Monthly Archives: April 2007

Not quite ad-free

I have some ads in my sidebar. Just the basic Adsense ads, nothing I spent much time setting up. I’ve considered adding more, and it’s likely I will at some point, but I’m having trouble getting past my old ad-free mindset.

I had a family site on Geocities back in the day (I love talking like a crotchety old man) and it was fine, but at one point I decided to spend the money for a hosted site with my own domain. The main reason at the time was so that I could run an ad-free site. Of course, the Geocities ad profits were going to Geocities, not me. Ads on my sites now at least partially benefit me, and that’s a big change.

I still hesitate at times before I click on ads on blogs and such. though. I’m getting better about it, because I know it benefits the blogger, who is probably barely making enough income to cover hosting costs, if they’re lucky!

I know some people make good money with ads. They’re the ones who have ads placed all over the page, within the text, inside of each post… and some of them are really interesting blogs that I learn a lot from. I understand that they should have a way to profit from the advice they give out.

But I don’t see myself traveling down that road, at least not with my own sites (client sites, of course, are another matter, and I’d have no issue designing an ad-heavy site!) I like my blogs to be clean, and uncluttered. It’s a personal preference, but I hope my readers appreciate it as well. I often feel assaulted on ad-heavy blogs, it’s just too much visual information. When I get my business site up and running I don’t really want to be a platform for other businesses, so I’ll likely only be setting up affiliate links for services and products I actually use.

Any ads I place here in the future will remain as unobtrusive as possible. Some might say I’m throwing income away, but I don’t see it that way. Am I truly missing the boat here?

April 6, 2007 – 2:58 pm
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How Twitter May Change My Life

I’m four weeks into Twitter and I’m still amazed with it. It hasn’t turned out to be what I expected at all.

I initially thought of Twitter as just a micro-blog feed. I’d post my tweets and feed them to my blog sidebar. I didn’t know anyone else using the service, in fact to this day only one person I already knew has signed up (and he’s used it only once or twice.) It was a one way communication tool for me.

Then I stared watching the public timeline, and twittervision, and with the SXSW conference coming up, I added some “names” who would be attending the conference. They’d tweet links, I’d follow the links. They’d mention another twitter account, I’d go check it out, and usually add it.

Some of those “names” began adding all their followers as friends, and suddenly I became part of the conversation. Well, not really, I had little to add, but my tweets were there for these people to read, and I felt like I could say geeky things about dealing with css or catching up on my feeds and not get virtual blank stares like I usually do. I feel comfortable in this little geeky twitterland.

As of now I’m following 70 people, and 56 are following me. That’s about 50 more than read this blog (although more people are finding me via Twitter, which is pretty awesome.) I’m still finding friends of friends to add. I’m learning a ton, too. Lately I’ve been reading the blogs of people I follow, watching their podcasts, and ideas for what could be for me are popping up almost too fast and furious. The timing couldn’t be better as I’m in this flux, deciding where to take my life next. I’m having a blast. Do I waste a lot of time with Twitter? Absolutely. Is what I’ve gained worth more than the lost time? No doubt about it.

April 5, 2007 – 9:24 pm
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New road to dreams deferred

I’ve been thinking lately about what I used to love, and how despite appearances little has changed.

For example, lately I’ve been getting lost for hours in coding css. I’ve been designing using css for a couple years but mostly I’m taking other people’s code and changing the variables. This time I’m determined to really understand how it all works, and I make little steps each day. Now if I see how I want something to look in my head, I’m usually able to come up with the correct markup to make it happen. Very cool.

It’s reminding me of when I was in high school, and my dad brought home our first computer, an Apple IIc. (Yes, I’m old. You will be too someday.) I played some of the games but my favorite thing to do was “programming.” All I did was follow the directions given to make a cool pattern happen on screen, but there was something about typing in the code and getting a visually pleasing result that amazed me.

Of course, I’m not a coder and I don’t think like a coder. I don’t have the logical brain it takes, and I need that visual feedback constantly. That’s why I like using css, but wrapping my brain around php and javascript takes me longer.

Point is, what I’m enjoying now is very similar to what I enjoyed back then.

I had other passions, like writing, and video production, when I was younger that are starting to fight their way back to the surface. I see opportunities emerging in new media that remind me of roads not taken when I graduated college. Maybe this is a second chance to follow those passions that I’d set aside. I don’t have regrets, because I love the life I have, and I know the choices I’ve made were the right ones, but one steady step at a time I see a path forward emerging that’s incredibly similar to the one I didn’t take. The difference is now other desires aren’t calling me away from it.

April 3, 2007 – 7:49 pm
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Helping Christine

Christine at Big Pink Cookie has asked for a little help:

Until I few weeks ago, I was #2 in Google for my name, Christine. Yes, just my first name. At one point in time I was actually #1 in Google, but I’m ok with a movie beating me out of my spot. Then Wikipedia knocked me out of #2 sometime over the past few weeks. Now? Now I’m hanging on to third place, and I want to move back up!

Won’t you help make me number 1 again? Or even number 2. I’m ok with number 2.

I never tried googling just my first name before. As expected, I’m nowhere to be found. The musical and Annie Lennox are there, as well as Annie Sprinkle and assorted Annie’s This and Annie’s Thats.

Google banannie and I’m number one! It helps that I own the domain, of course. Right behind me is Annie Banannie the balloon lady. I’d link to her but I don’t want her to take the number one spot :).

April 2, 2007 – 7:48 pm
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April Fools Day

I had my nine year old going for awhile when he asked what to do with the March calendar page he’d just taken down. I told him to save it because it would be March again in two weeks. He’s a bright kid, he knows it’s April Fools Day, but he fell for it. Even when I told him it was because we need to make up two weeks every 8 years, similar to adding a day in a leap year. Even when I told him we’d be having two Easters this year. Even when I told him he’d have two extra weeks of school.

In his defense, he was focusing on list of the “10 Best Ideas” he’s ever had. It’s pretty complex. Also he was trying to think of a way to prank his brothers, which as far as I an tell involved putting boxes in front of their bedroom doors so they’d trip (I told him to think of something… safer.)

I felt guilty and clued him in. He laughed (thank god!) I had no plans to prank anyone today, that one just came to me and it was too easy to riff on once I got going. Scary even. I’m done for today.

April 1, 2007 – 2:06 pm
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