CLASSES & JOBS

One of my favorite holiday gift-giving traditions started with my extended family way back when. We call it Penny Christmas. It’s kinda like a glorified white elephant/flea market gift swap.

Each family brings a certain number of pre-wrapped gifts for the exchange. They can be anything at all, but there is one rule: nothing can be worth more than a dollar. (You gotta allow for inflation from the “penny” in Penny Christmas.) These gifts go in a pile. Then, beginning with the youngest person, go by age around the room, allowing each person to select a gift from the stash.

It can get interesting because, rather than choose a wrapped gift, anyone can pick a present someone else has already opened. Then the person whose find was taken gets to open-or “steal” another gift. If there is a lot of stealing going on, it can be very hard to remember who is next in line, because with each steal a new item is unwrapped by someone other than the person up for a turn.

As long as good-will is evident, this game can be a great deal of fun. Just try not to let anyone take it seriously-the gifts are under a buck-what’s to stress about? One Christmas, both my grandmother and I wanted a pair of matching dishcloths that had been wrapped separately. We each did a lot of maneuvering to get them. A gift may only be “stolen” 3 times and then it is “retired.” Also, it can not be taken directly back by the person who just lost it. So, if there is something you really want, and it has been taken 3 times, or just taken from you, you have to try to get an item wanted by the person who has it, so you can trade. (Trading after the game is finished is standard procedure for us.) I don’t know if either of us got the set, I know I had at least one. I just threw it away this year, as it had to many holes to clean anything. The “Dish Cloth” Penny Christmas is now family legend. Try it and see if it becomes a new family or roommate favorite.

I always opted for the less traditional whenever I took P.E. in college. Some of the more memorable were the bowling and golf classes I took. Those two have something in common–it’s all about your aim. I know just from playing Frisbee that I have a wicked hook when I throw-or swing. It makes for some interesting plays on the green, but you should see what it does in the bowling alley! I cannot ever seem to throw or follow-through without sending the object slightly-or at times considerably-off course. So I compensate, and that makes for some interesting moments as well. So, if you ever challenge me to a simple game of Frisbee, keep your eye on that flying disc-it’s not headed where you think it is. . . .

Hosting a website is now easier than ever. Many people have personal blogs in which they share their life’s adventures. Without web hosts, no one would be able to post their sites online and share their new babies, their wedding plans, their travel plans, and their thoughts with everyone else. Nor would business owners be able to display and sell their products online. Web hosts are an essential part of the Internet.

Having a website is a great way to stay in touch with people with little effort. My sister-in-law has a blog that she posts photos and little stories about my two-year-old niece. I love being able to see what she’s been up to and since I live across the country from her, it’s great to be able to see her grow too. Even if you don’t know how to create your own website, there are plenty of resources to help you also.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is still relatively a new world to me. I can now say I’ve had one year experience in the world of SEO. I definitely do not consider myself a guru or pro; I’m constantly learning from others what the most effective strategies are. With that said, here is a simple introduction to SEO.

The definition of SEO, by dictionary.reference.com’s standards is, “the process of choosing targeted keywords and keyword phrases related to a Web site so the site will rank high when those terms are part of a Web search.” There are many variables to keep in mind when planning your SEO strategy. The most hyped variable is link trading or link building. This topic has probably been the most effective and most valuable for webmasters. But the search engines are beginning to track the link trading systems and possibly are penalizing them for this act. Most webmasters I come across are a bit weary of link trading. But there are plenty of webmasters who will exchange links just fine. My advice is to pick and be a little choosy on which websites you ask for a link exchange with. Try to find sites with pages that have some relevancy to your website topic, so your link will be added to a completely relevant page even if the website itself isn’t the same general topic as yours.

On-site optimization is very important to SEO as well. Make sure you have your title tags and meta tags correct and search-engine-friendly. Also, when choosing keywords or keyword phrases for your site, research which keywords get the most traffic and which keywords have the most competition. That should always be a factor for a webmaster. If the keyword isn’t highly competitive, it may only take a short amount of time and less effort to achieve high placement in search engine rankings for your keywords. There’s a definite advantage to choosing low-competition keywords and you could be ranked number one in less time; the downside to it, however, is that those keywords may not bring in very much traffic to your website, and therefore won’t allow as many consumers, readers or clients to your site. Highly competitive keywords are very hard to get ranked at the top for, so you’d have to constantly be evaluating your competition and researching their strategies and patterns.

Keep up-to-date with the gossip of pro-SEO-ers. Stay on top of updates within the SEO community so you can be the most effective in your SEO efforts. What helps me in this area is to find knowledgeable SEO sites and sign up for their newsletters. That way you are emailed the news and updates of SEO world without having to go out and find it.

To sum this introduction up, keep in mind that I don’t consider myself to be anywhere near pro. I am merely voicing what I have found to be effective in my SEO efforts with the company I work for and the clients we have. You are welcome to disagree with anything I have mentioned - please comment and let me know your opinions and respectful disagreements. Thank you for reading my humble little lesson on search engine optimization.

No way to keep from laughing when I ran across this statement recently: “I had difficulty with this book, but I was paid to recommend it to you.” –Anon. by request
This brings up a question-why do paid endorsements work? I’m not arguing that they do, but I am wondering aloud how and why they work so well. Of course, some would be right to question who really gets the promotion-the company being advertised-or the featured celebrity? Hollywood stars have reached some mythical larger than life status and, like Frankenstein, their stardom has taken on a life of its own-bigger than the star or the image-if that is possible.

My speculation regards the desire of each one to be unique in some way. Each of us wants to make our mark, to prove somehow we were here and that we counted for something. Each of us, I am convinced, cherishes a secret assurance that no one else is as good at (fill-in-the-blank-here) as we are. The category changes from person to person, but it exists in everyone. So, this said, where does the desire to “fit in” come from? Most would not debate the point that we want to be accepted and valued on some level. Being part of a whole rather than excluded from it is important to a sense of validation as a person. These two opposites seem to be impossible to fit into one human, but it is my belief that they exist to varying degrees in each of us. I just can’t help but wonder why they subsist, since they appear to be so mutually exclusive. Thoughts, anyone?

There are only two projects I kept from my student teaching days. One is the portfolio showcasing how hard I worked. The other item was an assignment I gave to a class of third graders during a unit focusing on outdoor life and habitats.

I get more than a little tired of not ever hearing the other side of the story from the environmental slant that is preached to children from their TV, in song lyrics, and in their classrooms. I decided to spend a little time one day discussing the nearly extinct concept of lack of intervention. I tried to explain to these average third graders that, sometimes, it is best to just let things be. Some situations call for direct action, some do not. It is up to us to decide when to step in and when to step out. Nature has existed for hundreds and hundreds of years-without us AND with us. It is egocentric (I did not use that word in the lesson) of us to think that we always make such a huge and detrimental impact on flora and fauna. Sometimes we do, but mostly, animal and plant life just adapt and go blithely on their way, disregarding the whole human species.

Well, most adults cannot grasp this concept, so I don’t know why I expected youngsters to get it. They didn’t. The end of the lesson had an activity where I gave the class members small scenarios and asked them to solve them. In the game of please-the-teacher-even-if –I-don’t-agree, they answered just how they thought I wanted them to. This was the most memorable response of the group. I thought of the ‘controlled burn’ policy so common in my home state when I read this one:
Question: You see that someone has started a fire in dry grass, what do you do?
Answer: Let it burn!
Out of the mouths of babes, right?