Spammers of all kinds suck hairy arse

I'm sorry... no I'm not, but it's true. I just couldn't take it anymore. I never really had the time to care about the forums on my site here, and no one else did either - so...

POOF, vamoose son of a bitch

The main thing they really did is to provide a haven for idiots to register and post their stupid links back to their stupid sites about gambling, and leave a bunch of retarded comments saying stuff like "I agree with you totally" on a thread  that is posting a link to a file, or code sample. Whatever Retardo Montelbon, at least pretend to have a brain and reply so as to not give yourself up as a spammer in the first.25 nanoseconds. All right?

Besides. It makes my menu shorter anyway.

And if you are a wonderin', yes I must thank Jay-Z for the lyric bit above...

Digital technology, analog heart

This camera is a thing of unparalleled beauty. Epson has created probably the single most desirable Digital Camera on the face of the planet. The RD1 boasts a 6.1mp (6 MP: 3,008 x 2,000 pixels (12-bit RAW, JPEG EXIF 2.21)) resolution and features found only on traditional range finder cameras.

The lenses it utilizes are any Type M lens bayonette and Type L lens bayonette usable with adapter. So this means Leica, Voigtlander, some old Canon lenses... It has a fairly predictable 1.53x conversion factor, but the image quality and ease of function of this camera seems to be unparalleled. It is expensive though, with a MSRP of $3,000.00, don't expect to see me sportin' one anytime in the near future unless I pawn one of my kids to buy it.

Check the Espon Site for more info on this thing. Maybe if I am lucky, I will be able to get a good deal on eBay in 40 years...

There's a lot of talk about SEO lately, and a ton of information posted all over the intarweb about how to best increase your search engine rankings - mostly with Google - but others as well. So what have I discovered? That it's pretty damned ambiguous.

Yes, there are very specific things you can do to help to increase the quality and frequency at which your on line content gets crawled and indexed. It still feels very Voodoo-esque and arbitrary though. I have been working with my latest client (and good friend Gordon) West Brewing Company, and trying to increase the overall ranking and searchability/findability of their website within the top search engines. Reading numerous articles and referencing data from dozens of websites, I found some of the following to be very helpful:

• Titles should be unique(to every page) and descriptive.
• Should be less than 80 characters.
• Should act as a call to action.
• Should contain important keywords.

• It should accurately describe the page.
• Limit to less than 250 characters.
• Should contain important keywords.

• Should contain important keywords and phrases.
• Limit to less than 250 characters.

• Linking in pages is very important. But don't overdo it.
• Cross linking from one article/page to another within your own site will also help crawlers to index content.

• Well written and frequently updated content is very important. Without content there is nothing to index and/or crawl - so therefor you will get no indexing...
• Consider what people actually search for when writing articles, and weave important keywords and phrases into the first 500 words of the text. (search engines index the first 500 words or less)

• Using the heading tags (i.e. h1, h2, etc...) will help dramatically.
• Always use HTML tags rather than spans applied to text (like to make something bold - us the strong tag), especially as mentioned above.

• This could very well be one of the most important aspects. The more places and sites you have linking to your site, the better the results you will get. Period.
• Getting listed on reviewing websites or industry portals is a great way to drive folks to your site.
• Utilize any of the free PR websites available. Like PRLeap for instance.

• See what your competitors are up to. Perform a Google search, or MSN, or Yahoo, or what ever.. and look to see who comes up on top. Go to the site and scope their META tags, and see what they are doing that you might be able to glean from. If they are on top - they must be doing something right - so why not learn from them.
• See how other folks write content too.

Be careful not to try any of the various tricks out there though, this will most likely not work out the way you want - unless of coarse you want to get blacklisted as a spammer...

The article is one of many excellent references...

Most of all, be patient. This all takes time and effort. It's not horribly hard, but it is not something you can just sit down for a half hour, and expect to be number one in Google in the morning.

In regards to how my projects are working out. I'm not sure yet. I have been getting sporadic results from all of the Search Engines so far. Some days are better than others, just the other day (after being in the top 10) westbeer.com dropped off of Google completely for like 3 days - and now (I just checked) it's back and it's #2 and 14 - depending on what your terms are. Although in many of the others, it seems to be holding its own in the top 10. So, I am very hopeful that I can get it licked to the point to where everyone is happy...

I love Quake. Always have. Ever since the days of fraggin' the heck out of Kent, Tom, Litsa and me bro in Quake 2. Hell, I was playing Quake 3 Arena up until last year when Quake 4 came out.

I'm looking forward to the Multi player version of Quake Wars which I guess is coming out soon. In the meantime - I think I will partake of some more rocket launcher magic...

It's funny what goes through your mind at times isn't it? How time always makes some things seem like they were just the bee's knees. Take, for instance, February in Oregon. More specifically, a cold, rainy, dark, sunless day wading through thigh deep water (that is swiftly moving by the way) with run-off smacking you in the grape, all the while trying to find a picture in the madness of being trapped in a 30ft wide, 250ft tall box canyon. Sounds like fun doesn't it?

Well, it is damn it. And I miss it. This picture isn't reminiscent of that, this was a fairly mild day. In fact, I think I had shorts on. Maybe not though, it's hard to say. What I do know is my fellow gluton was there, we gotr wet, tired, and captured a couple of good shots.

More precisely, what I miss is trudging about, camera gear in tow with me bro' tryin' to find the picture. That's what this is all about.

Our misadventures are long and varied. Strange and even downright ignorant at times too. But, holy crap did we have fun. Trying to ascend a slip-grade to photograph an old, derelict log flume (which we found along with a Rattle Snake), driving up an access road in the dead of winter to find, I'm not even sure what. What we did find is hard compacted snow, and almost a long walk home. Even getting stuck in Idaho while I did my best to pass a kidney stone that looked more like a sand spur than a stone. This was actually one of the best trips we did too. Ha! Figure that one out...

The point is, I can rattle off 3 or 4 dozen outstanding places in Oregon and Washington to go and I guarantee you would get excellent pictures, and every single one of these places has a story and makes me smile and even laugh out loud. I think that's why I like photography so much. It triggers memories and responses that I have experienced and can relate to, regardless of whether or not the image I am looking at is mine or not.

Besides. Even if the trip was a bust fropm a photographic stand point... I could always plant my arse down on a boulder and chunk stones in a river. Good times.... good times....

Very seldom have I ever seen a company put as much thought, design and attention to detail into an Internet application as Toyota has invested into their FJ Cruiser configuration app. It is indeed a thing of beauty. Quite honestly, just like the vehicle itself.

With ties back to the 70's, the FJ Cruiser beckons your mind back to the old Land Cruisers back when they were really cool. Before SUV was even coined. Back in the day. The retro styling is refreshing to see, it makes this vehicle (and others) stand out in the crowd - a refreshing juxtaposition of where it all started; riding shotgun to what it has become.

Like other companies (Ford & GM), Toyota comes out swinging with a hard-hitting design targeted directly at folks like me, who would rather have something 20 or 30 years old - simply because it looks better than the sheet-metal-sheep that fly off the line today. The difference here is: Toyota actually made the damned thing. Ford and GM... still just sittin' on their hands talking about it.

Look at the 2008 Dodge Challenger concept. There are no concrete plans to make the thing, and it's most likely because the Charger isn't selling like they hoped (maybe they shoulda thought a bit more on putting 4 doors on it?).  Naturally this thing is concepted out with a fat HEMI power plant and most likely obscene gas mileage - but that's not why you buy it right? Wrong, actually. I would love to have one of these with a V6 in it. Stick a V^ with some of the specks of the good Buick engines, get me 27 MPG, and I'm sold. Otherwise - stick in your ear.

The other concept I would love to see hit the streets is the Ford Bronco concept. 2 years ago now, Ford releases this concept to much fanfare, and yet no retail vehicle. They have 17 SUV models in 6 different lines - and yet they still do not make the Bronco. It's better looking than every single one of their current SUVs. It just makes no sense. I would buy this rig in a second. No doubt. But I doubt I would ever get the chance.

It's going to get interesting in the next couple of years as the big 3 face the fact that they are on the tail-end of the up swing and Honda and Toyota are kicking them right off the playing field.

Everyone is tightening their belts and puttin' the gloves on - it's going to be a Royal Rumble - and I can't wait to see who wins.