Daily Thoughts

Sun Tzu the author of the military classic, The Art of War which is about strategy. I could compare it to Musashi's The Book of Five Rings which is about strategy. Both are well worth reading. These books are not just about fighting, they are about being organized and excellent.

Daily Thoughts

I took a walk to my local library this morning. It started snowing just as I was coming home; so I rushed home and got in the car and drove to get the groceries. It is snowing hard outside.

I picked up a book at my local library, Click What Millions of People Are Doing Online and Why It Matters Unexpected Insights for Business and Life by Bill Tancer. I am hoping it may give me some insights into why people go to websites. I also picked up two bookmarks. One is for Read Away Your Fines, a program for people under 16 that want to lower their fines. It works by giving people $1 per half hour they sit and read towards their fines. So if you read for an hour, you get $2 towards paying your fine in library bucks, a form of scrip. It seems a little low for fine reductions. The other bookmark is a notice about book renewals; you can renew by phone or on the internet.

I tried to read Click, but it quickly became agonizing. I find web metrics to not be the most fascinating subject. This book is essentially about web data in a very general way. If you are fascinated with statistics you might like this book. Statistics was not my favorite subject. Also, the book is by a first time writer. The writing is a bit dull with not enough variety in its vocabulary. Take a pass and try something else.

The something else is No Limits The Will To Succeed by Michal Phelps with Alan Abrahamson. Michael Phelps won eight gold medials in swimming. I admit my own basis, when I was younger, I was on the swim team. I only won first place once in backstroke. Still, swimming is an excellent healthful sport that keeps you in great shape. This book is about performance and the will to win.

I am realizing that my goal with my website with traffic is not to get massive traffic but to draw in quality traffic that will give me ideas in the publishing and library world. It is not about having a huge number of hits, but having regular readers who show an interest in what I am writing about.

I went and bought a new mouse for my computer. I still had the same mouse with the little rubber ball I had from three years ago. It was working until now. Now I have a Logitech USB optical mouse. I feel a little bit like a luddite; I generally follow the idea of if it is not broken don't fix it. I should probably get a thumb drive for my keychain as well.

Todays Wandering Thoughts

I found a couple of books that seemed to be worth reading and placed them on hold. Ten Cent Plague: The Great Comic Book Scare and How It Changed America by David Hajdu. This book came out in 2008. I hope this book has a section on the famous book, Seduction of the Innocent by Dr. Fredrick Wortham written in 1954 on how comic books cause juvenile delinquency. Just to give you an idea of where I stand, I really like the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, http://www.cbldf.org/

There is also a new book called The Philosophers Apprentice by David Morrow. It is science fiction book. David Morrow writes very interesting science fiction. There is a review for it in Locus Magazine already. I think my review will probably be a bit different.
http://www.locusmag.com/Features/2008/03/locus-magazines-faren-miller-reviews.html

I changed something with my link exchange. Money Saving Tech Tips was nice enough to include me in his list of choice links. He has been following my blog for quite a while. So, I decided to expand my link exchange to include sites other than books. http://money-saving-tech-tips.blogspot.com/

I think that the metatags and new banner have considerably improved my traffic. I have not done any keyword analysis of the subjects which I am attaching to my blog. Keyword analysis basically, checks to make sure you are using the keywords which get the most blog traffic. I think at times it can be dishonest. If I really wanted to get a lot more traffic, I would include words like sex, Madonna, youtube, batman, pornography, spam, and similar things. I think it will be better in the long run to just use the right words to describe my blog.

There are a few things I have noticed about keywords. If a keyword is capitalized it is less likely to be a high traffic keyword. Also, it is good to include plurals of keywords; library, libraries, librarian, librarians for example.

Two of my holds came in. The first is Predictably Irrational The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions by Dan Ariely. The second is a dvd, Wallace & Gromit, The Curse of the Were-Rabbit. The dvd case has some chew marks on it, probably left by a little kid. There are any variety of things you will find in library books; coffee stains, water damage, shopping recipts, bookmarks, food stains, and other things in library books when they are returned. Very rarely you find one dollar bills used as bookmarks.

I decided to add a list of a few publishing blogs which I found rather interesting with some unique professional content. It is on the sidebar.

I accomplished something I finished reading all seven of the books on the Mythopoeic Award Book Challenge. I also reviewed all seven of the books which is an interesting accomplishment. I rather liked doing the concept of a book challenge. I might even do the Graphic Novel Challenge, although, I have already read most of the graphic novels in the challenge already.
http://foxywriter.com/2007/12/27/mythopoeic-award-challenge/

I tried to read Predictably Irrational The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions by Dan Ariely, but could not get into the book. The subject was interesting, behavioral economics, but the writing was not. I tried the fifty page rule: read fifty pages before you put a book down and it still did not hold my attention. I will try something else tomorrow. I was surprised because the book reminded me slightly of Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything by Steven D. Levitt which I liked.

Morning Thoughts, Blog Traffic

This morning I got on the train to work. I was sitting drinking tea with lemon and honey. The train was mostly empty because it was a Saturday. It is very nice to be on an empty train with very few people around. It gives one an almost expansive peaceful feeling. I wasn't reading this morning because I wanted to have my head clear for the day. Sometimes, I don't read because I am tired or I just want to think of absolutely nothing and just sit.

It is also nice to look out the window. Usually, you see various brightly colored graffiti, tires, and industrial landscape. Sometimes there are patches of trees and greenery, or you can look out onto a street. It has a lulling effect.

It was rather odd. Directly across from me was poster. It had a picture of a happy fish and a sad fish. I noticed it was about something called The School of Practical Philosophy. I thought it rather odd that they might be teaching something like this. Apparently, it has been part of New York University since 1964.
http://www.philosophyworks.org/landing/who.php

The idea was rather intriguing. I am thinking a bit about it today. Sometimes, the right thoughts are everything.

I still haven't started writing my review for Superclass. I have to promise myself and you that I will start writing the review tonight. I usually write it out longhand then transfer it to the computer. Writing with a pen has a different feeling to it than writing on a computer. I like the feel of the pen on paper for the first draft of a review. I learn better sometimes when I can feel and see what I am doing.

I wrote some notes on the train home for the review. It is kind of awkward writing on a subway train. I feel a little cramped when I am doing it, but I do it anyway. So, I have enough material to write a review in the morning.

I also will watch Stardust by Neil Gaiman tomorrow. I actually finished watching it tonight. I would give the film three stars. It was light entertainment; not as good as the book.
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I am thinking about blog traffic today. I tried something a little nutty today. I clicked on 300 entrecard adds, it took me five and a half hours. It seemed to be almost a waste of time. I wanted to see what the results would be.

Like most people, I am trying to increase the traffic to my blog. It seems to be an incredible popularity contest. The first person who has the most traffic wins. Of course, they don't win anything monetarily unless they are selling or advertising something. I actually do have a goal. I would like to have by December, 1000 unique visitors per day. I know this is a tall order. I don't intend to buy advertisements to do it either. It is a kind of wishful goal that points towards creating a very popular site.

One of the things, I know I will have to do is learn how advertising writing works. One of the most successful science fiction writers, Frederik Pohl, wrote advertising copy. One of his most successful books was The Space Merchants, a classic of science fiction. I think part of his success was writing in a style that sold the book to the reader. I think many of the bestselling books on the New York Times list do this. They don't just write the novel to write a novel, but to sell an appealing idea to the reader.