Continual Transition..

My life continues to be in continual transition to new phases in life. This past month I have been transitioning into the life of a Diocesan Hermit in the Catholic Church. Sorta a "promotion", but not at the same time. I now live by a personal Rule of Life instead of a Community Rule, and spend my day in prayer, contemplation, reading the Bible, and study of the Catholic Faith by studying philosophy, theology and the Doctors/Fathers of the Church as well as learning the Documents written by the Church. This feels like I have found my home!! Add to that, I am now living right next to a Church in which I have unlimited access to 24/7. This is GREAT!

I still go out to Mass, and have Saturday to go grocery shopping and take care of other "off site" tasks, but I spend most of my time in the Hermitage (of one) either praying or reading/studying. In Christ!!

Unions...

I've never been a fan of Unions in today's age. That said, when I was in Denver, I worked on raising a "Union" for security guards... I DO NOT however think that in most cases that Unions are needed for the better of the US anymore though. (There are exceptions.) The VA employees, as well as most federal government employees, have the option in most jobs to join the AFGE union. The local in Huntington WV VA Medical Center is the worst of the worst of the Union I have been placed in the unhappy position to be associated with. This union office is SOLELY out to help management and not the union member in ALL cases. There are times when the Union should support the management, but that is not their purpose, or at least their stated purpose anyway! This particular Union has a waste of a President, who prayfully will be leaving as President here in a few months to a new one. She only does the bare minimum of work, gone more than she is there, and doesn't fight for her people that NEED her to fight. She is clueless on the rules of the Union, the Contract, and the way of getting things done correctly. Oh, did I tell you she is rude too? Yep, VERY rude, unless you are one of her "Chosen".. Anyway, this union strengthens my dislike of unions, a big money hole that does little for it's members... D.

Life continues to change.... :)

Today was my last day working for the VA.. As of today, I am Medically Retired due to my back, hips and left knee. It feels go to be away from what I VERY much feel is a cesspool. Don't get me wrong, the VA in general is a good department of the Government. But this particular facility is so corrupt and broken, that it is beyond belief! But that said, it is time to go to where I belong, full time service to the Catholic Church! This coming week I will be moving into the Rectory (Church/Parish House) next to Saint Mary's Catholic Church in Pine Grove Ohio, which is part of the group of Churches in Ironton Ohio that I am already part of. My days will consist of pray, contemplation and helping the Church community here in any way I can be of service. The time has come to stop "fighting" this call and make it happen! This also will free time up to return to posting a bit more (hopefully a lot more) and to keep this blog and one other blog active again! Hope to see you all around blogsphere! D.

I've jumped the fence...

A friend of mine had an iMac all in one computer that is pretty decently sized, but he wanted a bigger on. So he went out and got a bigger one. He was going to give his perfectly nice one to his brother, but the brother wants a laptop so he turned it down. For some reason Bill, my friend, decided to just give it to me, and I gladly accepted.

I now own an iMac computer... Haven't been a big fan of Apple equipment, but have been happy with my iPad, iPhone, and recently my iPod Touch. I don't have much on my iMac yet, nor did he, but I have some plans for it, starting with learning all I can about it and how to best work with it. ;)

Always said I'd never have one, but I'm kinda enjoying it....

Fiscal Cliff...

The US is at an impasse in the life of it's finances. BOTH major parties are wrong on the whole issue!! There are ways of fixing our issues here in the US:

1. End all "Loopholes" in the US Tax system.
2. Set a flat rate of tax on all people, regardless of their income levels. Everyone pays the same level, say 10-15%, what ever level that makes the most sense for the US.
3. End the retirement program for our Senate and Congress, and install the money left in the program into the Social Security system. This needs to be immediate. This needs to include the retirement of those that only served for a term or so.
4. Don't allow the Senate and Congress be a life job, but a one term job in which THE PEOPLE fill the position for say 6 years. This this isn't done, make the job a FULL year long, and stop the long recesses, which were originally put in place for the purpose of allowing THE PEOPLE to go back to their farms, ranches and/or businesses and keep them in order. Since these folks "business" now IS government, they don't need the time off like they use to.
5. Stop "lending" money to other countries, and stop ending interest on the money owed to us. Many countries were loaned a LOT of money from us, but we forgave them the interest and then forgave the loans, to the tune of several BILLION dollars total. Look at Mexico, Japan, Germany and other countries, even as current as Iran/Afghanistan, etc.
6. Collect any and all monies, or at least start the process of aggressively collecting, owed us by other nations.
7. Begin reviewing all of our "entitlement" programs and start the process of reducing/removing these programs as is appropriate for the betterment of the Nation. Many programs need to be revamped, redone and removed in many cases.

These are just the beginning steps though. Much more must be done. First and foremost we must begin helping each other, paying attention to each other, and then we need to take care of ourselves as well, not wanting others to take care of us.

Have fun...

Blog Title Change, Life Changes.

For those of you that read this blog pay any attention, you will notice that the name of this blog has changed from Don's Thoughts to Don's Thoughts III. This site was the first blog I every blog I started with to get to know things. I then transitioned to more than one self hosted WordPress blogs. For various reasons I am giving up self hosted (for the most part) blogs and am retiring Don's Thoughts II and re-starting my blogging here as Don's Thoughts III. With these changes, I am also advancing my "life changes". I am going to be spending more and more time reading theology books, studying the Bible, and doing my prayers, some of which I have been a bit slack on. I will be focusing most of my non-VA work related time in learning more about Christ and His life, and living a life as close to that as I can. This blogs focus will be going back to my "secular life" thoughts and actions, and you can read about my Christian Studies and life at "Friar Don and His Spiritual Life". From this day forward, barring more changes in life ;) , these will be my only two blogs. :) Looking forward to keeping you up to date with my life and life changes! In Christ, Friar Don

EYB! - Updated Surfing!

After much thought and contemplation, we have changed our surfing requirements on EYB! There is now a 1 credit for 2 blogs seen instead of 2 for 5 that we started with for free accounts. All paid accounts are now 1 for 1. All blog timers have been reduced by 5 seconds, so blogs on free accounts are seen fro 20 seconds, and blogs on paid accounts are seen for 25-30 seconds depending on the level of membership!

Paid membership still gives the paid member X number of extra credits a month for both blogs and banners, and a further reduction of from 2 to 5 seconds on blog timers.

Prayerfully more changes coming soon!

Friar Don, OBR
Chief Admin/EBY!

Blogging Dead?

No, I don't think blogging is dead, but I do think people are spending less time going around looking at all the blogs out there. It is harder and harder to find the blogs you want to read in the millions of blogs that are started, often ignored after that, and on every subject under the sun. But there are ways to get seen and be seen frequently by people who comment and actually read the blog. One is to go to ExposeYourBlog! and read other blogs as people are reading your blog. The more you view and read, the more people view and read your blog! Come check us out!

This Blog/ExposeYourBlog!

A while back I pretty much dedicated this blog to talking about ExposeYourBlog!, but basically just copied and pasted the Newsletter I "seldom" sent out in here as well...

I've rethought that concept, and will be doing things a bit different here now. Oh, don't get me wrong, it will still be about ExposeYourBlog! and my thoughts on it and the concept, but it won't be cut and paste. ;)

First, what is ExposeYourBlog!? ExposeYourBlog! is a web site you can go to to read some VERY good blogs, and at the same time get your blog seen by others. What goes one behind the scenes? When you sign up and verify your email, you are able to surf five blogs giving you roughly 53 credits in your account. You are then able to put your blog(s) (up to two for a free account) into rotation to be seen by others. As you surf and read other blogs, you gain credits to have your blog seen.

In the two years we have been up and running (we just had our two year anniversary!) I have been able to find blogs I would probably normally not have been able to find in the mass of blogs out there. Many I read daily as I surf along, and I don't have to crowd my browser with links to remember and for me to find later. Nor do I have to create a list on my computer and store it there. The blog comes up in rotation randomly through my surfing the site!

Now, I know I won't see the same blog in an hour of surfing, which is about how long I currently surf at any given time. Now, if I come back after an hour and surf again, if the person that owns the blog is active (surfs 35 other blogs a day) or is a paid member, there is a possibility that I will see it again in the same day, as those people get a better chance of being seen randomly. Ok, so that makes it semi-random. ;)

So, come check us out!

http://exposeyourblog.com

EYB! - Second Year Ending!!

Hello,

As we quickly come to the end of April, we are now coming into one month away from our second year anniversary! Yep, we opened for business and surfing two years ago June 1st! This next month celebrates Anji and I quickly building the site and getting things ready to roll. (We had a few others give moral support and advice, but they have moved on...)

In celebration of that, from now until the 2nd of June, you can add up to FIVE more blogs to your account! Yes, five more blogs! Now, on the second or third, I will change the number allowed back to the original for your account level, BUT, you get to keep those blogs in rotation unless you delete them or try to change them once I return the allowed number of blogs back to the prior state! So if you have more than a couple of blogs and were not able to put them in rotation, now is the time!

As we come to the end of our second year and celebrate two years of surfing, keep you eyes open to this newsletter, and your side bar on your tools page!

We have, even before this newsletter, added more surfers, and more blogs this past few weeks, so come on back if you haven't surfed in a while!

Happy Surfing!

Best of times!

Friar Don, OBR
Chief Admin - ExposeYourBlog!

EYB! Has it been that long!!??

Hello,

WOW, has it really been almost a month since I have written you? I hope you don't mind me not writing? No real good reason, other than I hate sending out a ton of emails to you about the site, etc. But, it is time to ramp that up some!! Over the next month bonuses, and other things will be happening as we ramp up for our 2nd anniversary of being up and running!! Yep, June 1st we will have been up and running for two complete years! We have had only a couple of small problems in service in that time, and have been able to fix those problems in relatively short amounts of time!

As you know, Anji, a few others, and I (Anji and I are all that remain though...) started this service because BlogExplosion was on it's deathbed, and no one was taking care of it. Neither of us is doing this for money, and in fact I put a lot of money and time into getting it up and keeping it up while Anji has put in a TON!! of time in helping keeping it up and running. The site hasn't paid me back for start up cost, but now pays for itself monthly, which is good. So I pray those members that are paid members stay paid members! ;) And we could always use more paid members so we can add new features to the site, and improve its performance by moving it to a dedicated server when we need to, etc. So, if you are not a paid member, please seriously consider it!

Remember, if you are a paid member, you get more credits per surf, you get access to your cash account, which means nothing if you are not a paid member (or until you become one anyway), and you get a block of credits each month for your site(s) to be seen!

We have already began increasing bonuses and such and will continue to do so over the next month and week. June 1st even more things will happen!! On May 29th you may want to read this Newsletter, as well as keep an eye on the Forums as both will have a list of things that will significantly increase your visibility, and potentially your cash, if you follow what we have in store!

For the past few weeks we have had a notice in the News section of your left sidebar... No one has taken me up on it. The first 5 people that read it and take the required action, will get double the reward... ;) However, this news will come down Wednesday coming...

Anji and I would like to continue to thank each of you for being here and for using the system! We both pray that you continue to spread the word and help us bring more people here to make it an even better site!

Happy Surfing!

Best of times!

Friar Don, OBR
Chief Admin - ExposeYourBlog!

EYB! - Some updates

If you are a new poster on the forums, the first five messages you post have to be approved by an Admin, either Anji or myself, so we can stop the spam we get. After your 5th post, you will not have to wait, they are automatically accepted and put into possession. Some come on over, read and post!! ;)

As a reminder, another way to surf the blogs is to go to the "Tools" page, then click on "Blog Viewer". This will give you a list of 10 blogs to click on, that will rotate through the blogs until you are "done". You get the same credits as you would if you used the surf bar.

You should remember to read the news on the bottom of the left sidebar of your tools page. It may very much be to your benefit!! ;)

We gave grown by several members this week, and you should be seeing even more new blogs now!! Remember to comment when they catch your attention!


Happy Surfing!

Best of times!

Still Ticking!

We have had a decent growth spurt this past week, and some new blogs show up! This is good! Please keep up the great work of advertising the site and in using the site!

Surfing has been up and down this week. Over all, we may be a bit up though, for the first time in two weeks! Again, keep up the great work and remember, surfing at least 35 blogs a day (not counting games and cash awards pages) gives your blog the best chance of being seen!

In an attempt to remind you of the forums and with the desire for you to help us grow our community, I have placed the Forums as the first site you see (this does count as a "blog seen" for that desired 35 blogs/day goal!) each time you open up the surf page. If you sign in and click the mark to keep you signed in, you should see any new messages since your last sign in by a red marker on the right, making it easier to stay current "with the news" and comments of the community of surfers! Please do make sure you have an account, have it set to remember you, and keep current!! ;)

We are just under three months away from our 2nd year anniversary! Keep your eyes open for the beginning of the celebrations which will include cash and credit bonuses for those that participate! SOME of the notices will only be posted on the forums, so you may want to start staying up to date as to what is posted there too! Some will be posted here in the newsletters, and some may be posted in the "news" section on the bottom right side of your tools page! Keep your eyes open!

Happy Surfing!

Best of times!

Don Bell
Chief Admin - ExposeYourBlog!

EYB! - Contest Running, Surfing seasawing...

Hello Folks,

We've opened back up both the Surfing Contest and the referral contest on ExposeYourBlog! and you can earn extra credits each day by surfing the most blogs and by getting other, active, bloggers to come join us on ExposeYourBlog!.

With this "opening up", we have increased our surfing some, but we can always use more surfers! There are some days that are heavier than others though, and we would like to see EVERY day a solid day of surfing, blogging and commenting!! Come join us an ExposeYourBlog! and get your blog seen while you read a WIDE variety of other blogs!

We are coming up on our two year anniversary of providing great blogs to read in one spot too!! Look forward to SOMETHING big on the anniversary month!!

Friar Don, OBR
Lead Admin - ExposeYourBlog!

EYB! Burrrrr, its cold out there!

Howdy Folks,

Its cold out there, so I have been surfing more myself of late. (Doesn't hurt that I'm off for the past three weeks, and at least the next two weeks with my knee...) Our numbers are down a bit as to the number of people surfing, but the people surfing are shifting some. Would love to see all 500+ members of ExposeYourBlog! come back and surf at least 10 a day, but even better 35 or more sites a day! Would broaden our scope of blogs significantly and get our numbers up!

We have had a few new members and blogs this past few weeks though, so that is good! More is always better though, as it broadens our reading (and commenting) pleasure, and gives us the desire to come back more often!

Unfortunately we have several "stale" blogs. By that I mean blogs that haven't been updated in over 30 days. The current policy is to leave them in rotation until they use up their credits, but I would love to see many of them get update (and their owners to surf even more!).

Hope to see you and your blog(s) on ExposeYourBlog!

Happy Surfing!

D.

2012 Starting Out OK!

As we approach the middle of the month of January, we have had a decent showing on the surfing, but it could always be better. There are a good number of blogs, that are current, the have come out of rotation because the poster has not surfed to keep their credits up, and enough people are surfing now that the credits will go pretty fast. So, if you haven't surfed in a while, there is a good chance you don't have any credits left for your blog to be seen, come on back and surf! If you have been surfing, I encourage you to continue surfing! ;)

The forums are pretty lonely of late though. Basically it has been just Anji and myself there... Would love to see us grow as a community and communicate with each other within the forums as well! Come check them out, post your comments, replies, etc. Let us get active in the blogging world again! ;)

I had surgery this past Tuesday and am on a forced leave (vacation) for the next several weeks, and not supposed to do a lot of walking until after the 26th of this month, which means I will be by the computer a lot this next two weeks or so, and for several weeks after that as well. If you have any problems or issues with the system here, let me know and I would be happy to work on them (problems), and clear up any issues as well.


Happy Surfing!

Best of times!

EYB! Happy New Year!

Hello

Anji, Touwe and I would like to wish each and every one of you a Happy New Year in this new year of 2012! May this be your best year yet, both in your blogging and in life in general!

For an easier way to keep track of your link, you have another option that gives you better statistics. Go to your Tools section, and go down to "Personal Account" then click on "Ad Tracker". Click on "Add New" and put your blog link in the space provided and save it. Then take the link that is provided below that that says "Random Rotator" be the link into your blogs section in place of your existing one. once I, Anji or Touwe approve it, it will be in rotation providing you a bit better statistics on your rotation stats.

If you are a paid member, with more blogs available for rotation, you can put the same number of blogs in rotation within your rotator. Then, take the least important one out of your blog rotation, and put the above mentioned "Random Rotator" link in that spot. You now have all of you blogs in rotation twice (except the least important one you took out).

In our next installment I'll talk to you about other options of helping get your blog(s) seen.


Happy Surfing!

Best of times!

ExposeYourBlog! - Still Ticking. :)

Hello Folks,

I know, it has been a while since I last updated this blog... No valid reason other than I wasn't sure what I should post here.... Still not sure, but I guess I should give an update on how ExposeYourBlog! is doing.

The site is still slowly growing. Would love to see it grow even faster, but at least it hasn't died off! We are getting new visitors checking us out daily and new members every week!

We could always use more members and would love to see some of our members come back to surfing again, but we are active and that is good!

What I like about ExposeYourBlog! is that we have a core group of surfers that comment on the blogs they are reading and that are active in their surfing. We have a group that surf often, but don't comment, but based on emails I get from some from this group, they are reading the blogs! And we have a group that have checked out some, come in every so often to surf a few and move back on.

So, it comes down to EYB! being like most other activities that are available out there. We are a niche group, blogs only, so I expect this kind of growth, so we are in line I think with what we should be having.

Now, what can I do to get you to advertise us more? What can I get you to do if you have a blog, on any platform to use this site to get you blog seen? Let me know!

0Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, and Happy New Year!

D.

EYB! - Is your blog getting seen?

We have had a decent week of surfing, by a decent number of different people, but many blogs are slowly but surely going out of rotation, and many of those are still "active" (being posted to) blogs, due to their owners not surfing and the credits they had stored up are being read up! On the good side, I have seen some people surf this past few weeks that I have not seen in a while. I pray that ALL of you come back and surf a few pages a day! (Remember, the magic number to best be seen is 35 blogs seen by you every day!) So, if you are not surfing SOME at least, come back and check out the blogs we have! There have been some new ones add, a couple of old ones that had gone "stale" (no posts in a long while) that have been "revived" and are looking like they are active again! You should have some enjoyable reading if you come back. :)

It APPEARS (I know, bite my tongue and slap my hands for typing this) that all of the major bugs and most of the minor bugs have been fixed, except for the time delay on the surf bar if you leave the window while surfing. And to be honest, while I could probably pay someone to fix it (I'm not seeing why it is doing that), I'm of the mind I would rather you be IN the window when you surf, instead of off doing something else, so I'm not sure if I WANT to fix it? What are your thoughts on this? Come on over to the Forums (http://www.exposeyourblog.com/phpBB3 and tell me what you think about this bug!

While you are over on the Forums, let me know what you would like to see happen to ExposeYourBlog! to make it an even better tool for you to get your blog seen, and for you to see other blogs! Include comments on how I can better advertise it and get the site known by other bloggers! Any input is greatly appreciated, and may be compensated if used and successful!

Happy Surfing!

Best of times!

Don Bell
Chief Admin - ExposeYourBlog!

Surfing is up!

It looks like our tech support at the host server site did their job well! I haven't seen the old "database connection" error in the past few days. Have you? If you get such an error, please drop me a line! But I do believe it has been taken care of for good. :)

We have had a great week of surfing this week, which I thank each of you for participating! Keep it up!! It pays off in more eyes on your blog(s). ;) We have had some of the best surfing we have had this past week, so I'm very happy about that!

We have four people that are "surfing for Pro" right now, Jay, Link4Business, Kittencaboodle, and DreamsofNyssa!! Keep it up! You are 1/4th of the way there!

There are still several blogs that have credits but are getting old in content, I hope you all update your blogs soon! I'd love to read your new thoughts and words! While I don't comment on all blogs, I do read them all as I surf along, and will comment when the post catches my attention, and I love to read new things! So, and I need to do this too, let's all update our blogs this coming week, if not sooner!


Happy Surfing!

Best of times!

Don Bell
Chief Admin - ExposeYourBlog!