Sorry Blogger

I just set up a new weblog at typepad.com.

I wanted a weblog that allows for multiple authors that is password protected for my math department. Although it costs a little bit (13 something a month), I think it's worth the money considering the big plans I have.

I will probably keep this weblog up but will make most of my posts at typepad.

Landmark Legislation S. 254

I was again exploring GovTrack.us and found this essential legislation.

If passed it will "direct the Secretary of the Interior to convey certain land to Lander County...and...to Eureka County, Nevada, for continued use as cemeteries.

Apparently, the original pioneers created the cemeteries without regard for the Federal Government's need to control 87 percent of the land in Nevada.

This bill seems to fit the category of a "no-brainer." I don't think any politician would want to be known as the one who forced Lander and Eureka counties to move all of the graves in order to build a Walmart.

What's surprising is that they had to bring the matter before the Senate. Couldn't the Dept of the Interior have done this without Congressional action?

EnviroSpin Watch

Okay, I've already posted one blog entry today. (I just started blogging and I already need therapy).

Anyway, I just found an interesting blog called EnviroSpin Watch. Since I'm interested in blogging about energy and environmental issues, EnvironSpin Watch is a blog I should monitor.

I don't have time to read it right now, but I wanted to post a link to it so I can come back to it later...

GovTrack.us: Track Federal Legislation

I just found a really cool website that tracks legislative activity. You can sign up and set up your account to monitor any legislator's speeches, etc. I set up my account to monitor Senators Feinstein, Boxer, Hatch and Bennett. (I live in California and I'm from Utah.)

You can also monitor legislation in different areas. (There appears to be hundreds of keywords available.) My account now monitors any legislative activity regarding energy policy (which I find interesting...and neglected.)

I'm not sure whether or not I'm sent emails with updates or whether I have to go to the site to check.

Anyway, I'm going back to see if there are any new updates in the last 15 minutes....

First Blogroll

This week I went to http://www.blogrolling.com/ and set up an account to create the list of links on the sidebar. It was almost as easy as Biz Stone says it is in his book. Now my only problem is to get the format to match the archive links created by blogger.

That will be next week's project. (After school of course... I would never blog during class...)

Bad Karma

Maybe there is such a thing as bad karma. Last week I posted a this blog comparing the sunny weather here in California with the blizzard conditions in New England.

And today it rained... It is NOT supposed to rain in southern California. I didn't watch the weather but it probably only got up to 65 degrees. It makes me want to move to New England.

Anyway, I should go home before the wet roads freeze and become covered in black ice...

Besides, I'm not helping my Karma situation.

Blog Promotion

I was looking through blogger's help pages and discovered this article about promoting your blog. (It's not what I was looking for but it looked interesting so I was, naturally, sidetracked.)

The author, Biz Stone, suggests three types of promotion. I've mostly done the steps suggested in "Blogger Application Settings." They involve chosing certain settings to allow people to email my posts to others, setting my blog to ping weblogs.com, etc.

The other ideas were new to me. "Blogging Technique Suggestions" include making regular updates and writing quality content. (Damn, you mean I have to work at this?)

The best ideas were in "Marketing Action Items." There are nine different ways to promote your blog. Some are as easy as adding your blog address to your email signature. Others use terms that are totally new to me like "meme games," which sounds kind of naughty. The only difficult one sounds like adding a blogroll which they say you can do here. (If you can't tell, I've recently learned how to do hyperlinks. Since it's the only thing I know....)

Well, I should probably get back to teaching! Anyway, it's probably being presumptuous to think people would be interested in what I have to say--but you never know.


UPDATE: Here is another article about increasing traffic by Biz Stone. I posted it here so that I don't have to go looking for it again when I'm actually interested in increasing my traffic.

70 Degrees

Here are some excerpts from a news item posted on weather.com.

Blizzard warnings remain posted in parts of southern New England ....where winds have gusted as high as 75mph, driving the snow into huge drifts. Another 6-12 inches may fall on the cape today, bringing totals there close to 3 feet...

Some snowfall totals as of midday Sunday: South Hamilton 29"; Boston 26", Providence, R.I., 23"; New Haven, Conn., 16"; New York City 14".

I just have to say that here in southern California it is 70 degrees. Although the sun just went down so it might get a little chilly later.