Patrick Says

I created this category and have only used it once. About overdue, so here you go.

Today’s spotlight is on My First Dictionary. This site is hilarious. The idea is to take those child dictionaries and change the definition to something wholly inappropriate, but nonetheless funny. Some of them are very warped, but I love that kind of thing.

By the way, I just searched my site and found that I have highlighted this site before. But since I’ve written most of this post, I’m not deleting it. It’s just that good of a site. Go visit and get a laugh. They also have contests where readers can write their own definition.

Anyway, before I drift off into discussions about office furniture, I’ll wrap this post up. Thanks for reading!

Lately, I’ve been thinking about blog advertising. Most of you know I do stuff on this site to earn money. In the interests of transparency, I have a disclosure policy. It’s important to me that you know my opinions are, and will always be, my opinions.

But getting back to the original thought…

I have used Amazon banners, AdSense, even Project Wonderful to try and create a revenue stream with advertising. Sadly, most of them have been unsuccessful. I think the problem with banner ads, in general, is that people just don’t click ads anymore. It’s either because they are more tech-savvy or they are just scared, but they don’t click. I can’t think of the last time I clicked a banner ad.

Recently, I was reading an article over at Dad Blogs (by Joeprah) about Text Link Ads and Linkworth. I’m thinking of giving Linkworth a try. So let me take a minute to thank all my readers for sticking through my frequent banner ad changes. Someday, I’ll stick with one. (Okay, who am I kidding?)

While driving into work this morning, a car driving in the opposite lane flashed his lights at me. I knew immediately what that meant. I slowed down to the speed limit and starting looking around. About a half mile up the road, there was the cop.

But are we passing this tradition on to the new drivers? Because I don’t see the flashing headlights as much as I use to. And it’s important.

It’s us against the cops on traffic violations. If somebody is breaking into my house, I’m all about the cops. But you’re going to play heck giving me a ticket if I can avoid it. So, pull aside your young drivers and make sure they know the deal: if you see a cop, when you get far enough from him that he won’t notice, you hit those flashers. It’s the right thing to do.

I’ve been thinking a lot about this blog lately.
And my lack of posting.
I’m not proud of it.

But more than that, I’ve been thinking about the purpose. Why do I have this blog? What did or do I hope to achieve through putting this stuff out there? I got nothing on that. I don’t know why I do this. It used to be easier when times weren’t so hard. I tried to make funny. This blog was a vehicle for me to hone my skills as a humorist.

But then all the stuff went down with the medical crises. And the humor got sucked right out of this blog. It became a forum for me to rant or whine or tell you about how awful things were. And believe me, I get how boring that crap is to read. I don’t want to read that on someone else’s blog. Why would I want to write it on mine?

So, I’m back to why do I do this?

And I guess the answer is that I desperately want to feel like I’m part of a community. I want to believe that you all care about my problems. The reality is that everyone has problems and we’re all trying to deal with our own problems. We don’t need someone else’s grief to add to it.

What am I actually saying? I guess I’m saying that I’ll try not to bore you to death with my problems. But I can’t make any promises.

(Also, I may randomly talk about things like blackhead treatments or waffle irons or dogs with three legs or…you know. Stuff like that.)