Archive for the 'Blogging' Category

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Blaming Canada Led Me to Write Poorly, Badly, Ungoodly.

Published on July 1, 2009 in Blogging, Education and Technology. 6 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , .

This writer dude is giving me tech support advice. Isn’t that kind of like a painter giving me cooking tips?

Not really. There is a story. Always a story, isn’t there?

I read this post about blaming Canada. (Happy Canada Day!) Since I know a couple people in Canada via blogs and somebody tweeted they are vacationing in Canada, and another blogger is on her way home from Quebec City, I thought I would read why I should blame Canada.

In other  words, it was a helluva headline.

It was written by a writer dude from Men With Pens (which I always read as Men With Penis.)

James Chartrand is an unrepentant Canuck who survives exclusively on maple syrup, poutine, and beer. He is unfailingly polite and helps entrepreneurs and freelancers earn a decent living online at Men with Pens (dot CA, of course).

I ended up at Men with Pens and saw this:
cleartype

Dump Dump (the Law and Order dramatic music interlude)

Digression: Here is a great video of dog howling to the Law and Order theme song.

Back on topic: It was not the content that caught my eye.

It was the raggedy-ass font display that caught my eye.  As I am wont to do, I found the “contact” button and sent them a note saying their site looked like shit. Actually  I said it much nicer, but that was what I was really thinking.

Info from Men With Pens wrote back:

Thanks for that – have you tried turning on ClearType if you’re on a PC?

Huh?

ClearType? I have never heard of ClearType. I’ve heard of TrueType, but never ClearType.

So I responded:

I know nothing of ClearType.  …
I probably won’t bother with ClearType since I know nothing, and will be reading in RSS.
Observation: your designers made a site that requires a system tweak? ahem.

Info said:

Actually, no, Mark. Microsoft makes our site require a system tweak. View the site in Apple and it’s smooth and slick. This is a fault with Microsoft – not our site.

I instantly took a liking to Info.

He called me Mark, said view the site “in Apple” and blamed Microsoft. Those who read me regularly can all chime in with me…

Bill Gates is a Prick

and I told Info that.

He “heheh’d” and said:

Hm. Just had a look myself. Smooth as a whistle, and I’m running  the latest Firefox on a Win XP PC. So… I’d say you need to turn on your ClearType, yes.

I responded…
I need one of those start>control panel>thingy>dealy>ClearType>options>activate> Restart emails.
Just sayin’…
Thanks for being so kind. I’m REALLY joking now. I will Bing it to see how to do get ClearType started. It would be good for me.

Yes, I wrote to Info at Men With Pens, a professional writer’s blog with thousands of regular readers, and actually wrote “how to do get ClearType.”

I haven’t heard back from Info, so I’m thinking that he is a techie and the only thing he writes is code.

Whew, that could have been really embarrassing.

Note: there inevitably will be a typo or error in grammar in this post. It’s there on purpose.

I Forgot What a Fun Time Suck Wordle Can Be

Published on July 1, 2009 in Blogging, Entertainment and Technology. 0 Comments Tags: .

Janna reminded me.
Here’s most of my blogroll as a Wordle.
It’s much cooler full size, so click it.

blogrollwordle

If That Giraffe Doesn’t Turn Left into Target, I’ll Take My Right Hand and Pick My Nose

Published on June 28, 2009 in Baby Boomer and Blogging. 0 Comments


Link back to us at Sunday Stealing!

While waiting for the pork to cook on the grill:
(Six very thick pork loin chops, slop of store BBQ, some glugs of Diet Dr. Pepper, in a square foil pan. Cook to death.)

This isn’t going to be easy, I’m really going to have to think.

Sunday Stealing: The ABC Meme

A – An advantage you have – I’m lucky when it counts.

B – Blue or brown eyes – blue

C – Chore you hate – just one? Chores. OK, mowing.

D – Dad’s name – Leon Abraham (he wasn’t Jewish)

E – Essential start of your day – peeing

F – Favorite color – depends on the surface and purpose. All Corvettes Are Red. I like Adobe Red southwestern style homes. I just ordered a can of free purple paint for a public art project I will concoct. Lush green grass on a golf course is really quite loverly. I like Gold Finches.

G – Greatest thing you’ve ever done that made you feel really good – made somebody laugh.

H – Habit you have – picking my nose.

I – Issue you hate that the world tries to make you pursue – picking my nose.

J – Job title – Miraculous Generator of Mirth

K – Kohls or Target – Target because they sell Little Debbies and M&M’s.

L – Living arrangements – married.

M – Music you like – Tuirns out, from favorites in Pandora.com, I’m eclectic: here’s the list of artists from Pandora.com
Darude
Paco Pena
Deuter
Peter Kater
Enya
Jose Padilla
Liquid Mind
Abba
Joe Walsh
Brian Setzer
Jimi Hendrix
Hybrid
Alex Gold
DJ Logic
Reporter
Soho Boy
Jeff Mills
Mike Oldfield
Gipsy Kings
Robert Michaels
M.Y.C.

N – Nicknames – nope.

O – Overnight hospital stay – sleep study a while back. Did you read my post about getting thrown out of a sleep study clinic?

P – Pet Peeve – most currently it would be people turning left at an intersection that don’t pull into the intersection which means if traffic is heavy, only one car (them) makes it through.

Q – Quote that you like most – “No, I don’t have anything for you to do, go surf the web.”

R – Right or left handed – right

S – Siblings – no

T – Time you wake up – depends on when I go to bed. I don’t use an alarm except when I need to get up to catch a vakay plane. And then I usually wake up every three hours.

U – Underwear – boxer briefs

V – Vegetable you dislike – most of the green raw ones.

W – What makes you run late – I function on Lombardi time:” if you are five minutes early, you are fifteen minutes late.”

X – X-rays you’ve had – left knee and right femur. I used to get my feet X-rayed all the time at the Buster Brown shoe store!

Y – Yummy food you make – chocolate muffins

Z – Zoo animal – Giraffes. The Cheyenne Mountain Zoo is the perfect way to see giraffes.

Make Easy Money Online

Published on June 27, 2009 in Blogging, Education, Money and Technology. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .


Want To Make a Living on Google Money?

AdAge has a good post about how Google’s promotion of making money online is undermining their brand…

In a world of double-digit unemployment and old-line industries in mid-collapse, here’s a sales pitch tailor-made for the times: Get Paid by Google.
Millions of people to visit sites such as Kevinlifeblog.com, Scottsmoneyblog.com, Maryslifeblog.com and Googlemoneytree.com, all promising some variation on one theme: We’ll teach you how to make thousands of dollars from Google, and you never have to leave home!

And don’t forget “Get Free Money from the Government” or “Government Grants.”

Make money in 5 Easy steps
1. Find a high paying affiliate program which sells a product about how easy it is to make money on Google.
2. The program will just charge for shipping to get the credit card details, and make most of the money through back end reverse billing.
3. Create a “blog” complete with fake comments about how you lost your job. Write about how the program you are affiliated with made you thousands of dollars.
4. Do keyword research to find freshly desperate and unemployed people.
5. Create ads targeting those people and market them through Google AdWords.

Easy Money Artists ***ARE*** Affiliated With Their Easy Money Scheme

“As Google is not affiliated with these sites, we can’t comment on individual claims,” a [Google] spokesman said.

Nice try, but Google is affiliated with such make money online offers, since they create the distribution channel.

Google gives webmasters this guideline “Your site’s reputation can be affected by who you link to.” Why shouldn’t it apply to Google as well?

As long as Google has 30%+ profit margins they are making a BUSINESS DECISION to run these make money at home ads. They could spend 1% of revenue on getting rid of earn money at home ads, and “Google will send you money” (if they wanted to), but they choose not to.

Google keeps running the ads because they want the revenue. And they know exactly how much revenue comes from scamming consumers with these ads.

Help Fix This Issue

Google has not put up consumer warnings and lots of consumers are getting ripped off, I think it’s fair for bloggers to alert people to these “work at home” and “Make thousands from Google”, “Get Rich Quick” and “Money from Google” ads.

Free Samples Welcome. Screw the FCC!

Published on June 22, 2009 in Blogging, Food, M & Ms, Research, Shopping and Technology. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .


Attention all companies who have a product they wish to have me rave about.
Time is running out. Get your samples and coupons for free stuff to me ASAP.
The FCC is on our trail.

the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is considering to monitor blogs for undisclosed sponsored blog posts. According to the FTC, bloggers who don’t disclose that they received freebies once these new rules go into effect could become the target on an FTC investigation.

I just started doing pay per post, and one company says I can let you know that it is a sponsored post and another company said specifically I couldn’t let you know. (Of course the latter is in the U.K. so they care about the FCC about as much as I do.)

Yes, the same FCC that brought you government cheese for your TeeVee viewing pleasure, now wants to regulate me.

Bring it.

In the meantime, any company that want’s a free plug, like the Kush Night-time Breast Separator, should just get samples or coupons for free samples in the mail. (I hate my wrinkly cleavage, unlike these lovely boomer cleavages. – SFW)

I promise I will give you a glowing review and recommendation.

I’d prefer cash for my endorsement, $10+, but any freebie will do.  Will work for candy.

As much as those bloggers who receive these gifts would like to claim this isn’t the case, freebies like free laptops, trips, or gift cards are likely to influence a writer’s opinion of a product. We just heard from a food blogger last week who told us that she regularly receives expensive spices, books, and mail-order steaks from companies that won’t to be covered on her blog.

If somebody gave me a laptop or a Freakin’ Ford Fiesta or meat I sure as heck ain’t gonna bad mouth them! If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all.

As ReadWriteWeb.com said:

We also can’t help to wonder how the FTC is going to monitor the thousands of small-time bloggers who regularly receive freebies.

They can’t.

So social media experts who work for clients  sitting on all that swag, that need some quick buzz, before it’s illegal (and even afterwards)  contact me.   @goinglikesixty or goinglikesixty@gmail.com. GoingLikeSixty.com is so small as to be invisible…

Our followers, which art of heathen, hollowhead be thy name,
Thy swagdom come, thy will be done, in blogs as it is in Heaven Hill.
Give us this day our daily freebie, and forgive us our FCC excesses, as we forgive blogs who excess against us.
And lead us not in to exemption, but deliver us some pure evil,
For Sixty is the blingdom, and the power, and the hoary glory, for ever and ever.
Amen.