100th post...

Woo Hoo!

Today I am having a celebration of sorts...

I am celebrating a monumental occasion: This post is my 100th entry to this Blog!

Who would have thunk I had that much to write about? Well I don't, actually which is why I just ramble along... and it's taken me almost three years to get here!

Thinking to myself:

Wow. I am good, I just worked the the title of the blog into the post... just like those screen writers work the title of the movie into the script. Maybe I should become a screen writer? Nah, I like my mediocre income and complete lack of fame. Of course if I did write a movie, I would probably be even less wealthy than I am now, and I would be famous only in as much as I was known as the worst movie writer ever... oh wait... I believe that title has already been taken... by _______ (you fill in the blank).

OK back to the post...

I use StatCounter to provide the little "ticker" that shows the number of people who have visited my blog, and another one that counts the visitors to my family's website, that I manage. Even though I have posted 100 times on this blog, I only have a little over 6 times that many visitors, and most of those visitors are me. So if you take away two for each post for my own visits, that leaves on average 4 people visiting per post. Not much of an audience, huh? Oh well, I write for myself anyway. :-) The visitor counter, is not all that StatCounter does for me. It has other less obvious features as well. One of these less obvious features of StatCounter is the additional reports it provides about the Internet visits to the website. Of course some people think this is invasion of privacy, and maybe they are correct, but whether or not it is, I think it's fun information. It's not like the reports provide very much detail anyway, but it does provide a little fun data like:

• The general area the visitor is from (city, state, country). Of course this is only the location of their ISP, not the location of the individual's home or office, but it gives a general idea of where the person is that is reading the page.
• It lists the various pages the person viewed while visiting the site
• And of course it shows the time and day they visited, and if possible how long they may have visited the site.
• The only other information it provides is and what search engine, or link referred them to your site.

This last bit of info is the one that I always find the most interesting.

There are of course the normal expected referring links from my family's website, from one of my kid's blogs, or from my various profiles on sites like Blogger, Yahoo or Flickr. These expected links are the ones I often intentionally plant in hopes of leading people to my ramblings in hopes they would comment, laugh, or otherwise be amused. The unexpected referrers come from the search engines. Now I am not surprised that people can find me through the search engines, but I am surprised at what they are searching on that leads them to me. Now it's extremely possible that they weren't really looking for me, but rather something much more exciting like porn or something... but they stumble across my site and read a little and then skitter away without leaving so much as a whisper that they were here. BTW: There isn't anything on my site that could remotely be considered porn, but then again, what else do people really search for on the Internet now a days? I mean, here it is Thursday, and I am not even doing the HNT ("Half-Nekkid Thursday"). The funny thing is, I actually get thank you notes for not doing HNT. :-) Well let me share with you some interesting search phrases that have brought people here:

1. "hit a rock mower stopped working" (from Missouri)
2. "dream interpretation 1 half slipper" (from Hawaii)
3. "my property is very sloped" (from Florida)
4. My favorite: "old person's rambling" (from Western Australia)

Yes, I have written something about all of those topics, except the "1 half slipper" part, and yes, I am an old person rambling... (well old enough to know I am not quite young any longer...) But what type of person searches for these kind of topics? I don't believe I know or have met any of these people. If you are one of those people that actually searched on those topics I listed, please don't be offended... I am glad you found me, and hopefully you added my blog to your favorites and you visit often... But I have to believe you weren't looking for me when you searched for those things, or were you? If not me, then what were you actually searching for? I think today is a banner day, no matter how people get here... The only thing on my mind now is whether or not I can create 100 more posts before the end of 2008? Later Lou

Friend

A friend of mine stopped me at work and asked how things have been going. We hadn't spoken for a week or so, and I asked "Haven't you been keeping up by reading my Blog?" "You have a Blog?" he responded with disbelief, as if having a Blog is a pretty rare thing to do. I wonder if that means I have the Blog disease? Can I be cured? I know from personal experience that it has gone into short term remission, but cured? I told him, not only that, but I have setup a family website. Again, he couldn't believe me, so I told him to Google me. The first entry that came up was my LinkedIn profile which I use to network with other people I know. The second entry was not related to me, but the third entry was a mention of my old BBS from the late 80's that I ran called the "Grand Central Station". The forth entry was my family website: Laughlin's in PA. On the menu of the family website is a list of Blogs including mine, "One", "Two", "Three", "Four" and "Other Two". Yeah, I started all my kids with a Blog. It also lists "Two's" personal website. Anyway, he was impressed and started reviewing the websites and Blogs, and I am waiting for him to comment on at least one of my posts... Then I will know my audience went to at least two people! He told me that he was on the web also, and I should Google him, so I did. I found a website that had a video clip from when he was interviewed on TV for a news cast about a machine to help people with bad backs. Now it was my turn to be impressed! I may have created a website and write to a Blog, but I have never gotten interviewed on TV! He's famous! Well maybe not, but he has had his 15 minutes of fame... My turn! Later Lou

Chat with me...

If you haven't noticed I added a new feature on my blog.. Over to the right in my "sidebar" you will see a little grey box titled "Chat with me". Until recently, I haven't used an instant messenger for quite some time, and I finally decided I wanted to get back into it again. I have used AOL's Instant Messenger (AIM), Yahoo!IM, ICQ, and MSN Messenger, and I have accounts and contacts on each of them, and in the past I used to keep all of them running at the same time... Then I found a software package called "Trillian" which is a single IM client that allows you to connect to all of the other services. It worked great at home, but I couldn't use it at work, because I am not allowed to install software at work. Since I spend a considerable amount of time at work, and most of my computer time at work, and very little time at home on the computer, I really didn't get to use the software much. When my computer needed to be reinstalled because I crashed the harddrive, I decided to not reinstall the chat software. A few weeks ago I heard about this software called "meeBo". I heard it was a IM client like Trillian, so out of curiosity led me to the site http://www.meebo.com/ to check it out. What I found was something better than Trillian. I found that it was indeed a single IM client that uses multiple services, but even better is that it is web based, and doesn't require software to be installed on my computer... WOW! That meant I could use the software ANYWHERE on any computer including at work (as long as they don't block the site). So I signed up for free, set everything up, and was very surpised to see works great! And to add the icing to the cake, it's not blocked at work! So now I am able to chat with all of my friends (I think I still have a few) on the various chat networks with my Internet Explorer window at work! I am very happy with meeBo, and I started poking around in the setup and I found something rather neat and unexpected. When I was going through the setup for the site there was this thing called "meebo me", and at first I didn't understand what that was. I spent a little time investigating, reading, and experimenting, and I found that "meebo me" allows me to embed a chat client on my website (blog) so people could chat with me right from my site! So being the techie geek, nerd that I am, I quickly added the client to my sidebar, and now you can see that when I am online, and can chat with me real time without needing to install a chat client or even sign up for any service! Cool huh? Later Lou

Blogging... Cool?

I haven't blogged (written) anything for quite some time... I originally started blogging because I thought it was cool, and I would enjoy writing about myself. Now I find that while blogging is still cool... Writing about myself isn't as much. I guess I don't find my life interesting enough for anyone to read about. The things that are interesting, I find I can't write about because they usually involve other people who may not want published for the whole world to read. Then I find that I censor myself because I don't want to offend anyone by expressing my thoughts about them... I mean I often find that in order to "get along" in certain circumstances I must suppress my true feelings. I don't think this is unique to me. So I am left with talking about my feelings about general topics such as current events, movies, TV, books, etc. Things which everyone else talks about... Things which aren't unique to me, and as such are boring and mundain. So I have to decide... To put myself fully into this blogging and truly express myself, continue on as I have, or stop all together. Even though the last option seems like what I have been doing lately, it's not really the option I relish the most. I want to do something, be something or someone, that is unique. I want to find something I enjoy and spend the time being the best at that one thing... so that I am better than most people at that thing. I don't want to be just one of many, I want to stand out. Then I will have something worth blogging about. Today I am one of many... Tomorrow I want to be one of few!

360°

I haven't posted here in like... forever... Ok, so, forever is a little longer than 2 months. But no matter how you define "forever", it's been too long for me to not write something here. I am sure that like many other 100's of 1000's of people I get discouraged when no one seems to be reading my Blog. The fun of a Blog though is realizing that you aren't really writing it for someone else to read, but for you to write, and express yourself. But blogging is not the same as a diary, or a journal, which you would keep private, because you know other people can and hopefully will read it. So I don't share very personal, private thoughts and feelings here, because if I did, I would probably embarrass my kids. However, I bet if I was to write about some of that stuff, I would probably attract a little more readers! So some sense of privacy, and descreetness lingers still for me... Anway to the point of today's post... Up until this week I haven't really spent a lot of time using "yahoo.com". I know it has a bunch of features, but I have for some unexplainable reason, just not really used it. I suppose you would say I am a "google.com" person. Anyway, I went to their site looking for something about a new "media center" that they aquired from another company (name escapes me a the moment) and I found this thing called "Yahoo!360°" This "Yahoo!360°" is an online blogging community much like MySpace.com, but it seemes to be a little more family friendly. Of course it still has a few people that breaks the rules, but for the most part it's pretty respectable. I tried another community based site called "tribe.net", but it wasn't as family friendly and if you typed "tribes.net" (with the s) things got a little graphic. So I sent out about 28 invitations to people I know to join "Yahoo!360°"... Hopefully I will get a little response. I already found two people I know that I haven't talked to for years from my high school. Maybe I will find a few others as well?

Readers of Ramblings

Hey... Are you one of my few readers? Well if you are I have a special offer for you... No it's not a chance at the PowerBall (sorry)... No it's not a new car... Ok maybe it isn't an offer... It's a request... Yeah, that's the ticket. I added a new map hosted by frapper.com (part of Google I think), and it lets you add your own "mark" on the map. Check it out by clicking HERE or by looking for the map lower down on the blog. And if you are a winner you will get... The praise and thanks from a gracious host!

Web Host Changes

The web hosting provider I use, www.readyhosting.com, is updating their systems. In doing so it's caused a little disruption in our website, and our blogs, so I apologize for any problems. Hopefully these will be corrected by the end of the weekend. Thanks for your patience.

My Soul?

I followed a link I found on SoozieQ's Blog Memes O'Mine where she found she was a "Peacemaker Soul". Well the link (which is at the bottom of this posting) takes you to a site where you answer questions about yourself. I answered the questions and this what 'kind of soul' it determined I have:

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You Are a Dreaming Soul

Your vivid emotions and imagination takes you away from this world So much so that you tend to live in your head most of the time You have great dreams and ambitions that could be the envy of all... But for you, following through with your dreams is a bit difficult You are charming, endearing, and people tend to love you. Forgiving and tolerant, you see the world through rose colored glasses. Underneath it all, you have a ton of passion that you hide from others. Always hopeful, you tend to expect positive outcomes in your life. Souls you are most compatible with: Newborn Soul, Prophet Soul, and Traveler Soul

What Kind of Soul Are You?

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So here's the question... If you know me, does this sound right?

BlogJet

I have been exploring different ways to post my blog postings.  I have tried a few different ones.  I am now using one called

 

It offers a nice editor, with a built in spell checker, smilies , and an easy way to add photos/graphics from my harddrive, as well as from Flickr.

It “integrates” with Blogger, so I can edit posts and publish without logging into and using the HTML editor on the Blogger website.

Other than the ability to link with Flickr, it doesn’t offer any other unique features that aren’t just as easily available with the Blogger site itself.

Later
Lou

2005 Mayfly

Same home. Same kids. Same job. Same expenses. Less money. Trip to Dallas. Tumultuous relationship. Cub Scout Pack problems. Daughter became driver. New laptop.

Sum up 2005

I was browsing random blogs, on Blogger.com and I was reading a entry where they summed up the whole year of 2005 in 24 words or less. The limitation of words, supposedly helps to force you to think about what was most important to you for the year. If you click the title of this post, you will go to the site that is promoting this and see other people's examples. Before I post I want to sit and reflect on last year, and see if I can get it within 24 words... I have never been known for using just a few words, but I will give it a shot... Stay tuned... Can you sum up your year in 24 words or less?

New Posting Method

I am trying a new way to post to my blog using “Blogger for Word”, which is an addon that allows me to post using Microsoft Word.

It’s nice, because I can use the formatting, and spell check and stuff from Word, however, it doesn’t allow me to add images in the post … Bummer.

          

Zit...

I setup a new blog for my girlfriend's son, Richie today... Check it out. It's called "A little shallower". While I was setting it up, Richie checked out my blog, and my photograph in my blogger profile, and pointed out the huge ZIT on my forhead right between my eyes... Thanks Richie! :-) Later Lou

Blog Changes

I have been playing with the Blogger settings for changing the layout of the blog. I have added a few features:

• Links to each of my kid's blogs with pictures
• A list of movies I have watched recently
• A list of books I have read recently
• A "Chatter box", so instant comments can be added to the blog.. Leave me a message!
• A new look, yeah, green is my favorite color! :-)

I creating the lists by "including" two additional blogs into one. So I can just post a message to a book list blog, or a movie list blog, and it automatically updates the main blog... Sweet. Clicking on the titles also brings my "review" or comments about the book or movie. You can find my lists on the sidebar to the right, all the way on the bottom.

New Year

Well, I am starting off 2005 with a "Bang"... or is that a "Crash". I trashed the web site. I deleted everything I had on the site, and what's worse I didn't have a backup, or was the deleted pages in the recycle bin... So, that means I am rebuilding the site from scratch. It could be a good thing... It may be better than it was, since I have learned quite a bit in trying to recover it!

I decided to keep the same look and feel for starters, but I am completely redoing the content. I have gotten the main page, and the "Interests" pages back up. I have also revived this Blog. Hurray... I lost some of the inline pictures, but nothing that can't be replaced.

So the new year is here. Outside of backing up my web page, and other important data, I haven't made any resolutions. I suppose that's the expected thing to do, so I guess I will have to do that. What's a good resolution? Loose weight? Stop some bad habit (biting my nails)? Stick to my budget? Hmmm... I will have to think on that. Tomorrow (actually today) I return to work, after being on vacation for 2 weeks. I should be in bed getting a good night's rest for my first day back, but I am in no mood for sleep... I suppose it wouldn't be good to stay up all night. Ok, off to bed I go.