Monday, October 1, 2012

Day 1021

This is the only time of year when you can open your windows in Texas. The weather is beautiful in October and the month certainly got off to a good start today. Did I open my windows and enjoy the cool breezes and mild temperatures? Well, no. You see, if I opened the windows, a ton of wasps would fly inside. Over the summer, lots of wasps have built imposing nests under the eaves. The window screens would keep the wasps out, you might think. Well, no. I went on a tour of homes a while back and noticed that a house on the tour which resembled ours looked much better without the window screens, so I took the screens off our house as well. The house does look better, but I haven't been able to open the windows since. Unfortunately, that's the way it is with me. Pretty wins over practicality just about every time.

The dogs didn't seem all that eager to get up this morning. I think yesterday's golf tournament tired them out. They normally sleep so much during the day that having people come up and pet them all afternoon was more activity than they could handle. I thought they would go to sleep in the car on the way home last night, but they don't seem to like the smaller seats in the little Kia rental car. Nobody seems to like the Kia. Janet and I have gotten so hooked on GPS navigation that we frequently get lost without it. Since we'd never been to the Bridlewood golf course before, we weren't sure how to get home without the Land Rover GPS until we realized that the iPhone had a turn-by-turn navigation app. A little voice in the dark guided us safely home. It is kind of weird how ubiquitous technology has become. I didn't even question putting my faith in a little artificial voice coming out of a telephone.

I've started looking for an alternative to Entrecard and so far I don't like what I see. Most of the other blog advertising networks seem to either be pay-per-post schemes, which I don't like, or require huge readership stats to attract national advertisers, which I don't have. Several of these blog networks suggested creating a niche blog with content devoted exclusively to one subject like parenting, vampires, or knitting. I guess talking about wasp nests and sleeping dogs doesn't count.

There are days when just doing your own thing seems a lonely road to follow. I don't know what else to do, however. I'm kind of set in my ways and I'm certainly not much of a team player. I told one of my advertising friends that I couldn't imagine spending all my time writing about one subject. "But you do spend all your time writing about one subject," he said. "You just write about yourself." Touché.

Tori is today's Dalmatian of the Day
Watch of the Day

5 comments:

  1. Well, I hear you, John! Not where iPhone apps in cars are concerned as I own neither iPhone nor car. But my blog stats went down, down, down (from approx. 300 a day to less than 100) ever since I had decided not to do the grand EC-tour each and every day, simply because it annoyed me to Drop on blogs that I didn't really care to read. So I've been down that road even before EC stopped working. And I realize now that the few readers that my blog still seems to attract (ew, a literary blog, talk about a no-profit-no-win-niche, lol) are, well, how to say it? quality readers? That sounds pompous. But sympathetic readers, yes, that could be a good word. People who don't stop by just to click on an ad or a button but who actually read my stuff. And who still find time to leave a comment.

    And I do the same. Without asking me if the blog I'm visiting has an EC-button or not. Now, I ask myself "Are you interested in what the blog writer has to say?"

    My best October greetings from Paris! And a friendly licky-licky from my dog Nia (she's very licky-licky, that one…)

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    1. October in Paris is beautiful. I'm envious. A good time of year to head over to the 20th arrondissement and spend some quality time at Le Père Lachaise. Dot and Dash send a Dallas hello to Nia...

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  2. I'll admit that I prize functionality over beauty, but it isn't helping with the ultra-tiny flies that easily pass through the window screens. As for EC, I'm visiting the blogs I enjoy and hoping I get some return visits. I haven't seen any good alternatives to EC though and I did count on that traffic to keep my blog attractive to those who pay for posts.

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    1. Let me know if you find any good alternatives to EC. I miss a blog community. I think Adgitize was my favorite, back when the forum was active. I visit the bloggers in my blogging circle on Google+ now. Are you on Google+?

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  3. It doesn't look like there are really any networks that encourage people to visit "new" blogs. Mine is also too general to fit any of the niches. Oh well. I seem to have a few loyal readers. You still have a better Alexa rank than I do, so you must be doing something right.

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