The World of Joel Szerlip » Blogging

Finding Time to Blog Working Full Time

Joel — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 04:41:17 +0000

I always took for granted my schedule when I was in school and working part time. I for the most part had either days at school where I would much rather blog then be paying attention to a lecture or just extra time in general to blog. Since starting to work full time back in December I have found it increasingly more difficult to get to the blog and write interesting posts. I just don’t think people will find my daily grind at work all that interesting to read about, so I choose not to post about work related things.

I have been able to get in a really solid routine to work full time and come home and work on Darkstation, which has worked out well. I get home a good hour or two before Jenn does which gives me time to just make sure I get it done. So far this has been a good system and things seem to be going just as good if not better then before I started working full time. I haven’t had as much time to play video games however as I usually get home work on the site, eat dinner, watch some TV and hit the sack, so most of my gaming is on the weekends or late nights.

I am finding myself enjoying games more now then I have in the past couple of years, mostly because it has become a nice escape from work. When I get home a lot of times I just want to gravitate towards something interactive, enjoyable and fun. I have found myself going for a lot more causal or easy going games rather then the FPS or RTS that I normally would go for.

All in all things are going really good, and my only hope is that I start to make more time for the blog as it still is something I want to keep going for a long time.

Finally Changed to a New WordPress Theme

Joel — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 08:26:45 +0000

I have been using WordPress for a while now, and I have gone through a lot of changes in design. I actually kept the last one the longest mostly because I just thought it was simple and easy, but it was time for a change. Today I introduced a new theme, and I hope people find it more functional and a little bit more streamline. The new theme is much more simple and to the point and I think going forward it will give me all the flexibility I will need for any sort of posts.

I have been thinking of changing themes for a while, and every time I do change I always seem to want to look back. I have noticed a steady change in post types over the years, whether it be about Jenn and I or vacations, movies, books, TV, video games, food and all other sorts of things. I just love reading about things that happened in years past and I hope it is that alone that keeps me blogging in one form or another for a long, long time.

Please do let me know what you think of the new theme. There are still some changes to format to come, especially in the left navigation bar. I hope to get some new plugins and really customize this theme to use for at least the rest of the year.

Working on Undisclosed Projects

Joel — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 03:41:04 +0000

I love working on projects, most of the time I get a project and then for whatever reason don’t follow through on them or in the recent case of my TV Blogs sell them. I did start up CrusoeTV.com based on the new show coming this fall on NBC title Crusoe based on the book Robinson Crusoe. That is just a minor project that I am hoping does even better then mine in the past season. I saw I already have a competitor on that, but my site is indexed on Page 2 of Google when searching for Crusoe TV, I am hoping by the end of the month we will make it to the front page.

That is not my other project, my other project is bigger then any other project I have taken on. I CANNOT WAIT TO ANNOUNCE IT.. But that won’t be happening today. It is a project I have been working on for years and it is finally coming to life and this Summer I will be able to unveil it. I am really proud of this project, I have already put a good day or two of hours into the project since starting it and figure to have put a good week worth of hours when it launches. Not only do I expect this site to flourish but I hope many of you who read my blog will enjoy it as well.

From there I will leave you with this, my posting has been irregular, posting a few days in a row and then off a week, and for that I apologize, its the last quarter of college and all I can see is grabbing that diploma and running for the hills, and I really don’t want to come back and take a class this summer.

The Blogging NCAA Tournament Pick’Em Winner Is…

Joel — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 20:08:20 +0000

Not me. I came in last. Well a few spots from last, the people who came in last didn’t play so they got a 0 as there score. Otherwise I came in last. I just was not on top of my March Madness picks this year. But as the deal for entering the Pick’Em each player must give a link back to the winner. And the winner is Cage Today! Congrats my friend, you did pick a great bracket, much better then mine and quite a bit better then David’s. Hopefully next year we get a better turnout, March Madness is not a lot of fun without having some great Pick Em pools!

2008 Bloggers NCAA TOURNEY Pick’em Contest: Hosted By David Lithman

Joel — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 05:13:23 +0000

So I have written about David Lithman before, he is one of the few blogs I read on a regular basis. Last year was really what I consider a high point for blogging, and we had a great turnout for the NCAA Tourney Pick’em for Bloggers last year. David is running the show this year and I encourage anyone who hasn’t signed up who runs a blog to sign up! Its a lot of fun, and you will see how badly your bracket gets beat by my perfect picks! Here are the rules and for more info, head to David Lithman’s Blog to check it out!

Rules:

Only bloggers. It can be any type of blog. If you own a random fashion blog, thats fine… If you sign up and you don’t have a blog you will be booted.
Your bracket name must be either your domain, name, or blog title. It must distinguish you from the rest of the pack.
You must complete your bracket by Thursday March 20, before the first game.
Anyone who signs up must acknowledge the winner in a blog post. The blog post must have a link back to the winner’s blog. You can simply say ‘Congrats to David Lithman for winning the Bloggers NCAA Tournament Pick’em Contest’.
If you do not acknowledge the winner in your blog somewhere you will be ostracized from the community.
I am the commish and control the league.

Prizes:

A free link back from every blogger who signs up in the tournament. This could be a lot of free links if we get everyone to signup.
1 month of advertising on my blog in the 728×90 or 125×125 banner spot.
More Prizes to Come. If you would like to donate something, let me know!

Bob Buskirk’s CES Swag Giveaway

Joel — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 21:00:47 +0000

So for those who don’t know, about five years ago I worked for Bob Buskirk at his very successful ThinkComputers.org website. At the time the site wasn’t the powerhouse that you see today but a developing technology website. I didn’t stay long, but recently I got back in touch with Bob and have checked in with him a few times to see how things are going. Well to get to the point of the post, Bob is doing a “Swag Giveaway“ and I thought what the heck I better enter, who knows. So here is my entry, and you all should go check out Bob’s blog, I enjoy it, and I am sure you will to.

Sold 6 TV Blog Websites Today

Joel — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 22:29:54 +0000

I have to say that I am very happy to inform everyone today that I have sold off a slew of my TV Blogs for a great profit. My buddy David Lithman pointed me in the right direction, and within 6 hours of posting my sites for sale, I had someone buy them for what I was putting them up for. I have been running short on time getting ready to graduate, so I thought it would be a good idea to sell off my TV blogs and start new again with some of the new pilots. I believe the purchaser is just going to be throwing up ads, but it will be interesting to see where the sites go. Here are the blogs sold

ChuckTVBlog.com, JourneymanBlog.com, OfficeTVBlog.com
CarpoolersTV.com, BionicWomanTV.com, and PushingDaisies.org

The final price I will leave unknown, but I think it was one of those deals that I think will work well for both parties. Lets just say it was a nice clean sale.

Just Got Done Interviewing Journeyman’s Brian Howe

Joel — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 01:40:06 +0000

Things are funny in the way they work out. I haven’t done a radio interview in almost two years, I loved doing them, but its been a while. Yesterday there was a comment on Journeyman Blog from Brian Howe thanking us for our work and support. I e-mailed him up and asked if we could talk. He said he would do his best and asked for my phone number and went from there and I got a call at about 4:30pm this evening. Never heard of Brian Howe? Well I bet you have seen him, several times in fact. He has been in such movies as The Pursuit of Happyness, Catch Me if You Can, Evan Almighty, Deja Vu just to name a few, and a handful of notable TV shows as well Law & Order and CSI.

So I don’t have any radio equipment anymore. In fact I used my iPhone on speaker and my Mac Book to attempt to record the interview and only got the last eight minutes of it. However the talk was about 20-25 minutes long. We talked about the show, his past, his getting the gig on Journeyman, the future of the show, the promotion of the show, and the cast.

If you want to check out more on the interview go to the Journeyman Blog. I loved doing the interview and hopefully I can get some more with the strikes still going around and Journeyman’s fait still in the air. I should have the audio for the interview up soon as well.

Consolidating TV Blogs

Joel — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 19:08:53 +0000

When I went into the idea of creating TV Show Blogs the idea was to make a good number of them and see which ones take off and which ones were not going anywhere. I have begun the process of weeding them out and I have eliminated quite a few of the blogs I have been updating. Sites like KidNationTV, OfficeTVBlog, FNLBlog, Pushing Daisies.org, and a few others. So what was once just an overwhelming task now has been shortened a bit so I can now push my stronger sites to the front and work heavily on those. So here are the list of blogs performing well and that I am going to continue to push:

Sticking With Websites

Joel — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 14:21:41 +0000

You know what my biggest problem is when it comes to web development? I get so into my sites for a good month or so, I plan them out, I have gerat ideas, and then for some reason or another I end up slowly losing interest in the sites and move onto a new idea. The only reason I seem to stick with sites is if they begin to perform well, something that many of my TV Sites are. However I have found over the past week that I am battling the temptation of moving myself to other projects especially with all the back work I have put into creating this network of TV sites. The only regret I have about this network is not implementing more into the sites then I have. I think I get to a point of content and then feel like that is good enough and to be honest I realize that in this highly competitive society, being satisfied with mediocrity will never cut it. So if you start making you way around the network of TV Sites you will notice some interesting changes with the inclusion of message boards, polls, wallpapers, and more. I am hoping that Google remains friendly to my sites and come September when these shows begin I will have some serious momentum going through the entire season. I am continually reminding myself that these are good ideas, and now I just have to go do them. Anyways keep an eye out on all the sites as it should be a full network wide update throughout the week.