FIRST ORDER OF BUSINESS

Hey there all.

Thanks to everyone who helped me relaunch The Maztorphyl last month. And for those of you who are first-time visitors, welcome!

To be honest, I never really took it down. It’s always been here. When I put the blog on hiatus I had every intension of returning to it; I just didn’t think it would take so long! Well, as you might have guessed from my last post, things have been a little rough lately, but on the whole my life is moving more and more in a straight path, so I thought it would be a good time to bring it back.

But, like a lot of things like this, I thought a few changes to the site would be in order. I still liked the overall look, so that wasn’t going to change, but maybe, I thought, I could add a few things. I went through the very long list of gadgets that blogger.com had on file, and out of many many apps I came to realize most of them sucked. Still, a few caught me eye. Here they are:

Video
Unlike most people, I came to YouTube a little late in life. Oh well, no harm no foul. As those of you who saw my last post, I profiled the Almighty Led Zeppelin. I plan on changing it with every post, the only standard requirement being that it will be music-based. As you can see this time I’ve linked videos of professional operatic tenor Antonio Nagore. The last name similarity is no coincidence. In the name of full disclosure, he’s my brother, though I’m MUCH better looking. Anyway, he’s very good, so enjoy!

Advertising
Brought to you by Google’s Adsense pay-per-click system. I know what some of you are thinking, “Hey Dave, wassup? What about that whole writing-for-writing’s-sake you promised when you first launched it?! You’re a sellout, man!” First off, if you thought that last part, you can blow me. Second, the site’s initial mandate still stands. I still plan on writing whatever moves me with all the masturbatory self indulgence I can muster, so there. I just don’t see why I can’t make a few bucks while I’m doing it.

That’s the theory, anyway. So far I haven’t made squat. Then again, I just relaunched the vehicle, so I need to rebuild my audience. On the other hand, Adsense does come with a fair number of restrictions to which I must adhere to ensure any chance of making anything. For example, I myself can’t click on the ads. At all. Period. As I read the rules I can’t even if something catches my eye. I also can’t encourage people to click on the ads. There are other rules but these are the main ones. I wanted to put a text box next to them saying something like, “Like what I wrote? Awesome! Now tell Google to pay my by clicking on one of these ads!” But no, that’s not an option.

In theory there’s also a way to tell Google what kinds of ads appear, but so far I haven’t been able to figure that out. I’d hate to open the blog one day and see an ad for the latest Ann Coulter book or Al Franken's re-election campaign! Ugh! I’ll figure it out sooner or later.

On the other hand, if you actually like what I've written enough to contribute to the cause out of your own pocket, there's a app for that! It's at the bottom of the page.

“Don’t Click This!”
Instead of going with a new app, I just modified this one, made it more streamlined. Like the YouTube, I’ll change this periodically, though I won’t know what I’m doing until I actually do it.

Favorites List
I tried to avoid this kind of thing. Although I had one on the original Maztorphyl way back when, I later started seeing such things as somewhat provincial. Ya know, though? I figured, what the hell. This is only the start of the list. If you'd like to have your Web site appear in my blog, e-mail the link to me and, after careful consideration from the editorial board, it just might make it on the list.

What Do You Think?
So there it is. I’ll likely continue evolving the blog as I go along. I might even chage the look if it moves me. Anyway, this is the part where I ask for input from you. Are there any apps you’d like to see, any story ideas you’d like my thoughts on? Again, if you want, send me your questions and I’ll try to answer them, though you may not like what you read….

(Editor's note: Like what you read? No? Well, read something else on the blog. I'll wait ... Did you like that? Great! Tell your friends! Hell, tell your enemies! Tell your family, business acquaintances, your neighbors and that guy who talks to himself at the bus stop. Especially him. Let's see what we can do to make this the biggest blog EEVVVVVVAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRR!)