The Treadmill Dance

I saw this recently on another blog. Apologies to whose it was but I can't find you at the moment. Instead I looked up YouTube to find it because I just had to post it. These guys are very clever. Don't forget to crank up the speakers...


Meanwhile, my renter Katie has just announcied her love hate relationship with eggs.

Macro Floral Photography

If you haven't visited my photography at Portfolio Reeholio lately, you will be missing out on the macro photography of flowers I have been taking recently:



Such vibrant colours and crisp detail. You can almost smell the fragrances. I am open to constructive criticism, so leave a comment there and let me know what you think. Just click on any of the flowers above.

Diamond in the Sky

When I was young and silly I used to do a lot of skydiving, so this video is quite nostalgic for me. Not that I was ever good enough to do this. Cool song too...



Now go check out what my renter Katie is up to at Kat Scratch Fever

Compliments – The Art of Making Someone Feel Good

When I was sixteen a friend and mentor of mine, Wayne Buckingham, gave me a very famous book to read, called How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie. When he gave this book to me, I took it the wrong way, thinking that he thought I needed to “grow up”. I tossed the book in my closet and forgot about it.

Four years later I found the book again and flicked through it. This time I liked what I saw and decided to read it. Once I started reading it, I could not put it down. It also changed my life. I attribute a lot of my successes in life to this book.

Years later I caught up with Wayne Buckingham and thanked him for giving me this book to read (and apologising that I had never returned it to him). It was then he told me he had given me this book because he believed in me and he thought I would benefit from reading it. Thanks Buck, I did.

One of Carnegie’s principles is the art of complimenting. Not just shallow compliments you don’t really mean, but compliments from the heart. People can tell if you mean it or not. Coinciding with this principle is the rule where if you don’t have anything nice to say, then do not say anything at all.

When I visit other blogs from around the world, if I like what I see, I will leave a complimenting Comment on the blog. As a result I get a high return rate of bloggers coming to my blog to check out who was behind the compliment.

I wanted to write this post on compliments because I have been complimented a few times recently on blogs around the world, or by bloggers leaving comments on my various blogs. I want to highlight some of these compliments as fine examples of giving sincere honest compliments. As a result, I respect these people enormously.

The first major blogging compliment I received was from Bobby Griffin at Bestest Blog of All Time. He gave A World of Bloggers the award for the Bestest Blog of the Day for July 26, 2006. You can read Bobby’s complimentary review here.

Regular readers of this blog may have already read the great review Mimi wrote about my photoblogs. Mimi’s wonderful review compliments the photos I have posted in Portfolio Reeholio and Wild New Zealand. What a nice way to compliment someone by writing a review of their work.

Gale “Gem” Martin stopped by my blog recently and left this nice comment:

Hi again, Rhys. I visited your blog after reading your profile. I was struck with how you seem to be two people--the detail oriented guy who enjoys sedentary intellectual stuff and extreme adventure guy whose next stop is the x-games. I also like the gentleness of your blogging persona, kind of like a warm bath with Epsom salts…And I'll take you at your word and start leaving more comments at the blogs I visit.

Not long after, Gale wrote a wonderful post called Happy Friend Day where she again complimented me by referring to me as “an uberblogger from far-flung New Zealand, a Renaissance man for our day…”

Thank you Gale, your star shines brightly in the sky down here in far-flung New Zealand.

Lizza. Lizza often stops by my blog and leaves me nice comments. I know she also visits many other blogs and does the same. Lizza has just today deservingly won Bobby Griffin’s Bestest Blog of the Day Award. I went to Lizza’s blog to congratulate her and was pleasantly surprised to see she had already written about me in her award post. Lizza expressed her gratitude to me as one of four “cyber-pimps” who has led her to discovering many new exciting weblogs to read. Thanks Lizza, I always value and appreciate your feedback.

Then there is Penny Ricketts from Massachusetts, USA. Penny is looking for love via the bloggersphere and thought I might be her man. My wife had other thoughts about that. Sorry penny, but it was a nice compliment anyway.

Many bloggers have also stopped by my blogs and left encouraging and complimentary comments. A few who stand out include Yaxlich, David Johns, Dave MacIntyre, and Blog Bloke.

There are many others I could mention but this post would become a book ;-) Instead I would like to finish with a quote from Gale that I picked up when I first discovered her blog recently:

Life--at least the big picture view--is much easier to see. Make every day count. Spend time with people you like. Speak your mind, say you're sorry, give a compliment, or do a random act of kindness--you might not get a second chance.

What a wonderful quote Gale! You are indeed a “Gem”

Rhys

New Renter - Kat Scratch Fever

I would like to welcome Katie Wagner to my blog for the week. Katie enjoys photography, web design, going to concerts and random acts of stupidity?! Her first car was a 1987 Oldsmobile Delta. Katie's blog Kat Scatch Fever is light hearted and good fun. Please check her blog out by clicking the image on the top right. Go on, you know you want to...

Brace Yourself - This is Funny!

I've just worked out how to make this video-post work and wanted my first to be one of the funniest videos I have seen in a long time. Enjoy...

Guest Post - Scooter McGavin

Hello ladies and gentlemen, Rhys has been kind enough to take up a post over here to let you know about a little more about my blog, Scooter McGavin’s 9th Green. The name stems from an old college nickname from a guy who, much like me, saw Happy Gilmore one too many times. My longtime dream was to open up a sports bar and name it Scooter McGavin’s, but it taking the name of my blog will have to do for now. The 9th Green part of the name just came from not wanting to name it “Scooter McGavin’s Blog.” That seemed too bland so I took a somewhat obscure reference from the movie, it the place where Shooter sent Happy for a little hazing ritual, to jazz thing up. Unfortunately with the name Scooter McGavin’s 9th Green, there has been more than a few that have mistaken it for a golf blog.

The blog instead is an entertainment blog, but not of the salacious kind. So if you are interested in finding out whom Lindsay Lohan is dating this week, this may not be the blog for you (although in a measure of full discloser, every time I go over to my sister’s house I check out her subscription to Us Weekly for that very purpose). Everyday I post about different genres of entertainment including music, television, movies, sports, and politic (which I occasionally find entertaining). For the most part, these are reviews and analysis of various events.

I do run two special posts every month. The first of every month I induct some form of entertainment, whether it be an album, movie, television show or video game into the Scooter Hall of Fame. It must have been a decade since it was released and something that has deep meaning to me. To check out all the inductees, scroll down to the Terror Alert Scale link on my sidebar and the SHoF is at the bottom. Also the link shows all the reviews I have ever done. The second monthly special event is my Lyrics Quiz that I run on the fifteenth of every month. The person who gets the most right every month is then added to the Winner’s List on my sidebar. Also for music fans, usually every Tuesday I have an album review of an album that was released that day but be warned this week I currently reviewed the new Paris Hilton album. But in the coming weeks you can look for album by more creditable artists such as Audioslave, John Mayer and possibly “Weird Al” Yankovic.

Another segment that I am most likely known for in the Blogosphere, but is currently on hiatus, is my weekly Toss Up between the televisions shows Lost and Veronica Mars. The genesis of this came last summer when I declared them the two best shows on television only for the networks put them on at the at the same timeslot. It’s possibly this very running segment that landed me a trip to San Diego this past February to the set of Veronica Mars (I’m still waiting for my invite to the set of Lost in Hawaii) to interview cast and crew. To add to the celebrity exposure, I also got to participate in a chat with a childhood idle Denis Leary.

Again I would like to thank Rhys for letting me patrol her sidebar for the week and hopefully if you haven’t already, you will check out the 9th Green. And maybe you stopped by once and didn’t care for what you saw, maybe you will give me a second change (and for those put off by the grass background, may I suggest subscribing to you favorite feed reader as I have numerous one you can subscribe straight from my blog).

Thanks again everyone,
Scooter McGavin


Thanks Scooter for spending the week on my blog and being my first Renter.

With his departure, the renter's space on the top right is now up for rent again. If you are a Blog Explosion member, just clcik on the link on the top right. If not - what are you waiting for? Sign up here!

Rhys

My Photoblogs Reviewed

Before I discovered blogging, my photos were shut away on the hard drive of my computer and in boxes in my closet. Memories and views of the world through the lens of my camera, locked away for no one to see. Until now…

The greatest pleasure I get from publishing my photos via Blogspot, is the wonderful feedback that I have received from other bloggers far and wide around the world.

One such feedback is the review written by a Mimi who lives in the United States. Mimi is a freelance writer, internet guru and musician, who I recently met when she visited my blog and contacted me via email about exchanging links. Mimi has a similar passion to blogging that I have. Her blogs Mimi Writes..., Dating Profile of the Day and Mimi Matters are now linked in the sidebar on the right.

Thank you Mimi for your wonderful review of my photography. You have made the long hours I have spent addicted to blogging all worth it.

Mimi’s review of my photoblogs can be viewed here.

Music Reviews at Scooter McGavin's

I have just been over checking out Scooter McGavin's 9th Green and particularly enjoyed his recent post It’s not that We Don’t Care We Just Know that the Fight Ain’t Fair. In this post Scooter reviews five recently published music videos courtesy of YouTube. These are all great vids and great music and worth checking out. My favourite was the new song by John Mayor - Waiting on the World to Change. You can find Scooter's site by clicking on the image on the top right of this blog in My Renter's Space.

Commenting - A Great Way to Get Traffic to Your Site

Free, Friendly, Polite and Easy

There are many, many ways to entice people to come along to check out your blog. Some will even cost you money. Of all the ways possible, the best way to get people to check out your blog is by visiting and leaving sincere comments on other their blogs. After all, isn’t that what you want people to do at yours?

As proof of this, for every comment that has been left on my blogs, I have clicked on the commenter’s name and gone along to check out their blogs - without fail. I believe that if someone has taken the time to read my blog and leave a comment, the least I can do is to return the favour.

Comment Spamming

By leaving comments, I don’t mean leaving a comment on every blog you visit just to promote your blog. This is called spamming. If someone writes a comment on one of my posts that has no reference or relevance to the post, my blog or me, I will delete it. So will most other bloggers, I imagine.

If the blog you are visiting does not interest you and you can not think of anything polite or constructive to add, then don’t. There are literally millions of other blogs out the in the Bloggersphere, just hit the 'next blog' button.

Commenting Etiquette

What I mean by constructive commenting is to read their blog, and then relate to it in the comment you write. If you can work it in, use the 'href' tool to link directly back to your blog. If not, that is fine too, because if the blogger or readers want to check out who is behind the comment, they will click on your name (if you have logged in) to comment.

In the comments section of 10 Reasons Why I Don’t Like Your Blog, BlogBloke discusses the issue of commenting, and raises some interesting points. In particular, he notes that you want to make it as easy as possible for people to comment on your blog. This means allowing anyone to comment, and by not using comment moderation. After all, if you don’t like a comment someone has left, you have the option to delete it. Using word verification is better because it only takes a moment, and can filter out computer generated spamming programs.

I don’t agree however, with BlogBloke’s thoughts in his 10 Reasons... comments section about anonymous commenting. I think if you have taken the time to visit someone’s blog, it should not be too much more effort to log in and claim ownership for your comment. Do you want to remain anonymous because you are not proud of the comment you are leaving? If so, perhaps you should just hit the ‘next blog’ button instead. To give an analogy, someone leaves a note in your letterbox saying they do not agree with the way you drive your car. They don’t sign it though, because they wish to remain anonymous. What are you going to do with this note? Most probably ignore it and throw it away. Or in the case of blog comments, probably just ignore it.

Be brave enough to log in when you leave a comment. By leaving a comment and claiming ownership to that comment, you are also leaving a link back to your blog, which is of course promoting traffic back to your blog. This becomes a sort of temptation to treat for the owner and readers of the post.

Another important etiquette lesson I did learn by reading 10 Reasons... is that it is polite to reply to comments left on your blog. Until I read this, I have to admit that I was guilty of not doing it. If we say something, we all like the person we are talking to, to at least acknowledge our existence. There is nothing worse than taking the time to compose an intelligent comment and then being ignored.

By commenting, you are also acknowledging the blogger’s writing. Commenting is like clapping at a concert when the band finishes playing their song. There would be nothing worse than the crowd standing there staring silently at them showing no emotion.

I welcome your comments…

New: Rent My Blog – Welcome to Scooter McGavin

Rent My Blog is a service offered by Blog Explosion where Blog Explosion members can rent advertising space on another member’s blog in exchange for credits. In this case Scooter McGavin has rented my blog, and has the honour of being my first’ renter’.

Scooter McGavin lives in Ohio in the United States, and blogs about anything from music to TV to sports and politics. He has just recently published his 500th post, and also has 40 of the top 111 wussiest songs on his ipod.

You can view Scooter’s blog by clicking on the link on the top right of my blog page. Please check out his blog and be sure to mention that I sent you. Scooter McGavin will be with me for the next 7 days. Also, borrowing an idea from Jbcarey, I will ask Scooter if he would like to write a ‘guest post’ here at the end of his renting period.

Welcome Scooter, to A World of Reeholio!

Jbcarey.Blog.Com

I regularly surf blogs at Blog Explosion, and the other day I discovered JayB Carey’s blog called Jbcarey.Blog.Com. JayB lives and blogs from Belgium, and on his blog he runs competitions to win credits at Blog Explosion. While I was surfing his blog, I decided to also enter the current competition that was running at the time. I didn’t think any futher of it because I never have any luck in these sorts of things.

Until this morning, when I checked my email before leaving for work and discovered that I had won the competition! I know my blog was picked randomly, but I would like to thank JayB for picking my blog and I look forward to the traffic from the credits I won.

JayB’s blog Jbcarey.Blog.Com is a good read and I recommend checking it out. While you are there, have a look at the post by his outgoing renter The Blue Panther. In this post Blue Panther writes about the world becoming a smaller place because of the internet, and that people from the various corners of the world can, at the click of a button, get access to sites from the farthest point in the world. The Blue Panther’s thoughts remind me of why I created A World of Bloggers. That is, so that visitors to A World of Bloggers can reach out and touch others from around the world by reading, understanding, and then commenting on the blogs listed there.

I also recommend signing up for Blog Explosion. The blogs registered at Blog Explosion are (only) personal blogs, who would like to get more people to read writings. There are no crap spammy blogs there, like are often found at other sites. The way Blog Explosion works is that you earn credits by reading other blogs and then these credits are converted to traffic to your blog. A win-win situation!

Thanks again JayB, I’ll sure be back to check out your future writings (and competitions :-) )

The Power of Linking and Link Exchanges

Yesterday my sitemeter at A World of Bloggers clicked over 1000 unique visitors from around the world. I am proud that this has occurred in just over two weeks since its inception. This was partly due to a bit of luck that the blog was seen by Bobby Griffin at Bestest Blog of All Time, and awarded the Bestest Blog of the Day for July 26 2006. Since then, interest for the blog has exploded.

As more and more people link to A World of Bloggers, it has been seen by their readers which has then attracted more interest. This has the follow-on benefit to those who already have their blogs linked there.

There is a lot of good articles written about the power of linking. I first discovered this concept at InstaBloke's Tips for Successful Blogging, where tip 14 states: 'Don't be stingy with your links. The search engines will love you for it'. This tip links to another article that explains the power of linking in Search Engine Optimization (SEO). A synopsis of this article is basically that one of the ways Google ranks websites and blogs is by the amount of incoming links. It counts each of these links as votes by third parties that the website is popular and therefore is worth being ranked higher in the search engine results. ProBlogger.net also has a good article about SEO that is worth reading if you would like to know more.

Another article worth reading is Instabloke's article on Why You Shouldn't Use Blogrolling.com. The reason, he explains, is that blogrolling uses a javascript to create the blogroll and not simple html code links that the search engines are looking for to your site. If you would like to learn how to modify the links section on your blog, see here.

I have also recently discovered that linking can be dangerous. One moment you are clicking on links from one to the next, discovering more new and exciting stuff, when suddenly from the next link you are confronted with graphic content you were least expecting. Whoa!

What I am leading to by this post is that I welcome link exchanges with other bloggers. Please leave me a comment or send me an email and we can go from there. Sorry, no spam, overly graphic content or objectionable content please.

Time Magazine

Well, not quite millions yet. But, I'm slowly working on it.

I was surfing through blogs at Blog Explosion and came across the blog of Jonathan Shaw of Seattle. He has a link there to the website to create these covers. Thanks Jonathan, what a hoot!

Another Award!!!

Congratulations to me again!

I was browsing through my blogs just now, and I have discovered a comment left at Discoveries in the Bloggersphere a couple of days ago. It was from Rob at Blog of the Day.org. He had left a message to tell me that a post on this blog had been chosen for the "Blog of the Day for Blogging" award. Check out Blog of the Day.org and register your blog there too.

Wow, that's two awards in two weeks. If my health ever deteriorates to the point that I can no longer fly, I may look at a career in website design or similar. There's probably more money in it too. Hmmm...

Apple

Alessia in France has just joined A World of Bloggers today. While I was checking out her blog, I discovered a second blog she has put together called i smile! Here she has borrowed a similiar idea from Spread Your Smile and is posting photos of people with their apple products such as ipod, imac or ibook. Unfortunately, I do not own any apple products, but I have interpreted her rules that say "anything apple" to include this delicious New Zealand apple that I am about to eat for afternoon tea. Check out i smile! and add your apples too.

Disclaimer: No apples were harmed in the making of this blog.

Fantastic Sunset

My father has given me two photos to post of one of the most beautiful sunsets I have ever seen. He took these photos from the balcony of his house in Paremata, Wellington in November 2004. Check them out in my photo gallery of sunsets, or by clicking on the photos below:

Harry and the Hendersons

Yesterday I discovered the dangers of following links from others' blogs. As a result I created a post about a blog I found that generated pseudonyms for male parts. I have since deleted that post, but at the same site I did find this blogging personality generator. After answering a few simple questions, it generated my blogging personality profile as:

Your Blogging Type is Social and Responsible

You enjoy blogging and do all you can to advance the blogging community. From helping friends set up blogs to getting rid of spam - you take a leadership role. A super blogger, you tend to blog regularly. You'd hate to disappoint your audience. And always appropriate, there's no way you'd blog something too personal!

What's Your Blogging Personality?

Says it all really!

Template Fiddling

I have been learning how to fiddle with the template by adjusting the style settings using CSS. I don't really know what I am doing yet, but using the good old trial and error process. I think it has worked so far. The website I have been teaching myself is w3 Schools.

Next step is to try to insert a picture into the title area. Hmmm...

World Famous in New Zealand

A few days ago I was asked what New Zealand was famous for. I struggled at the time to think of things that were "world famous" and not just famous to New Zealanders. So, I have put together a blog about all the stuff and things that are World Famous in New Zealand

Discoveries in the Bloggersphere

Have you ever surfed the bloggersphere by pressing the "Next Blog" button at the top of this page? The world is made up of very diverse and interesting people. This blog is a collection of the blogs I have discovered in the bloggersphere. Check them out here.

Bestest Blog of the Day Winner!

Update: My A World of Bloggers blog has won the Bestest Blog of the Day award for July 26 2006 at BestestBlog.com. Congratulations to me!

A World of Bloggers

A World of Bloggers

We live in a very large world made up of extraordinarily diverse people from many cultures and countries. I enjoy reading blogs from people from around the world. It makes our large world seem that little bit smaller. My aim is to list one person's blog per country /territory as listed in the blogspot.com profiles. Join me in bridging the gaps in our world by including your blog in my A World of Bloggers. Let’s take back the internet!

Welcome to Reeholio's Home Blog

This started out as an idea I had to publish my ideas about stock market trading to share with the many people that have asked me how, why, where etc. Check them out here:




Photo Gallery

I enjoyed making that series of articles so much that I am now hooked on blogging and have also published some of my best photos to share with the world. Please be sure to check them out in my Photo Gallery.



Hello Bloggers

A big hello to the other bloggers out there who have stumbled across my blog. Please leave me a comment somewhere, and I'll be sure to return the favour by checking out yours.

More blogs to come soon...

Regards, Rhys (aka Reeholio)