But it's only the preseason!

Living where I do, there are a few things you always know the dates of - one of them happens to be the schedule of the Green Bay Packers - though I suspect that there are a lot of other fans around the country who are in the same boat.

It just happens that tonight is the second preseason game of the year - two more, and it's the regular season opener against the Eagles at Lambeau Field.

Admittedly, however, I haven't been following the team as closely as in past years - partly because there's actually something to follow down at the baseball stadium, with the Brewers in a tight race for the lead of the NL Central Division (they lost first place last night after holding it since way back in April or May, and are only a half-game behind the Cubs). Also, the fact that it's still summer and that it is just the preseason has a handle in that as well.

Nevertheless, I did listen (and watch - you never listen to the TV commentators unless you have to ;)) to the whole game, and it was great - a 48-13 result over the Seahawks of Seattle, even though the Pack did give up 5 turnovers. The next game is on Thursday, and it will be interesting to see what coach McCarthy does in regards to player moves; I don't think there are any required cuts between now and then, but there are still some issues that need to be dealt with.

I think it might be too early to give a season prediction, but I'll put myself down now for a 9-7 season, and in the running for either the division outright or a wild card slot.

What are y'all thinking for this season for your team - it doesn't have to be NFL, it can be in any code of football, or any other sport, if you like. ;)

Memories of Disney

A while back, I had mentioned that I had been on a trip to Disneyland about six years ago. As it happens, I was reading through my Google Reader, and spotted this post from Chubber Cheekers about a contest where you can win some cool Disney swag from The Disney Blog, including a special edition set of mouse ears.

The trip was over spring break in my Senior year in High School, with most of the marching band, and a bunch of chaperons. I remember gathering at 3am on the Monday to get all of our stuff loaded into buses and trucks and other vehicles to get it to the airport, where we would jet off to LA for our trip. The first day was a light day, with the travel and everything - we went over to Universal Studios Hollywood, and I had the chance to experience the Studio Tour, the Back to the Future ride, and the Jurassic Park ride, where I almost missed the T-Rex, but opened my eyes at the right time to see it. ;)

Then, we went down to Orange to check in at our hotel, the Doubletree Orange, get situated, then practice for our march the next evening. That was followed by a pizza party by the pool in the hotel.

On the Tuesday, we went to Disneyland, for what turned out to be the whole day. The small group that I was in did a lot of the more popular rides like Indiana Jones, Pirates of the Caribbean, Splash Mountain, and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (which, while we were on it, actually broke down so we had to walk back to the station). Later in the day, we went over to Tomorrowland and experienced some of the attractions there (I passed on Space Mountain, but went to Honey, I Shrunk the Audience and can still remember the feeling of the pseudo-mice hitting my legs). After that, we all assembled in Toon Town, to get ready to go march up Main Street USA, followed by some of the band heading back to the hotel for an early night, and the rest of us deciding to stick around the park to catch the nighttime entertainment - including the fireworks display at the castle, and the Fantasmic! show in Frontierland.

All in all, by the time we got back to the hotel, we were tired and ready to sleep all night. ;)

The next day featured an early rise, as we were scheduled to go to a clinic with Disney musicians at something like 10am, an event that went without any major hitches. That was followed by another day in the park, which allowed our group to check out some of the other attractions, such as the teacups. There was also a jazz ensemble performance (of which I was a part), and the day ended with us taking in the afternoon parade which comes down Main Street. I remember almost being come upon by one of the walking characters in the parade. After having a massive group photo, we then went and had dinner and a show at Medieval Times, and it was a relatively early night back at the hotel.

On the Thursday, we went to Knott's Berry Farm, which I've discussed before, so we'll just skip it, ok? ;)

Friday was an opportunity to go to the newest park, Disney's California Adventure. I have already mentioned missing out on Soarin' over California, but I then went on the large ferris wheel, skipped the loop roller coaster, and the launcher, and enjoyed a lunch at one of the fast food joints in the park's midway area. Then it was a trip down Grizzly River Run, getting wet along the way. We had another group picture in front of the large sun, and we departed for USC, where it happened to rain.

Saturday, we got all our stuff together, loaded it back on the bus, and shipped out, stopping at the Hollywood Bowl, Graumann's Chinese Theatre, and seeing all the places where celebrities died along Sunset Blvd. (Yeah, I know it's more than that, but our guide kept mentioning the deaths and suicides...). A trip up to Santa Monica Pier, and then it was back to the airport for the flight back home.

Thinking back, and thinking of the contest, they have a couple of questions to ask of me ;) -

1) Have you ever celebrated your birthday at a Disney theme park? If so, tell us about it.

Nope, my trip was in April, almost as far away as you can get from my birthday. ;)

2) What is your favorite or most useful tip for guests of Disney's theme parks?

A couple of things - first, wear good, comfortable shoes - you will do a lot of walking. Also, try to bring some water in with you; it is probably against rules of the park, but you can always try to do it, just so you don't have to pay the really high prices on the inside. Lastly, wear quick-drying clothes, especially if you're going on Splash Mountain or Grizzly River Run.

3) What is your favorite Disney theme park attraction or show and why?

Hmm...Well, based on my recent watching of the first two parts of the trilogy, I'm gonna go with Indiana Jones Adventure - unfortunately I've seen the secrets of the ride thanks to Wikipedia, but I still would get scared during the boulder sequence of the ride. My favorite show is Fantasmic! - partly because I can still hear the music in my mind now, but also because we actually played music from the show during our clinic with the Disney musicians.

Happy Anniversary, Happy Anniversary!

Yesterday marked the one year anniversary of my blog being in existence. In fact, this post is timed to be at the exact same time that I've made the first post on the blog. ;)

In the first year, I've gone from summarizing Rockstar Supernova, and posting maybe four times a week, to making relatively good posts every day, on a wide variety of topics. One thing that hasn't changed, however, is my template. I'm still using the same one that I've been using (TicTac Blue) from the start. The only tweaking I've done to it is changing the default background in the header to one of my pictures.

I've found some great templates out there, and I'm going to set aside some time in the next couple of days to put together a new template (I'm not sure if I want to do it from scratch - a bit of a challenge I'm willing to accept - or to go with a pre-made template - which I may or may not have to switch to "new" Blogger coding), test it, and put it in here.

It's been a fun ride so far, here's to more fun in the next year! :)

It's not all about race

This week's Hump Day Hmm... is a continuation of last week's theme of Racism, Society and the Internet. Last week, I discussed my views on race and its role on the world we live in today. Today, I'd like to talk about some other types of discrimination that are legal, but are just as bad as racism or sexism.

One thing that I've faced for a long time is my weight. I'm well overweight, and I feel that is has held me back in some way. Because I am so large, it is hard to find clothes that fits me properly that is not a T-shirt or sweat pants. As a result, I often look different from the rest of the crowd. I've only owned three or four pairs of jeans in my life, but I've never been comfortable in them - mostly because I probably bought pants that were maybe one or two inches too small in the waist and a couple inches too long in the leg.

So where does the discrimination come in? People will look at me and (this is my assumption) think that, because of my outward appearance, I am a lazy slob. Some people will just ignore, or be polite, and others don't have a problem with my looks, but I think that in the couple of companies that I've gone for an interview, they must have taken my appearance into consideration.

The same goes if you aren't "good-looking". What is good looking? I don't know, and I really don't care, but there are a lot of people who will treat you differently if you fit their view of "good-looking" If not, then you'll be treated with basic respect, or complete ambivalence.

Another type of discrimination that I've witnessed is based on the qualifications you have. For example, I have been trying for over two years to get a job, after losing the only job I had ever held. I've completed some college, and have a High School diploma. I send my resume to companies, but all I ever hear back from them is that they've received it and will contact me if I would be a good fit for the position. I have heard back from maybe three or four companies, but it was only a letter telling me that I didn't have the qualifications they were looking for. Last year, I contacted a couple of temp working agencies, and one of them brought me in for the whole spiel - typing test, interview, asked what kind of jobs I was looking for. However, they never contacted me with any work. Another agency I gave my details to said that they'd contact me if they had anything that I'd fit in. Can you guess what happened here? Nothing! It's been over a year and they have not contacted me!

When I think about it, I go to a not-good place - one where I feel like I'm not employable by anyone. The thing is that I know that I am - I have massive computer skills, but they overlook that when they see that I haven't had a job in two years, or something. That's why you see a paid post from time to time on here. It's a way for me to make some money, but it doesn't cover all of our needs. I am also selling some stuff on Ebay, and we have a lot of old stuff around here that we have no attachment to that we're willing to part with. I might even be able to start an Ebay consignment business if there is enough interest. I know that there are people in my area who, if the price was right, would be willing to sell their items through me. I'm also actively looking for blogging jobs, but it is difficult to find a job that is a fit for me which provides a guaranteed income (i.e. not paying based on a percentage of advertising revenue).

As if that wasn't enough, the fact that I don't have a full drivers license is a block to employment as well. There are a lot of jobs (not just in car lots, or delivery or sales) that call for a valid license - right now, I'm not in a position to apply for those even though I do have a valid learner's permit. This is something where I know how to change it, and can do it. I just need to refresh myself of the basics of driving.

My question is, have you ever been discriminated on based on these factors? Also, what is the best way to get my foot in the door with a job? Should I be applying at every single shop and store and gas station to see if I can get in there?

Fun with Google Hot Trends

One of the lesser known features of Google's vast empire is based on one of their most popular productions - Google Hot Trends - basically a continuously-updated version of Zeitgeist. You're given the 100 most popular searches overall for the day, so let's have a look at some of them. :)

#8, 86, 90 - nightly.msnbc.com, www.nightly.msnbc.com, nbc nightly news.
Why are you searching Google for a website address you hear on TV? I think a lot of that has to do with people are now using their Google Toolbars (this would mostly be IE users probably) as a de-facto address bar. Save yourself a click, folks. Use the address bar. :) Also, if you don't know where the NBC Nightly News website is....I'll reserve judgement. ;)

#12, 13, 21, 26, 28, 29, 31, 32, 35, 72, 75, 76, 78, 87, 93, 98 - hurricane Flossie, KITV, KGMB, Hawaii Hurricane, Hawaii weather, KHNL, hawaii news, KHON, Hilo webcam, KGMB News, Hawaii Channel, Maui Weather, Central Pacific Hurricane Center, Hawaii earthquake, Honolulu Advertiser, Hurricane Watch.
This is definitely the power of a major weather situation. Hurricane Flossie is spinning near the Hawaiian archipelago, but isn't expected to make a direct impact. The most recent Hurricane to impact the state was Hurricane Dora, but most people remember Hurricane Iniki (#81 yesterday) more - that was only a couple of weeks after Andrew devastated South Florida in 1992. However, hurricanes are unpredictable, though I will venture to guess that folks there know what to do.

In other news, there was the passing of legendary Yankee Phil Rizzuto and the Duct tape bandit will be brought to justice. Apparently there will be a new season of Flavor of Love - apparently Flava can't find the right woman? Then again, "New York" can't find the right man since there's an I love New York 2 planned...vh1 makes money, therefore you can't find love, I guess... At least it's not the case of another wrestler dying, which, while very sad, is becoming way too frequent now. Maybe Yogi Berra has some advice for them? Ok, that went too far. I'll just stick to watching "Dirty Jobs" from Vomit Island...

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! ;)

The Week in Walks, etc. Vol 3

Sunday means recapping this week's walks, along with setting some goals for the week. There's a surprise in the walks; if you're reading via RSS, you might want to check out the post on the site. ;)

Monday, 6th August


Some more of the flowers along my path.

It was a cloudy day, and it wasn't terribly humid or hot. However, I did take the regular route, and included a slight diversion - I took a side path that goes around a grassy area that I usually walk through (don't worry the part that I normally walk on is maintained by lawnmowers and such - though I do walk across a couple of feet of unmowed grass).

Total distance - 5112 steps, 4.08km

Tuesday, 7th August


The turkeys were in the field normally occupied by the horses today, probably enjoying some freshly wet grass. ;)

I waited a little bit to go out for my walk since it was still raining when I got up. However, when I did go out to walk, it was still a little wet, so I wound up taking the umbrella anyway. As you'll see, I'm getting used to having the umbrella by now. ;) I decided to take the normal route without the diversion.

Total distance - 4937 steps, 3.94km. If you include my mall walking, the total for the day was 11514 steps, 9.21km.

Wednesday, 8th August


Another butterfly, this one clinging onto some grass.

The sun was out, and it was a little bit cooler, so I decided to do some more exploration. I went up the regular route, but instead of turning left to head back towards the road, I went to the right to follow the "official" trail. I followed it up until I was on the other side of the soccer fields they have at the park and turned back. On the way back, I spotted a couple of dogs walking around with their owner. Having been prepared for them coming, I let them approach and then proceeded to pet them and have a short discussion about the weather with the owner.

Total distance - 6650 steps, 5.32km

Thursday, 9th August


A turkey feather that was sitting along the path.

The word for the day was definitely "wet". In fact, it was still misting when I went out to walk, so I needed the umbrella again. I also created a new phrase - "second rain" - which is defined as the rain that falls in a forest from the collected water on the leaves. While I was taking the long route, I came to a realisation - that the primary route back to the road would require a walk down a hill where there a lot of loose rocks. So I went a little further around to a different forest opening and walked back to the road.

And a bonus for y'all - I took some video of the forest, and you can hear the rain both hitting the ground and the umbrella.

Total distance - 5683 steps, 4.54km

Friday, 10th August


Some pink flowers along the path.

A thought that had been going through my mind for some time now is to go for a clean up walk. As it happened, the sun was out, and there had only been some rain the night before. So, after some searching, I grabbed a bag and a pair of work gloves and went out to walk. I wound up picking up less than I thought I would since the grounds crew went through and cleared the cans from part of the park, but I did pick up a few odds and ends that had been there for as long as I can remember. However, I did not pick up the dog droppings, or any of the prophylactics that I had found in the past. ;) I walked the regular route, with the diversion. I also collected the turkey feather that had been dropped the other day, along with another that was right by it.

Total distance - 5618 steps, 4.49km

Saturday, 11th August


Steam rises from the road after the rain.

This was the first day that I almost did not go out to walk. I had been waiting for it to be later in the day so that it wouldn't be so hot, but I wound up waiting too long, as it started to cloud over. I then checked the radar to discover that there were some storms on the way. However, I didn't let that deter me at first. It wasn't until I was out the door and heard a crack of thunder that I decided to wait the rain out. Luckily I did and it cleared up long enough for me to go out and walk. However, I did still take the umbrella - I needed it at first where I learnt an important lesson - mosquitoes like umbrellas. It seemed that I couldn't get rid of them unless I closed the umbrella. Fortunately, the rain stopped and I could close the umbrella. As I was walking along the normal route, the sun went away again, and I suddenly heard another clap of thunder (I never did see the flash of lightning during the whole storm however), so I picked up my pace. I'm fairly certain I did the walk in record time.

Total distance (including extra walking around the house) - 5299 steps, 4.23km

Sunday, 12th August


Water beads on some fallen leaves, about 13 hours after the rain stopped.

The sun was out again today, so it was a very pleasant walk. Nothing terribly exciting happened, though the mosquitoes didn't seem to be anywhere around today on the regular route - not that that's a bad thing. :)

Total distance - 4995 steps, 3.99km

-----

In other news, this week has been a week of, well, staying the course. The schedules didn't work out to go in for volunteering this week, however I have mentioned that I want to go in this week; it looks like Friday is the most likely day to do it since there are the fewest conflicts then. The other project that I mentioned last week did get started out and it is progressing slowly, but surely. I have quite a bit of learning to do about its inner workings though - it's all in a new language to me. ;)

This week, my major goal is to start a new habit - writing about my walking the day I do the walk; I've been waiting until Sunday to write about the walks the last couple of weeks, and it's a lot of time that I have to spend trying to remember the bits about my walk. The only thing I'd write down is the number of steps and possibly a word or two about the day. Also, I'm going to sit down and write out some of the prompts that I have in my notebook, plus some others that I've come up with, so that I can use them in case I have nothing; plus I'll be able to post in the morning so that I don't find myself at 8 or 9 at night with nothing posted for the day, and then rushing to post.

How-to: A twofer for Blogger Blogs - Add co.mments and StumbleUpon

A couple of the additions I've made to my blog are two links that appear at the end of every post - Track with co.mments and Stumble It! (with StumbleUpon). it looks like this -



To get that code into your blog is easy, provided that you have the correct code. However, the information on both sites is out of date and can be confusing for users of "new" Blogger.

Track with co.mments

The first item that I'd added to my blog is the Track with co.mments link. co.mments is a free service which allows you to track comments you leave on a blog. There is no requirement to register to use the tracking service, however if you do register, you can receive emails when your tracked conversations are updated. If you do a lot of commenting on blogs, this is the perfect add-on for you.

If you're a blogger, then adding this to your blog will allow your readers to keep updated on conversations that are occurring at your site, which is useful since Blogger doesn't have a "subscribe to comments via email" option like you can put in on a Wordpress blog. Here's how you do it:

Go into your blog's template, and then select "Edit HTML"



Once there, you must Expand Widget Templates in order to add the code in. Before making any changes, be sure to save your template to your computer in case the changes don't go well, and you need to revert to an older version of your template.

After expanding the widgets, look for this piece of code -

        <!-- email post links -->
      <b:if cond="'data:post.emailPostUrl'><b:if" cond="'data:post.emailPostUrl'"></b:if>

- put a new line above that, so you can insert this code by copying the below and pasting it exactly as printed -

<a expr:href='"http://co.mments.com/track?url=" + data:post.url' title='Track this post with co.mments'>Track with co.mments</a>

Preview your template and if it works fine, hit save. You've now added co.mments integration into your blog!

Stumble It!

If you're not aware of what StumbleUpon is just yet, it is a service that allows you to mark pages you like which will let other members of the free service know that this page is out there and recommended by someone with similar interests. Normally, you would have to have the StumbleUpon Toolbar to recommend a site to SU, but with this handy bit of code, your visitors will have the ability to add your blog posts to StumbleUpon.

Here's how to add it to your Blogger blog.

First off, if you want to have this image () as part of your display, you will have to upload it to an image hosting site such as ImageShack or Photobucket as SU wish to distribute the traffic to other servers than just their own. Note, however, that if your blog's template adds a border to all images within the "post template" (like mine does), you may wish to have the code without the image. Below is code for both versions

That being said, you will need to go back into your blog's edit HTML page, using the method described above - click on Template and then on Edit HTML.



Again, you will need to expand the widget templates if you haven't done so already. If you've just added the co.mments code - you should be perfectly set up to put in the StumbleUpon code.

Look for that same piece of code as before -

        <!-- email post links -->
      <b:if cond="'data:post.emailPostUrl'><b:if" cond="'data:post.emailPostUrl'"></b:if>

- place a new line above this code and choose one of these options for your StumbleUpon code, simply copy and paste it exactly as published, putting in your image's location if necessary -

With Image -
<a href='"http://www.stumbleupon.com/submit?url=" + data:post.url + "&amp;title=" + data:post.title'><img alt='StumbleUpon Toolbar' border='0' src='YOUR IMAGE LOCATION HERE'/> Stumble It!</a>

Without Image -
<a href='"http://www.stumbleupon.com/submit?url=" + data:post.url + "&amp;title=" + data:post.title'>Stumble It!</a>

- Preview the template and it it all looks good, save.

You've now added the Stumble It! code to your blog.

If you have any questions, you can leave a comment or you can send me an email. Also, if you have something you would like to have a howto written up for, feel free to ask. :)

The Temple of Doom

The second movie in the Indiana Jones series is certainly an interesting one, but it brings up a few questions as well. While it was a great movie, I don't think it was as good as Raiders of the Lost Ark.



First off, the movie starts with the whole "Anything Goes" sequence. While I appreciate the use of the scene to introduce us to Willie as a character in the movie and as an opportunity to get all the initial credits out of the way, the sequence doesn't really fit in with the rest of the movie. The rest of the scene in the nightclub only advances the plot a little bit, but being the beginning of the movie, my guess would be that it was a great way to ease into the movie, unlike in Raiders where you had spiders and skeletons within the first ten minutes.

Fortunately, we leave the nightclub and head in a car driven by Short Round to the airport and a flight out of Shanghai operated by the same guy we were just dealing with in the nightclub. That leads us towards the main plot of the movie - a crash landing into India, and the search for the stone.

However, there is a major problem - poor special effects. I'll try to explain it in words, but a video would really help here. Unfortunately, I've tried to upload the clip three times now and I've had no luck, so here goes ;)




The first problem is that when the plane crashes into the mountain, you see the fireball, but there isn't much evidence of the plane crashing apart. I know it's being picky and pedantic, but it's just not convincing. Then, as they go down the mountain in the snow, the raft has this magic quality of constantly changing colors between bright yellow and dull yellow. Back and forth, and really no purpose to it. Then, you see the raft hit the dirt, but fortunately they thought of throwing some dirt in front of the raft to make it seem like they were on dirt.



However, where that didn't go too well, the rest of the movie was quite good, especially, as in with Raiders, mixing the adventure and the creep-you-out factor. Particularly when Willie is trying to get the trap room to stop closing in on Indy and Shorty and she has everything crawling around and on her, then having to reach through the bugs and things to hit the lever is sensational and freaky.



Another great "creepy" moment is when they're presented with the meal in the dining hall. With everything from snakes filled with eels to claimed monkey brains, it's everything a horror film could have asked for. Lest we forget that there were also the scenes where you have Mola Ram pulling hearts out of people which then spontaneously combusts when the hapless victim hits the molten rock below the platform.

While I could go into a full discussion of child labor, I'll just leave it at it's wrong, especially if they're being chained up in order to do the work.

A couple of questions -
- Since the movie was set in 1935, we know that it's a prequel to Raiders. In that case, what happened to Short Round and Willie? Did they fall off of the face of the earth?
- When was the auto-inflating plane raft invented? I would have sworn that those were invented after 1935.

All in all, it was a really good movie. It did seem to move a bit slow at times (particularly the opening scene). But like I had said at the outset, I liked Raiders more than this one, but both are definitely on the list of movies you need to watch at least once.

Paid Comments NOT Allowed

In the last few days, I've been getting some interesting comments. I'm not talking about the legitimate comments that are from folks I know, or folks who come here for other reasons such as finding me through a search.

What I'm talking about are comments that, on the surface, are on-topic to the post they're commenting on, but have unusual names such as "Las Vegas Real Estate Guru" or "Palm Coast". Those comments also don't link to Blogger profiles, but link to blogs related to the "name" they used.

Why are the comments appearing?

Well, a lot of that has to do with the fact that I have removed the nofollow tag from my comments. There is a service called Buy Blog Comments dot com (link set to nofollow), which lets bloggers (or other advertisers, I would assume), for only $24.99, buy 100 comments on blogs. The blogs that comments are made on come from, and I quote from their site, "...the huge database of no nofollow tag blogs...". In other words, they're taking advantage of my goodwill towards other bloggers by turning off nofollow in order to create some link love for them.

How can I tell a paid comment?

An easy way to tell a paid comment is to check out that blog's Technorati score. In the example of a recent commentator I had here, "Tom Paine" - whose link was to a conservative blog in the US, but the comment was made by someone in India in the middle of the night here - their Technorati profile (set to nofollow) shows that almost all the recent links are from comments on dofollow blogs (interestingly, if you go back further, through all of the self links there, you'll find that this person's paid people to blog about his blog as well). The same applies with "Palm Coast" (nofollow), but Las Vegas Realty Guru isn't listed so you can't check their Technorati.

You'll notice that there are hardly any links from other blogs that don't use the words that are used for their "Name", or that aren't listed as "Recent Comments" or "{Name} on ...". Generally, if that is the case, then you have a paid comment on your hands - do with it what you wish. If you're not sure about a comment or person leaving a comment - check some of the other comments you find via Technorati; if you find that the comments left by the commentator are similar in nature to the comment left on your blog, you might have a paid comment. Of course, there are always exceptions to the rule, but these are just some general pointers.

What can I do?

The simplest thing to do to stop paid comments is to refuse to acknowledge them. You can do that by not replying to their comment, but that will not make much of a difference since the commentator will likely never come back to your blog again. The most effective way will be to delete comments you suspect as paid. You should also make a note on your blog saying that paid comments will not be tolerated and will be deleted.

Another method for Wordpress users would be to use a different dofollow plugin - Lucia's Linky Love - which is touted as a way to stop human comment spammers. It will apply the nofollow tag to the first x comments left by a particular person - since the chance of a paid commentator coming back to leave another comment are slim, you don't give them what they want - a free link via your site.

If you know of other ways to deny the paid comments from getting attention, do share them in the comments here.

You can also help get the word out about this - post about it on your blog so that your readers and other bloggers will know about these paid comments. It's a case where the more you know about something, the better we all are. ;)

My Commitment

If I suspect a comment of being a paid comment, I will delete the comment and not give them any attention in any reply comments I make (astute readers will have noticed that I did call out Las Vegas Real Estate Guru, but that was a once-off occurrence).