Christmas Traffic Slump

You may wonder why webmasters are grumpy around Christmas. With all the traveling and get-togethers, people just don't get on the internet and surf like they regularly do. This phenomenon is not related to just Christmas, but the other major holidays put a big dent in website traffic.

Here is one of my websites, http://buildfree.org/, and as you can see traffic to that site from the 22nd to the 26th suffered greatly. And since statistically visitors are money, revenue is nearly cut in half for a short period. (December 30th count was at 7:30 in the morning).

Multiply that times about 10 (my good revenue generating websites), and you can see why I am glad when Christmas is over. The only ray of hope is, I always hope there were a few extra computers under the Christmas tree, and by the traffic count on the 28th and 29th, that may be true.

Small Random Game Widget Finished

I have been working on a smaller version of my free "Random Game Widget". It is now available to put on a website or blog by copying and pasting a short snippet of script. The random game widget displays a different game with a refresh of the browser or page load. To capture the free game widget for your website or blog, just click the "get widget" tab at the bottom of the respective widget or go HERE for the small version, or HERE for the large version. As of today, both random game widgets contain over 450 games and more games are added regularly.

Remember you can always use the larger random game widget too!

I will also build you a custom combination of multiple widgets for free. For example, if you want a series of 3 widgets stacked on top of each other, or 3 by 3, or 5x5, you get the idea. Just email me at websitegames@fastmail.fm.

---

Blogs Directory

Hip Hop Violin - Paul Dateh and inka one

---

Why use a free Email provider?

Well you would think that after 20 years if internet, someone could do something about spam. I don't care how good your spam filter, there are still a few spam emails in my several email inboxes. Sometimes there are even more, like yesterday, I had 35 different emails from the same POS.

I have 20 websites and I use about 15 different email addresses to speed up the contact process. If I get a message to a certain email, I know which website they are referring to. I used to get emails that said "I would like to advertise on your website, or I would like to exchange links with your website. I would spend an extra day pinning down the site they were referring to.

So using a free email provider is a necessity. It is also handy every now and then to just dump an email address when it starts to receive mega spam. Another good use for a free email is to just to use it as a disposable email to sign up for free websites and free offers (notorious spammers)so your "real" email doesn't get buried in spam.

Get your own free email address HERE

---

Weather Monitor Widget

Read more about this widget free at HERE

YoWindow.com
Forecast by yr.no

Gullible Warming (revisited)

Ok, so I don't get it right every time, but my post from January 18, 2009 was pretty accurate. Now it seems the truth on global warming is coming out that the statistics were skewed to appear worse than they are. You can read my original post HERE.

4 hands and 1 guitar

---

Funny T-Shirt Day - Soak It In Cider

I have a goal for the "Soak It In Cider" funny t-shirt of the day. I would like to see it worn by a 24 year old guy that is 6' 1" and 145 pounds. He should need a shower, have a 2 day beard and a drinking problem. He should be wearing the t-shirt as he comes out of the trailer only to be arrested on the show "Cops".

What would help, would it being about 95 degrees, early evening with a fat neighbor lady in a moo-moo coming out of here trailer just to shake her fist and put in her two cents.

The "Soak It In Cider" Tee is a heather gray wife-beater tank top that would be a great trailer-trash gift as it only costs $9.89 cents. SPECS: "heavyweight pre-shrunk cotton tank for men has matching jersey-knit trim on neck and arm-holes and a double-needle stitched bottom hem. Keep cool in the summer or at the gym (or an episode of COPS) with this 100% cotton shirt with a fabric weight of 6.1 oz.

The Soak It In Cider t-shirt is available at Doublex.SpreadShirt.com

Bluffton Man Wins 2 Million Dollars With Scratch Off Lottery Ticket

Let me start out that I hope that there is a higher power guiding people to make the choices they do. And also may I say that my opinion will probably not be too popular on this matter. It is just I have a few observations that may even be based on the jealousy I have for this man's good fortune.

Mick Brickley of Bluffton Indiana buys a $30 scratch-off lottery ticket and wins 2 million dollars. On the surface we can say this is a great thing, but the article at Wane.com goes on to state that Mick has been laid off from his job since June of this year. So here is where I start to examine the big picture more closely. For one, I wonder what business a laid off guy has buying a $30 scratch-off ticket. I can only assume that Mick has a family that may have benefited from the $30, as money is probably tight. The second problem I have with this scenario, is I can also assume that Mick is receiving unemployment compensation. This money is intended to keep one and one's family fed and housed. By me contributing to the fund, indirectly I helped pay for Mick's ticket. Strangely enough, this purchase burdens me with a bit of guilt because of the despair I have observing the decline of the economy and (ironically enough) increased unemployment.

Going one step further, my financial contribution to Mick's ticket should give me legal rights to a portion of Mick's winnings, albeit it would only amount to probably 12 cents. Or better yet, Mick should return any unemployment payments he received and have it redistributed to those who REALLY need it. So who is to blame for this? Is it my fault for looking beyond the obvious just for a gratuitous blog post? Is it the Lottery's fault for victimizing the despondent by selling ridiculously high priced scratch-offs? Is it Mick's fault for spending money that could have been put to better use on a lottery ticket?

Health Care Reform Means Health Care Rationing..

I didn't think we would see it this soon, but the news over the last couple weeks seems to be the first steps towards the slippery slope of health care rationing. First was the news from the "U.S. Preventive Services Task Force" claiming women under 50 don't need mammograms. The news on the radio said the new guidelines were "doctor recommended", but according to Wate.com, "They did not have anybody on their panel who were experts in the diagnosis or treatment of breast cancer. They did not ask for any public input and their literature search was not subject to peer review."

Then a few days later, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommend women in the United States should start cervical cancer screening at age 21 and most do not need an annual Pap smear. They also say women younger than 30 should undergo cervical cancer screening once every two years instead of an annual exam. And those age 30 and older can be screened once every three years.

It is my opinion, but most doctors are "for profit", and testing is one of the easiest money-making opportunities. So I don't see these recommendations actually endorsed by practicing doctors. Plus identifying and preventing full-blown cancer should be paramount in any medical game plan. Saving money now only pushes the expense onto a future administration. (a great political ploy) So in my cynical view, I think this is related to the proposed "health care reform bill", and what are today recommendations, tomorrow will be the law. By getting new recommended guidelines on the table before the health care reform bill passes, makes further changes more acceptable to the population.

So in the coming weeks, I see new recommendations for rectal screening and prostate exams. So instead of grabbing our ankles, we should stock up on turmeric and start grabbing our ankles. (kudos to you if that sentence makes sense to you.)

Funny T-Shirt Day - Shiite Happens

The "Shiite Happens" a great tongue-in cheek take on the "shit happens" t-shirt that was so popular in the 80's. You could show your friends that you are brazen yet sensitive to the Muslim cause. The hottest thing on the liberated streets of Baghdad. The Shite Happens tee will at least be a conversation starter at the dinner table.

Form-fitting Unisex Eco-Heather Crew Shirt, 38% cotton (6.25% organic cotton), 50% polyester (6.25% recycled poly), 12% rayon, Brand: Alternative Apparel As a unisex shirt, it is recommended that men order a size up for a more roomy fit and women order a size down if looking for a tighter fit.

You can get your Shiite Happens T-Shirt at www.doublex.spreadshirt.com. You can also open your own T-shirt store for free and design your own shirts HERE.

Another Rant On Going Green..

More cities are encouraging and even mandating that residents who don't compost at home take time to divide their food and yard waste from other trash so it can be recycled elsewhere. San Francisco is implementing a new rule requiring that its citizens separate their household waste items into green "composting" carts or potentially face fines.

It might just be opinion, but I think the landfills NEED some organic materials in the pile. That way the brew can start cooking to create the heat to allow the rest of the inorganic materials to decompose quicker. For example, if you just have a stack of newspapers (in the landfill) the size of a house and don't add any goodies like grass clippings, egg shells, meat scraps and the like, and you dig it up in a thousand years, it will still be a stack of news papers the size of a house. So in the long run, we come out even. And a lot of businesses and factories fuel their plants with the methane created by the mixture.

Also, they want us to separate all our household waste down to it's lowest common denominator, they should lead by example. If it is true we could compost all our household waste right at home and not end up with just a big heap of garbage in the yard, then why don't they just do it on a bigger scale. We should be the largest producers of black dirt on the planet. And if they can't separate it themselves, I have a great solution for that too. You can read more about my idea HERE.

Several years ago, I thought I would go green and build one of those grass clipping yard / kitchen waste composters. I used the pallet method and ended up with 2 compartments 4 feet by 4 feet. The theory is, put your grass clippings and waste in one compartment, and every week or so transfer the mess into the other compartment. At the end of the year, all I had was a stinky mess of grass clipping slime. I even broke down and bough some of those granules (expensive) that are supposed to make grass clippings break down faster. Even next spring it was not good for anything, so I threw the mess in the trash. So much for that. I have a smallish lawn, so I am skeptical on the whole yard waste composting campaign.

I am somewhat green though these days. I use the "Jerry Baker Lawn Tonic" twice a year. It helps the grass clippings break down quicker when you mulch (among other things). I will not try to compost my own grass clippings even if someone gave me one of those funny looking composting balls that you fill with clippings and roll around the yard to stir it. I hope I see someone in my neighborhood with a composting ball rolling around their yard, so I can go down there and laugh my butt off.

The Face On Mars..

This controversy has been going on for many years, but I am sure this post will set the record straight once and for all. There are several reasons why we want to believe there is a face on Mars. Outer space is vast, and the immensity of it all can make us feel very small, a mere pinhead in the totality of it all. We want to feel important. We want to feel like a part of the universe, and seeing a face on Mars would give us a connection that would make us feel like an important part of the grand scheme of things. It is human nature to express dominance over it's surroundings, and a face on Mars would be like "Yeah, we conquered mars". Albeit, it was a millenia ago and we don't have the technology now, we see a human face, so it had to be us.

Well I hate to bust the space bubble, but it boils down to imprinting. All animals (including humans) come out of the womb and as soon as they are able, the "imprint" on on their mother's face. When mom is not available, they imprint on the first face they see. It is instinct to look for 2 eyes, a nose and mouth on an oval shaped blob. They may not have the best of vision, but that face is ingrained into their brain. This is what they will look for when they are hungry, scared, cold or lonely. Animals never really grow out of this deeply seeded instinct, although it is not needed as much as we grow older.

An example of this in my life, is we have a faux sponge painted wall in the bathroom of our house. I can guarantee that the paint was applied in random motion with varying amounts of paint and pressure. Yet. when I look at the wall, I can see areas that resemble human faces or bodies better than I could draw if I sat down with paper and pencil. Some are very small and only require a few paint dabs for my brain to decipher them as relevant. A brain will fill in the blanks to satisfy it's need to make sense out of apparently random facts and figures.

Now I am not discounting the whole alien theory, or the theory that there have been several technological superior civilizations that have lived and died right here on Earth, I am just saying not to bank on the face on Mars to be the evidence...

So You Are Ready For A Diet...

The hardest thing in changing your eating habits (I don't call it a "diet") is getting started. It may seem like "what's the use?, this is going to take forever". And in reality, it will. If you are obese, then you probably do have bad eating habits (excluding medical conditions), and a complete lifestyle change is needed. I am no doctor, but I have lost 20 lbs in the last 5 weeks just by using the following tricks. I will admit, I do not exercise much, so there is really no excuse if you have been considering shedding a few pounds.

1. When sitting down for a meal, immediately take half of it off your plate and put it in a storage container. Put it in the refrigerator.

2. Eat more salad, but cut back on the dressing. You do not have to get "fat free" dressing (yuck), but dilute it heavily with apple cider vinegar (organic if you so choose). Store-bought dressings are too thick anyway. To keep yourself from burning out on lettuce salad, try different types of greens like a Bok Choy Salad or fresh spinach.

3. Substitute low-fat cottage cheese for sour cream. Especially great on Mexican dishes.

4. Have rice instead of mashed potatoes. Make it with chicken broth to enhance the flavor.

5. Have fresh fruit handy. We all love bananas, apples and oranges, but sometimes it is just easier to grab the potato chip bag while watching tv. A better snack would be a low-fat yogurt on top of apple and orange slices covered with a sprinkling of Grape Nuts cereal. Also prunes, (yes, prunes) Sometimes a change in diet can lead to constipation, eat 5 prunes every day, preferably in the evening.

6. Take a multi-vitamin every day. That way if you decide to skip a meal (nudge, nudge) once in a while, you will still get the nutrients you need.

7. Drink more water. Soda and beer are a waste as a food product. At least switch to a light beer or diet soda, and no more than 1 a day, sorry.

8. Have something around the house you can just "pig out" on. There is nothing more depressing than having 7 good days on a diet, then backsliding on something you know you shouldn't have eaten. It can derail your whole outlook when you see yourself as a failure. I like to use unbuttered (lightly salted) popcorn. It keeps well and if you HAVE to have that full feeling once in a while, popcorn can fill the void. Slow cooked rice is good too, it is filling! Also great is some lean protein like pinto beans and great northern beans. Randall makes a variety of beans in a jar that are ready to eat and are completely fat free. The great northern has a "cooked all day" taste, but my favorite is the jar of pinto beans. Mildly spicy and extremely filling, and also fat free. Canned cooked black beans are great. When I need something to pig out on, beans are what I choose as not to ruin my diet

9. Don't be afraid to throw (old) food out. Just because there are leftovers, doesn't mean you need to eat them. I know we did good in step 1, but in a smaller household, sometimes leftovers need to be pitched. Coming from a poorer large family, this is one of my hardest things to do.

10. Weigh yourself EVERY MORNING at the same time and track your weight loss results on paper or on the computer. Having a visual record makes it more of an event instead of just a thought. It is also important to see your results in the long term. You may lose 5 pounds, then be STUCK there for 2-3 days. At the time, this is discouraging, but seeing the overall picture with a gradual decline will make those days easier.

Now I have posted this for me as well as for you. I have a responsibility to lead by example and keep on track.

*With any change of diet, you may want to visit your doctor to make sure you are otherwise healthy.

The Obesity Epidemic

Everyone is looking for someone or something to blame for the obesity crisis. According to the CDC website, "In 2008, only one state (Colorado) had a prevalence of obesity less than 20%. Thirty-two states had a prevalence equal to or greater than 25%; six of these states (Alabama, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, and West Virginia ) had a prevalence of obesity equal to or greater than 30%". That does not even count those that are just "overweight".

Personally I blame it on fast food restaurants like Burger King, McDonald's, etc. It is way too convenient to just stop and get burgers and fries on the way home than to cook a decent meal. And with the politically correct world we live in, we have to cater to the kids' likings. McDonald's and Burger King is great because EVERYBODY likes it. You don't have to argue with the kid to eat his broccoli.

But a Whopper has 670 calories, with 39 grams of fat. 11 grams of that is saturated fat. A medium Burger King French fries has 360 calories with 20 grams of fat. 4.5 grams of that is saturated fat. Add a medium chocolate shake and you get 690 more calories with 20 more grams of saturated fat. 12 grams of that is saturated fat. Total that up and you get 1720 calories and 79 grams of fat. There is no excuse to serve a meal like that. Based on a 2000 calorie diet, you are done eating for the day.

To burn those calories walking, the rule of thumb is 100 calories per mile for a 180 pound person. So you would have to walk a little over 17 miles that day. This works out great if you live 8 1/2 miles from a Burger King...

So it is how it is. You cannot have a government mandate forcing Burger King or McDonald's to serve healthy food because it would taste like crap and this is a free country. So the only thing we can do is educate your kids to make healthy choices as they grow older. And get them involved in a physical activity like Extreme Trampoline!

Mom Made Beany Weenies For Thanksgiving...

With all the Thanksgiving hype on the internet, I thought I would share this experience that happened to me many years ago. I was about 13 and it was a day or two before the annual family Thanksgiving dinner. It was one of those years when it seemed like everyone was going to be in town. My mom was pretty much on her own cooking and it was starting to look like 20 or more family members were going to be there.

I know mom was making her plans on what she need to get at the store, when all at once the phone started to ring. Now I will be the first to say that our extended family did not get along all the best. (I didn't know it at the time, but my parents were contemplating divorce). One side of the family said "I don't know if I am going to be there if so-and-so is going to be there. And the other side called too and said the same thing, putting my mom in the middle. She did not uninvite anybody and she just told everyone to show up if they wanted to, and if they did not make it, it was their loss.

Thanksgiving morning came, and I went into the kitchen to see if there was any early Thanksgiving goodies I could snack on, but the kitchen was virtually empty. I asked my mom if everything was ok, and she said she had it under control and for me to go out and play. I figured she decided to have it catered, or maybe everyone else was bringing a dish. Well teenage hunger kicked in and guests started to arrive. but no one was carrying anything. I went back in the house, and my mom had a great big serving bowl in the middle of the table full of beany weenies! There must have been 20 cans of pork and beans and 2 packages of chopped up hot dogs. Other than paper plates, plasticware and some potato chips, that was it.

At first I thought my mom had lost it, but stepping back and seeing the big picture my mom was my hero. I was so proud of her for making a statement. She was able to spend time with the family members that WANTED to be there instead of cooking and cleaning. I didn't miss the turkey that year at all...

You can read a bit more about my mom at http://jimmohr.blogspot.com/2009/05/best-chicken-and-noodles-ever.html.

Having A Savings Account..

Right now is a terrible time for living off your interest money earned from a savings account. But there are many elderly (and not so elderly) doing that right now. When interest rates were around 6% on a CD (certificate of deposit), a person with a life savings of $200,000 could expect to receive $12,000 a year, or $1000 a month. (taxable income) After the catastrophe of the recession (or whatever it was), interest rates on CD's are around 2%. So the same amount of money would earn only $4,000 a year, or $333 a month. This amounts to a 66% pay cut.

This fact is not talked about in the media today. There are millions of people living off of way less money than they were used to. These people do not have a "category" easily tracked by graphs and statistics. They are lost as a casualty of today's events. This also hurts the Federal Government considerably. Interest income is taxable. So the IRS is getting 66% less money from taxable income. In many cases, it amounts to even more than that because the loss of income for the recipient. This may push them into a lower tax bracket and they will pay even less tax.

That being said, saving in a bank account is a good habit long lost. Today's economy thrives (or at least used to) on credit purchases. I remember when I was little and got paid $5 to cut the grass, my dad would make me walk up to the bank and deposit half in my savings in a savings account. He would inspect the bankbook when I got home. At the end of the year, he would sit down with me and show me the benefits of interest earned. $100 became $110, add a little more and $150 becomes $170. That is great incentive for a 10 year old.

When I was a bit older, he also explained the shortcomings of negative interest. Negative interest is the interest YOU pay out on credit cards and loans. A 17% interest credit card is like a savings account in reverse. Not only are you NOT earning money with your money, you are losing money at a ridiculous rate just for the convenience of being able to make payments. Paying 17% and not earning 3% adds up to 20% more money that you should have. I know that is a crude example, but you get my point.

I do not object to a credit card purchase as long as you pay off the entire balance every month! As a matter of fact you can actually make a little money by doing just that. As long as you pay off the entire balance at the end of the month, you have kept that money in your account until they actually cash the check.

My dad's theory was simple; if you cannot afford to pay cash for something, you cannot afford it. Period. He did not object to buying on credit, but it was a good check and balance of where you stood. By following this advice, I developed a habit that carries on 40 years later - put a little money in the bank whenever you can. And leave it alone!

Maybe it is because kids today can't fathom the mathematics, but I don't think we need to discourage young people from saving...

Save Money On Gas..

My blog post for today quotes an article straight from MSN's website in the Lifestyle section. It gives us "10 ways to save money on gasoline". You can read the full article HERE. Let's just say I am a bit skeptical, but I just love these type of gas mileage savings articles full of helpful hints. The author has good intentions, but let's break it down into real numbers.


#1. New air filter can save you 10%
#2. Front end alignment can save 10%
#3. Tune up can save 4%
#4. Proper tire inflation can save 2.8%
#5. Proper gas cap can save .5% (1 cent per gallon @ $2 a gallon)
#6. Slowing down can save 7%
#7. Driving Smoothly can save 33% (66 cents per gallon @ $2 a gallon)
#8. Laying off the brakes can save 35%
#9. Carrying less weight can save 1-2% (let's just say 1%)
#10. Don't idle can save 1 cent per gallon for every 3 minutes - I idle maybe 6 minutes a day for a 2 cent or 1% savings by turning off engine.

So if I add up all my savings, I can expect to increase my gas mileage by 104.3%. It looks like I will have to stop every few miles to drain some gas out of my tank.

If you believe all this, maybe you can tell me where the Missing Dollar went.

Casa Salad Recipe

There is a great restaurant chain here in the Fort Wayne, Indiana area called Casa D'Angelo. The Casa Restaurant Group currently has 5 restaurants in the Fort Wayne chain; Casa D'Angelo, Casa Mare, Casa Grille (2) and Casa! Ristorante. They all proudly serve their famous Casaburo Salad (Insalata). You can actually buy their salad dressing Here, but the "Casa Salad" recipe remains a closely guarded secret.

There are many websites that offer a recipe that is close to the Casa Salad recipe, but I think the Casa Salad recipe found here is close to the mouthwatering original. This will serve 2-4 people, depending on your appetite. You will need the following ingredients:

• Approximately 1/2 a head of fresh Iceberg lettuce
• Approximately 1 average size head of fresh Romaine lettuce
• 1 bunch of green onions
• 1/2 green (bell) pepper - 1/2 red (sweet) pepper
• Approximately 20 or so black (ripe) olives
• 1 large clove garlic
• Anchovy paste (please don't omit, you can't taste it, but you need it)
• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)
• 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
• Approximately 1/8 cup bacon bits
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 tablespoon corn starch
• Approximately 1/4 cup grated Romano cheese
• Approximately 1 cup of large garlic / onion croutons
• (optional) organic apple cider vinegar

1. Clean and chop the lettuce into large salad (serving) bowl.
2. Clean and chop green onions into the bowl.
3. Drain and Chop black (ripe) olives into the bowl.
4. Chop the peppers coarsely and add to the bowl.
5. Mix olive oil, sugar, corn starch and red wine vinegar in mixing cup to start making the dressing. (optionally, I like to add a teaspoon of organic apple cider vinegar)
6. Stir in approximately 1/2 teaspoon of the Anchovy paste into the dressing. My anchovy paste came in a squeeze tube, so I add about 1 inch squeeze.
7. Chop the garlic clove finely, and add to the dressing.
8. Stir the salad dressing mixture briskly and dump over the salad mixture.
9. Stir the salad mixture to evenly coat the salad with the dressing.
10. Dump in the bacon bits and grated Romano cheese and stir the entire mixture again.
11. Dump in the croutons and stir well one last time.

For best results, let the Casa Salad mixture set in a covered bowl in the refrigerator for around 1 hour. This will allow the croutons and peppers to soften a bit and the dressing will permeate the salad as it wilts down a bit. When you take it out, you can add ground black pepper and salt to taste. Leftovers will last for a day or two in a covered bowl in the refrigerator.

Of course, my Casa Salad recipe can be adjusted to taste and your feedback is always welcome!

Jim Mohr Update 10-31-09

I know that my thousands of visitors have been wondering what I have been up to in the last week. Well, you may think I have been slacking, but there are a lot of things going on in webmaster world.

The first thing I have accomplished is, as of today, I have lost 18 pounds. I started a diet September 1, 2009. There were not really any health problems that sparked me to get with it other than my knee, which has been diagnosed as a "bone bruise". Maybe the weight loss will take a bit of stress off the knee. I started out at a portly 226.2, and just cutting out a few things like the Chinese Buffet and Pizza, in 2 months the weight has been slowly coming off. I am shooting for around 195, or at least less than 200 pounds.

Ok, enough with the fat stuff and on to webmaster land. The most fun thing of all I have been working on is opening an online T-shirt store at Spreadsirt.com. It is a free T-shirt designing website that lets anyone open an online apparel store. They have a set price for their merchandise, and you add a couple dollars markup profit that you get to keep. They do all the printing and shipping. I don't know if it will pan out to make any money, but I have always been a bit off-center, and this is a great way to display some of my half witted sarcastic humor. You can see my (caution; rated PG) online T-shirt store at http://doublex.spreadshirt.com/.

I was also offered a flat-fee referral bounty for sending people that want to build a free website to WebStarts.com. I cannot disclose the exact amount, but they used to pay just if someone upgraded from a free website to a paid site. The deal was I had to promote them a bit heavier from my website http://buildfree.org/, which is right now #5 in a Google search for "build a free website". All I can say is that after moving them up the referral list, it looks like it will pan out to be about $1000 a month! That will come in handy since Microsoft fired all it's referral affiliates in July of 2009. (that was like a $1500 a month pay cut!)

I have also updated the "Random Game Widget" to include over 400 games! Just when I had my system smoothed out BigFishGames, removed around 100 games from their online game library. I had to go through and remove the games manually from the script. Here it is again below;

I can track the traffic to the Random Game Widget, but it doesn't seem to have made a big difference in revenue. Sometimes that is how it is for webmaster ideas, you may spend a hundred hours doing something that seems brilliant. Then you may or may not see results. What I need is 100's of people to put the widget on their websites and blogs and it can hopefully pyramid into the positive. I built a page promoting the Random Game Widget HERE.

On the lighter side, I am updating the Ipod (and Dell Mp3 player) to include a few new songs. I like to burn a CD with my newest songs, then upload them to the computer again so I don't have to deal with monthly fees and licensing. I went through tat and all I have to say is Yahoo sucks!

Thanks to my brother Jerry, I have quite an eclectic music library and I added the following songs:

• "Hey There Delilah", and "1, 2, 3, 4" from the "Big Bad World" CD (Plain White T's)
• "(Stuck In) Indianapolis" from the "24 Hours A Day" CD (The Bottle Rockets) also worth noting on this CD is "When I Was Dumb", but I already had it.
• "Pretty (Ugly Before)" from the "Basement On The Hill" CD (Elliot Smith)
• "Lookin' For A Job" from the "The Devil You Know" CD (Todd Snider)
• "Around The Bend" from the "Fruit" CD (The Asteroids Galaxy Tour)
• "Losin' You" from the "Honey From The Tombs" CD (Amy Millan)
• "Too Much Love" from the "Best Of Bread" CD (Bread)
• "1959" and "I Wish I Could Have Been There" from the "Anthology" CD (John Anderson"
• "Nine Million Bicycles" from the "Piece By Piece" CD (Katie Melua)
• "Virginia, No One Can Warn You" from the "Bramble Rose" CD (Tift Merritt)
• "I'm Just A Girl" and "Don't Speak" from the "The Singles 1992-2003" (No Doubt)
• "Keep Your Hands To Yourself" and "Battleship Chains" from the "Georgia Satellites" CD (Georgia Satellites)

Some of these I had before with my Yahoo Music Subscription (did mention they suck?), but all of a sudden I couldn't log in, and the worthless tech support couldn't help. In 30 days all the the songs' licensing ran out and all the songs on my mp3 player quit playing.

Let's just say now "If you can stream it, you can record it"

Optical Illusion Photographs

Here are a few of my favorite optical illusion photos.

Chinese Fortune Cookie Fortune

We had Chinese takeout today and my wife's fortune cookie fortune read as follows:Am I missing something?

Extreme Trampoline Skills

Extreme trampoline skills

Loituma - Ievan Polkka

---

Ron Mohr Named 2009 PBA Senior Tour Player of the Year.

It is finally official. Ron Mohr has been named the 2009 PBA Senior Tour Player of the Year! The announcement has been a long time coming, with everyone speculating that Ron Mohr would come out on top, but now it is in the books.

An article newly posted on PBA.com, features Ron and other award recipients. You can read it in it's entirety HERE.

----------------- taken from PBA.com ---------------------
Ron Mohr, a 53-year old second year Senior Tour member, won the PBA Jackson, Michigan Senior Open and PBA Dayton, Ohio Senior Open, kicking off the 2009 season with his first two titles in back-to-back weeks. Ron won his third title in the Senior Dick Weber Open in Lansing, Michigan, where he defeated four-time defending Senior Player of the Year Tom Baker, 232-175, in the title match.

In 12 Senior Tour events, Mohr cashed in all 12, advanced to match play 11 times and he had five top five finishes. Ron was runner-up in the 2009 Senior Tour earnings race to Wayne Webb by only $250 with his $41,600 total, and he led the full-time touring seniors in average at 223.14.

“I don’t know if it’s a surprise to get the news, but it’s still a shock,” Mohr said. “You hope things will turn out this way, but you never know. After my first year, I realized I could be competitive, but it’s a major step to win a title and then to win more than once is surreal. To go on to win Player of the Year is beyond anything a guy living in Alaska could ever imagine.

“I think it would be easy to accept this, say it has been a great year, and move on,” he added. “But I’m looking for ways to get better. Tom Baker won this honor four years in a row. I’m going to try to get better if I have any hope of doing something like that. And with Walter Ray (Williams Jr.) coming out on the Senior Tour in 2010, even for a few events, we’ll all have our work cut out for us next year.”
------------------ end PBA.com excerpt --------------------

So congratulations to Ron Mohr, and as I told him, it was a well deserved culmination of a year of hard work. Very competitive bowling, rigorous travel and being away from Linda for long stretches has finally paid off with a dream come true.

The Second Wave Of The Repression..

Yes I am coining a new term here; repression. We have no idea if we are going through (or went through) a recession or a depression, hence the term. It also fits because until we actually get a straight story from someone we can trust, we are holding back, afraid to let loose of our pocketbook filled with investment funds dying to get back into the market.

However that has really nothing to do with what I want to rant about today. I am concerned with the "second wave". The US was based on production jobs. We were the country of manual labor with a workforce that got things done. Then came Nafta, Safta and Afta all is said and done, we are in a heap of trouble.

What scares me is the unemployment figures. The statistics can be skewed to appear as we are coming out of our repression. There are still a buttload of people filing for unemployment every month, just a few less than last month? Is that a good sign? I have no idea, but I have noticed and experienced a trend in the workplace that is alarming.

The system used to be, in any career that involved long term manual labor, as you got older and got more years in at a job, you graduated to a job that was less labor intensive. You had gained the knowledge that made you the "teacher". You made sure things were done correctly, helped out with the hard labor when needed, but generally you ran the equipment, drove the truck or ran the forklift. You WERE the training program for the new hires, the young kids that could break their back earning their way to top of the hill.

With the latest breakdown of this system, layoffs cut deep into the workforce. For factories to stay open, or for municipalities to stay solvent, they had to cut deep into the employee pool. People with up to 10 - 15 years seniority were given notice, leaving a lot of old folk to carry the load. This has a 2 part repercussion that will lead to the second wave. Part 1 is that these old folk like me are pushing 50 and are having to do the work a 20 year old could be doing. I am not saying it cannot be done, but the employee roster is now cut in half, so there is a lot of slack that needs to be picked up. And with 10 or so years to go to make it to retirement, this causes a problem for the employer as well as the employee. The second wave begins with much of the remaining work force off work due to job injury making insurance costs higher and an even smaller work force.

This is not my biggest concern though. The second wave will also be the end of the workplace as we know it. Established in the 1930's in factories right here in the USA, the teacher / student relationship is dying. There was no better instructor on the floor than someone who has been doing the job, and doing it well. This was the best thing that ever happened for an employer. Most supervisors and department heads cannot do the job as well as a seasoned employee ,and to have the best teacher available, free of charge, is what kept the train on the tracks.

Except now there are no students. The tradition that my grandfather learned at the gas company, and the tradition that my dad learned at International Harvester, is dying with me. There is no one to pass on our knowledge to. This is the end result of the second wave...

Honor Thy Father....

The Law Gone Awry - Ephedrine as an illegal drug*

I just saw a news story about an elderly woman who was arrested in Indianapolis for buying too much cold medicine containing the ingredient ephedrine. She bought Mucinex-D when she and her husband came down with a cold. Then 3-4 days later, she bought a cold relief medicine for her daughter that did not live at home. She was then arrested a day or so later. The prosecutor said that "ignorance of the law is no excuse". Who would have thought that just buying 2 boxes of cold related pills would get you arrested in Indiana.

I understand that ephedrine is an ingredient in the illegal drug "meth" (Methamphetamine), and there have been some overdoses by football players taking too much on a sweltering hot day, but the law seems to have gone a bit overboard with it's no tolerance on ephedrine. The Chinese have been using ephedrine for 3000 years for respiratory relief for such ailments as asthma. As a matter of fact, here is a short history lesson of ephedrine taken from nodak.edu.

• About 3,000 B.C. ephedrine was first used medicinally by the Chinese for respiratory relief through Ephedra (Reodica, 2005).
• About 80 A.D. a Greek physician first documented the use of Ephedra (Reodica, 2005)
• 1887 Ephedrine was isolated for the first time from Ma-Huang (Reodica, 2005)
• 1930's Ephedrine's medicinal effects were discovered by Western Medicine (Reodica, 2005).
• 1954 Ephedrine was first available as an oral therapy for asthma (Bernardi, 2004).
• 1990's Ephedrine is promoted as weight loss supplement in Ma-Huang (Reodica, 2005).
• Mid-1990's FDA debates on the safety of ephedrine in herbal supplements and as a drug available OTC (Evidence of Safety and Effectiveness of Ephedra, 2003).
• 1994 Sales of Ephedrine now have to be recorded and kept for four years in regards to drug trafficking (Bernardi, 2004).
• 1999 FDA published a notice under the Controlled Substances Act proposing that ephedrine be classified as a Schedule IV compound according to its CNS effects, its dependence and abuse potential, and its therapeutic usefulness (Bernardi, 2004).
• 2001 National Football League bans Ephedra use after a number of deaths of young adults as a result of ephedrine-containing products (Reodica, 2005).
• 2002 Canadian government issues a warning against the use of Ephedra (Dangerous diet supplement still available, 2002).
• 2004 Dietary supplements containing Ephedra banned because of health concerns and adverse side effects (Ephedra Ban, 2004).

I suffer from a mild form of asthma and have been taking ephedrine pills for 20 years as a remedy for an asthma attack. It works much longer than primatene mist, and costs (or at least used to) way less. It is easier to carry, and is not subject to temperature extremes. Dosage of ephedrine pills can be adjusted by symptoms dictated.

My point is that people just need to use their common sense. But in the era of Obama bailout, I guess we can not be trusted to look out for ourselves. If 2 boxes of cold pills in one week is illegal, how much meth could a druggy make in one week with 2 boxes? And if we have to send the cops to the elderly lady's house, is it mandatory we arrest her "because of the law"? Can't we just make a note of it? Wait, let's stake out grandma's house and have a big sting operation!

My second point is according from the CDC, over 440,000 deaths a year are directly attributed to tobacco. But I could go and buy 10 cartons of Marlboro if I wanted.
Crap, if that's not enough, according to drugwarfacts.org, each year, use of Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs accounts for an estimated 7,600 deaths and 76,000 hospitalizations in the United States." (NSAIDs include aspirin, ibuprofen, naproxen.) But I can go buy a case of aspirin.

I am glad I have the US government looking out for me. That lady could be my neighbor...

*disclaimer - not responsible for some dumb@$$ overdosing on ephedrine because of this blog.

Easy Bok Choy Salad Recipe

There are many variations of Bok Choy salad, but if you are tired of regular lettuce salad, you have to try this. My Bok Choy salad recipe has a sweet and sour flavor which gives it a sort of Oriental kick. Bok Choy has a unique flavor that is a cross between cabbage and celery. This recipe is easy and quick to make. You will need the following ingredients:

• 1 bunch / head of Bok Choy
• 1 cup coarsley chopped celery
• 1 bunch green onions with tops
• 1 small bag slivered almonds (usually found in "baking" section)
• 1 Ramen Noodle package (without flavor packet)
• 1 package Chow Mein noodles (optional)
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1/4 cup soy sauce (lite soy is ok)
• 1/8 cup (or so) sugar
• 1/4 cup red wine vinegar (very important ingredient)

Chop off the bottom 2 inches (or so) of your Bok Choy and discard the bottom. Make sure to separate and thoroughly clean, rinse and pat dry the Bok Choy. Coarsely chop the Bok Choy into a BIG bowl or tupperware container. You want the pieces to be fairly large bite-size chunks as they will wilt a bit with the dressing.

Throw in your cup of chopped celery. Clean and chop the green onions with the tops and throw them into the mixture. Add the small bag of slivered almonds and crunch up the Ramen Noodles and throw them in. DO NOT add the flavor packet from the Ramen Noodle, save it and have some broth later. You may also substitute Chow Mein Noodles instead of Ramen Noodles, and I suppose you would add about 3/4 of a cup. I actually prefer to not add the Chow Mein noodles while preparing the salad, rather sprinkle some on the top while serving. (They tend to get a bit soggy after a couple days in the mix) That is it for the dry ingredients. Give the whole salad mixture a toss.

Put your 1/8 cup of sugar in a small bowl and add your 1/4 cup vegetable oil, 1/4 cup soy sauce and the 1/4 cup red wine vinegar. There are 2 schools of thought here whether to heat the dressing mixture or not. I put it in the microwave for 1 minute and then stir it vigorously. Immediately pour it over the Bok Choy Salad mixture. Toss the salad again to make sure all the ingredients are coated with the dressing.

For best results, cover and refridgerate for about an hour. You can taste it immediately, but if you wait a bit, the noodles will soften up as they absorb some of the dressing. Make sure to stir it before serving each time. It will last for 3-4 days in the fridge or 5-6 if you are a die-hard Bok Choy Salad lover like I am.

This Bok Choy Salad makes a great side dish for left over Chinese food, or just take a little to work in a small tupperware bowl as a side dish. I am sure once you try it you will be addicted!

Depending on the size of your Bok Choy from the store, the amount of the other ingredients may need to be adjusted to suit your taste. Some people even add other ingredients like sea salt, pepper, use apple cider vinegar instead of red wine vinegar or sesame seeds.

A Day In My Life..

You would think that a webmaster guru would just be sitting at home behind the computer at home sipping coffee. But the unfortunately, the affiliate earnings are too volatile of a basket to put all my eggs in. Plus, I have been at the highway department for over 20 years - so it is a bit hard to just quit, no matter how much I enjoy coffee.

So here is a day in my life at the highway department. Our job today is to install 2 catch basins (storm drains), crossover pipe and overflow pipe. The crew consists of me operating the Case backhoe, a "bottom man", 2 truck drivers, and a supervisor.

Well the day started out just great. Someone parked a truck really close to the trailer I need to hook into, so I had to back into the hitch at a pretty good angle. But since the Highway department is so short-handed due to layoffs, I tried to hook to the trailer without a spotter. I rammed the pintle right into the trailer plug, breaking it into a bunch of little pieces. Above you can see the mechanic fixing the plug while we load the supply trailer.

We put all the pipes and inlets on our implement trailer and chain everything down. Loading is done with a Bobcat with fork attachment.

I fill the "Jetter" trailer (plug fixed) with water. Water is need for the saw used in a later step. More pipe is also loaded on the ladder rack. You will also notice a trash pump in the back of the truck, and the side boxes and bed is loaded with everything we may need as the jobsite is 25 miles from the highway garage.

This may not look like much, but this is the whole reason we are here. There a lot of gravel roads in our county, and it has been county practice to turn these gravel roads into "chip and seal" roads. This is just an applied tar and stone application to relieve the residents of the dusting problem gravel roads can create. This procedure involves widening the road, which in turn means moving the ditches. Moving the ditches requires relocating the storm drains. The above photo is a storm drain that is too close to the edge of the road. Upon further inspection, the metal pipe going across the road is rusted out, so it also needs to be replaced.

Here is the drain on the other side of the road. It is not really evident in the photo, but there is a 3-4 foot drop-off right at the edge of the road - unsafe not only as our proposed chip and seal road, but even just how it is.

All set, let's tear it up! Case backhoe with extend-a-boom digs through the dirt and gravel with ease.

With the laser set up for depth measurements, a truck driver gets out to check readings and keep me going in the right direction and at the right depth.

Well we made it across, and in this photo you can see the clay tile on the far end that is a farm tile that drained into the old inlet and will need to be hooked back up into our structure.

The storm water will actually run from the far end to the near end in this photo, and the driver locates the outlet tile and readies it for plumbing into the structure that will be on this end.

The other truck driver is full of spoil, so he dumps his load where we need it to fill in the 3-4 foot drop-off, and he is sent for a load of gravel to fill in the trench.

This is how the holes are cut in the inlet structures. We are lucky to have a chain saw that is outfitted with a diamond blade. Water is fed through a garden hose to the saw that lubricates the blade. When all things are working well, the saw cuts through concrete and rebar. The cost of one of the saws, to the best of my recollection, is around $1600, with a chain costing $600. Not cheap, but it beats the hell out of a dry blade saw. The worker cutting the hole is actually the "bottom man", but he is the best at cutting the holes. So now we know what he was doing when the truck driver was in the hole.

The first structure is set in place and the pipes and tiles are fitted into the holes. When all pipes are installed, they are mortared in place. You will notice we are using dual wall plastic pipe. As long as you have enough coverage of gravel, the advantage is it will never rust out.

Surprise, we found another "side" tile and had to "Y" it into the the other inlet pipe. Gravel is placed over the larger pipe to stabilize everything, and we are ready for mortar. We hand mix it in a wheel barrow and wheel it over to the work site.

Above the 12" plastic pipe, we are installing a 15" metal "overflow" pipe. You may have noticed that the outlet pipe was only a 6" clay tile. This small of a tile can only drain so much water, so the overflow pipe is like an insurance policy. If the drains are full and cannot accept any more water, the overflow pipe will allow the water to run out over the surface and not wash out the road.

Oh yea, I forgot to say I had to hook a chain to it and find a way around all the equipment and bring the pipe to the trench.

The supervisor gave the upper trench a few final readings to make sure the water will run in the intended direction and also to make sure the road surface will cover the metal pipe by about a foot of gravel.

Time's up. Cover the pipe with stone to get the road open and pull the road closed signs. We can't work overtime because the county is broke. (actually we completed this in around 9 hours including loading and drive time with no lunch) A little touchup and landscaping tomorrow and we can move on to the next project.

Update: 9-23-09 (next day)

It rained pretty hard overnight, so it was a little difficult lanscaping mud. When we are done with all out drainage projects, another crew will run a tractor with a fine grading landscaping attachment. The whole road will be hydroseeded and the road conversion process will be completed. Our county converts around 8 miles of gravel road to chip and seal a year. Depending on the difficulty of all the things that need to be done, 1 mile of road takes around 3- 4 weeks. There may be 3 different road conversions going on at the same time, in different stages of completion.

Digging Deeper Into Bowling..

I mentioned before that I had met Gianmarc Manzione, The Bowling News Manager at BOWL.com. Well Gianmarc has started a new blog that goes more in depth in bowling topics than the space on Bowl.com will allow. His new blog is called the "Kegler Chronicle", and you can visit it HERE. Gianmarc's post for September 18, 2009, is a great article / interview with Dale Traber. Dale is a top contender on the PBA Senior tour and has an accomplished record on the regular PBA Tour. A little known fact about Dale, is that he bowled his brother Dave on TV for a National PBA title in 1994. You can watch the match below.


So go visit Gianmarc's blog and see some entertaining facts and tidbits about the bowling industry from around the world. Even if you have been following my blog about the PBA Senior Tour, there is much to learn about the fantastic accomplishments of these bowlers and their history.

Ron Mohr Gets Feature Article On Bowl.com Website!

My new friend Gianmarc Manzione from Bowl.com has penned a splendid article featuring Ron Mohr. I knew it was going to be great from the title; "2009, The Year Of Ron Mohr". There are even a few things in the article I didn't know about Ron. You can read the full article HERE.

I just want to thank Gianmarc for giving Ron the recognition he deserves, and giving the PBA Senior Tour attention and pointing out the kids don't have the only exciting game..

Raymond Crowe - Shadow Puppets To "What A Wonderful World"

Raymond Crowe - Shadow Puppets To "What A Wonderful World"

---

Getting free samples and free stuff on the internet..

Yes you can get totally free samples on the internet, but you have to be ready for a couple things. The first is, the email you use to register for the free stuff will probably get spammed, so I recommend getting a free disposable email like Yahoo or Hotmail. You usually have to confirm your email with the free stuff site so you have to use a REAL email. The next thing is, they may send you promotional mailings to your house long after you receive your free sample. But I have a trick for readily identifying junk mail, use a fake name. As a matter of fact, the stupider the name the better. For example, I signed up for a free sample of D-Max energy supplement and used the name Ima Phatass.

It came even hand addressed with a sticker on the envelope promoting weight loss. I laughed so hard at this one that I used the same pseudonym to see if Body-For-Life would send me an entry form for their weight loss challenge. Sure enough, they did. I was really tempted to follow through and enter the contest with some fake pictures that were obvious photo-shopped before and after photos, but I chickened out. It was funny just thinking about it though.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot to post the link where you can get free sample stuff on the internet: http://forums.slickdeals.net/forumdisplay.php?sduid=0&f=4

The 18 Digit Calculator Widget..

You may remember from prior posts that I have been working with widgetbox.com. Widgetbox.com is website where you can go and make widgets, easily distributable add-ons or do-dads for people to put on their website or blog for free. A widget will have a short, easy to copy bit java-script that people can install in seconds with little effort.

There are several different reasons to offer free widgets to your visitors. People love FREE stuff, so having a sought after widget is like having a popular I-Phone app. Visitors will seek out your website or blog to get the widget, so you get traffic that way. You also can use the widget to get traffic from the widget itself once it is installed on the end users site. So it is a fun form of viral marketing.

I have been offering my own type of free widgets from my sites for a couple of years, but the only way (I know of) to protect the code within the widget is to use I-frames. A frame is like a portion of a web page within another web page. And you want to protect the content of the original script so the end user does not modify it and take away the benefits you have worked so dearly for. So I could offer a short bit of I-frame code to distribute a game box or something, and when a visitor clicked a game to play, it would lead to one of my websites.

Unfortunately, some social networking sites like myspace and others prohibit the use of frames. I would guess it is due to the fact that after I have a ton of people install the I-frame code, I could change the content of the page that is being "framed" to whatever I wanted, so there is no way to monitor the content or protect unsuspecting users from unscrupulous widgets.

The advantage of using widgetbox.com is they can turn an I-frame into java script in minutes. And java script is ok to use on almost all websites and blogs. Once you have an account at widgetbox.com, you can start developing widgets for free right away. However, like all good start-ups, the perfect world was only free for a while. Yes, you can still create free widgets, but they display a short ad on your widget as it is displayed. It eventually disappears or you can "x" out of the ad, but nonetheless it is annoying.

Which led me to the problem with my 18 digit calculator widget. When I first started working on the calculator widget, I could tell by the traffic reports from widgetbox.com that the calculator had the potential to be a popular widget. But the forced ad resulted in a real big problem. Even when there was no ad being displayed, there was a small clickable "ad" icon in the top left of the widget. In most cases this would not be a problem, but on the calculator, it ended up right over where the first digit would be on the display. This made the calculator virtually unusable.

Without completely refiguring the entire layout and starting over, there was really only one alternative; going pro. I am all about FREE, and have based my entire website modeling on FREE, but widgetbox.com will remove all ads and give some other benefits for $30 a year. So I am giving it a shot. And below is the free (and ad-free) 18 digit calculator widget that you can embed on your site or blog. And if you like it, maybe you could shoot me a Paypal dollar or two to doyledawkins@yahoo.com. We will try to keep it ad-free forever.

---

2009 PBA Senior Tour News Widget

---

Random Game Widget

I have been working on a random game script that people can put on their websites and blogs to display hundreds of different games. A new game icon appears every time the browser is refreshed. I ran into a few snags, one being, getting the script to open in a new window when the game is clicked on, but I think I have found the right script. It works out nice because I can add more games as they become available without the end users having to change the code.

I have also been working with Widgetbox to turn it into a easy to distribute game widget. Widgetbox has started displaying a short advertisement on their widgets, and they want $30 a year to remove the ads. So here is a beta version of the random game widget. It is available for free if you want to use it.