Oddities, Profundities, Profanities and Dad Stuff
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Hello everyone! So I went fishing for the first time this year this past weekend. Didn’t catch anything but a whole potload of mosquito bites. Anyway, way back when we were studying Keats in school and the “Ode on a Grecian Urn” caught my attention more for the title than anything else.
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I love to fish. I would be fishing now if I wanted to be cold. Most of the lakes and rivers are still somewhat frozen here in Utah. I am getting that spring bug though.
I was at Walmart the other day looking over the sporting good section like I usually do and it got me thinking. How much of this is what my grandpa used to call “bait for fishermen” and not worth the money to buy? Answer, most of it. There is so much of every type of plug, popper, spinner, spoon, crankbait, or gimmick that it is oerwhelming to look at.
Of course I have a bunch of gear but it is gear that I chose to buy for one reason or another, based onhow it my catch fish. I don’t have anything that looks like a beer can or a pile of junk. I have good colors and shapes that willhelp me catch fish. Period.
One of the best things that ever happened to me was when we moved. I lost all of my fishing gear except for my poles. as near as I can figure, my tackle boxes were lifted while I was loading up the truck. I have not noticed anything else missing. the only things I was not happy about losing were 2 of my good reels but, I guess someone else needed them worse than me. I hope they got into fishing because of it.
I have replaced everything that I wanted to and now have a kit that I am really happy with. I can’t wait to use it this summer.
I thought about all of this and how it applies to the internet. There is a lot of flash and bait on the net. I have it on my site in affiliate programs and I will have in the future for product offers. You can google anything and get millions of hits. The secret is guessing at the good stuff and leaving the garbage. There is plenty of both around the internet.
Sometimes it is beneficial to clean out the old stuff and start over. I have dumped my bookmarks in the past and started over. I am thinking about cleaning out my twitter. I am considering purging chaff from my RSS reader as well.
The only real advice I am going to give is this. Decide to do something and do it. Decide on a post idea, write it (time permitting). Decide to comment, do it. Decide to purge, do it. I am finally sick of myself putting things off and talking about doing things that never quite get around to happening. Now, I am doing it.
So, Go Do Something. NOW! Get out of here!
Justin
I don’t know if I can even express just how much I want to get outside. I have spring fever so bad it is not even funny. I know there are some around the country that are just happy to have it stop snowing. There hasn’t been snow in Salt Lake for over a month now, and the temps are near 50.
Perfect for fishing! I have got to get out and catch something. I wrote a couple of weeks ago about wanting to go fishing and how you can just have too much tackle to be effective. I still believe that I don’t need much stuff to go, just the time to do it. And my new pole. I received a new rod and reel in the mail the other day. The result of some contest I entered. While not the most expensive rod you can get, it is pretty darn sweet. I can’t wait to go try it out. I am really leaning towards this week and one of the community ponds that we have here.
I had that rod in my living room for a few days telling my wife that I just needed to get some line on it and I would put it away. I got a roll of brand new 8 lb test flourocarbon line, something I have never used before. I spooled it onto my reel. I resisted the temptation to tie on a lure and see if the fish in my aquarium would bite. One time I taped a fly on the outside of the aquarium just to watch the fish go crazy. It was great fun.
So now, my new rod lies dormant in the dark of my camping trailer. I can hear it calling to me. It is like Edgar Allan Poe’s The Tell-Tale Heart. I can hear it. I can feel it. I am pathetic. I need to go fishing.
What does this obsession have to do with blogging? This is the passion that is needed to power your blog from “just another blog” to something with a known name that people want to read. I keep referencing Ben at 6aliens.com and James at TheInfopreneur.net as well as Dave at website-in-a-weekend.net. No I am not getting paid to pimp their sites, they are just my inspiration in this whole blog adventure that I am undertaking. They are all great examples of tenacity and the passion that it takes to keep a site going and be successful. Now, I am defining successful here as many pageviews and comments.
James is a madman and posts up to 3 times per day! Ben is all over the net and besides content on his site he has regular guest posts on other sites. Dave is a savant when it comes to WordPress and has valiantly recovered from a hackers attack in the last couple of weeks. They are all still reading, posting and commenting all over the web.
That is what is worthy to emulate. Drive, passion. Making things happen. Paring down the crap out there and focusing on what counts for your blog, and your writing. It is about being like a kid before Christmas when a new plugin arrives that you just can’t wait to use.
It is about using new tools that you haven’t heard of before. It is about continuously refining techniques and your site until it works. Until people want to read what you write. Can you do it?? I am. I want to toss out a line to Blogistan and reel back in readers.
I can’t wait to write more and read everything in my RSS reader. If you are reading this you rock! Check out my Pre-Writing Challenge page to track progress on that.
Please feel free to comment if the mood strikes and that fly that I taped to your monitor is tempting!
Justin
I am going to cheat again today and put up a video. I have liked this commercial for a long time. It is about one of my favorite things in the whole world, fishing. If you haven’t ever noticed, I talk about fishing a fair bit. It is going to get worse this summer as fishing season gets into full swing.
I hit one of our local ponds the other day to try out my brand new rod that I mentioned in this post way back on March 1st. I haven’t had that rod out of the trailer since I wrote that post, but it has been calling me. So when it was sunny the other day with temps in the 60’s, I hit the local pond. It is about a acre of water in a park not too far from my house.
Didn’t catch anything but the new rod is awesome. Cast well, retrieved well, and that flourocarbon line? I may never return to mono. More on that later, after some other trips. It is almost time to break out the fly fishing gear and hit the streams. But this video is about lake fishing. Enjoy.
Tomorrow, Fiction Saturday! Only 2 weeks left of this story, and then another story!
Your comments are always welcome. My comment section is dusty. Please fill it!
-Justin
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