posted on flickr by jot.punkt

Note: This post was originally published August 4th, 2007. With it’s publication, Exit78 saw its first “spike” of comments — all 10 of them plus several link backs. Check the end of this post to see how many of them are still active on the blogs they linked from.

I was a sailor. Spent nearly nine years in the US Navy – fifteen full months under water.

Have you ever heard the phrase, curse like a sailor?

Even though I spent what seemed like a lifetime around other guys that did, I don’t curse like a sailor. On a few occasions when I did use a choice expression, I can recall a few raised eyebrows.

The reason I don’t often swear is that I considered who my audience would be if I slipped up and let my bad nature show. I really didn’t want to be sitting down for Christmas dinner with the family only to blurt out something in front of my Mom that would embarrass both of us and others.

It was a conscious decision to take into consideration possible audiences and change bad habits that were already developing before they became very difficult to alter. It’s worked.

I believe the same concept goes for blogging, whether it’s for blogging for money or blogging for fun. Will your blogging voice, your blogging personae attract your audience or will it drive your audience away? There are some internet income related blogs that I have tried and then left because of what I perceived to be the attitude of the authors.

For me, it comes down to:

• Be yourself,
• Be nice, and
• Be family friendly.

In the last few months, I have decided to really be myself.

I’ve stopped being anonymous online. I use my name when I blog and when I comment. My family, friends, and former co-workers are welcome here, though they may not agree with some of the opinions expressed here.

While I’m not a blogging expert nor an expert about making money online, this tip is just good old fashioned common sense. You are a part of what you are trying to sell online.

The comments and link-backs for the original post provide an interesting indicator of the life-cycle of blogs. Below, I’ve shown the most recent post date or status for the link-backs and commenters to the original post:

• 8/21/2007
• blog no longer exists
• blog no longer exists
• current — but confusing
• current — but confusing
• closed “in light of recent events.”
• current — but confusing
• February 7, 2009
• Dec 10, 2008
• February 2nd, 2009
• February 8th, 2009
• January 20, 2008
• blog no longer exists

Posted on Flickr by
Aitor Escauriaza

I’ve decided I’m going to move this blog up one level.

The URL for the blog has been exit78.com/weblog since almost the beginning, certainly as long as almost anyone out there has been reading it.

The last part of it — the “backslash weblog” — makes it a little bit more awkward than it needs to be.

I had intended to reserve the primary level of the domain for a web site — I’m not sure to this day about what — that has never really materialized and so the blog was first /blog and then, a little later, /weblog.

Since the main level wasn’t utilized, I going to move the blog on up to the top level.

I realize this will be a little bit of a hassle for the few people out their that subscribe to the Exit78 feed. However, for a time, I will be posting from both the new location and the old location.

Now, while the new location is “live,” it’s not yet prettified. For now, the theme is just the WordPress default theme.

While I will be posting in both locations, I’m also going back and reviewing all of my old posts on this blog. Those that aren’t worth much are getting deleted. The better ones are getting transferred one at a time. I intend to transfere all that have been commented on with the comments intact, but no promises.

According to predicted values, there should have been 10 to 20 sunspots last month.

They didn’t happen.

“So what?” you ask.  “Why should we be concerned about sunspots?”

Many scientists believe that variations in the Sun’s activity has a much larger impact on the Earth’s climate than greenhouse gas concentrations. The number of sunspots is one indicator of that activity.

Currently, the Sun is at the minimum point of its nominal 11 year sunspot cycle.  This period is also the transition point from one numbered solar cycle to the next.

The present cycle 23 is one of the longest since cycles started being assigned numbers.  The only one longer was cycle 4 at the beginning of the Dalton Minimum, a period with minimum sunspot activity and reduced global temperatures.  Frigid winters and cold summers during the Dalton Minimum resulted in massive crop failures, famine and death.

Some solar cycle prediction models predict that cycles 24 and 25 will be weak, similar to the Dalton Minimum, with global temperatures dropping as much as 1.5 °C, more than erasing the the rise in global temperatures of the last century.   Some models even suggest a more prolonged period of weak activity.

This cold winter may only be the beginning.

(Read more at popsci.com, an online publication of Popular Science, which I found after I started writing this post.)

Posted on flickr by royal_broil

On my last job, one of my coworkers asked me if I was going to put in for unemployment when my contract was finished.

“I hadn’t really thought about it,” I told him.

“You really should, ” he said.  “After all, you’ve been paying for it all these years. It’s your right. I’m going to when I do contract work after I retire.”

He went on about it a while longer, but I didn’t have much to say on the subject.

I thought about it for a while, though, and concluded that, no, I was not going to apply for unemployment.

While the extra income would be helpful, I didn’t need it and, after all, it’s supposed to be used to help those who need it bridge the gap between jobs.  I wasn’t going to be looking for another job.

For that matter, I didn’t actually need the contract job that I was working.  It was helping to pay off some debt and, while I was working, we weren’t having to use any of our investment funds.

So, since I went to work when I didn’t need to, it just didn’t seem right to me to apply for unemployment.  It felt like taking advantage of the system.  (I’ll have more on this in a later post.)

What do you think?  Should I have applied for unemployment?

[continue reading…]

Started November 1, 2008:  285.6 lbs

Last week = 277 lbs.

This week = 275 lbs.

4 lbs over the 2 weeks of the holidays!

See other participants’ results at Blog to Fit – Wednesday Weigh-In.

Safety moment:

While exercise is an important component of health and fitness, doing it safely is also important.  Unusual exertion when the body is not used to it can be dangerous. If you’re not used to exercise, it may be prudent to start slowly and, possibly, consult with a physician or exercise specialist.

Proper exercise and use of exercise/weight equipment is also important.

Unfortunately, on New Year’s Day, one of my former students and, later, department manager, had a tragic accident in his home when he was benchpressing alone.  He was 49 years old and was alway fit and in shape.

Be safe while you get fit.

Child living in Oklahoma City shacktown. Photo by Dorothea Lange, 1936 Aug.

Library of Congress image

Title by Dorothea Lange: Damaged Child¹

1. Damaged – Dust, Drought and Depression #21; provides more information related to this image and Dorothea Lange.

Note: This post was revised 6/22/2017.

I can tell you one thing that 2009 will bring for blogging.

Change.

It’s the way of the world.  Blogging will be different for me — and for you — at the end of 2009 from what it is right now.

Some of the people blogging today that we read will move on to other things and either just stop blogging abruptly or just sort of fade away.

Others will change the focus of their blog and become more interesting while others will become less interesting.  Some will change the focus and be just as interesting as always.

My interests in blogs — and probably yours — will likely change somewhat as the year goes by.  Some of us will likely just get burnt out on blogging and reading blogs and decide to take a break from it — some, perhaps, even permanently.

This month marked the end of the second year for Exit78, though it has some earlier posts moved from a previous blog that was retired.  I intend to still be publishing at the end of 2009 and hope that those who drop by now will still be dropping by then.

How about you?  Do you think you will still be posting to your blog at the end of 2009?

I’ve added a new Haw Creek travel page on the What the Hay hay art contest in Montana, as well as a What the Hay photo gallery.

Note: some of the photo pages have links to larger versions of the images.

Held the second Sunday in September, What the Hay is a central Montana hay art contest stretching over 21 miles in Judith Basin County. It features around 50 or more creative hay bale sculptures in fields between the towns of Hobson  and Windham.