Morbid Romantic

bringing you quality randomness since 1981

Everyone who has a website knows of the importance of traffic. Whether you’ve personalized that importance such that you design your site to maximize your traffic is your own business; some people care a lot, some people care not one bit and proclaim, “I don’t make a public website for anyone but me.” This always makes me wonder why even brother with a website that is public. Why not make a website that’s not published.

Obviously you want to be heard, seen or noticed.

I track my stats by RealRank. I like the system and it helps me out with other sites. So, I checked out my RealRank last week and look at what I see:

What happened on August 7th!? Do you see that dip? I went from the lower 2,000 range to the 6,000 range in the span of two days. I was like, “Oh crap, this better be a fluke and not how it is going to be from now on.” I couldn’t think of anything to disrupt my traffic so drastically. My site worked fine and there was no extended downtime. Was everyone preparing for the Olympics and not at home on the computer or something!?

I was freaked and concerned. I tested out all of my scripts and even my theme to see if it worked in all browsers in case it was what was keeping people from visiting or return visiting (since you’d still be counted even if you came to a page that wasn’t viewable to the best of my meager internet knowledge).

As luck would have it, that was the worst of it. My RealRank has been slowly going back up and is even a little better now.

But, I have NO idea what caused everything to avalanche like that so quickly. I just hope like mad that it doesn’t happen again.

Popularity: 5% [?]

The Clicksmart directory allows you to connect with services for your home and more. When you enter the site, you are prompted to pick a category and then enter your zip code or city/state to narrow your options. Once you enter that and get your initial list, you might be able to narrow it down again with a further category list on the right hand side of the site.

Say you need to repair your foundation, that you need slab leak repair in dallas, Texas. When entering the site, you would choose the category Home & Office Services, then put your city and state as Texas/Dallas. Of course, this turns up all sorts of other sites that you don’t need, everything from countertop instillation to moving companies. Refine your search by heading over to the right sidebar and clicking on Foundation Repair. See how easy it is? Your dallas slab leak repair site is right there! You now know what is in your area, which you can then contact and get your repairs done. No need to search a phone book or stress out. Clicksmart just made it wonderfully easy for you.

Popularity: 4% [?]

So, I told my mother to put her foot down in regards to my grandmother. It’s not like my grandmother isn’t getting everything mostly the way she wants it. Her friend will still be coming down to help my mother pack and drive the truck, etc, etc. Only, I told my mother to insist that she drive her own car rather than let it get towed. The price for the hitch is almost as much as it would cost my mother in gas for the entire trip.

I don’t know what my grandmother is thinking. The price of renting a UHAUL, flying the guy out, paying for two different hotel rooms for five nights, paying the man for his service, paying for diesel fuel, and paying for food is just as much as hiring a moving company and letting my mother and I drive out there together independently.

So, I also told my mother to point THIS out to my grandmother.

To let her know how unfair and irrational she is being. My mother’s two weeks from work is over on the 20th. My grandmother expects us to be able to pack a two story place in three days so that we will be ready to hit the road to Utah by the 23rd or 24th.

I keep saying ‘we’ like I am still included in this. My trip to Utah is now riding on whether or not my mother can put her foot down about driving her own car. If it’s just the moving truck, there won’t be enough room for the driver, my mother, me AND two car carriers with the kitties. And I really want to go because I don’t want to spend my birthday with Alfred’s family. I don’t like them. I want to spend my birthday with MY mother.

Popularity: 6% [?]

Organization is something that most people can do with a little more of. It really comes down to having a prescribed place for something and making sure that your things are indicated, or labeled, properly so that you don’t have to search around for something small or hidden away.

I’ve found a good labeling system can really shorten a lot of my search time and just make things a lot more orderly. DYMO label makers and label tape can assist you in your household or professional organization, everything from labeling the File folders in your file cabinet to labeling the canisters in your kitchen. I could certainly use a DYMO label maker to help me label all of the various tubs and storage boxes I have so that I would know without looking what has Christmas decorations and what has CDs, etc.

It’s back to school time! You can use your label maker to make this time easier, too. As a teacher, I would use the label maker with the magnetic pieces as an activity in the classroom. All I have to do is print out some magnets of key terms and short definitions and give them to my students with a cheap magnetic board and let them work in groups to match. It would be a fun activity for my students to do for a review.

DYMOs website offers the actual label machines, for which you can buy accessories such as fabric iron on labels, metallic label paper, magnetic strips for label printing, and more. You can get a label makers with a nice LCD screen or a simpler embossing label maker. The website also offers tips and advice, offering suggestions on how to use their label makers to efficiently run a house, business or classroom. Their website offers support as well as the newest software and drivers to keep your label printer working effectively.

Popularity: 3% [?]

Okay, so I didn’t really witness it so much as I saw it on television.

This woman catches her boyfriend cheating on her with another woman. She rushes up to them full of outraged and hurt blubbers and tears. Her composure is an understandable mess. It’s not easy to find out that the person you love, that you’ve put your trust in, has violated that trust while proving how little they value you. At the same time.

So, she confronts the man and the woman. The man is a jerk about it. He gets defensive, not at all apologetic and a bit aggressive towards the man who is filming him at close range. The ‘other’ woman is sorry, though. She’s very vocal with a slew of apologies and excuses such as, “I didn’t know” and, more importantly, “he said you already broke up.”

The offended woman’s rage turned on the ‘other’ woman as her not so loving boyfriend refused to speak to her and all but ran from the scene. Sniffling gross tears, she said, “Are you happy with yourself? That you’ve broken up a happy relationship?!”

Wait, what!?

HAPPY RELATIONSHIP!?

Oh clearly. It was obviously a happy relationship, what with a boyfriend who cheats if not with her, then someone else. I’m always taken aback by women who turn their rage on the ‘other’ women, on women who had no idea they were the ‘other’ woman until the men are caught and all is revealed. If the ‘other’ woman knew that was what she was, directed anger is understandable. She is 50% at fault for not having ethics enough to say, “no, you’re in a relationship.”

Sometimes women boggle my mind. They’ll blame the clueless other woman and call her a slut before they’ll curse out the boyfriend who did have an obligation to be faithful and kind.

Popularity: 3% [?]