tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37743569Sun, 08 Sep 2024 11:40:27 +0000Business developmentPersonal stuffOutdoorsLocal newsRelaxationhttp://abbozzare.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.com (ROBERT J. KORPELLA)Blogger45125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37743569.post-7344426641394037345Mon, 22 Jun 2009 18:28:00 +00002009-06-22T11:36:49.970-07:00Yesterday was the day we mark as having the longest amount of daylight for the whole year. This past week I have been afflicted with a bit of insomnia and only seem to be able to get five hours of sleep at best each night. I woke at 3:50 am yesterday, well before that long period of light began. But the insomnia did allow me to enjoy every drop of sunshine the day offered. I didn't miss a thing. http://abbozzare.blogspot.com/2009/06/summer-solstice.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (ROBERT J. KORPELLA)3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37743569.post-899523607724967644Tue, 09 Jun 2009 16:36:00 +00002009-06-09T09:42:03.412-07:00Well here we are in June already and the days are starting to heat up and get humid as they usually do this time of year. It was May that proved more unpredictable. In the course of 31 days, we saw highs in the fifties, highs in the eighties, heavy rain, sunny days and high winds. One day, 70 to 90 mph straight-line winds tore through southwest Missouri knocking over trees and downing electrical http://abbozzare.blogspot.com/2009/06/may-2009.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (ROBERT J. KORPELLA)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37743569.post-5455700619030279779Sat, 02 May 2009 00:26:00 +00002009-05-01T17:43:16.743-07:00Earlier this week, we had a round of thunderstorms pass through during the early morning hours. I remember waking up just before 4am and hearing the sound of thunder nearby. I lazily considered getting up to unplug my computer but could not convince my body to follow through. At 4:08am, I bolted out of bed as lightning either struck the house or something close to it. In rapid succession, I heardhttp://abbozzare.blogspot.com/2009/05/all-lit-up.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (ROBERT J. KORPELLA)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37743569.post-6534607131244092890Sun, 19 Apr 2009 14:44:00 +00002009-04-19T07:52:48.003-07:00The tailless squirrel returned this weekend. I hadn't seen him in a few weeks and wondered what had become of him. He wandered into the yard hopping like a rabbit and headed for my wildlife feeding area. I keep a couple of bird feeders there and pour some seed on the ground for the doves as well as some fruit for the mockingbirds. I also drop a few ears of hard corn, the kind grown as silage and http://abbozzare.blogspot.com/2009/04/corn-cobs.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (ROBERT J. KORPELLA)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37743569.post-2714120755273970592Fri, 10 Apr 2009 23:57:00 +00002009-04-10T17:02:59.969-07:00OutdoorsI had my first encounter with a morel mushroom last weekend. I had never seen one before except in pictures so I was excited, especially since the finds are rare. I wrote about the experience on freshare.net and you can read that article here: The Morel of the Story.What was surprising to me was that morels didn't taste as exotic as I expected. I thought I would discover a musky, woodsy kind of http://abbozzare.blogspot.com/2009/04/morels.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (ROBERT J. KORPELLA)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37743569.post-8339127637514630931Sun, 29 Mar 2009 21:59:00 +00002009-03-29T15:09:01.862-07:00Personal stuffEarlier this week I mowed the lawn for the first time this season. The mower was a little cranky after being made to sit quietly all winter in a cold storage shed but it was finally convinced to start. At this early juncture, my lawn is mostly comprised of tufts of grass in a sea of dead brown material and an assortment of weeds. But all of it needs a weekly trim regardless of affiliation.The http://abbozzare.blogspot.com/2009/03/spring.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (ROBERT J. KORPELLA)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37743569.post-468225836166168428Wed, 25 Mar 2009 02:57:00 +00002009-03-24T20:14:12.929-07:00Personal stuffI have tried using a free service called Ping-o-Matic to send out pings to a raft of directories anytime I update one of my blogs. I know the key word here is that it's free and I shouldn't complain, but here it comes anyway. The service is extremely unreliable. In my experience, about 95% of the time, Ping-o-Matic takes a few minutes to spin its wheels, jams up, then blames the mess on me by http://abbozzare.blogspot.com/2009/03/i-use-free-service-called-ping-o-matic.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (ROBERT J. KORPELLA)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37743569.post-2419719836231874927Thu, 12 Mar 2009 01:08:00 +00002009-03-14T09:41:54.948-07:00Business developmentBlame it on the economy, blame it on a business decision that did not work out quite as planned. Blame it on me. My lease was up at the end of February and I decided there was no point in renewing. It feels like the first step in a dismantling of my business. The end of a long era in my life.No rescue for me, I'm sure. I'll not expect anyone to ride up and hand me some bailout money. It's a smallhttp://abbozzare.blogspot.com/2009/03/toughest-month.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (ROBERT J. KORPELLA)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37743569.post-8578518699860631317Tue, 17 Feb 2009 16:33:00 +00002009-02-17T08:43:26.619-08:00The return of tree frogs is a nice welcoming song to announce that spring is near. I heard peepers the first time this year a couple of weeks ago during my evening walk. They were faint, but discernible in the distance. Late last week when the weather was warm, it was as if invitations had been sent out. Thursday night, I heard them closer to the road I was walking, concentrated on a few trees inhttp://abbozzare.blogspot.com/2009/02/songs-of-spring.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (ROBERT J. KORPELLA)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37743569.post-90222502793910235Sun, 25 Jan 2009 16:11:00 +00002009-01-25T08:32:03.825-08:00Business developmentI decided to start a podcast series on the freshare site and actually produced the first one in late December. Click the program title to listen to that installment: freshare Ozarks Outdoors podcast. The plan was to create a new podcast every week following a format of introducing listeners to some of our top stories before a segue into the feature: an interview with someone who has close ties tohttp://abbozzare.blogspot.com/2009/01/freshare-podcasts.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (ROBERT J. KORPELLA)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37743569.post-7563771136179881669Sun, 18 Jan 2009 16:16:00 +00002009-01-18T08:32:33.738-08:00OutdoorsI'm beginning to wonder if we have some mutations in the animal gene pool around my house. Last Spring, a white dove settled in for a meal of birdseed under one of my feeders. Now, a tailless squirrel and and his stubby-tailed cousin are frequenting the feeders.By the way they move, it seems both squirrels must have been born without the trademark bushy tails average squirrels sport. Neither http://abbozzare.blogspot.com/2009/01/odd-backyard-critters.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (ROBERT J. KORPELLA)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37743569.post-8322891631758165663Mon, 05 Jan 2009 20:45:00 +00002009-01-05T12:51:56.475-08:00I'm usually not much of one for New Year's resolutions and here is my only one for 2009: I plan to write more. Throughout last year, all my writing appeared only on my Ozarks outdoors website, freshare.net, and on a few article sites. But I have missed blogging and resolve to do more of that in 2009. Here, on Amblin Cafe and for a soon to be developed outdoors blog on freshare. If you check this http://abbozzare.blogspot.com/2009/01/i-resolve.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (ROBERT J. KORPELLA)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37743569.post-7293618060733250349Tue, 12 Feb 2008 23:51:00 +00002008-02-12T16:03:21.202-08:00Personal stuffMy daughter and her husband had a baby shower a week or so ago. This is their first child and my first grandbaby, so we are all pretty excited. Check out the post about our ultrasound experience.The best gift they got at the shower, in my view anyway, was a diaper genie. I had not seen nor heard of one until the shower. It's ingenious. Kind of like the biohazard containers you see in hospitals http://abbozzare.blogspot.com/2008/02/genie.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (ROBERT J. KORPELLA)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37743569.post-8452760127637458076Thu, 24 Jan 2008 15:38:00 +00002008-01-24T16:48:29.214-08:00Personal stuffYesterday, I got a chance to see my first grandbaby for the very first time. I don't want to sound like some wayward grandparent, so let me clear that up by saying I saw her with a 3D ultrasound. She's due to arrive somewhere around March 18 but I welcomed the opportunity to take a sneak peek.The nurse pointed out all these wonderful and amazing features - nose, fingers, big toe. I couldn't see http://abbozzare.blogspot.com/2008/01/first-peek.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (ROBERT J. KORPELLA)3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37743569.post-2738668850967525420Sat, 19 Jan 2008 00:45:00 +00002008-01-18T17:19:20.268-08:00Business developmentOne thing I like about websites is that they are easily changed and updated as suits the readers and visitors. We've been running a poll on freshare as well as checking which content gets the most reads, what topics get the most attention, even which pages have the highest Google rankings.From all that information, we are getting a clearer picture of what our readers want, what brings visitors tohttp://abbozzare.blogspot.com/2008/01/fluid-mechanics.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (ROBERT J. KORPELLA)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37743569.post-1675587589838328059Thu, 17 Jan 2008 23:16:00 +00002008-01-17T15:23:36.063-08:00OutdoorsI'm sitting here wearing my hiking boots and that made me think about a long hike I took the weekend before Christmas. A nearly three hour trek through the Arkansas hills and woods.It was a cold day, mist rose from the wet creek bed along the path. I saw several deer, found a cave, uncovered a rock to find a sleepy salamander. Found some old scrapes a buck made the month before, poked around a http://abbozzare.blogspot.com/2008/01/long-walks-in-woods.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (ROBERT J. KORPELLA)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37743569.post-2969496158130385044Sat, 05 Jan 2008 23:35:00 +00002008-01-17T15:14:17.761-08:00Business developmentWe are coming off one of the toughest years I have ever faced as a businessman. We abandoned a dying print publication in late 2006 and replaced it with what is now freshare.net. But the whole process was like launching a brand new business instead of building on an old one. Our customer base for employmag was much different than the one we'll have to continue to develop for freshare. And, http://abbozzare.blogspot.com/2008/01/2007-review.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (ROBERT J. KORPELLA)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37743569.post-1263258050385626751Wed, 19 Dec 2007 04:23:00 +00002007-12-18T20:28:33.359-08:00OutdoorsWell, the ice storm I talked about in the last post did not affect our immediate area too badly. We just had a little accumulation on the trees and none on the roads. To our west and throughout much of Oklahoma it was a lot worse. Hundreds of thousands lost power and some are still without power.Last weekend, we were ready for a major snowstorm that meteorologists were predicting could dump up tohttp://abbozzare.blogspot.com/2007/12/weather-related.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (ROBERT J. KORPELLA)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37743569.post-2257850226435940269Mon, 10 Dec 2007 03:54:00 +00002007-12-09T20:24:06.717-08:00Local newsWe are bracing for another ice storm today and tomorrow. So far, it's only been rain here, but not too many miles to our north and to our west, ice has already fallen and caused power outages, heavy tree limbs and icy patches on roads. The news reported that the entire town of Lamar, Missouri is dark, without power.We are all hoping this storm won't be of the same magnitude as the January ice http://abbozzare.blogspot.com/2007/12/another-ice-storm.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (ROBERT J. KORPELLA)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37743569.post-4455865744532954202Thu, 29 Nov 2007 15:24:00 +00002008-01-17T15:15:00.757-08:00Personal stuffBesides eating until I nearly burst, I went fishing over the the Thanksgiving holiday. The White River - my favorite spot on the planet. It was still deer season in Arkansas, and there was only one camp at the landing - a deer hunting party. The rest of the river was mine. It was cold, maybe 40 degrees, and a bit windy but the fish were biting well. The river was very low and the water clear as http://abbozzare.blogspot.com/2007/11/thanksgiving-weekend.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (ROBERT J. KORPELLA)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37743569.post-3948468051423666373Wed, 21 Nov 2007 02:43:00 +00002007-11-21T09:55:45.983-08:00OutdoorsI was out in the woods over the weekend. Deer season. Arrived before first light. I climbed into my tree, had a cup of coffee and stared up at the stars, listened to coyotes howl about half a mile away and deer move cautiously on dry leaves.As the stars melted into morning, Venus was the last to give up her light. And soon, the blackness turned to gray then to full color as the sun rose higher inhttp://abbozzare.blogspot.com/2007/11/woods.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (ROBERT J. KORPELLA)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37743569.post-2863276803318295008Thu, 15 Nov 2007 21:14:00 +00002008-01-17T15:15:20.802-08:00Business developmentLast month, I was invited to participate in a panel discussion sponsored by Missouri State University's Journalism Department. The panel met yesterday and discussed ethics in citizen journalism. It was a great experience and I felt privileged to be a part of the group which included Brian Lewis, a columnist for the News-Leader, and Doug McGill of the McGill Report and formerly of Bloomberg and http://abbozzare.blogspot.com/2007/11/panel-discussion-at-msu.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (ROBERT J. KORPELLA)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37743569.post-9175034018563464990Thu, 01 Nov 2007 16:57:00 +00002007-11-01T10:21:30.303-07:00Business developmentI had the best of intentions. Really, I did. My plan was to design a complete makeover for freshare.net. And I did that part. I was lax in pursuing the other part of my plan. I wanted to blog my design process and talk about some of the pitfalls encountered and successes achieved along the way. But I got too busy designing and constructing with a fast approaching deadline. There was little time http://abbozzare.blogspot.com/2007/11/freshare-site-version-30.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (ROBERT J. KORPELLA)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37743569.post-7309669766896780030Tue, 26 Jun 2007 04:29:00 +00002007-06-25T21:42:15.132-07:00Local newsThe price of a gallon of gasoline is getting way out of hand. Even the filling stations and convenience stores think so. If you pay by debit card, beware. A store could, legally, put a hold on your checking account until such time as the charge you made against it for gasoline goes through. And, sometimes, that could take several days. In the meantime, you may not be able to get cash from an ATM http://abbozzare.blogspot.com/2007/06/debit-cards-and-gasoline.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (ROBERT J. KORPELLA)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37743569.post-7870393293283668143Wed, 20 Jun 2007 04:41:00 +00002007-06-19T21:46:36.487-07:00Business developmentWell, our stats continue to climb in terms of the number of visitors and the number of page views. The "viral marketing" components - email articles, print stories, tell-a-friend - all are picking up steam, so that should result in ever higher numbers of visitors and page views.The MySpace page also seems to be sending traffic to freshare, although it's difficult to measure exactly how much.We http://abbozzare.blogspot.com/2007/06/website-update.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (ROBERT J. KORPELLA)0