The Rough Guide to Blogging

So I picked up The Rough Guide to Blogging by Jonathan Yang at borders this weekend. This is from the folks who do the “The Rough Guide to _____” different places to travel. It seemed to be a decent book, pretty cheap $10-ish. It had the basic ides, rss, hosting, audio, video, podcasting, increasing traffic and making money and (very) short reviews of 250 of the “best” blogs.

It's a nice intro if you have someone who's been asking about it or if you're a beginner and want to learn some more. It's about 100 pages and then about 50 pages of types of blogs (politics, education, etc.) while mentioned some specific blogs and then a bunch of 1 line reviews. I haven't read it yet, but all the pages I've flipped to look pretty good so far.

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Posted by Gary on Thursday at 1:48 PM on September 7, 2006.
Related categories: blogging, books, reviews
Thanks for the 1 comments/trackbacks from: kapgar
Gary Said... http://garysaid.com/

Wow! $2.39 A Gallon

This was awesome! I got this deal on gasoline while taking mom out to dinner today. Twelve Mile road and Coolidge in Berkley (Michigaan).
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Posted by Gary on Thursday at 6:54 PM on September 7, 2006.
Related categories: general, michigan
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Gary Said... http://garysaid.com/

Gas prices are dropping

After I did that earlier mobile post, I saw a price of $2.37 and on the way home I saw $2.34! But that's not why I'm posting. Here's why:

At Chili's we were discussing gasoline prices and I thought they were getting to pre-9/11 pricing (but I was alone in that thought). So as I was driving home I was trying to remember what the price gougers jumped the prices up to on that day. I know it was up to the next dollar range but was it up to $3 or was it just $2. Could it really have been that low just 5 years ago? Have we gotten that complacent in paying outrageous prices for our gasoline? (or is it just me?)

Please note: I had a much more detailed post but I screwed it up, so you get the shortened post (with less references).

The first thing I noticed is the average price in Detroit a month ago was $3.07 and today it's $2.48, that's a huge drop! I've noticed it, but I didn't realize it was almost sixty cents in the last thirty days. Three years ago they list it about a $1.50 a gallon (just before a dip to $1.40), I guess I've gotten used to these outrageous prices, I don't remember it that low that recently.

Other sources list it as being in the $1.50 range the week of 9/11/2001. So five years ago, we paid half the price! That's huge! What else (non-fuel) has doubled in price since then?

All of these historical numbers are adjusted for inflation so I don't know what it actually read on the pumps when you bought it. But still...

Can anyone direct me to some non-adjusted for inflation prices? I want to know what it said on the pump 5 years ago. I hate when things get adjusted but don't point to the non-adjusted prices. When I ask “Grandpa, how much was a candy bar when you were a kid?”, he doesn't say “fifty-five cents (adjusted for inflation)”, he says “a nickel”...

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Posted by Gary on Thursday at 10:52 PM on September 7, 2006.
Related categories: general, michigan
Thanks for the 1 comments/trackbacks from: kazza
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