Month: July 2007

Handy Blog Tips #1

12 Comments Posted on July 31, 2007February 28, 2015 by Snoskred

If you have never heard of Google Alerts and how they can help you as a blogger, or you have seen bloggers leaving a URL after their name when they comment and wonder why, this is a post you’ll want to read.

As I travel around the blogosphere it often surprises me how people don’t seem to put thought into doing the little things that mean a lot – but then I stop and remember we’re not all reading the same blogs, and so it is unlikely you have picked up all the tips I have. So from time to time I’m going to post some of the good stuff I have found out.

How does Snoskred magically turn up when someone writes her name?

Snoskred uses Google Alerts. Basically this is like a google search that comes to you as a surprise in your email. They are incredibly simple to set up. Simply –

1) put the search term in
2) choose if you want all (comprehensive), or one of search, groups, news, blogs
3) how often – daily, as it happens, weekly
4) put your email in

See how simple this is? One more reason to love Google.

For number 2, I went with all. For number 3, choosing as it happens will keep you very up to date but if you’re a busy blogger it might annoy you, too. Mine come to me daily. Of course it is a little easier for me, because my name is fairly unique. I also have alerts set up for Life in the Country, and 419 Scam which helps me stay on top of the latest news in scamming.

You can always use the Alert Management page where you can change all the options and delete any alerts you may be subscribed to. You can also change the formats of the emails you receive – either HTML or plain text.

Why does Snoskred always sign her name and put her blog URL under it?

Snoskred knows that not everyone in the world knows you can click on the name of a commenter to get back to their blog. I may know it, you may know it, but the person who read your comment and thought “wow, that was a great comment, I’d like to read their blog” may not know it.

Rule #1 – Never assume others know what you know!

Those of us with blogger profiles need to pay special attention to this when commenting on blogger blogs because the link blogger puts to your name is to your profile on blogger, not to your blog. If you have more than one blog in your profile people will be confused as to where to find you.

Cybercelt left me a great comment about that a while back, letting me know that you can go into your blogger profile (on your profile page when you are signed in, click edit my profile, then Show my blogs, then Select blogs to display) and choose which blogs are displayed in your profile. If you have more than one, I suggest you choose one to be the main blog, and link to your other blogs from that blog page rather than have them all listed in your profile to make it easier for people to find you, but it’s your profile. ;)

On the other hand, when commenting on WordPress blogs, putting a link may mean your comment gets put into the spam bin. I don’t worry too much about that but it is something to be aware of especially with the busier bloggers who do not always have time to read all their comments. Perhaps you might choose to only leave a link under your name on a WordPress blog in certain circumstances.

I hope these tips are useful! :) Let me know if they are, I’ll consider doing some more posts like this.

blogging tips, commenting on blogs, how to guides

Our Humans went out today..

7 Comments Posted on July 30, 2007February 28, 2015 by Snoskred

Hi, this is the Big Kitty typing. The Little Kitty has the attention span of a goldfish and is too busy stealing my Tuna and the warmest spot next to the heater so don’t expect her to be posting anytime soon. The Humans are busy looking at this funny website they found – Daisy the Curly Cat. I laughed at that funny cat too, but I was inspired to say something myself! Here’s what I look like, in case you forgot. If you Humans reading this want a bigger view you can click your mouse on the photo. I like mouses, too.

I have to tell you something. Our Humans are going out more and more, and leaving us at home without the heating on. Ever since they got that new car they take off for hours at a time. When they found out we could turn the airconditioner on from the remote control with our paws they hid the remote in a drawer. Now we’re having to find warm places to curl up instead of hanging out on our cat towers, which is where we really want to be..

People say we’re spoilt kitties to have so many cat towers – these are only two of them. We have more in other rooms. Today when they got home I found these photos from when they were out and I thought I would post them so you can see what kind of fun those Humans are having while they leave us kitties alone.. cold.. with no laps to sit on.

What side of the road are you supposed to drive on in Australia? Or doesn’t it matter, can you just drive in the middle? I think that is really dangerous and my Humans should keep away from cars like that, right? Do you agree?

Maybe you can change sides as long as there’s nobody on the other side, I don’t know. This driving stuff looks confusing. I don’t like cars. I don’t like those cat carrier things the Humans always put us in when it’s time to go in the car either. Why can’t we just roam around the car and find a nice warm spot to sit?

My Humans are smart. It looks like they pulled over in order to get away from the scary drive all over the road Holden car. My Dad Human has a joke about Holdens – they’re just holden together. But I seem to remember he drove one once. That was a long time ago.

My Mom Human likes cows. I remember when they took us to see the EVIL Human with the BIG NEEDLE and we drove past some cows, and she was yelling “Hi Cows! Hi Cows!” at them. The Dad Human tells me she does this anytime she sees cows. I told him I know where the earplugs are and maybe he should use those in order to concentrate on the road better. But look at the view these cows have from their field? I don’t have much of a view here. This house only has one level so I can’t sit in an upstairs window and survey my kingdom.

Wow, it looks like those Humans were going fast!

The Humans keep the car in the Garage. I like the Garage. It’s the only room in the house we’re not allowed to go into but I can’t understand why. Whenever I get in there they say GET OUT to me. I like to hide in between the boxes so they can’t pick me up and carry me out. These cars look like that car they keep in the Garage, and look, they have that XR5 Turbo thing written on them too, just like that one in the garage but I don’t think these are theirs even though it is hard to tell what color the car is when it is inside. Is it possible that three of the five XR5 Turbos within a 50km radius were all parked in the same car park today?

Wow, look at that! Why can’t the Humans get a house with that kind of view where I could look out and dream of catching fish out of the water with my claws all day, and lazily watch the Humans on the beach with one half closed eye?

I’m not a beach cat. I don’t like sand in my paws. But if you could make me a special pair of kitty socks that keep the sand out, I’d like to roam around this beach and put my paw prints everywhere.

Do cats have to be on a leash at the beach? I don’t do leashes. Those are for dogs. Intelligent animals who can bury their doings don’t need to be on a leash, but I wouldn’t want any dogs to chase me. That silly dog next door, he barks all the time at nothing. He just stares off into space saying woof, woof woof, woof and disturbs my napping. I have to go sit on the windowsill and look down at him all superior like.

When the Humans got home, they put all this stuff on the pool table so we could sniff it and check it out. I think they should give the money cards to us. Clearly they can’t be trusted. They go out for a drive and bring home a new car, and then they go out in the new car and bring home.. stuff.

What is this stuff useful for? It’s not tuna, cat towers, toys for us to play with or kitty safe milk. We don’t need it! The Humans tried to get us Kitties to stand on those scales but we refused to put all four paws on at once. We don’t want them to take our Tuna away. Even though that Little Kitty could be considered plump, I keep telling the Humans she is just fluffy. Bye for now from the Big Kitty!

Australia, beach walk, kitties, photo blog country NSW, photos

Weekly Wrap Up 29/07/07

13 Comments Posted on July 29, 2007February 28, 2015 by Snoskred

Wow, what a huge week here on the blog. Monday saw the biggest traffic day ever with 9,722 visitors to the blog in just one day. The last huge traffic spike happened when I accidentally posted about br1tney, par1s and l1ndsay’s fondness for showing off their naked cr0tches, this time it was for a much better reason. The traffic was mostly from Stumbleupon to see the educational Snoskred made 5 MILLION DOLLARS online this year! post. Tuesday saw 6730 visitors. By Wednesday things had started to calm down a little, with 766 visitors but by then the traffic had begun to flow from other places who had posted links to the article.

In total by the end of the week almost 20,000 people have dropped by the blog. They stayed for a while, too – on average visiting several pages and I saw quite a jump in my feedburner stats which means many people subscribed to me on RSS – a big welcome to the new readers – and a hello how’s it going to all readers! Drop by and comment from time to time, I’d like to hear from you. Some people say Stumbleupon traffic doesn’t do that but I have to disagree.

As you can see, StumbleUpon can drive some serious traffic your way, if lots of people like what you wrote and stumble it as well – a big thank you to all the people who stumbled that article and helped to get the word out there about check scams, as well as a HUGE thank you to everyone who posted a link to the article on their own blogs and helped to educate their readers. Bloggers you can still help out, there’s a list of how you can help in the post.

The high amount of visitors is even more amazing because at the time the blogosphere was virtually deserted thanks to the Harry Potter finale book being released. Blogs came to a standstill as people read for hours. Therefore I got a lot of work done, too – a lot of new blogs added to the sidebar mostly.

Funny Search Terms This Week –

giving baby whiskey – OMG how did I get on the first Google results page for this one? Do not give your baby whiskey!

i want to make fake checks – Oh do you now? Well, I gave your IP address to the Canadian Police, so I’d think twice about that now.. ;)

my sister has huge feet – What am i, problem solver for the world this week? ;)

how to cure a germophobe – There is no cure. You can learn to deal with it better, though. :)

contacting a jal stewardesses – If they wanted you to get in touch, they’d have given you their number. Stop stalking these poor ladies!

jobs paid 5 million dollars a year – If you find a real one, let the rest of us know. ;)

food focus xr5 review – It’s a FORD. Not a FOOD! GRRR! And I LOVE IT, if you have the means, I highly recommend you pick one up.

big kitties – Ok, who thinks they meant to put a T instead of a K at the start of the second word?

snake toilet australia – Is this a new fetish? Eew..

Blog Stuff –

I posted about Sephy writing a great how to guide on how to integrate your Blogger RSS feed with Feedburner already here on the blog, but if you missed it and you use blogger make sure to check it out.

Here On The Blog –

I asked the lurkers to jump out and say hi and some of them did, on the hump day I wrote about political correctness, I posted some lovely photos from a couple of outings, I had a bit of a day off on Friday thanks to a headache but I put some kitty photos up to keep you amused and yesterday I wrote an article about how to write your own blog wrap ups.

Past Snoskred.

A few discussions on Blogrhet inspired me to dig this post out. Travel back in time to Monday June 18 and read my thoughts about – Blogrolling and Commercial Promotion.

Coming Up –

This week I’m hoping to take a look at writing in conjunction with Cugat but we haven’t had a chance to chat about it yet. We’ll see what happens. As yet there’s no topic for this week’s Hump Day Hmmm but keep an eye out at Julie’s blog The Ravin Picture Maven to see what it will be, if you’d like to join in – and please do join in, the more the merrier!

Over the next week I want to check out some of my older posts and label them, so if you see anything extra coming through on the feeds, I apologise in advance. Also I am hoping to do a visit run to all the blogs in my sidebar, just to say hi, take a look at your blog designs, see if anyone moved without telling me. If not this week then it might be next week.

weekly wrap up

Blog Wrap Ups Made Simple And Easy..

8 Comments Posted on July 28, 2007February 28, 2015 by Snoskred

For a while, every Sunday on the blog I did a “weekly wrap up” post. It became a firm favorite with my readers and people often emailed or left comments letting me know how much they enjoyed it. So, would you like to make a regular wrap up a part of your blog too? Here’s how to go about it. Note, this may get a little basic at times in order to help out the less technical of us. ;)

1. Decide what categories you want.

It’s a good idea to have a weekly wrap up follow a kind of “set format” or order. It makes it easier for the readers – they know what to expect each week. You can choose any kinds of categories you want – be creative. You could choose to wrap up what has been going on in your life, perhaps little things which didn’t rate a blog post of their own. You can break down some of the categories into smaller chunks, for example my Must Reads section has extra categories within it. My weekly wrap up includes –

Funny Search Terms This Week –
Must Reads – Post of the week – Funnies –
Great Stumbles this week –
Here On The Blog –
Blogs Added To The Sidebar –
Coming Up –

2. Never be afraid to add to your categories –

This week I am going to be adding a new section where I highlight an old blog post of mine each week. I’ve written some great blog posts in the past and newer readers to the blog may never have read those. If you think of something new don’t be afraid to try it out – and if it doesn’t work out that’s ok too. Some categories you might want to only use from time to time when something fits in them instead of weekly.

3. Create a weekly wrap up text file – with formatting included.

This is the key secret to writing the weekly wrap ups – the formatting part is a secret I only recently discovered. How do you do it? I do mine in blogger but what I’m about to say can be done with almost any blogging platform.

– create a new post
– put in your category titles
– format each category title as you want them to appear (larger text, bold, color etc) note you have to do each title separately because you’re going to add text in between the titles later.
– copy the HTML (in blogger just click edit html and copy that – wordpress users, how do you do this in wordpress?)
– paste the HTML into a text file

So now, you’ll have a text file which will look very strange to you because it has odd code in it, eg – (span style=”color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: bold;”)

Save this text file as the BASE file. Then save it a second time as blogwrap(date) and use blogwrap(date) as the file you put your links in as the week goes by – this way once you’ve done a wrap up you can open the base file and then save it as blogwrap(next week’s date) and start putting links etc aside again without having to delete last week’s work. This saves you time and effort!

If you looked at the file, you’ll note I have html in there for the links to posts etc. That’s important when you get to number 4.

4. Have your weekly wrap up text file open when you’re online.

I’ve mentioned Editpad Lite here on the blog before as one of the best free things available on the net – a great little program that allows you to have text files in tabs so you can flick between them.

I always have Editpad running on my computer and I now always have blogwrap(date) open so when I find a great blog post or an article or anything I want to mention in the wrap up, I can add it – this is where the HTML comes in – (a href=”link”)text(/a)

– copy the link and paste that where it says link
– copy the title of the post as written by the author to where it says text.

Once you’ve done that, you have a link ready for posting in a weekly wrap up. Don’t forget to click save whenever you add in a new link – I lost a bunch of links one time when the power went out.

5. Write your thoughts as you go.

When you copy a link, make sure to put a little bit of text next to it on the spot, so you don’t have to spend time re-visiting the links when you’re writing the blogwrap post. An example from tomorrow’s upcoming blogwrap – with the html brackets changed to ( ) so you can see how it looks in the file –

(a href=”http://heritage.stsci.edu/gallery/gallery.html”)Hubble Heritage Gallery Of Images(/a) Sites like this are why I love Stumbleupon.

6. Comment before you leave the link.

I usually like to let bloggers know I’m going to be linking to their post in my next weekly wrap up, sort of as a heads up. This is a polite, considerate and friendly thing to do and a very good habit to get into. Sometimes I forget due to lack of talent, organization or skill. Apologies in advance, I never claimed to be a perfect blogger! ;)

7. Communicate updates to your blog.

The weekly wrap up is a great time to mention new widgets and gadgets you’ve added to the sidebar, as well as any changes you’ve made to the “face” of your blog and any new blogs you’ve added to your sidebar links. When you make a change, note it in your wrap up text file on the spot, so you don’t forget about it.

8. What’s on the horizon?

The weekly wrap up is a good time to let your readers know what may come their way over the next week – however be careful. Blogging happens all on its own sometimes, and sometimes I’ve said things were coming up but those things still have not arrived. I’d generally advise not to say too much, just a brief overview of potential possibilities and topics. However do make sure to let them know if you’re going to be participating in things like the Hump Day Hmmm or various other weekly type things.

Blog wrap ups are good for many reasons but the most important could be helping you to build relationships with other bloggers by showing them you like their work enough to link to it – and generally you will find the link love comes back to you over time.

We all find ourselves amazed, happy, excited, possibly a little scared when we start blogging and get our first comment, and we begin to connect with people. It’s a great feeling. It is a great way of showing your blog readers blogs that you enjoy – and a great way of showing bloggers you love their work which is something bloggers enjoy and like.

10. Click on the links.

Once you have published your weekly update, my advice is to click on all the links in your post. This gets the words out to bloggers that they have been linked to because all bloggers tend to check where incoming links are coming from, and generally they will drop over to your blog and check it out, sometimes leaving a comment, sometimes adding *your* blog to their list of blogs to read.

Pick a day! Let people know.

You should choose a day of the week that you’re comfortable with. I chose Sunday because it was a slow day here at the blog – it’s not anymore. ;) People drop by just to read the wrap up. It’s also made Mondays busier, too.

So there you have it –

How to create the blog wrap up and make it easy. Are you inspired? If you’re going to add one to your blog, make sure to comment and let me know, and send me a link when you write your first one, I’ll drop over to check it out.

Work Smarter –

Until recently my weekly blog wrap up was taking up a fair bit of time at the end of the week to put it together. While I was putting links and search terms aside during the week, it was more of a mish mash of stuff I’d put aside rather than anything organised. I would leave it till Sunday to format the post and lay out the links in some kind of order and in general it would take over an hour to finish writing it.

Now that I’ve decided to work smarter instead of harder, the blog wrap post comes together over the course of a week, and is ready to post on Sunday with only five minutes of checking and editing.

In Conclusion –

How many of us take the time to encourage other bloggers on a regular basis, and let people know we enjoy their blogs and enjoy their work? A weekly wrap up gives you the chance to do that – if you don’t want to do it weekly, you might consider once every two weeks, or even once a month.

blogging tips, how to guides, internet, weekly wrap up, writing tips

The story of my day – with photos!

8 Comments Posted on July 27, 2007February 28, 2015 by Snoskred

I know I don’t normally talk about my health here on the blog but on Friday last week we drove almost to Sydney to get some cold and flu tablets. Why on earth would anyone go so far? It turns out that there’s a pharmacist who makes his *own* cold and flu tablets. We found out by accident one time, when my Dad had the flu and I felt like I was coming down with it too and we stopped on the way to Sydney to get something to help with that, and these tablets were incredible. So last Thursday when the other half and I both felt like we were getting the flu, I said tomorrow let’s go and get the good tablets. Of course, when we got there, they were out. ;(

So this past week I have been feeling pretty blah really. Then last night before I went to bed I felt a nasty headache was on its way to me as a surprise. I wandered into the bedroom considering going to bed early, and I found this.

Yes, the little kitty has a habit of sleeping on any clothes I might leave on the bed. She likes to fur things up. So I went to bed early and when the other half woke me this morning, I still had the headache. I rolled over and went back to sleep, and dreamed about my sister throwing bread dough at me.

Around mid-day I was woken by the sound of a truck reversing and builders talking. Today they laid the foundations for the new house across the road a few doors up. So I got up and stumbled in here, where I visited a few blogs, left a couple of comments, drank a couple of glasses of water, said hi to Sephy on Skype, posted the thought for the day and started thinking about what I would blog about today. I still had the headache but I also had a couple of blog topics I’ve been wanting to write about for a little bit, one being what we can learn from the “make money online” and “search engine optimization (SEO) type of blogs. I just wasn’t up to writing those today and decided to go have a shower and eat lunch instead.

After I had my shower, I heard the dog next door barking at the builders and I decided to open the window for a bit. The kitties have a love affair with the windowsill. Anytime they have a chance they’ll sit there and look out the window. This time the dog saw the cat jump up there and he ran towards the fence barking and growling. The little kitty knew that the big dog couldn’t get her, so she ignored him and tried to watch the builders instead. I wondered where the big kitty was, and I didn’t have to go far to find her.

By this time the headache was really starting to set in, so I sat down and ate lunch and watched an episode of Desperate Housewives. By the time it finished, I didn’t feel any better, so I watched another one. When that one finished, I felt more human so I ventured back to the computer and discovered an email from a very good friend of mine which I found very exciting – but thunder and lightning was going on. So I quickly replied to the email and turned the computer off. And then something truly horrible happened!

Hail! Now normally I don’t mind a bit of hail, in fact normally I adore it. However at this time my brand new car was not sitting safely in the garage. No. It was sitting in the carpark at the other half’s workplace. A good friend of mine once had a car written off by hail damage. I began to panic and went looking for the phone to call the other half. When I got to the phone I thought, what am I going to say? Drive the car home? There might not even be hail over there. So I went outside to take some photos and tried to calm down. When I had finished there was still lightning, so I had to watch more Desperate Housewives. Well, I couldn’t use the computer, what else was I supposed to do?

When I could turn the computer back on I had a reply from my good friend who has started a blog of his own. He’s someone I greatly respect and adore.

One blog post I do want to write is about writing. I have seen many people I think of as excellent writers recently claim to be not good writers. This shocks me somewhat. Cugat is someone who helped me to think more about my writing, and to learn how to edit better. I am hopeful he will share a bit of his knowledge on these topics with his blog readers. ;)

So by the time the day was over, I had finished season 2 of Desperate Housewives, the last 4 episodes watched when I had taken more headache tablets and was hoping the headache would go away if I sat quietly and watched tv. It didn’t work. I still feel like my eyes are going to pop out of my head, and I want to read blogs but at the same time my eyes hurt. So I think I’m going to call it a day, for today. If I didn’t drop by your blog I’m sorry – hopefully tomorrow I’ll be all better. ;)

desperate housewives, health, kitties

Photo Blog – Currarong and Huskisson

5 Comments Posted on July 26, 2007February 28, 2015 by Snoskred

Tomorrow it will be two weeks that we’ve had the new car. I still have not posted a photo of it, I’m sure some of you noticed. As usual, I won’t be lying to you – the truth is I feel a little uncomfortable about doing that since we found out it’s a bit of a rare vehicle around these parts. I didn’t post a photo of my Dad’s car because you could spot it a mile off – we did yesterday when out driving and he went the other way – and there’s less than 500 of them in Australia. So at this stage I’ve decided not to put photos of it on the blog. Yes, it is killing me. Yes, I want to share it with ya’all. Yes, I have photos right here ready to post. No, I just can’t do it. I may get over it soon, but until then if anyone would like a pic, shoot me an email.

What I can do is let you know – the novelty has not worn off. The Other Half has had 5 days off since we got the car. We’ve clocked up 1274kms as of putting her in the garage tonight. Yesterday evening we went for a little drive ending with a beach walk at Currarong at sunset. Today we drove down to Batemans Bay and dropped in to Huskisson on the way home. Just because we could. ;) So here’s some pics from our outings. Click on any for a larger image Below – The beach at Currarong

Below – the bridge across Batemans Bay.

Below – Looking out across Batemans Bay. It was a lovely calm day and the water was like glass, beautiful.

Below – Looking out to Point Perpendicular from Huskisson.

Below – Looking back towards Huskisson. I have seen dolphins swimming in this inlet before, they often go quite a way up the river.

Below – Looking towards Myola and Callala Beach from Huskisson and you can see the now empty swimming pool which is filled with sea water in summer.

Below – looking down to the beach below the point where I have been standing taking these photos.

Below – The dolphin and whale watching boat heads out, looking for the whales. We’d seen a pod of dolphins out in the bay while we were taking these shots. We’ve been out on this boat before and it is a brilliant day out, most of the time Jervis Bay is just as calm as you see in these photos.

The red stuff you can see washed up on the shore in some of the pics is actually red algae, which isn’t too pretty nor does it smell great but it is totally normal at this time of year. In the summer, the beaches will be pure white.

Australia, beach walk, photo blog country NSW

Why The Rolly Eyes Is Evil.

7 Comments Posted on July 26, 2007February 28, 2015 by Snoskred

Emoticons. We all use them on the internet from time to time, but there is one emoticon that should never be used, in my opinion. Unless you want to offend someone.

Imagine I am sitting across from you, and I said “I really like your shoes”.

Now imagine I am sitting across from you, and I said “I really like your shoes” and as I said it, I rolled my eyes like this.

Doesn’t that give an entirely new meaning to what I said? As in, I’m being sarcastic here, I don’t mean what I am saying, I am making fun of you or I really *don’t* like your shoes.

Now imagine there are three of us. I say to you “I really like your shoes” and when you look down to remember which ones you are wearing, I look at the third person and roll my eyes. You don’t see me do it.

Now imagine that same situation, except this time you DO look up in time to see me do it. Have I just offended you? Have I just turned something that seemed to be a compliment into a slap in the face and an insult? I think so..

I can’t think of a situation in real life where it could be taken as a *nice* thing to do. Unless you’re a stand up comedian, perhaps.

I’ve known people who use the eye roll on various forums on the internet, in fact one forum where one user made it their trademark to always be using it in every post – needless to say, that person and I did not get along. I find it puts me off balance a little – as if I’m not really sure if this person is being sincere. It disturbs me, makes me wonder about that person. It often reminds me of bitchy girls in school who would use the eye roll constantly as a put down.

When you use the rolly eyes on the internet, I see it as you actually rolling your eyes like you were talking to me and you did it – and if you’ve just said something you intended as a compliment, I’m seeing it as an insult. I try really hard not to take it that way, but I wonder, how do people actually mean it? Am I supposed to interpret it otherwise?

I know not everyone interprets this the same way, but emoticons on the internet are really all we have to add tone to our writing. My advice is to think carefully before you choose the rolly eyes, and use it sparingly, if at all. There are better emoticons available out there.

I’ll be back soon with a photo blog. ;)

internet

Political Correctness – The Hump Day Hmmm..

9 Comments Posted on July 25, 2007February 28, 2015 by Snoskred

Every Wednesday Julie Pippert from The Ravin Picture Maven holds a round table discussion. This week the topic is Political Correctness. I’m mentioning it up front in case anyone would like to give this topic a poke with a sharp stick themselves.

I would say my mother is the absolute queen of political correctness. Go along to get along. Let things go off your back like water off a duck. Don’t rock the boat, especially if you’re sitting in it. Don’t speak about how you feel. Don’t tell anyone your real thoughts. Keep up appearances at all costs. If someone is being a bitch, don’t call them on it. Take the high road. Rise above it. Blah, blah, blah.

She has been like this as long as I have known her. I wish I knew what earth shattering event caused her to shut down and install roller blinds over her real thoughts – but it was probably nothing more than someone disagreeing with her when she expressed an opinion, and she felt uncomfortable, so she decided the easiest way out is just.. shut up. She hates confrontation and will do anything to avoid it – unless she’s one on one with someone like me, who has never once barked at her when she’s told me what she thinks. Sure, I have disagreed, but somehow we manage to deal with that.

Due to growing up watching this in action, I am pretty much the complete opposite. I like to *think* I am, anyway. But when I look back and think about it, I have not always stood up for myself when I could have. Sometimes there were fights I just could not win. Sometimes the fight was not worth the effort. Sometimes it is easier to just turn away and close your eyes.

Some people have chosen NOT to participate in this topic this week – it’s a busy week for many getting ready to go to Blogher and meet their fellow bloggers. If it was politically correct to do so, I’d say there may be some who chose not to speak because they did not want to face the potential repercussions of speaking their mind on such a topic. I don’t know, but that is a possibility. It’s a shame because I would have liked to read their thoughts.

I don’t have a great many myself.. I’m not feeling particularly inspired today – in fact I am feeling a pull to the DVD player. In there is DVD #3 of season 2 of Desperate Housewives – hello, my name is Snoskred, and I am a Desperate Housewives addict. This show is one of the most politically incorrect that I can recall in recent history – it is actually a dark and twisted type of comedy. People are often surprised to find that out – I know my first impression of the show was that it was just another soap opera, but no! I wonder if maybe that is why people are so drawn to it. They like to see people saying what they really think – in particular I am thinking of the Edie character who never sugar coats things.

My favourite character is Bree. The shot above is taken from an episode where her recently dumped fiancee turns up while she is serving dinner to guests with a karaoke machine. He’s determined to sing her back into his arms. Bree goes outside and tells him to can it, but he won’t. So she goes inside, grabs a shotgun, and shoots the speakers off the top of the van.

Maybe that is another reason why people are drawn to the show – we love to dream of what we *could* do, what we *could* say, if only our hands weren’t tied by this PC nonsense. If only we could be REAL instead of NICE.

I read an article a couple of days ago which I’m going to link to here, it gives an interesting perspective on a new phenomenon soon to shut us up more.. I had it put aside for the wrap up but it suits todays topic. A Weak Me Too Why being the real you on the internet might not be the best of ideas..

I’m off to the shops. I might not be around much tomorrow, we have to go someplace, but I’ll be back with photos before the day is out..

desperate housewives, Hump Day Hmmm

Great How To Guide – Feeds & Feedburner

Leave a comment Posted on July 25, 2007February 28, 2015 by Snoskred

Please note -update 23/08/2014 – Snoskred suggests that you DO NOT use feedburner anymore. :(

Sephy wrote a great how to guide with screenshots on how to integrate your Blogger RSS feed with Feedburner so that you can get detailed stats about your blog’s feed. Right now most blogger people probably don’t know how many people are reading their feed and this is a really good way to find out.

It’s also great because I really struggled with the layout of feedburner and kept having to ask him “what do I do now?” and I bet it got a little trying for him because every time I went there I seemed to have forgotten how to navigate around. Now I can just refer to this guide, which I have bookmarked YAY!

I find that some websites on the net are intuitive – as in, very easy for people to use. Some just don’t click for me. I’m lucky Sephy is my technical guru and always willing to help me even when I keep asking the same questions over and over. I can be a technical low wattage light bulb even at the best of times. This will probably come to people as a surprise – I seem like I am a technical master of things but what I am is more of an idiot savant – if you show me how to do something a couple of times I can remember it and even tell other people how to do it.

If there’s anything computer or blogging related that you want to know how to do, Sephy is offering to make a guide on that especially for you – and others. All you have to do is ask him – either in the comments section of his blog, or shoot him an email via the link on his blog. If you want him to keep it quiet that you were the one asking, he will happily do that and just pretend like I asked him. Its likely I did at some point anyway. ;)

Do you have a technical guru? Are you good with technical things, or do you struggle like me? Leave a comment and let me know.. ;)

blog housekeeping, feed readers, internet

Calling All Lurkers..

10 Comments Posted on July 23, 2007 by Snoskred

Recently I merged all my RSS feeds into one feed and discovered that there’s a LOT of people lurking out there reading my blog via RSS. I’d like to take a moment to thank you for reading, and to ask you a few questions – if you could answer them in the comments or send me an email I’d be very grateful. :) I’d like to know a bit more about you.

Where are you from – you don’t have to give specifics, just which country is ok.

Do you have a blog of your own – if yes, do I link to it and if I don’t link to it would you allow me to link to it in the sidebar? If no, what would it take for you to get a blog of your own?

Is there anything I could do here on the blog to encourage you to comment more often?

Is there any particular topic you would like to see me blog about more often?

Could a how to post (with screenshots) on any particular topic help you? Is there something either blogging or computer related that you’d like to know how to do but have no idea how to go about it? If yes, which topic(s)?

I could ask a lot more questions but I don’t want to scare you off. :)

This post was also partly inspired by slouchingmom who mentioned on Blogrhet that she had asked lurkers to delurk. I thought that was such a great idea.. :)

blog housekeeping, internet