It’s been a long while since I updated this blog.

In fact, it’s been a long while since I updated any blog!

Well, I am gonna be back… real soon…

Currently, I am working on updating to the latest WordPress version.

So far so good. Now, I am checking all the plugins and upgrading those that have new updates. Almost everything is working again, and I should be able to start posting articles again.

If you have been a visitor before, or even if you are a new visitior to …in the outer… do please drop in a line of comment or two, just to say "Hi!" and let me know you have missed me and that you will be back again to catch the latest from the bloke! :) 

Popularity: 32% [?]

Well, I have been out of the blogosphere for a little while! Although I have been reading one or two blogs every now and then, I have not been keeping up with my own blogging. But have a look at this:

This is a graphic of all the visits to my site for the past week, and you can see what happened last Thursday (why all that busy on Thanksgiving Day, I wonder? It’s not that I was holding a sale here or something!). The number of site visits went way up than normal and there were also multiple pages viewed per visit. At about 10:30 pm PST, the visits abruptly stopped, and when I tried to log in that evening, I found that the server was not responding. I reported this to my hosting company and they spent several hours to fix it. Visits only resumed on the following morning at about 2 or 3 a.m. I don’t think the number of visits could have brought down my site!

Interestingly, all the extra visits have come via Comcast.net and were from that domain! And they all landed on this page, which was one of the first Christian Carnivals that I ever hosted. But I wasn’t able to trace the referral link from the Sitemeter stats. They must have put in some kind of script to block the referred link. If someone knows how to trace the referral links through some other means please let me know. I checked out Comcast.net’s page that day and could not find any link from there. Unless they have some kind of special page for members, and since I am not a member, I cannot tell. Does anyone know what happened? Anyway, this phenomenon sort of spurred me out of Blog-o-hiatus and I am back officially. Boy, as you can see, I haven’t been updating this blog for a while now. Kind of miss that! Expect more stuff out of this bloke here from today on. Do stop to say hi, you miss me (even if you don’t, it helps the ego, you know and us bloggers need that massaged sometime).

Popularity: 88% [?]

My new tenant from BlogExplosion’s RentMyBlog program is Maldita, Bratinella, a fun blog by self-professed brat, Jen. It looks like a fun blog with updates from her life, pics and other updates. Please pay her a visit and add a comment or two. She even has a bribe for you if you care to click and comment on her tenant as well. So, do it now, click over and comment! And don’t forget to let her know the bloke sent you!

Popularity: 4% [?]

Technorati Tags: blogexplosion, rentmyblog, blogging

You are all probably aware of the chicken soup series of books phenomenon industry. Although I am not original with the title, I was thinking today, if there were such a book with just this title, what would you find in it?

What do you think should be included in a tome titled, Chicken Soup for the Blogger’s Soul. Presumably, it’ll be an inspirational volume for bloggers. It would be a book you’d go to when you are down from your blogging, or when you have a massive writer’s block, or even, if you just wanted to have a pick-me-up to carry on… Or perhaps, just maybe the blogger in you just wanted to feel good. This book will be the answer for any such scenario.

So, if you were to be asked to put together such a volume, what kinds of articles would you include in it? Would you choose posts that are culled from the best of the blogosphere? Would you add advice or encouragement or perhaps feel-good stories about blogs, blogging or bloggers? Perhaps, you will even register a website www.chickensoupforbloggersoul.com so that you can continue the phenomenon and publish unplifting posts for your avid followers. Now you might then attract undue negative publicity, but who cares then, you might have cashed in on the wealth and/or notoriety. Or, not!

Anyway, care to let your creative juices flow? Then, comment away! Let me know what you think should be included in it!

Popularity: 2% [?]

I do have a blog tenant.

However, there is no image currently displaying in the space on my sidebar, that’s probably because the blog is new to BlogExplosion or because the image is being refreshed at BE. In any case, my tenant is “The Blunt Prophet”.

He has an interesting blog, looks like quite a new one, in which he shares about his life and his aspiration to live out his life’s calling. That part of his profile that grabbed me is his description of himself as someone who strives to display all the qualities of God’s love and that he is acquainted with grief and brokenness. I think this is one prophet you will one to get to know. I look forward to getting to know him myself.

So, please make him feel welcome, get over to his blog and say “Hi!” letting him know you came from …in the outer…

Popularity: 2% [?]

Technorati Tags: blogging, BlogExplosion, RentMyBlog

Was snooping around Technorati today and saw a few brand new features (correction: newly noticed features, since the features might have been there for a little while, but I only noticed it today).

Included in the features that I noticed was this one: you can mark blogs that you like as your “favorites”, and the blog owner can then go to their “favorited” folder and feel the love. It’s easy, just click on this image here and you will have mark this blog as your favorite on Technorati, and then you will show up in my “favorited” folder.

Please do it, for I feel rather unloved, since the folder is empty as of right now!

Popularity: 2% [?]

Technorati Tags: Technorati, favorite blog, blogging

Please help me to welcome back my blogtenant, Living With Multiple Personalities, run by Blogger Extraordinaire “Cat”.

Cat runs a great blog, which is updated regularly with interesting posts, and themes. She runs competitions, give away prizes and also keeps up the Monday Click and Comment promotion with great enthusiasm.

So, I am very happy to welcome her back as BlogExplosion Rent-My-Blog tenant of the week, and invite all of you to flood her blog cy clicking on the image on the right or here. Don’t forget to leave your mark (i.e. comment!) and let her know you came from …in the outer…

P.S. Sorry for the sparse posting these past week or so, I am drained both from life and work. Will resume … soon…

Popularity: 2% [?]

Technorati Tags: blogging, blogosphere, blogexplosion, rent-my-blog

If you’re like me, you like to win free stuff!

So, here’s a chance to win a free book. Blogging for Business is giving away a free book (Blogging for Business) to the top three posts about blogging for business. As you are already aware, businesses are taking to blogging seriously. Entrepreneurs, consultants, even big businesses are blogging about their work, their products and services.

When I was at Convergence this year, the annual Microsoft User Conference, I hear them talk about blogs with great enthusiasm. There those blogs that were discussing trends and events at the conference and there were also blogs that had been created specifically for the conference. Since then, I have seen an increase in the number of blogs that were talking about the latest in Microsoft technology.

It makes sense, because as someone else has said, the marketplace is a conversation. Sounds like the bigger we get, the smaller we become. In any case, if you are interested, put together your business blogging posts and submit it to Blogging for Business so you can snag yourself a prize!

Popularity: 32% [?]

Technorati Tags: blogging, win, prize, business, business blogging