The one where TJ explains the site upgrades

Hey everybody. Just wanted to say a big thank you to all of you who have been sending me emails, notes, singing telegrams the last week or so. I’ve really appreciated it and its really encouraging to know that such a broad audience is praying for me and the kids here.

I just wanted to put a few site notes up for everybody. It looks different and, I think, better and easier to read. I’ve added a few page links at the top. Most of them are just general info along with permanent links to the Mozambique 101 posts. I’m doing a series of them over the next several months. They will show up in the main page right here, but will also be linked there for your convenience.

Also, I’ve moved a few things around. I’ve moved the about me to top links, added the info for how to support, and added a section with FAQs. All that stuff is new today, so read it. After today, any and all updates will show up here on the home page and then archived in the sections so you don’t always have to click on them every time you visit the site. Its there for when you say “how can I support TJ financially” or “I want to read Mozambique 101–Arachnid Subspecies just one more time”. I’m still making one or two tweaks, but nothing more major.

Furthermore, some of you may notice that if you’re fast enough on checking updates or subscribe by RSS (way easier than always refreshing the page) stuff is actually posted in the future. You may be asking yourself “Does TJ have a time machine?” Yes I do, but I don’t use it for silly little things like web updates. I use it to bet on past sporting events and to see if the my future self is really as good looking as I think he’s going to be (we are). As for the posts, I have the time zone set to Mozambique so it’s easier for me to keep track of. That means I’m posting things a good 6-9 hours ahead of the US.

Anyways, for those of you that never know when to check for updates, put it on your calendar because here is the schedule for the next several months (provided the electricity stays on, the internet doesn’t go out, I stay healthy, and I don’t go on vacation, or the government censors me).

Music Mondays: Check in every Monday for music themed posts. Music is a large part of the culture here and an infinite source of humor/entertainment for me. So basically, that means music themed posts until I run out of source material. After than, we’ll move on to Malaria Mondays when everybody gets sick or Monsoon Mondays when the rainy season starts or something else alliterative.

101 Wednesdays: These is going do be the day we continue our introduction to Mozambique. My desire isn’t just to necessarily humor people, because Mozambique is a dirt poor country with serious problems, so some of the posts will be serious. Its to help give you, the reader, a basis for understanding what goes on here and why we can’t just build a factory and give everybody jobs and be done with it.

Whatever the heck I darn well please Fridays: No alliteration here. Just pure, unfiltered posts like you’ve been used to getting. Upcoming topics range include Canito’s pants, TJ gets appointed high priest, and the perpetual drama of soccer rivalries. We’re gonna stick with the same naming scheme for a while until I run out of catchy titles. I like it because they’re pretty easy to come up with. I can just write, “The one where TJ cures cancer”. This also makes it easier to talk with your friends, coworkers, Rabbi about my blog because you can ask them “Hey, did you read the one where TJ cures cancer?”

Lastly, the internet here is so slow. How slow is it? It’s so slow that is makes having AOL dial-up circa 1996 look like an upgrade. It’s so slow that it’s literally faster to send stuff by carrier pigeon. It’s so slow here MB/s stands for milli-bytes per second. It’s so slow… well, you get the point. As a result I don’t always have the time or the patience or the ability to make everything on the site appear 100% uniformly formatted concerning fonts, colors, sizes, etc. If something major is broken, I’ll know and fix it.

And more lastly, a big hello to my readers in Romania (yes, I have readers in Romania). Cred că o mulţime de oameni se vor traduce aceasta să descoperi că nu are sens. Multumesc pentru lectura.