Last Day of the Year 2008

I was away from home for these last 10 days, enjoying the mild weather of California, and soaking in the sun as much as I can with my family.

Though I have scheduled for my posts to publish, I could not get to them while at different houses every day to check for comments, (not that I have many); therefore, I am working on catching up for today!

Christmas came and went by so fast! Another year is about to end, so I want to take this opportunity to thank everyone for your support, encouraging, and visiting my blog.

Here are some pictures of my California trip.

View of the Pacific Ocean at Muir Woods Beach in San Francisco



Another view of Muir Woods National Monument



On top of the hill in Almaden

Wishing the best of life to each and everyone for the New Year. May all of your wishes come true!

Merry Christmas

Image by picassina

Best wishes to everyone, and have happy spirit!

Stop Your Whining and Start Working

I am a long time reader/writer at Triond, Associated Content, Helium, Constant Content, and many other websites. I read a variety of articles, poems, viewing pictures and also videos. I have not come across a website that has so many whiners as Triond has!

Image by Esther G

Many new comers complain about not being recognized, not making enough money, and not getting views! They have not a slightest idea of what it takes to be a writer, and they want everything to hand it to them on a platter! Come on, reality bites!

Why a Certain Articles Are on the Hot Content, or Feature Articles

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I know my way around social bookmarking sites, and let me tell you, I can find out why the articles are on the Hot Content, and where those articles are getting picked up! So they are there for a reason, and here are some:

• They appeal to a mass audience, not just from Triond users!

• Well presented, and well timing

• Enticing to readers

• Got picked up by big Web Sites such as Life Hacker, Digg, or Yahoo

• They received thousands of views or more in a few hours

• Key words matters

• Promoting to the right media

Stop Bashing Your Publishers

Lately, what I have read from Triond’s new users are complaining, whining, and blaming the publisher for not putting their articles on the Hot Content.

Image by brizzle born and bred

Put yourself in the publishers’ shoes, and ask yourself which article you published should be on the Hot Content? How in the world are your publishers going to know what articles should be on the Hot Content and what not?

My opinion, the publisher did what is FAIR, and placed the articles WITH THE MOST VIEWS there!

Now, take this problem to Associated Content, Constant Content, or Helium for an example, who are you going to complain to? Associate Content and Constant Content would not even bother to publish this sort of nonsense. As for Helium, your article may even get rated at the bottom!

Recognition comes with hard work! You can’t demand for recognition just because you’ve just written a master piece! Again, think in term of real life!

Another Example Using Blogging as a Discussion

Image by ~C4Chaos

Here, let’s take a look at blogging. You started a blog, you wrote a killer content, and you thought your blog will go viral, but reality hit: you only got a few reads, and received only a couple comments. Now, how are you going to demand recognition? To whom are you going to put blame on?

It does not work that way! You will have to sit down and find a way to get the words out to your blog. You will have to spend endless hours submitting your blog to bookmarking sites, join blog directories, leave comment on other blogs, and advertise your blog to the world in order to get the desired result! You will have to work long and hard to receive what you deserve.

Put Your Frustration Away, and Start to Do the Work

Image by CCBImages

For as long as I have read those Hot Users’ articles, none of them have written any complain, or demand recognition, or whining about not making it on the list! They actually do the work of writing, and bookmarking their articles. Even then, not every of their articles will make it to the Hot Content either.

Online writing is exactly like the publishing business in the real world. Only a few will make it! Think about that!

Conclusion and Suggestions

Image by Blunder

I have seen some people published five to ten poems or picture a day! It seems like every thought they have, or every picture they take, they are published. In the eyes of a reader, I have some suggestions below.

• Look at the picture you want to publish, ask yourself: is it artistic, appealing, or overall a good picture?

• Your poem: is it carefully chosen words, describe a feeling, situation, or give readers an image they can relate to?

• When you mass publishing, ask yourself: how many friends of yours will be able to read them or view them or comment on them all? Do people stop living and just wait for your publication?

• Where are you going to bookmark all your items? Most social bookmarking sites will only allow a few!

• Quality outweighs quantity!

• Bestsellers work their bottom off to promote their work, what makes you different? You want recognition because a few of your friends think your work is great? If this is the case, have your friends published your work, pay you, and put you on a pedestal then.

Stop whining, complaining, demanding, and start working! One or two articles on the Hot Content or Feature Article is not going to put you in Earnest Hemingway or Emily Dickenson level!

If You Are a Writer, Are You Also a Con-Artist?

What is a con-artist? Upon looking for synonyms of the word, this is what it means: fraud, pretender, fake, impostor, counterfeit, swindler, and quack!

After my article “How to Drive More Traffic to Your Article” was published, a Triond user sent a message to my inbox calling me “an excellent con-artist!” At first, it upsets me, so I contacted Nelson Doyle, a writer with an expertise on marketing issues, and with his advice, I took that assault in a new way.

Image by Tim the Sailor

I wrote back to this attacker, and sent my best wishes to him/her. See, I do not even know this person, and why he/she took his/her frustration out on me. However, the word “Con-artist” stuck in my head, and I realized that in a way, we are all con-artists because we are writers!

Why Are We Con-Artists?

As content producers, we try to convey an idea. We entertain, we educate, we inform, and we bring awareness. All of our ideas must begin somewhere! Something intrigues us, gives us that thrive to turn into words and we write!

When writing that article, I did not want to fool people, especially, when I did not design those websites. They are out there for us to utilize, and they are quite popular for webmasters to use to get indexed.

Image By bum bar bandit

My purpose was to bring awareness to these websites, and help others tried to get more views for their articles. Not everything we submitted will yield the same result!

So if I write to con people in believing or doing something, I am a con-artist. This applies to the rude person, who is also a writer! Otherwise, why would he/she write?

Whose Ideas Have You Stolen?

This article was written by Louie Jerome, and she pointed out many important areas to think about. If you haven’t read this yet, I recommend you do!

Many people recycle the same ideas from other writers without proper credit to those authors! Some even went as far as using the titles, or words from articles that were on the Hot Content, and in rare cases, use similar avatar from the Hot Users list for their own gain to confuse people.

Louie is right, if you pay attention to what is hot on the Hot Content list, a week or so later, there are many more articles on the same subject appear!

So Are We Con-Artists?

Image By Albus Cavus

At this rate, I believe so! We are all con-artists because we are lacking originality, and we race to mass produce as many as we can to earn money. I also have seen my own articles duplicated with only a few different sentences on the same publishing site. Yes, we are con-artists, and our publisher allows us to do just so.

In the end, I embrace the term “con-artist” as it serves as a wake up call.

Take Care of Your Back When Travel

Whether you travel for business or pleasure, long hours of sitting in the car, bus, train, or plane can make you feel tired, stiff, and sore. Back pain is the most common complain because of prolonged sitting. Below are some tips to remember when travel.

In the Car

Image Source

• Make yourself as comfortable as possible by adjusting the seat closer to the steering wheel. Your knees should be slightly higher than your hips.

• Use a pillow for back support to reduce lower-back strain, stress, pain, or injury.

• Exercise your legs often by tightening your calf muscles, and thigh muscles.

• Position your hands on the steering wheel at around 3 o'clock and 7 o'clock, and periodically change to 10 o'clock and 5 o'clock to minimize arms and hands tension.

• Loosen and tighten your grip on the steering wheel to improve hands circulation, and lessen muscles fatigue in arms, wrists, and hands.

• Switch your eyes focus around slowly on the road to avoid eyes tiredness, and tension headaches.

• Take breaks often as needed for both driver and passengers.
  

In the Plane

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• While stand up straight, feel your normal spinal "S" curve, and use a pillow or rolled up blanket to keep that curve as you are sitting down, by tucking the pillow just above your waistline.

• Checked in heavy baggage that are more than 5 percent of your body weight.

• Stand directly in front of the overhead compartment when lifting carry on bag, and make sure not to twist your spine.

• Change your sitting position often to improve circulation and avoid leg cramps.

• Massage your legs and calves often to avoid swelling.

• Find a way to prop up your legs.

• Exercise your legs by moving your knees up and down on long flight.

• Do not sit right underneath the air vent since it can cause tension in the neck and shoulder muscles.

The American Chiropractic Association's Council suggested treating travel as an athletic event, in which performing a warm up before settling down into a seat, or taking brisk walks are recommended. These preparation exercises loosen up the hamstring and calf muscles. Back Pain Can Be Prevented if you carefully monitor your posture!

We Are All Fascinating People

Barbara Walter usually hosts the 10 most fascinating people as the year coming to an end, and these people are the rich, the famous, and the high-power! Now, ask these questions:

• Why are they fascinating?
• If they are not rich, famous, run in political champagne, would they be fascinating?
• Would we know who they are?
• What is so fascinating about them?
• How is it fascinating?
  

Yet, her show often brings in millions of viewers! Her guesses are movie stars, millionaires, and this year of course, Sarah Palin! Go figure!

Image By ezza755

The idea of "fascinating people" bugs me! You may say I'm a poor loser! A sore "low life"! Those are all true; I'm poor! I can't live in the public eyes! I don't know people in high places to boost my existence.

However, poor people are fascinating too, but you wouldn't hear about them, would you? Would Barbara Walter wander the street of a poor neighborhood learning or looking for fascinating people who live life with just a few dollars a day? Would she finds the homeless people who slept under the bridge bypass fascinating? Nope, they are not glamorous enough for her!

Whatever labeled these people as "fascinating", they have all the necessities to drive them there.

• Having tons of money helps with luck and connections.
  

• Having people like Barbara Walter and Oprah put them in the spot light.
  

• One pair of their shoes, na--let's just say their nail polish, can pay someone's mortgage

• One of their pictures is worth enough money to build a whole torn down neighborhood.

Image by Maciej Dakowicz

So why are they the only kind that is fascinating? It would be a heartwarming episode if Barbara Walter does a series of fascinating misfortunate humans. I can recommend some people for her interview:

• A soldier who is dealing with physical pain as well as mental pain every day.

• An old man who has to drink to combat the freezing temperature every night under the bridge.

• A single parent who works two to three jobs in order to support their family.

• Victims of rape, and victims of natural disasters, who have to try to put their life back together.

• Elderly people who are left in nursing home, and who suffered abuses every night.

• Disable people who constantly have to prove that they are worthy for a chance to life.

Why is it every darn year, we have to celebrate these lucky, rich, and well-known celebrities again and again? Aren't their faces on every newspaper and television shows already? Stop calling them fascinating people! Let's imaging that they have no fame and fortune, and just normal people like us, would they still be fascinating? I doubt it!

Download Life Balance eBook

A month ago, Stacey at Create a Balance, hosted a group writing project on How to Practice the Art of Life Balance, and I'm glad to be among more than 30 other bloggers that participated in this effort.

If you are interested in finding a balance for your life, you can download this eBook for free. My post "Reach for Life Balance" won the Getting Your Groove Back eBook prize. Imaging my surprise, and feelings of honored!

As mention earlier, there were more than 30 writers participating in this project. Each one has his or her own way to incorporate balance into their lives; therefore, you will definitely learn some new things from their perspective.

Movie to Watch: Cinderella Man

My oldest son introduced me to this movie last year, and I have since watched it three more times. It is a beautiful story, and is also fitting now with our economy as we are in a recession!

Without revealing too much, this story is about a family trying to go through the hardest time in their life. They try to hold their family together, and keep the children fed!

Image by chuckmo

James Braddock (Russell Crowe) shows love and devotion for his family, who also is an inspiring figure for his community. If he makes it, other people will too! So they all believe in his ability to show the world that anyone can make a different!

While James is out in the world looking for a way to support his family, Mae Braddock (Rene Zellweger) does her best in making ends meet, until she has to decide to give her children a better chance to survive.



I'm not sure where our society is heading nowadays, and many people are facing a terrible gloomy future as jobs are not available to find! Houses become empty overnight here, where I live, and people are disappearing!

If you have a chance to relax this weekend, rent this movie and watch with your family. Although I'm not into boxing, I was able to look pass it to really admire the strength, courage, and devotion of James Braddock. I also relate to the anguish feelings of Mae Braddock as she endures the pain that her husband had to go through for the family.

Keep your hopes high! Keep your love alive! Keep your family in your heart!

Music United People Around the World

I found these videos so inspiring! Have a listen here, and imagine if everyone around the world feel the same way, we would live in such harmony and peace.





If we can just all get along, have respect for each other, and honor each other differences, this world would be incredibly amazing!