Please visit Qassia and take a look through the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) and other information about the service (for instance, as you add blurbs of “intel” to the site, you can earn Google Adsense money – if you have given Qassia your Google Adsense ID number).

The more “intel” (intelligence) you add to the site, the more likely your site will be to be listed in more places than just your profile page and on each of your “intel” posts.  This site can be a pretty big boon to your readership with not a whole lot of time and commitment on your part.

I was impressed with it enough after learning about it just today to sign up immediately and give it a try.  It didn’t cost me a thing, so I thought it was worth at least giving it a chance.  I think you will, too, so go to Qassia, learn all about it, and sign up to give it a try!

Namaste,
A. Caleb Hartley

In that vein, I want to point you to a great website that has all sorts of great ideas, articles, and plans to help you and your family live as green as you want to:  Lighter Footstep.

Some of the great articles you may find on this site are (among MANY others):

• How to Plan a “Green the Family” Meeting
• How to Green Your Carpet Cleaning
• How to Become a Composting Guru
• The Simple Secret to Making a Greener World

On that note, I’ll let you go and enjoy your New Year’s Eve.  Have fun, enjoy your friends and/or family, and be careful!  Talk to you in 2009!

Namaste,
A. Caleb Hartley

I just want to give you all a heads up if you happen to notice that env! is down for a bit, this is probably why.  Hostgator has been head and shoulders above my last host in keeping me informed as well as in general reliability.  I can’t recommend them highly enough!

Here’s the email I received:

***

Dear HostGator Client,

We will be performing scheduled maintenance on your server on November 24th @ 10:00 PM CST. During this time we will be upgrading our Apache web server to version 2.2.10 (from 1.3.4x). We will also be upgrading the operating system from CentOS 4.7 to CentOS 5.2.

This upgrade will allow us to provide you with a higher level of performance and security. During the upgrade we will also be installing a new set of mod_security rules which will add to the overall protection our clients websites. We will also be upgrading our firewall software which help deflect distributed denial of service attacks and ensure that your sites are kept functioning at optimal levels.

The server will stay online during this time however while the Apache service is recompiled your websites and your client websites will be unavailable for an estimated 30-45 minutes. During this time an unbranded, generic “Under Maintenance” page will be displayed instead of your normal content.

We have more information located on our forums here:

http://forums.hostgator.com/reseller-apache-2-migration-schedule-t41308.html?p=148175

Please do not reply to this e-mail. If you require assistance or further clarification please contact us via forums, live chat or a support ticket.

Thank you,

HostGator Support

***

Boring, I know, but I’m just happy to have received any notice at all that maintenance was going to be performed and that my site my be down temporarily because of it.  Moving to Hostgator = the best hosting choice I’ve ever made!

Namaste,
A. Caleb Hartley

Need some help deciding who is greenest?  Check out this blog post: http://newsinitiative.org/story/2008/08/28/green_voters_guide_to_the

Namaste,
A. Caleb Hartley

This will give a little more luv to anyone who leaves a comment by adding a link to the commenter’s last blog post (if the commenter is a blogger and enters their blog’s URL when they comment).

So comment away – you’re getting a little more luv each time you do!

Namaste,
A. Caleb Hartley

Check out the post here.

Namaste,
A. Caleb Hartley

Since that time, through no true, particular goals or specific work on my part, environmentastic! has reached a pretty crazy milestone, in my mind: more than 4000 unique visitors in one month (nearly 125,000 hits), exceeding the bandwidth limits I had set for it when I initially created the hosting account (2GB transfer). I upped the bandwidth limit and went to look at my stats:

Exciting, eh? In celebration of this accomplishment, I would like to point out the post that has been bringing in the most traffic: Green Mutual Fund Providers. I had no idea that this post would bring in the kind of traffic it has, and it is still the most often read post on the blog, even though it was posted back on March 11th of 2008. Other posts that discuss similar issues as the above are pretty well-read:

Two Ways to Invest Responsibly

and

Socially Responsible Investing (SRI)

But the Green Mutual Funds Providers post is by far the most read – and is the number two google result for the search phrase: “green mutual funds.”

So since this is a celebration of environmentastic!’s success thus far in its existence, I would like to extend the information I have provided to people about SRI and offer you, my beloved readers, the following gift:

I am going to start researching potential investments in the stock market from an SRI perspective. For a limited time, I will post them here on environmentastic! for your enjoyment and, hopefully, to your retirement and investment benefit! But that’s only part of the gift:

The REALLY exciting part of my gift to you, readers, is that I would like to research and recommend (or not) companies that YOU would like to know more about. So let ‘er rip in the comments! Let me know what investments you think might be good options, and I’ll do some research and make a recommendation!

Keep in mind that I am not an investment adviser professionally, nor am I an expert, but I have a layman’s interest in investing, as well as a passion for and knowledge about the environment and social issues – in other words, “You could do worse.”

Anybody who comments with suggestions of companies to research will also be offered a discount on environmentastic!’s upcoming quarterly investment newsletter… for a limited time, anyway!

Namaste,
A. Caleb Hartley

With all that in mind, below you will find screenshots of the new wordpress templates that I have decided are an option for environmentastic! to change to. At the bottom of this post, you will find a survey asking which of the templates you, my readers, prefer.

Please take a look at each of the options below and then vote for your favorite. You will also notice options for environmentastic! to keep it’s current template, or to take none of the templates. I am debating having a template designed specifically for environmentastic!, but I’m a poor (read cheap) schlub who isn’t making enough money to justify paying a designer just yet… but that will be changing very soon.

Now that that is out of the way – here are the contenders:

OPTION 1 (above – Click to enlarge)

OPTION 2 (above – Click to enlarge)

OPTION 3 (above – Click to enlarge)

OPTION 4 – (above – click to enlarge)

OPTION 5 (above – Click to enlarge)

OPTION 6 (above – Click to enlarge)

Please vote – this is another way for the important people (all of you) to have a little say about what you read and how you read it! Plus – I’m horrible at making decisions…

Namaste,
A. Caleb Hartley

If you vote for “none of the above,” please let me know of any good wordpress designers you know by leaving a comment. If you like more than one – pick the one you like best, but leave a comment telling me which other ones you approve of as well. Thanks for reading, and thanks in advance for your input!

]]> http://www.environmentastic.com/blog/2008/06/16/readers-choose/feed/ 13 http://www.environmentastic.com/blog/2008/04/10/being-scarce/ http://www.environmentastic.com/blog/2008/04/10/being-scarce/#comments Fri, 11 Apr 2008 02:40:12 +0000 A. Caleb Hartley http://www.environmentastic.com/blog/being-scarce/2008/04/10/ I have been scarce recently, and for that I must apologize.

Here’s my explanation (not excuse):

My wife and I have been working on starting a new theatre company in Columbus, Ohio, I have started a new position at my J-O-B (I am now an Enterprise Training Manager working on a company-wide implementation of a new software system), I’ve been flying again, and I have also been brainstorming and designing a new web-based business that complements the Columbus theatre company – Theatre Vault. No description of the idea for Theatre Vault just yet, as I am still in the planning and development stages, but – if you happen to know any playwrights or theatre companies – tell them to get ready. We’ll be beta testing in the near future (I hope).

So with that, I apologize for my absence, both in the past and (as minimally as possible) in the future. I will try to be more consistent from here on out, but knowing how my schedule turns on a dime, you just never know. I’ll do my best.

Namaste,
A. Caleb Hartley