Tag-Archive for » Blogging «

I found an article on Dr. Mercola’s website titled: 12 Surprising Signs You’ll Live To 100

One of the “surprising signs” is:

You embrace techie trends

Learn to Twitter, Facebook, or Skype to help keep brain cells young and healthy. Stay connected to friends, family, and current events, and you feel vital and relevant.

I like the part where he says, “you feel vital and relevant”. That’s important in everyone’s life.

Today’s Lesson

Speaking of using our brains, according to an article on the University of Connecticut Health Center site,

“The old adage of ‘use it or lose it’ is very important. For cognitive activity, which affects everything from memory to how we think, there is increasing evidence that the more we use our brain, the better we age….”

Some of you who are young may not take this into consideration, but for bloggers from the baby boomer generation and beyond, it’s important we think of how we’re using our brains. How we’re exercising them.

Fortunately blogging does that.

  1. It keeps us connected.
  2. It gives us something to look forward to
  3. We read more
  4. We write more
  5. We think more
  6. We learn more.

Another plus to blogging; age is not a factor.

Take for example, the following three women who held the title as “The World’s Oldest Blogger”; women who were in their 90′s and 100′s.

The one I remember best, because I had visited her blog, is Olive Riley (1899-2008). Although her blog is no longer online, you can see video clips of her on YouTube.

María Amelia López Soliño (1911-2009) was another blogger who held the title and was written about in this article; Spanish granny dubbed ‘world’s oldest blogger’ dies.

In one of her last postings in February [2009] she said: “When I’m on the Internet, I forget about my illness. The distraction is good for you — being able to communicate with people. It wakes up the brain, and gives you great strength.”

According to Wikipedia, Ruth Hamilton (1898-2008) was also named “the world’s oldest blogger”.

Unfortunately the above three bloggers have died, but others are following in their footsteps. We have,

  1. Life Begins At 80
  2. A blog written by a 91 year old retired journalist.

  3. Bisher Unleashed
  4. Written by Furman Bisher, a well-regarded sportswriter and editor who was born in 1918.

  5. Granny To The Rescue,
  6. A blog written by Eleanor McCallum, a woman in her early eighties.

These elderly folks probably aren’t worried about being included with A-List bloggers, but their commitment to blogging shows us it’s never too late to go online, share our knowledge and in the process continue to use our brains.

Today’s Assignment:

How has blogging improved your mental processes?

Are you following the writings of any elderly bloggers?

Care to share?

signature for blog post

I’ve kicked around the idea of writing a free ebook for quite some time.how to turn your blog into a book

My thought is to put some of my previous blog posts into book form for those who prefer not to dig through my archives. I’d like for the comments to be included since that is where most of the value lies and I’d also like to include links to the comment author’s sites.

I know I’ll turn some of my blog posts into a book sooner rather than later, however I’ve convinced myself there must be an easier way to do it rather than cutting, pasting, and re-editing before publishing.

My search to do so has taken me on an interesting journey.

Today’s Lesson

I first tried two different plugins for turning a blog into book form.

  1. Anthologize and
  2. Blog2Print

For reasons I can’t figure out, both plugins failed to work for me so my search continued.

Thanks to Rick of What’s On My PC? my first stop was

  1. BlogBooker
  2. I used my green blog, input the URL and a link to the XML file into their form. The process was quick and when complete, the ebook included photos, some of the links and comments. Unfortunately, only the CommentLuv links showed up. The blog which only has a handful of posts ended up being an ebook containing 23 pages including the cover and an index. Additional formatting would be required, however with this being a free service, I thought the results were quite impressive.

My search for more information lead me down an unexpected path. What I found were sites which let us self-publish, as well as sell our end product.

The links in Matt Cutt’s “Blog to Book” post led me to these sites.

  1. Fast Pencil
  2. On Fast Pencil I decided to turn my Observation Mountain blog into an ebook. Before “publishing” to draft, I deleted all spam comments, edited out approximately 30 of the 165 posts and ended up with a book which was 180 pages long.  The draft which was created was perfectly formatted with each post having it’s own page(s),  however no comments nor links were included.

  3. Lulu.com
  4. Lulu’s site includes a short video of the services they provide for self publishers, and although I’ve watched the video, I’m not sure this is the route I want to take.

  5. Blurb.com
  6. Blurb.com provides a free download of their “Blurb BookSmart” software. The software lets you create a book which can be sold on their site. After downloading and reviewing the software, it appears to be very comprehensive and helpful.

I also remembered George Angus of Tumblemoose used Smashwords to publish five ebooks.

Smashwords offers numerous possibilities and from reading the review of Smashwords on his blog, George is quite pleased with their service.

Knowing things aren’t always as they seem and wanting to be cautious, I also checked the website of watchdog Clark Howard. There I found these links:

  1. Absolute Write, a forum for writers and,
  2. Preditors & Editors

To repeat what is written in Clark Howard’s post:

Up until about 1998, the “vanity press” industry would charge people outrageous sums to publish a book. It wasn’t unusual for someone to pay $8,000 – $12,000 to these phony publishing houses.

The best advice Clark can offer is be skeptical. Use the collective wisdom of the Internet to help you steer clear of rip-off artists.

Although I haven’t found the perfect way to turn parts of my blog into an ebook, I feel I’m a few steps closer.

Today’s Assignment

Have you written a book or ebook? Or are you thinking of turning your blog into a book?

What platform did you use? Or will you use?

Care to share?

signature for blog post

P.S. For those of you who plan to either turn your blog into a book or write a book, having it proofread prior to publishing is essential. Davina is one of the best proofreaders in the field and can be found at  Shades of Crimson.

It’s not uncommon to hear bloggers admitting to experiencing a weight gain since they started blogging.

Let’s face it, if we’re sitting in front of our computers, writing posts, leaving and/or answering comments and socializing online, we’re not moving.

In fact, with blogging being so addictive, exercise is often the last thing on our minds.

Unfortunately, this life style may be detrimental to our health.

Today’s Lesson

The American Cancer Society published an article titled, “Study Links More Time Spent Sitting to Higher Risk of Death” which shows those who sit for more than six hours a day may be subject to an earlier death.

It claims the statistics are worse for women.

But that’s not all,

When combined with a lack of physical activity, the association was even stronger. Women and men who both sat more and were less physically were 94% and 48% more likely, respectively, to die compared with those who reported sitting the least and being most active.

Dr. Patel goes on and elaborates,

“Several factors could explain the positive association between time spent sitting and higher all-cause death rates,” said Dr. Patel. “Prolonged time spent sitting, independent of physical activity, has been shown to have important metabolic consequences, and may influence things like triglycerides, high density lipoprotein, cholesterol, fasting plasma glucose, resting blood pressure, and leptin, which are biomarkers of obesity and cardiovascular and other chronic diseases.”

Although the study does not include all of the details, and we’re all going to die sooner or later, it did make me think about my own lifestyle.

After all, I have an office job which requires me to sit for extended periods of time. Lose Weight While Blogging?treadmill desk Lose Weight While Blogging?

I looked at my choices and here’s what I’ve come up with.

An option which could possibly extend my life, AND decrease that middle age spread.

Blog standing.

Let’s look at this option.

  1. I can buy a work walk station with all of the bells and whistles from Steelcase for $4199.
  2. Another choice is to buy a TrekDesk Treadmill Desk from Amazon* (see above photo) for less than $500.
  3. I could “Build A Walking Work Station in 20 Minutes for $20″ as described in a post and video from Lifehacker.
  4. Or…I can just blog less and move more

Of the four choices, I’m not only trying option #3, but will be blogging about my experience on my Observation Mountain blog.

The way I see it, “Gotta Run” just took on a whole new meaning. :)

Today’s Assignment

What about you?

Are you blogging more? Moving less? Gaining weight?

Care to share?

signature for blog post.

Other links which inspired this post:

  1. Web Workout: Make a Workstation out of a Treadmill
  2. Researcher sees future where people walk at work

Disclaimer: This blog post is my observation only and is not to be construed as medical advice or treatment. Please consult with your physician or a qualified health care provider prior to beginning any exercise program or to find out how excessive sitting could affect your health.

*Affiliate link

You know those little pictures you see posted next to comments on blogs, Twitter, Facebook and other social networking sites which identify the author?

Photo for blog9 Whos Who In Blogosphere

Me

Sometimes you’ll hear them called gravatars (globally recognized avatars), but many just say “avatars”.

I like to call them ADvatars since they “ad”vertise who we are.

In some ways they are like our calling card.

Since they brand us in blogosphere, it’s suggested we use the same image on all sites we frequent and that they represent how we want to be known, whether by our photo, our logo or an image which best represents us.

Today’s Lesson

Recognition online is very important.

So the questions become, “What is the best way to brand ourselves?”, and “How will others recognize us?” .

By our name? By the name of our blog? By our avatar? Or, all three?

To test what brands us the best in blogosphere, I’ve created a little game.

Listed below are three columns with the names of 20 random blog authors, the name of their blog, and their avatars.

I then scrambled each category.

To play, take time to study each list and see if you can match the author to their avatar and to the name of their blog.

Don’t cheat. Honest answers will help all of us to gain better recognition in blogosphere.

Ready to match them up?

Good Luck!

AUTHOR
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1) George
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2) Keith Davis
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3) Kelvin
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4) Mandy
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5) Hilary
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6) Tess
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7) Raul
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8.) Lisa
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9) Tony
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10) Joella
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11) Heather
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12) Linda
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13) Chania Girl
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14) Julie
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15) Wendi
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16) John Hoff
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17) Evelyn
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18) Friar
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19) J.D. Meier
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20) Lori Hoeck
BLOG NAME
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Practically Intuitive
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Alien Ghost
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Heather Villa
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WP Blog Host/Blog
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Trottersville
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Blogs With Wings
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Positive Letters
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Mandy Allen.com
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Sources Of Insight
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Tumblemoose
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Puppet Kaos
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Easy Public Speaking
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Living Happiness
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jbulie’s blog
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Think Like A Blackbelt
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Life’s Little Inspirations
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Abundance Tapestry
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The Bold Life
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Roses 2 Rainbows
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Deep Friar
AVATAR
 Whos Who In Blogosphere

 Whos Who In Blogosphere

 Whos Who In Blogosphere

 Whos Who In Blogosphere

 Whos Who In Blogosphere

 Whos Who In Blogosphere

 Whos Who In Blogosphere

 Whos Who In Blogosphere

 Whos Who In Blogosphere

4a28307f329705118e634ee14b5d4a47 Whos Who In Blogosphere

 Whos Who In Blogosphere

faa03f209481eb20ff95d29e90a2cb2e Whos Who In Blogosphere

 Whos Who In Blogosphere

 Whos Who In Blogosphere

9f8f58ddbeac82992342d5d815d17ad9 Whos Who In Blogosphere

 Whos Who In Blogosphere

 Whos Who In Blogosphere

 Whos Who In Blogosphere

 Whos Who In Blogosphere

 Whos Who In Blogosphere

Today’s Assignment

How did you do?

How do you recognize  fellow bloggers? Is it by their name? The name of their blog? Or their avatar?

Care to share?

signature for blog post.

P.S. To repeat what I mentioned in an earlier post, for those of you who haven’t added an avatar/gravatar to your profile; it’s very easy. Refer to my post titled, “How To Get and/or Add A Gravatar to Your Post Comments”. If you have any questions of need help setting up your avatar, please feel free to ask.

Want more of the game? See: How Branding Works In Blogosphere and Are Domain Names Overrated?; earlier posts in which we matched other bloggers to their avatars.

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