I Donate, do you?
Submitted by tired_gardener on Wed, 06/25/2008 - 11:05.Do you donate? If you donate, that is great. I thank you. The receivers of your donation thank you. Everyone should donate. I am not going to presure you to donate, but if you do, let everyone know. Let's challange everyone to donate. Just get the badge below, put it on your site to let your readers know that you donate and then comment below, so I can let my readers know.
My Story
As I was painting my ceiling and listening to Todd Agnew. I began thinking about how poor I am. I'm a student, so I have no money coming in. Then I thought about how poor other people are in comparison. I'm not so poor.
We (my wife and I) often complain about being poor. We live fairly modestly, but we are far from being poor. No one in this household knows how it feels to be hungry. To know hunger you have to have gone days, weeks, months, without enough food. We have and have always had, a good solid roof over our heads. No, we don't have much money. It is likely that our savings will be gone by the time I finish my masters, but we are doing pretty good. Others are not.
God spoke to me through the music. He reminded me of a promise I made that I have not kept good on. I had made a pledge to KLOVE and since I have no income, I chose to not send in the pledge. KLOVE helps people who are in dire straights. Their pastors are available by phone, 24 hours a day, every day to talk people who have nowhere else to turn away from their poor decisions and toward Christ. Last night, I sent in the payment to get me caught up on my pledge. Do you have a past due pledge you need to send in?
I had also promised myself that 10% of all income I get will go to charity. I got a temp job doing some web design work over the summer. I've already sent in the 10% from my first check. I also got a small commission check from my advertisers on this site. Every dollar I make, from this site, from my other sites, from my job, from any other form of income I end up with, I will give 10% to charity. I pray I will do this for the rest of my life.
Challenge
Here is my challenge to you. I challenge you to make a donation. Talk to God, He will tell you how much and where to. Once you have made your donation, post a comment below and let your users know that you donate by including the I Donate Badge below on your page. This will let everyone who visits your site know that you are dedicated to donating. Your badge is good for one year, then you should make another donation. The amount of your donation is up to you, and I have no way of auditing you to find out if you are actually making the donations. That is between you and God.
If you do not believe in God, or worship another god, that should not stop you from helping out a comminity that needs your support. Please don't let my religious beliefs get in the way of your doing a good deed.
What do I get?
Some people need a reason to donate. Other just donate because it makes them feel good. If you donate, let me know, and put the badge on your site, you will get your name on the Blog Roll below. I will periodically visit sites on the list, comment, stumble, etc. I encourage others who are on the list to do the same thing. The more you comment and stumble, the bigger this community will grow. Twit some pages. Add them to your social bookmarking sites.
Badge
Put this badge on your site to announce your participation: 
<a href="http://tiredgarden.info/blogs/tiredgardener/i-donate-do-you"> <img src="http://tiredgarden.info/files/logos/idonate.png" alt="I Donate" /></a>
Blog Roll
Host Papa
Submitted by tired_gardener on Tue, 06/10/2008 - 09:48.
Paid Link
I mentioned a while back that I was unhappy with my current host. I'm checking out a new host. I'll be moving my site that I've done nothing with yet over there. I'm going to do a bunch of work to Shabam Development and see how Host Papa performs for me. If I'm happy, I'll move everything else over there. If I'm not, I'll be asking for my money back (30 day guarantee) and trying someone else. Also, I'll be writing up a lengthy report about them and my current host over at Shabam Development.
In case anyone is interested, Shabam Development is my main site. I don't do much with it currently except point to this and Shabam School. I plan on changing that. Over the summer I'll be starting my third blog on it. That blog will be used to review different net related products, such as web hosts. I'm not one to post a good review just to get people to click on the ad and for me to get a commission, so I'll be leaving honest reviews.
That does not mean that I will not get a commission. It just means that if I leave them a bad review, I'll still have a commission link to them so that if someone decides to ignore my review, I can still make a commission. If they pull my affiliation because of the bad review, then I'll update the post saying so. I will not let my advertisers tell me what I can or can't say on my sites.
The reason I chose this particular company is because they use 100% green energy. I like that, but if they do not give me the service that I need, then I'll ditch them and try someone else until I find a company I like. I also saw some good reviews of them on the net, but sometimes it is hard to tell the people who are just saying they are good to get a commission from those that actually think they are good. By the way, I get a $90 commission off them if you get service from them through my link.
News Feed
Submitted by tired_gardener on Sat, 06/07/2008 - 07:09.I have done a lot of work to my feed. Take a look at it. You can also subscribe to it and join the growing number of people who read the Tired Garden articles from the comfort of their feed reader.
Comment here, or send me a message on the contact form. I'd love to hear what you have to say, it may well help me to improve the site and make it more helpful to you.
Thanks!
Snap Shots hits the road
Submitted by tired_gardener on Sat, 05/31/2008 - 17:14.All right, I'm getting really annoyed with Snap Shots. It is slow and it pops up at bothersome times. I don't really find it all the useful. The only votes on my poll were from the two tests I did (the first time I did a poll, so I had to test it). So, I'm making the decision without your input, sorry. I think I'm calling it a little earlier than I said I would, but if anyone comments that they really love it, let me know. I still probably will not put them back, but I do want to hear your input.
Do you like the Snap Shots on the pages?
Submitted by tired_gardener on Sat, 05/24/2008 - 08:20.I've installed Snap Shots on the site. This shows a picture of other sites when you mouse over links to them. It also can do some other things, but I've yet to see it do any of them. My question is do you like it? You can use the poll below to answer and comment, if you like. Thanks for any input. Mouse over this text for an example.
I'm a little unsure as to if I like them. They have some pros and cons. On the pro side, the users can get a preview of the links before they click on the link. This way they can see if it is something they are even interested in. This can save some jumping around, as you do not have to click on the site and then if it is not what you want, return to the other site.
On the con side, they take time to load and for slower connections, this is a real issue. Also, the small display on them is hardly enough to get an idea of what is on the site. I'm leaning toward removing them, but I want to get your input before I decide. What do you think?
I've also noticed a drop in readership over the last week since I installed them. I'm not sure if this is related to the snap shots, or if it is because I have not done much advertising over the last week, spending a lot of time on school instead.
I'll leave this poll open for a week or two, then I'll close it and make my final decision on the subject. Please weigh in and give me your input.
Installed Snap Shots Software
Submitted by tired_gardener on Sat, 05/03/2008 - 22:29.I just installed a nice little tool on this site called Snap Shots that enhances links with visual previews of the destination site, interactive excerpts of Wikipedia articles, MySpace profiles, IMDb profiles and Amazon products, display inline videos, RSS, MP3s, photos, stock charts and more.
Sometimes Snap Shots bring you the information you need, without your having to leave the site, while other times it lets you "look ahead," before deciding if you want to follow a link or not.
Should you decide this is not for you, just click the Options icon in the upper right corner of the Snap Shot and opt-out.
[Note: I'm being lazy and just copied this from their site]
Plant Index up and running
Submitted by tired_gardener on Sun, 04/13/2008 - 14:20.I've mentioned the plant index a few times in the blog. I've even created a link to it while I was building it. Well, it is much further along now, and I think it is useful. I only have about 10 plants in it at the moment, as I've spent all my time working on the back end and not much on adding plants. I will soon work on the entry system so that I can open that up so that all registered users can enter the data. I also need to do some work on the search functions and make it available.
In the mean time, feel free to look around. There are a lot of planned additions to this index and if you have any ideas of what you would like to see, please let me know! Click on Plant Index in the menu to take a look.
Enjoy!
Backend work
Submitted by tired_gardener on Mon, 03/24/2008 - 20:24.Hey all. In an early blog I asked for input on what you thought this site needed. Being a new site, and only getting around 15 visitors a day, I didn't expect much of a response. I wasn't surprised. That's ok. I did get one persons response that confirmed that my thoughts on the subject seemed to be good. I moved forward with that in mind.
As some of you may know, I'm a student teacher. I'm in a masters program called the Inclusive Elementary Educators Program. This program trains me on how to deal with every student in my classroom. I will end up with a masters in special education as well as teaching credentials in early childhood education (3 years old to 3rd grade), elementary education (3rd grade to 8th grade in an elementary school) and primary specicial education (age 3 to 8th grade in any school).
Why am I bringing this up? Well, it is my way of saying Spring Break is here! Since break is here, I'm working my hiney off trying to get some things done on the site. I altered the way the blog backend worked. The old way allowed for many people to have blogs. It was overkill for my single blog and had some issues that I did not like. The new system is made for a single blog. It also has some issues, but I think it is more to my liking. At the same time I set up a couple of other changes.
Even if you don't have an account, you can now leave comments. If you have an account, it will not ask you to confirm you are a human though. I also installed a program that will allow you to inject HTML into your comments.
The main thing I've been working on is the plant index I was talking about last week. It is fairly simple at this point, and I've only put one plant into it. I also don't think that the data is currently completly correct, as I futzed with it to make sure things were working properly. I'll be correcting that data and adding other plants into the database over the next week. I don't think I'll do it tonight, but I might do some work on it. First I want to get the images working on it. That is the last little tweak I want to do to it before I call it complete. You can check it out though. Part of this new system is that you can add some of the data to it. You can of course add comments, with or without an account. If you have an account, then you can add links to other sites with useful information about that plant. You can also add in pictures, or will be able to when I get that part finished.
Check it out and let me know. The one plant I have in it now is the Luffa Gourd. You can see it at http://tiredgarden.info/plant-index/luffa-sponge. If you have any comments about it, I would love to hear them. This is your chance to help mold the site. Once I create the index, it will be much harder to make changes.
Altering blog setup and location
Submitted by tired_gardener on Sat, 03/22/2008 - 07:12.I am making some changes to my blog on the back-end. For most this will not change anything. If you use the feed, this will change where you feed too. I'll let you know what the change is, when I know.
Also, until I get it finished, you might notice that the entries are disappearing. I am moving them to the new spot on the back-end and they will be visible there when I am finished.
Some links will change, but I'll set the old links to autoforward to the new location.
Thanks for your patience.
Jason
UPDATE: I've moved everything over to the new spot. The only things that should change on your end are the following:
The blog location of http://tiredgarden.info/blogs/tiredgardener has been changed to http://tiredgarden.info/blog
All future blogs will be filed under http://tiredgarden.info/blog/[Title] instead of http://tiredgarden.info/blogs/tiredgardener/[title]. I left the current blog entries in the old directory structure so as not to break links.
The RSS Feed did not change.
Thanks,
Jason
Give me your input please!
Submitted by tired_gardener on Tue, 03/18/2008 - 23:07.Alright, I really want this site to be useful for people. I enjoy blogging and writing articles, but if people do not find them useful, I'll keep them to myself... no I won't I like to share, even if you don't want me to!
Anyway, I would like to know what people will find useful in this site. I have a couple of ideas for things that I want to work on. What do you think of my ideas? Do you have any ideas of your own that you would like to share with me? As a webmaster, it is important to me that my "customers" (that's you) are happy with the product they are getting. Any input I can get from you will allow me to make a better product for you.
My ideas:
Plant index: I am planning on making a detailed index of plants. This will include planting details, descriptions, and will allow you to comment and add pictures and whatnot. I would probably start with one group of plants (gourds for instance) and expand to other related to it (squash, cucumbers, and the rest of the family) and then other families (corn and other grasses, legumes, sunflowers, etc).
Sustainable Tips: This list of tips would give ideas for how to make your life more sustainable. The tips will rotate on the front page.
Carbon Footprint Tracking: There is some software I can get that would allow us to track our carbon footprint. It is a lot of work to properly track your footprint, and I'm not sure I'd follow through with tracking it regularly. I'm not sure how well others would either. Let me know if you would like to see this tool, and I'll include it. I'll first have to understand how it works though. I've done very little play with it, so I'd have to spend some time learning.
Discussion Forums: I can easily add discussion to this site, but as it stands now, I don't feel there are enough visitors to warrant the overhead. I don't get many comments on the blog entries which makes me wonder if a discussion form would be used.
Please use the comment function on this page, or if you want to keep your comment private, use the contact form. But either way, PLEASE give me your feedback!
»
|
comments: 1
by email 
by RSS
