 |
 |
| |
Blog Posts
I didn't mean this to be a rant about all things google, but what research project does not begin there? I've used health.google for my personal records, but as a resource it is awesome as well. There was a new interface at images.google as well. Just when you thought their offering was perfect, it gets better. Anyway, I have a toothache. The bad news is it's Periodontitis. The good news is also that it's Periodontitis. I went to the dentist expecting the drill and left with floss. I'm not the only one with lousy dental hygiene and TMJ. But, I'll save a ton of dough if the floss stops the bone loss. My wallet is one of my best teachers...
- Friday, July 23, 2010 at 11:56:12 (EDT)
My Cancer Treatment Information site actually makes money from advertising. Then again, it was built in 1996 and online ever since with huge traffic and links to it from all over the world. For new sites, there is no traffic so it is impossible to earn ad income. In the month of June, I was able to drive traffic to the site with the following results: 35 Clicks, 656 Page impressions and an Estimated earnings of $24.91 (sweet!) What this doesn’t account for is the $173.25 I paid to bring that traffic. I bought ads so I could sell climbing walls. I got one email and no clients, then stopped the campaign after losing money. July's stats? 10 pages and 0 clicks = $0 earnings.
- Tuesday, July 13, 2010 at 14:01:16 (EDT)
Here's another reason why it is hard to be in this business these days. Having a website is no big deal. When I made my first site in 1994, it was radically cutting-edge. By today's standards, it's less than a joke. Now, you can get a site like this for free. The deal with this client was free site programming and hosting if I could post my ads, but they wanted a cut. The site had incredible functionality for sharing, but the client didn't want to share. What good is a blog with no posting? Go post to it yourself. At least someone will...
- Wednesday, July 07, 2010 at 22:08:17 (EDT)
I don't really like talking about building custom websites anymore. The industry has changed and selling people on the new model is hard. A new client provides a good example. He had a WordPress site already and could use some optimization help. So, I ported his site to .html and posted ads. He was opposed to ads for the "competition" while using open source software to run his site, yet saw no irony in it. Another new client gets it and will be fun to develop a web 2.0 portal for him. I have an idea for capturing traffic and for promoting this guy. No idea what this is good for yet. (inspired by the L.A. Eruv)
- Tuesday, July 06, 2010 at 13:27:06 (EDT)
I finally redesigned one of my sites that was put up in 1996. It used to move product, but now it drives traffic due to high search relevancy. It didn't help that someone stole my code and cloned my site (!) Go ahead, compare my page to theirs. Now, check the redesign. Nice. Special shout-out to Bare Bones for allowing the replacement of code blocks through whole folders of files using their BBEdit tool. I had to move to a new server because my old one got bought (again) by some crap company. Big hassle, but a good thing. Check out my new product launch. Saphira is on the East Coast, so I gaked a mobile phone blog for her. She also has this one.
- Wednesday, May 26, 2010 at 19:02:06 (EDT)
My life has been pretty serious as of late. The whole parenthood and head of household thing has taken on a new flavor as I come into my own. Still, the person I was is who I am and some stuff remains a family value to be passed to my kids. A big one is the D.I.Y. (do it yourself) ethic and aesthetic. It's sooo punk! Thus, we packed it uptown to see The Runaways, the year's best movie by far. (Avatar? Feh!) There was some big league teenstar power pulling us in. Dakota Fanning as Cherie Currie was more than perfect. Same with Kristen Stewart as Joan Jett. Jailbait! Stella Maeve (Emma Boardman on Gossip Girl!) was cute as Sandy West, but the show-stealer was Michael Shannon (Cecil B. DeMented!) as Kim Fowley. That's who I want to be when I grow up! Therein lies the contradiction...
- Wednesday, April 28, 2010 at 14:14:39 (EDT)
Man, I've really been lagging on my blog lately. It has something to do with my time being my own now that I don't rely on an employer to pay my bills. Another big factor is that the kids have grown enough for me to join the minyan at shul three times a day. Another huge time commitment is learning the
Daf Yomi. To do this, I got my first volume (out of 72) of the Artscroll Schottenstein Edition. The current Masechet is Sanhedrin and it is WAY complicated. Thus, I find myself studying at all hours of the day and night to keep up with the page-a-day schedule. Today is
Purim and it has it's own set of related mitzvot. Last night, the kids joined me after Seudah Shlishit for Megillat Esther, which is alway a rowdy good time. We distributed Mishloach Manot today, which is another of the activities related to the day, along with Matanot l'Evyonim and Machatzit HaShekel. The night finished with the Purim Seudah which was a tipsy good time for all.
- Sunday, February 28, 2010 at 16:25:18 (EST)
Happy New Year! I hope you have a good one!
- Friday, January 01, 2010 at 03:10:28 (EST)
It's been Channukah for a few days, which to most of the world means menorahs and gifts. For me, it means the same plus a bunch more. The orthodox shul I hang around at has been pretty busy this week since there is a Torah reading and Hallell each day, plus the addition of Al Hanisim into all the prayers. This morning was Rosh Chodesh Tevet as well, so davening began at 6:10 am instead of the 6:20 am since the chag began since there is also Mussaf and a second Sefer Torah was read from. This morning we messed up the The Aliyot for Rosh Chodesh Chanukah by dividing the four available incorrectly between the two scrolls. My understanding was that we could add an additional aliya to correct the problem. The Rav later said while we were learning Mishna Berura that I was correct, which is pretty cool.
- Thursday, December 17, 2009 at 16:33:25 (EST)
I had the intense pleasure of attending a Bris Milah at my shul this morning and found it to be a very moving experience. For those who can't feel the significance of the mitzvah, it could appear to be quite barbaric and cruel. But for us "insiders," it is the sort of thing that brings tears of joy. While circumcision is common in hospital births these days and nary raises an eyebrow, making a big deal of it as Jews do takes a bit of understanding. We have learned in the last few parshaot about the Covenant of Avraham and what it means to us today. It is a crucial element of our cultural identity and something we celebrate with feasting, singing and words of Torah. I personally had a bris at age 34 (ouch!), which is a long story that I'd be more than happy to tell you, so I can attest to its importance.
- Friday, November 20, 2009 at 14:24:31 (EST)
I've been pretty lazy about blogging, and everything else, this week. After taking the whole summer off for a projects blitz, it is WAY hard to get my head into business. Granted, I have run out of other stuff to do and money is finally getting tight. My "job" is to call life insurance agents and help them submit applications. What that entails is being hung up on most of the time. Being is sales is harsh, but way better that kissing up to some tool in order to get a paycheck and help someone else get rich. My last gig was deeply corporate, what I said I would never do. I don't miss it even a little. So now, rather than being motivated by the risk of being fired (I always get fired) the risk is losing everything. Guess it's time to make some calls.
- Thursday, October 15, 2009 at 14:58:52 (EDT)
I took the kids to hear the Shofar at Beth Jacob and it was meaningful to us all on different levels. I was moved to tears when an old-timer read the Haftorah. His pronunciation was straight out of Anatevka and reminded me of how we have survived countless plagues and enemies since the beginning of time. I cried even harder when, much later in the service, I spotted the old-timer way up in the front stooped over four books he had spread out on his own little wall in the corner. There is nothing that I want more in life for myself than that. I've always been a crybaby anyway. (I just bawled my eyes out watching Little Chavela dance away from the Fiddler). Saphira felt some importance related to her first Yom Tov as a Bat Mitzvah, but I felt bad about not preparing her better for the intensity and duration of orthodoxy. Caleb was reverent as well, but wasted no time slipping out when I said go. New Year. New Job. I went to my first meeting as "Brokerage Manager" with my bro's company and met the other principals. I trollied there and hit Attempt to Raise Hell on the way back. Yesterday, an agent gave me a couple cases to work on. One of 'em could earn a couple grand for me if it closes. So yeah, life is good. Baruch Hashem.
- Wednesday, September 23, 2009 at 11:35:44 (EDT)
I was incredibly unmotivated all summer to do anything that resembled "work" but I never worked so hard. I sweated four inches off my waist with plain ol' hard labor. It's done now and all is great. We've been moving Caleb into my room. I found a good full-size mattress down the street and swapped my huge bed out to the garage to use as a crash pad. My clothes are in the house still, but much of my hardware, library and collections have moved into my new space. We upgraded our AirPort Extreme network to 802.11n and got new network cards for the PC's (of course, the Macs worked fine) so we are smokin' wireless! A cool thing is that the new router shares a USB drive accross the network, so we have a media server for our 800 gig TV show archive. One thing that sucks: summer is over.
- Sunday, September 13, 2009 at 20:09:56 (EDT)
Current Year | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 | 2001
|
|
 |
 |
website hosting provided by sucatdavid.com, a place for sharing...
sponsored in part by Cancer Treatment Information
|
|
