Travel suspended

I have struggled with how to explain that our trip is over and decided to take a line from the politicians who are now getting out of the presidential race. They don't say they quit. They don't say they give up. They say that after discussions with family and supporters they have decided to "suspend" their campaigns. There is a lack of finality in making such a statement and I have no idea what this means to a politician. What it means for this blog is that I am back home and the blog will now go dormant until I take my next trip.

I thought I should add one final picture. I know this looks like the picture I started with, but the car and trailer are pointed in the opposite direction. The driveway at the lake is a little tight for positioning a trailer so I decided I will wait until the drifts melt and I can drive on the grass to position the trailer for departure.

I appreciate your attention to this blog. To tell you the truth, I was surprised so many folks would take an interest. I promise to write more on my next trip.

I have been actively blogging since 2002 and in that time have written thousands of posts. I mostly focus my effort on education. My specific interest is in the role technology can play in education, but as you can probably tell from this blog I end up writing about a lot of things. Access to my content can be found at learningaloud.com.

Thanks again for sharing the ride.

Modern Rest Area

We are in our last day of motoring through Iowa. We do not move quickly because we are pulling a trailer that limits our speed. By this time we are tired of driving and have been taking two-hour shifts.

At one point I see a sign indicating that a "Modern Rest Area" was some 30 miles away. Of course rest area signs are common along interstate highways, but the "modern" was unusual. We are from Iowa. We spent eight years at Iowa State University near the location of the rest area getting our degrees and we began considering just what amenities might be available at a modern rest area that were unique. Flush toilets would be nice, but these have become quite common. Many rest areas have converted from paper towels to those air hand dryers. Most do not work very well. Perhaps modern technology has improved the hand dryer and Iowa has been allowed to be first to roll them out.

Eventually, we arrive and what we found was unique. The rest stop might be described as the Iowa State rest stop along I-35. The rest stop had a decorating theme based on digital computing. The walls had a pattern reminiscent of punch cards. Technology words - memory, digital - were embedded in the walls. The rest stop recognized the role of ISU and John Anatasoff as creators of the first digital computer (labeled as the Anatasoff-Berry computer). I have read many books on the history of digital computing and understand that creator is a unique label that many might contest. Still, as an ISU alum, I am glad I visited the modern rest area.

Tolls and Hawks in Kansas

Why should I have to pay tolls to take Interstate 35 through Kansas. It can't possibly be that I was granted the opportunity to view spectacular scenery. I paid approximately $20 to drive through the state plus the tax money I was charged for food and gas. I lived in North Dakota and then moved to Minnesota and Wisconsin. No tolls in these states. Clearly, Minneapolis is a major metropolitan area with complex highways and congested traffics, but makes no such requirements. The no toll states also have great open spaces that may not have local taxes that would support an expensive transportation project. 

I am thinking Kansans are just cheap and want to take advantage of those needing to get through the state. Perhaps they are irritated few stop. Those of us needing to make the trip should receive special compensation for having the view all of the Rock, chalk, Jayhawks signs. I know from general knowledge that these signs have something to do with basketball, but what about the signs would offer such information. To an outsider, it might seem that signs were touting some staple of the local economy or perhaps advertising the local zoo. It seems that the state bird is some kind of hawk and the local economy may depend on gravel sales. I did see hawks perched on dead trees and hay bales along the interstate. I am interested in raptors, but these "jay" hawks were hardly worth the price of admission.

Cute?

We are waiting at an RV dealer to have the rPod winterized. This process kind of signals the beginning of the end for this trip. We are on the outskirts of San Antonio, but a day's drive north and we will be back in freezing territory again. We are still several days from home, but the next few days will mostly be driving. Winterization amounts to blowing our the water lines and adding antifreeze. Some folks do this themselves. Some folks change their own oil, too. Neither of these tasks is part of my skill set.

While we were walking out of the dealer's office and heading for some food, a couple of ladies stopped us in the parking area and asked if that was our rPod. We said yes. They then asked how we liked it and they added that it was "cute". This seems to be the word people apply to our camper - cute. Over and over - the rPod is unusual and people tell us it is cute. We said that we like it a lot, but feel small when parked next to the other RVs in camping areas. The ladies said that theirs was one of these giants and we thanked them for the shade.

I guess I would rather be called cute than a lot of other things. Cindy thinks they actually mean "hip". Being a hipster is kind of a current thing so I am not sure if she means hip as in hipster or hip as in cool or some similar term from the '60s. Hipster is this kind of studied look that is purposefully created and requires knowledge of what hipsters wear and do. I think our son is on the edge of being a hipster, but he does video and produces for a living so this is probably the thing to be. Hipsters like to think of themselves as "creatives". In contrast, I think of hip as casual, but confident. Hip is being willing to be a little different and not under the influence of the mobs that follow trends. 

That is me all over - confident and a little different. Cute is just fine with me. 

Time to drive again.

[San Antonio]

Am I getting rich?

Am I getting rich from my online content? No

I thought this topic may interest some. It is a little geeky, but may address what you wonder about the ads that appear on the web content you view.

The material I generate does contain ads. The system I use (Blogger) is free and ad revenue is one reason Google provides this resource for free. I also include ads on my content because I am interested in the topic of ad-supported publishing and have the same questions as many others about how much money one can generate by offering free online content.

There are two general types of ad systems - one is based on views and one is based on clicks. The system based on views should be familiar to anyone who sees ads on television or in a newspaper. The individual who purchases an ad in one of these outlets pays a price based on the viewership or readership of the content. The idea, in this case, is that the provider (the newspaper or television station) puts the ad in front of a certain number of people - the more people, the higher price for placing the ad.

The Internet offers a different opportunity. The viewership for a newspaper is only generally known and there is no way to know how many people even read page 7. Internet providers know how many times a given page has been accessed.

Views only pay off when someone has a patron. Someone must agree to pay for views. In contrast, clicks only pay when a viewer clicks to access content. The advertiser knows that someone has looked closely at the ad. Google offers this type of agreement brokering deals with advertisers and this is the system I use.

Our trip blog has been up for about a month so I am providing the data from all my blog content for the past month (see the image appearing below - click to enlarge). My content generated 1476 ad impressions and 7 clicks. I made $2.10. So this total addresses the question of whether or not I am getting rich. All but 8 cents came from our travel blog.

For the most part, the other content I generate (not the travel blog) is fairly serious. I generate content for educators. I understand that my travel comments are likely more entertaining, but I think less useful in the long run. I attribute much of the interest in our travel comments to Facebook. I have included a few links to the travel content from Facebook and this generates a significant amount of interest and more clicks. I have no idea why this is the case.