Entries from December 2006 ↓

There’s a blog (problogger.net) that is having a contest for bloggers to reflect on their year and/or make predictions… so that’s why yesterday’s post started with my petit celebration of the future, ha ha. Part of the contest is linking to other blogs that seem interesting, so here are some title’s that have caught my attention. I have to go catch a bus soon, so I may not be able to post all of them. Again, if I cannot update the site until Friday, sorry!

What is my criteria for choosing links? The title. I am a big choose a book by it’s cover kind of guy.

http://www.littlemummy.com/2006/12/19/tiny-dancer-a-year-in-pictures/

http://www.artbybethrobinson.com/journal/2006/12/19/one-hundred-footsteps.html

http://worshippl.us/2006/12/19/preaching-unicycle-broken-ankle-and-swearing/

http://www.spinneyhead.co.uk/2006/12/oh-weather-outside-is-frightful.php

http://fosterparentmaze.blogspot.com/2006/12/hamster-is-back.html

http://www.moneytortoise.com/set-it-forget-it-for-the-future/

http://www.fibromyalgiaexperiment.com/2006/12/18/why-i-won-times-person-of-the-year/

http://fullfigureplus.com/11-reasons-why-2007-will-be-the-year-for-plus-size-fashion/

http://medicalstudy.blogspot.com/2006/12/incursion-into-blogosphere-post-fairy.html

Great news! I am moving my blog over to a new host today! Expect few changes… except that everything will work faster, which is really cool. I hate slow sites, and now this is no longer one of them. The hassle factor is going to be extreme, but it will be worth it in the end (this is a pre-produced post as I am in Vancouver this weekend).

In response to the poll I’ve had up for the last few days, I’ve actually found two really interesting blogs that sort of do what I was talking about. Instead of making a mashup of what they do on their sites, I am going to try to come up with a way to integrate their RSS feeds onto this site, in a way that isn’t irritating. Or something else that works…

• http://www.adventureblog.org/
• http://theadventureblog.blogspot.com/index.html

Tomorrow I will update you with all of my random acts of kindness for the weekend, let you know what else I got up to, and all sorts of other fun stuff. Hopefully my name severs update quickly so you can enjoy the post FAST!
Cheers,

Santa Claus
The North Pole
H0H 0H0

Saturday, December 16, 2006

Dear Santa Claus,

It’s been twelve years since my last letter.

Ever since I moved away to University, about four years ago, I stopped getting presents from you. Did I do something wrong? Did I somehow end up on end up on the naughty list? I don’t think I did anything that bad.

Anyway. I was looking at this Equifax thing where you can get a credit report, and I was hoping you had some sort of service like that. If you never tell people what they are doing wrong, they can’t really improve. Of all people, I thought you would be the first to lead with transparency and accountability in your selection process.

And that just makes me wonder what your definition of “naughty” is exactly. Where do you draw the line? How bad does one really have to be to be considered “bad”?

I hope this letter finds you well and reaches you before Christmas.

Thank you kindly for your time and consideration.

Happy Christmas,
Jeremy David

- – -

Who would you like me to write to next? Email me with your suggestions!

Yesterday was certainly a busy day. It was the Student Society’s “Permanent Staff” Party, so I ate an absurd amount of food – literally nonstop for 3 hours.

Today warranted two posts because the blogging community never ceases to amaze me. I’m always looking for ways to improve this site, so I decided to seek some input from people well versed in the world of blogging. First, I fired off an email to Aidan Henry – an up and coming blog expert and author of one of my favorite blogs: mappingtheweb.com. I have incorporated a lot of what I’ve learned from his posts and our conversations into this site. Thanks Aidan! You’re a star. My site wouldn’t be the same without your hard work, ha ha.

I’d also like to send out huge a thank you to Michael Arrington, the founder of TechCrunch (the 6th most popular blog on the Internet). Who better to seek input from than someone at the top? I sent him a random email and he literally responded within 45 seconds: I was very impressed. We emailed back and forth a bit and I found his insight very, well, insightful:

“Just write about whatever you like. That’s what I did, and it slowly evolved into what techcrunch is today. The key thing to remember is that you are just a node in a community. You have to be a part of the discussion for others to notice you. So I always take a lot of time to read other blogs and link to them when they have something interesting or controversial to say.

What you write about is completely up to you. Just make sure you love it, or else you won’t stick with it.”

And that very well may be what I am missing. I am not participating enough in the blogging community, and that has to change. Starting now, I am going to make a concerted effort build relationships with bloggers, participate with comments and link love, and be more active in the community. Thanks guys, I really appreciate your help.

As one final note, I thought I would highlight another lesson Michael provided me through his emails:

“you are welcome, and thank YOU for reading my blog.”

I am a blog nobody, but he responded to my emails, took time out of his busy schedule to give suggestions to help me become a better blogger, and personally thanked me for visiting and reading his site. Wow. I’m also going to make a concerted effort to be a helpful, friendly, and genuine blog community member.

I have this terrible habit of drunk dialing people when I’m, well, drunk. I heard about this phone that has a built in Breathalyzer that stops you from making calls when intoxicated. I think that might be a wise investment, if it exists. I wish they had an invention like that for MSN.

Last night I went to my staff party. Open bar, buffet… it was pretty sweet. Plus, I listened to 8 Pimsleur lessons this weekend. So thanks a lot for voting for French! I am pretty excited about the whole duel language thing. I have 90 lessons to go through, and tomorrow I’m going to buy a French book from my school’s used book store. I hope to be fairly proficient in 3 months. Je comprends et parle en peu le Francais, mais je ne bien pas.

Today is the last day for voting on the Twelve Holiday Acts of Nondenominational Kindness. There were only 13 suggestions, so the vote is actually for the one that I am not going to fulfill. Tomorrow I have get to start enacting them.

If you were an executive board member on a university’s student society and your slate had a majority on the board, what would you do? Email me with your ideas.

Today you get to choose an interesting adventure for me – what language I am going to learn over the next three months. I’m tired of only being fluent in one, and I somehow came across three complete 90 lesson Pimsleur language courses in Mandarin, French, and Japanese… so make me a better person and help me choose!

• Mandarin has the benefit of being one of the most spoken languages in the world
• Japanese is the language of Anime and Japanese people
• French is the language of my favorite country in the world… and it would be very useful during my trip in Europe.

So yes, choose wisely, as this decision will greatly influence the rest of my life!

It looks like I am going to be writing letters again. I’d like to thank all 8 people who voted, ha ha. And I’d also like to thank people for the new THANK submissions. It’s going to be better holiday for at least 12 people in Victoria this year.

I have a pretty powerful desktop computer – it’s a Pentium 4 3.8 GHz. Dell made a mistake, and offered me a really good deal because of it. I re-priced it on Dell last week and it was worth $1790! Suh weet! Today, however, I found out that they stopped selling P4s… and that really sucks. I hope I can get at least $1100 for it. Considering it was worth nearly 1800 last week, I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

I posted it on Craiglist last night, and I already had a random person try to scam me .

** CRAIGSLIST ADVISORY — AVOID SCAMS BY DEALING LOCALLY
** Avoid: wiring money, cross-border deals, work-at-home
** Beware: cashier checks, money orders, escrow, shipping
** More Info: http://www.craigslist.org/about/scams.html

Hello and Good day i saw the advert of this item and i will like to knowif this item is still for sale and also the last price on it and also getback to me and let me know if it is going up for sale.

Hey there!

Yes, the item is for sale – I just put it up last night. It is $1,100.

Did you have any more questions?

Cheers,
Jeremy

Hello thanks for the mail..all you need you will have to send you full name address phone and zipcode so that i can foward you full detail to MoneyGram..and once my payment is approved.i will send the fedex shipping prepaid document that you will use to ship the item.and you will email the shippment tracking number to MoneyGram so that they can verify the tracking number and once the tracking number has been verify..they will get back to you with the refrence number that you will use to recievce your Money…so get back to me with your full detail as soon as possible…..
I decided to offer you $1150 to win the list.
Hope to hear from you soonest.

*Tears* I was really hopeful for a few hours today.

I had another person try to barter with me:

f you might be interested i have a pro dj setup worth over 2000 for trade
two x gemini turntable
two x set’s of needle’s (ortophone scratch and other)
one x numark scratch mixer (optical fader)
two x DOD equalizer’s (not cheap)
200 + record’s (nice library.trance,break’s,scratch,drum n bass)
was about 10 to 20 dollar’s each)
one x geni sha-50d (sparkler style light) need’s bulb=cheap
AND
1 xbox original black (barely played as i have a ps2 and p.c)
4 controller’s and 12 games
nhl 2003
mechassault
grandtheftauto 3
crimson skies
tom clancy’s splinter cell
star wars knights of the republic
star wars clone war’s
grandtheftauto vice city
halo
tetris
silent hill 2

What is with the Internet? Oh well, I’m not exactly in a rush. I just want to sell my computer so I can afford to buy that laptop you voted on.

Up until, well, pretty recently, I had this weird hobby of writing people random letters. They weren’t particularly funny, and I didn’t receive many responses, but every day I pulled out my old typewriter and punched one out, slapped on a stamp, and mailed it. Then one day I stopped.

Today, you get to vote on whether or not I should revive this hobby. If you want to take a look at some of my old letters, you can check out the To Whom It May Concern section of this site. If you vote in favor, you’ll get to suggest who I write to and what I should say. Please keep this in mind when you vote because if you don’t suggest anything, I will be forced to cry one thousand seventeen tears. Hate mail to Tyra Banks? A heated letter to your non-gender specific mail delivery person? Like all my decisions, you’ll decide. I’ll also revitalize the layout (in other words – copy the template from this site) and make it seamlessly integrate with jeremydavid.com. If you vote against, I’ll allocate my time to other things.

Happy voting.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot. Don’t forget about the Twelve Holiday Acts of Nondenominational Kindness. There have only been about 12 suggestions.

I have a domain name addiction. Yes, I am sure that there are people out there who buy way more domains than I do, but in my life I have owned at least 20 domains and that number continues to grow.

The problem with my domain name addiction is that I never actually do anything with them. If I turned around and sold the domain name it wouldn’t be a problem… but my domains just sit in my account waiting to expire.

I’ve had an idea for a website for about a year, and today I arbitrarily decided to create it. The site is called SlowMe, and it’s a blog that is about tangible things people can do to be sustainable. I get really irritated when people talk about problems but offer no solutions. The purpose of this site is to teach people what improvements they can make that not only help them, but also help the world. I used the word “improvements” on purpose because there is a misconception that being sustainable involves making many sacrifices. There are actually changes that raise one’s standard of living while helping people.

If you are bored, check out the site and tell me what you think.