My Blog, My Birthday and The End – Exercise #31

We have finally arrived and the end – day 31. When I started this exercise I had no idea that I would get as tired of it as I have. Not tired of the writing itself, I still really enjoy that, but tired of the topics for the A Caboose at the Endexercises. Yup, totally my fault for not looking a little further down the line in terms of what would be asked – but it did force me to stretch a bit.

Well the exercise for today (is this the final exam?) is to tell you why I blog. Why does all this exist at all? In fact though, I have alluded to that answer more that once as the weeks wound on. My blog, this site, as it stands now is a way for me to flex my writing muscles while at the same time imparting some useful information occasionally. Not much of that useful stuff has happened over the past month, but then again nobody is perfect. If you do want one of my more useful posts recently, go back and read the one about professionalism – and then go fill in your Gravatar information! That is still driving me nuts.

Anyway … Long ago the purpose of this site was purely computer professional in nature. It is where I would write articles on things going on within the computer field, such as virus outbreaks or Microsoft Outlook email problems, or on the elements of web design, running a small office, or even book reviews.  What the site has morphed into over time is just more of my writing on whatever I want. All my more “technical” writing is over on other sites and blogs, so while there may be pointers to it here, there is no reason to repeat it all. I do still have my other sites, Michaels Trains, Charleston Rail, and Just British, for some of my other interests, but those are hobby sites and not updated anywhere near as often.

Read more

Blogs I Read – Exercise #25

My five favorite blogs. Wow, now there is a dangerous request. I have some good friends who blog. And I have some great people I admire. And there there are blogs I enjoy reading. And then there are blogs I read just solely for the technical information – whatever the field. So when I saw the exercise for today, day twenty-five, and it says “your 5 Wonghands Bloggingfavorite blogs”, I knew I had to do something different. I don’t want to overlook anything important, but I don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings either.  So instead of my five “favorite” blogs, I am going to list here the five blogs I like that are not run by friends and a couple you probably haven’t heard of. How is that for the cowards way out?

So first off, let’s look at Bring-A-Trailer. This site is for car buffs like me who always dream of the hidden find. It is the worst nightmare of our wives. Bring-A-Trailer lists unusual cars for sale that are often in need of restoration; hence the need to “bring a trailer” to retrieve them.  Looking right now, the three most recently listed finds are a 1959 Triumph TR3 (had one of those), a 19k-Mile 1973 Ford E-Series Club Wagon (no desire for that), and a 1972 Alfa Romeo Montreal that has been in storage since 1988 (that would be kind of interesting). A fun site, an interesting diversion, and a constant exposure to the unusual.

Read more

Building Blocks of Better Blogs

This is the presentation I gave at the Type-A Mommy Bloggers conference in Asheville, NC, last month. Unfortunately I only had about 45 minutes as I would have loved to have gone into a lot more detail. Additionally, the conversations around these issues with those who attended the session were fantastic. So, please don’t hesitate … Read more

WordPress Version 3.0 Is Released

WordPress 3.0, the thirteenth major release of WordPress is now available for download. Major new features in this release include a great new default theme called Twenty Ten. Theme developers have new APIs that allow them to easily implement custom backgrounds, headers, shortlinks, menus (no more file editing), post types, and taxonomies. Make sure to … Read more