Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Step Aside For The "Insightful Linguist"

I was browsing online and came across the folloaing ad for tickle.com's Classic IQ test:

(See if you can figure out which one is the right one above!)

I figured out which was the right one and thought I would probably do well.

So I took the test. Here're my results:

Your IQ score is 129

This number is based on a scientific formula that compares how many questions you answered correctly on the Classic IQ Test relative to others.

Your Intellectual Type is Insightful Linguist. This means you are highly intelligent and have the natural fluency of a writer and the visual and spatial strengths of an artist. Those skills contribute to your creative and expressive mind.

Take That!

So I am pretty much a genius!

Those picture questions were pretty fun... and the logic ones were fairly easy.

Give it a shot and see what you score!

Permalink/TrackBack:
http://bvanscoter.blogspot.com/2007/08/i-was-browsing-online-and-came-across.html

Friday, August 24, 2007

Honestly Guys

You know what... Honestly I don't really care anymore!

No, I don't!!

You see, I've been involved in all this Thirty Day Challenge stuff, and I'm almost not quite sure why I do it....

Yeah, I want to have my own business and make money through it and stuff, but the way the Thirty Day Challenge stuff is really isn't my style.

No, I'm not diss-ing Ed Dale or Dan Raine or anything.... or even Frank Kern who was part of it in the past!

I really look up to these guys and they know what they're talking about... they're geniuses.

So What Is It?

I am not quite entirely sure of that myself... but here are a few guesses of what it might be:

My Job...

First, and probably foremost is the fact that I work... yes, I work a horrible job... at the worst time of day...

I work at Wegmans... which might be a great place to work anywhere else, but working on the night-crew is tough.... tougher than anyone might expect.

Sure, it's just stocking shelves but that's not necessarily the issue.

It's the fact that you have to take a lot of flack from management and all of their incompetence... stupid annoying managers, power-tripping managers, managers that don't know a [blooming] thing... just plain dumb managers!

Don't get me wrong. Some, or most of the managers I've had are great... but it's those few managers that [stink] beyond all telling that totally ruin it!

But besides just management working on the night-crew is extremely stressful... it's stressful on the body and can be stressful mentally.

Sometimes it's enough to make you
totally want to give up on everything!

And then there's the time factor...

I dont' have the time I would like to have - working over 40 hours a week most of the time - to work on the stuff I would like to work on... which isn't even going into the fact that if I ever have a little time I'm worn out from work or so mentally stressed that I can't concentrate on much of anything!

Debt...

Probably one of the other top most reasons for my mass confusion is my debt...

I should explain that for the last few years I have managed to rack up debt in excess of $7,000 just on my credit cards.... which has been paying it's toll on me for the past year and a half.

And most if it wasn't really stuff that helped me any, between at least $500 in school books and $3,500 in a really crappy online business coaching service that didn't even tell me anything I didn't already know!... I could have avoided a lot of it!

I've been gradually been paying that off for the first year... but since I've gone full-time at Wegmans I've been trying to get rid of that burden once and for all!

I am actually pretty close to paying off the debt on my credit cards and expect to have all paid off by the end of next month. Horray!

But that doesn't even touch the surface when it comes to my school loans, though!

Yes, like every little boy and girl (Who doesn't have mommy and daddy or someone else pay for their college expenses in full) I had to take out student loans to pay for my stupid lame-old college education...

And quite honestly it really hasn't done anything for me and probably never will (to any great extent)... since business is something you learn in practice, not in books!

So as a result I had racked up school loans of like $21,354.

So if you can do the math I have, or had, debt of almost $30,000!

Okay, sure that might not seem like a whole lot to some people, or at least just looking at the numbers... but in comparison to the diddly-squat amount that I make, it's surprising at how much I've been able to do with my credit card debt!

I barely make enough money for anyone to live out on their own... not to mention anyone with huge amounts of college loans to pay off!

I barely make $15,000 a year and having to pay my parents rent every month (which is only a couple hundred less than renting anywhere else, though food and meals are included) plus other financial obligations...

I'm surprised that I've been able to sanely make it this far (though some people might question that).

Not Doing What I Like...

I guess that's what it pretty much boils down to.

I'm not doing anything that I like!

Quite honestly I would rather be sitting up in my room or small office and doing web design and coding stuff all day long... that's what I find fascinating and interesting and fun.

But the trouble is with all these other barriers in my way - mostly financial - that I can't just go and do that... unless someone would offer to pay off all my loans, and provide me food and housing with the web space and stuff to do that!

That would be great... I'd love it... but it's very improbable!

Which is probably why, once I finish paying off my credit card loans and stuff I will start to look more thoroughly for a job where I can do the things that I like!

A job where I can be involved in web design or stuff on the internet... and work during the day or on my own hours where I won't put my body through so much stress!

Wow, that was longer than I expected it to be, so I'll just leave it at that for now.

Permalink/TrackBack:
http://bvanscoter.blogspot.com/2007/08/honestly-guys.html

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Google Ranking [Chevelle Site:blogspot.com]

In the last couple days I have managed to get this blogged ranked pretty well among all the other Blogger/Blogspot blogs that mention Chevelle in them!

For this you would have to type Chevelle site:blogspot.com in Google's search box to see what the rank of the blog is among all the other Blogspot blogs out there that mention Chevelle.

Of all the Blogger blogs on Blogspot, I have managed to get my blog listed as #32 in all the blogs that mention Chevelle, and yesterday at 2:30 PM was the first post I made about Chevelle!

For the fun of it I checked where anything on Keith's blog showed up... and the first instance of anything on his blog in Google's SERPs that had Chevelle on it was ranked as page #263.

This blog is also ranked #729 when you type chevelle band without quotes. I didn't even see Keith's blog in any of those listings.

And when you type in Chevelle band site:blogspot.com, this blog is #13 in Google's SERP among all the other Blogger/Blogspot blogs that mention Chevelle and band!

Note: that these rankings are very likely only temporary, because as content is added it will remove my Chevelle keyword density and likely bump me down in Google's SERPs... though it would be cool if I got higher in Google's SERPs.

Permalink/TrackBack:
http://bvanscoter.blogspot.com/2007/08/google-ranking-chevelle-siteblogspotcom.html

Concert Conflict...

I was just on facebook poking around at some of the various bands iLike...

I just found out that Underoath who I really like will be playing near Buffalo, New York on Tuesday, October 23rd at the Evolution Entertainment Complex in Cheektowaga, New York (ticket info).

However, Nightwish is another band I really like that is playing the same night in Toronto, Ontario Canada - just across the lake. They are playing at The Docks Nightclub and Concert Theatre (ticket info).

  vs.  

Underoath                             Nightwish

Depending on how Nightwish's upcoming album Dark Passion Play [2 Disk Edition | Discography] is, I might be in quite a predicament to choose which concert to go to...

I have to wait and see how their new stuff is because they just got a new female vocalist, and I don't have enough of an idea of how they are just based on their new single Eva, because it is a very light song.

Hopefully Nightwish hasn't gone too soft on me... I like their heavy rock mixed with Tuomas's interest in soundtrack composing... it gives a real interesting sound in a lot of their stuff.

So far it seems much more likely that I will go to the Underoath Concert because I'm sure that Keith would want to go to that... and I don't know if anyone would want ot go to the Nightwish concert with me... Plus Underoath will be coming closer!

Permalink/TrackBack:
http://bvanscoter.blogspot.com/2007/08/concert-conflict.html

Mini Happy Dance!

My web 2.0 content in the market I was talking about in the previous post finally got into Google's SERP (Search Engine Ranking Page)!

And I didn't have to pay to get there with AdWords....

Horray!

Here's the break-down of what happened:

  • I Posted content to it on 8/21/07 at 8:51 AM and 9:28 AM.
  • Set up a unique social bookmarking account for the popular social bookmarking services and bookmarked it at about 9:30 AM.
  • Google actually crawled my content 8/21/07 at 13:33:05 GMT... Soooo - minus 4 (Eastern Daylight / Summer Time)... would make it 9:33AM
  • Set up a unique social bookmarking account for all the other services at 9:35 AM.
  • Then proceeded to social bookmark it at all those places at 10:45 AM.
  • ... [Got bored and did some other stuff] ...
  • Created a Squidoo Lens for my stuff at 3:30 AM on 8/22/07.
  • Social bookmarked said Squidoo lens in popular bookmarking services with alternative account at 4:00 AM
  • ... [Poked around the web a bit] ...
  • Manually added my site to Google's To-Be-Crawled list, not having seen it in Google's SERPs even by 7:00 AM the following day!
  • ... [Got really frustrated an made my last post at 7:30 AM] ...
  • Finally am listed on Google's SERPs between 8:45 AM and 2:15 PM on 8/22/07 when I was resting.
    Here's some of the Data:
    For phrase match I'm listed as #111 (the eleventy-first result)
    For broad match I'm listed as #710
    Not quite in the top ten... but we'll see what I can do!

I didn't get out of Google's supplemental index or passed into their main index from their cache index 23-29 hours later!

What did this...

  • Was it the fact that a bunch of other 30DCers were already in the market and using the same platform?
  • Was it the fact that Google finds it fishy that all of a sudden a bunch of content was added to the social bookmarking sphere with the same tag(s) in a relatively short period of time?
  • Does Google not put Blogger/Blogspot content in the SERPs right away?
  • Was it the fact that I was trying too hard to get into Google?
  • Did I mess up at some small little thing that I missed in the 30DC content?
  • Did I do something wrong?

I think Google is just smarter and tricker than we know about how it moves stuff aorund it's indices.

Permalink/TrackBack:
http://bvanscoter.blogspot.com/2007/08/mini-happy-dance.html

Just STOP IT!

Hey this goes out to all the 30DC people that have the same market idea I have:

WOULD YOU GET OUT OF MY MARKET!

Stop, turn, and run away... I have one decent market idea that I just put all my extra time that I have left into it.

And all of you are messing it up for me!

Seriously, that's not cool!

But Here's What It Really Is...

I don't really like any of the market ideas I have, sure I have a list of like 30 market ideas... but quite honestly I don't like any of them.

I wish that I could just pay someone to do all the boring work that I don't want to do... but my job sucks and doesn't pay me enough - plus it doesn't even leave me enough time to do what I really want to do.

So instead I've done all this work the last week in a market that a thousand other 30DCers thought of and I'm not getting anywhere in google and hating every moment of it.

I also set up accounts for other ideas on like blogger and got them their own emails.... but one I don't really know anything about and the market is too broad for me and I can't find anything decent to post about...

And the other is good and interesting with like maybe only one other 30DCer out there, but I am like totally stumped for creating any amount of content for it... at least any kind of quality content.

Also there's another market I saw that I might be able to work with... but I don't want to work with any of the stuff that I have now! So why should I really be looking at another?

If any of this were up to me I'd have my successful company and be working on other more fun scripting and tech stuff online.

Permalink/TrackBack:
http://bvanscoter.blogspot.com/2007/08/just-stop-it.html

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

The Last Chevelle Concert

Here's a video from the previous Chevelle concert that Keith and I went to on May 25, 2007 at The Town Ballroom in Buffalo, New York.

[You might want to make sure your speakers are turned down... this has real bad sound quality!]

Chevelle - Vitamin R:

This was one of the best concerts that we've / I've been too!

I am still convinced that when I had my fist up when Dean was near us, and when I pulled my fist away for a second and put it back up, that by doing that was actually what made Dean hit my fist with his fist and follow-through to hit Keith's fist as well.... that I don't think that without my little 'takeaway' with my fist that Dean would have hit our fists!

Also on one of the final songs I got to touch Dean's guitar as he held it out.

At the end of the concert Dean was about to hand me the guitar pick he was playing with, but I pulled my hand away and let Keith take it because before the concert he said he wanted to get somehting from the concert... and what better than for him to get Dean's pick.

I wasn't too disapointed because Keith got me another Chevelle guitar pick from a security guy during stage cleanup.

Permalink/TrackBack:
http://bvanscoter.blogspot.com/2007/08/last-chevelle-concert.html

Upcoming CHEVELLE Concert!

On Tuesday September, 4th Chevelle is coming relatively close-by, and I want to go see them. They are going to be in Binghamton, New York at the Magic City Music Hall. (Ticket info)

So Chevelle [myspace | Amazon] is the headlining band, and their new record...


Vena Sera

... is simply amazing!!

Plus, let's not forget about Dean:

The new addition of Dean on the bass (who replaced Joe) was a great move!

Opening for Chevelle is Fair To Midland (cool website btw) [myspace | Amazon] who have an interesting, slightly lighter sound to them.

Also opening for Chevelle is 2 Cents [myspace | Amazon] who are a little heavier and use various styles in their music.

So I will be there to see Chevelle play.... again, after seeing them play earlier this summer in Buffalo, New York.

Permalink/TrackBack:
http://bvanscoter.blogspot.com/2007/08/upcoming-chevelle-concert.html

Thursday, August 2, 2007

My Blog

Hey there!

This is my blog... The blog belonging to Ben VanScoter, and so it shall be!

I have the right to post anything and everything or nothing for that matter that I want!

... And if you don't like it, that's fine too, but don't whine to me!

This great nation has given everyone the right to say whatever they want so I shall exploit my right to that here.

Permalink/TrackBack:
http://bvanscoter.blogspot.com/2007/08/my-blog.html

 

pages

legal information

privacy policy

We respect your privacy and promise to never sell, barter, share or rent your information to any unauthorized third party. By providing your contact information you are also requesting and agreeing to receive important information about future events. (You may unsubscribe at any time.)
view full privacy policy here

certification of authenticity

I certify that the information contained on this site is true and complete to the best of my knowledge and understanding, any discrepencies will be governed by the terms of use.

terms of use

Everything we provide is provided "as is" including but not limited to the implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose, without any promise or guarantee of earnings. All forward looking statements on any of our materials are intended as an expression our opinion and will not responsible for any incidental or consequential damages from your actions.
view official terms of use