treasurehawk.biz Blog

I am addicted to building Squidoo pages.  I am adding new content on a daily basis and I try to build a new page every week.  If you would like to see an updated list of my pages then check out my lensmaster page.  I also have a list of my favourite lenses at My Squidoo Page.

I have added a new section and new content to the Sqidoo page Free Stuff Online.  The new section is called Free Online Services.  The following links have been added:

1. DigitalBucket.net – I haven’t used it yet but I know of people who have and they have had good things to say.
2. Memo to Me.com – I have been using this one for a while.  Very excellent free service.
3. Anywhere.fm – I had trouble with this site.  My computer is older and it was taking a long time to load so I closed the window.  So I didn’t actually visit the site.

Also new content has been added to NewGlasgowPortal.com.  We have a dedicated page where you can see the Most Recent Classified Ads and Coupons.

If you read the previous post and found it didn’t make sense it probably won’t.  Well if you think that you need to know more about the business and or other online businesses then you can check out my new business review page.  I have placed MPAM in the not recommended section because I have not made any money there in more than four years.
For more information on:

1. business reviews – How to Waste Money on the Net
2. webpage building – Build Your Own Web Page.

The following is content from a forum that I posted today in the MPAM support forums.  I felt that it might not be allowed to remain there because of the negativity directed towards the program owner.  So to be sure that I get to have my say I have put a copy of my post here.  It probably won’t make sense considering it is a response to a number of other threads posted in the forum.  But it should be considered a warning to all current and future members of MPAM.

Well it looks like all the threads on the Co op and Adsense are closed.  So I started a new thread to have my say.  I am leaving MPAM.  I have requested a payout for what is left in my account and then I am done.

It looks like I have lost $1000 for the Sept. and Oct. Coops. And here are a few points on that:

- I read that we should be satisfied with a Coop that has been profitable for x amount of time.  How so?  $1000 is 10 months profit for someone who bought the max of $500 in each month.  Add that to my monthly fees and that’s $1200+.  So I’ve lost a lot of money over something that was intended to at the very least pay for my membership fees.

- I read that MR says that this is not his fault and we were all warned.  Well how about when I warned him that 20% return was too risky.  He could have sold less shares per coop and individuals could have made $100 in a month without risking $500 to get it.  And I’m sure if you search the forum you will find a post by me stating that.  In my opinion Micheal it is your fault.  If you feel like crap over this situation you certainly should and I hope it sticks around for awhile.

I’m not in a very good frame of mind right now and may have more to say on this later.

Pictou County has a new community portal that may be the cream of the crop.  It’s called New Glasgow Portal.com.  It has a lot of the things that you may expect of a community portal like local business listings, search engine, weather updates, a local blog, community calendar etc.  The main feature of this new portal is a new and unique, very advanced classifieds system that is comparable to Craig’s List.org which is the #1 classifieds in the world.

One of the unique features of this new classifieds which is beneficial to readers and posters is the 10 most recent classifieds section on the home page.  Visitors to the home page will see the 10 most recent classifieds, coupons or calendar postings which have been submitted to New Glasgow Portal.com.

So why should you use the New Glasgow Portal.com classifieds:

• your ad will appear on the front page of the portal for a period of time
• the ads featured on the front page are clickable, so interested visitors can go right to your ad
• interested parties can contact you through our internal email, so you never need to reveal your personal details or email address.

to be continued…

Well I just want to do some quick updates on things I’m doing.

• I added a few new links to the free stuff webpage at Squidoo. It’s called Free Stuff Online. The site I added is a site where you can download and talk about Pulp Fiction. That’s Pulp Fiction as in literature, not the movie. So if you would like to download some free Pulp just visit PocketFiction.com.
• Pictou County Search.com could soon be no more. I have a new Pictou County Community Portal coming online sometime this week. It’s so new I don’t even know the name of it yet. However, you should be able to find it on the following page: Your Home Town Portal.

I use this Google feature called “Google Alerts” to find new and different stuff on the web about Pictou County and other things I’m interested in.  It’s easy to use.  You just type in the thing you are looking for, choose the source you want to get it from, how often you want it and your email address.  Then you will get periodic emails of sites or articles related to your subject.

I have one of my alerts set up for “Pictou County”.  And today’s results included a link to an article about a woman that wrote a book on Pictou County Nicknames and their origins.  The article itself is nothing overly special but it got me to thinking about nicknames.

I have had quite a few nicknames over the years.  I’m not sure exactly how many, but how about a list:

1. Guppy – when I was in Junior High School (WHS), a guy nicknamed Skiddy thought I had big lips, hence I became guppy.  And I was known to my classmates as guppy for quite a few years after that.  I also got gup and gupper.  Luckily a kid a few years behind me had even bigger lips and he became guppy.
2. Woodstock – Another School nickname.  This one from when I was in high school.  I never used to comb my hair after I washed it, so it was always kind of sticking up and frizzy.  That combined with a larger than average nose made me the perfect “Woodstock” to a group of younger guys at school.
3. Ence or Encey – A stupid name that my brother used to call me when we were kids.  I hated it.  He just dropped the first syllable of my name.  How he actually came up with it and why it pissed me off so much…who knows.
4. Terrence Trent Darby – This one morphed into two nicknames: Trent and Darbs.  Old pizza nicknames.  When I first started working in the Pizza business in Pictou County everyone I worked with had a nickname: Stevros, Lovey, Quilly, Ted, Todd, all nicknames.  Not sure where they came from.
5. T, Tman, T Mac, Big Ter, Big T – the obvious ones.
6. Bignose – not a real big fan of that one either.  My nose ain’t that frickin big.  Anyway, that one came from “Stickman” or “Stick” (which I think is a pretty cool nickname).  It was inspired by a Monty Python skit.  I think it was the one where the Roman guys were giving themselves names like: “Biggus Dickus” and “Incontinentia Butickus”.  I’m not sure about the spelling, but you get the idea.  Hilarious by the way if you’ve never indulged in the Python.
7. Super Ter, The Super or just Super – From back in the days of the mobile home in a trailer park in New Glasgow.  Johnny always called me “Super”.  Not really sure where it came from.  My best guess is I said it in reference to myself once or twice while sitting around the trailer with a big buzz on.
8. Dances with Knives – Another one I gave myself.  Obviously a take on Dances with Wolves.  I’d be doing dishes at one of the Pizza Places or possibly Mulligan”s, get to drying the big knives and just to break the silence say: “Did I ever tell you that my Indian name is Dances with Knives?”  One time I got a response from a girl I worked with: “Oh ya!  Well mine is – Dances with Baseball Bats!”  Maybe not so funny, but it was at the time.

Here’s a few other interesting ones for people I know:

1. My Brother: Slinky or slink and Beetlejuice or Juice.  The Beetlejuice one came about because he kinda looked like the character in the movie.
2. My friends brother (also my friend): Larry Bud Melman which morphed into melvin and mellon.  For a while there was no end to the mellon jokes.  Like if he was sad: Melloncholy.
3. My Friend: Stickman, Stickboy, Stick, Sticky – he was skinny when he was a kid, it was destiny.
4. A couple of guys I play poker with: Johnny Two Shirts and Pretty Boy.
5. A friend: Johnny McF***.  His last name started with Mc or Mac and he used to say the F word so much he became Johnny McF***.  I think that’s one of the funniest ones I know.

Well that’s all I got for now.  It seems like with this blogging thing I never feel like I’m finished.  To be continued…?

A recent topic of discussion on CBC Radio was Road Rage. I think it’s kind of funny because they approach the whole problem like it’s caused by the driver not being in control of his/her emotions. To a certain extent that is correct but there are so many more factors involved.

I’ve been driving in Pictou County for more than 20 years and I can tell you this is a prime spot to research the causes of road rage. I experience road rage on a regular basis. Certainly not to the extent I would ever harm someone, but I imagine multiple scenarios where the offenders luck has run out as I laugh uncontrollably (maybe even maniacally).

So the ultimate cause of road rage is bad drivers. A bad driver is not someone who makes an occasional mistake. It’s the driver who through poor driving habits, inattention, carelessness or just a bad attitude in general regularly pisses off other drivers. And we have more than our share in Pictou County.

Top Causes of Road Rage in Pictou County (and other places)

1. Incorrect use or non use of signal lights – Is it really so hard to signal left or right? No! But even stupider than not using them is using them wrong. If you put your signal light on after you have already applied the brakes to turn then you are an idiot! If I’m behind you, you have already signaled me that you are about to do something when you hit the brakes. There’s no point telling me now that you are going to turn.
2. Incorrect use of Stop Sign – A stop sign means STOP! Why should you stop? Because it’s a good driving habit. In Pictou County when approaching a stop sign you tap the brakes to give you enough time to look both ways before hitting the gas again and going right through. I’ve even had people pull right out in front of me this way.
3. Incorrect use of Yield Sign – I assume that because of the abuse of the Stop Sign in Pictou County the Yield Sign has all but disappeared. Places that used to have a Yield sign more often than not now have Stop signs. The Yield sign is much too complicated for the small Pictou County mind comprehend during the complex task of piloting a motor vehicle.
4. No knowledge of the meaning of Right of Way – if you are the first person to arrive at a four way stop, you have the right of way. That means you are entitled to go first. If you arrive at a four way stop at the same time as a vehicle directly to your right then the other vehicle has the right of way. They are entitled to go first.
5. No knowledge of the meaning of Right of Way ( part 2) – situation: there is a car parked on the side of the road partially blocking your lane. In other parts of the country the proper thing to do would be stop in your own lane behind the parked car and wait for oncoming traffic to pass before continuing. In Pictou County be prepared to hit the gravel if the opposite lane is partially blocked. You will be expected to share what’s left of the road with the driver who’s lane is partially blocked.
6. Incorrect use of speed – Speeding is dangerous, but that’s not really what I mean. When I say incorrect use of speed I’m talking about the slow people. There’s no reason to drive 20 or 30 km/hr on any normal day on any normal street in Pictou County. I find it annoying when drivers go 40 km/hr, but at least that’s close to the speed limit of 50. But look out if I land behind someone going 20 or 30 for no apparent reason. I’m ready to spontaneously combust. The reality is that 50 km/hr IS slow. You don’t need to go any slower unless you are stopping. Or I guess if you happen to be slowing down to go through a Stop sign.
7. Driving too close to the Center Line: I have trouble figuring this one out. I took a driver training course about 24 years ago and even at that time we were being taught to drive in the right hand side of our own lane. We were taught how to know where the car was by using the hood ornament or a spot on the hood to estimate where the right wheel is. So I mentioned the fact that someone I was driving with was driving too close to the line and his response was: “Well if I mess up, I won’t be going in the ditch.” Oh, I see! So you would rather have a head on collision. Is that logical?
8. Cutting Corners when turning: This isn’t so dangerous as it is annoying and is a good example of Pictou County driving attitudes and poor driving habits. What you are supposed to do – most turns are 90 degrees or a right angle. If you have to stop before making your turn then stop across from where you are about to turn into. If still moving then start your turn when across from where you are turning. What they do in Pictou County – They cut the corners! You don’t start making your turn one to two car lengths away from the side road or driveway you are turning into. If you have to stop before turning, you don’t stop one or two car lengths away from where you are turning into. If your wheel touches the line or the oncoming lane then you didn’t make the turn properly. Stay in your own damn lane! More than likely I’ll have to post a picture here for this one. Duh!
9. Parking: and I don’t mean parallel parking because that is hard even for good drivers. It’s a lot like all of the other things related to driving in Pictou County. They’ve tried to make it easy by putting lines in the parking lot, but in true Pictou County fashion they just can’t frickin do it right. One day there was even an article in The News about the width of parking spaces in different areas in the county. News Flash: If the dumbass can’t drive the car straight into the spot, then even 10 ft wide parking spaces won’t help. So not only do Pictou County drivers suck, they want to blame everyone else for how much they suck. Yep…the parking spaces are too small…whatever!

And I don’t want to hear any bitching or excuses. I have the right to criticize you because you suck. For 90 percent of the people: you have no reason to be bad drivers. You drive every day! Not only that, most of the time you are driving exactly the same route as yesterday. For most people there are only 4 or 5 things that you do more than drive:

• Sleep – nobody sucks at sleeping.
• Work – some of you suck at work, because work sucks!
• Breathe – it’s a good thing breathing is automatic, that’s all I can say.
• Drink Beer? – if you drink more than you drive, I hope it’s because you don’t have a car.

Think about how much you drive. You are in the car 3 to 5 times a day. Why do you suck? Do you see how ridiculous it is for you to be a bad driver? And they’ve made it as easy as possible to do it. Every time you need to make a decision there is a sign there to help you.
Stay tuned for more dumbass crap that happens in Pictou County.

I recently purchased “World Series of Poker” by Activision for the XBox.  I don’t much care for it.  If I had categories for video games, which I don’t, this game would be in the “Stinky” category.

There are a couple of good points about the game.

• You can play against 12 animated pros including Chris Ferguson and Men “The Master”.
• You can collect milestone chips for takedowns, hands played, all in wins etc.
• Customizable characters.

There are a few other things that are OK, but there is one very bad point that totally ruins the game.  If you play a seven card stud tourney you become a spectator if you fold your hand.  You see the animated players betting but you don’t get to see what cards they are being dealt.  It’s not even as good as watching poker on TV.  To say the least this is very annoying.

If you are interested in buying “World Series of Poker” I suggest you rent it first.  You can probably buy it for $20 or less now, but in my mind it’s not worth it.

I just added Acropole Pizza to the Pictou County Links Directory.  I haven’t added any myself in a while because I was busy.  I was hoping that I would get a submission or two from business or website owners.  I think the directory looks great and I wish more people would use it.  I must admit it does need some more links added, but that will take some time.  I can’t do it all myself so I guess some promotion is in order.