Forever A Fangirl

Rock Out With Lenovo Speaker M0520! On Sale For A Limited TIme!

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Lenovo for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

Since the advent of modern technology, we have wanted to get BIG results using smaller systems. Like for example, in the case of computers. In order to get full functionality they were once the size of buildings--now they are not much bigger than the microchip that drives them. Televisions used to be huge, boxy things.

It had been a while since we bought a second television for just outside the kitchen to keep the cook (my spouse) company and I was shocked a how thin the entire television is--the whole TV is the thickness of my laptop screen!

So it should come as no shock at all that you can get portability, great compact design, and true quality performance for all your computer entertainment from the Lenovo Speaker M0520. But you can and here's why:

The Lenovo speakerM0520 is super portable in shape, with an elegant design, high quality sound, and a convenient USB user-experience with easy plug and play. It has ALL the right stuff and you are going to flip at what just the right price--for a limited time--is on the Lenovo Speaker M0520: From May 15 through May 21 you can purchase the Lenovo Speaker M0520 for $11.99, a savings of $18.00! At this price you'll want to keep in mind pretty much everyone on your gift list. Most everyone desires the conveniences and flexibility that come with the plug and play, USB compatible Lenovo Speaker M0520. We have dads and grads but truly, I'm neither and I want the system because I'm tired of my portable headphones pinching my ears and only getting 'meh' sound quality (besides, summer is here--I don't want to wear head gear)!

Before you consider a purchase of this kind anywhere else please remember these great factoids about Lenovo Speaker M0520. You'll enjoy 4 watts of power for high-quality, full sound that will be music to your ears and you'll find your USB-powered connection which is truly handy, also has an energy saving function! Lenovo truly did pay attention to the details so you'll also make great use of its speaker wire spools. And, all this comes in a pretty, compact package!

 

Video (Killed the Radio Star)

Doesn't everything electronic that has video need some type of video card? A quick Wikipedia check says that a video card is also know as a display adapter and graphics accelerator, as well as other terms.  A video card refers to a dedicated expansion card. OK, this is the first point I think I really  "got." You need to use an expansion card as a hardware add-on with the function of generating  and outputing images to a display. Nifty, huh?

Video Killed the Radio Star "Buggles"-First Video spawned by MTV.

TypePad Celebrates "Take Your Dog To Work Day"

TypePad Celebrates "Take Your Dog To Work Day"

http://everything.typepad.com/blog/20...

The Humane Society of the United States are proud supporters of Take Your Dog To Work Day. The organization's President and CEO Wayne Pacelle is an active blogger who says that having their dogs around at the office "reminds us of who we're working for".  Established in 1954 and blogging since 2007, the Humane Society advocates sensible ways to help animals all across the country, from shelters to Congress, and makes the world a more humane place for all of us.  Over on the Humane Society's TypePad blog they're even holding a caption contest for the hard-at-work Piper (an adorable chihuahua mix).

I'm about to die from a cuteness overdose! Miss Penelope Trott and Rudy together?

But wait! There's more!

Penelope's little dog Maddy brought her dad as well! And Rudy brought his person and other dogs brought their Six Apart owners, too! Look below! 

(L to R) Ben and Maddy, Staci and Jax, Sergeja and Sushi, Steve and Rudy:

Don't these dogs have some great-looking people? They look very friendly!

I hate when you cut off my phone and the Internet, Comcast.

I’m slightly bummed as I still had a few things left to do—2 emails both important—and any for profit stuff—but the Internet –and telephone is down. I can’t even Twitter. Sucks.

Better be up in the morning. <grr>

 Later. Back!

Ha! My Internet just came back up after 90 minutes down. Comcastic!

Had some Earl Grey tea and fresh strawberries. Read the newspaper; it says only 54% nationally are happy w/Comcast.

And... Chicago has the highest fuel prices in the USA.

Go us. And I know that I say that I'm 25 miles out of the City but I'm still within the vaunted confines of Cook County--same as Chicago. Pretty much the same tax. :p

I am so glad I hardly drive--except to the City and a long trip or two a year. And in the good months, to mini-golf once a week. :)

Commuting has to be killing people financially.

Footnote.com Interactive Vietnam Wall

Above is a screen shot from footnote.com's "Interactive Vietnam Wall." The virtual version of the famous memorial which is a pair of 246-foot black granite walls inscribed with the names of more than 58,000 American military casualties is searchable. Every name etched onto the real-world wall is viewable online and linked to the veteran's service record. Online visitors can add photos and describe their memories of the servicemen and women who died in the war. (AP Photo/Footnote.com)

I stumbled across this story at Wired.com last night. After a speedy and painless join up to the Footnote.com site, I was able to view the wall as if I were there. I've seen the wall on 3 or 4 separate occasions and it never fails to overwhelm me.

I was at a key juncture of my life in the late stages of the Vietnam War (another "war" that was never declared so by Congress).

Colour photographs of the Mei Lai Massacre adorned the covers of the news magazines of our coffee table; we ate our dinner each night with the casualty count from the previous day's battles in the jungles and rice paddies of Vietnam. The son of the family kitty-corner to our home went to war and never came back. The war left a deep and ever-lasting mark on my psyche-a small price compared to so many others.

The ability to  view the Vietnam Memorial Wall is very welcome, if not about 5 years overdue. The wall itself was a little late too, but well worth it and I think the site will prove the same.
Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall Online

Above is a screen shot from footnote.com's "Interactive Vietnam Wall." The virtual version of the famous memorial which is a pair of 246-foot black granite walls inscribed with the names of more than 58,000 American military casualties is searchable. Every name etched onto the real-world wall is viewable online and linked to the veteran's service record. Online visitors can add photos and describe their memories of the servicemen and women who died in the war. (AP Photo/Footnote.com)

I stumbled across this story at Wired.com last night. After a speedy and painless join up to the Footnote.com site, I was able to view the wall as if I were there. I've seen the wall on 3 or 4 separate occasions and it never fails to overwhelm me.

I was at a key juncture of my life in the late stages of the Vietnam War (another "war" that was never declared so by Congress).

Colour photographs of the Mei Lai Massacre adorned the covers of the news magazines of our coffee table; we ate our dinner each night with the casualty count from the previous day's battles in the jungles and rice paddies of Vietnam. The son of the family kitty-corner to our home went to war and never came back. The war left a deep and ever-lasting mark on my psyche-a small price compared to so many others.

The ability to  view the Vietnam Memorial Wall is very welcome, if not about 5 years overdue. The wall itself was a little late too, but well worth it and I think the site will prove the same.
Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall Online

Footnote.com Interactive Vietnam Wall

 
Above is a screen shot from footnote.com's "Interactive Vietnam Wall." The virtual version of the famous memorial which is a pair of 246-foot black granite walls inscribed with the names of more than 58,000 American military casualties is searchable. Every name etched onto the real-world wall is viewable online and linked to the veteran's service record. Online visitors can add photos and describe their memories of the servicemen and women who died in the war. (AP Photo/Footnote.com)

I stumbled across this story at Wired.com last night. After a speedy and painless join up to the Footnote.com site, I was able to view the wall as if I were there. I've seen the wall on 3 or 4 separate occasions and it never fails to overwhelm me.

I was at a key juncture of my life in the late stages of the Vietnam War (another "war" that was never declared so by Congress).

Colour photographs of the Mei Lai Massacre adorned the covers of the news magazines of our coffee table; we ate our dinner each night with the casualty count from the previous day's battles in the jungles and rice paddies of Vietnam. The son of the family kitty-corner to our home went to war and never came back. The war left a deep and ever-lasting mark on my psyche-a small price compared to so many others.

The ability to  view the Vietnam Memorial Wall is very welcome, if not about 5 years overdue. The wall itself was a little late too, but well worth it and I think the site will prove the same.
Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall Online

If this were happening to somebody else...

…I might find it amusing. I would definitely empathize with their “plight.”

I just got a “Way to go, Sparky” from WordPress. Trouble is, I’m not sure which WordPress./EDIT  And it turns out that I only half-had it “to go, Sparky!” lol.

All the FTP-ing and domain transferring and getting a damn code from Hostgator (right now, I hope) to be able to hook my maplelakeontario.com blog (don’t try–it’s truly down) which it looks like I forgot to save before I killed it, dropped WordPress.com for the original WordPress and am having waking nightmares trying to get it under control. Argh. I’m done for tonight. Going to do some yoga.<exhale> Cheers!

Google Love Gone Bad: Zero Ranked--My Blog is "Dead"

"Paid blog posts isn't the true reason they got penalized. Anything that competed with Google's Adsense got them penalized. It comes down to the fact that Google owns that ranking system and is now using it to leverage their own products." source

I'd been reading for years about how competitive the wild frontier of the Internet was but I never paid close attention to exactly how wild it was before plunging into the world of "getting paid to write about about the things I love."

Oh sure, I knew on a superficial level about page visits to Cyn City, about the difference between a "unique" hit (person browsing and "landing" on my site's page) and about how that same person having been counted for landing on my page, isn't counted for returning to my page on that date. She could come back a dozen times that day but in the world of "link juice" she was here but once. Hence the differentiation between hits or "pageviews" and "unique pageviews." If you are lost that's okay because I'm not delving much further. One could teach courses on this and related topics. Not kidding.

So when the (less) Great (than we thought) Google PageRank Smackdown happened late last year I literally did not know what hit me. Those that know the business however, knew to keep their finger on the the pulse of The Man, Matt Cutts, who made the decision that resulted in me reacting thusly: Google Love Gone Bad (Part III). His blog is the Google Unofficial blog,

Catching up, as I have invested embarrassingly long hours doing, has helped me somewhat in understanding what went down and why. But more than reading on my own, the guidance of others whom I'm not going to name/link to until I'm sure that my linking to them won't hurt them if they still retain a visible PageRank and especially a kind-hearted soul with the most awesome work title ever, Senior VP & Chief Futurist (for a tech company that you would recognize).

Said kind-hearted soul has now released verifiable information that "the claims that (Cyn City is) unable to pass link juice have been definitively proven false."

In short, the PageRank of ZERO that Google has forever* assigned this blog is in fact cosmetic only--but there's no way I can claim to have a higher rank as I can't prove it.

*The only way to get my PageRank "back" is to go to GOOG on bended knee, admit my wrongdoing, and delete all links that go somewhere someone can potentially profit. It does not matter if I got paid for the link or not. GOOG believes ALL the links emanating from Cyn City are "inorganic" and links such as those will come up via Google's own page ranking system and that, in GOOG's opinion is unnatural and cheating.

It's completely okay however, because GOOG makes the rules. Yes, Google's AdSense advertising pollutes the Internet everywhere you go and worse, when you do a search, Google places it's paid advertisements on the top of the search with such small disclosure that a non-savvy searcher could easily mistake the Google advertising for an "organic" search result.

Example: I typed "travel site." These are the Google results:

View this photo

Google's official motto is "Do No Evil" and it is an excellent choice for a motto. After all, if you've lowered the bar so much that you will only Not Do Evil things then you've got lots of room to do say, Really Not Nice things or even Very Bad things. As long as they are not EVIL per se, all in Googleland is good. 

Hey People!

I imagine most of you are too busy to have noticed my absence the last few days.

It really comes down to the fact that I’m stubborn as hell and won’t give up on something I want ‘till I’m thoroughly exhausted or every option known to humankind is.

The “something” to which I refer is switching my domain host—again, redirecting my domain name—again, and setting up from scratch my website—again.

I’ve done all this in order to not be a slave to my provider—sort of spreading my assets around, as it were.

I’ve not ever tried using WordPress.org and opposed to WordPress.com—very different and guess who didn’t know that until “too late?” I know bugger-all about the type of coding you need to construct a WordPress blog: c-Panel, file manager, directories, uploading and unzipping—all the unpleasantness that I’ve avoided for the decade I’ve been online. All of it has come to this—three days of trying again, getting stymied, doing searches for assistance, thinking I had the answer, finding out that I don’t, starting over and over and over. Yes, I could have paid for help. I would have done that at approximately the same time hell froze over.

What a craptastic time it’s been.

So now that I’m ready to post, I find our Interwebs have been stricken by the Comcastic virus. Best case is back up tonight. Meantime we have Denzel’s Déjà Vu to enjoy. Toodles!

xxC.