bunn:

The lot of the coordinator of online advertising is not a happy one. I have just been trying to explain, for the umpteenth time, that if you run an ad which will be shown to people who have searched for a particular word or phrase, then you must provide a page about that word or phrase for them to read.

Searcher looks for A, tell them "We offer this delicious A, which is particularly valuable for these A-related purposes, and also helps eliminate B's'.

Searcher looking to find out about problem B: give them a page that explains: 'B. Problems? The reason most people have B problems is X. Our X-o-matic does this, that and the other to ensure that B can never ever bother you again.'

Do NOT point all your ads at a page about F, and expect them to work it out. Why should they? You are the one hoping to get money off them, you are supposed to be the expert in the field providing the product or service, get off your bum and explain why someone should buy it*!

I imagine that practically all web users have had the frustrating experience of clicking on a link and finding that the page at the other end doens't seem to relate to what was promised. It's annoying! So why do so many website owner have problems understanding that that's exactly what they are doing, and that they are losing money as a result?

(*Normally I would do this myself, if driven to it, but some of my clients only employ me to do the ad bit, I don't have the ability to add pages to their websites. And some of them have products that I can't just write about with no specialist knowledge. )

aria_star:
Someone on one of my favorite two sewing forums posted this:

THE CRACKED POT

Two large pots, each hung on the ends of a pole which she carried across her neck.

One of the pots had a crack in it while the other pot was perfect and always delivered a full portion of water.

At the end of the long walks from the stream to the house, the cracked pot arrived only half full.

For a full two years this went on daily, with the woman bringing home only one and a half pots of water.

Of course, the perfect pot was proud of its accomplishments.

But the poor cracked pot was ashamed of its own imperfection, and miserable that it could only do half of what it had been made to do.

After two years of what it perceived to be bitter failure, it spoke to the woman one day by the stream.

'I am ashamed of myself, because this crack in my side causes water to leak out all the way back to your house.'

The old woman smiled, 'Did you notice that there are flowers on your side of the path, but not on the other pot's side?'

'That's because I have always known about your flaw, so I planted
flower seeds on your side of the path, and every day while we walk back, you water them.'

'For two years I have been able to pick these beautiful
flowers to decorate the table.

Without you being just the way you are, there would not be this beauty to grace the house.'

Each of us have our own unique flaws. But it's the cracks and flaws we each have that make our lives together so very interesting and rewarding.

You've just got to take each person for what they are and look for the good in them.

SO, to all of my crackpot friends, have a great day and remember to smell the flowers on your side of the path!

cottonmanifesto:


dramatic boston terrier. i really wish i could add the 'dun dun dunnnnnnnn' music to this post. :)

spartanwerewolf:

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spartanwerewolf:

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khukuri:
For my eight birthday, I got a six-week old kitten. She was white with tabby patches, and had the pinkest nose possible. She slept in my bed, curled up against my chest, purring her little heart out. I knew I was supposed to train her out of that. I never tried.

We bonded in the way that only kids and animals growing up together can. She had four kittens on the foot of my bed; I had to give up showering for a week, because she'd get so distressed at being away from me that she'd pick them up and pile them all in a squealing pile in front of the bathroom door. When Bad Shit happened to me as a kid, I cried into her fur. Her purring around my ankles was the only thing that stopped me from hanging myself in the garden shed. Later on in life she mostly just napped on my windowsill, enjoying the sun. When I started bringing Dave home, she refused to give up sleeping next to me, and would sleep in between us, pushing him to the edge of the bed to make room. Eventually she warmed up to him, and slept curled up on his chest.

She was going to turn sixteen next month. It's a long life for a cat. It wasn't long enough. The cancer spread to her stomach. She stopped eating. They say it's the hardest choice, but it wasn't a choice. The hardest part was just saying it. I couldn't, I couldn't even say it. I just kissed her ears and her forehead and her pink pink nose and told her how much I loved her, and she purred the entire way through. It wasn't the rattling purr of a cat in distress, but the same sweet, quiet purr she always had. Her eyes were huge and glassy from the sedation, but she knew it was me. She rubbed her cheek against mine and purred until she stopped moving. They wrapped her in her favourite red blanket.

She was lovely and sweet and gentle and my best friend.

bloolark:

Holy Crap do I understand why people may not necessarily want to fledge baby macaws. It's like having a puppy who can move in three dimensions. He just flings himself in the air and hopes he comes down somewhere good.

Good landing places: Back of couch. Arms. Shoulders.

Bad landing places: Crashing into the arm chair. Trying to land on top of a shampoo bottle (ending up landing in the bottom of the shower). Trying to land on back of Lark, then flapping insanely just for the hell of it.

On the other hand, he is insanely social and interactive. He wasn't eating great, and I finally went out tonight and got the little Hagen pellets he's used to and some apples, and he's chowing down now, so hopefully we're back on track for eating on our own.

Of course, there's pictures.

( Wet babycaw, poodle. )

omnipoodle:
Our flyball tournament the weekend before last was great!  I was afraid that Faith would not remember how to play flyball because we haven't been going to practices, but she raced nearly as well as she did in York.  We had single dog racing on Friday night after setting up (which involved vast quantities of duct tape), and I signed Faith up to race by herself with no opponent, so she was the only dog in the ring.  Since she had not seen a flyball lane for awhile, I really wanted her to succeed, which she did--no bobbling of the ball.  On Saturday she was on a team called Red Dogs & Poodles (lame!) which consisted of Bliss, Oliver, Bentley (the toy poodle), Faith, and Joy.  Faith and Joy shared a spot--Faith ran three heats of every race and Joy ran two.  We raced one team with a lab running anchor who thought about crossing on Faith.  The heat after that, Faith forgot the ball, which I think happened because she was watching the lab.  That was the only real mistake she made on Saturday.  On Sunday she was on Locomotion (it was two one-day tournaments instead of one two-day tournament, so the teams changed), and she had one mistake when Bliss bobbled and had to be resent, and Lynda did not give Faith a wide enough pass.  Faith was surprised to see a dog coming at her (she doesn't have much experience running in a slot other than anchor) and spit the ball.  Then on one other race I thought she spit the ball on the way back at the box end, but Candy (who was boxloading) and Eric (who was watching from the sidelines) told me that she just did not get a good grip on the ball and it slipped out when she tried to hold it better.  Before the last race of the weekend, Bentley decided that he was done racing so Lynda put Bette the cocker in.  This meant that the jumps were two inches higher, and since Joy is ancient, Faith got to run all five heats in the last race--and got her first ever 125 point race!  Not only was I thrilled about her first successful full-time race, but I was very pleased that she was not at all bothered passing Bette.  She's been doing an awesome job passing Bentley.  I think that she might still look at a large dog, but she completely ignores the small dogs.  Candy said she was doing great box turns, and she also said that Faith races the other dog back.  Woohoo!  I'm not sure how many points she earned, but I'm hoping it was more than 300.  We had a few heats where someone else messed up, and I'm terrible at keeping track.

Unfortunately the photographer did not take good pictures of her.

lizardjee:
what happened today??

15:57 There are mushrooms EVERYWHERE from all the rain. I have never seen anything like. Colorful. #

22:44 made a HUGE fire. I am reading the subtle knife. J is working on jaxs duck sweater w/jax asleep on her. Mia w/rich #

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see you tomorrow, same bat time, same bat channel ^..^

one4theroad:

dragonvyxn:
i think i last posted when i was in israel. i should post more, i guess, but i don't have a client for it... well, i should dl one. anyway, stuff is good here. lots of teaching and dogs and whatnot. just watched hedwig again... i really love that movie. the music is just wonderful. i finished reading questionable content up until the current comic, and now i have nothing to read. that is one awesome comic, man. anyway, i guess i could tidy up or train a dog or something. i'm going to be doing a dog training demo for a kid's birthday party on sunday. pretty neat! yeah... so... i should probably be slightly productive now.

one4theroad:




.

lapsarianesque:
Plz to be looking at the great things that are moving in to my apartment:

( Much love for Ikea )

kirin76:
I made it to the final round over in _beauty_icon LIMS contest! :D

Check it out! One of the sets is mine but I am not telling which one!

xteadragonx:

[Monday]

I woke up feeling slightly burned. The reason for this also had roots in my being negligent; I'd neglected my suncream so much that I didn't even have any. The night before had me in a pharmacy buying after-sun with aloe. For some reason it feels alien buying anything in an American store: the shelves are full of foreign brands, the price tags aren't as crisp as those used in the UK (IMO, *ducks*) and the entire experience with the $ instead of a [pound sign the american keyboard is neglecting] and the whole misleading price with the tax TBA just throws me into a pool of argh - even with two native guides near me.

I also woke up feeling horrible and sweaty and like I'd been turned into a pat of goo in the night then slowly reconstructed myself for the morning. 12 persons in one room during the night did not bode well for a room where the AC was turned off. I'd cooked!

I ate my morning breakfast bagel and, after glancing at the clock, I ran out of the hostel knowing I would be late for my morning meeting with S_. I walked - briskly - down the 1-million blocks from 106th street to 59th to our meeting place at the globe, pausing to buy suncream. Meanwhile, S_ was waiting or wandering through central park imagining, with her wonderful imagination, why I was late; I was obviously dead: trigger imagination!!!!! I was walking quickly (proud that I'd bought suncream ALL BY MYSELF! Using AMERICAN COINAGE ON MY OWN!!!) and considering the meaning of life, lateness and how good I was at counting out $11.29 and why on earth I hadn't just took the subway.

Eventually I was there, and she was there and our day began. Again, I'm going to bullet what we did together so not to fully wrestle with your friendslists; I'll expand on the bullets later with exerpts from my diary when I have time and not a French guy breathing down my neck for the use of the internet and a paid-for time ticker ticking at the corner of my right eye.

* We walked the "Scenic" and foot-killing long way to the pier for the Staten Island Ferry.
* Went to Staten Island via "The French Lady Liberty" statue, touched toes on Staten Island soil and then hopped onto the next ferry back.
* Found a fountain that was the best thing in the world to use to cool down en-route to the downtown pier.
* Also walked by Chinatown and many other things I can't remember. It was a fun walk, if painful... OH! And we walked through the greenery by the water!
* S_ disguised a boob grope as a heartfelt attempt to stop me from becoming roadkill (in her defense: it wasn't really a grope, and I really was about to become roadkill - damn NYC roads!!!!!!!)
* I ate delicious, fabulous, delicious.... yummy Belgian waffles!!!!!
* S_ and I navigated the subway, we were gettin' brave
* It was very, very, very, very hot - I didn't "do" this, but it was!
* Went to the safety of AC in Borders by Collumbus Circle. S_ read about dogs and from the section next door. I read the book "Chimp Politics" and would have bought the book if I hadn't read practically the entire thing - I announced to S_ about a particular devious incident in the chimp family the book followed where, during a particular dominance struggle battle, two subordinate chimps snuck off to have some luvin'.
* S_ invited Sarah and I to dinner at a Mexican restauraunt where we met P_ a lovely, wonderful, interesting (you were! Your stories were interesting <333!!!)
* Ate food. Realised that food was agreeing with me. ATE ATE ATE!!!!!!!
* Went on the subway home, was kicked off of the subway at my stop by S_ and Sarah.

:)

spartanwerewolf:

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jennet:
( Flickr picture! )

gelosia:

WARNING RIDICULOUSLY CUTE HUMMINGBIRD PICTURES

( Read more... )

one4theroad:

Richland Park Horse Trials are this weekend!!!

i hope it's not depressing though.  cuz if i had played my cards differently ten years ago, i'd totally be riding in it.

carllyy:
We got married on 8/8/8 and we just got our pro photos back. I love them!

( Warning: Lots and lots of photos> <a href= )