One of the great blessings of the Internet is the sheer size and
variety of great content that is out there. This is also one of the
problems, how do you find the great content, that you would be
interested in, that you know is out there, waiting for you to visit it?
Stumble Upon is a website that aims to help solve this problem. You visit their homepage
and you can log in using your Facebook profile or create a new profile
specifically for Stumble Upon. After you've signed up, you'll be asked
to add interests. You *MUST* do this if you want to get any benefit from
the site. There are a lot of interests to choose from, so you might
need half an hour or so to go through them all, but the process is worth
the time.
Once you've added your interests, you're all
set, you can return to the homepage and you'll find a collection of
sites that you can go visit, personally tailored to your interests. You
can also download an add-on for your browser, which was my preference.
Whenever I'm bored online, I click the Stumble button in my browser and a
new page will be presented to me. I have found many of my favourite
sites using this button, if I particularly like/dislike a page, I can
click a button to approve/disapprove of it. I don't do that particularly
often, but your mileage may vary. If no one else has recommended the
site, you get asked to fill out a little form describing the site -
takes less than a minute if you choose to do it.
There
are also apps for your phone but I prefer using the web browser as the
sites look better. You have to be logged in to use the site so your
stumbles are being recorded, they keep them on file in your history
which you can check out on the main page. So if you're looking for
perfect privacy online, this application isn't for you.
I've
used StumbleUpon for years now and remain very pleased with it, it's
found so many sites for me that were worth seeing and it's only a few
seconds of my time if the site isn't worth seeing :). As the sites that
you visit are tailored to your interests, a lot of them are going to
appeal.
So, what are you waiting for? Give it a try!
This post was originally made in May 2014, it got targeted by some stupid bots and got thousands of 'hits'. That actually annoys me because I prefer my stats to be relatively accurate, so I've delted the original post and am re-publishing it here.
Sunday 14 February 2016
An update
Again, I'm not publicising this post, it's just a record for me and for those who are interested enough to click on it if they came here for something else.
I'm reasonably happy with my progress so far this year. I slashed the sugar intake once I got back from Canberra. I haven't gone quite as brutal as last time given that I do like the poisonous shit, but the reduction is significant. No chocolate or lollies or ice cream or biscuits at all so far, a handful of Cokes usually consumed at social events and 2 litres of orange juice purchased for home. Occasional drinking of cordial and ate about 4 Zooper Doopers in total.
I do intend to have sugar occasionally, but very much as a party food, eg, I will eat cake at dinners, and I will eat crap at morning teas at schools. I will have an Easter rabbit at Easter, but 1, not the usual half dozen! I have honey and jam at home and will use them sometimes.
I don't weigh myself much so I don't know if I've lost any weight, but there's been some small improvements in my back, which stiffens up and gets very sore after brief periods of walking and even when standing. The last few days it's lasted longer before bitching and hasn't bitched quite as hard. So that's a good sign. As the pain doesn't occur immediately, it's very likely caused by too much pressure applied by the weight. If I lose enough weight, it will probably disappear except for stiffness due to age.
I've done quite a bit to tidy and organise the house but that's very much a work in progress, the back room, the verandah, the shed and the back yard all require significant work. I've been devoting a lot of time to tutoring, improving the website, the advertising and the organisation of my resources. There's been considerable progress on that front and I'm just about ready to resume full advertising. There's still plenty to do regarding the organisation of my resources, but I'm not displeased with how it's going.
I've started regular posts on my Facebook group for my tutoring and I have hopes that it will eventually reach a relatively wide audience - something in the hundreds would be great. About 20 viewers so far but I've only just started. It will pick up more as we go along.
I've made no progress re improving my own Maths skills, the other tasks have been crowding it out and will continue to do so for at least another month is my expectation. Once the advertising and the resources for Tutoring are up to standard the amount of time I need to devote to those things will drop substantially, opening up time for regular Maths work.
I'm not getting a lot of casual work, I will make some further efforts to get some as I'm hoping for 60-80 days this year and I've only had 2 to date. I'm finished with full time teaching, I'd seek work outside of education altogether rather than do that again.
I'm doing some exercise, not enough, but it is moving up the priority list and reducing weight will make exercise easier to do. Walking has been hurting too much so losing enough weight to repair the back is crucial. That would also let me play tennis again.
I want to write more, including finishing my series of sports nostalgia posts here. I think that's a couple of months off, but once the Tutoring organisation campaign is finished, there will be time for that as well. I don't entertain any great ambitions to become a major author, but I'd like to be able to call myself a writer knowing that I am doing enough of it to justify the claim.
I don't have a shortage of things that I would like to write, so it's a matter of finding the time to fit it into the regular routines of my life.
Nothing especially dramatic to report here, but it's another post made and I like the idea of making it semi-public, adds a little spice to the activity, rather than just journalling it for myself.
I'm reasonably happy with my progress so far this year. I slashed the sugar intake once I got back from Canberra. I haven't gone quite as brutal as last time given that I do like the poisonous shit, but the reduction is significant. No chocolate or lollies or ice cream or biscuits at all so far, a handful of Cokes usually consumed at social events and 2 litres of orange juice purchased for home. Occasional drinking of cordial and ate about 4 Zooper Doopers in total.
I do intend to have sugar occasionally, but very much as a party food, eg, I will eat cake at dinners, and I will eat crap at morning teas at schools. I will have an Easter rabbit at Easter, but 1, not the usual half dozen! I have honey and jam at home and will use them sometimes.
I don't weigh myself much so I don't know if I've lost any weight, but there's been some small improvements in my back, which stiffens up and gets very sore after brief periods of walking and even when standing. The last few days it's lasted longer before bitching and hasn't bitched quite as hard. So that's a good sign. As the pain doesn't occur immediately, it's very likely caused by too much pressure applied by the weight. If I lose enough weight, it will probably disappear except for stiffness due to age.
I've done quite a bit to tidy and organise the house but that's very much a work in progress, the back room, the verandah, the shed and the back yard all require significant work. I've been devoting a lot of time to tutoring, improving the website, the advertising and the organisation of my resources. There's been considerable progress on that front and I'm just about ready to resume full advertising. There's still plenty to do regarding the organisation of my resources, but I'm not displeased with how it's going.
I've started regular posts on my Facebook group for my tutoring and I have hopes that it will eventually reach a relatively wide audience - something in the hundreds would be great. About 20 viewers so far but I've only just started. It will pick up more as we go along.
I've made no progress re improving my own Maths skills, the other tasks have been crowding it out and will continue to do so for at least another month is my expectation. Once the advertising and the resources for Tutoring are up to standard the amount of time I need to devote to those things will drop substantially, opening up time for regular Maths work.
I'm not getting a lot of casual work, I will make some further efforts to get some as I'm hoping for 60-80 days this year and I've only had 2 to date. I'm finished with full time teaching, I'd seek work outside of education altogether rather than do that again.
I'm doing some exercise, not enough, but it is moving up the priority list and reducing weight will make exercise easier to do. Walking has been hurting too much so losing enough weight to repair the back is crucial. That would also let me play tennis again.
I want to write more, including finishing my series of sports nostalgia posts here. I think that's a couple of months off, but once the Tutoring organisation campaign is finished, there will be time for that as well. I don't entertain any great ambitions to become a major author, but I'd like to be able to call myself a writer knowing that I am doing enough of it to justify the claim.
I don't have a shortage of things that I would like to write, so it's a matter of finding the time to fit it into the regular routines of my life.
Nothing especially dramatic to report here, but it's another post made and I like the idea of making it semi-public, adds a little spice to the activity, rather than just journalling it for myself.
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