I’ve been on a new workout schedule lately (I might be going on three month.) I’ve been really happy with it, so I thought I would share it:

Daily

• Situps: 2 sets of 25 holding 25lbs
• Push-ups: 2 sets of 25
• Pull-ups: 2 sets of 4
• Stretching: I do just about every stretch I can think of for a count of 20
• Oblique Side Bends: 2 sets of 20 holding 25lbs (I don’t always do this one)

Three Times a Week

• Running: 2 miles (I plan to move to 3 miles in a week)

I like the running the best.

No, I haven’t become a home improvement expert, but I did stay up until 6am finally getting Danny Lipford’s site live (Danny Lipford: DIY Home Improvement Expert).

Verdict? Eh, it was way to hard too get this site finished, but in the end, it has a lot of really cool stuff on it. They hired an outside designer to do some of the design work (so, if you don’t like something, there’s a chance I didn’t do it).

Here’s a handy WordPress function I put together today. It tells you if the current page is a child of another page. I’m using it to show a sub-navigation on a page and its children.

function is_child ($parent) {
global $wp_query;
if ($wp_query->post->post_parent == $parent) {
$return = true;
}
else {
$return = false;
}
return $return;
}

My wife asked me tonight, “Does spam ever really work?” I was prepared to launch into a speech detailing that, “although it’s a statistically small amount, large numbers of spam are made to compensate,” when it hit me.

The problem with spam is that the less effective we make it, the more spammers have to send out.

Huh? Well, if spammers have a success rate of 2% and they send out 100 million emails with each successful email making $1, then they make $2,000,000. Now, let’s say someone comes along with a spam filter that lowers their success rate to 1% … suddenly 100 million emails only makes them half what it used to, and they have to send out an extra 100 million emails. And no matter how hard we try, they’re never going to have a 0% success rate.

The Solution?
Simple. Convince everyone you know to fall for the spammers scheme. The more people who fall for it, the higher their success rate goes. The higher the success rate … the less spam they have to send out.

You may wonder if they won’t simply send more spam out to make even more money. I’m willing to bet they won’t. The one thing you can trust about a spammer is that they want easy money. So, if you make their job easier, they aren’t going to work harder.

Want to prevent spam? Maybe you should consider buying some weight-loss pills. I’m sure you’ve already received an offer.

There’s been plenty of talk about some great, global, online conversation, but I want to outline how to engage in that conversation once you realize it’s there.

What is this Conversation?
In simple terms, it’s any conversation anywhere (whether it’s online or not). Think of it like the Force from Star Wars. It surrounds every living being and is controlled by them and controls them at the same time … or something like that. It’s a website, comments on that website, emails, IM’s, phone calls, radio talks shows, television programs, two people talking to each other, and just about anything else you can think about (yes, even music). Obviously, if you can inject what you’re saying into all that … well, something would happen.

Step 1: Start Your Own Conversation
Grab a website. Start putting coherent text and content on it. Even better yet, let others leave comments. It can be as simple as “Hi, I’m Nicholas. I like kitchens,” or as structured as “We’re Xyz, an online publication that discusses all aspects of Kitchens.” Don’t stress too much on details, because there’s really only two import aspects: 1) you’re clearly understood and 2) you have a permanent location that you can reference in future conversations.

Step 2: Identify Similar Conversations
There’s tons of conversations out there, but don’t just run to the loudest one in the room. (It’s probably about Anna Nicole Smith anyway.) Instead, identify conversations that are similar to yours. They fall into some categories (which I will describe as lines):

a) parallel conversations - Parallel conversations are the people out there talking about the same stuff as you. If you’re kitchen-xyz.com, they’re kitchen-abc.com. Traditionally, they would probably be considered your competition. They’re not, and you should be listening to what they’re saying.

b) intersecting conversations - Intersecting conversations aren’t necessarily talking about the same things as you, but they do touch your topic in some way. In our kitchen example, they would be talking about bathrooms (or appliances, or … you get the picture).

c) vertical conversations - Larger conversations that encompass your conversation. They are the big boys. In our kitchen example, they would be talking about the whole house (or it could be a general interest conversation at the local beauty parlor).

Step 2: Listen
Shhh… That sound, it’s not silence. It the roaring, thriving global conversation, and you can’t just jump in. You have to listen first. In fact, the longer you listen to a conversation the better you will be able to engage it. So, now that you’ve found similar conversations, don’t bombard them … instead listen to them.

Step 3: Start Off Small
Now that you’ve been listening to this conversation (and you know what it’s about), you may feel like you’re the speaker’s best friend. You’re not. In fact, the person doesn’t even know you. So, begin engaging the conversation appropriately. Start with any small entry points you can find. On websites, it’s usually comments.

Step 4: Start a Cycle
Hey, you just took your first step into the conversation. Now, go back to listening. It’s some kind of recursive, circular monster.

Step 5: Let it Grow
It’s not good enough to go around in circles. You have to grow the conversation and let it spiral out of control (until you end up on CNN and madly famous). Last time, you left a comment, this time expand your comment to an article on your website. Then email it back to the site you just commented on. Hit the parallel conversations first, then the intersecting, and then the vertical. Growing the conversation the whole time.

That’s it. Hopefully, when your conversation grows so big that’s on the front page of the New York Times, you’ll throw this conversation a bone.

For some reason, I never posted this. I got this tattoo shortly after my son Jackson was born. So, I probably have had it for about a year. The pic is pretty bad because 1) I took it one-handed, and 2) it was my left hand.

The tattoo is located on my right forearm.

Blake asks, “Who cares about the Vista launch?“

Here’s my impression of every single Microsoft operating system launch I’ve ever seen:

Step 1: Release new OS that has a bunch of features no one was asking for but look mildly impressive.
Step 2: Break anything that worked well in the last OS
Step 3: Wait and watch as everyone avoids it like the plague.
Step 4: Panic!
Step 5: Realize that the company is about to go under.
Step 6: Release SP2.
Step 7: Realize that somewhere along the way you got a product that’s not bad.
Step 8: Force it down the throat of everyone who’s buying a new computer.

Yea, I pretty much only get a new version of Windows when it comes pre-installed on a new computer, which is probably the same for 90% of everyone else. So… Vista’s launch is only a big deal if you’re in the market for a new PC.