WebRoot
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Imageless
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| Latest News & Notes |
Imageless now has a RSS Feed at imageless.robertvandyk.com. The WebRoot section now includes Biz & Media, Bookmarks, Delicious Events, Delicious Recent, News & Notes, and Sitemap. On the Google search engine, I've got the #1 search for "Rob Van Dyk" and "Hedonistic Equanimity". I've also got a hit on the first page for the term "Imageless". Meanwhile, the thirteenth Google result page for the search term "Longball" points to the relevant page on this site. Speaking of which, updates are coming to the Longball page as I attempt to organize an actual game sometime this summer or fall. Also due for an update is the Wedding page, because Jen and I have figured out some of the details for our big day.
Posted by Rob
It seems like I'm posting Quarterly updates to this page. This update is to announce two things. About a month ago, I became engaged to Jennifer Brown and I just uploaded a fairly primative version of what will eventually grow into our full-service wedding webpage. Secondly, I've added feedburner.google.com support to Hedonistic Equanimity as a way to give readers an opportunity to sign-up to receive posts in their e-mail box as soon as I post them.
I'm investigating ways to enable Imageless as an RSS feed, but I'm fearful that it will take a lot of effort to get to that point. I think the easiest way to accomplish this goal is by hosting it as a Blogger site at imageless.robertvandyk.com (which I am not opposed to doing). I guess I don't want to go through the trouble of copying and pasting all of my previous posts.
Another minor thing that I may not have mentioned previously is that Del.icio.us has become the exclusive supplier of the "Things I Read" and "External Links" sections of my homepage. Over the last month I've begun using the "Things I Read" section as my personal bookmark source whenever there are a few minutes of downtime at work to read a webcomic or two. Based on mentions from my friend Coral, I've begun to read Abtruse Goose and Surviving the World.
In the near future, I'm going to promote several sections listed on the Homepage to fully-independent subpages under the WebRoot placeholder. I've also noticed that I ought to update my Writing page to include more discussion about Somerquillians and about Imageless.
Posted by Rob
Holy cow... it's been a long time since I've updated this. I think that means that the overall website has attained a level of stability that's comfortable for me.
The biggest update to make note of is that I've been updating Imageless for the last couple months with a slightly tweaked format. Instead of a the format with a comic that has dialog without any illustrations, I've been writing short stories to complement images that I find interesting. This is a fulfilling activity for me, and I've been having lots of fun with it. I hope you take the time to visit each week to read the latest posting.
Also, I've been making liberal use of the social media sites Flickr and Del.icio.us to organize online photographs and bookmarks. Finally, you may have noticed that the pages for WebRoot and Homepage have been changed around a little bit and this News page has been added.
Posted by Rob
I created a Twitter account for myself last week. My one and only message reads, "I don't plan to post very often. Only the most important life events will be worthy enough to post. Sign up to learn about the big stuff." I think this is the value that Twitter adds to the world... important news dissemination. If you want to get an update when my book goes on sale at Amazon.com or when I get engaged to be married, then there's a good chance that there will be a Twitter post. I realize this sentiment flies in the face of modern journalism and pop culture (quantity over quality). The primary use of Twitter seems to be mostly unimportant updates. This comic comes to mind. I guess my point is... subscribe to my stream and expect about three or four messages that have real value each year.
I also added a "Things I Read" section to the bottom of the Homepage.
Posted by Rob
I reorganized the Homepage portion of this website. I turned everything green instead of the characteristic brown. This is actually a very easy change and I reserve the right to randomly change the menu colors based on the time of year.
I reformatted my online journal, Hedonistic Equanimity to fit better into the look and feel of the rest of the site. I added an "About Rob" headline on my "Homepage". In the future, I hope to have this evolve into two different headlines which will include my personal biography and notes about important parts of my personal life that extend beyond the other portions of this website.
Posted by Rob
I've got a couple of program notes to report. The first item of business is that I've been appointed by the town manager to the Watertown Bicycle and Pederstian Committee to serve a term that will end February 15, 2011. This is additionally covered here and here. This means I get to go to monthly meetings.
The second announcement is that the Somerquillians Writer's Group is recruiting. If you'd like to be invited to join us to discuss your writing, contact us at somerquillians at gmail dot com. Your message should answer the following two questions.
1. At what level do you consider your writing to be?
(a) No experience
(b) Took a class or have attempted writing a literary work
(c) Working towards getting published
(d) Already published
2. Have you ever participated in a writing group before?
If so, what worked best in your past group(s)?
What sorts of things didn't work well?
And be sure to tune in next time when I'll be explaining about security and working in a world where trusting you enemies can lead to some pretty amazing things.
Posted by Rob
I added information in the About Me and Space Exploration sections of my homepage. I also added the Local Involvement section to that page. As part of the Local Involvement initiative, I've created a "Custom Google Search" to let you run searches that only take a look at relevant local links. I think the interface could benefit from a bit of customization, but I've found it's really awesome at returning relevant links based on simple queries like "Baseball" or "Jazz".
Posted by Rob
Metaphrast.com appears to be dead. Around a month ago we noticing problems that we could fix by saying, "Republish Entire Blog", but after fixing it twice it has been taken down a third time. I believe Google has put it on a black list. I don't know how to fix it. I suppose switching hosts would be a good thing, but in the past Yero and Coral have always managed that. In the meantime, I have rehosted my journal posts on robertvandyk.com/roblog. All the links are updated, so if you browse from this mainpage you'll notice no further interuptions.
Thank you for your continued readership after this unfortunate hacker incident.
Posted by Rob
I upgraded my hosting account today. The advertizements at the top of each page are now a thing of the past. Adblocker won't make the page render funny anymore! Also, the Wiki works MUCH better. At this point, if you notice anything that renders funny, please let me know and let me know what web browser and what OS you're using. I'll attempt to fix all problem reports that I get.
As a more personal note, I was walking through puddles in the Catskill Mountains of Eastern New York State yesterday. It was rainy for the majority of the afternoon. Even though our group had enough expertise to build a campfire that withstood the cruel wetness effects of the rain, we couldn't handle the battle against leaky tents (not mine!) and we had to abandon our campsite a day before the camping trip was supposed to end.
Posted by Rob
I made major updates to the art exhibition portion of the website viewable from the Homepage link. Basically, the writing section got updated with up-to-date information, the video section got updated with links to An American Adventure, the space exploration section got updated with relevant information, and the wall art section got updated with thumbnails of my actual photographs.
Posted by Rob
Happy Cinco de Mayo! I've installed a Wiki onto my site. Click here to jump to it. Currently, I've uploaded a work-in-progress version of Life's Experiences, my screenplay for a film that I plan on making someday. Unfortunately, adding the Wiki site has ignited a site war between myself and my web host GoDaddy.com and my "ad blocking" technology has been temporarily defeated because they've launched new and exciting Flash ads. Grrr...
Also, I want to start a new league for playing a game I call Longball. I think with some effort I could generate interest from the area's local colleges (Harvard, MIT, BU, BC, Tufts, Northeastern, etc). Maybe I should post rules to it and then begin making Craigslist posts. That would be a great way to accomplish the most difficult part (i.e. finding enough people to play).
Until next time... best regards.
Posted by Rob
I finished my latest draft of 2076 last night. I've hired an editor to proofread the manuscript between now and May 2009. After that, I'll be getting in contact with people from Booksurge.com to print and sell trade paperback copies of the novel through the Amazon.com web portal. I'm targetting October 12, 2009 at the release date for this product. The expected purchase price for a trade paperback of the book is $14.99. In the meantime, I'll be updating 2076book.com shortly with a version 2.0 of the digital download and when my editor gets back to me in May I am going to start production on the digital Mp3 Audiobook (which will also be free).
I've decided to disband the Imageless project. Archives are stored here. I made it all of 2 weeks before it got to be too much for me. With the downfall of Imageless, I've converted the mainpage of robertvandyk.com to the format you're currently reading. I'm going to target Journal-style posts with content updates every few months.
Posted by Rob