I’ve tried out and am a member of so many social networking sites it has become preposterous. I really don’t like any of them that much, but Twitter, Facebook and Stumbleupon seem to be the only ones having any relevance. I’ve always thought that blogging and commenting are the best way to social network, and the others are simply supplements.
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Archive for category Stumble Upon
I was recently asked by friend J.C. from the blog Jasmin’s Heart to write a guest post for him. I happily accepted and wrote a post just like I would as if it were here on my blog. It is entitled That’s So Zen. Be sure to read it and leave a comment. I am excited about it! Be sure to read several of J.C.’s great articles while you are there.
For those of you who don’t know, I have studied Zen most of my life. If people consider me to be religious in any way, it is because of Zen (which I think of as not being religion necessarily, but a form of spiritual psychology). After my article, Interview With a Blind Homeless Man, many Christian readers told me that I was Christian even if I didn’t proclaim to be. I assure you, I am not a Christian. I am affiliated with no religions, though I do believe in God in my own way. I’ve studied almost every religion/philosophy and find them fascinating.
The argument I have with most religions, such as Christianity, Islam or Judaism is they seem to have an answer to life’s most important questions, like who are we and what happens after we die. It’s the same problem I have with atheism which also provides these answers to a certain extent. This is one reason why I followed the path of Zen. I am a student of Confucianism, neo-Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism and the Oomoto faith – though I do not follow any one specifically. I consider myself a very spiritual person with no religious precept.
The Asian religions have the idea that if there is a God, that God exists inside us as well as everywhere else. Many Christian scholars have accepted that idea also. If I had to say which religion my own personal beliefs coincided with, I would say a combination of Zen, Buddhism and Yogi philosophy. In other words, I have made up my own religious beliefs, much of which could be misconstrued as agnostic but are free of sexism and racism (which many religions still practice to this day).
We’ve all heard the Zen koan, “Two hands clap and there is a sound. What is the sound of one hand?” by Hakuin Ekaku; or commonly asked, “What is the sound of one hand clapping.” In this simple koan, the deepest concepts of enlightenment can be derived. Of course there is no answer to this koan, regardless of what many people believe. An answer may be given to demonstrate a pupil’s comprehension, but still, there is no concrete answer. The idea is to develop intuition and awareness of that which cannot be understood in logical terms.
In Zen, there are no answers. This can be explained by the following quote, “Seek not to know the answers, but to understand the questions.” It is more about what I refer to as the interrogative state of mind, where one is open and questioning, allowing intuition to guide us. The truth is, there are no answers to questions like, “Is there a God?”, “What happens to our souls after death?” or “Do we have a soul?”
I read several books about religions that say people came here from another planet (think Scientology). A Christian would say, “That person is crazy.” What I say is, “You believe Jesus died, after 3 days was resurrected and ascended into heaven…so are they really crazy?”
The truth is, nobody knows anything for sure, but if it gives you comfort, then so be it – whatever gets you through the night. From a Zen standpoint, the answers are unimportant. It is in the pondering itself that provides an answer, if you want to call it that. Just so you know, I respect all beliefs and do not judge people for theirs. Besides, all religions have a streak of exaggeration and craziness.
The idea of Zen can readily be applied to any intellectual human thought. I am a guitarist, so I’ll explain a little. After practicing a musical scale (such as the ionian, dorian or melodic minor) thousands of times, it becomes ingrained and part of your neuromuscular memory. You know it. You know it’s sound. You know the way a certain scale feels under your fingers. After that is accomplished, you apply it in real music, using that particular musical scale to convey a mood or feeling. In Zen, this is only the beginning. It is after a spiritual transcendence of that scale, a true Zen state can be achieved. Thus, all great musicians have achieved enlightenment in music, or they wouldn’t be great (though greatness is relative if you believe in relativism). I’m referring to true giants like Stravinsky, Mozart, John Coltrane, John McLaughlin or other such masters. It’s the idea that you learn all the theory, master it and forget it so you can express it with a still mind.
If you are a computer programmer, the same thing applies. You must master a particular programming language before you can fly with it. Again, that flying is just the beginning in Zen. It is after you spiritually transcend that knowledge that you become alive with freedom of expression. You see, Zen is all about hard work and that special place you come to upon mastery. And mastery means no ego. Mastery means you are reborn as a beginner, which means you know nothing. Now, you may wonder why I chose to discuss computer programming and Zen together. I know many programmers who have reached this type of enlightenment. It’s just like anything a person learns such as art, music, writing and so forth. The realization that one is and will always be a beginner, or at least has that open mindedness, is where that dynamic answer exists; because there are no answers, only more questions, which is exactly the point. Now for this weeks links:
StumbleUpon Graveyard – By Tim Nash: This post explains how a stumbled post can end up in the no traffic graveyard. It stresses how important it is to do a review with each stumble, especially if it is an article you discover (you’re 1st to stumble it). Tim has some fantastic websites, and many of his articles are beyond my scope of current knowledge; however, he is a nice guy who really engages his readers and is willing to help people out. Be sure to read this post, it is my pick of the week.
Dead Body Outside My Window – By Mariuca: I was shocked when I saw this post. Marzie saw a real dead body on the concrete right outside her window – very disturbing indeed! She actually included some pictures which gave me the willies! Be sure to check this one out.
Build It Or Break It – by Ruby of Servizot Dot Com: This post really hit home with me because I relate to it so strongly. She explains one of those tough situations at work we can all learn from. A great article!
How to Succeed at Article Marketing – From Pajama Professional: This is a look at article marketing, a powerful method most people don’t know anything about. The author, Sara Christensen offers a case study and and much insight into this often overlooked area of marketing.
Add Borders to Images – by Sue Blimely: An easy to understand tutorial for adding borders to images including padding and so forth. A very useful post. Sue’s blog is filled with useful articles so be sure to check them out.
I also want to congratulate Jamilla in getting her first accounting job Walking Into Another Section of My Life..that’s Career! Go Jamy!
Last but not least, I want to congratulate Shinade on her 700th post Life Never Ceases To Amaze Me-700 Posts – That is a gargantuan amount! Go Jackie!
I am not very fond of using social bookmarking to promote my blog. I think people often forget that blogging is social networking, but get overly caught up in different sites to build traffic, like Digg and many others. My favorite is Stumbleupon. What most people don’t realize is how much traffic a single stumble can bring. Because of how the Stumbleupon algorithm works, it is fairly common to receive massive quantities of traffic from only one person stumbling you at the right time. Every now and then you get that lottery stumble, which can generate thousands of visitors in just a few hours.
On May 19th, my great blogging buddy Marzie – the Genie Princess stumbled my homepage (thanks Marzie!). I had reached around 80 visitors that day, until that magical stumble! A few hours later, I noticed I was up to 674 readers and 969 page views in under an hour – that was quite an explosion of traffic. I ended up with almost a thousand visitors before I went to sleep. Many of those visitors left comments and viewed more than one article, which was fantastic. You don’t always get such an explosion of traffic, but every now and then, you do. It’s freaking great when it happens.
I wrote an article about how to use Stumble correctly: Stumble Upon: A Cool Ethical Approach with a few solid tips and a few great links you should check out. Here are a few more:
- Don’t stumble your own articles – a TOS violation
- Don’t trade stumbles with people – a TOS violation
- Don’t ask to be stumbled – a TOS violation
- Try to review what you stumble – many people don’t bother. I explain how in my link above.
- Use it often, and it will increase your chances of being stumbled
- Let people know you’ve stumbled them in a post comment
- Make sure you review every time you stumble
All these tips are basic, but if you violate Stumbleupon’s terms of service, they will drop your account. I know many people this has happened to. It’s a great way to support your fellow bloggers. Many people use social networks only to gain things for themselves, they rarely do things only for others. This is what is wrong with society as well as in blogging. I use Stumbleupon everyday because I know how powerful it is. I stumble people’s homepages, and also when I see a really good post. Just keep the Stumbleupon toolbar open, and use it liberally. If you use the stumble tool bar, take a look at who stumbled your site. You do that by clicking the little white balloon while looking at a particular page. The ethical and honest way to use it, is to stumble lots of people and hopefully you’ll get stumbled too – not because you’ve asked (hey I’ve asked before but I won’t anymore), but because someone chose to on their own.
Sometimes I wish I had a different approach to blogging, but I am happy with my methodology. I have written many Bobby’s Batch posts where I link to my fellow blogger’s fine posts. In my opinion, it is the best way to help people out. If blogging worked by such ethical and kind giving, the blogosphere would be a better place. My blog is rarely found in Google searches landing on my homepage. With Google searches, my individual blog posts are found, which is what I want. It is the content that matters, not the homepage. However, I am trying to change my views on many things in blogging, be much more positive and less critical of what other people do.
Stand Out With Stumble Upon
Here’s a short and sweet instruction guide for those of you new to stumbling. If you don’t use stumble, it’s time to join. Hey, you could even experiment on this post! 
I was looking at my friend Polli from Polliwog’s Pond‘s MyBlogLog profile and noticed she had her Stumble Upon page listed as a blog. I’ve seen several people do this and thought it’s time I listed mine too.
I decided since this blog deals with blogging ethics, being nice and polite are part of ethics in my world! Many people use stumble but don’t use it correctly. What I mean by correctly, is doing the little extra things with stumble that make you stand out.
Add Your Stumble Upon Blog Anywhere You Can
The great thing about your Stumble feeds is that you are promoting the people you stumble as well as yourself. You have two feeds as a Stumble Upon user:
revellian’s reviews and blogAdd your stumble blog to MyBlogLog to get started. These two feed addresses are the ones you need to enter when editing your stumble blog. Your Main Stumble Upon URL can be either of these two. I used the top one as my primary.
Check it out on MyBlogLog: Revellian’s StumbleUpon Blog
Stumble Upon Coolness
There are tons of great posts about using stumble, but this one is specifically for my readers! To be extra nice using stumble, here are some things beginners should be aware of. Here’s a section of the Stumble Upon tool bar. IE users can download it directly from stumbleupon.com. Firefox users can use the add extension feature available in their addons menu.
You can stumble someone’s home page and their stumble user page. It’s like saying not only is their site cool, but they are a great stumbler as well!
When you are looking at someones site, you click the thumbs up button. If the page hasn’t been stumbled previously, you will be prompted to write a short review (please tag it correctly). If it has been stumbled already, it will redirect you to another random page.
What I like to do is after I give a thumbs up on a previously stumbled page, I go back and write a review anyway. See that white bubble on the far right of the tool bar in my example? Click it to write a review.
These are two separate things. It’s nice to go back after giving thumbs up and write a review in addition! Most folks won’t do this. Stumblers who do this are extra cool.
You should stumble the sites and stumblers you like! When you run across a cool post, stumble and review it! Just make sure you are on the article’s permalink url. Just click the post title to get to it.
Stumbling is powerful and fun. It’s a great way to share with folks what you like and who you like. It’s great for traffic and I personally prefer it over Digg any day.
To get an idea of just how powerful stumbling can be, read Mike’s post: (Ordinary Folk) The Stumbleupon stampede – one amazing night of traffic
If you want to get really technical, read Stumbleupon mathematics for stumblers by Tim Nash.
[Tags]blogging, blogging tips, blogging ethics, Stumble Upon, stumbleupon, Bobby Revell, Revellian[/Tags]
