Is this blog endangered?

Not from low readership or from infrequent postings, but from mighty Google itself?

The political views of the contributors tend to be more right then left leaning and Google appears to be shutting down sites that have posted anti-Obama posts. The thing is most of those sites were pro-Hillary not pro-McCain.

Is Google trying to shut down the free exchange of ideas? Will they try to help Obama with their search results? I don't know, most likely not as that would not be in the best interest of the shareholders and they not the management are the ultimate owners of the company.

Ok, our readership is so vast (all two or three of you per week), Google is likely to ignore us but then again they could shut us down for not following the corporate line.

A screeching halt

To updating this blog that is.

The boss is still suffering from information overload so hasn't updated in a while, he needs to either clear out his cache or install more ram into his head so the overflow won't shut down postings.

I'm still learning my new job and don't have as much time to post as before and we have had many drop dead dates so no time to post. In addition my company's year end was March 31 so had all the year end stuff to do.

So all that to say we will try to get the blog back on track to posting on a regular basis.

Thanks for stopping by.

PS, our first tasting party was a success and we are holding a second on Tuesday April 29 at our place. If your curious about it, please email me or visit the MyMonaVie website link in the upper right hand side of the blog.

April 15th is around the corner

Well another week has come and gone and I'm now just getting to post something, anything.

Its been another full week at work, learning my new job and trying to get that work done. Over the next two weeks have to get all our budgets entered into the main system, but first the budgets have to get finalized. Oh and I have to take next Thurs and Friday off or I go over the max vacation accrual.

They still haven't brought anyone in for either my old position or another accountant whose last day was the 7th. I don't know how the close will be completed this month but I have my new job to do and won't have time to worry about the old position.

We are still having a tasting party this Thursday at our house at 7pm. Come on by if you can, will last till about 8:30.

Have a good weekend.

What a week

Well we finally got the March close done and the numbers sent to our masters accross the pond (I work for a foreign multi-national corporation). I'm moving from the accounting to finance departments, which means for this close I got to do both my jobs. Oh and March is also our year end so all the extra work in getting the year end numbers correct on top of the normal work.

I've managed to finish all my work at my old desk, email the reports to the people who need them, file my stuff and leave the desk clean. I don't think I should have to sit there anymore. That is until the temp finally arrives and I get to train them, while I'm trying to do my new job.

So its been a good week but a very busy week and am very glad for the weekend.

I think I seriously need a good drink.

Speaking of which, to the one or two people who visit this blog, tasting party at my place April 17 at 7pm.

What are we tasting? Well click on "My Mona Vie" to find out about the stuff.

Email if you need/want directions.

Status of Blog

Well the boss is suffering from information overload and I've started a new job at my current employer. This means that I'm currently doing my new job and my old job until they get a temp in to take over my old job.

As a result, posting will be light and so the traffic will again go back to zero. To those who do visit, thank you. Hopefully we (boss and I) will be able to get back to posting at least once a day next month.

Changes are coming

Today is my 7 year anniversary at work. In that time, the company has gone from being an up and coming independent telecom provider to being part of one of the largest telecoms in the world. Our annual revenue ($700M) is hardly a rounding figure to BT (British Telecom) revenue of $65 Billion.

After graduating from Pepperdine with my MBA, I was looking for a job where I could use what I spent all that money learning. I had sent out my resume and the day I had an interview scheduled with a small company (its profitable) that looks to go public in a few years, the VP of finance offered me a position in the finance side of the business. The timing of the offer was incredible. The VP was leaving for vacation the next day and if he had waited to make the offer when he got back, most likely I would have already given notice in order to taken the position at the other company. As it is, I will continue to work at BT but in the finance area instead of the accounting area.

However, my new job means my time to blog will likely be curtailed. I will have to see, so the boss may have to step up and contribute more or this blog might go semi dormant again.

I should be moving to my new cubical Thurs or Fri and then for the next month work two jobs, my new job and my old job since there is a hiring freeze in place. It will be interesting, especially since March is our company's year end.

State of the Blog

Well for the one or two people that visit this place, some interesting news.

This month (Feb) has been the most prolific in terms of posts in the history of the blog. With this post, we will have 85 posts this month which beat our previous best of 81 posts back in March 2004.

Of course given our traffic reports, not much of what we say is worth reading, but it is interesting to write.

Have a good weekend.

Earthquake Preparedness

After service this morning, a company called Safe-T-Proof came by to talk about earthquake preparedness. They also brought a trailer that would simulate what an 8.0 earthquake would feel like. Just for comparison sake, the Northridge quake back in 1993 was only 6.8.

A friend's cousin was there from Chicago and she said she'd take the cold winters and tornado's after seeing and trying the quake demo. The company's website if you want more information is http://www.safe-t-proof.com/.

We have been trying to put together some supplies ourselves but we finally broke down and purchased some water and food which will not need to be replaced until October 2012. Some goes in the cars and the rest into the earthquake kits we have. We will need to purchase a few more things, 2 more flash lights that use a crank instead of a battery for power and another fire extinguisher.

I've also been making some changes to the label naming convention for the blog as we had way too many, I'm sure this will be a constant source of work for us, keeping the number of labels small enough to be search able yet descriptive enough to be useful.

Blog Readability

Saw this on another blog and thought why not see how this blog is in terms of readability.

I'd like to say its the quality of our comments and articles that earned us this ranking, but since no one visits, I guess it does not matter.

Hat tip Cogito Ergo Geek

Digital Cameras

Well the boss is an amateur photographer and knows quite a bit about the subject. He is constantly talking about new cameras and lenses on the market and what he would like to get if he could afford it.

His work is also pretty good, having seen some of it.

Well to help him and our other 1 or 2 visitors, looking for the ultimate camera, check out Michael Yon's comparisons of cameras used in combat. Which camera has the right stuff to get the picture and absorb the abuse of combat should mean its a pretty good bet for civilians as well.

For me, I'll stick to my Cannon S50 because it works for what we need and we have a water proof case so can take it diving.

http://michaelyon-online.com/wp/consumer-reports-geared-for-combat.htm

Blogging can be harmful to your wallet

For some reason, people seem to forget that what is said on line is PUBLIC and anything said on line can and will be used against you. Even if you blog anonymously, your identity can be found out if the person looking at your blog has the technical know how.

Story on Hugh Hewitt, a doctor who was on trial for malpractice was blogging, anonymously, about his trial (stupid) and the plaintiff's attorney found the blog and confronted the doctor on the stand. The doctor said all sorts of things about the plaintiff, the plaintiff's attorney and the defenses strategy. The doctor agreed to pay the plaintiff what ever they demanded and the case was closed.

Bottom line, don't say on line what you would not say in public to the person your talking too. It seems to be common sense, but as this doctor has shown, common sense seems to be uncommonly rare.

Have a good day.

1000th post

Well, since the boss isn't talking, and I don't mind the echo chamber as much, I'll take the 1000th post position. I know active blogs will reach their 1000th post in weeks, but ours went on a two year hiatus and this has always been more for fun then trying to become "known" as there are already so many GOOD bloggers on all types of subjects.

The business sim for my strategy class has some hard decisions to make over the next two weeks, planning on what to do with the company cash, expand production, buy back stock, pay down bonds, go to Vegas, pay dividends etc. Actually, going to Vegas isn't an option in the sim, unfortunately.

There are six of us on the team for the business sim and its a good team. There are 5 teams in the class and think this is the best team dynamics of the lot. Granted I don't know many of the other people well, two teams are from the Pasadena campus, but I do like our team. And since no one from school knows I blog or knows of this blog site, I'm not worried about anyone reading this or saying this for public consumption only.

Not much news I want to talk about, I am definitely not a hard core political junkie, I get burned out on constant war, politics and news. I still read the paper, but find it hard to get worked up about it like Hugh Hewitt or others. Its not that I don't have lots of opinions on stuff happening like the immigration bill or the war in Iraq or Afghanistan, but I prefer to listen then talk.

Ok, having blathered on, lets get to the news:

Another reason to never allow a group to establish a state with in a state and a major reason if a country allows refugees in to use the melting pot instead of allowing them to remain a distinct group without rights. Lebanon is having more problems with its Palestinian refugees and now its the Palestinians verses the Lebanese Army. Hat tip Lucianne.

What should Bud Selig do when Barry Bonds breaks Hank Aaron's home run record? What should fans of the sport of baseball do? I'm not a fan so it won't make much of an impact to me, but the Boss and another former contributor, who still has posting rights but hasn't posted in years (hint, hint) are BIG fans of the game. Comments at Lucianne have some interesting ideas.

US makes a show of force against Iran. Unless Iran thinks the US will actually launch an attack, why should they care? If the US will not or cannot launch an attack, why should it bother? Demonstrations of military power are only useful if the other side thinks you will use it. I do not believe anyone thinks the US will use military power against Iran unless Iran does something very stupid, like put a nuke bomb for sale on ebay or something like that.

Thrusday

Hmmm, making a plea for people to acknowledge the existence of this blog might work better if I wasn't the only one who visited it yesterday. Oh well, so much for trying to get sympathy visits and comments.

Class tonight so it will be a long day. All of my other semesters (I'm in my 6th and last semester), classes officially ended at 10pm but most got out between 9 and 10pm because the professors had covered the material. This semester, classes are still officially 6 to 10, but the professors keep us to 10 or 10:30pm. As I tell my classmates (while ducking) that at least we are getting our moneys worth, they counter that by 9:30 or so most if not all of the class is so brain dead we aren't getting anything out of it. That is true and makes sense. It is very difficult to concentrate 100% for 4 hours, especially after a full day at work. Oh well, enough rambling about school, it will hopefully be over in 12 weeks.

Two columns I found that I'd like to share:

Fred Thompson's on why schools do not teach Military History as a subject and what the consequences for us as a society is.

Mike Adams on how God can use a total screw up (Mike) and transform him into a new person. Also how God does have a sense of humor when it comes to answering prayers.

HELLO . . . . HEllo . . . . Hello . . . . hello

Is anyone there?

Our newest contributor has taken a leave of absence on his xanga site and from lack of posting, on this site as well. The boss is still MIA and the stats . . . . well the stats show we had two unique visitors on Monday, one was a first time, THANK YOU. On Tuesday we had six visitors THREE were first time, we may actually start building a blog that is read by more then me (and I write most of the posts).

If you haven't left for better writing yet, could I ask a favor (ok, I can ask but hope you will say YES)? Leave a comment, and if your feeling really generous, say where you came from (how you found us), what blog you have, if you have one and what State or Country you live in. Thanks.

Now, on to the daily round up of news I found interesting.

Conservatives can't win. If they try to rule without inclusion of liberals in their government, they are dividers, if they offer to nominate liberals to positions in their government, the people who accept are called traitors to the liberal cause. Good luck to France's new President
Nicolas Sarkozy. Hat tip Lucianne.

Another Blue on Blue incident. Blue on Blue is where in a combat situation you kill people on your own side by mistake. It happens in all wars. In this case, it happened to Hamas. Hamas ambushed a Fatah vehicle, but unknown to Hamas, the vehicle contained 5 of Hamas' men in the back. Bad luck for Hamas. Hat tip Lucianne.

Another WMD attack in Iraq. Another chlorine bomb went off, this is the second chemical bomb attack this year. Hat tip Lucianne.

This is sad that we as a society allow students to treat teachers this way. Hat tip Lucianne.

Finally, an essay about Michael Bloomburg and his possible independent presidential run. Hat tip Lucianne.

Ever get the idea I read Lucianne a lot? A lot of interesting articles posted there.

Thanks for stopping by, please leave a comment and hope to see you tomorrow.

More dust

With the new blog format, even us non-html savy people can add stuff and make some small changes to the blog. Enjoy the new format, all one or 2 of our visitors.

Pardon Our Dust

As you can tell, Carpetbloggers is receiving a face lift. I've transferred to a new layout and started to reacquaint myself with the old Carpetbloggers HTML layout.

Please be patient as this process continues as I clean up the layout, transfer old data, check for dead links, and hopefully integrate the old comments system.

If you find anything amiss, please don't hesitate to let me know.

ETA: Links have been verified. Wow, after two years, fully a third of the blogroll dropped off the face of the earth, stopped blogging, or changed addresses. Talk about a dynamic environment.

Address Change

I have changed the http address of Carpetbloggers to http://carpetbloggers.blogspot.com, as I wish to use kawfeadikt (the original address) for my personal blog. A little late, yes. Anyways, perhaps a moot point for this moribund blog, but maybe a miracle can resurrect it.