Jeffrey Davis

Today is BlogDay2008. “What in the world is that about?” you ask.

“One long moment on August 31st, bloggers from all over the world will post recommendations of 5 new Blogs, preferably Blogs that are different from their own culture, point of view and attitude. On this day, blog readers will find themselves leaping around and discovering new, unknown Blogs, celebrating the discovery of new people and new bloggers.”

#1: Green Your Decor:
Many of you know that I write another blog called The Fun Times Guide to Living Green. As a result, I participate in lots of conversation on other “green” type blogs…and this one is one of my favorites.

Just like it sounds, it’s a GREAT guide to stylish, eco-friendly home decor. Check it out.

#2: Unreasonable Faith:
I really enjoy conversing with people who hold different views than my own. That said, this is a guy who went through the process of Bible college, pastoral training, and years of claiming to be an Evangelical Christian only to feel he had been wrong.

If you are open to different ideas and views than your own, it’s worth a look.

#3: Crema Coffee:
This is the blog/website of the hippest indy coffee house in Nashville, TN…not to mention with the best coffee! Recently, the owner told me, “I’m not sure a lot of people really ‘get’ what we do…”.

What she meant is that Americans are used to stale and/or burnt coffee. At Crema, they’re coffee snobs, without the snobbery. If you want the BEST tasting espresso drink or cup o joe you’ve ever had, you MUST stop by there sometime…whether you “get it” or not.

#4: Divine Nobodies:
This is the blog of a good friend of mine. He’s written a couple of half-way decent books (just kidding Jim). No, really, his books seriously ROCK!

If you feel like systems, institutions, doctrines, and works, works, works are leaving you wanting, Jim’s books and VERY open and active convo on his blog will be a breath of fresh air for you.

#5: The Fun Times Guide to Dogs:
Finally, The Fun Times Guide to Dogs is THE one stop shop for everyone who has beloved four-legged friends.

You’ll find everything here from product reviews, grooming tips, health care information, and anything else you’d ever want to know when it comes to dogs.

There ya have it, 5 blogs you maybe didn’t know existed. Check them out. When you post your own BlogDay2008 post, feel free to leave a link to it in the comments.

I try to abide by ole’ Teddy Roosevelt’s policy here on my blog.

Speak softly and carry a big stick.

All I mean is that I try not to blog about nominal, day-to-day, random type stuff.

That said, my blog has been kind of quiet recently as I’ve kind of been in a “settling in” phase (as Rick once put it) here recently.

I mean that I’ve just been dwelling and resting in some recent thoughts/realizations and not really actively attempting to “discover” anything new…hence, not really any food for thought on the ole’ blog.

If you want to catch other day-to-day type stuff during my relative silence here, follow me on twitter (as I’m totally addicted to it and twitter quite frequently) and DEFINITELY be sure to check out my other blog, The Fun Times Guide to Living Green for lots of fun, inexpensive, and easy ideas to take steps towards living a greener life.

…When you incorporate a blog bud (whom you’ve never met in real life) into your dream last night, and construct their physical appearance and conversational tone by their various avatars, flickr pics, and writing style.

So, nice to meet ya last night Ginger, you sure are nice. Ha.

Technorati Tags: blogging, bloggers, dreams, Jeffrey Davis

The best headline of the day comes from Darren Rowse at ProBlogger.net:

“14% of Bloggers Prefer to Do It in Bed“

Hit the link to find out what we bloggers like to do…in bed….

Technorati Tags: blogging, Darren Rowse, Jeffrey Davis

Did you know that I write another blog? It’s The FUN Times Guide to Living Green.

I’m proud to say that after right at a year of diligently dedicating myself to that blog, it’s really beginning to take off. I experienced my record traffic day last month, tripling my usual daily hits.

Well, thanks largely in part to Ivy (one of my Nashville blog buds) stumbling my post about .99 cent reusable shopping bags the other day, I had a new record day yesterday…which was triple my previous record set last month! Thanks Ivy.

Feel free to mosey on over to my other blog (which is a paying gig) and browse around. You’ll find ideas about easy, inexpensive, creative, and most importantly–FUN ways to begin to live green. It’s the perfect place if you just don’t know where to start.

Of course, feel free to comment, stumble, digg, hugg, etc if you like what you see.

You can check out all of Ivy’s stuff at her places:
Home-Ec 101
Curbly
Shakyard
LoveShak
BadBadIvy.com

Technorati Tags: green, badbadivy, jeffrey davis, traffic

Since you spend so much time in your web browser, why would you not want to enjoy looking at it?

Who wants to deal with clunky themes that break FF extensions, require multiple browser restarts, and get updated before you can even get it tweaked the way you want it?

Enter Personas for Firefox. This gem of an extension is lightweight and unintrusive, allowing you to theme your browser window with ease.

Personas is a prototype that builds upon the ideas that:

• themes today are too hard to find, install and use
• graphic designers should be able to style the browser without having to code
• browsers can be more than just desktop software, they can include online components
• people just want their computer to be a little more fun and personal

All the themes I’ve played with look VERY nice. Check out the snowman or reigndeer themes to keep you in the holiday spirit.

[HT: LifeHacker]

I love meeting people.

I can usually find anything to get into a conversation with a new person. I often hang out in the back corner of the Hermitage Panera Bread writing for my payed blogging gig, The Fun Times Guide to Living Green, or working on various things for my home-based business with Arbonne International.

Today as I set there at Panera, I noticed a man at a table near me admiring all the stickers that adorn the lid of my laptop. (Ok, so really they’re actually holding the cheap thing together, but he didn’t know that…)

We got to talking about my stickers, then about the little-known secret of how to get free coffee for life at any Panera, and then the conversation moved to blogging.

We talked about SEO, monetizing, yada, yada, yada.

It even turned into a cool impromptu business meeting once he asked, “So all you do is blog?”. Come to find out this electrical components salesman is super into health and wellness.

He was excited to be gifted with a sample of my company’s pure, safe, and beneficial anti-aging shave system for men and anti-aging skin care for women (for his wife).

I love meeting new people. Some people think it’s difficult, but all you have to do is open your eyes…people are often times looking for someone to connect with.

Technorati Tags: blogging, Panera Bread, Nashville, Arbonne, Jeffrey Davis

Have you ever found a web app that satisfies both your “holy crap, that’s awesome!” need and a legitimate need simultaneously?

This week I found 2…and they’re both free!

First off, is Jott. This awesome service let’s you call 1-866-jott-123 and speak messages that will be converted to text (with unbelievable accuracy). You can make these messages be sent as emails, text messages, twitter updates, blog posts, and even more!

Check out how people use Jott.

(HT to Kate O for this app)

The second app I found through Jott, and is called Remember the Milk. This little gem is a free, intuitive, ultra-configurable to-do list. This list integrates seamlessly with GoogleCalendar, sends text reminders to your phone, and can be updated by both twitter direct message and the aforementioned Jott!

How cool is that?

If you decide to check out those two apps, feel free to add me as a friend.

Technorati Tags: jott, remember the milk, jeffrey davis

I like quotes.

For a couple of different reasons, this surprises me. Nevertheless, a well-smithed nugget of enlightenment can stir my soul and cause me to think.

This is where I’d like to call your attention to the section you may have noticed on my sidebar that says, “think about it”.

This is a little widget that will cycle one of the ever-growing number of quotes I add with each new page that is viewed and/or when any page is refreshed.

Here are but a few of my recent favorites that you’ll see appear…everything from 1700’s french philosophy to modern stars to a taoist patriarch:

“I have never met a man so ignorant that I couldn’t learn something from him.”
~Galileo

“I wanted to change the world, but I have found that the only thing one can be sure of changing is oneself.”
~Aldous Huxley

“Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd.”
~Voltaire

“Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.”
~Albert Einstein

“The key to growth is the introduction of higher dimensions of consciousness into our awareness.”
~Lao Tzu

What do they say to you?

Technorati Tags: quotes, einstein, lao tzu, voltaire, galileo, philosophy, jeffrey davis

Nashville is Talking is dead…at least as we know knew it. When the great and powerful Brittney Gilbert unfortunately and unexpectedly resigned last month, the blogosphere (ewww!) of Nashville was shocked.

Kat Coble graciously stepped in at the helm of NiT for the past couple of weeks, but now, we have something else entirely.

Enter the age of MusicCityBloggers.com.

I, for one, am stoked about this site and the idea behind it. Bad, Bad Ivy got the ball rolling, and K-Co with several other Nashvegas bloggers have joined in the development.

This site will be what people expected NiT to be…and such can only be accomplished by a community blog. One person (Brittney Gilbert), as apt as they may be, simply cannot write from a non-bias point of view (for the record, that was never Brittney’s job, as I understand it).

MusicCityBloggers.com will be written by a handful of Nashville bloggers, all with differing perspectives. I like that. I like to learn from people who see things differently that I do. I just hope it doesn’t become one big argument :-\

At any rate, the site promises to have REGULAR blogger meet-ups as the relationships we begin here in the world of blogs are only the beginning. I like that idea, that is always what the hope behind my blog has been.

Technorati Tags: Nashville, MusicCityBloggers, Katherine Coble, Brittney Gilbert, Bad Bad Ivy, Jeffrey Davis