Scarform’s Blog

Dec 27, 20060
Five things you may have suspected

Looking at Problogger and his post “Five things you may not know about this little problogger”, I saw that I have done 4 of the 5 things listed. I used to be like that. So taking on his lead, here are 5 things you may not have known about (but probably suspected):

  • 1. I used to write poetry. In 2001, I had a collection of over 2,000 poems that I had hand written and bound together. They were lost in a series of moves, but on a trip to my father’s house a few years later, I found another collection of my poetry. My collection is now back at close to 1,000.
  • 2. I have been blogging since 1998. I’ve moved from free service to free service, everything from AOL Hometowns to Angelfire. I’ve probably used over 30 free services in the past 8 years. 2001 saw the birth of Boyevul.com, which would be off and on until 2005. 2004 saw the birth of Boyevul.net, and Scarform.com. And then, of course, 2006 saw the re-birth of Scarform.com. All in all, if I had to guess, I’ve written between 2 and 3 thousand blog type entries.
  • 3. In 2004, I spent 3 months traveling coast to coast with a Repo Business. After that was done, I spent a year living in Florida, a few months in Texas, and before all that? In 2001, I spent 3 months living in California, 2002 saw me in Florida for the first time for about a month, and 2000 saw me in Texas for 8 months.
  • 4. I’ve had a lot of different jobs over the years. I’ve been everything from dish washer to grocery bagger. I’ve worked fast food and I’ve worked telemarketing. The two jobs I will never go back to are telemarketing and fast food.
  • 5. I don’t do drugs. I’m not one of those “Drugs are for morons” type people. I just don’t have a need for them. Alcohol and cigarettes, cigarettes more than alcohol, are my two vices. And my other drug? The internet, of course.

Dec 27, 20060
Holy Expletive!

How the Grinch Stole Christmas: Abridged Version. I think I like this one better than the original and remake combined!

Dec 26, 20060
Traffic: You want it.

Traffic
Blog? Check. Content? Check. Traffic?

Traffic?

There are plenty of articles on the internet about how to drive traffic to your blog. A few of them are fairly complete in the amount of information they give to you. But in the age of instant gratification, you want that traffic now! Well, I can’t guarantee that. But what I can guarantee you is that this article is going to be to the point. So let’s get started.

Recommendations
It is recommended that you get your blog hosted at your own domain, but not imperative. For hosting, I recommend Dreamhost. You can find my review and a coupon code here.

If you haven’t done so, move all of your articles over. Wordpress has this feature built in.

Things you’ll want to do

01. You’ll want a short load time. You’re looking for at least a 7 second wait between entering the URL into a browser and the time some amount of content shows up. You can check your website speed here.

02. You’ll want your site viewable and compatible in all browsers, from AOL to IE to Firefox to Netscape. Whatever the browser, it should be viewable.

03. You’ll want your site viewable in at least a 1024×768 resolution, if not 800×600.

04. You’ll want a Technorati account, and this plug-in.

05. You’ll want to join Blog Topsites.

06. Even though your blogging app has an RSS feed ((a list of your posts that RSS readers will decipher and deliver in a readable format to a subscriber.)) built-in, you’ll probably want Feedburner for the added ability to track your subscription numbers.

07. You’ll want to comment as much as possible on the blogs you regularly read. Even comment on the ones you don’t. In fact, if you read something that is interesting, be sure to add to it by commenting! Blog authors love nothing more than checking their e-mail to find that somebody has commented on the content they have worked so hard to bring to you.

08. Don’t forget your pings! ((a way of your blog letting another website know that new content has been added recently.))

http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping
http://rpc.pingomatic.com/
http://1470.net/api/ping
http://api.feedster.com/ping
http://api.feedster.com/ping.php
http://api.moreover.com/ping
http://api.moreover.com/RPC2
http://api.my.yahoo.com/RPC2
http://api.my.yahoo.com/rss/ping
http://bblog.com/ping.php
http://bitacoras.net/ping
http://blogdb.jp/xmlrpc
http://blog.goo.ne.jp/XMLRPC
http://blogsearch.google.com/ping/RPC2
http://blogmatcher.com/u.php
http://bulkfeeds.net/rpc
http://coreblog.org/ping/
http://mod-pubsub.org/kn_apps/blogchatt
https://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZFinance.woa/wa/pingPodcast
http://ping.amagle.com/
http://ping.bitacoras.com
http://ping.bloggers.jp/rpc/
http://ping.blogmura.jp/rpc/
http://ping.blo.gs/
http://ping.cocolog-nifty.com/xmlrpc
http://pinger.blogflux.com/rpc/
http://ping.exblog.jp/xmlrpc
http://ping.feedburner.com
http://ping.myblog.jp
http://pingqueue.com/rpc/
http://ping.blogg.de/
http://ping.rootblog.com/rpc.php
http://ping.syndic8.com/xmlrpc.php
http://ping.weblogalot.com/rpc.php
http://ping.weblogs.se/
http://rcs.datashed.net/RPC2/
http://rpc.blogbuzzmachine.com/RPC2
http://rpc.blogrolling.com/pinger/
http://rpc.britblog.com/
http://rpc.icerocket.com:10080/
http://rpc.newsgator.com/
http://rpc.pingomatic.com/
http://rpc.tailrank.com/feedburner/RPC2
http://rpc.weblogs.com/RPC2
http://rpc.wpkeys.com/
http://services.newsgator.com/ngws/xmlrpcping.aspx
http://signup.alerts.msn.com/alerts-PREP/submitPingExtended.doz
http://topicexchange.com/RPC2
http://trackback.bakeinu.jp/bakeping.php
http://www.a2b.cc/setloc/bp.a2b
http://www.bitacoles.net/ping.php
http://www.blogdigger.com/RPC2
http://www.blogoole.com/ping/
http://www.blogoon.net/ping/
http://www.blogpeople.net/servlet/weblogUpdates
http://www.blogroots.com/tb_populi.blog?id=1
http://www.blogshares.com/rpc.php
http://www.blogstreet.com/xrbin/xmlrpc.cgi
http://www.holycowdude.com/rpc/ping/
http://www.lasermemory.com/lsrpc/
http://www.imblogs.net/ping/
http://www.mod-pubsub.org/kn_apps/blogchatter/ping.php
http://www.newsisfree.com/RPCCloud
http://www.newsisfree.com/xmlrpctest.php
http://www.popdex.com/addsite.php
http://www.snipsnap.org/RPC2
http://www.weblogues.com/RPC/
http://xmlrpc.blogg.de
http://xping.pubsub.com/ping/

09. Trackback linking ((a link to a specific article on another blog. Usually, if not 100% of the time, shows up as a comment in the article you have linked to.)) is also something you might want to do, for instance: You have written a compelling blog article. If you have gotten your information, in whole or in part, from another blog entry somewhere else on the net, a trackback link, or in short, a url to that blog entry, is not a bad idea. In fact, it’s recommended. Like Nike says, Just do it.

10. You’ll want to make sure your blog is usable, viewable, and easily navigated. This includes the ability for the viewer to view posts by category ((categories are useful for splitting your posts into specific sections, like separating posts about anime from posts about dog food.)), view the archives ((allows your viewers to easily navigate to entries that may have been posted months, even years, in the past.)), and easily search your blog.

You’ll also want to make your entries printer friendly. Lesterchan provides a plug-in for Wordpress called Wp-Print. The website was down at the time of this posting, so after some looking around, I found a download for it on another site. I stored it here so that you could grab in the even that that site went down as well. [ Download Wp-Print ]

11. You’ll also want an about section, and a way for the viewer to easily get in touch with you.

12. You’ll want to make sure the viewer can leave the URL to their website when they comment, and you’ll want to make sure that the link to the section where the viewer comments is easily discerned from the rest of the blog content.

13. If you’re running Wordpress, you’ll want plugins that also help in different aspects, like Google sitemap and stats, as well as many others that are available.

14. You’ll want to make money from your blog so that after about a month, it starts to pay for itself. I recommend Payperpost (they’ll require that you have an archiving system and at least 3 months of time your blog has spent online, which they can verify through your archives).
for advertisement based revenue.

15. You will want to use Akismet to stop spam comments from appearing. You will need a Wordpress.com account to use it.

16. You’ll want to be patient - your visitors aren’t going to be waiting for you. You must find them! And this takes time. So don’t worry if your blog isn’t getting that many hits within the first few months. Put enough effort into what you are doing, and you’ll get it all back in traffic eventually.

Things you don’t want to do

01. You don’t want to place flashing ads, blinking ads, or any other types of ads that do not blend into your current blog theme/layout.

02. You don’t want to put content on your blog that isn’t useful or entertaining to the reader in one way or another.

03. You don’t want to re-post the exact same thing on your blog, word for word, that another blog has.

04. You don’t want to hide your navigation or make it un-clear as to how the visitor is supposed to get from one part of your site to the next.

05. You don’t want to use heavy flash for your site.

06. You don’t want a splash page. ((Splash pages are entrance pages that usually entail some sort of requirement for viewing the webpage. Not only are the un-necessary, they will drive a very high percent of your traffic away, and you don’t want that.))

07. You don’t want 100% of your posts to be about stupid, mundane day-to-day pointless trivia. Unless your readers are your school yard chums, not a whole lot of people are going to be interested in this kind of thing. ((You do, however, want to set up a separate blog into which this kind of information will go, apart from your actual blog.))

08. YoU DoN’T WaNt To SpElL LiKe ThIs (OR THIS. YOU DEFINITELY DON’T WANT TO POST IN ALL CAPS.) Or right lyke th1s. or thhis, with vary obious spilling mestakez.

09. You don’t want to stay in the dark. Don’t rely on this article to be your only source of information. I suggest the resources below. And after that? Google the term “get traffic to my blog”. At the time of writing this article, there were 42,800,000 other articles already indexed by Google. That is an ocean of information at your fingertips. I suggest you use it.

Resources
How to boost your blog traffic
Google Ranking tips
RSS Top 500
Bloggin101 - Plug your blog
How to increase your blogs traffic
The evils of constant reblogging
Make yourself known

Dec 26, 20060
Ghost World

As long as the server that this blog is stored on remains intact and online.
As long as somebody continues to pay the hosting bills, and re-news this domain once a year.

As long as these two things continue to happen,
this blog will remain here
even after I die.

As long as somebody continues to add content.
As long as somebody continues to monitor the overall health and status of this domain and its contents.

As long as these two things continue to happen,
this blog will remain up to date and visually similar now and in the future
even after I die.

As long these four things happen,
you would never know
that behind the computer screen
sits a person totally different from myself.

And you probably wouldn’t care.

As long as this blog
remains where it is
after I die.

In the world of the internet,
there is no such thing as true mortality.
There are only numbers and transfer
happening every moment of every day.

And as long as this continues to happen,
you will not care who sits at the other end
of the computer screen
through which you are viewing
as you surf from one destination to the next.

Your world will remain the same.
Nothing will have changed.

Dec 25, 20060
Merry Christmas

We celebrate, today, the birth of Jesus. Or rather, “Dies Natalis Invicti Solis”, a Pagan Roman holiday that was later taken over by Christians to celebrate the birth of Jesus.

December 25, 1926
Hirohito becomes Emperor of Japan.

December 25, 1946
W.C. Fields dead at 67, due to the cumulative effects of his drinking and lifestyle.

December 25, 1989
An eager firing squad executes Romanian dictator Nikolai Ceaucescu and his wife Elena on live television. Ceaucescu had run Romania as his private communist fiefdom, garnering the animosity of nearly the entire population. The new government abolishes capital punishment shortly thereafter.

December 25, 1995
Rat pack member Dean Martin dead at 78, a martini glass in his hand.

December 25, 2006
James Brown dies at the age of 73 early Christmas morning.

Well, I hope everyone got what they asked for. A new bike, a new skateboard, a new loli or Nintendo Wii.

Whatever it is that you asked for, I hope you got it. Whether you’ve been good, bad, or indifferent. Whether you deserved it or not.

I really hope you enjoyed the true spirit of Christmas.

Happy Holidays from Scarform.com, and a very merry Christmas to you, yours, and everyone around you.

Dec 24, 20060
Road to Nowhere, part 2

Revisiting the Road to Nowhere, we found even more interesting structures.

A ways away from the Road, a tunnel that went under what is now a trail. Inside of the tunnel, another tunnel that branches off, although it was too small and dark to even attempt an exploration.

In a rusted and dilapidated shack within eye sight of this, blank receipts were scattered across the floor.


BIG ROCK STONE & MATERIAL CO.
“READY-MIXED CONCRETE, CRUSHED STONE, AND WASHED CHANNEL SAND”

Offices, Ft. of Ashley St. - - P.O. Box 28 - - Phone FR 4-0381

Little Rock, Arkansas 72203

A search comes up with the following information:

“A substantial part of the sand production was
consumed in construction of 18 Titan missile bases north of Little Rock.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers contracted for large quantities of crushed
syenite and sandstone for use in Arkansas River development projects. Big
Rock Stone and Materials Co., …Big Rock Stone
& Materials Co. also quarried syenite for roofing granules, railroad
ballast, roadstone, concrete aggregate, and fill.”

“Pulaski.—Total value of mineral output was sufficient for the county
to retain its rank of fifth in the State. Aggregate value of bauxite, clay,
stone, and sand and gravel was 27 percent more than in 1965. The county ranked
first in the State in stone output. It was the most significant commodity
and, at a value of $9.7 million, accounted for 65 percent of the mineral
value credited to the county. Jeffrey Stone Co. was the major producer of
crushed sandstone, whereas Big Rock Stone and Material Co. accounted for
most of the syenite output.”

“Sand and gravel was dredged in substantial
quantities from the bed of Arkansas River by Big Rock Stone and Material
Co. and Jeffrey Sand Co. The commodity supplied markets for paving and construction
programs.”

However, I cannot find any information online about Big Rock Stone & Material Co. other than court references to cases involving the company. Information on these court cases is unfindable as well.

If anybody knows anybody, like a family member or teacher, who knows anything about Big Rock Stone & Material Co. or where I could find information on this company, I would gladly receive it at this email address with the subject line “Road to Nowhere”. Your help is much appreciated in solving this mystery.

Dec 24, 20060
The 12 Days of X-Mas


The above image is not work safe.

On the first day of X-mas, my dreams did bring to me a shiny brand-new Nintendo Wii.

On the second day of X-mas, my dreams did bring to me two bottles of Absinthe.

On the third day of X-mas, my dreams did bring to me three brand new tees.

…

OK, so I hate that song. It’s ridiculous! There is only 1 day of X-mas, and I’d rather have all 77 gifts on the day of X-mas, not the non-existent 12 days of X-mas. What a capitalist idea that is.

Spend! Spend! Spend! Buy! Buy! Buy!

F.y.i, St. Dick, I don’t have a chimney so you can just leave a note on the door. It’ll probably read something like this:

“You’ve been a bastard this year. Plus, you’re way too old to be asking me for stuff. Go out and impregnate the economy with your moneys and reap the rewards of being a good little consumer.

Rot in Hell, S. Claus”

Oh well. I’m not leaving milk and cookies out for that asshole anyway. This year, it’s straight up arsenic and anthrax for that fat jolly old elf!

Merry X-Mas, and a Happy New Year!

Dec 23, 20060
Wendy’s is terrible.

So I have a complaint about Wendy’s. I wanted to do this in a non-public way and contact them directly. Well, their contact form doesn’t seem to work, and I’m too inpatient to have to deal with some asshole manager who would probably rather get me off of the phone fast enough to talk shit about me to the co-workers and do nothing about the situation to call them, so I’m going to blog about it.

The complaint is for Wendy’s (Store #2) located at 11319 Rodney Parham Rd. Little Rock, AR, 72227. This happened at around 9:15 PM or so today (Saturday, December 23rd, 2006).

The service started out OK. The person taking the order wasn’t rude, however when we got to the window to get our order, our drinks were handed to us and then the person who handed us the drinks turned around and continued doing what she was doing. Standing there, talking to her co-workers. We got home to find that our fries were cold, mine un-cooked, and a few of them appeared to be crushed.

Not crushed in the way that you would normally expect from being in a bag filled with food, but crushed like somebody stepped on it and then placed it back in with the rest of the fries.

And it’s not just Wendy’s. Almost all of the fast food “restaurants” are filled with stupid fucking morons who probably couldn’t fill an order to save their life. The Sonic on Rodney Parham is even worse. On 5 different occasions we have waited for our food for over half an hour. I would understand if they had been swamped at the time, but this was normal traffic for that place. There were maybe five cars waiting. It’s not like they had 20 other people.

Hell, the Sonic in Maumelle has been completely packed before (I mean packed, as in almost every single drive-in spot filled and people ordering from the table area) and the wait time was maybe 5, 10 minutes at the most.

Arby’s on Rodney Parham tried to double charge my bank card. Luckily my bank caught the error, and I wasn’t charged 30 bucks for one meal.

In fact, the only fast food place that I can think of that I can’t complain about that is on Rodney Parham is the Firehouse Subs. The service is excellent, the food is awesome, and the wait time is average.

All in all, if you live near Rodney Parham or are going through for some reason, don’t stop in at any of the fast food places except for Firehouse, unless you want to wait for 30 minutes and then get food that has probably been spat in and stepped on.

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