Make it so

I have really enjoyed 3 Seconds - The Power of Thinking Twice by Les Parrott, PhD. 

I loved the true life stories he talked about throughout the book.  If we could only pause before we respond and calmly count 3 seconds and think before we speak our conversations would be more meaningful and we'd achieve more in life. 

The words of Commander Jean-Luc Picard "Make it so" are the catalyst to getting things done instead of waiting around for the perfect opportunity.

It's also amazing how Lou Holtz had a list of over 107 "Impossible" Goals and has completed 81 of them.  I will be completing my Dream goal list.

Great book from start to finish.

Huffington Post Complete Guide to Blogging Review

If you've never read the story of how Huffington Post was created it's pretty interesting.  Arianna Huffington provides the details in the Blogging Review Guide Book I'm reading.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/

Why Blog?  I blog because I am. -  Cali Williams Yost

Here are the things I've enjoyed about the book...

1.  Blog Infrastructure 
Which website to use for setup?
www.blogger.com
www.typepad.com
www.livejournal.com
www.wordpress.com
www.movabletype.com
www.facebook.com

2.  Ways to Enhance the Blog -
www.tumblr.com
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
Video Logs - Vlogs
Photolog or sketchblog

3.  Anatomy of a Blog Post -
A. Template
B.  Header (Add your header here and put on every page and post)
C.  Titles - Short, clear, and Catchy
D.  Date/Time
E.  Tags
F.  Bio
G.  Blogroll -  list other blogs and connect them with your site.
H.  Sidebar
I.  Pull quotes
J.  Linking
K.  Comments






Measuring Traffic -
1.  www.sitemeter.com
2.  www.statcounter.com
3.  www.google.com/analytics
4.  www.google.com/alerts

Search engines to get listed with -
1.  www.google.com
2.  MSN (search.msn.com/docs/submit.aspx
3.  https://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/submit
4.  buzz.yahoo.com
5.  www.digg.com
6.  www.delicious.com
7.  www.technorati.com

Making Money on Blogs -
1.  www.google.com/adsense
2.  www.amazon.com/associates
3.  Linkshare companies
4.  www.publisher.yahoo.com

Community Institutions -
1.  www.webbyawards.com
2.  www.bloggies.com
3.  www.bloggerschoiceawards.com
4.  www.lulublookerprize.typepad.com
5.  www.thebestofblogs.com
6.  Meetup groups are good too.

The Book also had several pages listing The Huffington Post Blogroll which I'll list a few of my favorites but you'll have to check out the book to get the entire list.

1.  www.boingboing.net
2. www.buzzmachine.com
3.  www.dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com
4.  www.ecofabulous.com
5.  www.blog.wired.com/business
6.  www.justjared.buzznet.com
7.  www.popsugar.com
8.  www.treehugger.com
9.  www.blogs.wsj.com/wealth
10.  www.firstread.msnbc.msn.com

I just made a video at Animoto!

I just made a video at Animoto!

Sports and Kids Schedules

Sometimes I feel like I am the taxi driver extraordinaire. The kids go to school in the morning and then the youngest goes to preschool in the afternoon and then they come home. So I shuttle them back and forth from school three times a day for 5 days out of the week. To add on top of that some type of sport to round out their life is important to us but finding the time and cutting costs to fit our budget are two areas I always seem to be working on. I found a website that compares prices on sports items call www.become.com 

My sons have a friend that plays baseball and so I went to the website to do a few comparisons.  They had the Easton Baseball bat , the Tee Ball Bat , youth catchers gear , and some Nike baseball cleats.  I like the site Become because it gave a listing of different websites on the internet that had the best prices.  I could see someday when the time comes and my boys say, "I want to play baseball!" that I use this site to get the things on our list. 

My daughter will be starting Ballet tomorrow and since we just moved I have been looking for her ballet bag.  I haven't found it yet so I might just be using Become.com to do a search for some new ballet clothes. 

Kids, sports, and schedules will continue to be a part of our lives, so I will choose to enjoy it!