Posted in Computers & Internet | Tags: Blogging, | Archive | 10 Comments »

Which people know about your blog and how private are you when you’re blogging?

My blog is pretty much out in the open so to speak. My friends read it, my family knows about it and I’ve got it linked on pretty much every social network site I’m a member of. Even if I prefer that some people stay away from my site I make no attempt of hiding my identity here. In the end no matter how hard you try to be private and secretive the truth is that everything on the internet can be found by anyone.

Since my site is no secret that of course limits what I feel comfortable blogging about. I go after the motto “If you can’t say it to their face don’t say it online”. That means I don’t trash talk people online unless I’m in a open conflict with them. It also means that I don’t blog about sex because I sure as hell wouldn’t want my parents to check out my site and find blog posts about my sex life! The most important thing with this policy is that I keep parts of my life private. You wouldn’t tell anyone just anything about yourself would you? And you sure as hell wouldn’t want someone you dislike to know private things about you? Still lots of people blog about just about everything going on in their lives even though with luck or determination anyone can find it. One last thing I don’t blog about is what’s going on with people I know because that’s just rude. Who am I to expose their lives?

How private are you on Facebook? Are you one of those who keep their profile private?

My Facebook profile can be viewed by anyone. I figure everything that can be found on my Facebook can be found on my site so what’s the use keeping it private?

With all this said I still prefer that some people never find my site or my Facebook profile. Just like I prefer some people to stay as far as way from me as possible in real life I prefer some people to stay as far as way as possible from me online.

Plugs: Joebs, admin, Samantha, Cecilie, Milla, Jessica, Clarity, Beara, maria

Posted in Photos | Tags: Blogging, Looks, My home, | Archive | 6 Comments »

My blog is under a porn spam attack. The WP anti-spam plugin I used was great but unfortunately it blocked a couple of regular commenters as well so I decided not to use it anymore. Perhaps it wasn’t such a good idea.

I bought a couch bed at the second hand store I work at. It’s black, from IKEA and costed me 200 SEK (19€) (28$). I donated my old couch to the second hand store and my bed is now stored in my basement storage room until dad takes it to the dump. Of course having to put the bed sheets in a closet every morning and then re-making the bed every night is a bit annoying. On the other hand one couch bed is better than both a couch and a bed. At least when you live in a apartment as small as mine. 28 square meters really isn’t a lot.

I need to dye my hair. Look at these roots. And look at the rest of the poser photos I took of myself today.

Plugs: Shar, Ivy, Kristine, Maria, Kimmy, maria

Posted in Site, Yada Yada | Tags: Blogging, Looks, | Archive | 7 Comments »

I hate to say it but it’s highly unlikely that I’ll blog as much as I’ve done in the past few months from now on. First of all except for work absolutely nothing happens in my life. And I do mean nothing. In the past month I’ve partied with my friends twice and that’s really the only thing I’ve done outside work and alone time in my apartment. Second of all working every day is pretty tiering and I don’t have the energy to do much when I get home.

I will however do my very best to blog every day. I really want to do so. I have a list of blog topics but it’s getting smaller since I haven’t had any new ideas in a while.

I’ll leave you all with a question. What the fuck is up with guys wearing big diamond stud earrings? Why, why, why would a guy want to wear something like this? I think it looks tacky.

Plugs: kitty, Alyssa, Vashael, maria, Mallory, Fatima, tiff k

Posted in Computers & Internet, Site | Tags: Blogging, | Archive | 19 Comments »

Since I started blogging more often the number of visitors to my site have increased with about twenty a day. That probably doesn’t sound like a lot but it’s not like my site’s ever been very popular so it’s a lot to me. I still wish my site would get more hits though but I just don’t have the energy to promote myself like some do. I don’t want to be Perez Hilton or Blondinbella (famous swedish blogger, who suck) but it would be nice to get more visitors.

At least even if I only have an average of 70 visitors a day there are people who return and comment my posts again and again. That’s what makes having this site so much fun. I still enjoyed having a site even when I had no more than maybe twenty visitors a day but quite frankly it’s a lot more fun now.

So a big thank you to all of you who visit me and find me and my average life interesting. Love ya!

Plugs: Marie Claire, Justin, Katie, Posts about Perez Hilton as of June 2, 2009 » The Daily Parr, Sharleene, Ivy, tiff k, maria, Nikkole, Laura, kitty, Jasmine, Elizabeth, Amanda, Jamie, Kristen, 85reddig, Chiui, Justin R

Posted in Computers & Internet | Tags: Blogging, | Archive | 15 Comments »

Something I really dislike is Pay Per Post and other paid blogging. When I visit a site I don’t want to read a post full of praise of some product or company written by someone who just praise it because they’re paid to. Some have the decency to at least let you know the post is advertisement but many don’t. Mostly it’s pretty obvious which is which but not always and when I read a blog I don’t want to have to guess what’s advertisement and what’s not. I feel like I’m being lied to when someone recommend something not because they actually like it but because they get money for doing so.

I do read blogs containing PPP but if I spot a paid post I skip reading it. And I know it’s easy money and that a lot of people are in desperate need of cash. I’ll never like the concept anyway. Me if anyone could use some money but I’ll never do paid blogging. I want my readers to be able to trust that what I write is nothing but my honest opinions. I’m not for sale.

I came across this site which offers a couple of cool “Ad-free blog” images which you can use on your site. I immediately put one in my sidebar.

What do you guys think about paid blogging? Do you do it yourself?

Plugs: Saturnine, Marie Claire, Maria, mohammed, maria, Elizabeth, Ivy, Katie, Jhoice, Gel, Mallory, Michelle, Sakura

Posted in Computers & Internet, Politics & Society | Tags: Blogging, | Archive | 11 Comments »

OMG! This is my sixth blog post in a week! Amazing! This blogging more often thing is really working out. Mostly because I put less pressure on myself to write about interesting stuff. After all this is my blog and I should write about whatever I want to. If others don’t find it interesting they don’t have to read it.

Today me and grandma talked on the phone for more than two hours. As usual we mostly talked about politics. Grandma is one of the few people I know who’s as interested in that subject as I am. When Obama won the election I called grandma at 4:30 in the morning to tell her about it. I was so happy and needed to talk to someone, who wouldn’t be upset by me waking them up at 4:30 to talk about the american election.

The best thing with grandma is that we agree on almost everything when it comes to how a country should be ran. That’s great since I really don’t like discussing politics with people of different opinions since I tend to get mad at them. That’s mostly because of my involvment in politics during high school I think. While debating opponants you didn’t have to be nice. The whole point of debating is to crush your opponant. And then of course it’s the fact that I simply think that people who don’t agree with me are stupid or at least not as well informed or nice as me. Socialism is all about solidarity. Can it get any nicer than that? No, it really can’t. Therefor I’m nicer than the right-wing people.

Soo… nowadays I avoid any subject which might result in me raising my voice and calling someone stupid. You’ve seen Paris Gellar in Gilmore Girls? That’s me discussing politics. Yeah, seriously.

But you know what? Even if I can’t debate it I can blog about it. And perhaps I will. I guess I’d bore at least half of you to death but yeah, this is my blog so I write about whatever I want to! Ha!

By the way, Lars Ohly (the leader of the swedish Left Party) is so good at debates. I love how he uses sarcasm to crush the right-wing parties arguments. Gotta love that!

Plugs: maria, Darnielle, Tin, Gel, Ivy, Jessa, Giza, Sakura, Harvey, Afef, Anna

Posted in Computers & Internet | Tags: Blogging, | Archive | 14 Comments »

The downside with having people actually following my blog is that it makes me pressure myself to always write something interesting. And quite frankly my life isn’t interesting at all. I keep wondering wether people will like what I write or not and it’s annoying. After all it’s my life and my blog and if people don’t care about what I’m writing then that should be fine. But I’m like this. I always have to be really good at everything I do and when it comes to blogging that means I have to write interesting things so I’ll get many visitors and comments. It’s stupid.

I remember back when I blogged at skunk.nu and there wasn’t even a comment function. I blogged almost every day for three years and during all that time I never knew if people actually read what I wrote. I just wrote for myself and since I never expected anyone to actually read it I wrote about everything and nothing. It was pathetic, whiny and full of self pity but at least it was for me and nobody else. I never thought “no, I can’t write that because people will find that story boring”.

But even if I decide not to care about what others think of this blog I still have nothing to write about. Because my life really is boring. It’s even boring to write about! I mean, what can I say about today? I went to work. I worked. I went to the grocery store with dad. I went home and now I’m sitting in front of the computer. Sometimes my life is fun but right now it’s very slow.

Plugs: Niki, Ashley, Tara, Jhase, Laura, kat-pinksesa :'), Kaylee, Panda, maria, Mihoriel, tiniwini, Gel, Becky, Jane

Posted in Computers & Internet | Tags: Blogging, Web Design, | Archive | 16 Comments »

My life is boring so I can’t really write about what I’ve been up to. It would go something like this: “Work, school, cleaning, laundry, home work, watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer, reading”. And there it is. My week. So let’s just leave that sad subject and move on. I’ve been thinking about what to blog about for days and just a minute ago I finally got an idea. I’ve been webdesigning for nine years and blogging for eight so I know some stuff about that. So here’s a tip blog.

The wonderful world of websites and blogs. Not a expert guide but still some kind of guide.

The Making
1. I know a lot of people use dreamweaver and similar programs but I don’t reccomend it. If you want to understand your code you should try to code it by hand. It’s not that hard to learn. I promise!

2. Validate your site. Take the time to check if your code is correct with a validator. There are several different browsers to choose from today. Some of them display uncorrectly coded sites correctly but others are more picky. Explorer tend to show the most terribly coded site correctly while Firefox and Opera wants you to actually use correct code. Why? Well why would you want to use correct spelling and grammar? Becuase a language has rules and so does HTML.
You can validate your HTML here and your CSS here.

3. Identify your target group and adjust your site according to it. If I for example were to write a really serious blog about art history I wouldn’t use this layout. I’d make a more toned down and “serious” layout. Not one featuring Emilie Atumn, crows and lots of hearts.

4. Make your site user-friendly. If you have a menu with links to other parts of your site make sure that menu is clearly visible. My site could definitely be more user-friendly. For example I have way too much stuff in my left menu making it look cluttered and I use a way too small font. I think it looks pretty. But it’s not user-friendly.

5. No background music! Of course you think your taste in music is just greeeat but not everyone will agree with you. It’s annoying visiting a site playing some nasty music you hate. Espescially if you’re listening to your own music in Winamp.

Getting your site online
Got no money? Try getting hosted. There are lots of people offering hosting for free. What I did was getting hosted for free and then buying a domain name. I “lived” at iskall.nu/~carnelian but I had my domain name www.whirlwind.nu which worked as a redirecting adress.

Getting visitors
Make yourself known to the world! You can’t just sit around and wait for people to discover your blog. Visit other peoples sites and leave comments, do link exchanges, join rotations, join site rankings, join commenting communities. Let people know you’re out there!

Choosing a blog tool
If you have a personal site with a blog you might want people to be able to comment you. I’ve tried three different blog/commenting tools.

1. Haloscan. If you prefer to code your blog by yourself I reccomend Haloscan which is a commenting tool. With one line of code you place a link which opens a small pop-up window where people can leave you comments. My personal opinion on Haloscan is that it’s great if you want to do as much of your coding as possible by yourself. The pop-up is annoying though.

2. CuteNews. If you want more than a commenting tool you could try CuteNews. With cutenews you log into the cutenews site and blog from there. No manual blog coding and FTP:ing needed. And it has a categories feature. Cutenews is kind of a light version of Wordpress. Less advanced but also with less functions. What’s great about it is that’s it easy to understand.

3. Wordpress is a complete blog management tool. With it you can create archives, categories, tags, comments and lots more. You log into your WP control panel and blog from there. No manual blog coding or FTP:ing needed. The downside of Wordpress is that it’s quite hard to grasp at first. You need quite good coding skills to use it. Or LOTS of time. Once it’s up and running it’s smooth and fast though. I have to admit that I hated it to begin with and still don’t really love it but I’m used to it now. I think it’s too automatized but if you like things easy (once it’s up and running) Wordpress is the thing for you.

Visit my new affiliates Gel, Sophie and Nova!

Plugs: Niki, marian, Ashley, Gel, Marie Claire, Marquis, tina, katie, Fatima, nikkole, Amber, Mihoriel, Veronica, Deanna, Jane, sarah b

Posted in Computers & Internet, Site, Yada Yada | Tags: Blogging, Web Design, | Archive | 31 Comments »

I just noticed that the scar on my ear looks like it’s turning into a keloid scar. Fuck! I got a 2 cm long scar on my ear and a 3 cm long on my cheek close to my ear after a incident when I fell into a barbed wire fence. I was walking with a dog who suddenly started running. I wasn’t prepared for that and I was basicly dragged along, slipped in the mud and bang hit my head in the wooden part of the fence and ripped up my ear and my cheek on the barbed wire. At first I thought I had a huge hole in my head or something because there was a lot of blood. After some cleaning of my hair and ear I saw that it wasn’t more than some nasty cuts. Some band aids and a tetanus shot later I was fine but the incident left those two scars of which one now looks like it’s turning into a keloid. Fuck fuck fuck! Basicly keloid scars are scars that grows out of their boundaries. They become thick and not so pretty looking. Thank god at least it’s just a scar on my ear and not in my face.

Damn, three blog posts in less than twelve hours. Amazing. Usually I only blog once or twice a week. I should keep this up. Oh and my site is getting more and more visitors. Not everyone comment of course but it’s nice to know that a lot of people at least visit me. The best thing is that I’ve got a lot of returning visitors. If people come back over and over again that must mean I’m doing something right here. I just love my site. I’ve been doing this for so many years now and I’m proud of how much I’ve managed to learn all by myself. I started building my first web page in the spring of 1999 with the help of a n00bs guide to webdesign kinda book and here I am nine years later still building web pages. Nowadays using CSS, XHTML and a tiny bit of PHP. Back in 1999 I had this crap site coded in HTML without any CSS whatsoever with frames and a code so messed up just thinking about it gives me nightmares. I’m sure that I’ll in a couple of years think back on my coding skills in 2008 and laugh. I feel like I’m constantly improving with both the coding and the layouts I create in Photoshop. I still want to study web design though because to get somewhere with this a grade from school stating what I can do is good. Plus there’s still lots of things left to learn. I’m not an advanced coder since I’m clueless when it comes to PHP and SQL and that has to change.

Still watching “My So-called Life” but I reeeally should go to sleep now.

EDIT: Meet my new affiliates Luisa and Amberlynn and my new link exchangee Sushy !

Plugs: Becca, Amber, Marie Claire, Matt, Monet, Sushy, Olivia Kitty, Suz, Candygirl, Nanao, Anna, Justin, maria, tina, luisa, Belinda, Shawna, clare, Ashley, Emma, jinky, Jenna, Sean, Pim, sara, lk, Marsha, Afef, amy, Fatima, Louise

Posted in Computers & Internet | Tags: Blogging, | Archive | 6 Comments »

A lot of people keep their blogs secret to their families and IRL friends. Sometimes I wish nobody I know IRL knew about this blog because then I could rant about anything and anyone. If I was annoyed with a friend or one of my siblings I could write about it here and they’d never read it and be hurt over me speaking my mind about them. Although even if you keep your web page and blog secret chances are someone you don’t want to see it will stumble upon it and read things they’re not supposed to read. How hard is it really to find someone through google? I’m a curious person and sometimes I google people I used to know way back and a couple of times I’ve found their blogs and read up on their current lives. I try to keep the most personal details about my life private and I never rant about other people unless they really have it coming. I wouldn’t want my parents to visit my web page though. It’s full of embarassing photos of me being drunk and silly and pictures of what my parents porch really looked like after the parties I held there while they were away. I don’t think they visit my web page though. I’ve implied that I don’t want them to.

Do people you know IRL know about your web page and blog?

Plugs: Amy, aileen, Jason, Cecelia, maria, Maria