MSDN Event

Last week I went an MSDN event. It was pretty good the best part was the time spent on web services. I think web services are GREAT. If you have never looked into web services with .net you really should check it out. I also saw a bmp file encoded into an xml doc and that was pretty kewl also. Now its back to the flowers.

I don’t like how the diaper chafesBut I get to throw feces!

Just a quick run down of the good and the bad points of being a web monkey. I have seen that most successful people make lists and this seems to be where I want to be so I am going to try my hand at making a list of good and bad things.

GOOD I to throw feces I get to listen to podcasts or iTunes I get to learn something new and exciting about the internet and the web every few days

Bad The diaper chafes I dont get to see much sun light I have to work in classic ASP I DO NOT LIKE BANANAS!!! unless they have chocolate

fenny thinks its gross but I like the splater. And to everyone that dosent have a 5 year old the word "poop" is a 2 minute laugh but the words "monkey" and "feces" in the same breath is an all afternoon laugh.

We are now accepting callers for these pendent key chains

There was a story about a Japanese company setting up workstations for exemployees to work at. Work at what? Work at being at work. Work is such an important of japans culture that they had places to go even after being laid off they could work on there resumes, work on improving there skills, or what ever else it was that had to be done during the day. At first this is a hard concept to comprehend for most people from the US where it is all about “what’s in it for me”. In Japan when you buy a company you don’t first off look for ways to eliminate staff they are part and parcel with the purchase you don’t just buy a single piece of a company you buy all of its assets and part of its assets are its employees. The men and women that make up that company have value beyond there paychecks. So you have to ask what wrong either with the US or with the damn japs. I think most eastern cultures have the right idea work isn’t about what you have to do to get through the week and keep the lights on its about what you have to offer society as a whole that makes you valuable. I have value as a person and that value is more then a place holder in a staffing report. I ordered a new screen for the screen printing machine today that says “you cant fire me slaves are sold!”. There is some type of social cancer that is tearing at the whole of society in the US that saddens me very much. When my grand father was young he joined the navy because it was an honor to serve his country. When my father was young he joined the navy because if he didn’t the selective service would have made him join the army and for all of his faults he isn’t stupid and its better to be well trained and on a boat then trained as a bullet catcher. When I was young there were people who were refusing to go to war which at first sounds like there choice except they were members of the National Guard and when asked about it they said yes they signed up but they never thought they would really have to go to war. What the fuck you say? It’s a whole social idea that you don’t have to really be responsible for your actions. And it’s mostly just America that seems to feel this way. its like you get as high as you can and get as much power as you can as long as you don’t really have to be responsible for anything that happens at the point that something is not the way it should be then its someone else’s fault and you shouldn’t be held responsible for anything because its not your fault. I am typing with such passion that I am weaving from side to side as I have to type different sides of the keyboard. I feel very passionate about being responsible for things and I try hard to impart that feeling of responsibility on my son and the people I come in contact with on a daily basis. I never want to be given anything I have not earned be it title, tools, money, fame( and I never want fame), or anything I could ever be given but I do want to receive what I feel I have earned and if the person is not willing to relinquish it I would like the truth about why. I must stop here and say I am NOT whining about my job today I am content to do the job asked of me and do it to the best of my ability until the day they take my badge or ask something else of my time. I am just I am just saddened by what appears to be the utter loathing of the employee on the part of the employer in most companies I have had the pleasure to deal with. It is as if we are a burden on the employer like some poor needy child that won’t go away no matter how many times they get kicked in the face. There are good companies out there in the US and some are among the best in the world but there are many that are not and don’t care if they ever become the best to there employees they just want to be the most profitable and they will get there at any cost. Now its time to get off the cross, build a bridge and get over it. I had started this post wanting to speak about the joy I get from learning new ideas and it turned into a diatribe about my view of the employee employer dynamic in corporate America. If I had more time and there were more letters in me right now I would expound upon my feelings of corporations as a form of government but I am out of letters to string together and someone else has done it much better then I could hope to do. Read Harvest of Stars its not a good book but it’s a good idea there are many books I put in this category they would be much better if the author had allowed someone else to translate his ideas into words for him. For now I hope this will be my last post of such dark and rambling subjects lets all just be happy for the bravery of being out of range.

Goodnight fenny

Insanity

Is it more sane to talk to your self or someone that doesn’t really exist? I am going to go forward with the assumption that it is more sane to talk to someone even if they don’t exist after all how can I blame someone for something that is beyond there control I can help that I do exist that was decided for me and fenny cant help that she doesn’t exist that was decided for her so from now on I will stop talking to myself in this blog and talk to fenny (the prize goes to anyone that can identify where her name came from and who made her up). Goodnight fenny and good luck on your journey into the great unknown abyss

Separation of church and state

The original title was the separation of work and home but that’s not as catchy. I started this blog as a trial for a business related idea I wanted to test after I tested for a short time I scraped it and made this a personal blog to just play with the idea of a blog. I have changed the title and changed the theme of the site. The question now is should I still worry about what people that work where I do might think about what I post here or people that know where I work and are that companies customers think about what I post? A better question is did I ever care and I think the answer to both would be no. I do this on my time with my thoughts and my resources so why do I care what people think about what I post here? In case I have been unclear I will layout the things that might get me in trouble and get them out of the way. I feel I am getting the hard corporate cock shoved in my tiny anus and I really am not braced for it so it has caused a little tearing and pain. I feel that it was shear luck that the company made it past the first year if it was run the way it is being run then the way it is being run now. I feel there is a distinct lack of understanding of what is being asked of me and what results they really want out of it. I feel it is just not myself that is getting ass raped by this company but many other great people as well. I feel that I have spent to much time thinking metaphorically about my ass being assaulted for it to be healthy. I feel that my stress here is causing me to have many problems with both my wife and son and I don’t think that is a good idea. I feel that the project I am working on is going to fail due to lack of understanding of the scoop of SEO on the part of upper management. I feel that I do a great job and can do an even better job if left the fuck alone. All of these things start with “I feel” and that is the most important thing of all its all about how I feel. That is why this is a personal blog now. I plan on continuing to write about how I feel this is sort of like putting a video camera under my mattress and letting you see my diary. If your are cute and fun loving I will put the camera on top of my mattress just send me an email. The important questions that I can answer now are no I am not planning on leaving over not getting a title or promotion. No I am not going to be dedicated to this company and I have sent out resumes to many people to see what’s out there. when I leave this company it will be because I have gotten tired of the full feeling I have in my ass and the feeling that it will never go away as long as I am here. Its as if I have to leave before there is a value placed on what you do here and that is a type of cancer that has its core at the top of a company not the bottom. They always say when you work for yourself you work harder then you ever work for someone else and the reason that is always given is that you are working for your self. I have to agree with that but not for the implied reason its not that your working for yourself rather then someone else its that your are working for someone that you respect I will give my all to someone I respect and I cant respect someone that I feel has no respect for me. In the last 7 days I have been told i want to waste the companies money. I am not as valuable as some salesman. I don’t rate a title to match my job. Everyone thinks my job is important but it shouldn’t require tools. Side note how is a 350 yearly expense for a subscription to a tool and an information source a lot of money to any type of organization. I have been told that I should just be patient but I have done that before with this company and after a year of waiting I left then on the way out they asked if they could keep me with more money. The money isn’t the important part and that’s what makes it so hard I really hate money I just have to have it to do the important stuff so when all you address on a list of issues is the one I state as the least important how am I supposed to think you have heard anything I have said. Now I am rambling so I will turn it off and get home.
Blood makes noise.

god wants silver, god wants gold,god wants the secret that will be told

When do you know its time to go out on your own and leave the corporation behind? I think when it becomes a chore to rise from your bed every morning with the impending feelings of dread at the realization you have to spend more of your life in the concrete box that is work. Not that I mind working I just really don’t like helping people who don’t realize how valuable there employees are to the overall business. The idea that a person can be changed as quick as a stick of ram. This something that I can never understand. I feel like using short sentences this morning. Each line a single part of a thought. It’s the bravery of being out of range. There is no connection to the employees that serve them. The dark overlords. I want to ware my shirt that says “You cant fire me. Slaves are sold!” and I hope they get a good price for me because I am going to be sold soon if things don’t change. Or does it matter if they change is simply being allowed to do my job effectively worth the fight or should I just give in and go elsewhere where the value of what I do is recognized already and then just struggle to do my job better then any other living human being? I will succeed its just where I succeed and who’s site goes with me.

link

http://news.com.com/Microsoft%20offers%20beta%20of%20Adobe%20rival/2100-1012_3-5740444.html?part=rss&tag=5740444&subj=news

religon

I don’t talk about religion very much in public forums because when people have strong faith based beliefs and you start to question them you most times either hit a brick wall much like the curtain in the wizard of oz “ignore the man behind the curtain” or you hit the wall of mysticism where its all in the book you just have to know how to squint your eyes just right and you will get it. But I found this story about religion and thought I would share it with both of the people who read this blog. I for one think the sate should never tell me what I can and can not say in a public forum. The story is about not being to have a religious vanity plate because the state doesn’t want to endorse a particular religion. I’m not sure on the stance here where I live but I can assume its true here as well and if so how is a good moral decision for the state to support a sports team and not a religion? God needs a Wednesday night pro game on network TV and I think this would end the whole thing. GWA (god warring angels) VS SDW (secular demonic worshipers).
religon on my car link

Is it SEO or CRACK

When I was doing Web and Graphic Design full time my wife hated it because I couldn’t look at any type of popular media with out looking at how it could be done better to better achieve the goals of the product. Now that I have thrown myself into SEO I have noticed that I am starting to look at every page from an SEO point of view. I went to a popular site I like to visit a lot and for the first time I saw all of the bad things done to it in terms of SEO. I have also found myself writing my posts here with a sort of SEO slant that I didn’t write before whice to me means I have made the switch. I once read a story about when kids learn 2 different languages at an early age there is no internal translation both languages are just natural but when you learn a language as an adult you have to think in your native language and then translate it into a different language. No matter how fast that happens and how fluent you are it still has to go through a translation. With me and my skills I find that when I really grasp something is that moment when I start thinking in that setting.

-Jon

what am I worth (what is SEO worth part 2)

Yesterday I was looking at what is SEO worth because I was trying to decide what it was worth for me to do the job I am being asked to do, well today I was told what it was worth to the company I am working for and I am not sure if its enough. When I look at the abstract of what is SEO worth it is a generalization about the SEO job. This generalization does not take into account things that are of a personal nature. When I look at myself and ask the question I have to also include in the calculation things like my sons tuition and my car and house payments. I also have to look at how much I want ( or in this case don’t want ) to go looking for a new place to work. I also have to wonder how much room there is to negotiate. The hard part is I am a very results driven negotiator and I only have a short list of results to negotiate with. I will also have to look at how this will affect my work with my web design company Red Frog Labs since it is an outside site from my employers’ site. I guess I will have to think about it more and see what it come up with.

-Jon

what is SEO worth

I have been researching the value of SEO from a salary perspective and there doesn’t seem to be any good information on the topic. So really what is SEO worth and I wont even qualify that by saying good SEO just SEO in general. I think it can make a company on the web, with out it there competition is going to win. Yes I can throw a page together and then I can stumble through posting it to a server and the people at godaddy can help my get it the domain name setup but then what? its not like the IBM ad where the orders fall on top of you and crush you with the sheer weight of the money you are going home with each and every day. no it takes work and lots of it I don’t think you can do SEO part time and be successful at it. you have to be on top of three search engines and then on top of your site. i have one site that rankings number one on google for the phrase “red frog labs” and that is great but its only 6 pages and who is going to be searching for red frog labs. When you start looking at doing SEO on a larger site then it becomes a much harder thing to accomplish and a harder thing to maintain. You have to worry about things like theme and freshness of content. so when you try to determine worth do you break up the job and say each of these pieces is worth a set amount and then add up the total? I don’t think that takes in to account the “glue”, for lack of a better word, that holds it all together. If you try and find a similar job then that’s not much help either because SEO is a new field. But that should be common since most of the web and technology jobs are really new fields. As a freelance SEO expert you could really sort of set your own rates and then if you are good enough and are not to far out of line you will succeed but as a corporate lackey how do you go to your bosses and express a need to increase your salary. What I have done is look at the money already being spent with outside firms doing SEO for us then scale that by experience and current knowledge of our existing system. I also adjusted for my time and what I need to make for my 5 year plan to stay on track and I came up with what I thought was fair. It is less then some people in this area are making for much less work but it is enough for me to pour myself into this SEO project and make it a success. I am also working on a few outside SEO projects and as a freelancer working with small businesses I am just charging a percentage all the little sites I am working with depend on advertising to drive revenue so if I get them more traffic I get part of that revenue I would love to implement this model at my day job just 1/10th of 1 percent of the increase in revenue and I would be able to retire after two years.

-Jon