Category: Webpage News

… but GoDaddy ain’t one!

So, if you’re seeing this post, and the website doesn’t look quite like you remember it, then the transfer went through and welcome to the newly rehosted LeeTexans.com.

If you don’t remember, way back in last year, both houses of Congress made a push to pass internet censorship bills (SOPA & PIPA).  When this happened, GoDaddy came out early to support these bills.  They later retracted their public support when the public overwhelmingly rejected the idea.  GoDaddy has stayed quiet about it, but the word is they still support the federal government going to such extremes.

When this all happened, I decided not to renew my web hosting service with them (renewal was still over a year away) and look for a new hosting platform for my website.  Today, I signed up with BlueHost and I’m now in the process of migrating and updating the website.

I know I don’t keep track of the website all that often and it’s gotten pretty stale, so hopefully with this migration effort, I’ll finally get around to making some fairly decent updates.

And yes Mom, I’ll put the family tree info back up.

So I’ve discovered a WordPress plugin called RootsPersona that will automatically create the individual person files and link them all together.  Now when I update my family tree records, I won’t have to manually update a half a dozen pages, which should make it much easier to keep this website updated.  It’ll take be a little while to figure out how to use the new plugin effectively, so bear with me.

This website is dedicated to my family.  I use this website as a base to publish my genealogical research, share family pictures and recipes, and to be a point of contact with people who may be distantly related.  Whether I update this website once a week or once a year, this website is here for everyone to see.

Web blogs are set up to allow their author’s to share their passions with the world, and two of mine (besides my family) is politics and technology.  Its not often when so many of my passions converge into a single entity, so when I heard of this happening, I just had to share it with you.

The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA, H.R. 3261) and the Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA, S. 968) are in the works in Congress.  These bills would give the government and the bill’s commercial backers (the MPAA, RIAA, GoDaddy.com depending on who’s asking them, and others) unprecedented authority to have essentially have websites shutdown on demand.  If you combine the broadly and ill-defined terms of this bill with the fact that EVERYTHING in Washington becomes corrupted over time, this leads to the very real potential for oppressive censorship of the internet for little or no provocation.

The bills’ lead backer is Republican Congressman Lamar Smith continues to defend the bills despite growing protests from the internet community and conservative politicians in Washington.  Congress will vote on these bills sometime within the next two weeks, and I urge everyone to call their Representative or Senator and tell them to vote No on SOPA and PIPA.  Yes, online piracy should be addressed, but not at the expense of our freedoms.

Thanks, for reading.  I’ll step down from my soapbox now.

Bob Lee

 

Below are some links for more information:

• WordPress: Help Stop SOPA/PIPA
• New York Times
• HostGator: SOPA must Die!
• Wikipedia – SOPA
• Wikipedia – PIPA
• Google – End Piracy, Not Liberty

To lookup and contact your Congressional representatives in Washington, D.C.

• United States House of Representatives
• United States Senate

Wow, its been almost a year since I last updated the website.  This is no good.  I resolve to be better about maintaining the site in the new year (lets see how long that lasts).

Big news in the family: Samantha is engaged!

Yes, my bratty lil’ sis has found a great guy and I wish Sam, Chris, and Cody all the happiness in the world.  No date is set yet.  So stay tuned.  I may update with details (…next year?).

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and a happy and healthy start in the New Year.

Uncle Bobby

 

BTW… I know several people have left comments and have tried to contact me through the website over the last year (and a half).  I’m sorry, I haven’t been ignoring you.  I just forget about the website from time to time.  I’ll try to get in touch with each of you in the near future.

So it’s been a while since I’ve posted actual news here.  So here’s some highlights:

• Mom and Dad celebrated their 32nd anniversary by renewing their vows… in Vegas.
• Mom and Dad bought the Las Animas ranch with the Bednorz’es.  I’ll eventually post pictures.
• Dad is running for school board.  Don’t forget to go vote on November 2nd.
• Cody turned 3 and had a birthday party.
• I got new pictures of Cody.  Go check them out.