Remember that Washington Post story I talked about yesterday? The one where they’re going to try to say copying CDs you legally purchased to your computer is a copyright violation? Well, bless the good folks at Boing Boing for finding this, now missing, gem from the RIAA website.

“If you choose to take your own CDs and make copies for yourself on your computer or portable music player, that’s great. It’s your music and we want you to enjoy it at home, at work, in the car and on the jogging trail.”

This little ditty can be found on archive.org for all eternity.

The other winning statement that Boing Boing uncovered came from the Grokster trial. Mind you, this is an RIAA lawyer talking on the court record:

The record companies, my clients, have said, for some time now, and it’s been on their Website for some time now, that it’s perfectly lawful to take a CD that you’ve purchased, upload it onto your computer, put it onto your iPod. There is a very, very significant lawful commercial use for that device, going forward.”

Gee, wonder how the RIAA is going to try to weasel out of this one. They have publicly stated, on multiple occasions, that copying a CD you legally purchased to another format for your personal enjoyment is a-ok with them. What changed?  How did something that they not only at one time considered legal, but endorsed, turn into something they can add into a copyright violation case?

How are more people not seeing that the RIAA is just pure evil?  They are greedy, out-of-control, bullies that want nothing more than to squeeze every dollar out of the consumers that they can.  They feel they’ve found a new revenue stream in the form of file sharing, and they’re going to try to get every cent they can out of the people that they catch.

You know what I would like to know?  Are they giving the money they win in these cases to the artists whose music is being used in the sharing?  Where is this money going?  Who’s pocket is it ending up in?

I thought I would give you all a round up of what the top 10 posts for SeanPAune.com were this year.

Yet Another Cloverfield Update - From December 6th of this year. Wow, 25 days and it was my #1 viewed post. This one was all about the “anti-Tagruato” site that popped up in the viral marketing campaign.

3 Ways To Get Me To Not Visit Your Blog Again - Originally published on July 7th, this was part of the Daily Blog Tips Blog Project:Three contest, which I didn’t win, but I did get a fair number of votes.

The most insane trackback ever? - Ah, May 28th, when I decided to trace the origin of a picture I found. It made for a nice post about how people don’t give enough proper credit, or do their research, to where an image originated from. It turned in to nice cross links with the original site, DesireToInspire.com, though.

Armando Montelongo - Oh, Armando. This post was done on August 28th, and was, I admit, a bit of search engine gaming. I had done a previous post about him and how much I despised him on Flip This House. It was getting a lot of search engine traffic, so I decided to do a second post when people were searching for info on the episode where he and his brother parted ways. Since it was my fourth most visited post of the year, I guess it was a good call.

1-18-08/Cloverfield Update - From October 5th of this year, since this is the second time Cloverfield appears in the top 10, I guess I’m not the only person obsessed with this. This one was about the sub-companies of the Tagruato company.

Sopranos Episode 85 - The Blue Comet - June 3rd, and probably my shortest post of the year. It was about the next-to-last episode of The Sopranos.

Buffy Season 8, Issue 4 - Well, this one from June 6th is a bit of a surprise. Apparently people really want to know what happens in the Buffy comics?

How long does it take to load 119.41GB of music on an iPod? - This one really shot up towards Christmas time. I originally discussed how long it would take to load music on to my new iPod Classic back on September 12th, and it seems a lot of people wondered the same.

Dark Knight Version Of The Joker - May 21st, and it involved the first released photo of Heath Ledger as The Joker from the new Batman movie.

Blade Runner - The Final Cut - A lengthy article from August 2nd about the new version of Blade Runner that was coming to DVD.  Now that I own this, I should do a follow-up review.

So, there you have it, the top 10 posts of the year for this blog.  What does it tell me about my readership?  Well, you like it when I talk about entertainment stuff, or at least the search engine folks do.  And then there are some real curve balls in there (like the trackback one).  I don’t know if this will influence what I cover in 2008, but it was still interesting to take a look back and see what you all were reading.

Happy New Year, everyone!

Back in October I discussed a new tact that Sony Records was trying by claiming that anyone who copied music from a legally purchased CD to their computer was a pirate. The abbreviated quote is:

“When an individual makes a copy of a song for himself, I suppose we can say he stole a song.” Making “a copy” of a purchased song is just “a nice way of saying ’steals just one copy’,” she said.

I was astounded by this thought, and I still am.

However, the RIAA seems to think it was a spiffy idea!

In a case filed in Arizona, part of the case filed against the defendant sites the 2,000+ music files on his computer, made from legally purchased CDs, constitute “illegal copies”. The exact quote from the source material was:

The industry’s lawyer in the case, Ira Schwartz, argues in a brief filed earlier this month that the MP3 files Howell made on his computer from legally bought CDs are “unauthorized copies” of copyrighted recordings.

Excuse me? If I purchase a CD legally, and choose to enjoy the music in a separate fashion, that is now considered illegal? If the judge in this case was to rule in favor of the RIAA, it would make everyone who had ever done this into a criminal.

My hatred of the RIAA grows with each passing day it seems.  They will not rest until they have found a way to make money off of every aspect of music.  I have said it before, and I’ll say it again: So long as I purchased the music legally, and it is for personal enjoyment, I will listen to it any damned way I please.  I am NOT going to purchase an album as both a CD and MP3 files.  If it is for my personal enjoyment, then there is nothing wrong with me listening to it on multiple devices that are, yes, again, for my personal use.

The RIAA is so desperate to hold on to their outdated business model that they will do anything to make themselves seem relevant.  It is time for the record companies to cut their support of this association and stop making enemies of their customer base.

Yes, you heard correctly, Late Show with David Letterman is coming back on the air on January 2nd… with its writers!

Each show is allowed to negotiate with their writers independently of the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers (AMPTP), and David Letterman, who has been an ardent supporter of the strike, decided to do so. Mr. Letterman, whose Worldwide Pants production company also owns Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, has been paying the staff of both his shows out of his own pocket during the strike.

The news of the Late Show writers returning has been confirmed by the writer’s Strike Blog, LateShowWritersOnStrike.com. There has been no confirmation on Craig Ferguson’s writers also returning the same night, but it is believed they will be. (check out the writer’s blog anyway for some pretty funny strike humor)

Most of the late night shows will be returning that night, but I know which channel I will be tuned into. We, as fans of television, owe it to Mr. Letterman’s unwaivering support of his writers to tune in and watch at least that first night. It doesn’t matter if you aren’t a fan of his, it doesn’t matter if you’ve never even watched the show, David Letterman obviously understands the vital role writers play to any creative process. He is to be applauded for his willingness to step outside of the normal negotiations and make sure his writers got what they deserve.

Of the other shows returning, I just can’t support them without writers. Conan O’Brien and Jimmy Kimmel have both been very supportive of their writers, and I understand why they are returning so their staffs won’t be fired. Jay Leno has been, well, an ass about the whole thing, so I wouldn’t support him anyway. I wish O’Brien and Kimmel well, but without writers, it just doesn’t matter.

So, kudos to David Letterman for being a shining beacon of understanding where he would be without his writing staff.

Remember when I mentioned I was writing my Blogging Goals For 2008 as part of a project? Well, said project is done, and 78 blogs, including mine participated.

I love projects like this.  Blogging can be a fairly solitary exercise, so to get to work with others in any way is always a blessing.  Daily Blog Tips, the site that ran this, named as one of their goals for this year was to run a similar exercise every month.  I, for one, can not wait.  It’ll be a great way to work with some direction to what I say once a month.

So, take a look through the 77 entries listed below if you’re a blogger, and maybe you’ll find some inspiration for your own goals in this coming year.

1. Making Home-made Wine and Beer - 2008 Goals For This Blog
2. 2008 Plans for Sk8 Dad
3. Blog Gigs - Blogging Goals For 2008
4. My Life with IT - Blogging Goals for 2008
5. Butterfly Media - 2008 Blogging Goals
6. Scott Andrew Bird - Blog goals 2008
7. Objetivos do 1001 Gatos para 2008
8. 2008 Goals For Money and Blogs
9. Kris Cpec - Blogging Goals for 2008
10. Win A Revolution Theme
11. Non Profit Leadership, Innovation and Change - Goals for 2008
12. 2008 Blogging Goals and The Rewards They Earn
13. Blogging Notes - Blogging Goals for 2008
14. The University Blog - Blogging Goals for 2008
15. #Comments - Goals!
16. Agile Business Navigator - (Blogging) Goals for 2008
17. Goals For 2008: (Almost) Every Blogger Has Some
18. Amanda - 2008 Blogging Goals
19. Why I Never Set Blogging Goals
20. The Genetic Genealogist - My 2008 Blogging Goals
21. TechLife - 2008 Blogging Goals
22. ooof - Blogging goals
23. zParacha - 2008 Blogging goals
24. Learn How 2 Earn - Blog Goals for 2008
25. 2008 Blogging Goals Win Premium Wordpress Themes
26. happy 2nd birthday, change therapy!
27. Not-So Techie Goals Set For 2008
28. Jake Bouma - Blogging goals for 2008
29. Paasikoe - 2008 Blogging Goals
30. Train The Trainer: 2008 Goals
31. Beyond Behaviors’ Blogging Goals for 2008
32. Fashion by Jenni - Blogging Goals for 2008
33. Ledger Pad - Plan For 2008!
34. A contest! A xontest!
35. Planet Apex - 8 Blogging Goals for 2008
36. A Writer’s Words - 2008 Blogging Goals? Plans, maybe …
37. Romance Tracker’s 2008 blogging goals
38. Global Warming Hub’s blogging goals for the new year
39. Setting Your Goals Makes You 200% More Productive
40. Online Tech Tips blogging goals for 2008
41. ConchoLakeAZ.com Blog Goals
42. Inspiration just doesn’t get any better than this
43. Blog About Your Blog - Blogging Goals for 2008
44. My 2008 blogging goals for Blog Contest Central
45. Blogging Goals - Christmas Letters To Santa Claus
46. Mixed Market Arts - Goals for 2008
47. Have you thought of your blogging goals for 2008?
48. Vincent Chow - Blogging Goals For 2008
49. Writing Nag’s 2008 Blogging Goals
50. ShawnW - My blogging goals for 2008
51. The Value of Being Incomplete: What Are Your Goals for 2008?
52. On Financial Success - Goals for the new year
53. Madhur Kapoor - Blogging Goals for 2008
54. Work n Play - 2008 Blogging Goals
55. What I Wish to Achieve with dailyApps in 2008
56. Gimme a Dream - My Blogging Goals for 2008
57. New Year’s Resolutions for TailgatingIdeas.com
58. It’s Write Now! - Blogging Resolutions For 2008!
59. Blogging: Learning The Lessons The Hard Way
60. Nazjam - My blogging goals for 2008
61. JobMob 2008 Blogging Goals
62. What will your blog look like in 2008?
63. My 2008 Goals For Newest on the Net
64. MisEntropy - What I want my blog to be…
65. The Visitor’s Book (2008)
66. An unplannd future
67. Good Bye 2007 - Blogging Goals for the New Year
68. Life in the Internet - Blogging Goals for 2008
69. Blogging Goals for 2008 - Learn from the Experience!
70. Techno Money - My Goals for 2008…What Are Yours?
71. 8 Goals For Inspiration Bit In 2008
72. Cyber Street Report - 2008 Blogging Goals
73. Mary Emma - Writing and Blogging Goals for 2008
74. Gauravonomics - My Three Blogging Goals for 2008
75. eBiz Parent - 2008 Blogging Goals
76. Alphablogs - 5 goals for 2008
77. Daily Blog Tips: 10 Goals for 2008

The National Film Preservation Board has made their annual announcement of which films are being added to The National Film Registry.

Back to the Future (1985)
Bullitt (1968)
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
Dance, Girl, Dance (1940)
Dances With Wolves (1990)
Days of Heaven (1978)
Glimpse of the Garden (1957)
Grand Hotel (1932)
The House I Live In (1945)
In a Lonely Place (1950)
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)
Mighty Like a Moose (1926)
The Naked City (1948)
Now, Voyager (1942)
Oklahoma! (1955)
Our Day (1938)
Peege (1972)
The Sex Life of the Polyp (1928)
The Strong Man (1926)
Three Little Pigs (1933)
Tol’able David (1921)
Tom, Tom the Piper’s Son (1969-71)
12 Angry Men (1957)
The Women (1939)
Wuthering Heights (1939)

More than usual in the “I’ve never heard of this” category than usual, but that’s somewhat the point of this whole project; to make sure that these films are available for future generations to enjoy.

In the Hollywood Reporter article on the story, the most interesting part to leap out at me was this:

“Our Day” is one of those films that are most at risk. A home movie made by Wallace Kelly in 1938, it depicts a day in the life day-in-the-life portrait of his family shown in both idealized and comic ways. The silent 16mm home movie uses creative editing, lighting and camera techniques comparable to what professionals were doing in Hollywood.

“They have some pretty serious filmmakers in their leagues,” said Dwight Swanson, an archival consultant and board member at the Center for Home Movies. “The way they depict themselves and show their lives is more direct and honest than what Hollywood was doing at the time.”

Swanson hopes the entire Kelly archive will be deposited into the Center of Home Movies collection and will be preserved at the Library of Congress facility near Washington.

“That way we will be ensured that it will be available for people to see,” he said.

While I am glad to see them using some discretion in which home movies they choose, it thrills me they would even consider this. What a wonderful way to preserve glimpses from a bygone era.

I just spent the past four days blogging my little heart out over at Mashable due to it being the holidays. Since I live with my family, and had nowhere to travel to, I went ahead and took all the open shifts, including Christmas day. I figured if I’m going to have my laptop on anyway, I might as well be earning money.

The news was fairly sparse, so I didn’t do all that much writing, but I did get to work on my first all opinion piece for them which was nice. You can swing by there to see my part of our predictions series, Mashable’s 2008 Predictions: Sean’s List. Some of it won’t make any sense to my normal readers, but it was fun to put together.

So what does this have to do with my normal blogging around here?   It’s amazing what I’ve learned about blogging as a career since I started doing this in July.  A few of the highlights:

1. It doesn’t matter how little you think is going on in the world, you better be finding something to blog about.
2. Holidays?  What holidays?
3. There is always someone out there who will take great glee in pointing out your mistakes… including a simple typo.

Overall it’s been a great experience.  And come New Years… I’m working it again!

Can we all just agree that Oprah must be stopped from picking any more protégés?

I was perusing TV Squad today and came across this amazing nugget of info.

During a holiday party in Beverly Hills this past weekend, Dr. Phil told People magazine that Lynne Spears, mother to Britney and recently pregnant, 16-year-old Jamie Lynn, is a “great and dedicated mother”. He admits that things aren’t looking up for her right now (ya think?), but McGraw adds that the Spears matriarch has her feet firmly on the ground and that she is turning to her faith for strength in this situation. In fact, Lynne told her friend Dr. Phil that they are turning to prayer to get past this all. No offense, but she must be praying nearly 24 hours a day.

Okay, look, everyone is entitled to their opinion, no argument there, but… she’s a great mother?

Dr. Phil has annoyed me for years, but nowhere to the degree of Rachael Ray (if you don’t know of my hatred for her… you must be new here), so I have always left him alone.  This, however, is SO monumentally stupid, you just have to go “huh?”

And seeing as both Dr. Phil and Satan’s daughter Rachael Ray are the spawns of Oprah… I don’t get where she finds these people.  Dr. Phil and his “down home” hokum psychology has always annoyed me, and to call Lynn Spears a “good mother”?  She let her 16-year old daughter move in with her boyfriend… yeah… good mother there, Phil.  Why don’t you go spout off some analogy about coyotes, as you are want to do, and go away.

My boys wish you all a Merry Christmas. Click any of the images for a larger view.

This previous Saturday, an odd day for tech announcements, Mozilla Labs announced their latest project, Weave.

For those unfamiliar with Mozilla, they are the makers of my beloved Firefox browser, and Weave is a new concept that will work with that very same browser.

Essentially this new product will allow you to go to any computer in the world running Firefox, log in to your account, and you will have all of your bookmarks, histories, passwords, everything that makes a copy of Firefox unique to you. They’ve posted four case studies for you to get a better idea of the real world implications of this new venture, and I have to say it looks quite exciting. You can check the image at the bottom for a visual idea of how this will work.

I especially like the idea of collaborative bookmarking directly from inside of Firefox. Quite often in the office we’re working on a project together, and being able to place relevant bookmarks directly into a folder that my co-workers can see will make life so much easier and faster. This will also be really useful in my professional blogging jobs since I don’t work near any of my editors.

There are also plans for this to become an extensible framework for third parties to build applications.  Imagine a travel planning app that would give you your information no matter where you are.

The project is in the earliest stages of Beta testing right now, and you’ll have to sign up for it to see if you can get in to the testing pool. I can’t wait for this to launch, but I will say I want to see some clue as to what security will be like.

It’s that time again for me to wax quixotic about a make-believe holiday started by a television series.

As I have said before, I was never a big fan of Seinfeld, but I swear this holiday makes more sense to me every year. I had a heck of a time getting into the Christmas spirit this year. Mainly due to my being too busy, and even gift buying, which I normally adore, felt like a chore this year.

I think there were two other contributing factors to the problem though. The first being my oh-so-mysterious friend, “M”, who hates people buying her gifts. “If you buy me a gift, so help me, I’ll punch you in the face.” (She’s a tad on the violent side…) So I’m making her a gift that costs me absolutely $0, and I have to say… I’m enjoying it. For all these years, when I would hear people say it’s so much more rewarding, I thought “Yeah, great way to excuse your cheapness…”, but they weren’t wrong! I’ve enjoyed every second I’ve put in to it. (and no I won’t reveal what it is since she swings by somtimes)

And then there’s the recent acqaintence I made from India, we’ll call her QBG, who is a practicing Hindu. Naturally they don’t celebrate Christmas, and she was telling me the other night over Gtalk how much it amazes her to see us all running around in a panic during this time of year. I have to say I’m beginning to agree with her.

Yes, I am a retailer, I have a place in this monstrosity that is called “Christmas Shopping”, and for that reason alone I don’t want to see it go away. It would be nice though to see a return to those more family-style moments Norman Rockwell painted so well. True, they were idealistic, but isn’t that kind of the point?

Maybe Festivus isn’t such a bad idea. Okay, we can skip “The Feats of Strength” portion, but at least the focus was on the family getting together and being together.

Teddy has a problem.

He suffers from “snow addiction”.

We’re trying to get him in a program, he’s up to a couple inches a day. It’s horrible. (you can click the image for a larger view of his shame)

Wikipedia has the following to say about “signal-to-noise ratio“:

Signal-to-noise ratio (often abbreviated SNR or S/N) is an electrical engineering concept, also used in other fields (such as scientific measurements, biological cell signaling and oral lore), defined as the ratio of a signal power to the noise power corrupting the signal.

In less technical terms, signal-to-noise ratio compares the level of a desired signal (such as music) to the level of background noise. The higher the ratio, the less obtrusive the background noise is.

How does this apply to blogging? Isn’t the answer somewhat self-evident?

The blogosphere is filled with people, such as myself, spouting off countless opinions about any number of subjects, but why does this make any one blogger’s opinion more important than another’s? The only thing that makes a personal blogger “important”, which is really just to say they are more popular, is that their opinions resonate with a larger group of people.

I have seen estimates that suggest the number of blogs in the world is now in the hundreds of millions. The question would be is “how many of them are actually useful?” Sure, a good number of them are nothing more than a way for a teenager to talk about the party they went to the night before, but how many of them are people such as me prattling endlessly about whatever it is in the world that annoys them?

This whole thought started for me when, Roy, an apparently former blogger now, IMed me about my entry from yesterday about Jamie Lynn Spears. Roy’s stance is that my talking about the media coverage of the younger of the Spears’ sisters is no better than the media themselves discussing her. My thoughts are that I am commenting on the way the story is presented, and not so much the story itself. Yes, I had to mention the story, but with no background, my thoughts on the matter would have been meaningless to those who has somehow escaped the story.

My thoughts are that if no one ever says anything, how can there ever be hope for change? If no one points out the silliness in the world, people will go on thinking that it is perfectly okay to carry on with the status quo. Don’t get me wrong, I have no delusions about the readership of my blog, I don’t think that the head of some huge news organization is sitting around going “Oh no, SeanPAune.com is saying that we are silly to cover this! STOP ALL COVERAGE OF IT!” If no one puts it out there, how will anyone ever know?

Along this line of thinking, Roy, sent me a link on FourHourWorkWeek.com about how blogging is turning everyone into self-important egoists who think that their opinion is more important than others. (The entry also suggests how we should return to punching people for being asses, but I think that’s a bit over-the-top) And, again, I must say that I have no delusions about my place in the blogosphere. I am just some guy with a lot of opinions; some of them are right, some of them are wrong.

It probably is at least a little self-centered of me to think that this blog matters more than a whisper-in-the-wind to the vast majority of people. Heck, it probably doesn’t matter even to the majority of people who are kind enough to stop by and read my incessant ramblings, but it makes me feel better. There is nothing I say on this blog that I wouldn’t say to someone’s face, but that’s just the kind of person that I am. I have never been one to sit back and let foolishness go by without questioning, this blog merely gives me a way to vent my frustrations in a more public fashion. It also reminds me of when I first started my LiveJournal account and I named it “One man’s silent screams into the void”. I know I am rallying against the wind, as are most bloggers.

If I ever decided to start sharing my views on politics and politicians, it would make you long for the “good old days” where I just smacked around the likes of the media, Scientology, and the RIAA. I know it will come as a shock to some of you, but I do actually restrain myself somewhat in what I write about.

I hope that at least a small percentage of my posts add to the “signal” as opposed to the “noise” that is out there on the web nowadays. And I also hope that at least a few of the things I say strike a chord with my readers, but if it doesn’t, then such is life. If I ever feel like I have become nothing more than “noise”, I will probably stop blogging all together… or at least make a blog post about it.

“Jamie Lynn Spears is pregnant!”

“Yes… we all know this, thank you mass media outlets.”

“Did you know she’s only 16?!?”

“Yes.”

“But did you also know her boyfriend is either 18 or 19?!? (we don’t know for sure…)”

“Yes… thank you, please go on to the next story.”

“But did you know we’re going to talk to either family and/or people who know them in their little town to get their opinion?!?”

“Did you know you make me want to take my own life?”

“This is important news!  She may lose her show, Zoey 101, over this!”

“Did you know I know over 50 ways to kill the next person who thinks this is a news story?”

There are over one million teen pregnancies in the United States every year, why is this one so special?  Well a) she has a sister named Britney who appears to be nuttier than a fruit cake b) she stars on a show popular with young girls.  Does this still make an over saturation by the media necessary?  Of course not, but as we have all seen over the past few years, the media latches on to anything that seems the least bit controversial.

Let’s face it, the Spears family, as a whole, is a train wreck, how about we stop drooling over every moment of their lives?  Jamie’s situation should be nothing more than a footnote in the entertainment news, it should not be on every channel at all times.

Yes, I constantly harp on this, and I also realize it’s not going to change any time soon.  In a report of the 25 most powerful people on the web put together by Forbes, #1 was Perez Hilton, the infamous celeb gossip blogger.  The biggest celeb on the web is someone who writes about celebs… how is that for a commentary on the state of the world?  (#22 on the list is Pete Cashmore, my boss at Mashable.com)

The world is filled with fascinating stories, and journalists feel compelled to talk about a teenage girl getting pregnant?  Something that happens countless times every day, but when you are the younger sister of a deranged pop star, that makes it newsworthy?  I just don’t get it.

The only thing I find remotely amusing this whole thing is how their mother was due to publish a book about how to be the parent of successful daughters… it is now on indefinite hold.

I’ve already told you that I’m loving my recently purchased BlackBerry 8830, but now I love it even more!

This week Google launched a fuller integration between current BlackBerrys and their apps.  You just need to point your mobile browser to m.google.com/sync to download everything.  Perhaps a few of these items were available before and I just didn’t know it, but I’m loving it.

I can now update my calendar either on Google or the BlackBerry and they auto-sync with one another whenever possible.  No hookup to the computer, nothing to press, just set it once and the software will do the rest for you.  I now have my calendars constantly updated, which has always been one of my biggest complaints with PDAs.

The one that blew me away was using Google Maps.  It hooked into my phone’s GPS and automatically showed me where I was with all the usual bells-and-whistles, including the ability to fetch traffic reports.  (something you really need in my rural town…)  I’ve also got a really slick interface for my Gmail account now also.

Non-Google related, but still nice, I added TwitterBerry this week.  As I mentioned, I am using Twitter more now, I can now post updates without the short code, as well as check my Twitter feed on the go.  Yes, yes, I know most people use Twitter just for fun, but I’m actually using it for my blogging jobs, and it has led me to a couple of articles already.

It’s nice to have so much of the web in my pocket any time I need it.  Sure, I’m not going to do casual surfing this way, but overall I’m loving the expanded functionality I’m getting.

I’m taking part in the Group Writing Project over at Daily Blog Tips, and I’m going to publicly state my blogging goals for 2008. Some of you may remember a similar project awhile back when I did a post about 3 Ways To Get Me To Not Visit Your Blog Again.

This feels a bit like setting New Year’s Resolutions for my blog, and like those very same goals we all set for ourselves, it is unlikely I will succeed at all of them. I hope I’m wrong, but one never knows with something as mercurial as the world of the Internet what will change over the next year, or what might even shit in my own life.
As was stated in the initial post about this project, you need to set measurable goals for yourself and your blog, other wise how will you ever know you succeeded? That being said… I have at least a couple of goals that are not really measurable. heh

Measurable

Daily Page Views - Daily page views have more than doubled over this same time last year, but considering how low the numbers were back then, that’s not saying much. I would like to see another increase of around 50% (I know that sounds huge… it’s not) by this same time next year. To accomplish this I am hoping to improve my SEO skills, which in turn should improve my search engine placement. I’ve learned a lot about more effective blog marketing this year from working for other blogs, and I am hopeful to apply some of these tips and tricks to myself in the coming year.

Google Pagerank - Somewhat of a mystery to everyone it seems, but I want to study up on it some more to lift my rank. I am currently a PR4, I would love to be a PR5 by this time next year.

RSS Subscribers - Depending on how Feedburner is feeling on any given day, I have around 30 subscribers. I would like to hit 54 by the end of next December. I feel a 2-per-month quota is doable. As to how I plan to go about this:

• Post at least every other month about the benefits of RSS in easing your daily blog reading, including a link to my feed.
• Look into including an RSS subscription button in each post via a plugin, or CSS hack.

Social Bookmarking - This is an area I really have fallen down in. Though I have included links at the bottom of each post to ease a user’s job of bookmarking me to sites such as StumbleUpon and Digg, I need to be more proactive in writing content that people will actually want to save for later reference.

Immeasurable

Finding my niche - For too long I have meandered hither and from with my content. The idea that I could write about whatever was on mind my day that was just too enticing, and I gave in to it far too many times. So the time to settle in to just a couple of subjects has probably come, but picking those categories will be the tough part. I think my biggest problem is that everything I am passionate about (movies, music, tech, etc) are already extremely well serviced markets. However, that doesn’t mean there isn’t still room for another well focused blog, it’s just a matter of buckling down.

Improving my personal skills - Let’s face it, I am merely a passable writer.  If I’m ever going to get anywhere with blogging, I need to improve my game.  To this end I have purchased several books on grammar, by far my weakest area, and hope to get through those early this coming year.

New design - I have hired a designer to come up with a new theme for this blog. I haven’t seen any test shots yet, but the basic brief from me to her was “I like what I have, I just want it to be different”. It will still be 3-columns, but the overall look will be getting a new coat of paint in the near future. Hopefully a unique theme, and some freshness will entire more visitors and RSS subscriptions.

Hopefully I will be able to achieve these goals.  They seem modest and doable, but one never knows what the future holds for them.  If you’re a blogger, what are your plans for the new year?

No, this isn’t my typical entry, but I had to share my thoughts on this.

As I’ve been cruising Wal-Mart as of late (usually at 1 AM or so as I like to avoid interactions with customers there as much as possible… part of small town living), I’ve spent a lot of time in the toys section checking for G.I. Joes… damn that addiction, and during those trips I’ve spotted the High School Musical 2 dolls, and, you know… the Gabriella Montez doll kinda makes me fear for kids. While I’ve never watched either of the movies, nor do I plan to, but I am aware of the actress who plays Gabriella is Vanessa Anne Hudgens.

For those unaware of the situation, Ms. Hudgens, decided to take some risqué photos in lingerie… and some not… in her bedroom, and somehow, they MIRACIOUSLY got on to the Internet. (funny how celebs keep losing those things, isn’t it? If you want to see them, Google her, I’m not linking) Admittedly, she was over 18, but being under contract to Disney, a company that promotes so many family values, kept her under contract for the third film, and continued to release merchandise based on her character.

Honestly, if this was any other 18-year old, working for any other company, I wouldn’t blink an eye. However, when you’re under the Disney banner, I would hope your brain might kick in and you would think “Hey, you know, I have millions of little kids looking up to me, maybe I shouldn’t take these pictures…”, but, alas, no, Ms. Hudgen’s brain didn’t kick in, and she did it anyway.

So, now you have all these kids looking up to a women with highly questionable decision making skills. And, hey, they can take home a doll of her! “What are you playing, honey?” “Vanessa Anne Hudgen’s bedroom, mommy… now say cheese!”

Oh well, I guess it could be worse. I mean, it’s not like she’s a 16-year old lead actress on a popular kid’s show like Zoey 101, who happens to be the kid sister of a famous nut job singer… oh crap.

We’re in week 7 of the Writer’s Guild of America (WGA) strike.  And we have a new wrinkle: The late night shows on NBC are coming back without the writers.

It seems the Peacock network is holding the support staff of and  The Tonight Show With Jay LenoLate Night With Conan O’Brien hostage.  If the shows did not return on January 2nd, strike resolution or not, the staffs of both shows would be released.  You really can’t hold the hosts accountable here.  It was either stand by their morals or see their staffs of 80+ people per show be jobless.

The Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers (AMPTP) and the networks are playing dirty at this point.  They are at fault for the talks breaking down, and they are still endeavoring to make the writers look like the bad guys.  Sorry, but I just don’t see it that way.  I know… I’m bias.  Oh well, so sue me.  David Letterman is pondering coming back, but he is in a different position as his writer’s are actually in favor of his returning to work so he can state their cause.

As we are going in to the holidays, there is little hope of the strike ending before 2008, and that means most of the prime time shows that ran out of episodes are done for the season.  Hope you enjoyed what we got.

Well, new to me at least. These are in addition to the ones I posted about before. I discovered these by a post on Daily Blog Tips linking to a post about 50 must have plugins on QuickOnlineTips.com.

Admin Drop Down Menu - Finally, the admin menus as drop downs! Instead of clicking on “Manage” and then what I need, I can just jump there directly.

Instant Upgrade - This one I am still working on setting up, but as someone who installed WordPress on his own, I have to do all updates by hand also. It does get a bit tiresome. This is supposed to ease the process, and make it a bit more automatic.

Twitter updater - This will send an update to my Twitter based on posting new entries (such as this one) or when I edit an old one. The choice is totally up to you.

What about the other WordPress users out there?  What are some of your favorite plugins?

Okay, I think I’ve had my fill of blogging.

Since I got up today, it’s all I’ve done. BLORGE, Mashable, a new blog that hasn’t opened up yet, and now over here, and after here, I have more to do. It’s not that I mind the blogging as an act, but the fact it’s a seven day process, every week of the year. There is always blooging that needs to be done: Weekends, holidays, when you’re sick, when you’re healthy, the blogging is always there.

But, alas, it’s helping pay my bills, and it’s nice to be writing, but, darnit… I have a vague memory of this thing called “sleep”… I could be mistaken though… maybe I wrote an article about it?

As for the unopened blog… I can’t say anything about it until it launches next month. I left another job to give myself more time, but when this dropped in my lap, I couldn’t resist. I’m very excited about it, and I am anxious to share what it is, but everyone will just have to wait a couple of weeks to find out. I know at least one my regular readers here will be banging their head on their keyboard when they hear what it is…. this makes me smile, and for that alone, I can’t wait for that.

So, with all this blogging, getting inspired for posts over here has been a bit rough at times, what do you all do to get inspired? What part of your daily life makes you go “There it is… there’s my blog post!”?  Is there something you want to see me cover more?  Something I haven’t covered at all?  Help a brother out here!