Since I wrote a quiz script in php, I have found quite a few uses for it. It seems to me a good way to allow the reader to test their retention of knowledge imparted in a particular article.

I haven’t put it to extensive use. I originally created it for a BabySitting Tips website a couple of years ago. Most recently, I have been trying it out on some history pages on InDepthInfo. This is a quiz on the Protestant Reformation and the Catholic Counter-Reformation.

Making up the quiz made me realize that there is a certain art to making up questions and more specifically answers to a quiz. You want the questions to pertain to the material, of course, but you also want them to dig down to the nub of the material, only asking questions that relate to the most important facts on the page.

Answers are even more interesting. I try to include answers which might seem like a viable possibility, only occasionally throwing in an ironic response. Don’t make the answer too obvious, but at the same time two or more possibilities should not be made so close that they become confusing. A test writer does not want the quiz to appear to be unfair.

I have just finished a webfolio on Tea, also known as Camellia Sinensis for InDepthInfo. I find it amazing how much I learn every time I create a new folio or webpage. What I find equally amazing is that six months down the road, I sometimes forget completely that I even created a particular webpage. I did one on chopsticks a couple of years ago. I ran across it completely by accident. It was almost orphaned, but not quite, or I probably never would have found it.

Later I realized that it was one of those pages that I created late one night for my old OneManWiki.com (no longer extant). I salvaged the content as it was fairly comprehensive and moved it to InDepthInfo.

In any case, tea has always been a passion with me. I can remember when I was a teenager, my Mother, Brother, and Sisters would sit out on the porch and watch the rain as we sipped a cup of black tea. I seldom do this now, despite the opportunities. It seems I am too busy trying to keep up with commitments, and with the ancillary duty of making a living.

In recent years I have switched over to green tea. I find it sits much better with my delicate constitution. What I found most interesting was the difference between green and black tea is in the processing. Black tea is “fermented” or oxidized for four hours, while green tea is not.

This site also prompted me to swipe a few raspberry leaves from my wife’s favorite raspberry plants. I dried them and then made tea from them. Truthfully, they do taste very much like green tea. If you want to make a cheap decaf green tea, try it out.

You may have noticed the radical change in the way this blog looks. But of course, if you had not been here before, you would never know. So why am I bringing it up then?

It was prompted by a vicious attack on my server. Someone uploaded files to my server, I believe through a very old version of WordPress. I have been putting off upgrading for a muy long time. This is because I generally have about a million other things to do as well, and even though WordPress claims a five minute install, we all know that at least I am not capable of that kind of efficiency.

In any case, I no longer have the old “Kubric” look, but have opted for more modern, if not as clean styling. There are some things I would change about the new “theme” so if you are a regular, you may see a few more changes before I settle back into my usual troglodytic attitude about change.

WJR

Okay, I have done it. I published another book. This one is a fairy-tale entitled, Grezundl and the Frog Prince. I actually wrote it a couple of years ago, but it just sat in a folder for a while. Recently, I had opportunity to reread it again and found it, unlike some of my other work, stood up well to the test of time (at least two years worth of it). I then decided to spend the time and effort it would take to get it into actual book form.

I originally wrote it for my children, who were very much entertained by it. Not that this is a general recommendation, my progeny tend to eccentricity on my own level. What they like, the world will not necessarilly also enjoy.

The book is loaded with bad puns, sarcastic humor, and a touch of pathos which will have readers laughing and weeping by the end. Well, at least smiling and sniffling (especially if they have a cold). Even so, I usually write for my own entertainment and if anyone else finds it entertaining so much the better.

As I may have mentioned before, I have written about 10 books. Now three have been published. Looking at the other books, I wonder if they are worth bothering with. Most of them are (dare I say of myself) as witty and sarcastic as the books I have already published. However, they were mainly written in a more adult vain. In one book I treat with religion and sex in a seemingly off-hand manner. By the title you will see what I mean: “Antic: The Confessions of the Anti-Christ” The message is actually quite positive, but it tends to be reverent beneath all of the irreverence, if that is possible. When my mother-in-law read a draft, she said. Why don’t you write something that you would be happy to let your children read. I took her comment to heart and “Grezundl and the Frog Prince” was the result.

I just hope it does well as my cookbook!

Serendipity again comes into play. I no sooner write an article about Archimedes than I am sent this fun political limerick by Bob Duplantier:

EUREKA!

When I got an idea that was big,
A round bulb would light over my wig,
But now incandescents
Are replaced by fluorescents
And it looks like the tail of a pig.

Actually, I don’t believe in serendipity, I think we simply process so much randon info every day that we are bound to run into coincidences. Still, it does make all this reading enjoyable to once in a while try to “connect the dots”. Which reminds me, a long time ago I wrote a movie review of A Beautiful Mind. It was on ostensibly the same subject. What a coincidence!

I never know whether to allow links to be followed or to use the Google inspired rel=”no follow” attribute to the anchor tags to links outside my websites.

My instinct is not to use nofollow for anything because I think we should give credit where credit is due. If I am quoting someone, it is legitimate to give them a link. However, letting link juice ooze from a webpage can have serious repercussions according to some in the internet marketing world. The selfish people like Wikipedia don’t allow any of their so-called link popularity flow from the site. This is, of course, ostensibly to discourage spammers, but it also hurts sites that deserve to be linked to as well.

The fact of the matter is, those who use rel=”nofollow” are thought to rank better in search engines, and after all is it not more readers that we are really after?

Well, on my own site I have come up with a way to deal with my mood swings. If on any given day I have got it so that I can change external links from one to the other. I merely have to upload a litte file in my utilities folder. I use SSI and this little scrap of code is placed in all my external links: <a href=”http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/571498/posts” target=”_blank” <!–#include virtual=”../util/nofollow.php” –>>Free Republic Report on U.S. Participation in Cavalry Attack</a>.

 Notice the virtual include. If the file is empty then do follow, if not don’t follow.

 Now I can freely exercize my Dr Jeckyl and Mr. Hyde paranoia and change it back and forth on a daily basis!

I just produced a new video on how to make cinnamon bread. My object is to get more professional with them. I find that the best way to improve is to do. “Practice makes perfect” as they say.

All along with my videos I have not been happy with the sound quality. The audio of my narration always sounds scratchy and tinny. I have purchased two or three fairly good microphones in an effort to correct this problem.

On the Cinnamon bread video I asked my wife about the sound quality and she said it sounded okay. I asked, “What about the narration?” She said, “Oh, you always sound like that.”

Funny how we listen to ourselves talk day after day and do not really know what we sound like. Of course, I have heard myself on answering machines, and video tapes, but I always attribute the muffled tones and the gravel in my voice to the low quality mics and ambient noise.

Now that I have found out the problem is just me, I am going to have to work on training my voice. Alternatively, I could try talking in falsetto, a la Rudy Vallee!