Life grinds on.

It really does. Well unless you blow the clutch in your truck engine and then your life comes to a spinning going nowhere fast on the side of the road halt.

I sat there contemplating the fact that I'd pulled over to let the kids out for school, heard a distressing clunk from underneath my clutch pedal somewhere - that it was going to be one of -those- days.

I often catch myself wondering if there is just something special about me. That I have so many of -those- days in particular. One of my best friend's nickname for me is the 'tornado'. While it does make me laugh, the idea that I am actively an agent of chaos sometimes isn't so fun.

I do admit, I'm not a careful planner. I've been known to say 'fuck it' and dive off the deep end just to see what happens. A trait that causes my new husband's already shady ticker to tick just that much faster. I can't help it. I've came to the conclusion a long time ago, it's just who I am.

I don't actively look for things to go wrong, or even go out of my way to have them go wrong. I like peace and quiet and life running smoothly just as much as the next person. So I tell myself. But do I?

I'm tempted to wonder if I create my own chaos just because of my personality. I want to live life, not worry about it. I've been known to laugh when something breaks, and shrug and say, 'oh well.. fuck it."
I went through a fair number of years in a relationship that sucked eggs and sucked all the joy out of me in the same time frame. I don't ever want to be that way again.
So somewhere in the last few years I guess I may have made a concious decision to let the chips fall where they may, and just enjoy whatever the hell life throws under my wheels, whether the clutch is working or not.

Have a happy friday!!

Going bust.

Economy

The word that is on everyone's lips these days. I myself have been suffering the affects of the economy in ways too depressing to mention. Reading CNN last night, and article about the U.S. economy caught my eye.

The first paragraph was enlightening me about the fact that according to recent stats, U.S. employers were beginning to hire again. The top three? Blockbusters, Mcdonalds and Lowes. Huh, cool, some of the giants were beginning to stir from their slumber, and pulling their heads from the sand.

I read the article, and then decided to do some more research for no other reason than the fact I always do. What the great hurrah! article played down very low key was.

Blockbuster freely admits they always have advertisements out and running. The main reason is to keep up the pool of resumes that they require to have handy to replace retail staff that comes and goes in their stores nationwide.
-ok guess they aren't hiring...

McDonalds and Lowes both followed with about the same idea. Different words but the idea was similar.

On the home front, a lengthy article in our local paper discussing the rebound of the construction industry. Same idea again. the numbers posted of workers laid off in 2009/ compared to the workers brought back remains very low.

Keywords and other things.

So I've spent the last few days (well 2) learning about keywords. I mean we all have a vague idea of what they are. We type a few choice words into a search engine, and voila. If we are lucky, a bunch of links leading us to where we want to go appear.

So I caught myself wondering how exactly this all works. Since I do have a blog and so forth, I've of course plunked in some keywords at random, but never really paid attention to the science of it all.

And by god, it's quite a science in fact.

The first thing you learn, is before you spend hours building your blog, or website. Is keyword research! There are several good programs out there, that allow you to work out what keywords are popular, which not so much, and sometimes a new twist on a keyword phrase can produce some impressive results.

Wordstream provides a free keyword niche finding tool. I found it okay to use, but it didn't knock my socks off.
Another is the Google tool (also free)
One that appears to be pretty popular is the one built by the Affilorama guys, called Traffic Travis. It has a free version which isn't bad. As well they have a paid version that of course has more bells and whistles.

What most of this boils down to, is the neat useful stuff I learned. And how much knowledge is available out there.

A few examples of what I learned, in respect to a blog.
1. That your keyword niche you choose should also be your URL
- ie, id I was talking about chess. I'd want not only to title my blog Chess. but I'ld work really hard to get that keyword in my blog's URL (Chessmoves. blog.com etcetc)
-of course of you check this blog, you'll see that hasn't happened. But this is my personal space, so I care a bit less about that.

2. When making a post, under the title, there is room for a link. I never knew what it was for really. Guess what! You are supposed to put the link to your blog in there. For redirection. Neat.

3. keywords. - back to the original reason for this post. When writing, you are supposed to aim for about 2 to 3%. Meaning, in a 100 word article, your keyword should appear at least 2 or 3 times. This one is easy for me on this post, keyword well.. I'm counting that word a lot right now!
Neat stuff.
-does a happy dance-

Life is busy. Or is it?

The information super highway sure looks crowded. I'm continually stunned by the flow of information. The gadgets we all carry about because of the obsessive need we have created in the last 20 years to be in touch, everywhere. All the time. And this is coming from a dyed in the wool, true-blue geek.

How much is too much? Does this flow of information actually help us? We tweet, facebook ,email and blog our days away to name a few of our nasty habits. You'd have to live in a cave to not have a basic idea of what search engine optimization, and social networking mean. You can even get employment being a twitter.

But at the end of the day, how much of this do we remember? How much was useful? We are spending our days and consequently our lives in information overload. People think nothing of spending 8 hours a days at work in front of a computer, and then going home to spend another 8 on one doing their own thing. The internet is a giant self fueled machine. Fueled by our ever increasing habits of insulating ourselves from the real world, real contact and conversation, - all in the name of communicating more.

In for a penny?

So I rarely notice pennies, other than the fact they clog up my change compartment in my purse. Today while at the store, I pulled out a handful of change, and one caught my eye. So me being me, I grabbed it up to look more closely, rather then spending it.
It was a U.S. 1957 penny, rather unique looking.

Of course what captured my attention, other then the fact I am easily amused, is one I'm in Canada, and while US coinage flows through our system without any real notice or comment, it was worn looking enough that I spotted it.

I found myself thinking about it while I was driving home. 1957. It's been around a long time, older then my mother. I wondered how long it'd been floating around in Canada, had it just been brought up, or had it been stuck in a variety of Canadian stores and pockets and purses for 60 odd years. And just how many pennies are out there?

According to snopes.com it costs more then a penny to make a penny. And more than 7 million pennies were minted in 2007 alone. Pretty impressive numbers for the coin that spends most it's time being flung into coffee cans and considered barely worthy of carrying about in our wallets.

The variety of metals used to mint pennies has sparked quite the cottage industry. Where pennies are melted down and the different metals are sold off, since they are worth more then the coin itself.
The U.S governemt has fought back and made it illegal to melt down pennies. (Who knew) and such a horrific crime can land ones arse in prison up to 5 years.

Rats at war.

Who knew the sleepy little area known as Joe Rich could have such a bunch of gangbusters. Politics my dear friend, are being waged with some entertaining sagas.
Most of the sour milk if you want to call it that, appears to be centered on the Castanet forums, where Reg Volk goes after Kelly Hayes in grand style.

Never fear, Kelly Hayes is full of rebuttals, and his own side of the soap opera. His own website goes on and on.....

If you are bored enough to wade through the forums and Mr, Hayes site, there is some fun reading to be had complete with conspiracy theories and plain ole mud slinging. Eye opener indeed. Remember folks, you voted for these people!

Kelly Haye's website
Castanet Forum

Life is a lemon

Life really is a lemon, plain and simple. A pucker up your mouth endless slogging through the morass we call life, and somehow we are supposed to be enjoying it!
I am sure there are a few people that lead a charmed life, where everything is perfect. I don't know a single one of them.

For me, life has been a pretty chaotic disaster from the day I first opened my eyes and gazed out at the big bad. Don't get me wrong, I'm not depressed, I usually tend to laugh at the chaos that surrounds me. It's either that or go stark raving mad over it.


But there are a few moments of every day when I catch myself thinking. Surely one person's life can't be this much of a mess their entire life. Then I think about my life a bit more closely and say. Hell, yes it can.

I've found my life consists of extremes. There never seems to be that comfortable middle ground that all my friends develop and live in. I'm either successful and everything is perfect (for a short time_) and then I'm down in the bottom of the pit, digging myself back out again and rebuilding my life (the longer time)

So what is it about me, that makes life so difficult.
I'm well educated, I work my ass off when I have a job, and.. I am usually always on the short bus when the economy tanks.
While the asshat beside me who yaps all day and does half my work load, keeps his job. Hmm.