Catharsis of the Bogue

Oddities, Profundities, Profanities and Dad Stuff

Category: Blogging (Page 10 of 26)

Break out the bubbly! COB is one year old!

May 27, 2014 / / 1 Comment
Monkeys Blogging
Image via Wikipedia

hello all of you wonderful readers!  I ahve hit a milestone here at Catharsis of the Bogue.  It was 1 year ago today that I put up my first ever blog post on the internet!  That blog was on WordPress.com at the time and frustrated me because I couldn’t modify it enough and put ads so right after the first of the year I migrated to justinsbrainpan.com.

There have been so many good things to happen over this year.  I have met many many good people and learned so much about Blogging as a whole.  Sometimes I still feel like I am coming in at the tail end of the Blogging thing but other times I am right in the thick of it.

Things have changed around here since those first posts.  Now, there is not so much of a dear diary feeling, and I actually want people to read my stuff.  I think my writing has improved greatly.

I have received much help and suggestions from people who have come and gone during this past year.  I remember when I was celebrating 3 months, and then 6 months and a lot of my friends were only wraiths on twitter and no longer Blogging.

There are people who I have respected and learned a lot from who have decided that Blogging is not what they want to do anymore.  Yes, it is Nathan Hangen but I can only thank him for giving me so much drive and desire to create.  It was his…influence that started me on the podcasting thing.  Thanks Nathan, just one more thing to do.  I still want to blog though.

So what is in store for the future of this site?  For now, business as usual.  There will be some changes coming but they will be a while before implementing.   I never dreamed when I wrote that first “diary entry” that I would be here now, with 3 blogs, 3 partners and all of you readers.  This post will be number 200 on this site.  One of those is a guest post, the rest are mine.  There are also nearly 102,000 words written here, that is a decent sized novel.  And that doesn’t include the podcasts.  There will be more of those, as well as some fiction audio.  I think I am getting myself figured out now.

So, for all of you that have been here from the beginning, Thank You so very much for sticking with me.  For those who have recently come here, or even those who are visiting for the first time today, Thank You very much for being here.  I hope that you all stick with me for the next few years, ’cause I ain’t goin’ no where.

Thanks so much yet again, Poetry will resume next week!

-Justin

PS the comic up there means “There is nothing about Blogging!”

PPS. I dunno what the bbbwwwoggginngg crap is all about, that showed up on the site but it looks ok in edit mode….Blogging has been replaced..I will have to figure it out later I am taking my daughter to kidney clinic today and that takes a while…sorry for the wierdness

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Tweaking the Brain Pan!

May 27, 2014 / / 0 Comments

Hello all. Time is not being my friend lately. I am getting behind on so many things. I am seriously considering some major changes to this site and my blog in general. Stay tuned for more, there may be another post this afternoon! In the meantime, would you kindly take a look at the Survey below regarding Fiction Saturday?  Don’t enter any email info, that is just from the plugin and not my list.  I am going to change this plugin after this survey is a huge and fantastic success.

[SURVEYS 1]

Thanks for continuing to support me and Catharsis of the Bogue! I have some exciting things planned for the near future.

Any additional comments are welcome in the form below!

Thanks, Justin

Should I sleep or Write more?!?!

May 27, 2014 / / 6 Comments

The time for bed approaches and I am trying to decide if I should give up and go to bed or keep writing posts! My body says tired, my mind says tired, the energy drink I had a while ago says Write you lazy bastard!  So I write.

Lately I have been working on organizing my day to get everything done that I need to.  I have discovered that I can’t just go all out and hope to get my blog maintained, posts written, house cleaned, family taken care of, and the “other” stuff done.

I found myself glued to the computer, reading blogs, trying to figure out where I am going to be able to open my rss reader, and all of a sudden it was time to get the kids from school and get dinner started.  Oh crap the laundry hasn’t made it downstairs yet.  Oh crappier, the dishes still have to be done…so that was the smell…did we eat lunch?

Yea, it was getting to be a mess.  I am working through some sort of “getting to writing procrastination” garbage that is not helping.  I am still getting my stuff done, just not how I want to.  I started to divide up the day and use the timer method that many others use.

I even got a special timer to help with this, I will have a review of that later this week.  It’s called the Gymboss, it’s beauty.  Anyway, it seems that the timer method is very much going to help get me organized.  I am splitting time into 2 hour blocks and devoting 30 minutes to each task.  At the end of the 30 mins, I have been just stopping and going to the next task.  It has been great to actually get some things done around the house.

Now I have to get time figured out to add in outdoor stuff.  Spring is coming to Utah and my yard needs some help.  If you know how to get rid of freaking grape hyacinth, let me know.

I think I am getting a good balance figured out.  Writing, emails, reading, commenting, maintenance, housework, outdoor work, writing, and blog posts.  A good way to fill a day.  I also realized that I have got to crank out some more fiction for my Saturday Series.  I have used the only 2 complete short stories that make any sense already.  Time to get writing some new stuff!

So now you all must be asking yourselves, how can I help.  Ok most of you are probably not asking yourself anything but when this post is going to end.  Soon I promise.  Here is how you can help.  Keep reading my humble blog, recommend it to your friends, your enemies, and that guy down the street who may have a use for it.

I am going to be running a poll this week about future posts that you may like to see.  I hope to get some great feedback from that.  I have decided to place the mailing list on pause for a bit, I will still make myself put out the newsletter every month but that will be about it.  Please sign up if you are so inclined, I will start putting up exclusive to the newsletter stuff starting in May.

Now for the big one, Please leave comments with how you organize your time so that you can get everything done that you need to do.  What things do you slack off on?  What do you give up on altogether?  I hope to get some great comments and be able to do a followup with lots of backlinks and credits.  Maybe a prize for the 17th commenter…

Of course if you feel so inclined as to write a ton of stuff and want it included, I am open for guest posts!  All you have to do is email me.

If you are reading this, you are fabulous!

-Justin

PS.  If you are reading this, you are incredibly patient.

PPS. If you are reading this, you are finally at the end!  Go comment and get on with your life!

Running Out of Either Steam or Caffeine

May 27, 2014 / / 8 Comments

Hello and welcome to Thursday!  I have to apologize for yesterday, domestic tasks needed to be taken care of  and the computer was few and far between.  Yet another reason for the pre-writing challenge and having a queue of posts built up.

An update on the challenge:  it has been nearly 1 week since the challenge started and so many of the participants are  producing fantastic blog posts and ideas.  I don’t have any posts written yet but the titles are in my drafts queue and waiting for fabulousness!  I have to let life catch up without losing focus and blowing off the challenge with procrastination.

So I am at the point in my blog where I can see many people giving up.  The novelty of the blog is gone and the work is really beginning.  Posts are still not hard to write, it is harder to get to the writing.  I can produce better content but is it fulfilling a need somewhere or just belching out crap from my brain that no one cares about?

I really feel like my posts are better with some facts and research in them.  I like to brag some about my blog and how it is doing.  Yesterday I did zero promotion on my blog.  Zero and my stat press recorded 48 visitors.  Today as I write this there have already been 12 visitors.  That tells me I have been doing something right.  My Alexa rank has gone from 12,850,206 on Feb1 to 1,149,880 today.  I am not obsessing with Alexa but many places look at it and it is a good universally compared to ranking.  People are looking from all over the world.  Alexa lists the UK, Philippines, and Australia on it’s list.  That is so freaking cool I can hardly contain myself.  I love the internet.  With all of this in mind, I really need to keep up with my posts and comments.

I haven’t been reading and commenting as much as I need to to bring more traffic in.  Like I said the “work” part of this online journey is really beginning.  I have to take a page from my buddy James at the infopreneur, (I talk about him a lot.  He is going to get a big head) and get my stuff in a pile.  That and write and comment!  I am approaching 2000 visitors to my site so I can’t give up now.  I am only 1 month away from the magical 3 and not being one of the statistics.

Yesterday was an interesting introspection for me.  I was catching up on housework and helping the kids with homework when I realized that all of the organization, prioritization, and time management stuff I have been reading and talking about is barely getting incorporated.  I have been doing the stay at home dad thing for quite a while now and I still try to figure out how my Mom always had it together and kept everything clean and running.

I don’t think I am running out of steam on my business, I just need to stoke the fire and get it flowing again!  Therefore, I need more caffeine and less excuses.

If you are reading this, you are awesome.  Pat yourself on the back and then go enjoy the day.

Justin

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