Category Archives: Michigan

I live in Michigan, been there all my life, generally in the Detroit or East Lansing areas.

RE: Blogs – 8

Posted on June 7, 2004 | Leave a comment
1. Most of us pay for hosting our domains in which to blog on – – however, under what circumstances would you shell out hard earned cash so that you can use the blogging platform (i.e. your blogging application). Considering Movable Type’s recent license fees – – would you? If yes, why – – If no, why not?
For the right tool, I’ll pay! I love Ecto (paid) for managing my blogs off-line and Transmit for FTP/textediting but I need to see if I need to pay for that one (or if I have).
2. RE: Linkage – – I’ve seen many a trick to increase traffic and ratings in certain ecosystem offerings. For example – a few I’ve seen have one or two domains as a mirror to their main one and register all domains with TTLB – – so every post that you make is mirrored on the ’secondary domain’ – and each post is linked to the ‘primary domain’ which is recorded by the ecosystem as an inbound link….which could, for examle, bring your inbound links from 100 to 400 – depending. Do you have methods you use to ‘trick’ the ecosystem to skew your results to give you a higher rating? Care to share them? What tricks do you use?
No but I’m making notes… Actually i guess I’m doing something similar (but it’s to keep what little I’ve got, not generate more), I decided to modify my url so I started changing it previously to start moving some traffic and now that I’m using it I’ve slowing been changing the blocks of links (images, archives, main root, etc.) it hopes to have my traffic move with (I just don’t want to disappear from the blogosphere). From your logic maybe I’ll stretch out the process a little longer… I don’t want a higher rating, I want more visitors….
3. RE: Templates – – show off some of your extra add-ons you’ve been working on with your templates. What’cha been up to, huh? huh?
My image (as of this post) on the background is a live ariel view of Dearborn, MI (everytime you refresh it’s updated). The colors match the blue and green of the Earth. At dawn and sunset and other times during the day you can see the dividing line between light and dark (it must have a name?). I was doing the moon, but it was tooooo sloooooww.
4. RE: Other blogs – – Show us some of the newer blogs you’ve linked to recently, in the past week, or so. We all like seeing new blogs and fresh material. Who are they – and why’d ya link ‘em?
Okay, clearly this is going to be a regular thing and I need to get prepared for it. On my blog I’ve been running a scrolling sidebar (well it might not scroll in all browsers, but it should atlease be there) for “Interesting Recent Sites” (so check it out), I did just change the date format, so it’s not consistent but it’ll be oklay in a day or three (I only keep the last 30 or so). I’ve got a script to grab the URL and title or highlighted text and add the date and ftp it up (it get’s included via PHP).

From RE: Blogs .

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New! New! New!

Posted on June 1, 2004 | Leave a comment

New month! New name! New colors! New Background!

The background is what the Earth looks like at this time above Dearborn, Michigan, USA.

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$1,000,000 – Fun Stuff RAOJ

Posted on May 30, 2004 | Leave a comment

You are given a gift of 1 million dollars (kindly adjust for currency in your location). There are some restrictions on how you can spend some of the money, as follows:

$100,000 must be donated to charity. What charities will you support?
Probably the two different shelters and the crisis hotline that I’ve volunteered for.
$100,000 must be given to one person that you know. To whom do you give it? What would you expect him/her to do with it? Would you put any restrictions on its use? Would it make a difference if you could make the donation anonymously?
Probably my Mom. She’d have to use it for travel (off of this continent) but I think I’d force her to learn computers first so she can take pictures and post, blog and send e-mail while she travels. She can take a friend, but she’s gotta take a different friend/relative on each trip(?)
$100,000 must be given to someone who has recently been in the news. Who gets it? Why?
Hmmm… I don’t watch/read enough news and everyone I hear about is bad… I’m sure I could find some deserving person/family who’s had some hard times, or needs something to get their business back together.
$100,000 must be spent on a public beautification project. You can build a park, commission artwork, etc. What do you do, and where do you do it?
There is a boring little park down the street that would be nice if it were redone maybe something with that.
$100,000 must be spent on a memorial to someone/something that you have loved and lost. What form does the memorial take? Who is it for?
The Frank Hill memorial computer lab / reference center for the Berkley Public Library (with WiFi). Grandpa got me interested to think about things: science, technology and to read a lot. I remember going up with him to that library when I was a kid.
$50,000 must be spent studying something you have not formally studied. What will you study?
Astronomy, I always wanted to understand it better.
$50,000 must be spent establishing a scholarship. What’s it for and who will you name it for?
It would be for students to offset school costs and to get them up-to-date with technology (nice laptop, printer, WiFi, PDA, iPod, TV, Stereo, subscription to NetFlix, iTunes store, etc.) so they can have some of the cool comforts…
$50,000 must be given away in a contest. What kind of contest do you hold?
A Michigan teacher web site contest. We’d supply space or they could use their own. They keep the site up for one school year. At the end we give five $10,000 prizes. Best content. Most updated (with real content). Best Design. Best Page/Post. One random (as long as they actively used it for a whole year).
$200,000 must be spent doing as many things as you can on your “lifetime to do list.” Always wanted to see Alaska? Take a boat trip on the Rhine? What things would you do first?
Travel like I never have before (and it’d all be first class!), some cruises, Paris, Egypt. Having a child is one my list so I’d be working on that too!
That leaves you with $150,000 of mad money. If the rules say you can’t spend that money on things that might be termed “practical,” what do you buy on your spending spree?
Geek out the house with more gizmos and such. Probably the same for the car (DVD/MP3/Player). One of those new infrared outdoor grills. TiVos, iMacs and home theater systems for all my family and friends. One of those cars that will go in the water like a boat. There isn’t much I need but I’m sure I could figure out a way to spend it.

From Random Acts of Journalling

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Movies and oil – saturday-8

Posted on May 15, 2004 | Leave a comment

These questions are from Laura at the saturday-8.

1. today i am going to see the movie “troy,” as it stars my favourite actor of all time, the british sex god sean bean (says laura). are you planning on seeing it? why or why not?
Not really. It looks really long. I’d like to see the Trojan Horse scene though (duh!).
2. the other day i purchased gas for $2.07 per gallon. i about threw up. what is the current gas price in your area? (please specify grade)
I put in 87 octane. It’s just gone over the $2.00 mark, which just kills me. I’m thinking I was seeing $2.03 and $2.07, this was the Deaborn (Detroit, MI) area.
3. sean bean is my lust, and the german actor thomas kretschmann comes in at a close second. who are your first and second actor/actress “loves”?
Liv Tyler: ever since Stealing Beauty and Mary Louise Parker: ever since Fried Green Tomatoes. I’ll add Julia Stiles (but I don’t know what I first saw her in) to that list too, since #5 just made me think of her too…
4. i am going to canada via syracuse, ny in july, and had to purchase my tickets WAAAAAAY early because we’re afraid the ticket prices will go up dramatically due to the rising oil prices. are you travelling this summer on a vacation?
I keep thinking I need to make some plans. Chicago? Toranto? London?
5. is there any movie this summer that you’re looking to see this summer, or any books you want to read that are going to be printed & released this summer? tell us about them…
I’m looking forward to Spiderman 2, which is funny since I wasn’t looking that forward to the first and it wasn’t that incredible. I’ve been liking Will Smith’s movies so maybe I, Robot will be good. I just saw a preview for The Borne Identity sequel (Borne Supremacy?) looks fun too.
6. what is your favourite vacation destination, and why?
Costa Rica! It’s warm, relaxed and it’s got two oceans! It’s really enjoyable, the not knowing Spanish is a little troublesome sometimes but dealable. The people are friendly and it’s warm.
7. have you heard about netflix.com? if so, have you joined/are you planning to join, and why/why not?
I’ve tried it a few times before. It’s excellent if you watch a lot of movies, I should give it a try again, it’s been a while. I liked it better when it was just individual rentals. (For those who don’t know what it is: $20 a month gets you three DVD rentals as soon as you return one, they send out the next on your list. Postage is included).
8. are you a good flier? i have problems on takeoff, but landing and flying are no problem.
Flying is generally no problem (a little air sick, but rarely). It’s dealing with the airports and security that makes me crazy, showing up two hours early for a ninety minute flight is counter-productive. I love the train, just show up a few minutes before, no parking problems, lots of room, very relaxinf.

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Michigan Driving :(

Posted on April 23, 2004 | Leave a comment

I’m in Kalamazoo today for a conference (MACUL Education Technology Coordinators Conference) which is a very nice conference so far but I knew I should have come out last night. I-94 was a mess and I can’t stand to drive in construction when it’s busy. I’ve really learned to love the train but the times didn’t work out for me. Even the longcuts (longer than shortcuts) aren’t any good since they are doing construction on those roads too…
I really don’t look forward to heading back home…

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Movable Type is SO versatile!

Posted on April 22, 2004 | Leave a comment

So I just did a demo of Movable Type for the technology coordinators in our county (Wayne, Michigan). It was focused around the ways that I use it for school (work) for to help our staff. It’s at http://techliterate.net/ if you are interested, there are three categories (Tech Help, Tech Tips and Reference Information). You’ll notice the Tech Support and the Tech Tips are cross-referenced together in the right-hand column (I love how great Movable Type is!). It’s a (very) boring background, but it’s consistent and the colors change as you go from area to area (and it I think it looks mostly the same in all browsers). My point of this isn’t so much the demo as that Movable Type is great software.

And of course I had to mention how crazy I thought friends (i.e. Heather) were when they first mentioned it to me. And now, here I am looking for a 12 step program to help me…

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100 Things

Posted on April 18, 2004 | 7 comments

Here’s my 100 things about me page. (If you’re looking for my 101 in 1001 days list go here.) To follow the theme that I’ve found on many other sites, partially to see what I come up with and to let others see what I come up with. I’ve broken this down a bit: I like, I dislike, I am, I’ve live in, I wish I understood more about, places I’ve been and before I die…

It’s interesting how many of these things I’ve blogged about so far…

UPDATE: December 2004/June 2005. I just came here to update this. I can’t believe how much it has not changed. The only other things are I’ve been liking my iPod (and listening to podcasting), the Scene It? DVD games and maybe some additional music groups (Katy Rose and maybe a few others) and I won’t add them until they’ve been around a bit longer. Probably “Two and a Half Men” (I laugh SO hard) and Liz Phair (added).

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Posted in me + myself + i

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Easter

Posted on April 11, 2004 | 1 comment

It was a blast today, I had everyone over for Easter Dinner. Seven households from one to four people in each, fifteen total, four were kids. They were a blast and they liked all my computerized toys and remotes and such.easter04

After we ate, I took the kids down the street by city hall and they went nutty with me taking pictures. What a bunch of hams. Speaking of… we had a really good ham from the Dearborn Meat Company (or something like that).

No incidents, no broken bones, scrapes, fights, etc. Until they were leaving and one of the kids had a cup (with a lid and straw) of milk and dropped it down the stairs. I had splash marks 6 feet up the walls! My ‘little green machine’ wasn’t enough to have it, I dug out the rug shampoo machine I bought a few months back (but never used) and clean the stairs (and the walls) that probably needed it anyways. Can’t complain too much, last time they were over I accidentally rolled Kendall’s head up in the electric window in the car. I still feel pretty bad about that one.

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Posted in friends + family, holidays + events

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