Holy Crap. Lions! - Kenya Weebles Video

I can’t get enough of this Weebles video. It’s cute, funny and subversive even (read all the little text thingies). If you ever wanted to know how cool Kenya is, and how it could pee all over Norway, you’ll appreciate this too.

Weebles? Who knew?

Only in Kenya

Zombies Want Your Brains Song

Here’s a rocking little zombie song on YouTube:

“We only want to eat your brains. We’re not unreasonable; I mean, we won’t eat your eyes.”

This song made me and some friends think - are the zombies lying? Why don’t they also want the eyes? That’s got to be like fresh grapes to them.

I believe they’ll eat the eyes if you let them near your face. They don’t seem awfully picky about what body parts they shove into their gaping maws.  So, consider this a public service - don’t trust zombies to only go for your brainz. They will most likely eat your eyes on their way TO the brainz, and then look around for your liverz and spleenz too.

One Year Goals Update, October 23

I am documenting my life goals on this site as a way to keep myself accountable, and to possibly inspire others to do the same on their blogs. One friend already took my example to make her own life updates on her blog: Adventures in Writing, Goals for 08-09.

With no more ado, here is my most recent update:

* My next shorter term goal was to break in to the 20ks at Amazon (and have 100 reviews up) - Reached 28K this week. Yeah! Teens are coming next! I have set until May 09 for this goal so I think i will get there way before that. I still haven’t posted 100 reviews yet - I seem to do reviews in batches. I am waiting for the next time I feel inspired to make a batch.

* Taxes - There’s been some crazy IRS stuff. I finally filled out my 2007 forms and need to figure out where to hand them in. ASAP. I hope I can do this tomorrow on my way out of town. We don’t like heading down the mountain unless we have to - gas is too expensive! I also need to figure out how to roll my 2001 penalty into the rest of my penalty plan. AND got to get together with my new taxes person to figure out how to get 08 in order. I don’t want to be late, ever again.

* Stuff in Storage - We are heading to AZ this weekend to pick up our things from storage. We’ve rented a uhaul trailer ($200! Yeeps). We arranged to stay with a friend for two nights and to see some people while out there. Just need to pack a few things tonite. We won’t be getting my RV this trip, but i’d like to grab a few things from it. So I will still have to make another trip out there soon.

* Organizing Utility/Laundry Room - This has been a fun project and I am almost done. I am pleased with how this came out. YAY me!

* Paint Living Room - The kid we hired never ever showed up. So I just did it myself last week. I’ve never done anything like this before and it was trail and error. But my accent wall came out lovely and DH really approves too. As far as the flooring, this will wait. The economy is too sucky right now. And we decided to return the ceiling fan and just use the one that is up already (get our $119 back from Lowes).

* Office Organized - I did most of it but still need to set aside time to do the drawers. I documented my office cleaning project.

* Crestline Living Website - Still improving in traffic, now has a page rank of 3, and is getting much much closer to my goal of number one Google search result for Crestline California.

* Making 1k a Month from my Projects - Still not seeing things pay off, but I am still in the building phase. Sigh. Too much to do. I think this goal is too big for one year. Maybe I should break it into smaller steps.

Misc New Goals -

* Organize walk in closet
* Organize bathroom shelves

Application Form for the Evil League of Evil

I wish I’d found this form before the deadline so I could prove my evilness to the League. But it’s still a hoot to read through the application and I can’t wait to see the videos they select:

Apply to the Evil League of Evil

Note - this will make a LOT more sense to you if you are a Joss Whedon Fan. Just saying.

Second Note - remember, Henchmen need not apply. Contact your union.

Sarah Palin vs Tina Fey - Body Doubles on SNL

I have been waiting and waiting for this to happen on SNL. It’s just too good. If you haven’t seen Sarah vs Tina on SNL, here’s your chance to see this uttermostly surreal moment in action. Head to head. In the flesh.  Both funny and very, very creepy.

The first time I saw the sketch, I thought Tina played both parts. I only clued into the weird reality on my second viewing. Which makes me wonder…if Sarah did become president, could Tina simply…replace her…without anybody knowing?

Can you even tell which is which in this photo? Leave your best guess in the comments.

It’s Fun When Authors Link to Your Reviews

I love it when authors whose books I review link to me. Or comment on my site. I do the happy dance and then show my husband, who acts suitably impressed.

• Here is the link back I just found on Anne Cushman’s author website for my review of Enlightenment for Idiots:

Enlightenment for Idiots - News & Events page:

~  “…I could have traveled with Amanda and Devi Das stumbling for enlightenment for years.”

• Previously, Debra Gallant commented on my review of her Book Fear and Yoga in New Jersey:

Thanks for the nice review. I especially liked this insight: You can taste the sense of squeaky-clean New Jersey suburbia - and understand the price people pay to maintain such outward “perfection.”

• And lest you think only yoga authors keep track of who reviews them, here is the nice comment I got on my review of Blogging for Dummies from author Susannah Gardner:

hi jill,thanks for the great write-up of blogging for dummies — i really appreciate it and i’m glad you are finding it useful :)  - susannah.

What is extra cool is I met Susannah recently, at the IzeaFest Blog Expo 08, where she was speaker. She graciously granted me an interview, which I will post shortly.

It’s strangely fun for me to get a shoutout from an author. Realistically, I know it’s not a big deal - I am an author myself (Arizona Off the Beaten Path, 4th and 5th editions). Some of my best friends are authors. But still. Everybody likes to be noticed.

Get People to Click your Shit

You want people on Twitter, Stumble, Digg or wherever to click through to your articles, images, YouTube videos and blog posts?

Here is one avenue people appreciate:

• Be funny.

Have a funny title or caption if you can spare one. Keep in mind the funny might not be as useful for SEO purposes.

Take, for example, my title here:

• Get People to Click your Shit

I think it’s funny. Does it have excellent keywords?…well, no. An SEO friendly title would read more like: How to Attract Click Throughs. How to Attract Readers to your Articles. How to Get Readers to Click Through to your Articles. Boring stuff like that.

If I was writing an article for a website I would have done just that. I would go with the keywords and get the SEO goodness from search engines. But this is my damn personal blog and I will do what I like with it.

If you really want to be smart, you can have an SEO friendly title AND still get the funny across. You can have a subtitle that’s funny. Or make a funny description. Or have funny tags.

In this case, I could have written:

• How To Convert More Readers: Click My Shit.

Convert, Readers and Click are all decent search terms. How To is a good search phrase. And the most important thing: Shit is still in the title.  We’re really all just monkeys laughing about feces.

Or, I could make a Twitter post about eating brains, which always sounds funny. For example, Dan just sent me a zombie video. Zombies are funny on their own, but you can phrase things to sound even more enticing. Here is my recent Tweet on Common Craft’s video about surviving zombie attacks:

• Save Your Brains. How to identify, escape and eliminate zombies: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVnfyradCPY&feature=user

I could have just said, “How to identify, escape and eliminate zombies” - which is certainly funny on its own, yet so earnestly serious.  My playful brain eating touch is sure to get Common Craft a few more readers, which they deserve, as their video is cute, funny, and provides useful advice about surviving zombie attacks.  The best of all worlds! Just like this blog post!

So what have we learned today? That zombies, brains and shit are funny. That we’re monkeys. And that, yes, there ARE benefits to possessing an irreverent mind, despite what my teachers said about me.

We Continues to Hate Flying

Want to read about my bad experiences with US Airways recently? On JillFlorio.com I posted my recent lovely experiences of nickle and diming by the airlines:
Fly the Hostile Skies on US Airways