Urban Thought
Sunday, April 24, 2011 at 11:44PM This is a promotional video for my song "Paris, Only You", about a man who meets a girl in Paris and has a love affair. But its really two love affairs, one with the girl and the other with Paris, the city of Romance and Light. One love affair ended, the other continued, but whenever he thinks about Paris, he thinks about her. If you like this, hit the 'like' button!
Thursday, April 21, 2011 at 08:03PM In the smart phone world, technology is doubling and doubling again exponentially. Every day hundreds of new apps are submitted and added to the iphone's portfolio. Currently, as of April 2011, there are over 350,000 of them. There are literally hundreds of photography apps doing everything from creating vintage photo booth effects to full on editing. The state of the art in photography is HDR. Professional photographers have always rolled their eyes when they hear about the latest app touting HDR. This is because true HDR is produced by either using two cameras, or two shots using different light settings and blending them together. An app has never been able to faithfully recreate that. Until now. Instead of raising their eyes, Pro Hdr is raising eyebrows. And here's why.
Pro HDR, $1.99, takes an amazingly good facsimile of an HDR photo using the iphone’s camera. HDR stands for High Dynamic Range Imaging. What that means is the camera takes two pictures, a light one and a dark one, and then blends the two, combining all the range of light in the image. What is produced is a shot that contains all the ranges of available light. Ansel Adams invented the first true application of this discipline in the Zone System. His black and white photographs contained the entire spectrum from pure white to pure black and all the shades of gray in between. HDR does the same with color. And Pro Hdr does it with the iphone. A direct shot can be taken using the app instead of the iphone camera, or pictures can be loaded from the iphone’s photo library. When the screen is tapped to take a photograph, the photographer must remain still while the app analyzes the exposures. It then takes 2 shots and processes them together. This is the Auto Mode. Once the shot is taken or chosen, Pro Hdr gives you 5 tweaking options- brightness, contrast, saturation, warmth and tint. You then have the option to save. You can also load from your camera roll, clicking twice on the picture and the app creates the same process. The shot can now be edited the same way. So though the app takes a good HDR image, direct or from the camera roll, a person still has the option to edit.
ProCamera, $2.99. ProCamera has 2 modes, expert and regular. Regular steps the complexity down for the average person that just wants to take a nice shot with their phone. ‘Expert’ is for the person who wants more control and more features. The controls are intuitive and meld with the central template of the iphone. You can adjust the 'white' balance, which is basically exposure, as well as the focus by dragging 2 boxes around with a finger swipe. Once the desired look is achieved, you use the white balance button and it locks in. A shot can be taken by touching any area on the screen, as well as fast multiple shots. You can also shoot video with the exposure you desire by using the same locking boxes. Some of the features are antishake, selftimer, multishot, power zooming and fullscreen trigger. There is also an ‘album’ option where pictures can be loaded from the iphone camera roll. Editing such as cropping, rotation, color and light adjustments and effects like sepia and other vintage modes can be applied there. There are so many things a person can do with this app; it’s really like having a professional studio inside the iphone.
All the photographs created by using these 2 great apps can be saved to the iphone camera roll, emailed, or uploaded to facebook. Your artistic imagination is the only limitation to what you can do. You can even take a shot with Pro HDR, save it, and then upload it to ProCamera where you can tweak it, edit it, colorize it with the ‘special effects’ and re-save it. If you want to kick your photography up a notch, if you are an “I” journalist, a professional photographer or someone who wants the simplicity of not having to take your SLR or point and shoot with you everywhere, you need to check out these iphone apps. The smart phone camera has finally entered the realm of serious photography with Pro HDR and ProCamera.
Sunday, April 17, 2011 at 01:30AM People start a blog for many reasons, personal satisfaction, a way to keep friends and relatives informed on what they are doing,ie, staying in touch, as a way to make money, a creative challenge. Most of them however, have one thing in common-they want traffic. And most of them experience the same maddening frustration, the same rubix cube challenge, how to get it. Because traffic is the holy grail, the bubbling wellspring for blogs and bloggers that opens doors, gives validation and may end up paying the bills. Even if you are doing it for the simple reason of publishing your thoughts for friends to see, it soon becomes apparent that blogging is a lot of work and and if you don't put in the work, no one will come, even your friends. Little traffic soon becomes no traffic and the blog dies. No one wants to go to work in a museum vault unless one is a scholar or a well paid janitor. On the other end of the spectrum, if you blog to make money, traffic is a huge consideration. So how does one get it?
The first place I launched my blog was Facebook. After some research, I found that at this time, it is for most people as well. If your blog is a commercial/business blog, Facebook has a unique business page dedicated to talking about your business. Here, you can add links to your site. Facebook was the first place that came to my mind. And why not? After all, its the number one social network site in the world, siting a half a billion active users. As a newbe blogger, I assumed that I would post my brilliant content and ALL my friends, a paltry 92, would come there for pearls of wisdom and scintillating entertainment. And they would share it with their friends and so on. It would start a chain reaction of sorts. In that vein, I also 'friended' friends of friends, (they all accepted) and they would of course be interested in what I had to say. Unfortunately my initial optimism was quickly dampened.
The problem with Facebook is that you can only get so much traffic from it, even if you had 597 friends. And you have to work for that traffic. I would post my content on someone's wall with a catchy comon to attract them, I would send personal messages with content I thought someone might like etc. My real friends have supported my blog, but very seldom did the 'friends of friends'. And even if they did, you cannot rely on them passing on the word. So, though Facebook is a fine place to launch a blog, establish a brand and work out the kinks, it is not the place that is going to get you increased traffic.
Another way is if you are a member of a message board. I am a member of long standing in a biker board. So I have used that place to post entries on my blog. But, though they are all great long time friends, there are limits. You must target your viewership. My blog is a city-centric theme and my most popular section is food and cooking. And though bike riders love to cook and eat, they might not be that interested in reading about the virtues of a fine French wine. So unless I write about motorcycles, or a great steak, I will get traffic, but only modestly.
What you need is traffic from all over the net, from all over the world and direct uniques. And you want it coming in 24/7, not just when you post a new entry. You want to wake up in the morning and view your stat page and see that during the night while your were sleeping, 60 or 660 people visited your site. You want your blog to become a vortex of energy and information that people you don't know come to YOU.com to see what you have to say and to offer. It has been said that one doesn't get respect in their hometown and unless you are happy being a small fish in a small pond, you must find a way to reach people in other ways. You must venture out to 'other towns' and you must let other sources do the heavy lifting.
I have found that submitting articles in article hubs like EzineArticles.com and Articlebase etc is a very good way to increase traffic to a blog. As a matter of fact, at this time, I can think of no better way. I have seen my stats double and triple in no time at all by simply submitting to these sites. What they do is act as a hub where sources all over the world come to find pertinent articles on any given subject and re-publish these articles on their sites. They are useful in other ways as well. Because of their editorial standards, they tend to hone your skills as a writer and increase visibility of your content on the World Wide Web. On many of them, such as EzineArticles, you cannot post the link to your site directly in the article body, however, they do allow you to in the author bio section, and it is from that section that readers will click on your site if they like what you are saying or what you may offer. One thing they do not do is attract web crawlers, robots or 'bots'. The reason is that when you submit to a hub site, that counts as 1 submission on the web. So, when your article is reprinted, the site that publishes it receives the subsequent bot attention. Robots are useful in that search engines like Google use them to index sites and content. A lot of crawlers lets the engines know that people are interested in your site and eventually a person only has to type in 'JohnSmith.com' and many of your posts will come up by themselves. This will result in more direct traffic, and will also call up articles submitted to the hubs.
So robot traffic is very important in blog building and that IS where Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites do help because your link posted there is always direct to your blog.
A couple of other ways are to ask friends who have sites to add your link to theirs, in a quid pro quo. The more linkage, the more robot attention. Posting on other sites has also been mentioned as a way to establish community and reputation. I have not used this method myself but I intend to. I hear it works very well.
The idea is to do whatever it takes to get your name out there. You must write good content, you must have interesting ideas or a good product to sell, but you must always pay attention to the other part of blogging which is promotion. Even if you have nothing to sell, the very idea that hundreds of people every day from all over the world are listening to what YOU have to say, validates your dream of being a writer. Follow your dreams, but do what it takes to make them come true.
Thursday, April 14, 2011 at 05:38PM I live in Los Angeles. Car capital USA. It is a car-centric city to its detriment, but it is what it is. You HAVE to drive in LA. And in most big cities. In this economy and where we find ourselves now, gas is going up by the day and this is no exaggeration, at my local ARCO station, it went up 3 times last week in ONE day! One dollar increase in the price of a barrel of crude equals a one cent increase at the pump. So with gas everywhere clocking at over $4 a gallon and in some places pushing $5 if you use premium, it makes sense to use all the tools one can find to conserve it. Edmunds.com is a provider of automotive information via websites, books and other media and is headquartered in Santa Monica CA. They have come up with 75 tips on how to save gas while driving and I have decided to list some of them here in the interest of helping my readers in these challenging times.
The number 1 gas saving tip is to STOP DRIVING AGGRESSIVELY. For you who live in LA, that means NO ROAD RAGE! They found up to a 37% savings with an average of 31% savings. That is like getting $4.00 gas for $2.69, back when you could still get gas for $2.69. But you get the picture. Edmunds says, “If you slowed your 0-to-60-mph acceleration time down from your current 10 seconds to a more normal city pace of 15 seconds, you’ll feel the savings immediately.”
2-DRIVE SLOWER. Their test consisted of driving 50 miles on cruise control at 75mph and 65mph. They found that by driving slower you can save up to 14% with an average of 12%. The increase in gas consumption after 60mph is stunning. If you ride a motorcycle, you can easly test this by how it feels on your body accelerating from 60 to 80. Imagine how it acts on an SUV. Slow down, save gas.
3-CRUISE CONTROL SAVES GAS. Use it if you do a lot of freeway driving and you have an open road.
4-AVOID EXCESSIVE IDLING. If you eat fast food, DON"T sit in the car line with your engine running. As well as saving the environment, you'll be saving gas if you turn your car off.
5-KEEP TIRE PRESURE AT RECOMENDED LEVELS. The more rubber hits the ground, the more resistance, the more resistance the more fuel you will consume.
These are the 5 big ones. Here's some more that you should think about.
Drive steadily. Slowing down or speeding up wastes fuel. Also avoid tailgating – the driver in front of you is unpredictable. Not only is it unsafe, but it affects your fuel economy if he slows down unexpectedly.
When you see a hill ahead, build up speed before you reach it, then maintain your speed on the slope. Then coast down the other side.
Avoid accelerating when driving uphill. It uses a lot of gas. If your car has a display that shows your instantaneous gas mileage, try it out. You’ll see your mileage plummet — from 25 or 30 MPG… down to 6 MPG — or sometimes even as low as 2 or 3 MPG.
Avoid “revving” the engine, especially just before you switch the engine off; this wastes fuel needlessly and wears out the cylinders.
Traveling at 55 mph give you up to 21% better mileage when compared to former legal speed limits of 65 mph and 70 mph.
Shop around for service stations with the lowest gasoline prices. – also useGASBUDDY
Who knows why gas is going up- the Libyan situation, turmoil in the Middle East, a speculator waking up with an upset tummy, a couple of billionaires flipping a coin over cigars and Scotch. I do know one thing, its not half past Spring and the 'Summer Blend', like fine French Summer Roses haven't showed up yet, but when that fine blend does, you can count on the price at the pump going up even more. Whatever that 'blend' is, weather its real or not, you can bet the cost WILL BE. So it makes sense to adhere to smart driving strategies to put more money in your pocket so that when the Summer Roses DO come, you can afford to pick up a bottle or two.
Monday, April 11, 2011 at 06:57PM This article is for those of you who are starting a blog, and are wondering how to do it, what to make it about and how to become successful at it. Its been a while now since I launched my blog, Urban Life. Four months to be exact. The central idea was to do a website loosely formed around all things "City". So, in that vein, I put in 4 sections, Urban Music, Urban Art, Urban Food and Urban Thought. This seemed a doable and unique idea, easy to accomplish, and allowed me plenty of room for full expression of ideas. I already had the music. The art was focusing on photographs I take with my iphone. 'Food' would include recipes and restaurant reviews. And Urban Thought, was the catch-all-anything-goes clearing house where I would talk about any subject and also feature guest bloggers. "City" soon evolved into thoughts on anything from politics, world events and technology.
As for the basic underpinnings, there are many platforms you can choose from. Whereas before you had to know 'code', now its a very simple process of simply adding modules, chosing widgets and clicking and dragging. I chose Squarespace for that very reason, its utter simplicity. I will not go into here how that is done, ie, templates, layout, form etc, only to say that remember, when people go to your site, they want to see something unique. Maybe beautiful and at the very most interesting. So try to make your template pleasing to the eye and easy to navigate. That's the easy and fun part. The real work comes with CONTENT.
As I mentioned in the first paragraph, I have 4 sections to my blog. And I have tried to provide content in all areas on a regular basis to keep people coming back and to keep them all fresh. Most hosting sites have a section where you can track what is the most popular area of content in your site. In my blog I originally had hoped it would serve as a platform for people to hear my music and BUY it. I hadn't planed for it to be a food blog. Specifically. However, as time moved on, I have found that my recipe/cooking section has become very popular. In my case people like to see what I can cook. And how I do it. In your case, it probably will be something different. The point is, biting off more than you can chew is very easy when one starts a blog. And going all over the place is easy too. BE FOCUSED. Focusing your blog on your strengths is not only going to help you by making your job a bit easier, its going to let people know that you're committed and you have something to say. Its YOUR BRAND. And people will come to trust a reliable, committed brand.
Remember this, its very simple, yet somehow slips the mind. Especially in novice bloggers. You must write content all the time. In the beginning, pretty much every day. And its WORK. You MUST post regularly. Why is that? Because if people want to go to a museum, they can go downtown. People want to see new things, living things, things that are going to teach them something. Entertain them. But there are ways to 'cheat the system' and make your job a bit easier. One way is to post video. I do it all the time. People love to see videos. And pictures. Even if its your personal blog about how you live your day, people will want to see it and hear it as well as reading about it. And with today's technology in smart phones, its very easy to shoot a short, post it on You Tube, and then post it on your blog.
There are so many steps to consider and execute on the way to a successful blog. Is mine successful? Well, one would have to define 'sucess'. Each month have doubled my readership. And I have reached certain goals, however, it is an evolving process. I have learned a new craft, a new modality in the creative process. To me, that is a success. Traffic, like money, is a symbol of success. Here are some ways you can increase traffic. As I've already mentioned, focus on your strengths. Your brand. Make YOU an expert on YOU. Whatever that may be.
Use social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter etc to launch your blog. I am a member of long standing in a Harley message board and so of course I have posted many blog entries there, although Harley riders might not be so interested in learning about the virtues of a Cotes de Nuits. These are my friends, but never the less, know your target market. Facebook serves 2 purposes. First it lets all your friends know that you have a site and you should be putting the 'like' button on your posts so THEIR friends know they 'LIKE" YOU. Second, posting directly on the internet, attracts web bots. Robots. These are the automated web crawlers used by search engines to index content. A lot of postings by you and the corresponding activity, eventually, by the attraction of these bots visiting your site, gets you ranked higher. It lets the search engines know there's a new dog in town. Now, if I meet someone and I say I have a blog, I don't have to give them the URL. I can simply say, "Google John Rivera Urban Life dude" and a lot of my posts and articles will come up. Pretty cool huh! That is due to the actions of robots. A word about Facebook. Its not enough. Unless you are content with a few friends and family visiting your site, you must find other ways to drive traffic to you.
Submit articles to article hubs like ArticleBase. What these places are, are sites where you submit your content and if it passes their editorial standards, you are published. And your article is sent out and made available to sources ALL OVER THE WORLD. Not bad eh? I have seen my traffic DOUBLE because of these sites and you do not have to relay on your friends and your mom for readership. However, you must remember that posting on an article site will not attract bots and crawlers which give you ranking. However it will bring viewers. I want both, so I do whatever it takes to accomplish that. There are many other ways, posting on other quality blogs and inserting your site name, telling people you meet, even making out cards with your logo and site name-ANYTHING to get your name and brand out there.
I hope I've given you, the reader, some idea of the ins and outs of the world of blogging. As I've said, I, like you, am new to this. However, I am doing my homework, its not work when its passion, and I'm willing to pass my observations onto you from that unique perspective, not totally brand-new, and not old and jaded. Just fresh! BTW, here's a practical example: If you like this article, hit the 'like' button at the top! Good luck and good blogging!
