VickyNguyen

Keep it real. Make it about expressing yourself and telling a good story first, and about monetizing last. Some of the blogs I read (like Dooce) are monetized, but I've stopped reading a lot of blogs because the posts began to seem more like ads. If every post you make is either
a) self promotion
b) promotion of other bloggers in hope that they will then promote you
c) commercial in some day - promoting products (paid or unpaid), raving about certain companies, reviews, etc.
d) Any combination of the above

I quickly lose interest. I would rather see ads, but have the blogger keep the blog a blog than visit a blog that is just shameless self-flogging.

Finally, I follow blogs where the commenters get replied to occasionally. If I leave comments on a blog but never get a response (a reply to a comment, or a reciprocal visit to my own blog) I often lose interest unless the writing is really exceptional.

A lot of blogs (like mine) maintain a following despite a complete dearth of talent, simply because commenters have developed a sort of friendship with the blogger.

There was a Native American guy who used to come speak in one of my environment classes in college who always told a story about a year when he had netted a lot of big Northern Pike and was eating it every day...until his arms started going numb and his fingers started getting tingly. His mercury levels turned out to be way, way elevated. And that stuff never leaves your body. (That's also why older/larger fish have more of it than the smaller ones.)

Also, solid white tuna (the good/expensive stuff) is higher in mercury. My son's favorite dinner is tuna with noodles. We use cento tuna in olive oil and toss it with noodles and he could eat it every day. We limit it to once every two weeks or so. This variety of tuna is lower quality however, so it is lower in mercury. This preparation of tuna, packed in olive oil, is delicious and I could eat it several times a week, right out of the can. When I used to actually go to work, I had a few cans stored in a drawer to eat with pretzels for a quick lunch.

I could totally eat a can of tuna a day, no problem. But this IS interesting - I wonder if Heather thought about this as a potential for harm? Now, of course, different brands and all that jazz might vary but I would be seriously thinking about this if I were consuming a lot of tuna.

Is there a safe amount to eat? (Sorry, I didn't watch the video simply because I don't have the time right now!) I would think that you could maybe have it every other day?

This kind of stuff makes me crazy because it is just SO HARD to figure out what is good for you.

Eat soy - no wait, it stores estrogen.

Eat tuna - no wait, it has mercury in it.

Eat organic - no wait, not if they have to truck it here because that is a big carbon footprint.

Eat chicken - no wait, not that chicken it hasn't been humanely raised.

Eat eggs - no wait, they are full of cholesteral - no they're not - yes they are but it's good cholesteral.

I mean seriously, does anyone else find it just kind of mind boggling to figure out what is actually 'good' food anymore??