Welcome to ToTG!



April 25, 2013

URL Change

A few hours ago I purchased the domain "topoftexasgazette.com". Blogger will redirect to it, but if you want, you can change your bookmarks to the dot com URL.  I'm not for sure if the few reader feeds this blog has will change.

I'm going ahead with the Blogger platform because it's user-friendly (read: simple for a doofus like me) and I didn't want to pay for hosting.  I might change that in the future, but will stick with Blogger for the time being.

Some other things have changed;  the Feedjit feed quit working, even though I changed the URL after I signed into my Feedjit account.  I put in a new module, but for some reason the colors and width of the module didn't come out the way I wanted, so I will "work" on that sometime soon.  It's an interesting feature, but not necessary.

Also, the ToTG Trivia scoreboard module quit working, but it wasn't working earlier before the URL change.  I will also see if I can fix that, but if not, I will just create a link in the right-hand nav-bar for those who like to play the quiz that way.  Until then, the URL is ToTG Trivia Tournament

Other than that, I don't see many other changes.  I'm thinking of using AdSense, but OTOH, I doubt I'd see much money from it, seeing as how there's only a few dozen unique hits each day and probably isn't worth the hassle.  We'll see...I might try it for a while.  The domain cost only ten bucks, so it's not as though I have anything other than time tied up in this site. 

I've read articles about making money with a blog, but I also have read that people who make a profit off their blogs are few and far between.  I follow some food blogs/sites in my reader and one woman said she had just started turning a profit after 6+ years of blogging.  She hinted at the time she had spent and I did some quick calculations and figured she was making about a dollar an hour.  My time isn't worth much, but it's worth more than that. (one of the reasons I follow her blog in my reader instead of bookmarking it and visiting it daily is because of the multiple and obtrusive ads she has on her pages.)

The URL is longer than I wanted, but someone already had purchased "totg.com".  It's not being used, but is for sale for $8875.

Yeah, sure.  I'll get that out of my piggy bank.

April 24, 2013

Number 4 Me

Your Expression Number is 4


Practical and down to earth - everything in your life is organized.

You are a great writer and teacher. You never forget a detail.


Very patient, you have the ability to cultivate talents in difficult fields.

You also tend to have an artistic side. You'd make a great architect or classical musician.


You face your responsibilities with a positive attitude - and you always get things done.


You are serious, sincere, honest, and faithful.

Sometimes your strong sense of responsibility leads to frustration.


You also tend to develop strong likes and dislikes, which border on dogmatism.


At your worst, you can be a dominant disciplinarian. 



Mammal Munches Much in Milliseconds

Did you know the Star-nosed mole is the fastest eating mammal? According to Nature Journal, the animal can identify and eat a piece of prey in 120 milliseconds.

That's almost as fast as one of my sisters used to eat.

Looks a bit like her, too.



Just a Quick Note

To say if I don't post for a while, it's because the power keeps going out.  I've also had problems w/ my internet connection.  I'm just waiting to see if it sorts itself out because I've done everything here on my end that I can.  I've run a troubleshooting tool, changed settings (and changed them back), rebooted the modem and done the ubiquitous "clear cache and cookies".  I KNOW it's not on my end, but AT&T refuses to admit that there's something wrong on THEIR end.  No, they'd rather go through the sham of sending someone out and then charging me for a visit.

Oddly enough, the connection plays up at nearly the same times every day...that's why I don't think it's anything to do with my wiring.  Sick of it, wish I had never "upgraded" my connection because the old DSL, while slower, was much, much, much, much more reliable. 

/rant off (but to be continued)

April 22, 2013

Hung Up On Spam

I had high hopes that this wasn't spam, then realized it had to be someone who didn't know me...at least not in "that way".