in your personal Book of Shadows or reference library with the “© Daven” statement I provide. You may not repost or broadcast it further without my permission however.
3. Educational institutions (online or off) may use my work so long as it is clearly attributed and the statement “Copyright Daven http://davensjournal.com All rights reserved” appears on the article in question.  The work must appear in it’s entirety and be unaltered other than formatting the appearance.  (IE, you can format my article to make it blend in with your teaching materials, but it must still say the same thing. And I would still like to hear that you are using my words. I have an ego that needs stroking too.)
4. No other use without notification is allowed

All requests to use my work will be considered.  Email me and we will discuss it.  My standard “package” to allow use for a website or posting to a newsgroup or email list is this:

1. The work must be unaltered.  You can format it to fit the “theme” of your site, but that is all.
2. There must be a link to the original article on this site OR to the front page of the site.
3. There must be a link to my email, daven@davensjournal.com
4. It must clearly state that the author is myself and have the copyright statement “Copyright Daven  All rights reserved http://davensjournal.com“

Now, all this assumes you are wanting to use MY work.  Let me take a minute and tell you how you know MY work from anyone else’s work on this site.

It will have my signature at the bottom of the article.  Yes, that is really my signature, and I include it on EVERY piece that I write, with the sole exception being the stories on the Fiction page.  However, I don’t generally give out permission to reprint those other than as a ZIP file.  If my signature does NOT appear at the bottom of the page, it’s probably someone else’s authorship.  If you have a doubt as to whether or not I wrote a particular piece, email me and ask.  Give me the title and URL of the page, and I can tell you if I wrote it or not.

If I don’t have my name on it as the author or at the bottom, it’s probably not my work and you can’t use it, except as specified in the copyright of the work itself.  For instance, if the article I have on this site says “Blackfluffbunnie allows this work to be redistributed so long as the work stays intact and the copyright statement remains intact” you can take it and use it unaltered for what ever you want to.  I have tried to honor the copyrights of others here.

If you see your work here and it does NOT have a proper copyright statement on it, email me immediately and I will attribute it properly or remove it as you wish me to. Just ask a couple people who’s work I have accidentally used without their permission how quickly I take care of this.  I hate it when my work is unattributed, so I won’t do it to you. Amber Fisher is one of the affected authors who told me and the same day I got notification, I had her copyright up on the site, much to her relief.

If you are writing a book and want to include my work, ask first.  Don’t assume that because I allow a website or a private individual to use my work that I will automatically allow you to use it, some of this material I want to publish myself in the future.  So before using the work, planning on using the work or what have you, ask me.

One more thing.  I have released the graphics on The Elements of Daven into the public domain.  This means that I have voluntarily surrendered my copyright of those graphics and only those graphics to anyone who wants to use them for any purpose.  Use them in good health. I have, however, disabled the ability for you to take them and leave them on my server.  That’s called “hotlinking” and it’s illegal.

See, copying my graphics to your website is fine.  Then you can link them to whatever post you want to use them for, forums, LiveJournals, or whatever.  But taking the URL of my graphic and just posting it in your forum STEALS MY BANDWIDTH.  I will do my best to get your thrown off the Internet for doing this.  It’s my money you are taking out of MY pocket like that.  Use the graphics, that’s fine.  Use your own bandwidth to serve them to the rest of the world.  Not mine.

One last thing, you may want to read this article by Wren Walker, and the two sites she references.

Okay, I’ve had this article on my harddrive for some time, and I just recently finished it and now I offer it to you.

On Being a Priestess of the God

It’s about transgenderism and Wicca. Needless to say this is close to my heart right now.

Well, currently I have a short term job and I’m earning some money. I stress the “some”, it’s not a lot of money, and it’s not for a long time. It is enough to pay the bills we have and get things back.

However, I’m getting back into Wicca/Religion. I realized recently that I have outlets for my Joy side, my roleplaying geek person, and for just general myself, but nothing for my Daven/Priest person. So I’m talking to Lisa McSherry about joining her and her coven, and I’m starting to write more.

I have five reviews to post to you guys, just as soon as I can. They are SO done, I just have to upload it all and then you can all read what I think of these books. I have to tell you that these reviews are like two years old at this point. I’ve delayed and had them sitting on my bookshelf for some time, and now I need to post them. I promised to do these, and so I’m doing it.

So all you publishers who have sent me books and are waiting, don’t fret, I will get them to you. I have about 20 in que right now. Five are done, two I’m working on (actually three, but one of them is so dense I can’t get into it), and several more sitting around waiting.

Do not despair!

Anyhow, that’s it from me for right now. Remember, you can follow me on Twitter as my user name there is “davensjournal”. I also play SpyMaster on Twitter, so I might send you an invite.

Also if you want to follow my stuff for Joy, it’s at http://i-know-i-know-but.net Don’t be shocked, it’s a girly blog where I post erotica.

I still make the occasional adult toy, although the business has gone down the tubes. Two years of trying to find a job will do that. I still have the skills, just not the website anymore. I stopped doing porn. I couldn’t do it, so I wasted that money.

And I’m out of here. Have to go and update PCs now.

PS: I’ve pretty much decided to convert Daven’s Journal over to a WordPress Blog with a bunch of widgets and add-ins for you. It will make finding things easier, it will also put all the information on ONE page, and I can get rid of a lot of the hacks I’ve had to do to keep things looking nice and in order. I think you will enjoy it, but don’t look for the changeover until sometime like in January.

PPS: Here are the new reviews:

• White as Bone, Red as Blood;The Fox Sorceress  Cerridwen Fallingstar
• The Four Powers by Nicholas Graham
• Magickal Connections  by Lisa McSherry
• Creating Magickal Entities  By David Michael Cunningham
• Composing Magic  By Elizabeth Barrette

I’m considering redoing the Journal into a CMS system like PHPNuke or WordPress, pulling the articles into pages, making the blog an actual blog, keeping everything up to date and so on.

It will require a LOT of work on my part in order to do it, along the lines of a month or more.

What is your opinions on this, my loyal readers? Do you think it would make your experience here easier? It would have the following benefits:

• more consistent with standards of HTML and page links
• Search functions would be integrated
• You would be able to comment directly on stories/articles
• You could skin the site so that it looked differently for you
• more functionality through WordPress plugins.
• no more frameset for the site.

But if I do this, it’s a one way trip. It’s hard enough to do it once, I won’t be reverting back once I get it done. And it will take time.

So, your thoughts? Just comment on this post and I’ll get the info (but if you are reading it on a feed, like on Livejournal or Dreamwidth, please come to the site to comment.)