When I began blogging, I had several ideas as to what I wanted my blog to be. I’ve learned that ’several ideas’ are far too many.
I don’t feel as if I’ve been doing you, my reader, justice.
I’m going to narrow my focus somewhat. I’m going to combine my blogs (5, technically speaking) into just three. I’m going to drop the tech blog and the beliefs blog, rolling their occasional posts into this blog. This blog, in turn, will become an extension from a static website. The existing links will work until further notice.
So:
| –> photo gallery
| –> e-commerce catalog (my art)
Static website | –> general blog (here, will include the tech and beliefs blogs)
| –> Michigan blog ( soon to get its own URL)
| –> organic gardening (stays where it is for the moment)
With plenty of links for hopping between them. (Of course!)
I am going to drop most of the advertising from the general interest blog. I’ll leave the adv. for my ISP. I think that they’ve given me good value and I’m confident that they’ll do the same for you. And I might continue with display ads “below the crease” if I can find some that pay better than adsense. I’m not satisfied with my income level from adsense. If I was counting on it for the groceries, I’d have died months ago.
The Michigan blog will get a reasonable level of advertising. I will certainly be looking for ads from Michigan-based family-oriented tourist destinations, sports outfitters, hospitality providers and car rental companies.
I do not consider a go-go bar a ‘family-oriented tourist destination’.
So … I’m off to Toledo for a weekend. I’ll see you when I get back.
Bill
| 3.2 |
Br. Bill @ July 3, 2008
According to my logs, so far for the month of June 2008, I have had visitors from each of the following countries:
United States 
Netherlands 
Malaysia 
Australia 
European country (???) 
Canada 
Hong Kong 
Great Britain 
Germany 
Spain 
Norway 
France 
Austria 
Sweden 
Japan 
Portugal 
Brazil 
South Africa 
China 
Lithuania 
Denmark
Singapore 
Chile 
Belgium 
Estonia 
Bulgaria 
Latvia 
India 
Croatia 
Greece 
Taiwan 
Switzerland 
Italy 
Poland 
Mongolia 
Mexico
That’s 36 countries … or a little over 10% of the world. Not too bad. Not too bad. I notice that some of these countries ban my religion. That raises my level of responsibility. I’ll do what I can to pass along some spiritual food. Use the comment provision to make the communication a two-way street. I am only fluent in English, but if your language uses an alphabet that looks somewhat like English, I’ll find a way to read it.
I’d love to play “collect the flag” with you … do you have a friend in another nation you could steer this way at least once?
Once I say a heartfelt “Thank You”, (Maasha Danke, Muchas Gracias, Danke Shoen, Merci Beaucoup) what more can I say?
Seriously, what topics would you like me to tackle?
| 3.2 |
Br. Bill @ June 23, 2008
Family, Friendship, Murder, Relationships With Others Comments (0)
del.icio.us Tags: drive-by shooting,murder,Gatorade,friendship
I watched the young lad struggle with the grass clippers. They were too big for his hands, dull and it was too hot to be working in the sun. I stopped the mower, called him over to me and asked him if he was ready to take a break. Like any other seven year old, he was ready. So was I. That sun was tormenting us.
So we got into my pickup truck, rolled down the windows, buckled in and off we went to the corner gas station. We could see it from where we were, but it was just too hot to walk across the sea of concrete to get there.
It wasn’t all that long ago that the life of that seven year olds’ mother was taken in a drive-by shooting that may have been no more than a gang initiation. A senseless rite of passage for a senseless generation.
It takes more than a bullet to prove your manhood, punk. It takes a lifetime. My young friend is closer to being a man than you are.
Br. Bill @ May 5, 2008
Biology, Fiction, Friendship Comments (2)
As I look at these two photos, I am inspired to consider that the two probably had the same designer. After all, if a design works, it is normal for a human designer to work out variations of it and apply these variations to additional projects. Why not the designer of the universe?
Additionally, there is grist for a sci-fi book in here based on the possibility that the universe itself might be a cogitative being and all we can see are the nearest neurons. This would mean that we, the ‘highest’ life form are much, much further down the food chain than we thought. At most, it would appear that we have the ability to destroy a single neuron … the one we are sitting on. More likely, we will sicken it and a phage will come along to clean us out.
Care to comment? Follow the link below for a peek at the photos.
A Brain Cell is the Same as the Universe
| 2.6 (1 person) |
Br. Bill @ May 5, 2008
Desktop, Reviews, Software Comments (0)
Pardon my abysmal Danish, if you will, but ‘do you remember’ (husker du?) when a CGA monitor was the hot thing in computers? Are you old enough to even know what a CGA monitor was?
I’ll be honest with you … I’m old enough to more than simply remember that time; I’m old enough to recall not having to wrestle with my word processor just to get a few simple ideas in place. I’m old enough to actually miss those days when I could type an entire article with my hands over the keyboard. In fact, there was no where else they needed to be.
Dark Room, by Jeff @ they.misled.us is the bomb!
Yeah! Let the good times roll!
This is “dark room”, a full-screen text editor with minimal bells and whistles but even fewer distractions from the job at hand — writing. Or, more specifically, composing. In use, it looks pretty much like a monochrome screen monitor from the bad old days … except for the much higher resolution available today. It’s easy on your eyes and easy on your mind.
Dark Room allows you to change the font, the font size, the background color and the font color and precious little else. So, with the font jacked up to Courier New and 20 pts, the background set to black and the font color set to a shade of pink that shows up really well against the black, I’m rockin’ & rollin’ with this review.
Just about the first thing I noticed is that it really flies. Despite running on Win XP, this program really moves. I used it to write the first draft of this review. Then I selected all the text with a CTRL+A two fingered salute and dropped in into Windows Live Writer with a hearty CTRL+V.
The second point that catches your eye is the lack of clutter. For some of you who cannot imagine leaving your fingers on the keyboard when using a computer, this will come as something of a cultural shock.There simply isn’t much need for a mouse as there is nothing for it to point to during the course of editing.
My needs are simple. I need to be able to create, edit, save and print. I do not need to mail merge a blog posting. I do not need to email from a text editor. If I need to surf to some distant land, I’ll open a stand-alone browser and do the job properly.
I like Dark Room. If you are serious about getting words from your mind and out through the tips of your fingers, I think you will like it too.
It probably won’t handle a large document. It doesn’t insert graphics, play audio or any of those other ‘gitchee gotcha’ things. But it’s pretty good at getting words down in a hurry.
Allow me to recommend it. Oh, and did I mention that it’s free?
| 2.5 |
Br. Bill @ May 2, 2008