Several people have said to me recently that they follow, or would follow, my writing here occasionally, but...
I write too often, or
They want to learn about me present before me past, or
They only sometimes have time, or
They don't remember to check, or...

There is a simple solution to all these and more.
I don't really add posts very often.
When there are many within, say, one month, they all tend to be very short (like recently).

But when they build up, of course eventually it gets to be a lot to read.

But there is this great free service, called blog alert.

I made it really easy: just put your email address in the little box in the top left corner of this page.

They will not ever spam you.  I swear.  I know, because I use the service myself for all of the other blogs I follow (you can set it up for any site with an RSS feed).
I will have no idea that you signed up, and no idea if you cancel later.
They will send a single notification per day, only on days where there is new content (I make it a rule to never post more than once a day anyway).
You can cancel anytime, using the link in each notification email.

I notice a good number of people have set to follow me.
I have absolutely no intention of becoming a Twit.

I signed up to Twitter so I could follow other people.

Ok.  I'll be honest.  So I could learn more about one specific person.  And I figured while I was here why not follow all of my friends?

The best way to learn of the various things going on in my life and mind would be my blog.  I only update it once or twice a month, but when I do they are (usually) much more in depth, (or, to look at it another way - you have to read more than 140 characters, but I only write once or twice a month).
You can sign up for it using the little box in the corner, and it will email you when there is something new.
For short blips there is my Gmail-integrated-chat-status-message.  Surely you are using gmail by now?  Add me to your chat list and there you will get my random character limited thoughts and quotes and updates and such.

My friend/co-worker, upon hearing about my truck project, encouraged me (repeatedly) to do a write up for the do-it-yourself website Instructables.com
As it happened, I was working on consolidating my blog posts on the topic for the hypermiling websites from which I had originally gotten most of the ideas I've been implementing.
So I followed the link he sent, signed up, and reformatted the posts to be appropriate for the popular how-to site.

The site was new to me, so it took basically all day figuring out the features and making changes to the content and pictures and tweaking various things.  Comments started coming in, and I responded to the comments, and then a site administrator must have seen it and liked it because before the first day was over I was promoted to a "featured" item, which meant my post was put on the site's homepage.

And the views took off.  By day two there had been over 4000 views, and it was moved to the "popular" section of the homepage.
Right now (3 and half days since I published) its up to 6415 views and over 50 comments.
One of which was: "I think I might play the aero game on my car now!"

That's the best compliment I could get. If I encourage just one person to drive a little slower, or even do some mods, writing all this up will have all been worth the effort.

It's one thing writing on my own blog, or on a hypermiling website, but introducing these ideas to the general population, that is gratifying.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Vehicle-efficiency-upgrades/

I would like to point out that in January of this year, I wrote about houses not being a sound financial investment.

Popularly "sub-prime" is thought of as referring to lending to people with poor credit history.  In fact, 61% of sub-prime borrowers had a credit rating high enough for a traditional loan.  The middle class tend to be at least as guilty of living beyond their means as the working class.  21% of those making over 100k a year say they live paycheck to paycheck.
At the time I wrote the blog an unprecedented number of people were deliberately buying houses grossly out of their means using interest only loans (which would never be paid off, by design) on the assumption (by both the consumer and the bank) that the housing market would continue to climb at the rate it was forever. 
That climb, however, was driven mainly by that very speculation, valuable only due to popularity.
This summer, 6 months later, so many people were defaulting on their loans that it affected the entire credit industry, and by extension, the entire economy.

I have an associates degree in economics.  How is it that I was able to see this, yet no one in the dozens of banks and credit institutions, nor the rest of the financial sector was?  Or perhaps were they just confident that friends in the white house would help out with tax payer money?

Stay tuned for the coming of my more direct predictions.

I just discovered a website which allows bloggers to easily add a feature so that readers can receive email updates when a new entry is posted, rather than using RSS feeds or randomly checking for new posts.

Alternatively, it can be used by readers to receive emails, even if the author hasn't set it up.

I just added one here. See, there it is, right at the top of the page, on the left!

for authors:
http://www.shootthebreeze.net/blogalert/myAlerts.php

If you can not access your source code, see if you can add a "custom script" to your side bar items.

for readers:

http://www.shootthebreeze.net/blogalert/
pretty straight forward, just do it once for every blog (or other RSS item) you want to follow

Its free.
Enjoy!

I wrote some months ago about this same thing, but this time its even more extreme.

On my original MySpace blog, I have reached over 5,000 page views.
Its been 2 and a half years, 125 entries.
5.5 views per day, on average (although, of course I don't write nearly that often.  More accurately, about 40 views per entry)
9 readers.
That would be, on average, 570 views per subscriber, or 4.5 views per blog.
But why would you read each one 4 times?
So then are actually 4 times more readers, who haven't "subscribed"?
Kind'a seems like a lot.
Who are they?
Why won't they leave a comment?
This is what I asked last time.

My new blog, on my website server, has only been up since Feb. of this year.
8 months ago.
It has over 10,000 hits
(I was planning to write this at 10,000, but by the time I noticed, it was already up to 10,200)
33 new entries since then.
Over 40 hits per day, average.
80 per entry, assuming people reading the new one went back and read every single past one.
300 views per entry if people only read the new ones as they are posted.
And presumably my MySpace readers are still reading on MySpace, since they get automatic updates when there is a new entry which they can access by just clicking the link in the email.
So that eliminates 9 (or 40) people.
I can think of a few obvious people I know are probably checking for updates on the biodieselhauling server now and then.
But not 80-300.
Maybe extra because of checking when there is nothing new. 4 times per day?  I can't even think of 10 people.

So.
I ask again.
Who are you?
Write in the comment section.
I am so curious.

I never set out, intended, nor expected to become a representative of the environmental movement, an activist, or really anyone special at all.
As I mentioned in blogs past, I believe the most significant and positive thing we can do to be responsible citizens is to truly live each of our own individual lives as close to our own principals as we can. I believe this makes more real difference than all of the shouting, the signs, the email letters to representatives. If everyone just did their own little part, there would cease to even be a need for the grand gestures.
And yet, as it turns out, apparently living by my modest principals has propelled me into this role without my having to try.

In just the past couple weeks:

-I have been offered the position of vice-president of the board of a (not yet in existence) children's library, collectionlibrary.org/ (I am the only member of the board with neither an advanced degree nor related education and/or non-profit experience)
-I was interview for a grad student's thesis (ok, granted, those first two are somewhat related)
-I was filmed by faircompanies.com and have 3 short video interviews which touch on my home, my vehicles, and my business
Home
Transportation
Business
-I presented the awards (and gifts) to the team in Alameda county which logged the most commute miles during bike-to-work month last May (when I also volunteered, packing gift bags as well as at one of the energizer stations) at the Dublin city council meeting (the winner's were all employees of the City of Dublin)
-I had the domain I originally wanted for my website biodieselhauling.com/ donated to me by the previous owner - despite my specifically requesting to pay for it, on the grounds of his liking what I am doing with it
-Soon I will be running yet another free bicycle parking station at a local event artandsouloakland.com/ yet another thing which I am not quite sure how I ended up doing.
-And with any luck, I'll end up a member of the Oakland Bike Patrol btceb.org/bikepatrol.php which is mostly an excuse to get me to ride my mountain bike more, but is also because, believe it or not, I kind of miss my old job as a private security guard sometimes - I actually got to help a lot of people.

You know what I always say: "Volunteering is for suckers. Did you know so called volunteers don't even get paid?" (Homer Simpson)

[entire blog at MySpace]

oh, wait - yes they do.

Since I AM biodiesel hauling.

However, this in no way is even remotely related to the business.

I just figured that since I am paying for web server space, I may as well host my own blog.

The first couple dozen entries were originally Craigslist Rant&Rave postings, rewritten for my MySpace blog, and everything after that is from my MySpace blog (except where noted, mostly letters to the editors).

This way, if MySpace suddenly explodes, I don't lose all my old thoughts forever.  Not unless the entire internet crashes at once.

Come to think of it, maybe I should print this stuff out too...

I say "have a good night"

They respond "enjoy your weekend"

It sounds pretty stupid, but somewhere in the back of my mind, I always feel like maybe they are trying to show me up with a superior salutation (wait, does that mean greeting? what is the term for goodbyes?)
Like I should say "on yeah, well enjoy your whole week! Have a good month!!!! I hope your whole life is filled with meaning, pleasure, and goodness - motherfucker!"

These thoughts would not occur to normal people would they?


Here is an unrelated question.
I have asked it before, but no one ever answered it.

I have 7 readers (one of the 8 is really me)
This blog has supposedly been read 16 times today, and 95 this week, although there have only been 2 posts.
Who are you? Where did you find me? Why don't you ever comment? Or are the same 7 people refreshing the page over and over and over, 13.5 times each, (or is it all Beth, who mentioned doing something like that once, refreshing the page 83 times this week?)
On average each post has had 26 views. Maybe thats normal. Someone must be reading this and knows the answer and refuses to tell me. You, whoever you are, are just so weird.



See my new profile picture? One of the earliest cars with the Tango. It probably won't be the car of the future, but it should be. 2 Passenger electric car, powerful, fast, full steel racing style roll cage, thin enough t lane split or park between 2 regular parking spaces facing the curb. The traffic jam would go the way of the model T.
Unfortunately, the reasonably affordable models are only concept cars until they get more funding.

George Cloony bought one of the first of their top of the line sports models.



hour and a half till I get to go home...

It must have been that I started writing these meaningless silly ones, sort of like this one, instead of the constant barrage of opinionated, angry, political/philosophical crap I started out with, that whole "Chapter #; in which..."

800.  Wow.  Really wish I could see who all these people are. 
I barely know 8 people, are they reading them over and over, or have I somehow caught the attention of total strangers? 800 views of 50 posts, that's an average of 16 each!  Now I need only adding in sublminial messages, and before long I could - dare I say it?- RULE THE WORLD!
Mwah HA HA HA HA HA!!!!!!!!!!


-edit-
2 more!  already?  how is this possible?  Does the mere act of posting count as a "view" by myself?  And even then, who's the other one?  Just now?  in the time it took me to post the above blog?  WTH?  who are you?  why don't you ever comment?  yabadahlieoto?!?! what is the smiley icon for confused? hows that?