americanbabble.com

Weekend Haiku: The Chocolate Cake

Ms. Babble — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 13:34:55 +0000

For those of you following me on Twitter, you should know that I attempted to make a chocolate cake this weekend. It didn’t exactly go as planned.

In recognition of my “achievement”, I wrote a few haikus in its honor:

No measuring cups
Forced to improvise the cake.
Look! Laundry soap cup!

Oven takes the mix.
Little baker with high hopes.
Out comes a pancake.

Sad state of affairs
Looks nothing like the picture
More like a brownie.

Who am I kidding
A baker I’m not to be.
Bring me a Miller.

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Victim of the Google Slap

Ms. Babble — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 09:04:59 +0000

It’s an epidemic and I’m not immune.

2 out of 3 decently page ranked websites of mine (including this site) have been victims of the “Google Slap”.

What does that mean? Well, Google assigns a rank from 1-10 to all websites and website pages listed in their index. The higher the number, the greater importance Google considers that website or page.

There are several factors that determine a website’s page rank including the number of quality websites linking to it and the number of links on the site to others. A simplified way to look at it is that website links act as “votes”.

This particular website of mine, AmericanBabble.com, is a relative dinosaur at 3 years old compared to other sites actively running online right now. Over that time, my page rank once topped off at 5 which is kind of miraculous for a personal blog.

But as of today, Google has snubbed me. I’ve got a big fat zero page rank.

Where did I go wrong? Well, big brother Google never reveals exactly why they turn their backs on certain websites but I can safely deduce why. They’ve caught me selling links in my sidebar. Because I had such a rockin’ page rank, I was able to sell links in my sidebar for a decent price and a nice little deposit into my Paypal account every month.

Unfortunately, these links aren’t considered “natural” by Google and websites who participate in link selling don’t conform to their “Don’t be evil” motto. And because Google has such a stranglehold on web traffic, we simply have to conform to their rules and whims.

Luckily, page rank doesn’t effect search results significantly so I’m still showing up in the SERP’s… but! It’s more of a pride thing than anything else. When looking at a websites stats, it’s nice to see a beefy Google page rank number assigned to it. When I see a website with a page rank of zero, I think one of two things: Either that website is less than 3 months old, or, they’ve done something naughty.

Add me to the naughty list, I guess.

Without further adieu, where you once saw paid links…. now you don’t:

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Confession of an Anonymous Web Publisher

Ms. Babble — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 09:28:31 +0000

I have a confession . I am completely in love with website design, publishing, and coding. There. I’ve said it. It’s off my chest.

In retrospect, this revelation couldn’t be more natural. Computers have been a part of my life since I was a child. I should have paid more attention to this interest when I elected to take a BASIC programming course in high school (13 years ago. gasp!). But at the time it didn’t feel very artistic or creative which is the way my interests were leaning at the time with music and writing. I did make a pretty cool tic-tac-toe program in BASIC though.

As it turns out, computers and website publishing are an amazing way to express creativity and writing. This is becoming more and more apparent to me.

Right now I’m sort of in portfolio building mode. If I ever want to make serious go at developing something out of my skills and desire for website publishing, then I need practice. And lots of it! I’ve been running several of my own websites for many years now (not including this site which I tend to neglect more than any other) and I’m in dire need of more guinea pigs clients.

My brother was gracious enough to give me a crack at a website for his side detailing business. Here’s what I came up with:

Click to Preview

Below is a website I launched to feature my freelance work aptly named www.JamiGibbs.com. Why am I posting all of this information here? Well, like I said; I’m in portfolio building mode and am always looking to expand on my experience. Specifically, I’m interested in helping small businesses, schools, and individuals.

Click to Preview

Know someone who I could help with building a website, copywriting, or general website optimizing? Send ‘em on over!

Pass the Cheetoes Please

Ms. Babble — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 14:16:17 +0000

I came across a quote the other day that made me nod my head in agreement. I can’t remember the exact wording but it went something like this:

“If we worry too much about the meaning of life, then we’re doomed to miss life entirely.”

I can’t speak for previous generations but I see a trend in my generation that encourages us to analyze and question the meaning of things. The meaning of work. The meaning of family. The meaning of love and friends and…. well…. the meaning of life.

I can trace when I started this analysis of life the moment I started college (Big surprise, eh? What a cliche.) Seriously, philosophy class messed with my mind, man! Ironically, I got my first ‘D’ in that class. Perhaps that was a foreshadowing of how lousy I would analyze my life outside of class during my 20’s and barely squeeking into my 30’s.

My biggest problem had been fixating on the complex arguments which made everything feel massive and complicated. There were so many choices it made my head spin. Take this road or that road. Look up or down. Is there a God or isn’t there? Are you happy or aren’t you? Gender. Family. Socialization. Morals.

ah!!

And in the end, we feel we’ve accomplished a lot but without much of anything to show for it. The more complicated we make things, the less progress there seems to be.

So now I’m starting to say to myself the mantra popularized by “The Office”: K.I.S.S., or, “Keep It Simple, Stupid.”

I’ve spent time walking down the road of religion, gender, politics, etc. I’d really like to shut off that part of my brain now and just “Keep it simple, stupid”. Thank you very much.

Pansy From Nebraska, With Love

Ms. Babble — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 15:55:03 +0000

My mom sent me a little spring time gift in Tel Aviv for Easter which included the little ceramic mushroom pot above. The instructions told me to crack the top of the pot open and start watering every day. In a week, pansies would start to grow.

And there’s the proof it worked!

UPDATE:

A week later there was an unseasonably hot 90 degree day which baked the poor pansies to a crisp. RIP little flowers. It’s still a cool little pot!

Love thy neighbor?