It’s My Birthday

Today is my 32nd birthday. Geesh… 

What can I say? It’s hard to squeeze 32 years of life into one paragraph, but I don’t want to bother you with common things which most of you had already done and if I would want to tell you about something really interesting from my life, I would write a whole post about it. Considering everything I’ve passed through one can say those years were much interesting. Military high school; air force; a war; leaving military and transforming into civilian; few different jobs while trying to manage on the new ground; teaching kids as most beautiful job I’ve ever had;  marriage; daughter; IT management. And, I’m looking forward to new adventures. Still, I do feel like I’m at 25. Hehe… 

I remember one episode of Friends, when Joey was celebrating his 30te birthday. He was quite screwed with the fact that he is leaving his twenties and entering his thirties.  I don’t even remember how I was feeling at my 30te birthday. Anyhow, today I feel great. I have beautiful wife and three years old daughter and I’m enjoying my life with them. I have best job man could have in this country. I have best boss and best coworkers (trust me when I say so, because I’ve been moving around a lot, meeting all kind of people so I can judge them pretty good). 

There is a lot more left to be done but I’m solving one thing at the time. And I still do things which I was doing in my twenties. Except chasing chicks. But frankly, if I even would do that, I wouldn’t say it here where my wife could read about it, or somebody else who might then tell that to her. 

I’m sorry I can’t offer you with a cake through this blog, but if there is anything else I might do for you, in the spirit of this celebration, please write a comment about it. I will be more then happy to meet your needs (if it’s something that can be done). 

Thanks again for visiting and have a great life. 

P.S. Anybody else celebrating today?

Improve Your Writing Skills

No matter at what level your writing skills are, you should always work on their improvement. Especially bloggers, which should consider doing this on an every day basis. Since I want to become a serious blogger this applies for me too. So, I’ve took some time to search the Internet for writing in English improvement tips. And here are the most important I have found:

READ IT

I believe this one is most important. Read as many English books, newspapers and magazines as you can find. See how famous writers are using English in their writings and learn from them.

LISTEN TO IT

Best resources for this, which I could think of, are English-speaking radio stations. You can find a lot of those on Internet and listen to them for free.

TALK IT

Talk to friends who are also learning English. Find native English-speaking people who will give you conversation practice. Talk to tape or voice recorder and then listen your performance. This way you could easily notice and correct your pronunciation.

READ IT

I find this most important so I couldn’t resist to mention it one more time.

Also recommended but requires that you leave your desk:
VISITING AN ENGLISH-SPEAKING COUNTRY
GOING TO AN ENGLISH LANGUAGE SCHOOL

No time to loose, so I am going to follow these tips immediately. As you probably expect, first thing I am going to do tomorrow is to visit the library and take couple of bestsellers written in English. And read them over the weekend. I could even write some reviews after that. Good idea, don’t you think. At the same time I am going to subscribe to couple of radio stations in English. And that would be enough for the start. Since nobody is going to hear me while reading this blog, I can work on my conversation improvement some time later. Hopefully, results are going to be visible here, in my blog, and you will be the judge.

If you have some other tips which could help me or anybody else to improve their writing skills (in English of course) please write a comment about it.

Thank you all for visiting and until my next post, have a great life.

You Are Not Alone

Majority of topics about blogging are indicating that most important thing for blog’s success is to keep writing and posting at nearly constant frequency. If you would decrease this frequency or even completely stop to write for longer period of time, you could say goodbye to your blog. I’m sure that you could always get your blog back up and running, but all your previous efforts invested in your blog are going to become wasted.

Now, if you are startup blogger, like I am, and especially if you haven’t spend some time in detailed planning of your blog deployment, like I didn’t, then most likely you will come in situation asking your self “Who do heck is ever going to visit my blog and read this?”. Or “Will I ever get some regular readers?”. Or “Is this worth of doing it?”.

After I wrote my first article, I was looking at its preview and wondering “Now what!? My blog have one article only. I don’t know one single blogger out there whom I could tell about it. I am alone in this Internet space …”. But I didn’t give up. I’ve wrote one more article; then another. Still nothing. I was getting few page views, probably from del.icio.us and digg but that’s all. No comments yet. After fifth article I’ve received first comment. Wow. I got first comment after few days only. Some of you could laugh but I was feeling quite excited. Considering that I didn’t want to use all those available blog submission techniques until I see how my blog would perform without it (except del.icio.us and digg) I’ve found this pretty cool. After all, people have started to notice my blog.

I’ve decided to start with comments. So, I’ve started to visit other blogs and read their posts. If I would find interesting post I would leave a comment. And what started to happen is that people actually were responding to my comments. Not only that, but they have visited my blog and commented on my articles. Wow. More excitement. Things are starting to roll for me. Comparing the situation now and when I have just started my blog, there is a huuuuge difference. Nothing significant you might say. But only 14 days after I’ve started this blog, I have constant number of around 10 visits per day for last 4 days. Comparing to 0 (zero) views at the start this is really something. Beside that, I am starting to feel like a true member of blog community and it’s great.

So, basically, what I am trying to say here, primarily to startup bloggers, is that you are not alone out there. Keep writing. Visit other blogs and leave your comments. Make relationships with other bloggers and nourish those relationships. Add them to your Blogrol section (like I did). Review their blogs.

Results will come eventually. As somebody have said “You need to give if you want to receive”.

It’s time to finish this article. Again, I would like to thank to all of you reading my blog, leaving comments on it or in any other way providing appreciated support to my efforts. If you have any comments please leave them below because they are much appreciated.

Until my next post, have a great life.

Another Experiment

Last few days I’m kind of drained out with ideas and I am spending most of the time checking what other bloggers are writing. On the other hand, I’m in the very good mood and have feeling of quiet rush, like lull before the storm, so don’t be surprised if this blog would spit out some pretty cool articles in the near future. Yes, I don’t think that existing posts are cool. It’s probably because I’ve started this blog without any planning, than simply, sat down and started to write. Now I’m not sure in which direction to go, but don’t be worried, as always in my life, I will find that direction soon.

Anyhow, tonight I was checking del.icio.us as usual and it drove me to Ben Cook’s Blogging Experiment. I am new to blogging and this is just a second website like this I’ve had run into it. But I’m pretty sure there is a whole bunch of these so called experiments, when people are trying to make money from blogging by telling others they want to do it and then expecting their participation.

Don’t get me wrong, I support their efforts and I will support every other similar experiment I would spot in the future. Probably as most of you, I am also curious if these experiments actually are going to bring some money. I am even thinking to start one on my own, alongside with this blog. If comparing them with common bloggers, like me, I would say that they are much more sincere, because they are frank with their intentions. They want to make money from blogging and that’s it. And they even admit that we shouldn’t expect some high quality content in their blogs. I don’t dare to write something like that in my blog, because honestly, deep down inside, I hope that someone, someday, will say great things about it.

Opposite to what Ben Cook says in About page, that we shouldn’t really listen to him, his Blogging Experiment contains some cool articles about blogging and newbie like I am will find useful guidelines over there. So don’t be afraid to pay him a visit. Don’t forget to leave a comment and to click some ads. After all, his main goal is to make money with that blog.

And for Ben, keep up the good work. I’m sure you’ll succeed.

That would be all for tonight. Please leave your comments because they are much appreciated.

Until my next post, have a great life.  

Got Back After A Three Days Trip

I’m feeling very tired while typing this, cause it’s been only 15 minutes after I’ve got back from a three days trip, so forgive me if I write something stupid. I know. I haven’t written anything for last two days. I’m guilty. I admit. And I’m sorry. I apologize to all of you.

The reason for this is visit to one of my best friends. Although some people will say that you can have only one best friend I still claim I have few of them. Our friendship originates back from the high Scholl. Back then, we were doing everything together from studying to drinking, chasing chicks and getting into fights. We were young and really nasty. And very popular. I really love this guy; he’s like brother to me. Now, he lives about 300 miles away from me and I’ve had to take this mini vacation in order to make this visit. I’ve spent two days in packing, unpacking, driving and have had only one whole day for spending time with him and his family. So, I really wasn’t in situation to do any writing. Anyhow, his family is great. He has beautiful wife and five years old son and they are doing fine what makes me happy. I’ve had great time and I can’t wait to see them again. Probably at the New Year’s Eve.

It has been enjoyable trip, I’ve refilled my batteries and I promise I’ll use that energy to make this blog more interesting in the future. Starting from tomorrow because I am barely keeping my eyes open at the moment. And while waiting for my next real post, you could check some of these good articles: 

Getting to Now: How to Beat the Procrastination Habit

4 Simple Steps to Start the Exercise Habit

How to Explain delicious to Your Parents

Enjoy.

Thanks again for visiting and please leave your comments cause they are much appreciated.

Until my next post, have a great life.

GearedOut Blog – Man With The Mission

Looks like we have a first Blog Love member. It’s GearedOut Blog – Man With The Mission, how I like to call it.

As promised, I’ve made a visit to this blog and read all of its articles. Yes, all of it, but not because I am super fast reader than because this is just a startup blog and there were only three posts at the time of writing this article. Site is running on WordPress and it looks pretty good (as it should be).

It’s hard to judge its content because there is very few of it. Posts could have been written as longer, but anyhow, their point is pretty much clear. As already said, I’ve appended its title with a Man With The Mission, because two of those three posts are aimed at some major global issues and they show some good criticism. I won’t describe here what they are all about, because if you are interested you’ll visit them by your self.

Blog has real domain name what already makes it standing out of a crowd of wordpress, blogger and other subdomained blogs (like mine). Small amount of advertisements is showing that this blog is intended for blogging not just making money online in any possible way.

So, if I would need to estimate it, in a scale from 1 – 10, for startup blog, I would give it 8. And I wish a success to their blog.

That would be all folks.

If you have any comments please leave them below.

Thanks again for visiting and have a great life.

Why Not Spread Some Blog Love

Ok. I’m in a very good mood today so I’ve decided to spread some love to my readers.

Opposite to what most of bloggers are trying, getting as much traffic as possible, I am going to give some traffic to blogs owned by my visitors. More precisely, anybody who leaves a comment for this specific post will receive following:

1) Review article about their blog in my Blog Love section.

2) Link to their blog in my Blogroll section.

3) Comments for interesting posts I would find in their blog.

4) Submission of most interesting post I would find to del.icio.us and Digg.

5) Some clicks to their advertisements.

I think it should be interesting and most of all it’s free. Actually it’s not really free, you need to leave a comment to get it. 

This is going to be done for every comment found in this post. Please have in mind that I am working alone so don’t be impatient if I wouldn’t respond to your comment immediately, because I assure you I will do that eventually. I don’t expect much visitors and I could do at least a dozen of blogs per day so you shouldn’t really be worried about it.

Enough said. Let’s see what happens. 

BlogRush – [Don't] Give It A Try

UPDATE NOTE: WordPress won’t let you use this or any other widget containing JavaScript in your blog because of security reasons. Full article here. Somebody at BlogRush should mention that somewhere on their website so people wouldn’t waste their time. Very bad practice.

Hi there everybody.

Today I was quite busy with development so I haven’t had much time to work on a new post. I am already exhausted and meant to go to sleep, but then I’ve found this article about BlogRush and decided to stay awake for one more hour (at least).

BlogRush or Blog Syndication Network as they like to call it, based on same principals as many times seen link exchange programs, among few other features is offering additional exposure of your blog’s RSS feed in exchange for displaying their RSS widget on your blog. Plus, you’ll get additional traffic in exchange for exposure of their RSS widget made by referrals you’d forward to their website. More detailed video about their service is available at their website’s main page. Since I have just started my blog I am not refusing any possible way of getting more traffic, so I decided to give it a shot.

First thing to approve is simple and straight forward registration procedure. After few steps, you are ready to roll.

Installation of their service is also quite simple, but I still haven’t managed to activate their widget on this blog. Not sure what’s the reason for that and I am still waiting for response from their customer support. Anyhow, everything on this website is quite simple and easy to understand so I don’t think this should be a big issue. A step-by-step video tutorial for installing a BlogRush with your WordPress blog and few others, is available here.

Their reporting is available only 24-48 hours after installation of their service. Since I’ve just registered with them I can’t tell much more about it.

FAQ section is being prepared (coming soon or even there already at the time you’d be reading this).

All together looks like a prospective thing and I suggest you to give it a try.

That’s it for today. I can’t keep my eyes opened any longer. Thank you for visiting and I hope you’ll be coming back in the future.

Please leave your comments because they are much appreciated.

Until next post, have a great life. 

Rescued Saturday

Phone is ringing. I am waking up, answering the phone.

“Buddy, are you coming here today I am awaiting for you? ” – says voice on other side.

“Who is this? What time is it?” – I’m still sleepy. It’s Saturday, around 9 AM.

“It’s me, Marco. You were supposed to be here already.” 

Btw, beside my regular job, I am freelance software developer, and Marco is one of my clients. Better said, nightmare of a client. Don’t get me wrong, he is not a bad person, far away from that, but he is very bad as client. How can client be bad? Well, from 100% of total time I’ve spent working with him, 70% of that time were spent while trying to determine what he actually wants. And trust me, it’s not my fault.

I know him for more then three years already, but even for those three years, he didn’t manage to learn some basics about using a PC. On the other hand, he wants to define every finest piece of this software. Imagine how somebody who doesn’t have a clue about it, is compiling detailed requirements for certain application (and it’s not a small one). Far now I’ve figured he is actually afraid he won’t get enough for what he paid for and honestly I hate it. Not because he is like that, than because I am working for man like that. But heck, I’ve already took the money and now I’m stuck with him. So, if you are software developer, choose your clients wisely …

Anyhow, it’s Saturday, he knows I am free from my regular job and now he wants to see me because there is nobody else in this world who knows enough about IT technology and to whom he can trust. Did I forget to mention that this guy actually trust me. When I say he trust me, I don’t just think he trust in words from my mouth, but he has so much confidence in me that he is telling me everything what I should and what I even shouldn’t know. Don’t get me wrong, I am pretty honest guy with high morality and I am not jeopardizing him, but it brings another problem to subject. Beside my professional obligation to him, now I feel moral commitment.

“Do you have anything specific in mind, or you would just be glad to have me there?” – hehe. This is his response:

“Not really. I am traveling to another city and I won’t be here all day long. I just wanted to check if you are coming here or not. I have a guy filling some data into our database and I thought it would be good if you would come and help him.” – what you say about that? For those of you who are not familiar with programming, it would be similar to calling a doctor and asking him if he could help your nurse in changing your diapers.

My response is something I’ve learned I must do when he is in question and I won’t explain here how I figured that out, because it’s a long story:

“No. I won’t. I’m am having pretty bad hang over. See you on Monday.” – nailed!

“Hmm. Heck. I thought you were coming… ” – and some mumbling after that. “Ok. If that’s the case, see you on Monday. Bye.”

That’s it. You can’t imagine how many Saturdays, and some Sundays too, I’ve lost with this guy, but not in development than in some stupid meetings while deciding about if it’s better to use, for example, drop down menu or tabbed pages. But, I’ve finally learned that he really isn’t having much trouble as he is saying he is. He’s going to complaint about this on Monday, but heck, he’s complaining about everything, so it won’t make much difference.

I’ve managed to rescue this one. The rest of the day I will spend relaxing with my beautiful wife and our two and a half years old daughter.

Thank you all for visiting and I hope you’ll be coming back.

Please leave your comments because they are much appreciated.

Until my next post, have a great life.

Why McLaren, Why?

 

I was driving to my work’s office this morning when I’ve heard the news on the radio about McLaren’s team (Formula 1 Racing) being thrown out of the world championship. Immediately after I’ve sat at my desk, Google gave me first article about it at Times Online:

“… Lewis Hamilton’s McLaren team have sensationally been excluded from the 2007 Formula One world championship and fined 100 million dollars (£50 million) as punishment over the Ferrari spying scandal.

The decision by the FIA’s World Motor Sport Council (WMSC), meeting in Paris today, effectively hands the constructors’ title to Ferrari but as it punishes only the team and not individual drivers, therefore keeps alive Lewis Hamilton’s dream of winning the world title in his debut season …” – click here for full article.

After all these years watching Ferrari being the leader on F1 tracks, outperforming other constructors big time,  and finally got that changed in last three years while F1 races were becoming far more interesting, McLaren’s team decided to throw it all down to the sink this year, by making this ridiculous move. Why McLaren, why?

Not only they have wiped out their results for this season, but their participating in next season is also going to be considerated by WMSC, at the end of this year. I don’t think that 100 million dollars fine is making big scratch for McLaren’s team, but as in most cases lake this, the worst punishment is experienced by F1 fans, small people, like you and me. Let’s just hope that over the time Formula 1 Racing won’t lose more of its edge and make it tedious to watch.

Thank you all for visiting and I hope you’ll be comming back.

Please leave your comments cause they are much appreciated.

Until next post, have a great life.