Hey, I didn’t even advertise it, but I made some long overdue changes to the blog. First of all, I changed, at last, categories that I use for posts, so now they make more sense:

It required a manual re-class of some 300 posts. Ugh.

But there is more - in addition to categories, I now also use tags:

This allows to navigate to post related to Poland, for example, or social lending. I’m usually quite skeptical about usability of tags, but in context of my blog I like them a lot.

Unfortunately, the upgrade to wordpress 2.5.1, that I had done before all these improvements, broke the gallery section. And apparently also google ads. For photos, I’m seriously considering outsourcing all this stuff to Flickr, so I don’t have to bother with endless tweaking of spgm script. Or continue waiting for someone to make gallery that integrates with wordpress and just works. As for ads, I have no idea why they are broken.

More importantly, in short term I expect to finish an intensive Kiev project, close social lending research that I did, and have more time for blogging. And a better position to blog in general. I might even post more often than once in a month. Stay tuned.

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Nothing to write home about, but I made some technical improvements which make me really happy.

I added 1gb of ram to my laptop, getting at the total of 1.5gb. It’s hard to believe how much difference it makes. Everything is snappy, there is no delay when switching to window which was unused for some time, and files open momentarily.

I have also moved this site to a better host, on which it is possible to install stuff without debugging it for a whole night. It will allow some long overdue updates.

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Dear readers. With some hesitation I would like to inform you that you might also want to check a second blog, which I update from time to time. In fact, usually more frequently than this one. It’s at http://blog.ogito.eu/.

Ogito is a draft blog for whatever next-big-idea I am currently chasing.

Why keep blogs separate? Sometimes it is indeed awkward, but more often I don’t want notes (often quite technical) from constantly changing ideas to hit this personal blog. Also, switching idea every month might not look serious, so I want to keep it somehow aside:)

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Now it’s getting difficult, because though I set up as second blog for “visioneering” stuff, some topics just feel like being posted on both of them.

One is Fellowforce, a site in which you can solve a challenge posted by a company and get rewarded if your idea wins.

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Heh, that’s from the spam comment I just saw:

Please, do not delete the given message. Money obtained from spam will go to the help hungry to children uganda

Riiight.

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Found this post accidentally: Blog Tip: Do NOT Put Adsense on Your Blog.

Its point is that Adsense brings so little revenue on a blog, that it is not worth bother to use it.

Quotes numbers which give 0.02% CTR (mine is 0.13%), and 0.06$ eCPM (mine is 0.$19). Hey I’m not so bad - relatively:)

Still it’s clear that ad performance on non-targeted blogs is very low.

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Don’t know how many weeks, but obviously many.

I didn’t write for some time and then I was planning to write about some interesting things which happened in the meantime, but their number grew and grew and eventually I didn’t get started at all.

More importantly, I’m still busy with something big time so before I finish - and I hope I will eventually finish - not much focus left.

But now it’s good to start small again, just after watching latest Tarantino movie, which, btw, rocks.

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If you read any of these guides to successful blogging, you will notice that rule no 1 is ? post short, post often. If there is no new meat on a regular basis, people will not bother to come.

It?s true to certain extent. For sure, it?s true for blogs I like most ? the more the better since I start reading with them.

But for the rest, there is a borderline. Having 30 unread items after couple of days after I subscribed, it?s just depressing. And usually out of 30, there might be just one interesting article. *unsubscribe*.

Why it?s bad to be low traffic? After all, that was rss readers were invented for.

(not that frequency of posting on this blog is overwhelming - I?m definitely on the safe side)

Update: hey, post by Torres makes me think I’m not alone in RSS overdose.

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Not posting for so long, I know. Despite that in Moscow I have the internet connection in my bedroom for the first time ever. In Poland I couldn’t make it happen for years already.

I counted on life in Moscow slowing down and then having more time to blog. But it just refuses to slow down. Either it’s the project or it is true, in fact, that things run several times faster in that place.

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Yesterday for the first time (shame to admit) I had a lobster experience. Turns out overrated - lobster is not as difficult as it is usually pictured. I would say some fish are much worst. Perhaps it was prepared in the way that made eating it easier. Lobster, in any case, tastes more or less like a big shrimp.

I don’t write much lately, even though there are some interesting topics - the reason - I don’t feel like writing. As usual, I never manage to force myself into undesirable activity. Why not wait, anyway. The productivity advantage, while being motivated to work on something, is huge.

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No new blogging friends, unfortunately, but more and more interesting people do blog. For example - of serious people writing serious things:

Krzysztof Rybinski, deputy governor of the National Bank of Poland (makes a very good impression, the blog, I have to find time to digest the content),

Janusz Jankowiak, Chief Economist of Polish Business Council (though in his first post he declares himself unable to write openly, due to numerous contraints - something I know about).

As for my blogging, I’m totally obsessed with something and unable to devote time to much of anything else, blogging included.. apologies.

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Didn’t even notice, and it’s already a few weeks old: Google Polska blog.

I was looking for info when they are going to introduce search for Google Maps in Poland, but so far no clue.

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Anousheh Ansari, first blogger on the International Space Station:

It is about 11:30 GMT here on ISS. It looks like my first entry from space made it down there.. Amazing, isn?t it??

Her blog here.

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In Lijiang’s cafe I had the opportunity - and an obligatory one due to my table’s location - to observe another blogger blogging.

There were many interesting things to be observed, the ones that come to mind when you ponder why blogging is taking so much of your time. Like how long does it take to write a post for other bloggers, how much they edit and rewrite, how fast they publish.

So it’s not just me after all. It does take long.

The blog was Spices, Silk & Tea, writing about Tiger’s Leaping Gorge (everyone was on the same route in China). It’s in French.

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I could write a lot about how difficult it is for me to write this blog for so many different groups of target readers, which include my family, friends, employer, potential employers, people interested in specific subjects, random people redirected from Google, etc. But recent comments on guestbook tell the story:)

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