100 Pages on Salberg.Org

As of this post, Salberg.Org now has 100 pages on it. Seems like a milestone worth mentioning. I hadn’t even noticed it creeping up until just checking a few things on the site after posting the previous article. I’d like to say I have 100 posts, but that isn’t entirely true. There are a lot of static pages on the site such as the archives page, my general information pages like my favorite talk radio shows, my long lost friends, and so forth. I believe this is actually the 77th post.

Of course, I could have churned out 100 pages a long time ago. But, with rare exception, I actually try to post stuff that is useful or entertaining. I really don’t understand blogs that post three or four posts a day. If you are Robert Scoble or TechDirt, you can get away with it. Even Scoble posts way too much trivial stuff in my opinion, but he is who he is (one of the top 100 bloggers in the “blogosphere”) and every fifth post has some interesting development he’s wiggled his way into. Since he left Microsoft though, his posts have become a bit too podcast-oriented for my tastes, having no time to listen to podcasts usually - and if I did, I’d listen to an audiobook from Audible.com. Anyway, enough about Scoble.

The real problem is that a lot of people start out blogging by just posting every nascent thought that enters their brain. You have to develop your ideas. You have to think about them for a few days. A lot of bloggers just post something about the new iPod that came out minutes ago - repeating nearly every other blogger. Seriously, you know Mac lover Paul Stamatiou is going to be on top of it - so why not see if you have anything new to offer besides what he already said (or similar other industry leading bloggers)? But, in a vain effort to get readers and often, AdSense revenue, they just churn out posts with little originality, little staying power, and on topics replete with stolen press release texts, Associated Press stories, etc.

I would rather take Steve Pavlina’s approach and write things that might be useful for someone and to keep things relatively timeless (as much as you can in the computer world anyway). I generally ask myself if someone will have any reason to read a post a year or two after I write it (other than for student research projects or “time capsule” printouts), and if the answer is no, it doesn’t make the cut. Unlike Steve, I don’t think I’ll ever get rich off my blog (he makes about $10,000/month off of his), especially since I don’t want advertising on my blog. If traffic keeps increasing as it has, I may have to do something along those lines, just because I have a “break even” philosophy. I don’t allow any single project to subsidize another project - they all have to sufficiently generate enough income to at least pay for itself. It is basically in line with my philosophy of staying out of debt - completely. Of course, I share the hosting for salberg.org with some other projects on a server, and I can’t really count the domain name at $8/year since I can chalk that up to “entertainment” (I do have fun with this salberg.org after all). But, if traffic continues to increase, I may want to isolate this puppy on its own server and someone has to pay for that. Might as well be you, my faithful readers.

As far as the future goes, what lies ahead for Salberg.Org? Well, besides the usual rants and commentaries, I hope to first finish a few series I’ve started: one on Saving Money at a Car Dealership, and the other on How to Homeschool, which could kind of be an infinite series if I’m not careful. Additionally, I’d like to publish a few short stories (fiction) that I’ve worked on, and maybe a poem or a song (like the one I’ll publish after this post).

More importantly though, I have a few articles that should be coming up soon.

1. First is an article about what to do when someone close to you dies. After losing my son Obadiah at childbirth, we experienced hell on earth. What made matters worse was the often inappropriate gestures and comments by folks, who in all fairness, just didn’t understand. Rather than go into that, I’d like to post a step-by-step guide about what to do if someone you know experiences the loss of a loved one. Even a lot of the books I’ve read are missing the spot on this one. This article will probably be jointly authored by my wife and I.

2. I’d also like to post another series entitled “Time Efficiency and the Development of Processes”. This will mostly be for efficient-minded people and/or business folks.

3. I have an idea for a small series of articles about being an efficient college student with lists of resources available at low cost or free. I’ve seen some similar things, but they are long on the list side, and short on the recommendation and utilitarian side of things. Besides, having a tool is one thing. Knowing what to do with it is another. Having gone back to college at the age of 33, I learned how lost so many younger students are: not only do they have to learn the subject material at hand, they have to learn how to manage the collegiate process itself. I hope to help on that second point. I might bring in a few guest authors I’ve met over the years on this one.

4. I drove a taxicab for over a year at one point. I made more than any other driver during that period (mostly due to efficiency) and was able to share some of my secrets with other drivers who did not smoke pot three times a day and were able to understand them. As a token to all the other folks who’ve had to resort to cab driving to make ends meet, I thought I’d share those secrets finally. Cab companies may not appreciate it, but I hope it will help some earnest folks who want to work and want to make money. I also get questions frequently about what it is like, what goes on when you drive cab, and the never-ending question, “Do you have to help people buy drugs?”. All this will be covered - probably to my own peril, since the cab companies biggest secret is…. what a sec… I can’t spill the beans quite yet.

Now, there are a few subjects I’ve been faithfully avoiding, and I hope to continue to do so. Feel free to call me on the mat if I start to slip. In fact, please do so.

1. The upcoming elections. It isn’t that I’m scared to tip my hand - I’m a right-wing fanatic if you must know (an “extremist” if you are into labels). I just don’t see a need to repeat what so many others skillfully do already. If you want to read about election stuff, the internet is full of information there. I have nothing further to offer that my heroes don’t already offer. Who are my heroes? I think you are trying to bait me.

2. Super-techy geek speak stuff. Although I love tech stuff, there are a hundred other places for you to get information on that. If I have a personal story which I can share which I hope will be helpful in relation to a website or a tech product (like I did on the previous post about del.icio.us), that is one thing. But, if I think a new laptop is “cool”, you aren’t going to find out about it here, unless I buy it and use it for a while.

3. Personal family stuff. Let’s face it - everyone has wacky families. Mine has to be the champs and I put them to a duel with any of your families any day. And then there is my more immediate family, my wife and my children, which has its daily ups and downs like anyone else. So, I just don’t think here is the place to air dirty laundry or even clean laundry. If I have an efficiency tip that I think will help other parents, I’ll share it here. But, if my brother did something stupid in his life, or if I think my parents are doing something really interesting, you probably won’t read about it here, unless I really think it is important to mention - and even then I’ll find an impersonal, abstract way to get into it so as to not identify the folks involved. I try adhere to Doug Phillip’s idea that the Westminster Confession’s Larger Catechism’s question on the Ninth Commandment applies to blogs and websites. I’m not perfect, but I can say assuredly that throwing my family into this blog is probably a good way to begin violating this concept. I’ve seen a lot of blogs that cover arguments between the husband and wife (”today I came home and found that she had redecorated the living room”) or extended family (”my crazy sister showed up today without notice”) and I just fail to understand the benefit of putting those passing thoughts into writing, especially on such a public forum as a website. Few folks probably want to read it, and even though I could delete this blog tomorrow, the majority of this content has already been scraped by search engines (or worse). I try to view this blog as sort of written journal that my children could read someday and sort of help them figure me out. Or something that I could read myself and figure myself out sometimes (an exercise which I should attend to more regularly). Also, I would have loved to read more stuff written by my parents and grandparents growing up.

So, that’s the 100th article - sort of a view of the past with a glimpse of the future.

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