I tried logging in to Entrecard this morning and was declined. It said my email address was incorrect. So I shot them off an email before reading the following mail they sent to me. Imagine my surprise when I found out my Entrecard account was deleted.

Your account ‘Come On In The Web Is Fine’ on entrecard.com has been deleted. The administrator gave the following reason:

Please contact support@entrecard.com if you have any questions regarding this action.

Not a blog?? Not a blog????? People is this not a blog? Is this not a set of posts that’s been going on since 2005? Do you not have the ability to post comments and sign up for a membership? Is it not based on Wordpress blogging software???

I’m sure this is just a snafu, but in the mean time I’ve taken down my Entrecard badge. I really don’t understand why they would have deleted my account. I’m on the site every day and drop cards all the time.

Again I’m sure this is some kind of mistake. Maybe a problem behind the scenes. Dunno. Has this happened to anyone else?

Follw this discussion on Blog Catalog >>

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I’ve been spending some time combing over the internet for biking blogs as I have a new project in the works with homeboy Shane. Check out the link roll below for some cool biking web sites and be on the lookout for our new brainchild, Mountain Bike Society.

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Here’s an animated gif I made from screen captures from my whos.amung.us widget page. This is the direct result from my round of submissions to social networks. Keep in mind this is within minutes of my final submission of this post. I had particularly good luck with Digg, Reddit, Simpy and Stumbleupon.

The Sociable Plugin For Wordpress

I recently started a pretty consistent round of social networking submissions after each post. Hence the boost in traffic. It was cool to watch the different countries hit. I peaked out at 199, however this is the first time I’ve used whos.amung.us immediately after a submission. So I’ll be trying this again very soon.

I just upgraded my Sociable plugin to 2.5.2. It basically offers more social networks. I’ve been having pretty good luck with my current list though. That’d be the ones below high-lighted in blue.

Click on the image below for a larger screen shot and complete list of social networks currently supported by Sociable.

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So once again it’s time for another Blog Sneeze. I learned about sneeze pages on Pro Blogger. It’s a way to drive traffic to your more popular posts. I used WhosAmungUs and Google Analytics to determine popularity. So without further adue here’s today’s sneeze.

Recent Popular Posts

• If You Don’t Like The Weather Just Wait Listed In Random Bloggery
• Jessica Alba’s Non-Existant Playboy Layout Listed In Gossipy Nonsense, Random Bloggery
• Happy Tree Friends Listed In Entertaining Media
• Track Visitors in Real Time With WhosAmungUs Listed In Blogging, Geek Blog, SEO Blog
• Winter Driving Pictures From Michigan Listed In Random Bloggery
• Michigan Winter Roadtrip Pictures Listed In About Me
• Exclusive Riders Club Preview of the New Specialized Suspension Website Listed In Michigan Mountain Biking

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I’m sure some of you out there have noticed my template changing sporadically over the past few weeks. No your not crazy I’ve been working on a long overdue redesign of NateBal.com. Hence the lack of any regular postings, promotions or marketing. I was going to post some shots of the new template ideas I’m working with, but I’ve already gone through 3 different themes that I’m less than thrilled with. It’s funny…I build websites for a living, but I can’t decide just what to do with my own.

Cez la vis. I’ll keep toying around with templates until I overcome this design-block.

So what’s been done so far?

I just upgraded to Wordpress 2.3.1. It was a bit bumpy and I’m still working out some of the bugs, but I needed to upgrade my platform to once again do something I should have a long long time ago and make this site truly seo-worthy. The new site will incorporate a more search engine friendly design as well as be much more feature laden than the current incarnation of NateBal.com. The new site has a heavy emphasis on social networking. I’ve even began working the idea of feeds and social neighborhoods it into my new logo design.

More to come soon.

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I feel like a very lucky individual. I grew up in a nice house and have great parents and a wonderfully supportive extended family. My mother was my cub scout den mother and dad built me a club house. In the summer time I’d sit in the back yard with my sister spit watermelon seeds or catch fireflys or play freeze tag.

Thankfully I have precious little to complain about. Like I said…lucky.

..but unfortunately I’m not the norm.

I have friends that have serious abuse histories from verbal to overtly physically abusive relationships between family members, spouses, friends.

I’ve seen some one try to kick heroin. He said the methadone made the marrow of his bones hurt.

I had a friend that faced deportation due to a crack abuse problem. He spent a year in NA and went back to using immediately after his probation was up.

I lived next door to a really nice guy that drank a fifth of really cheap rum every single night.

I had a friend nearly die of a methamphetamine overdose in a bath tub.

But me… I have a good job, a new car and a nice place to call home in a quaint town. Again I’ve been lucky, but I know not everyone has.

So I was having a hard time coming up with my topic for Bloggers Unite. After a little brainstorming I came up with this resource that I’ll continue to add to.

Great job folks! Keep up the good work.

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I just leanred of the concept of sneeze pages at ProBlogger. Sneezing is a way of promoting some of your favorite deeper living posts. A way for people to dig deeper into your archives. Below is my first sneeze..chocked full of some of my favorite posts.

Nate’s Favorite Posts

• Audibly Appreciate This Website
• Another Lottery Gripe
• More Photos Of The Fires In LA
• Residents of Oregon Town Say Shape Of Traffic Posts Is Offensive
• Consumerist Catches Geek Squad Stealing Porn From Customer’s Computer
• The Ruphie Contest With Danny Bonaduce
• PROTECT NETWORK NEUTRALITY!
• Public Intoxication?
• Adam Carolla hangs up on Anne Coulter

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I just started a facebook page after reading yet another article about how it is quickly becoming one of the top social networking sites. I’ll post it here when I actually develop some content for it. In the mean time here are some of the bookmarks I’ve collected on the subject.

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I’m trying out the whole Meme theory as it is pretty popular amongst folks in the blogosphere. I haven’t deduced why just yet, but I figured this would be as good as reason as any to give it a shot.

I’m not sure if memes are for better keyword saturation or if they’re just a way of developing custom content for your website.

From Wikipedia:

Meme - a unit of cultural information, cultural evolution or diffusion — propagates from one mind to another analogously to the way in which a gene propagates from one organism to another as a unit of genetic information and of biological evolution. Multiple memes may propagate as cooperative groups called memeplexes (meme complexes). more >>

So without further a’due let’s start off with a Meme I recently snagged. I got the following meme from 2K Bloggers and it goes a little something like this.

12 Questions Meme

1. What makes your blog unique?
I blog from the designer/ coder/ geek/ mountain biker/ disc golfer perspective. I haven’t seen a blog quite like it yet. I update content all the time and am constantly adding new and interesting media.

2. When did you start blogging?
I started blogging about 6 years ago when I was living in Hollywood, CA. My first blog platform was Blogger.

3. Is this your first meme?
Yes this is my first meme. I wasn’t quite sure what benefits a meme might provide so I decided to run a social experiment.

4. What do you hope to accomplish with your blog?
I hope to eventually develop an active group of users. Currently and up in till now I’ve been working on my traffic which has been on the up and up since I started this blog.

5. What are your feelings on the “blog popularity” issue?
Much like page rank I think people place too much importance on the popularity of their blogs. I think you can get a lot further with good solid content.

6. What’s your favorite childhood memory?
Sand Dunes at Big Bear state park shortly after the summer break started.

7. If you were stranded on a deserted island what three things would you want to have with you?
1. A woman
2. A Swiss Army Knife
3. A bottom less bottle of Bacardi

8. Are you a spiritual person?
I wouldn’t say so. I was raised Catholic and have been confirmed in the church, but personally I don’t consider myself that spiritual of a person.

9. Do your moral values affect the way that you blog, and if yes, how?
I wouldn’t say so. I would say that I feel strongly about freedom of speech. I don’t feel like there’s anything that should be considered taboo. So I suppose in that sense my moral’s affect me.

10. What is the weirdest thing that ever happened to you?
I’ll have to really think about this one. I’ll respond to this later.

11. What is your best quality?
I have great hair.

12. What is your worst quality?
I wake up too early.

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