Random thoughts and observations from a guy with a lot on his mind…
Finally the upload error has been fixed! If you like to MoBlog (mobile blog) you’ve probably run into the (mobile client) upload errors that have plagued recent versions of WordPress. The latest update finally fixes that and makes it easy to draft/publish blog entries when away from the computer.
Virtual High-Five WP Dev Team!
Every once in a while you find a website that really stands out. I’m not sure how I came across TheBloggess.com but I’m glad I did. Jenny Lawson (aka The Bloggess) is about as crackpot as they come, and this is a designation I believe she would appreciate. Borderline bipolar and definitely a little manic her writing style ranges from casual to hilariously quirky, usually within the same paragraph.
My appreciation for her humor started out with a post on her blog titled “And that’s why you should learn to pick your battles.” [NSFW] Go ahead & click the link and have a read for yourself (be sure to come back though!).
Beyoncé the metal chicken is just one of many “characters” dreamt up by Jenny. She also has a fascination with taxidermied animals that died of natural causes (thanks to her father) and dresses them up in clothing that, I assume, she makes herself. One blog post explained how she traveled with “Hamlet Von Schitzel”, a stuffed mouse dressed like Hamlet who graces the cover of her book.
Recently Jenny published a book (10 years in the making) called “Let’s Pretend This Never Happened” which chronicles her childhood, how she met her husband Victor, and explains how she became who she is today. The book is already #1 on the NY Times List a week after its release. I per-ordered the Kindle Edition of the book back in January and when it arrived I couldn’t put it down. It had me laughing uncontrollably starting with the introduction.
If you’re looking for some offbeat humor from a great story-teller check out TheBloggess.com.
Just got back from Washington DC where I visited my brother for Easter. Took a lot of photos and really did not have much time to blog. That place will wear you out with all the walking.
Visited some neat museums, went to a soccer game and ate some great food. I’ll be sure to share some tips for those of you heading out there in the future.
I’ll be back in the swing of things soon & I have a few ideas for future blog posts.
…I made it my New Years Resolution to post at least one Blog entry a day but I just don’t have it in me to write anything remotely worthy to read today But to keep with the resolution I’m going to at least post something…
Call it cheating if you want but it’s better than nothing! More tomorrow…
From CNET News:
Oregon judge rules bloggers aren’t journalists – A U.S. District Court judge in Portland, Ore., ruled that a blogger who wrote about an investment firm that subsequently accused her of defamation must pay the company $2.5 million because she’s a blogger who doesn’t legally qualify as a journalist.[MORE]
Lots of issues with this case, especially with her acting as her own attorney. This is not the first time Blogging has been linked to Journalism. There are some correlations but most serious (i.e. professional) journalists probably don’t blog. Why would they? They get paid to write for a living so why do it for free?
So does getting paid to write make you a journalist and afford you the protections that come with professional journalism? It could but I think it has a lot to do with WHO is paying you. I can put ads on this Blog and technically “get paid” but I’m not specifically being paid to Blog…
I can even make up a fake “Press Pass” online. This does not make me a photo-journalist. Although… It might be useful though to gain (lawful) access to restricted areas and events (kidding)…
I’ve been posting a lot of reviews on IndyScan.com and I realized I had never taken the time to explain why I’m doing it. First of all, I only review things I like. I don’t waste my time complaining about things I don’t like (there are lots those too)
If you see a review on IndyScan.com it’s going to be about something I like and I want to share it with others. It might be a product, restaurant, video, etc. It’s on this site because I want you to know about it.
Now I do have a Rant category and I use it for just that. I guess you could call it a negative review but hey, it’s my site and I get to choose (ha).
I’m not one for New Years resolutions (mainly because I forget I made them) but I’ve seen a lot of “projects” online that revolve around doing something (mostly photos) once a day for the entire year.
I’m going to challenge myself to publish 365 +1 (leap year this year) blog posts in 2012. So far so good, it’s January 14th & this will be my 15th post of the year. I got a little carried away on January 7 and posted 2 items in one day.
I commented on Facebook the other day I was running out of ideas, even though I had 27 draft posts in the queue… Some of those 27 will get published but many will end up being deleted because they are no longer relevant or I can’t find enough to write about to make it worth posting.
Happy 2012 to all & I hope you have as much fun reading the 365 +1 posts as I’m going to have writing them.
Happy New Month everyone! I know it’s technically a “new year” but 366 days is a lot to comprehend, especially when you think bout how this new year can be broken up into:
Although 31,622,400 seconds seems like a long time, you’ve probably already used up 10-15 seconds so far reading this blog post. That’s time you can’t get back (sorry). You can (hopefully) remember what you did during that time, and possibly regret what you did (I hope not!). What you can’t do is change it.
I mention this because we all, at one time or another, think about the past and how things would be different if certain times in our life was spent doing “something else”. It’s the Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda Syndrome and there’s nothing particularly wrong with looking back and reflecting on past success or failure. It’s actually a good way to help you move forward because it’s your “Life Experience” and as humans we learn how to use our past to impact our future.
When I look back at 2011 it’s been both good and bad. I’ve had my share of successes, personally and professionally. There has also been time that I wish I had done “something else” with it.
In 2012 I’m going to continue to use my life experiences to prepare for, and make the best use of, the time I spend with friends, family, co-workers, clients, and strangers. Right now I’m 11-hours into the new year. It’s time to make the other 8773 hours count.
If you’ve been a webmaster very long (I started in 1995) you learn quickly that links to external sites will eventually break. Website-sites go down, domain names change, pages get stale (and eventually deleted), old pages become available via subscription only, and finally sites get abandoned
As you build your site the number of links can get pretty large. IndyScan.com has several thousand links and up until recently it’s been a challenge to make sure every link took you somewhere.
When I moved the site to a new host last weekend I found an application that makes the process of monitoring external links a breeze. Broken Link Checker has been a HUGE help with cleaning up dead links in posts and it does it automatically every couple of days. I even get an email report letting me know what’s broken and why.
If you use WordPress this is an awesome FREE plugin to help you maintain the links on your site.
