by Anura Guruge
on December 19, 2023
Its goal & intent should be fairly obvious.
It is an ‘Index’ (or ‘Redirect’) page to OTHER papacy related pages I intend to creat.
I have already created one — ‘Next Pope‘.
Plan is to CONSOLIDATE all my ‘pope’ related data & posts in these pages to permit easy, logical access.
Please check it out. I have a lot more to do. THANKS.
by Anura Guruge
on December 2, 2023
Click image to ENLARGE. This is part of my Homepage on this Website/blog.
I really need to be better at UPDATING this stuff.
I get so wrapped up in writing. That is what gets my juices going. WRITING. The rest is GRIND. Smile.
Glad I made time to do this today.
Taking a break from writing for a ‘month’ — at least till 2024. That is a promise.
by Anura Guruge
on May 7, 2023
The last time I ordered business cards (which were also from ‘VistaPrint’) was a few years ago (maybe 2019 or 2020). I was running out of cards (& I currently only have less than 20) & moreover, they were OUT-OF-DATE.
My old cards say ’30 books & counting’. Well, I am now up to 39.
I also wanted to highlight my NEW Website: guruge.com (& this blog, i.e., guruge.com/blog).
It also gave me a chance to be HONEST & not give ANY phone number, whatsoever. I do NOT like giving out my phone number. With these cards I don’t even make a pretense. No phone number. SMILE.
Funnily enough I ONLY ended up changing the FRONT of the card. Some of you will recognize the image, viz., West Quoddy Head Light, Lubec, Bold Coast, Maine. I, of course, had to have at least ONE Bold Coast image. And I succeeded. I was going to use a Bold Coast image on the back too but, in the end, reluctantly, changed my mind.
Yes, the image I have (which is the same as that from my old card) could easily pass as one of the Bold Coast — say, the ‘Ridge Trail’ at ‘Moose Cove‘. But, it isn’t. It is from Acadia & from quite a few years ago (& taken with a high-resolution camera). It still works, so I just changed the wording.
I should have the new cards by May 20. So, with luck, I should be armed with them when I next visit the Bold Coast around May 22.
by Anura Guruge
on December 12, 2022
Went to Logon, as I always do around 6:30pm, to see how much money I have lost on the day.
Logon screen was in a loop.
Kept on telling me to Login again.
Panic.
Logged in, using biometrics, on my phone. Phew! At least all my accounts were still there & they were not totally down to zero. I still had a few dollars in each. That was a relief. I wasn’t totally destitute as yet. (Maybe tomorrow.)
Called Fidelity. BUSY. The automated voice system said they would call me back. They did — in about 10 minutes.
As ever they were SUPERBLY polite & helpful.
Assured me that they thought it was a problem on their end. My accounts were fine. Nothing to worry about. That was comforting.
I kept on trying. While talking to him I managed to Login. WOW. What a relief. I am sure I lost 5 years of my life from that little excitement. So I am now, OFFICIALLY, living on borrowed time.
Not funny. I need to know, multiple times a day, how poor I am. It keeps me grounded.
So, just a heads up. If you are having problems login in, it might be THEM, rather than YOU.
by Anura Guruge
on March 24, 2022
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WOW! WOW! WOW! Who would have thought, who would have believed? Of course, it would appear, not I. Never even occurred to me. Yes, I can be naive in matters such as this. While I fully appreciate & applaud, free speech, free expression etc., I just kind of thought that someone, somewhere enforced some oversight over the Web. I guess I was wrong.
Plus the stupidity. If you think that multiple ‘agencies’ are NOT going to monitoring such sites then you sure deserve everything that comes your way & more. Well it would appear the cops in Toronto were unaware until they got a tip from Switzerland &, MOREOVER, the ‘guy’ managed to get away by claiming that it was all just role-play & fantasy. AMAZING.
NO. I have not gone looking & I have no interest. Plus, I have NO DESIRE, whatsoever, to have my IP Address associated with such sites. I have my standards.
I am posting this because I was shocked. I was amazed. Not sure how many others knew about such things & we are NOT talking about the ‘Dark Web’. This is the normal Web that our kids frequent. Just think about that.
AMAZING. I really do despair.
Despite being a Web denizen, I liked the world pre-Web!
Yes, if the Web was eliminated all together, I would still manage. I managed for 35 years without the Web. SMILE.
by Anura Guruge
on March 21, 2022
I am here talking about the CURRENT curia organization.
The curial changes per Pope Francis’ Praedicate evangelium Apostolic Constitution do not kick in till June 5, 2022.
I am trying to put together, per my wont, of a DEFINITIVE, up-to-date listing of the ENTIRE curial structure — before & after Praedicate evangelium. As you can see above I have a first draft BUT it needs to be fleshed out. So, I am looking at multiple sources to help me construct the definitive picture.
I, of course, took a look at the Vatican’s official website, i.e., vatican.va.
I should have known better. It is NOT like I am a newcomer to this resource. Always AMAZES me that the Vatican is so lackadaisical when it comes to there website. It is not like they are short of resources. Rome is crawling with acolytes. But, the Vatican appears to have no interest in maintaining an up-to-date website. Well, to be fair, it the LEAST of their sins!
by Anura Guruge
on November 23, 2021
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‘GoDaddy’ & I, as I talked about in this September 2021 post, go back 22-years.
I was a huge fan & promoter of GoDaddy. At one stage, c. 2010, I probably had 35 ‘products’ — viz., registered domain names, hosted sites & e-mail accounts — at GoDaddy. I had ALL of my ‘Web’ stuff with them (without exception) & tried to get most of my clients to move their stuff over to them too. I swore by GoDaddy — but the swearing had to do with how great they were. My yearly invoices from GoDaddy, as I would be reminded each year as I filed my taxes, ran into the thousands.
GoDaddy, under the legendary founder ‘Bob Parsons’ was good to I & I was grateful. It was not always smooth sailing, but boy, ‘oh, boy!’, did they try. Their support used to be so responsive. They had a highly technical group called the ‘Tiger Team‘. If you were a ‘preferential customer‘, either because you had highly technical needs or you bought a lot of products, your technical issues would be escalated to the ‘Tiger Team’. They were good. They would get on the phone with you.
Well, this is BUT nostalgia.
GoDaddy is a shadow of what it used to be in its heyday. ‘Blake Irving‘, who became their CEO, in 2013, in my opinion, changed the company forever — &, alas, not for the better. I was never a fan of his. I guess this 2017 post was not that subtle as to how I felt. SMILE.
Well, alas, this is not the first unfortunate data breach that GoDaddy has endured. They had another one just 2-years ago! Yes, just two years ago — October 19, 2019.
I started this, my latest (& hopefully ‘greatest’) website/blog in June of this year. I spent weeks looking for the right hosting company for I — & I had decided I was going to use WordPress. I had had 20 (or more) managed WordPress sites at GoDaddy. But, this time around I barely spent 5 minutes thinking about them as an option. I went, in the end, with ‘HostGator‘. So far, they have been immaculate.
I am, of course, delighted that I am NOT a GoDaddy WordPress customer. This data breach will be such a pain for MILLIONS as they scramble trying to change passwords etc. This was NOT acceptable on the part of GoDaddy.
Bob Parsons, you are missed, sorely.
by Anura Guruge
on October 25, 2021
This has just gone live. It is a work in progress. In time it will be a full-service resource for all things ‘Bold Coast‘.
Yes, it is another of my many ‘Bold Coast‘ initiatives. But, it will be an ‘open’ & free resource. It will not be just restricted to my interests. I will urge others to collaborate, participate & contribue. So, if you are interested or have relevant content please contact me.
I will keep you posted as I add more & more content. Thank you.
by Anura Guruge
on October 2, 2021
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It is amazing the amount of housekeeping I end up having to do each time I publish a new book. I was hoping that having this NEW Website cum blog, all-in-one, will simplify things. It has. But, it has still taken me 2-weeks to get around to updating the Website. I am sure it is my old age. Well, it is done & that is what matters.
I have already told you about the book — I think. But, just in case, here is the link to the Amazon listing. It is, however, also available across nearly all conceivable platforms — including ‘Apple‘. Here is a sample.
by Anura Guruge
on September 4, 2021
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Kicking out that radical website was a brilliant, decisive, resounding & moral act. Bravo, GoDaddy. As a customer of over 22-years I am very proud of you. GoDaddy did the right thing.
GoDaddy & I go back to at least 1999, if not earlier. Those were the heady days of when GoDaddy was still making baby steps. I switched over from ‘Network Solutions‘ & for 15-years (or more) I could NOT have been happier. GoDaddy was good to I. Those were the days when (saintly) ‘Bob Parsons‘ ran the shop, with his finger always on the pulse. On paper Bob no longer has any executive clout over GoDaddy. But, this move against Texas is very much what I expect from that great man. I am sure he made a few phone calls.
GoDaddy, under Bob, was quite the magical company. I kid you NOT when I say that c. 1999 GoDaddy & I mastered Microsoft ‘FrontPage’ hosting together. Yes, there were technical issues — but, in those days, under Bob, SUPPORT was the #1 priority & they had the so called ‘Tiger Team’. That Tiger Team & I were closely, so many times, thrashing out FrontPage hosting issues. I never dealt personally with Bob, but I had access to one of his direct assistants. He would always step in & make sure I was treated well. In 2013, when Benedict XVI resigned, my (then) ‘Next Pope‘ website, hosted with GoDaddy, EXPLODED. We were getting something like 4,000 hits per second. My hosting plan never envisaged that level of traffic. GoDaddy, even before I called them, stepped in! They had seen the ‘issue’. I was later told that Bob himself was monitoring the traffic to my site. They, i.e., GoDaddy, even without asking (or charging) me kept on increasing the hosting capacity assigned to my website. GoDaddy rocked.
I am GLAD to see that they are back to being the EXCELLENT company they once were.
If you go to my ‘old blog‘ & do a search (on the built-in search bar) for ‘GoDaddy‘ you will find tons of posts — some praising them, some lambasting them.
I am still a GoDaddy customer. Most of the domains I own (& I still own a few) & my e-mail is still with them. They no longer host any sites for I. But, that is OK. I still think of myself as a GoDaddy ‘booster’. This decision, by GoDaddy, to take a stand against the INSANE Texas abortion ban made me proud of GoDaddy. The spirit of Bob Parson prevails.