Flowing Creek

Sunday Afternoon Browsing - Movies At Amazon

2010-01-31T17:59:00.000-05:00

Today I had planned to write a post about the movie I just watched, Food, Inc. Instead, I thought it might be more interesting to write about some features of Amazon that I had never noticed before. I was checking to see if the movie was available through video on demand, and I noticed some things on the page.

Some DVDs that you buy from Amazon give you the Amazon Video on Demand access for free. It's called Disc+ On Demand. That's a nice service. Just in case you want to watch it right that second (before the DVD gets to you maybe) or away from your DVD player, you can access it.

Also, while I was looking down the page, I stumbled on Amazon's Disc Trade-in system. I was unaware that you could trade-in your DVDs or Blu-ray discs and get an Amazon Gift card and extra credit for the Amazon Blu-ray Store. That's cool, too. I have not yet ventured into the world of Blu-ray, but I have been wondering how that transition was happening. It seems that the folks who are early adopters of Blu-ray would also have huge DVD collections. Most likely, they would want to see some of those movies in Blu-ray. It's nice that they can do this cost effectively.

Another thing I noticed is that these Blu-ray discs often come in a combo disc with Blu-ray on one side and DVD on the other side. That's cool. I had seen ads for this, but didn't understand how it worked. I thought maybe there were two discs in the box. Glad we are getting better at making these transitions. I still have memories of Betamax, VHS and Laserdiscs.

I'm not sure when I'll venture into the world of Blu-ray, but I'm sure it will be a while. First I need one of those fancy new flat 42-inch HD TVs.

Netflix Streams Movies to Your TV with the Wii

2010-01-16T19:20:00.000-05:00

I just read on the Netflix website, that this spring you will be able to stream movies to your TV using the Wii. So for those of you contemplating getting a Roku box, you might want to wait, and just use your Wii. I don't have a Wii (yet), but maybe one day I'll get one.

Apparently, you only need the free CD that Netflix provides to install some software on your Wii. No other equipment is required. You do need high speed internet and a Netflix subscription.

I did read something interesting recently about how these streaming devices work with your Netflix subscription. You can watch streaming movies on up to 6 different devices, but not simultaneously unless you have enough DVDs out at a time on your plan. For every DVD out at a time in your plan, you can watch one instant movie simultaneously. That means, if you have two streaming devices, you can only watch two streaming movies at the same time if you have a two at a time DVD plan.

Google Alerts: A Good Tool for Bloggers

2010-01-07T22:52:00.000-05:00

I stumbled on a nice tool today that will help me with my blogging research, among other things. It's Google Alerts, and it is a service that will email you links to whatever keyword you put in. You can get links to news, blogs, the web or whatever combination you want.

I'm planning to use it to help me speed up my research for Pug Market. Since the main theme of the site is to highlight products for pugs and people who love pugs, I am frequently doing searches for pug-related items. I set up a Google Alert for the word pug, and the results are delivered right to my inbox.

Now I'm not sure if these are the top results or just a random mix, but it sure mixed things up for me. In one day I have 3 items to check out and write about. That's nice. It's always better to have information delivered to you automatically than to have to search high and low for it.

I also set up an alert for the company I work for. We are going through some difficult times, related directly to the new health care bill. So, I want to keep up with the news and read the articles before I have to read about it in a corporate memo a few days later. It's handy.

I also set up an alert for my home town. Maybe I'll find out something interesting that is going on. You never know. Since it's a college town, I expect a variety of topics to appear on that list.

I'm sure I'll find other keywords to check for things that I like to research, but sometimes lack the time or energy to do manually. We'll see. I highly urge you to check it out if there are things like news items you want to follow, products you need to find or events you need to keep up with.

Happy New Year

2010-01-05T22:23:00.000-05:00

Happy New Year everyone!

Yes, it's been quiet on the blogging front, but it's a new year, and I've already been busy writing. I have a whole list of ideas for blog posts, and they will be showing up here and on my other blogs soon.

I hope everyone had as wonderful a holiday as I had. I had a great Christmas. I had fun with my family and it was awesome to see my little one react to his first Christmas. The day after Christmas was his birthday, and we had a nice little party.

One of the best things about the holiday is the Roku Player that I got. This box is totally awesome! I have already watched Season 5 of Lost through Netflix. I have watched a bunch of movies, too. The other day I explored Pandora and MediaFly. I also checked out the TWiT channel. I don't have much time to talk about it now, but I will devote an entire blog posting to my love for this gadget. If you are a movie buff who uses Netflix, this box is awesome. All of your instant watching movies are available at any time, and the box keeps track of where you are in the movie if you have to stop it. It's great for those of us with many distractions (like a 1 year old). In addition to Netflix, you can use the Roku Player to view Amazon Video On Demand.

Anyway, despite my increased movie watching, I have managed to do quite a bit of writing in the past week. I decided to get over my writing slump and give Textbroker a serious try. I'm glad I did. I wrote a longer article (800 words) and got my first DirectOrder. This means I get paid a higher rate, and I got 10 articles requested specifically for me. I have completed 9 of the 10 articles and the client seems happy. These longer articles pay off, too. I can write one in about a half hour and I make about 12 bucks. If I ever get to write 4 articles a day, that is quite a hefty side income for 2 hours of work. So far, I am just happy I am on a roll again. Hopefully I can continue the trend. I also applied for the Level 5 rating of Professional Writer. It will take weeks to get an answer, but if I can get rated at Level 5, my price per word increases by quite a bit.

So, good things are going on. I am contemplating challenging myself to a Hundred Articles in a Hundred Days on Ezine Articles. This would help me promote my website. It's a nice goal, and the articles only have to be about 500 words long. I can do that. It's possible that maybe I am meant to write after all.

This is the first year that I did not make official resolutions. I of course have goals, but most of them are continuing progress from the past year. More writing, more blogging, more graphic design for Zazzle. Of course a few things for the home life - keeping up with the laundry, cooking wholesome meals and getting enough sleep.

Well, I'm supposed to be writing that 10th article... I gotta run, because my deadline is looming (midnight).

My Favorite Casual Games - PopCap Games

2009-11-11T21:43:00.002-05:00

Once again, I'm procrastinating and I'm about to play some casual games. Recently, I wrote a bit about why I like casual games. I really do love them. They are a good way for me to unwind. TV used to do it, but sometimes it just doesn't work because it's way too inactive. At least if I'm playing a game, my mind is working a little bit. Maybe that's the key. My mind needs to completely relax so I can go to sleep. Casual games give my mind a chance to stop running at full tilt by occupying it with mundane tasks. Awesome!

Anyway, back to the topic at hand. What are my favorite casual games? I absolutely love PopCap Games. They are fun and addictive. I also thing they do a good job with their pricing. They always have free games online. The price to download them is usually less than $20, so you don't have to feel bad about the purchase.

The sad thing is, I have a PlayStation 2. I have bought those $50 games in the past for it. But, I never have as much fun with those games as I do with a good PopCap game. Funny how that works. Don't ask me to compare PopCap games to the Wii, though. I'm not sure about that. Maybe they are two different animals.

so, my favorite games are:

Peggle - I'm still working on the last level in the Challenge mode. I just can't get 750,000 points. I have been working on this for 2 years. Ridiculous. But, you'll find me playin Peggle for hours sometimes. I even have it on my phone.

Peggle Nights - I'm working my way through this one. I did Adventure Mode, and I'm working on Challenge Mode. There's a neat new character with a cool power.

Dynomite - I don't know why I feel compelled to play this one all the time, but I literally have to shut my computer to stop!

Chuzzle - Cute... addictive. Why are the Chuzzles looking at me like that? Play Chuzzle Free

Bejeweled... who can resist it? Free Bejeweled 2 Download

Well, I'm done with this posting. I'm off to check out Plants vs. Zombies. With a title like that, how can I resist? Games are on sale...check it out!

October 2009 Update

2009-11-05T23:21:00.000-05:00

The goal for this month was to apply the $5 bucks a day method to my existing website marketing projects. I am using this method to organize my internet marketing tasks. This is helping me to create some focus for the limited hours I have to devote to my projects. I basically spent one week focusing on article writing, another week on blogging and finding affiliate links, a third week on designing the logo and the fourth week joining forums.

In September, I did a whole lot of research on things I could do to inexpensively start making money using internet marketing. Near the end of the month, I began to focus on adding content to my sites and writing articles to link to my sites. October's focus was to continue adding content to my sites (for example, make it a regular habit to write blog posts and articles). In addition, I had a goal of increasing traffic to Pug Market. To do this, I wrote articles in various places and had social networking accounts set up. I had my brother do this for me, because he likes doing that.

During the social networking setup, I also created a logo for the site. It's come in handy, because I use it at some of the article sites and for anything else that I use to create incoming links, like forums.

So, what were the results? I increased my traffic to Pug Market by almost 100%. You could argue that this was not difficult to do, because I didn't have much traffic to begin with. But, I feel pretty successful. At least I saw results from my efforts. I spent many hours writing and working on the logo. Not an excessive amount, but I probably spent an average of at least 2 hours a day on the site.

Other than the Pug Market stuff, I did write a few postings for this site and for Nononsense Mom. I wrote a couple of eHow articles and I got my first article accepted at eZine articles. I joined HubPages and wrote my first Hub about Internet Marketing. Finally, I did quite a bit of writing for Textbroker. I'm getting bored with Textbroker, though. It's not that I don't like the writing or like getting paid. I just get irritated when I realize I'm writing for someone else's internet marketing projects. I should use that energy to write for my own. Ahhh... the conflict between guaranteed money and long-term money potential...

Now that things are settling down, all I have to do is concentrate on adding content and participating in forums and social networking. I can probably cut my time working on the site in half. That will leave me with more time to devote to Flowing Creek or other projects.

When I started writing this post, I was researching the common sizes for banners used in internet marketing campaigns. It seems that a logo is not enough. Now I need some banners. I might as well make them the right size! That's probably a good topic for an article or blog posting.

Blowing Off Some Steam with Casual Games

2009-10-26T20:56:00.000-04:00

So, tonight I resolved to do some writing, but I'm just not in the mood. It's been a really long day, and I probably should blow off some steam to make sure that I eventually get some sleep tonight. There's nothing on TV (bummer), so I was checking my email and I stumbled on an awesome casual games site. Those of you who know me, know that I am a huge fan of casual games.

I have always loved video games, but I have learned over the years that most games for the big consoles are way too complicated to learn. It almost sucks the fun out of them. Or, maybe it's just that I don't have the time I used to have to devote to gaming. The only games I play on the big consoles are kids games these days, or games like Dance Dance Revolution. That's why the Wii is on my wishlist. In any case, casual games are awesome, because you can play them for just a few minutes and have your fun. No need for lengthy tutorials and such.

So, I'm checking it out now. It appears that online games are free and downloadable casual games have free trials and cost less than $10. Of course, this means that I have to play some puzzle games and some word games. I'm sure I'll be a while... but I will write more about my favorite games later.

The Writing Conundrum

2009-10-25T11:36:00.000-04:00

So, as I wrote in an earlier post, I have begun to do quite a bit of writing. I know... you can't tell that from reading this blog. But, truthfully, I have been doing some writing. I am even getting paid for it. The problem is that I have not yet gotten much satisfaction from it. Writing is something I can do. I don't always want to do it, but I do it anyway, for a variety of reasons. Right now, I do it because I could use the extra money.

I thought writing would be like graphic design. Since I can do it easily, I could do it in the background. That way I can fill my "empty" (read: time I am watching TV restlessly) time with writing when I'm bored with graphic design or other projects. Writing doesn't really lend itself to that. I cannot write and watch TV or even really pay attention to anything else. So, it's an all consuming activity. Finding time to do something like that isn't easy, and it competes with other types of all consuming activities, like cleaning or sleeping. I thought writing might be a good candidate for low level multitasking, but it isn't.

So, in light of that, I'm frustrated with writing. It won't stop me from doing it, but my output is slower. I think for the next week I will focus on some graphics work. I need to add some new products to my Zazzle store and create a brand new store for Pug Market.

Privacy Policy

2009-10-25T11:25:00.002-04:00

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Free Internet Marketing Information

2009-10-02T22:41:00.001-04:00

Oddly enough, in the last 24 hours I have stumbled on a whole lot of free Internet Marketing information. I've reviewed some of it, and it's very useful and interesting. Best of all, the info comes in many different forms - videos and reports. So, there's something for everyone. I don't know about you, but I'm one of those people who sometimes needs to be exposed to info in more than one way before I fully digest it.

I wish I had found this info about 1 year ago. It is truly motivating. It has answered a lot of my questions about how I can do things and what's working for people and what isn't.

I already know the basics:

1. Research a market
2. Find a product
3. Research keywords
4. Create website for items 1-3.
5. Promote website.
6. Wait for payments...:)

Like I said, internet marketing is pretty basic at the heart of it. But, how do you do those 6 things? What tools do you use? Do you need any money to get started?

The answer is no. You don't need money to get started. You don't need a lot of tools either. The info I found tells you how to get going without investing money. That is what interests me.

So, I think I'm going to start my own email subscription list, with the sole purpose of helping folks get started using free information and free tools. I'm going to send out free information about internet marketing. It will include free article marketing info, free affiliate marketing info and other methods folks are using. Why an email list? The simple answer is because some of this info comes with the stipulation that I can only share it if I give it away personally. In other words, I'm not allowed to post it on a blog or webpage or anything like that.

It'll be a learning experience. I can learn about managing my own email list. That will be interesting. Another skill...

I also have some low cost sources of info and some higher cost sources. These sources are recommended once you have started earning. I'm going to compile that info for other lists.

From time to time, I might review some of these findings on this blog, but like I said, not all of these items are available for posting online. I will share the ones that I can post about and post a link for your own investigation.

Internet Marketing Review - 5 Bucks A Day, Jr.

2009-09-30T13:56:00.001-04:00

I recently read Dennis Becker's, 5 Bucks a Day, jr. - How Just $5.00 a Day Can Make You Rich.

This report is targeted at the self-starter (like me), or someone who wants the information and has the motivation to use it to jump into internet marketing. The idea is that self-starters would like to get into business for as little money as possible. Thus, the low price of this report - under $10.

The report is full of information about how to get started in internet marketing. Not only that, but it explains how to organize yourself so that you can get your projects done. This valuable information is useful for any projects you have, online or offline.

Becker explains his strategy for identifying potential projects, focusing on them and determining their success. His main point is to tackle one project at a time, and he gives you the roadmap to do so.

There are numerous resources described in the report. Some are free and some are paid. All have descriptions of their usefulness and effort level. Becker even goes as far as to tell you which paid resources are valuable to someone just starting out and which ones should be purchased only after you are earning income from your projects.

Ultimately, if you follow the guide and tackle one $5/day project at a time, you will eventually have enough streams of $5 income to generate thousands per day.

It made sense to me. I have already started following his strategy, and I am already showing productivity. I've increased my blog posting frequency and I've been able to focus my research efforts. I'm staying organized, and I'm able to launch my projects on a regular basis. Admittedly, I'm not at the project per week level yet, but I am satisfied with my progress after only 1 month of reading his strategy.

It's not that the information contained in the report is not freely available online. It's just that it is not compiled together in one neatly packaged strategy that you can use as a reference. I had read most of Becker's ideas on various blogs, on forums and in articles. However, they weren't organized in a way that made sense to me or that called me to action.

This report will get you moving. After reading it once (I recommend reading it multiple times), you will be motivated to do something towards your goals. This report will get you moving. After reading it once (I recommend reading it multiple times), you will be motivated to do something towards your goalsGet it today!

According to Becker, this report is just the strategy portion of his popular internet marketing guide, 5 Bucks a Day. The full version gets you a lifetime admission to his membership site plus free access other useful resources, including products with resell rights.

Next I will upgrade to the full version. I'll review that at a later date.

Internet Marketing - The Power of the List

2009-09-30T09:06:00.001-04:00

As I mentioned, I am working on some internet marketing projects. Because of this, I am always looking for good information on the topic.

In the beginning, all I found were ads for pricey eBooks, training programs or membership sites. Lately, to my surprise, I have stumbled on quite a bit of good info that is free or inexpensive (under $20). My goal is to get started without spending a whole lot of money, so I've been happy lately.

There is a trade-off to getting the free information. In most cases, you have to join someone's email list. To me, this is not a big deal. It's just something you have to do. Worst case, I can opt-out of the list if I don't like it. I do understand that for some people, this is a big issue, because you like to heavily guard your email address. To those people, I suggest that you set up a special email account just for the purpose of signing up for unknown lists. That way, you don't interfere with your more important email.

In the beginning, I thought it was odd that someone wanted to give me a free or inexpensive eBook or training about how to become an internet marketer, how to make $5 per day or how to get started in Article Marketing. Now that I have read these eBooks and watched the training videos, I understand. It's all about the list. These professional internet marketers are willing to give up a little bit of profit to expand their list.

What is the power of the list? The list is comprised of people who are interested in a particular subject. Not only are they interested, but they are seeking more information. Having such a list of targeted prospects is key to any type of marketing. It is more valuable to be able to send out a steady stream (daily, weekly or monthly) of desired information that contains links to related products than it is to rely on random visitors to a website.

The question I am exploring now is the importance of the list being an email list. Isn't a feed a similar list? If I set up a feed to this blog that only pulls posts related to internet marketing, don't I also have a list of interested readers that I could market to? Of course, I don't know what their addresses are, but I can use this to get started, right? Maybe the difference is that a feed is still indirect. I have to rely on the subscribers of my feed to read regularly,unless they have the feed delivered to their inbox. With an email list, I know my information gets to their inbox. Either way, I don't know if they read it or not.

In any case, this is an interesting topic. When I figure out how to set up a list, maybe I'll try it. But then, I also have to figure out what I am going to send out to the list and how often. Right now it sounds daunting, but I'm sure I'll figure it out.

P.S. - The links to internet marketing resources you find on this site are sources that I am using. I have most likely signed up on the author's list to obtain the information, and I have determined that they are sources of legitimate information. Hopefully it will be a bit easier for you to find what you are looking for.

A Long Week

2009-09-25T08:28:00.001-04:00

I have been derailed from my web projects this week, due to a family medical emergency. For that matter, I've been derailed from any offline projects, too.

The good news is that I have had plenty of time to read and make lists of things so I can just do them when I get a chance. I've tried to use my time wisely to do research.

I have a new system for organizing my tasks. Since I still struggle with beating my multitasking habit, I figured I can at least be organized. Here's what I've been doing...

I have several projects going on (online, offline, at home and at work). I use notepad to keep my thoughts, notes and todos for these projects. When I have time to do something, I open my ToDo folder and pick a file and do the things listed. Once they are done, I delete the item.

The only problem with the system, is that I may need to keep a record of what was done. I may start just marking things as Done, instead of deleting them. For now, it's working out great, though.

TGIF! Hopefully my weekend will be nice and calm.

My Writing Blog and Other Projects

2009-09-16T20:10:00.005-04:00

As promised in an earlier post, I have created a writing blog, and I've been posting to it. It's interesting so far. My goal is to post every day, but that hasn't quite happened yet. I am posting regularly.

I'm actually posting regularly to all of my sites, except for the one I haven't really started yet. That project will start soon. I'm taking a different approach to that site, in that I'm going to create a large chunk of content up front for the site, and write a bunch of articles to experiment with article marketing.

I like to use my web projects as experiments in various topics. For instance, this is my main site, and it is a mix of a lot of things. It's a mixture of personal and professional topics and a place to document my career and some of my interests. I have another project that is a marketing experiment. It is based on a subject that interests me, for motivational purposes, but it is really in existence for me to experiment with affiliate marketing and building a directory of information. I also have a personal blog that is mainly about documenting my view of things and providing information.

So, an update is due on my domain parking experiment. I have not made a dime on that. I have other options for the site in mind, so it's not a total loss. I have had some traffic to the site, but not much. I think it is largely the type of project that needs a better domain name. If you have the right domain name at the right time, you could passively make a lot of money using Adsense for Domains. But, until your domain name becomes a seriously hot search term, it could be a challenge. I'm not going to shut it down yet, but I'm considering other ideas for this property. I'll write more about those when they come to fruition.

Getting MP3s to Play in my Escape

2009-09-13T21:37:00.007-04:00

I have a 2004 Ford Escape XLT. I love it, by the way, but that's not what this post is about.

Now that I have a huge collection of MP3's on my computer, PDA, iPod and USB key, it would be nice if I could listen to this music in my car. Unfortunately, this model car does not have a jack to connect any of these devices. Not only that, I can't even play MP3 CDs in my car.

So, last year I decided I'd add a new stereo to my wish list. I did some research and I found a stereo that would accept all of my devices. The only thing is that I don't want to pay the hefty pricetag for it.

The other day I stumbled on this device - Soundfly BT Ultimate Bluetooth Car Fm Transmitter WMA/MP3 Player for SD Card, USB Stick, iPhone, iPod, Zune

I think this is the answer to my problems. It's less than $100 and it even works as a bluetooth speaker phone. I wonder how well it works.

What am I up to lately? Writing...

2009-09-11T09:26:00.001-04:00

What am I up to lately? Writing...

I'm trying to find ways to use my writing skills. I want to write faster, write better and get paid to do so. So, I've decided to start a blog dedicated to writing. I'll write about my experiences in freelance writing. In addition, I'll keep track of the resources I find along the way.

I'm excited about this plan, because it gives me a place to save the information that I gather. I've very good at research, but so far, I have not done the best job of sharing and organizing my research so it is useful to me and my readers.

I'll be sure to start a feed of some sort to keep you updated of my writing.

Alternative Income with Domains - an Experiment

2009-08-12T09:15:00.001-04:00

Recently I've read a few articles about domain flipping. It sounds interesting to me. It could certainly be a way to create some alternative income in an almost passive way. It seems it just requires some research, some domain purchases and some setup. After that, it's just a matter of time and only the effort you want to put into it.

Domain Flipping is like Real Estate Flipping. You own a domain, you develop it so it has some value and you sell it for more than your purchase price. There are several ways to go about this:

Buy a new domain - This is potentially the most work, but the least cost. Most of the good domains have already been bought. What's left are domains that need development. You will have to create some value (traffic) by adding content or just sit and wait and hope your domain name becomes the next hot thing.
Buy an existing domain - This could be costly. Most likely it will cost more than the usual $10-20. However, you could get a popular name or a niche name that you want to develop. The advantage of this is that the website could already have content that you modify to bring more traffic and increase the value.

Since I'm not in a position to invest in an existing domain. I have gone with option #1. I figure, I'm a writer, I should be able to develop content. I need to use the skills I have to generate some alternative income streams.

For now, I've purchased a domain. It's parked, because I don't have content for it yet. However, I've done some research and found that there are ways to receive passive income from a parked domain, so I'm testing it out. I'm using Adsense for Domains. Adsense for Domains is a Google product and part of the overall Adsense group of products for monetizing your websites. It places Google ads and sponsored links on your parked domain. I can alter the colors of my site and I can add 4 keywords to assist with ad placement, but other than that, I do nothing. I hope that my domain is one that would be entered as a search term, which would make my site appear in the search results. Then I make money from clicks on the ads on the page. This is not something I expect to make a lot of money. I'll be lucky if it makes enough to cover the domain registration. But, something is better than nothing.

So far, I've registered my domain with Adsense for Domains, and it's in the process of being verified.

I will write more updates on this topic as more developments happen.

Mobile Phone Bliss

2009-08-12T08:32:00.001-04:00

I activated a different phone today. I am now using a Samsung SCH-U620. It's one of those TV enabled phones, but I'm not using the TV service. So far, I am very happy! I have a phone that is just that - a phone. No more Windows Mobile freezes and crashes interrupting my communication. I love it. It's simple and clear.

I'm keeping my Omnia, though. Already it's become a more productive PDA. Since I'm no longer using it as a phone, I changed my Today screen to be functional as a PDA, and it's already organizing my life better. Great.

Mobile Phone Bliss!

Me vs. my Omnia

2009-08-05T16:11:00.001-04:00

So, it's now been almost 4 months that I have had this Samsung Omnia.

I am throwing in the towel.

While I love the device for a lot of reasons, I cannot stand to have my phone lock up because of problems with Windows or the non-phone functionality.

I need to make a call when I need to make a call.

In the past week it has locked up more than once when I went to make a call or answer a call. I have also had to do a hard reset when I happened to wake up early and I wanted to turn off the alarm clock.

It's not worth the trouble.

So, I'm taking the phone offline. I will be keeping my Omnia to use as a PDA. Everything else is ok about it, as long as I'm not urgently trying to use the phone. So now what was like an iPhone has become like an iPod Touch. Funny.

I will go back to using a phone that is just a phone, if there is such a thing these days.

3 Month Samsung Omnia Update

2009-07-08T17:19:00.002-04:00

So, I've had this phone for 3 months, and I am still undecided as to whether it is actually a productive device or not.

RANTS -

Sleeping Pattern - For whatever reason, the phone goes to sleep and will tell me when someone calls, but not when I get a text message or any other notification. It's irritating. My text messages are just as valid, if not more important than my phone calls. I'd like the phone to wake up and tell me. I have tried all sorts of settings (sounds on/off, vibrate, flashing lights) and it just doesn't work. The only notification I get is a sound or a vibration, but the screen does not wake up. If I happen to not be paying attention at that moment, I won't notice. I don't usually have the sounds turned on anyway, so it's useless.
"Mobile" sites - Several rants here. Although the world claims to be mobile-friendly by offering mobile sites for just about everything (not really...), these mobile sites leave a lot to be desired.

i-devices and other fruits - Half of the time, the so-called mobile site is only available for iPhones (iPod Touch) and Blackberry. Windows Mobile has been around for quite a while. Why just ignore the folks using it? It's ridiculous. I can understand the case with iTunes (even though I won't like it), but for other sites not owned by Apple, why be that way. If you have a useful site/app, make it available to everyone - not just to people who talk into fruit based phones.
Same ol' crap - Some mobile sites are merely just the regular site with the bells and whistles stripped out. They are difficult to navigate on a mobile device because they weren't designed with the user experience in mind. Folks need to remember that a mobile user is probably busy, wants something fairly quickly, might have a tedious connection and wants full functionality. A poorly designed site for a regular PC is just as poor on a smaller screen with the fancy graphics stripped out.
Half functional - so to combat the problem outlined above, some sites choose to strip out some functionality. That's all well and good, but don't strip out the core of the site. For instance, there's a great Facebook app for Windows Mobile. However, you cannot search for and connect with any new friends. That defeats one of the main purposes of Facebook. This app is merely a window into your existing Facebook world. Heaven forbid if you're watching TV and decide to "friend" your local TV station and you'd just like to type in their Facebook name. Irritating.

Battery life - Still poor. I need a solar charger or static electricity charger or something. It's ridiculous.
A Shell, Really? - It appears that the answer to my problem of accessing the apps I want in the way I want is to use a different shell than the one that comes out of the box. This is irritating. If it's taken 3 months to get this far with the phone, how long will it take me to find the right shell, install it and figure out if it's stable and functional? I am hesitant to go through the trouble.
Shallow Saving - Apps that only save to the root level of a storage area. Several apps only save things to one level of folders. So, even though I have a nicely organized subfolder system to separate work from pleasure, I can't use it, because I can only save to my top level folders.
Losing my Memory - I still have the storage memory issue. Not sure why it crops up, but if I really need to use my camera, I suddenly have less than 5 MB storage memory available. Not sure why. I haven't found the answer to this yet.
Tethering issues - I have tethering issues. The problem is different every time and it takes me multiple tries to get tethered successfully to my laptop. I'm not even talking about just doing ActiveSync. I can do that, though I don't yet use it for anything functional, because everything important is stored online somewhere. I am just talking about using my phone as a modem. Once it's going, it's usually ok (75% of the time), but it's annoying that I can't just plug it in and connect even when I remember that I have to change some settings on the phone.
Touch screen - I'm still wrestling with the touch screen. I'd prefer if the touch was a double touch to launch things. I spend a lot of time accidently touching things and then closing them. Maybe that is related to my memory problem.

RAVES -

I finally got the alarm clock working seamlessly. I'm happily able to wake up on time now.
I discovered how to set ringtones from any mp3. It's a blessing... or not. Now I change my ringtone every other day and don't know when my phone is ringing. haha.
Better organization - I've figured out where to save all of my files so I know where everything is. You'd think this would be simple since I have a MY Documents folder, but surprisingly it's difficult. See number 5 above.
Storage capacity and file viewing - So far, my most productive uses of the phone has been to keep reference material for work handy so I can pop open a document in a pinch. That's been nice.

So, more rants than raves. I don't hate the phone. I am actually still undecided. I don't regret getting it, I'm just disappointed that it has taken hours of work to feel like I'm getting some value out of it. And no, I do not think that switching to an iPhone will solve my problems. I'm sure they are there too.

Website Going Down

2009-07-07T21:43:00.002-04:00

The website will be going down for a little bit. I don't know exactly when or for how long, but I'm changing my hosting (as mentioned in my previous post) and the site may be down while things switch over.

This is pretty interesting. We'll see how it goes. Not sure if the blog conversion will happen immediately, but it just might. I have some serious decisions to make. For one thing, I need to revamp my portfolio and including writing samples and coding samples. I am pretty sure that someone must have a nice free service to make such a portfolio. I could just link to it from my site.

Stay tuned. I have to do this for 4 websites... But I'm feeling pretty motivated.

Ok. Enough about this. I'm not supposed to blog about how my website is down or how I'm not blogging. But, to me it still counts as writing. Writing is writing and that's the point right now. I need to post regularly, even if it's not about much.

Website Conversion

2009-06-29T13:09:00.003-04:00

Over the weekend I got the bright idea to migrate all of my websites over to blogger. I'm doing this because it will allow me to drop my ISP and the bill for website hosting. I have a number of places I can host my site that are free or included with other services, so why pay a monthly fee?

The biggest advantage of doing this is website maintenance. It will be much easier to maintain the content of the website using a blog.

Anyway, I chose Blogger because I'm comfortable with it. I may branch out and make one WordPress site, one Blogger site and do something Joomla. I need to keep up with technology and keep my skills fresh.

To make the most of this idea, I need to accomplish all of this by July 4 (the next time my bill is due). So, stay tuned for some much-needed website changes and probably some posts about my adventures. How difficult could this be?

The I Before E Rule

2009-06-24T16:35:00.002-04:00

Yesterday, on the way home from work, I was listening to NPR and this article about the "I Before E Rule" not being taught anymore in British classrooms came on. It was hilarious.

At first I thought, oh, what a tragedy, you absolutely need this rule. But, as I listened, I realized I hadn't really given it much in depth thought. The article has a point. There are so many exceptions to this rule, that I'm not even sure why it was taught to me.

It makes me wonder how many other rules and lessons from gradeschool are almost useless or even irrelevant.

The best part of the article was the statement about children needing to learn 3 things in school: arithmetic, how to communicate and how to get along with others. It's true. Sure there are other things to learn, but these are the core 3 things. The guy is right, spelling is not at the top of the list. I know several people who can communicate and form very good ideas, but who cannot get the spelling right. It's not like they can't spell at all - they just spell words the way they sound. In this case, the reader can still understand what was being communicated, it's just not perfect.

Anyway, I wonder how I'll feel about all of this when my son goes to school. I'm sure everything will have changed by then.

Business Education on a Budget

2008-03-26T21:11:00.004-04:00

I am a self learner. Many of the most important career skills I use every day have started through self-learning. Often I will follow tutorials, read articles or books when I want to know more about a subject. Since I'm a hands on, visual learner, I like tutorials or interactive modules the best. In any case, I love the fact that the internet has some wonderful resources to support my ongoing self-education. Just today I found an interesting site for Business Education - Personal MBA. As people close to me know, I am not a big fan of traditional MBA programs. I think they are not necessary and often I think the credential is overused. That's not to say that they completely lack value. I just cannot justify the expense for the payoff. Most practical business education is not something you need to learn in the classroom. At the end of most of my courses, I have found that I have been exposed to information that is common sense, logical and that I have been using in other parts of my life already. At the most, I have merely learned new terms for simple concepts. I might have been exposed to some new uses for these concepts, too. But, I am rambling. The point I'm trying to make is that sites like Personal MBA are useful for those of use who can efficiently work through a suggested reading list and gain knowledge on our own time and prioritized however we want. The site's suggested reading list contains the information you need to gain a better understanding of the business world.
I'm going to try to read these books. I'd like to say by the end of the year. But I can't promise that. I am pretty busy, and haven't managed to carve out book-reading time. But I would like to start the process. It will at least provide some structure for my goal of reading more career books.
By the way, I found this site by reading a blog post about sticking to your goals from one of my favorite personal finance blogs - Lazy Man and Money.

Changes Afoot

2008-02-28T22:51:00.003-05:00

I am in the process of moving. And, as always, I am stressed out and irritable. It seems that the more I move, the more strung out I get during the move. I took a different approach this time, though. I think it's working. I may have a lot on my mind and I may be prone to a bit more irriation than usual, but overall, I feel pretty good. It's always good to know that you are learning something, adjusting and reaping the benefits as time marches on.

So, not much will get done on any of my projects, but this was a major part of my year that is getting done. So far it's very positive and things are going smoothly. If it continues this way, I'll be back on track in no time.