Moving over to Exponent II

I've been pretty quiet here lately because I've been busy with work. I've just been invited to be a permablogger at Exponent II, so I anticipate that things will continue to be pretty quiet around here. I'm not shutting this blog down, but most of my religious blogging will be over at Exponent II from now on. I may post here from time to time if I have a topic I want to write about that's not a good fit over there.

Thanks to all of my readers over the years. I hope you'll come on over and see what my co-bloggers have to say!

Throwing off the Shackles of Pseudonimity

I've been pretty open about blogging under a (realistic sounding) pseudonym. Those days are over, though.

I'm the blogger (and Bloggernacle commenter) you've known for the past seven years as Keri Brooks, and my real name is Trudy Rushforth. I have an upcoming guest post at Feminist Mormon Housewives under my real name, and I've been participating in Facebook groups under my real name, so I figured it was time to just be myself. Do what is right, let the consequence follow, as the hymn says.

I'll still keep up my sporadic blogging here, but I'll be pseudonymous no more.

Below, I've reproduced the text of the (now deleted) page entitled "My Pseudonym", which explains why I kept up the pretense of a pen name for so long.

Writer's Block

I have so many things that I want to say, but I can't seem to get them into writing. I think part of it is that it's easier to dash off a quick comment in a Facebook group than it is to sit down and write out a thoughtful blog post.

The bar exam (which I took in February yet again, though in a different state this time) kind of wore me out. Plus, I can feel myself getting sick again. I did some more lab testing last week, and I'll find out soon whether my thyroid has gotten worse, or whether I've had an adrenal relapse. (Or whether my body has decided to break in new and interesting ways...) I'm just so tired all the time.

I'm going to a mid-singles' conference this weekend, and there's a pretty good speaker lineup. Elder Holland is the keynote, so I'm sure I'll have something to report. Instant blogging material!

In no particular order, here are the topics I'm considering blogging about once I can focus long enough to do so:

• Life is a kobiyashi maru
• Thoughts on theodicy
• Gifts of the spirit
• When personal revelation doesn't work out the way we expect
• Finishing up my ten commandments series
• A series on the articles of faith
• Gender-neutral hymns

Update

I've been away from the blog for a while, but I'm still here. I took the bar exam a few weeks ago, and I think it went well. I have a few non-bar-exam-related posts in the draft stage, but I have been too tired to write much of anything. I'll try to get something out within a week or so.

Writer's Block

I've hit a blogging slump. I have things I want to write about, but I can't seem to sit down and form the words.

In no particular order, here are some topics I want to cover:

• Gifts of the Spirit
• Why I don't believe in Heavenly Mother
• Repentance isn't a checklist
• The restoration of the gospel isn't finished yet
• Why (and how) I'm a pro-life feminist
• What the scriptures really say about interfaith marriage
  

Does anyone have any requests for which one I should tackle first? (I figure if I know someone wants to read about a particular topic, maybe it will be easier to write.)

Bar Exam Imposed Blogging Hiatus (with Reruns)

The bar exam (take two) is in six weeks. Plus, being the crazy person that I am, I'm also working full time and teaching an English class. So, blogging is going to be a little more sparse than usual around here.

I'm going to take a cue from television and do reruns. I've set up auto publishing of reprints of some of my old posts, with a little bit of commentary on what I think of them now. They'll publish on Wednesdays and Sundays, and I'll return to regular blogging at the end of February or beginning of March. (And if something comes up that I feel the need to blog about, I'll pop in before then.)

I'll try to check the moderation queue at least once per week to release comments. I wish there were a way to turn moderation on for specific posts, but my choices are no moderation, moderation for posts older than X days, or moderation for everything. I usually set X to equal 60, but until my temple post gets that old, I'm having to make X a smaller number. So there will likely be moderation on posts that don't need it for a few more weeks. Thanks for being understanding.

See you on the other side!

Housekeeping

I had to close comments on my post "Are you considering law school?" because spammers keep hitting it. It's an old post, so I hope it won't inconvenience anyone who has something to say about it.

Blogging is going to be a bit sporadic around here for the summer since I'm working full-time and studying for the bar exam. I'm not studying or working on Sundays, so I'll try to get at least one post per week up, but no guarantees. (If I get really creative, I'll write a bunch of posts on Sundays and make use of the auto-publish feature to have regular blogging throughout the week, but I certainly don't want to promise that.)

Graduation was on Saturday, and it was great. It still doesn't feel real. I think when I get sworn in as a member of the bar, that's when it will feel real.

Reminder on the Comment Policy

I operated this blog for a long time without a comment policy. A few months ago, I created one and announced it in this post here.

Nobody goes digging through the archives, so I've created a permanent page for the comment policy. It can be viewed here.

Keep coming by, and keep commenting, but keep it civil!

Feminist Mormon Housewives Community Spotlight

I've been spotlighted over at Feminist Mormon Housewives. I'm honored to be part of such a great online community.

You can read the spotlight here. I'm closing comments on this post, so if you want to comment, please do so at fMh!

My Blogging Queue

This post marks three days in a row of blogging. I'm on a roll!

I get ideas way faster than I can write them, and then I get to a point where they're bursting to get out and I feel compelled to write. I'm feeling like that this week. Unfortunately, I have way more stuff on my mind than time to write, so I have to prioritize.

I've started several blog posts but not finished them, and I have ideas for several more that I haven't started. I'm open to your thoughts on what you would like to read.

Here's what I've started but not finished:
* Why are there so many lawyers in the Bloggernacle?
I probably won't finish this one as a blog post because I have other plans for it. This one might end up as a law review article.
* God's nature vs. God's will
This one stemmed from a question in class earlier in the semester, and I've been turning it over in my brain since then.
* The Ten Commandments, Part 4
I'm about halfway through this one. I plan to finish the whole series at some point.
* Fellowcitizens with the saints
Ephesians 2:19 is a neverending source of bloggable material for me. This one also stemmed from a question in class earlier in the semester.

Here's what I'm thinking about but haven't started:
* The Euthyphro Dilemma
Is what is good commanded by God because it is good, or is it good because it is commanded by God?
* A response to Julie M. Smith's post "Authority on Her Head"
Julie's post is a Bloggernacle classic, and I would love to respond to it. (I'm mostly, but not completely, in agreement.)
* I don't believe in Heavenly Mother
The title sums up the topic. Don't take away my feminist card!
* Why do we need prophets?
What's the point of having a prophet if we can receive personal revelation?
* What does women's exclusion from the priesthood mean?
I have lots of contradictory answers to this question.
* The gifts of the Spirit.
How do they manifest themselves today?

I'm also thinking of starting a Q and A series. Sometimes people ask me questions that might make good blog posts.

What do you want to read about?

Best LDS Female Solo Blogger of 2010

Alison Moore Smith, who blogs at Mormon Momma, held a poll for readers to vote on the best LDS female solo blogger of 2010. Congratulations to Cocoa from Chocolate on My Cranium for winning. I haven't checked out Cocoa's blog, but I'm going to head over and see what she has to say!

And, for the record, I took 23rd place! Thanks to all of my readers who put up with my law-school-induced sporadic blog posting and keep coming back for more!

What You're Searching For

I've recently discovered the statistics feature in Blogger, and I'm fascinated with the interesting ways people find my blog. Usually people click on a link from some other blog that I've commented on or that links to me. Sometimes, however, people use search terms to find me.

This past week, people have used the following search terms to find The Posts of My House:

dating ethics lds - I'm assuming this person found my post Ethics and Dating in the LDS Context.
favorite old testament scripture - I'm assuming this person found my post My Favorite Scriptures.
francincense - That probably led to Gold, Francincense, and Myrrh.
god qualifies the called - I conveniently have a post with that very title.
no more strangers - I also have a post with that title.
paper sacrament cups and trays - This person probably found Paper or Plastic?
scriptures favorites - Most likely another hit for My Favorite Scriptures.
cdaph or unapei or fmh or cncph - I have no idea where this search string would have landed. I hope you found what you needed!

What do you want to read?

From checking my stats, it appears that the posts I like the best and the posts that people are more interested in reading/commenting on are not the same.

When I started this blog, I had two purposes. The first was to add my voice to the Bloggernacle by blogging about my take on LDS issues, both doctrinal and cultural. The second was to have a place to work through all the law school drama I was having at the time. I'm still in law school, but the drama has passed.

So, what do you want to read about? I enjoy the doctrinal posts, though they're more work to produce than the cultural or law school posts. I don't think I'm going to eliminate any category, since they're all a part of my life, but I do want to produce content that people are interested in reading.

I have a few ideas for posts that I'm going to float around to see what kind of interest they generate:

• I'm thinking of doing a series on the 10 commandments and how to apply them in modern life.
• I'm also thinking of a series of posts on the articles of faith.
• Next semester in school, I'm taking a class on Islamic Law. That might provide me with some bloggable material, though I won't know that for sure until a few weeks into the class.

Any thoughts? Are there topics you would like to hear my take on that I haven't mentioned?

Comments, Spam and Otherwise

I love comments. They're validation that someone is reading what I write. Plus, they help spark discussion. I operate from a philosophy of free and open discussion. The only comments I'll delete are ones that are obviously spam or are egregiously uncivil. In the nearly four years I've had this blog, I've only deleted a handful of comments, all spam. I keep moderation on for older posts to avoid hit and run spam attacks, but sometimes they happen anyway.

Unfortunately, Blogger has just ramped up their spam filter, and some legitimate comments are getting caught. I've let them all out now. I'm telling you this because if your comment gets caught, it's not my intention to keep it from seeing the light of day.

I don't check my blog every day and I don't check the e-mail I use for this blog every day. There may be waits between when I can clear out my filter. Please bear with me while I work out the bugs.

While I'm on the subject of comments, I've decided that it's time for a comment policy. This is not a reaction to anything. My blog started out in an obscure little corner of the internet and has now been noticed by the Bloggernacle. I'm getting more traffic, and I would rather have my policy in place before I need it.

So, here's the comment policy:
1. Comments are welcome. In fact, I love them.
2. No profanity. I may excuse some coarse language in an otherwise insightful comment, but I have no tolerance for the f-word. Any comment containing that word will be deleted even if the rest of it is brilliant. Unfortunately, I don't have the ability to edit comments, only delete them.
3. You are free to disagree with me or with other commenters, but no personal attacks. Saying "Poster X is wrong about issue Y because..." is fine. Saying "Poster X is stupid/apostate/going to hell/etc." is not fine.
4. I try to respond to commenters, but sometimes that's not possible due to whatever else is going on in life. Please don't take it personally; I'm not ignoring you.

A Little Housekeeping - Updated

I've had this blog for nearly four years now, so it's time for me to do some housekeeping. I'm going to tag my posts to create categories. That way, if people want to read about a certain topic, it will be easier to find related posts. I'm also going to redesign my background.

The upshot is that when I go back to edit old posts to add tags, the blogging software sometimes thinks it's a new post. So, for those of you that subscribe by Google Reader or RSS, you may get a deluge of new old posts. Sorry about that!

Update: I'm finished with the tagging and re-design. Any feedback would be appreciated. Is the blog too wide? I have a widescreen monitor, so it looks great to me, but if it's too wide for people with normal monitors, I can narrow it.

Some Administrative Business

I've been absent from my blog for a few weeks because of the move and because of school. I have comment moderation turned on for posts older than two weeks in order to cut down on comment spam. Unfortunately, for some reason, Blogger neglected to e-mail me to let me know I had comments awaiting moderation, and I didn't discover them until today. I've now cleared the moderation backlog, and I apologize for the delay. All comments were legitimate, and they have now been posted.

Miscellaneous Updates

I'm going to be absent from my blog for about three weeks. My take-home final exam for my legal writing and research class was distributed last night, so most of my energy will be divided between that, my reading for my other classes, and my two jobs. I may or may not comment on other Bloggernacle blogs when I have time, but don't expect to see anything here.

I'm looking forward to General Conference this weekend. I may take a break from my blogging hiatus to post some quick thoughts afterward. I'm grateful for modern technology that allows me to watch it on my laptop in my free time or listen to it on my ipod during my commute.

I'm winding up on the home stretch for the semester, and I'm starting to get nervous. I know the material, but I'm concerned about my exams. I can't afford to mess it up this time, since I'm on my last chance. I'm going to keep working hard and exercising faith. I'm going to be praying and trusting God. Please include me in your prayers if you feel moved upon to do so.

Thanks for all of your comments on my recent posts. I'm glad people are finding this blog a helpful forum for discussion, and I enjoy virtually talking with you all. Have a great week!

Introduction

Welcome to my blog. My goal for this blog is to discuss religion and spirituality as it relates to my life. Sometimes these discussions will be practical in nature, and sometimes they will be abstract and academic in nature. It all depends on my mood for the day.

The title of the blog comes from Deuteronomy 6:6-9. The Lord is establishing His covenant with His people.
"And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart:
And thou shalt teach them dilligently to thy children, and shall talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down and when thou risest up.
And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes.
And thou shalt write them on the posts of thy house, and on thy gates."

Feel free to comment, but please keep it civil. I look forward to discussing religion with you.