Well, now, I think I have found and SEO tool that I like.  It's called Traffic Travis, available at http://trafffictravis.com.

I hesitated downloading the other day because the little man icon looked silly.  It reminded me of the horrible icons that Microsoft had for MS Office, anyone remember that dreadful paper clip, Clippy, or the little dog?  Cutesy is usually not my thing.

Yesterday, I uninstalled Serp Attack, and this morning, I was still looking for a good SEO tool, and came across Traffic Travis again.  I decided to download it, despite the cutesy Travis guy.

I like the interface, speed and tools.  I'm probably going to upgrade to the pro version soon.

On another note, I found a good color accessibility tool that checks foreground and background colors.  It's free, and very simple to use.  It alerted me that the colors I had chosen for the navigation on a site I'm working on would fail.  It was a simple matter of changing the colors to get a good contrast. Visit http://www.paciellogroup.com/resources/contrast-analyser.html to get Color Contrast Analyzer.

Serp Attacks

Well, I'm trying a new SEO tool I found for free at http://serpattacks.com.  I'll report back when I've seen what it can do.  It's free, so we'll see how it goes.

Well, it does a few things, for a free tool, but not enough.  I think I can do much better myself.

Comment Spam

I just love some of the comment spam I get over at The Good Plate. Here's a good one:

Today, I went to the beachfront with my children. I found a sea shell and gave it to my 4 year old daughter and said “You can hear the ocean if you put this to your ear.” She placed the shell to her ear and screamed. There was a hermit crab inside and it pinched her ear. She never wants to go back! LoL I know this is entirely off topic but I had to tell someone!

Now, this some poster has come by before and posted this same crap a few times. Either it's some sicko or someone who needs to have their child taken away by Department of Child and Family Services. Yeah, I know its probably a bot, but I'll bet that sometime, somewhere, some poor kid got really scared, if not hurt.

Tell you what, I'll report this to local law enforcement.

Oh, you gotta love this spammer who hit my recipe blog, The Good Plate.

I do {like|enjoy|love} the {way|manner in which} you have {framed|presented} {this|this particular|this specific} {issue|concern|problem|matter|challenge|difficulty|situation} {and|plus} it {does|really does|does indeed} {give|provide|offer|supply|pr…

Just about all of the things you point out is astonishingly appropriate and that makes me ponder the reason why I had not looked at this with this light previously. This particular article truly did switch the light on for me personally as far as this …

I guess this spammer has some kind of template but doesn't know how to use it correctly.

I have to wonder what spammers are thinking when they spam your blog. Didn't anyone ever tell these yahoos that if you don't have something nice to say, don't say anything at all? Here's the latest one to hit my cooking blog The Good Plate:

The next time I read a blog, I hope that it doesnt disappoint me as much as this one. I mean, I know it was my choice to read, but I actually thought youd have something interesting to say. All I hear is a bunch of whining about something that you could fix if you werent too busy looking for attention.

I supposed the spammer think that by doing this that the post will be approved just so the blog owner can reply and get the spammer what for. Obviously, I am not going to do that, but I will say to whatever spammer might see this:

You catch a lot more flies with honey than you do with vinegar!

Got Klout?

I am finding out about Klout, and whether I have any or not. Gee, I hope so! Back in the day when Usenet¹ was all the rage, I was a respected member of some very active groups. Now, they are like ghost towns, and social media is the way to go.

I am finally writing up about social media marketing on the Mother Site, Arbpen Designs, and I think that is going to be a labor of love as I explore this Brave New World.

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¹ Usenet

Usenet is one of the oldest computer network communications systems still in widespread use. It was conceived in 1979 and publicly established in 1980 at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Duke University, over a decade before the World Wide Web was developed and the general public got access to the Internet.Find out how to use Usenet for research

So, now I'm promoting eCosway. You know what, I really like this company. I have always hated any kind of network marketing, but these guys do something no one else does - they actually give you a brick and mortar store - for free. They pay the rent, utilities, etc., and all you have to do is nourish it. Now, you don't get a store right away, and that's okay - there is a journey like everything else.

I made up a little presentation for how to use Social Marketing to market eCosway - if you are an Independent Business Owner (IBO). You are more than welcome to view this presentation, and you it in your own business.

We're even working on a new blog, Peaceful For Life, because the wonderful products this company sells provide peacefulness for life!

Social Marketing

Getting American Loyalty Card going is getting better. Now there are sponsored ads, events, and we're going to do products as well. It's exciting!

Holy Archiving, Bat Man!

So, I decided I wanted to do a blog for Spane because he was diagnosed with Dandy Walker Syndrome, and I found out this old, old blog was still around. Thankfully, Google had kept all the information, and that's great. The older entries in this blog are mostly about being pregnant and the first and second year with Spane. If you are interested in Spane's Dandy Walker Syndrome, please visit Adventures with Spane Beeper.

Well, it's been a long time, but I think I'm going to start posting to this blog. I'm back working at nextBlock.com after three years.

It's amazing - nothing has changed, except my perceptions and how I deal with things. Since I had my son, I'm a lot more patient. But, Adel still wants a fixed width design - urgh!

I showed her Amazon, the biggest shopping site in the world, that is not fixed width, and she showed me Ebay and Yahoo, which are.

I still think fixed width is not the way to go for several reasons:
1. Too small
2. Too much white space
3. Too little room for things.

I will convince her, I know it!

Today is Spane's birthday. Jason and Marissa are at Jason's mother's housesitting. I don't think they're going to make any big effort to be here for the party. Oh well!

I made Spane a Barney birthday cake, decorated by hand. I also baked a bacon, onion and jack cheese quiche, spinach balls, and made a vegetable plate. Whew!

Michele and her daughter Maya came. Maya was excited because, at five, she got to be the oldest kid. William is two and half, and Spane, of course, is two.

Maria and Jasmine came. Maria took pictures, I'll be putting them up soon.

Maria Torres and Bonnie and her husband came. Maria and Bonnie hadn't seen eachother in over ten years, and where do they meet? My house, of all places!

Kelly and William, of course, were here. Kelly wrangled the kids while I finished up cleaning and cooking.

Spane got all kinds of wonderful presents:
Maria Torres - money, always a good choice
Maria De La Rocha - School toy that he loves
Bonnie - two puzzle books that he will play with supervised
Kelly - PJs and clothes that don't fit William
Michele - Nemo PJs
Mom - PJs that look like Marissa's robe, a nice suit for the holidays
People next door - Great outfit
Josef - Coloring books, books, crayons and pencils

And Spane really liked the present Mom got him - Captain Infinity wished him a happy birthday, he was thrilled to hear his name on television!

The new refrigerator has the freezer on the bottom. Jason likes Peanut Butter ice cream, and there was a container in the freezer. Young man (Spane), just as pleased as could be, went to the freezer, took the container out, and sat on the floor with it. Then he carefully took off the top and looked inside. There was a tiny scoop sitting on the top, and he carefully picked it up in his hand and popped it in his mouth. Then he closed it up, opened the freezer, and put it back. Then he turned around and grinned at me. I was laughing so hard there wasn't a thing I could do to stop him. Of course, now that he knows that it's in there, I've been going nuts trying to keep him out.

Finally. Today, we got the refrigerator. Thanks to Alex, I found some very good, inexpensive movers who brought the refrigerator.

Thanks to Sean McCann for letting us have it. Now, let's hope that Sean doesn't think that the fridge is compensation for work done.

This is the first post at the new domain name. Some fool in London is holding my real domain name hostage, so I got this new one. I actually like this one a lot.

I got published! I made a contribution of code to ASP101.com, and I'm on the front page. Here's the URL to the code, http://www.intraproducts.com/beta/requiredform.asp.

Spane got his first hair cut today, Jason's mother did a great job, and I have his hair in an envelope.

This was my first retreat, at the Sisters of Immaculate Heart. Oddly enough, I went to Immaculate Heart highschool, after the nuns split. This place was amazing, a castle from the 20's, donated to the sisters by the last owner, many, many years ago. Diana Sawyer's interview with Mel Gibson was filmed there.

Sister Donna gave us a lot to think about. We talked about the highs in our lives and the lows. I really like Sister Donna, she's a great teacher. She had us pick out a shell at the very beginning of the day, and carry it around with us, and then, at the end of the day, asked us to say why we had picked that particular shell. I said my shell had picked me. I put my shell on the top of my computer so I can look at it every day.

This was my first time at confession. Confession made me cry, too. I am not going to share what was said in confession.

When I got home, I had a cigarette on the balcony. It was the last in my pack. It was sprinkling, I didn't feel like going to 711 to get more.

There is one part of my confession I will share. Father said I should do something good for a child. I thought about it, and I decided the best thing I could do for my child was to stop smoking. I asked God's help to stop smoking. So far, no cravings, which is amazing.

It's my birthday. I'm 47 years old today. Tonight was also one of the nights that I go for RCIA.

My birthday was depressing, nothing was happening. At 6:45 I left to go to Holy Family for RCIA. On the way there, I passed the Armory, and there were hundreds of people quequed up for homeless meals. There but for the grace of God go I, I was thinking as I passed by. I didn't feel as depressed anymore.

Father Harrigan gave the talk tonight. He is a truly amazing man, almost frightening in his forceful faith in God and the Catholic church.

When it was over, I started walking home, and I said to God, "Thank you, that's a pretty good birthday after all." Well, I felt as if someone had hit me with a Happy Stick. I was so full of joy all the way home that I felt I was walking on air. I know this was God's birthday present to me.

This was the first dismissal, the Rite of Acceptance. I was so moved, I cried. I don't cry, but for this I cried, just a little. After I was accepted by the congregation, we had a discussion, and I said that I was so moved that I cried. What a wonderful thing this is, becoming Catholic. I recommend it highly.

It's Douglas's birthday today. Douglas is Spane's father. I haven't heard from him, and I don't expect to.

Spane and I went to Jason's Mother's house with Marissa. Spane was a little darling and slept most of the time. I have a picture somewhere of him sleeping on me.

I love my child.