Hotel Mark

 Sorry I’ve been somewhat lax recently with updates What’s that old saying about the best laid pland of mice and men…It’s easy to get distracted from  things you enjoy doing if life throws issues in your path. I’ll upload more video’s soon, to at least provide music to listen to, in between my erratic ramblings. Kathleen Maher of the excellent website Diary of a Heretic tagged me for a meme, one word answers,  which I completed below. Thanks Kathleen, for thinking about me

Yourself: Distracted!

Your Partner: Sensitive
Your Hair: Unruly.
Your Mother: Heavenly
Your Father: Re-United
Your Favorite Item: Computer!
Your Dream Last Night: Hedonistic
Your Favorite Drink: Appletise!
Your Dream Home: Cyberville
The Room You Are In: Sparse
Your Fear: Reincarnation
Where Do You Want to be in 10 years: Happy
Who You Hung Out With Last Night: Not!
What You Are Not: Energetic
Muffins: Pardon?
One of Your Wish Items: Peace
Time: Unforgiving
Last Thing You Did: E-mail
What You Are Wearing: Black
Your Favorite Weather: Humid
Your Favorite Book: Stars Look Down (3 words allowed here I assume)
Last Thing You Ate: Chicken Burger
Your Mood: Perplexed
Your Best Friends: Dear
What Are You Thinking About Right Now: Cars
Your Car: Escort Encore
Your Summer: Busy
What’s on your TV: OFF
What Is Your Weather Like: Calm
When Was the Last Time You Laughed: Always
What is your relationship status: Single

Tagged; Footiam   Da Vinci  Laura Micheal  Jenray

After upgrading to the latest McAfee (I did not have a choice really) I am pretty suprised, and annoyed at the result. I’ve been using Mcafee for years, and despite many adverse reviews on the programme concerning mostly slowing down of your computer, I’ve always found it overall the best value internet security programme.

The real asset has been it’s non intrusive firewall, offering customisable firewall options, with no fuss, no unwanted prompts, and easily accessed logs. In the latest McAfee though, the option of having a separate firewall programme on it’s own is disabled. NO access to logs. Also, there is an irritating auto scan which starts every Friday, prolonging my start up by about five minutes at least, with no apparent means of canceling this schedule. What an absolute pain in the rear end

So next year I will rethink my security options. If anyone would like to relate their experiences of internet security programmes, please let me know.

Tags: Internet Security, McAfee, Firewall

A confession…today is my Birthday Firstly, here is some trivia, today in History, March 20th..

1727 Isaac Newton fied, aged 84.

1969 John Lennon married Yoko Ono in Gibraltar.

1990 Nambibia became an independant nation.

1999 Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones became the first to fly a hot-air balloon nonstop around the world.

And one year ago today I was seriously ill, and thought it was my last Birthday..I was later diagnosed with a Psoas Abscess, possibly they said as a result either of appendicitis attacking through the rear into my back muscles, or a bacterial infection, such as Staphylococcus aureus. What? Sorry, I guess that is a little unpalettable going into the Easter weekend, or any weekend, come to that! But the condition changed the direction of my life, indirectly, and one year on, during the week I got my final clearence from the Hospital, I guess I may allow myself a little introspection.

Which leads me to this blog. It would never have occured to me a year ago to start a website of my own… Some people have questioned my blogs focus, after all, it did start out as my life and music, later modifying to a reviews blog. Moreover though, this blog is about me, and the things I enjoy doing, people I admire. It’s a fact the guitar plays a major part here, as it has done for me for the past 30 years, and the main point of attention here.  I have a more focused blog on technology and the enviroment, but here I like to indulge myself

 I always thought of a blog as an online diary, to reflect the author. These days though, blogs have expanded,and cover many things, motivated a great deal by the desire of many people  to start a home based business. Niche marketing, advertising, SEO topics can be found in abundence. I am not going to make a fortune with this site. If I can make enough out of paid posts to cover my online activities, that will do me nicely. Therefore, I don’t need some self styled internet marketer to tell me my blog is not in the “niche” category… But if it covers the things I enjoy in life, for me it will never be “off topic”.

Many thanks to those of you out there who have supported me in my little corner of the web

Last week I played in public for the first time in nearly five years. Considering my rustiness, it went okay I THINK

I have always found it a problem, what piece exactly to begin with. Although I try to include some tremolo works in any performence, I dare NOT play these until my right hand is fully warmed up. So, for the record, my reportoire on the day was as follows;

Romance, Barrios Villiancico De Navidad, Reis Eterna Saudade, Tarrega Capricho Arabe, Recuerdos De La Alhambra, Myers Cavatina.

The venue was quite informal, so you will note these pieces are romantic in nature. Next performence I aim to include more classical guitar arrangements of Songs, such as Vincent, If I Fell, Something, and Killing Me Softly. On the classical front, Barrios Julia Florida, Piazzola Verano Porteno, Brower Cancion Del Cuna, Cardoso Milonga come into the reckoning. Also, I am working on some pieces by Peo Kindgren, who’s recently released CD, reviewed on this site, has been a great success, selling out at Amazon within two days of going into stock! In fact, they are having to print many more copies! Congrats to you, Peo…

I think at this point I’d like to do restaurant work again. The interim period has given me much time for reflection, and my personal experiences I hope will help to create a different musical perspective. If anyone has any tips on how they warm up before playing in public, or what pieces to play to begin with, please let me know…

Enjoying making music again

As previously mentioned, PayPerPost is proving to be an irritation to Google, who object to paid posts receiving links from websites with high page ranks. This has resulted in PR demotions for many sites. PayPerPost though have thought about this, and come up with a system called Real Rank, which is another way of ranking a blog, which the company is using to attract offers from Advertisers. The company has had talks with advertisers, and introducing this new method of blog rankings as an alternative to Google Page Rank, for blogs looking for posting opportunities.

PayPerPost has been a revalation to many bloggers, as a way of monetising their blog, both by writing internet commercials, and the related affilate programme. Currently, in their membership zone, members are quoted as having earned over $20,000 following their sign up to ppp!

It’s possible to write posts for ppp and also, through using their tools, be hired by advertisers directly, for the latter you do not even need an a ppp approved blog. The company has an efficient customer service, which is titled “customer love”. After opening a ticket, they normally respond to your requests within 24 hours.

Contrast this to the non exisistent customer service of Bloggerwave. If ppp represents the best for paid post opportunities, Bloggerwave must rank as the worst. They NEVER respond to either a message in their “contact form” or an e-mail to their so called “support”. I warned them before if they continue to fail to respond I would embarass them publicly with negative comments in my blog, so they cannot say they have not been warned. Bloggerwave are based in Denmark, but with no opportunites listed, no customer service response, no way of accurately assessing a blogs ranking, like Technorati, Alexa, Google, this represents ZERO chances of monetization.

So, if anyone is thinking of making some posts commercial, PayPerPost is surely the way to go.

Mert has worked hard to launch Bloghology, which is a pdf book, consisting of a collection of bloggers, their profiles, photos, and links to their best posts. Similar to an Anthology. Mert was kind enough to invite me to take part, and my interview can be downloaded from the link below;

:

Thanks Mert for all your hard work!

I’ve also been interviewed at a site called Peopleized. This site enables bloggers to create profiles, list all your websites, and increase exposure by inviting interviews, and receiving interview requests for yourself.

I hope to upload more videos next week, and maybe start a guitar tuition series for beginners.

I started work on my new site, dedicated to fiction and article writing. The main focus of this site is to serialise my late Father’s novel. The site’s categories will be each chapter of the novel and each post will be a sub division, or part of the chapter.

The work is a family saga set in late 19th centruy Wales, in Slate Mining industry, entitled “A Bugle For The New Day”. More details on; A Bugle For The New Day.

Footiam tagged me for a New Year Meme, so below is my contribution.

First the rule: Remove 1 question from below, and add in your personal question. Make it a total of 20 questions, then tag 8 people in your list, list them out at the end of this post. Notify them in their chat box that he/she has been tagged. Whoever does the tag is supposed to have blessings from all, sounds so much like a chain letter.

So here goes….

What color do you like most? Black

What in life do you fear the most? Reincarnation..In the next life I might come back as a City supporter!

Where is the place that you want to go the most? Mexico

Which part of you that you hate the most? None, I am glad to have all parts in Reasonable working order!

When you encounter a sad moment, what would you do? Reflect.

What are you afraid to lose the most? Peace of mind.

If you win $1 million, what would you do? Fix what’s wrong with my house, then buy another!

If you meet someone that you love, would you confess to him/her? Or would you keep it to yourself and observe from afar? Up till now I’ve kept most things to myself, so I would probably give it some time.

List out 3 good points of the person who tagged you. Footiam..Seems a person who I think can be a loyal friend, likes to travel and good company.

What are the requirements that you wish from your other half? Understanding, compassion, and to cook Pizza without Cheese.

Till now, what is the moment that you regret the most? No room in my life for regrets. I think to regret is also to regress.

Which type of person do you hate the most? Users.

What is your ambition? To make other peoples lives better for my own contribution.

What is the thing that will make you think he/she is bad? Cruelty.

If you had one wish what would you wish for? Peace to the world.

How would you celebrate new year? No special celebration. Always rueful reflection for unrealised dreams, interspersed with optimism for the future.

Name one of your body part your hubby or boyfriend tells you he adores. In this respect I must be hard of hearing!

It would be 2008 in a few days, do you have a new year’s resolution? No resolutions, I don’t make promises I might not keep!

If your better half is cheating on you, will you forgive him or her? To forgive is not to forget. Time moves on, as do people.

What keeps you awake at night? Sinus trouble at present!

Tony Lewis Kathleen Maher Dr. Nerdy Emma Alvarez Jade Merkal LaJanssen HarleyBlues

It’s that time of the year again, when New Year party going is mixed with nostalga. Myself, I’ve always taken an introspective view of the New Year, perhaps in keeping with my nature. ABBA’s song “Happy New Year” I think is perfect for the occassion, a reflective look back at what we leave behind, regrets over unfulfilled dreams, interspersed with optimism for the future.

Whatever our circumstances, we have to believe the coming year will be a good one, that our lives will improve. If we don’t start with optimism, what else is there left for us..

On a personal note, I’m working on some recordings, first time in a while. Wherever you are reading this from, I wish you all a very Happy, Healthy, Prosperous New Year

Tags: Happy New Year, ABBA