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Recently picked up a copy of As A Man Thinketh, by James Allen, since so many other people kept referring to this classic work. I’ve already added most of the quotes from this small book to my random quotes of the moment. Although this book was first published back in 1902, its ideas are inline with the concept of Intention. I found it to be a worthwhile read.
Once again, my split personality got in a fight and I ended up buying some new metal and some old 80’s music. This time its Raunchy’s two CDs, Velvet Noise and Confusion Bay, along with Duran Duran’s Greatest Hits; one band from Scandinavia that few people probably have heard about and one popular band that everyone has heard about. I’ve already listed these in the Music section of my site, along with quite a few MP3 sample uploads. I’ve also just begun to finally add my own notes to each CD, but that will take awhile to finish.
One new free service for webmasters that Google created this year involved using XML-based sitemaps to keep the world’s biggest search engine informed as to when new pages exist on your site, as well as when previous pages have been updated. Basically, Google uses this sitemap feature to cut down on Googlebot’s time spent crawling pages that haven’t changed in weeks or months while at the same time getting to brand new and updated pages in a much more timely fashion.
Use of Google’s Sitemap service should become a standard item on any webmaster’s checklist. It’s easy to use, and there are plenty of free sitemap generators out there if you don’t want to set it up on your own hosting server (requires Python). The XML code is simple enough to just write out and update by hand, which is what I choose to do, and Google’s service will inform you of any errors or broken links in your code. Yahoo also has a sitemap service, but it is rather simple and featureless. You basically can submit a TXT file listing all the pages on your site. I use both, but as far as I’m concerned, Google Sitemaps is a must while Yahoo’s service is pretty much optional.
I’ve never really tried to meditate during my life. Not really sure why. I’ve read tons of books that all recommend it as being very beneficial, but I still never bothered. Recently, the topic of meditation comes up everywhere I look, in everything I read, and even in the games I play. I bought Civilization IV a few days ago and one of the quotes that pops up during the course of play is from the Buddha: “Meditation brings wisdom; lack of meditation leaves ignorance. Know well what leads you forward and what holds you back.” So alright already, I get the point. I’m finally going to give meditation a shot, spending from 15 to 20 minutes on it everyday, for at least 30 days. Not sure what to expect, but I’ll try to give it my full attention.
I’ve tried several places for buying individual songs online, but I’m actually going to go with an old name, Napster (www.napster.com). I like their interface and the additional information provided about the artists. For finding certain songs which aren’t too popular, I still use Soulseek (www.slsknet.org), but when it comes time to buy them outright, I use Napster. Paying $.99 for a song that I’m going to play over and over again in my Jeep, on my computer, and on my MP3 player sounds fair to me.
Just finished listing all my CDs in the Music section of my website. I’m also trying to make short MP3 samples from some of my Favorites Songs. That’ll take a while. I’ve got a lot of songs which I don’t have the CD for anymore (usually because the rest of the CD was terrible). You pay around $15 thinking you were going to get a disc full of good songs . . . but you only got one! When it comes to those types of individual songs, I’m just going to buy them online for $.99 each. The oddest song that I haven’t been able to find yet (either to download for free or to buy) is one from House Of Lords (yeah, late 80’s hair metal band). I might just have to buy the whole CD for that one song.
My business, Web Exordium (www.webexordium.com), currently consists of over a dozen different websites. A lot of them have such old code, plus we’ve seen lots of slipping in our rankings over the past year. So, I’ve got lots to do in fixing those sites up and getting them to realize their potential, both in usefulness and profitability. I’m going to get started on one of my favorites, Rate My Web Host (www.ratemywebhost.com). It’s a site which allows webmasters to rate and review the hosts they use so that visitors to the site can choose a web hosting provider based upon those reviews. Details can be found under Rate My Web Host.
Started the process of re-reading my old philosophy books to gather up all the interesting and meaningful quotes I’ve underlined in them over the past few years. Started with Enchiridion from Epictetus, since its such a short book. Although I will make note of certain quotes and passages from works of philosophy, it doesn’t necessarily mean that I agree with them. However, I must admit that I look for quotes that vibe with my beliefs about Intention, the oneness of all things, etc.