Archive for October, 2007
Sunday, October 28th, 2007
The other day, I noticed that my Google PageRank on this blog lost a point and is now a 5. I scratched my head and thought to myself that it was kind of expected. I know that I haven’t been writing too much lately as I try to figure out some business stuff.
I was just checking out my Uncle Bob’s blog and noticed that his PageRank jumped a point and is now a 7. Ahhh…the good days are over. Well, for me anyway.
The actual Google PageRank isn’t the thing that gets to me…it’s the competition of the whole thing. Not that I am competing with him, per se, but I am competing with every other website on the planet.
My search engine rankings aren’t affected by my PageRank and my traffic certainly isn’t either. So why do I care? Who knows. It’s probably a guy thing.
I am wondering why I suffered from Google’s last PageRank update and Bob flourished. I guess if I think about it for a second I can figure it out. Let’s look at the differences between the two sites -
1. His is mostly on topic and mine is all over the place. You can see this from my two million categories.
2. He writes frequent posts. Lately, I have gotten out of the habit.
3. He write long posts, most of the time. Only sometimes do I write long posts. I tend to use a lot of pictures.
4. He has a fairly loyal audience of readers who comment often. I have a smaller audience of loyal readers who comment not as often.
5. His comments are long. Mine are good, but not as long.
6. I tend to give away links to brand new sites with 0 PageRank. I don’t think that matters, because I trust those sites.
7. His readers may be slightly more tech savvy than mine in that they may have bookmarked his blog in their Google Toolbar Bookmarks.
8. He is smarter than me, but I don’t think that has anything to do with it.
So does this even matter, beyond my own ego? A lot of people are saying it doesn’t.
I tend to agree with them, but I can’t say that I’m still not a little hurt.
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Posted in Blogs, Internet, Technology, Websites | No Comments »
Saturday, October 27th, 2007
The only two things we have to do with this house is to remodel the bathroom and kitchen. Hmmm…that’s not too bad. Yeah right.
Those two rooms are the two most expensive ones. There isn’t all that much to do in the bathroom. I went out yesterday and picked up the ceiling and wall paint. The problem is that the people who did the work the first time were on crack. I wish they just left the sheetrock bare, so I could finish the room correctly. It looks like they smeared the wall spackle with their kid’s hands. Now, I have to do it over. Yee Haaw.
Here is a list of what I have to do in the bathroom -
- Fix ceiling and paint
- Fix walls and paint
- Buy new bathroom vanity, cabinet, mirror and lighting
- Install new tile floor
- Install new moulding
This isn’t too bad, considering we were going to gut the entire room and redo it. Now, we just want to make it look nice. It’s a small area, so we can’t go too crazy. Also, we have to keep in mind the maximum value of the house. As I always say, we could line the thing in gold, but we can only get so much for the place when we sell.
Here are some photos of the fine craftsmanship the previous homeowners left for us…
As you can see, they neglected to sand the spackle. Hmmm…that’s an idea, but it could’ve saved me some time and paint if they had spend a few more hours on this project.
This is the one half of the existing bathroom. You will notice that the paint is green. Do you know what the reflection from the green walls make your face look like when you are looking in the mirror? I’m sure you get the idea.
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Posted in Home Improvement | 2 Comments »
Friday, October 26th, 2007
Last night, Laura and I had the good fortune of visiting “The Great Jack O’Lantern Blaze at Van Cortlandt Manor.” I have seen this around and have always wanted to go, but never did.
I got some free tickets that allowed us in on either Thursday or Sunday nights. We chose Thursday because we thought things would be a little slower then. As it turned out, every half hour time slot was sold out, except for the 9PM one. You have to remember, they are marketing this event all the way down into Manhattan. With the tickets we had, it didn’t matter if the event was sold out, we were still able to go at any time.
We decided to try for the 7:30PM sliver. We drove down Rt.9 into Croton-on-Hudson. I have really only been in this area about six times in my life. It is all so foreign to me. Anyway, we made it to the event and parked in the Shoprite parking lot next door. We walked across the parking lot and entered the event. Things were busy, but not too much yet, which was nice.
So there we were, walking through the gates into about a million blazing pumpkins. I have to say, the setup was pretty nice. There were quite a few people, so the walking was kind of slow, but that gave us time to see what things were about. My nature is to bust through, take pictures and drive home. I was forced to relax. Also, I am not sure how Laura feels about her nights being rushed. She does know me well enough now to know what to expect. One word of warning to those people who want a less crowded evening…go to the later shows. The kids are probably in bed by that point.
I am just going to list the best pictures of the evening below. It was dark, so my camera didn’t do the best job, but Photoshop helped quite a bit.
This is the arch of pumpkins you walk through on your way up to the ticket people.
A pretty neat carving hanging from one of the trees.
These are both of the stone manor house at Van Cortlandt Manor. As you can see, the lights change color.
The rest of the photos are of what we saw during the walk through the grounds.
The whole walk probably takes between a half hour and forty five minutes. We had fun…just be careful, they funnel you through the gift shop at the end. So, if you have kids and you think they may want little trinkets that you aren’t interested in, be sure to shield their view.
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Posted in Autumn, Travels | 1 Comment »
Thursday, October 25th, 2007
I just wanted to let you know that I am now on CD 7, out of 8. These, of course, are the CDs that Laura got me for my birthday…the “Learn Spanish Behind the Wheel” ones.
I would probably guess that I am at the second year level. Now, I (me) am not at that level, but the CDs are. I am planning on finishing these up and then listening to them again. They are proving to be really good. I think I want to listen to as much as I can, and then start reading a Spanish textbook that Laura has on a shelf.
After that, I plan on becoming an interpreter.
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Posted in Education | No Comments »
Monday, October 22nd, 2007
I usually always look at the online reviews when it comes to buying something online from Circuit City, Amazon or someplace like that. These reviews have a huge impact on my purchasing decision. I guess I read them because they are in my face. They are usually on every single product page.
The problem is, I don’t usually do all that much research when it comes to very important things, like my business. I mean, I do my fair share of reading, but I miss some things. Let’s look at an example. Say I am interested in buying a new car. Let’s say that I spend a month or two looking at all the possible features and price of the car, but totally forget to look at who is actually making the car. I may very well end up with a crappy car maker with tons of features. What good is the car and it’s features if it stops working altogether?
Due to this realization, I have decided to take another look at all of my vendors. I am now most interested in product support, product quality and reputation, as well as other things. Support is way up there on the list. I really am the kind of guy who needs someone at the other end of the phone line at 3AM on a Sunday. I really am. I am willing to pay more for it.
So, there you have it. I am a review madman now. It is just unfortunate when I come across poor reviews on companies I currently work with. Oh well, I guess there are a few contracts I am going to have to eat.
To live and learn.
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Posted in Business | 1 Comment »
Sunday, October 21st, 2007
Last night, Laura and I went to a wonderful show at SUNY New Paltz. We saw “The Pirates of Penzance.” Good thing we did, because last night was the last show.
As you may know, I have a little problem when I get frustrated. I tend to complain about it. People don’t like to hear me complain, so sometimes, they fix my problem for me. Laura is one of those people. The other night, I was complaining that we don’t do enough with the resources we live near. One of those resources in the college up in New Paltz. The college was actually one of the things we were excited to have nearby when we first came to this area. I am always thinking, “How the heck do we get away from the losers who ride out tails on the roads…the ones who just seem to be mean spirited? How do we hang out with people like us?” I guess all we had to do was to go to a show up at the college.
There were all types of people up there, from students to retired to us. I guess we were middle of the road folk. There were a lot of parents coming to see their kids put on a performance too. It felt so good to be on a campus again, feeling the buzz of excitement of all that college has to offer. I really do miss it.
Anyway, about the show…it was really good. I was so impressed by what these kids could do. I mean, it was like they were professionals. I like the casual atmosphere of the audience and the way the performers catered to them. They really seemed to connect.
I think there are two performances each semester, so from now on, we are going to go to them. How’s that for an idea to get out of the house to chill with people like us?
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Posted in Education, Entertainment | No Comments »
Sunday, October 21st, 2007
Wow, what a day.
Laura and I had to get new sneakers, so we headed up to the “Prime Outlets at Lee.” I will tell you, I thought the place was much bigger. It was refreshing to visit something so cozy and nice. People were just walking around enjoying the day. There didn’t seem to be any attitude that usually comes alond with these places…well, the ones in New York anyway. Yeah, you know what I’m talking about.
We found a good shoe store. Laura bought two pairs of sneakers and I bought one. It has taken such a long time to do this, it feels good to have it done. After that chore was finished, it was time to have some fun. We took Pleasant Street, or Rt. 102 West into Stockbridge. I think everyone else had the same idea for today. After all, the leaves are almost in full effect and the weather was perfect. Stockbridge was a little crowded, but not too bad. We parked our car on the side of the road and headed down towards the Red Lion Inn for some lunch. Right across the street from the car, there was a little park that I never noticed. It’s pretty cool, so I grabbed a photo.
We made it down the road…almost to the Inn, when I remembered that I left the gift certificate Laura got me for my birthday in the car. We had to walk all the way back to get it. Upon our return to the place we were standing ten minutes earlier, I decided to take another photo.
This is the ally that leads to the back of the Red Lion Inn. I wanted to eat lunch in the courtyard. Well, I guess they aren’t serving lunch there anymore, because there were no tables set up. Instead, we went downstairs to “The Lion’s Den.” It’s more of a tavern type deal.
We had a great lunch. We did get a little tipsy because we decided to have a little drink before we sat down.
That was fun too.
After we finished eating, which seemed like a really long time, we headed upstairs to make our Thanksgiving dinner reservations. We have been trying to get in here for a few years, but they are always booked up. This year, they had one table for two open. Yeah!!! We made it. I made the reservation and we are in. That is so cool. After that, we left.
We have been planning to go apple picking for a couple of months now, but have yet to get the chance. Today seemed like a perfect day to head down Rt. 7, a little South of Stockbridge and a little North of Great Barrington, to a place called Windy Hill Farm. We have been here a few times and really love it. They have pumpkins and apples and everything else.
I tell ya, it makes me sooooo happy.
Unfortunately, we showed up at 4:35 and they stop the “you-pick” at 4:30. Good thing our friend Eric let us up to pick a few apples on our own. I climbed a nice sized tree to get two shiny apples way up on top. I handed them off to Laura and we headed back down to the store.
We bought a big bag of mixed apples for $8 and a pumpkin for $8 too. Oh, yeah, we are all set up. Remember last time we got a pumpkin up at this place? Man, I love the Berkshires.
Oh yeah, before I forget, take a look at the picture I took while crossing the Castleton Bridge over the Hudson River.
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Posted in Autumn, Travels | 2 Comments »
Friday, October 19th, 2007
I am absolutely exhausted.
I have been working at home for most of the week. A few weeks ago, one of my servers went down. It was down for about 60 hours, which means three of my classifieds websites were down as well. I couldn’t wait for the lousy support (more about that later) to kick in to reboot the machine, so I initiated a new lease on a new server in my hosting company’s brand new data center. I spent a huge amount of time and effort switching multiple websites between the four servers I have now. After I was done, I took a nice breath and sat back. I thought I was done.
Well, a few days ago, one of the brand new servers went down. That one was quickly restarted to work just fine. The other brand new server has been giving me trouble ever since. Up…down…all with absolutely the worst support I have ever had to endure in my life. I can walk to the Philippines faster than I can get one of these people to actually fix my problem.
Well, it has come to my attention that one gets what one pays for, especially when it comes to website hosting companies. It was explained to me that the commodity item is the actual hardware and software of the operation, with the expense coming from the people. A hosting company can offer the most state of the art equipment for lease, but if it needs a restart or if there is a hardware issue, someone actually has to be there to fix it.
I learned this lesson the hard way.
One of my quirks is to diversify everything I do. I try not to have even two eggs in one basket. If one piece of income gets upset by something, the others are still making money. Unfortunately, everything is really expensive and takes years to figure out. I would say that I am halfway there.
As I write, I have anew server being set up with a new hosting company. I will still keep my current servers running, but will move some sites over to the new company. They are well known for their support. If you call at 2AM, someone will be there to answer the phone and fix the problem. I am most likely going to see if this is true, and if it is, it’s money well spent.
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Posted in Business, Computers, Internet, Websites | No Comments »
Tuesday, October 16th, 2007
Well, what do you think? Laura did this over the weekend. I like to see her all motivated like that.
I was busy installing her new car stereo for her and she was setting up the Halloween lights. It really can’t get any better than that. Like I have said, it’s the little things in life.
I took Monday off and hung around the house with her. I told her that I had a great weekend and meant it. I really can do that every day, especially if it’s sunny and about 62 degrees.
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Posted in Autumn, Home Improvement | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, October 16th, 2007
Laura and I cruised up to Woodstock again this weekend. I told her that I wanted to go hiking up that big mountain everyone climbs. I am not sure the name of it, because we never actually got to it.
We drove into town with the best of intentions. When we got somewhat closer to the action, we noticed a whole bunch of traffic. I guess it was leaf peeper Sunday. I can’t make fun of them because we were there too. One thing it did do was to make us sure that we don’t want to move to Woodstock. I think when you move to a town, you want it all to yourselves. Not you entirely, but you and the people who live there. Woodstock is a town that people visit, that’s for sure.
We parked out of the way a little bit, in the health food store parking lot. Then, we walked up to Joshua’s Cafe. I was really hungry. I love the food at Joshua’s. It’s different and it’s good. The only problem is that the place was packed. Laura and I had to wait upstairs and drink some Guinness while we waited. That was rough. The reason it was rough is because it was out of the bottle and it cost $9. Even the girl behind the counter had a pained look on her face.
We ate and walked around a little bit. Then we left. We have been there so many times before, I am not sure it holds its luster.
Here is a photo of the soon-to-form drum circle. It started at 4PM, but we were gone before then.
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Posted in Autumn, Hiking, Travels | No Comments »
