Month: August 2007

Twitter Updates for 2007-08-21

  • trying to install a joomla theme without success #
  • damn, the theme was just a concept. I have to learn how to make a joomla theme #
  • Just heard that women who get alzheimer’s experience significant weight loss 10 yrs prior to diagnosis. #
  • @doctorlinguist I should therefore split my morning taco in half. #
  • Victory for local vets. They banded together to get feds to establish S Texas medical facility. No more trips to San Antonio. #
  • @doctorlinguist The vets currently travel 300 miles to San Antonio for health care.They wanted a local facility. #
  • Humble, Tx company is producing de loreans. 9 month waiting list. Flux capacitor not included. #
  • @doctorlinguist oh #
  • I’ve been up over an hour and I’m still confused. #

Twitter Updates for 2007-08-20

  • this is interruption night. I really need an office. #
  • accuweather has revised the projected path of dean a bit more south. #
  • Headed to work. #
  • Just heard that american airlines is suing google for selling their trademarked name to adverisers #
  • Gas jumped up to $2.69/gal. Guess we’re off metric dollars again. #
  • Did not bring lunch today. Having an angus burger at bk. #
  • Interestingly, Angus was McGyver’s first name. #
  • Thought I’d use free wifi at bk. Didn’t happen, their linksys router got stuck. Needs resetting. #
  • @epodcaster I can hear Vince Gueraldi now. #
  • $42 for a dv to firewire cable. Geez! Too bad the pc does not have firewire. #
  • I have dv tapes and can’t get video into a computer. #

Twitter Updates for 2007-08-19

  • twitter through IM is not working either. I feel disconnected. #
  • don’t wanna have to keep refreshing my mobile twitter. #
  • I just finished eating sopa de arroz, potato salad, pork ribs, and fajita. happy. #
  • @brendajos Yes, although it’s commonly called Spanish rice. #
  • The boy is eating broccoli #
  • tracking hurricane dean #
  • weather channel has hurricane dean projected to miss us. we’ll see. #
  • cancun is going to get run over again #
  • @mosqueda not a direct hit, maps show Mexico will get the brunt. We’ll get rain. #
  • yes, the reservoirs are full #
  • @seekground They are low profile. They kick in after disaster. Local officials are preparing. #
  • @seekground http://tinyurl.com/yud76t #
  • http://www.kurv.com/tropicalwx.html #
  • thanks @mdeleon for calling to wish me happy birthday #
  • accuweather still has us within the projected path #
  • http://tinyurl.com/yuafuw #
  • Next RGV New Media meeting http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/240815 #
  • @mark1919 it will take your phone about 30 minutes to delete them. It will seem to freeze. #
  • @marc1919 For some reason, they phone doesn’t delete all at once. goes one by one. #
  • @marc1919 you’ll see if you hard restart where it stopped deleting. meanwhile, phone will be sluggish. #

XYZ Bikes For Simple Transportation

I live close to South Padre Island, it’s about an hour drive away. I have often seen people riding around the island on bikes that they have rented. If you’ve seen these bikes, you may have noted that they are often sturdy and no-frills. It makes sense. You would want to provide something that does the job and can take a certain amount of abuse. You would also have to keep in mind that fancy schmancy bikes are more likely to get stolen than simple bikes.

So, if you are looking for beach bicycles, I have found the place where you can buy them for around $88 dollars each. These are sturdy bikes, not like the ones you buy at big box retail stores. XYZ bikes offers Classic Beach Cruisers, a nice Chopper Cruiser, bikes for women, and bikes for men. Personally, I like the Chopper Cruiser.

These bikes would be great for a startup bike rental business. These are no-frills, simple bikes. Their lack of complexity makes them easy to maintain and service. The affordability and simplicity of XYZ Bikes makes them great for more than just beach bikes, they would also be great everyday bikes.

Making Spare Change Online

I have been trying out different ways to make money online using my blog. I’ve been a long-time user of Google Adsense despite its lackluster payouts. Recently I added ReviewMe!, PayPerPost, TextLinkAds, and Kontera. I even started writing on Helium and have a couple of #1 posts that are generating some money.

The Results of All These Income Sources

It really is turning out to be rather disappointing. Google Adsense has not been a get rich quick scheme, as most bloggers will tell you. In fact, even when you have consistent high traffic, you can only count on about $200/month of income. Suffice it to say, with my audience size and volume of traffic, it takes a few months to get a check from Google Adsense.

ReviewMe! is great in that you can make a quick $5 when an opportunity comes up. I have yet to have somebody offer me money to write a post directly, so I must depend on general offers. The upside is that you make $5 or more faster by writing a post than you do by people clicking on ads. I’ve written a couple of posts for them and they have paid out at the end of the month.

PayPerPost is also up there with ReviewMe as an easy way to make money. The downside to PayPerPost is that many of the offers are foreign to me. You have to know something about the site you are recommending. Quite frankly, some of the offers don’t interest me. When I do find one, I’ll surely post. Again, it’s easy money. I’m not generating much from PPP. Thus far, I’ve only written one post. I’m writing another later.

TextLinkAds is not really doing anything for me. I have yet to make a cent from them.

My most recent addition is Kontera text links. What Kontera does is give you some javascript to embed in your site that will create text links out of key words. You’ll see Kontera on this site by hovering over the orange links. I started making money off of Kontera immediately after installing. The downside is that they don’t outdo Google Adsense. In fact, they are roughly even. In itself, this is rather disappointing; however, it means that combined with Google, I am earning money twice as fast as before.

The Buy Me a Coffee/Beer plugin for wordpress has also yielded a few gifts from readers. You can make money faster using this plugin whenever you have good posts. At first, I wrote in how much to send me for a drink, but later I left that blank. Those who have chosen to buy me a drink have been much more generous than what I was originally asking.

Even making money on another site is not that easy. It’s the same thing, it takes some time and energy to put out a post that hopefully makes it to the number one spot. If you are good enough a writer that your post makes it to the top, then Helium shares money with you. Soon I’ll be a dollarnaire! What has been great about Helium is that a couple of my posts have beat out the competition. If you don’t have money in mind, being ranked is a source of some validation about your writing skills.

In the End

I probably won’t be adding any more streams of income to this blog. In fact, I might have to pare back a bit. The biggest lesson in all of this is that I should not quit my day job. It takes a lot of work to create useful content that will draw readers in. The payoff is very minimal. So, until I figure out to get boatloads of readers and link clickers, these revenue streams will be extra money.

Twitter Updates for 2007-08-18

  • I’ll be watching the weather in the next few days for hurricane updates. #
  • RGV New Media meeting over. headed home. #
  • @conniereece I missed your compliment on my writing about being a migrant. Thanks. #
  • listening to audio of RGV New Media meeting, almost done. #
  • If you would like to listen to next month’s RGV New Media meeting, follow @rgvnewmedia. Next meeting Sep 15 #

RGV New Media Meeting

We had the second meeting for RGV New Media, you can listen here. I was experimenting with broadcasting a live feed. I was not sure how well my phone would pick up on the conversation.

We had the meeting at Renee’s of Sharyland, inside Cafe Renee. Cafe Renee has free WiFi and great food. In addition, Renee’s of Sharyland has shopping and a spa.

Mark you calendars for the next RGV New Media meeting on Sept. 15 at Renee’s.

I had a great time and look forward to hanging out with everybody again. If you would like to learn more about RGV New Media, you can visit our site at www.rgvnewmedia.org or our Ning group. You can also receive updates by following RGV New Media on Twitter.

At this meeting, we had 6 members and 14 live listeners. You are welcome to join us in person or online next month.

Weekend Birthday Celebrations

Today is my Mom’s birthday. I won’t say her age, but she was born in 1957. She is throwing a big bash tonight and has invited a bunch of people over to join her. I expect we’ll be up late. Happy Birthday Mom.

In addition, it is my friend Jennifer Granville’s birthday today. Jennifer was my penpal through high school. She just landed a new job that she finds challenging and exciting. Jennifer is my age. Happy Birthday Jennifer.

My birthday is tomorrow. Mrs. Mata is treating me to a nice, juicy steak. We don’t frequently eat steak because it is more economical to cut meat up into bits for meals. So, this is an infrequent thing for me. I am so excited. Oh, and I’ll turn 33. Happy Birthday Me.

Twitter Updates for 2007-08-17

  • I think I just posted something that will piss off a bunch of Lib Hispanic bloggers. Waiting for the hate mail. #
  • @brendajos don’t worry, I am Mexican-American, but I don’t drink the Lib Kool-Aid. #
  • Most Hispanics are conservative, but get brainwashed into THINKING they are Democrat. Univision is a DNC mouthpiece. #
  • @brendajos besides, it was in a "secret" forum. So, it won’t get out without violating the rules. #
  • what about us poor Mexicans who don’t want abortion, like using guns, and have more urgent things than the environment? What do we do? #
  • So, you’re saying I MUST be liberal because I am Hispanic? What are you saying? #
  • No freedom of thought? #
  • So, the Dems are incapable of playing people like a piano? 50 years of the Great Society has given us what? #
  • I don’t want to convert anybody. Just be aware that some of us are skeptical. How many Hispanics lead the Tx Dem Party? Diversity? #
  • Conservatives promise us nothing and deliver nothing. It’s better than promising everything and delivering nothing. #
  • Look for results is all I’m saying. Talk is cheap. Didn’t the big Kos gathering point out the lack of minority bloggers? #
  • @lrivers But conservatives don’t promise diversity. #
  • Again, I don’t want to tell you how to think. Just don’t ASSUME that ALL minorities are libs. When survival drives you, results matter. #
  • broken promises are worse than no promises #
  • @lrivers There are some cool Democrats. Most are OK. It’s the FAR left that ruin it. And run it. Dump them, and maybe. #
  • @conniereece You MUST be a millionaire! #
  • @mosqueda from getting lashed by Twitter or from watching tweets go back and forth? #
  • I’m going to write a book about migrants. There are misconceptions about being an impoverished minority. #
  • @lrivers According to the Feds, migrants work in food processing or nurseries and travel for seasonal jobs. I am migrant. #
  • @lrivers I am a citizen, and I worked alongside non citizens. Some neighbors are illegal. They just want to work, not kool-aid. #
  • My migrant travels last year: http://tinyurl.com/265fce #
  • @AnnOhio I almost missed your tweet. Thanks for listening. You have an open mind. #
  • @MikeChapman Unlike the unconferences, there is only one Yearly Kos. Smart people outnumber political people. #
  • @Enlighten_Up Thanks. It wasn’t intentional fire. #
  • @conniereece The migrant thing was from June to October. #
  • Headed home to get ready for work. #
  • It’s already 80 degrees. #
  • hee hee hee, doing geeky pranks #
  • I’m all over a sourdough jack right now. #
  • Gah! Brain freeze. #

Twitter Updates for 2007-08-16

  • My site is getting bombarded by stumbleupon traffic on the How to Kill Facebook post. #
  • creating speech talking points for the legislative session’s changes to the legal community. dry stuff #
  • it’s interesting, different types of lawyers have completely different thoughts about what legislation was significant. #
  • kids vitamins taste good #
  • LOL, foxnews attempted to contact Vicks #
  • the only drawback to having web access to my work accounts and applications is that I can work from home. Dammit. #
  • I hate weather animations. Put the freakin’ radar movement on the screen. #
  • A little shoe polish can do miracles on old shoes. #
  • Getting ready to go. The dog is outside doing his morning barking. #
  • Getting some coffee to go before I go. #
  • Tropical storm completely missed the RGV. Dry as a bone. #
  • google docs is having issues. Now is not the time! #
  • Working cameron county bar association meeting. #
  • Mrs. Mata just made some awesome dinner. I love her. I really do. #

Suspend What You Think

Frequently, I run into people, usually young, who think they know it all like me. I did not wake up one day and know it all, it took years of study and training. Unfortunately, people like me are few and far between. If you are one such smarty-pants who thinks you know it all, let me challenge you to a mind-bending experience. Many people cannot do this, especially the so-called open-minded sort. There are those amongst us who claim to be open-minded but only if you agree with them. Otherwise, you are a biggot, closed-minded, and plain stupid. So much for having an open mind, diversity of thought is not tolerated.

So here is my challenge. Put yourself in somebody else’s shoes. I don’t mean somebody who agrees with you. I mean, put yourself in the shoes of somebody who disagrees with you. Think how they think. Argue and defend their point of view as well as you would your own. Unless you can do that, your open mind is full of crap. You’ve been brainwashed; you drank the kool-aid. If you are going to claim to be enlightened, be enlightened; and respect people for having beliefs different from yours. Of course, if you’re not open-minded and admit it, you’re off the hook. You have beliefs and stand by them. If you claim open-mindedness, prove it with your open mind.

Twitter Updates for 2007-08-15

  • Got recruited into refilling drinks. #
  • I’m going to bus some tables. #
  • Done bussing tables. #
  • Totally voided a take-out ticket. Don’t know the codes for the different dishes. #
  • I’m hungry, but if I order something my friend will comp it on the house. I don’t want to abuse. #
  • Just learned that meat for chicken tenders come with a labeled tab for tracing. Other chicken meats don’t. #
  • Going home. #
  • Tropical storm watch for tomorrow. Coming this way. #
  • There is concern about flooding in the RGV due to the recent rains. The tropical storm may overwhelm the drainage system. #
  • @omcantu Isla Blanca has voluntary evacuation. The news is recommending stocking up on supplies. Sandbags are available for residents. #
  • @omcantu I think it’s precaution just in case. But the ground is still moist and drainage canals are high. #
  • @mosqueda My tweets get posted automatically daily. #
  • @Mart_L I thought the knock three times intro was going into the Tony Orlando song. #
  • Good news is that tomorrow’s high will be around 93. #
  • @mosqueda @conniereece I need a Focus. Focus owners seem to travel a bunch. #
  • @doctorlinguist Used saturns are hard to find here. People cling to them. #
  • Going off grid. Good night. #
  • just drove by our high school football team’s summer practice #
  • twitter must have injured its thumbs, no text message notifications. #
  • south padre island evacuating RVs in advance of tropical depression #5 #
  • @doctorlinguist I’ve never heard of thumb shaving surgery. what is it for? #
  • @doctorlinguist thumb shaving could evolve into treatment for man hands. #
  • damn, long line for breakfast tacos. #
  • all these construction guys have mustaches. maybe I should grow a ‘stache #
  • I could look rugged with some fur on my upper lip. #
  • tropical depression #5 landfall pushed back to tomorrow morning. projected to hit between pt mansfield and corpus christ #
  • @seekground I have Gogle mojo. #
  • Google mojo too #
  • wondering if somebody will come up with bizzarochrisbrogan #
  • time for work my Paduan friends #
  • Going to pick up daughter and take her to register at junior high school. #
  • Have to hunt for immunizations. #
  • @epodcaster Would you guys like help with RGV property? #
  • @epodcaster I could check and save you a trip. #
  • have my daughter thinking she’s in for some horrible initiation to enter Jr high. I guess I’m a liar. #
  • @marc1919 I also have a T-Mobile Dash #

I Caved On Going Without Internet

At the beginning of this month, I canceled the Internet service on my T-Mobile Dash. The subscription provides unlimited Internet access and access to T-Mobile HotSpots. Besides unlimited Internet service to my phone, I get unlimited access to any WiFi enabled device at a T-Mobile HotSpot. I’ve never used the latter option.

Our cable Internet service has been unreliable lately. We’re going to cancel it. It’s nice to have high-speed Internet, but it’s nicer to have reliable service. Unfortunately, DSL does not reach our home. We don’t have a landline, so dial-up is out; which is OK. Accessing the web through my mobile phone is actually faster than dial-up.

I tried to go without Internet at home and on my mobile. I really tried. But it’s impossible. I had some work to do tonight that required accessing my work accounts. This is just not doable at a library computer. I gave it a shot and it was simply not working out.

In the end, I called T-Mobile and added the Internet back on my phone. It should offset the cost of cable Internet. This will limit my ability to upload video to the web. However, most of my audio is done by calling in, so nothing will change there. I can still upload big files; it just takes longer. I caved; oh, well.

Vitalist Creates a Subscription Mix

Vitalist has put a new post titled The Net Effect »Upgrade Changes, New Payment Processing, and No Ads in which they announce changes to their billing and subscription services.

Previously, Vitalist offered PayPal subscriptions to users. According to their post, they will also provide their own payment processing. This should theoretically simplify the process of subscribing to their premium service.

Speaking of Premium Service, Vitalist has also segmented their service into three options. The Free service will be rather limited, more so than it is now. You will still be able to add unlimited actions, but only 5 projects, contexts, and contacts.

They will also provide a mid-level service with fewer restrictions and space for attachments. This will be offered at the $5 range. With that, you’ll get 25 projects, contexts, and contacts. If you are big on attachments, you’ll have 250 MB to work with. Probably, the handiest feature is the ability to share projects with others.

There will be a Premium plan that will run at $10/month which offers more attachment storage space and unlimited projects. Get this, you’ll have unlimited projects, contexts, and contacts, You’ll also get 1GB of storage for attachments. Of course, you can also share projects with others.

The best news of all is that Vitalist will offer the premium service to those who subscribe before Sept. 16 free of charge. Furthermore, if you upgrade, they will provide the service for $5/mo rather than $10/mo. After that, regular prices will be enforced. So, if you are a Vitalist user, you should take advantage of the bargain. If you aren’t, you should try the premium service while it is free to find out if you like it.

Twitter Updates for 2007-08-14

  • Internet is completely gone. #
  • Offspring at Grandma’s. #
  • Another Mattel toy recall. #
  • @conniereece in your defense, you only have 140 characters to work with. #
  • Waiting for dog to start whining to be let in so I can leave. #
  • Just saw gas at $2.36 in metric dollars. #
  • Studies show that giving up ALL your bad habits at once is easier than one at a time. #
  • @chrisbrogan I think the calculator is at freelanceswitch #
  • @seekground I’m trying. #
  • wrapping up my lunch hour #
  • holy cow, my hipcast account never goes past 3 GB/mo. Now I’m at 39 GB! What happened? #
  • At Fedex office to overnight something. #
  • Came to visit my friend Jason at his restaurant. Ran into another old buddy eating here too. #

Twitter Updates for 2007-08-13

  • Time to hit the shower. #
  • Going to grandma’ early. #
  • @preppydude Thanks. I’ll have to make it up to San Antonio again sometime. #
  • Can’t tell if my mobile internet has finally been shut off or if t-mobile proxies are down. #
  • @mosqueda Your dad is waking up to a glorious morning. #
  • @mosqueda how long is he staying? #
  • In the office #
  • I can’t believe I gained 3 pounds. Working out is not working out. 🙂 #
  • @doctorlinguist @epodcaster I’ll remain slightly skeptical about the muscle gain. It seems a bit much for 3 days. But maybe not. #
  • @ericaogrady Way to go! #
  • just helped a guy get the number to city hall. Helping constituents is fun. #
  • waiting for a constituent to come through the door. any moment #
  • I’m freezing in the office. #
  • I added podcamp san antonio to my calendars. Remember, May 3. #
  • packing it up to go home shortly. #
  • Heavy rains hit the RGV suddenly. Flash flooding. Big lightning, big thunder. #
  • Mrs Mata made a delicious dinner. We separated delicious leftovers for my delicious lunch tomorrow. #
  • Post dinner unmotivation. #
  • Roadrunner internet is out again. How does Time-Warner expect to beat AT&T with lousy Internet connections? #
  • @chrisbrogan The Internet 😀 #
  • @chrisbrogan I agree I should cut back on Internet and just spend time creating stuff. #
  • Watching the boy imitate his father by doing exercises in the army physical training guide. #
  • @DearYvette I’m too late to tape it. He does spend a lot of time with me when I come home. #
  • I applied for a job with the district clerk’s office today. A little more pay, a little more work. Maybe I’ll get the job, maybe not. #

Slightly More Focused

I haven’t been posting lately for two reasons. The first reason for not posting is that Time-Warner Cable has a lousy connection to our home. We lose our Internet during the day and get it back late in the afternoon. So, all day Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, we’ve been without internet. Once the connection does come back, I’m busy doing stuff; you know, life.

The other reason why I haven’t posted is because of what’s going on. I posted recently that I am conditioning myself just in case the UTPA ROTC is able to get a medical waiver for me to join. I’ve been doing push-ups, sit-ups, and have tried my hand at running. The first two are straight-forward. The running is tough. My first run was murder. I was not able to run for very long before having to walk. My second run was a bit better, but not much. I ran more of the two miles than the first time, but it wasn’t a HUGE improvement.

In any case, the iffy Internet connection and the ensuing body soreness from working out are focusing my mind on just preparing for the physical fitness requirements. Since I carry the reminder with me in the muscle soreness, I remember most of the day. In addition, having limited time on the Internet is giving me opportunity to do other things during the day. Of course, one of my favorite activties on the web, Twitter, is still available via text messaging. I pop in there once in a while, but still spend time doing other stuff.