Right-Wing & Right Minded Is Dead

Well, it's not actually dead. But this is sort of the end of an era. Ok, maybe not that dramatic but it is a change. I started this blog in 2003 as a political site for me to try and enlighten wrong minded Liberals with the truth. But over the past nine or so months things have changed. This site, along with myself, has moved away from politics. As you may, or may not, have noticed I've been doing more military posts. Mainly Wednesday Hero. So I guess Right-Wing & Right Minded has unofficially become a Milblog. It's not going to be an actual Milblog but since that's what I mostly post anymore... I've had some good times on here arguing politics with people. I do miss the old days, but not that much. Took way too much energy and just wasn't that fun towards the end. I've thought about changing the name to Wednesday Hero but it's been RW&RM so long I just can't do it. There may still be a political post here and there though.

Break It Down

Sitting here looking at my pages stats and here's how it breaks down:

My number one visited post is the Wednesday Hero Blogroll post with an average of 56 views a day and a total of 16,290 since I posted it in 2006.

I get an average of around 100 views of my blog every day with a total of 34,471 since Blogger started keeping track. Not sure when that was.

My number one traffic source is The Pink Flamingo. Thanks, Cindy.

The number one search term that leads people to my page is "barbara boxer". Why? Because of this post I did back in 2005.

Only 38 people have read Blood Plague and 17 for Tony The Gerbil.

Surprisingly, IE is still the number one browser used at 61% while Firefox is second with only 23%. Huh.

Windows is by far the number one OS with 88%.

And, the US is the number one country for pageviews with, awesomely, South Korea in second.

Only 2 Months

Think I'll try to get a start on the Christmas layout this weekend. Been messing with Bloggers new Template Designer and I think I just about got the hang of it.

Music Czar Monday

Wednesday marks seven years since I started this blog and I've been thinking about it some lately. The people I've met. Some have moved on while others have become friends. There are two people in particular that I wanted to single out by dedicating this weeks MCM to them. Greta and my Sister from another mister, Jessica. They were two of my earliest readers and have, for some reason or other, stuck around. Thank you ladies. I hope I picked the right songs.

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HTML vs XML

If you run a blog changes are you've messed with it's code.  Maybe to add a picture or move some piece of code around to change the layout.  I've been blogging since 2003 and all of that has been using HTML.  It's easy to understand and simple to figure out.  I've recently switched over to Blogger's new design which uses XML and I'm not a big fan of it.  It's much more difficult to figure out than basic HTML.  I spent almost two hours yesterday messing with it just to move a few things around.  I eventually got what I wanted, sort of.  It's not exactly what I would like but it'll do.  I don't think I'm going to be mastering it anytime soon.

New Design

I kinda like this one. I might just keep it for awhile.

Changes II

Here is the new layout. I'm trying to find a way to use my old layout, I really like it, but not sure if I can. There's still some changes I need to make, if I can figure out how. I'll keep this, for now, but I could switch back should I decide I don't like it.

Changes

You may notice over the next few days, or even weeks, some changes to the site. I'm trying to learn Blogger's new(ish) design feature. It's a little more complicated than HTML, which I'm familiar with, and it could take some time. I want to switch over because it has more features than the old style I'm using now. I've tried a few times before to use it but I just can't get it for some reason.

Change Has Come

Yeah, I'm a day early but I went ahead and put up my normal template.

Some Change, Very Little Hope

Friday, January 1, I will be going back to my normal layout but with a new header. It may just be my best one, if I do say so myself. I though about changing to a whole new layout, but I like the one I use.

Need Some Help

The site that I've been using to host the Wednesday Hero posts, Ripway, has, for some unknown reason, suspended my account so I'm on the lookout for a new free file hosting site. If you know of one that's easy to use, doesn't use Flash and displays text files in the browser rather than making you download them could you let me know. Actually, the easy to use and doesn't use Flash aren't all that important but displaying files rather than download them is. When you have to download files from these sites it's just a big mess having to click this link then this link then another and so on. Plus the text doesn't display right for some reason. Things get jumbled and screwed up.

Biggest Wednesday Hero Ever

I try to keep the Wednesday Hero posts as apolitical as possible, though I have done one politically motivated post in the past. Remember Casey Sheehan? But yesterday's post, while it did have a little politics in it, meant a great deal to a lot of people. And, as it turns out, it was the biggest Wednesday Hero post ever. Mudville Gazette has a list of all the milblogs that participated and sites that covered the story. Even Michelle Malkin covered it. I love Michelle Malkin, and now she knows who I am. Well, okay, she doesn't actually know who I am but let me fantasize. My numbers even went up. My average pages views is around 17 a day, yesterday that shot up to 41. I've made it. I said let me fantasize. There is, however, an error with yesterdays post. I indicated that it was written by Greta when it was in fact written by Laughing Wolf over at Blackfive.

Christmas Is Around The Corner

And next Friday this blog will start to reflect it. Next week I will upload my Christmas design.


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Now playing: Trans-Siberian Orchestra - Wizards in Winter [Instrumental]
via FoxyTunes

Christmas Design Update

Woo-Hoo. I got it done. Didn't take as long as I thought it would, but I figured out the HTML and I got the design done and ready to put up on Nov. 27. Still looks as good as it did last year.

6 Years

Six years ago I started this blog. When I started it I did so just to have something to do. I really had no intention of even really doing anything with it. Just post a bunch of crap that happened to be on my mind. And six years later I'm still doing just that. Some that I met early on are still around with me and others have moved on and new ones have taken their place. And I'm still here pounding away on the keys telling you about what dumb thing our government is doing or posting some horrible piece of "artwork" or that my mom went in for surgery or some Random Thoughts or that my dog had passed away. And I want to thank those of you who left the kind comments when that happened. I had no idea that this site would last as long as it has. But it has, even though there have been a few times I was ready to hang it up. Thank you all for reading, agreeing, disagreeing, etc, etc... Now, put on some music and let's party. Who has the cake?

I've Forgotten More Than I'll Ever Know

I began working on the Christmas design of the blog yesterday. It's going to be the one I used last year because I liked it so much. At least I hope it's going to be last years. I haven't worked with HTML in almost a year and I can't seem to remember how I did it. So I may not be able to. I'm going to have to take a crash course and try to learn it all again. I wish I'd kept a copy of the code from last year. I checked archive.org to see if it was there but they stopped in 2007. So no hope there. If I'm able to figure this out I'm going to be smart and save it.

Lack Of Posts

I'm sure some of you have noticed the lack of posts lately. While there are a lot of things going on around this country, and the world, to talk about I just haven't felt the desire to do so. Am I losing my passion for blogging? Not really. Maybe it's that I'm just pissed off at where this country is going I just can't do it. It actually makes me almost physically sick when I think about it. I don't know. It's also that my connections has been crap for almost a year now and some news sites just will not load, so it's hard to get a story when you can't read it. No need to worry though. RWRM won't be going anywhere. It's just a slow spell.

Christmas In July

A little more than six months away. I love Christmas. And now that we're in 100+ degree weather, I want it here ASAP. I need to start planning my layout design. It usually goes through several incarnations before I find the one I like. But it's going to be hard to top last year. That was, I feel, my best one. In fact, I'm thinking about going with it again and maybe making it my permanent design. Not sure.

What Do You See?

Can someone let me know what you see when this site loads? Are you seeing my animated Favicon or do you see the standard Blogger icon?

How Long Have You Been Doing This?

On September 15, 2003 I posted my first post on this blog. Back then it was called "Powerage Rambles On", taken from my favorite AC/DC album. I no longer have that post as I've posted over with my Album Of The Month post, but it was about Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck breaking up and wondering how I was going to go on with life. I want to say that there was another name for the blog before I came up with Right-Wing & Right Minded, but I'm not sure. I briefly went over to another blogging site a couple of years ago because Blogger was having big problems and I couldn't get anything to work. It only lasted a few months then I came back and have stayed here ever since.

Over these past five years I've had a lot of fun and a lot of frustration doing this blog. Made friends, some of who still come around everyone once in a while and others who've moved on, and had fights with truly stupid people. It's been kind of humbling to think that the views and opinions of this nobody hick from Oklahoma are being read, and sometimes enjoyed, by people from all over the world. Who knows what the future holds for me and this blog. I may pack it up next month or I may be celebrating my 10 year blogiversary in 2013.