Domaining Domains Domain

Free Website Analysis SEO – Pear Analytics Review

chris — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 12:53:46 +0000

Found this great site online while searching for a FREE website analysis for my sites. Pear Analytics is awesome. You don’t have to login or sign-up to use the tool that is easily found on the homepage. Simply enter the URL you would like analyzed and click “Analyze my site”.

Pear Analytics will give you information on key things that you need to fix on your site, such as making sure your Google analytics code is found, as well as a sitemap.

The site will also tell you what you’re doing Right! It gives you your Google PageRank, your Alexa ranking, and counts the number of inbound links.

Basic Feng Shui Tips

chris — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 12:07:23 +0000

Basic Feng Shui Tips

The first time I had a really serious conversation about Feng Shui was in 2001. I was modeling in Singapore, my first time traveling alone overseas, and one of my ex-coworker’s/friends happened to be from there. He hooked me up with a couple of his chums to show me around town, since I didn’t know anyone.

One of his friends took me to a club that he himself owned. Then he told me the story of how his last club had failed, but that with this club he had retained the help of Feng Shui consultants prior to building and decorating. And it was obviously a very successful and happening club (at that time, at least). Additionally while in Singapore, I visited another friend’s house who was also using many Feng Shui principles in the design of his house, including water elements and live coy fish swimming around.

Over the years since then, I’ve tried loosely here and there to learn and instill some of the principles & practices of Feng Shui, at least the ones that make sense and are easily applied.

What makes sense in Feng Shui? Well, for example; the rule about never hanging anything above your bed = eg; anything that may fall on you in the night. This can cause “un-restful” sleep.

So here is my list of Feng Shui principles that I’ve accumulated in my (memory) archive, and possibly I will add to this as I learn more.

Basic Feng Shui tips for practical use in your home:

Bedroom Feng Shui:

Place the head of your bed against a solid wall & NOT under a window or beam
Make sure you can see the main door (& hopefully all the windows) of your room from the bed, eg. so no intruder could “sneak up” on you
Do not hang anything above your bed
Do not have any mirrors reflecting your bed, or at least you should NOT be able to see yourself/the bed in any mirrors while IN bed (so, mirrors on the ceiling above bed = definitely BIG no-no). Ideally, no mirrors in the bedroom at ALL.

Office Feng Shui:

Do NOT place your desk facing a wall, eg; your back turned. You should have the solid wall behind your back and the desk facing the main door, preferably from a diagonal direction.
Keep files off the ground and in a secure place

Bathroom Feng Shui:

Do NOT decorate the toilet! You don’t want to “energize” the negative toilet. Personally, I put a bowl of black rocks on the top of the back of the toilet to “push down” negative energy. I really need to find some large rocks to place by the foot of the toilet as well.
Keep the bathroom clean & empty as possible
Keep the toilet seat & the door to the bathroom closed

Mirror Feng Shui

No mirrors in bedroom, or at least none reflecting the bed
No mirrors reflecting the toilet, the trash, or anything else that implies negativity, as mirrors essentially “double” whatever’s reflected.
No mirrors facing your desktop or it’ll “double” your workload
Mirrors SHOULD reflect something positive, a painting or photograph
Use mirrors to reflect your dining table for “double food” on your table
Use a mirror at the end of a “dead end” or short hallway to double it, but do NOT use a mirror at the end of a long hallway

Cool Mapping Tool for Street Walking – BatchGeo

chris — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 03:01:43 +0000

I just booked a really sweet gig on Guru to do some photos around NYC of major tourists attractions, some I’ve been to or heard of, some I never have. There’s about 330 locations in total in and around NYC (including some in all boroughs, plus Yonkers & NJ) which is a great opportunity to tour my dad around town (since he’s always lugging his New York guidebook with him when he visits, hoping I’ll be up for some sightseeing) while also seeing/visiting/possibly experiencing some New York things I never have, even after living here over 13 years.

I was given an Excel spreadsheet of locations, many of which I could eyeball and know in my head which area of Manhattan to group it in, but I wondered if there were a mapping tool where I could just plug the entire list and have it mapped out for me…

Ta daaaa! BatchGeo is pretty much that. You just copy & paste your data from Excel into the box on BatchGeo and wait for it to process. Then just validate your columns (pretty self-explanatory when you look at the pull-down options) and wait once more.

My overview map of the entire assignment looks like this:

And then if you zoom in closer, you can view street by street, care of Google Maps. Stay tuned for my blogging on the NYC attractions we hit!

Looking for Free Press Release Sites?

chris — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 03:34:32 +0000

I was searching for free press release distribution sites and found this great article / blog with a very clean list of many press release services, as well as the author’s personal reviews on each. The article is entitled “The Best Free and Paid Press Release Websites and When to Use Them”

View from Section 425 at CitiField Mets Stadium

chris — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 00:31:53 +0000

New York Mets vs St. Louis Cardinals, 7/21/2011 @ Mets Stadium in Flushing, NY

My dad was in town for a few days so what better to do with pops than to hit a baseball game. It was a chance afternoon day game, started @ 1pm. This was the first time for me, my father, & my boyfriend at the new stadium, CitiField.

Here’s the view from our seats of the ONLY highlight for the Mets of the game (how lucky I happened to have my camera out) – when Jose Reyes hit his triple.

And here’s where the Cardinals’ center fielder misses it.

We bought 4 tickets (via TicketKing) in Section 425, behind the third base line for just about face value $30ish/per. Me & my dad had sat in a similar area at a Yankees game a few weeks ago, and I liked this viewing angle – I could actually see whether a pitch was a ball or strike!
It was a scalding hot summer day with a deceptive haze yet there was no mistaking the humidity which stuck us to our seats… the temperatures were 100+ but me & my buddy Rick (above) stayed put the whole game, while my dad & bf took “breaks” in the shade. (wusses!)

Even though the Mets lost, it was an enjoyable day out in the sun, and live baseball games are always fun. Here’s one more view of the field from our seats, MY view of the last inning when the tall guy (ahem, my bf) sat directly in front of me! lol

Rhode Island Quahogs

chris — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 06:45:01 +0000

So unless you’re from RI or have spent some time there (or possibly watch Food Network), you’ve probably only ever heard of Quahogs from Family Guy. Still, you could also be Rhode Island born & raised and yet while you may have heard of quahogs, you’ve never actually tried one. (Like Me!)

Well, here you have it… a photograph of genuine Roe Dyland quahogs driven down to Brooklyn by my father.

These are some baked quahogs. The texture is about what you’d expect from the picture, sort of a seafood stuffing but a little pasty, these had a little bit of spice but went down pretty easy. I’m not sold on why these are so “popular” in RI or RI culture, I much prefer our clamcakes ‘n chowda or good ol’ fish ‘n chips.

Blueberry Pancakes w/ Soy Milk

chris — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 19:07:43 +0000

Yum! Blueberry Pancakes!
I used the “Good Old Fashioned Pancakes” recipe from AllRecipes.com (a longtime favorite site of mine, probably since 2001!) except I substituted soy milk for nasty cow tit milk. I also definitely used 100% vegetable oil margarine instead of butter.

INGREDIENTS:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon white sugar

1 1/4 cups soy milk

1 egg

3 tablespoons ~~butter~~ 100% vegetable oil margarine, melted

DIRECTIONS:

1.	In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. Make a well in the center and pour in the milk, egg and melted butter; mix until smooth.
2.	Heat a lightly oiled griddle or frying pan over medium high heat. Pour or scoop the batter onto the griddle, using approximately 1/4 cup for each pancake. Brown on both sides and serve hot.