Keith’s response to Nyman’s post expresses my thoughts exactly. Notice Nyman’s response to it.

The number one reason why I usually will not enable comments is because it goes against my Christian beliefs. Christians should do what they can to avoid arguments and quarreling. Allowing an environment for the kind of debating that typically goes on when comments are enabled on controversial posts fosters an ungodly spirit.

When I encounter posts which contain heated responses going back and forth on controversial topics, I quickly begin to feel very disturbed. That’s unavoidable for me — probably because of being both a Christian and an Aspie. Others cannot know the intense degree to which I’m empathetic towards the feelings of every human being.¹ That’s why trying to explain this in a way others can comprehend what I’m talking about might be impossible, but since it’s not for me to judge what others are capable of, I shall make the attempt.

Imagine a young child who loves both of his parents equally. Then try to imagine how that child would feel while hearing his parents arguing passionately. He would be disturbed because he wants his parents to get along together. For them to be against each other on an issue (or issues) reveals evidence of the potential that they will divide apart (i.e., split). What condition does that then leave the child in? He suffers heartache, especially since he knows there is nothing he can do that’s within his power or control to keep them from hurting each other.

Think about what and why people get defensive. Jesus was perfectly humble. He valued not what others in this world thought of him. Nor did He insist others follow Him. He merely abided His earthly life with His heart’s affection ruled by God. He loved mankind, but loved His heavenly Father more.

What stimulates the need in people to force their opinions on others is pride. Proud people don’t let God be God. When that’s the case, they take it upon themselves to act like god. That’s chaos, because there is no unity (i.e., no common denominator). Chaos and confusion are the grounds for malice to grow.

I once said on my blog, “There is no love in strife, quarreling, wrangling, bickering, or any debating that stems from pride. A malicious spirit only invites disrespect and needs to be disregarded.” God has reasons for saying what’s stated in Romans 1:28-31 and Matthew 5:11-13. There are many other bible verses warning mankind about strife.

I also had written, “Just because others like to debate and argue doesn’t mean I should too. If you’re here to complain, criticize, accuse, and/or condemn me, then maybe it’s best you leave. I don’t allow readers to challenge what I write in my posts, since most contradictions have already been argued elsewhere ad nauseam.” If the way I said it sounds nasty, I didn’t mean it to. It’s hard to know how to say something so people get the message that you mean what you say, while at the same time, keep from crossing the boundary of acting like a god. Adding to that, all the different types of characters who are reading online makes it impossible to not offend someone sometimes, especially if they’re unwilling to be understanding and/or are intolerant of others who differ.

If this post gets misconstrued as being like a sermon given by a preacher because I’m not going to enable comments, the reasons for that will probably vary. For starters, to judge like that is to not look at the whole picture. I am more than my blog. I have lived beyond a middle age. That means my blog is affected by a history of being (mis)treated by others in different ways, a lifetime of learning that has developed who I now am today, and (most importantly) being in training under the rule of my Heavenly Father. I won’t go beyond what I’ve already said, because what I’ve already said might be too much for some people to gracefully accept.

¹Even though I’m super-sensitive towards how others feel does not mean my behavior reflects it perfectly all the time. I have moods just like anyone else. I’m more aware of the times when I’m being a hypocrite or jerk than when I’m not being like that.

After having read some of the negative opinions about blogs without comments, I got the feeling like I just heard a tempter tantrum. What if I had a hissy fit over all the blogs that enable comments? What would others think of me if I were to express how annoyed I get over wasting my time reading what ends up being mostly meaningless chatter? When I go to a blog, I usually only want to read what the blogger has to say. On rare occasions, I might be curious to see comments (e.g., comments about commenting).

A blog is defined as being a chronological journal, diary, or regular record of your thoughts, opinions, reflections, hobbies, and experiences that you put on the Internet for other people to read. I wonder how many people procrastinate or decide against having a blog because they don’t want a dialog or thread of responses if they were to have a website.

Personally, I appreciate anyone who has the courage to start blogging (regardless of whether or not they have comments enabled), especially relatives and those who live in my neighborhood community. I like visiting sites which reflect local events that have taken place. For example: annual street festivals, community fair days, church events, etc. It’s wonderful to see pictures of those whom I haven’t seen in a long time. If no one bothered to put them online, it would be a sad loss to no longer experience that feeling of connection with the local community.

I hope the variety of interests this blog (“S ~ S”) has attracted will someday become more narrowly focused. Maybe being more restrictive in what I post in the future might not be enough. If I have to, I will do some manual manipulations (i.e., deleting posts) in order to make that happen. Time will tell.

Because this blog is still somewhat general, the quality of comments will most likely make enabling them again not yet worth it.

I’m in complete agreement with what Jeremy Keith says in his uncommentable post Comments on community on his Adactio Journal weblog,

Does every little blog post really need to accept comments? Wouldn’t it be better to save them for special occasions? Comments should be disabled 90% of the time.

For comparison, read Robert Nyman’s comment enabled post A blog without comments isn’t really a blog from his Robert’s talk weblog.

Postscript — This post is continued in The Potential Atmosphere of Comments.

It’s something that would naturally upset anyone’s emotions if it were to happen to them. In my case, a thing like this can create a challenge for me to be able to focus with both eyes open on things. Plus, it can destroy my confidence in what I’m doing, especially in situations where I’m being social with another person (since that’s probably the area of my life I have the least amount of confidence to begin with). I thought it wouldn’t be a problem that could also affect what I do online when writing a post for my blog because of not having to hear a person’s voice, see someone, or correspond if I’m not up to it. I was wrong about that.

Yesterday I impulsively wrote a post thinking that it would help to relieve some of my anxiety that’s been built to a meltdown point.¹ What I learned instead is that it actually added to my tension. That’s why I removed it before I went to bed last night. I figured I could put it back after having some sleep.² I woke up this morning with a new insight from my caring and understanding daughter (who I trust because of her comforting and secure faith in God) lovingly gave to me last night.

I created this blog almost two years ago on the 24th of a January. What has been happening without my realizing it as time has gone by is how wrong it is to believe that using a blog is always a reliable form of therapy. I won’t discriminate blogging in this regard. The same thing can just as well happen with knitting, art, music, exercise, etc. when God loses His rightful place. I recently said to an Aspie friend of mine, “If we seek from others what only God alone can give, that is lust and it works like, ‘I must have this at once, I cannot wait for God’s time, God is too indifferent.’” That statement about lust can be equally true when said, “If we seek from activities what only God alone can give, that is lust and it works like, ‘I must have this at once, I cannot wait for God’s time, God is too indifferent.’”

I am too exhausted now to know what else to say and need time to recover from my injury. A wonderful comfort is knowing Romans 8:28, “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”  I’m also going back to 1 Corinthians 2:2 and being thankful for God’s never ending perfect love.

¹Meltdowns are a common risk among Asperger individuals that can have a snowball effect if not taken care of properly.

²At this time, I don’t know if I will put the post entitled, “Mean it but not mean…” back in place or not.

God said all things work for the good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose and that even includes my ‘mistakes’. I made a mistake which led me (by chance) to chatting with my friend at my hosting company. He confirmed my suspicions about the poor service being the company’s fault. However, he did give me good news. The slow speed issue is temporary and will be resolved by the end of this year.

What I don’t get from all this is why most people today foolishly refuse to be consistently honest and straightforward; plus, have no shame about lacking integrity?!?!

My web hosting company could have lost me as a long-time customer, if I wasn’t as patient as I am. If they would have told me before what my friend there told me this morning, I could respect that and work around the information.

I would have known for sure what was going on sooner or later. For me to find this out after I’ve unnecessarily wasted hours of time because of waiting for hundreds of pages to each load at a slow speed while editing their tags, would be upsetting to say the least! Now that I am no longer left in the dark and confidently know what’s going on, I can plan to resume editing tags next year. Then I will be doing it using time efficiently, since the pages will load a lot faster.

Why do businesses think it’s good for them to keep customers ignorant of what’s going on? It’s really not good when customers already have it figured out anyhow.

There is nothing shameful about saying, “We’ve been acquiring new accounts which consume more bandwidth than we planned for. Please be patient as we work to remedy this issue. It shall be resolved in two months.” Instead, what I got repeatedly told was, “Everything is fine at our end. It must be something with your internet connection.” I take the later as an insult and extremely rude!

Generally speaking, if Aspies ran a business, they wouldn’t play those kind of games with their customers. Aspies are more reliable because they are more straightforward than NTs. That’s a fact.

On the topic of deception, tech businesses aren’t the only ones — government schools employ and reward² these types too.

If you remember the teacher Wendy Portillo, you too may be interested in the video I stumbled across entitled Portillo Lied. It expresses what Alex Barton’s Mom had to say about Wendy’s arrogant, shameful, and totally unprofessional behavior.

¹For me to find out through experience how much better other hosting companies are didn’t seem worth it. This particular one I have is good in many other ways.

²The school district gave Wendy her tenure back. As I see it, the government is telling us, “Do as we say, not as we do.”

It’s true I can’t ‘produce’ new work on my blog, but the reason why might not be the same as what’s intended by the meaning of writer’s block.

Normally for those who write and hit a wall stopping them, it’s because they can’t think of new material. Sometimes that’s my reason for not posting. I’m now realizing though that it is not my usual reason, especially when the blocks are my toughest to bust through.

I’m actually in one of my most difficult periods of time to produce new material because I have WAY TOO  MUCH new material! In fact, there is so much I’d love to say that I’m too overwhelmed to even record it on my voice recorder! I’ve tried it before when I’m in this condition and what I end up doing almost all the time is deleting it all because it ends up becoming too challenging for my executive functioning abilities. All the new material piles up so fast that I have to find a way to dump it when it looks like there is no end in sight. How’s that for a mess? Plus, when it comes that fast, I cannot retain it all in my memory. I suspect that my mental habit is to dump a lot of the new insights in order to protect myself from going insane by it all.

Here’s how it works:

The more I’m in an receptive mode, the more I’m attracted to things which fuel my thoughts. I have no idea when, where, or how another new insight/revelation will come. It could be from a person, book, video (or audio) production, or experience.¹ The more engrossed I get, the less I’m able to realize how deeply I’m digging myself down under it all. I don’t dare mention any of those things that have collected to captivate my attention because I must get back to them now.

I need what I’m learning from it all, but at the same time I feel frustrated that I can’t share it since it probably would help others like it is helping me. It all feels so selfish, but I doubt it since true selfishness stems from wrong motives.

As Adrian Monk would say, “It’s a blessing and a curse.” Being in a hyper-active mental state sure doesn’t help one to stay on track with other activities that one is committed to accomplishing!

I’m going to try to force myself to focus on writing something significant, but yet as brief as I can think of, after this post so that I can feel like I’m at least capable of that much. Hopefully that will give me some encouragement while I’m in my writer’s block.

¹It must be obvious that when there are too many offline sources of inspiration bubbling on the stove of one’s mind, gravitating to the internet, on top of it all, is asking to be stretched into the snap zone!

Why must I say what I’m about to say today? Because early this morning another revelation occurred to me. In my last post, I said blogging (for me) can be a viciously destructive cycle. I wouldn’t be surprised if after what I say next causes most to view me as being fickle. I’ve learned to expect that from those with less comprehension.

So, if blogging can be self-destructive for me, then why am I writing again? Well, for starters, who else is there to tell me how therapeutic my journal continues to be even when I’m not posting? I confess that does sound arrogant to say such a thing. After all, why say it if you already know it? Because I forget, especially if it’s something positive about myself! Think about it. How could anyone remind me of something so important when no one else even knows?

If it wasn’t for my habit of logging in to my blog to check for messages from those contacting me and my curiosity over seeing what others are curious about that I wrote, I wouldn’t get sucked into reading my posts. As I view what draws the attention of others, I then end up examining my posts for possible needs of updates and/or edits. Once that happens, my own words usually penetrate back to me when I need them the most. I wonder how often that same thing happens to others?

Maybe what I need is more faith in God? It can get hard for me to discern how close self-pity is below the surface, but just because it can be there doesn’t mean it always is.

I’m not sure how my own information I put together can cause me to think so much when I already had to have done a lot of thinking in order to write it in the first place.

All I can guess is that emotions are to blame.

Even though emotions need to be closely monitored and are not always constructive, they do serve a purpose. It’s my theory that because emotions are fickle and emotions fuel writing most of the time, my blogging style can end up being perceived as periodic fickle behavior.  Blogging (at least speaking for myself) isn’t much unlike the weather. The weather basically isn’t very predictable, but just because it isn’t doesn’t mean that it’s unfaithful, disloyal, deceitful, untrue, or betraying.

How ironic it is that I published my last post as an attempt to help protect myself from self-pity/depression, only to discover such negative attitudes have infinite ways to attack and it was my own blog which pulled me out from my recent mire of despondency.

Time does tell what works.

Blogging draws my attention towards the spirits of anger and resentment that I’m harboring, so when I write about my negative experiences,¹ I’m feeding them. That is what can make blogging (to me) a destructively vicious cycle. Normally journals are therapeutic, but any kind of journal that can end up being self-destructive shows it may be time to abandon it and move on to something healthier.

There are two kinds of anger: Godly anger versus self-pity anger.

All self-pity is anger in disguise, whether it’s outwardly passive or active… or inwardly festering as depression (depression is anger turned inward).

There are two kinds of correction, depending on whether its self-centered anger driven by self-pity or Godly anger. Both may contain emotion, but the former glorifies self (a spirit of self-righteousness) and the later glorifies God (it displays humility taking a stand for Godly principles). To say, “What’s the matter with you? Shame on you!” can be symptoms of either a covert attitude of pridefully thanking God or humbly overthrowing the tables.

When I sit down at the computer to type, my brain is triggering adrenaline glands. At this point, probably due to the pattern I’ve allowed myself to get entrenched in, I cannot write without emotions. Its gives me energy when I’m sleep deprived, but its the wrong kind of energy because it’s going to keep me awake. It’s such a conditioned response that all I need to do is see a computer (or think about one), then my body chemistry has changed. Its like a caffeine fix, except more powerful because its able to keep me awake for days on end.

I need to pray and trust God that He will make me simply be → without the negativity!

¹I don’t think positive when I’m blogging, because I’m too often habitually making negative associations. In fact, the habit has become so ingrained that unfortunately it has become such a part of my character that it’s now who I am. It is time for that demonic characteristic to be crucified.

Finding solutions to problems is addictive. It can be like gambling in that random rewards have the capability to cause repeated behavior more than being consistently rewarded every time. Because I’m that way with technical issues, I keep at whatever it is until it’s fixed. That means ignoring as much as I can that gets in the way of my task at hand; no matter how many hours, or days (sometimes — but not lately — weeks and even months) it takes!

Well, by the time I approached upgrading my theme, my brain had already been running a marathon and a half. I kept thinking the finish line is just around the next bend… one more step, one more step. The nightmare was that the finish line for my project was like a carrot dangling at the end of an invisible stick and I had to stop because my body no longer could stay in an upright position.

I didn’t realize I was forgetting to do something very important before installing the newer version (thanks being over-exhausted), so I also didn’t know that my nightmare was to be continued the next morning.

Almost always, I eventually adjust to the changes which come along from newer versions of programs… but it’s usually not fun or easy! However, when it comes to the English translation of the bible, newer versions should not replace the Authorized King James Version. They can be useful in their own way, but the KJV is as good as it gets!

You can tell I’m tired when I shift quickly from one topic to another, as I’m doing now.

It’s times like this it does a body good to remember how God works. Not too many days ago, I came across an example easy for me to relate to. It’s Phil A. Smouse‘s translation from Oswald Chambers’ devotional My Utmost for His Highest. His heavenly book is called Jesus Wants All of Me and the day in particular is May 22,

“Why do I feel so lonely? What is God doing? God is answering prayer! Jesus prayed that I would be one with the Father just like He is. And now God is answering His prayer. He is letting me feel lonely so I will go closer to Him.”

“That they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us.” — John 17:21

Could it be time to get to bed for some sleep when it’s 3:33 a.m.? It must be time for this blog to be left alone for awhile. Maybe my site will go closer to Him because of it!

I habitually keep my eyes open for errors I might spot (thanks to knowing how easy it is to make mistakes). That isn’t the same thing as using one’s time, which is normally devoted towards writing about something not already said, for editing posts already in existence.

If you’re tempted to think I’m just being an unnecessary perfectionist, then most likely you’re not understanding what goes on in my mind because my way of thinking is too different to comprehend.

I’m not saying everyone or even most people should be like me. I’m not trying to impress anyone either, at least in the way it might be interpreted. The reason I strive for being meticulous is because that is what is needed for helping people to think differently.¹ Whoever is unable (and/or unwilling) to see how important it is to be able (and/or willing) to be cognitively flexible should not even be reading my blog.

A lot of my edits might be minor, but some could potentially make a major difference. It all depends on the reader and on what I changed. When referring to changes, I’m including such things as: adding footnotes, making text bold, adding more of my own comments, disabling or enabling comments for certain posts, etc. I would never edit someone else’s comment(s).

As I reflect on all my posts that have accumulated over the year and observe their stats, I contemplate deleting ones which seem to be unpopular. No one likes to waste his or her time weeding through trash to find worthwhile reading material.

In school, English was one of my most challenging classes to keep from failing. Reading comprehension was difficult, but writing was even harder. I struggled over learning how to construct sentences and essays so that they would not be excessively long. I still do. As for organizing my thoughts? It’s obvious I have room for improvement. Who else categorizes their posts like I’ve ended up doing or gets indecisive over knowing how to use tags?

¹It’s the nature of an artist to be highly sensitive in regard to perceptions.