Category: Observations & Musings

I was just thinking…about all kinds of stuff. Thoughts and opinions – I have plenty. Read about them here. Sometimes I am more opinionated than is generally acceptable – don’t be offended! Enjoy another point of view, even if you disagree – you might even learn something…or teach me something with your comments.

Social Media is The New Punk Rock

On By MaryIn Observations & MusingsLeave a comment

Richard Darell, otherwise known as @Minervity on Twitter, sent out a tweet a couple of minutes ago linking to an article on bitrebels.com. As I often do, I clicked over and read the article which was talking about how to define social media – the conclusion being that social media could be summed up thusly: Social Media = Listen & Respond. “Okay,” I thought to myself, “sounds good.” As I looked down the page, I saw that a link to the following YouTube video was provided along with the article:

After watching the video, my lackadaisical “ok, sounds good” became an enthusiastic “Yes! That’s it!” Just as the Punk Rock movement stressed an independent DIY attitude and the idea that being heard was more important than the media or the message used, social media provides the ways and means for all of us to express ourselves and to be heard. Social media is NOT a marketing tool – it is a Social Movement. Listen and Respond.

Great Little Comic About UK Riots

On By MaryIn Observations & MusingsLeave a comment

Check out this comic strip that someone posted a link to on Twitter this morning. I love the line: “You change things by creating, not destroying.” Very timely and very well done. A good reminder to those of us who may be really pissed off about things in the world today.

tumblr_lpppi7UUN51qfw2mzo1_1280.jpg (650×1280).

8 Reasons Young Americans Don’t Fight Back: How the US Crushed Youth Resistance | | AlterNet

On By MaryIn Observations & Musings2 Comments

Somebody posted this link on Twitter last night. I think it is an excellent and thought-provoking article. When you look around the world and see all of the rioting and protesting by young people, you might be misled into thinking that because the same isn’t happening here in the U.S. that our people – especially the youth – are happy and content. We are NOT! But, why then, don’t we show it?

Eight Reasons Young Americans Don’t Fight Back

WordPress Fruit Shake Theme

On By MaryIn Observations & MusingsLeave a comment

I just wanted to mention this: WordPress’ new Fruit Shake theme has made me very thirsty for some healthy and natural drinks. Just looking at the creamy colors and fruity headers has got my mouth a’watering for a cool fruit smoothie!

As a person who is trying to improve her health and her life, this is good news indeed. I’m going to go out and get me some blueberries, bananas, yogurt, soy milk and ice and make me a blender full of cold, creamy, healthy fruit goodness. Forget those chips and candy bars, I want a Fruit Shake!

Thanks WordPress!

Check out the WordPress Fruit Shake Theme for yourself

I Am Never Eating Processed Chicken Again

On By MaryIn Observations & Musings1 Comment

I just learned something new and totally disgusting today on Twitter. @TheAdriRam, posted a link to an article showing this grotesque pink ooze that looks like bubble gum or something worse being poured into a cardboard box. The accompanying article explained that this grotesque pink ooze is actually “mechanically separated chicken” which is used in all sorts of processed chicken products like nuggets, patties, etc. Ewww, gross!

I tweeted @TheAdriRam and asked him if this was, perhaps, a joke and not a fact. He replied regretfully informing me that it was in fact true. Yuck! I will never eat processed chicken again. Check out the picture and article yourself and let me know what you think.

Affiliate Marketing is Not For Me

On By MaryIn Observations & Musings4 Comments

When I first started out in the wonderful world of blogging a little over a year ago, I had two things that I wanted to accomplish. First, I wanted to have a web presence where I could share my interests, thoughts, etc. with others. Second, I wanted to see if I could make a little money. Let me tell you now, that in MY experience, these two things were mutually exclusive.

After having read up on affiliate marketing, SEO, search engine ratings, etc., and then staring at my empty website, I realized that if I was going to attract enough people to my website, I was going to have to get some content – and fast. So I began scouring the Internet for topics that I was interested in and then I would copy and paste to posts on my website (always giving credit to the original author). Before long, my website was filled with interesting content, but none of it written by myself, and all of it available in dozens of other places on the Web. I also began placing feeds into my site from other sites in order to provide even more content. After that, I placed ads on Craigslist in order to attract people to my content (all legitimate and honest ads, mind you). Soon, I was making some money with affiliate advertising. I was not, however, giving anything at all to the World Wide community that I had hoped to interact with in a meaningful way.

I began spending all of my time checking my earnings, updating my themes to improve the appearance of my sites, getting frustrated with my web hosting provider for the often slow-loading times of my sites, getting upset with Google Adsense for occasional low payouts per click, and fighting with Craigslist’s frustrating arbitrary account policies. Meanwhile I gave no time or effort to creating useful, unique and personal content.

I’m finished with all of that now. I have decided to cancel my web hosting, give up my domains, and I have moved over to WordPress.Com’s free and ads-free blog hosting. I am now going to start concentrating on my writing and, hopefully, produce some unique content that others will find interesting and useful.

So…welcome to my new ads-free blog! I hope you will enjoy it – if you do, please bookmark this site and come back often!