Thermal

If you use the excellent Mr Linky widgets and plugins for autolinks on any weekly memes you may do such as Wordless Wednesday etc. you may want to run a quick spam check on them.

I was leafing back through my archives recently for no particular reason, when I noticed that half a dozen links to various dubious websites had been added to an old Wordless Wednesday. Apart from giving these lowlife free links, it can also be a bad thing in the eyes of the Googlebot if you’re linking to blacklisted sites, knowingly or not.

If you didn’t already know, they’re easy to get rid of, simply log into Mr Linky, and under ‘widgets’ you will see all the various autolinks you’ve used, and you can review and delete at your leisure.

I would also like to thank Mr Linky for the very fast and excellent support I received through his ‘linky helpy’ helpdesk fixing the issue caused by me having one account and 2 usernames. How I managed that, I do not know.

I will be checking out my old WW’s on a more regular basis now…..

It’s Monday lunch time, so you’ve got time for a very quick (60 seconds) game. Punch The Bats.

See if you can beat 3150. Be warned, RSI may result….

Yep, that’s me on the left. Every night, we start off with equal duvet, by morning I’m rimed with ice, and Steph is done to a turn.

I think it was Scott Adams who came up with the idea of an ‘eternal duvet’ like the handtowels in washrooms. It would go all the way under the bed in one continuous piece, so no matter how much she grabs, more would appear on the other side.

This is from Wellington Grey.net. Follow the link to see some graphs which demonstrate the theory even further

Podcasting seems to be getting more and more popular amongst bloggers, and depending on your blog type, it could be the tool that takes your blog to the next level. If you don’t know what podcasting is, it’s basically a recording of a post, or interview in audio format that is available for download, to be listened to at another time. As it’s usually in MP3 format, it can be listened to on most portable music players such as iPods, hence: Podcasting.

Whilst not suitable for every blogging style, if you tend to write a lot of text, long articles or write fiction or poetry, it could be perfect. Additionally, interviews are proving to be a very popular form of podcast. Until now though, a major problem has been that podcasts can be quite large (up to 30Mb for an hours speech) and each time it’s downloaded, it uses your bandwidth, which in turn can land you with a large bill.

Step forward a site that offers a Free Podcast, MyPodcast.com. Simply register a free account, and use their simple software to record your podcast. Once happy with it you can publish it, and receive the benefits of unlimited storage, and unlimited bandwidth for downloads. All you have to do is select a spot in the podcast for insertion of a targeted ad. You can pre-approve the advertisers, and choose the exact placement of it, using words such as ‘now a quick word from my sponsor’ before continuing. A fair exchange for the service they offer, I’d say. Even better, you can earn from these ads too!

The site looks very clean and easy to use, so if you’re looking to experiment with podcasts, this looks like the place to start.

This is a paid post.

It does for me certainly, things I did 10 years ago seem like ancient history now! But it’s also the title of a very good song by John Frusciante which you can hear by playing the video below. You’ll also get to have a look round his house and at some of his guitars (drool).

If you like the song, check out his album ‘Curtains’, a collection of beautiful, simple acoustic tracks with a little piano thrown in. Very relaxing, and almost painful in the beauty of the music

Despite the incessant rain today, we got off our butts and headed for the hills. Half hours drive from home, we’re in the foothills of the Grampians and we went for a 6 mile hike up Greenhill, going via Whitehill Stone Circle.

The rain was pretty much constant for most of the walk, blowing around and usually driving into our faces. I don’t mind walking in rain, but it rather limited the chances of getting my camera out, which was a shame, because the views from the top of Greenhill were 360 degrees around, comprising of bleak moorland, rolling farmland and in the distance the ‘real’ Grampians.

Thankfully, it eased up on our return trip, just in time for visiting 4000 year old Whitehill Stone Circle.

The first thought on Tom’s mind was a snack, namely some fruity loaf we had baked this morning:

Whitehill is a little battered, with all but 3 of the stones fallen, but they’re still here, grey and pink granites, with quartz scattered in behind the recumbent stone - the one deliberately lain on it’s side, and along which the moon moves during the major moonrise.

At least the rain gave me a chance to be ‘arty’ This is some sheep fleece caught on one of the standing stone, and bejeweled with rain drops.

It was a lovely, if tiring walk, and when we got home, the boys put away their Sunday lunch with gusto, and are now fast asleep. I won’t be far behind them.

You all know that PayPerPost is there to help you make money blogging. I’ve told you for free, and they have even paid me to tell you. I’ve made over $300 now writing these posts, and the best thing is I’ve actually enjoyed it - I’ve found (and been paid to write about) some interesting sites, and I’ve found the creative challenge of writing a good post pretty stimulating.

Well, now PPP are paying me to speculate: all they’ll tell us are that some big things are coming, and we’re to blog about what they may be. That’s quite a challenge, as with this company I’m never quite sure what’s going to come next. Led by their energetic CEO and founder Ted, they seem intent on converting the whole world to PPP, even if it means flying around it to do it!

Could it be going global? Although bloggers from many countries are eligible for PPP, are they going to launch offices around the world? They have told us that some future opportunities are going to be segmented based on regionality etc. and although that may mean getting counted out of some, it also means that you may be one of the few to be eligible for these bigger paying opps.

Have they got a campaign for a truly global client? A real big name to promote PPP to the attention of marketing teams world wide?

Or is RockStartup, PPP’s Reality Show going to hit the airwaves for real? This is where my bet is, that we’re going to see a broadcast version of the reality show tracking the growth of PPP as they take over the world. It’s already setup for it and pretty entertaining in it’s own right on the web, I can see this one making it onto TV.

Whatever it is it’s going to be big, and I’ll bet it’s going to be something innovative. Will you be involved? I am.

……… everyone’s got one. Fill in the blanks and consider your humour to be gutter born

I sometimes think the internet was solely invented for people with single unchangeable opinions to go around abusing people from all over the world. (and if you disagree, I ‘ll flame you.)

Comic from the excellent Toothpaste For Dinner.

If you’re going to be visiting London in the future, you may want to bookmark this site: London Walks.

There’s a wide range of interesting walks blogged about here, and even better you can download them for free, to play on your iPod (or other non-fashion victim MP3 player ) to listen to as you walk. Some really nice ones on there, and plenty off the beaten track.

On a slightly related note, if you’ve ever fancied one of those London Underground signs, you can buy one from the actual factory at Made In Britain. I think I’m getting this one for when the boys are older and want a car

I worked as an asbestos consultant for altogether too many years, and I’m very familiar with some of the horrible diseases that asbestos exposure can cause. The one most closely associated with asbestos exposure is mesothelioma, which is a cancer of the lining to the chest cavity. A website has been put together giving some background information on this disease, the dangers of asbestos, the latest news on treatments, and how to get medical and legal help. Going on the premise of ‘laughter is the best medicine’, they have decided to break it up a little with some doctor jokes and funny images such as that below.