Seed Conference Notes

Wow... these are really cool. Not only that, but they are inspiring and I learned something! What are they? Sketchnotes by Mike Rohde done at the SEED Conference on June 6th, 2008.



























And here's a great quote from Gary V:

"Don’t quit your job to become the queen of cheese. But if you’re doing something that blows and you hate it, go work at 7-Eleven to pay your bills and spend every other hour building your personal plan. If you work 9 AM to 6 PM and get home at 7, whatever you put in between 7 and 3 AM is what you’re gonna get in return. You want to watch Lost? Knock yourself out. I don’t watch shit. I don’t read shit. I’m all about my community and putting out content. I don’t consume. I put out."

Source: 37 Signals

Recent Posts Widget - Is it broken?

If you've been using the recent posts widget by Beautiful Beta, you might find that it's not working today. I don't know if it was working yesterday, or not, but it's definitely not working today.

So, I visited Beautiful Beta, and was surprised by the minimalist look of the site which was so different from the last time I was there. After exploring for a while I ended up at the Beautiful Beta Wiki for the Recent Posts Widget. The widget installer was not funtional, however there was a complete explanation of the hack, along with the code.

Apparently the java script file that powers the widget is not accessible anymore. I don't know if the site is down, or what the problem is.

The good news is that this is easy to fix. The java script file is available for download right there on the Wiki page. I downloaded the english version to my desktop, and then uploaded it to a free hosting server (hotlinkfiles.com). I then copied the direct link to the java script and replaced the original url with it and now... voila! my recent posts are back.

To fix your recent posts hack, you'll need to replace this url: http://home.planet.nl/~hansoosting/downloads/showrecentposts2.js with the link to the java script that you uploaded to your web host. I'd let you guys use my link, but I'm worried about the limited bandwidth of my Hot Link Files account.

A Short History of Blogging

Bloggers were invented ca. 300 AD, and were originally called "monks." Like their distant descendents, monks had shitty haircuts, and never got laid.

LOL!

Sounds just like me!

The Table Maker

At the Table Maker, you can make tables for netscape & other browsers easily! Just fill in your preferences for the table you want to make and then hit either of the two "Make Table" buttons. It's not too hard to figure it out, but a little bit of knowledge of html is helpful.

For help on using TableMaker , see the Examples page. For links to other relevant web sites, see the Resources page. Check out the TableMaker Application for use on your computer without an Internet connection (currrent is version 1.1).

I made a table for this post so that you could see how it looks. Cool, huh? As always, if you have any problems, leave me a comment and I'll do what I can to help.

The Blog	What you will find there
Way Cool Pictures	Cute, interesting, funny pictures found here and there while surfing the net. Totally G rated, nothing offensive ever posted.
More Cool Pictures	This is where the more edgy pictures are posted surreal, cool, and sometimes bizarre. No porn, but sometimes the images are pretty out of the box.
My Slide Shows	An attempt at keeping track of my slide shows and what the heck is on them.
Way Cool Quotes	lots of great quotes
As Within	Inspirational quotes prayers and poetry paired with awesome nature photos
Mandala Madness	An eclectic collection of mandalas, quotes, and poetry - uplifting and inspirational.
The Prosperity Project	Trying stuff out to see what works and what doesn't. Come on by and check it out.
Gypsy Magic	Magic spells and Gypsy lore. It's pretty cool.
Shirley Twofeathers	My personal blog with all kinds of different stuff on it, some of it's dumb and stupid, some of it is boring as hell, and then there's the really cool and interesting stuff. Come on by and check it out. You know you want to!
My Work at Home Job	An attempt to keep track of stuff that seems useful so that I can find it later. Oh, hey, that's where you are right now!

Share Pics - Get Paid!

In my never ending search for free image hosting that's reliable and easy to use, I found this cool site: Share A Pic. You actually get paid to share your pictures here. Of course, in order to get paid, people have to actually go see what you have posted. What's cool, is that you can add thumbnails (like the ones below) to your myspace page, or blog, and it's really easy. The only drawback is that the image links are to thumbs only. So, while it won't work as an image host for my picture blogs, it will work as a way to promote those blogs on places like FaceBook, MySpace, Gaia, and ... well here.

This gallery is a series of slow motion photography images that I was posted on More Cool Pictures. Click on the thumbnail and it takes you to the page at Share A Pic. Pretty cool, huh?

Ask The Plumber Guy!

Why fiddle around with Fortune Tellers when there's a bonafide plumber - ready, willing, and eager to answer all your plumbing questions?

Scroll down to the bottom of the page and check out my new widget. He's really a lot of fun! I created "Ask the Plumber Guy" from the java script for "Ask the Fortune Teller" over at Yaldex.com. All I did was add an image and then I went in and changed the possible answers. You can't add more answers, but you can change the ones that are there.

Also, this does not seem to work in a blog post, and you can't have more than one on a blog as the answers from the first one will overwrite the answers for the others. It is fun, however, and easy to do.

If you have any questions about how to do it, I'd be happy to help out. Have a fun day!

Happy St Patrick's Day!

EZ Banners and Buttons

I found a cool site called Image Chef and in about 3 minutes was able to create this cool banner. The whole process was so easy that I thought it might be something good to share. Here's the banner I made. Nifty isn't it?



You can either get the code that links back to Image Chef, or you can save the image to your computer. It could then be cropped and/or resized to fit into a smaller space - and might be useful for a number of different things.

For example, this nice little banner is also a link to The Prosperity Project.

How did I do that? I cropped the banner, resized it to 200 pixels wide, and then uploaded it into this blog post as an image. I then clicked on the "html tab" (right next to the "compose" tab) and did a little editing. Here's how: When blogger uploads an image, it uploads 2 urls. One is prefaced with a href= the other is prefaced with src=" The second one is the link to the actual image that you see on the page, don't change that one.

The first one, the one that follows the a href=" is the one you want to change. Be sure not to erase the little quotation marks before and after. Also, remember to include the http:// Replace the blogger url with the url to your link. In this case, it would be http://theprosperityproject.blogspot.com instead of http://bp1.blogger.com/ _D8VwTKAphks/ R91TRUSVfCI/AAAAAAAAHxk/ q3mulh8h8Sw/s200/tiny-banner.jpg

If you want the link to come up in a new window, add this phrase target="_blank" after your link.

Mine looks like this:
"http://theprosperityproject.blogspot.com/" target="_blank". When you do the editing, you'll see little things that look like < and >, be sure not to erase them by accident.

For good SEO, and if you really want to get fancy, you can "caption" your picture link by finding (in the html) this little phrase alt="" All you have to do is type between the " and the " whatever it is that you want the image to say if someone hovers their mouse over it. In this case, I typed in The Prosperity Project. If you're not sure what I'm talking about, hover your mouse over the big banner, you'll see that it says ImageChef Custom Images. Now hover your mouse over the little banner. It should say The Prosperity Project.

So, this is how I make image links without having to write or remember anything too complicated. I am no expert, nor do I have much experience with non-blogger blogs. But if you have any problems, just leave me a question or a comment and I'll see what I can do to help. Have a great day!

Wow! Awards!

The first time I got an award for one of my blogs, I was hugely impressed and really excited. Since then, I've managed to collect a few more. If you like receiving awards, it's not too hard to begin to collect them - all it requires is that you spend time every day visiting and commenting on blogs that you enjoy reading.

Here's a great example of a blog award success story: Bob, over at Black Holes and Astrostuff has managed to collect an impressive array of awards. He has a really nice blog, with lots of interesting information and the awards are well deserved. In addition to that, he is really great about visiting and commenting on the blogs belonging to his own visitors, as well as the people who leave him positive feedback at blog catalog. Pretty soon, you begin to feel as if you know him personally. Naturally, when an award opportunity presents itself, he's the first person you think of.

Why even care about awards? Aside from the obvious ego boost, the giving and receiving of awards is a great way to accumulate links and incoming traffic. The way it usually works is that the person giving the award blogs it. They say nice stuff about your blog and provide a link to your site. They then leave you a message telling you that you've received an award... and to come and pick it up. This stimulates traffic (from award recipients) back to their site. When you collect your award, it's customary to blog about it and this creates a link back to the giver of the award. You then are encouraged to find other deserving bloggers and pass the award on to them. So, you can see how it builds links and traffic.

If no awards seem forthcoming, you could always create one of your own and pass it around. All you need is an idea for a cute little graphic, a title for the award.... for example... here's one I came up with, feel free to grab the image and pass it on:

And, while I'm thinking about it, this seems like a pretty good time to pass this award on to some of the blogs that I think are absolutely yummy!

• Gourmet A Go Go good food and great conversation - I love this blog.
• The Hummus Blog interesting and unusual - love it!
• Lisabeen Homeroasted Coffee I love coffee, don't you?

I have not been very good about following through on awards... here are the ones I have received for my various blogs, and I'm sorry to say that it's been a while since I got those awards, and cannot now remember who they came from. I'm sorry you guys! I'll try to do better!

Mandala Madness

More Cool Pictures

Way Cool Pictures

My First Check From Google

Here's something cool! My very first check from Google is winging its way to me. It took me 1 year and 4 months to make $103.00 with Google Adsense. But get this !! Already, just in the months of February and March - that's only a month and a half - I have accumulated $42.00. WOW! Is that cool or what? I am so excited! All my hard work is finally beginning to pay off. So, don't be discouraged. Build it and they will come. Make it interesting, and they will come again. Preservere and money will follow!

Maukie - the virtual cat

Maukie is the fiercest, cutest cat ever to terrorize your mouse pointer. Move your cursor and Maukie will follow. Scratch her head, and she'll meow. Rub her tummy, and she'll purr. All the while, she's breathing in and out, and watch the tail. She may even try to swat the cursor. She comes in smaller sizes too! Isn't she fun?