That's What She Said: 8/3/08

Friday, August 8, 2008

The Olympics

I must admit I am a life-long fan of the Olympics, so I have been looking forward to tonight's kickoff with the Opening Ceremonies, but my interest has certainly diminished from what it was in the past. That being said, I think I have already been sucked back in by NBC and the Opening Ceremonies. They were fantastic and I'm also enjoying watching the parade of athletes as I type this. I had to get online to see what NBC had to offer when I realized I would be wanting to watch several events. I was very pleased to see NBC's online coverage and the viewing options provided. I am going to post the first cool widget I've found so far below and I will probably be posting more later and moving things around. Go USA!!

Exclusive Summer Olympics news & widgets at NBC Olympics.com!

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What's up with John Edwards and his sudden confession?

Was anyone else taken off guard somewhat by John Edwards' sudden confession of an extra-marital affair to ABC News? I must admit that I have not been following John Edwards very closely in the recent months and I definitely haven't been following the rumors about an alleged (now confirmed) affair and love child, so my surprise after hearing about his sudden confession of an affair may not be shared by others. As a person who hasn't been following this story, I am totally confused at the confession itself, but I am more perplexed by the timing. Why now? What did ABC News have on Edwards? I have no doubt I will be bombarded with answers to these questions before the day is over. In the meantime, I will be doing my own investigation of this whole situation....starting HERE. Sphere: Related Content

Thursday, August 7, 2008

Squidoo Experiment Update #2

I just received my Squidoo payment for the month of June and was pleasantly surprised. I got $50, up from the $23 last month!!! I did have quite a few more lenses in June than in May, but the payout tier #'s were pretty much on course. I don't think I described the Squidoo payout system in my earlier post, so I'll do that now, or make my best attempt at an explanation.

Squidoo pays out on a tier system made up of 3 "tiers." The tiers are broken down by lens rank with the top tier having the highest lens ranking and so on. There is some debate regarding how Squidoo determines what a certain lens' lens rank is when it sets the payment tiers. I always assumed the lens rank was the average ranking the lens had for the month, but things couldn't be that easy......No, Squidoo apparently feels the need to be somewhat secretive about whether they use lens rank averages or just "randomly" choose one day of the month and take a snapshot of the true lens ranking when making determinations on tiers. I have more to say on this, but will save it for another day....

Here is the breakdown in tiers for the month of June:

Tier 1 - $7.78
Tier 2 - $1.32
Tier 3 - $0.07

I had 4 lenses in the top tier, compared to just 2 in May, so I am pleased with that ratio. I did have quite a few more total lenses in June than I did in May so my payday could have been a LOT better if I had been able to squeeze a few more of those into the second tier, but I'm not going to complain about almost doubling my payment from month 1 to month 2. I can't wait to see the payout for month 3!!!!

You can see my post from last month HERE Sphere: Related Content