New look for nathandial.com
Posted on April 7, 2008
Well, I just kicked in the DNS change that should shake down to mark the official launch of this, my new website. My old site was old -- originally built in '01 (or earlier?) while I was still in school, unmarried, and starting to do useful things in PHP.
I built this new site with the django framework and pulled in some of my old Pleonast entries to have some test data. Then I liked the test data so much, I made some of it the regular data. (Can't be any more embarrassing than the "webcam" pics I had on my old site!)
The ultimate SEO
Posted on March 27, 2008
There's an old saying, typically shared by the successful to the less-fortunate: "Living well is the best revenge." If you've been shot down, disenfranchised, or otherwise rejected, the best way to respond is by simply punching on despite the consequences, and showing the world (including those who may have wronged you) that you can succeed anyway.
There is a similar truism when it comes to optimizing your page for better search engine placement: The long-term winning Search Engine Optimization strategy is relevant content.
Why relevant content? Simple. Because the ultimate goal of a search engine is to link to the most relevant pages. Inbound links, bot accessibility, meta tags and other optimized features can help and certainly don't hinder your site's ranking, but if your site is not relevant to the search, it doesn't matter. If your site is highly ranked but irrelevant, you're not optimizing for search, you are exploiting a bug in the search engine. And since search engines live or die by relevance, any search engine worth being ranked on will seek to "fix" that bug.
If you're top-ranked but not the genuine top-relevant page, your rank needs to go down. It is inevitable.
In contrast, if your page is highly relevant and low-ranked, it's in any search engine's best interest for your rank to naturally rise. To rank irrelevant "well-SEO'd" pages over relevant poorly-SEO'd pages is to fail as a search engine. Since search engines are a competitive technology, they are driven to constant improvement. The better search engines get, the more relevance wins.
Better, and bread-er
Posted on February 28, 2008
This week, on Ward's inspiration, I went on a quest to find the elusive salt-rising bread. My first stop was to look on the internet for a re ci pe so Sarah and/or her mom (who is still around) could possibly cook it. Well ... according to the recipe, "THIS IS NOT AN EASY BREAD TO MAKE!" Having never tasted it, and not having anybody else around who had tasted it it, how was I to know if a homemade batch actually came out right? Self-production would not be an option.
So I checked around for bakeries who carried it. Nathan directed me to a place called Hogan's, which claimed on their website to carry salt-rising bread, but as we know not everything you read on the internet is true, and when I went to the bakery store I found that they didn't have any and hadn't in weeks.
Next place I tried was the Old Mill Bread Company off Cedar Bluff Road. I didn't have any internet-based indication that they carried salt-rising bread, but they are just across the street from Dunkin' Donuts where I happened to be already. And they are a bakery. A place where bread is produced. Unfortunately they did not carry salt-rising bread -- although many people ask for it, they haven't been able to get the recipe just right.
Unremitting, I did another internet search and found The Bakery Lady. She's based in Seymour, TN, which is a long drive for a loaf of bread. She only makes salt-rising bread once a month. But fortune was on my side! She delivers to stores in Knoxville, and she happened to be baking salt-rising bread on Tuesday and delivering to stores yesterday! I pursued the nearest of those stores molto con brio and got the very last available loaf of elusive salt-rising bread. My prize! My victory! My fresh-baked trophy, the reward for days of irrepresible valor and resolve was finally in my hands, wrapped in plastic, with a twist tie on the end.
After such buildup, I wanted to tuck in right on the spot, but with patience (born partly out of having a filling lunch and partly out of fear of a disappointing letdown) I waited until the evening after the kids in bread--er, bed--to indulge in my new sample of salt-rising deliciousness. As Sarah was getting Phoebe ready for bed, I popped 4 or 5 slices into the toaster and softened some butter in the microwave for a delicious (?) toasty bedtime snack.
How did it taste?
It was good. It had a distinctive smell to it, coming out of the toaster -- sort of like cheese? But the taste was not too strong, and not a lot different than other bread that I've had. Sarah also had some toast and agreed that it was pretty tasty. I had learned from my internet explorations that "salt-rising" refers more to the method of getting it to rise than the flavoring, but I was kind of expecting it to be saltier tasting.
So would I get it again? Definitely. Would I drive all up and down the East Tennessee countryside to acquire it? Mmm ... maybe. It was worth it for the sport of finding it, for asking so many people who said, "A lot of people ask about that, but we don't have it." And knowing that I had asked and ultimately received. Also all this typing about it has made me want another piece of toast. A craving? Say it ain't so!
Next stop on the quest for elusive breads: Melonpan!
For more blog entries, see the archive.