July 19, 2007
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News and Notes
"Before I speak, I have something important to say." ...Groucho Marx
XANGA: A whole day has gone by without many visitors, so I'm updating, even without a "prepared script". Yikes! I've been commenting more often lately, but I still tend to make certain blogs my "projects" and I spend a lot of time reading (or lately, watching videos) and my comments haven't shortened any with time. I'm still trying to "reconnect" with older subs. A few people have "returned", and I've attracted some new subs in the past week. (So welcome to WhenWordsCollide) but for the most part I'm still in awe of those Xanga sites which attract so many comments. One site I was visiting recently had 12 comments in one hour after the post went live. Oh well, I'll be content that I have the readers I do. One of my upcoming projects for WhenWordsCollide and AllThingsmIke is a return to "My Sexual History", the last chapter (Chapter 11) of which was posted here on July 23, 2006, a full year ago. All 11 chapters so far are also posted on my website HERE.
I've been contemplating writing a "Dear Xanga" letter. I'd like to collect all my observations and criticisms of this service in one place. For instance, I'm promoting my videos, and most of the videos featured on Xanga's video "Starred" pages are not original. The main starred page of Xanga "features" lots of Hannah Montana videos and commercials. "Peninsula Dreams" was in the #1 spot on the Starred Videos page for almost two weeks. This is a good thing. As I write this on Thursday morning, "Almost Homeless Part 3" is back in the #1 spot. I know a few of you on my MikeVideo Blogring (which now has 11 members) are starring the vids in the "Star Academy" as they appear. I get lots of traffic when a "blog entry" is featured but so far not much video traffic. My beef? Only original content should be featured. NOT South Park reruns recorded off someone's Tivo. Two imaginative videographers I have recently found (or who found me, as the case may be) and who are members of the MikeVideo blogring are jaime_melissa and happydeviant. Other complaints I have with Xanga are the same I've had for the three years I've been here. #1 complaint: Why can't paid subscribers have multiple blogs on one account, with a "dashboard" like on Blogger to toggle from blog to blog. The free Xanga service offers so much now that I think it's time to give paid subscribers more perks, like allowing multiple blogs on one account.
HEALTH: I'm eating too much, and I'm getting fat again. Well, it's belly fat as usual, but the lower snaps on my shirts are unsnapping at an alarming rate, esp. when sitting at my computer at work. I'm still power walking and still watching my diet, but I'm eating more, including lots of ice cream, and I have to work on getting some of these pounds to go away. My left hip doesn't bother me that much during the dog days of summer, and my pinched nerve isn't causing too much pain these days. It's been half a year since I've had to see my doctor (knock wood) and that was for my regular checkup.
FINANCES: I'm still having to borrow from my overdraft account, even after paying off the car. (Borrowing from a credit card to pay off other credit cards is not a financially stable proposition.) At least the overdraft coverages are less than they were, and for some incredible reason just when I needed it, the limit on the overdraft account was raised. I'm still having problems with the card on which they charge me 29.99% interest. I want to be able to slide that debt to another card soon, but the other five cards have raised their APRs as well. I'm now getting lots of mail from lawyers and credit consolidation groups, but I'd like to be able to pay the debt down on my own. I'm not travelling, or spending money on "trips around town" and the last PhotoPost on this blog was made on a 'free excursion" to Griffith Park. Of course I am paying 3 bucks a gallon of gas. I want very much to follow through with last year's promise to drive up the coast and take photos and videos along the Pacific Coast Highway to the north, and I might borrow my roommates tent and sleeping bag and camp out instead of stay in a hotel. I haven't figured out where I'd plug in the camera to charge it up if I were sleeping in the wild, but Lord knows I need some vacation time, and I could see going to Frisco and seeing if I could do the trip on "pennies a day'. (Ha Ha)
WORK: The less said about that the better.
THIS JUST IN: Huge steam pipe explosion kills 1 in NYC NEW YORK - An underground steam pipe explosion tore through a Manhattan street near Grand Central Terminal on Wednesday, swallowing a tow truck and killing one person as hundreds of others ran for cover amid a towering geyser of steam and flying rubble.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the explosion was not terrorism, though the blast caused a brief panic about a possible attack."There is no reason to believe whatsoever that this is anything other than a failure of our infrastructure," he said of the 24-inch steam pipe installed in 1924. One person was pronounced dead at Bellevue Hospital from an apparent heart attack, Bloomberg said. About 30 people were injured, at least four seriously. Authorities could not immediately account for how the most seriously wounded victims were injured. ( By ADAM GOLDMAN, Associated Press Writer Wed Jul 18, 11:52 PM ET)
It makes one pause to think. Large cities have lots of underground pipes, electrical systems, and in NYC's case, a subway system, that were installed in some cased over a century ago. Out here in L.A., the talk lately has been that with a proposed increase in population, we're going to have to spend billions of dollars to upgrade our freeways. (possibly adding multiple decks, and we're in an Earthquake prone area! ) I shudder to think of the undergrounds of NYC, Chicago, etc, with decaying pipes and systems that could go "blooey" at any time. Forget the terrorists. Our own cities could be killing us in time.
Well, that's it for this (long delayed) edition of "News and Notes". A real entry will be posted within a couple of days, hopefully Chapter 12 in "My Sexual History". That should get me some comments.
"Getting older is no problem. You just have to live long enough. "...Groucho Marx
Comments (18)
I'm always eating too much. I don't eat ice cream, but my companion does. I haven't had a donut in probably 5 years. (About the time I learned that 1 donut = 5 pieces of bacon) I like bacon. :fun: Around here, the 'new' guy in charge of the city schools has decided to close several - dangerous buildings either because they are falling apart or have dangerous molds. (children keep popping in and out on AIM today - so this is probably not making much sense) He said he would do that, was elected, and now people are complaining because he's actually doing what he said he would. Our highways are always being redone. I think they have a daily schedule in the paper - and I don't live in a hugely populated area. Summer is 'orange cone' season. My favorite was when they repaved in front of the schools near my house - a week before school let out. Sometimes planners are idiots. Have a good day - and only a small bowl of ice cream!!! :sunny:
it's easy to eat too much
join the club 
i think we all identify with the over eating..and the finances (at least i do anyway).
recently i went through my pantry and put sticky notes on all of the things i shouldn't eat. the sticky notes read - "Don't do it, fat ass!"
these notes don't seem to work.
Now I thought California was going to disappear into the ocean? Why on earth are they expecting a population explosion?:eek: Your comment on comments makes me think of how there's this one xangan that I love dearly that gets tons of comments, but still posted one day about how she/he had gotten so many footprints but only ten or so comments. Man, I'd be thrilled if I got ten comments in one day....ten comments takes me leaving a post up for a week and waiting for them trickle in. :p It's hard to say what makes people interested in a particular blog. A lot of Hannah Montana on video blogs would probably indicate that most xangan's are 13 and we are simply in the vast minority in the big scheme of things. Hmmmmm....:wha:
most camp sites have electicity. i say go for it! if sleeping on the ground gets old, (which it would for me), then come back!
i think those who dedicate so much time to home created videos are amazing and am surprised that non-original stuff is on the front page. aren't they afraid of copyrite people? they act like they are. the pipes and things under nyc are too old and dangerous, but they can't afford to fix them. it's been a topic of discussion there for as long as i remember. even with incidences like this, they still will hem and haw about fixing them! sigh!
I've wanted to write a dear xanga letter for a long time.. they do alot of great things , but the paid users end up getting very little for the "paid" part of it all.. I can't believe how some people get soo many comments.. i recently found that being part of blogring challenges gets me alot of comments fast, and sometimes a few subscribers, but i know many people out there would rather not do "schoolwork" as some have put it.. i like the challenges as they make me think..
thanks for the comments on my dancing video, i couldnt help but post it! yeah i didnt know you were so close to santa monica. i knew you must be somewhere in cali by the videos, but yeah , we're practically neighbors. (well, kinda....). i'm in victorville.
We play a bit of "Credit Card Roulette" ourselves. So far we are still treading water...... Good luck on that front. Far be it from the credit companies to ever help you. Have you ever talked to one of those non-profit consolidation outfits? You may be able to combine your debt into a loan with a lower interest rate.
Since I just recently got DSL, I have noticed the whoel "Hannah Montana" popularity, as well! I think it's okay if people are interested in that, but I have to question awarding it any kind of status.
I do not have premium Xanga; I have quite enough to cope with as it is. It's enough for me right now. I could see why premium memebers could want more perks, but I am not sure I understand about having multiple blogs on one account. Lots of people have several blogs. I guess I am just not understanding the advantage.
I get a decent amount of comments most days, but I would say that I leave comments in a far greater proportion than I recieve! I try not to worry about it too much, since I rarely write the sort of blog entries that I had hoped would be, well, more widely read. At this point I think I am happy to feel that some folks here are my friends. A certain amount of anonymity makes me feel more secure, anyway.
Credit card companies are evil! Charging that much interest should be a crime. You just can't win against that setup! It is nearly impossible to get out of that rut without getting some kind of loan to pay it all off, and never use them again. You really would be far better off. Good luck!
I head about the explosion - but that aside/I too have been thinking of a dear Xanga letter and may make it this FG topic...You are truly to me a good xanga bud someome I feel I could call in real life if I needed to bounce things off ou or just vent about life- I adore you my friend Micheal
I find blogging and posting and reading and all the activity to only be reliable as a tool to analyze the self. it seems to be useless to analyze other people's behavior, only how you react to other's behavior....
I gave up writing for an audience years ago... I just write like mentally shitting... if someone reads it... okay. I find using the blogosphere as a mirror has taught me a lot about what I feel, and if I allow it to sink in and try to stay impartial, I might learn some of the why I feel's too...
peace.
Dear Mike,
Thanks so much for your lovely comment. I think the only reason that the particular post you commented on received so many comments is that it was a challenge post, anyway, I don't think it is because I am in anyway special, but thanks for saying so.
I have been considering writing a post from the perspective of a star voter... there are many things that irk me when I vote, and videos that are not original is one of them. Also photos and icons that are clearly ripped off... and blogs that are so original and say things like, "comment me"... the amazing thing is that even though I always give these things one star they still make it to featured. I don't know... it is crazy to me, but I will continue to vote in an effort to encourage originality. Your videos always get five stars from me, because I know how much thought and effort you put into them. Not like uploading a Hannah Montana video and then starring it.
Good luck with your debt. I made a conscious decision last January to get out of debt. All of my credit accounts are now in debt management... consequently I have spent some time in overdraft protection, so I know how that feel... it makes me want to eat, lol!
Have a great day Mike and thanks again for stopping by.
Hugs, Tricia :wave: :fun: :wave:
I just noticed... are you premium again?
Tricia :heartbeat:
Hello Mike,
A multi-blog center sounds like a good idea - especially for somebody like yourself who has so many diverse facets. I do not know if I will be able to cope for more. My "Dear Xanga" letter is asking for the ability to set groups of friends and then to be able to filter my blog according to the different group settings. That is to have my family see only "Family" entrances and to have a "Philosophy" group who can only see my philosphy entries. In this way my blog can be customised to be different for all my various readers. I feel often that people subscribe but I loose them because I do not keep to a theme. My entries are mostly ponderings...of a reflective philosophical nature but it is not a constant pattern. In a sense I think that is also a quest for a multi-blog capability but from a different angle.
I like your Universal Blog entry and followed the links to the website and it contains the type of writing I enjoy a lot to read. Your thinking is stimulating and I always enjoy it when you write on hat line of thought. Unfortunately it is not the type of writing that pulls thousands of comments. The key to a lot of comments are to subscribe to as many people as possible and leave many short comments all over the space. Most people return the favour and will leave a comment in reply. Your comment will increase and the quality of your readers will drop...I speculate an inverse relationship between the two. It should work even if you leave the same message all over the place.
Originality seems to be lacking on Xanga. I hope that Mike's Video blog will grow with people posting original video's. Again the market might be smaller but it should build innovation and creativity. I should post a new video of my speaking but currrently since I am participating more in a leadership capability my speeches are more educational than entertaining and motivating...however I will post something soon.
Finances? That one is always a pain in the butt!! All I can say is that you have my sympathy and my hopes that you will wriggle yourself out of debt...especially if the price is 29.99%...I think it is currently illegal to charge rent as high as that in South Africa.
In any case. I aways enjoy your thorough comments as well as your entries. I hope that you will achieve the ratings you aim to achieve...the formula is out there to be discovered.
Jurgens
Hello Mike...:)
I know what you mean about some people getting so many comments. I don't understand how some people can manage to attract that many subscribers!
That would be interesting to read your list of observations and criticisms about Xanga. I didn't know that Blogger let people have multiple blogs on one account. It would be quite handy if Xanga started doing something like that. I have been thinking about starting a new blog specifically for my endevors into fictional writing, and it would be handy if I could create a whole new blog on the one account. Maybe Xanga will listen to your good ideas!
I am also with you on what should be featured. Sometimes I don't understand how some of those videos get featured, when other good videos don't! Too bad really.
Alisha :sunny:
wow I missed out on reading a lot of interesting things while I was gone for a week!! But it was nice knowing I had good things to read when I came back.. I was in Florida for a week :sunny:
Wow! I just learned that you can access videos through the usually annoying link pop-ups. I thought I'd seen all your videos, but apparently I'd missed "Peninsula Dreams" -- but not now.
I don't generally worry about comments. I write what I write, which is usually a pretty spur of the moment thing here on Xanga. (I think and plan more for 26 Dimensions of God, which is why is hasn't been updated in ages.) If I get comments I'm all Sally Field: "You like me!"
:p I eat too much, too. With my mom's cardio-rehab classes being available to family members, I'm learning that, for the most part, what I eat is pretty good. My real downfall is partly ice cream and other sweets, but mostly portion control. We are all getting back on track because of mom, so that is definitely the silver lining there.
:goodjob: I like your Groucho opener and closer. :coolman:
Food is our friend!!
You can also, stay ahead of your competition.