Xanga has changed since I've been gone, and apparently for the better. Nice! Here's a little tune for you all... Any thoughts would be much appreciated! Pete

Joe Biden was recently caught on Cspan saying, "It's easy being Vice President, you don't have to do anything." Poor Joe... Has he been stripped of his V.P. responsibilities?

The chicken or the egg?

Dear Xanga friends - Here are a few songs I wanted to make available to the Xanga community here free of charge. Hope you enjoy them! Sincerely - Pete

All songs © Pete Kruse

"Copper Harbor" <--- Click to download

"Summer Rain" <--- Click to download

Running <--- Click to Download

"This I Know" <--- Click to download

"Otter Creek" <--- Click to download 

One day Israel Schwartz asked God, "Yahweh, is it true that for you a thousand years is a minute?"
Yahweh answered, "Yes, Izzy, that is true."
Izzy had a second question: "And Yahweh, is it true that for you a million dollars is just a penny?"
Yahweh replied, "Yes, Izzy, that also is true."
Extending his right and with palm upturned, Izzy Schwartz said, "Yahweh, give me a penny."
And Yahweh said, "Certainly. It'll only take a minute.

All in all I really shouldn't complain
When all that I suffer is the occasional migraine
But the stress in my head can get to me sometimes
And we all need a place to unwind

I find myself driving away in my car
From cities and smokestacks past horses and farms
I park on a distant road and sit near a stream
And breathe the cool are beneath a willow tree

It's been a while now I should get back to my desk
Returning once again to bills, taxes, paychecks
But tomorrow or the next day when I've lost all my Zen
I'll return to the wild to find it again

I have a lot of Judson friends here on Xanga, but I think just about anyone can appreciate this vid...

Good

Plugz - Xanga Plugz are a great idea and I'm glad Xanga added them. It's a great way to bring exposure to fellow Xanga sites. I have plugz turned on even though I have Premium.

Speed - One of the problems I have with Myspace is that it seems uber slow, especially with all of the widgets people tac onto their sites. But Xanga has done a good job with keeping their hardware and software up to date, which, from my experience, has created a fairly quick site.

Bad

Simple Cell Phone access - I can easily access Facebook, comment on pages and look through photos on my nokia 5310 cell phone. I can't with Xanga, so I've been using Facebook more lately (even though I prefer Xanga).

Xanga Ideas - I've actually spent money on Plugz promoting my ideas, yet probably won't anymore until I understand how the ideas page works. For example, only a few of the hundreds of ideas that were submitted have been implimented, and some of those ideas only had a few votes. I don't like promoting an idea if I don't know if it has even a chance of being considered. I also think the ideas page should function more like Digg, where entries are searchable and categorized. I hate scrolling through pages looking for a specific topic. 

Ugly

Ish Sites - I've never really been on the bandwagon of bashing the Ish sites. Yet they are starting to feel impersonal and therefore no longer Xangaish.   I get frustrated when I look at the top of Xanga's home page and see some post titled "Have You Tried Nutella?" from a site called "I really like food". I would *much* rather see Xanga featuring photos, videos and audio from fellow Xangan's sites. Xanga has some great multimedia platforms and they should advertise them, bringing more traffic to artistic Xangans in the process.

What do you like/dislike about Xanga?

These new beginnings scare me,
As I feel ill prepared,
Even unworthy,
To be in this place.
I have a bad feeling about this.
But I couldn't stay where I was at,
Much longer.
Yet I still miss it,
As familiarity brings comfort.
I have received counsel from many,
And have been encouraged,
To stay where I am now at.
Yet my heart is anxious,
And I wonder inside,
If I made the right choice.