That Was The Week That Was
Haven't been about much for this past week. I took most of the week off to recharge my batteries and get away from technology for a while. Do you ever get the feeling that you need to do something different with your life?
I'm considering doing another "around europe" trip, I did a long trip back in the 80s, now I'm older it's more difficult to just get away, but I reckon on being able to spend a few months travelling, perhaps next year.
That Was The Week That Was
- Liverpool lost the Champions League Final. Well done to Milan.
- I came home to find my Internet Connection totally stuffed. I had to buy a new router, which though not expensive, was a pain in the hoop to get sorted.
- The new AIS is starting to enter final preparation stages. I managed to get my coding sanitised.
- I purchased a few bits and pieces on eBay, and sold one of my bikes (the recumbent).
As for what's happening around the Blogosphere, it's "same old, same old". Bloggers still complaining about stuff which doesn't really matter. Bloggers blogging about the same stuff - once one person comes up with a post, you find loads of "satellite" blogs either agreeing or disagreeing, or just copying the same stuff. BORING.
Where have all the good blogs gone? Seems to me that the 80/20 principle kicked in, as 80% of the Blogs I used to read are just completely mind-numbing now. If you want to read some decent blogs, hit the "other blogs of interest" link up there ↑.
Some interesting posts I found
Stu over at PMPR wants other bloggers to link to him using correct Anchor Text. Hmmmn. I'm guessing that regular readers will know what I'm going to say about that. If not, let me know and I'll expand on it 
JC wants to know what to do with his/Kimi's wedding site. Difficult as it's not a great domain name to monetise to a "wedding" site. I'd say TLA and forget about it, perhaps continue to post up an article each week?
Eric at MEMWG posts about "accidental clicks". I've done the accidental click thing in the past and always notified Google. It's an easy thing to do particularly if you have more than the usual number of buttons on your mouse. No need to notify Goog from now on.
Sarah posts about how to lose prospective business partners. I've posted about losing deadweight clients before, but never quite had to go the whole hog because of spam. I just hate clients, all of them
Other Stuff of Interest
John Chow starts charging to remove nofollow from his comments. Great idea - if you have enough momentum in your blog. I prefer to take the stance of JC who is now using the dofollow plugin. I'm pretty sure that osworld uses dofollow, and has done for quite some time since Cesar started his yesfollow project.
Nochex are offering half price upgrades for upgrading from a "Seller Account" to a "Merchant Account". Looks like a good deal as having a Merchant Account allows you to process overseas cards I think. I'll investigate that and do a proper post on it in the near future. In case you don't know, Nochex are the UK-centric equivalent of Paypal (pretty much).
Comment by ash — May 26, 2007 @ 3:42 pm
Burt,
Im in 169% agreement with you. BORED shitless this week.
I have a lifestyle somewhat similar to yours, and its weird. Before I had a job that took up 8 hours per day, now my work takes up 4 on a busy day.
I mountain bike, I work out, I study but I need something else to do as well. Any ideas? Im thinking of buying a Vespa or a Yamaha scooter and blasting off to the surrounding villages for a day or two of fun
Comment by Gary — May 26, 2007 @ 4:18 pm
Ash, I think you are bang on. It is the sort of lifestyle that we lead. Now that I have 100% of my income on auto-pilot (and 90% of that is AIS), I have not got enough to do during the day. And that just leads to me wanting to get out and about.
A couple of weeks back I got up, saw income of over $300 in my paypal overnight. I didn't even check my emails, closed down the computer and went for a 90 mile bike ride instead.
4 hours work is a busy day, and those come around about twice a month. Sometimes I do absolutely nothing except brainstorm.
I am so mind-numbingly bored of this lifestyle that I am desperate for a change. It's got to the point where I'm considering just selling up everything then bogging off for a year. If I come to Chinesia, can I stay at yours?
Comment by ash — May 26, 2007 @ 4:43 pm
You are more than welcome.
We can be 169% bored for a year, together.
Comment by Paul — May 26, 2007 @ 5:13 pm
I was talking about this to someone the other day. I think it's one thing having an automatic income yourself but then you're mates have to work so it'd be a bit like taking a day off ill from school and you have to wait till school finishes to see mates/have a game of footie or whatever.
Winning the lottery would be better, take them with you!
I can imagine I would get slightly bored with a free lifestyle but I wouldn't miss running a bricks & mortar business with all the stress it brings me and I have loads of sports i'd be able to do again like the paragliding etc.
Comment by Dave J — May 27, 2007 @ 11:24 am
It's a weird one. I've just finished a couple of months garden leave which was effectively paid free time. For the first couple of weeks I was happy as larry, doing some web stuff, catching up on house projects etc. However, boredom soon set in and I started to miss routine plus "managing" things.
I'm now back working and altho' its hectic (and knackering sometimes) it's also very fulfilling. As a result I really enjoy the small bits of free time I get e.g. weekends. This means a lot more than when I was free all the time.
So I'm kinda happy to be running at 110% 5 days of the week and then downshifting at the weekend and hols. I reckon I can cope with that for another ten years before properly kicking back.
However, if the lottery came my way….
Dave
Comment by Gary — May 27, 2007 @ 12:05 pm
I think I'm just going through one of those phases where I need a change of direction - it happens about every 5 years, so I am overdue by a few years.
Comment by Will — May 27, 2007 @ 11:19 pm
Heh. Well, I haven't got to where you guys are, but I do enjoy having things to do and getting them done.
Personally, I like the challenge. It's not always the destination, but the journey that's the good part.
I remember as a kid playing computer games, I'd always prefer not to use cheats because it took away some of the fun. I'd always prefer to start at the bottom and work my way up as it was more satisfying.
Comment by ash — May 28, 2007 @ 9:03 am
Burt,
This week Im trying to become an early riser, my goal is 5:30am. I have found that its not all that its cracked up to be as my day is now just a bit longer, and a bit more boring.
Comment by Gary — May 28, 2007 @ 11:54 am
I think what I need to get sorted is my tangible product businesses. I have a couple that are basically ready to go, both "ebay" type businesses (with an oscommerce based storefront).