Mental Notes According to Search Engines

I think it's fun to analyze traffic logs.  For some reason, crunching data gives me some happiness.  So was checking out last month for Mental Notes.  The findings are kinda weird.  So while predictably, it had some traffic from my jobs mailing list and Facebook, what's more interesting is how people arrive via the search engine route.  

I also had fair traffic in terms of people searching for mango planting and driver's license renewals in the Philippines.  To a lesser degree, there are also surfers looking for opportunities for reciprocal links.  So far, everything's pretty plain and somehow predictable, right?

But get a load of the next keywords that drove people to Mental Notes:

My Trekpay Experience and Being a Snitch

As you may know, Trekpay is one of the Paid To Click (PTC) sites that I'm trying out. If you're not familiar with the concept, basically there are advertisers (website owners) that pay Trekpay and other PTC sites to advertise their site. How do these PTC sites entice consumers or Internet surfers? Well, every time you view the ads, you get paid a small amount (cents). This encourages surfers to check out the sites. Now, granted a lot of us just click on the site and forget it, a small percentage will actually view the site contents. I know because that's my exact behavior. I assume that behavior has been factored in to the pricing already.

Trekpay offers about 10 advertisements per day. And that's a good steady number. Other PTC sites run out of ads. This tells me that Trekpay is fairly popular. In Trekpay though, the ads have instructional text. For example, if I advertised Mental Notes, I can leave instructions like, "to get credited for this ad, please leave a good comment in any post." Well and good right?

A Mechanic's Tale

The other day, while I was on my way home from buying new 5-Gallon Water Containers, I noticed that my Multicab felt funny.  My first and second gears didn't have the appropriate power.   But I shrugged it off.  Yesterday, our driver complained that the truck had no reverse.  Eek.

Now my truck's about 2 1/2 months old only and I use it about 2-3 times a week.  So I couldn't have depreciated it that much already.  Thus, I called up the guy who sold me (Trinity17 in Sulit) but he wouldn't help me.  Instead I drove around and went to the Petron Service Center in Congressional Avenue (the one in front of Red Ribbon).  The mechanic looked at it, went around and looked at various parts, raised truck, brought it down and raised it again.  Right after he concluded that I should bring it to a Transmission Shop where they would need to bring down the engine to correct the problem.  And they charged me P70 for consultation.  

Air - The Next Valuable Commodity

In the past few weeks, I've been putting down in writing all the stuff I've been speculating / fantasizing about for many years.  As such you may have read posts about city planning, garbage disposal and even urine fertilization.  You might find the themes odd, but hey, that's me.

These are the things I think about while driving or walking around in a mall.  This time around, I will discuss air.  One of my futuristic speculations cum business plan is to have fairly big area (1,000 square meters) and enclose it in glass or some other see through material.  I would say a good height of the enclosure would be around 100 feet.  Naturally, let's make the glass green so we can simulate a green house.

Mango Propagation - The Mango Seed

This whole adventure started when I was delivering Alkaline Water in the neighborhood and I saw a Mango Plant in a Pot.  All of a sudden, I am reminded of an old dream to have my own mango plantation and retire there in the midst of all those trees.  I am a tree lover, you see.

Before you know it, I was researching on mango grafting, care and propagation.  But will I translate it to action?  Here's the answer.  I took two mangoes from the ref and ate them.  Well yes, eating is the first part.  Then I brushed the fibrous shell and dried them.  After a couple of days, I used my favorite serrated knife to pry open the dried shells.  It was the first time I saw an honest to goodness mango seed! Amazing considering how many mangoes I must have eaten in my lifetime.

Directory Submissions and Reciprocal Links

Here's a list of directories where I submitted Mental Notes. It's not an endorsement of these sites. If you have suggestions of other good directories, let me know.

Blog Directories Where I Submitted Mental Notes

Bloggapedia  pending I think, but my blog is listed beside my profile.  Not searchable though. 3/17 Hey my blog is there now and it's updated.  All the recent posts are also cached.  Good directory.

Blog Hub listed, uses redirect links 

Blogs Collection  resubmitted 2/19.  3/17 I checked.  My site's still not listed in Blogs-Collection.com.  The site is crap

Blog Listing  my site is supposedly listed, but I can't find it. Poor search capabilities.  3/17 I can't find it in Blog Listing.net.  The site is crap.

Blogger Now listed, uses redirect links

Directory Best . Info - it says my link is there but I can't find it.  Useless

Get Blogs Directory - resubmitted 2/19.  3/17 I can't find it in Get Blogs.com.  The site is crap.

Philippine Sites Listed 

Dmegs Web Directory Listed

Blog Catalog Listed, Highly Recommended

Blogged Listed, but I resubmitted to change some details

Pinoy Sites  Submitted 2/19

Blog Flux.com  Submitted 2/19. 3/17 Still not listed.  The site is crap.

Pinoy Blogger Submitted 2/19.  3/17 I can't find my listing.  The site is crap.

Total Blog Directory • Garden Blog Directory   Submitted 2/19.  Tedious submission process. Listed 2/20. That was fast!

Blog Rated Directory  Submitted 2/19.  Looks like a good directory 

BlogUpp Submitted 2/19.  Easy submission.  Very big widget! 3/17 - I can't find my listing.  This site is crap.

Reciprocal Links

I believe reciprocal linking is beneficial. It's not the only way to get traffic. There's viral marketing, social network site marketing, blog commenting, search engine submission, article syndication, among others. But a link exchange does help in your SEO efforts and traffic improvement.

That said, reciprocal link requests for Mental Notes are welcome. Just link as a comment. That's it.

Select Name / URL and in the comment field describe your blog or site. No hyperlinks in the comments part please and don't be a spammer.

* Note, the URL you submit should include the link back to Mental Notes. You can link to the blog itself or to a specific post that has content that is similar to your site (so it's themed).

Thanks everyone!

I also have an old post about Search Engines and Directories.

Review of Windows Live Mail & Messenger Support

Review: I recently reinstalled Windows XP SP2. That means I lost all my programs and I would need to reinstall them. It's been several days so there's some urgency to my need to read e-mail.

The first time I downloaded the Windows Live it didn't work. It said I wasn't connected to the Internet when I was installing. That's odd since I just downloaded the installer. But good it had a back-up plan. I was prompted to download a bigger installer file (presumably, one that doesn't need to download more components). Still no go!

Caring for Poinsettias

About a week ago, I ate mangoes from the fridge and followed the materials I got about drying the shell and making the seed grow roots. No, the picture in this entry is not that mango seed.   While I'm waiting for that project to bear fruit so to speak, I'll switch gears and talk about Poinsettia care. 

I have one inside the house and for some reason it keeps shedding leaves.  In fact, I don't see any red leaves anymore.  So I figured, maybe this isn't an indoor plant after all.  It seems sun starved or something. 

How To Renew Your Philippine Driver's License

It's that time of the decade again.  My Philippine Driver's License will expire in just over a week.  Early this morning I went to SM (the former Super Sale Club) to have it renewed.  There are two salient points here.  You can renew your license before it expires. It's important because for a good number of years, I thought you had to renew on the expiration date.  What a way to spend your birthday, right?  The second important point is that there is an LTO in SM City.  OMG.  If you've had a chance to renew or apply for a license in LTO East Avenue, you'll understand the pleasant surprise.

Now there are lots of people there, but it's still just a fraction of the number you'll see in an LTO main office.  The first step is to fill out a form in LTO.  It's window 1 so it's pretty intuitive.  No need to prepare or bring anything.  You will only need your license.  After filling out that form, you will be instructed to go to the next room for Drug Testing.   The important point there is next room.  In the old LTO, you'll have to cross East Avenue and go through tons of squatter looking houses where about a hundred drug testing centers are to be found.  They're legit, but they all seem colorum to me.

How Does a Waterless Urinal Work?

Piqued by curiosity because I mentioned waterless urinals in a recent post about urine as a fertilizer, I decided to find out how waterless urinals worked. It's amazingly simple apparently.

Once you pee into the urinal, the pee goes through a sealant liquid which is lighter than water. If you've ever seen a muti-layer candle, it's the same principle.  The oil floats on water and it looks cool because you have flame over water.

Urinating My Way to a Green Earth

For some reason I've been thinking about waste management the past couple of days.  It's kinda funny.  Since I've left my last job, all my old instincts are coming back.  If you search through my archives, look for my GREEN HORIZONS tags.  I remember that I used to report all the smoke belchers to Bantay Kalikasan and some government agency that I now forget.

Anyway, as a kid I used to love going into the front yard and peeing on plants.  I've always had that notion that urine is fertilizer.  It is anyway. Of course it also helps that I don't have to flush plants.  I don't know, but I've always felt that flushing is wasteful.  That's why I'm also glad malls now have no-flush urinals.  I bet the girls didn't know that. 

Garbage Foundation - Wild Speculations

I've always wondered what we can do about solid waste or garbage.  We're piling up tons and tons everyday with no foreseeable end.  And I'm just thinking, why can't we compress them really well and make them foundations of buildings?  I'm sure there are arguments related to liquid waste seepage or instability of material.  Or it could be the other way around with ground water seeping into the foundation.  But isn't it tempting?  For example, the Empire State Building's foundation is said to be 55 feet.  That's garbage for an entire neighborhood. 

Imagine master planning an entire city and you take out tons of soil and use compressed garbage instead.  Perhaps you can construct a small hill from the displaced soil which can house all the trees in the metropolis.  How visual would it be if Green Hills had an actual hill in the middle? 

Master Planning and Self Sufficiency

I was reading a blog post about promoting ecological self sufficiency in a village when I suddenly remembered my various thoughts related to this.

In my youth, I always fantasized about master planning a city.  I always felt that Metro Manila was just not "efficient" or organized well for that matter.  This is one reason I've always been taken in by games like Simcity.  I get to design my own city.  Just think about the MRT.  Although the trains are always jampacked, do you find that it really gets you around?  I don't.  In my personal situation, it's not efficient.  In order for me to get to the MRT, I need a driver to get me there.  And until lately, park & ride is not a reality.   If we had efficient transportation, would we need all the buses cramming EDSA?  Would we even see all the cars?  This brings up another point.  Is it really efficient to have millions of people commuting to Makati on a daily basis? 

Mango Passion

While delivering healthy Alkaline Water in the neighborhood earlier, I chanced upon a small, potted mango tree. I found it amazing because it already had fruits. I always thought it had to be a full grown tree before it bore fruit.

This reminded me of an old wish -- perfect since it's new year -- wherein I would be a big mango farmer in the province. Nothing around me but hectares of mango and a good WIFI source + laptop. That is my retirement haven: Trees & Technology.

My quick reads show that mango trees can actually blossom and bear fruit three years after planting. And it can actually grow via grafting. Silly me. I only think grafting with flowering plants. Trees too apparently.

On one of my next posts, I'll talk about my green thumb, or lack thereof.

I'll post more mango planting tidbits in my comments as I find them.

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Starting New Year with a Wak Tu

No, that is not an indication that I'm going Chinese although my abilities to hide my eyelid fold may make you think otherwise. I actually have a flu that's been on for several days. The strongest theory thus far is that holiday spending took its toll on my health. The startling coincidence is that ALL adult males in my clan are sick. What are the chances of that? If we do a scattergraph with % of income expenses and white blood cell level, do you think there'll be a correlation? Hmmm

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