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Month: December 2002

Weekly Wrap-up: Million Dollar Dreams

December 30, 2002
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[National Lottery and the Powerball]Just for a change, I’ve decided to do this weeks (technically last weeks) “Weekly Wrapup” which is about a a West Virginian (USA) resident called Andrew “Jack” Whittaker Jr winning America’s largest single lottery payout on the Powerball. He won US$315million which equates to approximately £196million: the highest win so far in the UK “Lotto” draw has been for just £22.5million (back in June 1995)… The National Lottery website also has some interesting facts on the game and previous winners – along with what will happen if you win the jackpot.

On with the questions…

“On December 25th, one man won $315 million in a lottery. With that in mind, how would you answer these questions?”

  1. What would be the first purchase you make with your newly-won fortune? Why?
    My first “purchase” would probably be to pay off my families debts: my mortgage, my parent’s mortgage, car repayments, credit cards, loans etc.

    After that, I’d probably ensure all our pensions are topped up (and ensure that all my family could retire if they wanted to), all house repairs are carried out, get a couple of gardeners in to do some work (my family aren’t really known for their “green fingers”), get my family new cars if they wanted them, and then probably treat everybody to a nice holiday somewhere – probably New Zealand as I know a few of us would like to see that country.

    After that – umm, I dunno. I’d probably sell my current house and get a nice little house (nothing too fancy – 2 bedroom semi-detached place would probably keep me happy), maybe near the beach. I haven’t really given it much thought.

Continue ReadingWeekly Wrap-up: Million Dollar Dreams

Snippet: What’s a Panto?

December 29, 2002
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*snippet* I’ve just over heard David Sillito of BBC News describe a pantomime as “a cross-dressing musical for children”. I never thought of one of Britain’s “traditions” quite like that, but I suppose it’s true – I just wonder what all the Yanks think of them though…

Poll: Color Quiz

December 29, 2002
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[Color Quiz]A recent entry on KillUglyRadio pointed me towards the Color Quiz (or, as we would say here in the UK, Colour Quiz). You just select 8 squares of colours in the order that suits you – wait a couple of minutes – and then select 8 coloured squares again and then it gives you your personality test results.

Like most polls that I have previously done, I wasn’t willing to read too much into the results of a personality profile conducted using a bunch of coloured shapes – but the results are extremely good and practically spot on. I do agree that my ‘existing situation’ is “Readily participates in things that provide excitement or stimulation. Wants to feel exhilarated.” and the “stress sources” seem spot on as well – only things I don’t feel are quite right are the bits about my “restrained characteristics” (i.e. sex life). I would say the test is better than 50% accurate…

What about you? Take the test and see if those colored (sic!) squares can tell you a lot about yourself – is it accurate for you or did I just read a little “too much” into the results…

Search: Blog Listed On The ODP

December 29, 2002
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After just over a month of waiting, my little blog has been granted a listed on the Open Directory Project in the Weblogs/Personal/R category (actually listed on 28th of December at 3:45pm UK time). It’s listed as “Richy C’s Blog – Random ramblings about life, the web, the ODP and interesting finds.”

Yes, I am an ODP volunteer editor and because I’m an editall I could have added my site to anywhere in the ODP I liked – but I decided not to. I just submitted my site in the standard way (on the 8th of November at eight minutes past midnight) to the most appropriate category, and then waited for an editor specialising in that area to come along and review my site. When I submitted my site, there were over 100 unreviewed sites in that category (and, yes, I did do a quick ‘spam cleanup’ by moving other sites to more appropriate categories and reviewing one or two others) and now the unreviewed count in that category is down to single figures! Congratulations and thanks to the editor that reviewed my site (you know who you are 🙂 !).

Many people “grumble” about how long it takes to get listed in the ODP, but this instance shows that it just depends on how “interesting” each category is to an editor. If you submit to a Business/ or Shopping/ category that is normally full of spam, inappropriate submissions, affiliate link farms and the like – then the human volunteer editor will feel “downhearted” at having to continually separate the wheat from the chaff-but interesting categories such as some Arts/ and Regional/ tend to ‘attract’ editors as they are actually really interested in the subject matter.

Some people, reading that, may think “Well, I’ll submit to a totally inappropriate category in Regional/ then and my site will be listed really quick in Business” – but it won’t work that way. Your site will be reviewed, marked “Not appropriate for this category” and then moved to a category in the Business ‘tree’. It will probably won’t initially go to the ‘best’ category for your site and will then sit in ‘limbo’ being moved around categories, wasting editors time, until it get to the category you should have submitted to in the first place. THEN it will be reviewed and maybe listed – having been delayed for what could be several months. Of course, widely submitting your site to any category and in bulk will quickly earn you the label of a ‘spammer’ and ensure that your site will not be listed – ever! Oh – don’t worry, we do have ways of telling if you are trying to submit a competitors website to get them banned…

If you want to help the ODP – then please consider becoming a volunteer editor for any category that interests you!