Yesterday...yesterday.
I ditched the celebration of the Feast of the Nativity--except for the dinner at Cathy's. I don't know how many people finally showed up, but she said that after she counted the kids (mostly teenagers) there would be 35 people--hence, this year, a buffet. Cathy has been having me as a guest for a few years now--she has a beautiful home and a talented family. Oldest son Nicholas just finished his first term in college: 3 A-plusses and 1 A. Alex is a dynamite soccer player. Mischa cooks. He got his Christmas present and prepared some chicken for the dinner with it: a George Foreman grill! Dad, Paul, is a lawyer and an outstanding soccer coach. He took their team to first place in the nation last year for the league they're in (don't ask me, I don't know; but we watched them on ESPN!)
Great food. Great people.
Perhaps one of the most interesting discussions was that of Doug's son, Declan. Declan is a miracle child. He was *cured* of an incurable disease through prayer and the intercessions of St. John Maximovitch. You can
read the story here
Yeah, I know. A bit unbelievable. Even though the folks listening to the story were all Orthdox Christians, I think we all were in a bit of disbelief. After *miracles* happen to *other* people, you know, the ones you don't know. Let's put it this way: Doug relates that Declan's Jewish doctor now has an Icon of St. John Maximovitch.
Now, lest you think that someone who is a Saint lived long ago in a far away place, you need to read about St. John
here . (If you want more, there are a couple of books written about his life
one is here
St. John is also called St. John of Shanghai and San Francisco. Yep. San Francisco. From 1963-1966. Lest you think St. John was stuffy--be assured he was not. He used to give his shoes away to people. Aside from being charitable, I don't think St. John liked wearing shoes. Had a few words to say about ties, too.When he was alive, a lot of people thought that he behaved "un-bishoplike" (he was an ArchBishop). One of the orphans he brought over is active in our church. She wrote a children's book about St. John and his relationship to a pigeon, which he called "Goolya"--which you can read about
here
Eeeuuuu... I can see how St. John would look at me for missing the Feast. Not good. I don't have a real good reason, except I hadn't slept well the night before, and I was on fire for starting strong in my html classes.
Well, for those of you who prefer not to think of religion (and I understand, some of you have very good reasons for this.)--back to marketing discusson.
Phillip, of Quikonnex fame, who tried to convince me that quikonnex was the way to go, wants to speak to me
here
That's all well and good. But, I'm stubborn--or something. If he wants to discuss Q with me: 1) I don't want it to be private--let everyone be able to read and learn; and 2) it defeats the purpose of putting up a blog. Don't you think? What do you think? You can add to the blog by clicking on the "comment" button below.
Since folks on Michael's
forum were talking about being #1 in Google, I thought I'd Google this blog. Nope, not there. I wonder if blogspot is on Google's ban list. I'll have to investigate that in my copious spare time. The reason I did this was not to (there's a term for it, sort of "vanity googling") be vain, but because I maintain you can get #1 in Google--all you have to use is the specific keywords. The problem, as one poster on Michael's board is finding out, is that #1 in Google doesn't result in 1) traffic (you have to be #1 in highly searched for words); and 2) you have to have a website which is well-designed, attractive, and, well, as one person suggests--basically leads people down the primrose path to sales (he was complaining about not getting enough sales--someone suggested putting up a "mini-site"). Mini-sites, to get back to Sitesell, are not recommended by Ken Evoy.
Come to think of it...I stopped to make a call to the printing company in Quebec
here. They sent an email, but in my copious inbox, I didn't see it. That's because it was just under someone's name. So, I've now arranged to have the SBI "Action Guide" printed out and sent to me. Sam, on MG's board, was encouraging me to use SBI (
sitesell) and that I had inspired him, I guess to approach local businesses. In Silicon Valley, are there businesses that *aren't* online? Maybe. I just heard an ad from register.com to get people up on the web with domain name and site in 20 minutes (!), for about $20 (and unspecified contract.) I wonder how much it costs to get the names of people who newly registered for businesses?
I wrote up my list of projects--these are independent of school, and studying for the MCAT--I have 5. Whew. (This blog is not among them). Combining school and projects (after all, the html classes are there to support my internet business efforts) I managed to put up a form in html (actually, copy and pasted, but had been reading about forms in my html book), install and modify the mail_form.cgi script, and fill out the form and get it sent to me. Whoopee! One question--why does it always put my email address, even when I change the mail_form.cgi script to say something different. Must be the web hosting company's doing.
One project is a collaborative ebook. My partner likes my ideas! Very cool. Step-by-step. Another is to put up a sales site for a set of ebooks that I bought the rights to. I set up an account with 2checkout yesterday. Step-by-step. I guess, with 2CO that they don't do "affiliates" like clickbank does. Oops. Maybe should have gone with CB.
Well, I need to get on now. Have to study for my EMT test tonight, a test of what we learned last quarter. It sounds a *lot* like our final. Shock. Consent. I wrote up about a page of things that the instructor said would be covered...in 50 questions!
And, I need to upload my html files to my webserver so I can access them from school.
Take care, and hope you have a good day.
Oh wait...I have something very cool to share with you...let's see if I can find it again :)
a search engine for internet marketing fora. Cool, eh?
