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Hughes focusing on making fastball a priority again 7

After struggling for a year and a half in the rotation, Phil Hughes earned himself some praise this spring for the way he pitched, but most fans, myself included, have all but written him off by this point and are counting down the days until Andy Pettitte and Michael Pineda will come back to knock him out of the rotation.

Pettitte and Pineda aren’t back yet though so for now Hughes still has a couple more starts to prove that he deserves to stay. And he’s thinks he knows why he’s struggling – he’s not using his fastball enough.

“Yeah, the changeup and the cutter obviously have their spots, but when I rely on one thing or the other too much that sometimes gets me in trouble,” Hughes told Roderick Boone of Newsday. “That goes along with fastball command. I’m constantly behind trying to go to other things to try to get back into [favorable counts]. So the fastball really has to be the biggest priority for me and I can go from there.”

Hughes has actually gotten away from his fastball a bit this year, throwing the pitch 57.4 percent of the time. Instead he has relied on a cutter, curveball, changeup combo although none of the pitches have been very effective so far this season.

Hughes also talked about trying to get ahead in at bats early, but honestly it has looked more like he is having problems putting hitters away rather than getting ahead. It’s become somewhat of a joke that Hughes can get to 0-2 only to fall behind a hitter 3-2.

Either way, I don’t expect much from Hughes at this point. Sure, he is talking about something he fixed, but this has become somewhat of an annual tradition. Hughes struggles – he says he spotted something mechanical – and then doesn’t do enough to fix the problem.

About Rob Abruzzese

Rob Abruzzese created Bronx Baseball Daily in 2008 just before graduating from Brooklyn College. He currently serves BBD as its editor and works as a reporter at the Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Follow Rob on Twitter @RobAbruzzese.

7 thoughts on “Hughes focusing on making fastball a priority again

    • Bronx_Knight

      By all accounts, Pettite's extended spring training is going very well. Anything's possible (he could get hurt, etc.), but Pettite doesn't appear to have lost anything during his year off.

  • kev

    …also wondering why DJ Mitchell is still sitting in AAA, he's on fire right now, shouldn't he be given a shot, at least at long relief !

  • kev

    …should have added this to my last post…I would have liked to see Warren called up before Cody Eppley!!!

    • Mike Sommer

      Warren got pasted recently. He, Banuelos (now on DL) and Betances haven't done well. Mitchell, meanwhile, has.

  • Stoogazzo

    Excellent comment regarding Hughes. I can remember back in 2005 in spring training when that great judge of talent, and future hall of famer, in his mind only, Jorge Posada, stated Hughes would be the next Roger Clemens.
    Posada has proven his judgement is just as bad as his defensive capability when he caught.

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Gil McDougald

gil-mcdougald 2
Players come and players go. Time waits for no one. Sooner or later, everyone must retire. It helps a team immensely when you have a versatile player who can fill in where needed, and if that player is so good that he becomes an All-Star at three different positions, well […]

Classic Yankees: Gil McDougald

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Monday, April 28, 2008

Week of 04/28/2008

America’s No-Win Situation
– by David Matthews 2

There is nothing more unsettling for me than to be in a no-win situation. It is one thing to be given choices where even one of the options is correct and the rest are wrong and you end up making the wrong choice. Then at least you can admit that you screwed up and that you deserved whatever punishment was the result. But it is another to be put into a situation where you KNOW that no matter what you do, you WILL lose.

I know people like to think that we should just choose the “lesser” of the evils being presented and just deal with the consequences, but that really doesn’t work in a society that glorifies winning and believes that winning is a matter of making the “right decisions”. How can you make the “right decisions” when you are given nothing but the “wrong” choices?

Here’s a great example: you get your identity stolen. In most instances, it’s really not your fault. Some clever crook uses a palm-scanner and swipes your credit card, or someone copies your name and address and phone number from a phone book, or maybe they hacked the purchase list of some local store… either way, they have all the information they need to take over your identity. Suddenly you get hit with all sorts of bills and bill collectors are calling you about purchases you never made. You call the police, you call the credit card companies, you call the credit reporting companies, and you do everything that you need to do to let people know that your identity has been compromised and is being used by scammers and thieves all around the world.

But it still doesn’t stop, does it? No, the bill collectors STILL come after you. The police start hassling you because your name is now some crook’s new alias. You have to spend thousands of dollars and countless hours of your personal time to defend yourself, and you get driven into bankruptcy.

And then here comes some success “guru” who tells you that the only reason why you’re in bankruptcy now is because YOU made “bad choices” in life. And he should know, shouldn’t he? He should know because he supposedly made nothing but the “right choices”. That and he probably never had his identity stolen and had to spend countless man-hours and every penny he owns trying to defend himself.

And what would this “success guru” say was your fault? What “bad choices” did you supposedly make that would put the blame of identity theft on your head? He’ll say that you really shouldn’t have gotten a credit card, or that you really shouldn’t have made any online purchases, or that you shouldn’t have had your phone listed in the phone book. These are all things that our society tries to make impossible. Banks give out check cards nowadays, and even your local grocery store wants you to sign up for their services by offering discounts, which means that they want your personal information, which they PROMISE to keep secret, unless they’re hacked of course. And if you want your name out of the phone books, that actually costs you EXTRA. And even then that doesn’t guarantee that your personal information won’t get stolen and hijacked by someone, because there are plenty of ways that it can happen.

Either way, the “success guru” is full of it, and yet he’s making out like a bandit because he’s out there telling folks that success is all about making “the right choices” even though YOU were given nothing but wrong ones and then told to simply make do with what you have.

Unfortunately we seem to be stuck with nothing BUT no-win situations, and it’s gotten progressively worse over the months. It seems like NOTHING we can do is right.

Take, for instance, trade policies.

We LOVE free trade… at least in theory! We LOVE the idea that free trade gives us access to goods and services all around the world and that we can keep prices low and affordable because of competition.

Yeah… competition… unless we happen to have free trade with a country that puts in draconian limits on the good being exported from us while we happily accept all sorts of products from them. Countries like China… that are so rich in trade exporting that they have the largest trade surplus in the world, and the only things they eagerly buy from us are the bonds used to fund our deficit spending. We love getting cheap goods from those countries, until those goods are TOO cheap and they end up poisoning us. Or they become so cheap that we can’t afford to keep our own businesses operating in this country and we lose our jobs to people in countries like China.

We love free trade, as long as we’re doing the free trading. We love cheap goods, until we find out how cheap they are. And we love the free market, until that marketplace takes our own jobs away. Either way, we can’t really win.

And we can’t really say “Buy American” anymore, because even the flags are being made in China, never mind all of the materials for the protest signs!

THE number one no-win situation in the world today is energy! We spill blood for oil all around the world, and by “we” I don’t just mean the United States. America may be the number one gluttonous pig in the world in terms of oil, but we’re not the only ones. China and India are actually moving up in the gluttony. Having newfound wealth does that to people… it causes them to buy really expensive cars with really crappy gas mileage, which they don’t mind because they can afford to pay extra for gas.

America is STUCK with a monstrous oil addiction, and we just can’t seem to shake ourselves off it, can we? Our elected and appointed grifters and shysters brokered deals with foreign groups like OPEC and APEC to make sure that we get as much oil as we want, never mind what we need. And now we NEED that oil and we’re having to compete with China and India and any kind of hostile activity, be it man-made or from Mother Nature, ends up with price spikes.

So now we’re looking for alternatives, aren’t we? We want cheap oil and cheap gas, but we’re not going to get them anymore. And it seems like ANY kind of alternative is not viable!

Raise the Gas Mileage: The automakers bet their futures on huge bulky urban assault vehicles and pickup trucks back in the 1990’s. They burn through fuel faster than a frat boy goes through a keg at Spring Break, but back then nobody cared because the price of oil and the price of gasoline were so low. And even when it DID start to matter, the spin machine prevented people from realizing that they were digging their own economic graves. They were conditioned mentally and emotionally that they NEEDED to buy an urban assault vehicle for safety and convenience and POWER. Hey, you go through at least one blizzard and see how many SUV owners gloat that their purchase was somehow “worth it”.

But raise the standards, you say? Oh no, no, no, no, no can do, according to the automakers. You see, in order to make the urban assault vehicle so “safe” and so POWERFUL, the automakers had make the urban assault vehicle HEAVIER. Heavier metals, which made the vehicle as safe as the military vehicles they were modeled after, were needed to support the heavier truck engine, which gave it the power. That’s the reason why it chugs so much fuel. So to make them fuel-efficient again, the automakers have to make the vehicles lighter, which mean that they have to sacrifice “safety” in the form of lighter construction or “POWER” in regards to engine capability, both of which are that kind of vehicle’s key selling points.

PLUS in order to do these things, you have to make some serious changes to plant operations, which mean you have to get the unions to sign off on them, or you have to work with the manufacturing plants in the countries that you exported your jobs to. Either way, it’s not a quick or easy task.

In other words, you can’t win.

Build more refineries & Stop messing with the mix: There has not been a single new oil refinery built in the United States in well over two decades! That is a very painful fact when you consider the number of times refineries have to be shut down for maintenance and for making changes to the fuel mixture as required by federal laws and regulations. Every six months we have to go through this game of prices going up and up because of these shutdowns and changeovers.

So why can’t we build more refineries? Or at the very least, stop messing with the mixture every six months?

One word: Environmentalists.

Every time we talk about building a new refinery, environmentalists start screaming bloody murder about the damage done to the environment. They throw up rules and regulations to actually PREVENT new refineries from being built, which then forces the oil companies to work with the ones they currently have no matter how old they are.

Then of course we have the “Not In MY Backyard” crowd… and they also scream bloody murder about putting up oil refineries that might interfere with their property values or with their lovely viewing of the nearby area.

Mind you, both groups DEMAND cheaper gas prices, and in all likelihood they will drive those urban assault vehicles or pickup trucks, but they would rather have someone ELSE refine the oil into the fuel they need.

And forget about trying to stop the changeover of fuels… because it was the environmentalists that lobbied Congress and the White House to REQUIRE the special seasonal blends AS WELL as the regional “boutique” blends in the first place!

Drill closer to home: Sounds like a good plan, right? We still have got plenty of untapped and unexplored oil resources here in this country. We certainly could use it to help stave off our dependency on foreign oil and thus prevent us from being subservient to those foreign lands and have the price of oil shoot up anytime an oil sheik stubs his toe. So why can’t we just tap into what we have at home?

One word: Environmentalists.

Yes, these guys again!

While we were striking deals with OPEC to keep oil prices low, low, low, the environmentalists were getting the White House to sign dozens of Executive Orders which declared hundred of thousands of acres as “endangered property”, which meant that nobody could touch the land. Some of these areas may or may not have oil, but we’ll never know for sure as long as they are “endangered”.

Plus, of course, these are the folks that will scream bloody murder if you start talking about putting oil wells up either on the land or on the sea. Never mind, though, that it will mean still more dependency on foreign oil. In fact they will travel long distances… in urban assault vehicles and pickup trucks no less… to protest the creation of a single new drilling rig, wasting more valuable fuel for the job.

Convert vehicles to natural gas: Switching to natural gas seems to be a good alternative, right? The MARTA busses in Atlanta all run on natural gas. It’s better for the planet according to the environmentalists.

There’s just one little problem… to bring in natural gas in the levels needed to convert everything over from gasoline you need more than just tapping into natural pockets of natural gas. You need… OIL FIELDS!

Well, so much for appeasing the environmentalists… not to mention the NIMBY crowd comes back into play. After all, who wants to live next to a place that smells like rotten eggs? Who wants to live anywhere near a place that smells like rotten eggs?

Convert gas from coal: Sounds crazy, I know, but there is a guy who actually developed, perfected, and patented the process by which COAL can be converted over into oil! Nobody paid any attention to it because at the time, it was just too expensive to implement, especially when oil was selling at $20 per barrel. Now that it is selling well over $100 a barrel, conversion from coal would be cheaper and easier.

So who would be against this idea?

Do I REALLY have to tell you?

Yes, the environmentalists would once again be screaming bloody murder over this idea. They would object to the pollution used for the conversion process, the strip-mining of coal to make the conversion, and of course the pollution that would result. To them, it would double the damage to the planet.

Convert from gas-powered to electric-powered vehicles: Sounds good as an idea, but the downside is that the electricity still has to come from somewhere. Gas-powered, coal-powered, and even nuclear-powered electrical plants are all quickly condemned by “you know who”.

And if that’s not bad enough, now the so-called “CLEAN” alternatives are under attack…

Windmills: Windmills! CLEAN energy! NATURAL energy! You would think that environmentalists would be ecstatic about using the power of Mother Nature for good right?

In Massachusetts, a proposed windmill farm, which would help provide clean and natural energy to help the area, is being opposed by… who? Environmentalists! WHY? Because the giant blades can slaughter whole flocks of songbirds that stray in the area! Never mind that the bird inhabitants in that area are rare, if any, according to the Army Corps of Engineers. No, birds are somehow more important than people.

Hydropower: WATER! How about WATER? Another NATURAL energy source when used in a hydroelectric dam! How can you take issue with that?

You can when there is a drought.

In recent years the State of Georgia suffered from a drought. Too much demand, not enough rainfall. The water coming from the Chattahoochee River does more than just provide hydroelectric power… it also provides the drinking water for the metropolitan Atlanta area. You would think that THIS would be important enough, right?

Well, no, apparently there is something FAR more important than the continued survival of people in the Atlanta area… namely some freshwater fish and muscles. And the government didn’t mind if they drained the river at the Buford Dam until there was nothing more left as long as any remaining water ended up in Florida for those fish and muscles. And who were the ones pushing for this displaced sense of priority? Yup, the environmentalists again.

And now, we have yet another alternative that is getting shot down…

Biofuels: We’re not just talking about ethanol, although that’s the key item of contention right now. Biofuels… making gasoline from something OTHER than petroleum! Something organic. Something good, right? Something the environmentalists have been wanting for DECADES now, right?

But here’s the problem… with more and more demand for ethanol from countries all around the world, farmers are deciding to grow corn and sugar for FUEL instead of for FOOD. More corn for ethanol means less corn to feed the cattle, less corn for the grocery store, and thus less corn for families. And of course if the companies are paying big bucks for corn for ethanol, the farmers would rather grow corn for fuel than for other essential items such as rice. So now FOOD prices are soaring along with FUEL prices, and people are once again screaming bloody murder that the masses are starving to fuel up some “rich elite American’s vehicle”.

Well at least this time it’s not the environmentalists doing the bitching and crying, although they were when the discussion turned to genetically-modified food.

Sorry Europe, but the “rich elite Americans” don’t bother with biofuels. They’re still driving their custom-made urban assault vehicles using premium city-polluting gasoline so they continue to pollute the world as they smoke their cigars and count their money. The rest of us Americans… the ones that work for a living that you Euro-snobs seem to forget exist… are the ones that are suffering with the higher food prices and the higher fuel prices just like the rest of you.

We just can’t seem to get a break when it comes to trying to resolve this energy problem can we? If we continue to suffer with the current problems with petroleum, everyone screams bloody murder about the damage to the environment and the growing cost on society. If we try to change our ways and come up with alternatives, then the same groups STILL bitch and cry and scream bloody murder!

It’s truly a no-win situation for us! Not matter what we do, we bankrupt businesses, bankrupt society, bankrupt whole institutions, slaughter creatures, pollute the environment, and cause us to starve. Take your pick, but we’re going to be the bad guys no matter WHAT we do!

Let’s get brutally honest here… no matter what we do, we’re going to piss some special interest group off. We had might as well accept that. The name of the game, therefore, is NOT to appease everyone, but to come up with an option that WORKS and then to deal with THOSE consequences later.

In order for us to deal with the problem of oil and the problem of depleting energy resources, we need to bring in actual SOLUTIONS. It is NOT right for us to simply say that our current mess is the way that it needs to be. That is UNACCEPTABLE! The civilized world, if not humanity itself, will not survive with the way things are going today. That is a fact that we need to deal with.

I hate no-win situations. I hate being put into them. But in terms of resolving this matter, SOMEONE needs to bear the burden of this mess, and so far the WRONG people have been the ones doing it without any kind of resolution. It’s high time that someone ELSE bears that burden.

Monday, April 21, 2008

Week of 04/21/2008

Elitism and the Common Man
– by David Matthews 2

“Most of our pocket wisdom is conceived for the use of mediocre people, to discourage them from ambitious attempts, and generally console them in their mediocrity.” - Robert Louis Stevenson

Now that’s an insulting term.

It’s insulting, divisive, polarizing, and it is meant to BE taken that way.

Accusing someone of being an elitist is to accuse them of being a snob, of being arrogant, and putting themselves above others for whatever reason.

Elitism is something that you hurl around when you want to side with “the masses”, and when you want to isolate the accused from the rest of the group.

The accusation of elitism is used to start revolutions by demonizing the other side. The American Revolution and the French Revolution both had a small group of “elites” that were the immediate target of scorn and bile. These were the people that were blamed for the suffering of “the masses”, whether through excessive taxes or through a lack of food. During the American Civil War (or “War of Aggression” or whatever you want to call it), the accusation of “elitism” was thrown by both sides to describe each other and to condemn their positions.

Elitism was easily thrown about during the rise of the Industrial Revolution, with big corporations making money by exploiting the masses and by hoarding power of governments large and small. Just about every antitrust rule and regulation out there today was put in place upon the accusation of “elitism” by big business.

During the Great Depression, banks were the new “elites”, as they were the ones holding all of the money, all of the power, and delivering nothing but misery for the struggling Americans. In fact, part of the reason why stories of bank robbers were romanticized was because of the demonization of banks as being “the elites” in America.

Today, though, “elitism” is bantered about by pretty much all walks of life. It’s no longer the tool for revolution or romanticizing bank robbers or rallying for controlling government. Instead, it is used to demonize ordinary people and local groups.

And most notably, it is used all-too readily in politics and in talk radio.

Conservative and neo-conservative talk show hosts LOVE to foist the banner of “elitism” against liberal groups and anyone they passionately oppose. According to Rush Limbaugh, Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity, and the rest, groups like the American Civil Liberties Union and the People for the American Way and any organization that champions individual rights and fights for the U.S. Constitution are considered “elitists”. They’re branded and condemned as “limousine liberals” along with the Democrats in Congress and civil rights workers and unions.

The hypocritical part, of course, is that these guys are FAR from having anything to do with being a “common man”. They make millions, and they have access to the things in life that allow them to make millions more. There are plenty of struggling and starving writers that would sell their souls to get so much as an appointment with a publisher, while talking heads like Limbaugh and Hannity can get a lucrative book deal in a heartbeat and have it be instant bestsellers. Most people are lucky to get a form letter supposedly from the President of the United States. These guys get private invitations to the White House to spend lunch with the President in person.

But that doesn’t matter, does it? No, what matters – at least according to these neo-con media demagogues – is that the ACLU and other like-minded people are “elitists” that are “out of touch” with the rest of the country. THAT is the message they are spreading. They are the “THEM” in the “Us Versus Them” game.

And it’s not just the conservatives playing this game either! CNN commentator and media personality Lou Dobbs does the same thing on his nightly TV show. He claims to champion “The middle Class” and claims there’s a “war” being waged on it. He also waives the flag and scolds Washington politicians for their ineptitude, and all on the claim that he is doing this on behalf of the millions and millions of hard-working Americans.

And maybe there is truth to some of the things he says and of the accusations he makes, but that doesn’t mean that he isn’t also foisting the divisive charge of “elitism”. He is claiming with every broadcast that federal, state, and local politicians and businesses large and small are all elitists that are “out of touch” with the rest of society and that HE is speaking on behalf of the “common man”.

Now we have the 2008 Presidential Election season, and once again the word “elitism” is being foisted about by people who really have no business using the word.

Senators Hillary Rodham-Clinton and John McCain, and their myrmidons and surrogates, are accusing fellow Senator Barak Obama of being an “elitist” when he described small-town life in Pennsylvania as full of people who are “bitter” and cling to guns and religion. All the while, of course, both Clinton and McCain claim to champion the “hard-working Americans”.

Hypocritical? ABSOLUTELY! McCain is a career politician worth MILLIONS of dollars, and while Clinton herself is only a fledgling career politician, she has been the wife of a career politician for many years and she too has also raked in MILLIONS of dollars. There is NOTHING “common” about these so-called “champions of the common man”.

But that brings up a few things about both the charge of “elitism” and the cult-like worshiping of the “Common Man”.

First of all, let’s get brutally honest here… we are ALL guilty of being elitists at some point in our lives! We ALL are! We HAVE to; because it’s the only way that we can differentiate ourselves from the others.

All throughout life, we are herded into little groups based on any number of criteria. Age, gender, race, religion, ethnicity, hair color, genealogy, geographic region, personal preferences, hobbies, financial income, marital status… we are all judged and stereotyped and pigeonholed into all sorts of different demographics.

And the problem begins when that is ALL that we see people as being! Instead of seeing them as individuals, we see them as Christians or Muslims or Jews or Hindus or Atheists. We see them as a skin color, or a hair color. We see them as rich or poor or somewhere in-between. We see them as being men or women, children or adults, straight or gay, right-handed or left-handed, US or THEM.

It’s all about GROUP identity. And the name of the game here is to be on the side of “US” instead of “THEM”.

The downside to group identity and the “US Versus THEM” mentality is that in order for the collectivist mentality of “US” to win out, you have to crucify progress and achievement. You can’t win. And if you do win, then you can’t prosper from it. You have to be penalized for winning. You can’t even be recognized for winning. The moment you do that, you differentiate yourself from the “US”. You’re no longer “common” or “average”. You’re a winner, and that makes you stand out. That makes you “elite”.

Look at America’s current tax system! The more money you make, the higher the percentage you have to pay in taxes. You buy certain things that are clear signs of success and you get taxed EXTRA on them. What sort of message does that send people?

You have to work harder and harder to achieve the same. People are asking “who moved my cheese” and then rather than encourage people to go find the “cheese”, you’re told that it’s okay and that you just need help getting some more, and oh-by-the-way it’s all the fault of those “elites” that you don’t have your cheese.

Collectivism makes a religion out of mediocrity. It tells people that your whole purpose in life is to be just like everyone else. You can’t succeed, you can’t progress, you can’t achieve beyond “the norm”.

In other words, it worships losers. It celebrates FAILURE; because that means that you’re just like everyone else.

So when Hillary Rodham-Clinton, John McCain, Barak Obama, Lou Dobbs, and even Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity claim to champion “the common man” and the “average Americans”, they’re really advocating for mediocrity. They are advocating FAILURE.

And suddenly it all makes sense why Obama’s comments drew so much criticism by the demagogues. It’s not that what he said was false or wrong, but because it reminded the “common folk” of the REALITY of their situation. The demagogues don’t mind you talking about the “common folk” as long as you’re PRAISING them and CELEBRATING the concept of being “average” and “plain”. They need to constantly indoctrinate people that it is okay to be that way, because that makes you part of the “US” instead of being one of “THEM”.

At the same time, though, the demagogues that are pushing for the collectivist mediocrity really aren’t “US”. And no matter how many times they pretend to be like “US”, no matter how many times they enjoy a beer at your local bar, or show up at a local bookstore to sign copies of their books, or talk about their “poor upbringing in the woods”, or pretend to enjoy the restaurants that they plug on TV and radio, they’re really not “US”. They may put their pants (or their pantsuit) on one leg at a time, but that’s really all that they have in common with the great unwashed. They can’t be like the rest of the collectivist “common man”, because they happen to know the truth about this twisted web of logic and hypocrisy that has been woven from generation to generation. They know that the only way they can continue to succeed is to continue to spin the collectivist myth that it is okay to be mediocre.

The only way out of this trap, then, is to abandon the idea that you’re “common” and embrace individual achievement. Rather than say that you are JUST a Christian or JUST from Pennsylvania or JUST whatever demographic is being celebrated, you need to proudly proclaim that you are MORE than that! YOU ARE AN INDIVIDUAL!

And once you do that… and once you believe that… then the power that the demagogues have over you disappears. Their combative and divisive arguments lose any meaning because you demonstrate that you are more than JUST whatever demographic you identify with.

We are ALL guilty of being elitists and of advocating elitism. It’s called an identity, and it separates us from everyone else.

Monday, April 14, 2008

Week of 04/14/2008

Are You In A Bitchocracy?
– by David Matthews 2

“Getting ahead in a difficult profession requires avid faith in yourself. That is why some people with mediocre talent, but with great inner drive, go much further than people with vastly superior talent.” – Sophia Loren

Here’s a really good word for you learn…

Bitchocracy: a group or organization run by one or more people who are self-centered, self-absorbed, and generally complain a lot about even the tiniest detail until they get their way.

A bitchocracy is a miserable form of organization. It is corrupt to the core, heavily narcissistic, and it literally sucks the life and the joy out of anything it infests. There is nothing idealistic about a bitchocracy, and the only goal of a bitchocracy is the satisfaction of the person or persons who complain the most.

In fact, complaining is the coin of trade in a bitchocracy. You are nobody in a bitchocracy until you bitch about something! That is your only means of identity in a bitchocracy. You’re either the bitch or you’re the one being bitched-at, and it is FAR better to always be the bitch!

Most bitchocrats are women, and there is a very simple reason behind it: male bitchocrats tend to get their asses kicked if they bitch too much. Men bitch too much and they’re asked to either “step outside” or told to “grow a pair”.

Women, on the other hand, are considered protected. Men cannot beat up a female bitchocrat no matter how many times they are so provoked. It’s considered wrong both socially and legally. Female bitchocrats know this and they actually count on this to protect them. The only thing that they have to worry about, then, is another female bitchocrat, and any good bitchocrat knows how to keep another one of them in line if they have to.

Besides, men in general don’t make good bitchocrats. They always want to find ways to fix the problem, which is something that bitchocrats don’t like to do. Bitchocrats are lazy. They expect OTHER people to do all their work for them.

Unfortunately, civilized society has served as the great equalizer when it comes to balancing the male and female bitchocrats. Where once satisfaction was achieved through dueling pistols or rapiers or at the very least three rounds in a rented boxing ring, our demand for “non-violent” resolutions have eliminated the only means to corral male bitchocrats. Now the only way to corral them is to provoke them to be violent, which is something that they are far more skilled at inflicting.

At the heart of a bitchocracy is POWER. When a bitchocrat asserts himself or herself in a situation, it is done so on the perceived notion of POWER. “I am more important than YOU!” THAT is the statement that a bitchocrat makes through his or her actions. It is the persistent insistence that YOU are there to serve THEM. And not just in general, as in customer service has to serve the needs of the customers; no, it means that YOU are there to serve THEM, the bitchocrat, specifically and above anyone else.

Bitchocrats thrive on personal satisfaction, especially when something is wrong. If their world is upended, then it is treated as a crime against HUMANITY itself! Worse if this is something that happens more than once.

Bitchocrats love to exaggerate and exasperate the problem. If something fails once in every a blue moon, the bitchocrat will falsely claim that it fails EACH AND EVERY TIME. Or they’ll claim that it fails every other day, or every other week, or they’ll say that it never really ever worked at all. And don’t bother trying to prove them wrong, because they’ll never admit to it, even when the facts are on your side and you can present those facts at a moment’s notice. FACTS don’t matter in a bitchocracy. SATISFACTION matters; and specifically the SATISFACTION of the bitchocrat.

Bitchocrats LOVE to assess blame on others. It is always someone else’s fault, even if they themselves had something to do with it. In fact, they will easily CAUSE problems simply to assess blame on those people.

Bitchocrats love to bring as many people as possible into a problem. Things aren’t working so they want to set up a meeting or a conference call with fourteen people, including your boss, their boss, five other departments, and anyone else who might possibly be involved so that you can go over the problem with them and set up multi-level procedures to supposedly “prevent” the problem from ever happening again with no less than five follow-up meetings about it. And it doesn’t matter what the problem is in the first place. It could by a typo on a memo and it will invoke the same kind of response.

The movie “Office Space” has the best example of this when the central character forgets to use the new cover sheet for his TPS report, which results in everyone in some kind of managerial position talking to him about it and everyone sending him “the memo”.

Bitchocrats love the word “escalate”… as in their insistence that you need to “escalate” the problem if it cannot be resolved immediately. Bitchocrats wait for NOBODY as far as they are concerned. If you can’t deal with their problem immediately, then they insist that you find someone that can. Preferably that “someone” is your supervisor so they can be told just how inept you are because YOU aren’t resolving THEIR problem in a timely manner. In fact, it can be said that the greatest triumph of a bitchocrat is to destroy another person’s career.

But perhaps the worst thing about bitchocrats is that they inspire others to be like them, even if they don’t want to.

Bitchocrats set a precedent that says that if you BITCH loud enough and persistently enough, that you will get whatever you want. It is a precedence that tosses out courtesy and politeness and encourages outright rude behavior. And no matter how many times people will deny doing it themselves, if they are in a bitchocracy, then they have no choice but to follow the lead of the bitchocrats, because that is the only way that things get done in that environment.

THIS, my friends, is what happened to customer service in the business world! When people complain about shoddy customer service or non-responsive customer service, then you need to understand that these are the FIRST victims of bitchocrats. They have to deal with lazy, inept, self-centered, ignorant, narcissistic bitches and bastards that REFUSE to read instructions, that REFUSE to follow directions, and expect to have everything handed to them and have everything work out right out of the box, and they have to deal with these people CONSTANTLY for even the smallest of details.

Here’s a good hypothetical example… You buy a DVD player and it comes with a book of instructions. Page 5 will walk you through the extensive process of setting up and programming your new toy. But most folks ignore that and will toss out those instructions and harass the customer service people WHEN – not if – they have a problem with setting it up. So the manufacturer of that DVD Player adds on a smaller set of instructions and calls it a “Quick Start Guide”. Usually this will be a one-page publication, filled with pictures that even a two-year old could understand. Same problem; it gets tossed along with the other instructions. People don’t want to READ, they want to WATCH. So they will continue to harass customer service. The manufacturer then sets up a website with the same information and sets up a recording that tells callers to view the website first. Doesn’t work, because it will get ignored and they will STILL call customer service. So now they have to set up a long, extensive, automated phone referral service that tries to capture the real source of the problem and to weed out the bitchocrats, but that also falls flat because bitchocrats figure out ways to subvert the system. And all because the bitchocrats REFUSE to follow directions or instructions and would rather be hand-held through a simple process.

After explaining all of that, NOW do you understand why customer service people are they way that they are? And do you also now understand why companies try to outsource their customer service calls to third-world nations?

This is precisely how extensive bitchocracy gets. It literally affects whole sections of a business environment, causing micromanagement and bureaucracy at a level that is nothing less than inhumane.

And you can’t turn off being a bitchocrat. That’s the worst part about it. You can’t just turn it on and off automatically when you go from work to home. You take it with you. You go home from a long day of being a bitchocrat and you take it out in the car during your commute when faced with bad drivers. You become more aggressive and more arrogant while driving. You take it out with the kids and with your spouse. You go to the grocery store or to a restaurant and you expect everything to be perfect to YOUR satisfaction. If it works at the workplace, then it can work on the deli worker who seems unable to measure a pound of sliced turkey… or the auto mechanic who may or may not have done ALL forty-two points of inspection… or the restaurant chef who doesn’t seem to know how to cook steak to YOUR specifications. You apply it to your child’s teachers when his grades start to slide, and then to your children when they forget to do the chores you set out for them. And then, eventually, to your spouse, who simply has to sit there and take it.

All the while, of course, you complain about the bitchocrats you work for and work with and you tell yourself that you don’t know how manage to get through the day with them around, and that YOU would NEVER be like them! No, you would be different, wouldn’t you? You just can’t understand why people seem to get snippier with you and why there seems to be way too many inept and incompetent people all around you.

Let’s get brutally honest here… bitchocrats are a CANCER on society! They prey on our good nature, they capitalize on our passive demands of a “civilized society”, and they encourage others to be just as demanding to an absolute fault as they are, and worse yet to do so as the only means of success.

Even more dangerous is that so-called “polite society” really has no means to address the damage caused by bitchocrats. As mentioned previously, duels and outright fights are prohibited. We’d like to think that karma, the fates, God, or some other mystical force in the universe, will somehow mete out justice and that these people will get precisely what is owed to them in ways that they do not expect. They serve as poor substitutes for true justice. Unfortunately, bitchocrats are rather skilled at deflecting any kind of subtle forms of cosmic justice and in fact turn it into more fuel for their fire. With no real means for satisfaction, people who feel victimized by bitchocrats believe that they are compelled to take drastic, more socially destructive personal measures.

I want you to ponder this for a moment: a good decade before school shootings were the media’s favorite “epidemic”, there were workplace shootings. The term “going postal” originally came from the rise of mass-shootings related to postal workers, but it wasn’t long before it spread to other places of employment. The stress of the workplace was seen as the source of many of these attacks; stress caused by unrealistic demands, unrealistic expectations placed on workers, and by a poisonous workplace environment. Many of these people who went “postal” weren’t powderkegs just waiting to go off, or at the very least they didn’t START out that way. How many of these socially caustic workplace environments were brought out by a bitchocracy? I don’t think that too many people would want that kind of study to be done. It would be much easier for the “fragile psyches” of the bitchocrats if they just simply said that the late Peter Guncrazy simply “snapped”.

It is one thing to be assertive in a competitive world, to know what you want and to try to get what you want, but living in a society means that you don’t necessarily GET what you want simply by bitching enough times to get it. The only reason why it seems to work is that “polite society” does not allow for that kind of rude, self-serving, egotistical behavior to be corrected. It presupposes that people will RESPECT each other, and bitchocrats respect NOTHING that is not done to their satisfaction. That has to change, one way or another, or else that “polite society” will implode in a mass of bitterness and anarchy.

Monday, April 7, 2008

Week of 04/07/2008

Will Hillary Kill The Democrats?
– by David Matthews 2

Poor Hillary… she just can’t seem to get a break, can she?

I mean that with all sarcasm, of course.

Here’s an ambitious politician who believed that the whole primary process was nothing more than a formality for her. That SHE would not only be the de facto nominee for the Democrats, but that she would BECOME the next President of the United States, and that she could have these things at any time she wanted. All she had to do was say “I’m in” and EVERYTHING would be handed to her.

Sure she would have to campaign. Sure she would have to “compete” against other nominees. But this would all be for show. Just like the storylines in professional wrestling, no matter what happens in the meantime, the ending would still be the same. The people would love her, the media would love her, she would win all of the votes in the primaries and caucuses and all of the other candidates will drop out when they realize that their attempts would be for naught. She would be handed the nomination and she would win in November.

Well as of this column, neither one of these things have happened. Of course it’s still just a few months away from the Democrats having their convention and making everything official. But as it is right now, things are looking bleak for the pantsuit princess.

Sure she has her staunch defenders in the media. She has her friends like Keith Olbermann over in MSNBC who are eager to throw his fellow media personalities under a bus if they ask legitimate questions about the Clintons that the pantsuit princess deem “insulting”. She still has her friends over at CNN, who feign impartiality while going into discussions about whether or not SHE is being given the “proper attention” in the media.

But while the Queen of Carpetbags is sitting around WAITING for that official nomination to be HANDED to her, the voters and the media have noticed this Senator from Illinois – her birth state – named Barack Obama. And they like what he talks about. They like his message of HOPE. They like his idealism and his optimism.

And… perhaps most insulting for “She who will not be denied”… is that they are voting FOR HIM! Which means that they are NOT voting FOR HER!

Oh not a problem, she says… she’ll be a big winner in those “key states” like Florida.

Until Florida broke the rules and held their primary in January, forcing national party officials to strip that state of their delegates… all of whom were pledged to Clinton.

Not a problem there, she’ll get Howard Dean to relent and she’ll have them seated in the convention. After all, Dean is her bitch, right? Well, good luck on that one, but it doesn’t seem likely to happen.

Besides, the whole “key states” tactic is a failure from the get-go. Rudy “The Thug” Giuliani tried the same tactic over in the GOP and it blew up in his face.

Okay, well then she may not have all of the NEEDED delegates, but she will STILL have all of the SUPERDELEGATES on her side! You know… all of those “rockstar” Democrats who hold titles like governor and senator and who were given SUPERPOWERS for the national convention. They LOVE her! Guys like Georgia Congressman John Lewis… who switched allegiances to Obama… and Elliot Spitzer… who was just forced out of office after admitting to hiring a hooker. Oh and don’t forget former Energy Secretary and New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson. You know… the same Richardson who was running AGAINST Hillary just a few months earlier… the SAME guy who just switched his vote to Obama. Oh, and former President Jimmy Carter seems to be leaning towards Obama too.

Hmm… suddenly that’s not such a good idea either.

And now the best projections are that even if she sweeps the remaining ten states in their primaries and caucuses, she will STILL not have enough to catch up to Obama, much less secure the nomination before the national convention.

“Poor Hillary…”

And it’s not like she hasn’t been TRYING to shut down Obama and sabotage his message of hope and optimism! She’s been pulling every Chicago-style dirty trick that she can come up with.

She can hurl the charge of plagiarism at him for some of his speeches. Never mind, of course, that the words in those speeches were also lifted off other speeches.

She can flat-out accuse Obama of participating in dirty dealings…presuming of course that people will forget about her own scandals of the 1990’s. Remember Whitewater? The Rose Law Firm records? The White House Travel Office?

She brings up the incendiary messages of Obama’s former minister, the Reverend Wright, while passively fretting about the incendiary message of her good friend and former Vice-President hopeful Geraldine Ferraro.

She shrieks “SHAME ON YOU” whenever a demeaning flier is sent out by his supporters but says nothing when her own people accuse him of being unpatriotic simply because he doesn’t wear a lapel flag. She says nothing when Internet rumors circulate accusing Obama of being a Muslim extremist… while at the same time castigating his CHRISTIAN minister for his “God DAMN America” speech.

She accuses Obama of lacking the experience to lead, even though her resume is basically nothing more than being a globe-trotting tourist. That’s about as credible as Paris Hilton’s claim that her “dumb blond” personality is really a marketing tactic. She claims that she would know how to answer infamous “3am phone call”, but doesn’t explain why she would be able to answer it in full makeup and wearing her pantsuit and pearls.

And, to top if off, her people then claim that although Obama lacks the “experience” to be president, that he could somehow get the “qualification” to become her Vice-President if he can somehow pass some kind of “threshold” that would be determined by “She of the Shrieking Banshees” some time after the primaries and caucuses but before the national convention. A claim that even supporters like Olbermann have to look at and say has more manure in it than a fertilizer factory.

She is hurling everything she can at Obama… and yet SHE is the one getting the calls to drop out.

“Poor Hillary…” indeed.

Now the talking heads are asking if Hillary’s ruthless ambition to become the next President will actually destroy the Democrats as a national party. And given her campaign tactics to date, it’s a pretty legitimate question to ask.

It was, after all, Hillary’s group that have been telling folks in Florida and Michigan to hold their primaries in January anyway, in outright defiance of national party rules, and that she will personally ensure that they will be seated in the convention. It was her group that pretty much shot down any attempt to hold a second vote in those two states that WOULD allow delegates to be seated in the convention, believing that since she won those states by hook or by crook that she should be allowed to HAVE those delegates backing her in the convention. She has been shrieking about the national party “disenfranchising” voters… even though her groups has had more to do with that than does the national party.

There’s even talk of Clinton pulling “a Lieberman”, which means to run as an independent candidate, much like Joe Lieberman did in 2006 when he lost in his state’s primary and ran for his own re-election against the Dems. That would certainly fragment the Democrats much like they were in 1860 when the issue of slavery split their party in half and Abraham Lincoln and the Republicans first scored their official win.

And the longer that her people and Obama’s people are busy snipping away at each other, the more polarized the factions are getting within the party. Now voters are talking about actually voting for a REPUBLICAN or not bothering to vote at all if either Hillary or Obama become the nominee.

Now it’s one thing to hear that sort of talk from the Republicans… the conservatives have long held a ruthless control of their fictional “big tent” party, and they have made it clear that they really DO NOT want the presumptive candidate, Senator John McCain, to become president. That, of course, has led to neo-con talking heads to vow to vote for HILLARY (but not for Obama) in November.

But let’s get brutally honest here… the 2008 Presidential Election is the Democrat Party’s election TO LOSE! It’s been that way since McCain picked up the Bush Imperium’s banner and ran with it as the unofficial “third term”. It’s a losing strategy because the voters are sick and tired of hearing fear-mongering masquerading as policy, especially when they’re hearing it amidst a sinking economy. They are HUNGRY for change, they are THIRSTY for an alternative, and the Democrats are in prime position to capitalize on that IF they can provide someone who IS that alternative and not just claiming to be one. The voters heard that in 2006 and ended up with a lemon of a Congress in 2007.

In truth, my friends, the atmosphere is ripe for a THIRD PARTY or INDEPENDENT candidate to come in, but that is a subject for a different time. Right now we’re looking at the Democrats and their viability in the short run, and right now that viability is about as strong as the US Dollar.

That probably explains why the talking heads are also floating a few alternatives around. The Obama-Clinton or Clinton-Obama idea is pretty much a dead subject as neither candidate want to be the co-star, so they are talking about possibly talking former Vice-President and 2000 wannabe Al Gore into being the “dark horse” candidate for the party. Maybe third-tier wannabe John Edwards could be “the uniter”? How about New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg? He just stepped away from an independent run. How about a bi-partisan ticket? A Democrat with a Republican running mate?

Unfortunately all of these ideas are ultimately meaningless if it doesn’t involve one Senator Hillary Rodham-Clinton. This is HER ruthless ambition that we are talking about here. Everything that she has gone through since 1992 has ALL been the groundwork for her to become THE FIRST Woman President of the United States of America. Every pain that she endured… all of the allegations made against her and her husband… all of the embarrassing moments of her husband’s peccadilloes either alleged or proven… her claims of being the “co-president”… the careers and bodies that have piled up since 1993… her entire career as a United States Senator for a state that she didn’t even LIVE in before 2000… have ALL led her to THIS campaign. Right now. 2008.

And SHE WILL BE DAMNED if anyone or anything gets in her way! That is the message that the Democrats are being told. This is HER campaign. HERS. Not the Democrats. Rules don’t matter! Laws don’t matter! VOTES matter, and specifically VOTES FOR HER.

And as long as that is the message being given, that the party is there for HER and not the other way around, then not only will she ENDANGER the chances of the Democrats to win in a race that is theirs to lose, but she could very well be the fracture that splits the Democrats apart and eventually KILLS it as a political party.

Will Hillary Clinton kill the Democrats? Well the only one who can truly answer that question is the one wearing the pantsuit and pearls. As long as she places HER ambitions and HER desires over the party that she claims to cherish, she could very well be the one that costs them far more than just the election.


text:
11 Best Blogging Platforms & Why You Must Use WordPress

best-blogging-platformsThere are a ridiculous number of blogging platforms.

What platform should you use for your blog?

In this post, I’ll break down:

What is a Blogging Platform?

A blogging platform is a CMS (content management system). It takes much of the manual work of site creation and maintenance. The software will tie all of your posts and pages together into an easy-to-navigate site – both for you and your readers.

Many new bloggers start off with Blogger. It is easy, free and linked to their Goggle/ Gmail account. But if you are planning on starting an income blogdon’t use Blogger.

Here is a breakdown of the top eleven blogging platforms:

11 Best Blogging Platforms

These platforms are listed as “best” because of their popularity. In my opinion, there is only one blogging platform for business: WordPress. See more on WordPress below this list.

  1. {Free} A self-hosted WordPress blog is the choice of 11 of the top 20 blogs worldwide. In my opinion this is the best platform for blogging and online business. See a detailed list at the end of this post. Use
  2. {Free} While it might sound like the same thing, it is actually very different. Unless you signup for their premium packages ($1000’s / month) this tool is limited. While it is the best option for a free/family blog, this isn’t a good choice for an income blog. Avoid for business.
  3. Blogger: {Free} Owned by Google, this tool is popular because it is easy to setup. It looks bad and has almost no ability to customize or monetize. Avoid this platform.
  4. SquareSpace: {Pay} While I have never used SquareSpace, it looks like a great tool. They offer solid hosting, ecommerce capability and costs begin at $10/month for 1 product or $20/month for up to a 20 product store. Because of limited expansion and customization this platform is not recommended.
  5. Moveable Type: {Pay} Pricing starts at $595 for up to five users. For unlimited users price increases to $1,195. I’m not sure why someone would purchase this when a superior platform (WordPress) is available for free. I like the looks of the tool, but if you want a stable, premium CMS – why pay for something that you can get for free? Avoid.
  6. Joomla: {Free} Very popular here in Ecuador, Joomla is a great choice if you like ugly, animated websites. From what I have seen, you need to be well trained to do anything with this software  – and even then the results range from disappointing to sad. Avoid.
  7. Drupal: {Free} Similar to Joomla. Avoid.
  8. TypePad: {Pay} Without doubt, the most popular TypePad blog is run by marketer Seth Godin. It is a minimalist design and a stable platform. If you want your blog to be separate from your site you can use TypePad. Otherwise you should use a platform that properly integrates both into one. Costs from from $8.95 – $49.95 per month. Not recommended.
  9. Tumblr: {Free} Great for microblogging and for curating related photos of your favorite topic this is not a business blogging platform. Avoid.
  10. LiveJournal: {Free} Another popular yet pointless blogging platform. Much like Tumblr, LiveJournal happily allows you to blog on their domain and help build their domain authority. This might be great as a hobby, but if you are going to start a business, you need to own your own content and your domain authority. Avoid.
  11. Weebly: {Free + Pay} This service has improved dramatically over the past few years. You can build a custom site for free, although the premium options will give you more flexibility and a more professional look. Might be good for photographers or someone who needs a brochure style site. Not recommended.

Why You Must Use WordPress

If you want to run an online business, you need to consider WordPress.

Here are 5 reasons why:

  1. Popularity: Because of its popularity, users know how to find their way around WordPress. The menus, sidebars and footers are generally the same across the hundreds of WordPress themes – making it easy for site users to navigate. This is an important factor to consider. If a reader cannot easily find what they are looking for (or figure out the menus) then they won’t stay around – resulting in an opportunity lost. Check out the top 21 Premium WordPress themes.
  2. Stability: WordPress is popular for one primary reason. It is stable. This means that it just works. It is fast and almost never crashes.
  3. Cost: WordPress is free. You will have to purchase hosting (I recommend starting with HostGator) and a theme (I recommend premium Thesis or Genesis). Or you can use one of the free themes that comes with WordPress to get started.
  4. Flexibility: Because of the huge number of plugins (small programs that run inside of WordPress) you can easily optimize your site to improve conversions, social sharing, monetization and navigation.
  5. Great Documentation / Training: This is no small matter. You will have questions. Without proper documentation, how will you get answers? has a free forum that is very active where you can get many questions answered. But because of it’s popularity, there are hundreds of bloggers that create tutorials and answer questions for WordPress issues. Here are a few books that cover WordPress tutorials.

The best web hosts offer an auto install for WordPress. You get the benefit of without having to manually upload and install the software on your server.

What should you do next? Visit HostGator and setup your new WordPress blog now.

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An Article By -

Bryan Haines is a Canadian living in Cuenca Ecuador with his wife (Dena) and daughter (Drew). They created two advertising agencies and sold them both, the last one just one month before moving their family to South America in July 2009. He is founder of and co-founder of Gringos Abroad.

{ 30 comments… add one }

  • verah June 18, 2015, 8:37 am

    Doesn’t Blogger have AdSense

  • L May 13, 2015, 8:03 am

    funny how you state in your title “11 best blogging platforms” but then you proceed to only praise one and completely bash the other 10 and tell us to avoid them. what happened to the “best platforms” part of the article?

    • Bryan Haines May 14, 2015, 8:36 am

      As I stated in the intro to the post, “best” is based on their popularity. And while many of these are great for other applications, self-hosted WordPress is the best option for business.

  • Aconner Alex November 29, 2014, 9:26 pm

    Thanks awesome post. but as a web designer I have to say that Tumbler is the best Blogging platform in terms of usability and ease of use

    • Bryan Haines November 29, 2014, 10:52 pm

      But what about design and monetization?

  • Anurag kumar November 19, 2014, 1:15 pm

    Great list. There are so many blogging platforms I wasn’t aware of. I like WordPress, blogger and Tumblr. I don’t think Jommla and drupal are blogging platforms they do support blogging but they are not just for blogging. They are quite complex and they are just better for making websites. Thanks for the list.

  • Mira Steward November 19, 2014, 4:17 am

    Times ago started blogging with Tumblr and didn’t expect it to engross me so much. Presently I try to do my blogging more seriously with WordPress which indeed is more customizable and allows a total control over the content. The platform is definitely the most unbeatable blogging software that allows even the greenest of minds run a professional blog. I managed to convert to WP without any scripts (which are a real nightmare for me) using the cms2cms online converter.

  • Amit Bhatia November 12, 2014, 10:52 pm

    I recently started blogging and while looking up how to improve my blogs and site, I just came across your website and and after reading this article, removed any apprehensions about using as my blogging platform.

    It could take initially a few days to get used to a new platform but I believe that would be the case with any platform you go with.

    • Bryan Haines November 13, 2014, 11:26 am

      Absolutely. It can be confusing at first, but there really is just one right choice for a professional blog.

  • John @ Pnr Check September 15, 2014, 11:14 pm

    After leaving blogger, i moved on to WordPress and since then i am using and i am pretty much satisfied. Now, i am expert in WordPress, so i have no plan to leave this platform. I have heard of Drupal, Joomla and other platform too but I love to stick to WordPress because now i am become use to it.

  • Ashish Ajani August 23, 2014, 1:04 am

    I like the way you shown reasons to use WordPress and it is my favorite blogging platform along side with Tumblr and LiveJournal. Great stuff.

  • Maggie May's Gifts May 29, 2014, 1:39 pm

    Thanks for another great article.
    Are you familiar with doing the switch from to
    I’ve heard it can be tedious and have some glitches. I am nervous to try it myself and have come across a company that says they do it for free but not sure what the catch is.
    Just curious if you had any opinions or advice about getting switched over. Thanks!!

    • Bryan Haines May 29, 2014, 3:48 pm

      I have plans to produce a tutorial about the switch. I would be careful about giving site access to an unknown company.

  • Anders Jensen May 28, 2014, 6:47 am

    Great article! We are running a small blog in three languages. We are trying set it all up i Wrodpress but so far it is A LOT of work! My fear is that with every upgrade in WP we will have issues… We have implemented the WPML tool but we are still FAR away from a launch on that platform. The “look, feel and interaction” is not easy to get exactly right. We might be extremely difficult, I don’t know… If I could combine my 5 favourite templates by just drag and drop I would be happy… I agree that all the work eventually should pay off. Wordpress is great in ONE language, but one of our unique selling points is in fact the multi language bit.

    • Bryan Haines May 28, 2014, 7:11 am

      Interesting project. We considered publishing our blog in two languages and decided against it because of complications. This is something we would like to do in the future – because it reaches a larger audience with (essentially) the same content.

      Have you considered running them as separate blogs, but on the same domain? You could just use three installations of WordPress – one for each language. Install the principal language in the domain root and the other two in a subdomain. or and then you could also translate the url of each post.

      I checked out your site and it looks good.

      • Anders Jensen October 26, 2014, 1:11 pm

        We ended up going for Squarespace and it really works flawless. Yes, there are some limitations but overall I can live with them for now. Three languages are not easy to maintain in Wordpress as the plugins are not always working exactly like they should. Squarespace is the best choice for us right now…

        • Bryan Haines October 29, 2014, 8:36 am

          Glad to hear that it’s working out for you. It’s good to know that Squarespace can handle multiple languages.

          I love how seamless the language integration is on your site. Well done!

  • Jay Lickus May 27, 2014, 10:47 pm

    I have been using the free Weebly D & D for over a year with virtually no problems. Although the support is outsourced to India ( I guess based on the names used in comments ) they are responsive and quick. They have tweaked and added some widgets and the like to help me with my analytics and SEO that were not part of the original platform which was very helpful. Although there are a few things I would like to do that are beyond the free platform capabilities I would have to say that I am happy overall.

  • Geri J. May 27, 2014, 2:58 pm

    One of your main criteria for a blog platform seems to be the ability to monetize it. I have no intention of ever monetizing my blog and don’t do anything fancy. Therefore Blogger works well for me and for others who need a simple text-oriented platform to which you can add some images. And, while some of their templates are a design nightmare, they do have simple formats that get the job done without offending the eye.

    I did try WordPress a couple of years ago and found that even though I am not techphobic, it was too much trouble to get it to play well with my Mac. To use WordPress, I would have had to hire a web designer who could set it up so I could maintain it and update my blog entries. As my blog needs are simple, it seemed like WordPress would be like using Thor’s hammer to pound a penny nail.

    As a blog reader, my main problem with the monetized blogs (and even some major websites) is that there are now so many tracking mechanisms and “opportunities” to buy stuff built in that the sites can take forever to load. Once load times approach the old AOL browser times, I stop following them. It’s just too much trouble. Ditto for blogs and sites that do not understand how to compress their photos for the Web. Those big direct download photos also take forever to load and also are seriously annoying.

    So, while I agree that WordPress is a good platform for those who intend more complicated blog uses, for those who merely wish a text-based format with limited photo inclusion, Blogger can work just fine.

    • Bryan Haines May 27, 2014, 3:13 pm

      You make a very good point. If someone just wants to blog as a hobby or for family and friends the blogging platform isn’t all that important. For hobby blogs, I think that the free version of is the best option. You can avoid the technical issues with self hosted WordPress and still get the stable and attractive look of WordPress.

      While some bloggers try to monetize by filling the site with ads and offers, to really make money from a blog it needs to be fast and user-friendly. This post (and site) focus on making money from your site – actually making it a business. This doesn’t mean being spammy, but in offering a solid product supported by great content. To properly monetize a blog, there is a need to consider usability first – because without users, the business will fail.

      Thanks for your thoughtful comment!

  • ricardo schillaci May 27, 2014, 12:57 pm

    Great post. Thanks!

  • Ryetr May 27, 2014, 12:07 pm

    Thanks for your great articles. I always appreciate your candid sharing. I do want to change sites for my blog, but I am concerned about losing all of the 75 blog posts that already are posted on Blogspot. I have not had any luck finding someone to help me with this, but I intend to keep trying. On Blogspot since their update last year in April I have only had one comment vs many each blog in the past and I do not have any new followers even though I have over 10,000 hits on my site world wide.

    What type of training or expertise should a person have to do this? Shouldn’t a person who builds websites understand or would they be able to link so that the other blogs show up?

    Thanks so much. I love your family’s blogs!

    • Bryan Haines May 27, 2014, 12:25 pm

      We’ve heard the same issue from other readers. I am going to look into this and publish a tutorial about how to do it.

      Thanks for your feedback on our sites!

  • Pijush Mitra May 27, 2014, 11:29 am

    Very good analysis on why self-hosted WordPress is the best blogging platform.

  • Mi Muba May 27, 2014, 10:12 am

    Hey Bryan Haines
    thanks for sharing such a wonderful list.
    You are right there is no match of WordPress with rest of the blogging platforms because of diversity in convenience, comfort and simplicity. All bloggers are not much techie that is why they want a platform easy to handle and for that WordPress is the best one.
    Thanks again to write such a great list.

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text: Comments on: Beyond: Discussing the latest on player safety is the official Big Ten sports site of TV's Big Ten Network. Sat, 29 Aug 2015 22:32:01 +0000 hourly 1 By: Cosmo Kraemer Wed, 20 Nov 2013 01:11:14 +0000 Shame on you…while commenting on the great running backs in the BT this year you praised Abdullah of NE and Gordon of WI for hitting 1300 yds already and then mentioned that a group of 4 others who have a chance at 1000 yds each before season’s end. How can you forget…not even mention, James White from the Badgers who’s almost at the 1200 yd mark. And you consider your staff to be Big 10 knowledgeable?


text:
College football is likely weak on steroids

View Slideshow Request to buy this photo
Marcio Jose Sanchez | Associated Press
As a backup running back at Hawaii in 2004, Bryan Maneafaiga used steroids in order to get an edge.
By Associated Press  •

WASHINGTON — With steroids easy to buy, testing weak and punishments inconsistent, college football players are packing on significant weight — 30 pounds or more in a single year, sometimes — without drawing much attention from their schools or the NCAA in a sport that earns billions of dollars for teams.

Rules vary so widely that, on any given game day, a team with a strict no-ster-oid policy can face a team whose players have repeatedly tested positive.

An investigation by the Associated Press — based on dozens of interviews with players, testers, dealers and experts and an analysis of weight records for more than 61,000 players — revealed that while those running the multibillion-dollar sport believe the problem is under control, that is hardly the case.

The sport’s near-zero rate of positive steroids tests isn’t an accurate gauge among athletes. Random tests provide weak deterrence and, by design, fail to catch every player using steroids. Colleges also are reluctant to spend money on expensive steroid testing when cheaper ones for drugs such as marijuana allow them to say they’re doing everything they can to keep drugs out of football.

“It’s nothing like what’s going on in reality,” said Don Catlin, an anti-doping pioneer who spent years conducting the NCAA’s laboratory tests at UCLA. He became so frustrated with the college system that it drove him in part to leave the testing industry to focus on anti-doping research.

Catlin said the collegiate system, in which players often are notified days before a test and many schools don’t even test for steroids, is designed to not catch dopers. That artificially reduces the number of positive tests and keeps schools safe from embarrassing drug scandals.

Doug Calland, head trainer for the Ohio State football team, said the Buckeyes take such testing seriously.

“We test often, and we test for all the other stuff (performance enhancement and recreational drugs) out there as well,” Calland said. “As for ster-oids, we have a consistent procedure (of random testing), and we’ll actually target some guys that we think might be questionable or whatever.”

With 48 hours’ notice, “The NCAA came in and tested 20 of our guys just a couple of weeks ago on the performance stuff,” Calland said. “We haven’t had a problem.”

As for weight gain, there were no remarkable leaps among the Buckeyes in the past year. For example, linebacker Ryan Shazier did go from a playing weight of about 212 pounds as a freshman in 2011 to about 225 pounds, something Shazier attributes to the program he was put on by the team’s nutritionist.

“The way we train now, it’s almost the opposite of big-volume, heavy lifting and that type of stuff,” Calland said. “It’s more an emphasis on speed work, agility and those kinds of things.”

While other major sports have been beset by revelations of steroid use, college football has operated with barely a whiff of scandal. Between 1996 and 2010 — the era of Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, Marion Jones and Lance Armstrong — the failure rate for NCAA steroid tests fell even closer to zero from an already low rate of less than 1 percent.

The AP’s investigation, drawing upon more than a decade of official rosters from all 120 Football Bowl Subdivision teams, found thousands of players quickly putting on significant weight, even more than their fellow players. The information compiled included players who appeared for multiple years on the same teams, making it the most-comprehensive data available.

For decades, scientific studies have shown that anabolic steroid use leads to an increase in body weight. Weight gain alone doesn’t prove steroid use, but very rapid weight gain is one factor that would be deemed suspicious, said Kathy Turpin, senior director of sport drug testing for the National Center for Drug Free Sport, which conducts tests for the NCAA and more than 300 schools.

Yet the NCAA has never studied weight gain or even considered it in regard to its steroid-testing policies, said Mary Wilfert, the NCAA’s associate director of health and safety. She would not speculate on the cause of such rapid weight gain.

The NCAA attributes the decline in positive tests to its year-round drug-testing program, combined with anti-drug education and testing conducted by schools.

“The effort has been increasing, and we believe it has driven down use,” Wilfert said.

But the analysis found that, regardless of school, conference and won-loss record, many players gained weight at exceptional rates compared with their fellow athletes and while accounting for their heights. The documented weight gains could not be explained by the amount of money schools spent on weight rooms, trainers and other football expenses.

Adding more than 20 or 25 pounds of lean muscle in a year is nearly impossible through diet and exercise alone, said Dan Benardot, director of the Laboratory for Elite Athlete Performance at Georgia State University.

In nearly all but the rarest cases of weight gain in the study, players were offensive or defensive linemen, hulking giants who tower above 6 feet 3 inches and weigh 300 pounds or more. Four of those players interviewed said that they never used steroids and gained weight through dramatic increases in eating, up to six meals a day. Two said they were aware of other players using steroids.

The study found that more than 4,700 players — or about 7 percent of all players — gained more than 20 pounds overall in a single year. It was common for the athletes to gain 10, 15 and up to 20 pounds in their first year under a rigorous regimen of weightlifting and diet. Others gained 25, 35 and 40 pounds in a season. In roughly 100 cases, players packed on as much as 80 pounds in a single year.

In at least 11 instances, players identified as packing on significant weight in college went on to fail NFL drug tests. But pro football’s confidentiality rules make it impossible to know for certain which drugs were used and how many others failed tests that never became public.

Looking only at the most significant weight-gainers, however, would ignore players such as Bryan Maneafaiga.

In the summer of 2004, Maneafaiga was an undersized 180-pound running back trying to make the Hawaii football team. Twice — once in the preseason and once in the fall — he failed school drug tests, showing up positive for marijuana use. What surprised him was that the same tests turned up negative for steroids.

He’d started injecting stanozolol, a steroid, in the summer to help bulk up to a roster weight of 200 pounds. Once on the team, where he saw only limited playing time, he would occasionally inject the milky liquid into his buttocks the day before games.

“Food and good training will only get you so far,” he said.

Players are far more likely to be tested for drugs by their schools than by the NCAA. But while many schools have policies that give them the right to test for steroids, they often opt not to. Schools are much more focused on street drugs such as cocaine and marijuana. Depending on how many tests a school orders, each steroid test can cost $100 to $200, while a simple test for street drugs might cost as little as $25.

The top steroid investigator at the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, Joe Rannazzisi, said he doesn’t understand why schools don’t invest in the same kind of testing, with the same penalties, as the NFL. The NFL has a thorough testing program for most drugs, though the league has yet to resolve a long-simmering feud with its players union about how to test for human growth hormone.

“Is it expensive? Of course, but college football makes a lot of money,” Rannazzisi said. “Invest in the integrity of your program.”

For a school to test all 85 scholarship football players for steroids twice a season would cost up to $34,000, Catlin said, plus the cost of collecting and handling the urine samples. That’s about 0.2 percent of the average big-time-school football budget of about $14 million. Testing all athletes in all sports would make the school’s costs higher.

When schools ask Drug Free Sport for advice on their drug policies, Turpin said she recommends an immediate suspension after the first positive drug test. Otherwise, she said, “student-athletes will roll the dice.”

But drug use is a bigger deal at some schools than others.

At Notre Dame and Alabama, the teams that soon will compete for the national championship, players don’t automatically miss games for testing positive for ster-oids. At Alabama, coaches have wide discretion. Notre Dame’s student-athlete handbook says a player who fails a test can return to the field once the steroids are out of his system.

There are schools with tough policies. North Carolina kicks players off the team after a single positive test for steroids. Auburn’s student-athlete handbook calls for a half-season suspension for any athlete caught using performance-enhancing drugs.

Steroids are not hard to find. A simple Internet search turns up countless online sources for performance-enhancing drugs, mostly from overseas companies.

Maneafaiga, the former Hawaii running back, said his steroids came from Mexico. A friend in California, who was a coach at a junior college, sent them through the mail. But Maneafaiga thinks the consequences were nagging injuries. He found religion, quit the drugs and became the team’s chaplain.

“God gave you everything you need,” he said. “It gets in your mind. It will make you grow unnaturally. Eventually, you’ll break down. It happened to me every time.”

At the DEA, Rannazzisi said he has met with and conducted training for investigators and top officials in every professional sport.

He said he has offered similar training to the NCAA but never heard back.Dispatch sports reporter Tim May contributed to this story.


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     04:25  Pokémon in South Korea (diff | hist) . . (+1,596). . Nick15 (Talk | contribs) (History: Added Se-jun Park's 2014 Worlds win to show the growth of Pokémon's popularity in Korea, also moved one paragraph to a new section)


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User talk:XxXcharmanderXxX

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Revision as of 04:51, 16 February 2009 by XxXcharmanderXxX (Talk | contribs) (Great Idea!)

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Welcome to my talk page!

Things to talk to me about:
  • Nag at me for basic things, like using the wrong template, linking something incorrectly, or anything like that. I don't mind nagging. It's constructive criticism.
  • Talk to me about Pokémon! I like Pokémon...
  • Anything else, as long as it doesn't get anyone in trouble.

Remember, you don't have to spell out my whole username. "Charmander" will do.

NO ONE BUT ME CAN TOUCH THIS BLUE BOX! Thank you. --XxXcharmanderXxX 04:32, 28 December 2008 (UTC)

Bulbapedia logo.png
Welcome to Bulbapedia, XxXcharmanderXxX!

As a new user, you may wish to learn a few things that will be useful in your editing:
Getting started
Policies and guidelines
Other helpful links
  • A list of administrators that you can contact in case of a problem can be found here.
  • On talk pages, please sign your comments with four tildes (~~~~).
  • To upload images, please use the Bulbagarden Archives. To activate your account at the Archives, please login there using the same username and password you use here on Bulbapedia. This may also be used to activate an account at Bulbanews.
  • If you wish to make a page for a character you made up, please do so at User:XxXcharmanderXxX/Name.
Thank you, and have a good time editing here! --PsychicRider 03:51, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon

I can see you're a Dungeon lover. The truth is... I'm one, too! The storyline really hooked me; I felt like I was the Pokémon I was playing, which, at the time, was Pikachu.

I also play Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time. I'm even constructing a special team for when I go to Wi-Fi.

Have fun on the 'Pedia! SharKing Happy New Year! 16:11, 27 December 2008 (UTC)

Is PMD2 a good game? Hmm... I might consider getting one of the versions now... Thanks. I'll try to "have fun"! --XxXcharmanderXxX 21:32, 27 December 2008 (UTC)
Oh, you play the original? Yay! I'm not alone!--Cassandra Teh Kkllnnator K 21:35, 27 December 2008 (UTC)
Haha, alone? I love the original! It only took me two days to beat story mode. --XxXcharmanderXxX 21:38, 27 December 2008 (UTC)

Oh, PMD2 is a real good game, especially when you face Primal Dialga... The music is epic. シャーキング 私に相談してください。 自分の編集を参照してください。 03:44, 28 December 2008 (UTC)

I was just a little concerned about getting it because I heard that it was more about finding treasures, and not really rescuing Pokémon... And rescuing Pokémon was the reason I liked the game. Actually, finding treasures really stressed me out. I guess I should probably read the PMD2 article. --XxXcharmanderXxX 03:59, 28 December 2008 (UTC)
It is heavily based on treasure hunting, but there is some rescue, most notably the Crevice Cave mission. シャーキング 私に相談してください。 自分の編集を参照してください。 04:39, 28 December 2008 (UTC)
Thanks for the info, Sharpedo. I think I might actually get the game now! Oh, and why the long name in some other language that I can't read? Japanese? --XxXcharmanderXxX 04:58, 28 December 2008 (UTC)
It's some Japanese I Googled up. The "user" link is my username in katakana, the "talk" link means "Please talk to me," amd the "edit" link means "Please see my edits." シャーキング 私に相談してください。 自分の編集を参照してください。 17:04, 28 December 2008 (UTC)
0_0 Oh, okay! At first, I didn't realize you were the same person. I had to put my mouse above the text to find out it was still you =P --XxXcharmanderXxX 20:51, 28 December 2008 (UTC)

Talk Page Comments

Please don't erase talk page comments for no reason. Trust me, you do NOT want to end up like Big Johnno, who got into an edit war with a sysop over comments the former had erased and was trying to keep erased. That user ended up blocked and subsequently had every erased comment restored. ----Cassandra Teh Kkllnnator K 20:53, 27 December 2008 (UTC)

I'm sorry! I didn't know that I did! I corrected a grammar mistake that I made because I'm very picky about it, but I don't think I erased a comment. If I did erase something, what did I erase? --XxXcharmanderXxX 20:58, 27 December 2008 (UTC)
The welcome, but its backDCM((曲奇饼妖怪Spy on My Edits))
Go ahead and reformat the page if you want, but KEEP THE WELCOME TEMPLATE THEIR!!!♥--Cassandra Teh Kkllnnator K 21:01, 27 December 2008 (UTC)
I don't want to sound smart-alecky, but... What's it for?? I read all those pages it said I should read, like about wiki code, and if I need to go back to them, I can just find them again. --XxXcharmanderXxX 21:04, 27 December 2008 (UTC)
Okay, and now it's back. Is someone putting it there? What do I need it for? --XxXcharmanderXxX 21:06, 27 December 2008 (UTC)
Its against the rules to delete TP comments. Your not suppose to do that.--Cassandra Teh Kkllnnator K 21:07, 27 December 2008 (UTC)
You Read it :O. It stays there on princible. If you can remove that, why cant you remove other comments? Then we fall into a spiral and everything breaks because some users Take Advantage of itDCM((曲奇饼妖怪Spy on My Edits))
You linkt wrong. There's no "the" in JohnnyRebel. (off-topic comment)--Cassandra Teh Kkllnnator K 21:10, 27 December 2008 (UTC)
Wait, so what's a TP? And why don't other peoples' talk pages have the welcome template? I'm sorry of I sound stupid. I really am new! --XxXcharmanderXxX 21:12, 27 December 2008 (UTC)

TP=Talk page. They don't have the welcome template because they registered eleventy years ago, before {{welcome}} was introduced. And two of them are vandals. Vandals have the ability to make admins want to delete their talk pages.--Cassandra Teh Kkllnnator K 21:14, 27 December 2008 (UTC)

Or they archive alot. I tend to welcome my self after each archive thoughDCM((曲奇饼妖怪Spy on My Edits))
Oh, so that sucks =P That means that everyone who made an account after Bulbapedia put the welcome template on everyone's page is forced to keep it there forever?? --XxXcharmanderXxX 21:16, 27 December 2008 (UTC)
Archive your page when it gets too large. I dont see why people dislike itDCM((曲奇饼妖怪Spy on My Edits))
Yes, but you can do what the dark trombone did and archive it...alone... which is a waste of an archive--Cassandra Teh Kkllnnator K 21:21, 27 December 2008 (UTC)
So... What's an archive? LOl, I feel stupid. I probably should know that! --XxXcharmanderXxX 21:23, 27 December 2008 (UTC)
It's when your talk page becomes fat and you move it so that users with sucky computers don't crash them trying to save 5, 000, 000 KB of information.--Cassandra Teh Kkllnnator K 21:25, 27 December 2008 (UTC)
So it's separating a into different sections. Okay, this is starting to make sense. But what does that have to do with the welcome template? --XxXcharmanderXxX 21:27, 27 December 2008 (UTC)

I half no idea... DCM brought it up. And if by "separating a into different sections" you mean "move it to a desolate place in the User talk: namespace, never to be touched again", then yes.--Cassandra Teh Kkllnnator K 21:30, 27 December 2008 (UTC)

If you really dislike the welcome template, you can be an asshole an archive it singulary, or wait until your talk page exceeds 33 KB and then archive it.DCM((曲奇饼妖怪Spy on My Edits))
...Just like the the dark trombone.--Cassandra Teh Kkllnnator K 21:33, 27 December 2008 (UTC)
Ugh, so I guess this conversation is no longer helping! Whatever. People who can't load pages bigger than 33kb need to get better computers. I guess I'll just deal with the welcome template staying there... Forever. I don't really care, anyway. --XxXcharmanderXxX 21:35, 27 December 2008 (UTC)
Hmm. I was bored so I was checking out of your blog but it didnt let me comment....foiled againDCM((曲奇饼妖怪Spy on My Edits))
Lol, I don't mind! That's why it's there. Boring life, right? --XxXcharmanderXxX 03:56, 28 December 2008 (UTC)
Five posts. Tch. Its certainly colorful, not boring. Colors burn thoughDCM((曲奇饼妖怪Spy on My Edits))
Thanks. Wait... The colors "burn through"? What's that supposed to mean? --XxXcharmanderXxX 04:14, 28 December 2008 (UTC)
Just me exxagerating... basically its colorful, which is a good thing. Longer posts help.Big Font only lasts so long before the reader gets tiredDCM((曲奇饼妖怪Spy on My Edits))
Thank you! Glad you think it's colorful. --XxXcharmanderXxX 04:38, 28 December 2008 (UTC)
No problem. Updates help though. I even figured out how to comment. that will be allDCM((曲奇饼妖怪Spy on My Edits))
If you guys are interested, the asshole's welcome template isn't alone any more. He moved all his old posts to that page a while ago. I don't see why it will be a problem doing it this way; I just thank god that my page fills up slower than TTE. And congrats, KKllnn, a lot of people don't get the trombone reference! *high five* — THE TROM — 04:45, 28 December 2008 (UTC)
It was, which is just pure stupidity and hardheadness.DCM((曲奇饼妖怪Spy on My Edits))
Haha, everyone's using my talk page as a chatbox. --XxXcharmanderXxX 04:48, 28 December 2008 (UTC)
Btw, Charmander, Lion King and Heroes are your favorites? you are my heroDCM((曲奇饼妖怪Spy on My Edits))
Well I'm sorry for being allergic to the wall of text that the welcome used to be. The new one is much cleaner and nicer. I'd put it back there, if I wanted it. It's much more fun having tags there that make I think I hate you all :D *cough four tildes cough* — THE TROM — 04:50, 28 December 2008 (UTC)
~~~~It was obnoxius to remove it. now lets move this conversation elsewhere, a chatroom or the forums. Thank you for your patience CharmanderDCM((曲奇饼妖怪Spy on My Edits))
Umm... Yeah. Lion King II. Your hero? Sure, okay. And, Trombone, I totally hate that welcome box, too! I don't know if someone will nag at me if I move it, though. --XxXcharmanderXxX 04:54, 28 December 2008 (UTC)
We will. One thing about BP editors: we love nagging. Anyway, the welcome you got is actually an upgrade over the wall of text we had a few months ago, which is what Trombone got. --Marton(I'm Jewish)imos 05:05, 28 December 2008 (UTC)
Well, then I guess I'm lucky to not have gotten that wall of text! Like I said before, the welcome template is going to get on my nerves, but I'll just have to deal with it. --XxXcharmanderXxX 05:09, 28 December 2008 (UTC)
Hey, with the odd talk page chat going on you can archive early...RexRacer -talk 05:12, 28 December 2008 (UTC)
Let me add to that by putting out an all-points bulletin: call me Trom, guys. It just sounds cooler :D hehehe — THE TROM — 05:15, 28 December 2008 (UTC)
If this amount of chat keeps up, I might have to! I'm looking for an article to improve, then I get another message that says I have "new messages." This... Is... Crazy! --XxXcharmanderXxX 05:26, 28 December 2008 (UTC)

Link Templates

Wow. I applaud you for using not only basic, but more advanced link templates in your edits. Considering you have barely been around for half a week, I think that this deserves some recognition. Nice job, XxXcharmanderXxX!--RexRacer -talk 03:27, 28 December 2008 (UTC)

Wow, thank you! =) I actually think all of this editing is kind of fun! It's interesting learning all of these HTML codes, and such. Thanks again! --XxXcharmanderXxX 03:36, 28 December 2008 (UTC)
A few issues. It's not necessary to link to Pikachu that many times in one article. I believe the MOS asks for no more than one of the same link per paragraph. Also, don't write out [[Pikachu (Pokémon)|Pikachu]], since {{p|Pikachu}} would get you the same thing easily. Finally, you can use the wp: prefix or just {{wp}} to easily link to Wikipedia articles without external links. Thank you for your contribution! --Marton(I'm Jewish)imos 03:37, 28 December 2008 (UTC)
Ooh, okay! I'll remember that next time! I guess it does kind of get annoying having pikachu linked so many times... I was only trying to be efficient, but if I shouldn't do that, then I wont. Thank you for nagging, I do actually appreciate it! --XxXcharmanderXxX 03:47, 28 December 2008 (UTC)

Pokemon game conspiracy

On the same year you lost your Ruby, I lost FireRed, Sapphire and Emerald. Just days before they all went missing mysteriously, something happened with my Sapphire and it lost all my save data. I loved Sapphire to bits. I had a great team led by a level 100 Swampert, then it glitched. I restarted, but it wasn't the same. Then I lost it along with FireRed & Emerald. It was heartbreaking. Also, near the end of that year, my Nintendogs game glitched too! I lost a beautiful Chihuahua named Lorissa. I got a new one, but she didn't bark the same. I believe DS games conspired againt us that year. Do you?--Pokelova 12:46, 3 January 2009 (UTC)

OMG! Yeah, I bet they did! I really think they all went to the dimension where all of socks that get eaten by the dryer go! Ahh! There's a conspiracy! Actually, we thought that some kid stole it, but we don't know who. I still think it's somewhere around the house, but if I even bring up the topic, my mom tells me it's gone forever... It's horrible! 5 years without my precious Pokémon changed my life. --XxXcharmanderXxX 02:09, 4 January 2009 (UTC)

The bad bit for me is, if my games are still in the house, I just moved 5 weeks ago! I'll never find it! D: Unless its in the furniture! *Rips the couch to peices*--Pokelova 23:27, 5 January 2009 (UTC)

*Sigh* That sucks. I hate it when I lose my games. Actually, I think I did tear open the couch at one point too... Maybe multiple times. I think that when I lost mine, I was in trouble, so I got my Game Boy taken away, and I'm convinced that Ruby is somewhere in my mom's room! --XxXcharmanderXxX 23:53, 5 January 2009 (UTC)

Great Idea!

I'm with you on the idea for the game, I would definitely buy it! Plus, thanks for your compliments on my user tags. Telme 15:53, 3 February 2009 (UTC)

Definately! Imagine it, going through all the regions like Ash... well going through more like Paul if you ask me. Pyles 00:46, 9 February 2009 (UTC)
Lol, thanks! --Charmander -(talk or stalk!) 04:51, 16 February 2009 (UTC)