Sylvie Dixie e-mailed me 11 days ago giving me a heads up about WebGrrrl.net being featured as the Blog of The Day down at FuelMyBlog. It’s a blog-ego boost for me, although I’m not sure what my blog has that deserves the honor.

FuelMyBlog is a blog community slash directory where you can vote for your favorite (or least favorite) blog, enter competitions or simply chat with other FuelMyBlog members across the Internet. Although I visit the site only once in a while, it’s a fun place to get to know other bloggers especially those within your niche.

Thanks, FuelMyBlog. I would have blogged earlier about it if my Internet connection weren’t so unbearably slow.

In the spirit of the coming Olympics 08.08.08.

more cat pictures

Since my preferred browser has always been Firefox, I thought I’d give the ScribeFire add-on a try. I would have been posting away with joy if it were not for my lame-slow Internet connection which I have to bear for another week.

Having the tool taking over half of my browser space took a little time to get used to, but it’s worth it for the convenience it gives me. I’m especially impressed with the multi-blog site and platform support, making it easy for me to switch from one blog to another whenever I feel the need to post in either one of the sites I own. I also like the fact that when I need to add a link I have copied, ScribeFire grabs the URL and automatically inserts it in the Add a Link option, then all I needed to do is click OK and the URL’s part of my post’s hyperlink.

I may take Wanderer Thoughts’ recommendation to use DashBlog, though. The part that caught my eye with this tool is its integration with Twitter. Active Twitter users may find this tool convenient for their use.

Despite it being a paid post, I am exactly in the same wavelength as Serial Box.net on using SocialSpark to connect with your blog visitors and increase your web site traffic.

I did blog about my recent attempt to use the Spark ad feature as part of my back linking strategy. What I haven’t mentioned (no thanks to my Internet connection) is that my advertisement was yanked a few days ago by IZEA for violating its terms of service. Specifically, I requested that there is no use of NoFollow on the link back from the reviewers’ blogs to mine, and removing NoFollow is a big NoNo for SocialSpark. For what it’s worth, responses for that short two days since I put up my Spark (after changing the title a bit by promoting my PR) was quite encouraging.

I’m thinking of making the IBlogUBack challenge a permanent one, as soon as I can find the time to put up a page on it. Will keep everyone posted.

Paid blogging is the single most easiest form of online money making I have ever encountered, and I bet almost everyone else agrees with me, even Isaiah of Ezekun.com can attest to that.

However, as I read one of his post about his experience blogging and how he got started with pay to blog programs, it also reminded me that this may not be suitable for everyone. I’ve been pushing my husband, sisters and little brother to get involved with blogging for almost a year now as a way of making money online, since they spent so much time on the Internet playing MMORPGs. However, none of them made a move, or at least not as serious as I. They definitely have some ideas of what to blog about, but my husband told me that he doesn’t really know how.

Don’t know, or don’t care? Let me be honest, ideas are everywhere as long as you have the capacity to think, so that shouldn’t be a reason for you not to blog. And I’m pretty sure my husband knows how to blog because he sees me doing it every day, and he’s a systems analyst.

I finally deduced that he, as well as my other siblings, didn’t care to blog, and I am assuming that’s because he’s not really passionate about writing. If sharing your thoughts and ideas out to the world through writing content doesn’t turn you on (no, not THAT way!), then even when you have started blogging down the road, you won’t last that long because you lack the passion to share in words.

There are ways of making money — offline and online — other than blogging, that’s for sure. But just like getting paid to blog, these stuff take effort. Most importantly, though, is that you have to take action. Stop thinking about it, and just go do it.

… but my crappy Internet connection is making things hard for me to access anything. For those of you who have taken my Spark challenge, hope you can be patient as I try my best to get things going smoothly again.

Amongst all the Bullfrog games I’ve ever played, nothing can compare to the enjoyable Theme Hospital. I recently had the urge to play it again after I completed the whole Cake Mania 2 game, but noticed that the game was sluggish. Even after using the recommended DOS game emulator DOSBox, it still didn’t fix my issue. So I scoured the Web as usual and found three useful sites:

1. At the Ubuntu Forums, they were discussing how to speed up DOSBox by modifying its cycles so that graphics from a game could render faster. This is the most recommended technique I found if your DOS game like Theme Hospital runs very slow. A detailed explanation on how to change the cycles can also be found in this site.
2. The Vogons Forum also discussed the same thing about how to edit the DOSBox cycles, and the members also recommended editing the core setting in the configuration file to dynamic, since it may have something to do with the computer processor.
3. You may want to download the files in the Theme Hospital Downloads site, especially the Theme Hospital Patch file, as it may help repair any faults in the original game which could cause the slowdown in your game.

To be honest, after trying all the techniques from those site, it still didn’t solve my problem. For some unknown reason, I decided to download the game again from Best Old Games, and — what do you know? — the game ran as smooth as melted chocolate! And I didn’t even have to use DOSBox!

I still have a problem with the sound, though. I can hear squat, so there’s none of those funny sound effects and music background, but I can live without it for now. I’ll post something up if I ever do find a solution to this problem.

Look at the image below carefully and ask yourself — which way is she turning?

According to Pairacy’s blog, you are using your right brain if you see her turning clockwise, and your left brain if you see her turning counter-clockwise. Supposedly, if you can see her turning both ways, then you have an IQ of 160 or more. Therefore, I feel no shame in admitting that I am, indeed, a super genius.

Thanks again to Pai for his post (hey Pai, it would be good blogging etiquette if you could quote the original source of this image if you still remember where you took it from).

Update: As of 10 July 2008, this Spark is no longer listed, as it has been yanked by IZEA for violating its ToS. Read here for more.

Since I’ve already posted this in SocialSpark, I might as well announce it here.

As part of a link exchange campaign I’m running, I am looking for personal blogs that are willing to do a 50-word review on any of the posts I have in WebGrrrl.net, with a link back from your blog to that particular post. Your post should look something like this. Once done, e-mail me and let me know of the URL, or if you have a SocialSpark account, accept the Spark. In exchange, I’ll return the favor and do the same thing to one of your posts in your site.

Please make sure the link back is NOT a no-follow and is not published under any sort of sponsored review category. Your review on my site will stay in my site permanently and has a DoFollow so that you can get some link juice back. Take this opportunity only if you own a personal blog. Commercial blogs, or blogs with adult or gambling content will NOT be entertained.

Interested? Then start now!

Wildheart’s Works took my Spark challenge to review one of my post in exchange of a blog back. You really need to check out her site, and particularly her latest creation of free background textures if you’re looking for one for your site. I never knew you can do so much with Paint Shop Pro. I’ve used PSP before, but found out about the powerful Photoshop and have never looked back.

Wanna take my challenge? Log into your SocialSpark account, or e-mail me once you make a review on yours. Better read the challenge conditions first before you do so.