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Ugh...
Dave (A-Dub's stupid blog host) here.
I just upgraded the software, and the former layout is not working.
I will see what I can do...
UPDATE: Oh goody... almost there!
UPDATE #2: And it looks like we are back for good. Feel free to leave a comment if you find anything funky.
And make sure that you visit the new poll over on the right side bar.
Changed some stuff
I finally added an "important posts" section to the blog. It's called "Read these posts" and it's currently found in the right sidebar. I've listed posts in that section that I think are worth checking out.
I haven't updated the "Things about me" post in a while. Some people tend to do 100 things, but I don't have that grand of a goal, hence the "#".
I mentioned in the "20 Questions" post that I would come back to it, repost it, but time got the best of me and I didn't follow up on that. Now it's on the side there, so should you have a burning question, you can click the link and ask away.
As you will see in the "About this blog" post, this blog isn't meant to be a personal diary. But I've been making a lot more "me" posts lately because of my internship and all the things I've been doing. It's consumed my life for the past 5 and a half weeks and will continue to do so for another week and a half. I haven't seen a movie since I've been here, or watched tv, or listened to radio, hence my not making much media commentary.
The 50 book challenge is just not going to happen this year, but I will make entries about books I do read. And I do plan on making a couple of entries soon about blogs I want to share with you guys - stuff I find interesting.
Being here in PA and using a computer that isn't my own makes me realize how my blog does *not* look good when viewed on Internet Explorer. Sigh. Y'all should get Firefox and then use the appropriate keystrokes to either enlarge or shrink the font to fit your tastes. Just my suggestion.
That's all. Back to your regularly scheduled program!
To the Anonymous Coward
Dear 'Anonymous Coward',
Thanks for stopping by and sharing the 43things info. If you're a regular user over there, I'm sure you've seen my face plenty of times since you commented here in my blog the other day.
And thank you for liking my music review. I don't know if you'll see this entry. I hope you do and I hope you come back to visit my blog again.
Bye! :)
Blog update/Housekeeping stuff
I'm playing around with some things here at CD. Nothing huge, no color or style changes. Just changing the order of some things. So, if you visit the blog directly to see updates, you might see several layout changes over the next couple of days.
Things in my shoutbox are going better than they were in that old, evil, doodle-board shoutbox. Feel free to leave messages. Messages are fun!
Thanks so much for the comments. Comments are fun too! Also, thanks for the emails and stuff that you guys sent. I've received some great feedback from you all so far!
I haven't surfed for traffic in a couple of weeks now. The main reason is time, the other reason is that when checking daily stats of my blog, it seems like I have a small number of people who visit regularly. That's good enough for me! I'm actually positive that the blog's readership will grow as time passes - I just wanted something to start with.
Now that I know people are reading, I started thinking about the content of the blog. I mentioned a few weeks ago in this post what's in the blog and what's down the line. Essentially, it's my blog, so I'll do what I want with it (don't we all?). At the same time, I'd like to give you more of the things that you like to see. That makes it interesting for all of us.
Should I post Mister Roger's quotes more often? Want to know more about what I'm reading? More rants on useless products like "weightless bras" or crazy media schemes? Write about blogs I like more often? Share more websites I like with you all?
Also, if you want to suggest things, or ask me questions, or toss out topics you'd be interested in me writing about, feel free to let me know that as well.
Comments, emails, and IMs are welcome!
Thanks for reading everyone!
Yes, I'm here
Yes, it's true, I updated more often back in the day.
I've been trying to ease my internet addiction and stay on top of schoolwork. Part of my "pushisment" for failing is not updating my blog or LiveJournal. It's easy for me to get addicted to those things and play with them for hours on end and then wonder "where'd the day go?"
So, part of the reason there was a gap for a while is because I *love* that last Mister Rogers quote I posted. I gave it a couple of days to remain at the top...that way surfers who are shooting for traffic (instead getting hooked on new interesting blogs) would at least get to see that awesome awesome quote. And then, the gap became longer because of what I mentioned before. I simply haven't posted because...well, I simply haven't been doing any homework. It's a trial to get me motivated this semester. It really is. Really truly is.
My life is crazy, let me tell ya. I ate a pint of ice cream today and there's a dead lizard in my garage.
Counters
I've heard some people talking about counters lately. I used sitemeter for a while, mostly because I used it on an old website I had. I didnt really like the way it worked this time around, so I tried out branica. I enjoy branica, its free. I do reccommend it. The only problem I have (which hasn't really been a problem thus far) is that while it keeps track of the past 7 or 10 days of total site visits, it only keeps track of the last 10 referrers and the last 10 search terms (though it does keep track of the top referrers and top search terms....of the past 10 days only). Today I signed up for statcounter. I think it's great. I'm keeping branica as well because it's been keeping track of all of my hits thus far. But here's what statcounter can do for you:
You can make the counter invisible (like mine)
and as for things it tracks:
- popular pages
- entry pages
- exit pages
- came from
- keyword analysis
- visit length
- pageload activity
- unique hits, return vistors, page loads
and plenty of other things (including the city and state of y our visitors). It's pretty comprehensive...and its also free unless you get something like 9,000 visitors a month. I don't get that, and that's not what I'm shooting for, so it's free for me, and its great. I don't get anything for telling you this. I just like this service a lot, so I thought I'd share!
Bleh
I got a new tagboard because Doodle-Board went stupid without warning. So now my new box is empty....write something in it!
*legitimate update coming soon*
Funny search terms
I don't really plan on making short blub posts, but when checking my blog stats today, someone found my blog by searching profanity as a part of everyday life
I would like to meet this person.
About This Blog
Well, now that I know my blog has been bloglined/blogrolled/blogmarked etc, by at least one person (yay!) , I thought I'd take the opportunity to give some info on Cogent Diversion - what this blog is and isn't, what's in the blog now, and what's coming soon.
And I'd like to say this before I lose people in the sea of this post: I welcome feedback - I love it! Comments, suggestions, questions. While I do enjoy writing for the sake of writing, it is nice to know that someone is out there reading it. On that note - I am extremely grateful for all of the traffic I have received from BlogExplosion (and from people searching for singing condoms and Paris Hilton's address book) - what brings me greater satisfaction is having regular readers - one, 10, 100, whatever. Just people that are interested in what I've written and who are interactive. I like that. So, if you like what you see in this blog, I encourage you to mark it in some way. Ok, enough of that. On with the long post.....
This blog is:
- A place for me to (hopefully) intelligently express my opinion/insights/thoughts on various things (see "Categories")
- An opportunity for me to share the writings/musings/thoughts of others that I appreciate with people that read this blog (the Circle of Life) my friends
- A way for me to keep on writing. I sometimes face writer's block. Hmmm, well most of the time I do, actually. It's easier for me to write "true" stuff than the fiction that I so desperately wish I could write more of. I'm pretty blocked in the poem area too, but I think that simply by writing in general I slowly "unblock" myself (this is starting to sound strangely like a bowel movement...)
- Other stuff that I can't quite articulate at the moment (sorry - brain fart!)
This blog is not:
- A journal/diary. I have one of those already. I've had it for almost 5 years and it has stuff of a more personal nature, also more of my day-to-day life stuff. For example, unless its something special (say the Gavin concert or my first time at a club) you really won't see posts like "well, today I went to class and work and then this kid something funny and then I ate macaroni..." (not that my LJ is exactly written like that, but Im just illustrating that this won't be about what I do all day). Feel free to check out the LiveJournal though - it can be added to Bloglines - not sure about other blogrolling software.
I am not detached from my content - you will learn about me through this blog, just not about my every emotion etc etc.
What's in the blog:
On the left (for now) we have
- Books I'm currently reading (if they have no rating that means I'm less than halfway through it)
- Albums that I listen to repeatedly (it has been static for the past two months or so, but typically changes more often)
- A link to my almost-five-year-old LiveJournal
- My Amazon Wishlist (feel free to buy me a gift at any time!)
- The blogs I read (not including those that are blogmarked on BlogExplosion that have yet to be moved over to BlogLines)
- Non-blog sites that I enjoy (soon to be updated)
- Random stuff I'm playing around with that I don't know where to put
- Random photos from my flickr account. (great site by the way!)
On the right we have
- Recent posts
- Recent comments
- a Doodle-Board. I'm playing around with this. If people don't leave messages, or leave "I hate Mr. Rogers - he sucks!" messages, I'll most likely remove this.
- Categories that the posts fall into (pretty self-explanatory - you can check it out and see what kinds of things I've already written about)
- Archives
- Links to give me stuff (:) ) or subscribe to my blog through Bloglines
- Ads (eh, these will probably be removed. perhaps replaced by ads that more closely relate to my blog's content. Perhaps replaced by nothing at all)
- Two counters ( don't ask)
Special things:
What's coming soon (this is all up in the air, but I hope it comes into being):
- My personal "50 Book Challenge" - I sincerely doubt that I will have 50 books read by the end of the year - in my mind that means (just looking at things simply of course) 25 books in six months. I can't predict summer through December but January - June is not looking like lots of complete book reading. But I'd like to write about the books I do complete - I think books are great. I'm so addicted. I have so many that I can't keep them in my crowded college apartment (have to be considerate of the other people who live here, ya know).
- stuff I've written - short stories, poems, whatev. Still thinking about this one.
- A section on the sidebar with links to pertinent posts - my bio, this post, "110 Things About Me," why I have Mister Rogers quotes, what the "Most Excellent Blogs" is about, etc.
Yeah, I know, long winded post, but I felt the need to get that all out of the way.
I'm thinking, I'm think...
I've been thinking about things I want to add to this blog. I've tossed around a lot of ideas - some seemed good, and after a lot of thinking, some seemed bad.
I think I'm going to add a list of books I want to read. Over on LiveJournal, theres a community called 50 Book Challenge. I've made two unsuccessful attempts to reach this goal (that means two years). I'd like to do better this year, though I'm not sure how well I will do because of the amount of time I spend working, the fact that I'm taking 18 units (made up of 6 classes that give a lot of homework), the fact that I'm addicted to blogging, and finally, that when I don't feel well, it's really had for me to concentrate on what I'm reading. But I do love to read and Lord knows I have waaaaaaaaaaaaay more than 50 books on my shelves that need reading (I'm a book addict), so I'm going to give it a shot.
I'm also thinking of adding a blog spotlight type of feature. Since I don't really have any regular readers right now, it won't do much, but with the lovely archiving feature, all the posts will be kept together in a nice little group, one click away for all those who want to see them. I probably won't feature any LiveJournals - kind of pointless since most of my friends over there do friends-only posts. But I've been reading several good blogs over the past few months and have enjoyed even more since starting this blog and reading the random blogs I come across on Typepad and BlogExplosion.
So, we'll see what happens with these and other things I've tossed around in my head. But they would be fun to do for sure.
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