EnnisP, Author at NowTHINK!AboutIt

ECCC – Advice On Bike Shops And Service

July 21, 2016 by EnnisP Leave a Comment

A Snippet From
The East Coast Cycling
Newsletter

One advantage to being in a cycling club is members gain access to many different sources on training, equipment, and maintenance.

Sometimes this information is gained on the fly, during training rides, or over coffee afterward. Sometimes it’s delivered by mail, as in the weekly newsletter.

Following is a good example. It’s an opinion piece by Gray Braatvedt on bike shops and services that was included in the East Coast Cycling Club newsletter. His opinion is worth hearing. Not only is he an accomplished cyclist but he’s also owned and operated bike shops.

The piece was informative. It gave me a more informed sense of appreciation for the services local bike shops provide.

Before the article, though, following is a training ride video by the A-group from Suncoast to Westbrook and back. Due to a stiff south wind, the speeds were quite quick going out and much slower on the return.

It’s worth mentioning that when one rider had a puncture, they all stopped to help out, or at least keep company. That’s what club members do.

Now For Gray’s Insightful Article

There has recently been a flurry of comments about various mechanics in bike shops on the Chit Chat group and having owned a bike shop and being a bike mechanic, I’d like to weigh in with a few comments to ponder. [Read more…] about ECCC – Advice On Bike Shops And Service

This Week In Divorce – Amicable Or Volcanic

July 21, 2016 by EnnisP Leave a Comment

Divorce And Joust
Are Not Synonyms

Jason Levoy, The Divorce Resource Guy, offered insightful reasons why divorce is hard even if you have an attorney. His article, is posted on Huffington.

Jason is a divorce attorney, coach and advisor who assists people who can’t afford attorneys with the divorce process. Divorce can be difficult but according to Jason can happen expeditiously and with less expense if attorneys coached more and officiated less.

It’s a novel idea. He may have a point.

A few of his salient points are: [Read more…] about This Week In Divorce – Amicable Or Volcanic

9 Thoughts On Love

July 20, 2016 by EnnisP 2 Comments

Relax
You’re Not Jesus

The Bible says much about loving people:

Love your enemies (Matthew 5:44), Love your neighbor (Mark 12:31) and there’s no end to the number of times we’re told to Love one another (John 13:34; 15:12, 17; Romans 13:8; 1 Thessalonians 4:9; 1 Peter 1:22, 3:8; 1 John 3:11, 23, 4:7, 11-12 and more).

The thread is so prominent in the New Testament you can’t miss it.

And it is so prevailing that we usually extrapolate the meaning to,

Christians are to love everybody!

That’s a mouthful! In fact, it’s a little too much.

I wouldn’t say the idea is entirely wrong but it might be overstating the point. There is a big gap between loving the people we know and loving all the ones we don’t know.

But forget the magnitude of everydoby. We don’t do a very good job of loving the few with whom we make contact.

We spend an inordinate amount of time distrusting, not believing and not liking the people with whom we have proximity: the ones next door, down the street, in the next work cubicle, in the cars on the road and on the TV screen.

And those are just the people we see. If we struggle with those few, how could we ever love everybody, the whole world.

To clear the air and reiterate the reality: [Read more…] about 9 Thoughts On Love

Tim Pepper Music – Soulful Tuesday – Promises

July 19, 2016 by EnnisP Leave a Comment

PROMISES

Genre-Description

It’s authentic. If “Authentic” isn’t a genre, it should be.

It’s visceral. I really didn’t want to us the word “Visceral” to describe this song. The word is worn out. Everyone uses it, but despite the overuse, there’s no mistaking how aptly it fits. This message emerges from the recesses.

And it’s universal. Who hasn’t quietly questioned “Where are the promises?” Even the greatest examples of faith – Abraham, Moses, King David and Job – entertained the question. It’s universal and to be expected.

If Guitars Could Speak

As songs go, the words to Promises are few but what the words don’t say, the guitar does. That’s one of the most prevalent qualities of Tim’s music. He talks with his fingers and this song is a good example.

Lyrics

Oh my children won’t you come to me
You’ve been broken if you need some peace
All your sadness I will gladly keep
For the price of your gentle sleep

Where are the promises you made to me
The road I travel has been hard on me
I’ve been searching trying to believe
Where are the promises you made to me

Oh my Father you said to me
Your path is straight and your way is ease
I am broken I am on my knees
It’s a struggle just to believe

Where are the promises you made to me
The road I travel has been hard on me
I’ve been searching trying to believe
Where are the promises you made to me.

Ooh ooh oh oh oh ooh ooh ooh
Ooh ooh oh oh oh oh ooh oooh [Read more…] about Tim Pepper Music – Soulful Tuesday – Promises

Add Amazon Affiliate Link To Post Images

July 15, 2016 by EnnisP Leave a Comment

Amazon Image Links
Made Simple

This article is not about adding Text links. Amazon text links are easy to work with and always have been. Image links are another matter though.

Things are different now, but not so long ago adding Amazon affiliate links to an image required a snip and tuck procedure. It wasn’t so straight forward.

Briefly, you had to copy the standard product page URL, the one everybody sees, not the affiliate URL. You then had to delete a portion of the URL and add your Amazon affiliate code to the end. This code was then added to the media library’s custom URL field before inserting the image.

Sounds a bit wonky but that is the common work-around recommended by bloggers and marketing gurus. A detailed description is provided by Linnea Wilhem here.

This procedure required additional steps to what should have been a very simple procedure. I’m sure Amazon was aware of this round-about-way of adding affiliate code to images and knew that it slowed the process down. Publishers spent more time trying to organize links and less time talking about great prices and products on Amazon.

It effected the bottom line for both.

But, fortunately, all that has changed. Amazon streamlined the process. Working with images is just as simple as working with text. In fact, If anything the process is more streamlined for both.

One Obvious Question

You might wonder why someone would ever go to all this trouble since Amazon has always provided very attractive image links for their products. Their images are always top notch.

The problem was, and I’m not bashing on Amazon, the image links Amazon generated didn’t work nicely with WordPress posts. Text didn’t wrap around the image properly. The images inserted easily but always looked a bit out of place. The text started below the image not adjacent to it.

Inserting additional styling code – added by the webmaster, not Amazon – did make a difference but it still wasn’t right. Several plugins were developed to address the problem but the one I used worked sometimes and sometimes not.

And that’s why the previously mentioned work around became popular.

What’s Changed

So what has changed? Snip and clip are no longer needed. Here’s how it’s done.

Assuming you have an Amazon affiliate account, you’re signed into the account and on the page for the particular product you wish to promote the steps are simple: [Read more…] about Add Amazon Affiliate Link To Post Images