Allen Dean Davis Blog News

Signed up for several services marketing my blog website

Over on the top left hand of my blog you will see "Services" listed.  I have listed most of the services that I do social media or blog website marketing through.

MyBlogLog, Delicious, Twitter, Digg, YouTube, Facebook, Google Reader and StumbleUpon are the services I have listed at this present time.  Unfortunately I have only 14 followers on Twitter, but hope to have that number increased as the blog expands.  Posts to the blog are sometimes posted to Twitter also (by my selection).  I plan to also add en eBay link or button to let people know what items I am currently selling on eBay.

I have to admit that I am just getting familiar with some of these social media/blog marketing sources, but any form of education about them is worth wild.  I hope to become an expert on these in the near future.  In the mean time, try not to laugh at the mistakes I make with it.

Whistling Can Be Harrassment - Don't do it

Time for more of my most embarrassing moments in history.  I drove into the parking lot at one of my jobs one morning.  I got out of my car and started to walk to the door.  In the distance, I could see a woman who I will call Susan.  Of course, Susan is not her real name.  I was going to yell at her and say "hi" or "morning".  However; in my head, I thought that whistling at her would be an interesting and surprising for her.  I pondered this in my head because I thought that someone who might hear me whistle at her might consider this harassment.  I looked around and did not see anyone.  I also thought that if I whistled the wrong way, it might give the wrong impression.  If you whistle for a dog to come to you, it sounds one way.  But, if you get caught whistling at a woman in way that might be considered harassing, you might get slapped upside the face.  Although I had known Susan for some time and I knew she could handle it either way.  We would just laugh it off.  Just as I was starting to pucker up my lips to let out a loud whistle, Susan turned sideways as she walked into the building.  My whistle screeched to a stop, I almost fell over my own feet, and my face turned red.  That was not Susan!

There is one thing good about life.  That you might think to do something is one thing, but to actually do it is another thing.  May I add that the real Susan (not her real name again), got a great laugh out of this story when I told her.  Thank goodness I did not let out a whistle.

The attack of the mean vacuum cleaner

I was helping a friend vacuum one day.  I was using this friend's brand new Dyson DC17 Animal Cyclone Upright Vacuum Cleaner that this friend had bought.  I have to say this vacuum has some real power to it.  I accidentally ran the vacuum over the wires to the TV.  I guess you can only guess what happened from that point.  Before I had a chance to shut off the vacuum, the wires were pulled way into the vacuum and wrapped around the insides.  It suddenly got quiet in the house.  Sort of the way it sounds right after someone drops an expensive glass on the floor.  A second later I heard a voice say, "You have to be careful around the cords".  I think it was a little too late for this.  Now this friends was standing in front of me looking at my mess with a half grin.  I spent the next twenty minutes untangling the cords from inside the vacuum.


Disclosure: Affiliate Compensated - See Disclosure Policy

This would be the end of this story, but it has an interesting ending.  I was at this friend's house again a few weeks later.  This friend was vacuuming in the other room and suddenly I heard the vacuum come to a screeching stop.  Then a second later I heard a thud sound on the wall.  I poked my head around the corner.  I saw a broken phone cord and a small hole in the wall.  The friend had accidentally run over the phone cord and the vacuum ripped the cord out of the wall.  The power cord is what went flying through the air and put a small dent in the wall.  If I would of stepped into the room to find out what the noise was all about, I would of been hit in the forehead and knocked out on the spot.  I can read it in the newspaper now.  It would read, "Man dies from power cord that hit him in the head".

Although I felt sorry for the friend who just broke the phone cord, I felt the urge to say something.  With a half grin I said, "You have to be careful around those cords".

Used Phone To Get Name Of Song

I was in the car today and I had no idea what the name of a song was.  I had heard this song for years and even knew some of the words.  I pulled out my iPhone and clicked on an application called Shazam.  I then clicked on the "Tag Now" button and the program started to listen to the music that was in my car.  In about 30 seconds, it was done listening to the song and then started to send the information to the server.  About 30 seconds later, it listed all the information about the song.  It listed the album name, genre, label and the time/date it was tagged.  And I did this all in about 60 seconds.

I have found that the Shazam application for the iPhone works best when the music is clear.  There should be no static from the radio or source.  Plus there should not be any other background noises such as people talking.  In other words, you need to let the application concentrate on the music.  I should add one more important thing.  The application does not tend to match the song when you sing into the iPhone yourself.  I thought I would add that tip to keep people from trying bad attempts of singing Karaoke.

If you would like to find out more about this application, you can go to this link:

Disclosure: Affiliate Compensated - See Disclosure Policy.

Almost Smashed Into Car - Avoided Accident

About a week or little more ago, it snowed a little bit.  It was really nothing to get too excited about.  I drove to work as usual.  However; there is this one area on the Interstate that is very hard to get off on because cars wont let you get over into other lanes.  I have drove this route all the time and had a very hard time trying to get over into the other lane.  I think the only reason cars would slow down to let me over is that they were afraid I might cause a five car pile up.  In reality, I was just hoping they were letting me over into the next lane because they were being nice (or because my turn signal had been on for some time).  On this day, I finally made it into the next lane.  But, just as I did that, a car suddenly slowed down in front of me.  I applied my brakes and my brakes were not braking.  In fact, I was sliding.  I was sliding towards the car in front of me.  I knew that at the speed I was going that the air bag would come out on the car and that there would be some massive damage to both our cars.  I started pumping the brakes in hopes that the car would come to a stop.  No luck with that.  In a split second decision, I figured that I need to quickly steer into the next lane.  Although I did not have time to look in the next lane, I did try to look over into it.  Thank goodness there was no cars in that lane.  I have always heard that it would be best that someone hit you in the side of the car rather you do a direct forward hit.  I think that this decision so far helped to keep me out of the hospital.  But, now I had a new problem.  The car was still sliding while I was in the lane I swerved into.  I kept pumping the breaks and steering the car in the right directions to the point that I was able to avoid hitting the side railings.  I was now safe because the car was now driving in a straight line and not sliding.  It was a pretty exciting ride for me.  I don't want to do it again.

Found My Giant Inflatable Kings Chair

 
I think I have found the chair I want for the livingroom.  Ok, maybe I wont put it in the livingroom.  This Giant Inflatable Kings Chair is 65 inches tall and 40 inches wide.  It comes with two cup holders that help the king or queen celebrate the special occassion.  This inflatable chair can be used for that special birthday person, Santa Claus or even the Easter Bunny to sit in.  On Mardi Gras, you can have your guests take photos of them being the king or queen on this celebration.

By the way, I have no idea who the guy is in the photo.  But, he does seem to be enjoying himself by being the king.  You may not want to forget to get a Kings Crown Hat to complete the look.

Click here to see more about this product.

Disclosure: Affiliate Compensated - See Disclosure Policy.

Free Music At Coffee Store

A relative of mine recently got an iPod for Christmas.  I am always going to Starbucks to get coffee.  I happen to notice that they had these free iTunes download cards.  The cards have special codes on them that allow you to download music from iTunes so that you can play them on your iPod.  I have been collecting these cards on every trip I make to Starbucks.  I plan to mail them off to him as soon as I have several of them.  The songs are only good for the one selected song that is on the card.  If I remember correctly, I think the song offered for free is different every week.  I am always looking for "free" things for people, so this hopefully will be a benefit for him.

Disclaimer: Keep in mind that I can not guarantee that these cards will still be available or usable from Starbucks.  Please check with your local Starbucks to see if such an offer exists.

Decorating Valentine Cupcakes

A while back I took a short cake decorating class.  I know I did not perfect all the cake decorating methods, because the picture results below show you that.  Maybe next time I will do better.  I went out and bought the ingredients shown below.  Since it was around Valentine's Day, it was easy to find red icing which I decorated the tops of the cupcakes.  You can click the photos to get a larger picture.

Disclaimer: Affiliate Compensated

 

     

Yipee Lost Six Pounds This Year

Got good news.  I lost about six pounds in the month of January.  I can't give myself too much credit because I did not really change my diet much and hardly did any exercise (except normal chores).  I can contribute most of this change by what I would call "No Holiday Food".  First there was Thanksgiving which we all know can pack on the pounds from eating too much.  Next there was Christmas which involves lots of goodies to eat.  I guess January is not a month that really has any holidays that are associated with food.  I will have to be careful with February since people tend to bring in their heart shaped boxes and offer you chocolates.

Affiliate Programs For Making Money on AllenDeanDavis.com

I added and updated some affiliate programs that I have on my other website.  I will be adding several more affiliate programs to this list in the next few months.  If you go to AllenDeanDavis.com and click on "Affiliate Programs", you will see a list of these affiliate programs.  Affiliate programs help users make money by placing special links on their blogs, websites or other sources.  Throughout the years, I have received checks for when people click on my links and do specific actions.  Those actions could include making a purchase, signing up for a program, or producing a lead to a specific service or product.

You can make money by creating a blog of your own.  I personally recommend TypePad because it is easy to use, allows you to put affiliate links on it, connect your blog with a domain name, and even update your blog from a mobile phone.  At the present time that I wrote this blog entry, I am using the "Unlimited" plan.  This plan has lots of blog designs for you to pick from or you can design your own.  The plan also allows you to operate an unlimited number of blogs from this one account, unlimited storage space, additional authors (let others contribute posts to your blog), post blogs by email, and much more.  TypePad Blogs - Get a 14 Day Free Trial! (Disclaimer: Affiliate Compensation)