Some minute blog changes

I made a few small changes to my blog. Nothing fancy, just some better organization.

Up until now I've tagged everything guitar related as "Guitar." Since this blog is pretty much all about guitars anyway, I decided to split them up into more specific categories. Posts about guitars will still be tagged "Guitar," posts about guitar playing will be tagged "Playing," and posts about gear other than guitars will be tagged "Gear." I went back and re-tagged my old posts so the categories now show up in the right panel.

I added my blog to NetworkedBlogs on Facebook. You can now follow my blog through Facebook by clicking on "Follow This Blog" on the new widget on the right. You can still also follow it through Google Friend Connect, too. Please, follow and share!

I put some ads back on my site. I figured, "What the hell." I kept them to a minimum so as not to clutter up my blog. If you find something interesting, feel free to click through.

Now back to your regularly scheduled boredom.

New look

I changed the look of my blog. Kinda by accident, really. The old template was one I had customized so it was a little more personal. I still have it and I may change it back.

I was editing my blog when I noticed the new template builder (must've been an update somewhere along the line) and I had to check it out, the geek I am. So I started clicking around and I actually found a theme I really liked. I contemplated it for at least 10 seconds before deciding to change it. I had to make a new header image (the old template is about 50 pixels narrower) but apart from that everything else went smoothly.

Let me know what you think. Do you like it? Is it better or worse? Should I go back to my old template?

Blog URL change

I decided to change the URL of my blog to http://pantomimehorseblog.blogspot.com. I changed the word "music" to "blog" because with all the blog ideas I have in my head, my blog will be less and less about music in the very near future. I'll still have music related posts, especially once I get back into recording and writing music, but all my ideas right now are decidedly non-musical.

So to anyone who linked to my blog, please update the address. And to my feed subscribers, everything should stay the same.

Not much to say lately

I admit I haven't been posting much lately. Not good for the hit count, I'm sure, but there hasn't been much to say. Not a lot going on in the guitar department these days. Sure, I'm still playing, but it's been typical practice stuff. Plus, I had to give back my Linux machine (it was borrowed after all) so all recording experiments have stopped.

I do have some things on the horizon, though. I'll be putting together a few more prog album reviews. I finished up the Hal Leonard book, so I'll be updating that. I'm going to a few concerts this summer - Iron Maiden and Rush (bows head in reverence) - that I'll be reviewing, too. I also want to share some of my custom settings on my Line 6 amp - they sound pretty good, much better than stock.

In the long term, I'll eventually be getting my own Mac, so I can start recording again. Once I have a recording platform I'll start writing my own stuff. I want to upgrade the pickups on my Strat. I also have my eye on a few effects processors, one of which would make a great Christmas present (is it too early to drop Christmas gift hints?).

So I have some things that hopefully you can look forward to. That is, if you haven't completely abandoned my blog by now.

I gotta start posting more

I got a complaint today from the wife. I guess it wasn't really a complaint as much as it was a strong suggestion. She said, "I check your blog every day, but you haven't updated it since March 1."

I took that as a hint.

Last month I decided to change my posting schedule to have one full-length feature post each week on Monday mornings and then do other, shorter posts during the week as things came up. I've been doing OK with the features, but I've been a little lax in the other ones. And I wonder why I only get one page hit some days.

So today, I make a proclamation: I shall endeavour to make more blog posts during the week. And yes, the British spelling of "endeavour" was on purpose. I figured it would look more official.

Publishing change

First off, I'd like to thank everyone who reads my blog. Despite the fact that I can count all of you on my fingers (with a few to spare), it means a lot to me that you take the time out of your day to read my rants.

However, I think I've been putting too much into this blog. I think putting up long posts each day is too much work. It's one thing if this were my job, but it's not. I also think that I blew through most of my really good ideas in less than a month. The well's running a little low lately. So, I've decided to change the publishing schedule for my blog to give me more time to devote to my posts. I'm going to have one big post a week, on Monday mornings at 7 a.m. Mountain time. If something comes to me that I want to post, I'll put up short posts in between, but they won't be on a schedule. I'm hoping that this will not only free up my time, but also improve the quality of the weekly feature posts.

I wish I would've thought of this sooner. Instead of lasting just 29 days, my posts would've lasted me 29 weeks.

Over six months.

Damn.

My first miss = my worst day

It finally happened. I had my first day without a blog post. I had a few extra posts in the tank, but I burned through them last week and I had nothing for Sunday. Consequently, I had one lone visitor to the blog yesterday.

That sucked.

I probably could've written a few more posts, but my review of Transatlantic's The Whirlwind took a long time to write. I think it came out well, so I can't be too upset, but it still left me in a bind. My goal for this blog was to have a new post every day at 7 a.m. so I could establish a nice routine that readers could get used to. A Web site is nothing without content, and I want to make sure the content on my blog is updated regularly. I don't want to lose the few readers I have.

Life gets busy sometimes, and when that happens tasks get prioritized. This weekend was no exception. I had almost no free time this weekend and what little free time I had was used for other things. The blog took a back seat. It's for this reason that I like to have a few posts already written, and I was just out. The tank was dry. On the plus side, though, the new Telecaster came home on Sunday, so I'll have something to write about this week (with pics).

Time to get writing. I don't want this to happen again.

It's like a real Web site now!

I made some updates to my blog recently that almost make it look like a real Web site. I think one of the updates is new to Blogger, because I swear I've never seen it before.

As I'm writing this post, I notice an "Edit Pages" option at the top of the page that I swear wasn't there before. In fact, I didn't even notice it when I started researching the changes I wanted to make. I wanted to see about adding a contact page and the "Pages" option in Blogger came up when I Googled it. It's a great feature that was lacking when I started this blog, and I promptly took advantage of it by moving my "Welcome" post to the "About" page.

Walk before I run

I have big plans for this blog. I'm going to do my best to post every day if I can with a minimum of five posts a week. I'm going to do my best to make my posts interesting, funny, and helpful. And I want to make some money with it to help fund the Half-Assed Studio.

The problem is, I have no patience.

There's been a celebrity sighting...

...on my little blog! At least I think so.

More importantly, I hope so.

I wrote this post the other day about my dislike for tremolos. In it, I mentioned a few guitarists who seem to not only have no problem with tremolos, but actually thrive with them. The first guitarist I mentioned was Alan Morse from Spock's Beard. The Beard are one of my favorite bands - in fact, discovering their music was one of the influences in my decision to start writing and recording music. I love Alan's playing on their records and I still can't believe does what he does on a guitar without using a pick. I've tried playing fingerstyle like he does and I'm terrible at it.

Anyway, I got a comment on that post (my first one!) and it appeared to be from Mr. Morse himself. Now, the Internet is an anonymous place where anyone can pretend to be anybody, but I think it's legit, considering one important fact: no one reads my blog! At least not enough to encourage that kind of imitation. I'm guessing he found the post by Googling his name and he was nice enough to leave a comment.

When I saw that comment, man was I pumped! It really did make my day, if not my whole weekend. To think that one of my favorite guitarists and someone I admire and draw inspiration from actually visited my little corner of the 'Net! I've just recently carved out this corner for myself and I'm still trying to build some readership. I hope Alan stops by more often and enjoys my stumbling through the recording and writing process, and even gives some advice now and then. I'd be honored if he did.

I also apologize for milking this. I can't help it if I'm excited!

Shameless plug: I also can't wait until the new Beard album comes out this year. I plan on reviewing it here as soon as I get it. Everyone should check it out! If you can't wait, pick up their last album, the excellent self-titled Spock's Beard.

My first (virtual) dollar

I'm new to this blogging thing. I'm enjoying the crap out of it, though. I always enjoyed writing, especially when it's about something I enjoy. That's probably why I failed as a newspaper reporter - I just didn't give two shits about municipal meetings or community events.

But this I like. I like music. I like guitar stuff. I like recording, even though I'm no good at it yet. So to me, writing these posts is fun. If I can make money while having fun, even better.

I signed up for Google AdSense, much like anyone else with a Blogger blog, seeing as how Google owns it and stuff. Since then, I've been checking the "Monetize" tab on my blog administration, waiting until the earnings change from $0.00.

They did.

As of today, I can say I've made my first Internet dollar. $1.19, actually.

I thank everyone who visits my site, especially the two people who clicked one of the ads. Because of you I'm $1.19 richer, and $1.19 closer to building my Half-Assed Home Studio.

I promise to try my best to keep this blog up-to-date and interesting. It's fun for me, so it shouldn't be too hard.

I hope it's fun for you, too.

No wonder I wasn't getting any comments

Apparently, the folks at Google's Blogger division decided to make a change to the code and, in doing so, screwed up comments for anyone using below-post positioning and image verification. The new format for below-post comments now shows a comment preview along with the image, where before there was no preview. This adds to the length of the post, but the container for the post doesn't change to match the new length, so the box to enter the verification word doesn't show up.

I'm a programmer by day, so I know what it's like to try to implement new features. I also know that new features should be TESTED before being released. I expect more from Google than to release broken code. Hopefully they fix this soon.

For now, I've changed my settings to have new comments appear in a new window (I may experiment with the pop-up window setting if it doesn't get blocked by pop-up blockers). I apologize to anyone who tried to comment in the past and were unable to do so because of the glitch. We now return to your regularly scheduled program.

UPDATE: Pop-up comments seem to bypass Chrome's pop-up blocker, so I've changed to that format. If anyone is having issues with the pop-ups let me know and I'll change it back to full page.

Advertising is a bitch

I really want to try to make some money from this site. In this economy, you have to try to leverage any possible skill you may have in order to make a buck or two. I'm going to use any proceeds I get from this blog for my Recording Studio Equipment Fund, so it's kinda important.

Setting it up is a little more difficult than it looks. Sure, Google's AdSense is well integrated (duh), but the Amazon Associates part is giving me fits. The built-in widgets frustrate the hell out of me because it adds in a very ugly scrollbar to the ads, and it's not even needed. And when I try to add an ad manually, it f's up the template.

So if anyone knows anything about how to get this crap to work well, please let me know.

EDIT: OK, so I overreacted. I guess I just needed to RTFM.