As I mentioned last week, blogging is becoming so popular it is gaining attention all over the place.  The news is reporting its expansion.  Yet from my understanding, over half of America has never heard of a blog.  If you mention a blog to a person who doesn’t spend time online, he will look at you like you are weird.  I think that may be dependent on what age group you are in.

I had never heard of blogging the day I started my xanga.  I just signed up.  I had help in putting it together.

Was there ever a time when communicating with someone online appeared creepy to you?

In my last post, there were some individuals who thought it was ok to use a towel twice since the towel was only drying off a clean body.

Is it acceptable under certain conditions to wear clothes for two separate days without being washed?

Everyone says they care about the environment.  But the question is what do you do when you are confronted with a choice that requires action?

I am sitting here in a hotel room in Nashville, Tennessee.  Before me I have the following sign:

When you care, it shows.

Dear Guest,

Everyday millions of gallons of water are used to wash towels that have only been used once.  You make the choice:

A towel on the rack means “I will use again”

A towel on the floor means “Please replace”

Thank you for helping us conserve the Earth’s vital resources.

Do you hang the towel on the rack or do you drop it on the floor?

Just a quick note.  I just arrived in Nashville, TN.  So I am adding as many people to the protected as quickly as I can.  Most of you should be able to see it in the next hour.  Thanks for your patience.  I do want to mention that I would appreciate as much feedback as you can give on the first protected post so I can know how to make the post better.

Here we go:

The Supreme Court may take on a big change this year.  With two new members, the court can move in a new direction.  So the Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito is being looked at carefully by both sides.

Has the Supreme Court nomination battle become too political or is this a natural part of the process to get the best nominee?

Just a quick note.  I have added people as quickly as I could for the protected post.  It is 4 post about how to make featured content.  I realize most of my readers are not interested in it so that is fine.  Some of you who are asking to be added have already been added.  You should see it.  Just go down to the part marked Featured Content Part 1 and then read all the post.  You have to go to the next page in order to get to Featured Content Part 4.  I think it will be helpful for a lot of you that want to make it.  So if you want to be added just say so.  But be patient with me as I add you.

Here we go:

I have been thinking about the 2008 elections.  After President Clinton was in office for 8 years, I thought the Republicans were passionate.  Al Gore actually got more votes so this may not be the case.

I know that the Republicans have not only been in the White House.  But now control Congress and actually have more Governors.  It looks like they may take control of the Supreme Court here too.  I say that as a joke.

I am not wondering whether it may swing back in the other direction.  Although I am a conservative Republican, I think the mood in this country is a readiness for change.  I am thinking the Democrats are going to gain a lot of seats in Congress in 2006.  I think that they may take back control of everything in 2008.

Do you think that the next two elections will swing back to Democrat control?

I am ready with the Secrets to Featured Content.  Two of the post I have written before.  I have rewritten them with corrections that I have learned since the time I wrote them.  All four of these post together took me more than 8 hours to write.  That is including the time I spent on the first two.  But I think you will see that they are very complete so you will have all the tools that you need. 

I have made them all protected.  I just want to watch who gets them.  So I cleared my protected list because I only had that for pictures anyway.  I realize most of you have indicated that you don’t care.  So this is just for those who care and who have been nice to me.  I appreciate those who have been so supportive of me in the last several months.  This is just a small gift back to you.  I show how to get through the different stages of featured content.  And I give some of the best tricks of the trade.  I am also going to respond to comments in the protected section.  So if you are reading something that doesn’t make sense to you, just ask a question in the first protected post.  I will then answer right in the comment section so that everyone can see the answer.  This allows everyone to understand at the same time.

For everyone else, I thought we would play a little game.  I want to tell you some of the bad things about featured content. 

# 1 The mean people:  There are people that will dedicate whole post to tearing down your site.  I don’t mean spoofs either.  I don’t mind spoofs.  I am talking about people that will say all kinds of things about you.  If you end up on featured content, that is what will happen to you.

# 2 Stalkers:  I don’t mind stalkers they way some people mind them.  I have people that visit my site a lot.  It does not bother me.  There is not one creepy person in my top 30 stalkers.  In fact, I don’t call them stalkers.  I call them MVG (Most Valuable Guest).  But if you don’t feel comfortable with someone stopping at your site a hundred times in one day, you probably won’t like featured content.

There are the email stalkers too.  I had one nice lady who wrote 30 comments in a row in the comment section.  So I had to block and delete her.  About the only people I have ever blocked and deleted are the people who comment about 30 times to draw attention to themselves.  I don’t block critics.  Well, anyway that nice lady got mad that I blocked her.  She sent me 10 emails a day commenting on each post for about 2 weeks.  Again, this sort of thing does not bother me.  But if you are the type of person that is bothered by 10 emails a day for two weeks from an emotional disturbed person, you won’t want to be on featured content.

So there are two instructions:

If you want to be added just say so.

If you don’t want to be added, name a reason you would never want to be on featured content.

It is taking me forever to put these featured content post together.

Should I tell them how to get on featured content or should I just let them figure it out themselves?

Before I post I want to make a quick note.  I am going to post tonight on how to make featured content.  I realize most of my readers don’t care but there are some that would like to know so I am going to put it in writing.  It will be pretty in depth of everything I have learned.

Here we go:

I have noticed over time that a great deal of my readers struggle with the idea of killing animals.  I don’t know if they are just matching me because I hate the idea of hunting or if that is just me misreading people.  I eat meat.  It is just hard for me to imagine pulling the trigger.  Oddly, I know I could pull the trigger in battle if necessary.  It would be difficult for me to actually pull the trigger seeing a helpless dear out in the opening.

So I want to get an idea of what the thinking is on this one.  You have a deer in front of you and you are in hunting season.  You have a gun and the deer is right before you.

Could you shoot the deer?

I have been at this conference all week in North Carolina.  I walked into the conference a few days ago with a certain strategy in mind.  This is a leadership conference and sometimes they will play little games in the beginning to challenge your leadership abilities.  I like to win these games.  They will have about 400-500 leaders who will all be on equal footing.  Most of them don’t know each other in advance.

They break you into groups of about 100.  I walked in thinking in advance that I was going to try to be subtle and maneuver politically within the group.  I would sort of do that to try to win whatever game they would play.  It is good at these conferences to stand out as a leader.  Some organizations come to these conferences just looking for people to hire.  Even though I am not looking for a job, I just think it is a great opportunity.

So I walked through the door and I am one of the last people to arrive.  My strategy was to just go around and be friendly with people.  I just try to physically touch each person.  It allows you to influence their decisions later.  But I was a little late.  People had been networking for about a half hour.  I walked in just as they were calling everyone together. 

They started a game and they wanted the group to elect leaders.  We would break down into smaller groups and we would elect more leaders.  Then we would break down into smaller groups and elect more leaders.  I am the type of person that never tries to be a leader initially.  No matter what I am involved in, I just try to lay back and watch the group.

So I entered this room as they were electing who would be leader over the whole group of a hundred.  I had walked into the room and was literally just hearing them call the group together.  I walked over to the circle and within 2 minutes of walking into the room I was the leader.  I was surprised at how it worked out.

I am wondering to what degree my height has played a role in this my whole life.  I was always the tallest in the class.  People always thought I was older than I was.  So I think that my height has played a large role in developing myself as a leader.  When people always look up to you physically, it tends to give you an advantage in leadership. 

The same thing happened to me in basic training in the military.  We got off the bus and the drill instructor went around yelling at everyone.  He stopped in front of me and said to me, “You are going to be dorm chief.”  I had not spoken a word.  I heard in basic training that you want to blend in.  That was my goal.  But now all of a sudden I couldn’t blend in.  I was now the leader of the 50 guys.  I think my height had to be the largest factor.

I wonder how much my height has played a factor in how I have lived my life.  I wonder if I was shorter if it would have done something to my self esteem.  I wonder if people treating me differently growing up would have made a difference in my life today.

To what degree has your physical features and physical stature played a role in where you are today?

I was surprised at the debate in the last post on whether spankings should even take place.  I want to look at one area of spanking. 

I was spanked regularly when I was a child.  I had what I would consider very strict parents.  The last time my mother attempted to spank me was when I was 12.  It didn’t hurt anymore.  So my mother just cried and gave up.  I actually felt sorry for her at the time.  She sat down and told me I was just going to have to behave from that point on.  I got in very little trouble after that. 

I don’t look back at spanking as a negative.  I felt my parents loved me.  I received swatting twice in school.  It acted as a deterrent for me personally.

The issue I want to explore is what impact your discipline when you were young had on how you view spanking now.  In other words, I wonder first of all if you were spanked by your parents.  And then I wonder if you feel that has impacted your decision to spank or not to spank.  I realize some of you are talking hypothetically because you don’t have children yet.

What impact does your parent’s style of discipline have on your decision to spank or not spank?