Some of y’all may remember that I recently had a writing contest on my blog. It was called the This Post Blows My Dress Up Contest. You can click that link to see all the entries. The theme was “Scared Silly,” and Robin at Around the Island was the winner with her post called “Treed, or rather staircased.”

So you will know:
I’m planning on having that contest again VERY SOON, and I’m having trouble deciding on a theme. I’m torn. Stories in Texas start out with the phrase, “You ain’t gonna believe this, but.” That’s a possibility. Or, maybe the theme could be, “I’ll never do THAT again.” What about, “It Wasn’t MY Fault!” Do you have suggestions? Tell me, and I’ll put a poll on the sidebar to let y’all choose.

Damien Riley, at Postcards From The Funny Farm was the judge (it’s a pity he couldn’t participate, because he wrote an awesome post after the contest was done, called Close Encounters of The Desert Kind, that certainly scared ME silly-er). He did a fine job, and I can’t thank him enough for taking on that difficult task.

If you don’t know him, I’d like you to meet him. He’s a blogger after my own heart, because his posts are an eclectic mix. I call myself a “Blog Soup” blogger, every day something is added to the pot, so every day it’s a different flavor. Damien is like that, too.

I asked him some questions. Here they are with the answers Damien was kind enough to provide.

1. I enjoy the fact that your blog always has many topics and that it is always a surprise to see what subject you have chosen. If you could only pick one topic to blog, what would it be? What is your “niche?”

   Inspiration/Psychology (that’s two kind of …)

2. What’s your motivation for blogging? What do you hope to accomplish?

   To the first question I say: my motivation is to write things daily that inspire people. For example, a while back I wrote a post called “You’re never too old to go back to college.” It got over 100 visits in a week and I got a some kind email thanking me for the inspiring words. I hope to accomplish the same excitement in others that I feel about life (when I am up that is).

3. You are constantly tweaking your templates (it reminds me of how I like to move furniture around). Why do you do that? What look are you trying to achieve?

   I’ve been better lately haven’t I? The truth is I learn through dissection and often “destruction.” I’ll never forget the day my mom came home and I had the family television taken apart. I was trying to attach the cables to our home stereo. Remember I was 13 and this was 1983 before people did that with TV’s. Point is, I am the guy everyone calls now for help with TV and audio stuff. It’s how I learned to master things like Wordpress code, PHP, Javascript, and html. If anyone ever needs help, just ask. I enjoy helping others get excited about themes and Wordpress. One of these days, Rock Chick is gonna get me help her with her Wordpress.org install.

4. What do you look for in a blog that you are willing to put in your feed?

   My goodness, you’ll need to pay for that info LOL. Just kidding, you have paid me and my blog in so many ways! So here’s my answer:

   Remember at camp when you would sit in a circle and everyone would share something about themselves? There were a few people you connected with and said “That’s gonna be who I eat dinner next to tonight at Hormel Hall.” Well i do my RSS rounds and often I’ll see an image in the theme or a title or even a whole post that is written in a way that just invigorates me on some level. They usually go on my RSS first and if it is a consistent connection, they make the Blogroll. My blogroll is a special honor ( I think) because it is where I pull most often for my weekly Blog Safari and for reading stuff after the RSS is dry. I have about 120 on my RSS and only 25 that have made the blogroll. Also, when I add to my blogroll I also feature the latest posts from my blogroll folks in my sidebar through a plugin that shows the Technorati favorites feed. “TIS GOOD THING”

5. How do you find time for blogging with an active young family and your work? Do you ever sleep?

   Balance is really hard. I love my kids but sometimes the computer takes my attention away from them. I really need to work on this issue! I am able to close it though and sometimes do to read the Cat in the Hat to my 3 y/o Isabella or Play horsie with my 10 month old Julianna or even “go get yummies” for the family with my 10 year old Brandon riding co-pilot in between writing assignments.
   

6. Do you ever get “blogger’s block,” and if so how do you find inspiration?

   Not often these days. I have many writing purposes. I am a featured author now on 8 online publications (only 2 are paid, the rest are guestblog roles) and if you read my about page you’ll see how much writing I do for a variety of other writing transactions. I have the shortcuts to most of these on my toolbar so i can go down the line until I usually see an idea that excites me, then I start gathering links or writing or pictures, just having fun like bloggers do! It was when my blog was called “Riley Central” and my only goal was to get more readers with no focus and sometimes no motivation that the bloggers block came in. So, as I am sure you know Shelly, get many writing purposes in your pocket for those rainy days of low inspiration.
   

7. I think you’ve joined every social network on the internet. Tell us, is that worth the effort? What is the one social network we should join?

   Thank you for asking that. I am actually in the middle of a 5 part series called Finest Hour of Social Networks, if you are interested in following it the url is below:
   http://rileycentral.net/wordpress/2008/03/27/finest-hour-of-social-networks/

   Right now, the ones Introducing me to the most good blogs for my RSS are Entrecard and Blog Catalog but there are many many others I talk about in the series. You guys should all join Entrecard, you will get a lot of exposure.
   

8. What advice do you have for “newbies?”

   Since you asked
   *Do not use blogger as a platform but rather Wordpress.org with a self-paid host (mine is 6.95 /mo if you have questions ask me)
   *Get about 10 posts up with pictures before you “launch.”
   *Use Social Networks to find blogs in your category and comment comment comment … then comment more.
   *Enjoy and comment on my blog so I know you’re there. I always comment back.
   *Read my latest article at Kimberly Clay’s blog, it explains the rest If interested the url is below:
   http://rileycentral.net/wordpress/2008/03/31/my-article-master-one-thing-is-up-at-get-my-wealth-now/
   

9. What else do we need to know about Damien Riley?

   Two of my favorite quotes:
   “80% of success is showing up.” -Woody Allen
   “You only get 80 Years with luck or even less” -Pink Floyd
   

10. In the style of those random questions on the Blogger profiles: If your life were a “game,” which game would it be? (as in board game, card game, computer game, etc)

    Operation
    

So, there you have it folks. I hope you will pay Damien a visit and tell him “Hey.” He’s one of the most generous bloggers you will find.

I apologize to y’all, but I have to post three times today. I’ve got some updates I want to give you, I have a post for a group writing project (the deadline is today and I procrastinated….does that surprise you?), and later today the This Post Blows My Dress Up writing contest will come to a close. I’ll be posting the entries on one post so they can be found easily and put Damien at Postcards From The Funny Farm, to work judging them. I don’t envy his task, because there are some wonderful entries!

This post is for some updates.

• First, several days back, I underwent the process of donating platelets. It wasn’t pretty.

  No wait! Don’t get me wrong! It didn’t hurt…not a bit. But, I am not a very good donor. I’m doing this, because if I donate platelets twice, Carter Blood Care will test my bone marrow for free. I have a friend named Taten, who is part Cree Indian and has been waiting to find a match for a bone marrow transplant. I knew I wouldn’t be the match for him, but I thought if I talk about it, maybe some of you will be encouraged to be tested. If a sissy like me can do it, any fool can. There may be a child waiting for you! With that simple procedure, you can save a life. How cool is that?

  TATEN HAS A MATCH! Yep, that’s right. And you can read what his family has to say about it at Taten’s blog, called Young Warrior. Taten, I’m so pleased for you, buddy. My thoughts are with you every day. I will go back for the second platelet donation, just as soon as the bruise is gone on my left arm. I don’t want people to think I have “tracks.”

• Second, there was a blog called Top Blog Magazine that suffered “an untimely death.” It was pretty wonderful, because it brought together articles from lots of fine writers on the web. It is being reincarnated as a totally different magazine called Blog Nosh. Megan at Velveteen Mind is the editor, and she says this about it:
  

  After consulting with all of TopBlogMag’s excellent writers, the new reincarnation will be a magazine featuring republished posts from your blog’s old archives.

  You know those really great posts you wrote before anyone was reading your blog? The ones you try to pimp out in your sidebar’s “Dear God, Please Read These Before You Judge Me for Writing About My New Haircut 4 Days in a Row!” section? Yeah, those.

  If it has fallen off of your front page and you love it, then we will be noshing on it!

  *With your permission, of course.*

  Go over there and contact her. You know you want to do it.

• Third, does anyone have suggestions about Dear Dora? It’s a site I created after the Dear Abby contests I had. I put all of the “letters to Abby” on one page of Dora’s site. I love her, and I love to write for her, but she is languishing over there. She needs you to write ridiculous letters to her. Should she have a contest?? Help me out here, puhleeze!

One down, two to go. I’ll be right back.

“If you really want something in this life, you have to work for it. Now, quiet, they’re about to announce the lottery numbers! “~Homer Simpson

Y’all, I have a “to do list” that is as long as my arm. Actually, I have more than one. I try hard to get things done. I work for the things I want, but I’m so easily distracted. I sometimes wonder if I really do have A.D.D., because I can never…oh, look! A blue car!

As I was saying, I have trouble staying focused; especially so when all is working well with my computer. For a few days there (when my blog disappeared) I was so totally productive that it was almost scary. I just walked away from the computer for a few days. Now, I’m finding all kinds of distractions again. Some don’t involve the computer, but I’m ashamed to admit most do. Here are thirteen of those for the Thursday Thirteen meme.

1. In looking at my blog statistics today, I noticed that someone came to my blog looking for “nude images of hasselhoff or selleck.” That’s what the search string said. I’m afraid when they got here that they were disappointed. However, the thought of a nekkid Tom Selleck kept me occupied for a few minutes. Ahem. Being curious, I followed the link to the page on AOL where they had entered that search. I clicked on “images,” but I didn’t find any nude pictures. Firefox told me that the word “nude” had been removed because I have “safe search” on. Drat. I don’t know how to take that function off of there, so I was disappointed, too. Don’t tell my husband.

2. My blog was looking very cluttered, so I spent hours removing things from the sidebars. I still have blogrolls, just click on this picture to go to the page.

I just didn’t want my blog to be as junky as my desk. I put a lot of spaces, so that the info stretches down the sidebar. I hope that makes it easier on the eyes.

3. Of course, as soon as I took everything off of the sidebar, I started adding new stuff. I put my “pitcher” on there…see? No, scroll back up to the top. There! I combed my hair just for you, so I hope you are happy. Now you don’t have to talk to the hand.

4. And, I put under it a link to me telling a story. If you have RealPlayer, you can hear it (that link is for a Mac, but you can get it for a pc, too). The story is one that is often requested by folks at festivals who know me. They think it’s funny. I can laugh about it now, but at the time it happened it was tragic. I recorded it for use at The University of North Texas for a storytelling class.

5. I also put a silly quote on the page, and a couple of links to things I like. The plan is that I will frequently update these and change them out so you won’t get bored. We’ll see how that one works, won’t we. I scattered them around on the page so that it could be like an Easter egg hunt for you.

6. You might even find that I’ve got a sidebar link to one of your posts! That’s another thing I’m wanting to do. Just add some posts I like on the sidebar so that my friends can meet each other. I’d rather have your picture on there. Maybe I need y’all to send me a picture that represents you or your blog, so I can rotate those around and give you each an opportunity to shine. There you go, I’m getting distracted just sitting here.

7. In those links, if you will just go and look, you’ll find a story about Share A Square that I thought was pretty cool. Muriel of Crafter by Night, who lives in Austin, TX is putting together one of the afghans. She tells a story that is one of those “it’s a small world” stories, called “Kismet Perhaps.”

8. For any of my Share A Square friends who drop by, you might want to visit Muriel’s “Crafting For Charity” page. She will give you something to keep yourself busy, for sure.

9. I also spent time following another search string to Who Links To Me, which claims to be the ultimate SEO tool. If you are a “stat obsessed” blogger, and haven’t found the site before, you might want to check it out.

10. A better site is “Website Grader.” Seriously! Marcia, at Tumbled Words told me about this many months ago. The first time I entered my web address, I got a grade of 85, “in terms of its marketing effectiveness. The algorithm uses a proprietary blend of over a dozen different variables, including search engine data, website structure, approximate traffic, site performance, and others.” It showed me a few simple changes (it took me less than an hour), and my score was raised to 97. My page rank went from 1 to 5. Not only that, once I did the changes my traffic started to increase! I was lucky to get 350 unique visitors a day back then. Now, I average about 650-750 depending on the day. Might be worth a shot for you.

11. I got lost in StumbleUpon. Don’t follow that link unless you want to waste hours.

12. While I was on StumbleUpon, I came across the Pandora Music Genome Project. It lets you create your own radio station with the music you like! I’m listening to my Blues Mix right now. I created it today while I was stitching together an afghan for Share A Square. Pandora Radio is totally wonderful and FREE! Let’s see if this will take you to my radio station. You can create your own just by putting in the name of a musician or band you like, then giving the thumbs up or thumbs down to the music it plays. Cool!

13. Finally, I learned how to download games on this Mac! Oh, people, that’s bad news! It didn’t come with games on it already, like a pc does, and I was weaning myself. Now, I’ve learned I can download a game, play it on demo until they ask me to pay for it, and then delete it!

Will one of you please save me from myself?