Revellian

Thoughts and Fiction of Bobby Revell

Posts Tagged social networking

Bobby’s Batch #17 – Zen and Enlightenment

Jun 15

Posted by Bobby Revell in Bobby's Batch, philosophy, social networking, 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!

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Bobby’s Batch #15 – Nomadic Digital Outcast

Jun 3

Posted by Bobby Revell in Bobby's Batch, social networking

It’s been a while since I wrote a batch, where I give links to some deserving writers. I usually write this on Sundays but since I’m still a free citizen, I’ll do it whenever I wish. I wanted to have at least 10 links, but I’m far too tired. I will be back on schedule for doing this next Sunday and will have even more selected posts. I won Andy Bailey‘s weekly contest and received my new iPod headphones…thanks Andy! Be sure to pay Andy a visit, and join in on his next contest. While you’re there, read some of his cool posts.

I am an Outcast

One thing I know about myself, since birth (yes, I remember being born – a horrifying experience), is that I never really fit in. I’m an outcast on so many levels. Put me and 99 other people in a room and I’ll be the one standing alone while everyone gathers in little groups of 4 or 5. I’m really terrible with meaningless small talk, and am perfectly content not being part of the crowd. I naturally gravitate towards blogging because I can say all those things I normally wouldn’t say in real life if you didn’t know me very well – trust me, I am a very difficult person to get to know.

While growing up, I always had a few friends, but never more than 2 or 3. Some people have hundreds of “friends” in their real lives, much like bloggers with 20,000 friends on Facebook or MySpace. I always hung out with other people who didn’t fit in because we had that in common. We were social rejects who refused to be part of all things normal. If everybody did something, I would make sure I didn’t. I approach blogging much the same way. When I first began blogging, I quickly learned how most just followed others, copied others and so forth. I used to have a vendetta against make money blogs, mostly because 99% of them are redundant, regurgitated, unoriginal, passionless, uninspired drivel – plagiarized from the “successful” ones. I personally don’t read any of the most popular blogs with 25,000+ subscribers. If you’ve read them once, there’s no reason to go back except for an occasional tidbit if needed. After a while, I gave up criticizing them – I have better thing to do. I just don’t read them – much like an offensively lame TV show – I just don’t watch it.

I’m such an outcast – even among my outcast friends – an outcast forming his own rebellion within a group of outcasts; a loner among loners. Reflecting on my teen years, I wonder: What’s a 15 year old kid, who practices guitar 10 hours per day and studies Zen, yoga and martial arts going to discuss with other kids who worry about their haircuts and what brand of shoes they wear? I remember as a seven year old boy, noticing how people grouped together and began their life long category of personhood. Are you a jock, geek, loser, dopehead or what? What category do you fall in? What group do you belong to? In college, I was faced with joining a fraternity, which I opposed with absolute disdain. Why would I join an exclusive group? What is exactly is an exclusive group? It’s doesn’t mean it’s a good or special group – it’s about exclusion. If you’re not in the group, you’re excluded from it. That’s why I despised those people who belonged. Well, I really didn’t dislike the people, just the idea of exclusivity. If I have to join a club to be your friend, then I will not be your friend. I don’t want to “fit in”. I prefer to think of people as individuals, not associated with a group of individuals. The blogosphere seems much like a high school where people are divided up into cliques – some snobbish, some friendly.

I know…I’m a cynical skeptic as well as an outcast. If you know me really well, I’m a goof who jokes sarcastically. If you don’t know me really well, I’m a quiet person. In my daily life, I listen much more than I speak. It’s amazing when you know people really well, who know nothing about you. I’m that guy at work everybody confides in and says nasty things about others to…oh my, the secrets I know. I guess that’s because I keep it all to myself, don’t tell anyone what they say and never add fuel to the fire – so they trust me.

I became interested in politics over the past few years and feel like such an outsider it’s ridiculous. I’ve come to the conclusion that the U.S. government is nothing more than a corrupted special interest group – I’m so disgusted I cannot take it anymore. We are supposed to choose where we fit in: conservative or liberal; I don’t fit in either group and never will. That’s how I feel about the Internet – I really don’t fit in anywhere; thus, I fit in everywhere. It’s quite lonely to be an individual these days. Now for this week’s links:

Wandering through BlogExplosion, MyBlogLog, and EntreCard – from Aldon Hynes of the Orient Lounge is a very interesting post (among many). I wrote the main part of this batch #15 last week and was surprised when I read Aldon’s post – the premise is quite similar, though mine is probably more negative. I know exactly how he feels. Make sure you read this very insightful article.

Retribution – from Why Paisley. This post pissed me off because her hosting service changed her domain name (the removal of the dash between why and paisley) and gave her no options. I suppose it could happen to anyone. She lost all her page rank and as far as I know, the change prevents her from doing a 301 redirect because she can no longer access the old domain. If she had psychic powers, she could have preemptively redirected before all this happened – but that’s a little much for any host to ask for. Because she is such a brilliant writer, it really bothered me to see this happen. Please read her great article and fix any links you have to her.

Facing Faults and Fears – My long time friend Becca aka Wonder Woman wrote a this great article about how caring and helping others can often keep you from taking care of yourself. It’s a quite wonderful and somber sentiment I strongly relate to.

Congress Wants to Make It Easier for People to Steal Your Content – From Dan at DCR Blogs. Here we go again with congress protecting criminals. I am all about political activism and this is very important for every American to do. Check out this article.

Hide and Seek – My friend J.C. from the blog Jasmin’s Heart has a guest writer, Jim Murdoch, who authored this post. It is a brilliant look into creativity and poetry – I found it very inspiring.

The Adventures of Marie Cambridge – Story Game 4 – I was fortunate enough to be invited by Teeni to participate in her cool writing project where several writers get to add a paragraph (my contribution is the 3rd from the top). Where else but the blogosphere would I get to hang out with an army of vegan women?

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Bobby’s Batch #14 – The Power of Blogging

Apr 27

Posted by Bobby Revell in Bobby's Batch, social networking

What I love most about blogging is how it brings people together from all over Earth. We are all much more alike than we are different. This past week has been painful and spiritually draining, mostly because I see and understand the world’s problems – I sometimes wish I didn’t. I believe that many things like race, religion, politics, patriotism, class, nationalism and many other forms of separatist identification destroy relationships between people in many ways. All these things are as irrelevant as the brand of clothes we wear when compared to our need for each other. We are powerfully interconnected and blogging makes the world so much smaller.

I’ve often thought that the only way people will come together would be if Earth came under attack by aliens from outer space. If the people of Earth faced such a situation, we would come together as one, overlooking foolish differences. We could find that love, which seems to be missing in this world. I see blogging as the most powerful form of communication for us all. I choose to blog because I believe it does bring us all together. While our governments fight, terrorism grows and wars are waged, people in every country are becoming friends; that is powerful, beautiful and majestic.

I say rise above your beliefs and love all people. Try hard to not label others. Love is and will always be the answer to all the worlds problems – not bombs, guns and totalitarian government control (which is exactly where America is headed). The masses of normal people have absolutely no idea how powerful they are and how much impact they can personally have. Take action and do something great for someone in need or for this world:)

Peace and love,

Bobby Revell

Remember that giving is the best part of blogging! Here are this weeks links:

Zeitgeist The Movie – One of the most important films ever made. Take two hours and watch it – it’s free. I mentioned it before, but will keep reminding people to see it. It exposes the myth of 9-11 and the financial institutions of the world. It is extraordinary, powerfully riveting and extremely important to see. It may help wake you up to something you have never seen before. Please watch it, I beg you!

Vaguetarian Tea Room – My very good friend Teeni has moved from her old wordpress.com address to her brand spanking new domain! I am very excited for her because I know how great it is to own your own site and be your own webmaster. To be a real friend, I will go through my older posts where I linked to her and correct each url. Congratulations Teeni, you new blog looks fantastic!

Rubeina, my very first friend from Mauritius! She has a fairly new blog with some great articles – be sure to pay her a visit. She is very intelligent, friendly and an aspiring young guitarist…yay! I found two fine articles from her I wanted to mention here:

  1. 5 Firefox Add-ons to make Directory Submissions faster – A very cool breakdown of useful Firefox addons, check em out!
  2. Defensive Mode – A wonderful post explaining how she feels about working in the corporate world as opposed to really going for your dreams. I really feel connected to her sentiment because I think similarly. I got a lot of bad advice while in high school and made many mistakes. I list a related post below:

Jobs and Careers: My Journey to Happiness – This is one of my favorite posts written by me. It explains what happened to me when I went to work for a huge corporation as a guitar designer/builder. No matter how hard I worked, I was nobody and would have remained nobody as long as I worked there. It’s a heartbreaking post about how my life was almost destroyed because of corporate politics.

I made another new friend, Catatonic Kid from Australia. She is a brilliant and philosophical writer with much insight into life’s dilemmas. I found two posts I wanted to link to here that are important to read:

  1. The Walls We Build: Fighting terrorism or fighting fear? – A well stated and eloquent piece about our perception of terrorism. She mentions something many of us have forgotten: other wars have been started against unseen or unidentifiable enemies even before 9-11. This is a great article.
  2. Roadkill Kippers and Karmic Reward: How to say ‘takecare’ and mean it. – I have suffered from severe depression for years but finally have a handle on it. This post is powerful, meaningful and has a great message about reaching out to others.

Create Your Own Graffiti – I thought someone had kidnapped my good friend the Brown Baron, but he has been putting up a few posts, and this one is very cool. This is one blogger I have missed like crazy. I hope all is well Baron:)

My Purrfect Phoebe! – My friend Marzie has put up the cutest pictures of her Persian kitty yet! If you are looking for a smile and some uplifting cheer, take a look at Phoebe – she is unbelievably precious. The popularity of Marzie’s blog has exploded and is almost intimidating, but she is so friendly and caring it is truly astonishing – something very special and magical indeed!

Blogspot Template – Looking for a cool new template for your blogspot blog? These are some of the best I’ve seen. They have everything including 2 and 3 column and fresh wordpress like themes. They look great!

I wanted to give a special shout out to a few friends I don’t mention enough but deserve some very special limelight:

Bobo – Thanks for talking to me so much when I have been down, it means so much to me:)

Jamilla – I am so proud to win your contest, you are a true friend and lift my spirits so much:)

Zubli – Thanks so much for being a great friend. You’ve been through some extremely difficult hurdles, but you know your real friends are behind you always:)

I have so many people to thank, it will require an extensive post I am already working on – I hope to have it up soon:)

The awesome picture is from LI Biz Blog – Fix it: Energy

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Bobby’s Batch #13 – Niche Free

Apr 20

Posted by Bobby Revell in Bobby's Batch, social networking

Being niche free means absolute freedom to write about whatever I want. I am truly thankful that I chose to not take this blog in that direction; however, I may one day start something like that. Being niche free means:

  • I don’t worry about stats or how much traffic I have
  • I link to an extremely wide variety of blogs
  • I receive links from many different types of blogs
  • I am here for friendship above all other ideals

I have built a strong blog with many readers, and a fair amount of traffic. That’s why I have made one of my most important goals to share with others, especially those who are just starting out or struggling for a link. Sure, any blogger can take a viral approach like link trains and such, but these links really don’t mean anything. I personally don’t want 5000 links from people who don’t actually read my blog – that’s why I no longer participate in anything viral. I am extremely proud of my diminishing Technorati authority – down from 900 to a little over 300. If I wanted, I could easily pump it back up but see no reason.

I see people linking to these prominent blogs and I cannot understand it. They don’t link to you, so why waste your time helping people who already have all they need? It’s like giving Donald Trump a Christmas present.

If you adjust content to improve stats you destroy your own validity. I remember when I first got into SEO, it really changed my content in a not-so-good way. Later on, after I gave SEO less attention, all my blogging stress went away. Then again, I am more of a writer than a tech freak. I have friends from nearly every niche and every country, which is a fantastic goal.

Being niche free means I don’t discriminate against any blogger because they write completely unrelated content. People who write highly focused niche sites rarely visit me because of that very reason. I really notice that since I started using Entrecard. Sure it’s brought me a lot of traffic, but most of it is a one second visit, just to drop a card. Overall, it’s not bringing in people who really read. Most folks are only out to gain for themselves, which is at the root of many world problems. I will reject no Entrecard ads unless the site promotes pornography, racism or something similar.

I give out 80% more links than I receive, and will not stop any time soon.

My goals in blogging have changed somewhat and I’ve gone through many phases. I’ve tried everything in blogging in someway or another but I am really happy with where I’m at – just being a writer who loves to learn. Here’s this weeks batch:

Bloodstone Chapter 1 – A fifteen chapter tale by Floog, one of the best writers I’ve ever seen in blogging. The story is long for a blog but is worth reading (though I haven’t yet finished yet…haha!). He definitely has the skill to become a famous author and I hope he does. Floog, Please put this in an e-book!

Flipping Blog Scams MMO Niche is Full of Jerks – Garry Conn comes unglued at the seams in an explosive fulguration of brutal honesty with this much needed post. I completely understand his angst and agree with him 100%. I hold Garry’s integrity in high regard, and am very glad he wrote this. I became somewhat disgusted by the way many MMO (make money online) sites operate. Many of them have pathetic content, write on a third grade level, are filled with disgusting greed, will use you, rip you off and then say nasty things about you. All the sites Garry mentioned deserve being told and put in their place.

You People Make Me Sick – Ed Philly wrote a scathing article where he explodes like a nuclear inferno. Because his site is written from scratch, I couldn’t figure out how to link to a post, but is no problem – the article is on the front page. Ed, if you give me the correct url, I will fix this. WARNING: This article does contain volatile profanity, but I completely understand why he wrote it. I like to see people let it all out and he does it like no other!

Avoiding Copyright Infringement in Your Underwear (or Swimsuit) – DCR Blogs wrote this informative and entertaining piece. He has an uncanny ability to add humor into many of his posts, even when getting serious, something we should all learn to do! I love that weird picture Dan!

Greencard Soldiers – Menopauseprincess wrote this disturbing post about how the Bush administration is trading citizenship for fighting in the war. I had no idea they were doing this and think it’s wrong. Be sure to check it out.

The Yiddish Handbook: 40 Words You Should Know – an invaluable resource for fiction writers.

The Best Gross, Unpleasant, and Otherwise Strange Dating Sites from Vat19 is one freaky post. I was shocked to see how bizarre these dating sites are. It is hilarious!

Invisible Executive Order Deserves a Closer Look: This is a great post from Rational Outrage about the new Bush executive order. They can legally freeze assets of anyone who “threatens the stabilization effort in Iraq”. However, the order could easily be abused. Definitely take the time to read this. I believe Bush has destroyed our civil liberties and the middle class – I cannot wait to see him gone. Just look at how horrible the American economy and value of the dollar is now. I strongly suggest you do not vote for McCain.

24eyes – The Premium RSS Dashboard on the Internet – This cool and powerful web 2.0 application allows you to read all the news from every source on one page. If you’re a news junkie like me, this is very useful.

I usually have more links than this but I am tired – so I’m exercising my right to be lazy :mrgreen:

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Bobby’s Batch #12 – My Date With a Deceptive Lying Witch

Apr 6

Posted by Bobby Revell in Bobby's Batch, social networking

There are only two things I know for sure:

1. I have dated many bizarre women with ulterior motives; some so strange, it seems like an impossibility of purely abstract fiction. I hope to meet one normal woman who doesn’t lie, cheat, steal, do drugs, have unprotected sex with numerous partners, hide extra children in the back room or have other boyfriends. Is that too much to ask for?

2. I will eventually die.

After my previous post of heartbreaking sadness, I felt I should explain a little. I am not sad or depressed in any way. I am however frustrated. Hey, you would cry too if you dated these people. I have dated the most mentally unstable women on Earth – just by chance. It’s like I won the deceptive lying witch lottery…read on:

Deceptive Lying Witch

Deceptive Lying Witch

One need look no further than the last woman I dated. Last month, I met a very nice woman who works as a bank teller. It started with a little flirtatious conversation and one of her coworkers telling me how single she was. I thought there was no way for her to be as bad as the last date I had – that really would be impossible.

We went out to dinner a few times, having much fun and some great conversation. When going on a date, I am like a boxer with a powerful defense. I test her intentions, looking for common signs of one who lies and so forth. I’ve been through hell, thus I do not allow myself to fall for someone very easily. I am completely honest and will lie under no circumstance. I used to lie a little (ok, maybe a lot), but learned from my mistakes. Nothing is worse than to be called out on a big fat lie.

She asked me over to her house for dinner. I was extremely apprehensive; however, I accepted. I had faith that she might really be nice and honest. She made it clear that she was truly interested in me. She tended to agree with everything I said. Every opinion I had about life, politics, relationships – she seemed to be in complete agreement with. That bothered me a little. I like people who will disagree with me and stand up for their own beliefs. It remained on my mind but I chose to let it slide, thinking I was over-analyzing her.

I arrived at her home around 7:00 pm. She answered the door in spandex, aerobic exercise apparel, covered in sweat stains. She smelled quite aromatic. She told me that because dinner was almost ready, she would not take a shower beforehand. I told myself, “It’s no big deal.” Then, I met her seven year old daughter, who she failed to tell me about. That was also fine with me – I didn’t mind at all. I don’t care if she has kids, I just prefer her to tell me about them. She had told me that she didn’t.

Things were a bit uncomfortable. I could sense something strange about to happen…lol. I kept telling myself, “It’s all in your head…stop freaking out.” The back door opened and in walked a strange man covered in automotive grease. He scowled at me and gave me a very sarcastic half-smile.

My date said, “Bobby, this is my boyfriend, Jake (not his real name). Jake, meet my new friend Bobby.”

Yay! She has a boyfriend – just as I had hoped…NOT. Jake rolled his eyes and then washed up for dinner. She whispered in my ear, “Don’t worry. Jake goes to work at midnight. Then we’ll be alone.”

How great was this situation? I get to spend five grueling hours with her and Jake – my idea of a fantastic date. I was really looking forward to getting to know Jake. I wanted to ask him, “So…does it bother you that your girlfriend brings dates home to meet you? How often do you have sex with her? Can I watch? Are you insane? Do you have herpes? Have you two been on the Jerry Springer show?”

I said, “Wow…my contact lens is really hurting my eye. Let me run out to my car and get my lens case so I can take this thing out.”

I ran to my car, hopped in and drove off…BYE-BYE. I immediately turned my cell phone off so she (or Jake) couldn’t call me. Whew…I felt like I just survived a war. Though this date was bizarre and extremely unusual, it’s the second time the exact same thing happened. That’s right! It has happened before. The last time, it was also with a woman who worked in a bank. The only difference is that she had a husband and a boyfriend – both of whom were at her house (I live in the twilight zone)! This is why I am so careful about who I date.

Next time, I will have my friend Vladamir (the KGB operative pictured above) administer my date a polygraph examination along with an entire array of tests, such as one for sexually transmitted diseases. I will also do a criminal background test. All of this must be completed before we go out…hahahahaha.

Enough is enough…get to the f*cking links already!

  • Whiteboy Style – My friend Ed Philly has his handmade site rolling again after a short hiatus. If you’re in the mood for some “Offensive Humor at it’s best”, be sure to pay him a visit. Ed wrote his site from scratch using HTML – WOW…what a rare thing these days!
  • At Goes To Salem: Emila‘s beautiful artwork of a cat named At. She actually gave it to someone for free. Emila is a wonderful person and spectacular artist.
  • Expelled: Setu‘s very weird tale. It defies categorization – falling between nightmare, hallucination and bizarre reality. If you enjoy cool short stories, this one is a must read.
  • Story Game – The Adventures of Marie Cambridge – Marie and Her Ex: Teeni‘s multi-authored short story with a sarcastic and wicked ending. I really enjoyed it.
  • I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream For Ice Creme: also from Teeni. She shows you how to make ice-creme without using milk. She says it came out quite delicious. It must be good because all women know good ice-creme when they get it (especially chocolate)…hehe.
  • Our Love Story: Marzie‘s heartwarming story of true love. She and her husband prove that it is possible to find the right person and live happily ever after. It is this kind of story that gives hope to those of us who haven’t…yet (like me)!
  • “Save” yourself first!: Yasmine‘s must read article about religious hypocrisy and how all of us can rise above it. Very thought provoking.
  • The Most Compelling Blockbuster: Sean Rasmussen‘s inspiring article that all of us should read…it’s fantastic. While you’re there, be sure to download his free e-book, Mindset Mastery. He put a lot of work into it and it is well worth reading.
  • Lies At the Top: American, Iraqi & Afghan Casualties Not Counted: Euroyank reveals some extremely disturbing truths in how casualties are actually counted in the current war. You must read this.
  • 5 Tips to optimize your site for Search Engines: Madhur Kapoor presents 5 basic tips to help you optimize your site.
  • How to repair MySQL Tables: Also from Madhur. I found this gem looking through his archives. A solid, step by step guide for repairing your wordpress MySQL tables.
  • How to extract names and email addresses from your WP database: Andy Bailey‘s very useful article about how to derive names and email addresses from your WordPress database. It’s complete in detail and easy to understand.
  • Why don’t they understand?: Also from Andy. This features some hilarious problems he ran into repairing computers. While you’re there, enter his new contest.
  • Striking the Right Balance Between Family and Business: Todd Morris wrote this positive article about striking that right balance.
  • What’s Wrong With “The Secret”: Todd Morris pointed me to this article that I found interesting. It’s about the movie “The Secret”. Check it out.
  • The Secret – Exposing The Truth and How it was Conceived: This is an article I wrote (that’s right, I’m promoting myself) about “The Secret”. Don’t get me wrong, there is some useful information in the movie. It was however, designed to make millions for the author – never forget that.
  • Computer Humor: My new friend Dunn compiled some very funny computer humor in this post. Go get yourself some comic relief.

*The witch is Pamela Kempthorne.

*The polygraph picture is from Polygraph Training.

* I love both of these pictures.

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Growing Your Blog The Right Way – Part 1: The Basics

Mar 5

Posted by Bobby Revell in blogging tips

I don’t write many blogging tips articles anymore because I really don’t see the point. However, I do have some things to say which are more about blogging philosophy rather than actual pointers. This is the first in a series and I’ll be turning out an E-book from it and many of my past articles. I dedicate this series to my good friend, Brown Baron, who recommended my doing this. He came up with the title a while back and it will also be the title of my E-book.

Social Networking Sites Do Not Beat Hard Work

There are so many social networking sites and new widgets that arise, it can drive a person to the edge of insanity. I get really bored with most of them and can’t seem to gain a real interest. The first thing I ever joined was MySpace and I no longer use it. I like Facebook more but I just can’t keep up with the thousands of participatory requests I get. I am just too lazy! They don’t really help your blog anyway but can be fun sometimes (they are good for specialized areas such as podcasting or video).

We often forget that it is the act of blogging itself that defines social networking!

Reading and commenting on many blogs and doing this type of basic hard work will take most blogs higher than anything else. This depends on why you blog. If you are blogging only for money, then you have much different goals than I do (making money is about getting, not giving).

If you are writing a lot of assorted subject matter like me or have more of a personal site, then working hard is the key! Working hard is the answer for any blog’s success but you must have some focus. I’ll get into all this in future installments of this series.

Joining every new thing is not going to help you that much. I know we want a quick solution to gaining some degree of success but building on excellence and quality comes from effort and perseverance. I recommend to forget shortcuts and just put in the hours.

Question: I write stuff I believe is important and I really need to get my information out there. I’m not interested in money, but more in getting my hard work read. How can I grow my blog in that way?

Answer: There is no single, easy answer. There are some things you must do to grow your blog:

1. Read lots of blogs – especially those with related information. You want and need varied readers – so don’t limit yourself to just one niche. You get tunnel vision and miss out on lots of new people. Become their real friends and stick by them.
2. Comment on all the blogs you read. Subscribe to all comment feeds and make sure you read every reply. Go back and comment again when called for. Conversational commenting is a powerful tool and no extra widget or social site can replace it. This builds friendships and dedicated readership.
3. For crying out loud…reply to your comments. When you leave a comment and the author just ignores it; it makes many people not want to leave any. However, I know many people who don’t reply and it usually doesn’t bother me; nor does it keep me from commenting. Many people do take it personally though.

I could write a thousand tips, but the above three are the most important!

My favorite Way to build Steady Traffic

To be perfectly honest, I do absolutely nothing for my own traffic. Actually, I purposefully reduced it as I had trouble giving all my readers lots of personal attention. I prefer to keep a manageable pace as I like to really get to know people. That in itself has it’s pitfalls and I have lost readers, but I cannot dwell on negativity and neither should you.

There are two sites that have provided me with most of my traffic: MyBlogLog and BlogCatalog. These two blog networking sites are by far the most powerful tools and nothing comes close in my opinion – especially for people just starting out. Work these two sites and you’ll build a base of readers. It is up to you to go seek them out and make it happen. I’m really just starting to get into BlogCatalog and it is truly fantastic. So get off your rear and do some real work!

Link Chains Provide The Worst Kind of Traffic

Participating in link chains are really a poor way to go (I used to think differently…it may be alright if you are suffering from no traffic at all). It may temporarily pump your Technorati authority up, but in the end, it’ll drop down to where it is naturally supposed to be. Besides, there are much better ways to make friends. Personally, I don’t want hundreds of readers hellbent on their own stats. I’ll be writing a scathing article about link chains soon and it should offend lots of people. Having said that, I am still not above it and may participate in one if I feel the need to.

That’s all I do for my blog…nothing more. I feel like I’m publishing redundant material in this article; however, when I go out and read, I see so many sites that don’t do these things. I’ve come to the point where I don’t think about expanding or gaining traffic. It is just a byproduct of my blogging efforts and community involvement.

The point is, blogging itself and community participation are the strongest tools available. This is why I largely ignore most new gimmicks and shortcuts. In blogging, the simplest methods are always the best.

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How To Be a Good Blogger: Karma

Feb 2

Posted by Bobby Revell in blogging ethics, blogging tips

This article isn’t about how to make your blog good, it’s about how to be a good blogger. I don’t mean a skilled author; I mean a beneficial member of social networking society. Doing the right thing seems to be missing in many of our sites.

There are tons of ways to do good things, but this is about promoting and giving needed validity to your fellow community member’s articles. Being a “good person” is far more important than being popular or making money.

What is important in a blog? Obviously, the content is supposed to be. How do you make your content count? Making other people’s content count is my favourite method. Much of it depends on what yours is about and who your audience is. I could cure cancer in an article and put a picture of a cute puppy in another; the puppy will get all the attention and nobody will care if I save the world…haha (I’m ok with that and I love being sarcastic).

Unfortunately, mine will not be a “keyword targeting” success story. I’ve seen authors who incessantly game the system with a dedication to creating landing pages while they say viral marketing only brings useless, unrelated links.

They think they are better than someone who goes the viral route. I have news for you, it’s of the same ethical value; it’s gaming the system. One is more complex and difficult to employ than the other, but are both essentially “cheating the system”.

I don’t care which method of self promotion you use, it’s all cheating. Is it wrong? I say absolutely not. I am trying to get over my aversion to self-promotion because I do have something to say, and I want as many people as possible to hear my message.

I write about what I think humanity needs. I call people out on doing the wrong thing, and write about world peace and how each of us need to take responsibility for living. Without any effort on promotion, I am limiting myself.

Many of us, after writing for a while, say things like, “I don’t care about links, I don’t care about popularity. People that do are greedy idiots!”

What if your favourite music artists felt like that, saying, “I don’t care about recording an album or having listeners.”

I suppose all your favourite artists, musicians, writers and actors wouldn’t exist. What kind of world would that be? I have done nothing to promote my blog in a very long time. My page rank is still an unjustified zero. I’m not complaining though, because I do have a great base of readers and do well in natural search engine queries.

Some Solid Ideas For Your Blog

One thing many of us don’t do is write a weekly link post. Why don’t you? Like many people who put a lot of heartfelt work into valuable posts, I feel disappointed when no one notices or links to my good work. It’s not a “me thing”, it’s a “we thing”! I’m always on the lookout for good articles on lesser known blogs; you should too if you aren’t already.

I believe that if I have any popularity, it is because I give to others. It’s a byproduct of giving and helping others, not a goal. Here are my recommendations for some good things you should try:

  • You really should do a weekly link post; start one now (mine’s every Sunday)!
  • Find great articles written by your community members and link to their posts. Try to actually find and link to good work even if it’s unrelated to your content.
  • Look through their archives and find past posts that need a link.
  • Create a list of your most valuable posts and put it in your side bar (I’m working on that). You may have already written your best posts. Let people know what they are and you’ll increase your chances of being read or linked to.
  • If a niche blog is good enough, it could be a big hit with only a dozen posts – hardly ever adding a new one. It can become a well known reference for a plenitude of any type of content.
  • Remember, blogging is a social communication technology. It’s alright to want attention in moderation. Just don’t develop “Britney Spears Syndrome” or what I call BSS (it’s BS with an extra S). You may need to check into a blogaholics clinic to get clean if that happens…haha!
  • Memes and awards are great, but a link to deserved post is the greatest of all awards!
  • Be sure to check your incoming links regularly on Technorati. Go thank people for linking to you. It’s also a great way to see who maybe scraping your content.
  • Stick by your friends and don’t let money affect your judgment. Never forget where you came from.
  • We all start equally our first time here.
  • Don’t go around asking for links. Give, give and give some more. Participate in this digital society and it will come back to you.
  • Nothing is better than good Karma!

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35 Comments

Bobby’s Batch #1

Jan 6

Posted by Bobby Revell in social networking

I was thinking about a simple resolution for 2008 I could actually do, so I had my secretary call my panel of board members to brainstorm for me. When asked, they all quit…freaking jerks! In retaliation, I fired my secretary. Disgruntled, she had a contract placed to put my head in a dirty straw basket. So, I’m running for my life…someone please help me.

I decided to come up with my own idea! This is my new Sunday link love post. So many bloggers are starting to side to extremes on certain things. I am no exception. To say, “I don’t care about links or ratings or anything.” is one thing, but to not create links to other blogger’s fine work is just as bad.

It really is a good thing to have a weekly link post. I know how good it feels to have someone mention a post I’ve written, it’s just a nice thing to do. Originally, I began doing a link series, but I never stuck with it. My resolution is to do this weekly post. If I only do one post per week, it will be this one. It’s my responsibility to do it. It helps get you out there looking for noteworthy work, that is a great thing to do. Get off your rear and do this yourself!

I pay homage to my good friend the Brown Baron with the title! He has always been a big inspiration to me and I can’t think of a better thing to make myself and my blogger buddies feel good than to give link love! Giving is a beautiful thing.

I loved Emila’s post, Yassin’s 4th Birthday! If this cute little fella with his birthday cake doesn’t make you smile, you need glasses..hehe! BTW, Thanks for the wonderful Christmas card Emila! You never cease to amaze me.

Another post that really lifted my spirits was over at Polliwog’s Pond (with a whole team of bloggers!) Paula’s daughter wrote a heart touching post I loved: Choc-O-Week – Cake For Mom! Happy Birthday Paula!!!!!

The Brown Baron had a super cool post What Kind of Geek Are You? hehe…very cool indeed. I proclaimed myself the drama geek. Thanks Baron! I have been through a lot this year and you have been a great friend. That’s why I named my new series Bobby’s Batch!

My super good friend Marzie is having yet another contest Bring Home the Mariuca Christmas Mug! This is a great chance for you to win a beautiful keepsake mug, made by Emila Yusof. All you have have to do is leave a comment about what would be the ultimate Christmas gift for Marzie!

This next link is a truly amazing amalgamation of both video and eye opening text from my good friend Euroyank, Who Controls The Government. Euroyank reports the things most people turn a blind eye to. I’ll be giving lots of links to this truly gifted blogger. His material is presented in a very professional and concise manner. Be warned, his information can be disturbing…but is inspiring and absolutely riveting.

My friend Loz from wrote a disturbing and humorous post I don’t get…rat’s milk about the Vegan Heather Mills recommendation for humans to switch to rat’s milk…yeeeech…hahaha! Loz has a somewhat insane sense of humor…that’s why I like him!

My good blogging buddy Opal Tribble has a great, uplifting post� Excuses: Turning I Can’t Into I Can, about becoming a freelance writer. It’s not just a good source for anyone interested, it’s positive and really caught my attention!

Last but not least, I found a blogger I hadn’t seen before. She is a talented writer named Square1 from the blog The Fanciful Muse. Her Poetry Thursday entry Journey was a nice read! I enjoyed it and thought it would be nice to give a link to someone new!!!!

I hope you enjoy checking out these great posts! Wow…I feel like I’m doing something really cool. See you next Sunday for a fresh batch :mrgreen:

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18 Comments