Happy and Blue 2

Over the weekend I had an unannounced visit from family. The visit lasted 3 days in total.

I’m glad they came. It was fun to see them. Hope they return again soon.

But, and there always seems to be a “but”, whenever something like this happens it throws my routine off.

And yes, I do have a routine like everyone else. Except that one guy in Asia who is kind of a rebel. And that one girl in Poland who refuses to follow any routine. And a few others who I don’t know who also don’t follow any routine.

My routine, where blogging is concerned, involves getting up early in the morning, writing a post and posting it, reading and commenting on other blogs and checking my email and maybe responding to it.

The whole process only takes about 3 hours. I’m pretty organized. Well, I’m consistent anyways.

Of course the visit ruined my routine. As visits often do.

Each day I would be half way through writing my post when someone would pop in to visit.

And each day I would visit and spend little bits of time finishing my post before being interrupted again.

I don’t remember visiting other blogs. And I like that part of my routine the most.

There is no way to avoid surprises like this visit. I wouldn’t want there to be anyways.

But, it made me think that getting some posts done up ahead of time really would be a smart move.

And I wondered:
How do you deal with changes to your routine? Do you have an alternate plan in place? Do you just take things as they come? Do you throw a tantrum?
What do you do when your routine is changed?

There is a Canadian Armed Forces Base near where I live. As such the Base runs training programs in my city on a regular basis.

On Saturday when I was out there were two soldiers walking down the street, both dressed in camouflage uniforms. The camouflage wasn’t working. It’s still Winter here and the uniforms were for Summer. But that’s beside the point.

What struck me about these two soldiers was that the one in the front was a big man. And following behind him was a small woman with a huge pack on her back.

If the pack she was carrying was set beside her it probably would have been 2/3 of her height. And it was almost as wide as she was.

She was bent quite far forward. It looked like each step was a struggle.

I watched the two of them until the light changed from red to green and then I drove past them.

The man in the lead was a big guy. He probably could have carried her and the pack she carried.

But he didn’t. He just kept walking. And she kept following.

The incident made me wonder why. Why was the man not helping her? I would have. Doesn’t one of the rules about being a man clearly state that the man has to carry stuff for the woman?

I don’t know Armed Forces ways. So I concluded that this was a training exercise.
He wasn’t helping her carry her load because she needed to do this.

He was helping her by walking with her. So she could achieve a goal. One that he probably had achieved a long time ago.

But I’m usually wrong?

Do you think the male soldier was helping by letting her carry the load or was just being a jerk by not helping the female soldier?

When you are trying to learn something new do you feel bitter when your “helper” doesn’t seem to be helping? Or do you just want them to guide you and let you learn by doing it yourself?

The current business model for blogging is collapsing. Again..

When business blogging began it was with pay per click. The object was to leverage your readers to make money by steering them to click on ads on your site. For that click you would get a small amount of money.

This system worked well for the initial popular sites but as more and more people started doing the same thing the system collapsed. There are still people using this business model successfully but they are few and far between.

The next wave in business blogging was producing and selling ebooks (information products). …continue reading…

Comments are the lifeblood of our blogs.

We want to receive comments on what we have written.
To know that others have read what we have toiled to create.
To spark discussion on a topic we are interested in. To gain further insight and ideas that will help us all grow.
To obtain important links from others so we can return to their sites, read what they are thinking about, comment and get to know them better.
To begin building a relationship with others.

This is really the primary reason we blog. To meet and interact with like minded people. …continue reading…

Midge liked deals. A lot. She was the kind of person who would search endlessly through magazines and newspapers for deals. And she took advantage of all of them. Oh yes she did.

Midge’s motto was “A deal in mind saves nine” which makes no sense really but Midge was about deals, not sense. She was about saving a few cents though. And she often smelled scents if they were on sale and involved a product she might use.

Anyways, it was a typical Tuesday, like it is today. And Midge was looking to save money. Like she always did.

And today there was a sale on safety pins which she desperately needed. Two bags for the price of one. Two whole bags …continue reading…

I just started reading Beyond Blogging. I realize it’s been out for a while now but I was hoping I could just download it for free off a bit torrent site. That never happened so I paid for it. As should everyone. And no, I’m not going to share my copy for free either.

This book is amazing. Mike and Nathan did an excellent job with creating the book.
If you haven’t already read it I’d highly recommend it. And I don’t even have an affiliate link thingy on my site so I’m not making anything out of steering you to the product. …continue reading…

“There’s nothing to do.” said Charlie. “I’m so bored.”

“Did you finish your homework?” said his Mother.

“I don’t have any homework.” replied Charlie. “Dotty is in school. She gets homework. I’m only 5.”

“Are you sure?” said Charlie’s Mother. “I thought Dotty was only 5 and you were in school.”

Charlie’s Mother had two children so she often lost track of who was who and what was what. That’s the problem with having more than one child. …continue reading…