Another example of the US government’s incompetence

Another example of the US government’s incompetence

Let me first say that I love my country. I’m as red-blooded an American as you will ever find, anywhere. For those who are not Americans or even those who are, but sometimes need to be reminded allow me to explain what that means. It means I love the people of this country, our way of life, our culture, our good points and our bad points. Basically it means I love everything about America except the government. I could go on and on and on for hours about why I don’t love the US government, but I’ll save you the agony. Instead I’ll highlight a perfect example of government bureaucracy run amok.

I’ve only posted part of the article there’s still more to be read. Can anyone guess why I’m not particularly enamored with the United States federal government?

Posted in News and Politics | 6 Comments »

Breaking the monotony of blogging

Breaking the monotony of blogging

Blogging can be a solitary endeavor. More than that it can get very monotonous. Much like anything in life if done often enough and for long enough. It will eventually manifest itself in the quality of your posts. While you are blogging (or doing any other type of computer related activites) it is important to break things up so you can give yourself a break from time to time. Here are a few ideas that will break up the blogging monotony

Listen to MP3’s

This is by far my favorite thing to do while I’m blogging or anything else on the computer. Hopefully you know how to do this without instruction, but just incase…

• You need an MP3 player. Though Widows Media Player (WMP) will suffice I recommend something a little more robust such as Winamp by Nullsoft. With Winamp you’ll have a lot more functionality than with WMP especially once you begin to experiment with some community made plugins. If you need instruction on using the software have a look the community support section over at winamp.com
• You’ll need some MP3’s to actually listen too. Now being a good steward of my little slice of the internet I can’t actually advise you to download (free of charge) MP3’s using a peer-to-peer application such as Limewire.
• You’ll need some noise amplification system, aka speakers, or headphones. That should go without saying, but it doesn’t. I fix computers and I’ve made more than my share of money from people calling me asking why they can’t hear anything. Trust me you feel pretty stupid having a technician show up and tell you to go buy some speakers or headphones and handing you a $75.00 plus travel bill. If you don’t have speakers Logitech puts out some decently priced speakers that work well. Granted they aren’t a set of Bose but they get the job done.
• If listening to music isn’t your thing you can always find an amazing assortment of audio choices over at Live365.com worth listening to.

Please note that I mentioned Winamp because it is what I use, but there are plenty of other players out there which will work just fine. Even WMP is perfectly fine. I just prefer something a little less resource intensive.

Surfing the web

Sometimes I find it a nice break to surf the web at the same time I am blogging. How do I accomplish this? With tabs of course! If your browser isn’t capable of tabs you really need to upgrade to a better browser, though to be fair even the enemy, Internet Explorer sports tabs now days. Here’s some tips that will make your tabbed surfing easier.

• Use keyboard shortcuts to move between tabs. With both Firefox and Internet Explorer the ctrl+tab combination will allow you to move between pages. With your browser window open, and in focus just hold down the ctrl key and tap the tab key. You should see your browser cycling through open tabs
• Open new sites in a new tab. If your mouse has a middle mouse button, usually a scroll wheel, push down on it when you hover over a link and this should open the link in a new tab instead of either opening a new browser or opening that page in place of the current page. If you don’t have a scroll wheel/middle mouse button try right clicking on the link and then click on Open link in new tab. In IE 7 it will say Open in new tab.

Other things you can do while surfing the web include…

• Use Google as a spell checker. Who says you can’t get work done while surfing the web. If your spelling is as bad as mine is you need all the help you can get. Further if you’re a cheap-ass like myself and refuse to purchase any kind of spell check software you can always rely on Google. Well almost always. Generally you just need to type something that looks kind of like the word you want to use sounds into Google and press enter. Google will then spit out a page of results and if the spelling you tried was incorrect it should say Did you mean:blah. This won’t let you check the entire document, but it will help you get past individual words that are tripping you up. If you want to spell check an entire document try out Google Docs
• Play a few games or watch some videos. Sometimes you just need a little downtime while your blogging is put on hold for a bit. There are a ton of free flash game sites out there to play around. One of them is ugotgames.com which incidentally will help to verify that your speakers are functioning properly. If games are your style you can always spend some times over at Ebaumsworld.com, or Jibjab.com playing around. There are literally hundreds (probably thousands) of sites like those around.
• Research your topic. Whatever topic you are writing about chances are excellent that you aren’t the first and therefore you should leverage the advantage of the web by using it for research even while you are writing your posting. With the world wide web at your disposal there is no excuse for not knowing the subject of your article inside and out. No, it won’t make you an expert out of an egg, but it can make the difference between someone with a valid point and a buffoon.

Step away from the computer

Every 15 to 20 minutes get away from the computer for a few minutes. Whatever you do just get away from the computer. It will refresh your mind which will translate into a better post. Some quick and easy activites you can try your hand at while taking your break.

• Take a 5 minute walk outside. If the weather doesn’t permit a walk just go stand on the deck for 5 minutes. Fresh air will do you a world of good
• Read a page in your book. It will allow your mind to switch gears for a few minutes
• Pray. The power of prayer is astounding. Whether you believe in God or not the effects of prayer and how it affects your peace of mind is incredible. Not to mention someone is listening.
• Go talk with a friend or family member in the same house. We are creatures that thrive on relationships and communication. Don’t forsake your immediate local communication for the blogging community.
• Do some exercises. Over at Ross Training there is some excellent information about bodyweight exercises that will make you wish you had never eaten a twinkie in your life.
• Walk your dog. The poor beast would love to get outside and take care of business. Even if the business is nothing more glamorous than sniffing the spot where something else took care of its business.

Do a crossword puzzle.

That’s right, go spend $3 to $5 and get a book of crosswords from the supermarket. Research shows that doing crosswords can actually signficantly improve your IQ. Don’t worry no one will think you’re a dork for doing them. They will however think you’re a dork for living behind your computer and doing nothing else. And sadly, they’ll be right. Even more sad is that you know they’re right. If you can’t find a book don’t worry. You can download crosswords from about.com

What kind of things do you do to break up the monotony of blogging?

Posted in Blogging | 8 Comments »

News from around the world

News from around the world

Here’s another round of news that’s worth knowing about.

Main item

Greek wildfires

In the cult classic Backdraft the general public was introduced to the idea that fire is a living, sentient, being with motives behind what it does. Ok, maybe that’s not quite how the movie presented it, but a little bit of embellishment never hurt to help set the tone. In the case of the Greek wildfires it appears that intelligent fire is the least of our concerns. In this instance, as is often the case, it looks as though idiotic humans are the true culprits once again.

Here’s a quick look at some of the publicly known facts regarding the fires.

• Fires began popping up last Friday, 24 August 2007
• 63 confirmed dead
• Reward of up to 1,000,000 Euros for information leading to the capture(s) of persons involved in setting the fires
• Those found to have participated may be prosecuted under Greek terror laws
• There are literally hundreds of fires, many of them with multiple fronts
• It is an ecological disaster as nearly all of the remaining Grecian forest land has been scorched
• 32 suspected arsonists terrorists have been arrested thus far

For further information about these particular fires you can look at numerous news sources courtesy of Google news. This wikipedia page gives some good information about wildfires in general. Finally here are some safety tips from FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) regarding what to do in the event you find yourself in the path of an oncoming wildfire.

Other items

Global flooding

Ok perhaps global is a bit strong, but there certainly is a lot of it going on. To be fair this is the latter half of a monsoon season so heavy rains are to be expected. Some facts and statistics to help catch you up on these floods…

• Over 500 killed in Bihar India flooding
• At least 600 dead in North Korean flooding
• Across Africa floods have taken a toll
• The mid-western US is dealing with floods that has killed dozens

Of course we can’t forget the floods that soaked the United Kingdom either.

Dog fighting

It seems that the indictment of Michael Vick on dog fighting charges and the subsequent guilty plea we are starting to see the issue of dog fighting getting some attention by the major media. I’ll not get into to much detail about Pit Bulls at this point as I just wrote an article about Pit Bulls a few days ago.

Now with the raid on Earl Simmon’s (aka DMX) home in Phoenix Arizona turning up illegal drugs, weapons, and of course malnurished and abused Pit Bulls this whole situation will no doubt get even more media attention. Which is a good thing. Perhaps now people will start to see that it is not the breed of dog that is the problem, but the slobs who own them.

Posted in News and Politics | 2 Comments »

They love me, they love me not - “Link love” examined

They love me, they love me not - “Link love” examined

Everytime I write an article for this blog I make an effort to locate at least one other blog which is talking about the same thing from a different angle or that will add relevance to my post. I then make certain I link to that other blog so that my readers might benefit from it the same as I have. The term “link love” is often bandied about when one site links to another. I decided to take a closer look at it and try to determine for myself what makes a link-worthy post. Milage and opinions of course will vary as with anything else in life, but the goal here is to get a rough idea of why someone is or isn’t linking to a particular post.

Why people link

There are a few reasons people link to other blogs and websites.

I get something out of it

If I link to you, yes my traffic will possibly visit your blog, but your traffic will do the same. It’s like an unpaid advertising campaign each time I link assuming I use the trackback feature properly.

My readers will get something out of it

If I send traffic to a site which my readers find valuable it adds value to my own site. Rather it helps to establish their trust in my judgment and hence their likelyhood of returning to my site.

You get something out if it

Aside from the obvious, free traffic, the owner of the other blog benefits as well. They have an opportunity to become a trusted source for the original bloggers readers.

Why people don’t link

I’ve come up with a few reasons that people don’t link to other sites and blogs.

Their readers will not get any value from it

I’m all for “link love”, but if you link to a post that has nothing to do with the topic of your article you’ll only hurt yourself. That other blog that you linked to might just pick up a new reader at your expense.

It won’t produce any reciprocal traffic

In a perfect world if I link to you then you will return the favor and link back to me. That almost never happens in the real world. Some bloggers even go so far as to edit out the url in a trackback comment. Not often but I’ve seen it happen before.

They don’t know you’re there

If no one knows you are there you don’t stand a chance of getting linked. Get out there and share your existence with the world. This post isn’t about promotion, but that’s what we all need to do if we want traffic

Some basic linking tips

Use the proper anchor tag text

If the site you are linking to doesn’t ask for a specific anchor text incorporate the post title into a sentence of your own and use that as the anchor tag. If you’re linking to the main page of the site use the name of the site and/or the tagline of the site. If the site asks for a specific anchor text use that to link with.

Be sure to trackback

Make sure you use the trackback anytime you link to another site. If you don’t you’re throwing away a lot of potential traffic, and you are negating almost entirely the free advertising that a link to another site can generate.

Double check the article you are linking to

Sounds like a no brainer, but actually read the article you are going to link to. Don’t just depend on the title and first paragraph to tell you what it is about.

Use proper names where possible

In other words if you know the name of the owner of the site you are linking to use their name and give them credit for making the site or as the owner. Something like “Since we’re talking about the how hippos use their molars to crush plants I thought you might like to take a look at Bob Jone’s site about how a chipped hippo tooth is repaired” No, it’s not a real link just an example.

That’s it a few points about “link love”. I’m also eager to hear your answers to a few questions.

• On average in each post you write how often do you link to another site?
• Do you link based on the content of the one post or the blog overall
• Do you ever link outside of your “niche”? If so under what circumstances
• Do you bother with customized anchor text?

Posted in Blogging | 4 Comments »

Blogging through the frustration

Blogging through the frustration

I’ve only been at this blogging thing since July 11, 2007. At this point that is only about a month and a half ago (it’s now August 25, 2007). In this time I’ve learned a lot. Both about myself, my interests, and my tolerance level for blogging. The one thing however that I’ve learned which is most surprising is that blogging can be a very frustrating past-time.

Obviously I can’t speak for anyone else, but I doubt anyone of us got involved with blogging in order to be frustrated, and yet on a daily basis I am ready to tear my hair out. I have a sneaking suspicion that I’m not the only one who suffers from this blogging affliction. Except maybe Darren Rowse of Problogger. Hard to be ready to tear out what you don’t have… Much of…

I don’t even know the guy and I’m making fun of him. That’s not the purpose of bringing his name up. I was actually watching a video blog posting on Pro Blogger a few minutes ago which gave me the idea for this post. It was about how important first impressions are on a blog. It got me to thinking how frustrating it can be when you are trying to ensure you give a good first impression.

As I said I’ve come to discover that blogging is actually very frustrating. Below I’ve lined out a few things that I personally find frustrating. I wonder how many of you either find the same things, or other things to do with blogging frustrating?

Choosing a title

We all want a title that conveys the essence of our blog to readers. Without that we’re sunk from the word go. If I spent a second I spent countless hours trying to pick a title for this blog. First of all I had to like it. Second of all I had to be able to get the domain name. In fact I bought a domain name and 5 minutes later I changed my mind. In the end I ended up with A Blog about Nothing. Sometimes people ask me why I would choose that name. In answer I did so because it was the antithesis of what I wanted the blog to actually be about. I figured that people would be able to get that the word “nothing” was indeed the antithesis. Is your blog title appropriate? If you had never read this blog would this blog’s title be appropriate? Would you understand the meaning behind the words?

The tagline that isn’t

At one time I had a tagline. I don’t remember what it was, and that tells me it’s a good thing I no longer use it. If the originator, and author of a blog can’t remember their own tagline it’s a pretty good bet no one will. That like the title was something I spent untold hours on developing. To this day I’m still haunted by the frustration of not having a working tagline. How about you, how did you come up with your tagline? Is it effective or are you just holding onto it because it is familiar?

To niche or not to niche

Long before I decided to make this blog A Blog about Nothing, about 3 seconds before I figured out the title I ultimately picked, I thought I wanted to make this a blog about something. That something was going to be about computers. In fact my first post was about computer related things. As you can no doubt see I rarely talk much about computers anymore. Or anything else for that matter. That’s really the point. Sometimes it is less frustrating not to have a niche that you have to honor on almost every post. I also discovered that in almost every niche out there at least 100 other “expert” bloggers were out there promising to teach us the secret to success in that particular genre. Anyone else have a similar experience? Did you start intending to become the next great thing in you niche and come to realize there are so many niche bloggers out there that you just get lost in the shuffle?

Looking for a “cool” layout

I’d be lying if I told you I am pleased with the current layout. It’s not bad, and most people have told me they like it better than the last one I had. It’s not near enough to what I think I want. What do you want asks the industrious designer looking to build her portfolio. I have no clue, and that’s what is frustrating. I want all of the bells and whistles, and yet I want it to be lightweight and spartan. I’ve been through 5 differnt layouts in the past month and a half. Does anyone else have a problem finding the layout? Would you pay someone for a custom layout, or is a downloaded layout just as good?

A new topic everyday?

When I made the decision to go ahead with a nicheless blog I was under the (false, clearly false) impression that no matter what I would always be able to find a relevant and timely topic. Relevant to the events of the day in case you’re wondering. Aside from other blogs I also look at news papers, watch tv, surf the internet, talk with friends, and family… I just live life and find topics to write about. Problem is that there are so many topics out there that it is frustrating. Do you ever have a problem picking a topic to write an article about on your blog?

Communicating your idea

I’m a fan of books. Long books. Books that draw out their plots and their characters. I don’t want to find that I’ve not said enough and lost a reader. Strangely just the opposite seems to happen. I’ve done some statistical tracking and I’ve found that short, concise posts get the most readers. Which is truly a surprise to me as I figured the better worded (read: more heavily worded) enteries would prove to be the most popular. Do you ever have communicating your idea either because you tend to be “wordy” or for some other reason?

That’s a few of the topics which prove frustrating to me. There are more, but that’s enough to get going with. In case you’re wondering why I still blog if so many things frustrate me. Simply because I find it enjoyable, educational, and a challenge. Unlike so many others I’m not going to teach you how to make moooney online with your blog theme, or money for that matter. I’m not going to award you $10,000 for winning my contest. Nope not gonna do any of that. Because I enjoy blogging and because I find myself unable to stop is why I keep going. The frustration is why I continue striving to improve.

Posted in Blogging | 6 Comments »