We live in an age of forgetting.
advice
Request for Advice
Feb 3rd
So I’ve been writing this blog for over 6 years now, and the fact that I only have about 2 dozen regular visitors is a good sign that I suck at self-promotion.
My writing isn’t at the level yet where I’m writing one hilarious post after another. So it’s no grand injustice that relatively few people read what I write. But I feel it’s good enough to warrant, say, 100 regular readers.
I’d like your advice on ways I can promote my blog entries. Publicity isn’t my strength, so I’d appreciate whatever ideas you have, however big or small. That includes writing tips, ways to improve the design of the blog, how to get content noticed, and so on. If you have a blog, where did most of your readers come from? (I’m calling you out, lacochran).
When you have a chance, leave a comment with your thoughts or suggestions. Thanks!
The Important Questions in Life
Jan 31st
I was looking through the search logs, and someone found Pancake City by searching for “could your stomach blow up if you eat a lot of pancakes”.
I pictured an 8-year-old kid with a worried look on his face, a half-eaten plate of flapjacks left on the kitchen table, typing in those words as fast as his sticky fingers will allow him as his 12-year-old brother snickers in the corner.
Kid, if I guessed your situation right, let me, an adult, definitively answer your question. Your older brother is right, your stomach can and will blow up if you eat a lot of pancakes. And by a lot, I assume you meant 6. Your brother is older so his stomach is bigger. It is safe for him to eat more pancakes. You will understand when you get older. Thanks for visiting the site!
Pancake City Online Buying Guide
Dec 5th
I don’t understand the yearly rush of shoppers on Black Friday. This year was particularly disturbing when a mob of shoppers crushed a Wal-Mart employee to death, and then complained when police told them they had to leave the store because they had just killed someone.
I went to the mall with Tina on Saturday. Mostly the same deals, less crowded than Friday.
I understand going mall shopping for clothes or anything you need to see or try on first before buying. But I don’t understand people waking up at 3:00 A.M. to buy tech. GPS units, lap tops, video games, flat screen TVs–all of that stuff you can get cheaper online, even cheaper than many of those “Friday only! 5-9 a.m!” specials you see advertised.
If you are looking to buy a particular item for Christmas, let me know and I may be able to find you a good deal. If you are looking to buy something but don’t need it by Christmas, I think there are going to be some great deals after Christmas and for the next few months because the economy is so bad. Retailers are going to be forced to slash their prices.
With that in mind, here’s a short guide to saving money online.
1. Find 1-2 deal aggregator sites and check them frequently, every few hours if you can. My favorite by far is slickdeals.net. They publish their “hottest” deals on the front page. The thing is, once they promote the deal on their front page, it usually sells out shortly thereafter. To get a leg up, visit their forums and read the deals that have 4-5 thumbs up. You can find out about deals before others that way, and see offers that are good but not good enough for the front page.
2. If you know what store you want to shop at, check online for a coupon first before buying. You can search for “[store] coupon” in Google or check out an aggregator like RetailMeNot. Credit card sites sometimes have coupons around the holiday. I used with 20% Banana Republic Visa coupon last week.
3. If you are ordering online, sign up with a cash back site and see if the retailer is participating in a cash back program. It’s usually only a few percent discount, but that can add up if you are buying a big ticket item. The two major cash back sites are Fat Wallet and Microsoft Live’s cash back program. Sometimes you can’t use a coupon and get cash back, so be aware of that. Microsoft’s CB program is better than Fat Wallet’s, but I think they are doing a holiday promotion and it won’t last. (Up until a few days ago, they had 30% off Ebay purchases. Now it’s down to 20%.)
4. Browsing these deal sites can be addicting, and it’s easy to get sucked into buying something you don’t need because it’s on sale. A “Buy 1, Get 1 Free” sale at the supermarket ended up in me throwing away two cans of salmon. This is not for impulse shoppers looking to rationalize their purchases.
If you have your own tips or any questions, let me know.
Music Bridge
Oct 15th
My first modern MP3 was a first-generation IPod shuffle that I got free after signing up for a credit card. I used ITunes and mostly downloaded podcasts, but got annoyed that it didn’t remove dead links from my library. For example, if you move a directory with mp3s on your hard drive, ITunes will then list the title twice, one with the broken link that doesn’t work and one with the working link (after you manually re-add it to your library).
The Mac version of ITunes automatically deletes links. The whole enterprise is a giant F U to Microsoft Windows.
That is why when I got cheap non-Apple MP3 player #2, I switched over to Windows Media Player. WMP automatically deletes old links, has a nicer user interface, and is better at monitoring for new content. It does everything! Except support podcasts, which over 50% of MP3 player owners listen to (source: like I have to tell you. It’s obviously made up.)
Okay. I’ll open ITunes to download podcasts, and then open WMP to transfer them to my MP3 player. That worked fine until I bought MP3 player #3, a first-generation Microsoft Zune on sale for $105. It’s great…except it doesn’t work with ITunes or WMP. In a giant F U to Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Zune doesn’t work with the company’s own flagship media player. It only works with Zune Player!, which looks exactly like WMP except it is black and a little more difficult to use.
Why am I telling you this? For your own benefit! I finally broke down and searched for some third-party programs to handle this mess.
Music Bridge This program copies metadata such as playlists and ratings between ITunes and WMP. You can rate a song in either program and have the rating show up in both libraries. It doesn’t work yet with Zune Player! metadata though.
ITunes Library Updates If you run the Windows version of ITunes, this program will comb your entire library and remove the dead links in it.
Am I missing any neat programs out there?
Old Magazines
May 30th
Is there anything useful to do with old magazines besides recycle them? Should I put on a white beard, stuff them in a red sack, and visit crowded doctor’s offices around Virginia? “Ho ho ho, everybody! It’s Magazine Claus. Here, have an Utne Reader.”
JEE-SUZ…
May 5th
If I told media conglomerates this once, I’ve told them a thousand times. Trying to suppress something only makes it more popular. (see Nightline, Michael Moore’s new movie).
Subject: Security Alert: E-mail and Internet Scams
Feb 3rd
Date: February 3, 2004
Many e-mail scams are currently circulating the Internet and showing up in e-mail inboxes. Many times, these fraudulent e-mails are designed to entice recipients into giving up sensitive credit card and bank account information. It is important to know how to identify and validate whether an offer is a scam, and who to contact in the event you receive one of these questionable offers.
How do I project myself from a scam?
There are many steps you can take to project yourself:
* Don’t follow web links in an e-mail requesting any financial information.
* Contact your bank and ask for verification before responding to any e-mail correspondence you receive from your bank.
* Visit Scamprotector.com. You can find out how much of your personal information is publicly accessible and learn how to remove it from the public arena. Just log in with the driver’s license or credit card number you want to check at the prompt and Scamprotector will take care of the rest.
Writing Lesson #1: Clichés
Jun 19th
Here’s a quick lesson that will help you breath life into the dead chipmunk that you call your writing.
When writing, avoid using clichés. For one, it’s a French word, and everything French is bad. Two, robots use clichés, and no one can compete with robots.
For example:
Bad: Avoid clichés like the plaque.
Good: Avoid clichés like a President avoids hookers with multisyllabic names.
Bad: I have a love-hate relationship with Dr. Laura. I love to hate her.
Good: I have a hate-love-love-hate-relationship with birthmarks in the shape of Warren Beatty’s right nipple. I hate to love to love to hate them.
When you win the Pulitzer, please invite me to the banquet. I hear they have half-price drinks.
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