This was the Week that Was, Vol. 16

I've had a busy week working on my new WordPress blog; I'll be moving over hopefully sometime this week. I still have some tweaking to do on it and some kinks to work out; however, I have a bit of a preview of the new look down below. It really looks stunning, I think. ;)

Posts I liked -

• Beach Etiquette
• Kids Today do NOT have it easy
• I got a mention from Katie for linking to others in her 10 ways to discover new blogs :)
• A couple of posts from Duncan's TV ads; first This is what We "AustraliARE" - an ad ahead of the upcoming vote, encouraging Aussies to remember what they stand for
• Then, this ad from the Emirates Western Force (never heard of them? They're one of the new sides in the Super 14, they've been around since 2006): Save it for the Game
• Darren at ProBlogger held a poll, and here are some results about how many visitors blogs get, in general
• Dumb Little Man has a bit of gastronomical delight; I've had one of these in the past and it is something awesome, though not entirely good for you... How to Make a Chicago Hot Dog - NO Ketchup, and you have to have the hot pepper ;)
• From In Photos, Donncha shows off some signs in Ireland that, while great for Gaelic lanugage, do nothing for tourism...

There certainly has been a theme of people getting slapped by Google for running ads on their sites. These next couple of links are a roundup of some of the latest posts:

• Andy Beard got slapped by Google, and he talks about it in Dancing with the Gevil - Defamed by Google?
• Meg weighs in on the discussion with Careful, G might hear you
• Danny Sullivan provides an explanation of why Google are doing some of this and points out an interesting hypocrisy - Official: Selling Paid Links Can Hurt Your PageRank Or Rankings On Google
• David Airey, who was affected by a recent penalty has recovered. He tells you how he reversed his penalty
• However, could there be something coming? Search Engine Journal says that, aside from the penalties, PageRank Changes have been reported
• Breaking from my form, I'm going to link to one of my own posts here where I set out my thoughts on it - How much control does Google have over us?

New Blogs I'm reading in Google Reader:
None this week

Great Stumbles:

• Jackson Pollock - I didn't actually stumble to it, but Forest posted a link to it, and I wanted to link directly to it as well as to his post ;)

To get started stumbling, go to StumbleUpon and download the toolbar. Click here to check out my Stumbles.

New blogs this week in the US Blogs community at BumpZEE -

• On The wRite Side
• Print This!
• Michael Johns Official Blog
• CLONED RECIPES
• Fun 4 The Children
• Small Kitchen Appliance Blog
• Steven Wilson Marketing
• Online Florists @ Order Flowers Delivery

Important! The address for the US Blogs button has changed. Read about the details here.. Also, I have updated the US Blogs blogroll, instructions for adding it to your site can be found here.

This week around the blog, I've been busy working on the Wordpress layout that I'm moving to. I promised you a snapshot, and here it is. I should tell you that I do have some test posts on there; you won't see those when I move though ;)

Keywords -
golf computer "shot navi" Hmm... it's about time for the japanese golf to start showing on the tv again, maybe time for the shot navi again?
i need to sort things out - I think it's something we all need to do, especially if we find ourselves in that rut all the time.
tel star lyrics - Telstar, Telstar. Interestingly, the song was mentioned on the radio on Thursday afternoon; the host made a great point - how many people my age even know what Telstar was for? I do, but I'm a geek :)
pagerank dropped - That seems to be happening quite a bit nowadays, but nobody is getting better pageranks. Come on google, get your act together!
outback steakhouse blimp purdue - It was over West Lafayette on Saturday night; Brent Musberger said so; it must be true! ;)
picture of grilled salmon and veggies - Shall we have another look at that? :)
free mom blogger templates - Whose mom is in jail? If it's an issue for her to be in jail, I hope that she gets out soon; maybe your blog will help. Then again, I might have something confused here. ;)
text link ads google penalty - Yeah, It seems that Google are out for revenge on anyone using Text Link Ads. I'm dropping them when I switch to WordPress.
who is in control, of your blog domain? - If you're with Blogger, then Google have control over it. If you go with your own hosting, then you do. Simple as that.

Lots of Keywords, I know, but it's worth it :)

Over the week, I've posted about HTML Tips and Tricks for the Tuesday Think Tank, and Snos gave us Basic HTML for Bloggers. The Hump Day Hmm was about a challenge we've been facing, and I talked about Paging Mr. Negative - Don't call soon. I also talked about one of my favorite radio programs, Lloyd Cole Knew My Father.

Coming up, I'll be talking about Google Calendar in the Tuesday Think Tank, and on Friday I will talk about another of my favorite albums, this time a different take on some famous music. Of course, if all goes well, I'll be making the big move and will have details about how to keep up with me then.

Also, if you've left a comment, I'll be getting to them tomorrow, so be sure to check back for my reply.

'Til Next week y'all... :)

This was the Week that Was, Vol. 15

I've had a heck of a week, as I mentioned yesterday. Another reminder to members of the US Blogs community that the icon you have will not work shortly. Please read below to make sure you get the updated links.

Posts I liked -

• Twin Cities Daily Photo shares some irony with a McDonald's next to a cemetery
• From The Random Forest, a great how-to for putting social bookmarking icons in your blogger posts. Great work! :)
• Some sad news for pet owners, Alyndabear lost one of her pet rabbits who she loved dearly.
• Everyone who has a website needs to read this post from Meg - your privacy might be at risk. Fortunately, my information is hidden, however I am concerned about my information getting out there (aside from registrations for sites, etc), so this is a great service to see if you've been compromised.
• Lucia from Big Bucks Blogger has advice on How to get a thumbs-down from a stumbler. Not surprisingly, it involves being annoyingly loud.
• From webcomic XKCD, the typical reaction of IRC people when a girl comes into a room (at least some rooms...not all) pix plz

New Blogs I'm reading in Google Reader

• The Random Forest

Great Stumbles:

• The Ancient World - a look at the history of the world from the beginning of time through to 500 AD, and into the modern world
• Guy Sells OpenOffice on Ebay, LGPL seen Crying in Corner - Seriously, why would anyone pay for free software?
• SharkBreak - Take your break and relax - the shark will follow your mouse around the screen ;)

To get started stumbling, go to StumbleUpon and download the toolbar. Click here to check out my Stumbles.

New blogs this week in the US Blogs community at BumpZEE -

• earth2karen
• Jason Snow
• Slaptijack
• Amalaki Abundance
• All About Finding Health, Wealth and Happiness
• American Election News
• Chaz's Blog Channels TV
• All About Me - And Then Some
• Melancholy Musings

Reminder: The old link to the US Blogs badge will not work very soon. Please check the new details and change the link before it goes blank! Thanks!

This week around the blog, the Tuesday Think Tank was about Google Reader. I discussed how improved my reader experience, and Snoskred posted how using Reader makes your life easier.

The Hump Day Hmm for the week was A good going going. For me, my good thing is my blog. I also discussed one of my all-time favorite albums, and my desk and why I'm changing desks.

Keywords -
streaming festival of the boot, roy hg festival of the boot 2007 podcast - I was surprised to tune into the stream for Triple J this weekend to find that they actually streamed the festival of the boot. The podcasts for the festival are up - though if I remember correctly, the music is taken out...
easycgi free -inurl:blogspot -inurl:.biz -inurl:.info - don't bother with EasyCGI - they aren't worth it! I tried to get their free service, but as it turns out, they don't want customers.
other words for emotional ups and downs - well, there's happy and sad; simple I know, but still useful. More advanced would be "manic" and "depressive".
happy anniversary templates - Hmm..not sure about that one...
why you dress like me it's an - it's an what? accomplishment? ;)

Coming up this week, we're looking at HTML in the Tuesday Think Tank. The Hump Day Hmm.. for this week is about a challenge I've faced in my life. I've got a couple of posts for this week started already, which for me is a major accomplishment. ;)

Til next week y'all ;)

This was the Week that Was, Vol. 14

It's been another busy week for me around the blog, and an important note for US Blog Community members - there is an important change coming. Be sure to read about it further down.

Posts I liked -

Tay from Super Blogging Tips has something that, as she says, is obvious, but can't be repeated enough,
• The More you Write, the better your writing gets.
• Liz Strauss has thesecret to massive Digg and Stumbleupon traffic, without resorting to spamming the sites.
• If you're wondering about why one stumble gets you hundreds of hits, but another gets you a trickle, Venture Skills has Stumbleupon mathematics for stumblers
• From the Tetherd Cow, a letter straight Out of Africa. The scammers are always coming up with new tricks ;)
• From Sydney Daily Photo, Sally has a picture of some interesting postboxes which are in front of a hotel that used to be the city's post office. The interesting thing is that they're not red ;)

New Blogs I'm reading in Google Reader

• Interesting Observations - another of those blogs I'd been reading off and on, finally getting a fulltime spot on my list ;)

Great Stumbles:

• Who's on first for the new generation
• Are you artistic, logic, or both - I don't want to spoil it for y'all, but I'm logic according to this
• Australia's Great Train Journeys - Book your tickets for The Ghan now ;)

To get started stumbling, go to StumbleUpon and download the toolbar. Click here to check out my Stumbles.

New blogs this week in the US Blogs community at BumpZEE -

• 4urthoughts
• MyLifeDump - Dumping life, one thought at a time.
• Fun Things to Do
• Candle Retirement Plan
• High Plains Buddhist
• The Impudent Observer - Global Liberal Issues
• Earning Money Online!

Important note: The address of the US blogs buttons will be changing shortly. I'll post the full details later, but please know that from approximately next Monday, if you have the old link to the image, it may not work anymore! I'll also post a note about this on the community page when I do change over the image's location.

This week around the blog, Think Tank Tuesday was about Technorati, and I talked about The Ups (and Downs) of it, Snoskred sent them an SOS - we both got replies from an official representative of Technorati. Now, that's service! ;)

The Hump Day Hmm this week was about how I matter, and I talked about the helpful person that I am. I also discussed an album I love but you probably haven't heard, and showed off my baking skills with some zucchini bread.

Coming up, tomorrow we'll be talking about Google Reader in the Tuesday Think Tank; Snos will be handling the technical side of matters, giving you some great tips on reading, and I'll discuss some changes I've made in my reading habits. The topic for this week's Hump Day Hmm hasn't been announced yet, so keep your ears open to see what that'll be about. ;)

I've also been tagged for some blogging advice, more about that later in the week.

Til next week y'all :)

This was the Week that Was, Vol. 13

Before I get into the regular TW3, here's the GYST update for this week:

This week has been another great week for the walking. I've boosted my average over 8000 steps for the week, with walks of over 9000 steps on Saturday and Sunday. I'm also eating less than I had been, and am liking it. The only thing is that I'm losing my touch on other aspects of my life such as organization.

My goals for the week are to get myself back into the swing of organization by ensuring that I make a to-do list every day, also making a list of daily tasks that I can be going through and checking off as I do them each day. Additionally, I'm going to step up my efforts to bring some cash into my world (I know that it's not everything to have money, but the world does require it to thrive).

For the walking, I am going to go for getting the distance up to 10,000 steps a day by the end of the week, so that I can start working on increasing the speed I walk at, so that the walk doesn't take two hours to complete.

And now, on with the update ;)

Posts I liked -

• The Tao of Making Money highlightsOne of the worst credit cards out there - after all the required fees, you're left with a $247 bill, and only $53 left on the card.
• Club Troppo discusses what the best newspapers in the world are and how to determine them. Here's the secret - there's no one best paper in the world. :)
• Katie from A byootaful Life has some tips for How to pass (or fail!) your driving test. She passed. Congrats!
• For those of us who are getting annoyed at the lack of a Pagerank update, Sitefever has some advice - Don't Wait for Pagerank to make your blog successful
• Jon from Smartwealthyrich has 7 things that he hopes will make blogging easier and more fun. Some good stuff there :)
• The Twin Cities are a mess when it comes to municipal borders, which leads to questions like the one Yesterday's News found in a story from 1963 - So, where's the (Minneapolis-St. Paul) Airport, anyway?

New Blogs I'm reading in Google Reader

• Couture Cupcakes
• SiteFever.com
• David Airey :: Graphic Designer

Great Stumbles:

• Winston's Lego Computer
• Nicu's How-to - Jump Out in the GIMP

To get started stumbling, go to StumbleUpon and download the toolbar. Click here to check out my Stumbles.

New blogs this week in the US Blogs community at BumpZEE -

• Couchmouses' Corner
• Supernatural Fairy Tales
• Invisible Illness CFIDS/FMS
• Lumpys Ocean Life

This week around the blog, I received a review from RT at Untwisted Vortex - go and check it out! ;)

Keywords -
watch boondock saints online divx - erm, ok, I have not heard of that, but as always there are places that I may or may not know of where you can find that. ;)
pictures of woman skimpily dressed on plaine - "plaine"? What is that? Anyway, if you're thinking about those women who had to cover up, just remember that they'd be burnt badly in the event of an accident.
setara qassim myspace - I don't know. All I know is that I don't have and don't want a myspace account.
problem with blogger feed and magpie - can birds read blogger feeds? I don't remember them being able to read in the first place...
does not work google analytics no visitors tracking - have you installed the code correctly? It might just be that you're not getting any visitors as well...

This week, I blogged about Google Analytics, and how to find info on your visitors in the Tuesday Think Tank. I also questioned the sanity of people who dress sexily on a plane, showed you some delicious Salmon and vegetables on the grill, and told you about a new addiction of mine.

Coming up, the Tuesday Think Tank is going to discuss Technorati, how it works, and why the authority changes from time to time. The Hump Day Hmm... this week is about How I Matter. It's going to be a very introspective look at the world.

'Til next week y'all! :)

This was the Week that Was, Vol. 12

I bet the mosquitoes are loving the rain we're getting today. It will make my walk interesting, that's for sure. It's also heading into fall, and as I write this, the temperature in my area is 55°F (13°C) - I might just try out the orange "Hello, I'm Walkin' Here!" shirt out today. ;)

Posts I liked -

• Meg from Dipping into the Blogpond has 7 reasons blogs are like Aversion Therapy
• From Cynical Dad, he and his wife have been named the world's worst parents for not reading over every piece of paper sent home by their kindergartener
• Thiru from How To Live Online has 15 super cool USB tools. I particularly like the belt ;)
• A couple from ProBlogger - first up, 27 bloggers share their workspaces - I have to say that I'm nto as organized as those folks are ;)


• Secondly, readers share their organizational techniques for blogging
• Knifey has a very, well, creepy look at some of the people in the world
• Lastly, the title of the New Indiana Jones film has been announced

New Blogs I'm reading in Google Reader - a couple of photoblogs this week

• Scenes from the Kinnickinnic
• Twin Cities Daily Photo
• Visual St. Paul

Great Stumbles -

• 100 reasons it's great to be a guy

To get started stumbling, go to StumbleUpon and download the toolbar. Click here to check out my Stumbles.

New blogs this week in the US Blogs community at BumpZEE -

• Freebie Fanatics
• Highlight HEALTH
• Tasty Booze
• Ask GirlShrink-Free Relationship Advice Column

This week around the blog, there were 822 visitors - the most on Tuesday, and a majority as a result of stumbled posts.

Keywords -

painted nipple picture scam 419 - I'd recommend the face painting modality myself - it's much more fun ;)
ben jabituya audio clip - Well, I don't know about you, but I am planning to scream and run.
jeepers creepers halloween masks for cheap costs - Here's an idea - a white sheet with a couple of holes cut into it for eyes and arms...a simple ghost.
watch the raiders of the lost ark online free - You could try YouTube, but I don't think they keep the clips up for too long

I posted this week about Issues of Value for the Hump Day Hmm, some new clothes that I bought and love. I also talked about how to remove nofollow from your blog in the Tuesday Think Tank. I also discussed my volunteering work.

Coming up, tomorrow I'll be talking about Google Analytics and why your counter doesn't pick up all the visitors you get to your blog. The Hump Day Hmm this week is open to talk about anything we wish. I'll have to have a think about what I want to talk about. ;) Other than that, I don't have a plan for this week, but I do have a couple of posts that I am working on that I might wind up posting this week. We'll see how it goes. :)

This was the Week that Was, Vol. 11

Even though it's a holiday here in the States (Labor Day), that doesn't mean that I don't have a TW3 ;)

Posts I liked -

• From Cut the Bullshit, a summary of just some of the myriad of restrictions placed on Sydneysiders for this week's APEC meetings
• Craig Harper does a great ad for bein' a guy. It's a bit of fun from the
• From Duncan's Print, an ad from Animal Care & Control of NYC, featuring mug shots of pets currently in their shelters
• From Google Operating System, the revelation of a flight sim in Google Earth

New Blogs I'm reading in Google Reader; a couple of foodies this week ;)

• 101 Cookbooks
• Lunch In A Box: Building a Better Bento

Great Stumbles:

• The ultimate rejection letter
• How to hide an airplane factory during a war
• Color photos & stories about World War I

To get started stumbling, go to StumbleUpon and download the toolbar. Click here to check out my Stumbles.

New blogs this week in the US Blogs community at BumpZEE. We're up to 100 blogs in the community now! Way to go everybody! :) -

• Net Hustlin' (URL Change)


• Kingdom Concepts


• CEOConsultant.com

This week around the blog, it has been the busiest week ever around here - with 752 visitors, mostly coming from two stumbled posts - Demystifying Blogger Template Editing, and Tuesday Think Tank: All about RSS.

Keywords -

supermarket cugat - I forgot to mention this one last week. However, if you're looking for supermarkets, I'd try the phonebook. If you're looking for Cugat - try clicking here
don.stella@yahoo.de - That is why I post examples of the death threat emails. Folks search for parts of the email, and get led to here where they find out that the mail is just a way to lose money.
teaching raiders of the lost ark - I'm not sure how you would teach it, but I have seen a leaked image from the new movie, in animated form. It's from yesterday's FoxTrot. I'll post it at the bottom of the post :)
aspartame complicating crohn's disease - I don't know if it actually does, but I wouldn't be surprised if it did
blogger robots disallow hack search - I don't know if they've blocked hack searches, but I do know that they've blocked robots from seeing parts of your blog...

This week, I showed you how to add a Google search box to your site, discussed back-to-school shopping lists, tried to get a free promotional offer, but the company lost a customer, and shared another example of the extremes scammers go to in order to swindle people's money.

Coming up, tomorrow I'll talk about nofollow, and how to eradicate it from your blog (for the most part); this week's Hump Day Hmm is about values - what do they mean today, why do politicians make such a big stink about it, and why it shouldn't be wrong to be different from the rest of the group. I'll also have some various posts about the usual stuff - random stuff in my world, and tech stuff.

Here's yesterday's FoxTrot -



Till next week y'all!

This was the Week that Was, Vol. 9

This week, I have some great posts for y'all, and I've added quite a few blogs about blogging to my Google Reader. It's all a part of the week that was...

Posts I liked -

• Club Troppo's Jacques posts a great insight into depression, from the inside
• Craig Harper has a great piece about Sitting at Life's Train Station - don't just sit there! Take a train to somewhere before your ticket disappears!
• Sydney Daily Photo has a photo of some plane spotters at Kingsford-Smith Airport.
• I don't usually mention sponsored posts, but there's a webhost providing free hosting for a full year - you can find more details at Untwisted Vortex
• From BlogAboutYourBlog, the Top 5 Reasons to get your own domain name

New Blogs I'm reading in Google Reader

• Blog About Your Blog
• More than Scratch the Surface
• Super Blogging
• ProBlogger
• I've Tried That

New blogs this week in the US Blogs community at BumpZEE -

• Unrestricted: My Nascar Rants & Raves
• Jottings From Jersey
• sharonb.net
• Mom Of 3 Girls
• juwanewa
• Midlife Perspective
• Blue Dog Meanders

This week around the blog, there were 161 visitors, down from last week - that's an average of 23 per day; the slowest day was Friday.

Keywords -
how to hack blogger robots.txt - Boy, I wish I knew how to do that, considering that they've messed around with it without notifying us about that, or allowing us to change it.
raiders of the lost ark free movie - Now now, you shouldn't be doing that. Nevertheless, it's out there - but I'm not telling where. ;)
drinking too much coke with meals - How much are you drinking? I would think that 2 cans (24oz, ~700ml) is way too much. I haven't drunk any soda for over a month though, and I'm pretty proud of that. :)

This week, I had some fun with Google's Hot Trends, discussed other forms of discrimination. I also brought up some memories of my trip to Disneyland, and celebrated my blog's first anniversary.

Coming up: tomorrow, Snoskred and I will start a new feature - the Tuesday Think Tank, where we'll explore an aspect of blogging, and ways to improve your blog. Snos will look at things from the perspective of the blogger and the reader, and I'll delve into the technical side of blogging with how-tos and explanations of how things work.

This week, the focus is the RSS feed. I'll have a discussion of what they are, whether you have one, and some of the really neat things you can do with feeds. Also, I'll discuss how you can read other feeds.

Snos will be discussing what she looks for in a feed, and why she's been unsubscribing to many feeds over the last few days.

Other than that, I really don't know what I'm going to post about this week, so you'll just have to stay tuned! ;)

This was the Week that Was, Vol. 8

It's been a slow-ish week around here; it got really hot this week, and I haven't been up for doing much browsing, but I still have some selections to share for y'all. :)

Posts I liked -

• Daisy the cat features13 cool comic book products that you could have gotten "back in the day"
• Rockstar Mommy has a very interesting discussion about the Duggar family, who just announced the birth of their 17th child.
• Snoskred posted 10 easy ways to improve your blog's writing. Those are some very great tips
• The Daly Planet puts into a context a great reason why I don't watch ESPN very often - It's all about the TV personalities, not the sport
• Via Neatorama, Earvolution has The ten best bands that never existed
• Duncan's Print has some creative ads for an adult channel in NZ

New Blogs I'm reading in Google Reader - only one this week...

• Big Bucks Blogger - home of the Lucia's Linky Love dofollow plugin for WordPress

New blogs this week in the US Blogs community at BumpZEE -

• Jaunty J
• $ Secret Money Blog $ By : Bob Matharoo
• Crohn's Disease - Living with Crohn's Disease
• Rockland USA - Live Radio & Entertainment Blog

This week around the blog, I've had another big week - with 263 visitors stopping by, about 60 of them coming from StumbleUpon for my How-to Post. There were a few keywords used to come here this week - quite a few folks have received the Don Chichi letter, and parts of that letter have been used to get here. Also, more folks searching for dilana nude - not here, but thanks for looking. ;)

In my posts this week, I went to the mall, and then watched Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Also, I laid out my thoughs on paid comments, and posted a great How-to that is very useful for Blogspot users.

This week, I'll have another how-to, and possibly another movie review, though I've been watching The West Wing season 7 - 1/3 through the season after three days already. At this rate, the series finale should be seen by the end of the week. ;)

The theme for this week's Hump Day Hmm... is a continuation of last week's theme about race. I might post some thoughts on other types of discrimination that are out in the world today.

'Til next week! ;)

This was the Week that Was, Vol. 7

It's Monday, so it's time to wrap up the week in blogging. :)

Posts I liked -

• You may have missed this if you don't follow my comments, but Cugat posted a link to an article by Michael Pollan, about what we eat. It's a very good and thought-provoking article.
• David Airey has Seven blog mistakes to avoid. I know that I'm guilty of almost all of those mistakes, but working my way away from them.
• Mashable has 100+ Tools and Resources to make money online.
• If you're looking to go into business for yourself, take some time and read about the most important thing you can do for the next hour. It's about getting a plan together, and making the seemingly impossible possible.
• Juliet has some excellent questions that haven't been asked by a lot of people in the Madeline McCann case.
• It may be the "dead" of winter Down Under, but it's never to early to start thinking about the rites of spring, in preparation for the upcoming cricket season
• Donncha from In Photos has a picture of a sign at Blarney with a giant duck chasing the tourists
• Dawud Miracle has instigated a very interesting and lengthy discussion into whether you should date your blog. And no, not about going for dinner ;)

New Blogs I'm reading in Google Reader

• Dumb Little Man - Tips for Life
• Matt Cutts: Gadgets, Google and SEO
• Mashable (I've had it in bloglines for a while, I'm just moving it over to Google Reader)
• Yesterday's News - from the Minneapolis Star-Tribune
• English Russia
• Apostrophe Abuse
• Flight Path - a great photo blog
Motorsports Soapbox
• The Daly Planet

New blogs this week in the US Blogs community at BumpZEE -

• Compassionate Council
• Life Nurturing Education
• Persistent Vegetative State

This week around the blog, you can tell I was out commenting, as 153 visitors dropped by, with Sunday actually being the busiest day, with 26 visitors. I'm not going to stop commenting. ;) The Alexa rating hasn't updated yet though, so it will be a bit before I know the new number.

This week, I talked about the new(ish) grill. I also explained that computers shouldn't be left in unfinished basements. Plus, I discussed my old love of overeating, and finally did that movie review that I had been touting for so long.

Coming up, I'll have a couple of how-to guides for adding things to your blog, along with the Hump Day Hmm, the topic of which is still forthcoming. I'll also have another movie review, likely on Friday.

This was the Week that Was, Vol. 6

This week, it's been somewhat cooler, but as I mentioned yesterday, we did get quite a bit of rain, which is good for the garden outside. I also got the chance to use the new grill, I'll post about that in the next couple of days, it was an interesting experience, that's for sure.

Posts I liked -

• Chag writes a letter to an ex-lover, ESPN. I can't disagree with what he writes. I'll add in that ESPN Classic really has gone downhill too - that's a post in itself, I think
• Here's one for us blokes - Community Service Post. The pedantic one in me notices not only the main feature, but the fact that the woman in the first picture is fuelling her car on the wrong side of the pump...
• Interesting news from the world of Google. Google Operating System relayed a report from PDFzone (via Mashable) that says that Google's Larry Page would have preferred to have alternative PDF reader Foxit Reader in the Google Pack. I know that I switched to it from Adobe and I love it, even if the free version doesn't work in Firefox
• Mark at MeAndMyDrum asks if we should be making concessions for immigrants who don't speak English.
• Ronald from the Reader Appreciaion Project mentions some Design Decisions that Annoy Readers, including the advertising popups. If there's something that annoys you, join in the discussion :)
• Thiru from How to Live Online has 5 Tricks for success with StumbleUpon. If you're not stumbling, why aren't you? It's a fun way to see pages you normally wouldn't ;)
• Anthony from BloggingDosh found a great idea to make your goals - set up a points system
• Darren at the Digital Photography School has some Tips for a great Photowalk
• Want to do your own TW3, or weekly wrap up? Snoskred how-to for putting one together

New Blogs I'm reading in Google Reader

• Nelson Daily Photo - these photoblogs are quite addictive. This one is from Nilson Nelson on the South Island of NZ
• Clubtroppo
• passiveaggressivenotes.com
• Persistent Vegetative State - Cugat's a friend of mine, y'all should read his blog :)
• Factropolis - interesting facts such as Edgar Allan Poe was a Volunteer Firefighter
• Yeah, That "Vegan" Sh*t
• Daisy the Curly Cat
• Life Learning Today

New blogs this week in the US Blogs community at BumpZEE -

• Computers,Tech & Electronics
• Hummie's World
• Intellectual Hedonism
• More4kids Parenting and Family
• Let's Share Feelings
• The American Leaders Organization
• PowerWealth.com

This week around the blog, I've been a really bad commenter - only 87 visitors to the blog this week, with Thursday being the busiest day. I promise that I'll get out and comment on more blogs this week, I know why it's good and all that, I just need to make the time to focus on it every day, not just one or two days a week. ;) However, my Alexa ranking has gone up from 1.5 million to 1,290,008 - I'm bound to break into six digits soon! ;)

This week's posts included an excellent How-to on integrating your blogger feed with Feedblitz, which has helped a few people already. I also don't get freaked about some spiders (just a note - the spider is still in the same spot). Plus, I questioned why people go to the other side of the road when you're walking around, and the changes at my local grocery store.

Coming up this week, I'll finally post that movie review I've been promising for like forever now; I'll also have another how-to post, along with the Hump Day Hmm, for which the topic hasn't been announced just yet. Aside from that, check in to make sure you aren't missing anything, or you can Subscribe to my RSS feed. Always remember, too, that comments are open and I do reply to them, so if you have something to say, say it. :)

This was the Week that Was, Vol. 5

It's been a week of change around these parts; in fact I'm a little late with posting the update today as I was out getting a new recycled grill from a friend - it needs a bit of cleaning, but it'll be in shape in no time. It's a gas grill and when I make the first meal on it, I'll definitely post about it. ;)

Posts I liked -

• Thiru posted some Simple Facts of Life, something worth setting aside and looking at from time to time
• Nate Balcom (whose name makes a pretty swift domain hack) posted a video from the old Digital Electronics Company showing The Web in 1994
• From the Fitness and Weight Loss blog, is an article about How to Worry less and Accomplish More; again, some very useful tips to follow
• The Beef Jerky Blog gives some insights on How to Crash your server within 24 hours
• It seems that every week mention something from one of Duncan's sites - this week is no exception. Those of us over here will know the Chevy ad that starts with "Baseball, hotdogs, apple pie and Chevrolet". Well, Down Under, Holden used the same ad campaign, using Aussie things - Football, Meat pies, Kangaroos and Holden cars.
• From Neatorama is this graph which shows that what's old is new again, how at&t is mostly all the old AT&T.
• Lastly, Anaglyph from Tetherd Cow Ahead has been receiving mails from Prophet Peter Popoff (if you watch tv early in the morning, you'll have invariably seen his infomercials religious programming), and has replied, in a manner that definitely befits the Prophet

New Blogs I'm reading in Google Reader; again, I've had a big week with the Bumpzee RSS feeds, however this week, I did add the Nofollow | DoFollow | iFollow group's RSS feed to my reader as well.

• Live Berlin, a photoblog featuring Berlin

New blogs this week in the US Blogs community at BumpZEE -

• BIOBLOGS: CREATING THE BRAND OF YOU


• Net Hustlin'


• Philaahzophy


• Jude's Online Marketing Info

Around here, it's been a slightly less busy week, with 115 visitors stopping by. Some of the more interesting keywords included -

• dilana nude - yeah, I've got a picture of her nude. Partially. Then again, most people keep their faces out in the open all the time... ;)
• photos pictures rv bumper free highway jam - uh, ok. You do know that if you're looking for highway cams, you might want to start with your local department of transportation. Otherwise, I'm not of much use to you...
• realime equivalent - you can get little squeeze bottles at Wal-Mart (and most other stores) for like 79¢. Otherwise, you can just get real limes

As I mentioned in the beginning, it's been a week of change, mostly personal change. It all started Tuesday with my discussion of Changes that are coming. I then discussed how I was going to start to let the old me go, and then gave a bit of an update on Thursday talking about letting it go. That post was crossposted to Snoskred's blog, which, if you weren't aware by now, is on a new address ;)

This week, I'll get around to that movie review; I fell asleep while watching it and haven't had the chance to get around to rewatching it. I'll also have one or two how-tos to post about various blogging subjects. If you'd like some help with something, let me know by leaving a comment; if I know how to do it, I'll get a post up in a short amount of time; if now, I'll look how to do it and then post how I did it.

Also, if you're using Bloglines, I'm curious if you're getting tons of posts from my feed; I seem to be getting tons of them on mine; also I'd like to know if you're seeing the "Feedflares" at the bottom (things like Email this post, Stumble it, etc.). Thanks!

This was the Week that Was, Vol. 4

I've been quite busy this week, mostly because it has started to cool down again, yet that doesn't mean that the temps won't go up again. Also, I've been busy commenting. I didn't quite hit my overall goal that I set out for myself, but I did comment on blogs every day this week, and that in itself is a great improvement. I also managed to get quite a few things sorted out both online and off-line.

Posts I liked -

• Duncan features some great poster ads from New Zealand that have a different spin on encouraging designated drivers, and reducing drunk driving overall.
• Thiru featured some of the popular posts from his Keep Walking blog.
• Someone found a picture of an early anti-smoking advertisement and posted it to Shorpy. It's not only informative, but quite funny as well.
• Tim Ferris, author of The 4-Hour Workweek, shows how to pack efficiently (personally, I think maybe too efficiently!) for a vacation.
• Neatorama has a link to a modern take on Shakespeare - Manga ;)

New Blogs I'm reading in Google Reader - only one this week, as most of the blogs I've been reading this week are in the RSS feeds from Bumpzee

• Dipping Into the Blogpond - I keep finding myself reading the posts there, so I figured it was time to subscribe to the feed :)

New blogs this week in the US Blogs community at BumpZEE -

• Fast weight loss?
• Blogworthy News Stories
• Jeremy's Consumer's Corner
• The 15 Minute Dating Blog
• Roadhouses Diners Drive-ins Joints And Dives
• Danny Danny Wakeup It's A Beautiful Day Today
• MoneyGirls On The Internet
• |: zengrrl dot com :|: home of Michelle Snow - writer / photographer / web designer :|

This week around the blog, it's been a really good week for traffic - 146 visitors stopped by. That's a direct result of my commenting on more blogs, and why, if you're a blogger, you need to be out there commenting and building relationships. Incidentally, I also crossed the 2,000 visitor barrier during the week.

Speaking of building relationships, I was honored to receive the Power of Schmooze Award for building the US Blogs Community. I also revealed that I'm a geek; I've gotten the problem that I described fixed after doing a lot of searching. Also, I discussed my baggage. Last week, I mentioned a major change - and by Friday, I had completed the first step - renewing my instructional permit to drive.

This week, I have a couple of goals; first is to read through both the Aussie and the US Blogs RSS feeds - combined, they have nearly 2000 unread items because I am bad at keeping up with all the posts. That will also make my commenting goal (still at 10-15 a day) much easier, even if I do wind up commenting on a post that's a week or two old. Also, look out for a movie review; I still don't know what movie I'm going to do, but all I know is that it won't be Apollo 13 (I like the movie, but I said that I wouldn't do the same movie as Snos did ;) ). Of course, Wednesday means the Hump Day Hmm, which this week is about "How we let it go." Essentially, how we let off our steam.

The last little note I wanted to make is that I've switched my feed over to Feedburner, but unless you started to notice the little "FeedFlares" at the bottom, you probably didn't notice anything. That's thanks to the integration of Feedburner into Blogger.

This was the Week that Was, Vol. 3

It's been a relatively quiet week around here. I've done a bit of work, but the big highlight of the week is that we're getting into the hot season of the year; yesterday was the hottest day so far, with a high reported locally of 96.4°F (35.8°C). I love my air conditioner - set to the recommended 78°F (25.6°C), you only notice the heat when you leave the area bounded by door curtains ;).

Today we got over an inch (250mm) of rain, and they're saying that it's going to be similar tomorrow with heat and then rain. With that information out of the way, onto the update :)

Posts I liked -

• Kate at DatingGod gives some great lessons in the art of the salad.
• Kirrily Robert's discussion of the unique challenges faced being an Aussie geek
• Radioactive Jam has some questions which need to be asked.
• The Reader Appreciation Project explores the image that website badges present to your readers.
• Duncan posted a brilliant ad which shows what life would be like if everybody owned a Ford XR8 Ute. I've posted the video at the bottom

New Blogs I'm reading in Google Reader -

• MeAndMyDrum, home of the iReply movement.
• Reader Appreciation Project, a blog focused on its readers :)
• Sydney Daily Photo, featuring one of the world's best cities

New blogs this week in the US Blogs community at BumpZEE -

• Wonderland or Not
• Pointlessbanter.net
• PhilosYphia
• Terence Chang - Blah Blah Blog
• The Beef Jerky Blog
• On My Mac
• History Survey
• History Survey Links

On the blog, I posted about Salmon and pesto, told a story about a bit of karma in my life, and focused on two interesting websites - MyBlogLog and Alexa. I also shared a bit more of my life, including my recent lack of focus.

Traffic was pretty good for the week, with 120 visitors stopping by, including a couple stragglers from the massive Stumbleupon influx that lasted a little into last Monday. :)

This week, my aim is to comment on 10 to 15 blogs a day, keep up with other sites that I've commented on, keep track of things on here. Also, I am setting the ball in motion to make a major change in my life - something that should have happened about 7 years ago, but didn't happen for no good reason. On top of that, I'll have some items for this week's Hump Day Hmm... - "The things I carry with me" - I'll let you in on one thing - there are a couple of sayings, one is fairly logical, and the other one is totally mangled, but of my own creation. :) I must not forget, too, to mention that the idea for this week was one from my good friend Snoskred :)

This was the Week that Was, Vol. 2

This has been an interesting week, for sure. I've rediscovered my passion for "driving in circles". The story is certainly an interesting one, and somewhat of a long one. Check back later this week for something about that. :)

Mainly because of that, along with finishing the whole second half of the 5th season of The West Wing (which features one of my favorite lines, spoken by Josh, about the space program - "It's all low-earth orbits. It like if, 30 years after Columbus, Spain expected people to get hot and bothered about a trip to Mallorca.", and generally not having much time in front of the computer this weekend, the update's going to be somewhat short this week.

Posts I liked this week -

• Computerworld highlights some great ads over the last forty years of their magazine (via Neatorama)
• mrbrown shared a video he found of Bill O'Reilly getting taken to school by a 16-year-old who was defending his school's seminar on drug use and other "risky" behaviors
• deanpence bought an iPhone and gave it a very thorough review; the phone's definitely not for me, but it's good to see that it does live up to the hype
• Allie at Memoirs of a Gouda has found a way to stop Jehovah's Witnesses from visiting - put a Buddha statue in the front garden; that works most of the time. However, I find that living in a hard-to find place helps too :)
• Directions, 1937 style, can be found at Shorpy (a great photo blog featuring old photos from at least 50-60 years ago.
• I know that y'all may have seen this already, but Craig Harper says that if you want something, you actually have to do something to get it. Take that, "the secret"! (By the way, if you haven't seen it, the Chaser's War on Everything tried out the secret and it didn't go as planned.....I'll put the video at the end of the post ;))
• How would you react to getting a Lexus for your birthday? You'd be over the moon, right? Well, Matt at Fireflies in the Cloud found a video showing how a kid reacted to getting a Lexus...
• Thiru's How to Live Online has a very interesting graph showing what people do online by age group. Not surprisingly, the younger you are, the more likely you are to participate in various aspects of internet life.
• Ray at FreshBlogger has a quick how-to on finding your blogging voice. It's something that I think can help almost any blogger be better. :)
• Lastly, cars are being delivered all over Australia, but two really nice cars are going to my friend Snoskred, one for her parents, and one for herself ;)

Only one blog on the new blogs list: The BenSpark. If you're willing to put your face out there to be seen, you can enter his contest to win an "xshot" which makes self-portraits much easier.

It has been a bumper week for the US Blogs community at BumpZEE. These are the new blogs -

• Declaration Photos
• Advertising For Success
• CoolAdzine for Marketers
• Endangered Spaces
• Texas RV Travel Blog
• Homeschooling In The Ozarks
• ITheTwilight
• n E o A u T e U r
• Principled Discovery
• Life With Heathens

Around here, something happened on Tuesday. I forget what it is. Oh yeah, that's it! I bought a domain! I also discussed my Fear of Failure and the movies I've watched (I'm open for suggestions).

Traffic was about average for the week, until Sunday night after someone submitted the site to StumbleUpon, which caused over 100 people to show up, for a total of 147 unique visitors yesterday, making the total number for the week 236.

This week, it's the 4th of July, so that means there will be a "war" of sorts outside. I'll explain that later. I'm also up to episode 5 of The West Wing season 6 - it's been eventful so far, and I expect it to keep going. I'll also have a post for the Hump Day Hmm about Karma, and more :)

Lastly, here is the Chaser video, as promised :) -

This was the Week that Was, Vol. 1

Last Monday, I had mentioned that I was "gonna do a weekly update thing from now on". And that has now manifested itself into This was the Week that Was, TW3 for short. It's basically a round-up of blog posts that I found interesting, some new blogs that I've started reading, and a bit of an update on what's gone on here. There'll also be a mention of news from time to time. I hope y'all enjoy it :)

Some blog posts that I really liked -

• Duncan's TV Ad Land featured some great ads that have been blocked from reairing on British TV because back in the 50s, eggs and toast was seen to be a balanced breakfast. Now you have to have juice.
• Andrew G (formerly of Channel [V] and currently of Australian Idol) discussed a great insight that he got from emceeing an event featuring the Dalai Lama in Sydney
• One of my favorite blogs is The Food Pornographer, where tfp, as she is known, photographs many of the meals she has. This week, a couple of the posts caught my eye -
  
  • Tuesday night dinner with friends - featuring a picture of a version of an Aussie burger, using chicken instead of the regular hamburger. It looks really delicious!
  • Monday work food - guilty! - Obviously we *do* have KFC here, but it's always interesting to see how other countries serve the same kinds of food in the same restaurant. Of note are three things - 1) the soda in a can - here, it's served in a cup like any other fast food restaurant, and the last time I've seen a can with a narrow opening was maybe 10 years ago; 2) No coleslaw - if it were me, I'd have that instead of the chips (fries). ;) 3) The bun. I had a look on the Aussie KFC website, and they don't have the biscuits. Seriously, y'all are missing out on some goodness there.
• Sky High Cork City from inphotos.org, with a great picture of Cork City in Ireland from the top of a parking ramp/garage/structure/deck.
• Google held a Press Day in Paris this week, and released a bunch of facts and figures about their operations, highlighted at unofficial Google blog Google Operating System. The most interesting stat is that 20-25% of queries are brand new ones.
• Anaglyph mentioned a story about the Royal Australian Navy preventing a boarding of one of their ships by Iranian forces. How, you might ask did they do this? Simple - by using some colourful language ;)

Some of the new blogs I've started reading recently -

• Memoirs of a Gouda, who I mentioned the other day for being willing to embrace swearing.
• Alyndabear. She just bought herself a new domain, something that I am seriously considering doing at some time in the near future. She also received a bum blog review a couple weeks back, which is when I started reading - I have to say that their review was totally off-base.
• A Byootaful Life; I know it was mentioned in Snos' round up, but the post that got me was the one about the Digg Cake; specifically the words "boob cake". ;) Yeah, I'm a perv :p
• A Taste of Home. It was linked off of byootaful life, and is another foodie blog. You can't get enough of those :)

New blogs in the US Blogs Community:

• ourmonmouthblog
• TallFreak.com
• Everybody Loves Tana!
• Jericho Monster
• Nate Balcom..that is..NateBal.com....Come On In..The Web Is Fine..
• One Step Forward

I'll be honest, while I'd love to invite every single blog in the US personally, there are only so many hours in the day, and so many blogs that I can comment on before I go a bit, well, silly. My goal, as I said last Monday, is to double the number of blogs by the end of the month. Right now, we're at 46, so that means there's quite a way to go. If you know of some blogs that are in the US, feel free to invite them to the community, and if you're a blogger and haven't signed up yet, why not? It's free, easy, and you'll get yourself on the US Blogs Blogroll.

Speaking of the blogroll, I've found a way to make it scroll without losing the value of the links. I'm sure you can probably hide links using that method as well.