Thanks Mike (From Spain)

That doesn’t count unhappy readers like Dennis, Marcus and Gbull.  They’ll probably bitch about this post.  I added a happy guy to the image so it won’t be [...]]]> I had a record breaking number of spam comments on B&P yesterday.  From 8 am yesterday until 9:30 am today we’ve gotten 1,299 spam comments.

That doesn’t count unhappy readers like Dennis, Marcus and Gbull.  They’ll probably bitch about this post.  I added a happy guy to the image so it won’t be so boring for them.

All you need is your zip code to contact your representatives in Washington:  Contact your representatives

More about SOPA and PIPA

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BlogWorld:  It was interesting… smaller than I expected, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.  There were things I expected to see that weren’t here, and things that I didn’t expect to see [...]]]> My time is up for this trip to the City of Angels, Los Angeles.  Here are some thoughts on my brief time here.

BlogWorld:  It was interesting… smaller than I expected, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.  There were things I expected to see that weren’t here, and things that I didn’t expect to see that were.

I only had the one day Expo Pass which allowed me to go to the Expo and a couple of Keynote sessions.  I went to one keynote session that featured the CEO of Technorati.  She gave a report on the current status of the blogosphere and there was a shot Q&A session afterwards.  There were a lot of stats that I normally don’t think about but I found them quite interesting. I think the next time I go I won’t be so cheap and will go for the whole package because I think I’d enjoy the breakout sessions by various speakers.

I’ve been blogging for almost ten years and spent very little time on the business part of blogging for most of that time.  I predominantly focused on content and very little on the business end. After people told me I could make a little money I put ads on the site a couple years ago and that helps with expenses.  I want to look into the business part of blogging a little more seriously in the future.  That means doing more with social media and stuff like that.

Traffic:  Traffic on the highways is just hideous.  I finally figured out that I could take the streets and get everywhere a lot faster, especially during rush hour which seems to be from about 4:00 am to 3:59 am.  Everywhere I went was less than 30 minutes from my hotel in Marina Del Rey.

I also learned that in Los Angeles yellow traffic signals mean nothing at all.  They just add a little color to the scenery.  Red traffic lights mean that 3 more cars can go through after it changes.  I also learned that pedestrian crosswalks are sacred and people take them very seriously as one gentleangryman pointed out.

Dining:  I hardly ate while I was in L.A.  I had a small continental breakfast at my hotel each morning (cereal, cinamon roll, fruit and some juice).  I think the only other food I had was a sandwich at iHop near my hotel one night, a couple tacos at Jack in the Box, chicken dinner from Pollo Loco and a burger at In and Out.  Friday after returning from BlogWorld I discovered a little BBQ joint in Venice (not far from my hotel) called Baby Blues BBQ. 

I love places like this.  It’s not fancy at all.  All the tables and chairs ate mismatched and there is various old memorabilia on the walls.  By definition you’d think memorabilia would be old, but in this case I feel the need to ad old to the description.  Some might prefer to call it junk rather than memorabilia, but I found it interesting.

The food was excellent.  I had a BBQ chicken breast sandwich that had coleslaw piled on top of it.  It had sauce on it but you could add more from the four bottles on each table.  I sampled all four varieties; one marked BBQ, sweet, hot and one labeled XXX.  The sweet was excellent to my tastes.  The others were hotter and even more hotter.  The XXX was properly labeled. WOW!  The place reminded me of Bubba’s in Dallas Texas that we visited last year.  I would definitely go back to Baby Blues BBQ.

Now… back home to St. Louis.

The J-Walk Blog will close today, 9 years to the day it started.  John Walkenbach has updated the blog every day except for his rare vacations away from home when he hangs up the Closed sign for a few days.  John always said he’d close the blog when it was no longer fun [...]]]>

The J-Walk Blog will close today, 9 years to the day it started.  John Walkenbach has updated the blog every day except for his rare vacations away from home when he hangs up the Closed sign for a few days.  John always said he’d close the blog when it was no longer fun for him.  He wanted to close the blog after ten years but he found it increasingly no longer fun so he changed the date to mark the 9 year anniversary.

The J-Walk Blog has developed quite a devoted following of readers and commenters just as B&P has.  John’s love for banjos and his posts about religious fanatics have fueled many interesting debates on the blog.

John has really gotten into Google+ and has learned most of it’s little tricks and treats.  He says it’s like a blog except there’s no maintenance or behind the scenes duties for the user.  He’s been publishing some tips on Google+ on his blog since he started using it.  I wouldn’t be surprised to see a Google+ book by him in the near future.

I think I discovered the J-Walk Blog from visiting his Excel Spreadsheet Page .   I have visited the J-Walk Blog daily from almost day one.  It was one of about three inspirations for me to start Bits & Pieces. John is an Excel expert and has authored about 50 books during his career.  He’s also written an excellent Add-In utility, Power Utility Pak for Excel.

John is originally from the St. Louis area and his brother Ken (KLAW) still lives here, not too far from me.  I had the pleasure of meeting John at the Great Midwest Blogging Summit (just John and me) which was held in Ken’s basement when John came back home for a visit.  I also got to meet Pamn,John and Ken’s dad Irv, along with various family members and of course Rick Happ.

Though the J-Walk Blog will cease to exist John Walkenbach will carry on over at Google+.   I personally will miss his presence on the WWW side of the web, I like to think he’s just moving to a new house over on Google Street.

John Walkenbach’s new Google+ address: https://plus.google.com/u/0/110003121223198871275/posts?hl=en

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