Is RoboCop becoming a reality?

What are the scientist up to? Trying to make RoboCop a reality! I just read an article titled

Gordon the robot controlled by living brain

Gordon ... researchers have developed the world's first robot controlled by living brain tissue / AFP

MEET Gordon, probably the world's first robot controlled exclusively by living brain tissue.

Created from cultured rat neurons, Gordon's primitive grey matter was designed at the UK's University of Reading by scientists who unveiled the neuron-powered machine yesterday.

This is getting scary! Call me dumb if you like, but this is scary to me. I won't be surprised if they get a dying person who agree to donate his brain for thier next experiment, then we will have a robot controlled by a living human brain! Their report shows that they are already excited by the achivement they've made so far. What gets me scared really is the claim that:

The robot has no additional control from a human or computer.

That means, it is on its own and may just decided to do whatever it pleases. That to me is dangerous!

4 Ways To Get Free Backlinks To Your Website

If you have a blog, you need traffic. Period. Regardless of how great you may think your blog is, if no one can find it you're dead in the water. Watching day by day go by without so much as a nibble.

That's where backlinks come into play. Backlinks are links that come from other sites and point to your blog posts. The more sites you have linking to you, the more likely you will receive traffic and the more likely that search engines will rank you higher in their search engine results pages.

Here are 4 make or break tactics to get those much-needed backlinks pointing to your blog.

1. Use Wordpress. If you aren't using Wordpress as your blogging platform of choice you're missing out on a whole world of traffic. It's important to note that you should be using Wordpress on your own server rather than using simply Wordpress.com. Having Wordpress on your own server opens up a world of options to you that Wordpress.com doesn't offer.
2. Create Linkbait. At first glance linkbait sounds like a bad thing. However, it's nothing more than making a blog post that gets people's attention. This could be something useful, something controversial, or something fun. Whichever you choose, make it interesting enough to get people to link to you.
3. Submit Your Blog. Submit your linkbait to places like StumbleUpon, Propeller and Digg.
Claim Your Blog. Be sure you sign up to Technorati and claim your own blog.
4.Submit Your Post to Social Bookmarking Sites. One quick and easy way to do this instead of visiting each individual social bookmarking site is to sign up to OnlyWire which will allow you to bookmark in multiple places online with one click of your mouse.

These are just four ways to get links back to your blog. There are multiple more ways but even these five ways will put your blog leaps and bounds over your competition.

It's not difficult by any means to use the tactics above but it will take a little time. Carve out a portion of your day and spend some time submitting those great blog posts of yours. Before you know it, you'll start to get noticed and nothing is more important than getting noticed online.

You can find more killer free tips as well as applications to generate backlinks quickly at KristineWirth.com. Taken from over 11 years of experience online, Kristine's once privately held information is now made available for free on her site.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Kristine_Wirth

You Can Make Money By Blogging

Entrepreneurs make money blogging using two main types of business models. The most common way that people turn blogging into a profit making machine is to contact different companies that will want to reach your readers to buy advertising. Another way that money can be made is to help a single brand improve its image by creating a positive association between your blog and their product in the minds of purchasers. You can make lots of money with either method, especially if you use your marketing skills.

There are two basic ways that you can recruit companies to buy advertising on your site, if that is why you are blogging. If you want sponsors to put ads on your site you can let someone else take care of recruiting them or you can recruit them yourself so that all of the proceeds will go to you. If you don't have time to recruit sponsors, then you may want to do what many other people do. They make money through Google's AdSense program, which has numerous advantages. One of the best advantages is that it takes very little effort on the part of the blogger to start making money. Most people find, though, that they make less money than they had planned from their blog.

A more lucrative way of making money through blogging is by recruiting companies to put their ads and links on your blog yourself. You may want to do this yourself, especially if you have contacts in different companies that may be interested in advertising on your blog. If you have a sales background, you may also do very well in selling advertising yourself. The only problem with selling advertising directly to companies is that it will take a sizable readership to attract the companies to buy ads, and this means that you may have to complete several months of work before you begin to see the money through blogging.

Established companies are trying to find a way that they can get into the lucrative business of blogging. One of the ways that they are getting into the blogging business is by creating blogs to put a friendly face on their company. They will have an experienced blogger create a blog that will appeal to their prospective customers to create a positive attitude about their company and the brand that they are trying to sell. You would be surprised by the number of bloggers who didn't plan on making money blogging that have been contacted by a company with a substantial financial offer to blog for them.

You can make money blogging. You just need to learn about the different ways to make money so that you will be more knowledgeable about the process. Then you can type your way to making money.

Andrew McNaught is a successful webmaster and publisher of Online Business Central where you can find out lots more about online business including blogging.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Andrew_McNaught

You Are The Scripture For The World

A friend sent this story to me. Read and be blessed.

Several years ago, a preacher from out-of-state accepted a call to a church in Houston , Texas . Some weeks after he arrived, he had an occasion to ride the bus from his home to the downtown area.

When he sat down, he discovered that the driver had accidentally given him a quarter too much change. As he considered what to do, he thought to himself, "You'd better give the quarter back. It would be wrong to keep it."

Then he thought, "Oh, forget it, it's only a quarter. Who would worry about this little amount?  Anyway, the bus company gets too much fare; they will  never miss it.

Accept it as a 'gift from God' and keep quiet."   

When his stop came, he paused momentarily at the door, and then he handed the quarter to the driver and said, "Here, you gave me too much change."

The driver, with a smile, replied, "Aren't you the new preacher in town?  I have been thinking a lot lately about going somewhere to worship. I just wanted to see what you would do if I gave you too much change. I'll  see you at church on Sunday."

When the preacher stepped off of the bus, he literally grabbed the nearest light pole, held on, and said, Oh God, I almost sold your Son for a quarter." 

Our lives are the only Bible some people will ever read. This is a really scary example of how much people watch us as Christians and will put us to the test! 

Always be on guard -- and remember -- You carry the name of Christ on your shoulders when you call yourself "Christian."

Watch your thoughts; they become words.

Watch your words; they become actions.

Watch your actions; they become habits.

Watch your habits; they become character.

Watch your character; it becomes your destiny.

I'm glad a friend forwarded this to me as a reminder. God bless you; I hope you are having a wonderful day! If you don't pass this on to anybody, nothing bad will happen; if you do, you will have ministered to someone.

The Will of God will never take you to where the Grace of God will not  PROTECT you...  Stay

FAITHFUL and Be GRATEFUL!

Shalom and Best Regards

Entrecard Team Offers 75,000EC in Contest!

The Entrecard Team is offering a chance for bloggers who are members of the community to win 2000EC and 15,000EC in two separate contests that are running concurrently. This contests are meant to promote the launch of their official ebook. The ebook is meant to serve as a guide to new bloggers joining the system. You can download the manual from here.

The ebook is free but you have to do one or two things to participate in the contests. To win the 2,000EC you need to make a post like this one on your blog and then drop a comment on the official Entrecard Blog. For the 15,000 Entrecard Credit you have to add a new blog to the one you already have on Entrecard or combine two separate blogs or more into one account. You can get more details about the contest here.

Integrity Pays Huge Dividend

I have heard so much been talked about the need for a Christian to have INTEGRITY. However, a recent event in which a businessman showed a high level of Integrity really touched my heart.

He was approached by a newbie in the business world who just got a business opportunity to carry out a job. The newbie lacked the financial capacity required and the fund required was huge. The contract is actually bigger than anything the chrisitian businessman has ever handled in all his years of operating as an entrepreneur.

Naturally, one would have expected the christian businessman to take over the contract and promise the newbie a cut in the expected profit.

Rather, the chrisitian businessman refuse to take over the job and even refused to have a share in anything that may come out of the contract. Instead, he used his wealth of experience to guide the newbie on how he can raise fund for the contract and carry it out.

When I was told the story, I was really dazed. It sounded too good to be true. But it was easy for me to verify. I confirmed that that was what really happened. Some months after the incident, I got a new report from the Christian Businessman. The Lord has smiled on him. He is been awarded a contract that is far above that which the newbie got. For sure the Lord is faithful to reward integrity.

NINE SUGGESTIONS FOR AN AILING MARRIAGE

1. Never consider divorce an option. It is not a solution to your problem. Divorce is not an acceptable alternative because God says it is not.

2. Do not compare your mate or your marriage to others. There is not another person on earth like you. Your mate is also unique. This means that your marriage is unique. Let God make it what He wants it to be. He will make it perfect!

3. Forgive your mate. You are to forgive as Christ has forgiven you. You are a sinner. He or she is a sinner. You are not perfect-so be willing to forgive one another. And do it right away before any bitterness can build up.

4. Stop all criticism. Love does not criticize and find fault. Therefore, if you are critical of your mate, you do not have a heart of love. Stop all criticism. Instead, try a little praise. It works like magic!

5. Start communicating with your mate. Communication is completely broken down in many homes and marriages. Start listening to what your mate is saying as well as to what he or she is not saying. Break down the barriers by being vulnerable. Try saying, "Honey, what is the biggest fault I have?" Then say, "Would you please help me, by the grace of God, to gain victory over that fault?"

6. Refuse any relationship outside your marriage in which affection is sought or given. This substitute could even be a relative, a friend, or a neighbor. Do not seek to make someone else a substitute for what you are not getting in your marriage. You will never solve your problem doing this.

7. Trust your mate. Trust your spouse, even if he or she is wrong -you are right in trusting. A marriage must be based on trust. It cannot survive without it.

8. Do something every day to please your mate-something that you know will bring your partner joy and happiness. This is not asking much-to do one thing-but it pays big dividends.

9. Thank God every day for the 25 best qualities in your mate. Write them down. Concentrate on them and the positive will soon outshine the negative.

Okay, I’ll give you an extra
10 —Plan a second honeymoon! For further assistance read Songs of Solomon. ;-) – Contributed by www.naijaecash.com

Google Adsense Scamming - Do Not fall for it!

Today is April 1^st. A lot of people are playing pranks on their friends and family member. When the victim of the joke is looking bewildered, they simply remind him or her that today is April 1^st by saying “April Fool”. (There is no room for such pranks in the life of a christian. Is there?)

Well, there is a bigger and more serious prank going on here in Nigeria. Some scammers are selling get rich overnight Google Adsense Package. Do not fall “mugu” for it. You can read more about it in the following article Google Adsense and Nigerian Online Entrepreneurs Shalom

21st Century - Less, Lesser everyday!

21st Century.... We are becoming lesser and lesser by the day

Our communication - Wireless

Our dress - Topless

Our telephone - Cordless

Our cooking - Fireless

Our food - Fatless

Our education - Valueless

Our youth - Jobless

Our labour - Effortless

Our conduct - Worthless

Our attitude - Careless

Our relation - Loveless

Our feelings - Heartless

Our politics - Shameless

Our follies - Countless

Our arguments – Baseless

Got this from my sister Gina Best :-) At first, I laughed as I consider the writeup as a funny one, but later I became sober :-( because some of things mentioned above were not funny. They are actually worrisome!

Mum, I won’t tell you my Birth date!

I’ve been quite busy, so posting has been the least of my priority, but I have to share this story with you, it is quite original because it happened at home. Here we go.

Princess T – Mummy

Queen – Yes, darling.

Princess T – When is your birthday?

Queen – You mean the date (wishing she didn’t hear right)

Princess T – I mean your birth date!

Queen – Sorry, darling, I won’t tell you because I don’t want you to tell your friends. I am trying …….

Princess T – Mummy, pleaseeeeee…………

Queen – No, I won’t…………

Princess T – Then, I won’t tell you my birth date……….

I couldn’t finish getting the rest of the gist because I was struggling to prevent my ribs from caving in as I have a suppressed silent laugh of my life. I asked myself, how do 4years plus reason? If there is anyone that is consider the best custodian of the birth date of a child, is it not the mother?

Well some father do have them. Since I was eavesdropping on the two (don’t scold me now, it wasn’t planned, I just happened to be in the right place, behind a door at the right time).

I hope you enjoy this. I got to go back to my busy desk. Cheers.

Permission to visit Blog?

You mean a blogger who is looking for traffic will at the same time lock up his/her blog and inform visitors that they are only allowed to visit the blog upon invitation. I hope it is not true. I for one have been begging cap in hand for increase in traffic. So I don’t really care if someone I don’t like or someone with opposing views visit my blog.

Everyone is welcome, the only issue is, I won’t allow anyone to post rubbish on my blog in the name of commenting. The worst a hater can do is to post his anger and resentment about my blog on his own blog.

I attempted visiting some blogs today, I was shocked to be confronted with the following error message

“This blog is open to invited readers only

http://xxxxxx.blogspot.com/

It doesn't look like you have been invited to read this blog. If you think this is a mistake, you might want to contact the blog author and request an invitation.

Meanwhile, I have visited the same blogs days before without invitation. It is interesting to note that some of these blogs belong to the Entrecard System. I guess, Graham will need to look into this.

A Satisfied Customer recommends Bansal-Inc

Last week, I purchased a domain name from Theme Lab via the Entrecard Shop. I was so impressed by the merchant that I made a post (A Satisfied Customer Recommends Theme Lab) about my experience. Yesterday, I had another wonderful experience. This time around, I bought a Linux-hosting package from Bansal-Inc.

The package was advertised by U3-Smart via the Entrecard Shop. At first, I was skeptical about parting with my hard earned EC (I have a very slow internet connection, so each drop is earned the hard way), however, when I remembered the experience I had with Theme Lab, I decided to go ahead with the transaction. The transaction was smooth. The merchant was customer-friendly and quite patient. He gave simple easy to follow directives on what I was required to do.

Sincerely speaking I was so impressed by the treatment I received that I made up my mind to do a post about my experience. This is my personal testimony. I also want to use the opportunity to commend the effort of the Entrecard Team for putting up the Shop and advertising merchants that are trustworthy.

If you're in doubt of the genuineness of the Entrecard Shop, I am giving you a reassurance that the system works. It would have been much more difficult for me to pay for a domain name and hosting plan because I do not have a PayPal account yet. Nigerians are still been denied the privilege of doing business online via PayPal. So Entrecard came to the rescue.

Note: This is not a paid review. It is rather the testimony of a satisfied customer. Bansal-Inc rocks! Long live Entrecard!

The Awesome Power of the Human Mind

fi yuo cna raed tihs, yuo hvae a sgtrane mnid, too.
Cna yuo raed tihs? Olny 55 plepoe tuo fo 100 anc.

i cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt! if you can raed tihs yuo hvae a sgtrane mnid.

I got this from a friend - GinaBest

A Satisfied Customer recommends Theme Lab

I purchased a Domain name from Theme Lab today, via the Entrecard Shop. The whole transaction happened so fast and so smooth. I was so impressed by the dedication of the webmaster at Theme Lab to ensure that I got value for my money (Entrecard EC).

If you're in doubt of the genuineness of the Entrecard Shop, here is a testimonial from a fully satisfied customer of Theme Lab stating without sentiment that the system works. I actually look forward to doing more business with Theme Lab.

Note: This is not a paid review. It is rather the testimony of a satisfied customer and probably a challenge to other Entrecard Licensed Merchants. Theme Lab rocks! Thumbs up for the Entrecard Team!

Joke - Whose Child?

I've been busy lately and have not been able to put up a post. But I felt I should share this joke with you. Enjoy! Warning: I got it in my email box, so I don't know if it is STALE!

Whose Child?

One day Kyle's dad brought home a robot. The robot was special in that it could detect a lie and would slap the person who lied on the face. Kyle returned late from school that day and his dad asked him, "Son why are you late from school?" Kyle answered, "Dad, we had extra classes today".

Much to his astonishment the robot jumped up and slapped Kyle on his face. His dad told him, "Son this robot is special in that it can detect a lie and will then slap the person who lied. Now come on tell me the truth. Why are you late?" "Dad, I went to a movie" "Which movie?" "The Ten Commandments" Immediately, Kyle got a slap on the face from the robot. "Sorry Dad, I went to see the movie Sex Queen". "Shame on you son, when I was your age I never watched obscene movies or misbehaved"

Immediately, the dad gets a tight slap on the face from the robot. Hearing the last sentence, Kyle's mother comes walking out of the kitchen and sarcastically says to her husband, "After all he is YOUR son!!!" To which the robot steps up and gives Kyle's mother a resounding slap on her face!

Most politicians will become jobless if such robot exist! I almost forgot, lawyers, doctors, accountants, you name it!

Learn Basic Html Codes for free !

Yesterday, as I was stumbling from one website to another, I came across a website that provides free tutorial on Website Design’s and related topics. The curious one that I am, I got hooked. I spent over an hour learning basic HTML codes using the tutorials provided on the website.

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It was quite interesting. I felt it was a good investment of my time. I made some good discovery but much more, I was happy that I am learning how to go under the hood to see what really makes the engine tick.

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The website has an easy approach to the subjects such that as you learn one little code, you can practice it immediately and derive immense pleasure in seeing the code work. You don’t need to install any software or register for anything. Just invest a little time and have fun while accumulating knowledge at the same time.

I sure am going to learn a lot from there. This post is unique just because I have been able to apply some little tricks and tips I learnt from there. Enjoy!

Mission Accomplished!

Yes, the Goal is accomplished. Dumb as it may seem, I feel elated that I didn't abandon the tour because of other people's opinion. Did I learn anything? Yes, I learnt quite a few things. Here are the ones I consider most important.

• I learnt the power of setting Goal and putting a time limit.
• I learnt the importance of not celebrating success when you are 75% done. It is not over until you get the trophy.
• I learnt that there are many wonderful blogs and bloggers.
• Finally, I learnt that the Entrecard system is unique in the blogosphere.

See the last set of blogs I visited below.


Please note, PowerDropping was not the last blog I visited, it is actually one of the few I visit everyday, but I realised it wasn't in my list and yet the blog that was Number 1,000th was not displaying the Entrecard Widget, so I simply replaced the blog with PowerDropping which is more worthy of the unique position.

To all those who encouraged me I say a big THANK YOU! Also to all those who criticized and express how silly, stupid, un-innovative and dumb the Tour was I say a bigger THANK YOU! ;-)
Finally, to the Entrecard Team I say the biggest THANK YOU!!!
Entrecard Rocks!

Updated 2008: I had to remove the list of visited blogs and replace it with a poor screenshot because I got penalized by Google for having too much links on a page! (Did that when I was a noob. Now I know better) Maybe they will reconsider and return my PageRank.

It was just for 5minutes!

I watched a movie yesterday that got me sober. The main actor had everything going for him until he decided to take a fling. The fling lasted for just about 5minutes, but the consequence of that extra marital affair was terrible, his whole world practically collapsed!

Too many of us are familiar with such story. Today, as I was going through my bible, I remember the movie and then a little word dropped into my heart. “It has to do with the TIME FRAME you were focusing on when making a decision”.

Too often, we human think in “short-term frame” and our poor decisions are often based on this wrong focus. Often times, spouses who engage in extra marital affairs would not have taken such decision if they were thinking in long-term and weighing all possible outcome of their decision.

Now here is another issue, why do we always feel that God is too slow? The simple reason why we think God is slow is because God thinks within Eternity Frame while we human thinks within Time Frame. Give it a shot. He wouldn’t be bothered whether Sarah is 18 or 90 because He had it all figured out over a Long-term Range – Eternity! But that wasn’t a comfortable idea for Abraham and Sarah. They had to help him out. So came in Hagar and you know the rest of the story.

Beloved, if you are facing challenges and you are about taking a critical decision, please ask yourself “Am I focusing on Eternity or I am thinking in Short-term?” Short Term thinking can result in foolish decisions which later gives birth to terrible consequences.

May the Lord God Almighty grant us understanding and wisdom to conduct our earthy affairs in a manner that will endure the test of time. Shalom.

Is my blog the Ugliest?

I wonder if my blog is the ugliest blog around. I received a visitor to my blog in the wee hours of today. The person was so angry with my statement that the blogs that I have visited can be categorised into the GOOD, the BAD, the UGLY and the WEIRD. The person under the camouflage of Anonymous dropped some unprintable words in the comment section.

I was just surprised that someone can get so upset when I have not pinpointed his or her blog as being the UGLY or the WEIRD! Anyone that has visited more than ten blogs in their lifetime will agree that some blogs layout design are simply ugly (maybe mine is among, you are left to judge) yet they have quality content! Yet some have beautiful designs but are simply lacking in quality content.

Since I did not call any blog names, I guess it is plain wickedness someone calling me unprintable names just because I viewed my opinion. After-all it is boldly stated that this blog is all about my online diary. If you don't like the content of my diary, you can simply write what you like in yours and share it :-) There is no need looking for who to pick a quarrel with.

All said and done, I think I have one of the ugliest LOGO, but I love it! It is copyright protected!!! (Just kidding, lol) Cheers.

Goal almost accomplished!

Yes, I've done about 90% of the tour. Now, I am optimistic that the February 29th deadline is a reality. Find below the Good, the Bad, the Ugly and the Wierd. Not sorted into categories because I don't want to be sued! (Just kidding :-)

Update: List of blog removed because I got penalized by Google for pasting too many links in a post. :-( Hope they will reconsider and restore my PR!

VALENTINE, LOVER’S DAY, SINNER’S DAY OR THE LORD'S DAY?

My bible tells me that this is the day that the Lord God has made, I should rejoice and be glad in it. That statement alone calls for celebration. I made a post yesterday recounting the incident that happened in my home. That post brought the longest single comment I have ever received since I started blogging.

Unfortunately, the commenter decided to remain anonymous. He raised some issues that I am yet to verify. But while I am doing that, I wish to comment on the way a lot of Christians are going about mixing with the multitude today and falling into sins all in the name of celebrating VALENTINE!

While I have no right to tell you what day to celebrate and which one not to celebrate, wisdom demands that we do nothing that jeopardize our fellowship with the Almighty. Committing sexual immorality physically, virtually or even in our imagination is no way to celebrate a day made by God.

If you are planning to do something un-biblical before you stumbled on this post, I plead with you that you stop and repent of such foolishness. God won't understand why you have to sell your birthright just because of February 14th. You know that is true.

So go ahead, make the day what you think it should be, just remember that sometime in the future, you will stand before Him to give account of how you spent today. Shalom

Mummy, happy valentine!

Princess: “Mummy, happy valentine!”
Queen: “Today is not valentine day. It is tomorrow, 14^th of February”
Princess: “What is valentine?”

Thus started the early morning lecture. Trust me, I dodged from the scene. I’ll tell you why. I knew it was going to be a lengthy session of question and answers with plenty of explanations on all difficult terms. I didn’t have the time for that as I was running late for work.

Secondly, up till now, the parental-task of giving SEX EDUCATION to our daughters has been a big challenge to me. No thanks to my natural shy nature. My wife is naturally at ease when such topic arise. So when the VALENTINE topic started going round to the issue of what people do on valentine day, I was more determined to keep out of the picture even though I was eavesdropping. My wife did a great job, but I was still bothered (the perfectionist that I am) about the accuracy of the information she gave about the origin of VALENTINE day celebration.

So, how did VALENTINE day started? What is it about? Over to you. Your comments are most appreciated. Don't bother telling me about Google, I’ve already been there. I was not satisfied.

My Entrecard Tour Continues!

I've been able to visit some more blogs. As usual, I met the Good, the Bad and the Ugly. However, some were weird. Find the long list below.

Update: List of blog removed 'cos I got penalized by Google!

The Challenge of a Nursing Mother

The baby is just three months old. She looked at him as he lay in his cozy cot. Sleeping away in the wee hours of the day. The innocent look on his face and the chubby cheeks almost brought out the tear she has been fighting back. Here is her bundle of joy sleeping peacefully; ignorant of the fact that mother must leave him for the next seven hours because the maternity leave is over.

Not that she liked the idea of living this little one for such a length of time when he is still so tender and need all the love a mother can provide. The fact is, she has no better option! She must go to work because the family needs the additional income. She quickly placed a soft peck on the rosy cheek of the sleeping-handsome and tip-toed out of the room thinking “Mama said that when I was this tender, I was never left for more than 10minutes. I wish I don’t have to do this”

Thumbs down to all the greedy politicians. There would have been no need for this forceful separation of mother and child at such a tender age, if the natural resources bestowed on the nation has been well managed. Thumbs down to all the greedy past leaders, who through their greed and corruption, has bastardize the economy.

The Entrecard Members’ Blog Tour Continues

I have resumed my Entrecard Blog tour after a long time off. I received quite a lot of encouragements from the comments posted on my initial post about the tour.

Just as a sign of reciprocating love, I ensured that the blogs I visited first were those of the people that posted those comments. Their blogs are first on the list posted below.

My experience today is not too different from that of other days. I saw a few blog that were not displaying the Entrecard widget. However, that did not bother me since I wasn’t out to acquire 1,000 credits by dropping cards. That can easily be achieved within 4days by continuous dropping.

I came across a lot of blogs with beautiful layouts and powerful contents. Overall, I think it is good to tour the blogosphere. You can only end up becoming a better blogger as you garner experience from the wisdom of other bloggers and learn how not to make the same mistakes that others have made.

The blogs I visited are posted below:

501. Blog Cherry 502. PlayThere 503. Environmentastic 504. TheSerie 505. TheSerie2 506. My Thoughts On Stuff 507. Animes 508. BenSpark 509. Bloody Computers 510. Imod 511. Texas Travel 512. Lee Doyle 513. Karlshome 514. Mums Home 515. Crazy Medical Cases 516. The Chaser's War on Everything TV 517. Klik Digital 518. Beyond Kewl 519. The WVb 520. MarkLloyd.org 521. Entrepreneurs Only 522. Energy This 523. Reyna Elena 524. Fam5 Blog 525. Blogging and Social Sites 526. Digital Order 527. Automoblog.net 528. Nothing Of Particular Interest 529. The Astonishing Adventures of Lord Likely 530. Gearfire 531. online discount shopping 532. Cool Things In Random Places 533. Black Zedd's Basic Literature 534. Blarguments 535. Inspired Money Maker 536. BlueStem Winery 537. AndroidGuys.com 538. Nissan Skyline GT-R's in the USA 539. 24 Hour Paradigm 540. High Stakes Living 541. Online Life Knowledge Experiment 542. Zack Wenthe 543. Change Your Tree 544. Drop Ship Digest 545. Sha Money Maker 546. rice for poor 547. Tom LeDree . Com 548. Internet Entrepreneur 549. Hot Wheels 550. Civil Engeering meets Transport Economics meets Supply Chain Management 551. Video Store Blues 552. Losing It - Getting Fit 553. Money Makers News 554. Just About Dogs 555. Algorithm Betting 556. Investing Adventures 557. GeekSpeak 558. Hawaiian Blog 559. Speedvine 560. Mostly True Stories 561. BudgetCents Blog 562. Heart of Wisdom 563. Crooked Pitch 564. i am jack's design 565. ATV Style 566. Cardielos 567. YOUTUBE MOST VIEWED VIDEO 568. BOS: Seasons 569. Truth About Life 570. A journey towards a better me 571. Geiger 572. Andrew Benton 573. Chicken Fried Therapy 574. Listen, Are you Listening? 575. All Souled Out 576. Contest Beat 577. Adrian Corscadden - Observations of a Student 578. WillYouMind 579. Blank Canvas 580. Gadget District 581. iPentimento 582. StockTube Make Money Online 583. Hollywood's Hot and Sexy Men 584. The Genetic Genealogist 585. 30 Day Man 586. Pizza Recipes 587. People Management 588. Taszara 589. moneyonmoney 590. Keeping Children Safe Online 591. mimijude.blogspot.com 592. MyAnimes MySpace 593. Contestu.com 594. :: Beautiful :: 595. Breaking The Silence 596. Deb on the Rocks 597. Hacking Your Small Business 598. My Olympic Space 599. WeDreaming 600. Bloggings of a Domain Flipper 601. VP Online! 602. Life & Trends 603. Bakla Ako, May Reklamo? 604. Second-Life Fashion & Social Network 605. Atomic Popcorn Movie and TV reviews 606. Learning About Natural Healing 607. Letters To Businesses 608. Orangeinks 609. Broken Perfection 610. Trend Spike 611. I'm not that girl anymore... 612. Young Urban Professionals nOOk 613. The Optimizer SEO News 614. The 1000 Push Ups Club 615. Earn Blogger 616. Blogs That Make Money 617. JoeTech.com 618. John's Tech Blog 619. A.K.A. Mum 620. Idiocrasies Of The English Language - That are fun and funny ' 621. Do Know Evil 622. Baddieverse 623. WeirdTube.tv 624. The Habitation of Justice 625. Tech, How to, Review, Computer, Linux, Dog, Make Money Online 626. GorillaSushi 627. Beauty Recipes 628. My Chronic Life 629. Aloe Vera Blog 630. Impnerd 631. The Hustler 632. Bebo Author 633. On the Horizon 634. No Nonsense Internet Tips 635. Widgets Lab 636. Contestime 637. Latest Free Downloads from iTunes 638. Entrecard 639. Paul Hartrick Dot Com 640. Link Bait Me 641. My Blog 642. Urutora no Hiv 643. Eavesdrop Writer Blog 644. TheRatingBlog.com 645. Bloggin-Ads 646. Debo Hobo dot Com 647. Stephan Miller 648. Article Specialist 649. Make Money Online With Etienne Teo 650. Cardiogirl: 19% body fat 100% fun 651. Truebluetitan 652. Black Tennis Pro's 653. ThinRedLine

Your Special Day - Don't spend it there!

A government officials office, not the best place to spend your special day. Today is a special day for my family. One of us is celebrating birthday. I left home feeling excited after chorusing Happy Birthday with the rest of the family. The whole day was rolling fine until I got a phone call instructing me to go to a government official's office. Unfortunately, I got there in the noon 12:25p.m.

The period when officials have unofficially closed for the day. I had to wait patiently in the office of the assistant to the person I was looking for. While waiting there like a gentleman, his colleagues busts in and out of his office. At first, I thought they were coming in for serious official business, however I started hearing loud sounds of laughter and people giggling from his office. It was obvious that they were there exchanging banters and whiling away the time.

Then it dawned on me that I am in for a long wait. I thought of what to do without appearing rude or froward. I asked the assistant if I could send a note in to notify him that I have been waiting to see him. She objected and advised that I should just peep into his office and say "hello" so that he will know that I am around. At first, I objected because the whole idea sounded un-gentleman-like. However, when I discovered that the waiting was not coming to an end, I acted as she advised.

Unfortunately, the officer was on phone when I finally peeped in, so there was no response to my greeting. He simply continued his telephone conversation as if I never existed. Of course, I had to retreat back to the office of the assistant lest I be accused of intruding into his privacy!

After waiting for another 5minutes or more, I decided to take the bull by the horn. I fished out one of my business cards and I wrote a quick note at the back, informing him that his executive director is the one that sent me. Pronto, he jumped from his seat, abandoned the colleagues he was chatting with and came to the office of his assistant. He told me that he is attending to the issue that brought me right away.

Well that was the beginning of the second phase of my waiting. This particular phase is the one I could do nothing about. I waited until 4.00p.m before I could get out of that office. Ordinarily, I shouldn't have spent more than 15minutes to get the issue I went for resolved. I thank God that I still got what I went for without having to repeat the visit. How I dread Government offices.

The Blood of Jesus on Trial!

This was emailed to me by one of my friends

One night in a church service a young woman felt the tug of God at her heart. She responded to God's call and accepted Jesus as her Lord and Savior. The young woman had a very rough past, involving alcohol, drugs, and prostitution. But, the change in her was evident. As time went on she became a faithful member of the church.

She eventually became involved in the ministry, teaching young children. It was not very long until this faithful young woman had caught the eye and heart of the pastor's son. The relationship grew and they began to make wedding plans.

This is when the problems began. You see, about one half of the church did not think that a woman with a past such as hers was suitable for a pastor's son. The church began to argue and fight about the matter. So they decided to have a meeting.

As the people made their arguments and tensions increased, the meeting was getting completely out of hand. The young woman became very upset about all the things being brought up about her past. As she began to cry the pastor's son stood to speak. He could not bear the pain it was causing his wife to be.

He began to speak and his statement was this:
"My fiancee's past is not what is on trial here. What you are questioning is the ability of the blood of Jesus to wash away sin. Today you have put the blood of Jesus on trial. So, does it wash away sin or not?"

The whole church began to weep as they realized that they had been slandering the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Too often, even as Christians, we bring up the past and use it as a weapon against our brothers and sisters. Forgiveness is a very foundational part of the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.
If the blood of Jesus does not cleanse the other person completely then it cannot cleanse us completely. If that is the case, then we are all in a lot of trouble.

What can wash away my sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus! End of case!!!!

He Showed Me Mercy!

I traveled out of town down to my home-town. It was a trip long overdue. I had a nice time visiting places I have not been to for years. I thoroughly enjoyed the time spent there. However, when the time I scheduled for staying there was over, I was in a big haste to get back to the city.

For one, I missed my family; also I missed the opportunity of browsing and doing my usual stuff online. In my haste to get back as fast as possible. I changed my plan of traveling. Instead of boarding a vehicle in the early hours of the day, I opted out for an earlier trip via night bus! The dreaded night bus! The queen wasn’t in support of the silly idea, but I cunningly cut her off and went ahead with my foolish decision.

All went well at first. The bus started the journey which is over 800km at 6.00p.m. I was happy about the early start. However, around 8p.m, we started having problems. Then it dawned on me that I had made a very stupid decision. The driver stopped on the side of the road and refused to continue the journey because a passenger made a call using his cellphone. Of course before departure, we all were told to switch off our cellphone. The driver insisted that he cannot continue the journey because he doesn’t know who the passenger was calling on the cellphone. After much pleading, he continued.

At that point, I started imagining the hazards lying ahead. Fellow passengers started recounting the terrible incidents of armed robbery attacks that have occurred on this same road in the recent times. Beside this, while travelling down, I had noticed that the road was full of deadly potholes and there were several motor accidents. In my haste to get back to my place of residence, I had ignore all these danger signs.

Some hours later, we had a flat tire and we had to change the tire in the middle of nowhere. While the tire was being changed, a lot of scary thoughts were running through my mind. I knew I had made a very stupid mistake, and I was begging God to grant me safe journey down home base on His mercy alone.

After that, we got to a spot where all vehicles ahead of us had stopped and switched off. Reason, they are afraid of continuing the journey because of the possibility of getting robbed. So we were stuck in the middle of nowhere! Up till now, I can’t explain how we got out of that one. I just woke up (I had to force myself to sleep since we were categorically told that the vehicles ahead of us won’t move until 4a.m in the morning) and discovered that we were moving.

So many other things happened. For example, when the journey was almost completed, we got to another dead-end around 9a.m. Rioters had blocked the expressway and they refused to move. They were protesting against the Nigerian Policemen who had mounted checkpoints along that expressway. After spending about an hour and the confusion was not subsiding, our bus driver decided to use a track-road to bypass the angry rioters.

I eventually got home around 2p.m. I was grateful to be alive and whole! Did I say, grateful, surely that was a slip of tongue, I meant VERY GRATEFUL to God for sparing my life!

Entrecard - The Bloggers' First Choice

Call it whatever you like. Entrecard is making wave and it has come to stay. Few big time bloggers are calling the traffic generated by this community-effort junk-traffic. In my opinion that is just a way of letting out their frustration that the system is not recognizing them. The system cares less, who you are. As long as you visit and drop cards on other's site, you must have traffic.

For the past two months, I have visited blogs and website that I might not have visited in the next 5years irrespective of how much advertisement they might buy from Google and the rest advertisers.

The system put in place by Entrecard is so natural. It is like visiting individuals in their homes one by one. Of course, the response is quite encouraging. If you call at my home as a friend and drop a note, it is most likely that I will want to check on you too. If for nothing else, just to reciprocate the love shown.

Beside this, the rewarding system put in place by the Entrecard team has turned out to be another unique innovation on the internet. Gone are the days that you can only buy things if you have PayPal or credit cards. Now I can buy advertisement, books and some other things and actually pay using the Entrecard Credits that I have accumulated. This might not mean so much for those of you readers in developed countries. For some of us in third world countries it is a great relief.

For some months now, I have been having a serious challenge. I wanted to purchase some services over the net, but the companies are not willing to have anything to do with me just because I do not own a credit card. Yet I have the physical cash to pay. They don't want wire transfer, they don't want Western Union and that is it. Maybe in few months to come, they will be willing to accept EntreCash! :-)

I personally look forward to more innovation from the Entrecard Team. Bloggers that are members of the Entrecard communities too have been developing wonderful ideas. I guess Google and other advertisers will have to buckle up. Thumps up to Entrecard!

Which hosting company? BlueHost vs Hostgator

Having settled the name I want to call my new blog, the next hurdle was that of choosing the webhosting company to use. Since I planned a lean budget, I had to look for the manageable quality at affordable price J. A tough one isn’t it.

After spending hours reading reviews and checking out forums, I have zeroed down to two choices. But picking the best of the two is difficult. There are too many users praising both. So, I said to myself, why not seek the opinion of my readers and fellow bloggers, they will be more sincere since they are not marketing either of the two companies.

So, in your candid opinion, which do you prefer and why? Waiting for your comments! Thanks.

I got Spammed!

I never appreciated the need for activating comment moderation on my site until today. For the first time since I started my blog in July, 2007, I got spammed today. See below the comment.

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barb michelen said...

Hi again, see tthis is the site i told you i signed up to. It has some nice information about how to make money using OPP, i think you might find it interesting. here it is. bye!

January 19, 2008 4:06 PM

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I suspected that this comment was a spam because the commentator sounded as if I have had previous contact. So, I went ahead to check out the supposed commentator's blog and there was none. After that I checked the "here it is" link and it was one of those "Get Rich Quick" sites. I was asked to pay $99 as if I have stolen money that I don't know how to spend. I didn't stop there, I googled the name and I was not surprised to see that the same "robot" has been dropping spam comments on other blogs. That was it!

I quickly fired up my blog's admin page and activated comment moderation and word verification.
I never wanted to because I felt that people should not be restricted from dropping their candid opinions (without me tinkering it) on my post as fast (without being forced to type jargons dictated my a computer) as they can! But then, I don't want to share my blog with "robots".

So, I am apologizing in advance to my regular visitors for the inconvenience the word verification may cause you! Thanks for keeping this blog alive. Without your patronage, I won't be inspired to put down my ramblings. Enjoy!

N.B - Please, drop your comment about this issue. I might learn something new! Thanks.

Are you a slave or you are a master..?

Are you a slave or you are a master of your personal finances? You are either in charge of your personal finances and on your way to a brighter future or you’re unwittingly spending the whole of your lifetime sweating for unknown masters.

Whether you agree or not at one time or the other you made the choice or you will make the choice!

The above comment sounds harsh and perhaps rude, but it is the truth. So many unknowingly are slaves working for others. They earn salary that is never enough and accumulate debts that will further enslave generations unborn.

• If you spend more than you earn (meaning you owe debt) then you are already a slave .
• If you spend all that you earn (meaning you have no savings) then you are a servant.
• If you spend less than you have(meaning you have savings but you are at the mercy of inflation and adverse economic policies), then you are a paid laborer.
• If you earn without lifting a finger (meaning your money is working for you) then you have mastered your finances.

The biblical injunction that a borrower is a servant to the lender (Proverb 22:7) is a timeless truth that will endure until the end of the ages. Don’t you think it is time you get rid of those debt and plan for a better future. A good man leaves an inheritance for his children not debt! (Proverb 13:22)

Less than Expectation!

When the result is less than expectation, what do you do? There are moments in ones life when grumbling and complaining seems to be the right thing to do. You feel life is not just been fair. The unqualified seems to get the best result while the hard-worker is left with crumbs.
Thank God for life in Christ! That is what makes the difference. My life is priceless. The value of my life is not based on human recognition of my little effort rather it is based on the priceless value of the blood that was shed at the cross of calvary.
It is time for me to shout a bigger halleluya! Yes, because the JOY of the Lord is my strength.
If you are downcasted or feeling gloomy, I will suggest you dial J-E-S-U-S, someone is waiting at the end of the line to attend to you promptly. Shalom.

Choosing the Right Domain Name

There are millions of blogs and websites already in existence on the world wide web. Yet, many more are being launched each day. Each one is christened with a name that is deemed unique enough to differentiate it from the millions that are already in existence.

So, how do I choose a name that is: (1) Unique (2) Easy to remember (3) Relevant to my content (4) Contains my keywords for SEO

I have been reading a lot of materials and visiting websites in the past one week. I desire to have my blog on a paid hosting platform. But choosing a name that reflects what I want to achieve has been a difficult decision to make.

The blog is meant to be a business blog. Not a diary like this one. It will be focusing on making money by rendering services online. My target audiences are: Newbie bloggers looking for tips, Newbie Online Entrepreneurs and bloggers from the developing nations. (A very large market ;-)

I have been made to understand that choosing the right name is like having a solid foundation for my website. Here are the issues I need to take into consideration:

• The name must be unique, else there will be branding problem. Imagine me registering JohnChow.com (lol) of course it is impossible to register a name that is already in use. Also, I don’t want to be a copycat or a duplicate, so I won’t register JohnChowJr.com

• The domain name must be simple and easy for any dummy to remember without searching in Google (lol). The ability of would be visitors to remember the website name without assistance is very crucial. Their repeated visit might just depend on it. So it is better to combine simple meaningful words to form the domain name than to use complicated words such as w9jfq4gy.com

• I should avoid hypens and dash. They can be confusing. During my tour, I came across some beautiful sites that I would have love to revisit. However, since I failed to write their address down, and I wasn’t in the mood to add them to my bookmarks, attempts to return to same sites were frustrating. I couldn’t remember where the hyphens and dash were suppose to be this_is-an_example.com

• My domain name must be relevant to the goal of the website. It is needless naming a website that deals with pets as motherandchilddelight.com this will attract the wrong category of visitors and the goal of the website will most likely be defeated.

The domain name if possible should contain at least one or two of my keywords (SEO). That one is the greatest headache I’m having now. It seems all the keywords have been overused!

That’s about the summary of all I have learnt. Now, I want to appeal to you my reader to come to my help. What is your advice? Should I use a name like nigerianbloggers.com or just my personal name like johnchow.com Thanks in advance.

Another Weekend in the Office

It’s been a quite but busy Saturday. I happened to be the only one that came to work in my department. Many of my colleagues are out on the field digging it out with assignments given by clients. This year started well and this first quarter promise to be a busy and prosperous one. I wish though that I was back at home playing with the princesses. But then, my presence with them may be worthless if I am unable to attend to my financial obligations. So I choose work first.

That is not to say that I won’t give them the attention they deserve, however, whenever duty calls, I have to attend to it first. We can always find some other time to socialize.

Today, I added to my knowledge online. I learnt a lot of useful stuff about Wordpress. I’ve always been in love with Wordpress themes, but I never knew that it is not as easy to use as Blogger themes. Also, Wordpress.com doesn’t allow newbie bloggers who aren’t willing to pay some cash to advertise on their freely-hosted blogs. So to me, that is thumps-down for wordpress, and thumps up for Google!

To all my readers, I wish you a wonderful weekend. Cheers.

My Entrecard Tour Day 4

I’ve been very busy since yesterday. Keeping to my schedule of tour was extremely difficult as I had to leave my desktop constantly for urgent official assignments. However, I am pleasantly surprised to discover that I have been able to achieve 50% of my target already within these four days.

Of course I had to make a lot of sacrifices. For example, I couldn’t visit my favorite blogs. I had to keep to the plan for the tour. Also, some of the blogs I visited were actually frustrating. They contained too many multi-media contents such that they upload at snail speed. However, my worst experience so far was a blog that I personally classify as “an adult content blog” http://lordlikely.co.uk. I was embarrassed visiting the blog. Of course it will be the last time I visit the site.

Since, I have accomplished 50% of the goal I set for myself. I am going to give myself a break for some days. I will still be visiting sites and dropping cards, but I will not do the tedious work of taking note of the address or number of sites that I visit per day until I resume the tour.

Find below the sites that I visited today. Some of them do not have the Entrecard Widget on them though, so I couldn’t really fully benefit from my laborious visit to those ones. Cheers.

Update: List of blog removed 'cos I got penalized by Google!

My Entrecard Tour Day 3

It has been quite exciting visiting the Entrecard Members Sites. My tour today took me to several sites. I was able to visit a total of 150 sites. That brings the total sites that I have visited to 253blogs.

I have learnt some useful lesson during the course of this tour and I hope to learn some more before it ends. Also, I have made some new friends. Hopefully, God willing, the tour will continue tomorrow. For the current list of the sites visited, you can check my post Goal - Visit 1,000 Entrecard Members sites Cheers.

My Entrecard Tour Day 2

Like I promised in my post yesterday Goal - Visit 1,000 Entrecard members sites. I have started visiting and recording the Entrecard Member sites that I visited and dropped cards. The tour has been a tedious one because a greater percentage of the sites that I visited contained heavy multimedia contents that makes them load at snail speed.

Also, I discovered that many of the sites do not understand the importance of placing their Entrecard Widget high up on their site so that visitors can easily locate them. Some actually hid theirs in obscure places (mostly at the end of their homepage). A few that I visited do not even have widget on their site. I wonder how come the Entrecard team has not noticed this. I thought there is a way for them to detect automatically sites that are not featuring the Entrecard widget.

In conclusion, I must say that the goal of dropping 300 entrecards per day is a tall one. One must have a lot of idle time to accomplish it. So far I have visited 104 sites. You can see the result here. The tour will continue tomorrow!

Goal - Visit 1,000 entrecard member sites!

I have set a goal for myself. A funny one, but one that I feel will be interesting. I plan to visit at least 1,000 Entrecard Member sites before the end of February! I have been visiting members site and dropping cards, but it has been haphazard. I don't keep record.
I was actually challenged when I saw fellow members of Entrecard who claims they drop the maximum number of cards allowed per day. That means they visit at least 300sites on daily basis. Why won't they have traffic! Entrecard has been a good traffic provider for my site of recent. So, I am going to embark on these project and I will be reporting as I visit. This post might end up the single longest post in the history of this blog. So here we go!

Hopefully, the list will grow daily!

Update: List of blogs removed 'cos I got penalized by Google! Never post more than 150links on a page, it is a bad SEO practice that can get you penalize. A pity I learnt a bit late. Hoping Google will reconsider and restore my PR.