A lost Exit78 post, recovered from Internet Archive WayBackMachine; March 2011

I’ve been using StumbleUpon for over 3 years now — an eternity it seems in time online.

On StumbleUpon, everyone has some kind of image — avatar — for their pages. When I began there, it was important to me that I have something that was uniquely mine. I started with an modified image of myself and periodically replaced it with a new version. These are the initial images that I created — I’m not sure if I used all of them. The original image was one that was taken at work, and by the way, it’s mixed in with these, though I never did use it as a StumbleUpon image.

I also used this image, I believe. It’s from drawing of a meeting of rebel and union pickets by Edwin Forbes.

This one was my second longest running image. It a composite of a civil war photograph and a modern photo of our late cat, Oddball.

I also used Oddball’s image in 2004 and 2006 to encourage people to at least consider voting.

Like many people, I was very disappointed with the 2004 results. However, in 2006, mostly because the results were a rebuke to the policies of the current administration, I celebrated a little by using the following image:

The final image is the one that I’ve used the longest, I believe, for my avatar on StumbleUpon. I’m the guy with the clipboard.

Perhaps it’s time to cycle back through some of them, but I doubt if I will.

Comments on “My Avatars (images) on StumbleUpon”

October 19, 2007

teeni @ 6:27 pm

You did some fun things with your image! LOL. Oh, your cat was adorable! So sorry to hear Oddball isn’t around any longer. So you are the important looking guy holding the clipboard? You ARE tall, just like you said. So, is that a real control room or a simulator?

Mike Goad @ 9:37 pm

Yes, I was the guy with the clipboard.

It was a simulator in Lynchburg, Virginia, the same one that the guys at TMI had gone to for some very basic training. After the accident at TMI, the training there was a lot more intensive. Our reactor was the same as the one at TMI where the accident occurred.

That photo was taken in 1982. The three of us of were in reactor operator license class. The company that owned the simulator was doing some pictures for some promo ads and asked us to participate. A few years later, after all of the US plants got their own simulators, this simulator was sold to a plant on the shores of Lake Erie in Ohio. It was installed in their training center for use in training technicians, if I remember right. I saw it when I was there on a business trip in the late 90s.

I was a simulator instructor at the power plant I worked at in Arkansas for over 20 years, though it wasn’t one of my primary jobs. I stopped by the simulator this afternoon, just to visit and, when I listened to some of a training crew debrief, actually thought of an earlier comment you made on Exit78. Something about all those acronyms.

October 22, 2007

Rose @ 11:05 am

Interesting avatars. Mine is boring. lol It is just a pic of me. I added you to my friends list.

A lost Exit78 post , recovered from Internet Archive WayBackMachine; March 2011

On the NEI Nuclear Notes blog, I discovered You Tube video on the passive systems of the General Electric ESBWR nuclear power plant:

I was at the blog looking for a link on the site to one of my blog posts. Except for that, I never would have come across this as I don’t normally spend any time on nuclear power related websites — no reason to any more.

Comments on “General Electric’s new design for boiling water reactors” »

October 17, 2007

teeni @ 11:24 pm

Oh my – you are giving me flashbacks. LOL. I just had a whole bunch of industry related acronyms come to mind when viewing this. I think I need to go watch some cartoons now to clear my mind out of that junk. heehee

A lost Exit78 post, recovered from Internet Archive WayBackMachine; March 2011

THE fight to prevent the injury and impairment of public parks, large and small, appears to be a perpetual one. There is always springing up some new person or persons possessed with a craving, as absorbing as it is mysterious, to get into a park of some kind and do harm to it in one way or another.

The Century Magazine, (a popular quarterly); Volume 43, Issue 3; The Century Company; Jan 1892; New York

The desire to protect the environment is not new by any means. As seen in the rest of this article, developers bent on leveraging public lands were being opposed in the media even in the late 19th century. (Blog Action Day)

A lost Exit78 post, recovered from Internet Archive WayBackMachine; March 2011

Blog Action Day

It’s hard for me to write an article on environmental issues. For most of my life, I’ve been environmentally conscious, yet I worked in an industry that would not have existed had many so-called environmentalists had their way. Yet, today, that industry may be one of the solutions for global warming.

I retired from a job in nuclear power.

Nuclear power is clean and it’s safe.

Nuclear power is environmentally friendly — there are no green house gas emissions.

Nuclear waste can be stored safely for a very long time.

Nuclear power plants and nuclear weapons are designed in two very different ways, yet many people will always relate one to the other.

A nuclear weapon is designed to produce a tremendous amount of power over a very minute period of time (microseconds). It explodes and that power cannot be harnessed.

A nuclear power plant is designed to produce power over a relatively long period of time. In a commercial power plant, most fuel assemblies are used for 4 1/2 to 6 years before the fuel in that assembly is depleted. A nuclear reactor cannot undergo a nuclear explosion.

I would not hesitate to accept a nuclear power plant or a high level radioactive waste repository near where I live.

Nuclear power is good for the environment.

Comments on "Blog Action Day"

October 15, 2007

teeni @ 3:23 pm

As long as I was confident that the repository was safe and it didn’t look bad (how vain am I?) I wouldn’t mind it but not right next door to me cuz I don’t want everyone saying “Oh, THAT explains a lot about Teeni.” LOL

October 17, 2007

Asad Quraishi @ 10:56 am

I whole-heartedly agree with you. I only worked in nuclear for 8 months as a university student but have alway believed in it as the best short-term solution to long-term clean power. We need time to get to cheap, renewable, clean energy. Nuclear gives us that time without destroying our atmosphere and environment in the process.

You can see my post on the same topic at: http://quad4b.blogspot.com/2007/10/nuclear-energy-makes-sense.html

I’ve tried to bolster my argument with credible articles and common sense. Let me know what you think if you have time.

A lost Exit78 post, recovered from Internet Archive WayBackMachine; March 2011

One of my websites is Haw Creek Outdoors. After retiring earlier this year and almost 3 months of this year traveling, camping and spending quite a bit of time outdoors, I decided to spend some time developing a different direction and better focus for the site.

Yes, Opal and Teeni, there is another picture of me there.

Comments on “Another New Look.”

October 15, 2007

Opal Tribble/Vegan Momma @ 2:53 pm

Oooh I really like this site I saw it before. I really like the name “Haw Creek” for some reason it makes me think of the book series “The Sugar Creek Gang” they boys in that club did a lot of camping. What a great niche website.

teeni @ 3:19 pm

I love the new look and I’m glad you included another photo of yourself! You are thinner than I thought you were! (I think the photo on the left of this page with your bulky coat on is deceiving). And I LOVE the pics of the critters right in your own back yard. I’m going to go back and visit some more later. Love your photos! Every one of them!

I have been posting one new image a day to my photo blog, most of them from our last trip. This image is from Spearfish Falls, near Savoy, South Dakota — the falls are the backdrop.

I’m actually working back through the trip, posting about 1 picture for each day of the trip. This one is from August 25th and we didn’t get back home until September 28th, a little over 2 weeks ago.

Comments on “Photo blogging it!”

October 15, 2007

Opal Tribble/Vegan Momma @ 12:23 pm

I really like how you focused on the leaves/branches and left the falls out of focus. This is beautiful. It makes me wish I was there.

teeni @ 3:21 pm

Me too. You actually inspired me to try and make a trip in the next week or so and try and get some pics of New England Fall Foilage. I am not too good with the photos like you all are but I’d be happy to share some color if nothing else!

Rose @ 7:02 pm

I love this image. My son visited your photo blog and he just loves your photos. He asked me if you would mind if he used one for a desktop wallpaper on his pc?

A lost Exit78 post, recovered from Internet Archive WayBackMachine; March 2011

I’ve been using AdSense for quite a while now. While I don’t make tons of cash like some folks make — or claim to make — I do get a modest check every month.

I’d like to make more.

However, I don’t need to.

Being newly retired, I have a small, but reliable, income stream from my pension and a bit of savings that I’m nurturing in the hopes that I won’t have to go to work as a consultant or contractor.

Since I don’t need to make more money from online sources, I can concentrate on working on my content and building my sites. I can also spend some time learning by looking at what others are doing.

So what has all of this to do with sticking with AdSense and nothing else?

Quite simply, it’s because AdSense requires very little effort from me and I can concentrate on content without worrying if the content fit the ads.

I’ve tried other ads in the past and other ways to try to make money online. Even with quite a bit of effort there was little return and my content suffered.

Not so with AdSense.

Once I obtain the AdSense code and place it where I want it, I don’t have to do anything else. Since I use templates for most of my online material, I only have to install the AdSense code in each new template, rather than on each page.

We have been getting phone calls lately from other advertisers wanting to place ads on our sites. We’ve told them we’re not interested.

Maybe later we’ll look at some other sources of income — after I’ve developed our content quite a bit more.

But then, maybe we’ll just stick with AdSense.

Comments on "Why I’m only using AdSense — for now." »

October 13, 2007

Opal Tribble/Vegan Momma @ 4:50 am

My main source of online income is affiliate marketing. I just wasn’t comfortable relying on adsense as my only source of income. As with adsense I stick the affilate code in once and forget about it. I do go an extra step and add codes to my article if I happen to be writing about a product I’ve used. I have found this to be very effective. I imagine it’s do to the fact that those who do purchase the product trust me and will purchase a product based on the amount I talk about it.

Within my niche they pay up to $150 for sale depending on what niche you’re in some pay a lot more. Monetizing my personal websites was a way to make “pocket change” but I’ve been able to make a lot more. I market it the same way I do my regular business and for me that has made all the difference with my regular business my approach is hands on. I give a potential customer enough information about my products so they don’t have to guess. I do the same when I market a product from an affiliate. I won’t endorse something I don’t believe in.

I’ve gotten the advertisers also they mainly email me. I’ve accepted one and have turned the others down.

dcr @ 10:11 pm

If you get a monthly check from AdSense, you’re doing fairly well. I get an annual check, though the way things have been going, I’ll probably be getting a check every three years now.

October 15, 2007

Rose @ 7:03 pm

Avoid Adbright. They owe my hubby money.

A lost Exit78 post, recovered from Internet Archive WayBackMachine; March 2011

I was going through some of the photos of the trip and came across this. It was taken a couple of weeks ago at Canyonlands National Park.

Comments on “A new photo of you-know-who”

October 9, 2007

teeni @ 7:53 pm

Hey – you really DO look like your Simpsons character! LOL. And with those beautiful canyon walls in the background, it is hard to tell how tall you are!

October 10, 2007

dcr @ 12:53 pm

Just how close were you to the edge?

BTW, you ought to check Sabrina’s blog…

October 11, 2007

Mike Goad @ 9:47 am

I was actually about ten feet from the edge and sitting down. It was also a pretty windy day, hence the windblown hairdo and sweatshirt.

pete @ 11:54 am

Great photo. Were you getting those huge updrafts from the canyon? Saw the Grand Canyon once and when you got near the edge you could feel these intense winds blowing up from the bottom. Really crazy.

October 12, 2007

Opal Tribble/Vegan Momma @ 7:53 am

That’s a great shot of you. I really like it. What a lovely background. Thanks for sharing.

October 15, 2007

Little Things Mean A Lot @ 7:44 am

[…] another gorgeous photo along with the story behind her blog name, and last but definitely not least Mike Goad of Exit 78 shared a handsome photo from his recent […]

One of the things I really like about my digital camera is the ability to shoot multiple pictures rapidly. I sometimes use this capability to “paint” or “sweep” a composite image. I sweep from side to side and up and down, capturing as many as 20 or 30 images in a short period of time, which I can later assemble using Autostitch.

This photo was a bit of serendipity. I’ve had a few composite “sweeps” where there was something or someone moving. Sometimes this results in a person or thing being stitched out of the image. Sometimes, there will be a ghost image. On my first attempt with the green VW, I ended up with this image.

To get the final result, I cropped each of the original images so that the background behind the car was unique in each cropped image. Thus, when the four images were merged, the portion of the image where the car didn’t get blended into a common background.

A larger version of the image is scheduled to be published on my photo blog on October 21st