Lifes a Train wreck

I managed to get two more articles indexed on Friday, which leaves four to go. What a pain… You have to put them up on other Web sites and you have to delete the end of the tags back until only the letters html is left, and the cat= and a number is gone.

EXAMPLE:

associatedcontent.com/article/1018592/bigfoot_not_just_for_hoaxers_anymore.html?cat=15

you have to remove the ?cat=15 from the code for it to be correctly indexed.

Which will leave you with this:

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1018592/bigfoot_not_just_for_hoaxers_anymore.html

That particular article is almost six moths old and is still not indexed with the search engines. Of course it doesn’t help that I am just now finding all of this out.

That code above is also what you need to search google for your article to see if it is indexed. (use the same search box you would for any other searching you would do.)

Not a whole lot else to report on from yesterday. It is cloudy this morning here, but it is still warm enough.

Tom

It is overcast this morning, and cooler ( again) though not cold. The temperature is supposed to get back down into the 30’s Sunday, fine deal.

Well google has managed to find one out of six articles so far. I do hope this isn’t going to take forever… It isn’t hard to search for indexing, but it is time consuming.

The computer was trying very hard to crash on me last night, locking up, refusing to move, what fun! The keyboard would turn on and off, and the mouse went haywire. Computers, gotta love em!

Robert and I put the last of the window trim on, making the house look a little more finished. A little paint and it will not look half bad.

Well time to move on for the day,

Tom

It is a beautiful, sunny day out there today, and my window is wide open! Few things can cheer a person up like a shot of spring….

I worked on getting my Twitter account built up yesterday. I now have about 90 followers (last I checked) and growing. I am not sure what I think of it yet, but I imagine I am about to find out.

I also have a Facebook account, but I think I will keep it to just people I know for now. Both accounts are great for promoting work and an easy way to keep in touch.

I am still working on getting those articles indexed, and will keep trying.

I did manage to get some of the trim up on the outside of the windows, and may attempt to finish with that today if the job hunting allows.

Time to go,

Tom

Well I actually got to turn in a written application yesterday. I handed it to an actual human being, amazing! Interviewing begins next week and I Will have finger cramps from crossing them!

We are still working on getting those four articles indexed. There appears to be a problem with them, but we don’t know what yet.

I received a wonderful offer from AC last night along with a very pleasant comment. They said it was well written and informative. Nothing like a nice ego booster to start the week. I is an article on role playing games and their evolution from a paper based game. One of two that were published last night.

 Apparently, Associated Content has made some progress, since I accepted the offers last night and they were published immediately instead of a week later. And by the way, they are already indexed.

It is supposed to be in the 70’s today! I can hardly wait. This cold crap is for the birds….

Well, onward and upward!

Tom

I had a fun day… Searching the Internet to learn all about search engine indexing, or rather learn what I could about getting indexed by a search engine.

So many people try to scam them into searching and ranking their sites higher that most of what it takes to get indexed is a secret.

The search engine provider’s are on a never ending quest to find new and better ways to index, that are harder to scam.

Associated Content updated their site January first, and managed to enter some bugs in the system while they were at it

I had four articles the search engines could not find, and one has been published for over a month. Hopefully that is remedied now, but we shall see.

It is still cold this morning, hopefully that will change soon!

Time to move on for the day….

Tom

I think I was born late….

Today is no exception! I try not to blog in the late afternoon, but apparently, today I am going to….

I had to write another resume this morning, that makes about six or seven of them now. Each one is suppose to be tailored to a new employer, but I really am not into writing them that much so I re-use them.

It is cold here today, warmth never arrived with the sun and at this late point in the day I really don’t expect it to.

I am still fighting to get four articles indexed, one of which, is a month old and should already be indexed. The new format at Associated Content had messed with indexing and they refuse to admit it! One more thing we authors have to deal with. Yay!

I had a “maybe next week” job offer today, the first vaguely interested employer so far… Maybe is better than “nope”.

I have a Facebook page and a Twitter page now. That is something new, social bookmarking sites. I may do a Myspace page as well.

Well, I had better wrap this up before it’s time for the next one…

Tom

It is not really cold here, but it is chilly. I miss being able to open a window, allowing fresh air in, and “dog” air out….

Bear has dermatitis and evidently it is not going to get cured. Her skin is peeling and she stinks. Unfortunately, it is still to cool to bath the dogs without heat in the house.

Char’s leg is better and the swelling has gone down.

I spent a considerable amount of time, last night, trying to determine why several articles I wrote were not being indexed by the search engines. Indexing means they will get read, eventually. I am in the process of trying to cure that now. One of those articles is: here and I will try to post more on another day.

I also spent some time working at cleaning up a Dodge Challenger model I was given years ago. After unboxing all my old models I found only two cars and two tanks still basically in one piece. Sort of.

Daniel spent the night again last night and he and Robert are still enjoying their weekend.

Mom has been fighting with her blood pressure, and hopefully the doctors are getting it down nearer where it needs to be. She told me yesterday it is coming down with the medication, but has a ways to go.

Well that is all for today,

Tom

Jo and I went “job hunting” Friday afternoon, and wound up out at the beach. We tried to walk out to the water, but by the time we got to it, it was time to go back to the truck, watering eyes, and chilled beyond comfortable.

It was beautiful out there though, and we got to see a school of large fish jumping farther out in the bay where all you could see was the sun flashing off their scales and the birds diving for lunch. (Pelicans)

It is a sad thing that there is no personal contact anymore in job hunting. Only the mom and pop businesses are hiring face to face. The rest of the world uses the Internet, and applications you may, or may not be able to use.

Robert’s bud Daniel spent the night, and they are busy wearing out the PlayStation….

It is a fantastic day outside, though still colder than I would like. The sun is bright and the sky is blue, hopefully the temperature will rise to reflect the weather.

I have a journalist that wants to interview my sister, Kathy, and I sent an e-mail to her to see if she wants to do it. I think that is very cool, and it will be great advertising as well.

I guess I had better get on with the day….

Tom

Yesterday was Robert’s 17th birthday! It is hard to imagine having once held this man in my hands as a newborn. He must be close to 6′ 3″, and is around 220 or 230lbs.

We had a good time and pigged out on the chocolate cake Jo made….

I found the strength to write two more articles for Associated Content, carefully leaving out the excess keywords that drug down the article on alternative energy and made them more readable. Learning to write on the Internet is different from printed work. I am still figuring it out.

I feel a lot better than I did yesterday, and managed to wake with a clear head and only the usual aches and pains.

Char has gotten some of her wiggle back and is feeling much better.

It’s back to the job hunting grind for the day, so I had better get to it.

Tom

I woke up this morning with a terrible headache, rolled over, covered my head and went back to sleep. That explains the late blog this morn, ah, afternoon….

No luck with the job hunt as yet, but I did get a phone number for a national line on a local company. You don’t apply on the premises anywhere anymore it seems. The number took me to a “You’ve just won!” recording and I hung up and checked the number… it helps to dial the right number when trying to reach someone.

Char got stung by a bee (we think) and her leg is really swollen up. we tried putting ice on it, but she won’t let it stay on long enough to do any good. We also gave her benadryl, just in case. It is still swollen and she is still limping along this morning.

The neighbor had someone try and break into their house last night at 3:30 am, but were unable to get in.

Time to get on with it….

Tom