ê¿êspi20.com — watching and writing

Ken left Saturday to go and pick up our granddaughter and bring her back to South Carolina to spend this next week with us. He’s off work for the week because BMW has their annual shutdown for plant maintenance this week, so the timing worked out perfectly for her to spend some time with us. We don’t get to spend nearly enough time with the grandkids, so it’s a special treat when we get to have one of them for a whole week to ourselves.

Yes, we spoil them — what self-respecting grandparent would let such an opportunity go by?

When they got home last night, I was immediately struck by how Chrystalyn has grown! It’s been 18 months since we last saw her and her mother is terrible about sending us photos, so we had no idea that she had shot up like she has. She’s 5′7″ tall now — which makes her 3″ taller than I am! She’s now wearing glasses, too which also make her look older. I can’t believe she’s only 13! She looks like a young woman now. Gosh they grow up so fast!

She tripped a few weeks ago and hurt her ankle — spent a week in a cast as they were afraid she had damaged growth plates, but now just wears a brace. I know Ken wanted to take her to Carowinds in North Carolina one day. Guess we should check out getting some NC health insurance just to make sure she is covered in case she re-injures that ankle!

Besides the theme park visit, she wanted to see a movie, but when we checked last night, it’s not playing in our area yet (and I’ve forgotten the name of it already!).

Last week was her birthday and although we sent her a card and a gift, we have other gifts to give her as the week goes by. I ordered some autographed books for her in the series she’s currently reading. I sure hope they get here before she has to leave. We also got her some accessories for her IPOD. The plan was to make this seem like a week-long birthday party to celebrate her turning into a teenager.

So far, it’s gone over pretty well!

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Today, it’s not just enough that you write a blog that has great content. If you want readers, and people to interact with you and your blog, you have to do some networking.

Fortunately, there are many others who think the same way, and have developed some social networks that, if used correctly, can help you get your blog read! Actually, there are so many of them now that it’s really hard to keep them straight as they each have slightly different goals and rules.

One of the oldest is Technorati. The original blog network, Technorati now boats having over 110 million blogs indexed. To use it, you create your profile, claim your blog(s) listing the keywords you usually write about and then when you write your posts, use those tags in them so they are picked up by Technorati. You can add tags to your list at any time and should periodically review your list in order to add or remove tags. Links from other Technorati blogs to yours help your authority.

StumbleUpon is another social network that has a little different twist from Technorati. You again create a profile, but you don’t claim your own site. Instead you choose subjects that interest you and when you find a site that has an article, photo or post that is interesting, you “stumble” it. If you’re the first who found it, a portal will open and you can write a review of the site which will be available for the next person to read. They can also add their own review. You can also click the stumble button on your StumbleUpon tool bar and it will take you to sites that have been stumbled by others that fit in your profile choices.It’s a great way to discover new sites that have articles or media of interest to you.

A relatively new guy on the block is Digg. This social network has proven to be one of the most viral of them all. People following the “new on Digg” sometimes hit a newly “Dug” article thousands of times, making you an overnight sensation. When you hit the “tipping point” on number of digs received, your article goes to the front page making it where it’s viewed by thousands of people visiting the digg.com website. Unlike the other two, Digg allows you to submit your own posts as it’s not just the initial submission that gets the attention, it’s all the subsequent “diggs” the article receives.

Generally speaking though, it’s not good to stumble, favorite or digg your own article. That’s why there are plugins that put the social bookmark icons in a readily available spot in your posts for your readers to click as they read your article and make that submission for you. Although the social networks frown on them, there are exchange sites on the web where you submit a link to your article and others subscribing to that site are supposed to stumble/digg/favorite your link and you are to return the favor. Not only do the networks frown on this practice, if you’re caught by one of them doing it, they can ban you from the network, so if you decide to participate, be aware of the consequences.

Now what does this stuff REALLY mean in to you with your shiny new blog? It means visitors who stay long enough to read your posts. It means getting your blog out to the masses. It means, if you’re trying in any way to monetize your site or blog, a higher chance of that visitor clicking on one of your ads and making you some money. Like fiberglass columns, these social networks provide a support mechanism for your website or blog that is not only functional and long lasting, but attractive as well. People coming to your site through these networks tend to have a preconceived idea that your content is timely, relevant and interesting. After all, you’ve gotten a big “thumbs up” from someone out there or your site wouldn’t be on the network to begin with!

There are many more social networking sites out there. They all work in similar manner to these main three, but if you get on one of these, chances are, you’ll be on those others as well.

Please note that I am far from being an expert on social networking. All this information is easily discovered on Wikipedia, or the website of the social network itself. There are also many others who have written articles about how to best utilize these sites, but many of them use methods that will get you banned from the network, so take them all with a grain of salt. One of the best written articles on StumbleUpon is written by DoshDosh and it’s titled “A Comprehensive Guide To StumbleUpon“. A great article on using Digg is written by Neil Patel titled “Using Digg and Netscape to get Traffic“. I couldn’t really find a comprehensive article on using Technorati, but “Ten Technorati Hacks” at least gives you some idea of the ways to use it to your best advantage.

Best of luck to you all with your new social networking skills and ….oh! don’t forget to Stumble/digg/favorite me, please!

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I call Mama every Monday afternoon on the way home from work.

I get to get caught up on all the family news since my sisters call over the weekend and I get to find out all the things that are going on in Mama’s life that week.

Mama is a QVC watcher. She loves gadgets and orders way too many of them for her tiny apartment. Many of them end up being returned, but a fair number find a spot in her kitchen or living room. Eventually, most of those retained find their way to mine or one of my sisters’ houses or to Habitat For Humanity’s store.

This week, though she surprised me by saying she had ordered some of what she considered the best wrinkle cream and couldn’t wait for her UPS man to bring it. WRINKLE CREAM? I felt like I missed something somewhere as I never saw that particular item coming from her.

I am having trouble figuring out just what an 85 year old is worrying about wrinkles for, but I suppose we all have our vanities. It’s just that wrinkle worry wasn’t one I ever had any idea she had.

After 57 years, I thought I knew my Mama, but evidently, I don’t.

Does your Mama have worries that surprise you?

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Woke up this morning and logged into my bank’s website to see that our stimulus package payout had been deposited as we slept. Since we already had plans for ours, it’s basically spent already and not on new gadgets or cars or grocery store gift cards (as one website was advocating since the store in question had a deal where they gave you your incentive check plus 10%). No ours is going into one of our savings accounts and on bills.

I’m of the opinion that a significant number of people will be doing the same thing with theirs as well which means that as an overall stimulus to the economy, it’s going to be a bust.

1. the discovery of a new, easily mined oil reserve somewhere not in a volatile foreign country OR
2. the discovery/development of alternative energy fueled motor for automobiles.

I know — another poor title…..but it’s going to be a dynamite post, so read on.

Am I the only one in the US who feels more and more despair over the choices our country is going to have available for President?

On the one hand, we have a semi-clone of the existing buffoon.

On the other hand, despite the rhetoric about “change”, we’ll have one or the other of two who will not change a darned thing about how politics are in this country.

They’ve already exhibited that in their campaigns.

I was seriously considering voting Democrat in the Presidential election until these last months of campaigning by the two senators. They’ve made it very apparent that they are in this for ego’s sake. At least the Republicans had the good sense to get together and say who they thought would be the most electable so they could get on with addressing the issues (whether I like his answers or not). At least within their party they are able to operate in a “for the good of the many” manner.

This ego pandering is bound to carry over into office once the hooting and hollering is done and I’m sorry folks but, just like I need some weight loss pills that work, this country needs a President that is capable of putting his or her ego aside and working for the good of the PEOPLE. They have to pull the two sides together so we can get legislation enacted, budgets approved and foreign policy in place that will result in the US getting it’s mojo back.

We’ve lost the room for “you’re wrong and I’m right” actions and need to get down to some serious compromising so the economy can begin healing, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan can begin winding down and the international strife between Russia, Palestine and Iran can be eased. This work won’t be done over night, but it’s got to start NOW.

It can start with one of the two runners for Democratic nomination stepping down in favor of party unity.

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I just joined a community that is designed to help promote this blog to more people.

Why do I care how many people read what I write? Well, it’s an ego thing, I’ll admit. I was never the popular girl in high school (well, except when I was writing the gossip column in the newspaper — then everyone invited me to their parties and stuff). I’m not a “make myself noticed” sort of person in public. I dress conservatively and look normal (appearances can be deceiving), so it stands to reason that I would like my public face i.e. this blog to be noticed and noticeable. This blog is like one of those trade show displays for my writing and photographs and I need it to be seen and read and viewed by others in order to make my “profit” of comments, page rank, and Alexa score.

I joined EntreCard with that in mind and have reaped benefits from the effort involved in being a member of that community. I’m taking a more active participation in StumbleUpon, Digg and Technorati so it just seemed natural to include Blog Upp in the repertoire especially since it only required about 10 seconds on my part to get started and won’t take much effort to keep going.

Let’s face it, the 4 things I’m active in do take up a lot of time, so I needed one that didn’t to round it out.

BlogUpp is a social networking tool that rotates thumbnails of blogs in your sidebar. You just go to the site, copy the code and paste it into your sidebar. Works on all blog platforms, so no having to use a specific software.

Since I just joined, I can’t say whether it IS helping, but it’s certainly not hurting. What have you got to lose? Join me and thousands of others who are using BlogUpp to popularize their sites. Then YOU can be part of the “IN” crowd <G>.

And while you’re here, Stumble, Digg and Technorati favorite me, please?

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