Tersosity & Verbosity

Reaching the decision from a matter of pure practicality, I should just use my original elhide.com/solo and transition a domain to map it later.  That already has page rank, so could attract ads immediately.  It still has links in the wild, and even a small bit of traffic.  More than I have here.

It really chaps me not to have any ad revenue from my sites under my control for the expenses that aren’t the call it $1800 a month shared ones to which I put call it $1200.  I’m in a position to have to build almost from scratch to eke out a fraction of what comes from the sites I gave up control of unawares.  I mean, not that I can’t ever take them back in some manner, and not that there’s not good reason to have that money going where it is.  I’m just feeling duped.  Maybe even cherry on top of the woe cake duped.

The only problem with that is probably breaking all existing links to it in a transition to WordPress that stays at the same URL.  Part of my incentive here was originally to take down the original, having migrated, saving a database.  However, I love the idea of not breaking links, however old they are.  We’ll see.

I’ll still probably want to migrate first, sign up for ads later, and have some additional new posts besides.  We’ll see.  I can build some longer run stuff to ensure someday I have side money of some usefulness, but I need any I can get now.  Frankly, even if I were adding it to the existing pot, it would be gravy… has been for the past couple hundred a month at least now that winter is over… so I’d ought to be able to count on seeing it available to me.  The only way to ensure that, though, and separate us going forward as she’s in most ways been so intent to do, is to build anythng new in my own name and be willing to walk away from the rest.

So look for my main personal public everyone knows it’s me but I may be more opinionated than on the family blog site to be, most likely, even if another domain redirects, at elhide.com/solo for the time being.

I plan a new old blog, to which I will attempt to port my original and which will be more like that than the marital blogs have been.  Not sure to what degree I may continue/resume posting on special topics at designated other blogs (and how can I be “Married Guy Cook” anymore anyway - thinking I might keep domain, strike out Married and replace it with Daddy, but could just retire it), or for that matter what I may post at the marital blog (or family blog, as I now call it), which had long since been de facto mine alone anyway.  Deb hadn’t posted since October, and not much before that, with her last couple posts relating to lack of posting, censorship, and unhappiness.  In my swaths of life story that comprised my first counseling visit this week, I talked in small part (it was a huge amount of talking and barely touched on anything current) about writing and blogging, its therapeutic value, and not having been free to write how I really feel the past few years.   And I still won’t, fully, not where it’s widely known, potentially read by any and all family and others.  Blogblivion, which is a cool domain name but which I never liked remotely as much as Accidental Verbosity - it just made Deb so happy, and that’s what I was always about, more than some people would suspect - may still get kid pictures and some particularly public updates on them, medical stuff, whatever.  Blogblivion also suffers from association in my mind with when things started spinning out of control for us, with my passivity reaching the point where I had to change if I didn’t want to risk exactly what transpired since.  In a way, the last thing I want to do is post to or look at it again, but it’s what and where people expect.  Then again, hasn’t stopped us before, and most of the stuff ever posted there is broken due to my incomplete WordPress migration.  Odd that pMachine sounds easier to migrate, at least using an old version of WordPress as the initial target.

Now, I’d thought of using this domain, leaving the archives or porting them, going from here.  I’m not even sure I want the prominent Jay Solo connection any more, though.  Also, in case it could attract any link ads, I tried to migrate this blog, which had none, off of the account our other blogs are on.  It’s like a direct payment from me to Deb of about $700/month toward the household expenses besides rent, of which she pays $550 and I pay $500 each week from our other income.  Trouble is, that leaves me with nothing.  Since this blog had no links sold, I deleted it and tried to put it in my own ad account.  Not allowed.  I no longer own the rights to ads on it through that service.  With a personal blog as a successor to the original, I can hope to generate a linkworthy place, but it couldn’t use solojay.com, and thus has to be changed.  This one can either port there too, or be used for some but not all stuff, or retired.  The old blog has more traffic than this one, after being essentially closed in early 2004.  But… elhide.com/solo?  Not a good URL.

I could use elhide.com root and not worry about it being associated with my e-mail address and professional identity.  Anyone wants, they can find my original stuff anyhow.  I know.  I do those searches myself.

I could use one of the geeky domains, but pretty much ruled that out as they wouldn’t fit and have other prospective uses.  Similar to reasons for not using domains associated with the former business.

I have tangentmart.com, divinehamster.com, and harshlymellow.com as other options.  Either that or realitybucket could be repurposed.  It was originally going to be a personal blog for me anyway, or else a reality TV/American Idol site, with a politics site with a snarky/libertarian but also any opinion goes slant being the third option and the one we took that didn’t fly.  Yet it has an ad that more than pays its way even if we never post.  And that would give that domain the same problem as this domain has - I no longer own the rights to use it fully without going all nuclear.

Harshly Mellow has been used and fairly prominently, but it’s been a long time.  Not sure I like the name/tone.

Tangent Mart was used briefly and at least I knew about it, and so I associated it heavily with Deb, even though it’s now mine and it’s one of the most clever things ever, and fits with the verbosity concept.  Since what is it that gets me?  Tangents.

Divine Hamster was inspired by a secretary at my former large client, and was either not used, or used even more briefly.  It would be a whole new brand, more than the rest, probably with an attempt to theme it accordingly.  This is, you might be guessing, where I currently lean.  With my second choice being the original clunky URL.

Thus the poll, now that I’ve gotten through the rest.  Any opinions?  I have to be done typing, because I’m hours past starting housework and an hour past starting supper, which the girls just came in and reminded me.  They’re getting way too old.

Feel free to comment, or e-mail Jay at this domain, or any other e-mail address known to you.

As you know if you actually read this place, which few do, it’s been mainly a repository for digests of my @jaysolo Twitter activity each day.  All well and good, but not the most compelling reading, and not what I had in mind even before Deb decided to finalize the process of dumping me.

While I still won’t feel that I can say anything here - even the preceding sentence is phrased in a way that might raise ire were she to swing by, and I hate to offend her because then she might dump m… oh wait! - I am willing to say more and make it where more of my writing goes, from the back to being me and not an appendage and silly to be on a marital blog when it’s been slain perspective.

Further, I have my ancient blogs that this in some ways continues, and those have content in old blogging software that might be safer replicated here.  Which also makes this site richer in content and more appeaking for ad sales.  Since it attracted none yet, I removed it entirely from the account I manage that markets primarily my sites but that is in Deb’s name at the agent we use.  I’ll add it to an account that’s entirely my own.  Sites that have existing ads will require her approval to migrate with continuity.  It may be desirable to leave them as they are toward household/child support/daycare expenses, but I am set up to have such a migration happen if as and when.  Preferably smoothly, but I’m ultimately in control of whether ads remain there.

As I was saying, I may start migrating/copying all or best of posts from the original blogs to here, either date-adjusted to be as of same time they originally appeared, or current, depending.  Add some depth, content, search mojo. erc.

I may also move this domain to different hosting.  Which relates to the above.  The blog is highly personal, but I put it on hosting that was primarily for business - hers and mine - and for the business oriented blog.  We’ve backed off from that, but in dividing things up, we’d kind of designated this hosting as “hers,” with the other two being “mine” though one of the accounts has content that’s “ours” that I’d be keeping live.  Trouble is, she’s changed plans, making control of this hosting moot, and most of what is on it is mine.  Not a big deal for her existing and prominent site to remain indefinitely.  Anyway, as something more personal, and as the direct successor to what is there, I thought I might migrate this to my original hosting.  If I can migrate the original blog content enough, I may ultimately be able to move more there by freeing up resources.

If and when I do that, you might see glitches.  That’s not immediate though.

I probably was going to cover other things.  Mainly, though, it’s about the blog status here.

In the upcoming week I will be making appointments I have put off making for no good reason, finish up some new and old paying work, and pump my newly updated resume out into the world at a furious pace (maybe look for “lesser” work locally too, to replace and/or supplement FredCo, which can’t last and wasn’t meant to, though cool to know I’ll have made 6 months at a grueling job where they mostly appreciate me).  Those are the big big things on the agenda, but work on the blogs is cathartic and has side revenue prospects.

Here’s a new and different idea: Companies offering debt-related benefits, as opposed to the more traditional emphasis placed on retirement and other things. Because yes, it is distracting (remarkable that link is from 2002, when the good times still rolled and only a few of us were stressed out about the glaringly obvious housing bubble problem).

Interesting Erica Douglass post on being worth more than you think, setting a baseline and sticking to it. I’ve been having related thoughts lately, exactly the opposite of where I had been and could be taking my attitude in this time of being beyond broke and completely without paying work. While there’s consideration of marginal revenue and zero versus non-zero, there’s also consideration of what it means to accept $10 an hour work, versus accepting $100 an hour work that’s moderately harder to find. And frankly, people are going to be less skeptical about hiring the likes of me for the latter than the former.

What does one charge as an appropriate rate to migrate a blog, from MT to WordPress or otherwise, for a blogger?

Credit Card Ghosts, including somr interesting links to factoids and statistics about credi cards.

I’ve always had trouble battling imposter syndrome, which ties into my trouble charging a lot and accepting too little income, as I discussed with the recruiter yesterday. Not that it helps for what’s a good income to change so dramatically over time. What was a great income in 1978 is live with your parents or in a car money these days. What was good money five years ago needs to be higher by an amount equal to the entire good annual income of thirty years ago. Crazy.

But yeah, I suffer from lack of focus, but not lack of ability or potential. I only think I’m worthless much of the time. Probably a good reason for people not to shoot me down when I do get cocky, because that may be annoying, but the quashing of it contributes to fear that I’m no good and unwillingness to tout myself even if I have a solid idea otherwise. Even the people who chip what they are willing to pay have contributed, because to me there’s a direct correlation between your cheapness and my perception of not being worth anything.

Just talked with a recruiter who apparently found me on Monster.com, and had a very favorable impression of him. I’m not a fit with the specific opening he had in mind, which would have required Foxpro background, but I’m going up to Burlington Monday for the quick get to know you meeting so it’s easy for them to send me out if they do come up with matches.

This means it’s time to update the resume, which is on my to do short list anyway, because they’re asking me to send an updated version in Word format, and references. It’s silly it’s not changed to speak of since I finally had something worthy of uploading to Monster.

I was going to tweet this, but Twitter is acting up and won’t take anything from me, and this allowed for a longer bit of text. I am so close to just “tweeting” here, since I can post so easily. Even from the Blackberry if needed.

Apart from cost and fussiness, depending on model, I actually like the compact florescents, and what they did to the electric bill. At least, until the electric usage we were getting billed for nearly doubled for no apparent reason. One of the things I don’t like is that you can’t or couldn’t, put the new ones in covered fixtures, requiring old style in some cases. I mentioned that to someone the other day and surprised them, as they’d not read the directions/warnings and used them that way without apparent issue. At any rate, I can completely understand hoarding incandescent bulbs for various reasons. It should be up to the market to encourage the switching, not government decree.

On an amusingly related not to my consulting fees post the other day, here’s a post on how to sell overpriced services. The dressing part feels tongue in cheek, even though it’s tried and true advice I first saw decades ago, and so not me. The part about being right up front is something I’ve flirted with and lately come around to wanting to do again, though in my situation there may be a balance between every scrap of marginal revenue being vital and it being worthwhile to make the most of what work can be landed at real rates, allowing focus on clients willing to pay realistically.

This is good post on determining consulting fees, even if it does date back to January. I famously have trouble with pricing, which may be tied up somewhat with self-esteem and excessive desire to please others on my part, and ironically it’s probably low pricing that’s left me with a lack of business and prospects. Obviously you can’t sell to those who can’t or won’t pay a given amount, and competition is ever a factor, but in all reality I need to charge $100 n hour and put in plenty of hours in order to earn realistic income from a support the family perspective. That should be a powerful incentive not to charge $50 to spend 6 hours updating a web site, or $80 to spend 4 hours, or $112.50 for 9+ hours on a POS system update underpriced and misleadingly described. Or you would think.

This is exactly my view of it.

This is just remarkable. Trouble is, you can vote it into law, but the legislature and governor are above the law and can twist and warp accordingly.

I think I linked this elsewhere previously, but it’s still in my “to be linked” bookmarks and is interesting. Apparently there’s end of the world insurance that factors into investing, defaults, and expectations.

So gas stations are having trouble staying open, duh, when credit card fees eat more per gallon than you earn. Given that, the return of cash discounts couldn’t be far behind.

With my family situation, type of work, and commuting costs, working from home has been not only much on my mind, but a conscious thing we’re trying to pursue. Sun recently pursued telework in a big way after determining the benefits.

The credit card industry is pond scum.

I’ve long figured anything there happens to be is gravy, and been of the opinion there’s no obligation for people to do anything but spend it on themselves, although an inheritance does sort of haphazardly make up for the crazy upside-down situation we have now, where a genration or two or three support the older generation through onerous taxes and insane real estate values hyperinflated in large part for the purpose of intergenerational wealth transfer. Maybe this should be a Reality Bucket post instead of a quick link with limited text. Perhaps I’ll expand on it there. I link here in brief intending to do that in some cases anyway. Digression aside, there are reasons not to expect an inheritance, and it’s both interesting and good to see someone saying it aloud.

Old post of mine and linking elsewhere on home office tips that deserves revisiting, after time has passed and things have changed to make it all the more relevant.