wayne on June 28, 2008
It never ceases to amaze me how fast these weeks go by. It seems like just yesterday I was writing last weeks update post. As planned, here's an update of what I've done this past week with the site, friends I've met and services I've begun to use.
Last Week in Review
I started off last week trying to create a little controversy with my post Sunday in Wayne's Head - On Babies and Boobs. It was written due to a disgusting display of a birth I had witnessed on TV early that morning, so it came 'from the hip' when I wrote it. I don't find births appropriate for TV, and if you are going to show them, at least get over showing breasts and allow them to roam free from time to time. Seems only fair to me.
Tuesday I heard with the rest of the world that comedian George Carlin had passed away. He died of heart failure. He was remembered in various ways throughout the entire week, in fact you had to be living in a cave to have not heard about it. HBO did a nice commemoration by playing most of his shows and specials last week. He was my favorite comedian, and I really felt connected to his views more than anyone else I've connected to. I looked up to him for his ability to speak his mind regardless of what people thought or how they would view him. A true hero to me. I'm really going to miss him, and I don't often care about those in the Hollywood spotlight, but he was different. A rare person indeed.
I added a few more quotes into the system that I liked of George Carlin's.
Rose had put together a list of web sites that you can use to see what keywords are popular these days. When you try to write focused material that will generate hits to your site, it helps to know what people are searching for, and that can give your post an edge.
I'm still a rebel as I grow older, I posted a radical idea about the people forming their own gasoline import system from Mexico. But as commenter Demeur stated, state and federal authorities would probably have issue with common people transporting hazardous materials. He's probably right. Damn the man for keeping us down. hehe
I was also Meme'd for the first time by Tammy.
The web site idea for this week was about Saving Americans. Too often I feel we give support to other countries at our own expense. We still have poverty, homeless families, failing elderly care and an educational system that is going down the tubes. The idea was to focus on ourselves (America) and then help others (the rest of the world...IF they wanted it). Much like you would in a aircraft that has lost cabin pressure. If you see those little dangling strap-on masks in your face, put yours on first, and then help your child. There is a reason they ask you to perform those steps in that order. In my opinion, the same applies to everyday life. Take care of yourself first so that you can take care of others better.
Our privacy is being chipped away. Slowly but surely our government will have each and every one of us under surveillance. Kiss your privacy goodbye my friends.
A blog friend of mine, GaryJay, found it rather amusing that I could write a 300 word dissertation on why I start my weeks on Saturday. After thinking about it, he's right. It is a simple idea that I got a little carried away and wordy about. that happens sometimes.
On Friday I shared something that my girlfriend and I are quite proud of doing. We had Skaterbuilt, a Seal Beach skate company come and skate our freshly drained pool. I took the collection of videos we made with our camera and made a full 30 minute video. I posted it on Viddler. The video took me much longer to put together than I had expected. It put me behind on my own personal posting schedule, but the post got out and now I realize how much time I should allot for video creation and editing.
I used Windows Movie Maker to build the video.
I'm also proud of yesterday's post, which is a simple poll. I thought it was creative and a bit comical myself.
New Web Site Stuff
Not much happened to the web site this week, but there were a few changes I made. The most unnoticeable is the post footers. I tightened up the footers where the post date, categories and tags are located. I reduced the space in between the lines to bring them closer together and gave them a little indentation. I did this by changing the line-height CSS tag for the section to 13px. I think it looks much nicer now. What do you think? I'll be working my way down the post to clean up the rest of the page in the coming week.
Another item that I have forgot to mention is that first time commenter's will receive an automated email from the web site (me) thanking them for their comment and that I will respond shortly. I thought it was nice to be able to give instant feedback to new commenter's. It will only happen one time for each user.
Notes on other things
I've been lacking the time to get some things completed. I talked about Widget Hell last week, and now that I think of it, the term Widget isn't appealing to me anymore. After all, not everything I want to put in that area is a 'Widget' per se. So, it's seems silly to me now to call it that. Just a little something I've been battling with in my head. So I'll be working on some changes around that. It will be done...it will, it will.
I've also failed to find time to respond to Michael over at Marketing Scoop. The blog is taking off and I'm still trying to work in time for everything else that I had planned. Not to say I don't mind it, it's been quite a surprise and now I'm dealing with many more things than before.
I've also begun to Plurk. The first thing out of everyone's mouth when you say you've begun to plurk is, what? Plurking is much like Twitter in that it allows you to "showcase little tidbit of your life in small digestible chunks". It's micro-blogging, and I felt if I was going to explore micro-blogging that I would choose a system that didn't find as many complaints against it. Just when you would think I didn't need more on my plate, I go an pile it on. It's no different than my eyes being bigger than my stomach at a smorgasbord.
Check out my profile, and if you are so inclined, sign up and add me as a friend! It's free and easy. Just how I like things to be. You can keep up with what I do during the day. Now doesn't that sound intriguing?
Sending out some love
I never want to forget those that make my week enjoyable and worth the time to spend hours each evening preparing posts for the week.
GaryJay - This old fart gives me the biggest grins it seems. And I mean 'old fart' in the kindest of ways. He keeps plugging away at his blog with these posts that clearly show his enthusiasm for blogging, and that itself is inspirational. Downright comical at times, he continues to amuse and entertain.
Feenx - Feenx has been making changes to his web site and trying to get things established for future growth. He's been inspirational to me and reminds me of how hard web development can be for those that haven't allow their lives to be consumed with web development. We seem to be on the same level in terms of attitude too. I'll be giving him a hand with his web site this weekend if I ever finish this update post!
Demeur - I find Demeur to be an interesting character. The photo of himself is in negative, and he deals with chemicals. His posts are worldly and topical, and I find his writing to be very intriguing and interesting. I think he's looking to voice his opinions much like I am. Keep it up Demeur!
Rose - Rose has been active on my site, and I cannot have asked of more from her. She also included a link to my poll post in her latest news letter. Thank you very much Rose! She is the owner/operator of BloggerTalk.net. Not familiar with it? Give it a look!
ryanherman - Hello my English major, aspiring writer friend. Are you going to let me put a blog together for you or not? :)
Sue - Thank you for stopping by and commenting. Hope to see you more often!
BakerWatson - Same goes out to you! Thank you for commenting and hope to hear from you again!
Tammy - She's a tagger. Someone might want to call the cops on her. :) Not really, she 'tagged' me with my first Meme, so thank you for thinking of me Tammy. Tammy is a 50 year old mother of 3 boys and a grandmother too. She has a nice blog that you should have a look at.
Karen - She runs Chaos Free Living, and after reviewing a few of her posts, I've subscribed to her blog. Give her blog a look-see and see for yourself.
And last, but surely not least, a person that has called me out on the floor and has my number, Dana Wyzard. This is one spunky girl here. Her post on David Allen Coe is proof! Thank you for being that girl, I like your style!
Thank you everyone for making this week another fun and exciting time. Hope you have a fun and prosperous next week! Till the next post...
Cheers!
Wayne
