Jude’s Eclectic Resources

It’s sad to note that a few really nice bloggers are removing themselves from Entrecard for whatever personal reasons and asking to have their accounts deleted. Regardless if it’s because of the forums and things happening there and they feel like the Entrecard people aren’t respecting their long time members that post frequently and feel like they had a home there or because of the way the whole program is being run would be anyone’s guess unless they speak directly to that person and know their reasons.

I can only speculate from what I read in some of the threads because I am not a big participator so I don’t feel like I’m a member of that family group. If it’s because of the forum then that makes sense for me and I’m better off not participating. However I still like the program and will continue to use it till it closes or I’m deleted whichever comes first. I try to keep up with the standards they require, but who knows when my server might go offline or some other unforeseen occurrence. I would hate to lose my credits so I better start using them.

I have finally started bookmarking some of my favorite sites because I now realize that they might not always be in my inbox. I really should start signing up for more RSS feeds, but I always thought it better to visit the sites than read the post in a reader. I guess I really haven’t understood the importance of RSS unless it was for convenience. I can honestly say I do not know how many people have subscribed to any of my feeds because it was never important to me. I still check my stats through, Clicky but not where they come from or any of that other stuff just unique visitors.

I also realize that I haven’t been keeping up with answering comments lately even though I appreciate them and keep meaning to answer them, but this blog is dofollow so they at least get a link back. People post in hopes that what they have to say is important to someone and they can’t judge unless they get feedback and the same goes for commenter’s. I’m sure most commenter’s would appreciate the acknowledgment that they took the time to reply to our posts. To tell you the truth when I visit a site and leave a comment there have only been a few times when I expected an answer.

I have to go there was a loud boom and when I checked I found a busted pumpkin on my porch. Apparently a group of kids was aiming at the kid next door and hit our porch instead. Well, looks like this is going to be a messy Halloween I better keep the broom handy.

I must have been ad blind for a very long time because today is the first time that I noticed a Google ad and that was because it was targeted to the city I live in when I hit the site. I know Google knows everything, but that was freaky. I see many widgets that tell the webmaster where their visitors are coming from and I’m not sure that I like that either. I certainly understand why some people use a proxy and I may look into that myself.

There is definitely no privacy online anyone can find out whatever they please about you. If you think about it, it’s rather scary of course I don’t really care because if there was ever a stalker that came to visit I do have a gun. Of course I may never use it, but I’m sure my partner would. I have met many people in real life that I made friends with online and never had a problem, but I know there have been many people that weren’t so lucky.

I certainly hope everyone uses a firewall, but I’m sure if a hacker wanted in they could find a way that’s why I never keep important personal information on my computer so nothing could be used to swipe my identity, but some people are just vicious and love to send viruses because they can. I am always careful with e-mail and always make sure to delete if I don’t know them.

Lately I don’t even check to see if Akismet has held up a legitimate comment I simply delete them all because if you make the mistake of checking a site it could be booby trapped I had that happen a long time ago and it wasn’t nice. It’s getting late or rather early so it’s time to hit my bed for a few hours, hope everyone has a nice rest and I’ll see you tomorrow.

I feel like sharing a few of my thoughts before going to bed. Every where we turn we hear how bad the economy is and it’s not just here in the USA it is being felt globally. Can you imagine the National Debt is $10.2 trillion dollars when in 1989 it was $2.7 trillion I personally can’t even comprehend trillion. I was never good at understanding high finance, but I always managed to balance my checkbook.

Credit cards and I never got along because it made it too easy for impulse buying especially when my cash was low. These companies love when we live above our means why should we try to do any better than our government and our national debt. I no longer use credit cards and if I don’t have the money in my account then I do without, but lately I’ve even started worrying about how safe my bank is.

There really isn’t much that I require in life other than the basics, like food, clothing and a roof over my head, but there is a majority of people that think the American way is to use purchase power to buy expensive homes that they know they can’t afford and have taken risks anyhow. So many companies have downsized or closed and people have lost jobs and just can’t pay the mortgage, scary times.

I’m struggling with what all the politicians are saying or rather not saying because as far as I’m concerned they all talk in circles. I have been doing a lot of listening and reading and trying to figure things out for myself and hope I make the right choice soon. We have always heard about all the government spending and corruption and over the years and I have been flabbergasted at some of the price lists that have been released.

The stimulus checks were suppose to help stimulate our economy and encourage the people to go out and spend, but that certainly doesn’t seem to have helped. What a mess we now find ourselves in, I have heard many say that years from now Bush Jr. will go down in history as the worse President that we have ever had. What makes a person even want to run for office knowing they will be responsible for the welfare of a nation?

It’s so good to be home. I love going away, but being in your own home among your own things is great. I am so behind on everything since I wasn’t near a computer for over a week. I see that Entrecard is making some changes so it should be interesting to see how things shape up. I appreciate the visits while I was away.

I took along a notebook to jot down ideas while I was away, but didn’t write down one thing except my gas mileage which wasn’t too bad all things considered. We averaged about 22 miles per gallon and for our jeep that was great. I seem to be brain dead at this point in time and can’t think of one thing to actually post about so this will be very short today.

I will be away next week so since you wont see my widget in your Entrecard inbox I know there will be very few visitors from that source and really it’s okay because I know how that works and it doesn’t bother me because leaving town for a week is more important than anything else right now. I do wish to thank everyone for their visits in the past though. Since I wont be near a computer I wont update until I get back.

Has anyone had a problem trying to edit and update any information about their blog? I simply can’t update anything at Entrecard right now and it wont even let me change my tag line, very frustrating. There seems to be many changes underway and hopefully some of them are going to be good ones. I really think the program is a great idea and I hope it continues, but the last few partnerships were rather dismal.

It’s great that the owner tries to find new ways to help everyone and I can’t say anything bad about one of the best free programs out there for getting traffic. Some people get very frustrated because of bounce rate and they’re irritated because they try to write something to get a response and I’m sure they feel unappreciated because I always see different posts written about all of the drop and runs.

Bloggers are always telling us how they drop and I’m quite sure I’ve even mentioned my method, but you have to decide what’s best for you and your blog and you can’t expect everyone who visits your blog to comment. You might think you’ve written a masterpiece, but not everyone will be interested. If you’re lucky and you write something interesting then you will naturally pick up a few readers and commenter’s.

Everyone wants reciprocated drops and comments, but it doesn’t always happen. I like to drop on different categories because I never know when I might find something that will interest me, but blogs that post about politics and sports are not likely to comment on this blog nor will I theirs because I’m not knowledgeable enough about either even though I return their drops and they mine, my blog just wouldn’t interest them.

Okay enough from me I need some sleep, happy blogging.