In the picture below you can see this blog directly.  In this picture you can see this very blog directly where the posts are immediate but are moved down the page as new posts are entered.  In this case, the links are also on a menu on top but it makes it difficult to have permanent information on the page.  They both have their advantages and disadvantages.

The advantage of having a static page is that you can put up links and information that is permanent and immediately visible to the viewer.  The disadvantage is that many people including myself are too lazy to dig into a site to see what is there.  People go to a page and lose interest real fast resulting in shorter visits and less repeat visitors.  The advantage of having the blog directly is that a post is available directly as soon as the visitor arrives.  As new posts are added, it moves the old ones down.  It does not have the permanent links readily available.

I have had a web site since 1996 so I have used both.  My own experience has shown my web site gets more traffic with the blog directly than when there is a static page.  I use both the statistics tool of my hosting provider along with Google Analytics.  They are pretty close in their measurements and are in agreement that a blog that gets regular posts tend to get more traffic than a static page.  The traffic is many times that of a static page.  This is the reason that I pay extra to be able to use a blog as opposed to just having a static page.  I am curious if anyone else has had similar or different results.  On one hand I would like to have a static page linking to the blog but I have found that many times people will not even waste their time clicking on the link to go to the blog.

On the other hand I have found that people according to my web traffic stats, a lot of my traffic is due to search engine results whether it be Google, Yahoo, or Bing.  My stats often show what the visitor was searching for when they clicked on my link.  This being the case, it would not seem to matter which choice I decided to go with because most visitors are not arriving by directly entering the URL directly.  Most visits are not on the front page but rather one of the links deep in the page that were found on a search engine.  My site really does not have a lot of information that would be useful to the general public yet I seem to be getting enough traffic to keep me on a mid level plan.  Having a blog really is a lot of work because a person may not always be inspired to write a big story.  This is why I have Twitter imported on the right side because I can still post small messages with my phone so that it still shows that I am around even when I am too busy to post on the blog.

I have also considered changing the domain to something that is not my full name so that I could have liberty to speak more freely.  Also I have considered using one of those “.me” or dot me domains since this is a personal site.  I am hesitant to make any of these changes simply because the search engines have already crawled the site and have become searchable.  The other side is that when you use your own name to post online, you are visible to all and not at liberty to speak the way you may want on a subject.    Whatever I do, it will be done before July 1, 2010 because that is when my domain expires. If I change it, I will post links on this domain showing where the page has gone.  I am leaning toward not moving it unless someone feels that it would be a better idea. Unfortunately my hosting service has gone up in price to make it $220.00 to renew for three more years.  This includes the domain renewal and hosting.  It has doubled since I joined them a few years ago.  I will not mention them by name because other than the increase in price, I have been very satisfied with their service.  Keep posted and I will let you know what I decide.

I just wanted to apologize to anyone that has tried to post a comment on this blog over the last couple months.  I was not trying to prevent anyone from responding to one of my posts.  As much as I like to keep this site up and running, I often get busy and forget to check in.  I appreciate your patience with my lack of maintenance.

What a pretty morning with the rain coming down.  It is only 64 degrees and rain and I love it.  For once we can turn the air conditioner off and let the outside air in.  Unfortunately having the window open means hearing all the neighbor noises but since it is daytime, I think we can handle it.

On to better things, I celebrated my 20th anniversary this week, and we have had some nice cool weather arrive.  Today was barely 70 degrees and just perfect…almost.  After all there was not a glorious severe thunderstorm so it was just short of perfect .  Work has just been out of control the last few weeks with a work load that double the people would struggle with.  It is the end of the fiscal year so budgets, plans, and scheduled changes are coming due.  When you add to that, we have an operational readiness inspection (ORI) coming soon.  If you have ever experience one of those, it will certainly drive you to becoming a Monk.  Every day when I sign on the computer, I get a pop-up that says 37 days, 17 hours, 42 minutes and 13 seconds until the ORI.  I think they should install a power drill on your monitor and drill out your eye balls while they are at it. As if we do not have enough on our plate without that being thrown in our face.  When you think about all this and then add the fact that my cat is too lazy to chase a laser light, then one would have to acknowledge that we have a problem .  Wait a minute… Didn’t I just say “On to better things” a while ago?  I seem to have veered off course. 

I hear that despite the doom and gloom of the media, things are beginning to slowly turn around on the economy.  Let’s hope that we can get on top of this problem sooner than any of the media thinks.  I do have faith that it will get much better before long.  I feel that we have reached the bottom and are on our way back.  As I get time, I would like to tweak this blog some more.  I have not deleted all the posts that were on here but rather put them on private so I do not have to argue politics.  I still do not know where I want to go with it from here.  I have considered letting this domain lapse and getting a different one but then I have had this one for number of years.  Like I said, I am still trying to decide what I want to do with it.  Keep an eye open and we will see how it turns out in the end.

It is interesting that despite my many railings against Google Fanboys, I have become one.  It seems that every time I turn around there is another free toy that I can play with.  In fact I am typing this using the Google Chrome browser.  My phone has a Google sync application that syncs my Gmail address book, and calendar.  Anything that I put on the web, suddenly comes to my phone.  This pains me to become a fanboy because I have always had a soft spot for Yahoo since I have been with them from the  beginning.  It seems that Yahoo has decided to join forces with Microsoft’s Bing.com.  Bing is also pretty good at search.  I do like to have all of them succeed because I believe competition is always good for the consumer.  If you have one dominant player then creativity can suffer.  This is funny that I talk about creativity when I am the least creative person on the face of the earth.  I am hoping that Bing and Yahoo can finally get to a point where they are competitive again soon.

This morning it rained as I went to work but as usual it was clear and sunny when I got off work. I really hoped that it would stay around until I got off work so I could enjoy it. Our lawn mower broke down or maybe I should say it was purposely destroyed this weekend.  I will not elaborate on here as to not embarrass the person that did it.  Now we need a new mower just so we can mow the lawn and it is getting tall.  I am just hoping that we do not get a fine before we can get the mower replaced.

UPDATE: 19 Aug 2009

I owe this person an apology.  No one broke the lawn mower but rather it vibrated some screws out.  Since the drive shaft is slightly bent, the mower runs out of balance and vibrates as it runs.  I tightened that bolt and mowed three strips and the bolt came back out.  So I just wanted to say that I was wrong.

I will be going to Illinois in a couple weeks on a personal trip.  I will only be spending the night and then heading back the next day since I need to get back to work.  I was supposed to be going to San Antonio on a work related trip this week but I was cut from the list due to financial concerns.  I am actually glad I was this time because there are things going on at home that need to be dealt with.

My work has been so overwhelming lately because there are so many things going on as well as having new trainees.  It is interesting that I am supposed to be training them and I am a trainee myself.  I guess on the bright side, it shows that my supervisor has confidence in me.  I will think the glass is half full .  With so many things going on at work I often forget where I was.  I am the kind of person that likes to take notes and do things in an orderly way.  Unfortunately I work in an environment where we put out fires through email and the phone.  There is always a crisis going on somewhere in the world that needs our immediate attention.  My orderly notes and to do list has degenerated into a pile of yellow sticky notes all over my desk.  I hate disorder and confusion.  I like to complete a task before starting another but that is impossible in my office.  It is amazing how a letter from a General can get our whole office in an uproar.  It is similar to stepping on a red ant bed and then watching the swarm.  Everyone stop what you are doing and focus on this hang nail the General has.  I say this with some humor but there is some truth to it as I guess it should be in this type of environment.  Despite my talk about being outside of my comfort zone, I love my job.  I feel that what I do is important and I try to do my best.  I just wish everyone could be as blessed as I am.  I will be in class the next two days so I should be able to see some calm before returning the hyper crazed zoo that is my office.

Well I thought I would post a few words since I have not posted much lately.  I love blogging just for the heck of it.  Sometimes I vent like a crazed lunatic and sometimes I just want to tell the world about my day.  It is funny how I come across people that are polar opposites.  Some people are so private and think I am crazy for posting my personal thoughts online.  I have people that tell me that “Big Brother” is listening it so you should not post online.  I got over that long ago when I found that you could search for ham radio call signs online.  Also the County Assessor’s office has pictures of everyone’s home online.  There is just too much going on in the world to worry about “Big Brother”.  Others think it is cool and wish they could do it themselves. I considered taking the blog down a few days ago but I think I will leave it up.  If nothing else, it can be used as comedy when I get into one of my rants.  For those that do read, I appreciate it.

Anytime a person only posts when they have had a bad day, it gives the impression to the rest of the world that maybe this person is a grouch and hardly worth listening to.  Secondly when I use this medium to complain and post when I am in a bad mood, then I am motivated by anger.  Being motivated by anger makes it sound as though I am a raving lunatic.  I have read a few of my posts later when I was more calm and found myself laughing.  It is hard to be rational when you are angry.  I apologize if any of my posts have been offensive.

I have always used writing as therapy and a way to vent.  When I am stressed out, I often write my feelings down like I am talking to the person.  It always makes me feel better.  Writing has always been my favorite way to communicate because I can say what I want without interruption.  I have been doing this blog for more than four years though my posts only go back as far as late 2006 because I had a system crash and lost my posts.

Surprising this blog does get a lot a views though not many people post.  I have a program that summarized the traffic to this site including referring URL’s, referring domains, search terms, and all sorts or statistical data.  Most of my views seem to come from Google.com searches while a sizable number come from Flickr.com. At this point I am undecided on the direction I will take with this blog.  At times I want to wipe it clean and start over.  At other times, I just want to make it a static page with links.  The one thing that I do not want is to be offensive with my ranting when I am in a grouchy mood.

I have some very strong opinions about things and like to post about them when stories are over covered in the media.  At the same time, I find myself becoming a little over zealous and too staunch to a point where they can sound offensive.

I do not want to be so politically correct that I cannot speak my mind either.  I do not have time to make any drastic changes at the moment but I will think about my options and make up my mind soon.

My blog keeps the same address and is not subject to the popularity of a particular social network.  Since these networks come and go within a two year period it would be easy to lose contact with some people.  If you do not actively use these networks then you could lose contact with those friends since the popularity of that network could dwindle and its followers would move on to another network.  For those that prefer to use these social networks as their primary interaction with friends, I would suggest you also maintain a domain hosted web site.  This can be a blog or just a static site where you have a permanent address where people can find you.  These addresses are indexed by search engines making them easier to find.  This way as the Facebook of the day give way to the newest social network, people will still be able to find you.

Also one of the benefits of having a blog over a real time social network is that you control the content and the duration of the post.  If you use a social networking site, the content is only visible as long as no one else is posting.  As new items are posted, these posts are moved down on the page giving way for new content.  Eventually your post is moved completely off the page.  In addition to this, there is another benefit to a blog over the social networking site.  Most social sites have limitations to how many characters you can post in a single post.  Like Twitter will only allow you to post 140 characters at one time.  These limitations vary depending on which site you go to but there are limitations.

Another problem with these social networking sites is that there seems to be a erroneous cultural attitude that email is obsolete and going away.  This idea is not very well thought out because email will never go away unless a newer “mail” technology comes into play.  This is because many or maybe I should say most employers require all communications to be made using the company email system.  At my work for example, they block access to all social networking sites and web based email systems.  If you would like to communicate with someone outside the organization, you must use the employer’s email system that is subject to monitoring.  You cannot control the content of a social networking site and therefore not allowed.  For this reason, many of those on social networking sites refuse to check their email.  To them it is an antiquated system that is not worth using.  They fail to realize that every one of these social networking sites requires an email address to confirm their identity.  Email is not going away.  These people discard their email and so you cannot leave them a forwarding address if you move.  By keeping a permanent web site that is available for search engines, you can still be found after several years.  These are just a few of the reasons why blogging is better than social networking. 

If you have not spoken to someone for five years, they can always go to their favorite search engine and search for you.  Your blog or permanent domain will be found in the search engine results while many of the social networking sites may not be.  You may not like to blog but having a permanent web address can be used to point your friends and family to your social networking site that you prefer to use.  I too enjoy using many of these sites and in fact use Twitter every day.  By having my permanent domain, people can find my Twitter page without having to search around all day.  I hope I have been able to explain a few things here so that you will understand why I maintain this blog even though I do not have time to get on it as much as I like.  On a social network, I would not have been able to post my information in such detail.  This makes it easier to fully explain my point.

This is my place to be able to to vent my frustration or speak what I want without having to be worried about hurting someone’s feelings or being politically correct.  I know there are times that I get so worked up and post something that later I read and feel like an idiot.  That is okay because at that time I meant every word.  I know I offend people on here occasionally though that is not what I set out to do.  As bizzare as some of my rants may be at times I have a very strong sense of right and wrong.  When a situation is too much for me to deal with I often resort to sarcasm in an attempt to make a joke out of things.  This is when I am most likely perceived as some nut case.

I have found that having a blog is therapy for me when I am stressed out about things.  It is a way for me to speak my mind because the truth is that I am very uncomfortable being around people.  I know this is very strange but it is true.  There is nothing more uncomfortable for me than to be in a position where I am in front of others.  This is an awkward position when I have such strong feelings about things.  As much as people are offended by some of my rants at times, I do have a silent group that returns despite their silence.  I often check my page statistics and find this page gets so much traffic that I had to change plans to handle the excessive traffic.  This is not bragging but rather telling how people like to see the bizzare.  It is sort of like a car accident where people cannot help but to watch.

I know that not everyone that comes to this page is offended but it is interesting to see how many hits this page receives despite the lack of comments by the visitors.  I sometimes think that it is my abrasiveness that scares some people even though I do not intend to be that way.  I remember one time when I was just a Senior Airman in the Air Force I had a Technical Sergeant (TSgt) tell me the supervision was scared of me.  That has stayed with me for a long time.  I thought he was joking about this at first but he reiterated himself.  It is strange that I come across this way because that is not who I want to be.  There are times when I get so worked up or indignant over injustices or my perception of injustice that I tend to lash out at people without even meaning to.

For this reason I usually keep to myself most of the time.  I know I make people uncomfortable when I am around them so I am most a peace when I am at home with my family.  I sometimes think that it is my abrasiveness that caused my son to run away.  I only wanted the best for him though he apparently did  not see it that way.  This is one of the reasons that I have a blog.  I can say what I want and be totally honest about it.  I can post exactly how I feel at that moment and not worry about how it is seen.  Sometimes I just want to be able to fix things while the world has gone mad.  While right has become wrong and wrong has become right in the world I can still speak the truth on my blog.  People may disagree with me or I may even be wrong but I can speak what I think is the truth.  For those of you that have never tried it, I would give it a try. 

It is actually interesting to see people’s responses whether they agree with you or not.  The good thing is that you have moderator capability and you can always respond to those posts that you disagree with.  You can also use this opportunity to learn from those you disagree with.  As I said I am wrong at times and when I am in a rage I seem to lose all sense of reality but that is fine.  It is my blog and I can be right or wrong.  I do not want to be wrong but if I am, I can learn from others once I cool down.  I find that having a blog is a good way to share your life no matter how it is.  The good and the bad can be shared.  There are enough political blogs on the left and the right.  There are tech blogs and there are any number of other blog subjects out there.  This one is my blog and about what ever interests me this day. 

You can be successful at your own blog as long as you post regularly.  I am definately not the example of a success story but I do know this web site gets a lot of traffic even if it is just curiosity.  It is the bug that cannot help but to fly into the blue light.  It is the cat that must jump on the leaf blowing across the porch.  Start up a blog and post on it regularly whether anyone posts on it or not.  I have found that as a ham radio repeater owner you have a similar situation.  When we use our own repeater all the time and talk on it, people just show up.  People show up where they hear people.  How many times people have told me they scanned across our frequency and heard voices.  The same concept works with your blog.  You post on their regularly and people will just show up because their is current activity even if it is a car wreck.  I think it is really fun and I would recommend it for everyone.

WordPress 2.6.1 is available! Please update now.

Holy Cow!  No way I am tackling that upgrade this soon!  I think I would need a valium to calm my nerves this soon after going through that just a week ago.  Actually I have updated to the newest version before but last week I made a mistake with the database upgrade without backing up first. That was my own fault.  Still I thought that was funny seeing that upgrade notice just one week after I upgraded.  I think I will wait a little while before doing this again.

Man what an absolutely wonderful morning we had today.  We have been so dry for such a long time that my grass was dead.  We have been over 100 degrees for some time.   Today we woke up to rain and it continued for at least four hours.  It is still completely overcast and I love it.  It is not often you have 70 degrees in an August afternoon in Oklahoma City.  All I can say is “Praise the Lord”!  The kids start school tomorrow and I took off work this afternoon.  I had class this morning at work.  I am very happy today with this wonderful fall like feeling and the rain.  Now that the blog is finished, I am even happier.  Lets hope that good times are ahead.