Category: Blog

blog posts

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Photodump: 2014 So Far, and Introducing Cheddar

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It’s only been, what, nine months since I’ve updated over here? It’s because Holiday Doodles has pretty much eaten up the time I used to be able to put into writing blog posts. Someday, when Scott’s books are making a bajillion dollars, I’ll be able to quit working full-time and do more creative works. Until that day, though, the hours outside of the day job are scant and precious. I never did introduce Cheddar, aka Tillamook Medium Cheddar, our new cat. So I’ll combine that in a photodump that’ll catch. . . Read More!

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Weird Holidays = Holiday Doodles

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A few months back, I posted about the daily doodles I was doing at work. And more than one person said that I should be putting them online somewhere, or make a daily calendar, or something. The calendar thing would be a challenge, only because at this point, I’d have to start researching and drawing 2015. Because that’s how the calendar business rolls. But I did finally build a site where these will be online! The daily doodles are now at holidaydoodles.com, and I’ve even bumped from 5 days a. . . Read More!

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In Search of the Perfect Hatchback

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We’ve been car shopping this last month, Scott and I. Our cars were both the same make and model — Ford Focus 2-door hatchback. Mine was from 2007, and Scott’s was from 2001. The 12-year-old Focus just wasn’t driving that great anymore; it was grumbly and growly and needed some work done again, so we decided to go ahead and trade it in for something new. Scott thought we should get something new for me, and he’d take over the 2007 Focus, since I drive a lot more than he. . . Read More!

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Weird Holidays, aka #weirdholidays

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Back in September, I changed desks at work for a couple of months. We all have whiteboards at our cubicles and offices to let people know where we are, and this new desk had an extra-large whiteboard, prominently placed on the outside of the cube. (My current cube has its smaller whiteboard up on a cupboard behind my chair, so it’s not as easy to see.) I figured I should do something with the whiteboard, so I decided to start doing doodles for all weird, unusual, or just plain cool. . . Read More!

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In Vino Veritas

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I’ve never been a wine drinker. Many times I’ve tried, and many times I’ve failed to enjoy it. But through the years, I’ve made it to the point where I can drink a glass of Champagne (or other non-Frenchy sparkling celebration wine) without trouble. But still, wine eluded me. That is, until we went to Texas de Brazil, our favorite churrascaria in the world, with a wine drinker. He ordered a bottle of red wine (I had no idea what variety) and offered me some. I decided, why not, I’ll. . . Read More!

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An epic wad of spam!

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Hi Basicinstructions Team, I thought you might like to know some of the reasons why you are not getting enough organic & social media traffic on your website. I would like to update you that your website is still not ranked on the top pages of Google SERPs for your popular keywords (Products). Your loss is your competitor’s gain i.e. the traffic which could have generated quality sales for you goes to your competitors as they rank well in the Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs) organically. Reasons: 1. HTML and. . . Read More!

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I love bacon, but I hate Spam

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Despite the fact that I don’t blog all that often right now, I’m certainly fielding a lot of comments. I mean a LOT of comments. Unfortunately, there’s nothing of substance in the whole lot. I thought that including a simple CAPTCHA would help cull the spam, but it’s done nothing but speed up recently. Here’s three days from my inbox: That was a fairly light three days; it’s been two weeks since I’ve cleared out my pending comments, and there are 140 sitting in there. Clearly, these are real people. . . Read More!

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Heavens, it’s been three whole months!

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I’ve been a total blog slacker. In fact, I went so long without a post, my advertising banner company dropped me. No big loss; I’ve just put up a rotating Amazon ad, wherein we can get a small commission on purchases. Thanks to those who have emailed and commented about my absence. I’ve been somewhat bound up with a few things as far as writing — a horrible case of too many ideas and the inability to land on one and actually do it. It’s like the opposite of writer’s. . . Read More!

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Fancy Tea-Drinking: Bag ‘Em, Danno

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Now that I’m totally hooked in the habit of drinking fancy tea made from big-ass leaves, I’d like to have some at work. Unfortunately, I don’t think the IngenuiTEA brewing device will work so well, since you have to rinse the wet leaves out into a sink. And I think we can all agree, workplace sinks really aren’t built to take that kind of matter down the pipes. So, I invested a whopping six dollars into some empty tea bags. I got these Loose Tea Filter Bags from Amazon. Yes,. . . Read More!

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Fancy Tea-Drinking: A Little Teavana Review

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I have a lot of teas to review, so I figured I’d break them up by source. That also gives me a chance to write about the tea-buying experience with each supplier, which I think is an essential part of the process. First up is Teavana. They have a large website that’s fairly easy to navigate, but they also have stores in malls and shopping districts throughout North America — there are certainly fewer stores in Canada and Mexico than in the USA, but there are still a goodly number. . . Read More!