On subject matter 05.28.14

I'm currently writing two blogs, one here and one on Wordpress (hochspeyer.wordpress.com). It's days like today that tend to drive a writer just a bit sideways, because even though there is nothing in the way of compensation involved in these writing projects, I still feel a certain compulsion to get a certain volume of work out each calendar month... because even thought we might hate to admit it, at its heart blogging is a numbers game.

And that's a problem when you're trying to write for a blog which has a theme, but for which you have absolutely no pertinent subject matter for your post. However, in the frenzied world of publish or perish- which is the internet as many bloggers may know it-publishing something can sometimes be better than nothing.

So, here I sit in the Secret Underground Lair. To my right, a single-player game of Civilization V is being played. My phone has the mobile version of Words with Friends going, Windows Media Player has just finished sorting songs (in descending order) according to number of plays (James Brown's The Old Landmark from The Blues Brothers movie is currently playing). 

The casual reader might infer from the photograph that right now I'm doing more photography than data, and honestly, the reader would be correct. Still, as long as I'm writing, there's data to be had. While my Wordpress blog is still in its infancy and slowly gaining something of a following, the blog you are reading right now has expanded its international presence, adding readership in India and Lithuania. This gives the blog readers in forty-three countries!

So that's going to be a wrap for my Blogspot posts for the month.

As always, I am hochspeyer, blogging data analysis and management so you don't have to.

Data in the blogosphere

I had to take a look at my blog dashboard tools to make sure I had introduced my photography blog. It seems like forever, but it was only last week in my Training, Interrupted blog that the new blog was introduced. I've been fairly busy in the intervening week, mounting photographic adventures and then recapping them at hochspeyer.wordpress.com.

While visiting Wordpress this morning, I ran across a featured blog that spoke to me-
http://en.blog.wordpress.com/2014/05/20/stats-to-check/

That blog is all about stats. Specifically, stats that Wordpress provides to members of its blogging community. The piece was short and to the point but it brought me back here, because here is where I talk data, and there is where I talk photography.

What I find most interesting about Wordpress analytics is while they are fairly deep, they are free. Now, despite the fact that their analytics rock, I'm not suggesting anyone abandon Google Blogger. If you're reading this, its possible that you, also, have a Google blog. I've got some regular readers all over the globe- I can't see myself moving away from Blogger for that reason alone.

Another interesting concept of the blogosphere is that YOU (or, more specifically, your digital output) is YOUR brand. A long time ago (in internet time), I chose "hochspeyer" to be my internet persona, or brand. Apart from the Steam community, online I am hochspeyer wherever I go. I have created a brand and a presence that far outreaches the village where Jennifer and I lived in Germany. Its been so good to me I have established it as both my Google+ and Wordpress identity.

The picture above is what got me back into photography. The water droplets on top of the grass are actually being secreted by the grass. I took the shot with a cell phone, and remember after taking it thinking, "I can take pictures- I just need a real camera."

That's all for now. As always, I am hochspeyer, blogging data analysis and management so you don't have to.

*...and for those who like a good photo or two, please visit my Wordpress boog, hochspeyer.wordpress.com ,,, one f-stop short of a six-pack.

Not Quite 2.0

For those who have visited blog in the past, you'll notice a new look and feel to the blog; I intend for the changes to make it a little more readable. As always, your thoughts and suggestions are welcome (as well as ideas from newcomers). And as much as I would have liked to call this new look v2.0, so far all I've done is used Google's tools and images. I'm not sure if any other sites out there (Wordpress, for example) are any better or easier, but my first experience with a fairly major update to this blog was pretty painless.

For starters, there's the new background, which features a bunch of chrome dumbbells. I selected it not merely because I'm an on again, off again weightlifter, but because of the symmetry and neutral colors that shows text nicely. Speaking of text, I'm not 100% settled on any of the colors. As this is blog v1.5, the colors chosen were standard Google recommendations. When I'm ready to do this again, I think I will consult with Jennifer. And even though I'm the designated color-picker in our home, only a fool does not seek the counsel of others. I've also changed the background color of the blog to a shade of grey, which looks more readable, as well as making the area available for text slightly wider. It is my hope that these changes will result in a more enjoyable blog reading experience. I've also put solid backgrounds on the sidebars for the same reason.

 I worked on both the database and the Lego spreadsheet yesterday, but don't have numbers to post. I did discover something that needs a bit of tidying up in a table, though. The Songs table, which contains nothing but song titles has a number of records that start with "The"- "The Word" (The Beatles, Yesterday... And Today). My naming convention is for articles (a, an, the) to go at the end of the record (Word, The), so I've got a small amount of fixing to do. Like many things, I found this totally by accident: I was entering a title, and before completing the entry scrolled up to check if had already been entered. And there they were. So, either tonight or tomorrow this will get fixed. 

Well, one of the cats is having her illogical morning crazies, looking up longingly at the intersection of two walls near the front door, occasionally yapping- and then suddenly darting towards an imagined something-or-other.And, although I can't see the bottom of the mug just yet, my tea is nearly gone, which can only mean one thing: time to pack it up and head off to work.

As always, I am hochspeyer, blogging data analysis and management so you don't have to.