BlueCapra – Page 37

Have you met my wife?

February 14, 2012 by Alan R 4 Comments

She is a great wife. The best wife in the world, at least to me she is. Her name is Sharon. She does so much for me and for the family. Here are a few noteworthy things about her:

She is a homeschooling teacher to a 6 year old and a 4 year old
She runs our farm where we raise Tennessee Fainting Goats (Goatspots.com)
She answers many, many questions regarding goat care from people around the web (even giving a phone interview to someone in Japan and taking pictures that are featured in a book)
She has supported me through thick and thin, especially through my latest business launch (Book Worm Laser & Design)
She is willing to pick up a wild snake in the woods for her kids to experience
She helps in our church children’s department on only when she has agreed, but also when it is needed above and beyond.
She has two blogs (Random spots of Thought & The Random Homeschool Spot)
She is writing a fiction book (really good so far)
She has completed a NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), writing over 50,000 words in a month
Plus much, much more (too much to list)
And most of all, she puts up with me all the time

Yes, she is the best wife in the world. I love you Sharon. Happy Valentines Day!

1st on Google – Week 3

February 13, 2012 by Alan R Leave a Comment

Welcome back to my journey to being 1st on Google. If you missed the first few posts, you can find the first one here, 1st Week Update here, and 2nd Week Update here. Below are the results as of Sunday, 02-12-12 (click here to do your own search):

#10 – The About Me page from my personal blog, BlueCapra.com, with picture (Up 1 place from last week at #11)
#25 – My LinkedIn profile page (Up 12 places from last week at #37)
#44 – My personal blog, BlueCapra.com, with picture (up 12 places from last week at #56)
#61 – Comment I made on AndyTraub.com 2 months ago (Up 4 places from last week at #65)
#73 – My Technorati profile (up 11 places from last week at #84)

This week was pretty good for my journey to 1st on Google. Considering the first five search results where I appear, I jumped up 1 place to #10 and overall, I increased a total of 40 places. Last week I increased a total of 223 places with the top spot at #11. The closer I get, the harder it will be to get there. Overall, I show up 6 times in the top 100 search results. [Read more…]

Picture a day – 02-05-12

February 12, 2012 by Alan R Leave a Comment

Here are the pictures from the previous week (Saturday, 02-05-2012 through Saturday, 02-11-2012) for my Picture a day. This week I again missed a few days. In fact, this week was more of a Picture every other day.

I started this year hoping I would go through an entire year taking multiple pictures per day. This has just not happened. I did not expect to be spending as much time as I have on my business and blogs. I will continue to take pictures and will do my best to be more intentional about doing it everyday, I am no longer under the illusion that I will be 100%. I know I will only get better with practice but taking pictures just to say I had a picture a day does little or no good.

My main goal with this is to become a better photographer through practice and feedback. Let me know how I am doing. If you like these images, please share them (Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pintrest…)

If you missed the previous week’s Picture a day, check them out (you can also find them on Flickr and Google+) [Read more…]

Muddy Creek revisited – 02-04-12

February 9, 2012 by Alan R 4 Comments

Have you heard of the Muddy Creek Wetlands Management Area? If not, check out my previous post here for an introduction. My family and I enjoy going out and enjoying nature at Muddy Creek while getting some exercise. If you are in the Mobile, AL area, I highly suggest you check it out.

Conditions at Muddy Creek

This visit, we were fortunate that it was both warm (70’s F… welcome to winter in the south…) and it had rained in the past week or so. There was actually water in Muddy Creek. My wife told me the first time they went, they saw a water snake. I can only assume it was a water moccasin which I really, REALLY, don’t like (they creep me out). These snakes have, in the past, caused me to run screaming like a little girl. Well, I guess I didn’t really scream… I needed all the oxygen to escape. Anyway, I am much better now.

I would have liked to have a picture of a killer snake but no water moccasins this time. We did see a small green snake that practically posed for pictures. I try to take as many pictures as I can to both have a visual record of our trip and practice my photography skills. Often there are interesting examples of wildlife to enjoy but alas, no armadillos were seen at this time, Type I or otherwise. There were also some really cool fungi growing on trees. Made for some nice pictures. [Read more…]

1st on Google – Week 2

February 6, 2012 by Alan R Leave a Comment

Welcome back to my journey to being 1st on Google. If you missed the first few posts, you can find the first one here and the 1st Week Update here. Here are the results as of Sunday, 02-05-12 (click here to do your own search):

#11 – My personal blog, BlueCapra.com (Up 35 places from last week at #46) – With my picture I may add
#37 – My LinkedIn profile page (Up 65 places from last week at #102)
#56 – Comment I made on AndyTraub.com 2 months ago (Up 51 places from last week at #107)
#65 – My profile at GoodReads.com (Up 45 places from last week at #110)
#84 – My About Me page at this site, BlueCapra.com (Up 27 places from last week at #111) – again, with my picture

This week was great for my journey to 1st on Google. Considering the first five search results where I appear, I jumped up 35 places to #11 and overall, I increased a total of 223 places. That’s great considering last week I only increased a total of 6 places (45 points up for the first occurrence, 39 points down for the next four occurrences)

The search was performed on my work laptop after I had cleared the cache, browser history, etc. On top of that, I used Google Chrome (which I don’t normally use). The search setting I used was similar to the first weeks (cleared cache, 10 search results, non-instant results, strict filtering, etc). In order to verify that the results did not change, I performed the same search on my desktop computer using Firefox about 30 minutes after the first search. The results were the same. I feel confident that the computer and browser does not affect the search results. From this point one, I will do the search on whatever computer and browser is convenient (excluding my personal laptop). [Read more…]