Posted by Raul on November 25, 2010
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About commenting in other blogs:
Stopping commenting in other blogs that I read was because of being really busy with many things, including my vehicle that started to ask for many more repairs after the initial ones. What supposed to be a winter preparation, with the addition of an “ice breaker” in front, and the re-doing of the wiring for the emergency lights, turned into a complete front suspension replacing and the 30,000 miles interval maintenance (the vehicle reached 260,000).
At the other hands, and without even thinking about it at first, the no commenting issue became a test on its own. How many of the comments we make in other blogs are mostly because of being nice, rather than being really impressed by the post?
From what I can see, there are many different plugins that help to see statistics such: Where the commenters come from; the time of the day, etc. But they don’t say anything about the thoughts and feelings the commenter might have when making a comment (helpful, supportive, selfish, or simply boredom). So how do we really know? (Besides of the comment itself).
There are ways to analyze the data so to get different conclusions about this, but in my opinion, just letting the water rest will tell us if it’ll remain, or secretly (slowly or quickly) drain out.
You see, it is very easy that overtime, what started as genuine mutual support, turns into a routine action that cannot be easily be away from by the fear of being expelled of the circle. If we create a round holding hands, dancing and singing together, turning around with a smile and a sense of community and support, and then we decide to release ourselves from the circle, we risk to be left out and forgotten by the ones still in the circle.
How many bloggers remain commenting by the fear of abandonment? (I know I can be very nasty sometimes!).
I’m not saying people who keep commenting are afraid of being forgotten. I’m sure most of the times the continuous commenting comes from a genuine interest and have nothing to do with sustaining a “round”; but there is a possibility that, in some instances, some people might be commenting more as a task in the process of blogging to sustain readership, than a real desire of participation.
I know in my case I like to leave comments when I feel I have something to say; and that’s’ why I might seem to be away from visiting sometimes. And the same seems to happen with the people who visit this blog; which I thank you for that…receiving comments without meaning are not what we expect, right?
So what started as a short break to complete some other tasks in the physical world quickly became another experiment of mine, in order to see what would happen, and what would be the reactions.
What I noticed is that, even though the comments received were reduced, statistics showed an increase in readership. (plop!)
And about receiving comments?
Those are fun, aren’t they? It gives us a sense of being heard, even if statistics show twenty visitors only. And when statistics show a continuous increase in readership, but there’re no comments received, logic will say things are going good, but feelings get hit by a sense of loneliness.
We are such weird creatures! Aren’t we? 
Raul
Posted by Raul on November 4, 2010
Just a couple of weeks ago there was the post number one hundred. Today, November 4th, 2010, this blog becomes exactly one year old!
And like a one year old child, this blog is learning to throw things at people, make weird faces and become noisy when there’s something it wants
Think of it more like a declaration of independence…
One of the things I’ve seen bloggers do when they reach a year time blogging, is to give away something as a gift to their faithful followers. I’ve also seen them do it in a way that will help them spread the word of their blogs and increase readership.
Seems like a good idea! But not for me…
Instead, I’ll share with you the beautiful Denver’s clouds that I get to see everyday, without any strings attached.
I know many people will disagree with me, and claim they have the most beautiful clouds of all; so I won’t argue, and just let them live their mistake and enjoy their innocence
Now, since uploading big pictures in a post will increase the loading time of the page, I placed the pictures below in thumbnail size. If you click in them you should be able to see them in a bigger size.
If you want to download them to your computer, just right click in the opened picture and “save picture as”. It should save it in JPEG; 1024 x 768; 72 dpi; and between 42 and 134 KB each.
These are all pictures I took myself, so there are no copyrights involved, and you can use them for whatever reason you want, and without the need of giving credit or making a link to this blog (I know, my business skills need some work!).
Hey! I consider myself a rebel blogger: No specific niche; no ads; no reviews; no Facebook; no Twitter (I created an account a couple of years ago, but after the first tweet to test, I simply abandoned the whole thing). And slowly but surely I’m starting to speak up my mind…you’ll see… (he-he).
Anyway, about the pictures, let me clarify that I am not a seasoned photographer, and my cameras, although digital, work on raw oil instead of batteries (they are that old). One is an Olympus D 390 and the other an Olympus C 470, and I like to greet the clouds when picturing them, so my hand is always shaking.
So, take a look at them, and if you like them, please feel free to download them for whatever use you see fit, without any obligation to me or this blog.
It’s a gift, not a business or promotion tactic!
Enjoy; and if you happens to find a favorite, tell me in the comment section
Also, if you want a copy without the captions, let me know and I’ll send you an email with the pictures in 1024 x 768 in an attachment.
(And don’t forget to have a drink to celebrate this little brat-blog’s first year!)
Raul
Denver’s Clouds
Posted by Raul on October 14, 2010
This one becomes the number 100 post! Crazy isn’t it? Time goes really fast when we are fully immersed in something we enjoy, like for me writing in this blog.
It’s been a crazy ride for the almost one year so far; with so many ups and downs, so many moments of high speed travel when all the elements seem to be in perfect synchronicity, and so many moments of breaking down by the side of the road, when no creativity, ideas or simply a road to keep going through and a sense of being lost takes home; so, digitally standing there, with both hands in the hips, looking around and thinking -now what!-
The momentum have been growing little by little and now, still a little confused yet with a better idea of the destination, Alien Ghost blog is revving up and increasing speed as the road becomes smoother by the better view offered by an almost year of crawling, walking and now almost running to, at some point, reach the planned destination.
If you got confused by the Alien Ghost logo in red when it should be green, the reason is as a way to reflect this sense of getting more enthusiastic and revved up for the next 100 posts!
Alien Ghost is getting hot!
Among the many elements that have been part of this process I can happily count the Cherry On Top Award passed on to me by Patricia of Patricia’s Wisdom (thanks Patricia!), the many encouraging comments of several readers, together with their participation in contributing another perspective to many of the posts published so far.
So the seed did germinate and grow a little bit, surviving the elements to still remain and pass on to the group of blogs that didn’t end up in the sad count of abandoned to die after a while.
Now it is about to keep pushing with renewed patience while keep practicing the writing process and the blogging one, to retain and grow even more the momentum that embraces this blog.
“Patience and Practice…the opposite of Quick Reward, which has become the main element of modern society”
To all my readers…thank you for your support, participation and encouraging words. You are the fuel that keeps Alien Ghost moving forward.
See you again in the next 100!
Raul
Posted by Raul on October 4, 2010
It came as a nice surprise when checking the email I found that Patricia of Patricia’sWisdom chose my blog as one of her six to honor with the “Cherry on Top Award”
Thank you Patricia for the distinction and your encouraging words!
Now, there are rules to follow when becoming the recipient of this award and they are:
The Rules
01-Answer this question: If you had the chance to go back and change one thing in your life, would you and what would it be?
02-Thank the person who gave you this award.
03-Pick 6 people/blogs and give them this award.
04-You have to inform the person that they have received this award
01- The question…and the answer!
There are many things I would have done differently…when looking from the safety of the future; but if I had the chance to go back and change one…I wouldn’t.
Changing one thing would change many others by their interrelationship and that would be a problem of indirectly changing something I wouldn’t like to change, so I’ll prefer to bury the time machine and concentrate in how to make things better from now on.
Besides, everything has a positive and a negative side, so how much of the problem is the side we are looking at, rather than the reality of the situation? When changing the perspective, what seems to be a mistake could become an unknown advantage!
02- Thank you again Patricia for the distinction; it definitely means a lot that Alien Ghost became one of your selections. I’m glad my writing makes you think and see things from a different perspective; after all, that’s the goal of this blog and your mention becomes more fuel to keep going.
03-Although there are more than six blogs I really enjoy visiting to read (even if I’m not commenting lately due to a stubborn To Do list that doesn’t seem to disappear) the rules are the rules and I have to choose, so here they are:
-Sara of A Sharing Connection
Because her challenges keep forcing my brain like a physical trainer
(oooh my brain hurts!)
-Barbara of Blogging Without a Blog
Because of all the great advice she gives that makes her a “Blogging Leader”
(Go Commander Barbara!)
-Nacho of Zerebria
Because of his interesting posts that makes you think further from just what’s in front
(But what if…?)
-Tony and Cassy of Trotersville
Because of their artistic ways that I must admit not always can follow
(I’m not dumb, just “un-artistic”)
-Eric of Eden Journal
Because of his continuous search in his posts
(Let’s keep analyzing!)
-Marion of The Second Half Of My Life
Because of her honest writing with great advice
(The second part of our lives can be the best of all!)
So…ladies and gentlemen, who are your selected blogs that have that little something extra?
Raul
Posted by Raul on July 30, 2010
After making a comment in Lori’s Blog post “front porch: Dreams, Laughter and Comic Inspiration” about Tony’s Blog “Trottersville” Lori asked why I sleep so little, so here is the answer:
Some time ago I posted a thought called “Don’t Sleep Before You Die!” where I was talking about saving time by sleeping 6 hours instead of 8 as recommended by the experts. That was my ideal!
Today, and for the past 8 years, I had been sleeping an average of 3 hours a day, 1 at night and 2 in the morning.
What happens is that I have a delivery job at night (I wrote a short fiction tale about that in “Reunion”) so sleep one hour before going to work and two after, so not to waste too much time in the morning just sleeping.
Then work by day either fixing cars, doing several things around the house, spending time writing, blogging, reading posts in other blogs, commenting, trying to learn this computer thing and the writing craft (I want to learn to write well so more people would be interested in reading this blog, not just “Mom and the Poker Club” ), spending time with my son and wife and so on, so not much time left really.
Sometimes I oversleep and have 2 hours instead of one before going to work and had to rush so not to be too late in order to “preserve the schedule” and not getting behind during the day.
It works fine except for a couple of things: Memory, Vision and Energy, that’s all!
Memory has become crappy, I still cannot find the control panel of my brain so to uncheck the box that say “Automatically delete thoughts when a new one appear”, although I do have problems with memory since I can remember (don’t laugh!) I believe I suffer from CRS (Can’t Remember Shit)
Vision, once very sharp, is also becoming crappy. I still can read a street sign from a block distance but now I need glasses for reading (sigh), otherwise cannot distinguish the words.
Energy is also down; it reminds me of my childhood when being “high” with medicine and no energy to move due to sickness (“Why Alien Ghost”, “Loving Life”) so it takes a while to get energized after waking up in the morning and I’ve notice that, in those rare occasions when I have the time to sleep as much as 4 hours in a row, my focus and memory get better.
Another thing with short sleeping is that I don’t dream (not enough time) It’s been many years without dreams, which is sad because several years ago I read somewhere that we can put our dreams to work.
If we concentrate very hard in a thought when going to sleep and remain in that thought until we fall asleep, with practice and time, we dream related to our thought; it works! I tried that many years ago and after several attempts I was able to “advance” thinking done over a problem; I even dreamt a short tale that as soon as woke up wrote in one stand without stopping and needing no corrections! That was so cool!
So short sleeping is nice to save time and do more things, but too short sleeping is not a good thing (duh). Now it’s about organizing things in order to get organized (see people how it can affect you?!)
But seriously, soon I should be able to get some more sleep and hope to recover some of the memory, maybe vision and definitely energy!
Life is good and the future can always be brighter!
Raul
NOTE: The picture is not me but that’s how I look like when just waking up
