Anyway, what brought me to this realization is a recent issue of a lawsuit threat because a blog ranks higher than a business site for a Google search. Search Engine Journal has the skinny.

An online shoe store owner is threatening to sue a blogger Dean Hunt (DeanHunt.com) unless the blogger ‘lowers his Google ranking” for a keyword phrase that the store owner feels he deserves.
...

I have been running the site for over two years and we have been ranked very highly for the search term [edited].

On Thursday morning I checked our google positions and your site is now above us for this term. I haev checked your blog and it has nothing to do with [edited], so I think it would be best all round if you remove your blog from google for this search term.

Please understand that we make our living from this, and you are just writing a blog that has nothing to do with [edited].

If you do not remove yourself from google for this search, then I will call them myself and have you removed.

...

You have to understand Dean that an online business should be higher in Google than a blog.

Don’t forget that Google is a business as well, they obviously make more money from other businesses than they do from blogs, so it is in their interest that I am higher than you for certain searches.

I have also contacted my lawyer about this issue, so you should expect a letter in the post very soon.

Wow. That’s stupid, with a capital S! (That makes it Stupid, then.)

This is why I often advocate the use of blogs by businesses and companies. It helps with the image and helps boost search rankings, as well. “BLOG” standing for “better listings on Google” is very appropriate, don’t you think?

I dread the day the owners of racoma.com come knocking on my door demanding I de-optimize my blog for my surname. Or rather, I think I should look forward to that day. Maybe I can charge a gazillion bucks for racoma.net and racoma.com.ph.

Angelo—once a psychiatric case

Angelo, at 26, is the eldest. Naturally, being the unico hijo, our world revolved around him, ever over protective, as they say, guarding him every single second, no mosquito was allowed to be within reach. At one point in time, there were 5 helpers in the house, two dedicated to him alone, and even while asleep, he should not be left alone. We didn’t realize it, but he has became boss in the household, every single word was a command. He was pampered. And through the years, he has developed these peculiarities, like, when wearing shirts, right hand first before left; when wearing shoes, right foot first before left; shorts should be with pockets; shirts with collars; shoes should be rubber shoes (leather shoes are no no – he even was ring bearer for my brother’s wedding, all in his formal clothes and tie, wearing his red Mickey Mouse pair of shoes!).

One time, he hurt his small finger. Since then, for many weeks, no one was allowed to take off the band aid. If ever it was taken out while he was sleeping, it had to be replaced. After several weeks, we were aghast, the finger has wrinkled, the nail gangling – it was an ugly sight, so ugly that he could not look at it.

At age 2, he was already playing the piano; at age 4, he was discussing physics in school, as indicated in his progress report card. And he was the most stubborn, most angry, most spoiled brat that I knew of, and I became paranoid. I asked myself – where did I go wrong? What was I lacking at?

Check it out here on her blog.

The PowerBook Pismo is teh cool!

The Pismo is the last G3-based portable that Apple has official OS X Tiger support for. It also seems to be a favorite among the folks at LowEndMac (serious MacHeads, if you ask me), because of its expandability (two expansion bays!), style (black is teh cool!), and durability (sturdier than ding- and dent-prone TiBooks). You could even upgrade the Pismo to a 550 MHz PowerPC G4! And battery life could be extended to 10 hours if you load up both bays with battery packs.

This is a writer’s laptop! (Remember Sex and the City’s Carrie?)

Here’s my review of sorts.

Sometimes you also reach a point when you just ask yourself “What the heck made me wear that?” or “What was I thinking?” Remember the 80’s? Fortunately I still wasn’t in my teens during those times. Otherwise, I’d be wearing stuff that’s just so … tacky. That’s not to mention the hair. Mullets, anyone? What about teased hair?

Reminiscing

Remember the days when digital cameras were toys for the rich boys or for the professional photogs with the dough to spend? We used film-based cameras and had to have the prints developed at the local photo shop. And then we’d be digitizing them using our trusty ol’ handheld scanners (and later on those big, bulky, expensive flatbeds).

Having no handheld nor flatbed scanner these days (don’t need them anyway), I just resorted to taking digicam-captures of these old prints. Not perfect, as there are some distortions owing to the prints’ not being laid flat, but it’s probably good enough for sharing over the Web.

Right now, just the thought of not having a digital camera makes the shutterbug in me shudder.

And here they are!

Here’s a random selection. You may also wish to visit my Flickr site itself for photos tagged with ‘oldpics’ .

Ah, the good ol’ days. To quote from the Pet Shop Boys, Life is much more simple when you’re young.

Wish me luck!

It’s a Friday and people are out partying and celebrating the end of the work week. Good for them. It’s great for people to get well-deserved treats or rest after slaving hours off as corporate drones for people who probably don’t give an effing damn about their welfare. Whoops, sorry for the rant. I just feel so thankful I’m no longer part of that system (the corporate world, durr!)—at least not now, while I’m in this profession called blogging (and as well a host of other online stuff I’m involved in, I’ve started or would like to start, like that isulong seoph contest I probably won’t win but have entered anyway). No parties for me, though (birthday parties are for kids).

On being part of the system, why don’t we all give our kudos to Jolo, a.k.a. Avlack, a.k.a. the person who created the bad-ass original theme for The J Spotter, our resident designer, TXP lover and advocate of strict XHTML compliance. He recently, well, xacked up with Xackup, the latest Philippine-based startup promising to put out cool software and Web apps in the near future. That kid’s living the life! It’s like the local version of Silicon Valley or something. Free foodies, free massages, free corporate housing, take-home laptop, no time-in/time-out requirements, regular drinking sessions, stock options. The works!

With Jolo on board, I have no doubt Xackup will be looking good when the time comes for it to, umm, Alpha-release its products (release early, release often as my favorite open-source adage goes). Got to work with Jolo for a while (and we’re part of some blogging projects, too), and I can say he’s one cool dude. I do hope his Valley environs don’t make his head swell too much. Heheh.

Hey, Jolo, that sure is a world of difference you’re experiencing there compared to before, eh? Same here.

So where was I? Oh yeah I wrote on the title field “Friday Blues” because I couldn’t really think of any more appropriate title to describe what this Friday is. It’s probably the birthday nearing—existential meanderings again, or because I’ve a lot of things in my mind I’d like to do or achieve sometime soon. Chris P. would probably kick me in the head for typing in my headline first, but that’s how things are (okay, I’ll try to vary my workflow sometime for a change).

If you guys plan to greet me on my birthday, think first whether you’d more or less been a good person to me the rest of the year. If so, then greetings are very much welcome. If you’d been an arse the rest of the 364 days (365 on leap years—an extra day to be an arse), well then what else can I say? Take your greetings elsewhere, you hypocrite.

This being a Friday, it’s probably good to leave you with links to other interesting stuff. I’ll still be writing over the weekend, though, mostly on my BloggyNetwork blogs and probaly here also.

• Janette has published episode 5 of her Digital Filipino Podcast.
• Taorist welcomes Robyn into the world (I can never get enough of being a dad).
• Chris P. writes on why Deal or No Deal contestants should learn math and statistics.
• Here are some Grammar lessons from ZDNet UK.
• I wrote some tips on bMonitors on how to keep sane and healthy while computing.

If this post turns out to be as serendipitous as the last “blues” roundup, then that would be awesome!

(Things do tend to turn out differently than you hope or originally intend. It’s sometimes fun, and sometimes downright annoying to watch how things go in the end—that depends on the turnout.)

• Busy. Very. – Great for telling people you’d really really rather not be bothered unless it’s something important (like an asteroid’s about to land on the Pacific, and it would be TEOTWAWKI).
• I’m probably online, but just pretending to be “idle.” But then again, I might be busy. – This is great in combination with Idle-maker. I’m probably actually busy, anyway.
• I’m probably hiding. From you! – Ah yes, the good ol’ alternative to “Invisible” mode, especially when there is no “Invisible” mode, such as on Google Talk.
• “Invisible” or “Invincible” on Google Talk. – Only the smart ones notice you’re not really invisible at all. And Invincible? Probably true, this age we’re in (until we lose the innocence of youth and realize that we all do die sometime).

Hey, with the birthday nearing, isn’t this a great time for existential meanderings. Alcohol surely helps in that area. I just hope I don’t take in too much. Otherwise, I’d probably get the ultimate reaction/response to the greatest existential question.

If my IM status says “I’m dead,” I’m probably not.

There, now that I’ve probably been loading enough alcohol into my bloodstream to get the good ol’ creative juices kicking in, it’s probably time to put an end to this nonsense and start with some real work. Ah, so many things to write, so little time.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you YOUR next congressman from Montana. All done with CSS positioning—but with vintage mid-90’s flavor and an authentic myspace aftertaste. Take note of the wicked LP-rip that loops on the homepage. I hope he wins!

Here’s a screencap:

It’s the 1990’s all over again. Heh!

I remember my old homepages (here and here, and old J Spot writeup here).

And who could forget my sister’s old homepage and high school class homepage?

Warning: looping MIDI alert!

Ah, the good old days!