Killing boredom with the "internets"

Tropical storm Fay is worse today than it was yesterday. It's been non-stop rain and wind all day, which makes it kind of difficult to let Marley go out and do his thing. I know we need the rain, but, jeez, did we need to get a year's worth in two days? Jerry is draining the pool for the third time today. I spent a lot of time on the "internets" and can't help but wonder, "How did people survive without the internet in the old days?" It certainly kills a lot of boredom when you're rained in. I found some good tips for newbies to increase traffic to their blogs from Terry Whalin, a writer from Arizona. I certainly need all the help I can get and found this piece by Googling on how to find out who links to your site (see post below.) I know it sounds dumb, but I'm still mystified by the process. I wonder if it's because no one has linked to my site and if it happened perhaps it would become crystal clear :-) I'm also experimenting with a new blog on WordPress, but it hasn't gotten very far and seems quite complicated to set up. I love the Google tools and can't really complain, but I'm always curious about new tools and tend to get wrapped around the axle (and neglecting other things) trying to figure them out. I hope I can dredge up enough energy and drag myself away from the computer to go into my art room and finish a number of paintings in process. Somehow (surprise) nothing is working out.

Fay strikes!

Tropical Storm Fay came through today but didn't really amount to much here in Orlando. We're getting some fairly decent rain now, but didn't get much all day. I hear it was much worse in the Melbourne area and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that our two rentals didn't get damaged, especially after we got through doing so much work on the recently vacated one. I spent a huge amount of time on the computer trying to figure things out on my website, checking out different blog listing sites, how to optimize the site, downloading a new browser (Firefox), on and on. Whew! I had no idea there was so much involved with setting up a site/blog on the computer and my mind is numb, along with my butt, from trying to digest all the information.

A note on Firefox, it does seem to be working out better than the MS Explorer web browser. I read a piece in Time magazine about it and figured "what the heck?" It's free and it seems to be living up to its reputation as stable and fast. Case in point, my computer didn't crash once today, unlike several times a day with Explorer. I've also noticed quite a bit of difference in download speed. So far, I'm happy with it, but it's another one of those learning curves. I certainly have a lot of them lately.

My sister helped me out this afternoon with putting some code in my website in order for Google to "authenticate" it for testing. She's also working on trying to beautify my site. Since she has a degree in computer science and also designs websites professionally, I'm sure she'll have much better luck than I have in making it look better. Hopefully tomorrow I can tear myself away from the computer and exercise and do some painting :-)